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This is a list of notable syndicalists , grouped by nationality.
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This is a list of notable syndicalists , grouped by nationality.
Syndicalism is a revolutionary current within the labour movement that, through industrial unionism, seeks to unionize workers according to industry and advance their demands through strikes and other forms of direct action, with the eventual goal of gaining control over the means of production and the economy at large through social ownership.
Anarcho-syndicalism is an anarchist organisational model that centres trade unions as a vehicle for class conflict. Drawing from the theory of libertarian socialism and the practice of syndicalism, anarcho-syndicalism sees trade unions as both a means to achieve immediate improvements to working conditions and to build towards a social revolution in the form of a general strike, with the ultimate aim of abolishing the state and capitalism. Anarcho-syndicalists consider trade unions to be the prefiguration of a post-capitalist society and seek to use them in order to establish workers' control of production and distribution. An anti-political ideology, anarcho-syndicalism rejects political parties and participation in parliamentary politics, considering them to be a corrupting influence on the labour movement. In order to achieve their material and economic goals, anarcho-syndicalists instead practice direct action in the form of strike actions, boycotts and sabotage. Anarcho-syndicalists also attempt to build solidarity among the working class, in order to unite workers against the exploitation of labour and build workers' self-management.
CNT may refer to:
The National Confederation of Labour is a French trade union centre. Established in 1946 as an anarcho-syndicalist alternative to the main trade union centre, the General Confederation of Labour (CGT), it brought together tens of thousands of workers around the country. After the establishment of another trade union centre, Workers' Force (FO), it sought to collaborate with other autonomous trade unions, with the intention of forming a larger confederation. Over time, many of its members began to withdraw from the organisation and join the FO, which caused division between the CNT and its erstwhile allies. Its political sectarianism during this period provoked most of its members to leave the organisation, either joining the FO or other autonomous unions. By the 1970s, the CNT's membership had declined to less than 100 members and other anarcho-syndicalist initiatives attracted focus from rank-and-file trade union members.
Fernand Léonce Émile Pelloutier (1867–1901) was a French journalist, trade union organiser and anarcho-syndicalist theoretician. A revolutionary from an early age, after beginning a career in journalism, Pelloutier became involved in socialist politics. He briefly joined the French Workers' Party, but following a disagreement with its leader over his proposal for a general strike, he left the party and joined the anarchist movement. He became the leader of the Bourses du Travail, in which he advocated for anarcho-syndicalism. Having suffered from tuberculosis luposa for most of his career, he eventually succombed to the disease, and died in 1901 at the age of 33.
The Revolutionary Syndicalist General Confederation of Labour was a French national trade union centre. It emerged out of the libertarian faction of the Unitary General Confederation of Labour (CGTU) and split away after it came under the control of the French Communist Party (PCF). The CGT-SR was established in 1926, largely on the basis of artisanal unions in southern France, and became the country's third and smallest trade union confederation. Its driving ideology was revolutionary syndicalism, which rejected political parties and upheld decentralisation as an organisational model.
The Italian Syndicalist Union is an Italian anarcho-syndicalist trade union. Established in 1912 by a confederation of "houses of labour", the USI led a series of general strikes throughout its early years, culminating with the Red Week insurrection against the Italian entry into World War I. During the Biennio Rosso, the USI was at the forefront of the occupation of factories, which saw hundreds of workplaces throughout the country brought under the control of workers' councils. The USI also led the establishment of the International Workers' Association (IWA), which became the main international organisation of anarcho-syndicalist trade unions.
The Bourse du Travail, a French form of the labour council, were working class organizations that encouraged mutual aid, education, and self-organization amongst their members in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Samuel Mainwaring was a Welsh machinist and socialist political activist who was a founding member and key leader of the Socialist League, one of the first socialist political parties in Britain. In his later years, he turned from Marxist socialism to the libertarian socialist doctrine of anarcho-communism. He is best remembered as the father of the term "anarcho-syndicalism".
