We are the London section of the Solidarity Federation (SolFed), a revolutionary union initiative, and we believe that the current system of nation states and capitalism is inherently oppressive and exploitative. This system does not exist to serve the interests of the workers who built and maintain it, or the needs of our communities, but instead uses us as tools to serve the interests of politicians, bureaucrats, and business owners. We believe that the state and capitalism must be replaced with a system of bottom up popular control over society, which means workers’ councils running our workplaces, community councils running our neighbourhoods, and these councils federating together to run society as a whole in the interests of everyone instead of the interests of a select ruling class.
We are unapologetic anarchists. Anarchy is a scary word that is associated with chaos, violence, and disorder. However, the word anarchy simply means without (an) rulers (archy). Anarchism, as a political theory, is the idea that humanity can and should organise without rulership, and doing so will lead to less chaos, violence, and disorder than we suffer today. This is because rulership has always allowed those who rule to exploit, oppress, and neglect those they rule. This is a simple fact of how rulership works; to rule is to have the ability to ignore the wants and needs of those under you, and to be ruled is to be expected to put aside your own desires, reason, and sense of right and wrong to obey orders. Rulers demand the right to be chaotic and violent without restraint, and we all pay the price.
Anarchism is often dismissed as a utopian dream, however we believe that history has proven the anarchist critique of authority as fundamentally correct. Every time the people have given their obedience to some authority which promised to use that authority to serve them, the people have been betrayed. Electoral political parties have consistently abandoned promised reforms when they enter government. Revolutionary political parties have consistently implemented dictatorships over the people instead of for the people. Hierarchical mainstream unions and protest movements have consistently favoured getting their leaders a seat at the table of state and capital over actually fighting for the desires of those who have empowered them. Practically speaking, anarchy is the only way forward, and if we want to create a better world, we must learn to organise on the basis of consensus and free association for the fulfilment of the desires of everyone involved.
We are also Syndicalists. Syndicalism is a word that most people are not familiar with today, which comes from the French word for a workers’ union: Syndicat. Syndicalism offers an alternative to relying on political parties to implement change from the top down. Instead, syndicalism is based on workers directly seizing economic power. Politicians are always telling us that we can not have what we want or need because it will upset the capitalists who control the economy. However, the working class, if we unite and organise, are the ones who really control the economy, and we can use that control to impose our interests on politicians and capitalists through direct action like general strikes and mass boycotts. We want to build radical workers’ unions from the bottom up and use direct action in the workplace and the community to achieve real social change. Ultimately, the aim of syndicalism is to replace both the state and capitalism with a form of popular control that is rooted in individual workplaces and communities.
So, if you are tired of working your life away to make rich owners even richer, if you are tired of the broken promises of politicians who are completely detached from the lived reality or those they rule, if you are tired of being gouged by landlords and corporations, and if you are tired of mainstream unions and political movements that simply use you as a tool to gain power for their leaders, then get in contact and we can start building a better world together, from the bottom up, starting in our workplaces and in our communities.
If you would like to know more about anarchism and syndicalism, please see our recommended reading page HERE. This page has links to both short introductions and more detailed theoretical and historical works, all available free online.
If you would like to know more about how the Solidarity Federation is structured or what is expected of members, our constitution can be found HERE.