Page:William Zebulon Foster - The Bankruptcy of the American Labor Movement (1922).djvu/12

 Rh a casual glance over the world's labor movement confirms this statement.

Regarding the question of numerical strength: At present there are, including all independent unions, not over 3,500,000 trade unionists in this country, or about 1 unionist to each 31 of the general population of 110,000,000. Compare this, for example, with the situation in the two other leading industrial countries, Germany and England. In Germany there are somewhat over 12,000,000 trade unionists out of a total of 55,0000,000 people, or about 1 to each 4½; while in England the trade unionists number approximately 6,000,000, or 1 to each 7½ of her population of 44,000,000. In other words, the German trade unions, considering the difference in the population of the two countries, are numerically about 6 times as strong as ours, and the English about 4 times. For our unions to be as large proportionally as those in Germany they would have to have no less than 24,000,000 members. Compare this giant figure with the paltry 3,500,000 members that our unions now possess and a fair idea is had of how far behind the American labor movement is in this respect. In Germany and England (not to mention other countries) the great mass of the working class has been organized, but here in the United States barely a start has yet been made.

Structurally our trade unions make an equally poor showing. Whereas in all other leading countries the main labor movement, accepting the logic of capitalist consolidation, have quite generally endorsed the principle of but one union for each industry and are making rapid strides towards its realization, the American labor movement still clings firmly to the antiquated principle of craft unionism. Throughout the rest of the world there are many single unions—such as building, metal, railroad, general transport, printing, etc.—that have been built up recently by amalgamating the original craft organizations. Others are being constantly created. In England the giant new Transport and General Workers' Union has just been formed; the Amalgamted Engineering Union is making steady headway towards its avowed goal of one union in the metal industry; likewise the National Union of Railwaymen, the Federation of Printing and Kindred Trades, the Federation of Building Trades Operatives, etc., in their respective fields. Strong amalgamation movements are afoot in every industry. In addition plans are now being discussed to lash all the national unions together and to develop the whole labor movement into one gigantic machine. In Germany a similar process of