Part 8 (1/2)
The Industrial Workers of the World, a Labour Society with a revolutionary programme, has a large members.h.i.+p of unskilled workers, in textile and other industries. It doubtless includes many women, for women took part in a conflict with the city government of Spokane, Was.h.i.+ngton, over the question of free speech, the city having attempted to prevent street meetings. The workers were successful, but not without a severe struggle, in the course of which 500 men and women went to jail, many of whom adopted the hunger-strike.
In the great strike of textile workers in Lawrence, Ma.s.s., in 1912, a remarkably spontaneous effort was made by the Polish women-weavers at the Everett mill. The hours of work had been reduced by legislation from 56 to 54 per week, and the employees demanded that the same money should be paid to them as before the change. In the Everett mill about 80 per cent of the weavers were Poles. In one of the weave-rooms the Polish weavers, almost all women, stopped their looms after receiving their money on January 11, and tried to persuade the workers in some other sections of the mill to come out with them.[36] The story of this strike shows that women are fully capable of feeling the wave of cla.s.s-consciousness that brings about the development of what is called ”New Unionism”; but probably the difficulty of their taking a serious part in control and management is even greater than in craft Unions. Information is, however, very scanty as to the relation of women to the I.W.W., which in its literature is quite as p.r.o.ne as the more aristocratic craft Union to ignore the part taken by women in organisation.
In 1908, when the Bureau of Labour made its enquiry into the conditions of women wage-earners in the U.S.A., the number of Unions containing ten or more female members was 546, and the number of female members was only 63,989, estimated at only 2 per cent of the total members.h.i.+p of the Unions.
The largest group of women Unionists are those engaged in the making of or working at men's garments; these number over 17,000. The textile workers came next with 6000; the boot and shoe workers, hat and cap workers, and tobacco workers form three groups of over 5000 each.
This census, however, was taken at a most unfavourable moment, when many Unions were suffering from the trade depression of the previous autumn and winter. It is also true that the numbers in actual members.h.i.+p are not a complete measure of the numbers under the direct influence and guidance of the Unions. It has been found that the numbers of women ready to come out on strike and enrol themselves in Unions or enforce a particular demand at a particular moment are considerably in excess of the number normally enlisted.
At the same time there is little use in denying that, speaking generally, the results attained by women's organisations, after eighty or ninety years of effort, are disappointing. Women's Unions in America have been markedly ephemeral in character, usually organised in time of strikes, and frequently disappearing after the settlement of the conflict that brought them into being.
A great obstacle to the organisation of women is no doubt the temporary character of their employment. The ma.s.s of women-workers are young, the great majority being under twenty-five. The difficulty of organising a body of young, heedless, and impatient persons is evident, especially in the case of girls and women who do not usually consider themselves permanently in industry. In the words of the Commissioner:
To the organiser of women into Trade Unions is furnished all of the common obstacles familiar to the organiser of male wage-earners, including short-sighted individual self-interest, ignorance, poverty, indifference, and lack of co-operative training. But to the organisers of women is added another and most disconcerting problem. When men marry they usually become more definitely attached to the trade and to the community and to their labour Union. Women as a rule drop out of the trade and out of the Union when marriage takes them out of the struggle for economic independence.
Another great difficulty is the opposition of the employers. ”Employers commonly and most strenuously object to a Union among the women they employ.” When once an organisation has attained any size, strength, or significance, the employers almost always set themselves to break it up, and have usually succeeded. In Boston, for instance, a Union of some 800 members was broken up by the posting of a notice by the firm that its employees must either join its own employers' Union or quit work. Some employers look upon female labour as the natural resource in case of a strike, as see the case quoted by Miss Abbott (_Women in Industry_, p.
206). There are reasons why employers object even more strongly to Unions among women than among men. In a number of cases production is mainly carried on by women and girls, only a few men being required to do work requiring special strength and skill. In such instances the employers do not particularly object to the organisation of their few men, whom, as skilled workers, they would anyhow have to pay fairly well. But when it comes to organising women and demanding for them higher wages and shorter hours, the matter is much more serious.
