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Title: Principles of syndicalism Author: Tom Brown Date: 1943 Language: en Topics: syndicalism, principles, introductory Source: https://libcom.org/library/principles-of-syndicalism-tom-brown Notes: This simple introduction to syndicalism, workers control and libertarian communism originally appeared as a series of articles in War Commentary for Anarchism in 1943.
Syndicalism â a theory and movement of trade unionism, originating in
France, in which all means of production and distribution are brought
under the direct control of their workers by the use of direct action,
and organized through federations of labor unions; direct political and
economic democracy in the workplace and community organized through
labor unions and federations, including the abolition of capitalism,
social classes, parliamentary government, bureaucracy and political
parties.
Anarcho-Syndicalism â Syndicalism; the Anarchist labor movement as
characterized by labor unions and federations in Argentina(FORA),
Bolivia(FLP), Costa Rica(HL), Chile(IWW), Denmark(USP), France(CNT),
Germany(FAU), Guatemala(CAS), Holland(NSV), Italy(USI), Japan(JRDZK),
Mexico(CGT), Norway(NSF), Paraguay(COP), Poland(ZZZ), Portugal(CGT),
Spain(CNT), Sweden(SAC), Uruguay(FRU), etc..
Direct Action â action aimed at directly achieving an objective; The
strategic use of immediately effective acts, such as strikes, pickets,
sabotage, etc., to achieve a political or social end; the Syndicalist
idea that real social change can only come about by the actions of the
workers themselves and not by relying on political parties or
governments.
The striking worker, once he ceases work, must face such problems as,
âHow shall we pay the rent, how buy groceries, how renew the kiddiesâ
shoes?â It is not then natural that he should look to his union for the
payment of a little strike benefit? He has paid, perhaps, two shillings
a week for ten, fifteen or twenty years and drawn out not a penny. He
has been told by his âleadersâ that the unionâs funds add up to five or
six million pounds. They told him that it was wise to pay his union dues
to meet such a need as this.
Unhappy man, to expect anything back from the clutching hands of
bureaucrats. First of all he will find that the strike is termed
unofficial (more than 99% of strikes are âunofficialâ, in peace as in
war). It may be in defense of some trade union agreement, it is probably
in defense of wages, it will most certainly be just that case for which
the worker has paid his trade union contributions. Nevertheless, down to
the district or factory will come the trade union officials to condemn
the strike.
First will come a lesser bureaucrat âLads, I sympathize with you. You
are right, but I have my duty to do. You must go back to work!â Next
comes the big boss. He does not waste time on euphemisms or good
manners. The strikers are a bunch of scoundrels led by agitators and
Anarchists, he hints darkly that if they donât go back to work he will
call the police and in any case they wonât get any strike pay so they
will be starved back.
Does it not occur to the striker to ask âWho is this person to say I
must go back to work? Why should he have the power to withhold from me
my own money?â Yes, it does occur, but the worker has long been trained
in the centralist principles of trade unionism and the state. (Trade
unions are organized on the same highly centralized principles as is the
capitalist state.)
The trade unionist is in a dilemma. He knows that the strikers,
assembled at their place of work, are the ones to decide when to strike,
when top pay benefits and what shall be official and what unofficial.
But, nevertheless, he wishes the workersâ organizations to be so linked
that they present one solid, nation-wide front against the common enemy.
He does not wish to see the labor forces split into a thousand small
units to be tackled one at a time by the boss, and, too often, he
believes that centralism is the only way of achieving this. We affirm
that there is another way and deny that centralization achieves its
claimed objective.
Centralization takes control too far away from the place of struggle to
be effective on the workersâ side in that fight. Most disputes arise in
the factory, bus garage or mine. According to trade union procedure the
dispute must be reported to the district office of the union, (and in
some cases to an area office) then to head office, then back again, then
the complicated âmachinery for avoiding disputesâ devised by trade union
âleadersâ and the employersâ lawyers is set in its ball passing motion,
until everyone forgets the original cause of all this passing up and
down. The worker is not allowed any direct approach to, or control of
the problem. We are reminded of the memoirs of a certain court
photographer who was making a picture of the old Emperor of Austria to
turn his head a little to the left. Of course he could not speak to an
emperor, so he put his request to a captain of the court guard, who
spoke to his colonel, who spoke to a count, the count passed the request
to a duke and he had a word with an archduke who begged his Imperial
Majesty to turn his head a little to the left. The old chap turned his
head and said âIs that sufficient?â and the message trickled back to the
photographer via archduke, duke, count, colonel and captain. The humble
thanks traveled back by the same road. The steps of trade union
communication are just so fixed.
Centralization does not bring that class solidarity which the worker
seeks. Decades of experience support us in this statement. The minersâ
defeat of 1921, the betrayal of the General Strike of 1926 and the
course of every strike since the last world war are evidence of this.
Trade union machinists have âblackleggedâ officially, on striking iron
molders, engineers on boiler-makers. Trade union transport workers have
carried âblacklegsâ to mine and factory. The National Union of
Railwaymen have scabbed on the Society of Enginemen and Firemen. In
every dispute, for one striker there are a score of trade unionists to
supply the strike-breakers with power, transport, light, heat,
communication and all the many means without which modern industry
cannot exist.
Even when the men concern.ed are members of one union âblackleggingâ
still goes on. The London busmensâ strike of 1937 was broken by the
continuance at work of the trolley-bus and tramwaymen, members of the
same Transport and General Workersâ Union as the petrol busmen who
obeyed Bevinâs orders to remain at work. Had the transport workers
obeyed their own class loyalty, had they controlled their own affairs,
who can doubt they would have struck in solidarity with their fellow
workers.
In contrast to this official trade union âblackleggingâ we have the
class solidarity of the Sweedish revolutionary unions spoken of by Jim
Connolly in his pamphlet Socialism Made Easy. Connolly in turn is
quoting the New York Sun:
âIf the offending business man happens to be a retail merchant, all
workmen are warned off his premises. The drivers for the wholesale house
refuse to deliver goods to his store; the truckmen refuse to cart
anything to or from his place, and so on; in fact he is a doomed man
unless he comes to terms with his union. It is worth mentioning that
boycotting bulletins and also names and addresses of those who are bold
enough to help the man are published in leading type in all the
Socialistic newspapers ...â
âIf the boycotted person be a wholesale dealer the proceedings are much
the same, or rather they are reversed. The retailers are threatened with
the loss of the workmensâ trade unless they cease dealing with such a
firm; the truckmen refuse to haul for it. It has even happened that the
scavengers have refused to remove the refuse from the premises. More
often, however, the cans are âaccidentlyâ dropped on the stairs.â
How are we to achieve rank-and-file control of the union and yet gain
the maximum co-ordination of the labor forces? Syndicalism solves the
problem in a simple and straightforward way.
The basis of the Syndicate is the mass meeting or workers assembled at
their place of work, factory, garage, ship, loco shed or mine, The
meeting elects its factory committee and delegates. The factory
Syndicate is federated to all other such committees in the
localityâtextile, shop assistants, dockers, busmen and so on. In the
other direction the factory, let us say engineering factory, is
affiliated to the District Federation of Engineers. In turn the District
Federation is affiliated to the National Federation of Engineers.
Such federations are formed in each of the twenty-five to thirty
industries and servicesâRail Federation, Transport Federation and so on.
Then, each industrial federation is affiliated to the National
Federation of Labor, the co-ordination of all the workersâ forces.
But how the members of such committees are elected is most important.
They are, first of all, not representatives like Members of Parliament
who air their own views; they are delegates who carry the message of the
workers who elect them. They do not tell the workers what the âofficialâ
policy is; the workers tell them.
Delegates are subject to instant recall by the persons who elected them.
None may sit for longer than two successive years, and four years must
elapse before his next nomination. Very few will receive wages as
delegates, and then only the district rate of wages for the industry. We
want none of the thousand a year trade union bosses.
It will be seen that in the Syndicate the members control the
organizationânot the bureaucrats controlling the members. In a trade
union the higher up the pyramid a man is the more power he wields; in a
Syndicate the higher he is the less power he has.
The factory Syndicate has full autonomy over its own affairs. The
district deals only with the general conditions of the district and
industry; the national with those things which are generally nationally
but not particular to the primary Syndicate.
By such an organization the workers would be able tp express in deeds
their solidarity with striking fellow-workers. The only hope of the
greatest labor force being turned onto any dispute is that feeling of
class solidarity. It is for us to allow it organizational expression.
âAn injury to one is an injury to all.â
In the first article in this series published in the previous issue of
War Commentary we outlined the Syndicalist organization. First the
assembly of workers and their job committees at their place of
employment, factory, ship, mine, shop, office, etc.. Next the federation
of factory or job committees of each one industry into a district
industrial federation, as the Scottish Minersâ Federation, the Yorkshire
Textile Federation, the Midlands Railmensâ Federation and so on for each
industry and each economic district. From these come the national
federation of each industry, road transport, engineering, distribution,
building, etc.. Then all national industrial unions of syndicates are
federated to the National Federation of Labor covering the whole economy
of the country. In the other direction, each factory meeting and
committee is affiliated to the local council of syndicates, somewhat
like the familiar Councils of Action, though much more thorough.
In our first article we applied the Syndicalist principal of
organization to the present stage of the class struggle alone. But the
same principle is applied during the Revolution when the class struggle
bursts its normal bonds of social restraint and the two classes confront
one another over the barricades.
The factory, pit and other job organizations take possession of the
places of work and operate them for the Working Class and cut off the
supplies and services of the Employing Class. The millers supply the
flour to the bakers, the bakers distribute bread to the people. The
power station workers send electric current to the factories while
receiving coal from the revolutionary miners. The Farm Workersâ
Syndicate collects food and sends it to the towns; the Municipal
Workersâ Syndicate maintains the essential services of town life and
communications are re-established by the postal workers. Rail, road and
water transport workers carry goods and services among the many
industries and localities.
At the same time the grip of the Syndicates upon the social economy
prevents the Employing Class obtaining the essentials of existence. No
food, no water, no gas, no servant for their homes. The more time they
spend cooking or carrying buckets of water the less time they have for
blacklegging or shooting workers. No trains, no petrol for their cars,
no ammunition from the factories, no telephone, no newspaper to print
their obscene lies.
Other tasks are carried out by the various organs of the Syndicates,
chief of these is the extension and defense of the revolution. The
raising and arming of the Workersâ Militia is chiefly the work of the
factory committees and the organizing of Workersâ Patrols to guard
against hooligans and counter-revolutionists is that of the local
Council of Syndicates. Without goods and services to be bought, the
check books of the capitalists become useless; they can no longer hire
the services of thugs and blacklegs.
With the triumph of the Revolution the functions of the Syndicates
change and develop, but the constructional principle remains the same.
The purpose of the committees and federations is now solely that of
running the social economy, the industries and services. What men
consume no longer depends on how much money each possesses or on the
oscillations of the market, but upon what men need and the capacity of
industry to meet those needs.
The National Federation of Labor will meet quarterly, monthly, or at
whatever intervals are found necessary, to consider the economic
program. Guided by the trends in taste, the rise and fall of particular
demands and information supplied by the Distributive Workersâ Syndicate
they will form the program of each group of utilities. If 200,000,000
yards of wool textiles are likely to be needed for the coming year, then
that task will be handed to the Textile Workersâ Syndicate who will
divide the task among their districts. In turn each district will allot
the share of the district task to each mill, according to the number of
workers and the machine capacity of the undertaking.
