“A good soldier never looks behind him,” is an old saying. However it might not be amiss to throw a glance backwards over the life of the I. W. W. in the year of 1919.

The year of 1919 has for the I. W. W. been a year of open class warfare from the beginning to the end. The life of the I. W. W. has been a continuous battle from its very inception for that matter. We have never been allowed to sit down and rest for the last 14 years, but in the year of 1919 are crowded more of startling and important events than during any previous year of its existence.

As the ability to give battle to an enemy is a sign of strong life, we are justified in concluding that the I. W. W. never was stronger than in this year.

“The I. W. W. is dead,” “the I. W. W. is crushed,” is the howl that our enemies have raised time and again. They are raising the same howl now, but with the knowledge we have of the foundations upon which the I. W. W. is built, we can assure our enemies, that at the end of next year we shall have a story of much fiercer struggle and of much stronger life to tell.

The concrete signs of the activities of the I. W. W. during the past year may be divided in internal organization work, educational work, the economic struggles, the judicial defense work, all of it carried on under the most severe persecution, official and unofficial.

The Internal Organization Work

One sure sign of vigorous life is the necessity of holding conventions and the ability to hold them. The I. W. W. has held many conventions this year. There was the general convention that met on May 5 in Chicago, lasting for 11 days, and resulting in an immense lot of work being done. In addition there was a convention of Lumber Workers in Tacoma March 2 and in St. Regis, Mont., in the fall; a convention of Agricultural Workers in Sioux City, April 21; a convention of Metal and Machinery Workers in Cleveland, April 15-16; a convention of Construction Workers in Chicago April 24; a convention of Marine Transport Workers in Philadelphia May 24-29; a convention of Agricultural Workers in Sioux City, Nov. 3, and several other conferences.

The I. W. W. emerges out of the battle of 1919 with 21 Industrial Unions, three new ones having been added during the year, namely No. 1200, 1300 and 1500.

Its present structure is as follows:

Marine Transport Workers’ Industrial Union No. 8.
Bakery Workers’ Industrial Union No. 46.
Metal and Machinery Workers’ Industrial Union No. 300.
Shipbuilders’ Industrial Union No. 325.
Agricultural Workers’ Industrial Union No. 400.
Fishermens’ Industrial Union No. 448.
Oil Workers’ Industrial Union No. 450.
Rubber Workers’ Industrial Union No. 470.
Furniture Workers’ Industrial Union No. 480.
Lumber Workers’ Industrial Union No. 500.
Construction Workers’ Industrial Union No. 5738.
Railroad Workers’ Industrial Union No. 600.
Shoe Workers’ Industrial Union No. 620.
Metal Mine Workers’ Industrial Union No. 800.
Coal Miners’ Industrial Union No. 900.
The Textile Workers’ Industrial Union No. 1000.
Hotel, Restaurant and Domestic Workers’ Industrial Union No. 1100.
Printing and Publishing Workers’ Industrial Union No. 1200.
General Distribution Workers’ Industrial Union No. 1300.
Foodstuff Workers’ Industrial Union No. 1500.

In round numbers 50,000 new membership cards have been issued, but, due to the severe persecution, the growth in membership has not been startlingly large. In this connection may be added that our organization spontaneously is spreading to other countries, making it necessary to maintain offices in foreign ports or leading to direct co-operation with workers in foreign countries.

Our international connections during the year have assumed very promising proportions. Our ideas and our program are being to a greater or less extent endorsed and adopted by the workers of Russia, England, Italy, Spain, Scandinavia, Mexico, South America, etc., not to speak of Canada and Australia, where the One Big Union movement has got considerable headway. The I. W. W. is at present better buttressed up internationally than ever before.

One of the most important tasks of the coming year will be to further develop international co-operation and organization.

The General Executive Board of the I. W. W. has adopted a recommendation for the joining of the “Third International.” This has, however, never been acted upon by the convention, and as the third international is largely a political one, more or less sincerely endorsing industrial unionism, the probabilities are that a purely industrial international will develop out of these international connections in the near future.

The I. W. W. is neither asleep nor dead. It is right now about to engulf the whole world. In fact, the world is just beginning to discover that its only salvation from economic destruction lies in the I. W. W. program, which calls for the turning over of production and distribution to the people, organized industrially. These are facts. Do not be deceived by false reports or obituary notices in the kept press.

The Educational Work.

The educational work of the I. W. W. during 1919 is to a large extent depicted on the last two pages of the One Big Union Monthly, in the advertisements of its publications. From these it appears that the I. W. W. publications now number 22 as against 7 at the beginning of the year. Not the least important of these additions is The One Big Union Monthly.

Considering the rough treatment usually accorded to I. W. W. editors, which treatment tends to keep all but “rough-necks” away from us, it is undeniable that the I. W. W. has done very well in this line during 1919.

The list of books and pamphlets is long enough, but it is not what we wish it to be. For lack of financial resources we are at present holding back the publication of “The I. W. W. Handbook,” by Justus Ebert, a very important book, designed as an introduction to a series of handbooks for all industries under the comprehensive name of an “Industrial Encyclopedia.” The Agricultural Workers donated $500 for the latter work at their last convention, and as time goes on the General Office will be able to take it up.

The educational work of the I. W. W. is bearing fruit, as witness the endorsement of our principles by workers all over the world.

As for the results of this work inside the borders of the U. S. we have every reason to be gratified, considering the obstacles we meet. During the year the political socialist movement has gone to pieces, resulting in 3 factions, all of which embrace industrial unionism more or less devoutly, or rather adding it to their arsenal of weapons for capturing political power. As a result of our activities the One Big Union idea has been adopted by the advanced elements among the Negro workers of the country in the course of this year, and as for the A. F. of L., it is cracking all over as a result of the educational work carried on through our press and our books and through the spoken word of our orators, delegates and individual members.

Has there been progress during the year? We should smile! For corroboration of this statement we refer to the “patriotic” leagues and the “American Legion.”

In this connection let us call attention to another feature of our educational propaganda. We have to acknowledge the great assistance given us by the kept press. Through the most lurid misstatements about us they have called the attention of millions to our existence. It is from these deceived, and later undeceived, readers of the kept press that our ranks are recruited, and it is among them that the number of our friends and sympathizers is increasing by the millions.

The Battles of 1919.

During the past year the I. W. W. has conducted several strikes and taken part in several others.

The great general strike in Seattle, which began Jan. 21, was in the capitalist press called an I. W. W. affair, and 31 of our members were later arrested for “criminal anarchy” in connection therewith. But the strike was essentially an A. F. of L. affair with I. W. W. co-operation.

Then there was the great strike in Butte and other Montana cities. This strike was conducted by the I. W. W.

Both of these strikes were of sufficient size and importance to deserve a permanent place in the records of labor’s struggles together with the almost contemporaneous general strikes in Belfast and Winnipeg. All of them were “lost,” if it may be said that a strike is ever lost. Strikes are really the Chautauqua courses of the workers.

Next the Textile Workers were engaged in a big strike for the 44-hour week. The strike was a long one and a bitter one. Through A. F. of L. treason the workers lost, but what they gained in knowledge was worth much more than any concessions would have been.

The Furniture Workers next went on strike, on April 1. They wanted the 8-hour day and increased pay, and staid out for over two months, but did not get it. Still they gained some concessions. The importance of this strike is, that it has aroused a group of workers that seemed almost lost to the cause of the workers.

The I. W. W. Lumber Workers won a strike in the Fortine District in the Northwest in short order. It was a strike for 8 hours and $5 a day. In the fall they have practiced the intermittent strike in the Northwest against an increase in charges, etc., with varying success.

To us the strike is an educational asset, which acts as an auxiliary to our propaganda by word of mouth and writing, much as an excursion to the meadows is an auxiliary to the teacher of botany.

What with the other tremendous strikes of the year, the stockyards’ strike, the railwaymen’s strike, the steel strike and the coal strike and the printers’ strike, this has been a prosperous year for those who rejoice in the awakening of the masses. All these workers have learnt much themselves that they did not understand before, and all other workers have learnt an immense lot by merely observing the strikes.

All hail those strikers, whether I. W. W. or not! They are breaking ground for a complete industrial organization.

The Business Affairs of the I. W. W.

The financial condition of the I. W. W. at the end of 1919 is far from good. The general office has about half a million dollars to its credit with the industrial unions, but not a cent in the treasury. On the contrary, the general office has a deficit of nearly $10,000. This deficit is partly due to the purchase of a new printing press for $5,000 and of a new linotype machine for about $4,000, as well as a large stock of printing paper; also to the printing of a large stock of literature. But this unfortunate state of affairs is mostly due to the slowness of the industrial unions in paying for supplies and stamps, the money having been used for the purposes of organization expenses instead of for payment of bills. Unless this matter is quickly attended to by the unions through immediate payment of all bills and a forced sale of the organization stamp of $1.00, there is apt to be a real obituary notice in the kept press one of these days, stating: “I. W. W. is dead. General office is bankrupt. Doors closed. Rats are leaving the sinking ship.”

As a matter of fact we know that it is enough to call the membership’s attention to this matter in order to have it remedied. For the future great care should be taken that the experience is not repeated. By crippling the general office members stop the educational work of the organization and bring organization to a standstill.

We are confident that the coming year will see these shortcomings corrected. They are partly due to the numerous raids and arrests which have a tendency to upset the work as well as the inexperience of the members. In the future we are better prepared for such experiences.

So much for the positive and constructive work carried on by the I. W. W. during the year of 1919.

We now come to another chapter of our activity, which does not properly belong to the domain of an organization which proposes to organize the workers into industrial unions, but which has been forced upon us, and at the present moment is assuming tremendous proportions, namely the persecution and all that is connected with it. The Persecution Against the I. W. W. and the Legal Defense Work

The persecution against the I. W. W. has reached enormous’ proportions during 1919, and is at an unprecedented height at the closing of the year.

This persecution can all be traced to a common source, i.e., the machinations of the capitalist class for a plutocratic dictatorship, but in its exterior manifestation it has a two-fold character: the “‘legal”’ persecution and the extra-legal persecution. We will take up the extra legal persecution first, the one that is not camouflaged with the insignia of law and order.

The Extra Legal Prosecution

The extra legal persecution has been in the making for years past, but it is only during the last year that it has sprung into full bloom and dared to claim for itself a semblance of moral justification.

It is manifold in its nature, but the forces participating in it are Wall street, general director and provocateur and secret government of U. S.

The kept press.
The “high tone” clubs.
The “patriotic” societies.
The American Legion.
“Citizens” leagues.
Chambers of commerce and other profiteers.
Priests and ministers.
Politicians.
“Detective agencies,” gunmen.
“The under world.”
Labor fakirs.
Knights of Columbus.
Stools, finks, and ignorant and deluded people generally.

It is a tremendous apparatus of iniquity, always operating under the cover of the stars and stripes. Its chief weapon is lies and misinformation about the I. W. W. This side of the campaign of persecution is attended to by the kept press, partly through warped news items, partly through venomous and “inspired” editorials, partly by flaring advertisements, which of late are to be found in all big capitalistic sheets. This feature alone must cost the promoters millions of dollars, but it is necessary in order to turn the masses of the people against us, and besides, there is more money where these millions come from, for more wealth is constantly created by the workers. Contemporaneously the promoters carry on an “educational” campaign through the patriotic societies, who approach the people with tens of millions of letters and pamphlets and support same with the hell-slush of blood thirsty orators or hired liars, sometimes with the additional aid of framed up films.

The miners in Park City, in Coeur d’Alene, in Tonopah and a dozen other places have also been striking, sometimes with winning, sometimes “losing.’’ But no matter what the outcome, the I. W. W. always is the winner, for the workers think and learn while they strike and rest. And when the worker begins to think he becomes an I. W. W.

The last strike of the year in which I. W. W. has taken part with any considerable numbers is the strike of the Marine Transport Workers of New York. The strike was “‘lost,’”’ but, as usually, the I. W. W. won, coming out with its membership trebled.

The moving picture theatres offer these campaigners a great possibility, that is taken advantage of to its full extent.

Ministers and politicians and thousands of other mental prostitutes repeat the slander and the lies and the provocatory rantings, each one to his little crowd, out of cowardice, greed or general cussedness.

Thus the people of the country are being incited against us by these “‘respectables,” and the fruit of it is now ripening and is being harvested. By patient work along this line they have brought it to the point where the public is about ready to condone any outrage against us, even if it is the most dastardly infraction of the law and the constitution of the country. Taking advantage of this artificial public opinion, created by the secret government, these spurious patriots don the U. S. uniform and raid our halls, wreck our pianos and_ typewriting machines, destroy our records and burn our literature, and finally club or murder our members and turn them over to the waiting police to be arrested for “trying to overthrow the U.S. government”. Thus is being gradually built up a dictatorship of the plutocracy and a reign of terror by its servants, designed to crush forever whatever democracy has hitherto existed in this country.

We have before us a list of the I. W. W. halls raided during the year of 1919 with particulars, but it would take up too much space to enumerate them. Be it enough to state that this extra-legal persecution is country-wide, and in some parts, as in the Northwest, it embraces every important city and town, and some that are not so important.

The Centralia affair, where 4 “American Legion” men were killed while in the process of raiding the I. W. W. hall, is a typical example. Here these “‘patriotic’ raiders, inspired by Wall street and more particularly by the lumber trust, lynched one I. W. W. member, an ex-soldier from overseas, Wesley Everest, and completely destroyed the hall, and afterwards established a complete reign of terror which still continues in full force.

Through the expenditure of millions of dollars for sinister purposes there has been created an artificial and hysteric public opinion which gives absolution in advance to brutal and rowdy elements who are being manipulated by the hired tools of the secret government for the purpose of extinguishing liberty and making all the people willing and submissive servants to the secret government. It has gone so far that people no longer dare speak their mind on any question for fear of being blackmailed, bullied, clubbed and persecuted by the crazy or malevolent ruffians, who, like the black hundreds of Russia, drape themselves in the flag of the country, in order to disguise their foul deeds against the workers.

It will take years for the American people to free themselves spiritually and socially from this extra-legal reign of terror and regain their balance of mind and freedom of thought, speech and action.

The Legal Persecution

The legal persecution may be traced to all the three branches of the government, the legislative, the judiciary and the executive, which all three are under the iron heel of the secret government. As far as the legislative branch is concerned, it has busied itself in a great number of states with the framing of “Anti-syndicalist” laws which on the surface are directed against certain acts of violence or conspiracy against the U. S. government. These laws are framed with the secret understanding that they are to serve against the I. W. W., the courts and the police being depended upon to conspire to bring us within that law. At the present time the congress has under consideration, it is said, 52 federal bills, all aiming at our extermination. It is in order to get a semblance of justification for such laws that all the rioting is being staged, all the perjury suborned, and all the lies in the press manufactured against us. The secret government is thus preparing to turn a dastardly trick on the American people, designed to throw them in the chains of brutal tyranny for generations.

