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Title: Tom Mann and British Syndicalism Author: Anarcho Date: November 21, 2021 Language: en Topics: Tom Mann, syndicalism, United Kingdom, anarcho-syndicalism, biography, history Source: Retrieved on 2nd December 2021 from https://anarchism.pageabode.com/tom-mann-and-british-syndicalism/
Tom Mann (1856â1941) played a critical role in the industrial struggles
of 1910â1914, better known as âthe Great Unrestâ or âthe syndicalist
revoltâ. While it is an exaggeration to suggest, as Fabian elitist
Beatrice Webb did, that the âabsurdâ and âpernicious doctrine of
âworkersâ control of public affairs through trade unions, and by the
method of direct actionâ was âintroduced into British working-class life
by Tom Mann,â he certainly played an important role in popularising
syndicalism.[1]
Mann was born in Foleshill, Coventry, in 1856. Starting work in a mine
at the age of nine, he eventually became an engineer and joined the
Amalgamated Society of Engineers in 1881. A member of various parties at
different times â including the Marxist Social Democratic Federation
(SDF) and the Independent Labour Party (ILP) â he gained fame as one of
the leaders of the 1889 London dock strike before becoming the President
of the Dock, Wharf, Riverside and General Workersâ Union of Great
Britain and Ireland until 1893 and helping to form the Workersâ Union in
1897. He left for Australia in 1902, remaining active in both trade
unionism and labour parties before returning to Britain converted to
syndicalism and just in time to take a key role in the labour disputes
of the next four years:
Tom Mann did not in any sense cause the strikes or the unrest: he
contributed a great deal to the direction they took and to the guiding
of the âunrestâ into definite and constructive channels, but he cannot
be said to have caused it. He utilised an existing state of affairs with
an eye to a wider future as well as to the presentâŠ. Mannâs success came
no doubt largely from his personal qualities, his gift of oratory, and
his strong personality and vivid enthusiasm; but it came much more from
the fact that he chose the right moment for his reappearance. The time
was ripe, and it was his fortune and privilege to be the spark to set
the train alight.[2]
Given the impact of Mannâs ideas, that this was the closest Britain came
to a mass syndicalist movement and, including the post-war ferment, the
closest to a social revolution, it is worthwhile to reconsider them.
Moreover, all the leading syndicalist activists in Britain at the time
were working class. There does seem a distinct sense that syndicalism is
viewed with condescension by many who comment upon it, particularly by
Marxists (academics or not). The underlying position seems to be that
theoretically it is worthless and no match for ideologies produced by
middle-class intellectuals (particularly Lenin). A similar perspective
permeates accounts of Proudhon, namely the idea that working class
people can develop their own theories seems to shock. More, they are all
too often ascribed ridiculous notions which some reflection and research
would quickly debunk.
Given this, a review of British syndicalism via one of its leading
lights, Tom Mann, is warranted.[3] Hopefully we can learn lessons useful
for today and debunk some of the worse claims made against it.
Neither Tom Mann nor British syndicalism can be discussed or understood
without an appreciation of the wider social context, namely the period
of extensive industrial struggle between 1910 and 1914 (âthe Great
Unrestâ). Faced with falling real wages and other issues such as union
recognition, resistance to management control and not being treated with
appropriate dignity, bolstered by relatively full employment, workers
across Britain took part in an industrial revolt whose scale exceeded
that of the decade before: the average number of person days lost
through strikes between 1900 and 1909 averaged 2œ to 3 million but in
1910, 1911, 1913 and 1914 there were about 10 million person days lost,
with nearly 41 million in 1912. Union membership rose from 2.5 million
to over 4 million during those four years. Strikes were usually
unofficial and militant:
The trade union leaders, almost to a man, deplored it, the government
viewed it with alarm, the ILP regretted this untoward disregard for the
universal panacea of the ballot box, the SDF asked, âCan anything be
more foolish, more harmful, more⊠unsocial than a strikeâ; yet
disregarding everything, encouraged only by a small minority of
syndicalist leaders, the great strike wave rolled on, threatening to
sweep everything away before it.[4]
Mannâs return to Britain could not have come at a better time. Yet it
should not be assumed that he ploughed unbroken ground. Rather,
syndicalist ideas had been advocated for some time in Britain. The
earliest was Freedom from the early 1890s onwards, to later be joined by
the de Leonist Socialist Labour Party (SLP) which split from the SDF in
the 1900s but whose impact was limited. The 1900s also saw the
anarchists publish the short-lived The General Strike (1903â4) and The
Voice of Labour (1907). Awareness of revolutionary syndicalism in France
(the Confédération Générale du Travail) and its spread to other
countries was increasingly widespread.[5]
British syndicalists had two main strategies. The first, dual-unionism,
saw the existing unions as very much part of the problem and argued for
building new revolutionary one. These were influenced by the example of
the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). The second argued that the
existing trade unions could be transformed by their members and so urged
what became known as âboring from withinâ (the term associated with the
American syndicalist William Z. Foster).
In May 1907 Guy Aldred helped create the Industrial Union of Direct
Actionists from a number of existing anarchist groups but it did not
last. The dual-unionists of the SLP also formed the British Advocates of
Industrial Unionism (BAIU) that year which aimed to build new
revolutionary unions on the pattern of the IWW. Slightly before the
American IWW, it split over political action. The SLP managed to
alienate even other dual-unionists by their sectarianism, and their
creation of an Industrial Workers of Great Britain in 1909 was
stillborn. The âanti-politicalâ faction formed the Industrialist League
which acted as an unofficial British section of the Chicago IWW and
launched the Industrialist in June 1908.
The North-East of England saw the first stirrings of the labour unrest.
From November 1909 until July 1910 spontaneous strikes took place by the
shipyardsâ boilermakers which resulted in the bosses locking them out.
January 1910 saw the start of a three-month strike by the traditionally
moderate Durham miners against an agreement already signed by their
union officials. Railwaymen, despite having a five year agreement in
place, struck successfully for three days in mid-1910. In the Autumn,
militant tactics were used by cotton workers which saw a lockout in
reprisal.
Mann arrived in Britain in May 1910 and immediately âvisit[ed] the CGT
(ConfĂ©dĂ©ration GĂ©nĂ©rale du Travail) to study its methods of procedureâŠ
and examined thoroughly the principles and policy of the CGT, the
syndicalists of France.â[6] He then helped set up The Industrial
Syndicalist which was issued as 11 monthly pamphlets between July 1910
and May 1911. This swiftly became very influential and in November the
Industrial Syndicalist Education League (ISEL) was founded at a two-day
conference attended by 200 delegates representing 60,000 workers. Not a
union, not even a formally structured body, the ISEL saw its role as
spreading syndicalist ideas in the trade unions for it, like Mann,
favoured the âboring from withinâ strategy to create a national
federation of industrial unions and another of trade councils,
recognising that dual-unionism risked isolating militants from a wider
audience who would be sympathetic to their arguments. Its influence was
reflective of the mass struggle which unfolded during these years and
unlike earlier attempts, syndicalist ideas now found a fertile soil and
a wider pool of activists than just Britainâs small libertarian
groupings.
The Great Unrest is usually dated from September 1910, with the
beginning of the unofficial Cambrian Combine Strike in South Wales.
Initially, the strike centred on wages and conditions but it took on an
increasingly insurrectionary nature. Syndicalist influence grew
steadily, with at least three syndicalists active on the strike
committee and other syndicalist miners helping to spread the dispute
throughout Wales while Mann and other ISEL members were frequent
visitors. In contrast to syndicalist solidarity, the South Wales Minersâ
Federation (SWMF) refused to abandon its policy of conciliation as a
means of settling grievances. After ten months, it ended in defeat for
the miners but it had not been entirely in vain as, for example, the
1912 demand for a minimum wage for all miners emerged from it as did a
campaign to reconstruct the SWMF on fighting lines, centred on the
syndicalist-influenced Unofficial Reform Committee and based on the
pamphlet The Minerâs Next Step.
The summer of 1911 saw unrest spread to the transport industry, the
dockyards and railways. Between June and September, largely unofficial
strike action took place in all the main British ports and throughout
the railway network. The disputes originated with a strike by seamen in
Southampton, which spread quickly. In Liverpool, solidarity action saw
other trades strike in support of the seamen, with a strike committee,
which included Tom Mann, formed to represent all workers involved and
their demands. The seamen and dockers strike ended in early July with a
partial victory but more strikes were called by London dockers. Seeing
the militancy elsewhere, the port authorities made significant
concessions that were accepted by the unions, but rank and file
activists argued for continuation of the strike and the resulting
unofficial action quickly spread until the docks were paralysed. As food
became scarce, further concessions were won from the government.
Just as the dockers strike ended, strikes began on the railways. Poor
wages and conditions combined with dissatisfaction with the Conciliation
Boards set up in 1907 contributed to the actions. The strike began on
Merseyside, where 1,000 rail workers walked out in favour of higher
wages and an end to conciliation in early August 1911. Within 5 days,
the unofficial strike had spread to include some 15,000 railway workers
and a further 8,000 dockers, who came out in sympathy. Rail workers in
other areas joined the dispute, with unofficial action in Hull, Bristol,
Swansea and Manchester forcing the Amalgamated Society of Railway
Servants (ASRS) to call a national strike. Within days, all the rail
unions had joined the stoppage, making it the first ever national rail
dispute.
In Liverpool the new strike broke out the very day the Agreement for the
previous one had been signed. Within a week, the ship-owners imposed a
general lock-out and the strike committee called for an all-out strike
by transport workers. Soon over 70,000 were on strike â with the
traditional sectarian hatred between Catholics and Protestants being
temporarily overcome. Liverpool was bought to a standstill, with the
State reacting to this challenge by sending some 3,000 troops, large
numbers of police and two gunboats. Concessions saw the end of the 72
day strike on Merseyside and in its wake a new monthly syndicalist
journal, Transport Worker, was launched. Edited by Mann, it attained a
circulation of 20,000 by October 1911 in the North-West of England
before closing when he was imprisoned for his revolutionary activities
in March 1912. The Syndicalist Railwayman was also launched in the
Autumn of 1911 and syndicalist activists were elected onto the ASRS
executive.
