Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Paul Delesalle was among the most influential figures of pre-World War I anarchosyndicalism in France. Born into a family of manual workers, he became a specialist steelworker. In the early 1890s he frequented Parisian anarchist groups. He was also assistant editor of the anarchist–communist paper Les Temps nouveaux . By the mid-1890s he played an important part in French syndicalism . In 1896 Delesalle attended the London Congress of the Second International. The following year, his motion in favor of the general strike was adopted by the French trade union federation, the Confédération Générale du Travail (CGT). Between 1897 and 1907, Delesalle was joint secretary of both the CGT and the Fédération des bourses du travail, the trade councils' federation. He took part in drafting the 1906 Charte d'Amiens, the manifesto whereby the CGT proclaimed its independence from all political influences. He remained in charge of the labor section of Les Temps nouveaux until 1906, and contributed regularly to the CGT's paper, La Voix du peuple . In 1908 he set up his own labor bookshop and publishing house in the Latin quarter, and resigned from the CGT. After the Russian Revolution he briefly joined the Communist Party. Declining health gradually forced him out of political life, although he wrote occasionally and remained an avid collector of books and brochures. SEE ALSO: Anarchism, ... log in or subscribe to read full text