Italian Government
171-650: Michele Bianchi (22 July 1883 – 3 February 1930) was an Italian revolutionary syndicalist leader who took a position in the Unione Italiana del Lavoro (UIL). He was among the founding members of the Fascist movement . He was widely seen as the dominant leader of the leftist, syndicalist wing of the National Fascist Party . He took an active role in the "interventionist left" where he "espoused an alliance between nationalism and syndicalism." He
342-572: A "tendency to blur the distinctions between industrial unionism, syndicalism, and revolutionary socialism ". Peterson gives a more restrictive definition of syndicalism based on five criteria: This definition excludes the IWW and the Canadian One Big Union (OBU), which sought to unite all workers in one general organization. Peterson proposes the broader category revolutionary industrial unionism to encompass syndicalism, groups like
513-480: 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
684-591: A Fascist rally in Naples : "Our program is simple: we want to rule Italy." On the following day, the Quadrumvirs , Emilio De Bono , Italo Balbo , Michele Bianchi and Cesare Maria de Vecchi , were appointed by Mussolini at the head of the march, while he went to Milan . He did not participate in the march, though he allowed pictures to be taken of him marching along with the Fascist marchers, and he went to Rome
855-476: 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. Syndicalists in the West who had opposed World War I reacted gushingly to
1026-622: 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!" 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
1197-462: 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. 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
1368-649: A crucial part in the events that led the syndicalists out of the PSI—in between the PSI Bologna Congress of 1907 and the first Syndicalist Congress in July 1908 (in Ferrara ). After being arrested several times and travelling throughout Italy, Bianchi became editor of La Scintilla in 1910; he launched the idea that PSI and syndicalists should reunite on electoral lists for the expected administrative elections. He
1539-466: 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 . Nevertheless, strikes continued to increase and both FORA V and IX grew. The United States underwent an increase in labor militancy during the post-war period. 1919 saw
1710-527: A growing numbers of casualties at the front eroded the enthusiasm and patriotism the outbreak of war had aroused. Prices were on the rise, food was scarce, and it became increasingly clear that the war would not be short. In Germany, food shortages led to demonstrations and riots in a number of cities in the summer of 1916. At the same time, anti-war demonstrations started. Strikes picked up from around 1916 or 1917 on across Europe and soldiers began to mutiny . Workers distrusted their socialist leaders who had joined
1881-651: A journal mainly for miners in Charleroi , Belgium, urged its readers to follow "the example of our confederated friends of France". The IWW's newspapers published articles on French syndicalism, particularly the tactic of sabotage and the CGT's La Vie Ouvrière carried articles about Britain's labor movement by the British syndicalist Tom Mann . Migration played a key role in spreading syndicalist ideas. The Argentine Regional Workers' Federation ( Federación Obrera Regional Argentina , FORA), openly anarchist by 1905,
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#17327811867862052-564: A major shareholder in Italian industry, controlling all the capital of the military steel sector, 40% of nonmilitary steel, and 30% of the electrical industry. Back in 1922, in the aftermath of the March on Rome, Mussolini pretended to be willing to take a junior ministry in a Giolitti or Salandra cabinet, but then demanded the presidency of the Council of Ministers. Fearing a conflict with
2223-618: A march on Rome. From their new power base in Milan, the Fascists gathered the financial support of large companies who were determined to fight against "strikes, bolshevism and nationalization". A delegation from the General Confederation of Italian Industry met with Mussolini two days before the March on Rome. Also a few days before the march, Mussolini consulted with the U.S. Ambassador Richard Washburn Child about whether
2394-778: A member of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI), and editor of the Party newspaper Avanti! , presiding over the socialist branch in Rome. A delegate to the Bologna Congress in 1904, he backed the syndicalist line enforced by Arturo Labriola . In 1905, Bianchi renounced his position at Avanti! and took over leadership of the Gioventù socialista (paper of the Federazione dei Giovani Socialisti—youth wing of
2565-463: A minister of his government. To meet the threat posed by the bands of fascist troops now gathering outside Rome, Luigi Facta (who had resigned but continued to hold power) ordered a state of siege for Rome. Having had previous conversations with the King about the repression of fascist violence, he was sure the King would agree. However, King Victor Emmanuel III refused to sign the military order. On
2736-476: A number of labor disputes. Finally, van der Linden and Thorpe point to spatial and geographical factors that shaped the rise of syndicalism. Workers who would otherwise not have had an inclination to syndicalism joined because syndicalism was dominant in their locales. For example, workers in the Canadian and American West were generally more radical and drawn to the IWW and One Big Union than their counterparts in
2907-429: A rather limited practical struggle against World War I, they also looked to challenge the war on an ideological or cultural level. They pointed to the horrors of war and spurned efforts to legitimate it as something noble. German syndicalists drew attention to the death, injury, destruction, and misery that the war wrought. German, Swedish, Dutch, and Spanish syndicalists denounced nationalism with Tierra y Libertad ,
3078-434: 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. The final step towards revolution according to syndicalists would be a general strike. According to Griffuelhes, it would be "the curtain drop on
3249-654: A revolutionary wave, inspired in part by Russia, swept Europe in the following years. 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 . The syndicalist FVdG, which had just 6,000 members before
3420-658: A series of successful strikes in 1913 in Mexico City and central Mexico. After the Constitutionalist Army occupied the capital in 1914, syndicalists allied with the government it established to defeat rural forces such as the Zapatistas and therefore received government support. Once those forces had been suppressed, this alliance broke apart and the Casa campaigned for workers' control of factories and
3591-510: A syndicalist journal in Barcelona, calling it a "grotesque mentality". The Dutch newspaper De Arbeid criticized nationalism, because "it finds its embodiment in the state and is the denial of class antagonism between the haves and the have-nots". German and Spanish syndicalists went further still by putting into question the concept of nationhood itself and dismissing it as a mere social construct. The Germans observed that most inhabitants of
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#17327811867863762-540: A threat to the establishment. Mussolini was asked to form his cabinet on 29 October 1922, while some 25,000 Blackshirts were parading in Rome. Mussolini thus legally reached power, in accordance with the Statuto Albertino , the Italian Constitution. The March on Rome was not the seizure of power which Fascism later celebrated but rather the precipitating force behind a transfer of power within
