AnarWiki/markdown/J.5.2_(An_Anarchist_FAQ).md

**J.5.2 Why do anarchists support industrial unionism? (An Anarchist
FAQ)** is the 2nd entry of [Section
J.5](J.5_What_alternative_social_organisations_do_anarchists_create?_\(An_Anarchist_FAQ\) "wikilink")
and 41st entry in [Section
J](Section_J:_What_do_anarchists_do?_\(An_Anarchist_FAQ\) "wikilink") of
[An Anarchist FAQ](An_Anarchist_FAQ "wikilink"). It discusses [workplace
organising](Workplace_Organising "wikilink"), [workers'
self-management](Workers'_Self-Management "wikilink") and
[anarcho-syndicalism](Anarcho-Syndicalism "wikilink").

## Transcript

Simply because it is effective, expresses our ideas on how industry will
be organised in an anarchist society and is a key means of ending
capitalist oppression and exploitation. As [Max
Stirner](Max_Stirner "wikilink") pointed out the “labourers have the
most enormous power in their hands, and, if they once become thoroughly
conscious of it and used it, nothing could withstand them; they would
only have to stop labour, regard the product of labour as theirs, and
enjoy it. This is the sense of the labour disturbances which show
themselves here and there.” [The Ego and Its
Own]([The_Ego_and_Its_Own_\(Book\) "wikilink"), p. 116\] [Libertarian
workplace organisation](Workers'_Self-Management "wikilink") is the best
way of organising and exercising this power.

However, before discussing why anarchists support industrial unionism,
we must point out thatthe type of unionism anarchists support has very
little in common with that associated with reformist or business unions
like the [TUC](Trade_Unions_Congress_\(UK\) "wikilink") in
[Britain](United_Kingdom "wikilink") or the
[AFL-CIO](AFL-CIO "wikilink") in the
[USA](United_States_of_America "wikilink") (see next section). In such
unions, as [Alexander Berkman](Alexander_Berkman "wikilink") points out,
the “rank and file have little say. They have delegated their power to
leaders, and these have become the boss... Once you do that, the power
you have delegated will be used against you and your interests every
time.” [The ABC of
Anarchism]([The_ABC_of_Anarchism_\(Book\) "wikilink"), p. 58\] Reformist
unions, even if they do organise by industry rather than by trade or
craft, are top-heavy and bureaucratic. Thus they are organised in the
same manner as [capitalist](Capitalism "wikilink") firms or the
[state](State_\(Polity\) "wikilink") — and like both of these, the
officials at the top have different interests than those at the bottom.
Little wonder anarchists oppose such forms of unionism as being counter
to the interests of their members. The long history of union officials
betraying their members is proof enough of this. Therefore anarchists
propose a different kind of workplace organisation, one that is
organised in a totally different manner than the current, mainstream,
unions. We will call this new kind of organisation “industrial unionism”
(although perhaps [industrial
syndicalism](Anarcho-Syndicalism "wikilink") or [workplace
assemblies](Workers'_Council "wikilink") may be a better, less
confusing, name for it). Industrial unionism is based upon the idea that
workers should directly control their own organisations and struggles.
As such, it is based upon workplace assemblies and their
[confederation](confederation "wikilink") between different workplaces
in the same industry as well as between different workplaces in the same
locality. An industrial union is a union which organises all workers in
a given type of industry together into one body.

This means that all workers regardless of their actual trade would
ideally be in the one union. On a building site, for example,
brick-layers, plumbers, carpenters and so on would all be a member of
the Building Workers Union. Each trade may have its own sections within
the union (so that plumbers can discuss issues relating to their trade
for example) but the core decision making focus would be an assembly of
all workers employed in a workplace. As they all have the same boss it
is logical for them to have the same union. However, industrial unionism
should not be confused with a closed shop situation where workers are
forced to join a union when they become a [wage
slave](Wage_Labour "wikilink") in a workplace. While anarchists do
desire to see all workers unite in one organisation, it is vitally
important that workers can leave a union and join another.