January 1912 saw the first issue of the monthly newspaper The
Syndicalist appear. The issue contained a reprint of an anti-militarist
article urging soldiers to refuse to shoot at strikers written by Fred
Bower, a syndicalist stonemason, which was first published in Jim
Larkinâs Irish Worker in July 1911. Railway worker Fred Crowsley
distributed it at Aldershot barracks. Crowsley was sentenced to four
months, Guy Bowman (the editor of The Syndicalist) received nine months
and the printers six under the Incitement to Mutiny Act 1797. Mann was
later charged under the same act when he read the article at a public
meeting and was sentenced to six months (reduced to seven weeks by
public pressure). With the prosecutions, trials and imprisonment
associated with the âDonât Shootâ leaflet, syndicalism became far better
known and sales of The Syndicalist rose from around 5,000 copies to
20,000.
The biggest dispute of 1912 centred on a national minimum wage for
miners. Parliament, fearful of unrest, rushed through legislation
agreeing in principal with the demand but it did not set a rate.
Nevertheless, the miners voted against this solution and for continued
strike action, only to see the decision overturned by union leaders who
ordered a return to work. This blatant betrayal by the union officialdom
led to further increase in syndicalist influence.
In November 1912, the ISEL held two conferences with an attendance of
235 delegates representing 100,000 workers. That winter, the
organisation began setting up branches and drawing up a constitution.
The labour unrest continued and in 1913 syndicalism began to gain ground
in other sectors of industry including engineering. One notable strike
broke out in the Black Country, organised by the Workersâ Union. At its
peak 40,000 workers were involved, with strikers marching from factory
to factory to spread the strike. Amalgamation committees spread across
the engineering sector while syndicalist influence grew in the building
industry. The Dublin lockout saw sporadic sympathy action in opposition
to the TUCâs finance only support, with â as an example â 10,000 railway
workers unofficially striking in September 1913 after three workers were
suspended for not handling Dublin traffic as called for by the Irish
strikers. That month saw an international Congress of syndicalist unions
and groups (except the CGT) held in London. Organising this successful
Congress was probably the high-point for the ISEL as some within it were
moving to a dual-unionist position and the resulting tensions caused the
body to break-up, with its rump continuing to publish The Syndicalist
after a seven month gap.
Mann did not attend the Congress as he was on a speaking tour of
America. One such meeting, in which he debated the Marxist Arthur Lewis
on the motion âResolved, That economic organization is sufficient and
political action unnecessary to the emancipation of the working classâ,
was subsequently published as a pamphlet.[7] After his tour, The
International Socialist Review published his âA Plea for Solidarityâ
(January 1914) which reiterated his opposition to dual-unionism as well
as âBig Billâ Haywoodâs reply.[8] On his return to Britain, he moved
away from the ISEL due to its increasingly sectarian dual-unionist
position but he continued to advance the syndicalist case. He â like
many former ISEL members â became associated with the Industrial
Democracy League which grew out of the Amalgamation Committee Federation
and which followed his favoured policy of working in and transforming
the existing unions. As well as writing for its journal Solidarity: A
Monthly Journal of Militant Trade Unionism, Mann also wrote for the
Daily Herald â which had began as a bulletin issued during the London
printersâ strike of 1910â11 before being relaunched as a socialist daily
in April 1912 â and spoke at the Herald supporters Leagues established
in the winter of 1912â13. With a pre-war circulation of 50,000â150,000
copies, this was an important means of getting the syndicalist message
across:
The role of the Herald as a publicist for syndicalist views was more
significant. The meaning and utility of syndicalism was a topic for
debate within the paper from its inception. This emphasis was stimulated
at the editorial level by Charles Lapworth, himself a committed
syndicalist, and by [George] Lansbury. Prominent syndicalists like Tom
Mann, Guy Bowman and A. D. Lewis were involved as contributors and
Herald publicists from 1912, while many rank-and-file syndicalists gave
financial support. By these means the Herald not only gave the
syndicalistsâ objectives a wider national publicity than was possible
within their own monthly press and outdoor agitation, but also helped
create through its correspondence columns and news reports, a sense of
syndicalism as a coherent movement. Last, and perhaps most important,
the Heraldâs emphasis on syndicalism helped to encourage a
cross-fertilisation between revolutionary industrial thought and other
currents of dissidence. Syndicalism became, in the words of a
contemporary activist âpart and parcel of the left wing approach.â[9]
Syndicalists had growing influence with the railway workers by building
upon the industrial unrest which had culminated in the 1911 railway
strike, the dissatisfaction caused by how the Government brought the
strike to an end and the Conciliation Scheme which resulted from the
settlement. The syndicalists attacked the demand for nationalisation,
arguing that it would simply change the boss and that real emancipation
was only possible when workers had complete control over the industry
which could only be achieved by solidarity and direct action. A
resolution on these lines was passed at the 1912 annual conference of
the ASRS, the largest railway trade union at that time. When the ASRS
amalgamated with two other unions in 1913 to form the National Union of
Railwaymen, the new union resolved at its 1914 AGM that â[n]o system of
state ownership will be acceptable to organised railwaymen which does
not guarantee to them their full political and social rights, allow them
a due measure of control and responsibility in the safe and efficient
working of the railway system, and ensure them a fair and equitable
participation in the increased benefits likely to accrue from a more
economical and scientific administration.â
Likewise in the building trade, which had seen the formation of the
Building Trade Consolidation Committee (BTCC) in 1912. This had called
for an industrial union for all building workers, regardless of trade
and, in 1913, building workers voted for the amalgamation by 31,541 to
12,156. The leaders of the various unions chose to ignore the result. A
series of unofficial strikes prompted the employers to warn the unionsâ
officials in December 1913 that if they could not discipline their own
members then they would take action themselves. They duly called a
lock-out which affected some 40,000 building workers and the
organisation of the dispute was taken over by the syndicalists around
the BTCC to secure rank and file control.
After five months, employers offered a number of concessions, only to
see their offer turned down by the strikers by 21,000 votes to 9,000.
Some union leaders then began to break ranks but despite rank-and-file
protest, they had effectively sold out the workers by breaking the unity
of the dispute. This led to a radical rethink by syndicalist building
workers. The majority, previously committed to working within existing
unions, decided to form a new revolutionary union, the Building Workersâ
Industrial Union (BWIU) which four existing unions immediately joined.
The growth of the BWIU â like the wider labour unrest â was only halted
by the outbreak of the First World War.
This can only be a short and selective account of the great unrest. A
feel of the atmosphere of the times can be seen when Freedom wrote of
â1913: The Dawn of Revolutionâ:
It would simply be impossible to enumerate all the happenings of the
past year that have interest in a special sense for the sincere
revolutionists â that is, for those who fervently hope for a fundamental
change in the bases of society. It is sufficient to say that the general
unrest has shown no signs of diminishing, and that the all-round
awakening to a sense of what life really should mean to the great army
of wealth-producers, has brought with it new tactics in the struggle
against the power of capitalism, and a new spirit of rebellion, which
has developed an unprecedented kind of solidarity between all sections
of the working classes.
In a word, the class struggle â the exploiter against the wage-slave â
has reached a point at which the great issue â the use of the
instruments of production in the interest of all â is no longer clouded
by âthe divine right of property.â The private ownership of land, of
minerals, of factories, of means of transport, anti-social in its origin
and in its effects, is attacked on all hands. It is attacked directly by
the economic struggle which means nothing less than an all-round demand
in the ranks of the workers for sustenance and a fuller development of
life, with war to the knife on the inhuman misery which the monopoly of
these sources of wealth inflict on them; and it is attacked indirectly,
feebly and half-heartedly by political reformers of the
democratic-radical type, who would compromise with the evils of our
present system, so long as the keeping of body and soul together, with a
show of some elementary decencies. of life, can be maintained.[10]
That year saw The Voice of Labour relaunched, reflecting the fact that
the ideas that anarchists had been championing for decades â direct
action on the economic terrain to achieve workersâ control of industry â
had become extremely influential in the labour movement. The industrial
struggles had transformed those involved, confirming the syndicalist
argument that a ânew mentality is created by mass association, a more
intense thought and action.â[11] For example, one minersâ strike saw the
strike committee express itself in increasingly radical tones, with a
leaflet of June 1911 calling for the minersâ âTo put an end to
Capitalist Despotism and do battle for the cause of Industrial
Freedom.â[12] Anarchist support for direct action and solidarity as the
means of individual and social transformation had been, again,
strikingly confirmed.
Likewise with the syndicalist activists themselves. While Mann and many
others in the ISEL did not start as an anarcho-syndicalist, the lessons
they drew from the struggles of the period drove them to that position.
We now turn to Mannâs syndicalist ideas.
Mannâs syndicalist period â 1910 to 1916 â was not a long one compared
to his decades of activism but it is, along with his role in the 1889
dockersâ strike, what he is best remembered for. His syndicalism
reflected various aspects of his earlier politics such as his union
organising as part of the New Unionism of the early 1890s and calls for
an eight-hour day. He had long seen the importance of practical
struggles for reform as the means to achieve longer term transformation.
However, many in the SDF (and its later incarnations like the British
Socialist Party, BSP) followed the position of its leader Henry Hyndman
and opposed strikes, thinking them a waste of time, energy and resources
better spent on âpolitical actionâ (i.e., standing for election and
failing to win).
