International Workers Association
Encyclopedia
The International Workers' Association (IWA) is an international federation of anarcho-syndicalist
labour union
s and initiatives based primarily in Europe and Latin America.
Based on the principles of revolutionary unionism, the international aims to create industrial unions capable of fighting for the economic and political interests of the working class and eventually, to directly abolish capitalism through "the establishment of economic communities and administrative organs run by the workers."
At its peak the International represented millions of people worldwide, forming the largest anarchist organization in history and providing support for member unions which played a central role in the social conflicts of the 1920s and 30s, particularly in Spain. However the International was formed as many countries were entering periods of extreme repression, and many of the largest IWA unions were shattered during that period.
As a result, by the end of World War II
all but one of the International's branches, the Central Organisation of the Workers of Sweden
(SAC) had ceased to function as unions, a slump which continued throughout the 1940s and 50s. In 1958, the SAC left the organization, leaving it with no functioning unions and it would not be until the late 1970s, with the death of Spanish dictator Francisco Franco
, that it would see a major union, the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo
(CNT) reform within its ranks.
Today the CNT remains the International's largest branch. The IWA's total membership worldwide is uncertain.
.
The IWA programme promotes a form of non-hierarchical industrial unionism
which seeks to unite all workers within a given industry under one banner linked explicitly to a coherent set of economic and political aims.
This single organisation, co-ordinated on the basis of anarchist federalism is designed to both contest immediate industrial relations issues such as pay, working conditions and labor law, and pursue the reorganisation of society into a global system of economic communes and administrative groups based within a system of federated free councils at local, regional, national and global levels. This reorganisation would form the underlying structure of a self-managed society based on pre-planning and mutual aid — the establishment of anarchist communism
.
The IWA's Principles, Goals and Statutes state its role as being: "To carry on the day-to-day revolutionary struggle for the economic, social and intellectual advancement of the working class within the limits of present-day society, and to educate the masses so that they will be ready to independently manage the processes of production and distribution when the time comes to take possession of all the elements of social life."
The IWA explicitly rejects centralism, political parties
, parliamentarism and statism
, including the idea of the dictatorship of the proletariat
, as offering the means to carry out such change, drawing heavily on anarchist critiques written both before and after the Russian revolution, most famously Mikhail Bakunin
's suggestion that: "If you took the most ardent revolutionary, vested him in absolute power, within a year he would be worse than the Tsar himself."
It also rejects the concept of economic determinism
from some Marxists that liberation would come about; "by virtue of some inevitable fatalism of rigid natural laws which admit no deviation; its realisation will depend above all on the conscious will and the use of revolutionary action of the workers and will be determined by them."
Instead emphasis is placed on the organization of workers as the agents of social change through their ability to take direct action:
to lessen humanity's environmental impact.
From an early stage, the IWA has taken an anti-militarist stance, reflecting the overwhelming anarchist attitude since the First World War that the working class
should not engage with the power struggles between ruling class
es - and certainly should not die for them. It included a commitment to anti-militarism in its core principles and in 1926 it founded an International Anti-Militarist Coalition to promote disarmament
and gather information on war production.
It is strongly critical of organised religion and operates as a secular body, though faith or lack of it is not a precondition of entry.
While regarding industrial acts such as strikes
, boycott
s, etc. as the primary means of struggle against capitalist and state exploitation, the founding document of the IWA also states that syndicalists recognise "as valid that violence that may be used as a means of defense against the violent methods used by the ruling classes during the struggles that lead up to the revolutionary populace expropriating the lands and means of production."
It is stressed that this should occur through the formation of a democratic popular militia rather than through a traditional military hierarchy. This has been posited as an alternative to the dictatorship of the proletariat model.
Member groups are then able to participate in and benefit from the global community the IWA provides and can vote in its highest decision-making event, the International Congress, which is currently held once every two years. Proposals are submitted at national level at least six months before congress, to allow other national groups to consult and mandate members to vote.
The agreements and resolutions adopted by the International Congresses are binding for all affiliated groups.
Administration of the IWA's functions is carried out by the Secretariat consisting of at least three people residing in the country nominated by the international to take on the role. The IWA also elects a Secretary General, who acts as a liaison and representative for the international but does not wield any direct powers over policy. The secretariat may only hold office for two terms concurrently. For specific tasks, such as financial audits, separate commissions are set up.
Internal communications are maintained through each member group's International Secretaries, and through wide circulation of members' own internal publications.
, also known as the First International.
The First International aimed at uniting a variety of different left-wing socialist, communist
and anarchist political groups and trade union
organizations that were based on the working class
and class struggle
.
The earlier International however was not able to withstand the differences between anarchist
and Marxist
currents, with the anarchists largely withdrawing after the Hague Congress
of 1872 which saw the expulsion of leading libertarians Mikhail Bakunin
and James Guillaume
over their criticism of Karl Marx
's party-political approach to social change.
This split prompted several attempts to start specifically anarchist Internationals, notably the Anarchist St. Imier International
(1872-1881) and the Black International
(1881-87). However heavy repression in France of the Paris Commune
, as well as in Spain and Italy, alongside the rise of propaganda of the deed
within the anarchist movement and a dominant strand of social-democracy on the wider left wing in Europe, meant that serious moves to establish an anarcho-syndicalist international would not begin until the early 20th century.
The 1900s saw a major leap forward for the labor movement with the adoption of a new method of organizing, industrial unionism
and in 1913 there was an international syndicalist congress
held in London which aimed at building stronger ties between the existing syndicalist unions and propaganda groups. Present at the congress were delegates from the FVdG (Germany), NAS
(Holland), SAC (Sweden), USI
(Italy), and ISEL
(Britain). Observers attended from the Industrial Workers of the World
(US), CNT
(Spain), and FORA (Argentina).
Unfortunately the Congress' outcome was inconclusive, beyond drawing up a declaration of principles and setting up a short-lived information bureau. The burgeoning movement was to be snuffed out within a year as Europe was plunged into World War I
and communications between the syndicalists became impossible.
After the end of the war however, with the workers' movement resurgent following the Russian Revolution, what was to become the modern IWA was formed, billing itself as the "true heir" of the original international.
