Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T12:29:09.108Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Syndicalism and Strikes, Leadership and Influence: Britain, Ireland, France, Italy, Spain, and the United States

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2013

Ralph Darlington
Ralph Darlington*
Affiliation:
University of Salford, UK
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The explosion of industrial and political militancy that swept the world during the early years of the twentieth century gave the revolutionary syndicalist movement a prominence and notoriety it would not otherwise have possessed, while at the same time providing a context for syndicalist ideas to be broadcast and for syndicalists to assume the leadership of major strikes in a number of countries. This article sheds new light on the complex nature of the relationship between syndicalism and strikes by means of an international comparative analysis of the revolutionary syndicalist movements in France, Spain, Italy, Britain, Ireland and United States. It presents evidence to suggest ideological/organizational initiative and leadership was of immense importance in understanding how syndicalist movements could be simultaneously a contributory cause, a symptom, and a beneficiary of workers' militancy.

Type
Special Issue: Strikes and Social Conflicts
Information
International Labor and Working-Class History , Volume 83: Strikes and Social Conflicts , Spring 2013 , pp. 37 - 53
Copyright
Copyright © International Labor and Working-Class History, Inc. 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

NOTES

1. Levine, Louis, “The Development of Syndicalism in America,” Political Science Quarterly 28 (1913): 451–79CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2. Dubofsky, Melvyn, We Shall be All: A History of the Industrial Workers of the World (Chicago, 1969), 36, 73–74Google Scholar, 147, 204.

3. Cannon, James P., The IWW: The Great Anticipation (New York, 1956), 20–21Google Scholar.

4. White, Joseph, “Syndicalism in a Mature Industrial Setting: The Case of Britain,” in Revolutionary Syndicalism: An International Perspective, eds. van der Linden, Marcel and Thorpe, Wayne (Aldershot, 1990), 104Google Scholar.

5. Brown, Geoff, “Introduction,” in The Industrial Syndicalist (Nottingham, 1974), 29Google Scholar.

6. Ibid., 22.

7. Askwith, George R., Industrial Problems and Disputes (London, 1974), 294Google Scholar.

8. Halévy, Elie, A History of the English People, Vol. 2: 1905–1914 (London, 1961)Google Scholar.

9. Ridley, Frederick F., Revolutionary Syndicalism in France: The Direct Action of its Time (Cambridge, 1970), 111Google Scholar.

10. Clegg, Hugh A., A History of British Trade Unions Since 1889: Vol. 2: 1911–1933 (Oxford, 1985), 22–74Google Scholar.

11. Pelling, Henry, A History of British Trade Unionism (Harmondsworth, 1987), 130CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

12. Laybourn, Keith, A History of British Trade Unionism c. 1770–1990 (Stroud, 1997), 119Google Scholar.

13. Hobsbawm, Eric, “The 1970s: Syndicalism Without Syndicalists” in Workers: Worlds of Labour, ed., Hobsbawm, Eric (London, 1984), 273Google Scholar.

14. Kornhauser, Arthur, Dubin, Robert, and Ross, Arthur M., Industrial Conflict (New York, 1954), 260–62Google Scholar; Montreuil, Jean, Historie du mouvement ouvrier en France (Paris, n.d.), 237–38Google Scholar.

15. Darlington, Ralph, Syndicalism and the Transition to Communism: An International Comparative Analysis (Aldershot, 2008)Google Scholar.

16. Foner, Philip S., History of the Labor Movement in the United States: Vol. 7: Labor and World War 1: 1914–1918 (New York, 1987), 293Google Scholar.

17. Magraw, Robert, “Socialism, Syndicalism and French Labour before 1914,” in Labour and Socialist Movements in Europe Before 1914, ed. Geary, Dick (Oxford, 1989), 70Google Scholar.

18. Friedman, Gerald, State-Making and Labour Movements: France and the United States 1876–1914 (Ithaca, 1998), 260Google Scholar.

19. Holton, Bob, “Revolutionary Syndicalism and the British Labour Movement,” The Development of Trade Unionism in Great Britain and Germany, 1880–1914, eds. Mommsen, Wolfgang. J. and Husung, Hans G. (London, 1985), 273–74Google Scholar.

