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
The bitterness of feeling engendered in this controversy over politics
can well be imagined. The two factions of the I. W. W. hate one another
with a hearty fervor that is only equaled by their united opposition
to the American Federation of Labor. Both claim to be the simon-pure
revolutionary article. If any "malefactor of great wealth" thinks that
he is being scandalously abused by the I. W. W.s, he should read some
of the things the "red I. W. W.s" have to say about the "yellow I. W.
W.s" and, _a fortiori_, the "yellows" about the "reds," or attend a
debate between any kind of an I. W. W. and what he (the I. W. W.) calls
a "coffin society" man of the American Federation of Labor.
The Secretary of the Detroit I. W. W. (now W. I. I. U.) says that
to speak of factions of the I. W. W. is doing violence to the
facts in the case. The I. W. W. organized in Chicago, 1905,
established certain principles, methods, and aims, which can
be readily ascertained from the stenographic reports of the
first, second, and third conventions. Among them one of the
most essential and characteristic of the I. W. W. is the
distinct and specific declaration: The workers must organize
as a class, on the political and industrial field, to achieve
the emancipation from wage slavery. The so-called Chicago "I.
W. W." has repudiated this position, and carries since 1908,
falsely, the name. Its claim is bogus, as amply demonstrated by
its doings since that time....[459]
"We hold," says this official, "that our organization is _The_ I. W.
W. Chicago headquarters, and those who follow that organization, became
a different body since 1908."[460]
At the International Socialist Congress at Vienna in 1914 the Socialist
Labor party made a report in which it was declared that
... the Anarcho-Syndicalist element [which] caused the split in
the I. W. W. in 1908, went forth throughout the land under the
name, Industrial Workers of the World, and by its advocacy of
Anarchy, sensationalism, sabotage, "direct action," and "free
speech," riots, and similar disorderly tactics, has cast an
odium upon the name of the I. W. W.[461]
Such a characterization of the Chicago faction is hardly to be wondered
at in view of some of the statements made by organs representing the
direct-actionists. Thus we are told that what "the now famous 'Hobo
Convention' ... actually did was to restore the preamble to its
pristine syndicalist purity...."[462]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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