“LABOUR’S LEADERS AND FRIENDS”

Industrial Unionist, Volume 1, Issue 10, 1 November 1913, Page 3

“LABOUR’S LEADERS AND FRIENDS”

By Bert Willard.

Two of the chief influences tending to keep Labor in slavery are “ Labor Leaders ” and the “ Friends of Labor.’ ’ Time and again has Labor fought long and valiantly for the right to live, in many of which conflicts Labor has suffered all the horrors of hell, then when victory was within their grasp it has been snatched away by treacherous “ Leaders ” and traitorious “ Friends.” It has ever been so. Labor has ever been betrayed bv its “ Leaders,” crucified by its “ Friends.” We of the Brotherhood of Labor must no longer put out faith, our trust, in “ Leaders,” nor in “ Friends.” Our faith, our hopes, must abide in ourselves. We cannot look to “ Leaders,” or to “Friends,” for emancipation; we must emancipate ourselves, or for ever be bound in slavery. We must save ourselves if we are ever to be saved. We need to fear our “ Leaders ” and our “ Friends ” more than we fear our exploiters. Our exploiters are our avowed enemies; but our “ Leaders ” and our “ Friends ” sap our very life-blood while pretending to nourish and protect us.

We need.to know that they, too, are our enemies, that they are our exploiters; they live off of our labor. They are content to pose as “ Labor Leaders ” and “ Friends of Labor ” only so long* as we will permit them to get their feet in the trough. Socialist “ Leaders ” are no better than other varieties of “ Labor Leaders;” they, too, must get their feet in the trough. Labor's blind faith in “Leaders” and in “Friends” keep the hosts of Labor bound in slavery. “ Labor Leaders ” and the “ Friends of Labor ” are the decoys that lead Labor into the master’s shambles. Our “Leaders” and our “Friends” deliver us, bound and gagged, into the hands of our enemies. The time has come for us to act. Let us arise. Let us have done with the twin curses, “ Labor Leaders ” and the “ Friends of Labor.” Let us learn to do for ourselves. Let us do our leading and be our own friends. For Labor is its only friend and should be its only leader. Our only hope lies in ourselves. That which we cannot or will not do for ourselves, the same will not be done. Then let us do what we will have to do, and let us do it quickly. —International Socialist Review.