Workers Solidarity Alliance

About Me

Where We Stand
Workers Solidarity Alliance is an anti-capitalist, anti-authoritarian organization of activists who believe that working people can build a new society and a better world based on the principles of solidarity and self-management.Our view is that such a society will be brought about only by working people building their own self-managed mass organizations from the ground up. Independent working class organization exists to some extent today in the form of rank-and-file committees, tenants unions, workers centers and other formations that might represent the forerunner of such a movement.We participate in current struggles and in the existing unions to fight for the rights of working people in the here and now, while working to build new, self-managed unions in the workplace and self-managed community organizations.In building organizations that are run directly by their membership, we not only create more effective organizations for fighting the bosses in day-to-day struggles, we will also be laying the foundation for a new society run by working people.We believe that the working class is in a prime position to overthrow the power of the bosses, given its essential economic role in society. It is we, the workers, who provide the capitalists with the skills, knowledge and labor that give them their profits. Without us, no plant or office could run, no ship could sail, no train could run, no periodical printed, no office cleaned, no document typed, no food produced, no food served. Without us, you could not use the internet.We see the fight against racism, gender inequality (patriarchy), and oppression of gay people as essential elements of the struggle for an egalitarian, self-managed society."From self-managed unionism to a self-managed society"
Frequently Asked Questions about Workers Solidarity Alliance

My Interests

The official website of the WSA can be found at www.workersolidarity.org From Wikipedia: Workers Solidarity Alliance (WSA) is a United States political activist group that advocates anarcho-syndicalism; WSA is not a trade union or proto-union. Workers Solidarity Alliance (WSA) was created out of a pre-existing network, including the Libertarian Workers' Group, in 1984. The journal Ideas and Action, which had begun publishing in 1982, was published by WSA from 1984 to 1997. Following the slogan of Flora Tristan, that "the emancipation of the working class is the work of the workers themselves", WSA believes that the working class needs to create its own mass organizations that it directly controls in order to have a movement that can liberate the working class from subordination to dominating classes. WSA thus advocates the development of self-managed solidarity unionism, through either reform of existing unions or creation of new self-managed mass organizations in workplace struggles. WSA also advocates the development of self-managed mass organizations in struggles that arise outside the workplace. WSA holds that struggles against gender inequality, structural racism, and oppression of gay people are also part of the larger fight for social liberation and self-management. WSA believes that both Capitalism and Communism are based on the subjugation and exploitation of the working class. Workers' liberation would require that the working class gain control of the industries where we work, dismantling the top-down corporate hierarchies, but also requires the creation of new institutions of popular power, based in participatory democracy of assemblies in neighborhoods and workplaces, dismantling the top-down hierarchies of the state, so that the mass of the people gain control over public affairs. The WSA was formerly an affiliate of the International Workers Association (IWA) and continues to be in solidarity with the Aims and Principles of the IWA.

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Interested in joining Workers Solidarity Alliance? Doing so is pretty simple. The conditions of membership are:1. Agreeing with our basic principles, stated in Where We Stand.2. A willingness to be active in support of these aims (for example, being involved in or supporting workers' struggles).3. Paying dues.If you would like to join, contact the National Office:

Workers Solidarity Alliance
339 Lafayette St, Room 202
New York, NY 10012
tel: 212-979 8353
fax: 973-773-9337
email: [email protected]
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Books:

