Debate

"The claim that "syndicalist unions broke off from mainstream federations to form 'purely revolutionary' unions, cutting themselves off from the mass of workers" doesn't hold up, though it does conform to the Leninist orthodoxy of "Left-Wing" Communism: An Infantile Disorder. There were many countries where the syndicalist unions were the majority--such as Portugal, Spain, Argentina, Uruguay, Peru and Brazil. Syndicalist unions in South Africa, such as the Industrial Workers of Africa (modeled on the Industrial Workers of the World), were the only unions that organized native African workers, who were excluded from the white craft unions.
At the time of the mass occupation of the factories in Italy in September 1920, the USI (Italian Syndicalist Union) was claiming 800,000 members, and the factory councils formed throughout Italy in those events were mostly organized by the USI. Moreover, it was the anarcho-syndicalists who initiated a militia movement ("arditti del popolo") to fight Mussolini's fascist squads. But the Communists didn't cooperate, and the Socialist Party capitulated to fascism.

A strategy to defend our communities and to challenge Trump begins with us, the exploited workers. Together we hold the solution to Trump and to the bigger problems of capitalism, patriarchy, and white supremacy. Some sections of the ruling classes may share our desire to get rid of Trump, but only so that they can put another capitalist in the White House and then have us go through this cycle of crisis all over again. While we may end up marching with these people in the streets for the next four years, we know that our allies are those who also work to build the independent power of the exploited classes, not those who want us to pin our hopes on political candidates.
We must push for greater unity of working-class social movements. We need to reach out to others who are doing organizing in our areas and talk to them about working together. We should push for social movement organizations that we are part of – like labor unions, Black Lives Matter chapters, immigrant rights organizations – to organize city-wide summits to plan how to support each other and how to coordinate opposition to Trump. Between now and January 20th, we should organize as much national discussion and coordination between social movements and revolutionary organizations as possible. We should plan for mass protests on Trump’s inauguration day, and we should see these protests as organizing tools to continue building unity and to draw people into the day-to-day organizing in our communities where we will really be building the long-term power that we need to be a threat to the state.

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