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Hellraisers Journal – Monday September 1, 1902
Comrade Eugene Debs on Class Consciousness and the Ballot
From the Duluth Labor World of August 30, 1902:
GENE DEBS DEFINES LABOR LEADERS DUTY
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The time is near at hand when a member of a union will be expelled just as promptly for casting a scab ballot, that is to say for supporting the party of the enemy of labor, as if he took the place of a member while out on strike. Indeed, there may be some justification for the latter, but there can be none for the former act of treason, except alone that of ignorance. And thus it is the duty of the true leader to use his best efforts to overcome, so that the workers on all occasions, economically, politically, and otherwise, can use their entire organized class power in resisting the capitalist system, and in charging it at every point until finally it is overcome and the world’s workers stand forth free men.
The action taken by the three national conventions of labor organizations recently held at Denver [W. F. M., A. L. U. and United Association of Hotel and Restaurant Employes] in adopting a working class political program, has created widespread interest in every part of the country. The reactionary element predict for the new policy speedy and complete failure. So certain are they of this that they do not hesitate to misrepresent the action of the conventions and bear false testimony against those who took part in them. A number of misleading statements have appeared in the papers, and others are quietly circulated to bring the personnel of the conventions into disrepute, and this is engaged in by those who lack the courage to openly charge and face the men who led the movement which culminated in a new departure, which promises to remould the entire labor movement of the country, and bring it up-to-date in all its economic and political equipment.
The two men who led and inspired the conventions were Edward Boyce, president of the Western Federation of Miners, and Daniel McDonald, president of the Western, now the American Labor Union. McDonald was unanimously reelected upon that issue and holds his position by practically the unanimous confidence of the members of his great and growing organization. Edward Boyce retired from official life, honored by every true man and only hated by those who found him staunch and incorruptible, and utterly incapable of being swerved from his duty to his fellowmen. The name of this man will be honorably written in the history of trades unionism, as he has already written it in the deeds of duty that live forever.
I need not, at this time, repeat the terms of the essential change which has taken place in the Western labor movement. It is all summed up in this single statement that it has adopted a working-class political platform and is now equipped for united action in the political field in every contest until the victory is finally won.
It has been charged that Trades Unions, under the new regime, have been converted into a political machine. This is not true. The essential economic features of the movement are as they were before. Indeed, if changed, these have been strengthened, and the national organisation and all local bodies will proceed with their grievances, and matters relating to wages, conditions, etc, as before.
But when it comes to the use of the ballot, the organization is committed to the policy that it is the duty of the union men to vote their class interests as well as to strike for them, and that the man who fails to do this is not in any true sense a union man, nor is he loyal to his fellow-workers.
Objections have been made that the organization now controls a member’s politics, and that it has a good a right to control his religion. This deduction will not hold good. A man’s religion is his own individual affair, and does not concern his fellow man. But this is not true of his politics, for if he uses his vote to fasten a system of industrial slavery upon his fellows, they have a right to object and they are at least justified in interfering to the extent that his action affects their interests.
To have its true power, the labor movement must be class conscious. Until it is so, the Trade Unions will be among the bulwarks of capitalism and wage-slavery. While the members strike against the consequences of the system, they steadily vote to perpetrate the system and some of their leaders encourage them to adhere to, and depart from, the ancient methods, which, applied to present conditions are marked with increasing impotency and are necessarily resulting in disappointment and failure.
EUGENE V. DEBS.
[Emphasis added.]
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SOURCES & IMAGES
Quote EVD, Socialist & Trade Unionist, WLUC p45, May 31, 1902
https://archive.org/details/02OfficialReport5thConvALU/page/n44/mode/2up
The Labor World
(Duluth, Minnesota)
-Aug 30, 1902
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn78000395/1902-08-30/ed-1/seq-1/
See also:
Hellraisers Journal – Friday June 6, 1902
Denver, Colorado – W. L. U. and W. F. of M. Hold Conventions at Odd Fellows Hall
Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday June 11, 1902
Denver, Colorado – W. F. of M. and A. L. U. Conventions Favor Socialism
Aug 22, 1902-Butte Labor World, page 1
“American Labor Union’s Great Strides Forward”
https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=eGJUmgNLeWAC&dat=19020822&printsec=frontpage&hl=en
Aug 29, 1902-Butte Labor World, page 1
“Independent Political Action is Recommended”
-Convention of Montana Trades and Labor Council
Concurs with Denver Conventions of WFM and ALU
https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=eGJUmgNLeWAC&dat=19020829&printsec=frontpage&hl=en
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There Is Power in a Union ·- Street Dogs
Lyrics by Billy Bragg