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Hellraisers Journal – Thursday May 18, 1911
“The General Strike” -from Speech by Big Bill Haywood, Part II
From the International Socialist Review of May 1911:
[Part II of II]
And in Wales it was my good fortune to be there, not to theorize but to take part in the general strike among the coal miners. Previous to my coming, or in previous strikes, the Welsh miners had been in the habit of quitting work, carrying out their tools, permitting the mine managers to run the pumps, allowing the engine winders to remain at work, carrying food down to the horses, keeping the mines in good shape, while the miners themselves were marching from place to place singing their oldtime songs, gathering on the meeting grounds of the ancient Druids and listening to the speeches of the labor leaders; starving for weeks contentedly, and on all occasions acting most peaceably; going back to work when they were compelled to by starvation.
But this last strike was an entirely different one. It was like the shoemakers’ strike in Brooklyn. Some new methods had been injected into the strike. I had spoken there on a number of occasions previous to the strike being inaugurated, and I told them of the methods that we adopted in the west, where every man employed in and around the mine belongs to the same organization; where when we went on strike the mine closed down. They thought that that was a very excellent system. So the strike was declared. They at once notified the engine winders, who had a separate contract with the mine owners, that they would not be allowed to work. The engine winders passed a resolution saying that they would not work. The haulers took the same position. No one was allowed to approach the mines to run the machinery.
Well, the mine manager, like mine managers everywhere, taking unto himself the idea that the mines belonged to him, said, “Certainly the men won’t interfere with us. We will go up and run the machinery.” And they took along the office force. But the miners had a different notion and they said, “You can work in the office, but you can’t run this machinery. That isn’t your work. If you run that you will be scabbing; and we don’t permit you to scab-not in this section of the country, now.” They were compelled to go back to the office. There were 325 horses underground, which the manager, Llewellyn, complained about being in a starving condition. The officials of the union said, “We will hoist the horses out of the mine.” “Oh, no, we don’t want to bring them up. We will all be friends in a few days.”
“You will either bring up the horses now or you will let them stay there.”
He said, “No, we won’t bring them up now.”
The pumps were closed down on the Cambria mine; 12,000 miners were there to see that they didn’t open. Llewellyn started a hue and cry that the horses would be drowned, and the king sent the police, sent the soldiers and sent a message to Llewellyn asking if the horses were still safe. He didn’t say anything about his subjects, the men. Guarded by soldiers a few scabs assisted by the office force were able to run the pumps. Llewellyn himself and his bookkeeping force went down and fed the horses.
Had there been an industrial organization comprising the railroaders and every other branch of industry, the mines of Wales would be closed down today.
We found the same condition throughout the west. We [Western Federation of Miners and its precursors] never had any trouble about closing the mines down. We could keep them closed down for an indefinite period. It was always the craft unions that caused us to lose our fights when we did lose.
I recall the first general strike in the Coeur d’Alenes, when all the mines in that district were closed down to prevent a reduction of wages. The mine owners brought in thugs the first thing. They attempted to man the mines with men carrying sixshooters and rifles. There was a pitched battle between miners and thugs. A few were killed on each side. And then the mine owners asked for the soldiers, and the soldiers came. Who brought the soldiers? Railroads manned by union men; engines fired with coal mined by union men. That is the division of labor that might have lost us the strike in the Coeur d’Alenes.
It didn’t lose it, however. We were successful in that issue. But in Leadville we lost the strike there because they were able to bring in scab labor from other communities where they had the force of the government behind them, and the force of the troops.
In 1899 we were compelled to fight the battle over in a great general strike in the Coeur d’Alenes again. Then came the general strike in Cripple Creek, the strike that has become a household word in labor circles throughout the world. In Cripple Creek 5,000 men were on strike in sympathy with 45 men belonging to the millmen’s union in Colorado City, 45 men who had been discharged simply because they were trying to improve their standard of living.
By using the state troops and the influence of the federal government they were able to man the mills in Colorado City with scab millmen: and after months of hardship, after 1,600 of our men had been arrested and placed in the Victor Armory in one single room that they called the “bullpen.” after 400 of them had been loaded aboard special trains guarded by soldiers. shipped away from their homes, dumped out on the prairies down in New Mexico and Kansas; after the women who had taken up the work of distributing strike relief had been placed under arrest-we find then that they were able to man the mine with scabs, the mills running with scabs, the railroads conveying the ore from Cripple Creek to Colorado City run by union men-the connecting link of a proposition that was scabby at both ends! We were not thoroughly organized. There has been no time when there has been a general strike in this country.
