Editing Syndicalism (section)

=== Russian Revolution and post-war turmoil ===
[[File:Golos Truda, Sept 14 (Sept 1).jpg|thumb|14 September 1917, issue of {{lang|ru-latn|Golos Truda}}. The headline reads: "To the workers of the world."]]
Disaffection with the war condensed in the [[post-World War I revolutions]] that began with the [[Russian Revolution]] of 1917.{{Sfn|Eley|2002|p=138}} In February 1917, strikes, riots, and troop mutinies broke out in [[Petrograd]], forcing the [[Nicholas II]] to abdicate on 2 March in favor of the [[Russian Provisional Government]]. Immediately, anarchist groups emerged. Russian syndicalists organized around the journal {{lang|ru-latn|[[Golos Truda]]}} (''The Voice of Labor''), which had a circulation of around 25,000, and the Union of Anarcho-Syndicalist Propaganda.{{Sfnm|1a1=Avrich|1y=1967|1pp=115, 123–125, 139–140|2a1=Thorpe|2y=1989|2p=96}}{{refn|group=note|Most syndicalists were exiled to Western Europe or America before the revolution and started returning in the summer. The most prominent syndicalists who returned to Russia were [[Maksim Raevskii]], {{ill|Vladimir Shatov|ru|Шатов, Владимир Сергеевич}}, [[Alexander Schapiro]], a participant in the 1913 syndicalist congress in London, and Vseolod Mikhailovich Eikhenbaum, known as [[Volin]]. They were joined by the young local [[Grigorii Maksimov]]. In their New York exile, Raevskii, Shatov, and Volin had worked on the syndicalist journal {{lang|ru-latn|Golos Truda}}, then the organ of the [[Union of Russian Workers]]. They brought it with them proceeded to publish in Petrograd looking to spread syndicalist ideas among workers by introducing them to French movement and the general strike. Outside of Petrograd, syndicalism also gained followers in [[Vyborg]], Moscow, and in the south among the miners in the [[Donets Basin]] and cement workers and longshoremen in [[Ekaterinodar]] and [[Novorossiisk]].{{Sfnm|1a1=Avrich|1y=1967|1pp=137–140, 146–147|2a1=Thorpe|2y=1989|2pp=71, 96}}}} Anarchists found themselves agreeing with the [[Bolsheviks]] led by Lenin, who returned to Russia in April, as both sought to bring down the provisional government. Lenin abandoned the [[theory of historical trajectory]], which represented the idea that capitalism is a necessary stage on Russia's path to communism, dismissed the establishment of a parliament in favor of that power being taken by [[Soviet (council)|soviets]], and called for the abolition of the police, the army, the bureaucracy, and finally the state{{spaced ndash}} all sentiments syndicalists shared.{{Sfn|Avrich|1967|pp=127–129}} Although the syndicalists also welcomed the soviets, they were most enthusiastic about the [[factory committees]] and [[workers' councils]] that had emerged in all industrial centers in the course of strikes and demonstrations in the [[February Revolution]]. The committees fought for higher wages and shorter hours but above all for workers' control over production, which both the syndicalists and Bolsheviks supported. The syndicalists viewed the factory committees as the true form of syndicalist organization, not unions.{{refn|group=note|Volin derided the unions, which were dominated by [[Mensheviks]], as a "mediator between labor and capital" and as "reformist".{{Sfn|Avrich|1967|p=144}}}} Because they were better organized, the Bolsheviks were able to gain more traction in the committees, with six times as many delegates in a typical factory. Despite the goals they had in common, syndicalists became anxious about the Bolsheviks' growing influence, especially after they won majorities in the Petrograd and Moscow soviets in September.{{Sfnm|1a1=Avrich|1y=1967|1pp=140–147, 152–153|2a1=Thorpe|2y=1989|2p=97}}

