Social Syndicalism: an Opinion of One Old Shipyard Worker

By Arthur J Miller - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, November 17, 2015

Casting a stare of confusion out to the cosmos Why do things just get worse no matter how hard we work to make them better? We still labor to produce all needs and we can't even produce our own needs within this system of all possible wealth going to a few at the expense of the many. Food workers who produce the simple most important production of all (if we can't eat, nothing else matters) and yet they are the poorest paid workers around. Makes a lot of sense don't it?
Think about it, those who do the work to provide the needs of society only receive in payment as small of a return that the corporate system can get away with paying them.

This dirty rotten system, I call corporate fascism. It is 100% controlled by the corporations. They control the greatest part of the wealth produced directly. In order to advance their wealth and control, they created an institutionalization of policies that benefit them. Such policies as racism, sexism, nationalism, and so on, all benefit the rich, not the poor and cannot be reformed. How do you reform racism?, may I please ask?

We live under a military dictatorship. We are forced to fight other poor folks in wars that only benefit the rich. In these wars of conquest we defeat other poor people, we are then used to oppress those poor folks into submission to the compute state. How do you reform corporate wars? You can't. The dirty rotten system is meant to be just that, the dirty rotten system that steals from us all and that it uses us poor folks as their collateral damage in industry, in wars and political posturing.

The system uses tactics to get us thinking we have a say in things that we don't. Like the political parties. Both corporate political parties, the Democrats and the Republicans, are equally the institutionalization of corporate fascism. They work hand in hand to deceive us into thinking we have a chose to choose from. Then we are told to pick the lesser of the two evils. And there you have it, the dirty rotten system cannot be reform to be anything other than what it is, an evil. You cannot reform that which is created to be evil. And when the liberals come up with the next new White Rich Savor to be that lesser evil that others should follow, we need to reject them outright.

When we understand that the system cannot be reform, then we must look at changing the social system ourselves. We can trust no one else to do it for us.

In my view Syndicalism is the most effective means of true social change and it has the most rank and file control that is possible. Part of this is that it came out of work place resistance and organization thus it was always organizing at the source of the problems. That meant those in control were that same as those with the need. That is the only way to get real working class unions. No so-called reform is possible in capitalism, the state or statist institutions they control like the business unions and political parties. Simple, we can let others from the outside organize us and tell us what to do. Or we can organize ourselves at the source of the problem by those in need and are most effected.

Fact is undeniable that the mayor cause of our problems comes directly out of industry. Given that, industry must change. And thus Syndicalism would say that we need to change at the point of production by those who do the work. We know how to make the changes but it has been these outside people who pay no attention to us. Simple example, after a major tanker oil spill, folks were meeting about what to do.

Many answers based upon outside ideas. I tried to explain what would make tankers much safer based upon my experience working on tankers.

That had no place in their discussion. Even when I advocate something so damn simple as to ask the question: Why don't tankers carry no oil spill equipment? Two small power boats and enough booms for two containment circles? Booming a ship is easy, I have done it a number of times. Rather when a spill happens everyone just sits around waiting for some oil spill ship to come in from some far away port.

Nearly every social struggle that starts from the people at the source comes into conflict with those. on the outside. Thus you have the basic Syndicalist organization at the point of production. This Syndicalists have been doing long before the term Syndicalism was ever used.

It has become much more than just about one expression of organization, but rather stands as an example for nearly all working class struggle. My class analysis is very simple. There are two classes, the rich and the poor. Between them is an area that gets rather foggy as some have a little money identify with the interests of the rich and thus should be seen as on that rich side. There are those that identify with the interests of the poor and are on our side. The rich try to exploit everything that can be exploited for profit and suppress those that resist. That includes develop social projects against about every one except what we think we are. Thus such issues as racism, sexism, and so on are based in the industrialized of class in the dirt rotten system. In my view we must organize around the complete oppress of poor folks and their needs, if for no other reason there are always connections to them in industry and must be changed.

