…The simple fact
is that industrial conditions have undergone such a complete change that now
the trade union, instead of uniting the workers, divides them, incites craft
jealousy, breeds dissension and promotes strife—the very things capitalists
desire; for so long as the working class is divided, the capitalists will be
secure in their dominion of the earth and the seas, and the millions of toilers
will remain in subjection.
Now, let me see if
I can make myself perfectly clear upon this important point. In the railroad
service there are various organizations of employes. Some of the departments
are pretty thoroughly organized. The engineers, the firemen, conductors,
brakemen, switchmen, telegraphers and some others are organized in their
several craft unions. They have repeatedly tried to federate these
organizations, so as to bring them into harmonious alliance with each other,
but every such attempt has failed. The selfish spirit of craft autonomy, that
is, the jealousy of each particular branch to organize itself, establish its
own petty supremacy and look out for itself, has made it impossible to federate
these organizations. The members of these brotherhoods have increasing
grievances and try to have them adjusted in the old way. The railroad
corporations are always shrewd enough to enter into contractual relations with
unions representing two or three or four departments, so that in every
emergency they can always control these departments, while refusing increases,
making reductions or discharging without cause employes in other departments of
the service.
It has not been
long ago since the union telegraph operators on the Missouri, Kansas &
Texas directed their committee to call on the railroad officials for a small
wage concession that had been granted by other systems. But the company, having
contracts with its engineers and firemen, conductors and brakemen, peremptorily
refused the request of the telegraphers. and about 1,300 of them went out on
strike—quit the service of the company, as a union, to enforce their demands.
What was the result? This large body of union workingmen who thus went out on
strike to enforce a righteous claim, all lost their jobs, every one of them. It
was only a short time after they struck that I happened to go over the system.
1 met the strikers at various points and they told me the story of their defeat
by their own fellow employes, who belonged to other unions. I understood it all
before they told me. When the operators went out all the others remained at
their posts, doing their usual work, and hauling and delivering scabs, wherever
they were needed, to fill the places vacated by their fellow workers and fellow
craft unionists. Union engineers and conductors took their train orders from
scab operators; all the union men stood loyally by the company in its attack on
one of their number, and so the operators were routed and scattered to the four
winds and their union wiped from the system.
Here we have a
perfect illustration of craft unionism in action. Another example is furnished
by the Santa Fe system, where but a few months ago the union machinists went
out from one end of the system to the other. The engineers and firemen,
conductors and brakemen and all the rest of them holding union cards, remained
faithfully at work until a new set of machinists was employed and broken in,
and now everything is running as smoothly as before.
Still another
case of recent date is that of the Great Northern and Northern Pacific systems,
where the telegraph operators, after having failed in securing an adjustment of
their grievances, went out on strike in a body, under orders from their union.
What happened there? Just what had happened on the M., K. & T. The
engineers, firemen, conductors and brakemen continued at their posts and
discharged their duties with fidelity while their brother unionists, the
operators, were mowed down and their places filled with scabs.
It is this that
is taking place before our eyes every day. Here in Chicago you have witnessed
the crushing defeat of one regimen t after another of the army of organized
labor. Indeed, during the last two or three years all the great strikes have
failed. There has not been a single exception to relieve the rule, not one.
Now, when you
see such things as these; when you see workingmen in craft unions go out on
strike again and again and meet with constant defeat, does it not occur to you
that there is something wrong with that kind of unionism? That that kind of
unionism can he improved upon? Doesn’t it occur to you that instead of fighting
the capitalist enemy, who are always united, who always act together that
instead of fighting them by companies and regiments, the thing for us to do is
to fight them as they fight us, with a united army?
In this respect,
if no other, we may well profit by the example set by the enemy. They unite,
because they are conscious of their interests as a class. When the teamsters
struck in this city last summer, the bankers subscribed $50,000 to defeat them.
Now, the teamsters were not striking against the bankers; but the teamsters
were striking against the capitalist class; and the bankers rushed loyally to
the support of their class. And this brings an important fact to our attention,
and that is that the struggle in which we are engaged today is a class
struggle; and labor unionism to be of any real value to the working class, must
be organized, not along craft lines, but along class lines.
The Industrial
Workers is a working class organization, so all-inclusive, so comprehensive,
that it will embrace every man and woman who does useful work for a livelihood.
