From reform to revolution: the path ahead to a radical union movement in Aotearoa/New Zealand1
By HENRY LAWS
About the author: Henry Laws is a union delegate in his workplace that began his involvement in socialist politics in Aotearoa in early 2010's through participating in university students' struggles. He has gone on to participate in struggles for prison and police abolitionism, queer and trans liberation, anti-fascism, environmentalism and other kaupapa through single-issue community organisations and specifically socialist organisations.
Note on article title1
The past eight years have been momentous for the union movement in Aotearoa. On the one hand, since 2018, there has been the biggest strike wave since the late 1980’s, which has resulted in improvements in pay, conditions and the introduction of Fair Pay Agreements.2 On the other hand, the right-wing convergence government has since 2023 engaged in the biggest rollback of workers’ rights in decades, which the 2025 mega strike, the largest since the 1979 General Strike, has failed to stop.3 How can unions end this cycle and emancipate the working-class? In this article, I will argue this can be done through unions adopting syndicalism. Syndicalism was developed by anarchists in the 1864-1872 International Workingmen’s Association/IWMA and aims to create a stateless, classless and self-managed socialist society through establishing directly democratic unions that engage in direct action to build workers power and institute socialism through a revolutionary general strike.4
What would a union movement in Aotearoa that adopted syndicalism be like? First, it would engage in class struggle unionism. The currently prevailing forms of unionism in Aotearoa are business unionism and liberal unionism. Business unionism conceives of trade unionism as being about improving pay and conditions for their members, with unions cooperating with capitalists and states to achieve such improvements.5 By contrast, liberal unionism conceives of trade unionism as being about improving members’ conditions through confrontational campaigns against employers as well as lobbying and protesting states to pass pro-union and pro-worker legislation.6 The problem common to both forms of unionism is a failure to recognise that the working-class and the capitalist class have irreconcilable interests that result in class struggle, which cannot be resolved by improvements in pay and conditions or new legislation.7 By contrast, class struggle unionism recognises this reality and conceives of unionism as being about workers organising to collectively struggle against capitalists and the state to win immediate material gains and to build their collective power in order to emancipate themselves through social revolution.8 However, to emancipate the entire working class, class struggle unionism must be intersectional, as society is structured by social relations such as capitalism, the state, cisheteropatriarchy, and colonialism that co-(re)produce each other without being reducible to each other, leading to intersectional class struggle.9 Synthesising these three theoretical-practical tendencies produces a syndicalist intersectional class struggle unionism that consists of workers organising unions in the workplace and the community to simultaneously resist all forms of exploitation and oppression through forms of syndicalism such as community syndicalism, municipalist syndicalism, green syndicalism, biosyndicalism, logistical syndicalism and student syndicalism.10
Second, a syndicalist union movement in Aotearoa would have a revolutionary perspective. This would entail a major shift from the union movement’s reformism, where unions aim to reform the existing system to be pro-union and pro-worker through industrial action, protesting, and lobbying politicians.11 The problem with reformism is that exploitation, alienation, oppression, domination, and crisis are inherent to the existing system and cannot be reformed away. These dynamics lead the capitalist class and the state to control unions through repression, reform, co-optation, and concessions as well as to dilute or repeal reforms that have been won by unions.12 Syndicalism transcends the problems with reformism through arguing that a revolution is needed to emancipate the working-class, where workers in their workplaces and communities will engage in an insurrectionary general strike through withdrawing their labour, occupying their workplaces and communities and expropriating the means of social reproduction, administration and coercion from the state and the capitalist class.13 Following this, syndicalists argue that these means will be placed under common ownership and democratic control through workers establishing local, regional, national and global self-managed associations based on territory (i.e. where one lives) and function (i.e. what one does), where production will be democratically planned for use and distributed according to need.14 As no ruling class has peacefully given up power, syndicalists argue that the revolution should be defended through social defence where possible and armed defence where necessary.15 Ultimately, syndicalists argue that a revolution will be complete when a stateless, classless and non-hierarchical global society has been established, where the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all.16
Third, a union movement in Aotearoa that adopted syndicalism would be prefigurative. As prefiguration has multiple conceptions, I will begin by clarifying that prefiguration, as I use it, refers to the deliberate and experimental implementation of desired future social relations and practices (formal as well as informal) in the present.17 This conception of prefiguration arose out of anarchist and Marxist theories of practice, which argue that societies are created, reproduced and transformed by human practice, where people with particular forms of consciousness engage in forms of activity (where they deploy their capacities to satisfy a psychological drive) that simultaneously change society and themselves.18 However, theorists of practice encountered a problem: to transform society, they needed transformed people, but to get transformed people, they needed a new society. They resolved this problem through developing prefiguration, as they concluded that in order to establish a socialist society, workers needed to adopt tactical-strategic means that were in unity with their ends and which would develop amongst workers specific kinds of consciousness, drives and capacities so that they would know how to, would want to, and would be able to create a socialist society through revolution.19 They then applied this to syndicalist unions through giving them two functions: 1. Bringing the workers together to resist the capitalist class through direct action and develop their consciousness, drives and capacities to prepare them for revolution and 2. Expropriating the means of social reproduction, administration and coercion from the ruling classes during a revolution and converting themselves from being organisations that resisted exploitation and oppression into organisations of administration that self-managed the socialist society being built.20
Fourth, a syndicalist union movement in Aotearoa would be democratic and decentralised. A common talking point amongst unionists is that unions are democratic, member-led organisations, as members are the union. In reality, unions in Aotearoa are bureaucratic, centralised structures, as supreme decision-making power is vested in national conferences made up of elected delegates (a minority of the union membership) that only meet once every two years.21 In between national conferences, unions are led by national executives made up of a minority of the union’s delegates and the union bureaucracy, which is a mode of existence of social relations in which people’s activity is organised through formal rules that limit their ability to determine its character and goals and which they themselves are not able to alter with ease. Bureaucracy in trade unions has four root causes: 1. unions negotiating the price of labour power with capitalists; 2. the capitalist division of labour resulting in the separation of the activity of conceptualising the goals and methods of human activity from its execution; 3. industrial relations legislation passed by states and 4. unions hiring full time-officers and staff in response to causes 1, 2, and 3.22 Syndicalists reject such bureaucratic and centralised structures in favour of union members making decisions through directly democratic territorial and functional (e.g. on the basis of industry) assemblies.23 To implement these decisions, syndicalists support federalist structures made up of local, regional, national and global councils of delegates that are rotating, elected, and given an imperative mandate by their members, being recallable by members if they violate their mandate to ensure that the union remains member-led.24