The closed shop only empowers union bureaucrats and gives them even more
power to control (and/or ignore) their members. As anarchist unionism
has no [bureaucrats](Bureaucracy "wikilink"), there is no need for the
closed shop and its voluntary nature is essential in order to ensure
that a union be subject to “exit” as well as “voice” for it to be
responsive to its members wishes. As [Albert
Meltzer](Albert_Meltzer "wikilink") argues, the closed shop means that
“the \[trade union\] leadership becomes all-powerful since once it
exerts its right to expel a member, that person is not only out of the
union, but out of a job.” Anarcho-syndicalism, therefore, “rejects the
closed shop and relies on voluntary mem-bership, and so avoids any
leadership or bureaucracy.” [Anarchism: Arguments for and
against]([Anarchism:_Arguments_for_and_against_\(Book\) "wikilink"),p.
56 — also see [Tom Wetzel’s](Tom_Wetzel "wikilink") excellent article
“The Origins of the Union Shop”, part 3 of the series“Why does the
union bureaucracy exist?”in Ideas & Action no. 11, Fall 1989 for a
fuller discussion of these issues\]

Without voluntary membership even the most libertarian union may become
bureaucratic and unresponsive to the needs of its members and the class
struggle (even anarcho-syndicalist unions are subject to hierarchical
influences by having to work within the hierarchical capitalist economy
although voluntary membership, along with a libertarian structure and
tactics, helps combat these tendencies — see [section
J.3.9](J.3.9_Why_are_many_anarchists_not_anarcho-syndicalists?_\(An_Anarchist_FAQ\) "wikilink")).
Obviously this means that anarchist opposition to the closed shop has
nothing in common with boss, conservative and right-wing libertarian
opposition to it. These groups, while denouncing coercing workers into
trades unions, support the coercive power of bosses over workers without
a second thought (indeed, given their justifications of sexual
harassment and other forms of oppressive behaviour by
[bosses](Boss "wikilink"), we can imagine that they would happily
support workers having to join company unions to keep their jobs — only
when bosses dislike mandatory union membership do these defenders of
“freedom” raise their opposition).

Anarchist opposition to the closed shop (like their opposition to union
bureaucracy) flows from their opposition to hierarchy and authoritarian
social relationships. The right-wing’s opposition is purely a product of
their pro-capitalist and pro-authority position and the desire to see
the worker subject only to one boss during working hours, not two
(particularly if this second one has to represent workers interests to
some degree). Anarchists, on the other hand, want to get rid of all
bosses during working hours. In industrial unionism, the membership,
assembled in their place of work, are the ones to decide when to strike,
when to pay strike pay, what tactics to use, what demands to make, what
issues to fight over and whether an action is “official” or
“unofficial”.

In this way the rank and file is in control of their unions and, by
confederating with other assemblies, they co-ordinate their forces with
their fellow workers. As syndicalist activist [Tom
Brown](Tom_Brown "wikilink") makes clear: “The basis of the Syndicate is
the mass meeting of workers assembled at their place of work... The
meeting elects its [factory](factory "wikilink") committee and
delegates. The factory is Syndicate is federated to all other such
committees in the locality... In the other direction, the factory, let
us say engineering factory, is affiliated to the District Federation of
Engineers. In turn the District Federation is affiliated to the National
Federation of Engineers... Then, each industrial federation is
affiliated to the National Federation of Labour ... how the members of
such committees are elected is most important. They are, first of all,
not representatives like Members of Parliament who air their own views;
they are delegates who carry the message of the workers who elect them.
They do not tell the workers what the ‘official’ policy is; the workers
tell them. “Delegates are subject to instant recall by the persons who
elected them. None may sit for longer than two successive years, and
four years must elapse before his \[or her\] next nomination. Very few
will receive wages as delegates, and then only the district rate of
wages for the industry... “It will be seen that in the Syndicate the
members control the organisation — not the bureaucrats controlling the
members. In a trade union the higher up the pyramid a man is the more
power he wields; in a Syndicate the higher he is the less power he
has.“The factory Syndicate has full autonomy over its own affairs...”
[Syndicalism]([Syndicalism_\(Book\) "wikilink"), pp. 35–36\]

