We are pleased to announce our affiliation to the international anarchist communist
co-operative project, Anarkismo. Launched in 2005, Anarkismo has brought together
specifist and platformist groups from across the globe to share and provide news, theory
and analysis on communist struggle internationally. Our affiliation comes after months of
discussion and clarification of Collective Action's political positions as well as the
positions of constituent members of Anarkismo. We feel that this process has not only
provided us with assurance of the political unity of the Anarkismo project, but has also
enabled us as an association to develop coherent positions across a number of areas. In
particular, our initial point of divergence with the Anarkismo editorial statement
regarded the role of militants within unions. Through our discussions with the members of
Anarkismo, we were able to both develop a more thorough understanding of the need for
different strategies across different geopolitical terrains, as well as produce our own
position paper on unions: Here:
http://www.anarchistcommunist.org/uploads/1/1/3/7/11373086/on_the_unions.pdf
Overall, this process has affirmed our belief that anarchist communist theory and praxis
cannot and should not be static or dogmatic, but must constantly be revisited and
re-evaluated in relation to the topography of the class, current struggles, and the
experiences, successes and failures of militants operating within those struggles.
We would like to thank our comrades in Anarkismo for their cooperation and engagement, and
all Anarkismo representatives for their hard work in facilitating these discussions, often
across multiple language barriers.
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Collective Action position paper on the unions (DRAFT)
Practical principles:
1. The proletariat is forced into the workplace through the necessity of the wage and the
inability to reproduce our lives and subjectivities outside of it. We recognise that in
the present day ? characterised by increasing flexiblisation, casualisation and
de-industrialisation ? ?the workplace? increasingly represents just one arena of
proletarian struggle and hence one arena of engagement for anarchist communists. Although
this paper focuses on workplace activity we still recognise the need for the development
of organisational principles and ideas outside of the physical workplace, such as social
reproduction outside of the wage and modes of work which do not inhabit those physical
localities.
2. Our members? activity in the workplace is about changing attitudes and relationships
amongst workers. Our focus is on the transformative power of the proletariat and, as such,
we judge the success of our agitation and organisation by its ability to promote the
qualities of mutual aid, class confidence and solidarity amongst workers, regardless of
gender, sexuality, race or ability. This often requires forms of organisation and
agitation that may be, but are not necessarily, found within workplace organisations such
as trade unions.
3. It also requires the patient building of confidence and trust in militant ideas and
methods, something which necessitates a long-term and strategic approach on the part of
the revolutionary organisation. It also requires patience and self-discipline on the part
of class-struggle militants.
4. Our aims are to build these outcomes of workplace agitation ? mutual aid, solidarity
and class confidence ? into the most permanent and stable organisational expression within
the workforce. However, effective organisation can only be guaranteed by class
consciousness. We should not confuse the desirability of the stability or potential
legitimacy of a particular form of workplace organisation ? from a union to a strike
committee to an informal group of workmates ? with the desired content and composition of
a group of workers aiming to make bolder and more confident action moving in sympathy with
anarchist communist ideas.
5. At the most basic level a union is the organisation of workers for a common
interest/goal. Historically, unions have been important expressions of working class
organisation, fighting for and winning concessions in working hours, pay and conditions.
Things that many of us take for granted today. Even in the present context of capitalism,
unions are relevant, since they express their power at the point of production, having the
hypothetical ability to affect the reproduction of commodities and in turn the very basis
of capitalism: profit.
6. As capitalism has developed it has succeeded in creating effective responses to the
threats that unions pose. Capitalists have sought to accommodate models of unionism that
play a mediatory role within capitalism, forcing workers to accept the logic of the class
system. This has resulted in the establishment of (bourgeois) reformist trade unions.
These unions limit the aims of workers, hamper their ability to self-organise and unify
across sectors, racial and gender divides. Trade unions control their members via an
organisational hierarchy and bureaucracy and, as a result, will frequently discipline
combative and autonomous sections of their membership. The organisation of trade unions
mirrors the hierarchies and dominant structures of capitalist society and is at odds with
anarchist communist goals of an autonomous and self-organising workers? movement. Trade
unions are developed as a tool for the negotiation of conditions within capitalism and,
therefore, cannot play a part in popularising anti-capitalist ideas and methods.
7. Unions of all types are a potential space for the convergence of workers? interests and
the growth of a proletarian counter-power. However, we recognise that these interests,
while ever they remain in the capture of the union-space, are ultimately mediated by the
desire to facilitate the sale and purchase of labour power. It is the role of
revolutionaries to attempt to navigate the contradictions resulting from the mediating
tools of capitalism and illusions of reformist ideology. We seek to strike the balance
between combativeness and isolating ourselves from our workmates.
8. Collective Action members and supporters do not take on any role within the unions
which may put themselves apart from the workforce or involves taking on any disciplinary
functions for either the boss or the union. We consider the occupation of officerships and
stations within the bureaucracy to be a compromise of principles and a poor example of
social leadership.
9. We recognise that unions of a revolutionary syndicalist type already embody principles
close to the anarchist communist perspective. While we criticise the (syndicalist and
anarcho-syndicalist) perspective that these unions are sufficient in themselves to build
a revolutionary movement, we do recognise them as important intermediate organisations
within a revolutionary strategy for workplace organisation. We endorse unions of this type
which seek to strike the same balance between presenting themselves as useful
organisational tools and a means of relating to workers, while not isolating or
abstracting themselves from the work force. Within these unions Collective Action members
will principally aim to occupy an organising role. Where the introduction of a syndicalist
or base union presents itself as a viable means of building mutual aid, solidarity and
class confidence Collective Action members will seek to organise (or strengthen an
existing) union.
10. Through the course of Collective Action?s social work, we will often encounter
dedicated activists and revolutionaries who advocate self-management, autonomy, grassroots
democracy, direct democracy and other libertarian principles, but with whom we do not
directly associate because they are not anarchist communists. Our approach with respect to
these groups and individuals is to work within groupings of tendency where our common
positions can be defended within broader movements. We consider the syndicalist and
anarcho-syndicalist unions and rank-and-file groupings within the trade unions to be one
example of such a grouping of tendency.
11. We recognise that members will be faced with varying levels of organisation and
combativeness in their workplaces. It is our objective to infuse all forms of organisation
with a libertarian spirit translating anarchist ideas into effective practice.
12. We recognise that the workplace sphere may also be divided by forms of social
oppression such as patriarchy, racism, homophobia, transphobia and ableism. We believe it
is our duty to be active in acting with our fellow workers to challenge and overcome these
forms of oppression within the workplace and attitudes which perpetuate them.
13. While organising within the workplace we aim to connect our immediate struggles to
those workplace, community and political struggles which may exist within the same chain
of production and consumption, or instigate them where they do not. We recognise the
interconnectedness of struggles between workplaces within the same industry, and between
industries. Our aim is to promote solidarity between struggles and highlight the mutual
role workplaces play in generating profit.
14. Furthermore, we recognise the importance of bringing together the demands of workers
with those of the unemployed. Historically the organisation of the unemployed has often
been overlooked and though we recognise this is a hard group to reach, we feel we should
try to unite the struggles of both employed and unemployed workers where opportunities exist.
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