SYNDICALISM

'Syndicalism' refers to a set of ideas, movements, and tendencies which share the avowed aim of transforming capitalist society through action by the working class on the industrial front. For syndicalists, labor unions are the potential means both of overcoming capitalism and of running society in the interests of the majority. Industry and government in a syndicalist society would be run by labour union federations.

Contents

Introduction

Criticisms of syndicalism

Economic criticisms

Political criticisms

Prominent syndicalists

French syndicalists

Scottish syndicalists

German syndicalists

Italian syndicalists

Spanish syndicalists

American syndicalists

See also

External links

Bibliography

Introduction

This emphasis on ''industrial'' organization was a distinguishing feature of syndicalism when it began to be identified as a distinct current at the beginning of the twentieth century. Most socialist organisations of that period emphasised the importance of ''political'' action through party organizations as a means of bringing about socialism. Although all syndicalists emphasize industrial organization, not all reject political action altogether. For example, De Leonists and some other Industrial Unionists advocate parallel organisation both politically and industrially.
''Syndicalisme'' is a French word meaning "trade unionism". This milder version of syndicalism was overshadowed by revolutionary anarcho-syndicalism in the early 20th century, which was most powerful in Spain, but also appeared in other parts of the world, as in the U.S.-centered Industrial Workers of the World.
In a model syndicalist community, the local syndicate communicates with other syndicates through the ''Bourse de Travail'' (labour exchange), which manages and transfers commodities.
Syndicalism is one of the three most common ideologies of egalitarian, pre-managed economic and labour structure, together with socialism and communism. It states, on an ethical basis, that all participants in an organized trade internally share equal ownership of its production and therefore deserve equal earnings and benefits within that trade, regardless of position or duty. By contrast, socialism emphasises distributing output among trades as required by each trade, not necessarily considering how trades organize internally. Syndicalism is compatible with privatism, unlike communism. Communism rejects government-sanctioned private ownership and private earnings in favor of making all property legally public, and therefore directly and solely managed by the people themselves. In Syndicalism, unions are the basis for the future society rather than simply means of attaining that society.
Syndicalists often form alliances with other workers' movements, including socialism, communism, and anarchism.

Criticisms of syndicalism

A number of open questions, both economic and political, exist about syndicalism because as a social system, as it has never come into widespread existence and so has never been tested in practice.

Economic criticisms

A common question is the relationship that will exist between unions. Will they compete between themselves for resources (money, workers, land, materials, etc)? if so, their behaviour will at least partially appear to be mutually antagonistic, which appears to conflict with the nominal ideal of co-operative management between unions.
Unions themselves in their existing form are in fact inherently antagonistic to their own ideals. Notionally a union is the organisation of a group of individuals to protect themselves from exploitation; in practise, (successful) unions inherently form a monopoly of labour in a given field and so act to increase their own wages - which occurs at the cost of the rest of the society they are in, since everyone else has to pay for this.
A syndicalistic society might come to be composed of a number of unions, each of which attempts to charge the others as much as possible for their services, which would have a very harmful effect on overall economic growth, by making all services and products more expensive than they would otherwise be.

Political criticisms

The most common political question is how State-level decisions would be taken. Given a society based on unions, it would seem logical that union leaders would combine to take major decisions. The drawback with this arrangement is that it places both economic and political power in the same hands, an arragement which historically has invariably led to abuses. For example, a union will have a huge influence over whether or not a given member can work. It might well be that only union members 'can' work in their field. How does a given worker protest against what his union is doing? imagine he has discovered corruption. The criminal parties in the union have a great interest in preventing him exposing their actions. If he does so, he risks all the penalties his union could impose - which could involve preventing him from working, which would be economically devestating.

Prominent syndicalists

French syndicalists

★ Georges Sorel philosopher

★ Fernand Pelloutier leader of the French ''Bourses du Travail'' (Labour Exchange)

★ Emile Pouget Co-leader of the ''Confédération Générale du Travail'' (''CGT'', founded in 1895)

★ Hubert Lagardelle writer

★ ''See also Charter of Amiens (1906)''

Scottish syndicalists

★ John Maclean, political activist and writer

German syndicalists

★ Rudolf Rocker

Italian syndicalists

★ Alceste de Ambris

★ Michele Bianchi

★ Enrico Leone

★ Arturo Labriola

★ Agostino Lanzillo

★ Robert Michels - Although he was German, he moved to Italy and became a revolutionary syndicalist.

★ Sergio Panunzio

Spanish syndicalists

★ Francisco Ascaso

★ Buenaventura Durruti

★ Ángel Pestaña

American syndicalists

★ Bill Haywood

★ Daniel De Leon

★ Joe Hill

★ Ralph Chaplin

★ Noam Chomsky

★ Sam Dolgoff

See also

★ Anarchism

★ Democratic socialism

★ De Leonism

★ Trade unionism

★ Council communism

★ Industrial Workers of the World (IWW, the "Wobblies")

★ Anarcho-syndicalism

★ National syndicalism

External links

★ AnarchoSyndicalism.net

★ Rudolf Rocker, a major proponent of anarcho-syndicalism

★ Libertarian Communist Library Archive

★ General Strikes, maps with locations where strikes have occurred; includes resource links

Bibliography

★ ''Anarcho-Syndicalism'', Rudolf Rocker, London, 1989.

★ ''Liberalism and The Challenge of Fascism, Social Forces in England and France (1815-1870)'', J. Salwyn Schapiro, McGraw-Hill Book Co., NY, l949.

★ ''The Anarchists,'' James Joll, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1980.

★ ''The Syndicalist Tradition and Italian Fascism,'' David D. Robert, University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill NC, 1979.

★ Lenny Flank (ed), "IWW: A Documentary History", Red and Black Publishers, St Petersburg, Florida, 2007. ISBN 978-0-9791813-5-1