geographical/industrial

One of the differences between the US IWW and the Canadian OBU was that the OBU basis of organisation was geographical, not industrial. It led to a split with the lumberjacks who desired a more industrial centred autonomy

Vicent, never be afraid to ask questions!

The ASF has two types of affiliate; a general membership organisation that includes all workers in a particular geographical area, usually a large city. Also, an industrial-based union that includes workers in a particular industry. They are referred to as 'Local Affiliates' and Industrial Associations'.

But you can not be a member of both.

but you'd still be an ASF member right?

i think that's the thing...its not about being in two organizations but that there are multiple divisions of labor or forms of regrouping militants under one banner.

but pretty much all AS groups through history from FAUD onward have had this structure of primarily having a community/locality based union as well as workplace / industrial focused unions.

i think it is about flexibility.

Well, no. But I understand the premise of the question.

The ASF is a federation of 'Local Affiliates' and 'Industrial Associations', therefore, only these collective entities can be members of the ASF.

What I meant was, an individual can not be a member of more than one affiliate.

yes i know you all don't think of it as individual membership, but from this viewpoint, and that of our newbie whether there is a person under a red and black ASF-Local Affiliate flag or a ASF-Industrial Association flag I bet would make little difference... you are participating in the life of the ASF.

a bit separately though it seems to me that in a group like SolFed you could be in both a local section and perhaps a student network, or industrial network and so on...

that situation is a bit like an IWW General Membership Branch with various Industrial Organizing Committees but eventually if those committees became IUBs one might be a member of one or the other their IUB or a GMB. as most wobs are in GMBs though this is not a typical situation.

http://recomposition.info/2014/03/11/locality-and-shop-inside-revolutionary-unions/

Yeah, I'm not totally sure about how it works in SolFed but I would imagine it is similar. I'm told that the equivalent of a general membership unit in the CNT is Sindicatos Varios.

Local affiliates based on geography act as a base from which industrial associations could emerge.

There's a pretty good article here which goes into some of the debates and experiments around this question within the IWW. I expect anarcho syndicalists have had similar experiences elsewhere.

~J.

i think the issue is seeing them as separate federations instead of just bodies under the same organizational framework.