Jay Fox

“ A new type of militant leadership for the labor movement is another plank in the general platform of the League. As things now stand in the trade unions, the leadership is a disgrace and a tragedy to the workers. Our present trade union officials, with few exceptions, are overbearing and tyrannical with the workers and subservient and timid towards the capitalists. They are overpaid, unimaginative, ignorant, and all too often, corrupt. They must be replaced by fighters, men who know what the class struggle is and who have the courage to fight it through to its inevitable conclusion. ”

“ But the increase of wealth and power at the command of Capital and its ruthless grinding down of Labor has made it perfectly plain to the vast majority of workers that the assertion is a vicious lie designed to mislead the toilers and keep them in perpetual bondage to the employing class.
The craft union was the natural starting point for the organization of Labor. When unionism was young there were no industries as we have them today and the industrial trust wasn't even a dream. ”

“ When the capitalist cannot make profits out of the labor of the workers he turns them out, cuts off their source of bread without the least compunction. They may starve to death for all he cares. He is not their keeper except while they keep him in fat dividends. When he needs more help he makes the announcement at the factory gate where there are plenty of free Americans anxiously waiting to serve him. They are free Americans—they cost him nothing. That is the only sense in which Americans are free today. ”

“ While differing in many respects from previous forms of exploitation, capitalism is no less cruel and merciless. The capitalists own the means by which we live and thus we are ad their mercy in no less degree than were our ancestors in the days of chattel slavery. The kings of old ruled the world with an iron hand, but they had a much smaller world to command than the Industrial Monarchs of today. The wealth of America exceeds that of the entire ancient world, and a few brainy men in New York City control the bulk of it ”

“ Special laws have been devised by the henchmen of capital in control of the "people's" government for the suppression of the people's press and the punishment of editors and speakers who have the hardihood to expose the rottenness of the capitalist system and advocate a change. Freedom of speech no longer exists in this country because the people have no control over the government. It is now the pliant tool of the plutocrats, doing their strong-arm work in return for campaign funds and other forms of graft. Capitalism is master of the world today. ”

“ Under, this system gigantic corporations were formed which gave their managers almost unlimited power over the workers in their employ and all others who came within the sphere of their influence. For it is a truism that a capitalist's power is measured by the amount of capital he controls, and that the men who control capital, control the means by which the people live. All opposition to the will of the new industrial monarchs has been ruthlessly crushed. The craft unions were the first to get the sword. The unions, still in their primitive form, became an easy prey for the big corporations. ”

“ It is the result of a crying need for a system of organization that will meet the demands of modern industrial evolution. The old clumsy method of each craft fighting its own battle is as much out of place as would be an ox-cart service in competition with modern railroads. Whether in the matter of economy and efficiency of administration, or in the defense of the workers' interests, departmentalized industrial unionism is incomparably superior to our present primitive and outworn craft organizations. ”

“ The painful spectacle of unions going down to defeat before the onslaughts of combined capital, while allied unions stand by with seeming indifference and give their fallen brothers no helping hand, will be a thing of the past, Such preposterous unionism will be buried so deep it will never be revived except in scornful memory. It will then be difficult to imagine that the workers ever had such short-visioned, narrow-minded, self-centered unionism, as our present system. ”

“ In the great fights that have since occurred the industrial form of our union has stood us in good stead, Had we been so organized that one part of the working force remained at work while the rest were striking, we would have been defeated and our organization broken up long ago. Speaking from experience, we heartily recommend industrial unionism to the labor movement as a whole, and we pledge ourselves to do whatever we can to bring it about. ”

“ The startling revolutionary change in the organization of industry made it absolutely essential that a similar change be made in the structure of our labor unions. Movement is life. The person or the institution that does not move dies. The American labor movement has not changed to keep pace with industrial evolution and therefore is doomed unless it awakens from its torpor very soon. It was formed to fight primitive craft capitalism. ”

“ All of which does not seem to have had the least effect upon the leaders of Labor who have kept on fiddling upon their one-string unions, blind as bats in daytime to the tremendous changes going on all around them. The criminal inefficiency of the leadership is costing the workers millions of dollars and millions of hours of labor yearly; not to speak of the loss of highly important educational opportunities that every progressive labor movement provides for its membership. The incapacity of craft unionism has been proven a thousand times over in recent years. ”

“ The Trade Union Educational League is a revolutionary organization. It holds that the capitalist system, because of the contradictions in itself, not only exploits and robs the workers but must also lead to such a collapse that it will have to be replaced by a new society in which the principle of production for use, not for profit, shall prevail. The League subscribes to the formation of a Workers' Republic. It advocates the dictatorship of the proletariat, which means that none but the hand and brain workers, industrial and agricultural, should rule society. ”

“ The same will be true of the unions in the other industries. The capitalists rule not so much because they are strong as because we are weak. When Labor learns to rise above its petty craft point of view and to draw itself into great industrial batallions, then the domination of the exploiters will be doomed. The next great step in the workers' march to industrial freedom is the formation of great departmentalized industrial unions in every industry. ”

“ A railroad has one organization, with one center, one head, and all departments are mere extentions, arms reaching out from that center and always responsive to its commands. That is real organization and by having it a railroad can function properly and concentrate its force at any one point at will. Now suppose a railroad had an organization on every division, each independent of all the others. It doesn't take much thought to see how soon the system would be balled up. Yet that would be only a fraction of the number of organizations the workers have on every railroad. ”

