"Workers are fed up"

Brian O. Sheppard x349393 bsheppard at bari.iww.org
Fri Oct 11 17:16:21 PDT 2002


On Fri, 11 Oct 2002, Chuck0 wrote:
> I'm currently an inactive member of the IWW. I think I'm like many ex-members
> in my dismay that the IWW doesn't think bigger. Organizing job shops that are
> essentially lefty and progressive stores is pretty chickenshit stuff. The IWW
> gained lots of members several years ago when it took on the Borders
> bookstore chain. This drive didn't result in anybody getting uinion
> recognition, but it did inspire many of us to take the IWW seriously enough
> to join the organization.
>
> A local activist recently approached me about organizing his workplace. I had
> to refer him to the AFL-CIO because I knew that the IWW didn't have the
> resources to help him out.
>
> Too bad.

I don't disagree the AFL-CIO has more resources. Way more resources. But that also comes with its own problems, as you, with your repeated calls for some kind of "post unionism" must also realize. At least you referred your friend to a real union and not to some gost of a "post leftist post-union," which you have repeatedly argued for on the list.

In short, there obviously needs to be som kind of radical labor - revolutionary labor - alternative to the AFL-CIO. I'm all ears. What are your thoughts?

The IWW does have its share of internal problems (and helping out the very real problems of ACORN workers wasn't, is not, and has never been chickenshit - no one in the IWW can help it if workers at a non-profit want to form a union in the IWW, and they *won't* be turned away just because they happen to be working at one).

The lack of funds or "resources" problem is circular: the IWW doesn't have resources, so it doesn't get member. The IWW doesn't get members, so thereby it doesn't get resources. In the long run, maybe the IWW isn't the answer. But SOME kind of revolutionary *labor* based movement must be.

Brian

--

"At times one remains faithful to a cause only because its opponents do not cease to be insipid." - Friedrich Nietzsche



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