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Syndicalist Anarchism

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Nick. B replied on Thu, Feb 26 2009 9:06 PM

wombatron:

Nick. B:
Do any of you know of the main books on the political theory of Syndicalist Anarchism that syndicalist read?

Are you looking for works specifically on anarcho-syndicalism, or libertarian socialism in general?

 

Anarcho-syndicalism. Maybe three or four foundational books on that school of thought.

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Personally, I would get some of Chomsky's material and start building your own critique.  I don't think arguing someone else's position is very beneficial.  You have to understand what is wrong on your own, and come at it from your own angle.  Regurgitating other people's arguments leads to stagnation (see Marxism).

Ideally. but not everyone is capable of that.

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Nick. B replied on Thu, Feb 26 2009 11:00 PM

Nick. B:

wombatron:

Nick. B:
Do any of you know of the main books on the political theory of Syndicalist Anarchism that syndicalist read?

Are you looking for works specifically on anarcho-syndicalism, or libertarian socialism in general?

 

 

Anarcho-syndicalism. Maybe three or four foundational books on that school of thought.

 

Could ahybody suggest any?

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Nick. B:
Could ahybody suggest any?

As crazy as this sounds, why not ask a syndicalist?  I mean, you're best arguing the material that they are going to fall back on, right?

If you find something evil that wobbles, push it. - Gary North

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Nick. B replied on Thu, Feb 26 2009 11:28 PM

liberty student:

Nick. B:
Could ahybody suggest any?

As crazy as this sounds, why not ask a syndicalist?  I mean, you're best arguing the material that they are going to fall back on, right?

 

Tried it. All of them are more or less vague or differ. Some say that it merely differs in means to reaching anarchism, but others say that advocates direct democracy of the workers.

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Cork replied on Fri, Feb 27 2009 1:43 AM

Syndicalism is such complete laughable nonsense that it hardly even warrants a rebuttal.

But since you asked :)

Syndical Syndrome by (I believe) Murray Rothbard

http://www.mises.org/journals/lf/1971/1971_06.pdf

Chomsky's Economics by James Ostrowski

http://mises.org/article.aspx?Id=1132

The Coercive Anarchism of Noam Chomsky by Barry Loberfield

http://libertyunbound.com/archive/2003_02/loberfeld-chomsky.html

And last but not least, Mises' brilliant assault on so-called syndicalism:

http://www.econlib.org/library/Mises/HmA/msHmA33.html

Enjoy!

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wombatron replied on Fri, Feb 27 2009 1:09 PM

Nick. B:

Nick. B:

wombatron:

Nick. B:
Do any of you know of the main books on the political theory of Syndicalist Anarchism that syndicalist read?

Are you looking for works specifically on anarcho-syndicalism, or libertarian socialism in general?

 

 

Anarcho-syndicalism. Maybe three or four foundational books on that school of thought.

 

Could ahybody suggest any?

Anarcho-syndicalism: Theory and Practice

Chomsky on Anarchism

Also, works by 19th century anarchists such as Proudhon, Bakunin, Goldman, and Kropotkin may be referenced, and can generally be found online.

Market anarchist, Linux geek, aspiring Perl hacker, and student of the neo-Aristotelians, the classical individualist anarchists, and the Austrian school.

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Nick. B replied on Sat, Feb 28 2009 3:01 AM

wombatron:

Nick. B:

Nick. B:

wombatron:

Nick. B:
Do any of you know of the main books on the political theory of Syndicalist Anarchism that syndicalist read?

Are you looking for works specifically on anarcho-syndicalism, or libertarian socialism in general?

 

 

Anarcho-syndicalism. Maybe three or four foundational books on that school of thought.

 

Could ahybody suggest any?

Anarcho-syndicalism: Theory and Practice

Chomsky on Anarchism

Also, works by 19th century anarchists such as Proudhon, Bakunin, Goldman, and Kropotkin may be referenced, and can generally be found online.

 

Thanks. Smile

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Nick. B:

Do any of you know of the main books on the political theory of Syndicalist Anarchism that syndicalist read?

Daniel Guerin's "Anarchism: From Theory to Practice" is what converted me from a borderline leftist to an anarcho-syndicalist in my wee days. Kropotkin's "Anarchism" is also good, since it contains various articles on various aspects of anarcho-syndicalist thought.

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rpj83 replied on Sat, Feb 28 2009 10:27 AM

There's also a shorter work by Rudolf Rocker called "Anarchism and Anarcho-Syndicalism" - http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/rocker-rudolf/misc/anarchism-anarcho-syndicalism.htm

 

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wombatron:

Bryan Caplan has an article on the Spanish Civil War here.

Have you read the reply to his article here: http://www.spunk.org/texts/places/spain/sp001532.html ?

The state is a disease and Liberty is the both the victim and the only means to a lasting cure.

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Nick. B replied on Sat, Mar 14 2009 6:56 PM

ThorsMitersaw:

wombatron:

Bryan Caplan has an article on the Spanish Civil War here.

