Union Labels

Industrial Unionist, Volume 1, Issue 8, 1 September 1913, Page 1

Union Labels

Union labels have been the subject of much discussion at union meetings and conferences all over these colonies. One union secretary recently read a lengthy paper on the value of the union label in the boycott of , 11011-union-made commodities, and extolled the American Federation of Labour as a splendid example (!) of what the union label can do for the worker; he did not tell of the “tainted shoe label” and other exposures printed in American Labour papers. From a craft unionist standpoint the craft union label may appear to have some value in stamping out non-union labour, but nowadays there is scarcely a craft union not affiliated, directly or indirectly, with the rest of organised labour in its industry, and hardly a craft federation not affiliated in some way with the rest of organised labour in the country. We are rapidly approaching the time when Industrial Unionism must supersede craft Unionism and craft federalism. At best a craft label can only have temporary value, and then only to craftsmen at the expense of labour as a whole; in the last analysis at the expense of the so-called craftsmen themselves, too. Then why bother about craft union labels ? There is but one kind of label that can be seriously considered: —

—the Universal Label of the INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD.

The struggles of labour take on more and more of a class character. Every strike, of consequence, depends, to some degree, on the support of workers in other industries and other countries; the nearer the industry or the country the greater the dependence. The material conditions of the workers in one industry, as in one country, are very sensitive to change taking place in other industries and countries. If labour is displaced in an industry it flows to other industries the same with one country and other countries. Sections of the Working Class cannot advance far ahead of the rest of the class. The introduction of labour-saving machinery in England, America, or China must influence labour conditions here, not only indirectly through commodity competition, but also directly through importation of labour and immigration. Strikes are lost through lack of inter-industrial or international support. Changing conditions are compelling us to think as a class. Self interest will compel us to adopt a CLASS UNION LABEL. —P.R,