Fifth, a union movement in Aotearoa that adopted syndicalism would engage in direct action and exercise class independence. As previously outlined, unions in Aotearoa are led by bureaucrats, who have an interest in ensuring that their union can survive and is recognised by (private or state) management as a negotiating partner.25 This leads to bureaucrats enforcing collective agreements and industrial legislation on rank-and-file members, even if it clashes with members interests in improving their material conditions.26 This also leads to bureaucrats collaborating with parties, which occurred in Aotearoa through the United Federation of Labour helping to form the Labour Party in 1916.27 This led to an alliance between the union movement and the party, which today consists of 11 unions being affiliated to Labour and a revolving door between Labour and the union bureaucracy, which has continued despite Labour’s ideological transformation from socialism to social democracy and then to Third Way neoliberalism.28 This occurred because the state is a hierarchical institution that uses violence to reproduce oppressive and exploitative social relations, with the Labour Party being changed by its exercise of state power.29 Both forms of practice also lead to workers developing traits that lead to them looking to union bureaucrats and politicians to solve their problems instead of solving them themselves.30 In contrast, syndicalists support workers forming unions that maintain independence from the state, capitalists, parties and non-governmental organisations.31 Syndicalists also support unions engaging in direct action, which is when people take action to further their goals without the interference of a third party, in workplaces and communities such as through strikes, go-slows, work-to-rules, sabotage, occupations and blockades.32
Sixth, a syndicalist union movement in Aotearoa would be internationalist. The prevailing approach to international relations amongst unions in Aotearoa is campism, which holds that in a world system that is divided into blocs of states, those who are trying to engage in international solidarity should support one bloc of states against another, with the two predominant blocs within the world system being the Euro-American bloc and the Chinese-Russian bloc.33 Campism manifests itself amongst unions here in several ways. First, there are the unions who are affiliated to the Labour Party, which historically and today supports Western imperialism.34 Second, there are some union members, delegates and officials who are sympathetic towards Cuba on the erroneous grounds that it’s pro-worker and socialist, when in reality, the unions in Cuba are government-controlled company unions, while the Cuban government since the 1990’s has engaged in measures to facilitate the transition to capitalism.35 Third, unions try to advance workers’ rights through international bodies such as the United Nations and the International Labour Organisation.36 The problems with all these forms of campism is that (a) they centre states instead of workers and (b) are examples of international reformism, so they have the fundamental problem that domestic forms of reformism have, as has been previously discussed. Syndicalism rejects such campism in favour of its conception of internationalism, which consists of workers building global syndicalist unions that engage in direct action to oppose international manifestations of exploitation and oppression and develop the global working-class’ consciousness, drives and capacities so that when a world revolution occurs, they can build a global stateless, classless and non-hierarchical socialist society.37
How can we organise so that the union movement in Aotearoa adopts syndicalism? First, through transforming existing unions, which syndicalists conceive of as being done through workers joining existing unions in order to transform their entire organisational structure and culture so that both are organised on syndicalist lines.38 This is different from how transforming existing unions is conceived of by other socialist tendencies, who usually refer to it as boring from within and entryism, as they focus on getting their members elected to union leadership positions.39 In Aotearoa, syndicalist approaches to transforming existing unions were utilised by the Western Federation of Miners, which was formed after the 1908 Blackball coal miners’ strike, when it renamed itself to be the Federation of Labour/Red Feds and adopted syndicalist principles in 1909. The Red Feds were syndicalist until they were defeated in the 1912 Waihi Strike, which led to them merging with business unions to form the United Federation of Labour in 1913.40 This strategy’s merit is that it consists of starting where the unionised workers are already at instead of having to create a union from scratch. However, this merit is also this strategy’s problem, as transforming an existing union can be difficult because the trade union bureaucracy will fervently struggle against any effort to reduce their power like they did when rank-and-file members of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation/NZNO organised to democratise it from the late 2010’s onwards.41 Overall, this strategy’s feasibility will depend on an assessment of the existing union’s organisational structures and its organisational culture in order to determine if it’s possible to transform the existing union or not.
Second, a syndicalist union movement in Aotearoa could be built through creating new unions. In Aotearoa, this began with an Industrial Workers of the World/IWW section being formed in 1907.42 The IWW was formed in 1905 in Chicago and espouses revolutionary industrial unionism, which proposes that workers form One Big Union that would establish socialism through a revolutionary general strike.43 The IWW in Aotearoa influenced the Red Feds to adopt syndicalist principles and after the IWW dissolved during the First World War, ex-members organised the syndicalist One Big Union Council and the Alliance of Labour, with the latter being active until the Great Depression.44 IWW-style syndicalism influenced the Waterside Workers’ Union/WWU until the WWU and allied unions were crushed by the Government during the 1951 waterfront lockout.45 Attempts to revitalise the IWW in Aotearoa in the 1970’s and the 1990’s failed, with the latter leading to the formation of the Autonomous Workers’ Union, which organised in Dunedin during the 2000’s.46 A new IWW section in Aotearoa was formed in the early 2020’s.47 Today, syndicalists build new unions through solidarity unionism, which consists of workers creating directly democratic unions that utilise direct action to improve workers conditions and build workers power without focusing on gaining legal recognition or a collective agreement.48 This strategy’s merit is that it allows workers to build their own union from scratch so that it can meet their needs and be adapted to their context.49 However, a challenge experienced by those engaging this strategy is how to sustain a solidarity union when it has no legal recognition and faces opposition from capitalists, the state and competing mainstream trade unions.50
Third, the union movement could adopt syndicalism through building rank-and-file networks. A syndicalist version of this strategy argues that workers should form directly democratic groups that organise to transform existing unions and build solidarity between workers of different unions as well as between unionised and non-unionised workers.51 Such networks can take on different forms, ranging from caucuses within existing unions, dual carding, where a worker has membership in two unions and solidarity networks, where workers and tenants build directly democratic structures to take direct action against the exploitation of capitalists and landlords.52 In Aotearoa, an example of this is the Health Sector Workers Network of Aotearoa/HSWN, which was formed in 2016 in opposition to the exploitation of health sector workers. Since its formation, it has organised solidarity actions in support of striking health sector workers, tenants resisting evictions and people blockading weapons expos, organised an educational event, produced a zine on health workers experiences and organised a worker’s inquiry that investigated health sector workers conditions.53 In addition, in 2019, HSWN organised a rank-and-file networks hui in Ōtautahi/Christchurch, where attendees discussed rank-and-file workers organising in the health and hospitality sectors in the late 2010’s and what future rank-and-file organising could look like across Aotearoa.54 The merit of this strategy is that it provides a flexible organisational structure that can help realise the previously outlined strategies while also building solidarity between fractions of the working-class. However, a challenge faced by this strategy is how to ensure that such networks have a strong working-class base without falling into a lowest common denominator approach to politics that leaves it vulnerable to co-optation by parties.55