The part of the judiciary in this legal persecution is to do the bidding of the secret government. The trials given our members are outrageous, scandalous and farcical, the judges in nearly every case being unreservedly partial to the prosecution, and, finally, imposing sentences which are plainly acts of oppression and not acts of justice,

The executive part of the persecution is openly in defiance of the law. Arrests, raids and seizures, are in most cases being done without a warrant, the raids generally being more like acts of warfare than peaceful acts of law and order. We call attention to the photo herewith of the raid of the I. W. W. hall in New York by a department of the police.

Another feature of this activity is the brutal treatment invariably accorded our members when they happen to come in the road of these executives of both the secret and the legal governments. Clubs and other weapons are used without provocation or cause, and thousands of our fellow workers have been seriously injured by these clubbings and large numbers have been taken to hospitals and have been seriously injured for life.

The latest instance is that of Fellow Workers Kohler, manager of our printing plant, and Cascaden, a newspaper man, who both were present at the recent trial in Kansas City, Kohler as a witness and Cascaden as our press correspondent. Both were foully dealt with. Kohler was taken by court officials to one side, right in the court house, and terribly beaten up. As for Cascaden, a city detective came up to his room and beat him up, breaking his leg, in the brutal assault. The latter assault is admitted by the police, but they falsely state in the papers that the detective ‘acted in self-defense.” Lies are used to bolster up a deed over which they and the other tools of tyranny are openly gloating.

These two instances could be multiplied by the thousands.

As a result of the co-operation between the legal and extra-legal persecution there are now about 2,000 I. W. W. men in jail, of whom several hundreds already are sentenced to terms of up to 20 years. The rest are being held as long as possible without trial, and all our prisoners are in most cases being tormented in a fiendish manner.

One feature of this persecution is the deportation of hundreds of our members. But as deportation alone has little terror, the members are wantonly and illegally being held in jails for months and years before deportation, in order to inflict punishment outside the pale of the law. In fact, the secret government is not anxious to deport the workers in mass. They want to keep them here, if possible, and crush them into willing slaves.

The Defense Work of the I. W. W.

Under these circumstances it is easy to understand that the defense work for the organization has assumed large proportions. The General Defense Committee was about to collapse under the burden of its tremendous task, when William D. Haywood was finally released on bail and put to work as secretary and later as treasurer of the General Defense Committee in Chicago. Special defense committees have been active in the Northwest and California. It has been the task of these committees to secure legal aid wherever possible, but we must admit that many fellow workers have been victimized by our fiendish enemies for lack of proper legal defense. However, many hundreds of thousands of dollars have been raised for bail, and a number of the imprisoned fellow workers have thus regained liberty, pending the appeal of their case. Tens of thousands of dollars have been raised for defense purposes, partly through subscription lists, partly through collections at meetings and partly through the sale of stamps to members. We have been put to the utmost to secure funds, and at the present time the means on hand are entirely inadequate, while many of our resources are being exhausted. Help is beginning to come from the workers in foreign countries, systematic agitation and collection being now carried on in Sweden and Norway and perhaps in some other countries, showing that international solidarity is something more than an empty phrase.

Protests from labor organizations are also pouring in from England and Holland and other countries.

However, in order to keep the defense work from breaking down entirely, the buying of defense stamps by members will have to be made our special order of business for a long time to come, not forgetting the organization stamp for the upkeep of the organization in these trying times.

Unless the defense funds are kept up our fellow workers will have to resort to the dismal tactics of “silent defense” used by our 50 fellow workers in Sacramento with disastrous results.

Such is the terrible, almost incredible story of the I. W. W. in 1919. Never in the history of the labor movement have the efforts of the workers to organize been met with such sufferings.

Freedom is dead in the United States at present and raw-boned tyrants rule.

But it is easy to understand that a society that can maintain itself only through such moral degradation cannot have many days to live. Some day the sufferings of the people will have reached a limit over which they cannot go. Then comes the dissolution like a cataclysm. We foresee this day and in order to save ourselves, our class, mankind generally and whatever is worth saving of our “‘civilization,’” we are against tremendous odds going ahead with the work of organizing the workers industrially, so that we may be able to continue production and distribution and keep society going.

That responsibility now rests on the shoulders of the working class.

Watch the I. W. W. in 1920! Our principles are immortal, and no human agency can destroy them, whatever they may try to do to our organization and our members.

Transcribed by Revolution's Newsstand

The great massacre that broke out in August 1914 on the European continent swept away all pretense and hypocrisy from the revolutionary labor movement. It produced the high treason of German Social Democracy and the connivance of French Syndicalism, as represented by its officialdom, to the shameful “union sacrée,” the emasculation of the working class for the benefit of its age-long enemy—the exploiters.

The war was a stunning blow to all revolutionary groups and only very few of the militants of the labor movement were immune to this scourge that raged and still rages in the ranks of the working class. The honor of revolutionary stability belongs to the Russian Bolsheviki and the Bulgarian revolutionary Socialists, “the narrow,” who as bodies can claim it. In Italy a more or less anomalous situation produced the “intransigency” of the “official socialists,” of whom only a small minority is revolutionary and class conscious. “The Italian Syndicalist Union,” a small body of insurgents from the conservative Confederazione del Lavoro, who separated themselves from it before the war, was also demoralized by the treason of its most able and prominent militants, Rossoni, De Ambris, Corridoni, Massoti, Maia, Bacchi and their followers.

This cleavage demonstrated clearly on whom the proletariat can rely in its arduous struggle; and the war, with all its monstrous consequences, has rendered us a great service, taught us a unique lesson: THAT WARS CANNOT BE PREVENTED UNTIL CAPITALISM IS DONE AWAY WITH and that the old slogan—the emancipation of the working class must be the work of the workers themselves, must literally be carried out.

In the Confédération Générale du Travail confusion reigned supreme after the declaration of war. Its officials had attempted to secure a promise and definite engagement from Legien and the other leaders of the German Trade Unions for a general strike in case of war and were bitterly disappointed with the openly imperialistic attitude of those “Marxians.” To recite the story of Jouhaux’ speech on the grave of the assassinated Jaurés, the trip to Bordeaux in the ministerial train and the acceptance of the governmental office by him and his cohorts, will only add to the revolting memory of the past and our disillusionment.

However, there was one man, who formed a nucleus of tempered and tried militants, who held the torch of revolutionary syndicalism high above the foul breath of jingoism; who kept the red banner of the working class undefiled by the hands of Judas. And if France holds the record with Germany for having produced many Judases, it has the honor of having given birth to the first Liebknecht of the world, Pierre MONATTE. To him, Lenin and the Zimmerwald Conference paid tribute as the true son of the working class, who remained faithful to it and its traditions.

His bi-weekly little review “La Vie Ouvriére,” published for many years before the war, had in its folds the names, brains and hearts of the most brilliant fighters in the C. G. T. In its annals you will find the classic blow to the Taylor system, written by a powerful intellect of a simple working man, Albert MERRHEIM; the story of the life and work of the coal miners, brilliantly written, illustrated and full of statistics, by the pen of another working man, Georges DUMOULIN; the history, illustrated, of the heroic battle of the Cheminots (the railroad workers) in 1910; the famous accusation, which turned to be prophetic, against the German Social Democracy, by Andler, the thorough and scientific analysis of the “Imperialistic Tendencies in German Socialism,” which brought a shower of denunciations against Monatte, from the pen of Kautsky, Bebel and the now infamous Grumbach, “Homo,” who used to write for L’Humanité from Switzerland 1 ; the elaborate studies of syndicalist economics by Francis DELAISI.

In “La Vie Ouvriére” appeared the story of the General Strike in Belgium and many others, with spicy editorials, by Monatte’s faithful co-worker Alfred ROSMER; there the burning questions of education, carried on by syndicalist teachers, were directed by George AIRELLE, women in industry and what not. La Vie Ouvriére was the workshop where the very best of the syndicalist movement was extracted. It was a school for the young and old alike. And in that school Monatte was the teacher, humble, modest, a man that cannot be replaced.

When the bloody thing came, Monatte and “La Vie Ouvriére” remained the only oasis in the jingoistic maelstrom where the ideals and traditions of the Syndicalist movement were faithfully adhered to. At 96 Quai Jemmapes, its headquarters, gathered the remains of the once formidable organism, and now dispersed, revolutionary battalion. Here came even the Marxian Socialists Ferdinand LORIOT, LOUZON, Louise SAUMONEAU, and Leon TROTSKY. This group sent MERKHEIM and BOURDERON to Zimmerwald and published the now famous documents, “The Open Letters to the Subscribers of La Vie Ouvriére,” the work of Rosmer, Rakowsky’s biting pamphlet, the resolutions and proceedings of Zimmerwald, etc. They were printed by the great Metal Workers’ Federation, whose secretary was Merrheim, and which as a body opposed the war and issued the famous manifesto for May Day, 1915, calling: “Let us sabotage the war.”

Monatte was silenced. He was taken to the trenches, in the hope that a German bullet would put an end to such an obnoxious enemy of the capitalist regime. In the meantime, others took up the battle and the revolutionary workers were again solidifying their ranks. After the Russian Revolution of March, a wave of strike epidemy sapped the rear of the French army. Revolutionary demonstrations took place in Paris, St. Etienne, Lyons and other industrial centers. The red flags of the many thousands of girl strikers in Paris could not fail to infect the soldiers on leave, who now understood that the strikes were not treason against them, but that they were trying to end the bloody slaughter.

Mutinies happened at the front, in which 75 regiments of infantry, 22 battalions of chasseurs, 12 regiments of artillery, 2 regiments of colonials and other military detachments took part. These are the figures furnished by M. Gaston Bruyant, director of the Moral Service of the army headquarters. Then America came to the rescue of the French bourgeoisie. The revolution was averted.

Next May, 1918, we witness a still greater strike, that of the metal workers, and munition workers, of which 200,000 in Paris were out demanding the end of the war. But this time the French bankers and financiers found an ally in the face of Merrheim, the Zimmerwaldian, or as Lenin called him in his paper after that conference, “the symbol of the class struggle in France.” Merrheim assumed upon himself the role of saving the imperialists and war gods. He practically consented to the wholesale arrests made by the military, which included our valiant Fellow Worker Raymond Péricat, once secretary of the Building Workers’ Federation.

The revolutionary syndicalists then represented a formidable minority in many powerful unions, especially the metal workers, railroad workers and excavators. But these savage jailings and expeditions to the trenches of “undesirables,” weakened their ranks, especially after the shameful desertion of Merrheim and Dumoulin, who wielded a tremendous influence over the workers, thanks to their revolutionary past, Dumoulin having been 13 months in jail during the war, and Merrheim’s pilgrimage to Zimmerwald.

A few months later Péricat was released and so were many others who were arrested with him. He started his brilliant weekly “L’Internationale,” and it played the role of a magneto. In a few weeks again the shattered forces of revolutionary syndicalism were getting together. We must not omit to mention the splendid work of “Le Libertaire,”’ the anarchist organ of the revolutionary railroad workers, metal workers and excavators, whose four contributors served sentences in prison for clandestine issues of the paper during the great mutinies. Many of its collaborators are still in prison. That paper is one of the most influential weeklies in the country.

Few months after the armistice, Monatte was demobilized and on May Day this year, he again published “La Vie Ouvriére,” this time as a weekly paper. Two weeks later, the railroad workers’ federation, counting 245,000 workers, had its first convention since the beginning of the war and the revolutionary syndicalists, led by Monmousseau, Sirolle, Dejonkére, Midol (the man who called the one minute strike in January on the Paris, Lyons and Mediterranean Railway and was sentenced to one year in prison and immediately reprieved), scored a singular victory when 108,000 railroaders voted the revolutionary motion of Monmousseau, repudiating the officials and their collaboration with the government and masters, and calling for the abolition of the wage system.

Monmousseau is heart and soul with Monatte and contributes stirring articles to “La Vie Ouvriére.” Monatte and his nucleus of excellent organizers, orators and writers, started the big campaign for the coming conventions in September. The Metal Workers had their convention just before that of the Confederation of Labor, and here Monatte’s Fellow Workers Verdier, Coron, Vergeat, Andrieux scored a great success. One third of the unions completely repudiated Merrheim and Lenoir, their federal secretaries, and as Fellow Worker Coron says in “La Vie Ouvriére: “The vote of confidence to our officials was rather a vote of sympathy.” Sympathy and regret for their heroic past.

When the great confederal congress came in the middle of last September, the eyes of the French workers as well as capitalists were trained on Lyons, says “The Irish Statesman.” And it was true. Even Russia, struggling and bleeding for the world proletariat, was aware of this congress and sent its greetings to the assembled workers’ delegates, which was read by Fellow Worker Coron, and greeted lustily.

Over two thousand delegates, seated in the great hall of the Exposition in Lyons, were quite nervous and agitated over the plans and intentions of the formidable minority, which had called a whole day meeting of its ranks on the eve of the congress and decided on some method of procedure and systematic work.

MILLION opens the congress with a short historic sketch of the growth of the C. G. T. “In 1901 we were only a handful of militants meeting again in Lyons, in the Labor Exchange. Now we represent two million organized workers.” Then he pays tribute to the memory of PELLOUTIER, “the most representative man of French Syndicalism.” He examines the task of the congress and predicts many passionate and violent battles but counsels calm judgment so that positive results should come out of these deliberations.

The congress sends greetings to all peoples in revolution, to the military and political prisoners, and demands amnesty for all.

In the afternoon session the battle starts over the moral report of the confederal bureau. TOMMASI, the revolutionary delegate of the Aviation and Vehicle Workers, starts the fire. He is a young and powerful orator. Even the bourgeois press pays tribute to his able discourse. He denounces the members of the administrative council for their insidious manoeuvres during the fateful July 21 deliberation and the shameful abandonment of the Russian and Hungarian struggling workers. He says that the officials did not desire the strike and they sabotaged the rank and file by sending it off.

Jouhaux then announces that the congress will discuss the whole confederal politics during the war. Monatte demands the reason for the absence of all the proceedings and official documents of the Confederal Committee.

Louis BOUET, the secretary of the Teachers’ Federation, declares that ever since the beginning of the war, his federation has joined the minority and has remained true to its attitude. He repudiates the actions of the confederal bureau. He shows the deplorable effects of the abandonment of the July 21st general strike. The organization is now completely disqualified to speak in the name of the proletariat.

When the Credentials Committee reported, they found only one contest: Perrot, the secretary of the Union des Syndicats of the Seine department, allowed only one vote to the 20 railroad workers’ unions. The reason was that they represented the revolutionary rank and file and would vote for the revolutionary minority. But Perrot’s pretenses were too paltry and the minority scored a victory by compelling the congress to accept the 20 unions.

The next morning the congress opens with a hot critique of the attitude of the C. G. T. during the war, by Meric. But the animation starts with the mounting of the tribune by Fellow Worker Gaston MONMOUSSEAU, the spokesman of the militant railroad workers. He said that he was one of those who in 1918 voted the resolution for unity. He had expected that the C. G. T., pushed by circumstances, would enter again the road of syndicalism. “I gave my confidence to Dumoulin. I thought things would change. But since then, nothing has changed. The same politics continue. Jouhaux we saw sitting next to Loucheur at the Peace Conference. The working class had other things to do: it ought to have exerted pressure on the peace conference from without. Syndicalism has nothing in common with the League of Nations.”

