Editing Syndicalism (section)

== Principles ==
Syndicalism was not informed by theory or a systematically elaborated ideology the same way socialism was by [[Marxism]]. [[Émile Pouget]], a CGT leader, maintained: "What sets syndicalism apart from the various schools of socialism{{spaced ndash}} and makes it superior{{spaced ndash}} is its doctrinal sobriety. Inside the unions, there is little philosophising. They do better than that: they act!" Similarly, [[Andreu Nin]] of the Spanish CNT proclaimed in 1919: "I am a fanatic of action, of revolution. I believe in actions more than in remote ideologies and abstract questions." Although workers' education was important at least to committed activists, syndicalists distrusted bourgeois intellectuals, wanting to maintain workers' control over the movement. Syndicalist thinking was elaborated in pamphlets, leaflets, speeches, and articles and in the movement's own newspapers. These writings consisted mainly in calls to action and discussions of tactics in class struggle.{{Sfnm|1a1=Darlington|1y=2008|1pp=18–20|2a1=Thorpe|2y=1989|2pp=14–15}} The philosopher [[Georges Sorel]]'s ''[[Reflections on Violence]]'' introduced syndicalist ideas to a broader audience. Sorel presented himself as the premier theorist of syndicalism and was frequently thought of as such but was not a part of the movement, and his influence on syndicalism was insignificant, except in Italy and Poland.{{Sfnm|1a1=Darlington|1y=2008|1p=18|2a1=Chwedoruk|2y=2010|2p=142|3a1=Ridley|3y=1970|3p=249}}

The extent to which syndicalist positions reflected merely the views of leaders and to what extent those positions were shared by syndicalist organizations' rank-and-file is a matter of dispute. Commenting on French syndicalism, the historian [[Peter Stearns]] concludes that most workers did not identify with syndicalism's long-range goals, and that syndicalist hegemony accounts for the relatively slow growth of the French labor movement as a whole. He says that workers who joined the syndicalist movement were on the whole indifferent to doctrinal questions, their membership in syndicalist organizations was partly accidental, and leaders were unable to convert workers to syndicalist ideas.{{Sfn|Stearns|1971|pp=35–38, 100–101}} Frederick Ridley, a political scientist, is more equivocal. According to him, leaders were very influential in the drafting of syndicalist ideas. Syndicalism was more than a mere tool of a few leaders, and was a genuine product of the French labor movement.{{Sfn|Ridley|1970|pp=182–184}} Darlington adds that most members in the Irish ITGWU were won over by the union's philosophy of direct action.{{Sfn|Darlington|2008|p=48}} Altena argues that, even though evidence of ordinary workers' convictions is scant, it indicates that they were aware of doctrinal differences between various currents in the labor movement and able to defend their own views. He observes that they likely understood syndicalist newspapers and debated political issues.{{Sfn|Altena|2010|pp=189–190}}

''Syndicalism'' is used by some interchangeably with ''anarcho-syndicalism''. This term was first used in 1907 by socialists criticizing the political neutrality of the CGT, although it was rarely used until the early 1920s when [[communists]] used it disparagingly. Only from 1922 was it used by self-avowed anarcho-syndicalists.{{Sfnm|1a1=Darlington|1y=2009|1pp=29–30, 32–33|2a1=Thorpe|2y=2010b|2p=17|3a1=Berry|3y=2002|3p=134}} Although syndicalism has traditionally been seen as a current within anarchism,{{Sfnm|1a1=McKay|1y=2012|1p=97|2a1=Darlington|2y=2009|2p=29}} it was dominated in some countries by Marxists rather than anarchists. This was the case in Italy and much of the Anglophone world, including Ireland where anarchists had no significant influence on syndicalism.{{Sfnm|1a1=O'Connor|1y=2010|1p=195|2a1=Zimmer|2y=2018|2p=360}} The extent to which syndicalist doctrine was a product of anarchism is debated. The anarchist Iain McKay argues that ''syndicalism'' is but a new name for ideas and tactics developed by Bakunin and the anarchist wing of the First International, while it is wholly inconsistent with positions Marx and Engels took. According to him, the fact that many Marxists embraced syndicalism merely indicates that they abandoned Marx's views and converted to Bakunin's.{{Sfn|McKay|2012|pp=97–98}} Altena too views syndicalism as part of the broader anarchist movement but concedes there was a tension between this and the fact that it was also a labor movement. He also sees Marxist ideas reflected in the movement, as leading syndicalists, such as [[Ferdinand Domela Nieuwenhuis]] and [[Christiaan Cornelissen]], and much of the Australian syndicalist movement were influenced by them, as well as older socialist notions.{{Sfn|Altena|2010|pp=188, 191–194}} According to Darlington, anarchism, Marxism, and revolutionary trade unionism equally contributed to syndicalism, in addition to various influences in specific countries, including [[Blanquism]], [[anti-clericalism]], [[republicanism]], and [[agrarian radicalism]].{{Sfn|Darlington|2009|pp=46–48}}

