Chapter 15. Syndicalism

¹ A Syndicate is a body of syndics. A Syndic is an official of kinds differing in different countries and times (Concise Oxford Dictionary). So now we know.

¹ Sombart: Socialism and the Social Movement, chapter v.

² (i) Sabotage, and (ii) the place assigned to the myth.

¹ On the confused history of French trade unionism and the French labour movement generally, the reader will get all he wants in Levine, Syndicalism in France; Estey, Revolutionary Syndicalism; and Cole, The World of Labour.

² This paragraph is, of course, a crudely nude summary. There were other organisations and a network of personalities. The rivalries, the intrigues and the rapprochements of the various sects would have done credit to European diplomacy in its most intricate and subterranean epochs.

¹ Lagardelle: Le Socialisme Ouvrier, pp. 271–273.

² Ibid. p. 274.

¹ Sorel: Matériaux d'une théorie du proletariat, p. 4.

² Sorel: La Decomposition du Marxisme, p. 63.

³ Sorel: Avenir socialiste des Syndicats, in Matériaux d'une Théorie, p. 67.

⁴ Sorel: Reflections on Violence (English translation), p. 203.

⁵ Lagardelle: Le Socialisme Ouvrier, p. 283.

⁶ Sorel: Reflections on Violence, pp. 85–86, and generally.

⁷ Sorel: Les Illusions du Progres, p. 285.

¹ Lagardelle: Le Socialisme Ouvrier, p. 373.

² Sorel: La Decomposition du Marxisme, p. 27.

³ Sorel: Avenir socialiste des Syndicats, in Matériaux d'une Théorie, p. 118.

⁴ Sorel: Les Illusions du Progrès, p. 9.

⁵ Lagardelle: Lé Socialisme Ouvrier, pp. 42, 44.

⁶ Ibid. p. 63, etc.

¹ Lagardelle: Le Socialisme Ouvrier, pp. 57–58.

²Ibid. p. 344.

³Ibid. p. 48.

⁴Ibid. p. 55.

⁵ This statement is more or less as given in Le Socialisme Ouvrier, pp. 166–167. But for very similar statements, see also pp. 157–161, 256–257, 266, 283–288.

¹ Lagardelle: Le Socialisme Ouvrier, p. 266.

² Sorel: La Décomposition du Marxisme, p. 51.

³ Lagardelle; Le Socialisme Ouvrier, pp. 242, 244.

⁴Syndicalisme et Socialisme, p. 19.

¹E.g. Sorel: Reflections on Violence, p. 19; Lagardelle: Le Socialisme Ouvrier, p. 150.

² Lagardelle: Le Socialisme Ouvrier, pp. 95, 180.

³Ibid. p. 283.

⁴ The 1905 Preface in Matériaux d'une Théorie du Proletariat, p. 58.

⁵ Sorel: L'avenir socialiste des Syndicats in Matériaux d'une Théorie, pp. 67–68.

⁶Ibid. p. 120.

⁷Ibid. p. 121.

¹ Sorel: L'avenir socialiste des Syndicats in Matériaux d'une Théorie, p. 123.

² Ibid. p. 132.

³Ibid. p. 125.

⁴Ibid. pp. 128–129.

⁵Ibid. p. 137.

⁶Ibid. p. 133.

¹ See La Grève Générale, p. 42.

¹ Sorel: Matériaux d'une Théorie du Proletariat, pp. 59–61.

¹ Sorel: Matériaux d'une Théorie du Proletariat, pp. 69–71.

²Ibid. p. 102.

³ Sorel: Reflections on Violence, pp. 69–72, 81–82, etc.

⁴Ibid. pp. 90–91.

⁵Ibid. p. 98.

⁶Ibid. pp. 88–89.

¹ Lagardelle: Le Socialisme Ouvrier, pp. 293–294.

²Ibid. p. 378.

³ Sorel: Reflections on Violence, p. 98.

⁴Ibid. p. 133.

⁵Ibid. p. 135.

¹ Sorel: Reflections on Violence, p. 137. There is said to be a good deal of Bergson in all this; but that question had better be left to the Bergson expert.

² Ibid. p. 33.

³ Ibid. p. 35.

⁴ Sorel: Matériaux d'une Théorie du Proletariat, p. 249.

⁵ Sorel: La Décomposition du Marxisme, p. 67.

⁶ Lagardelle: Le Socialisme Ouvrier, p. 378.

¹ In the Avant-propos to La Grève Générale, Lagardelle distinguishes (i) la grève générale, which is really a cessation of work more or less extended; and (ii) la grève générale, ‘signifiant la révolte suprême.’ In this second sense, it fades into the idea of the Social Revolution, and ‘devient toujours plus l'acte de foi d'une partie grandissante du proletariat révolutionnaire.’

¹ Lagardelle: Le Socialisme Ouvrier, p. 355.

² Sorel: Reflections on Violence, p. 123.

¹ Sorel: L'avenir socialiste des Syndicats in Matériaux d'une Théorie, p. 106.

² If the Ministry of Food, without audible protest from Mr. A. P. Herbert, may de-feather our geese, La Fontaine may be allowed to present a fox in de-tail.

³ Lagardelle: Le Socialisme Ouvrier, p. 217.

⁴ Lagardelle in Syndicalisme et Socialisme, p. 8.

¹ Griffuelhes in Syndicalisme et Socialisme, pp. 56–57.

¹ Lagardelle: Le Socialisme Ouvrier, pp. 370–371.

² See concluding chapter, pp. 499–504.

³ Sorel: Reflections on Violence, p. 82.

¹ Sorel: La Décomposition du Marxisme, p. 58.

¹ The curious reader may consult the Report on Doctrine in the Church of England (1938), and in particular the Note, On the Application to the Creeds of the Conception of Symbolic Truth.

¹ Sorel: Reflections on Violence, pp. 189–190.

² Sorel: L’avenir socialiste des Syndicats in Matériaux d'une Théorie, p. 82.

³ Sorel: Reflections on Violence, p. 150; La Décomposition du Marxisme, p. 66.

⁴ Lagardelle: Le Socialisme Ouvrier, pp. 290–292.

¹ ‘Direct action ‘has, of course, at all times been the device of banditti, freebooters and gentlemen of the forest glade. Robin Hood, with the highest motives, believed in effecting a redistribution of purchasing power by a policy of direct action. The theory of direct action may be found admirably interpreted in the conversation of two ruffians in The Mysteries of Udolpho. Quoth the first ruffian: ‘This is the way to have justice done at once, without more ado. If you go to law, you must stay till the judges please, and may lose your cause at last. Why the best way, then, is to make sure of your right while you can, and execute justice yourself.’ Quoth the second ruffian: ‘Yes, yes; if you wait till justice is done you... you may stay long enough. Why, if I want a friend of mine properly served, how am I to get my revenge? Ten to one, they will tell me he is in the right and I am in the wrong. Or, if a fellow has got possession of property which I think ought to be mine, why I may wait till I starve, perhaps, before the law will give it me, and then, after all, the judge may say—the estate is his. What is to be done then? Why the case is plain enough. I must take it at last.’ On her previous form Emily ought to have fainted on overhearing this conversation: she did not, but at least it is recorded that she felt horror.