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 PREFATORY NOTE

A considerable part of this volume was given as lectures at the University of California in 1911. For present purposes, the material has been recast and wholly rewritten.

The space given to the more general socialist movement and to the European origins of Syndicalism is justified on the ground that our tantalizing I. W. W. are not otherwise to be understood. Beyond Socialism, these represent the most revolutionary phases of social and economic revolt.

This combative, frontier character of the movement is so reflected in its literature and among its followers, that almost any statement one may make about syndicalist principles will meet direct denial. Between the higher and more theoretic syndicalists and the practical fighting members in the field of agitation, the differences in the interpretation of principles are radical to the point of confusion. This could not be otherwise in convulsive mass-action like that which characterizes syndicalist strategy.