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
"Ennemie de tout despotisme, ne reconnaisant d'autre forme politique
que la forme républicaine, et rejetant absolument toute alliance
réactionnaire, elle repousse aussi toute action politique qui
n'aurait pas pour but immédiat et direct le triomphe de la cause des
travailleurs contre le capital."[29]
A secret organization, known as the Sovereigns of Industry, was
launched at Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1874. It admitted both men
and women. Its Preamble stated that it was "an association of the
industrial working classes without regard to race, color, nationality
or occupation; not founded for the purpose of waging any war of
aggression upon any other class or fostering any antagonism of labor
against capital ... but for mutual assistance in self-improvement and
self-protection."[30] Its ultimate purpose, however, appeared to be the
elimination of the wage system.
In the same year was formed a socialist organization called "The
Association of United Workers of America."[31] This body, together
with several other organizations of socialists, merged to form the
Workingman's Party in 1876. The following year the name was changed to
the Socialist Labor Party. The year 1874 also marks the birth of the
Industrial Brotherhood, an organization somewhat similar to the Knights
of Labor but which did not survive the seventies.[32]
A decade later (1884) the National Union of the United Brewery Workmen
of the United States[33] was organized. Next to the United Mine Workers
this is today the strongest industrially organized union in America.
This union has almost from the beginning admitted to its membership
not only brewers but also drivers (of brewery wagons), maltsters,
engineers and firemen employed in breweries, _etc._--all workmen, in
fact, who are employed in and around the breweries. Until 1896 the
Brewers were a part of the Knights of Labor. Since then they have been
almost continuously affiliated with the American Federation of Labor.
They have, however, always insisted upon industrial unionism so far as
structure is concerned and have more than once been at loggerheads with
the Federation on this score. The Brewery Workmen's Union, although
conservative in every other way, is cited by I. W. W.'s, no less than
the Mine Workers, as a model of the correct thing in labor-union
_structure_. In 1890 the United Mine Workers' Union of America was
formed. The organization is today the largest union in this country, if
not in the world. It is unquestionably the strongest _industrial_ union
in the world. Since 1905 the revolutionary industrial I. W. W.'s have
looked with admiration upon the structural form of the Mine Workers'
Union--and with impatient scorn upon their conservative tactics.
In England also there came at this time a high tide of sentiment for
the "new unionism."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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