Certain departments have been established and certain subdivisions have been
made, so that the identity of the trade, the autonomy of the craft, may be
preserved within the organization. Joining the Industrial Workers you take your
place in your proper department. That department which represents your
employment is organized, it has control of craft interests within its
jurisdiction, so that, so far as craft autonomy is concerned, it adjust itself
within the general organization;
Suppose you join
the Industrial Workers as a switchman. You belong to the transportation
department. You have a grievance, as a switchman, and the switchmen have charge
of that grievance. The switchmen, organized in their respective department,
having supervision of their craft affairs, seek to adjust that grievance. If
they fail, then, instead of having to rely upon the switchmen alone in the
support of that grievance, as now happens, they can call to their aid, not only
all the switchmen, but the firemen, the conductors, the brakemen and engineers.
They can call to their aid the boilermakers, the machinists and the
blacksmiths, the shopmen and yardmen and office men; and, if it becomes
necessary, they can command the combined support of all the organized workers
of that entire system.
This is the kind
of unionism that is required to deal effectively with the industrial situation
of today.
….
Let me point out
one of the ways they use you when they need you. President Roosevelt is
championing a measure that is to empower the Interstate Commerce Commission to
fix the rates of railroads in certain cases. This measure is opposed by the
railroad corporations. They do not want the government to interfere with their
right to fix rates to suit themselves. What do they do? They send for the grand
chiefs of the several brotherhoods and a conference is held. Then the press
dispatches announce that the railroad and brotherhood officials are one in
their opposition to the proposed rate-fixing legislation. A few days later a
joint session is held of the standing committees of the several brotherhoods
and they decide to stand by the railroads; and so they call upon President
Roosevelt and serve notice upon him that they and the unions they represent are
opposed to rate legislation. In this the unions appear for the railroads; the
brotherhoods being the puppets of the corporations; and in the meantime the
railroad magnates announce through the press that the employes are up in arms
and will assert the political power of their unions in opposition to the
rate-fixing measure. Not that there is anything of interest in rate legislation
so far as you are concerned, but there is a vital point involved. When the
railroads find it necessary to use the brotherhood as breastworks, or as
weapons with which to fight their battles, they issue their orders and the
grand officers and unions fall in line to the tune of “our interests are mutual
and we must stand together.” The unions then are made the active allies of the
corporations in robbing and defying the people.
It is just
because the corporations find these organizations exceedingly useful that they
make petty concessions to them. I recognized this fact a number of years ago,
and concluded then that what was needed for the employes was a real working
class union embracing them all. The American Railway Union was organized. There
are those present who were in the great strike of 1894, and you know how
bitterly we were fought by the railroad corporations. You remember that they
were not satisfied with merely’ defeating us—and they never would have beaten
us had they not been in control of the government. But for this victory would
have been won for the working class. They were defeated, completely; and when
they realized this they had their 4,200 thugs and thieves and convicts sworn in
as deputy United States marshals, and they incited the riots and led the mobs,
and then the courts issued their injunctions, while the capitalist press
flashed the lurid reports over the wires that Chicago was at the mercy of a
mob. The rest followed as a matter of course.
But they were
not satisfied with mere defeat of the strike. They must crush the life out of
the union. For two years after I was released by the courts—after being
eighteen months in their custody—I was followed by their detectives, to prevent
reorganization; and those who were reported as joining, or even as being
friendly, were instantly discharged.
They defeated
us, but they didn’t vanquish us. We are stronger today than we ever were, and
we are coming again. We are on the main track. We are not after a few pennies
more a day this time. We are after the whole works.
Yes, for two
years after I was finally released, they followed me from one end of the
country to the other. They kept their detectives at my heels. And the order
preceded me everywhere that the employes who had anything to do with Debs would
be discharged. I concluded to go into those sections where the American Railway
Union had not been organized, and where there had been no strike; and I started
south. When I reached Louisville, the morning paper contained a press dispatch
with startling headlines reporting a series of resolutions passed by the
railroad employes of that section. saying: “Whereas, we are advised that F. V.
Debs, the anarchist, of Chicago, is on his way south to disrupt the pleasant
and harmonious relations that exist between the railroad employes and the
companies; therefore, be it resolved, that we hereby serve notice on said
anarchist, Debs, that we repudiate him and that we will have nothing to do with
him nor the anarchist organization he represents."
After these
resolutions appeared I had a number of letters from the poor slaves who were
employed upon these railroads, apologizing for the resolutions, and saying that
the railroad officials had prepared the resolutions, and had submitted them to
the employes for their signatures, and then given them to the press.
But even this
was not sufficient. They discharged those who attended our meetings. They had
their special men at the doors of meeting places to take the names of those who
attended. They were determined to stamp out the last spark of the union’s life.
And they did succeed in destroying the organization, but they could not kill
the spirit of the American Railway Union. That still lives.
