Syndicalism in FranceLorwin, Lewis L. (Lewis Levitzki)
History
Syndicalism in France
Lorwin, Lewis L. (Lewis Levitzki)
Labor unions -- France -- History; Syndicalism -- France
The Congress considers that this declaration is a recognition of
the class struggle which, on an economic basis, places the
workingmen in revolt against all forms of exploitation and
oppression, material and moral, put into operation by the
capitalist class against the working-class.
The Congress makes this theoretic affirmation more precise by
adding the following points:
With regard to the every-day demands, syndicalism pursues the
coördination of the efforts of the workingmen, the increase of the
workingmen's welfare through the realization of immediate
ameliorations, such as the diminution of working hours, the
increase of wages, etc.
But this is only one aspect of its work; syndicalism is preparing
the integral emancipation which can be realized only by the
expropriation of the capitalist class; it commends as a means to
this end the general strike, and considers that the syndicat, now
a group of resistance, will be in the future the group of
production and of distribution, the basis of social organization.
The Congress declares that this double task of every-day life and
of the future follows from the very situation of the wage-earners,
which exerts its pressure upon the working-class and which makes it
a duty for all workingmen, whatever their opinions or their
political and philosophical tendencies, to belong to the essential
group which is the syndicat; consequently, so far as individuals
are concerned, the Congress declares entire liberty for every
syndicalist to participate, outside of the trade organization, in
any forms of struggle which correspond to his philosophical or
political ideas, confining itself only to asking of him, in return,
not to introduce into the syndicat the opinions which he professes
outside of it.
In so far as organizations are concerned, the Congress decides
that, in order that syndicalism may attain its maximum
effectiveness, economic action should be exercised directly against
the class of employers, and the Confederal organizations must not,
as syndical groups, pay any attention to parties and sects which,
outside and by their side, may pursue in full liberty the
transformation of society.
The vote on this resolution showed that all parties interpreted the
resolution in their own way. To the "reformists" it meant complete
political neutrality, to the political syndicalist it emphasized the
liberty of political action outside the syndicat; the revolutionary
syndicats saw in the resolution the "Charter of French Syndicalism" in
which their theories were succinctly formulated.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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