A-Infos (en) Concerning the 23rd IWA-Congress by IWA Secretariat - IWA-AIT Statement by the IWA Secretariat

   The 23rd Congress in Manchester decided that the Secretariat of the 
IWA shall be maintained by the ASI until the next Congress which will be 
organized by the COB-AIT in Brazil in December 2008. The comrades of ASI 
elects the new Secretariat in January 2007, and until then we will as 
the outgoing Secretariat receive and answer correspondence. Besides 
this, the SF will consider to take a seat (treasurer) in the 
Secretariat, and their yes or no to this will be decided at their 
National Conference in March/April 2007. Until then the dues to the IWA 
must be paid to the present account! Anarchosyndicalist greetings from 
the outgoing Secretariat http://www.iwa-ait.org
The IWA held its congress in Manchester (United Kingdom) from 8-10 
December. The event was organized by the comrades of the Solidarity 
Federation and saw the participation of over a dozen anarcho-syndicalist 
or revolutionary syndicalist organizations, some of which nearly a 100 
years old like the Spanish CNT or the Argentinian FORA, with others much 
younger, such as the Slovakian Priama Akcia or the Serbian ASI-MUR 
(those who for various reasons could not attend sent their written 
positions), demonstrating that the International Workers Association is 
still alive and kicking.

On 1st November, the International Trade Union Confederation was founded 
in Vienna, a merger of the International Confederation of Free Trade 
Unions (ICFTU), and the World Confederation of Labour (WCL), grouping 
the cream of reformist and partnership syndicalism, some of whom are 
only too well-known in our country. But only a month later, we could see 
evidence that there exists another, very different, form of syndicalism, 
which focuses on struggle and on revolutionary achievements.

Some of the subjects dealt with at the meetings were the effective 
coordination of the struggles against precarity, a possible general 
strike against war, problems regarding the FAU or the USI, membership 
requests by new organizations (especially in Asia), or changes to the 
permanent secretariat of the international (passing from the Norwegian 
NSF to the ASI-MUR).

Furthermore, the event served to demonstrate the prominent role played 
by anarcho-syndicalist organizations in the struggles in their 
respective countries like, for example, the struggle carried on in the 
student mobilizations in Serbia, the public health struggle or strikes 
against labour reform in Italy, the internationalization of certain 
conflicts like the actions of the FORA, the FAU (Germany) or the CNT 
(France) in solidarity with the striking comrades of Mercadona, and a 
long list of others.

All in all, a good occasion to continue strengthening our links and get 
confirmation that our principles of revolutionary syndicalism are as 
effective as ever.


CNT Editorial


Editorial note:
Due to the deadline for publishing being earlier than usual because of 
the holidays, it was not possible to publish a fuller reportm which will 
be left to next month's edition (February).


Article from "cnt", n°330, January 2007. Original title: "La AIT celebra 
su XXIII congreso en Manchester".

http://www.periodicocnt.org

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CeNiT: The 23rd IWA Congress
by CeNiT - Regional exterior de la CNT-AIT Thursday, Jan 25 2007, 3:21pm

Another Report on the 23rd IWA Congress
At the beginning of December this year, the anarcho-syndicalist 
International held its 23rd Congress in Manchester, capital of 
north-western England and better known for its famous football team and 
for the fact that it was there that the family of Friedrich Engels 
(1820-95) had a textiles factory which the famous historical materialist 
once managed, and which was in part responsible for financing the work 
of Karl Marx (1818-83) while he was writing "Das Kapital". Without the 
support of Engels, Marx would have ended up in a London suburb, dying of 
hunger and cold, and the whole of humanity would have been deprived of 
his theoretical elaborations. The Solidarity Federation (SF), rooted in 
Manchester and founded in 1994, is the British section of the 
anarcho-syndicalist International.

Regarding the agreements and debates of the Congress, all we know to 
date is from the brief note published by the secretariat of Oslo on its 
website (www.iwa-ait.org). Nevertheless, anarcho-syndicalists and 
anarchists in the know can consult www.libcom.org which contains a page 
with much more information on the event.

