We are a class union, anarcho-syndicalist, assembly, self employed, self-management,
grassroots federalist, internationalist and libertarian…
BUT WHAT DOES ALL THIS MEAN??
The CGT is an association of workers organized to achieve a new just world, where everyone is happy and where there are no inequalities. However, we do not fall asleep on the vine and are fully aware that we live in a very unencouraging present. To achieve our goal we have to fight and grind every day in the company, for better and safer working conditions. We fight for a dream but well placed in reality. Individually we will not succeed. The real transformation strategy is the collective union of all workers against companies and the powers that be.
we are a class union that fights on a daily basis in companies to improve the immediate working and social conditions of the working class, but doing it simultaneously to achieve a just world, without oppressed and oppressed: the social revolution.
As Anarcho-syndicalists because we organize ourselves based on the decisions of workers organized in assemblies to transform the world starting from work (how we get the resources to survive, in whose hands are they?, how wealth is distributed), which is the root of all inequalities in life and what unites us both to improve everyday conditions and to organize the future.
As assembly members because all the decisions we take start from the assemblies that form the workers of the unions, sovereignly.
As autonomous because we do not depend on any power or political party (if your intention is to violate our autonomy, better not come).
As you will self-manage because to maintain our autonomy we finance ourselves structurally through the fees of the affiliates. Also because whenever possible we promote cooperatives and accompany our colleagues in the construction of production cooperatives, distribution and consumption as a strategy for the emancipation of workers from the capitalist yoke.
As Basic Federalists because the assemblies of our unions are completely sovereign in their areas of action and territories, and they coordinate with each other through the Federal Pact (the basic principles of anarcho-syndicalism) always being the basis of decision-making the unions' assemblies.
As internationalists because nation-states as centers of exclusive identity power and private ownership of resources are foundations used by businessmen and politicians to divide the working class of the world and perpetuate regimes of exploitation. So, we have different socio-cultural identities, but for us this is no barrier to twinning with the rest of the workers in the world. Rather, they are an enrichment to join forces in the common struggle of the workers of all the peoples of the world against the States and employers.
As libertarians because as a horizon of daily struggles we have the emancipation of workers in libertarian communist societies.
AND NOW WE SPECIFY HOW WE WORK IN PRACTICE?
When you arrive at the union to join you will probably be attended to by a colleague who is staying at the premises on a voluntary basis (militant, we call it).
You will probably join the Various Activities Union, which is where we have colleagues from all sectors with whom you can share experiences and enrich yourself greatly.
He trade union, coordinated by colleagues who we call the Permanent Secretariat but who do not have executive functions, it is organized in assemblies. Assemblies are the union's highest decision-making body. It is important that we collaborate to develop the agreements that are made there so that they are possible.
Within the union we are organized in Union Sections in our work centers, which are none other than those affiliated with the CGT in the company where we work. These have the same assembly structure as the union. They coordinate with the rest of the union to advise and help each other (we call it solidarity and mutual help. They are part of our identity as a class union).
The union sections of the same Ram (ex. Cleaning up, metal…) to different companies can be coordinated through the Core Ram's.
The idea is not that you join and pay a fee for advice, as if we were a management company, but that you naturalize passing through the premises, exchange impressions with the rest of the classmates, organize events, make network and community: when the bond with the other companions is stronger, bigger is yours, our strength and solidarity works best.
When there are many people affiliated with your sector branch (trade, cleaning up, food, metal, chemicals, wood, teaching…) you will constitute a new specific RAM Union to facilitate organization (assemblies cannot be held 3000 people in the union of various activities). This branch union will function autonomously and as an assembly, also complying with the general agreements and the federal pact of the organization.
And now we resume that of basic Federalism:
If in a locality there are three unions of different branches fighting from their sector, how they coordinate? Well, creating the Local Federation, which is nothing more than a coordinating body between these three unions, and made up of people who belong to it. It will also be the coordinating body with the unions in the wider territories.
As we expand territorially, the Regional Federation will coordinate the different Local Federations… and so on until the Catalan Confederation and the peninsular CGT.
But all these federated entities do not have executive sovereignty, but of the deployment of agreements. And the only bodies that can make AGREEMENTS are the assemblies of the unions, and these gathered directly in PLENARY and CONGRESSES, where they are represented directly.
FOR ANYTHING ELSE, COME TO THE UNION PREMISES
AND WE WILL SOLVE IT FOR YOU WITH A SMILE.
HEALTH AND SOCIAL EMANCIPATION!