RedCeltic
29th March 2003, 22:47
http://hillstrom.iww.org/images/iww_globe_reverse.gif
http://www.iww.org/graphics/photos/bandw/events/consumption.jpg
Direct action and protest movements are at the heart of the American legacy. Although our forefathers carefully planned a nation to withstand social upheaval, they bequeathed a revolutionary spirit that has repeatedly been developed and focused to achieve social, political, and economic improvements. The Industrial Workers of the World harnessed that spirit in conjunction with new revolutionary Marxist principles in an effort to recreate a society free from exploitation of the working class. Here is a sampling of IWW history.
One morning in June 1905, there in a hall in Chicago, met a convention of two hundred socialists (http://www.sp-usa.org), anarchists (http://www.infoshop.org), and radical trade unionists from all over the U.S. They were forming the IWW-the Industrial workers of the World (http://iww.org) The convention drew up a constitution, whose preamble said:
"The working class and the employing class have nothing in common. There can be no peace so long as hunger and want are found among millions of working people and the few, who make up the employing class, have all the good things of life. Between these two classes a struggle must go on until all the toilers come together on the political as well as on the industrial field, and take and hold that which they produce by their labor, through an economic organization of the working class without affiliation with any political partyÉ"
The IWW (or "Wobblies," as they came to be called, for reasons not clear) aimed at organizing all workers in any industry into "One Big Union," undivided by sex, race, or skills. The IWW took its aim seriously. Women, foreigners, black workers, and the lowliest and most unskilled of workers were included when a factory or mine was organized. The IWW argued against making contracts with the employer, because this had so often prevented workers from striking on their own, or in sympathy with other strikers-turning union people kept at work by their contracts into strikebreakers. The Wobblies believed negotiations by leaders for contracts replaced and undermined the continuous struggle by the rank and file.
They organized according to a principle of "direct action."
"Direct action means industrial action directly by, for, and of the workers themselves, without the treacherous aid of labor misleaders or scheming politicians. A strike that is initiated, controlled, and settled by the workers directly affected is direct action. ... Direct action is industrial democracy."
IWW people were militant and courageous. Despite a reputation given them by the press, they did not believe in initiating violence, but did fight back when attacked. Though they were always prepared to strike, the IWW saw beyond strikes:
"Strikes are mere incidents in the class war; they are tests of strength, periodical drills in the course of which the workers train themselves for concerted action. This training is most necessary to prepare the masses for the final 'catastrophe,' the general strike which will complete the expropriation of the employers."
The ideas of anarcho-syndicalism were developing strongly in Spain, Italy, and France at this time. A better life through communism was on the lips of workers across the globe. The combination of syndicalism and communism created a vision in which the workers would take power, not by seizing the state machinery in an armed rebellion, but by bringing the economic system to a halt in a general strike, then taking control of it over for the good of all. IWW organizer Joseph Ettor said:
"If the workers of the world want to win, all they have to do is recognize their own solidarity. They have nothing to do but fold their arms and the world will stop. The workers are more powerful with their hands in their pockets than all the property of the capitalists..."
It was an immensely powerful idea. In the ten exciting years after its birth, the IWW became a threat to the capitalist class, exactly when capitalist growth was enormous and profits huge. The IWW never had more than five to ten thousand enrolled members at any one time; people came and went, and perhaps a hundred thousand were members at one time or another. But their energy, their persistence, their inspiration to others and their ability to mobilize thousands at one time made them a stronger influence on the country's mainstream than their simple numbers might have. They traveled everywhere (many were unemployed or migrant workers); they organized, wrote, spoke, sang, and spread their message and their spirit.
They were attacked with all the weapons the system could put together: the newspapers, the courts, the police, the army, and mob violence. Local authorities passed laws to stop them from speaking; the IWW defied these laws. In Missoula, M.T., a lumber and mining area, hundreds of Wobblies arrived by boxcar after some local Wobblies had been prevented from speaking. They were arrested one after another until they clogged the jails and the courts, and finally forced the town to repeal its anti-speech ordinance. Similar IWW struggles continued with fervor until the outbreak of WWI and the Red Scare of the 1920's.
