by Kornbluh, Joyce L. , Rosemont, Franklin, Thompson, Fred, Gross, Daniel
“Oh, no,” he said, “we don’t want to bring them up. We will all be friends in a few days.”
“You will either bring up the horses now or you will let them stay there.”
He said, “No, we won’t bring them up now.”
The pumps were closed down on the Cambria mine. 12,000 miners were there to see that they didn’t open. Llewellyn started a hue and cry that the horses would be drowned, and the king sent the police, sent the soldiers and sent a message to Llewellyn asking “if the horses were still safe.” He didn’t say anything about his subjects, the men. Guarded by soldiers, a few scabs, assisted by the office force, were able to run the pumps. Llewellyn himself and his bookkeeping force went down and fed the horses.
Had there been an industrial organization comprising the railroaders and every other branch of industry, the mines of Wales would be closed down to-day.
We found the same condition throughout the West. We never had any trouble about closing the mines down; and could keep them closed down for an indefinite period. It was always the craft unions that caused us to lose our fights when we did lose. I recall the first general strike in the Coeur d’Alenes, when all the mines in that district were closed down to prevent a reduction of wages. The mine owners brought in thugs the first thing. They attempted to man the mines with men carrying sixshooters and rifles. There was a pitched battle between miners and thugs. A few were killed on each side. And then the mine owners asked for the soldiers, and-the soldiers came. Who brought the soldiers? Railroads manned by union men; engines fired with coal mined by union men. That is the division of labor that might have lost us the strike in the Coeur d’Alenes. It didn’t lose it, however. We were successful in that issue. But in Leadville we lost the strike there because they were able to bring in scab labor from other communities where they had the force of the government behind them, and the force of the troops. In 1899 we were compelled to fight the battle over in a great general strike in the Coeur d’Alenes again. Then came the general strike in Cripple Creek, the strike that has become a household word in labor circles throughout the world. In Cripple Creek 5,000 men were on strike in sympathy with 45 men belonging to the Millmen’s Union in Colorado City; 45 men who had been discharged simply because they were trying to improve their standard of living. By using the state troops and the influence of the Federal government they were able to man the mills in Colorado City with scab millmen; and after months of hardship, after 1,600 of our men had been arrested and placed in the Victor Armory in one single room that they called the “bullpen,” after 400 of them had been loaded aboard special trains guarded by soldiers, shipped away from their homes, dumped out on the prairies down in New Mexico and Kansas; after the women who had taken up the work of distributing strike relief had been placed under arrest—we find then that they were able to man the mines with scabs, the mills running with scabs, the railroads conveying the ore from Cripple Creek to Colorado City run by union men—the connecting link of a proposition that was scabby at both ends! We were not thoroughly organized. There has been no time when there has been a general strike in this country.
There are three phases of a general strike. They are:
A general strike in an industry;
A general strike in a community;
A general national strike.
The conditions for any of the three have never existed. So how any one can take the position that a general strike would not be effective and not be a good thing for the working class is more than I can understand. We know that the capitalist uses the general strike to good advantage. Here is the position that we find the working class and the capitalists in. The capitalists have wealth; they have money. They invest the money in machinery, in the resources of the earth. They operate a factory, a mine, a railroad, a mill. They will keep that factory running just as long as there are profits coming in. When anything happens to disturb the profits, what do the capitalists do? They go on strike, don’t they? They withdraw their finances from that particular mill. They close it down because there are no profits to be made there. They don’t care what becomes of the working class. But the working class, on the other hand, has always been taught to take care of the capitalist’s interest in the property. You don’t look after your own interest, your labor power, realizing that without a certain amount of provision you can’t reproduce it. You are always looking after the interest of the capitalist, while a general strike would displace his interest and would put you in possession of it.
That is what I want to urge upon the working class; to become so organized on the economic field that they can take and hold the industries in which they are employed. Can you conceive of such a thing? Is it possible? What are the forces that prevent you from doing so? You have all the industries in your own hands at the present time. There is this justification for political action, and that is, to control the forces of the capitalists that they use against us; to be in a position to control the power of government so as to make the work of the army ineffective, so as to abolish totally the secret service and the force of detectives. That is the reason that you want the power of government. That is the reason that you should fully understand the power of the ballot. Now, there isn’t any one, Socialist, S. L. P., Industrial Worker or any other workingman or woman, no matter what society you belong to, but what believes in the ballot. There are those—and I am one of them—who refuse to have the ballot interpreted for them. I know, or think I know, the power of it, and I know that the industrial organization, as I stated in the beginning, is its broadest interpretation. I know, too, that when the workers are brought together in a great organization they are not going to cease to vote. That is when the workers will begin to vote, to vote for directors to operate the industries in which they are all employed.
