A-Infos (en) Spaine, Regeneracion: We Need a Strategy to Leap Forward By CONTRIBUTIONS* (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

In anarcho-syndicalist circles, the term "strategy" sometimes seems to 
be a dirty word. It doesn't align with our cultural universe, our 
"natural affinity for spontaneity," or a way of understanding freedom 
that tends to focus exclusively on its negative aspect (not being 
obligated to do something) and not on its obvious positive component 
(being able to do something).
However, our trade union organizations aspire to become mass 
organizations, capable of bringing together broad sectors of the working 
population. And this is where we navigate a permanent contradiction: 
constant improvisation and a culture of "reacting to what happens as it 
happens" are hardly compatible with real intervention in an increasingly 
complex social context, where analyzing reality and planning 
collectively are essential skills.

Strategy is the ability to agree when planning our intervention in 
reality and to implement that intervention in a coordinated and coherent 
manner. Strategy is such an anarcho-syndicalist tool that we should 
really understand the transformation of craft unions into unified unions 
at the 1918 Sants Congress of the Catalan Regional CNT as a pioneering 
strategy that allowed the organization to generate the necessary 
infrastructure to strike together in entire productive sectors. And this 
organizational change, imposed on all trade unions and societies by the 
agreements of the aforementioned Congress, enabled concrete victories in 
the labor struggle, such as the famous La Canadiense strike of 1919.

So we must have a strategy, because strategy is the only thing that 
allows us to break with the inertia that pushes the labor movement, time 
and again, toward a certain passivity in periods when conflict is not 
starkly apparent. In fact, our criticism of the official unions (UGT and 
CCOO) stems from their ingrained passivity, their leaden militant folly. 
That their organizations are based on professionalized activism, relying 
on perks and perpetual privileges, is not what the working class truly 
criticizes, but rather their utter inability to generate effective 
social power. Professionalization is what explains their incapacity, 
what generates it in many cases, the reason for their disconnect from 
the urgent needs of working-class misery. But if they were truly 
effective in improving the living conditions of the working class, many 
of these shortcomings would be forgiven. The truth is that CCOO and UGT 
lack any strategy for confronting employers and simply languish 
alongside them, accepting to manage exploitation jointly (but in a 
subordinate position) with the business sector.

But having a radical ideology does not exempt us from the tendency 
toward bureaucratization, present in every large political or social 
organization. Because, as the Argentinian activist John William Cooke 
said, bureaucratic behavior is not defined solely by cowardice, 
reformism, or corruption. At the heart of bureaucracy, what truly exists 
is the absence of any strategy. The bureaucracy merely pretends to 
fight, routinely harassing the government with small, unambitious 
mobilizations, under the assumption that, sooner or later, the 
unfavorable social situation will change and the government will either 
collapse on its own or decide to buy off the bureaucracy for what it 
believes it's worth. However, that never happens. Passivity breeds 
passivity, and the bureaucracy drains all the sources of vitality from 
the working class, lulling it into a culture of routine and conformism.

To avoid becoming a bureaucracy and passively repeating ourselves in a 
fatalistic loop of routine, we must equip ourselves with a strategy. We 
must seriously analyze reality to collectively determine how we will 
intervene to change it. We must organize action and deploy it according 
to a plan. A collective, flexible plan that can be modified according to 
circumstances, but also a plan grounded in a rigorous understanding of 
social reality and our own strengths and capabilities. A plan that must 
begin by starting with the following elements:

First, to outline an effective strategy for intervening in working life, 
beyond each individual workplace, we must have an in-depth understanding 
of the reality that surrounds us. We must understand the working class 
in our country and how the production model of each of the Iberian 
territories is structured. We must know how the Spanish economy connects 
with international value chains and global markets. We must study how 
investment funds and banks influence our working lives, even if it's not 
entirely obvious because they sit on boards of directors but are not 
usually physically present in the workplace. We must analyze how social 
contradictions such as sexism, racism, or the desire for independence 
among certain segments of the population in specific regions of our 
country shape our culture and our productive world. We must understand 
what is happening in the context of other social sectors, such as 
self-employment, cooperatives, small businesses, or even large 
corporations, in order to define an appropriate strategy for interacting 
(or clashing) with them.

To understand reality, we must foster research and continuous learning 
among our members. We must promote well-founded debates and studies 
about the real situation that surrounds us. Simply formulating 
hypotheses about the foreseeable long-term future, as some of our most 
prominent thinkers do, is not enough, even if it may be necessary. Our 
analyses must be situated, embodied in the world of today and tomorrow, 
not just the day after tomorrow. To intervene consciously, we must plan 
the next steps, not just dwell on the possibility of distant futures 
that slip through our fingers.

The second element necessary for designing an effective strategy for 
anarcho-syndicalism today is the will to leap. To leap beyond routine 
and the everyday. To leap beyond the conformist tendency to repeat 
ourselves endlessly. To leap beyond our passive habit of confining 
ourselves to small, familiar spaces ("my neighborhood, my workplace, my 
social center") in order to develop a broader and more elevated 
perspective. To truly intervene in society, we must dedicate energy and 
resources to planning a strategy that transcends the scope of the union 
section or the specific territory while still remaining attentive to 
those same realities. The slogan "think globally, act locally" is 
misleading. To intervene effectively, we must also consider the local 
context and act on a large scale using global tools such as general 
strikes, national or European advocacy campaigns, and the development of 
a joint working-class program across the Iberian Peninsula with concrete 
demands, a specific mobilization schedule, and a broad network of 
alliances to promote it.

The third element is understanding that a crucial part of an effective 
strategy is deciding with whom to work. None of our organizations can 
drive major transformations on its own. Not even a joint 
anarcho-syndicalist platform could do so. For that, we need broad and 
deep alliances with social movements, militant trade unions, and 
citizens' groups that want to transform our country in a progressive 
direction (progressive lawyers' associations, human rights groups, 
progressive cultural organizations, revolutionary political 
organizations, etc.). Deciding with whom to ally ourselves in each 
region or for each demand is a fundamental strategic decision. And 
that's why we must stop defining alliances solely based on abstract 
discourse (ideology, rhetoric, "loyalty" to ideas that aren't embodied 
in concrete experiences) and start talking seriously (but without 
naiveté) with those who can facilitate real progress in specific 
contexts, even if they worship other gods or wave other flags. We must 
introduce situated rationality where we usually only manage to focus on 
abstract identity-based emotions.

But the most essential element for developing an effective strategy, the 
most decisive and important one, is something else entirely. The 
keystone of strategic thinking is optimism. A lucid yet uncompromising 
optimism. From pessimism, fatalism, and sadness, it's difficult to build 
anything real. Nothing important has ever been accomplished in history 
without passion. The battle for the joy of fighting the battle is the 
first and most decisive one we must wage. We must understand the current 
situation, but in order to seize the opportunity to change it, not to 
wallow in defeat and make it permanent.

Truly, only those who are actively engaged in battles win them. And to 
be actively engaged in them, we must design a strategy. Collectively, 
participatively, rigorously, and with sound reasoning, debating 
everything necessary, modifying it as reality changes, but effectively 
planning the action and learning from it.

We must refuse to bureaucratize our minds, as Paulo Freire said. We must 
force ourselves to think seriously about what we want to do and how we 
are going to do it. That's a path to jump over.

José Luis Carretero Miramar.

*Originally published on January 7, 2026 in Kaos en la Red

https://regeneracionlibertaria.org/2026/02/22/necesitamos-una-estrategia-para-saltar/
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