STRIKE STRATEGY
among the workers is a tendency of the leaders, including left wingers, to fail to realize the importance of quick action in order to swing the masses into a general offensive against the employers. The workers must be definitely committed to the active struggle in this first flush of revolt and solidarity by bringing them out on strike.
Once on strike they will fight loyally. But if they are not mobilized immediately and led into the struggle they grow cold. Their desire for action evaporates. They finally refuse to strike. Time and again in great upheavals amongst the unorganized in a given industry the left wing leaders (and of course the reactionaries) have failed to take advantage of it by organizing these masses into the first shattering offensive against the employers. Consequently their strikes have paid for it in their later stages.
3—The Element of Surprise.
A strike strategy based on the theory of the offensive often gives the workers the advantage of the element of surprise. Military strategists are keenly aware of the value of surprising their enemies. They are constantly seeking to catch them napping, and to deliver attacks against them when they are unprepared. Strike strategists must bear the same principle in mind, for the class struggle offers many opportunities to the workers to strike unexpected blows against the employers. For example, the rapid extension of a strike along the lines above indicated often produces social conflagrations entirely unlooked for by the employers.
A good illustration of how the employers can be taken by surprise was seen in the campaign to organize the steel workers in 1918–19. From long experience Gary had gained a justified contempt for the organizing ability of the A. F. of L. leaders so far as the steel industry was concerned. Hence, when another campaign was announced in 1918 he
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