The Commonwealth. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1911-1914, 1913-01-10
SABOTAGE AND SOCIALISM.
BY Robert Hunter.

by hobert Hunters
Now that William ID. Haywood has
deliberately chosen to violate the SO.
'ialist party laws and to treat appnr.
entity with utter contempt a decision
made not only by a party convention,
but also by party referendum, II
may not be untimely TO review few
pertinent historical facts. Unfortunate
Iy, there are those In the party who
think that the attack ON Haywood and
his friends is purely personal one
Nothing could be farther from the
truth. The sole reason, so far as
know for the present and the past
criticisms of Haywood il due entire
ly to the tactics which he advocates.
IL the attacks are sometimes bitter, 1t
is only because those who make them
know that the tactics which Hay
wood advocates have been destroyed
in the past no less than three great
movements of the working class.
Feargus O'Connor destroyed with
these tactics the Worldngmen' As
ISOLATION that existed In England dur
ing the thirties and forties. Michael
Bakounine destroyed with these tao.
tics the American international
Working Peoples Association of the
seventies and eighties. dragging down
with 1t other socialist and labor or
CARNATIONS. And 1t Is not without
impressive significance that the bit
ter attacks made on O'Connor, OF
Bakounine and on Most were all LAID
to jealously, rivalry and persona
hatred. Yet IL history teaches any
thing, it is this, that the warfare or
these men was solely due to the be
lief that their tactics would bring ruiz
and disaster to the labor movement
And did that not prove to be the case
The Chartist movement in England
was a really magnificent effort tc
build up a working-class political
movement. Its success was SO enor
nous that it gathered on its petitions
names of supporters estimated al
from 100000 to 100000. 1t was
fundamentally a working-class strug'
gle and many of the basic principles
of modern socialism were first intro
duced to the world in the Chartist agi.
tation. Some of Zronterre O'Brien S
work has never been surpassed, while
Ernest Jones did some remarkable
writing. In the work of both we find
many of the present ideas of social
ism. The Workingmen's Association
gave birth to the charter" and it was
mat organization which led the ire.
mendous agitation that aroused ano
terrified all England in the thirties
and forties. Unfortunately, however,
when the movement reached its
height, dissensions broke out among
the leaders and at the Chartist con,
vention of 1889, the members began
to quarrel over physical versus NOR.
al force" The convention declared
finally for 1.-The Sacred Month or
general strike. The convention had
hardly adjourned before the govern
ment sent body of police to Birming-
ham to assault one of the meetings OF
the Chartists. This they did with ex-
IRENE ferocity and arrested DR.. Tay-
Tor, an advocate of the general strike,
and ten others.
Feargus O'Connor, the owner of
"The Northern STAR" began the advo-
cacy of physical force and little by lit
tie he quarreled with and forced out
of the movement one after another OF
the leaders. Riots, general strikes,
and instructions came to be recog-
nized policy of the movement. Secret
arming and drilling commenced in
most of the great Chartist centers and
eventually came the insurrection OF
Frost, Williams and Jones in South
Wales. The plan was to have three
columns of 10000 each of Chartists
who had been savagely treated by the
authorities. Unfortunately, a heavy
rain set in that rendered the noun
tain country almost impossible and
only part of the Chartists were able
to reach Newport. The flint-locked
guns were rendered useless and a
company of soldiers was all that was
needed to suppress the uprising, with
ten Chartists killed and over fifty
wounded. The prosecution of the lead
ers was conducted in a spirit of in
credible vindictiveness and eventually
Frost, Williams, Jones and six others
were condemned to death. Following
this, the leaders were arrested in
every port of England and is estimated
that during the critical years, 1889 and
1910, 433 political captives after this