3933-468: A tired old scene of several centuries, and the curtain raising on another". 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
4104-594: A viable strategy because the general strike became a practical possibility. Although it had been advocated before, there were not sufficient numbers of wage workers to bring society to a standstill and they had not achieved a sufficient degree of organization and solidarity until the 1890s, according van der Linden and Thorpe. Several general or political strikes then took place before World War I: in 1893 and in 1902 in Belgium, in 1902 and in 1909 in Sweden, in 1903 in
4275-490: 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
4446-676: Is a self organizing group working towards a shared interest. The corresponding words in Spanish and Portuguese, sindicato , and Italian, sindacato , are similar. By extension, the French syndicalisme refers to trade unionism in general. The concept of syndicalisme révolutionnaire or revolutionary syndicalism emerged in French socialist journals in 1903, and the French General Confederation of Labor ( Confédération générale du travail , CGT) came to use
4617-632: Is but one bargain that the Industrial Workers of the World will make with the employing class – complete surrender of the means of production." The Argentine Regional Workers' Federation ( 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
4788-624: 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. In Argentina, FORA had split into
4959-943: The Confederacion Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) in Spain, the Italian Syndicalist Union (USI), the Free Workers' Union of Germany (FAUD), and the Argentine Regional Workers' Federation (FORA). Although they did not regard themselves as syndicalists, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) (nicknamed "Wobblies") in the United States, the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union (ITGWU), and
5130-770: The Dublin Lockout . After Larkin left Ireland in 1914, James Connolly took over leadership of the union. Because of the organization's weakness, Connolly allied it along with its paramilitary force, the Irish Citizen Army , with the Irish Republican Brotherhood . Together, they instigated the Easter Rising , seeking to weaken the British Empire and hoping that the insurrection would spread throughout Europe. The uprising
5301-643: The Entente Powers , Bianchi volunteered for service and became a junior officer—first in the Infantry, then in the Artillery. With the end of the war, Bianchi joined Mussolini's Fasci italiani di combattimento , and then the National Fascist Party ( Partito Nazionale Fascista , or PNF). In 1921, he became the PNF secretary, and attempted to join the Fascists with other right-wing movements (while authorizing
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5472-805: 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 ( Federación Anarquista Ibérica , FAI). In
5643-513: The Gran Loggia d'Italia , was also ascertained. On 30 October, the King handed power to Mussolini, who was supported by the military, the business class, and the right wing. The march itself was composed of fewer than 30,000 men, but the King in part feared a civil war since the squadristi had already taken control of the Po plain and most of the country, while Fascism was no longer seen as
5814-433: The Italian Socialist Party (PSI) and the liberal and conservative ruling class. Mussolini suffered a defeat in the election of November 1919 . During the "two red years", there were numerous strikes , protests against rises in the cost of living, occupations of factories and land by industrial workers or agricultural laborers, and other types of clashes between socialists on one side and landowners and business owners on
5985-464: The Kingdom of Italy . In late October 1922, Fascist Party leaders planned a march on the capital. On 28 October, the fascist demonstrators and Blackshirt paramilitaries approached Rome ; Prime Minister Luigi Facta wished to declare a state of siege , but this was overruled by King Victor Emmanuel III , who, fearing bloodshed, persuaded Facta to resign by threatening to abdicate. On 30 October 1922,
6156-687: The Russian Provisional Government . Immediately, anarchist groups emerged. Russian syndicalists organized around the journal Golos Truda ( The Voice of Labor ), which had a circulation of around 25,000, and the Union of Anarcho-Syndicalist Propaganda. 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
6327-526: 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
6498-405: 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
6669-598: The class struggle in the minds of many workers, as these parties were thought to be overly concerned with building the parties themselves and with electoral politics than with the class struggle, and had therefore lost their original revolutionary edge. The socialists preached the inevitability of socialism but were in practice bureaucratic and reformist. Similarly, the trade unions frequently allied with those parties, equally growing in numbers, were denounced for their expanding bureaucracies, their centralization, and for failing to represent workers' interests. Between 1902 and 1913,
6840-519: The nationalization of foreign capital. It contributed to a rise in labor unrest that began in mid-1915. It led general strikes in May and in July–August 1916 in greater Mexico City. The latter was quelled by the army, marking the defeat of the Casa , which was also suppressed. In Portugal, the 5 October 1910 revolution that led to the deposition of the king was followed by a strike wave throughout
7011-414: 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 soviets , and called for the abolition of the police, the army, the bureaucracy, and finally the state – all sentiments syndicalists shared. Although the syndicalists also welcomed
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7182-602: The "life of the town is paralysed, authorities impotent". Similar situations also occurred in other towns across Northern and Central Italy from 1920 to 1922. The police repeatedly failed to intervene against Fascist violence, and in some cases police officers openly supported the Fascists and supplied them with weapons. In the 1921 general election the Fascists ran within the National Blocs of Giovanni Giolitti , an anti-socialist coalition of liberals, conservatives and fascists. The Fascists won 35 seats and Mussolini
7353-452: The 1915 Zimmerwald conference . They faced considerable difficulties putting up meaningful resistance against the war. The government called up militants to the Army, including Monatte, who considered refusing the order and being summarily executed; he decided this would be futile. Syndicalist organizations in other countries nearly unanimously opposed the war. In neutral Spain, José Negre of
7524-548: 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 ; 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
7695-637: The American section of the First International, had in the Chicago labor movement of the 1880s. They were involved in the nationwide struggle for an eight-hour day . On 3 May 1886, the police killed three striking workers at a demonstration in Chicago. Seven policemen and four workers were killed the following day when someone, possibly a police member, threw a bomb into the crowd. Four anarchists were eventually executed for allegedly conspiring to
7866-479: The Australian syndicalist movement were influenced by them, as well as older socialist notions. 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 . Bill Haywood , an American syndicalist and leading figure in