So the general strike is a fighting weapon as well as a constructive force. It can be used, and should be used, equally as forcefully by the Socialist as by the Industrial Worker.
The Socialists believe in the general strike. They also believe in the organization of industrial forces after the general strike is successful. So, on this great force of the working class I believe we can agree that we should unite into one great organization—big enough to take in the children that are now working; big enough to take in the black man; the white man; big enough to take in all nationalities—an organization that will be strong enough to obliterate state boundaries, to obliterate national boundaries, and one that will become the great industrial force of the working class of the world. (Applause.)
I have been lecturing in and around New York now for three weeks; my general topic has been Industrialism, which is the only force under which the general strike can possibly be operated. If there are any here interested in industrial unionism, and they want any knowledge that I have, I will be more than pleased to answer questions, because it is only by industrial unionism that the general strike becomes possible. The A. F. of L. couldn’t have a general strike if they wanted to. They are not organized for a general strike. They have 27,000 different agreements that expire 27,000 different minutes of the year. They will either have to break all of those sacred contracts or there is no such thing as a general strike in that so-called “labor organization.” I said, “so-called”; I say so advisedly. It is not a labor organization; it is simply a combination of job trusts. We are going to have a labor organization in this country. And I assure you, if you could attend the meetings we have had in Philadelphia, in Bridgeport last night, in Haverhill and in Harrison, and throughout the country, you would agree that industrialism is coming. There isn’t anything can stop it. (Applause.)
Questions by the Audience
Q.—Don’t you think there is a lot of waste involved in the general strike in that the sufferers would be the workers in larger portion than the capitalists? The capitalist class always has money and can buy food, while the workers will just have to starve and wait. I was a strong believer in the general strike myself until I read some articles in T
he Call a while ago on this particular phase.
A.—The working class haven’t got anything. They can’t lose anything. While the capitalist class have got all the money and all the credit, still if the working class laid off, the capitalists couldn’t get food at any price. This is the power of the working class: If the workers are organized (remember now, I say “if they are organized”—by that I don’t mean 100 per cent, but a good strong minority), all they have to do is to put their hands in their pockets and they have got the capitalist class whipped. The working class can stand it a week without anything to eat—I have gone pretty nearly that long myself, and I wasn’t on strike. In the meantime I hadn’t lost any meals; I just postponed them. (Laughter.) I didn’t do it voluntarily, I tell you that. But all the workers have to do is to organize so that they can put their hands in their pockets; when they have got their hands there, the capitalists can’t get theirs in. If the workers can organize so that they can stand idle they will then be strong enough so that they can take the factories. Now, I hope to see the day when the man who goes out of the factory will be the one who will be called a scab; when the good union man will stay in the factory, whether the capitalists like it or not; when we lock the bosses out and run the factories to suit ourselves. That is our program. We will do it.
Q.—Doesn’t the trend of your talk lead to direct action, or what we call revolution? For instance, we try to throw the bosses out; don’t you think the bosses will strike back?
Another thing: Of course, the working class can starve eight days, but they can’t starve nine. You don’t have to teach the workingman how to starve, because there were teachers before you. There is no way out but fight, as I understand it. Do you think you will get your industrialism through peace or through revolution?
A.—Well, comrade, you have no peace now. The capitalist system, as peaceable as it is, is killing off hundreds of thousands of workers every year. That isn’t peace. One hundred thousand workers were injured in this state last year. I do not care whether it’s peaceable or not; I want to see it come.
As for starving the workers eight days, I made no such program. I said that they could, but I don’t want to see them do it. The fact that I was compelled to postpone a few meals was because I wasn’t in the vicinity of any grub. I suggest that you break down that idea that you must protect the boss’s property. That is all we are fighting for—what the boss calls his “private property,” what he calls his private interest in the things that the people must have, as a whole, to live. Those are the things we are after.
Q.—Do the Industrial Unionists believe in political action? Have they got any special platforms that they support?
A.—The Industrial Workers of the World is not a political organization.
Q.—Just like the A. F. of L.?
A.—No.
Q.—They don’t believe in any political action, either, so far as that is concerned.