From the official statement of the Norwegian secretariat it appears 
that the IWA has decided that the new secretariat be maintained by the 
Serbian section (ASI, Union Confederation Anarcho-Syndicalist 
Initiative), in Belgrade, until the 24th Congress which will be held in 
December 2008 in Brazil - which city is not indicated - by the COB-IWA 
(Brazilian Workers' Confederation), the IWA's Brazilian section.

From information received unofficially, we know that the German 
section, the FAU, has not been expelled from the IWA, but has been 
warned that if it continues its contacts with the CNT-Vignoles, the 
majority sector of the French CNT, it will be so. This is, in effect, a 
similar decision to one made during the previous Congress.

The Italian section, the USI, has been authorized to participate in the 
RSUs (the "unitary trade-union representative bodies" within Italian 
companies), quoting the principle of the "autonomy of sections". 
Apparently, this is a political decision designed to prevent the Italian 
and German sections (which are the second- and third-biggest, 
numerically speaking) from leaving the IWA at the same time. They have 
also given in to the USI's ultimatum to the IWA secretariat.

What is strange and, at the moment, more worrying in the eyes of the IWA 
than problems regarding union representation, is the Germans' openness 
to contact with the "enemy" - the French CNT-Vignoles.

A big problem for the IWA's 23rd Congress was also the international 
syndicalist conference (known as I07) which the French CNT is organizing 
for May 1st 2007, whose programme was published at 
www.ainfos.ca/06/oct/ainfos00257.html [see 
http://www.anarkismo.net/newswire.php?story_id=4420].

Given that the German section, the FAU, is apparently officially 
supporting it, it means that it would have to be expelled from the 
International. But the IWA does not want to come across as the bad guy. 
And the FAU (in the spirit of Rocker and Souchy, and faithful to the 
true spirit of the International) does not want to give up its 
historical name. Perhaps the IWA heads are hoping also that the FAU will 
split away as a result of the I07 affair, though that hardly seems likely.

In this situation, the USI has declared its support for the FAU and it 
now seems obvious that they will join together and fight for the 
International to start acting more like a union, more openly and 
realistically. There are today fractions that operate openly as such 
within the ranks of anarcho-syndicalists, that is to say, there is a 
sort of "Trotskyization" of the International.

The IWA secretariat has gone to Serbia, into the hands of the group 
around a person by the name of Ratibor, a group which is the most 
orthodox (it is Serbia, after all) of all the new anarcho-dogmatic 
grouplets that make up the "sections" of the International in Eastern 
Europe.

The next congress will be held in Brazil, a fact which is inexplicable 
given the fact that the COB has not paid anything to the IWA for years, 
has strongly criticized the accounts of the USI and the FAU, though they 
have received several thousand dollars from the International over the 
same period. The Norwegian secretary, Larsen, justifies this by saying 
that the Brazilians "are poor".

But the IWA really does consider its real enemies to be the French 
CNT-Vignoles and the Spanish CGT. It is a long story, more like the plot 
of a comic opera.

The case of the Brazilian IWA nucleus has been well known for many 
years. The majority of the Latin American anarchist movement is moving 
in another direction - in several directions, actually - and it is very 
hard in this part of the world for the IWA to maintain solid nuclei that 
play a full part in the labour and mass struggles. The Colombian nucleus 
is laughable, not to mention the Venezuelans. Perhaps there is something 
in Argentina, but I doubt it. Any contacts that there are with Mexico 
are held by the Spanish CGT, the IWA's bogeyman. The US section, too, 
was expelled in 1996. This Congress, then, has not moved an inch towards 
rectifying the previous ones, something that is still possible. The 
International has always been run by the Spanish - that is its destiny - 
though recently it has moved from the Asturians to the Grandans. This 
was a fatal error. To transfer the disagreements of Spanish 
anarcho-syndicalists to the international plane was silly, and the use 
of the basic criteria of federalism, such as the autonomy of sections, 
to resolve internal fights is, for want of a better word, stupid.

That's all for now.

Floreal Castilla
Venezuela, 26 December 2006

Article from "CENIT", mouthpiece of the "Regional exterior de la CNT-AIT".

Original title: "Los numantinos en los pubs".

http://periodicocenit.blogspot.com/
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