The Workers' International Industrial Union (WIIU) was a Revolutionary Industrial Union headquartered in Detroit in 1908 by radical trade unionists closely associated with the

Socialist Labor Party of America The Socialist Labor Party (SLP)"The name of this organization shall be Socialist Labor Party". Art. I, Sec. 1 of thadopted at the Eleventh National Convention (New York, July 1904; amended at the National Conventions 1908, 1912, 1916, 1920, 1924 ...

, headed by Daniel DeLeon. The organization was formed when it broke with the main faction of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) over the question of

political action In sociology, social action, also known as Weberian social action, is an act which takes into account the actions and reactions of individuals (or ' agents'). According to Max Weber, "Action is 'social' insofar as its subjective meaning takes ...

. After seven years of parallel existence as the so-called "Detroit IWW," the dissident organization changed its name to Workers' International Industrial Union in 1915. The WIIU maintained a presence in the United States, Canada, Britain and

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before its ultimate dissolution in 1925.

Organizational history

Background

The 4th Convention of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) was convened in Chicago on September 21, 1908, attended by 26 delegates.

Paul Frederick Brissenden Paul Frederick Brissenden (September 21, 1885 – November 29, 1974) was an American labor historian, who wrote on various labor issues in the first half of the 20th century. He is perhaps best known for his 1919 work on the Industrial Workers of t ...

, ''The IWW: A Study of American Syndicalism.'' Studies in History, Economics and Public Law, vol. 83, whole no. 193. New York: Columbia University, 1919; pg. 221. Despite the small size of the gathering, factional disagreement was already deep within the organization and two delegates were denied their seats at the convention including one Daniel DeLeon of New York City. DeLeon, powerful editor of the newspaper of the

(SLP), ''The People,'' had already emerged as a sharp critic of IWW leader

Vincent St. John Vincent Saint John (1876–1929) was an American labor leader and prominent Wobbly, among the most influential radical labor leaders of the 20th century. Biography Vincent St. John was born in Newport, Kentucky and was the only son of New York ...

and the orientation of the union, which was based upon

direct action Direct action originated as a political activist term for economic and political acts in which the actors use their power (e.g. economic or physical) to directly reach certain goals of interest, in contrast to those actions that appeal to oth ...

and tilted towards largely unskilled labor in the Western United States. Although he had been denied his seat on the technicality of belonging to an incorrect union, supporters of the Socialist Labor Party charged that the failure to seat DeLeon was a crass political maneuver by St. John and his factional ally,

William Trautmann William Ernst Trautmann (July 1, 1869 – November 18, 1940) was founding general-secretary of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and one of 69 people who initially laid plans for the organization in 1904. He was born to German parents in ...

, in order to stifle dissent over policy and consolidate their own control of the organization. DeLeon was granted the floor at the convention to state his case and the resulting dispute was bitter and long-winded. For four days the convention did little more than debate the merits of the Socialist Labor Party and question of whether its intellectual leader, DeLeon, was attempting to take over and control the IWW, subverting the union's interests to those of the SLP.Brissenden, ''The IWW,'' pg. 224. DeLeon's supporters responded with the charge that the ultra- proletarian St. John–Trautmann faction with trying to transform the IWW into a "purely physical force body," dismissing

altogether. The fight took the form of an attempt by the anti-parliamentary St. John–Trautmann faction to remove reference to the word "political" from the Preamble of the IWW, a seminal manifesto of the organization. This was met with the epithet by the politically oriented SLP supporters that the St. John–Trautmann group were little more than "veiled dynamiters." Following protracted debate the anti-political faction won the day at the 4th Convention, electing Vincent St. John the General Secretary-Treasurer of the IWW and William E. Trautmann the organization's General Organizer.Brissenden, ''The IWW,'' pg. 228. A 5-member General Executive Board supportive of the anti-political orientation was also installed, over charges of the SLP faction that the victory of the St. John group was illegitimate.

