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Syndicalism, or more formally Revolutionary Syndicalism, is a political ideology that aims to overthrow capitalism by coordinated action conducted by industrial workers united in trade unions. The basis of organisation of all syndicalist movements is found in workers' unions, also known as syndicates (from French syndicat, translating simply as "trade union"), a relation which continues within syndicalist states as unions form the basis of their political systems.
Overview[]
Syndicalism is an economic system and a political ideology which advocates for the implementation of said economic system. Syndicalism as an economic policy is a form of economic corporatism that pushes for the creation of an ethical economy on basis of various voluntary self-managing cooperatives united under a common federal structure based on the principles of cooperation, mutual-aid and social or public ownership of the means of production. Syndicalism therefore seeks to replace capitalism with a wholly different socialist economic system based on collaboration between trade unions representing the working class. This system is organised bottom-up with local labour unions being part of and represented in larger unions managing whole sections of the economy and so forth all the way up to the national level. At that point they form a congress of unions made of representatives of all national unions which manage all remaining policy areas not already organised by lower level unions or which can only be coordinated at the highest level (army, foreign policy, international trade etc).
As a political ideology syndicalism advocates for the creation of a state organised on a syndicalist economic and political basis. The main way to achieve this is by organising the labour movement in the given country via the creation or radicalisation of trade unions and political work among the working class. Syndicalist theory holds that the best way to induce political change is through the measures of small-sale strikes and other labour actions in an effort to actively sabotage the capitalist economy and lead the society towards a revolution in the form of one universal general strike with the goal to overthrow the bourgeois and allow the workers themselves to seize power and establish a truly syndicalist society. While syndicalists have an inherent ideological aversion towards purely political organisations, such are essentially a must in countries where syndicalist movement has a strong presence. Furthermore, syndicalist revolutions have invariably been followed by the creation of various syndicalist political factions in a fashion not so distant from that of the political parties of non-syndicalist systems.
History[]
The history of syndicalism can be divided into three periods: The first period of ideological formation and rise to prominence of syndicalist organisations; (mid-19th Century), the second period in which other revolutionary ideologies attempted to sideline the syndicalist movement (1890s–1914), the third period which marked the rapid expansion of syndicalist organizations during the Weltkrieg and subsequent revolutions that allowed syndicalist movements to take power in several countries (1914–1924) and the fourth period of stabilisation when syndicalism sidelined all other left-leaning movements as the leading revolutionary ideology in the world and settled into a well defined ideological form (1925 – 1936).
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809–1865), famous French socialist philosopher. His literary works form the foundation of modern anarchism and anarcho-syndicalism, but Proudhon would not live to see the movements he inspired.
First Period; mid-19th Century[]
Syndicalism originated in France and spread from there. The French Confédération Générale du Travail (CGT) was the model and inspiration for syndicalist groups throughout Europe and the world, even though it was only founded in 1895. Revolutionary industrial unionism, part of syndicalism in the broader sense, originated with the IWW (founded 1905) in the United States of America and then caught on elsewhere. In a number of countries, however, certain syndicalist practices and ideas predate the coining of the term in France or the founding of the IWW. Some theorists argue that a number of movements in Europe can be called syndicalist, even before 1900. According for example to the anarcho-syndicalist theorist Rudolf Rocker, there were syndicalist tendencies in Britain's labor movement as early as the 1830s.
The 1st Congress of the First International in Geneva, 1866. 60 delegates from various socialist movements in Britain, France, Germany and Switzerland participated.
Syndicalists see themselves as the heirs of the First International, the international socialist organization formed in 1864, particularly its anti-authoritarian wing led by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and later Mikhail Bakunin. Proudhon, Bakunin and their followers advocated the general strike, rejected electoral politics and anticipated workers' organizations replacing rule by the state. Some may argue that the Spanish section of the First International, formed in 1870, was in fact syndicalist or that a "proto-syndicalism" can be seen in the influence the anarchist-led International Working People's Association and Central Labor Union, which originated in the American section of the First International, had in the Chicago labor movement of the 1880s. They were involved in the nationwide struggle for an eight-hour day. On 3 May 1886, the police killed three striking workers at a demonstration in Chicago. Seven policemen and four workers were killed the following day when someone, possibly a police member, threw a bomb into the crowd. Four anarchists were eventually executed for allegedly conspiring to the events. The Haymarket Affair, as these events become known as internationally, led anarchists and labor organizers, including syndicalists, in both the United States and Europe to re-evaluate the revolutionary meaning of the general strike.
Second Period; 1890s–1910[]
Émile Pouget, important pioneer of French anarchism and anarcho-syndicalism
According to Émile Pouget, a French anarchist and CGT leader, from "the United States, the idea of the general strike – fertilized by the blood of anarchists hanged in Chicago [...] – was imported to France". In the 1890s, French anarchists, conceding that individual action such as assassinations had failed, turned their focus to the labor movement. They were able to gain influence, particularly in the bourses du travail, which served as labor exchanges, meeting places for unions, and trades councils and organized in a national federation in 1893. In 1895, the CGT was formed as a rival to the bourses, but was at first much weaker. From the start, it advocated the general strike and aimed to unite all workers. Pouget, who was active in the CGT, supported the use of sabotage and direct action. In 1902, the bourses merged into the CGT. In 1906, the federation adopted the Charter of Amiens which reaffirmed the CGT's independence from party politics and fixed the goal of uniting all French workers.
Logo of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)
In 1905, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) were formed in the Chicago by the Western Federation of Miners, the American Labor Union, and a broad coalition of socialists, anarchists, and labor unionists. Its base was mostly in the western US where labor conflicts were most violent and workers therefore radicalized. Although "Wobblies" (members of the IWW) insisted their union was a distinctly American form of labor organization and not an import of European syndicalism, the IWW was syndicalist in the broader sense of the word. Nevertheless, the IWW also had a presence in Canada and Mexico nearly from its inception, as the US economy and labor force was intertwined with those countries.
