Born during the Civil War, Ella Reeve, later known as Mother Bloor (she had nine children, a number of whom became leading Communists), was a fixture on the left of the Socialist movement since 1897 when she first joined Debs’ S.D.P. to her death in 1951 in the Communist Party. In 1898, she moved to the S.L.P. for several years, for which she wrote this article on the Socialist and Trade Union Alliance and the moves towards industrial unionism.

‘The New Trade Unionism’ by Ella Reeve Cohen from The People. Vol. 9 No. 49. March 4, 1900.

The entire rank and file of the membership of the old pure and simple trade unions has become permeated with the spirit of discontent that often develops into open rebellion against the organization that no longer represents the interests of the working class. No longer do the officers, agents and members of the old trade unions work together for a common end. The officers strive to keep the men in darkest ignorance as to the workings of the machine that is still running on the worn out plan of trying to squeeze out favors from the capitalist class; and the workingman must hand out his pennies and even dollars to the officers and agents, only to perpetuate a system that robs him daily.

These facts brought out by class conscious men who have investigated the entire situation have been embodied in pamphlets like “Tragic Pages,” “What Means this Strike” and “The Story of the Bull Pen.” men read them, their eyes are: opened, and at first, in their terrible revulsion of feeling against these robbers that have been posing as the good Samaritans of the working class, they denounce ALL forms of trades unions, and in the full realization that they have been duped as well as robbed, they take a stand against ALL economic organization. Even men who have become class conscious Socialists sometimes fail to understand the importance of the new economic organization the Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance.

Under the present system there is still a pressing need for economic as well as political organization, but the two must work together; there must be an educational power, with political force back of it.

As long as a man must fight for a living wage, as long as he must struggle to keep his labor power on the market, just so long will it be necessary to organize trade unions.

The new trade unionism, founded on Socialistic principles, stands for the total annihilation of all that exists to blind and delude the working class; it demands a spirit of solidarity among the workers that makes no compromise with the capitalist class at the ballot box. Too long have American workingmen been willing to follow the example of the British trade unionists, who have been used as the tail to the kite of the middle class politicians, who, under the rule of “No politics in trade unions,” have crushed out all tendency to the expression of a revolutionary spirit, and have succeeded in inducing the members of these unions to continue to vote against their own class. A brighter example, however, has been furnished to all workingmen by the new trade unionism of Germany, of France, of Sweden, and of Belgium. Founded on the principles of Socialism, backed by strong political action, they have demonstrated what can be done by an aggressive economic organization.

More concessions have been made, and more power gained to relieve present conditions than could possibly have been obtained by non-political unions.

As one of the French delegates said, with true force, at the International Congress of Socialists in London in 1896: “In working to bring about the great change from capitalism to Socialism, we must not depreciate trades union action. It is most important to reduce the hours of labor and to increase the rate of wages. As trade unionism develops you also develop organization among the workers; you develop a power not only of organization and administration, but a power to rule the world. I would, however, urge that trade unionism of itself, and by itself, is powerless. Capitalism is strictly political: capitalists are the political class, and possess political power. The capitalist is master of the government and employs government troops to crush the strikes. Political action is used against trade unionism and trade unionism must use political action to take from the privileged classes the power they possess.”

At the same Congress, a delegate from Germany said: “We believe trade union organization to be as important as any, but it must have behind it a great political party opposed to all bourgeois parties alike.” And in these foreign countries we find that, although strikes are few, when one does take place, there are no luxurious “leaders” feeding on the blood and bone of the workers, but the spirit of class solidarity asserts itself, and the pennies flow in, not to the “treasury,” but to the homes of the strikers. “The strength of the union is in the spirit of the members.”

The same is true of the new trade unionism of this country–the Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance. Organized with the object of ending the class struggle as soon as possible, they realize that before that end is attained, the exploitation of labor must continue under the present system; their economic organization, backed by political action, must educate its members, must prepare them for the revolution, by developing the spirit of solidarity in all working men and women, The three chief objects, therefore, of this class-conscious trade unionism might be summed up as follows: First, the education of the workers in the principles of the Socialist Labor Party. Second, to abolish ideas that may exist in different trades and subdivisions of trades as to an aristocracy of labor, and to instill the true spirit of class fellowship. Third, to express their spirit and their convictions at the ballot box, by voting only for their own class, refusing always to act as political scabs, and condemning all who do, to the scorn they deserve.

With these objects in view, the Alliance workers of this country are massing their forces solidly against their common enemy. From the textile workers of New England to the coal miners of the West there is an exchange of sympathy, as they are bound together in one common interest, the class interest.

Needing no mediators, they have put all labor fakirs in their region to flight, and have shown that the working men who have become enlightened and class conscious are perfectly equipped to do their own fighting, for the capitalist employer fears nothing more than a Socialist organization among his workers. And all along the line sounds this message, formulated in “What Means this Strike?”:

“Politics is not separable from wages. For the same reason that the organisation of labor dictates wages, hours, etc. in the interest of the working class, for that same reason must it dictate politics also; and for the same reason that it execrates the scab in the shop, it must execrate the scab at the hustings.”

New York Labor News Company was the publishing house of the Socialist Labor Party and their paper The People. The People was the official paper of the Socialist Labor Party of America (SLP), established in New York City in 1891 as a weekly. The New York SLP, and The People, were dominated Daniel De Leon and his supporters, the dominant ideological leader of the SLP from the 1890s until the time of his death. The People became a daily in 1900. It’s first editor was the French socialist Lucien Sanial who was quickly replaced by De Leon who held the position until his death in 1914. Morris Hillquit and Henry Slobodin, future leaders of the Socialist Party of America were writers before their split from the SLP in 1899. For a while there were two SLPs and two Peoples, requiring a legal case to determine ownership. Eventual the anti-De Leonist produced what would become the New York Call and became the Social Democratic, later Socialist, Party. The De Leonist The People continued publishing until 2008.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/the-people-slp/000304-thepeople-v09n49.pdf