National syndicalism

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National syndicalism is a nationalist variant of syndicalism.

Contents

Founding of national syndicalism in France

National syndicalism was founded in France by the fusion of Maurrassian integral nationalism with Sorelian syndicalism. Interest in Sorelian thought arose in the French political right, particularly by French nationalist Charles Maurras of Action Française and his supporters.[1] While Maurras was a staunch opponent of Marxism, he was supportive of Sorelianism for its opposition to liberal democracy.[2] Maurras famously stated "a socialism liberated from the democratic and cosmopolitan element fits nationalism well as a well made glove fits a beautiful hand".[3] In the summer of 1909, Georges Sorel endorsed French integral nationalism and praised Maurras.[4] Sorel was impressed by the significant numbers of "ardent youth" that enrolled in Action Française.[5] Sorel's turn to nationalism resulted in his disregarding of Marx and adopting support of the views of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon.[6]

In 1911, on the issue of Sorelian syndicalism, Georges Valois announced to the Fourth Congress of Action Française that "It was not a mere accident that our friends encountered the militants of syndicalism. The nationalist movement and the syndicalist movement, alien to another though they may seem, because of their present positions and orientations, have more than one common objective."[7]

Sorel joined Valois in founding the Cercle Proudhon in 1911, an organization that Valois declared to provide "a common platform for nationalists and leftist antidemocrats".[8] The organization recognized Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and Sorel as two great thinkers who had "prepared the meeting of the two French traditions that had opposed each other throughout the nineteenth century: nationalism and authentic socialism uncorrupted by democracy, represented by syndicalism".[9] Cercle Proudhon announced that it supported the replacement of bourgeois ideology and democratic socialism with a new ethic of an alliance of nationalism with syndicalism, as those "two synthesizing and convergent movements, one at the extreme right and the other at the extreme left, that have begun the siege and assault on democracy".[10] Cercle Proudhon supported the replacement of the liberal order with a new world that was "virile, heroic, pessimistic, and puritanical—based on the sense of duty and sacrifice: a world where the mentality of warriors and monks would prevail".[11] The society would be dominated by a powerful avant-garde proletarian elite that would serve as an aristocracy of producers, and allied with intellectual youth dedicated to action against the decadent bourgeoisie.[12]

Italian national syndicalism

In the early 20th century, nationalists and syndicalists were increasingly influencing each other in Italy.[13] From 1902 to 1910, a number of Italian revolutionary syndicalists including Arturo Labriola, Agostino Lanzillo, Angelo Oliviero Olivetti, 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.[14] 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.[15] Many of these national syndicalist proponents would go on to become Fascists.[16]

Enrico Corradini promoted a form of national syndicalism that utilized Maurassian nationalism alongside the syndicalism of Georges Sorel.[17] 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.[17] 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.[18] 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".[18] The ANI held ties and influence amongst conservatives, Catholics, and the business community.[18]

With the outbreak of World War I, Sergio Panunzio noted the national solidarity within France and Germany that suddenly arose in response to the war and claimed that should Italy enter the war, the Italian nation would become united and would emerge from the war as a new nation in a "Fascio nazionale" (national union) that would be led by an aristocracy of warrior-producers that would unite Italians of all classes, factions, and regions into a disciplined socialism.[19]

In November 1918, Mussolini defined national syndicalism as a doctrine that would unite economic classes into a program of national development and growth.[20]

Iberian context

National syndicalism in the Iberian Peninsula is a political theory very different from the fascist idea of corporatism, inspired by Integralism and the Action Française (for a French parallel, see Cercle Proudhon). It was formulated in Spain by Ramiro Ledesma Ramos in a manifesto published in his periodical La Conquista del Estado on March 14, 1931.

National syndicalism was intended to win over the anarcho-syndicalist Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) to a corporatist nationalism. Ledesma's manifesto was discussed in the CNT congress of 1931. However, the National Syndicalist movement effectively emerged as a separate political tendency. Later the same year, Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional-Sindicalista was formed, and subsequently voluntarily fused with Falange Española. In 1936 Franco forced a further less voluntary merger with traditionalist Carlism, to create a single party on the Nationalist side of the Spanish Civil War. It was one of the ideological bases of Francoist Spain, especially in the early years.

The ideology was present in Portugal with the Movimento Nacional-Sindicalista (active in the early 1930s), its leader Francisco Rolão Preto being a collaborator of Falange ideologue José Antonio Primo de Rivera.

The Spanish version theory has influenced the Kataeb Party in Lebanon and various Falangist groups in Latin America.

The Unidad Falangista Montañesa maintains a trade union wing, called the Association of National-Syndicalist Workers

References

  1. ^ 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. Pp. 82.
  2. ^ 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. Pp. 82.
  3. ^ Douglas R. Holmes. Integral Europe: fast-capitalism, multiculturalism, neofascism. Princeton, New Jersey, USA: Princeton University Press, 2000. Pp. 60.
  4. ^ 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. Pp. 78.
  5. ^ 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. Pp. 80.
  6. ^ Robert Stuart. Marxism and National Identity: Socialism, Nationalism, and National Socialism during the French fin de siècle. Albany, New York, USA: State University of New York Press, 2006. Pp. 149.
  7. ^ 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. Pp. 82.
  8. ^ Zeev Sternhell. Neither right nor left: fascist ideology in France. 2nd edition. Princeton, New Jersey, USA: Princeton University Press, 1986. Pp. 11.
  9. ^ Zeev Sternhell. Neither right nor left: fascist ideology in France. 2nd edition. Princeton, New Jersey, USA: Princeton University Press, 1986. Pp. 11.
  10. ^ Zeev Sternhell. Neither right nor left: fascist ideology in France. 2nd edition. Princeton, New Jersey, USA: Princeton University Press, 1986. Pp. 11.
  11. ^ Zeev Sternhell. Neither right nor left: fascist ideology in France. 2nd edition. Princeton, New Jersey, USA: Princeton University Press, 1986. Pp. 11-12.
  12. ^ Zeev Sternhell. Neither right nor left: fascist ideology in France. 2nd edition. Princeton, New Jersey, USA: Princeton University Press, 1986. Pp. 12.
  13. ^ Zeev Sternhell, Mario Sznajder, Maia Ashéri. The birth of fascist ideology: from cultural rebellion to political revolution. Princeton University Press, 1994. Pp. 161.
  14. ^ Zeev Sternhell, Mario Sznajder, Maia Ashéri. The birth of fascist ideology: from cultural rebellion to political revolution. Princeton University Press, 1994. Pp. 31-32.
  15. ^ Zeev Sternhell, Mario Sznajder, Maia Ashéri. The birth of fascist ideology: from cultural rebellion to political revolution. Princeton University Press, 1994. Pp. 32.
  16. ^ Zeev Sternhell, Mario Sznajder, Maia Ashéri. The birth of fascist ideology: from cultural rebellion to political revolution. Princeton University Press, 1994. Pp. 33.
  17. ^ a b Zeev Sternhell, Mario Sznajder, Maia Ashéri. The birth of fascist ideology: from cultural rebellion to political revolution. Princeton University Press, 1994. Pp. 163.
  18. ^ a b c Martin Blinkhorn. Mussolini and fascist Italy. Second edition. New York, New York, USA: Routledge, 2003 Pp. 9.
  19. ^ Anthony James Gregor. Mussolini's intellectuals: fascist social and political thought. Princeton, New Jersey, USA: Princeton University Press, 2005. Pp. 78.
  20. ^ Anthony James Gregor. Mussolini's intellectuals: fascist social and political thought. Princeton, New Jersey, USA: Princeton University Press, 2005. Pp. 81.

See also

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