Mannâs move to syndicalism occurred when he in lived in Australia
between 1902 and 1910. This was a product of seeing first-hand how the
state-owned railways did not represent railway workers interests, the
effects of arbitration (introduced under Labour Party administrations)
as well as closely following developments in Syndicalism in France,
Italy and Spain as well as the IWW after its founding in 1905. By 1907
he started to lecture and write on âRevolutionary Unionismâ but did not
reject political action yet. The Broken Hill strike of 1909 was the
catalyst for his syndicalist turn, seeing the failings of the
arbitration system (it punished workers while employers could ignore its
rulings with impunity) and the transporting of the police used to break
the strike by organised railway workers. This caused him to pen the
pamphlet The Way to Win (1909) which, while not rejecting political
action, stressed the need for industrial unionism and the primacy of
economic organisation. In short, it âseemed clear to Tom Mann that
solidarity had to transcend sectional boundaries and the workers had to
rely on their own direct action rather than on the efforts of
legislators. The long-term project was the revolutionary overthrow of
capitalism.â[13]
Like other syndicalists, Mann considered that the âengines of war to
fight the workersâ battles to overthrow the Capitalist class, and to
raise the general standard of life while so doing â must be of the
workersâ own making. The Unions are the workersâ own.â[14] The first
task was to transform the unions, for if you think workers can transform
the world in their unions then first transforming those bodies would not
be an impossible task and, moreover, a sensible position to start from:
Those who say, âWe will have nothing to do with organisations that have
not been on the clear-cut, class-conscious basis,â will practically take
up the position of saying, âWe will have nothing to do with humanity.â
To ignore the unions does not commend itself to experienced men as a
wise method of procedureâŠThe unions⊠are truly representative of the
men, and can be moulded by the men into exactly what they desire.[15]
The unions were seen as having many useful functions:
The Union stands between the worker and a âbossâ to guard the worker
against arrogance and insult. The Union is the place for fellow workers
to fraternise; the real educational institution where information should
be forthcoming about the Worldâs Movements of Workers, all struggling
for economic emancipation.
The Union is conducive to good fellowship. It should and will explain
the âClass Warâ and the stages of progress made in that war. It lifts
the Worker out of the mere routine of working for bread, and tends to
brighten and broaden his views of life. Comrades, get into the Union
according to your occupation. Donât receive advantages for which other
men fight without doing a share yourself. Join and attend well, and do a
share of work, and get others to join, and get and keep your eyes on the
goal, the true goal of working class emancipation, the wiping out of the
capitalist system of Society and the ushering in of a worthier and
happier time. Line up then inside the Unions; whatever is wrong we can
put right, far better inside than outside.[16]
His views on the State remained ambiguous at this stage although he
admitted in an early debate on syndicalism that he âcannot get rid of
this important fact that Parliament was not brought into existence to
enable the working classes to obtain ownership and mastery over the
means of production⊠Parliament was brought into existence by the ruling
class⊠to enable that ruling class to have more effective means of
dominating and subjugating the working class.â While not discounting
electioneering, he argued that reforms via parliament were possible but
only as âthe direct outcome of effort first put forth outside of
Parliament.â[17] By May 1911, he had come to reject his previous
position on electioneering:
My experiences have driven me more and more into the non-Parliamentary
position⊠I find nearly all the serious-minded young men in the labour
and socialist movement have their minds centred upon obtaining some
position in public life such as local, municipal or county
councillorship⊠or aspiring to become an MP⊠I am driven to the belief
that this is entirely wrong⊠So I declare in favour of Direct Industrial
Organisation, not as a means but as THE means whereby the workers can
ultimately overthrow the capitalist system and become the actual
controllers of their industrial and social destiny.[18]
Indeed, if we took the advocates of political action seriously there
would be no need for unions or collective struggle as the elected
representatives would do all that for us. The reality is different. As
Mann suggested in a debate with an American Marxist, his opponent seemed
âto conclude that as a result of the political organisation of the
German social democracy⊠that they were achieving economic changes as a
consequence⊠Have they achieved them? And if they have, will my opponent
be good enough to recite them to us?â This explained the rise in
syndicalist influence as many political socialists had âspent so long in
the movement, and obtained so little, or no return, that they decided to
give it the âgo-byâ entirely. From that time they have resorted to
economic organisation; and in proportion as they have done so, they say
they have achieved results in the way of reduction of hours and increase
in pay.â[19] Moreover, the capitalist State was unsuited to the task of
creating socialism:
Those who know the real attitude of Syndicalists towards parliament,
know full well that our ignoring parliamentary methods is not as the
[BSP] manifesto states⊠Our objection is a much more serious one, it is
that parliament is part of the decaying capitalist regime, and [an]
institution wholly unsuited to afford the workers opportunities of
getting control of the industries and the wealth produced by the workers
in these industries⊠We declare it to be not of the smallest value that
there should be a few socialist speeches made in such a place. Such
speeches would give the workers no power nor would they send fear to the
hearts of the capitalists. Naturally the capitalists will fear nothing
until they find they are losing the power to control the working class.
Our syndicalist method is the encouragement of the working class to
control itself. There is absolutely no agency in existence or projected
at all suitable to this great work except the industrial organisations
of the workers.[20]
His non-political perspective in the class struggle fed into his vision
of the future socialist society, affirming an anarcho-syndicalist
position by 1913:
I am not for any government. I am for that free co-operation of the
workers, industry by industry, district by district, co-ordinated and
co-related with and to each other so effectively that we shall know
exactly what output of commodities will be required and what necessaries
of life will be required, and what the productive capacity is. Therefore
I rely upon perfect industrial organisation. And if any of you care to
know what that means, it is exactly what is meant by the term
âsyndicalismâ.[21]
Thus not only improvements in the here-and-now could be achieved by
syndicalist tactics but also social revolution for âthat which is known
as the âTrades Union movementâ, when it is properly broadened, properly
idealised and intelligently utilised, which I believe it will be
by-and-by, then I argue that that institution â the working class
industrial organisation â known now as the âTrade Union movementâ â when
that is made what it ought to be, we shall be quite equal to achieving
the entire economic and social change.â[22]
Mann, however grand his hopes on the possible future of the union
movement, was also realistic about the present and noted that it was
âtoo early at present to go beyond the educational stage, as only a
small minority have been reached in any definite fashion.â[23] Even as
the class struggle intensified in the following years, he remained well
aware that such a reformed union movement would take time to produce.
âWould that the workers were reasonably prepared to overthrow the
wretched system that compels us to work for the profit of a ruling
class, and ready to co-operate intelligently for universal well-being,â
he wrote in February, 1912. âBut we know that the workers are not ready
to do this, and we must therefore fall back on something less ambitious
for the time being.â[24]
So over the space of a few years Mann moved from a social-democratic
position to syndicalism to, finally, anarcho-syndicalism. âIf Mann is
not an Anarchist, (and he never said he was),â noted Mother Earth, âhe
believes everything the Anarchist doesâ.[25] Yet Mannâs libertarian
ideas during this period did not come out of nowhere. He had had a long
association with anarchists dating back to at least the 1889 Dockersâ
Strike:
Like Morris, Shaw and Cunninghame Graham, [Kropotkin] went down among
the dockers to inspire them with his speeches, and he made at this time
a friendship with Tillett and Mann which lasted until his eventual
departure from England [in 1917]. On Mann he had even some influence,
for while Burns and Tillett both took the road that led to political
power and a high place in the rapidly growing hierarchy of the trade
unions, Mann remained very much a rebel and soon followed Kropotkinâs
example in doubting the value of political action. His later adhesion to
revolutionary syndicalism, when he founded the [Industrial] Syndicalist
Education League, was undoubtedly due in great part to the influence of
his anarchist friends.[26]
In April 1896 C.S. Quinn of the Associated Anarchists wrote to Mann
expressing the feeling of âgeneral satisfaction among the Anarchistsâ
with his account of anarchist communism at a lecture series he held.[27]
Later that year he argued that the anarchists should be allowed as
delegates at the London Congress of the Second International and spoke
at the protest meeting organised by the anti-Parliamentarians. October
1896 saw a meeting of London Anarchist Communists to âbid farewell to
Louise Michel and Pietro Gori on their departure to America on a
lecturing tourâ in Holborn at which he spoke along with Errico Malatesta
and Sebastian Faure. In early 1900, Mann took part in an anti-Boer War
meeting in London along with Emma Goldman[28] while the pub he ran in
Long Acre, London, in the years before he left for New Zealand and
Australia was âan anarchist hangout. Was Mann close to them? There is
some scattered evidence that suggests he quite possibly wasâ and so âhis
exposure to anarchism was real and continuing in the last years of the
1890s.â[29] In Australia, he regularly mentioned Kropotkinâs Mutual Aid
as shown in one 1908 address in which explained to his audience that
this book âwas complementary to Darwinâs work, and should be read by
everyone. It was a set-off to the idea that the individual struggle for
existence was everything in evolution, as it showed that the development
of social instincts was just as important.â[30]
His return to Britain and his embrace of syndicalism saw closer links
develop between him and the anarchist movement. The veteran anarchists
Errico Malatesta and John Turner (of the Shop Assistants Union) spoke at
an ISEL New Yearâs Event in 1911, the former âcongratulated the League
on its libertarian ideasâ and the later âdeclared that Syndicalism was
giving to progressives a much needed opportunity to translate their
theories into action.â[31] Turner later joined its executive while
Malatesta spoke âunder the aegis of Mannâs Industrial Syndicalist
Education League on a number of occasions.â[32] Freedom reported how
Mann had âcharged himself with foolishness in the past in looking to
Parliament for Labourâs emancipationâ and had ânow came out as a full
fledged Direct Actionist.â[33] As Mother Earth summarised:
No one enjoys greater respect among the workers of England than Tom Mann
. Deservedly so: has he not been an active participant within the last
twenty five years in every struggle of the proletariat in England,
Australia, and South Africa? Like so many other Socialists, he has
become convinced through experience of the uselessness of parliamentary
activity and he has learned the importance of direct action and the
General Strike.
The methods which the Anarchists have been propagating for a score of
years have finally triumphed in England. Thus an important bond has been
formed between the toilers of Great Britain and the revolutionary
movement on the Continent.