To the Clothing Workersâ Syndicate will be given the work of producing
so many suits, coats, etc.. To the Minersâ Syndicate the responsibility
to raise so much coal, the Iron and Steel Syndicate so much finished
metal, the Wood Workersâ Syndicate so many articles of furniture.
Through the same channels will be expressed the needs of the Syndicates
as well as the needs of individuals. The Iron and Steel Syndicate
requires ore, limestone and coke. The Construction Syndicate needs
timber, brick and cement. Th economic council of labor makes possible
complete economic planning instead of the present chaos; it is the
present capitalist system which has brought society to the greatest
chaos, economic and political, ever known.
The considerations of the national economic council will not, of course,
be limited to one particular country. While each country and region will
develop its own resources, as against the ways of international finance
capital, there will remain many utilities which can better be made, or
grown, in certain areas. It will be the work of the economic council to
import such things, say oranges to Britain, and to export others, say
textile goods or machinery.
Let us here correct a misconception which may be creeping into the minds
of some readers. Syndicalism is not nationalistic. The international
character of Syndicalism has found expression in the International
Working Mensâ Association, but historical conditions force us to fight
within national boundaries and we do not determine the character of the
class struggle. Nevertheless, Syndicalism seeks the complete abolition
of national frontiers. Indeed, this must be the outcome of technological
development if allowed to continue.
The political organization of society, that is the government of men by
men according to territory, must give way to a social organization based
on the administration of things, men regulating machines and utilities
in a world economy.
The greatest tragedy of Europe is that complete economic districts are
torn apart by frontiers which have no basis in science or nature. In the
Mid-Rhineland the iron ore is on the French side of the frontier and
most of the coal, coke ovens and power on the German side, yet one is
essential to the other. Throughout Europe frontiers cut through
railways, rivers, canal systems and electric transmission to the
impoverishment of the Continent and the fruition of war. Left to normal
social development rivers unite men in communities. London stretches
along both banks of the Thames, Glasgow along the Clyde; the same is
true of the Tyne, the Humber and the Mersey. But when men make frontiers
they so often use rivers, not to unite, but to divide men. Rivers like
the Rhine and the Danube, along whose banks great communities have
grown, have been used as frontiers. Workers have been cut off from their
employment and merchants from their trade. Families have been divided
and towns ruined by the capricious boundary makers who call their crimes
a peace conference.
The conflict of technics and politics threatens to make life impossible.
Once one might say that Europe was one and stop at that; now one must
say the World is one. Technics enable us to travel across the Continent
in a few hours or encircle the earth in a few days or send a message
around its girdle in a few minutes. But politics works the opposite way.
Even in peace time it took many days to travel across Europe. Even with
the most expensive mode of transport, because of the obstacles placed in
oneâs path by political organization.
Just before the last war, even with countries having a thorough passport
system, few obstacles stood in the travelerâs path. But just before the
present war the barriers had grown enormously. To stricter passports
were added visas, the customs were increased and an entirely new kind of
money customs invented. As technology progressed, politics retrogressed.
The final stage of the conflict of technics and politics comes when the
latter, dividing men unto death, utilizes the former for the
construction of tanks, guns and planes to the destruction of the social
economy.
It is the aim of Syndicalism to sweep away all frontiers, to untie
humanity in a World federation of producers and end poverty, oppression,
exploitation and war.
In this study of the wages system we are not concerned with some
imaginary system which does not, has never, and is not likely to exist.
Nor shall we discuss what would be the effect of the wages system if it
were entirely different. We are content with the scientific method of
observing what exists and from careful observation forming our
generations. This is economics, not metaphysics, and economics ought to
be objective. Primitive men seeing lightning and hearing thunder
imagined them to be the signs of an angry god. The growth of scientific
knowledge dispelled this view and enabled man to control this force.
We do not seek to explain economic manifestations by referring to good
or bad employers or good or bad governments. We seek nothing less than
the abolition of the wages system, for it is the system which is wrong.
Without a knowledge of social economy we are as the savage facing
natural forces. With knowledge of the subject we can control our social
course.
What Is Wages?
We live in a commodity society where everything is made for sale. In
other societies this was not the case. Savages and barbarians gathered
or grew food for their own use and not for sale; built houses to shelter
themselves and not to rent. Truly medieval society produced most things
for consumption in the immediate locality, and even household, and sold
only the surplus.
Capitalist society, however, produces everything for a market. The
coal-owner is interested in the production of coal, not for his own
hearth, but to put upon the market. The mill initiates the manufacture
of cloth not, like those of old, because he needs a coat, but to sell
the produce on the market. Everything is capitalism is for sale. Books
and beer, coal and cosmetics, horses and haberdashery. And not only
manufactured goods, but every human relationship is offered for
saleâpoliticians and patriots, love and friendship, art and science, and
(see Major Barbara) even the soulâs salvation.
Thrust, at an unripe age, into this World market, the worker, the
proletarian, the man without property, finds he can live only by selling
and buying. But what has he to sell? Without patrimony, having no goods
and lacking access to natural resources, he must sell the only thing
left to him, his labor power, his ability to work. He sells his time,
portions of his life. That part of his life which he hires to his
employer, eight, nine or ten hours a day, is not his, he has sold that
part of his life. And the price of this labor commodity is called wages.
How Are Wages Governed?
If we consider how the price of a commodity is arrived at we shall
understand the nature of the wages system. In a free market the final
factors in fixing prices are supply and demand. Of course there are
substantial economic reasons for the existence of any supply or demand,
but for the purpose of this article we shall be content to consider the
final factors. We all know if a certain commodity is scarce and the
demand is great the price tends to rise sharply. If there is a glut of
another commodity and a small demand (as herrings in the height of the
season) the price will fall, if the free market exists.
Wages too, are so regulated in a free labor market. If labor is
relatively scarce and jobs are plentiful, wages rise; but when
depression comes and jobs are scarce and millions of unemployed seek
jobs, then wages fall. The same principle applies to particular
industries and jobs. A certain industry, as engineering in the twenties
of this century, may have more workers than jobs; then wages fall in
that industry. Another industry, as the building trade in the twenties,
may have almost more jobs than workers; there, wages will, compared with
other industries, rise.
The Vanishing Craftsmen
Another example we shall take is that of the craftsman. Before the war
of 1914â18 craftsmen received wages about double that of laborers
(Provincial engineering craftsmen 37 to 39 shillings per week; their
laborers 18 shillings per week). Now some persons believed the employer
paid the craftsman double the laborerâs wage because he admired his
skill. Some even believed that he did it just to make the workers
jealous of one another. The truth is that the employer could not hire
men at less than the market price of 37 shillings per week. And if he
paid more than he needed to he would soon cease to be a capitalist. A
worker does not pay 10 shillings for an article whose market value is 5
shillings nor can he hope to obtain it for 2 shillings and 6 pence.
Likewise the capitalist does not attempt to put himself out of business
by defying the principles of economics.
The truth of the foregoing is testified to by economic tendencies during
and after the last war. Engineering employers successfully sought to
lessen the demand for craftsmen by creating semi-skilled and unskilled
jobs through the further subdivision of labor, by developing the use of
machinery and the use of war-time dilutees, and breaking down the old
time apprenticeship custom.
At the same time the wages of many unskilled workers were creeping
comparatively upwards by the slackening of the supply of cheap unskilled
labor much of which had come from oversees, as Irish labor in the
chemical and constructional industries and Polish labor in the Scottish
mines and jute mills. Further, certain sections of unskilled labor
combined to limit the supply of labor to their job, as the dockers. So
the tendency of economic development has been to greatly lessen the 100%
gap between skilled and unskilled labor. I have known highly skilled
craftsmen who threw up their engineering jobs at 1 shilling and 2 œ
pence per hour to take employment as dockers at 1 shilling and 6 pence
per hour. The development of the wages system has almost completely
destroyed the craftsman myth.
Let us here generalize our views of the wages system by declaring that
in a free market wages rise and fall with supply and demand. The worker
may by strike action increase the one or lessen the other, but he cannot
change the general tendency. During trade depressions the Employing
Class allows the free labor market to operate, but during great labor
booms, as in the present war, they seek to close the free market by the
use of such measures as Bevinâs Essential Works Order. Thus while the
worker may, once or twice in his life enjoy a boom period, the general
tendency of the wages system is to push him down to subsistence level;
that is, to allow him little more than sufficient to fuel himself for
the performance of his masterâs work and to raise more little wage
slaves to replace him when he wears out.
Reforms and the Wages System
Rather than oppose the wages system reformists have proposed
modifications and additions which leave the system substantially intact.
The wages system mocks reforms. Let us consider a few examples of
reforms which have but strengthened it. Free education has been on every
Socialist reform list from Marx and Engelsâ Communist Manifesto to the
latest Labour Party election program. Such free education as the State
supplies has benefitted the employers, not the workers. More general
elementary education has increased the supply of apprentices and shop
assistants. Scholarship matriculation has produced cheap clerks and
vacuum cleaner salesmen. Working Class access to university degrees has
lowered the wages of thousands of technicians to that of general labor,
as the Association of Scientific Workers so often testifies.
Pensions are another good old stand-by of the reform merchants. Some
years ago the granting of 10 shillings per week pensions to
State-insured men over 65 years of age was hailed as a great step to the
millennium. But the worker of 65 could not live on 10 shillings a week,
he must continue work and many employers quickly reduced the wages of
such men by 10 shillings per week. It was useless to try to disguise
oneâs age for the State issued special insurance cards to the 65âs and
over. The 10 shilling pension went to the employer, not to the worker.
It was the same in the case of war pensions. From the end of the last
war to the beginning of the present armament boom, one might read any
Labour Exchange advertisements of jobs which ended âFor disabled
ex-service-men onlyâ or âOnly men with disability pensions need apply.â
It was not gratitude to the men who fought which led certain employers
to insert such clauses in their wants. A glance at the wages offered
soon convinced us that only a man with a pension could hope to live on
such work. The employer was the true recipient of the ex-soldierâs
pension. We all know cases of ex-policemen retiring on pensions and
sharply competing for the jobs of public house managers and
nightwatchmen.
One further example of the negation of reforms by the operation of the
wages system. There have been many attempts to raise or pay wages by
Acts of Parliament and trade Boards, but the solid fact remains that in
the trade and industries affected wages fall during depression as they
do in uncontrolled industries. To prove this one could produce enough
statistics to fill a hay wain.
The Machine and Wages
Not only reforms but other doubtful forms of progress fail to benefit
the wage worker. New machinery, which by increasing production, ought to
enrich the worker and lighten his toil serves only to enslave and
impoverish him. Let us imagine the case of a factory owner who employs
100 men working on 100 machines. New machines which can produce twice as
much are introduced so that 50 men may do the work previously performed
by 100. In a saner society the 100 would cut their working hours by half
or increase their income by 100%. Not so in this case. 50 workers are
sacked and swell the ranks of the unemployed. The remaining 50 dare not
demand a share of the increased productivity because of the threatened
competition of the 50 unemployed. Indeed it often happens that the
retained machinists are faced by a wages cut.
