#Industrial Workers of the World

[audley-and-cherry]

My least favorite things about anti- UBI discourse is always the techbros whining that "nobody is going to work anymore! People will just watch Netflix all day!" and I have 2 responses:

1) Who the fuck cares. Who the fuck cares what people do with their time! That's kind of the fucking point!

2) People aren't going to stop laboring. Housework (look, it's right there in the word!) will still need to be done. So will maintenance on our homes and personal spaces. Children will still need carers, as will the elderly and disabled. There are millions of examples of ~work~ that we do all the time, uncompensated, that won't suddenly stop because we aren't forced to sell our labor to provide corporation's profits.

I'm not surprised that what is traditionally women's work is invisible to these dipshits, but it never fails to anger me.

Anyway. Join the IWW.

[iww-gnv]

The internet has decided Chilchuck is a union man, and who are we to argue?

Edit: I'm not caught up and didn't know it was canon yet, have mercy. The waitlist at the library is three months long.😭

[transgenderunionthug]

I embroidered this back patch! I combined the designs for the Sabo cat with the IWW logo and embroidered it over the course of the pandemic. It's still my biggest piece of embroidery

[nando161mando]

https://asf-iwa.org.au/

https://theanarchistlibrary.org/special/index

https://sequr.homes/

http://tutas.org.au/

https://wsfpakistan.pk/

https://www.twu.com.au/

https://www.amazonlaborunion.org/

https://libcom.org/

https://www.accc.gov.au/

https://www.splcenter.org/

https://www.auwu.org.au/

https://www.iww.org/

https://www.iwa-ait.org/

https://www.cnt-ait.org/

https://www.fairwork.gov.au/

https://unitedworkers.org.au/

https://www.australianunions.org.au/

https://audioanarchy.org/

https://www.akpress.org/

https://deathtofascism.com/files/40ways.online.2020.pdf

https://sbworkersunited.org/

[anarchotolkienist]

Hey ho, folks- my local IWW branch has been organising a hospitality worker's union in the Glasgow city centre pub Saramago, for which the organisers were punatively fired. There's more information on our website if you're interested. Those in Glasgow (Scotland) and surrounding areas would be appreciated on the pickets tomorrow, and those who can't be there physically can still spread the word and support the fired workers while we campaign to get them their jobs back.

Hardship fund:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/hardship-fund-for-fired-saramago-workers

[anderswasrightt]

i show up to your house to speak to you about a serious matter, but instead of pulling out an FBI badge, i show u this bad boy:

[oncanvas]

Joe Hill, Carlos A. Cortéz, 1979

Linocut on paper 35 x 23 ¼ in. (88.9 x 59 cm) Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC, USA

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"It was the IWW [Industrial Workers of the World or Wobblies] and the Finns that initially took the lead in supporting the Russian Revolution, which had profoundly influenced political developments in Finland.

...

According to A.T. Hill, local Wobblies “hailed the Russian Bolshevic [sic] revolution as something that had followed the IWW economic blueprint.” Mass meetings to protest the continued involvement of Canadian armed forces in Russia were organized. A “Friends of Russia” committee, composed of workers representing a number of organizations and trade unions in Port Arthur and Fort William, was also established. And, as Hill remembered, within the columns of the newly created Vapaus newspaper, members of the Finnish community could engage with recent events in Russia and forge closer bonds with fellow Finns working in other lumber camps. Many Wobblies viewed the Russian Revolution in much the same way as other socialist organizations in North America. Its success was seen as an indication that the end of capitalism was at hand and that workers in North America should take heart from the events in Russia. Despite becoming largely inactive in the region during the second half of the First World War, the IWW remained vigorous across the border in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Most notably, the Superior District Lumber Workers Industrial Union No. 500 continued to agitate and to lead strikes. It was among the lumber workers in Wisconsin and Minnesota and in classes taken at the Work People’s College in Duluth, Minnesota, that Hill spent much of the war.

Drawn to the growing unrest at the Lakehead, Hill moved to Port Arthur in 1917 and dedicated himself to the activities of local Finnish socialists. On behalf of the IWW LWIU [Lumber Workers International Union], Hill and those he recruited toured much of Northwestern Ontario in an attempt to organize workers and drum up subscriptions for Vapaus. Much of the IWW’s attention was focused on the Russell and Newaygo Timber Company and its operations within the district of Thunder Bay. Despite high hopes, in the end Hill was fired (both for his agitation and for conflicts with Lutheran Finnish workers). There now existed within the camps [thanks to the Russian Revolution] a rift between non-socialists and socialists, and debates over the various interpretations of Marxism.