By means of direct action and the General Strike the English workers
have accomplished more in a few days than their leaders have succeeded
in doing in the yearlong âactivityâ in Parliament. They have not only
carried their demands , but also caused tremendous injury to their
masters, the capitalists.[34]
âWhat a pity, â Emma Goldman lamented, âwe lack a Tom Mann in America,
to gather up the forces that are sick to their very souls with the
opportunistic compromises of the [Socialist] party? The soil has never
been more ripe, the material never more ready for a real revolutionary
Syndicalist movement.â[35] Mann contributed articles to Mother Earth
including, in December 1912, an article celebrating Kropotkinâs 70^(th)
birthday while the December 1912 issue of The Syndicalist also had a
short article marking it, noting âthat magnificent revolutionary study,
âThe Conquest of Breadââ and how he had âdevote[d] himself to the
self-imposed task of helping to rid the world of economic slavery and
its twin evil â political government.â The âbest homage all can pay to
him is to study his works, imitate his unselfishness, and propagate his
ideas.â September 1913 saw Mann argue that workers had to âsee the
unfitness of the Capitalist State to deal with industrial problems; and,
what is of equal importance, the impossibility of the working class ever
functioning as the controllers of industry through the State machine.
They require to feed on a good course of Peter Kropotkin to wean them
from the idea that the modern Sate as a governing entity is in any sense
a real necessity.â[36]
Anarchists in Britain and America viewed Mannâs evolution with interest,
seeing in it a confirmation of their long-held views. This is reflected
in The Syndicalist which informed its readers about âThe Old
Internationalâ which was originally âa Federalist and Revolutionary
bodyâ until the Hague Congress of 1872. While âthe authoritarians, under
the guidance of Marx and Engels, evolved from a revolutionary body to a
reformist oneâ and âbecame Social Democrats and foreswore all
revolutionary methodsâ, the âFederalists kept alive the revolutionary
traditions, and in Spain they originated Syndicalism by declaring for
the expropriation of the landowners and capitalists and the control of
industry by free Federations of the workers.â Bakunin âwas the champion
of the Federalist elementâ and âalthough the Federalist International
disappeared⊠its ideas went on developing regionallyâ, meaning that his
âideas are now more alive than ever.â Needless to say, the author linked
themselves to those expelled from the London Congress of 1896.[37]
Mann remained in contact with Kropotkin over many decades and in an
article for the Amalgamated Engineering Union journal included Kropotkin
â along with Robert Owen, J.S. Mill, Proudhon and Bakunin â amongst
those who had influenced his idea of communism.[38] In 1938 he outlined
to his Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) biographer, Dona Torr,
how he had met Kropotkin and that he had talked âabout his hostility to
the State, and this influenced me very muchâ.[39]
This does not mean that anarchists were uncritical of aspects of Mannâs
syndicalism.
While bemoaning that Mann had ânot cut himself quite clear of the
political octopus, which, to our mind, is a dangerâ, Freedom welcomed
the launch of The Industrial Syndicalist with its âcall for Direct
Action and General Strikeâ and that it âspeaks the truthâ that âthe
future⊠is with the economic struggle.â[40] In contrast, the following
month it reported with approval the passing of a motion noting âthe
futility of Parliamentary actionâ at the second annual Conference of the
Industrialist League, arguing that âindustrial Unionism will gain
immensely by adhering to the one clear call for economic struggle.
Propaganda in this direction is sadly needed at the present moment.â[41]
Anarchists also recognised that the structure of unions mattered with
Glasgow anarchist John Paton criticising Mann for his ambivalence over
Parliament and, more importantly, that he did not explicitly address the
power of officialdom within the unions:
In deciding for the retention of the present organisations, Mann has
quite evidently failed to get to grips with the root of the problem he
is facing. The curse of Trade Unionism in this country is the
centralisation of executive power with its resultant multiplication of
officials. The corresponding stagnation and death of local life and
spirit is the inevitable consequence. This centralisation would be
enormously extended and developed by Mannâs scheme⊠We must decentralise
and as far as possible destroy executive power. Let the workers
themselves bear the burden and responsibility of decisive action.[42]
The Industrial Syndicalist reflected a range of views as regards
officials. One SWMF activist, W.F. Hay, argued that officials should be
âelected for a definite period with definite instructionsâ but given
substantial powers to secure the demands agreed by the members. Members
were envisioned as having little say beyond removing them from office if
they were unsuccessful for âno General can consult with his troops when
going into battle with the enemyâ and, moreover, this was how
shareholders acted when âappointing a Managerâ as how he secures their
wishes âis of no concern of theirs.â As such, âwe may learn from our
masters.â[43] Of course, shareholders are not subject to the authority
of the manager and structures which work well exploiting workers are not
suitable for freeing them. Other activists â as expressed at the ISEL
conference held in November 1910 â were critical of officialdom and the
powers it held, seeking to empower the members and so activists âmust
see that they did not have too much leadershipâ (W.G. Kerry) and â[o]ne
of the things they ought to work and fight for was to take out of the
hands of the Executives and leaders the power they now have, and they
could do it by getting among the members.â (T. Wilson Coates).[44] This
often proved harder than expected with, for example, the resistance by
the union officialdom in the building industry seeing a rise in
dual-unionism, with the creation of the BWIU in August 1914.[45]
Unsurprisingly, then, most anarchists saw the opportunity afforded by
the rise of industrial unionist ideas, arguing that they âcan use their
influence to make it [the I.W.W.] anti-Parliamentary (the Industrialist
League, the British section of the I.W.W. is already
anti-Parliamentary); they can point out to the Industrial Unionists the
fallacies and dangers of centralisation; and they can help the movement
reach its logical aim â Anarchy.â[46] As the âgreat unrestâ developed,
this hope increasingly became reality and libertarian influence within
the ranks of British syndicalism grew.
Of course, Mannâs syndicalism does not address the problems with the
doctrine that Malatesta so elegantly explained in many articles and,
most famously, against Pierre Monatte at the International Anarchist
Congress of 1907.[47] As Malatesta rightly argued in 1922, âthe Trade
Unions are, by their very nature reformist and never revolutionary. The
revolutionary spirit must be introduced, developed and maintained by the
constant actions of revolutionaries who work from within their ranks as
well as from outside, but it cannot be the normal, natural definition of
the Trade Unions function.â[48] The ISEL seems to reflect the kind of
libertarian involvement with the labour movement Malatesta championed,
raising libertarian ideas and tactics within the unions with remarkable
success.
One last point on the subject of anarchism and syndicalism.
While many Marxists today often like to portray anarchism and
syndicalism as incompatible (the former being âindividualisticâ, the
latter collectivist), their ancestors recognised the links. âIn
Germany,â one argued, âthe thinking of Karl Marx is dominant; in France
the thinking of Proudhon, the anarchist.â[49] In Britain, they bemoaned
the âinsidious preaching of Syndicalism, Direct Action and similar forms
of anti-political anarchismâ. [50] Likewise, it is interesting to see
that Mann wrote for Mother Earth[51] and stated it âvoiced in clear
terms the necessity for âworking class solidarity,â âdirect action in
all industrial affairsâ and âfree association.â I subscribe to each of
these with heart and mind.â It was âlabouring so thoroughly to
popularise principles calculated, as I believe, to emancipate mankind,
intellectually and economically.â[52] The journal, in return, was very
praising of him and his activity. All facts which are hard to square
with the common-place (and false) Leninist assertion that Emma Goldman
was an elitist cultural activist who ignored the class struggle.
It is disappointing to note that Mann, like many other syndicalists
(although not as many as Leninists today like to imply) became a
Communist, although he did not take a role in the formation of the CPGB
in 1920 and joined once it has been created. Given that he joined the
BSP sometime after the June 1917 Leeds convention on the Russian
Revolution âand toured the country calling for support for the Russian
Revolution and for soviets in Britainâ,[53] the BSP made up the bulk of
the new CPGB, and his syndicalism was a relatively recent development
built upon decades of Marxist prejudices, perhaps this development is
less surprising than some would think.
In 1921 he visited Russia to take part in the Congress of the Red
International of Labor Unions (Profintern), an experience he wrote about
in a pamphlet entitled Russia in 1921. This makes no mention of the
dictatorship of the Communist Party and instead quotes a âComrade
Peterovskyâ from The Communist Review that âCommunism has never yet
existed in Russia; what has existed has been the dictatorship of the
proletariat, i.e., of the best organised and most class-conscious of the
town industrial workers, supported actively in the Soviets by the
remainder of the working class, and passively by the peasantry, so long
as its elementary demands were satisfiedâ while âthe large industrial
establishments will be entirely owned, managed and controlled in all
respects by the government with the aid of the trade unions in a very
real senseâ.[54] He repeated this claim in his Memoirs:
the Russian Revolution has taught us many things. Perhaps the most
important of these is that the administration or management of industry
must be by councils of workers and not by parliaments⊠I am, therefore,
strongly in favour of the universal establishment of workersâ councils,
and the universal formation of shop committees. These institutions are
indispensable instruments for achieving the complete overthrow of
capitalism and the full control of all forms of industry by the workers.
Such control will be secured, and the administration of industry will be
effected, through industrial organisations, through our present trade
unions when they have shed their narrowness and absurdities, have
broadened their bases, and have welded themselves together so as to
become equal to all industrial requirements.
This is the essence of syndicalism. The outlook for the future is not
that of a centralised official bureaucracy giving instructions and
commands to servile subordinates; I look for the coming of associations
of equals, working co-operatively to produce with the highest
efficiency, and simultaneously to care for the physical and mental
wellbeing of all⊠With the experience of Russia to guide us, I entirely
agree that there will be a period, short or long, when the dictatorship
of the proletariat must be resorted to.[55]
Yet such a regime did not exist in Russia and, moreover, the Bolshevik
âdictatorship of the proletariatâ had been the mechanism by which
tendencies towards that future had been systematically destroyed and
replaced by rule by a massive, corrupt bureaucracy âgiving instructions
and commands to servile subordinates.â Lenin, like the other leading
Bolsheviks, rejected both in practice and in theory the idea of workersâ
management of production and, ironically, had in 1920â1 denounced a
weakened demand for this by the Workersâ Opposition as a âsyndicalistâ
deviation.[56] There was simply no workersâ control in Soviet Russia and
substantial ideological reasons why this would remain the case.
