You ought to be out raising hell. This is the fighting age. Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
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Saturday January 28, 1905
From the Appeal to Reason: "Manifesto of the New Trades Unionism"
William D Haywood
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Today's edition of the
Appeal to Reason offers us a look at the entire Manifesto issued earlier this month by a secret conference, in Chicago, of trade unionist and socialist, whose names will be familiar to most of our readers. The manifesto makes the case that a new federation of labor is needed, and that this federation must be organized industrially and based upon the principle of class struggle. Along with the manifesto a covention call was issued for June 27th in the city of Chicago.
The conference elected a permanent executive committed with William D. Haywood as Chairman and William Trautmann has Secretary. Among the signers of the Manifesto, we find the names of Mother Jones, A. M. Simons, Charles Moyer, and other well-known labor leaders. Hellraisers has heard that Eugene Debs also attended the conference, but his name is not on the list of signers provided by the Appeal.
Today's Labor World of Duluth, Minnesota, provides another report on the Manifesto and the call for the June Convention. There we find an interesting examination of the reaction of the capitalist press to these events as regards the possible impact upon the American Federation of Labor:
Notwithstanding the plain declaration in the call that the proposed industrial federation "should be established as the economic organization of the working class, WITHOUT AFFILIATION WITH ANY POLITICAL PARTY," certain capitalist dailies, for reasons best know to themselves, are printing under glaring headlines and in thundering editorials the charges that "it is a socialistic move to disrupt A. F. of L." and that "a political trades union federation will be launched."
From the Appeal to Reason of January 28, 1905:
Manifesto of the New Trades Unionism.
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Mother Jones
At a conference held in Chicago, January 4th, the following signed manifesto and call or a convention was issued. It throws down the gage of battle to the old form of trade unionism, and it would be well for every working man and woman to study carefully the propositions laid down in the following manifesto.
MANIFESTO.
Social relations and groupings but reflect mechanical and industrial conditions. The great facts of present industry are the displacement of human skill by machines and the increase of capitalist power through concentration in the possession of the tools with which wealth is produced and distributed.
Charles Moyer
Because of these facts trade divisions among laborers and competition among capitalists are alike disappearing. Class divisions grow ever more fixed and class antagonisms more sharp. Trade lines have been swallowed up in a common servitude of all workers to the machines which they tend. New machines ever replacing less productive ones wipe cut whole trades and plunge new bodies of workers into the ever-growing army of tradeless, hopeless unemployed. As human beings and human skill are displaced by mechanical progress the capitalists need use the workers only during that brief period when muscles and nerves respond most intensely. The moment the laborer no longer yields the maximum of profits he is thrown upon the scrap pile to starve alongside the discarded machine. A dead line has been drawn and an age limit established, across which in this world of monopolized opportunities means condemnation to industrial death
[.......]
Universal economic evils afflicting the working class can be eradicated only by a universal working-class movement. Such a movement of the working class is impossible while separate craft and wage agreements are made favoring the employer against other crafts in the same industry, and while energies are wasted in fruitless jurisdiction struggles which serve only to further the personal aggrandizement of union officials.
John O'Neil
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A movement to fulfill these conditions must consist of one great industrial union embracing all industries, providing for craft autonomy locally, industrial autonomy internationally and working class unity generally. It should be founded on the class struggle, and its general administration must be conducted in harmony with the recognition of the irrepressible conflict between the capitalist class and the working class.
It should be established as the economic organization of the working class, without affiliation with any political party.
All power should rest in the collective membership.
Local, national and general administration, including union labels, buttons, badges, transfer cards, initiation fees, and per capita tax should be uniform throughout.
William E Trautmann
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Workingmen bringing union cards from industrial unions in foreign countries should be freely admitted into the organization.
All members should hold membership in the local, national or international union covering the industry in which they are employed, but transfers of membership between unions, local, national, or international, should be universal.
The general administration should issue a publication representing the entire union and its principles which should reach all members in every industry at regular intervals.
A Central Defense Fund, to which all members contribute equally, should be established and maintained.
CALL FOR CONVENTION.
All workers, therefore, who agree with the principles herein set forth, will meet in convention at Chicago the 27th day of June, 1905, for the purpose of forming an economic organization of the working class along the lines marked out in this manifesto.
Representation in the convention shall be based upon the number of workers whom a delegate represents. No delegate, however, shall be given representation in the convention on the numerical basis of an organization unless he has credentials - bearing the seal of his union, local, national, or international, and the signatures of the officers thereof, authorizing him to install his union as a working part of the proposed economic organization in the industrial department in which it logically belongs in the general plan. Lacking this authority, the delegate shall represent himself as an individual.
Thos. J. DeYoung, of the United Brotherhood of Railway Employes, Houston, Texas;
Thos. J. Hagerty, of the American Labor Union, Chicago;
Chas. O. Sherman, of the United Metal Workers, Chicago;
Fred D. Henion, of the United Brotherhood of Railway Employes, Minneapolis;
M. E. White, of the American Labor Union, Denver;
Ernest Untermann, Chicago;
W. J. Bradley, Minneapolis;
W. J. Pinkerton, of the Switchmen's Union of North America, Argentine, Kan.;
Frank Krafft, International Union of United Brewery Workmen, Chicago;
A. G. Swing, of the American Federation of Musicians, Cincinnati;
A. M. Simons, Editor International Socialist Review, Chicago;
J. E. Fitzgerald, Fort Worth, Texas;
Wade Shurtleff, of the International Musical Union, Cleveland, Ohio;
William D. Haywood, of the Western Federation of Miners, Denver;
Mother Jones, Chicago;
Frank M. McCabe, Chicago;
John M. O'Neill, Editor Miners' Magazine, Denver;
Charles H. Moyer, Western Federation of Miners, Denver;
William E. Trautmann, International Union Brewery Workmen, Cincinnati;
W. L. Hall, Chicago;
Jos. Schmitt, International Union Bakery and Confectionery Workers, Chicago;
Clarence Smith, Chicago;
John Guild, International Union Bakery and Confectionery Workers, Chicago;
Daniel McDonald, Chicago;
Frank Bohn, New York City;
Geo. Estes, Chicago.
