SYNDIGALISM AND
THE GENERAL STRIKE
B? ARTHUR D. LEWIS SI®
n-
L
THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
LOS ANGELES
Acn
89b
SYNDICALISM AND THE GENERAL
STRIKE
BY THE SAME AUTHOR
Illustrated. Crown 8fo, cloth, 6/= net.
THE KENT COAST
"Gives just the information which the tourist who
likes to learn a little history on his wanderings wants.
. . . We have thoroughly enjoyed the tour round the
Kentish coast in the company of Mr. Lewis, and we
are particularly grateful to him for his many literary
allusions, which show much research." — T/te Westminster
Gazette.
LONDON : T. FISHER UNWIN
SYNDICALISM AND
THE GENERAL STRIKE
AN EXPLANATION
BY
ARTHUR D. LEWIS
T. FISHER UNWIN
LONDON: ADELPHI TERRACE
LEIPSIC: INSELSTRASSE 20
1912
{All rights reserved.)
iJNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA LIBRARY
INTRODUCTION
Before dealing methodically with the subject,
there are two matters comiected with Syndicalist
doctrine I should like specially to refer to.
I do not think I have seen it once pointed
out in English articles on the subject that
Syndicalism, when best presented (and I think
it will be found most completely and ably ex-
plained in French), aims at decentralisation as
well as at the representation of industries instead
of opinions : the producers of each small locality
or commune are to be represented on trades
councils, which will stand for all the trade
unions of the district, that is, for all the inhabi-
tants of the district, for every one will be in
his trade union, and the non-producers (or the
parasitic class, as the street-corner socialist
frequently but accurately calls it) be abolished ;
it is these local councils that will arrange work so
that it supplies what local needs demand and will
control the conditions of the workers : Parliament
and the central Government, which are not com-
petent to deal with the details of a host of trades,
1927887
Introduction
will sink into non-existence. This conception has
certainly advantages over the ideal State, as it
is conceived by the " orthodox " socialist,
because the latter leaves the impression on our
minds that huge State monopolies are to be
formed in all industries, and that these will be
controlled by a few, very powerful, officials at
Westminster.
Syndicalism escapes many difficulties by declar-
ing that theory is subordinate to action, and that
action developes out of action ; it declares that
they who discuss the relative advantages of
" direct action " and of parliamentarism as if
they were two methods leading to the same
result are mistaken— the moods and actions to
which the two methods lead are different ; dis-
cussions commonly lead to wavering opinions
while action leads to action. Syndicalism is the
anti-rationalist reaction of the day as it is seen
in politics.
I think my book, the subject of which was
suggested to me by Mr. J. McKillop, contains
much matter not previously accessible to English
readers, and that on this account I may claim
from critics some indulgence, where errors may
be found in it. I have thought it more interest-
ing to quote somewhat extensively from the
original authorities on which my work is founded
Introduction
rather than lose in paraphrases the tone of the
propaganda as it reaches the working-man, or the
spirit of the philosophers of the doctrine.
I have tried to acknowledge in footnotes the
large amount of help I have received ; if any
acknowledgements are forgotten, it is my memory
which is at fault, not my gratitude. Mr. Graham
Wallas (whose lecture on Syndicalism, as well
as Mr. Balfour's speech when acting as his
chairman, was not, unfortunately, delivered until
my manuscript was complete) kindly lent me all
the Syndicalist pamphlets which he possessed,
and thus placed before me several documents
which I had not previously seen. Mr. B. M.
Headicar, the Librarian of the London School of
Economics, did much to help me in obtaining
material.
A. D. L.
J^une 5, 1912.
CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
INTRODUCTION . . . . .1
I. POPULAR IDEAS OF SYNDICALISM IN FRANCE . 7
II. MONSIEUR GEORGES SOREL AND HIS IDEAS . 35
III. MONSIEUR GEORGES SOREL AND HIS IDEAS (cotlt.) 65
IV. ITALY . . . . , -95
V. GERMANY
VI. ENGLAND
VII. THE GENERAL STRIKE
VIII. OTHER COUNTRIES .
IX. OBJECTIONS TO SYNDICALISM
X. SOME GENERAL REFLECTIONS
169
227
265
ANNOTATED LIST OF WORKS CONSULTED BY THE
AUTHOR ..... 293
POPULAR IDEAS OF
SYNDICALISM IN FRANCE
Syndicalism and the General
Strike
CHAPTER I
POPULAR IDEAS OF SYNDICALISM IN FRANCE
In penny pamphlets and street-corner speeches
things are to be heard that are not known to
readers of Liberal or Conservative newspapers,
and to those who buy books at booksellers' shops,
and it is enlightening to discover what is argued
out down below. There is perhaps wisdom to
be found in these low places which is not known
to the cultured and educated.
In the present chapter I propose to give the
message of Syndicalism as it actually reaches the
working-men of France or Switzerland. I shall
indicate in what pamphlet I found each opinion
which I attribute to Syndicalists, and at the end
of the book in an annotated list of the books and
pamphlets used I shall attempt to explain how
far each is of interest.
But before going into details, I may give a
9
Syndicalism and the General Strike
small composite photograph of the Syndicalist
doctrine, which I shall explain more fully in
the latter part of the chapter.
Syndicalism hopes for the construction of a
juster type of society to be brought about
by a war between the classes : all its hope
is based on the righteous anger of the ex-
ploited directed against their robbers. It
is therefore indifferent to theories so long as
it has an aggressive working-class. It wishes
to work purely through working-class bodies —
it will have no middle-class sympathisers : this
partly because it distrusts politicians, partly
because French trade unions were long the
battle-grounds of warring views of socialist
tactics, partly because it wishes to train the
working-man to act by himself and without
orders from a superior. Delegates are to be
distrusted and leaders to be led : their fear of
responsibility, their separation from the man
who is under the thumb of a master, make them
always less rebellious than some of their fol-
lowers. The Syndicalist likes poor unions best —
riches bring caution : he likes low weekly dues
and small benefits. All strikes are useful : they
train men in working together and rouse their
spirit : they encourage insubordination and
make revolution more probable. The great
lO
Popular Ideas of Syndicalism in France
weapon of the workers against their masters is
disorder : the main purpose of the law is to
defend property. If the strike is good, the
general strike would be better : a strike in the
railway service or in coal-mines might bring on
a strike in all the chief trades of a country.
There are other useful forms of " direct action "
— sabotage, or the destruction of property, in-
timidation of masters, sitting in factories with
folded arms so that no blacklegs can take your
place, leaving work at an hour earlier than the
masters want, wasting materials, telling the truth
to customers — all these are means by which
masters can be made to yield.' The Syndlcat
is not only the fighting force of the present, but
it is the germ of the productive unit of the future.
The worker in it is to study so as to prepare
himself to carry on the necessary work of the
district without help from another class. The
subservience of the army to the propertied class
is to be dissolved by anti-militarist propaganda.
The Syndicalist is to prepare for a new world
in which he, the producer, will have the upper
hand, and the other class, overcome by means of
the general strike, will be forced to capitulate.
In that new world there will be no authority
^ Sabotage meets with the disapproval of Sorel, the philo-
sopher of Syndicalism,
II
Syndicalism and the General Strike
either of the State or of masters : all work will
be looked upon as of one value : property will
be abolished : men will be associated in small
federated but ungoverned groups.
Before I proceed to illustrate from Syndicalist
writings the clauses in which I have here briefly
set forth their doctrine, I will say a few words
about French trade unionism, merely giving a
few inadequate details likely to be of special
interest to English readers. The history of
French trade unions has resemblances with the
history of the English unions : there are the
same laws against combination in the eighteenth
century — in particular a famous Le Chapelier law
passed in 1791, after an attempt by the car-
penters to bargain collectively with their masters ;
in introducing it, Le Chapelier, expressing the
" advanced " doctrine of his time, said, " There
are no more corporations in the State ; there are
only the separate interests of each individual and
the general interest of the State."' In 18 10, all
associations of more than twenty persons were
forbidden unless the State expressly permitted
them. However, unions were formed in spite
of the law, and the law yielded very slowly before
the force of facts. At first the unions professed
to exist only for the provision of mutual bene-
^ Louis, '* Mouvement Syndical en France."
12
Popular Ideas of Syndicalism in France
fits. As time went on their militancy became
more and more pronounced. They were far
quicker to believe in Socialism than English
trade unionists. A section of the working-men's
delegation to the Universal Exhibition at Phila-
delphia in 1876 speaks in a decidedly Syndicalist
tone, saying : —
" The formula of the socialist party should be
the emancipation of the workers by their own
efforts. War on the centralising principle which
paralyses all initiative ; replace it by communal
autonomy, the starting-point for political organi-
sation, just as the corporate societies will
form, when they unite the productive forces in
one organisation, the basis of the econotnic
organism."
But at that time this was only the opinion
of an infinitesimal minority.'
In opposition to the socialists, the general
strike was more and more recommended as the
chief instrument for improving society.
The establishment of labour exchanges led
to a great extension of trade unionism. Many
of the French exchanges have the power of
granting railway fares and the cost of living in
order that men in search of work may have time
to look for it in any place and to travel on if
' Kritsky, " L'Evolution du Syndicalisme en France."
13
Syndicalism and the General Strike
there is none to be found : they brought together
men of many trades who exchanged opinions,
and besides, as they gave most facilities to those
in unions, directly encouraged trade combination.
The labour exchanges, unlike those of
England, are under the control of the working-
classes themselves.
The Congres de la Federation de la Bourse
de Travail of 1896, held at Tours, put into
words another part of the Syndicalist doctrine
—the necessity for using working-class organi-
sations (they specified the labour exchanges)
for obtaining information as to cost of living
of men in each trade, the amount manufactured
in each district, the density of the population —
in short, such information as would be necessary
if a district were made non-competitive and
managed sensibly so that the burden of necessary
labour was justly distributed among all.'
The division between the political section and
the Syndicalist section of opinion grew ever
greater, and in 1895 the C.G.T., or Confedera-
tion G^nerale du Travail, a confederation of
federated unions, which aims at getting rid of
politicians, was formed.
It contains, however, both a reformist and a
revolutionary section : the former resembles our
* Kritsky, " L'Evolution du Syndicalisme en France."
14
Popular Ideas of Syndicalism in France
own old-fashioned trade unionists, who confer
with masters before, instead of after, strikes, and
consider themselves bound by agreements, how-
ever much the force of circumstances favoured
the masters against the men in need of the price
of to-day's (or next week's) dinner. Its revolu-
tionary section is, therefore, the minority of a
minority of a minority — only some of the mem-
bers of the C.G.T. being revolutionists, and the
C.G.T. itself only representing a minority of the
unions. The revolutionary section of the C.G.T.
probably best embodies the Syndicalist idea
which I have to explain.'
From about 1884, when the law legalising
trade unions was passed, attempts have been
made to form unions of a tamer kind, likely to
break the force of those who fight for their rights .
Syndicats mixtes were formed " under initiative
of the directing classes " and largely controlled
by Catholics. These were found chiefly in the
textile industries — at Lyons and Roubaix there
are such syndicats, for example .2 This Christian
trade unionism did not live long, nor was it
always as tame as it was expected to be.
" In France, the weavers of Neuvilly, com-
^ Chiefly based on a lecture by Paul Loyson, delivered
to the Fabian Society on November 25, 1910.
2 " Histoire du Mouvement syndical en France."
15
Syndicalism and the General Strike
bincd at first by reactionary influence and imbued
with religious prejudices, entered frankly on the
revolutionary path. Their revolt was in itself
a complete education,^ by putting them face to
face with the oppressive powers ; and they,
showed themselves much more energetic than
certain kinds of workmen who called themselves
more emancipated in ideas and more advanced
in intellectual development." '
Out of the Christian and mixed unions
arose a little later the " yellow movement," as
opposed to the " red movement " we are con-
cerned with. The yellows believe that we all
have the same interests, that Utopian socialists
are dangerous, and that the rights of minorities
must be respected, especially when they are loyal
to the masters. Like our "free labour" move-
ment," the " yellow movement " does not seem
to move much.
So much for history. Let us return to
doctrine. Syndicalism recommends immediate
aggression without careful planning of what is
to be done after the victory is won : it is there-
fore comparatively indifferent to theories. It
would unite the more timid working-men with the
revolutionary, letting one work by stirring up
strikes, damage of property {sabotage), boy-
^ " Syndicalisme et Revolution."
i6
Popular Ideas of Syndicalism in France
cotting, anti -militarism, and preparations for
the general strike, while the others use those less
violent means of helping the workers which co-
operative action places in their power.
Thus a Swiss pamphlet, " Ce qu'est le Syndi-
calisme," says :—
" To begin with, the Syndicalist organisation
is neither specifically socialist, nor purely anar-
chist. The socialists of our country are grouped
into cantonal parties : their organ is the Peuple
Suisse. The anarchists, on their side, have their
' Federation romande ' [ Federation of Latin
languages], and their organ Le Reveil of
Geneva. The Syndicalists need not agitate on
behalf of these sects. The workers in uniting
according to their trades, stand together for
economic interests before everything, in order
to arrive, as the Confederation Generate da
travait de France, puts it, at prosperity, and
through prosperity at liberty.
" By the fact that any one is a wage -earner, a
workman, a mechanic, a producer, his place is
in the Syndicalist movement. Whether he is a
foreigner or a native, young or old, man or
woman, legally in order or not in order with
his papers, this being is exploited by masters,
oppressed by the creatures of the Government
who get duties out of him, or taxes for the bandits
17
Syndicalism and the General Strike
of finance, or force him to submit to landlords,
or military service, &c., he has the same interests
as the fellow-workers in his workshop or yard
in getting rid of the yoke of his master and his
government ; he has to submit to the same
restraints, and has the same reasons to free him-
self ; and that whether he is called French or
German, Italian or Swiss, socialist or anarchist.
Christian or Freethinker, teetotaller or Malthu-
sian, reformer or revolutionary. The Syndicat
is the group for resistance of the producer, of
all producers, and of nothing but producers."
Associations formed on a basis of affinity of
ideas, opinions, hopes, are looked upon as less
useful than those based on unity of interests.^
Syndicalism tries to build up purely working-
class associations, free from middle-class sym-
pathisers, and even, so far as possible, from
direction by cc^mmittees and delegates. "Under
pretext of discipline, the workers' organisation
must not cause a new spirit of resignation to
spring up. The organisation should aim at the
individual development of its members, not at
replacing individual development of each one
by a more or less authoritative direction. It
would be bad if individuals trusted entirely in
delegates and gave them full powers, leaving it
» " Le Syndicat," by Emile Pouget.
i8
Popular Ideas of Syndicalism in France
to them to make all decisions. This would be
an abdication of will and of personal energy and
would be a return to idleness and weakness.
. . . Besides delegates, whoever they are, have a
repugnance— you may say a natural repugnance
—against revolt. They are drawn away from it
by fear of responsibility, by fear of being out-
witted, by the calculations of reason, which are
wrong when actually tested because they do not
take into account the strength of the feelings of
the masses since this force is not known and
cannot be estimated." '
" Ce qu'est le Syndicalisme " says : " What are
the actions demanded by Syndicalist ideas ? All
the actions that workers can do towards making
themselves free by always forcing themselves to
be sufficient for themselves, in trying not to
appeal to non-workers, in keeping by themselves,
in stimulating themselves, helping one another,
not going to be misled by the non-producers.
The latter, in reality, have often many things that
bind them to our masters, with the bourgeoisie,
and however sympathetic they may be, tend to
filter into our organisations manners, customs,
methods, tactics, institutions, of the possessing
classes : besides, the workers who separate them-
selves from their surroundings allow themselves
^ "Syndicalisme et Revolution."
19
Syndicalism and the General Strike
to be fatally influenced also by an atmosphere
that is not essentially working-class, and all these
things help in making the working-class work
go astray. The Syndicalists wish the Labour
movement to remain a labour movement, and
not to draw its strength, tactics, and style from
anywhere but the working-class. Thus will our
class fulfil its true function in society, in not
letting itself be contaminated by the rottenness of
capitalism, thus will it most properly expand,
and thus shall we be able to show all the renew-
ing and beneficent power which is in us,— it is
thus that we shall best be able to secure respect
for our function of producers."
Syndicalism distrusts middle-class influence
partly because it distrusts the politicians and
speakers: "Laws affecting the workers {les
lots ouvrieres) are no use if they are not
confirmations of palliatives which have been
already won, if they are not merely the blessings
bestowed on what is already a fact as regards
the morals and customs of the workers." '
Further on the same pamphlet says :—
" It is quite useless to recall the vexations and
disillusions of those who have sincerely trusted
in parliamentary action. The way in which the
laws affecting workers are administered is enough
» "ABC Syndicaliste."
20
Popular Ideas of Syndicalism in France
to enlighten the workers. They know how many-
years it takes to elaborate and pass a law if it is
not to the complete advantage of the propertied
classes. They know how ingeniously employers
divert or benefit by a law which seems to favour
their employees."
The unforeseen methods by which employers
take advantage of laws intended to benefit the
workers— discharging women and children and
the old, lengthening the hours of work and so
forth in order to avoid regulations— are constantly
insisted on.
Paul Delesalle, explaining how reformist
methods have been used by socialists, says
bitterly :—
"M. Millerand's coming into power had, as
we are compelled to say, much to do with the
present crisis, and was for some Syndicalistes
the start of their evolution towards State action.
The corruption which power brings forth had
not a little to do with this. Because they were
received in ministers' ante -chambers, some trade
union leaders thought the freedom of the workers
was nearer to hand, and from that day the move-
ment which before seemed strongly directed to-
wards revolutionary action went through a period
of inaction which to-day has for its effect a
threatened division between the advocates of the
21
Syndicalism and the General Strike
two methods, and which will be avoided if both
will frankly discuss their views." '
After denouncing M. Waldeck-Rousseau's
clever idea of enforced arbitration in cases of
labour disputes, and the institution of other com-
missions and councils, mixed tribunals composed
of masters and men, and showing how various
measures of social reform failed to give any real
help to the workers, he says : —
" On the other hand, you can create an aris-
tocracy of trade unionists, a privileged prole-
tariat of artisans, in antagonism with the army
of unemployed, of men without a trade, which
increases every day. Thus divide the workers
into two for the benefit of the propertied, and so
lengthen the life of capitalist society : in one
word, do a work anti-socialist and anti-
revolutionary.
" Or you can keep yourselves in a position
of irreconcilable opposition, and make the unions
remain bodies of men opposed to the masters and
to capitalist society and not to be absorbed in
it. Organise the workers, make them every day
more conscious of their position, and teach them
to rely only on themselves. Prepare to unite all
the working-class forces, without any distinction,
against the whole propertied class.
* " Les deux Methodes du Syndicalisme."
22
Popular Ideas of Syndicalism in France
" For this purpose, it is necessary to prevent
the workers from passing from a society in which
they are under the economic oppression of their
masters into one in which they are under the
oppression of an economic state.
" Syndicalism and Democracy are the two
opposite poles which exclude and neutralise each
other. Examples abound, which every one can
recall : in all economic groups where politics
creep in disintegration and decline are
provable .
" This is because Democracy is a social super-
fluity, a parasitic and external excrescence, while
Syndicalism is the logical manifestation of a
growth of life, it is a rational cohesion of human
beings, and that is why, instead of restraining
their individuality, it prolongs and develops
it." I
" Experience shows that deputies— whether
socialists or others— only move under pressure
from public opinion or when afraid of an
agitation." ^
"All governments treat it [the disinherited
class] with enmity and ill-will. If it has gained
from them any alleviation of its miserable fate,
this is due not to their feelings of justice or pity,
^ " Le Syndicat," by Emile Pouget.
* " Syndicalisme et Revolution."
23
Syndicalism and the General Strike
but to a salutary fear which it has been able to
arouse in them." '
" However, it is impossible to conceive any-
thing more pitiable than the socialist papers are
when they compare the skeleton of trade
unionism in France with the strong organisation
in Germany and England. The ideal of the
reformers and politicians is to be able to show
a great army of adherents, paying their dues
regularly. . . . The ideal is not to have a
compact sheep -like majority on paper, poor in
spirit and needing authoritative leadership. A
fighting working-class body is stronger through
the moral force of the individuals who compose it
than through its numbers. ... It is better to
have an active group of propagandists who know
how to carry away the masses and turn them in
the right direction by their words and actions,
propagandists who make recruits among the
masses, who feel their needs and share their
feelings, and differ from their fellows only in the
strength of their convictions." 2
The Syndicalist has a contempt for the vulgar
idea of democracy — the inert, xmconscious mass
is not to be taken into account when the minority
wishes to act so as to benefit it ; the millions
^ " Les Bases du Syndicalisme."
2 " Syndicalisme et Revolution."
24
Popular Ideas of Syndicalism in France
are the first to profit by the militant actions of
the few, who expose themselves to the black-
listing of the masters.!
Syndicalism aims at federating the trade
unions for common action : it therefore tries
to make them purely aggressive bodies, asking
for only low weekly dues and giving few mutual
benefits.
" The Syndicat has an interest in not isolating
itself from other syndical groups." 2 The same
pamphlet says : —
" At the most, the Syndicats may be allowed
to have a fund for strike-pay and for help for
the unemployed, if that may attract a few egoists,
who still do not understand that the Syndicat
ought to be an association formed only in order
to defend and to set free its members. It is
clear that unions with big reserves are only of
use for helping the sick and the unemployed.
Instead of being used to organise a battle against
long hours of work such as would diminish con-
siderably the amount of sickness, these big re-
serves are only used to maintain the evil by
helping the sufferers.
" As for the funds for strike -pay, we know well
» See " La Confederation Generale de Travail," II. " La
Tactique."
2 "ABC Syndicaliste," by Georges Yvetot.
25
Syndicalism and the General Strike
that however big they are, they will never exceed
the employers' funds. The celebrated strike
of English engineers proves this : Twenty-seven
millions have been used up in pay, and yet the
strike has failed.^^
Delay is a hindrance to strikers and a help
to employers, but where funds are large the
workers are made to Vote for or against a strike,
and every obstacle is put by the officials in the
way of a sudden expensive militancy.
As the process of exploitation gets more
perfect, skilled labour is more and more replaced
by comparatively unskilled machine-tending, and
therefore the need for separate trade societies
gets less — they can be replaced by a single union.
Thus we read : —
" What is a Syndicat, then ? An association
of workers united by the bond of fellowship.
" This co-ordination in a corporation can take
place, according to circumstances, either with
the more limited bond of a trade, or, in the
large-scale industrialism of the twentieth century,
can unite the workers of the different trades
together, since all their efforts are for a common
task." J
Action undertaken by strikers for themselves
is regarded as the antithesis of action taken by
' " Le Syndicat," by Emile Pouget.
26
Popular Ideas of Syndicalism in France
the State on behalf of its subjects — reforms are
considered much more praiseworthy when ex-
torted from below than when imposed from
above : —
We, in opposition to those who try to pene-
trate into power, act on the power, which is not
exactly the same thing." i
The strike is regarded as excellent in itself,
apart from anything gained by it ; strikes exer-
cise men in solidarity, in working together for
their own aims, and in revolting, and therefore
they are useful, " although they may not aim at
arriving at more than very precarious immediate
modifications." 2
Syndicalism aims at replacing an economic
hierarchy by a system in which different kinds
of work are regarded as being of one value,
and where there is brotherhood instead of
mastery and subservience. Trade federations
are to carry on production and local organisa-
tions to look after consumption and education
and training. Decentralisation and federation of
autonomous communes 3 is looked forward to.
^ " Les deux Methodes du Syndicalisme."
2 " Syndicalisme et Revolution."
3 This is the doctrine most commonly found in the
popular French pamphlet. The idea of Syndicalism which
nearly every one here has — the mines for the miners — will
be mentioned later.
27
Syndicalism and the General Strike
Authority—/.^., enforced regulations as opposed
to those which organisations agree to with a
view to their own convenience — is to end.
" The PRODUCER is the base of everything : he
fills the essential organic function, thanks to
which society perpetuates itself. He is then the
primary cell of economic life, and it is his contact
and accordance with the producers whose action
is completed in the same sphere as his own —
that is, the same industry, the same trade — which
reveals the bond of solidarity, the claim of which
extends through the whole of interconnected
humanity.
" This necessary and logical understanding be-
tween producers leads to the productive group,
which is the corner-stone of society. No other
form of agglomeration has such a character of
necessity ; all the others are secondary." '
The author then goes on to point out that this
primary nature of the productive group — their
common interests and aspirations — was less ob-
vious when production was carried on in home
industries.
The Syndicalist, having this ideal of local
trades councils controlling the work done by the
producers, is as much opposed to State owner-
ship, with its vast centralised industries, as any
' " Les Bases du Syndicalisme."
28
Popular Ideas of Syndicalism in France
anti-socialists. He points to the bad matches
and cigarettes supplied by the French Govern-
ment as showing its business ability. Want of
initiative, wastefulness, incompetence, and tend-
ency to reward officials for political services, not
for professional ability, are all said to be
characteristics of State monopolies.
Syndicalism has an immediate programme. It
would have the unions look to it that there are
meeting-places for working-men, where there will
be lectures, baths, and all that helps them to
learn how to take control of production and
consumption ; also the officials, with professional
help, should get for workers their legal rights,
and place medical and legal advice at their dis-
posal ; public working-class kitchens should
be started where unadulterated food will be
used, and milk depots, by which tjie lives of
babies will be saved which otherwise would be
lost. I
The Syndicalist, aiming at improving the posi-
tion of the producer, is interested in improving
the technique of his work. That masters want
(quick and pyrofitable work rather than good work
is one of the complaints of the good workman.
Thus the General Association of Postal Servants
has published works on proposed alterations in
» " Ce qu'est le Syndicalisme " ; "ABC Syndicaliste."
29
Syndicalism and the General Strike
the times of collection of letters and on appren-
ticeship, and how work could be made less
monotonous and young supernumeraries, many
of whom are for the first time living alone in
large cities, provided with " a second family " in
their association.'
Time after time. Syndicalists press for the re-
duction of hours of work enforced by direct
action and better sanitation in factories, but
always it is insisted that it is better to conquer
by the power of the unions than by begging
help from the State. 2
"It is of the greatest importance that the
Syndicats should study these problems of social
reorganisation. In each the question should be
asked, ' What shall we do if a general strike
takes place ? ' In each, according to its trade
or industry, the reply may differ in all its details,
but in all one aim will be affirmed, that of self-
education and preparation in order that the revo-
lution may be fruitful." 3
" In the future, it (the Syndicai) will be the
base on which the normal society, purged of
exploitation and oppression, will arise." 4
The general strike and other forms of direct
* Beaubois, " La Crise postale et les Monopoles d'Etat "
* See " Les deux Methodes du Syndicalisme."
3 " Le Syndicat," by Emile Pouget.
4 " Les Bases du Syndicalisme."
30
Popular Ideas of Syndicalism in France
action are the main tools for producing a better
state of society.
" Partial strikes better and better organised,
more and more energetic, more and more
general, make us hope for the formidable move-
ment which will set the whole working-class face
to face with exploitation." '
" When these people find no bread and no
newspaper, that morning they will at once feel
fairly hit. If we succeed in taking from them
other things of the greatest necessity, then it will
be all over with them. If they wish to live, they
should become producers instead of parasites.
The war of the classes leads to the disappear-
ance of classes." 2
" The hairdressers' assistants who were in
Syndlcats used direct action when in order to
get Sunday rest they painted the fronts of the
shops of resistant shopkeepers with potassium.
" Again, the bakers used direct action in order
to enforce the law as to labour exchanges by
looting such exchanges as were open. They
used direct action again when they broke the
windows of such bakers as would not give the
Sunday holidays their workers demanded.
"But the masters of the bakers' shops (for
' "ABC Syndicaliste."
' " Ce qu'est le Syndicalisme."
31
Syndicalism and the General Strike
whom the police were as blind and tolerant as
they were wide-awake and brutal for the
workers), the masters used direct action against
certain other bakers of the Crenelle district in
Paris, in breaking up their shops and throwing
the bread in the street, because these employers
resisted the decision of the employers intended
to defeat what the workers did.
" Of course, the papers made a great fuss
about the violent action of the employers, but they
were not unanimous in blaming it as they are
when the men's actions are concerned. Like the
police and the magistrates, the press is only severe
when the direct action is done by the workers,
who imitate the example of their exploiters." '
■The dockers' representatives in the port of
Cette gained their purpose of getting their hours
of labour reduced by locking the employers'
representatives in the room and declaring they
would not go away from there until they had
signed an agreement conceding their demands.
They won them .2
The use of trade union labels is regarded as
an instance of direct action. 3
Sabotage consists in not considering the em-
ployers' interests— pursuing a policy of " ca*
' "ABC Syndicaliste." = Ibid.
3 " Le Syndicat," by Emile Pouget.
32
Popular Ideas of Syndicalism in France
canny," or working slowly— in some cases it con-
sists in giving customers good measure and truth-
ful opinions as to the qualities of goods ; in
others, in cooking well and refusing to use bad
meat delivered at restaurants ; in others it con-
sists in wasting materials. Sabotage, it is said,
" is in the social war what guerrilla fighting is in
national wars." '
Children in some strikes have been removed
from the strikers' homes and taken care of by
workers in other districts .2
In order to prevent blacklegs being employed,
the strikers at the Bordeaux gasworks remained
in the factory but refused to do any work.
On the railways obstruction has been practised
by exact obedience to official rules and by pur-
posely using wrong labels.
" Legality having been made in order to
defend that which is, it is necessary sometimes to
go outside it in order to obtain anything." 3
Pouget is careful to insist that the purpose of
sabotage is to hit the master and not the con-
sumer : thus bread has been made inedible but
not injurious.
The subservience of the army to the propertied
class is to be dissolved by anti -militarist propa-
ganda. Thus we read :—
' Pouget, " Le Sabotage." = "ABC Syndicaliste."
3 " Le Syndicalisme dans I'Evolution Sociale."
33 c
Syndicalism and the General Strike
" On the other hand, as the army is the great
safeguard of the owning classes, we must work
vigorously at anti-militarist propaganda. P^urther,
we must open the eyes of our comrades to legal
scoundrelism ; the propertied classes give the
people a piece of paper— the voting paper— to
defend their rights ; but the propertied keep
rifles to defend their own interests with. When
this is realised, much is clear. The revolutionary
methods of the Syndicalists are justified every-
where." I
Again :—
" The principal obstacle to a revolution is the
army. . . . -When the Government does not use
the army to replace strikers, it makes soldiers
into massacrers of workmen." 2
If it is proposed to use soldiers to replace
railwaymen or electricians who have struck,
Pouget says that the machinery, " the indis-
pensable material," can be so treated that it,
too, will strike and refuse to work.
The tailors of Philadelphia are said to have
practised sabotage in an ingenious way by leaving
behind them in a certain shop incorrect yard-
measures, which made their successors work to
wrong measurements.
^ " Ce qu'est le Syndicalisme."
^ "ABC Syndicaliste."
34
MONSIEUR GEORGES SOREL
AND HIS IDEAS
CHAPTER II
MONSIEUR GEORGES SOREL AND HIS IDEAS
Monsieur Sorel, the learned commentator on
Syndicalist developments, himself wrote to tell
me that I should find in the autobiographical
letter placed at the beginning of AgostinOi
Lanzillo's pamphlet, " Giorgio Sorel," " all that
I have to say which is useful about myself." We
learn from that letter in conjunction with the list
of his works at the end of the book that he started
as an author and as a prophet of revolution only
after he had retired at the age of forty-five from
his profession of public-works engineer.
Michels has compared Sorel to Engels. Both
as elderly men living lives of studious peace
send their messages to a circle of admirers ( Sorel
is now sixty-four years old, he was born on
November 2, 1847, at Cherbourg): both—
Engels the prosperous merchant and Sorel the
retired ingenieur en chef des ponts et chaussees
—stir up revolt against the privileged prosperity
37
Syndicalism and the General Strike
in which they themselves are placed ; " both
believe in their own infallibility," says Michels :
only one thing distinguishes one from the other
(he concludes)— Engels was as German as Sorel
is French.'
He studied in Rollin College at Paris and at
the Polytechnique until he was twenty ; after
twenty-five years of work as an engineer, he
retired decorated with the legion dlionneur ; he
might then, he says, have asked the favour of
" perpetual leave," which would have been
granted and would have left him his right to a
pension : but he preferred not to ask for a
favour.
Sorel married a lady who shared his interest in
politics. He lost her in 1897, and since her death
lives with one of her married nephews at
Boulogne-sur-Seine, near Paris.
Sorel is neither a professor nor a populariser,
nor one who wishes to lead a party ; he is " an
eager student about sixty years of age," as M|r.
J. H. Harley called him in his article in The
Contemporary Review.
Sorel began his literary career with a com-
mentary on the Bible— it is now lost— a book
* See Michel's review of Lanzillo's book in Archiv filr die
Geschichte des Sozialismus u. der Arbeiterbewegung^ Band II.
Heft 2, 3.
38
Monsieur Georges Sorel and His Ideas
intended (and it is characteristic of the man's
permanent view of things) to show how the Bible,
in opposition to our modern, utilitarian, calculat-
ing, profit-and-loss morals, sets up an ethic of
ideals, of power, and of character. Like Shaw
and Chesterton ( I promise not to mention them
again), he is violently opposed to a determinist
view of the individual, although he lays enormous
emphasis on the power of economic conditions.
But he would inspire men with hatred of oppres-
sion and oppressors, and not at all leave them to
drift along as part of an economic machine. The
natural instinct of man, he believes, makes him
oppose merely those who oppose his will, and
so the demagogue denounces the misdeeds of
individuals, and concentrates the whole of the
popular anger on representative personages :
because we only hate those who cut across our
immediate course, we are inclined to dislike those
who are nearest to us, since they stand in our way
most obviously ; democracy does not get much
beyond this— it is merely desirous of satisfying
feelings relating to immediate and private
material interests : it is only after the worker is
dominated by the idea of revolutionary socialism
that he has " lost all confidence in, the old
mysteries that once disguised the brutality of
economic relations : his mind is sharpened and
39
Syndicalism and the General Strike
the importance of the economic motive in the
world is clear to him, the idea of the overthrow
of the social order is laid on him like a law p|f
reason." '
But in the working-class there is automatically
developed a great force of revolution ; the
worker is unconsciously driven on to create a new
order of society— he is the creative evolutionary
power in the world. He has no need of definite
principles : the conflict of class with class
developes an unpredictable conclusion. All this
happens if only he is not corrupted by reason.
This opposition to rationalism was seen in Sorel's
second book, " Le Proces de Socrate," in which
he accused Socrates of introducing " proba-
bilitism " into morals. " The man who is con-
tented with probabilities, who believes in the
absolute independence of reason and the entire
original purity of the mind, cannot abandon him-
self to pessimism. There is nothing better
for him than to let things go, not to torment
himself if evil triumphs. If he attainis a sufficient
degree of optimism, he will look on the spectacle
of life as if an interesting panorama were being
unrolled, and will end by believing that every-
thing is done to amuse him."
' " Insegramenti Sociali dell' Economia Contemporanea "
(Sandron, Palermo, 1906).
40
Monsieur Georges Sorel and His Ideas
It is characteristic that Sorel dislikes life as
an amusement, and is all for moral conflict and
uncomfortable virtue.
His sanity of view is indicated by his belief
in monogamic marriage. He does not agree
with those confused people who think that by
denying the validity of all moral codes a good
standpoint is obtained from which to attack the
errors of the world : conventional morality will
serve well enough, if its principles are firmly
applied, to knock down wealth founded on in-
heritance, and ownership apart from services
and present-day needs. We hear much of a
new morality, but we never see its formulated
codes. Complicated in application, in principle
the sacrifice of the individual to the needs of
the community is morality ; and the opposite,
sacrifice of the community to the individual, is
immorality ; there is no need for any revolu-
tion in this simple principle— only apply it steadily
and the revolution in the economic form of
society will follow. To return to our summary of
Sorel's life : Socialism about 1893 began to show
its growing power in France, and there was a
stir in the world of propagandist and contro-
versial literature. Dvamandy, a Roumanian
student, started the Marxian review, Uere
nouvelle, and Sorel contributed to it. It would
41
Syndicalism and the General Strike
seem that his study of Marx's works began at
this time. "The formidable instrument of his-
torical materialism now found, perhaps for the
first time, that it may be included in a wider
theory," says Lanzillo. Sorel had already been
influenced towards socialism by Proudhon before
he read Marx, and the former writer exerted
perhaps the more profound influence on his
mind.
Lere nouvelle died. The Devenir social
was founded by Sorel, and to it he contributed
much work, both under his own name and using
the pseudonym " David," and various initials.
(The Devenir social, by the way, died in
France, to be reborn as the Devenire sociale
of Italy.)
When Sorel first took part in the controversies
between socialists, he sided with Bernstein, who
favoured reformist tactics, against Kautsky, the
more revolutionary socialist.
The crisis produced by the Dreyfus case did
much to annoy Sorel with the socialists, each
section of whom seemed to him to use the dis-
turbance of opinion only for the advantage of
its own little sect. Sorel wrote a large volume
on the affaire Dreyfus, out of which he later
compiled a small pamphlet, " La Revolution
Dreyfusienne," which is all that he intends to
42
Monsieur Georges Sorel and His Ideas
publish on the subject. Although even then
somewhat disillusioned about the socialist
politicians, he did not, when Millerand entered a
capitalist ministry, condemn him ; regarding the
affair as a movement " directed against the
Church, and against militarist interference in
French politics," and at that time thinking that
socialists could work with the Dreyfusards, and
could for a particular end ally themselves with
other parties, on such matters as are outside
the economic realm. He, however, was rapidly
disgusted by the " degeneration of socialism,"
which he saw resulting from the electoral tactics
of the party.
The Dreyfus affair led to riots and agitations,
which created once again in France " a tempera-
ture of violence," and thus revealed to the work-
ing-class their own power, if they acted unitedly
and not by the mouths of messengers and par-
liamentarians ; the contrast between the two
socialisms — the socialism of parliaments and the
socialism of independent working-class action
became clearer. In the end, the confusion of
aims produced irt all working-class movements
by their working together for all kinds of
" betterments," whether or no they were con-
nected with the wage-earners' struggle against
property, brought Sorel out of sympathy with
43
Syndicalism and the General Strike
the Socialist party and with democratic and
political parties. He was for a revolution
brought about by the elect few.
