A brief article exploring the relationship between state-centered politics and the IWW's considerations in international relations.
RILU, IWW, IWA
“As for the author of “Solidarity Forever”, he is not at all unhappy to have been associated with the very first indigenous anti-statist, anti-totalitarian labor organization that Moscow saw fit to liquidate – and for good and sufficient reasons.” - Ralph Chaplin
In my last article on the IWW, I looked at the union around the time of its founding. I focused in particular on Thomas Hagerty, who wrote the first draft of the IWW Preamble, and Hagerty’s rejection of the state and electoral politics. In this article I look at how the IWW related to two international bodies of unions, the anarchist International Workers Association, and the statist Profintern, which was affiliated with the Soviet Union. In my view, the IWW today should have a discussion clarifying our orientation toward the state and our analysis of the role of state in capitalist society. I believe these historical examples can enrich that discussion.
In the 1920s and 30s, the IWW came into conflict with the Communist Party which emerged as a proponent of an electoral approach to bringing about a workers’ government. While the Communists accepted the importance of industrial unionism, they also believed in the Leninist concept of a revolutionary “vanguard party.” The IWW, committed as it was to democracy proceeding from the bottom up, was out of step with the Communist notion of democratic centralism. Furthermore, the IWW believed in a very different vision of how to create working class revolution. Over the years, the IWW has continued to oppose support for electoral political action and distanced itself from state-centered political solutions as a whole, continuing to stress action at the point of production.
During the 1920s the IWW was asked to join the Red International of Trade Unions, more commonly known as the Profintern. The Profintern was set up by the Third International Communist Parties under the leadership of the Bolsheviks in Russia. The IWW’s response to this request is telling about the organization’s commitment to smashing the State. In the IWW’s response to the Profintern there is a section titled Why IWW Is Not Political. A few quotes should make the IWW’s position on the State at that time clear:
“We believe that the class character of the state will not permit that institution to aid the proletariat in its class struggle. Therefore, we teach the workers that what they really require is not to influence the state favorably toward them, but to put themselves in such position, through an economic class organization, that they will be enabled to protect themselves against the hostility of the capitalist state.”
“The IWW is cognizant of the fact that it is trying to destroy a social relationship.”
“The capitalist class relies upon the state as its agency and instrument for holding the workers in subjection, and to preserve its rights to exploit their labor-power. The workers must provide themselves with an instrument more powerful than the repressive forces of the state — an organization for the control of their labor-power.”
I could imagine people with a state-oriented perspective saying “what about a “workers’ state”? These quotes don’t reject a “workers’ state!” Maybe. But it seems more likely that these quotes reject the state all together, than that they imply friendliness toward some (supposedly) worker-run state. In any case, it is clear from these quotes that the IWW was for an economic organization of the working class more powerful than the repressive forces of the State, an organization that would be capable of wiping away the old social relationships under capitalism.
After rejecting the Profintern, the IWW went on to flirt with adhering to the anarcho-syndicalist International Workers’ Association (IWA). In The IWW Its First 100 Years by Fred Thomson and Jon Bekken, we learn that in 1934 a referendum carried to affiliate with the IWA. This affiliation was never officially implemented and was later rebuked by the organization because of conditions of affiliation being placed on religious beliefs.
Some IWWs have had critiques of those in the IWA. For example, in 1937, A. Shapiro a member of the IWW wrote for the One Big Union Monthly a critique of the famous Spanish IWA section the CNT’s class collaboration and entry into the government and statist turn. He accused the CNT of “entering the Council of Ministry (government); with it you act merely as a political party desirous of participation in an existing government; setting forth your conditions of participation, and these conditions are so bureaucratic in character that they are far from weakening in the least the bourgeois capitalist regime, on the contrary they are tending to strengthen capitalism and stabilize it.”
Despite these criticisms and the failure to follow through on affiliation, the IWW has had and continues to have friendly relations with the IWA to this day. If we look at the basic politics of the IWA from its Statutes on Revolutionary Unionism it is plain to see why the IWW was and still is close to such an organization. The IWA is against all forms of state-centered politics, including those currents which seek to propagate the so-called dictatorship of the proletariat. Instead the IWA sees the goal of the revolutionary union movement much like that of the Preamble, where the workers must:
“…prepare themselves in their economic organizations to take possession of the land and the factories and enable themselves to administer them jointly, in such a way that they will be able to continue production and social life.”