-led revolution of 1918 in Russia was mirrored by a wave of syndicalist successes worldwide, including the struggle of the Industrial Workers of the World
(IWW) in the USA alongside the creation of mass anarchist unions across Latin America and huge syndicalist-led strikes in Germany, Portugal, Spain, Italy and France, where it was noted that "neutral (economic, but not political) syndicalism had been swept away."
For many in this new revolutionary wave, Russia seemed to offer a successful alternative to social democratic reformism., so when in 1919 the Bolshevik Party issued an appeal for all workers to join it in building a new Red International it was met with great interest. Almost all of the syndicalist unions attended the 1920 congress of the Bolsheviks’ international of communists, the Comintern
, which unions in France and Italy joined immediately. In contrast, attempts to organise a conference of anarchists in February 1919 in Copenhagen had seen only the Scandinavians able to attend.
Scepticism was initially expressed by Germany's influential Free Workers' Union of Germany
(FAUD) towards the Bolsheviks' concept of an international of trade unions, known as the Profintern
. Such sentiments grew significantly as delegates from several countries gained access to revolutionary Russia. Augustine Souchy of FAUD scathingly critiqued the failings of "dictatorial state socialism," as concerns rose over proposals from the Bolsheviks that all unions should submit themselves to the Communist Party's leadership and reports began to arrive documenting the imprisonment of anarchists and socialists by the Bolsheviks.
At the Profintern's formal launch in July 1921, these fears proved well founded with the passing of a resolution subordinating the Profintern to the Comintern and thus tying the priorities of all member unions to those of the Russian state. While initially the syndicalist organizations present, including the largest unions from Spain (CNT), Italy (USI), Argentina (FORA), Germany (FAUD) and the USA (IWW) agreed to join on condition that organizational independence would be maintained, relations soured over the course of the year.
By June 1922 relations had broken down completely and the Profintern was decisively condemned at a conference of syndicalist unions in Berlin, with delegations from France, Germany, Norway and Spain resolving to establish a bureau to prepare the ground for the founding of a new international, rejecting parliamentarianism, militarism, nationalism and centralism.
The final formation of this new international, then known as the International Workingmen's Association, took place at an illegal conference in Berlin in December 1922, marking an irrevocable break between the international syndicalist movement and the Bolsheviks.
Signatories to the founding statement of the International Workingmen's Association included groups from around the world. The single largest anarcho-syndicalist union at the time, the CNT
in Spain, were unable to attend when their delegates were arrested on the way to the conference - though they did join the following year, bringing 600,000 members into the international. Despite the CNT's absence, the international represented well over 1 million workers at its inauguration:
The first secretaries of the International included the famed writer and activist Rudolph Rocker, along with Augustin Souchy
and Alexander Schapiro
.
Following the first congress, other groups affiliated from France, Austria, Denmark, Belgium, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Poland and Romania. Later, a bloc of unions in the USA, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Guatemala, Cuba, Costa Rica and El Salvador also shared the IWA's statutes.
The biggest syndicalist union in the USA, the IWW, considered joining but eventually ruled out affiliation in 1936, citing the IWA's policies on religious and political affiliation.
In Argentina, the FORA had already begun a process of decline by the time it joined the IWA, having split in 1915 into pro and anti-Bolshevik factions. From 1922, the anarchist movement there lost most of its membership, exacerbated by further splits, most notably around the Severino Di Giovanni
affair. It was crushed by General Uriburu's
military coup in 1930.
Germany's FAUD struggled throughout the late 1920s and early 30s as the brownshirts
took control of the streets. Its last national congress in Erfurt in March 1932 saw the union attempt to form an underground bureau to combat Hitler's fascists, a measure which was never put into practice as mass arrests decimated the conspirators' ranks.
The editor of the FAUD organ Der Syndikalist, Gerhard Wartenberg was killed in Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Karl Windhoff, delegate to the IWA Madrid congress of 1931 was driven out of his mind and also died in a Nazi death camp. There were also mass trials of FAUD members held in Wuppertal and Rhenanie, many of these never survived the death camps.
Italian IWA union the USI, which had claimed a membership of up to 600,000 people in 1922, was warning even at that time of murders and repression from Benito Mussolini
's fascists. It had been driven underground by 1924 and although it was still able to lead significant strikes by miners, metalworkers and marble workers, Mussolini's ascent to power in 1925 sealed its fate. By 1927 its leading activists had been arrested or exiled.
Portual's CGT was driven underground after an unsuccessful attempt to break the newly-installed dictatorship of Gomes da Costa
with a general strike in 1927 which led to nearly 100 deaths. It survived underground with 15-20,000 members until January 1934, when it called a general revolutionary strike against plans to replace trade unions with fascist corporations, which failed. It was able to continue in a much reduced state until World War II but was effectively finished as a fighting union.
Massive government repression repeated such defeats around the world, as anarcho-syndicalist unions were destroyed in Peru, Brazil, Columbia, Japan, Cuba, Bulgaria, Paraguay and Bolivia. By the end of the 1930s legal anarcho-syndicalist trade unions existed only in Chile, Bolivia, Sweden and Uruguay.
But perhaps the greatest blow was struck in the Spanish Civil War
which saw the CNT, then claiming a membership of 1.58 million, driven underground with the defeat of the Spanish Republic by Francisco Franco
. The sixth IWA congress took place in 1936, shortly after the Spanish Revolution
had begun, but was unable to provide serious material support for the section.
The IWA held its last pre-war congress in Paris in 1938, with months to go before the German invasion of Poland it received an application from ZZZ, a syndicalist union in the country claiming up to 130,000 workers – ZZZ members went on to form a core part of the resistance against the Nazis, and participated in the Warsaw uprising. But the international was not to meet again until after World War II had finished, in 1951. During the war, only one member of the IWA was able to continue to function as a revolutionary union, the SAC in Sweden.
After Hitler’s defeat, much of the Spanish CNT's active membership, now operating informally under the Franco dictatorship, remained split with some in exile in France and Britain, the rest driven underground. In Sweden, the SAC retained a presence while in every other country previously active members of the International had to start over.
But the situation remained difficult for the International, as it struggled to deal with the rise of state-sanctioned economic trade unionism in the West, heavy secret service intervention as Cold War
anti-communism reached its height and the banning of all strikes and free trade unions in the Soviet Union bloc of countries.
