Written: 1912.
First Published: International Socialist Review, Chicago, Volume 13, No. 5, November 1912
Source: Scan of International Socialist Review, Marxists Internet Archive.
Transcription and Markup: Bill Wright, September 2022.
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In reviewing the proceedings of the seventh annual convention of the Industrial Workers of the World, which convened at Brand’s Hall, in Chicago, September 16, and continued for ten days, little need be said about its parliamentary enactments. There were but few unimportant changes made in the constitution and no great departures from the policy adopted at the last convention and which has proven adaptable to conditions faced by the organization during the past year.
Unity of purpose and absence of discord were manifested in every act of the delegates. Strife and dissension, which has so hampered the constructive work of the organization in the past, has quite naturally been eliminated by the growth of the organization. Viewed in the light of the past year’s events, this spirit of discord seems to have been engendered more by the apparent unresponsiveness of the workers to the propaganda carried on by the I. W. W., and the consequent discouragement and inactivity of a part of its membership, than by any wide divergences of purpose or opinion.
The delegates from the Brotherhood of Timber Workers, seven in number, came to the convention with instructions to amalgamate with the National Industrial Union of Forest and Lumber Workers of the I. W. W.; thus becoming an integral part of the General Organization. By this combination of forces much is to be gained for all concerned. The Timber Workers will secure the advantage of the experience of the older organization, while the I. W. W. will have added to its ranks a potent fighting force. This splendid band of militants, which has sprung up in the Southland within less than two years, and is successfully combating the Lumber Trust, is a truly encouraging development in the American labor movement.
Despite the fact that a large percentage of the Timber Workers are Socialist Party men, and have had the active co-operation and assistance of the party since the inception of the union, information was imparted by their delegates that not the least effective method of harassing the timber Wolves is the judicious use of a weapon which is frowned upon in a certain Article Six, Section Two. Rumors that Kirby and Long intend to call this matter to the attention of those who sit in the high places are as yet unconfirmed.
It is a significant proof of the sound base of the I. W. W. philosophy that the tremendous growth of the past year has not brought with it the germ of opportunism. There was no suggestion of a desire on the part of any of the delegates to swerve from the uncompromising and revolutionary attitude of the organization; nor was there any reaching out for “respectability.” Every man was a “Red,” most of them with jail records, too.
The oft-quoted sentence in the Preamble, “We are building the structure of the new society within the shell of the old” was well exemplified in the personnel of the convention. Here was an assemblage which, to a man, rejected the moral and ethical teachings of the existing order, and had formulated a creed of their own which begins with Solidarity and ends with Freedom. In the strictest sense, it was a Proletarian Congress; an “Internation” in embryo. Representatives of more than a score of nationalities, including the Negro race, met there upon common ground. All united in a common cause; all swayed by the same ideal; all striving, with earnestness and zeal, to hasten the day when “the whistle will blow for the Boss to go to work!”
Last updated: 1 February 2023