International Workers Association
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| Full name | International Workers' Association |
|---|---|
| Native name | Asociación Internacional de los Trabajadores |
| Founded | December 1922 |
| Affiliation | Anarcho-syndicalism |
| Office location | Targowa 22 Warsaw, Poland |
| Country | International |
| Website | www |
The International Workers' Association (IWA) (Spanish: AIT - Asociación Internacional de los Trabajadores, German: IAA-Internationale ArbeiterInnen Assoziation) is an international federation of anarcho-syndicalist labor unions and initiatives.
Based on the principles of revolutionary unionism, the international aims to create unions capable of fighting for the economic and political interests of the working class and eventually, to directly abolish capitalism and the state through "the establishment of economic communities and administrative organs run by the workers."
At its peak the International represented millions of people worldwide. Its member unions played a central role in the social conflicts of the 1920s and 1930s. However the International was formed as many countries were entering periods of extreme repression, and many of the largest IWA unions were shattered during that period.
As a result, by the end of World War II all but one of the International's branches, had ceased to function as unions, a slump which continued throughout the 1940s and 1950s. It would not be until the late 1970s, with the death of Spanish dictator Francisco Franco, that it would see a major union, the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) reform within its ranks.
After the 1970s, the International expanded and currently counts 11 member sections and 6 Friends.
The IWA programme promotes a form of non-hierarchical unionism which seeks to unite workers to fight for economic and political advances towards the final aim of libertarian communism.
This federation is designed to both contest immediate industrial relations issues such as pay, working conditions and labor law, and pursue the reorganization of society into a global system of economic communes and administrative groups based within a system of federated free councils at local, regional, national and global levels. This reorganization would form the underlying structure of a self-managed society based on pre-planning and mutual aid — the establishment of anarchist communism.
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