At the tenth congress in 1958, the SAC’s response to these pressures led it into a clash with the rest of the international. It withdrew from the IWA following its failure to amend the body’s statutes to allow it to stand in municipal elections and amid concerns over its integration with the state over distribution of unemployment benefits. This left the IWA with no functioning unions.
For most of the next two decades, the international would survive only as a selection of small propaganda groups, losing its Dutch section in the 1960s, meeting at Montpellier in 1971, at Paris in 1976 and 1979 but failing to find a way to grow within the post-war situation.
In 1976, at the 15th congress, the IWA was not functioning as an international union body, with only five member groups, two of which (the Spanish and Bulgarian members) were still operating in exile (though following Franco's death in 1975, the CNT was already approaching a membership of 200,000).
In 1979 a massive split over the merits of representative unionism saw the CNT divided into two sections, the CNT as it is today and the CGT. However even in its reduced state, it would help form the backbone for growth in the IWA worldwide.
), along with others from the UK (Direct Action Movement), USA (Workers Solidarity Alliance
), Germany (Free Workers' Union
) and Australia Anarcho-Syndicalist Federation, were among those who joined.
All existing groups reported growth and by 1984 at its 17th congress the International could boast three unions as members, CNT of Spain, CNT of France and USI of Italy. The IWA grew throughout the decade, adding two new groups from Japan and Brazil (Confederação Operária Brasileira|COB).
Further growth was recorded in the 1990s, although the Workers Solidarity Alliance along with the Japanese and Australian sections ceased to be members. However the 1996 Congress saw two sections split over the question of participation in trade union elections, with the French section divided into the CNT-F
(also known as CNT Vignoles) and CNT-AIT sections (the latter becoming the official IWA affiliate) while the Italian USI's "Roman tendency" was expelled. Czech, Slovak and Russian sections were added at the same event. Four years later, the Serbian and Brazilian sections joined.
Throughout the modern period significant differences in approach have forced many of the largest syndicalist unions to operate outside the IWA — the Spanish CGT, Swedish SAC and the CNT-F are regarded by the international as syndicalist (economic but not political) unions. These groups often work together and until recently were federated within the alternative ILS
international which admitted anarchist, anarcho-syndicalist, revolutionary syndicalist
and clearly anti-statist
, non-party aligned social organizations.
Shortly after their arrest, an open letter was circulated by Serbian academics criticising the charges and the attitude of Serbian police. The six were formally indicted on December 7 and after a lengthy trial procedure Trivunac, along with other 5 anarchists, was freed on February 17, 2010.
On 10 December 2009, the FAU local in Berlin
was effectively banned as a union following a public industrial dispute at the city's Babylon cinema.
At the XXIV annual congress of the IWA, which was held in Brazil
in December 2009, the first time the congress had been held outside Europe, motions of support were passed for the "Belgrade Six" and FAU while members of the Solidarity Federation temporarily took over duties as Secretariat. The International's Norwegian section subsequently took on the Secretariat role in 2010.
As part of the anti-austerity movement in Europe, various IWA sections have been highly active in the 2008-2012 period, with the CNT taking a leading role in agitating for the general strikes which have occurred in Spain, the USI in Milan taking on anti-austerity campaigns in the health service and the ZSP organising tenants against abuses in rented accommodation. "
Anarcho-syndicalism
Anarcho-syndicalism is a branch of anarchism which focuses on the labour movement. The word syndicalism comes from the French word syndicat which means trade union , from the Latin word syndicus which in turn comes from the Greek word σύνδικος which means caretaker of an issue...
labour union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
s and initiatives based primarily in Europe and Latin America.
Based on the principles of revolutionary unionism, the international aims to create industrial unions capable of fighting for the economic and political interests of the working class and eventually, to directly abolish capitalism through "the establishment of economic communities and administrative organs run by the workers."
At its peak the International represented millions of people worldwide, forming the largest anarchist organization in history and providing support for member unions which played a central role in the social conflicts of the 1920s and 30s, particularly in Spain. However the International was formed as many countries were entering periods of extreme repression, and many of the largest IWA unions were shattered during that period.
As a result, by the end of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
all but one of the International's branches, the Central Organisation of the Workers of Sweden
Central Organisation of the Workers of Sweden
Central Organisation of the Workers of Sweden is an anarcho-syndicalist trade union federation in Sweden. Unlike other Swedish unions, SAC organizes people from all occupations, including the unemployed, students, and the retired...
(SAC) had ceased to function as unions, a slump which continued throughout the 1940s and 50s. In 1958, the SAC left the organization, leaving it with no functioning unions and it would not be until the late 1970s, with the death of Spanish dictator Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...
, that it would see a major union, the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo
Confederación Nacional del Trabajo
The Confederación Nacional del Trabajo is a Spanish confederation of anarcho-syndicalist labor unions affiliated with the International Workers Association . When working with the latter group it is also known as CNT-AIT...
(CNT) reform within its ranks.
Today the CNT remains the International's largest branch. The IWA's total membership worldwide is uncertain.
Ideology
For full article see anarcho-syndicalismAnarcho-syndicalism
Anarcho-syndicalism is a branch of anarchism which focuses on the labour movement. The word syndicalism comes from the French word syndicat which means trade union , from the Latin word syndicus which in turn comes from the Greek word σύνδικος which means caretaker of an issue...
.
The IWA programme promotes a form of non-hierarchical industrial unionism
Industrial unionism
Industrial unionism is a labor union organizing method through which all workers in the same industry are organized into the same union—regardless of skill or trade—thus giving workers in one industry, or in all industries, more leverage in bargaining and in strike situations...
which seeks to unite all workers within a given industry under one banner linked explicitly to a coherent set of economic and political aims.
This single organisation, co-ordinated on the basis of anarchist federalism is designed to both contest immediate industrial relations issues such as pay, working conditions and labor law, and pursue the reorganisation of society into a global system of economic communes and administrative groups based within a system of federated free councils at local, regional, national and global levels. This reorganisation would form the underlying structure of a self-managed society based on pre-planning and mutual aid — the establishment of anarchist communism
Anarchist communism
Anarchist communism is a theory of anarchism which advocates the abolition of the state, markets, money, private property, and capitalism in favor of common ownership of the means of production, direct democracy and a horizontal network of voluntary associations and workers' councils with...
