Outside the Federation the opposition
marched under the flag of the Industrial Workers of the World, which was
launched by socialists but soon after birth fell into the hands of
syndicalists.
However, fully to understand the issue between conservatives and
radicals in the Federation after 1905, one needs to go back much earlier
for the "background."
The socialist movement, after it had unwittingly assisted in the birth
of the opportunistic trade unionism of Strasser and Gompers,[76] did
not disappear, but remained throughout the eighties a handful of
"intellectuals" and "intellectualized" wage earners, mainly Germans.
These never abandoned the hope of better things for socialism in the
labor movement. With this end in view, they adopted an attitude of
enthusiastic cooperation with the Knights of Labor and the Federation in
their wage struggle, which they accompanied, to be sure, by a persistent
though friendly "nudging" in the direction of socialism. During the
greater part of the eighties the socialists were closer to the trade
unionists than to the Knights, because of the larger proportion of
foreign born, principally Germans, among them.
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