The Petrograd Soviet established the 66-member [[Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee]], which included four anarchists, among them the syndicalist Shatov. On 25 October, this committee led the [[October Revolution]];{{refn|group=note|Compared with the mass revolts in February, it was more of a [[coup d'état]]. According to its commander [[Leon Trotsky]], no more than 30,000 participated.{{Sfn|Avrich|1967|p=158}}}} after taking control of the [[Winter Palace]] and key points in the capital with little resistance, it proclaimed a Soviet government. Anarchists were jubilant at the toppling of the provisional government. They were concerned about the proclamation of a new government, fearing a [[dictatorship of the proletariat]], even more so after the Bolsheviks created the central [[Soviet of People's Commissars]] composed only of members of their party. They called for decentralization of power but agreed with Lenin's labor program, which endorsed workers' control in all enterprises of a certain minimum size. The introduction of workers' control led to economic chaos.{{Sfnm|1a1=Avrich|1y=1967|1pp=158–164|2a1=Thorpe|2y=1989|2pp=97–98}} Lenin turned to restoring discipline in the factories and order to the economy in December by putting the economy under state control. At the [[First All Russian Congress of Trade Unions]] in January, the syndicalists, who had paid little attention to the unions, only had 6 delegates, while the Bolsheviks had 273. No longer depending on their help in toppling the provisional government, the Bolsheviks were now in a position to ignore the syndicalists' opposition and outvoted them at this congress. They opted to disempower local committees by subordinating them to the trade unions, which in turn became organs of the state. The Bolsheviks argued that workers' control did not mean that workers controlled factories at the local level and that this control had to be centralized and put under a broader economic plan.{{Sfnm|1a1=Avrich|1y=1967|1pp=165–170|2a1=Thorpe|2y=1989|2p=98}} The syndicalists criticized the Bolshevik regime bitterly, characterizing it as [[state capitalist]]. They denounced state control over the factories and agitated for decentralization of power in politics and the economy, and syndicalization of industry.{{Sfnm|1a1=Avrich|1y=1967|1pp=181, 191–195|2a1=Thorpe|2y=1989|2pp=99–100}}{{refn|group=note|{{lang|ru-latn|Golos Truda}} was suppressed and replaced with a new but short-lived journal, {{lang|ru-latn|Vol'nyi Golos Truda}} (''The Free Voice of Labor''). A first All-Russian Conference of Anarcho-Syndicalists was held August 1918, followed by a second in November, which established the [[All-Russian Confederation of Anarcho-Syndicalists]]. There is no evidence this confederation was effective in coordinating syndicalist activities.{{Sfnm|1a1=Avrich|1y=1967|1pp=190–191, 194–195|2a1=Thorpe|2y=1989|2pp=98–100, 163}}}} The [[Russian Civil War]] against the [[White Army]] split anarchists. The syndicalists were criticized harshly because most supported the Bolshevik regime in the war even as they excoriated Bolshevik policy. They reasoned that a White victory would be worse and that the Whites had to be defeated before a third revolution could topple the Bolsheviks.{{Sfnm|1a1=Avrich|1y=1967|1pp=195–196|2a1=Thorpe|2y=1989|2p=162}}{{refn|group=note|Schapiro served in the [[Commissariat of Foreign Affairs]] whilst remaining a committed syndicalist and moderate critic of the regime. Shatov fought in the [[Red Army]] and eventually abandoned syndicalism. A number of anarchists fell in the Russian Civil War.{{Sfnm|1a1=Avrich|1y=1967|1pp=197–199|2a1=Thorpe|2y=1989|2pp=162–163}}}} Despite this, syndicalists were harassed and repeatedly arrested by the police, particularly the [[Cheka]], from 1919 on. Their demands had some sway with workers and dissidents within the Bolshevik party and the Bolshevik leadership viewed them as the most dangerous part of the libertarian movement.{{Sfnm|1a1=Avrich|1y=1967|1pp=222–225|2a1=Thorpe|2y=1989|2pp=163–164}} After the Russian Civil War ended, workers and sailors, including both anarchists and Bolsheviks, rose up in what came to be known as the [[Kronstadt rebellion]] of 1921, with Kronstadt being a bastion of radicalism since 1905, against what they saw as the rule of a small number of bureaucrats. Anarchists hailed the rebellion as the start of the third revolution. The government reacted by having anarchists throughout the country arrested, including a number of syndicalist leaders. The Russian syndicalist movement was thereby defeated.{{Sfn|Avrich|1967|pp=228–231, 239}}