It is not obvious that there is no hope of any substantial or permanent
improvement of workersâ conditions so long as the wages system exists?
Wages in the Fifteenth Century
Lest some of our readers are yet unconvinced, let us examine the
progress of the wages system over the greater length of existence.
Bourgeois economists usually point to the period of 100 to 150 years ago
and contrast it against to-day, crying, âLook at the wonderful progress
we have made.â They attempt to conceal the fact that at that period
labor had sunk to its lowest economic level of more than 1,000 years.
During the period in question modern British capitalism was getting into
its full stride and in order to attain speedy supremacy reduced the
workers and peasants to almost unbelievable depths. To get a true
comparison of the progress of the wages system we must examine a longer
period. Let us look back 500 years.
Professor Thorold Rogers, M.P. in the best standard work on the subject
Six centuries of Work and Wages in illustrating the wages of the
mid-fifteenth century takes as example a recorded building job at Oxford
1449 to 1450. The head mason was paid 4 shillings a week and the other
masons 3 shillings 4 pence a week. What could be bought with the 4
shillings or 3 shillings 4 pence then? Thorold Rogers gives a list of
average prices for those years.
Wheat 5 shillings 10 pence a quarter; oatmeal, 5 shillings; beef 5
shillings 1 penny the hundredweight; mutton 4 shillings 6 pence; pork, 5
shillings; geese 4 pence each; fowls, 1 1/2 pence each; pigeons 4 pence
a dozen; candles, 1 shilling 1 penny the dozen pounds; cheese, one-third
of a penny a pound; butter, 1/2 penny a pound; eggs, 5 3/4 pence for
120; firewood 1 shilling 10 1/4 pence the load; shirting, 6 pence a
yard; and cloth 1 shilling 5 1/4 pence; Thus, a weekâs wages could
purchase 112 pounds of beef, or 12 geese or 96 pounds of butter, and so
on.
Rent, now the largest item in a workerâs budget, often one third of his
income, was in the fifteenth and earlier centuries, about a halfpenny or
less per week. The peasant for 2 shillings a year rented a cottage and
very large garden; he had also a share in the common pasture; he was
able to keep poultry, pigs and a cow. He had the concession of
collecting loppings and wind wood from the woods.
Rogers demonstrates that the working day the was of eight hours. âThe
artisan who is demanding at this time an eight hoursâ day in the
building trades is simply striving to recover what his ancestor worked
by four or five centuries ago.â Nor was the work very hard or wearisome,
for tired or hurried men cannot produce good workmanship.
Socialism and Wages
Almost alone among the movements claiming the support of the workers,
Syndicalism opposes the wages system. While Marx opposed the wages
system, most of the parties calling themselves Marxist or Socialist
support it. The Communist Party approves of it, and calls upon Marx to
witness their orthodoxy, while in Soviet Russia the wages system has
been extended, consolidated and become more extreme.
The Independent Labour Party has never advocated its abolition. On the
contrary the I.L.P. at one time advocated a âLiving Wage Policyâ which
they alternatively called âSocialism in Our Time.â The Labour Party has
never looked beyond nationalization of certain industries on the Post
Office model. Now, even that is modified to âpublic utility
corporationsâ on the lines of the London Passenger Transport Board,
their own creation.
Syndicalism fights against the existence of the wages system, against a
method of distribution based upon mensâ market value and for a society
based upon their needs and the infinite capacity of society to satisfy
them.
Two features of capitalism are essential to its existenceâthe wages
system and a thorough and all-reaching system of money relationships.
Unfortunately men are now so used to living by money that they find it
difficult to imagine life without it. Yet it should be obvious that no
libertarian and equalitarian society could make use of money.
Syndicalism, as well as ending the wages system, also aims at the
destruction of money relationships.
Money, more than any other human product, has been the means of creating
false values. We each know of persons who began by wanting money as the
means to other ends, but who spent so much energy accumulating money
they forgot their original aim and continued to live for money. For
means become ends. Is it not obvious that the wealthy trade unions,
which have collected hundreds of millions of pounds by the promise to
pay strike and other benefits, are now capitalist investment trusts
afraid of strikes which threaten their investments?
Socially too, money creates its illusions, giving a false notion of
progress. We are always hearing of the great progress that is being made
in the Twentieth Century, and the advance in workersâ wages is often
cited as example. Everyone knows, of course, that prices have advanced
with, or before, wages. Yet, because the advance is gradual, such is the
illusion of money, that few realize how small is the progress made.
A few days ago I listened to a conversation on soldiersâ pay. All agreed
that the private soldier of 1943 with his 2 shillings and 6 pence a day
was immensely better off than the soldier of 1913 with his 1 shilling a
day. True, prices were higher, nevertheless 2 shillings and 6 pence is
considerably more than 1 shilling. Let us see. The soldier spends his
half-a-crown on small pleasures and refreshments. We shall compare the
cost of these now and thirty years ago.
1913â1943
Cigarettes (Woodbines) per 10 2d 10 1/2d Matches, per dozen boxes 2d
1/6d Beer, per pint 2d 11d Cinemas and Music Halls (cheaper seats) 2d to
4d 1/- to 1/9d
As to snacks, always important to barracks-fed soldiers, in 1913 these
cost a few coppers a time. Now, nothing could be more imprudent than the
prices of indifferent meals so often served to service men, especially
in the West End. And in 1913 public houses usually supplied free counter
snacks of cheese, biscuits and pickles, and often beef sandwiches. No,
the advice of the soldierâs wage is just another example of the money
illusion.
Money has developed out of all resemblance to that simple medium of
exchange which our ancestors used to displace barter. Certainly it was
more convenient than barter. But, whereas money once had a real economic
value, a golden sovereign having twenty shillings worth of economic
value, just as twenty shillings worth of shoes, now, money being paper
and adulterated metal having no real value. Being economically
worthless, it is potent as a deceiver of the workers, a source of
illusions and false values, a hatcher of Beveridge plans.
Even at the paper money stage the monetary system does not halt its
development. Now, big money transactions usually mean a new entry in
another set of books. A big insurance company may subscribe Ăș100,000,000
to a War Weapons Week without a dime leaving the bank. Yet it is to this
book-keeping trick that we are slaves. By such manipulation they can
(and are now so doing) cause inflation and gobble up the savings of the
Petty Middle Class or the more fortunate workers. By this method they
may, and do, reduce to a fraction the obligations of the insurance
companies and gain control of smaller businesses.
The so-called âWar Debtâ is the greatest of all money tricks. There is
no real wealth except that which is produced by labor applied to natural
resources. Now every gun used, every bullet fired, every bomb dropped,
has been paid for by human labor. One cannot borrow human labor from the
future. In true economics there is no âWar Debt.â Yet, we owe thousands
of millions for products of labor, and our descendants to the end of
time must continue to pay usury on them. The harder we, the workers,
toil producing planes and tanks and guns, the more money we owe as the
price of these our products. Itâs a great trick.
The development of the money system has also led to that creation of
modern imperialism, international finance capital, money, in the form of
industrial loans. Putting it simply, an agent of certain industrialists
goes to, say, a South American republic and points out to its rulers the
countryâs need of a railway and his employersâ fine products in that
line. âYes,â replied the South Americans, âWe like your railways, but we
have no money to buy one.â âThatâs right,â replies our super-commercial
traveler, âweâll find that for you.â A loan, with a high discount and
interest is floated on the London market and the South Americans buy the
railways with borrowed money.
So far, so good, but interest has to be paid and, as the finance
capitalist is not content, as we often are, with pieces of printed
paper, goods are exported to Britain to cover the money bills. As most
of the goods will be agricultural products it should be obvious that
British agriculture must suffer to allow the foreign products of the
international finance capitalist system to be dumped on the market. This
has led to a strange corruption of public taste. Even in peace time I
have seen country-women returning from town, with foreign
machine-skimmed milk and margarine from West Africa in their baskets!
A little while ago I picked up the menu in a London restaurant and was
delighted to find spiced ham on the list. To me that meant the hams
cooked in delicate spices, once so well known in Northern England. Of
course I ordered the delicacy, but lo and behold it was just our old
friend Spam! Pickled, yes in obnoxious chemicals. Oh! The odium of being
pickled in sodium.
Eggs, which were once those lovely white and gold things from shells,
are now powder from a carton. Just as good as the real thing. Official,
M. of F.. In a few years time real eggs will be as strange to us as are
bananas to war children and the taste of one will probably make us
vomit. Still, exported capital and its system must have their return.
Great are the sacrifices that money demands. We have seen miners in
Durham who, because they were out of work, shivered over the embers in
their grates because they lacked the money to buy coal. Yet they sat
above the richest seams in the country. We have seen textile and
clothing workers in the West Riding without overcoats in winter because
they had not the money to buy their own products. We know farm workers
who have starved because unemployment meant they lacked the money to buy
the food their labor might produce. There is no economic wealth except
that produced by labor applied to natural resources. Let the miners
produce coal for their own and their fellowsâ use, let the textile
workers produce cloth and the farm workers food for societiesâ needs
without regard to money relations. Only thus can we conquer unemployment
without going to war.
We know that it is hard for men who have always lived in a money society
to imagine a life based upon natural principles, but consider, had we
been born into different circumstances it would be difficult to imagine
life without money. I suppose most of our readers saw the film Mutiny on
the Bounty. They will recall a certain incident in the film. The
mutineers having landed in Tahiti are welcomed by the natives who give
them food, drink, and huts to live in. A pleasant life in return for a
little labor. Christian, the rebel leader, wishing to show his gratitude
gives the native chief a large coin, a piece of English money. The
chief, puzzled, asks its purpose. Christian explains that in England all
food is stored in shops and to obtain it one tenders money.
âAnd if you have no money?â asks the chief.
âThen you get no food,â replies Christian.
âWhat is wrong in England,â asks the old chief. âIs there not plenty of
fish, plenty of bread fruit, plenty of chickens?â
âOh, yes,â replies the seaman, â plenty of fish, plenty of bread fruit,
plenty of chickens.â
âAnd if you have no money you starve?â returns the native.
âYes, you starve,â is the reply.
The old chief considers awhile, then shakes his head and says, âI think
I stay in Tahiti.â
âPoor savage! Entirely without education of course ...â
The rapid development of World capitalist production reached a critical
stage at the end of 1929. In the first half of the thirties decade the
machines were overflooding the warehouses with every kind of commodity,
shoes, clothing, books, metals, timber, hides; newly launched ships were
left to rust on the beach without a maiden voyage; stacks of food were
burnt or piled for the rats to harvest. As the commodities accumulated
factories closed and farms were abandoned; millions of men and women
joined the unemployed queues. For the people did not possess sufficient
money to buy back the goods they produced. It is futile to say, âWhy
cannot the workers be given enough money to buy back the goods they
produce?â for, as we demonstrated in a previous article, the wages
system prevents the workerâs income increasing with his productive
power.
Given the capitalist system, there was only one way to employ the idle
capital of the World. To turn it to war production; to producing shells
and bombs instead of boots and food. To distribute them free to enemies
and allies alike by dropping them on their cities. The other alternative
was to end capitalist and state-socialist distribution and, continuing
to make useful commodities, distribute them freely according to the
needs of each. For the productive capacity of modern industry is such
that everyone may have enough of the very best of food, clothing,
housing, books and all the good things of life by the useful labor of
each for a few hours a week. But it can never happen within the bonds of
the wages and money systems.
