Caroline Nelson on the historic meaning of the free speech fight in San Diego.

‘Workers Are Making History’ by Caroline Nelson from Industrial Worker. Vol. 4 No. 8. May 16, 1912.

The fight in San Diego has made the I.W.W. famous. It has actually hammered out a great deal of the foolish stuff that backward trade unions used to peddle about them. This is what is on the front page of “Organized Labor,” the official paper of the building trades council of San Francisco.

“Of course, the Industrial Worker of the World stands out conspicuous because he has the real martyr’s spirit. He is willing to give all he has–his body and his life for an ideal. That possibly is why J. Keno Wilson confesses his inability to punish them.

“They may be clubbed, man-handled and maltreated, starved, whipped and slugged, yet they shout and sing, acclaim and decorate the walls of their cells with their motto: ‘Educate, Agitate and Emancipate!’ And in a community of such nervous tension as San Diego–this martyr-spirit spreads rapidly, like wild fire over dry prairies.

“The authorities fear it, because they can’t understand it. The merchants and moneyed men denounce it for the reason that it becomes beyond their ken.

“Yet it permeates the community; it breathes and nourishes the life of ‘passive resistance’ into the struggle. It is a most curious kind of warfare this ‘passive resistance.’”

“There is no physical force, no arms, no resistance, Except the passive one–the one that when smitten on one check turns the other, or when struck on the head by the policeman’s club, takes off the hat and says: ‘Hit the other side.’

“They come from all nationalities, most of them born on American soil, and proclaim themselves as citizens of the world. That is the worker’s method of warfare in San Diego.”

Pretty good for a craft labor paper. It shows that craft labor leaders are seeing the light handed out to them by the Industrialists.

On the other hand Alexander Irvine, a socialist politician and ex-sky pilot, tried to curry favor with the trades union and the respectable element in the party by putting forth in the Social Democrat, that the fight in San Diego was purely an I.W.W. fight, and that the I.W.W.’s ought to be left to fight it out themselves. The contemptible coward, however, was called to terms in the socialist convention by the Industrialists, who had a resolution passed in favor of the free speechers.

But when it came to stand by the I.W.W.’s rather than craft unionism the socialist state convention showed that its members on the whole loves temporary power more than the proletariat and its principle. Of course, any fool knows that until the workers line up on the industrial field for socialism a purely political party standing for such is only a pipe dream, and that it if lines up with craft unionism, which does not and cannot stand for the overthrow of the capitalist system, it is a bogus proletarian movement–a bastard offspring of capitalism. Proclamations does not show the character of a man, but that which he lines up with and stands for does, in spite of his declarations: It is the same with a political party or any other party. So the socialist party in California has resoluted itself out of the proletarian camp into the craft union camp. At this, too, at the very time when the handwriting on the wall is plain regarding that form of labor organization.

But the ways of the politicians are mysterious, and clouded in darkness. These socialists are constantly shrieking “anarchist” at the I.W.W.’s, because they don’t emphasize the supreme power of political action which alone will give politicians fat jobs. But the socialist politicians are really the best teachers of the futility of political actions, and shove over to the Industrialists members on one end just about as fast as he takes them in at the other. The socialist party here in California is a splendid school for the I.W.W. principle. Those who come with faith and hope in political action inside the party. and see what is going on, and how the platforms are made up by shysters who care for nothing but votes, and who manages to get everything in except anything that is of any real benefit to the workers, speedily get cured of that idea.

But never in the world’s history has things looked so bright for the proletariat. A few months ago you couldn’t say I.W.W. in the socialist party without being laughed at and scorned, in the convention here the Industrialist only ran five votes behind craft unionism. In a short time the Industrialists will run away ahead and if they care to do so they can capture it, or they can let is commit suicide by swallowing the dope of progressive this and that fake reform stunt.

In craft unionism that is the same thing. The Industrialists gain every day. They will sweep the field clean and light a fire under the politician and the labor skate. The socialists have always complained that the press would take no notice of them. But the Industrialists get more advertising even than does T.R. More fight will soon take place here. Oakland is closed to free speech, and we may have to get in and lick them over there, as soon as we have finished them down in San Diego and restored that city to civilization. Then we shall see the wolf in sheep’s clothing show himself in that sanctified city. These free speech fights show how law-abiding our ruling class is, and how much regard they have for their sanctified constitution. That also show what asses our socialists are, when they scream, “we are law abiding citizens.” As Industrialists we don’t care a hang about the laws sanctified by our oppressors when they are against us. We only obey them as long as we are not strong enough to violate them.

If we are to institute a new order of things we and we alone are to make our own laws, and sanctify them by our life and strength. We use passive resistance as an effective means of gaining active resistance.

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/iw/v4n08-w164-may-16-1912-IW.pdf