Labor History Archives

Memories of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) Part 1 by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn http://www.edchange.org/multicultural/speeches/elizabeth_flynn_memories.html Elizabeth Gurley Flynn addressed students and faculty members of Northern Illinois University, in DeKalb, on November 8, 1962, less than two years prior to her death. Her talk was sponsored by the History Club of the University and its chapter of the Student Peace Union. The occasion was chaired by Kenneth Owens, an assistant professor of history at the University. Elizabeth Gurley Flynn's remarks were offered without notes; they were tape recorded and it is a transcript of that tape which is herewith published for the first time. I was asked to speak about primarily the IWW. Well, those are the initials for the Industrial Workers of the World which used to be called the "I Won't Work" which was extremely incongruous because actually the people who belonged to the organization were in the basic, most difficult hard-working industries of our country. To call it the workers of the World was rather an ambitious name as actually it never did go beyond the confines of the United States and it grew out of the desire of American workers to continue the traditions and the form of organization of the old Knights of Labor. The IWW or Wobblies understood the cessation of work cut Corporate owners off from wealth. This is the only real power workers have that is equivalent to the power to hire and fire that Corporations have. The Noble Order of the Knights of Labor was founded in 1869 by Uriah Stephens and five other former members of the Garment Cutters' Association of Philadelphia. The organization was open to all working people except for bankers, lawyers, stockbrokers, doctors and liquor manufacturers. Controversially, the Knights of Labor was a secret organization. Graphic from http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAknights.htm It was the first union to attempt to unionize women on a national scale. This included appointing Leonora Barry as a national organizer. In 1881 Terence Powderly became the new leader of the organization and he brought an end to the rule of secrecy. Soon afterwards it was claimed that the Knights of Labor had 700,000 members. However, it went into decline after the formation of American Federation of Labour in 1886. http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAknights.htm Also there is the Knights of Labor website at http://6hourday.org/knightsoflabor.html . Here is their Intro: Our goal is to organize ALL workers into a single Union. We hope to offer a plan for workers to bring enthusiasm and creativity to their work, to promote the 6 hour work day / 24 hour work week, and to champion the belief that "An Injury to One is the Cocern of All." The IWW sought the same thing. Today the Change to Win group of ex-AFL unions lead by SEIU are looking at sectors to organize. From this perspective, a single union would organize all the building trades. We believe that the Knights of Labor [KoL] were on the right path to organizing Labor and in the justice of their economic and social demands. Three factors, uniquely distinguish the KoL from other labor unions. First, the Knights of Labor called for the creation of a SINGLE labor union for skilled and un-skilled workers alike to strengthen the Union against all opposition. This would equal the power of National Corporations of the time. Second, the Knights strongly opposed to the use of the strike. Strikes lead to misery and hardship for workers, and as history proves -- ultimate defeat. Without the strike, what would be the power workers were able to use to get a better deal? Thirdly, the Knights' goal was to establish co-operative businesses owned and operated by members of the union. There is the reason not to strike. Workers would own the Corporation. Corporate owners really didn’t like this at all. A co-operative would remove owners from the overhead of the company. As all wealth is created by the actual people doing the work from brain surgery to picking up the garbage, the mass of elite corporate management were seen as simply dead weight. And they sought a 6 hour day. Of course Americans love to work and this has never been achieved in a lasting way. Who benefits from this? I was very young when I first came in contact with the IWW. It was organized in Chicago in the year 1905 and I left school. I am not putting myself forward as any example to you because I felt that Socialism was just around the corner and had to get into the struggle as fast as I could. My father and mother were Socialists, members of the Socialist Party. So all of us of the younger generation were impatient with it. We felt it was rather stodgy. Its leaders were, if you will pardon me for saying so, professors, lawyers, doctors, minister, and middle-aged and older people, and we felt a desire to have something more militant, more progressive and more youthful and so we flocked into the new organization, the IWW. Today Socialism is a bad word. No distinction is made between different forms of Socialism. So a Totalitarian State is thrown in with Democratic Socialism. Who gains from this propaganda? Who loses Graphic from http://www.sp-usa.org/ It was not only the inheritor of many of the traditions of the{18}80's but personalities who were identified with the {18}80's were present at the early conventions of the IWW. The names may not be known to you unless you are students of labor history but included were such figures as Gene Debs, Daniel DeLeon and Mrs. Lucy Parsons, who was the widow of Albert Parsons, one of the Chicago Anarchists in the {18}80's, who was hung, during the very fierce struggles for the 8-hour day. Now, in addition to these Socialists and Knights of Labor figures, there were also figures from unions, unions that were more industrial in character than the craft unions that were identified with the AFL, such unions as the Brewery Workers, the Western Federation of Miners and others.   