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Hellraisers Journal – Monday June 3, 1912
Local Boise (S. P. A.) Defends Big Bill Haywood
From the International Socialist Review of June 1912
Approve Haywood.-Just because our Com. Wm. D. Haywood happens to lay some stress on the industrial field, we are told by Local Yuma, Arizona, that he is unfit for the executive committee. We, Local Boise, take exception to this and declare that if Haywood is unfit for the executive committee we had better disband the Socialist party and tell Carl Marx to turn over in his grave, since by such an act we would proclaim to the world that the bona fide workers were not able to be a directing head. Local Yuma, in the desert of Arizona, seems to have a spirit in its ranks. This spirit seems to be able to go thousands of miles to report the words of a man who, maybe, is little to its liking. If Com. Haywood transgressed the holy word, why doesn’t Local New York, in whose territory Com. Haywood is said to have desecrated the Socialist party [Cooper Union Speech of Dec. 21, 1911], we say, why doesn’t New York move to recall Com. Haywood? Perhaps Com. Hillquit and others, who are always in New York, have too much influence there, and as they love Com. Haywood the New York local overlooks whatever Com. Haywood says. We rather think that the gods of our party make the faith in New York, but only the rank and file of Yuma, Arizona, believe it. Comrades, we, Local Boise, have had the good fortune to know Com. Haywood at close quarters. We saw him suffer day by day in the damp jail in this city. We saw him heroically withstand the slaughter of bloodthirsty lawyers and all for our cause. Comrades, we know that Com. Haywood is a true Socialist. His dues are paid in the Socialist party, and above all he never flinches from his duty to the working class, our class. If the referendum proposed by Local Yuma should carry, a smile of pleasure would spread itself over the face of every enemy of Socialism. We, Local Boise, call on all true comrades to snow under the proposed recall and thereby keep Com. Haywood where he was duly elected by a big majority.
MICHELE CIMBALO.
SEWELL H. CHAPMAN,
Local Boise Press Committee.[Note: re Tom Mann, the Review states:]
Tom Mann Sentenced.-Tom Mann, the industrial union labor leader who inspired over a million English miners to strike a few months ago, has been sentenced to serve six months in jail for calling upon the troups during the recent coal strike to refuse to shoot down strikers or their sympathizers. Comrade Mann defended himself and asked no mercy of the court. The charge against him was “inciting to mutiny.”…..
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[Emphasis added.]
Editorials from the Review regarding S. P. A. Convention of 1912:
The Passing of the N. E. C. For years the greatest obstacle to the development of a working class party has been a self perpetuating oligarchy known as the National Executive Committee. They have been elected by a plurality vote of the entire membership of the [Socialist Party of America] on a general ticket, each member voting for seven. The mass of the membership have usually scattered their votes on a multitude of local candidates not known away from home, and it has thus been easy for those in office, by utilizing their opportunities for self-advertising, to obtain the plurality of votes needed to keep them in. The inside machine bitterly resented the action of the membership in electing William D. Haywood as one of their august body, and the recent election of Kate Richards O’Hare as international secretary over Morris Hillquit may have shown them the advisability of retiring through the front door rather than through the window. However that may be, the new constitution places the future control of the party organization in the hands of a National Committee to consist of the state secretaries of all the states together with an additional member from each state for every 3,000 members. This committee is to meet annually and is to select an executive committee of five to act under its direction. We believe that these changes are in the direction of real democratic control of the party. The several state organizations will hereafter increase rapidly in importance, and it is through them that the rank and file will make their wishes felt in all matters of party control.
An Appeal to Stupid Prejudice. Article II, Section 6, of the new constitution submitted to the Socialist party membership by the late convention is a blemish on an otherwise admirable piece of work. It provides:
Any member of the party who opposes political action or advocates sabotage or other method of violence as a weapon of the working class to aid in its emancipation shall be expelled from membership in the party. Political action shall be construed to mean participation in elections for public office and practical legislative and administrative work along the lines of the Socialist party platform.
