Labor History Archives
The Early Struggle for Camp & Sawmill Democracy
Chapter 4, continuedhttp://www.iww.org/unions/iu120/rowan/rowan4.shtml
Published by the Lumber Workers Industrial Union Local 500
IWW; Seattle, Washington1920 Continued:
We left off looking at Corporations trying to get control of people and their Values. Having lots of money made for them by working people, Corporations used that money to elect pro Corporate politicians. The politicians lie because people would not vote for them if they ran on a platform of Corporate Values. So we wound up with the Crime of Criminal Syndicalism in Idaho. Lets start with the Act and the definition of Criminal Syndicalism in 1917.
Section 1. Criminal Syndicalism is the doctrine which advocates crime, sabotage, violence, or unlawful methods of terrorism as a means of accomplishing industrial or political reform. The advocacy of such doctrine, whether by word of mouth or writing, is a felony punishable as in this act otherwise provided.
To an ordinary citizen making a living and raising a family, this sounds reasonable. Who wants crime, sabotage, violence or unlawful methods of terrorism. http://www.iww.org/
unions/iu120/rowan/rowan4.shtml . Sections 1 through 3 define most everything having to do with union activity as criminalThe rest of the act covers anything a union might do to lock in justification to prosecute worker actions against a pure and law biding Corporation. This is why it is vitally important for unions to be involved in politics and why Corporate interests seek every way possible to limit union political activities and monetary donations.
Section 2 (4) Organizes or helps to organize, or becomes a member of, or voluntarily assembles with any society, group, or assemblage of persons, formed to teach or advocate the doctrines of criminal syndicalism,
Is guilty of a felony, punishable by imprisonment in the state prison, for not more than ten years, or by a fine of not more than five thousand dollars, or both.
So Americans right to assembly is denied by Corporate politicians. They don’t want workers getting together. Today workers are not adequately protected by the NLRB and we are losing standards right and left. Corporate Values want Working Families separated and helpless.
Section 3. Whenever two or more persons assemble for the purpose at advocating or teaching the doctrine of criminal syndicalism as defined in this act, such assemblage is unlawful, and every person voluntarily participating therein . . .
Everyone assembling just to listen to union perspectives or organizing is made an illegal act. Note that in the Wagner Act or as it is generally known, the National Labor Relations Act, Section 7 gave workers rights nationally to protect them from clearly unfair legislation in Idaho. The original Section 7 read:
“Employees shall have the right to self-organization, to form, join or assist labor organizations, to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing, and to engage in concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection.”
But in the early 1900’s workers didn’t have this protection and the Criminal Syndicalism laws were passed in other states. Section 7 was modified in 1947 by the Taft-Hartley Amendment.
Section 4. The owner, agent, superintendent, janitor, caretaker, or occupant of any place, building or room, who willfully and knowingly permits therein, any assemblage of persons prohibited by the provisions of Section 3 of this act . . .
Even renting a room is illegal under this act.
March the 5th and 6th, 1917 a lumber workers convention was held in Spokane, for the purpose of forming an industrial union in the lumber industry. . . . Demands were drawn up, calling for an eight hour day; a minimum wage of $60 a month and board; springs, mattresses, and bedding to be furnished by the companies; shower baths and drying rooms, and an all around improvement of conditions in the camps; abolition of the hospital fee; and that all men be hired from the Union Hall.
The Corporate bosses hated this. They had to put a stop to this worker insubordination!! By any and all means necessary. Think about the Building Trades today and the present nonunion competition eating away at out contract benefits and language. Remember also NECA’s comments at the first Partnering meeting that NECA didn’t want IBEW to have more than 75% of commercial work. Think about it.
June the 15th a strike started over the food, in one of the camps of the Humbird Lumber Co. near Sand Point, Idaho.
Any camps that were slow to come out were visited by committees of the strikers, and in nearly all cases, when the workers realized the extent of the strike and the great possibilities involved, they were easily persuaded to quit work. Strike camps were formed and the entire strike zone was covered by a network of picket lines. In each camp committees were chosen to carry out the work of picketing and attend to the various duties of conducting the strike. A representative of each branch was sent to Spokane to act on the central strike committee.
This is what unionism is really about. It is driven by the rank-&-file. Without workers the Corporations oxygen supply is cut off. Without us the Corporations die. The super rich may have to change their lifestyles. Maybe even work for a living!
A few camps made an attempt to operate with scabs, but they were shorthanded, and the scabs were inefficient. The result, measured in production of logs, was negligible.
On our jobs today we desperately need to talk about politics and what is being done to all American families, their Values and their lifestyles. We need to get factual verifiable information into discussion.
How have the Corporations been so successful in taking control of our Country thereby using politics to control and limit our power to decide our own destinies?
To be continued:
Homework
The control of and manipulation of masses of people by Corporate concerns started long ago. Psychological studies were done by corporations such as Edison Electric and Ford Motor Company which dealt with manipulating people into buying products and gaining control of organized workers.
White kitchen appliances were introduced and tied to cleanliness, Family Values, and fundamental American Values. So to be truly acceptable, you needed to upgrade you kitchen in all new white appliances.
Workers were split apart geographically fostering the necessity for cars and keeping them from meeting up at the local pub. It sounds incredible that communities and all aspects of the populace was to a great extent planned. But if you have virtually limitless money, why not buy the expertise necessary to control the means of you wealth, working people? Why not buy politicians, land developers and product designers by the bushel to mold our society into a money generating machine?
Start to read Dr. George Lakoff’s book Metaphor, Morality, and Politics, Or, Why Conservatives Have Left Liberals In the Dust at http://www.wwcd.org/issues/Lakoff.html#DETAILS .
Today psychological and behavioral techniques are highly advanced. Corporate interests have taken over our media, our political system and views of reality. This book and Lakoff’s “Don’t Think of An Elephant” , http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/
-/1931498717/002-4992483-5580017?v=glance , get into how our minds are manipulated to get us to buy into supporting values not in our best interest.
"Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes that you can do these things. Among them are a few Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or businessman from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid."
President Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1952