andyh wrote:
In that respect it could perhaps be said that Mondragon is the ultimate union as they've taken control of their own labour and distribution of wealth and social benefits. Even to the extent they have their own schools, banks, healthcare, the works.
Well I'm in the middle about Mondragon. They're better than most and founded on a good idea, but there's been a lot of stuff come out about their dark side and exploitation of some labour abroad that consists of non members. They're better than the norm but not the answer.
Unions are bullshit because they merely exist to offer the slaves a few more pennies for their slave labour. They offer nothing else of substance.
And if you have more money and more rights at work, then that is important as that improves your life. Radical social change is preferable, but it's no good dismissing a better standard of life for working people while you dream of the revolution.
Back in the day, winning practical reforms that helped ordinary people could go hand in hand with the ideal of overthrowing capitalism for good, particularly as getting people to realise if they all get together they can win helps to instill a sense that you can do something about your situation - that's what anarcho-syndicalism was always about. The two can operate in tension, but also in harmony.
Don't forget that during the Spanish civil war it was the anarcho-syndicalist unionists that seized control of the factories and ran them
The problem with modern unions is they're toothless old grannies run by rich bureaucrats that do fuck all. We should have had a few general strikes by now. They make money off our labour - without our labour they're up shit creek. We've forgotten the power of witholding that labour. No it doesn't radically change everything, but it reminds us and them they need us more than we need them.
