Atlas / Organisations / Anarcho-Syndicalism

Anarcho-Syndicalism

Revolutionary syndicalism · 1895– · France, Spain, Latin America · Anarchist · Movement · coding confidence high

−09ECcollective
−06CUpluralist
−09AUpluralist
−08SClocal
−08IDuniversal
+07CHcoercive

Each axis runs from −10 to +10, with zero a genuine mixed or balanced position rather than an absence of opinion. A score describes a stated position and a governing record; it is not a judgement of merit. What each score means →

Core principles

The union is both the weapon of struggle and the skeleton of the future society; the general strike replaces the state.

Economic model

Worker ownership and management of industry through industrial unions.

Organisation of powers

Direct democracy in the workplace, federated by industry and region; refusal of parliamentary politics.

Reading note

Distinguished from communism chiefly by the authority axis, not the economic one.

Check a claim about Anarcho-Syndicalism. The interactive atlas measures the distance between any two organisations across all six axes and shows which ones carry the disagreement.

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The evidence for every score

All six cells are sourced. A rationale explains what the score is measuring and each artefact is something a third party can check without taking anyone's word for it.

EC · Economic organisation · scored −09

Coded −9: worker ownership through industrial unions.

  • Programme textThe 1906 Charter of Amiens commits the CGT to the disappearance of wage labour and employers.

CU · Social and cultural order · scored −06

Coded −6: anticlerical and egalitarian.

  • Documented act or statuteThe tradition ran rationalist schools against church education across Spain and Latin America.

AU · Organisation of power · scored −09

Coded −9: refusal of parliamentary politics entirely.

  • Programme textThe Charter of Amiens binds the union to independence from all parties.

SC · Scale of decision · scored −08

Coded −8: federation by industry and locality.

  • Programme textStructure runs from the workplace section upward through industrial and regional federations.

ID · Rule of membership · scored −08

Coded −8: internationalist by construction.

  • Documented act or statuteThe IWA federated unions across Europe and the Americas from 1922.

CH · Method and tempo · scored +07

Coded +7: the general strike as the revolutionary act.

  • Programme textThe Charter names the general strike as the means of emancipation.

Where it came from, and what came after

Nearest organisations by measured distance

Straight-line separation across all six axes, out of a maximum of 49.0. Proximity means similarity of stated position, not endorsement and not resemblance in outcome.

Countries

France · Spain

Cite this page

Scores are revised on evidence, so a citation should carry the version it refers to. Version 4.3.1 is current; the revision log records every change.

McGrath, K. (2026). Anarcho-Syndicalism. The Political Atlas, version 4.2. https://thepoliticalatlas.com/organisations/anarchosynd/ (accessed 2026-08-01).

Free to quote and reproduce with attribution. This is a synthesis rather than a peer-reviewed dataset — where an authoritative figure is needed, cite the Chapel Hill Expert Survey, the Manifesto Project or V-Dem.