IWA congress greetings, Manchester 8-10th of December

OK. But it is true that organizations of the IWA in recent years have taken the position that revolutionary unions cannot or should not be built in the current period. Right?

I also think many IWW members in the USA are under the impression that the IWA is an explicitly anarcho-syndicalist organization. There is certainly reference to such in many documents. What is the official situation?

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No, that is not right. None of the IWA organizations, whichever tendency they belong to, never said that revolutionary unions shouldn't be built, quite on contrary - all organizations in IWA which are not revolutionary unions in this moment are working for creation of revolutionary unions.

That is the craziest thing I ever heard, and I would really like to know where did you get it from? There are many lies about IWA circulating around, mainly coming from people who don't have problems with having hierarchies in their own organizations. I would call everybody to think with their own head, and examine situation little closer before taking hasty positions.

I guess this is one more of the mystifications that is in the same category as FAI controlling the CNT (by the way, a theses taken from the Bolsheviks).

Official situation is the one from the IWA Statutes. IWA is an International of revolutionary unions of different tendencies.

At least I know now why anarchists are so ready to believe almost anything negative about international Trotskyist organisations. It turns out that the largest class struggle anarchist international organisation behaves like the worst caricature of sectarian Trotskyist internationals!

Crazed sectarian doctrinaires?
Largest group essentially beyond criticism?
Unconstitutional expulsions?
Endless factional vendettas?
People being expelled for talking to "enemies of the international"?
Bizarrely undemocratic decision making structures?
Conviction that they alone are the real revolutionary organisation and that everyone else are apostates?

What a wonderful advertisement for the superiority of anarchist organisational methods...

Wasn't the WSA's position that revolutionary unions could not be built presently -- at least in the USA?

So then why was the outgoing Secretariat allowed to issue documents such as "In defense of the IWA and anarcho-syndicalism" http://www.iwa-ait.org/Defence2.html

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Maybe people get things like this from IWA members. The last time I spoke to a SolFed member in person, he suggested that it was impossible to build a syndacalist union in the UK in the current period. I am not sure if that is the offical position of the organisation, or even the oppinion of the majority of members. I suspect it is though.

The paranoia coming from rata's post, all this talk about 'lies circulating', is exactly what Irationallyangry is talknig about.

Devrim

pghwob: "Wasn't the WSA's position that revolutionary unions could not be built presently -- at least in the USA?"

That is what AnarchoSyndicalist Review says. That is not what WSA says. ASR has never been known for being particularly accurate or unbiased in what it says about WSA. If you want to state what WSA's position is, you should take a look at our political statement.
http://www.workersolidarity.org/wherewestand.html

I would ask the question: How does the working class become revolutionary? There obviously will not be a large-scale revolutionary unionism in the USA until such time that the working class becomes revolutionary. No one in their right mind would say otherwise. You don't have a revolutionary mass movement unless there are large numbers of people who have some sort of vision of a world beyond capitalism and think we can get there.

So, as I said, the issue is, How does the working class become revolutionary? Now, it may be that part of the process is building mass worker organizations that are self-managing, so that thru them workers develop a sense of being able to run things, develop their commitment to democratic participation, and develop a willingness to challenge the system thru a development of their sense of collective power, thru the emergence of large scale struggles, especially struggles that are successful. So the development of revolutionary unionism is a process, a process that is likely to be protracted. If I say that, I'm not saying "revolutionary unions are impossible." I'm describing the conditions for their emergence.

Where we are at right now in the development of that process is that we can try to encourage self-managed union organization, we can try to develop methods for activating and training and empowering the rank and file, we can publicize ideas critical of capitalism and propoagate a vision of how society could work without the class system, based on participatory self-management, and there are a lot of other things we can do. But it is still true that it will be a protracted process.

WSA does not advocate the formation of highly ideologized "anarchist unions" in the USA, that is true. But it is a rather prejudiced interpretation to then say WSA doesn't believe in revolutionary unionism.

t.

I'll add one other comment. WSA currently supports a variety of worker centers and indpendent unions. Insofar as the IWW is able to actually organize functioning unions where people work, we view this as one way to develop self-managed unions. Some of our members are actually involved in such IWW efforts (such as the warehouse organizing in New York). Since we support the IWW in these organizing efforts, and wobs consider the IWW a "revolutionary union," it would follow that the WSA does "support revolutionary unions." But our actual position is more nuanced than simply "supporting" or not an organization that is called a "revoltuionary union." The WSA itself is not, and has no intention of becoming, a union. It is a political activist group, which advocates a strategy of building self-managed unionism, and working to develop revolutionary class consciousness.

t.