The Syndicalist mode of distribution, then, causes the abolition of
these systems and establishes the principle of âto each according to his
need.â Not according to the amount of money he has, or according to rank
or birth, or according to strength or cunning, but according to need.
There is more than enough for all, so why should any go short?
It is often asked (I cannot tell why) who shall determine the nature and
limits of a persons needs? Obviously the person himself. If a number of
us sit down to dinner at a common table, one may eat twice as much as
the average person, another only half as much, but no one is troubled
about this. It is left to each to judge the capacity of his own stomach.
So let it be with all utilities. One needs more food than another. One
man has no child, another a few children, yet another, many children.
Each will have greater or lesser needs than his fellows. Utilities must
be free to all. Socialized production demands socialized consumption.
Every society has had some degrees of this mode of distribution.
Primitive society a great deal, capitalist society very little.
Nevertheless modern capitalist society does give us a glimpse of the
principle of free access to goods and services. A hundred years ago many
roads could only be traveled on payment of a toll, and some such still
exist in England. But now most roads are free; each may travel them
little or much, according to his own estimate of his needs. The same is
true of bridges and even some ferries. We have public parks, museums and
libraries. Is anyone upset if someone sits in the local park all day and
every day, while another never enters it? Does a man worry that he never
reads a book while his neighbor brings home two or three from the public
library twice a week?
A partial application of the principle was made by introducing the penny
post. Now it seems strange that a London letter sent to Edinburgh should
have cost twice as much as a letter to York. Yet the proposal of the
penny post raised a storm of protest. It was said that some would abuse
it, for many it seemed strange that a man writing from London to York
should pay only as much for his stamp as one writing to Croydon. And to
apply the principle to letters going as far even as Australia was to
conservative persons just the last word in lunacy. Yet now, in postal
matters everyone approves of the principle of âto each according to his
needs.â
It is often said that if food were there to be taken some would eat too
much. They might the first time, but I doubt if they would keep it up.
Water is free, not in the sense that it is not paid for, that is gratis,
but its personal consumption is unrestricted. Some drink about a pint a
day each, a few several pints, while a few of my friends refuse to touch
it, believing it to be a dangerous liquid which even rusts steel and
rots shoes. Yet no one abuses the drinking of water. No one hoards it;
accumulating buckets and barrels of it in garret and cellar. For each
knows there is plenty for him when he needs it. If bread were free would
our attitude to it be different? Would anyone try to eat half-a-dozen
loaves a day?
It will readily be seen that such a principle of distribution can only
be applied when there is a sufficiency of production. If everyoneâs need
of butter is 8 ounces a week and the stock available allows only of 4
ounces per head per week, then, obviously, another principle must be
applied. While capitalist production is enormously high, most of it is
designed for the manufacturer if hardly useful, and even harmful,
products. Until the Syndicalist productive organization has brought
order to the present chaotic industries, distribution must be equal
between individuals. Of course, that does not mean that all will consume
the exact amount of each particular commodity or utility, but that each
shall have an equal share (choice of variety being left to each) of the
aggregate of goods available for distribution.
In the case of certain goods being in very short supply the principle of
rationing must be applied, but, let us make this clear, this case has
nothing in common with the present system of rationing. The basic
principle of the present governmentâs rationing system is not the equal
division of goods of which there is a natural shortage. There is no
equality. If a person has a great deal of money he may buy whatever
rationed goods he needs, even without breaking the law. On the other
hand of a person be poor, and this is the case with hundreds of
thousands of working people, he may be unable to buy his full ration,
particularly of clothes.
Nor is the present rationing, in most cases, the result of shortage. It
is an attempt to force the purchasing power of the people from the
consumption of useful commodities to the production of munitions and
government apparatus.
In the case of certain goods which are in very short supply, these would
be reserved for those especially needing them. Black grapes were once
associated with sick beds, but no invalid worker may now buy them at the
present price of 23 shillings a pound. Nevertheless stout and hearty
bourgeois may eat them to surfeit.
While Syndicalism would divide equally the social income and ration
equitably goods in shortage, the productive power would be immediately
reorganized and set in motion to cure the shortage and then create such
a plentiful supply of goods as to enable the social distribution to be
accomplished.
Although we could not obtain at once the principle of âto each according
to his needsâ in all things, yet with some goods and services it would
be possible to do this at once. The two principles we have outlined
would, for a while, continue to exist side by side. The few cases of
free distribution now existing would continue to exist and would be
extended. All roads, bridges and ferries would remain free. Parks would
be extended and multiplied and to them would be added the public access
of moorland, mountain, stream and seashore. Public libraries would be
increased and made into cheery, comfortable homes of books, instead of
the ill-assorted collections of shabby volumes stores in mausoleums they
now are. The same principle of distribution would be extended to other
goods and services, two or three, or even half-a-dozen at a time.
Speaking personally, I believe the change would be much more rapid than
most would dare to believe possible.
Cases for the early application of the principle of free distribution
will readily occur to all of us. Postal service, travel and education
are obvious examples. House rent is another. On the outbreak of
revolution everyone will, naturally, cease paying rent. After the
revolution it is unlikely that they will return to their former habit of
sustaining the landlords.
It is often asked, âbut what if someone wanted a luxury steam yacht or a
one hundred roomed mansion?â Well, such things are the product of social
labor. At present a rich person may, by his use of money, force others
to build him a steam yacht by keeping other employment from them. Under
Syndicalism this would be impossible, and it is improbable that any
greedy, selfish person would be able to kid a shipyard full of workers
to build him a ship for his own hoggish self. There would be steam
luxury yachts, but they would be enjoyed in common. I apologize for
introducing this question but it is a familiar friend at many of our
meetings.
Whether you accept our view of distribution or wish to retain the
present will depend on whether you are a âpracticalâ person or an
idealist. If you are âsane, level-headed and practicalâ you will want to
live in poverty, dirt and ugliness. You will wear cotton suits and paper
shoes; you will grow dyspeptic on a diet of cabbage and starch; you will
work yourself to death in a factory or allow your body to be used as
common meat. All in order that you may destroy the homes and cities of
your Continental neighbor, while he, moved by the same âpracticalâ
principles, destroys yours.
But, if you are an âidealist and a dreamerâ you will object to living on
a poverty standard in a world of plenty. You will chose to enjoy your
full share of the good things of life. You will build cities instead of
destroying them and heal and make happy your neighbors instead of
maiming and killing them. You will play your part in the building of the
New World which is not only possible but whose coming is imperative.
In the present conditions of class struggle the Syndicalist distributive
workers are organized in the same principles as the factory and other
industrial workers. The basis and control of the organization is in the
meeting of the workers at their place of employment where their job
committee is elected. Thus each large store would have a House
Committee. In the case of smaller individual shops, as these are usually
found in groups (as grocers, chemists, butchers, bakers, etc.) About
cross-roads or minor thoroughfares, workers from each shop would meet to
elect their group committee. Similarly the warehousemen in the wholesale
trade would elect their warehouse committee.
As in the case of all other syndicates, the shop committees are
federated to the local Federation of Syndicates, representing all
Syndicalist workers in the locality. In the other direction, the Shop
Committees are federated to the District Committee of Distributive
Workers, and the District Committees to the National Council of
Distributive Workers. The National Council is, like other syndicates,
federated to the National Council of Labor, which brings together and
co-ordinates the whole of the Syndicalist forces.
The work of the Distributive Syndicates is, of course, not only to wage
a struggle for better working conditions and higher wages, but also to
prepare for the taking over of distribution by the workers. To that end
the Syndicalist shop and warehouse workers study their trade. They
observe and discuss where such and such commodities are stored and how
they could be distributed more justly and with greater efficiency. This
task is urgent, for workers must be fed during the General Strike and
Revolution.
The Spanish Syndicalists acted in this way. The bakers of Barcelona,
before the Revolution, knew the locality and amount of all stocks of
flour, and the oven capacity of the cityâs bakeries. On the glorious
19^(th) July, 1936, when the revolutionary workers of Barcelona went to
the barricades, their baker comrades ensured them and their families
bread. The Peasantsâ Syndicate co-operated with the Distributive
Syndicates in the collection of food in the country and its distribution
in the towns of Catalonia.
During the stay-in-strike of the Italian engineering workers in 1920 the
peasantsâ syndicates, the distributive and transport workers and the
co-operatives combined to supply food to the strikers who held the
factories for four weeks.
In Britain the workers in the mining areas, particularly Durham, have
shown they can feed the workers by collecting food and running communal
kitchens during as strikes of three, four, six months or even longer.
The workers can and must ensure their own food supplies in strike and
revolution.
The Revolution accomplished, the Distributive Workersâ Syndicate will,
of course establish liaison with the productive syndicates most closely
related to it; Farm Workers, Food Preparation Workers, Wood Workers,
Textile Workers, Clothing Workers, Leather Workers, Printers and such.
It will be understood that the Syndicalist method of distribution, like
the Syndicalist method of production, has nothing in common with the
principles of political control advocated by most Socialists and even by
most politicians of all brands in modern times. Political control means
control first of all by Cabinet Ministers who usually have no experience
of the technique they claim to direct. A country squire is made Minister
of mines, a lawyer Minister of Aircraft Production, a political
journalist is made First Lord of the Admiralty. In municipal affairs,
parsons, butchers and publicans pretend to run the trams, supervise
education and manage the drainage system. Government by amateurs!
Instruction by the uninstructed!
Distribution like industry is a thing of technics and requires direction
by persons of experience, those who have given time and thought to the
theory and practice of their craft. Distribution means more than
standing behind a counter, handing over a packet of cigarettes and
counting 3 pence change. Every shop assistant should be an expert at his
job, and Syndicalism will give him the incentive to develop the interest
which will make him an expert. A bookshop assistant should know
something of literature and printing, a tailorâs assistant something of
clothes, and a provision hand something of food, its care and attractive
presentation. They should be able to make the best of the goods and
advise the customer.
Of course distribution involves much more than shop-keeping. Each center
of population has its warehouses while behind them are the special
warehouses of the railway centers and docks. All these need a knowledge
of certain technics. Meat refrigeration, banana ripening, ventilations
of wood-ware and a thousand other problems require special knowledge and
experiences.
Examples of the disastrous effect of government interference in
distribution are only too abundant. Resisting the temptation to choose
too many of the hundreds of examples available, I pick one from the hat.
Here are headlines from the Daily Express, 12 th June, 1943:
âTOMATOES ROT WHILE SHOPS GO WITHOUTâ
âIn London yesterday shops complained that they had no tomatoes. In
Manchester wholesalers complained that their tomatoes were rotting.â
It is left to the reader to supply further examples from his daily
reading and, better still, his observation.
But, lest it is thought that all this is due to the difficulties of
war-time, let us take examples from the first few months of war, when
there was no air raid, no fighting on land, no labor shortage, and
plentiful stocks of food abounded.
The following is taken from a pamphlet Chaos on the Home Front published
by the Co-operative Movement.
Scunthorpe Co-operative Society had a very successful creamery.
