There Is Power in a Union: Chronicling the Second American Revolution


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There Is Power in a Union
Written by Joe Hill

Would you have freedom from wage slavery?
Then join in the grand Industrial band
Would you from mis’ry and hunger be free
Then come, do your share, like a man

(Chorus)
There is power, there is power
In a band of workingmen,
When they stand hand in hand
That’s a power, that’s a power
That must rule in every land,
One Industrial Union Grand

Would you have mansions of gold in the sky
and live in a shack, way in the back?
Would you have wings up in heaven to fly
And starve here with rags on your back?

(Chorus)


If you’ve had enough of the “blood of the lamb”
Then join in the grand industrial band
If, for a change, you would have eggs and ham
Then come, do your share, like a man


(Chorus)

If you like sluggers to beat off your head
Then don’t organize, all unions despise.
If you want nothing before you are dead
Shake hands with your boss and look Wise


(Chorus)

Come, all ye workers, from every land,
Come, join in the grand industrial band
Then we our share of this earth shall demand.
Come on! Do your share, like a man.

(Chorus)

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Book I - Kindling the Fire

Introduction: The Continental Congress of the Working Class
At 10 AM sharp on Friday, June 27th, 1905 at Brand’s Hall in Chicago, William Dudley “Bill” Haywood gaveled the Founding Convention of the Industrial Workers of the World to order with a board of wood. The hefty thirty-six-year-old mine leader boomed out an opening speech to his audience, comprised of two-hundred and three delegates representing radicals from across the nation:

“In calling this convention to order I do so with a sense of the responsibility that rests upon me and rests upon every delegate that is here assembled. This is the Continental Congress of the working class. We are here to confederate the workers of this country into a working class movement that shall have for its purpose the emancipation of the working class from the slave bondage of capitalism. There is no organization, or there seems to be no labor organization, that has for its purpose the same object as that for which you are called together to-day. The aims and objects of this organization should be to put the working class in possession of the economic power, the means of life, in control of the machinery of production and distribution, without regard to capitalist masters.”
The delegates met his speech with thunderous applause and raucous cheers. These delegates came from forty-three organizations and collectively represented some 142,930 workers. However, at the time of the convention only twenty-three of these organizations, representing 51,430 workers, came with orders to install them as members of the industrial union. The other twenty organizations, representing 91,500 workers between them, possessed no such orders to affiliate with the I.W.W. Among those organizations planning to affiliate 48,000 workers were represented by five unions: the Western Federation of Miners, American Labor Union, United Metal Workers, United Brotherhood of Railway Employees, and the Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance.

Over the course of eleven days, the convention would hammer out a constitution for the new union, approving it by a margin of over 42,000 in favor and nearly 7,000 against. Said constitution affirmed the name “Industrial Workers of the World” as the name for the new union, established an internal organization model based on Rev. Thomas J. Hagerty’s “Wheel of Fortune,” and provided membership to any worker, regardless of age, national origin, race, sex, or skill. Also, on the agenda were the elections of a President and a General Secretary-Treasurer, to which Charles Sherman and William E. Trautman were unanimously elected. Much to Eugene V. Debs, who was representing the Socialist Party of America as a fraternal delegate, disappointment the newly elected officers of the I.W.W. declined to formally affiliate the union with the Socialist Party.

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A later (circa, 1920) rendition of “Father Haggerty’s Wheel” displaying the constituent unions of the Industrial Workers of the World.
Immediately after the convention’s close, the I.W.W.’s organizers got to work across the nation, being met with great success in much of the West as well as some of the great industrial cities such as Cleveland, Detroit, New York City, Schenectady, and Youngstown. These activities of the young union immediately caught the attention of the press and over three-hundred articles chronicling the I.W.W. were published over the year after its founding.

The first great internal struggle for the union would arise at the 1906 convention, as radical delegates; led by Daniel De Leon, of the Socialist Labor Party, and General Secretary-Treasurer Trautmann; dissatisfied with President Sherman’s leadership, attempted to depose him. Sherman was accused of financial impropriety and not taking the radical declarations of the founding convention to heart. As James P. Cannon, later observed:

“Charles O. Sherman, the first general president of the IWW, was an exponent of the industrial-union form of organization. But that apparently was as far as he wanted to go, and it wasn’t far enough for those who took the revolutionary pronouncements of the First Convention seriously.”
As part of their platform, the radicals adopted a plank, originally suggested by a proposal published in the Industrial Worker, which called for the abolishment of the presidency, in order to properly dispose of Sherman. Opposing the radicals stood the more conservative wing of the Western Federation of Miners, some of whom threatened a walkout from the convention if the radicals had their way. It seemed to many observers the new organization was prone to split and fade into irrelevance as many radical organizations had done before.

