US revolutionary labour organization, founded in Chicago in 1905, its members informally known as Wobblies. In the following two decades it provided a powerful voice in opposition to capitalism and in favour of worker control of industrial production. Its tactics, which involved strikes, sabotage, and violence, brought it considerable publicity, but the prosecution and conviction of several of its leaders caused the movement to decay during the 1920s. Among its leaders were William D Haywood and Eugene V Debs.
IWW| Industrial Workers of the World | |
| Founded | 1905 |
|---|---|
| Members |
2000/900 (2006) 100,000 (1923) |
| Country | International |
| Office location | Cincinnati, Ohio |
| Website | www.iww.org |
The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW or the Wobblies) is an international union currently headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. 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 that the wage system should be abolished.
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 conference of six leaders in the socialist and labor movement: William Trautmann, George Estes, W.
Those at the informal conference decided to arrange a larger meeting to be held on January 2, 1905 in Chicago, to which about 30 people were invited. 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.
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.
Of the labor unions represented at the convention, sixteen were at the time affiliated with the A.F.L.
The 23 labor unions, who sent a delegate with instructions to install them, had a total membership of 51,430. 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).
The IWW's first organizers included Big Bill Haywood, Daniel De Leon, Eugene V.
Its goal was to promote worker solidarity in the revolutionary struggle to overthrow the employing class; In particular, the IWW was organized because of the belief among many unionists, socialists, anarchists and radicals that the American Federation of Labor (AFL) had utterly failed to organize the U.S. working class, as only about 5% of all workers belonged to unions in 1905.
From the current Preamble to the IWW Constitution:
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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. 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. The Finnish-language newspaper of the IWW, Industrialisti, published out of Duluth, Minnesota, was the union's only daily paper. 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. The IWW was condemned by politicians and the press, who saw them as a threat to the status quo. 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. OrganizingThe 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. 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; 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). 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. 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. 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." |
The effectiveness of the IWW's non-violent tactics sparked violent reaction by government, company management, and mobs of "respectable citizens". Frank Little, another senior IWW member, was lynched in Butte, Montana.
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 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! 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;
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.
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.
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. 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 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 the early 2000's the IWW organized Stonemoutain and Daughter Fabrics, a fabric/seamstress shop in Berkeley, the shop had remained IWW and contracted through today.
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. And in 2006, the IWW continued efforts at Starbucks by organizing several Chicago area shops. In Chicago the IWW began an effort to organize bicycle messengers with some success. Between 2003 and 2006, the IWW organized unions at food co-operatives in Seattle, Washington and Pittsburgh, PA.
The city of Berkeley's recycling is picked up, sorted, processed and sent out all through two different IWW organized enterprises.
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.
Also in 2006, the IWW Bay Area Branch organized the Landmark Shattuck Cinemas.
Current membership is about 2000 (about 900 in good standing), 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.
The Australian IWW developed in conditions of increasing industrial militancy after 1908. 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 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). 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.
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 workplaces, including support 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!
The IWW has launched a Website and has seven branches and several organizing groups around the UK alongside two budding industrial networks for health workers and education workers. The British Isles IWW publishes a magazine, 'Bread and Roses' and an industrial newsletter for health workers.
Folk music and protest songs
One feature of IWW followers from their inception is song. 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. Perhaps the best known IWW song is "Solidarity Forever".
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".
The origin of the nickname "Wobbly" is unclear. Another explanation is that the term was first used pejoratively by San Francisco Socialists around 1913 and adopted by IWWs as a badge of honor.
The union has also often been mistakingly called "International Workers of the World". 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.
Notable members
Notable members of the Industrial Workers of the World have included Helen Keller, whose life was recounted in several films; Murrow of having been an IWW member.
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