Here's the latest statement from the IWA-AIT website, though it's not much for juicy details...I note again the reference to "anarchosyndicalism," in response to rata's explanation.

Concerning the 23rd IWA-Congress

The 23rd Congress in Manchester decided that the Secretariat of the IWA shall be maintained by the ASI until the next Congress which will be organized by the COB-AIT in Brazil in December 2008.

The comrades of ASI elects the new Secretariat in January 2007, and until then we will as the outgoing Secretariat receive and answer correspondence.

Besides this, the SF will consider to take a seat (treasurer) in the Secretariat, and their yes or no to this will be decided at their National Conference in March/April 2007. Until then the dues to the IWA must be paid to the present account!

Oslo, the 15th of December 2006

Anarchosyndicalist greetings
from the outgoing Secretariat

Devolution of another board.

The IWA has always been a combination of unions, propaganda groups and, clandestine workers organizations under facist or stalinist regimes.

I find it weird that on another board we're told about the the alleged advancges of the IWWs RIU as opposed to anarcho-syndicalism. Then, on this board anarcho-syndicalists are told what their international should be like. Perhaps it just best to try and find commonality where appropriate and simply agree to disagree on other things.

As for what a WSA position is, wouldn't it be better to simply ask, rather than spout-off something which caused so many untrue, unwise and unnecessary problems in the past?

I've never heard the 3 locals bit. I first came around in the IWA in 1978 and have never heard this.

BTW, the whole issue of Friends has been, in my opinion, a farce. I awlays was of the opinion you'r either in or out. We used have to have such a thing as "propaganda groups". They allowed for small groups of militants to join the IWA.

The whole concept of Friends has never been productive. Now, I see, it's being used to as a stash for those groups certain IWA section's don't want as regular sections. A sort of second class membership.

And the answer is: just because there is noone to allow whatever the IWA secretariat likes to publish. Statements of the secretariat are not discussed with the sections nor do they rely on the latters prior acknowledgment nor are they even known by the sections befor they are published. Thus the sections in the past have always been happy to learn something new. May it be the "On guard IWA" pamphlet published in the days of the reign of the lord of the Alhambra (Garcia Rua) or the strategic impacts of the international oil business (the pet subject of the Norwegian IWA secretariat).

There has been a discussion at the Reggio Emilia plenary of the IWA back in the 90th following the "On guard IWA" paper in which the FAU and another sections argued, that the secretariat should be nothing but a coordinating body for the sections and a channel for what comes out of them, but not the creator of lyrics on its own. Garcia Ruas response to this inmoral suggestion was an aria of insults and that he would never preside a secretariat that was "nothing but a mail box".

As in Reggio Emilia nobody else had a problem with a secretariat issuing statements not agreed upon or even known prior to its publication, this became commonly used practice within the IWA. But one should not necessarily take a statement of the IWA secretariat for the position of the IWA sections.

As IWA Statutes states (point VIII - The Secretariat)

As we can see definition of the role of the Secretariat is broader than being just a mail-box.

I don't have problem with IWA Secretariat producing statements on this or that issue, even if the topics haven't been discussed by the sections - in our union our General Secretariat is mandated to comment on actual economical and political events, and is autonomous to do that. When people are voting for the GS they know they are empowering the Secretariat to do stuff like that. I think the same apply to IWA Secretariat. And I really don't see how is producing of analysis of international oil business in anyway problematic?

It is another question entirely should this statements deal with the reformists in such length, or should they deal with internal life of the IWA and important socio-economic events which are bound to have effect on our work. I'm more inclined towards the second, without ever forgeting the fact that there are some hierarchical organizations posing as anarcho-syndicalist unions and thus adding to the noise that State and capitalists are creating about the ideas of anarchism, anarcho-syndicalism or revolutionary-syndicalism in general.

I hadn't ever realised that there was such a thing as an anarcho-spart before.

Which thread have you been reading???
This is hardly a balanced summary of what people have reported back, nothing like a bit of sectarianism to stir things up is there...

Do you really need to me to wade through the thread providing appropriate quotes to match each point on the checklist? I mean you only have to scan up a couple of posts to see Rata justifying the points about apostates and factional vendettas.

Another way to look at all this, is that the IWA might be at a turning point.I have no love-lost for the past two secretariat's, they did more harm than good. The IWA can look at its immediate past, weigh the ggod and bad parts of the last decade and try and move forward. The new secretriat has the opportunity to rebuild bridges and work towards stabilization. Or they can fail at that task and continue a slide downward in terms of respect and constructive engagement.

The crossroads comrades are before you...I would hope that you all choose the correct raod.

For those who can read Spanish one of the very few reports and analysis on the IWA congress so far was most recently published at http://periodicocenit.blogspot.com/ by Floreal Castilla.

