boycott by a dissatisfied union can become binding without the consent of the central bodies. These simply constitute local parliaments of labor with only the privilege of recommendation but without the power of enforcement. The State Federations of Labor, likewise, geographically are political divisions, which try to influence legislation in the state legislatures, but are without any economic authority. Both the central labor unions and the State Federations organize unorganized employments. Generally the organizing work of these bodies is negligible.
- 220. Do the city and town workers generally understand the limitations of these A. F. of L. subordinate bodies?
- Not generally. It frequently happens that craft unions with grievances expect the industrial support of the central labor union, and are much puzzled when denied it. We have heard it asked many times what a central union was for, if a union in difficulties could not count upon it for industrial support. We have also seen central labor unions disintegrate in times of industrial strife because they proved a disappointment to the workers belonging to the affiliated unions, who felt that the central body was a local body to achieve industrial unity of its affiliations. The workers can think only in terms of industry, and politics has no appeal to him. While the central bodies do not serve labor in an industrial way, while they hinder advancement through industrial action, they are the one valuable feature of the craft union system. They are training schools in what labor must avoid, and out of them have graduated most of the exponents of real unionism, many of whom have severed relations with the A. F. of L. through disgust and in recognition of its capitalistic character.
- 221. Could not the same thing happen in the I. W. W.?
- It could if capitalist ideas dominated its councils. But the first concern of the I. W. W. is the education of the workers in the economics of capitalist production and what are known as "the class struggle sciences." A rank and file grounded in these, will make it difficult to impose fallacies upon and to mislead them. The I. W. W. in its seventeen years has spread more sound literature among the workers, out of its small treasuries, than has
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