8037-770: The Blackshirt militia was used to break the general strike which started at the Alfa Romeo factory in Milan , while in November 1920, after the assassination of Giulio Giordani (a right-wing municipal councillor in Bologna ), the Blackshirts were active in the suppression of the socialist movement, which included a strong anarcho-syndicalist component, especially in the Po Valley . Local elections in 1920 were won by
8208-427: The Blackshirts, but he failed; while the Pact with the Socialists was nullified during the Third Fascist Congress on 7–10 November 1921, during which Mussolini promoted a nationalist program and renamed his movement National Fascist Party (PNF), which enrolled 320,000 members by late 1921. In August 1922, an anti-fascist general strike was organized throughout the country by the socialists. Mussolini declared that
8379-441: The CNT declared: "Let Germany win, let France win, it is all the same to the workers." The CNT insisted that syndicalists could support neither side in an imperialist conflict. A wave of pro-British sentiment swept Ireland during the war, although the ITGWU and the rest of the Irish labor movement opposed it, and half of the ITGWU's membership enlisted in the British military. The ITGWU had also been significantly weakened in 1913 in
8550-414: The Canadian One Big Union (OBU) are considered by most historians to belong to this current. The International Workers' Association – Asociación Internacional de los Trabajadores (IWA–AIT), which was formed in 1922, is an international syndicalist federation of various labour unions from different countries. At its peak, it represented millions of workers and competed directly for the hearts and minds of
8721-403: The Chamber, and in failing health, he died soon after in Rome. Syndicalism Syndicalism is a revolutionary current within the labour movement that, through industrial unionism , seeks to unionize workers according to industry and advance their demands through strikes and other forms of direct action , with the eventual goal of gaining control over the means of production and
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#17327811867868892-529: 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." He called on Italians to "do as they did in Russia". Indeed,
9063-400: The East. Similarly, southern workers were more drawn to syndicalism in Italy. According to Altena, the emergence of syndicalism must be analyzed at the level of local communities. Only differences in local social and economic structures explain why some towns had a strong syndicalist presence, while others did not. Syndicalism was not informed by theory or a systematically elaborated ideology
9234-425: The English social historian E. P. Thompson and the anarcho-syndicalist theorist Rudolf Rocker , there were syndicalist tendencies in Britain's labor movement as early as the 1830s. Syndicalism's direct roots were in Pierre Joseph Proudhon 's mutualism , a form of socialism that focused on cooperation among the community of man. He coined capitalist to describe the political class granting itself monopolies on
9405-424: 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. Class struggle peaked in Italy in the years 1919–1920, which became known as the biennio rosso or red biennium. Throughout this wave of labor radicalism, syndicalists, along with anarchists, formed
9576-402: The Fascists would suppress the strike themselves if the government did not immediately intervene to stop it, which enabled him to position the Fascist Party as a defender of law and order. On 2 August, in Ancona , Fascist squads moved in from the countryside and razed all buildings occupied by socialists. This was then repeated in Genoa and other cities. In Milan , on 3 and 4 August, there
9747-417: The French president's call for national unity by agreeing to a no-strike pledge and to resolve labor disputes through arbitration and by actively participating in the French war effort. Most of its members of military age were conscripted without resistance and its ranks shrank from 350,000 in 1913 to 49,000 dues-paying members in 1915. CGT leaders defended this course by arguing that France's war against Germany
9918-419: The French radicals worked within existing unions to infuse them with their revolutionary spirit. Some found existing unions entirely unsuitable and built federations of their own, a strategy known as dual unionism . American syndicalists formed the IWW, although William Z. Foster later abandoned the IWW after a trip to France and set up the Syndicalist League of North America (SLNA), which sought to radicalize
10089-437: The German Free Trade Unions ' membership grew by 350% but its bureaucracy by more than 1900%. Another common explanation for the rise of syndicalism is that it was a result of the economic backwardness of the countries in which it emerged, particularly France. Newer studies have questioned this account. According to van der Linden and Thorpe, changes in labor processes contributed to the radicalization of workers and thereby to
10260-406: The German Empire identified not as Germans but in regional terms as Prussians or Bavarians and the like. Multilingual countries like Germany and Spain also could not claim a common language as a defining characteristic of the nation nor did members of the same nation share the same values or experiences, syndicalists in Spain and Germany argued. Syndicalists also argued against the notion that the war
10431-425: The Great Labour Unrest, including the 1911 Liverpool general transport strike where he chaired the strike committee. In Ireland, Larkin and the ITGWU led 20,000 during the 1913 Dublin lockout . After the ITGWU attempted to unionize the Dublin United Tramway Company and tram workers went on strike, the city's employers threatened to fire any workers who did not sign a pledge to not support the ITGWU, thereby turning
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#173278118678610602-446: The IWW and the OBU, and others. Revolutionary industrial unionism, part of syndicalism in the broader sense, originated with the IWW in the United States and then caught on in other countries. In a number of countries, certain syndicalist practices and ideas predate the coining of the term in France or the founding of the IWW. In Bert Altena's view, a number of movements in Europe can be called syndicalist, even before 1900. According to
10773-401: The IWW maintained its anti-war stance, while its bitter rival, the AFL, supported the war; however, it did not launch an anti-war campaign, as it feared the government would crush it if it did, and wanted to focus on its economic struggles. The IWW's practical opposition to the war was limited, 95% of eligible IWW members registered for the draft, and most of those drafted served. Syndicalists in
10944-444: 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
11115-405: The King appointed Mussolini as Prime Minister, thereby transferring political power to the fascists without armed conflict. On 31 October the fascist Blackshirts paraded in Rome, while Mussolini formed his coalition government. In March 1919, Benito Mussolini founded the first Italian Fasces of Combat (FIC) at the beginning of the so-called Red Biennium , a two-year long social conflict between
11286-410: The Netherlands and Sweden, both neutral countries, criticized the truce socialists entered with their governments in order to shore up national defense. The Dutch NAS disowned Cornelissen, one of its founders, for his support for the war. Syndicalists from Spain, Portugal, Great Britain, France, Brazil, Argentina, Italy, and Cuba met at an anti-war congress in El Ferrol , Spain, in April 1915. Although
