You ought to be out raising hell. This is the fighting age. Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
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Friday November 6, 1914
From the International Socialist Review: I. W. W. Tactics of the Unemployed
This month's
Review addresses the practical program for the unemployed recently adopted by the Industrial Workers of the World. This article, authored by the I. W. W. , first reminds those of us who are still employed that:
We have to remember that our friends in the Unemployed Army are in the same boat we may occupy next week or next month. They are the men and women who have produced the houses, the clothing, the railroads, the food in America and who are "laid off" because the employing class does not pay them enough in wages to enable them to BUY or USE the very things they have MADE.
The article then goes on to describe the proposed program for action as described by Big Bill Haywood. This proposal was adopted by the 9th National Convention of the I. W. W. held in Chicago this past September.
International Socialist Review of November 1914:
TACTICS OF THE UNEMPLOYED
WHILE the newspapers and magazines are filled with shrieking headlines about the Great War in Europe and the sufferings of the armies there, the vast Army of Unemployed, a large portion of which has been thrown out of work on account of the cessation of imports to Europe, are facing an equally important problem at our very doors. They are facing the problem that the survivors of the European war are going to face after the war is over.
We have to remember that our friends in the Unemployed Army are in the same boat we may occupy next week or next month. They are the men and women who have produced the houses, the clothing, the railroads, the food in America and who are "laid off" because the employing class does not pay them enough in wages to enable them to BUY or USE the very things they have MADE. The employers say they have no "markets" and are closing down the shops and factories because the shops and mills and factories are FILLED with the NECESSITIES of LIFE which have been PRODUCED by the workers but which these workers have no money to BUY.
And now come these "laid off" men and women demanding that these full granaries be opened to satisfy their needs; that the clothing and shoes on the shelves which they have made be brought forth to shield them from the cold. That the houses, which they have built, and which are now standing empty, be opened to protect them from the winds and snows of winter.
What Shall the Unemployed Do?
At the national convention of the I. W. W. held in Chicago this month, [September] William D. Haywood presented the following practical program for the Unemployed which was adopted by the delegates:
Vigorous plans must be adopted to ward off the impending suffering (of the unemployed) during the coming winter. Industrial conditions indicate an approaching crisis unparalleled in this country. The workers here cannot escape the backwash of all the horrors of the European war. Already the economic effects are being felt. The capitalists are curtailing production in many different branches. Thousands, of men have been discharged in the textile, steel, transportation, mining and lumber industries. These numbers will soon be augmented by the harvest and other migratory workers whose work for the season is over.
While the Army of the Unemployed is growing by legions, the Masters of Bread are preparing to ship to the murderous hordes of Europe the foodstuff that the workers have produced, and this with the connivance of the United States Government which has underway plans to subsidize ships for that purpose. No single thought is given to the peaceful, industrial Army of Production. Millions are appropriated for the militia, the army of destruction, and not a cent to provide work or care for wealth producers.
It is up to the workers to meet with grim determination the situation that presents itself. Food, clothing, shelter, are essential to life. Let the message of the I. W. W. be GET THEM! if you have to take pickaxes and crowbars and go to the granaries and warehouses and help yourselves. Rather than congregate around City Halls, Capitols and empty squares, go to the market places and waterfronts where food is abundant. If food is being shipped, confiscate it, if you have the power.
Where houses are vacant occupy them. If machinery is idle use it, if practical to your purpose.
Results can only be achieved through organized effort. Banded together and cooperating for mutual welfare the unemployed will get by the hard winter
I suggest that some provision be made for the Industrial Workers of the World to organize the unemployed, that a propaganda card be issued to such new members, said cards to be deposited in the industrial union when the person gets work.
If some such plan can be inaugurated the unemployed, as soon as industries resume operation, will become an integral part of One Big Union and through organization will be in a position to levy tribute on the prosperity that the privileged class is anticipating and the news papers are promising as a result of the devastation of war.
On the subject of the work of organization in general, Haywood said:
One I. W. W. on the job is worth two in the jungle. To know the work in hand is the duty of every member. Efficiency of labor need not be used to increase profits. It can be applied to a counter purpose. But it must be recognized that efficiency and ability are required to operate industry. By learning how to apply labor power in the most scientific way will suggest means of withholding and preserving labor power.
It should be the ambition of every industrial worker to possess a technical and practical knowledge of industry. At least this knowledge must be concentrated in the group with the conscious organize purpose of using it for all society rather than for a privileged class of idle stockholders. The closer we can establish relations between the workers who produce the raw material and the workers who finish the products, the better will be the understanding of our class interests.
The $1.50 and twelve-hour man has a big gap to close. Improvement in the standard of the CLASS is our object. The common laborer at the meanest work is entitled to the same standard of life as the most skilled artisan. The chief work of the I. W. W. is to organize the unskilled and the unorganized. It is up on this great mass of humanity that life depends. The skilled worker is comparatively a small faction and will be forced to join the branch of his industry in One Big Union.
The tendency is for labor organizations to grow conservative as they grow older. Time and again we have seen labor organizers and new unions start out with broad and revolutionary aims, but we have usually found these same organizers and these same unions becoming fixed and conservative or reactionary within a few years.
The last convention of the I. W. W. has proven that this union is an exception to the general rule. As of yore we found our old friends voicing the needs of the dispossessed, the unskilled, unorganized, and even opening its doors to the Unemployed. At last we have found a group of workers who really intend to cooperate and organize with all workers, who are actually urging the workers of the world to unite, and who are endeavoring to make it practicable for them to do so. They have let down the bars to the unemployed outcast. And we believe that the labor world will ultimately come to realize that they have greatly added to their own STRENGTH thereby.
For the first time in the labor movement a union has given free opportunity for all men to come into their organization. We believe this will prove to be the basis for a future union between the men on the job and the men who are "laid off" that will ultimately control the labor power of the world. It will cement the men on the job to the men "out of work," and make class consciousness a more vital force in the world.
SOURCE
The International Socialist Review, Volume 15
- ed by Algie Martin Simons, Charles H. Kerr
C.H. Kerr, 1914
From November 1914 issue:
(search with "Tactics of the Unemployed" & choose p.266)
http://books.google.com/...
See also:
"Hellraisers Journal: The idea of the IWW, founded as it is on
the class struggle, is imperishable." by JayRaye
http://www.dailykos.com/...
IMAGES
The IWW Is Coming
http://libcom.org/...
For images in story see link at source above.
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There Is Power In The Union - Utah Phillips
Would you have mansions of gold in the sky,
And live in a shack, way in the back?
Would you have wings up in heaven to fly,
And starve here with rags on your back?/em>
-Joe Hill
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