Industrial Workers of the World

The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW or the Wobblies) is an international union currently headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. At its peak in 1923 the organization claimed some 100,000 members in good standing, and could marshal the support of perhaps 300,000 workers. Its membership declined dramatically after a 1924 split brought on by internal conflict and government repression. Today it is actively organizing and numbers about 2000 members worldwide. IWW membership does not require that one works in a represented workplace, nor does it exclude membership in another labor union.

The IWW contends that all workers should be united within a single union as a class and the wage system abolished. They may be best known for the Wobbly Shop model of workplace democracy, in which workers elect recallable delegates, and other norms of grassroots democracy (self-management) are implemented.

Founding

The IWW was founded in Chicago in June 1905 at a convention of two hundred socialists, anarchists, and radical trade unionists from all over the United States (mainly the Western Federation of Miners) who were opposed to the policies of the American Federation of Labor.

Preparation of 1905 convention

But the first step towards the founding of the union was already taken in the fall of 1904 in an informal conferences of six leaders in the socialist and labor movement: William Trautmann, George Estes, W. L. Hall, Isaac Cowen, Clarence Smith, and Thomas J. Hagerty. Other people, including Eugene V. Debs and Charles O. Sherman, cooperated with them without being present at this meeting. These men shared the conviction that the American labor unions were unable to achieve real benefits for the workers, because they were either conservative or "aristocratic" as these radicals called them - the American Federation of Labor, for example, - or because they were for other reasons, lack of solidarity between radical labor unions, for example, ineffective in negotiating with employers - such as the American Labor Union, the Western Federation of Miners, or the Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance.Brissenden 1919, pg. 57-58

It was decided to arrange a larger meeting to be held on January 2, 1905 in Chicago, to which about 30 people were invited. This secret conference - known as the January conference - was visited by 23 individuals, formally representing 9 organizations. The conference wrote a manifesto, which indicted the shape of the American labor movement, especially the craft form of organization, proposed plans for a new form of labor organization, and called for a convention to organize such a new labor union. Such a convention was to be held again in Chicago on June 27. The manifesto was signed by all, who were present at the January conference and sent to all unions in America as well as the industrial unions in Europe.Brissenden 1919, pg. 59-67

1905 convention

The convention, which took place on June 27, 1905 in Chicago was then referred to as the "Industrial Congress" or the "Industrial Union Convention" - it would later be known as the First Annual Convention of the I.W.W. It is considered one of the most important events in the history of industrial unionism and of the American labor movement in general. It was visited by 203 radical trade unionists representing 43 organizations, which covered a wide range of occupations. 70 delegates from 23 organizations were authorized to install their organizations in the trade union, which was to be founded at the convention. 72 further delegates from the other 20 organizations were only present to take notes on the proceedings and report back. The other 61 delegates did not represent any organization. Only the delegates, who were empowered to install an organization in the I.W.W. were given votings rights proportional to the number of members of their organization - the other delegates had only one vote each.Brissenden 1919, pg. 67-73

Of the labor unions represented at the convention, sixteen were at the time affiliated with the A.F.L. These were, however, mostly only local unions with little strength in numbers. Only five of the organizations affiliated with the A.F.L. were represented by delegates with intructions to install them in the proposed labor union. Hence, these unions played only a minor role at the meeting.Brissenden 1919, pg. 71-71

The 23 labor unions, who sent a delegate with instructions to install them, had a total membership of 51,430. The total membership of the other 20 organizations was 91,500; this means that about one third of the membership represented at the convention held almost the whole voting power. Of the over 51,000 votes aggregated by those organizations prepared to install, 48,000 were distributed among five organiations: the Western Federation of Miners (27,000 members), American Labor Union (16,750 members), United Metal Workers (3,000 members), United Brotherhood of Railway Employees (2,087 members), and the Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance (1,450 members). Only a few organizations thus held almost all the power at the convention. The first two labor unions listed above outnumbered all others ten to one.Brissenden 1919, pg. 73-75

The IWW's first leaders included Big Bill Haywood, Daniel De Leon, Eugene V. Debs, Thomas J Hagerty, Lucy Parsons, Mary Harris Jones (commonly known as "Mother Jones"), William Trautmann, Vincent Saint John, Ralph Chaplin, and many others.

