interests, that, indeed, they are
dominated by class interests, and, as such, that they do not seek to
change but to conserve what now exists. As a result, there _is_ a
parliamentary _cretinism_, because, in a sense, the dominant elements in
Parliament are only managing the affairs of powerful influences outside
of Parliament. They are not the guiding hand, but the servile hand, of
capitalism.

For the above reason, chiefly, the syndicalists are on safe ground when
they declare that parliaments are corrupt. Corruption is a product of
the struggle of the classes. To obtain special privilege, class laws,
and immunity from punishment, the "big interests" bribe and corrupt
parliaments. However, corruption does not stop there. The trade unions
themselves suffer. Labor leaders are bought just as labor
representatives are bought. Insurrection itself is often controlled and
rendered abortive by corruption. Numberless violent uprisings have been
betrayed by those who fomented them. The words of Fruneau at Basel in
1869 are memorable. "Bakounin has declared," he said, "that it is
necessary to await the Revolution. Ah, well, the Revolution! Away with
it! Not that I fear the barricades, but, when one is a Frenchman and has
seen the blood of the bravest of the French running in the streets in
order to elevate to power the ambitious who, a few months later, sent us
to Cayenne, one suspects the same snares, because the Revolution, in
view of the ignorance of the proletarians, would take place only at the
profit of our adversaries."[35] There is no way to escape the corrupting
power of capitalism. It has its representatives in every movement that
promises to be hostile. It has its spies in the labor unions, its
_agents provocateurs_ in insurrections; and its money can always find
hands to accept it. One does not escape corruption by abandoning
Parliament. And Bordat, the anarchist, was the slave of a mania when he
declared: "To send workingmen to a parliament is to act like a mother
who would take her daughter to a brothel."[36] Parliaments are perhaps
more corrupt than trade unions, but that is simply because they have
greater power. To no small degree bribery and campaign funds are the
tribute that capitalism pays to the power of the State.

The consistent opposition of the syndicalists to the State is leading
them desperately far, and we see them developing, as the anarchists did
before them, a contempt even for democracy. The lit