Welcome to
THE INTERNATIONAL
Workers of the World
The anarchosyndicalist trade union, workers' confederation and section of the Anarchist International

This is the official web-page of the International Workers of the World, IWW/AI - affiliated to the IFA - L'Internationale des Fédérations Anarchistes - The International of the Federations of Anarchists - The International of Anarchist Federations (IAF) and the Anarchist International (AI). For the history of IWW/AI in general, see link to the history of IFA/IAF/AI, at "Links" below. The Confederation consists of anarchosyndicalists in the Anarchist Federations of Denmark, Finland, Norway, Finland, and in several other countries of the Anarchist International broadly defined, from Iceland to the New Artisan and Workers' Union in Mauritius (click on: NAWU ), etc. i.e. world wide.

This section of the Anarchist International was founded/reorganized at the The First Nordic Anarchist Congress 15-17 october 1982 in Oslo, and further developed at later congresses, and it is rooted back to the in Geneva 1886 founded 1st International's i.e. the IWMA - International Workingmen's Association's conference at Saint-Imier, in The Swiss Confederation, 15-16.09.1872. At this conference it was decided an anarchist resolution denouncing all forms of political power, i.e. political/administrative and economically broadly defined. Also a solidarity and fellowship pact was decided upon by the delegates. The resolution put forward by Michael Bakunin 16.09.1872, under the title "The political action of the proletariate", at the Saint-Imier congress, should not be forgotten. The Anarchist International had meetings several times during the years passing by, first within the framework of the IWMA 1872-77, later related to other international anarchist congresses.

Bakunin's famous word of wisdom: "Liberty without socialism is privilege, injustice; socialism without liberty is slavery and brutality", is still valid. Another important event in the international anarchist and labor movement's history is the "Haymarket affair" related to the Chicago anarchists in 1886, the backround and origin of May Day as the international workers' day, see May day .

The Anarchist International (IFA) was reorganized at a congress in Carrara (Italy) 31/8-5/9 1968. The purpose of the congress was, among other things, to create a world wide anarchist organization as an alternative to "Cohn Bendit et autres gauchistes", also called "the children of Marx". Anarchists were tired of people presenting basically marxist or marxian ideas as anarchism. In the following years, several congresses were organized, see the History of the Anarchist International IFA/AI .

The anarchosyndicalist branch was as indicated above officially confirmed as a section of the Anarchist International at the IFA-congress in Oslo 1982, deciding a.o.t. the following: "El principal tema de este congreso ha sido la cooperación anarquista nórdica. El acuerdo se ha hecho sobre la aceptación de una cooperación muy ampllia. La cooperación ideológica [i.e. political] económica y cultural ha sido enfocada sobre los ountos siguientes: la acción de los anarquistas en los sindicatos, el movimiento colectivista, cooperativista, el movimiento ecologista, feminista, el apoyo a los jovenes..." This is a.o.t. documented in the Bulletin C.R.I.F.A. no 42 novembre 1982 p. 4. , plus Folkebladet No 4/1983 and IFA-Solidaritet No 8/1983. The Anarchist Manifesto ISBN 82-90468-09-1 of the Northern sections of IFA published in 1983, confirms the branch of "anarko-syndikalister (fagbevegelse), i.e. anarcho-syndicalists (labor confederation/movement)" within the general program.

The anarchosyndicalist section was later expanded universally when the Anarchist International world wide was officially confirmed at the International Anarchist Congress in Oslo medio December 1998 and later.

In 1997 the term Anarchist International (AI) was officially introduced, although mentioned several times before, say, in International Journal of Anarchism, IJ@ no 10/26 (15) in 1985. The constitution of the Anarchist International AI was as mentioned officially confirmed on the International Anarchist Congress, i.e. the 5th Anarchist Biennial, arranged by the NAC/IFA/AI in Oslo medio December 1998. The AI is a broader organization and network than the IFA anarchist federations of some countries in the South and North, see the Anarchist International .

The International Journal of Anarchism, IJ@, is the only officially mandated and publicly registered organ of the Anarchist International AI-IFA-IAF, the IWW/AI included. There are sections/federations for support work, community action, research and different tendencies of anarchism broadly defined, among them as mentioned the anarchosyndicalist section International Workers of the World - IWW/AI.