Its goal was to promote worker solidarity in the revolutionary struggle to overthrow the employing class; its motto was "an injury to one is an injury to all," which echoed the 19th century Knights of Labor's creed, "an injury to one is the concern of all." In particular, the IWW was organized because of the belief among many unionists, socialists, and radicals that the American Federation of Labor (AFL) had utterly failed to organize the U.S. working class, as way only about 5% of all workers belonged to unions in 1905.

From the current Preamble to the IWW Constitution [1]:

The Wobblies differed from other union movements of the time by its promotion of industrial unionism. They emphasized rank-and-file organization, as opposed to empowering leaders who would bargain with employers on behalf of workers. This manifested itself in the IWW's consistent refusal to sign contracts, which they felt would restrict the only true power that workers possessed: the power to strike. Though never developed in any detail, Wobblies envisioned the general strike as the means by which the wage system would be overthrown and a new economic system ushered in, one which emphasized people over profit, cooperation over competition.

One of the IWW's most important contributions to the labor movement and broader push towards social justice was that, when founded, it was the only American union to welcome all workers including women, immigrants, and African Americans. Indeed, many of its early members were immigrants, and some, like Carlo Tresca, Joe Hill and Mary Jones, rose to prominence in the leadership. The Finnish-language newspaper of the IWW, Industrialisti, published out of Duluth, Minnesota, was the union's only daily paper. At its peak, it ran 10,000 copies per issue. Another Finnish-language Wobbly publication was the monthly Tie Vapauteen ("Road to Freedom"). Also of note was the Finnish IWW educational institute, the Work People's College in Duluth, and the Finnish Labour Temple in Thunder Bay, Ontario which served as the IWW Canadian administration for several years. One example of the union's commitment to equality was Local 8, a longshoremen's branch in Philadelphia, one of the largest ports in the nation in the WWI era. Led by the African American Ben Fletcher, Local 8 had over 5,000 members, the majority of whom were African American, along with more than a thousand immigrants (primarily Lithuanians and Poles), Irish Americans, and numerous others.

The IWW was condemned by politicians and the press, who saw them as a threat to the status quo. Factory owners would employ means both non-violent (sending in Salvation Army bands to drown out speakers) and violent to disrupt their meetings. Members were often arrested and sometimes killed for making public speeches, but this persecution only inspired further militancy.

Political action or direct action?

Like many leftist organizations of the era, the IWW soon split over policy. In 1908 a group led by Daniel DeLeon argued that political action through DeLeon's Socialist Labor Party was the best way to attain the IWW's goals. The other faction, led by Vincent Saint John, William Trautmann, and Big Bill Haywood, believed that direct action in the form of strikes, propaganda, and boycotts was the correct path; they were opposed to arbitration and to political affiliation. Haywood's faction prevailed, and De Leon and his supporters left the organisation.

Organizing

A Wobbly membership card

The IWW first attracted attention in Goldfield, Nevada in 1906 and during the strike of the Pressed Steel Car Company at McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania in 1909. Further fame was gained later that year, when they took their stand on free speech. The town of Spokane, Washington had outlawed street meetings, and arrested Elizabeth Gurley Flynn [2], a Wobbly organizer for breaking this ordinance. The response was simple but effective: when a fellow member was arrested for speaking, large numbers of people descended on the location and forced the authorities to arrest all of them, until it became too expensive for the town. In Spokane, over 500 people went to jail and four people died. The tactic was also used effectively in Fresno, Aberdeen and San Diego.

1914 IWW demonstration in New York City

By 1912 the organization had around 50,000 members, concentrated in the Northwest, among dock workers, agricultural workers in the central states, and in textile and mining areas. The IWW was involved in over 150 strikes, including those in the Lawrence textile strike (1912), the Paterson silk strike (1913) and the Mesabi range (1916). They were also involved in what came to be known as the Wheatland Hop Riot August 3, 1913

Between 1915 and 1917, the IWW's Agricultural Workers Organization (AWO) organized hundreds of thousands of migratory farm workers throughout the midwest and western United States, often signing up and organizing members in the field, in railyards and in hobo jungles. During this time, the IWW became synonymous with the hobo; migratory farmworkers could scarcely afford any other means of transportation to get to the next jobsite. Workers often won better working conditions by using direct action at the point of production, and striking "on the job" (consciously and collectively slowing their work). As a result of Wobbly organizing, conditions for migratory farm workers improved enormously.