As can be seen, industrial unionism reflects anarchist ideas of
organisation — it is organised from the bottom up, it is decentralised
and based upon federation and it is directly managed by its members in
mass assemblies. It is anarchism applied to industry and the needs of
the class struggle. By supporting such forms of organisations,
anarchists are not only seeing “anarchy in action”, they are forming
effective tools which can win the class war. By organising in this
manner, workers are building the framework of a co-operative society
within capitalism. [Rudolf Rocker](Rudolf_Rocker "wikilink") makes this
clear: “the syndicate... has for its purpose the defence of the
interests of the producers within existing society and the preparing for
and the practical carrying out of the reconstruction of social life ...
It has, therefore, a double purpose:

1\. As the fighting organisation of the workers against their employers
to enforce the demand of the workers for the safe guarding of their
standard of living

2\. As the school for the intellectual training of the workers to make
them acquainted with the technical management of production and economic
life in general.”

[Anarcho-Syndicalism]([Anarcho-Syndicalism:_Theory_and_Practice "wikilink"),
p. 51\] Given the fact that workers wages have been stagnating (or, at
best, falling behind productivity increases) across the world as the
[trade unions](Trade_Union "wikilink") have been weakened and
marginalised (partly because of their own tactics, structure and
politics) it is clear that there exists a great need for working people
to organise to defend themselves. The centralised, top-down trade unions
we are accustomed to have proved themselves incapable of effective
struggle (and, indeed, the number of times they have sabotaged such
struggle are countless — a result not of “bad” leaders but of the way
these unions organise and their role within capitalism). Hence
anarchists support industrial unionism (co-operation between workers
assemblies) as an effective alternative to the malaise of official trade
unionism.

How anarchists aim to encourage such new forms of workplace organisation
and struggle will be discussed in the next section. We are sure that
many radicals will consider that such decentralised, confederal
organisations would produce confusion and disunity. However, anarchists
maintain that the statist, centralised form of organisation of the
trades unions would produce indifference instead of involvement,
heartlessness instead of solidarity, uniformity instead of unity, and
elites instead of equality, nevermind killing all personal initiative by
lifeless discipline and bureaucratic ossification and permitting no
independent action. The old form of organisation has been tried and
tried again — it has always failed. The sooner workers recognise this
the better. One last point. We must note that many anarchists,
particularly [communist-anarchists](Anarcho-Communism "wikilink"),
consider unions, even anarcho-syndicalist ones, as having a strong
reformist tendency (as discussed in section J.3.9).

However, all anarchists recognise the importance of autonomous class
struggle and the need for organisations to help fight that struggle.
Thus anarchist-communists, instead of trying to organise industrial
unions, apply the ideas of industrial unionism to workplace struggles.
In other words, they would agree with the need to organise all workers
into a mass assembly and to have elected, recallable administration
committees to carry out the strikers wishes. This means that such
anarchists they do not call their practical ideas “anarcho-syndicalism”
nor the workplace assemblies they desire to create “unions,” there are
extremely similar in nature and so we can discuss both using the term
“industrial unionism”.

The key difference is that many(if not most) anarcho-communists consider
that permanent workplace organisations that aim to organise all workers
would soon become reformist. Because of this they also see the need for
anarchist to organise as anarchists in order to spread the anarchist
message within them and keep their revolutionary aspects at the
forefront (and so support industrial networks — see next section).
Therefore while there are slight differences in terminology and
practice, all anarchists would support the ideas of industrial unionism
we have outlined above.