Fourth, a syndicalist union movement in Aotearoa could be built through forming specifically socialist organisations. Within the syndicalist movement, the most elaborate development of a theory and practice of specifically socialist organisations that work with unions was the anarchist tendency of organisational dualism, which was created by anarchists in the IWMA.56 Within this tendency, two positions exist. The first argued that due to the previously outlined systemic pressures that unions operate under within the existing system, unions should not adopt anarchism, and so alongside unions, there should exist specifically anarchist organisations that unite anarchists to develop theory and practice, coordinate joint action among themselves and within unions and push the intersectional class struggle towards a revolutionary direction through persuasion and engaging in direct action that inspires workers by example.57 The second position argued while anarchist unions could and should exist, specifically anarchist organisations should be formed to ensure that the anarchist unions remained anarchist and persuade workers outside of the anarchist unions to support anarchism.58 The merits of this strategy are that it can help ensure that unions do not revert back to business or liberal unionisms and can help link unionised and non-unionised workers in the course of building a revolutionary working-class movement. However, as I have detailed elsewhere, this tendency is marginal amongst anarchists in Aotearoa, while the other specifically socialist organisations engage in a mixture of consciousness-raising and reactive, defensive and reformist actions.59 In order for such organisations to fulfil the tasks outlined above, they will need to develop and integrate their theory, vision, tactics and strategy to transcend being sects and engage in theoretically-informed revolutionary practice.60
The proposal for the union movement in Aotearoa to adopt syndicalism will be criticised by some unionists for being unrealistic.61 There are two problems with this. First, business unionism and liberal unionism here have failed to end the current onslaught against workers’ rights by the right-wing convergence government, which is part of a global attack on workers’ rights by the capitalist class and states.62 Second, the reformism of business unionism and liberal unionism means that it can only address the symptoms of the polycrisis (which consist of the climate emergency, energy crises, stagflation, food system disruption, pandemics, geopolitical conflicts, and emerging technological risks) and not its root cause: the existing world system.63 Syndicalism, by contrast, provides the union movement here and globally with the tools to struggle not only for a fair day’s wage for a fair day’s work but also to emancipate the working-class through abolishing the wages system.64
1 This article’s title and its content is in part a response to the event “From protest to power: the path ahead for a resurgent union movement” that was organised on 24th June 2026 by the NZ Fabian Society and the Public Interest podcast. A video recording of the event can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoVuKyexvgo, while an audio recording of the event can be accessed here: https://www.publicinterest.nz/undercurrents-ep-6-are-the-unions-back/ I was heavily inspired to write this article after reading this article by the Angry Education Workers: https://www.angryeducationworkers.com/towards-a-revolutionary-union-movement/
2 An analysis of the causes of the 2018-present strike wave in Aotearoa can be found in this article: https://theconversation.com/overworked-and-underpaid-the-revival-of-strikes-in-new-zealand-111728 An incomplete data set for work stoppages in Aotearoa from 2005 to the present can be found here: https://www.employment.govt.nz/employment-new-zealand/data-and-analysis/data-and-statistics The history of the Fair Pay Agreements is detailed in this article: https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/22-12-2023/the-hard-won-and-swiftly-lost-dream-of-fair-pay-agreements An analysis of how the union movement in Aotearoa struggled against stagflation during the 1970’s global economic crisis can be found in this article: https://theconversation.com/strikes-protests-and-collective-action-how-fighting-a-cost-of-living-crisis-wasnt-always-about-tightening-your-own-belt-203402
3 Right-wing convergence is a concept developed by British anti-fascist theorist and lawyer David Renton in order to describe two political phenomena: 1. Cooperation between the centre-right and far-right and 2. The centre-right being politically radicalised by the far-right. For an overview of this concept, see this journal article: https://counterfutures.nz/10/CF%2010%20Barton.pdf, a review of this book: https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745338156/the-new-authoritarians/ An incomplete list of the right-wing convergence government’s policies that are rolling back workers’ rights can be found in these articles: https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/24-04-2025/a-stocktake-of-all-the-policies-rolling-back-workers-rights-in-new-zealand and https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/23-06-2026/one-of-brooke-van-veldens-final-acts-as-a-politician-will-also-be-her-most-dangerous, while further information on such policies can be found in the press releases of the NZ Council of Trade Unions/NZCTU that have been published since 2024 on the NZCTU’s website: https://union.org.nz/category/media-releases/ Further information about the NZCTU and its history can be found on their website: https://union.org.nz/about/
4 A concise introduction to syndicalism can be found in this book chapter: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/lucien-van-der-walt-syndicalism and in this journal article: https://lucienvanderwalt.com/2016/06/29/journal-pdf-van-der-walt-2016-global-anarchism-and-syndicalism-theory-history-resistance-anarchist-studies/ The origins of syndicalism in the anarchist faction of the 1864-1872 International Workingmen’s Association are detailed in chapter 5 of this book: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/robert-graham-we-do-not-fear-anarchy-we-invoke-it#toc7 Further information about the history of syndicalism in Europe and globally can be found in this book: https://libcom.org/article/new-perspectives-anarchism-labour-and-syndicalism-individual-national-and-transnational-ed and in this article: https://firewithfire.blog/2024/04/13/anarchist-unionism/, while an overview of contemporary syndicalism can be found in this dossier: https://ithanarquista.wordpress.com/contemporary-anarchism/ Contemporary conceptions of syndicalism can be found in these books: https://libcom.org/article/fighting-ourselves-anarcho-syndicalism-and-class-struggle-solidarity-federation, https://archive.org/details/wetzel-tom-overcoming-capitalism-strategy-for-the-working-class-in-the-21st-century-ak-press-2022 and https://umea.sac.se/grundbok-om-syndikalism/ A collection of historical and contemporary syndicalist texts can be found on this website: https://syndicalism.org/
5 An explanation of what business unionism is can be found in this article: https://archive.iww.org/history/documents/misc/DaveNeal/ In Aotearoa, examples of business unionism can be found when unions form partnership agreements with employers as well as when they establish tripartite structures where unions, employers and governments cooperate to agree on pay and conditions, which you can find out more about in these articles: https://www.treasury.govt.nz/sites/default/files/2019-04/fowtf-nzctu-hphe-4067388.PDF and https://www.mbie.govt.nz/business-and-employment/employment-and-skills/future-of-work-tripartite-forum/ and in these documents: https://psablogfiles.blob.core.windows.net/blogassets/Strategic-Goals-Whare-2024.pdf?sp=r&st=2025-02-22T07:37:58Z&se=2050-02-22T15:37:58Z&sv=2022-11-02&sr=b&sig=rj0YL0eU6RQYd9ryX%2BwSXwC211Y18AoA7F2dgX6tcIw%3D and https://www.workersfirst.nz/news/take-the-power-back