" Sorel is a reactionary against the revolu-
tionary confusionism which is not class war " :
he lives, we must remember, in France, where the
working-class are still ready to die for liberty,
fraternity, and equality, for Jacobite intangibili-
ties. His pamphlet, published 1898, called
" L'avenir Socialiste des Syndicats," is of histori-
cal importance, as it contains the first reasoned
expression of some of the characteristic Syndica-
list views. (I may point out that the C.G.T.,
although founded in 1895, ^^^ not of importance
till some years after. ) Here, for instance, is to
be found a bitter attack on the intellectuals — they
are said to be less intellectual than they seem ;
their importance to the world is slight, and to a
socialist movement still less. He says of them : —
" The democracy of the propertied classes
catches hold with the energy of despair of the
theory of capacities and struggles to use the
superstitious respect which the people instinc-
tively have for knowledge ; it makes use of the
most mountebankish means to increase its repu-
tation, multiplies degrees, and tries to turn the
smallest of men of letters into a mandarin ;
parasites distinguish themselves by their im-
44
Monsieur Georges Sorel and His Ideas
moderate enthusiasm for science in order to throw
dust into the eyes of the people — they get towed
along by the high priests of science, act as their
heralds, ask for big pensions for them, and hope,
in these ways, to get the respect of simple people
and make profit for themselves. . . ."
" Experience shows that the qualities needed
for directing are not exceptional, and that they
are very commonly found among manual
workers. . . ."
" In France the intellectuals claim that their
right place is in Parliament, and that dicta-
torial power would come to them with complete
right in case of triumph. Jt is against this
representative dictatorship of the people that the
Syndicaux protest : they think it would be
quite different from the dictatorship of the
proletariat y
The divergence of the interests of their
interests from those of the proletariat is insisted
on : —
" The men of law will find, without doubt, no
great occupation in the society of the future. It
is not probable that illnesses will increase in the
future ; the progress of science and the better
organisation of poor-law have already done much
to diminish the number of doctors employed. In
large-scale industry, many of the superior
45
Syndicalism and the General Strike
persons employed could be abolished, if the great
shareholders did not have to find places for cus-
tomers of theirs. A better division of func-
tions would allow, as in England, a small but
clever and experienced technical staff to do the
work which a larger number of less competent
engineers do badly. In so far as the mental and
moral qualities of the workers improve, you can
do without most of their supervisors — English
experience proves it. Finally, in offices women
compete with men, and will do all office work
when socialism has emancipated them. Thus
socialisation of the means of production trans-
lates itself into a huge lock-out : it is difficult
to believe that the intellectuals do not see a
fact so obvious as that ! "
He says the interests of these intellectuals are
quite different from those of working-men : they
live " at the expense of society, while modern
society lives at the expense of the workers."
" The true calling of the intellectual is the
exploitation of politics : the calling of the poli-
tician is much like that of the prostitute, and he
has no need of industrial ability. You must not
talk to them of suppressing the traditional forms
of the State ; in this their ideal, revolutionary as
it looks, is reactionary. They want to persuade
the worker that his interests consist in carrying
46
Monsieur Georges Sorel and His Ideas
them into power, and that he should accept the
hierarchy of abilities, which places the workers
under the direction of politicians."
In opposition to many Syndicalist teachers,
Sorel here stated that he would have trade
unions provide benefits (pensions, sick and un-
employment pay), if the members wanted them,
but would have them optional, membership in the
union only entailing membership for protection
and aggression against the masters.
The final words of the pamphlet are : " Pour
resumer toute ma pensee en une formule, je
dirai que tout Vavenir da soclalisme reside dans
le develop pement autonome des Syndicats
ouvriers."
A different line of reasoning causes him to
reflect that " democracy constitutes a danger for
the future of the proletariat when it occupies
the first place in working-class preoccupations ;
for democracy mixes classes and consequently
tends to cause the ideas of a trade to be con-
sidered as unworthy of the attention of an en-
lightened man." ^
Sorel has not reprinted this pamphlet on the
future of trade unions, and in his " Confessions,"
written in 1901, but not yet published, he says
he considers its formulae " doubtful and also
^ " Introduction a TEconomie moderne."
47
Syndicalism and the General Strike
dangerous." ' The pamphlet's anti-intellec-
tualism and pro-autonomous working-class effort-
ism is, of course, permanently Sorelian. His ob-
jection to politicians is expressed also in " La
Decomposition du Marxisme," where he shows
how the politician degenerates when he succeeds
in politics, and explains why politicians are all
conservative, even when they advocate violent
revolutions.
" The introduction of political parties in a
revolutionary movement takes us far away from
its primitive simplicity. Those who revolt are
at first intoxicated by the idea that their will
should not meet any obstacle, because they are
the majority ;' it seems to them evident that they
have only to elect delegates in order to make
laws which suit their needs ; but in so doing they
accept the rule of men who have interests other
than their own ; these men wish to give their
services, but only on condition that the masses
deliver the State to them, power over the State
being what they covet. Thus the instinct of
revolt in the poor may come to serve as base for
the formation of a popular State, formed of
propertied people who wish to continue a bour-
geois existence and who support bourgeois ideas,
but who profess to be proxies for the disinherited.
' See Lanzillo, p. 33.
48
Monsieur Georges Sore) and His Ideas
" The popular State tends to extend its tentacles
more and more, because the masses become more
and more difficult to dupe, as soon as the first
moment of the fight is passed and it is found
necessary to preserve the instinct of revolt in
humdrum times ; this renders necessary com-
plicated electoral machines^ and consequently a
very great number of favours to be given away.
By thus constantly increasing the number of its
dependants, the State produces a group of intel-
lectuals having interests different from those of
the propertyless producers ; thus the defences
of the bourgeois structure of society against the
revolutionary working-class are strengthened.
Experience shows that this bourgeoisie of clerks
may well have a feeble culture, but is none the
less much attached to the ideas of the propertied ;
we even see, in many examples, that if some
propagandist of revolution gets into the govern-
ing world, he very easily becomes an excellent
man of means."
(The labour exchanges and Insurance Bill
supply good examples of the way in which the
State creates new classes of officials, and these
officials have a direct interest in proving that the
Insurance Bill and the labour exchanges go a
long way in satisfying the just demands of
labour. )
49 »
Syndicalism and the General Strike
Sorel has stated in one of his letters that the
safest parliamentary candidate for the Syndicalist
to vote for is the most ignorant democrat who
knows nothing about working-class affairs : such
men are easily intimidated and can never betray
the possible weakness of a trade union ; they
have also no power to mislead or divide the
working-class. I
Sorel's idea of the value of independent purely
working-class bodies was derived from his know-
ledge of the Bourses du Travail. Sorel wrote
a preface for the history of their bodies, which
was written by Pelloutier, at one time secretary
of the Federation des Bourses .2
^ Lanzillo, p. 79.
2 Fernand Pelloutier, a journalist, was intended originally
for the Church, but at the age of sixteen a violent attack on
the Church was found in his desk and he was dismissed from
the seminary. While still at college, he contributed to
various papers. As a delegate of the Bourses du Travail de
Saint-Nazaire el du Nantes at Tours, he supported the
general strike, which became one of his favourite ideas.
He was made secretary of the Federation des Bourses. His
health having become exceedingly bad (he was tuberculous),
he was given a small post as investigator at the Office
du Travail, but this did not prevent him from opposing '' the
hybrid projects of the pseudo-socialist minister Millerand,"
relative to regulation of strikes and compulsory arbitration
and to old-age pensions. He was dismissed from this
governmental post on account of opinions expressed in his
book " La Vie ouvriere en France." He died after great
sufferings in 190 1, aged 33. (See the biographical notice
50
Monsieur Georges Sorel and His Ideas
I have suggested that in Sorel's works we
find much learning, the precise purpose of
which is not always clear, and even if it
were it could have little interest to those distant
from the controversies in which he is engaged.
■We thus find in his pamphlet, " La Decom-
position du Marxisme," that before arriving at
the very interesting pages on the social myth, he
discusses how far Engels agreed with and how
far he diverted Marx from his original ideas ;
how far the Marxians agree with Marx, and how
far Syndicalism is Marxian ; how far Marx was
a blanquiste, or believer in a revolution suddenly
brought about by a dictator, and how far he was
an insurrectionist ; how far capitalism has been
able to get over difficulties that Marx said it
could not get over, and how the old Marx agreed
with the Marx of his earlier years — these things, I
feel sure, cannot be made interesting to the
Englishman who does not know the difference
between a S.P.G.B'er and a Fabian.
It is, however, in this work that one of his
best explanations of the nature of the social myth
occurs.
It is when he is referring to that final catas-
trophe which will, according to Marx, overtake
by Victor Dave at the beginning of " Histoire des Bourses du
Travail.") Sorel refers to Pelloutier's influence in the 6th
section of "La Decomposition du Marxisme."
51
Syndicalism and the General Strike
the capitalistic society when the workers revolt,
that he says :—
" This text need not be taken literally ; we are
in the presence of what I have called a social
myth; we have a strongly coloured sketch which
gives a very clear idea of change, but no detail
of which can be discussed as a foreseeable his-
torical fact.
" In seeking how minds always have prepared
themselves for revolutions, it is easy to see that
they always made use of social myths, the for-
mulae of which varied according to their times.
Our epoch demands a more sober literature than
that which was formerly in use, and Marx had
the merit of disembarrassing his revolutionary
myth of all the phantasmagorias which too often
have caused people to look for a land of
Cocaigne.
" The myth is not suitable for division into
successive slices of change which can be arranged
in a series, and which, being spread over a long
space of time, can be regarded as forming an
evolution. This transformation is necessary in
all action conducted by a political party, and it
has taken place wherever socialists have entered
into parliaments ; it is impossible in the Marxian
myth, which gives a revolution in a lump, like an
indivisible whole."
52
Monsieur Georges Sorel and His Ideas
In the same book he remarks : —
" The catastrophe — which was the great rock
of offence to the socialists who wished to make
Marxism agree with the practice of the politicians
of democracy — corresponds exactly with the
general strike which for revolutionary Syndica-
lists represents the coming of the future
world. ...
"It is not to be hoped that the revolutionary
movement can ever follow a direction rightly
determined in advance ; that it can be conducted
according to a learned plan like the conquest of
a country, or that it can be studied scientifically
except when it is present. Everything in it is
unpredictable. . . .
" It is just because of these novelties in the
revolutionary movement that care must be taken
not to use any formulas except mythical formulae :
discouragement might result from the disillusion-
ment produced by the disproportion between
reality and what is expected ; experience shows
us that many excellent socialists have been thus
led to abandon their party."
The political strike, intended to intimidate
politicians or put one set out of power and
another in, is to be carefully distinguished from
the general economic strike. The political strike
is made by people who plan out its conse-
53
Syndicalism and the General Strike
quences : it is the great value of the general
strike that it overturns society absolutely, and
leads to an unknown future entirely different
from the past. Unlike the political strike, it is
not controlled by generals who expect to increase
their power if it succeeds. Sorel was a
Bergsonite before he read Bergson : you will
note at once how both rejoice in trusting to the
unknown, the not-reasoned-out.
The general strike is an embodiment of the
extremest form of class -struggle : one of those
ideas which, true or untrue, are productive of
energetic action : like the belief in the resurrec-
tion of Christ or the eternal war of Satan against
the army of Christ. When a mass of people
make up their minds to act upon the world, when
a social myth is present in the consciousness of
all of them, they actually succeed in influencing
their environment, just as the individual con-
sciousness influences its body. (Bergsonians will
note the Bergsonism of this.) "
" You may talk indefinitely," Sorel goes on,
" of revolts without ever provoking any revolu-
tionary movement, so long as there are no myths
accepted by the masses ; this is what gives such
great importance to the general strike, and this
is what makes it so odious to socialists who are
* Sorel, " Reflections sur la Violence," Introduction.
54
Monsieur Georges Sorel and His Ideas
afraid of a revolution ; they make great efforts
to shake the confidence that the workers have in
their preparation for a revolution ; and in order
to succeed they try to ridicule the idea of a
general strike, which is the only idea which has
any value in moving people."
A myth differs from an intellectual Utopia, he
proceeds to explain, in that the former is an ex-
pression of will, the latter the product of
intellectual labour : " it is the work of theorists,
who, after having observed and discussed facts,
try to build a model with which you can compare
existing societies in order to measure the relative
amount of good and evil which they comprise."
The proof that a myth is a myth appears to be
that it cannot be disproved and that experience
cannot show that it is impossible : thus the
believer in the general strike will always say of
any strike that fails that the preparations for it
were insufficient, and that the work must be
begun with more courage, determination, and
confidence next time. There is much good in
this distinction between a Utopia and a myth :
Plato's Republic, much as I admire it, is argued
out so reasonably that it is Utopian. What is
dogmatically asserted can alone affect imagina-
tions and wills. It is because science is scientific
that its vast Darwinian generalisations are not
55
Syndicalism and the General Strike
impressive as those of religion are : the gloomiest
predestination of the majority to eternal hell is
inspiriting in its grandeur. It is only that which
has not been proved that moves us. The
imagination is positive in its effects while the
reason is negative.
The general strike is said to be such a social
myth, which calls to mind in one mass all the
socialist ideas, all manifestations of the war which
socialism wages with society— ^one part of it
grows out of another, the whole being an in-
divisible movement. Sorel is not moved by the
fact that the general strike is said to be im-
possible. "There is no method by which you
can foresee the future scientifically or even dis-
cuss the value of different hypotheses about it ;
too many memorable examples show us that the
greatest men made the most prodigious errors
when they tried to master even the nearest facts
of the future." ' Myths describing the future are
of great value when they embody the strongest
tendencies of a people, a party, or a class ;
when they give reality to what we wish to do
in the near future. The general strike drama-
tises in its extremest form the real bitter war
between the classes. I should myself suggest
that the social myth is best when reduced to its
' " Reflexions sur la Violence," 2nd edition, p. 164.
56
Monsieur Georges Sorel and His Ideas
simplest form : it then becomes the bare con-
viction that the socialists will ultimately win and
get a socialist State. If it be objected that this
bare conviction that they are destined to succeed
is not embodied in a sufficiently plastic form to
be a good myth, as an alternative I suggest as
the perfect myth the Jewish idea of the Messiah,
almost as the orthodox among them believe it.
The Christians have spoilt the idea with their
false spiritualisings. It is the idea of a man
who is destined to come, at the right moment, in
order to revenge the wrongs done to the poor by
the prosperous wicked. But he will not come
until the right moment, when the poor have
become ready for him and understand the wrongs
and rights of their class. He comes not at first
to bring peace but to bring a sword — the banner
will be raised, the trumpet will be sounded— in
the great battle of Armageddon, socialists and
anti-socialists will fight, and all who will not
submit to justice will be killed. It is afterwards
that swords will be turned into ploughshares, that
every man will live in assured possession of his
own fig-tree (or, I suppose, some other tree if
figs do not grow there and he does not like figs),
and that the lion will eat straw like an ox (and
man, I presume, will not be less humane than
the lion). I suggest that the combination of
S7
Syndicalism and the General Strike
Messianism with preparation and effort on the
part of the millions forms the perfect myth. It
may, however, be objected by sensible people
that it is not certain that any Messiah ever will
arrive. I do not know of any answer to that.
Sorel, as a believer in the catastrophic con-
ception of the coming of socialism, favours
violence as a means of keeping alive a spirit
favourable to adventurous daring.
Violence— which is force exerted by the
majority in order to destroy a government, a
certain social order, in opposition to force, which
aims at preserving any order of society which
is advantageous to a minority— violence is praised
because it maintains a rigid division between
the chosen people and the Gentiles— it prevents
compromise and confusion of thought— a little
violence and persecution will be enough, if only
there is a feeling of coming catastrophe con-
nected with it. True morality is not a calcula-
tion, a probability of profit accruing somewhere ;
it is the spirit of a sublime battle, a violent and
desperate effort to remake the world.
Hatred causes people to study their opponents
and to study their own opinions. It does away
with the silly " We all agree at the bottom "
idea. The righteous anger of the oppressed
against their oppressors is no petty, self-centred,
58
Monsieur Georges Sorel and His Ideas
calculating feeling. Dreary intellectuality flees
before passionate hate. The saint is a fighter
while the well-meaning person is peaceable. The
torpor of the times needs pricking— prudence
and sense are the devil.
Violence, according to Sorel, is a moral neces-
sity if the state of mind is ever to be set up which
will lead to the establishment of socialism and
the definite break-up of the present system. The
working-class tactics must include violent force
exerted outside the law— the ''\acera.tion(lacera-
zione) of the existing historical constitution" as
Lanzillo calls it : in order that the right tone of
mind may be created in which the old con-
ventions will lose their reality.
As a clear-eyed believer in real violence, he
is opposed both to those who can see a harmony
of interests and those who threaten in otder to
get concessions from Parliament. The believer
in social peace argues that " the legislator has
to create social peace by showing to the poor
that the Government has no greater anxiety than
that for improving their lot, and imposing neces-
sary sacrifices on people who possess a fortune
considered too large for social peace. . . ."
" Experience shows that the propertied classes
easily allow themselves to be spoiled, provided
they are pressed a little and the fear of a revolu-
59
Syndicalism and the General Strike
tion put in them : the party that knows ho,w
to move the revolutionary bogy about most boldly
will inherit the future ; that is what the radicals
are beginning to see ; but clever as its low trick-
ing comedians may be they will have difficulty
in finding any who will know how to dazzle the
big Jewish bankers as well as Jaures and his
friends do." For Sorel hates the political
socialists more than any other body of men.
In a competitive society, he goes on to explain,
the idea of social duty, or the idea of a fair
wage, has no meaning. Duty or wage is fixed
solely by the bargaining power of the contest-
ing forces, and the worker, finding the masters
always try to dupe him with untrue statements
as to what is economically possible, come to the
conclusion that production and distribution can
be indefinitely manipulated to their advantage.
As against this idea Sorel is all for the
aggravation of the class-war : " The more the
propertied class is capitalistic, the more the dis-
inherited class is full of warlike spirit and con-
fident of its revolutionary power, the more sure
will be the movement" towards socialism. This
fills Sorel with immense pleasure, because in it
he sees heroic figures acting with intense passion :
he views the moral and moderate man as acting
with a confounded mildness and indecision, as
60
Monsieur Georges Sorel and His Ideas
encouraging languor and gentlemanliness and
pity in the propertied class : the American
millionaire is more his ideal bourgeois. Again,
he considers that revolutions are only useful
when production is improving, they accomplish
nothing otherwise, and he contrasts the good
French Revolution with the bad Christianisation
of the Roman Empire. But he thinks that
legislative interference by its ignorant prescrip-
tions weakens production, while direct striking
forces the capitalist to economise without dic-
tating to him how he is to do so, and therefore
it stimulates improvement. He admires the
violence of this class -war, which he compares to
the violence of war, and contrasts with revengeful
violence of legalists who proscribe enemies of
the State— the State to which Syndicalism is
entirely hostile, and therefore hostile also to legal
violence and to militarism. Here, again, we
see his preference for passion and intuition in
place of thought.
Christianity in its most active, early period,
he sees as a religion which caused people
to believe they were fighting daily against
the devil and soon to win ; just as to-day
the socialist fights capitalism : the battle-spirit is
a great force. The Salvation Army, as its name
shows, started out with this idea, but I have not
6i
Syndicalism and the General Strike
heard its preachers use the fight with the devil
motive much— they prefer fear of hell. It is
said that in modern times people are less to be
moved by the love of aggression than formerly.
Sorel, however, is not entirely in favour of all
violence, all rebellion against order and govern-
ment. He is a believer in machinery and
economic development— he is untouched by
Utopian, artistic reactionarism of those who want
handicraft to replace machinery (a view that I
sympathise with, because I think every man can
have joy in his work, but not if he is subordinate
to a machine that circles round a path of
routine ) .
F. Challaye, in " Syndicalisme revolutionnaire
et Syndicalisme reformiste," says :—
" Many Syndicalist theorists— M. Georges
Sorel, M. Edouard Berth, for example— declare
themselves entirely hostile to sabotage. M.
Georges Sorel considers that ' socialism will in-
herit not only the utensils which have been
created by capitalism and the science which has
been developed by technical co-operation, but
also that power of co-operating which has been
developed by a long factory-life in such a way
as to get the best out of the time, strength, and
skill of men.' Hence he regrets that certain
Syndicalists recommend the use of sabotage,
62
Monsieur Georges Sorel and His Ideas
which ' does not at all tend to direct the workers
in the path of emancipation.' " '
I may here note that the anarchists have used
strong language against Sorel, because, with
reference to Ferrer's execution, he advised the
workers not to trouble about principles which
did not concern their own class and not to
agitate for any " political end," but reserve all
their force for their own revolutionary emanci-
pation. Herve, near to Syndicalism as he
seems at times to be, had a quarrel on paper
with Yvetot, one of the two Secretaries of the
C.G.T., in which he spoke scornfully of "Syn-
dicalist and labour" movements. Herve's pro-
jected strike is a mixed strike — partly to protest
against war, partly to establish socialism. Herve
believes in the " intellectuals " working with the
working-class socialists.
Sorel to-day is more sympathetic with the
extreme conservatism of the " Action Frangaise,"
which stands for a monarchic government and
paternal regulation of the poorer classes by the
richer and more aristocratic, and for the State
in alliance with the Roman Catholic Church,
than with any other non-Syndicalist party.
Rumours of alliances between Syndicalism and
' G. Sorel, Le Syndicalisme revolutionnaire, Mouvement
socialiste, Novembre, 1905, p. 277.
63
Syndicalism and the General Strike
monarchists may be set down as untrue and we
may compare them to the old radical story of
the English labour members being paid for by
conservatives. Sorel's hatred for the Republic
is a great bond of union between him and the
royalists. Besides, Sorel's preoccupation with
the moral aspects of life ( I must insist that he
regards the class -war as a war which enables
sublimity to again enter life) brings him into
sympathy with every movement that is animated
by idealism.
64
MONSIEUR GEORGES SOREL
AND HIS IDEAS
6s
CHAPTER III
MONSIEUR GEORGES SOREL AND HIS IDEAS
{continued)
Many great books require persevering readers,
and I admit I think it is so with Sorel's works.
They often 'seem ill -arranged, obscure in intention
and heavy : but he, like Karl Marx, has ideas .
Marx's inspiring ideas (even if they were not
original he put them into circulation) were the
ideas of surplus value, or the part of the results
of work which the idle appropriate ; the class-
war and its importance ; and the dependence of
moral ideals and social institutions on the
economic structure, the method of production,
of a society, although (a point that some mis-
taken exponents of this materialist conception
of history ignore) once the moral ideas are
started they may exist in enmity to the
economic society around them. Sorel's ideas
are the social myth, or the prophetic vision,
the dramatic conclusion to the hopes of the
present, which because a multitude believes in
67
Syndicalism and the General Strike
it is likely to be realised ; the imaginative em-
bodiment of men's struggles and hopes which
will help them to turn ideas into actions :— the
idea that the unconscious (or instinctive) acts
of the workers struggling to develop their own
institutions in opposition to the capitalists are
of value, while any interference on the part of
intellectuals, whose interests are not really the
same as those of the workers, is bad : the idea
that violence and sublimity, not calculation, are
necessary in morality. His attacks on reform
are in the manner of his school, but made with
individual ability.
The praise of a morality based on enthusiasm
and instinct in opposition to one based on cal-
culation is, of course, thoroughly Bergsonian.
I cannot but sympathise with it, because our
intellectuals get so one-sided and inhuman, and
lose all the natural feelings of man : man finds
out at last that the impulse to live and act is
not a reasonable one, and that reason can supply
the means but not the energy or desire. Yet
praise of instinct is not entirely satisfying, because
man's instincts are both numerous and indistinct :
they are all sophisticated with reason : the will
to live and fight is after all only one, if an im-
portant instinct. The enthusiasm of a soldier
in a war for freedom, knowing that the foremost
68
Monsieur Georges Sorel and His Ideas
in the fight may have to die in ofder that the
others may win, but giving his utmost without
calculation as to his pay, the artist's interest
in his work for its own sake, or the inventor's
—these supply Sorel with examples of what is
excellent.
The difficulty involved in a morality based on
the heroic enthusiasm caused by a class-war
has been pointed out by Vernon Lee— it involves
two moralities, one bourgeois, one proletarian :—
" For remark that if the valeurs morales have
no chance save from the enthusiasm and self-
sacrifice begotten by the Syndicalist myth, that
Syndicalist myth cannot itself be kept up, with
its class warfare and militant virtues, except by
the application of such 'violence' (however
platonic) as will exasperate the selfish ruthless -
ness of the bourgeoisie, and make or keep it
just as wicked and vile as you may want it." "
But even the bourgeois is improved by per-
petual strikes and labour restlessness— without
such troubles he would get fat on his incotoe,
and degenerate, and with his degeneration, his
special work, which is the improvement and
forcing onward of production, would cease. The
reformer is an incompetent creature who hinders
and discourages progress .
' Fortnightly Review, October, 191 1.
69
Syndicalism and the General Strike
Sorel has written a book called " Les Illusions
du Progres" but I do not think I can summarise
it — I am not sure that I entirely understand it.
In a passage criticising P. Lacombe, a writer who
thinks that progress is either due to an accumula-
tion of wealth and of knowledge, or to an increase
of happiness following a better harmonising or
conciliation of different feelings, and who lays
great stress on the increase of those intellectual
pleasures which are certainly calm and feeble,
but are also more lasting than others, and who
declares that superiorities in science particularly
indicate a great nation, Sorel says : " P. Lacombe
speaks sometimes of technical improvement in
terms which 'would not be disavowed by a disciple
of Marx ; you might expect, therefore, that he
would arrange civilisations in a scale according
to the methods of production ; but while recog-
nising the priority of economic development, as
an experimental truth, P. Lacombe does not use
economics to ' judge the relative height of civi-
lisations,' This attitude corresponds exactly to
the situation of contemporary civilisations ; they,
exist in countries which are growing richer day
by day owing to causes alien to the preoccupa-
tions of the leaders of democracy — and very often
in spite of the activities of these chiefs. It is
therefore natural to look on progress of produc-
70
Monsieur Georges Sorel and His Ideas
tion as being the fundamental condition for the
whole of modern civilisation ; but at the same
time to put the essence of this civilisation else-
where than in economic facts." Sorel himself
seems to hold that if civilisations can be arranged
in a scale, it must be according to the excellence
of their productive methods, and that improve-
ments of production always precede improve-
ments of morals or of legal principles.
We shall find, I think, that Sorel's idea is that
all the ideas of progress hitherto held by people
have been false. (What are ideas but the justifica-
tion of a man's desires and a defence of the con-
duct which self-interest demands ? When a class
is getting richer it will always find a philosophy
that is equivalent to the belief that " God's in
His heaven.")
No doubt the book is largely intended to dis-
credit all accepted ideas by showing the un-
avowed roots from which abandoned theories
grew up, which in their day were defended with
the kinds of eloquence and logic then in use.
In his summary of the book (Chapter V.
p. 275 of the 2nd edition) he says : " We found
[in the earlier part of this book] a minor philo-
sophy held by men of the world who asked to be
allowed to enjoy their wealth, and who did not
wish to hear of the prudence practised for so
71
Syndicalism and the General Strike
long by their fathers ; the contemporaries of
Louis XIV. boast of the novehies of their century
and grow enthusiastic by thinking of the fine
things that are spontaneously born in order to
assure more and more happiness to mankind."
He traces the growth of a bourgeois bureaucracy
administering France in the eighteenth century
after the manner of clerks engaged to look after
the king's affairs, and preferring ideal or unreal
speculations to practical matters, because they do
not wish to appear to be inquisitive and inclined
to interfere in their master's affairs : hence the
eighteenth-century love of republican virtue and
speculations on the social contract — these were
only looked upon as exercises in rhetoric so long
as they amused the prosperous class for whom
they were at first intended. Utopianism is
natural to rich people because they are not
acquainted with economic necessities. But what
is fashionable is soon imitated by parvenus and
descends to lower classes : the myth remains, but
its meaning changes. Theories were in demand
which destroyed the feudal rights and claims and
justified State powers which the rich bourgeoisie
possessed ; the social contract was of use to
people, and it suited the ideas of its age because
it was clear, and a clear theory, at a time before
science began to specialise, a theory which
72
Monsieur Georges Sorel and His Ideas
enabled people to explain everything without
experimental study of anything, was much es-
teemed : explanation by principles without any
facts was therefore much liked. Besides this,
sects, the adherents of which undertake to sup-
port a creed, and societies for a given purpose,
really are contractual even if no nation ever was.
Rousseau, as I need not say, was no believer in
progress : his man in a natural state of happi-
ness was derived partly from the Bible, with its
mythical Adam and Eve and Garden of Eden,
from which men fell ; partly from the notion of
contrasting nature with highly developed arts,
against which fashion then rebelled, and, for in-
stance, opposing the caprices of Gothic architec-
ture (then counted barbarous) to the work of true
primitives ; partly from the anti-clerical fervour
of the time, which believed all evils came from
the deceits of the Church, and the Church was
doomed; partly from an exaggerated belief in
the effects of education, and lastly from admira-
tion of savages, whose dignified manners covered
a multitude of evils and miseries. But after all
the whole praise of man in a state of nature was
only a " mythical " way of expressing disgust
with man as he actually was.
The mystic theory of the general will is
derived, Sorel thinks, from the Protestant idea of
73
Syndicalism and the General Strike
the guidance of the Holy Ghost, the inner light,
from admiration of the Greeks and their direct
democracy, and from an old belief in what
" everybody says."
Then arose an historical school who saw in each
successive legal system something necessary,
when considered in relation to its own times.
Sorel points out the resemblance between this
idea and that of Darwin : both look backwards
and explain how, at a given time, certain species
suited a certain environment or certain laws and
customs suited a certain level of development..
But why is there a movement forwards ? Darwin,
he says, does not explain the primary factor, why
species do vary, but he connects the elimination
of certain variations with the struggle for food
and for water. " Darwinian naturalists recognise
by the results of the struggle which were the
best armed of the competing types " ^ : they test
the superiority of one type over another by the
fact that one type has now conquered another in
battle ; but all this is no use as a guide for
the planning of future campaigns and the win-
ning of future battles. Hence the dislike of
those who look forward for " historical " and
" Darwinian " explanations. Both explanations
were liked by a tired age which did not want to
' Sorel, " Introduction a I'Economie moderne."
74
Monsieur Georges Sorel and His Ideas
look forward, and was quite content to believe
that the fittest or most suitable had survived.
Survival proved fitness ; but this does not satisfy
the man with his own idea of fitness. Having
scoffed considerably at those who believe in a
progress manifested by increase of knowledge
and enlightenment, spread of education, in-
creased mildness of manners, or a world-wide
commerce and politics which tend to join all the
nations and break down all barriers, and all who
believe in other stupid phrases used for election-
eering, Sorel comes to " real progress, which
deals with the technique of production." It is
due to the reduction of friction in machines, and
to the use of perfect geometrical forms in them ;
to the reduction of wasted energy, and therefore
to the use of large machines — for large machines
are economical, though the value of increased
size and " economical concentration " where
machinery is not used has been over-estimated
in Sorel's opinion ; and to the love of the worker
for the tools that he uses : he ought to be trained,
if he is to be most useful, rather to look for
their imperfections than to understand the ser-
vices that they render. The stupidity, from the
point of view of any one who wishes for technical
progress, of turning men into machines will one
day be seen and the employers who organised
75
Syndicalism and the General Strike
their factories until everything was done by a
routine will be considered fools as well as
torturers. Lee's " Inspired Millionaires " has re-
cently said this. The importance for the
Syndicalist of every worker taking an interest in
the success of his work, as the cultivator is said
to interest in himself in the size of his harvest,
is obvious : the Syndicalist requires to increase
the power of the producer to take charge of the
whole control of production.
Just as a new morality is to grow out of the
labourer's fight against the capitalist, so a new
learning is to grow out of the mechanic and his
machines. " Experimental physics progresses
only thanks to the help of constructors of
apparatus, and in the same way mathematical
physics seems to demand more and more cineto-
graphic combinations for the hypotheses of
which it has need."
Working-class action in the workshop and in
the strike is the source of both material and
moral progress — this, no doubt, is Sorel's main
idea, and most of the pages of the book are
only destructive of bourgeois valuations.
Sorel appears to believe that economic im-
provement takes place without any fixed order,
when it can, or rather when geniuses arise ; he
combines his materialist explanation with a vast
76
Monsieur Georges Sorel and His Ideas
desire for genius and a great belief in the con-
stant recurrence of mediocrity : in spite of all his
anti-clericalism and anti-churchism, he speaks,
because of his desire for genius, with a great
admiration for saints and mystics who can experi-
ence the supernatural, and who sometimes exert
a superhuman influence in changing the morals
of a people. " What we know of the prophets
of Israel permits us to say that Biblical Judaism
owed its glory to religious experience ; the
modern Jews only see in their religion rites like
those of old magic superstitions ; also, as soon as
they are educated, they abandon their traditional
practices with contempt ; having been brought up
in surroundings almost entirely deprived of spiri-
tual life, they are scandalously incompetent when
they talk about Christianity, which is nourished
entirely on spiritual life." In fact, I should under-
stand Sorel to imply that there need be no
continuous process in any direction in human
history, and consequently there is no law of pro-
gress— it is neither continuous, nor spiral, nor
cyclic, for in all these things there are times
of genius and times of mediocrity.
It is, perhaps, worth while to point out that
Sorel's ideas have no resemblance to the popular
idea of the materialist conception of history. He
asserts only that economic improvement precedes
77
Syndicalism and the General Strike
moral innovations, but by no means asserts that
moral ideas are mere reflections of existing
economic interests. He asserts that in a society,
with classes having antagonistic interests, antago-
nistic moral ideas and moral kinds of action and
moral traditions are likely to be found and will
exert influence ; but the movements of classes as
well as of individuals belonging to different races
and religions by bringing different ideas into
contact with one another exert great forces
making for change. There is, in Marx's own
catastrophe idea of the transition to socialism,
a touch of Jewish Messianism — it does not go
badly with the raising of a banner and the Sound-
ing of a trumpet at the moment when the leader
comes who will punish the wicked and cause the
good and the poor to triumph for ever, and will
enable every man to sit under his own fig-tree :
that is an idea quite out of relation to the London
of 1849, but Marx and Engels, both Jews, may
well have inherited it from the days when the
old Hebrews, conquered by the Babylonians, pro-
ceeded in imagination to see their conquerors
defeated with absolute certainty. Sorel is far
from asserting that history can be understood if
it is read entirely in economic changes ; only he
certainly does intend to assert, I take it, that all
really valuable ideas are in accordance with the
78
Monsieur Georges Sorel and His Ideas
fundamental economic changes of their age, and
he certainly pours scorn on moralists, idealists,
and legal reformers, because he does not think
they can tell what ideas will prevail after an
economic change has been made. He is, as I
said before, a hater of that which is reasoned
out and planned in advance.
However, it is possible that my explanations
are not entirely right.
His doctrine does not seem a very cheering
one. Less stern critics may be disposed to say :
One lie follows another, and happy is the man
who is satisfied with Christianity or Pragmatism,
or any other intoxicant — although, in fact, all
are lies. The rigid exclusion of all idealistic
and moral arguments can never be practised by
working propagandists.
Sorel's argument about progress seems to have
grown clearer in his own mind after he had
finished his book on it, so that in the introduc-
tion to the book of his which next appeared,
" Introduction a I'Economie moderne," we get
this clear paragraph, following one in which the
idea of a steady evolution from unrestrained right
of bequest to a great degree of State control of
bequest, from slavery to serfdom, and thence to
the modern worker, is laughed at :—
" The philosopher of law will always be much
79
Syndicalism and the General Strike
more impressed by the contradictions which are
manifested between the main principles of suc-
cessive systems than by the more or less specious
continuity which may be discovered on the sur-
face. We may even ask if it would not be
right to proclaim as an almost universal law :
Continuity is complete in proportion to the sliglit-
ness of the feeling aroused "?
In this study of modern economics, Sorel pro-
poses to consider, in detail, what the real effect
of reform in a bourgeois society is ; how, if
private property and capitalistic production is left
untouched, socialisation of the economic environ-
ment (a vile phrase which I will try to make
clearer later on) strengthens the capitalist
system. This, he thinks, is the probable effect
of reforms achieved by the collaboration of
popular and bourgeois parties.
The first part of the book is an argument
in favour of studying economics from the
point of view of rural economy. He points
out that political economy started by being
mathematical ; that is, by regarding everything
in life as if it could be reduced to quantities:
based on one unit, so that Ricardo (and Marx, in
this, followed him) could express value as a
product of labour and time. Also, the cotton
industry was its typical productive process.
80
Monsieur Georges Sorel and His Ideas
What Sorel would recommend is that econo-
mics should be regarded concretely ; that is,
actual men should be studied, with their tradi-
tions and their law, in addition to their machines
and their wages ; with their love or hatred of
their work, as well as their demands and sup-
plies ; the workman's idea of the rights and
duties of fathers and children, of masters and
men, are as important as the recommendations of
Royal Commissions (not that Sorel mentions
Royal Commissions). In short, Sorel tries (and
it is very necessary) to unrationalise or unintel-
lectualise economics — to make it concrete instead
of abstract and complete.
While political economy made life mathemati-
cal, life itself was really becoming mathematical.
Property has grown abstract in so far as it repre-
sents value, or even so far as it consists of things
to be consumed or looked at ; when property was
chiefly land, property was the means by which
work was carried on, liberty maintained, and the
stable family preserved. Those who believe in
property and in capitalist production may,
strengthen both by socialising (a nasty word, but
Ogilvie's dictionary allows it for " to render
social ") — I say capitalism can be strengthened
by socialising the environment of production.
Under environment of production is to be under-
8l F
Syndicalism and the General Strike
stood everything which, while it decidedly affects
production, can be altered to any extent without
affecting the system and principle according to
which production itself is carried on. Cartels or
co-operative stores may concentrate the sale of
products and either keep up prices or by sup-
pressing middlemen both cheapen prices and
increase producers' profits, and yet leave produc-
tion by competing owners of capital unchanged.
He thinks these co-operative stores are often over-
rated— dishonesty and incapacity are common
in managers democratically appointed, and where
no strong party feelings are roused the demo-
cratic control of the shareholders is careless.
He thinks, however, that a municipal monopoly
for the supply of certain things (bread, for
example) might be good, and that large co-
operative stores show the way to establish such
things. He points out that people with fixed
salaries could form societies which, by taxing
their members uniformly year by year, could sell
food at uniform prices in spite of recurrent
periods of high prices . However, the point is, that
however social the distributive organs become,
it will not prevent the productive organs being
owned individually. The economic environment
includes other publicly provided services which
may facilitate production — whatever protects the
82
Monsieur Georges Sore] and His Ideas
productive power of labour against excessive
expenditure of health is part of the environment
of production, and insurance schemes, housing
and education may be socally provided in order
to place better human tools in the hands of the
capitalist. Modern industry demands power to
work its machinery, and coal is so easily trans-
ported, compared with water or wind, that it
may be regarded as a mathematically abstract
force ; this element of economic environment
may be provided from State mines at cost price
(or under) for the benefit of all manufacturers.
Patent laws, with more or less of comparative
justice, socialise inventions by limiting the pro-
prietary rights of the inventor. Workshop
secrets and apprenticeship are replaced by
scientific instruction in State continuation
schools ; this obviously places the supply of
skilled labour at every one's disposal. Even
justice, in so far as the prosperity of the pro-
ducer depends on the degree of certainty with
which criminals are punished, is a fact
of economic environment. Adam Smith i seems
not far from concurring in this, for he says,
" Envy, malice, or resentment are the only
passions which can prompt one man to injure
» Book v., Chapter I., Part II., of "The Wealth of
Nations."
