ABSTRACT
Revolutionary syndicalism contributed to the attempt to define an ideal society a conception of the dominating role which might be played by the labor unions—a conception which will certainly not be passed over by a mature social science. It also contributed to revolutionary method a sense of the danger involved in political activities, the necessity of unusual honesty in leaders, and the necessity of emphasizing the class character of the movement. Revolutionary syndicalism made utopian thinking seem more plausible to practical minds by associating it with references to actually existing working-class organizations, and by emphasizing the principal action which these organizations will naturally take in a revolutionary crisis. The determination of the anarchists to be simple and intelligible, to have done with learned obscurities and the solemn casuistries of the “short-coated priests” of philosophy, is likewise abandoned by Sorel.