LOS NUMANTINOS EN LOS PUBS

A principios de diciembre de este año la Internacional numantina celebró su XXIII congreso en Manchester, capital del noroeste de Inglaterra, más conocida por su famoso club de fútbol, y porque allí la familia de Frederich Engels (1820-1895) tenía una fábrica textil que llegó a dirigir el famoso materialista histórico y de la cual salió parte de la plusvalía que le permitió al camarada Carlos Marx (1818-1883) escribir “El Capital”. Sin la mesada de Engels, Marx hubiera sucumbido en un suburbio londinense, al lado de los suyos, muerto de hambre y de frío, y la humanidad toda se hubiera perdido de sus elaboraciones teóricas. Precisamente, la Solidarity Federation (SF), radicada en Manchester y fundada en 1994, es la sección británica de la Internacional numantina.

Sobre los acuerdos y debates del congreso solamente contamos con la escueta nota que en su página web (http://www.iwa-ait.org/spanishindex.html) ha publicado hasta la fecha el secretariado saliente de Oslo. Sin embargo, para los iniciados en los asuntos anarcosindicalista y anarquista, existe la página www.libcom.org en la cual se encuentra información más amplia sobre el señalado evento.

Del comunicado del secretariado noruego se desprende que los numantinos decidieron que el nuevo secretariado pasara a la sección serbia (ASI, Iniciativa Anarcosindicalista), en Belgrado, hasta la celebración del XXIV congreso que se realizará en diciembre de 2008 en Brasil, no se indica en qué ciudad, a cargo de la COB (Confederación Obrera de Brasil), secciòn numantina en el país carioca.

Por informaciones que se manejan extraoficialmente, sabemos que la sección alemana, la FAU no ha sido excluida, pero sí advertida de que si continúan los contactos con los de los Vignoles, es decir el sector mayoritario de la CNT francesa, lo será posteriormente, o sea, una decisión semejante a la del congreso anterior.

La sección italiana, la USI ha sido autorizada a participar en los RSU (los comités de empresas italianos), aduciendo el principio de la "autonomia de la sección". Al parecer, se trató de una decisión política en el sentido de impedir que las secciones italiana y alemana (la segunda y la tercera en número, respectivamente) se marcharan al mismo tiempo. Entonces han dado una respuesta positiva, en favor de la USI, frente a su ultimátum al secretariado numantino.

Lo que es extraño, ya que los alemanes son más respetuosos puristas -para calificarlos así- en cuanto a comités de empresas, pero por el momento lo que es más grave a los ojos de la Internacional numantina es abrirse y tener contacto con el "enemigo" que es la CNT francesa ya señalada de Vignoles.

La gran preocupación numantina en el XXIII congreso ha sido la conferencia sindical internacional (denomina I07) que la CNT francesa está convocando para el primero de mayo del año que viene cuya convocatoria aparece en
http://www.ainfos.ca/06/oct/ainfos00257.html.

Como la sección alemana, la FAU, la apoya al parecer oficialmente, eso quiere decir que debería ser excluida de la Internacional, pero los numantinos no han querido aparecer como los chicos malos de la película. Porque la FAU (siempre en el espíritu de Rocker y Souchy, y fieles al verdadero espíritu de la Internacional) no quieren desprenderse de las siglas históricas. Quizá los jefes numantinos esperan también que la FAU se escinda sobre el caso I07, pero parece ser tan sólo una ilusión.

En esta situacion la USI declara su apoyo a la FAU y es obvio que ahora harán causa común dentro de la Internacional para que se trabaje sobre la base de una línea más sindical, abierta y realista. Entonces, hoy tenemos fracciones que operan abiertamente como tales dentro de las filas anarcosindicalistas, es decir, que hay una “trotsquización” de la Internacional.

El secretariado de la AIT va a Serbia a ser desempeñado por grupo de una persona que se llama Ratibor y que es el más ortodoxo (claro de Serbia se trata) que todos los nuevos grupitos anarcodogmáticos que forman "secciones " de la Internacional en la Europa del este.

Y el próximo congreso en Brasil, es inexplicable, porque la COB no ha pagado nada a la AIT desde hace años, lo que criticaban tanto a la USI como a la FAU en la revisión de cuentas, pero han recibido unos miles de dólares por parte de la Internacional en el mismo periodo. El secretario noruego, Larsen, lo justifica aduciendo que los brasileños “son pobres".

Realmente, los numantinos consideran los auténticos enemigos de su Internacional tanto a la ya mencionada CNT francesa de Vignoles como a la CGT española. El cuento es largo y más bien parece el guión de una opera bufa.