The Argentinian FORA was the first anarcho-syndicalist organisation in South America, growing rapidly throughout the early 1900s. The organisation still plays an important role in Patagonian politics.
French syndicalism and American industrial unionism influenced the rise of syndicalism elsewhere. Syndicalist movements and organizations in a number of countries were established by activists who had spent time in France. Ervin Szabó visited Paris in 1904 and then established a Syndicalist Propaganda Group in his native Hungary in 1910. Several of the founders of the Spanish CNT had visited France. Alceste De Ambris and Armando Borghi, both leaders in Italy's USI, were in Paris for a few months from 1910 to 1911. French influence also spread through publications. Emile Pouget's pamphlets could be read in Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, English, German, and Swedish translations. Journals and newspapers in a number of countries advocated syndicalism. For example, L'Action directe, a journal mainly for miners in Charleroi, Belgium, urged its readers to follow "the example of our confederated friends of France". The IWW's newspapers published articles on French syndicalism, particularly the tactic of sabotage and the CGT's La Vie Ouvrière carried articles about Britain's labor movement by the British syndicalist Tom Mann. Migration played a key role in spreading syndicalist ideas. The Argentine Regional Workers' Federation (Federación Obrera Regional Argentina, FORA), openly anarchist by 1905, was formed by Italian and Spanish immigrants in 1901. Many IWW leaders were European immigrants, including Edmondo Rossoni who moved between the United States and Italy and was active in both the IWW and USI. International work processes also contributed to the diffusion of syndicalism. For example, sailors helped establish IWW presences in port cities around the world.
William Z. Foster, one of the United States' most famous syndicalists
Some syndicalists, like the French radicals, worked within existing unions to infuse them with their revolutionary spirit. Some found existing unions entirely unsuitable and built federations of their own, a strategy known as dual unionism. American syndicalists formed the IWW, though William Z. Foster later abandoned the IWW after a trip to France and set up the Syndicalist League of North America (SLNA), which sought to radicalize the well-established American Federation of Labor (AFL). In Ireland, the ITGWU broke away from a more moderate, and British-based, union. In Italy and Spain, syndicalists initially worked within the established union confederations before breaking away and forming USI and the CNT respectively. In Norway, there were both the Norwegian Trade Union Opposition (Norske Fagopposition, NFO), syndicalists working within the mainstream Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (Landsorganisasjonen i Norge in Norwegian, LO), and the Norwegian Syndicalist Federation (Norsk Syndikalistik Federation in Norwegian, NSF), an independent syndicalist organization set up by the Swedish SAC. In Britain, there was a similar conflict between ISEL and the local IWW organization.
By the 1910s, there were syndicalist national labor confederations in Peru, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Spain, Italy, and France, while Belgian syndicalists were in the process of forming one. There were also groups advocating syndicalism in Russia, Japan, the United States, Portugal, Norway, Denmark, Hungary, and Great Britain. Outside of North America, the IWW also had organizations in Australia, New Zealand, where it was part of the Federation of Labour (FOL), Great Britain, though its membership had imploded by 1913, and South Africa. In Ireland, syndicalism took the form of the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union (ITGWU), which espoused a mix of industrial unionism and socialist republicanism, and was labeled Larkinism, taking its name from James Larkin.
Third Period; 1910–1919[]
During the early 1910s, Syndicalists were the driving force of a large number of strikes, labor disputes, and other struggles in Europa and the Americas. During the Mexican Revolution, for example, syndicalists played a crucial role in organizing strikes in the urban centres of Central Mexico. They would later ally with the Mexican government to fight against the agrarian socialist guerilla fighters of Emiliano Zapata, but after the latter's defeat, they were quelled by government forces as well. Syndicalist agitators also played a crucial role during the early years of the Portuguese Republic and prior to the Weltkrieg in densely-populated Northern Italy. British syndicalists were very active in Scotland, Eastern Ireland and North West England, organizing the 1911 Liverpool general transport strike and the 1913 Dublin lock-out which triggered the Great Unrest, during which James Larkin and Tom Mann became widely known.
Prior to the war, there was no international syndicalist organization; Syndicalism had been officially excluded from the Second International in 1893. Therefore, Syndicalists saw themselves as the true heirs of the First International, formed in 1864, which had two wings: The federalists of Mikhail Bakunin and Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and the centralists of Karl Marx – the latter faction would eventually prevail, but the syndicalists still identified with the former. While many trade unions were part of the International Secretariat of National Trade Union Centres (ISNTUC), this organization refrained from doing independent political advocacy and was largely social democratic-aligned; because of that, the most radical hardline syndicalist trade unions, the French CGT and the Dutch National Labor Secretariat, eventually left and the ISNTUC would collapse in 1914.
Already in 1907, CGT activists had presented the Charter of Amiens and syndicalism to an international audience as a higher form of anarchism at the International Anarchist Congress of Amsterdam in 1907. As a result of the congress, an international syndicalist journal was established. In 1913, Dutch and British syndicalists called for an international syndicalist congress, but the CGT rejected that idea, at this time still believing that the ISNTUC could be reformed from within, which would harm working class unity. The First International Syndicalist Congress was held in London from September 27 to October 2 with 38 delegates from 65 organizations in 13 countries. No Syndicalist International was established, but it was decided to launch an International Syndicalist Information Bureau and to hold another congress in Amsterdam – due to the war, this would never happen.
Surprisingly, when the Weltkrieg broke out in July 1914, socialist parties and trade unions – both in neutral and belligerent countries – supported their respective nations' war efforts or national defense, despite previous pledges to do the opposite. Socialists agreed to put aside class conflict and vote for war credits and German socialists even argued that it was necessary to bring down the reactionary leadership of Tsarist Russia, while French said exactly the same about the militarist Prussian leadership. This collaboration between the socialist movement and the state was known as the union sacrée in France, the Burgfrieden in Germany, and godsvrede in the Netherlands. Moreover, a number of anarchists led by Peter Kropotkin, including the influential syndicalist Christiaan Cornelissen, issued the Manifesto of the Sixteen, supporting the cause of the Entente in the war. Most syndicalists, however, remained true to their internationalist and anti-militarist principles by opposing the war and their respective nation's participation in it.
