Anarcho-Syndicalism

ANARCHO-SYNDICALISM. The origins of anarcho-syndicalism are found in the discussions and resolutions of the First International's Congress at Basel (1869) and the schism they later initiated. At this congress collectivist anarchists and revolutionary socialists within the trade union movement challenged the International's foundation principles. In his report to the congress, Eugene Hins called for the abandonment of political action and introduced into discussion for the first time the idea of workers' councils as the weapon of class struggle and structural basis of the coming libertarian society. These ideas derived from the writing and activities of Mikhail Bukunin and had gained support in the sections of the International in Belgium, Holland, the Swiss Jura, France and Spain. Following the London Conference of the International these sections formed the Anti-Authoritarian International in response to Karl Marx and Frederick Engels attempt to broaden the powers of the General Council.

During the 1870s, numerous Anti-Authoritarian or Federalist sections of the International appeared in New York, Boston and other American cities. The Word, a libertarian monthly magazine founded by Ezra Haywood in Princeton, Massachusetts, began publishing Bakunin's writings. Woodhull and Claflin's Weekly and The Word declared themselves unofficial organs of the International. These journals defended the principles of decentralist socialism and criticized the authoritarian orientation of the General Council. Among foreign language groups in the United States were also a number of adherents of the Bakuninist wing of the International. Principally refugees from the Paris Commune, these immigrants established sections in New York and New Jersey and sent delegates to the Anti-Authoritarian International that met in St. Imier, Switzerland in 1872.

In the 1880s and 1890s revolutionary syndicalism became a world-wide movement. Carried by immigrant worker intellectuals, anarcho-syndicalism spread through intricate patterns of "cross fertilization." Revolutionary syndicalism did not represent a closed system of ideas, a definite philosophy or theory, but rather paralleled a movement within the working class itself that developed and changed over time. Increasingly international in influence, this movement opposed Marxian socialism and sought a more activist, syndicalist orientation for the trade union movement. In France this trend coincided with widespread disillusionment with terrorist tactics. In the 1890s, many anarchists entered the trade union movement while others immigrated to escape police repression and continue their activity. Anarchists like Fernand Pelloutier and Emile Pouget had a great impact on the trade union movement. Through their efforts, the idea that a general confederation of labor unions could manage the economy in a stateless society gave birth to the Confederation Generale du Travail in 1895.

In the United States, similar ideas were beginning to take root among native and immigrant labor activists. Among immigrant revolutionaries, the German anarchist Johann Most played a decisive role. Immigrating to the United States in 1882, Most became involved with the social revolutionary movement and more than any individual was responsible for its growth. Drafting the "Pittsburgh Manifesto" that established the International Working People's Association (the Black International), Most galvanized the social revolutionary movement. Most and his followers objected to any form of compromise with existing institutions and declared their opposition to trade unions and the struggle for immediate economic gain. Albert Parsons and August Spies, however, opposed Most's position on the trade union question. Midwestern social revolutionaries advanced the idea that labor unions represented the instrument of social revolution and would eventually replace capitalism with a cooperative commonwealth in which workers would administer the economy for their own needs. Endorsed by a majority of delegates attending the Pittsburgh congress, the "Chicago idea" represented an amalgam of socialist, anarchist and other radical ideas derived from both American and European sources of labor lore.

The "Chicago idea" called for a free society in which the labor union represented the formative cell. The new movement was intended to be a loose federation of autonomous groups having as its connecting link an information bureau located in Chicago. The "Pittsburgh Manifesto" rejected all political parties, including the necessity of a revolutionary party of the proletariat, and called for direct action on the industrial field. The official organs of the "syndico-anarchists" were the Alarm, an English language weekly, the Arbeiter-Zeitung, a German paper published on weekdays, the Verbote, published on Saturday, and the Fackel, published on Sunday. The Metal Workers' Federation of America, organized in 1885, came closest to realizing the "Chicago idea."

Italian immigrants, working in mining, on track gangs or settling in large towns to become factory workers, were also significant carriers of syndicalist politics and culture. Italian and Spanish anarchists in Paterson, New Jersey, agitated for a workers' union organizational model based on anarcho-syndicalism toward the close of the nineteenth century. In Paterson the group formed the Universita Populare which organized public lectures, discussion, social gatherings and study groups. In the pages of the "Right to Existence" group's organ, La Questione Socia. (LQS), appeared many articles reporting on the European revolutionary syndicalist movement as well as appeals to striking silk workers to adopt syndicalist tactics in their struggles against manufacturing magnates.

Under the direction of the Spanish anarchist Pedro Esteve, the Paterson group became involved with the struggles of both soft and hard rock miners in Colorado, sending monetary support and publicizing their struggles in the pages of LQS. Esteve and other Paterson anarchists spent months in the western part of the United States supporting the Western Federation of Miners in their union organizing activities.

The spread of syndicalism was not limited to immigrant anarchist groups. Among the left wing of the Socialist Party were many revolutionary socialists who leaned toward an anarcho-syndicalism version of industrial unionism, while within the Socialist Labor Party a Marxist version of syndicalism emerged. The former tendency is best represented in the writings and activities of William E. Trautmann, the latter by Daniel De Leon. Both played instrumental roles in the founding of the IWW.

Among the anarchist active in the industrial union movement, Thomas J. Hagerty, who authored the IWW "Preamble, played a principle role. Hagerty's revolutionary attitude toward socialism had been formed through his contact with the Chicago anarchists, participation in the eight-hour movement, and through his reading of Benjamin Tucker's semi-monthly publication Liberty. Forming alliances with revolutionary socialists and trade unionists, Hagerty became one of the earliest advocates of industrial unionism. Writing for the American Labor Union Journal and later serving as editor of the Voice of Labor, Hagerty advocated a form of industrial unionism, which not only drew from the ideas advanced by the Chicago anarchists but incorporated the experience of French and Spanish anarcho-syndicalists.

Although American and European anarcho-syndicalism deeply impacted the IWW, the IWW's conception of industrial unionism did not reflect commitment to a single ideological position or source. While on a formal or policy level the IWW did not declare itself anarcho-syndicalist, among the Wobblies were many advocates of anarcho-syndicalism. The IWW press frequently ran news articles on the revolutionary syndicalism movement in Europe and published excerpts from the writings of Emile Pouget, S. Nacht (Arnold Roller), C. Cornelissen's and others making propaganda for the revolutionary syndicalist movement. One may also find in the IWW's strike tactics and activity the influences of anarcho-syndicalism. Following the Russian revolution, the US entry in the World War, and the passage of criminal syndicalist legislation, anarcho-syndicalism as a tendency within the labor movement entered a decline in the United States but reemerged in Europe in the form of the Spanish Confederacion Nacional del Trabajo.

The ideas of international solidarity, pluralistic authority and the industrial form of labor organization continued to exert influence on social movements and the labor community, even in the absence of influential organizations and publications. The Anarcho-Syndicalist Review, published since 1986, anticipated in some ways the revival of talk of solidarity activities, especially among gig workers, outside of the framework of declining union memberships and largely failed union drives in tech-driven industries.

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Salerno, Sal. Red November, Black November: Culture and Community in the IWW. Albany:SUNY Press, 1989.

Zimmer, Kenyon. Immigrants Against the State. Urbana: University of Illinois, 2015.