“But the revolutionary forces are growing. They are growing among the railroad workers and the metal workers. And the revolutionary spirit is a fact.” The congress is warmed up. One feels that the blows are falling on the right place and taking effect. The majoritaires are attentive; the minoritairies applaud warmly their orator.

Then he comes to July 21: “We thought,” says he, “that it will mark the beginning of syndicalist action. But once more we were deceived…When the C.G.T. had only 400,000 members it could liberate Rousset (a victim of military injustice in Africa) and now we count two millions and still the sailors of the Black Sea mutinies are in prison. As for the Russian revolution, whenever it was mentioned, it was to desolidarize yourselves from it. There was a conspiracy of silence everywhere. And we accuse the C. G. T. of having been, by its silence, an accomplice of the strangulation of the Hungarian revolution.

“Once Dumoulin ridiculed the yellow Internationa] and said that on that road to Damascus we shall meet Karl Legien, Sam Gompers and Ben Tillet, in company with the agents (men of affairs) of the international bourgeoisie. We shall go to the workers of all countries and rebuild the Workers’ International. But Dumoulin went to Amsterdam. And he met Gompers, Legien, Appleton. Together they rebuilt the International of collaboration of the classes. For us there is only one Internationale, THAT OF MOSCOW.”

This brings a thunder of applause. Monmousseau ends his speech with an exposition of the minoritaires’ conception of the revolution: “Yes, we are revolutionists, but not rioters…They tell us always that the masses are not ripe for a revolution. What have you done to enlighten it? Those who have lost faith and have become skeptical, let them get out from the movement. We repudiate the C. G. T. for its attitude during the war, for its new methods which sidetrack syndicalism from its historic mission. We denounce the C. G. T. for failing to pit the working class against our capitalist class and those of other countries, which are trying to strangle the Russian revolution, after the Hungarian, so that they could easier crush our own revolution.”

Monmousseau descends from the tribune amidst the cheers of a great part of the congress. After him Le Troquer defends feebly the officials. The majoritaires have a strong card in the person of BOURDERON, ex-Zimmerwaldian, a member of the Socialist Party. But he hardly touches the moral report of the bureau. He speaks of the different periods of the war. “I do not retract a word from what I have said in 1915 and 1916.” In 1918, he says, he thought it was his duty to make the two factions approach each other. He recognizes that the hopes he laid in Wilson have deceived him. “One must say whether he is for unity or separation. I do not know whether I.am a majoritaire or a minoritaire. Minoritaires, if you are men of action, I am with you.”

Fellow Worker VERDIER of the metal workers of Aveyron then takes up the battle against the renegades. “We must go further than Proudhon’s formula: “The workshop must displace the government.” The inside government of the shop must be assured by the union against the master.” Then he attacks the National Economic Council and says: “Not this we need, but the dictatorship of the workers’ organizations. And this dictatorship cannot be secured but through the general revolutionary strike.” Verdier had just come from the metal workers’ convention, where he fought the majority to exhaustion and his voice is very low.

Then JACQUEMIN, who by the way belongs to the confederal bureau, mounts the tribune and declares that he does not share the opinions of the majority. ‘I was an anarchist, and anarchist I remain. I have tried to find out why do men change, but I have not found the explanation yet.” He believes, however, that the differences are not so great and it suffices only to come again to the old methods of direct action and anti-militarism, in order to bring about revolutionary unity.

Fellow Worker DEJONKERE, of the railroad workers, is one of those who last year voted against the unity resolution. Unfortunately, he says, I have nothing to regret on account of my vote. The same politics of class collaboration and abdication continue.

At this point, the congress decides to limit the number of orators on the moral report to five for each tendency, while in fact the majority had seven, for Jouhaux and Dumoulin concluded the deliberations.

Rougerie, a member of the Socialist Party, acts as the great conciliator. Last year at Clermont Ferrand he prepared the rapprochement of the two tendencies. It took him a long time, he says, to decide whether he was a minoritaire or a majoritaire, for he has taken in the Socialist Party a position that does not coincide with his position in the C. G. T.

After this manoeuvre of the astute politician Rougerie, comes the first orator of the minority, our valiant MONATTE. He reviews the attitude of the officials ever since the first day of discord, which was caused by the jingoistic speech Jouhaux delivered on the grave of Jaurés. Then he mentions the trip in the ministerial train to Bordeaux. On this point Gauthier, of St.-Nazaire, says that this is not true. “It is true,” says Bourderon. The congress is on its feet. Arguments are started. One feels that Monatte’s critique touches the essential, the sensitive points and he will be without mercy.

Monatte reminds the congress of his letter of resignation from the Confederal Committee and the reasons thereof: Jouhaux commissaire of the nation, his lecture tour on behalf of the government. He reads the letter he had received from Million, the secretary of the Union des Syndicats of the Rhone district, which admirably analyzes the effects of the traitorous attitude of Jouhaux and his clique. “In this period, we are looking at the sabotage of the ideas that were dearest to us and of the working class organism in which we had placed all our hopes and for which we have sacrificed our freedom and our lives. However, I believe that this is only a momentary departure and that the clarity of our international thought will dissipate all confusions brought about by the ‘revolutionary neo-nationalism.’

“This letter has its importance and shows that, in the first months of the war, the panic was not general.

“The war was the condemnation of the capitalist régime and its greatest crime. It has no more right to lead the world after it has brought it to the slaughter. What bitterness, in this moment, to see Jouhaux on the side of the governments and the co-responsibility charged to our central organism.” And Monatte cries: “The men that have done that are not worthy any more to interpret the thought of the French labor movement.” The congress applauds him warmly. This part of his speech produces a profound impression. He then goes into the reorganization of the administration of the C. G. T. He accuses the officials of having atrophied the function of the Bourses du Travail (Labor Exchanges), in order to secure them the hegemony over the central organization. He blames the officials of having transferred the direction of the movement from the rank and file into their own hands.

After a skillful blow at the confederal bureau, whose climax was the malicious statement of Marcel Laurent, a joint secretary of Jouhaux, the congress is again in turmoil. Laurent attempts to answer, but the delegates hoot him and he sits down.

“The confederal leaders have associated themselves with the government in its need of peace. We do not desire to help the bourgeoisie to save itself. It has condemned itself and we condemn it.”

Some one shouts: “Then this is disorder.”

Monatte replies: “Disorder, the capitalist regime is disorder. There is the abyss. We must jump over it. Some people, who like us, know that the bourgeoisie cannot save itself, still hesitate. This is the case of Merrheim.”

“We shall follow the wave and will try to be what true militants ought to be. Renan, in ‘The Life of Jesus,’ studying the psychology of Judas, writes: ‘In him, the administrator had killed the apostle.’ The administrator and the apostle ought to make one body. Too often does the administrator kill the apostle.”

The congress, which follows the discourse with great interest, applauds long. Monatte concludes with the following: “At present we have a great duty: it is the salvation of the revolution which is already in the world. Amongst you has been distributed the appeal of the Central Soviet of the Russian labor unions. The answer that we must give them ought to be the practical conclusion of this congress. For as Robert Smillie, the president of the miners federation of England, has said, at the present moment there is no greater labor question than the intervention in Russia.”

Monatte ends. Long applause resounds in the tremendous hall. And then, spontaneously, THE INTERNATIONALE rings out. All the delegates arise, the majoritaires follow reluctantly; only the confederal secretaries remain seated. Whatever the congress decides, says Rosmer in “La Vie Ouvriére,” we have scored a great victory.

The Socialist and Bourgeois press pays tribute to Monatte also. They say that no other delegate ever received such an ovation as Monatte. His career, his spotless past and his uncompromising attitude ever since his entrance in the labor movement contribute to the respect and confidence he inspires in the hearts of the workers. Even Dumoulin pays him homage by saying that he has felt the beauty of his discourse. “What you have suffered, I suffered also. What you just did now, I did in 1918.”

Marty-Rollan, a majoritaire, does not dare to speak right after Monatte, for his talk will be ineffective, so the congress adjourns for the next day, when he speaks and then Ferdinand LORIOT, of the teachers federation, Lenin’s friend and one of the few true Marxians who is a Bolshevik. After him Bidegaray, the conservative secretary of the railroad workers who makes a naive and humorous speech. Then Fellow Worker Raymond PERICAT mounts the tribune and delivers a philippic against the renegades, accusing them of abandoning him and his co-workers, when they were persecuted by the government.

Bartuel, the miner’s secretary, defends feebly the confederal politics. After him comes the young and fiery LePETIT, of the Parisian excavators’ union, who had served, until last April 10, a two years sentence in Clairvaux. He animates anew the debate. He says that he was one of those who, in the beginning of the war, answered the call of Merrheim and Bourderon. He had worked with Merrheim, who for a given moment incarnated French syndicalism. “I asked him, on my part, why he had repudiated his ideas, why did he repudiate Zimmerwald, and why he deserted his friends of the minority.” “Bourderon demands to know if we reproach him with having gone to salute the great democrat Wilson at Brest.” Yes, we accuse him of having saluted the man that Lenin calls “the greatest hypocrite.” Lepetit finishes his live speech as follows: “We refuse to bring our stone to the capitalist edifice. We desire to create the worst difficulties for the capitalist regime.”

The majoritaires have one great trump card in the face of MERRHEIM, whose past role and the beautiful traditions he had left in the C. G. T. make him quite an impregnable fortress. He is, or rather was, the most probable leader of the coming French revolution. Lenin, Trotsky and Tchicherin played him strong, but he proved to be a timid and calculating labor leader, who has no prototype in any other country. If he had remained with the minority, as well as Dumoulin and a host of other younger militants, Clemenceau might have sung his swan song a year and half ago, during the great strikes and mutinies. But Clemenceau was shrewd, and though he hates and fears Merrheim more than any other man and threatened to imprison him while still in opposition, he switched around and left him unmolested. A better policy could not be applied: a Merrheim in prison would have been worth 10,000 Merrheims out of prison.

His defense is remarkably sincere. After Zimmerwald, where he met Lenin and had an eight hour private talk with him, he says: “I did not betray the working class; the working class betrayed me, by following the jingoes and renegades.” He accuses the working class of having fallen in materialistic immorality, which is manifested by the demand for wages and more wages, instead of more fundamental principles.

Fellow Worker Henri SIROLLE, the much heralded one by the American yellow press, then, as the last of the minority orators, resumes the attack upon the officials’ citadel. He is a young and able orator, an incomparable organizer of the Left Bank railways of Paris, a man that has done a great deal for the mustering of the revolutionary forces of the railroad workers.

Dumulin and Jouhaux, almost in tears, apologize, equivocate and shrink under the leashing of the militants of the minority. The defense, however, is quite effective, because through a manoeuvre and a trick, they steal the program, a valuable portion of it, anyway, of the minority, and put it to a vote before putting to vote the moral report, so that the delegates will think that they have become revolutionary. The deception is quite successful, for few delegates, like Marchall of the railroad workers, though instructed to vote against it, approve it by a large vote.

The resolution of the majority recognizes the class struggle and is for the expropriation of the capitalist class and establishment of the communist order. These are pretentions but very effective for the time being. They defend the Russian revolution and engage themselves to stop all ammunitions and arms for Koltchak and Denikin and condemn in the strongest terms the imperialistic designs of the Entente.

Five hundred and eighty-eight of the largest unions of the most strategic industries vote against the moral report of Jouhaux. The vote stands 2 to 1.

Monatte, Rosmer, Monmousseau and Sirolle think it was a great victory for the minority. Numerically, their victory is much greater than it appears. Our syndicalist friends do not believe in the proportional representation system and thus their strength is not so evident. Judging from later developments, they can claim greater numbers,

Since then their ranks have been flooded with new recruits. Jouhaux and Dumoulin have lost the last vestige of confidence, because they betrayed the workers again by coming to Washington and not keeping their solemn engagements to save the Russian revolution.

The minority have 9 delegates in the Confederal Committee, which is composed of 30. Their delegates are: Marthe Bigot, a girl teacher, good rebel and brilliant writer, Bouyé, of the metal workers, Lepetit, of the excavators, Loriot, of the teachers, Monatte, Monmousseau, of the railroad workers, Roux of the postal, telegraph and telephone workers, and Tommasi, of the aviation and vehicle workers They have started a live agitation for a general strike to save the Russian revolution and demand complete amnesty (which was voted but did not include the sailors from the Black Sea mutinies).

Already the “Union des Syndicats of the Seine” (Paris) district has begun that agitation and compelled the whole C. G. T. to consult its members on the question.

The minority is doing a remarkable work and feverishly increasing its effectives.

We can rest assured that they will do their duty by the Russian revolution by, as Monatte says, making one at home.

Transcribed by Revolution's Newsstand

• 1In February and March 1913, Monatte publisheda lengthy article written by Charles Andler, the able historian and student of Marx, author of a “Commentary on the Communist Manifesto” and a volume on German Social Democracy, an article which most astonishingly predicted the shameful betrayal of the working class by the so-called Marxians of Germany. The article bore the title “Le Socialisme Imperialiste d’Allemagne Contemporaine” (Imperialist Socialism in Contemporary Germany). Jean Longuet, grandson of Marx, leader of the fenceriding center of the French Socialist party, a man who voted all the credits of the bankers war, indignantly asked Monatte to publish “the crushing reply” (la reponse ecrassante) of comrade Grumbach which appeared in Neue Zeit, together with some vile attack by Kautsky and Bebel.

  Grumbach’s “crushing reply” reads in part as follows: “German Social Democracy is done for! Bebel becomes chancellor of the Empire, Scheidemann minister of Foreign Affairs, Gerhard Hildebrand, perhaps anew received in grace by the party, to direct the administration of the Colonies, Noske in charge of the Ministry of War.

  The military, colonial and naval credits shall be voted by the socialist deputies without hesitation and with glad heart; Kautsky is charged to justify the necessity of it in theory, etc. All in sarcastic tone.

  This remarkable prophecy, made as reproach to Monatte and Andler, is now almost pathetically true. They went so far as to call Monatte’s “Vie Ouvriére” “a monarchist review.” Albert Thomas defended the German Social Democrats in the Chamber of Deputies. They all, Grumbach, Kautsky, Longuet, Thomas, went on the other side of the barricade, Monatte remained true to the working class.