The present unsatisfactory condition of women's Unions is, however, only what might be expected in the early years of such a movement. Men's Unions have all gone through a similar period of weak beginnings, and in America there are special difficulties arising from the presence of ma.s.ses of unskilled or semi-skilled workers of different races and tongues, and varying in their traditions and standard of life. There is much encouragement to be derived from the fact that the leaders in men's Unions, both national and local, now have more faith than formerly in Unionism for women. The American Federation of Labour calls upon its members to aid and encourage with all the means at their command the organisation of women and girls, ”so that they may learn the stern fact that if they desire to achieve any improvement in their condition it must be through their own self-a.s.sertion in the local Union.” From 1903 onward every Convention has favoured the appointment of women organisers. Women also are developing a greater sense of comrades.h.i.+p with their fellows and of solidarity with the Labour Movement generally. As we have seen, there are now few Unions which discriminate against women in their const.i.tutions, and the universal Trade Union rule is ”equal pay for equal work for men and women.”
Even the special condition of this instability in industry, the temporary nature of women's work, which is so great an obstacle to organisation, is thought to be changing. Within the last thirty or forty years, changes in industrial and commercial methods have opened up numerous lines of activity to women, in addition to the factory work, sewing and domestic service, which used to be her main field: ”marriage is coming to be looked upon less and less as a woman's sole career, and at the same time the att.i.tude in regard to wage-earning after marriage is changing. The tendency of these movements is to create an atmosphere of permanency and professionalism for woman as a wage-earner, especially among women in the better-paid occupations, which in time may markedly change her att.i.tude toward industrial life.” Such a change of outlook and habits of mind must doubtless be slow, but there are signs that it is in progress on both sides of the Atlantic. The future of Unionism for women is therefore not without hope, however unsatisfactory the immediate prospect may be. Miss Matthews, the writer of an interesting study of women's Unions in San Francisco, sums up her observations on the subject as follows:
Experience in contesting for their rights in Union seems to have developed leaders among the Trade Union women. Wages, hours, and shop conditions have all shown the impress of the influence exerted by the organised action of the workers. But if wages, hours, and shop conditions did not enter into the question at all, still Trade Unionism among women would show its results in a higher moral tone made possible by the security which comes from the knowledge that there are friends who will protest in time of trouble and offer hope for better days; it would display its influence in a more awakened and trained intelligence; it would make evident its effort in a happier att.i.tude towards the day's work, arising from the fact that the worker herself has studied her industry and has partic.i.p.ated in determining the conditions under which she earns her livelihood.
In 1903-4 a Women's Trade Union League, on the lines of the organisation of the same name in England, was formed, and is doing excellent work to promote solidarity and union among women-workers.
CHAPTER IVA.
WOMEN IN UNIONS (_continued_).
_Women's Unions in Germany._[37]--In Germany the obstacles have been far greater than in England. The relative prevalence of ”Hausindustrie” and the greater poverty stood in the way of women's organisation, and until a few years back the law did not allow women to join political societies.
Women were not, it is true, prohibited from joining Trade Unions, but the line between political and trade societies is not in practice always easy to draw, and full members.h.i.+p of Unions has thus been often hindered.
The first Women's Unions were started in the early 'seventies of the last century, by middle-cla.s.s women who were also in the forefront of the battle for the Suffrage. The authorities dissolved the societies.
Women-workers did not long maintain the alliance with the ”Women's Rights”
Party. An independent organisation was formed, which greatly exceeded the previous efforts in numbers and significance. The immediate impulse to the formation of this Union was given by the proposal of the Government to put a duty on sewing-thread, which would have been a great burden on the needle-women who had to provide the thread. Three societies were formed, the first being the ”Verein zur Vertretung der Interessen der Arbeiterinnen,” which was followed by the ”Nordverein der Berliner Arbeiterinnen” and the ”Fachverein der Mantelnaherinnen,” both of which were founded and controlled by working women. Investigations of the wages and conditions of working women were undertaken by these societies, in consequence of which a debate in the Reichstag took place, followed by an official enquiry into the wages of the women-workers in the manufacture of underclothing and ready-made garments, which only confirmed the conclusion already reached by private enquiry. The Truck Act was made more stringent, in response to the working women's movement, but as a secondary result all the societies were dissolved and the leaders prosecuted. The authorities were taking fright at the increase in the Socialist vote and in the members.h.i.+p of Trade Unions; and the Reichstag, under the tutelage of Bismarck, in 1878 pa.s.sed the notorious Anti-Socialist Law, under which not only Socialist societies but even Trade Unions were hara.s.sed and suppressed. During the twelve years in which the law was in force, however, propaganda work was still carried on with heroic courage and perseverance, and the solidarity and cla.s.s-consciousness of the workers, both men and women, was developed and strengthened by their natural indignation against the persecution suffered.
