Northampton Solidarity Federation

What Is SolFed

Northampton Solidarity Federation is part of the national group of the same name, the British affiliate of the International Workers’ Association (IWA). Our members are workers, students and others looking to build a non-hierarchical, anti-authoritarian solidarity movement.

SolFed is comprised of locals around the country, each of which practice direct democracy, managing their own struggles. Our aim is to replicate this in workplaces and communities across Britain, organising workers independently of government and business, to fight for our own interests as a class.

Our ideals, “anarcho-syndicalism”, apply the logic of anarchism (the abolition of authority and its replacement with voluntary free association) to the practice of class struggle. At work, we establish networks of members in the same industry, where they democratically manage their own fight against exploitation. Instead of traditional trade unionism, where workers are “represented” (and then betrayed) by elected leaders, we think that workers should be in charge of their own organisations and determine how best to deal with their own problems.

Eventually we see this principle being extended to every aspect of modern life, with community locals and industrial networks being used to determine what is produced and how it is distributed. The whole of society would participate in controlling everything, on an equal basis, organising production for the needs of everyone, not just a small minority. This is Libertarian Communism.