Building on the success of the AWO, the IWW's Lumber Workers Industrial Union (LWIU) used similar tactics to organize lumberjacks and other timber workers, both in the Deep South and the Pacific Northwest of the United States and Canada, between 1917 and 1924. The IWW lumber strike of 1917 led to the eight-hour day and vastly improved working conditions in the Pacific Northwest. Even though mid-century historians would give credit to the US Government and "forward thinking lumber magnates" for agreeing to such reforms, an IWW strike forced these concessions.

From 1913 through the mid-1930s, the IWW's Marine Transport Workers Industrial Union, proved a force to be reckoned with and competed with AFL unions for ascendance in the industry. Given the union's commitment international solidarity, its efforts and success in the field come as no surprise. As mentioned above, Local 8 was led by Ben Fletcher, who organized predominantly African-American longshoremen on the Philadelphia and Baltimore waterfronts, but other leaders included the Swiss immigrant Waler Nef, Jack Walsh, E.F. Doree, and the Spanish sailor Manuel Rey. The IWW also had a presence among waterfront workers in Boston, New York City, New Orleans, Houston, San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Eureka, Portland, Tacoma, Seattle, Vancouver as well as in ports in the Caribbean, Mexico, South America, Australia, New Zealand, Germany and other nations. IWW members played a role in the 1934 San Francisco General Strike and the other organizing efforts by rank-and-filers within the International Longshoremen's Association up and down the West Coast.

Wobblies also played a role in the sit-down strikes and other organizing efforts by the United Auto Workers in the 1930s, particularly in Detroit, though they never established a strong union presence there.

Where the IWW did win strikes, such as at Lawrence, they often found it hard to hold onto their gains. The IWW of 1912 disdained collective bargaining agreements and preached instead the need for constant struggle against the boss on the shop floor. It proved difficult, however, to maintain that sort of revolutionary elán against employers; In Lawrence, the IWW lost nearly all of its membership in the years after the strike, as the employers wore down their employees' resistance and eliminated many of the strongest union supporters.

Clarice Stasz, Jack London's biographer notes that he "regarded the Wobblies as a welcome addition to the Socialist cause, although he never jointed them in going so far as to recommend sabotage." She mentions a personal meeting between London and Big Bill Haywood in 1912.

Government repression

Joseph J. Ettor, who had been arrested in 1912, giving a speech to barbers on strike

The effectiveness of the IWW's non-violent tactics sparked violent reaction by government, company management, and mobs of "respectable citizens". In 1914, Joe Hill (Joel Hägglund) was accused of murder and, despite only circumstantial evidence, was executed by the state of Utah in 1915. Frank Little, another senior IWW member, was lynched in Butte, Montana. On November 5, 1916 at Everett, Washington a drunken mob of deputized businessmen led by Sheriff Donald McRae attacked Wobblies on the steamer VERONA, killing at least five union members (six more were never accounted for and probably were lost in Puget Sound). Two members of the mob were killed, probably by their own side's cross-fire.[3][4]

Many IWW members opposed the United States participation in World War I, but the organization took no official position on the conflict. Regardless, the right-wing press and the U.S. Government were able to turn public opinion against the IWW, because of the IWW's refusal to support World War I. In his book "The Land That Time Forgot" which was published at the time, Edgar Rice Burroughs presented an IWW member as a particularly despicable villain and traitor.

This wave of incitement led to vigilante mobs attacking the IWW in many places, including Centralia, Washington on November 11, 1919, where IWW member and army veteran, Wesley Everest, was turned over to the lynch mob by the jail guards, first had his teeth smashed with a rifle butt, was castrated, lynched three times in three separate locations, and then his corpse was riddled with bullets before it was disposed of in an unmarked grave. The official coroner's report listed the victim's cause of death as "suicide."

