IWW

selected writings on the IWW

Principles, Propositions & Discussions
for Land & Freedom

An introductory word to the ‘anarchive’

“Anarchy is Order!”

‘I must Create a System or be enslav’d by

another Man’s.

I will not Reason & Compare: my business

is to Create’

(William Blake)

During the 19th century, anarchism has develloped as a result of a social current which aims for freedom and happiness. A number of factors since World War I have made this movement, and its ideas, dissapear little by little under the dust of history.

After the classical anarchism – of which the Spanish Revolution was one of the last representatives–a ‘new’ kind of resistance was founded in the sixties which claimed to be based (at least partly) on this anarchism. However this resistance is often limited to a few (and even then partly misunderstood) slogans such as ‘Anarchy is order’, ‘Property is theft’,...

Information about anarchism is often hard to come by, monopolised and intellectual; and therefore visibly disapearing.The ‘anarchive’ or ‘anarchist archive’ Anarchy is Order ( in short A.O) is an attempt to make the ‘principles, propositions and discussions’ of this tradition available again for anyone it concerns. We believe that these texts are part of our own heritage. They don’t belong to publishers, institutes or specialists.

These texts thus have to be available for all anarchists an other people interested. That is one of the conditions to give anarchism a new impulse, to let the ‘new anarchism’ outgrow the slogans. This is what makes this project relevant for us: we must find our roots to be able to renew ourselves. We have to learn from the mistakes of our socialist past. History has shown that a large number of the anarchist ideas remain standing, even during the most recent social-economic developments.

‘Anarchy Is Order’ does not make profits, everything is spread at the price of printing- and papercosts. This of course creates some limitations for these archives.

Everyone is invited to spread along the information we give . This can be done by copying our leaflets, printing from the CD that is available or copying it, e-mailing the texts ,...Become your own anarchive!!!

(Be aware though of copyright restrictions. We also want to make sure that the anarchist or non-commercial printers, publishers and autors are not being harmed. Our priority on the other hand remains to spread the ideas, not the ownership of them.)

The anarchive offers these texts hoping that values like freedom, solidarity and direct action get a new meaning and will be lived again; so that the struggle continues against the

‘demons of flesh and blood, that sway scepters down here;

and the dirty microbes that send us dark diseases and wish to

squash us like horseflies;

and the will-‘o-the-wisp of the saddest ignorance’.

(L-P. Boon)

The rest depends as much on you as it depends on us. Don’t mourn, Organise!

Comments, questions, criticism,cooperation can be send to

A.O@advalvas.be

A complete list and updates are available on this address, new texts are always

welcome!!

Table of contents

Basics of Organising 6

Preamble and constitution of the IWW 19

Tactics and Vision for a New Workers' Movement 65

International worker’s day MayDay 74

Politics vs syndicalism, a casestudy of the IWW 84

Basics of Organizing

Industrial Workers of the World

You have a problem at work.

You believe that management is unfair

Something has to be done.

Where do you begin?

No Personal Problems

The employer tries to make us believe that our problems are merely personal. For example: the boss calls Barbara into the office and writes her up for being late. Barbara explains that she was late because her sitter was late. The boss says he's sorry, but he can't bend the rules for one person. As she leaves the office, Barbara may think: "But it isn't one person, it's everyone in the office. Everybody in this place has been absent or late at least once because of a problem with child care."

And it isn't just that office. Columnist Anna Quindlen wrote in the New York Times, "[What if a union of working mothers held] a one-day nationwide strike. In unison at a predetermined time, we will rise and say: 'My kid is sick, and so is my sitter' and walk out. Look around your office. Think how much work wouldn't get done."

The need for child care -- to chose just one example -- affects tens of millions of workers. The same applies to other "personal" problems such as reactions to chemicals, injuries, and stress. It is in management's interest to make ther problems appear to be "personal" so that management will not bear respnsibility.

Ask Questions and Listen to the Answers

You have a problem; where do you begin?

Some people when they first feel that they have been treated unfairly fly into a rage or start loudly crusading against the boss. This can be dangerous. Management jealously guards its authority in the workplace, and when you begin to question authority, you become a threat. In most workplaces, from the moment you begin to question authority, you become a troublemaker in management's eyes. If you have never before made any waves where you work, you may be shocked, hurt or angered by how quickly management turns against you. This is one more reason not to act aloneand also be discrete when you begin to talk to others.

Talk to your co-workers and ask them what they think about what's happening at work lately. What do they think about the problems you're concerned about. Listen to what others have to say. Get their views and opinions. Most people think of an organizer as an agitator and rabble-rouser (and there are times when an organizer must be those things), but a good organizer is first of all one who asks good questions and listens to well to others. Having listened well, the organizer is able to express not only his own views and feelings but those of the group.

Almost inevitably there will be some people who are more concerned than others, and a few of those people will want to do something about it. Those few people now form the initial core of your "organization." You might ask the two most interested people to have coffee or lunch with you, introduce them to each other, and then ask, "What do you think we should do about this?" If they are indeed ready to do something -- not just complain -- you are almost ready to begin organizing.

Map Your Workplace

Knowledge is power. Or at least it is the begining of power. You will want to know everything you can about your workplace and your employer. This will be a long-term on-going process of education. You should begin with your department. Remember, all the information you gather can be used by you against your employer or by them against you so, be sure not to let it fall inot the hands of management or their supporters.

The steward and/or shop floor activist cannot afford to overlook the natural organization that exists in most workplaces. Resist the tendency to complicate shop floor organization by establishing artificial structures or involved committees and caucuses without first taking advantage of the organization that already exists. "Mapping" your workplace will help you to communicate with your co-workers and increase the union's power.

Management has long understood the value of identifying informal workgroups, their natural organizers, and their weak links. In fact, one of the main thrusts of management training is to develop strategies to alter the psychology of the workplace.

United Parcel Service, for example, has developed its psychological manipulation techniques into fine art. The UPS manager's training manual, titled Charting Spheres of Influence, shows how to map the workplace to identify the informal work groups, isolate natural organizers or instigators in these groups, adn exploit the weak links, and in the end, break up the groups if they can't be used to management's advantage.

While most companies have not developed their techniques into the fine Orwellian art that UPS has, many do use some of the same methods. Have outspoken workers, instigators or organizers in your workplace been transferred, promoted into management or singled out for disipline? Are workgroups broken up and rearranged periodically? Has the layout of the workplace been arranged to make communication between workers difficult?

Do you get to walk around your job? Who does? Who doesn't? Are certain people picked on or disciplined by management in public? Do you feel you are always under serveillance? You get the point. All of the above can be used to break up unity and communication between workers in your shop.

How to Map Your Workplace

If you work in a large shop, you may want to begin by mapping just your department or shift and then work with other stewards and/or shop floor activists to piece together a map of the entire workplace.

You can begin by drawing an outline of your department and putting in workstations, desks, machines, etc. -- a floor plan. Now, place a circle where each worker is usually stationed, and write in their names. If you can, chart the flow of production by using a broken line or arrow. Indicate on your map where members of management are usually stationed and their normal path through the shop. Mark places where workers tend to congregate (break areas, lunch rooms, bathrooms, water fountains).

Now identify and circle the informal work groups. Informal workgroups are groups of workers who work face-to-face with each other every day, They have an opportunity to communicate with each other every day while working and perhaps spend time together on breaks, eat lunch together, or generally hang out together.

Mark the influential people or informal workgroup organizers or instigators. In each group is ther a person who seems to enjoy a special influence or respect? Sometimes they are stewards or activists, but in many cases the organizers or instigators will not be. Do conversations in the group ever get into shop talk? If so, what do they talk about? Is there an unspoken code of behavior in these groups towards management or problems at work? Is there an informal production standard which is followed and enforced by group members?

If you are aware of loners or people who don't mix with any group, indicate that by using some special mark. Also, identify the weakest links: the company brown nose, perhaps a part-timer or new hire, and anyone who is particularly timid.

You may want to begin taking notes on each worker and record things as when the person started work, grievances filed, wether they have been active in any union projects, etc. Keep notes on seperate index cards in a file. [ed. or use your computer if you have one]

Your map may show you how the workplace is set up to keep people apart, a good enough reason for map-making. But the real reason for map-making is to develop more unity in the workplace.

Using Your Map

Let's say you have an important message to communicate, but you don't have the time or resources to reach every one of your co-workers. If you can reach the natural organizers in the informal workgroups and get them on your side, you can bet that the word will get around to everyone. Once organizers have been identified and agree to cooperate, it is possible to develop a network which includes both stewards and these de facto stewards who can exert considerable power and influence.

Informal workgroups also have the advantage of creating certain loyalties among their members. You can draw on this loyalty to figure out unified strategies for problems, and take advantage of people's natural tendency to stick up for those who are close to them.Sometimes it is necessary to negotiate between the workgroups which, while experiencing common problems, also have concerns involving only their own members. For example, at one shop, two informal wokgroups existed in the department. One group consisted of machine operators who die-casted transmission cases, and the other groupconsisted of inspectors. Management didn't allow inspectors to talk to amchine operators.

At one point management increased machine operators' production quotas, which caused inspectors to mark many of the pieces as scrap, because they were having trouble keeping up with production too. Both workgroups were facing pressures from the speed-up and tended to blame each other.

Eventually, representatives of the two workgroups out an arrangement to deal with the speed-up. It was agreed that the inspectors would mark as scrap any transmission case with the tiniest little flaw, causing the scrap pile to pile up. Management would then have to come up and turn off the machines in order to figure out what was causing the problem. Soon, each machine was experiencing a few hours of downtime every day. After a week of this, mamagement reduced the production quota.

Besides working with the group organizers, it is important to draw in the loners too. More than likely, their apathy, isolation, or anti-union ideas stem from personal feelings of powerlessness and fear. If collective action can be pulled off successfully and a sense of security established through the group's action, fear and feelings of impotence can be reduced.

