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Hellraisers Journal – Sunday October 10, 1909
Louis Duchez on Victory of McKees Rocks Strikers, Part II
From the International Socialist Review of October 1909:
[Part II of II.]
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On August 15th, the I. W. W. advertised a mass meeting to be held on Indian Mound. Large posters printed in five different languages were displayed. Eight thousand men attended the meeting—nearly all strikers, and many railroad men and trade unionists and laborers from Pittsburg.
William E. Trautman first addressed the meeting in English and German, after which the men were parcelled off in lots. Nine different nationalities were spoken to—besides these two—and to each man his own tongue.
To Ignatz Klavier, a Polander and member of the Socialist Party who speaks five languages fluently, much credit is due for enlightening the McKees Rocks strikers on the principles of industrial unionism. It was Klavier who, during the second week of the strike, brought out clearly the distinction between the A. F. of L. and the I. W. W. He was ably assisted by Henyey, a Hungarian, and Max Forker, a German.
A wonderful spirit of solidarity was shown by the trainmen of the Pittsburg, Ft. Wayne and Chicago and on the Pittsburg and Lake Erie roads—the only railroads running into McKees Rocks, when the trainmen refused to haul scabs to the plant. This is the first time in the history of labor troubles in the United States that this has been done. This was another example of the tactics of industrial unionism directly due to I. W. W. propaganda and education. Not only did the railroad men lend their aid to the strikers but the crews on the two company steamers, “The Queen” and “The Pheil,” refused to haul the scabs. This also is due to the work of the Unknown Committee and the great wonderful spirit of solidarity that is spontaneously stirring the wage slaves of the world. Even the school children of “Hunkeytown” refused to attend school until the strike was settled.
In this connection, it is interesting to learn that ten of the sixty strikers who hired as strike breakers, went into the plant and later escorted the 250 scabs out, on August 27, presented cards showing they were members of socialist parties. It also developed that all ten had military training.
In Butler.
The situation in Butler is much the same as it was last month. A Polish priest there urged the men to go back to work, and they did. This is not, however, the cause of the abrupt ending of the strike. This was due to the misunderstandings among the men of different nationalities and because there was nobody on the ground who understood industrial unionism, and who could bring them to a mutual understanding. Now the men are back at work, while the sixty most active rebels have been victimized. But they are rapidly being organized and will doubtless come out again within a few months.
The conditions at Butler are as intolerable as they were at McKees Rocks. One big difference is that in Butler there are no large capitalist political papers with axes to grind. It has developed since the men returned to work, that when the Cossacks charged the town, three of the strikers were stripped, tied to posts and beaten into in sensibility. Affidavits are being secured to prove this. The lives of the workers in the shops and in their shanties are just as miserable too as were those of the slaves of “The Slaughter House.”
At New Castle.
In New Castle the situation is almost unchanged. Practically no old men have gone back to work. On August 23rd, when the strikers marched down to their pickets’ tents near the mill to have this photograph taken, they were charged by the Cossacks and clubbed right and left. Several of the men were badly hurt although the 300 strikers were as peaceful as a funeral procession. Not one man in the crowd carried a gun. But the trouble at McKees Rocks demanded troopers, so the Cossacks have left New Castle.
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The exposure of the county sheriff on the part of the Free Press (the official paper of the Lawrence County socialists) did more than anything else to chase the Cossacks out of town. But the strike is not over yet in New Castle. The men are becoming restless and dissatisfied with the actions of the Amalgamated leaders. They say there is not enough life in the fight there, and they want the independent union mills called out.
Railroad men in and around New Castle are kicking against hauling scabs into the city, but the officials of their organizations refuse to allow them to do anything. However, at a meeting of the local Amalgamated Association September 4th, a request was sent to President McArdle of the Amalgamated men to use his power to urge the head of the railroad men to listen to the appeal of the local railroad men in New Castle.
At South Sharon, Struthers and Martins Ferry the strikers in the tin industry are still holding out and the spirit of solidarity is growing stronger. Only the shell of the old organization stands in the way. The Wheeling Majority, a trades assembly paper, has come out for Industrial Unionism with a ringing editorial “For One Union.” Its news columns are full of good stuff.
In South Sharon a joint delegation from the Amalgamated and Protective Association has declared for industrial unionism. A manifesto has been issued from that place calling for a district convention for the purpose of going over into the I. W. W.
The most remarkable thing about these Pennsylvania strikes is the spirit of solidarity among the men. The workers are not concerned about the name of the organization. They are after the real thing and they know the A. F. of L. hasn’t got it to give. The writer predicts that within a few months, several big mills and mines in this part of the country will be out on strike and in open revolt against the master class. The winning of the McKees Rocks strike will be the spark. If our socialist press only had the insight and courage of conviction to point out where the revolutionary and constructive movement of the workers is when this uprising takes place!
In several places among the steel men and the coal miners of Western Pennsylvania locals of the I, W. W. have been organized and the membership is rapidly increasing. In New Castle’ an I. W. W. relief station has been established and is conducted by girls who worked in the tin mills, under the supervision of Charles McKeever, who is district organizer of the I. W. W. and secretary of the Local Lawrence County Socialist Party.
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Several concrete lessons are to be learned from the McKees Rocks strike:
First, there is the fact that it is not necessary to organize a large percentage of the workers into a revolutionary industrial union in order to handle the Social Revolution. The writer believes that 10 per cent, of the workers organized in that form of an organization will be able to handle the situation. For instance, if the mining industry, especially the coal miners, and part of the transportation were industrially organized along revolutionary lines imagine what could be done! Why the supply of raw materials could be cut off and industry paralyzed at once.