6 Liberal unionism (which is referred to as labor liberalism in the United States of America) is critically examined in chapter 3 of this book: https://seqldiww.org/class-struggle-unionism-how-workers-can-win-the-class-war/ In Aotearoa, examples of liberal unionism can be found in the Living Wage movement as well as the NZCTU organising Rā Whakamana with the Iwi Chairs Forum in October 2025 to oppose the right-wing convergence government’s anti-Māori legislation. Further information about both can be found on this website: https://www.livingwage.org.nz/ and in this article: https://www.teaonews.co.nz/2025/10/28/ra-whakamana-thousands-unite-for-tino-rangatiratanga-and-workers-rights/ Additional information on the Iwi Chairs Forum can be found on their website: https://iwichairs.maori.nz/
7 An introductory article on class can be found here: https://libcom.org/article/class-introduction and in the section “Open class analysis, the critique of the state, nationalism and Marxism-Leninism” of this journal article: https://ithanarquista.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/lucien-back-to-the-future.pdf An examination of Aotearoa’s contemporary class structure can be found in this journal article: https://counterfutures.nz/1/ongley.pdf and in this article: https://www.freedomshopaotearoa.nz/2023/09/class-war-in-21st-century-new-zealand.html
8 An examination of class struggle unionism can be found in this book: https://seqldiww.org/class-struggle-unionism-how-workers-can-win-the-class-war/ Contemporary examples of class struggle unionism can be found in these books: https://libcom.org/article/new-forms-worker-organization-syndicalist-and-autonomist-restoration-class-struggle and: https://seqldiww.org/the-class-strikes-back-self-organised-workers-struggles-in-the-twenty-first-century/ as well as in this article: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/jon-las-heras-and-beltran-roca-new-practices-in-industrial-relations A useful introduction to the differences between business unionism, liberal unionism and class struggle unionism can be found in this Instagram post: https://www.instagram.com/p/DYnhagLEvgr/
9 A major precursor to modern intersectionality was the 1974 statement published by the American black feminist socialist Combahee River Collective, which can be read here: https://americanstudies.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/Keyword%20Coalition_Readings.pdf Since the statement’s publication, intersectionality has been utilised and developed in different ways by liberal feminists and socialist feminists. Examples of intersectionality being used and developed by anarchists and Marxists since the 2008 Global Financial Crisis include these books: https://www.ashleybohrer.com/marxism-and-intersectionality, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1duNhEsLLloNia7b1z3zNkgUFhmgC6Fcz/view, https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/anark-a-modern-anarchism, https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/intersectional-socialism and https://archive.org/details/michael-beyea-reagan-intersectional-class-struggle-theory-and-practice-ak-press-2021, these articles: https://www.historicalmaterialism.org/articles/intersectionality-and-marxism, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/00380261221079115, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00380385221131143, https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/francis-dupuis-deri-is-the-state-part-of-the-matrix-of-domination-and-intersectionality, https://roarmag.org/essays/intersectional-class-struggle/ and this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1vq86giIBo
10 An introduction to community syndicalism can be found in this article: https://anarchiststudies.org/communitysyndicalism/ and in section J.5.1 of this book: https://www.anarchistfaq.org/afaq/sectionJ.html#secj51 Municipalist syndicalism is discussed in these articles: https://roarmag.org/magazine/municipalist-syndicalism-from-the-workplace-to-the-community/, https://roarmag.org/essays/municipalist-syndicalism-alex-kolokotronis/ and https://roarmag.org/magazine/tenant-unions-dual-power/ Green/eco-syndicalism is discussed in these articles: https://www.blackrosefed.org/wetzel-green-new-deal-syndicalist-alternative-part1/ and https://www.blackrosefed.org/wetzel-green-new-deal-syndicalist-alternative-part2/, in this PhD thesis: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/libertarian-degrowth-anarcho-syndicalist-paths-for-a-degrowth-future and in this book: https://greenunionism.org/books/revgreenunionism Biosyndicalism, a feminist and anti-racist form of syndicalism, is developed in these articles: https://commonecologies.net/essays/filigrana/ https://laboratoria.red/en/publicacion/bio-syndicalism-from-the-domestic-territories-an-introductory-selection/ and in this book: https://commonecologies.net/publications/biosyndicalism-from-the-domestic-territories/ Logistical syndicalism is examined in this article: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/jeff-shantz-logistical-syndicalism Student syndicalism is discussed in these articles: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/prairie-struggle-the-history-of-the-quebec-student-movement-and-combative-unionism and https://www.angryeducationworkers.com/towards-a-student-unionism/ A global history of syndicalist participation in anti-colonial and anti-imperialist struggles from the late 19th century to the early 20th century can be found in this book: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/steven-j-hirsch-lucien-van-der-walt-anarchism-and-syndicalism-in-the-colonial-and-postcolonial An article arguing for a contemporary decolonial anarcho-syndicalism can be found here: https://anarchistunionjournal.org/2024/04/11/anarcho-syndicalism-must-mean-land-back/ Examples of anti-colonial class struggle in Australia can be found in this article: https://arcup.org/blog/2026/05/12/class-struggle-anticolonial/ A major example of anti-colonial class struggle by unions during the struggle to defend Bastion Point from being stolen from Māori by the Government in 1970’s Aotearoa is discussed in this article: https://thespinoff.co.nz/atea/23-09-2025/the-forgotten-union-green-ban-that-defended-bastion-point An article providing an anarchist communist analysis of the class dynamics of ableism and how it can be struggled against by workers in their workplaces and in the community can be found here: https://ancomfed.org/2026/06/disability-is-a-class-issue/, A comparative analysis of Marxist and anarchist conceptions of disability can be found in this journal article: https://cjds.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/cjds/article/view/212 An example of syndicalist organising amongst incarcerated workers is the Incarcerated Workers Organising Committee, whose history is outlined in this article: https://incarceratedworkers.org/history/ and is discussed as part of a comparative analysis of other examples of incarcerated workers organising in this journal article: https://academic.oup.com/bjc/article/65/4/822/7885188 An examination of how unions could work with other forms of workers’ organisations in workplaces and in the community to struggle for police and prison abolition as part of a broader revolutionary struggle against the existing system can be found in these articles: https://usufructcollective.wordpress.com/2023/06/04/kick-the-cops-off-your-block-2/ and https://usufructcollective.wordpress.com/2022/09/08/a-friendly-critique-of-bookchins-politics/ An abolitionist critique of prisons can be found in this article: https://ancomfed.org/2026/04/capitalism-needs-prisons-but-we-dont/ and in this book chapter: https://openaccess.wgtn.ac.nz/articles/chapter/Prison_Abolitionism_Philosophies_Principles_and_Practices/19611696 An extensive account of the theory and practice of police abolition can be found in this book: https://issuu.com/dogsectionpress/docs/abolishingthepolice
11 A major example of reformism within the union movement in Aotearoa today is the NZCTU’s Reimagining Aotearoa Together project, a vision for Aotearoa developed and signed off by the NZCTU’s leadership in the leadup to the 2026 general election: https://www.reimagineaotearoa.nz/
