I’m sure the title upsets you, so let me explain. John Green founded IUMSWA in 1933. At that time, Green was a member of the Socialist Party.¹ In the 1930s, the word “socialism” did not have the same stigma among working people that it does today. In fact, Green’s network of socialist colleagues provided crucial support to IUMSWA in those early years.² Shipbuilders knew socialists for showing up to support their picket lines, not authoritarians overseas. Socialists were not hellbent on destroying the American dream. They wanted to help working people realize it.

Socialism had already transformed BIW by the time IUMSWA merged with the IAM. In 1988, the IAM’s International President was still William Winpisinger.³ Winpisinger was a socialist, but this was nothing new. His progressive leadership had defined the IAM since he took office in 1977. Kim Moody remarked that Winpisinger was “one of the few high-ranking US labor leaders to call himself a socialist” in the 1980s.⁴ Winpisinger received a lot of media attention for this. But if Winpisinger’s socialism was an issue for BIW employees, they made no mention of it.

Winpisinger gave a speech at the IAM’s 1978 International Staff Conference. On the topic of the union’s socialism, he said:

“You see them publishing my puss in a lot of publications—newspapers primarily, particularly when they can use all of the catch words to scare Americans to death because of our biased culture—our anti-union animus that is inherit in American life.

“I am sure all of you have seen recently where they say this is an ‘ass in the pants’ Socialist—not doctrinaire—Socialist. And when I was asked that question by that reporter, I was never told that [Socialism’s] a dirty word. I knew he was going to try to make it one. But I know too that public ownership of essential means of survival in monopoly production in this country is about the only way we are going to stop them from owning us and really have corporate America on our laps.

“As long as we permit this myth of ‘free enterprise’… to exist and it’s a catch-all for everything that’s good, and public ownership manifests everything that’s bad, we are in for a hell of a hard time and I will talk more about that Friday morning, too. Meanwhile, I’m going to keep using the words because that’s the only way our membership is ever going to understand the difference and get away from the notion that Communism and Socialism are synonymous, or… even related, is to use them and to depend on you to tell them, because if our performance is right, it won’t make any difference what they call us. Our members will understand the difference. If we never do it at all, they will still think of us as a bunch of god-damn Communists the minute somebody calls us a Socialist.”⁵

Do you understand the difference? Until you do, you’re in for a hell of a hard time.

In 1998, the IAM renamed its training center after Winpisinger.⁶ There, the IAM carries on his legacy, his “ass in the pants” socialist tradition. When I visited in 2023, I spent some time walking the halls and taking in the sights. I noticed a lot of socialist iconography. These included framed quotes from Eugene Debs. Debs ran for president as the Socialist Party candidate five times.⁷ “Debs’ legacy would be lodged in the founding of the Congress of Industrial Organizations [CIO], where all the workers… would belong to one union,” wrote historian James Chace.⁸ IUMSWA affiliated with the CIO in 1938.⁹ The IAM embraced Debs’ model for industrial organizing around the same time as IUMSWA, too.¹⁰ At the Winpisinger Center, one image quotes Debs:

“Intelligent discontent is the mainspring of civilization. Progress is born of agitation. It is agitation or stagnation.”¹¹

Most stewards arrive discontent, but it is not enough to be discontent. Only the intelligent discontent are dangerous. Most Americans support socialist ideas until you point out they are socialist. This knee-jerk reaction prevents us having intelligent conversations about:

• Universal Healthcare
• Paid Family Medical Leave (FML)
• Free School Lunch Programs
• Social Security Benefits
• The Right to Organize a Union and Bargain Collectively

And the list goes on. Debs’ quote made it on the center’s walls because Winpisinger identified with his principles. His first speech as International President had a similar message. In a midnight meeting, Winpisinger instructed his staff:

“I want you to make decisions and make things happen. Don’t be afraid of making a mistake; we can always correct mistakes. The biggest mistake, the one I find totally unacceptable, is to stand still.”¹²

The stigma attached to the word “socialism” only keeps you standing still. This country’s elite have used this stigma to shut out reformists for a long time. They prefer stagnation to agitation. They prefer you standing still.

Don’t let the word “socialism” stop you in your tracks. The IAM proclaims a socialist goal, but its mission statement is simple and agreeable:

“We believe it is a natural right of working people to enjoy to the full extent the wealth created by their labor.”¹³

Anyone who furthers this goal is a socialist. Everyone from your shop steward to the International President. Last month, the union reported $300,000 in payouts for 2024 grievances.¹⁴ This means “we got $300,000 back into the pockets of our members last year,” the Chief Steward explained.¹⁵ If this isn’t socialism, I don’t know what is. William Winpisinger may have been the only person to say the quiet part out loud, but it remains true all the same. Socialists run your union! If this upsets you, you should reevaluate your relationship with the word “socialism.” If our “socialism” still bothers you, then we must not be doing our jobs.

1. David Palmer, Organizing the Shipyards: Union Strategy in Three Northeast Ports, 1933-1945 (Cornell University Press, 1998), 34. ↩︎
2. Ibid. 43-44. ↩︎
3. “History of the IAM (Timeline),” IAM, accessed January 8, 2025. ↩︎
4. Kim Moody, Workers in a Lean World: Unions in the International Economy (Verso, 1997), 121. ↩︎
5. Quoted in Patrick Halley, Wimpy (Kelly Press, 2008), 334-335. ↩︎
6. “History of the IAM (Timeline),” IAM, accessed January 8, 2025. ↩︎
7. Nick Salvatore, Eugene V. Debs: Citizen and Socialist (University of Illinois Press, 1982), xi. ↩︎
8. James Chace, 1912: Wilson, Roosevelt, Taft & Debs—The Election that Changed the Country (Simon & Schuster, 2004), 278. ↩︎
9. CIO Certificate of Affiliation, November 16, 1938, IAM District Lodge 4, Lisbon, ME. ↩︎
10. Robert Rodden, The Fighting Machinists: A Century of Struggle (Kelly Press, 1984), 42. ↩︎
11. Quoted on Images of Labor, n.d., framed artwork, William W. Winpisinger Center, Hollywood, MD. ↩︎
12. Quoted in Patrick Halley, Wimpy (Kelly Press, 2008), 12. ↩︎
13. “About: Welcome to the Machinists Union!” IAM, accessed January 8, 2025. ↩︎
14. Executive Board Meeting Minutes, January 16, 2025, IAM Local S6. ↩︎
15. General Membership Meeting Minutes, January 18, 2025, IAM Local S6. ↩︎