MI AASC Revolutionary Unions 

Steps:

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Initial Assessment and Covert Outreach:

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1.1 Thoroughly understand the target workplace or industry. Identify key departments, shifts, existing informal networks, points of leverage (e.g., critical production bottlenecks), and potential vulnerabilities of management.

 

1.2 Discreetly observe and engage with workers who are respected, articulate grievances, or show initiative in addressing workplace problems. These are potential core organizers/leaders/activists.

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1.3 Begin informal, confidential conversations with trusted co-workers. Listen to their grievances, build rapport, and subtly introduce the idea of collective action and worker power, emphasizing that they have the power, not external leaders.

 

Forming the Core Organizing Committee:

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2.1 Bring together the identified key workers in a secure, off-site location. This initial group forms the core organizing committee.

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2.2 The committee collectively agrees on the fundamental principles: direct democracy, worker solidarity, independence from bosses and the state, and the long-term goal of worker self-management and a free society.

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2.3 The committee strategizes on how to expand organizing, identify common grievances, and plan initial, low-risk collective actions.

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Worker Education and Empowerment:

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3.1 Conduct regular, confidential study sessions for the organizing committee and interested workers. Topics include:

• The nature of capitalism, exploitation, and the state.

• The history of worker struggles and anarcho-syndicalist movements.

• Principles of direct democracy, mutual aid, and self-management.

• Practical organizing skills: communication, grievance identification, power mapping.

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3.2 Encourage workers to take small, collective, visible actions themselves (e.g., mass grievance petitions, collective refusal of unsafe tasks, coordinated breaks) to build confidence and demonstrate their collective power to management.

 

Building Broad Membership and Democratic Structures:

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4.1 Gradually and strategically expand the organizing committee, bringing in more trusted workers from different departments and shifts.

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4.2 Once a significant base of support is built and the committee is robust, publicly announce the formation of the independent, democratic union (syndicate). This timing is crucial to maximize impact and deter immediate retaliation.

 

4.3 Launch a widespread recruitment drive, inviting all workers to join. Emphasize that the union is their organization, run by them.

 

4.4 Make the General Assembly of all union members the supreme decision-making body. Hold regular, accessible meetings where all members can participate directly in discussions and decisions.

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4.5 When representation is needed (e.g., for negotiations, coordination with other union branches), elect temporary, mandated, and instantly recallable delegates from the General Assembly. These delegates convey the assembly's decisions, rather than making their own.

 

4.6 Systematically rotate administrative, communicative, and other non-specialized tasks among members to prevent the formation of a permanent bureaucracy or leadership class.

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Direct Action for Immediate Gains:

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5.1 Through democratic assembly, collectively identify concrete, achievable demands (e.g., wage increases, improved safety, better benefits, respectful treatment) that unite a broad section of workers.

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5.2 The General Assembly plans and authorizes direct action tactics:

• Adhering strictly to rules/procedures to slow production.

• Urging consumers or other workers not to engage with the employer.

• Public demonstrations outside the workplace.

• Coordinated absences from work.

• Collective refusal to work.

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5.3 Leverage mutual aid networks (from the broader revolutionary plan) to provide support (e.g., strike funds, food, childcare) to workers engaging in direct action, enabling them to sustain their struggle.

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5.4 If management shows willingness to concede, negotiations are conducted by mandated delegates, with all proposals brought back to the General Assembly for ratification.

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Prefiguring Self-Management (Internal Development):

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6.1 Through the practice of direct democracy, task rotation, and delegate systems, workers gain practical experience in managing complex organizations themselves.

 

6.2 The union actively solves internal and workplace problems collectively, without relying on management or external authorities.

 

6.3 Encourage workers to share and develop technical skills relevant to their industry, preparing them to run the entire production process.

 

Federation and Broader Coordination:

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7.1 Link local unions within the same industry into regional and national industrial federations (as per the plan for 2.4 Industrial Federation). These federations coordinate industry-wide actions, share resources, and plan for future industry-wide management.

 

7.2 Actively participate in inter-organizational coordinating bodies (as per the plan for 4.1 Inter-Organizational Coordination) with neighborhood assemblies and mutual aid networks, building a cohesive social fabric independent of the state.

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Maintaining Revolutionary Aim:

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8.1 Actively guard against attempts by political parties, state agencies, or reformist tendencies to co-opt, bureaucratize, or dilute the union's revolutionary goals.

 

8.2 Maintain ongoing internal education about the ultimate goal of abolishing capitalism and the state, and establishing an anarchist-communist society, ensuring the union remains committed to fundamental social transformation.