S.W.F. Conference

By Syndicalist Workers’ Federation

Published in September 1950 in Direct Action, Vol. 5 No. 6 (No. 45)

Topics: IWA, UK

At a special conference of the A.F.B. [Anarchist Federation of Britain], held in Manchester on August 6, the urgent need in this country for an organisation which would concern itself with syndicalist propaganda and action was fully discussed.

As a result, it was decided to dissolve the A.F.B., and to form the SYNDICALIST WORKERS’ FEDERATION. Other decisions were that the S.W.F. should affiliate with the International Working Men’s Association; that it should take over the effects of the A.F.B. — including Direct Action — and that its membership should be open to all workers who wanted a radical change in industrial organisation, and the creation of a free society.

Aims and principles and an organisational basis were drawn up by the conference. Greetings to the new organisation were received from the I.W.M.A. (General secretariat, Stockholm), I.W.M.A. (W. European bureau, Lyons), C.N.T. of Spain in exile, C.N.T. of France, S.A.C. of Sweden, and the C.N.T. of Bulgaria in exile.

The objects of the S.W.F. are to:-
    a) Take an active part in the struggle for working class solidarity, shorter working hours, immediate wage increases, and improved working conditions; to propagate direct action as the only effective means in this struggle.
    b) Oppose all attacks on the working class, whatever form they may take, whether by conscription of labour, strike-breaking, drives for increased production and longer working hours, wage cuts, or unemployment.
    c) Resist the attempts of all political parties and ambitious individuals to gain control or make use of the workers’ industrial organisations.
    d) Work for the extension of workers’ industrial committees into syndicalist unions, federated to a General Confederation of Labour, and to provide the organisational basis for this development.
    e) Work for the abolition of capitalism and State authority, and for the achievement of common ownership and workers’ control of the land, industry, and all means of production and distribution, on the basis of voluntary co-operation.

To be successful, the S.W.F. needs the immediate and active support of all revolutionary workers in its effort to create an industrial alternative to trade union bureaucracy, on the one hand, and the Stalinists on the other.

We hope YOU will join us in this work. If you are prepared to do so, or if you would like further details about the S.W.F., write to:-

S.W.F. (National Committee)
25a Amberley Road
London, W.9.

General secretary, S.W.F.

Additional Information

Taken from Sparrows’ Nest Library and Archive.