If you have got a particularly tough character in your shop who seriously threatens unity, don't be affraid to use the social pressures that workgroups can bring to bear to get that person back in line. This applies to supervisory personnel too, especially the supervisor who likes to think he is everyone's pal.

Workplace Map

The Balance of Power

The bottom line for this type of workplace organization is to tilt the balance of power in the workers' favor. It can win grievances, for example. If grievances remain individual problems or are kept in the hands of just the steward or union higher-ups, the natural organization and loyalty that exist among workgroups is lost. Chances are that he grievance is lost, too.

However, it the workgroups can be used to make a show of unity, the threat that production could be hampered can be enough to force management into a settlement. For example, back in the die-casting plant: a machine operator was fired on trumped-up charges. A representative of that workgroup informed key people in the skilled trades who had easy access to all workers in the plant to tell them something was going to happen at lunch time in the lunch room.

At each lunch break, a meeting was held to explain the situation. It was decided to organize for a symbolic action. The next day black arm bands were handed out in the parking lot to everyone entering work. The key people in every workgroup were informed to use their influence to make sure everybody participated in the action. It was suggested that everyone had as off day once in a while, and it would be a shame if everybody had an of day at the same time.

After two days of this, the machine operator was brought back to work. Such an action would have been impossible without a recognition of the informal workgroups and thier representatives. The grievance procedure worked because management understood that the grievance had become the concern of all the groups and that problems lay ahead unless it was resolved.

Some Basic Principles

The following is a list of what successful organizers say are the most important principles to remember:

Question Authority

Organizing begins when people question authority. Someone asks, "What are they doing to us? Why are they doing it? Is it right?" Encourage people to ask, "Who is making the decisions, who is being forced to live with the decisions, and why should that be so?" People should not accept a rule or an answer simply because it comes from the authorities, whether that authority is the government, the boss, the union -- or you. An effective organizer encourages workers to think for themselves.

Talk One-on-One

Almost every experienced activist agrees that "The most important thing about organizing is personal one-to-one discussion." Leaflets are necessary, meetings are important, rallies are wonderful -- but, none of them will ever take the place of one-on-one discussion. Frequently, when you have simply listened to a co-worker and heard what is on his or her mind, you have won them over because you are the only one who will listen. When you talk to Linda at the next desk and overcome her fears, answer her questions, lift her morale, invite her to the meeting, or take her to the rally -- that is what organizing is all about.

Get People Involved in Activity

Life is not a school room and people do not learn by simply going to meetings or reading leaflets. Most people learn, change, and grow in the process of action. Will you take this leaflet? Will you mail this post card? Will you sign this petition? If you want to develop new organizers, you must give them something they can do, however small the first step is.

Make That Collective Active

However, the point is not only to get individuals involved , but to join them together in a solidarity conscious group. We want to create a group which sees itself as a whole: We are the Union. Wea are the Movement. Will you come to the meeting? Can we get the whole department involved? Can we count on all of you for the picket line?

Activities Should Escalate Over Time

Ask people to become involved in activities of increasing commitment and difficulty. Are you willing to wear a button saying "Vote No"? Will you vote against the contract? Will you vote for a strike? Are you prepared to walk a picket line? Are you willing to be arrested? Some union campaigns have included hundreds of people willing to go tojail for something they belived in. For many of them it started with that first question, Will you take this leaflet?

Confront Management

Organizing is about changing power relationships, the balance of forces between management and workers. Confrontation with the employerhas to be built into the escalating activities. The first confrontation may be something as simple as wearing a "Vote No" button. If people are not willing to risk upsetting the boss, they won't win.

Win Small Victories

Most movements, from a small group in one workplace to massive social protests which change society (like the civil rights or women's movements), grow on the basis of small victories. The victories give us confidence that we can do more. They win us new supporters who now see that "you can fight City Hall." With each victory the group becomes more confident and, therefore, more capable of winning larger victories.

Organizing is Everything

Organization need not be overly formal or structurally top-heavy, but it must be there. A telephone tree and a mailing list may be all the organization that you need, but if those things are what you need then you must have them. The last twenty years have supplied many examples of reform movements which are, fought hard -- and then died because they didn't stay organized. As one labor organizer, Bill Slater, says, "Only the organized survive."

Your Legal Right to Organize (U.S. specific!)

A. General

The most important "legal" advice is to be well organized. Legal strategies aid day-to-day work. They don't take the place of it. Any position, legal or otherwise is going to be enhanced if the people behind it act as a group, have plans that are thought out, and follow through on them. If the matter comes to a hearing or to court, any judge is going to be impressed by a well-attended and well-organized presentation.

Don't set yourself up. Be a model worker, come on time, and be above reproach.

Keep a notebook of all suspicious things. Record the five W's: What happend, Where it happend, When it happened, Who saw it (names, addresses, phone numbers), and Why each party claimed they acted as they did.

B. Your Right to Distribute Literature

You have an absolute legal right to distribute literature.

In the workplace, the law says you can do it in non-working areas on non-working time. This includes the parking lot, the time clock, the cafeteria, or any other place where people go on break out of the work area. Ailes are usually considered work areas, but that could depend on the circumstances.

If you are soliciting or taking signatures on petitions, but not distributing literature, you may do so in working areas on working time.

If you are merely discussing union issues, you may do so anywhere on non-working time.You may also discuss union issues on working time, if it doesn't interfere with your work. If workers carry on conversations on other personal topics then you may discuss union topics too.

You have an absolute right to distribute literature at or in common areas of the union hall, including union meetings.

C. Strikes, Pickets, and Other Protected Activities

Unless there is in effect a contract with a no-strike clause, you may engage in group action to force the company to accept union conditions.

Such activities are only protected under Federal labor law if done by two or more individuals together. Striking, picketing, petitioning, grieving, and giving group complaints to the U.S. Department of Labor are classic examples.

The right is protected by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which must receive and serve your charge within six months. However, the NLRB has a policy of defering action on such cases if there is a grievance procedure in effect which theoretically could resolve the issue.

PREAMBLE AND CONSTITUTION

of the

INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD

- IWW Constitution and By-Laws 1999-

PREAMBLE

The working class and the employing class have nothing in common. There can be no peace so long as hunger and want are found among millions of the working people and the few, who make up the employing class, have all the good things of life.

Between these two classes a struggle must go on until the workers of the world organize as a class, take possession of the means of production, abolish the wage system, and live in harmony with the Earth.

We find that the centering of the management of industries into fewer and fewer hands makes the trade unions unable to cope with the ever-growing power of the employing class. The trade unions foster a state of affairs which allows one set of workers to be pitted against another set of workers in the same industry, thereby helping defeat one another in wage wars. Moreover, the trade unions aid the employing class to mislead the workers into the belief that the working class have interests in common with their employers.

These conditions can be changed and the interest of the working class upheld only by an organization formed in such a way that all its members in any one industry, or in all industries if necessary, cease work whenever a strike or lockout is on in any department thereof, thus making an injury to one an injury to all.

Instead of the conservative motto, "A fair day's wage for a fair day's work," we must inscribe on our banner the revolutionary watchword, "Abolition of the wage system."

It is the historic mission of the working class to do away with capitalism. The army of production must be organized, not only for everyday struggle with capitalists, but also to carry on production when capitalism shall have been overthrown. By organizing industrially we are forming the structure of the new society within the shell of the old.

Knowing, therefore, that such an organization is absolutely necessary for emancipation, we unite under the following constitution:

ARTICLE I

Name and Structure

Section 1. This organization shall be known as THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD.

Sec. 2. The Industrial Workers of the World shall be composed of actual wage workers brought together in an organization embodying Job Branches, Industrial Union Branches, General Membership Branches, Industrial Unions, Industrial Departments, and Regional Organizing Committees.

Departments

Sec. 3(a). An Industrial Department shall be composed of Industrial Unions in closely kindred industries appropriate for representation in the departmental administration, and assigned thereto by the General Executive Board of the Industrial Workers of the World.

(b). An Industrial Department shall consist of two or more Industrial Unions aggregating a membership of not less than 20,000 members. The Departments shall have supervision over the affairs of the Industrial Unions composing same, provided that all matters concerning the entire membership of the IWW shall be settled by a referendum.

(c). The Departments shall be designated as follows:

1 - Department of Agriculture, Land, Fisheries, and Water Products.

2 - Department of Mining.

3 - Department of Construction.

4 - Department of Manufacturing and General Production.

5 - Department of Transportation and Communication.

6 - Department of Public Service.

Industrial Unions

Sec. 4(a). Industrial Unions shall be composed of actual wage workers in a given industry welded together as the particular requirements of said industry may render necessary.

(b). Whenever five or more industrial Union Branches with a combined membership of no less than 100 has been attained in any industry, the General Executive Board shall issue an Industrial Union charter upon receipt of a petition signed by two thirds of the combined membership of said Industrial Union Branches.

(c). An Industrial Union, once chartered, shall act to convene a Convention or Assembly to adopt Industrial Union Bylaws and a uniform Industrial Union dues structure, and to nominate Industrial Union officers to be elected by mail ballot of the membership of said Industrial Union.

(d). Industrial Union Branches in the same industry without a chartered Industrial Union are encouraged to establish coordinating bodies consistent with section 5 hereof.

Sec. 5. Component parts of the IWW may set up such coordinating bodies as they wish, provided their cost shall be defrayed by the sections setting them up, and further provided that they shall not void rank and file control.

Sec. 6. No legislation conflicting with the constitution of the IWW shall be passed by any subordinate body.

Sec. 7. All charters of local bodies shall be issued by the GEB. In industries where the IWW includes a functioning Industrial Union, charters shall be issued only on recommendation of its General Organizing Committee. In other industries it shall be permissible for local General Membership Branches to organize and administer local bodies of workers in any industry until they apply for and are granted Industrial Union Branch charters. In localities where there is one or more Industrial Union Branch(es) and a General Membership Branch, it shall be locally optional either to set up a delegate council to handle matters of common concern (such as educational, defense, and social activities) or to leave these to the General Membership Branch, with the sharing of financial obligations to be arranged between them. Where no General Membership Branch is chartered, it is expected of all members of the IWW to arrange for occasional meetings at which any and all members, whether they are members of Industrial Union Branches or not, may meet together to plan local joint activities. Charters shall be issued to GMBs or to IUBs only if the GEB finds it feasible for their members to meet together. More than one GMB in the same city or area shall be chartered only when the GEB finds language, transportation, or other practical reasons warrant it.

