Page:William Zebulon Foster - The Railroaders' Next Step, Amalgamation (1922).djvu/39

Rh by unions anywhere. Nor will they stop with federation. They must go on to the next phase, amalgamation. In so doing they will be merely following the dictates of reason and acting in harmony with labor union evolution the world over. It will be the logical and inevitable climax to all the get-together movements, radical and conservative, among railroad men for a generation. Amalgamation of the sixten railroad craft unions into one industrial union that's the railroaders' next step.

The situation is over-ripe for a general amalgamation of all railroad unions. Solidly united and inspired by a boundless voracity for profits and power, the railroad companies are resolved to smash the workers down to slavery. In this unholy task they have the active assistance of every branch of the powerful capitalist class. Common sense demands, therefore, that the enormous army of railroad men be brought to the highest possible state of efficiency in unflinching opposition to our would-be masters. Under the prevailing federated form this cannot be done. Amalgamation is the only solution.

Federation is all right so far as it goes. It marks an important stage in the workers' development from craft to class unionism. It is at once an admission of the ineffectiveness of craft action and a striving for industrial solidarity. Federation always sounds the death knell of pure and simple trade unionism. But the trouble with it is that it does not go far enough. It is essentially only a halfway measure. Afflicted with lingering craft weaknesses, it develops only a fraction of the workers' potential power. Despite federation the employers are still able to play one group of workers against the others and thus beat them all.

Whenever a federation goes into action, whether in concference or in strike, its weaknesses are instantly apparent.