11457-518: The Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Spain, Italy, and France, while Belgian syndicalists were in the process of forming one. There were also groups advocating syndicalism in Russia, Japan, the United States, Portugal, Norway, Denmark, Hungary, and Great Britain. Outside of North America, the IWW also had organizations in Australia, New Zealand, where it was part of the Federation of Labour (FOL), Great Britain even though its membership had imploded by 1913, and South Africa. In Ireland, syndicalism took
11628-406: The Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Discussions were contentious and did not lead to the founding of a syndicalist international. Delegates did agree on a declaration of principles describing syndicalism's core tenets. They also decided to launch an International Syndicalist Information Bureau and to hold another congress in Amsterdam. This congress did not take place due to
11799-426: The Netherlands, and in 1904 in Italy, in addition to significant work stoppages during the Russian Revolution of 1905 . Darlington cites the significance of the conscious intervention by syndicalist militants. The industrial unrest of the period created conditions which made workers receptive to syndicalist leaders' agitation. They spread their ideas through pamphlets and newspapers and had considerable influence in
11970-411: The OBU advocated values of "radical manhood". 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
12141-433: The PSI). The antimilitarist campaign he led had him imprisoned, then forcibly settled in Genoa . Bianchi adapted to his new residence, and became head of the Ligurian Labor Chamber, as well as editor of the revolutionary paper Lotta socialista . In 1906, after backing several workers' riots, Bianchi expressed his pacifism in front of the PSI leadership, and was not universally welcomed. Transferred to Savona , he played
12312-579: The Russian Revolution. 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
12483-558: The Spanish CNT had visited France. Alceste de Ambris and Armando Borghi [ it ] , both leaders in Italy's USI, were in Paris for a few months from 1910 to 1911. French influence also spread through publications. Pouget's pamphlets could be read in Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, English, German, and Swedish translations. Journals and newspapers in a number of countries advocated syndicalism. For example, L'Action directe ,
12654-453: The U.S. government would object to Fascist participation in a future Italian government and Child gave him American support. When Mussolini learned that Prime Minister Luigi Facta had given Gabriele D'Annunzio the mission to organize a large demonstration on 4 November 1922 to celebrate the national victory during the war , he decided to immediately implement the March. On 24 October 1922, Mussolini declared in front of 60,000 militants at
12825-838: The United States, the IWW was involved in at least 150 strikes including the Goldfield, Nevada, labor troubles of 1906–1907 by miners' strikes, the Pressed Steel Car strike of 1909 , the 1912 Lawrence textile strike , the Brotherhood of Timber Workers ' strikes in Louisiana and Arkansas in 1912–1913, and the 1913 Paterson silk strike . The most prominent was the struggle in Lawrence. Wobblie leaders brought together 23,000 mostly immigrant workers, many of whom did not speak English. They arranged for workers' children to be sent to live with sympathetic families outside of Lawrence for
12996-438: 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 – "whose sole purpose in life seems to be apologising for and defending
13167-671: The attacks on the IWW; by the end of 1919, the IWW was practically powerless. 1919 also saw the Canadian labour revolt , leading to the formation of One Big Union, which was only partly industrial unionist. The Bolsheviks suppressed syndicalism in Russia but courted syndicalists abroad as part of their international strategy. In March 1919, the 1st Congress of the Comintern was held in Moscow. The Bolsheviks acknowledged syndicalism's opposition to socialist reformism and saw them as part of
13338-438: The capitalist system of exploitation", according to Larkin – 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
13509-573: The case in Italy and much of the Anglophone world, including Ireland where anarchists had no significant influence on syndicalism. 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,
13680-535: The congress was poorly planned and prohibited by the Spanish authorities, delegates managed to discuss resistance to the war and extending international cooperation between syndicalist groups. Argentine, Brazilian, Spanish, and Portuguese delegates later met in October in Rio de Janeiro to continue discussions and resolved to deepen cooperation between South American syndicalists. While syndicalists were only able to put up
13851-447: The country. After the police occupied the offices of an agricultural union, syndicalists called for a general strike. During the strike, Lisbon was controlled by workers and there were armed uprisings in several other cities. In 1912, the strike wave ebbed off. Italian syndicalists successfully organized agricultural workers in the Po Valley by uniting different parts of agricultural working class. They were most successful in areas where
14022-546: The course of events in Russia. In France, the CGT's radical minority that had opposed the war enthusiastically supported Bolshevism. They formed the Revolutionary Syndicalist Committees and attempted to push the CGT as a whole to support the Comintern. The General Executive Board of the IWW decided join the Comintern, although this decision was never confirmed by a convention. German and Swedish syndicalists were more critical of Bolshevism from
14193-659: The dispute into a city-wide conflict in late September. Workers' resistance crumbled in January 1914. There was no international syndicalist organization prior to World War I. In 1907, CGT activists presented the Charter of Amiens and syndicalism to an international audience a higher form of anarchism at the International Anarchist Congress of Amsterdam in 1907. Discussions at the Congress led to
14364-579: The duration of the strike so their parents could focus on the struggle. Unlike most IWW-led strikes, the struggle was successful. In Mexico, syndicalism first emerged in 1906 during the violent Cananea strike by miners and the even more violent Río Blanco strike by textile workers. In 1912, during the Mexican Revolution of 1910–1920, anarchists formed the syndicalist union House of the World Worker ( Casa del Obrero Mundial ). It led
14535-690: The dynamics of the capitalist system, and aimed to overthrow that system. According to van der Linden and Thorpe, workers' radicalization manifested itself in their rejection of the dominant strategies in the labor movement, which was led by reformist trade unions and socialist parties. Vladimir Lenin posited that "revolutionary syndicalism in many countries was a direct and inevitable result of opportunism, reformism and parliamentary cretinism." A feeling that ideological disputes were draining workers' power led Dutch, French, and American syndicalist organizations to declare themselves independent of any political groups. In countries like Italy, Spain, and Ireland, which
14706-503: The economy at large through social ownership . Syndicalist unions first emerged in Spain and North America in the 1870s, before rising to prominence in France and later emerging on other continents. Syndicalist movements were most predominant amongst the socialist movement during the interwar period that preceded the outbreak of World War II . Major syndicalist organizations included the General Confederation of Labor (CGT) in France,
14877-693: The economy, and syndicalization of industry. 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. Despite this, syndicalists were harassed and repeatedly arrested by