COMMUNITY ORGANIZING: There ain't no doubt about it a strong community makes for strong solidarity in times of need like strikes. And most of the time we are open for that. To work, solidarity must be a two-way street. That makes Community Syndicalism a necessary to organize. First as a community, for the source of community needs is the community. Then there are more direct needs, like renters, who may wish to organize in the same way, an organization of renters. Always at the source.

SELF-DETERMINATION ORGANIZING: The dirty rotten system does not oppress and exploit everyone in the same way. It creates grouping of people who are further oppressed to keep the poor divided. Such as racism, sexism, nationalism and so on. The first organizational step in the poor resisting this is self-determination of those that suffer from this plague. That means people learning to speak and organize for themselves (self-management) at the souses of the problem. Sounds rather like Social Syndicalism to me. Would it help you if I said that any real union is a worker's self-determination organization?

ISSUE ORGANIZING: There are always a lot of issues in work places and communities and many of them overlap our groups. Everything from war and peace, environmental, social justice and so on, workers need to speak out in their own interests.

CULTURAL ORGANIZING: Our cultural expressions of who we are and our cultural resist is a vital part of our struggle. All real culture comes from the poor and the corporate market system steals our culture and sells it back to us as cheap commodities.

DIVERSITY: The humanity of the poor is not all the same. Like the natural world (which it is a part of) we are all of a great diversity. When we learn to respect our differences and self-determination, that diversity becomes our greatest strength.

ALL THINGS ARE CONNECTED: in the natural world. If you care about how the dirty rotten system effects you then you need to understand how others effect you. Thus all issues of the poor are the issues of all of the poor. All things are connected.

SELF-DETREMNATION/SELF-MANAGEMENT: The act of reclaiming your voice and control our your like and the organizational means, self-management, in order to do that.

BALANCE: In the natural world harmony pleasing agreement of parts is not much of a factor. The wolf and bunnies ain't dancing around Maypoles and wolfs ain't bunny huggers. Their survival depends upon their differences and how well they can find a balance. Without that balance there are too many of either and that threatens the survival of all.

RESPONSIBILITY: we, as the producers of all our needs, have a social responsibility for how we use our labor, what our work conditions are, how our labor effects others and what our labor is used for.

SOLIDARITY: The acts of the poor standing with each other in support of each other. How ever the dirty rotten systems effects us poor folks, we stand in solidarity from the one all the way to the many. Solidarity is a two-way street always returning as it gives or takes as needs are needed. Solidarity is a workers way of life.

DIRECT ACTION: Not delegating to others that winch we should do for ourselves.

SAFE PLACES: A group of Women organized around the idea of Safe Places for Women and others. What a very advanced idea. Such and idea, once it gains through their purpose, is the idea of Safe Places for everyone. Safe both in what is produced but also how it is produced including how we treat each other. Thus I see a Safe Places movement that goes beyond the labor unions.

GENERAL STRIKE FOR SAFETY: I view health and safety issues, on the job, as environmental issues also. Though unions do deal a little in this area, but no where near enough to guarantee our survival. We need a movement of Green working people to take this, this most important issue there is and resist at the source, the point of production.

BUILDING A NEW WORLD WITHIN THE SHELL OF THE OLD: With every worker we organize, we have taken another step in our journey (It always starts with one). With every shop we organize or what ever community organizing we may do, is always a step in the direction of our liberation. We are organizing the organizational means to create real social change at the same time we are creating the means to build our new world.

THE SOCIAL GENERAL STRIKE: When the organized power of the poor is greater than the organized power of the rich, a social general strike would take place. Not one where workers walk off their jobs, but rather one where we seize control of our tools of production and no longer produce for the rich or have any dependence upon the state.

NO SEPARATE PEACE, NO ONE LEFT AT THE BACK OF THE BUS,
No peace at the expense of other workers. We ain't none of us free until we all are free.

FOR THE WELL-BEING OF ALL!

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are not the official position of the IWW (or even the IWW’s EUC) and do not necessarily represent the views of anyone but the author’s.