The IWW appealed greatly to immigrant workers in Northwestern Ontario. As Holmer Borg, a Swedish lumber worker and IWW organizer, recalled in 1972:

The IWW organized through its members. Every member was expected to organize, not necessarily by having well organized meetings, [but] simply by talking among workers.

The IWW also tended to focus on the immediate issues that faced workers where they organized. In addition, many recent immigrants were drawn to unions whose organizers actually spoke their language. Most of the other established trade unions tended to send English-speaking organizers who had little or no actual experience in the regions they were visiting or with the workers they were trying to organize.

...

One report by the Dominion Police referred to the Finns in Port Arthur as “anarchists pure and simple.”"

- Michel S. Beaulieu, Labour at the Lakehead: Ethnicity, Socialism, and Politics, 1900-35. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2011. p. 53-55.

[the-dalm]

Every workplace is different, but that does not mean you cannot form a union there. Fellow Worker Matilda explains that many of us avoid organising in our workplaces by rationalising that our workplace is “uniquely bad” to organise in. But this is a product of fear and helplessness. When we recognise this and get support from other organisers, each of can break through the wall, no matter where we work.

[skullhaver]

For those of you who enjoyed my reblog earlier about gender equality in household chores, you might enjoy this also. One great tactic for getting your progressive male partner(s)/roommates(s)/friends(s) to help you do housework is to just print this poster and stick it on your fridge.

[memphisfoodnotbombs]

MUTUAL AID REQUEST!

TLDR: Daniel Baker is a former political prisoner who is now free and requesting a one-time mutual aid to make ends meet!

GOAL: $500

Cashapp: $AlishareQerechok

PayPal: @DanielBaker108

Venmo: @Alishare

Please, help our comrade!

Daniel Baker is a combat veteran and former political prisoner who spent a year in solitary confinement. Dan has recently gotten out and needs help making ends meet.

Dan needs help covering rent and utilities.

Dan works 7 days a week doing deliveries for apps and restaurants on 3 different electric bikes. 2 of the bikes need repairs.

Dan has PTSD, making it difficult to work with others and the judge recently denied a request to end probation.

Dan routinely helps the community, handing out food (find vids on YT), slide 4 is Dan at a supply drive. Dan is also a member of the IWW, a Wobbly!

Fundraising Goal for Rent, Utilities & Bike Repairs: $500

Additional ways to help:

- Please follow Dan! (IG) @alishareqerechok (tiktok/YouTube) @DanBaker108

- Comment below and on Dan’s socials to help boost

- Share to stories and repost

#DanBaker #PrisonerOfConscience #DanielBaker #PoliticalPrisoner #Veteran #Veteran #FYP #AbolishPrisons #PrisonAbolitionist #PrisonAbolition #AbolishAllPrisons #FoodNotBombs #IndustrialWorkersOfTheWorld #IWW #SolidarityNotCharity #SolidarityForever #FreeSpeech #FreedomOfSpeech #Wobbly

[iww-gnv]

Did you know you can join the Industrial Workers of the World even if you aren't traditionally employed? Check out IWW.org/join for more information on finding a local branch today!

[Image description copied from alt text: A square graphic with an illustration of a person sitting at a table with a laptop, looking at the screen with confusion. Text on the graphic reads, "Freelancer? Self-employed? Between jobs? You can still unionize! Find out how at IWW.org/join." The IWW logo is included in the bottom right corner. End description.]

[all-things-are-nothing-to-me]

A marxist special for the day.

Eugene V. Debs, an IWW founder.

[thoughtportal]

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn (August 7, 1890 – September 5, 1964) was an American labor leader, activist, and feminist who played a leading role in the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Flynn was a founding member of the American Civil Liberties Union and a visible proponent of women's rights, birth control, and women's suffrage. She joined the Communist Party USA in 1936 and late in life, in 1961, became its chairwoman. She died during a visit to the Soviet Union, where she was accorded a state funeral with processions in Red Square attended by over 25,000 people.[1]

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn was born on August 7, 1890, in Concord, New Hampshire, the daughter of Annie (Gurley) and Thomas Flynn.[2] The family moved to New York in 1900, where she was educated at the local public schools. Her parents introduced her to socialism. When she was only 15 she gave her first public speech, "What Socialism Will Do for Women," at the Harlem Socialist Club. After this, she felt compelled to speak out for social change. She left Morris High School before graduation, a decision she later regretted.[3] However, other sources state she was expelled from high school due to her political involvement.[4]

[digitalnewberry]

When she talks, I hear the revolution

"The Rebel Girl" sheet music, from the Newberry's Rosemont collection of IWW materials

[miochimochi]

The Self as a Whole: Friends and Foes

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Index

Nazis gfys. Tankies gfys too. That's it. That's my blurb. Enjoy!

