On 11 October 135 workers in the bicycle factory Bike Systems in Nordhausen, Germany, and their anarcho syndicalist union, the Freie Arbeiterinnen und Arbeiter Union (FAU), made history. Never before in east Germany has worker controlled production from an occupied factory taken place.
Anarcho syndicalism arose as a direct form of anarchist thought in the 1920s. Syndicalists place great emphasis on the labour movement and radical trade unions as a revolutionary force for social change, ultimately replacing capitalism and the state with a democratic society self managed by the workers.