Syndicalism

Syndicalism is a political and labor movement that seeks workers’ control of industry through trade unions and direct action, often culminating in a general strike.

Direct action: Political action taken directly by participants rather than through elected representatives or formal institutions. Syndicalists use strikes, boycotts, and sabotage to exert workers’ power without relying on parliamentary change.
French labor movement: The organizations and political currents formed by workers in France to pursue economic and political change. French unions and labor debates supplied the setting in which syndicalism took shape.
Émile Pouget: A French anarchist and labor organizer who wrote influential works on direct action and sabotage. Pouget explained how syndicalist tactics could function within everyday labor conflict.
Anarcho-syndicalism: A form of syndicalism that joins revolutionary unionism to anarchist opposition to the state and hierarchy. It is a distinct current within the broader syndicalist family, not a synonym for every form.
Spanish Revolution of 1936: A social revolution during the Spanish Civil War in which workers and peasants collectivized workplaces and land in parts of Spain. Anarcho-syndicalist unions helped organize collectivization on a large scale, especially in Catalonia.
General strike: A coordinated work stoppage across multiple industries or a large part of the workforce. Syndicalists have treated a general strike as a means to halt production and transfer control to workers.
Confédération générale du travail: A French trade-union confederation founded in 1895, associated with revolutionary syndicalism in its early decades. The CGT became a major institutional center for French revolutionary syndicalist ideas and tactics.
Hubert Lagardelle: A French socialist theorist who helped develop revolutionary syndicalism in the early twentieth century. His writings gave syndicalism a sustained theoretical account of class struggle and union autonomy.
Social democracy: A political tradition that pursues social equality through democratic institutions, reform, and public policy. Social democrats generally emphasize electoral and legislative routes that syndicalists regarded as inadequate or compromising.
Mexican Revolution: A prolonged armed conflict beginning in 1910 that transformed Mexico’s political and social order. Syndicalist ideas circulated among Mexican labor activists during a revolution that reshaped organizing possibilities.

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