Industrial Workers of The World Philosophy and Tactics - IWW Versus The AFL

IWW Versus The AFL

In spite of the varied philosophies of the participants at the first IWW convention, there were a few compelling concerns which united all. Nearly all who attended acknowledged an "irrepressible conflict" between capital and labor. Nearly all could be described as adherents of industrial unionism, as opposed to the craft unionism of the American Federation of Labor. Acknowledging the common practice of AFL craft unions crossing each other's picket lines, the IWW adopted the WFM's description of the AFL as the "American Separation of Labor." In addition to the limitations of organizing by craft, the IWW criticized the AFL for emphasizing common interests between labor and capital, and for organizing only elite workers rather than acknowledging the needs of the entire working class.

The AFL was bitterly attacked by speakers who organized the conference, such that many would have been pleased if the federation (although not necessarily its constituent unions) would simply cease to exist. Samuel Gompers responded by declaring that the IWW's organizers were "trying to divert, pervert, and disrupt the labor movement of the country," describing them as "pirates" and "kangaroos." Calling the AFL outdated was "inexcusably ignorant and maliciously false," said Gompers. Referring to the birth of the IWW, Gompers commented that "he mountain labored and brought forth a mouse, and a very silly little mouse at that... historians will record the Chicago as the most vapid and ridiculous in the annals of those who presume to speak in the name of labor..."

Gompers warned all AFL affiliates not to cooperate with IWW members, and told AFL members not to support IWW strikes. Permission was granted to cross IWW picket lines. Although the AFL had offered some support to the Western Federation of Miners in the aftermath of the Colorado Labor Wars, that assistance was discontinued because of WFM affiliation with the IWW. A number of AFL affiliates — machinists, carpenters, hat makers, leatherworkers, and others — decreed that any individual with an IWW card would not be allowed to work in their industries.

The IWW fought for workers' rights somewhat differently than did the AFL. Staughton Lynd described the IWW as "devoting itself to struggles around demands, rather than negotiating contracts." Paul Buhle Lauds the idealism and creativity of the IWW, while asserting that "the AFL could not claim a single cultural contribution of note." Melvyn Dubofsky described the AFL " fat while neglecting millions of laborers doomed to lives of misery and want", and the IWW offering to do what the AFL declined to do by giving hope to those neglected. Yet Dubofsky believed he saw a contradiction between the IWW's goal of a better society, and the desires of its individual members for an improved life. As workers managed to improve their own lives, he theorized, they would have less interest in an improved society. And, the IWW was up against "flexible and sophisticated adversaries..." Those adversaries, as often as not, included the AFL.