8.3
Syndicalism and the General Strike
another in his person or reputation. But the
greater part of men are not very frequently under
the influence of those passions ; and the very
worst men are so only very occasionally. As their
gratification, too, how agreeable soever it may
be to certain characters, is not attended with any
real or permanent advantage, it is in the greater
part of men commonly restrained by prudential
considerations. Men may live together in society
with some tolerable degree of security, though
there is no civil magistrate to protect them from
the injustice of those passions. But avarice and
ambition in the rich, in the poor the hatred of
labour and the love of present ease and enjoy-
ment, are the passions which prompt to invade
property, passions much more steady in their
operation, and much more universal in their in-
fluence. Wherever there is great property, there
is great inequality. . . . The acquisition of
valuable and extensive property, therefore, neces-
sarily requires the establishment of civil govern-
ment. Where there is no property, or at least
none that exceeds the value of two or three
days' labour, civil government is not so
necessary."
If the State is to control such public services
as the post, the railway, and the gas-works (the
latter uses the roads and therefore can be con^
84
Monsieur Georges Sorel and His Ideas
veniently controlled by the owner of the roads),
precautions must be taken, Sorel thinks, to
place their management outside the inefficient
power of majorities. Something is gained if
different places compete with one another,
because it is unlikely that the same party will
be in power everywhere, and therefore party
interests will promote comparisons and criticisms..
There are advantages in these services being
managed by a bureaucracy if it is independent of
all outside control, because the rigid routine of
a bureaucracy leads to accuracy, and if the
officials have secure places they are not open to
corruption. At the same time, he emphasises the
necessity of giving the private individual the
power of starting actions to repress abuses of
administration. We in England have power
(when any one has money enough) by writ of
a certlori, or mandamus, to do something of the
kind : I cannot say what it is worth. The
officials are to be foremen of industries, persons
charged to carry out some piece of management,
and to be judged purely by a standard of busi-
ness efficiency : they must in no way be de-
pendent on political services, or on the political
effect of their work.
In a democratic State Sorel finds two disad-
vantages in State railways : the first is, that
85
Syndicalism and the General Strike
democracies demand passenger facilities at the
expense of goods traffic, because democracy-
places pleasure before business ; and the second,
" bureaucracies prefer peace to everything else
and avoid, so far as possible, undertaking respon-
sibitities. A Minister of Public Works finds the
reforms very easy which he tries to get imposed
on companies ; but he will hesitate a long time
sometimes before he carries them out if he has
to account for their consequences— deficits in
the receipts and more accidents resulting from
lowered fares and more trains I "
Sorel next considers credit as part of the
economic environment. He traces its progress
from personal usury to impersonal banking, and
approves the use of sureties in connection with
the Raffeissen banks, in that the sureties have
no reason to view the transactions with prejudice
—their participation is a disinterested testimony in
favour of the borrower ; a calm social judgment
is passed on the use of the borrowed capital.
( In passing, England's want of banking and loan
facilities for the small man may be insisted on :
the failure of the Birkbeck Bank recently brought
it before the public ; the Post Office savings bank
is useless to the small business man because it
will not issue cheques, nor pay out over a pound
to depositors without notice, nor accept over a
86
Monsieur Georges Sorel and His Ideas
very small sum in one name ; as for ever
making loans to its depositors — such a proposal
would be preposterous. Yet in Ireland, the co-
operative societies which purchase agricultural
tools and machinery used to receive State aid
under Sir Horace Plunkett's scheme. )
The loan of money for interest has been justi-
fied in three ways. It has been regarded as
legally similar to a commandite, or partnership
in which the active partner, who actually uses
the money to purchase means of carrying on
his work, is entitled to unlimited gain or loss,
but the sleeping partner who lends is entitled to
a fixed return on his money according to his con-
tract. It is sometimes regarded as a lease, some-
times as a sale, the borrower ultimately returning
the equivalent of what he has had, the interest
being merely compensation for temporary non-
use by the original proprietor (an ingenious idea
used by early Roman Catholic theologians to
justify usury in practice while condemning it in
theory). What these theories help to explain is
how the loan originally made loosely, possibly
out of kindness, passes onward to the mathe-
matical investment, where laws and customs fix
the obligations of all parties.
The construction of large warehouses at rail-
way centres is of general utility in that it enables
87
Syndicalism and the General Strike
correct statistics of the stocks of commodities to
be compiled : the wheat elevators of America
are therefore of use : these statistics fix prices
more accurately. The great exchanges tend to
further improve the accuracy of prices by their
use of experts. By these means, the small specu-
lator, the village money-lender as Eastern
Europe knows him, disappears, and speculation is
concentrated in the exchanges of London and
New York. Practically two usurers now fasten
themselves on those who trade — the banker who
advances money on the security of the bill of
lading or the weight -note, and who advances on
the minimum value below which the goods can-
not fall, and the broker who speculates by means
of the warrant on the future rise of prices ;
neither could do anything with the actual goods,
but trade in an abstracted value of the goods.
Having by such consideration of develop-
ments of the milieu economique attempted to
show that reform strengthens capitalism, he
makes some observations generates intended to
explain why most sociology and economics is
"rot."
He states that all the classifications of history,
all the laws of history, must be frankly considered
as subjective. History is so complex that unless
the author frankly states what kind of society he
88
Monsieur Georges Sorel and His Ideas
approves of, what he is working towards, his work
is of little use. Every one knows that the move-
ments of his own time are so complicated and
confused that the stationary simplifications
which different people form of them in order
to get a view of what is going on are quite
different one from another : the projection of
successive types belonging to successive periods
is an art rather than a science. The essence of
reality is a motion, a becoming : in the act of
abstracting from this moving reality a motionless
picture, a man is necessarily guided by his in-
tentions and prejudices. It is essentially the
artist who can preserve the feeling of life and
action in a dead and motionless picture. Un-
fortunately the people who write on the evolution
of ideas and institutions are seldom artists. The
central force of human activity, the real attraction
and ideal which causes people's behaviour, is
the last thing that collectors of facts can dis-
cover : and for this reason their attempts to
predict the future are useless. History never
repeats itself, and Utopias formed out of museum
specimens are " disorderly mosaics." He praises
myths " which illustrate in a clear manner "
something " essential to life and to the progress
of civilisation," whilst declaring that the
" learned, legalistic, and practical " construc-
89
Syndicalism and the General Strike
tions of more or less socialistic persons are false
science and deceitful. Sorel, in short, is opposed
to intelligence.
Sorel's attack on sociology is probably quite
justified. If we cannot understand the central
attractive force of Christianity or Judaism which
are near us, cannot find out, not the creeds which
come easily to the lips of the adherents of these
religions, but the real powers which affect their
actions (whether these powers are or are not at
all like the faiths they merely Ihink they hold),
how shall we understand " primitive man " ? It
takes a great literary genius to explain how men
really are moved. Descriptions of externals-
religious ceremonies and social customs— are no
good. If a great Chinese philosopher— I'll call
him Ling-Foo, though that is an impossible
Chinese name— came to England and made in-
quiries, might he not carefully note how these
people have a religion which causes their children
to hang up stockings on Christmas Eve, ex-
pecting a curious bearded man called Santa Claus
to come down the chimney and put toys in them ?
For the devout Christians would hesitate to tell
the inquisitive pagan foreigner of the birth of
Christ. " Primitive men " are quite as hard to
question. The learned like strange tales— they
have read so many that they have no sense of
90
Monsieur Georges Sorel and His Ideas
probability, and the stranger the things they
learn, the more pleased they are at being
learnedly different from other people. But can
they penetrate to the central motives of men
and civilisations?
The spirit of the past alone explains the past.
Now, having given this painstaking summary of
the main ideas of the " Introduction a I'^^conomie
modeme," and defended Sorel's anti-sociologist-
ism, I will conclude this chapter with some brief
references to a few other interesting ideas held
by Sorel.
His remarks on arbitration were somewhat
enlightening to me, because I could never quite
see what common rule can be invoked in a world
of supply and demand (or unregulated take-all-
you-can-get) to decide whether an employer
should raise his wages. The idea is different
—each party is willing (says Sorel) to pay a
little for definite advantages. The employers
pay a bonus for fixity of wages during a given
term, the politicians benefit the people by a
popular arbitration in return for votes, and the
worker gets his wages slightly raised. It is
" an arrangement of appetites under the auspices
of political lawyers." It is, we must remem-
ber, " the state of the market " and not any idea
of what a man needs or does that fixes his wages.
91
Syndicalism and the General Strike
The socialist argues that the pure, the ideal
capitalist, who does no work of initiation or
management, but lives by investment and owner-
ship, should, according to all ideas of fairness,
take no part of the product of labour. High
salaries correspond not necessarily to vitally
necessary services but to services for which either
the training or the needed authoritative air
demands an ownership of income which severely
limits the number of those who enter these
services.
Sorel points out that as capitalism develops
administrative intervention replaces law, so that
we get in England our indeterminate sentence
Act— which means that police and governors of
prisons keep a man in prison as long as they
like. The State sets up masters similar to the
masters who rule in the factory : their word is
law.
Sorel rightly refuses to be impressed by similes
in which sociologists compare society to an
organism and then argue about society's unity,
and say that the hand is not the brain and the
most excessive " division of labour " is right in
society. In order conveniently to describe ants
or ant-hills, the scientist compares them with
what we know more of, men, and human society :
for this purpose he suppresses the more human
92
Monsieur Georges Sorel and His Ideas
characteristics of man and then assumes that real
men have the characteristics of his ants, which
he has previously artificially humanised for the
purpose of describing them. The physiologist
can only think of an organism as an organism, a
collection of interconnected parts : man, although
always in certain material circumstances, can
under the dominance of convictions, " more or
less analogous to religious forces," forget his
material circumstances— the ahsoldte rules of
morality act on him— he is placed outside his
real circumstances— the maxim of Jesus, " Be ye
perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect,"
begins to act in all its irrationality. The isolated
mystic, ascetic, or monk (for monks are
men willing to live the unnatural life, and, for
that purpose, to enter into a contract with one
another to perform certain difficult actions) does
live a life out of contact with material circum-
stances and in contact with a spiritual world.
If nations cannot be unified, if Church and State
cannot have their claims harmonised, why should
we try to make out that we all have the same
interests within the State ? It is the fighting
strikers, the monks of the working-class move-
ment, who give power to their whole party :
inspired by contemplation of the " social myth,"
they prepare the world for the social revolution
93
Syndicalism and the General Strike
by irrationally sacrificing themselx^es in their
effort to transcend the evil necessities of the
present.
Sorel's works are full of references to Marx,
Proudhon, and Renan ; he appears to write by
arguing about what he is reading : he searches
for historical exemplifications of what he likes
or dislikes. He has contributed a vast num-
ber of articles to various socialist and economic
periodicals, and those who desire to track down
a great number of them are recommended to
look up his name in Volumes II. and III. of
Stammhammer's " Bibliographic des Socialismus
und Communismus." » The most complete bibli-
ography of his works is at the end of Lanzillo's
" Georgio Sorel "—this, however, gives the Italian
translations (and not the French originals) of
those of his books which have appeared in Italian,
and gives only the names of the periodicals to
which he has contributed, and the years during
which he contributed, without mentioning the
titles of any of his articles.
I have made this chapter rather long and
rather heavy— I am not sure that I could help
it— but I will try to make the next one shorter
and lighter.
'^ ' Jena, Verlag von Gustav Fischer, 1900 and 1909.
94
ITALY
CHAPTER IV
ITALY
" For us all Italy is Venice and its gondoliers,
Naples and its songs.
" The rest of Europe is hardly better instructed
than we are."
So says Monsieur Saint-Cyr near the begin-
ning of his book, " La Haute-Italie Politique
et Sociale " ; it is a nice depressing quotation
with which I can suggest that my task of in-
dicating to a slight extent the trade union and
political conditions of Italy which led to the
formation of the Syndicalist party is a hard
one.
Yet Italy is interesting apart from its past.
It is a poor country, of which the main
industry is agriculture, which in 1901 employed
ten out of the twenty-five millions (excluding
children) of its population. Its systems of land
tenure are many : it has peasant proprietors, such
as the well-fed, seldom illiterate, French-speak-
97 G
Syndicalism and the General Strike
ing peasants of the Upper Val d'Aosta, who live
in their own houses, and are Protestants or free-
thinkers, and liberals. Many of the less pros-
perous peasant proprietors have to work some
months in the year for wages. There are
metayers (mezzadria), chiefly in Lombardy and
Tuscany, who divide the profits and losses of
their harvests with their landlords, the landlord
supplying varying shares of the capital, in the
form of vines, olives, and cattle, and the tenant
supplying the rest in the form of implements.
The system is said to produce more prosperity
in Italy than any other, but the revolutionaires
dislike it, as being unfavourable to a war between
the classes. The metayer is said to be stolid,
conservative, and neither rich nor poor, but in
the north his sympathies are with the labourer
and not with the capitalistic large landlord.
For some lands all over Italy are cultivated for
the profit of a capitalist landlord, who oiten
reduces the labourers, of whom there is too large
a supply, to the most miserable conditions. The
agricultural, market -gardening district round
Mantua is the chief socialist centre of the
country, Italy being probably the only coun-
try where socialism has taken more hold of agri-
cultural labourers than of any other class. The
tenant-farmer aims at both large profits and a
98
Italy
quick turn-over, and is frequently merciless
towards the labourer, who in many cases is
imported for a season's work. The most pro-
ductive parts of Italy have the most miserable
populations. It is true that wages have risen,
but they are still terribly low. A wage of i franc
a day where the year's work has about 250
days may be found— and even lower wages than
that.
Speaking of 1909, King and Okey say: " In
the Roman Campagna, bands of poor creatures
are recruited and hired out en masse by caporali
to dig the soil, under conditions little removed
from those of slavery. In bondage of debt to
their taskmasters, these miserable guitti have
been seen labouring under the lash, and woe to
her— for more often than not they are women—
who slackens in her toil or attempts to rest on
her mattock."
The soil of the plain exhales malaria— quite
curable by drainage or systematic exclusion of
all mosquitoes at night : but, like other curable
evils, left uncured because it does not affect the
rich as it affects the labourers, who are exposed
to infection.
It is probably in Sicily that the peasant is
worst off— treated like a brute beast by the land-
lord or middleman, housed with the pigs and
99
Syndicalism and the General Strike
donkeys in a windowless and floorless house,
illiterate and brutal.
Lastly, there are lands used in common by
partners (fifteen or so in some cases), " affitanza
colletive "—either cultivated on a common plan
and the products shared equally, or worked in
individually held plots,— the cost of marketing,
purchasing implements, insurance, and so on,
alone being collectively arranged. In some cases
these collective holdings are only used to supple-
ment a family income : in others they provide the
whole of it. In the former case, when owned
by socialists, the funds may be accumulated as a
strike fund for use in some future battle with
the farmers. For, especially as regards the
north of Italy, trade unionism of an aggressive
kind is strong among the agricultural popula-
tion. The leagues {leghe) founded in 1884 were
suppressed by th>e Government, but in 1885 leghe
di miglioramento ( so called, probably, in order to
make them seem less aggressive) were founded
in the north to educate the workers and to help
them by collective action to resist their em-
ployers. Masters' associations were soon formed
to resist them. The majority of the small pro-
prietors and metayers sided with the labourers
against the large proprietors. The blacklegs,
kroumirif were mostly defeated, and the pro-
100
Italy
prietors were forced to bargain with the unions.
Strikes are endemic, and agreements between
masters and workers are broken by both sides.
The labourers' conditions are frequently still
scandalous. In the rice-fields of Verceillais,
where large numbers of labourers are imported
annually, the workers stand bent in mud ; they
are partly paid in food : girls are permanently
deformed by the work.
The extreme poverty of the country is attested
by the great emigration away from it. Part of
this is seasonal, supplying cheap navvies to
Europe : part permanent to North and South
America, although some Italians come back
from these countries with a fortune to buy
a plot of land and bring new ideas to their
country.
The birth-rate in parts of Italy, as in all poor
districts, is very high— one of the highest in
Europe. The south is mainly illiterate, destitute,
and conservative, a land " brutalised by endless
centuries of political and economic slavery." In
the census of 1901, when the illiterates had fallen
to 56 per cent, of the population, there were
still 78*7 per cent, in Calabria. It is said that
out of nine million voters, only three have votes,
the rest being disfranchised by illiteracy. As
you might expect, in the south votes are bought
lOI
arjivERsiTV or so:iT!]5Rr] cA'jFCRriiA library
Syndicalism and the General Strike
to a large extent. Naples h'as, however, returned
one socialist to the Chamber of Deputies.
The north, on the other hand, is modern,
capitalistic, and socialist. Milan was one of the
first cities in Europe to light its streets with elec-
tricity. I need not (especially as I do not
know much geography myself) talk about Genoa
as a port, or of Milan, Turin, and Cremona as
manufacturing towns ; it is sufficient to remind
you that the north of Italy is part of industrial
Europe, and the north and south are foreign to
one another. In the south the people largely
live in towns from which they go to work in the
fields daily ; there are people here who have
never tasted meat ; blackmailing is one of the
local industries, the Camorra and Mafia being
protected by vote-hungry politicians and money-
hungry police (the socialists are almost alone
in openly attacking it) : there are large land-
lords, and a grasping, idle, middle class of
small proprietors.
Until 1890 strikes were nominally illegal.
Since then, laws have been passed at various
times against them, and ministers and judges
have by various methods tried to check them :
but they are nominally allowed by law. The
labour exchanges {came re del lavoro) have since
1 89 1 been great sources of working-class
102
Italy
activity. They collect information about em-
ployment, promote new legislation and the en-
forcement of existing laws, and negotiate with
employers. Their membership is not limited to
wage-earners, but special trade societies within
them are so limited, and these have special
powers. Until 1896 the municipalities gave
contributions to their funds, but in that year
this was decided to be illegal. The trade
unions, co-operative societies, and mutual aid
societies are affiliated to the exchanges, and elect
their managing committees.
The trade unions are often small and confined
to a single district. The numbers belonging to
them vary up and down very rapidly. They
are grouped into a federation of industrial
workers, and a federation of workers on the
land. In addition there are Catholic unions,
which are anti-socialist. Strikes on a fairly large
scale have been common. The proposal made
by the Italian Government to deprive the rail-
way workers of the right to strike, when the
railways became State property, led to the passive
resistance strike, during which strict obedience to
regulations prevailed. The habit of proclaiming
"general strikes" began in 1904, when a great
agricultural and industrial strike took place. In
Italy, " when the life of Genoa and Milan is para-
103
Syndicalism and the General Strike
lysed, the whole kingdom is paralysed," so that a
" general strike " is a smaller undertaking than
it would be here.' A general strike of railway
workers was attempted in 1905 as a protest
against a jriew attempt to introduce the law : it
failed and the law was passed. Men were shot
down by the soldiers in 1907, and there was a
renewal of a widespread strike. The strikers
were defeated, and it is said that 20,000 men, or
one-third of all the men employed on the railway,
were punished, either by imprisonment, discharge
from the service, fines, or degradation of rank.
The number of rural strikes seems always to
be greater than the number of industrial strikes
(there were nearly 650 in 1901, in nearly all
of which the workers were victorious), and it was
the Parma strike of agricultural labourers in 1908,
which was preceded by a lock-out lasting three
months, which made clearer than ever the dif-
ference between socialist and Syndicalist opinion.
The prevalence of strikes among, the rural popu-
lation is perhaps due to the urban, unpeasant-like
character of part of the market -gardening peasant
class. The market-gardener is never a peasant.
There are about four political parties. The
" right " is still discredited a little, perhaps, by
an excessive use of corruption in Crispi's time :
' A. Lanzillo, " Le Mouvement ouvrier en Italic."
104
Italy
they tend to a policy of negatives without any
proposals for amelioration.
The great capitalists of the rapidly " progress-
ing " north, especially of Milan and Genoa, have
the purely negative idea of politics : their pro-'
perty is to be protected and the growth of any
democratic or socialistic movement is to be
resisted. They are for liberty, as understood by
those who use the tyrannical power of property
to the utmost, and for property. " In the interest
of the big landlords," King and Okey remark
in " Italy To-day," " they maintain a corn duty " ;
from which the landlords are estimated to have
gained £60,000,000, Writing in 1900, these
authors assert that " the Right has still elements
of strength in its wealth, its power over a
corrupt electorate, its insistence on authority,
perhaps in its hold on the army. Governmental
pressure in the south and private bribery in the
north reach monstrous proportions. Prefects
are used to ' prepare ' the elections, and if a
prefect refuses to work for the ministerial can-
didate, he is summarily removed, or after the
more decent custom of to-day, is temporarily
suspended till the election is over." Voters on
the wrong side were in Crispi's time arrested on
false charges, and kept in custody till the poll
was over, and an influential prisoner awaiting
105
Syndicalism and the General Strike
trial for murder was released on condition that
he worked for the right man.
The deputies are not paid, and in a compara-
tively poor country like Italy this leads to
corruption ; they expect Government help in
obtaining paid work. However, King and Okey
in 1900 said : "At all events the Italian Chamber
has fewer parliamentary guinea-pigs than the
House of Commons, perhaps because there are
fewer opportunities for company promotion ;
there is far less manipulation of tariffs for private
ends than in the United States, no more bribery
of localities than in Canada. . . . Public
opinion, at all events in the north, is making
steadily for political purity ; the socialists are
doing a fine work in exposing the worst
scandals. . . ."
The radicals hover between monarchism and
republicanism, while the republicans, whose
stronghold is Ravenna, have a more decided
social programme, in which the expropriation of
owners of uncultivated lands and reform of taxa-
tion figure. The poor, at present, are taxed on a
higher scale than the rich. It is supposed that
the Italian throne is not too stable and that the
republicans will have their day.
The clericals were at one time forbidden by
the decree non expedit to recognise the Italian
106
Italy
Government by participating in politics ; the
decree was never very fully obeyed by Catholics,
and has now been withdrawn. The clerical
advice is, " Vote against the socialist," but there
is a social party in the Church, which is not liked
by the higher ecclesiasts. The Lega Demo-
cratica Nazionale, a Catholic democratic league,
is attacked by the Vatican, but maintains that
the Church has no right to dictate in political
matters. Individual priests sympathise greatly
with working-class ideals, and the co-operative
glass-works at Murano were created by a
priest .
The Italian Labour party was founded in
1885: it was composed partly of anarchists,
partly of socialists. In 1891 Signor Turati, a
wealthy Milanese barrister, and Dr. Anna Kulis-
cioff, a Russian exile, founded the Critica
Sociale, a fortnightly Marxian review, and
this spread socialism rapidly. In this year the
socialists definitely separated themselves from
the anarchists. They opposed the radicals and
republicans, and therefore the conservatives
spoke well of them. For some time the party,
believing the Marxian prophecy that small
peasant proprietors, like other little men, are
destined to be swallowed up by the few big pro-
prietors, did nothing to help the small-holders,
107
Syndicalism and the General Strike
but by about 1896 this policy had been entirely
altered, and the socialists were helping in estab-
lishing village banks and co-operative associa-
tions to help mezzaioli, small tenants, and
peasant proprietors. Socialist sympathy with the
agricultural labourer was an extraordinary phe-
nomenon and gained the gratitude of the
labourers.
In the north (Lombardy, Venetia, and
Piedmont) a system of village banks {casse
rurall), in the main like the Raffeisen banks, has
now been developed, some of them being Catholic
banks and only open to Catholics, a minority
unsectarian. They lend small sums, averaging
£8, " as a rule for three or six months, to the
small farmers or peasant proprietors, who are the
majority of their members." Their work has
been so successful that it is said " they have
banished the usurer,"
In 1894, after the labour disturbances in
Sicily, in which soldiers shot down eighty-five
people, Crispi, who had conspiracies on the brain
to such an extent that he thought the demand
for food in Sicily was due to French conspirators,
passed a law to enable all his opponents to be
punished by imprisonment and exile. Common
misfortunes now drew the radicals and socialists
together. The workers' party met in secret in
108
Italy
1895, named itself socialist for the first time,
and agreed to support radicals at the second
ballot. Then, too, there was issued the minimum
programme, which with some modifications has
been reissued several times since. Universal
sufi"rage, payment of members of all local and
national governing bodies, liberty of speech and
meeting, and neutrality of the Government in
labour disputes (nominally attained now) ; the
prohibition of night-work in factories except in
cases of public necessity, and a weekly rest of
thirty-six consecutive hours ; better education
(nominal compulsory education exists, but is not
enforced, and the school buildings are often
disgraceful and the small wages of the teachers
in arrears); compulsory insurance against acci-
dents ; nationalisation of mines and railways ( the
latter carried out since, and very badly the State
railways work) ; the admission on equal con-
ditions of workers' co-operative associations to
all contracts for public works— these are some of
the clauses of this minimum programme.
In 1898 a riot caused by a panic on the part
of the authorities took place at Milan, in which
more than a hundred people were shot and men
were imprisoned for " exaggerating the suffer-
ings of the people and the hatred of classes."
At the end of the year, 2,700 people were
109
Syndicalism and the General Strike
pardoned and released, who had been condemned
for minor offences. An attempt was made to
suppress, by a royal decree, public meetings and
all associations " whose object is to subvert by
overt acts the social order or the constitution of
the State " ; the law-courts held that the decree
was not legal ; the Government tried to pass the
law in the Chamber of Deputies, but ultimately
gave up the attempt. There were many risings
during the year, one cause provoking them being
increased duties on wheat. The Government was
of opinion that shooting men was a cure for
revolts caused by hunger.
After the murder of King Humbert I., in
1900, the policy of the Government changed, and
the attempt to prevent the workers from forming
organisations was abandoned.
The Italian love of ideas and clear theories of
things was favourable to the rapid spread of
socialism among the middle classes. The country
is overstocked with middle classes : the small
landlord wishes his son to be a barrister, doctor,
or engineer. The consequence is that there is an
over-supply of members of these professions, as
well as of candidates for the " civil service," and
the unemployed intellectuals are inclined towards
socialism. Some of them aim at success in a
" socialist career," as Lanzillo calls it.
no
Italy
The attitude of the Socialist party towards
strikes has been for some years a source of differ-
ences within the party. A Syndicalist section,
impatient with discussions in Parliament, gradu-
ally formed itself and is eager for strikes and
action. In 1906 the whole parliamentary party
resigned owing to internal dissensions. Out of
30 deputies 25 were re-elected. (The entire
chamber has 508 members.) Almost every-
where the socialists, republicans, and radicals
at present act together. The party is divided into
about five groups — revolutionaries, reformists,
and " integralists " who would combine all the
policies. A socialist, Turati, was offered a post
in Gioletti's Cabinet ; he refused, but without
objecting in principle to working inside a
" capitalist " party. This incident has been a
subject for much discussion.
Wherever there is a socialist branch there is
also a co-operative store.
After being defeated (by 26,547 socialist votes
to 5,278 of their own) at the Socialistic Confer-
ence at Rome in 1906, the "new school," or
Syndicalists, held a conference of their own at
Ferrara in 1907, at which they decided to leave
the Socialist party. They are led by Arturo
Labriola, a Neapolitan barrister and university
professor, and Enrico Leone. According to
III
Syndicalism and the General Strike
themselves they number 200,000, but their
opponents would reduce the figure to a few
thousands.
The fact must be emphasised that the Socialist
party in Italy is largely middle class. Hunter, in
" Socialists at Work " (p. 33), says that in 1904
it contained 20 to 30 per cent, of industrial
workers, 15 to 20 per cent, of rural workers, and
50 to 60 per cent, of professional men, mer-
chants, students, and small proprietors. The
support given to the party at the polls by un-
attached electors is mainly working-class. The
socialist deputies in Parliament consist chiefly
of advocates, professors, journalists, business
men ; they include a few working-men. A
reformist like Bonomi narrows his programme
down to the maintenance of armed peace, and of
the secular character of the State, and reform of
taxation.!
At the present time Gioletti's Cabinet is dis-
cussing the nationalisation of life insurance and
manhood suffrage. The problem for the Socialist
party is how far they shall support him in spite
of the war being waged in Tripoli on the Turks.
Two facts with regard to Italy are of great
importance in relation to Syndicalist theories :
^ See Bissolati's articles in the Socialist Review for
January and February, 1912.
ri3
Italy
I mean the success in Italy of working-class co-
operative productive associations, which divide
all their profits among the workers — these have
increased the workers' confidence in their power
to lock out the capitalist, although the initiation
and management of the societies has sometimes
been provided by middle-class enthusiasts — and
the intensity of life in the local authorities, in
which the people are more interested than in the
Chamber of Deputies. Local liberty of initiative
is great ; seats on local bodies are looked on as
great honours ; in some parts the local author-
ities are said to spend money on fireworks and
music which is needed for schools and street
lighting.
Various societe co-operative dl lavoro have
undertaken comparatively large pieces of work :
at Parma they have paved the streets and built
abattoirs ; they built the Reggio-Ciano railway,
and it is leased to them for seventy years. Legal
restrictions and public officials have often tried
to prevent their obtaining contracts, and we have
seen that an equal opportunity for them to obtain
contracts from public authorities in competition
with others is one of the demands on the mini-
mum programme.
These societies, by which middle -men and
employers are abolished, do masons', plas-
113 H
Syndicalism and the General Strike
terers', stonecutters', painters', varnishers,' and
labourers' work. They are financed by friendly
societies, people's banks, or by private savings
banks, which in Italy do far more business than
the State's post-office savings banks. They
accumulate funds for old-age pensions, sick and
invalidity benefits for their members. Co-opera-
tive dairies were founded in 1872, and have
spread all over Northern Italy.
The Catholics also have spread the idea of
" corporations," by which they sometimes merely
mean unions of masters and men with machinery
for settling disputes, but sometimes compulsory
groups of all the men in one trade with power to
regulate their own affairs.
The work of these co-operative societies meets
with the warm approval of men holding various
political views : the reformist socialists see in
co-operative societies properly carried out,
according to the spirit as well as the letter of co-
operative principles, " the end of slavery " ; but
the Syndicalists condemn it utterly as anti-revo-
lutionary. In spite of their condemnation, I can-
not help thinking that they have been influenced
by what the co-operative societies have done.
For it seems clear that this development of co-
operative production is the source of that doc-
trine which to many people is the whole of
1X4
Italy
Syndicalism. I mean the idea sometimes found
in Syndicalist writers that each trade, through its
federated unions, is to take over the whole con-
trol of its own work. For the sake of clearness,
I should suggest calling this Italian Syndicalism,
in contradistinction to what I should call French
Syndicalism, in which the idea is that each small
locality should, by means of the federated local
branches of its various unions, work out the
production of all that is needed in their locality —
the whole country being left largely to come into
existence through the summing up of all the local
trades councils with a little adjustment between
local communes, but without having any one
centre. I do not, of course, pretend that all the
writers in either country keep rigidly to either
conception.
The objection most commonly advanced, I
may as well at once point out, to the Italian
doctrine is that trade wars would prevail.
Whether they are worse than class -war may be
open to discussion.
I now proceed to speak of a specimen work
by each of the Syndicalist leaders, Labriola
and Leone.
Up to the present I have tried to present the
positive conceptions of the Syndicalists, and have
referred very little to their criticisms of other
115
Syndicalism and the General Strike
people's views on social improvement. Arturo
Labriola's chief book, " Riforme e Rivoluzione
Sociale/' is, however, mainly concerned with
criticism of those socialists who, while looking
forward to the coming of a new order of society,
are, in the author's opinion, not doing the right
work in order to bring it about, and it therefore
offers a convenient opportunity for noticing some
of the characteristics of the Syndicalist attack
on socialists and socialist parties. His definition
of Syndicalism does not differ from those we
have previously met with, and its main position is
summed up, I think, in the statement (on p. 193
of the second edition) that " the revolutionary
method of the socialist movement consists in
working for the taking possession, by the work-
ing-class organisations, of the work of manage-
ment (manual and intellectual), by means of the
simultaneous dissolution of all the authoritative
powers (State, party, &c.) external to the said
entirely working-class organisations," a state-
ment with quite the same meaning, I take it, as
other definitions we have met with. Italian
Syndicalism may be considered moderate in that
it does not usually refuse all help from Parlia-
ment. Labriola allows that Parliament may in
some circumstances assist in preparing for that
sudden change by which the final transformation
116
Italy
of society is to be achieved ; it may educate both
those who are in it and those who Hsten to it
from outside, although it cannot directly attack
or change the capitalist organism. The educa-
tional effect in politics in advertising the things
that matter to certain sections of the population
and in suggesting possibilities to people is of no
small importance ; the land taxes in Mr. Lloyd
George's Budget and the discrimination between
earned and unearned incomes in Mr. Asquith's
earlier Budget may be regarded as more impor-
tant in their principles than in their immediate
application, and those who have no land and
little income may be inclined to hold that the
discussions about them were more important
than the taxes themselves.
One point, perhaps necessarily implied in what
has been said of the Syndicalists' view of how
a new society is to be brought about, is made
clear in Labriola's work. He says clearly that
Syndicalism does not, as is implied in the unified
and rigid society of the State socialist, look
forward to a great reduction in the number of
industries carried on without division of labour
and without factory labour — in those industries
which are at present exceptional survivals from
the period preceding the trust, limited liability
company, and large-scale production. He says :
117
Syndicalism and the General Strike
" The socialisation of production has already
come about, thanks to the mechanism of the
capitalist system. We have no need to substitute
a new method of production (State or municipal)
for the capitalistic method, but a new method of
distribution. The method of production remains
what it was in a capitalist society. We are con-
cerned only with the redivision of the claims to
ownership.
" This point is of great importance. Capitalist
society has not in reality produced one form of
industrial organisation, but unites the different
productive elements (land, capital, and labour)
in very different ways. Nothing could be more
repugnant than too much uniformity." ^
He holds (and finds his idea in Marx's work)
that the domestic system of production, the co-
operative method, production by companies
and other groups and by individuals could all
be left in existence and " socialised." In this
future society the controller of the work will
himself be the paid servant of the co-operating
workers, instead of (as at present) the owner
of the capital. As regards a method by which
this is to be brought about, the following hint is
given : —
^ I am indebted to my sister, Mrs. R. B. Pyke, for help
in translating the Italian quotations.
ii8
Italy
" You can imagine that a Syndicat for a certain
trade could contain all the workers in a single
branch of industry, could contract on uniform
conditions with all the capitalists on behalf of
all these workers, and would form a kind of
common treasury of all the profits to be dis-
tributed according to a rule of exalted justice
to all its members, distributed, for example,
according to the number of a man's children, the
conditions of his health or his strength, and so
on ; and this Syndicat — a State within the State —
by carrying out the insurance of its members in
various ways, takes them out from under the con-
trol of the State — that is, from a power outside
their own will. This process could go farther.
It can be imagined that, at a certain point of its
development, the workers' union might hire the
capital of the capitalists, for a fixed return, and
then use it co-operatively, either working in one
mass or by constructing so many separate co-
operative bodies, having separate and distinct
accounts. And finally the federation of various
Syndicats could become so strong as to refuse
all return for the use of capital, and so become
master of it without compensation. The revolu-
tion would then be complete. The capitalist class
would have to work in order to live. Syndicats,
as organisms opposed to monopoly, and therefore
119
Syndicalism and the General Strike
open to all, would enthusiastically receive the
capitalists of yesterday, become the companions
of to-day, and would make use of their indisput-
able directive and administrative capacity."
If this is not thought to be a very complete
explanation, the fault is Labriola's : he introduces
it after a brief remark about a Syndicat of
printers in Paris that works on its own account
with hired machinery.
This, however, is not given by the author as a
certain prophecy of what will happen, since he
expressly says (p. 205) that he does not know
how the means of production will be taken pos-
session of by the workers — only that it certainly
will only be a Syndicat, " an association of
the workers who already possess the technical
capacity necessary for managing production,"
through which the expropriators will be
expropriated.
It 'will be noted that he conceives of the sudden
transformation of society to be brought about by
a kind of lock-out of capitalists — a method by
which it is sometimes supposed that the " general
strike " could develop into a construction of a
new working order.
Not that he has any objection to strikes. They
are included by him among the violent means by
which new economic positions are usually assum.ed
120
Italy
at the beginning of a new epoch — only after
the epoch has begun will its arrangements seem
to those born into it to be acting automatically.
He points out that violence will not suffice to
produce any alteration unless those who use
it are prepared to make full use of the means
of which they violently take possession — misery
and revolt will not in themselves lead to a per-
manent change unless those who are miserable
have an idea of the cause of their misery, are
conscious of it, and are collectively ready to
alter their condition. Thus violence must not
be used capriciously. That the bourgeois society
grew out of feudalism only with the help of
violence he, following Marx, points out, giving
the disbanding of princely trains, the secularisa-
tion of monastic buildings and estates, the con-
version of arable land into pasture, the clearing
of estates, and enclosing of lands held in
common or cultivated in strips, as well as the
lowering of wages by the Statute of Labourers,
as means by which a landless population of
labourers dependent on being hired for wages was
produced with the use of force, where before the
population had had secure means of existence.
At the end of his chapter on violence, he states
that in the Russo-Japanese War the use of hand-
bombs was found to be an effective final deter-
121
Syndicalism and the General Strike
minant in battle, while in the recent Russian
revolution the general strike combined with
armed demonstrations and " the personal use of
explosives " was used ; he argues from these
recent experiences that the chances of a crowd
against modern battalions are now better than
has been long supposed.
Now to turn to the main contents of his work,
criticism of political sinners, from the considera-
tion of which I have been diverted longer than I
intended.
He finds that the machinery of " socialism "
is capable of being used in three ways, and conse-
quently socialist parties contain three sections —
revolutionaries, conservatives, and reactionaries.
The first are those who retain " the traditional
idea of Marxism," and this " is not to abolish a
number of individual masters, who may leave a
certain play for liberty, and substitute for them
a single collective master, who, because of his
very unity, might well suppress all liberty, but
it would be a much more profound and more
essential revolution, which would rid the work-
shop of all capitalist and administrative control,
and give it over to the self-contained working of
freely associated workers."
The reformists, on the other hand, look for a
gradual accretion of the powers of the State —
122
Italy
State intervention everywhere. Such reformist
measures may consist of systems of benevolence
(charged with the reUef of the sick and the old,
for instance), such as insures the rich against
the danger of a revolt of a desperate poor class ;
of taxes, which tend to be passed on, and which
in any case leave the power of profiting and
exploiting in existence ; of insurance, which acts
in relief of wages and by improving the efficiency
of labour increases its exploitability ; and of
regulation of factories, which tends to destroy
some of the weaker factories, and to improve the
working of and intensify the using up of the
workers in those that survive. Or, the reformist
may try to raise wages by wages-boards or
arbitration : and this (here Labriola echoes con-
servative critics) will either raise prices and so
more or less neutralise its own effect of appar-
ently increasing wages, or, if it reduces the rate
of profit below the average, will cause capital
to leave the industry and throw those who were
in it into idleness. (Some economists, I may
say, do explain why these evil effects may not
occur. ) Labriola points to the effect of raising
wages for agricultural workers in the Venetian
and Mantuan districts as illustrating this last
evil possibility on a small scale.