In the end fate would have it that the radicals would have their way. With control of an astounding majority of delegates the radicals saw to it that the presidency was abolished, just as their platform had called for. Incensed, the dethroned Sherman called for a walkout in the face of what he viewed as a hostile takeover of the I.W.W. by “beggars, tramps, and proletarian rabble.” However, at the urging of Haywood and Moyer, no more than a handful of other individuals followed their former President from the gathering. As it were the I.W.W. had survived its first test, avoiding a potentially disastrous split that threatened to mortally wound the nascent organization.
[1]

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

[1] - Here lays the primary POD: Frank Steunenberg, the former governor of Idaho, is never assassinated by Harry Orchard, and thus the W.F.M. trio (Haywood, Moyer, and Pettibone) are never implicated in his murder. Allowing Haywood and Moyer to be present at the 1906 I.W.W. Convention, whereupon their charismatic leadership and connections to both factions is put to use in preventing several locals from following Charles Sherman out as they did OTL. In addition, Moyer, absent a stint in jail is spared the conservative turn he took in OTL, leaving him a continued radical leader for the Western Federation of Miners.
 
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I'm amazed you dident use this song instead...


It appeals more to American history/Civil War principals since it's based on "The Battle Cry of Freedom"'to a certain extent. But watched
 
Much to Eugene V. Debs disappointment, representing the Socialist Party of America as a fraternal delegate, the newly elected officers of the I.W.W. declined to formally affiliate the union with the Socialist Party.
It'll be interesting which party or politician they throw their weight behind. Maybe a party they form themselves, or if they are powerful or popular enough, get Huey Long to pretend to be a socialist. (He'd never miss an opportunity to get behind whatever was popular)
 
Book I - Kindling the Fire

Chapter I: Trouble in the Tonopah Basin
Goldfield, Nevada in 1906 stood as the model boomtown, upon its establishment in 1902 the town was only home to some thirty-six residents, but in just four years the town grew to boast a population of somewhere between twenty and thirty thousand people. This growth in population turned Goldfield from a patch of desert into the second largest town in Nevada, with only Las Vegas outnumbering it. The town mined over eleven million dollars in gold over the course of 1906, though this would be the peak year of production for Goldfield, with output declining each following year.

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Gold miners pose for a picture in Mohawk Mine, circa 1904.
In 1904, soon after mining began in earnest in Goldfield, the town’s miners organized a branch of the Western Federation of Miners. Soon after the W.F.M. was subsumed into the Industrial Workers of the World, the I.W.W. launched a large organization drive, unionizing nearly the entire town; including bartenders, faro dealers, and newsboys. Strikes in December of 1906 and January 1907 resulted in higher wages and an eight hour day for all workers in Goldfield. With labor in higher demand than supply and labor monopolized under the influence of the I.W.W., the union’s word quickly grew to amount to law over the course of 1906. Vincent Saint John, who was acting as the leader of the Goldfield Miners Union, would later reminisce:

“The highest point of efficiency for any labor organization, at the time, was reached by the I.W.W. and W.F.M. in Goldfield, Nevada. No committees were ever sent to any employers. The unions adopted wage scales and regulated hours. The secretary posted the same on a bulletin board outside of the union hall, and it was the LAW.”
1907 would see the I.W.W. attempt to finish its task of unionizing the entirety of Goldfield; a particularly tough holdout was the typesetters of the Goldfield Sun. The typesetters were organized under the umbrella of the American Federation of Labor. As Lindley Branson, owner of the Goldfield Sun, set wages dictated by the typesetter’s union the typesetters saw no reason to abandon their A.F.L. affiliate for the I.W.W. when the I.W.W.’s leadership requested they join. Upon the workers’ denial, the I.W.W. informed Branson that he must fire all non-I.W.W. workers, which he also refused. As a result, tensions began to run high between the two groups, especially as Branson often used his paper to strongly criticize the I.W.W. With Branson’s refusal the I.W.W. put a boycott in place; newsboys stopped carrying the Sun, businesses stopped advertising the Sun, and if any I.W.W. member purchased the paper they could be fined up to fifteen dollars. The union published a list of demands which if met would end the boycott including a published apology to the I.W.W. and the creation of a weekly column published by the I.W.W. Branson, realizing the situation was hopeless, yet not wanting to surrender his editorial liberty, sold the Sun and moved to Tonopah, located twenty-seven miles to Goldfield’s north, where he opened the Tonopah Sun and continued publishing.