Within the French CGT, a moderate reformist wing would gain the upper hand during the war which aimed to cooperate with the government as part of the union sacrée. It followed the French president's call for national unity by agreeing to a no-strike pledge and to resolve labor disputes through arbitration and by actively participating in the French war effort. Due to conscription, its membership numbers began to shrink drastically. In Italy, the Socialist Party and the reformist General Confederation of Labour (closely aligned to the French CGT) initially opposed Italian intervention in the war, but later some leading party figures, most prominently Alceste De Ambris, wholeheartedly supported the Allied war effort, called it the "completion of Italian nationhood". Most of the pro-war wing would later be expelled, however from the party, however. In Ireland, pro-British sentiment among the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union (ITGWU) was very high and many enlisted in the British army to fight the German "reactionaries", but this was condemned by the ITGWU leadership under James Connolly. Connolly would later lead the Irish Citizen Army, a paramilitary wing of the ITGWU, during the anti-British Easter Rising of 1916, hoping that the insurrection would spread throughout Europe, but it was quickly quelled by the British army and Connolly was executed.
Syndicalist organizations in other countries nearly unanimously opposed the war. In Germany for example, the small FVdG opposed the socialists' Burgfrieden and Germany's involvement in the war, challenging the claim that the country was waging a defensive war. Its journals were suppressed and a number of its members were arrested. Syndicalists in the Netherlands and Sweden, both neutral countries, criticized the truce socialists entered with their governments in order to shore up national defense. The Dutch NAS disowned Cornelissen, one of its founders, for his support for the war. Syndicalists from Spain, Portugal, Great Britain, France, Brazil, Argentina, Italy, and Cuba met at an anti-war congress in El Ferrol, Spain, in April 1915. The congress was poorly planned and prohibited by the Spanish authorities, but delegates managed to discuss resistance to the war and extending international cooperation between syndicalist groups. Argentine, Brazilian, Spanish, and Portuguese delegates later met in October in Rio de Janeiro to continue discussions and resolved to deepen cooperation between South American syndicalists.
While syndicalists initially were only able to put up a rather limited practical struggle against the Weltkrieg, they also looked to challenge the war on an ideological or cultural level. They pointed to the horrors of war and spurned efforts to legitimate it as something noble. German syndicalists drew attention to the death, injury, destruction, and misery that the war wrought. German, Swedish, Dutch, and Spanish syndicalists denounced nationalism as a "grotesque mentality" because "it finds its embodiment in the state and is the denial of class antagonism between the haves and the have-nots". German and Spanish syndicalists went further still by putting into question the concept of nationhood itself and dismissing it as a mere social construct; the Germans pointed out that most inhabitants of the German Empire identified not as Germans, but in regional terms, such as Prussians or Bavarians. Multilingual countries like Germany and Spain also could not claim a common language as a defining characteristic of the nation nor did members of the same nation share the same values or experiences, syndicalists in Spain and Germany argued. Similarly, the the notion that the war was a clash of different cultures or that it could be justified as a defense of civilization was harshly contested. Finally, syndicalists also railed against religious justifications for war. Before the war, they had rejected religion as divisive at best, but its support from both Catholic and Protestant clergy was clamed by syndicalists to reveal the clergy's hypocrisy and disgrace the principles Christianity claimed to uphold.
As the war progressed, disaffection with worsening living conditions at home and a growing numbers of casualties at the front eroded the enthusiasm and patriotism the outbreak of war had aroused. Prices were on the rise, food was scarce, and it became increasingly clear that the war would not be short. In Germany, for example, food shortages led to demonstrations and riots in a number of cities in the summer of 1916. At the same time, anti-war demonstrations started. Strikes picked up from around 1916 or 1917 on across Europe and soldiers began to mutiny. Workers distrusted their socialist leaders who had joined the war effort. Thanks in part to their fidelity to internationalism, syndicalist organizations profited from this development and expanded massively throughout 1917 and 1918.
In February 1917, strikes, riots, and troop mutinies broke out in Petrograd, forcing the Russian Tsar Nicholas II to abdicate on March 2 in favor of a provisional government. Immediately, anarchist groups emerged. Russian syndicalists organized around the journal Golos Truda (The Voice of Labor), which had a circulation of around 25,000, and the Union of Anarcho-Syndicalist Propaganda. At the time, many Russian anarchists would cooperate with Vladimir Lenin's Bolsheviks in spite of ideological differences; both factions sought to bring down the provisional government. Lenin abandoned the idea that capitalism was a necessary stage on Russia's path to communism, dismissed the establishment of a parliament, favoring that power be taken by so-called "soviets" (councils) instead, and openly called for the abolition of the police, the army, the bureaucracy, and finally the state – all sentiments syndicalists shared. Although the syndicalists also welcomed the soviets, they were most enthusiastic about the factory committees and workers' councils that had emerged in all industrial centers in the course of strikes and demonstrations in the February Revolution. The committees fought for higher wages and shorter hours, but above all for workers' control over production, which both the syndicalists and Bolsheviks supported. The syndicalists viewed the factory committees as the true form of syndicalist organization, not unions. However, because they were better organized, the Bolsheviks were able to gain more traction in the committees with six times as many delegates in a typical factory – many syndicalists therefore became anxious about the Bolsheviks' growing influence, especially after they won majorities in the Petrograd and Moscow soviets in September.
The most prominent syndicalist in the Petrograd Soviet was Vladimir Shatov; he was one of four anarchists and syndicalists in the soviet, a tiny minority. In late October 1917, this committee led the October Revolution; after taking control of the Winter Palace and key points in the capital with little resistance, it proclaimed a Soviet government. The syndicalists were jubilant at the toppling of the provisional government, but feared about the potential of a dictatorship of the proletariat, even more so after the Bolsheviks created the central Soviet of People's Commissars composed only of members of their party. They called for decentralization of power, but agreed with Lenin's labor program, which endorsed workers' control in all enterprises of a certain minimum size. However, chaos soon ensued in the factories and in December Lenin turned to restoring discipline and order to the economy by putting the economy under state control. At a trade union congress in January, the syndicalists, who had paid little attention to the unions, only had 6 delegates, while the Bolsheviks had 273. No longer dependent on their help in toppling the provisional government, the Bolsheviks were now in a position to ignore the syndicalists' opposition and outvoted them at this congress.
