Union Perspectives

Old International Workers of the World’s (IWW) dream of a worldwide workers fight for economic justice is coming. This has got to feel very good for the old IWW’s Wobblies and it is showing respect for the martyrs who gave their lives or did prison time on mostly trumped up charges. All workers and retired people need to stand up and support the $15 an hour wage or a living wage, which some, like California Rep. Barbara Lee (D) say should be in the $26 an hour range, which is where it would be today if the minimum wage had kept up with inflation. The proletarians worldwide have awakened to the fact that no government is going to help them, they’re on their own. Just like always. It is the families and fellow workers who help you. Remember when you have nothing you don’t have much to lose and this is where the oligarchies have made a strategic mistake. You never force your enemy into a corner (Art of War) and left them with no alternatives, but to fight. Also remember if you are afraid...

In 1911 Soapbox Militants, the “Wobblies,” engaged in free speech campaigning against corruption. In 2011 Occupy Wall Street (OWS) and by extension Occupy Redding engages in free speech campaigning against corruption. Both were nonhierarchical, egalitarian, consensus-driven process. The purest kind of democracy exercised in free speech. Both organizations envisioned a better world for all, not just a few. They are one hundred years apart, but here is how close they are in their thinking and planning. On their freedom march 112 men, called Wobblies of the International Workers of the World, started in Seattle, WA., were determined to participate in the Fresno Free Speech Campaign on Feb. 13, 1911. Towns could prevent free speech and the right to peaceably asemble during this time. The Wobblies were standing together to claim these basic human rights. They organized themselves, had a secretary of treasure, a committee to find out the times they could hop trains, a cook with assis...