International Workingmen's Association

“ It goes on to say that the International Association acknowledges "no rights without duties, no duties without rights" -- thus making every member a worker. the Association was formed at London "to afford a central medium of communication and cooperation between the workingmen's societies in the different countries," aiming at the same end, namely: "the protection, advancement, and complete emancipation of the working classes." ”

“ That all efforts aiming at that great end have hitherto failed from the want of solidarity between the manifold divisions of labour in each country, and from the absence of a fraternal bond of union between the working classes of different countries;
That the emancipation of labour is neither a local, nor a national, but a social problem, embracing all countries in which modern society exists, and depending for its solution on the concurrence, practical and theoretical, of the most advanced countries ”

“ Since the success of the working men's movement in each country cannot be secured but by the power of union and combination, while, on the other hand, the usefulness of the International Central Council must greatly depend on the circumstance whether it has to deal with a few national centres of working men's associations, or with a great number of small and disconnected local societies ”

“ That the present revival of the working classes in the most industrious countries of Europe, while it raises a new hope, gives solemn warning against a relapse into the old errors and calls for the immediate combination of the still disconnected movements ”

“ One element of success they possess-numbers; but numbers weigh only in the balance, if united by combination and led by knowledge. Past experienee has shown how disregard of that bond of brotherhood which ought to exist between the workmen of different countries, and incite them to stand firmly by each other in all their struggles for emancipation, will be chastised by the common discomfiture of their incoherent efforts. This thought prompted the working men of different countries assembled on September 28, 1864, in public meeting at St. Martin's Hall, to found the International Association. ”

“ He said what strikes us most is that all the consequences which were expected as the inevitable result of machinery have been reversed. Instead of diminishing the hours of labour, the working day was prolonged to sixteen and eighteen hours. Formerly, the normal working day was ten hours, during the last century the hours of labour were increased by law here as well as on the Continent. The whole of the trade legislation of the last century turns upon compelling the working people by law to work longer hours. ”

“ Each Member of the International Association, on removing his domicile from one country to another, will receive the fraternal support of the Associated Working Men.
10. While united in a perpetual bond of fraternal co-operation, the working men's societies, joining the International Association, will preserve their existent organisations intact. ”

“ Working families around the world must be able to exercise core labor rights, benefits from legal standards for fair pay and reasonable hours and safe working conditions, and improve their lives through unions, just as generations of Americans have done through the UAW. The United States supports the International Labor Organization in its efforts to advance core labor rights, rights that are crucial to building a strong and stable global economy. ”

“ Members of the League of Nations agree to establish a permanent organization to promote international adjustment of labor conditions, to consist of an annual international labor conference and an international labor office. ”

“ Petersburg, and whose hands are in every Cabinet of Europe, have taught the working classes the duty to master themselves the mysteries of international politics; to watch the diplomatic acts of their respective Governments; to counteract them, if necessary, by all means in their power; when unable to prevent, to combine in simultaneous denunciations, and to vindicate the simple laws of morals and justice, which ought to govern the relations of private individuals, as the rules paramount of the intercourse of nations. ”

“ The International Working-Men’s Association.―Local and national working-men’s unions with a socialistic organization had for a long time existed in England, France, and Germany. The idea of a union embracing the whole world was first broached at the great London Exhibition in 1862, and at a conference in London on September 28th, 1864, at which all industrial countries of Europe were represented, it assumed a practical shape by the founding of a universal international working-men’s association. Its constitution was strictly centralistic. ”

“ By deed, instead of by argument, they have shown that production on a large scale, and in accord with the behests of modern science, may be carried on without the existence of a class of masters employing a class of hands; that to bear fruit, the means of labour need not be monopolised as a means of dominion over, and of extortion against, the labouring man himself; and that, like slave labour, like serf labour, hired labour is but a transitory and inferior form, destined to disappear before associated labour plying its toil with a willing hand, a ready mind, and a joyous heart. ”

“ It is perhaps for this very reason that plausible noblemen, philanthropic middle class spouters, and even keen political economists, have all at once turned nauseously complimentary to the very co-operative labour system they had vainly tried to nip in the bud by deriding it as the Utopia of the dreamer, or stigmatising it as the sacrilege of the socialist. To save the industrious masses, co-operative labour ought to be developed to national dimensions, and, consequently, to be fostered by national means. ”

“ Another consequence of the use of machinery was that it entirely changed the relations of the capital of the country. Formerly there were wealthy employers of labour, and poor labourers who worked with their own tools. They were to a certain extent free agents, who had it in their power effectually to resist their employers. For the modern factory operative, for the women and children, such freedom does not exist, they are slaves of capital. ”

“ In all countries of Europe it has now become a truth demonstrable to every unprejudiced mind, and only denied by those whose interest it is to hedge other people in a fool's paradise, that no improvement of machinery, no appliance of science to production, no contrivances of communication, no new colonies, no emigration, no opening of markets, no free trade, nor all these things put together, will do away with the miseries of the industrious masses ”

“ The United Nations recognizes the International Labour Organization as a specialized agency responsible for taking such action as may be appropriate under its basic instrument for the accomplishment of the purposes set forth therein. ”

