A-Infos (en) anarcho-syndicalism in Spain

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FREEDOM PRESS
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Extract from current edition
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                           INTEGRITY - THE VOICE OF
                              SPANISH ANARCHISM

                                = Spring 1998 =

     Although our way of organising might be different from yours we
     share, as workers, the same problems: unemployment, bad
     employment, social exclusion. Our enemies have increased. When
     the AIT was formed, we fought against capitalism and the state.
     We now have a third and highly treacherous enemy: the bureaucracy
     of the official unions. It is in part due to the negligence and
     compliance of the UGT and CCOO that in Spain, out of nearly
     thirteen million workers, half of them are affected by
     unemployment. That is, over three million (one in four)
     unemployed and a similar number have precarious short-term
     contracts. There are one million families with no employed
     members. Two million jobless workers have no social benefits or
     income. I believe that Britain has similar figures, especially in
     the north. The collaborationist trade unions have joined forces
     with company owners to improve competitiveness in ever-more
     difficult international markets in order to maintain jobs, while
     renouncing previously hard-won gains. 

     SUSTAINING STRUGGLE

     This is where anarcho-syndicalism comes in - an
     anarcho-syndicalism similar, but not the same, to that which had
     a glorious existence in the early days of the labour movement.
     Many of us in Spain have spent years trying to re-build
     anarcho-syndicalism, but often we have mistakenly tried to
     reproduce the strategies used in the past when work and
     employment were central pillars of society of working class
     society at least. 

     What we need now is an anarchosyndicalism centred not only in the
     world of labour but also on the distribution of wealth at all
     levels of society. The old principles of anarcho-syndicalism are
     still essential direct action, federalism and mutual aid are more
     than just organic strategies or methods of struggle. They are the
     libertarian component of the working class movement. 

     The workers' movement in Spain has been sustained over the last
     few decades not just by the anarcho-syndicalists but by many
     other spontaneous and grassroots movements active in both labour
     and social struggles. It is on these libertarian principles that
     we must base ourselves if we want to adapt our most efficient
     tool - the trade union - to the changes in the capitalist system
     of production. 

     EVOLVING IN MODERN SOCIETY

     Syndicalism must evolve. We must try new scenarios for direct
     action in order to find a way to spark a revolt - a social
     response against the capitalist system of consumerism and
     production. We must address ourselves to the consumer, as we used
     to do to the producer - a plurality of consumers who logically
     consume differently according to their means. 

     Syndical action (anarcho-syndicalism), in its struggle against
     social processes, has to break the identity of the consumer. Our
     lives, the way we live, should not be limited by the salaries
     that we earn and should not be limited by consumerism. 

     As anarcho-syndicalists our objectives remain the same, but what
     has changed is the scenario. This is no longer totally linked to
     salaries and employment (or the equivalent of employment equals
     salary equals ability to consume) and must be wider ranging. The
     breath of our action must cover the entire workforce: wage
     workers, the unemployed, the yet-to-be employed, the so-called
     inactive housewife. We must invent and apply new ways to satisfy
     our needs by reappropriating and distributing the socially
     produced wealth. 

     I am hoping that the alliance here will propose interesting ways
     of achieving these goals. To end, I'd like to read a quote by
     Diego de Santilla: "I didn't come to anarchism after reading
     books or pamphlets by Kropotkin or anyone else. I came to it
     because of the moral integrity of the workers who I had met and
     dealt with. This integrity was our treasure, and we won't be
     anything if it ceases to exist. 


(further related articles: <http://www.tao.ca/~freedom/FIN>)

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