12 An introductory article about capitalism can be found here: https://libcom.org/article/capitalism-introduction, while an introductory article about the state can be found here: https://libcom.org/article/state-introduction Further information about the history of unionism in Aotearoa and its relationship to the state can be found in these articles: https://teara.govt.nz/en/nga-uniana-maori-and-the-union-movement, https://www.lexisnexis.com/blogs/nz/b/employment-law/posts/trade-unions-in-new-zealand-past-present-and-future and in this book: https://www.bwb.co.nz/books/workers-in-the-margins/
13 An informative introductory account of general strikes can be found in this article: https://firewithfire.blog/2026/04/26/the-big-break-general-strikes-in-the-past-and-present/ and in this podcast: https://www.radical-guide.com/a-radical-podcast-ep-23-strikes-wildcat-to-revolutionary/ Syndicalist conceptions of revolution are discussed in section J.7 of this book: https://www.anarchistfaq.org/afaq/sectionJ.html#secj7 and the section “Social Revolution” in chapter 4 of this book: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/zoe-baker-means-and-ends#toc17 The largest and most influential example of a syndicalist approach to revolution is the 1936-1939 Spanish Revolution, which is discussed in this reading guide: https://libcom.org/article/spanish-civil-war-1936-39-reading-guide, these articles: https://www.blackrosefed.org/spanish-revolution-wetzel/ and https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/developing-a-model-of-self-managed-socialism-lessons-from-the-spanish-revolution/, chapter 8 of this book: https://libcom.org/article/ours-master-and-own-workers-control-commune-present, chapter 1 of this book: https://archive.org/details/the-future-of-revolution and this journal article: https://lucienvanderwalt.com/2014/07/04/van-der-walt-2014-reclaiming-syndicalism-from-spain-to-south-africa/ The concept of workers’ self-management, which is pivotal to syndicalist theory and practice, is discussed in this article: https://unisapressjournals.co.za/index.php/EAC/article/view/11350 An analysis of the structural and agent-based factors behind the degeneration of the Spanish Revolution can be found in this PhD thesis: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/items/402a93ad-d16f-426a-bd9c-9b4e21a82acd An informative discussion of historical and contemporary examples of rent strikes can be found in this book: https://uclpress.co.uk/book/rent-strikes/ In addition, in recent decades there has been the development of the theory and practice of a gender strike, where workers engaging in social reproductive labour, predominantly women, go on strike. Further information about gender strikes can be found in this book chapter: https://gendersexualityfeminist.duke.edu/sites/gendersexualityfeminist.duke.edu/files/documents/Ver%C3%B3nica%20Gago%20Pre-Conference%20Reading%20-%20Feminist%20International_Chapter1.pdf, in this book: https://outraspalavras.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Feminism-for-the-99.pdf and in this journal article: https://read.dukeupress.edu/critical-times/article/5/3/618/344132/Revisiting-and-Recreating-the-StrikeQuestions-for
14 Syndicalist conceptions of a revolutionary society are discussed in this PhD thesis: https://asset.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/5QYJZN7URNJGV9B/R/file-246c2.pdf and in this article: https://libcom.org/article/kropotkins-ideas-and-international-anarchist-movement-1920s-and-1930s-vadim-damier Since the mid-2010’s, there has been an increasing amount of debate about what socialist planning could be like in the 21st century, as detailed in this article: https://www.exploring-economics.org/de/entdecken/rethinking-democratic-economic-planning-an-overview/ and on these websites: https://www.indep.network/, https://www.democratic-planning.com/ and https://www.planningresearch.net/ An informative examination of some of the major debates within contemporary discussions of socialist planning can be found in this article: https://criticaltheoryinberlin.de/en/interventions/11-theses-on-planning/ Within contemporary debates on socialist planning, the proposals that most closely align with syndicalism are the participatory economy, as detailed on this website: https://participatoryeconomy.org/, Commonism, which is outlined on this website: https://commonism.org/ and the labour-time economy, which is outlined in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YctPCv3jaLE, with its relationship to syndicalism being discussed in this article: https://arbeitszeitrechnung.org/en/syndicalism-and-labour-time-accounting/
15 An overview of how anarcho-syndicalists conceive of defending a revolution can be found in Section J.7.6 of this book: https://www.anarchistfaq.org/afaq/sectionJ.html#secj76 while an in-depth discussion can be found in this PhD thesis: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/chris-beaumont-defending-an-anarchist-society An exploration of social defence, or the use of peaceful direct action to defend a society from external invasion or internal coups, can be found in this book: https://www.bmartin.cc/pubs/19sd/19sd.pdf A helpful overview of armed community self-defence can be found in this article: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/scott-crow-liberatory-community-armed-self-defense, while syndicalist examples of armed community self-defence can be found in this book: https://archive.org/details/setting-sights-scott-crow/page/n1/mode/2up The example of workers’ militias in the Spanish Revolution is discussed in chapter 6 of this book: https://archive.org/details/oapen-20.500.12657-54127/mode/2up The example of workers and peasants’ militias in Ukraine during the Russian Revolution is discussed in this article: https://organisemagazine.org.uk/2026/07/01/the-anti-authoritarian-organization-of-the-makhnovist-movement/ and in the section “The Makhnovists” of this reading guide: https://libcom.org/article/russian-revolution-1917-reading-guide
16 Conceptions of a post-revolutionary society by syndicalists and related socialists tendencies can be found in these articles: https://libcom.org/article/anarchist-communism-introduction, https://libcom.org/article/libertarian-communism-introduction, https://usufructcollective.wordpress.com/2022/02/01/the-conquest-of-sandwiches/, https://social-ecology.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/Peter.3.Cooperative_Commonwealth.pdf, https://www.theoryandpractice.org.uk/publication/alternative-capitalism/, https://monthlyreview.org/2005/10/01/marxs-vision-of-sustainable-human-development/ and https://www.academia.edu/788711/The_Free_Association_of_the_Producers One of the major post-revolutionary institutions supported by syndicalists are directly democratic councils, which this article engages in a further development of by detailing how it can be an institution where the freely associated producers of a post-revolutionary society can exercise constituent power (a form of power where people can create new social relations as well as transform and/or abolish existing social relations): https://research.cbs.dk/en/publications/between-constituent-power-and-political-form-toward-a-theory-of-c/ While the above texts focus on the political and economic structures of a post-revolutionary strategy, in recent years there has been development of conceptions of how a post-revolutionary society would organise social reproduction, particularly by socialist feminists, as detailed in these articles: https://endnotes.org.uk/articles/to-abolish-the-family.pdf, https://pinko.online/pinko-1/communizing-care, and https://isr.press/Griffiths_Gleeson_Kinderkommunismus/index.html and in this book: https://archive.org/details/family-abolition-capitalism-and-the-communizing-of-care-m-e-o-brien
17 An elaboration of this conception of prefiguration can be found in chapter 2 of this book: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/sofa-saio-gradin-prefigurative-politics-building-tomorrow-today
18 An anarchist conception of the theory of practice can be found in the section “The Theory of Practice” in chapter 2 of this book: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/zoe-baker-means-and-ends#toc10, while a Marxist conception of the theory of practice can be found in this journal article: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1467-8675.12319 as well as in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkMIVW7znZI
