Trade Unionism

Also known as “syndicalism”. A bourgeois reformist current in the workers’ movement. Trade unionism appeared in Britain in the 1860s and 1870s, and it had great influence in Western Europe and North America. The chief representatives were George Odger, Benjamin Lucraft, William Randal Cremer and others.

The main contents of trade unionism include: (1) Preaching that the interests of labor coincide with that of capital. Many trade union organizations hold that the interests of the working class and the capitalists are in agreement, and even if class contradictions exist, they could be resolved through peaceful consultation. (2) Advocating that the task of trade unions is to strive for local improvements. The purpose of forming trade union organizations was originally to eliminate competition among workers, with the aim of defending the interests of workers in their own industry, fighting for everyday necessities such as higher wages and shorter working hours, and at the same time organizing the proletariat in its struggle against the bourgeoisie.

With the failure of the utopian socialist movement and the development of capitalist society entering a period of prosperity, the trade unionists, obsessed with the economic achievements of capitalism, began to fantasize about the capitalist system, believing that there was no need for a fundamental transformation of the basic capitalist system and that as long as the trade unions carried out their active activities under the existing system, the living conditions of the workers could be improved gradually and the working class could even gain a position on equal footing with the bourgeoisie.

Trade unionism is the reflection of the interests and views of the labor aristocracy. During the period of the First International, Marx fought resolutely against the English trade unionists.