15048-401: The entire class, and could therefore not be divided on political grounds. The French syndicalist Pouget explained: "The CGT embraces – outside of all the schools of politics – 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
15219-560: The established American Federation of Labor (AFL). In Ireland, the ITGWU broke away from a more moderate, and British-based, union. In Italy and Spain , syndicalists initially worked within the established union confederations before breaking away and forming USI and the CNT respectively. In Norway, there were both the Norwegian Trade Union Opposition ( Norske Fagopposition , NFO), syndicalists working within
15390-446: The events. The Haymarket Affair , as these events became known, led anarchists and labor organizers, including syndicalists, in both the United States and Europe to re-evaluate the revolutionary meaning of the general strike. According to Émile Pouget , a French anarchist and CGT leader, from "the United States, the idea of the general strike – fertilized by the blood of anarchists hanged in Chicago ... –
15561-452: The fact that many Marxists embraced syndicalism merely indicates that they abandoned Marx's views and converted to Bakunin's. 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
15732-662: 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
15903-582: The factory committees as the true form of syndicalist organization, not unions. 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. The Petrograd Soviet established
16074-426: The fascists, the ruling class thus handed power to Mussolini, who went on to install the dictatorship after the 10 June 1924 assassination of Giacomo Matteotti – who had finished writing The Fascisti Exposed: A Year of Fascist Domination – executed by Amerigo Dumini , accused of being the leader of the "Italian Ceka", though there is no evidence for such an organization existing. At the end of 1923, participants in
16245-459: The form of the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union (ITGWU), which espoused a mix of industrial unionism and socialist Irish republicanism , and was labeled Larkinism. There was a significant uptick in workers' radicalism in most developed capitalist states from 1911 to 1922, although it relented during World War I. Strikes increased in frequency, numbers of workers involved, and duration. According to van der Linden and Thorpe, syndicalism
16416-678: The formation of the international syndicalist journal Bulletin international du mouvement syndicaliste . The CGT was affiliated with the International Secretariat of National Trade Union Centers (ISNTUC), which brought together reformist socialist unions. Both the Dutch NAS and the British ISEL attempted to remedy the lack of a syndicalist counterpart to ISNTUC in 1913, simultaneously publishing calls for an international syndicalist congress in 1913. The CGT rejected
16587-641: 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 , 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 ,
16758-473: The framework of the constitution. This transition was made possible by the surrender of public authorities in the face of fascist intimidation. Many business and financial leaders believed it would be possible to manipulate Mussolini, whose early speeches and policies emphasized free market and laissez faire economics. This proved overly optimistic, as the Great Depression struck Italy along with
16929-587: The general strike, rejected electoral politics, and anticipated workers' organizations replacing rule by the state, central syndicalist themes. According to Lucien van der Walt , the Spanish Regional Federation of the IWA , which was formed in 1870, was in fact syndicalist. Kenyon Zimmer sees a "proto-syndicalism" in the influence the anarchist -led International Working People's Association (IWPA) and Central Labor Union , which originated in
17100-694: The goal of uniting all French workers. In 1905, the Industrial Workers of the World were formed in the United States by the Western Federation of Miners , the American Labor Union , and a broad coalition of socialists, anarchists, and labor unionists. Its base was mostly in the Western United States, where labor conflicts were most violent and workers therefore radicalized. Although the Wobblies insisted their union
17271-579: The invitation. Its leaders feared that leaving ISNTUC, which it intended to revolutionize from within, would split the CGT and harm working-class unity. The IWW also did not participate, as it considered itself an international in its own right. The First International Syndicalist Congress was held in London from 27 September to 2 October. It was attended by 38 delegates from 65 organizations in Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Cuba, France, Germany, Italy,
17442-582: The label to one big unionists or industrial unionists in North America and Australia, Larkinists (named after the Irish ITGWU leader James Larkin ) in Ireland, and groups that identify as revolutionary industrialists, revolutionary unionists, anarcho-syndicalists , or councilists. This includes the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) in the United States, which claimed its industrial unionism
17613-505: The libertarian feminist organization Mujeres Libres during the Spanish Civil War. 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". Syndicalists were involved in a number of strikes, labor disputes, and other struggles. In
17784-543: 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 . In December 1919, the Free Workers' Union of Germany (Syndicalists) ( 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
17955-861: The mainstream Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions ( Landsorganisasjonen i Norge in Norwegian, LO), and the Norwegian Syndicalist Federation ( Norsk Syndikalistik Federation in Norwegian, NSF), an independent syndicalist organization set up by the Swedish SAC. There was a similar conflict between the Industrial Syndicalist Education League and the Industrial Workers of Great Britain . By 1914, there were syndicalist national labor confederations in Peru, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico,
18126-510: The morning of 28 October, in Milan, Mussolini received a delegation of supportive industrialists at the Il Popolo d'Italia headquarters who urgently requested him to find a compromise with Antonio Salandra. Mussolini was then proposed to rule alongside Salandra, however he refused. Following an analysis of the footage of the time with the facial recognition technique, the presence alongside Mussolini of Raoul Vittorio Palermi, Grand Master of
18297-563: The most consistently revolutionary faction on the left as socialists sought to rein in workers and prevent unrest. 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 Italian Union of Labor [ it ] ( Unione Italiana del Lavoro , UIL) in 1918. The UIL's national syndicalism emphasized workers' love of labor, self-sacrifice, and
18468-573: The nation rather than anti-capitalist class struggle. Both USI and the UIL grew significantly during the biennio rosso . The first factory occupation of the biennio was carried out by the UIL at a steel plant in Dalmine in February 1919, before the military put an end to it. In July, a strike movement spread through Italy, culminating in a general strike on 20 July. While USI supported it and
18639-578: The next day. Generals Gustavo Fara and Sante Ceccherini assisted with the preparations of the March of 18 October. Other organizers of the march included the Marquis Dino Perrone Compagni and Ulisse Igliori. On 26 October, the former Prime Minister Antonio Salandra warned the then Prime Minister, Luigi Facta , that Mussolini was demanding his resignation and that he was preparing to march on Rome. However, Facta did not believe Salandra and thought that Mussolini would only become
