The Saint on an organizing trip after the split with the Socialist Labor Party visits New York, home of the S.L.P. headquarters.

‘Vincent St. John in New York’ by G.H. Vaughan from Industrial Union Bulletin. Vol. 2 No. 28. December 12, 1908.

On Sunday afternoon, Nov. 22, at 3 o’clock, at 64 East 4th St., Fellow Worker Vincent St. John delivered an address under the auspices of the I.W.W. Before a large and attentive audience of between 200 and 300 he gave a thorough exposition of the civilized plane upon which the Industrial Union Movement will gather the workers for the task of overthrowing the present system of industrial barbarity and re-establishing society upon the basis of industrial democracy. Tracing the development of society’s productive forces up to the present and paralleling with the development of labor’s forces and tactics in the struggle engendered by capitalist ascendency, he brought forth the tactical solution of the workers’ present enslavement and demonstrated the correctness of the posture of the I.W.W.

With unerring precision he shattered the claim of craft unions as represented by the A.F. of L, proving their very existence to be a negation of their supposed principles.

“If,” said St. John, “the interests of the workers and their employers were mutual and reciprocating, labor needs no organization to make the employers see the point.”

“The conditions gained by contracts,” he continued, “are the price of treachery to the rest of our class, and when the employer has beaten labor to its knees with the aid of his contract scabs, he proceeds to reduce the organized tools to the same dead level of abasement.”

In contrast to the fallacies of A.F. of L. teachings and tactics, the attention of the workers was directed to the revolutionary posture of the I.W.W. and the logical tactics flowing therefrom.

Organizing the workers at the point of production and specializing that organization according to the nature of the industry and the commodity produced, craft barriers are dissolved, unity of purpose and action attained and the control of the products of their labor by the workers is secured. As the industry in which a worker may be placed threads it way through the industrial fabric, so will his organization extend, being coextensive with the industry itself, and connection with the kindred industries at the point of contact secured through the grouping of all such in departments. The last link in the chain of solidarity is forged by uniting these departments in a representative General Executive Board.

Throughout his entire address, Fellow Worker St. John held the closest attention of his audience and at its conclusion the applause was genuine and generous.

In passing it might be mentioned that some in the audience who appeared before the “bar of the international labor movement” at Paterson recently were no less appreciative than the I.W.W. men who have not faltered in their loyalty to the only organization of labor worthy of the name.

Following the close of the address a collection was taken up amounting to over $15.00, which will be used by the local District Council as the needs of the organization dictate.

The chairman after the collection invited questions on the subject and included the late convention. They came, and were answered plainly and convincingly.

Among others, we feel convinced that Fellow Worker St. John’s answer to the charge of race prejudice–which it has been sought by some interests to lodge against the I.W.W.–will cause such tactics to boomerang upon the heads of their utterers, to their own confounding.

After adjournment the New York Industrial Council was reorganized, and since the newly elected secretary of that body will forward the facts relating to same I will omit the details here.

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.”

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/industrialworker/iub/v2n28-dec-12-1908-iub.pdf