Page:One Big Union of All the Workers the Greatest Thing on Earth (ca 1919, Chicago).pdf/13

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
ONE BIG UNION
11

be given a place in the industrial organization; the same as those who take care of the sick and disabled. Those who render other social and public service should know they are engaged in useful occupation, although most of the institutions in which they serve today are prostituted for the protection of capitalist interests.

For all functions combined, the industries are arranged on the general plan presented on the map, as follows:

  1. The Department of Agriculture, Land, Fisheries and Water Products.
  2. The Department of Mining.
  3. The Department of Transportation and Communication.
  4. The Department of Manufacture and General Production.
  5. The Department of Construction.
  6. The Department of Public Service.

The departments again have their subdivisions. As it is proposed that the workers organize in accordance with the industries in which they are engaged in service, it is essential that a general term be applied. This will make it easier to understand that each of these industrial subdivisions constitutes for itself a sub-organization of workers, in which they will be able to govern affairs that appertain to that industry alone.

Each of these subdivisions would comprise the workers organized in an Industrial Union, which, however would not be separate and distinct from all others, as the term "division" would imply. (We have looked in vain for an expression that would convey the proper meaning.)

It is impossible, at this stage, to eliminate entirely the terms now used to designate certain functions that sets of workers perform in each industry. But it should be distinctly understood that this is not to imply that these craft-groups in industries will organize, as has been the case heretofore, in separate craft-unions, or