Page:William Z. Foster, James P. Cannon and Earl Browder - Trade Unions in America.djvu/17

 scale, with the full support of the Communist Party. But years of pioneer effort preceded the flourishing movement of today. As far back as 1911 William Z. Foster returned from a trip to Europe, where he had gone as the delegate of the I. W. W. to the International Trade Union Congress, an ardent convert to the syndicalist principles of the "militant minority," and began a campaign in the I. W. W. for the new idea. He urged the I. W. W. to transform itself into a propaganda organization and called upon the militants to return to the old unions and fight within them for revolutionary principles. The I. W. W. was then at a very low tide and his arguments found a sympathetic hearing. For a time it appeared possible that the campaign would be crowned with success, but the outbreak of a number of strikes in 1912 and 1913, under the leadership of the I. W. W., gave that body a new lease on life and shattered all prospects of changing its course.

Thereupon, Foster and his supporters withdrew from the I. W. W. and organized the Syndicalist League of North America for the purpose of propagating revolutionary principles among the craft organizations. Some success attended its first efforts, and groups were organized in a number of the principal centers. The work was stimulated by several publications, The Syndicalist in Chicago, The Unionist in St. Louis, The International in San Diego, and The Editor in Kansas City. In the last named city the Syndicalist group soon secured a strong footing and the movement registered in several other places; but eventually it disintegrated. The radical workers could not be won over in large numbers to the idea of working inside the old unions. In a few years the Syndicalist League was only a memory.

With the organization of the International Trade Union Educational League in 1916, another attempt was made to start systematic work for the radicalization of the unions. But it, also, was short-lived. The response of the militants to the new organization was poorer than