A Classical Anarchist Text
This posting is specifically aimed at the SAC/LS sect in Örebro, Sweden.
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''SYNDICALISM'' IS ANTI-ANARCHISM !
1. ''Syndicalism'', as it exists in modern Scandinavia, is a secular anti-anarchist religion. As a revisionist negation of anarchist principle; it posits a set of abstract ideas, rethoric and cannonic platitudes pretending ''libertarian socialism'' without relating them to the concrete everyday reality of working class people, the unemployed, or other marginalised social groups surviving under the ''social democratic'' LIE. The tragedy of the Scandianvian ''far left'' (sic.) is its propensity for symbolism, religiosity and fashion - the historical trademark of POSEURS.
2. The crude and patronising promotion of the ''Joe Six Pack'' workerist stereotype by Swedish ''anarcho'' (sic.) syndicalists only reinforces the Liberal promoted idea of the worker as ''brute'' to be whipped into obedience. That SAC/LS in its attitude towards workers adopts a ''leftist'' mirrior image of the Liberal disdain for the working class amounts to a PASSIVE AGGRESSIVE ACCEPTANCE OF CORPORATE CAPITALIST PERCEPTION MANAGEMENT AS IT FUNCTIONS TO PERPETUATE THE SYSTEM OF WAGE SLAVERY. Real anarchists want freedom from work.
3. Anarchism purged of ''Syndicalist'' revisionism becomes LIBERTARIAN. Anarchism without ''Syndicalism'' is the fight for personal autonomy and voluntary association AGAINST THE POLITICAL STATE. Anarchists define the political state as the system of law making and law enforcement symbolised by the Parliament, the Police and the ''social democratic'' Party-State bureaucracy. Anarchism is EXTRA-LEFTIST - it fights against the political state independent of any strictures and limits externally imposed by the establishment ''Red'', ''Green'' or ''Blue'' parliamentary political religions. While the Anarchist seeks to ABOLISH State Power; the Leftist and its ''Syndicalist'' variable fight to TAKE State power. The ''Syndicalists'' want to become the new state oligarchy. They want their Trade Union State to replace the ''social democratic'' capitalist one.
4. In the process of organising dissent and agitating for their goals; anarchists seek to enter into clandestine voluntary associations (i.e. 'Affinity Groups') with one another. They do so to coordinate leaderless resistance that is based on un-identified networks that cannot be penetrated by police, hostile trotskyists or social democrat saboteurs. Anarchists do not advertise themselves, rather they operate from clandestinity. The ''models'' for contemporary anarchists should be the 'Zamisdat' network in the U.S.S.R circa 1977-1983 during its ''post-constitutionalist'' period. Prior to its hijacking by CIA funded Russian Nationalist elements.
5.SAC\LS (the putative ''syndicalist'' mileu in Sweden) is a TOY UNION. It has no mass following and no recognition among people who work or among the unemployed or those that the ''social democratic'' LIE keeps in a state of social marginalisation. SAC\LS is a SECT. Its members are for the most part former ''social democrats'' (sic.) who joined SAC\LS as a protest in the late 1990's responding to the official ''social democrat'' (sic.) Party-State turn towards the neo-liberal and xenophobic far right. The ''syndicalist'' mileu in Sweden is at bottom a SOCIAL PROTESTANT formation. SAC\LS bears the same realtionship to the offical ''social democrat'' (sic.) Party-State ; that the Lutheran Church one bore in its day to the Roman Catholic Church. ''Syndicalism'' is to the ''social democrats'' in the Sweden of 2005 what Lutheranism was to the Catholic Church in 1630.
6. ''Syndicalism'' IS NOT Anarchism. As a tendency it split from the Anarchist movement in 1906. In its founding documents ( i.e the 1906 Charter of the French CGT), it clearly states that is is ''not anarchist''. Yet, when it suits for the purposes of fooling Libertarian youth into its sectarian clutches the ''syndicalists'' are fond of pretending to be ''anarchist''. When they sense they can milk political benefit from saying they are ''not anarchist'' then they change their tune as it suits.
So which way is it ? ''Anarchist'' or ''not anarchist'' ?
