THE DOCTRINE OF REVOLUTIONARY SYNDICALISM
When the General Confederation of Labor adopted its new constitution in
1902, the main ideas of revolutionary syndicalism had already been
clearly formulated. Since then, however, a considerable amount of
literature has appeared on the subject, either clarifying or further
developing various points of the doctrine. This literature consists
mainly of numerous articles in the periodical press and of pamphlets and
is, accordingly, of an unsystematic character. The attempt is made in
this chapter to sum up in a systematic way the leading ideas of
revolutionary syndicalism common to all who call themselves
revolutionary syndicalists. Consideration of individual ideas and of
contributions of particular writers will be left to a following chapter.
The fundamental idea of revolutionary syndicalism is the idea of
class-struggle. Society is divided into two classes, the class of
employers who possess the instruments of production and the class of
workingmen who own nothing but their labor-power and who live by selling
it.
Between the two classes an incessant struggle is going on. This struggle
is a fact, not a theory in need of proof. It is a fact manifested every
day in the relations between employers and wage-earners, a fact inherent
in the economic organization of existing society.
The class-struggle is not a fact to be deplored; on the contrary, it
should be hailed as the creative force in society, as the force which
is working for the emancipation of the working-class. It is the
class-struggle which is consolidating the workingmen into a compact
unity opposed to the exploitation and domination of employers. It is the
class-struggle which is evolving new ideas of right (_droit_) in
opposition to the existing law. It is the class-struggle which is
developing the self-consciousness, the will-power and the moral
character of the workingmen and is creating forms of organization proper
to them. In a word, it is the class-struggle which is forging the
material and moral means of emancipation for the workingmen and putting
these weapons into their hands.
The task of the syndicalists is to organize the more or less vague
class-feeling of the workingmen and to raise it to the clear
consciousness of class-interests and of class-ideals. This aim can be
attained only by organizing the workingmen into syndicats. The syndicat
is an association of workingmen of the same or of similar trades, and is
held together by bonds of common interest. In this is its strength. Of
all human groupings it is the most fundamental and the most permanent,
because men in society are interested above everything else in the
satisfaction of their economic needs.
The strength, permanence, and class-character of economic groups are
made conspicuous by comparison with forms of grouping based on other
principles. Political parties, groups of idealists, or communities
professing a common creed, are associations which cannot but be weak and
transient in view of their heterogeneous composition and of the
accidental character of their bond of union. Political bodies, for
instance, are made up of men of various interests grouped only by
community of ideas. This is true even of the Socialist party which
consists of manufacturers, financiers, doctors, and lawyers, as well as
of workingmen. Even the Socialist party cannot, therefore, make
prominent the class-division of society, and tends to merge all classes
into one conglomeration which is unstable and incapable of persistent
collective action. Only in groupings of real and fundamental interests
such as the syndicats, are men of the same conditions brought together
for purposes inextricably bound up with life.
The syndicat groups men of one and the same trade in their capacity of
workingmen only, regardless of any other qualifications. The workingmen
entering a syndicat may be Catholics or Protestants, Republicans,
Socialists, or Monarchists, they may be of any color, race or
nationality; in their capacity of workingmen they are all equally
welcome and legitimate members of the syndicat. A workingman enrolling
in a syndicat is not entering a party, not subscribing to a platform,
nor accepting a creed. He is simply entering into a relation which is
forced upon him by his very position in society, and is grouping himself
with his fellowmen in such a way as to derive more strength for himself
in the struggle for existence, contributing at the same time to the
strength of his fellowmen.
These conditions make the syndicat peculiarly fit to serve the interests
of the workingmen. The syndicat is a sphere of influence which by the
volume of its suggestion and by the constancy and intensity of its
action shapes the feelings and ideas of the workingmen after a certain
pattern. In the syndicat the workingmen forget the things which divide
them and are intent upon that which unites them. In the syndicat the
workingmen meet to consider common interests, to discuss their identical
situation, to plan together for defense and aggression, and in all ways
are made to feel their group-solidarity and their antagonism to the
class of employers.