A.—Yes, the A. F. of L. does believe in political action. It is a political organization. The Industrial Workers of the World is an economic organization without affiliation with any political party or any non-political sect. I as an Industrialist say that industrial unionism is the broadest possible political interpretation of the working-class political power, because by organizing the workers industrially you at once enfranchise the women in the shops, you at once give the black men who are disfranchised politically a voice in the operation of the industries; and the same would extend to every worker. That to my mind is the kind of political action that the working class wants. You must not be content to come to the ballot box on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, the ballot box erected by the capitalist class, guarded by capitalist henchmen, and deposit your ballot to be counted by black-handed thugs, and say, “That is political action.” You must protect your ballot with an organization that will enforce the mandates of your class. I want political action that counts. I want a working class that can hold an election every day if they want to.
Q.—By what means could an Industrial Unionist propagate Industrial Unionism in his organization of the A. F. of L.? He would be fired out and lose his job.
A.—Well, the time is coming when he will have to quit the A. F. of L. anyway. And remember, that there are 35,000,000 workers in the United States who can’t get in the A. F. of L. And when you quit you are quitting a caste, you are getting back into your class. The Socialists have been going along maintaining the Civic Federation long enough. The time has almost arrived when you will have to quit and become free men and women. I believe that the A. F. of L. won’t take in the working class. They don’t want the working class. It isn’t a working-class organization. It’s a craft organization. They realize that by improving the labor power of a few individuals and keeping them on the inside of a corral, keeping others out with initiation fees, and closing the books, and so on, that the favored few are made valuable to the capitalists. They form a little job trust. It’s a system of slavery from which free people ought to break away. And they will, soon.
Q.—About the political action we had in Milwaukee: there we didn’t have Industrial Unionism, we won by the ballot; and while we haven’t compelled the government to pass any bills yet, we are at it now.
A.—Yes, they are at it. But you really don’t think that Congressman Berger is going to compel the government to pass any bills in Congress? This Insurgent bunch that is growing up in the country is going to give you more than the reform Socialists ever asked for yet. The opportunists will be like the Labor party in England. I was in the office of the Labor Leader and Mr. Whiteside said to me: “Really, I don’t know what we are going to do with this fellow, Lloyd-George. He has taken every bit of ground from under our feet. He has given the working class more than the Labor party had dared to ask for.” And so it will be with the Insurgents, the “Progressives” or whatever they propose to call themselves. They will give you eight-hour laws, compensation laws, liability laws, old-age pensions. They will give you eight hours; that is what we are striking for, too—eight hours. But they won’t get off the workers’ backs. The Insurgents simply say. “It’s cruel, the way the capitalists are exploiting the workers. Why, look! whenever they go to shear them they take off a part of the hide. We will take all the wool, but we will leave the hide.” (Laughter.)
Q. (By a woman comrade)—Isn’t a strike, theoretically, a situation where the workingmen lay down their tools and the capitalist class sits and waits, and they both say, “Well, what are you going to do about it?” And if they go beyond that, and go outside the law, is it any longer a strike? Isn’t it a revolution?
A.—A strike is an incipient revolution. Many large revolutions have grown out of a small strike.
Q.—Well, I heartily believe in the general strike if it is a first step toward the revolution, and I believe in what you intimate—that the workers are damn fools if they don’t take what they want, when they can’t get it any other way. (Applause.)
A.—That is a better speech than I can make. If I didn’t think that the general strike was leading on to the great revolution which will emancipate the working class I wouldn’t be here. I am with you because I believe that in this little meeting there is a nucleus here that will carry on the work and propagate the seed that will grow into the great revolution that will overthrow the capitalist class.
4
Born in a slate-quarry town in Maine, Ben Williams (1877–1964) started working at the age of eleven in his older brother’s print shop in Nebraska. As Williams wrote: “The Western farmers’ revolt was in full swing with the Farmers’ Alliance. My brother supported the movement in his paper, and as a result, got all kinds of radical publications on exchange. Before my twelfth year, I was introduced to all the social philosophies—anarchism, socialism, communism, direct legislation, and Allt-ance programs … absorbing the idea of a New America and a better world” (letter to J. L. K., October 24, 1963).
Williams worked his way through college by typesetting
and teaching in a one-room school-house, joined the Socialist Labor Party in 1904, and became one of its lecturers and publicists. He became an I.W.W. member in 1905, shortly after the founding convention, and started soap-boxing and organizing for the One Big Union idea. He edited several issues of the I.W.W. Industrial Union Bulletin before it failed for lack of funds in 1909. When a new I.W.W. publication, Solidarity, started in Newcastle, Pennsylvania, during the 1909 McKees Rocks steelworkers’ strike, Williams became its typesetter and then editor, continuing at this until 1917. Williams who read French fluently, translated many articles by French radicals and published them in Solidarity during this period.