The economic error of reformism does not
123
Syndicalism and the General Strike
seem quite as inevitable as he supposes. Child-
labour is obviously usually comparatively un-
productive. Overwork, after a certain time, in
many trades becomes bad work. The law is
clumsy and inspection expensive and insufficient,
but to weigh up the net economic result is not
always so simple.
Reform, Labriola concludes, is conservatism,
because it lays stress on certain reforms, and
not on taking the power from those who have
it. The letter of the law will never be worth
much as long as the predominance of a class
persists. The class that legislates sees its own
claims most clearly. If they nationalise or muni-
cipalise undertakings, they take care that they
lose no money — the guarantee of interest and
destruction of competition make up for any ap-
parent loss that the investor may suffer. Group
advantage could be maintained even in a com-
munist State if it had a governing class. Public
opinion (which may maintain the normality of
the existing order of society and the wickedness
of the revolting striker and the praiseworthiness
of the " loyal " worker, who is disloyal to his
own class ) is something ; legal morality is some-
thing ; but political power does most of all to
give the concrete control of society to one class
in it.
124
Italy
The reformer's worst crime is that he
strengthens the State and sets his hopes on it.
Luther was a reformer — he destroyed the rival
power of the Church and handed its property
over to the governing secular class. The Chartist
movement was revolutionary because it intended
to take the power from those who had it, the
landed class ; the movement was finally converted
into harmless reformism by concessions yielded
by those who kept their own control of power.
It is to be noted that he considers the means
more important than the end in politics — the
essence of real change is that power passes from
one class to another, the essence of conservatism
is that the political power remains in the hands
of those who carry out the reforms which are
begged from them. It is possible that the
machinery of State socialism might be set up
(he thinks) and a unified method of production
established, and yet the existing social hierarchy,
the existing distribution of power and profit, be
preserved.
It is, at first sight, somewhat contradictory
that Labriola should praise political reforms and
depreciate economic reform, but this is, I think,
because by political reform he chiefly means re-
forms which destroy instruments of power or of
subjection (the king, the " upper " chamber, the
125
Syndicalism and the General Strike
privilege of one over another), whereas he con-
siders a parHament incapable of altering the
essential relations between man and man, which
are based on an economic structure which the
Government did aot make and has little power
over. Parliament arose in England, he says, in
order that oppositions of interest between sections
of the dominant class, between the nobility and
the Crown, could be settled, but not in order
that the relative positions of the dominant and
dominated class should be altered.
The reactionaries are those who try to restore
rights to a power which has passed them over
to the general collective body of individuals : to
give back to the State, for example, the power
of minutely regulating things which it had in
the Middle Ages.
I think the germ of one of Sorel's ideas —
that a revolution is good when it takes place
while the power of producing is improving, but
bad when it takes place when it is declining
(and Sorel gives the irruption of the barbarians
into the Roman Empire and the French Revolu-
tion as examples) — is found in those passages in
which Labriola objects to " Christian social
paternalism and philanthropic socialism " that
they diminish the power of producing.
To sum up, he regards reform as essentially
conservative.
126
Italy
Enrico Leone has written what may be re-
garded as a text-book of Syndicahsm, based on
lectures delivered by him at various places.' It
is rather rhetorical in tone, and his lectures,
like most lectures, contained nothing absolutely
new. The book has been successful enough to
get translated into Russian and Spanish, and
really expresses well one or two ideas which
naturally arise when we accept Syndicalist
principles.
Leone looks at the present state of the world,
of politics, and also at Karl Marx's prophecies,
and inquires how far there is a concentration
of capital on the one han,d and of workers on
the other — the latter being so disciplined and
massed together in large numbers and so
desperate from misery (this is the Marxian
prophecy) as to be ready to expropriate the ex-
propriators. Now there are two existing re-
visions of these Marxian dogmatic prophecies.
On one side the Fabians and the other reformist
revisionists — Bernstein is their doctrinal ex-
ponent, and he got his ideas from the Fabians —
deny that there is an increase of misery, and
often that there is as much concentration of
capital as was expected (they lay stress on the
increase of medium incomes), and while retain-
' Enrico Leone, '* II Sindacalismo."
127
Syndicalism and the General Strike
ing the name of socialist are probably out for
a maximum income, a minimum income, and
between the two a State-guaranteed moderate rate
of interest ; this is the revision accepted by those
who frankly ask for reform by parliamentary
intervention, which is what socialist parties
have hitherto actually tried to obtain while
verbally repeating phrases of revolutionary
Marxism. The other revisionists would make
their actions agree with their words, and,
accepting the trade union as the implement of
revolution, abandon parliamentarism, oppose
nationalisation, and work for a cataclysmic trans-
formation of society.
It is Leone's business to admit the need for
some revision in order to square present socialist
practice with socialist doctrine, and to argue
against the reformist's revision, and in favour
of a revision which will alter deeds and leave
revolutionary words unaltered. He argues that
democracy, while professing to open careers to
capacity, does not do so because it classes among
its special capacities the capacities due to birth,
to inheritance of property, of culture, and edu-
cation— which are largely the monopolies of a
class — and of titles. It is characteristic that
kings receive honorary titles without being ex-
amined for them. The socialism of the intel-
128
Italy
lectuals is all for the extension of this hierarchy
of capacities — it would establish what I believe
may be called a Chinese socialism — every one to
receive a wage proportioned to the examinations
which he has passed and the post given him by
the State. Besides, Leone believes with Sorel
that a large part of the intellectuals are useless :
they are unproductive workers, political and
administrative officials employed by the State
(which is itself a removable evil), members of
the liberal professions who are necessarily de-
pendent on the capitalist class, or, at the best,
are students of science and art, whose work
ought not to be the monopoly of a class because
the divine joy of knowledge should be open to
all, and all should be forced to do their
share (which would be far smaller than that
now done by manual workers) of the necessary
work of production.
In developing his theory Leone lays great
stress on the incompatibility of Marx's materialist
basis of history, which asserts that economic con-
ditions are the first causes of legal and political
movements, with any attempt to radically alter
society by attacking it in its unimportant places.
Marx's theory, which was a new idea in the
history of political ideas, deserves probably more
attention than it has received, because to the
129 I
Syndicalism and the General Strike
impartial mind it would have, I think, the air
of being one of those obviously partly sensible
ideas which men are likely to reject because they
are not agreeable. It flatters no man's self-
esteem. Men prefer not to believe that any
act of apparent goodwill to men was not per-
formed because it was an act of goodwill, but
because it suited the pocket interests of certain
rich men ; men prefer to discuss anything rather
than the bread-and-butter needs of the underfed
class, and will not admit (until there is a strike
which inconveniences them) that such a question
can be effectively dealt with in any way ; supply
and demand are left to go their inequitable way
until some display of force sets men discussing
rights. Leone rightly insists that the materialist
conception of history is not necessarily fatalistic ;
it does necessarily direct the will towards the
more important things, which are economic facts,
and not towards the less important, which are
legal and moral changes. Leone refers to
Marx's works as showing the right use of the
materialist method : —
" In all his historical examples he has a
method of interpretation which makes parties the
descendants of an historical situation, and not
vice versa. Parties neither make nor change
history. On the contrary, they are moved by
130
Italy
the power of the changing wave of that never-
resting sea which is the history of classes and of
their fluctuating interests. On the other hand,
he may sometimes go too far in his desire to
find the immediate economic cause of some
episode, as, for example, the distribution of
sausages made by Napoleon III. to win over the
army on the occasion of his coup d'etat of the
2nd of December, but he does not ignore the
fact that the momentum and partisan spirit of
parties and of their leaders can give dramatic
colour to events which they cannot bring about.
For him, the crisis in potatoes is worth much
more than a thousand efforts of the minister
Guizot, or of the radical Barres. The essential
canon of the Marxian historical method is the
tendency to explain all political developments,
and thence all the actions of parties, by the
relations between class-interests. When in '92
Louis XVI. was powerless, the republican
idea was not consciously accepted, even by name,
by any one in the revolutionary groups, although
it began to be perceived faintly by Roland and
some few individuals ; however, Erance, through
the force of circumstances, remained a republic
until the Napoleonic period. The origin of the
American Republic is to be found entirely in the
history of the American peoples, who are without
131
Syndicalism and the General Strike
any feudal -monarchic tradition, and not certainly
in any prevalence of any convinced republican
party more ardent than those who to-day fight
in vain in ancient monarchic Europe.
" Parties in history translate the forces which
work outside themselves ; on a day of crisis the
advanced parties are quickly conquered or super-
seded by those which on the day before were
of little account or did not exist.
" If history depended on parties, England and
the United States would be far from socialism,
because in them there is no national working-
class party. Ettore Cicotti, an experienced culti-
vator of historical science, is of our opinion in
thinking, from what he saw on his journey in
North America, that the United States will have
a socialist system of production before any other
country."
The influence of economic development on
political events is said to be very distinctly seen
in parts of American history. Slavery was
beginning to be thought unremunerative when
Whitney discovered the cotton-gin and thereby
set the South, that needed slaves, in opposition
to the North. I
' See Dr. Ernst Schultze, " Eine Revolution in der
Baumwollgewinnung," in Schmoller's " Jahrbuch " for De-
cember, 191 1.
132
Italy
Leone attempts to show that socialism is
inevitable owing to the slow-working but inces-
sant effect of self-interest working on the masses.
The difficulty about this argument is that the
profit on a socialist policy cannot be realised with
any certainty to-morrow : no truthful man can
give a decidedly encouraging answer if the
workman asks : " What shall I get out of it
to-morrow?" and I believe it is man's faith
in truth and justice (a word I have belief in,
although it is said to be used mainly by fools)
that leads men to socialism.
Leone argues the matter out thus : Competi-
tion between labour and capital is incessant, and
the conflict of their interests is obvious — " in-
dustrial development " makes the " concentration
of wage-earners an unavoidable necessity," and
this suggests of itself the possibility of com-
bining, so that the men may present their
interests as a corporation, and collectively bar-
gain for the selfish interests of each individual,
and so that the power of the employer, who,
because he employs and controls many, is in
himself a host, may be lessened. But these
unions provide an ever-accumulating aggressive
force, impelled forward by the self-interest of
its component parts.
It is curious to notice that Sir Arthur Clay,
133
Syndicalism and the General Strike
looking at the subject from a point of view quite
opposite to that occupied by Leone, sees some-
thing inevitable in trade union history : —
" The greed of employers and the effect of
trade competition practically forced the men to
combine in self-defence, and once initiated, the
subsequent development of the trade union
system was inevitable ." ^
Leone's explanation of the inevitable develop-
ment towards socialism is this : —
" In the light of these principles it is not at
all difficult to rid ourselves of the thickets of
difficulty that the sophistical fervour of our op-
ponents patiently accumulates against us, and
which we cannot here even take into considera-
tion. If the force of competition, applied to wages,
forces the workers, as a class and as a group of
egoistic forces, to diminish the returns on
capital, this means that the trade union is
revolutionary in its natural character, and in a
way independent of what its members intend to
do with it or understand it to be. The struggles
carried on by means of it for the raising of
wages, for the ordering of the factory, the re-
duction of hours, and so on, are all episodes
which strengthen and encourage this competitive
^ Clay, " Syndicalism and Labour," p. 109. The italics
are mine.
134
Italy
power of the union. But, as economics teaches,
competition between economic factors (in our
case between the worker and the capitalist) only
ends when an equality of utilities has been
reached. Now, so long as the workers are pre-
vented from being in the same possession as
is the capitalist of the external means by which
their work is done, their egoistic energy will
always be kept alive urging them to regain those
means. And the association which is exclusively
working-class creates this possibility by enabling
the conditions to become such that these means
can pass into the ownership of the whole trade
union. Experience begins to show that only in
such a society is the competitive impulse satis-
fied. Strikes are approximations to this
economic state ; they, by explaining this com-
petitive force, create a knowledge of its inevitable
end, and disclose the notion of the way in which
to fight in order to end the struggle :— the expro-
priation of A (the capitalist) in the interest of
the whole body of B (the workers).
" From these observations the effective morpho-
logical idea of the trade union emerges : it is
not a species of democratic association, but an
institution bom of the economic laws of capitalist
society and destined to generate in itself the
skeleton of the coming society. In Syndicalism
135
Syndicalism and the General Strike
more than in any other theory you can point to
the socialism that is to be.
" By means of this common class movement,
and considering the hedonist impulse assumed
by modern economics, we are able to declare that
— even if the process of concentration of capital
does not go on — thanks to the Syndicalist
vision, socialism has a material basis of ne-
cessity."
The " hedonist assumption " in modern eco-
nomics is the assumption that every man will
bargain for his own advantage, and never be
satisfied until his satisfactions (in the form of
commodities and potential commodities, or pur-
chasing power) are equal to those of every other
man — a principle which, if it worked everywhere
equally, might lead to equal incomes, as soon
as., for the sake of peace, any well -devised social
contract could be drawn up. The economic
motive, the only feeling known by the economic
man, is the result of a hedonistic view of life,
and if the world were really inhabited by econo-
mic men, the socialist State would soon come into
existence.
" This necessity " — he refers, you will remem-
ber, to our necessary arrival at socialism by
the impossibility of persuading the organised
workers that their class is satisfied before it has
136
Italy
taken possession of all the capital which it uses —
" this necessity is shown by the attention and will-
force, with which men are necessarily impelled to
use their competitive energy, under the thrust of
the law of egoism. Thus the trade union is re-
vealed as the necessary manifestation of the pro-
found law of competition, and socialism appears
as the result of the inevitable laws of economic
value. Under this aspect, Syndicalism, as Bern-
stein well put it, is an organised liberalism.'''' (I
need not remark that Leone here uses liberalism
to mean the Manchester liberalism of unchecked
competition, which, as he says. Syndicalism would
leave unchecked, but make use of in armies
instead of by each man fighting alone.)
" But since socialism is, and remains, a matter
of the mechanics of interests, can it possiibly
retain the creative power of the forces of
enthusiasm ? In the upper spheres of social
and political antagonisms — although at the
bottcftn of them this prosaic economic world lies
like the ferment of manure under the green shoots
of the flowers — the drama of the history of life
is coloured and beautified by the conflicts of
great passions, by passionate ideals, by heroic
violence, it may be by the obscure tragedy of
the worker or the vast and culminating changes
of history.
137
Syndicalism and the General Strike
" But no one should reject this baldly economic
conception of socialism as a blasphemy against
all the light of ideal truth. These ideal aspira-
tions are chimerical dreams, graceful butter-
flies fluttering in this dark devil's forest which is
the modern world, where are bloodthirsty con-
flicts between all beings.
" Life shows itself rebellious to idealising treat-
ment. Socialism, which breaks out of the bowels
of the life of society, out of the class of workers,
is not, therefore, an ideal, but a class -war. The
ideal of absolute human happiness can in no
way be put into a formula.
" Humanity, sooner or later, according to the
hypotheses of Kant and Laplace, is destined to
be dissolved, together with the whole solar
system. Everything leads us to believe that the
process of the disappearance of human life will
be a sad one ; the cooling of the earth's crust,
the lowering of the temperature and other such
events, will cause an alteration in the whole
human economy.
" Will our descendants in close ranks be able,
as Leopardi advised, ' in a social chain,' to
fight victoriously against the new conditions of
nature that will be evolved in our planetary
system? The hypothesis seems completely
absurd ; when his surroundings become a com-
138
Italy
plex of declining conditions, man will not be
delivered. He was so bound to the earth, ' the
dear earth,' that he can but follow its fate.
" Chemistry might free us from economic ne-
cessity by providing food direct from the atmo-
sphere, which is rich in nutritive elements ; but
when he is reabsorbed in the earth, his throne
is gone. Man is powerless. He is an insepar-
able part of the globe, and will perish with it.
Humanity as the limiting phenomenon of the
earth's increase has not yet reached the summit
of progress, but the dissolution, and perhaps the
growing brutality of the fight as society dis-
solves, in consequence of the great disturbance of
the general physical conditions of life has yet
to come.
" Man must breathe in order to live : the atmo-
sphere in which he develops is adherent, like the
shirt of Nessus, to the earth. A fantastic mind
like that of Quinet, the Utopian of Nature, or
of Flammarion, that romancer of natural
science, or of Figuier, the mystic naturalist, could
boldly adventure on the hypothesis that man may
dissolve, under the influence of changing environ-
ment, out of his present anatomical and physical
structure. He breathes because he has lungs,
but these can be transformed or a substitute
found for them, and they may atrophy without
139
Syndicalism and the General Strike
life becoming impossible. His life would acquire
a new aspect : his environment would be space ;
that is, if the law of gravity did not make him
fall into the void. But this fantastic evolutionary
hypothesis, with its man-freed-from-the-earth, in
every way confirms our belief that man in future
cannot preserve his inheritance of being, with-
out renouncing all being ; he cannot preserve
himself except by becoming a being different
from himself, or by dying as homo sapiens so as
to become a being living in interstellar space."
I know there is nothing very original in this
passage, but when easy optimism uses the word
" evolution " to justify the hope that all will be
better and better without any one taking any
trouble, it is well to remember that " the evolution
of the solar system " seems to mean (I speak out
of my ignorance) that the original solar mass
whirling in a gaseous state gradually cools and
condensed masses (one is our earth) fly off ; but
as the energy of the whole diminishes, the re-
verse process sets in, until, with a great shock,
all the bodies in the solar system fall together
again and generate enough heat to again
vaporise themselves. Life follows this pendu-
lum process of developing, upwards from homo-
geneity to heterogeneity and complex organisa-
tion, and then backwards, devolving, as the
140
Italy *^
conditions get worse and favour the lower
organisms ; if the universe is shut up in a box,
so that no energy is lost to our system, the whole
affair repeats itself exactly for ever.
However, Leone sets us a good example by
leaving these gloomy visions of a future so dis-
tant that it is not necessary for the human
imagination to consider it. "But why think in
the clash of battle of this pessimist vision of a
distant future? " he says. " Humanity is a baby,
and has no way of thinking of the troubles of
its end — which seems so far off. . . .
" There are some, it is true, who propose not
to occupy themselves with socialism — Stecchetti
is one of these — because of the melancholy future
of the earth and its annihilation. But the
workers — forced to action by the competitive im-
pulse which is not less powerful than the other
laws which regulate the rising and setting of
the sun, the velocity of light, and the Copernican
revolution of the earth round the sun — they have
no time to soliloquise in the melancholy manner
of the literary decadents and the bourgeois phi-
losophers. As long as the earth lasts, no one, as
Zola said when they tortured Dreyfus, will be
able to make rivers go back to their sources ;
until the end of the earth, socialism' will pursue
its way in majesty.
141
Syndicalism and the General Strike
" Humanity, we said, is yet to stumble along for
a long time, going from victory to victory against
the hostile forces of nature. The history of
humanity is recent.
" What we call ancient history is still under
our eyes. We pass in Rome near the Forum
where the voice of Cicero sounded, and near the
Colossus of Titus, where the pagan soul boasted
of its cruelty by admiring the ' beautiful death '
of gladiators ; at Athens, where we look again
at the Acropolis of the Athenian period ; at
Cairo, where we are forced to exclaim, like
Napoleon did to his soldiers, ' Forty centuries
of history look at you from' the top of those
pyramids.' So that any one may see that human-
ity is quite young, you need only choose men
of a hundred years successively up to our days
from the Christian era, and eighteen in file are
enough to see the whole of mediaeval and
modern history, and eighty men will see all
written history. Eighty men, set one after
another, are witnesses of all this famous history
of the human race, full as it is of wars and
victories, sorrows and triumphs !
" Who, then, will dare to despair already of
the end of humanity, when we are but at the
dawn of its history?
" Marx has said that with the war of the classes
142
Italy
will close the prehistory of humanity. Man
for the first time will become master of his
process of production.
" To-day, the working-class — with the automatic
action of economic law — constructs the first
nucleus of the future society of equals in associa-
tions of workers, which are to organise and dis-
cipline production, make it free from all control
of the strong over the weak, and make themselves
self-contained and free from any superior human
power.
" And if the force which urges us on to so
great a task is inevitable, its success will be
inevitable also — it cannot fail in its aim'.
" Now the workers' movement will be able from
time to time to express itself in brilliant theo-
retical form, and possibly in mistaken theories ;
but it has in itself an incomprehensible force,
that — like a mysterious torch — illumines its way.
" This is the superiority of Syndicalism. It
does not build a new social system according to
its fancy ; but emerges from the working-class
movement, as an autonomous and distinct realm,
and sees in itself the fertile soil from which, as
a fruit springs from its own tree and a tree from
its own soil, it will produce a new world.
" This world — the disinherited, a new Atlantis,
will bear it on its shoulders. There is no need for
H3
Syndicalism and the General Strike
other help. His shoulders of steel will not bend.
The seductive whispers of the insidious siren,
legalising, parliamentary, and bourgeois, does not
stop him. He proceeds. And he will only stop
on the heights, when the sad present will have
become the dreadful past, buried in forgetful-
ness, and recalled between shudders of a com-
plaint that now needs no remedy ! "
In order to make the meaning of this extract
clearer, I must point out that Leone, like
all Syndicalist thinkers, does not believe that
mere violence, mere pressure of numbers, can
fundamentally alter society : Syndicalism, as we
have seen, does not repudiate violence, and,
indeed, in opposition to what it considers the
useless verbiage of politicians, admits the occa-
sional effectiveness of force, but, as Leone (ex-
pressing himself with an unusual epigrammatic
brevity) puts it, " The present capitalist system
does not rest on bayonets, but on the economic
immaturity of the workers ! " (This " imma-
turity " is undoubtedly more marked in Italy,
with its large illiterate class, than in England. )
The barricade of the political revolution is to
be replaced by the general strike of the economic
revolution ; the huge armaments of the modern
State force the workers to develop on their side
arms of equally shattering efficiency.
144
Italy
Leone, like Labriola, is, of course, all for
" direct action " as against State action and a
political policy of " small profits " and gradual
reforms. For this reason, he voices the dis-
like sometimes felt now for the word " evo-
lution " — one of the many words which, when
popularised, has been made to cover much
muddle-headedness — and makes its use one of the
sins for which the intellectuals are responsible.
" ' Evolution ' and ' social development by
antitheses,' these are the two social conceptions
which to-day hold the field of thought divided.
" They are the two theoretical forms that cor-
respond to the specific needs of classes — the one
of the bourgeois world, the other of the newi
working-class world.
"It is natural to the evolutionary conception
to recognise in the history of evolution the pre-
dominance of the collective interest over the
interest of one class. From this is derived the
new tactical proposal for all classes to collaborate
round common interests, which are no weaker
than the special interests of classes, and which
aim at becoming predominant.
" This ideology, so repugnant to the system of
socialist thought, has been suddenly developed
since the bizarre [evolutionary] clause was shut
into the most bizarre of socialist utopianisms
145 K
Syndicalism and the General Strike
(and Marxianism has written an excessively
laudatory elegy on it), and been passed off as the
production of the intellectuals, from whom it has
overflowed into the stream of the labour move-
ment ; and these intellectuals, instead of remain-
ing, like the volunteers of the battle of independ-
ence, soldiers loyal to the death, wish for and
claim the epaulettes of captains."
So much for Leone ; and I must here conclude
on Italian Syndicalism.
146
GERMANY
CHAPTER V
GERMANY
In order to understand the position of the Syndi-
calists in any country and how they came to stand
there, it seems necessary to know something of
the Socialist party in that country, of the trade
unions, and of the relations between the unions
and the socialists, so as to see why Syndicalist
criticism ever began to object to the progress
made by the wage -earners and by the party
supposed to work on their behalf. I shall
assume that the reader knows enough about
the Socialist party in Germany, since its
progress has attracted considerable attention
here.
Unfortunately the history of German trade
unionism is rather complicated, and I must
confess that in this chapter I shall have to go
rather a long way in order to give compara-
tively little information about Syndicalism,
which is certainly as yet not prominent in
Germany.
149
Syndicalism and the General Strike
I'here are in Germany several kinds of trade
unions. The (a) Hirsch-Duncker Liberal
unions/ which contained, at the end of 1910,
122,571 members ( their largest unions are
for machine-makers and metal workers, factory
workers and operatives, German shop assistants,
and Wiirtemberg railway workers); (b) the
Christian unions with 3 1 6, 1 1 5 members, of
which 82,855 ^re miners and 40,320 textile
workers ( some of these are Catholic, some Evan-
gelical, some undenominational or Christian
social); (c) the independent unions with
705,942, of which the Prussianl-Hessian State
railway workers contribute 441,578, and the
Polish trades union (largely of miners)
61,965 ; the (d) patriotic ( vdterldndische)
unions — some of which are " mixed " unions
containing masters and men organised in a par-
ticular locality, others are organised in the usual
way according to trades— 33,284, of which the
largest part is in Saxony, 10,613; and the
(^) " yellow " or free labour unions with 79,991
members. Opposed to these peaceful unions are
(/) the " socialist " unions or " free " trade
unions with 2,128,021 members, while the
non -socialist unions a to e cpntain, taken all
^ Statistics taken from " Statistisches Jahrbuch fiir das
deutsche Reich," 191 1, Puttkammer and Miihlbrecht, Berlin.
150
Germany
together, only 1,258,443 members, and of these
many are also members of the socialist unions
— thus the railway workers are largely members
of " independent " railway workers' unions and
of the Socialist Metal-workers' Union.
The Syndicalist unions, the Freie Vereinigung
deutscher Gewerkschaften, decline to furnish
their numbers to the Imperial Statistical Office.'
They were stated by Michels in 1908 to contain
15,000 to 20,000; but these figures are said
to be greatly exaggerated — division by 10,
according to some critics of them, would bring
them nearer to accuracy .2
The early history of attempts at working-class
combination in Germany, with its secrets and its
disputes between Marxians and Lasalleans, ap-
pears very complicated.
The right to combine was first gained between
1867 and 1869 in most German States, and the
mutual improvement societies which had been
in existence since 1848, as well as trade societies
which, especially in the printing and tobacco
industries, existed before trade unions were law-
ful, rapidly developed into a system of trade
unions. Marx Hirsch, who in the summer of
1868 contributed a series of letters to the
* See note on p. 442 of the Jahrbuch.
2 Robert Michels in " SyndicaUsme et Socialisme."
151
Syndicalism and the General Strike
Berliner Volkszeltung on English conditions, did
much to encourage the movement by presenting
the English trade unions as models. Von
Schweitzer, president of the socialist body, the
'Allgemelner deutscher Arhelterverein (originally
intended to reconstruct the whole of society) and
Fritzsche, founder of the Deutscher Tabakar-
belterverein, were convinced by his teaching
and desired to found unions : the Arbeiterverein
would, however, only allow von Schweitzer to
call a meeting in conjunction with Fritzsche if
he acted in an individual capacity and not as
an official. The congress was held on September
26, 1868, and two sections of opinion revealed
themselves : the followers of Hirsch, who were
in a minority, and who believed in goodwill
between master and man, and the followers of
von Schweitzer (of whom I will say more a little
later), who believed in socialist principles, and
frankly accepted the strike as a weapon. The
proceedings were probably not very orderly, as
we read that " Hirsch was finally driven out of
the hall by force." ^ A meeting held soon after
at which the Hirsch party were in a majority
led to the formation of many unions, the Gewerk-
^ See W. Kulemann, " Die Gewerkschaftsbewegung," and
Laurent Dechesne, ** Les Syndicats ouvriers en Allemagne "
in La Revue economique inlernationale for January, 1910.
152
Germany
vereine. This meeting was presided over by
the member of the Reichstag, Franz Duncker,
and the unions to which it gave rise are still
called the Hirsch-Duncker unions. The Hirsch-
Duncker unions were based on the idea of a
natural harmony between employer and worker,
and proposed to work chiefly by means of peace-
ful collective bargaining. The members are
supposed to sign a statement on entering the
unions declaring that they are not members of
the Socialist party. The unions have not, in
spite of their principles, been able to do without
strikes, and the defeat of the 7,000 Walden-
burg miners in the first year after their foun-
dation, 1869, put back their growth considerably.
Hirsch was elected to the Reichstag in 1891,
and sat with the freislnnlge party — which in
England would count as a radical individualist
party.
Meantime von Schweitzer had organised his
Gewerkschaften, divided at first into ten trades
or Arbeiterschaften. Their early life was not
prosperous— von Schweitzer desired, like Robert
Owen, to dissolve the whole of the trade
organisations into one workers' union with
socialist principles. The president, Hasenclever,
the successor of Schweitzer, went so far as to
issue an instruction in 1874 that the unions
153
Syndicalism and the General Strike
should be dissolved, seeing that the police " were
taking energetic steps against all social demo-
cratic meetings" (whatever "steps" may mean),'
but some refused to die. The stricter Marxians,
who in their Internationale Arbeiterassoziatlon
spoke rather contemptuously of trade unions,
because so long as capitalism lasts the lot of
the worker can never be improved, yet be-
lieved in organising the workers for common
action and with a view to their complete emanci-
pation, and by 1869 the Eisenach congress of
the social democratic workers' party was able
to recommend the further construction of unions,
" on an international basis " — this, necessarily
more or less theoretical, conception being a
Marxian tradition.
It is important for our purpose to note that
in these early years of the history of German
trade unions, local unions {lokale. Fachvereine)
had been formied in the larger towns. The
question as to the degree to which the unions
should be managed centrally has occupied atten-
tion to a far greater extent in Germany than in
England— perhaps for the simple reason that the
former country is larger. These local unions
were free from the need of deciding the question
whether they should or should not be political,
* Kulemann, p. 202.
154
Germany
as the political differences of the members of a
small local group in a country like Germany,
with centralised governments, are of no im-
portance.
The Sozialistengesetz of 1878 killed the
trade union movement in Germany— some of the
unions were suppressed and the rest thought it
best to commit suicide — the Government mostly
believing that the interests of the whole of
society were identical with those of the possess-
ing classes and especially those of the employers,
and using every means that the law when
stretched could provide to obstruct the work of
the unions ; a few Fachverelne, which occupied
themselves in maintaining funds for providing
travelling expenses for out-of-work members,
sick benefits, lodgings for men seeking work,
local papers and registers of vacant situations,
still, however, survived.
We have now reached the origin of the third
group of trade unions. The Government having
suppressed voluntary efforts for mutual aid of
the workers was compelled to introduce legisla-
tion instituting compulsory insurance. The legis-
lation was received without gratitude by the
workers, who felt themselves oppressed, and the
question came into men's heads, " whether, in
fact, the work of elevating the working-class
155
Syndicalism and the General Strike
without their own participation must not be a
mistaken undertaking." The " Berlin move-
ment," aiming at the creation of a Christian-
social party of its own, was started by Stocker,
Wagner, Henrici, and others in 1880. The
Christian unions founded by them believe in
social peace and loyalty. The construction of
these Christian unions, which was permitted by
the police, encouraged various trades to form
other non-political unions for benefit and protec-
tion purposes. Some of these unions specifically
excluded strikes from their permissible activities
—others got out of the difficulty by making the
strike the business of a special strike committee
(Streik- or KontrolLkommlssion) to be elected at
a special general meeting of the workers held
at a time of strike, or of trustees ( Vertrauens-
mdnner) appointed for the special work at an
open meeting.
The law, however, fought hard against the
unions, and in particular tried to make a dis-
tinction between economic and political or State
activities, even dividing strikes for raising wages
into strikes in which the real object was simply to
raise wages and strikes the real purpose of which
was to ask for increased wages in order to widen
the cleft between employer and worker, because
of hatred of our whole social and political con-
ditions.
156
Germany
After the law against the socialists had run out,
a Trade Union Conference was called in Berlin
in 1890 in order to strengthen and extend the
unions, and a general committee of seven was
appointed to preside over all the unions. This cen-
tralisation and unification of all trades, so foreign
to what we see in England, should be noted,
because German Syndicalism ultimately arose out
of a revolt against it : from the beginning of this
second start of the German trade union move-
ment there was a conflict between the adherents
of localism and the adherents of central organisa-
tion—these early localists being, however, firmer
believers in definite political action in addition
to trade union action than were the centralisers
of that day. The localisers left the meeting
when they found themselves greatly in the
minority, and it was finally agreed that local
autonomy should prevail to the extent that dif-
ferent branches of trade should be organised
separately but there should be a common Kartell-
t'^A-^/'^g' (approximately "joint-committee"), with
defined powers, over the whole industry— over,
that is, all the different branches of metal or
wood-workers, and so on. Women were to be
admitted to the men's unions. The collections
on May Day were to be devoted so far as the
general collection was concerned to trade union
157
Syndicalism and the General Strike
purposes, but voluntary levies might be made by
single branches for any purpose.
The socialists have not been always quite
friendly to the trade unions, and especially have
attacked Legien, the chairman of the General
Committee, he having been regarded as a
"pure" trade unionist.
It is a little difficult to sum up the present
characteristics of this, the largest body of
German trade unions— but they may be described
as being centralised, and, although often classed
as socialist, in actual working they are not more
political than the English unions, especially since
in recent years they have partly dropped the
use of revolutionary phrases. At times they have
professed political independence.
Particularly among the miners and foundry
workers of the Rheinland and Westphalia, the
Christian unions are of importance. They are
either evangelical or Catholic. They believe in a
peaceful relation between employer and em-
ployed. The Protestant unions are for religious
and moral culture, for Kaiser and Empire, for
the family and healthy homes, and for sickness,
death, and out-of-wotk benefits. These unions
are controlled from above ; they contain em-
ployers as well as employed ; and discussions
and lectures on economic subjects held in them
i5«
Germany
are said to awaken little interest. To be " social "
without being socialist or partisan is naturally
difficult, and prominent members have not
escaped being accused of an attitude which is
too political or socialist.
The Catholic union, Volksverein fiir das
katholische Deutschland, has the battle with
socialism as its first aim. It is directed by
manufacturers, professors, mayors, and coun-
cillors.
Christian social unions have been formed on an
undenominational basis, containing both Catholic
and Protestant members : the textile unions are
some of the largest of these. These unions are
practically supporters of the Centrum party,
although nominally they are non-political and
anti-socialist.'
I have already referred to the presence of a
minority at the Berlin trade union congress of
1890 who objected to the centralisation of the
unions. In May, 1897, the first congress was
held of " German trade unions which are or-
ganised locally or based on centralisation by
trustees "—the second conception has been briefly
explained already. The congress was, however,
extremely orthodoxly socialist in its desire to
fight for political power, and recognised the need
' Chiefly from Kulemann's " Die Gewerkschaftsbewegung."
159
Syndicalism and the General Strike
for a class-war to be waged in " active and con-
scious .connection with the principles and tactics
of the social -democratic party of Germany."
These new organisations were to be entirely
independent of one another, and each was to
control its own funds, and decide for itself with
regard to strikes. A central business committee
was only to consider means of propaganda and
to connect the units, without having any control
over them. 'In the event of a strike, all the
unions have to act in solidarity, and assist the
striking branch, provided its own members have
paid up their dues according to the rules ; these
dues being paid to and retained by the local
branch, the central committee having no funds
whatever. A paper, Die Elnlgkeit, was founded,
to protect the unions from attacks both by
tyrannical leaders of the socialists and of the
centralised unions. At present this paper (I
have not seen the early numbers of it) is an ex-
cellent one, with a considerable amount of news
concerning the relations between capital and
labour all over the world— and considering the
small circulation to which it must be restricted,
is quite wonderfully good. Its "editorial"
articles cannot, it must be confessed, avoid being
rather monotonous in their perpetual attacks on
the Socialist party.
1 60
Germany
The new unions in 1903 received the name
of the " Freie Vereinigung deutscher Gewerk-
schaften." Although these unions only differed
from others in their objection to centralisation,
and were not originally unorthodox in socialism,
the " Lokalisten," as they are called, because of
their localising methods, were, they themselves
report, persecuted by the centralists— individual
members were deprived of work, their strikes
were " broken " in order to waste their funds,
they were denounced to the police, so that
Andreas Kleinlein speaks mildly, if his account
of their experiences is accurate, when he says :
" The fight with exploitation is always natural and
open, but the fight with brothers about the form
of organisation is a cruel one in Germany." ^
In 1903, the executive of the Socialist party
{Parteivorstand) in conjunction with the general
committee of the trade unions and the Berlin
Gewerkskartell (trade unions' committee)
attempted to bring the schismatic unions back
to the true faith. The attempt failed.
In 1904 Dr. Friedeberg lectured to the Berlin
members of the Freie Vereinigung and began
to preach what we may briefly call anti-parlia-
^ '■'■ Der Syndicalismus in Deutschland," by A. Kleinlein,
in the Jahrbiich der freien Generation filr 1912. I am
indebted to Mr. Kleinlein for assistance in obtaining the
materials for this chapter.
161 L
Syndicalism and the General Strike
mentarism and direct action — strikes, May cele-
brations, and boycotts. At the end of his speech
he recommended the general strike. He de-
livered similar speeches in many parts of Ger-
many, and on his return to Berlin delivered a
further speech on August 23, 1905, to a meeting
of about three thousand persons on the "Theory
of the World and Tactics of the German Pro-
letariate " ("Weltanschauung und Taktik des
deutschen Proletariats "), after which a very long
resolution was put to the meeting and almost
unanimously agreed to. This resolution may
now be considered as expressing the principle
for which the Freie Vereinigung stands. The
resolution refers first to events in Germany in
the last ten years (1895-1905) which have
strengthened the reactionaries— the loss of
franchises in Saxony, Hamburg, Liibeck, Dres-
den ; the clericalising of the schools in Prussia ;
the strengthening of the Junker class by corn
duties ; the destruction of the rights of minorities
in the Reichstag ; the declaration of political
neutrality on the part of the trade unions ; the
diminished observance of May Day : it then
speaks of " apparent successes of parliamen-
tarism," and of the replacing of direct revolu-
tionary influences by attention to gradual
economic changes ; while admitting an im-
162
Germany
provement in the standard of life, the resolu-
tion attributes it to a general improvement in
Germany's economic position, and not to any
success in the class-war. Class-war for the
overturning of the class -dominance is what is
needed : the general strike is the best weapon
in the war.
From this time on the Lokalisten called them-
selves also Anarcho-Sozialisten. The socialist
papers criticised the speeches of Friedeberg
severely, but Kautsky, while objecting to his
** theoretical confusion," admired his " revolu-
tionary temperament."
The Lokalisten declare their chief peculiari-
ties, in comparison with the socialist unions, to
consist in the power over their own money and
over the right to strike retained by each local
branch ; in their belief in " solidarity " strikes
and sympathetic strikes, and in their proga-
ganda of the general strike ; and in their objec-
tion to trade unions collecting money for any
purpose except strike pay, all such other moneys
encouraging the belief in a self-help which can
never suffice for the needs of the worker.'
