Libertarian Labor Review #14 Winter 1992-93, pages 31-33 Reviews Revolutionary Syndicalism: An International Perspective, edited by Marcel van der Linden and Wayne Thorpe. Scolar Press (Old Post Road, Brookfield VT 05036), 1990, $59.95 (hard-cover). The editors of this important volume have compiled 12 essays offering an overview of revolutionary syndicalism in Argentina, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Mexico, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United States. An opening essay by the editors offers an international perspective, noting that revolutionary syndicalism was--at least for a time--a strong (if minority) international movement which "incorporated more fully than any current within the organized workers' movement a vision of the revolutionary power and creative efficacy of self-reliant workers, an insistence on their right to collective self- management, and a faith in their capacity to administer their own affairs" (p. 1). While it took different forms, syndicalist movements appeared in the opening decades of this century virtually everywhere there was a working class. Syndicalists published daily newspapers in Argentina, Spain, Sweden and the United States (the latter in Finnish). For a short time revolutionary syndicalism appeared on the verge of overtaking all other radical currents. Several chapters acknowledge that the organizations and movements they discuss continue to exist to this day, a welcome change from the common academic sport of burying us back in 1918, 1920, 1925, 1939 (take your pick). However, the editors set out to chart "the rise and fall" of revolutionary syndicalism. A list of the 12 organizations or movements discussed in the book puts their "period of maximum influence" as over, in most cases, by 1920 (the SAC's is listed from 1924-34, the CNT's from 1936-37). A footnote explains that they have "usually used" the number of members to reach this conclusion--however, while they list the IWW as peaking in 1916-17 it reported its largest paid-up membership (on an annual basis) in 1924. Similarly, the contributors usually treat their subjects as national movements, even though revolutionary syndicalism was avowedly internationalist from its inception. Lennart Persson's chapter on the Central Organisation of Swedish Workers (SAC) acknowledges this, noting in particular the organization of SAC sections in Norway (which ultimately formed the Norwegian Syndicalist Federation in opposition to efforts by other syndicalists to bore from within the trade unions). And Wayne Thorpe offers a useful, if too brief, chapter on Syndicalist Internationalism before World War II. (Readers interested in more detail might turn to his book, The Workers Themselves: Revolutionary Syndicalist and International Labour, reviewed in LLR #10.) Thorpe stresses the "inherently international" nature of revolutionary syndicalism and the close personal and organizational relations between syndicalist movements around the world. Many chapters focus on the debate between "syndicalists" who favored working within the established trade unions to reorganize them on a revolutionary basis (boring from within), and those who argued that revolutionary syndicalists needed to build their own unions. Thorpe makes it clear that from the outset the IWA was committed to the latter approach: "Only through revolutionary unions, the natural locus of producers' power, could the workers hope ultimately to end economic exploitation and political oppression.... Workers' groups founded on syndicalist principles were therefore to be established at every economic level, from trade unions up through international industrial federations... At each level these organizations were to have a dual objective: the immediate one of improving conditions within the existing capitalist system, and the final one of destroying capitalism and taking possession and control of the means of production" (p. 245). The IWA, in 1925, called for the immediate formation of international federations of seamen, construction workers and metalworkers (industries in which their sections had particular strength; the IWW's Marine Transport Workers IU was for several years affiliated as well). Thorpe notes the intense repression visited on IWA sections, which included the destruction of its headquarters in 1933 by the Nazis. He discusses the conflicts within the International over how to respond to events in Spain, when IWA sections were torn between solidarity and criticism of the CNT's disastrous collaboration with the Spanish government. And while there is little discussion of the IWA from the 1940s on, Thorpe is clear that it continues to exist, if in weakened form. The authors address several issues that remain important to this day, ranging from the futility of labor partyism (once widely acknowledged, even outside syndicalist circles), to the degree to which a revolutionary movement can function within collective bargaining regimes hostile