Sec. 8.

a) Regional Organizing Committees are subordinate regional sections of the IWW. Whenever there are 10 or more members of the IWW in a region, they may petition the GEB to form a ROC.

b) ROCs may set their local dues structure, local Branch sizes and elect officers. Services provided to individual ROCs shall be negotiated between the ROC and General Administration.

c) ROCs may print membership cards and issue stamps in the local language(s). The membership numbers for the cards shall be provided by

General Headquarters.

d) ROCs will negotiate with the GEB a per-capita towards

international organizing activities.

e) All ROCs will be required to set up an Organizing Bulletin or other method of internal discussion accessible to all members within that ROC. The local Organizing Bulletins shall contain an international report from the GST and GEB which shall be provided to the ROC on a monthly basis.

ARTICLE II

Membership

Sec. 1(a). The IWW actively seeks to enfranchise all members of the working class and to oppose bigotry in all of its forms. The IWW discriminates only against the employing class and those whose purpose it is to maintain that power. We insist upon full empowerment regardless of, but not limited to: age, race, sex, color, philosophical beliefs, mental/physical capacity, sexual/gender orientation, familial status, physique/physiognomy, incarcerated status, economic status, manner by which one earns a living, or geographic origin or location. Membership is open to any member of the working class whose aim is consistent with that of the IWW.

(b). No unemployed or retired worker, no working class student, apprentice, homemaker, prisoner or unwaged volunteer on a project initiated by the IWW or any subordinate body thereof shall be excluded from membership on the grounds that s/he is not currently receiving wages. Such workers may take membership in the Industrial Union for the industry in which they last worked, or for which they are now training, or at which they work part-time, or in the case of students and homemakers in Educational Workers I.U. 620 or Household Service Workers I.U. 680 respectively as may seem most practical. This provision shall not deny to any Industrial Union or Industrial Union Branch the right to limite vote on strictly point-of-production matters. Workers employed in co-operatives democratically run by their employees are welcome to membership. Members who become temporarily self-employed may retain their membership or apply for withdrawal cards, which are issuable also to those who must withdraw when they become employers.

(c). No member of the Industrial Workers of the World shall be an officer of a trade or craft union or political party.

Branches may allow IWW members to become officers of trade or craft unions as long as these exceptions are reported to the General Administration and no IWW member receives significant pay (more than dues rebate and expenses) as a result of being an officer or official in a union that does not call for abolition of the wage system.

Exceptions may be made by the branches to allow unpaid officers of political parties to become members.

Sec. 2. All applicants shall agree to abide by the Constitution and regulations of the IWW and diligently study its principles and make themselves acquainted with its purpose. This obligation shall be printed on the application blank.

Sec. 3. Whenever members of the Industrial Workers of the World shall hold jobs in more than one industry, they may simultaneously be members of more than one Industrial Union or Industrial Union Branch with full rights to democratic participation in said bodies, provided that they are actual workers in said industries, and provided further that they pay all dues and assessments required by each Industrial Union or Industrial Union Branch of which they are members. Members who are simultaneously members of more than one Industrial Union or Industrial Union Branch shall have only one vote in General Organizational elections and referenda.

Job Branches

Sec. 4(a). Whenever there are five or more members on the job, they shall constitute themselves a shop or a job branch, and elect a shop committee and a job delegate to attend to urgent matters between business meetings. No member should serve permanently on a committee. At each meeting a new committee should be elected. All members should take their turns at serving on committees.

(b). To encourage workers' self-management of the means of production and the abolition of the wage system, the IWW shall allow non-wage producer cooperatives to join as chartered IWW co-ops having the right to use the IWW label on their products. IWW co-ops shall consist of at least three members. Any elected co-op office shall be subject to recall election if one is called for by the membership. The recompense of the members in IWW co-ops shall not undermine wages in the Industry. IWW co-ops will honor all unions' boycotts and strikes. IWW co-ops will use union products and services whenever possible and recycle as feasible.

Quorums

Sec. 5(a). Not less than five members, not including the paid Branch Secretary, shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business.

(b). No paid official of any part of the Industrial Workers of the World shall be permitted to vote in Branch meetings.

ARTICLE III

General Officers

Section 1. The General Administration shall consist of the General Secretary-Treasurer and the General Executive Board.

Sec. 2(a). The term of office shall be for 1 year and the same shall commence on January 1. Officials, after having served their first term of office shall be eligible for two more terms only, except as specified in Section 3 (c) and (d).

(b). The General Executive Board shall set the wages of all general organization employees and organizers.

ELECTIONS

General Administration

Sec. 3(a). The General Secretary-Treasurer shall be a member for 3 years, and 18 months in continuous good standing immediately prior to nomination. The General Executive Board shall consist of seven members, all of whom have been members for 18 months, and 12 months in continuous good standing, immediately prior to nomination.

In the event that no nominee for General Secretary-Treasurer meeting the 3 year membership requirement can be found, then the 3 year requirement shall be reduced to one of 2 years membership with 18 months in continuous good standing prior to nomination.

A person elected to office must remain in continuous good standing until assuming that office or forfeit the right to hold the office.

(b). Nominations for General Secretary-Treasurer and members of the General Executive Board shall be made at the General Assembly of the IWW or through the mail with nominations closed by the adjournment of the General Assembly. In either event, election shall be by general referendum ballot as provided for in Article IX, Sec. 2. The ballot shall include space for write-in candidates. Either a verbal acceptance on the floor of the Assembly or a written acceptance addressed to the General Secretary-Treasurer must be received from each candidate whose name is placed on the ballot. No member shall be a candidate for or be permitted to hold more than one General Administration office at a time.

(c). The three candidates receiving the highest number of nominations for General Secretary-Treasurer shall have their names placed on the ballot. Members who have served three or more consecutive terms as General Secretary-Treasurer shall not have their names placed on the ballot, except in the event that three qualified nominees cannot otherwise be secured. When this is the case, the names of the nominees who have served three or more consecutive terms may be placed on the ballot, but the ballot shall clearly state the number of terms in succession previously served by such a candidate. All write-in candidates who meet the requirements of Article III, Section 3(a) are considered qualified nominees. The one receiving the highest number of votes on referendum being elected.

(d). The 21 candidates receiving the highest number of nominations for General Executive Board member shall have their names placed on the ballot. Members who have served three or more consecutive terms on the General Executive Board shall not have their names placed on the ballot, except in the event that 15 qualified nominees cannot otherwise be secured. When this is the case, the names of the nominees who have served three or more consecutive terms may be placed on the ballot, but the ballot shall clearly state the number of terms in succession previously served by such a nominee. A write-in candidate must receive a minimum number of votes equal to 5% of the IWW members in good standing. All write-in candidates who receive the minimum number of votes and meet the requirements of Article III, Section 3(a), are considered qualified nominees. The seven nominees receiving the highest number of votes on the referendum shall constitute the General Executive Board.

(e). The General Executive Board Chairperson shall be the alternate to the General Secretary-Treasurer. Alternates to the General Executive Board shall be the remaining nominees in the order of votes received.

In the event of a vacancy on the General Executive Board, with all duly elected members or alternates already serving or being unavailable, the General Secretary and the GEB Chairperson shall appoint a board member until another shall be elected by referendum.

(f). No official of the General Administration shall be permitted to hold other office in, or become a paid employee of any Industrial Union of the Industrial Workers of the World.

Duties of the General Secretary-Treasurer

Sec. 4(a). The duties of the General Secretary-Treasurer shall be to take charge of all books, papers and effects of the office. S/he shall conduct the correspondence pertaining to his/her office. S/he shall be the custodian of the seal of the organization, and shall attach same to all official documents over his/her official signature. S/he shall furnish the committee on credentials, at each General Assembly, a statement of the financial standing of each Industrial Union. S/he shall have a voice, but no vote, in the governing bodies of the organization.

The General Secretary-Treasurer shall close his or her accounts for the fiscal year on the last day of June. S/he shall make a monthly report to the General Executive Board and the general membership. S/he shall also make a complete itemized report of financial and other affairs of his or her office to each General Assembly.

S/he shall prepare and sign all charters issued by the General Executive Board. S/he shall receive all moneys for charters from Industrial Unions and Industrial Departments. S/he shall receipt for same, care for and deposit all moneys as instructed by the General Executive Board, in some solvent bank or banks, which shall be drawn out only to pay indebtedness arising out of due conduct of the business of the organization, and then only if bills have first been duly presented by the creditors when a check shall be drawn by him/her in payment thereof.

S/he shall employ such assistants as are necessary to conduct the affairs of his/her office, remuneration for such employees to be fixed by the General Executive Board.

(b). S/he shall publish a monthly General Organization Bulletin containing his/her monthly report as well as that of the General Executive Board; together with official notices, referendum ballots, monthly and annual financial reports, and other organization business. In the event of financial necessity the General Secretary/Treasurer is authorized to issue fewer than twelve bulletins per year, but in no case fewer than eight per year. The Bulletin shall also include letters from IWW members on current referenda and elections, organizing campaigns, and other union business. The GST shall publish all submissions received by the published monthly deadline, deleting only epithets and/or personal attacks against other members (except that members shall have complete freedom to criticize the conduct of union officials without censorship subject to the provisions of By-Laws Article III Section 6a).

Duties of the General Executive Board

Sec. 5(a). The General Executive Board shall elect its own chairperson from its own number.

The General Executive Board shall have general supervision over all affairs of the organization between conventions, and shall watch vigilantly over the interests throughout its jurisdiction. It shall be assisted by the officers and members of all organizations subordinate to the Industrial Workers of the World. It shall appoint such organizers as the conditions of the organization may justify.