Have you read the reply to his article here: http://www.spunk.org/texts/places/spain/sp001532.html ?

 

No I have not. Hey are you the ThorMitersaw that made videos? If I may ask, why did you stop?

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krazy kaju:
Daniel Guerin's "Anarchism: From Theory to Practice" is what converted me from a borderline leftist to an anarcho-syndicalist in my wee days. Kropotkin's "Anarchism" is also good, since it contains various articles on various aspects of anarcho-syndicalist thought.

What about it attracted you? What arguments of Guerin's were most persuasive to you? And what specifically caused your later shift?

 

To everyone in general:

What do you think about nonviolent, nonstatist forms of worker's self-management?

By which I mean, free market unions; worker's co-operatives; nonviolent syndicates; etc.?

 

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PyrrhonianSkeptic:

To everyone in general:

What do you think about nonviolent, nonstatist forms of worker's self-management?

By which I mean, free market unions; worker's co-operatives; nonviolent syndicates; etc.?

 Some basic anarcho-syndicalist propaganda (using that in the neutral sense of the term):

http://www.anarchosyndicalism.net/archive/display/150/index.php

http://www.anarchosyndicalism.net/archive/display/152/index.php

 

 

And does anyone know of any books on syndicalism / anarcho-syndicalism besides Rocker's A-S: Theory and Practice, and his shorter A & A-S?

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PyrrhonianSkeptic:

Some basic anarcho-syndicalist propaganda (using that in the neutral sense of the term):

http://www.anarchosyndicalism.net/archive/display/150/index.php

http://www.anarchosyndicalism.net/archive/display/152/index.php

 And incidentally, here is Rocker's Anarcho-Syndalism online: http://libcom.org/library/anarcho-syndicalism-rudolf-rocker

and here is Daniel Guerin's Anarchy: From Theory to Practice also: http://libcom.org/library/anarchism-daniel-guerin

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PyrrhonianSkeptic:

What do you think about nonviolent, nonstatist forms of worker's self-management?

By which I mean, free market unions; worker's co-operatives; nonviolent syndicates; etc.?

I think they are fine if they are voluntary, but I suspect they will largely be useless in a free market.  They are fairly anachronistic.

For example, a free market union would have to allow workers to come and go, and to negotiate with "the company" independently if they so chose.  This undermines solidarity, which sounds great in a union hall or on a blog network, but is difficult to translate into voluntary consent to a cartel that may not always represent the worker's best interest.

I have been watching Tom Woods 10 lecture American history presentation here at Mises.org and iirc, it was #6 or 7 that deals with labor history in the US.  I suspect anarcho-syndicalists have been fed a lot of baloney that doesn't reflect a broader view of the events and circumstances surrounding the early labour movements in the US.

http://mises.org/media.aspx?action=category&ID=79

http://mises.org/multimedia/video/Woods/Woods7.wmv

If you find something evil that wobbles, push it. - Gary North

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Paul replied on Mon, May 25 2009 4:58 AM

ThorsMitersaw:

wombatron:

Bryan Caplan has an article on the Spanish Civil War here.

Have you read the reply to his article here: http://www.spunk.org/texts/places/spain/sp001532.html ?

Iain McKay:
In the last section, we quoted von Mises on the basic philosophy of right Libertarianism, namely if reality contradicts your theory, ignore reality.

Where do they get this rubbish?  They spout that line all the time.

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Because their comprehension of epistemology and methodology is approximately zero?

To darkness I condemn you...

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wombatron replied on Mon, May 25 2009 1:53 PM

Paul:

ThorsMitersaw:

wombatron:

Bryan Caplan has an article on the Spanish Civil War here.

Have you read the reply to his article here: http://www.spunk.org/texts/places/spain/sp001532.html ?

Iain McKay:
In the last section, we quoted von Mises on the basic philosophy of right Libertarianism, namely if reality contradicts your theory, ignore reality.

Where do they get this rubbish?  They spout that line all the time.

McKay is awful; he rejects the whole of individualist and market anarchism (including Carson's market mutualism) as being either inconsistent anarchism, or not anarchism at all, with plenty of selective out-of-context quotes from Proudhon, Spencer, Spooner, Tucker, de Cleyre, Molinari, and Rothbard to back him up.

 

Market anarchist, Linux geek, aspiring Perl hacker, and student of the neo-Aristotelians, the classical individualist anarchists, and the Austrian school.

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Nick. B replied on Tue, May 26 2009 10:09 AM

wombatron:

McKay is awful; he rejects the whole of individualist and market anarchism (including Carson's market mutualism) as being either inconsistent anarchism, or not anarchism at all, with plenty of selective out-of-context quotes from Proudhon, Spencer, Spooner, Tucker, de Cleyre, Molinari, and Rothbard to back him up.

 

So when I do read McKay's response to Caplan's essay I shouldn't take it to seriously?

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