T La Palli,

The SolFed industrial strategy is at www.solfed.org.uk/docs/strategy.

The Strategy and struggle - anarcho-syndicalism in the 21st century mentioned above is still being discussed internally, and has been since it was first raised by Brighton SF. It relies heavily on the concept of workers assemblies, similar to this aspect of the SF industrial strategy. Workplace assemblies have been put into practice by members of some sections of the IWA, as a means to achieve the broadest possible workplace solidarity and bypass divisions of non-union/union membership or trade/industry.

Jacque

A discussion document on building a shop stewards movement, written by the National Shop Stewards Network. Pretty interesting stuff!

The publications mentioned address crtiticisms from other political activists in a poltical activist language that excludes most people.

The Assemblyist theory is more of a response to the failure of the Solidarity Federation to create and maintain industrial networks to the point where they became functioning unions rather than dealing with what I think is the main issue when it comes to workplace and community struggles.

I am not saying these things for the sake of being negative. I think you have to identify the real problem first, before finding a positive solution.

If there is a management or ruling class attack on workers it can be relatively easy to organise through mass meetings or assemblies.

Most of my experience is with community struggles and I think the main problem is how do you turn  community campaigns or industrial disputes, which normally have a short or medium term lifespan, into long-term non-hierarchal institutions?

Independent local anti-poll tax groups should have become community unions, but most people simply went back to the lives they had before, when the campaign was won. This was understandable. Personally after 2 years of anti-poll tax activism I never wanted to go to another meeting again. People also get burnt out in such situations.

The Monday night meetings of the Govanhill Pool Campaign, during the occupation were, in practice, community assemblies. I thought the campaign was important because hundreds of people in the local community, rather than handful of political activists, were discussing who should run a public service, the local state or the local community? I think the community solidarity and direct action grew from an unexpected source, lots of small acts of informal solidarity between the people who went swimming, a past time more usually seen as an individualised or nuclear family orientated activity. However when the shit hit the fan and the occupation was evicted, most of the local working class gave up. The rump that was left continued to defer to the middle class 'leader' who was partly responsible for the occupation being evicted. (This was done by using classic Trot tactics to push through a decision to let the council's architects into the buiding.)

I don't want to start getting into psychobabble, but many people invovled with workplace or community struggles revert back to accepting hierarchal social relationships or even participating in them after the initial honeymoon period is over, in the same way people do with personal human relationships.

Apologies for bringing up this old chestnut, but...although the Spanish Civil War and resistance to Franco lasted a number of years, (perhaps lasting longest in Galicia where the militias were not incorporated into the centralised Republican Army and remained non-hierarchal), the Spanish Revolution, with its many different examples of libertarian communism in the collectivised workplaces and communities only lasted for a short term honeymoon period of a few months. This was not only because of the external pressures of the war, but for internal reasons as well. The membership of the CNT voted for their leaders to join the government. It was not just an act of individual betrayal by the anarchists who became ministers. This eventually lead to the libertarian movement becoming the Libertarian Party at the end of the war. I don't think you can look to the Friends of Durutti as a prime example of a non-hierarchal model either.

Jacque, the last time I discussed such matters with you, you mentioned an inspiring struggle in South Africa where there was assembly type organising. But what happens in the long term?

To be very clear I am not saying a free society is impossible because of some sort of theory, without supporting evidence, that human nature means that people will always organise in a hierarchy. But how do we turn workplace and community struggles into new long term non-hierarchal institutions?

Shell To Sea inspires me because they have managed, to some degree, to maintain community solidarity and direct action for a period of 10 years. With similar external pressures and internal contradictions to the Spanish anarchists , the Zapatistas has managed to maintain a degree of autonomy for over 15 years. Perhaps these examples would provide a slighly different place to start off a debate on workplace and community organisation at the proposed Scotland wide meeting?

Martin,

Thanks for your reply, your comments are useful, although I am not so clear about what you suggest can or should be done.

    "The publications mentioned address crtiticisms from other political activists in a poltical activist language that excludes most people."

I don't see myself as an 'activist', like most people I have a life outside of these issues.

If we intend to develop a strategy to defend ourselves from the bosses and to also raise the potential for significant political, social and economic changes - then we will find ourselves in a situation that words people are unfamiliar will need to be discussed because that is not the status quo. In the SolFed industrial strategy the only term likely to be new to people is "anarcho-syndicalism", which is essentially a fusion of anarchism and syndicalism (the french term for "unionism").

    "The Assemblyist theory is more of a response to the failure of the Solidarity Federation to create and maintain industrial networks to the point where they became functioning unions rather than dealing with what I think is the main issue when it comes to workplace and community struggles."

Solidarity Federation is not an 'assemblyist' organisation, also this should not be confused with the approach and purpose of SF industrial networks, which are essentially a network of anarcho-syndicalist militants within the same industrial sector, these are an essential part of SF and that has not changed.

Where they are an appropriate option in working class struggles we support the use of assemblies, for a number of reasons - (a) because in the workplace, assemblies are likely to offer solidarity to unionised and non-unionised workers in disputes, (b) at a time like now when workers are fearful of getting sacked for resisting the bosses, assemblies can rotate the mandate of delegates (a different person handing in a list demands to the bosses each fortnight would victimisation more complex for the bosses).

My critique of 'assemblyism' are the issues of political neutrality and fluidity.

We are now in a situation that workers are lead to accept that they are fortunate to still have a job despite that we have no actual interest in "social partnership" with the bosses, and told to back off from making demands while bailouts of billions of pounds will have to be paid by future generations. The lack of industrial action in Edinburgh city now compared to this time last year is sufficient evidence of what I am saying. Assemblies could also be useful for offering solidarity to workers who may be in a dispute, for example facing cuts, but who need external support to put pressure on the bosses.

But you say "rather than dealing with what I think is the main issue when it comes to workplace and community struggles" what are these issues?

I will write again later, have to go out.

Jacque

Jon B wrote:

A discussion document on building a shop stewards movement, written by the National Shop Stewards Network. Pretty interesting stuff!

Jon,

Thanks for sending this. I know some folks that are involved in NSSN, and their views on it are encouraging. see www.solfed.org.uk/docs/nssn

Our discussions on theory and strategy may have been overtaken by circumstances, now that the council has announced that they want to make £92m in cuts over the next few years.

They want to make cuts, closures, redundancies, and privatisations to make up their deficit. This will involve school closures,  and outsourcing our public services to the lowest bidder.

I think that this means that there will inevitably be industrial action against, and community groups forming to fight, these cuts/closures/privatisations. 

So in my view, we need to get involved, and try to influence the tactics and strategy of the anti-cuts activity, so that it is democratic and effective.

I think this needs to be central to the discussions at the next workplace and community struggles meeting.