Syndicalism and the Industrial Workers of the World

FINNISH_AMERICANANARCHO- SYNDICALISMAND THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERSOF THE WORLD DouglasJ. Ollila & Auvo Kostiainenx x This article was originally written by Party after the industrialunionists bolted late professor Douglas J. Ollila, Jr-, of the Party subsequently afiiliated with Augsburg College, Minneapolis.Auvo Kos- communismand becamethe largestnational tiainen, Ph.D., of the Univetsity of Turku, groupin the Workers'Partyof Americain has prepared a shortened version of the the early 1920's.comprising more than paper as well as rewritten parts of it, parti- 40 percent of the membership.2The cularly in the last pages, to include the disastrousstrikes on the Mesabilron Range latest stage of research of the Finnish- in 1907 and 1916, the illfatedMichigan '1913''1914, American history. CopperDistrict strike in and the troubledhistory of the Socialistinvolve- ment in the Butte, Montana,labor unrons Finnish immigrantsin America are a and municipalgovernment effectiv€ly radi- remarkableexception to the conservative calized Finns who were soon convinced immigrant thesis presentedby American that the American capitalistist system scholarslike GeraldRosenblum.l Inrt""d of itself had to be destroyed.Thus it was growing accommodation and acceptance arguedthat the Americanlabor movement of the American way of life, the labor was not radical enough, and left wing Finns moved steadily leftward, protesting Finns increasinglysought more and more the Americancapitalistic system. Experien- revolutionarysolutions- ces in the labor movementthrough a series of drsastrousstrikes led to the conviction The purpose of this article will be to that more radical solutionswere necessary examine the sourcesand developmentol to solvethe problemsof industrialAmerica. radicalismin the Finnish-AmericanSocialist Many were convincedof the poverty of labor movement, from its Social Demo' craft union solutionsto the dilemmao{ cratic beginningsto its involvementin the industrialized labor, and they chose to Industrial Workersof the World. The be- move away from the WesternFederation ginningsof that story go back to Finland, of Miners to affirm the lndustrialWorkers where the growing political and trade of the World, and a large bloc seceded union movement came increasinglyunder from the SocialislParty o{ Amefica to the swayof GermanMarxism. The Finnish -freedo join the ranks of the industrialunionists Diet. which enjoyed relative m and and to recognize the leadershipof Big autonomyeventhough the nation Wasa Bill Haywood.Many of the Finnishpolitical Grand Duchy of imperialRussia, excluded radicalswho remainedin the Socialist the working classesas well as the small 17 L- iarme.s and agricultural laborers. The Lutheranism which had not kept pace issueof political representationintensified with the dramaticchanges in Finnishsociety. working class consciousnessat the same The jntroduction of Ouaker teachinos, time that Finland was sharpeningits own Methodismand the growth of indigenous sense of national selfconsciousness,At Lutheran reviva,ism failed to stem the a meetlngin 1899, it was decidedto found tide of this alienation.3 Efforts of the the Finnish Labour Party which adopted church to prevent the precipitous slide Kautsky'sErfurt Program.While the trade into l\4arxistSocialism had come far too union movement remainedquite weak, late, partly because the clergy wele too the political labor organizationaleffort patriarchial,and "credulousalmost to the became very popular, and by the time point of blindness".a That the church a fully democraticfranchise was introduced, was reactionarywas indicatedby its support the laborites, now called the Social De- from 1899-1905of Russificationpolicies mocratic Party, were able to capture 80 in Finland,and citizensbecame so disen- out of the 200 seatsin the legislaturein chanted with the clergy that the clerical 1907. estate was abolished in 1906 with the establishmentof a one house parliament. Nineteenthcentury Finnish peasantculture had been dominated by the Lutheran The changesin agriculturewith the rapid Churchand a numberof revivalmovements growth of farm tenancy and population which flourished under the umbrella of meant that the emigration from Finland the nationalchurch. But the churchsteadily was iargelya ruralexodus. Finnish industry alienated the lower classes,particularly grew too slowly to draw off the excess the new industrialworkers, smaller lease- populationinto employment.thus emigrat- holdets(totppari) and landlessagriculrural ion was the only choice left. Between laborers.During the rising tide of labor 1893 and 1920, passportswere issuedto selfconsciousness. the leadingclergy decried 273 366 emigrants,of whom 236 507 the new liberalismwhich they belivedhad were from rural communes.lvost