El caso del núcleo numantino brasileño es por lo demás muy conocido desde hace muchos años. La mayor parte del movimiento anarquista latinoamericano está en otra onda –son varias las ondas- y es muy cuesta arriba proponerse que Numancia pueda tener por estas tierras sólidos núcleos insertos en la lucha sindical o de masas. Lo de Colombia es risible y lo de Venezuela ni se diga. Quizá haya algo en la Argentina, pero lo dudo. Los contactos que hay con México los tiene la CGT española, la diabla de los numantinos. La sección de los Estados Unidos fue expulsada, también, en 1996.
Un congreso, por tanto, que no ha querido rectificar todo lo anterior, que siempre es posible. La Internacional siempre ha sido colonizada por los españoles -es su sino- pero últimamente lo fue por asturianos devenidos en granadinos. Esto ha sido un error fatal. Trasladar las desavenencias de las familias anarcosindicalistas españolas al plano internacional ha sido un disparate, así como utilizar criterios básicos del federalismo, como la autonomía de las secciones, para solventar riñas internas es, por decirlo de alguna manera, una estupidez.

Así nos va.-

Floreal Castilla

Google translation here.

I'm so very happy that Magister Scientarum and Beethoven lover Floreal Castilla has noted that I'm a real Serb.

Very poorly written, full of misinformations, and an article written with a bad intent. It made us here in Serbia laugh very much.

I guess acts like this are explaining some of the statements written by previous Secretariats of the IWA.

Corrupted and reformist individuals and groups are pretty nervous about our XXIII Congress happening and being successful - texts like this are the best proof of that.

Well thats alot of bollox in such a little space.

Dear Friends & Comrades,

The Workers Solidarity Alliance (WSA) sends all our red and black greetings for the New Year.

The W.S.A. looks forward to continued cooperation and solidarity with other like minded comrades throughout the globe. We look forward to dialogue and discussion, as well as constructive mutual activities.

If ever there was a time to build a mass, libertarian workers' movement, 2007 presents us all with the opportunity to build such a movement---at home and globally.

Yours in solidarity,

Workers Solidarity Alliance (WSA)

wsany@hotmail.com
www.workersolidarity.org.

Well at least Floreal Castilla (who is a member of the CNT-E) never tried what another spanish Beethoven lover and emeritus professor for philosophy once did having moved from Asturias to Granada - to be the secretary of a working man and woman international

Here's what the CNT-AIT newspaper reports.

I suspect that the reality of the Congress was somewhere in-between Floreal's article and the CNT's piece. Florel's article appears to have been somewhat modified (http://www.anarkismo.net/newswire.php?story_id=4740)
--mitch

Article from "cnt", n°330, January 2007. Original title: "La AIT celebra su XXIII congreso en Manchester".

"The IWA celebrates its 23rd Congress in Manchester
The IWA held its congress in Manchester (United Kingdom) from 8-10 December. The event was organized by the comrades of the Solidarity Federation and saw the participation of over a dozen anarcho-syndicalist or revolutionary syndicalist organizations, some of which nearly a 100 years old like the Spanish CNT or the Argentinian FORA, with others much younger, such as the Slovakian Priama Akcia or the Serbian ASI-MUR (those who for various reasons could not attend sent their written positions), demonstrating that the International Workers Association is still alive and kicking.

On 1st November, the International Trade Union Confederation was founded in Vienna, a merger of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), and the World Confederation of Labour (WCL), grouping the cream of reformist and partnership syndicalism, some of whom are only too well-known in our country. But only a month later, we could see evidence that there exists another, very different, form of syndicalism, which focuses on struggle and on revolutionary achievements.

Some of the subjects dealt with at the meetings were the effective coordination of the struggles against precarity, a possible general strike against war, problems regarding the FAU or the USI, membership requests by new organizations (especially in Asia), or changes to the permanent secretariat of the international (passing from the Norwegian NSF to the ASI-MUR).

Furthermore, the event served to demonstrate the prominent role played by anarcho-syndicalist organizations in the struggles in their respective countries like, for example, the struggle carried on in the student mobilizations in Serbia, the public health struggle or strikes against labour reform in Italy, the internationalization of certain conflicts like the actions of the FORA, the FAU (Germany) or the CNT (France) in solidarity with the striking comrades of Mercadona, and a long list of others.

All in all, a good occasion to continue strengthening our links and get confirmation that our principles of revolutionary syndicalism are as effective as ever.

CNT Editorial

Editorial note:
Due to the deadline for publishing being earlier than usual because of the holidays, it was not possible to publish a fuller reportm which will be left to next month's edition (February).

Has there been any written report of the congress? Will something be posted on Libcom?