(b). The General Executive Board shall not appoint or cause to be appointed any delegate or organizer against the protest of, and without first notifying, the General Organizing Committee of the Industrial Union which has jurisdiction in the territory in which the delegate or organizer is to operate.

All organizers so appointed shall at all times work under the instruction of the General Executive Board. All organizers and General Executive Board members, while in the employ of the Industrial Workers of the World, shall report to the Chairperson of the General Executive Board in writing, on blanks provided for that purpose, at least once each week.

(c). The General Executive Board shall have full power to issue charters to Industrial Departments, Industrial Unions, Branches, and Industrial District Councils.

(d). The General Executive Board shall have full power and authority over all IWW publications and guide their policy.

(e). The members of the General Executive Board shall have power to visit any subordinate body of the IWW and have full authority to examine and audit all accounts of such body; and also to enforce the use of the uniform system of bookkeeping as adopted by the Assembly of the IWW from time to time.

(f). The General Executive Board shall meet on the call of the Chairperson or majority vote of the General Executive Board.

(g). All matters pertaining to organization shall be settled by the entire General Executive Board by mail or wire when absent from headquarters. It shall take a majority vote to settle any question.

(h). The General Executive Board shall have power to appoint a Secretary of the General Defense Committee whenever they deem it necessary.

(i). The General Executive Board shall issue a monthly report of their activities.

International Solidarity Commission

Sec. 6(a). The International Solidarity Commission shall be composed of three IWW members with at least 18 months continuous good standing, to be elected by general referendum.

(b). The General Secretary-Treasurer and General Executive Board chairperson shall serve as ex officio members of the Commission with voice but no vote.

(c). International Solidarity Commission members are subject to the same nomination, election and recall procedures as any other IWW officers.

(d). The Commission will coordinate the IWW's international relations with other unions; maintain an ongoing, regular exchange of information and publications; and coordinate international solidarity campaigns. The Commission shall issue international solidarity appeals and statements in behalf of the organization, subject to veto by the General Executive Board.

Charges Against General Officers

Sec. 7(a). Charges against any of the General Officers shall be filed in writing with the G.E.B. or the General Assembly, at the option of the person filing charges. Also, in the case where a member of the Union who is not a General Officer is accused of exercising the authority of the GEB or GST without their approval, such charges shall be filed in writing with the GEB or the General Assembly, at the option of the person filing charges.

If the charges are filed before the G.E.B., they shall at once have a copy of the charges sent to the accused, together with the notice of the date of the hearing of the charges. Charges filed before the General Assembly must be sent to the General Secretary at least 30 days prior to the date of the convening of the assembly.

On receipt of the charges the General Secretary will forward a copy of the same to the accused and notice to appear at the convention for trial.

(b). Any decision of the G.E.B. on charges tried by them shall be subject to appeal to the next General Assembly and from the General Assembly to the general membership. The decision of the General Assembly on charges can be appealed to the general membership. This appeal must be filed with the General Administration within ninety (90) days from the adjournment of the General Assembly.

The cost of appealing to the general membership shall be borne by the party taking the appeal. If the vote on appeal results in the favor of the party taking the appeal then the General Organization shall refund the cost of the appeal.

ARTICLE IV

Clearing House

Sec. 1(a). The General Headquarters of the Industrial Workers of the World shall function as a Clearing House that will automatically settle all debts between Industrial Unions and General Headquarters.

(b). All credentials authorizing members to initiate members or to collect dues shall be issued by the General Secretary-Treasurer. He or she shall issue such credentials on his or her discretion, on the recommendation of the local or industrial union officers, and must do so on the instruction of the General Executive Board. Those so credentialed shall have been members for 6 months, except that newly organized groups may elect one of their members to serve in that capacity. All such credentials shall bear a distinguishing number, and shall empower the bearer to initiate members or collect dues in all industries.

(c). All job delegates or others bearing such credentials shall record all fees, dues, assessments, etc., collected on the forms provided by the General Secretary and shall identify receipt both on the page of the dues book and on top of the stamps with their credential number and date, and shall report at least monthly to the General Secretary by submitting this record together with all signed applications for membership, and all fees and dues money received; provided, any Industrial Union or Industrial Union Branch, or General Membership Branch, through which the delegate operates may require that this report be transmitted through it, to record the information in its own files and to retain such portion of moneys as this constitution and pertinent by-laws permit.

(d). The Chairperson of the General Executive Board shall countersign all checks issued by the General Secretary-Treasurer. At the same time as the General Executive Board selects its chair, it shall also select a non-board member to be designated check co-signer. The co-signer will have the same eligibility requirements as a Board member.

(e). Job delegates working out of the general office shall remit all of initiation fees and dues, whether for employed or unemployed members. Secretaries of chartered branches shall remit one-half of same to the general office and retain the other half in the branch treasury.

(f). The General Secretary-Treasurer shall be the custodian of the funds of a General Membership or Industrial Union Branch only upon its request, but s/he shall be the custodian of the funds of each Industrial Union, except operating funds for which the organizers or officers are, in accordance with the by-laws, held responsible. The General Administration cannot use the funds so entrusted to it without the consent of the Industrial Unions or other bodies owning such a fund, so long as these bodies continue.

(g). Supplies issued delegates and branch secretaries on behalf of Industrial Unions shall be charged to the Industrial Union.

(h). Reports with remittance for dues, etc., paid during the month shall be sent to the General Secretary not later than the 10th day of the following month. Should any branch or Industrial Union fail to do so, further supplies to it shall be withheld until these reports are received.

(i). The location of General Headquarters of the IWW shall be determined only by explicit referendum of the membership. The current location of General Headquarters is Ypsilanti, Michigan, U.S.A.

ARTICLE V

Duties of Branch Secretaries and Delegates

Section 1. Except as provided otherwise in Branch or Industrial Union by-laws, branch secretaries shall be the responsible custodians of all branch records, funds and supplies; shall issue such supplies to delegates in their branch and receive reports from them; shall maintain such records of these transactions as by-laws or organizing programs require; shall report all such business to the General Secretary-Treasurer at least monthly; shall also transmit to the General Secretary copies of all minutes of meetings and of his or her own monthly financial report to his or her branch; shall endeavor to keep all members in good standing and aware of all referenda. S/he shall also report at least monthly to the General Secretary on the activities and prospects of his or her branch.

ARTICLE VI

Assemblies

Section 1(a). Each year the IWW shall hold a General Assembly of the Union, the date and venue of the next Assembly to be set by the Assembly in session before its adjournment.

(b). The General Assembly of the IWW shall not remain in session over 10 days. Prior to the General Assembly the General Executive Board shall issue an agenda to the delegates to the General Assembly specifying the time limit on each question. All resolutions, wherever possible, shall be in the hands of the G.E.B. 10 days before the opening of the General Assembly. Copies of all resolutions shall be furnished to all delegates.

Sec. 2. The General Assembly of the IWW is the legislative body of the union and has the power to expel any member for violation of the IWW constitution, by-laws, or principles. The Assembly's enactments are of legal force, provided they are approved by general referendum. Referenda to approve assembly motions shall be issued according to the provisions of Article IX, sec. 2.

Representation

Sec. 3(a). Representation at the General Assembly of the IWW shall be mass membership and delegate on the basis of one member one vote.

(b). Delegates can have more than one vote only on issues on which they carry written instructions from the member or body that instructed them.

(c). When two or more delegates are representing an Industrial Union in the Assembly, the vote of such Industrial Union shall be equally divided between the delegates.

(d). The expenses of delegates to the General Assembly, including their mileage, shall be borne by the body they represent.

Credentials

Sec. 4(a). On or before July 1 of each year the General Secretary-Treasurer shall send to the Chairperson of the General Organization Committee of each Industrial Union credentials in duplicate for the number of delegates and alternates they are entitled to in the convention.

(b). The Chairperson of the General Organization Committee of the Industrial Union shall properly fill out the blank credentials received from the General Secretary-Treasurer and return one copy to the General Office not later than August 15. The other copy shall be presented by the delegate to the Committee on Credentials when the convention assembles.

Temporary Session

Sec. 5. The General Executive Board shall draw up a list of delegates against whom no contest has been filed at the General Office. The General Secretary-Treasurer shall call the convention to order and read the aforesaid list. The delegates on the said list shall proceed to form a temporary organization by electing a temporary Chairperson and a Committee on Credentials.

Delegates' Eligibility

Sec. 6(a). Delegates to the General Assembly from the Industrial Unions must be members of the IWW for 1 year and in continuous good standing for 60 days immediately prior to nomination.

(b). The general administration officials shall be delegates at large, with voice but no vote. All paid officials and employees must be off the payroll 90 days prior to the convening of the General Assembly to become eligible as delegates. Any member who has not been on the payroll 10 consecutive days in the 3 months immediately prior to the convening of the Assembly, shall be eligible as a delegate. No delegate shall cast more than one vote when voting on the seating of a contested delegate or delegates. No delegate shall have more than one vote on the expulsion of a member.

(c). Delegates to the General Assembly shall not serve for two consecutive terms.

Records of Delegates

(d). The Clearing House shall forward a complete record of each delegate elected to the General Assembly of the IWW to the Chairperson of the G.E.B., and to the Secretary-Treasurer in order to facilitate the work of the Credentials Committee of the General Assembly.

Joint Delegates

Sec. 7. Two or more unions, with a total membership of 500 or less, may jointly send a delegate to the Assembly, and the vote of said delegate shall be based on the representation hereinbefore provided for.

Indebtedness

Sec. 8. Industrial Unions that are indebted to the official organs or the publishing bureau controlled by the organization, having sufficient funds to pay their indebtedness, shall not be entitled to representation in the General Assembly.

Auditing Committee

Sec. 9. The General Assembly of the IWW shall elect an auditing committee to audit hearquarters books and supplies. Its expenses shall be borne by the General Organization. It shall issue a report within 90 days of its election, and cause this report to be published in the General Organization Bulletin.