.
The IWA's Principles, Goals and Statutes state its role as being: "To carry on the day-to-day revolutionary struggle for the economic, social and intellectual advancement of the working class within the limits of present-day society, and to educate the masses so that they will be ready to independently manage the processes of production and distribution when the time comes to take possession of all the elements of social life."
The IWA explicitly rejects centralism, political parties
Political Parties
Political Parties: A Sociological Study of the Oligarchical Tendencies of Modern Democracy is a book by sociologist Robert Michels, published in 1911 , and first introducing the concept of iron law of oligarchy...
, parliamentarism and statism
Statism
Statism is a term usually describing a political philosophy, whether of the right or the left, that emphasises the role of the state in politics or supports the use of the state to achieve economic, military or social goals...
, including the idea of the dictatorship of the proletariat
Dictatorship of the proletariat
In Marxist socio-political thought, the dictatorship of the proletariat refers to a socialist state in which the proletariat, or the working class, have control of political power. The term, coined by Joseph Weydemeyer, was adopted by the founders of Marxism, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, in the...
, as offering the means to carry out such change, drawing heavily on anarchist critiques written both before and after the Russian revolution, most famously Mikhail Bakunin
Mikhail Bakunin
Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin was a well-known Russian revolutionary and theorist of collectivist anarchism. He has also often been called the father of anarchist theory in general. Bakunin grew up near Moscow, where he moved to study philosophy and began to read the French Encyclopedists,...
's suggestion that: "If you took the most ardent revolutionary, vested him in absolute power, within a year he would be worse than the Tsar himself."
It also rejects the concept of economic determinism
Economic determinism
Economic determinism is the theory which attributes primacy to the economic structure over politics in the development of human history. It is usually associated with the theories of Karl Marx, although many Marxist thinkers have dismissed plain and unilateral economic determinism as a form of...
from some Marxists that liberation would come about; "by virtue of some inevitable fatalism of rigid natural laws which admit no deviation; its realisation will depend above all on the conscious will and the use of revolutionary action of the workers and will be determined by them."
Instead emphasis is placed on the organization of workers as the agents of social change through their ability to take direct action:
Policies
The IWA rejects all political and national frontiers and calls for radical changes to the means of productionMeans of production
Means of production refers to physical, non-human inputs used in production—the factories, machines, and tools used to produce wealth — along with both infrastructural capital and natural capital. This includes the classical factors of production minus financial capital and minus human capital...
to lessen humanity's environmental impact.
From an early stage, the IWA has taken an anti-militarist stance, reflecting the overwhelming anarchist attitude since the First World War that the working class
Working class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
should not engage with the power struggles between ruling class
Ruling class
The term ruling class refers to the social class of a given society that decides upon and sets that society's political policy - assuming there is one such particular class in the given society....
es - and certainly should not die for them. It included a commitment to anti-militarism in its core principles and in 1926 it founded an International Anti-Militarist Coalition to promote disarmament
Disarmament
Disarmament is the act of reducing, limiting, or abolishing weapons. Disarmament generally refers to a country's military or specific type of weaponry. Disarmament is often taken to mean total elimination of weapons of mass destruction, such as nuclear arms...
and gather information on war production.
It is strongly critical of organised religion and operates as a secular body, though faith or lack of it is not a precondition of entry.
While regarding industrial acts such as strikes
Strike action
Strike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve , or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became...
, boycott
Boycott
A boycott is an act of voluntarily abstaining from using, buying, or dealing with a person, organization, or country as an expression of protest, usually for political reasons...
s, etc. as the primary means of struggle against capitalist and state exploitation, the founding document of the IWA also states that syndicalists recognise "as valid that violence that may be used as a means of defense against the violent methods used by the ruling classes during the struggles that lead up to the revolutionary populace expropriating the lands and means of production."
It is stressed that this should occur through the formation of a democratic popular militia rather than through a traditional military hierarchy. This has been posited as an alternative to the dictatorship of the proletariat model.
Organization
The IWA admits organizations which are in full agreement with its Aims and Principles in countries where there is not already an affiliated group in existence, requiring them to pay affiliation fees to help maintain the IWA's structure.Member groups are then able to participate in and benefit from the global community the IWA provides and can vote in its highest decision-making event, the International Congress, which is currently held once every two years. Proposals are submitted at national level at least six months before congress, to allow other national groups to consult and mandate members to vote.
The agreements and resolutions adopted by the International Congresses are binding for all affiliated groups.
Administration of the IWA's functions is carried out by the Secretariat consisting of at least three people residing in the country nominated by the international to take on the role. The IWA also elects a Secretary General, who acts as a liaison and representative for the international but does not wield any direct powers over policy. The secretariat may only hold office for two terms concurrently. For specific tasks, such as financial audits, separate commissions are set up.
Internal communications are maintained through each member group's International Secretaries, and through wide circulation of members' own internal publications.
History
First International and revolutionary syndicalism (1864-1917)
The early ideology of revolutionary syndicalism from which the IWA derives was formed during the International Workingmen's AssociationInternational Workingmen's Association
The International Workingmen's Association , sometimes called the First International, was an international organization which aimed at uniting a variety of different left-wing socialist, communist and anarchist political groups and trade union organizations that were based on the working class...
, also known as the First International.
The First International aimed at uniting a variety of different left-wing socialist, communist
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
and anarchist political groups and trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
organizations that were based on the working class
Working class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
and class struggle
Class struggle
Class struggle is the active expression of a class conflict looked at from any kind of socialist perspective. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote "The [written] history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle"....
.
The earlier International however was not able to withstand the differences between anarchist
Anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
and Marxist
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
currents, with the anarchists largely withdrawing after the Hague Congress
Hague Congress (1872)
The Hague Congress was the Fifth congress of the International Workingmen's Association held in in The Hague, Holland, which anarchists consider as null and void....
of 1872 which saw the expulsion of leading libertarians Mikhail Bakunin
Mikhail Bakunin
Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin was a well-known Russian revolutionary and theorist of collectivist anarchism. He has also often been called the father of anarchist theory in general. Bakunin grew up near Moscow, where he moved to study philosophy and began to read the French Encyclopedists,...
and James Guillaume
James Guillaume
James Guillaume was a leading member of the Jura federation of the First International, the anarchist wing of the International. Later, Guillaume would take an active role in the founding of the Anarchist St...
over their criticism of Karl Marx
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...
