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anarchism: a beginner’s guide
building up of resistance’. 25 Anarcho-syndicalists like Ferdinand
Pelloutier and Rudolf Rocker took Bakunin’s idea to elaborate a
full-blown revolutionary strategy.
The role of syndicates is to defend the interests of producers
within capitalism in a manner that challenges reformism. Workers
are encouraged to develop a sense of unity and are equipped with the
technical skills and economic knowledge necessary for them to take
direct control of production in the event of revolution. The principle
of syndicalist struggle is direct action. Direct action is sometimes
understood to mean purely industrial action without the
intermediary of trade union officials. However, Rocker offered a
tighter definition. In accordance with the principle of emancipation,
direct action described action taken through ‘the instruments of
economic power which the working class has at its command’. But it
also described actions that were designed to provoke a response
from the state. 26
Syndicalists employ a number of tactics to further their aims,
notably sabotage, boycott and occupation. In addition, they use
slowdowns, the work-to-rule, the sitdown or ‘quicky strike’ and the
sick-in (in which workers spontaneously develop illnesses which
prevent them from working). Max Nettlau argued that one of the
most effective weapons of syndicalist action is the good work strike,
where workers shoulder responsibility for their labour and refuse to
undertake work which compromises its quality. On such an action,
builders might ‘resolve that no unionist may touch slums – helping
neither to erect nor to repair them’. Nettlau believed that this kind of
action was truly revolutionary: if London builders decided to refuse
work on slums ‘by one stroke the question not only of housing but
also of landlordism would come to the front. The cry of the public in
reply would be No Rent! And the shop assistants might help by
coming out, refusing to handle further the abominable food which
they now sell’. 27
Critics of anarcho-syndicalism – from Malatesta to Bookchin
and Bonanno – argue that labour organizations are more likely to
protect or improve the position of their members in the existing
system than they are to work for revolutionary change. This should
not prevent anarchists from taking part in labour movement
struggles, but should alert them to the fact that syndicates cannot be
regarded as anarchist organizations. They also argue that syndicalist
structures tend to ossify, undermining the ability of grass-roots
members to take initiatives and encouraging syndicalist leaders to