The metamorphosis of French syndicalism is easy enough to discern. Atthe end of the nineteenth century, in the Bourses du Travail and theConfédération Générale du Travail (CGT), workerstalked openly about revolution. Employers and the government took themseriously, as they took themselves seriously. After all, French labor had a longand impressive revolutionary pedigree, and throughout the fin de sièclethe working class kept adding to its scars as it continued to engage in frequentand violent confrontations with the forces of order. Thus the proletariat primeditself for the decisive showdown: the general strike, the heroic and largelyspontaneous episode that would finish off bourgeois society and bring workers topower. This was the revolutionary “myth” that propelled the labormovement forward.