Localists (trade union associations)

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From 1880, localists were members of local trade union associations for skilled trades such as bricklayers and carpenters and qualified professions such as goldsmith and musical instrument maker. These groups can be compared to workers' organizations . They rejected a centralized organization and supra-regional strike funds and instead wanted to decide autonomously on their own actions. Connections between the local groups were only possible through a loose confidante system. In 1901 they gave themselves the name Free Association of German Trade Unions (FVDG). At the beginning of the First World War, the localists were banned for their anti-militarist agitation.

After the war, the localists reorganized. In the course of 1919, local groups of the FVdG were formed in almost all parts of the state, especially in Rhineland-Westphalia. As far as the programmatic orientation was concerned, the FVdG had not yet been determined: the first aim was a “proletarian council dictatorship ” and a general socialization of the means of production . At the same time, members were encouraged to join the Communist Party. On the part of the KPD , enthusiasm about the anti-parliamentary syndicalists in the party was limited. They were soon to be cited as the labor movement's newest illness and were expelled in the summer of 1919.

A congress that took place in Berlin at the end of 1919 was supposed to clarify all theoretical and organizational questions. The 109 delegates present represented 111,675 members and gave the organization a new name: Freie Arbeiter-Union Deutschlands (FAUD).

literature

  • FAU-MAT (Ed.): What do the localists want? Program, goals and ways of the 'Free Association of German Trade Unions . Publishing house Syndikat A, Moers o. J (2000). First edition: FVdG business commission, Fritz Kater publishing house , Berlin 1911.
  • Dirk H. Müller : Trade union assembly democracy and workers' delegates from 1918. A contribution to the history of localism, syndicalism and the emerging council movement. Berlin 1985.
  • Jürgen Mümken : From localism to revolutionary syndicalism . The "Free Association of German Trade Unions", Bremen 1998.
  • Angela Vogel: The German anarcho-syndicalism . Genesis and theory of a forgotten movement. Berlin 1977.
  • Ralf Hoffrogge : Socialism and the Labor Movement in Germany - From the Beginnings to 1914. , Stuttgart 2011 (p. 127ff).

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