Hellraisers Journal: From the Appeal to Reason, Speech by Eugene V. Debs to Steel Workers of Chicago
Submitted by JayRaye on Thu, 12/17/2015 - 12:55pmI am for Socialism because I am for humanity.
We have been cursed with the reign of gold long enough.
-Eugene V. Debs
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Sunday December 17, 1905
From the Appeal to Reason: Comrade Debs Speaks to Chicago Steel Workers
In this weeks edition of the Appeal to Reason, we find the text of a speech given by Eugene Debs, on November 24th, to a large audience in Chicago. The Appeal states that Comrade Debs was speaking to Steel Workers of that city. In the speech Debs compares the old out-dated system of craft organization with the revolutionary system of class-conscious industrial unionism as proposed by the newly formed Industrial Workers of the World.
-----(The following address was delivered by Eugene V. Debs at South Chicago, on November 24th, to an immense audience.)
THE year now drawing to a close will be memorable in the annals of labor because of the organization of the Industrial Workers of the World. For thirty years I have been connected with the labor movement. All of the years of my young manhood were devoted to the work of organizing my fellow-workingmen, that by the power of united effort they might do something to improve their condition as workers, promote their interests as citizens and advance their general welfare as men. There was a time when I believed that the trade union was in itself sufficient for this work. I have been compelled to revise my opinion and to conclude that something larger, more thorough and comprehensive in the way of organization is required to meet the demands of modern times.
The trade union, itself the product of industrial evolution, is subject to the laws of change, and the union that may have served some purpose a quarter of a century ago is now as completely out of date as the tools of industry that were then in use.