Page:Jay Fox - Amalgamation (1923).pdf/21

Rh as they please, irrespective of the rights of other trades that work beside them and whose liberties are tied up absolutely with theirs. Craft autonomy is a holdover idea from the craft stage of industry and it stands today in the same category as that Other ancient slogan, "individual freedom." Today the individual cannot have any freedom that is not bound up with the freedom of the group of which he is a part. Within the group or union he has a freedom compatible with the freedom of all the other members of the union, but he cannot be permitted any freedom that will involve the liberty of the other members Of the union. For instance; the individual is not permitted to make his own terms with the boss. Why? Because the union can make better terms for the individual than he can make for himself. Were he so permitted the whole theory of unionism would be undermined and the union might as well dissolve.

In the industries the craft occupies a place parallel to that of an individual in the craft union. It knows that the union of unions, the union of all the crafts in the industry, can make better terms for the several crafts than can any one of them individually. This discovery has been the basis of federation, and now of amalgamation. When the individual joins the union he trades his individual liberty to make his own terms with the boss, a very shallow privilege at best, for the more substantial returns in higher wages and shorter hours that the union procures for him. In like manner the craft union trades its "autonomy" for the better conditions the industrial union secures for its members. In both cases, the individual and the craft union alike get the best of the bargain. The "liberty" they give up is no liberty at all. It is pure-and-simple illusion. When an individual joins a union, or a union the industrial union, what takes place is simply this: They both get somebody else to perform a disagreeable duty for them, and do it a lot better than they could do it themselves.

The words "Freedom" and "Autonomy" sound well to the ear, but they don't get us anywhere when we go up against a big capitalist combination. Craft autonomy has been the bane of the Labor movement for many years. Fearing the loss Of their mythical autonomy, the unions have not tied up together as tightly as they should have done. The consequences have been disastrous in many instances. The federation idea insures craft autonomy, because the unions would not join otherwise. In the federation each union is still master of its