19 This issue is discussed in further depth in the section “The Problem of Socialist Transformation” in chapter 3 of this book: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/zoe-baker-means-and-ends#toc15
20 A detailed discussion of the functions of syndicalist unions can be found in the section “The Dual Function of Syndicalist Anarchist Unions” in chapter 8 of this book: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/zoe-baker-means-and-ends#toc45
21 The organisational structures of unions in Aotearoa are outlined in their constitutions, which are usually located on their websites. A directory of unions in Aotearoa can be found on this website: https://union.org.nz/find-your-union/
22 A theoretical account of the trade union bureaucracy and its origins can be found in this journal article: https://alternateroutes.ca/index.php/ar/article/view/19221
23 An extensive discussion of historic syndicalist conceptions of decision-making can be found in this essay: https://anarchozoe.com/2025/12/30/myths-about-anarchism-democracy-and-decision-making/, while an examination of contemporary conceptions of decision-making by syndicalists can be found in this open access book: https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/constitutionalising-anarchy/BE2F0EC99C60DED1B023E437B19E1FBA
24 A succinct overview of anarchist and syndicalist conceptions of federalism can be found in this article: https://www.redblacknotes.com/2020/07/01/what-do-anarchists-mean-by-federalism/ and in section I.5.2 of this book: https://www.anarchistfaq.org/afaq/sectionI.html#seci52 An introductory article on the imperative mandate can be found here: https://read.dukeupress.edu/critical-times/article/1/1/108/139309/Who-s-Afraid-of-the-Imperative-Mandate A detailed analysis of how federalism operated within the Spanish anarcho-syndicalist National Confederation of Labour/CNT in the lead up to the Spanish Revolution can be found in this article: https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/id/eprint/194715/, while the counter-cultural structures developed by the CNT before the Spanish Revolution are examined in detail in this essay: https://anarchozoe.com/2022/12/01/anarchist-counter-culture-in-spain/
25 An informative introduction to unions can be found in this article: https://libcom.org/article/unions-introduction
26 This issue is discussed in further depth in the section “Trade unionism” of chapter 1 of this book: https://libcom.org/article/fighting-ourselves-anarcho-syndicalism-and-class-struggle-solidarity-federation The most tragic example of this in the history of the trade union movement in Aotearoa was when the NZCTU blocked efforts to organise a general strike to oppose the anti-union and anti-worker 1991 Employment Contracts Act, as detailed in this pamphlet: https://libcom.org/library/myth-passivity-class-struggles-neoliberalism-aotearoa-toby-boraman
27 A brief overview of this history can be found in page 1 of this article: https://teara.govt.nz/en/labour-party/page-1 and in page 4 of this article: https://teara.govt.nz/en/unions-and-employee-organisations/page-4
28 The figure comes from page 7 of this article: https://teara.govt.nz/en/labour-party/page-7 Six of the trade unions affiliated to the Labour Party are listed in this press release: https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO2009/S00292/labours-workplace-relations-and-safety-policy-shows-strength-of-nz-unions.htm The issues with trade unions affiliating with parties are outlined in this article: https://nickkelly.blog/2020/07/11/trade-unions-and-political-affiliations/ A history of the Labour Party from its beginnings until the Third Way neoliberal Fifth Labour-led government can be found in this article: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2011/12/02/the-truth-about-labour-a-bosses-party/ An analysis of neoliberal capitalism in Aotearoa from 1984 to the present, which the Labour Party initiated the transition to, can be found in this Master’s thesis: https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/server/api/core/bitstreams/4787b571-df49-4cf8-9fba-c4c148390116/content Critical examinations of the Third Way neoliberal Sixth Labour-led government can be found in these articles: https://theconversation.com/nz-election-2023-labour-out-national-in-either-way-neoliberalism-wins-again-214723, https://www.fabians.org.nz/index.php?view=article&id=297:transforming-new-zealand-why-has-the-left-failed&catid=87 and https://labornotes.org/2020/10/no-excuses-historic-new-zealand-election-challenges-labor-movement as well as this Master’s thesis: https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/server/api/core/bitstreams/3e7ea554-d1d5-4f29-afb4-c9a31f532619/content These problems are not unique to the Labour Party, as the Green Party has similar issues, as detailed in this article: https://iso.org.nz/2026/06/17/party-profiles-the-new-zealand-greens-a-marxist-critique/
29 A critique of seizing state power that is adhered to by historical and contemporary syndicalists can be found in this article: https://www.blackrosefed.org/anarchopac-critique-of-seizing-state-power/ and in section J.2.2 of this book: https://www.anarchistfaq.org/afaq/sectionJ.html#secj22 An anarchist communist critique of American socialist electoralist strategies can be found in this reader: https://www.blackrosefed.org/socialist-faces-in-high-places-reader/ A communist critique of the British Labour Party under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn from 2015-2019 can be found in this article: https://www.angryworkers.org/2019/12/21/labour-defeat-thoughts-on-democratic-socialism/
30 This critique is further developed in chapter 5 of this book: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/zoe-baker-means-and-ends#toc23
31 The importance of unions and other social movements being independent from the state, capitalists, parties and non-governmental organisations is discussed in further depth in part 13 of this book: https://libcom.org/article/social-anarchism-and-organisation-farj
32 An informative introduction to direct action can be found in this article: https://libcom.org/article/direct-action-introduction A further discussion of the origins of direct action can be found in this journal article: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-review-of-social-history/article/direct-action-the-invention-of-a-transnational-concept/12505D4E6288B6BC01859740280AA6D4 Proposals for how to organise wildcat, or unofficial and unauthorised strikes, in contemporary American conditions can be found in this book: https://libcom.org/article/reviving-strike-joe-burns
33 An introductory article on campism can be found here: https://arcup.org/blog/2026/03/17/campism/ An article providing a brief history of campism can be found here: https://newpol.org/issue_post/internationalism-anti-imperialism-and-the-origins-of-campism/ A critique of the assumption that settler colonialism is just European or Western that underlines much of contemporary Chinese-Russian campism can be found in this article: https://aeon.co/essays/settler-colonialism-is-not-distinctly-western-or-european An article demonstrating that contemporary China is imperialist can be found here: https://newpol.org/issue_post/chinas-emergence-imperialist-power/ A critique of contemporary anti-Western imperialist politics can be found in these articles: https://spectrejournal.com/against-multipolar-imperialism/, https://theamargi.com/posts/the-iran-war-and-the-contradictions-of-anti-imperialism and https://iso.org.nz/2024/10/24/vijay-prashad-campism-and-anti-colonial-struggle/ A collection of articles critiquing campism can be found on this website: https://peoplenotstates.wordpress.com/
34 A critical examination of the history of the Labour Party’s support for Western imperialism can be found in this article: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2011/12/02/the-truth-about-labour-a-bosses-party/ Critiques of the Labour Party’s interest in participating the AUKUS military pact between the American, British and Australian governments can be found in these articles: https://e-tangata.co.nz/comment-and-analysis/resist-aukus-protect-hawaiki/ and https://e-tangata.co.nz/comment-and-analysis/siding-with-the-us-sells-out-our-pacific-family/ Critiques of AUKUS can be found in these journal articles: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10357718.2024.2398745 and https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10357718.2024.2403735 While Labour has committed to not join AUKUS if it wins the 2026 general election, it does say that the New Zealand military would use any military technology produced by the pact, as detailed in this article: https://www.thepost.co.nz/politics/360507270/labours-aukus-decision-called-stupid-defence-minister