Alongside the efforts to unionize the typesetters the I.W.W. also made attempts to eliminate the other holdout, that of the carpenters, also affiliated with the A.F.L. The union once again threatened boycotts, this time against any restaurant that served meals to non-I.W.W. carpenters, resulting in most of Goldfield’s restaurants falling in line rapidly. A single holdout remained, the establishment owned by Anton Silva, and resultingly the I.W.W. picketed his restaurant. During a routine picket, Silva confronted two of the I.W.W. men, W.R. Preston and Joseph Smith, in a threatening manner. In the ensuing encounter, Preston pulled a gun, killing Silva. Preston and Smith were arrested, with Preston pleading self-defense. In the end, both Preston and Smith, who was charged as an accomplice to the murder, were convicted and sentenced to twenty-five and ten years in jail respectively.

In March 1907 the I.W.W. moved to strike a final blow at the carpenters, they ordered the carpenters to join the I.W.W. or leave town and when the carpenters did neither the I.W.W. requested the mine owners stop employing non-I.W.W. carpenters. The mine owners, in an effort to prevent the complete takeover of the town by the I.W.W., banded together, starting a lockout by declaring they would employ no I.W.W. members in their mines. However, within a month’s time, the owners caved, signing an agreement with the I.W.W. in April, agreeing to the demand that only members of the I.W.W. be employed in and around the mines. This agreement effectively completed the I.W.W.’s goal of organizing the entirety of Goldfield under its umbrella.

In November of 1907, due to the Panic of 1907, the mine owners in Goldfield halted the traditional cash payments for miners, in lieu of cash they would be paid one-half of their wages in gold ore and the other half in cashier’s checks drawn from Goldfield’s bank. Much to the chagrin of the owners, the Goldfield Miners Union demanded payment be in cash or guaranteed checks only. With negotiations falling through the union once again went on strike starting on November 27th. The owners, concerned that the miners would once again win a swift victory as they had earlier that year, went to Governor John Sparks. Over the course of several meetings and writings to the Governor, the owners thoroughly convinced Governor Sparks that Goldfield was in a state of lawlessness and that intervention was required. However, as there was no state militia instituted in Nevada at the time, Sparks was powerless to order an intervention. As a result, the Governor wrote to President Theodore Roosevelt requesting federal recourse, convinced that cases of dynamiting and threats against innocent civilians were widespread. The President was skeptical of Sparks’ claims and with nothing to be gained politically by engaging in the labor dispute and no widespread disorder apparent, he declined to send federal troops into Goldfield, to the despair of the mine owners. [2]

In December 1907, with no federal or state intervention in sight the owners once again caved to the union’s demands. The I.W.W.’s dominance over Goldfield was preserved, though the town itself had a short lease on life, for the economic downturn that ensued from the Panic of 1907 ensured a decline in the town’s fortunes. Both production and population slumped rapidly, with the population shrinking to a little over five-thousand people by the end of 1908 and to a little under two-thousand by 1910. Though the I.W.W.’s reign in Goldfield was short-lived, it functioned as a valuable experiment in industrial democracy. The experience would fundamentally shape the doctrines of many of the I.W.W. organizers present, notably Vincent Saint John, and presented a vision of the future where One Big Union would organize all workers, negating the need for the capitalist state.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

[2] - Here lays the secondary POD, President Theodore Roosevelt declines to send federal troops to Goldfield, which allows the strike to continue until victory over the mine owners. This victory keeps spirits and radicalism running high among the rank and file of the W.F.M. On top of the continuation of the rank and file radicalism, the preservation of Charles Moyer’s radicalism keeps the leadership from attempting to extricate the W.F.M. from the I.W.W. and so the two organizations remain united.
 
Regardless of Haywood, et. al.'s actual involvement in the murder of the ex-Idaho governor, it damaged Haywood's reputation permanently...

Good TL, BTW; hope you haven't lost interest in your other TLs...
 
Thanks for the interest y'all. I would've had the update a little sooner, but moving and lack of wifi access took its toll.

I'm amazed you dident use this song instead...


It appeals more to American history/Civil War principals since it's based on "The Battle Cry of Freedom"'to a certain extent. But watched

I figured the original Joe Hill song would be fitting for an IWW focused TL. Also I just think the Utah Phillips rendition of Joe Hill's version is catchy. :)

I assume that the decline of the town will result in IWW radicals spreading to other towns as they move out.

There'll definitely be some figures, like the mentioned Vincent Saint John, who pour out into other towns, providing the organizational basis for WFM / IWW locals across the Mountain West.

Regardless of Haywood, et. al.'s actual involvement in the murder of the ex-Idaho governor, it damaged Haywood's reputation permanently...

Good TL, BTW; hope you haven't lost interest in your other TLs...

Yeah, Haywood definitely won't have the reputation damage that the trial caused in OTL. As far as the other TLs I may come back to them at some point, but I'd like to focus on this one for the time being. That'll be one for time to tell. ;)
 
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