The syndicalists criticized the Bolshevik regime bitterly, characterizing it as state capitalist. They denounced state control over the factories and agitated for decentralization of power in politics and the economy and "syndicalization" of industry. The concurrent Russian Civil War split the Russian anarchists into several groups: Most syndicalists continued to grudgingly support the Soviets, reasoning that a White victory would be worse and that the Whites had to be defeated before a third revolution could topple the Bolsheviks. Yet, syndicalists were harassed and repeatedly arrested by the police, particularly the Cheka, especially from 1919 on, when the civil war was slowly turning bad for the Bolsheviks. The syndicalist demands had some sway with workers and dissidents within the Bolshevik party and the Bolshevik leadership viewed them as the most dangerous part of the libertarian movement.
Syndicalists in the West reacted quite positively to the Russian Revolution. Though they were still coming to grips with the evolving Bolshevik ideology and despite traditional anarchist suspicions of Marxism, they saw in Russia a revolution that had taken place against parliamentary politics and under the influence of workers' councils. They also, at this point, had only limited knowledge of the reality in Russia. Augustin Souchy, a German anarcho-syndicalist, hailed it "the great passion that swept us all along. In the East, so we believed, the sun of freedom rose." The Spanish CNT declared: "Bolshevism is the name, but the idea is that of all revolutions: economic freedom. [...] Bolshevism is the new life for which we struggle, it is freedom, harmony, justice, it is the life that we want and will enforce in the world." Borghi recalled: "We exulted in its victories. We trembled at its risks. [...] We made a symbol and an altar of its name, its dead, its living and its heroes." He called on Italians to "do as they did in Russia". Indeed, a revolutionary wave, inspired in part by Russia, swept Europe in the following years – eventually leading to the German September Insurrections of 1918 French Revolution and the Italian Revolution of 1919/20.
Class struggle peaked in Italy in the late 1910s; Throughout this wave of labor radicalism, syndicalists, along with anarchists, formed the most consistently revolutionary faction on the left as socialists sought to rein in workers and prevent unrest. The Italian syndicalist movement had split during the war; The interventionists, led by Alceste de Ambris and Edmondo Rossoni, formed the Italian Union of Labor (Unione Italiana del Lavoro, UIL) in 1918. The UIL's national syndicalism emphasized workers' love of labor, self-sacrifice, and the nation rather than anti-capitalist class struggle, while the USI stayed true to their original class struggle-focused course. Nonetheless, during the Italian Civil War, both factions would cooperate within the Italian United Front against the royalists and later became the most important parties of the Socialist Republic of Italy.
In the unstable Republic of Portugal, working class unrest picked up from the start of the war. In 1917, radicals began to dominate the labor movement as a result of the conflict, the dictatorship of Sidónio Pais established that year, and the influence of the Russian Revolution. In late 1918, a general strike was called but failed and in 1919 the syndicalist General Confederation of Labour (Confederação Geral do Trabalho, CGT) was formed as the country's first national union confederation. In Brazil, in both Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, syndicalists, along with anarchists and socialists, were leaders in a cycle of labor struggles from 1917 to 1919. It included a general strike in 1917, a failed uprising in 1918 inspired by the Russian Revolution, and a number of smaller strikes. The movement was put down by increased organization by employers to resist workers' demands and by government repression, including the closure of unions, arrests, deportations of foreign militants, and violence, with some 200 workers killed in São Paulo alone.
In Argentina, FORA had split into the anarcho-communist FORA V and the syndicalist FORA IX. While FORA V called for a futile general strike in 1915, FORA IX was more careful. It called off general strikes it had planned in 1917 and 1918. In January 1919, five workers were killed by the authorities during a strike led by a union with tenuous links to FORA V. At the funeral, police forces killed another 39 workers. Both FORA organizations called for a general strike, which continued after FORA IX reached a settlement. Vigilantes, supported by the military and the far-right Liga Patriótica Argentina of Manuel Carlés, attacked unions and militants. All in all, between 100 and 700 people died in what became known as the Semana Trágica; Nevertheless, strikes continued to increase and both FORA V and IX grew, eventually cilminating in the so-called "Patagonia Rebelde" period between 1920 and 1922.
The United States underwent an increase in labor militancy during the post-war period. 1919 saw a general strike in Seattle, large miners' strikes, a police strike in Boston, and a nationwide steel strike. The IWW, however, had been nearly destroyed in the previous two years by local criminal syndicalism laws, the federal government, and vigilante violence. It attempted to take credit for some of the strikes, but in reality was too weak to play a significant role. Red Scare intensified the attacks on the IWW and by the end of 1919 the IWW was practically powerless. In 1919 Canada was hit by a labor revolt, leading to the formation of One Big Union, which was only partly industrial unionist.
Though the Bolsheviks suppressed syndicalism in Russia, they courted syndicalists abroad as part of their international strategy. In March 1919, the "Comintern" or Third International (not to be mistaken by the syndicalist-aligned "second" Third International founded in 1921) was founded at a conference in Moscow. The Bolsheviks acknowledged syndicalism's opposition to socialist reformism and saw them as part of the revolutionary wing of the labor movement. No syndicalists however attended the founding convention, mainly because the German and Allied blockade of Russia made travel to Moscow near impossible. After long discussions, the CNT opted to join the Comintern, though it classified its adherence as provisional as a concession to detractors of Bolshevism. USI also decided to join, though some like Borghi had reservations about the course of events in Russia. In France, the CGT's radical minority that had opposed the war enthusiastically supported Bolshevism. They formed the Revolutionary Syndicalist Committees and attempted to push the CGT as a whole to support the Comintern. The General Executive Board of the IWW also decided join the Comintern, but this decision was never confirmed by a convention. German and Swedish syndicalists were more critical of Bolshevism from the start. Rudolf Rocker declared as early as August 1918 that the Bolshevik regime was "but a new system of tyranny". Over time, especially after the fall of the Bolsheviks in late 1920, syndicalists became more estranged from the Comintern, eventually founding a new Third International at a congress in Paris in 1921.
