Communism; Industrial Workers of the World; Socialism
"The I. W. W. has given up all thought of using the machinery of
the present state for its purposes. It proposes to create an
entirely new machinery of administration in which not even a
particle of the old shall enter as a constituent part. We propose
to re-group all mankind on industrial lines in industrial
organizations which we hope will make superfluous and crowd out the
political groupings which constitute the state. We propose to make
the unit of industry, the place of work, the shop, the mill, the
field, the ship, the basis of our new social organization. These
units will combine in two different manners. From a purely
industrial standpoint, they will unite with other units into large
industrial unions, calculated to embrace the whole world, each and
every one of them. For the purpose of local administration, we
propose that the local industrial units shall form a district
industrial council or local administrative body to take care of
local affairs. As we propose to order all branches of human
activity along these lines and include them in a world scheme of
industrial co-operation, we must conclude that our program,
although fundamentally aiming at the same thing as the program of
the Communist Party, somewhat differs from the program proposed as
a basis of unity."
An editorial in the same issue on "Soviet Government in the U. S." says:
"The papers have informed us that the police and the secret service
have unearthed a gigantic plot among the Socialists of this country
to gather up all the radical elements with a view to establishing a
Soviet government in this country.... We do not deny that this
agitation is useful, for it stirs people to thought and excites
contradiction, ... but when that is said, we have said all the good
we can about it....
"The Russians made their revolution not because they had Soviets,
but because the people willed it.... The I. W. W. has at least on
paper an institution corresponding to the Soviet, namely, the
District Industrial Council, ... a local representative body of the
various industrial unions in each locality. So far, it lacks all
practical significance because we are not numerous enough, but
whenever there is to be a radical change in this country, the
change will have to be made through these councils locally. They
will take over the functions which were taken over by the Soviets
in Russia."
Another editorial in the same issue treats of the overtures of the Left
Wing Socialists:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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