The IWW/AI, i.e. the Anarchist International-WW must not be mixed up with the Industrial-WW, founded in 1905 in the USA. The Industrial-WW is mainly a leftist marxist/marxian* organization, neither anarchist, libertarian nor anarchosyndicalist, i.e. outside the anarchist quadrant on the Economical Political map, see System theory and economic-political map .

The IWW/AI forms a junction between the Anarchist International in general, and the general syndicalist and trade unions world wide.

The network of the IWW/AI broadly defined is usually just called the INTERNATIONAL.

IWW/AI promotes anarchosyndicalism, anarchism; decentralism, free contracts, federalism and real democracy etc. as opposed to statism, centralism, slave-contracts and other authoritarian tendencies in the unions and generally, see the Oslo Convention and www.anarchy.no all around.

Especially IWW/AI works for 1. Citizen remuneration above the powerty line. 2. A significant higher minimal salary - it must pay to work! The purpose of this is to do away with relative slave-contracts in the different countries, i.e. "wage slavery". Furthermore IWW/AI is for 3. unconditional support to free research from the people's perspective as opposed to the national or authorities' perspective, based on the non-dogmatic, non-dialectical, scientifical method suggested in Peter Kropotkin's "Modern Science and anarchism" (1903-13), i.e. the hypothetical deductive method. Thus, also the left-Hegelian dialectical ideas of, say, Bakunin and Max Stirner, and later Daniel Guerin, Sam Dolgoff and Murray Bookchin, must principally be rejected as pseudoscience, similar to Marx and his followers' ideology. Also central theorems in marxist economics are not compatible with the hypothetical deductive method, and thus are pseudoscience.

IWW/AI works against 4. party political and state-socialist rule of unions, and 5. support to political parties from the budgets of the unions. The main strategy of IWW is direct action .

This is the general program of IWW/AI. There are however also some other cases that may be mentioned:

IWW/AI is also against the "all workers - one big union" strategy of the Industrial-WW and others, that reminds us of the Soviet Union; and their intrigues, lies and smearstories related to Jamal Hannah & co at jah@... against the Anarchist International and its sections, similar to Marx's intrigues etc. against Bakunin in the First International. There is not so much new under the sun! Nobody should link up to this student commie type joke of an "industrial union" nor take it seriously. Boycott "Industrial-WW" in America!

There are also other marxist groups and fascists/neonazis posing as "anarchosyndicalists", "anarchobolsheviks", "anarchonationalists", "revolutionary syndicalists" etc., see the Anarchist Press Tribunal IAT-APT for an update. Say, in Sweden 1999 a real anarchosyndicalist Björn Söderberg of SAC was killed by two nazis, after trying to stop the fascist infiltration in a union-club. 23.10.1999 about 20-40000 persons all over Sweden demonstrated against fascism and to honor the memory of the brave syndicalist.

At the Anarchist Conference in Stockholm, arranged by the Nordic IFA secretariate and the Swedish section of the Anarchist International, in 1983, neonazi skinheads tried to infiltrate the movement, but strong measures were taken to stop these dangerous intruders. These efforts of the Anarchist International were however a good investment.... Our fellows at SAC have, as mentioned, been less successful dealing with this problem.

The IWW/AI calls on all anarchists, anarchosyndicalists included, to be on the alert against authoritarian infiltration: Fascists, nazists, trotskyites, lubbeists, red brigades, etc. - and ochlarchists (ochlarchy = mob rule broadly defined). A stitch in time saves nine - better look before you leap, i.e. organizations ruined, persons being wounded or be killed:

"The fight against fascism begins with the fight against bolshevism"
- Otto Rühle -

Contact IWW? Click here!

Click on Links to see some federations related to the IWW/AI network broadly defined, i.e. organizations with significant factions of anarchosyndicalists. There are however more!
There are no unions without anarchists, click on:
http://www.anarchy.no/global.html

May Day 2010: The fight against the unenlightened plutarchy world wide

The IWW adopts the resolutions of the World Economic Council regarding the fight against the unenlightened plutarchy in USA, the Euro-zone including Greece, and world wide, see the WEC resolutions, and calls on all syndicalists and the people in general, to do the same. Workers of the world, i.e. the people, seen as a class as opposed to the superiors in rank and/or income! Unite and fight the unenlightened plutarchy world wide! In general, the International Workers of the World and the anarchists at large support the strikes and demonstrations against the unenlightened plutarchy, as long as they are direct actions, i.e. without ochlarchy. A wave of strikes and demonstrations directed against the unenlightened plutarchy are - and will be - happening all over Europe and more. The IWW regularly participate in, and is holding, direct actions against the unenlightened plutarchy.

