Workers' International Industrial Union
The Workers' International Industrial Union (WIIU) was a Revolutionary Industrial Union headquartered in Detroit in 1908 by radical trade unionists closely associated with the Socialist Labor Party of America, headed by Daniel DeLeon. The organization was formed when it broke with the main faction of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) over the question of political action. After seven years of parallel existence as the so-called "Detroit IWW," the dissident organization changed its name to Workers' International Industrial Union in 1915. The WIIU maintained a presence in the United States, Canada, Britain and Australia before its ultimate dissolution in 1925. Organizational history Background The 4th Convention of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) was convened in Chicago on September 21, 1908, attended by 26 delegates. Despite the small size of the gathering, factional disagreement was already deep within the organization and two delegates were denied their seats at the convention including one Daniel DeLeon of New York City. DeLeon, powerful editor of the newspaper of the Socialist Labor Party of America (SLP), The People, had already emerged as a sharp critic of IWW leader Vincent St. John and the orientation of the union, which was based upon direct action and tilted towards largely unskilled labor in the Western United States. Although he had been denied his seat on the technicality of belonging to an incorrect union, supporters of the Socialist Labor Party charged that the failure to seat DeLeon was a crass political maneuver by St. John and his factional ally, William Trautmann, in order to stifle dissent over policy and consolidate their own control of the organization. DeLeon was granted the floor at the convention to state his case and the resulting dispute was bitter and long-winded. For four days the convention did little more than debate the merits of the Socialist Labor Party and question of whether its intellectual leader, DeLeon, was attempting to take over and control the IWW, subverting the union's interests to those of the SLP. DeLeon's supporters responded with the charge that the ultra-proletarian St. John–Trautmann faction with trying to transform the IWW into a "purely physical force body," dismissing political action altogether. The fight took the form of an attempt by the anti-parliamentary St. John–Trautmann faction to remove reference to the word "political" from the Preamble of the IWW, a seminal manifesto of the organization. This was met with the epithet by the politically oriented SLP supporters that the St. John–Trautmann group were little more than "veiled dynamiters." Following protracted debate the anti-political faction won the day at the 4th Convention, electing Vincent St. John the General Secretary-Treasurer of the IWW and William E. Trautmann the organization's General Organizer. A 5-member General Executive Board supportive of the anti-political orientation was also installed, over charges of the SLP faction that the victory of the St. John group was illegitimate. Establishment The dissident supporters of the SLP and political action immediately launched a new rival organization at a conference convened at Paterson, New