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
Perhaps the very best way to run an industrial enterprise is on the
currently accepted model of the Prussian State. It is simply a moot
point and the I. W. W. has challenged the Prussian method. Whatever
intrinsic merit there may be in the affirmative program of the
Industrial Workers of the World, it must be admitted by even its most
enthusiastic members that were they today given the power they ask,
they would be no less relentless Prussians than are the corporations
we have with us. Even though capitalism may be ripe for replacement,
the I. W. W. are a long way from being fit to replace it. The Wobblies
are grotesquely unprepared for responsibility. So far their own members
do not understand how relatively unimportant is their much-talked-of
_sabotage_ method. They have challenged the autocratic method, but they
have done it very crudely and with a weird misplacement of emphasis.
They whisper it in a footnote, as it were, to their strident blackface
statements about method. "If labor is not allowed a voice in the
management of the mines--apply _sabotage_!"
Unquestionably the I. W. W. ask too much when they ask that the
producers be given _exclusive_ control of industry. As to certain
phases of management the workers (including, of course, all hand and
brain workers connected with the industry) should perhaps be given
entire control. The hours of labor and the sanitary conditions in any
productive enterprise are primarily, if not exclusively, the concern of
the producers. But the amount of the product which ought to be turned
out and the price at which it ought to be sold are matters in which the
consumers have no little interest. Consumers, therefore, should share
in the management of the industry so far as it relates to prices and
the determination of the amount to be produced.
The following pages are devoted to a mere matter-of-fact description
of the Industrial Workers of the World as an organization and to a
record of the facts of its history. The purpose has been throughout to
write from the sources. The writer has tried to have the "Wobblies"
themselves do the telling, through interviews, soap-box speeches,
convention proceedings and official papers and pamphlets. The bulk of
the record is based upon documents and other materials collected and
impressions received since 1909 when the writer first became interested
in the I. W. W.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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