âWe had a certain amount of good fresh butter in stock and on September
22, the Food Minister requisitioned it. The butter was kept there for a
considerable time. Immediately they took it over they increased the
price by 10 shillings a hundredweight, or ÂŁ10 a ton. We were allowed to
draw our own butter out of our own cooling chamber and pay the Food
Ministry the increased price of 10 shillings a hundredweight.â
The society had some butter they needed but were not allowed to touch.
They wrote a letter to the Minister saying that the butter was going bad
and needed turning. The reply told them to send the butter to London,
from there it went to South Wales. Was it fresh? The customers were.
âYou used to get good sized prunes for 6 pence per pound. The Ministry
requisitioned the whole lot and sold them back to the grocers at a price
which means that the retailer cannot sell the big fat ones for less than
8 1/2 pence, or the small ones.â
âBut the outstanding example of official muddle was fish. On the
outbreak of war the Ministry at once abandoned the east Coast ports and
set up a fish distribution center at Oxford, with a chain of branch
centers. The scheme did not work, supplies failed to reach the places
where they were wanted. Much fish went bad because of the length of time
taken in unpacking it and repacking it.â
Experience of lecturing on the subject has brought to my notice doubts
which I would not otherwise have believed possible, for most of these
problems, questions of human and trade relationships, have already been
solved, even under capitalism.
The most frequent of these runs like this, âBut how will the wishes of
the consumer be met? What organization will the Syndicalist set up
whereby the consumer may express his preferences?â No organization, I
hope. Such a special organization is about the least likely way of his
wishes being effectively expressed. Better the way developed by the
people themselves.
Goods, as now, will be produced in great variety, for workers like
producing different kinds, and new models, of goods. Now if some goods
are unpopular, they will be left on the shelves to be devoured by mice
and moths or embalmed by spiders. Of other goods more popular, the shops
will be emptied. Surely it is obvious that the assistant will decrease
his order of the unpopular line and increase his order of the popular.
Every shop-keeper does that now and learns, often with uncanny accuracy,
to anticipate his customersâ need. Even the newspaper seller at the
street corner must anticipate so many of News, so many of Star and so
many of Standard; to balance himself between extra customers and
left-over copies.
âBut what if the productive syndicates refuse to meet the need of the
consumers as relayed to them by the distributive workers?â cries our
stubborn questioner, defending his last barricade. Well, it is something
that just wonât happen. Everyone who makes something wishes that thing
be useful and desirable. Manâs work must have social meaning, must be
useful, or he is unhappy in his work.
Some years ago it used to be said that one of the worst punishments of
the military âglasshouseâ was for a man to fill a wheelbarrow with lead
shot, push it to the top of an incline then tip the barrow allowing the
shot to roll back. He then descended and refilled the barrow, repeating
the rest of the process. It was said that this meaningless task, like so
many other military tasks, nearly drove the victims to madness. The lack
of social meaning was the sting of the punishment, which must have been
invented by a student of Dante.
Another âproblemâ we have presented to us is that of someone wanting an
article which is not made. But is this likely to happen? People are
stimulated and guided in their choice of goods by what they see in the
shops and catalogs. Is anyone likely to make a sketch of the peculiar
footwear of the ancient Assyrians, take it to the shoe shop and say,
âHave you a pair of shoes like this, size six, please?â
All these are small problems which we can safely leave to the day when
they arise. It is for us now to determine the general outlines of the
New Society and lay its foundations. It is possible that the further
stages will be much easier and more satisfying than we, in the dull,
grey age of capitalism, had dared to hope.
In previous articles we have considered the vertical organization of
syndicates, from the factory or job committee to the district and
national Council of Labor. We are now to consider the horizontal
organization, from the job committee to the local federation of
syndicates.
The workers of each factory, mine, shop, garage, or other place of work
in any one town or locality are affiliated to the local federation.
Thus, any city, town, or group of villages may have an organization
representative of engineering workers, railmen, busmen, teachers, shop
assistants, tailors, municipal workers, builders, clerks, musicians and
other workers. Certain localities will have delegates from dockers,
seamen, miners and textile workers according to local constitution.
However, besides the delegates of the industrial workers organized in
syndicates at their places of work, there are delegates of other groups,
the unemployed, housewives, and small groups of odd trades.
The syndicates will endeavor to retain the membership of workers who
become unemployed , unlike the wealthy craft unions which consider an
unemployed man a liability. An out-of-work member will be thought of as,
say, an unemployed carpenter, instead of just âone of the unemployedâ.
Where men are in and out of work continually this will not be difficult,
but in ânormalâ times of depression there are hundreds of thousands of
men and women whose loose all touch with their previous job and
organization and into the vast anonymous ranks of âthe Unemployedâ. It
is the task of Syndicalism to organize these men and women to fight
against their miserable conditions, to prevent their being forced into
blacklegging, and to become part of the forces of emancipation.
Where women are working in industry the syndicate organizes them with
the men, but millions of working women, particularly in certain parts of
Britain, never return to industrial work after the day of marriage. Yet
these women, who have no proper place in the orthodox labor movement ,
are at once a weakness and a great strength of the workersâ movement.
They are a weakness in a strike if they do not understand and appreciate
the issues; they can slowly and steadily sap the will to victory of
their struggling menfolk. But, if they understand the issues, they are a
tremendous addition to our battle forces, as particularly the women of
the mining areas have shown. They can organize food collections and
communal kitchens, nursing service, entertainments and propaganda. They
can carry out boycotts and strike picket lines. The industrial North has
shown that women can do the latter job as well as men. Without doubt our
Syndicalist movement must organize the housewife as well as the
industrial woman worker.
As well as the factory committees, unemployed and housewives, the local
federation of syndicates has to organize certain individuals and small
groups who, because of the nature of their employment, cannot be
organized in the syndicates of industry and service. Writers, artists,
small dealers, odd job men and many others who have no syndicate will
desire a part in the struggle. The local federation will organize them
in local groups.
The chief task of the local federation in present circumstances is the
mobilization of all labor forces for strike action. In a rail strike
they will ensure that busmen are not used against railmen. In a minersâ
strike they will see to it, that blackleg coal is not moved. The local
forces of labor will be swung from sector to sector of the class front
as the need arises.
As a center of strike propaganda, particularly in the case of small,
âunofficialâ strikes so familiar to us, the local is invaluable. Almost
every such strike is greatly weakened by lack of propaganda and
information issued by the factory strike committee, which usually lacks
the means of propaganda. With a well-organized local, any strike in a
factory, shop, or mine will be immediately reported to the local.
Supplied with all necessary facts, the local operates its permanent
propaganda and news service. Other jobs in the town and neighboring
locals are informed of the facts of the case. Public meetings are held
and local bulletins issued. Unemployed and workers from other jobs swell
the picket ranks.
But the strike activity of the local is not limited to propaganda.
Collections must be made to augment the strike pay. Perhaps it may even
be necessary to organize the collection or cheap mass production of
food, or the formation of communal kitchens.
In the case of certain strikes the boycott is applied. In disputes of
cinema or theater workers, shop assistants, newspaper printers or the
employees of firms selling branded goods, the boycott is an effective
weapon.
The local form of Syndicalist organization is not limited to cities and
thickly populated industrial areas. The mining areas and the countryside
also have their own type of local federation. In the country we usually
find small villages grouped around a larger village or small country
town. The same is true of the semi-rural semi-industrial mining areas.
In these cases each village would have its sub-federation affiliated to
the federation of the parent village, corresponding to the town
federation.
It is natural that the delegates of the local will desire to establish
contact with the delegates of neighboring locals. To this end the local
federation of syndicates in any region is affiliated to a regional
confederation of labor, as Clydeside, the North East coast, Birmingham,
South Wales or London. The Syndicalist mode of organization is extremely
elastic, therein its chief strength, and the regional confederation can
be formed, modified, added to or reformed according to local conditions
and changing circumstances.
The opportunities of the local federation during the revolutionary
struggle are too obvious to need underlining: organization of workersâ
militia, propaganda, supplies and co-ordination of factory defense are
the greatest of these.
With the triumph of the revolution and the passing of the class struggle
the local organization of Syndicalism changes character and becomes the
Commune, an organization of people who live together, for the purpose of
living together. The Commune will take the place of the present
unrepresentative borough council.
However, most of the functions of the municipalities will be carried out
by the industrial syndicates. Local transport will be the responsibility
of the Transport Syndicate, hospitals that of the Health Workersâ
Syndicate, education that of the Teachersâ Syndicate, and so on. All of
these services need men and women of experience, persons with some
knowledge of the technical and intellectual problems, a knowledge not
usually possessed by the typical town councillor. Local Education
Committees, for instance are usually bossed by elder brewers, publicans,
pork butchers, speculative builders, religious bigots and such like. Of
course, the control of schools may be modified by the creation of
teachersâ, parentsâ, and scholarsâ councils, but such problems are a
matter of experiment; we are now concerned with the creation of working
class organization which can take over education at once.
The abolition of the money basis of society will relieve the Commune of
the chief task of the borough and county councilsâthe collection of
rates. Nor will the Commune be concerned with running businesses, as
many municipalities do, in order to gather profits to aid the rates.
The Commune, a much smaller and more intimate and decentralized body
than the borough council, will be entirely devoted to improving the
communal life of the locality. Making their requests to the appropriate
Syndicates, Buildersâ, Public Health, Transport or Power, the
inhabitants of each Commune will be able to gain all reasonable living
amenities, town planning, parks, play-grounds, trees in the streets,
clinics, museums and art galleries. Giving, like the medieval city
assembly, an opportunity for any interested person to take part in, and
influence, his townâs affairs and appearance, the Commune will be a very
different body from the borough council, which is largely an
organization for the protection of the big ratepayers, hobbled and
controlled by the Ministry of Health from Whitehall.
In ancient and medieval times cities and villages expressed the
different characters of different localities and their inhabitants. In
red-stone, Portland or granite, in plaster or brick, in pitch of roof,
arrangements of related buildings or pattern of slate and thatch each
locality added to the interest of travelers. Scotland, the North of
England, London, the West Country and east Anglia, each expressed itself
in castle, home or cathedral.
How different is the dull, drab, or flashy ostentatious monotony of
modern England. Each town the same. The same Woolworthsâ, Odeon Cinemas,
and multiple shops, the same âcouncil housesâ or âsemi-detached villasâ,
ÂŁ50 down and 25 shillings an 6 pence for the rest of your life. North,
South, East or West, whatâs the difference, where is the change?
With the Commune the ugliness and monotony of present town and country
life will be swept away, and each locality and region, each person will
be able to express the joy of living, by living together.
The Syndicalist objectives we have outlined in previous articles will
not, of course, be carried out without arousing the fiercest opposition
and most bitter hatred of the employing class. The expropriation of that
class, the control of industry by the workers, the abolition of money
and the wage system and the establishment of the principle of each
according to his need can only be when we are prepared for the most
revolutionary of struggles.
Our first weapon is the highest technical development of the principle
of non-co-operation; cutting of economic supplies and services from the
employing class and switching them to the workers; generally, refusing
to do any work for or co-operate in any way in the observation of the
laws and orders of the employers.
We do not need to be warned that the enemy will not, if our forces be
weak enough, willingly accept this new condition. We know he will if
possible use against us the armed forces, the police and Fascist bands.
