ORGANISATION OF LABOUR The strength of labour is not on the field of battle. It is in the shop, in the mine and factory. There lies its power that no army in the world can defeat, no human agency conquer. . In other words, the social revolution can take place only by means of the General Strike. The General Strike, rightly understood and thoroughly carried out, is the social revolution. Of this tho. Britisp Government became aware much quicker than the workers. when the General Strike was declared in England in May, 1926. " It means revolution," the Government said, in effect, to .t.he strike leaders. With all their armies and navies the authorities were powerless in the face of the situation. You can shoot people to death but you can't shoot them to work. The labour leaders themselves were f!ightened at the thought that the General Strike actually implied revolution. British ·capital and government won the strike-not by the strength of arms, but because oft the lack of intelligence and courage on the· part of the labour leaders and because the English workers were not prepared for the consequences of the General Strike. As a matter of fact, the idea was quite new to them. They had never before been interested in it, never studied its significance and potentialities. It is safe to say that a similar situation · in France would have developed quite differently, because, in that country the toilers have for years been familiar with the General Strike as a revolutionary, proletarian weapon. It is most important that we realise thae the General Strike is 'the: only possibility of social revolution. In the past the General Strike· has been propagated in various countries without sufficient emphasis that its real meaning is revolution, that it is the only practical way to it. It is time for us to learn this, and when we do so the social: revolution will cease to be a vague, unknown quantity. It will become an actuality, a definite method and aim, a programme whose: first step is the taking over of the industries by organised labour. " I understand _nowwhy you said that the social revolution means construction rather than destruction," your friend remarks. , I am glad you do. And if you have followed me ·so far, you will agree that the matter of taking over the industries is not something, that can be left to chance, nor can it be carried out in a.haphazardmanner. It can be accomplished only in a well-planned, systematic,, and organised way. You alone can't do it, nor I, nor any other. man, be he worker, Ford, or the Pope of Rome. There is no man, nor any body of men that can manage it except the workers them-: selves, fol" it takes the workers to operate the industries. But even the workers can't do it unless they are organised and organised just for such an, undertaking. · ,·65 B1blloteca G·no Bianco
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