Editing Syndicalism (section)

== Decline ==
From the early 1920s, the traditional syndicalist movements in most countries began to wane; state repression played a role, although movements that were not suppressed also declined. According to van der Linden and Thorpe, syndicalist organizations saw themselves as having three options: they could stay true to their revolutionary principles and be marginalized, they could give up those principles in order to adapt to new conditions, or they could disband or merge into non-syndicalist organizations.{{Sfn|van der Linden|Thorpe|1990|pp=4–5, 17–18}}{{refn|group=note|The Swedish SAC initially chose the first option. As an increasing number of workers left to join the mainstream unions, it changed course and became increasingly reformist. In the 1930s, unemployment funds were set up in Sweden, managed by unions but with significant contributions from the state. The SAC initially refused to participate but the ensuing loss in membership forced the SAC to give in. SAC membership then started to slowly rise.{{Sfn|van der Linden|Thorpe|1990|pp=18–19}}}} The [[Spanish Revolution of 1936]] resulted in the widespread implementation of anarcho-syndicalist and more broadly socialist organizational principles throughout various portions of the country for two to three years, primarily [[Catalonia]], [[Aragon]], [[Andalusia]], and parts of the [[Levante, Spain|Levante]], with the main union organization of the [[Republican faction (Spanish Civil War)|Republican faction]] being the CNT. Much of Spain's economy was put under workers' control before the [[Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War)|Nationalist faction]] won the civil war and suppressed them. By the end of the 1930s, meaningful legal syndicalist organizations existed only in Bolivia, Chile, Sweden and Uruguay.{{Sfn|van der Walt|2018|p=261}} <!-- Flesh out syndicalist analysis of and resistance against fascism/right-wing dictatorships:
de Jong
Graf: Anarchisten gegen Hitler
Something on Spain
Italy?, Portugal?, maybe Argentina. -->Syndicalists were involved in the [[anti-fascist]] movements of [[resistance during World War II]] in several countries, including Germany,{{Sfn|Graf|2001|pp=38–59}}{{refn|group=note|In Germany, the FAUD had already been reduced to a small organization, with a membership of just over 4,000 in 1932.{{Sfn|Graf|2001|p=36}} [[Augustin Souchy]] had urged his comrades to prepare for illegality and the FAUD congress in 1932 had made plans for this. When the [[Nazis]] took power in January 1933, most local groups preemptively dissolved and hid their money and other resources to use them in their illegal work.{{Sfn|Graf|2001|pp=38–29}} On 9 March 1933, shortly after the [[Reichstag fire]], the FAUD's headquarters in Berlin were searched by the police and ten people were arrested. As the ''[[SS]]'' and ''[[Sturmabteilung|SA]]'' rounded up opponents of Nazism, many syndicalists were put in prisons, concentration camps, and torture chambers.{{Sfn|Graf|2001|pp=40–41}} Syndicalists distributed a number of newspapers, pamphlets, and leaflets, some smuggled from the Netherlands and Czechoslovakia, some printed in Germany. They passed information on the situation in Germany to their fellow syndicalists abroad.{{Sfn|Graf|2001|pp=48–49, 53}} They organized clandestine meetings to coordinate their activities and build an underground resistance network.{{Sfn|Graf|2001|pp=51–52}} Illegal syndicalist activity peaked in 1934; by late 1934, the [[Gestapo]] started to infiltrate the underground organization and another round of arrests began. Although the start of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 briefly revitalized syndicalist activity, the syndicalist network was ultimately crushed by the Gestapo by 1937 or 1938. Most syndicalists who had not been arrested gave up at this point.{{Sfn|Graf|2001|pp=53, 55–56}} Several dozen German syndicalists went into exile and some ended up in Barcelona, working for the CNT and fighting in the Spanish Civil War.{{Sfn|Graf|2001|pp=58–59}}}} France,{{Sfn|Berry|2001|pp=78–81}}{{refn|group=note|In France, many syndicalists were involved in the [[French Resistance]].{{Sfn|Berry|2001|p=78}} For instance, Georges Gourdin, an activist in the CGT's Technicians' Federation, organized links between other syndicalists and anarchists, and aided them and other refugees in escaping the Gestapo. He was arrested by the Gestapo in 1944, tortured without giving up any information, and died at a camp near [[Nordhausen, Thuringia]].{{Sfn|Berry|2001|pp=79}} Another of the best known French resisters was [[Jean-René Saulière]], who organized a resistance group that included the exiled Russian syndicalist [[Volin]]. The same day Toulouse was liberated in August 1944, a leaflet titled ''Manifesto of the Anarcho-Syndicalist Libertarian Groups'' was distributed by Saulière's network throughout the city.{{Sfn|Berry|2001|pp=80–81}}}} and Poland.{{Sfn|Chwedoruk|2010|pp=158–160}}{{refn|group=note|In Poland, syndicalists were among the first to organize the [[Polish resistance movement in World War II]] against Nazism. In October 1939, they formed the [[Union of Polish Syndicalists]] (ZSP) with 2,000 to 4,000 members. It published newspapers but also had fighting units in the resistance. In 1942, it joined the [[Home Army]] (AK) led by the [[Polish government-in-exile]]. Syndicalists also formed the [[Syndicalist Organization "Freedom"]] (SOW), which comprised several hundred activists and also had combatant units.{{Sfn|Chwedoruk|2010|pp=158–160}} The ZSP and the SOW were involved in the [[Warsaw Uprising]] of 1944. They formed the [[104th Company of Syndicalists]], a military unit consisting of several hundred soldiers who wore red and black bands, and hung red and black flags on the building they captured.{{Sfn|Chwedoruk|2010|p=160}}}}