Resolutions

Sec. 10. Resolutions for the General Assembly shall be acted upon by their Industrial Union convention, and if the Industrial Union has no convention, then the branches acting on same must send them to their Industrial Union G.E.B. or G.O.C. Chairperson to be segregated; and each resolution shall be on a separate sheet of paper and duplicated. No resolution sent in by an individual shall be considered by the General Assembly.

ARTICLE VII

Label

Section 1. There shall be a Universal Label for the entire organization. It shall be of a crimson color and always the same in design. The use of the Universal Label shall never be delegated to employers, but shall be vested entirely in our organization. Except on stickers, circulars, and literature proclaiming the merits of the Industrial Workers of the World, and emanating from the General Offices of the Industrial Workers of the World, the Universal Label shall be printed only as evidence of work done by IWW members.

When the label is so printed it shall be done by the authority of our organization, without the intervention of any employer.

Whenever the Universal Label is placed upon a commodity as evidence of work done by Industrial Workers, it shall be accompanied by an inscription underneath the label stating what the work is that Industrial Workers have done, giving the name of Industrial Department to which they belong and the number or numbers of their unions; and the Universal Label shall never be printed as evidence of work done without this inscription.

Seal

Sec. 2. Each Union and Branch shall be provided with a seal by the General Secretary-Treasurer, which shall bear the number of the Union, and all official papers from the union or branch must bear an imprint of this seal, and none will be legal without this impression.

ARTICLE VIII

Revenue

Sec. 1. The revenue of the organization shall be derived as follows: Charter fees from Industrial Departments shall be $25.00 and for Industrial Unions $10.00. Industrial Union Branches shall pay $2.00 for seal and charter.

Initiation Fees & Dues

Sec. 2(a). The Industrial Unions shall have autonomous right to set their own initiation fees, dues and assessments, other than General Organizational assessments. It is the policy of the IWW to put no financial barrier to prevent any worker from joining. Accordingly, initiations shall not exceed $15.00 nor monthly dues exceed $15.00. All Industrial Unions shall charge sufficient dues to meet their obligations. No part of the initiation fee or dues mentioned above shall be used as a sick or death benefit, but shall be held in the treasury as a general fund to defray the legitimate expenses.

(b). Industrial Unions and Industrial Union Branches shall have autonomous right to set their own initiation fees, dues and assessments. However such dues must be set at a rate that enables continued per capita payments. These payments are for the General Administration and chartered bodies (such as General Membership Branches and their successors) as described in (e) below.

(c). It is the policy of the IWW that no financial barrier shall prevent any worker from joining. Accordingly, Industrial Unions and Industrial Union Branches shall not set excessive initiation fees or dues. In no case shall Industrial Union or Industrial Union Branch initiation fees or monthly dues exceed two times the straight time hourly watge of the member.

(d). All Industrial Unions and Industrial Union Branches shall charge sufficient dues to meet their obligations and cover their expenses. No part of the initiation fees or dues mentioned above shall be used as a sick or death benefit, but shall be held in the treasury as a general fund to defray legitimate expenses.

(e). Dues paid by Industrial Union Branch members to their delegates consist of thee parts:

(i) Industrial Union Branch dues

(ii) Per capita due to General Administration, defined as fifty percent of the amount mandated under subsection (a) above;

(iii) Per capita due to the local General Membership Branch or its successors, which amount shall be negotiated between these bodies and the Industrial Union Branch.

(f). The G.E.B. is authorized at its discretion to waive initiation fee or reduce it to a nominal fee when incorporating previously organized workers or in organizing campaigns among especially distressed workers. The G.E.B. is further authorized to waive dues payments in the event of a strike or lockout.

(g). All dues stamps for all Industrial Unions must be of the same design without the price printed on them.

(h). A page shall be provided in the credentials fully stating the initiating fee and the dues charged by every Industrial Union for the information of delegates and branch secretaries.

(i). For members in Canada and the U.S. dues shall be set as follows:

(i) Dues shall be $6 per month for workers earning less than $1000 per month.

(ii) $12 per month for workers earning between $1000 and $2000 per month.

(iii) $18 per month for workers earning more than $2000 per month.

Sub-minimum dues of $3 per month may be paid by members in poor economic circumstances. Dues of members in the sub-minimum category who belong to organized branches shall be apportioned as follows: $2.50 to the General Adminstration, $0.50 to the branch.

Initiation fees shall be equal to one month's dues. Each new member shall be provided a copy of the One Big Union pamphlet.

(j). For areas outside of the USA, dues shall be set by the respective Regional Organizing Committees. In the absence of an ROC an individual may be delegated for a period of one year by the GST for the purpose of organizing an ROC. Such delegates shall report at least quarterly to the GST, and may retain all dues and initiation fees collected. Once established, Regional Organizing Committees shall negotiate with the GST for services and per capitas. An ROC shall be composed of all IWW members in good standing in the area to be represented unless that membership has provided for its own system of representation to same, in which case the body of membership so served shall remain a superordinate entity to the ROC.

(k). The General Executive Board is authorized at its discretion to allow 50% of the dues and initiations collected to be retained by those involved in an organizing campaign provided the delegates involved report on the progress of such campaigns to the General Executive Board monthly, and account for all money received and spent.

ARTICLE IX

Amendments, Etc.

Section 1(a). All proposed amendments to the Constitution and By-Laws shall clearly state the article, section and paragraph to which the amendment applies. New articles and sections shall be so stated. Each clause to be amended shall be on a separate sheet.

Conflicting Parts

(b). All parts of the Constitution conflicting with amendments ratified by a referendum vote are hereby declared null and void.

Referendums

Sec. 2(a). A referendum on any organization question, including constitutional amendments, may be initiated by the General Executive Board, or by a petition of 15 members in good standing.

(b). Referendums shall take place three times yearly, as close as possible to the following schedule: Notification of the referendums shall be made to the members in the first G.O.B. on or after September 30, January 31, and May 31, respectively. Notification on a measure may not be given unless the motion or petition is printed in a prior or concurrent G.O.B. Ballots will be mailed first class on or as soon as possible after November 1, March 1, and July 1, provided that at least one G.O.B. has appeared since notification. Ballots will be due within 30 days from the date of mailing. Ballots to members outside the U.S. will be sent via air mail. Election of officers and resolutions of the General Assembly that must be sustained by referendum will be included with the November ballot. If for any reason a properly initiated referendum question misses the notification deadline or the appropriate ballot it will automatically be carried over to the next scheduled referendum.

(c). The returns of the referendum shall remain in General Headquarters in sealed envelopes until the ballot committee meets. The ballot committee shall meet immediately on expiration of time set for return of ballots. The General Secretary-Treasurer shall notify Industrial Union or body initiating referendum of date set for count of ballots.

(d). The ballot committee to count the votes on the referendum shall be composed as follows: Three members in continuous good standing for 1 year prior to their election on committee shall be elected by the Industrial Unions in the city in which Headquarters is located. In reporting through the monthly bulletin the returns of referendums and elections, the General Secretary-Treasurer shall give the names of the ballot committee together with their card numbers and the Industrial Union of which they are members.

(e). The Industrial Union or body initiating a referendum shall pay the expenses of its own delegates on ballot committee unless the referendum is carried, in which event the expenses shall be borne by the general organization.

(f). Referendum returns from any Industrial Union cannot exceed its paid up membership for the 3 months prior to the vote on the referendum in question.

(g). Ballots shall be prepared in such a way as to assure complete secrecy in voting and shall be in duplicate form to allow the member to retain a record of his or her vote. To ensure complete secrecy, all IWW referenda will use the two-envelope system. The ballot will be enclosed in the inner envelope and will contain no information identifying the ballot with the member who sent it. All information pertaining to the member's name and standing will be enclosed in the outer envelope. Once the ballot is approved by the ballot committee, the innner envelope will remain sealed and be secured separately from the member's identifying information. All ballots must be numbered. Ballots not numbered, not sealed, or from members in bad standing will not be considered valid ballots. Any members whose ballots have been invalidated shall be notified by first-class mail within seven (7) days of the decision by the Ballot Committee, explaining the reason his or her ballot was invalidated.

(h). All constitutional changes ratified by a general referendum ballot shall take effect January 1, unless otherwise decided by the

General Assembly.

(i). Any part of this General constitution may be suspended or set aside for 1 year if so approved by a general referendum, initiated as provided for in Section 2(a) of this Article.

Recall

Section 3. The General Administration Officials shall be subject to recall upon a referendum, initiated as provided for in Section 2(a), Article IX. They shall continue in office during the recall referendum.

ARTICLE X

Transfers, Craft Cards, Etc.

Section 1. There shall be a free interchange of cards between all organizations subordinate to the Industrial Workers of the World, and any Industrial Union shall accept, in lieu of initiation fee, the paid up membership card of any recognized labor union.

Sec. 2(a). Members of an Industrial Union who cease work in that industry and are working in another industry for 30 days or more, must transfer to the proper Industrial Union. No member is allowed to transfer unless actually working in the industry s/he wishes to transfer to.

(b). Any member of chartered unions when working in another Industrial Union over 30 days and who fails to transfer shall be considered a member in bad standing.

Sec. 3. Members in arrears in dues and assessments cannot transfer from one Industrial Union to another. Delinquent delegates cannot transfer.

Sec. 4(a). All delegates upon transferring a member from one Industrial Union to another shall immediately send the record of transfer to the Clearing House.

(b). Any member of the IWW who has attended any I.U. Conference or convention, with voice and vote 90 days prior to the convening of the General Assembly, at which action was taken on resolutions to be presented to the General Assembly, or at which delegates to the General Assembly were elected, shall not have voice and vote at any other I.U. Convention or Conference prior to the General Assembly.

Withdrawal of Cards

Sec. 5. On application, members who cease to be wage workers shall send their cards to the Secretary-Treasurer of the Clearing House who shall enter date of withdrawal on transfer page of membership book, together with his or her official signature, and return same to the withdrawing member.

