And no one can convince them that there is anything else left to do but strike. Workers as a rule do not take politics very seriously unless they are paid to vote, which is often the case, or unless they are intimidated and herded to the polls by racketeering ward-heelers in the interests of a corrupt political machine. But they do take striking seriously. And when it becomes plain to the workers that they can put an end to the interminable misery and uncertainty of capitalism by means of a big strike just as easily as they defeated a wage-cut with a small one they will strike with the same vigor and the same determination. And this is the very type of mind which the advanced development of capitalism is forcing upon them.
Strikes have a way of becoming bigger with each passing year.
The workers' very association with productive industry suggests and controls the methods they must use in industrial struggle. Like their employers they are forced by their surroundings to think in terms of direct action. The strike grows in power and scope. The strike is Labor's natural weapon and the centralization of control in industry makes the prospect of a General Strike more than a mere possibility.