The government used World War I as an opportunity to crush the IWW. An IWW newspaper, the Industrial Worker, wrote just before the declaration of war: "Capitalists of America, we will fight against you, not for you! There is not a power in the world that can make the working class fight if they refuse." Upon the U.S. declaration of war, however, the organization ceased all anti-war activity and propaganda. In September 1917, U.S. Department of Justice agents made simultaneous raids on forty-eight IWW meeting halls across the country. In 1917, one hundred and sixty-five IWW leaders were arrested for conspiring to hinder the draft, encourage desertion, and intimidate others in connection with labor disputes, under the new Espionage Act; one hundred and one went on trial before Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis in 1918.

They were all convicted—even those who had not been members of the union for years—and given prison terms of up to twenty years. Sentenced to prison by Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis and released on bail, Haywood fled to the Soviet Union where he remained until his death. Communist Party promises to reimburse those who had staked Haywood's bond went unfulfilled.

After the war the repression continued. Members of the IWW were prosecuted under various State and federal laws and the 1920 Palmer Raids singled out the foreign-born members of the organization. By the mid-1920s membership was already declining due to government repression and it decreased again substantially during a contentious organizational schism in 1924 when the organization split between the "Westerners" and the "Easterners" over a number of issues, including the role of the General Administration (often oversimplified as a struggle between "centralists" and "decentralists") and attempts by the Communist Party to dominate the organization. By 1930 membership was down to around 10,000.

Activity after World War II

The Wobblies continued to organize workers and were a major presence in the metal shops of Cleveland, Ohio until the 1950s. After the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act in 1950 by the US Government, which called for the removal of communist union leadership, the IWW experienced a loss of membership as differences of opinion occurred over how to respond to the challenge. The Cleveland IWW metal and machine workers wound up leaving the union, resulting in a major decline in membership once again.

The IWW membership fell to its lowest level in the 1950s, but the 1960s Civil Rights Movement, anti-war protests, and various university student movements brought new life to the IWW, albeit with many fewer new members than the great organizing drives of the early part of the 20th Century.

From the 1960s to the 1980s, the IWW had various small organizing drives. Membership included a number of cooperatively owned and collectively run enterprises especially in the printing industry: Red & Black (Detroit), Lakeside (Madison, Wisconsin), and Harbinger (North Carolina). The University Cellar, a non-profit campus bookstore formed by University of Michigan students, was for several years the largest organized IWW shop with about 100 workers. In the 1960s, Rebel Worker was published in Chicago by the surrealists Franklin and Penelope Rosemont. One edition was published in London with Charles Radcliffe who went on to become involved with the Situationist International.

In the 1990s, the IWW was involved in many labor struggles and free speech fights, including Redwood Summer, and the picketing of the Neptune Jade in the port of Oakland in late 1997. IWW members built their own Internet server from spare parts and ran it out of a member's bedroom for two years before moving it to its current home in a San Francisco office. The IWW now maintains its own internet domain (iww.org).

IWW organizing drives in recent years have included a major campaign to organize Borders Books in 1996, a strike at the Lincoln Park Mini Mall in Seattle that same year, organizing drives at Wherehouse Music, Keystone Job Corps, the community organization ACORN, various homeless and youth centers in Portland, Oregon, and recycling shops in Berkeley, California. IWW members have been active in the building trades, marine transport, ship yards, high tech industries, hotels and restaurants, public interest organizations, schools and universities, recycling centers, railroads, bike messengers, and lumber yards.

The IWW has stepped in several times to help the rank and file in mainstream unions, including saw mill workers in Fort Bragg in California in 1989, concession stand workers in the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1990s, and most recently at shipyards along the Mississippi River.

In 2004, an IWW union was organized in a New York City Starbucks, a company notorious for its refusal to allow workers to form unions. In September of 2004, IWW-organized short haul truck drivers in Stockton, California walked off their jobs and went on a strike. Nearly all demands were met. Despite early victories in Stockton, the truck drivers union ceased to exist in mid-2005.

In Chicago the IWW began an effort to organize bicycle messengers with some success.

Besides IWW's traditional practice of organizing industrially, the Union has been open to new methods such as organizing geographically such as seeking to organize retail workers in a certain business district, as in Philadelphia.