Sec. 6. Any member in continuous good standing for 10 years, and found, after proper investigation by the Branch of the Industrial Union to which s/he belongs, to be incapacitated for life, the Industrial Union shall issue him/her a special membership card carrying the privilege of having a voice under "Good and Welfare," but with no voice on the business of the Branch.

ARTICLE XI

Charters

Section 1. The number of signers required on an application for a Charter shall not be less than 10.

Sec. 2. The charter of a union or branch shall be surrendered when membership falls below 5.

Sec. 3. Upon a union surrendering its charter, the General Executive Board shall appoint a representative of the Industrial Workers of the World to take charge of the charter, supplies and property and funds of said union. Members or officers of said union refusing to deliver charter, supplies, property or funds of union surrendering its charter to the authorized representatives of the Industrial Workers of the World shall be expelled from the organization.

ARTICLE XII

Unemployed members

Section 1. Except where Industrial Unions provide otherwise, any member whose income for the preceding month has been less than $800.00 shall be entitled to pay dues for that month at the minimum rate of three dollars per month, this to include students working part-time. If a member pays more than one month in advance and later the member's income changes to above $800, that member must pay the difference in dues with respect to the new income beginning with the month that it changed. Special minimum-income stamps shall be issued by the Clearing House, and shall be entered separately in all accounts.

Sec. 2. Members with minimum income dues stamps are entitled to full rights and privileges; representation at Assemblies shall in no way discriminate between the two types of dues; except as otherwise provided those paying minimum income dues shall be required to pay all assessments due from employed members.

* * *

GENERAL BY-LAWS

ARTICLE I

Section 1. Unions shall have the power to enact such laws for their government as they may deem necessary, providing they do not conflict with the Constitution and By-Laws of the Industrial Workers of the World.

Sec. 2. A majority vote cast shall rule in the general organization and its subordinate parts.

ARTICLE II

Defense

Section 1. Preamble

The General Defense Committee (GDC) shall be composed of GDC locals, initiated by local Inudstrial Unions and/or General Membership Branches (GMB)

Sec. 2(a). A GDC local must consist of at least five members of the IWW in good standing, and shall be open to non members of the IWW who subscribe to the general prinicples and aims of the IWW and GDC.

(b). Charters for GDC locals shall be issued and approved by the GEB. A local charter may be placed in suspension by the IU or GMB with jursidiction, pending a decision by the GEB to revoke a charter. The GDC local may appeal the decision of the GEB regarding charters to the membership of the IWW.

(c). A quorum to meet for a GDC local shall be five members of the IWW in good standing.

(d). Each chartered local shall elect a Secretary/Treasurer who shall be responsible for keeping records of the minutes and funds, coordinating efforts with other locals, and reporting activities to the local IU or GMB and making quarterly reports to the GST of the GDC. All officers elected shall be members of the IWW.

Sec. 3. No expelled member of the IWW shall be eligible for membership in the GDC.

Sec. 4. The GDC shall be known as the GDC of the IWW, or of the local IU's and GMB's where applicable, and shall be stated so on membership cards, literature, and letterheads.

Sec. 5. Initiation fees for GDC membership shall be $5.00 and dues shall be $5.00 per quarter. Each local shall retain 75% of dues collected.

Sec. 6. The membership of the GDC may requisition funds from the treasury of the central GDC by means of a referendum of the entire GDC membership, said referendum to be called by 15 members of the GDC in good standing or by a chartered local making official petition, and balloting to be conducted by the office of the General Secretary/Treasurer of the GDC.

Sec. 7. The IWW membership shall elect yearly a Secretary/Treasurer to act as the custodian of the GDC central fund. The secretary must make quarterly reports to GHQ and will act as a clearinghouse for stamps and cards. The central fund shall be retained in a separate account for the purpose of defense work. An alternate for this office shall also be elected.

Sec. 8. Locals may engage in strike support and other activities consistent with the aims and principles of the IWW.

ARTICLE III

Charges

Section 1. Whenever charges are filed by a member of one Industrial Union against a member of the same Industrial Union, they shall be in writing, setting forth the facts, together with the names of witnesses and their statements regarding the offenses with which the accused member is charged.

The charges shall be read in the Industrial Union Branch at the next regular meeting, at which time five members shall be elected from the floor of the meeting to act as a charges committee. The accuser and the accused shall have no voice in the election of the charges committee, nor can either of them act on same.

The committee shall furnish the accused with a true copy of the charges either by registered mail or by personal delivery in the presence of a witness. The charges committee shall set a date for a hearing and shall collect all evidence both for and against the accused, and at the end of their hearing they shall submit their findings together with the charges and evidence to the next regular meeting of the branch, at which time the membership will accept or reject their findings.

If the findings are accepted by both parties the decision shall at once be sent by registered mail to the headquarters of the Industrial Union. If either party so desires, an appeal may be taken within 30 days to the Convention of the Industrial Union, and to the general membership of the Industrial Union for referendum.

Sec. 2. Whenever charges are filed against a member of another Industrial Union the member preferring the charges shall present same to the branch of which the accused is a member if there is a branch in the city or industrial district where the alleged offense was committed. If charges are preferred against a member of another Industrial Union for an alleged offense in a city or industrial district where there is no branch of the Industrial Union of which the accused is a member then the charges may be tried by any IWW branch in the city, provided, however, if there are two or more IWW branches in the city the trial branch shall not be the one to which the accused belongs.

Sec. 3. It shall be optional for each Industrial Union to make by-laws permitting the filing of charges direct with the Industrial Union Convention.

Sec. 4. Appeal may be taken from the Industrial Union Convention to the General Assembly by either side.

Sec. 5(a). No member's card shall be taken up without the action of a regular business meeting, conference or convention.

(b). No publicity shall be given in our papers on any suspension until same has been acted upon by the I.U. Convention or General Assembly. The I.U. Convention or General Assembly shall then order whatever publicity is necessary on the case.

Sec. 6(a). The circulation of accusations by one member against another, unless substantiated by charges filed according to these provisions, shall be grounds for expulsion of member circulating such matters.

(b). No member of the IWW shall be suspended for more than 90 days. All charges must be finally disposed of, and members so charged either expelled or reinstated within that time.

Sec. 7. When the member charged does not belong to an IUB or GMB that can provide for his/her trial, the GEB shall provide arrangements for a fair trial, and shall seek agreement between the charged and charging parties on these arrangements.

ARTICLE IV

Employees

Section 1. All employees hired by the IWW shall be members of the IWW when possible.

Expelled Members

Sec. 2. The general organization and Industrial Unions shall be prohibited from employing expelled members until such members have been reinstated and placed in good standing by the union or unions from which they were expelled.

ARTICLE V

Delinquency

Section 1. Monthly dues are payable the first of each month. Members whose dues are 60 days in arrears (60 days from the first of the month when dues were payable), shall be in bad standing and shall not be entitled to any rights or benefits in the IWW until such dues have been paid. After 6 months in bad standing members cannot take part in business meetings.

Sec. 2. Delinquent delegates are members in bad standing. Delinquency of delegates shall be defined by the Industrial Union to which the delegate belongs.

Sec. 3. All G.O.C. travelling delegates and branch secretaries when issuing credentials shall mark in delegate's membership card the number of the credentials issued with the date,and by whom issued; and when a delegate's account is cleared, the Clearing House shall issue her or him a clearance stamp to be affixed on his or her membership card.

ARTICLE VI

Supplies, Etc.

All subordinate organizations of the Industrial Workers of the World must procure and use such supplies as dues books, dues stamps, official buttons, labels and badges from the General Secretary Treasurer. All such supplies are to be of a uniform design.

ARTICLE VII

Speakers and Organizers

Sec. 1. No members of the IWW shall represent the organization before a body of wage earners without first having been authorized by the General Executive Board or a subordinate part of the IWW.

Sec. 2. No organizer for the IWW while on the platform for this organization shall advocate any political party platform.

ARTICLE VIII

Intoxication

Repealed

ARTICLE IX

Declinations

Any member who accepts nomination for an official position and declines after his or her name has been placed on the ballot, shall not be eligible for any office for 2 years, unless good cause is given such as sickness or being in jail.

ARTICLE X

Any publication controlled by the IWW may accept advertising only from IWW-organized shops, artisan shops (individual IWW members controlling their own means of production) and cooperatives, at the discretion of and at rates to be set by the editor and/or publisher of the publication involved.

ARTICLE XI

Section 1. Each Industrial Union shall have power to make rules relating to agreements between its job branches and the employers.

Sec. 2. No agreement made by any component part of the IWW shall provide for a checkoff of union dues by the employer, or obligate the members of the union to do work that would aid in breaking any strike.

ARTICLE XII

No clause of the General By-Laws in the General Constitution shall be considered valid unless carried by referendum vote and inserted in the General Constitution and By-Laws.

ARTICLE XIII

No officer or member of the Union may seek a private interview with an employer in the event of a strike or during contract negotiations.

ARTICLE XIV

CONFLICT MEDIATION COMMITTEE

Section 1. The General Assembly shall have the power to select a Committee of 5 members, to serve the Union for one year in the capacity of mediating conflicts as such may arise amongst members.

Section 2. This shall be known as the Conflict Mediation Committee (CMC), and shall not have the power to arbitrate disputes or to bind parties to agreements. Rather, it shall seek to find mutually-agreeable solutions to conflicts and thereby avoid the need for charges to be filed. This Article shall not supercede or abrogate Article III of these General By-Laws, but rather augment its effectiveness by resolving disputes and dissipating their divisiveness before Article III remedies need to be pursued.

Section 3. It is in the best interests of the IWW to resolve disputes without corroding solidarity between individuals and component parts of the Union. Mitigating the need for the intervention of the whole of the Union in any particular dispute serves this interest. Therefore, requesting the intervention of the CMC, and participating in its processes shall be viewed as an act of good faith. Such participation shall not be compulsory; however, publicizing a dispute without first attempting mediation is disrespectful both of other Fellow Workers and of the interests of this Union and the working class.

