Page:Georges Sorel, Reflections On Violence (1915).djvu/78

 64 people who imagine that socialistic and revolutionary conceptions are only accidents that might be avoided by establishing better relations between the classes. They believe that the working-class world looks at the economic question entirely from the standpoint of duty, and they imagine that harmony would be established if a better social education were given to the citizens.

Let us see what influences are behind the other movement that tends to make conflicts more acute.

Workmen quickly perceive that the labour of conciliation or of arbitration rests on no economico- judicial basis, and their tactics have been conducted—instinctively perhaps—in accordance with this datum. Since the feelings, and, above all, the vanity of the peacemakers are in question, a strong appeal must be made to their imaginations, and they must be given the idea that they have to accomplish a titanic task: demands are piled up, therefore, figures fixed in a rather haphazard way, and there are no scruples about exaggerating them; often the success of the strike depends on the cleverness with which a syndicalist (who thoroughly understands the spirit of social diplomacy) has been able to introduce claims, in themselves very minor, but capable of giving the impression that the employers are not fulfilling their social duty. It often happens that writers who concern themselves with these questions are astonished that several days pass before the strikers have settled what exactly they have to demand, and that in the end demands are put forward which had not been mentioned in the course of the preceding negotiations. This is easily understood when we consider the bizarre conditions under which the discussion between the interested parties is carried on.

I am surprised that there are no strike professionals who would undertake to draw up lists of the workers' claims; they would obtain all the more success in