(en) anarkismo.net: James Guillaume (1844-1916) & the birth
of syndicalism, anarchist communism by Lucien van der Walt
From Mother Earth volume 12, number 1, March 1917: OBITUARY : James Guillaume (1844-1916
Mother Earth volume 12, number 1, March 1917 ---- OBITUARY: James Guillaume (1844-1916) &
the birth of syndicalism, anarchist communism ---- The international labor movement, the
anarchists and syndicalists, have lost one of their earliest pioneers. James Guillaume,
the friend and co-worker of Bakunin, has died in Switzerland. ---- He witnessed the first
awakening of the militant international spirit in the laboring classes of all countries
governed by capitalism and its servant, statecraft. ---- When on the 28th of September,
1864, at a meeting in St. Martin's Hall, London, the International Workingmen's
Association came to life a new dawn flamed up on the horizon and created strong hopes and
visions all leading up to the future, when the barriers and prejudices between peoples
would fall, and knowledge, solidarity, courage, would enable the working people of the
earth to throw down the yoke of oppression and servitude.
It was to this spirit, these convictions that the life of James Guillaume was consecrated.
To the very last he remained their noble knight, whom neither disappointment with
individuals nor impatience with the slow growth of freedom's true army could lure from the
right path.
When in the Internationale unavoidable clash between revolutionists and politicians,
between authoritarians and anti-authoritarians occurred, James Guillaume stood with
Bakunin, and others against Karl Marx and his followers. They contended that political
socialism as Marx and Engels expounded it would inevitably lead to the surrender of the
interests of the proletariat to the state and to a new deception and enslavement under the
political machinery of the ruling classes. The history of the labor movement of the last
fifty years as far as it followed the lead of parliamentary socialism has proved this
contention to be only too true.
Out of these travails in the ranks of the Internationale, Anarchist Communism, and the
anti-political principles of syndicalism, direct action, anti-militarism, general strike
were born. James Guillaume was one of the most clear-sighted early propagandists of these
principles, which later were more elaborated by the writings of thinkers and authors like
Peter Kropotkin, Elisee Reclus, Errico Malatesta, Domela Nieuwenhuis, Emile Pouget.
While Bakunin expounded the philosophy of the revolutionary movement, James Guillaume was
its practical counsellor and organizer. Later he also became the historian of the
Internationale. His grand masterly work L'Internationale, documents et souvenirs, is so
rich in material that it has become the one great source for the writers and students who
want to gain insight and knowledge as to the beginnings of the modern international labor
movement.
In spite of world-wide slaughter [this was written during the First World War - ed.] there
are hundreds of men and women in all of the belligerent countries who will at least in
spirit assemble and join hands around the grave of James Guillaume to renew the pledge
never to give up the noble fight for solidarity, international co-operation between
individuals, groups, and countries.
http://www.anarkismo.net/article/28212
