Some anarcho-syndicalists believe that only direct action - that is, action concentrated on directly attaining a goal, as opposed to indirect action, such as electing a representative to a government position - will allow workers to liberate themselves.
Moreover, anarcho-syndicalists believe that workers' organizations - the organizations that struggle against the wage system, which, in anarcho-syndicalist theory, will eventually form the basis of a new society - should be self-managing. They should not have bosses or "business agents"; rather, the workers should be able to make all the decisions that affect them themselves.
Rudolf Rocker was one of the most popular voices in the anarcho-syndicalist movement. He outlined a view of the origins of the movement, what it sought, and why it was important to the future of labor in his 1938 pamphlet Anarcho-Syndicalism.
Hubert Lagardelle wrote that Pierre-Joseph Proudhon laid out the fundamental theories of anarcho-syndicalism, through his repudiation of both capitalism and the state, his flouting of political government, his idea of free, autonomous economic groups, and his view of struggle, not pacifism, as the core of humanity.
Noam Chomsky has identified himself with the philosophies of anarcho-syndicalism and some say best represents the contemporary vein of criticism of the claims reactionary unions, such as the Teamsters, make about supporting the struggle of workers rights, as opposed to the Wobblies, a typically anarcho-syndicalist union.
The International Workers Association is an international anarcho-syndicalist federation of various labor unions from different countries. The Spanish Confederación Nacional del Trabajo played and still plays a major role in the Spanish labor movement. It was also an important force in the Spanish Civil War. Another Spanish anarcho-syndicalist union, the Confederacion General del Trabajo de Espańa, is now the third largest union in Spain and the largest anarchist union with tens of thousands of members.
The Industrial Workers of the World is a once powerful and still active union which advocates a "One Big Union" approach to revolutionary organizing. Founded as an explicitly revolutionary industrial union by a collection of socialists and Anarchists, the IWW pursues the abolition of wage labour and the establishment of an Industrial Commonwealth. Today, most IWW members are anarcho-syndicalists. The IWW's decision-making and organizing methods - in addition to its few formal statements of political ideology - have strong parallels with syndicalist unions in Europe.
The anarcho-syndicalist orientation of many early American labor unions played an important role in the formation of the American political spectrum. The United States is the only industrialized ("first world") country that does not have a major labor-based political party. See It Didn't Happen Here: Why Socialism Failed in the United States, Seymour Martin Lipset and Gary Marks, ISBN 0-39-332254-8.
Rudolf Rocker wrote in Anarcho-Syndicalism:
See also: General strike, Syndicalism