Related to... May Day 2010: The fight against the unenlightened plutarchy world wide - Direct action by the International Workers of the World!

IWW backed the general strike in Greece 24.02.2010, and supports most of the protests and strikes against the unenlightened plutarchy in the country, see the situation in Greece for more information. This Web-site about the situation in Greece is often updated, follow the news, comments and direct actions.

French air traffic controllers went on strike Tuesday 23.02.2010 as labor unrest continued to roll across Europe despite the suspension of a strike by Lufthansa pilots after just one day. The action comes a day after German-based Lufthansa and its pilots' union agreed to suspend its standoff and return to the bargaining table. The suspension will expire on March 8, barring an agreement before then, both sides said in a Frankfurt labor court. 

On Monday British Airways cabin crew voted to strike, although no dates were announced. A planned 12-day walkout by Unite, the union which represents the workers, during the Christmas holidays was blocked by a judge. Unite said it is continuing negotiations with the airline. Like Lufthansa pilots, British Airways staff are concerned about wages and job security as larger, older airlines deal with the twin blows of the global recession and increased competition from low-cost carriers. "These are not mindless militants looking to bring the company down, these are ordinary, decent people who do a highly professional job, and very evidently they have a deep set of grievances," Len McCluskey, assistant general secretary of Unite said.

Airline industry: Strike, strike, everywhere a strike... European airlines were not the only ones hurting. Japan Airlines de-listed its shares from trading in Tokyo Saturday as part of its bankruptcy restructuring. And in Australia, Qantas Airlines announced this week it would eliminate first class travel from its flights. Industry watchers expect to see more industrial actions at airlines across the world. Beyond the airline industry, other labor disputes are spilling into industrial action in Europe.

French gas giant Total said about 100 of 4,000 gas stations in the country are beginning to run out of fuel as a strike by oil refinery workers enters a second week. However on Wednesday the strike ended after workers at all but one of the oil refining plants voted to halt their walkout. Workers at five of oil giant Total SA's French refineries that had been striking since last week voted in separate ballots to go back to work. A sixth refinery, near Dunkirk in northern France, will remain shut until a scheduled meeting with management over the refinery's future on March 8. The walkout had been sparked last week by concerns about Total's plan to convert the Dunkirk refinery for other uses, as well as about as the future of refining in general. The oil company pledged Tuesday to neither close nor sell other plants in France for the next five years.

Disruption in France during day of strike action 12.03.2010. There has been widespread disruption in France today due to a series of strikes organized by trade unions. In Paris, hundreds of nurses and hospital employees gathered outside the outside their health authority headquarters, which had been occupied by dozens of demonstrators overnight. They want an end to the organization's restructuring plans and projected job cuts. Riot police were brought in to calm the crowd. Some secondary school teachers also decided to spend the night in their classrooms, in protest over the government's education reforms. They want an end to job losses and better training for teachers. Eight trade unions called for the action, angry at the way the government is managing the education system.

But the action is really making itself felt in the Mediterranean city of Marseille, where rubbish collectors have already been on strike for a week. Eight thousand tonnes of rubbish are produced in Marseille every day, the saving grace being that the weather here is still relatively cold. "We are walking around the rubbish but there are rats everywhere. Rats on the streets, that means a great reputation for Marseille." said one householder. Rubbish collectors here are employed by a private company, and are demanding guarantees from management over job security. One-day rubbish collection strikes were also held in several other major French cities, by workers angry over pay rises and changes in the retirement age.

27.04.2010. Thousands of French farmers are protesting in Paris to call for more financial aid to help them through the economic downturn. Falling prices and rising costs mean many are struggling to make ends meet. They want President Nicolas Sarkozy to intervene as they say they could go out of business. Yet direct aid looks unlikely. The French public deficit currently stands at a record 7.5 percent, twice the amount allowed under EU rules. Paris is already the biggest beneficiary of the EU's Common Agriculture Policy. France currently swallows up 20 percent of the bloc's 40-billion-euro farming subsidies. The French government has offered tax breaks and interest-free loans to the farmers but that has failed to quell the discontent.