Mannâs hope was that parliamentary action could be used âto prevent the
capitalist class from using force to block the workersâ movementâ and
that âignoring the existence of the plutocratic state machine, or by
indifference to its functioning in a manner hostile to the workersâ
would be unwise, so âit would be impolitic to leave the forces of the
state machine in the hands of our plutocratic enemies.â [57] This â as
we will see â was just the old Social Democratic critique he had replied
to in his syndicalist period and which would mean no strike would be
wise until Communists made-up more than 50% of parliament. It also
failed to take into account that the so-called âdictatorship of the
proletariatâ had used the forces of its state machine against strikes
from 1918 onwards.[58] Ironically, the Bolshevik regime confirmed the
warnings of the syndicalists that nationalisations meant âthe further
power of the political machine, the political power extended to the
industrialâ and would create âan all-powerful bureaucracy, with its own
laws, and its own army and police to support itâ.[59]
Was Mann aware of this? Probably not. Like so many, he wanted to believe
the Bolshevik Myth and so closed his eyes to those â including his
previous libertarian comrades â who exposed the grim reality of
Bolshevik Russia. Emma Goldman recounted her disappointment with Mann
and his initial unwillingness to support the protests at the 1921
Profintern Congress for the imprisoned Russian anarchists and
syndicalists:
Tom Mann, always anathema to the ruling class of his country, now
accepted and made much of by the head of the new dynasty, proved clay in
Bolshevik hands. He was too weak to resist Lenin and he was overcome
like a debutante first receiving male homage.[60]
To be fair, he did sign the protest letter on the issue of the
anarchists (much to Harry Pollittâs dislike) but the fact Mann remained,
like Scottish ex-syndicalist William Gallacher, a Communist until his
death and so stuck with the party as it became Stalinist. Yet he also
remained true to some of what he had learned before the war. âWe aim,â
he wrote in 1927, âat applying the principle of workersâ control in the
shops, factories, mills, mines, ships and railways until we get complete
controlâ.[61] Eleven years later he was still arguing for workersâ
control.[62] Moreover, Dona Torr â the CPGB member tasked with writing
his biography[63] â ârevealed that Mann was not altogether satisfied
with his party career, âfeel[ing] deeplyâ that there was an âessential
difference between the side he has fought on since 1921â and his life
before the party.â[64]
So Mannâs legacy primarily lies in his trade union activism rather than
his membership of various Marxist parties before and after his
syndicalist period. As one contemporary noted, âTom Mann is today, even
in his old age, a giant among pygmies. It is pathetic, however, to think
of him spending his declining years in association with a bunch of
political nonentitiesâ[65] like the CPGB. Significantly, Torrâs pamphlet
Tom Mann (1936) issued to mark his 80^(th) birthday had some
twenty-seven pages dedicated to the period of the 1880s to 1914 while
the post-1914 period had only two.
Ironically, this is reflected in the fact that the source of Mannâs
appeal for Leninists is not his Bolshevik period â beyond a few
references to the 1920s National Minority Movement it is rarely
mentionedâ but rather his activities which predated the CPGB. This
reflects his utility to the Bolsheviks themselves, who recognised that
âhe was nevertheless one of the worldâs foremost syndicalists, and his
adherence to communism had a tremendous potential value as a counter to
be paraded around Europe before anarcho-syndicalist and âleftistâ
critics of Bolshevism.â[66]
Still, regardless of this, Mannâs arguments and activities from 1910 to
1916 should be better remembered. That Mann is remembered for his
syndicalist period is significant for it shows the power of the ideas he
advocated compared with his stints in various socialist parties (SDF,
ILP, BSP).
Yet while the move from syndicalist to communist is celebrated as a good
example to be followed by libertarians today, Mannâs toleration of
Stalinism is less noted by Marxists. Understandably, given what it says
about their ideology. Insofar as Leninists mention the Stalinist
endpoint of the likes of Mann, it is usually explained by reference to
their pre-Communist politics â a lingering legacy of their libertarian
period.
Paul Foot, for example, noted how Mann âsupported the Russian Revolution
throughout the Twenties and by the time Stalin started to extirpate
every revolutionary vestige of that revolution, Tom was an old manâ,
bemoaning how he went to China in 1927 and âchronicle[d] the disaster
for which [his] beloved Stalin was chiefly responsible. Once more the
abstentionism inherent in the syndicalist case â the abandonment of
âdifficultâ political decisions to âthem upstairsâ had blinded Tom Mann
to the cause of this most awful horror.â[67] Yet surely â as a leading
member of the SWP â he was aware that Bolshevism is based on âdemocratic
centralismâ in which party members are expected to follow the decisions
of the central committee (actual âthem upstairsâ rather than unspecified
ones) regardless? As Trotsky put it in 1924 during his fight with
Stalin:
Comrades, none of us wants to be or can be right against the party. In
the last analysis, the party is always right, because the party is the
sole historical instrument that the working class possesses for the
solution of its fundamental tasks⊠I know that no one can be right
against the party. It is only possible to be right with the party and
through it since history has not created any other way to determine the
correct position.
The English have a proverb: My country right or wrong. We can say with
much greater historical justification: Whether it is right or wrong in
any particular, specific question at any particular moment, this is my
party⊠I consider my duty at the present time to be the duty of a party
member who knows that the party, in the last analysis, is always
right.[68]
So the whole point of democratic centralism is that you submerge your
views and parrot the party line. To blame Mannâs Stalinism on
syndicalism rather than Bolshevism is unconvincing, particularly as
embracing Leninism in the first place meant supporting â or turning a
blind-eye to â the party dictatorship, state capitalism and
âdictatorialâ one-man management of the Bolshevik regime under Lenin and
Trotsky. So ignoring your own experiences and doubts in favour of
following the Comintern line was part of the CPGB position from the
start and not a later development under Stalin. Mann, then, followed the
decisions of the Comintern under Lenin and Stalin due to the same
(non-syndicalist) principles â undoubtedly because the Russians had a
âsuccessfulâ revolution under their belts, one which Stalin had taken
part as a key supporter of Lenin. Following Lenin was the soil upon
which following Stalin flourished just as the former had extirpated
every revolutionary gain of 1917 long before the latter secured his
position precisely on those foundations.
There are other issues with Footâs claims. He suggested that Mannâs
âapolitical syndicalism left him without independent political answers
when the workers, on whose industrial strength he depended exclusively,
stampeded to the colours.â Except, of course, syndicalists around the
world campaigned against the war while almost all Marxist parties sided
with their State in the imperialist conflict. As a Spanish syndicalist
noted at the Second Congress of the Communist International when the
Bolsheviks suggested something similar, âof the professed syndicalist
organisations only the CGT deserved this reproach, that precisely the
political unions â those maintaining connections with the socialist
parties â had supported the war and thus aided the capitalists.â[69] As
syndicalist-turned-Bolshevik Alfred Rosmer noted, âpeople talked too
much, and not always intelligently, about âsyndicalist prejudicesââ yet
âthese âprejudicesâ had not stopped syndicalists being in the front line
of resistance to the war and of the defence of the October
Revolution.â[70]
Trying to save this claim, Leninist academic Ralph Darlington looked at
the syndicalist movement in France, Italy, Spain, Ireland, Britain and
America. Of these, only the CGT became pro-war (although âthere emerged
a tiny internationalist and anti-war minority within the CGTâ) and âin
both Spain and Ireland the syndicalist movements mounted opposition to
the warâ while âthe bulk of Italian syndicalists confirmed their
anti-militarism and internationalismâ. In Britain and America, the
syndicalists and IWW are condemned for not explicitly campaigning
against the war although he does not explain how their âambiguous stance
was a reflection of their syndicalist refusal explicitly to link
industrial activity with political ideas and organisationâ when, as he
himself shows, other syndicalists managed to do so. Needless to say, he
draws no similar generalisations from his admission that in Britain
â[e]ven those shop stewardsâ leaders who were members of revolutionary
socialist parties, such as the British Socialist Party and the Socialist
Labour Party, acted no differently.â Add the other countries he mentions
in which the syndicalists took an anti-war position â Germany, Sweden,
Spain and the Netherlands â and it seems hard to conclude that
syndicalist theory somehow hinders opposing imperialist war.[71]
So, in reality, compared to political Marxism and its affiliated unions,
the syndicalists â like the anarchists â have a far better track record
as regards opposing the First World War. Footâs grasp of the facts can
also be seen from his claim that Mann âthrew himself into the Red
International Labour Union, which was founded in Moscow in 1921. Leninâs
aim was to set up revolutionary trade unions to counter the âreformistâ
trade unions which were being set up in the capitalist world.â While the
former is true, the latter is not. Indeed, the opposite is the case:
Leninâs aim was to get the revolutionary unions to disband and for their
militants to join both the Communist Party and the reformist trade
unions.
Then again, Foot once managed to write an article on Louise Michel which
failed to mention she was an anarchist so perhaps we should not be too
surprised. However, his claims are often repeated and so worth
debunking. Likewise with another common claim that the syndicalists
âneglected politics and the role of the state altogetherâ[72]. Another
historian suggested âthat âpureâ syndicalismâs (and Mannâs) theory of
the state â and his consequent denial of the need for anything that can
plausibly be called political action â was as close to being just plain
wrong and for the reasons most commonly cited.â[73] This is reflected in
this passage:
Welsh syndicalists consistently underrated the significance of the
state. Politics were unimportant because the state was simply the
superstructural manifestation of the economic power of the bourgeoisie.