The IWW was against World War I because it believed it wrong for powerful governments to send their working class men to fight against the working classes of other nations. They refused to fight and many members were jailed for draft dodging. The IWW never recovered from the drastic decrease in membership due to the Red Scare and today there are approximately 400 in its ranks. Though the IWW lacks the numbers it once had, its principles of revolutionary change through general strike and complete capitalist shutdown still find favor with many people particularly as exploitive, capitalist firms move into the developing world.
http://www.iww.org/graphics/photos/bandw/groups/iwwx01.jpg
http://www.iww.org/graphics/photos/bandw/events/consumption.jpg
Direct action and protest movements are at the heart of the American legacy. Although our forefathers carefully planned a nation to withstand social upheaval, they bequeathed a revolutionary spirit that has repeatedly been developed and focused to achieve social, political, and economic improvements. The Industrial Workers of the World harnessed that spirit in conjunction with new revolutionary Marxist principles in an effort to recreate a society free from exploitation of the working class. Here is a sampling of IWW history.
One morning in June 1905, there in a hall in Chicago, met a convention of two hundred socialists (http://www.sp-usa.org), anarchists (http://www.infoshop.org), and radical trade unionists from all over the U.S. They were forming the IWW-the Industrial workers of the World (http://iww.org) The convention drew up a constitution, whose preamble said:
"The working class and the employing class have nothing in common. There can be no peace so long as hunger and want are found among millions of working people and the few, who make up the employing class, have all the good things of life. Between these two classes a struggle must go on until all the toilers come together on the political as well as on the industrial field, and take and hold that which they produce by their labor, through an economic organization of the working class without affiliation with any political partyÉ"
The IWW (or "Wobblies," as they came to be called, for reasons not clear) aimed at organizing all workers in any industry into "One Big Union," undivided by sex, race, or skills. The IWW took its aim seriously. Women, foreigners, black workers, and the lowliest and most unskilled of workers were included when a factory or mine was organized. The IWW argued against making contracts with the employer, because this had so often prevented workers from striking on their own, or in sympathy with other strikers-turning union people kept at work by their contracts into strikebreakers. The Wobblies believed negotiations by leaders for contracts replaced and undermined the continuous struggle by the rank and file.
They organized according to a principle of "direct action."
"Direct action means industrial action directly by, for, and of the workers themselves, without the treacherous aid of labor misleaders or scheming politicians. A strike that is initiated, controlled, and settled by the workers directly affected is direct action. ... Direct action is industrial democracy."
IWW people were militant and courageous. Despite a reputation given them by the press, they did not believe in initiating violence, but did fight back when attacked. Though they were always prepared to strike, the IWW saw beyond strikes:
"Strikes are mere incidents in the class war; they are tests of strength, periodical drills in the course of which the workers train themselves for concerted action. This training is most necessary to prepare the masses for the final 'catastrophe,' the general strike which will complete the expropriation of the employers."
The ideas of anarcho-syndicalism were developing strongly in Spain, Italy, and France at this time. A better life through communism was on the lips of workers across the globe. The combination of syndicalism and communism created a vision in which the workers would take power, not by seizing the state machinery in an armed rebellion, but by bringing the economic system to a halt in a general strike, then taking control of it over for the good of all. IWW organizer Joseph Ettor said:
"If the workers of the world want to win, all they have to do is recognize their own solidarity. They have nothing to do but fold their arms and the world will stop. The workers are more powerful with their hands in their pockets than all the property of the capitalists..."
It was an immensely powerful idea. In the ten exciting years after its birth, the IWW became a threat to the capitalist class, exactly when capitalist growth was enormous and profits huge. The IWW never had more than five to ten thousand enrolled members at any one time; people came and went, and perhaps a hundred thousand were members at one time or another. But their energy, their persistence, their inspiration to others and their ability to mobilize thousands at one time made them a stronger influence on the country's mainstream than their simple numbers might have. They traveled everywhere (many were unemployed or migrant workers); they organized, wrote, spoke, sang, and spread their message and their spirit.
They were attacked with all the weapons the system could put together: the newspapers, the courts, the police, the army, and mob violence. Local authorities passed laws to stop them from speaking; the IWW defied these laws. In Missoula, M.T., a lumber and mining area, hundreds of Wobblies arrived by boxcar after some local Wobblies had been prevented from speaking. They were arrested one after another until they clogged the jails and the courts, and finally forced the town to repeal its anti-speech ordinance. Similar IWW struggles continued with fervor until the outbreak of WWI and the Red Scare of the 1920's.
The IWW was against World War I because it believed it wrong for powerful governments to send their working class men to fight against the working classes of other nations. They refused to fight and many members were jailed for draft dodging. The IWW never recovered from the drastic decrease in membership due to the Red Scare and today there are approximately 400 in its ranks. Though the IWW lacks the numbers it once had, its principles of revolutionary change through general strike and complete capitalist shutdown still find favor with many people particularly as exploitive, capitalist firms move into the developing world.
http://www.iww.org/graphics/photos/bandw/groups/iwwx01.jpg