's party-political approach to social change.
This split prompted several attempts to start specifically anarchist Internationals, notably the Anarchist St. Imier International
Anarchist St. Imier International
The Anarchist St. Imier International was an international anarchist organization formed in 1872 when the anarchist sections were expelled from the First International after the Hague Congress .The St...
(1872-1881) and the Black International
International Working People's Association
The International Working People's Association , sometimes known as the "Black International," was an international anarchist political organization established in 1881 at a convention held in London, England...
(1881-87). However heavy repression in France of the Paris Commune
Paris Commune
The Paris Commune was a government that briefly ruled Paris from March 18 to May 28, 1871. It existed before the split between anarchists and Marxists had taken place, and it is hailed by both groups as the first assumption of power by the working class during the Industrial Revolution...
, as well as in Spain and Italy, alongside the rise of propaganda of the deed
Propaganda of the deed
Propaganda of the deed is a concept that refers to specific political actions meant to be exemplary to others...
within the anarchist movement and a dominant strand of social-democracy on the wider left wing in Europe, meant that serious moves to establish an anarcho-syndicalist international would not begin until the early 20th century.
The 1900s saw a major leap forward for the labor movement with the adoption of a new method of organizing, industrial unionism
Industrial unionism
Industrial unionism is a labor union organizing method through which all workers in the same industry are organized into the same union—regardless of skill or trade—thus giving workers in one industry, or in all industries, more leverage in bargaining and in strike situations...
and in 1913 there was an international syndicalist congress
First International Syndicalist Congress
The First International Syndicalist Congress was a meeting of European and Latin American syndicalist organizations at Holborn Town Hall in London from September 27 to October 2, 1913...
held in London which aimed at building stronger ties between the existing syndicalist unions and propaganda groups. Present at the congress were delegates from the FVdG (Germany), NAS
National Labor Secretariat
The National Labor Secretariat was a trade union federation in the Netherlands from 1893 to 1940.-Early years:...
(Holland), SAC (Sweden), USI
Unione Sindacale Italiana
Unione Sindacale Italiana is an anarcho-syndicalist trade union. It is the Italian section of the International Workers Association , and the name of USI is...
(Italy), and ISEL
Industrial Syndicalist Education League
The Industrial Syndicalist Education League was a British syndicalist organisation which existed from 1910 to 1913.In May 1910 Guy Bowman and Tom Mann, two dissident members of the Social Democratic Federation travelled to France visiting members of the syndicalist General Confederation of...
(Britain). Observers attended from the Industrial Workers of the World
Industrial Workers of the World
The Industrial Workers of the World is an international union. At its peak in 1923, the organization claimed some 100,000 members in good standing, and could marshal the support of perhaps 300,000 workers. Its membership declined dramatically after a 1924 split brought on by internal conflict...
(US), CNT
Confederación Nacional del Trabajo
The Confederación Nacional del Trabajo is a Spanish confederation of anarcho-syndicalist labor unions affiliated with the International Workers Association . When working with the latter group it is also known as CNT-AIT...
(Spain), and FORA (Argentina).
Unfortunately the Congress' outcome was inconclusive, beyond drawing up a declaration of principles and setting up a short-lived information bureau. The burgeoning movement was to be snuffed out within a year as Europe was plunged into World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
and communications between the syndicalists became impossible.
After the end of the war however, with the workers' movement resurgent following the Russian Revolution, what was to become the modern IWA was formed, billing itself as the "true heir" of the original international.
Rejection of Bolshevism and founding of the IWA (1918-22)
The successful BolshevikBolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
-led revolution of 1918 in Russia was mirrored by a wave of syndicalist successes worldwide, including the struggle of the Industrial Workers of the World
Industrial Workers of the World
The Industrial Workers of the World is an international union. At its peak in 1923, the organization claimed some 100,000 members in good standing, and could marshal the support of perhaps 300,000 workers. Its membership declined dramatically after a 1924 split brought on by internal conflict...
(IWW) in the USA alongside the creation of mass anarchist unions across Latin America and huge syndicalist-led strikes in Germany, Portugal, Spain, Italy and France, where it was noted that "neutral (economic, but not political) syndicalism had been swept away."
For many in this new revolutionary wave, Russia seemed to offer a successful alternative to social democratic reformism., so when in 1919 the Bolshevik Party issued an appeal for all workers to join it in building a new Red International it was met with great interest. Almost all of the syndicalist unions attended the 1920 congress of the Bolsheviks’ international of communists, the Comintern
Comintern
The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern, also known as the Third International, was an international communist organization initiated in Moscow during March 1919...
, which unions in France and Italy joined immediately. In contrast, attempts to organise a conference of anarchists in February 1919 in Copenhagen had seen only the Scandinavians able to attend.
Scepticism was initially expressed by Germany's influential Free Workers' Union of Germany
Free Workers' Union of Germany
The Free Workers' Union of Germany was an anarcho-syndicalist trade union, which existed from the renaming of the Free Association of German Trade Unions on September 15, 1919 to its official disbandment in January 1933 after the Nazis came into power, although many of its members continued to be...
(FAUD) towards the Bolsheviks' concept of an international of trade unions, known as the Profintern
Profintern
The Red International of Labor Unions , commonly known as the Profintern, was an international body established by the Communist International with the aim of coordinating Communist activities within trade unions...
. Such sentiments grew significantly as delegates from several countries gained access to revolutionary Russia. Augustine Souchy of FAUD scathingly critiqued the failings of "dictatorial state socialism," as concerns rose over proposals from the Bolsheviks that all unions should submit themselves to the Communist Party's leadership and reports began to arrive documenting the imprisonment of anarchists and socialists by the Bolsheviks.
