Although his writing touched on many subjects, Sorel's work is best characterized by his

original interpretation of Marxism, which was deeply anti-determinist, politically anti-elitist,

anti-Jacobin,[11] and built on the direct action of unions, the mobilizing role of myth
especially that of the general strikeand on the disruptive and regenerative role of
violence. Whether Sorel is better seen as a left-wing or right-wing thinker is disputed:[12]
[13] the Italian Fascists praised him as a forefather, but the dictatorial government they
established ran contrary to his beliefs, while he was also an important touchstone for
Italy's first Communists, who saw Sorel as a theorist of the proletariat. Such widely
divergent interpretations arise from the theory that a moral revival of the country must
take place to re-establish itself, saving it from decadence;[14] yet whether this revival must
occur by means of the middle and upper classes or of the proletariat is a point in question.
His ideas, most notably the concept of a spontaneous general strike, have contributed
significantly to anarcho-syndicalism.

Political writings[edit]
"Sorel began his writing as a marginal Marxist, a critical analyst of Marx's economics and
philosophy, and not a pious commentator. He then embraced revisionism, became for
several years the "metaphysician of syndicalism", as Jaures called him, flirted ardently with
royalist circles, and then reverted to his commitment to the proletariat. When
the Bolsheviks came to power, he completed his cycle of illusions by saluting Vladimir
Lenin[15] as the leader who had realized his syndicalist myth." [16]
"The syndicalist or militant trade union movement, which burst into prominence in France
around 1900, inspired Sorel to write his Reflections on Violence. The turmoil engendered
by strikes was universally condemned even by parliamentary socialists, who favored
negotiation and conciliation. To justify the militancy and to give syndicalism an ideology,
Sorel published the series of articles that became, as one of his biographers calls it, "a
famous and infamousBOOK ."[17] Indeed, it was Sorel's only successfulBOOK
of about
a dozen published.[18]" ThisBOOK
was published in Italian, Spanish, German, Japanese
and English.
Two of its themes have become a part of social science literature: the concept of the social
myth and the virtue of violence. To Sorel the Syndicalist's general strike, the Marxist's
catastrophic revolution, the Christian's church militant, the legends of the French
Revolution, and the remembrance of June Days are all myths that move men, quite
independent of their historical reality. As one of Sorel's disciples (Benito Mussolini)[19]
[20] said, men do not move mountains; it is only necessary to create the illusion that
mountains move. Social myths, says Sorel, are not descriptions of things, but "expressions
of a determination to act."[21]
Myths enclose all the strongest inclinations of a people, of a party, or of a class, and the
general strike is "the myth in which Socialism is wholly comprised."[22] For Sorel the
general strike was a catastrophic conception of socialism, the essence of the class
struggle, and the only true Marxist means of effecting the revolution. Nowhere does Sorel
endorse indiscriminate, brutal violence; only violence "enlightened by the idea of the
general strike[23] is unconditionally defended; only violence in the Marxist class war, as
Sorel conceived it, is fine and heroic and in the service of the "immemorial interest of
civilization."[24] In fact, Sorel makes no justification of violence by philosophical argument,
but uses long excursions into history and current events to demonstrate that ethical codes
are relative to their time and place, in essence demonstrating that all our moral codes
demonstrate moral relativism. Consistent with his position he could describe the
Declaration of the Rights of Man as "only a colorless collection of abstract and confused
formulas, without any practical bearing."[25]