And now a far
greater organization has come to take its place—as much greater as the American
Railway Union was greater than the old union—and that organization is the
Industrial Workers of the World. This great union is organized on the basis of
the class struggle. It makes its appeal to the intelligence of the working
class. It commands you workingmen to open your eyes and see for yourselves; to
use your brains, and think for yourselves; to cultivate self-reliance and
depend upon yourselves. . .
That is your
only safety. You have been taught in the old union school to look to some
leader; to depend unon some master. You have been trained to submit; to follow
and obey orders. You have not developed your own capacity for clear thinking;
you are lacking in the essentials of sturdy manhood. Many of you have become
satisfied to blindly follow where others lead; and so you are often deceived,
betrayed; and when the smoke of battle clears away you find yourselves defeated
and out of jobs. You have often felt dishearteiied; you have quit the union in
despair and disgust, and some of you have turned into scabs.
Thousands who
once belonged to unions have become, not only non-union men, but scabs and
strike-breakers, and in their desperation have turned upon the union arid
become its most bitter enemies. If you will call the roll of the
strike-breakers who gather here in Chicago and elsewhere when union workers are
out on strike, you will find that nearly all of them are ex-union men; men who
once wore the badge of union labor, believed in it and marched proudly beneath
the union banner.
What do you
think of a unionism that creates an army for its own overthrow? There is
something fundamentally wrong with that kind of unionism.
Long since, and
after years of study and experience, I became convinced that the old unions
were not fit to cope successfully with the enemy of the working class, and that
a new organization was an imperative necessity.
In the
Industrial Workers we have a union large enough to embrace its all; a union
organized upon democratic principles recognizing the equal rights of all and
extending its benefits equally to all.
Industrial unionism
is the principle upon which the Industrial Workers is organized.
This means
actual unity of our nose and action. It means the economic solidarity of our
class.
It means that
the grievance of one is the concern of all; and that from this time forward
craft division, is to be eliminated; that we are to get together and fight and
win together for all. Industrial unionism means that such a plant as you have
here in South Chicago, in which ten or twelve thousand men are employed. shall
be thoroughly and efficiently organized.
What is the
condition there today? You have innumerable unions represented there., but no
unity. You have this great body of workers parceled out among scores of petty
and purposeless unions, which are in ceaseless conflict with each other,
jealous to preserve their craft identity. As long as this great army of workers
is scattered among so many craft unions, it will be impossible for them to
unite and act in harmony together. Craft unionism is the negation of class
solidarity. The more unions you have, the less unity; and here, in fact, you
have no unity at all. In this state you can do nothing to improve your working
condition. You are substantially at the mercy of the corporations.
What you need is
industrial unionism and you will have it when you get together in the
Industrial Workers.. .
. . .
You, Mr.
Workingman, don’t need a capitalist; and if you think you do, it is because of
your ignorance. It is because you don’t understand your own interest. You don’t
need him. You imagine that he gives you a job; but he does nothing of the kind.
You give him a job. You employ him to take from you what you produce; and he
faithfully sticks to his job. Why, the capitalist could not exist second
without you. Can you imagine a capitalist without workingmen?
Capitalism is
based upon the exploitation of the working class; and when the working class
ceases to be exploited, there will no longer be any capitalists.
Now, while the
capitalist could not exist without you, you would just begin to live ’without
him. He is on your back; he rides you, and he rides you even when he rides in
the automobile that you make. You make it. You never knew of a capitalist that
ever made an automobile. The capitalist doesn’t make it, but rides in it; the
workingman does make it, but does not ride in it.
If it were not
for you, the capitalist would have to walk, and if it were not for him, you
would ride.
You don’t need
the capitalist; he is, in fact, a curse to you. What has the capitalist owner
of a modern plant to do with its operation? Absolutely nothing. He might as
well live in the moon, as far as you are concerned. There may be a group of
them, but they have nothing to do with the mill. They simp1y get what is
produced there, because you will have it so. You are organized on that basis.
In your moss-covered old unions you say, “Our interests are mutual.” Certainly,
if you can stand this arrangement the capitalist can. He has no grievance. He
does nothing and gets everything, and you do everything and get nothing.
If you can stand
this he can; and if you don’t put an end to it he won’t. And why should he? And
why shouldn’t you? Mr. Workingman. you are a man. You ought not to be satisfied
to be a mere wealth-producing animal. You have a brain, and you ought to develop
it. You should aspire to rise above the animal plane. If you can work in a mill
and produce wealth for a capitalist, who holds you in contempt, you can also
work in that mill as free man and produce wealth for yourself and your wife and
family to enjoy. If not, why not?