Fourth Period; 1919-1926[]
More in-depth information about this topic will be revealed with the future Third International rework!
The most important milestone of the global syndicalist movement could be achieved in late 1919 with the outbreak of the French Civil War following the controversial Treaty of Versailles. With indirect German support, the old revanchist Republican government collapsed and the government was forced to retreat to Algeria in mid-1920, while red flags were hoisted over the ruins of Paris and the Commune of France was proclaimed. Simultaneously, another civil war was raging in Italy; Initially, it pitted the nationalists, republicans and socialists in a coalition against the royalists, but by December 1919, a split within the revolutionary movement occurred, and by mid-1920, most of Northern Italy was under the control of socialist militias; After Austro-Hungarian intervention, a truce was signed in July 1920, leading to the establishment of the Socialist Republic of Italy and the Austrian-backed Italian Federation, led by a federal council in Milano.
Around the same time, syndicalist thought was introduced for the first time in the Americas: When Buenos Aires cracked down on striking workers in the provinces of Rio Negro, Chubut and Santa Cruz, the masses would openly engage in fighting with government troops, triggering the Patagonian Rebellion of 1920–22, which eventually led to the expulsion of government authority south of the Rio Negro. Ever since, Patagonia has been considered to be the spearhead of South American anarcho-syndicalism, even though the illusion of peace with the Buenos Aires government has grown fragile over time and every economic activity in the far south of Patagonia is entirely dependent on the goodwill of their Chilean neighbors.
Fifth Period; 1926–1936[]
More in-depth information about this topic will be revealed with the future Third International rework!
The beginning of the British Revolution in October 1924 would mark yet a new stage for the international syndicalist movement. With the last royalist forces escaping to the Dominion of Canada in late 1925, the triumph of syndicalism continued – now, the political balance in Europe had been irreparably damaged, as the powers of old had failed to contain this ever-spreading ideology and the Commune of France and the SRI were not isolated anymore. Over the next decade, relations between the German bloc and the new syndicalist bloc would gradually decline, especially with France meddling more and more in international affairs: advisors were sent to Guangzhou and played an important role during the Northern Expedition, diplomats aided the Chilean Revolution of 1927 and the socialist guerilla war in Nicaragua and sleeper agents formed operational bases all around the globe, from Batavia to Seattle and from Amsterdam to Cape Town, fomenting left-leaning agitation everywhere.
Apart from this rapid worldwide expansion and increasingly self-confident behaviour on the global stage, syndicalist ideology would also undergo a vast diversification. New political currents arose over time, partially replacing or displacing older ones, and of course steadily more and more radical approaches would spring up – the most famous example for this is the ever-growing Totalist movement, which has its roots in Britain and exerts great influence on local governance.
Political Principles[]
Syndicalist Theory[]
First and foremost it is important to note that while the French term syndicat can be translated as "trade union", this does not mean that syndicalism and trade unionism are the same in socialist thought. Trade unionism is the argument that workers should organize for collective bargaining and protection, so one might argue that syndicalism is the revolutionary aspect of trade unionism. Syndicalism, much different than for example Communism, is built on four crucial core ideas.
Revolutionary Spontaneity[]
Revolutionary Spontaneity is the idea that is the personal task of the working class to combat capitalism and the bourgeoisie without the guiding force of an external agent. Communists would instead force their ideology upon a population that might not even be willing to accept or participate in the class struggle. Social democrats on the other hand would introduce socialism on behalf of a population, however using the tools of the inherently capitalistic “liberal” democratic state. A liberal-democratic state governed by socialists would not meaningfully alter the state of the working class because the societal structure would remain the same; the same can be said about a revolutionary vanguardist one party dictatorship. Letting themselves be affiliated with democratic parties or revolutionary fighters is at best just distracting, and at worst actively demoralizing the average worker. The state must instead be undermined by the tools available to the proletariat.
Direct Action[]
These tools are part of the second syndicalist core idea, direct action: They are the means for workers to both combat capitalism, but also to further ideas of class-consciousness to other workers to ensure a maximal understanding of the class-struggle in preparation for revolutionary syndicalism. While direct action can take many forms, there are four principal ones.
- Sabotage: A well-recognised word that brings forth images of exploding railway tracks and machinery. While syndicalist thought does not actively promotes sabotage, as the destruction of factory equipment is directly harmful to the syndicalist cause, it is still common and can take three forms: Non-Violent Sabotage (with the goal of reducing productivity in the workplace without breaking the law or the labor contract); Aggressive Sabotage (with the goal being the reduction of profits for the capitalist owner by willfully misplacing items, misdirecting transportation and shipments, messing up paperwork or feigning illness) and Violent Sabotage (with the goal being the reduction of profits for the capitalist owner by actively destroying tools and machines)
- Labelling: By identifying their products as "trade union-approved", the working class shows its importance in the act of “producing” in society. If trade union-approved goods outcompete those hostile to the workers, then the workers will realize their own important role as the creator of goods for the economy.
- Boycotting: The opposite of labelling. Whereas labelling shows the working class can wholly occupy the role of “producer” in society, boycotting is to reinforce the role of “consumer” in society. Here the worker can impact the market by avoiding union-hostile shops and industries.
- Strike: The most well-known form of workers' influence. The idea behind the strike is however not to refuse work for longer periods of time, but to use it as a sudden and energetic short-term measure. Workplaces should be barricaded to prevent the resumption of work by strikebreakers. Boycotting of the workplace should take place by sympathetic workers in the rest of society, acts of sabotage should be carried out against places and institutions meant to stop the strike or lessen the economic impact of it. Compromise with the working place should be avoided at all cost, to avoid a working relationship between the workplace-owning capitalists and the workers.
