The I. W. W.: A Study of American SyndicalismBrissenden, Paul F. (Paul Frederick)
History
The I. W. W.: A Study of American Syndicalism
Brissenden, Paul F. (Paul Frederick)
Industrial Workers of the World; Syndicalism
One member of the anti-parliamentarian group--F. W.
Heslewood--expressed his opposition to any change in the preamble,
saying that he did not want to be called a dynamiter. He insisted
that "the changing of the preamble by taking out the word 'political'
will inevitably give somebody a chance to denounce the I. W. W. as an
anarchist organization."[434] The I. W. W. was precisely so denounced
soon after the convention: "The political clause has been stricken out
and with that all semblance of the I. W. W. has been wiped out. The
clause was considered 'confusing.' Fact is the clause was so clear that
it was a thorn in the side of veiled dynamiters."[435]
The proposition to strike out the seductive and dangerous words about
the "political field" was adopted and the second paragraph of the new
preamble now reads: "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."[436]
The "straight industrialists" had now accomplished their _coup_.
By "killing" the political clause they had, presumably, saved the
organization from the insidious peril of Socialist Labor party
domination; briefly, they had exorcised the demon of DeLeonism. This
was the sentiment of the Trautmann-St. John faction. The sentiments of
the DeLeonites are officially expressed in a leaflet issued later on
by the new but "only genuine and original I. W. W." organization which
they proceeded to establish at Detroit:
At the fourth annual convention in September, 1908, [it runs]
"certain prominent members of the organization, some of them
being officials, endeavored to capture the organization
and make of it a purely physical force body. Through their
machinations they seated delegates not entitled to a seat, and
unseated delegates entitled to a seat, threatening violence
to, and committing [it] upon, _bona fide_ delegates assembled
there. The general officers acquiesced in, and endorsed,
the actions of the irresponsible element that packed the
convention against the organization. The delegates who were
illegally debarred from a seat in the convention returned to
their respective union constituencies and reported the actions
of the anarchistic crew who were conducting the so-called
convention."[437]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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