Organization, by Albert Parsons (1884)
Article from ‘The Alarm’, December 27, 1884, Chicago, edited by Albert R. Parsons
Organization, to be successful, must contain within it that element which is understood by the word coherency, and implies more than a mere bringing together of members. Organization, to be successful, must have a purpose in view as well as an object to secure.
When we speak of organization, we think of something to be done, something to be achieved better thus than by individual effort, or which must be done in that way or not at all. It is not merely for the sake of expressing opinion in a given way upon a given subject, it is for the purpose of arriving at unified thought upon a subject, or any given number of subjects, in order that united action may follow, that organization is of value.
The fact that a number of men will come together to agree in respect to opinion is no test of successful organization, nor will that continue to keep them together; it is the application of their practical aims that will do it. They combine, having a purpose in view to which they will give their united earnestness, and so long as this purpose rules in their thought and calls forth their energy they will have no difficulty in keeping up their coherency. When it dies away they fall asunder.