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VIOLENCE AND THE LABOR MOVEMENT
coin was elected, they would have received a compensation
for their slaves. Their resistance led to the abolition
of slavery without . .
compensation ." (15) The
congress, after debating the question at length, contented
itself with voting the general proposition that "society
has the right to abolish private property in land and to
make land the property of the community." (16)
The last important question considered by the congress
was that dealing with trade unions. The debate aroused
little interest, although Liebknecht opened the discussion.
He pointed out the great extension of trade-union
organization in England, Germany, and America, and he
tried to impress upon the congress the necessity for vastly
extending this form of solidarity. And, indeed, it seems
to have been generally admitted that trade-union organization
was necessary. No practical proposals were, however,
made for actually developing such organizations.
The interesting part of the discussion came upon the
function of trade unionism in future society. The socialists
were little concerned as to what might happen to
the trade unions in future society, but Professor Hins
outlined at that congress the program of the modern syndicalists.
It is, therefore, especially interesting to read
what Professor Hins said as early as 1869: "Societies de
resistance (trade unions) will subsist after the suppression
of wages, not in name, but in deed. They will then
be the organization of labor,
. . .
operating a vast
distribution of labor from one end of the world to the
other. They will replace the ancient political systems :
in place of a confused and heterogeneous representation,
there will be the representation of labor.
"They will be at the same time agents
of decentralization,
for the centers will differ according
to the industries
which will form, in some manner, each one a sep-