Syndicalism in FranceLorwin, Lewis L. (Lewis Levitzki)
History
Syndicalism in France
Lorwin, Lewis L. (Lewis Levitzki)
Labor unions -- France -- History; Syndicalism -- France
These changes helped but little. During 1896-97 the Confederation
counted 11 federations, 1 federated union, 1 trade union, the Union of
Syndicats of Paris, and three national syndicats. The Federation of
Bourses declined either to join or to help the Confederation. The number
of delegates to the National Council was again insufficient to
constitute the committees. The income for the year, including the
balance from the previous year, amounted to 1,558 francs.[109]
[109] Ch. Franck, _op. cit._, pp. 226-7.
The Congress of Toulouse, therefore, decided to make new changes.
Accepting the suggestion of the Federation of Bourses whose adherence
was desired, the Confederation was to consist now of (1) the Federation
of Bourses du Travail, (2) of National federations of trade and of
industry, and (3) of local syndicats or of local federations of trades
which were not yet organized nationally or whose national federations
refused to join the Confederation. The Confederation was to be
represented by the Federal Committee of the Federation of Bourses and by
the National Council of the Federations of trade.
The Congress of Toulouse again declared that "the general strike was
synonymous with Revolution," and decided that sub-committees for the
propaganda of the general strike should be established in the _Bourses
du Travail_ to keep in touch with the General Committee in Paris. It
discussed several other questions: trade-journal, suppression of
prison-work, eight-hour day, and among these, for the first time, the
questions of the boycott and of _sabotage_.
The report on boycott and _sabotage_[110] was prepared by two
anarchists, Pouget and Delesalle. The report explained the origin of
the boycott and of _sabotage_, and gave instances of their application
in different countries. It referred in particular to the _Go Canny_
practice of the English workingmen whose principle the report merely
wanted to generalize and to formulate.
[110] _Sabotage_ means the obstruction in all possible ways of the
regular process of production; _cf._ ch. v.
Up to the present time [read the report] the workingmen have
declared themselves revolutionary; but most of the time they have
remained on theoretical ground: they have labored to extend the
ideas of emancipation, they have tried to sketch a plan of a future
society from which human exploitation should be eliminated.
But why, beside this educational work, the necessity of which is
incontestable, has nothing been tried in order to resist the
encroachments of capitalists and to render the exigencies of
employers less painful to the workingmen?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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