WHAT IS SYNDICALISM?

Marlborough Express, Volume XLVI, Issue 117, 15 May 1912, Page 2

WHAT IS SYNDICALISM?

\Xo word has. come into greater piominence of late than the word syn: clicalisin<; yet ■piobably not one manin a hundred in New Zealand had heard of it until twelve months ago. Syndicalism :'s 'the child of labor organisation, as its name implies in the French .largiiMge. 'The word is new .und derived'fro'm.sjndicatj the French, "tern; for, trade-, union.(syndicat puv-; \ifj). Tii.s literal' English, equivalent ,of r'syndicalisnie would indeed' be "unionism,' but that word has a general meaning,, whereas syndical-" isme. is distinctive^and has>.been newly coined tt> sighily a particular form of trade -union activity, ; which is," thereiore. best expressed by adopting the French term in an English dress. Not all the trade unions m : France aro syndicalist; these ."which have adopted this policy represent from one-thud to one-half of the trade unionists, but their number is increasing. Th? aim ;of syndicalism is to hand over the means \of production and distribution to the trade unions, whoso members now operate them, so that each union will control its own means of livelihood'in,the common interests, aiid the workmen will become their, own employers, thus securing the wholij product Cor themselves. To some syndicalists this is a final and suificient purpose; to others it is ohly

ii step towiirds the complete "eman-cipation"-of the but all I ursue it as the present objective. Different means are ijroposed; fpr accOiTiplishirg ■ ,the" economic revqhition. thus contemplated. '•■(■ The question is, how to get rid of the present owners. The method hitherto favored in France is the general strike. The general strike, is an'old .proposal re- \ rnred; but it is understood by French syndicalism in quite a different sense from that in which it is generally used in England, and unless fche difference is clearly comprehended the expression is the source of endless confusion. The general strike of syndicalism is not a means of .securing higher wages, like the British coal strike Or last year's railway strike; it is a. revolutionary act, having' no relation to wages at all. It aims at the complete overthrow of^the existing order by the cessation of all activity. The manual workers stop at .home, society comes to a standstill, food is socn exhausted, there .Is no public lighting or conveyance, plundering and disorder begin, the soldiers 'five called out, but refuse to turn against the rioters, and lo! the revolution is .accomplished. Then the trade unions step in, take over the economic assets of the nation, reorganise the.ll .and there 3 rou are! Everything, if Js to be noted, turns on the behaviour of ■the soldiers; arid hence the campaign for seducing the army. That is one way of securing, possession on a wholesale scale. The plan recently unfolded among "Welsh miners is nuite different and much less. bold. It is to render the mines unprofitable and, therefore, worthless as property by bad work, lessening outbut, -higher / wages, and incessant friction, When^these proceedings have done v their' work, and the mine's have boen rendered ivorllile«s, the -unions will step in and take

tliem over. But hq«- this is to bedonc or^ what good it will' he when the trade has been destroyed or how the miners, after being debauched by prolonged and systematic shamming,. ; oan be got to work again—these and I the like problems are left to solve | themselves. Syndicalism, of which. i there are several variants, has other methods, some milder, some more violent than those described; but enoughs has been said to make the aim clear.