“ Our organizations, political and industrial, are too weak to withstand their wills. The whole movement must be reorganized and regenerated according to the League's plan. This fact is so self-evident that one can hardly imagine intelligent workers holding off for long from starting into this work of preserving and building up the labor movement. We have come to a parting of the ways. One way, the way of inaction, leads surely to "open shopism" and slavery. The other, the way of militant activity, leads to stronger organization and finally to freedom. ”

“ In like manner the craft union trades its "autonomy" for the better conditions the industrial union secures for its members. In both cases, the individual and the craft union alike get the best of the bargain. The "liberty" they give up is no liberty at all. It is pure-and-simple illusion. When an individual joins a union, or a union the industrial union, what takes place is simply this: They both get somebody else to perform a disagreeable duty for them, and do it a lot better than they could do it themselves. ”

“ The unions became dead to every urge of progress, and where they did not retrogress, they stood still: The conservative leaders rejoiced at the radical exodus. They were happy to be rid of those who watched them and questioned their policies; they would now have things their own way. And with what result we see today, a labor movement utterly demoralized and incapable of taking even a defensive stand against the attacks of industrial capitalism. ”

“ Especially has the leadership of labor degenerated, until today it is the laughing-stock of the unionists of the world. The American labor movement, as exemplified by its official leadership, has become a stagnant pool, conservative, capitalistic, and reactionary to the last degree. It is the function of the League, through the organization of the militants, to change all this and to put our labor movement where it rightfully belongs, in the forefront of the world labor war for the emancipation of the toilers of all lands. ”

“ Each craft union is a little republic and has its narrow craft selfishness highly developed through the years of individual craft union struggle. It cannot be relied upon to stand the strain of long drawn out federated fights; and the federations being powerless to control their craft units often go to pieces in the midst of a strike. So long as these little craft republics exist there can be no real unity and solidarity in the Labor movement. Each craft will continue to fight for its own particular place in the Sun, itself deciding just where that particular place shall be. ”

“ Thus it will be seen that as an exploiter of labor, capitalism made a good beginning, and the precedent then established has been loyally adhered to ever since. Every atom of energy that Labor possessed has been coined into dollars, and we have today the doubtful distinction of being the richest country in the world, while millions of our workers are without the means of life. ”

“ The class war will not end by one party defeating the other. Labor defeated will rise again. Capital licked will make terms and resume the exploitation of Labor. The class struggle end when the causes that give rise to it are removed. The economic structure of society must be remodeled before the basis for a real civilization can be laid. ”

“ When capitalism was young and inexperienced every trade had its separate existence and its separate owner, and each owner and employer was the keen competitor of every other man in his line of work. In those days competition was said to be the "life of trade," the incentive to capacity production without which men would stagnate and deteriorate. However, modern capitalists have discovered the utter fallacy of that idea, and have discarded it, after suffering tremendous losses through its ruinous application. ”

“ The League itself holds general conferences yearly. The organization is financed by voluntary contributions of individuals and local unions, by the sale of literature, and through the Sustaining Fund.
Every worker who has his own best interests at heart and who understands the problem of the labor struggle should join hands with the League. It is a forgone conclusion that there is no hope for the American working class organized as it now is. We are at the absolute mercy of the bosses. Owning the jobs and controlling the Government they can sit back and dictate the terms of work. ”

“ Modern capitalism had its beginning with the discovery of steam power and the invention of machinery. Before the advent of machinery the workers owned their hand tools and worked mostly in their own homes. The development of machinery soon left the hand workers without employment and they had to seek work from the capitalists who owned the costly machinery. Thus they became dependent upon the employers, who were not slow to take advantage of their new-born power. Spurred on by visions of wealth and aflluence the new capitalists began at once to exploit Labor to the limit. ”

“ The jails of the country contains hundreds of such victims, martyrs to the cause Of humanity, men and women who dreamed of a better life than that which capitalism provides. Modern capitalism leaves a trail behind it as bloody as that of its predecessors and a record of cruelty and injustice just as black. ”

“ Even the church not Immune to the poison of capitalism. Nowhere do we hear it raising its heavenly voice against the rapacity of the money power. On the contrary, it almost universally looks upon criticism of capitalism as heresy; and the clergyman who has the temerity to espouse the cause of Labor will soon find himself without a pulpit. If the founder of Christianity were to come amongst us today and preach a sermon such as he delivered when in the flesh, he would be arrested under the criminal syndicalist law and sent to prison for a term of years. ”

“ Our unions have practically the same form and use about the same tactics that they started out with at the dawn of industry. It has never occurred to the leaders of Labor that when the foundry, machine and blacksmith shops were combined under one management that these mechanics should also be united in one union. The concentration of the shops made for economy in production and efficiency in management. It reduced competition amongst the bosses; it increased their control over the market; it magnified their power over the workers many fold. ”

“ In the preparation of the working class for its inevitable role of controlling production and society generally, the League does all in its power to strengthen the various types of labor activity and organization. Above all it stresses the necessity for the most compact organization possible on the industrial field. It condemns the present primitive system of craft unionism and demands a complete reorganization of the labor movement upon an industrial basis. ”