Editing Syndicalism (section)

=== 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}}
<!-- To-do: Check what other authors have to say on this; Sources: Thorpe, The Workers Themselves,... Maybe distinction between anarcho-syndicalism and pure syndicalism (Zimmer 2018). -->