18810-611: The numerous violent raids carried out by the Blackshirts ). After stomping out a strike action against Fascist maneuvers, Bianchi was one of the Quattuorvirate who led the March on Rome , the pseudo-coup d'état that brought Mussolini as prime minister (October 1922). In the newly formed government, he was general secretary of National Fascist Party, and considered as "Mussolini's closest collaborator." In short time, Bianchi
18981-457: The opposite. Socialists agreed to put aside class conflict and vote for war credits . German socialists argued that war was necessary to defend against what they termed Russia's "barbaric Tsarism ", while their French counterparts pointed to the need to defend against Prussian militarism and the German "instinct of domination and of discipline". This collaboration between the socialist movement and
19152-553: The other side. The government tried to play the role of neutral mediator, which dissatisfied both sides. Local elites felt themselves vulnerable and began to establish an alliance with the small Fascist movement, which contained many veterans of World War I and had a reputation for violence, in the hope of using Fascist paramilitary squads to destroy socialist organizations. Since 1919, Fascist militias, known as squadristi or " Blackshirts " due to their uniforms, had been attacking socialist politicians and militants. In August 1920,
19323-527: The outbreak of World War I. Syndicalists had long opposed interventionism. Haywood held that "it is better to be a traitor to your country than to your class". French syndicalists viewed the French Army as the primary defender of the capitalist order. In 1901, the CGT published a manual for soldiers encouraging desertion. In 1911, British syndicalists distributed an "Open Letter to British Soldiers" imploring them not to shoot on striking workers but to join
19494-575: The paper La Battaglia (a failed attempt to gain a seat in the elections of 1913). Bianchi moved to Milan , becoming a major figure of the Milanese Syndical Union and the Unione Sindacale Italiana (USI). Michele Bianchi's attitude during World War I mirrored that of Benito Mussolini : he became an active supporter of Italy's entry into the conflict, and advocate of irredentism . In 1915, when Italy joined
19665-407: The point of production where they work" rather than at the ballot box. 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. The historian Todd McCallum concludes that syndicalists in
19836-597: 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. 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
20007-469: 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. Lenin turned to restoring discipline in
20178-572: The rank-and-file and instill in workers the expectation that the union rather than they would wage the class struggle. 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
20349-657: The reformist union Federterra had been thwarted by employers. Syndicalists led large strikes by farm workers in Parma and Ferrara in 1907–1908; these strikes failed as a result of employers' strikebreaking tactics and infighting among workers. In 1911–1913, syndicalists played an important role in a large strike wave in Italy's industrial centers. The syndicalist union confederation USI was formed in 1912 by veterans of both strike movements. British Wobblies were involved in two major strikes in Scotland, one at Argyll Motor Works and
20520-529: The rest of the world in 1929, and Mussolini responded to it by increasing the role of the state in the economy to avoid a banking crisis . By 1934, the Istituto per la Ricostruzione Industriale (Institute for Industrial Reconstruction) had been created to rescue, restructure and finance banks and private companies that went bankrupt during the Great Depression, and by 1937 this Institute had become
20691-611: The revolutionary wing of the labor movement. No syndicalists attended the founding convention, mainly because the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War , which included a blockade of Russia by the Allied powers of World War I , made travel to Moscow near impossible. After long discussions, the CNT opted to join the Comintern , although it classified its adherence as provisional as a concession to detractors of Bolshevism. USI also decided to join; some like Borghi had reservations about
20862-670: The rise of syndicalism. This rise took place during the Second Industrial Revolution . Two groups of workers were most attracted to syndicalism: casual or seasonal laborers who frequently changed jobs, and workers whose occupations were becoming obsolete as a result of technological advances. The first group included landless agricultural workers, construction workers, and dockers, all of whom were disproportionately represented in several countries' syndicalist movements. Because they frequently changed jobs, such workers did not have close relationships with their employers and
21033-630: The risk of losing one's job as a result of a strike was reduced. Moreover, because of the time constraints of their jobs they were forced to act immediately in order to achieve anything and could not plan for the long term by building up strike funds or powerful labor organizations or by engaging in mediation. Their working conditions gave them an inclination to engage in direct confrontation with employers and apply direct action. The second group included miners, railway employees, and certain factory workers. Their occupations were deskilled by technological and organizational changes. These changes made workers from
21204-469: 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. 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
21375-532: The same way socialism was by Marxism . Émile Pouget , a CGT leader, maintained: "What sets syndicalism apart from the various schools of socialism – and makes it superior – 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
21546-493: The second at a Singer Corporation 's sewing machine factory in Clydebank . In 1906, several industrial unionists began to spread their ideas and organize workers at Singer's. The organized the 1911 strike at Singer after a woman was fired for not working hard enough. The strike was cleverly defeated by management and most activists lost their jobs. The ISEL leader Tom Mann was also at the center of several labor disputes during
21717-554: The second group similar in some respects to the first group. They did not entirely result from the introduction of new technology but were also caused by changes in management methods. This included increased supervision of workers, piecework , internal promotions, all designed make workers docile and loyal and to transfer knowledge and control over the process of production from workers to employers. Frustration with this loss of power led to formal and informal resistance by workers. Altena disagrees with this explanation. According to him, it
21888-487: The socialists in many towns, cities and villages across Italy, and in response Fascist militias attacked union organizers and municipal administrators, making it difficult for local governments to function. A local deputy from the town of Budrio sent a telegram to the prime minister in October 1921 to report that the Fascists had effectively taken over, that "unions and socialist clubs [were] ordered to dissolve themselves within 48 hours or face physical destruction" and that
22059-413: The socialists' neutrality and therefore support the war. Finally, they gave similar arguments as the French, warning of the dangers posed by the "suffocating imperialism of Germany", and felt obliged to follow the CGT's lead. USI's pro-war wing had the support of less than a third of the organization's members and it was forced out in September 1914. Its anarchist wing, led by Borghi, was firmly opposed to
