Tag Archives: asr83

Organizing Amazon in Bessemer

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by Bill Barry, ASR 83 (2021)

No organizing campaign is ever really a failure, and the Amazon campaign in Bessemer, AL, is a perfect example. The campaign was started by the workers who wanted something that so many other Covid campaigns ignored – UNION RECOGNITION; so even though the union “lost” in the distorted structure of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the lives of everyone involved – in the warehouse, in the community and hopefully across the union movement – were changed. This was the most exciting campaigns to come out of Covid, one enormous location for the most powerful boss, where all the numbers about union interest became a workers’ movement, and not just a hopeful statistic. Continue reading →

Greetings from Sweden: A dual-track syndicalism?

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A slightly condensed version of this article appears in ASR 83 (Summer 2021)

In 2022, the Swedish syndicalist union SAC holds a congress. Some say that SAC is at a crossroads. But what exactly are the choices? In the following essay, Rasmus Hästbacka argues that the choice is between building a popular movement union or a “revolutionary” cadre union. Hästbacka believes in a popular movement that progresses on dual tracks, i.e. a movement that builds both syndicalist sections and cross-union cohesion among workers.

The Swedish labor market has recently been highlighted in Anarcho-Syndicalist Review and on the Counterpunch website. Two articles concern the anti-strike law of 2019 and a new strategy for collective agreements that SAC has developed. Two more general texts on the future of syndicalism have been written by Gabriel Kuhn and Torsten Bewernitz on the Counterpunch website, and by Gabriel and Frederick Batzler in Anarcho-Syndicalist Review (issue #79, 2020). The new collective agreement strategy is being tested (at the time of publication) by warehouse workers at Ingram/Zalando in Stockholm. More such experiments await. Continue reading →

Organizing on the job at Zalando

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from ASR 83 (Summer 2021)

More than 100 workers at Europe’s leading online store for fashion and shoes, Zalando, have turned to the SAC, the Central Organization of Swedish Workers, to battle the “new Swedish model,” which many workers describe as modern slavery. After workers demanded their own union agreement and safety representatives, management announced plans to fire several SAC members. Continue reading →

ASR 83 (Summer 2021)

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Obituaries: Arthur J. Miller & Mike Long
Wobbles: Fat Cats Get Fatter, Jobless, Wobblies in Space…
Syndicalist News: Coal Strike, CNT Fights Job Cuts, IWW Strikes, Colombia
Articles: Logistical Syndicalism: Dock Workers’ Strikes in Solidarity with Palestinian Struggle
Organizing Amazon in Bessemer
Sweden: A dual-track syndicalism
The Rank-and-file Organizing Committee
The Legacy of Peter Kropotkin (Centenary)
• Cooperation and socialism by Peter Kropotkin
• Economic Action or Parliamentary Politics by Peter Kropotkin
• How to Fight Against Degeneration by Peter Kropotkin
Reviews: A Zionism opposed to a Jewish state
The Struggle to Break Work
Free Speech and Dissent
Universal Unionization
Letters: Capitol Riot, Kronstadt Rebellion, Amazon

Obituary: Mike Long

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from ASR 83 (2021)

ASR editorial collective member Mike Long died in February. A major figure in language acquisition studies, Mike was also an active syndicalist, soccer fan, admirer of the Spanish Revolution, and lifelong foe of conformity. We first met 25 years ago at an IWW convention in Philadelphia, where Mike spoke on the Mondragon cooperatives. He quickly became a contributor to Anarcho-Syndicalist Review, and then joined the editorial collective. He wrote on several topics, including libertarian education, transportation and ecology, the electoral mirage, and, of course, Mondragon – which brought together his interests in cooperatives, language, and the Spanish Revolution. Continue reading →