The real fight was with a real not an abstract enemy at the point of
productionâŠUnfortunately the state was not an abstraction but a force in
its own right which intervened with decisive effect during the decontrol
struggle in 1921. That experience underlined the relevance of the
arguments advanced by the British Socialist Party in its pre-war polemic
against Syndicalism. âYou cannot get very far by mere industrial
actionâ, wrote Fred Knee at that time. âSo long as the capitalist state
remains, with its army, navy and police⊠so long will it be possible for
that capitalist state, when thoroughly awake to any danger, to throttle
any strike, however bigâ[74]
In terms of the Welsh syndicalists, are we expected to believe â to take
just one example â that they were unaware that Churchill had during a
south Wales minersâ dispute in 1910 sent battalions of police from
London and held troops in reserve in Cardiff, in case the police failed
in their task? That during what became known as the Tonypandy riots that
the authorities fortified Pontypridd with 400 policemen, two troops of
infantry and a squadron of the 18^(th) Hussars (who were stationed at
the Llywnypia pit)? Is there any doubt that they knew that the State was
on the side of the employers given what they saw with their own eyes?
Moreover, Mann â and other syndicalists â were fully aware of the role
of the State and repeatedly answered at the time this apparently
unanswerable critique. Indeed, Arthur M. Lewis raised the same claim in
his debate with Mann during the latterâs tour of America and got this
reply:
Of course I am aware of what is likely to be said with regard to their
being the men in possession; they are the owners of the factories, the
mills and the mines. At present I know that they are the virtual owners
of the state machinery, and the virtual owners of the fighting forces.
And it may be argued that they can use these against us, against the
working class. I am declaring they could not do anything of the kind
when class solidarity is once a fact. Given solidarity, the army cannot
move. Given solidarity, the navy cannot move. Given solidarity, the
judges cannot function in their particular grooves. Given solidarity,
neither statesman, politician, church, nor others will be able to aid in
supplying the daily bread.[75]
Mann re-iterated this answer by noting that while âit is claimed that if
you will ignore the state, the state has its machinegun, etc.â he had,
â[i]n the plainest of English language⊠commented upon the existence of
that powerâ and had âalso made the straightest possible reference to the
means whereby I would deprive them of that powerâ, namely that
âfunctioning on the industrial field by the exhibition of solidarityâŠ
would entirely deprive the government of the present power it has, and
it could no longer control those who would make use of the guns to pop
holes through you.â[76] He mocked those who said that âpolitical actionâ
was essential to capture the State in order to then destroy it:
That it may be abolished! Is that the same âstateâ that Mr Lewis is now
proposing we shall spend our energy in capturing? And what will be the
good of it when we have got it? What will we do with it when we have it?
If it is to be abolished, and I say it is to be abolished, what is the
good of spending time over it trying now to get hold of it, when here I
have shown â and he has not refuted it or attempted to â I have shown
that by refusing to function at the bidding of the bosses we thereby
deprive the state entirely of its present power. I request him to be
good enough to deal with that.[77]
At an ISEL Conference the previous year Mann moved a motion on this:
Methods of Direct Action
Whereas the State is always prepared to use its armed force in the
interests of the capitalists to coerce the workers into submission
whenever they attempt to better their conditions;
Whereas the capitalists have even gone so far as to raise armed forces
of their own;
Whereas the workers, who have no country, have no interest in any war,
except the class war;
The Conference declares the necessity for the workers to devise means of
Direct Action against the State as well as against the capitalists â
such as the Strike, the Irritation Strike, the Pearl Strike, Sabotage,
the Boycott, and Anti-Militarism.[78]
And, lest we forget, Mann embraced Industrial Unionism after seeing
organised railway workers transport âthe armed police and other henchmen
of the companiesâ to Broken Hill âthus enabling the master class to have
at its disposal the machinery of the state and the services of the
organised workmen to beat the miners.â[79] Likewise during the Liverpool
transport strike, Mann saw 3,000 troops and several hundred police
imported into the city along with gunboats on the Mersey. The 13^(th) of
August â Bloody Sunday â saw a mass demonstration of 80,000 workers
violently dispersed by police and troops. Two days later, two strikers
were shot dead by troopers as crowds attacked prison vans taking those
convicted for resisting the police on the 13^(th) to prison.[80]
Moreover, he was imprisoned for anti-militarist propaganda (the âDonât
shot!â leaflet) in 1912.
Now it is one thing to say that such responses were inadequate,[81] it
is quite another to suggest that the syndicalists were blissfully
unaware of the issue and had not responded to it. Yet, apparently, we
are meant to believe that Mann â like all syndicalists â was unaware of
the role and nature of the State in spite seeing its forces of coercion
deployed against strikes.
So, as Bob Holton summarised, the Syndicalists âquite clearly perceived
the oppressive role of the state whose periodic intervention in
industrial unrest could hardly have been missed.â They âwere hostile to
any view of parliament and the state as socially neutral and therefore
malleable by supporters of social reform. State institutions were seen
instead as functioning in capitalist interests.â[82] In realty, then,
syndicalists addressed this issue and argued that anti-militarist
agitation and the general strike would paralyse the forces of the
State.[83]
This perspective flowed from âthe Syndicalist view that the organised
State, with its government and officials and armed forces, was brought
into existence by the opponents of the Workers, and functions only in
the interests of the enemies of the Workers.â[84] They rejected the idea
that the State was a neutral body which could be captured:
Political Socialism works by legal means from above; Syndicalism works
from underneath, irrespective of legality.
The Political Socialist sees in everything the need for the State or the
Municipality to do something, thereby forgetting the class nature of the
State and his own teaching that anything to be done, must be done by the
workers themselves, and that no law will be enforced effectively in the
workersâ interest, until the workers can enforce it themselves.[85]
This analysis also informed their critique of nationalisation. First,
â[w]here âLabour Governments are in power the workers are still
wage-slaves. They are still exploited.â[86] Second, why expect the
capitalist State to be the means of liberating labour? As one
syndicalist stressed:
The State which now sends British soldiers and police to protect
blacklegs⊠and to bludgeon British workers who are fighting for their
bare rights to existence, can hardly be expected to inspire the workers
with much confidence as to its intentions as an employer of labour⊠it
is likely to be as unscrupulous an exploiter as is the private
corporation. And this need hardly be wondered at. The State is
essentially a ruling-class organisation, and its functions are chiefly
coercive. The State came into existence with the rise of private
property and a privileged class; its main functions have always been the
protection of ruling-class property and the keeping of the masses in
subjection.[87]
It should also be noted that the Marxists of the time had the naĂŻve
position that the State machine would simply follow the decisions of any
Socialist government rather than, say, ignore parliament and organise a
military coup. As one leading British syndicalist argued:
Besides, if our rulers, by Parliament, can prevent a General Strike, so
equally can they take measures to prevent a Parliamentary Socialist
VictoryâŠ. Does it ever strike the politicians that if capitalist
politics can be used to tie up the workersâ industrial revolt, how still
more easily can they be used to tie up, deceive, or cajole the workers
politically?
The base of the matter is to be found in the formidable error of
thinking that the workers can emancipate themselves with the permission
of their rulersâŠ. The General Strike cannot be combatted by laws if the
workers are determined to resort to it.[88]
Moreover, the critique was somewhat beside the point as no Marxist Party
ever got into that position â electioneering ensured that any which
managed to achieve a majority had by that time become completely
reformist (indeed, the 1945â51 British Labour Party government had no
qualms in sending in troops to break dockersâ strikes). Ironically, one
of Mannâs Marxist critics admitted as much when he noted in passing how
French socialist Aristide Briand âhad proven himself a deserter.â[89]
The rest of the twentieth century simply confirmed the syndicalist
recognition that socialists âprior to being returned, were
unquestionably revolutionary, are no longer so after a few years in
Parliament.â[90]
In short, syndicalists regularly addressed the issue of the use of State
forces in strikes and at a minimum argued for anti-militarist propaganda
within the armed forces and that solidarity strikes would hinder their
deployment if they proved immune to calls for class solidarity. Others,
such as Pataud and Pouget, recognised the need for actively
âdisorganising the State, of dismantling and thoroughly disabling itâ
(insurrection) along with âThe Arming of the Peopleâ to form an
âorganisation of defence, with a Trade Union and Federal basisâ and
these âSyndicalist battalions were not a force external to the people.
They were the people themselvesâ who âhad the common-sense to arm
themselves in order to protect their conquered liberty.â[91]
Given this, their urging that we direct our energies to building our own
organisations rather than on a futile attempt to capture those of our
masters becomes simply stating the obvious.
Finally, the question of the General Strike. Marxists have a tendency to
portray this as a passive âfolded armsâ revolt. Indeed, initially many
French syndicalists envisioned it this way and were critiqued by
anarchists (most famously, by Errico Malatesta at the 1907 International
Anarchist Congress). The notion that the general strike could starve out
the capitalist class ignored the resources available to it and the
disruption to the community such a strike would have. The need then, as
Kropotkin had stressed in the early 1880s, was to turn the general
strike into a general insurrection and expropriation.[92] This critique
was recognised as valid by many syndicalists with, for example, Pouget
and Pataud arguing that the general strike was the precursor for an
uprising, swift expropriation of the means of life and the resuming of
production under workersâ control. This perspective was also expressed
by British Syndicalists:
For Syndicalists to preach passivism is absurd. The expropriation of the
capitalists is not going to be accomplished by the starvation of the
workers. For us the general strike is not a national movement for
working-class starvation but the commencement of the capitalistsâ
expropriation⊠Direct Action, sabotage, general strike, insurrection
leading to expropriation are the only methods that Syndicalists can use
to emancipate the workers.[93]
Thus âDirect Action will have to carry the victory ultimately. There is
no solution for the abolition of wage system other than expropriationâŠ
the Revolutionary General Strike for the expropriation of the
capitalists.â[94] It was a fallacy to suggest otherwise:
Our conception of the Social Revolution, effected by the direct and
forcible expropriation of the capitalists, abolishes at once and for all
the wages system⊠It means the communist reorganisation of society, the
abolition of all political government, all society being workers, and
these regulating and controlling their own conditions of existence
through their economic organisations that have been shaped to that
end.[95]
In other words, the insurrectionary and expropriatory general strike so
vividly portrayed by Pouget and Pataud was also advocated by many
British syndicalists (Mann suggested that while details would differ,
âall the present day developments compel acquiescence in the main lines
of the forecastâ[96]). Needless to say, their book was also positively
reviewed by Max Baginski in the June 1913 issue of Mother Earth and was
advertised in it alongside Goldmanâs pamphlet Syndicalism: The Modern
Menace to Capitalism.
