Vincent Saint John

“ A little investigation will prove to any worker that while the workers are divided on the industrial field, it is not possible to unite them on any other field to advance a working class program.
Further investigation will prove that with the working class divided on the industrial field, unity anywhere else—if it could be brought about—would be without results. The workers would be without power to enforce any demands. ”

“ The working class and the employing class have nothing in common. There can be no peace so long as hunger and want are found among millions of working people and the few, who make up the employing class, have all the good things of life.
Between these two classes a struggle must go on until the workers of the world organize as a class, take possession of the earth and the machinery of production, and abolish the wage system. ”

“ The rapid gathering of wealth and the centering of the management of industries into fewer and fewer hands make the trade unions unable to cope with the ever-growing power of the employing class, because the trade unions foster a state of things which allows one set of workers to be pitted against another set of workers in the same industry, thereby helping defeat one another in wage wars. The trade unions aid the employing class to mislead the workers into the belief that the working class have interests in common with their employers. ”

“ The work before us is to build up an organization of our class in the field wherein our power lies. That task must be accomplished by the workers themselves. Whatever obstacles are in the way must be overcome, however great they seem to be. Remember that the working class is a great class and its power is unbounded when properly organized.
As we organize we control our labor power. As we control our labor power a little we control industry a little; as we organize more we will control more of our labor power, and also control industry more. ”

“ In answer, ask yourself what will stop the use of the same weapons against you on the political field if by the political activity of the workers you were able to menace the profits of the capitalist? ”

“ Separation of craft from craft renders industrial and financial solidarity impossible.
Union men scab upon union men; hatred of worker for worker is engendered, and the workers are delivered helpless and disintegrated into the hands of the capitalists.
Craft jealousy leads to the attempt to create trade monopolies.
Prohibitive initiation fees are established that force men to become scabs against their will. Men whom manliness or circumstances have driven from one trade are thereby fined when they seek to transfer membership to the union of a new craft. ”

“ Neither can the capitalists and their tools exterminate the working class or any considerable portion of it; they would have to go to work themselves if they did.
It is true that while the movement is weak they may victimize a few of its members, but if that is not allowed to intimidate the organization the employers will not be able to do that very long.
Persecution of any organization always results in the growth of the principle represented by that organization—if its members are men and women of courage. If they are not, there is no substitute that will insure victory. ”

“ The worker, wholly separated from the land and the tools, with his skill of craftmanship rendered useless, is sunk in the uniform mass of wage slaves. He sees his power of resistance broken by class divisions, perpetuated from outgrown industrial stages. His wages constantly grow less as his hours grow longer and monopolized prices grow higher. ”

“ Laborers are no longer classified by differences in trade skill, but the employer assigns them according to the machines to which they are attached. These divisions, far from representing differences in skill or interests among the laborers, are imposed by the employers that workers may be pitted against one another and spurred to greater exertion in the shop, and that all resistance to capitalist tyranny may be weakened by artificial distinctions. ”

“ Why, then, should not all stress be laid upon the organization of the workers on the industrial field?
The illustration used by our fellow worker in which he likens the economic organization to a one legged concern because it does not mention political action, is not a comparison that in any way fits the case. ”

“ Universal economic evils afflicting the working class can be eradicated only by a universal working class movement. Such a movement of the working class is impossible while separate craft and wage agreements are made favoring the employer against other crafts in the same industry, and while energies are wasted in fruitless jurisdiction struggles which serve only to further the personal aggrandizement of union officials. ”

“ While encouraging these outgrown divisions among the workers the capitalists carefully adjust themselves to the new conditions. They wipe out all differences among themselves and present a united front in their war upon labor. Through employers’ associations, they seek to crush, with brutal force, by the injunctions of the judiciary, and the use of military power, all efforts at resistance. ”

“ The proposition, then, is to lay all stress in our agitation upon the essential point, that is, upon the places of production, where the working class must unite in sufficient numbers before it will have the power to make itself felt anywhere else. ”

“ Class divisions grow ever more fixed and class antagonisms more sharp. Trade lines have been swallowed up in a common servitude of all workers to the machines which they tend. New machines, ever replacing less productive ones, wipe out whole trades and plunge new bodies of workers into the ever-growing army of tradeless, hopeless unemployed. As human beings and human skill are displaced by mechanical progress, the capitalists need use the workers only during that brief period when muscles and nerve respond most intensely. ”

“ Failing to force concessions from the employers by the strike, work is resumed and “sabotage” is used to force the employers to concede the demands of the workers.
The great progress made in machine production results in an ever increasing army of unemployed. To counteract this the Industrial Workers of the World aims to establish the shorter work day, and to slow up the working pace, thus compelling the employment of more and more workers. ”

“ During strikes the works are closely picketed and every effort made to keep the employers from getting workers into the shops. All supplies are cut off from strike bound shops. All shipments are refused or mis-sent, delayed, and lost if possible. Strike breakers are also isolated to the full extent of the power of the organization. Interference by the government is resented by open violation of the government’s orders, going to jail en masse, causing expense to the taxpayers—which is but another name for the employing class. ”

