Labor History Archives
Memories of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)
Part 3
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.
We left off with Flynn’s comments on the difference between WW1 and WW2. The former being something of a Corporate war and the latter being a war against Fascism.
World War I, the war that President Wilson promised to keep us out of, was not considered a war of any great principles and the result was that there were hundreds, literally hundreds of young Americans, and older ones too, who were arrested; there were conscientious objectors, like Evan Thomas, the brother of Norman Thomas, there were Socialists, like Congressman Berger, and others, there were IWW's, a hundred and some who were tried.
There has long been a link between the labor movement and war. One of
the reasons is that working people fight the wars while the privileged classes sit back and rake in the profits. It always seems to come down to money. Prescott Bush, George W’s granddad, supported Hitler. While working people are willing to give their lives for a noble cause, frequently those in the ruling class had other considerations to take into account.
Picture from http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/
FWWchronology.htmThe AFL-CIO finally came out against the war in Iraq because it is a Corporate war fought by working people for a ruling class that is only interested in maintaining their privileged positions at any cost.Also note, that not fighting for the privileged class is not viewed well by those in power.
In here, in the City of Chicago and many others who were arrested under a Sedition Act, a war-time Sedition Act which went out with the end of the war. However, many of the people were tried and sentenced after the war was over as well as Eugene V. Debs, and were sent to prison after the war was over. Now, the IWW was really not persecuted because of their opposition to the war. Although they did oppose the war, they didn't all oppose the war. It wasn't a principled matter, because the IWW's main job was to fight the bosses and they stuck to it, I tell you, with great tenacity, and they were preparing, especially the lumber workers of the Northwest and the Pacific Coast states, for an 8-hour struggle to be declared on the first of May, 1917 and great preparations were made for it. It was to be what they called "blanket burn day." All the workers were to burn their blankets in a bonfire on that day and they were going to demand of the camp owners, clean blankets, a clean sheet, furnished by the companies and not being lugged around on their weary backs.
Now, in a free country you should be able to object to a war. Freedom of speech and all that. Look at how patriotism was used by Bush for the Corporate war to gain wealth from Iraq. Same old thing. What exactly is the Corporate war on workers all about? Hint – always follow the money. Is it possible to concentrate only on one aspect of power struggle between capital and workers such as collective bargaining? Can the rest of the issues in society be separated from the labor movement which is really a movement about justice, freedom and fairness? Corporations want it that way. Today, they are hammering on the last vestige of peoplepower by destroying what is left of their unions. Today we are at 7.9% of the private workforce and falling.
Take a look at the U.S. Constitution at http://www.law.cornell.edu/
constitution/constitution.table.html#articleii . A lot of what is in the Constitution has to do with protecting us citizens from our own government. Why do you think that is? Who controls our Government today?Well, this preparation was going on and then the war came. War was declared before the first of May. I had some clients that were in jail as a result of their opposition to the war and then I had others that were in the war and when they came out, they were arrested. For instance, the other day in California, I met an elderly man, his name was J. W. Fruit. I will never forget his name. This man used to write to me from Germany when he was with the American occupation in Germany during the first World War, and he used to send money to me for the defense of the IWW prisoners. I remember when he came back. He came back when Pershing came back and the victory Parade took place on Fifth Avenue and he came up to my Defense Committee's office and he threw his tin hat and all the rest of his business in the corner and he was off to go to the IWW hall. Well, no sooner did he go back to California than he became the secretary of the IWW Defense Committee and the next letter I got from him was from San Quentin Prison and he said he was right back where I started. Well, this was one who went to the war.