7. The Authentic Anarchist movement aims to extend democracy into the economic and the social spheres by abolishing the political state. The Anarchist concept of democracy is not political representative or limited in an economic reductionist manner to ''workplaces''. The anarchist concept of democracy is POST-POLITICAL, stateless and participatory. Anarchists want to replace the political nation-state and the system of private power it protects with social-economic organisation based on the voluntary association of cooperative groups. The ideal is the emergence of clandestine, un-identified popular movement (as it occurred in Iran in 1979, Rumania in 1989 and Argentina in 2001), that shatters the legitimacy of the State. The political State collapses after civic resistance overwhelms the police and state security forces ( like the SAVAK or the Securitate).
THIS remains the vision of Mikhail Bakunin, Emma Goldmann and Enricco Malattesta. Insofar as ''syndicalism'' is a revisionist economic reductionist deviation from anarchism it is a defacto NEGATION of Anarchist anti-politics.
- MM
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''... the democratic Republic is no more than a camouflaged form of bourgeois dictatorship. At the height of capitalism, when this represented a progressive factor, the bourgeoisie could allow itself the luxury of conceding a series of "democratic" liberties – considerably limited and full of conditions, because of its economical and political domination – to the working classes. Today in the imperialist era, "the final stage of capitalism", the bourgeoisie, in order to overcome its internal contradictions, is forced to resort to the establishment of regimes of brutal dictatorship (fascism) which destroy even the paltry democratic liberties.''
- Andres Nin. (1937)
2 comments:
http://www.indybay.org/news/2005/08/1759016.php
This article was posted in the San Francisco Indymedia Website at the URL above...
[posted in the interests of fairness... as we once long ago where good friends...although today we remain enemies...]
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The Principles and Aims of SAC
(2009 Text)
http://coopsite.sac.se/en/princip.html
1. The Central Organization of Sweden´s Workers (Sveriges Arbetares Centralorganisation) the SAC, is a syndicalist* workers movement whose goal is the realisation of libertarian socialism in which the means of production are the property of all, and are administered by the workers, thereby creating the conditions for a classless society. For this reason, SAC is also a feminist and anti-sexist organization.
2. The crucial conflict in capitalism is that which exists between the class that own the means of production and the class whose work generates wealth. This conflict results in a class struggle where the workers have no one but themselves to turn to.
3. Capitalism uses all means necessary to increase productivity and profits. The cost of unrestrained economic growth is the ruthless exploitation of both people and the environment. Workers are abused and unable to continue a productive working life, irreplaceable natural resources are destroyed, the means of production are ruined and the gap between various societies is widened.
4. The bourgeois concept of democracy is limited to the political sphere. The SAC seeks to replace the parliamentary system built on political parties with a true democracy that also includes the economic, industrial and cultural sectors. A libertarian socialist society can only be created by a majority of the people with due consideration of the needs of minorities. The democratic rights and liberties already attained must therefore be both defended and developed.
5. As in the libertarian socialist society which syndicalism aims to create, the SAC itself is built upon the principles of federalism. This means that all those who are affected by a decision have the right to participate in the decision-making process. No group however, may act in contradiction to common resolutions.
6. Larger groups of people must reach decisions via representatives. In a socialist society the task of representation should rotate within the entire group structure. Representatives are given limited authority and their powers may be revoked, thus ensuring that no elite arises and promotes its own interests.
7. The syndicalist organization may be extended to encompass all functions of society. It can replace the present system of administration with its own social structure. As a consequence, the SAC struggles on two fronts, one dealing with union work and the other with social structures. The growth of this militant organization, along with a greater knowledge and experience amongst its members, leads inevitably to new demands, culminating in the ultimate seizure of the means of production.
8. Syndicalism is international by nature and strives for solidarity and co-operation among wage earners the world over. Its aim is to create federations of independent communities which will replace the present national states.
9. People reach their full potential in and through their work. Consequently, the SAC strives for everyone’s right to a meaningful occupation. It is only within the framework of workers self-management, that individuals are given the opportunity to shape their situation at work.
10. The basis for the struggle of the working classes against exploitation and oppression is union solidarity, awareness and organization. Therefore, the SAC organises all wage earners regardless of whether they label themselves as blue or white-collar workers.
11. The SAC considers violence to be unworthy of the human race and it therefore rejects both social and individual violence. Situations may arise however, in which wage earners are compelled to defend the liberties and rights which they have struggled to obtain.
12. The SAC considers direct action to be the means for changing society and living conditions. Only through direct action can the self-reliance be developed which is a prerequisite for libertarian socialism.
* In Swedish the word syndicalism is synonymous with the term revolutionary syndicalism. The word syndicalism originates from the French "syndicat" and means trade union or association, in English speaking and Latin countries the word revolutionary or prefix "anarcho" is used.
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