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238 VIOLENCE AND THE LABOR MOVEMENT
railway workers were to take the railroads. Every trade
union was to obtain possession of the tools of its trade,
and the new society was to be organized on the basis
of a trade-union ownership of industry. In the villages,
towns, and cities the various trades were then to be organized
into a federation whose duty would be to administer
all matters of joint interest in their localities.
The local federations were then to be united into a General
Confederation, to whose administration were to be
The General Confederation was also to serve
left only those public services which were of national importance.
as an intermediary between the various trades and locals
and as an agency for representing the interests of all the
unions in
international relations.
This is in brief the meaning of syndicalism. It differs
from socialism in both aim and methods. The aim of
the latter is the control by the community of the means
of production. The aim of syndicalism
is the control
by autonomous trade unions of that production carried
on by those trades. It does not seek to refashion the
State or to aid in its evolution toward social democracy.
It will have nothing to do with political action or with
any attempt to improve the machinery of democracy.
The masses must arise, take possession of the mines,
factories, railroads, fields, and all industrial processes
and natural resources, and then, through trade unions or
industrial unions, administer the new economic system.
Furthermore, the syndicalists differ from the socialists
in their conception of the class struggle. To the socialist
the capitalist is as much the product of our economic
system as the worker. No socialist believes that the
capitalist is individually to blame for our economic ills.
The syndicalist dissents from this view. To him the
capitalist is an individual enemy. He must be fought