The General Strike[]
With the use of revolutionary syndicalist direct action, the general strike will occur to topple the capitalist society; therefore, it can be defined as the true syndicalist revolution. In syndicalist terms, the general strike is not only a mass worker demonstration against capitalist measure, but an event that will occur naturally and unscheduled when the working class rejects capitalist society as a whole. The end goal is not specific improved working conditions, nor political concessions, but the realization by the worker that they are wholly in control of the economy by being both the primary producer and consumer, and therefore have the means to form their own society detached from capitalism. This is why direct action is such an important aspect of revolutionary syndicalism – because only through direct action the worker will achieve the class consciousness and realization of their own worth and power, to spontaneously rise up and reject capitalism.
A big problem is, that with the breakdown of capitalist society, production and consumption might slide to a halt because the worker will no longer undertake capitalist means of producing and consuming. It is here that the Bourse du Travail and trade unions must step in. In this transformative period, the trade unions would facilitate both the collection and distribution of goods. They would organize workers to return to their workplaces and resume production outside of their capitalist “owners”, they would organize truck drivers to distribute the produced goods to various labour exchanges throughout society, and they would organize clerks to catalogue and distribute the produce back to the working class. Out of necessity to maintain the general strike, the economic foundation of syndicalist society would arise spontaneously.
“It is the wage-slave in uniform; whose business it is to shoot down the wage-slave without uniform when so ordered.”
The obvious reaction to the development in the general strike would then be the use of force by the capitalist state to reaffirm its control over the means of production. In the words of the famous syndicalist theorist Émile Pouget: “It is the wage-slave in uniform; whose business it is to shoot down the wage-slave without uniform when so ordered.” Here, direct action would also have the aim to foster the relationship between the working class and the army. By raising class-consciousness in society in general, soldiers would be more conscious of their social responsibility to their class, and thereby more likely to defect to the side of the general strike. The revolution will then be carried out without largescale clashes between the army and the strikers, due to the beforementioned relationship between soldiers and workers. Should it however still come to a civil war, the workers would have numbers and revolutionary spirit on their side and they would very decisively be in control of railways, manufactories, farms etc., thereby lessening the capability of the army to act independently. By having the general strike be a consequence of revolutionary spontaneity and direct action, there would be no societal clash between worker and soldier before the majority of society is prepared for the general strike.
Economic Federalism[]
Economic Federalism marks the fourth and final idea of syndicalism, the core feature of syndicalist society. The idea is that post-capitalist society should be based around production and economy. Regional, national, religious, feudal or political terms should no more dictate the structure of society, only economy. While there is no formal agreement as to the specifics of how a syndicalist society should be organized., here are, however, some general ideas and basic concepts: Local – National & Specific Industry – General Society.
Starting from the bottom of syndicalist society, we have the Syndicate/Local Trade Union. A Syndicate is the local organization of a given industry, within one locality (be that shop, factory, or field). That is, the industry is the basis of local organization, not the craft. The coal mine in Town A is organized as a single syndicate. Those represented there are not just the workers who are in the mines, but also the clerks necessary to organize the work in the mine, the in-house attached repairmen etc. This is what is known as Industrial Unionism. The syndicates are the organizers and controllers of production. They are NOT the owners of production, however. Ownership is collective for the society, and therefore it is only with the accept of society that the coal mine in Town A can organize production there.
Next step up is the local level. Here the Bourse du Travail can be found which acts as an organizer and distributor of goods for the local society. Every syndicate in Town A are represented in the Bourse du Travail where they also work out what goods are needed in their locality. The Bourse organizes education, defense, justice, distribution of goods etc. Though primarily an economic institution, it is the center of all local life. Also, it acts as the connecting link between that specific locality and the national level. Statistics for consumption, production, resources etc. are all gathered by the Bourse and informed to both the local syndicates, but also to the General Confederation and neighbouring Bourses.
At the National Level, there are two different institutions. Firstly, the National Industry Federations. These are the grouping of all syndicates, regardless of locality, of a particular industry. Town A and its coal mine would then be part of a National Federation of Coal Miners. This National Federation would serve a primarily technical role. Gathering information from all syndicates and distributing such information and experience back to the syndicates, local Bourses or to the General Confederation. In some specific cases where an industry is highly interconnected, the National Federation might be the organization that acts as the controller of the industry in question, and not the syndicate. An example might be the railways. So while it is the local syndicates that maintain tracks and stations, it is the National Federation that controls train schedules and planning.
The largest part of the syndicalist society, and what might be perceived as “the state” is what is called the “General Confederation” or Trade Union Congress, the Industrial Workers of the World, Bourse Generale du Travail etc. The important bit is not the name, but the function. Here all Bourses du Travail are represented to take decisions on national issues. These decisions are to be decided by local voting or by electing permanent representatives from the Bourse du Travail to the General Confederation.
Syndicalism in practice[]
Syndicalism and Parliamentary Politics[]
Syndicalists have a unique relation to parliamentary politics or what in their nomenclature is called the "Bourgeoisie Democracy". Syndicalists reject electoral participation in any such political structures as they are considered inherently capitalist and pro-status quo to syndicalists one cannot use the system to destroy the system as it is in itself self-preserving and therefore does not provide the necessary tools that would allow for the destruction of the capitalist society and creation of a syndicalist one. The only way for the workers to break the chains of oppression is to do so via a popular revolution and such will happen only when workers achieve sufficient class consciousness to be able to organise themselves and bring about a downfall of the system.
This is why traditionally syndicalists limit themselves only to organising trade unions as a tool that will allow the advancement of consciousness among the workers and reacted negatively to the actions of other revolutionary movements as they viewed such actions as ultimately damaging to the wider workers movement and thus in fact hindering the progress towards the revolution. This anti-parlimentarism has helped them greatly especially during the time of the Weltkrieg as syndicalist organisations provided a attractive alternative to the mainstream socialist parties which had decided to support the war to the dismay of many that supported them.