There are three phases of a general strike. They are:
A general strike in an industry.
A general strike in a community, or
A general national strike.The conditions for any of the three have never existed. So how anyone can take the position that a general strike would not be effective and not be a good thing for the working class is more than I can understand. We know that the capitalist uses the general strike to good advantage. Here is the position that we find the working class and the capitalists in: The capitalists have wealth; they have money. They invest the money in machinery, in the resources of the earth. They operate a factory, a mine, a railroad, a mill. They will keep that factory running just as long as there are profits coming in. When anything happens to disturb the profits, what do the capitalists do? They go on strike, don’t they? They withdraw their finances from that particular mill. They close it down because there are no profits to be made there. They don’t care what becomes of the working class. But the working class, on the other hand, has always been taught to take care of the capitalist’s interest in the property. You don’t look after your own interest, your labor power, for without a certain amount of provision you can’t reproduce your labor power. You are always looking after the interest of the capitalist. While a general strike would ignore the capitalist’s interest and would strengthen yours.
That is what I want to urge upon the working class: to become so organized on the economic field that they can take and hold the industries in which they are employed. Can you conceive of such a thing? Is it possible? What are the forces that prevent you from doing so? You have all the industries in your own hands at the present time.
There is this justification for political action, and that is, to control the forces of the capitalists that they use against us; to be in, a position to control the power of government so as to make the work of the army ineffective, so as to totally abolish the secret service and the force of detectives. That is the reason that you want the power of government. That is the reason that you should fully understand the power of the ballot.
Now, there isn’t anyone, Socialist, S. L. P., Industrial Worker or any other workingman or woman, no matter what society you belong to, but what believes in the ballot. There are those-and I am one of them-who refuse to have the ballot interpreted for them. I know or think I know the power of it, and I know that the industrial organization, as I stated in the beginning, is its broadest interpretation. I know, too, that when the workers are brought together in a great organization they are not going to cease to vote. That is when the workers will begin to vote, to vote for directors to operate the industries in which they are all employed.
So the general strike is a fighting weapon as well as a constructive force. It can be used, and should be used, equally as forcefully by the Socialist as by the Industrial Worker. The Socialists believe in the general strike. They also believe in the organization of industrial forces after the general strike is successful. So, on this great force of the working class I believe we can agree that we should unite into one great organization-big enough to take in the children that are now working; big enough to take in the black man, the white man, big enough to take in all nationalities; an organization that will be strong enough to obliterate state boundaries, to obliterate national boundaries, and one that will become the great industrial force of the working class of the world. (Applause)
The A. F. of L. couldn’t have a general strike it they wanted to. They are not organized for a general strike. They have 27,000 different agreements that expire 27,000 different minutes of the year. They will either have to break all of those sacred contracts or there is no such thing as a general strike in that so-called “labor organization.” I said “so-called.” I say so advisedly. It is not a labor organization, it is simply a combination of job trusts. We are going to have a labor organization in this country. And I assure you, if you could attend the meetings we have had in Philadelphia, in Bridgeport last night, in Haverhill and in Harrison, throughout the country, you would agree that industrialism is coming. There isn’t anything can stop it.
[Photograph and emphasis added.]
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SOURCE
The International Socialist Review, Volume 11
(Chicago, Illinois)
July 1910-June 1911
https://books.google.com/books?id=8-05AQAAMAAJ
ISR-May 1911
-page 680: General Strike by BBH, Part I
-page 682: Part II
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/isr/v11n11-may-1911-ISR-gog-Corn-OCR.pdf
IMAGE
BBH, ISR p68, Aug 1910
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=8-05AQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.PA68
See also:
From the International Socialist Review of May 1911:
“The General Strike” -from Speech by Big Bill Haywood, Part I
Tonypandy Riots
-re South Wales Miners Strike of 1910-11
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonypandy_riots
Coeur d’Alene Miners’ Disputes (pre-WFM & WFM)
-of 1892 and 1899
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coeur_d%27Alene_miners%27_dispute
Cripple Creek Miners’ Strike of 1894 (WFM)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cripple_Creek_miners%27_strike_of_1894
Colorado Labor Wars (WFM)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_Labor_Wars
From ISR of May 1911:
-pages 704 & 705: re BBH tours w photos
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/isr/v11n11-may-1911-ISR-gog-Corn-OCR.pdf
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Workers of the World Awaken
Lyrics by Joe Hill
If the workers take a notion,
They can stop all speeding trains;
Every ship upon the ocean
They can tie with mighty chains.
Every wheel in the creation,
Every mine and every mill,
Fleets and armies of the nation,
Will at their command stand still.