Industrial Workers of the World

[BayCityProgressive]

http://www.iww.org/

Has anyone heard of this group or know anything about it? Do they have a large membership?

[dobegrrrl]

1. Founded in 1905

Socialist leaning union. Historic. I am surprised that you have not heard of them, but I am a history major.

http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/keller-helen/works/1910s/18_01_x01.htm

Helen Keller (a Socialist) discusses the IWW.

[DrWeird]

2. You've never heard of the wobblies?

Fer real?

[BayCityProgressive]

5. well

I have heard of them...but never read up on them. Do they have any presense at all in the modern era or are they strictly a thing of the past?

[RoyGBiv]

3. The Wobblies

The Wobblies (IWW) are one of the original labor unions, and their members knew how to fight for worker rights. When you hear a story involving union members mixing it up with oppressive employers and government goons from the early parts of the century, you're probably hearing a story about the Wobblies.

They played a large role in Oklahoma history, FWIW, until oil barons, backed by the government, crushed them almost entirely. I have a few books and essays and such on the subject.

The current incarnation? I don't know really. Labor unions in general aren't quite what they once were.

[demosincebirth]

10. One of the reasons they don't teach "Labor History" in HS.

Imagine if our students knew the truth?

[RoyGBiv]

11. Unfortunately, I can *only* imagine ...

It's just a fantasy I have that children me taught the truth.

I get my daughter in a lot of trouble at school, and I have mixed emotions about that. She'll tell me something she "learned" in her history class, and if it is crap, or if there is more to the story, I let her know. She proceeds to let her teacher know this as well, and the circle begins.

Despite those mixed emotions, I'll be damned if I ever lie to her about anything. I might have tried to teach her to be a little less "in your face" about the knowledge she acquires, but then again, why? Truth is truth.

Anyway ... I am sad to say I knew nothing about the Wobblies until I was in college. My advisor in the history department happened to have written a book on the subject of their influence on Oklahoma. He was a fountain of wonderful stories and as die-hard a "truth in history" advocate as I have ever met. Wish there were more like him.

[demosincebirth]

14. I some times tell some RW guy that is bashing unions...

how some of the benifits he enjoys came to be, like 8hr day 40hre week, overtine, paid vacations, paid holidays, sick leave, paid health care and pensions. The corporations didn't just give them to him out of the goodness of their heart. Men and women of the labor movement fought and died for us to enjoy (at times) working with dignity. Of course they brush that information off with some sarcastic remark about crooked unions. To them, sarcasm is an answer to the truth.

[whistle]

4. Well, here is their Mission Statement...

...read it and tell me what you think:

<snip>

Where We (IWW) Stand
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 the 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 the workers of the world organize as a class, take possession of the means of production, abolish the wage system, and live in harmony with the Earth.

We find that the centering of the management of industries into fewer and fewer hands makes the trade unions unable to cope with the ever growing power of the employing class. The trade unions foster a state of affairs which allows one set of workers to be pitted against another set of workers in the same industry, thereby helping defeat one another in wage wars. Moreover, the trade unions aid the employing class to mislead the workers into the belief that the working class have interests in common with their employers.

These conditions can be changed and the interest of the working class upheld only by an organization formed in such a way that all its members in any one industry, or in all industries if necessary, cease work whenever a strike or lockout is on in any department thereof, thus making an injury to one an injury to all.

Instead of the conservative motto, "A fair day's wage for a fair day's work," we must inscribe on our banner the revolutionary watchword, "Abolition of the wage system."

It is the historic mission of the working class to do away with capitalism. The army of production must be organized, not only for everyday struggle with capitalists, but also to carry on production when capitalism shall have been overthrown. By organizing industrially we are forming the structure of the new society within the shell of the old.

<link> http://www.iww.org/culture/official/preamble.shtml

Boy, wouldn't the neo-conservatives, fundies, Dominionists and John Birchers love to see 60 million IWW members marching through the streets of America and Canada demanding their heads?

[BayCityProgressive]

6. LOL that

would be a dream come true.

[Solon]

7. Heard of them in a historical context...

It appears that they have organized some Starbucks and are organizing truckers and other places as well. Maybe they can make a comeback?

[whistle]

9. Rise of the proletariat workers against the bourgeoisie privileged

...class. Classic Karl Marx struggle of the working class and the capitalists. In that fight, the workers will ultimately win. Hover, the armies of the ruling classes are much more lethal today then they were at the beginning of the 20th century.

I think George Bush and the fundies shadow government believes that the all volunteer military somehow will be more loyal to their leaders than they will be to their roots. What do DUers think? Would the National Guard, the reserves and the professional armies take out their own neighborhoods here in America to put down working class rebellion? Or is there a secret militia para-military group that is well armed, drawn from the neo-conservative ranks and loyal to the established neo-conservative order that will rise up and emerge from the shadows and evangelical temples erected for the worship of money and hatred of liberalism to become Amerika's SS elite corps of killers.

I'm willing to bet they exist in huge numbers even now and would be flooded with new recruits of young, hate filled right wing fascistic types ready to find glory, excitement and fame based on their video game fantasies and their corrupted delusional lives. The elements of a social witches brew of division and alienation have been at work in America for some time. George Bush has become the lightening rod to which the extremists and fanatics from the right are drawn to his madness, while Bush and his loyalists taunt those on the extreme left to anger and the moderates into a sense of betrayal and frustration. Inevitably a clash will be sparked as George Bush has shown that he has no intension to compromise or relent whatever his mad dream for a new America is.

[Sporadicus]

8. 'The Wobblies'

I believe their downfall came during WW I, when they were accused of draft evasion, German-financed work stoppages, sabotage & treason. Their membership fell even during the height of the depression, becoming essentially irrelevant. I admire their aspirations - to unite all workers, skilled and unskilled, in opposition to capitalist plans: de facto slavery for the masses.

[durutti]

12. I'm technically a member.

I haven't paid my dues in years and never went to a meeting, however. I know a lot of folks in the Pittsburgh chapter. I joined shortly after I graduated high school and wanted to join a Left group that wasn't wishy-washy or cult-like.

Wikipedia has a good article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IWW

[ElkHunter]

13. The IWW is largly irrelevant today...

...but they had an incredible history. If you can ever get ahold of a book titled "We Shall Be All" (probably from a library) it is a great read. The book tells the history of the IWW. As others have said, the government came down hard on them during and following World War I. Moreover, many wobblies became members and leaders of the newly organized Communist Party following the Russian revolution in 1917. Others went on to help organize the CIO in the 1930's. On the other hand, today's IWW is mostly made-up of folks who cling to some of the old anarcho-syndicalist ideas.