Source Documents/Neosyndicalist Manifesto

Neosyndicalist Manifesto

Original language: English
Original publication: 2 February 2024‎
Written by: Gubrin (Goober)
Translated by: N/A
License of this version: CC0
Other language versions: N/A
Link to PDF: N/A
Other links: N/A

Preamble

Ever since the October Revolution and the subsequent rise of Marxism-Leninism in most of the former Russian Empire the ideology of Syndicalism was considered "old-fashioned", "outdated" and even "dead". During and after the events of 1917-1922 more and more leftist parties in Western Europe began rejecting the ideas of anarchist ideologues like Proudhon and Bakunin, the fall of the Makhnovshchina put the last nail in the coffin of that, and began flirting with "the big three" of the Russian Revolution: Lenin, Trotsky and Bukharin. By the time Stalin got into power, Syndicalism fell out of the mainstream: slowly being less trusted thanks to the German Revolution and how brutally it was put down.
But those events are over: the Soviet Union doesn't exist anymore, China is de-facto a capitalist state, and more and more people are being disillusioned by Capitalism. Is this the time for Syndicalism to make a comeback?

Chapter I: The state and it's monopoly in Violence

To find out what makes the state so bad, we need to look back at the history of how an idea of a state even came to be. The ideas of "government", "leaders", etc. were created in Ancient Mesopotamia in regard to those who had the most grain. People naturally followed those who had all the food, and the "food owners" could become so influential that they controlled whole cities. To keep the plebs loyal a welfare system for free food was created, which was a widespread practice until the fall of the Western Roman Empire.
From the very start the state has been nothing but a monopoly. As the ages went by and weapons became more advanced they became a tool of not just war, but also a tool of suppression of people that resisted the system, which was common thanks to a little thing called "Feudalism". Peasants rising up to kill their lords and try to take the king's palace by storm were common. After that it all went downhill, with the state restricting the armament of civilians in most of the world to prevent it from being overthrown.
But even with that most countries in the world pump hundreds of thousands of dollars into the police, military-industrial complex, etc. In most of the world only the state has the right to produce so many tools of violence. It has a monopoly on violence.

Chapter II: The failure of Democracy

However, this violence was attempted to be levelled out via a system that allows the plebs to choose their future: democracy.
But there is one problem: people are impressionable. With democracy anyone with good promises can get on top and implement their preferred future, even if they break their promises.
Nowadays, people never vote FOR someone, only AGAINST someone. Prime examples of this are the USA, UK, France, etc.
Another problem that comes with this is that the government doesn't have much incentive to reform the system or improve the people's lives until there are elections. In an attempt to get popularity politicians will do anything. Once they get trust they get elected again and proceed to freeze all progress.
This issue is most apparent in Post-Soviet states.

Chapter III: Modern Geopolitics and the rise of Neo-imperialism

In the modern world we are stuck between a rock and a hard place in a "second cold war" between the US-led west and the Russia-China alliance in the east.
The parallels between the Cold War era and modern day are astounding: The same tactics of proxy warfare, civil wars and paid revolutions are being used everywhere. Spheres of influence are disguised as international blocks.
Any sane anarchist must never take a side in any of these conflicts, only supporting the people living there and their rights to have a peaceful life.

Chapter IV: How the capitalist mode of production destroys nations

It's no surprise to many that capitalism in itself is materialist. Such a mode of production, regulation and work reduces life to a depressive, repetetive fraction of itself.
A very sad fact is that the original founders of capitalism would have killed themselves if they saw what modern capitalism is now. Their vision of a market economy was more distributist than anything, they supported worker associations and self-employment.
But a negative of capitalism not many people talk about is how it can destroy nations. We saw it with the former USSR and Post-colonial states. A quick transition to a market economy led to crime, poverty, corruption, neglect.
This is caused by the fact that in most cases people are foolish and can't regulate themselves well enough, and those that can can exploit those that can't. As such a hierarchy forms and those that can lie the best always get top positions.