It should be encouraging for workingmen
to see women enter their ranks and,
shoulder to shoulder, fight for economic freedom.
-Sophie Beldner Vasilio
Hellraisers Journal, Monday April 27, 1908
A Letter from a San Francisco Woman to the I. U. B.
Women in the I. W. W.
To the Editor of THE BULLETIN:
1. Is a married women of the working class a chattel slave or a wage slave?
2. Has she the right to belong to a mixed local of the I. W. W.?
I ask these questions because objection has been raised by some member of the Denver local to the effect that a married woman, a housekeeper, has no right to belong to a workingmen’s organization.
I wish to be made clear as to the attitude of the general organization on this matter.
As far as I know, the purpose of a mixed local is to educate and organize branches of different industries when there are enough members to form a local. Does a woman, that keeps house for her husband, interfere with the progress of the organization by being a member of a mixed local?
Some assert that we have no grievance against the capitalist class, therefore we have no place in the union. Our grievance is against our husbands, if we are dissatisfied with our condition.
I believe the married woman of the working class is no parasite nor exploiter. She is a social producer. In order to sustain herself, she has to sell her labor power, either in the factory, directly to the capitalist, or at home, indirectly, by serving the wage slave, her husband, thus keeping him in working condition through cooking, washing and general housekeeping.
Her being a mother and a housekeepers are two different functions. One is her maternal, and the other is her industrial function in society. And as an industrial factor in society. I believe the wage slave’s wife has got a right to belong to a mixed local. I think it should be encouraging for workingmen to see women enter their ranks and, shoulder to shoulder, fight for economic freedom.
Civilization denied us the right of expressing our political opinion at the ballot box; will the economic organization, the I. W. W., our only hope, exclude us, and deny us the right to record our discontent against the capitalist system?
Will the Editor please answer in THE BULLETIN?
Yours for the emancipation of the working class,
SOPHIE VASILIO.
San Francisco, Cal.[Photograph added.]
—–
[Note.-No reason is apparent why a woman, married and wishing to aid in the propaganda work, should not be admitted to a mixed local; but no provision is made for such a person when the mixed local ends its activities and the members take their places in industrial unions. It is a matter to which the next convention will give attention.-Ed. I. U. B.]
———-
Note: A. S. Edwards is the editor of The Bulletin, this issue being his last as editor due to failing health, see “A Parting Word” in this same issue.
SOURCE
The Industrial Union Bulletin
(Chicago, Illinois)
-Apr 25, 1908
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/industrialworker/iub/v2n09-apr-25-1908-iub.pdf
IMAGE
IWW Gen Adm Emblem, IUB, Mar 14, 1908
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/industrialworker/iub/v2n03-mar-14-1908-iub.pdf
See also:
Celebrating A Rich Tradition Of Women In The IWW:
They Weren’t Kept At The Back, So They Went To The Front
Submitted on Tue, 03/08/2011 – 9:59am
-By Autumn Gonzalez, Nicholas DeFilippis and Donal Fallon
This story originally appeared in the Industrial Worker – Issue #1733, March 2011.
https://www.iww.org/node/5372