The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1912-12-27
THE GENERAL STRIKE AS IT
IS VIEWED BY EUROPEANS


word revolution" as do the workers
J of many other countries. The tern
t means something to them. And thu
/, advocates of the General Strike al
say. What more simple than to xii
2 the old society by the inertia of the
], working class, and, upon the scraI
| heap of capitalism, shall rise the
: Communist Society in which well
being and liberty shall be assured tc
. every human being"
/ BRAND, late prime minister oi
} France and formerly one of the great
, orators of the General Strike, de
, clared, 81 believe firmly that the Gen.
eral Strike will be the revolution u
!, And he added that if it should be-
come a duty, he would take a place
in the ranks of the workers who
would go to battle, armed with pixies,
swords, revolvers and rifles. He con
sidered the General Strike as more
seductive and efficacious than the
old methods of the revolutionists.
ALREADY" writes Pierrot in Syn
dicalism and Revolution "The
revolutionary propaganda, in educa-
ting the individual workers, renders
strikes more and more numerous and
more and more violent. The strikers
! struggle no more only for increase
of salary, they attack at the same time
the authority of the boss. The de-
mands of the workers become more
, and more audacious. In the midst of
a moral crisis, as, for instance, be-
) fore some ferocious repression, they
can create unanimous strike.
"If there exists at the same time a
general economic crisis, the spon
taneous demonstration many under
! the impulse of a fearless minority
: change itself into a revolutionary
conflagration, breaking forth every
5 where at the same time, not by reason
of orders from above, but as a result
r of the common impulse and the con
; tagion example"
, Girault, the French anarchist, in
his pamphlet, "The General Strike,
, sees that it must terminate in violence
and declares that in order that the
; General Strike should succeed, il
4, would be necessary that the miners
should set fire to the mines, that the
7 workers should blow up, by means OF
a few sticks of dynamite, the rails, the
tunnels, the bridges, the viaducts that
the mechanics or the stikers should
throw soap in the water which serves
5 to feed the machines; that the
strikers should take the provisions
; where they are accumulated; that
they should prevent the officers from
| repairing to the troops by arrestins
5 and disarming them on first getting
2 up; that all the powder magazines
5 should blow up, that the arsenals
r should be robbed. and that the prole-
: tarans should seize the cannon. guns,
5 bayonets and cartridges.
2 Griffuelhes, the former secretary of
the French Federation of Labor, says:
= place the country in the rigor of death
2 would necessarily be of short dura
2 ton; it's terrible and incalculable con
: sequences would force the government
2 to capitulate at once. If it refused
E the proletariat, in revolt from one end
4 of France to the other, would be able
g to compel it, for the military forces
: scattered and isolated over the whole
:, territory, would be unable to act in
S concert and could not oppose the
S slightest resistance to the will of the
. workers, at last masters of the situa
ton" O'Action Syndicalist, p. S3)
e 1t is very clear that these defini
4 tions of the general strike consider II
n to be the final and supreme stand OF
labor against it's exploiters. 1t is GER
S tainly not considered or advocated as a
+ tool to remedy every little immediate
grievance of the working class. AS il
e would be folly to create cannon in or
!, der to kill gnats, so would it be folly
t to organize a general strike to remedy
S some individual or minor grievance
+ Not only because it might fail if SC
used, but also because it would be a
= procedure far too costly to the work
4 ing class.
/ The French are therefore perfectly
t right in considering this weapon as
{ perhaps the most formidable possessed
/ by the working class. 1t is the revo
S luton, and the class that determines
j. to have that matter out once and fol
0 all must be fully prepared to carry il
through to the very end 1t is the
final showdown between the power oi
n the capitalists and the power of the
Y workers. 1t cannot be, as the French
admit, merely peaceful abstentior
! from work. 1t must be resort to
e force by a nearly unanimous working
e class.