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
... this so-called department [he said] proved to be a constant
drain on the general treasury.... While the Transportation
Department has paid in taxes to the Industrial Workers of the
World the sum of $130.75, the main organization was constantly
paying more into that department in the vain hope that
eventually the workers in that industry would rally around the
banner of industrial unionism....[215]
Although the convention decided not to recognize the Transportation
Department, it did endorse a resolution providing "that the
credentials of all local unions of transportation workers who are
sending delegates, be recognized and the delegates seated."[216] The
break-up of the Metal and Machinery Department and the bolting of that
(chief) subdivision of it which was formerly and now again became the
Amalgamated Society of Engineers has been referred to above.[217] The
convention took the same action in regard to this as in the case of
the Transportation Department, denying recognition to the Department
but granting it to those local unions (the United Metal Workers Union
in this case) which had sent delegates to the convention.
It was claimed that seven international unions voluntarily joined
the Industrial Workers of the World, "even though they were forced
by the power of the capitalist combinations to remain ... attached
to the American Federation of Labor."[218] The seven "international"
industrial unions are nowhere specifically mentioned but must
presumably have included unions belonging to the three departments
mentioned above and which were organized during the first year. The
International Musical Union was one of these so-called international
unions. This organization was not even satisfied to be an international
industrial union--it insisted on being a Department as well--and
claimed the title of
the International Musical and Theatrical Union, Subdivision
of the Public Service Department of the Industrial Workers of
the World ... [all this] on the grounds ... that organizations
comprising 1000 and even less members were allowed autonomous
department administration and department executive boards; and
so that organization has since been using the prestige of the
I. W. W. to justify its existence as a part of a department not
at all organized.[219]
There is not now and never has been a genuine, that is to say a
constitutional, Public Service Department in the I. W. W., and of
course the convention could not recognize a mere fragment of what might
some day become a Public Service Department.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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