The union has also participated in such worker-related issues as protesting involvement in the war in Iraq, opposing sweatshops and supporting a boycott of Coca Cola for that company's alleged support of the suppression of workers rights in Colombia.

In 2006 the IWW moved its headquarters to Cincinnati, Ohio.

Current membership is about 2000, with most members in the United States, but many also located in Australia, Canada, Ireland, and the United Kingdom.

The IWW in Australia

Australia encountered the IWW tradition very early, with both Chicago and Detroit branches forming in Australia. In part this was due to the local De Leonist SLP following the industrial turn of the US SLP.

The Australian IWW developed in conditions of increasing industrial militancy after 1908. It first shot to prominence by opposing compulsory boyhood conscription in Australia. The early Australian IWW used a number of tactics from the US, including free speech fights.

The Australian IWW was most important, however, in terms of its industrial organising work. The IWW cooperated with many other unions, encouraging industrial unionism and militancy. In particular, the IWW's strategies had a large effect on the Australasian Meat Industry Employees Union. The AMIEU established closed shops and workers councils and effectively regulated management behaviour towards the end of the 1910s.

Anti-conscription poster, 1916

The IWW was well known for opposing the First World War from 1914 onwards, and in many ways was at the front of the anti-conscription fight (this time opposed to manhood conscription). A series of controversial newspaper cartoons, most notably, "Workers follow your leaders", led to notoriety and the attention of Australian Federal intelligence agencies. When a five pound note forgery scandal was followed by a series of arsons and threatened arsons in Sydney, the IWW was declared an illegal organisation by the Commonwealth government and its leadership arrested in NSW.

The IWW continued illegally operating with the aim of freeing its class war prisoners and briefly fused with two other radical tendencies–from the old Socialist parties and Trades Halls–to form a larval communist party at the suggestion of the militant revolutionist and Council Communist Adela Pankhurst. The IWW however left the CPA shortly after its formation, taking with it the bulk of militant industrial worker members.

By the 1930s the IWW in Australia had declined significantly, and took part in unemployed workers movements which were led largely by the now Stalinised CPA. In 1939 the Australian IWW had four members, according to surveillance by government authorities, and these members were consistently opposed to the second world war. (See files in National Archives of Australia)

Today the IWW still exists in Australia, in larger numbers than the 1940s, but due to the nature of the Australian industrial relations system, it is unlikely to win union representation in any workplaces in the immediate future.

"Bump me into parliament" is perhaps the most notable Australian IWW song.

The IWW in the UK

Syndicalists and radical unionists, such as James Connolly in the UK and Ireland have remained close to the IWW in the USA. Although much smaller than their North American counterparts, the BIROC (British Isles Regional Organising Committee) reported in 2006 that there were nearly 200 members in the UK and Ireland. Numbers have been steadily increasing since the 1990s, and in the year 2005-2006 numbers leapt up by around 25%.

Having been present in the UK in various guises since 1906, the IWW was present to varying extents in many of the struggles in the early decades of the twentieth century, including the UK General Strike of 1926 and the dockers' strike of 1947. More recently, IWW members were involved in the Liverpool dockers' strike that took place between 1995 and 1998, and numerous other events and struggles throughout the 1990s and 2000s, including the successful unionising of several co-operatives and workers for the Scottish Socialist Party who hold some seats in the Scottish Parliament. In 2005, the IWW's centenary year, a stone was laid in a forest in Wales, commemorating the centenary, as well as the death of US IWW and Earth First! activist Judi Bari.

The IWW has launched a website ([5]) and has around a dozen branches around the UK. It also publishes a monthly magazine, 'Bread and Roses' and an industrial newsletter for health workers.

