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 adjournment of the organizing convention in July, 1905, left the
body it had created in a very chaotic condition. The time and attention
of the delegates was so exclusively taken up with the problem of
building up "one big union" out of many little unions and the task of
working out a harmony platform of law and policy on which all could
come together, that the matter of business management was almost
entirely neglected. Indeed some of the circumstances surrounding
the I. W. W. at its inception quite precluded the ordered and
efficient procedure possible to a well manned and adequately financed
organization. The I. W. W. was not well manned and was practically
destitute of financial resources. The dearth of ability and especially
the want of honesty in its managing personnel were to become all too
evident long before the second convention had come to a close, as was
also its practically bankrupt financial status. Although there were
three rather formidable-looking departments nominally organized as
such--_viz._: mining, metal and machinery, and transportation--none
of these except the mining department represented material accessions
either numerically or financially, and the early defection of the
Western Federation of Miners quite broke down this one and, what was
even more important, cut off from the Industrial Workers of the World
the great bulk of its financial resources.
The industrial-union idea made marked headway among the trade unions
of the United States during the first year of the existence of the I.
W. W., and this was very largely due to the influence and example of
that organization. Organizers were sent to those places where serious
friction existed between trade-unionists and employers, or between
trade-unionists and the American Federation of Labor. The I. W. W.
devoted very little attention at that time to the unorganized; its
energy was chiefly centered on the reformation of the craft unions--a
policy of dual unionism. The Federation lost rather heavily in some
quarters to the I. W. W., the disaffection proving most marked among
the brewers and machinists. Max S. Hayes, in reviewing the situation at
the end of the year 1905, wrote as follows:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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