of them causedthe lower classesto lose respect were landlessfarm workers, domestic for society's class distinctions, oemano servants,landowners' and tenants'children. political power, excessivewages and too and personswith no fixed occupation.5 much freedom.Some of the alarmedclergy Reino Kero'sresearch on Finnishemigrat- in the growing urban centersadvanceo tne ion indicatesthat a d isproportio nate number British model o{ Chrrstiansocialism as d of the radicaiscame from the southern suitablealternative, but for the most part, and easternareas of Finland,while con- the status quo of societywas regardedby servative Finns were primarily from the churchas the proper"order-of creation" SouthernOstrobothnia (the westerncoastal regions),especially the provinceof Vaasa.6 By the time that the GermanSocial Demo- The Vaasaprovince also contributedmany cratic model becamenormative for Fjnnjsh adherents to the Finnish-Americanlelt, Socialistsin 1899, the church steadily but thesewere the proletariatof the Finnish lost communicationwith ;ndustriallaborers. countryside-landlesslaborers, cottagers, In the importantindustrial city of Tampere, hired hands, and mainds.TThese persons lor example,attendance at Holy Communion were lhus raw materialfor the radical by factory workers dropped from twenty- labor movement in America, along with six percent in 1895, to ten pefcent in the impoverishedclasses in Southernand 1905, sharply demonstratingthe break- EasternF inland. down of the rigidly class stroctured old t8 While very {ew of the landlesspeasants the revolt of the Russiangarrison, Fort from Finland had been exposed in great Sveaborg,such as Leo Laukki. the high measureto socialismin the mother count- priest of the industrial union Finns and ry,8 neverthelessmuch of the early reaoers- principal of the TycivAen Oprsto {Work hip of the movement had been exposed People'sCollege) at Duluth, l\4inn. Many to socialismand an urban setting already fled to North Americaafter the Red Guard in the homeland.In a biographicallist lost the CivilWar in Finlandin l9l8 when by Elis Sulkanenof 115 Finnish-American the Red leadershipwas purged by the labor leaders,it comes out that seventy- victoriousWhite government.For example, three percentof them cameto the United Oskari Tokoi, who had been Prime Mi- Statesbetween 1900 and 1910, during nister in 19'f7, came 10 edit Raivaaja. the years when the Social Democratic l\4anyothers such as Dr. Ant-eroTanner, Party and lVarxism had made enormous l\4osesHahl, Kaapo l\4urrosand Vihtori strides. Over thirty-five percent had had Kosonenadded to the list of socialistleaders direct contact and involvementwith the who brought the new gospelto immigrant Socialistpolitical or trade union movement. Finns who listened with wonderment at and forty percentwere born in an urban the new evangel. center or had lived in one. Most of the leadershipcame from the southern and The earlierimmigrant Finns had already eastern portions of the country. Conser' organizedchurches and temperancesocieties vative Vaasa province, for example, before the radicals began to arrive after contributed only twenty'five percent of 1900. At first, there was hope that all of the leadership,but nearly fifty percentof the Finnsmight be unitedinto a harmonrous the emigrants.About seventy-ninepercent ethnic community. Fellow countrymen of the radical leadershipcame from the bound themselvestogether in churches, skilled trades and professions,while a temperancelodges, and the lmatraWorkers' scant seventeenprecent were industrial League which representedan idealistic, workers or farmers.The educationallevel mutual benefit type of workers' society. of the leadershipwas also much higher. But the illusionof a united Finnishcom- percent gone Some seventy-five had on munity was shatteredvery quickly. From grammar beyond school, and twenty-five 1904. the apostlesof socialismpromoted percent qualified for the university, or class consciousdoctrines in the pagesof had attendedhigher educational institutions. the newly tounded Tydmies and the Bai- This is comparedwith roughlyforty percent vaala newspapers.Several popular journals general of the immigrantpopulation which spelledout the principlesof international had attended only confirmation school, socialismand its history in Europe and percent and forty which had attended America, and the basic l\,4arxistcrassrcs elementary school from a few weeks to wereissued in a steadystream. two years.9 A most dramatic event in the immigrant pricipitous A series of events brought community was the conversion of the much of this elite quard of the Finnish flounderingPeople's College into the Work socialiststo America, giving to the mo- People'sCollege in 1907. Socialistspur- vementunusually effictive leadership.Taavi chasedthe

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