M. Jaures has been writing lately in the Hunianitg on
the organisation of Labour, with particular refeteirce to the General Confederation of Labour, the tyrannical body which has from time to time tried to paralyse the life of Paris by " ordering " strikes. The General Confederation is frankly revolutionary, and has gone far beyond the legitimate fuectione of a Corincil of Trade-Unionism. The strikes it has caused recently have only been preparations for the great general strike at which it aims ; they have not been declared in order to gain definite economic concessions, but only to drill the army of Labour, and incidentally frighten the enemy. M. Clemenceau, realising the sheer wantonness of such a policy, had some of the leaders imprisoned. It is interesting and instructive to find now that M. Jaures, strong Socialist as be is, is warning the Confederation that it is acting as an oligarchy, and, if it persists, will fail like all oligarchies. The idea of a general strike presupposes that the Confederation represents the solid opinion of the workmen, but it certainly does not. It does not represent the opinion even of all the Unions, and many French workmen do not belong to Unions of any kind.
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