THE PRINCIPLES OF REVOLUTIONARY UNIONISM

1. - Revolutionary unionism basing itself on the class struggle aims to unite all workers in combative economic organizations which fight to free themselves from the double yoke of capital and the State. Its goal is the reorganization of social life on the basis of Libertarian Communism via the revolutionary action of the working class. Since only the economic organizations of the proletariat are capable of achieving this objective revolutionary unionism addresses itself to workers in their capacity as producers creators of social wealth to take root and develop amongst them in opposition to the modern workers' parties which it declares are incapable of the economic reorganization of society.

2. - Revolutionary unionism is the staunch enemy of all social and economic monopoly and aims at its abolition by the establishment of economic communities and administrative organs run by the workers in the field and factories forming a system of free councils without subordination to any authority or political party bar none. As an alternative to the politics of State and parties revolutionary unionism posits the economic reorganization of production replacing the rule of man over man with the administrative management of things. Consequently the goal of revolutionary unionism is not the conquest of political power but the abolition of all state functions in the life of society. Revolutionary unionism considers that along with the disappearance of the monopoly of property must come the disappearance of the monopoly of domination; and that no form of State however camouflaged can ever be an instrument for human liberation but that on the contrary it will always be the creator of new monopolies and new privileges.

3 . - Revolutionary unionism has a two-fold function to carry on the day-to-day revolutionary struggle for the economic social and intellectual Advancement of the working class within the limits of present-day society and to educate the masses so that they will be ready to independently manage the processes of production and distribution when the time comes to take possession of all the elements of social life. Revolutionary unionism does not accept simple governmental can order the idea that the organization of a social system based exclusively on the producing class decrees and maintains that it can only be obtained through the common action of all manual and intellectual workers in every branch of industry by self-management of the workers such that every group factory or branch of industry is an autonomous member of the greater economic organism and Systematically runs the production and distribution processes according to the interests of the community on an agreed upon plan and on the basis of mutual accord.

4. - Revolutionary unionism is opposed to all organizational tendencies Inspired by the centralism of State and Church because these can only serve to prolong the survival of the State and authority and to systematically stifle the spirit of initiative and the independence of thought. Centralism is and artificial organization that subjects the so-called lower classes to those who claim to be superior and that leaves in the hands of the few the affairs of the whole community -the individual being turned into a robot with controlled gestures and movements. In the centralized organization society's good is subordinated to the interests of the few variety is replaced by Uniformity and personal responsibility is replaced by discipline. Consequently revolutionary unionism bases its social vision on a broad Federalist organization; i.e. an organization organized from the bottom up the uniting of all forces in the defense of common ideas and interests.

5. - Revolutionary unionism rejects all parliamentary activity and all Collaboration with legislative bodies; because it knows that even the freestّ voting system cannot bring about the disappearance of the clear contradictions   at the core of present-day society and because the parliamentary system has only one goal to lend a pretense of legitimacy to the reign of falsehood and social injustice.

6. - Revolutionary Unionism rejects all political and national frontiers which are arbitrarily created and declares that so-called nationalism is just the religion of the modern state behind which is concealed the material interests of the propertied classes. Revolutionary unionism recognizes only economic differences whether regional or national that produces hierarchies privileges and every kind of oppressions (because of race sex and any false or real difference) and in the spirit of solidarity claims the right to self-determination for all economic groups.

7. - For the identical reason revolutionary unionism fights against militarism and war. Revolutionary unionism advocates anti-war propaganda and the replacement of standing armies which are only the instruments of counter-revolution at the service of the capitalism by workers' militias which during the revolution will be controlled by the workers' unions; it demands as well the boycott and embargo of all raw materials and products necessary to war with the exception of a country where the workers are in the midst of social revolution in which case we should help them defend the revolution. Finally revolutionary unionism advocates the preventive and revolutionary general strike as a means of opposing war and militarism.

8. - Revolutionary unionism recognizes the need of a production that does not damage the environment and that tries to minimize the use of non-renewable resources and uses whenever possible renewable alternatives. It does not admit the ignorance as the origin of the present-day environmental crisis but the thirst for earnings. Capitalist production always seeks to minimize the costs in order to get more earnings to survive and it is unable to protect the environment. To sum up the world debt crisis has speededَ up the tendency to commercial harvest to the detriment of the subsistence agriculture. This fact has produced the destruction of the tropical ّforest starvation and disease. The fight for saving our planet and the fight for destroying capitalism must be joint or both of them will fail.

9. - Revolutionary unionism asserts it self to be a supporter of the method of direct action and aids and encourages all struggles that are not in contradiction to its own goals. Its methods of struggle are 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.

10. - While revolutionary unionism is opposed to all organized violence regardless of the kind of government it realizes that there will be extremely violence clashes during the decisive struggles between the capitalism of today and the free communism of tomorrow. Consequently it recognizes as valid that violence that may be used as a means of defense against the violent methods used by the ruling classes during the struggles that lead up to the revolutionary populace expropriating the lands and means of production. As this expropriation can only be carried out and brought to a successful conclusion by the direct intervention of the workers' revolutionary economic organizations defense of the revolution must also be the task of these economic organizations and not of a military or quasi-military َّ body developing independently of them.

11. - 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 international bond of struggle and solidarity that unites the revolutionary unionist organizations of the world is called the International Workers' Association (IWA).

IV. GOALS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE I.W.A.

The IWA has the following objectives

 a) To organize and press for revolutionary struggle in all countries with the aim of destroying once and for all the present political and economic régimes and to establish Libertarian Communism.

 b) To give the economic unionist organizations a national and industrial base and where that already exists to strengthen those organizations which are determined to fight for the destruction of capitalism and the State.

 c) To prevent the infiltration of any political parties into the economic unionist organizations and to resolutely fight every attempt by political parties to control unions.

d) Where circumstances demand it to establish through a course of action that is not in contradiction with a) b) and c) provisional alliances with other proletarian union and revolutionary organizations with the objective of planning and carrying out common international actions in the interest of the working class. Such alliances must never be with political parties i.e. with organizations that accept the state as system of social organization. Revolutionary Unionism rejects the class collaboration that is characterized by the participation in committees organized under state corporate schemes (for example in union elections for enterprise committees) and by the acceptance of subsidies paid union professionals and other practices that can spoil the anarchosyndicalism.

 the cause of the Social Revolution.

f) To examine all problems of concern to the world proletariat in order to strengthen and develop movements in one country or several which help to defend the rights and new conquests of the working class or to organize the revolution for emancipation itself.

g) To undertake actions of mutual aid in the event of important economic struggles or critical struggles against the overt or covert enemies of the working class.

h) To give moral and material help to the working class movements in each country in which the leadership of the struggle is in the hands of the national economic organization of the proletariat. The International intervenes in the union affairs of a country only when its affiliated organization in that country requests it or when the affiliate violates the general principles of the International.