Section 4. All rights and duties under Article III of these By-Laws are otherwise preserved, and the failure of mediation to resolve a dispute is rightly referred thereunto.

Section 5. The CMC shall establish its own working rules, bearing in mind that the nature of successful mediation is flexibility and accomodation of different needs within the broader framework of this Constitution and By-Laws.

Section 6. CMC members shall be and remain in good standing for the time they so serve, and shall be recallable by majority vote of the Union in referendum between Assemblies. As this Committee has no enforcement or other binding powers, members shall not be subject to term limits.

* * *

SELECTED RESOLUTIONS

Political Parties & Discipline

Whereas, the primary object of the Industrial Workers of the World is to unite the workers on the industrial battlefield; and

Whereas, Organization in any sense implies discipline through the subordination of parts to the whole and of the individual member to the body of which he or she is a part; therefore be it

Resolved, That to the end of promoting industrial unity and of securing necessary discipline within the organization, the IWW refuses all alliances, direct and indirect, with existing political parties or anti-political sects, and disclaims responsibility for any individual opinion or act which may be at variance with the purposes herein expressed.

Organizing Campaigns

Resolved: That the following policy be adopted on organizing campaigns:

1. Delegates attached to General Membership Branches shall obtain the approval of the Branch before beginning an organizing campaign. The Branch will be held responsible for seeing that the campaign is carried through as effectively as possible.

2. Delegates not attached to a GMB shall obtain the approval of the appropriate regional General Organizing Committee, or the General Executive Board, before beginning an organizing campaign. They will be expected to: (a) Have knowledge of the job and industry in which they plan to organize; (b) Be able to guarantee, beyond a reasonable doubt, that they will be able to remain in the area until the campaign is concluded; (c) Have a workable plan for financing the expenses of the campaign; (d) Report regularly to the Regional Organizing Committee or the GEB on the progress of the campaign.

FUNDING FOR ORGANIZING

1(a). Any IWW Branch, Job Shop, Group, or Delegate may request funds for organizing by submitting a clearly written proposal to the Clearinghouse. This proposal shall include, but will not necessarily be limited to, the following information; person or group requesting funds; budget request (including stipends, phone costs, supplies, travel, etc.). This budget request shall also include a proposed monthly disbursement schedule; description of organizing drive; timetable for organizing drive.

(b). The Clearinghouse, upon receipt of the proposal, will send copies of the proposal to General Executive Board members immediately.

(c). The GEB shall have a maximum of 45 days (from the postmark on the proposal) to vote on the proposal. If the person(s) submitting the proposal requests a phone vote for expediency, the GEB must vote by phone. A proposal can only be accepted by a majority vote of the GEB.

2(a). Immediately after a proposal is approved, funds will be distributed on a monthly basis to the delegate, group, job shop, or branch requesting the funds.

(b). Monthly reports shall be sent to the Clearinghouse explaining the progress of the organizing drive. These reports shall include a financial report and appropriate receipts. Funds will not be disbursed without monthly reports.

(c). Funds can be suspended at any time by a majority vote of the GEB. If this occurs, the balance of funds not yet spent must be returned to the Clearinghouse promptly.

3. Any GEB decision can be appealed to the general membership via a referendum (see Article IX of the Constitution).

TRANSLATIONS

The GST may authorize the expenditure of organizing funds necessary to translate and reproduce IWW literature for organizing purposes, into any language requested by a GMB, Job Shop, IWW Group, or Delegate.

RESOLUTIONS

Resolutions to be voted upon at General Assembly must be presented to the membership through the GOB at least two months before the Assembly convenes to allow proxy votes to be gathered on the issues involved. Resolutions submitted to the Assembly that have not been published in the GOB as described above must only be voted on if the convention body determines through majority vote that their content is of such an emergency nature that it would effect the operation of the union.

EXPENDITURES

Expenditures exceeding $5,000 can be authorized only by member referendum.

LIST OF INDUSTRIAL UNIONS

To Be Used for the Information of Delegates in Initiating New Members

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AND FISHERIES No. 100

Agricultural workers IU 110: All workers on farms, ranches, orchards, and plantations.

Lumber Workers IU 120: All workers in forests. All workers engaged in logging operations, in saw and shingle mills, and in preparing wood for fuel and manufacturing purposes. Bark and sap collection.

Fishery Workers IU 130: All workers in fishing pursuits on oceans, lakes and rivers. Oyster and clam bed keepers. Workers engaged in collecting pearls, corals, and sponges. Workers in fish hatcheries.

Floriculture Workers IU 140: All workers in nurseries, flower gardens, green- and hot-houses. Cultivation of silk. Distribution of floral products.

DEPARTMENT OF MINING AND MINERALS No. 200

Metal Mine Workers IU 210: All workers engaged in mining all metals and minerals. All workers in refineries, smelters, mills, and other reduction works. All workers in stone and other quarries.

Coal Mine Workers IU 220: All workers engaged in coal mining and the production of coke and briquets.

Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Workers IU 230: All workers engaged in oil, gas, and geothermal fields fields, refineries and processing facilities. All workers engaged in distribution of the products.

DEPARTMENT OF GENERAL CONSTRUCTION No. 300

General Construction Workers IU 310: All workers engaged in construction of docks, railroads, highways, streets, bridges, sewers, subways, tunnels, canals, viaducts, irrigation canals and pipelines.

Ship Builders IU 320: All workers engaged in building and repairing ships, boats, and small harbor craft. All drydock workers.

Building construction Workers IU 330: All workers engaged in erection and construction of houses and buildings, and in delivery of materials.

DEPARTMENT OF MANUFACTURE AND GENERAL PRODUCTION No. 400

Textile and Clothing Workers IU 410: All workers engaged in producing cloth from natural or synthetic fibers. All workers engaged in manufacturing wearing apparel.

Furniture Workers IU 420: All workers in planing mills and furniture factories. All workers engaged in producing wooden containers.

Chemical Workers IU 430: all workers engaged in producing drugs, paint, rubber, explosives, medicines, chemicals, plastics, synthetic fibers, and other chemically-based products.

Metal and Machinery Workers IU 440: All workers in blast furnaces, steel mills, aluminum plants, etc. All workers engaged in producing agricultural machinery, cars, locomotives, engines, automobiles, bicycles, air craft, and various instruments. Tool makers, jewellery and watchmakers.

Printing and Publishing House Workers IU 450: All workers engaged in producing printed matter.

Foodstuff Workers IU 460: All workers except agricultural and fishery workers, engaged in producing and processing food, beverages, and tobacco products.

Leather Workers IU 470: All workers in tanneries and factories producing leather goods, luggage, boots, and shoes.

Glass and Pottery Workers IU 480: All workers producing glass, chinaware, pottery, tile and bricks.

Pulp and Paper Mill workers IU 490: All workers in pulp and paper mills engaged in making pulp, paper and paper containers.

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATION No. 500

Marine Transport Workers IU 510: All workers engaged in marine transportation. All workers on docks and in terminals.

Railroad Workers IU 520: All workers engaged in long distance railway freight and passenger transportation. All workers in locomotive, car, and repair shops. All workers in and around passenger and freight terminals.

Motor Transport Workers IU 530: All workers engaged in hauling freight and passengers by truck, bus, and cab. All workers in and around motor freight sheds, and bus passenger stations.

Municipal Transportation Workers IU 540: All workers engaged in municipal, short distance transportation service.

Air Transport Workers IU 550: All workers employed in air service and maintenance.

Telecommunications and Computer Workers IU 560: All workers engaged in telephone, telegraph, radio, television, satellite communication and computer operations, including programming and networking.

DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SERVICE No. 600

Health Service Workers IU 610: All workers employed in hospitals and health restoration services.

Educational Workers Iu 620: All workers in educational institutions.

Recreational Workers IU 630: All workers in playgrounds and places of amusement and recreation. All professional entertainers.

Restaurant, Hotel, and Building Service Workers IU 640: All workers in facilities for public accommodation. All building service workers.

General, Legal, Public Interest and Financial Office Workers IU 650: All workers engaged in General, Legal, Public Interest, and Financial Offices and institutions that do not directly involve any other industry.

General Distribution workers IU 660: All workers in general distribution facilities, wholesale and retail.

Municipal and Utility Service Workers IU 670: All workers engaged in the transmission, supply, and maintenance gof gas, electric, water, and sewer services. All workers engaged in the collection and refining of disposable, salvageable, and recyclable materials. All workers engaged in the maintenance of cemeteries, parks, streets, and highways.

Household Service Workers IU 680: All workers engaged in performing services in the home.

Sex Trade Workers IU 690: All workers employed as dancers and models, telephone sex workers, actors and other workers who use sexuality as the primary tool of their trade (excluding all agents of the boss class able to hire or fire, or possessing equivalent coercive or punitive power).

ORDER OF BUSINESS

1. Opening and Calling Meeting to Order.

2. Reading of Minutes.

3. Reading of Applications for Membership.

4. Reports of committees, Standing and Special.

5. Reports of Delegates and Officers.

6. Reading of communications and Bills.

7. Monthly Report of financial Secretary, including reading of receipts and expenses.

8. Unfinished Business.

9. New Business.

10. Nominations, Elections, and Installations.

11. Good and Welfare.

12. Adjournment.

Tactics and Vision for a New Workers' Movement

An Introduction to the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW, The Wobblies)

ISN'T THE IWW JUST FOR FACTORY WORKERS?

Every worker is an "industrial" worker - whether they work in health care, tourism, education, or publishing. The relatively recent association between the word "industry" and heavy manufacturing is misleading, and was never intended to be by the founders of the IWW. If you earn your living by working with your hands or your mind, then you're welcome in the IWW. Only bosses (defined as those with direct power to hire and fire) are excluded from IWW membership.

The Wobblies (as members of the IWW are known) have historically focused on helping organize those workers that the American Federation of Labor (AFL) shunned. In the early 1900s that meant African-Americans, immigrants, women, and unskilled laborers. Today that means curbside recyclers, non-profit staffers, temp workers, sex-industry workers, co-op employees -- in short, any worker in any workplace regardless of size or structure.

