From ‘Industrial Worker‘, May 15, 1913, Spokane, Washington
On May third, in the Social Democrat, the official organ owned by the membership of the Socialist party of California, Lucy Goode White says of the Japanese:
“The Japanese workman upon Californian soil, whether he be able to comprehend the fact or not, betrays into the hands of the exploiters not only the workmen of California, but the workmen of Japan and the whole world as well, for the liberation of labor must be international if it is to be at all, and anything which tends to lessen the liberty of the Californian but postpones the liberty of the Japanese.”
It is not enough for this socialist writer to play into the hands of the capitalists by dividing the workers on an alleged “yellow peril,” but she must do so in the name of internationalism. Can anything be more incongruous than the socialist slogan “Workers of the World, Unite,” coupled with the A. F. of L. [American Federation of Labor] anti-asiatic yell of “Down with the Jap and Chink!” Of course, it comes from the same source and is on a par with the actions of the Job Harriman brand of socialists, who clamor for working class solidarity and then vote in their dinky little craft unions to raise the initiation fee so as to get a tighter cinch on the jobs.
The person who thinks that the Japanese or Chinese are inferior in intellect or ability to the average Missourian or the Connecticut Yankee is a stranger to the facts. All workers can be organized, regardless of race or color, as soon as their minds are cleared of the patriotic notion that there is any reason for being proud of having been born of a certain shade of skin or in an arbitrarily fenced off portion of the earth. We don’t know whether Lucy Goode White is really white or not, but white, black or yellow, we’re sure that she had but little to say about the selection of her color.
This tendency to look down upon the workers of the “far-off” lands is foolish, for we venture to remark that the United States is just as far off from Japan as Japan is from the United States.
On this one point the I. W. W. [Industrial Workers of the World] is confident. There are but two nations — the exploiters and the exploited; but two races — the robbers and the robbed. We want to see the exploited organized solidly and we welcome the Japanese to membership. but when it comes to a fight we will wage just as relentless warfare against a Japanese employer as we will against a star-spangled American labor skinner.
If the workers need fear any “yellow peril,” it is from yellow socialists of the Social-Democratic stripe.
Silly Race Prejudice
From ‘Industrial Worker’, April 22, 1909, Spokane, Washington
The Spokane division of the porters’ union (A. F. of L.) held a meeting April 13 to talk over the invasion of the Japanese. According to the “Labor World,” “vigorous efforts will be made to eradicate the brown men from industrial competition” — which efforts will have “the support of organized labor in general.”
The Industrial Workers of the World have the largest labor organization in Spokane or in any part of the country around. It must be understood that the I.W.W. will turn down any effort at discrimination against our Japanese fellow workers. Are we not correct when we say that the trades unions foster a state of affairs which allows one set of workers to be pitted against another set of workers in the same industry; thereby helping to defeat one another? This is the same old game of “divide and conquer” on the part of the employers and those labor unions which are influenced by prejudice on account of race, nation or language.
If the workers controlled the U.S. government, or had at present anything to say as to whether the Japanese were “desirable citizens,” it might be interesting for workingmen to take up the study of comparative ethnology; but the Japanese are here in the United States by the will of the industrial masters; being here, the matter should be dealt with as is best for the working class.
Now it is not supposed that the members of the porters’ union, for instance, would exterminate the Japanese by murder outright, but would be more humane (?) by letting the Japanese starve to death — providing the Japanese could be so far educated into the A.F. of L. principles as to be willing tamely to starve to death. The Japanese are here, they will not starve to death, and they will work as long as the boss will hire them. This being the case, what does the A.F. of L. man expect to gain by antagonizing these men, the Japanese, who are, it will be admitted, not lacking in brains?
From all appearances, the porters’ union is not so strong as to refuse help — even from a Japanese! Will any man explain just why, as long as the Japanese are here, it would not be better to unite with them to fight the common enemy, the master, than to waste time, energy and strength in fighting another group of workers simply on account of their color — to the huge delight of the employer? If the porters’ union were but half as class conscious as the average Japanese worker, there would be better wages and better conditions for the porter than the wretched ones they now are forced to submit to.
The Labor Commissioner of California says that in his long experience, the Japanese is the “most merciless” with his employer of any of the help in the California ranches, and bewails the mistake the employers of California made in getting Japanese who will exact everything possible, if they have but half a chance.
Can as much be said of the porters’ union — that they are “merciless” with the Spokane employers? Hardly! American or Japanese, Italian or Austrian, Swede or Irishman, German or Frenchman; do the employers quarrel among themselves on account of nationality? Not much! They are too wise.
Let the porter count his miserable pay on Saturday night; look at the wretched working conditions he puts up with, and then consider his comfortable, well-fed employer, and then turning to his Japanese fellow-worker, ask himself if it would not be wiser for him to unite with the Japanese to wring more wages and shorter hours from their common robber — the employer!
Also:
Some letters to Albert Johnson, by Shūsui Kōtoku (1906-07)
Japanese and Chinese Exclusion or Industrial Organization, Which?, by J. H. Walsh (1908)
Developments at Spokane, by J. H. Walsh (1908)
The IWW and Political Parties, by Vincent St. John (1910)
Away with Race Prejudice, by Caroline Nelson (1912)
Down with Race Prejudice, by Phineas Eastman (1912)
The Deadly Parallel, by the Industrial Workers of the World (1917)
The Facts of Anarchy, by Itō Noe (1921)
The Politician is Not My Shepherd, by Covington Hall (1933)
Ben Fletcher: Portrait of a black syndicalist, by Jeff Stein (1987)
The Struggle of Asian Immigrants / Industrial Workers of The World, by M.Gouldhawke (2002)
Land, Labour and Loss: A Story of Struggle & Survival at the Burrard Inlet, by Taté Walker (2015)
Mexican Workers in the IWW and the Partido Liberal Mexicano (PLM), by Devra Anne Weber (2016)
E52: The IWW in Canada, by Mark Leier and Working Class History (2021)
Indigenous labour struggles, by M.Gouldhawke (2022)
Anarchism & Indigenous Peoples
Industrial Workers of the World
“When Debs in his dotage calls the I.W.W. ‘Anarchists’ he is not slandering us, but is giving high praise to the anarchists. Let’s see, didn’t the capitalists once call the socialists ‘Anarchists’? How times do change!”
Industrial Worker, May 15, 1913, Spokane, Washington
An Archive 