The I. W. W.: A Study of American Syndicalism

by Paul F. Brissenden

Shall the economic organization [the Secretary asks] be permitted to outline and pursue its course in the efforts [sic] to bring the workers together on the industrial field, the only essential, and, if necessary, on the political [field] without the interference and self-assumed guardianship of any political party,... or shall the economic organization, the Industrial Workers of the World, be turned into a tail of a political party and its functionaries and its officers be obedient to the commands and the whims emanating from the emissaries of such political party?[433]

One member of the anti-parliamentarian group—F. W. Heslewood—expressed his opposition to any change in the preamble, saying that he did not want to be called a dynamiter. He insisted that "the changing of the preamble by taking out the word 'political' will inevitably give somebody a chance to denounce the I. W. W. as an anarchist organization."[434] The I. W. W. was precisely so denounced soon after the convention: "The political clause has been stricken out and with that all semblance of the I. W. W. has been wiped out. The clause was considered 'confusing.' Fact is the clause was so clear that it was a thorn in the side of veiled dynamiters."[435]

The proposition to strike out the seductive and dangerous words about the "political field" was adopted and the second paragraph of the new preamble now reads: "Between these two classes a struggle must go on until the workers of the world organize as a class, take possession of the earth and the machinery of production and abolish the wage system."[436]

The "straight industrialists" had now accomplished their coup. By "killing" the political clause they had, presumably, saved the organization from the insidious peril of Socialist Labor party domination; briefly, they had exorcised the demon of DeLeonism. This was the sentiment of the Trautmann-St. John faction. The sentiments of the DeLeonites are officially expressed in a leaflet issued later on by the new but "only genuine and original I. W. W." organization which they proceeded to establish at Detroit:

At the fourth annual convention in September, 1908, [it runs] "certain prominent members of the organization, some of them being officials, endeavored to capture the organization and make of it a purely physical force body. Through their machinations they seated delegates not entitled to a seat, and unseated delegates entitled to a seat, threatening violence to, and committing [it] upon, bona fide delegates assembled there. The general officers acquiesced in, and endorsed, the actions of the irresponsible element that packed the convention against the organization. The delegates who were illegally debarred from a seat in the convention returned to their respective union constituencies and reported the actions of the anarchistic crew who were conducting the so-called convention."[437]

The fourth convention did very little of importance except to split the organization very decisively, if discursively, on the rock of "politics." A few unimportant constitutional changes were made[438] and the following officers elected: General Secretary-Treasurer, Vincent St. John; General Organizer, Wm. E. Trautmann; General Executive Board, Fellow Workers Cole, Miller, Ettor, Whitehead and Gains.[439] The records and property of the organization remained with the St. John-Trautmann faction,[440] which will be referred to in the following pages as the Industrial Workers of the World, or simply by the three letters, "I. W. W."

Whether or not the St. John contingent was now legitimately entitled to be recognized as the Industrial Workers of the World is a question which will be discussed in another place. Whether they were usurpers or not, they held and retained control of the offices and property of the organization. The Socialist Labor or DeLeon contingent faced the situation as best they could. These "bona fide industrial unionists rallied," says one of their number, "and held a convention in Paterson, N. J., and elected a new set of general officers and a new General Executive Board."[441]

On November 5, 1908, [reads an official announcement] a conference assembled in Paterson, N. J., of delegates sent by the locals that remained true to the principles of the Industrial Workers of the World. They attended to the interrupted work of the general organization, electing a General Executive Board and other officials, and attended to such other work as the organization required for its growth and progress.[442]

At this rump convention, "credentials were read for twenty-one delegates from locals of Philadelphia, Boston, Bridgeport, Brooklyn, and Paterson, of which [number] eighteen were present...."[443] This Paterson conference was virtually a meeting of the two District Councils of New York City and Paterson and a handful of Eastern locals. The delegates declared the proceedings of the Chicago convention illegal and naïvely read the "anarchist usurpers" out of the organization. "The pirates in Chicago," says Rudolph Katz in his later reminiscences, "were repudiated by the I. W. W. organizations generally." He adds that only three issues of the Industrial Union Bulletin (official organ of the St. John faction) appeared "after that packed 'convention' had done its deadly work."[444]