The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-04-03


TINE Alberta miners, betrayed by
4 the Lewis machine, their wages
reduced, working conditions worsened,
spurned and repudiated by the bureau
cracy, turned for aid to a greater foe,
the generation old idea of dual union
ism, which has been more responsible
than any other one thing within the
labor movement for it's backward con-
dition in this country today.
THE miners, misled and betrayed,
must face this question squarely and
examine the dual movements of the
past Immediately before this poison
Gus reptile does any more harm than
it has already done.
Well Meant, But an Error.
TN 1905 socialists, anarchists, social
4 list laborites, industrialists and pro-
gressives, amidst blare of trumpets,
gave birth to the union that was to
supplant the entire trade union struc-
kure and to realign the labor move
ment on new revolutionary basis
the l. w. w.
This organization, supported by and
composed of the most militant mem
bers of the working class at its birth,
lived, prospered and gained in mem
bership for time, but today has de-
clined to about $4,000 members. Its
strength and influence is practically
gone and is a negligible factor as an
Organization Of the masses of labor
| oday.
1.-THE rank and file had fought, suf-
f3red and sacrificed too much to build
up their old unions to turn them aside
for the new, and the same is true of
all the other dual unions formed.
The Collapse of the w. r. Of M.
TN 1905 the Western Federation of
Miners joined with the /. w. w.
and remained with them for two years
and then withdrew. The most militant
fighters bitterly opposed the with
drawal, and stayed with the l. w. w.
such fighters as Haywood and St
John with score of others.
Because the Western Federation of
Miners refused to stay the the l. w.
w. the dualists set out to destroy it,
hoping to get its membership in this
manner, and finally reduced it to such
q state that when the capitalist forces
made their onslaught they completely
wrecked the union. Not even the name
of that splendid industrial union is
left today, and nothing was left in its
place of any power or number.
at is well, tho, that we state, had
the officials of the Western Federation
of Miners met the onslaught of the
capitalists with solid front instead
of allowing piece-meal destruction of
a district at a time, the organization
navy still have been to the fore.
'Or had the militant fighters given
to the miners union the loyalty and
energy that they gave to their new
union, the l. w. W., and stayed within
the federation, the miners union
would still be the pride of the Amer
lean labor movement that it was in
days gone by.
Canadian o. 3. U.
THE great movement in Canada in
l. 1918, known as the Canadian One
Pig Union, is another classical exam
pie of dual unionism. This organiza-
ton steadily grew to 10000 member
ship and today has declined to about
1000.
The new union got nowhere, and
the old ones were weakened and split
by the loss Of many thousands of their
most militant members. Not only that
but the rising minority opposition that
was crystallizing in the old unions
was wrecked, and the control passed
Exclusively into the hands of the reac-
tionaries.
Transport Unions Ruined.
MANY other dual union and seces-
4f1 sion movements could be men.