The International Workers' Association ? Asociación Internacional de los Trabajadores (IWA?AIT) is an international federation of anarcho-
syndicalist labor unions and initiatives. Based on the principles of
revolutionary unionism, the international aims to create unions capable of fighting for the economic and political interests of the
working class and eventually, to directly abolish capitalism and the state through the establishment of economic communities and administrative organs run by the workers. At its peak, the International represented millions of people worldwide. Its member unions played a central role in the social conflicts of the 1920s and 1930s.
The
… Read more federation is designed to both contest immediate industrial relations issues such as pay, working conditions and labor law, and pursue the reorganization of
society into a global system of economic communes and administrative groups based within a system of federated free councils at local, regional, national and global levels. This reorganization would form the underlying structure of a self-managed
society based on pre-planning and mutual aid?the establishment of anarchist
communism.
The IWA's
Revolutionary unionism asserts itself to be a supporter of the method of
direct action, strikes, boycotts,
sabotage, etc.
Direct action reaches its deepest expression in the general
strike, which should also be, from the point of view of
revolutionary unionism, the prelude to the social
revolution. Only in the economic and
revolutionary organizations of the
working class are there forces capable of bringing about its liberation and the necessary creative energy for the reorganization of
society on the basis of libertarian
communism.
The Spanish
Revolution was a workers' social
revolution that began during the outbreak of the Spanish Civil
War in 1936 and resulted in the widespread implementation of anarchist and more broadly libertarian socialist organizational principles throughout various portions of the country. Anarchists played a central role in the
fight against
Francisco Franco during the Spanish Civil
War. At the same time, a far-reaching social
revolution spread throughout Spain, where land and factories were collectivized and controlled by the workers. Their legacy remains important to this day, particularly to anarchists who look at their achievements as a historical precedent of
anarchism's validity.
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Anarcho-
syndicalist organizations were involved in the Spanish
Revolution, such as the
CNT (Confederación Nacional del Trabajo / National Confederation of Labor), which was long affiliated with the International Workers' Association (AIT). When working with the latter group it was also known as
CNT-AIT. Historically, the
CNT has also been affiliated with the Federación Anarquista Ibérica.
The most notable aspect of the social
revolution was the establishment of a libertarian socialist
economy based on coordination through decentralized and horizontal federations of participatory industrial collectives and agrarian communes. In anarchist strongholds like Catalonia, the figure was as high as 75%. Factories were run through worker committees, and agrarian areas became collectivized and run as libertarian socialist communes. Many small businesses like hotels, barber shops, and restaurants were also collectivized and managed by their workers.
The
International Brigades (Spanish: Brigadas Internacionales) were military units set up by the
Communist International to assist the Popular Front
government of the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil
War. The
organization existed for two years, from 1936 until 1938. It is estimated that during the entire
war, between 40,000 and 59,000 members served in the
International Brigades, including 15,000 who died in combat. They participated in the battles of Madrid, Jarama, Guadalajara, Brunete, Belchite, Teruel, Aragon and the Ebro.
The
International Brigades was strongly supported by the Comintern and represented the Soviet Union's commitment to assisting the Spanish
… Read more Republic (with arms, logistics, military advisers and the NKVD), just as
Fascist Italy,
Fascist Portugal and
Nazi Germany were assisting the opposing Nationalist insurgency. The largest number of volunteers came from
France where the French
Communist Party had many members, and
communist exiles from
Italy and
Germany. Many Jews were part of the brigades, being particularly numerous among the volunteers coming from the
United States, Poland,
France, England, and Argentina.
Republican volunteers who were opposed to Stalinism did not join the Brigades but instead enlisted in the separate Popular Front, the POUM (formed from Trotskyist, Bukharinist and other anti-Stalinist groups, which did not separate Spaniards and foreign volunteers -such as
George Orwell), or anarcho-
syndicalist groups such as the Durruti Column, the IWA and the
CNT.
The Autonomous Administration of North and East
Syria (AANES), also known as
Rojava, is a de facto autonomous region in northeastern
Syria. It consists of self-governing sub-regions in the areas of Afrin, Jazira, Euphrates, Raqqa, Tabqa, Manbij and Deir Ez-Zor. The region gained its de facto
autonomy in 2012 in the context of the ongoing
Rojava conflict and the wider Syrian Civil
War, in which its official military force, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), has taken part. The region has implemented a new social
justice approach which emphasizes rehabilitation,
empowerment and social care over retribution. The death penalty was abolished.
Prisons house mostly people charged with terrorist
… Read more activity related to ISIL and other extremist groups, and are a large strain on the region's
economy. The autonomous region is ruled by a coalition which bases its policy ambitions to a large extent on democratic libertarian socialist
ideology of democratic confederalism and have been described as pursuing a model of
economy that blends co-operative and market enterprise, through a system of local councils in minority, cultural and
religious representation. The main military force of the region is the Syrian Democratic Forces, an alliance of Syrian
rebel groups formed in 2015. The SDF is led by the Kurdish majority People's Protection Units (
YPG).
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