20. Murphy, Jack T., The Workers' Committee: An Outline of its Principles and Structure (Sheffield, 1917)Google Scholar.

21. Murphy, Jack T., New Horizons (London, 1941), 135.Google Scholar

22. Brissenden, Paul F., The IWW: The Study of American Syndicalism (New York, 1919), 183, 357Google Scholar; Dubofsky, Melvyn, “The Rise and Fall of Revolutionary Syndicalism in the United States,” in Revolutionary Syndicalism: An International Perspective, eds. van der Linden, Marcel and Thorpe, Wayne (Aldershot, 1990), 214Google Scholar.

23. Foner, Philip S., History of the Labor Movement in the United States: Vol. 4: The Industrial Workers of the World (New York, 1965), 349Google Scholar.

24. Magraw, Robert, A History of the French Working Class, Vol. 2: Workers and the Bourgeois Republic (Oxford, 1992)Google Scholar.

25. Bertrand, Charles L., “Revolutionary Syndicalism in Italy,” in Revolutionary Syndicalism: An International Perspective, eds. van der Linden, Marcel and Thorpe, Wayne (Aldershot, 1990), 148Google Scholar.

26. Durgan, Andy, “Revolutionary Anarchism in Spain: The CNT 1911–1937,” International Socialism 2 (1981): 93–110Google Scholar.

27. Michael G. Woodhouse, “Rank and File Movements Amongst the Miners of South Wales 1910–26” (D. Phil. thesis, University of Oxford, 1970); Egan, David, “The Unofficial Reform Committee and the Miners' Next Step,” Llafur 2 (1978)Google Scholar; Holton, Bob, British Syndicalism 1900–1914 (London, 1976): 84–88Google Scholar; David K. Davies, “The Influence of Syndicalism and Industrial Unionism on the South Wales Coalfield 1898–1921: A Study in Ideology and Practice (Ph.D. diss., University of Wales, 1991).

28. Postgate, Raymond W., The Builders' History (London, 1923): 385–442Google Scholar; Holton, British Syndicalism, 97–110, 154–63; Gordon, Alex, “Charles Watkins: Syndicalist Railwayman,” Socialist History 37 (2010): 3–13Google Scholar.

29. Holton, Bob, “Syndicalism and Labour on Merseyside 1906–1914,” in Building the Union: Studies on the Growth of the Workers' Movement: Merseyside 1756–1967, ed. Hikens, Harold I. (Liverpool, 1973), 121–50Google Scholar; Holton, British Syndicalism; Ralph Darlington, “British Syndicalism and Trade Union Officialdom,” Historical Studies in Industrial Relations 25/26 (2009): 103–140Google Scholar.

30. Hinton, James, The First Shop Stewards Movement (London, 1973)Google Scholar; Darlington, Syndicalism and the Transition to Communism.

31. Newsinger, John, “Jim Larkin, Syndicalism and the 1913 Dublin Lock-Out,” International Socialism 2 (1984): 3–36Google Scholar; O'Connor, Emmet, James Larkin (Cork, 2002)Google Scholar.

32. Borghi, Armando, L'Italia tra due Crispi: cause e conseguenze di una rivoluzione macata (Paris, 1924)Google Scholar; Spriano, Paulo, The Occupation of the Factories: Italy 1920 (London, 1975)Google Scholar; Clark, Martin, Antonio Gramsci and the Revolution That Failed (New Haven, 1977)Google Scholar.

33. Meaker, Gerald, The Revolutionary Left in Spain, 1914–1923 (Stanford, 1974)Google Scholar.

34. Foner, The Industrial Workers of the World, 314–49; Renshaw, Patrick, The Wobblies: The Story of Syndicalism in the United States (London, 1967), 113–49Google Scholar; Dubofsky, Melvyn, “Big Bill” Haywood (Manchester, 1987), 69–72Google Scholar; Dubofsky, We Shall Be All, 234–257.

35. Unofficial Reform Committee of the South Wales Miners, The Miners' Next Step: Being a Suggested Scheme for the Re-Organization of the Federation (Tonypandy, 1912)Google Scholar.

36. Pouget, Emile, Le Sabotage (Paris, 1910)Google Scholar.

37. Haywood, William D., The General Strike (Chicago, n.d.)Google Scholar.

38. Newsinger, John, ed., Shaking the World: Revolutionary Journalism by John Reed (London, 1998), 229Google Scholar.

39. Ibid., 229.

40. Vandervort, Bruce, Victor Griffuelhes and French Syndicalism 1895–1922 (Louisiana, 1996), 74–83, 101Google Scholar.

41. Ibid., 74–83.

42. Ibid., 117–19.

43. Moss, Bernard, The Origins of the French Labor Movement: The Socialism of Skilled Workers 1830–1914 (Berkeley, 1976)Google Scholar.