The industrial scene is very different now. Large-scale industry is
nowhere near as significant as it was in Mannâs day (the utter
destruction of coal mining being the most obvious example). The unions
have moved from primarily sectional trade-based ones to giant general
ones rather than industrial ones. They are subject to draconian
regulations which impose â to use Pougetâs term â âDemocratismâ onto
them, so disempowering the militant minority who can inspire mass action
and empowering the officials who can diffuse it. We have no equivalent
of the Daily Herald.
The âfree marketâ and âanti-red-tapeâ Tories have passed law-upon-law
regulating industrial action (and so the labour market) and wrapping the
trade unions in red tape. Spontaneous (âunofficialâ) action and
solidarity strikes have no legal protection. In the 1960s and 1970s, the
wage share was around 60% but fell rapidly after 1981 (reaching 53.5% by
2007). Decades of defeats mean a sense of power is lacking, with the
vision of most unions being at best fighting against attempts by bosses
and politicians to make things worse rather than anything as âutopianâ
as workersâ control. Most just aim to survive until a Labour government
is elected with the unspoken expectation that they will be ignored
rather than further regulated and weakened.
Given all this, does Mannâs syndicalism have any relevance for today?
The unions are hardly the perfected weapon of struggle Mann hoped they
would become. Officialdom still reigns and industrial organisation is
rare. Where some unions are industry based â for example, the University
and College Union â the workers are usually divided by grade even if
they face the same boss. Thus activists can be in the ironic situation
of having their senior management being fellow union members while
workers subject to that managerâs diktats cannot join due to being in a
lower grade â and various trade union anti-poaching agreements exist to
maintain this illogical arrangement. As such, Mannâs industrial unionism
is still relevant.
Then there is the lumping of all workers in a workplace in a single
branch and this being the body which decides on action. Such a situation
does make some sense, but it does allow management to utilise
salami-slicing tactics, targeting subunits for âre-organisationâ on the
often all too correct assumption that the wider branch will not be
willing to back a minority of members (even if the branch does back
action, the bosses can rely on the new legal 50% barrier on ballots to
work its magic). Obviously, building a culture of solidarity is
essential here, as is stressing that such attacks are usually rolled out
across the organisation as a whole, but making the branch itself a
federation would make sense and encouraging others to practice their
right to not cross pickets organised for legal strikes.
Which is part of the issue. The law limits official strikes considerably
â but in terms of the barriers it places on taking action and the types
of action allowed (no sympathy and âpoliticalâ strikes[97]). For all
their talks of âunion bossesâ, the Toriesâ anti-union laws give union
officials yet more power as they mitigate against âunofficialâ action.
This means that any new syndicalist revolt will need to understand the
importance of âunofficialâ action and the impact that can have on
strikers and their unions. Likewise, attempts to outlaw any effective
actions by whatever government is in office would need to be met with
direct action and solidarity rather than relying on elections to return
the lesser evil (who, like New Labour, never get around to ending the
restrictions).
Ultimately, though, the Tory anti-union laws reflect the correctness of
many aspects of Mannâs syndicalism. The power of direct action and
solidarity â both in terms of improving pay and conditions and
transforming peopleâs consciousness â was something the Tories wished to
destroy and have done so to a large degree. The task is to build a sense
of power in workers, a raising of awareness of what in Mannâs time could
be taken for granted for a large section of the population.
The question of how much time, effort and resources to invest in
reforming the existing unions remains as valid now as in the 1910s.
Mannâs strategy had the distinct advantage of both giving activists a
feasible short-term goal and of bringing them into contact with
activists who shared some, if not all, of their ideas and so could be
more easily convinced to move further. However, the power of officialdom
remained â not least because it reflected the role of trade unions in
negotiating agreements with bosses and so having to uphold their side
(e.g., industrial quiet for at least a while). So a clear danger is that
militants become integrated into the union machine, become part of the
very officialdom which they sought to eliminate â as shown by a few
former British syndicalist militants who saw through the Bolshevik Myth.
So electing radicals to positions within the officialdom with a clear
anti-bureaucracy reform strategy may be the end result of the process
but it can never be the start. Yes, many union branches have little
attendance at general meetings but without a culture change in the
membership any activists âelectedâ to branch committees will be isolated
â both as regards the bureaucratic-minded existing Committee members who
will be in the majority and from the rank-and-file who may not
appreciate the changes or activities being championed. The aim must be a
transformation at the bottom and that will influence any wider
strategies within the existing unions.
Mannâs support for amalgamation and âboring from withinâ provided
activists with something to do. The latter should not be underestimated
for the bane of revolutionary politics is a lack of constructive
activity, of actually seeing your ideas making a positive impact on the
world. Mannâs strategy gave a positive activity, something which would
bring us a step closer to socialism, rather than building tiny âpureâ
revolutionary unions which are very similar to activist groups simply
existing to propagate abstract revolutionary propaganda. This is not to
say that new unions may not be needed at some stage â the example of the
Building Workers strike of 1913â4 springs to mind â just that this is
almost certainly not the starting strategy in most areas.[98] Still, we
should not forget that there are more options than just âboring from
withinâ or dual-unionism and that different tactics may be applicable in
different situations.
Then there is the state of the left. Mann faced the sectarian SLP and
the SDF/BSP rather than the plethora of ârevolutionaryâ sects we have
today. These far more than the old parties will seek to grasp hold of
any radical currents within the unions and use them to build their
parties at the expense of creating a wider spirit of revolt. The
negative impact of this can be seen from the lack of influence of the
CPGBâs National Minority Movement and the fact that parties with the
âcorrectâ Leninist position have rarely grown in influence compared to
the syndicalists between 1910 and 1914. However, the danger remains as
shown by the anti-poll tax movement of the early 1990 â
extra-parliamentary, direct actionist, based on community solidarity â
being used as a means of electing Militant activists (such as Tommy
Sheridan) into council and other seats before being allowed to
disappear. Any new syndicalist revolt would need to be aware of this
danger and stress its apolitical nature â after all the CPGB dissipated
the promise of the syndicalist revolt by importing a party model formed
in a pre-capitalist Tsarist autocracy and we should seek to learn that
lesson.
In terms of goals, Mannâs call for workersâ control (self-management)
remains as valid as ever although the idea that unions are the means to
organise it depends very much on workers being in direct control of
those. However, whether by unions or new workplace assemblies and
committees, workersâ control of production remains a fundamental
principle of any genuine socialism. The decline in syndicalist influence
and rise of Leninism saw the demand for workersâ control essentially
disappear, arising again only in the 1960s when we saw some of the
descendants of those who buried it proclaim â without a hint of shame â
their support for it. We cannot allow such hypocrisy to go unmentioned.
To conclude. We should recall that despite all the patronising and
selective Leninist accounts of British syndicalism, none of these
various Marxist parties and sects have managed to gain the influence
that Mann and others achieved between 1910 and 1914. If British
syndicalists did not bring about the revolution, then the move to
Bolshevism has been far less successful. This is not to suggest that a
simple reapplication of the ideas and strategies of over 100 years ago
is wise, simply that there is far more to learn from that experience
than seeking to apply that of a party that ensured a failed revolution
in a quasi-feudal absolutist monarchy.
[1] Quoted by Ken Coates, âPrefaceâ, Tom Mann, Tom Mannâs Memoirs
(London: MacGibbon and Kee, 1967), xii.
[2] G.D.H. Cole, The World of Labour: A Discussion of the Present and
Future of Trade Unionism (London: G. Bell & Son Ltd, 1915), 40.
[3] This article will not cover Jim Larkin and Irish revolutionary
unionism.
[4] Walter Kendall, The revolutionary movement in Britain, 1900â21: the
origins of British Communism (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1969), 26.
[5] The best account of this period remains Bob Holtonâs British
Syndicalism 1900â1914 Myths and Realities (London: Pluto Press, 1976).
[6] Mann, Tom Mannâs Memoirs, 203.
[7] Tom Mann and Arthur M. Lewis, Debate between Tom Mann and Arthur M.
Lewis : at the Garrick Theatre, Chicago, Illinois, Sunday, November 16,
1913 (Chicago : C.H. Kerr, 1914).
[8] William D. Haywood, âAn Appeal for Industrial Solidarityâ, The
International Socialist Review, March 1914.
[9]
R. J. Holton, âDaily Herald v. Daily Citizen, 1912â15: The Struggle
for a Labour Daily in Relation to âThe Labour Unrestââ,
International Review of Social History, Vol. 19, No. 3 (1974),
358â9.
[10] â1913: The Dawn of Revolutionâ, Freedom: Journal of Anarchist
Communism (January 1914).
[11] E.J.B. Allen, âIs Syndicalism Un-English?â, The Syndicalist, July
1912.
[12] Quoted by Holton, 84.
[13] John Quail, The Slow Burning Fuse: The Lost History of the British
Anarchists (London: Granada Publishing Ltd., 1978), 262.
[14] Mann, âPrepare for Actionâ, The Industrial Syndicalist, July 1910.
[15] Mann, âFirst Conference on Industrial Syndicalismâ, Industrial
Syndicalist, December 1910.
[16] Mann, âThe Need for a Federation of all the Workers in the
Transport Industryâ, The Industrial Syndicalist, August 1910.
[17] Mann, âDebate on Industrial Unionismâ, Industrial Syndicalist,
January 1911.
[18] quoted by Bob Holton, British Syndicalism 1900â1914 Myths and
Realities (London: Pluto Press, 1976), 65.
[19] Mann, Debate, 45â46, 48â49.