Establishment

The dissident supporters of the SLP and political action immediately launched a new rival organization at a conference convened at

Paterson, New Jersey Paterson ( ) is the largest City (New Jersey), city in and the county seat of Passaic County, New Jersey, Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.Philadelphia, Boston, Brooklyn, and

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.Brissenden, ''The IWW,'' pg. 229. This gathering declared the regular 4th Convention of the IWW to be an illegal gathering and expelled the so-called "anarchist usurpers" from the IWW organization of which they claimed exclusive control. The Paterson conference took steps to reduce per capita dues levied by the national office to just 5 cents per member per month, with a view to keeping more dues money for work at the local level. National Headquarters were temporarily located in New York City, long the base of operations of the SLP. Headquarters were relocated within a few months, however, with the booming industrial city of Detroit, Michigan chosen as the new national center for the political actionists styling themselves as the IWW.Brissenden, ''The IWW,'' pg. 230. C.H. Chase of New York City was elected as the first General Secretary-Treasurer of the so-called "Detroit IWW," and a governing 5-member Executive Board similarly chosen by the Paterson gathering. This split between the direct actionist "Chicago IWW" and the political actionist "Detroit IWW" was replicated in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Britain.

Size

The number of locals affiliated with the "Detroit IWW" is a matter of some dispute. Of about 200 IWW locals in 1907, St. John's "Chicago IWW" claimed 17 groups defected to the Detroit organization; for its part Detroit claimed the allegiance of 22 local groups at the time of its formation in November 1908. These groups were clustered in the Eastern United States, according to pioneer IWW historian

Paul Brissenden Paul may refer to: *Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name) *Paul (surname), a list of people People Christianity * Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chri ...

. Other local IWW groups vanished amidst the organizational chaos, with the "Chicago IWW" claiming about 100 locals in 1909 and the "Detroit IWW," just 23.Brissenden, ''The IWW,'' pg. 231. The WIIU shared much of its membership with the SLP, and struggled after DeLeon's death in 1914.

Publications

While the SLP's newspaper, ''The People,'' would serve as the official organ of the so-called "Detroit IWW" until January 1912, when a new monthly magazine called ''Industrial Union News'' would be launched.

Ideology

Unlike the IWW, which from 1908 onwards constitutionally restricted itself from political alliances, the WIIU advocated political associations, and maintained a close association with the SLP, although (as of 1922) it declined to openly affirm this association. Robert Hoxie, author of ''Trade Unionism in the United States'', referred to the Detroit IWW as ''socialistic'', and the Chicago IWW as ''quasi anarchistic''. WIIU called for a general lockout of the capitalist class. Instead of leaving means of production to the capitalists and their scabs, the WIIU calls for workers to take possession of the means of production and begin operating them in the interests of society. The WIIU was criticized for focusing more on propaganda than on organizing workers.Marion Dutton Savage, ''Industrial Unionism in America.'' 1922; page 173.

Dissolution

The WIIU was invited to attend the first conference of the

Comintern The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet Union, Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to ...

in 1919, but did not affiliate. The WIIU never did conduct a strike of any importance. In 1916, the WIIU claimed a membership of 2,500, while its rival, the Industrial Workers of the World, claimed a total membership of 70,000.''The American labor year book'', ''Volume 1'', Rand School of Social Science, Dept. of Labor Research, New York City, 1916, pages 36–38 By the 1920s the WIIU was practically and kindly overlooked; where it was noticed it was criticized sharply, a ghost from a much more hazy past. The organization was finally disbanded in 1925.Fred W. Thompson, Patrick Murfin, The IWW: Its First Seventy Years, 1905–1975, 1976, pages 38–40.

Footnotes

{{Authority control Trade unions established in 1908 Organizations disestablished in 1925 History of the Industrial Workers of the World Socialist Labor Party of America De Leonist organizations Political internationals Breakaway trade unions Defunct transnational trade unions 1908 establishments in Michigan 1925 disestablishments Syndicalist trade unions