Justus Ebert as to why the I.W.W. found it difficult to establish itself in the particular social and political conditions of New York City.

‘The I.W.W. in New York City’ by Justus Ebert from Industrial Worker. Vol. 1 No. 1. April 1, 1916.

Fight Is Against the Greatest Capitalist, Development: Often Defeated, It Still Hopes to Win

The revival of the Industrial Worker is to be applauded. The period of industrial activity that the country is now experiencing offers an opportunity for an extension of I.W.W. work and the development of the I.W.W. press to that end. Besides, all the papers composing the I.W.W. press should be as near to the scenes of their constituents activities and as stimulative to each other as possible. The Industrial Worker has always had a big field for itself in the Pacific Northwest. No doubt it can serve that territory best, while, at the same time, making some exemplary contributions to I.W.W. journalism that would be well for other I.W.W. papers to sit up and notice.

No I.W.W. paper can afford to be either sectional or competitive. Modern industry is world-wide. It tends away from competition to cooperation in all its varied phases of development. This, too, despite all appearances to the contrary. The I.W.W. press should be world-wide and cooperative also, both in principle, and practice.

The Industrial Worker, happily, shows no inclination to act in a contrary spirit. It proceeds to act according to industrial evolution as manifested throughout the civilized world. It has invited articles from all points of the compass, even including New York City, which, too, often, is regarded as outside the industrial pale; though, very much in it, judging from modern capitalism. We have been asked to write “something pertaining to the New York situation” which we shall forthwith endeavor to do.

I.W.W. and Friendly Elements.

Of course, in a write-up for such a paper as the Industrial Worker, “the I.W.W. in New York City” is the first matter of interest.

There is, correctly speaking, very little I.W.W. organization in New York City.

There are locals, branches and propaganda leagues, but they are neither numerous, large in membership, nor of immense influence and prestige. The I.W.W. press has some readers; one paper, the Hungarian, “A Bermunkas” (The Wage Worker) is published here. Another the Jewish “Waker,” it is believed, will be revived again before this article appears in print. Nevertheless, the influence and power of the I.W.W. press is not very great here.

The I.W.W. movement in N.Y. City is most largely composed of and dependent on elements that are friendly to it and that are connected with other organizations, through which they operate in the promotion of I.W.W. strikes, movements and principles. The I.W.W. in New York City is largely a sympathetic movement resident in other organizations, inclined to progress or radicalism in unionism and society. This is at once a source of strength and weakness. It creates support outside of the I.W.W., while, at the same time, making it the, dependent on and the plaything of the elements contributing to this support. What is needed is a crystalization of I.W.W. sentiment into definite and self-supporting I.W.W. organization.

This situation arises from the peculiar local origin of the I.W.W. and the conditions that confront it. The New York I.W.W. began primarily with its supporters organized on the political instead of the economic field. They were originally and still continue to be, to a lesser extent, members of the two socialist parties. Of more recent years, the anarchists, radicals and advanced suffragettes have contributed to its members and supporters. There has also been sprinkling of progressive as well as disgusted unionists, to help along at times. Each and all have given the New York I.W.W. some of their own features. The result is a composite photograph that looks rather freakish in spots, to say the least unpleasant thing about it. It is a movement whose fathers are more generous than reasonable with its infantile strength and purposes.

The I.W.W. in New York City has never been able to strike root in proletarian soil independent of these sympathetic elements, and thus secure a beginning that would tend to create a movement all its own. It has appealed, sometimes with a certain degree of success, to workers outside of these elements, only to find itself unable to hold them. The fault was sometimes due to the freak notions of some of these elements. Sometimes it was due to theoretical and factional disputes, whose settlement in certain precise ways seemed of greater importance than practical organization on the job. But the fault was most largely due to the greater strength of the opposing forces of capitalism, which have always defeated the I.W.W. regardless of the theories or factions in control of it. As we look back it is surprising that the ex- ponents of both have never recognized this fact and decided that the drawbacks to I.W.W. growth were not to be found so much inside as outside of it.

Great Opposition to the I.W.W.

It is almost ridiculous to think that such a small body as the I.W.W. can raise such great opposition. We wouldn’t believe it possible if we weren’t somewhat vividly aware of the fact. The rain of shells at Verdun in nothing compared with the rain of malignity that pours down on and often threatens to drown out the I.W.W. This is due to the ideals actuating the I.W.W. and the great fights and strikes, like those at Spokane, San Diego, Lawrence, Paterson and Wheatland which they have made possible, despite a numerical weakness and the opposing, overwhelming odds. The I.W.W. in New York City has not been exempt from this campaign of slander and has suffered as a result of it. To get an idea of what this means, picture, in your mind’s eye, New York City as it really is with its complex cosmopolitan, civilization. Conjure up a consolidated city with five boroughs, divided by rivers and bays and with about 5,000,000 inhabitants; the leader in finance, shipping, commerce and industry on the continent, not to mention the organizations wherewith to mislead, befool, bamboozle, divide, defeat and enthrall labor.

New York City is America’s greatest port of entry and its greatest export center. It has one of the finest harbors and the greatest shipping in the world. To it come most of Europe’s immigrants and imports, from it go most of America’s tourists and products. Its importance in a financial sense cannot be overestimated.

