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Why did some anarchists worry that syndicalist unions could become too powerful?

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Red anarchy symbol, a capital letter A inside a circle, painted with rough brush strokes on a white background. — anarchism The “circle-A,” a common anarchist symbol.

Some anarchists were concerned that syndicalist unions could become too powerful because of their monolithic character. These purist anarchist theoreticians feared that such large-scale, centralized organizations might evolve into powerful interest structures within a revolutionary society, potentially undermining the core anarchist commitment to decentralized, non-hierarchical social organization.1

This tension was famously highlighted during the 1907 International Anarchist Congress in Amsterdam, where a debate occurred between the revolutionary syndicalist Pierre Monatte and the veteran anarchist Errico Malatesta. This disagreement reflected a lasting division within anarchist circles, as some individuals held attitudes too extreme to accept any form of large-scale organization, viewing the potential for bureaucratic or institutional dominance within unions as a threat to the fundamental principles of anarchism.1