The men's att.i.tude towards the women-workers, which had been formerly reactionary and sometimes hostile, gradually changed, partly because of the energy and courage the women had shown, partly through a growing recognition, which was intensified by the enormous increase in women industrial workers shown in the Census Report, 1895, that exclusion of women from the men's Unions could only exasperate industrial compet.i.tion in its worst form. In 1890 a Conference was held at Berlin at which the Central Commission of German Trade Unions was founded, and its att.i.tude towards women was indicated by the fact that a woman was a member of its Committee. Measures were taken that in the committees of societies which excluded women from members.h.i.+p, resolutions should be proposed for an alteration of rules, and in most cases these were adopted. Under their guidance an agitation was set on foot to induce women to join Unions. Into this agitation the women organisers put an energy, patience, and self-sacrifice that is beyond praise. Now the German Free Unions (”freie Gewerkschaften”) are not identified with any political propaganda, and cannot legally spend money for political purposes if they have members under eighteen. But in practice they are largely led and controlled by members of the Social Democratic Party, and thus it has happened that working women, who were forced to abandon their own societies and to join forces with the general Labour Movement, are now largely under the influence and identified with the movement for social democracy. It is incorrect to speak of the Unions as ”Social Democratic Unions,” and yet in fact the two forces do work in harmony.
In the Labour Movement women found their natural allies. Their co-operation secured men against ”blackleg” compet.i.tion, and on the other hand the social democrats have worked for women. In 1877 they pet.i.tioned for improvements in the working conditions of women, and in 1890, that women should have votes for the industrial councils that were then under consideration. Bebel's _Die Frau und der Sozialismus_ appeared about this time, and made a profound sensation. In this work the relations of the social question with the woman question were a.n.a.lysed. ”Nothing but economic freedom for woman,” said Bebel, ”could complete her political and social emanc.i.p.ation.”
In 1908 some of the remaining obstacles that impeded women from taking part in political and trade societies were done away with by the Federal a.s.sociation law. The outstanding fact at the present time is the enormous relative increase in the numbers of women Unionists. Frau Gnauck gives the numbers in 1905 as 50,000 in the ”Free” or social democratic Unions, 10,000 in the Christian. The figures for 1912, from the _German Statistical Year-Book_, will be found at the end of the section.[38] It will be observed that although, as with us, the largest group of organised women is in the textile trades, the members are more generally distributed, and the non-textile Unions show larger numbers, both absolutely and relatively, than is the case in England.
The centralised Unions undoubtedly owe their origin chiefly to the Social Democratic exertions, and are strongly cla.s.s-conscious. They, however, favour the view that it is the duty of the State to protect the workers by legislation from excessive exploitation, and that it is the main business of the Unions to achieve as far as possible immediate improvements in wages and labour conditions. The comparative ease with which new Unions have been built up and existing Unions amalgamated is very largely due to Social Democratic influence. Before Trade Unions existed to any extent worth mentioning, La.s.salle's campaign for united action had taught the workers that the engineer and his helper, the bricklayer and his labourer, were of one cla.s.s and had one supreme interest in common; that there was only one working cla.s.s, and varieties of calling and degrees of skill were not the proper basis of organisation even for trade ends. The ideal no doubt is one great Union of all workers, regardless of occupation. This is in practice unattainable; but the Germans, in whom cla.s.s-consciousness is so strong, are reducing the Unions to the smallest possible number, and are also linked closely together by means of the General Commission.
The General Commission of Trade Unions has its office in Berlin. It publishes a weekly journal called a _Korrespondenzblatt_, containing information of value to Trade Unionists and students of Trade Unionism.
Connected with the Commission is a secretariat for women, the work of which is to promote organisation among women-workers. Still more recently it has been arranged that each Union with any appreciable members.h.i.+p of women should have a woman organiser. The rapid increase among women members is an indication of the increasing interest taken by the women themselves. Considerable diversity in the scale of contributions is one characteristic--young persons, as well as women, being admitted members along with adult males.
It is evident that the German form of organisation is much better calculated to catch the weaker and less-skilled cla.s.ses of workers than is the more aristocratic and old-fas.h.i.+oned craft Union of our own country.