to its principles (which remains very much an issue for the IWW and the SAC, and which played a central role in the split in the post-Franco CNT), to the previously mentioned "boring from within" controversy. Several chapters make it clear that far from syndicalists imposing revolutionary, anti- parliamentary and anti-militarist views these positions had wide support. Indeed, syndicalist "leaders" often proved more prone to compromise than did the rank-and-file. When prominent Italian revolutionary syndicalists came out in favor of Italy's war against the Ottoman Empire they were quickly repudiated. "As the syndicalists and the anarchists denounced the war, support for the Committee for Direct Action increased dramatically" (p. 143), and the Italian Syndicalist Union was quickly established as an independent revolutionary union. The contributions are, of course, uneven in quality. Melvyn Dubofsky, for example, holds to his line that the IWW was "put out of business as a functioning syndicalist labor organization" by the end of 1918, though he at least acknowledges that the organization continued. But even the weakest essays include useful bibliographic information. And while it is far from comprehensive, many readers will be unfamiliar with several of the syndicalist movements discussed in Revolutionary Syndicalism's 260 pages. The price is, of course, a bit steep for us wage slaves, but if your library doesn't own a copy they could certainly obtain one through inter- library loan. The Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline of Leisure, by Juliet Schor. Basic Books, 1991. "We could now reproduce our 1948 standard of living... in less than half the time it took in 1948. We actually could have chosen the four-hour day..." So reads the jacket copy for Harvard economist Juliet Schor's important new book. Important not because it says anything anarcho-syndicalists have not been saying for the last five decades, but because it forces issues into the public spotlight that have been too long swept under the rug. Schor documents that American workers are putting in on average 163 hours more per year than we were 20 years ago as a result of women's increased participation in the paid workforce (men's hours increased by 98 hours a year, women's by 305), increased overtime, moonlighting (required by falling real wages over the same period), unpaid hours expected of salaried and "professional" workers and shorter vacations. This figure excludes commuting time, which increased by 23 hours per year over the last twelve years. While working hours have fallen from the monstrous 70-hour work weeks that prevailed in the mid 1800s, today we put in hundreds more hours each year than did workers in thirteenth century England. As Schor notes, capitalism has literally sentenced workers to "a life at hard labor." (Nor are long hours necessarily productive--Schor cites examples that have demonstrated that small cuts in hours actually increase productivity.) However, Schor accepts the common wisdom that we have traded off productivity increases for increased income (even though elsewhere acknowledging that wages have indeed been falling, when adjusted for inflation), suggesting that workers be allowed to choose between pay hikes and shorter hours. Surveys indicate that most workers would choose shorter hours; over a mere ten years such a trade-off would allow two-month vacations or a 6 1/2 hour day. But we have already earned those shorter hours by the uncompensated productivity increases of the past 25 years, even as our working hours (by Schor's data) have been increasing. Now its up to us to organize to take them back from the employers who have been robbing us of our wages, our dignity, and enormous (and growing) chunks of our lives for centuries. [JB] With Just Cause: Unionization of the American Journalist, by Walter Brasch. University Press of America (4720 Boston Way, Lanham MD 20706), 1991, 448 pages, $24.50 (paper). With Just Cause collects 44 articles addressing unionization in U.S. print and broadcast journalism. The preface indicates that the book was conceived as a corrective to the anti-union sentiments imparted in many journalism programs, and it might well prove a useful introduction to unionism for many media workers. However, as a survey of historical work in the area--let alone advancing in its own right our understanding of media unions--it falls seriously short. The book opens with a series of congratulatory articles (often by officers) about several trade unions in the field, then turning to the claim that federal labor law "protecting" collective bargaining is the bedrock of workers' rights (but including an excellent article on how non-union newspapers abuse their workers), even though the first newsworkers union predates these laws by nearly 150 years. The third section addresses historical roots, including an article by Brasch claiming (on scanty evidence) that William Randolph Hearst, among others, was