Industrial unions serving the interests of the proletariat (working class) will be the needed federal republican structure used to establish a socialist system.
While sharing some characteristics of anarcho-syndicalism (the management of workplaces through unions) and with the Socialist Labor Party of America being a member of the predominantly anarcho-syndicalist Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), De Leonism differs from it in that De Leonism, and its leading proponent, the modern SLP, still believe in the necessity of a political party, advocating a constitutional amendment making the union the government of industry.
Upon achieving sufficient support for a victory at the polls, the political party would be voted into office, giving the De Leonist program a mandate from the people.
It is assumed that at that point, the socialist industrial unions will have attained sufficient strength in the workplaces for workers to take control of the means of production.
[3][4] The De Leonist victory at the polls would be accompanied by a transfer of control of the factories, mines, farms, and other means of production to workers councils organized within the industrial unions.
[7] The success of the De Leonist plan depends on achieving majority support among the people both in the workplace and at the polls, in contrast to the Leninist notion that a small vanguard party should lead the working class to carry out the revolution.