From: Travas Gunnell (travasg@yahoo.com)
Date: Thu Mar 23 2000 - 17:25:55 MST
--- "M. E. Smith" <mesmith@rocketmail.com> wrote:
> The hypothetical person has vanished to Tumbolia. I
> tried to drag him out to respond, but he refused to
> get involved, saying it was just an argument of
> semantics. Something about "anarcho-syndicalism",
> (he
> called it just "syndicalism") not being "anarchy" at
> all, because there is a government.
>
> I took it upon myself to look us "syndicalism" in a
> dictionary.
>
> > syn·di·cal·ism (s n d - k - l z m)
> > n.
> >
> > A radical political movement that advocates
> bringing
> industry
> > and government under the control of federations of
> labor
> > unions by the use of direct action, such as
> general
> strikes
> > and sabotage.
Obviously not a dictionary written by anarchists. A
more useful definition comes from
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/1931/secI3.html#seci31
I.3.1 What is a "syndicate"? - "As we will use the
term, a "syndicate" (often called a "producer
cooperative," or "cooperative" for short, sometimes
"collective" or "association of producers" or "guild
factory" or "guild workplace") is a democratically
self-managed productive enterprise whose productive
assets are either owned by its workers or by society
as a whole.
"It is important to note that individuals who do not
wish to join syndicates will be able to work for
themselves. There is no "forced collectivization"
under any form of libertarian socialism, because
coercing people is incompatible with the basic
principles of anarchism. Those who wish to be
self-employed will have free access to the productive
assets they need, provided that they neither attempt
to monopolize more of those assets than they and their
families can use by themselves nor attempt to employ
others for wages (see section I.3.7)."
> It appears the imaginary person has a point. A
> government by federation of labor unions is still a
> government. (Sounds like a branch of communism to
> me.)
Your confusion is of a typical variety. Reading what
actual anarchists have to say about anarchism would be
helpful. http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/1931/
is an excellent place to start. The site in question
also details the problems that anarchists have with
State Socialism (Communism), among other things.
Later,
Travas
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