Between Bakunin and Lenin

Revolutionary syndicalism emerged as a powerful trade union movement in Europe and the Americas in the years leading up to the First World War. Connected to new trade union movements such as the Italian Syndicalist Union (USI), the American Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), and, most importantly, the French General Confederation of Labour (CGT), syndicalism preconized direct action, federalism, autonomy, and workers’ unity. It singled out the trade unions as the building blocks of the classless, stateless society of the future and rejected political parties. Anti-capitalist theoreticians such as Hubert Lagardelle, Ferdinand Pelloutier, Émile Pouget, Christiaan Cornelissen, and, indeed, Georges Sorel, helped develop this new doctrine. They drew their cues from previous revolutionary traditions such as anarchism and Marxism. 1