Characteristics of Industrial Unionism

One of the most important unions in the Industrial Workers of the World is the Bakery Workers' Industrial Union No. 46, with headquarters in New York. From the viewpoint of industrial union education, not to say as information matter, it will be interesting for all readers of the One Big Union Monthly to know something about the workings of that union as an agency of industry, and how considerable improvement has been won on the issue of wages, working hours and conditions, and especially about the high degree of protection and control attained by the I. W. W. bakery workers in New York through a wise and consistent application of industrial union tactics and policies. One should not think that to induce a number of workingmen in a given industry to get together under the statutes of the I. W. W. and with red cards in their pockets would really mean that they had built up an industrial union. While it is a highly commendable and noble thing for every conscious and faithful member of our organization to look upon the red card and the preamble of the I. W. W. as inspiring symbols of our struggle in the labor movement, we should not altogether be so dogmatic as to expect by the mere influence of these symbols some sort of industrial miracles. The creation of an industrial union capable of affording its members an effective and efficient protection on the job, and to preserve such standards of wage and conditions as would compare favorably with all other sections of organized labor, is not such an easy task. Working class devotion and idealism should undoubtedly be welcomed on this field of endeavor; although they would bring little or no practical result unless coupled with a sound knowledge of industrial union process; that is to say, of that complexity of tactics, discipline and union policies which after the age-long experience of labor's history, is to be considered as the most trustworthy condition of success in the workers' struggle. Industrial unionism is to a certain extent a faith, yes; but more than that, it is a struggle to be carried on along scientific lines. These studies on the technical problems related to the existence and development of our industrial unions are paramount in the I. W. W. literature, inasmuch as they do not con template some abstract and cultural conceptions or side issues, but the very subject of our daily struggle, the thing for which our best fellow workers have fought, suffered and died: The conquest for the I. W. W. of an influential position in the industrial life of the country, as the first step or the condition of departure toward the establishment of a proletarian commonwealth.

History of Bakery Workers' Industrial Union No. 46

The history of the bakers' union of the I. W. W. stands as a convincing proof of the great efforts that a body of workers must face in order to secure for themselves a position of comparative prosperity and job control. The union membership is about one thousand (1,000), most of the members being residents of New York City and nearly all employes of the French bakery shops. There are several Italian branches besides one German and Polish branch. The bakers' union was organized about fifteen years ago, and joined the I. W. W. some six years ago.

The wages are the highest paid in the bread industry within the boundaries of New York state, viz., first class bakers, $42 a week; second class, $38; third class, $36. The bakers in the French bakery shops controlled by the I. W. W. union have brought about the end of the night work system, while the unhealthy condition obtains everywhere else in the bread industry throughout the United States. It is a fine piece of "industrial legislation" enacted in the union hall of the I. W. W. and in force since the month of July, 1919, without any attempt having been made at consulting the politica1 wisdom of the house of representatives in Albany. The Bakery Workers' Union No. 46 of the I. W. W. was the first union in the bread industry to declare for a forty-four hour week. So the members of that union are actually working seven hours and a half a day, and before long they will ask for a seven or a six hour work day, and they will get it. A great effort has been made by active members of Industrial Union No. 46 with the co-operation of several English speaking fellow workers of the I. W. W. Recruiting Union to spread the agitation among all bakery workers in New York City, encouraging them to fall in line far better sanitary conditions, higher wages, forty-four hour week and the day work system. German, Polish and Jewish branches are in process of organization.

Far from being the product of momentary enthusiasm, all these thousands of successes have been brought about through a long record of per severance and stubborn struggles. Out of a fifteen years' existence of Bakery Workers' Industrial Union No. 46 (although the union itself was known under other names before being incorporated in the I. W. W.), it springs into light the old commonplace truth that it is rather difficult and almost impossible for a union to win at one blow, by means of a victorious strike, or by the mere spirit of enthusiasm such a thing as an influential position in industry. Industrial conquests are comparatively slow, and they seem to be the conclusion of persistent, systematic efforts for the capture of power on the job, rather than the result of some kind of master stroke.

What Industrial Control Means

The act by which an employer takes into his service a wage worker or employe is known as a "con tract. " Since labor contracts are the commonest form of intercourse in our present industrial life, they most frequently occur under the seal of silent conventionalism. This sort of labor selling between employers and employes may take the shape of an individual or collective contract. 0f course, a true union man, whether he is an I. W. W., an American Federationist, or an independent unionist, is necessarily opposed to the proposition of individual labor con tract. Why is this so? Because from a long series of experiences the workers have learned that any direct agreement between individual workingmen and employers turns out to be detrimental to the former contracting party and it effects also an extremely demoralizing influence upon the collectivity of labor. Individual bargaining affords no protection' for the working man, surrendering the latter to the employer with hands and feet solidly tied.

The Industrial Workers of the World is by no means against the proposition of collective bargaining and union contracts, but they are decidedly hostile to timed contracts, a1 well as any specific contract, between the employer and the members of a trade or other particular section of' an industry, when it might endanger the general interests and solidarity of the workers of the whole industry. One of the main points of difference on the questions of tactics between the American Federation and the I.. W. W. is to be identified in this manner of conceiving and carrying out the policy of conceiving and carrying out the policy of collective bargainings and union contracts. The I. W. W. repudiate all timed agreements with the employers on the question of wages and other conditions affecting the workers in the industries, and they conceive the idea of collective bargaining on the basis of the general interest and solidarity of all workers employed in the industry while in a good many unions of the A. F. of L. organized along trade lines, the workers are engaging themselves in sectional forms of contracts to such an extent as to divide them and make them scabs against each other in time of strike.

Except for these differences the I. W. W. should be as much insistent as any other labor union on the question of enforcing the "closed shop" and collective bargaining in all transactions between the workers and the employer. These, at least, have always been the policies of the Bakery Workers' Industrial Union No. 46, and the members of that I. W. W. body are firmly clinging to them as a solid ground for practical and successful industrial unionism. Experience has taught also that every industrial union which does not recognize the principle that all men on the job should be made members is bound to fall quickly into disintegration. There is a spirit of class discipline in our conceptions and tactics of industrial unionism, and that spirit springs logically out of the economic fact that the interests of the individual worker are tightly bound with the interests of the whole body of his fellow workers employed in the industry, so that for the sake of the common good he ought to solidarize and fall in line with them. The industrial unions are the medium of this working class solidarity and discipline.

How the Shops Are Controlled

To understand the tremendous power exerted by Bakery Workers' Industrial Union No. 46 in its struggle against the bosses and the large share of protection afforded to its members on the job, one should visualize that union not merely as an institution stranger to the industry, but as an auxiliary of the highest import in the working of the industry itself. There is great meaning conveyed in the proposition that a true and well organized industrial union ought to function right on the job, rather than in the union hall. However, let us illustrate this idea by the aid of facts.

All bakery shops controlled by the I. W. W. in New York City are running with full crews of union men. None of the members of the crews are allowed to remain out of the union ranks. The drivers themselves are members of the union. The question arises: How did the union succeed in compelling the boss to engage members of the I. W. W. exclusive of all other classes of workers? One of the most effective instruments that helped the bakers' union in tightening its grip over the jobs is the employment bureau. Nobody, including the members of the union, is allowed to go and ask a boss for a job. All jobs are disposed of by the Union Employment Bureau. Even the right of a boss to supervise the crews on the jobs is ;restricted to a considerable extent. There is common understanding that the workers under the guidance of the union foremen are bound to turn over a production according to some conventional standards; there ceases the :right of interference on the part of the boss. In the case of a man refusing to pay his monthly dues or having made himself responsible for some offense against the union, the committee and the assembly are invested with full judicial powers to admonish or to punish him. Some times the union required that the guilty man be .dismissed from, the job, and the boss had to comply with it. There is' not a boss that dares to resist such requests, realizing that he couldn't possibly run the place without the consent of the union men. On the other hand, in order to prevent the bosses from complaining to the police against such union tactics they have been made to sign an agreement to the effect of securing their crews at the Union Employment Bureau to the exclusion of all other agencies.

The actual bakers' union of the I. W. W. in New York is built upon such strong foundations as to give assurance for tremendous successes in that line of organization work. It is to be noticed that all that has been done hitherto comes directly from the initiative of the membership of that body, without any outside help. Taking into account the lack of English speaking elements in the ranks of Union No. 46, it would be utterly absurd to expect great results under actual conditions. So it is high time the General Headquarters of the I. W. W. extends its powerful hand and help in bringing about the propaganda, agitational and organization work among the slaves in this industry.

To train the workers in the responsibilities connected with the running of the industries so that they shall be prepared to solve the revolutionary crisis which is so near, and that they will be able to build up a new commonwealth founded on the possession by the workers of all instruments of production, and of the wealth of the world, this is undoubtedly the most compelling task, both of an educational and of an industrial or technical character that the Industrial Workers of the World is confronted with. These qualities for industrial government, that is to say, these capacities on the part of the workers to take care of all processes of production and to discipline themselves on the job, so as to eliminate all reasons for capitalist patronage, find the best conditions of development in the practice of industrial control.

This is also the plan that we should carry on and make effective through all the educational and organization activity of the I. W. W., if we really expect to play an actual and dominant role in the future of American industrial life.

Transcribed by J. D. Crutchfield. Taken from iww.org no longer online. but found on archive.org

Transcriber’s Introduction

This article appeared in the June issue of The One Big Union Monthly, during a time of growth and turmoil for the I.W.W. Thousands of Wobblies, including the most experienced organizers and best administrators, were in prison or under indictment for "criminal syndicalism" or alleged violations of the Sedition and Espionage Acts. Under the stress of relentless government persecution, internal conflicts of personality, ideology, and practical strategy would soon cause a split in the union from which it has not yet recovered. The union’s membership saw a clear need for structural change, as well as for a change in rhetoric and tactics. The following article is one example of the proposals for change that circulated at the time. For the existing structure of the I.W.W. in those days, see the 1919 Constitution. Many of Hardy’s recommendations were later adopted.

This article is presented here for its historical interest, and also as a basis for discussion towards the I.W.W.’s reconstruction—though much of it will certainly be unacceptable to a generation of workers who know the history of the Russian experiment with Communism, and consequently know the dangers of centralized bureaucratic administration.*

George Hardy joined the I.W.W. in Vancouver, B.C. in about 1909. He served as General Secretary-Treasurer in 1921. In 1925 he was in England as a representative of the Comintern, and in the 1930s he represented that organization in South Africa. His autobiography is Those Stormy Years. Memories of the Fight for Freedom on Five Continents (1956).

In the following transcript from The One Big Union Monthly I have corrected obvious misprints but left Hardy’s ideosyncratic punctuation and spelling unchanged.

Shop Organization the Base of the I. W. W.

British Shop-Stewards

Much discussion is going on in the ranks of labor, as to what is the best form of organization to give power to the workers in industry. This is an indication of discontent with the American Federation of Labor, and all other craft forms of unionism, which in reality is not unionism at all. The primary cause for discussion can be attributed to the advent of the Shopsteward Movement in Great Britain, which was brought about during the war, because the officials of the great trade unions pledged labor’s support to the Government, and who afterwards were prevented from participation in strikes, by the Defense of the Realms Act and the Munitions Act, thereby forcing into existence the unofficial movement, due to the abnormal conditions prevailing.

There has been a desperate attempt to make this shopstewards’ system fit American conditions by all and sundry. Especially is this true of some of the bourgeois and semi-bourgeois minded people, who claim to be revolutionary; while on the other hand, the members of the Shopstewards’ Movement in Great Britain state frankly, they would be in the I. W. W. if resident in U. S. However, the Shopsteward Movement does fit British conditions, because of tradition etc.

Reason for Continuity

The above position of the British militants is absolutely correct, because the "Industrial Workers of the World" is thoroughly in harmony with capitalist development and the labor conditions prevailing in America. There are less than ten per cent of the workers organized in this country, as against fifty per cent in the British Isles; with considerably weaker unions existing amongst the American workers, than those of the British workers. The I. W. W. has stood the battle for fifteen years—this alone proves its continuity inevitable and in conformity to Economic Evolution. The I. W. W. admits of changes necessary to prevent the organization from becoming obsolete, as the craft unions have. This is because its constitution is an elastic one—it has changed many times.

Necessary to Change

Today again we are confronted with the necessity of changing our form and tactics, due largely to the fact, that rapid changes are taking place in the economic world, and the apparent blood-thirsty tactics of the masters of industry. Therefore I submit the following program for consideration—not as "my" program—but as a program evolved out of the accumulated knowledge of the past; gathered by reading and discussion with my fellow workers, and an analysis of the position of the proletariat to the economic necessity of abolishing the system of private ownership, together with the avaricious, trustified masters—the capitalist class.

During the last two years many plans have been submitted. Some members are willing to stay by the "Old Ship"’ (the I. W. W.) without applying modern machinery to run it. Others want to change its name. To the thinking portion of the members both plans are equally disastrous—you cannot fool the ruling class! What is necessary now is new machinery to run it. We must abolish that part which has served its purpose, and install the most uptodate equipment the modern mind can conceive of, or we will be operating at a loss of prestige—a loss of membership—the crew will become too small to run the big ship, and we will land in some future storm on the rocks. This is financially evident today. We can, however, insure the future by installing new, modern, efficient and uptodate machinery of ad ministration, to discharge the rotting cargo—capita1ism. Let us do it today.

Efficiency calls first for an organization with its basis on the job, with rank and file control from the bottom up to the highest office; second, that administrative councils be created to admit of joint action from the job to the whole of the organization; third, that a regional council should exist to execute business that interests the whole working class community; fourth, that a defense council shall be maintained for the purpose of caring for members who have temporarily ceased to be industrial workers, because of their incarceration by the capitalist class; fifth, that at all times the prerogative shall be in the hands of the members on the job; sixth, instead of District Offices for each industrial union, supply stations should be opened jointly.

The above can only be gained by having a Union formed along the lines indicated in the chart. I do not, however, claim its application should be hard and rigid; but, I do claim the principle with slight variations can be applied to all industries which we seek to organize.

Job Branches and Committees

The job branches as set out are the base of all action, whether, legislative or administrative—the executive power lies always with the workers at that base. The workers first organize the job—a mine, mill, camp or factory—immediately they have seven members they constitute themselves a Job Branch; hold meetings; elect a job committee, one of whom may be elected delegate for that job. This would move the avenue of communication from the delegate to the job. When a delegate leaves a job, immediately one is elected in his place, and supplies given him which were left behind by the retiring delegate. It will be seen here, the supplies become the property of the job committee, instead of the delegate. It will also be noticed, there will always be a delegate on the job, and one who expresses the wishes of the group so organized, for they elected him. They have the power to remove him if not satisfactory. With this system in operation there can never be more than one delegate on one job, and all jobs organized will have a delegate.

The job committee is the administrative committee, and attends to all matters arising on the job between meetings; such as grievances that may arise; differences prevailing amongst the members etc., and have power to call special meetings by a majority vote of the members of the committee. The meetings then take up the matters on the agenda and decide what action shall be taken.

Organized in this way the territorial divisions, prevalent in the craft unions disappear, for all workers meet together who work together; thus, as the workers gain power, so they are gaining control, and will form the basis of the future administration of industry under the Co-operative Commonwealth—Industrial Communism.

There are many workers who work in separate factories and jobs, who will be found to be working for the same master in a given piece of territory or a large city. We also know, that modern industrial capitalists are all organized industrially and territorially, so we must look on them as a class—the exploiting class—with the above divisions for efficiency amongst themselves; so, we must, therefore, unite our forces on the jobs to be able to meet them in open combat.