[20] Mann, âThe Manifesto of the B.S.P.â, The Syndicalist, November
1912. Parts of this article were reprinted in Mother Earth (September
1913) under the title âTom Mann on Parliamentâ.
[21] Mann, Debate, 22.
[22] Mann, Debate, 12â13.
[23] Mann, âForging the Weaponâ, Industrial Syndicalist, September 1910.
[24] Quoted by Holton, 57.
[25] Ben L. Reitman, âTom Mannâ, Mother Earth (January, 1914), 341.
[26] George Woodcock and Ivan Avakumovic, The Anarchist Prince: a
biographical study of Peter Kropotkin (London: Boardman, 1950), 232â3.
[27] Chushichi Tsuzuki, Tom Mann 1856â1941: The Challenges of Labour
(Oxford: Clarendon, 1991), 103.
[28] Emma Goldman, Living My Life (New York: Dover Publications, 1970)
I: 255â7.
[29] Joseph White, Tom Mann (Manchester: Manchester University Press,
1991), 121, 114.
[30] Quoted by John Laurent, âTom Mann, R. S. Ross and Evolutionary
Socialism in Broken Hill, 1902â1912: Alternative Social Darwinism in the
Australian Labour Movementâ, Labour History, No. 51 (Nov. 1986), 60.
[31] âA Hopeful Startâ, The Syndicalist, January 1912.
[32] Quail, 269.
[33] âThe Industrial Syndicalist Education Leagueâ, Freedom: Journal of
Anarchist Communism (January 1912).
[34] Hippolyte Havel, âSurprised Politiciansâ, Mother Earth, September
1911; included in Proletarian Days: A Hippolyte Havel Reader (AK Press,
2018)
[35] Emma Goldman, âThe Power of the Idealâ, Mother Earth, June 1912.
[36] âTom Mann Writes from Mid-Atlanticâ, Maoriland Worker, 26 September
1913.
[37] âThe Old Internationalâ, The Syndicalist and Amalgamation News
(February 1913)
[38] Tsuzuki, 202â3.
[39] Quoted by Antony Howe, ââOur only ornamentâ: Tom Mann and British
communist âhagiographyââ, Twentieth Century Communism, Issue 1 (2009),
103.
[40] âThe Industrial Syndicalistâ, Freedom: Journal of Anarchist
Communism (August 1910).
[41] âIndustrialist League and Parliamentary Actionâ, Freedom: Journal
of Anarchist Communism (September 1910).
[42] Quoted by Quail, 264.
[43] âThe Minerâs Hopeâ, Industrial Syndicalist, November 1910.
[44] âFirst Conference on Industrial Syndicalismâ, Industrial
Syndicalist, December 1910.
[45] Holton, 162â3.
[46] Industrialist, âIndustrial Unionism or Anarchist Communism?â,
Freedom: Journal of Anarchist Communism (January 1912)
[47] Various relevant articles can be found in The Method of Freedom: an
Errico Malatesta reader (Edinburgh/Oakland: AK Press, 2014), edited by
Davide Turcato.
[48] Errico Malatesta: His Life and Ideas (London: Freedom Press, 1993),
117.
[49] Lewis, Debate, 26â27.
[50] Quoted by Quail, 271.
[51] Mannâs articles in Mother Earth are: âIn Appreciationâ (December
1912); âA Rebel Voice from South Africaâ (June 1914); âMother Earth and
Labourâs Revoltâ (March 1915); âWar and the Workersâ (September 1915);
âTwo Hundred and Fifty Thousand Cotton Operatives Get an Advance by
Direct Actionâ (December 1915); âSituation in Englandâ (July 1916).
[52] âMother Earth and Labourâs Revoltâ, Mother Earth, March 1915.
[53] White, 193.
[54] Tom Mann, Russia in 1921 (London : British Bureau, Red
International of Labour Unions, 1921), 36â7.
[55] Tom Mannâs Memoirs, 270â1.
[56] The Workersâ Opposition did not reject the dictatorship of the
party nor the predominant role of the party in the election of economic
institutions nor question the Bolshevik prejudice in favour of
centralisation. As such, their calls for workersâ management of
production were a faint echo of genuine syndicalist ideas on the matter
and, as such, would not have saved the revolution.
[57] Tom Mannâs Memoirs, 270â1.
[58] See section H.6.3 of An Anarchist FAQ volume 2 (Edinburgh: AK
Press, ) for details.
[59] A.G. Tufton, âOsborne Judgement Outcome: An Address delivered to
the Walthamstow Tradesâ Councilâ, The Industrial Syndicalist, March
1911, 22.
[60] Living My Life (New York: Dover Publications, 1970) II: 909.
[61] Quoted by Coates, âPrefaceâ, xii.
[62] White 201.
[63] Her death meant that only the first of three volumes appeared: Tom
Mann and his Times, vol. 1 1856â1890 (London: Lawrence and Wishart,
1956).
[64] Howe, 102.
[65] Bonar Thompson, Hyde Park Orator (New York: G.P. Putnamâs sons,
1934), 84.
[66] Howe, 94.
[67] Paul Foot, âRight as Pieâ, London Review of Books, Vol. 13, No. 20
(24 October 1991).
[68] Leon Trotsky, The Challenge of the Left Opposition (1923â25) (New
York: Pathfinder Press, 1975), 161â2.
[69] Wayne Thorpe, âThe workers themselvesâ: revolutionary syndicalism
and international labour, 1913â1923 (Dordrecht/London: Kluwer Academic
and International Institute of Social History, 1989), 133.
[70] Alfred Rosmer, Leninâs Moscow (London: Bookmarks, 1987) 137.
[71] Ralph Darlington, âRe-evaluating syndicalist opposition to the
First World Warâ, Labor History, 53:4 (2012), 526, 524, 528, 531, 533.
[72] James Hinton, The First Shop Stewardsâ Movement (London: Allen &
Unwin, 1973), 278â9. Hinton, it should be said, immediately contradicted
himself by noting that the syndicalists also thought that the
ârevolutionary General Strikeâ would âfragment the forces of bourgeois
repression.â (279)
[73] White, 171.
[74] M.G. Woodhouse, âMines for the Nation or Mines for the Miners?
Alternative Perspectives on Industrial Democracy, 1919â1921â, Llafur,
Vol.2 No.3, Summer 1978, pp.92â109
[75] Mann, Debate, 20.
[76] Mann, Debate, 40. Mann later repeats this argument (72).
[77] Mann, Debate, 41â42.
[78] âLondon and Manchester declare for Syndicalismâ, The Syndicalist,
December 1912.
[79] Tom Mannâs Memoirs, 193.
[80] Holton, 99â100.
[81] Kropotkin in his âPrefaceâ to How We Shall Bring About the
Revolution noted that the authors âhave considerably attenuated the
resistance that the Social Revolution will probably meet with on its
way. The check of the attempt at Revolution in Russia [in 1905] has
shown us all the danger that may follow from an illusion of this kind.â
(Direct Struggle Against Capital: A Peter Kropotkin Anthology
[Edinburgh: AK Press, 2014], 561).
[82] Holton, 22, 182. Also see, R. J. Holton, âSyndicalist Theories of
the Stateâ, The Sociological Review, Vol 28, Issue 1, 1980.
[83] Dismissal of this answer by Leninists may also be combined with
criticism that the CNT helped defeat the October 1934 uprising in
Asturias by its members transporting troops on the railways. This
ignores that the majority of organised railway workers outside of
Catalonia were in the UGT and that the assault on Asturias was by sea
using colonial troops from Spanish Morocco, the Spanish Legion (part of
Spainâs Army of Africa) and Assault Guards as it âwas soon decided that
the rebellion could only be crushed by experienced, professional troops.
The other areas of Spain could not be denuded of their garrisons in case
there were other revolutionary outbreaks. Franco therefore called upon
Colonel Yague to lead a force of Moorish regulars to help re-conquer the
province from the rebels.â (Richard A. H. Robinson, The origins of
Francoâs Spain: the Right, the Republic and revolution, 1931â1936
[Newton Abbot: David & Charles, 1970], 190â1) Sadly, Trotskyist Felix
Morrow â the source of such claims â did not indicate how he came by
this information or why troops based in Africa were first ferried to
Spain before being transported by rail across the country to then board
the ships which were used to get them to Asturias in order to crush the
revolt.
[84] Tom Mann, âGeorge Lansburyâ, The Syndicalist, December 1912.
[85] A.G. Tufton, âOsborne Judgement Outcome: An Address delivered to
the Walthamstow Tradesâ Councilâ, The Industrial Syndicalist, March
1911.
[86] E.J.B. Allen, âPoliticians and the General Strikeâ, The
Syndicalist, February 1912.
[87] Charles Watkins, âThe Question for Railwaymen: Conciliation or
Emancipation?â, The Industrial Syndicalist, May 1911.
[88] E.J.B. Allen, âPoliticians and the General Strikeâ, The
Syndicalist, February 1912.
[89] Lewis, Debate, 38.
[90] Mann, âPrepare for Actionâ, The Industrial Syndicalist, July 1910.
[91] Ămile Pataud and Ămile Pouget, How we shall bring about the
Revolution: Syndicalism and the Co-operative Commonwealth (London: Pluto
Press, 1990), 78â84, 150â8.
[92] See Kropotkinâs comments on the American 1877 railway strike in the
chapter âExpropriationâ in Words of a Rebel.
[93] âSome Fallacies Stated and Answeredâ, The Syndicalist, December
1912.
[94] E.J.B. Allen, âPoliticians and the General Strikeâ, The
Syndicalist, February 1912.
[95] âSome Fallacies Stated and Answeredâ, The Syndicalist, December
1912.
[96] Mann, Foreword, Pataud and Pouget, ix.
[97] The Tories banning sympathy strikes does not stop their
cheerleaders also moaning about âthe unionsâ being âselfishâ and only
interested in their members.
[98] Being a member of two unions, a reformist and a revolutionary one,
is always an option but that means the revolutionary union is more an
educational body than a union and this should be acknowledged.