On the eve of the inaugural I.W.W. convention, William D. Haywood with a powerful exposition of the Good News that was, and is, industrial unionism.

‘Industrial Unionism’ by William D. Haywood from Voice of Labor (A.L.U.). Vol. 3 No. 5. June, 1905.

Conditions in this country demand a working class labor movement, for the uplifting of the twenty-three million wage workers, the drudges of commerce in the United States.

A call has been issued for a convention to be held in Chicago, June 27th, to formulate plans and enforce action that will bring relief to this vast army of the working class. It has been asserted that the industrial union movement is dual and a rival of the American Federation of Labor. What a travesty! The American Federation of Labor, an organization without power and without purpose; merely an Executive Council of loosely affiliated trades unions, representing a comparatively small number of the multitude of wage workers. The members of the A.F. of L. are in no way bound together with the fraternal bonds of unionism, but are inculcated with the spirit of craft selfishness, shackled with “sacred” agreements, continually harassed with delicately defined, hair-line, jurisdiction squabbles–presuming to represent the working class interest, but in fact practicing the methods of the employing class–exerting every influence to maintain a monopoly of benefits that are to be derived by organization from the favored few who have served apprenticeships.

The American Federation of Labor is utterly impotent to render sustenance of material nature to any of its affiliated organizations. Absolutely powerless to enforce the support of one member, or union, to another member or union that may be involved in trouble. Not being equipped with a general defense general defense fund, the only function which the American Federation of Labor can assume is to act as an advisory board of the trades union movement. In this capacity they are painfully incompetent, as is evidenced by the manner in which they were double-crossed by the Civic Federation.

The New York subway strike is a gaping, bleeding wound that will not heal with the application of salve labeled “identity of interest of capital and labor.”

A seance of looking each other in the eye did not prevent the disruption of the Butchers’ organization of Chicago and other cities, or the Textile Workers of Fall River, and if the Teamsters of Chicago are not powerful enough themselves to cope with the gigantic mercantile houses, which are being supported by the municipal authorities, they too will succumb to the brutality of policemen’s clubs, and will be offered as another sacrifice to the trades union movement on the sacred altar of “contract.”

The pathway of the American Federation of Labor is strewn with battered wrecks of trades unions that have endeavored to stand against the withering fire of capitalism.

Attention is called to the machinists and boiler makers employed on the Santa Fe system. They are making a noble struggle for better conditions. Their demands are just and surely these men are entitled to the support of every member, of organized labor. What relief does the trades union movement afford them? None, absolutely none. It is within the power of the antique trades craft organizations to score a victory for the machinists and boilermakers, but the brotherhood unions are chained to the chariot wheels of agreements and schedules, so their brothers in tribulations are doomed to become the inevitable victims of the American Federation of Labor trades union movement.

As all is fair in love and war, industrial unionists would abrogate all agreements that would compel them to violate the principles of unionism and would be ashamed to do that which would be detrimental to their fellow workers.

The Western Federation of Miners has repeatedly been invited to re-affiliate with the American Federation of Labor, but up to the present time have not been able to recognize the benefits to be derived by paying per capita tax for the purpose of according the Executive Council of the American Federation of Labor the privilege of dividing the membership of the progressive W.F. of M. into a number of pure and simple trades unions. That the miners of the West have been able to hold their own for over two years in the most fierce war that has ever been waged against organized labor, is owing to the fact that all persons employed in and around the mines, mills and smelters are united in one general organization, standing shoulder to shoulder to shoulder for a common interest. This fight which has entered the third year, could be won in less than three weeks if it were not for the fact that the trades unions are lending their assistance to the mine operators. The miners of the Cripple Creek District went on strike mainly in defense of their brother members who were being discriminated against in the mills of Colorado City. When the millmen went on strike to protect their rights to organize, the miners refused to produce ore for the mills which had been declared unfair and which were being operated by scabs. The men who are working in the mines of the Cripple Creek District at the present time are in common parlance “scabbing.” The men who are working on the railroads, engineers, firemen, brakemen, hauling ore from scab miners to scab millmen, must be technically termed union men, owing to the peculiar method of dealing with such questions from the trades union standpoint. There seems to be a distinction without a difference. The railroaders form the connecting link of a proposition that is scabby at both ends.

conventions as to always outweigh trivial affairs, such as organizing a labor movement capable of confronting the common enemy. The ideas of Mr. Gompers are hoary, aged, moss-covered relics of the days of the ox team and the pony express, when the craftsmen owned or controlled the tools of production.

Today the product of modern socialized industry goes through the hands of hundreds of workers. The diversity of labor is incapable of craft distinction, thus the pure and simple trades unions become obsolete. The machine is the apprentice of yesterday, the journeymen of today. To review the controversies of labor organizations during the last two years is to open a record of bitter humiliation, terrible suffering, keenest heart, pangs, the, camp followers of disastrous defeat. It is to acknowledge that resolutions and labels, boycotts, legislative lobbies and strikes, the weapons of labor, are but sling shots and bows and arrows when compared with the thirteen-inch injunction guns, the rapid fire supreme court decisions and military Krag Jorgensens of capitalism. It is a pitiful sight to see the would-be representatives of labor on bended knee, supplicating for a compromise with the relentless agents of the capitalist system.

To Mr. Gompers must be accorded the distinction of being an able advocate of the trade union movement, a competent jurist in questions of autonomy and technical definitions of jurisdiction, and demarcations of crafts. These are matters of such vital importance in the American Federation of Labor.

The industrial union is the evolution of the labor movement, conforming and competing with the strides of the machine in industrial progress; the economic organization of the working class; the open door of organized labor. A place in the fraternal circle will be found for every brain and muscle wage worker. With twenty million of unorganized wage workers, the material presents itself for a progressive, compact, militant organization, the local unions of which will be lyceums for the discussion of political economy, teaching the working class to understand their position in life.

Industrial unity means political solidarity, organized for mutual benefit controlling economic power the means of life. Conditions will rapidly improve, upbuilding a race of men and women that will steadily develop and advance towards the goal of mental, moral and physical perfection.

American Labor Union Journal was the official paper of the ALU, formed by the Western Federation of Miners and a direct predecessor to the I.W.W. Published every Thursday in Butte, Montana beginning in October, 1902 before moving to Chicago in early 1904. The ALU supported the new Socialist Party of America for its first years, but withdrew by 1904 as the union and paper grew more syndicalist with “No Politics in the Union” appearing on its masthead and going to a monthly. In early 1905, the Journal was renamed Voice of Labor, folding into the Industrial Workers of the World later that year. The Journal covered the Western Federation of Miners and the United Brotherhood of Railway Employees, as well as the powerful labor movement in Butte.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/american-labor-union-journal/050600-voiceoflabor-v3n09-finalissue.pdf