At the Profintern's formal launch in July 1921, these fears proved well founded with the passing of a resolution subordinating the Profintern to the Comintern and thus tying the priorities of all member unions to those of the Russian state. While initially the syndicalist organizations present, including the largest unions from Spain (CNT), Italy (USI), Argentina (FORA), Germany (FAUD) and the USA (IWW) agreed to join on condition that organizational independence would be maintained, relations soured over the course of the year.
By June 1922 relations had broken down completely and the Profintern was decisively condemned at a conference of syndicalist unions in Berlin, with delegations from France, Germany, Norway and Spain resolving to establish a bureau to prepare the ground for the founding of a new international, rejecting parliamentarianism, militarism, nationalism and centralism.
The final formation of this new international, then known as the International Workingmen's Association, took place at an illegal conference in Berlin in December 1922, marking an irrevocable break between the international syndicalist movement and the Bolsheviks.
Confederación Nacional del Trabajo
The Confederación Nacional del Trabajo is a Spanish confederation of anarcho-syndicalist labor unions affiliated with the International Workers Association . When working with the latter group it is also known as CNT-AIT...
in Spain, were unable to attend when their delegates were arrested on the way to the conference - though they did join the following year, bringing 600,000 members into the international. Despite the CNT's absence, the international represented well over 1 million workers at its inauguration:
- The Italian Syndicalist UnionUnione Sindacale ItalianaUnione Sindacale Italiana is an anarcho-syndicalist trade union. It is the Italian section of the International Workers Association , and the name of USI is...
: 500,000 members, - The Argentine Workers Regional Organization (FORA): 200,000,
- The General Confederation of Workers in Portugal: 150,000,
- The Free Workers' Union of GermanyFree Workers' Union of GermanyThe Free Workers' Union of Germany was an anarcho-syndicalist trade union, which existed from the renaming of the Free Association of German Trade Unions on September 15, 1919 to its official disbandment in January 1933 after the Nazis came into power, although many of its members continued to be...
(FAUD): 120,000, - The Committee for the Defense of Revolutionary Syndicalism in France: 100,000,
- The Federation du Combattant from Paris: 32,000,
- The Swedish Workers Central OrganizationCentral Organisation of the Workers of SwedenCentral Organisation of the Workers of Sweden is an anarcho-syndicalist trade union federation in Sweden. Unlike other Swedish unions, SAC organizes people from all occupations, including the unemployed, students, and the retired...
(SAC):32,000, - National Labor SecretariatNational Labor SecretariatThe National Labor Secretariat was a trade union federation in the Netherlands from 1893 to 1940.-Early years:...
of the Netherlands: 22,500, - The Industrial Workers of the World in Chile: 20,000,
- The Union for Syndicalist Propaganda in Denmark: 600.
The first secretaries of the International included the famed writer and activist Rudolph Rocker, along with Augustin Souchy
Augustin Souchy
Augustin Souchy was a German anarchist, antimilitarist, and journalist.- First World War :At the outbreak of the First World War he moved in Austria. From there he was deported to and forced to wear a sign around his neck that read "Beware: Anarchist!", which later became the title of his...
and Alexander Schapiro
Alexander Schapiro
Alexander M. Schapiro was a Russian Jewish anarcho-syndicalist militant active in the international anarchist movement.- Early life :...
.
Following the first congress, other groups affiliated from France, Austria, Denmark, Belgium, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Poland and Romania. Later, a bloc of unions in the USA, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Guatemala, Cuba, Costa Rica and El Salvador also shared the IWA's statutes.
The biggest syndicalist union in the USA, the IWW, considered joining but eventually ruled out affiliation in 1936, citing the IWA's policies on religious and political affiliation.
Decline and repression (1923-39)
Many of the largest members of the IWA were broken, driven underground or wiped out in the 1920s-30s as fascists came to power in states across Europe and workers switched away from anarchism towards the seeming success of the Bolshevik model of socialism.In Argentina, the FORA had already begun a process of decline by the time it joined the IWA, having split in 1915 into pro and anti-Bolshevik factions. From 1922, the anarchist movement there lost most of its membership, exacerbated by further splits, most notably around the Severino Di Giovanni
Severino Di Giovanni
Severino Di Giovanni , was an Italian anarchist who immigrated to Argentina, where he became the best-known anarchist figure in that country for his campaign of violence in support of Sacco and Vanzetti and antifascism.- Italy :Di Giovanni was born on March 17, 1901, in the town of Chieti, in the...
affair. It was crushed by General Uriburu's
José Félix Uriburu
General José Félix Benito Uriburu y Uriburu was the first de facto President of Argentina, achieved through a military coup, from September 6, 1930 to February 20, 1932.-Biography:...
military coup in 1930.
Germany's FAUD struggled throughout the late 1920s and early 30s as the brownshirts
Sturmabteilung
The Sturmabteilung functioned as a paramilitary organization of the National Socialist German Workers' Party . It played a key role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s...
took control of the streets. Its last national congress in Erfurt in March 1932 saw the union attempt to form an underground bureau to combat Hitler's fascists, a measure which was never put into practice as mass arrests decimated the conspirators' ranks.
The editor of the FAUD organ Der Syndikalist, Gerhard Wartenberg was killed in Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Karl Windhoff, delegate to the IWA Madrid congress of 1931 was driven out of his mind and also died in a Nazi death camp. There were also mass trials of FAUD members held in Wuppertal and Rhenanie, many of these never survived the death camps.
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
's fascists. It had been driven underground by 1924 and although it was still able to lead significant strikes by miners, metalworkers and marble workers, Mussolini's ascent to power in 1925 sealed its fate. By 1927 its leading activists had been arrested or exiled.
Portual's CGT was driven underground after an unsuccessful attempt to break the newly-installed dictatorship of Gomes da Costa
Gomes da Costa
Manuel de Oliveira Gomes da Costa, GOTE, GCA, commonly known as Manuel Gomes da Costa , or just Gomes da Costa , son of Carlos Dias da Costa Manuel de Oliveira Gomes da Costa, GOTE, GCA, commonly known as Manuel Gomes da Costa , or just Gomes da Costa (Lisbon, January 14, 1863 – Lisbon,...
with a general strike in 1927 which led to nearly 100 deaths. It survived underground with 15-20,000 members until January 1934, when it called a general revolutionary strike against plans to replace trade unions with fascist corporations, which failed. It was able to continue in a much reduced state until World War II but was effectively finished as a fighting union.