Syndicalism's decline was the result of a number of factors. In Russia, Italy, Portugal, Germany, Spain, and the Netherlands, syndicalist movements were suppressed by authoritarian governments. The IWW in the United States and the Mexican House of the World Worker were weakened considerably by state repression. Syndicalist movements that were not suppressed also declined. According to van der Linden and Thorpe, this was primarily the result of the integration of the working class into capitalist relations. Proletarian families became units of individualized consumption as standards of living increased. This was partly the result of [[state intervention]], particularly the emergence of the [[welfare state]].{{Sfn|van der Linden|Thorpe|1990|pp=17–18}} Avenues for [[social reform]] opened up and the franchise was widened, giving parliamentary reformism legitimacy.{{Sfn|Darlington|2008|pp=177–179}} Altena agrees that the state's growing influence in society was decisive for syndicalism's diminished influence. In addition to the welfare state, he refers to the increased significance of national policies, which eroded local autonomy. This made centralized unions able to negotiate national agreements more important and national and parliamentary politics more enticing for workers. They therefore turned to social democracy in larger numbers. Additionally, Altena says that syndicalism lost out to sports and entertainment in the cultural sphere.{{Sfn|Altena|2010|pp=217–219}}

Vadim Damier adds to this that the development of capitalist production and changes in the division of labor diminished syndicalism's recruitment base.{{Sfn|Altena|2010|p=217}} According to authors like Stearns, Edward Shorter, [[Charles Tilly]], and Bob Holton, who deem syndicalism a transitional form of workers' resistance between older craft-based artisanship and modern factory-based industry, syndicalism's decline was a product of that transition having been completed and workers being assimilated to capitalist factory discipline.{{Sfn|Darlington|2008|pp=158–159}} Darlington counters that syndicalism attracted a variety of workers, not just artisans and skilled workers; he concedes that such changes played a role in Spain, France, and some other countries.{{Sfn|Darlington|2008|pp=159–160}}

Several authors argue that syndicalism's demise was the result of workers' inherent pragmatism or conservatism, causing them to only be interested in immediate material gains rather than long-term goals like overthrowing capitalism. [[Robert Hoxie]], [[Selig Perlman]], and Patrick Renshaw invoke this argument to explain the IWW's decline, while Stearns, [[Dermot Keogh]], and [[G. D. H. Cole]] do so with respect to French, Irish, and British syndicalism, respectively.{{Sfn|Darlington|2008|pp=145–146}} Darlington disputes the assumption that workers are incapable of developing a revolutionary consciousness. He says that seeking material gains is not incompatible with developing class consciousness, which entails the awareness that workers' material interests conflict with capitalism, particularly in times of crisis.{{Sfn|Darlington|2008|pp=151–152}}

According to many Marxists, syndicalism was a reaction to reformism in the labor movement and could not survive without it. The collapse of reformism after the war therefore automatically weakened syndicalism. According to [[Eric Hobsbawm]], the biggest reason for syndicalism's decline was the rise of communism. Several communist parties drew their cadres from the syndicalists' ranks. To radical workers, the programmatic distinctions between syndicalism and communism were not all that relevant. The key is that, after the war, communism represented militancy or revolutionary attitude as such.{{Sfn|Hobsbawm|1999|pp=69, 73–74}} Darlington also sees the effects of the Russian Revolution as an important reason for the decline of syndicalism. Darlington argues that the emergence of communism highlighted syndicalism's inherent weaknesses: the contradiction of building organizations that sought to be both revolutionary cadre organizations and mass labour unions, the emphasis on economic struggle to the detriment of political action and the commitment to localism limiting its ability to provide an effective centralized organization and leadership. Darlington  claims the Bolsheviks overcame these limitations and its success in Russia drew syndicalist leaders and members. It also exacerbated splits within the syndicalist camp.{{Sfn|Darlington|2008|p=167}}