Central Branch Council

The Central Branch Council is fitted for meeting the opposition, and taking the aggression against the locally organized industrial groups of capitalists. The central branch council is made up of delegates from the job branches, who will meet as often as the job branches represented on the council decide, consistent with urgency, distance and expense, etc. They could meet oftener in highly centralized communities than where distance is an obstacle. A council ought to be formed as soon as seven job branches have been organized. If the job branches were large in membership, one could be formed with a less number. Representation could be had on a pro-rata basis, say, one delegate for every one hundred or any part thereof. The Central Branch Council’s function is legislative. It is to enable the workers to come in contact with each other through their duly elected representatives, who would receive instructions from their job branches, and deliberate, with their fellow workers in relation to the issues under discussion. Here we find that one delegate would bring up a question never thought of by some of the other delegates, so without instruction they would use their best judgment and vote accordingly. The decisions would be ratified by the members of the job branch. We must also concede that large bodies of men become unwieldy and cannot make the best decisions. They can also be played upon by eloquent popular orators. The central branch council would deal with facts alone, and members would act [here a line is missing in the original] from the council by the rank and file.

Industrial District Council

Several central branch councils could exist in an industrial district like some of the large mining districts, lumber districts, coastal districts of marine transport workers and agricultural districts, etc. This would necessitate an Industrial District Council being organized, to co-ordinate all the activities of a district within a given industry. The industrial district council would be made up of delegates from the central branch council, with a delegate for every 500 members affiliated or less. Again we must bear in mind the job branches would ratify the election of any delegate to the district council which would meet as often as conditions demanded, say every six months, and consistent with finance, urgency, etc.

This is absolutely necessary for drawing up uniform demands in a district where natural industrial divisions exist, such as in the logging industry where different machinery is used to get out the logs. These districts should not exist with territorial divisions where these natural divisions exist—the uniform methods of industry in the district would demand common council with each other—besides unity of action compels the workers to adopt modern ways of accomplishing Solidarity. Instead of striking separately, the workers would carry their grievances—if not settled locally—to the industrial district council. This would produce efficiency and a stability which would give ECONOMIC POWER to the WORKERS’ ONE BIG UNION.

Today we know that our interests are identical, that is, if we are workers. We also believe, that an organization which still maintains that the workers have interests in common with their employers—the parasites—is serving the masters’ interests, as opposed to the workers’ interests. Yes, the above is generally true. The workers almost without exception nowadays, admit they are fleeced daily by the profiteer, which means, they are subconscious of the wolves in sheep’s clothing—the Industrial Kings of the World, who rob us daily at the point of production.

General Industrial District Council

In so far as the workers have interests in common, they must organize into a General Industrial District Council. This would be done as soon as two or more industrial district councils existed in a district. It would not be necessary for this body to meet very often; say, once a year, if nothing of a critical nature came up appertaining to the interest of the whole district. Representatives or delegates from the central branch councils would meet, and comprise the general industrial district council, on the same pro-rata basis as the central branch council—thus we create co-hesion within a district—District Solidarity.

There will not be any permanent offices attached to the above councils, as they are purely creative or legislative. They must be so because they come from the job, and only workers who work on the job either by hand or brain are entitled to legislate or create machinery to govern their affairs. They know best! This does not mean that if some specialized work needs to be done, they must place a worker from the job to do it. No, they will hire the most efficient man to do the work.

Executives of Councils

The above councils, central branch, district and general, will all have their executives, who will attend to all matters as they arise during the intervals between conferences or meetings, and call into session—with permission of the job branches—emergency conferences, if a critical condition arises which demands immediate and important action that only a conference can settle. The office force of the clearing house or supply station, will be under the jurisdiction of the executive of the general industrial district council, who will go over books from time to time and see that efficiency is maintained, and render a report to the job branches.

Supply Stations

In districts which are a long way from the head quarters of the industrial unions, and where two or more industrial unions are operating, supply stations should be opened where delegates elected on the jobs can obtain supplies. All that would be necessary for the maintenance of this supply house would be a supply book and delegates’ credentials etc., with a Report Sheet for the daily supplies sent out and money received, which should be sent to the industrial union headquarters every day. Of course a duplicate of the work done would be kept on file for comparison, should a mistake arise. In this fashion, there would be no need for Index Cards, etc., together with the unnecessary work caused by duplicating the work at this office. The up-keep of this office would be maintained by those using it on a proportionate basis.

Form Union on Job

We are inevitably, always forced back to the ground work of organization, which always leads to the job. So we find, to form an industrial union is, not to open an office, but to go to the job and form a job branch—this is the foundation. It becomes unnecessary to open an office to do organization work for a particular industry, since there is in existence a general headquarters of all the industrial unions already organized. The job branch once formed could get its supplies from general headquarters temporarily, where a set of books could be kept under the jurisdiction of the G. E. B. When several small industrial unions exist, one bookkeeper and stenographer could be hired at headquarters to do the work, until they grow large enough to warrant the existence of separate offices with machinery. Then industrial charters should be issued. We come now to the Industrial Union.

Industrial Union

After 5,000 members have been attained, Industrial Union Headquarters could be opened. Remember, by the time a union reached a membership of 5,000, there would be in existence many central branch and district councils, therefore, not only would the work warrant the opening of a headquarters, but would be necessary to bring the workers together for common action nationally. The Industrial Union would then do business direct with the general office, distributing supplies to supply stations and job branches, and receiving the finance and paying its debts. A solid front would be forming like an army division, but under no circumstances should that division go to battle before enough recruits have made its strength almost impregnable. Never let the enemy choose the battle ground, especially while we are still weak.

Bureau of Industry

The General Headquarters of the Industrial Workers, organized into their respective industrial unions, now becomes the center of the whole working class as far as their economic interests are concerned. It is a central active bureau of industry. Each year a conference is held and officials elected. The most important executive of all is brought into being thru a ballot of the membership—the General Executive Board.

Under the jurisdiction of the G. E. B. comes the General Office, with all its subsidiaries, such as the publishing house, etc. They also supervise all unorganized fields where no industrial union exists to take care of it. They assist weak industrial unions, which come under their care because of not having attained a membership large enough to get a charter. This does not mean the G. E. B. would be the dictators to a newly formed union, but would work in conjunction with the rank and file in districts where job branches exist. Under no circumstances would the G. E. B., or the Industrial Union executives, operate contrary to the wishes of the membership of a district, providing they were not violating the principles laid down in the general constitution. Always the job branches, through their central branch councils, would decide who would be the organizer. The general office would finance this organizer until the district had sufficient funds in general headquarters to pay their own way.

Regional Council

To organize industrially is not enough for a revolutionary industrial organization to accomplish. There are other interests, which are communal in character. It is the working class community that will benefit by class-consciousness; not only the industrial part, but the mothers of the rising generation—the producers of the producers—producers par excellence. Therefore, on regional or territorial lines, we must form a city central council.

The City Central Council is therefore made up of delegates from the job branches, augmented by allowing membership to the wives of the fellow workers, providing they agree with the principles of the organization. This ought to be done, as a mother and companion’s interests are bound up with the conditions of her husband’s, and vice versa.

Social Center

This city central council would carry on propaganda meetings and finance itself thereby. This would relieve the industrial units from direct participation, which would only be connected by their delegate on the City Central Council. This would allow the industrial units to put in all their energies organizing the workers on the jobs. The council will also be the Social Center, where all the units in the industrial arena can find an outlet for their talents; a study could be maintained with a scientific labor library, economic classes and industrial history classes held, concerts and dances, giving an outlet for the musicians and singers; social dramas would be staged for those with artistic tendencies, and a multitude of things done in this direction.

The greatest inspiration of sincerity would be injected into the members of the City Central Council by the recognition that they are participating in a social council, which may be the council that will care for the community interests when capitalism is abolished. A beginning can be made into this work by organizing a system of food stations, also milk stations for the babies and the sick, to be brought into existence during real strikes. They would also during strikes set up a vigilance council to see that no acts of violence or vandalism were committed, and if any such acts were committed, to be in a position to place the responsibility. This may be the nucleus of a functioning body for the future—a Protective Council.

General Defense Council

Attached to the general office is the General Defense’ Council, which could be made up of the G. E. B. members, and those actively engaged in the responsible positions within accessible distance to the meeting place. A secretary-treasurer would be appointed through the committee. The office is a transitionary one, for, as soon as we gain power in industry the masters of bread who now are so urgent in their demands for blood and prison bars would then have to meet our representatives and would be forced to look at a condition unfavorable to themselves—the withdrawal of our Labor Power—which would solve the defense question.

There are several important items that come under the control of this transient office, and as long as we are forced into the capitalist courts—their battle ground—we must have funds to defend our members who choose to take legal defense. The raising of these funds, therefore, comes under control of the defense council. Under the direct charge of this council comes the hiring of all the legal talent necessary for adequate defense. It will be the duty of the council to observe closely all cases that are brought to their attention, and to decide whether the victim’s case is an organization matter. None but those arrested for doing organization work, or for being a member of the Union should receive defense. We should, however, always keep in mind the tactics pursued by the masters and not allow their camouflage to deter defense of a sincere fellow worker.

Defense Publicity and Relief

Publicity is a part of the general defense councils’ work. They should, through the secretary, get out publicity matter, nationally and internationally, and show the world how capitalism—the white terror—operates to our detriment. Also, the speakers for the defense are controlled by the council, who will devote their attention to the injustices of the capitalist class—imprisoning or killing our members.

Another important item is the caring for the wives and families of those in the dungeons. The assistance of those needing relief should be in proportion to their obligations and necessity for relief; sickness, number in a family and any reasonable obligation; but, in no case, should a self-sustaining person receive assistance. We must, however, avoid driving our dependents to the brink of injurious poverty. We should look upon the sons and daughters of our imprisoned comrades, at least, as an intelligent farmer looks upon his pure-bred stock—perpetuation of the class-conscious— which will assume some responsibility in the future.

Industrial Departments

The Industrial Departments have been omitted from this chart because of the desire to avoid confusion by extra complications. All that is necessary is to show that which is absolutely necessary today. The industrial departments may be a factor in the future, as there are many related industries which could not run on any anarchical scheme. For example, the tanneries and shoe factories, iron ore mining and the steel mills, and a number of other industries would be found closely related, if we had time and space to go into them. However, this is a matter for the future, as related to our immediate needs for organizing with efficient machinery under capitalism. As we develop our union, probably a need will arise for departments. This need is not here now; so let us deal with the immediate.

A Real International

With a program such as this being put into a tangible form of unionism in every country, we are reorganizing society to carry on production in a Free Society. The Workers’ International is in the embryo stage. At the present time messages are received daily from all parts of the globe of a shifting of the industrial scenery. The masters of gold have left the world the ruins of that of which they have always been the beneficiaries; they refuse in all cases to give assistance unless they may still continue to exploit. Their war did this—their greed for gold. The hope of the world’s workers lies in their ability to organize this prostrate world. Great hope and sincerity is shown now, for there are the great revolutionary syndicalist movements in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Holland, Italy, Spain, France, Portugal and other small countries; there are the revolutionary unions in Germany with civil war reigning; also, the workers of Austria and Hungary, making desperate plans to recuperate since the allied white terror has been introduced; the workers of the South American countries have endorsed the I. W. W. and become a part of the I. W. W. in Chile; the One Big Union movement to our north in Canada, and in Australia, due chiefly to the influence of the I. W. W. propaganda; and, the Shop Stewards’ and Workers’ Committees movement of Great Britain has voted in conference nationally to link up with the I. W. W. Our Russian fellows have sent out a call. Shall we answer and form an Industrial International? — International Solidarity of Labor—yes, a thousand times yes!!!

A Social Institution

This edifice of human affairs is a revolutionary one, because its very structure, outlined by the chart, leads through all the avenues of industry for taking care of the industrial and communal life, when capitalism shall have ceased to exist. It is rank and file; that will give them a lever to their own emancipation, and, by so doing, insure the future by the avoidance of chaos. Every member of the revolutionary union; every unit of the Army of Labor, so organized, will become a steadying factor in the transitory period; it embodies the forces necessary in the creation of food, clothing and shelter—the maintenance of life itself as well as giving an outlet to all esthetic qualities. There is the nucleus of protection, which, if extended nationally, can become the guardian of the workers occupied in peaceful production, which will be absolutely necessary, for, Lo and Behold the brutal outlook of today!

Constitutional or Capitalist Right?

An attempt has been made by trustified capital to outlaw any organization that challenges its power to own and control industry. This is all done in spite of the principles embodied in the Constitution of the United States, that all one hundred per centers should learn and adhere to. Article One of the first Amendment clearly states that no law should be made "Abridging the Freedom of Speech, or the Press, or of the right of the People Peaceably to Assemble." The fourth Amendment protects persons in their homes and renders inviolate the invasion of homes by any who may take it into their heads to invade—they must state specifically in a warrant the "persons or things to be seized"—this the so-called "law enforcers" hardly ever do. That great freedom-loving statesman, Abraham Lincoln, speaking of the people of America on March 4th, 1861, said, "Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government they can exercise their constitutional right of amendment, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it." This is a part of the Declaration of Independence.

Violence and Chaos?

We propose to make the changes according to the above well-defined principles—by peacefully organizing the workers and the jobs. We have a legal right to do this. Judge Landis said in the great Chicago trial we had a right to revolution, "providing we could put it over." Whether the change will be by violence is a matter entirely in the hands of the capitalist class. They are committing violence on every hand! We want no violence and no chaos! The Constitution provides for these changes, and facilities to bring it about, if the Constitution is inviolate. We do not bother about Congress, for it expresses the economic interests of those in control. It will make laws to prevent our representatives getting there; so we must organize to control economically and choose our own institution of political expression—this will be done.

The Russian Conquerors

The inspiring devotion of our Russian fellow workers to their revolution has given an example to the world’s workers. The greatest statesman of the day—Lloyd George, says, "You cannot crush Bolshevism by the sword." This is an admission of defeat by the physical force advocates amongst the international gang of thieves. The same is admitted by Italian statesmen, with an added rider by the British premier that, "the Bolshevist Army is the largest and best disciplined army in Europe." All this with practically no organization on the industrial field when the collapse came—when the workers found the ruins of capitalism’s great war at their feet. The Russian Proletariat was forced into the building of the new society with chaos reigning on every hand. Yet they have succeeded marvelously. We must learn a lesson from them. If they have succeeded against a world of vengeance in spite of the apathy of the labor movement of the world, how much quicker could they have succeeded with a scientific industrial structure and a trained industrial army? Let us learn our lessons from the past and never repeat a failure.

NOTE— In this article a statement is made that the writer does not want to claim he alone is responsible for this work. Therefore, he names Roy Brown, with whom be was cellmates while incarcerated in Leavenworth Penitentiary, as one whom he accredits with having a great deal of knowledge along the lines indicated in this article. [Roy Brown was Chairman of the General Executive Board in 1921.—Tr.]