The words in italic type were added by the would-be leaders in revenge for their signal defeat on the resolution defining the relation of the party to the unions, and the passage of the clause was undoubtedly due to the fact that most of the delegates were wholly unfamiliar with the word “sabotage,” and supposed it to mean the same thing as “crime against the person,” which was the phrase used in the printed report of the constitution committee. As a matter of fact, the ratification of this clause by the membership would have no effect whatever, since no member of the Socialist party is in the habit of advocating sabotage “as a weapon of the working class to aid in its emancipation.” But before we go further, let us define our term. The word is too new for the dictionaries, but it fortunately happens that the Boston Globe, a leading capitalist daily, thought its readers needed enlightenment on this word, and in its editorial columns said (Feb. 23, 1912):
Nor does “sabotage,” from the word meaning shoe or boot, and hence “giving the boot,” necessarily include violence or force. It may mean only the prevention of work, without involving the destruction of property. If, for instance, work in a factory could not be resumed because a striker had locked the door and thrown away the key, that would be a case of “sabotage.” On the other hand, the term is also applied to comparatively mild acts which cause financial loss to employers. But sabotage and violence are not synonymous.
A separate referendum will be taken on this clause of the constitution, and the result of this vote will merely be a rather interesting test of the extent to which the education of the membership has progressed. The phrase “sabotage and other methods of violence” is neither more nor less intelligent than, for example, “overalls and other weapons.” If any party member wishes to go on record as an ignoramus, he can gratify his ambition very readily by voting for the adoption of the clause. Meanwhile our “leaders” will have to answer to their dear friends, Gompers, Mitchell, Tobin and the rest, for the fact that they are giving an immense amount of free advertising to the tactics known as sabotage. These tactics are not “advocated” as a matter of theory; they are not suggested by any one as a weapon for the “emancipation of the working class,” but they are as a matter of fact being practised in a quiet way as a response to the capitalistic tactics of “scientific management.” It is safe to say that this practise will not be diminished by anything the Socialist party may say or do. Our traditional policy in the matter has just been admirably reaffirmed by the convention in these words:
The party has neither the right nor the desire to interfere in any controversies which may exist within the labor union movement over questions of form of organization or technical methods of action in the industrial struggle, but trusts to the labor organizations themselves to solve these questions.
Why not let it go at that, and why make ourselves ridiculous?
[Emphasis added.]
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SOURCES & IMAGES
Quote BBH, IU Socialism w Working Clothes On
NYC Cooper Union Debate w Hillquit, Jan 11, 1912
-Sum of Jan 11 Debate w Hillquit fr NY Call p1, Jan 12
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/the-new-york-call/1912/120112-newyorkcall-v05n012.pdf
-Source for Quote is Jan 14 Sunday Call, Stenographic Report, per:
https://books.google.com/books?id=ili0huEKAk0C&pg=PA389&dq=hillquit+haywood+debate&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjw2s37lI_4AhWVg3IEHdjEAa0Q6AF6BAgEEAI#v=onepage&q=%22hillquit-Haywood%20debate%22&f=false
International Socialist Review
(Chicago, Illinois)
-June 1912, pages 881-2, 874
Note: see pages 808-831 for coverage of SPA Convention of 1912
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/isr/v12n12-jun-1912-ISR-gog-Corn.pdf
See also:
Bill Haywood’s Book
The Autobiography of William D. Haywood
International Publishers, 1929
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015050276461&view=2up&seq=6
Chapter XVI: Article 2, Section 6
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015050276461&view=2up&seq=258
For Haywood’s “Infamous” Speech, see:
Dec 22, 1911, Boston Globe
-Big Bill Haywood at Cooper Union on Dec 11th: Socialism, Hope of Worker
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/103093574/dec-22-1911-boston-globe-big-bill/
Feb 1912, ISR p461 (full speech)
“Socialism the Hope of the Working Class, Speech by William D. Haywood”
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/isr/v12n08-feb-1912-ISR.riaz-ocr.pdf
Tag: SPA Convention 1912
https://weneverforget.org/tag/spa-convention-1912
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Which Side Are You On? – Tom Morello: The Nightwatchman