But, acute social problems, particularly in the 20^(th) century, sweep
across the whole population including the armed forces. The Revolution
will have as many adherents within the armed forces as it will have in
the civil population.
Nevertheless, the Revolution must be defended, by armed force if
necessary, against those remnants of the armed forces the enemy may
rally and against Fascist militia, âBlack and Tansâ or whatever they may
call the new counter-revolutionist army they may raise.
To that threat the Syndicalists reply is the creation of the Workersâ
Militia. The chief base of the new workersâ army will be their place of
work, factory, garage, mill, pit or dock. There men know one other, know
the man who is loyal to his class and he who might be a
counter-revolutionist. Already a high degree of self and group
discipline and of working and struggling together have been practiced.
In the Spanish Civil War of 1936 the Workersâ Militia was largely based
on the squad of ten men known to one another and choosing their own
squad leader or delegate. The squads of ten men were united into
centuries of one hundred men and seven or eight centuries formed into a
column, all on the federal principle.
The choice of the factory, etc. as the chief base of the Militia has an
extra advantage in the present day warfare of highly mechanized forces.
Thus, shipyard, dock and seamensâ syndicates form naval units; bus and
lorry driversâtransport and mechanized units; miners, bridge builders
and construction workersâengineer battalions and so on. Not only is the
skill and experience already assembled, but, also, the necessary
machines are at hand to these units. Further, an industrial population
can be trained much quicker than an agrarian populace in the use of
weapons, for a gun is just another machine.
As to the arming of the workers, the approach of revolutionary struggles
has always forced workers to acquire small arms in their own defense,
for the impending struggle has usually been anticipated by Fascist
squads, âBlack Hundredsâ, âBlack and Tansâ or other named terrorist
bands of the ruling class.
But such arms are few in the aggregate. The chief source of supply of
modern revolutionary forces are the class conscious units of the army,
and the factories. In modern revolutions the munitions factories take
the place of the armories and gunsmithsâ shops of the 18^(th) and
19^(th) centuries. Not only the munitions works, but every engineering
factory, workshop or chemical works, is turned to the manufacture or
improvisation of weapons.
Highly industrialized countries such as France, Belgium, U.S.A., Germany
and others will not suffer the tragic lack of the means of forging arms
suffered by agrarian, revolutionary Spain in 1936.
Armchair Socialist theoreticians and Anti-Fascists will sneer at the
Workersâ Militia and tell us that the barricades of 1848 are outdated,
but revolutions have a way of taking these fine weather men unawares.
Some years ago the celebrated Anti-Fascist and Liberal Professor
Salvemini wrote a learned article against the principle of workersâ self
defense forces. He pointed out that the German Social-Democratic
Reichsbanner, the German Communist Rotfront, and similar military
organizations of the Liberal and Catholic parties in Germany had
surrendered without firing a shot when the Nazis took power in 1933.
Therefore, reasoned the learned professor, workersâ defense corps are
useless. The advice of such gentle Anti-Fascist is to call a policeman.
What the professor concealed was that the Social-Democratic Reichsbanner
and the Communist League of Red Front Fighters did not fight because
they were built upon authoritarian principles of order from above and
rigid obedience to leaders. The Socialist leaders were too compromised
by political practice to give orders to resist the Nazis. The German
Communist leaders were under orders from Moscow, and Stalin wished to
and did, make a treaty with the new Nazi Germany. It was not the
principle of workersâ defense which failed, but the contrary principle
of blind obedience to âleadersâ and the subjigation of judgement and
self-respect to that of âleadershipâ.
Within a few years of Salveminiâs article came the Spanish Fascist
uprising of July, 1936. The spontaneous uprising of the workers in
defense against Fascism and the rapid organization of workersâ militia,
not authoritarian as the German, but federal and Syndicalist, blew to
smithereens the learned discourse of the professor. Life is stronger
than theory.
The revolutionary workers everywhere in Spain were rapidly defeating the
Fascists when foreign intervention, allowed by the Labor movement of the
world, came to the assistance of Franco. The defeat of the revolution
after three years of war was due to that, to the Franco-British policy
of ânon-interventionâ which allowed arms to Franco, but prevented arms
and war supplies reaching the republicans. The efficacy of workersâ
militia as a defense against Fascist terrorism remains proved by the
events of 1936.
We shall anticipate the objections of the legalistic Socialists and
Liberals who will be ready with tales of âthe streets running with blood
and corpses mountain highâ by recalling that most revolutions have
overthrown the old regime with the loss of a handful of men. The French
Revolution of 1789, the overthrow of Tsarism and the October Revolution
in 1917, the Austrian and German Revolutions of 1918, were accomplished
with an almost unbelievably small roll of casualties.
Of course, if the revolutionaries fight as do the professional armies of
states, with a solid front and two armies facing one another with tanks,
aircraft and big guns, the revolution would be quickly crushed. But,
revolutions cannot be fought like imperialist wars, the social factors
are greater than the military. Strategy, tactics and weapons must be
designed to wage a social war without fronts. An excellent case of this
is found in the history of the Irish struggle against the British
Government during 1919â20 and 1921. The Imperialist forces were
increased to about 100,000 men, army, Royal Irish Constabulary,
Auxiliaries and âBlack and Tansâ, with resort to any weapon they needed
and the experience of the World War behind them. The Irish Republican
Army of about 10,000 armed with automatic pistols, revolvers, home made
bombs and a few rifles and machine guns defeated them by adapting their
strategy and tactics to the social soil.
Let no one mistake the Workersâ Militia for just another army. The
Spanish Militia of 1936â37 had no officer caste or badge of rank, no
privilege or special ration, no saluting. The ranks were filled, not by
conscription, but by the revolutionary knowledge and enthusiasm of the
workers. Love of the Revolution took the place of professional military
discipline founded on the death penalty. The daily pay was equal to all
whether the least experienced militiaman or Durruti.
As well as the Workersâ Militia, other bodies of armed men were
organized by the Spanish SyndicalistsâFrontier Control Committees to
prevent the flight of Fascistsâand Republican Ministers and Workersâ
Patrols to prevent disorder or counter-revolutionary outbursts in the
towns and villages.
It is obviously necessary for the Revolution to disband the instruments
of the old regime, the judges, the magistrates and police. But as well
as counter-revolutionist attempts, criminal and hooligan elements
useless to anyone, may remain as the legacy of capitalism. Indeed the
counter-revolutionists will encourage these by bribes, arms and alcohol.
The Workersâ Patrols organized by the ward and town federations of the
Syndicates will easily handle such who would overthrow or discredit the
Revolution.
It will be seen that these armed bodies of workers have no resemblance
to the forces of the Stateâcapitalist or other. The street patrols will
be carried out in the workersâ spare time, like firewatchingâonly of his
own free will. The factories and railways will be guarded by armed
workers while doing their everyday work. They will continue to carry
arms until the need has passed. Then, with no danger present, men will
cease to carry arms as they ceased to carry gas masks when they found no
danger of gas attack.
But, if, instead of the general force of the workers, the Revolution
gives birth to the special force of a new army, police and judiciary, a
new state and a new master class will arise. If a new police force were
created to arrest counter-revolutionists the policemen would naturally
try to preserve their jobs even when the old regime had been crushed .
Let us recall the story of Napoleonâs wolves. It is said that while
Napoleon was Emperor the number of wolves increased in France, so
Napoleon offered a large reward for each wolfâs head brought to the
local authority. Wolf hunting became a lucrative profession until the
wolves began to disappear. Fortunately for the hunters the decline in
the wolf population was mysteriously checked and their numbers began to
increase. Upon investigation the authorities discovered that, rather
than lose their jobs, the hunters were breeding wolves and even
shepherds had turned from their flocks for the more remunerative work of
wolf breeding and hunting.
For the defense of the Revolution there must be no new regular army, or
police force, or officer caste, but arming of the workers. If the
workers allow themselves to be disarmed, even in the name of the
Revolution, then at that moment the counter-revolution has succeeded.
In this series of articles we have outlined the aim and method of the
Syndicalist Revolution. The aimâthe abolition of privilege, private
property, class society and the State and the establishment of the
common ownership of the means of production. The methodâthe taking and
running of industry by workersâ Syndicates, the abolition of the
standing Army and other armed forces, police, judiciary, etc., and the
creation of Workersâ Militia and other necessary working class
organization for the administration of society.
But what do we immediately expect from the Revolution? Let us be clear.
This is not a plan for society of a few hundred years hence. We are not
making blueprints for our descendants to work to long after we are dead.
What we here outline is possible immediately [ if ] the workers desire
it and throw off their chains of illusion. It is the aim of that
Revolution which already is stirring in war ridden Europe.
Let us first consider the possibility of manâs labor if fruitfully
employed. Even in peace time only a small minority of the population is
engaged in useful work and even they waste much of their time because of
out-of-date machinery and obsolete labor methods. If each did his share
of work and took only what he could really enjoy (for who can enjoy a
one hundred bedroom mansion or half a dozen motor cars?) It would be
necessary to work only a few hours a week for all to enjoy good housing,
clothing, food and all the good things of life.
The Revolution would at once set about releasing this unmeasured human
labor power. Every fit person would find a socially necessary job. Think
of the millions now wasting their time! Capitalists, landowners,
parsons, politicians. The domestic, club and restaurant servants of the
rich. (Even in wartime one may see two able bodied men opening the
double door of a Piccadilly club to allow another able bodied man to
pass.) The millions of clerks, bankers and inspectors who count, check
and re-check the business of the capitalists. The enormous tax eating
Civil service. The half dozen milkmen in each small street, the vast
number of unnecessary shopkeepers and assistants. The collectors and
canvassers, the advertising men. All could do useful work and at once
make a big stride toward plenty and leisure for all. Here we describe
what we consider must be the immediate economic aims of the Revolution.
WAGES. The abolition of all wages and the establishment of the principle
of equal income for all. What that income would be cannot be expressed
in money terms, the only terms known to capitalist society, but it
should certainly be more than double the present average wage.
WORK TIME. A six hour working day, a five day week and a month of
holidays annually.
OLD AGE, SICKNESS AND BEREAVEMENT. The most generous of proposals and
âdemandsâ for old age pensioners stop well below even the low wages of
the workers. Aged workers should receive the same income and services as
the younger population. The same is true of the sick and of widows and
orphans.
UNEMPLOYMENT. It may be that in the busy, early days of reorganizing
industry some workers may ind themselves temporarily out of work.
Unemployment is societyâs responsibility and the unemployed man should
not be punished for it. The equal income of other members of society
should be the right of the temporarily out-of-work while immediate
effort is made to find him a job. We do not believe that any worker will
want to shirk his part of the stirring movement of social reconstruction
unless he is psychologically ill. In any case a job will soon be found
and personal adjustment made. It is the capitalist system, alone of
social systems, which creates unemployment. Men are unemployed, not
because there is no useful work to do, but because a profit cannot at
the moment be made from that work. There is always a job to do in a
community just as there is always a job to do in the home.
FOOD. The production of a plentiful supply of the best food from our own
land. This would need to be of such a character as to radically change
the diet of the large majority of the population who eat much bread and
too little eggs, fruit and milk. The production would greatly increase
the supply of poultry, eggs, milk, cheese, butter, fruit, fresh salads
and vegetables and fish.