Syndicalists in the West who had opposed World War I reacted gushingly to the Russian Revolution.{{refn|group=note|Pro-war syndicalists in the CGT instead viewed the revolution as treason because the Bolsheviks withdrew Russia from the war. De Ambris and the syndicalist supporters of war in Italy also denounced the upheaval as a challenge to nationalism.{{Sfn|Thorpe|1989|pp=92–93}}}} Although they were still coming to grips with the evolving Bolshevik ideology and despite traditional anarchist suspicions of Marxism, they saw in Russia a revolution that had taken place against parliamentary politics and under the influence of workers' councils. At this point, they also had only limited knowledge of the reality in Russia. [[Augustin Souchy]], a German anarcho-syndicalist, hailed it "the great passion that swept us all along. In the East, so we believed, the sun of freedom rose." The Spanish CNT declared: "Bolshevism is the name, but the idea is that of all revolutions: economic freedom. ... Bolshevism is the new life for which we struggle, it is freedom, harmony, justice, it is the life that we want and will enforce in the world." Borghi recalled: "We exulted in its victories. We trembled at its risks. ... We made a symbol and an altar of its name, its dead, its living and its heroes."{{Sfnm|1a1=Thorpe|1y=1989|1pp=92–93|2a1=Tosstorf|2y=2009|2pp=14–15}} He called on Italians to "do as they did in Russia".{{Sfn|Darlington|2008|p=140}} Indeed, a revolutionary wave, inspired in part by Russia, swept Europe in the following years.{{Sfnm|1a1=Darlington|1y=2009|1p=187|2a1=Eley|2y=2002|2pp=138, 152–155}}

In Germany, strikes and protests against food shortage, mainly by women, escalated and by 1917 had eroded public confidence in the government. The [[abdication of Wilhelm II]] in November 1918 after the [[Kiel mutiny]] by sailors sparked an insurrectionary movement throughout the country that led to the [[German Revolution of 1918–19]].{{Sfn|Eley|2002|pp=136–138, 153–154, 165}} The syndicalist FVdG, which had just 6,000 members before the war and was almost completely suppressed by the state during the war, regrouped at a conference in Berlin in December 1918.{{Sfnm|1a1=Thorpe|1y=2001|1p=6|2a1=Bock|2y=1969|2pp=33, 86, 102–103}} It was active in the revolutionary events of the following years, particularly in the [[Ruhr area]]. It supported spontaneous strikes and championed direct action and sabotage. The FVdG started to be held in high regard for its radicalism by workers, particularly miners, who appreciated the syndicalists' ability to theorize their struggles and their experience with direct action methods. Starting in the second half of 1919, workers disappointed by the socialist party's and unions' support for the war and previously non-unionized unskilled workers who were radicalized during the war flocked to the FVdG.{{Sfn|Bock|1969|pp=105, 108–109, 118–120}} The revolution also saw the introduction to Germany of industrial unionism along the lines of the IWW with some support from the American organization but also with links to the left wing of the [[Communist Party of Germany]].{{Sfn|Bock|1969|pp=124–126}} In December 1919, the [[Free Workers' Union of Germany]] (Syndicalists) ({{lang|de|Freie Arbeiter-Union Deutschlands (Syndikalisten)}}, FAUD) was formed, claiming to represent over 110,000 workers, more than eighteen times the FVdG's pre-war membership. Most of the new organization came from the FVdG, although industrial unionists, whose influence was dwindling, were also involved. [[Rudolf Rocker]], an anarchist recently returned to Germany after spending several years in London, wrote the FAUD's program.{{Sfnm|1a1=Bock|1y=1969|1pp=105–106, 155–156|2a1=Thorpe|2y=2001|2p=19}}
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Class struggle peaked in Italy in the years 1919–1920, which became known as the {{lang|it|[[biennio rosso]]}} or red biennium. Throughout this wave of labor radicalism, syndicalists, along with anarchists, formed the most consistently revolutionary faction on the left as socialists sought to rein in workers and prevent unrest.{{Sfn|Bertrand|1982|pp=383–385}} The Italian syndicalist movement had split during the war, as the syndicalist supporters of Italian intervention left USI. The interventionists, led by Alceste de Ambris and Edmondo Rossoni, formed the {{ill|Italian Union of Labor (1918–1925)|lt=Italian Union of Labor|it|Unione Italiana del Lavoro (1918-1925)}} ({{lang|it|Unione Italiana del Lavoro}}, UIL) in 1918. The UIL's [[national syndicalism]] emphasized workers' love of labor, self-sacrifice, and the nation rather than [[anti-capitalist]] class struggle.{{Sfnm|1a1=Levy|1y=2000|1p=213|2a1=Roberts|2y=1979|2p=177}} Both USI and the UIL grew significantly during the {{lang|it|biennio rosso}}.{{Sfn|Bertrand|1982|p=383}} The first [[factory occupation]] of the {{lang|it|biennio}} was carried out by the UIL at a steel plant in [[Dalmine]] in February 1919, before the military put an end to it.{{Sfnm|1a1=Levy|1y=2000|1p=246|2a1=Bertrand|2y=1982|2pp=387–388}} In July, a strike movement spread through Italy, culminating in a general strike on 20 July. While USI supported it and was convinced by the workers' enthusiasm that revolution could be possible, the UIL and the socialists were opposed. The socialists succeeded in curtailing the general strike and it imploded with a day. The government, unsettled by the radicalism on display, reacted with repression against the far left and concessions to workers and peasants.{{Sfn|Bertrand|1982|pp=390–391}}