Massive government repression repeated such defeats around the world, as anarcho-syndicalist unions were destroyed in Peru, Brazil, Columbia, Japan, Cuba, Bulgaria, Paraguay and Bolivia. By the end of the 1930s legal anarcho-syndicalist trade unions existed only in Chile, Bolivia, Sweden and Uruguay.
But perhaps the greatest blow was struck in the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
which saw the CNT, then claiming a membership of 1.58 million, driven underground with the defeat of the Spanish Republic by Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...
. The sixth IWA congress took place in 1936, shortly after the Spanish Revolution
Spanish Revolution
The Spanish Revolution was a workers' social revolution that began during the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 and resulted in the widespread implementation of anarchist and more broadly libertarian socialist organizational principles throughout various portions of the country for two to...
had begun, but was unable to provide serious material support for the section.
The IWA held its last pre-war congress in Paris in 1938, with months to go before the German invasion of Poland it received an application from ZZZ, a syndicalist union in the country claiming up to 130,000 workers – ZZZ members went on to form a core part of the resistance against the Nazis, and participated in the Warsaw uprising. But the international was not to meet again until after World War II had finished, in 1951. During the war, only one member of the IWA was able to continue to function as a revolutionary union, the SAC in Sweden.
After Hitler’s defeat, much of the Spanish CNT's active membership, now operating informally under the Franco dictatorship, remained split with some in exile in France and Britain, the rest driven underground. In Sweden, the SAC retained a presence while in every other country previously active members of the International had to start over.
Relaunch of the International Workers Association (1951-1980)
At the seventh congress in Toulouse in 1951 a much smaller IWA was relaunched, again without the CNT, which would not be strong enough to reclaim membership until 1958 as an exiled and underground organization. Delegates attended, though mostly representing very small groups, from Cuba, Argentina, Spain, Sweden, France, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Denmark, Norway, Britain, Bulgaria and Portugal. A message of support was received from Uruguay.But the situation remained difficult for the International, as it struggled to deal with the rise of state-sanctioned economic trade unionism in the West, heavy secret service intervention as Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
anti-communism reached its height and the banning of all strikes and free trade unions in the Soviet Union bloc of countries.
At the tenth congress in 1958, the SAC’s response to these pressures led it into a clash with the rest of the international. It withdrew from the IWA following its failure to amend the body’s statutes to allow it to stand in municipal elections and amid concerns over its integration with the state over distribution of unemployment benefits. This left the IWA with no functioning unions.
For most of the next two decades, the international would survive only as a selection of small propaganda groups, losing its Dutch section in the 1960s, meeting at Montpellier in 1971, at Paris in 1976 and 1979 but failing to find a way to grow within the post-war situation.
In 1976, at the 15th congress, the IWA was not functioning as an international union body, with only five member groups, two of which (the Spanish and Bulgarian members) were still operating in exile (though following Franco's death in 1975, the CNT was already approaching a membership of 200,000).
In 1979 a massive split over the merits of representative unionism saw the CNT divided into two sections, the CNT as it is today and the CGT. However even in its reduced state, it would help form the backbone for growth in the IWA worldwide.
Revival and the modern period (1980-present)
The IWA’s 1980 congress showed much improvement, reaching ten sections and benefitting from the reorganization of the CNT, which was able to send delegates from Spain (as opposed to exiles) for the first time since the 1930s. Reformed sections in Italy (USI) and Norway (NSFNorsk Syndikalistisk Forbund
The Norsk Syndikalistisk Forbund is an anarcho-syndicalist group in Norway. It is the Norwegian section of the International Workers Association, and was mandated as the secretariat of the International until 2007, when the Serbian section Anarho-sindikalisticka inicijativa took over.-History:The...
), along with others from the UK (Direct Action Movement), USA (Workers Solidarity Alliance
Workers Solidarity Alliance
Workers Solidarity Alliance is a United States political activist group whose politics are rooted in anarcho-syndicalism and class struggle. WSA is not a trade union or proto-union....
), Germany (Free Workers' Union
Free Workers' Union
The Free Workers' Union is a small anarcho-syndicalist union in Germany. It is the German section of the International Workers Association , to which the larger and better known Confederación Nacional del Trabajo in Spain also belongs...
) and Australia Anarcho-Syndicalist Federation, were among those who joined.
All existing groups reported growth and by 1984 at its 17th congress the International could boast three unions as members, CNT of Spain, CNT of France and USI of Italy. The IWA grew throughout the decade, adding two new groups from Japan and Brazil (Confederação Operária Brasileira|COB).
Further growth was recorded in the 1990s, although the Workers Solidarity Alliance along with the Japanese and Australian sections ceased to be members. However the 1996 Congress saw two sections split over the question of participation in trade union elections, with the French section divided into the CNT-F
Confédération nationale du travail
- History :The CNT-F or National Confederation of Labour is a French anarcho-syndicalist union.It was founded in 1946 by Spanish anarcho-syndicalists in exile, and former members of Confédération Générale du Travail-Syndicaliste Révolutionnaire , its name is derived from the Spanish CNT, the...
(also known as CNT Vignoles) and CNT-AIT sections (the latter becoming the official IWA affiliate) while the Italian USI's "Roman tendency" was expelled. Czech, Slovak and Russian sections were added at the same event. Four years later, the Serbian and Brazilian sections joined.
Throughout the modern period significant differences in approach have forced many of the largest syndicalist unions to operate outside the IWA — the Spanish CGT, Swedish SAC and the CNT-F are regarded by the international as syndicalist (economic but not political) unions. These groups often work together and until recently were federated within the alternative ILS
International Libertarian Solidarity
International Libertarian Solidarity was an international anarchist network with over 20 participating organizations from North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa....
international which admitted anarchist, anarcho-syndicalist, revolutionary syndicalist
Syndicalism
Syndicalism is a type of economic system proposed as a replacement for capitalism and an alternative to state socialism, which uses federations of collectivised trade unions or industrial unions...
and clearly anti-statist
Libertarian socialism
Libertarian socialism is a group of political philosophies that promote a non-hierarchical, non-bureaucratic, stateless society without private property in the means of production...