The actual number of the Lokalisten is
small, but their criticisms do influence small
bodies of discontented trade unionists. Thus
' Das Programme der F. V. d. G.
163
Syndicalism and the General Strike
a meeting of Berlin members of organisa-
tions belonging to the Gewerkschaftskartell,
on September 7, 1908, at Kellers Festsale,
considered a long resolution complaining
of " parliamentary hopelessness," and empha-
sising the need for propaganda and prepara-
tion for the general strike : it is not the
conquest of political power which is requisite,
but the destruction of political power, which is
to be replaced by the organisation of productive
forces and economic arrangements. What is
objected to in the existing trade union and par-
liamentary worlds is this — and I have referred to
this meeting in order to quote these complaints,
which are characteristic of the kind of complaints
that the left wing of a Socialist party makes : —
In trade unionism : the agreement to
" strangle " the ist of May celebration, and
further a passive attitude with regard to strikes
and lockouts, and even the driving of strikers
back to work by refusing them strike pay (as
with the weavers in Crefeld and the riveters in
Stettin).
In politics : the congratulations offered by
Socialist representatives on the birth of an heir
to the throne of Hesse, the presence of labour
representatives at the funeral of the Grand Duke
of Baden, the patriotic speeches of socialists in
164
Germany
the Reichstag in debates on the army, and the
granting of the budget in the Landtage of
southern states.'
I think I have made the general opinions of
the Anarcho-Soziahsten fairly clear. They look
upon the war of the oppressed against their
exploiters as morally excellent, and the propaga-
tion of anti-militarism, anti-patriotism, and anti-
clericalism is combined with it. " The ideal of
human love and national brotherhood, the task
of freeing the dispossessed from bondage,
making worthy, sensitive human beings of them,"
is the ideal that must be put before the young,.
" But also the dispossessed must be methodically
enlightened about the character of the Church
and educated in anti-religious and anti-clerical
feeling. Before the worker has set himself in-
wardly free from the spell of divine and human
authorities, he is not ripe for the war of the
classes, for this requires free and completed per-
sonalities, who have settled opinions and have
put away the last remnants of a hypocritical
priestly capitalistic morality." 2
Evidently wealthy in literary ability, the group
issue a second paper, Der Pionier, in addi-
^ From a copy of the resolution in the possession of the
author.
' " Was wollen die Lokalisten ? "
165
Syndicalism and the General Strike
tion to Die Einlgkeit, the former being a general
propagandist paper and the latter the " organ "
of the Freie Vereinigung. The following extract
from an article on elections is characteristic of
the tone of the former paper :—
" The worker is told to choose representatives.
He chooses by bits of paper political, and if
all goes well, trade union representatives — talkers.
Now, is it possible for these ' representatives '
of those who have nothing to convince the
' representatives ' of the propertied that they must
come out from their property in order to bring
about the equal rights of mankind ? No ! ! Well,
then, if that is not possible, then the whole
parliamentarism is not only useless, but
harmful. . . .
" Parliaments are as dangerous for mature men
as barracks are for young men. In the one, as
in the other, men are taken out of their own
class. In the one, as in the other, most men are
infected by militarism, and are made by it direct
enemies of anti-militarist socialism.
" Only think of Bebel in Berlin, Greulich in
Switzerland, Jaures in Paris. They all declare
loudly and solemnly that they have nothing in
common with those who undermine the best
supports of throne and capitalism, that is, the
military.
i66
Germany
" These men, at first so firm set, could never
have decayed so far as socialists if they had
remained among the workers and had used their
undoubted abilities in order to enlighten the
masses. And the expenses [of parliamentary
action] are not as small as many assume. The
elections of 1907 devoured twenty million marks
[ I mark = i shilling ], of which the social
democrats workers' pence amounted to three
millions,
" How much educational work [ Aufklarungs-
arbeit] can be done with such sums by dis-
tributing good printed matter !
" But the most pressing reason why the
workers should not take part in elections is the
crippling effect which parliaments have on the
decisions of the worker.
" As the more or less pious Christian, listen-
ing to his priest, hopes for heaven's manna,
so the dispossessed turn their expectant gaze
towards the houses of parliament [Reichstags-
gebaude], or reads the speeches of their
deputies with delight ; and so their personal
power of action is crippled, their own de-
velopment is hampered, and their belief in their
powers and those of their fellow-sufiferers is
shaken. . . .
" Down with the electoral lie ! Long live
167
Syndicalism and the General Strike
revolutionary socialism 1 Hurrah for the general
strike ! " '
The following number (dated January lo,
1 91 2) states that out of the 370 Social
Democratic Reichstag candidates " there is not
one single worker who slaves for capitalism for
wages " ; all are, it asserts, officials of the move-
ment living on it — lawyers, doctors, publicans,
manufacturers. It is a common complaint about
labour parties.
^ " Der Pionier," J^Io. i, 2nd year, January 3, 1912.
168
ENGLAND
CHAPTER VI
ENGLAND
England is not a useful country in which to
study formulated political theories. In Eng-
land, the conservative is not a conservative, the
liberal is not a liberal, and the socialist is not
a socialist. In other countries ideas are fully
discussed for a long while and then timidly experi-
mented with ; here we discuss nothing and carry
the ideas out fully in practice. If you talk of a
class -war in England, every one raises pious
hands of horror ; but in no country is there so
much instinctive distrust between class and class
and so much effort to keep the classes apart :
our school system and our public-houses, as com-
pared with continental caj^s, show it ; and we
are led to the same conclusion when we reflect
that conscript armies often cause contact
between classes, and that common tastes in
amusements may in some countries do much to
promote intercourse irrespective of rank and in-
come. Hardly had we heard that the English
171
Syndicalism and the General Strike
working-man would never hold up the train ser-
vice, as had been done by Italians and French-
men, in whose countries the general strike had
long been discussed, when the English workers
did do so, and only the statesmanlike eloquence
of Lloyd George (which did not materialise into
anything very useful to the strikers) set the
railways back at work.
Action in England largely precedes theory.
There is a considerable public in England that
is afraid of all political theory. Just as there
are religious people who cannot bear to discuss
why they think that man is immortal, or why
Adam's sin is on all of us, so there are con-
servatives who cannot bear to discuss why
the Marquess of Anglesey, the dustman, and
the proprietor of Beecham's pills get their
respective incomes, or to investigate in whose
hands in reality (as opposed to text -book theory)
great political power is held. That this faith in
the utility of ignorance has great dangers, I
need hardly point out. There is a large public
entirely out of touch with the great productive
industries of the country — with coal -mining and
the metal and textile industries, for example :
this public largely judges of the rights and needs
of any class of the community by the source from
which they hear of their grievances or demands :
172
England
the claims made by them are justified if a con-
servative paper says so in connection with its
tariff reform agitation, but would not be if the
socialist papers advanced them. Now, no idea
is more constantly believed by the respectable
man in the streets of London — the man who does
not come up to the city in a workman's train and
who is not working at the actual production of
anything — than the idea that strikes are caused
by " paid agitators."
I am anxious not to give any exaggerated idea
of the importance of Syndicalist theories, and
therefore I should like a little to consider the
actual causes of strikes.
I have asked people who they think is one of
these paid agitators, but have never heard a satis-
factory answer. The branch secretary of a trade
union gets los. to 50s. for three months' work —
a merely nominal wage for work which must be
done after the man has tired himself with a full
day's work for his master. The work is under-
taken by enthusiasts and by men who are
anxious to rise in the world of trade unionism to
better paid places, in which, naturally, only a
very small proportion are destined ever to suc-
ceed. The branch secretary may win some local
renown by a successful strike, and be elected
district secretary because of his popularity,
173
Syndicalism and the General Strike
energy, and aggressiveness ; but the risk he runs
is great — the masters are hkely to dislike him,
to dismiss him because he is a source of discon-
tent, and in many ways to make his life harder
and his purse lighter. The steady routine work
of negotiating with masters, of arranging meet-
ings, and thinking out methods of attracting un-
organised men into the unions ; of corresponding
with other branches and with higher committees
of the union, of influencing the policy of the
local Trades Council, and preventing waste of
time in discussing resolutions on unworkable
political proposals that may be put before the
branch — all this clerical and administrative work
requires a persevering, cool, and calculating type
of mind rather than the mind belonging to an
impulsive agitator. Further, the control of funds
is the great source of caution in the management
of unions. The general secretary of a great
union is frequently a man who, in appearance,
may look like a prosperous skilled artisan, but
in type of mind and in manner seems exactly like
a small, steady man of business. It is no ex-
aggeration to say that he spends much time in
trying to prevent local branches from striking.
Their grievances are seen at headquarters from a
distance, and with a clear idea of the risks of a
strike and its cost. Whenever notice arrives
174
England
from any locality that a branch wishes to strike,
the headquarters send a man down to investigate.
The investigator will almost infallibly be opposed
to a strike.
I hope it is not too personal to point out that
Mr. George Barnes, General Secretary of the
Amalgamated Society of Engineers, seems a man
of the artisan type, changed into a steady, emi-
nently quiet, unspeculative, small business man.
No man was more frequently spoken of in the
papers in connection with the coal strike than
Mr. W. E. Harvey. This is his record according
to the Pall Mall Gazetle^s " Extra," " The New
House of Commons, 191 i ": —
" Mr. William E. Harvey, like most of the
miner-members of Parliament, commenced life in
the pit. Born at Hasland, near Chesterfield, in
1852, he had to go to work, ten years later, in
order to help his widowed mother. He educated
himself in his spare time, and quite early identi-
fied himself with the movement for the combina-
tion that eventually blossomed into the Derby-
shire Miners' Association. He became its
treasurer in 1881, and in 1886 left the mine in
order to become the association's agent. He
was instrumental in accomplishing a great feat
at the time of the 1892 coal strike. Then the
association had £32,000 in hand; but strike
175
Syndicalism and the General Strike
pay soon swallowed it up, and the offices of the
association were mortgaged, and funds to the
amount of £6,000 were borrowed in order to
keep the men going. This debt was wholly re-
deemed within six months of the conclusion of
the strike, and the mortgage paid of( also. Mr.
Harvey is on the executive of the Miners' Federa-
tion, and is a member of the Conciliation Board.
School board, town council, and Primitive Metho-
dist chapel also have occupied Mr. Harvey's
evenings and Sundays at Chesterfield, and he is
a hard worker in everything he undertakes."
It is, perhaps, an instructive record in several
ways.
I have here made it clear, then, that while a
local union secretary, working himself in an area
where the conditions of working or the tyranny
of masters and foremen are felt, may be in favour
of a strike, the Executive and General Secretary
in London is almost invariably in favour of a
quiet, safe life. It must be remembered that the
success of a branch secretary is likely to result
from his success in speaking on trade unionism
and politics, and by his making himself known.
If he is victimised, that is, refused work in his
trade because of his activity in politics, this may
constitute a claim on his union for his employ-
ment by them, // they have a vacant position
176
England
suitable for him . But whatever advantage it is to
him to make himself prominent in any way in
his own district, in order that he may be nomi-
nated for election to the post of district secretary,
it may be argued that it is also to his advantage
that the officials above him in rank may have no
reason to try to discredit him, as they can easily
do by acting through their organiser. In so far as
he rises, it becomes more and more advantageous
to him to be in favour with those at the top.
These, as I have said, have hitherto been always
men of peace, except, perhaps, in the unions
for unskilled men, where slightly stronger
language is always used. The unpaid agitator,
whether a workman or a middle-class man, is
far more dangerous than the paid agitator — be-
cause he speaks what his heart dictates without
having any official responsibility. Before pro-
ceeding further I may at once point out that the
whole objection to paid agitators rings untrue
when all political agitation is more and more
organised and worked by paid servants.
The paid agitator is not, of course, the speaker
paid by the Anti-Socialist Union, whose sincerity
it would be impossible to doubt, and who delivers
a speech which has sometimes been taught to him
by the rich gentlemen who direct his organisa-
tion without pay ; it is not the speaker who
Syndicalism and the General Strike
comes to protect Lord Rothschild from the ill-
effects likely to be produced on society by half-
starved wretches asking for a wage sufficient to
maintain physical and mental health on ; even
the paid advocate of tariff reform, though he
may paint in the blackest of colours the misery
at present caused by foreign competition, is not
included among the paid agitators, and still less
are Cabinet ministers, although from time to time
they agitate for or against something.
To return to the question of paid political
workers and strikers. With regard to the working
of the upper five-foot seam of the Ely pit of the
Naval Colliery Company, the chairman of which
is Mr. D. A. Thomas, who is also managing
director of Cambrian Combine collieries, negotia-
tions as to wages to be paid at piece rates were
going on in August, 1 9 1 o, the mine having
formerly been worked on fixed day rates. No
agreement could, however, be arrived at, and
on August 1st, 1 910, "notices were served by
the company on all the workmen employed at the
Ely pit." Nine hundred workpeople were
thrown out of work. Twelve hundred colliers
employed at the two other pits of the Naval
Colliery company then struck in support of the
locked-out workers of the Ely pit — the whole
21,000 being under one general manager, Mr.
178
England
Leonard Llewelyn, in mines owned by the same
company of which Mr. Thomas is the managing
director.
These facts are to be found in a book called
" Labour Strife in the South Wales Coalfield,
1910-11," I the author of which holds that one
cause of the strikes during this period was " a
severe contest for supremacy . . . between the
younger and the older leaders of the South Wales
Miners' Federation " — the younger leaders being
socialists, and the older ones " orthodox trade
unionists," and therefore his testimony (given
on p. 13) that this strike, out of which prob-
ably the whole of the coal strikes up to the
latest one (191 2), which affected all Great
Britain, developed, is peculiarly important, when
he says that the strike was : —
" Neither recommended nor acquiesced in by
the local or executive leaders, it was largely a
spontaneous act of impulse on the part of the
rank and file."
For the time, a vote taken resulted in the con-
flict being confined to the men who were locked
out, the others resuming work. On October ist,
however, the men in the pits under the control of
the Cambrian Combine handed in their notices.
^ By David Evans, published by The Educational Publish-
ing Company, Ltd., Cardiff, 191 1.
179
Syndicalism and the General Strike
The strike lasted until August, 191 i, when
the men finally were beaten and returned to work,
1,200 men having been out for ten months.
That part of the public which is instructed by
the less scrupulous part of a press that is hired
by the richer side, is under the impression that
the average miner pays income tax. Wages as
low as 3s. or 5s. a day are, however, to be found
in the mines. It is not fair to pick out one or
two well-paid men and make them stand for their
whole class. The price of coal includes on an
average six men killed a day in English mines,
and some men have to work with one shoulder
on the floor, one against the roof.i
^ Miners work from 5I to 4^ days per week according to
the time of year. The accidents as presented in a return
furnished by the Home Secretary (reproduced in the Times
of March 14, 1912) were : —
Number killed.
Number injured as
reported to the
Inspectors.
Number injured and
disabled for more than
seven days.
1908
1,308
5,860
141,851
1909
1453
5,859
153,306
I9I0
1-775
5,737
159,042
I9II
1,259
Not ye
; available
These figures show from 47 to 67 men killed per working
day.
180
England
The defeated Welsh miners, who had no mini-
mum for abnormal places, sent representatives to
the English miners' branches, and finally induced
the whole Federation to declare the recent strike
all over the British Isles.
Something has been said with regard to the
difference between the passing and the coming
generation of trade union leaders. The contrast
is partly due to improved education and greater
study of economics on the part of the new men ;
among the South Wales miners and in the Amalga-
mated Society of Railway Engineers there are
many Central Labour College men trained under
Dennis Hird among the "newer" men.J^ The
contrast is also, perhaps, partly that between the
" local " leader and the " central " leader, to
which reference has already been made. Among
the " younger " men in the Welsh coal-mines
are the miners' agents, Charles Stanton and
Vernon Hartshorn.
During the summer of 191 1, in addition to
the railway strike, the dockers' strike, and first
in time and most successful in results from the
workers' point of view, the sailors' strike, which,
after three days, gained great increases of wages
from the rich and powerful Shipping Federation,
^ See Rowland Kenney's article in the English Review for
March, 191 2.
181
Syndicalism and the General Strike
which had never believed that the sailors could
all strike at once — in addition to the strikes re-
ported in all the papers, a large number of small
strikes took place, many of which may be termed
quite spontaneous. There were many strikes like
those of the women employed in South London
factories, who were paid sweated wages, and who
struck because other strikes set the example and
gave them courage. The Anti-Sweating League
gives figures showing the expenditure of a woman
earning 9s. a week. Her rent is 3s. ; her two
clothes clubs cost is., and her boot club 6d. a
week ; materials for washing clothes on Saturday
afternoon, coal, light, wood, and death benefit
insurance, absorb another is. 3d. ; in all, these
expenses come to 5s. gd., leaving her 3s. 3d.
for one week's food. No doubt, this is enough —
for a woman of that class : it enables her to have
six dinners at i^d. each, six loaves coming to
IS. 4^d., and is. i|d. of other food. Women,
during the summer are said to have gained in-
creases of wages of from 30 to 40 per cent, on
an average. Unfortunately, where the women
were not in trade unions, their gains cannot, with
any security, be permanently maintained. It is
not necessary to be at all revolutionary to feel
that the existence of the spirit of revolt in people
living in such miserable circumstances is more
182
England
inspiriting to us than any material gains they
obtained. The Morning Post of September 15,
191 1, said : —
" South London is the very centre of trades
that exist, and probably can only exist, on low-
paid women labour. For girls under eighteen
wages as low as 6s. to 8s, a week are paid, while
even girls over eighteen and married women can
be at times found working for 9s. or los. This
is not for short or intermittent hours, but for
the steady five hours' stretch twice a day that
is the limit allowed by law. Many live at home
and thus get along, but some have to fight for
their living unaided. One girl, looking after
three machines in a tin factory, where the fore-
man so frightens her with sudden outbursts that
she loses control and gets cut, has to pay 7s.
for board and lodging. As she only earns 9s.,
she cannot leave and look for another job without
being thrown on the street."
There were 22 strikes in these South London
factories, in 18 of which increased wages were
gained. " ■
It is not disputable that wages are lower than
public opinion (which has no clear theory of
what wages ought to be) will support. Thus the
Times of November 29, 191 1, says: "So far
as the lower grades [of the railways] are con-
X83
Syndicalism and the General Strike
cerned, the situation may be summed up in a
remark which was made to me at Cardiff : ' If a
railwayman had no children to work for him, he
can only live decently by taking in a lodger,
the lodger being often, no doubt, a young un-
married fellow-worker.' " In country districts
the late turn on the railway involves sixteen
hours' work ; it is true that during part of the
time the porter is on duty at a level crossing
without much to do, but he has to be on duty.
At every change, from the late to the early turn,
he gets a short sleep, say from one till six in the
morning, before resuming work. The wages for
his work were, before the strike, i6s. a week.
The alternate or early turn means work from
six to six. Such conditions must be killing.
These observations are intended to show that
Syndicalism and theory are not of great import-
ance in causing strikes as compared with the
irritating effects of daily hardships.
Industrial changes have played their part.
That machinery causes unskilled work to replace
skilled, arid that means that irregular em-
ployment replaces constant employment ; that
the recurrent anguish of unemployment afflicts an
ever larger class ; that businesses get ever larger
and personal relationships are replaced by rules
and officials ; that wages have not risen with
184
England
prices ; these are all generally admitted causes
of growing dissatisfaction.
" Of what does the intelligent workman
speak?" says W. C. Anderson, in an article on
" The Significance of the Labour Unrest," in the
Socialist Review for October, 1 9 1 1 : " He com-
plains of the difficulty of keeping a home together
on 20S. a week. He speaks of the excessive
hours and speeding-up which makes overdrafts
on his physical strength. He speaks of the in-
creasing precariousness of his employment, of
his increasing liability to be out of work. He
speaks of little tyrannies, petty and pin-pricking
in themselves, yet none the less irritating, and
entirely indicative of the complete divorce
between capital and labour."
Further, it is almost universally admitted that
to be ignorant is to be satisfied, and that the man
who thinks may be a man who " thinks too
much : such men are dangerous." Our society
is not too stable, and even the power to read —
" The power to read, which is practically all
that education means in England, operates as a
solvent of every established custom. It strikes
off the shackles that have limited the imagination
of previous generations, and gives to the child of
the humblest labourer a widening horizon. The
slowest wits are constrained to note the disparity
185
Syndicalism and the General Strike
between's life's possibility and fulfilment. -While
education has not advanced far enough to supply
to the great majority of the workers any new
and attainable satisfaction, it has quickened the
intelligence sufficiently to breed discontent with
the monotonous routine of alternating toil and
rest which satisfied their fathers." '
Such, then, are what I may term the general
causes of discontent.
But is the paid agitator entirely ^ figment of
the imagination ?
Probably the Right Hon. John Burns, M.P.,
organiser of the unemployed and of the dock
strikers, was more like the popular idea of an
agitator than any English " labour leader " has
ever been. He was not a trade union official :
he lived on the wage-fund subscribed by local
Battersea admirers of his work of agitation for
his sustenance while acting as a London
County Councillor. Attached to various socialist
societies are one or two paid officials who are
always willing to help in organising any men
who are at all willing to start a trade union ; but
these officials, by temperament, by the fact that
they have been, or wish to be, parliamentary
candidates, are opposed to all unconstitutional
and disorderly methods, and not likely to advo-
' The Morning Post, September 13, 191 1.
186
England
cate striking in any but exceptional circum-
stances.
Tom Mann is at present an unattached
speaker, who will speak for any audience that
will pay his fee. He is opposed to all disorder,
which he considers detrimental to success, and
advocates the federation of the existing unions
into large bodies representing the national indus-
tries. He naturally only meets a comparatively
small number of the workers of the country,
and there is no real ground to suppose that the
audiences he has addressed have been the great
sources of the determination to strike.
In short, this chapter might read thus :—
There are practically only one or two Syndica-
lists in England, but discontent with the degree
of success obtained through the Parliamentary
Labour party has led to a general return to trade
unionism and strikes as a means of fighting the
employers.
Judged by its actions, the Labour party is a
Liberal party. It practically came into effective
being because the " pure " trade unionist felt that
the law attacked him through the Taff Vale de-
cision, and because the Independent Labour party,
a socialist body, worked hard at electioneering
for it. The belief that at least one member of the
party bargains with the Liberal Government with
187
Syndicalism and the General Strike
a view to his personal advantage ; the modera-
tion of its words in Parliament as compared with
its words on the platform; the incapacity of
many members of it who are only dolls in the
hands of Mr. Ramsay MacDonald ; the accept-
ance by certain of its members of paid posts
given to them by the liberals ; and its love of
Puritanism, have all helped to cause a feeling
of disappointment and disillusionment in many
who once trusted and believed in it.
The way in which Mr. Lloyd George appeared
to deceive the railway workers after the strike
of the summer of 1 9 1 1 destroyed the last shred
of belief in politicians' truthfulness which yet
remained in the minds of others.
These considerations help us to understand
why a reaction from efforts to gain advantage
by canvassing, voting, and sending up resolu-
tions towards efforts to gain by trade unionism
and strikes has recently taken place.
The English and American Syndicalist move-
ments are a little less aggressive and less fully
provided with a complete system of thought than
those of Latin countries, in that while they lay.
stress on the importance of industrial organisa-
tion, by entire industries, instead of by sectional
trades, and on the direct action exerted by these
unions rather than on the pressure they can bring
England
to bear on Parliament, they are not quite dis-
tinctly in favour of the abolition of Parliament.
Thus Tom Mann has said that Syndicalists " are
neither pro nor anti-political," and that Syndica-
lism " means a combining together ... to
unify the whole of the industrial forces to work
out their salvation with a minimum of parlia-
mentary action through a plutocratic House and
with a maximum of direct organisation, using
their power as workers industrially organised, to
achieve their economic emancipation." '
Tom Mann has issued a considerable number
of pamphlets called by the general title of " The
Industrial Syndicalist." In the first of these,
"The Industrial Syndicalist," vol. i.. No. i,
" Prepare for Action," is a passage on the general
situation as seen by him :—
" The present situation is unique in the history
of the world. Never before has there been so
extensive a movement, which, surmounting the
barrier of nationality, is consciously striving for-
ward to the next stage in the evolution of man-
kind, where competition will have to give way
to co-operation as surely as primitive society
had to give way to civilisation."
He then proceeds to give a general descrip-
^ Tom Mann, "The Industrial Syndicalist," vol. i., No. 6,
p. 43, and vol. i., No. 7, p. 19.
189
Syndicalism and the General Strike
tion of the nature of society as seen by a
socialist :—
" Most of us have all along been ready and
willing to take our share of work in any
direction making for the advance of our ideal,
viz., the abolition of poverty by the abolition
of capital/sm (not, as some of our intelligent
critics say, by the abolition of capital)."
He goes on to express the disappointment felt
with the results gained by parliamentarianism and
the taming effect of Parliament on those who
get into it :—
" I shall not here attempt to juggle with the
quibble of ' Revolution or Evolution,' or to meet
the contention of some of those under considera-
tion that it is not revolution that is wanted.
* You cannot change the world and yet not
change the world.' Revolution is the means of,
not the alternative to, Evolution.''
The weakness of trade unionism " is to be
found simply, if not solely, in the sectional
character of the eleven hundred unions of the
United Kingdom— in the complete absence of the
true spirit of working-class solidarity and, there-
fore, in the inability of the ufiionists to utilise
the machinery at their disposal for scientifically
conducting the class -war. That is to say, for
obtaining anything worth getting towards miti-
gating the poverty of the workers. . . ."
190
England
" In the case of the engineering and ship-
building industry, the action of the masters is
aimed to cover, and succeeds in covering, the
whole of those workers in the establishments
owned by them, no matter how many trades
there may be. It is the entire shipbuilding
industry they are after, and so they take care
to act concertedly over the whole, and this covers
some twenty different trades, organised into some
twenty-four different unions. These twenty-four
unions have never been able to take combined
action against the capitalists. Hence this weak-
ness ! "
Dealing with the conditions for the success of
the federated trade union movement, Mann says
it must be revolutionary, must be " out for the
abolition of the wages system and for securing
to the workers the full fruits of their labour,"
and as regards methods must " refuse to enter
into any long agreements with the masters,
whether with legal or State backing, or merely
voluntary."
" Let the politicians do as much as they can,
and the chances are that, once there is an
economic fighting force in the country, ready to
back them up by action, they will actually be
able to do what now would be hopeless for them
to attempt to do.
191
Syndicalism and the General Strike
" The workers should reahse that it is the
men who manipulate the tools and machinery
who are the possessors of the necessary power
to achieve something tangible ; and they will
succeed just in proportion as they agree to apply
concerted action."
No. 2 on the transport workers contains an
account of the workers' condition. Since the
strike of 1889 the number of permanently em-
ployed men in London has slightly increased,
and the minimum wage is " 6d. per hour instead
of 5d.," but in other respects— the number of
men in a gang engaged on the work, the pace of
working, the minimum length of employment
(two hours instead of the four gained imme-
diately after the strike) — " the conditions of the
pre-stnke days obtain at present." The improve-
ments of machinery and consequent increase of
employment is explained : for example, it is ex-
plained how " in the discharge of bags of flour
from a ship's hold, formerly there would be nine
men in a gang in the hold, four men on each
side of the boat and one man to hook on the
sling. Now the pace is set so keenly that there
are only three men on each side, that is, seven
men instead of nine, to do the same work. This
is when working under the crane. When work-
ing under the winch, less powerful than the
192
England
crane, formerly they had six men in a gang,
now only four, but there is the same amount of
work to be done." These improvements all mean
" fewer men, less wages, more unemployed, and
larger profits for the capitalists."
•With regard to the strike, he says :—
" There is a disposition on all hands to talk of
the barbarous methods of the strike ; as though
anything was ever worse since the world began
than the dying by inches, every week until death
takes them, of thousands of the ill-fed in
London ! Under barbarism, nothing so vile, so
foreign to refined feeling, so utterly hateful, ever
existed ; and what is more, under barbarism
when anything approximating to such a con-
dition of things showed itself, the more primi-
tive barbarians exhibited a healthy spirit of
revolt, and made short work of the oppressors."
A warning against long agreements with the
masters and promises to give notice if an increase
of wages is to be asked for is contained in
No. 3 :-
" The capitalists, being so politely and con-
siderately warned beforehand, are able to stock
goods in such quantities that by the time the
notice of the operatives expires they can defy
them to do their worst."
Tom Mann lays great stress on the differences
193 ^f
Syndicalism and the General Strike
between the wages of different working-men and
the need for working for the men classed as un-
skilled. Thus in No. 4, " All Hail, Solidarity ! "
he says :—
" The first work of the skilled workers, even
in their own interest, ought to be, to force the
bringing about of a substantial raise of the wage
standard of the unskilled, and by this means
they will have destroyed the strongest weapon
of the employers.
" The wages received by millions of men in this
country do not exceed 30s. a week, but there is
an enormous number who do not get £ i a week ;
there are scores of thousands of labourers re-
ceiving not more than i6s. a week, and many
less than that. We must encourage these men
to demand a decent wage, and we must help
them to get it. Less than 30s. a week cannot
be considered a decent wage for a labourer,
even as things are, and we of the Syndicalist
movement must help them to get it. This must
be a minimum demand, and we must organise
forthwith to obtain it."
In No. 7, the report of a debate with Frank
Rose, we read :—
" The vast majority of those who are not
organised are the unskilled, or so-classed un-
skilled. They are receiving in some cases
194
England
one-half, in some cases not more than one-third,
and in some cases not a fourth of the amount
received by their fellow-workers classed as
skilled, in the same workshops, shipyards, and
other institutions."
In No. 6 ("A Manchester Message"):—
" It is a big thing we are here for : nothing
less than an endeavour to revolutionise the trade
unions, to make unionism, from a movement of
two millions, mostly of skilled workers whose
interests are regarded as different from the in-
terests of the labourers who join them in their
industry, into a movement that will take in every
worker." ;
In another passage in No. 7, Mann says :—
" It does not mean that there will be any
action tolerating or approving the pulling down
of the skilled man's pay. But it does mean that,
with the unifying of the unions in each industry,
and the taking of common action embracing all
labourers, the labourer shall receive the first and
most important attention, because he is lowest
in the social scale."
Nos. 5 and 8 of the series, as well as a rarer
pamphlet (which was probably written by Tom
Mann, but I am not sure about it) called
" The Miners' Next Step," have attracted some
notice in the press because of their appeals
195
Syndicalism and the General Strike
to the miners, and in the case of the first
two because of their prophetic appeals for
general action and for a minimum wage demand.
The following passage from No. 5 ("Sympo-
sium on Syndicalism") appeared to the Times
(which quoted it on February 28th) to be of
special interest :—
" The time has gone by when reactionary
ofBcials are to be allowed to impede working-
class advance ; it is really a case of ' get on and
lead,' or ' get out and follow ' ; and the sooner
this is fully realised the better for all concerned.
" I desire to here emphasise the fact that there
is not one coal-mine in the legal possession of
the working miners, or indeed of any body of
workers in the whole of Britain ; if there is, I
know not of it ; yet a very large percentage pf
the miners are members of the co-operative
movement, and the co-operative movement in
some districts is burdened with more capital than
can be advantageously used.
" Many of the trade unions invest their accu-
mulated funds in distinctly capitalist business
concerns, or in municipal corporation stock ;
surely it would be wise on the part of the workers
in the co-operative and trade unionist movements
to get complete control in various parts of the
country of a number of coal-mines, from which
196
England
their household supplies could be drawn and
thus ensure supplies during a dispute.
" We ought to be able to command all neces-
sary stores for sustenance of all the women and
children in time of hostilities. To do this it would
be wise of all workers identifying themselves
with the co-operative movement and dealing
regularly with the stores ; already as co-
operators, they are the owners of some of the
finest flour-mills in the country, and if they had
a bit more ' horse ' sense we should even now
get hold of ten times the number, and take steps
to control the wheat supply to the mills also."
The same article in the Times quotes also the
following passage from the pamphlet, and I fear
many readers of the Times did not feel its
picturesqueness and humour :—
** The coal industry, being a monopoly, gets
a higher rate of profit than the average profit
obtained by average capital. If we therefore
transfer a certain portion of those profits into
wages— from the employers' pocket into our own
—we shall be doing ourselves a good turn, and
at the same time leave the mining industry quite
as good an investment as the average. Is that
clear? And remember the consumer will not
pay any more than he pays to-day, unless the
market rises in the ordinary way. What is wrong
in these arguments, Mr. Miner?
197
Syndicalism and the General Strike
" The goose will still continue to lay golden
eggs, the demand for coal will, as we have shown,
not be affected by the operation of the minimum,
but the eggs which the employers take will be
smaller in number and less in size than before.
Those which the miners take will have increased.
But since the tiger will fight as fiercely for the
tip of his whiskers as for his whole carcass, we
have now to discover what power we have to
bring about this ' consummation most devoutly
to be wished.' . . . Coal is an economic neces-
sity. On it all modern production rests. A
few weeks' stoppage, with coal mounting to
famine prices, would paralyse industry in such a
way that there would never again be the slightest
doubt of the despised miner's power."
This part of the pamphlet is written by W. F.
Hay and Noah Ablett. They certainly prove
that there is some literary ability in coal-mines.
They develop an argument, with part of which
all newspaper readers are now familiar.
In coal-mining, " the same labour, skill,
energy, and strength in places not a hundred
yards apart will produce tremendously different
results." I Mining being paid by piece-wages,
calculated on the weight of coal brought to the
» W. F. Hay and Noah Ablett, " A Minimum Wage for
Miners," in No. 8 of " The Industrial Syndicalist."
198
England
surface, the price-lists and their allowances for
workers in " abnormal places," which are abnor-
mally bad places, give rise to great difficulties.
Badness is due to quality of the coal, the state
of the roads, and other factors, usually more
or less taken into account by the employers,
although ventilation and heat of the mine at the
place in question, which affect the miner's power
of working, are not considered.
Tom Mann is by nature exactly suited for
doing propaganda among unskilled workers. To
understand his influence — and Tom Mann is Syn-
dicalism in England — it is necessary to hear him
speak. He has two voices — a loud take-it-or-
leave-it voice, which he mainly uses, and a low,
smooth voice, in which he delivers satirical
passages descriptive of the respectable trade
union official and the mistakenly conciliatory
tactician. He is full of energy, and runs about
the platform.
" My own personal experiences," he said, when
I heard him at the Latchmere Baths, Battersea,
on January 14, 1 9 1 2, " teach me to have no
longer confidence in parliamentary action. The
working of the Industrial Conciliation and Arbi-
tration Acts which I have seen in Australia,
where labour men and socialists have power,
have taught me how little parliaments can do.
199
Syndicalism and the General Strike
Only where workers themselves undertake to
decide what their conditions shall be are con-
ditions tolerable." He went on to speak of the
wages of miners at Ballarat, a gold-mining town
seventy miles from Melbourne, where the
standard rate is 7s. 6d. a day for eight hours
for a qualified miner, but where many cannot
get employ at day rates. At the less profitable
mines men contract to develop the mine without
wages, but taking a percentage of the output.
Usually a group of four work together — often
they strike no metal for three months ; they
have to find their own picks and utensils, and in
the end they get an average of 12s. or i8s. a
week. Fifty per cent, of the men are on these
tributing wages. " They belong to unions, but
the unions have easy-going officials who do not
understand the necessity for fighting and for
complete unity. These men are living on their
own children to a large extent — they are com-
pelled to do so. You may say, But are the
members of Parliament there able men? The
parliamentarians are singularly smart. They find
that they have not the power to make a change."
He continued to speak of farmers' conditions,
and of the impossibility of finding land in some
states on reasonable conditions, and that at the
very time when the Government was saying in
200
England
England that there was lots of room for men to
go out to. Then he spoke of the Queensland
sugar industry, where until this year twelve
hours' work was done in one shift, with no
stoppage for meals, and the wages consisted of
2 2S. 6d. a week and rough housing. Work was
done like this for five months in the year, and
then 95 per cent, of the men were discharged,
and they tramped away and got one week in four
of work afterwards. This district had returned
a labour man since 1893, and his activities had
made no difference. This last year a change
has taken place — the hours have been reduced to
eight, and a minimum wage of 25s. has been
gained. " Parliament is alien to working-class
interests. Too often the leaders of working-class
movements have encouraged them to trust in that
all-powerful, dignified institution, the mother of
parliaments, the House of Commons. I do not
deny that honest and self-sacrificing men have
worked hard to get working-class representation
in Parliament, but these honest men have been
barking up the wrong tree. We have worked
twenty-five years to get our man returned to
Parliament ; then he has sat there five years
waiting to catch the Speaker's eye. At last he
has caught it and made a speech, and then
people came round and slapped him on the back,
201
Syndicalism and the General Strike
and said, ' That was an excellent speech ! '
' What a real good speech that was I ' and there
the matter has ended." He spoke for an hour
and a half, and then answered questions. He
was of opinion, he said, in answer to one of
them, that a central government might be neces-
sary as a Local Government Board, and also
to look after foreign affairs ; but he was chiefly
interested in economic matters, and in them
Government had no power : trade unionism had
done for the workers what Parliament could
not do.
When asked whether he believed in each trade
taking over and managing its own affairs by
means of its own union, he said he believed in
each union controlling the conditions of its own
trade and distributing the products in conjunc-
tion with all the other trades. He therefore com-
bined to a certain extent what I have suggested
calling the French and the Italian forms of
Syndicalism.
Tom Mann, like other propagandists, has
advocated more than one line of action. But
he has always been on the same side, and, after
all, any one who wishes to persuade must suit
himself to times and persons.
An exceedingly clever (as it seems to me)
article which appeared in the Syndicalist for
202
England
January, 191 2, led to the printers and editor,
Benjamin and Charles Buck and Guy Bowman,
being prosecuted for " endeavouring to seduce
persons serving in the Forces of his Majesty the
King by land or sea from their duty and alle-
giance to his Majesty, and of inciting " them
to "traitorous and mutinous practices." The
original defendants were found guilty, and, as
is now well known, Tom Mann has since declared
himself responsible for the same publication and
has been found guilty and sentenced. I can
quote part of the " Open letter to soldiers,"
omitting the incitement to mutiny :—
" Men ! Comrades ! Brothers !
You are in the army.
So are We. You in the Army of Destruction, We, in
the Industrial, or army of Construction. . . .
You ARE Working men's Sons.
When We go on Strike to better Our lot, which is the
lot also of Your Fathers, Mothers, Brothers, and Sisters,
YOU are called upon by your officers to MURDER US. . . .
We stand out as long as we can. Then one of our (and
yours) irresponsible Brothers, goaded by the sight and
thought of his and his loved ones' misery and hunger,
commits a crime on property. Immediately You are ordered
to Murder Us as You did at Mitchellstown, at Featherstone,
at Belfast.
Don't You know, that when You are out of the colours
and become a ' Civy ' again, that You, like Us, may be
on Strike, and You, like Us, be Uable to be Murdered
by other soldiers ? . . .
