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

by Paul F. Brissenden

All methods of handling the situation have proven unavailing.... One method suggested is for each state to employ forces of mounted police similar to the famous Northwest Mounted Police of Canada to keep the bands from congregating, break up their "jungles" and otherwise deal with them. Power seems the only force they recognize, and they laugh at the county sheriffs and town constables.[687]

The year 1916 saw a recrudescence of both free-speech and strike activities. The most important were the Everett Free Speech fight culminating in the tragedy of November 6 and the miners' strike on the Mesaba range during the spring and summer. The scope of the present study does not permit of a detailed account of either of these highly important labor struggles. Indeed, this is hardly possible now, since in neither case is the story complete.

Many signs suggest the possibility of a split in the I. W. W. before many months. The growing strength of the A. W. O. and its natural yearning to be a big independent organization as well as the failure of the Pacific Coast to send more than one solitary delegate to the tenth convention, both indicate a possible development of internal discord sufficient to divide the I. W. W. into eastern and western wings. Mr. Roger W. Babson in one of his recent confidential labor reports suggests another way in which a shifting of power may come. "A very large labor organization ... has taken steps," he says, "to leave the Federation of Labor and form an industrial union.... A convention for this purpose is planned for Chicago in the near future. The Industrial Workers of the World plan to gain control of this convention and may succeed."[688]

A correspondent in the Weekly People says that one delegate at the tenth I. W. W. convention declared that there was very likely to be a split in the organization and intimated that, in such an event, the Agricultural Workers' Organization would be the chief factor in bringing it about.[689] The same writer continues:

The A. W. O.... has a membership of from 18,000 to 20,000. This seems to be a lot, but last night one who just arrived from the harvest fields told me that workers traveling through the West on box cars were thrown off if they had no red card of the I. W. W., and many were beaten up.... He told me that eight or more go in groups with revolvers and board trains going out from the limits of a town and go through the train kicking and beating-up anyone who has no red card.[690]

No convention was held in 1915. The tenth convention met at Chicago in the latter part of November, 1916. Fairly complete reports have been published in the columns of Solidarity.[691] There were in attendance about 25 delegates, including three members of the General Executive Board and the General Secretary. The delegates were almost entirely from the East and Middle West, only one coming from the Pacific Coast.[692] The editor of Solidarity, commenting upon the charter of the convention, says that "the tenth convention is remarkable as denoting the decline of the 'soap-boxers' as the dominant element." "The dominant tone," he says, "was constructive rather than controversial and the general demand was for such constitutional and other changes as would make for greater efficiency in the work of the organization," and he approvingly quotes one delegate as exclaiming, "The I. W. W. is passing out of the purely propaganda stage and is entering the stage of constructive organization."[693]

The most recent official report says that the organization now (January 1, 1917) "consists of six industrial unions: Marine Transport Workers, Metal and Machinery Workers, Agricultural Workers (A. W. O.), Iron Miners, Lumber Workers, and Railway Workers, having fifty branches and 200 unions in other industries, together with 100 recruiting unions directly united with the general organization."[694] The paid-up membership is put at 60,000 on January 1st, 1917, up to which date it is claimed that an aggregate of 300,000 membership cards had been issued since 1905.[695] The bulk of the present membership is distributed among the following industries: textile, steel, lumber, mining, farming, railroad construction, and marine transportation. Except in the textile industries, the majority of these workers are migratory unskilled laborers.[696]

The activities of the I. W. W. are by no means confined to the United States and Canada. The organization has been gradually extending its propaganda in most English-speaking countries. This study is primarily concerned with the I. W. W. in the United States. But in any case it would be impossible to present any adequate record of its work in other countries because of the difficulty of getting at the facts of the situation. The announcements from the Chicago headquarters make reference to four foreign jurisdictions, viz.: its British, New Zealand, Australian and South African "administrations." It is unlikely that the "British Administration" amounts to anything. The writer has happened upon vague references to an "I. W. W. local" in London, but has not been able to either disprove or verify them. It is in the British colonies of South Africa[697] and Australia that the I. W. W. has made headway with its propaganda and organizing work. After the outbreak of the European War the I. W. W. in Australia became the object of no little attention on the part of the government because of their anti-militarist agitation. Finally in Australia several of the Wobblies were arrested, tried and convicted on charges of high treason.

All the machinery of the capitalist state has been turned loose against us [says an I. W. W. paper published in Sydney]. Our hall has been raided periodically as a matter of principle, our literature, our papers, pictures, and press have all been confiscated; our members and speakers have been arrested and charged with almost every crime on the calendar; the authorities are making unscrupulous, bitter and frantic attempts to stifle the propaganda of the I. W. W.[698]