It is hard to think of a more important strike for the development of the U.S. Left and the militant workers’ movement than the Western Federation of Miners-led 1903-04 struggle in Colorado. An industrial union led by Socialists, the strike was a direct antecedent to the formation of the I.W.W., brought Bill Haywood to national leadership, fueled Debs’ 1904 Presidential run, and created a new dynamic putting Left unity on the immediate agenda. Here, Moyer and Haywood describes what was at stake in the giant class battle.

‘Up And at Them’ by Charles H. Moyer and William D. Haywood from American Labor Union Journal. Vol. 1 No. 42. July 23, 1903.

Western Federation of Miners Leads Fight in Great Struggle in Colorado–Identity of interests of All Workers as a Class Is Emphasized in This Battle–An Appeal for Aid From Unions and Socialists.

Denver, Colo., July 11, 1903.

To the Officers and Members of Organized Labor, to the Members of the Socialist Party, and to All of Laboring Humanity.

Friends, Greeting:

“A condition and not a theory” confronts the laboring men of the west. The heavy iron hand of corporate might is being felt in every department of manual toil. The man who reads and thinks no longer entertains the opinion that there can be permanent peace and harmony be tween the capitalist and the laboring man, under an industrial system that demands profit at the expense of “life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. The document of national liberty, the federal constitution and the organic law of every state of our union seem to be helpless in placing the strong arm of protection around the rights and liberties of that great body of men and women, who are camped on the industrial field, waging a ceaseless battle for the right to exist. Standing upon the threshold of the twentieth century, we can be hold the functions of government utilized by trusts and corporations, to subjugate the masses in the interest of a class, who revel in indolent magnificence and whose unbridled license to enjoy is minted from the walls and moans of disinherited labor.

The Western Federation of Miners, since its birth, has met the forces of capitalism and measured steel with corporate despotism, to save human liberty from being sacrificed beneath the wheels of insatiable greed.

The Western Federation of Miners has declared for the collective ownership of the land, the machinery of production and distribution, believing that the whole human race must have free access to the resources of nature and the implements that have moulded from the genius of man, before humanity can have an equal, opportunity to live. This declaration upon the part of the federation has aroused the ire of corporations, who behold in the political policy of our organization the dethronement of the privileged class, and the abolition of master and slave.

The federation is looked upon by the corporations of the metalliferous regions as one of the most powerful labor organizations in the world, and the aim and object of the various mine owners associations of the west is to attack the federation with every weapon at their command, believing that this organization once crippled and shattered, all other labor organizations would follow in its wake.

The great smelter trust has arisen in its Goliath strength and joined forces with the mining corporations to make the capitalistic fortification more invincible.

Merchans, bankers, lawyers, brokers and swindlers on boards of trade and stock exchanges have banded together and become auxiliaries to aid trust and corporate power in halting the federation in its onward march towards the goal of labor’s emancipation.

Thousands of members are now involved in a struggle for short hours. In Arizona the legislature enacted an eight-hour law which took effect on June 1, but the mining corporations ignored the law, and when the miners ceased to work to enforce the provisions of the law the territorial militia and the federal troops were used to aid the corporations to violate the enactment of a legislative body, and drive back to the mines the men who were demanding that the eight-hour law should be respected. In Colorado, the people by a vote of more than 40,000 majority, passed a constitutional amendment, empowering the legislature to enact an eight hour law for all men working in mines, mills and smelters, but corporate influence debauched the law-making body of the state and the sovereign voice of the people, as expressed at the ballot box, was strangled by the mailed hand of the smelter trust and the combinations, which believe that labor has no rights which capital is bound to respect.

In Nevada an eight-hour law has been passed and yet the members of our organization are engaged in a conflict to force the corporations to respect the law.

The labor organizations of this country have sent their representatives to Washington year after year to solicit the “servants of the people” to pass a national eight-hour law, but all efforts upon the part of labor committees have been fruitless, and we have at last arrived at the conclusion that only through the united power and action of organized labor, can an eight-hour law be established that will be beyond the power of corporations and judicial tribunals to nullify.

For years the Western Federation of Miners has been making a tireless fight for an eight-hour day, and will continue to battle until the banner waves in triumph over the surrendered ramparts of organized wealth. Since the federation has declared its aggressive policy for better conditions and ultimately for the economic liberty of man, the trusts and corporations have concentrated their forces from the Mississippi river to the Pacific coast, from British Columbia to the gulf, and challenged even our right to organize the men of toil who revolt against corporate peonage.

The battle of the federation is the battle of every man who labors with his hand, or with his brain, and the rays of light upon tolling humbly throughout the world. Every member of organized labor and every individual whose heart beats in harmony with the principles of justice can be a factor in the battle for the down-trodden victims of wage slavery.

The federation has been generous in its response to every cry of distress. The strikes of every state of the union have received our recognition and support, and the treasury of our organization has yielded generously to meet the wants of brave men who were fighting the battle of manhood against corporate avarice.

We are now appealing to every friend of humanity to take his stand with right against might. We are calling upon the tolling millions to come to the rescue, and defend the countless thousands whose long hours of labor in mine, mill and smelter are dooming them to premature graves.

The Western Federation of Miners has concluded to establish an eight-hour fund and call upon the labor army of the world to forward such contributions as will swell the fund to such proportions as will enable the federation to cope with the powers of amalgamated plutocracy. The hour is at hand when the battle must be fought. The corporations have millions in their treasuries to resist our demands, and we must hove the “sinews of war” to meet the enemy and force greed to hoist the white flag.

The battle for eight hours is a fight for humanity, whose results will be felt by generations that are yet unborn. Upon labor depends the preservation of human freedom, and only through self-sacrifices on the part of the toilers can liberty be saved from the ruthless hand of Shylock despotism.

We appeal to every labor organization throughout the world, to the Socialist party of every country and to every man and woman whose hearts yearn for a higher and purer civilization to respond to this call, that we may be able to lessen the hours of servitude of the wealth producers of western America.

All remittances should be marked “Eight hour Fund” and forwarded by draft, registered letter or post office money order to William D. Haywood, secretary. treasurer of the Western Federation of Miners, 625 Mining Exchange building, Denver, Colorado.

CHARLES MOYER, President W.F.M. WILLIAM D. HAYWOOD, Secretary-Treasurer W.F.M.

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/030723-alujournal-v1n42.pdf