=== Critique of capitalism and the state ===
[[File:Pyramid of Capitalist System.jpg|thumb|The ''Pyramid of Capitalist System'' from 1911 illustrates the [[IWW]]'s critique of capitalism.]]
[[Bill Haywood]], an American syndicalist and leading figure in the IWW, defined the union's purpose at the [[First Convention of the Industrial Workers of the World]] as "the emancipation of the working class from the slave bondage of capitalism". Syndicalists held that society was divided into two great classes, the working class and the bourgeoisie. Their interests being irreconcilable, they must be in a constant state of [[class struggle]]. [[Tom Mann]], a British syndicalist, declared that "the object of the unions is to wage the Class War". According to syndicalist doctrine, this war was aimed not just at gaining concessions such as higher wages or a shorter working day but at the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism.{{Sfn|Darlington|2008|pp=21–22}}

Syndicalists agreed with [[Karl Marx]]'s characterization of the [[State (polity)|state]] as the "executive committee of the ruling class". They held that a society's economic order determined its political order and concluded that the former could not be overthrown by changes to the latter. Nevertheless, a number of leading syndicalist figures worked in political parties and some ran for elected office. Larkin was active in the [[Labour Party (Ireland)|Labour Party]], while Haywood was part of the [[Socialist Party of America]]. Both of them saw the economic sphere as the primary arena for revolutionary struggle, and involvement in politics could at best be an echo of industrial struggle. They were skeptical of parliamentary politics. According to [[Thomas Hagerty]], a Catholic priest and IWW leader, "dropping pieces of paper into a hole in a box never did achieve emancipation for the working class, and to my thinking it will never achieve it." Syndicalist trade unions declared their political neutrality and autonomy from political parties. Syndicalists reasoned that political parties grouped people according to their political views, uniting members of different classes, while unions were to be purely working-class organizations, uniting the entire class, and could therefore not be divided on political grounds. The French syndicalist Pouget explained: "The CGT embraces{{spaced ndash}} outside of all the schools of politics{{spaced ndash}} all workers cognisant of the struggle to be waged for the elimination of wage-slavery and the employer class." In practice, this neutrality was more ambiguous. For example, the CGT worked with the [[French Section of the Workers' International]] in the struggle against the [[Three-Year Law of 1913]], which extended conscription. During the [[Spanish Civil War]], the CNT, whose policy barred anyone who had been a candidate for political office or had participated in political endeavors from representing it, was intimately connected with the [[Iberian Anarchist Federation]] ({{lang|es|Federación Anarquista Ibérica}}, FAI).{{Sfn|Darlington|2008|pp=22–28}}
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=== Views on class struggle ===
[[File:1906 - Grève pour les 8 heures.jpg|thumb|{{lang|fr|Bourse du travail}} in Paris during a strike for the eight-hour day in 1906]]
In the syndicalist conception, unions played a dual role. They were organs of struggle within capitalism for better working conditions, and they were also to play a key role in the revolution to overthrow capitalism. [[Victor Griffuelhes]] expressed this at the CGT's 1906 congress in the following manner: "In its day-to-day demands, syndicalism seeks the co-ordination of workers' efforts, the increase of workers' well-being by the achievement of immediate improvements, such as the reduction of working hours, the increase of wages, etc. But this task is only one aspect of the work of syndicalism; it prepares for complete emancipation, which can be realised only by expropriating the capitalist class." For unions to fulfill this role, it was necessary to prevent bureaucrats{{spaced ndash}} "whose sole purpose in life seems to be apologising for and defending the capitalist system of exploitation", according to Larkin{{spaced ndash}} from inhibiting workers' militant zeal. Battling bureaucracy and reformism within the labor movement was a major theme for syndicalists. One expression of this was many syndicalists' rejection of [[collective bargaining agreements]], which were thought to force labor peace upon workers and break their solidarity. The Wobblie [[Vincent St. John]] declared: "There is but one bargain that the Industrial Workers of the World will make with the employing class{{spaced ndash}} complete surrender of the means of production." The [[Argentine Regional Workers' Federation]] ({{lang|es|Federación Obrera Regional Argentina}}, FORA) and the OBU accepted such deals, and others began accepting them eventually. Similarly, syndicalist unions did not work to build large strike funds, for fear that they would create bureaucracy separate from the rank-and-file and instill in workers the expectation that the union rather than they would wage the class struggle.{{Sfnm|1a1=Darlington|1y=2008|1pp=28–31|2a1=van der Linden|2a2=Thorpe|2y=1990|2p=19}}