Comments
Quote: "Some IWWs have had
I believe this was a non-IWW member, Alexander Schapiro, formally of the IWMA (IWA) Secretariat.
Quote: In The IWW Its First
What conditions of affiliation does the IWA place on religious beliefs?
When did "the organization" (as opposed to Fred Thompson and the GEB) rebuke this affiliation on those grounds?
Who is this piece written for?
Some of this we have gone
Some of this we have gone over a bazillion times on Libcom...I can find all of the stuff which I copied and pasted on some of the stuff OT asks above, however, I did find this. I highlighted the question on religion.
Comment #8 http://libcom.org/forums/history-culture/history-iwa-28092009
So what conditions of
So what conditions of affiliation does the IWA place on religious beliefs?
I don't want to be a jerk. I'm predisposed to like Klas since his username is in Esperanto. But there are several things in this article that are unsourced, and which I don't think are correct. I know that Thompson and his crew claimed that IWA affiliation would force the IWW to take an active stand against religious belief. But I've never seen anything showing that there was anything to that other than Thompson grasping at straws to support his own sectarianism.
I'm obviously not the author
I'm obviously not the author of the article. But I have some historical knowledge on the points OT is making. And I would like to specifically address them.
On the IWA and religion, having been in the IWA for more then 20 years, there was nothing more then: "Revolutionary syndicalism is opposed to every centralist tendency and organization, which is but borrowed from the State and the Church." Nothing prohibitng anyone from practicing (or not) their faith.
The core of this was the reactionary role the Chruch played in most countries. And the IWMA (IWA) merely was pointing this out.
Fast forward, this has to be placed in the context of the late 19 and 20th century roles of nearlly all church institutions as a whole. There was no "liberation theology". And even here, there is room for debate amongst libertarians.
But this is what is is. A mere statment by the IWMA (IWA) on "the Church". One could argue the political line that Thompson did, that because the goal of the IWMA(IWA) is "libertarian communism" (or libertraian socialism, depending on the aruthor), that affiliation would commit the IWW to that end goal. The Church thing seems much moe like a ruse then anything else..
Syndicalist I think we are
Syndicalist I think we are misunderstanding each other.
Klas' original post takes the Fred Thompson line at face value, look at the part I quoted in my first post. I'm taking issue with this.
Yeah, well, I'll let the
Yeah, well, I'll let the author take it for here. I am not grasping what you are seeking. And as I do not have access to the IWW's GOBs of that time, I can not be more specific then I have been.
Perhaps KB is being a bit liberal in emphasis, but "religion" and "politics" were clearly the issues of contention.
FWIW, the late Sam Dolgoff basically verbally confirmed same many times over the years (which I heard him repeat many times). I will have to look at Sam's "Fragments" book to see if he says anything specific.
I think the bit about "trade
I think the bit about "trade & craft unions" was a ruse as well. The CNT & other syndicalist unions had also shifted to industrial unionism. Actually revolutionary syndicalism, and the IWW, are more accurately described as class unions, not CIO-style industrial unionist organizations. It seems that by the '30s the IWW had fallen into a kind of self-referential sectarianism...you see this in Ralph Chaplin's 1930 pamphlet "The General Strike for Industrial Freedom" as well where he also tries to differentiate the IWW from European anarcho-syndicalism.
According to Theodore Draper's Roots of American Communism, when Williams was the delegate for IWW at the founding congress of RILU, he objected to the "dictatorship of the proletariat." Thus he objected to the "workers state" formula. He also objected to the unions being transmission belts for the Communist parties. These were in fact the general objections of the syndicalist delegates at that congress, and led to the formation of the IWA. Williams wrote a negative review of the RILU congress for the IWW when he returned to USA. I think it was after this that IWW voted by referendum to revoke its provisional affiliation to RILU (Profintern).
syndicalistcat wrote: ...
syndicalistcat
See the full report - The first Congress of the Red Trade Union International at Moscow, 1921. A report of the Proceedings by George Williams, delegate of the IWW (Industrial Workers of the World)
see also "Revolutionary syndicalist internationalism, 1913-1923: the origins of the International Working Men’s Association" by Wayne Thorpe ( pdf page 225)
@Oliver if i am taking that
@Oliver
if i am taking that line I am doing so because it was what i had available to me, via the IWW the first 100 years on the matter...
i am always interested in more sources, etc!!!