In view of this the syndicats should prefer industrial unionism to craft
unionism. The separation of workingmen into trades is apt to develop in
them a corporate spirit which is not in harmony with the class-idea. The
industrial union, on the contrary, widens the mental horizon of the
workingman and his range of solidarity with his fellow workers and thus
serves better to strengthen his class-consciousness.
The syndicat is the instrument with which the workingmen can enter into
a "direct" struggle with employers. "Direct action" is what the
syndicalists most insist upon, as the only means of educating the
workingmen and of preparing them for the final act of emancipation.
"Direct action" is action by the workingmen themselves without the help
of intermediaries; it is not necessarily violent action, though it may
assume violent forms; it is the manifestation of the consciousness and
of the will of the workingmen themselves, without the intervention of an
external agent: it consists in pressure exerted directly by those
interested for the sake of obtaining the ends in view.
"Direct action" may assume various forms, but the principal ones in the
struggle against employers are: the strike, the boycott, the label, and
_sabotage_.
The strike, in the view of the syndicalists, is the manifestation of the
class-struggle _par excellence_. The strike brings the workingmen face
to face with the employers in a clash of interests. A strike clears up,
as if by a flash of lightning, the deep antagonism which exists between
those who employ and those who work for employers. It further deepens
the chasm between them, consolidating the employers on the one hand, and
the workingmen on the other, over against one another. It is a
revolutionary fact of great value.
All strikes, partial, general in a locality, or general in some one
trade, have this revolutionary influence, particularly when they are
conducted in a certain way. If the workingmen rely only on their
treasury, the strike degenerates into a mere contest between two money
bags--that of the employer and that of the syndicat--and loses much of
its value. Still more are the syndicalists opposed to methods of
conciliation and arbitration. The idea of the revolutionary syndicalists
is that a strike should be won by _Sturm und Drang_, by quick and
energetic pressure on employers. The financial strength of workingmen
when striking should not be considered. Money may be supplied by
contributions of workingmen of other trades and localities, in itself
another means of developing the solidarity of the working-class.
Sometimes a strike may be won by calling out sympathetic strikes in
other trades.
Strikes conducted in this manner yield practical results and serve also
as means of educating the workingmen. They reveal to the workingmen
their power, as producers, and their importance in the productive system
of society. The label, on the other hand, is a means of bringing home to
the workingmen their importance as consumers, and of making them wield
this power for their own benefit.
The boycott reveals the power of the workingmen, either as producers or
as consumers. It may be wielded against an employer whose shop is
avoided, or against a firm in its capacity as seller. It is an effective
means of forcing employers to terms.
_Sabotage_ consists in obstructing in all possible ways the regular
process of production to the dismay and disadvantage of the employer.
The manifestations of _sabotage_ are many, varying with the nature of
the industry and with the ingenuity of the workers. In its primitive
form, _sabotage_ is a tacit refusal on the part of the workers to exert
properly their energy or skill in the performance of their work, in
retaliation for any injustice which, in their opinion, had been
inflicted upon them by their employers. This form of _sabotage_ includes
such practices as those summarized in the Scotch _Ca Canny_ (slow work
for low wages) and in the French principle of a _mauvaise paye mauvais
travail_ (bad work for bad pay). It also includes the recent practices
of the railroad workers in Austria, Italy, and France who disorganized
the railway service of their respective countries by obeying literally
all the rules and regulations of the service code and by refusing to
apply discretion and common sense in the performance of their duties.
The distinguishing characteristic of this form of _sabotage_ is that in
applying it the workers remain within the limits of their contract and
avoid any manifest violation of the law, though the loss inflicted upon
the employer may be very heavy.