Nevertheless, following the highly successful revolutions of the late 1910s and 1920s inofficial factions within various syndicalist movements ended up creating distinctly political organisations as a way of better representing the people they came to rule. Furthermore as syndicalism grew in popularity various syndicalist political organisations began to form around the world not on basis of radicalised trade unions but instead based on radicalised politicians that only then sought to create syndicalist trade unions or to convince existing unions to adopt syndicalist ideology.
This process was only helped by the zealous work of the Third International which sought to spread syndicalist ideals to every corner of the world. This change from bottom-up to top-down policy was a case for much resentment and many self-declared anarcho-syndicalists would protest over the perceived capitulation to the tenets of the old system, on the other hand so called orthodox syndicalists would defend such situation claiming that these political factions are unlike those of "Bourgeoisie Democracy" and therefore not real political parties, besides being just temporary measures as current geopolitical conditions are not favourable to transformation to a fully anarchist society.
Federalism[]
More in-depth information about this topic will be revealed with the future Third International rework!
Syndicalist Economy[]
More in-depth information about this topic will be revealed with the future Third International rework!
Forms of Syndicalism[]
Like any ideological movement Syndicalism too does have many wings to its movement each with more or less unique interpretation of what exactly Syndicalism is and further still various parties within said wing differ between themselves too. Of course to those outside of Syndicalist movement such differences are often hard to see and even within the Syndicalist current these various streams are of only semi-official nature as no single movement yet has formally detached itself from the rest. These descriptions are therefore to be taken as but general descriptions of broad informal political groups within the Syndicalist movement.
Orthodox Syndicalism[]
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Orthodox Syndicalism is the mainstream form of syndicalism developed in the aftermath of the revolutions of the early 20th century which saw a moderate redefinition of the syndicalist movement. The many revolutions of the immediate post-war period of 1920s were not in themselves inherently syndicalist but instead were made of a plethora of socialist groups which came together to overthrow their governments due to a wide range of political and economic issues. Furthermore while Syndicalist movements undoubtedly were the main component of these revolutions the popularity of Syndicalism itself was not due to the appeal of its political programme as a whole but rather due to its anti-war stance and unionist activism something that was otherwise lacking in other revolutionary movements. The average worker would not know much about the specific tenets of Anarcho-Syndicalism and even if he would he would not find them as convincing as syndicalists would have hoped.
This meant that in France, Italy, Britain and other countries syndicalists would find themselves pushed into a dominant political position but would lack the support of often both other socialist movements and the people themselves. In the interest of preserving the gains of the revolution Syndicalists would often end up having to moderate their programme, seek compromise with other political groups, allow popular regional representatives (Who rarely were of the zealous syndicalist type) a greater role in their movements or pursue yet other avenues that would allow them to keep their political primacy. Further still having found itself in power almost all of the normal Syndicalist activities would have to be phased out in the end promoting strikes against their own government was not in their interest.
This has left the mainstream of the movement with significant changes which were nevertheless accepted as but symptoms of a necessary evolution following the seizure of power. At the same time Syndicalist movements did not capitulate entirely when it comes to their original goals and as their position became entrenched allowing a greater freedom of action they would push for adoption of more Syndicalist policies in their respective countries. This means that the true difference between original Anarcho-Syndicalism and Orthodox Syndicalism is slim indeed and many fail to find the means that would allow to easily distinguish between the two.
Of course there are still some noticeable differences chiefly among them the lack of open disdain for parliamentary politics or specifically the unique parliamentary politics of syndicalist countries which they themselves would claim to be something entirely different compared to the old corrupt system of "Bourgeois Democracy". Countries like Britain, France and Italy would de facto continue to have some version of representative democracy and political parties (though they rarely refer to themselves as such). Furthermore Syndicalists prefer to build stable political structures and urge caution especially in the face of many regimes which would seek to thwart the still young revolution before its time.
The Federationist wing of Labour Party in Britain is a good example of Orthodox Syndicalists.
Anarcho-Syndicalism[]
More in-depth information about this topic will be revealed with the future Third International rework!
Anarcho-Syndicalism is a branch of syndicalism that aims to create truly anarchist societies without any of the traditional political or economic structures. Anarcho-Syndicalism technically both precedes and succeeds Orthodox Syndicalism as it is used both to describe the original body of Syndicalist thought and a ideological group that arose in the 1920s and 1930s that seeks to restore the "original form" of Syndicalism. Anarcho-Syndicalists argue that by compromising with other movements and by redefining the movements programme the Orthodox Syndicalists have made it impossible for a fully realised Anarcho-Syndicalist Proletarian Society to be formed.
The division between Anarcho-Syndicalism and Orthodox Syndicalism is not uniform across the world and there are many regions where it simply never manifested itself or regions where Syndicalist movement never redefined itself in any major way. Furthermore as this division often is not on the basis of separate organisations but instead only within them many Syndicalist organisations could be classified as both Anarcho-Syndicalist and Orthodox Syndicalist. There are even those that stand in the middle between the two owing no clear allegiance to either trend and instead borrowing from both or even charting their own path to Syndicalism. Nevertheless, unlike Orthodox Syndicalists, Anarcho-Syndicalists tend to be little concerned with political programmes beyond the basic assumptions as they instead seek to merely create conditions in which the proletariat itself will create the best political and economic system based on volountary association.
This means that it is hard to describe this movement in its entirety but there do exist two broad categories of Anarcho-Syndicalists based on some key uniting factors:
Moderate Anarcho-Syndicalists Existing mostly in regions where Anarcho-Syndicalism remained the dominant trend these organisations while led by Anarcho-Syndicalists still contain within their ranks other ideological groups and often have a sizeable Orthodox wing to them. Furthermore while their programme is definitely different to that of Orthodox Syndicalists they do not clearly position themselves as fundamentally opposed to other trends of Syndicalism. They remain somewhat more flexible and are not as radical in their demands as some other Anarcho-Syndicalists.
