Revolutionary Syndicalism; An Exposition and a Criticism (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1913 edition. Excerpt: ... chapter ii. syndicalist organisation. The organisation of the labouring classes in France is built up in three distinct stages. The first consists of the individual syndicats or trade unions; the second comprises on the one hand, Bourses du travail, or unions of various syndicats in one locality, and on the other, Federations, or unions of similar syndicats in different localities; the third and final stage is formed by the Confideration Gendrale du Travail, a Federation of Federations, whose evolution has been traced in the previous chapter. I. The Syndicat. In its chief aspects the syndicat of France does not materially differ from the trade union of English-speaking countries. It is an association to advance the economic interests of the wage-earners who arc its members. It consists of the workers in a single craft or industry in a particular locality, and, except in the case of the syndicat mixte, does not open its doors to the non-labouring classes. It affords its members a means of offence and defence against employers and, to a certain extent, aid in unemployment and distress. But among the great majority of syndicats mutual aid and benefits of various sorts are comparatively neglected. For one thing revolutionaries, inclined to regard the benefit feature as an attempt rather to adapt the wage-earner to existing conditions than to encourage him to abolish them, as bound up with social peace, and as destructive of the sentiment of class war, look upon them with suspicion; with the result that where such funds are collected, they arc not infrequently under control independent of the syndicat itself, and entirely free from any element of compulsion.1 The chief reason, however, for the weakness of mutual aid, and in fact one of the...