Originally posted: 2004 at Marxists Internet Archive

In the past we have been so busy building the productive and distributive organs of the future-the industrial unions with their branches and councils--that we have had little time to devote to another equally important function of the job branches, namely as the basis of local and regional administration. But we need not only organs of production and distribution. We must also have local administration to begin with and regional administration in the second place. Such an organ is the City Central Council, pictured on the Hardy chart as a representative local body, drawing its members from the various job branches. This council will have nothing directly to do with production but will function as intermediary between the job branches for purposes of local administration. It will take over most of the functions of the present city councils, but will in addition have many functions growing out of the change from private ownership to communism. So far we have had little use for these City Central Councils except as a body to handle the question of joint local propaganda for all the branches, such as renting of a common hall and office, handling literature and arranging meetings and entertainments, etc. But these functions are apt to be immensely widened almost any moment without any particular effort on our side. That capitalism is about to collapse completely nobody denies. Production and distribution are breaking down daily. Capitalism is making a failure of almost every branch of human activity. Particularly dangerous is the railway and coal situation. The capitalist press is making no secret of the fact that even if a railroad settlement is now effected, which is by no means sure, the railroads will not even approximately be able to get in shape in time to handle the crops. Famine stares us in the face in the near future. If railroad transportation breaks down all industries will suffer. They will have to shut down, and more particularly for the reason that there is little or no coal available. People in an authoritative position are repeatedly warning us that there will be a coal shortage this winter, that factories will have to shut down and that people will freeze. It is these very things that constitute the collapse of capitalism. Add to this that conditions in Europe are much worse and tend to drag American capitalism along to destruction, and we may without drawing too much on imagination say, that the collapse here is impending.

No chain is stronger than its weakest links, and the rail and coal situation are two links that are ready to snap.

All modern governments depend for their existence on taxes. If capitalism collapses, taxes will soon cease to flow. There will be little or no revenue for the governments. No capitalist government, local, state or national, can exist without revenue. When capitalism collapses the various governments will soon follow. They will be unable to function. The administration of our cities will go to pieces. Streets, light, water, schools, courts, institutions---all of these items of local administration will be stranded.

In Chicago f. i. the local government has been in a state of collapse for some time past. City employees of all kinds, including police and firemen have repeatedly gone on strike. The city had in sufficient revenue to keep going.

People will become desperate from suffering and disorder. The bad elements, the same ones who lynch Negroes or start race riots or raid I. W. W. halls, will get out their guns and begin a reign of terror like in Centralia, with this difference that they will have no organized production and distribution to fall back on. Banditry itself on a large scale (such as Villa's) will be impossible. Then people will grasp at straws for their salvation. They will try the A. F. of L. labor councils in many cities as an organ of local administration. It will be better than nothing, but unless it speedily regroups the workers industrially so they can take over production and distribution through their unions, they will make a failure of their administration.

Only a council elected by the workers in the shop or the place of work, penetrates with its power to the bottom of society and draws its inspiration from the whole people, and is in touch with living life. The modern governments are not in touch with the masses. Only such a City Central Council will enjoy the confidence of the people as a whole sufficiently to restore order without bloodshed. Only such a council will have the means at hand of running a city administration without collecting taxes. It will base the administration on an exchange of services.

While we may have no immediate use for such councils in some places, the question of organizing them should be taken up, to be ready for an emergency. We must not allow capitalism to crush us in its fall. We may not have time to organize any considerable portion of the cities before the great crash. But the start we have will serve as a nucleus around which we can in an emergency manner group representatives from all occupations until such time as we have a chance to thoroughly organize them for productive and distributive. purposes. Thus the City Central Council will not differ very much from the Russian soviets at the time w'hen capitalism and capitalist governmenlt broke down in Russia.

These City Central Councils are bound to become the basic units of the local administration of the near future.

In England the workers have suddenly awakened to the necessity of immediate action in this regard. They are now organizing the same kind of bodies under the name of Social Committees in Scotland and Social Soviets in England.

In Sweden the syndicalist organization has from the start built for local administration rather than for productive and distributive purposes. The local samorganizations of the Swedes will serve like a charm as organs of local administration, while they still have a good deal to do before they get their productive and distributive organs in shape.

In Germany the Labor Exchanges correspond most nearly to our City Central Councils, the English Social Soviets, and the Swedish Local Samorganizations. In Latin Europe they also have their labor exchanges. (Bourse du travail, camera del lavoro, etc.) Everywhere the workers are getting ready for the great crash which they see coming. The penalty for neglecting it will be severe.

There is one danger attending this work.

Some people may become so captivated with the idea of making a body of local administration, no matter how it is made up, that the professional politician will get too much play and precipitate us into revolutionary adventures a la left wing. It is always a good rule to keep the politicians out. All they want is power and wealth without going the legitimate way in getting it.

The proper way to go about it, is to organize one shop after another, one place of work after another. As the number of job branches grows, the City Central Council grows by having new members added. Every shop branch that sends delegates adds to its power. Thus we secure a natural and organic growth of the future organ of administration, which leaves no room for the professional politician to get in, except he works as a useful producer.

Henceforth we have, consequently, to build in two directions. We have to hurry to build our industrial unions, in order to have new organs of production and distribution when capitalist production collapses, and we have to build City Central Councils so as to have organs of local administration when capitalist administration, built as it is on private property and taxes, comes down in a heap.

Transcribed by J. D. Crutchfield. Taken from an iww.org page no longer online, but available in archive.org

Ten years have now passed since the Swedish Syndicalists started their work with a independent Syndicalist organization for a conscious revolutionary struggle on the economic battlefield, the only field where the workers can carry on their struggle for emancipation to any advantage and with the prospect of victory.

The ideas of revolutionary Syndicalism were for the first time consciously propagated here in Sweden about fifteen years ago. True, discontent had already before been expressed over the lack of possibilities for an effective struggle by means of the Swedish craft union movement, and strong voices were heard for a rebuilding of these organizations in a revolutionary direction, but the Syndicalist ideas were not clearly formulated, aye, they were simply unknown to the workers of Sweden.

The Young Socialist movement of Sweden may be said to be the movement which during these years made the ideas of Syndicalism and its tactical methods known. Not as to say that the Young Socialist movement was the direct cause of the appearance of the Syndicalist movement as an organization — economic development and the necessity of revolutionary economic struggle would sooner or later have made Syndicalism necessary anyhow, and the practical experience of the Workers would then, perhaps, have formulated these ideas, but the Young Socialist movement with its energetic work of agitation and enlightenment on this subject accelerated this development. The Swedish Syndicalist Labor Movement owes great thanks for this conscious Syndicalist agitation carried on by the Young Socialist movement, for this agitation had the effect that the Syndicalist organization in Sweden, when it became an independent fighting organization, immediately took a position which was in complete consonance with the ideas of International Syndicalism.

The reason for the forming of this organization was simply that the old organization had plainly shown its incapacity to seriously represent the workers’ demands and interests. There was nothing else to do than to take this step, namely the step of trying to gather the workers in a new revolutionary organization for a necessary struggle against Capitalism.

Already before we had, during a series of years, energetically worked for the remodeling of the Craft organization in a Revolutionary Syndicalist direction. It was the Young Socialist movement which during this period was the driving power in this opposition. We got great numbers of workers on our side, demanding a remodeling of the old movement. A great number of propositions and motions with this purpose in view were made at the Congresses of the National Craft Unions and of the Landsorganization but these propositions were defeated without much debate. Not even after the smarting defeat of the general strike of 1909 would the Landsorganization make the smallest change in spite of the fact that at the National Congress in 1909 there were about forty different motions which all proposed changes in more or less radical direction.

1907, 1908 and 1909 are three years of mighty struggle in the history of the Swedish Labor Movement. One great battle followed upon another on the economic field and culminated in the great general strike of 1909. Most of these battles turned out to be stinging defeats for the Swedish Labor movement. The organizations were partly razed and great numbers of workers were thrown into unemployment and a considerable number of them were compelled to emigrate to foreign countries, especially to America, in order to try to make the living that was denied them in Sweden, thru the conscienceless persecution of the employing class. It was the revolutionary workers who had to stand the worst persecution, and when the workers demanded that the organizations should step in to protect this energetic revolutionary element in the labor movement, the reformist leaders showed the most callous indifference. They were apparently happy to see these fellow workers chased out of the country. By such means these revolutionaries, who were so troublesome for the reformist leaders, were gotten rid of.

The cause of all these defeats was exclusively this: that the battles were not conducted according to the methods demanded by the circumstances. The old craft union movement was permeated with that accursed consideration for the Capitalist class and their system of society, which is such a characteristic trait of the reformist labor movement thruout the world. If during these years the Swedish workers had resorted to revolutionary fighting methods, the results would surely have been different. The workers would then have emerged as victors from those battles.

After the inglorious end of the general strike everything was on the verge of falling apart. The organizations were thrown to pieces and unfit for battle and, what was worse, great numbers of Swedish workers had lost faith in all organization and its ability to gain the demands of the working class. The very idea of organization and solidarity had received a hard knock.

What was to be done in order to pull the workers out of this stupor? How could we get new life and a revolutionary will into this listless class? That was the most burning question of the day among the wide-awake workers. It was at this time that the syndicalistically inclined workers of Sweden took hold with all their power in order to create the Syndicalist Revolutionary fighting organization. They had completely lost faith in the ability of the old organization to develop in a revolutionary direction and for this reason energetic agitation was started for a new organization. A great number of meetings were held on the question where the workers gathered resolved in favor of forming such an organization.

After a preliminary conference in SKANE, where a committee was elected to do the preliminary work for a new organization, about twenty craft union representatives, together with others, met in convention in Stockholm at midsummer, 1910, to lay the foundation for the Syndicalist Organization in Sweden. After three days of earnest discussion the organization was ready to start on its career in life and to commence the necessary battle for the interests of the working class.

The name decided upon was “Central Organization of Workers of Sweden” (Sveriges Arbetares Centralorganisation). It was built on local “Samorganizations” in every place (Sam together). Technically these had for their purpose to unite all the workers of the locality, regardless of craft or occupation, in a unified class organization. As our organization has developed we have also worked out the necessary industrial organs inside the organization in order to divide the local Samorganizations in industrial subsections in the bigger communities with their many different kinds of industrial workers. In most of the big industries thruout the country, we have in our conferences selected industrial education and action committees whose purpose has been to serve as organs for activity along industrial lines when such proved to be necessary. As a whole the members are welded together in a unified class organization.

Already from the start our organization experienced a heavy resistance. Not enough that Capitalism began a ruthless battle against us, as was to be expected, but the old organization, particularly its leading men, has also done everything to put our movement down. In this struggle against us the reformists have used every means. Lies, slander, and treason have been the most common methods. Many of our battles have been broken up because the old organization acted as traitors. They worked hand in hand with the employers against us but we are proud to point out that in spite of these traitors we ourselves have NEVER acted in a similar manner against the members of the old organization when they were out on fight.

The membership figure has risen slowly, but surely, from year to year. The following figures will illuminate the development during these years both in local Samorganizations and number of members:

Dec. 31 1910…. 21 L. S . 696 members
Dec. 31 1911…. 38 L. S….1175 members
Dec. 31 1912…. 64 L. S….2037 members
Dec. 31 1913…. 94 L. S….3709 members
Dec. 31 1914…. 99 L. S.. . .4519 members
Dec. 31 1915…. 98 L. S….4880 members
Dec. 31 1916… 144 L. S….9295 members
Dec. 31 1917… 196 L. S. ..15216 members
Dec. 31 1918 . . . 296 L. S. . . 20331 members
Dec. 31 1919… 353 L. S.. .24000 members

1920 shows the same upward tendency only in a little speedier tempo. There is as yet no statistics elaborated for the past half but we can nevertheless state that S.A.C. (Central Organization of Workers of Sweden) at the moment of writing has 420 local Samorganizations with a little over 30,000 members. This figure is not very large, but Sweden is a small country of only some 6,000,000 inhabitants, and we are sure it will not be many years before the Syndicalist Organization has broken thru completely. The strength of Syndicalism in Sweden must however not be computed according to this membership figure for it is much greater. All around us among the masses of the workers, outside our organization, Syndicalism and its methods have become recognized and our ideas conquer. It now only remains for those workers to transplant their ideas into practice in the way of organization.

The Swedish Syndicalist Organization has already from the start stood as an uncompromising fighter against Capitalism. The number of battles during the years past proves this clearly.

From June 25, 1910 to December 31, 1919, the local Samorganizations have, according to the reports, conducted not less than 1,046 battles. A great number of other battles have also been conducted but have not been reported. The figure given includes mainly the open battles. In some cases the demands of the members have been wholly or in part complied with without the necessity of going to an open fight.

Of the 1,046 battles mentioned, 705 ended with victory for the workers, 84 with defeat and 257 with compromise. Besides, there has on the different places of work been conducted an extensive job battle, — that means fights on the job with different means, by which methods the members have gained considerable advantages. So, for instance, the Construction Workers in the S.A.C. have on a large scale used what they call the “Register” by means of which they have from January 1, 1917 to June 30, 1919, won a wage increase of not less than 145%. This is a quite noteworthy improvement won thru this persistent and conscious battle on the job for industrial control and fixing of wages. During these years the S.A.C. has been a battling organization and will be so much more in the future.

All the branches of the organization are developing towards greater stability. The financial status is relatively good. A newly started printshop is working under high pressure to produce all the literature which is spread in millions of copies over the country. The publishing bureau issues books and pamphlets in rapid succession, treating of the different phases of the actual class struggle.

Our paper “Syndikalisten” which is issued twice a week now has an edition of 15,000 on Wednesdays and 17,000 on Saturdays. Steps are now being taken to issue “Syndikalisten” as a daily paper. For this purpose the Organization has bought a house in Stockholm for 250,000 kronor in order to fit it up as a printshop and newspaper office and organization offices.

Special papers are issued quite frequently in large editions and in some parts of the country local Syndicalist papers are planned in order to better be able to agitate for Syndicalism.

All in all the Swedish Syndicalist movement is in a state of rapid development, not only is the membership constantly increasing but the stabilization progresses, making the members conscious Syndicalists able to know what they want and to know the task they have to perform in the imminent struggle for the re-organization of society.

[i]Transcribed by Revolution's Newsstand

Transcriber's Note: This article, in which Sandgren outlines his views on proper industrial organization and its implications for the new society, got him fired as editor of The One Big Union Monthly for its criticism of armed revolution, the Bolsheviks, and the "dictatorship of the proletariat".

Sandgren was an early opponent of political action and the parliamentarist De Leon faction in the I.W.W. He (among others) debated De Leon in the New York Daily People in 1907. That debate was later published by De Leon as a pamphlet, "As to Politics".

Solving the Social Problem Through Economic Direct Action

A resolution, numbered 43, and adopted at the 12th annual convention of the I. W. W., in the year1920, reads as follows:

...Resolved, that we always preach and practice our only weapon--Economic Direct Action--in order to abolish the present system of exploitation.

In this connection let us quote the last two passages from our preamble, as follows:

It is the historic mission of the working class to do away with capitalism. The army of production must be organized, not only for the every-day struggle with the capitalists, but also to carry on production when capitalism shall have been overthrown.

By organizing industrially we are forming the structure of the new society within the shell of the old.

The above is a picture in words of what the I. W. W. tries to accomplish. To make it more plain we are accompanying this article with a sketch of a chart designed to give a total view of the structure of the new society which we are building.

Industrial Communism Illustrated

The society that the I. W. W. is building is a society of Industrial Communism.

We propose that the people of the whole world should get together on industrial lines, in order to create the organs that are needed for the running of a communist society.

