Union Perspectives

The fight for $15 to $18 an hour and the eradication of wage and lifestyle inequality will need education, ideology and tactics. The duty of the militant minority is to promote class-consciousness and solidarity among the wage slaves fostering in them a revolutionary spirit to fight for what is their civil rights. This can be accomplished in two ways: education in theory and education in class warfare. In this way, the wage slaves will become conscious of their power as one, and will learn the class nature of the capitalist state, which will gain them greater insight into the nature of the class struggle. The old International Workers of the World (IWW) believed such an education as essential before the class war could be won. The IWW organized propaganda leagues and industrial education clubs for the purpose of education (think mobile phones today). We could send out brief messages, such as sit down and watch your pay go up, emancipation, educating, and organization. This should be th...

One big union, the dream of the Industrial Union, International Workers of the World (IWW); Eugene V. Debs said in a New York speech on Dec. 10, 1905, that the industrial workers are organized not to conciliate, but to fight the capitalist class … the capitalists own the tools they do not use and the workers use these tools they do not own and this is where the power is … no workers no one to use the tools. This is one reason one should never sign a contract, which gives away the workers’ ultimate power of withholding their labor when and where it will be advantageous to the toilers. An IWW poet wrote, “In our hands is placed a power greater than their horded gold; Greater than the might of armies magnified a thousand fold; we can bring to birth a new world from the ashes of the old. For the unions make us strong. On April 23, 1910, another IWW member wrote, “With other of his class he built the road. Now o’er it many a weary mile, he packs his load chasing a job, spurred on by hunger...

What would the world be like if the dream of the old International Workers of the World (IWW) could come true? The IWW thought that all toilers of the world were the same and all had rights and there is no need for country borders. All workers are brothers and sisters. So if this is true, there would not be a reason for war. All would have a place in the world, such as Israel, Palestine, Kurdistan and Ukraine would not be fighting to hold onto their spot of land in the world. It is always the toilers who do the fighting and dying for the people in the background, who pull the strings of war. How do the toilers get forced into killing their brothers and sisters? A lot of this is rooted in a lack of education and religion. As long as there are borders around countries, the string masters can manipulate the toilers to do their bidding. Sooner or later the toilers of the world will figure out that they are the ones with the power. When they do they’ll have to decide if they want to conti...