And in Spain, labor confederations, including the anarchosyndicalist CGT, protested on Tuesday 23.02.2010 against a government plan to raise the retirement age from 65 to 67. Thousands of workers protested in Spain's major cities against government spending cuts and the plans to raise the retirement age. The rallies were the first mass labor protests in the six years of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's Socialist government. Spain is a major industrial economy still in recession and has one of the European Union's highest unemployment rates, of about 19 percent. For workers under 25, the jobless rate is about 40 percent, the government reports. The government plan to raise the retirement age to 67 aims to prevent, in the coming decades, the pension system from going bust, as Spaniards live longer and collect retirement benefits for longer periods, with a projected declining number of workers paying in to the social security system, government officials have said publicly in recent weeks.

Portuguese civil servants walked off their jobs on Thursday 04.03.2010, hoping to close schools, courts and hospitals in a protest strike against austerity measures imposed by the so called Socialist government. The strike was the biggest in years in Portugal and will test the minority government, which has been pressed by financial markets to cut spending after Greece's fiscal crisis turned the focus on weak euro zone members. Portugal's unions say they have had years of worsening conditions as public pensions and other benefits were cut by the government, which this year froze public wages in its effort to win investor confidence by cutting the budget deficit.

"There is immense discontent which you can see in the way workers behave," said Manuel Carvalho da Silva, leader of the 725,000-strong General Confederation of Portuguese Workers. The Iberian country of 10 million people is slowly, too slowly, recovering from its worst economic downturn in decades and unemployment, at 10 percent, is the highest in a quarter of a century. The strike, which comes on the heels of industrial action in Spain and Greece, raises pressure on the government just as it prepares a long-term budget plan to cut the budget deficit to below 3 percent of gross domestic product by 2013. Portuguese unions have threatened more strikes if the government extends the freeze on civil servant wages beyond this year -- something which has been under consideration.

And in Italy there were strikes and protests against the populist light brown & blue Berlusconi regime Friday 12.03.2010. A large workers' strike to demand a.o.t. job protection grounded dozens of planes and idled buses and trains across Italy. The four-hour strike snarled traffic in some cities, and Alitalia had to cancel or reschedule some flights as a result of the protest. Hospital and school workers were staging an eight-hour strike, causing delays and forcing some schools to shut down. The walkout was called by Italy's largest union, CGIL, to protest cuts at companies including Fiat, which plans to end auto production at a plant in Sicily next year, and to press Premier Silvio Berlusconi's government to come up with employment-boosting policies.

There were also demonstrations on the streets in Rome, with protesters demanding lower taxes and better job security. If the unenlightened plutarchy in the country continues, "consumer spending in Italy will take as many as five years to return to the level enjoyed before the economy entered the worst recession since World War II," retailers' organization Confcommercio said: "Spending won't regain its pre-crisis level until 2015. It's painful but necessary to note that both per capita gross domestic product [GDP]  and consumption - are today, corrected for inflation, on the same level of 10 years ago." After falling into a recession in the third quarter of 2008, the $2.3 trillion economy exited the slump a year later, only to contract again in the three months through December. Consumers were a drag on growth with their spending falling 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter, national statistics institute Istat said this week.

The anti-Berlusconi protests in Rome continued 13.03.2010. Tens of thousands of Italians have been taking part in a protest in Rome's main square against the government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. The demonstrators, called out by the opposition and unions, accused him of changing laws for his own benefit. The protest organizers also called for employment, education and health to be at the centre of campaigning for this month's regional elections. A recent opinion poll showed only low levels of support for Mr Berlusconi. His so called "People of Freedom" party has seen its preparations for the regional elections on 28 and 29 March marred by problems over electoral lists.

Italy's top administrative court, the State Council, refused on Saturday to reinstate the ruling coalition's candidates for the Lazio region, which includes Rome. The government had passed an emergency decree to ensure its list was included, despite a "People of Freedom" official missing a deadline to submit the required documents to local electoral officials. Mr Berlusconi has said the list was excluded as an attempt to damage his party, and that he only acts in the interests of Italian democracy. Italy's political atmosphere has rarely been more intense since he came to office two years ago. 

Strike and demonstrations in Italy 12.03.2010. General strike in Greece 11.03.2010. And more! Direct actions by IWW and others against the unenlightened plutarchy and crisis world wide continue with full strength!