For a Labor Party: Recent Revolutionary Changes in American Politics : a Statement by the Workers Party |
Common terms and phrases
799 BROADWAY A. F. of L Amalgamation Amer American Federation American labor movement American workers American working class Babson writes big industry bourgeois BROADWAY NEW YORK bureaucratic capitalism capitalist class capitalist Government capitalist parties centralized government power centralized State power conflicts conservative Democratic Party depression differences dual unionism economic crisis economic prosperity elections ernment Europe factions farmers Federal Government Federation of Labor fight foreign workers foreign-born workers Gompers Greenback Party increased independent italists Knights of Labor LABADIE COLLECTION labor aristocracy mass party membership ment migrants nation-wide non-partisan policy number of members old immigration old parties organized workers panic Party can grow Party receiv Party will grow People's Party petty bourgeoisie political mass political party radical Republican Recent Revolutionary Changes represent Republican Party semi-skilled skilled and unskilled Steel Strike struggle third party tion trade unions tremendous uniform working class United unskilled workers votes wages WORKERS PARTY World
Popular passages
Page 28 - But if the Americans and skilled workers generally proved indifferent union men in the steel campaign, the foreign, unskilled workers covered themselves with glory. Throughout the whole affair, they showed an understanding, discipline, courage, and tenacity of purpose that compared favorably with that shown in any organized effort ever put forth by workingmen on this continent. Beyond question, they displayed trade-union qualities of the highest type.
Page 24 - Labor endeavoured to annex the skilled men in order that the advantage of their exceptional fighting strength might lift up the unskilled and semi-skilled. From the viewpoint of a struggle between principles, this was indeed a clash between the principle of solidarity of labour and that of trade separatism, but, in reality, each of the principles reflected only the special interest of a certain portion of the working class. Just as the trade unions, when they fought for trade autonomy, really refused...
Page 28 - Throughout the whole affair they showed an understanding discipline, courage and tenacity of purpose that compared favorably [200] with that shown in any organized effort ever put forth by workingmen on this continent. Beyond question they displayed trade-union qualities of the very highest type. Their solidarity was unbreakable; their fighting spirit invincible. They nobly struggled onward in the face of difficulties that would try the stoutest hearts. They proved themselves altogether worthy of...
Page 23 - ... there the Knights formed an assembly either contiguous to the sphere of a trade union or even at times encroaching upon it. With the Great Upheaval, which began in 1884, and the inrushing of hundreds of thousands of semi-skilled and unskilled workers into the Order, a new situation was •created. The leaders of the Knights realized that mere numbers were not sufficient to defeat the employers and that control over the skilled, and consequently the more strategic occupations, was required before...
Page 20 - ... American conditions for anyone who wants to see it. I refer to it to substantiate my remarks on socialism. Mr. BLACK. You might put. extracts from it in the record. 'Miss KILBRETH. I will insert them. (The extracts referred to are as follows:) The communists now contend: "The American Government * * * has grown into a mammoth monster of centralization, similar to that of the old European governments. * * * A centralized government, which interferes in the daily affairs of the working class, is...
Page 24 - Neither the jealousy aroused by the success of the unions nor the opposite aims of labor solidarity and trade separatism gives an adequate explanation of this conflict. The one, of course, aggravated the situation by introducing a feeling of personal bitterness, and the other furnished an appealing argument to each side. But the struggle was one between groups within the working class, in which the small but more skilled group fought for independence of the larger but weaker group of the unskilled...
Page 24 - It was mainly that which produced the bitter conflict between the Knights and the trade unions during 1886 and 1887. Neither the jealousy aroused by the success of the unions nor the opposite aims of labor solidarity and trade separatism gives an adequate explanation of this conflict. The one, of course, aggravated the situation by introducing a feeling of personal bitterness, and the other furnished an appealing argument to each side. But the...
Page 34 - ... represented distinct and positive ideas. But with these great fundamental ideas converted into history there are no longer any big outstanding issues between them that have any place in our politics. There are, to be sure, many small points on which the Republican and Democratic parties differ today. It is their business to differ, to create differences, to work up issues, without which they would cease to exist as political parties. It is the business of each party to oppose and to fight the...
Page 21 - The workers could not form such movements, simply because there was no centralized government that the workers had to feel daily in every detail of their lives. The American labor movement could not organize a political struggle on a national scale against the central Government for securing political power, as the workers in the countries of Europe do. They could not do so because there has been no permanent centralized government in the United States.
Page 43 - Scorned by Congress, ridiculed and misrepresented by many members of both Houses, the American labor movement finds it necessary to apply vigorously its long and well-established non-partisan political policy. Confronted by a succession of hostile Congresses, the American Federation of Labor, in 1906, announced its historic "Bill of Grievances.