A more aggressive form of _sabotage_ is that which expresses itself in
deliberate damage done either to the product of labor or to the nature
of the service. An instance of the latter was the so-called _grève
perlée_ applied by the French railway men, which consisted in wilful
misdirection of baggage and of perishable merchandise. This form of
_sabotage_ implies disregard for the laws of property and for the clauses
of the labor contract, but it is carried on in a manner which makes
detection of motive very difficult.[152]
[152] An intermediate form of _sabotage_ is that known as _sabotage à
bouche ouverte_ (_sabotage_ of the open mouth). It consists in the
disclosure of conditions generally withheld from the public, such as
conditions in hotel-kitchens and restaurants, methods of weighing and
measuring in stores, practices followed by druggists, frauds resorted to
by contractors and builders, etc.
From this form of _sabotage_ it is but a short step to the most
aggressive and violent kind which finds expression in the deliberate and
open disorganization of machinery. This form of _sabotage_ has nothing
in common with the destruction of machinery practiced by unorganized
workers during the early stages of the capitalist régime. It aims not at
the destruction of the machine as a means of production, but at the
temporary disability of the machine during strikes for the purpose of
preventing employers to carry on production with the help of
strikebreakers. Even in this most aggressive form, _sabotage_ may
involve very little violence. The syndicalists strongly condemn any act
of _sabotage_ which may result in the loss of life.
Such are the "direct" methods of struggle against employers. But the
revolutionary syndicalists have another enemy, the State, and the
struggle against the latter is another aspect of "direct action."
The State appears to the syndicalists as the political organization of
the capitalist class. Whether monarchist, constitutional, or republican,
it is one in character, an organization whose function it is to uphold
and to protect the privileges of the property-owners against the demands
of the working-class. The workingmen are, therefore, necessarily forced
to hurl themselves against the State in their efforts toward
emancipation, and they cannot succeed until they have broken the power
of the State.
The struggle against the State, like the struggle against the employers,
must be carried on directly by the workingmen themselves. This excludes
the participation of the syndicats in politics and in electoral
campaigning. The parliamentary system is a system of representation
opposed in principle to "direct action," and serves the interests of the
bourgeoisie, for the management of which it is particularly suited. The
workingmen can derive no benefit from it. The parliamentary system
breeds petty, self-seeking politicians, corrupts the better elements
that enter into it and is a source of intrigues and of "wire-pulling."
The so-called representatives of the workingman do not and cannot avoid
the contagious influence of parliament. Their policy degenerates into
bargaining, compromising and collaboration with the bourgeois political
parties and weakens the class-struggle.
The syndicats, therefore, if not hostile, must remain at least
indifferent to parliamentary methods and independent of political
parties. They must, however, untiringly pursue their direct struggle
against the State. The direct method of forcing the State to yield to
the demands of the workingmen consists in exerting external pressure on
the public authorities. Agitation in the press, public meetings,
manifestations, demonstrations and the like, are the only effective
means of making the government reckon with the will of the
working-class.
By direct pressure on the government the workingmen may obtain reforms
of immediate value to themselves. Only such reforms, gained and upheld
by force, are real. All other reforms are but a dead letter and a means
of deceiving the workingmen.
The democratic State talks much about social reforms, labor legislation
and the like. In fact, however, all labor laws that are of real
importance have been passed only under the pressure of the workingmen.
Those which owe their existence to democratic legislators alone are
devised to weaken the revolutionary strength of the working-class. Among
such laws are those on conciliation and arbitration. All democratic
governments are anxious to have Boards of Conciliation and of
Arbitration, in order to check strikes which are the main force of the
working-class. Workingmen must be opposed to these reforms, which are
intended to further the harmony and collaboration of classes, because
the ideology of class-harmony is one of the most dangerous snares which
are set for the workingmen in a democratic State.[153] This ideology
blinds the workingmen to the real facts of inequality and of
class-distinctions which are the very foundations of existing society.
It allures them into hopes which cannot be fulfilled and leads them
astray from the only path of emancipation which is the struggle of
classes.
[153] The fundamental principle of democracy is that all citizens are
equal before the law and that there are no classes in the state.
