POINTERS

Industrial Unionist, Volume 1, Issue 4, 1 May 1913, Page 4

POINTERS

(FROM INDUSTRIAL WORKER)

The old-timers who drew up the Constitution (of the 1.W.W.) may not have been infallible, but they certainly knew what they were doing when they wrote into the Constitution that none but active wage workers should be eligible to membership. That clause was not accidental. It is scientific, logical deduction. We must draw the class line that divides Society into two groups—the exploited and the exploiters. Exploitation to-day rests on wages. All employers are exploiters. All wage workers are exploited.

Speaking of labels, how long will it take for the good union man to find out that any union that organises labour into groups . . is worse than no union ? Any union that will have conductors’ contracts expire in December and the motormen in June is worse than no union at all, for it keeps the workers exactly where the boss wants them—divided. These may be bitter pills for you craft union men to swallow, but, you know they are truth.

The spirit of revolution cannot be destroyed. It may be retarded, but it cannot be suppressed. It has throbbed in the pulse of every century. It has beat in the veins of every age. It has been the lifeblood of every great movement. It has been the instigator of all progress and development.

Sabotage is not a form of action brought forth from French conditions. It dates back to the earliest days of human exploitation. It is born of class struggles—of man’s inhumanity to man. From serfdom to wage slavery the subjugated class has instinctively tried to render less to the Employer than was expected of them. This unconscious sabotage shows the irreconcilable antagonism between capitalist and labourer—master and slave.

In warfare a flank movement is always feared by each of the opposing forces. In the social war sabotage is the best kind of flank movement upon our enemy—the employing class. An actual instance will serve to illustrate the point.

On an orchard farm in the State of Washington a disagreement arose over the conditions on the job. A strike took place. The I.W.W. members among the strikers immediately telephoned to the local union in the nearest city.

When the employer arrived in town looking for a new crew he was rather surprised at Ids speedy success. Full fare was paid for the men and the railway train was boarded. At the first stop, a few miles from the city, the whole crew deserted the train. They were all members of the union.

Returning to the city the farmer picked up a second crew. He arranged to have them pay their own fare, same to be refunded upon their arrival on the farm. This crew went through all right and worked for a while under the farmer’s directions. Thinking the strike was successfully broken the employer busied himself for the rest of the day.

Next morning, upon visiting the work, the farmer was surprised to find that 1000 young trees had been planted upside down, thenroots waving to the breeze as mute evidence of solidarity and sabotage.

No further argument was needed to convince him of the “justice” of the demands of the original crew.