Folk music and protest songs

One feature of the Wobblies from their inception is song. To counteract management sending in the Salvation Army band to cover up the Wobbly speakers, Joe Hill wrote parodies of Christian hymns so that union members could sing along with the Salvation Army band, but with their own purposes (for example, "In the Sweet By and By" became "There'll Be Pie in the Sky When You Die (That's a Lie)"). From that start in exigency, Wobbly song writing became legendary. The IWW collected its official songs in the Little Red Songbook and continues to update this book to the present time. In the 1960s, the folk music revival in the United States brought a renewed interest in the songs of Joe Hill and other Wobblies, and seminal folk revival figures such as Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie had a pro-Wobbly tone, while some, like Phil Ochs, were members of the IWW. The Little Red Songbook, still in print, is a major document in American folk music. Among the protest songs in the book are "Hallelujah, I'm a Bum", "Union Maid", and "I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill Last Night." Perhaps the best known Wobbly song is "Solidarity Forever." The songs have been performed by dozens of artists, and Utah Phillips has performed the songs in concert and on recordings for decades.

Some other notable Wobbly poets and song writers include Matti Valentine Huhta (better known as T-Bone Slim), who penned "The Popular Wobbly" and "The Mysteries of a Hobo's Life", Ralph Chaplin who authored "Solidarity Forever", and Leslie Fish.

Name

The acronym I.W.W. stands for Industrial Workers of the World of course, but has led to numerous other interpretations of the name, such as "I Won't Work", "I Want Whiskey", "International Wonder Workers", and "Irresponsible Wholesale Wreckers". On August 17, 1917, the Arizonan Senator Henry F. Ashurst even declared that "I.W.W. means simply, solely and only, Imperial Wilhelm's Warriors", alleging a link between the I.W.W. and the German emperor Wilhelm II as opponents of the union have repeatedly and falsly done.Brissenden 1919, pg. 57

The origin of the nickname "Wobbly" is unclear. Many believe it refers to a tool known as a "wobble saw", while others believe it is derived from an immigrant's mispronunciation of "IWW" as "eye-wobble-you-wobble-you". A third theory holds that the word was a code for sabotage. The most likely explanation is that the term was first used pejoratively by San Francisco Socialists around 1913 and adopted by IWWs as a badge of honor."What is the Origin of the Term Wobbly?". Retrieved July 17, 2006. In any case, the nickname has existed since the union's early days and is still used today.

The union has also often been mistakingly called "International Workers of the World". The conservative media pundit Rush Limbaugh blamed the anti-WTO demonstrations in Seattle in 1999 on the "International Workers of the World". In the indexes of the books Timber Wars by Judi Bari and Been and Done by Gipsy Moon, the I.W.W. was incorrectly listed under this name, although they were correctly named in the text. Fred Chase once joked that the Industrial Workers of the World should ask the International Workers of the World to join up, since they're such a large and influential organization. This mistake happens commonly, although the word International would obviously be redundant because of the words of the World.

Notable members

Notable members of the Industrial Workers of the World have included Helen Keller, whose life was recounted in several films; Joe Hill; Ralph Chaplin; Ricardo Flores Magon; James P. Cannon; James Connolly; Jim Larkin; Paul Mattick; Big Bill Haywood; Lala Hardayal the Indian Nationalist, Frank Little; ACLU founder Roger Nash Baldwin; Harry Bridges; Buddhist beat poet Gary Snyder; anthropologist David Graeber; graphic artist Carlos Cortez; counterculture icon Kenneth Rexroth; Surrealist Franklin Rosemont; Rosie Kane and Carolyn Leckie, Members of the Scottish Parliament; Judi Bari; Utah Phillips; mixed martial arts fighter Jeff Monson; Finnish folk music legend Hiski Salomaa; and U.S. Green Party politician James M. Branum. It has long been rumored, but not yet proven, that baseball legend Honus Wagner was also a Wobbly. Senator Joe McCarthy accused Edward R. Murrow of having been an IWW member. Its most famous current member is Noam Chomsky.

External links

*The IWW Home Page
*The IWW Organizing Department
*IWW Culture, History, and Library
*IWW Starbucks Workers Union
*Jim Crutchfield's IWW Page current and historical documents
*IWW in Australia
*IWW Canada in English and French
*IWW British Isles
*IWW 100 an IWW centenary tribute with historical and news articles
*IWW FAQ
* Howard Zinn, "The Founding Convention of the IWW", A People's History of the United States
* Paul Buhle, "The Legacy of the IWW", Monthly Review
*Account of the repression of the IWW in Chile

Industrial Workers of the World: Encyclopedia BETA

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