Permanent Executive Committee-
William D. Haywood, Chairman;
W. E. Trautmann, Secretary, Odd Fellows' Temple, Cincinnati;
Clarence Smith,
W. L. Hall
A. M. Simons.
CHICAGO, JANUARY FOURTH, 1905
[photographs added]
From The Labor World of January 28, 1905:
LARGE INDUSTRIAL UNION TO BE FORMED
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National Trades Federation on
Industrial Lines Planned for Next Summer.
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Representatives of Unions
Not Affiliated With A. F. of L. For Rival Body.
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Ernest Untermann
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Chicago, Ill., Jan'y. 26.-A secret meeting was held in Chicago this week by representatives of organizations unaffiliated with the American Federation of Labor, as well as a number of sympathizers, for the purpose of considering the advisability of forming a new federation based upon the widest possible industrial lines.
After considering the subject in every detail it was voted to issue a manifesto of labor organizations of every description and invite them to send delegates to a national convention be held in Chicago, June 27, "for the purpose of forming an economic organization of the working class along the lines marked out in this manifesto." Representation in the convention shall be based upon the number of workers whom the delegate represents.....
In the manifesto it is pointed out that narrow craft lines divide the workers, foster ignorance and jealousy and strengthen the position of organized employers in struggles between capitalists and laborers...
Father Thomas J Haggerty
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Just what effect this call will have upon certain of the organizations that are identified with the A. F. of L., and which favor industrialism and are constantly attacked by "craft autonomists," cannot be predicted as yet. Nor can it be known for some time what course the independent, or unattached, national and local unions will pursue, although it is a safe guess that some will join the new federation-in fact, the movement toward the new body may become general.
Notwithstanding the plain declaration in the call that the proposed industrial federation "should be established as the economic organization of the working class, WITHOUT AFFILIATION WITH ANY POLITICAL PARTY," certain capitalist dailies, for reasons best know to themselves, are printing under glaring headlines and in thundering editorials the charges that "it is a socialistic move to disrupt A. F. of L." and that "a political trades union federation will be launched."
Frank Bohn
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Certain it is that, first, not a single signer to the above call is officially identified with the Socialist party [this statement is an error], secondly, that not one of the signers has been seen or heard or known on the floor of the A. F. of L. conventions as an advocate for socialism in recent years, and, thirdly, it is doubtful whether any A. F. of L. delegate, with possibly and exception or two, had the slightest knowledge that the Chicago conference was to be held.
The suddenness with which some of the capitalistic newspaper rush to the defense of the A. F. of L., after having attacked that body in every great strike, and which organs are now clamorously contending for the open shop, is not without its significance. For obvious reasons Greeks that bear gifts are a suspicious lot.
Whether this proposed new federation will meet with the expectations of its promoters the future alone will determine. After all this is a free country, in this respect at least that its citizens have a right to organize as they choose.
[photographs added]
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SOURCES
Appeal to Reason
(Girard, Kansas)
-Jan 28, 1905
http://www.newspapers.com/...
The Labor World
(Duluth, Minnesota)
-Jan 28, 1905
http://www.newspapers.com/...
See also:
"Hellraisers Journal: Labor Leaders Call for June Convention
to Organize on Basis of Class Struggle"
-by JayRaye
(The entire Manifesto can be found here.)
http://www.dailykos.com/...
IMAGES
Big Bill Haywood
http://www.rebelgraphics.org/...
Mother Jones, the Miners' Angel
http://www.greatthoughtstreasury.com/...
Charles Moyer
http://www.rebelgraphics.org/...
John O'Neil
http://www.rebelgraphics.org/...
William E Trautmann
https://libcom.org/...
AM Simons
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Ernest Untermann
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Father Thomas Haggerty
http://www.iww.org/...
Frank Bohn
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
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One Big Industrial Union - May Day Chorus of Asheville
PAINT 'ER RED!
Come with us you workingmen and join the rebel band
Come you discontented ones and lend a helping hand
We march against the parasite to drive him from the land
With One Big Industrial Union
Chorus:
Hurrah! hurrah! we're gonna paint 'er red!
Hurrah! hurrah! The way is clear ahead!
We're gaining shop democracy and liberty and bread
With One Big Industrial Union.
In factory and field and mine we gather in our might
We're on the job and know the way to win our hardest fight
For the beacon that shall guide us out of darkness into light
Is One Big Industrial Union.
Come on you fellows, get in line, we'll fill the boss with fears
Red's the colour of our flag, it's stained with blood and tears,
We'll flout it in his ugly mug and raise our loudest cheers
For One Big Industrial Union.
"Slaves", they call us, "working plugs", inferior by birth
But when we hit their pocketbooks, we'll spoil their smiles of mirth
We'll stop their dirty dividends and drive them from the earth
With One Big Industrial Union.
We hate their rotten system more than any mortals do
Our aim is not to patch it up but build it all anew
And what we'll have for government when finally we're through
Is One Big Industrial Union.
-Ralph Chaplin/Elmer Rumbaugh
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