November 1897 proclamation

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The November 1897 proclamation of the State Trades and Labor Council of Montana was a reflection of western labor's assessment of the struggle between labor and capital after the failed Leadville Colorado, Miners' Strike. [1] The proclamation, and the impetus behind it had a significant impact on the labor movement in the United States, Canada, and other countries for a period of several decades.

Contents

The Leadville miners' strike

The Cloud City Miners' Union (CCMU), Local 33 of the Western Federation of Miners (WFM), declared a strike over wage cuts in the Leadville mining district in 1896. [2] The CCMU wasn't adequately prepared for the opposition that it faced from the Mine Owners' Association and its allies. [3] The defeat prompted the WFM to rethink its goals, its methods, and its ideology. [1]

Western Federation of Miners

The Western Federation of Miners (WFM) was a radical labor union that gained a reputation for militancy in the mines of the western United States and British Columbia. Its efforts to organize both hard rock miners and smelter workers brought it into sharp conflicts – and often pitched battles – with both employers and governmental authorities. One of the most dramatic of these struggles occurred in the Cripple Creek district in 1903–04, and has been called the Colorado Labor Wars. The WFM also played a key role in the founding of the Industrial Workers of the World in 1905, but left that organization several years later.

Leadville mining district mining district

The Leadville mining district, located in the Colorado Mineral Belt, was the most productive silver-mining district in the state of Colorado and hosts one of the largest lead-zinc-silver deposits in the world. Oro City, an early Colorado gold placer mining town located about a mile east of Leadville in California Gulch, was the location to one of the richest placer gold strikes in Colorado, with estimated gold production of 120,000–150,000 ozt, worth $2.5 to $3 million at the then-price of $20.67 per troy ounce.

In the United States a Mine Owners' Association, also sometimes referred to as a Mine Operators' Association or a Mine Owners' Protective Association, is the combination of individual mining companies, or groups of mining companies, into an association, established for the purpose of promoting the collective interests of the group. Such associations are sometimes referred to as MOAs, however, in some cases they may be designated by the state, district, or locale, such as the Cripple Creek District Mine Owners' Association (CCDMOA).

History

The Butte Miners' Union (BMU) was Local Number One of the Western Federation of Miners. The BMU dominated the WFM in its early days, but control later passed to Colorado. [4] While the WFM developed a reputation for radical politics and militancy in Idaho and Colorado, labor relations in Montana were more amicable. [4]

By 1895, the BMU and other labor affiliates had formed the statewide State Trades and Labor Council in Montana. Butte's labor-management harmony lasted through much of the 1890s, but did not survive the industrial consolidations that arrived with the turn of the century. [4]

The proclamation

The 1897 proclamation argued that the old form of labor organization could not compete with "plutocracy". [5] It declared that employers' interests were "always antagonizing" toward organized labor. [5] Labor organizations in the eastern part of North America were described as having an "incapacity" to assist labor organizations in the West. [5] The proclamation described "an absolute rejection" of the American Federation of Labor, of its conservative philosophy and its complacent demeanor. [6] The proclamation proposed organizing western laborers and western unions into a new federation. [7] The new federation was necessary to reflect the growing class consciousness of many Western labor organizations and their members. [8] [9]

North America Continent entirely within the Northern Hemisphere and almost all within the Western Hemisphere

North America is a continent entirely within the Northern Hemisphere and almost all within the Western Hemisphere; it is also considered by some to be a northern subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the west and south by the Pacific Ocean, and to the southeast by South America and the Caribbean Sea.

American Federation of Labor Federation of U.S. labor unions, 1886-1955

The American Federation of Labor (AFL) was a national federation of labor unions in the United States founded in Columbus, Ohio, in December 1886 by an alliance of craft unions disaffected from the Knights of Labor, a national labor union. Samuel Gompers of the Cigar Makers' International Union was elected president at its founding convention and reelected every year, except one, until his death in 1924. The A.F. of L was the largest union grouping in the United States for the first half of the 20th century, even after the creation of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) by unions which were expelled by the AFL in 1935 over its opposition to industrial unionism. The Federation was founded and dominated by craft unions throughout its first fifty years, after which many craft union affiliates turned to organizing on an industrial union basis to meet the challenge from the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) in the 1940s.

Class consciousness

In political theory and particularly Marxism, class consciousness is the set of beliefs that a person holds regarding their social class or economic rank in society, the structure of their class, and their class interests. According to Karl Marx, it is an awareness that is key to sparking a revolution that would "create a dictatorship of the proletariat, transforming it from a wage-earning, property-less mass into the ruling class".

Text of the proclamation

To: Organized Labor Throughout the West:

Greeting—Believing that the time has arrived when an epoch will be marked in the history of labor, and believing that the necessities of the times as evidenced in recent developments emphasizes the fact that the old form of organization is unable to cope with the recent aggressions of plutocracy . . . ; and feeling the incapacity of organized labor of the east to aid us any in resisting these threatened encroachments . . . therefore the State Trades and Labor Council of Montana . . . would urge the necesity[ sic ] of concentrating and consolidating our forces, and would urge the organization under one head, of all unions west of . . . the Mississippi river . . . as at present our force and our means is dissipated, availing us but little. By combining our expense and our efforts to the support of one organization we concentrate our strength and strengthen our resources; furthermore we dissociate ourselves from . . . the older organizations and insure a unity and harmony of purpose among ourselves.

The Latin adverb sic inserted after a quoted word or passage indicates that the quoted matter has been transcribed or translated exactly as found in the source text, complete with any erroneous, archaic, or otherwise nonstandard spelling. It also applies to any surprising assertion, faulty reasoning, or other matter that might be likely interpreted as an error of transcription.

In the west nature has located its great mine of wealth, here are unlimited and varied natural resources. In the east society has located a class who subsist upon our revenues, and a class not alone who have no interest in, but rather one always antagonizing our interests, successful too often in defeating our purposes through their influence exerted at the ballot over the unorganized, uneducated labor they employ. . . .

Endorsed and referred to executive committee with instructions to forward the idea with all possible speed.

—State Trades and Labor Council of Montana, "Proposition to Organize a Western Federation for the Benefit of Western Unions," November 27, 1897 [10]

The new federations

In Salt Lake City in 1898, the Western Federation of Miners and other labor organizations founded the Western Labor Union [9] and subsequently, in Chicago in 1905, members of the WFM participated in the founding of the Industrial Workers of the World.

Notes

  1. 1 2 William Philpott, The Lessons of Leadville, Colorado Historical Society, 1995, pages 71-87.
  2. ↑ William Philpott, The Lessons of Leadville, Colorado Historical Society, 1995, page 2.
  3. ↑ William Philpott, The Lessons of Leadville, Colorado Historical Society, 1995, page 47.
  4. 1 2 3 Michael P. Malone, William L. Lang, The Battle for Butte, 2006, page 79.
  5. 1 2 3 William Philpott, The Lessons of Leadville, Colorado Historical Society, 1995, page 82.
  6. ↑ William Philpott, The Lessons of Leadville, Colorado Historical Society, 1995, page 83.
  7. ↑ William Philpott, The Lessons of Leadville, Colorado Historical Society, 1995, pages 82-83.
  8. ↑ William Philpott, The Lessons of Leadville, Colorado Historical Society, 1995, pages 71,83.
  9. 1 2 All That Glitters—Class, Conflict, and Community in Cripple Creek, Elizabeth Jameson, 1998, page 63.
  10. ↑ William Philpott, The Lessons of Leadville, Colorado Historical Society, 1995, page 71.
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