syndicalism.org

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Syndicalism

By Hippolyte Havel

Published in the October 1912 issue of Mother Earth (Vol. VII, No. 8, pp 255-257)

Alma Mater Columbia bestowed upon our Comrade [Louis] Levine the mysterious shibboleth Ph.D. I do not know whether friend Levine gained in wisdom in the intellectual factory of Nicolas Murray Butler, but he certainly succeeded in writing a good book on Syndicalism, the subject which he chose as his thesis. The study appears in the series on History, Economics and Public Law, edited by the faculty of Political Science of Columbia University. It is called “The Labor Movement in France, a Study in Revolutionary Syndicalism,” and has an introduction by Professor Franklin H. Giddings. This book is undoubtedly the best work on Syndicalism which has so far appeared in the English language, and it will surely help to dispel many false conceptions on this subject, at present so much abused. Of course, one must take into account the limitations under which the author labored. Yet notwithstanding all limitations he was able to give us in his book not only a good account of Syndicalism in theory and practice, but also a short but very precise history of the workingmen’s movement in France during the last century. Most of the recent effusions of our bourgeois writers who have just discovered Syndicalism are simply “borrowed” from Levine’s book. As usual they succeed only too well in ignoring the point of the subject. They use their newly acquired knowledge merely to embellish their daily or weekly pabulum.

Syndicalism produces nowadays a veritable nightmare in the lives of the Socialist politicians. For decades they fed the proletariat on promises. They thought they were clever when they called upon the workingman to “strike at the ballot box,” and now they are surprised to see that he really strikes at the ballot box; that he refuses to elect his own betrayers. No wonder the politicians are enraged at Syndicalism, for what else is Syndicalism but direct action against corrupt political participation in the bourgeois society? The workers turn their backs on their leaders and accept direct tactics as propagated by the Anarchists since the days of the old Internationale.

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What is syndicalism?

In a nutshell, syndicalism is the theory and practice of abolishing capitalism through a revolutionary labor movement. Much has been written on the topic, which brings us to...

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“Political parties can never lead us to Workers' Control, for by building parties we are erecting barriers in the way to that end; we are building something which we must later destroy. On the other hand by organising industrially now we are creating an organisation which can take over control of industry and which is not to be later destroyed, but developed.”
  — Tom Brown in Trade Unionism or Syndicalism?