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VOLUME I. NUMBER 21.
SYNDICALISM IS NEW
WEAPON OF LABOR
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NEW methods of warfare and
new aims have been intro
duced into the industrial world
by syndicalism. In the United
States most people made their
first acquaintance with it through the
strikes at Lawrence, Mass., and at
Paterson, N. J. Even then they
learned little of its principles. Yet
many students of the labor questions
believe that those principles will have
to be reckoned with more and more.
Therefore an account is given here
of syndicalism up to date.
In an address delivered before the
Sociological society in England a few
days ago A. J. Balfour declared that
syndicalism has been brought into be
ing by the apparent failure of the par
liamentary system.
“It is a pathetic fact," he said, “but
many of the most earnest men of Eu
rope regard the representative sys
tem as almost played out It is pa
thetic when you think with what high
hopes each successive development of
the representative system has started
out."
Syndicalists have given up all hope
of attaining their ends through par
liamentary or legislative action and
look to other means for securing so
cial reforms. >
Direct action is the epitome of the
syndicalist platform: You want some
thing? If you are strong enough to
compel the people to give it to you,
take it Syndicalists do not preach
plunder, neither do they say: If you
want something, ask for'lt No. You
must demonstrate that unless a cer
tain thing you desire is given to you,
you are in a position to destroy “pas**
sively” property equal or superior in
value to that certain thing.
How the Idea Works Out.
Every striker knows that and the
Idea is not original. What is original,
however, is the application of this
principle to every act of civic life.
Syndicalists are modern if anything.
They do not believe In a mlllenium
in which love and brotherhood will be
the only motives of human action. On
the other hand, they refuse to share
the anarchist’s scorn for modern civ
ilization and his hankering for a re
turn to nature. They are practical
and businesslike. The past is dead •
She gulUHji
and the future is, unknown. The im
mediate needs of the present hour
are to them the sole object of interest.
Consider now the application of the
syndicalist theory.
The primary aim of labor unions is
to have the work of the world done
by their members only; secondly,
they are trying to keep out of their
ranks as many workiiigmen as possi
ble, so that their members will find
employment all the year round; final
ly, they wish to secure for their em
ployed members the highest possible
salary for the shortest possible day's
work.
When fighting for recognition of
their unions or for higher pay union
men confer and sign agrements with
their employers, thereby recognizing
them formally.
Work for All, No Employers.
Syndicates, on the other hand, wish
to secure employment for every hu
man being willing to earn a livelihood.
Their primary alm is so to shorten
the working day so that there shall
not be any workers out of employ
ment. Secondly, regarding the em
ployers as mere parasites, they aim at
driving them out by demanding a
steadily higher wage until the work
ers receive the full value of their
labor. They :ever confer with em
ployers and never sign any agree
ments with them.
One labor union can only admit
men belonging to one craft Locomo
tive engineers, telegraph operators
and ticket agents may be working for
the same railroad, but cannot belong
to the same union.
1 Syndicates, on the contrary, bind all
workers In one solid union, divided up
for local convenience into groups of
more closqly allied Interests. Take, '
for instance, the employes of a steel ।
mill. According to the union system
steel workers, machinists, truckmen, i
stationary engineers, blacksmiths,
should belong to different groups. A ,
syndicate would admit every one em- I
ployed in the mill, from the janitor to I
the foreman, from the office-boy to ;
the stenographer.
Finally the labor unions have re- 1
duced to the strictest minimum the ;
number of apprentices. Syndicalists t
of France, Italy, England and Amer- 11
IRWINTON, WILKINSON COUNTY, GEORGIA, FRIDAY, JUNE 7, 1912.
tea agree on calling this a crime
against the rights of the individual.
As Haywood put it:
See Evil of Trade Union Rules.
"The penitentiaries of this country
and of Europe are filled with young
boys whom unions have prevented
from learning an honest trade.”
