The
truth is that the revolutionary labor movement in America looms up much
bigger than it actually is. Though in many strikes since the famous
textile strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts, in 1911, the leadership was
revolutionary, it does not follow that the rank and file was animated by
the same purpose. Given an inarticulate mass of grievously exploited
workers speaking many foreign tongues and despised alike by the
politician, the policeman, and the native American labor organizer;
given a group of energetic revolutionary agitators who make the cause of
these workers their own and become their spokesmen and leaders; and a
situation will clearly arise where thousands of workmen will be
apparently marshalled under the flag of revolution while in reality it
is the desire for a higher wage and not for a realization of the
syndicalist program that reconciles them to starving their wives and
children and to shedding their blood on picket duty. If they follow a
Haywood or an Ettor, it is precisely because they have been ignored by a
Golden or a Gompers.
Withal, then, trade unionism, despite an occasional revolutionary facet
and despite a revolutionary clamor especially on its fringes, is a
conservative social force.
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