[[File:Anarchist black cat.svg|thumb|The black cat used by the [[Wobblies]] as a symbol for [[sabotage]]{{Sfn|Darlington|2008|p=35}}]]
Syndicalists advocated [[direct action]], including [[working to rule]], passive resistance, sabotage, and strikes, particularly the general strike, as tactics in the class struggle, as opposed to indirect action such as electoral politics. The IWW engaged in around 30 mostly successful civil disobedience campaigns they deemed [[free speech fights]]. Wobblies would defy laws restricting public speeches, in order to clog up prisons and court systems as a result of hundreds of arrests, ultimately forcing public officials to rescind such laws. Sabotage ranged from slow or inefficient work to destruction of machinery and physical violence. French railway and postal workers cut telegraph and signal lines during strikes in 1909 and 1910.{{Sfn|Darlington|2008|pp=32–39}}

The final step towards revolution according to syndicalists would be a general strike. According to Griffuelhes, it would be "the curtain drop on a tired old scene of several centuries, and the curtain raising on another".{{Sfn|Darlington|2008|pp=39–42}} Syndicalists remained vague about the society they envisioned to replace capitalism, stating that it was impossible to foresee in detail. Labor unions were seen as being the embryo of a new society in addition to being the means of struggle within the old. Syndicalists generally agreed that in a free society production would be managed by workers. The state apparatus would be replaced by the rule of workers' organizations. In such a society, individuals would be liberated in the economic sphere but also in their private and social lives.{{Sfn|Darlington|2008|pp=42–45}}
<!-- To-do: Flesh out last two paragraphs, check what other authors have to say (Thorpe, The Workers Themselves), industrial vs craft unionist discussion (Peterson: The One Big Union in International Perspective, ...). -->

=== Gender ===
[[File:Elizabeth Gurley Flynn point.jpg|thumb|left|170px|[[Elizabeth Gurley Flynn]], a Wobbly organizer]]
Syndicalist policies on gender issues were mixed. The CNT did not admit women as members until 1918. The CGT dismissed feminism as a bourgeois movement. Syndicalists were mostly indifferent to the question of [[women's suffrage]]. [[Elizabeth Gurley Flynn]], an IWW organizer, insisted that women "find their power at the point of production where they work" rather than at the ballot box.{{Sfn|Darlington|2008|pp=105–106}} Of the 230 delegates present at the founding of Canada's One Big Union, a mere 3 were women. When a female radical criticized the masculinist atmosphere at the meeting, she was rebuffed by men who insisted that labor only concern itself with class rather than gender issues.{{Sfn|McCallum|1998|pp=15–16}} The historian Todd McCallum concludes that syndicalists in the OBU advocated values of "radical manhood".{{Sfn|McCallum|1998|p=41}}

[[File:Baginski, Was will der Syndikalismus?.jpg|thumb|Cover of "Was will der Syndikalismus?" ("What does Syndicalism want?"), a pamphlet written by [[Max Baginski]] and published by German syndicalists]]
Francis Shor argues that the "IWW promotion of sabotage represents a kind of masculine posturing which directly challenged the individualizing techniques of power mobilized by industrial capitalism". Thus, "the IWW's masculine identity incorporated features of working-class solidarity and protest ... through 'virile' syndicalism." For example, while defending a black fellow worker against a racist insult, an IWW organizer in Louisiana insisted that "he is a man, a union man, an IWW—a MAN! ... and he has proven it by his action." During World War I, one of the IWW's [[anti-war]] slogans was "Don't Be a Soldier! Be a Man!"{{Sfn|Shor|1999|pp=67–68, 73}} In some cases, syndicalist attitudes towards women changed. In 1901, the CGT's agricultural union in southern France was hostile to women; by 1909, this had changed. The CNT, initially hostile to independent women's organizations, worked closely with the libertarian feminist organization {{lang|es|[[Mujeres Libres]]}} during the Spanish Civil War.{{Sfn|Gemie|1996|p=433}} According to the historian Sharif Gemie, the male orientation of parts of the syndicalist labor movement reflected the ideas of the anarchist [[Pierre-Joseph Proudhon]], who defended patriarchy because women, of their own accord, are "chained to nature".{{Sfn|Gemie|1996|pp=422–424}}
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<!-- === Immigration, race and colonialism ===
On race/colonialism: Darlington, van der Walt on South Africa, Burgmann on Australia, US: Fickle: Race, Class and Radicalism (maybe whiteness scholars, Roediger?), Peter Cole: Wobblies on the Waterfront, maybe something on Ireland

On immigration: Darlington. -->