We would seek to do this by producing the vastly greater part of our
food at home, enjoying it fresh and not robbing the peoples of other
lands by forced imports of finance capital.
To accomplish this we could recruit for the land an extra million
workers from the useless jobs they now occupy. We would need to plough
up the estates and pleasure grounds of the rich, to reclaim moors and
hillsides and other lost land and increase the fertility of most of the
present farm land. We would need to fertilize the land by the collection
of that valuable âwasteâ we now throw away and turn the automobile
factories to the production of tractors and other farm machinery.
Private landlordism and rent being abolished no obstacle would stand in
the path of this newly released social energy.
MANUFACTURES. The Syndicates would be concerned with the immediate
production of sufficient shoes and clothes to meet the reasonable needs
of all, with enough house furniture for all and the multiplication of
those thousands of goods, wireless sets, books, articles of toilet,
sweets, etc., which make life more pleasant. As these flower from the
factories in ever-increasing volume the standard of living of all would
rise until human saturation point had been reached.
But we are concerned not only with the quantity, but, also, with the
quality of goods. Capitalism is the age of shoddy, and shoddy goods are
waste. The poor are robbed twice; first from the wage packet, next over
the counter by cotton and jute suits, starchy food, gimcrack furniture
and leaky shoes. For the first time all workers will enjoy what is now
the privilege of the well-to-do, the feel of good cloth, the firm tread
of a well-made shoe and the pleasure of well designed goods.
HOUSING. The mainly empty houses of the wealthy must be requisitioned
for the housing of the overcrowded. Those houses too big, or otherwise
unsuitable for conversion to flats would be used as museums, hospitals,
rest-homes and colleges.
It will be urgently necessary to start the immediate building of several
millions of houses to meet the shortage and clear out the slums and
semi-slums. This much is easier than might be supposed for there would
be no houses of the wealthy or palatial banks, brewers or insurance
offices to build and cinemas would take second place. Consider the huge
munition factories, the military camps and colossal aerodromes which
have been built during the past four years and weigh them against three
million houses.
EDUCATION. Education will be free to all able to benefit from it and
wishing to enjoy it, free from kindergarten to university. Classes would
be smaller, equipment improved and new schools built. The recent trend
of education from coercion and terrorism to freedom and co-operation of
teacher and scholar would be accelerated.
MEDICINE. Medical treatment would be freeâmedicine, attendance, clinics
and hospitals. But the new society would increase the health of all, not
by a new flood of physic, but, in main, by a better diet, right working
and living conditions and the end of industrial fatigue.
RECREATION. The new society would end the petty restrictions which
curtail the enjoyment of our few free hours. Moral bigots and publicans
close the theaters and cinemas on Sunday, the workersâ one free day.
Thousands of restrictions prevent him enjoying his too short leisure.
All these would bee swept away. Let each find his pleasure as he will so
long as he does not interfere with the freedom and pleasure of others.
How Soon?
These are the main tasks of our Revolution, tasks which can be
accomplished within two or three years of the triumph pf the workersâ
forces. If you, clouded by the pessimism and disappointment of life
under capitalism, doubt that statement, then take each item singly and
consider, from your own observation and your experience of your job, âIf
the waste and profit are cut out, is this possible?â We have no doubt of
your answer. And this will be bu the beginning, but the foundation stone
of a free and co-operative society!
Do not ask of us, âHow long will it take to persuade the workers that
all this is possible and desirable?â Stop thinking so much of the apathy
of the other fellow. When each worker asks the question of himself the
Day has dawned.
Aerodrome (or Airdrome) â the physical facilities of an air base; an
army air corp base. Air force units were a part of the army in 1943
(when these essays were written).
Anarcho-Syndicalism â Syndicalism; the Anarchist labor movement as
characterized by labor unions and federations in Argentina(FORA),
Bolivia(FLP), Costa Rica(HL), Chile(IWW), Denmark(USP), France(CNT),
Germany(FAU), Guatemala(CAS), Holland(NSV), Italy(USI), Japan(JRDZK),
Mexico(CGT), Norway(NSF), Paraguay(COP), Poland(ZZZ), Portugal(CGT),
Spain(CNT), Sweden(SAC), Uruguay(FRU), etc..
Archduke â a prince of the former royal family of Austria.
Articles â chapters; the chapters in Principles of Syndicalism were
originally published in 1943, as a series of 9 articles in the
periodical War Commentary for Anarchism.
Articles of Toilet â see âtoilet [articles]â.
Biscuit â a cracker; a kind of unleavened bread (plain, sweet, or
decorative) formed into flat thin cakes and baked until crisp.
âBlack and Tansâ â British troops sent to Ireland to suppress the
guerilla warfare of the Irish Republican Army during the Sinn Fein
rebellion (1919â1921). They were convicted murderers and other violent
criminals hand-picked from British prisons by Winston Churchill [Their
uniforms were âblack and tanâ.].
Blackleg â a strikebreaker or scab. A person who make a living cheating
honest folk.
Borough â in England, a town with a municipal corporation and rights to
self-government granted by royal charter; a town that sends one or more
representatives to Parliament [see M.P.]; in Scotland an incorporated
municipality (a burgh); a municipality smaller than a city.
Bosses â persons paid by employers to hire, fire, order about (tell
workers what to do), spy upon, manipulate (persuade, deceive,
de-humanize, humiliate, terrorize, divide and control), criticize, and
penalize workers; managers [typically paid much more than workers and
told that they are superior in order to buy their loyalty to the
employer].
Bourgeois â characteristic of the âbourgeoisieâ.
Bourgeoisie â the middle-class; the social class between the very
wealthy (aristocracy) and the working-class (proletariat).
Boycott â a ban on dealings with a landlord, business, company,
organization, etc.; a ban (often organized by workers involved in a
labor dispute with an employer) on buying, selling, or using the
products, services, or commodities of a company (often identified by the
âbrand name(s)â manufactured at workplaces they own); a primary boycott
[the term is derived from Captain Boycott, an Irish land agent
ostracized by his neighbors during the 1880 Land League agitation in
Ireland]. A âsecondary boycottâ is a boycott organized against those who
violate a primary boycott.
Branded Goods â products marked or labeled with the trade-mark or name
of the company which owns the factory or facility where they were
manufactured [the trade-mark or name is called a âbrand nameââthe term
is derived from the practice of branding animals with a hot iron to
identify their owner.].
Busman â a bus driver or conductor.
Cabinet Minister â in Britain, they are appointed from the members of
the political party with a majority in the House of Commons (the lower
house of the British legislature).
Chemist â an apothecary or druggist.
CNT (ConfederaciĂłn Nacional de Trabadores) â National Workers
Confederation, the Anarcho-Syndicalist union in Spain during the 1936
Spanish revolution (Now called the ConfederaciĂłn Nacional de Trabajo).
Workers in the CNT took over and ran a major part of agricultural and
industrial production as well as public transportation and
telecommunications. CNT workersâ militias fought the fascists (Spanish
regular army troops allied with the fascist Falangé and regular military
forces from Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany) to a standstill until
betrayed by the communists.
Coke â coal from which most of the gases have been removed by heating;
it burns with intense heat and little smoke, and is used as an
industrial fuel (e.g., used in the manufacture of steel).
Continent â Europe.
Continental â a fellow-European.
Copper â a penny.
Council Houses â public housing projects; housing built by the
government for the poor.
Craft Union â a labor union to which only workers in a certain trade,
craft, or occupation can belong; a horizontal union [as distinguished
from an âindustrial unionâ].
Craftsman â an artisan; one skilled in a manual occupation or trade.
Crown â a silver coin of Britain equal to 5 shillings.
Direct Action â action aimed at directly achieving an objective; The
strategic use of immediately effective acts, such as strikes, pickets,
sabotage, etc., to achieve a political or social end; the Syndicalist
idea that real social change can only come about by the actions of the
workers themselves and not by relying on political parties or
governments.
Dozen â twelve.
Employing Class â commonly used to refer to the big capitalists; the
capitalist class; the very wealthy [âincluding the portion of the
hereditary aristocracy who survived the transition from an agricultural
economy to a industrial economy.].
Engineman â an Engineer on a railroad train; the driver of a steam
locomotive.
Engineer [military] â a military unit trained in the construction and
demolition of bridges (including portable temporary bridges), roads, and
fortifications, the laying and disarming of land mines, etc.; also
includes special combat units for clearing enemy tunnels, bunkers, and
fortifications.
Fascist Militia â para-military organizations like the Nazi
Sturmabteilung [âstorming-partyââa military unit specializing in sudden
attacks on fortified positions; shock troops] in Germany. They were
recruited from among ex-soldiers, the unemployed and local âhooligansâ
[similar to racist skinhead gangs in the late 20^(th) Century].
Federation â in the text, an alliance of member organizations which
elect recallable delegates to a committee whose sole function is to
facilitate the exchange of information for the purpose of coordinating
the activities of its members, but with no independent or delegated
authority (legislative, executive or judicial); a socialist labor
federation [as described by Michael Bakunin in Federalism, Socialism,
Anti-Theologism]. This is not a centralized organization, as the term is
often misused to describe a type of nation-state or government.
Fireman â crew member on a steam locomotive who stoke the furnace with
coal.
Firewatching â in the text (during World War II) a patrol by a civil
defense warden intended to spot fires caused by bombing or arson so they
may be quickly extinguished by fire fighters (before they have a chance
to spread).
Flat â an apartment or suite of rooms on one floor of a building.
Fowl â chicken.
Franco-British â French and British.
Fresh [behavior] â rude; shameless; disrespectful of custom or
authority.
Garret â an attic; in a house with no attic, it refers to the rooms
immediately beneath the roof.
General Strike â in the text, a strike by workers of all or many of the
industries in a community or country; also, a strike by workers of an
entire trade or industry.
Gimcrack â showy, but cheap and useless.
Group-discipline â [should include] ability to work with a group;
Do-It-Yourself (D-I-Y) experience [spontaneity, resourcefulness,
creativity, flexibility in problem resolution]; verbal and written
communication; co-operation; mutual aid; practiced
working-relationships; conflict-resolution; social activity; expertise.
This is not Marxist regimentation.
Haberdashery ïżœïżœ a store which sells menâs hats, shirts, neckties, gloves,
etc..
Hobble â to impede [term based on practice of tying a horses legs
together with a rope to impede its freedom of movement].
Hooligan â a brutal and violent person; a hoodlum; a street gang member;
a ruffian. [derived from Hooligan, the name of an Irish family in
Southwark, London]. In Italy, they were recruited by the Fascists to
attack workers. In the U.S.A. they were frequently hired by capitalists
as strike-breakers and to disrupt union organizing.
Hundredweight â in the text, a gross or long hundredweight used in
Britain equal to112 pounds (lbs.), exactly, or 50.802 Kilograms (Kg.)
[as opposed to a net or short hundredweight used in the U.S. equal to100
lbs., exactly, or 45.359 Kg.].
Industrial Fatigue â to wear a worker out by overwork (similar to combat
fatigue [âa psychoneurotic condition characterized by anxiety,
irritability, depression, etc. caused by extreme exertion and lack of
sleep in armed combat]); illness and other physical or psychological
maladies occurring in workers weakened by overwork.
