National syndicalism is an adaptation of syndicalism within the broader agenda of integral nationalism that developed during the French Third Republic and spread to other romance regions such as Italy and the Iberian Peninsula. National syndicalism advocates for militant trade unionism to combat the corrupting influence of party politics.
This approach to syndicalism is based on the work of Georges Sorel and further iteration by Charles Maurras and Action Française, leading up to the founding of the Cercle Proudhon, a nationalist and syndicalist party, in France in 1911. Under Benito Mussolini and Francisco Franco, both nationalist projects explicitly used the model developed in France for their fascist movements.
Background Georges Sorel Georges Sorel is sometimes described as the father of revolutionary syndicalism. Spencer M. Di Scala, Emilio Gentile, edits., Mussolini 1883-1915: Triumph and Transformation of a Revolutionary Socialist, New York, NY, Palgrave Macmillan, 2016, Chap. 5, Marco Gervasoni, "Mussolini and Revolutionary Syndicalism," p. 131James Ramsay McDonald, Syndicalism: A Critical Examination, London, UK, Constable & Co. Ltd., 1912, p. 7 He supported militant trade unionism to combat the corrupting influences of parliamentary parties and politics, even if the legislators were distinctly socialist. As a French Marxist who supported Lenin, Bolshevism and Mussolini concurrently in the early 1920s, "For Lenin," Soviet Russia, Official Organ of The Russian Soviet Government Bureau, Vol. II, New York: NY, January-June 1920 (April 10, 1920), p. 356 Jacob L. Talmon, The Myth of the Nation and the Vision of Revolution: The Origins of Ideological Polarization in the 20th Century, University of California Press (1981) p. 451. Sorel's March 1921 conversations with Jean Variot, published in Variot's Propos de Georges Sorel, (1935) Paris, pp. 53-57, 66-86 passim Sorel promoted the cause of the proletariat in class struggle, and the "catastrophic polarization" that would arise through social myth-making of general strikes.Zeev Sternhell, Mario Sznajder, Maia Ashéri, The Birth of Fascist Ideology: From Cultural Rebellion to Political Revolution, Princeton, New Jersey, USA: Princeton University Press, 1994, p. 76 The intention of syndicalism was to organize strikes to abolish capitalism; not to supplant it with State socialism, but rather to build a society of worker-class producers. This Sorel regarded as "truly true" Marxism. Georges Sorel, Reflections on Violence, edited and intro by Jeremy Jennings, Cambridge Texts of the History of Political Thought, Cambridge University Press, 1999, p. ix
Georges Sorel developed his thought based on Henri Bergson's irrationalist philosophy and his conception of "social myths". According to him, parties, parliamentary democracy and state are all abstractions that rest on centralism. He argued that these abstractions are "enslaving" humanity, while only direct action and individualism are close to "immediacy of life". He considered every direct action to be based on "mythical image", which serves as a motive force that pushes the group's energy forward and gives it the "strength for martyrdom" for the action. The myth is "identical with the convictions of a group, being the expression of these convictions in the language of movement". Sorel argued that, upon engaging in the direct action for the liberatory purposes, the agent of the action has no experience of this liberation before action, therefore it is an epistemological obscurity for it since it is the "event from the future". For this purpose, the direct action can be only driven by "myth", "a memory from the future". Therefore, the myth is a "representation of the unrepresentable" and allows intelligibility with the future liberation, and thus direct action must be based on myth. The action itself brings the "framing of the future, in some indeterminate time". Sorel saw decentralized trade unions and their means of struggle, general strikes, as expressing direct action. For Sorel, the "myth of general strike" served as a "true impulse of an intensive life". Sorel thought that only proletariat possessed the militant energy needed for direct, revolutionary action to revitalize the degenerate and sick soul of Europe. The self-realization of proletariat with liberatory action is accompanied by the conflict, and therefore, violence, because it juxtapositions old order with the new – social refoundation involves destruction of old and the creation of new. The general strike expresses direct action for Sorel, because, it possess this structural, epoch-making character – it gives its agents focus and direction for radical transformation, it totally destroys the structural and institutional status quo. The form of general strike is actually non-violent, but the transformation it brings entails the "phenomenal violence" of "life against life". According to Sorel, the general strike would be very general and extending to whole country, therefore paralyzing system by making the repression impossible. The general strike would lead to "a release of the individualistic forces within the rebelling mass".
But later on, along with class struggle, Sorel elaborated on nationalism or "national myth" as another "myth" inspiring direct action. He saw the myth of "great nation to be created" and the "national enemy" as inprising mythical image, as well as syndicalist myth of fight against the bourgeois order and the class enemy.
