The colors black and red have been used by anarchists since at least the late 1800s, though generally used by anarcho-
communists. The
flag was used as the symbol of the anarcho-
syndicalists by the
CNT during the Spanish Civil
War. The black represents
anarchism and the red represents leftist and socialist ideals. George Woodcock writes that the bisected black-and-red
flag symbolized a uniting of "the spirit of later
anarchism with the mass appeal of the First International"
Anarcho-syndicalism is a political philosophy and anarchist school of thought that views
revolutionary industrial
unionism or
syndicalism as a method for workers in capitalist
society to gain control of an
economy and thus control influence in broader
society. The end goal of
syndicalism is to abolish the wage system, regarding it as
wage slavery. The anarcho-
syndicalist theory therefore generally focuses on the labor movement. The basic principles of
anarcho-syndicalism are
solidarity,
direct action,
direct democracy, and workers' self-management. Anarcho-
syndicalists believe their economic theories constitute a strategy for facilitating proletarian self-activity and creating an alternative
… Read more co-operative economic system with democratic values and production that is centered on meeting
human needs. Reflecting the anarchist philosophy from which it draws its primary inspiration,
anarcho-syndicalism is centered on the idea that power corrupts and that any
hierarchy that cannot be ethically justified must be dismantled.