Anarcho-Syndicalism 101: newswire/267

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Declaration of the Workers' Initiative
by Workers' Initiative (Poland)	10 Jan 2006
Today workers are often unorganized, divided, don't have contact with each other, are being intermediated and have abandoned all faith in their own strengths. Trade unions are losing their meaning. This situation is beneficial for employers who are using protection of state's administration and it's means of coercion. Alliance (often of corruption nature) between political power in the state and economical one in economics is aimed against all workers. Its goal is to sustain social division. Rich, privileged in every way minority which has access to ownership, power and means of indoctrination is thriving and is multiplying its wealth thanks to the work of majority.
That hierarchical social structure is the cause of most problems experienced in everyday life of workers in the whole world, touched by mass unemployment, lowering of salaries, returning to slavery work, employing children, poverty and starvation. The interest of employers not only from small businesses but also from huge, international corporations is to consolidate existing order, which ensures their ease to exploit employed persons, and in the case of corporations also exploitation of local communities. True change can only come when workers will stop believing that employers, owners of multi-corporations and managers are working in the interest of society. We are struggling for restoring control of our own lives, not only in the working place but also in the space of inhabitance. We are struggling for completely different aspect of the world because we are convinced that capitalism similarly to the state socialism is un-reformable. There is a need for deep social, economical and political changes. Our movement is also reaction to corrupted and extremely politically-oriented trade unions. We must abandon the necessity of leaders existence - too often they have betrayed the cause that they initially where fighting for. We are for direct democracy from below as a form of organizing the movement of workers' protest. The goal of Workers' Initiative (WI) is not to manage the struggle of workers but only mobilizing them for independent struggle for improvement of living conditions and liberation from oppression of any power. We declare against political action and using workers' movement for political goals and current interests of political parties. We are supporting engagement of workers' movement in local matters aiming at restoring authentic self-governance. We see the need for international solidarity of union and workers' movement. We declare for direct action and especially manifestations, strikes and boycotts carried on in legal and illegal ways as the most effective but not only weapon in struggle for workers' privileges and radically democratic society. We see that there is a great need to restore the cultural autonomy of labor world as a countermeasure for mass-culture and its offer of consumption life-style. WI is an agreement of all for whom workers' matters are close. We are a group struggling for workers' privileges repelling in its actions and ideas to the tradition of anarcho-syndicalist movement. Those organized in WI are undertaking an effort to establish workers' movement based on voluntary, self-management from below - a movement that would be able to go beyond the divisions between workers and altogether with solidarity be able to efficiently struggle for their rights and for a full control of their working place. By active participations in protesting actions, cooperation and supporting the strikes we are trying to carry solidarity help and actively present our ideas. WI is functioning on the principles of federation, i.e. voluntary organization of persons in which every participant has equal right to decide about affairs that concern him. Anyone who accepts the statements above can be a participant of WI. WI has its participants and well-wishers in all bigger Polish cities and cooperates with works councils of many trade unions.
See also: http://paspartoo.w.interia.pl/