Syndicalism is alive and well in Washington.

Syndicalism is alive and well in Washington.

Syndicalism embraces the notion that labor unions should have leadership roles in all aspects of a society whether it be banking, business, science, the arts, manufacturing, or politics. Syndicalism seeks the establishment of a communist state. The bolsheviks, led by Lenin, Stalin and Trotsky, used as a rallying cry: “All power to the Soviets,” wherein the word “soviet” means council, (but was widely understood as labor union). The new nation that emerged once the Bolsheviks had seized power from the Romanovs in Russia (1917) was Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Thus the new nation was given a name that proclaimed its socialist, syndicalist nature. Until the Syndicalist takeover of Italy, by Benito Mussolini, and the takeover of Russia by Lenin, Stalin and Trotsky, syndicalism had been a quirky outgrowth of French Marxism. It was dominated by fanatic pamphleteers whose writings concentrated on how best to bring about a communist state. Two well known authors and theoreticians were Georges Sorel and Benito Mussolini.