The Norwegian Syndicalist Federation is an anarcho-syndicalist group in Norway. Established in the 1910s, the NSF worked within existing Norwegian trade unions in order to radicalise them towards revolutionary syndicalism. It was a founding member of the International Workers' Association (IWA) and historically maintained close connections with the Central Organisation of Swedish Workers (SAC). The NSF was politically repressed during the German occupation of Norway and, in the wake of World War II, experienced a dramatic decline. In the 1970s, the organisation was reconstituted as a propaganda group and continued its activities into the 21st century, with a much smaller membership.
The First International Syndicalist Congress was a meeting of European and Latin American syndicalist organizations at Holborn Town Hall in London from 27 September to 2 October 1913. Upon a proposal by the Dutch National Labour Secretariat (NAS) and the British Industrial Syndicalist Education League (ISEL), most European syndicalist groups, both trade unions and advocacy groups, agreed to congregate at a meeting in London. The only exception was the biggest syndicalist organization worldwide, the French General Confederation of Labour (CGT). Nevertheless, the congress was held with organizations from twelve countries participating. It was marked by heated debate and constant disagreements over both tactics and principles. Yet, it succeeded in creating the International Syndicalist Information Bureau as a vehicle of exchange and solidarity between the various organizations and the Bulletin international du mouvement syndicaliste as a means of communication. It would be viewed as a success by almost all who participated.
The Confédération générale du travail unitaire, or CGTU, was a trade union confederation in France that at first included anarcho-syndicalists and soon became aligned with the French Communist Party. It was founded in 1922 as a confederation of radical unions that had left the socialist-dominated General Confederation of Labour (CGT), and in 1936 merged back into the CGT.
Émile Pouget was a French journalist, anarchist pamphleteer and trade unionist, known for his pivotal role in the development of revolutionary syndicalism in France. His iconic newspaper, Le Père Peinard, stood out from previous anarchist publications with its inventive use of vernacular and urban slang. Notably, Pouget introduced the term "sabotage" as a tactical approach, a concept later adopted by the General Confederation of Labour (CGT) at its Toulouse Congress in 1897. Pouget's combination of anarchist political theory and revolutionary syndicalist tactics has led several authors to identify him as an early anarcho-syndicalist.
Pierre Besnard was a French anarcho-syndicalist. He was the co-founder and leader of the Confédération Générale du Travail-Syndicaliste Révolutionnaire (CGT-SR) and its successor the Confédération Nationale du Travail (CNT), and the principal theoretician of anarcho-syndicalism in France during the early 20th century.
National syndicalism is a far-right adaptation of syndicalism within the broader agenda of integral nationalism. National syndicalism developed in France in the early 20th century, and then spread to Italy, Spain, and Portugal.
Émile Janvion was a French teacher, an anarcho-syndicalist leader, a founder of the Confédération générale du travail (CGT) and a leader of the anti-militarist movement. He came to hold national syndicalist views, which will later into a form of fascism. He was anti-Semitic, anti-masonic, anti-republican and sympathetic towards monarchism. He also had an agenda that included nationalization of the land and of the means of production.
Paul Delesalle was a French anarchist and syndicalist who was prominent in the trade union movement. He started work as a machinist, became a journalist, and later became a bookseller, publisher and writer.
Anarchism in Portugal first appeared in the form of organized groups in the mid-1880s. It was present from the first steps of the workers' movement, revolutionary unionism and anarcho-syndicalism had a lasting influence on the General Confederation of Labour, founded in 1919.
The history of anarcho-syndicalism dates back to the anti-authoritarian faction of the International Workingmen's Association. Revolutionary syndicalism as a tendency was constituted in the 1890s by the French General Confederation of Labour (CGT), which became a model union for other syndicalist organisations to base themselves on. Anarchists were involved in the syndicalist movement from the outset and a specific anarchist tendency developed within the movement over the subsequent decades.
Jules Désiré Colombe was a french blacksmith worker, known as leader of the labour exchange's creation in Nantes in 1892 and part of Limoges congress in 1895. A street and a cultural building hold his name in Nantes.
