PREAMBLE OF THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD The working class and the employing class have nothing in common. There can be no peace so long as hunger and want are found among millions of working people and the few, who make up the employing class, have all the good things of life. Between these two classes a struggle must go on until the workers of the world organize as a class, take possession of the earth and the machinery of production, and abolish the wage system. We find that the centering of the management of industries into fewer and fewer hands makes the trade unions unable to cope with the ever growing power of the employing class. The trade unions foster a state of affairs which allows one set of workers to be pitted against another set of workers in the same industry, thereby helping defeat one another in wage wars. Moreover, the trade unions aid the employing class to mislead the workers into the belief that the working class have interests in common with their employers. These conditions can be changed and the interest of the working class upheld only by an organization formed in such a way that all its members in any one industry, or in all industries if necessary, cease work whenever a strike or lockout is on in any department thereof, thus making an injury to one an injury to all. Instead of the conservative motto, "A fair day's wage for a fair day's work," we must inscribe on our banner the revolutionary watchword, "Abolition of the wage system." It is the historic mission of the working class to do away with capitalism. The army of production must be organized, not only for the every-day struggle with capitalists, but also to carry on production when capitalism shall have been overthrown. By organizing industrially we are forming the structure of the new society within the shell of the old. Published Monthly, $2.00 a year; Canada, $2.25; other countries, $2.50. Published by the General Executive Board of the 1001 West Madison Street, Chicago, U. S. A. Entered as second-class matter April 23, 1923, at the post office at Chicago, Illinois, Amnesty by Christmas! Let The Cry Ring Out from Coast to Coast, from the Lakes to the Gulf! No. 8 All Factions, Liberals And Radicals Alike, Join In Demand That Jails Be Opened And Men Set Free Who Dared To Stand For Free Speech And Industrial Democracy. Sunday, December 23, is Day Set for Giant Demonstrations All Over the Country. Arrange One For Your Section. Make It A Rousing One! Begin Arrangements Now! T HE General Defense Committee of the IWW has issued the following proclamation: Well into their seventh year of unjust imprisonment our members in federal prisons have failed to win from the government authorities that consideration which has been extended to conscienceless profiteers who grafted upon the government, the spies of other governments, and malefactors who scuttled ships, wrecked warehouses and blew up munitions factories. Evidently, the government holds crime to be less offensive than the holding of opinions that do not accord with those who control it. Senator Pepper of Pennsylvania, one of the acknowledged legal authorities in the United States, expressed the opinion openly to the late President Harding that the conviction of the IWW prisoners was not warranted by the evidence. He urged their unconditional release as a matter of legal justice without any humanitarian considerations whatever. He spoke as a lawyer, not as a man. More than ever, then, does it become our duty to stir the consciences of the people of the United States, in whose name the President becomes a party to the legal crime committed by withholding from Ellia IS THIS TO BE THE STORY OF FREE SPEECH IN AMERICA? these men release from cells in which they should never have been incarcerated. Fellow Workers, wherever you are, try to get in touch with persons of influence in labor unions, civic and religious organizations, women's clubs and fraternal societies. Endeavor to have them arrange for meetings of protest against the inactivity of the government authorities in the cases of these innocent victims of wartime passions and prejudices, who have suffered the tortures of a prison hell for seven years. Have resolutions demanding the release of these prisoners by Xmas passed. Only if, and when the nation resolves to wipe away this stain upon the reputation of a country that stands preeminently for freedom of opinion will the rulers of the United States attempt to repair this crime which has robbed these honest men of seven useful years. These men are our fellow workers. They were condemned to living deaths for us. They must be freed. Let us say so with no uncertain voice on Amnesty Day-Sunday, December 23rd. Write in for literature. GENERAL DEFENSE COMMITTEE, 1001 W. Madison Street. |