Here are the country’s greatest banks and bankers–the stays from which are launched the great schemes requiring giant financial resources. It has great hopes of becoming the world’s financial center, as it is now, most likely, the world’s greatest corporation center. Here are the great skyscrapers–blocks long and mountains high–that house the central offices of the greatest corporations. Here too are department stores of a size, capital and magnificence, architectural and otherwise, unknown elsewhere in this country. All the great railroads converge here, as do the country’s idle, leisure and wealthy classes, for New York City is the hotel, theatrical, operatic, art, literary, and social, as well as the financial, commercial and shipping center of the country. It is the leader in almost every human endeavor under capitalism.

New York an Industrial Center.

This is especially true of its industry. New York looms up so large in other respects that it is not regarded as much from an industrial standpoint. However, it is claimed that, according to the 1910 U. S. Census, New York City practically manufactured 10 per cent. of all the goods produced in the United States. These products, it is said, reached the enormous total of over two billions of dollars, which surpasses the value of the manufactured products in any state in the Union with the exception of the State of Pennsylvania, and exceeds the value of the combined output of Boston, St. Louis, Cleve land. Detroit, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee and Buffalo.

The Industrial Directory for 1913, the last one issued by the New York State Department of Labor, shows New York State to have 51,118 factories with 1,364,070 employees in that year. Of that number, 35,849 factories and 782,566 employees, or 57.4 per cent. are in New York City.

New York City is also the home of the Civic Federation, many powerful employers’ associations and some of the most extensive industrial detective agencies in the United States. Every large corporation is identified with these organizations and is almost always anti-union in its attitude; besides having its own methods and departments for the handling of labor questions and difficulties. Unite with these the aid of a skillful press, the pulpit, moving pictures, municipal governments, and pliant politicians and political parties and one ceases to wonder that the corporations can beat the I.W.W. and cause it to remain small in New York City. The real wonder is that it is able to secure any following at all, and raise its head as threateningly as it has done at times, despite the weight of the highly developed capitalism above it that fain would keep it down.

New York City, as an I.W.W. stronghold, is not likely to inspire enthusiasm. It is an intricate and perplexing problem, more conducive of headaches and heartaches. But, after all, we should worry; does not history show that the city which is often apparently the acme of power is in reality on the road to weakness and decline, like Rome and the great cities of antiquity, not to mention a few of medieval times for instance? And who knows but what the recurrent ebb and flow of capitalist tides may not bring opportunities for the growth of the New York I.W.W. in the future as it has done in the past?

Craft Unionism in New York City.

Like every other city in the Union, N. Y. City has its labor unionism, mainly A.F. of L. This unionism is strongest in the building trades, where certain highly specialized crafts, like the plasterers, are paid as high as $6.00 a day. It is weakest on the traction lines, surface, subway and elevated, and in all the trust plants without exception, like those in the tobacco, sugar, linotype, machine, munitions, bread and cracker baking, rope making and other industries, which are not so highly corporationized, and which have large numbers of workers who are socialists, or socialistically inclined.

New York City, according to a State Labor Department publication, has 763 unions, with 370,403 men and 61,995 women members, or a total of 431,998 This is for all occupations, such as transportation, domestic service, and theatres, restaurant, public employment, office workers, etc., besides factory workers Compared with the 782,566 factory employees alone, it would appear as if less than one-third of all New York’s workers are organized in the A.F. of L

The I.W.W. has tried to remedy this condition only to meet A.F. of L opposition. In the shoe workers, longshoremen’s and other strikes where the I.W.W. was in control or exerted a great influence, it had to contend, not only against the employers’ association and big corporations, but also against the A.F. of L. that united with them to defeat the I.W.W. In the shoe workers strike, for instance, it was the boast of the A.F. of L and employers’ association that they had spent $1,000,000 to defeat the I.W.W. The result is that less than one-sixth of New York’s shoe workers are organized. while the independent craft organizations and the United Shoe Workers are battling for their very existence. In New York City, the A.F. of L. is a Civic Federationized and a Democratic Partyized institution. The Socialist Party occasionally revolts against it, only to serve it more sycophantically and hypocritically than ever before, when defeated as it always is. Some day it may win out; then we shall see what it will do.

I.W.W. in the Fight to Stay.

Meanwhile, the I.W.W. will go right on doing what it can to build up a strong organization in New York City. It is absurd to believe that a few men and women, who are neither much above or much below the average worker in intelligence, ability, and courage, can overthrow and break down the well knit, closely interlocked and intersupported capitalism, with its super-brains, legal, clerical, journalistic, financial, police, etc., of which the greatest city in the Empire State and the Union of the United States boasts so much and so justly. Conditions alone can help them, as it must help the few I.W.W. men and women everywhere, whether in this country or abroad. Capitalism is an Alps that weights us down; but we make it quake every once in a while, in a manner that shows conditions to be with us. And finally we, with the same aids, will overthrow it.

We refuse to weep over or get discouraged about the I.W.W. in New York City. We shall continue to hope for and work for its growth and influence in the greatest city of the greatest capitalism in the world.

JUSTUS EBERT New York City, N. Y, U. S. A

The Industrial Union Bulletin, and the Industrial Worker were newspapers published by the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) from 1907 until 1913. First printed in Joliet, Illinois, IUB incorporated The Voice of Labor, the newspaper of the American Labor Union which had joined the IWW, and another IWW affiliate, International Metal Worker.The Trautmann-DeLeon faction issued its weekly from March 1907. Soon after, De Leon would be expelled and Trautmann would continue IUB until March 1909. It was edited by A. S. Edwards. 1909, production moved to Spokane, Washington and became The Industrial Worker, “the voice of revolutionary industrial unionism.”

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