Unity is strength. It's in a unified goal that we can achieve much. I had a metaphor during my time as an anarchist among the voting populace, that we're all on a train and will ally with some statists who will get off at their stop but we keep going. It wasn't until the results of the 2016 election, with the loss of Gary Johnson, that I finally came to the same conclusion of Murray Rothbard: this isn't working. Unlike with Rothbard, however, my disillusion wasn't simply towards the American Libertarian party, but rather for the whole idea of voting. In the years following, I grew closer to Konkin's politics and read more market anarchists, gaining further understanding of traditional anarchist definitions including that of capitalism and the role it plays within the State apparatus. But having been both outside and inside the movement of global anarchists, I've come to another conclusion: this isn't working.

This isn't a disillusionment with the politic of anarchy, not in the slightest. This is instead a disillusionment with the activism of anarchists and the relationships between various groups of anarchists. It is exceedingly difficult to work, let alone have a discussion, with anarcho-dogmatists (ADs). Various groups of anarchists have such a narrow view on what anarchism means that any stepping out of their predetermined line makes one a traitor to the politic. There are ADs who believe you cannot be an anarchist and accept markets. There are ADs who believe you cannot be an anarchist and eat meat. There are ADs who believe you cannot be an anarchist and not hang on the words of Marx. There are ADs who believe you cannot be an anarchist and be religious in any capacity. There are ADs who believe you cannot be an anarchist and be critical of the various social movements they identify with. The list goes on and on.

The AD is a divisive force within anarchism, their sepulcher necessitating purity but only if it's their purity. Konkin was a supporter of Industrial Workers of the World, built on syndicalist ideals, and lauded it as an example of an agorist union at work. He called for an agorist-syndicalist alliance, seeing both methodologies as feeding into the counter-economy. It's no secret that agorists have by and large been individualist anarchists and syndicalists have by and large been social anarchists - one need only spend five minutes discussing politics with each group to understand this to be the case. Konkin was critical of party politics but was willing to "reach across the aisle", so to speak, and ally with social anarchists for one simple reason: the partyarchy is more unified in maintaining statism than anarchists are in achieving anarchism.

Sadly, what I observe in anarchist interactions are contests of "Who's a real anarchist?" There is a necessity for unity, otherwise there is fracturing, there is schisming, there is disorder. Whether it be through synthesis anarchism or anarchism without adjectives, a unified anarchist front would see much progress be made. There are three key beliefs that are universal across anarchist schools: the State is used as a weapon by the elite against the people and thus must be eliminated, statist economics is built to restrict our ability and desire to resist and thus gives power to the elites, and mutual aid is a necessity to a functioning stateless society. Anything beyond these three are unimportant to revolution - these are primary beliefs, all else is secondary. Some discussion may be had about whether or not these are truly the primaries, or even the only primaries, but the AD will see the secondaries as equally essential to anarchism and thus sow division, in such a way that it is worse than any fed-op could do on its own.

But a call for unity cannot be without its limitations. Too often I see the allyship of anarchists and statist communists, working towards the end of the "bourgeoisie" and rise of the "proletariat". But a pressing question must be asked with such an alliance: what happens once the "glorious revolution" is complete? There isn't a sharing of anarchism as the goal, the statist communist has no intention of removing statist structures, only transforming them into their own statist structures. The idea of the dictatorship of the proletariat has been, since it's inception, flawed in its reasoning and disastrous in its execution. Statist communists will deny the evils of the regimes they idolize, similarly to the way neo-nazis deny the evils of Hitler's regime, but the anarchist, communist or otherwise, should recognize the problem with giving any group of people power over others. This train will end with the, historically ruthless, red fascists subjugating and eliminating the anarchists that helped them along the way.

This isn't a call for left unity - the left has seen the terrors of Stalin, of Lenin, of Mao, those which have rightfully been criticized as "red fascists". Unity of the left would include the commune and the gulag, it would see the statist left line the anarchist against the wall. This is a call for anarchist unity - for we are anarchists first, adjectives second.