35 An example of this is a March 2026 talk on Cuba that was jointly organised by New Zealanders for a Democratic Economy and the Cuba Friendship Society, whose Auckland spokesperson is Mike Treen, who was previously Unite Union’s National Director. The talk can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSim0ePkqpw&t=3s An explanation of what a company union is can be found on this website: https://union.org.nz/understanding-union-language-why-it-matters/ A critique of the Cuban government’s relationship to unions following the 1959 Cuban Revolution can be found in this article: https://newpol.org/the-transformations-of-the-cuban-revolution/ and in this article: https://socialistworker.org/2012/05/15/who-do-cubas-unions-defend. The author of both articles has published a book on contemporary Cuba, with the book’s main arguments being summarised in this review: https://againstthecurrent.org/atc158/p3592/ A summary of the Cuban government’s recent marketisation, privatisation and commodification reforms to its economy can be found in this article: https://apnews.com/article/cuba-economic-reforms-diaz-canel-758f2199c867472e05e585ccc54a269f Many sympathisers of the Cuban government also support the Chinese government on the erroneous grounds that it is socialist, which I have critiqued in my review of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics: A Guide for Foreigners by Roland Boer that was previously published by Fightback and can be read here: https://buttondown.com/Fightback/archive/the-poverty-of-roland-boers-philosophy-about/
36 Examples of this include the NZCTU filing a complaint with the United Nations over the right-wing convergence government passing reforms to gut the pay equity system, as detailed in this article: https://union.org.nz/nz-pay-equity-rollback-triggers-united-nations-complaint/
and the NZCTU attending the 114th International Labour Conference, where a binding global labour standard for platform work was adopted, with the right-wing convergence government and the far-right Trump Administration voting against adopting it, as detailed in this article: https://union.org.nz/new-zealand-woefully-out-of-step-with-new-global-standard-for-digital-platform-workers/
37 An article making an anarchist communist case for an anti-campist internationalism can be found here: https://ancomfed.org/2025/11/why-anarchists-are-internationalists/ An article making the case for building workers’ organisations to resist imperialist wars can be found here: https://arcup.org/blog/2026/03/11/iranwar/ An introduction to the history of anarcho-syndicalist internationalism can be found in this article: https://workersoftheworld.net/previous-editions/volume-1-number-4/chapter-8/, while historical syndicalist approaches to anti-colonial independence struggles are outlined in the section “Three major anarchist and syndicalist approaches to independence struggles” of this book: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/steven-j-hirsch-lucien-van-der-walt-anarchism-and-syndicalism-in-the-colonial-and-postcolonial#toc13 The visions of decolonisation that transcend the limits of national independence struggles from syndicalists such as Daniel Guérin and Albert Camus are analysed in this journal article: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S096262982500054X Contemporary syndicalist internationals are discussed in section 5.1 of this dossier: https://ithanarquista.wordpress.com/contemporary-anarchism/ A manifesto arguing for an anti-campist internationalism can be found here: https://thepeopleswant.org/en/manifesto Examples of transnational class struggle include a strike wave by Amazon workers in Europe and America, as detailed in this article: https://www.transnational-strike.info/projects/amazon-workers-international/ and Mediterranean dockworkers striking in opposition to the genocide in Gaza, as detailed in this blog post: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/businessreview/2026/03/03/mediterranean-dockworkers-are-striking-to-protest-against-war/ One of the strategies utilised by anti-campist internationalists is revolutionary defeatism, which proposes that socialists organise to transform wars between imperialist powers into social revolutions, as detailed in these articles: https://historyiswhat.noblogs.org/post/2025/05/09/anarchism-and-revolutionary-defeatism-k-c-sinclair-2025/ and https://www.angryworkers.org/2023/04/18/thoughts-on-revolutionary-defeatism/
38 Syndicalist approaches to transforming existing unions are detailed in the section “Size and Impact” of this article: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/lucien-van-der-walt-syndicalism#toc6 and in this blog post: https://firewithfire.blog/2024/06/08/against-executive-boards/
39 Syndicalist critiques of boring from within and entryist strategies can be found in this article: https://ecology.iww.org/node/1169
40 This encyclopaedia entry provides further information about the Red Feds: https://teara.govt.nz/en/1966/political-parties/page-12
41 The struggles by rank-and-file NZNO members to democratise their union are detailed in these articles: https://www.nursingreview.co.nz/activists-seeking-nzno-reform-following-dhb-deal/, https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/106097286/nurse-union-members-fractured-after-pay-deal-with-many-doubting-it-had-majority-support and https://kaitiaki.org.nz/article/big-leap-forward-for-nzno-as-new-constitution-voted-in-by-members/
42 A short history of the IWW section in Aotearoa in the early 20th century can be found in this pamphlet: https://libcom.org/history/industrial-unionism-two-pamphlets-iww-new-zealand, in chapter 11 of this book: https://files.libcom.org/files/Wobblies%20of%20the%20World,%20A%20Global%20History%20of%20the%20IWW%20-%20Peter%20Cole,%20David%20Struthers,%20Kenyon%20Zimmer.pdf and in this Master’s thesis: https://mro.massey.ac.nz/items/b33ab84d-a652-419b-a89c-9da9344ec491
43 The IWW’s website can be found here: https://www.iww.org/about/
44 The repression of the IWW in Aotearoa during the First World War is examined in detail in this article: https://garagecollective.blogspot.com/2014/05/fighting-war-anarchists-wobblies-and.html The Alliance of Labour is discussed in page 4 of this article: https://teara.govt.nz/en/unions-and-employee-organisations/page-4 The One Big Union Council is briefly discussed in this article: https://libcom.org/article/country-considered-be-free-new-zealand-and-iww
45 An extensive account of the 1951 waterfront lockout can be found in this article: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2012/11/23/behind-the-1951-waterfront-lockout/
46 The failed attempt to revitalise the IWW in Aotearoa in the 1970’s is discussed in chapter 4 of this book: https://libcom.org/article/rabble-rousers-and-merry-pranksters-history-anarchism-aotearoanew-zealand-mid-1950s-early The failed attempt to revitalise the IWW in Aotearoa in the 1990’s is briefly discussed in this pamphlet: https://libcom.org/history/industrial-unionism-two-pamphlets-iww-new-zealand Press releases by the Autonomous Workers Union can be found on this website: https://info.scoop.co.nz/Autonomous_Workers_Union
47 The website of the IWW’s section in Aotearoa can be found here: https://iww.org.nz/
48 Syndicalist arguments for forming new unions can be found in these articles: https://www.blackrosefed.org/wetzel-rank-and-file-strategy-syndicalist/ and https://www.blackrosefed.org/the-case-for-building-new-unions-wetzel/ Informative overviews of solidarity unionism can be found in this book: https://archive.org/details/solidarity-unionism-staughton-lynd/mode/2up and in this Master’s thesis: https://www.iww.fi/2025/05/06/solidarity-unionism/ Contemporary examples of solidarity unionism can be found in chapter 6 of this book: https://www.angryworkers.org/class-power-on-zero-hours/, in this book: https://wacclearinghouse.org/books/precarity/rebels/ and in this journal article: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/09500170261432085
49 A guide on how to create new unions in a manner that is informed by solidarity unionism can be found in this book: https://unionsofourown.org/, whose author is interviewed about the book in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JnkGf9gB1U
50 The challenges faced by solidarity unionist organising efforts in America and in Canada are examined in this journal article: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/wusa.12171