The organs we need are of two kinds, namely, first, organs of production and distribution, and secondly, organs of local and regional administration.

The I. W. W., having for its aim to establish industrial democracy and to anchor for all time all power within the useful layers of society and to make social parasitism impossible, establishes a new basic unit of the social structure.

The basic unit of our new society is The Shop or Job Branch. Every human being of working age, no matter what his occupation, is referred to some shop or job branch, even where the occupation is not properly speaking industrial in the commonly accepted sense of the term. Our chart includes them all.

These shop and job branches are on our chart illustrated by means of the ring of radial lines, which form so to speak the rim of the wheel-like structure.

From these basic units, or basic organs, all the other organs are derived.

The spokes in the wheel, so to speak, are the Industrial Unions, which are formed by uniting all the shop and job branches of every industry or occupation, whether it be shoemaking or the teaching of sciences at the universities.

The hub of the wheel is formed by the Industrial Union Administration, Departmental Administration and the Genera! Administration.

All these together, however, are only part of the structure of Industrial Communism. They form only the productive and distributive machine. The purpose of these organs is to produce what mankind needs and to distribute it.

The old I. W. W. chart did not go any further. It depicted only the organs of productions and distribution, for the simple reason that the need for other organs was not apparent while the organization was small and purely in an agitational stage.

As the organization developed it became apparent that we must add to it organs for local and regional administration if we wanted to cover the whole field of human activity.

We have had these organs in an embryonic shape for many years in our City Central Committees, and Councils of different kinds, but they never got beyond the experimental stage.

However, as the overthrow or the collapse of capitalism approaches and comes dangerously near, we realize the absolute necessity of new organs of local and regional administration as well.

These we have depicted on our chart as the iron tire, so to speak, which holds the wheel of production and distribution together. The two organs supplement each other and are equally necessary. And both of them are drawn from the shop, or the job branches. Through a system of industrial representation, that is, through representatives elected from the job branches, organs of administration will be formed which will replace the present organs of local and regional administration, when these no longer function, due to the fact that the whole system on which they rest has collapsed.

By drawing the productive and distributive organs as well as our administrative organs from the shop and job branches, by vesting ownership and control direct with the industrially organized masses we secure both industrial communism and industrial democracy.

This chart, which could very likely be improved upon in many different ways, depicts quite clearly how the I. W. W. proposes to solve the social problem through Economic Direct Action, as the 12th annual convention puts it.

No Room for a Political Party

As will be seen this plan leaves no room for a political party, city, state or national.

The City administration will consist of the City Central Council. As for state administration, as in U. S. or provincial administration such as in Canada or in Europe, the justification for them is disappearing.

The provinces in various countries may have a historical, or an ethnographic or political explanation in most cases, but the state lines on this continent are nearly all artificial boundaries.

The chief surveyor of a century ago seems to have taken a large U. S. map and a big ruler and laid out the country in squares with the exception of the places where mountains or big rivers made good physical boundary lines, without any consideration whatsoever for the natural economic boundary lines. In fact, how else could it have been done, being that the state lines were drawn up before the country was developed.

The states as political units are a nuisance like any artificial social arrangement. The nonsensical division into states is causing us to have over fifty different complete sets of regional administration without any natural basis for it, and is a tremendous expense to the American people and causes no end of confusion in our public life. It causes regions which should naturally be joined together to be split in several parts with separate administration, while it joins together pieces of regions which have little or nothing in common. Not to speak of the absurdity of having 50 sets of different laws, courts and lawyers. It almost looks as if the whole plan was devised by the lawyers. For the usefully employed men and women of these regions are only meagerly represented.

Instead of state lines a rational form of society would draw industrial boundary lines for purposes of administration according to the economic life of the country.

Thus the Pacific Coast country up to the mountains could very well be one region, while the intermountain states formed a second region, the gulf country a third region, the prairie states a fourth, the mine and forest states of the north a fifth. The tobacco and cotton states a sixth, the coal states a seventh, the factory states of the North East an eighth region, etc.

Thus the people who have most in common would be brought together under one regional administration for common welfare.

The regional Central Council would be composed of representatives selected by the shop and job branches, thus securing complete industrial democracy even on this stage.

In the same manner the shop and job branches would select the departmental and the general administration, the latter being composed of a general executive board and a general secretary-treasurer. We may not need the treasurer in the new society, but we need him at present.

The general administration would be the central exchange both for the productive and distributive machine and the machine of local and regional administration.

Where is there room for, or need for a political party in this plan? It covers the whole field. Every kind of human activity that is desirable and useful will find a place in this plan and every legitimate human interest will be safeguarded.

On the other hand this plan of society leaves no room, no opening for those who want to live the lives of parasites on humanity. All the "half-world", the caterers to vice, the criminals, and the professional politicians and the parasitical capitalist class will here be brought back to their proper place in the system of production and distribution, with no chance to get out of it. Nor would they have any chance to get on top as rulers except by formal election from the shop and job branches which would supply all the administrative forces.

Nearly all people with a socialist or near-socialist training as well as any practical minded worker will see and admit that Industrial Communism as thus proposed by the I. W. W. and many sister organizations in other countries is the proper way to solve the whole social question.

The Bolsheviki of Russia have partly built their new society according to our map. They have the industrial unions, except in agriculture, and they have the local and regional and national administration in embryo. But instead of having complete democracy, they have actually the dictatorship of a party which calls itself communist. The leaders of this party, however, declare that it is their intention to maintain the rule of this party only until such time as the industrial unions can themselves take the responsibility for production and distribution and until the soviets can be recruited from the industrial union branches exclusively.

The Central administration of the All Russian Trade Union movement, which most nearly corresponds to our general administration, is now subordinated to the rule of a political party, which has general direction not only of local and regional administration but also of production and distribution, even to the single factories and places of work.

There may have been many good reasons for this sort of an arrangement, this sort of tentative state communism, in Russia, where people were so unprepared for the task of taking over the country and all responsibilities, and where the mass of the people were unable to read print. It was an almost impossible task to transmit the plan of industrial communism on the spot to a couple of hundred million people who were either utterly illiterate or else entirely strange to industrial conceptions and ideas, such as can grow into the popular mind only in a country like America.

To the same extent that the people of the various countries have in advance propagated the idea of organizing the people into shop and job branches for the purpose of taking over all public activities, to the same extent that they have already organized such shop and job branches and industrial unions and industrial departments and central councils for local and regional administration, to the same extent will they be able to take over their respective countries without calling to their aid the political parties.

The Politicians

The politicians are looking upon such teachings with dismay. If the workers are going to take possession of the factories direct, without governmental proclamations, as they seem to be doing in Italy; if the workers continue to organize their camere del lavoro, as in Italy, or their labor exchanges as in other countries, or their local samorganizations as in Scandinavia, or their councils as in America and in England, what becomes of the political parties, the political machines and the politicians?

They will find themselves misfits and the politicians will face the necessity of earning their living by labor recognized as useful, instead of living by monopolizing the administrative jobs from top to bottom.

There is a tendency in all political parties to organize into something we would call "The Political Workers Industrial Union". This union of each party desires the chance to govern all the rest of the people. To govern is the business of a politician.

The republican and democratic parties, the Socialist parties, the Labor parties, the Communist parties, are all "Industrial Unions" of that kind.

As far as the communists of America are concerned some of them seem to wish to have their party, much as an industrial union, incorporated into the I. W. W. plan of Industrial Communism. They want a place for their "industrial union" on the I. W. W. chart. And the chief function of the members of this union would be to fill all the more important office chairs of the new society.

This is, of course, repugnant to all friends of real democracy or self-government.

The communist parties being composed to a large extent of people outside the working class proper, of artists, literateurs and boheme, of professional men without a footing in the bourgeois world and of parliamentarians as in Sweden, Norway and other countries, hate to see the world made over in such a manner that their conspiracy to govern the world comes to naught.

Feeling and knowing that they have no prospects of getting into the office chairs by the old methods of parliamentarian elections, they want the working masses to make a revolution and lift them into power as their rulers. That is what they call the dictatorship of the proletariat. They are not very anxious that the workers should give too much of their attention to building according to the I. W. W. blueprint, for these wily politicians and desperadoes realize, that if the workers build that way, they will not need the "communist" politicians.

Consequently we find that when the members of the communist parties join the I., W. W. or the syndicalist organizations of other countries, it is not so much for the purpose of building up those organizations, as for the purpose of changing their activities so they will fall in with the current of communist political activities. They do not join for the purpose of taking a bundle of our papers or magazines or books under their arm, as a rule, in order to sell them and to spread I. W. W. information. They do not join in order to fill our treasuries or build up our unions. No, they join us, apparently, mostly for the same purpose as the saloon-keeper or the doctor or grocer joins the Elks or the Eagles, that is for business.

And in the same manner as they join the I. W. W. they join the A. F. of L. and the co-operative movement or any other movement, that is for the purpose of propaganda, or in order to break them up if they do not yield to the propaganda.

And what is their propaganda?

They want us to change our program as outlined in the beginning of this article. They want us to abandon the attempt to build the new society within the shell of the old as being useless, and to gather our forces and join with other bodies that they are trying to convert, in an attempt to capture the capitalist state through "mass action". They openly state that they mean armed insurrection.

They are an impatient element thirsting for power. They want a political revolution by force in order to get on top and tell us what to do.

But as we have outlined above, in word and in illustration, we already have made up our mind what to do. We have made up our mind to do with out them. We propose to solve the whole social problem without political action, without the aid of politicians. We propose to solve it through Economic Direct Action, and we are winning the world over to our program slowly but surely. Fifteen years ago we were nothing, and now the workers of every country are taking up our program, where they have not temporarily been carried off their feet by the desperate, last-chance agitation of the left wingers from the socialist parties.

Somebody might say that our Central Councils are nothing but political institutions, as well as the general administration, in so far as it serves as center for these councils, and that we, consequently, have a political program as well as an economic, the latter being embodied in our Industrial Unions. This hairsplitting is frequently resorted to by the cornered politician, who is loth to admit that we could do without him and his politics. Such argument is insincere.

"Polis" is a Greek word which means town or city. We have it in Constantinopolis and Adrianopolis. From that "polis" is derived the word politics and political and politician. Politics means about the same as "city business," "city affairs," or in short, "public business." Political is that which has to do with public business, and a politician is one who devotes himself to public business or public affairs.

As a matter of fact the I. W. W. is trying to make public business of most human functions. It is going to make production and distribution public business, and it is going to make city and regional and national administration public business also, instead of the private business of a political party.

From that point of view a hairsplitter might say, with the benign judge up in Bellingham, Wash., that the I. W. W. is nothing but a political party.

The confusion comes from using "politics", "political" and "politician" in a double sense.

If we take these words in their original, respectable sense of "public business", then the I. W. W. is a political organization, through and through.

But the word politics, political and politician have long ago lost that sense and have gotten a new meaning that we use when we repudiate politics, political action and the meddling in our work by politicians.

The degeneration of our vocabulary has kept even pace with the degeneration of public affairs and public men during the reign of capitalism.

Politicians, instead of being public spirited men with the welfare of the people at heart, are commonly known in every country as conscienceless villains who steal and take bribes and sell out the people and their interests to the highest bidder. Politics, instead of being an honorable occupation for which honorable men compete, has become a cess-pool from which decent and self-respecting men shrink in impotent sorrow.

Politics is a cut-throat game in which only the basest participate and in which the biggest villain frequently is the victor. When the innocent working class goes into politics it quickly degenerates and falls into corrupt political machines.

The politician is after power. He wants to get that power, because it leads to everything else that he wants.

The Republican, Democrat, Farmer Labor, Socialist, and Communist politicians are all after the same thing. They all want to get possession of the government buildings in order to rule us from there. It is the same in all countries. But we do not want to be ruled. We want to "govern" ourselves.

All of them propose to "get there" by the use of the ballot except the communist politician. He proposes to get there by the use of the bullet. The Republicans and Democrats and all the other ballot politicians work their game with promises of reform within the confines of the capitalist state and a millennium in the future, perhaps, but the communist politician works his game by promising us all we ask for on the spot if we will help him into the government buildings so he can "smash the capitalist state." This change has come over the communist politicians during the last 24 months and they are still constantly changing "attitudes", "positions", "planks" and "principles." This rapid-fire evolution from parliamentarians to insurrectionists they arrogantly call "keeping abreast of the times". We call it trimming.

We refuse to see in it anything but the fury of a handful of intellectual or quasi-intellectual leaders outside the ranks of the regular wage workers who have lost their footing and are staking all on one card, the card of political revolution.

It is to further such ends and for no other reason that some of the "communist" leaders have taken up the I. W. W. as a platform plank. Some of them are issuing literature declaring open war against us. The I. W. W. has no use for their politics nor for the politics of any other party. We are enough to ourselves. We need no political help to solve the social problem. We will not reach our final goal one minute faster by deviating from our straight course of economic direct action.

The very presence of social organs like the ones we are building will in the final crisis be sufficient to make a desperate people turn to the solution we offer. If people keep their self control and adopt our program, no political revolution such as contemplated by the "communists," is needed. Any set of fools can make a bloody revolution, but it takes sensible men like the I. W. W. to attempt a complete economic revolution without bloodshed.

The Italian workers, in taking possession of the factories, have given wings to the expression "a bloodless revolution". The I. W. W. program makes such a revolution possible.

May every individual retain his political faith as well as his religious faith, if he wants to, but we hold that with increasing enlightenment all religious and political denominations shall disappear and every man and woman become a "politician" in the original and proper sense of the word, that is a public spirited person who seeks nothing but the common welfare.

But until that time we shall draw a sharp line of demarcation between political action and economic action. We will leave the name "politician" as a Cain's mark on the forehead of those who are now dragging men, women and children down in a sea of foul corruption and into bloody adventures. Our own activities we shall continue to characterize as Economic Direct Action, as per decision of our last convention, and we shall do our best to keep politicians out of it.

In the "appeal to the I. W. W." from the Third International we recognize the soft Jacob-voice of international solidarity, but in the out-stretched hand we recognize the hairy Esau-hand of wily politicians. We cannot and will not grasp that hand.

Besides, what benefit could we derive from joining a few hundred thousand politicians? We do not count certain economic bodies as their adhesion is largely sentimental and brought about in an unguarded moment by crafty politicians.

As pointed out in another article in this issue, the workers of every country are calling for an Industrial International. That will be a real, big international of tens of millions of workers with a practical, international working program, That is where the I. W. W. belongs, and not among politicians.

Transcribed by J. D. Crutchfield. Taken from a iww.org page no longer online, but available on archive.org

Any woman determined to win for her sex a complete emancipation will not know how to remain indifferent before a future hastened or retarded with a social fact as important as communism.

The feudal regime based on the doctrine of force, established on aristocracy of birth, the bourgeois regime founded on the profit system and putting its emphasis on material wealth have both kept women in subjection and exploited them. Will socialism, when realized, perpetuate this subjection and exploitation?

With only a superficial examination, one might believe this. Many of the militant syndicalists hold exactly the same opinion about women as those ancient Romans, autocratic and egoistic, who could think of no words of greater praise to put on the tomb of a Roman matron than, “She remained at home and spun wool.”