, non-party aligned social organizations.
IWA Today
Recent events have put pressure on several IWA branches. On 3 September 2009, six members of the ASI-MUR, including IWA General Secretary Ratibor Trivunac, were arrested on suspicion of international terrorism, a charge which was heavily disputed by the international and other anarchist groups.Shortly after their arrest, an open letter was circulated by Serbian academics criticising the charges and the attitude of Serbian police. The six were formally indicted on December 7 and after a lengthy trial procedure Trivunac, along with other 5 anarchists, was freed on February 17, 2010.
On 10 December 2009, the FAU local in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
was effectively banned as a union following a public industrial dispute at the city's Babylon cinema.
At the XXIV annual congress of the IWA, which was held in Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
in December 2009, the first time the congress had been held outside Europe, motions of support were passed for the "Belgrade Six" and FAU while members of the Solidarity Federation temporarily took over duties as Secretariat. The International's Norwegian section subsequently took on the Secretariat role in 2010.
As part of the anti-austerity movement in Europe, various IWA sections have been highly active in the 2008-2012 period, with the CNT taking a leading role in agitating for the general strikes which have occurred in Spain, the USI in Milan taking on anti-austerity campaigns in the health service and the ZSP organising tenants against abuses in rented accommodation. "
Member organizations
| Country | Name | Acronym | Publications | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Federacion Obrera Regional Argentina | FORA | Organizacion Obrera | Member | |
| Anarcho-Syndicalist Federation | ASF | Friend* | ||
| Confederação Operária Brasileira Brazilian Workers Confederation The Brazilian Workers Confederation is the first trade union of workers from Brazil, founded in 1906.Originally founded in 1906, after being involved in intense union activity, its membership declined dramatically in the 1930s due to a split brought on by internal conflict and government... |
COB | A Voz do Trabalhador, A Plebe | Member | |
| Germinal | Friend | |||
| Amigos de la AIT | Friend | |||
| Confédération nationale du travail Confédération nationale du travail - History :The CNT-F or National Confederation of Labour is a French anarcho-syndicalist union.It was founded in 1946 by Spanish anarcho-syndicalists in exile, and former members of Confédération Générale du Travail-Syndicaliste Révolutionnaire , its name is derived from the Spanish CNT, the... |
CNT-AIT | Le Combat Sydicaliste | Member | |
| Freie Arbeiterinnen- und Arbeiter-Union | FAU | Direkte Aktion | Member | |
| Organise! Organise! There have been several anarchist groups in Ireland that have used the name Organise since 1984.- Organise! :Formed from the Antrim anarchist group.- Organise!-IWA :... |
The Leveller | Friend | ||
| Unione Sindacale Italiana Unione Sindacale Italiana Unione Sindacale Italiana is an anarcho-syndicalist trade union. It is the Italian section of the International Workers Association , and the name of USI is... |
USI-AIT | Lotta di Classe | Member | |
| Norsk Syndikalistisk Forbund Norsk Syndikalistisk Forbund The Norsk Syndikalistisk Forbund is an anarcho-syndicalist group in Norway. It is the Norwegian section of the International Workers Association, and was mandated as the secretariat of the International until 2007, when the Serbian section Anarho-sindikalisticka inicijativa took over.-History:The... |
NSF-IAA | Member | ||
| Związek Syndykalistów Polski | ZSP | "Zapłata" "Walkę o Edukację" | Member | |
| AIT-Secção Portuguesa | AIT-SP | Anarcho Sindicalista | Member | |
| Konfederatsiya Revolyutsionnikh Anarkho-Sindikalistov Konfederatsiya Revolyutsionnikh Anarkho-Sindikalistov Confederation of revolutionary anarcho-syndicalists - the Russian section of the International Workers Association , CRAS-IWA. CRAS-IWA is committed to the development of anarchist trade union movement, so as to enable the transition from modern capitalism to statefree communism.- A Brief History... |
KRAS | Либертарная мысль (Direct Action) | Member | |
| Anarho-sindikalistička inicijativa | ASI-MUR | Direktna akcija | Member | |
| Priama Akcia | Member | |||
| Confederación Nacional del Trabajo Confederación Nacional del Trabajo The Confederación Nacional del Trabajo is a Spanish confederation of anarcho-syndicalist labor unions affiliated with the International Workers Association . When working with the latter group it is also known as CNT-AIT... |
CNT-E | CeNiT, Periodico CNT | Member | |
| Solidarity Federation Solidarity Federation The Solidarity Federation, also known by the abbreviation SolFed, is a federation of class struggle anarchists active in Britain. The organisation advocates a strategy of anarcho-syndicalism as a method of abolishing capitalism and the state... |
SF | Direct Action, Catalyst | Member | |
- Friends of the IWA are regarded as semi-official fellow travellers politically but have not formally joined and do not have voting rights at Congress. They are often invited to send observers to Congress.
Other anarchist internationals
- Anarchist St. Imier InternationalAnarchist St. Imier InternationalThe Anarchist St. Imier International was an international anarchist organization formed in 1872 when the anarchist sections were expelled from the First International after the Hague Congress .The St...
(1872–1877) - Black Bridge InternationalBlack Bridge InternationalBlack Bridge International is a "decentralized anarchist mutual aid network" set up to facilitate the sharing of resources and information.Like other anarchist organizations, Black Bridge rejects hierarchy and has no leaders...
(2001–2004 ) - International Libertarian SolidarityInternational Libertarian SolidarityInternational Libertarian Solidarity was an international anarchist network with over 20 participating organizations from North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa....
(2001–2005) - International of Anarchist FederationsInternational of Anarchist FederationsThe International of Anarchist Federations was founded during an international anarchist conference in Carrara in 1968 by the three existing European federations of France, Italy and Spain as well as the Bulgarian federation in French exile...
(1968 - )
See also
- List of trade unions
- Industrial Workers of the WorldIndustrial Workers of the WorldThe Industrial Workers of the World is an international union. At its peak in 1923, the organization claimed some 100,000 members in good standing, and could marshal the support of perhaps 300,000 workers. Its membership declined dramatically after a 1924 split brought on by internal conflict...