' Thou Shalt not Kill ' says the Book. . . .
It does not say * unless you have a uniform on. . . .'
You, like Us, are of the Slave Class."
203
Syndicalism and the General Strike
At Ilkeston in Yorkshire, and at Harlesden
in London, men have been charged with similar
offences. The Harlesden defendant, a railway-
man named Crowsley, who distributed leaflets to
soldiers at Aldershot containing a reprint of the
" Open Letter," said in his own defence at the
police-court : —
" I am not guilty of any crime. Had I been
guilty, my conscience would tell me so. The law
you say I have broken was made over one
hundred years ago, when the middle and working
classes had no voice in making the law. It was
made by a class who live on the labour of another
class. But if passed yesterday, I would still tell
you that there is a higher law which says, ' Thou
shalt not commit murder.' I have simply made
an earnest appeal to the honour of soldiers not to
shoot their brothers who are fighting for the right
to live. If that is breaking your law, so much
the worse for your unjust law. You say my
action was undermining society. If the society
will not stand the attacks of truth, does not that
prove the rottenness of your society, and sooner
a more just state exists the better? Your prison
missionary called me a traitor for calling atten-
tion to the creed he preaches. You and he are
entitled to your opinions, and I to mine. But
you are traitors to your creed. You say with
204
England
your mouth, ' Love one another.' In your heart
you say, ' Shoot, and shoot straight ! ' Why are
you prosecuting me for distributing leaflets which
preach what Tolstoy preached all his life in Russia
undisturbed ? You may send me to prison ; I
shall not be the first or last to go there unjustly.
But you will have to send many more before you
can hope to suppress the truth. And you will
stand condemned for ever before the eyes of all
truth and freedom-loving people. I know and
believe every word on the leaflets to be true.
Why are you so afraid of the truth? "
In the Ilkeston case, three men— Mayfield, a
furniture dealer, Morley, landlord of a public-
house, and King, a tailor and outfitter— are
alleged to be responsible for the publication of
a paper called Dawn, which appears in Ilkeston,
Yorkshire," in the February number of which
appeared the article " Revolution," on which the
charge against them is based. " Friction is
bound to be caused by these extra police," it
declares. "They are usually men who would
do anything for about 3s. per day. They are
the stuff blacklegs are made out of, and to shoot
a few of these off would be doing the nation a
great service. ... If blood has to be shed, I
' Published by T. Mayfield, 22, Colmanhay Road, Ilkeston.
205
Syndicalism and the General Strike
do not see why it should always be the worker's
blood. . . .
" The master class have got everything in their
own hands ; they manipulate the political
machinery. They are backed up by police and
soldiers, by press and pulpit. Even the trade
union leaders are soft-soldered by them. Where
is the workers' chance? . . . The workers are
beginning to revolt ; in every industry there is
a seething mass of discontent. In some places
they are kicking out the old fossilised leaders
and taking on young enthusiastic men."
Tom Mann had much to do with the very well-
managed strike last summer of men connected
with the Liverpool Docks, and became editor of
the Liverpool Transport Worker. This monthly
paper deals with definite grievances in various
trades and with points of trade union policy ;
it advocates trade unionism and concerted action
on the part of the unions, and warns the workers
against the Labour party, and a policy of
nationalisation and municipalisation. In turning
over the pages of the numbers issued up to the
present, I find every number contains what
appear to be carefully written articles dealing
with the conditions of work of different classes
of workers . These articles appear to me to make
it a very valuable paper. Thus the first number
206
England
(August, 191 1 ) has an article on cotton-workers,
which deals with the " book-man " who checks,
takes the weight of, and examines the cotton
received.
" The book-man only receives the same rate
of wages as his labourer, as he is pleased to
term him; that it to say, 4s. 6d. per day. In
most of the warehouses the book-man takes his
books home with him, and the following morning
he has to claim first turn ; consequently that
means that he had to get out of his bed an hour
or so earlier, for which he receives nothing;
but there are others on that game besides him,
and they cannot all claim first turn, so they who
do not get first turn will possibly get first
' sacked.' His time, according to custom, should
be for knocking -off at 5.30 p.m. from the
exchange, instead of which it is usually
7.30 p.m., for which he receives no overtime.
He often has only half an hour or twenty minutes
to eat his twopennyworth of hot-pot, and has to
tramp miles and climb narrow iron stairs and
face all kinds of weather. His mate, the putter-
out, has to go into dark jigger lofts in which
machinery is in motion, and often meets with
terrible accidents, when all these could be pre-
vented by fixing a skylight. If those who axe
so anxious for the profits were half as anxious
207
Syndicalism and the General Strike
for the safety of those out of whom they grind
those profits, and took proper precautions, there
would be fewer accidents."
The paper has taken a commendable interest
in efforts to organise some of those workers who
are most helpless. The barmen and barmaids
of public-houses work enormous hours, especially
in London. Their employers exert great political
influence, and the public-house is never regulated
like other shops. It is necessary for the public-
houses to be open for long hours, but in the name
of ordinary humanity there ought to be two shifts
of workers a day in them. " Gray Quill," in
this same first number, argues : " Suppose the
organised dockers, carters, railwaymen, seamen
and firemen, stewards, boiler-makers, and
engineers were to bring pressure to bear on the
managers and barmen of the dockside public-
houses in which they get their midday meal,
how long would it take to convince Messrs.
Walker, Cain, Threlfall, Bent, Archibald
Salvidge, and Parrington that their industry
could not escape the general rule of industrial
organisation? "
So, too, the third number (October) has an
article on the National Union of Clerks ; and
who that sympathises with the black-coated
worker, whose work has its own peculiar worries,
208
England
and is seldom regarded with any respect, but will
be glad to see it ? There are, of course, well-paid
clerks ; there are clerks with unearned incomes —
and there are others. Usually those least in need
of the money get the largest salaries.
" It is no exaggeration to say that the majority
of clerks work amongst insanitary surroundings,
in foul air, for cruelly long hours very often,
and for abominally low pay ; under conditions,
in short, which are a disgrace to a community
calling itself civilised.
" This being so, the question arises : ' How
is this ? ' ' If some of our fellow-workers are in
enjoyment of relatively good conditions of
labour, how come we to be in this parlous state?
Why is the clerk the Cinderella of the Industrial
World?'
" The answer to these questions is to be found
in the defenceless position of the clerk. He has
hitherto neglected to take those precautions
which practically all other sections of the
working-class have taken, and has trusted to the
good-will of his employer for those benefits
which have been obtained by his fellow -workers
in other branches of industry by collective effort,
with the result that his conditions of labour are
what they are to-day."
In No. 4, " Trade Unionism and Solidarity "
209 o
Syndicalism and the General Strike
teaches that small, local strikes can be defeated
by the masters : " The workers must understand
that the only way they can succeed is to stop one
union scabbing on another, and the only way
they can put an end to that curse is by
Organising by Industries, Nationally and
Internationally."
In the December number an article headed
" Solidarity and the Medicos " explained briefly
how the medial profession is acting as one man
in its opposition to the Insurance Bill.
Each number of the paper contains on its
cover a portrait of a trade union secretary or
other labour " organiser."
Ben Tillett, a gaunt, square, deep-voiced man,
with a slightly clerical manner, has spoken in
favour of revolutionary trade unionism. Speak-
ing at the Pavilion Theatre, Glasgow, on Sunday,
February 1 1, 19 12, for example, he said : —
" We are going to organise to demand the
utmost possible out of capitalism, and at the
same time work for the overthrow of the
present system. . . . The revolutionary trade
unionism, which believed in direct action, also
wanted to see the different sets of workers co-
ordinated into big federations such as those of
the transport workers or miners."
Speaking of the Glasgow dock strike, Mr.
210
England
Tillett said if it had not been settled on Saturday,
they would have seen the liveliest times possible
in this country, because the transport workers
were not only prepared to act together nation-
ally— they would also act internationally. " There
are some 50,000 to 60,000 transport workers in
London, and the recent strike has shown that
society cannot do without them. A week before
the strike a Cabinet Minister pleaded with me
in a tearful voice to prevent the strike. Of
course, this pleading was unheeded until the men
got what they wanted." »
Before leaving England, I may refer to a
pamphlet which attracted an attention out of pro-
portion to its importance and circulation during
the coal strike — " The Miners' Next Step ; being
a Suggested Scheme for the Reorganisation of
the Federation, issued by the Unofficial Reform
Committee." The Miners' Federation appointed
an official committee, which reported in 191 1,
to consider improvements in its methods. In
South Wales an unofficial committee, discontented
with the reforms officially recommended, then sat
and issued a report. In this they declare that
conciliation has not kept up wages : that it is
ineffective owing to its extreme slowness : that
^ Derived from the report in Forwards (Glasgow) of
February 17, 1912.
2H
Syndicalism and the General Strike
the employer's outlook is alone considered on
conciliation boards — he asserts that the colliery
won't pay, and " we don't audit their books "—a
little colliery with out-of-date methods governs
the whole district, because it would not pay if
the men's position were improved : and the
leaders have too much power in conciliation.
The advantages and disadvantages of being led
are then considered, and the disadvantages are
declared preponderant. The establishment of
one organisation to cover the whole mining and
quarrying industry of Great Britain, with one
central Executive, is recommended ; this is to
demand a minimum wage of 8s. a day, and a
day of seven hours ; the organisation is to have
a political programme — and this shows that the
pamphlet is not markedly Syndicalist.
After giving certain details concerning the
proposed organisation of the new union, in which
the leaders are to be led, there follows the ex-
tensively quoted paragraph on " The Use of the
Irritation Strike."
" Pending the publication of a pamphlet, which
will deal in a comprehensive and orderly way
with different methods and ways of striking, the
following brief explanation must suffice. The
' irritation strike ' depends for its successful
adoption on the men holding clearly the point
212
England
of view that their interests and the employer's
are necessarily hostile. Further, that the em-
ployer is vulnerable only in one place, his profits !
Therefore, if the men wish to bring effective
pressure to bear, they must use methods which
tend to reduce profits. One way of doing this
is to decrease production, while continuing at
work. Quite a number of instances where this
method has been successfully adopted in South
Wales could be adduced."
The pamphlet goes on to recommend " uni-
fying the men by unifying their demands," so
that at the end of a strike all the strikers gain
some advantage. Finally, it defines the ultimate
object, which is not nationalisation of the mines,
which only leads a government to use its whole
force " to see that the industry is run in such a
way as to pay the interest on the bonds, with
which the coal-owners are paid out," but to get
rid of employers, and enable the miners to decide
by vote " who shall be your foreman, manager,
inspector, &c." ; "on that vote will depend in
a large measure your safety of life and limb,
of your freedom from oppression, by petty
bosses," and he who works in the mine would
" surely be as competent to elect these as share-
holders who may never have seen a colliery."
" Our objective begins to take shape before
213
Syndicalism and the General Strike
your eyes. Every industry thoroughly organised,
in the first place, to fight, to gain control of, and
then to administer, that industry. The co-
ordination of all industries on a Central Produc-
tion Board, who with a statistical department to
ascertain the needs of the people, will issue its
demands on the dififerent departments of industry,
leaving to the men themselves to determine
under what conditions and how the work should
be done. This would mean real democracy in
real life, making for real manhood and real
womanhood. Any other form of democracy is
a delusion and a snare."
A Syndicalist ideal of an exceedingly cen-
tralised type— too centralised, probably, to be
realisable.
214
THE GENERAL STRIKE
CHAPTER VII
THE GENERAL STRIKE
It is a sad fact that the arrangements of society
are all based on force : if then the employer
differs from his hands with regard to the just price
to pay for their services, his final argument is, " If
you do not like it, you can starve," and that is
an appeal to coercive force : if the wage-earners
in sufficient numbers are determined to oppose
his decision, they can only take his advice and
perhaps succeed in cutting off his profits, damag-
ing his materials by non-use, or destroying his
reputation for reliability with his customers, until
he submits : force in all cases decides.
A logical extension of the local strike leads
to the " general strike," which, in its extremest
form, is a strike of all the workers in the world,
in order to expropriate all the owners of land
and capital, and accomplish a world revolution.
This is to be brought .'ibout by the spread of
the strike-spirit— from small beginnings unfore-
217
Syndicalism and the General Strike
seen conclusions may come, and the most im-
probable dogs may have their days.
Obviously, if miners, transport-workers (that
is, railway, dock, cartage, and tram employees),
textile -workers, and building-trade workers (to
select a few trades), all stopped work, it might
be near enough to a total strike for all practical
purposes, and the phrase " general strike " is not
applied with any much stricter meaning than that
of a very large strike.
There is a long history behind the idea of
the general strike, which was discussed by the
Internationale in 1 868 ( I do not say the idea is not
even older than that), and in 1869 the Brussels
journal Internationale referred to it and said
that if it took place " it could only end in a great
cataclysm which would cause a new skin to be
placed on society "—a curious prevision of the
words of Mr. Bateson, who recently at Oxford
said society was suffering from histolysis or
change of tissues, and no one with any power of
sympathy ( I have not got his exact words, but
it came to that) could feel otherwise than glad.
The Chartists proposed to make use of a strike
of a month's duration.
During 1904 the paper, the Moavement
Socialiste, collected a great number of opinions
from socialists in all countries on the general
218
The General Strike
strike, which has been reprinted in a volume
edited by Lagardelle under the title of " La
Greve Generale et le Socialisme : enquete Inter-
nationale " : it is from this that the material
used in this chapter is mainly derived.
I may at once say that most socialists are
opposed to the general strike.
The advantage of the general strike has been
declared to be that " it is a revolution which
commences in legal action, with legality," and
that it is so general that the mobilisation of an
army of suppression would be difficult if not
impossible." '
" If you believe in the necessity for main-
taining what has been called the catastrophic
conception— the feeling, that is, that the world
will only be born again by a complete regenera-
tion, a complete rupture of the present social
structure ; if you are persuaded that the idea of
the social revolution is the necessary symbol
which must guard in the heart of the workers
the sense of the abyss which separates the classes,
and of the gap which exists between capitalist
society and socialist society ; then you must
recognise that nothing but the idea of the general
» Briand at Socialist Congress at Paris, 1899. In 1910,
as Prime Minister, he defeated the French railway strike.
His life must be a good illustration of the irony of heaven.
21^
Syndicalism and the General Strike
strike (by placing the fate of the workers in
their own hands, and causing them to expect
their triumph only from their own energy) is
capable of creating and developing these revolu-
tionary ideas." So writes Lagardelle in defence
of the general strike.'
The most important part of a general strike,
however, would be a strike of soldiers and police.
If this took place while many great trades were
arrested, a revolution might actually be near at
hand.
" What barricades and refusal of taxes have
been to the bourgeois, the general strike is for
the working-class. It is the ultima ratio which
enters the scene after all other means have been
exhausted," says Hillferding.
It is usually conceived that the shooting of
unarmed strikers, innocent of any crime, is likely
to be, at some time or other, a great cause of an
extension of a small strike into a very large one :
the mere presence of crowds in the streets has
on many occasions been a means of spreading
an idea : sabotage can do much to keep main-
springs of industry idle— short-circuits in dynamos
are easily made .2 Military engineers would
' *' Conclusion " of " La Greve g6nerale et le Socialisme."
* Pataud and Pouget, " Comment nous ferons la Revolu-
tion."
220
The General Strike
no doubt as far as possible take the place of
strikers.
A complete disorganisation of the means of
communication (the letter-post and telegraph)
would probably produce a greater psychological
effect (as apart from directly material incon-
venience) than any other single failure in the
routine of society.
Society, although based on force, is largely
carried on by means of the knowledge that force
can be exerted. In a general uprising, in which
the masses were all concerned, it might be a
physical impossibility to protect bakers' shops :
it might be impossible while a world revolt was
in progress to scatter the soldiers and police
outside all the bakers. The real success of a
general strike must depend on its generality :
if a vast majority of the workers of a country
ever voluntarily struck, it is no doubt true that
the entire system of present-day society would
be at its end. What, however, must usually
happen in great strikes, is that some men are
thrown out of work " without in the least sym-
pathising with the strike or its purposes. They
will be the shopkeepers, the business men, and
great sections of the working-classes. As the
strike proceeds and the price of food reaches
famine levels, and its scarcity becomes chronic,
221
Syndicalism and the General Strike
the ranks of the malcontents will be increased." '
The point is obvious : you cannot get in actual
fact a division of society with all the workers
on one side.
By many, the idea of the general strike will
be quickly dismissed as a wild fancy, a horror of
the night, to which it is not necessary to devote
serious day thoughts. It may, however, be
thought that although the general strike is ex-
ceedingly unlikely to take place, in days of
growing discontent, the possible methods by
which a strike might really paralyse society
are worth considering.
If we imagine that all the clerks— of course, I
know it is impossible, and no class of wage-
earners is so loyal to its employers, but as we are
here considering some theories which are highly
theoretic, let us just build this castle in the air—
if all the clerks struck work : ours is a civilisa-
tion built on ledgers, and just imagine— if the
money in the rich man's purse was all the money
he could get because there were no cashiers at
the bank— if the railway porters were black-
legging the ticket clerks' jobs (as it is said the
ticket clerks have blacklegged the porters) and
there were a string of people out into the street
» J. Ramsay MacDonald, M.P., in the Socialist Review for
October, 191 1.
222
The General Strike
because the porters were slow in counting change
—if, for want of shipping clerks, no one knew
how to send goods from Antwerp to Pernambuco
—if the builders and decorators spent hours in
puzzling over the real cost of jobs in order to
send in estimates to customers, and partners in
financial houses, absolutely unaware what bills
were due for payment or who was to do what
in the multitudinous subsidiary wheels of the
details of their business, simply raved uselessly
and idly around— in a week no one would know
whether he was bankrupt or had multiplied his
fortune. Now let us imagine that there was simul-
taneously a strike of transport workers— workers
on railways, trams, ships, omnibuses, tubes, cabs,
and public conveyances of every kind— while the
clerks had stopped all the book-keeping, letter-
writing, insurance, and record-keeping business
of the country, and that no one could get to busi-
ness except by walking— unless, perhaps, we
suppose that private coachmen and chauffeurs
remained at work and so enabled a small body
of the richest class together with their special
friends to get to and from their offices and
factories ; but without clerks and probably
messengers, and with all their staff arriving or
not arriving at different hours, and no means of
moving goods, what could they do?— to say
223
Syndicalism and the General Strike
nothing of the disorganisation of home life— the
rise in cost of food, injury to health, want of news
owing to non-delivery of papers, and so on—
which would follow. If to these two strikes— the
clerks and the transport workers— a third, that
of the coal-miners, be added, it will, without
explanation, be seen how fearful would be the
position of society, if the wage-earners ever
became even approximately able all to strike
work together.
'The vast majority of socialist leaders are
opposed to the general strike.
Hyndman declares the general strike " is a
kind of sentimental attempt to hasten arbitrarily
the development of humanity." Quelch holds
that if the workers were sufficiently organised,
determined, and disciplined all to stop work on
one day, " they would be masters of the situation,"
and there would be no need for a general strike.
Keir Hardie would only countenance a general
strike if its success were practically certain, and
would therefore require as preliminary conditions
that most of the workers were in their trade
unions ; that the strike from the start was inter-
national ; and that its purpose was thoroughly
understood. »
' Lagardelle, op. cit. The statements given are in French
translations which I translated back into English.
224
The General Strike
Jaures says, " It deceives the working-class,"
because he argues that while it would begin by
promising to redress specific grievances of wages
and hours, it looks forward to such misery as
will lead to a diffused disorder all over the
country and seizure of property. It proposes
to use a strike as a means for producing a sur-
prise revolution. Jaures thinks it anti-revolu-
tionary in that it would, if successful, break
national life into fragments instead of exalting
it by the feeling of a vast unity. Van Kol
declares it to be "an anarchist Utopia"; if it
were possible because of the strong organisation
of the working-class and their unshakable dis-
cipline, better means would also be at their
disposal. The poor would suffer first from the
famine caused by it. Kautsky says that in a
real general strike, as every employer would be
equally hit, the main weapon of the striker, the
fear of losing trade to competitors, would be
non-existent. Like many others, he approves
of the political strike intended to obtain definite
concessions from a government, but not of a
general economic strike ; the political strike
tends to destroy a government by a direct dis-
organisation of the country governed : it is a
contest between the cohesive force of the strikers
on the one side and of the government on the
225 p
Syndicalism and the General Strike
other. The more foolish and feeble the govern-
ment, the better the occasion for striking : also
the more unforeseen and spontaneous the strike
the greater is its effect.
But the Syndicalist's ideal is precisely the
general economic strike.
Cohesion, solidarity, the power to suffer and
work together for the common good, is the
greatest of strikers' virtues, and blacklegism is
the greatest of sins ; therefore, refusal to join
unions, to take part in the common effort for the
benefit of the whole of your trade or class, is the
greatest of sins. Hence the presence of non-
union labour may in itself lead to a strike. The
blackleg is willing to accept increased wages
and diminished hours, but not to help gain them
by his own weekly pence ; at critical times of
danger he takes the high pay of a spy and traitor.
In so far as men unite, and twenty-five
shillings a week does not look down on eighteen,
the chances of success increase, and the general
strike becomes more possible.
226
OTHER COUNTRIES
CHAPTER VIII
OTHER COUNTRIES
My purpose in this chapter is to tell you some-
thing about the countries about which I know-
very little, and if I make mistakes, they are not
to be thought to indicate my standard of
accuracy throughout the book.
If there is any Syndicalism in Spain (or if
any developes there), it is not developing as it
did in France. Syndicalism is an attempt to con-
struct a new society by means of a trade union,
which, in addition to resisting the masters, is to
develop the men and make them really capable
of being independent of all other classes — by
trade union action alone are they to be able to
alter society, and so State action is disliked.
Antipathy for the State and desire for a new
communist society have long been felt by the
Spanish anarchists, as they are felt by the French
Syndicalists; and when, in January, 1908, the
anarchists, following Malatesta, agreed to join
trade unions and a new federation, the " Solidari-
229
Syndicalism and the General Strike
dad obrera " was formed at Barcelona it was
necessarily Syndicalist in nature ; it contained
103 trade unions and 24,000 members. Roughly
speaking, it may be said that in France the trade
unions have, to some extent, been induced to give
up political action ; in Spain, the anarchists, who
by their principles never were politicians, have
been induced to join trade unions. (I may say
that all statistics relating to Spain are open to
doubt, as the records are unsatisfactory.)
In 1909 the General Union of Syndicates
( Trabajadores ) contained 43,478 members in
301 sections. The unions are mostly small, scat-
tered, and independent. Strikes are very
common, and usually, I think, the masters win.
In many trades there are masters' federations.
Strikes frequently end in a* general being sent
to besiege the town.
The Socialist party, " El Partido Socialista
obrera," is small ; it has no representative in
the Cortes, but 7 1 councillors on local bodies.
At the Stuttgart Conference of 1907, it was said
to contain 6,000 members. A large proportion
of these are miners in the mines of Asturias.
" We are not unaccustomed," says Havelock Ellis
in his book, " The Soul of Spain " — " we are not
unaccustomed to find a veneer of humanity and
courtesy ever an underlying violence and hard-
230
Other Countries
ness, but in this [the Spanish] temperament, it
is the violence and hardness which lie nearer
to the surface, and they fall away at once as soon
as human relationships are established.
" This tendency of the Spanish peasant, to-
gether with his liking for abstract laws which can
be modified in concrete cases, his individualism,
his love of independence, and his clannish pre-
ference for small social groups, may help to
explain why it is that Spaniards, peasants and
workmen alike, are attracted to the ideals of
anarchism. There is no country in which col-
lectivist socialism of the Marxian school has
made so little progress as in Spain, and anarchism
so much progress. This has been the case
for at least forty years. ... It flourishes
in Catalonia, where it actively foments and sup-
ports the frequent strikes in Barcelona ; it finds
a stronghold in Andalusia, where the contrasts
of wealth and poverty are very marked ; while
all the intervening Mediterranean coasts, especi-
ally Valencia, an important industrial region, are
affected by its influence. The more northern
parts of the country also show similar develop-
ments, but in a less degree, and the Atlantic
coast is not so favourable to anarchism as the
Mediterranean ; in Bflbao, the second great in-
dustrial centre of Spain, the Labour party has
231
Syndicalism and the General Strike
frequently been hostile to anarchism, but in most
parts of Spain the ideals of labour are largely
the ideals of anarchism."
It is significant that some revolutionary
Syndicalist French pamphlets have been trans-
lated into Spanish — a pamphlet on " The General
Strike," for instance, and Pouget's " Les Bases
du Syndicalisme," and at least one of Sorel's
books.
Spain is notoriously a poor country. Famine
causes Andalusian risings at times, when bakers'
shops are looted, the civil guard is shot at, and
farms are attacked. In the iron-mines of Bilbao
(which are on the sides of hills and open to
the air) the miners are forced to make use of
credit in order to live ; the socialists say the men
should be paid weekly, not monthly ; but some
of the men (about half, it is said) would prefer
fortnightly payments, as they argue that if wages
were weekly credit might be refused, and after
a week with a poor yield, it might be hard to live.
Barcelona, the chief manufacturing town, is a
port of refuge for foreign exiled revolutionaries.
Hours of labour in the factories are long, and
children under ten, nominally excluded by law,
are found in them, while children between ten
and fourteen work over six hours, although the
law forbids this also.
232
Other Countries
Cost of living is higher in Madrid than in
Brussels or Paris. Marvaud, in his "Question
sociale en Espagne," ' gives the following
figures as representing the cost of the same food,
clothes, rent, household expenditure, &c., when
purchased in a year in the three towns : —
At Madrid ... ... ... 1,138.80 pesetas. =*
,, Brussels ... ... ... 737-30 francs.
„ Paris 602.25 „
From these and other figures he establishes
the statements that wages are i 5 per cent, higher
in Brussels and 69 per cent, higher in Paris
than in Madrid. It is significant that the death-
rates for the three cities were : —
Madrid
... 27 per cent.
Paris
... 17
Brussels
... 16
Agriculture in Southern Spain is largely
capitalistic— the landlord lives in Seville or
Madrid, a manager, or labrador, engages and
manages the labourers, or hraceros, in Anda-
lusia and Estramadura. The small proprietors
are few, and growing fewer. The labourer is
kept in an isolated dwelling, the cortljo,
1 Published by Felix Alcan in 1910, p. 119.
2 A peseta is Qd.
233
Syndicalism and the General Strike
separated from his family and from all the rest
of the world, the villages being far apart. The
labourers work from half-past three in the
morning to half-past eight in the evening for
I peseta, or 9d. His food consists largely of ajo
caliente made of bad bread, bad meal, inferior
oil, garlic, and salt ; this he eats twice a day,
varying it with gazpacho, which differs from
it only in that it contains vinegar and is made
without boiling the water ; at midday he eats
a soup made of very hard peas.
In Galicia the land is frequently excessively
divided, the cultivator being by custom not evict-
able, but having to pay (often in kind) a rent
to the preprietor. Poverty is very great, and
burning of harvests, or destruction of plantations,
not unknow^n in riots caused by discontent with
misery.
Co-operative agricultural associations for the
purchase and sale of implements and manure and
of products respectively, have made some head-
way since the law of 1908 (amending that of
1906) encouraged their formation.
Strikes are not illegal in Spain, but a law
passed in 1909 makes it illegal to exercise any
constraint over individuals to cause them to re-
main members of an association which forms or
supports a strike. Leaders and founders of
234
Other Countries
strikes can be punished, even though the strike
itself is legal. Strikes which affect the supply
of water or light, or disturb the railways and
the hospitals, must be notified to the authorities
eight days before they take place : those affect-
ing trains and the supplies of necessaries, five
days before they occur.
Education is nominally compulsory since
1857, but half the population is illiterate.
An attempt at a general strike marked Portu-
guese discontent with the republic's indifference
to working-class conditions. In the establish-
ment of the republic every kind of political
and economic discontent was exploited ; but
naturally, when once the middle-class republicans
have obtained political power, they were not very
conscious of the bread-and-butter difficulties of
the working-class.
Knowing that a general strike has been at-
tempted in Sweden (in 1909), it is natural to
inquire with some interest about Swedish
conditions.
With regard to Sweden, we must remember
that it is largely an agricultural country and a
sparsely populated country. "In 1873, 72 per
cent, of the population lived by agriculture, in
1900 the figure falls to 54 per cent., while
the industrial classes properly so-called pass from
235
Syndicalism and the General Strike
600,000 to 1,500,000 persons out of a popula-
tion of five millions."
The socialist and trade unionist movements
date from about 188 1.
The idea of the political general strike as a
means of obtaining universal suffrage was dis-
cussed in 1893 by the Foik-rigsdag, an un-
official parliament, elected on a basis of universal
suffrage by the people on their own initiative, to
discuss how to acquire universal suffrage. And
in 1902, 120,000 men actually ceased work in
order to persuade the Government to pass the
desired law.i There was no country in Europe
except Hungary at that time in which the
suffrage laws disfranchised so large a propor-
tion of the adults as they did in Sweden,^ the
franchise being dependent on ownership of a
certain income. Plurality of votes was carried
to extremes — one elector in 44 cases outweighed
all the other voters in his commune.
Outside its Socialist Labour party, there is
a more extreme or revolutionary " Jung
Hinkarner " party (young socialist league), led
by Hinke Bergegren, the organ of which is
Brands Manadshdfte .
^ " L'organisation Socialiste et ouvriere," par le Secretariat
Socialiste International, 1904.
2 " Le Mouvement ouvrier en Suede," by Ch. Lindley, in
Vhumanite nouvelle for January, 1900.
236
Other Countries
In the spring of 1909 there were strikes in
several industries ; for instance, among dress-
makers, road-makers, and workers in cellulose
factories. State-appointed conciliators failed to
quieten the " unrest." The masters, who were
unwilling to concede the demands made . for
higher wages and for the dismissal of non-
unionists, proceeded to fight the workers by
lock-outs, which took place in the tailoring,
wood-working, road-making, smelting, and
mining industries. The "general strike" was
the workers' defence against this attack : it
was proposed that all trades should strike ex-
cept those concerned with the care of the
sick and of animals, and the provision of
light, water, and sanitation. When, however,
soldiers were sent to guard gasworks and electric
light stations, the men refused to work under
the soldiers' supervision. The railway workers
and the little organised agricultural labourers
declined to stop work. At its height, the strike
called out 285,000 out of 460,000 wage-earners.
The price of bread, however, did not rise, because
the master -bakers worked, and because, in
Sweden, many private families were able to bake
for their own needs.
The strike broke down, as is well known,
owing to the capacity of the professional and
237
Syndicalism and the General Strike
" upper " classes to replace the manual workers.
The lav-;e country-bred population of Sweden
is favourable to such an all-round handiness as
can certainly not be found among the softened,
town-bred populations of England.
At the end of the strike, the victorious masters
asked their men, as a condition of service, to
sign an undertaking not to join any trade union.
The trade union leaders held that such " an im-
moral slave contract," signed under compulsion,
was not binding. I
The strike, as I have suggested, was not due
to Syndicalists. There were, at that time, few
of them. There are not many now in Sweden.
They derived their ideas from France. It is
said that there never will be many Swedish
Syndicalists, because the temperament of the
people will never be anti -parliamentarian ; but
I, personally, feel that most statements about the
temperament of any people are wild, unreliable
generalisations. Their chief stronghold is in the
Bohuslan district, north of Gothenburg, among
the workers in granite and other kinds of stone,
which are largely exported to Germany, Den-
mark, Russia, and England. They issue a news-
paper, Syndikalisten, which formerly, appeared
weekly, but which, since January i, 191 2, has
^ Tanzler, " Der Generalstreik in Schweden."
238
Other Countries
appeared daily. As with Syndicalists every-
where, their doctrine varies, some of them being
more bitter than others against " orthodox "
socialism.; in general, their speakers, the more
notable of whom are working-men, attack
violently the trade union officials and the
parliamentary socialists. They hold no yearly
congresses. I
America is a very backward country, as its
wild religions, crude worship of success in
money-making, and want of intellectual initiative,
show. It is not, therefore, I think, of much
interest to us. Industrial unionism in America
is unlike the Syndicalism of other lands in its
hostility to the existing craft unions and its
desire to start fresh unions, uniting all the
workers in one trustified concern irrespective of
their trades . " We propose that the workers
shall all be organised, and if there is any agree-
ment it will embrace them all ; and if there is
any violation of the agreement, in the case of
a single employee, it at once becomes the concern
of all. That is unionism, industrial unionism,
in which all of the workers, totally regardless
of occupation, are united compactly within one
' Mr. E. B. Lloyd and Mr. Rof Steffan (Member of the
Swedish Riksdag) have very kindly supplied me with the
information on which this paragraph is based.
239
Syndicalism and the General Strike
organisation, so that at all times they can act
together in the interests of all." ' In short, there
is, according to industrial unionism, to be a single
union for all workers— a class, not a trade
union.
However, their doctrines have two points of
resemblance with those of other Syndicalists.
Debs puts one of these before us in this way : —
" The industrial workers declare that the
workers must make themselves the masters of
the tools with which they work ; and so a very
important function of this new union is to teach
the workers, or, rather, have them teach them-
selves, the necessity of fitting themselves to take
charge of the industries in which they are em-
ployed, when they are wrested, as they will be,
from their capitalist masters."
Debs puts the second idea to which I wish
to refer thus : —
" When we are lined up in battle array, and
the capitalists try to lock us out, we will turn
the tables on the gentlemen and lock them out."
Industrial unionism favours political as well as
economic action.
The principles of industrial unionism are
adopted by the " Industrial Workers of the
^ " Industrial Unionism," by E. V. Debs. (Socialist Labour
Party, 28, Forth Street, Edinburgh. Price id.)
240
Other Countries
World." While admitting the need for branch
unions, consisting of men belonging to the " sub-
departments of a given industrial plant," or of
" working-places in the same industry " which
closely adjoin one another, or of men speaking
the same language, it argues that—
" The complete elimination of craft divisions
in departments of big industrial plants in itself
would be a great improvement in the struggle
for improved conditions ; but how much more
effective, of course, would be an organisation
that eliminates all dividing lines between one
group of workers and the others, embracing all
in one industrial union, combining them all for
the protection of their interests." ' The pre-
amble of the party declares that " the trade
unions foster a state of things which allows one
set of workers to be pitted against another set
of workers in the same industry."
" Political party frauds and compromises will
always operate to defeat the true mission of the
working-class, industrial freedom, until the
workers understand their class interests and are
organised to maintain them in shop, mine, mill,
factory, farm, and all departments of production
and distribution," says Edwards in his " Analysis
of the Preamble of the Industrial Workers."
' '* Handbook of Industrial Unionism," by Trautmann.
241 g
Syndicalism and the General Strike
The problem of the method of organising the
workers is one to which they devote great atten-
tion. Thus we read : " A salesman or clerk in a
shoe store would be a member of the organisa-
tion, or a branch thereof, in which are organised
all workers engaged in the shoe industry."
In the fourth department, " Department of
Manufacture and General Production," Sub-
department G., " Manufacture of Foodstuffs,"
Section V., we have, " All workers in hotels and
restaurants and saloons, as cooks, waiters, bar-
tenders, bakers and butchers in hotels, barbers,
if employed in the hotel service, chambermaids,
hotel clerks, &c., chauffeurs and cabdrivers, if
they are in the hotel service exclusively." The
purpose finally aimed at is the formation of
" one big union for the entire working-class the
world over ! " ^
The bulk of the American trade unionists are
opposed to " the theory of revolutionary indus-
trial unionism," and the Industrial Workers of
the World is said to be " a byword for faction-
alism and ineffectiveness." 2 The idea of a vast
union of all workers is so stupendously Utopian
as, in my opinion, to be worth no consideration.
In Denmark some signs of revolutionary
' Trautmann, " One Big Union."
* Skelton, " Socialism : a Critical Analysis."
242
Other Countries
tendencies have been seen — the agreement
entered into between the masters and the leaders
of the men, after the strike in which 3,000
concrete workers and navvies were involved, was
repudiated by the men and long discussions over
the matter were carried on in the " Dansk
Arbejdsmandsforbund." Complaints were made
as to over-centralisation of the unions, and want
of militancy. I The unions in which discontent
with orthodox socialism and trade unionism has
manifested itself to the greatest extent are those
of the concrete workers and the excavators, in
which, for a time, leaders of the " new school "
were elected ; these, however, were unable to
prevent a fall of wages, and the old leaders re-
gained their positions.
The Syndicalist opposition has attacked the
personal motives of the old leaders as much as
their methods and profited by a recent period
of bad trade and much unemployment in
Denmark. 2
In the Christiania trade unions a resolution was
passed early in 1 9 1 2 recommending the abolition
of all existing agreements as to wages and the
' " Die Einigkeit," February 10, 1912. Internationale
Arbeiterbewegung.
"" Information kindly supplied to me by Th. Stanning,
Secretary of the Danish Social Democratic party.
243
Syndicalism and the General Strike
acceptance as chief means of fighting the capital-
ists of strikes, sympathetic strikes, boycotts,
obstruction, sabotage, and co-operative under-
takings. ,
244
OBJECTIONS TO SYNDICALISM
CHAPTER IX
OBJECTIONS TO SYNDICALISM
If we examine any existing society we shall
find that it embodies more than one con-
ception of society : this is probably peculiarly
true with our own world, but must always, I
think, have been more or less true. Any plan,
according to which it is proposed that society
is to be reconstructed, suffers on this account
from the fact that it is comparatively simple and
therefore open to direct and unconditional ob-
jections. Although the existing order of society
is unjust, wasteful, and cruel, it may be held to
preserve an intimate equality within the family, to
provide marvellously well for efficiency of produc-
tion, and (in spite of its wastefulness) to adjust
supply to demand as well as can be done without
such interference with liberty as human beings
will not submit to ; such arguments are, how-
ever, not really very satisfying, because they con-
sist partly in comparing real capitalism, in which
there is some collectivism and communism, with
247
Syndicalism and the General Strike
an ideally complete and rigid socialism, such as
is in no case likely to come about. If the family
is too individualistic for a socialist State, why
is it not too communistic for an individualist
State ?
People are very fond of this way of comparing
what they like with what they do not like, by
either presenting the one with all its earthly
imperfections on its face while the other is
generalised into an ideal form, or, on the other
hand, giving to the one all the charm that the
light of the sun so often confers on things which
in their design are utterly commonplace, while
the other is seen in all the repulsiveness of a plan
drawn to a given scale, without any sky over it
or a living twig near it. Thus the opponents
of monogamic marriage have done nothing,
when they have attacked marriage as it at present
really is, and shown that Mr. A. regards his
wife as his property, and Mr. B. concealed his
habit of getting drunk until he was married.
The ideal of monogamic marriage is what they
need to attack. The real polygamy and poly-
andry will also be open to objection.
