Untitled

THE NEWEST ANARCHISM
239
and destroyed. There is no form of mediation or conciliation
possible between the worker and his employer.
Conditions must, therefore, be made intolerable for the
capitalist. Work must be done badly. Machines must
be destroyed. Industrial processes must be subjected to
chaos. Every worker must be inspired with the one end
and aim of destruction. Without the cooperation of the
worker, capitalist production must break down. Therefore,
the revolutionary syndicalist will fight, if possible,
openly through his union, or, if that is impossible, by
stealth, as an individual, to ruin his employer. The world
of to-day
is to be turned into incessant civil war between
capital and labor. Not only the two classes, but the individuals
of the two classes, must be constantly engaged
in a deadly conflict. There is to be no truce until the
fight is ended. The loyal workman is to be considered a
traitor. The union that makes contracts or participates
is to be ostracized. And even
in collective bargaining
those who are disinclined to battle will be forced into
the ranks by compulsion.
"Those who continue to work
will be compelled to quit," says Guerard. The strike is
not to be merely a peaceable abstention from work. The
very machines are to be made to strike by being rendered
incapable of production. These are the methods
of the militant revolutionary syndicalists.*
Toward the end of the nineties another element came
to the aid of the anarchists. It is difficult to class this
group with any certainty.
They
are neither socialists nor
* In justice to the French unions it must be said that a large
number, probably a considerable majority, do not share these
views. The views of the latter are almost identical with those
of the American and English unions ;
but at present the new
anarchists are in the saddle, although their power appears to be
waning.