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Anarcho-Syndicalism: Theory and Practice (Working Classics)

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While the fall of the Soviet Union was seen by some as proof that socialism is untenable, Rocker shows in this text how the revolution was doomed from the start, and offers an attractive alternative to the party-led style of statist socialism attempted there. Synidcalism seems to me to be a slightly more "realistic" way in which to achieve socialism, that doesn't depend on the benevolence of a centralized authority. Rocker also relates some of the history of the labor movement in general in Europe, and of syndicalism in particular. I would like to have seen a bit more detail regarding syndicalist government structure and economics, the practical aspects, but he gives a very good overview of the movement in not many pages.

How can a society progress to a level of legitimate egalitarian communization without the creation of a hierarchical structure of leadership or vanguard? For anarchists, the answer often lies in anarcho-communism or anarcho-syndaclism. This text by Rudolph Rocker, is perhaps the definitive work on the latter theory. Anarcho-syndaclism eliminates the apparatus of the state as a means to socialism, whereas classical Marxist theory insists that the state will wither away once the proletarian has seized control of the means of production. Anarcho-syndaclism values the use of direct action as a means to control the forces of production, and the utility of unions and defederated workers councils as the proper structures for social planning. Rocker points to the syndaclists of the Spanish Revolution as the primary example of the theory in action, though there seem to be few cases in history of such socialization without centralized planning. Perhaps this mode of revolution is more legitimate and effective than classical Marxism or Marxist-Leninism, though I suspect that anarchism will always suffer from the fact of its inefficiency and inability to mobilize populations democratically. Nevertheless, Rocker's analysis and background history (aside from several cavalier uses of `human nature) is provocative alternative to state capitalism and state socialism.

This is necessary reading for any socialist. Syndicalism must be an integral part of any progressive social order.