THE ONE BIG UNION MONTHLY
Yes, we have, but as a matter of fact, the One Big Union is as yet little more than a “glittering generality” to an insignificant number of workers.
Here in this country there are close to forty million people in “gainful occupations.” Of these we have taken in about 50,000 new members in the I. W. W. from Sept. 1, 1918, to Sept. 1, 1919. How long would it take to organize the forty millions or to teach them Industrial Unionism at this rate?
What means have we of reaching these millions and teaching them? Is there not every probability that the guiding hand of the capitalist master will become paralyzed and drop the reins and allow society to run away and go to smash long before we become strong enough to take up the reins?
It is imperative that we quickly devise some means of reaching the mass of workers, placing the means in their hands to maintain social order and continue production when capitalism goes helplessly on the rocks. If we would save ourselves and survive, we have to save the whole working class.
You may say we are doing the best we can; we are preaching Industrial Organization by word of mouth, through a score of I. W. W. papers and magazines and dozens of books and pamphlets.
The writer maintains that we are not doing the best we can. We could do much more, and we must do it. Practically everything we say and write is along general lines, very little of anything along special lines. We have formulated the theory of Industrial Unionism, but we have only to a limited extent carried it out in practice. Very often workers from various industries come to our general headquarters telling us that there is a strong sentiment for One Big Union in their industry and that the workers would like to have further information on the subject. We may be able to furnish a speaker, or we may not. He may understand the industry, or he may not. We show the inquirer our booklets and our papers, but we must with embarrassment admit to ourselves that there is little in them that would serve as a practical guide for the workers in fitting themselves to take over and run their industry. Time and again the writer has felt the absolute and urgent necessity of carrying our theory more into practical detail if we want to educate ourselves and our Fellow Workers into taking over and running the industries. This urgent necessity could in our opinion best be met by publishing special Industrial Union Handbooks for each industry.
The I. W. W. has now under preparation an “I. W. W. Handbook” which will probably be out by the first of the year. This handbook will fill a long felt need. It will be written in the simplest possible language and serve as an ABC book for the worker. It will introduce him to the labor movement, giving him a survey of the whole field and show him in a general way that industrial organization is the only way of saying society and civilization. So far, so good. But there this general handbook must stop. It cannot go into practical details for each industry, for it would then have to grow from a handbook into an industrial encyclopedia covering many bookshelves.
It is such an industrial encyclopedia that the I. W. W. now needs and must have, an encyclopedia consisting of several hundreds of handbooks, each one covering a separate industry.
By issuing such a series of handbooks we would be able to say to the workers of every industry: “Come to us for information. We are able to tell you how to organize your industry so that you will be able to take it over and weather the coming storm.”
To begin with we should elaborate and publish handbooks for the basic industries, for agriculture, forestry, coal mining, metal mining, the foodstuffs, the shoe and clothing industry, general construction industry, and all branches of public service, continuing with handbooks for, for instance, the steel industry, the auto industry, the electrical industry, transportation, and so on to the end of the line.
These handbooks should not, of course, contain such information as is given in industrial and technical schools to any great extent. There are already technical handbooks for that purpose.
What our Industrial Union handbooks should contain would be along this line:
1st. An introduction referring to the above-mentioned I. W. W. Handbook and giving a general review of our plan of economic reconstruction of society, pointing out the necessity of industrial organization for the taking over of production. This introduction could be nearly the same in all handbooks.
2nd. A general description of the particular industry in question, a drawing of its technical boundary lines and a survey of the closely related industries by means of which it connects with general production.
3rd. A geographical and statistical survey of the industry with tables, giving number, name, location of plants, number employed, quantity and quality of output.
4th. Present state of ownership and management, giving list of owners, principal stockholders and managers. 5th. A study of raw materials, quality and quantity, and where and how they are obtained.
6th. Disposition of the product, quantity and quality needed, best manner of distribution, where plants should be logically located.
7th. Present state of organization of the workers in that industry as well as in the country in general showing danger of lack of organization, futility of craft organization and necessity of industrial organization.
8th. Giving complete description of Industrial Union needed in the industry, its branches, districts and councils, stating where they ought to be located and how they ought to function.