The antagonism between syndical
ists and union laborers Is well illus
trated by the fact that in Scranton,
Pa., union men have been helping the
police in breaking a strike organized
by syndicalists.
It can easily be seen what tremen
dous power syndicates may wield ow
ing to this system of organization.
Should only one class of employes,
say the spinners, walk out of a wook
en mill, production would be at a
standstill until the strike was over.
Whether the strike was won or lost,
however, it would only take a few
days to put the whole plant once more
in good working order. On the other
hand, should the truckmen, watch
men, stenographers and bookkeepers
also strike in sympathy and stay out
until the spinners had won their point
the whole plant would be absolutely
disorganized.
The recent strikes in England have
not only been stimulated by this gos
pel and led by its chief representa
tives, Tom Mann, Ben Tillett and
others, but from the very first they
have been an actual application of the
new idea and have marked a long step
toward the complete reorganization of
the British unions.
They were started with the seamen’s
strike in June, 1911, when the dockers
in many places struck in sympathy, at
the same time adding demands of their
own. When the seamen won their
strike they refused to go back to work
at several places until the dockers re
ceived what they were striking for.
With the dockers were involved team
sters. The railway strike was largely
due to the fact that the railway unions
decided to co-operate with this federa
tion.
It Invented Sabotage.
If the syndicate is not strong enough
to win a strike, or if as it has hap
pened several time in France the gov
ernment interferes and fills with sol
diers the places left vacant by strik- ■
ers, the workingmen are directed -o '
give in, resume work and begin a new
form of strike, sabotage.
The word “sabotage” was coined in
1894 by Pouget, the most powerful
French organizer. Sabotage never was
generally or effectively applied until a
year ago, when the French railroad
men lost their big strike. The strike
only lasted three days. Then Premier
Briand issued an order making every
railroader a reservist, and all went
back to work as soldiers, some 3,500
of them were discharged and then
the silent strike began; sabotage was
kept up until every one of the 3,500
employes had been reinstated.
Every man began to discharge his
duties in strict accordance with the
letter of the rules. Railroad men
acted like the Chinese tailor who had
been commissioned by a foreign con
sul to make a duplicate of a suit of
clothes given him as a model and who
carried out his instructions exactly—
so exactly, in fact, that a patch on
the trousers, a torn belt on the waist
coat and two grease spots on the coat
were carefully duplicated on the new
garment.
Station men would work faithfully
until the precise minute when they
were supposed to quit, and then allow
a freight car they had been moving to
crash to the bottom of an Incline or to
obstruct the path of incoming trains.
Repair gangs would keep on repairing
the track in front of a limited, delaying
it for an hour and disorganizing the
schedule, or else let it pass over a
stretch of unfastened rails.
What distinguishes syndicalists
from unionists and socialists is their
absolute internationalism. Socialists
are naturally suposed to be citizens
of the world, but whenever there ap
pears a war cloud on the horizon
French and German socialists wilt
very speedily under the pressure of
public opinion and join the bellicose
chorus of patriots.
Fight Militarism.
The French and Italian syndicalists
are fighting militarism with tooth and
nail, for a standing army is an ever
present danger in case of strikes.
As early as 1903 the government of
Holland broke a general strike by the
use of the army to operate the rail
roads, and the same thing was done in
Hungary in the following year. In
deed, these measures had such success ,
that the Hungarian government went
further two years later and took away
the right of organization from the agri
cultural laborers, while at the same
time it used the army as strike break
ers in harvest time and made perma
nent arrangements for doing this in a
similar contingency in the future.
Syndicates conduct in all barracks
aii active underground propaganda by
means of small pamphlets easily con
cealed in the pocket. As a result of
this agitation there were last year 13.-
500 desertions: 54,000 men refused to
answer their call to military service.
At the time of the wine growers’ riots
tn France several regiments sent to
put down the revolt refused to obey
their officers and joined the wine grow
ers’ parades.
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