Why we are Industrialists

Industrial Unionist, Volume 1, Issue 7, 1 August 1913, Page 3

Why we are Industrialists

Many of our working class mates

sometimes wonder why we are so

persistent in our advocacy of Industrial Unionism; there are many reasons. First of all, from the point of view of economic organisation, the industrial form is the best- It is the best because mere trade organisation divides and subdivides the worker of an industry and causes more attention to be paid to the demarkation of different trades’ work than in bettering their whole position as wage workers. Craft Unionism sets skilled against unskilled, and one kind of unskilled workers against others. It causes jealousy, suspicion, lack of class consciousness, and by the sectional agreements and awards prevents unity of action, solidarity of purpose and method. The industrial form of organisation binds all the workers of an industry together, on the grounds that they all work for wages, many different grades of workers toil for the same employer, and thus they should be as one in the disputes with the one employer or association of employers. Thus the industrial form of organisation creates and spreads class solidarity.

Not only does Industrial Unionism show this better form of organisation, but it has a different end in view to that of the ordinary trade unionism.

Trade Unionism is an out-worn form of organisation which was instituted when craft production and manufacture were in their hey-dey, and before machineofacture had displaced the skilled craftsman by the machine with its semi-skilled attendant. Machinery tends to obliterate skill in an industry, to level all to the status of machine-minders, and to displace manual labour altogether in many instances. Trade Unionism is but the infancy stage of the workers’ economic organisation. Trade Unionism simply wanted to alter certain conditions under which the wage-slaves worked. At its highest it simply seeks a modification of the present system, leaving its essential of private property and the wages system untouched.

But we Industrial Unionists declare that private property in the necessities of life means a small class of monopolists on one hand and an overwhelming number of propertyless workers on the other hand. The Law was instituted and is maintained primarily to protect this private property and keep the observance • of the different economic and social relations which arise from it.

Wages, we know from the economists, are merely the portion of the wealth returned to the workers for them to subsist upon, by the owners of wealth which the wage workers have created- This varies in diflerent countries, and in different trades, but on a broad average amounts to just about a bare level of subsistence for the worker and his dependents. The workers get but about one-fifth to one-third of the value they create to consume chiefly in only absolute necessities. Thus Trade Unionism only asks for a share of the control of industry, and a share of the produce.

Industrial Unionism organises the workers to take full control of the conditions of working, and the full proceeds for the -workers of the wealth which they create.

To give an illustration from the political development of the civilised races:

First, there -was the absolutp monarchy, under which system the King had complete sway over his

(By E. J. B. ALLEN)

subjects ; this corresponds to the time when capitalism began, and when the w orkers had no organisations with which to protect themselves. Next we find that people objected to an absolute monarchy and demanded a share in government. This led to the establishment of the representative system, and the Constitutional or Limited Monarchy; this corresponds to the present period of Trades Unionism wherein the workers ask for a share in the control of the working conditions. The next system of government is found in the establisment of Republics wherein the hereditary principle of monarchy is abolished, and where there is no ruler other than one elected as a figure-head from time to time, a person wdio is elected to office and has to withdraw from office, and who has no power other than that allowed him; this will correspond to the time when the workers are organised industrially and control the mines, mills, land, and railways, and they themselves elect from time to time their respective foremen and managers on the grounds of their experience and ability.

The development of the workers’ organisations from those of craft to those of industry, correspond to various stages in Labour development, and Industrial Unionism with its militant Direct Action, represents Labour’s coming of age. Conscious and determining effort to secure immediate ameliorations, all of which are definitely directed towards preparing the workers for the expropriation of the capitalist, are the sign manual f Labour’s growffh from childhood to manhood.

Direct Action is something more action other than through a third person, be he a representative at a Conciliation Court or an Arbitration Board or Parliament. Direct Action is something more than the use of industrial tactics of Sabotage, or the collective action of the Strike or Boycott. It means the determinative action of a class in building up their own system of economic production, distribution, and exchange, which is to supercede the existing one- It means that with this change in the economic life of the nation, the triumphant working class will likewise impose their conception of social, political, and moral “ order.”

Thus Industrial Unionism is at once an ideal, a philosophy, and a means. It has a plan of organisation, the organisation of the workers industrially into one big union, with the object of the workers collectively owning and controlling the wealth of the nation, it has its means in Direct Action ; it has its philosophy based upon the Class Struggle which from the earlier days of humanity has existed between those who produce but do not possess, and those who possess blit do not produce. It seeks the wiping out of class distinctions by the abolition of classes themselves. It means the establishment of economic equality and the social and political equality that flows from that.

Industrial Unionism is the world’s emancipatory movement for the wage slaves of all lands. It means international unity of action for the freeing of the world’s workers; for in every country the Industrial Unionists have the same rallying cry: a All wealth is produced by Labour ; wealth belongs to the producer thereof.”