Radical Anarcho-Syndicalists Originating in Western Europe and formed as a reaction to the Orthodox Syndicalism this group of Anarcho-Syndicalist positions themselves on the far left wing of the entire Syndicalist movement. It is defined by two things; anarchism and opposition to all other political ideologies and chiefly among them Orthodox Syndicalists who they consider their main rivals. Radical Anarcho-Syndicalists seek a swift transformation of the current socio-political system to a anarchist society without much regard for political conditions. When it comes to non-Syndicalist countries this movement pushes for increased activism and constant escalation of the struggle against capitalism. In already Syndicalist or otherwise Revolutionary Socialist countries they will instead push for continuous devolution of the state achieved by full scale economic reform and among other things the destruction of any semblance of parliamentary democracy and the replacement of any organised armies with militia based peoples' military.
The Unión de Sindicatos Argentinos in Patagonia are a good example of Anarcho-Syndicalists.
Totalism[]
More in-depth information about this topic will be revealed with the future Third International rework!
Totalism is a recent development in syndicalist thought as it arose in the 1920s and 1930s and one that ultimately differs the most from mainstream Syndicalist thought. According to Totalist writers and politicians themselves Totalism is not a coherent ideological group but instead a current in modern syndicalist thought that seeks to redefine the goals of the syndicalist movement in its entirety. Politically significant Totalists mostly fall within the three distinct groups of Benito Mussolini's Nationalist Union in Italy, Oswald Mosley's Maximists in Britain and the Sorelians in France. These movements can be identified by broad adherence to the idea that the only way to fully realise the potential of syndicalist movement is to adopt a strongly centralized political and economic structure. The subsequent unity of action would allow the state to achieve what other syndicalists were unable to and bring about the realisation of "maximal revolution".
Syndicalist Countries in 1936[]
| State Name | Since | State & political Structure | Ruling Party | Head of State | Head of Government |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1919 | Unitary syndicalist parliamentary republic | Confederazione Generale del Lavoro - Unione Sindacale Italiana (Sezione Italiana dell'Internazionale Operaia Sindacalista) | Giuseppe Giulietti
(1934 - ) |
Benito Mussolini
(1934 - ) |
|
1919 | Federal syndicalist semi-presidential republic | Parti Syndicaliste Unifié/Comités Syndicalistes Révolutionnaires
(United Syndicalist Party/Revolutionary Syndicalist Committees) |
Pierre Monatte
(1926 - ) |
Marceau Pivert
(1931 - ) |
|
1920 | Federal syndicalist semi-presidential republic | Unión de Sindicatos Argentinos
(Union of Argentinian Syndicates) |
Antonio Soto
(1921 - ) |
Emilio López Arango |
|
1925 | Federal syndicalist parliamentary republic | Labour Party - Federationists | Thomas Mann
(1931 - ) |
Oswald Mosley
(1930 - ) |
|
1927 | Unitary socialist presidential republic | Partido Sindicalista Chileno
(Syndicalist Party of Chile) |
Marmaduke Grove
(1935 - ) | |
|
1925 | Federal socialist parliamentary republic | Moderate Faction of Bharatiya | Lala Lajpat Rai | Narenda Deva |
Syndicalist Organisations and Parties in 1936[]
More in-depth information about this topic will be revealed with the future Third International rework!
| Country | Party Name | Founded | Leader | Affiliated Organisations | Situation | Symbols |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
Unione Sindacalista (US)
(Syndicalist Faction) |
1918/19 | Palmiro Togliatti | -- | Ruling Party |  Flag of Socialist Republic of Italy |
|
|
Parti Syndicaliste Unifié (PSU)
(United Syndicalist Party) |
1919 | Jean Zyromski | General Confederation of Labour | Ruling Party |  Flag of Commune of France |
|
|
Comités Syndicalistes Révolutionnaires (CSR)
(Revolutionary Syndicalist Committees) |
1919 | Jean Zyromski | General Confederation of Labour | Ruling Party | Flag of Commune of France |
|
|
Bloc Totaliste (BT)
(Totalist Bloc) |
?? | ?? | -- | Major opposition party | -- |
|
Unión de Sindicatos Argentinos (USA) | ?? | Antonio Soto | Union of Argentinian Syndicates (Trade Union) | Ruling Party |  Flag of Patagonian Worker's Front |
|
|
Rodolfo Ghioldi Totalist Wing of Comite de Unidad Sindical Clasista (CUSC) | ?? | Rodolfo Ghioldi | -- | Major opposition party | -- |
|
|
Labour Party | 1925 | Thomas Mann | Trade Union Congress | Ruling Party |  Flag of Union of Britain |
|
|
Partido Sindicalista Chileno (PSC)
(Syndicalist Party of Chile) |
?? | Marmaduke Grove | -- | Ruling Party |  Flag of Syndicalist Republic of Chile |
|
Bharatiya Commune India |
Moderate Faction of Bharatiya | 1925 | ?? | -- | Ruling Party |  Flag of Bharatiya Commune |
|
中國工團黨 (CSP) | 1922 | Chen Duxiu | Member organisation of Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) | Underground Party |   Flag of the KMT government of MinGan Insurgent Zone   Flag of the KMT |
|
Deutsche Organisation der Internationale (DOI) | 1918 | Karl Liebknecht | Free Association of German Trade Unions | Underground Party | -- |
|
|
Freie Vereinigung deutscher Gewerkschaften (FVdG) | 1897 | Fritz Kater | “Der Syndikalist” (The Syndicalist) Magazine | Underground Party | -- |
|
Irish Syndicalist Party | ?? | James Larkin | -- | Underground Party | -- |
|
|
Saor Éire | ?? | Peadar O'Donnell | Irish Citizen Army | Underground Party | -- |
Symbols[]
Torch, Hammer and Gear; the symbol of the Syndicalist movement
Sabo-tabby or Black Cat the symbol used by Industrial Workers of the World