Syndicalism in France: A Study of Ideas

This is an examination of syndicalist ideas in France from their origin in the 19th century until the 1960s. It concentrates its attention upon two groups of people: the militants who created and led the syndicalist movement at its height (especially Fernand Pelloutier, Victor Griffuelhes and Emile Pouget), and the intellectuals who in the first decade of the 20th century outlined a distinct syndicalist ideology (Georges Sorel, Edoaurd Berth and Hubert Lagardelle). In addition, it analyzes the ideas of reformist syndicalism, tracing their source to the positivism of Auguste Comte, and follows the career of Pierre Monatte, friend of Trostky and Alfred Rosmer, syndicalist activist for over 60 years, and founder of "La Vie ouvriere" and "La Revolution Proletarienne". Above all, this work shows that there is more to syndicalism than the doctrines of class war and direct action. Syndicalists, in markedly different ways, were to respond to the approaches of the extreme Right, the outbreak of World War I, the Russian Revolution, the rise of Stalinism and fascism, and the Cold War.