Poor Workers' Unions - Vanessa Tait
We Are All Leaders: The Alternative Unionism of the Early 1930s - Staughton Lynd
Hard-Pressed in the Heartland: the Hormel Strike & the Future of the Labor Movement - Peter Rachleff
Solidarity for Sale - Robert Fitch
Anarchism - Daniel Guerin
The IWW: Itâ€™s First 70 Years 1905-1975 - Fred Thompson and Patrick Murfin
A Peopleâ€™s History of the United States - Howard Zinn
Strike! - Jeremy Brecher
Homage To Catalonia - George Orwell
Soviets and Factory Committees in the Russian Revolution - Peter Rachleff
Bolsheviks & Workers' Control - Maurice Brinton
"The Soviet Experience" in Socialism Today and Tomorrow - Michael Albert
My Disillusionment in Russia - Emma Goldman
Kronstadt 1917-1921 - Israel Getzler
Nestor Makhno: Anarchy's Cossack - Alexandre Skirda
Free Women of Spain - Martha Ackelsberg
Collectives in the Spanish Revolution - Gaston Leval
Anarchists in the Spanish Revolution - Jose Peirats
Towards a Fresh Revolution - Friends of Durruti Group
Blood of Spain - Ronald Fraser
The Working Class Majority:: America's Best Kept Secret - Michael Zweig
ABCs of Political Economy - Robin Hahnel
Spain Betrayed - Ron Radosh, Mary Habeck, Grigory Sevostianov
Anarcho-Syndicalism - Rudolf Rocker
The Friends of Durruti Group: 1937-1939 - Agustin GuillamÃ³n
"Wrong Steps" (Kate Sharpley Library pamphlet) - Juan Garcia Oliver
Fragments - Sam Dolgoff
Syndicalism - Tom Brown
All The Right Enemies: The Life and Murder of Carlo Tresca - Dorothy Gallagher
My Social Credo - Gregori Maximoff
Libertarian Communism - Isaac Puente
After The Revolution - Diego Abad De Santillan
Program of Anarcho-Syndicalism - Gregori Maximoff
The Autobiography of Mother Jones - Mary Harris Jones
African Anarchism -Sam Mbhah
Indignant Heart: A Black Workers Journal - Charles Denby
Sweatshop Warriers - Miriam Ching Yoon Louie
Holding The Line: Women in the Great Arizona Mine Strike of 1983 - Barbara Kingsolver
Betrayal of Local 14, Paperworkers, Politics & Replacements
Three Strikes - Stephen Franklin
Thunder in the Mountains - Lon Savage
Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939 - Antony Beevor
Dynamite - Louis Adamic

My Blog

Against War and War Profiteers? Organize for Freedom!

The Iraq war is a tragedy that is increasingly vivid to everyone. The wasted human life and massive scale of destruction being waged by the US government and allied forces is horrifying. This war is b...
Posted by Workers Solidarity Alliance on Fri, 26 Oct 2007 10:08:00 PST

Now Out! New issue of WSA's "Workers Solidarity"

Dear friends and comrades:The Workers Solidarity Alliance (WSA) has recently published the latest issue of our newsletter "Workers Solidarity."The following articles are included in this issue:Workers...
Posted by Workers Solidarity Alliance on Tue, 03 Jul 2007 11:21:00 PST

A look back at the 2005 San Francisco fare strike

by Tom WetzelIn September, 2005 several thousand riders of Muni - San Francisco's city-owned transit system - participated in a mass fare strike, to fight service cuts, layoffs, and the second fare hi...
Posted by Workers Solidarity Alliance on Thu, 25 Jan 2007 06:53:00 PST

A Look at the Northwest Airlines Mechanics' Strike

Workers of the Skies Unite! The 2005 Northwest Airlines Strikeby Kdog In August 2005 the mechanics and cleaners at Northwest Airlines (NWA), the world's fourth largest passenger airline went out on st...
Posted by Workers Solidarity Alliance on Thu, 25 Jan 2007 06:48:00 PST

Unionism and Workers' Liberation (Part 1)

by Tom WetzelClass struggle wasn't a figment of Marx's imagination. A struggle between workers the classes that dominate them is a consant, an on-going reality. This struggle happens because of struct...
Posted by Workers Solidarity Alliance on Tue, 20 Jun 2006 07:57:00 PST

Unionism and Workers' Liberation (Part 2)

A New Program for LaborWhat follows are some practical suggestions for building a new labor movement in the USA that fosters rank-and-file empowerment and self-management of the union organization by ...
Posted by Workers Solidarity Alliance on Tue, 20 Jun 2006 07:55:00 PST

International Women's Day: "No Masters, No Mistresses!"

No Masters, No Mistresses! On March 8, 1908, thousands of women left their jobs in the sweatshops of New York City's Lower east Side and took to the streets to demand their rights as women and workers...
Posted by Workers Solidarity Alliance on Wed, 08 Mar 2006 12:37:00 PST

What America Needs: A New Labor Movement

What America Needs: A New Labor Movement Why? Not just because the organized labor movement today is full of self-serving bureaucrats who are out to enrich their pockets or their prestige at our ex...
Posted by Workers Solidarity Alliance on Sat, 25 Feb 2006 08:07:00 PST