22230-469: 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
22401-409: The spring of 1917. The start of the war had induced an economic boom in the United States, tightening the labor market and thereby strengthening workers' bargaining position. The IWW profited from this, more than doubling its membership between 1916 and 1917. At the same time, the Wobblies fervently denounced the war and mulled calling an anti-war general strike. Once the United States became a combatant,
22572-532: The start. Rocker declared already in August 1918 that the Bolshevik regime was "but a new system of tyranny". March on Rome [REDACTED] National Fascist Party The March on Rome ( Italian : Marcia su Roma ) was an organized mass demonstration in October 1922 which resulted in Benito Mussolini 's National Fascist Party ( Partito Nazionale Fascista , PNF) ascending to power in
22743-809: The state was known as the union sacrée in France, the Burgfrieden in Germany, and godsvrede [ nl ] in the Netherlands. Moreover, a number of anarchists led by Peter Kropotkin , including the influential syndicalist Christiaan Cornelissen, issued the Manifesto of the Sixteen , supporting the Allied cause in the war. Despite this, most syndicalists remained true to their internationalist and anti-militarist principles by opposing
22914-425: 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
23085-403: 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. The revolution also saw the introduction to Germany of industrial unionism along
23256-450: The term to describe its brand of unionism. Revolutionary syndicalism , or more commonly syndicalism with the revolutionary implied, was then adapted to a number of languages by unionists following the French model. Many scholars, including Ralph Darlington , Marcel van der Linden , and Wayne Thorpe, apply syndicalism to a number of organizations or currents within the labor movement that did not identify as syndicalist . They apply
23427-460: 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. 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
23598-447: The union's philosophy of direct action. 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. Syndicalism is used by some interchangeably with anarcho-syndicalism . This term
23769-492: 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. Syndicalists agreed with Karl Marx 's characterization of the state as the "executive committee of the ruling class". They held that a society's economic order determined its political order and concluded that
23940-520: The use of capital, and wanted workers to oppose this state control through peaceful means, only using force defensively. Proudhon's ideas were popular in the anti-authoritarian wing of the early International Workingmen's Association (IWA), the first international socialist organization formed in 1864. Its most successful early leader, Russian anarchist Mikhail Bakunin , came to believe that worker organizations should consider using force to advance their cause, when necessary. He and his followers advocated
24111-468: The very workers dying in the war were denied access to that culture by capitalist conditions. Finally, syndicalists railed against religious justifications for war. Before the war, they had rejected religion as divisive at best; support for the war by both Catholic and Protestant clergy revealed their hypocrisy and disgraced the principles they and Christianity claimed to uphold. As the war progressed, disaffection with worsening living conditions at home and
24282-532: The war and their respective nation's participation in it. The majority of the French CGT and a sizable minority in the Italian USI did not. The CGT had long had a moderate, reformist wing, which gained the upper hand. As a result, according to historians like Darlington or van der Linden and Thorpe, the CGT was no longer a revolutionary syndicalist organization after the start of World War I. It followed
24453-517: The war and was almost completely suppressed by the state during the war, regrouped at a conference in Berlin in December 1918. 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
24624-520: The war effort but also refrained from working against it. From the start of the war, even before Italy did so, a minority within USI, led by the most famous Italian syndicalist, Alceste De Ambris , called on the Italian state to take the Allies' side. As part of left-interventionism , the pro-war syndicalists saw Italian participation in the war as the completion of nationhood. They also felt compelled to oppose
24795-617: The war effort. Thanks in part to their fidelity to internationalism, syndicalist organizations profited from this development and expanded as the war drew to an end. Disaffection with the war condensed in the post-World War I revolutions that began with the Russian Revolution of 1917. In February 1917, strikes, riots, and troop mutinies broke out in Petrograd , forcing the Nicholas II to abdicate on 2 March in favor of
24966-438: The war, deeming it incompatible with workers' internationalism and predicting that it would only serve elites and governments. Its opposition was met with government repression, and Borghi and others were interned by the end of the war. Instead, the anti-war faction in the CGT was a small minority. It was led by the likes of Pierre Monatte and Alphonse Merrheim . They would link up with anti-war socialists from around Europe at
25137-549: 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 ( Confederação Geral do Trabalho , CGT) was formed as the country's first national union confederation. In Brazil, in both Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, syndicalists, along with anarchists and socialists, were leaders in
25308-399: The working class with social democratic unions and parties. A number of syndicalist organizations were and still are to this day linked in the IWA–AIT; some of its member organizations left for the International Confederation of Labour (ICL–CIT), which was formed in 2018. The word syndicalism has French origins. In French, a syndicat is a trade union, usually a local union. A syndicate
25479-576: The working class's struggle against capital. Syndicalists argued that patriotism was a means of integrating workers into capitalist society by distracting them from their true class interest. In 1908, the CGT's congress invoked the slogan of the First International, proclaiming that the "workers have no fatherland". When World War I broke out in July 1914, socialist parties and trade unions – both in neutral and belligerent countries – supported their respective nations' war efforts or national defense, despite previous pledges to do
25650-614: Was "a higher type of revolutionary labor organization than that proposed by the syndicalists". Van der Linden and Thorpe use syndicalism to refer to "all revolutionary, direct-actionist organizations". Darlington proposes that syndicalism be defined as "revolutionary trade unionism". He and van der Linden argue that it is justified to group together such a wide range of organizations because their similar modes of action or practice outweigh their ideological differences. Others, such as Larry Peterson and Erik Olssen , disagree with this broad definition. According to Olssen, this understanding has
25821-407: Was a clash of different cultures or that it could be justified as a defense of civilization. They stated that various cultures were not mutually hostile, and the state should not be seen as the embodiment of culture, since culture was the product of the entire population, while the state acted in the interests of just a few. Moreover, they argued that if culture was to be understood as high culture ,
