The story of the very first auto strike in Detroit. Matilda Rabinowitz was a paid I.W.W. organizer sent to Detroit to bring the One Big Union into the auto plants. On June 17, 1913, thousands of workers walked out of the Studebaker plant, joined by the Timken Axle plant workers led by Rabinowitz. While the strike failed, Rabinowitz says it deserves study “because it was one of the very few short strikes, if not the only one, which the I.W.W. conducted, where the most revolutionary theories were put into practice, and the most militant tactics used.”

‘A Short Strike in the Automobile Industry’ by Matilda Rabinowitz from Solidarity. Vol. 4 No. 27. July 12, 1913.

Quite likely the opponents of direct action (much abused word) generally, and the I.W.W. specifically, will get new stimulus for hair-splitting arguments, out of the one-week rebellion, on the part of 6000 automobile workers who had returned to work without apparently gaining anything.

The walkout in Detroit deserves attention just now because it was one of the very few short strikes, if not the only one, which the I.W.W. conducted, where the most revolutionary theories were put into practice, and the most militant tactics used.

Through the agitation which has been carried on by I.W.W. organizers, the men in the automobile industry were awakened to look into their conditions of labor, and began to realize that far from being “ideal” as the editorials of the kept press stated, they were wretched.

They began to understand, theoretically to be sure, some thing of the power of labor’s solidarity. Day after day the men in the factories discussed the eight-hour day, the possibility of a general strike in the automobile industry, and particularly how to wrench the weekly pay-day from the labor skinners.

As it happened that most of the I.W.W. militants were employed in the Studebaker plants, it was naturally there that a great deal of agitation was going on.

The men knew, however, that to strike during the summer for better conditions, would be suicidal, as the slack season in the auto industry lasts from May to September. But the men were goaded into rebellion when the company posted notices to the effect that if a pay-day falls on a Sunday or holiday the workers will be paid a day later, and not a day before as previously. Then the men began to demand a weekly pay and 2000 signed a petition and submitted it to the management. The committee was immediately fired. When the fired men come to get their overalls, and told the men the reason for their discharge, a thousand men walked out with them in protest, and that same day about 5000 more walked out of the two other plants. It was one of the most splendid demonstrations of solidarity for a common cause in the history of the labor movement in the United States. Not so much for the weekly pay, as because the committee was fired the men stopped making automobiles, and demonstrated that the agitators’ oft repeated “An injury to one is the concern of all” did not fall on deaf ears.

Almost as soon as the men walked out they knew that it was but a question of a short time that they would have to go back and bide their time, until the rush season. The manufacturers waited with glee to see a general strike declared, and then conveniently lock the workers out until September and incidentally kill every effort made by the I.W.W. to organize the men. But the men knew their game, and while out themselves advised strike in the other factories. They were trying to conduct their fight with an intelligence and clear-sightedness, but at the same time with a vigor and determination which only the revolutionary industrial unionism and militant tactics of the I.W.W. could teach them.

To insure against the company’s hiring workers from the other plants that were shut down, some of the strikers, with the knowledge of the strike committee applied for jobs on the second day of the strike, and got them. They then put the machines on strike and came out. Others who stayed too long were relieved of their task by the company. The result was that the Studebaker corporation refused to hire any men while the strike lasted.

Three days after the walkout the company posted notices to the effect that it will pay to any of the men who so desire 70 per cent “draw pay” each week, providing applications are made on Wednesday to receive pay on Saturday. This was, of course, a compromise on the company’s part, and it is but a question of a short time that the weekly pay will be an established fact.

As the men say, under the Taylor efficiency system a few thousand men leaving their jobs every Wednesday, to apply for their envelopes, will soon put a stop to such arrangement.

During the week that the men were out, every day saw a session of “legislature” in the union hall, such as the real power of the workers will come from. Plans of organization were laid and discussed. The eight-hour day and how best to prepare for getting it was the main topic. The question of sabotage, and the most effective use of it during strikes, and to force concessions during temporary truce, was discussed far more intelligently by these men who had just taken off their overalls and left their machines, than by the convention of the Socialist party of 1912, which boasted of its veterans in the labor movement. All discussion centered around the shops. There were no questions as to whether a thing was “right” or “wrong,” but was it beneficial to the automobile workers. Spontaneously and without persuasion the men left their jobs because one of their number was discharged; and after a week of deliberation, closer fraternity and better equipped with a supply of knowledge on industrial unionism, they returned to work, more determined than ever to fight for bread and freedom, and intent on organizing the entire automobile industry. The I.W.W. has become firmly imbedded in the hearts and minds of those who even for one week fought under its banner, and the enthusiasm and appreciation of its speakers and organizers, bespoke the fact plainly at all meetings.

It is just such strikes as the one in Detroit that are going to become more and more frequent. The more frequent and of less duration they become the more knowledge and aggressiveness will go with them. The two ways to strike, both off the job and on it, will be learnt by the working class in proportion as strikes become shorter, and militant strike tactics longer.

The I.W.W. is doing the work not only of organizing but teaching the best and newest methods of rendering the capitalist system profitless.

The most widely read of I.W.W. newspapers, Solidarity was published by the Industrial Workers of the World from 1909 until 1917. First produced in New Castle, Pennsylvania, and born during the McKees Rocks strike, Solidarity later moved to Cleveland, Ohio until 1917 then spent its last months in Chicago. With a circulation of around 12,000 and a readership many times that, Solidarity was instrumental in defining the Wobbly world-view at the height of their influence in the working class. It was edited over its life by A.M. Stirton, H.A. Goff, Ben H. Williams, Ralph Chaplin who also provided much of the paper’s color, and others. Like nearly all the left press it fell victim to federal repression in 1917.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/solidarity-iww/1913/v04n27-w183-jul-12-1913-solidarity.pdf