[pf] Wobblies Aren't So Wobbly Nowadays (IWW)

· There's not enough "Positive" in this Positive Futures list, with the
exception of a few, like Nan, so I'm pleased I can send this item.

· contains:
 "the Wobbly dream of one union for all, regardless of race, nationality,
sex, income or occupation." "Members, tasked with literally organizing the
entire world, are themselves difficult to corral. Most are independent
thinkers who lean toward the cantankerous. They are socialists, atheists,
intellectuals, dreamers. Some have multiple piercings and tattoos; others
have gray ponytails." "Miriam Fried of Philadelphia, who was fired after
trying to organize a Borders bookstore in Philadelphia in 1996, says “The
Wobblies are the most dedicated union around. I believe workers should make
their own decisions. In the IWW, it’s direct democracy, from the bottom up.”
  Sent by David, member of the tiny community-based union _Unite!_: mainly
for unemployed and low-waged workers: PO Box 50 216, Porirua, New Zealand.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Date: Tue, 05 Sep 2000 13:36:18 -0400
From: Chuck0 <chuck@tao.ca>
To: AnarchyAreWe <anarchy-list@lists.village.virginia.edu>
Subject: [i-news] Wobblies Aren't So Wobbly Nowadays
Sender: owner-infoshop-news@flag.blackened.net

[Chuck0 says: ]
Interested readers should click on the MSNBC version because it has a nice
picture of IWW GST Alexis Buss.

[links to originals: ]
The IWW:
http://www.iww.org/

Wobblies aren’t so wobbly nowadays
http://www.msnbc.com:80/news/453934.asp?cp1=1

Wobblies preaching radical labor message to new generation
http://www.pioneerplanet.com:80/seven-days/2/news/docs/005947.htm

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[Title: ]
Iconoclastic IWW still trying to unionize the world
                                  
By Dru Sefton
NEWHOUSE NEWS SERVICE

PHILADELPHIA, Sept. 4 —  The Wobblies, diehard iconoclasts of the labor
movement, are still around. Still organizing. Still looking to transform
the world order.

OVER THE LAST few years, the tiny yet feisty Industrial Workers of the
World has seen its membership grow — to 1,000 worldwide, up from a low of
fewer than 100 in the early 1960s.

And those members remain true to the concept of “one big union.” They’re
radical syndicalists, as they have been since the IWW’s founding in 1905 in
Chicago. (Quick labor history review: A syndicalist favors bringing
government and industry under control of labor unions by means of “direct
action,” such as general strikes and, if need be, sabotage.)
 [Oxford Dictionary: syndicalism n. Movement among industrial
  workers (esp. in France) aiming at transfer of means of
  production and distribution from their present owners to
  unions of workers. (from: 'advocate of justice')  D.]

They fight to transfer all profits and power from bosses to workers,
because it’s the workers who do all the work. That victory would form the
shell of a new society, they say — as they have said, loudly, for all these
years.

Their idealistic battle was ignited generations ago by Wobblies who became
legendary: Mother Jones, who agitated for labor rights into her 90s and
inspired a magazine that still bears her name. Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, a
co-founder of the American Civil Liberties Union. Balladeer Joe Hill, whose
last words were “Don’t waste time in mourning. Organize.” Eugene Debs, who
helped create the Socialist Party in America.

That the Wobblies still exist, much less are growing, runs against a
decades-long decline in mainstream U.S. labor union membership. It hit a
high of 27 percent of the workforce in 1953; its current 14 percent is an
all-time low, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

The IWW has made inroads recently, organizing bookstores, small shops,
college-student workers and temporary employees. 

The national IWW headquarters shifted this year from Ypsilanti, Mich., to
Philadelphia, site of former glory days: Back in 1916, all but two of the
bustling docks at this port were under IWW control.

http://www.msnbc.com:80/news/703714.jpg
And now, the top Wob is a young woman. She is Alexis Buss, a slight,
27-year-old, freckled Philadelphian who wears her IWW cap backward. Buss
was elected in January, after pledging “to make the IWW a cohesive fighting
organization, rather than a collection of isolated activists” — to
reinvigorate the IWW, once known and feared as “the fighting union.”

No one remembers exactly why members are called Wobblies, or Wobs for
short, as they have been since the early 1900s. Some say it’s symbolic of
the wobble saw, mounted to cut a groove wider than the saw is thick. Others
think it’s based on an immigrant’s mispronunciation of the letters IWW —
“eye wobble-you-wobble-you.”

