Graham R (Ed.) - Anarchism - A Documentary History of Libertarian Ideas Volume One - From Anarchy to Anarchism (300 CE to 1939)

Anarcho-Syndicalism / 193
Fourth:-Organization of education on a secular, scientific and equal basis for
both sexes.
Fifth:-Equal rights for all without distinction of sex or race.
Sixth:-Regulation of all public affairs by free contracts between the autonomous
(independent) communes and associations, resting on a federalistic basis.
Whoever agrees with this ideal let him grasp our outstretched brother hands!
Proletarians of all countries, unite!
Fellow-workmen, all we need for the achievement of this great end is
ORGANIZATION and UNITY!
There exists now no great obstacle to that unity. The work of peaceful education
and revolutionary conspiracy well can and ought to run in parallel lines.
The day has come for solidarity. Join our ranks! Let the drum beat defiantly the
roll of battle: "Workmen of all countries unite! You have nothing to lose but your
chains; you have a world to win!"
Tremble, oppressors of the world! Not far beyond your purblind sight there
dawns the scarlet and sable lights of the JUDGMENT DAY!
56. Fernand Pelloutier: Anarchism and the Workers' Unions (1895)
Anarchists had been active in the trade union movement since at least the time of the First International.
However, by the 1890's some anarchists had come to regard trade unions as essentially
reformist organizations. Fernand Pelloutier (1867-1901) was a French anarchist who
argued against such views, sensing a renewed militancy among the workers as they became disillusioned
with tile political madlinations of the various socialist parties. He urged his anarchist
comrades to get involved in the trade unions, as he had done, becoming secretary of the
Federation of Bourses du Travail in 1895, helping to lay the basis fo r the revolLltionary
syndicalist organization, the Confederation Generale du Travail (eGT). This article originally
appeared inJean Grave's Les Temps nouveaux in 1895. The translation is by Paul Sharkey. It
is reprintedfrom his translation of Daniel Guerin's anthology of anarchist writings, No Gods,
No Masters (San Francisco: AK Press, 1998), with the kind permission of the publisher.
THE NEW WATCHWORD "NO MORE POLITICKING!" had spread through the workshops.
A number of union members deserted the churches devoted to the cult of
electioneering. So the trade union terrain seemed to some anarchists ripe to receive
and nurture their doctrine, and came to the aid of those who, freed at last of parliamentary
tutelage, now strove to focus their attention and that of their comrades
upon the study of economic laws.