During these Pennsylvania strikes we have had a sample of the possibilities along this line. In McKees Rocks with no organization and a confusion of tongues we see a big organization spring up and a strike won against the largest corporation in the United States. Not only that, but we find railroad men and steamship crews refusing to carry scabs. The rank and file of the working class is revolutionary enough to bring about a social revolution next week. What is necessary is the machine through which this revolutionary energy can manifest itself in unison. The leaders of the old time unions are as yet in most instances in the saddle, but they are being pushed aside and ignored by the revolutionary spirit and activity of the workers who will not be hoodwinked much longer.
In the second place we learn that it is not necessary to upset a man’s religious belief first before making a revolutionist out of him. In McKees Rocks and Butler we see this finely demonstrated. When the strike began foreign priests interfered. They knew very little about the labor movement, though they did know the revolutionary difference between the A. F. of L. and the I. W. W. In Butler, however, when the men were being organized a priest threw up his hands. He interfered with one of the largest meetings that was held there, and told his parishioners that the I. W. W. was a socialist organization and that they should join the A. F. of L. At any rate, a large percentage of his membership has left the church and, it is said, they are leaving him and his religion in such numbers that he will have to disband and hunt another parish or go into the car shops and work beside the men he tried to betray. In McKees Rocks, also, the faith in priests is waning rapidly. The poor workers say it’s bread, not heaven, that they need just now.
Lastly, the most important thing demonstrated in these strikes is the fact that the political power of the working class is wrapped up in the economic organization, also that the revolutionary movement of the workers is on the industrial field. In McKees Rocks we have seen how a group of striking foreigners, because they stood firm, compelled the government to investigate conditions there. Why doesn’t the government look into the conditions prevailing at other places, such as Butler, where they are just as bad as they are at McKees Rocks! It was because there was no economic organization carrying on the fight at that place. Without economic organization the workers are helpless and their groans are unheeded by the master class, but once they assert their solidarity in the shops the entire governmental machinery may be brought under their control.
It is in the shop and in the mill and in the mine that the power of the workers lies and it is there it must be organized. Instinctively the worker, who has been brought under the modern machine process, realizes that. He lives and moves and has his being in the shop, not in the legislative halls. He wants direct action and there is the only place he can get it. Moreover, it is there where the foundation of the new society must be laid. The revolutionary and constructive movement of the workers is in the industrial union. All other movements, including the political, have been but theoretical or laboratory tests, all right as a passing stage, but something that must give way to the real, constructive movement.
The workers of the world, I believe, may well turn their eyes to America as the opening scene of the last struggle with the master class. All signs indicate that the great worldwide movement of the world’s toilers will find its origin on American soil. The industrial process is more highly developed here than in any other country. Because of the fact that our capitalist class has accumulated its wealth so rapidly that it still retains its middle class attitude of mind, it is more despotic, more brutal and more intolerant, and with all, more ignorant than the master class of Europe. Then the progressive and revolutionary blood of Europe has been driven to this country and we are not hampered with the clannish traditions of the lands across the Atlantic.
Besides, the working class, once aroused, in this country will want direct action. Not only that but a large percentage of the workers here have no vote, any way. The principal reason why the workers of this country will not look to the political state for the redress of their wrongs is that the state is not their direct enemy as is the case in Europe, where the industrial life of those countries is more or less directly controlled by the political state of the masters there. Great things, indeed, may be expected from the working class of this country in the near future.
[Emphasis and paragraph breaks added.]
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SOURCES & IMAGES
Quote EVD to McKees Rocks Strikers, Aug 25,
-Butler PA Ctzn p1, Aug 26, 1909
https://www.newspapers.com/image/346605697/
The International Socialist Review, Volume 10
(Chicago, Illinois)
-July 1909-June 1910
C. H. Kerr & Company,
https://books.google.com/books?id=MVhIAAAAYAAJ
ISR: Oct 1909
“Victory at McKees Rocks” by Louis Duchez
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=MVhIAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.PA289
Continued-
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=MVhIAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.PA295
See also:
Tag: McKees Rocks Pressed Steel Car Strike of 1909
https://weneverforget.org/tag/mckees-rocks-pressed-steel-car-strike-of-1909/
William E Trautmann
https://reuther.wayne.edu/node/2893
Tag: Albert Henyey
https://weneverforget.org/tag/albert-henyey/
Note: for more on the “Slaughter House”, see:
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette of October 10, 2019
“Pressed Steel Car Strike in McKees Rocks Reaches Centennial Anniversary” by Marylynne Pitz (sadly not sourced, but I have no dispute with information given)
https://www.post-gazette.com/business/businessnews/2009/08/16/Pressed-Steel-Car-strike-in-McKees-Rocks-reaches-centennial-anniversary/stories/200908160200
Note: re Ignatz Klavier, article states:
Strikers maintained their resolve by gathering daily on a long, narrow ridge overlooking the plant. Organizers translated leaders’ speeches into a dozen tongues; Ignatz Klavier of Poland, a member of the unknown committee, spoke five languages.
The Amalgamated association of iron, steel and tin workers: a study in trade unionism
by Robinson, Jesse Squibb, 1889-
Baltimore, MD, 1917
(search: mcardle)
https://archive.org/details/amalgamatedassoc00robi/page/n5
Peter J McArdle
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_J._McArdle
Wheeling Majority
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86092530/
Tag: Charles McKeever
https://weneverforget.org/tag/charles-mckeever/
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The Ghost of Tom Joad – Bruce Springsteen and Tom Morello