What the IWW today?

The text that we wrote for the newspaper CLAC “Blow for blow“, is publishing for the first anti-capitalist May. Good reading!

The IWW has an important place in the & rsquo; history of North American trade unionism. C & rsquo; is the & rsquo; one of the first workers' organizations to practicing unionism industrial type *. C & rsquo; is the & rsquo; one of the only unions refusing social compromise and have continued to promote & rsquo; direct action and the general strike and, always from the perspective of revolutionary overthrow of capitalism such that & rsquo; established in its founding principles 1905.

Books d & rsquo; labor history speak against by little or no of the IWW after the severe crackdown that almost completely broke in 1920. L & rsquo; activity of the IWW was actually less noticeable up & rsquo; his rebirth in & rsquo; beginning of the 21st century.

Activists of the IWW working aujourd & rsquo; hui to building & rsquo; union model based on solidarity of the working class that will fight effectively against employers. The Solidarity trade union is characterized aujourd & rsquo; hui by the direct struggle in workplaces, for example at Starbucks in the US where improvements take place even in the & rsquo; & rsquo absence; union certification conferred by & rsquo; State. C & rsquo; is d & rsquo; elsewhere this campaign which highlighted the revival of the IWW. The IWW also involved in set up flash mob networks in the workplace or residence patterns in solidarity with workers victims of wage theft.

In Quebec, the IWW was an unsuccessful appearance 2001 to finally see a more stable second group take over 2008. C & rsquo; is against the first wave of 2001 which established the French version of the name of the union : Industrial Union of Workers and Workers (HIS).

After an unsuccessful attempt d & rsquo; accreditation in Starbuck Quebec City, Montreal branch has decided not to engage in campaigns & rsquo; accreditation to adopt the control model proposed in the US, Solidarity unionism. It also organizes a solidarity network called Reclaim pay ! whose purpose is to counter wage theft by employers through the mobilization. This campaign has already managed to recover nearly 2000$ when two wage claims : against a decoration Over Christmas and the company & rsquo; another against a Pizzédélic.

overall, the presence of the IWW is mainly feel aujourd & rsquo; hui USA. for example, when the workers' struggle in Wisconsin in the spring 2011 against a bill that s & rsquo; direct attack on collective bargaining rights of employees in the & rsquo; State, activists of the IWW strongly advocated the & rsquo; idea of ​​the general strike as a means of winning the fight. One could also see activists go join the Occupy Wall Street movement in different places.

As part of the global anti-capitalist struggle, the IWW stands out from other organizations by its proposal to address directly workplaces with revolutionary principles and class struggle. While manifestations of economic summits are severely punish, it may be worth d & rsquo; bring direct confrontation on the spot where injustices breed, our workplaces. Indeed, l & rsquo; anglemort of bourgeois democracy n & rsquo; estil not the & rsquo; economic exploitation of the labor of workers and control the means of production and distribution by the interests and capitalists d & rsquo institutions, state or private.

L & rsquo; membership in the IWW guarantees d & rsquo; a direct solidarity by other members and is done on an individual basis for those who adhere to the founding principles : "The boss class and the working class n & rsquo; have nothing in common. An ongoing struggle between cellesci will take place as long as workers do not seize the means of production and live in harmony with the earth. »

* Unionism d & rsquo; industry, industrial, is to bring together different trades workers into one union that brings together everyone. The industrial unionism also helps prepare workers for the socialist management of the company, that n & rsquo; is possible if the base workers are able to know and really master everything that happens on the workplace. The role of the union is to coordinate their efforts and put their knowledge together to achieve this goal, which is impossible with craft unionism and corporate unionism. [This definition is based on the definition given by the Unionists Revolutionary Committee of the CGT.]