Reasons for dividing history of General Confederation into two periods--Weakness of Confederation before 1902--Congress of Tours in 1896--Discussion of the idea of the general strike--Congress of Toulouse in 1897--Discussion of _sabotage_ and boycott and of "Direct Action"--Congress of Rennes in 1898--Congresses of Paris in 1900 and of Lyons in 1901--Revolutionary character of Congress of Lyons: New conception of general strike; revolutionary character of syndicat; anti-militaristic ideas; opposition to labor legislation--Causes of revolutionary ideas: changes in the program and methods of socialist parties; Dreyfus affair; entrance of socialist Millerand into "bourgeois" government--Congress of Montpellier in 1902 and the fusion of the Federation of Bourses du Travail with the General Confederation of Labor 91 CHAPTER V THE DOCTRINE OF REVOLUTIONARY SYNDICALISM Class struggle, its meaning and importance--Syndicat the proper organization for carrying on class struggle--Strength of syndicat by uniting workingmen without distinction of race, religion, political or philosophical ideas--Industrial unionism versus Craft unionism--Syndicats and "Direct Action"--Methods of "Direct Action:" strike, boycott, _sabotage_, label--The direct struggle against the State; exclusion of parliamentary methods--Criticism of democracy--Class struggle versus co-operation of classes--Anti-patriotism--Anti-militarism--General strike the means of emancipating workingmen--The ideal society of the syndicalists: economic federalism--The rôle of the "conscious minority"--Syndicats the true leaders of the working-class 123 CHAPTER VI THE THEORISTS OF REVOLUTIONARY SYNDICALISM