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Perlman, Selig

"A History of Trade Unionism in the United States"

' 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 to carry on
production when capitalism shall have been overthrown." Then on method:
"We find that the centering of management in industries into fewer and
fewer hands makes the trade union 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 the workers to be pitted against another set of
workers in the same industry, thereby helping to defeat one another in
wage wars.... These conditions must be changed and the interest of the
working class upheld only by an organization founded in such a way that
all its members in any one industry, or in all industries, if necessary,
cease work whenever a strike or a lockout is in any department thereof,
thus making an injury to one an injury to all." Lastly, "By organizing
industrially we are forming the structure of the new society within the
shell of the old."
This meant "industrialism" versus the craft autonomy of the Federation.


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