:D
The point I was trying to
The point I was trying to make is that the IWA never put restrictions on religious belief, and that would not have been a condition of the IWW joining.
It just so happens that Fred Thompson, the main author of First 100 Years, was head of the organization when the question and was one of the most vociferous opponents of affiliation, pushing the erroneous idea that joining the IWA would force the IWW to argue against religious belief among workers.
The way you write it he is not only left off the hook, his story is legitimated.
Makes a lot of sense to me,
Makes a lot of sense to me, thanks for pointing this out!
OliverTwister wrote: The
OliverTwister
I must be a really dull light and losing my ability to comprehend. But you both clearly have me confused. And I really feel like I wasted my time trying to explain something OT already knew to be
a reality.
My own advice to self: bud out out. Let others do their own explaining.
In some very preliminary
In some very preliminary talks with other Wobs about trying to get every GOB ever produced digitized and available for membership. I already had several, mostly from other people sending/sharing them with me. Anyway, was looking though this time period (1935-1936) and there's a lot of mention of the IWA affliation question.
I don't have a complete sense of what's going on, because I don't have all the relevant GOBs, but a couple things that are apparent is that the MTWIU1 , IU 4402 and possibly some other bodies wanted a revote, not sure because of what.
The arguments about the anti-political and anti-religious clauses of the IWA constitution are mentioned, but are from previous issues I don't have.
Fred Thompson appears in the January 1936 GOB, arguing against IWA affiliation. He disputes MTWIU's claim that international solidarity is impossible without affiliation, argues that it's perfectly democratic to reconsider a decision made by the organization and then claims the IWW will have to change its propaganda to U.S. workers. Says IWA principles are endorsements for "destruction and violence" that will make for easy repression against the IWW.
Another letter in the January 1936 issue accuses the opposition of using technicalities to halt the process. A letter from a Branch Secretery in Sweden wonders if the IWA even knows anything about the IWW and advocates sort of a reciprocal period of education.
The February 1936 issue has a pro-IWA letter that the IWW shouldn't dictate to other places what form of organization to have. Evidently some of the things the anti-IWA people said was that IWA unions weren't industrial. The letter also mentions the issue of farmers, there might have been a difference at that time on how farmers were viewed by both organizations?
You ask about the GRU in
You ask about the GRU in footnote 1, this is a bit off the IWA question but I'll clarify as much as I've been able to get about it.
The General Recruiting Union was a placeholder Industrial Union when the organization was actually structured as a combination of IUs. Prior to the 50s, delegates to Convention were elected from the separate IU conventions, members of the Board were elected by the most numerous IUs, and there were no at-large members except for general officers - all members were members of branches and Industrial Unions.
Where there were not enough members in a specific industry to charter IU branches, they could charter a GRU branch. I believe that industrial branches also fell under the GRU if there were not enough branches in the same industry to support a full industrial union. There were also a few administrative IUs which combined branches of multiple industries such as 310-330 (general and industrial construction). The GRU administration basically became the General Administration by default in the 1950s. That is why so many things in the union are still named "General", because they come from a time when those positions or organs had to be distinguished from the positions of other component bodies.
This history, by the way, is why I prefer not to refer to people by IU, and especially not by the number of the IU. The Industrial Unions were once actually existing organizing and administrative bodies, but since no Industrial Unions currently exist it just seems weird. I think we'd be much better off saying someone works in the Construction or Foodservice Industry, rather than continue to say they are 330 or 460.
I would really like to see
I would really like to see Thompson's exact arguments. I know of a lot of them second-hand, from people like Sam Dolgoff, etc. But, even without looking at them, I would have to say that people were manipulating in this process.
Knowing Thompson's inclinations, it is easy to see why he would do this.