They do not understand the life of woman, bound, as it is, by all the enslaving duties of the home. They do not think of any activity of woman except in the shadow of a man. I have now in my hands a letter which a good militant sent me a short time ago about the work of woman. ‘‘Many of the comrades,” he said to me, “have decided, as I have, to have their wives withdrawn from industry.”

He did not even realize the tone of ownership which he had used. One could easily see in his thought and in that of his comrades that, the husbands once having made the decision, women had only to submit themselves, no matter what they were doing, to their husbands’ wishes.

Even in socialist circles, sympathetic to the emancipation of woman, it never enters the minds of our comrades that this emancipation can be accomplished by making an appeal to women themselves. Even when one appeals to the beginner, when one encourages him, when one urges him to action, he will find the beginner in his quiet place.

So that if it were necessary for us to depend for our progress on the masculine ideals which dominate society, we would not see woman’s emancipation but in the hazy distance of the future.

But there are things stronger than the sentiments and ideals of individuals. All yield, whether they wish to or not, to the law of the milieu in which they live. Communism, which tomorrow will modify the very foundations of society, will replace the rule of gold with that of service and will create, of itself, a favorable environment where the freedom of this slave of the centuries can be accomplished.

On the regime of the right of the strong, woman can do nothing. To power of money has given to the man who brings his wages to his home an advantage over her whose drudgery is not paid for. Today, in basing all rights on that work, the masters of the new city are “the citizens who earn their living in performing a work productive or useful to the community, as well as those who are engaged in household work for the former in order to permit them to work.” (Constitution of the Soviets, Art. 64.)

By its principles, by the remaking of the very structure of society, a communist society cannot fail to help in the emancipation of women, and I add that if it does not bring to an end the economic inferiority in which women are today, it will maintain within itself an unhealthy ferment which sooner or later will ruin it.

To bring about the society of tomorrow, which should break all chains, socialists are charged with the duty of seeking out the cause of this economic inferiority of women and of recognizing that there is one of the most serious problems which will present itself for solution to the minds of the grave-diggers of the old order.

In our age of the machine, where physical force is no longer the only requirement for work, where nervous force is an important factor in the doing a task well, generally speaking, woman does not find any avenue of work absolutely closed to her. She can assure for herself an independent livelihood. The thousand experiences of the war have proved that she is equal to all tasks. She can be sure of her livelihood if she can always work.

The child comes to prevent it. The child is then the cause of the enslavement of women. As a mother, the worker can no longer work. A baby demands constant care; during the first two years of its life, it monopolizes completely the activities of its mother. Circumstances have thus placed the mother and her child up to the present time in a position of dependence on the father; and the father, through the instrumentality of the child, has made the woman yield to his authority. Society has not only tolerated this state of things, but has embodied it into its laws and sanctified it.

It is thus that our laws on marriage and on the family constitute a veritable monument of iniquity. They have placed woman in a state of complete slavery to the man and have made of her a creature to be exploited.

I say ‘‘exploited,” and the word is not too strong. Hours of work not fixed, sometimes sixteen or seventeen hours, the impossibility of leisure, permitting her no personal culture, working conditions which no one attempts to better (see whether or not our city officials, members of the departments in charge of the houses of the poorer classes, have ever thought of a central kitchen for workers’ houses or for a sensible arrangement of the interiors of their homes); horrible sanitation—the man cares little, for it is not he who spends hours taking care of these hovels without light or air which are the kitchens of the workers’ houses—-such is the life that awaits the woman worker in her home. Enslaved by endless drudgery which constitutes what literary sentimentalists call the “life of the family,” the “queen” of the home has never been able to find time to work out a way to make her lot an easier one.

The Communists of Russia have realized that socialist society must set itself to the freeing of woman; not only in appearance, by the passing of laws which do not take count of the economic inferiority inherent in the life of woman today; but by providing means which will free her in part from the hold of the child, and which will try, by industrializing certain domestic duties, to render less crushing her endless round of household tasks.

And this is not all. For as the years pass, the desire for the independence of women will be more clearly formulated; and they will realize to what a state of inferiority in the present state of society they have been brought by their maternal function.

And there will be presented directly to communist society, as it has been already presented to bourgeois society, the problem of guaranteeing the complete economic independence of the mother. It is for us then to commence to work out the solution.

The reader is doubtless astonished that I pass over in silence what action our earnest comrades among the women can do to bring about communism.

In my opinion, it is not necessary for the time being to think about this action. Woman is, in France, too crushed by drudgery and by laws to have had any leisure to study political and economic questions. She submits to the present state because the duties which crush her do not permit her to revolt against it.

It is only when the revolution will have achieved the essential conditions of economic and political freedom for woman: that she can make the step forward towards her place in the world.

The more enlightened among the women workers are in sympathy with communism. On them, one can count. The new society will give the workers their due. All, in the development of their abilities, will pay back a hundred-fold to the society which has freed them the equivalent of the services which they have received.

(Translated from La Revue Communiste”’ by Frances B.)

Shop Organization in the Metal & Machinery Industry: "440"s method of organizing its shop councils into one city branch

The main office of Metal and Machinery Workers Industrial Union No. 440 finds keen satisfaction in submitting to the membership the accompanying organization chart, confident that it embodies such a perfected plan of organization as has never before been attained by the metal and machinery industry and as will infallibly result in the phenomenal and rapid expansion of our industrial union, if we get the uniform co-operation of the membership in its application. It is nothing but the thoroughly worked out and comprehensive application of the now world-wide popular and effective "shop committee" or "shop council" plan of organization to our industry. The plan includes the two overwhelming advantages of resulting in the most effective form of organization both for dealing with the masters now and for operating the industries after the masters are overthrown, at the same time that we follow the line of least resistance in organizing.

The membership will recognize that this graphic chart and its plan of organization is in exact accord with the action of the last General Convention of the General Organization in endorsing the "shop committee" plan of organization. And we need hardly add, in addressing the members of Metal and Machinery Workers' Industrial Union, that it is directly consequent upon and in conformity with the decision of our own last general convention at Toledo, O., last spring, and confirmed by referendum vote of the membership.

Because of the supreme importance of the subject and in view of the fact that this month we are able to produce this graphic chart, we are going to quote from an article of last month's issue of the METAL WORKER, which with a little study will make the chart perfectly plain to the mind in every detail. The article, in so far as it applies directly to the understanding and elucidation of the chart, reads as follows:

The metal and machinery industry is composed of many factories and mills where workers are engaged in the production of metal products. Every factory or mill of any size is sub-divided into departments and every department has its foreman.

Let us forget our nationality when considering this plan and bring our attention to bear upon the metal and machinery industry. If we are to have a genuine industrial organization, then we must study the industry and how it is organized. By doing so we will get a better idea of the form our organization should take.

We will now proceed to organize. First we will take the department of the shop. We will have one delegate in each department. The duty of the delegates will be to take care of their respective departments just as your foreman does now, except that the delegates' only function at present will be to collect dues and carry on the educational and organization work in his department.

These department delegates will come together, making up the shop council and elect a shop delegate, whose duty will be to get supplies from the branch secretary and issue them to the department delegates.

He receives reports from the department delegate and forwards them to the branch secretary, in short he has the same duty as the superintendent, or general foreman of the shop in which you work, that of looking after the shop in general except that his only duty at present it to look after the department delegate, take care of the educational and organization work in the shop and act as chairman of the shop council.

The shop delegates come together making the One City Branch organization committee. They elect a chairman.

This committee's duty is to look after the interests of the organization within the city. To raise finances and supervise the work of the organization in general throughout the city. The branch financial secretary shall act as recording secretary for the city organization committee and shall take care of the branch funds. He receives supplies from and sends his reports to the main office of the industrial union direct.

Branch secretaries shall be put on a wage basis only when the volume of business demands it, or the revenue will allow the same to be done. Branches shall hold only such funds on hand as may be absolutely necessary to carry on the work of organization in the particular locality.

The entire membership of a city shall meet together in one business of establishing general industrial solidarity in a given district. Delegates will come together from the City Branches in a district, let us say about every three or six months, except in the larger cities, where conditions will not permit or where it is necessary for foreign language speaking fellow workers to meet by themselves.

In either case it may not be possible for the membership of an entire city to meet together. Where it is necessary to meet in several different bodies for the above reasons, each body will have its own recording secretary, who will keep the financial secretary and organization committee of the One City Branch informed of the activities of the particular body.

Of course, the above scheme of the One City Branch with shop units can only be worked out as we gain sufficient membership in the various shops, but if we go about the work in the right way we can work it out to a great extent with our present membership. Where it is necessary to meet in several different bodies, and where your shop units cannot be formed at the present, each body will elect a delegate who will receive reports from the delegates in his body and turn them over to the financial secretary. He will receive supplies from the financial secretary and issue the same to the other delegates in his body and turn them over to the financial secretary. He will receive supplies from the financial secretary and issue the same to the other delegates in his body. These delegates from the several different bodies will make up the City Organization Committee. Whenever it is possible it will be best to go ahead with the shop unit plan, then we will have our organization committee made up of delegates from the various shops in the city. This is a genuine industrial organization in line with the present makeup of the metal machinery industry. We bring our organization to the shop where it belongs, educating and organizing the workers right at the point of production for a realization of our aims, that of working class management.

Besides all this a closer alliance will be maintained between the various One City Branches in a locality through the formation of Industrial District Councils. Industrial District Councils are formed for the purpose of discussing general organization matters pertaining to the district and to work effectively in the district. This is the only function it can perform at the present and is in compliance with our constitution.

To give you a general idea of Industrial District Councils as they can be formed in the metal and machinery industry, we will give you the following districts with Chicago, Cleveland, Dayton, and New York as centers. Of course, we have not much at present except delegates in some of the cities mentioned, but it will be an illustration anyway. The Chicago District will include: Milwaukee, Oshkosh, Racine, Kenosha, Waukegan, South Chicago, Indiana Harbor, Gary, Hammond, So. Bend, Harvey and Rockford, etc. Cleveland District will include: Detroit, Toledo, Tiffin, Warren, Canton, Akron, Erie, Youngstown and Pittsburgh. Dayton District will include Cincinnati, Hamilton, Middletown and Columbus. New York will include: Newark, Elizabeth, New Brunswick, Schenectady, Stratford, Bridgeport and Philadelphia.

One or two good delegates from a branch will be enough, for these are but conferences and we must not incur any large expense. Industrial District Councils will have no paid officials and will hold no treasury. Branches will pay the expenses of the delegates.

General Industrial District Councils are formed for the purpose of establishing general industrial solidarity between the different industrial unions in a given district. Its function is the same as that of the Industrial District Council, except that its delegates come from branches of different industrial unions.

The Industrial District Council takes up the questions pertaining to one industry, while the General District Council takes up questions pertaining to all industries in the given district. The scope of the latter may be limited to the city.

We want you to read in connection with this subject an editorial from a recent number of SOLIDARITY, quoted elsewhere in this issue*, in which is related the experience of one of our members in organizing one of the big industrial plants of this country along lines practically the same as this plan. It will give the reader an idea of the ease with which our plan can be applied.

Now, fellow workers, it is up to you. The plan is yours. As stated above it contains great and immediate possibilities for our industry. Its growth and achievement will travel exactly in ratio to our zeal and enthusiasm.

Transcribed by J. D. Crutchfield. Taken from iww.org page no longer online, but available on archive.org

Two hostile camps have developed in the Canadian One Big Union. The one is fighting for a militant industrial form of an organization, the other for a geographical (district) beans and soup association.

The former is advocated by the lumber (migratory) workers, and the later by the city "home" guard element.

The migratory workers have acquired their knowledge and class-consciousness in the bitter school of actual life, but the city slaves got their training in the A. F. of L. and in other yellow institutions that served to build up the capitalist system and now function to brace and patch it up.

From their numerous articles of polemique and their recent convention we gather the following points (they are contradicting one an other) which in their opinion would justify their form of an organization:

"That the workers would have more in common geographically than industrially.

"That the industrial form of organization endangered the success of the Russian revolution and that the Lumber Workers are having, or at least advocating a dangerous form of an organization, anarcho-syndicalist like the I. W. W.

"That industrial organizations such as the Lumber Workers etc., are A. F. L. unions.

"That decentralization of our organization and devolution shall take place". (group organization their slogan)

"That above five points are the basis wherefrom they intend to institute a "class organization" based on small geographical districts and crown it "one big union".

"And that industrial organizations creates unnecessary officialdom", (such as the Lumber Workers)

Winnipeg (Canada) is the gem of the district form of organization, since the inception. of the O. B. U. and their officialdom outnumbers that of the Lumber Workers 3 to 1. The Carpenters alone has 4 officials; the 17 Unions, each of them has its separate set of officials and three of them are separate Railwaymen's Units. Toronto, the home of the famous "class" organization shows on the books 2 Carpenters' Units, each with a set of officials.

There may be arguments as to why there are so many small crafts and trade divisions divided by geographical and other lines with sets of separate officials, but there are no arguments that would justify the agitation for further separation with a view towards the elimination of officialdom. You can get all the Philadelphia lawyers together and none of them will be in a position, to show you how that elimination is done in one big mulligan of district and decentralized group organization.

We agree to their sentimental expression in point [one] just so far as sentiment may go, "the workers have everything in common", not alone in a given locality, but the world over. But then we must remember that organizations are not advanced by sentiment, but by material conditions.

The method of production and distribution in a given industry are best known to the workers in that industry, and it is they who have the knowledge of the productive capacity of that industry, they are the ones to determine the form of government in that industry.

The industrial method of production determines the sphere of every individual in industry. We are bound to this law with unbreakable steel chains, chains that link us together with our fellow-workers in a given industry, in America, Europe, or Asia, whether we like it or not. No geographical organization can alter this fact. We must then, organize along the lines that the industrial method of production determines, according to industry, in the strata in which industry placed us going forward with the current of social evolution to the establishment of industrial democracy.

The talk of having more in common as workers of all or some industries in a given locality, serves only as a weapon to political adventurers and labor lieutenants, enabling them to form parliamentary and other machines, for the purpose of negotiation and compromise, thereby serving the master class. Therefore the militant working-class movement has just as much in common with that kind of individuals as they have with the master class, as a matter of fact those opportunists are more dangerous than the master-class.

Any school boy can tell you who the miners of Great Britain have more in common with, and in this connection there is the probability that the miners of all Europe join hands and by the strength of their industrial organizations, compel the masters to come to terms. On the other hand who cries out, "negotiate, compromise"? Who but the politico-geographical opportunists. (Same thing happened during the British railway strike). It was no mulligan of a fancy "class" organization, but the industrial workers of the metal industries who expropriated those factories in Italy just recently. Therefore the workers have more in common in a given industry the world over, than they would en masse in a geographical economic organization in the industrial field, such as the O. B. U. of Canada now proposes. Mass and class organizations have entirely different functions to perform. We have none in Canada that are worthy considering from a revolutionary political standpoint. If there is need of one, then it must be started outside of the O. B. U.

Transcribed by J. D. Crutchfield.

Originally appeared in The One Big Union Monthly (December 1920)