“ Craft divisions hinder the growth of class consciousness of the workers, foster the idea of harmony of interests between employing exploiter and employed slave. They permit the association of the misleaders of the workers with the capitalists in the Civic Federations, where plans are made for the perpetuation of capitalism, and the permanent enslavement of the workers through the wage system. ”

“ Will it not follow that, united in sufficient numbers at the workshops and guided by the knowledge of their class interests, such unity will be manifested in every field wherein they can assist in advancing the interest of the working class? ”

“ The constant development and concentration of the ownership and control of industry will be met by a like concentration of the number of industrial unions and industrial departments. It is meant that the organization at all times shall conform to the needs of the hour and eventually furnish the medium through which and by which the organized workers will be able to determine the amount of food, clothing, shelter, education, and amusement necessary to satisfy the wants of the workers. ”

“ Branches of an industrial local deal with the employer only through the Industrial Union. Thus, while the workers in each branch determine the conditions that directly affect them, they act in concert with all the workers of the industry through the local industrial union. ”

“ Craft divisions foster political ignorance among the workers, thus dividing their class at the ballot box, as well as in the shop, mine, and factory.
Craft unions may be and have been used to assist employers in the establishment of monopolies and the raising of prices. One set of workers are thus used to make harder the conditions of life of another body of laborers. ”

“ These conditions can be changed and the interest of the working class upheld only by an organization formed in such a way that all its members in any one industry, or in all industries, if necessary, cease work whenever a strike or lockout is on in any department thereof, thus making an injury to one an injury to all. ”

“ The internal strife will no doubt be present in the future as in the past. The employing class are fully aware that the most effective way of lessening the power of the revolutionary labor organization is to keep it busy with internal wrangles. ”

“ Local unions have full charge of all their local affairs; elect their own officers; determine their pay; and also the amount of dues collected by the local from the membership. The general organization, however, does not allow any local to charge over $1.00 per month dues or $5.00 initiation fee.
Each branch of a local industrial union elects a delegate or delegates to the central committee of the local industrial union. This central committee is the administrative body of the local industrial union. Officers of the branches consist of secretary, treasurer, chairman, and trustees. ”

“ The moment the laborer no longer yields the maximum of profits he is thrown upon the scrap pile, to starve alongside the discarded machine. A dead line has been drawn, and an age limit established, to cross which, in this world of monopolized opportunities, means condemnation to industrial death. ”

“ The officers of the national unions consist of secretary and treasurer, and executive board. Each national union elects delegates to the department to which it belongs. The same procedure is followed in electing delegates as in electing officers.
Industrial departments hold conventions and nominate the delegates that are elected to the general convention. Delegates to the general convention nominate candidates for the officers of the general organization, which are a General Secretary-Treasurer, and a General Organizer. ”

“ Under all ordinary circumstances a strike that is not won in four to six weeks cannot be won by remaining out longer. In trustified industry the employer can better afford to fight one strike that lasts six months than he can six strikes that take place in that period. ”

“ Both methods depend for success upon the blindness and internal dissensions of the working class. The employers’ line of battle and methods of warfare correspond to the solidarity of the mechanical and industrial concentration, while laborers still form their fighting organizations on lines of long-gone trade divisions. The battles of the past emphasize this lesson. The textile workers of Lowell, Philadelphia, and Fall River; the butchers of Chicago, weakened by the disintegrating effects of trade divisions ”

“ Its publications are the official organs of a political sect that never misses an opportunity to assail the revolutionary workers while they are engaged in combat with some division of the ruling class. Their favorite method is to charge the revolutionists with all the crimes that a cowardly imagination can conjure into being. ”

“ The conference met at the appointed time with thirty present, and drew up the Industrial Union Manifesto calling for a convention to be held in Chicago, June 27, 1905, for the purpose of launching an organization in accord with the principles set forth in the Manifesto. ”

“ The fight was waged intermittently from April 22 till September 1907 and resulted in regaining all ground lost through the compromise, and in destroying the scab charter issued by the A. F. of L. during the fight. This fight cost the employers over $100,000. The strike of the W. F. M. in October 1907 took place during a panic and destroyed the organization’s control in that district.
Under the I. W. W. sway in Goldfield, the minimum wage for all kinds of labor was $4.50 per day and the eight hour day was universal. ”

“ The strike lastes eleven weeks. As usual, the employers resorted to the use of the Pennsylvania State Constabulary, known as the American Cossacks, to intimidate the strikers and browbeat them back to work. This constabulary is a picked body of armed thugs recruited for their ability to handle fire arms. Every strike in Pennsylvania since the institution of the constabulary has been broken or crippled by them. Men, women, and children have been killed and brutally maimed by them with impunity. ”

“ One strike; 200 members involved. Strike lasted five weeks and was lost.
Local Union 20, Textile Workers, Lawrence, Mass. Five strikes involving 29,000 workers; 333 arrested, 320 of whom were convicted and fined from $100 down, and to one year in jail. Most of these cases, however, were settled for a nominal fine on appeal to the higher court. (For an account of the great Lawrence strike and of the Ettor–Giovannitti trial growing out of it, see “Trial of a New Society,” by Justus Ebert.)
Local Union 157, Textile Workers, New Bedford, Mass. Lockout; 13,000 workers involved. ”