Picture from
http://www.makingthemodernworld.org.uk
/learning_modules/english/03.TU.01/img/IM.0941_zl.jpgIt is all about power, control and wealth. Do you know what the first WW was about? Take a look at this http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/
FWWinAustria.htm . This was leading up to a war. From just this little bit of information what do you think? You can explore the full chronology at http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWW.htm .These guys who objected to the war were political prisoners. How can you have political prisoners in a free country?FOCUS | Report: The Constitution in Crisis
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/122005Y.shtml
In brief, we have found there is substantial evidence that the president, vice president, and other high-ranking members of the Bush administration misled Congress and the American people regarding the decision to go to war with Iraq; misstated and manipulated intelligence information regarding the justification for said war; countenanced torture and cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment, and other legal violations in Iraq; and permitted inappropriate retaliation against critics of their administration.A lot of members don’t like www.truthout.org. Wouldn’t it be nice not to hear about this article and have to think about what it says? Unions are at 7.9% of the workforce today because of people do not want to deal honestly with reality. Instead many embrace belief hoping it will somehow save them from the nastiness of the real world. Do you want to take the red pill and know the truth or do you want to take the blue pill and go back to sleep?
There were many others, of course, who refused and who went to prison as a consequence. We had a tremendous amnesty movement for their release and then, again, the degree of unity we had, as I look back on it, was remarkable. It ranged from religious circles, from the Quakers, all the way to the most extreme Left of that day. The Left of that day would be the IWW and the anarchists because this was before there was a Communist Party. There were no Communists around inciting all of this. This was pre-Communist Party days. The American Civil Liberties Union was born in this struggle and many similar organizations.
Banner from http://www.aclu.org/about/index.html
But the remarkable thing about it is that although sentences were 20 years and 10 years and 5 years, they were all released within about 5 years. In fact, they were all out in about 1924 and strange as it may seem, the President who appointed an investigation committee and decreed amnesty for all those who were still in prison at that time, was President Coolidge, so let's say one good word at least for the man who, as Mrs. Longworth said, always looked as though he was weaned on a pickle.
There is a key aspect here to reflect upon. It was broad community support over basic American constitutional rights which were at play. Today we have had our Government spying on American Citizens, cutting services to average Americans, controling the press, promoting a relentless attack upon unions and labor law, forcing into a phony war for oil falsely linked to 9/11 and on and on.
It is all connected. If you control what people think, you control those people. Part of the union movement, intended or not, has to do with people thinking for themselves in spite of some authority telling them what to think. It is insubordination. Sedition. Unpatriotic. Communistic. Socialistic. Anarchism. Or even “Liberal” God forbid.
The price of freedom is high. However the price of not searching for the truth and not thinking is astronomical. So what do you think about this?
I really should tell you something about where the IWW stood in relation to other organizations because the picture probably is not yet too clear. Well, it was not a craft union; it was an industrial union and it was opposed to the AFL, bitterly so. It did not stand for any of the things that the AFL stood for, a fair day's wage for a fair day's work, a brotherhood of capital and labor, none of those things. It was strong for fighting the boss every time we got a chance and so some of the things sound very strange, but it was the truth. They did not believe in making any contracts.They believed that as long as you were organized, you could hold the office to what it said it was going to do. But a contract, a piece of paper held you and so they didn't make any contracts. How, their attitudes towards what we call the white collar workers was not good. Not good at all, because they just considered that they didn't belong to the working class. You had to wear overalls, be muscular, you had to work. If you were a pen pusher, you were not a worker, according to the IWW. Now, this also applied to students. In other words, what they would call today a very sectarian organization.
Picture from http://www.iww.org/
culture/library/Wow. This is really interesting. Clearly, if you have the power of sticking together, paper contracts are not needed. Conditions are made day by day. The same applies to a contractual relationship as it is the worker who makes or breaks conditions on the job.
Local 46 has historically had coffee breaks. They were not in the contract. But we all took them anyway. It is the ability to stick together that gives the union power. Not just a written contract.
Clearly the IWW made a mistake not including white collar workers in the IWW defined working class. It is hard to really define where someone is no longer a worker. Think about it. Managers work for a living. Legally and contractually they are defined as not being “hourly” workers. Who gains from this? Who loses? Is a doctor a worker?