In Portugal, working class unrest picked up from the start of the war. In 1917, radicals began to dominate the labor movement as a result of the war, the ''[[Sidónio Pais]]'' dictatorship established that year, and the influence of the Russian Revolution. The [[1918 Portugal general strike]] was called for November but failed, and in 1919 the syndicalist [[General Confederation of Labour (Portugal)|General Confederation of Labour]] ({{lang|pt|Confederação Geral do Trabalho}}, CGT) was formed as the country's first national union confederation.{{Sfn|Bayerlein|van der Linden|1990|pp=159–161}}

[[File:São Paulo (Greve de 1917).jpg|thumb|The [[1917 Brazilian general strike]] in São Paulo]]
In Brazil, in both Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, syndicalists, along with anarchists and socialists, were leaders in the [[1917–1919 Brazil strike movement]] and cycle of labor struggles. It included a general strike in 1917, a failed uprising in 1918 inspired by the Russian Revolution, and a number of smaller strikes. The movement was put down by increased organization by employers to resist workers' demands and by government repression, including the closure of unions, arrests, deportations of foreign militants, and violence, with some 200 workers killed in São Paulo alone.{{Sfnm|1a1=Batalha|1y=2017|1pp=92–98|2a1=Toledo|2a2=Biondi|2y=2010|2pp=387–391}} In Argentina, FORA had split into the [[anarcho-communist]] FORA V and the syndicalist FORA IX. While FORA V called for a futile general strike in 1915, FORA IX was more careful. It called off general strikes it had planned in 1917 and 1918. In January 1919, five workers were by the authorities during a strike led by a union with tenuous links to FORA V. At the funeral, police killed another 39 workers. Both FORA organizations called for a general strike, which continued after FORA IX reached a settlement. Vigilantes, supported by business and the military, attacked unions and militants. In all, between 100 and 700 people died in what became known as the [[Tragic Week (Argentina)|Tragic Week]]. Nevertheless, strikes continued to increase and both FORA V and IX grew.{{Sfn|Thompson|1990|pp=169, 174–178}}

The United States underwent an increase in labor militancy during the post-war period. 1919 saw the [[Seattle general strike]], large miners' strikes, the [[Boston police strike]], and the nationwide [[steel strike of 1919]]. The IWW had been nearly destroyed in the previous two years by local [[criminal syndicalism]] laws, the federal government, and vigilante violence. It attempted to take credit for some of the strikes, although in reality it was too weak to play a significant role. The [[First Red Scare]] intensified the attacks on the IWW; by the end of 1919, the IWW was practically powerless.{{Sfnm|1a1=Darlington|1y=2006|1pp=999–1000|2a1=Darlington|2y=2008|2pp=162–163|3a1=Dubofsky|3y=1969|3pp=452–456}} 1919 also saw the [[Canadian labour revolt]], leading to the formation of One Big Union, which was only partly industrial unionist.{{Sfn|Bercuson|1990|pp=221, 230}}
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