Freedom News

Long struggle: The IWA at 100

Founded in 1922, the International Workers’ Association (IWA) is celebrating its centenary this month. Over the last century it has represented many millions of people, faced repression from State forces and bounced back from the precipice. It has fought for the abolition of capitalism and the State, the implementation of libertarian communism and full workers’

Syndicalist unions and Covid-era resistance: A CIT roundup

The anarcho-syndicalist international, founded in 2018, looks at workplace struggle in its branches worldwide and calls for the building of new forms of solidarity amid the lockdowns. With the corona crisis, the world has suddenly entered a new phase of intense class struggle. This is impressively documented by a map of (for the most part) wildcat strikes

Syndicalism and the working class experience

In this classic explainer of trade unionism without bureaucrats from 1952, Philip Sansom (pictured) considers the thinking behind anarcho-syndicalism before giving an example from the time — the fascinating and little-known Mutual Aid Society of the Euston railwaymen. The trouble with most theories is that they have so little relationship with the facts. One can

Communism: A short guide for confused journalists

Following Ash Sarkar’s recent “I’m literally a communist” moment on Good Morning Britain, there’s been a lot of fairly messy attempts by media names to explain what communism is — hopefully the following will help them out (apologies for the elderly Drake meme). From Matthew Parris suggesting “communism means State control of the means of production,

Founding of a New International

The first reports are coming in from the Foundational Congress for a New International — an effort to draw together some of the biggest syndicalist unions worldwide. Update, May 13th: The new name for the international is reportedly the Confederación Internacional del Trabajo (International Confederation of Labour). Besides the CNT (Spain), USI (Italy) and FAU (Germany),

Liverpool anarchists launch hospitality sector campaign

Anarcho-syndicalists in Liverpool linked to Liverpool Solfed have recently opened a new campaign to fight bad working conditions in the city’s hospitality sector, following on from similar successful efforts in Brighton. The group said in a launch statement: The hospitality industry, which includes workplaces like pubs, restaurants, hotels, canteens, etc. has an important presence in

Germany: FAU welcomes challenge to law attacking small unions

Anarcho-syndicalist union FAU has welcomed legal action from the German Association of Journalists (DJV) and pilot’s union Cockpit as the campaign to try and knock down a controversial Bargaining Unit Act designed to shut down small unions, known as the Tarifeinheitsgesetz (TEG), grows. The Act, which was passed in 2015, says that in an industry with more than one union