opportunity that was favourable to a movement of revolt, in order to stop some branch of industry for a few days. It has more than once been proposed that the Government should be brought to a standstill in this fashion by a stoppage in the working of the mines or of the railways.[1] For such tactics to produce the full effect desired, the strike must break out unexpectedly at the word of command of the party, and must stop when the latter has signed a compact with the Government. It is for these reasons that politicians are so very much in favour of the centralisation of the syndicates, and that they talk so much about discipline.[2] It is to be understood, of course, that this discipline is one which must subject the proletariat to their command. Associations which are very decentralised and grouped into Bourses du Travail would offer them far fewer guarantees of success; so that all those who are not in favour of a solid concentration of the proletariat round the party leaders are regarded by the latter as anarchists.
The political general strike has this immense advantage, that it does not greatly imperil the precious lives of the politicians; it is an improvement on the moral insurrection which the "Mountain" made use of in the month of May 1793, in order to force the Convention to expel the Girondists from its midst; Jaurès, who is afraid of alarming his clients, the financiers (just as the members
- ↑ In 1890 the National Congress at Lille of the Guesdist party passed a resolution by which it declared that the general strike of the miners was actually possible, and that a general strike of the miners by itself would bring about the results that are expected in vain from a stoppage of every trade.
- ↑ "There may be room in the party for individual initiative, but the arbitrary fancies of the individual must be put down. The safety of the party lies in its laws; we must steadfastly abide by them. It is the constitution freely chosen by ourselves which binds us together, and which will enable us to conquer together or to die." Thus spoke a learned exponent of Socialism at the National Council (Socialiste, October 7, 1905). If a Jesuit expressed himself thus, there would be an outcry about monkish fanaticism.