44. Foner, Labor and World War I, 248.

45. Sykes, Thomas R., “Revolutionary Syndicalism in the Italian Labor Movement: The Agrarian Strikes of 1907–1908 in the Province of Parma,” International Review of Social History 21 (1976): 186–211CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

46. Meaker, The Revolutionary Left in Spain, 84–91, 165–68.

47. O'Connor, Emmett, Syndicalism in Ireland (Cork, 1988)Google Scholar; O'Connor, Emmett, A Labour History of Ireland, 1824–1960 (Dublin, 1992)Google Scholar.

48. Darlington, Ralph, The Political Trajectory of J.T. Murphy (Liverpool, 1998), 48Google Scholar.

49. Perlman, Selig, A Theory of the Labor Movement (New York, 1928)Google Scholar.

50. Hoxie, Robert, Trade Unionism in the United States (New York, 1920)Google Scholar.

51. Jenson, Vernon, “The IWW—An Exchange of Views,” Labor History 11 (1970), 335–72Google Scholar.

52. Stearns, Peter, Revolutionary Syndicalism and French Labour: A Cause without Rebels (New Brunswick, 1971), 102Google Scholar.

53. Renshaw, The Wobblies, 24; Newsinger, John, “Irish Labour in a Time of Revolution,” Socialist History 22 (2002): 1–31Google Scholar.

54. Renshaw, The Wobblies, 24.

55. O'Connor, Syndicalism in Ireland, 45–46, 186; Magraw, “Socialism, Syndicalism and French Labour,” 88–89.

56. Horne, John, “The State and the Challenge of Labour in France 1917–1920,” in Challenges of Labour: Central and Western Europe 1917–1920, ed. Wrigley, Chris (London, 1993), 249Google Scholar.

57. Murphy, Jack T., Preparing for Power (London, 1972), 172Google Scholar.

58. Jenson, Vernon and Dubofsky, Melvyn, “The IWW—An Exchange of Views,” Labor History 11 (1970), 371Google Scholar.

59. Peterson, Larry, “The One Big Union in International Perspective: Revolutionary Industrial Unionism, 1900–1925,” in Work, Community and Power: The Experience of Labor in Europe and America, 1900–1925, eds., Cronin, James. E. and Sirianni, Carmen (Philadelphia, 1983), 68Google Scholar.

60. Askwith, Industrial Problems and Disputes, 259.

61. Arnot, Robin P., South Wales Miners: Vol. 1: 1898–1914 (London, 1967), 273Google Scholar.

62. Cannon, The IWW, 31.

63. Dubofsky, Melvyn, Industrialism and the American Worker 1865–1920 (New York, 1975), 102Google Scholar.

64. MacDonald, Ramsay, Syndicalism: A Critical Examination (London, 1912)Google Scholar; Snowden, Philip, Socialism and Syndicalism (London, 1913)Google Scholar; Webb, Sidney and Webb, Beatrice, What Syndicalism Means: An Examination of the Origin and Motives of the Movement with an Analysis of its Proposals for the Control of Industry (London, 1912)Google Scholar.

65. Price, Robert, “Contextualising British Syndicalism c. 1907–c. 1920,” Labour History Review 63 (1998): 261–76CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

66. Lovell, John, Stevedores and Dockers (London, 1969), 156CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

67. Holton, British Syndicalism, 209–10; Holton, Bob, “Syndicalist Theories of the State,” Sociological Review 28 (1980), 7CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

68. Holton, British Syndicalism, 118–19, 209–10.

69. Montgomery, David, “The ‘New Unionism’ and the Transformation of Workers' Consciousness in America 1909–1922,” Journal of Social History 7 (1974): 509–29CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Workers' Control in America (Cambridge, 1979), 99–108Google ScholarPubMed; “What More to Be Done?” Labor History 40 (1999), 361Google Scholar.

70. Montgomery, Workers' Control in America, 91.

71. Kimeldorf, Howard, Battling For American Labor: Wobblies, Craft Workers, and the Making of the Union Movement (Berkeley, 1999)Google Scholar.

72. Peterson, “The One Big Union,” 66.

73. Estey, James, Revolutionary Syndicalism: An Exposition and a Criticism (London, 1913), 207Google Scholar.

74. Thorpe, Wayne, “The Workers Themselves”: Revolutionary Syndicalism and International Labour, 1913–1923 (Dordrecht, 1989)Google Scholar.