Another idea which is used by the democratic State for the same purpose
is the idea of patriotism. "Our country", "our nation", are mottoes
inculcated into the mind of the workingman from his very childhood. But
these words have no meaning for the workingman. The workingman's country
is where he finds work. In search of work he leaves his native land and
wanders from place to place. He has no fatherland (_patrie_) in any real
meaning of the term. Ties of tradition, of a common intellectual and
moral heritage do not exist for him. In his experience as workingman he
finds that there is but one real tie, the tie of economic interest which
binds him to all the workingmen of the world, and separates him at the
same time from all the capitalists of the world. The international
solidarity of the workingmen and their anti-patriotism are necessary
consequences of the class struggle.
The democratic State, like any other State, does not rely upon
ideological methods alone in keeping down the workingmen. It has
recourse to brute force as well. The judiciary, the administrative
machinery and especially the army are used as means of defeating the
movements of the working-class. The army is particularly effective as a
means of breaking strikes, of crushing the spirit of independence in the
workingmen, and as a means of keeping up the spirit of militarism. An
anti-militaristic propaganda is, therefore, one of the most important
forms of struggle against the State, as well as against capitalism.
Anti-militarism consists in carrying on in the army a propaganda of
syndicalist ideas. The soldiers are reminded that they are workingmen in
uniforms, who will one day return to their homes and shops, and who
should not, therefore, forget the solidarity which binds them to their
fellow workingmen in blouses. The soldiers are called upon not to use
their arms in strikes, and in case of a declaration of war to refuse to
take up arms. The syndicalists threaten in case of war to declare a
general strike. They are ardent apostles of international peace which is
indispensable, in their opinion, to the success of their movement.
By "direct action" against employers and the State the workingmen may
wrest from the ruling classes reforms which may improve their condition
more or less. Such reforms can not pacify the working-class because they
do not alter the fundamental conditions of the wage system, but they are
conducive to the fortification of the working-class and to its
preparation for the final struggle. Every successful strike, every
effective boycott, every manifestation of the workingmen's will and
power is a blow directed against the existing order; every gain in
wages, every shortening of hours of work, every improvement in the
general conditions of employment is one more position of importance
occupied on the march to the decisive battle, the general strike, which
will be the final act of emancipation.
The general strike--the supreme act of the class-war--will abolish the
classes and will establish new forms of society. The general strike must
not be regarded as a _deus ex machina_ which will suddenly appear to
solve all difficulties, but as the logical outcome of the syndicalist
movement, as the act that is being gradually prepared by the events of
every day. However remote it may appear, it is not a Utopia and its
possibility cannot be refuted on the ground that general strikes have
failed in the past and may continue to fail in the future. The failures
of to-day are building the success of to-morrow, and in time the hour of
the successful general strike will come.
What are the forms of the social organization which will take the place
of those now in existence? The Congress of Lyons (1901) had expressed
the wish to have this question on the program of the next Congress. In
order that the answer to this question should reflect the ideas
prevalent among the workingmen, the Confederal Committee submitted the
question to the syndicats for study. A questionnaire was sent out
containing the following questions:
(1) How would your syndicat act in order to transform itself from a
group for combat into a group for production?
(2) How would you act in order to take possession of the machinery
pertaining to your industry?
(3) How do you conceive the functions of the organized shops and
factories in the future?
(4) If your syndicat is a group within the system of highways, of
transportation of products or of passengers, of distribution, etc., how
do you conceive its functioning?
(5) What will be your relations to your federation of trade or of
industry after your reorganization?
(6) On what principle would the distribution of products take place and
how would the productive groups procure the raw material for themselves?
(7) What part would the _Bourses du Travail_ play in the transformed
society and what would be their task with reference to the statistics
and to the distribution of products?
At the Congress of Montpellier, in 1902, a number of reports were
presented answering the above questions. The reports were in the name of
the syndicats and came from different parts of France. Only a limited
number of them were printed as appendices to the general report of the
Congress. Among them, it may be interesting to note, was the report of
the syndicat of agricultural laborers. The rest were summed up in the
official organ of the Confederation, _La Voix du Peuple_.
