Page:Lily Gair Wilkinson - Revolutionary Socialism and the Woman's Movement.djvu/25

 22 working women to the bourgeois feminist movement, under the pretence that with equal political rights with men they could secure better wages, is utterly deceptive. The capitalists, who hold control of the means of production, and who by better organisation may still greatly enhance their profits, can utilise their power by introducing new machinery and by further combination. Less labour being then required, the unemployed army will grow ever larger, and, as consequence, wages will tend to go down. Far from making it possible to raise the wages of the worst paid section of the workers (the women) to an equality with any better paid section, the progress of capitalist industry tends to lower the wages of the better paid sections to the level of those that were formerly worse paid. A mere coolie status for all is the outlook for the workers in the future, unless they use the power they possess to free themselves altogether from the wages-system.

What is that power?

It is the power that belongs to all men and women who are wage-slaves—the power of the producers. The workers as a class must unite on the basis of the productive function which they fulfil in society—as industrial workers, in fact. This is the only sure way to freedom. Before the introduction of Socialism can become a practical and immediate possibility, the workers must be sufficiently organised to direct and control industry in their own interests. Without such organisation they are completely at the mercy of the master class, whose armed forces are ever ready for use against even sporadic efforts to resist increasing robbery.

In this unity of the workers on the industrial field lies their strength. At present they are not united; they are disunited. The few who are organised at all in the trade unions are organised on mere craft lines; they are helpless against the growing power of capital, and the different sections are fighting against each other instead of against the masters. There is blacklegging and strife where all depends on union and harmony. Union is strength, but trade unions are weakness.

Woman's part in the Industrial Union movement is important. This is a class movement, and no section of the workers must be left out of it. Women, who take an active part in production to-day, will naturally take their place as producers in the industrial organisation of the workers.

We need only look back into the history of past revolutionary struggles to see how well women have played their part therein.