Emile Pouget
Direct Action
Series: Anarchist Library #2
Kate Sharpley Library, 2003.
ISBN 1-873605-43-9, 19 p. ; 21 cm.
£3, £2 (post free) individuals / $3 including s&h

Direct Action is the classic statement of revolutionary syndicalism. Against the slavery that is capitalism, Pouget proposes not faith in the go-betweens of parliament (or union leaderships!) but workers' own action. Action to win small victories, strengthening and inspiring the working class for the big one: the destruction of capitalism and rebuilding society from the bottom up.

Reviews

Thirty years earlier, L'Action Directe was penned by Emile Pouget, an anarcho-syndicalist member of the CGT (Confédération Générale du Travail), regarded as the world's first revolutionary union confederation. For Pouget, 'direct action is… an ongoing attack upon capitalism', and 'the revolution is the handiwork of day-to-day action.' And these ideas remain as relevant as ever almost a century later. For present day anarcho-syndicalists, just as for Pouget, direct action is the key to revolutionary activity. Ranging from denying (bourgeois) democracy to anticipating capitalist resistance to revolutionary change, from posing will power in place of passivity to debunking the many objections to the direct actionist approach, and much more besides, Pouget writes with power, clarity and brilliance. This pamphlet does more than simply explain why we anarcho-syndicalists reject social democracy and the parliamentary path to social, political and economic change. It makes the case for direct action as the necessity that underpins all revolutionary activity. Whether you're a long standing activist or a newcomer to the movement, you will find this pamphlet a worthwhile read.

For more on the CGT and the events in France around the time when Pouget wrote L'Action Directe, see Unit 4 of the SF SelfEd Collective's History of Anarcho-Syndicalism available from www.selfed.org.uk or contact: selfed@selfed.org.uk SelfEd, PO Box 1095, Sheffield S2 4YR.

from Direct Action #29 (Winter 2003-4) p. 28