It is very interesting that all these years later, IWW people keep repeating Thompson's arguments, which are at best exaggerated. For example about "anti-religious clauses". The IWA statutes never had any such thing, but as I understand, there was a lot of attention paid to this issue.
What the IWA statutes did refer to was an opposition to the centralism of the church, in a paragraph related to centralism. It refers to tendencies inspired by the centralism of the church.
"Revolutionary unionism is opposed to all organizational tendencies inspired by the centralism of State and Church, because these can only serve to prolong the survival of the State and authority and to systematically stifle the spirit of initiative and the independence of thought. Centralism is and artificial organization that subjects the so-called lower classes to those who claim to be superior, and that leaves in the hands of the few the affairs of the whole community - the individual being turned into a robot with controlled gestures and movements. In the centralized organization, society’s good is subordinated to the interests of the few, variety is replaced by uniformity and personal responsibility is replaced by rigid discipline. Consequently, revolutionary unionism bases its social vision on a broad federalist organization; i.e., an organization stemming from the bottom up, the uniting of all forces in the defense of common ideas and interests."
Besides this, the IWA is against working through the Parliament, State or political parties:
"Revolutionary unionism is the staunch enemy of all social and economic monopoly, and aims at its abolition by the establishment of economic communities and administrative organs run by the workers in the field and factories, forming a system of free councils without subordination to any authority or political party, bar none. As an alternative to the politics of State and parties, revolutionary unionism posits the economic reorganization of production, replacing the rule of man over man with the administrative management of things. "
or
"Revolutionary unionism rejects all parliamentary activity and all collaboration with legislative bodies; because it knows that even the freest voting system cannot bring about the disappearance of the clear contradictions at the core of present-day society and because the parliamentary system has only one goal: to lend a pretense of legitimacy to the reign of falsehood and social injustice."
The interesting thing is that the IWW also says it is against political parties.
"IWW General Bylaws, ARTICLE IV, Political Alliances Prohibited - To the end of promoting industrial unity and of securing necessary discipline within the organisation, the IWW refuses all alliances, direct or indirect, with any political parties or anti-political sects, and disclaims responsibility for any individual opinion or act which may be at variance with the purposes herein expressed."
If you read this, it becomes clear that the problem is not really with anti-political clauses. The problem for the IWW may have been their ideological construct of "anti-political sects", which I can assume only refers to anarchism.
Quote: This history, by the
Hear, hear!
There are some folks who have
There are some folks who have I-o-U's outstanding
@klasbatalo Quote: Some IWWs
@klasbatalo
Which A. Shapiro was this?
Was it;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sascha_Schapiro
or;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Schapiro
as neither of them appear to have been members of the IWW.
Lugius
Lugius
Where's this from in this thread. I'm familiar with A. Shapiro
Syndicalist: it's mentioned
Syndicalist: it's mentioned in the original article, about three paragraphs from the end.
I think I understand how Klas
I think I understand how Klas may have initially erred in their description of Alexander Shapiro. And they should've used the keen eye that I know they have for a detail in Wagner's piece indicating, perhaps obscurely, that A. Shapiro was not an IWW member.
In the August 1937 issue of the IWW "One Big Union Monthly", appears an article by the Wobbly Joesph Wagner entitled: "Class Collaboration — Old and New by Joseph Wagner
A timely reminder of working class political experience, and A. Shapiro’s Open Letter to the C.N.T." The letter is misleading and herein is the error.
Wagner himself, at the end of his article vouches as to the merits of the writer. Wagner states that Shapiro "was for a number of years one of the Secretariat of the International Workingmens Association. Therefore, whatever the readers of the “One Big Union” may think of his statements, I assure them that Shapiro is sincere and means what he says."
[https://libcom.org/library/big-union-monthly-193708]
Shapiro was an interesting person for most of his life. I believe he was either "the" or one of the author's of this 1933 IWMA document ("The International Working Mens Association I.W.M.A: Its policy, it aims, its principles" --- https://libcom.org/library/international-working-mens-association-iwma-its-policy-it-aims-its-principles) One which bent over backwards to try and accommodate the IWW concerns about the IWMA. With an aim at closer relation.
syndicalist