25992-432: Was a distinctly American form of labor organization and not an import of European syndicalism, the IWW was syndicalist in the broader sense of the word. According to Melvyn Dubofsky and most other IWW historians, the IWW's industrial unionism was the specifically American form of syndicalism. Nevertheless, the IWW also had a presence in Canada and Mexico nearly from its inception, as the United States economy and labor force
26163-412: Was a war between democracy and republicanism on the one side and barbaric militarism on the other. Italy did not initially participate in World War I, which was deeply unpopular in the country, when it broke out. The Italian Socialist Party and the reformist Italian General Confederation of Labour opposed intervention in the Great War . Once Italy became a participant, the socialists refused to support
26334-409: 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. In Portugal, working class unrest picked up from the start of
26505-412: Was dismissed as PNF leader in 1923, while joining the Grand Council of Fascism ; in 1924, he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies , but resigned from his government position on 14 March. In 1925, he was given the position of undersecretary at the Ministry of Public Works, in 1928 the same position at the Internal Affairs one, and on 12 September 1929 he became Minister of Public Works. Again elected to
26676-515: Was elected in the Parliament for the first time. After a few weeks, Mussolini withdrew his support for Giolitti and his Italian Liberal Party ( Partito Liberale Italiano , PLI) and attempted to work out a temporary truce with the Socialists by signing the so-called " Pact of Pacification " in the summer of 1921. The Pact led to many protests by the radical members of the Fascist movement, led by local leaders like Roberto Farinacci , who were known as Ras . In July 1921, Giolitti attempted to dissolve
26847-402: 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. Although syndicalism has traditionally been seen as a current within anarchism, it was dominated in some countries by Marxists rather than anarchists. This was
27018-410: Was formed as a rival to the bourses but was at first much weaker. From the start, it advocated the general strike and aimed to unite all workers. Pouget, who was active in the CGT, supported the use of sabotage and direct action. In 1902, the bourses merged into the CGT. In 1906, the federation adopted the Charter of Amiens , which reaffirmed the CGT's independence from party politics and fixed
27189-443: Was formed by Italian and Spanish immigrants in 1901. Many IWW leaders were European immigrants, including Edmondo Rossoni who moved between the United States and Italy and was active in both the IWW and USI. International work processes also contributed to the diffusion of syndicalism. For example, sailors helped establish IWW presences in port cities around the world. Syndicalists formed different kinds of organizations. Some like
27360-399: Was further encouraged by employers' hostility to workers' actions. The economist Ernesto Screpanti hypothesized that strike waves like the one from 1911 to 1922 generally occur during the upper turning-points of the periodic global long cycles of boom and bust known as Kondratieff waves . He argued that such waves of proletarian insurgency were global in reach, saw workers breaking free of
27531-464: 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. The philosopher Georges Sorel 's Reflections on Violence introduced syndicalist ideas to
27702-399: Was imported to France". In the 1890s, French anarchists, conceding that individual action such as assassinations had failed, turned their focus to the labor movement. They were able to gain influence, particularly in the bourses du travail , which served as labor exchanges , meeting places for unions, and trades councils and organized in a national federation in 1893. In 1895, the CGT
27873-410: Was intertwined with those countries. French syndicalism and American industrial unionism influenced the rise of syndicalism elsewhere. Syndicalist movements and organizations in a number of countries were established by activists who had spent time in France. Ervin Szabó visited Paris in 1904 and then established a Syndicalist Propaganda Group in his native Hungary in 1910. Several of the founders of
28044-437: Was one of the most influential politicians of the regime before his succumbing to tuberculosis in 1930. He was also one of the grand architects behind the " Great List " ( il listone ) which secured the parliamentary majority in favor of the fascists. Bianchi was born in Belmonte Calabro ( Calabria ), in southern Italy. He studied law at the University of Rome , and dedicated himself from early on to journalism. He became
28215-423: Was only one way this radicalization expressed itself. In the United Kingdom, the period from 1910 to 1914 became known as the Great Labour Unrest . While many historians see syndicalism as a consequence of this unrest, Elie Halévy and the politician Lord Robert Cecil argue it was its cause. Employers in France likewise blamed an upsurge in workers' militancy in the same period on syndicalist leaders. Syndicalism
28386-453: Was outvoted, and resorted to expressing his views solely through the paper—which he turned into a daily, the backer of several local proletarian revolts in 1911. However, Bianchi was forced by the tight budget to shut down La Scintilla , not before he was yet again arrested in Trieste for attacking Giovanni Giolitti as instigator of the Italo-Turkish War . He benefited from an amnesty and returned to Ferrara, where he created and headed
28557-417: Was partly accidental, and leaders were unable to convert workers to syndicalist ideas. 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. Darlington adds that most members in the Irish ITGWU were won over by
28728-403: Was quickly quelled by the British army and Connolly was executed. In Germany, the small Free Association of German Trade Unions (FVdG) opposed the socialists' Burgfrieden and Germany's involvement in the war, challenging the claim that the country was waging a defensive war. Its journals were suppressed and a number of its members were arrested. The United States did not enter the war until
28899-422: Was still under British rule, parliamentary politics were not seen as a serious means for workers to express their grievances. Most workers were disenfranchised, yet even in France or Britain, where most male workers had the right to vote, many workers did not trust party politics. The enormous numerical growth of well-organized socialist parties, such as in Germany and Italy, did not correlate with any real advance in
29070-454: Was street fighting between socialists and fascists; the fascists destroyed the printing presses of the socialist newspaper Avanti! and burned its buildings. Then, with the support of local business owners, they took over local government and expelled the elected socialist administration from the town hall. The Italian national government in Rome did nothing to react to these developments, and its inaction prompted Mussolini to begin planning
29241-523: Was workers with significant autonomy in their jobs and pride in their skills who were most attracted to syndicalism. Moreover, he argues that explanations based on workers' occupations cannot explain why only a minority of workers in those jobs became syndicalists or why in some professions workers in different locations had vastly different patterns of organization. The small size of many syndicalist unions also makes observations about which workers joined statistically irrelevant. Syndicalism came to be seen as
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