Wheeling majority. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1907-192?, 1912-04-11
TX. The Los Angeles Plan.

enacted in the Labor Movement took
place in Los Angeles 1t the last cleo.
ton. 1t was magnificent battle, with
Labor united against all the forces
of Capital The imprisonment Of the
McNamaras added to the excitement,
and Socialists and Trade Union men
throughout the world waited with
baited breath the outcome of the
electoral struggle.
Workingmen, no matter what their
religious belief. stood. with hardly a
dissenting voice, behind the fight of
the Socialist Panty OF Los Angeles.
And when the news Of the Mcnamara
confession was flashed over the
wires, it was literally heart-breaking.
a magazine writer in Los Angeles
tells of being in d street car when
he heard The news, and he says that
the men wept. Am over the country
that day men Of Labor wept.
It seems strange that after all the
unfortunate bitterness, dissension,
elimination and recrimination chat
has existed for SO many years be-
tween Socialists and Trade Unionists,
all the past was forgotten in the
hour of that great battle. Yet that
is exactly what has happened in every
part of the world when Labor formed
it's lines of battle. In minor skirm-
ishes, in the sultry days about the
camp fires, we may quarrel over diff
ferences OF methods. Of progress, of
ends, but when the fight is on, the
class struggle brings Workingmen
shoulder to shoulder. Almost in a
moment the differences of the past
are swept aside. We don't ask them:
Are you a Socialist? Are you a I'm
ionist? Do you believe in Economic
Determinism? We ask: Are you fol
us or against us? Do yon fight with
US, or scab?
And it makes little difference
whether 1t is a great strike or a
great political battle-the workers
know their own. Meyer, Haywood
and Pettibone were Socialists, but
the American Federation of Labor
stood with them. The McNamaras
were Democrats, yet the Socialists
stood with them. The working class
is a bigger thing than any dognlas,
and when it is drawn into battle, men
rise above their differences and be
come class7conscious They know
where they belong, and they fight for
their own.
We may speculate as we please con-
cerning the relations which should
exist between the Trades Unions and
the Socialist Party, but all our rules
will be of little value in guiding the
action Of Labor. We may discuss di-
rect action verus political action, but
the actual Movement villa pay little
atteneion to our wise philosophers.
When Labor has once enlisted in
battle it Will use the strike and the
ballot; it will develop every force at
It's command to win the day for the
armies of Labor.
That is what the workers of Los
Angeles are doing. Their strikes and
boycotts have been broken by the.
courts and the police. Pickets have
been imprisoned. The leaders have
been enjoined to defeat the direct &C
.tion Of the Unions. The bosses used
political action. The workers knew
they could play that game, too. and
they retoMed with the same weapon.
They formed the Union Labor Politi-
cal Club to solidify their political
power:
This political lcub had, Of course,
the choice Of two things; one was to-
forma rival party TO the Socialist
Party, which meant to divide the POI
litical forces of Labor. The othe=
was to endorse the Socialist Party,
to Join it in mass, and to use it as
their weapon in their political bastles.
The Union Labor Political Club
might have acted in the political field
as the Socialist Labor aPrty acted on
the industrial field. 1t might have
formed Socialist Labor Party
to fight the Socialist Party. as the
Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance
was formed to fight the non-socialist
Trade Unions Had that been done,
we should have heard nothing of Los
Angeles, and the fight there would
have ended when the various factions
had cut each others throats. But
when the Union Labor Political Club
endorsed the Socialist Party. It took
the stand Of Labor throughout the
world. The Socialist Party was
adopted as the political expression
Of the Labor Movement, and in one
eannaipn the working class vote rose