Rudolf Rocker
Anarcho-syndicalism
The union as the seed of the new society.
Reformist SyndicalistOne of 729 ideologies · enter the Syndicalist hall →- Role
- Theorist & organiser
- Era
- 1873–1958
- Region
- Germany
- Social band
- Reformist
- Placement
- −76 · −30 · +55
§ Where Rudolf Rocker stands
3 axesRocker wanted production owned and run by federations of workers' unions, with no capitalist owners and no state economy. His 1919 declaration of principles for the FAUD and his 1938 book Anarcho-Syndicalism: Theory and Practice cast the union as both a weapon for daily struggle and the embryo of a self-managed society. His stress on voluntary federation and local autonomy, rather than central planning, keeps him short of the most collectivist positions.
Rocker rejected the state, political parties and parliamentary politics in favour of direct action, strikes and boycotts, and of self-management organised from the workplace upward. He was an early left critic of Bolshevism: his 1921 pamphlet The Bankruptcy of Russian State Communism argued that the Soviet state had crushed the councils that were supposed to rule.
A humanist internationalist, Rocker devoted two decades to immigrant Jewish workers in London and opposed antisemitism and racial theory. Nationalism and Culture (1937) argued that the nation is a product of the state rather than a natural community, and it attacked nationalism, fascism included, as a creed hostile to human freedom.
How close are you to Rudolf Rocker?
Three statements, one per axis. Answer them and we’ll drop you on the compass next to them.
§ The story
HistoricalRudolf Rocker (1873–1958) was a German anarcho-syndicalist writer and organiser. Born in Mainz and trained as a bookbinder, he left the Social Democrats for anarchism as a young man and settled in London in 1895. Although not Jewish himself, he learned Yiddish and from 1898 edited the anarchist paper Der Arbeter Fraynd in the East End, becoming a leader of immigrant Jewish garment workers and helping to lead their 1912 strike against sweatshop conditions. Interned as an enemy alien during the First World War, he returned to Germany in 1918.
In Germany Rocker co-founded the anarcho-syndicalist Free Workers' Union of Germany (FAUD) in 1919 and drafted its principles, and he helped establish the International Workers' Association in Berlin in 1922–23. Forced to flee after the Nazis came to power in 1933, he settled in the United States, where he published Nationalism and Culture (1937) and wrote Anarcho-Syndicalism: Theory and Practice (1938), a widely read introduction to the movement. His support for the Allies in the Second World War divided anti-war anarchists. He died at the Mohegan Colony in New York State in 1958.
Notable for
- 01'Anarcho-Syndicalism: Theory and Practice'
- 02Organised Jewish labour in London
- 03Internationalist theorist
Key works & moments
- 1898Begins editing the Yiddish anarchist paper Der Arbeter Fraynd in London's East End.
- 1912Helps lead the East End tailors' strike against sweatshop conditions.
- 1919Co-founds the anarcho-syndicalist FAUD and drafts its declaration of principles.
- 1922–23Helps found the International Workers' Association, the anarcho-syndicalist international, in Berlin.
- 1937Publishes Nationalism and Culture in the United States.
- 1938Publishes Anarcho-Syndicalism: Theory and Practice.
§ Minds closest to Rudolf Rocker
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§ Also in the Syndicalist hall
Enter the hall →§ Common questions
4 answersWhat was Rudolf Rocker's political ideology?
Rudolf Rocker was an anarcho-syndicalist: on the 99ideologies three-axis compass, a Reformist Syndicalist. Economically he stood well to the left (−76), wanting federated unions to own and run production. On governance he leaned clearly libertarian (−30), rejecting the state, parties and parliament in favour of direct action and self-management. Socially he was progressive (+55), an internationalist who organised immigrant Jewish workers and attacked nationalism and racial theory.
Was Rudolf Rocker left-wing or right-wing?
Left-wing, in the libertarian socialist tradition. Rocker wanted to abolish capitalism and replace it with a society run by federations of workers, which places him firmly on the left. But he was equally hostile to state socialism, attacking the Bolshevik dictatorship as early as 1921, so he belongs to the anarchist wing of the left rather than to either social democracy or communism.
What did Rudolf Rocker mean by anarcho-syndicalism?
For Rocker, anarcho-syndicalism joined anarchism's rejection of the state to the syndicalist belief in unions as the agents of change. In Anarcho-Syndicalism: Theory and Practice (1938) he argued that workers should organise by industry and federate locally and nationally, using direct action such as strikes, boycotts and the general strike rather than elections. The union was to be both a weapon in daily struggles and the framework of a future society in which workers managed production themselves, without bosses or a state.
Which minds are closest to Rudolf Rocker?
On the 99ideologies three-axis compass, the minds closest to Rudolf Rocker are Fernand Pelloutier (98% alike), Tom Mann (96% alike) and Big Bill Haywood (95% alike). The furthest is Adam Sutler (0% alike).