It is upon this
basis that the Industrial Workers is organized. It is with this supreme mission
that the Industrial Workers has entered the field. . .
Wipe out the
wage system, so that you can walk this earth free men!
Not only is it
your right, not only have you the opportunity, but it is your solemn duty to do
this, unless you are base enough to be guilty of treason to yourself and to
your class. . .
Society does not need the idle capitalists.
They are parasites. They are worse than useless. They simply take what you
make, leaving you in poverty; thousands of you idle if not now, when the times
become hard. And every few years the times become hard in the capitalist
system. . . .A panic comes, industry is paralyzed, because with machinery you
can produce so much more than your paltry wage will allow you to consume. You
make all things in great abundance, but you can not consume them. You can only
consume that part of your product which your wage, the price of your labor
power, will buy. If you cannot consume what you produce, it follows that in
time there is bound to be overproduction, because the few capitalists cannot
absorb the large surplus. The market is glutted, business comes to a standstill
and mills and factories shut down. At such a time Chicago is hit, and hit hard;
and you workingmen find yourselves out of employment, a drag on the market.
Nobody wants your labor power, because it cannot be utilized at a profit to the
capitalist who owns the tools, and when he cannot use your labor power at a
satisfactory profit to himself he doesn’t buy it. And if he doesn’t buy your
labor power you are idle, and when you are idle you don’t draw any wages, and
you can’t buy groceries and pay rent; you can’t buy clothing and shoes, and you
begin to look seedy and shabby. By degrees you become a vagrant and a wanderer
and lose what little self-respect you had. And then you hear that your wife has
been evicted, and that is a thing that happens every day in the week. Your
child is now upon the streets and your former cottage home is deserted. You now
start out on what proves to be a never-ending journey. The road you are now
traveling stretches wearily on, and from the hedges bark the dogs of
capitalism. You are a tramp.
Are there not
thousands and thousands of tramps all over this country today? There were none
half a century ago. There is a great army of them now. They have been recruited
in capitalist society; they are the product of the capitalist system.
A man is out of
work a good while and he gets hungry; he still has a little self-respect and
steals rather than beg. That is how men become tramps and thieves and
criminals; that is why we have an army of tramps; that is why all the
penitentiaries are crowded; why the insane asylums are overflowing and why
thousands commit suicide. All these shocking evils are the outgrowth of the
capitalist system, to which the Industrial Workers proposes to put an
everlasting end.
If you think
that these horrors ought to be; if you, as a workingman, think that you ought
to have a master—just as the ignorant chattel slave on the plantation in the
south used to think that he had to have a master to rob him of what he
produced—if you think that you are so helpless that you would die unless you
had a master to give you a job and take from you all except just enough to keep
you working for him; if you think that workingmen ought to fight each other; if
you think that unity, the unity of the working class, would be a bad thing for
the working class; if you think that your interest is identical with the
interest of the capitalist who robs you; if you think that you ought to be in
slavish submission to the capitalist who does nothing and gets what you
produce; if you think that, then certainly you ought to stay in the old trade
union and keep out of the Industrial Workers.
But if you have
a bit of intelligence, just enough to realize that you are a workingman and
that, as a workingman, you are a human being; if you are capable of
understanding that you have the inherent power of self-development, that the
brain you have can be developed so that you can think dearly for yourself; if
you will use that intelligence just enough to satisfy yourself that you ought
to be the master of your own job; then, instead of being a wage-slave you will
soon be a man among men, and if you have intelligence enough to conceive and to
express that thought then, let me say to you, a revolutionary light will be
kindled in your eyes and you will feel the thrill of a new-born joy, and for
the first time in your life you will stand perfectly erect and know what it is
to be self-reliant and touch elbows with your fellow workers throughout the
world.
Remember that no
matter who or what a worker may be, if he works for wages he is in precisely
the same economic position that you are. He is in your class; he is your
brother; he is your comrade.
As an individual
worker you cannot escape from wage-slavery. It is true that one in ten thousand
wage workers may become a capitalist, to be pointed out as a man worth a
million who used to be a clerk, but he is the exception that proves the rule.
The wage worker in the capitalist system remains the wage worker.
There is no
escape for you from wage-slavery by yourself, but while you cannot alone break
your fetters, if you will unite with all other workers who are in the same
position that you are; that is, if—instead of being bound up in a little union
of a score, or a hundred, or thousand, that is almost as helpless to do
anything for you as you are to do anything by yourself—if you will join the
organization that represents your whole class, you can develop the power that
will achieve your freedom and the equal freedom of all. . . . .