“ The Conference recognises the solemn obligation of the International Labour Organisation to further among the nations of the world programmes which will achieve:
full employment and the raising of standards of living; the employment of workers in the occupations in which they can have the satisfaction of giving the fullest measure of their skill and attainments and make their greatest contribution to the common well-being ”

“ The International Labour Organization agrees to co-operate with the United Nations in giving effect to the principles and obligations set forth in Chapter XI of the Charter with regard to matters affecting the well-being and development of the peoples of Non-Self-Governing Territories. ”

“ Certainly by the tenor of our statutes, all our branches in England, on the Continent, and in America have the special mission not only to serve as centres for the militant organisation of the working cluss, but also to support, in their respective countries, every political movement tending towards the accomplishment of our ultimate end—the economical emancipation of the working class ”

“ It proves that in contrast to old society, with its economical miseries and its political delirium, a new society is springing up, whose International rule will be Peace, because its national ruler will be everywhere the same—Labour! The Pioneer of that new society is the International Working-Men's Association. ”

“ Now, therefore, we, the International Association of Machinists, pledge ourselves to labor unitedly in behalf of the principles herein set forth, to perpetuate our association on the basis of solidarity and justice, to expound its objects, to labor for the general adoption of its principles, to consistently endeavor to bring about a higher standard of living among the toiling masses. ”

“ When any one country endeavors to accord greater privileges to its workers—such as the adoption of a shorter working day or the guarantee of a minimum wage—this action places it at a disadvantage in trade competition with other countries not so progressive. It is, therefore, provided that a permanent International Labor Office shall be established and that members of the League shall send representatives to a labor conference at least once a year. ”

“ To counteract the intrigues of capitalists always ready, in cases of strikes and lockouts, to misuse the workman of one country as a tool against the workman of another, is one of the particular functions which our society has hith-rto performed with success. It is one of the great purposes of the Association to make the workmen of different countries not only feel but act as brethren and comrades in the army of emancipation. ”

“ On 21 June 1946, the Economic and Social Council, during its second session, unanimously recommended the Agreement between the United Nations and the International Labour Organization to the General Assembly for its approval. ”

“ Workmen of all countries! Whatever may for the present become of our common efforts, we, the members of the International Working-men's Association, who know of no frontiers, we send you, as a pledge of indissoluble solidarity, the good wishes and the salutations of the workmen of France. ”

“ This mission had a deep effect in uniting the labor populations of the allied countries and especially in cheering the over-wrought workers of Britain and France, and it succeeded in laying the foundation for a more lasting international labor solidarity. ”

“ The International Labour Organization affirms its intention of co-operating in whatever further measures may be necessary to make co-ordination of the activities of specialized agencies and those of the United Nations fully effective. ”

“ The international labor office is established at the seat of the League of Nations as part of its organization. It is to collect and distribute information on labor throughout the world and prepare agenda for the conference. ”

“ No contributions are demanded from Societies joining, it being left to their means and discretion to contribute or not, or as they may from time to time deem the efforts of the association worthy of support. The Central Council will be pleased to send the Address and Rules to any Society applying for them; and, if within the London District, deputations will gladly attend to afford any further information that may be required. Societies joining are entitled to send a representative to the Central Council. ”

“ Rank and file meetings all over Europe are acclaiming World Labor Unity. Resolutions are being passed and circulated. [2] The responsible leaders of the working class in many countries are speaking in no uncertain terms in favor of action. ”

“ We should aim at getting all of the world's workers into one organization that should have as its basis good wages and working conditions. We ought to assist in formingtrade unions wherever imperialism has planted its foot. ”

“ You will join the Industrial Workers, the one international labor union that proposes to unite all workers, that all of them may act together in harmonious co-operation for the good of all; a union that recognizes no aristocracy, but the whole working class; that insists that each member shall have all the rights that are accorded every other; a union built upon the class struggle, appealing to all workers to get together on the right side of that struggle and achieve the emancipation of their class. ”

“ In reality, the social democratic working-men’s parties organised on more or less national dimensions, in Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, Portugal, Italy, Belgium, Holland, and the United States of America, form as many international groups, no longer single sections thinly scattered through different countries and held together by an eccentric General Council, but the working masses themselves in continuous, active, direct intercourse, cemented by exchange of thought, mutual services, and common aspiration. ”

“ World Labor Unity is no utopian dream. It is an immediate pressing necessity which awaits the will of the workers for its realization. The economic basis for its accomplishment is already laid. Upon the militants of the present generation rests the task of forging the scattered Trade Union forces of the world into one International Federation of Trade Unions. ”

“ It cannot be dispensed with so long as the present system of production lasts. On the contrary, it must be generalised by the formation and combination of Trades' Unions throughout all countries. On the other hand, unconsciously to themselves, the Trades' Unions were forming centres of organization of the working class, as the mediæval municipalities and communes did for the middle class. If the Trades' Unions are required for the guerilla fights between capital and labour, they are still more important as organized agencies for superseding the very system of wages labour. ”