From 1900 onward, Charles Maurras had presented that "a pure socialist system would be devoid of any element of democratism", one that questioned neither private property nor a liberal economy, but only liberal democracy and its philosophical foundations."a socialism liberated from the democratic and cosmopolitan element fits nationalism as a well-made glove fits a beautiful hand" (italics in original). Published in L'Action française, page 863, 15 November 1900. Quoted in
For a detailed study of this quote, see:
In 1909, the integral nationalists Action Française began to work with Sorel. The connection was formed after Sorel read the second edition of Maurras' book, Enquête sur la monarchie. Maurras favorably mentioned Sorel and revolutionary syndicalism in the book, and even sent a copy of the new edition to Sorel. Sorel read the book, and in April 1909 wrote a praising letter to Maurras. Three months later, on 10 July, Sorel published in Il Divenire sociale (the leading journal of Italian revolutionary syndicalism) an essay admiring Maurras and Action Française. Sorel based his support on his anti-democratic thought. For example, he claimed that Action Française was the only force capable to fight against democracy."A vigorous protest had to be made against this spirit of decadence: no other group except Action française was able to fulfill a role requiring both literacy and faith. The friends of Maurras form an audacious avant-garde engaged in a fight to the finish against the boors who have corrupted everything they have touched in our country. The merit of these young people will appear great in history, for we may hope that due to them the reign of stupidity will come to an end some day near at hand". Originally published in
Quoted in Action Française reprinted the essay in its newspaper on 22 August, titled "Anti-parliamentary Socialists".
Cercle Proudhon
During the preparations for launching La Cité française, Sorel encouraged Berth and Valois to work together. In March 1911, Henri Lagrange (a member of Action Française) suggested to Valois that they found an economic and social study group for nationalists. Valois persuaded Lagrange to open the group to non-nationalists who were anti-democratic and syndicalists. Valois wrote later that the aim of the group was to provide "a common platform for nationalists and leftist anti-democrats".Quoted in
The new political group, called Cercle Proudhon, was founded on 16 December 1911. It included Berth, Valois, Lagrange, the syndicalist Albert Vincent and the royalists Gilbert Maire, René de Marans, André Pascalon, and Marius Riquier.
Italy
In the early 20th century, nationalists and syndicalists were increasingly influencing each other in Italy.Zeev Sternhell, Mario Sznajder, Maia Ashéri, The Birth of Fascist Ideology: From Cultural Rebellion to Political Revolution, Princeton University Press, 1994, p. 161 From 1902 to 1910, a number of Italian revolutionary syndicalists including Arturo Labriola, Agostino Lanzillo, Angelo Oliviero Olivetti, Alceste De Ambris, Filippo Corridoni and Sergio Panunzio sought to unify the Italian nationalist cause with the syndicalist cause and had entered into contact with Italian nationalist figures such as Enrico Corradini.Zeev Sternhell, Mario Sznajder, Maia Ashéri. The Birth of Fascist Ideology: From Cultural Rebellion to Political Revolution, Princeton University Press, 1994. pp. 31-32 These Italian national syndicalists held a common set of principles: the rejection of bourgeois values, democracy, liberalism, Marxism, internationalism, and pacifism while promoting heroism, vitalism, and violence.Zeev Sternhell, Mario Sznajder, Maia Ashéri. The Birth of Fascist Ideology: From Cultural Rebellion to Political Revolution, Princeton University Press, 1994, p. 32 Not all Italian revolutionary syndicalists joined the Fascist cause, but most syndicalist leaders eventually embraced nationalism and "were among the founders of the Fascist movement," where "many even held key posts" in Mussolini's regime.Zeev Sternhell, Mario Sznajder, Maia Ashéri. The Birth of Fascist Ideology: From Cultural Rebellion to Political Revolution, Princeton University Press, 1994, p. 33 Benito Mussolini declared in 1909 that he had converted over to revolutionary syndicalism by 1904 during a general strike.
Enrico Corradini promoted a form of national syndicalism that utilized Maurassian nationalism alongside the syndicalism of Georges Sorel.Zeev Sternhell, Mario Sznajder, Maia Ashéri. The Birth of Fascist Ideology: From Cultural Rebellion to Political Revolution, Princeton University Press, 1994, p. 163 Corradini spoke of the need for a national syndicalist movement that would be able to solve Italy's problems, led by elitist aristocrats and anti-democrats who shared a revolutionary syndicalist commitment to direct action through a willingness to fight. Corradini spoke of Italy as being a "proletarian nation" that needed to pursue imperialism in order to challenge the "plutocratic" nations of France and the United Kingdom.Martin Blinkhorn. Mussolini and fascist Italy. Second edition. New York, New York, USA: Routledge, 2003 Pp. 9. Corradini's views were part of a wider set of perceptions within the right-wing Italian Nationalist Association (ANI) that claimed that Italy's economic backwardness was caused by corruption within its political class, liberalism, and division caused by "ignoble socialism". The ANI held ties and influence amongst conservatives, Catholics, and the business community.