Fighting Back
August 23rd, 2009
Over the last several years economic inequality has reached levels not seen since before the New Deal, poverty has increased, workers have been forced to work longer for the same or less pay, tuition has gone up, funding for education was cut, and banks were rewarded with a trillion dollar bailout for wrecking the economy while their CEOs continue to receive multi-million dollar bonuses. These are all manifestations of a centuries-old war, the class war.
There is a fundamental conflict of interest between workers and employers. Every dollar an employer spends on workers' pay, benefits, safety, etc. is a dollar that does not go towards their profits or bonuses. Money the government spends subsidizing banks (via bailouts) and arms companies (via war) is money not spent on education. Conflict between employers and workers is therefore inevitable. Employers have been winning this war since the 1970s and the resulting transfer of wealth have caused inequality to increase and poverty to go up. Unless we wish to be subjected to even worse injustices workers must organize and fight back.
Historically, labor unions have been one of the most effective ways for workers to organize against employers. A labor union is a group of workers who join together to engage in mutual aid and coordinated action against employers. In the case of the Industrial Workers of the World, we not only seek to obtain short-term gains from employers such as better pay or a smaller workload, but also to eventually overthrow bosses entirely and establish a truly democratic society. As workers produce all wealth and employers produce nothing, we are therefore capable of forcing employers to treat us better by disrupting production through strikes, work slowdowns, working to rule, and other forms of direct action. We could bring the entire world economy to a halt simply by collectively folding our arms and refusing to work.
Workers around the world must unite together to counter the power of the boss class. Employers are organized globally through multinational corporations, international financial institutions, and other organizations. If we don't also organize globally then we will be at a disadvantage because employers will attempt to play workers in different parts of the world against each other and continually shift production from locations with higher pay to locations with lower pay. To counter the threat of outsourcing workers must organize globally so that we can fight employers no matter where they shift production.
If any part of the working class is paid less or treated worse than any other part it tends to undermine the position of all workers because employers will replace better paid workers with lower paid workers. It is therefore in the interests of all workers to stand together in solidarity and treat an injury to one as an injury to all. Global capital can only be defeated by a global labor movement. The I.W.W. is better suited to achieve this goal because it is a global union with locals on three continents.
The last thing a union should do is support the imperialist anti-worker foreign policy of the U.S. government, something too many mainstream American unions do. The AFL-CIO, for example, supported the First World War, the Vietnam war, and the Nicaraguan Contras (anti-worker rebels in the 1980s). It actively aided the 1973 CIA coup against Salvador Allende in Chile and the failed 2002 US-backed coup in Venezuela. In contrast, the IWW has a long history of opposing war and imperialism, from the First World War to the Iraq war today.
The I.W.W not only organizes globally but also industrially. Industrial unionism means all workers in the same industry should be in the same union. If we look at most colleges, unionized workers have divided ourselves into a variety of different unions, such as UUP, AFSCME, UAW, Unite-Here, SEIU, CUPE, and many others. If we were all united into one big union it would be easier for us to collectively organize against our bosses and to present a united front against them, putting us in a more powerful position.
Like industrial unionism, democratic and participatory unionism is a more effective way to fight the employing class. It is also essential to the long term goal of creating economic democracy. The IWW is a direct democratic union that makes all decisions by majority vote. Unlike most other unions, all international officers in the IWW are elected directly by rank and file members through a yearly mail-in ballot. Major union-wide decisions are made by referendum. Local branches have considerable autonomy to conduct their affairs as they see fit, without interference from meddling bureaucrats. Because the IWW is a rank and file run union there are no paid business agents or other bosses within the union telling you what to do. There are officers, but they have little authority. If a union is not democratic then there is no guarantee it will act in its members best interests; in some cases an undemocratic union may ally itself with employers and thereby betray the whole purpose of its existence.
To insure the union remains democratic the IWW collects dues directly from its members rather than using a dues checkoff. A dues checkoff is an agreement between a union and an employer whereby the employer agrees to deduct dues from workers' paychecks and give the money to the union. It is a conflict of interest because it makes union leaders dependent on employers for the union's money. A dues checkoff tends to undermine union democracy by decreasing contact between officials and members while increasing contact between union officials and the employer. It causes the union leadership to become detached from the workers they're supposed to be fighting for, and can result in a situation where they consider themselves partners with management. Most unions in the U.S. go so far as to sign no-strike pledges as a standard part of all agreements with employers. If there is no dues checkoff members can force a union to do what they want by refusing to pay dues until it obeys their wishes. If a union cannot convince its members that its worth voluntarily supporting then its not a very good union.
Dues check off or not, every worker should be involved in a union. If you do not participate in the IWW you should at least be involved in another union. Joining a labor union is a good first step, but to really be effective unions require the active participation of its members. If we rely solely on representatives to run the union it loses its main source of power, its members. You cannot realistically expect a handful of bureaucrats to successfully take on any other employer all by themselves. If we remain passive and do not fight back against the boss class we have only ourselves to blame when our workload is further increased, pay continues to stagnate, and inequality continues to rise.