To confront real monogamy with ideal pro-
miscuity is unfair. To confront real capitalism
with all its religious and humane ameliorations
with an ideal Syndicalism and socialism is unfair,
248
Objections to Syndicalism
The great advantage that Syndicalism has over
the step-by-step parhamentary socialism is that
it really offers some idea of how a complete
abolition of property could be brought about.
Now, property is the whole source of evil. There
is a great uncharm in ownership : as soon as a
man owns a garden or hangs up a picture, it loses
its attraction for him, and romance is in some
place seen when passing. The difficulty of wages
is abolished at a blow when property is abolished.
At present income distribution is absurd ; the
Englishman who invests his money in Japan or
the Malay States does nothing to produce the
wealth that comes to him, and the existing idea
of inheritance is right only if the murderer's
son ought to be hanged. " There may come a
time whan the saying, ' Have I not the right to
do what I like with my own ? ' will appear to be
a barbarous relic of individualism ; when the
possession of a part may be a greater blessing
to each and all than the possession of the whole
is now to any one." '
As J. S. Mill said in an article in the Fort-
nightly Review in 1879: —
" The very idea of distributive justice, or any
proportionality between success and merit, or
between success and exertion, is, in the present
' Professor Jowett's Introduction to Plato's " Republic."
249
Syndicalism and the General Strike
state of society, so manifestly chimerical as to
be relegated to the region of romance."
That our society seems natural in spite of its
injustice and unnaturalness is not hard to ex-
plain. " If it had been a thing contrary to any
man's right of dominion, or to the interest of
men that have dominion, ' that the three angles
of a triangle should be equal to two angles of
a square,' that doctrine should have been, if
not disputed yet by the burning of all books
of geometry, suppressed, as far as he whom it
concerned was able," says Hobbes, the cleverest
of all conservative theorists. When to the force
of interest is added the inert force of established
custom, the difficulty of altering an accepted
order becomes clear to us. " The laws of con-
science, which we say to proceed from nature
[if not from God], rise and proceed of custome :
every man holding in special regard and inward
veneration the opinions approved, and customes
received about him. . . . And the common
imaginations we finde in credit about us, and
by our father's seed infused in our souls, seem
to be general and naturall." But it is clear
that the " social reform " that costs no one any-
thing is a deception. Levelling means levelling
a few down and many up, and if waste can be
diminished, the total wealth of society will be
250
Objections to Syndicalism
increased, and when the brute struggle for
necessities is gone, the general level of intelli-
gence must rise somewhat.
Our present system is, I think it must be ad-
mitted, indefensible. But if you alter it, what
are the objections to other systems ? Mr. Devas,
in his pamphlet on " Socialism," ' says :—
" Either all must receive alike, skilled and
unskilled, physician and farm labourer, all ranks
of workers in the iron, the cotton, or the building
trades, to the utter discouragement of skill and
intelligence ; or else there must be discrimina-
tion, some receiving more, others less, with no
standard to go by. A municipality now can pay
according to current local wages or trade union
rates ; but under collectivism there would neither
be trade unions nor any outside wages with which
to make a comparison. And thus we should
have to do the very thing we should wish to
avoid, and entrust our good fortune to the
arbitrary decision of Government officials. This
I call wages at Bumble's discretion." Of course,
payment could be made, as we found Labriola
advising, according to needs.
The whole conception of establishing^ a rational
' " Socialism," by C. S. Devas, M.A. (The Catholic Truth
Society, 69 South wark Bridge Road, S.E. Price id. — Anti-
socialist.)
251
Syndicalism and the General Strike
system of distribution may be objected to on
the ground that nature, or God, as revealed in
the world around us, distributes strength and
cleverness very unequally, and that because we
cannot in any case completely abolish or
neutralise tkis inequality, we need not trouble
about our property inequalities which are partly
(but not entirely, for inheritance counteracts the
natural handicaps) — I say, because we must leave
men with unequal gifts, we need not trouble
about their unjustly unequal incomes. But all
civilisation is a struggle against nature ; man,
clothed, housed, sewered, and eating cooked
food, and riding in a railway train, is a child of
unnature ; his music, his painting, his poems, try
to set up a regularity of design and a purposive-
ness such as nature never presents ; it is the
artificial alone which provides the whole charm
of art : we are born into such complex traditions,
that what seems to us automatic and natural is
often the result of long effort and violent con-
flict. However unjust nature is, it does not alter
our idea of justice. All life is a struggle to set
up unnatural conditions which please man more
than untouched nature does.
The pamphlet by Mr. Devas, to which I have
already referred, has an objection to both
centralised and localised socialisms, on the
252
Objections to Syndicalism
ground of the difficulty in organising socialist
production, he says : —
" Either all the productive property of Great
Britain would be worked from one centre as one
business, keeping work and wages uniform ; and
this plan would break down instantly by the pure
overweight of clerk-work ; or else local
autonomy would be granted to parish, urban
district, county or municipality ; and then,
though the work might possibly be within
manageable proportions, there would be other
difficulties. For gradually, according to local
varieties of opportunity, talent and luck, inequali-
ties of wealth would develop among the different
localities, Blackburn, perhaps, be earning 25 per
cent, more than Preston ; and back comes the
inequality that was supposed to have been
banished. Nor can this be remedied by allow-
ing labour to flow to where it was best paid.
For to work the collectivist plan at all, there
must be some fixity in the numbers of the hands
to work and the mouths to feed. To provide
employment or to cater for ever-fluctuating
nimibers would be impossible. The present
liberty of moving about would in consequence
have to be restricted. Even to migrate no
further than from Manchester to Liverpool would
require a special permit, and we should find
253
Syndicalism and the General Strike
ourselves chained to the soil or to the municipal
workshop. This I call something like serfdom.
" Secondly comes the difficulty of supply. In-
stead of a body of traders to cater for the public
taste, you would have as your providers a body
of officials eager to get through their work and
not be bothered by individual peculiarities.
There must be barrack-room uniformity if the
collectivist scheme is to work, no genuine liberty
of consumption, not for the men only, but even
for their mothers and sisters, their wives
and daughters. This I call something like
despotism."
Possibly the objection to localised Syndicalist
socialism here advanced comes from imagin-
ing it carried out with an impossible, ideal
exactitude.
It is rather a satisfactory than a logical answer
to what he says about " liberty of consumption,"
to say that there is no liberty of consumption to-
day for most men and women — low wages and
multiple shops have destroyed it.
But I must go on to objections more definitely
directed against the Syndicalist's socialism. I
shall merely look at a few disconnected examples
of them.
The objections to Syndicalism advanced by
Challaye may be summed up by saying that he
254
Objections to Syndicalism
argues that society is not composed of two
directly opposed classes, because there is a
middle class ; that Syndicalists trust too much
in the natural goodness of men when they as-
sume that when men are made free and respon-
sible instead of being enslaved and irresponsible
tools, they will be industrious and eager ; that
the unjustifiable hope of a successful revolution
in the near future may prevent immediate action
which alone will lead to real benefits ; that " only
a city of angels, the city of God, could do without
police and politics," and that suppression of
restraint would let loose the most unsupportable
war between man and man ; that capitalists and
workers have both antagonistic and identical in-
terests— identical in that they aim at producing
as much as possible, antagonistic in that they aim
at opposing methods of dividing the product ;
that distrust of elected persons, perpetual watch-
fulness over their actions is good, but not dis-
trust of the whole idea of democratic govern-
ment ; that the workers could not in the
past get even the right of combination without
using the State, and that it is by the State that
they must at present increase their powers.
Challaye is probably mistaken when he assumes
that the Syndicalists say that the State and laws
have never done anything for the workers : what
255
Syndicalism and the General Strike
the more moderate among them say is that action
on the politicians from without is quicker than
attempts to get into power yourself, seeing that
parliaments (and councils) only act without end-
less friction when they are doing harm. " Direct
action is not a dogma," says Grififelhties : " it
signifies simply the will of the working-class to
regulate its afifairs for itself, instead of giving
them over by delegation and by mandate to third
persons empowered to act on its behalf. Whether
it acts against the State, as representative of the
masters, or against the masters themselves, it
matters little, provided that the disinherited class
acts for itself, educates and transforms itself." •
Challaye objects that the State is useful in
doing certain things for the working-class which
do tend to alter the fundamental structure of
society. Thus, he says, taxes on the rich can
be used to buy up public services which will
be of use to the workers— this position needs
further consideration, and it may be pointed
out that if interest continues to be paid on
the capital employed in the State under-
takings, no alteration of system has been made
(and this is what has hitherto always happened),
but if the profits from the service are used to
acquire fresh capital, on which no interest will
' " Syndicalisme et Socialisme."
256
Objections to Syndicalism
need to be paid, the State is really wiping out
surplus value, or the share of unearned wealth
taken by the non -producers. Sorel would no
doubt argue that death duties and free services
(bread, housing, and medical attendance, for ex-
ample), leave the system of production unaltered,
and only change the system of exchanging some
of the products : the vital principle of society
is just that which it is hardest to attack.
It may be objected that amelioration of exist-
ing evils is what in essence all socialists aim at,
even if, by adopting a mechanical formula, they
appear to ask mainly for a system, and that,
therefore, it may be indifferent whether the vital
principle of our society is, or is not, killed. But,
unfortunately, it is hard to see clearly that our
reforms do add to the workers' personal control
over more property and more liberty. Grand-
motherly legislation, in which the rulers are the
grandmothers and the ruled, a separate class, are
the grandchildren, is in *spirit the contrary of
socialism.
More property — more control over the con-
ditions of their own work, are what the working-
class tends more and more to ask for.
In Sombart's opinion ' Syndicalist criticism of
^ Werner Sombart, " Socialism and the Social Movement."
257 R
Syndicalism and the General Strike
the movements in modern society rightly empha-
sises the following evils :—
1. "The weakness of democracy and the
dangers of demagogy."
2. The danger of the centralised State.
3. The bad influence of growth of a
bureaucracy.
4. The dehumanising effect of excessive divi-
sion of labour which spoils the human tool.
Further, " none of these evils (which are the
cardinal evils in our social system) will ever be
swept away by, the socialisation of the means of
production."
But Sombart holds that two reasons prevent
it being possible to replace the present economic
system by " self-governing groups of workers,"
these being :^
1. The large present population of the world.
2. The use of modern technical methods, with
coal and iron and railways.
He cannot see that the manual workers are
trained in trade unions for doing the whole of the
initiative and planning work of production for
themselves and sees in State, municipal, and co-
operative undertakings something more like the
beginning of a new era than he does in trade
unions.
The general strike could, he thinks, be ex-
258
Objections to Syndicalism
pected to lead to a new order of society only
by those who believe in a " natural " order of
society, with a harmony of its own, only requir-
ing to be discovered in order to be adopted ;
or if the workers really were ready to live in a
new way, to undertake fresh and less " routini-
fied " duties, they could probably not be pre-
vented from seizing more power, strike or no
strike.
An interesting letter by Kautsky, addressed
to America, on " unlawful direct action," is
worth referring to here, although it should be
remembered that the more authoritative vSyndica-
list writers have never spoken favourably of unin-
telligent violence, and sabotage is condemned
altogether by Sorel (to mention one Syndicalist
opponent of it) as diminishing the present power
of production and not conducive to the acquisi-
tion of greater power of independent produc-
tion by the working-class free from all inter-
ference by capitalists and managers.
The most interesting passage in Kautsky's
letter, a translation of which appeared in the
Socialist Review for February, 19 12, reads as
follows : —
" We must not forget that private property
rests not only on laws that were created by the
ruling classes, but also upon an ethical sentiment
359
Syndicalism and the General Strike
which is a product of thousands and thousands
of years of development in society, and which is
aUve in the toiling proletariat as well as in the
peasantry and the middle class. On the con-
trary, the practices of the capitalist class show
greater disregard for the sanctity of private
property than the practices of wage-earners. The
mass of wage -workers despise the thief. The
capitalists bow reverently before the successful
big thief.
" To preach the individual struggle against
property means to turn the interest of the workers
from mass action to individual action ; in other
words, to turn their interests from effective to
the ineffective form of action. But this form of
action is not only ineffective. It is in opposition
to the moral ideas of the masses of the working-
classes ; it will repel them and injure seriously
the propaganda of socialism, if this action is
looked upon as a product of this propaganda.
" The individual struggle against property
takes us out of the ranks of the masses of wage-
earners and brings us in contact with the slum
proletariat (Lumpenproletariat). The conditions
of existence and struggle of this class are entirely
different from those of the wage-earning class.
Just as the former are indispensable to the well-
being of society, so the latter, the slum pro-
260
objections to Syndicalism
letariat, are useless — yes, even harmful, for they
are pure parasites.
" Both carry on a struggle against existing
society ; both are propertyless and disinherited ;
both must combat the existing form of property.
But the working proletariat fights openly as a
mass, its weapons are solidarity and economic
indispensability, its aims the changing of the
laws regarding property. The slum proletariat
fights individually and secretly, its weapons are
lies and breach of confidence ; its aim is not the
changing of the property laws, but the possession
of the property of others.
" Contact with the slum proletariat and accept-
ance of its war methods cannot but compromise
and disorganise the proletarian movement. This
is bound to happen all the more, because the pro-
letarian elements, which foster such methods, in-
variably fall victims to provocative agents and
police spies.
" The ruling classes have every reason to en-
courage individual action against property and
life of individuals, because, through this, they
can hurt the cause of the working masses. For
this purpose they employ spies and inciters who
hobnob with those elements that are inclined to
individual action. Never yet has a ruling class
employed provocative methods to advance the
261
Syndicalism and the General Strike
legal, open organisation of the masses. This
form of organisation our enemies fear. It can
jeopardise their power. Individual action by the
workers, on the other hand, they do not fear,
for while it may be dangerous to individuals
of the ruling class, such action ultimately
strengthens the ruling class and weakens the
proletariat."
To conclude this rather scrappy chapter, it
will be for some time yet necessary in con-
sidering Syndicalism and other suggested cures
for the evils of our day, to distinguish be-
tween the real difficulties that face us and
bogy terrors, social precipices, and political
earthquakes, painted before us by those who
are afraid of any revolt on the part of the
servile population, and who try to persuade us
that nothing of any importance can be altered ;
for, after all, a great objection to change, even
if it is not openly expressed, is the fact that
reform costs some one something. When
Dickens was assisting those who were for the
reform of Chancery procedure, he was met with
this objection, that it would take employment
from those who lived by unnecessarily circuitous
formalities. In reply, Dickens created Mr.
Vholes, and made his opponents argue thus : —
" Take a few steps more in this direction, say
262
Objections to Syndicalism
they, and what is to become of Vholes's
father? Is he to perish? And of Vholes's
daughters? Are they to be shirt -makers or
governesses? As though Mr. Vholes and his
relations being a kind of minor cannibal chiefs,
and it being proposed to abolish cannibalism,
indignant champions were to put the case thus :
Make man-eating unlawful, and you starve the
Vholeses ! "
" In a word, Mr. Vholes, with his three
daughters, and his father in the vale of Taunton,
is continually doing duty, like a piece of rotten
timber, to shore up some decayed foundation
that has become a pitfall and a nuisance. And
with a great many people in a great many in-
stances, the question is never one of a change
from Wrong to Right (which is quite an extra-
neous consideration), but is always one of injury
or advantage to that eminently respectable
legion, Vholes."
Of the general strike and its possibility I
have spoken in the previous chapter.
263
SOME GENERAL REFLECTIONS
CHAPTER X
SOME GENERAL REFLECTIONS
When we try to discover how far what the
Syndicalists say is likely to be said all over the
world, and how far it is local and sectarian,
we note at once that the revolt against repre-
sentative government is to be seen in England
as well as in France. Among socialists the dis-
content with Mr. Ramsay MacDonald, Mr. John
Burns, and Mr. Richard Bell proceeds from the
same causes as the discontent with M. Millerand,
M. Jaur^s, and M. Viviani. Parliamentary life
forces men to bargain peaceably : they soon
begin to preach a class-war in their working-
class electioneering meetings, and social peace
and goodwill elsewhere : their revolutionary
followers perceive the discrepancy. Commis-
sioners and Board of Trade conciliators are
used to delay strikers from striking until the
masters have finished the most urgent orders,
and arranged what it will best suit them to do
267
Syndicalism and the General Strike
if there is a strike : the probability of the
strikers winning is lessened.
There are certain fundamental reasons why
arbitration on industrial matters are never likely
to work well in times when there is much dis-
content among the workers. Briefly, it may be
said :—
I . It is difficult to apply any rule in order to
decide some of the fundamental questions. The
masters would always like to pay as little wages
and the men to get as high wages as possible :
the claims of both may with tact be lessened,
but no equitable standard can be applied to them,
because wages are not fixed by what a man
needs or does. Consequently the upholder of
the present system always argues that they are
what they should be so long as he can find
any one to accept them ; while, on the other side,
the socialist says they are necessarily unfair so
long as any payment is made to the pure
capitalist, who does no part of the work of
initiation or management and lives wholly by
ownership, and while high salaries correspond
not necessarily to vitally necessary services, but
to services for which either the training or the
needed authoritative air demands a control over
income which severely limits the number of those
entering these services. So long as wages and
268
Some General Reflections
conditions of labour are fixed by " the state of
the market " there is no principle by which they
can be decided.
2. The "impartial chairman" is always a
man of property and an educated man— that is,
his pecuniary interests, class prejudices, and
habitual sympathies put him on the side of
capital.
3. A strike may win advantages for the men
if it takes place when the masters do not expect
it, whereas, if the men have to arbitrate first,
the delay may cause them to lose. Arbitration
seems to them, therefore, merely a dodge for
beating them.
Of course, if a more or less arbitrary standard
is admitted, it can be applied to specific cases.
There is no such thing as a " living wage " : the
wage which will keep any particular man alive
or in health depends on all kinds of things, and
it is undesirable to keep men down to a life of
brutal emptiness of all mental pleasure. If any
existing standard is admitted— such as 30s. in
London, or the wages in some branch of the
textile trade— the equivalent of that wage can
be calculated elsewhere : but there is no principle
of right or reason behind such a wage, and
behind any arbitrary division of spoils between
capital, management, and manual labour.
269
Syndicalism and the General Strike
Much that the ordmary man of any poHtical
views blames the EngHsh party system for is
seen with quite different pohtical machinery in
France, where the permanent officials work the
electoral arrangements, which here depends on
party organisations ; but the representative's
calculations of personal disadvantage if he
offends his chiefs, the consideration of votes not
principles, the corrupting need for bargaining
for support, and the power of wealthy supporters
of a party to decide its policy, operate in the
one system as in the other.
Again the demand that central government
shall be made less important, even though it is
not, as Syndicalists predict, to disappear, will
be, I think, heard more of in England. There
are three reasons why it should be : ( i ) Parlia-
ment is over -worked ; (2) its work is not real
to the electors, and fails to gain their real interest
because it is too far off — real caricature is absent
in the abuse of the wrong side, and real admira-
tion is absent in the praise of " our " leaders,
because the masses are not acquainted with the
features of the models from which the journalists
are supposed to draw their pen-pictures ; and
lastly ( 3 ) Parliament is ignorant : if it is more
and more to deal with intimate details of in-
dustry its reliance on documents will be more
270
Some General Reflections
and more inadequate to guide it. The large
employer always sees through other people's
eyes, and the general secretary of a trade union
is not in touch with the thought of the minute
in the workshops.
Those who are engaged in working at any
trade are the best critics of technical abilities of
others in the same trade, and for this reason pro-
fessional groups would be better managers of a
communal business than the whole of the people.
Democratic control means that a talker must
be the ostensible head of a department, in order
that some one may be ready to explain anything
that needs explanation— and to explain it to
people more or less incapable of understanding
it : the really capable worker is often bad at
this task. The incompetence of democracy is
most real where the control of complex affairs
is concerned, and a localised Syndical control
of industries is far more workable than that rigid
centralised state, with every industry worked
from Westminster, which is what most socialists
either wish for or lead the ordinary man to
believe to be what they wish for. Services
arranged for each small locality and federated
into a whole could be worked on a socialist
basis— this is, I think, generally conceded by the
enemies of socialism who have considered the
271
Syndicalism and the General Strike
matter seriously— far better than an industrial
State controlled at one centre.
I need not say that a postal or railway system
throughout Europe does not need one European
Government. Our States must be broken up into
federated minor States. The complexity of vast
economic affairs is more apparent than real :
much economic complexity is apparent not real,
because it is the result of many easily solved
local problems— thus railway time-tables for all
Europe are obviously not planned out at the start
at one centre, but are due to the adjustment and
addition of many local plans. It is the same
with the world-wide post. The Syndicalist
criticism of the unnecessary, repellent, and dan-
gerously powerful nature of the unified State-
socialist scheme as opposed to the possible and
attractive method of dealing with local needs
locally and making wider arrangements only as
need arises is therefore reasonable.
The demands for self-expression and self-
action, instead of action by delegates, and for
free co-operation instead of compulsion are all
likely to operate more and more. Excessive
reliance on some one else or on the State cannot
long remain in operation. Whenever an idea
spreads among the masses, it creates its own
local leaders for the execution of its own plans :
272
Some General Reflections
the great leader, known to the entire country, and
thinking out the entire scheme from the start,
does not really exist in great national or inter-
national movements. If he seems to exist, either
he is working with a machine not an inspired
multitude or he is a figurehead. The English
trade unions and Labour party, whatever be their
imperfections, are much more purely working-
class than the socialist unions and parties on the
Continent, so that part of the Syndicalist aim has
here been already achieved. We see how far
we are at present from self-government when
we consider how the policy of the Cabinet — a
co-opted group— is imposed on Parliament instead
of being derived from them, as it should be if
there were anything representative of the people's
opinions in it : a few wealthy supporters of one
party, attached to it, no doubt, because one item
of its policy meets with their approval, arrange
its bills, and they are in no way expressive of the
natural desires of the people. Liberal criticism
of Sir Edward Grey, conservative criticism of Mr.
Balfour, the unanimity with which both liberals
and conservatives in Parliament supported an
unpopular Insurance Bill, are just as clear
as the refusal of the members of some trade
unionists to accept advice given them by
delegates, mis -called leaders : there has been
273 s
Syndicalism and the General Strike
a bad outburst of political originality and a
surprising refusal to accept ready-made ideas
and phrases. In some degree, all this shows that
politics is losing its attraction and more direct
action gaining favour. The strike appeals to
Englishmen because it is a fight. " There's some
fun in it," says the Englishman who is weary of
voting and talking. If he does not believe over-
much in it he will yet be interested ; for the
Englishman likes games. Politics in England,
a country with a proverbial capacity for politics,
was never taken very seriously : that is why
political untruths are so little resented and vote-
catching promises which are never kept produce
so little resentment. But is no deceit intended?
The lying politician, who will do anything for
the people— anything the promise of which wins
for him votes and power and money— who
perorates and weeps over the sorrows of poverty
—does he prostitute his powers by one of the
less excusable methods of prostitution— is he more
vilely deceitful and falsely painted than the stalest
woman : or is he only a poor player on an
insignificant stage, and recognised by every one
as a sham -fighter— a knock -about comedian using
terms of abuse to amuse the populace and in-
tending no harm or good to any one ? Or does
he (like a man who gets thanks for a bad coin
274
Some General Reflections
from a blind beggar), does he actually accept the
people's gratitude for his spurious generosity?
The energy devoted to the movement for votes
for women shows how people can over-estimate
the value of anything for which they have long
struggled— seeing that the vote, apart from any
granting of more valuable rights to those to
whom it is given, is of no great use. Low
wages, prostitution, and marriage difficulties are
often spoken of as if the vote were a cure for
them : but the vote is practically no cure for
economic evils. Trade unionism is worth more
as a cure for low wages. Fellowship in trade
unions would discourage blacklegging by pocket-
money earning amateurs who are subsidised by
husbands and fathers, and that would do more
for women's wages than a vote. Prostitution
is partly economic : late marriages of men ( due
to desire to keep up the class standard of
comfort )— overcrowding, and bare dullness of
life, which destroy imagination and so prevent
women from perceiving what life holds, and
throw a glamour over the well-dressed and
correctly pronouncing gentleman, lead to it ;
and the under-payment and oppression of the
ordinary unskilled wage -earner do not conduce
to an abandonment of it. Even unhappy mar-
riages are more economic than they look. Man's
275
Syndicalism and the General Strike
disservices to man, performed in order to make
money easily, make life ugly and dull, and
marriage is an escape. Men's want of interests
and ideas are connected with the commercialisa-
tion of man and man's work ; and man's
character made dull by a commercial idea of life
makes him a repellent marriage companion.
■Where unhappiness is due to a child too many
(miserably feared and avoided by the expectant
but undesiring mother) income again is mostly
to blame. " Equal pay for men and women "
is a much better cry than " Votes."
Man after working hard for what he at first
knew to be only means towards an end, at last
comes to think of it as an end and sacred in
itself. When we step back and take a fresh
view of the world we see that votes and parlia-
ments are only tools for altering the world. If
they do not work well, there are other tools.
The Syndicalist return to more direct methods
than legislation— strikes, threats, riots— is likely
to be seen in many countries.
The English admiration for action, for char-
acter, as revealed in forcible and unexpected
deeds of endurance and heroism, rather than for
phrases and intellect, made many men who are
unsympathetic to theories of workman's rights,
sympathetic at once to the striker. Even the
276
Some General Reflections
people whose word is, " They ought to be shot
down/' by the opposition they create and the
decisive judgment they provide, do much at a
time of strikes to cause progress.
Trade unionism, taught by experience, will
again become a fighting movement, instead of a
benefit-society movement. It is the men little
organised and with no funds who are said to
have no chance of winning who do win— seamen,
dockers, women-workers — while the strong
unions are weak in a fight ; they give the masters
long notice of their intentions and their leaders
are full of doubts and look anxiously at the
bank balance. However, men unprotected by a
union have difficulty in keeping what they have
won. If the masters go back on their word, the
men cannot strike incessantly. There is a strong
movement against the too tame and business-like
trade union official.
We hear much of the tyranny of trade unions,
but it should be remembered that in a time of
war — and what is a strike but a forcible struggle
between masters and men ? — martial law must
prevail and the blackleg is a deserter, a spy, a
traitor. The masters, if they win, win by the
force exerted by starvation : they appeal to force
quite as much as any one can.
The sanction of safety on which the conven-
277
Syndicalism and the General Strike
tional church morals is based will never per-
manently be enough for the more energetic
human beings. It has been enormously
apotheosised by the common sense and cal-
culating philosophers — the Herbert Spencers,
Haeckels, and so on — but the demand for the
adventurous and heroic does not die out — man is
not so exhausted as to behave reasonably.
Whether strikes are right or wrong, the Syn-
dicalists have done well in proclaiming the ex-
cellent qualities shown by strikers — the power
of self-sacrifice, of heroic decision, of sympathy
with those worse off than yourself, of uniting
for a common end, of taking risks for a worthy
object. Newspapers which are fond of writing
about patriotism and the need for considering the
needs of the whole nation, not the immediate
selfish aims of an individual, have also written
with surprised horror about the incomprehensible
conduct of men who are well-paid and have no
grievance of their own, but who starve and spend
all they have in order to improve the position of
others ; this active testimony to their co-opera-
tive spirit, this willingness to accept collective
responsibility, is not understood by those who
have on other occasions praised loyalty to the
community and willingness to work for the
honour of all. Even if the aims for which the
278
Some General Reflections
men strike are condemned, something in the
spirit of the strike ought to be admired. The
great coal strike of 1 9 1 2 was admirable in that
the English miners struck in order to get for
Wales and Scotland the minimum which they
themselves already possessed.
There is a great amount of false spirituality
and even of conscious hypocrisy in much con-
ventional religious morality, in which love is held
up as the one satisfactory motive, and proposals
to forcibly obtain a more equal distribution of
the means of living are condemned.
Whenever experience shows the difficulty of
obtaining any improvement in the position of the
working-classes or whenever on theoretical
grounds it is believed that no improvement can
be gained " under capitalism " and without a
great alteration in the fundamental structure of
society, more or less revolutionary movements
are bound to arise. The idea that with the
present order of society every gain on the part
of the workers is necessarily neutralised by some
loss is probably false, but it is fairly commonly
believed. The working-man sometimes has the
idea that increased prices, which, broadly speak-
ing, are due to the increased output of and gradual
accumulation of indestructible gold, are due to
a deliberate capitalist conspiracy. If wages rise,
279
Syndicalism and the General Strike
prices rise also, and the gain is neutralised ; this
is the kind of argument often advanced. In the
past it is probably true that an increased wage
has meant an increase in the efficiency of labour
or better equipment of machinery ; but these will
mean diminution of employment unless the cost
of production actually falls so as to increase the
demand : prices have not risen, but unemploy-
ment may have increased. That if the labourer
insists on higher wages and the consumer on no
increase of prices (and the consumer in France
in the summer of 1 9 1 1 struck against high
prices), profits can be cut down is usually true —
although there is a minimum interest (more often,
perhaps, heard of than reached), below which
capital leaves the trade and employment in it is
restricted. Capital has not, however, the power
of protecting itself which it is popularly sup-
posed to possess. The interests of capitalists
are not sufficiently the same for capital to act
as one man— the financier, the landlord, the in-
vestor, and the expert are not at one.
Again, as wages do not constitute the whole
cost of production, unless (to put it simply) rent,
interest, and cost of management are increased
in the same proportion as wages are, prices will
not rise as much as wages do, so that the wage-
earner's position will be improved.
280
Some General Reflections
A country with highly trained industrial
workers has often labour advantages not to be
found elsewhere, and when it is suggested that
Japan and China can undersell us in textile goods
or engineering, the suggestion is fantastic to any
one who knows that the Far East is as inexpert
compared with us in factory work as it is superior
(or recently was) in craftsmanship. Hence,
when wages rise, profits may not fall simply
because the work may be better and more
rapidly done. Every country, when it has the
ability to dissolve the tissues of State and to
prepare to develop a new organism, will have
intelligence enough to prevent the results of an
extreme panic : a moratorium could always be
decreed to prevent alarmed emigrants from ex-
porting so much gold as to disturb the credit of
the country.
The power of the capitalist to reimburse him-
self by raising prices is, of course, limited by
other possible supplies which his increased prices
might bring into the market, or by alternative
goods, perhaps as suitable for the required pur-
pose as those he had produced, which the public
may make use of as soon as their natural con-
servatism is sufficiently discouraged by an in-
crease in their expenses. Thus coal prices must,
in the end, be checked by the possibility, if it is
281
Syndicalism and the General Strike
necessary, of now replacing coal by oil-driven
machinery.
These reflections lead to the conclusion that
the idea that there is necessarily an unalterable
level of poverty for the working-class so long
as capitalism persists is not, in all probability,
true. But great alterations in the respective
positions of different classes, and of the ideas at-
taching to property, are by themselves equivalent
to an alteration of the whole structure of society ;
so that without any marked ending to the
capitalist system of society, perpetual diminu-
tion in class differences of wealth may practically
set up a new type of society. If it were once
proved that the fate of the working-class cannot
" under capitalism " be improved, a violent,
sudden revolution would be the only possible
hope of those who cannot leave things as
they are.
Among the masses of the population (particu-
larly in a country like England where detailed
facts are so greatly preferred to clear theories),
there is more demand for the cure of specially
felt grievances than for any systematic reor-
ganisation of society ; but we have reason
to think that the redress of grievances, and
attempts to remodel society, according to a theory,
are so intermingled among both of the two hostile
2^2
Some General Reflections
classes of society as to render disentanglement
of motives impossible when any acts of aggres-
sion are actually being performed. While the
master may wish to break up trade union federa-
tions, to protect " free labour," to increase the
workers' cautious disinclination to face the risk
of strikes (and of collective action generally)
by diffusing a little property and by profit-
sharing ; on the other hand, the worker may have
a theory respecting the abolition of the private
ownership of capital or the indefensible nature of
interest : thus both masters and men are theo-
risers as well as advantage-seekers.
It is of interest to note that there have per-
sistently been two streams of tendency in the
modern reconstructive movement. The following
paragraph in Mill's essay on socialism (published
in the Fortnightly Review for 1879, ^^^ '^^-
cluded in the appendices to the edition of Mill's
" Principles," edited by Ashley, which ap-
peared in 1909 I) is worth attention in this
connection : —
" Among those who call themselves socialists
two kinds of persons may be distinguished.
There are, in the first place, those whose plans
for a new order of society — in which private
property and individual competition are to be
' The publishers are Longmans.
283
Syndicalism and the General Strike
superseded and other motives for action sub-
stituted— are on the scale of a village community
or township, and would be applied to an entire
country by the multiplication of such self-acting
units ; of this character are the systems of Owen
and Fourier, and the more thoughtful and philo-
sophical socialists generally. The other class,
who are more a product of the Continent than of
Great Britain, and may be called the revolution-
ary socialists, propose to themselves a much
bolder stroke. Their scheme is the management
of the whole productive resources of the
country by one central authority, the general
government."
Here we have contrasted with each other the
local communes of the anarchist communist and
of the French Syndicalist and the centralised
State of the Marxist. It cannot too often and
too emphatically be pointed out that the funda-
mental idea at the back of all socialist and anar-
chist movements is the idea of giving more
liberty and more property to the millions ; any
machinery advocated by them, such as the
nationalisation of the means of production, dis-
tribution, and exchange, is a mistranslation and
a falsification of their essential spirit, if it would
fail to give more property and liberty to millions.
State-owned industries can, obviously, be worked
284
Some General Reflections
without transferring any property or authority
from the dominant class to the dominated class,
and further, it may be argued (and I believe it),
that a centralised system of production places a
dangerous amount of power in the hands of a
few persons. But, after all, systems are only
contrivances by which people hope to succeed in
getting what they want ; the force and life of
the reform movement in society cannot be criti-
cised by pointing out the difficulties involved in
any suggested solution of social problems or its
crudeness. The essential desire to level or
equalise property if it cannot get its way through
laws and nationalisings will simply set to work
in another way : hence the opposition between
Syndicalism and socialism is an opposition of
method, not of aim. Its method will be described
as " impossibilist," but in regard to changing
society, everything is said to be impossible by
many people.
Of course, the exact value of the Syndicalist's
criticism of politicians and of State services
depends on the country you are living in ; some
observers, at any rate, think English administra-
tion more efficient and impartial than that of
Latin countries.
Much of this book may not, I think, be under-
stood by some of its readers, because the fact
285
Syndicalism and the General Strike
is that those who take a static view of society
will never understand many movements in
politics, art, and philosophy. To them it seems
as if mechanical laws which explain why A is
always followed by B, as if structural principles
which build up definite forms, as if economic
laws, according to which stable class relations
are created, are eternal. But what if man can
avoid and neutralise even the laws of nature ; if
emotion, right, beauty, desire — slow-working,
apparently feeble but immortal — can in the end
alter the most solid facts ? If property is doomed,
if classes are doomed, if mechanical toil is to
be replaced by creation; if millenianism has
at least as much sense as the idea that nothing
essential can be altered — then many ideas of
possibility require revising.
Who is there who, if you turn to matters of
knowledge and of the application of knowledge,
will say what it is possible to observe anjd to
invent ? What disease will you set down as in-
curable for ever, and leave on one side as worth
no observation, no questioning of those who suffer
from it? A hundred and fifty years ago the
ordinary ignorant man would have told you rail-
way trains were impossible ; eighty years ago he
would have told you telegraphs were impossible ;
seventy years ago, auccsthetics were impossible ;
286
Some General Reflections
ten years ago, flying machines were impossible ;
and undeterred, thought, observation, experi-
ment have gone on, and all are possible. The
man's idea of possibility was wrong. But take
marriage, poverty, unemployment — at once you
hear the ordinary ignorant man saying all cure
for any evil connected with them is impossible ;
why disturb my leisure with any vulgar question
of this kind ? says Professor Dry-as-Dust, and
why disturb my pleasure— what has it to do
with dogs, horses, women, boxers? sa)is Mr.
Greatman ; what projfit can be made out of it ?
says Mr. Business. It is impossible to do any-
thing : so this word impossible checks all dis-
cussion by which the facts would be revealed —
all collective effect by which experiment could be
made — unobserved, unquestioned, undisturbed,
the festering sores eat further into the body of
the State. The word impossible, the foolish word
supports Mr. Dry-as-Dust in his pedantic faith-
lessness in what books have not told him, and
Mr. Greatman (so called) and Mr. Business, who
have their reasons for saying hastily it is impos-
sible, for the one is comfortably off so long as he
can fool the people with promises, and the other
so long as he can defraud them with papers.
Poverty and unemployment are curable, but
only when you make a direct and revolutionary
287
Syndicalism and the General Strike
attack on tlie private ownership of land and
capital. As long as you have competing em-
ployers, you will have disorganisation and
reckless taking on and " sacking " of men, and
you will have some ground down in a struggle
for life to the most insufficient wages.
The difficulty undoubtedly in dealing with
social questions is, that unlike mechanical
problems the experiments needed in order to
solve them must be made after a crowd has
agreed to act. The single thinker can do
nothing without the consent of others.
The uninstructed man who has no idea of the
lines along which thinkers are proceeding, or
of the information which observers have col-
lected, is in no position to judge whether it is, or
is not, possible to solve any problem, mechanical
or social.
The richer classes who pay for, and therefore
control, the press, the pulpit, and the platform,
and all the main sources by which opinion is
influenced, may, if they take a narrow view of
their own interests and see nothing but their
banking accounts, do all they can to spread false
opinions on economic subjects. If discontent
appears, the discontented can be put off with
shams. The sham-doctors are ready to give
them sham medicines — not the true remedy of
288
Some General Reflections
more real liberty of action, more real command
over property (anything but that, since that
would mean for their money-lords less of the
liberty of tyrannising and less of property for
their thrice-sated owners) ; rather regulate them
more — these regulations are always so easy and
popular in a parliament composed of rich men,
who will not need to obey the regulations — nearer
let them come to what Belloc has called the
servile State — and meantime if any one gives
sound advice, denounce him — denounce his cure,
as all that is wicked, impossible, irreligious, in
order that, too literally, the advice of Kent to
Lear may be carried out — the advice which he
gave when he said : —
" Kill thy physician, and the fee bestow
Upon the foul disease,"
and the people may, if not kill, at least ignore
their wise doctors, who understand the revolu-
tionary courses which aloae can give relief, and
bestow again a fee upon the embodied disease of
the present order of society. . . .
In conclusion, I have not defined Syndicalism
yet, and there are always people who want
to have definitions, although the words which
describe movements in which crowds are
contained can never be satisfactorily defined ;
289 T
Syndicalism and the General Strike
Christians cannot agree (take them all and at
all times) about Christianity or socialists about
socialism ; but if a definition is wanted, I have
read that " a definition of Syndicalism was
attempted by the Recorder in his charge to the
Grand Jury at the Old Bailey.
" Referring to the charge against the printers
and editor of the Syndicalist of publishing sedi-
tious matter, his lordship said : ' Many of you
who might not have known a month ago what
Syndicalism means, probably know by now what
it is, as it has occupied a prominent position.:
It is a diabolical system invented by somebody or
other for the purpose of promoting a general
strike, and apparently to establish a socialistic
republic' " i
To this judicial definition I would add :—
{a) It is opposed to the central Govern-
ment, and therefore dislikes the use of
Parliament in attaining its ends.