>From its founding, Wobblies have made up one intense bunch:

They wrote and sang the most enduring labor songs, including “Solidarity
Forever,” “Rebel Girl” and “The Preacher and the Slave,” origin of the
phrase “pie in the sky.”

They staged dramatic job actions: In 1912, Wobs led 10,000 strikers at
American Woolen Co. mills in Lawrence, Mass., forcing managers to give
workers significant pay raises. Strikers were beaten, and a female worker
was killed by shots from the swarms of 22,000 military police.

They were famous for their propaganda: “Keep warm, burn out the rich.” “The
boss needs you, you don’t need him.” “Good pay or bum work.”

They’ve constantly fought for a seemingly unattainable goal: As the
preamble to the IWW constitution reads, “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.”
                                
BUILT-IN BARRIERS TO SUCCESS

Buss heads a movement based on ideals that, ironically, hinder it from
gaining any real power.

The IWW is a pure democracy, controlled by its rank and file without a
traditional leadership structure. Dues start at just $5 a month, so it’s
perpetually cash-poor.

Members, tasked with literally organizing the entire world, are themselves
difficult to corral. Most are independent thinkers who lean toward the
cantankerous. They are socialists, atheists, intellectuals, dreamers. Some
have multiple piercings and tattoos; others have gray ponytails.

Even determining just how many Wobblies there are is tricky. “It varies by
month, when people pay their dues,” Buss said. There is no demographic
information on the thousand or so members. (By comparison, the AFL-CIO has
about 13 million members.)

Wobbly locals are active across the country, from Boston (Education Workers
Industrial Union 620) to San Francisco (Marine Transport Workers Industrial
Union 510). There also are branches in England, Australia and South Africa
— “traditional Wobbly strongholds,” Buss said.

Tradition is what lures, and inspires, most Wobblies.

“I believe in unionism, that all labor unions must come together,” said
Miriam Fried of Philadelphia, who was fired after trying to organize a
Borders bookstore in Philadelphia in 1996. “The Wobblies are the most
dedicated union around. I believe workers should make their own decisions.
In the IWW, it’s direct democracy, from the bottom up.”

Sharon Vance, another Philadelphia Wobbly, said the IWW has “the big
advantages without the big disadvantages of other unions.”

That includes representing workers usually overlooked. “Even if it’s a
workplace with just two people and one boss, we’re there to organize,” she
said.
                                
SMALL BUT CONSTANT PRESENCE 

“The IWW reached their real peak during World War I,” said Melvyn Dubofsky,
a history professor at Binghamton University-State University of New York
and author of “We Shall Be All: A History of the Industrial Workers of the
World.” “So, actually, they’ve survived as a miniscule force for more than
80 years.”

Along the way, the passionate Wobblies have become part of the cultural
texture of America, he said. They appear as characters in Dashiell
Hammett’s “Red Harvest,” in John Dos Passos’ “U.S.A Trilogy” and in “From
Here to Eternity” by James Jones.

Not to mention the enduring myth of larger-than-life Wobbly martyr Joe
Hill, executed by a Utah firing squad for a murder that many insist he
didn’t commit.

As the song goes, “And standing there as big as life, / And smiling with
his eyes, / Joe says, ‘What they forgot to kill / Went on to organize, /
Went on to organize.’”

What union bosses “forgot to kill” was the Wobbly dream of one union for
all, regardless of race, nationality, sex, income or occupation.

“Different people and different generations find parts of that dream that
appeals to them,” Dubofsky said.

And that is what keeps the movement going. Just barely.

Buss is a pragmatist. When she took over, the IWW had an $8,000 deficit;
now it’s solvent. She aims to be able to accept a small salary so she can
drop her part-time typesetting job. She wants to reach out to younger
retail workers and workers toiling too many hours without overtime. She
hopes to circulate more literature, increase the Wobbly Web presence,
organize job actions, build cash reserves and, of course, sign up more
members.

And she has one more goal:

After his cremation, Joe Hill’s ashes were divided and sent to IWW
delegates to be scattered around the world. A small pillbox of his remains,
after taking a circuitous route, finally ended up back at the headquarters
of the IWW, the union Hill helped make famous.

“I’d like to get an urn, but we can’t afford it,” Buss said. “We’ll have to
raise some money.”

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
David.
(David MacClement) davd@ihug.co.nz 
http://www.emucities.com.au/member/davd/index.html#top
******************************************************

___________________________________________________________
T O P I C A  The Email You Want. http://www.topica.com/t/16
Newsletters, Tips and Discussions on Your Favorite Topics