Industrialism is not Syndicalism – Industrial Worker (1913)

_{Sticker design by Ralph Chaplin, re-sourced from Catherine Tedford’s site}

From ‘Industrial Worker’, Jan.9, 1913, Spokane, Washington

The Industrial Workers of the World has entered the industrial arena with a clarion challenge to the old order of things. It interprets the spirit of the times and claims the attention of the toilers. First ignored, then ridiculed, it has followed the course of every departure from established ideas and is now demanding serious attention from all.

The I.W.W. does not neglect propaganda among the skilled workers, but it particularly addresses itself to the unskilled, migratory workers who form the bulk of the working class. This portion of society is constantly increasing. It gains recruits from the displaced skilled workers, from the dying middle class, and from all the rising generation of workers. The I.W.W. alone represents this part of the workers and to it belongs the future.

The craft union has fulfilled its mission — if it ever had one — and must disappear. Those who try to perpetuate it are today the deepest reactionists, even though they may call themselves socialist, anarchist, or syndicalist.

The craft union fosters strife and division among the workers. It fails to conform in any way to the development of production and exchange. It stands in the way of progress and forms a bulwark for capitalism.

Those who hold that craft unions will develop into industrial unions are ignorant of history. There is no record of an organization having developed in that manner.

In the religious field Martin Luther had to start a new church. His ideas found no favor and made no headway in the old.

In the political field the Socialists started a party of their own instead of trying to revolutionize the existing ones. When a difference of policy sprang up within the new party it was settled by a bolt. It is quite evident that the present agitation within the Socialist Party will result in a split, or a withdrawal of the protestants.

The A.F. of L. [American Federation of Labor] did not try to force their ideas upon the existing unions. They organized and with the aid of Marcus M. Hanna and other thieving employers, scabbed the old unions out of existence. The cry of dual unionism did not stop them. The Steel Trust was not formed by the enlargement of small competing steel concerns. A new organization put many of the small fry out of commission, and absorbed the rest by force. Some of the old plants were scrapped and portions of others transferred bodily to Gary, Ind. The story of the other trusts is the same.

The Syndicalists themselves give the lie to their own teachings by withdrawing from the I.W.W. rather than to attempt to change it to conform to their pet theories.

The I.W.W. is not a syndicalist organization, though many regard it as such. It is an industrial union. Capitalism has reached a higher stage of development in this country than elsewhere, and industrial unionism meets the higher type of production and exchange with a better form of organization and up-to-date tactics. It is as far ahead of Syndicalism as American capitalism is ahead of French capitalism.

Industrial unionism accepts all of the syndicalistic tactics that experience has shown to be available for present purposes. It stands for direct action, sabotage, anti-patriotism, and the general strike. It out-socializes socialism by practicing internationalism instead of merely preaching it. The I.W.W. welcomes alike the American born and the Asiatic, although the latter is turned down by craft unionists and political socialists. From Socialism, however, industrialism gets much basic thought, while rejecting all ideas of State control or interference in industrial affairs. From anarchism it gains some useful tactics and vital principles but refuses to accept the individual autonomy that is a preventative to solidarity.

In international affiliations the I.W.W. is more closely allied with the revolutionary syndicalists than any other body. With the trades unions, as such, we have small common interest. With the socialist bodies, formed as they are of persons from other than the wage working class, we can have no direct connection. In most of the other countries the I.W.W. is looked upon as syndicalist.

While it is expected that some little time must elapse before a new organization gets on a perfectly steady keel, and in the meantime some contradiction must appear, still it is well to understand from the outset that the I.W.W. represents a higher type of revolutionary labor organization than that proposed by the syndicalists.

Preamble to the Constitution of the
Industrial Workers of the World (1991)

The working class and the employing class have nothing in common.

There can be no peace so long as hunger and want are found among millions of the working people and the few, who make up the employing class, have all the good things of life.

Between these two classes a struggle must go on until the workers of the world organise as a class, take possession of the means of production, abolish the wage system, and live in harmony with the earth.

We find that the centering of the management of industries into fewer and fewer hands makes the trade unions unable to cope with the evergrowing power of the employing class.

The trade unions foster a state of affairs which allows one set of workers to be pitted against another set of workers in the same industry, thereby helping defeat one another in wage wars.

Moreover, the trade unions aid the employing class to mislead the workers into the belief that the working class have interests in common with their employers.

These conditions can be changed and the interest of the working class upheld only by an organization formed in such a way that all its members in any one industry, or in all industries if necessary, cease work whenever a strike or lockout is on in any department thereof, thus making an injury to one an injury to all.

Instead of the conservative motto, “A fair day’s wage for a fair day’s work,” we must inscribe on our banner the revolutionary watchword,

“Abolition of the wage system.”

It is the historic mission of the working class to do away with capitalism.

The army of production must be organised, not only for everyday struggle with capitalists, but also to carry on production when capitalism shall have been overthrown.

By organizing industrially we are forming the structure of the new society within the shell of the old.