WHAT SYNDICALISM MEANS.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1468, 17 June 1912, Page 7

WHAT SYNDICALISM MEANS.

THE NEAV FOBCE.

Oin- objective begins to take shape before your eyes—every industry thoroughly or-

ganised, in the first place, to fight to gam control of and then to administer that industry; co-ordination of all industries on a central production boni-ri, who • ■ • • will issue its demands on the different departments of industry, leaving to the men themselves to determine' under what conditions and how the work should bo done. This would menu real democracy in real life. ... So long as shareholders are permitted to continue their ownership or tlio State to administer on behalf ot the shareholders, slavery and oppression are bound to be tho rule in industry — Syndicalist Pamphlet. "Syndicalism-what is it? What is this now doctrine that has lurked a sinister menace throughout each stage of the present crisis? Its object and its methods (says W. M'Cartney in the "Daily Mail ) can be stated' very briefly. Its object is to destroy our present social system; to deprive the class that pays wages of its property and placo it under the direct control of those who now receive wages, and to leave thorn to fix what work they shall do and how much they shall be paid. Its methods are: • ■

First: To capture the trade unions. Second: To orgauiso them for strikes or other action as an army is organised for battle. Third: To declare general strikes, and to issuo other commands to trade unionists that will cause Iho swift and permanent ruin of the wage-payers in any or every industry. Let us take the coal trade to illustrate how- and where the Syndicalists wish to arrive. Without coal, they say, the State must die, just as the body dies without food. Very well; the Syndicalist commands that every miner shall stop working. There must bo none of those local strikes in which miners were beaten because miners in other pits supplied the deficiency. All miners must strike. They do—and the miners as a refiilt obtain higher wages and drain as much of the coal-owners' profits as they can divert into their own channels. The coal-owner is in-

jnred, the unions are strengthened in confidence by their victory. Owners of other sources of wealth besides the coalfields are injured. Wage-earners in other industries are inspired to organise themselves for following tho lead of the miners.

"THE MORE BRUTALITY THE BETTEE." The Syndicalists do not rest content. Theirs is not tlio old trade unionism's ideal of securing peace. It is exactly the opposite. One victory is only valued in proportion as it encourages the wagecarners to reopen the war. Another general strike icoraes when the Syndicalist generals see that it will_ most effectively cripple the coalowner. No laws, no agreements, no conciliation boards, no sufferings among the people, will influence the Syndicalist decisions. Jn fact, the. more brutality the better; the jnoru robbery the better. The strikes are'ordered, with the purpose of bleeding the mine-oWners of every farthing of their profits, and, when the profits have disappeared, of so ruthlessly multiplying their losses that they will abandon the mines for ever. Kuin, not for a year or for a decade, but cnieless ruin, will have been inflicted on the mining companies. The capitalist and tho small shareholders who d:d not work in the mines but drew. dividends will have been cleared out.

And now the whole of tho money that s paid for coal .at the pithead will go nto the minpr's pocket. He will pay his nil wages. So the Syndicalist tells him. Che miner vail ,be the owner of the mine. Tim Socialist desires the mines to boons to the State and to bo worked in ;ho interests of the whole- of tho populaion. The Syndicalist regards State ownsrship as a more powerful tyranny than iwnership by largo capitalists aud small ih-arehoklers. . AVhen tho owners had been expropriated ;he Syndicalists, would administer the justness. "A, s.tatistical..,department to iscertain the neede of the people" is iiiggested in the Syndicalist oircular rclently spread among the South Wales lnions. A "production board" would tell ho men in the various branches what luantity of coal to dig, "leaving to tho nen themselves to determine under what ;onditdons and how the work .should bo lone." And it should be noted, by the ray, that Syndicalism does not depend in general strikes alone to transfer other hen's properly to the manual workers, instead of strikes, or in addition to them, t would instruct the wage-earners to essen their output, so that the capdtalsts' ruin might be hastened. Tho "prediction boara," then, would not necesiarily wait for the final catastrophe to lapital before regulating, tho tonnage of soul mined! HOW SYNDICALISM BEGAN. That is Syndicalism. In his remarkable book "Syndicalism and Labour" Murray) Sir Arthur Clay says tho French yord "Syndicalisme" is of recent origin. sven in France "Syndicalisme" has only ately stood for tho new doctrine of rob>ery by strikes and by reduced daily outHit. But the general strike which is ts chief weapon was discussed by the conges of' the International Labour Assoiiation at Brussels in 1863. There it was leclared that "it was only necessary for jrodiicers to cease to produce in order x> make government impossible." In 187IJ a congress of the Intcrnationalsts at Geneva recommended the orgiinisvtion of labour for a general strike on international lines. Sir Arthur Clay remarks that the idea had been vague in ;ho minds of leaders of the proletariat: 'It appears to have been an Anarchist )f the name of Tortelier (a Parisian carpenter) who in 1888 first suggested its idoption as a definite policy." The Social Democratic followers of M. Suesdo did not approve it, but they were routed, and at a joint congress of trade unionists and Socialists held at Nantea in 1891 "the policy of Syndicalism, or the 'general strike,' in opposition to that of the conquest of public powers by electoral methods, was adopted by 65 votes to 37, with 9 abstentions." In the next year tho representatives of the same trade unions founded ct Limoges the Confederation Generalo (hi Travail, now tho most prominent of 'ill Syndicalist bodies. It contrived, the etnke of French postal employees in 1009. Soon the- Post Office was losing ,£40,000 a day, nnd 300,000 telegrams and 11,000,'JIJO letters were undelivered. But a second strikp was a fiasco, the Government having, dealt severely with those who took part in it. „'.,,. The next move of the .Confederation Generale (Iα Travail was tlie railway strike of 1910. Aeain the Government won by military mobilisation of the shilcers. In other European countries the Sunrlicalists have done some passing mischief But their failures have been conspicuous enough to justify the hope that tho British working man will distrust their cries for a class war. How do the Socialists look upon Syndicalism? They, with the Anarchists, have one object in common. "To each," Bays Sir Arthur, "the destruction of the existing organisation of society is an indispensable preliminary. ... It mig.it lie thought that the Syndicalist propaganda of revolution is so obviously opposed to the obiect of Stale Socialists that the latter would make vigorous efforts to counteract it; but for f.h.o moment Syndicalists are valuable allies in attacking and disintegrating society." For the moment only. The r Syndicalists won, overthrow the State: flic Rociiillsis would make it supreme: and tbe leaders of English ■Parliamentary Socialism can have no "love for the Syndicalism which would dethrone them, destroy the authority of the State, and set back tho Socialist cause immeasurably.