From: intexile-AT-bari.iww.org
Date: Sat, 5 Feb 2000 00:27:00 -0800 (PST)
Subject: Re: IWW



I'm not actually subscribed to anarchy-list myself, so I'm not sure this
message will be sent there.  Perhaps either Chuck or Ed might forward this
to the list for me?  I would be happy to discuss these matters with
various individuals on the list provided the discussion remains relevant.

Anyway...

On Mon, 31 Jan 2000 ed.stamm-AT-excite.com wrote:

> So imagine me trying to sell this to my fellow workers:
> Okay folks, we've got to do this ourselves.  There's no organizer
> to help us, no one who knows the procedure, no one who knows our
> legal rights.  The boss has a union busting law firm on his side,
> and we get this do-it-yourself pamphlet.

Hello Ed.  I recognize your name as one of the many who write letters to
The Match!  I'm presuming that it has been awhile since you were a dues
paying member of the IWW.  It would seem that way, because what you
describe here is not the reality of the current IWW.  We do not have paid
organizers, but this does not mean that we're resourceless.

For example, in the East Bay IWW (Oakland, Berkeley area of the San
Francisco Bay Area) we have approximately forty - sixty members (and count
about 60 additional members in the San Jose and San Francisco Area) and
that represents a significant level of experience.  Many of us have been
members in good standing for three years or more.  One of our local
members is a labor lawyer.  The IWW also runs a network of internet
servers, we have at least two union contracts (one with the Berkeley
Curbside Recyclers).  Many of us are also members of AFl-CIO unions.  

> But if somehow we pull this off on our own, and
> we all don't get fired or locked out or replaced by scabs, end
> up in jail for punching a scab, or lose our homes, and if our spouses

Freedom is a constant struggle.  In 3rd World Countries workers risk their
lives, sometimes just to get a reformist union to represent them.

> don't divorce us, then we'll have a union.  But we have to send $15
> a month to this outfit called the IWW.  
> And you also need to each pony up another $15 for an initiation
> fee.  Yes, I know it seems like a weird deal, but you get this
> really cool union card.  That's the difference between a
> revolutionary union and a regular union.

First of all, the dues rates are $6, $12, or $18 based on what you make
per month.  You have to be making in excess of $2,000 per month to pay $18
in monthly dues.

Initiattion is the same as one months dues.

There are also huge differences between us and "regular" unions, besides
the cool union card.  The IWW does not have unaccountable bureaucrats
with, six (or seven) figure salaries, and the IWW is the most democratic
union in existence (to our knowledge anyway).  

> With a revolutionary union there's no professional organizer who
> knows what the hell they're doing.  But we still pay them dues,

Most AFL-CIO unions have highly paid "organizers" who don't know what the
hell they're doing either.  

> every month.  They don't spend the money to hire filthy paid
> organizer.  That would be evil and a complete waste of money.

There's a fundamental conflict of interest that arises when the job of
organizing is an ned in itself.  That is why anarcho-syndicalist unions
and the IWW have emphasized for years that a minimum of paid functionaries
is the best gurantee of democracy.  It's not a question of "good" vs.
"evil" it's a question of structural anaylsis.  Paid bureaucrats will tend
to try and make their jobs as secure as possible, and this creates
potential conflicts of interest with the rank and ile membership.  This is
why the IWW was created in the first place.

> They do have this really slick calendar you can buy though.

The calendars are funded entirely through donations and sales.

> Sounds like a hard sell to me.

Except that you haven't accurately described the "product".

In Solidarity,
-Steve Ongerth, IWW

Join the One Big Union!	-- http://www.iww.org/
East Bay IWW -- http://bari.iww.org/ -- (510) 845-0540

Listen to East Bay Liberation Radio 104.1 FM
Sunday Nights from 6:30 - 9 PM -- EB Labor Solidarity Radio
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