{b) It proposes to replace the centralised
State, either—
1 . By making the workers in each trade
regulate their own industries, or
2. The workers of all kinds in each small
locality or commune regulate the pro-
duction of their own locality.
^ Daily News^ March 20, 1912.
290
Some General Reflections
(I propose to call the former Italian,
and the latter French, Syndicalisms,
while not pretending that the writers
in either country keep rigidly to either
conception.)
(c) The final catastrophe by which society
is to be altered is a great class battle,
the general strike, by means of which the
working-class will lock-out those belong-
ing to other classes and force them to
yield.
291
LIST OF WORKS
ANNOTATED LIST OF WORKS ON
SYNDICALISM CONSULTED BY
THE AUTHOR
{Books oil general political conditions are not mentioned here)
The list is arranged under the authors' names, but
periodicals are not listed under the names of the editors.
However, Tom Mann's Industrial Syndicalist, being almost
entirely written by himself, is not treated as a periodical.
L'Action Directe. Paris.
Weekly journal. Started January 15, 1908. Revolu-
tionary Syndicalist paper.
Anonymons.
The Miners' Next Step : being a suggested Scheme for
the Reorganisation of the Federation, issued by the
Unofficial Reform Committee. (Tonypandy, Robert
Davies & Co.) 1912. 30 pp. N.p.
A summary of the contents of this pamphlet is given
on p. 211. It is said to have been withdrawn, and is
certainly difficult to get.
Was woUen die Lokalisten ? Programm, Ziele und
Wege der " Freien Vereinigung deutscher Gewerk-
schaften." (Berlin. Fritz Kater, Berlin O. 17, Stralauer-
platz 18-19.) 191 1. 32 pp. N.p.
Revolutionary SyndicaUst pamphlet issued by the
above-mentioned federation.
295
Syndicalism and the General Strike
Beaubois, Gabriel.
La Crise Postale et les Monopoles d'Etat. (Paris.
V. Giard et E. Briere, i6 Rue Soufflot.) 1909. 54 pp.
75 centimes.
A passionate attack on the Frencli Post Office as a
State monopoly ; it is said that it is wasteful in its
methods ; and that the appointments in it are made
for political reasons and out of favouritism. It proposes
an immediate programme of independent management
of the service — parliament having only to examine the
cost and to see the service carries out the duties it
contracted to do.
Challaye, Felicien.
Syndicalisme Revolutionnaire et Syndicalisme Reformiste.
(Paris. Felix Alcan.) 1909. Pp. 156. 2.50 fr.
Explains theory of revolutionary Syndicalism, and
criticises it from the point of view of a reformist trade
unionist. The notes and appendices contain useful biblio-
graphical information — including lists of periodicals.
Readable and reasonable.
Clay, Sir Arthur (Bart.).
Syndicalism and Labour. (London. John Murray.)
1911. Pp. XV. + 213 6s.
Gives good accounts of strikes in Europe which took
place between 1907 and 1910. Is written exclusively
from a capitalistic and anti-working class point of view,
the Tunes being the author's chief source of information.
The latter part of the book is on English trade
unionism, and repeats a familiar story of the Osborne
decision and the trade unions' support of the Labour
party. The author's own reflections are very conserva-
tive and do not seem enhghtening.
Debs, E. Y.
Industrial Unionism. (Edinburgh. The Socialist-
Labour Party, 28 Forth Street.) 1908. 21 pp. + 4 pp.,
on Industrial Unionism, id. Report of " an address
296
List of Works
delivered at Grand Central Palace, New York," on
Sunday, December lo, 1905, advocating the formation
of one union for all workers.
Delesalle, Paul.
Les deux Methodes du Syndicalisme. (A la publication
sociale, Paris. 46 Rue Monsieur-le- Prince.) 1907.
23 pp. 10 centimes.
Begins with an explanation of social structure — how
one class lives by ownership and one by labour, and
how unions are formed in order that the latter class
may fight the power of the former. Revolutionary
methods are praised and the failure of various French
attempts at social legislation is pointed out. The
pamphlet contains useful local colour with regard to
Syndicalist views of French politicians, but repeats
itself sometimes.
Edwards, A. S.
Analysis of the Preamble of the Industrial Workers of
the World.
Large folding-sheet at the end of the " Handbook of
Industrial Unionism " {see Trautmann), the principles
being analysed and expanded in successive columns.
Einigkeit, Die. Berlin.
Weekly paper. The organ of the " Freie Vereinigung
deutscher Gewerkschaften."
Contains news concerning the unions in this federation
and trade union news generally ; also contains propa-
gandist articles attacking the socialist poHticans in a
rather monotonous way. Started 1896, but did not
occupy its present position of revolutionary Syndicalism
until June, 1906.
Freiermann.
La Legislation Ouvriere. Reponse a M. Jaures. (Geneve,
Imprimerie Commercial, 9 Rue Necker.) 1902. 16 pp.
10 centimes.
297
Syndicalism and the General Strike
Argues against political action and gives instances
(taken chiefly from Italy) to show that direct action is
more effective.
Grave, Jean.
Le Syndicalisme dans 1' Evolution Sociale. (Paris. Aux
"Temps Nouveaux," 4 Rue Broca.) 1908. 16 pp.
10 centimes.
An anarchist tract : defends Syndicalism but does not
believe the Syndicais are the productive associations of
the future. Argues against specialisation and division
of labour ; therefore existing trade groups cannot be
permanent : in future groups will overlap. It ends with
a plea for unpractical anarchism.
Has not very much to do with me, being in the main a
criticism of Syndicalism.
Griifelhues, Yictor.
L'action Syndicaliste. (Paris. Marcel Riviere.) 1908.
67 pp. 10 centimes.
A careful account of Syndicalism with an anti- patriotic
chapter, and others on the relation between Syndicalism
and Socialism, on Syndicalism and the trade unions of
non-French countries. Important but not lively.
See Yarious Writers, " Syndicalisme et SociaUsme."
" Groupe de Syndicalistes, Un."
Ce Qu'est le Syndicalisme. Definition et but. L'ceuvre a
accomplir. (Imprimerie des unions ouvrieres, a base
communiste. Lausanne.) 1908. 14 pp. No price
given.
A clear, popular account of Syndicalism and its aims.
Very readable.
Guesde, J., Lagardelle, H., Yaillant, E.
Le Parti Socialiste et la Confederation du Travail.
Discussion. (Paris. Marcel Riviere.) 1908. • 72 pp.
60 centimes.
298
List of Works
Discussion between a revolutionary Syndicalist, a
State socialist, and a man who believes in both parlia-
mentarism and " direct action."
Harley, J. H.
SyndicaUsm and the Labour Unrest. (In the Contem-
porary Review for March, 1912.) 9 pp. [348-57], 2s. 6d.
Describes " labour unrest " in its present manifesta-
tions as a revolt against rationalism ; gives some informa-
tion about Sorel, his life and opinions; derives his
doctrine from Marx and Proudhon. The writer concludes
by arguing in favour of constitutional and industrial
evolution — the slow path which (in his opinion) can
alone be followed by a parliamentary party.
Kautsky, Karl.
Unlawful Direct Action. (In the Socialist Review,
38, Blackfriars Street, Manchester, for February, 1912,)
4 PP- [453~7]- 6d. net. Main part of it quoted on
pp. 259-262.
Kenny, Rowland.
The Brains Behind the Labour Revolt. (In the English
Review for March, 1912.) 13 pp. [683-96]. is. net.
Gives many interesting facts with regard to the
growth of a new school of educated trade union
leaders, who will be more aggressive than the old and
now partly discredited leaders have been.
Kleinlein, Andreas.
Der Syndikalismus in Deutschland. (In the " Jahrbuch
der freien Generation fiir 1912." Brussels. 42 Rue
Haute.) 1912. 9 pp. [104-13]. 1.20 fr.
Gives an excellent account of the origin of the " Freie
Vereinigung deutscher Gewerkschaften."
Kritschewsky, Boris.
See Various Writers, " Syndicalisme et Socialisme."
299
Syndicalism and the General Strike
Kritsky, Mile.
L'cvolution du Syndicalisme en France. (Paris. V. Giard
et E. Briere, 12 Rue Soufllot, &c.) 1908. iv. + 426 pp.
4fr.
Terribly detailed (giving resolutions passed at various
Congresses), but a most important history of trade
unions in France from the French Revolution to 1906,
written from a Syndicalist point of view.
ft
Labriola, Arturo.
Riforme e Rivoluzione Sociale. (Lugano, Egisto Cagnoni
& Co.) 2nd edition. 1906. 248 pp. 2 fr.
Chiefly a criticism of reformist sociaUsm. Of im-
portance, but rather wordy.
See Various Writers, " Syndicalisme et Socialisme."
Lagardelle, H.
See Various Writers, " Syndicalisme et Socialisme."
Lagardelle, Hubert (editor).
La Greve Generale et la Socialisme : Enquete Interna-
tionale, Opinions et Documents. (Paris. Edouard
Comely et Cie.) 1905. 423 pp. 3.50 fr. Reprinted
from " Le Mouvement Socialiste."
It is difficult to read through such a mass of papers,
most of which repeat a few arguments for and against
the general strike, but the contributors are some of the
well-known socialists of the world.
Lanzillo, A.
Le Mouvement ouvrier en Italic. (Paris. Marcel Riviere
et Cie.) N.d. 60 pp. 60 centimes.
Deals from a revolutionary Syndicalist point of view
with recent Italian history, especially recent strikes ;
it attributes the failure of the Italian Labour movement
to the reformist socialists, who are accused of being
traitors and self-seekers.
300
List of Works
Lanzillo, Agostino.
Giorgio Sorel. (Roma, Libreria Editiice Romana.)
1910. 114 pp. I lira.
An excellent account of Sorel's intellectual life and
works. A prefatory letter from Sorel to the author
gives the history of Sorel's life. It contains a portrait
and bibliography, in which, however, only the Italian
translations of books translated into Italian are given,
and only the names of the periodicals to which Sorel con-
tributed and the years during which he did so, without
the titles of his articles.
" Lee, Yernon " (Yiolet Page).
M. Sorel and the Syndicalist Myth. (Fortnightly Review.
October, 191 1.) 16 pp. 2s. 6d.
I think she misunderstands the Syndicalist myth.
Sorel means the general strike more as a concrete
dramatisation of a real conflict and real hopes, and
less as a lie than she assumes. Written from the point
of view of a satisfied non-producer. Myths are '^ vast,
even if inevitable blunders." Very unsympathetic to
" labour " hardships.
Leone, Enrico.
II Sindacalismo. (Milano. Remo Sandron.) 2nd edition,
revised. 1910. 259 pp. 2.50 lire.
May be called a text-book of Syndicalism. Somewhat
rhetorical, being based on speeches delivered by the
author, and, like most speeches, there are no absolutely
new ideas in them. The best ideas (or what I
thought such) are referred to on pp. 127-146 of this book.
Louis, Paul.
Histoire du Mouvement Syndical en France, 1789-1906.
(Paris. Felix Alcan.) 1907, iv. + 282 pp.
An important history. The author is a Syndicahst,
but the book looks impartial.
301
Syndicalism and the General Strike
MacDonald, M.P., J. Ramsay.
Syndicalism. (In the Socialist Review for October, 191 1.)
8 pp. 6d. net.
Argues that the Syndicahst method is " a mere
escapade of the nursery mind," but favours " the
absorption of the small sectional union and the federation
of the unions."
Mann, Tom.
Industrial Syndicalist, vol. i. No. i. Prepare for Action.
(Guy Bowman, 4, Maude Terrace, Walthamstow.) July,
1910. From 24 to 60 pp. in each. id. each.
Argues in favour of a federation of unions.
No. 2. The Transport Workers.
Argues they have lost some advantages once gained
by the '89 strike. Asks for more lighting spirit and
federation of transport unions.
No. 3. Forging the Weapon.
Contains a letter from Eugene Debs, the American
socialist leader. In favour of using existing unions and
making them more aggressive.
No. 4. All Hail ! Industrial Solidarity.
Lays special stress on the needs of the unskilled man.
No. 5. Symposium on Syndicalism.
Tom Mann on beginning of Welsh coal strikes of
191 1 ; T. J. Ring on need for education in trade unions,
for a trade union newspaper, for shorter working
hours; E. J. B. Allen on "Working-class Socialism";
and W. F. Hay on "The Miners' Hope."
No. 6. A Manchester Message to the Workers of
England.
Gives a full report of the first Syndicalist conference
held at Manchester, November 26, 1910, including Tom
Mann's speech.
No. 7. Debate on Syndicalism between Frank Rose and
Tom Mann.
Rose is opposed to strikes, and favours parlia-
mentarism.
302
List of Works
No. 8. Miners, Wake Up !
Introduction by Tom Mann and essay by W. F. Hay
and Noah Ablett on " A Minimum Wage for Miners."
No. 9. The Weapon Shaping.
On *' Syndicahst Education Leagues," with a report of
a speech by A. G. Tufton to the Walthamstow Trades
Council on " Osborne Judgment Outcome " against
political action.
No. 10. A Twofold Warning.
Points out growing power of capitalism and danger of
sectional unionism. After Mann's introduction contains
G. Moore-Bell's essay on " The Cotton Ring," showing
masters federated but not the men.
No. II. The Railwaymen. Against Board of Trade
Settlements of 1907 and State ownership. (2 pp. by
Tom Mann ; rest on *' Conciliation or Emancipation ? "
by Charles Watkins.)
Mermeix.
Le Syndicalisme contre le Socialisme. (Paris. Paul
Ollendorff.) 1907. 322 pp. 3.50 fr.
Written from a conservative point of view. Contains
a history of the labour question since the days of slavery,
deals with the French Combination Acts, their repeal,
the Labour Exchanges, the C.G.T., the general strike,
and the numbers represented by the " revolutionary
Syndicalist" movement. Has the garrulous and sneer-
ing tone common in conservative books on labour
movements.
Michels, Robert.
See Yarious Writers, " Syndicalisme et Socialisme."
Review of Lanzillo (Agostino), " Giorgio Sorel," in
the Archiv fiir die Geschichte des Sozialismus iind der
Arberteibewegung. Band. H. Heft. 2-3. 3 pp.
Rather an interesting review.
303
Syndicalism and the General Strike
Le Mouvement Socialiste. Paris.
Monthly journal.
This was for a time an " intellectual " organ of revolu-
tionary Syndicalism. Georges Sorel, Lagardelle, and
Berth have contributed to it.
Niel, L.
Les Syndicats et la Revolution. Conference faite a
Montpellier. (Paris. Aux " Temps Nouveaux," 140 Rue
Mouffetard, &c.) 1902. 16 pp. 10 centimes.
A propaganda speech in favour of Syndicalism.
Rhetorical in style and without anything very fresh in it.
Pataud, E., and Pouget, E.
Comment nous ferons la Revolution. (Paris. Jules
Tallandier.) N.d. viii. + 298 pp. 3.50 fr.
A Syndicalist romance — the title sufficiently explains
the subject.
Pierrot, M.
Syndicalisme et Revolution. (Paris. Au Bureau de " La
Publication Sociale," 46 Rue Monsieur-le- Prince.) 1908.
35 pp. 10 centimes.
Contains good explanation of difficulties arising from
placing power in the hands of delegates and politicians.
Pionier, Der. Unabhangiges sozialrevolutionares Organ.
Weekly journal. Berhn. No. i. January, 1911.
Revolutionary Syndicalist paper.
Pouget, Emile.
Les Bases du Syndicalisme. (Paris. 33 Rue de la
Grange-aux-Belles.) N.d. 24 pp. 10 centimes.
Shows that political reforms are useless to the
workers ; and that association is neceessary (and answers
Rousseau and certain Darwinians' views on this point).
Rhetorical and wordy.
304
List of Works
Pouget, ISHmile.
La Confederation Generale du Travail. (Paris. Marcel
Riviere.) 1908. 64 pp. 60 centimes.
A general defence of the C.G.T. The earlier pages
explain its constitution.
Le Sabotage. (Paris. Marcel Riviere et Cie.) N.d.
68 pp. 60 centimes.
Justifies sabotage as a v^ray of fighting the capitalist
and a necessary consequence of treating labour as a
commodity to be bought as cheaply as possible, explains
methods of practising it, and gives interesting narratives
of the occasions when they have been put into action.
A lively pamphlet.
Le Syndicat. (Paris. 33 Rue de la Grange-aux-Belles.)
N.d. 24 pp. 10 centimes.
The argument here set forth is : The position of the
capitalist is nearly the same as that of the master of a
slave or the lord of a serf. He saves that which others
produce by their work. Capital is theft. Property is
authority over things : authority is property in human
beings. It then explains the advantages of Syndical unions
and the disadvantages of democratic government, where
powers are delegated, and recommends constant pre-
paration for the general strike and social revolution. A
rather rhetorical pamphlet.
Pouget, E., and Pataud, E.
Comment nous ferons la Revolution. See Pataud, E.
Programme der Freien Yereinigung deutscher Gewerk-
schaften und die Resolution betreffend Streiks und
Ausperrungen nebst Begriindungen. (Berhn. Fritz
Kater, Berlin O. 17, Stralauerplatz 18-19.) 1908. N.p.
32 pp.
Contains programme agreed to at the Seventh Con-
gress and report of proceedings at Eighth Congress, where
regulations respecting strike pay were more minutely
defined and differences between the Lokalisten and the
centralised unions specified.
305 u
Syndicalism and the General Strike
Revue Syndicaliste. Paris.
Monthly journal.
A moderate trade union paper — not " revolutionary
Syndicalist " in tone.
Skelton, 0. D.
Socialism : a Critical Analysis. (London. Constable
& Co. ; Boston, Houghton, Mifflin &Co.) 1911. ix. + 329.
6s. net.
Pages 267-80 are on Syndicalism and furnish a very
good summary of the aims of the movement.
Sombart, Werner (translated by Epstein, M.).
Socialism and the Social Movement. (London, J. M.
Dent & Co.) 1909. xvi. + 319 pp. 3s. 6d. net.
Chapter V. (30 pp.) is on " Revolutionary Syndicalism."
It is too impartial to be lively, but very careful and
learned. It attempts to explain why Syndicalism
appeared.
Sorel, Georges.
L'avenir Socialiste des Syndicats. (Paris. Librarie de
I'Art Social.) 1898. 31 pp. 50 centimes.
Of historical importance. Remarkable for its bitter
attacks on intellectuals, who are declared to have
interests opposed to those of the workers and to be
largely parasites. The value of trade unions as a
training-place for working-class capacity and as a
weapon of attack insisted on.
La Decomposition du Marxisme. (Paris. Marcel
Riviere.) 1908. 64 pp. 60 centimes.
Explains (i.) hows revolutionaries weaken into social
reformers ; (ii.) points out that the efforts of popular
state are in the direction of turning the proletariat into
a bourgeoisie ; (iii.) declares that politicians abandon
Marxism ; (iv.) mainly investigates how far capitahsm
has solved problems which Marx foresaw ; (v.) examines
nature of Marx's myth of the coming revolution;
306
List of Works
(vi.) states that he general strike corresponds to
the Marxian catastrophe ; (vii.) this idea, though
mythical, is of value because its keeps the revolutionary
separate from the rest of the world. Contains much
criticism of socialist writers, and of the relations
between the ideas of Marx, Engels, the SyndicaHsts, and
the parliamentarians. Near the end are some remarks
on social myths, one of Sorel's most interesting ideas.
Sorel, Georges.
Preface to Histoire des Bourses du Travail, by Fernand
Pelloutier. (Paris. Schleicher Freres.) 1901. [Book
dated 1902.] 32 pp.
Shows how Sorel obtained some of his ideas. ^
Les Illusions du Progres. (Paris. Marcel Riviere et
Cie.) 2me edition. 191 1. 340 pp. 3.50 fr.
Describes various illusory ideas respecting progress
and attempts to account for them by the interests and
class movements of the times. The examples are, of
course, all taken from French history and literature.
Real progress is progress in methods of production, but,
as the author has apparently no theory as to there being
a continuous process of improvement of any kind, genius
is rated highly.
Introduction a I'Economie Moderne. (Paris. Marcel
Riviere et Cie.) 191 1. 385 pp. 5 fr.
A long summary of the contents of this book is given
by me on pp. 70-79 of this work, so I need only state
here that it is mainly a clever attempt to show that
reforms which do not upset capitalism strengthen it.
Like all Sorel's books, it is rather stiff reading.
Reflexions sur la Violence. 2rne edition. (Paris.
Marcel Riviere et Cie.). 1910. 412 pp. 5 fr.
This important book contains arguments (largely illus-
trated by historical examples chiefly taken from Renan's
works on the Jews and early Christians) as to the decay
307
Syndicalism and the General Strike
of the bourgeois ; the utihty of revolutions if they occur
when production is improving ; the need for the sublime
and uncalculating in morality ; the glory of a war of
liberty and a class- war ; the untrueness of the " Society
is an organism doctrine."
Tanzler, Dr. jur.
Der Generalstreik in Schweden, 1909. (Berlin. Verlags
buchhandlung Fr. Zillessen, — Schriften der Hauptstelle
deutscher Arbeitgeber-Verbiinde, Heft 4). 72 pp. N.p.
An account from the employers' point of view of the
events of the general strike in Sweden, particularly the
positions of the masters' associations and trade unions
at various times.
The Transport Worker.
Edited by Tom Mann. Monthly journal. (Liverpool.
6, Spekeland Buildings.) No. i. August, 1911.
A journal of trade unionism.
Trautmann, W. E.
One Big Union. An outline of a possible industrial
organisation of the working-class, with chart. (Chicago.
C. H. Kerr & Co. Co-operative.) N.d. 31 pp. and
chart. 10 cents.
Explains ideal organisation of workers and its
purpose.
Handbook of Industrial Unionism. (Chicago. W. E.
Trautmann, 310, Bush Temple.) N.d. 32 pp. N.p.
An explanation of the principles of the Industrial
Workers of the World.
Yarious Writers.
Syndicalisme et Socialisme. By various writers. (Paris.
Marcel Riviere.) 1908. 63 pp. 60 centimes.
A series of speeches on Syndicalism in Italy, France,
Germany, Russia, delivered in Paris in April, 1907.
These speeches attempted to gratify the audience and
contain little information.
308
List of Works
Yoix da Peuple, La. Paris.
Weekly journal. Organ of the C.G.T. Started Decem-
ber r, 1900, with Pouget, Guerard, Niel, Latapie,
and Griffelhues as its chief contributors.
Yvetot, Georges.
ABC Syndicaliste. (Chez I'auteur. Paris. 48 Rue
du Rendez-Vous and L'imperatrice — Imprimerie com-
muniste. 3 Rue du Pondichery.) 1908. 93 pp.
10 centimes.
Begins with explanation of development and evils of
capitalism ; contains arguments in favour of trade
unionism and explanations how a union is to be
founded and worked. It contains excellent matter on
'^ direct action."
309
INDEX
INDEX
"ABC Syndicaliste," 20,
25, 29, 31, 33
Ablett, Noah (coal - miner),
198
Agitators, paid, 173, 186
Agitators, unpaid, 177
Agriculture in Southern Spain,
233
America : Backwardness in
politics, 239 ; Syndicalists in
America aim at new unions,
239 ; agree with other Syndi-
calists in need for increased
capacity among the pro-
ducers, 240 ; and in belief in
lock-out of masters, 240 ;
stress laid on elimination of
craft divisions, 241 ; and
final formation of one big
union throughout the world,
242
Anti-militarism, 11, 33, 165,
166, 202, 206
Arbitration in labour disputes,
22^ 91, 191, 268
Asquith^s Budget, 117
Barnes, George, M.P., 175
Bell, Richard, 267
Bergson, 54, 68, 89
" Berlin movement," 156
Bernstein, 127
" Bibliographic des Socialismus
und Communismus," 94
Birkbeck Bank, 86
Blacklegs, strikers' view of,
205, 226, 277
Bonomi, 112
*' Book-men " (cotton ware-
house), 207
Burns, The Right Hon. John,
M.P., as an agitator, 186,
267
Capacities of producers, 29,
75, 144, 258
Capital, power to resist labour's
attacks, 280, 281
Capitalist's theories, 283
Challaye on objections to
Syndicalism, 254
Children of strikers removed,
33
313
Index
Chinese competition, 281
Class-war, 60, 93, 137, 163,
165, 255
Clay, Sir Arthur, on the inevit-
ability of Trade Union de-
velopment, 133
Clerks, 208, 222
Confederation Generale du
Travail, founded 1895, 14 ;
two sections, 14
Co-operation in Italy, iii, 113
Crispi, 104, 105, 108
Critica Sociale, 107
Crowsley's defence, 204
Custom, effect of, 250
Darwin, 74
" Dawn," 205
Decentrahsation, 27, 159, 161,
272, 283
Democracy, 10, 20, 23, 48, 271
Denmark : Strike of concrete-
workers and navvies, 243 ;
Syndicalist criticisms of
unions and Socialists, 243 ;
views of certain trade unions
in Christiania, 243
Development by antitheses,
79» 145
Dickens, Charles, on the cost
of reform, 262
Difficulties, bogy, 263
" Direct action," 30, 31, 32,
145, 167, 256, 259, 272
Distribution of payment, diffi-
culties with in " ideal "
societies, 251
Dock strike, Glasgow (1912),
210
Duncker, Frantz, 153
Einigkeil^ Die, 160
England : peculiarities of
England unfavourable to
clearness in political theories,
171 ; dislike of theory in,
172 ; influence of paid
officials of trade unions, 173 ;
Mr. George Barnes, M.P.,
and Mr. W. E. Harvey,
M.P., as types of trade union
" leaders," 175 ; how a
branch secretary gains ad-
vancement in his union,
176; the Anti-Socialist Union,
177 ; contest between old
and new leaders in South
Wales Miners' Federation,
179 ; spontaneity of strike,
179 ; wages in mines and
accidents, 180 ; the " new "
leaders, 181 ; small strikes
in the summer of 191 1 and
their effect, 182, 183 ; wages
on railways, 183 ; industrial
changes causing discontent,
184 ; effect of education,
186 ; John Burns as an
agitator, 186 ; Tom Mann,
187 ; discontent with the
Labour party, 187 ; modera-
tion of English and Ameri-
can Syndicalism, 188 ; Tom
Mann's writings, 189 ; the
314
Index
Syndicalist and "An open
letter to soldiers," 202 ;
Crowsley's case and the
Ilkeston case, 204 ; the
Transport Worker^ 206 ; Ben
Tillett, 210 ; "The Miners'
Next Step," 211 ; the Irrita-
tion Strike, 212
Evolution, 74, 140, 145
Fabians, 127
Federation de la Bourse de
Travail, Congres de, 1896,
Ferrer, 63
France, general idea of Syndi-
calism in, 10 ; history of
trade unions, 14 ; C.G.T.
founded, 14 ; various types
of unions, 15 ; Syndicalist
doctrines, 16-28 ; immediate
programme, 29 ; examples
of sabotage. See also entries
under Syndicalism, Syndicat,
and Sorel
" Freie Vereinigung deutscher,
Gewerkschaften." See Syndi-
calism in Germany
General Strike, 30, 53 ;
preached in Germany, 161 ;
production of, 217 ; history
of the idea, 218 ; Mouvement
socialiste on, 218; Briand
on, 219 ; Lagardelle on, 219 ;
Hillferding on, 219 ; Ramsay
MacDonald on, 221 ; pos-
sibility of, 222 ; Hyndman,
Quelch, and Keir Hardie
on, 224 ; Jaures on, 225 ;
Van Kol on, 225 ; Kautsky
on, 225 ; in Portugal, 235 ;
Sombart on, 258
Germany, trade unions in,
150 ; statistics concerning,
151 ; history of, 151 ; local
unions, 154 ; effect of Sozia-
listengesetz on, 155 ; remark-
able centralisation of, 157 ;
Christian, 158 ; congress of
those organised locally, 159 ;
" Freie Vereinigung deut-
scher Gewerkschaften," 161 ;
Dr. Friedeberg's lectures,
161 ; Anarcho-Sozialisten,
163 ; their programme, 163 ;
criticisms of trade unionism
and socialist politics by
Syndicalists, 164 ; anti-
militarism, 165, anti-cleri-
calism, 165 ; Der Pionier,
165 ; SyndicaHst criticisms
of poHtical methods, 166 et
seq.
Gioletti, III, 112
Harvey, W. E., M.P., 175
Hatred praised, 58, 93
" Haute- Italic Politique et
Sociale, La," 97
Hay, W. F. (coal-miner), 198
Heroic, demand for the, 278
Herve, 63
Hirsch, Max, 151, 152
Hobbes on self-interest, 250
315
Index
Ilkeston case of anti-militarist
crime, 204, 205
Impossibility, 283, 286
Improving worker's skill, 29,
75, 144, 258
Indeterminate sentence, 92
*' Industrial Syndicalist The,"
189 et seq.
Inequality, argument in favour
of, from nature, 252
" Inspired Millionaires," 76
Insurance Bill, 49, 83
Insurance, effect of, 123
Intellectuals, 10, 19, 44, 45,
146
Irritation strike, the, 213
Italy : importance of agricul-
ture in, 97 ; land tenure, 97
socialists round Mantua, 98 ;
agricultural labourers' wages,
99 ; Sicilian conditions, 99 ;
illiteracy, loi ; the indus-
trial north, 102 ; trade
unions, 103 ; strikes, 103 ;
the Right, 105 ; corruption
in politics, loi, 105, 106 ;
radicals and republicans,
106 ; clericals, 106 ; Lega
Democratica Nazionale, 107 ;
Labour party, 107 ; socialist
pohcy, 107 ; village banks,
108 ; Crispi's anti-socialist
law, 108 • minimum pro-
gramme, 109 ; riot in 1898,
109 ; middle-class socialists,
no, 112 ; socialists quarrel
with SyndicaUsts, in ; co-
operative societies, 113 ; La-
briola's writings, 116 ei scq. ;
Leone's writings, 127 et seq.
" Italy To-day" (by King and
Okey), 99, 105, 106
Japanese competition, 281
Jaures, on the general strike,
225, 267
Justice as part of the economic
environment, 83
Justice, chimerical, 249
Kautsky, on " unlawful direct
action," 259
Kol, Van, on the general strike,
225
Labour Exchanges in France,
13
Labour legislation, 20, 6i, 123
Labour party (English), 187
Labriola, Arturo, in; " Ri-
f orme e Revoluzione Sociale,"
116 ; educational effect of
Parliament, 117 ; on the
future revolution, 119 ; lock-
out of capitalists, 120 ; on
violence, 121 ; on revolu-
tionaries, conservatives, and
reactionaries inside Socialist
parties, 122
Le Chapelier law, 12
Legien, 158
Leone, Enrico, in, 127 ; on
two revisions of socialism,
127 ; on the intellectuals.
316
Index
129 ; on the materialist con-
ception of history, 129 ; on
the inevitabihty of sociaHsm,
133, 134, 143 ; on the nature
of the trade union, 135 ; on
class-war, 137 ; on the hope-
lessness of man's final end,
138 ; on the brevity of his-
tory, 141 ; on evolution and
social development by anti-
thesis, 145
Lloyd George's Budget, 117
Lloyd George and railway-
workers, 172, 188
Lock-out of capitalists, 120
" Lokalisten." 5^^ Syndicalism
in Germany
MacDonald, J. Ramsay, 188,
221, 267
Madrid, cost of living in, 233 ;
death-rate in, 233
Malatesta founds the "Solida-
ridad obrera," 229
Mann, Tom, 187 ; his writings,
190 d seq. ; on " the bar-
barous niethodsof the strike,"
193 ; miners advised to buy
mines, 196 ; style in speaking,
199 ; on conditions in Aus-
traha, 200 ; his ideal form
for the controlj of industry,
202 ; at Liverpool, 206 ;
editor of Transport Worker,
206
Marx, Karl, 51, 53» 67, 78
Messiah as a social myth, 57
Messianism in Marxism, 78
Mill, J. S., on justice, 249 ; on
two kinds of socialism, 283
Millenianism, 286
Millerand, 43
" Miners' Next:Step, The," 211
Mines, nationalisation of, 2.13
Montaigne on Custom, 250
Moratorium, decree of, 281
" Mouvement ouvrier en Italic,
Le," 104
Natural inequality, 252
Objections to Syndicalism :
the middle-class, 254 ; the
revolution, 255 ; class-war,
255 ; need for the State, 255 ;
Sombart on, 258 ; Kautsky
on " unlawful direct action,"
259 ; bogy terrors, 262 ;
Dickens on the cost of re-
form, 262
" Open letter to soldiers," 203
Parliament, discontent with
187, 267, 270, 273, 276
Philadelphia, French delega-
tion of workers at exhibition,
13 ; tailors strike at, 34
Pionier^ Der, 165
Political strike, the general,
225
Politics in England, 274
Public-houses, hours of work
in, 208
317
Index
Railways, vState, Sorel on, 85
Recorder of London, on Syndi-
calism, 290
Sabotage, 11, 16, 31, 32, 33, 62,
220
Sabotage^ Lc, 33
Sabotage, Sorel opposed to, 62
Schweitzer, Von, 152
Self-interest, effect of, 130, 250
Skill, improving, 29, 75, 240
Smith, Adam, on justice, 83
Social myth, 52, 55, 89, 93
Social peace, 59, 145
Socialist minimum programme,
in Italy, 109
Socialist policy in Italy, 107,
112
" Socialists at Work," 112
Society does not conform to a
plan, 247
Sorel, Georges, Michels on,
37 ; born at Cherbourg, 37 ;
career and marriage, 38 ;
early works, 38 ; on demo-
cracy, 39 ; " Le proces de
Socrate," 40 ; on marriage,
41 ; Vere nouvelle, 41 ; De-
venir social, 42 ; as revisionist,
42 ; Dreyfus affair, 42 ; his
opinion on Millerand's entry
into the cabinet, 43 ; on in-
tellectuals, 44 ; " L'avenir
Socialiste^des Syndicats," 44 ;
interests of masses opposed
to those of intellectuals, 45 ;
prefers the candidate for
Parliament who knows least
about labour matters, 30 ;
" La decomposition du Marx-
isme," 51 ; social myth, 52 ;
" Reflections sur la violence,"
54 ; on myths and Utopias,
55 ; violence and force, 58 ;
his view of the early Chris-
tians, 61 ; on sabotage, 62 ;
on Ferrer, 63 ; Sorel's present
sympathy with French con-
servatism, 63 ; " Les Illusions
du Progres," 70 ; on the
general will, 73 ; on the his-
torical school, 74; on Dar-
win, 74 ; on real progress,
75 ; admiration for saints,
77 ; on Biblical Judaism, 77 ;
objection to moralists, ideal-
ists, and reformers, 79 ;
socialisation of economic en-
vironment, 80 ; on cartels
and co-operative stores, 82 ;
on state industries, 85 ; on
credit, 86 ; on interest, 87 ;
on the uselessness of all
" laws of history," 88 ; move-
ment the essence of reality,
89 ; on arbitration in labour
disputes, 91 ; on society as
an organism and division of
labour, 92 ; his style, 94
Sozialistengesetz, 155
Spain, anarchists join trade
unions, 230 ; formation of
the " Solidaridad obrera,"
230 ; statistics as to unions,
230 ; Socialist party, 230 ;
:i8
Index
reasons for anarchism in
Spain, 231 ; Syndicalist pam-
phlets, 232 ; famines in An-
dalusia, 232 ; condition of
miners in Bilbao, 232 ; child-
labour in Barcelona, 232 ;
cost of living and death-
rate in Madrid, 233 ; agri-
culture in the South, 233 ; in
Galicia, 234 ; co-operative
agriculture, 234 ; law as to
strikes, 234 ; education, 235
State intervention, Labriola on,
123
Stecchetti, 141
Strike, barbarity of, 193
Strikes, 27, 33, 120, 153, 193,
234, 237, 243. See also
General Strike, Irritation
Strike
Sweated wages in South Lon-
don, 182
Sweden : importance of agri-
culture, 235 ; start of sociaHst
movement, 236 ; Folk-rigsdag
discusses general strike, 236 ;
used in 1902 as suffrage argu-
ment, 236 ; Jung Hinkarner
party, 236 ; strikes in 1909,
237 ; history of 1909 labour
war, 237-8 ; Syndicalism in
Sweden, 238
Syndicalism, approves of poor
trade unions, 10, 25
Syndicahsm, approves of all
strikes, 10, 31
Syndicalism, immediate aims
of, 29
Syndicalism, in Denmark, 243 ;
in England, 187-8 ; in
France, 10, 14, 16 et seq. ; in
Germany, 151, 159, 161 ; in
Italy, III, 115 et seq. ; in
Portugal, 235 ; in Spain,
229 ; in Sweden, 238
Syndicalism indifferent to
theories, 10, 16
Syndicalism, middle-class sym-
pathisers disliked by, 10,
18
Syndicahsm, ultimate aim of,
27, 289
" Syndicahsme, Ce qu'est le,"
29, 31
" Syndicahsme, Les bases du,"
24, 28, 30
" Syndicahsme, Le . . . dans
d' Evolution Sociale," 33
" Syndicahsme, Les deux Me-
thodes du," 22, 27, 30
" Syndicahsme et Revolution,"
19, 23, 24, 27 ^
Syndicahsme revolutionnaire
et Syndicahsme reformiste,"
62
Syndicalisten^ 238
Syndicate Le, 18, 23, 26, 30
Syndic'al of printers in Paris,
120
Syiidicats jauncs^ 16
Syndicats uiixtes, 15
TiLLETT, Ben, 210
Trade unionism as a fighting
movement, 277
319
Index
Trade unionism : Englisii, 24,
173, 181,190 cl seq. ; French,
12 ; German, 149 el seq. ;
Italian, 103 ; Spanish, 229,
230 ; Swedish, 236
Trade unionism and women's
wages, 182, 275
Trade unions, federation of
25, 26, 190, 239
Trade unions, Leone on, 135
Transport Worker^ 206
Turati, iii
Unskilled workers, 194
ViviANi, 267
Votes for women, 276
Wages, 91, 181, 182, 194, 200,
201, 207
Waldenburg miners' strike, 153
" Wealth of Nations, The," 83
Welsh coal-miners' strike, 178,
195
UHNlRSUY Or SG JTl;I:l-[i CALIPOi^f^lA LIBR/uj:
UNWIN BROTHERS, LIMITED, THE GRESHAJI PRESS, WOKING AND LONDON.
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY
Los Angeles
This bouk is DUE on the last date stamped below.
— REUTTuT:
JUN2
JUL13
i^i^
Form L9-Series4939
5^
3 1158 00679 4175
iiiiilB^
AA OOo'988 020 4
'O
Live Music Archive
Librivox Free Audio
Metropolitan Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Internet Arcade
Console Living Room
Books to Borrow
Open Library
TV News
Understanding 9/11