The Everett Massacre: A history of the class struggle in the lumber industrySmith, Walker C.
History
The Everett Massacre: A history of the class struggle in the lumber industry
Smith, Walker C.
Industrial Workers of the World; Lumbering -- Washington (State); Lumbermen -- Washington (State)
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 the 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.
We find that the centering of the management of industries into
fewer and fewer hands makes the trade unions unable to cope with
the ever growing power of the employing class. The trade unions
foster a state of affairs which allow one set of workers to be
pitted against another set of workers in the same industry, thereby
helping defeat one another in wage wars. Moreover, 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.
These conditions can be changed and the interests 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.
Instead of the conservative motto, "A fair day's wage for a fair
day's work," we must inscribe on our banner the revolutionary
watchword, "Abolition of the wage system."
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 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.
"Men in society represent economic categories," said Thompson. "By that
I mean that in the world of shoes there are shoemakers, and in the world
of boats there are seamen, and in this society there are economic
categories called the employing class and the working class. Now,
between them as employing class and working class there is nothing in
common. Their interests are diametrically opposed as such. It is not the
same thing as saying that human beings have nothing in common. The
working class and the employing class have antagonistic interests, and
the more one gets the less remains for the other.
"Labor produces all wealth," continued Thompson, "and the more the
workers have to give up to anyone else the less remains for themselves.
The more they get in wages the less remains for the others in the form
of profits. As long as labor produces for the other class all the good
things of life there will be no peace; we want the products of labor
ourselves and let the other class go to work also.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account