It is possible the IWW was reacting to the Corporate framing pitting different parts of their workforce against each other. You get a title like “manager or superintendent” and suddenly you are not allowed to belong to a bargaining unit. Labor laws were devised to control working people and stop the destructive confrontations which were necessary to give us workers and better deal than they were getting. Today labor unions are going down so what will we workers do?
But to some extent the students of that day were responsible because the students had no sympathy with the labor movement. In fact, when there were strikes it was always possible, as I saw down in a hotel, at a strike in New York City, it was always possible to get students to go in and take the place of the workers. Well, times have changed, I am very glad to say. I doubt very much if any such situation could be developed even on the most conservative campuses in our country today. I might be wrong, but it wouldn't be a common factor.
Well nothing stays the same in this world for very long. Think about it. Why, generally, would rich sponsors support a school system of any kind that taught people to question and take collective action against greedy employers? Why would they fund a politician who wanted schools to get into such things as collective bargaining, the real history of working people and who would work for those same working people?Today, students are starting to embrace the idea of fair wages for workers at universities and teaching assistants. Interesting!
Columbia, NYU grad students strike http://www.yaledailynews.com/article.asp?AID=25868
Undergrads, support strike http://www.nyunews.com/vnews/
display.v/ART/2005/11/16/437ae8f2a78b8Now, the IWW also differed from the AFL in that it stood for Socialism. Although it differed from the Socialist Party in that it rejected political parties and political action, and this might have been a reflection of is composition. In the West, the migratory workers did not vote and in the East, the foreign born workers did not vote.
Now there is a hot button word. Let’s face it, Social Security is socialism. Medicare is socialism. Public highways and other public works are socialism. There is nothing inherently wrong with Socialism. But how it is configured and applied is a problem. Similarly, Capitalism can be good or bad depending upon how it is actually set up.
We can’t depend upon words to define reality. We must think for ourselves. Should your tax money be used for services for your benefit? If you say yes you may be called a Socialist! If you say no, well you figure out what you are.
Why Socialism?
http://www.monthlyreview.org/598einst.htmby Albert Einstein
This essay was originally published in the first issue of Monthly Review (May 1949).A few excerpts follow:“It is ‘society’ which provides man with food, clothing, a home, the tools of work, language, the forms of thought, and most of the content of thought; his life is made possible through the labor and the accomplishments of the many millions past and present who are all hidden behind the small word ‘society’.It is evident, therefore, that the dependence of the individual upon society is a fact of nature which cannot be abolished . . .”“I have now reached the point where I may indicate briefly what to me constitutes the essence of the crisis of our time. It concerns the relationship of the individual to society. The individual has become more conscious than ever of his dependence upon society. But he does not experience this dependence as a positive asset, as an organic tie, as a protective force, but rather as a threat to his natural rights, or even to his economic existence.”
Who gains from an ideology that separates people from each other? Who is made weak and loses?
Picture from http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk
/~history/PictDisplay/
Einstein.html“The economic anarchy of capitalist society as it exists today is, in my opinion, the real source of the evil. We see before us a huge community of producers the members of which are unceasingly striving to deprive each other of the fruits of their collective labor—not by force, but on the whole in faithful compliance with legally established rules. . . .”
This is a surprising article written by Albert Einstein. It is clearly written by an intellectual but gets to the points which are easy to understand.
HOMEWORK
How do you respond to scary words like Socialism? Who taught you to react the way you do? Who gains from your perspective? Freedom and a good life are not just handed to you in this world. We have to work for those rewards. We have to think for ourselves and take a stand. Power and money will give you a pittance of a reward for not thinking and not challenging the ruling class’s authority. Freedom to think freely and utilize tools to gain a bigger piece of the profit we create is priceless. Do you have what it takes to be a free and thinking man or woman?
A man's country is not a certain area of land, of mountains, rivers, and woods, but it is a principle; and patriotism is loyalty to that principle
We are stronger together.
We have to fight
to get our fair share.We can win,
just like we have in the past.