The reports differed in details. Some emphasized one point more than
another and _vice versa_. But the general character of the reports was
identical and showed a consensus of opinion on the main outlines of that
"economic federalism" which is the ideal of the syndicalists.
According to this ideal, the syndicat will constitute the cell of
society. It will group the producers of one and the same trade who will
control their means of production. Property, however, will be social or
collective, and no one syndicat will be the exclusive owner of any
portion of the collective property. It will merely use it with the
consent of the entire society.
The syndicat will be connected with the rest of society through its
relations with the Federation of its trade, the _Bourse du Travail_, and
the General Confederation. With the National Federation relations will
be mainly technical and special, and the rôle of the Federation will be
insignificant. With the General Confederation relations will be indirect
and mainly by mediation of the _Bourse du Travail_. Relations with the
latter will be of permanent importance, as the _Bourses du Travail_ will
be the centers of economic activity.
The _Bourse du Travail_--in the ideal system of the syndicalists--will
concentrate all local interests and serve as a connecting link between a
locality and the rest of the world. In its capacity as local center it
will collect all statistical data necessary for the regular flow of
economic life. It will keep itself informed on the necessities of the
locality and on its resources, and will provide for the proper
distribution of products; as intermediary between the locality and the
rest of the country it will facilitate the exchange of products between
locality and locality and will provide for the introduction of raw
materials from outside.
In a word, the Bourse will combine in its organization the character
both of local and of industrial autonomy. It will destroy the
centralized political system of the present State and will
counter-balance the centralizing tendencies of industry.
To the General Confederation will be left only services of national
importance, railways for instance. However, even in the management of
national public utilities the National Federation and the Bourses will
have the first word. The function of the General Confederation will
consist mainly in furnishing general information and in exerting a
controlling influence. The General Confederation will also serve as
intermediary in international relations.
In this social system the State as now constituted will have no place.
Of course, one may call the ideal system of the syndicalists a State.
All depends on the definition given to the term. But when the
syndicalists speak of the State, they mean an organization of society in
which a delegated minority centralizes in its hands the power of
legislation on all matters. This power may be broken up and divided
among a number of governing bodies, as in the federal system of the
United States, but it does not thereby change its character. The
essential characteristic of the State is to impose its rule _from
without_. The legislative assemblies of the present State decide upon
questions that are entirely foreign to them, with which they have no
real connection in life and which they do not understand. The rules they
prescribe, the discipline they impose, come as an external agency to
intervene in the processes of social life. The State is, therefore,
arbitrary and oppressive in its very nature.
To this State-action the syndicalists oppose a discipline coming _from
within_, a rule suggested by the processes of collective life itself,
and imposed by those whose function it is to carry on those processes.
It is, as it were, a specialization of function carried over into the
domain of public life and made dependent upon industrial specialization.
No one should legislate on matters unless he has the necessary training.
The syndicats, the delegates of the syndicats to the _Bourses du
Travail_, and so on, only they can properly deal with their respective
problems. The rules they would impose would follow from a knowledge of
the conditions of their social functions and would be, so to speak, a
"natural" discipline made inevitable by the conditions themselves.
Besides, many of the functions of the existing State would be abolished
as unnecessary in a society based on common ownership, on co-operative
work, and on collective solidarity. The necessary functions of local
administration would be carried on by the _Bourses du Travail_.
In recent years, however, revolutionary syndicalists have not expatiated
upon the forms of the future society. Convinced that the social
transformation is inevitable, they have not thought it necessary to have
any ready-made model upon the lines of which the social organization of
the future should be carved. The revolutionary classes of the past had
no idea of the new social system they were struggling for, and no
ready-made plan is necessary for the working-class. Prepared by all
preliminary struggle, the workingmen will find in themselves, when the
time comes, sufficient creative power to remake society. The lines of
the future, however, are indicated in a general way by the development
of the present, and the syndicalist movement is clearly paving the way
for an "economic federalism".