51 A syndicalist conception of the rank-and-file strategy can be found in this article: https://overcomingcapitalism.info/talk-at-los-angeles-anarchist-book-fair/ An anarchist communist conception of the rank-and-file strategy can be found in this article: https://ancomfed.org/2025/09/how-workers-win-power-rank-and-file-strategy/
52 An example of rank-and-file networks within existing unions are Fight the Crisis, Socialists in Schools, and the Australian Anarchist Communist Federation-led group Class Struggle in the Australian Education Union, as detailed in this article: https://ancomfed.org/2026/06/class-war-in-the-classroom/ An examination of dual carding in theory and in practice can be found in these articles: https://organizing.work/2018/10/on-dual-carding/ and https://industrialworker.org/the-pros-and-cons-of-dual-carding/ Information on what solidarity networks are, examples of them and guidance on how to form one can be found in this article: https://www.angryeducationworkers.com/primer-on-solidarity-networks-dual-power-and-community-self-defense/ and in this journal article: https://mulpress.mcmaster.ca/globallabour/article/view/5328
53 An interview of an HSWN member by the Recomposition blog can be found here: https://hswnorg.wordpress.com/2017/02/20/hswn-interview-with-recomposition/ The HSWN’s zine can be downloaded here: https://hswnorg.wordpress.com/2019/11/17/hswn-zine-dirt-from-the-floor/ The HSWN’s worker’s inquiry report can be found here: https://hswnorg.wordpress.com/2020/03/30/compromised-health-a-workers-inquiry-report/ An explanation of what worker’s inquiries are can be found in this article: https://notesfrombelow.org/article/workers-inquiry-and-social-composition
54 I attended the HSWN’s rank-and-file networks hui and wrote up a report summarising what happened at the hui. The report can be read here: https://hswnorg.wordpress.com/2019/06/22/report-on-2019-aotearoa-rank-and-file-networks-hui/
55 This issue faced by rank-and-file networks is discussed in depth and examples of this issue in late 20th century and early 21st century British rank-and-file networks are provided in the section “From propaganda group to revolutionary union” of this book: https://libcom.org/article/fighting-ourselves-anarcho-syndicalism-and-class-struggle-solidarity-federation The accomplishments and issues with rank-and-file workers organising by Trotskyists in the meat-freezing industry in Aotearoa in the late 1970’s are detailed in this article: https://overland.org.au/2018/03/the-turn-to-industry-what-happened-when-left-activists-joined-the-working-class/
56 An informative overview of the history of organisational dualism can be found in chapter 10 from this book: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/zoe-baker-means-and-ends#toc47
57 The predominant tendency within contemporary organisational dualism that adheres to this position is especifismo, which was developed by the Uruguayan Anarchist Federation after its formation in 1956, as detailed in this PhD thesis: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/88j5w64v which has been published as this book: https://www.akpress.org/anarchist-popular-power.html Especifismo is discussed in further detail in these articles: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/carl-eugene-stroud-how-do-you-say-especifismo-in-english, https://especifismostudies.org/2023/02/17/the-january-document-from-militant-kindergarten/ and www.redblacknotes.com/2022/07/30/foundational-concepts-of-the-specific-anarchist-organisation/, this manifesto: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/libertarian-socialist-organization-founding-manifesto, this document: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/organizacao-socialista-libertaria-our-principles-and-general-strategy, this program: https://www.blackrosefed.org/about/program/ and this website: https://especifismostudies.org/
58 The debate amongst anarchists on the relationship between syndicalism and specifically anarchist organisations can be found in the section “Syndicalism and Specific Anarchist Organizations” of this book: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/zoe-baker-means-and-ends#toc49 and in this book: https://libcom.org/article/constructive-anarchism-debate-platform-gp-maximov Regarding whether syndicalist unions should explicitly adopt a political ideology or not, my view as of writing this article is that after examining historical and contemporary examples of both large and small syndicalist unions, I would argue that whether a syndicalist union should adopt an explicit political ideology or not should be decided on the basis of an assessment of the current balance of intersectional class forces, as such an assessment would be the necessary foundation to be able to determine if explicitly adopting a political ideology would be possible while also ensuring that the union continues to have a mass working-class base and does not become a sect in all but name. An informative overview of the socialist sects in Aotearoa as of the early 2020’s can be found in these articles: https://notessouthfromnowhere.wordpress.com/2022/06/26/a-sectological-survey-of-nz-2022/ and https://notessouthfromnowhere.wordpress.com/2022/12/01/supplementary-notes-on-sectology-the-current-state-and-political-composition-of-the-socialist-left/
59 I discuss this in further detail in my essay for “What is to be done?” issue of The Commonweal, which can be read here: https://thecommonweal.substack.com/p/tamaki-makaurau-anarchists, as well as in this review of The Workers' Way to Freedom and Other Council Communist Writings by Anton Pannekoek that I previously wrote for Fightback, which can be read here: https://buttondown.com/Fightback/archive/a-telescope-to-a-communist-future-review-of-anton
60 Resources on how this could be done can be found in these books: https://archive.org/details/aric-mc-bay-full-spectrum-resistance-volume-one-building-movements-and-fighting-/Aric%20McBay%20-%20Full%20Spectrum%20Resistance%2C%20Volume%20One_%20Building%20Movements%20and%20Fighting%20to%20Win%20One%20%282019%2C%20Seven%20Stories%20Press%29/, https://archive.org/details/let-this-radicalize-you/mode/2up, https://www.akpress.org/read-this-when-things-fall-apart-ebook.html, https://www.writingwithmovements.com/long-haul/, https://workers-can-win.info/ and https://archive.org/details/TheSolutionsareAlreadyHere/mode/2up, these articles: https://www.unityandstruggle.org/2019/03/new-tools-needed-community-organizing/, https://www.unityandstruggle.org/organizer-training/, www.sevenstories.com/blogs/402-patterns-of-resistance-an-excerpt-from-movements-that-win and https://theecologist.org/2018/jul/10/rethinking-alinsky-community-organising as well as this journal article: https://jwsr.pitt.edu/ojs/jwsr/article/view/903
61 A syndicalist response to social democratic and Marxist critiques of syndicalism can be found in this journal article: https://lucienvanderwalt.com/2014/08/06/journal-pdf-lucien-van-der-walt-2013-anarchismsyndicalism-as-a-vision-strategy-and-experience-of-bottom-up-socialist-democracy-a-reply-to-daryl-glaser/ and in this article: https://lucienvanderwalt.com/2011/07/04/journal-anarchism-black-flame-marxism-and-the-ist-debating-power-revolution-and-bolshevism/
62 The global attack on workers’ rights is analysed in detailed in the Global Rights Index 2026, a report published by the International Trade Union Confederation that can be read here: https://www.ituc-csi.org/global-rights-index-2026
63 An analysis of the polycrisis, its root causes in the existing world system and an envisioning of possible pathways beyond the polycrisis can be found in this book: https://direct.mit.edu/books/oa-monograph/5764/Navigating-the-PolycrisisMapping-the-Futures-of Within the book, the uneven and combined world-system pathway/WSP beyond the polycrisis that most aligns with syndicalism is WSP7 (abolitionist ecosocialism).
64 This is derived from the phrase “Instead of the conservative motto, “A fair day’s wage for a fair day’s work,” we must inscribe on our banner the revolutionary watchword, “Abolition of the wage system.”, which originally comes from Karl Marx’s book Value, Price and Profit that can be read here: https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1865/value-price-profit/index.htm and was later incorporated into the preamble of the constitution of the Industrial Workers of the World, an analysis of which can be found in this article: https://industrialworker.org/the-philosophy-of-the-preamble/