You can read an interesting lecture by Lucy Parsons titled the Principles of Anarchism, http://www.lucyparsons.org/the-principles-of-anarchism.php . This is a very different view of the world. And remember, Parsons is one of the many leaders that gave working people rights which were rejected by Corporate owners. Lucy Parsons http://www.lucyparsons.org/the-principles-of-anarchism.php Graphic from http://cpl.lib.uic.edu/004chicago/timeline/haymarket.html These were the heroes of the Labor Movement. This is what brought management to the table. The AFL capitalized upon this and offered cooperative relations with Corporations as an alternative to nasty confrontations. People don’t like to fight. They just want to be happy in life and feel fulfilled. But the Corporate elite will do anything to hold on to the wealth created by others. So what do you think? How has the AFL’s approach turned out? Here is an excerpt from The Principles of Anarchism http://www.lucyparsons.org/the-principles-of-anarchism.php : It was during the great railroad strike of 1877 that I first became interested in what is known as the “Labor Question.” I then thought as many thousands of earnest, sincere people think, that the aggregate power, operating in human society, known as government, could be made an instrument in the hands of the oppressed to alleviate their sufferings. But a closer study of the origin, history and tendency of governments, convinced me that this was a mistake; I came to understand how organized governments used their concentrated power to retard progress by their ever-ready means of silencing the voice of discontent if raised in vigorous protest against the machinations of the scheming few, who always did, always will and always must rule in the councils of nations where majority rule is recognized as the only means of adjusting the affairs of the people. I came to understand that such concentrated power can be always wielded in the interest of the few and at the expense of the many. Government in its last analysis is this power reduced to a science. Governments never lead; they follow progress. When the prison, stake or scaffold can no longer silence the voice of the protesting minority, progress moves on a step, but not until then. It has always been about power and wealth throughout human history. America was a great step forward. But the incredible wealth of Multinational Corporations is no controlling America. The 8 hour day is gone. The 40 hour week is gone. It takes two working in a household to make ends meet. Unions have been beaten down. Members are apathetic, powerless and afraid. Graphic from http://www.chicagohistory.org/dramas/act3/act3.htm So where does the Labor Movement go from here? Where does America go from here. HOMEWORK Think about the power big Multinational Corporations have today. Look closely at how Corporate politicians from both major Parties are destroying our way of life; our standard of living. Is there anyone you know interested in being informed? Do people on the job understand just how we got what we are now losing rapidly? Do they understand their way of life is coming to an end if they don’t do something about it?

"The history of mankind is a history of the subjugation and exploitation of a great majority of people by an elite few by what has been appropriately termed the 'ruling class'. The ruling class has many manifestations. It can take the form of a religious orthodoxy, a monarchy, a dictatorship of the proletariat, outright fascism, or, in the case of the United States, corporate statism. In each instance the ruling class relies on academics, scholars and 'experts' to legitimize and provide moral authority for its hegemony over the masses." Ed Crane http://www.cato.org/people/crane.html Human Rights First Comments on Fair Labor Association Report   In the last decade the global expansion of the market economy has produced what some call a “world without walls”. In the rush to find cheaper and quicker ways to produce shoes, apparel, and other labor-intensive goods for the global marketplace, multinational corporations are moving much of their manufacturing to countries where basic legal protections for workers are non-existent and union organizing is prohibited or discouraged. Workers drive the new international economy, yet millions of them—typically women and children—daily endure substandard working conditions ranging from inadequate wages to inhumane hours to life-threatening hazards in the workplace. http://www.humanrightsfirst.org /workers_rights/index.asp Dec. 10th  Mobilization: Largest-Ever for Workers’ Rights     Working families and their allies are gearing up for the nation’s largest-ever mobilization to support workers’ freedom to form unions and bargain collectively. Throughout the week of Dec. 5–10, thousands of workers in 63 cities—and the number is growing daily—will take the fight to restore workers’ freedom to form unions to the White House, statehouses and front doors of employers that deny workers’ rights. The nationwide events are part of a massive global mobilization on Dec. 10, International Human Rights Day, the anniversary of the 1948 ratification of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which includes the freedom of workers to form unions. http://www.aflcio.org/joinaunion /voiceatwork/ns10262005.cfm We are stronger together. We have to fight to get our fair share. We can win, just like we have in the past.