The workingmen are being prepared for their future rôle by the
experiences of syndicalist life. The very struggle which the syndicats
carry on trains the workingmen in solidarity, in voluntary discipline, in
power and determination to resist oppression, and in other moral
qualities which group life requires. Moreover, the syndicats,
particularly the _Bourses du Travail_, are centers where educational
activities are carried on. Related to the facts of life and to the
concrete problems of the day, this educational work, in the form of
regular courses, lectures, readings, etc., is devised to develop the
intellectual capacities of the workingmen.
The struggle of the present and the combat of the future imply the
initiative, the example and the leadership of a conscious and energetic
minority ardently devoted to the interests of its class. The experience
of the labor movement has proven this beyond all doubt. The mass of
workingmen, like every large mass, is inert. It needs an impelling force
to set it in motion and to put to work its tremendous potential energy.
Every strike, every labor demonstration, every movement of the
working-class is generally started by an active and daring minority
which voices the sentiments of the class to which it belongs.
The conscious minority, however, can act only by carrying with it the
mass, and by making the latter participate directly in the struggle. The
action of the conscious minority is, therefore, just the opposite of the
action of parliamentary representatives. The latter are bent on doing
everything themselves, on controlling absolutely the affairs of the
country, and are, therefore, anxious, to keep the masses as quiet, as
inactive and as submissive as possible. The conscious minority, on the
contrary, is simply the advance-guard of its class; it cannot succeed,
unless backed by the solid forces of the masses; the awareness, the
readiness and the energy of the latter are indispensable conditions of
success and must be kept up by all means.
The idea of the "conscious minority" is opposed to the democratic
principle. Democracy is based upon majority-rule, and its method of
determining the general will is universal suffrage. But experience has
shown that the "general will" is a fiction and that majority-rule really
becomes the domination of a minority--which can impose itself upon all
and exploit the majority in its own interests. This is inevitably so,
because universal suffrage is a clumsy, mechanical device, which brings
together a number of disconnected units and makes them act without
proper understanding of the thing they are about. The effect of
political majorities when they do make themselves felt is to hinder
advance and to suppress the progressive, active and more developed
minorities.
The practice of the labor movement is necessarily the reverse of this.
The syndicats do not arise out of universal suffrage and are not the
representatives of the majority in the democratic sense of the term.
They group but a minority of all workingmen and can hardly expect ever
to embrace the totality or even the majority of the latter. The
syndicats arise through a process of selection. The more sensitive, the
intellectually more able, the more active workingmen come together and
constitute themselves a syndicat. They begin to discuss the affairs of
their trade. When determined to obtain its demands, the syndicat enters
into a struggle, without at first finding out the "general will." It
assumes leadership and expects to be followed, because it is convinced
that it expresses the feelings of all. The syndicat constitutes the
leading conscious minority.
The syndicat obtains better conditions not for its members alone, but
for all the members of the trade and often for all the workingmen of a
locality or of the country. This justifies its self-assumed leadership,
because it is not struggling for selfish ends, but for the interests of
all. Besides, the syndicat is not a medieval guild and is open to all.
If the general mass of workingmen do not enter the syndicats, they
themselves renounce the right of determining conditions for the latter.
Benefiting by the struggles of the minority, they cannot but submit to
its initiative and leadership.
The syndicat, therefore, is not to be compared with "cliques," "rings,"
"political machines," and the like. The syndicat, it must be remembered,
is a group of individuals belonging to the same trade. By this very
economic situation, the members of a syndicat are bound by ties of
common interest with the rest of their fellow-workingmen. A sense of
solidarity and an altruistic feeling of devotion to community interests
must necessarily arise in the syndicat which is placed in the front
ranks of the struggling workingmen. The leadership of the syndicalist
minority, therefore, is necessarily disinterested and beneficent and is
followed voluntarily by the workingmen.
Thus, grouping the active and conscious minority the syndicats lead the
workingmen as a class in the struggle for final emancipation. Gradually
undermining the foundations of existing society, they are developing
within the framework of the old the elements of a new society, and when
this process shall have sufficiently advanced, the workingmen rising in
the general strike will sweep away the undermined edifice and erect the
new society born from their own midst.