After returning to France in 1895, Pouget resumed his political activities. On 11 May 1895, he started the newspaper
La Sociale, through which he started promoting a more strategic and concrete form of anarchism which would work to influence the labor union movement from within. During the publishing of
La Sociale, Pouget collaborated closely with
Fernand Pelloutier and
Bernard Lazare, advocating for revolutionary syndicalist ideas within the French labor movement and seeking to unite anarchists with antiparliamentarian socialists across Europe. In July 1896, Pouget attended the
fourth congress of the
Second International in London. At this congress, the antiparliamentarian delegates, the majority of whom were anarchists, were expelled from the international. This marked the culmination of the process which started with the exclusion of the anarchists at the
Zürich Congress three years prior. The antiparliamentarians set up a debate in margin to the London Congress where, concurring with Malatesta's views, Pouget criticized the
Marxists' economic determinism and argued against forcibly
collectivizing agricultural land, as well as the notion of waiting in anticipation for the ostensibly inevitable
proletarianization of the peasant class. In
La Sociale, Pouget first argued for the tactic of "sabottage", as it was initially spelled. This tactic was inspired by the concept of "ca'canny", meaning
slowdown, which he came into contact with in the British trade union movement. This was the first mention of the term "
sabotage" in this context. The newspaper continued until October 1896, when Pouget started publishing a renewed
Le Père Peinard in which his views became increasingly internationalist and militant. He passionately argued for sabotage as a tactic of the labor movement, leading to its adoption by the
General Confederation of Labour (CGT) at its
Toulouse Congress in September 1897. His views on sabotage, as well as a nod to its origins in the British movement, were outlined in greater detail in his 1898 pamphlet "Le Sabotage". For Pouget, sabotage would entail "poor work for poor pay", as well as physical damage against machines and property, but not persons. During the mid-1890s, the
Dreyfus affair, stemming from accusations of espionage against the French Jewish Captain
Alfred Dreyfus, intensified into a major political and judicial scandal. French society became deeply polarized, with supporters of Dreyfus known as Dreyfusards and opponents labeled anti-Dreyfusards, reflecting underlying tensions of antisemitism. Pouget was initially reluctant to support the Dreyfusard cause, proclaiming his lack of interest in defending a capitalist and even going so far as to employ
antisemitic stereotypes. However, during 1898 his views began to shift. He used the instability to organize a campaign in favor of anarchists condemned to forced labour, and in October co-signed a manifesto of a Revolutionary Coalition Committee which brought together various libertarian factions in opposition to anti-Dreyfusard nationalism. In February 1899, Pouget became a contributor to
Sébastien Faure's Dreyfusard
Journal du peuple (The People's Journal), where he argued for a revolutionary defense of Dreyfus against the reactionary forces of the army and
Catholic Church, and against relying on the impartiality of the legal system. In 1900,
Le Père Peinard was discontinued and Pouget became the editor of the CGT's daily newspaper
La Voix du peuple (Voice of the People), its title a reference to
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon. The first issue was published on 1 December 1900. The year 1902 marked the culmination of the anarchist permeation of trade unions, with the merger of the CGT and the
Fédération des Bourses de travail, a federation of local labor exchanges. The Fédération had been headed by anarchist
Georges Yvetot from March 1901, following the death of
Fernand Pelloutier. The now enlarged CGT elected former
Blanquist Victor Griffuelhes as general secretary, while Yvetot and his former assistant
Paul Delesalle headed the section of Bourses du Travail and Pouget headed the section of national federations as vice-secretary and remained the editor of
La Voix du peuple. Pouget, Griffuelhes, Yvetot and Delesalle thus became the effective leaders of the syndicalist movement in France in the following decade, forming the revolutionary faction of the union's leadership. (CGT) Tensions came to the fore between reformist and revolutionary wings of the CGT in 1903. Pouget emerged as the leading polemicist in defense of the leading revolutionary faction, opposed by the reformist
Auguste Keufer. The two exchanged views in two articles regarding the theme of reform or revolution in 1903, where Pouget argued that their methods were not necessarily opposed to one another. His position was that the struggle for immediate reforms, if done through
direct action, was not only an end in itself, but also an evolutionary moment in a process of social change which would gradually intensify to the point of revolution and the overthrow of
wage labor. Therefore, he argued, individual reforms served to build a mass social movement with sufficient strength and consciousness to challenge and ultimately end capitalism. For Pouget, direct action meant the activity of trade unions, undertaken without reliance on political actors. Another major point of contention was the method of selection and representation within the CGT, with Keufer advocating for proportional representation, which favored larger unions, while Pouget argued for equal representation regardless of a union's size. Pouget's stance reflected his broader disdain for
representative democracy, the adoption of which within the CGT he feared would suppress the "conscious minority". Keufer's proposals were in the end heavily defeated at the 1904
Congress of Bourges and the incumbent CGT leadership secured an easy victory. The issue reappeared at the Congress of
Amiens in October 1906. Here, the two factions agreed on the
Charter of Amiens, co-drafted by Pouget, which codified the union's revolutionary syndicalism. The charter announced the complete autonomy of the syndicalist movement and denied all political allegiances, and was the result of a political compromise that both factions could interpret to their advantage. Namely, for the revolutionary faction, this affirmed its stance against compromise with political parties and thus against
parliamentarism, whereas for the reformist faction, this meant an aversion to all forms of politics including anarchism. In May 1908, strikes erupted in
Draveil and Villeneuve-Saint-Georges with the CGT eagerly sending recruiters in support of the striking quarry workers. After a month of demonstrations, the strikers clashed with the police who opened fire leaving two workers dead and ten wounded. Following the strikes, the leaders of the CGT, including Pouget, were arrested. The union convened in
Marseille and reaffirmed its tactical position, however the reformist faction started blaming the leadership for the deaths due to their "reckless tactics". On 2 February 1909, Griffuelhes resigned and the CGT elected reformist Louis Niel to the position of general secretary. After his release from prison, Pouget did not return to his position in the CGT or in
La Voix du peuple. According to
Pierre Monatte, this decision might have been influenced by a growing personal antipathy towards Griffuelhes, which became apparent in Pouget's vehement rejection of the proposal for Griffuelhes to assume an administrative role in the new newspaper he was preparing. In February 1909, Pouget and other members of the revolutionary faction launched the newspaper
La Révolution. It was badly financed and a commercial failure, and ran only until March of that same year. After the failure of this newspaper, Pouget became disillusioned and ceased his participation in the syndicalist movement. ==Later years and death==