a voice for labor--but also discussing the foreign-language and socialist press. Daniel Leab's book on The Newspaper Guild is excerpted to demonstrate the shabby pay and working conditions faced by reporters before they organized. It offers useful case studies of several labor disputes from the past three decades, and concludes with several articles on current issues facing media unions and media workers. In fairness, the book does sometimes point in more promising directions, as in an article by Upton Sinclair about Boston pressmen refusing to print an issue of Life magazine until an offensive cartoon was removed (p. 197) or in discussions of recent efforts by some unions to establish their own channels of communication. But the book is wholly uncritical of the disastrous effects of trade unionism in this and other industries, and largely ignores efforts to unite media workers into industrial unions that could exercise real power. [JB] Through Jaundiced Eyes: How the Media View Organized Labor, by William Puette. ILR Press (School of Industrial & Labor Relations, Cornell University, Ithaca NY 14853-3901), 1992, 228 pages, $. Labor studies professor William Puette argues that the labor movement has been unfairly depicted (when it is shown at all) in films, television news and drama, newspapers and cartoons. This general overview is supplemented with two case studies and a discussion of recent efforts by labor unions to document anti-labor bias and to improve their public image. Although no serious observer of the media could dispute Puette's claim that the media exhibit consistent, often virulent, anti-labor bias, his methodology is often questionable and his historical discussion shows little awareness of research in the field (for example, on efforts to make labor films and newsreels spanning the period from before WWI through the 1950s). Puette's methods are badly flawed, as when he argues that labor stories regularly run next to reports of criminal activity, thereby associating labor with crime in readers' minds. But in today's New York Times an ad for Texaco runs underneath two crime articles, while an article on New York's mayor runs beside. On another page, an article on the elections runs beside one on a rape trial, while a prison brawl is boxed into an article on Long Island's electric utility (next to one on the NY Daily News). This jumble is natural in newspaper design--the only way to isolate labor articles from such juxtapositions would be to bury them in the Sports pages or the stock market listings. (I couldn't find any articles about unions, though unions are mentioned briefly in an article on layoffs at TWA and a piece on worker's compensation.) Similarly, while some of his readings of cartoons are clearly on target, Puette sees anti-union bias in the strangest places--such as a Wizard of Id strip in which unionized soldiers stop the mayhem for a coffee break, or another in which jailed strikers demonstrate for better treatment. Puette's book is strongest when it discusses unions' efforts to improve their public image, although it is largely uncritical of the AFL-CIO and their efforts to reshape the labor movement as a responsible service agency within the broader corporate order. Symptomatic of this is his total disregard of rank-and-file efforts to counter this media bias by producing and distributing their own media images--on cable television, through independent labor newspapers, on computer networks and over the airwaves. [JB] The Anarchist Press Direkte Aktion is the monthly newspaper of the Freie Arbeiter und Arbeiterinnen Union (FAU--Free Workers' Union), German section of the International Workers Association (AIT). The most recent issue reports on government attacks including plans to eliminate sickness pay for the first three days of an illness, proposed tolls on motorways, higher rent for public housing, efforts to lengthen the work week, reducing the advance notice given to fired workers, etc. "The 'good years' for the people in Germany are over. The Welfare state is being taken to bits. The state wants to take hundreds of marks out of ordinary people's pockets. So it is high time to get in gear and show the ruling class what is what: for bad wages, bad work; instead of a few days sick without a doctor's certificate, a long certified sickness break paid for by the boss; more frequent stoppages and working to rule; and better organization." The paper also reports on labor struggles in Germany and around the world (including a report on the ongoing struggle by Texan Levi Strauss workers whose jobs were moved to Central America--the FAU has endorsed the international boycott against Levis), and interviews members of the British Direct Action Movement on their efforts to build industrial networks. Direkte Aktion also, as usual, reports on the growth of neo-Naziism and resistance to it, and criticizes links between the Green Party and the extreme right-wing ODP (Ecological Democratic Party).