(en) Brazilian Anarchist Coordination (CAB) - Unionism and DIRECT ACTION: Workers (the) deciding of the course of the struggle (fr, pt)

[machine translation]

In the first half of 2014, the struggle of various categorical workers (as) took to the 
streets to the dismay of bosses and governments. The counter attack of the mighty had the 
help of the mainstream media, who tried to criminalize protests and demobilize fighters. 
This occurred before, during and after the World Cup, at which time the news sought to 
legitimize the violent actions of the repressive apparatus of the state and its rulers. 
Following, came also the political persecution and arrests of dozens of protesters in an 
authoritarian manner, violating human rights and democratic means. ---- But it is 
undeniable that these fights / the workers / took the large proportions, and can identify 
in them a common practice that has been currently quite rare in Brazilian unionism. 
Strikes were constructed in the workplace, regardless of union leaders - sometimes even 
having to face them. Won victories, total or partial, that the old union leaders, many of 
them making the game of governments and employers, said it is not possible to win. Those 
movements inspired many others, in smaller proportions and not always with the same degree 
of improvement, but with a huge importance in an attempt to renew the way to make the 
union fight in Brazil.

This practice can be identified mainly in the role, in direct action grassroots deciding 
on the course of the strikes against the bureaucracy and centralization of custom union 
leaders and union politicized currents. The latter, on the other hand, are flawed union 
practices, which in general do not realize the urgency of the working class, or build 
spaces with political autonomy and direct participation of / the workers / the.

Thus, experiences of autonomy, struggle and class solidarity emerge from the country, is 
the example of the workers in protest in the great works of infrastructure PAC (mainly in 
the north and northeast of the country), the street sweepers in Rio de Janeiro, road in 
Porto Alegre, or subway of S?o Paulo. Demonstrated in practice that the fight begins from 
below, and not infrequently without guardianship or even against the unions. In a clear 
demonstration of who should have control of the struggles is the whole basis and not a 
group of "enlightened" leaders.

Actions also have in common the resumption of some important values of the various 
historical struggles of the exploited and oppressed classes around the world:

Direct Action: the methods of struggle to advance the claims had a very diverse repertoire 
from the strikes. Examples include pickets, occupations, sabotage and demonstrations that 
paralyzed the movement and operation of essential services are. Direct Action is the use 
of all necessary means to strengthen the struggles spearheaded by / the workers / the. 
Means not deliver the other hand the power to decide on matters of everyday life. Instead, 
the collective is to exercise that power directly, without intermediaries or representatives.

Grassroots leadership: there is a provision of base workers in advancing trade union 
struggle and often fighting the bureaucrat's own stance toward unions. So was the example 
of trade union struggles during this period, driven by the base category. This is the 
ingredient of a strong labor movement with control of / the workers / as through direct 
democracy. Fighting the authoritarian and anti-democratic culture present in the unions, 
including those run by many groupings facing the left in the political composition.

To the extent that / the workers / organize the move and the reaction of state and 
governments have been to criminalize the strike and protest, repressing legitimate 
struggles and spreading the lie by the bourgeois media, the great ally of the bosses and 
powerful. Here we denounce the complicity between this hegemonic capitalist media, 
governments and powerful economic groups that control the country.

We are excited to see the resume of this combativeness in union struggles country since 
taking the role of our struggles is fundamental. Unions are important tools that can 
empower the union fight. However, when they are taken by the party bureaucracy, or 
plastered by the employer, cease to be a means of struggle and saw a way of life for the 
opportunists. People who claim to be representatives / the workers / as, but that 
encastelam in union structure. Emergency workers subordinate to their interests, or those 
of his party, distancing himself from the reality of workers.

It is the accumulation of our strength and our power of mobilization that we can even face 
the unjust judicial governments and employers to service decisions. It is also for our 
collective strength we can achieve the victories we desire. We do not lose our desires for 
change! Every fight, every picket, every strike, their victories and defeats, may 
strengthen the idea that a new world is possible.

Within this process of radicalization of struggles, you must have as its objective the 
resumption of Revolutionary Syndicalism. Conception of trade union struggle led by Mikhail 
Bakunin, the year 2014 we celebrate the 200th anniversary of his birth, and has been 
touted as a "potential suspect" to stimulate the struggles and be involved with them in 
the carioca capital.

200 Years of Bakunin

In 2014, we remember the 200th anniversary of the birth of Russian revolutionary and 
anarchist Mikhail Bakunin. Exemplary militant, his life is confused with the struggle of 
the workers of his time, especially within the International Workers Association (IWA). 
Along with other companions, was also responsible for the establishment of anarchism as 
socially engaged force in the struggle for freedom and equality. In 1868, Bakunin helped 
found the Alliance of Socialist Democracy, clandestine organization and the first 
specifically anarchist history, who served in the AIT.

Being the AIT space that coalesced and boosted workers' struggles in this period, it is 
important to point out that it was the accumulation of anti-authoritarian currents that 
the International had the greatest influence in the labor movement of our Latin American 
continent. After the Hague Congress, the First International, the statist and federalist 
conceptions are separated amid strong controversy and follow different paths. And is the 
current libertarian socialism (federalist and anarchist) that will boost the continuity of 
AIT, and it is in 1872, in Saint-Imier in Switzerland, Bakunin and the Federalists founded 
the International later known as anti-authoritarian.

Sections and linked to international federations were formed throughout Latin America 
relied on general guidelines quite accurate and autonomy for its development, continuing 
the federalist proposals of revolutionary syndicalism and Bakunin. He understood unionism 
as a means and not an end in itself. And the role of anarchists fuel should be put in the 
process of mobilizing and organizing the class struggle along with / the workers / the. 
Making propaganda because wherever they met the workers. Was actually in action, and from 
the experience of consecrated tactics that the outlines of a more radical union doctrine 
was taking shape, becoming the expression of this historical period.

The genealogy of the General Strike

The idea of a general strike was launched by the International Congress held in Brussels 
in September 1868 At the time, it was a tool in order to fight the war at that time. But 
it was in 1869 that Bakunin, a pioneering way, analyzed all the possible consequences and 
potentials of General Strike:

"When strikes are expanded, communicate little by little, is that they are very close to 
becoming a general strike; and a general strike, with the ideas of liberation that reign 
today in the proletariat, can only result in a great cataclysm that would cause a radical 
change in the society. We are not yet at that point, no doubt, but it all leads to this. "

Bakunin thus brings important contributions to this conception of the strike as a 
mobilizing force of / the workers / the tool, which "already indicate a certain collective 
strength, a certain understanding among the workers." How vindictive practice of fighting 
and training in practice, the General Strike should also embody the solidarity between 
sectors of the oppressed class, because "the needs of the struggle lead workers to support 
themselves, from one country to another, from one profession to other. "

Brazilian Anarchist Coordination - union front