Page:Raymond Augustine McGowan - Bolshevism in Russia and America (1920).pdf/29

 Rh polls. For these reasons, the I. W. W., while not exactly Bolshevik, can be considered so, and the Syndicalist movement can be considered a part of Bolshevism.

It is not known how many members of the I. W. W. there are in this country. The Acting Secretary-Treasurer of the I. W. W. reports a membership of 119,000 in May, 1917. Later in the same year, a Government commission said that there were about 200,000 members. The membership declined again and the latest report given out by the organization claims a membership of about 70,000. But the membership figures of the I. W. W. have been notoriously unreliable in the past, and it is possible that 70,000 is an exaggerated estimate. Moreover, many belong to the I. W. W. because they hope to obtain, through their membership, better wages, hours, etc., and not because they are for a revolution. When, for example, a new union was formed among the Northwest timber workers during the war, many left the I. W. W. to join the new organization.

The other American group invited to the Communist International was the Left Wing of the Socialist Party. Before the Soviet Revolution and even before the war, there were some members of the Socialist Party who came very close to Bolshevism. The influence of the I. W. W. and the sterility of the Socialist Party inclined some towards a more revolutionary policy than the party called for. This took the form of a demand for "dualism," i. e., for political action, and for economic action through industrial unions. The bone of contention was the I. W. W. Finally the party in 1912 compromised on the question by recommending industrial unionism, by condemning such tactics as sabotage and violence, and by refusing to commit itself to the general strike. But