The Workers University of Our International Union

Education has become the cry of all progressive trade, unions. Our International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union was one of the first to recognize the importance of education. At our recent International convention in Boston it was brought home to us that the necessity for teaching and enlightening our members is not a mere phrase, but an earnest wish on the part of the leaders of the International Union to bring it into reality. With that aim in view it was decided to provide the sum of $10,000 annually for educational purposes.

We have always proclaimed aloud that education is not only a necessary part of trade union activity, but that it is essential to its very existence.

Education and organization must go hand in hand. The labor movement, and especially the trade union movement, requires mostly, not general education, but a particular kind of education adapted to the needs of the labor movement, an education with the aim of enriching the intelligence of our people to enable them to fortify their organization and render it secure.

The trade unionist is not only a soldier of a fighting army in a special industry. He is likewise a member of society; and therefore it is absolutely necessary that his conception of his aims in life and of the relations between him and society should be broadened to include the entire social organism, and that his view should not be limited to the daily struggles in the industry in which he is employed.

To-day, more than ever, it has become a vital necessity that the worker should be well informed and educated. We are witnessing the advent of new times, in which the worker is destined to play a great role. Big, epoch-making events are expected in the near future. Whole industries will be reconstructed and the associated life of humanity will assume a new and different character. The workers must take an active and prominent part in all such reforms. Therefore it is all the more necessary that they should acquire intellectual power in order to take their important place in the body politic.

To carry out our intense wishes we cannot rely on the general education taught in the various schools, because this is not accessible to our members. They neither have the time nor the means to acquire a classical, systematic education. The best and shortest road through which we can achieve our aim is by a specific education imparted to them in such time and in such form as should prove of service to them. What seems most important is to teach the worker economy in connection with his industry; to render him familiar with the activities of other labor organizations, and with the relation all industries have to one another and to the working class in general.

It is important to instruct the worker as to the causes of the evils arising in the industry in which he is employed, and to enlighten him as to the way in which to solve industrial problems.

It is essential that the worker should become familiar with the history of the trade union movement, its forms and aspects.

It is necessary that the worker should have a better understanding of the aims of his organization and should realize precisely what changes he can bring about in his life through the power of the trade union.

The workers should be enlightened as to the importance of the cooperative movement, its relation to their union and the great advantages they might gain from promoting this enterprise through the union.

In short, a class-conscious, enlightened worker will never betray his organization. He will be able to find an answer to questionings agitating his mind. He will understand how to explain and guard against the besetting evils and dangers which cause him suffering. He will no longer charge his organization with neglecting his interests. He will be a more loyal member and apply his intelligence to the effort of strengthening his union and secure for himself and his fellow workers a better existence.