Industrial Union â a labor union to which all the workers in a given
industry can belong, no matter what occupation or trade; a vertical
union [as distinguished from a âcraft unionâ].
Jute â a plant fiber resembling hemp, obtained from Indonesian plants.
Both jute and hemp fibers are used in manufacturing a variety of
products which include clothing.
Libertarian â Libertarian Socialist; Free Socialist; Anarchist.
Local Education Committee â British equivalent of a School Board.
Loppings â branches cut off of trees after they are cut down for
firewood, typically discarded by the rich because they donât look
orderly when firewood is stacked for storage purposes; tree or hedge
trimmings discarded by grounds keepers or gardeners. It was common for
the poor to use what the rich wasted in order to survive [like
collecting coal (fallen from trains) by the railroad tracks, or cinders
(unburnt coal) form ash heaps, to burn to keep warm].
Lorry â a motor truck; a delivery truck.
Magistrate â a Justice of the Peace; a judicial official empowered to
judge only minor court cases.
Militiaman â a worker who is a member of the volunteer military (not a
professional or career soldier/sailor/marine/airman); a member of a
volunteer military force without an officer corp where unit âcommandersâ
are representatives elected by the unit members. In the 1936 Spanish
revolution, men and women fought side-by-side in the militias.
Moorland (or Moor) â a heath; a wasteland in the British Isles, often
with marshes and peat bogs, sometimes set aside as a game preserve for
hunting purposes.
M.P. â Member of Parliament; a member of the House of Commons, the lower
house of the British legislature [the upper house being the House of
Lords, whose hereditary seats were abolished in 1999].
Muddle â bungle; jumble; to mix-up in a confused manner; to act or think
in a confused way [in the text, the bizarre thinking and behavior of
government bureaucracy].
Munitions â military weapons and ammunition; military supplies.
Mutton â sheep.
Mutual Aid â the collective and concerted assistance or defense of a
member of a group by other members of the group (i.e., one for all and
all for one); the collective and concerted assistance or defense of a
group by other groups; the essential function of labor unions as
described by Peter Kropotkin in Mutual Aid: A Factor in Evolution
(âMutual Aid Amongst Ourselves (continued)â [London: William Heinneman,
October 1902], Chapter VIII, et al..); public safety maintained by
mutual defense rather than a coercive government apparatus (police,
secret police, military, etc.).
Nightwatchman â a nighttime security guard.
Non-Co-operation â [should include] no communication with police;
refusal of military service; organization of mutual aid groups;
increased participation in the informal and underground economies;
community organizing for greater self-reliance, self-sufficiency and
political self-determination; organizing workers councils within unions
to restore democratic control.
Overflooding â overflowing.
Patrimony â landed property inherited from ones father or ancestors; in
the text, a reference to the fact that if you donât inherit property
(like the rich do) that enables you to live off the work of others, then
you have to work for a living.
Peasant â in the text, an agricultural worker in Spain who works the
land but is not allowed to own land (a share-cropper). Prior to the 1936
revolution, it was unlawful for peasants to learn to read.
Physic â a laxative.
Portland â stone quarried on the Isle of Portland in England.
Pound (ÂŁ) [currency] â in the text, and prior to February 1971, refers
to Pound sterling, British currency equal to 20 shillings or 240 pence
(old pennies) [as opposed to after February 1971, when it was equal to
100 new pennies].
Pound (lb.) [weight] â in the text, an avoirdupois pound equal to 16
ounces (oz.), exactly, or 453.59237 grams (g.), exactly.
Pence â plural form of penny.
Penny â in the text, and prior to February 1971, a British copper coin
(an old penny) equal to 1/12 of a shilling [in February 1971, Britain
adopted a decimal monetary system where 2.4 old pennies equal 1 new
penny].
Petrol â gasoline.
Picket â a person (often a member of a labor union on strike), stationed
outside a factory, store, public building, etc. (often carrying a sign,
passing out leaflets, speaking to passers-by, etc.), to demonstrate,
protest, keep strike-breakers from entering, dissuade people from
buying, etc. [âderived from its military usageâa soldier or group of
soldiers (usually stationed at an outpost) used to guard a body of
troops from surprise attackâlabor unrest has often followed wars, after
discharged soldiers swell the ranks of the unemployed.].
Public House (or Pub) â a tavern or inn.
Publican â an innkeeper.
Rates (or rate): a local property tax [real property tax, real estate
tax] in Britain (e.g., parish rates, town rates, etc.) [property taxes
are based on a fixed percentage of the assessed value (the estimated
cost based on the price paid in current sales of comparable properties
in the same geographic area)].
Ratepayers â property owners; land-owners.
Royal Irish Constabulary â the national police force of Ireland, under
British occupation.
Sabotage â the conscious withdrawal of a workers industrial efficiency
[as described by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn]; any action by workers which
imposes an additional cost on their employer (an economic weapon
intended to deprive an employer of the thing they most care
aboutâmoney!) [Derived from the French word âsabotââa wooden shoe thrown
into the machinery at a factory to cause it to break down];
monkeywrenching [sabotage has also been used to achieve social
objectives, like a social general strike].
Sack â to fire a worker from their job.
Scab â a worker who refuses to join a union or who works for less pay or
different conditions than those accepted by the union. A worker who
refuses to strike or takes the place of a striking worker. A
contemptible person; a scoundrel; a cruel and unprincipled low-life.
Seaman â a sailor.
Self-discipline â [should include] commitment [ability to set time aside
for projects, to finish what you started, to prioritize the project over
your ego] ; follow-through [doing what you say you will do, keeping a
promise, reliability]; honesty [trustworthiness]. This is not Marxist
âpuritanismâ.
Shilling â in the text, and prior to February 1971, a British silver
coin equal to12 pence (old pennies) [as opposed to after February 1971,
when it was equal to 5 new pennies].
Shop Floor (or Shop) â factory floor; the place where something is made;
the manufacturing or production area of a workplace; a work area.
Shop Steward (or Steward) â a worker who is elected by his fellow
workers in his workplace department to represent them in dealing with
the employer; a department representative of a local branch of a labor
union; a delegate.
Slate â thin flat fine-grained bluish-grey stone tiles used as a roof
covering.
Small Arms â firearms which can be carried by individual soldiers; in
the1919 Irish Sinn Fein rebellion and the1936 Spanish revolution, rifles
and other weapons were acquired by raiding military armories and police
barracks; after factories were collectivized in Spain, many were
retooled to produce small arms, ammunition, and even armored cars, for
use by the militia.
Solidarity â workersâ solidarity; the principle found in animal and
human society to âTreat others as you would like them to treat you under
similar circumstancesâ [Peter Kropotkin, Anarchist Morality (London:
Freedom Press, 1892), Chapter VI; translated from the serialized essay,
âLa morale anarchiste au point de vue de sa rĂ©alisation pratiqueâ, Le
RĂ©voltĂ©, March 1âApril 16, 1890]; a natural feeling of empathy toward
other people who are wronged sensed because people know they wouldnât
like something if it were done to them; a common interest perceived by
workers that âan injury to one is an injury to allâ (âif they donât
fight against wrongs done to any individual worker or group of workers,
then the employer will not hesitate to abuse other workers). Workersâ
solidarity is strongly felt because the work relationship is an
exploitive relationship, because workers develop a comradery by sharing
their work experiences (knowing that their fellow workers are also
abused), and they conclude that they have nothing in common with their
bosses, their employers and the employing class.
Strike â the conscious and organized withholding of workersâ labor
against an employer with whom they have a dispute (an economic weapon
intended to deprive an employer of the thing they most care
aboutâmoney!); a concerted [mutually planned, arranged, or agreed on]
refusal to continue to work (by workers at a factory, etc.) until
certain demands have been met (resolution of a workplace-related
dispute, better working conditions, higher wages, etc.); a âsocial
strikeâ is a strike organized to resolve social problems created by an
employer; a ârent strikeâ is a strike against a landlord or landlords.
Rent strikes were organized by the CNT (see âCNTâ) in Spain prior to the
1936 revolution. see also âgeneral strikeâ and âunofficial strikeâ.
Strike-breaker â a scab; a supplier of scabs for the employer; a person
employed to intimidate strikers, etc.. Syndicalism â a theory and
movement of trade unionism, originating in France, in which all means of
production and distribution are brought under the direct control of
their workers by the use of direct action, and organized through
federations of labor unions; direct political and economic democracy in
the workplace and community organized through labor unions and
federations, including the abolition of capitalism, social classes,
parliamentary government, bureaucracy and political parties.
Syndicate â an association of workers to promote and protect the
welfare, interests, and rights of its members through solidarity, mutual
aid, education (training, propaganda, agitation), concerted direct
action, collective bargaining, etc.; a trade union; a labor union [from
the French word syndicale].
Technics â the study or principles of practical arts (knowledge gained
through practice or active use); industrial arts; technical and
industrial knowledge learned on the job, commonly as an apprentice
(novice, trainee) working for a master craftsman (expert; worker skilled
in their trade; master builder, mason, mechanic, workman, etc.) to
become a journeyman (workman who has served their apprenticeship and is
qualified to work at their trade).
Thatch â straw, rushes, etc., used as a roof covering.
Toilet [articles] â articles used in bathing, grooming, and dressing.
Ton â in the text, a gross or long ton used in Britain equal to 2,240
lbs., exactly, or 1.016 metric tons [1,016 Kg.].
Town Councillor â City Councilman/Councilwoman.
Trade Union (or Union) â see âsyndicateâ.
Tramway â a streetcar line.
Trolley-Bus â an electric bus which gets its power from overhead wires
like a streetcar, but does not run on a track.
Truckman â a teamster; a trucker; a truck driver.
âUnofficialâ Strike â in the text, a strike not âofficiallyâ
pre-approved by the so-called âleadersâ of the authoritarian British
trade union âofficiallyâ recognized by the employer; a âwildcat strikeâ;
often a spontaneous strike organized by workers, at their workplace, to
resolve a work-related dispute [âalso called a âLightning Strikeâ
because it is intended to catch employers off-guard and ill-prepared.].
Utilities â in the text, refers to items people use in their everyday
lives.
Wain â a wagon or cart.
Whitehall â in the text, refers to a street in Westminster where several
British government offices are located; a reference to the British
government [as âCapital Hillâ or âThe White Houseâ are used to refer to
the U.S. government].
Wind Wood â dead branches blown off of trees and shrubs in stormy
weather.
Wireless Set (or Wireless) â a radio; in the text, a consumer radio
receiver (as opposed to a radio which can transmit and receive).
Woolworthâs â a department store.
Workersâ Patrol (or street patrol) â a public safety patrol like
âNeighborhood Watchâ, but it replaces the police instead of spying for
them. In the Anarchist community of Kristiania, Denmark, all residents
carry whistles to blow in case there is trouble. When a whistle is
blown, all residents come out of their homes and workplaces into the
street to confront the trouble-maker whose actions raised the alarm, and
settle any problem (by collectively escorting the trouble-maker to the
town boundary and booting them out of town, if necessary).
Workman â a laborer.
World War â World War I.
Yard â 3 feet (ft.), 36 inches (in.), or 0.9144 meters (m.), exactly.