Date: Thu, 30 Oct 1997 14:06:44 +1100 (EST)
From: billbartlett-AT-vision.net.au (Bill Bartlett)
Subject: Re: AUT: Where's the history?


CACanny wrote:

>A note on history. The IWW was never crushed. This is a lie spread by the
>Stalinists to disappear the IWW after the CPs had appeared. Since the CPs
>have tended to control labour history, the party line has been followed.

Apologies, of course it was extinguished here in Aust. and the larger point
was that the IWW was brutally repressed. There are lessons to be learned
from that, which I mentioned.
>
<<SNIP>>

>The waining of the IWW was caused by two factors: The rise of
>state-sanctioned unionism (CIO in the US) and well financed CPs. The CPs
>could pay for organizers, for publications and bribe academics. The IWW
>couldn't.

You don't think state repression had ANYTHING to do with it? But in any
case, it is not good enough to blame the actions of others, particularly
the actions of the class enemy. Crying foul is pointless, they will
obviously use any tactic they can get away with, the point is to learn from
that.

How could the IWW have countered state repression is the question I was
addressing, because if it can't overcome inevitable opposition then the IWW
is a strategy doomed to failure.

Bill Bartlett
Bracknell Tas.




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