CAN THE IWW HELP ME TO IMPROVE THE WAGES OR WORKING CONDITIONS AT MY CURRENT JOB?

That largely depends on you. The IWW is a "do-it-yourself" union, and does not provide an all-knowing leadership or hefty treasury to fight your battles for you. But if you're willing to organize at your job-site by talking with your co-workers about the issues that matter to them, then you can count on your fellow workers in the IWW to lend their full support to your struggle.

Individual workers can accomplish little by themselves, and are liable to be fired if they raise their voice in protest. But by joining together in a union such as the IWW, workers are far more powerful when confronting their boss about workplace injustices. Our union can provide tangible, community-based resources such as low-cost printing, speakers, legal advise, and how-to manuals, as well as bodies on a picket line. You won't get bureaucrats in suits and ties telling you how to run your strike, just friends lending a hand where they can.

THE IWW AND MAINSTREAM LABOR

For almost a century, the leadership of the AFL-CIO has worked hand in hand with the capitalists to squelch rank and file militancy. Their overriding concern has been "industrial harmony," not economic and social justice, and so they fail to question the most basic assumptions of capitalist production. While union bosses play golf with the titans of industry, real wages and safety conditions have continued to worsen these last thirty years or so.

Regular AFL trade unions split workers up into their respective skills, allowing one craft union to cross the picket line of another. The IWW believes in "industrial unionism," organizing all workers in a given industry into the same union (thus our name). At a construction site, for instance, the carpenters should be able to count on the unswerving support of the plumbers, laborers, electricians, and hod carriers in the event of a strike. This is much simpler when all these workers are in the same industrial union, rather than separate, even competing, trade unions.

Some Wobblies find themselves in jobs where they are represented by these more conservative trade unions. These "two- card" Wobs often bring their IWW principles to the union hall with them, agitating for rank and file democracy, more militant "direct action" tactics, and class solidarity. The IWW does not believe in signing away the right to strike ( the so-called "no strike" clause), nor does it condone the "dues check-off," in which management deducts union dues directly from the paycheck. While the IWW often does strike support for other unions when necessary, we also try to keep our sights on the bigger prize ahead.

DIDN'T THE IWW DIE OUT? ARE ITS IDEAS STILL RELEVANT?

The IWW was nearly crushed in the early 1920's by some of the fiercest repression ever unleashed by big business and the U.S. government. Because the IWW had strongholds in industries that were critical to the First World War effort, and because they refused to do their patriotic bit by signing no-strike pledges for the duration of the war, the Wobblies were branded "pro-German" and relentlessly persecuted.

The world economy has changed a lot since the days when the IWW controlled great sections of the logging, mining, and agricultural industries. Yet despite tremendous technological advances and the structural reorganization of capital, industrial unionism remains a fundamentally sound basis for workers' self-organization. Today, while mainstream labor tries desperately to hold its ground against the anti-worker policies of the ruling political parties, vast new sectors of the economy have opened up that the AFL-CIO would never dream of organizing.

Whether they be fast-food workers, word processors, or micro- chip assemblers, today's non-union wage workers need the IWW's brand of no-compromise unionism even more than their predecessors. Winning the eight-hour day was not enough. We must redefine the very meaning of work itself, and find ways to redistribute society's wealth for the benefit of all.

DOES THE IWW SUPPORT ANY POLITICAL PARTY?

The IWW is a labor union, not a political party. We believe that economic justice must be achieved through economic struggle, whether that be with our boss or our landlord. The institutions of government have always proven themselves to be the allies of Capital, so we do not wait for politicians to free us from wage- slavery. We believe our power lies in the workplace, not in "the vote" - since it is our labor on which bosses are dependent.

The IWW has successfully resisted attempts by various "left" parties to make the union a mere tool of their political ambitions. Our Constitution explicitly states "the IWW refuses all alliances, direct and indirect, with existing parties and anti-political sects." This policy has helped us avoid the sectarian feuding that can easily destroy a group.

True, our commitment to worker control and the abolition of capitalism has not won us any friends among the ruling elites, and our disavowal of all political party affiliation has not prevented us from being red-baited. We address the root causes of this society's problems, and that makes us "radical," but we have the common sense to leave our electoral political views outside the union hall where they belong.

WHAT IS DIRECT ACTION?

The labor movement has been most successful when it relied on the direct intervention of the workers to obtain their demands. Rather than allowing professional negotiators to speak for them, Wobblies have engaged in those tactics which they could control themselves -- strikes, slowdowns, monkey wrenching -- what we call sabotage.

Sabotage in this context does not mean arson and dynamite. It's more properly defined as "the conscious withdrawal of efficiency." Staying at your workstation but reducing your production by half will bring a boss to his knees quicker than a whole team of negotiators.

The IWW has never advocated violence. By fighting for justice with non-violent tactics, the IWW has often won the support of an initially mistrustful public.

WHAT IS A GENERAL STRIKE?

The General Strike has long been touted by militant unionists as the ultimate expression of workers' power, and it still plays an important role in the IWW's program for social change. Simply put, a General strike is a massive work stoppage on a local, regional, or national scale, and may involve people either staying home or occupying their workplaces and refusing to work. A General Strike halts business as usual, and serves notice to those in power that those of us doing the work have the ultimate say in whether that work gets done or not. It debunks the myth that power flows downward, and proves instead that all real power still resides at the grassroots level, if we only choose to exercise it.

The general Strike is a common tactic in many countries of the world, yet most North American workers are unfamiliar with it. This is largely the result of the conservative trade unions' reluctance to flex their economic muscle and rock the boat. A great deal of education and organization must take place before North American workers are ready to wage a successful General Strike, and it's toward this end that the IWW dedicates itself.

THE IWW AND FEMINISM

Women have been active in the IWW since its inception. Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, one of the union's best know agitators, once said that "the IWW has been accused of pushing women to the front. This is not true. Rather, the women have not been kept in back, and so they have naturally moved to the front."

Much of the work that has traditionally been done by women was not recognized as such by the male-run business unions. The IWW supports the right of homemakers, sex-industry workers, and other women to organize for better conditions and wages just like other workers.

THE IWW AND MILITARISM

Wars between nations have never benefitted the working class, and they never will. The war profiteers, safe in their mansions and boardrooms, never consider the human cost of their military adventurism. Working people are mere cannon fodder for their corporate and imperialist ambitions.

Real working class solidarity does not recognize the artificial borders erected between nation-states, but instead unites against a common class enemy. Poor people, especially those of color, make up a disproportionate part of the armed forces, simply because few other economic options are available.

To put an end to war, working people must lay down their arms and refuse to fight for their masters. Unfortunately, many have been brainwashed into thinking that their interests are the same as those of the people in power, so this is easier said than done. Nevertheless, the IWW is committed to fighting patriotic propaganda by educating workers about where their real self-interest lies.

THE IWW AND THE ENVIRONMENT

Bhopal, Chernobyl, the Exxon Valdez oil spill... These are just a few examples of how dangerous it can be to put profit before people. Government regulation and public outcry can at best slow down the destruction of our planet, not reverse it.

Workers and their families suffer the worst effects of pollution. The workplace continues to be a very dangerous environment, and working class communities are often the site for toxic dumps, incinerators, and the like.

Workers' control of all industry is the only practical strategy for assuring the practice of sustainable and environmentally sound forms of production. For if the workers in all polluting industries were to withdraw their labor, the poison factories could be shut down in a matter of weeks. The workers themselves must decide whether or not what they produce is socially useful.

JOIN THE I.W.W.

NO BUREAUCRATS - Aside from the modestly paid General Secretary/Treasurer, the I.W.W. has no paid officers. The General Executive Board is elected annually by the entire membership, and its job is to oversee the running of union affairs, not to set policy. All officers may be recalled at any time by referendum.

REAL DEMOCRACY - All policy decisions are made by the members themselves by referendum. All branches maintain full autonomy on matters within their jurisdiction. Job branches (I.W.W. groups composed of workers at a single job-site) set their own demands and strategies in negotiations, free of meddling internaitonals or sellout business agents.

LOW DUES - Our dues are structured on a sliding scale basis. Unemployed and low-income workers pay $5 a month; those making between $800 and $1,700 per month pay $9; members making more than $1,700 per month pay $12 monthly dues; and workers in extremely poor financial situations may pay only $3 per month. Initiation fees equal one month's dues; so a very low-income worker can join for as little as $6.

IWW PREAMBLE

The working class and the employing class have nothing in common. There can be no peace so long as hunger and want are found among millions of working people; and the few, who make up the employing class, have all the good things in life.Between these two classes a struggle must go on until the workers of the world organize as a class, take possession of the machinery of production, abolish the wage system, and live in harmony with the earth.

We find that the centering of the management of industries into fewer and fewer hands makes the trade unions unable to cope with the ever growing power of the employing class. The trade unions foster a state of affairs which allows one set of workers to be pitted against another set of workers in the same industry, thereby helping to defeat one another in wage wars. Moreover, the trade unions aid the employing class to mislead the workers into the belief that the working class has interests in common with its employers.

These conditions can be changed and the interests of the working class upheld only by an organization formed in such a way that all its members in any one industry, or in all industries if necessary, cease work whenever a strike or lockout is on in any department thereof, thus making an injury to one an injury to all.

Instead of the conservative motto, "A fair day's wage for a fair day's work," we must inscribe on our banner the revolutionary watchword, "Abolition of the wage system."

It is the historic mission of the working class to do away with capitalism. The army of production must be organized, not only for the everyday struggle with capitalists, but also to carry on production when capitalism shall have been overthrown. By organizing industrially we are forming the structure of the new society within the shell of the old.

CONTACT THE IWW GENERAL HEADQUARTERS AT

103 W. Michigan Ave.

Ypsilanti, MI 48197, USA

ph: 734-483-3548

fax: 734-483-4050

email: ghq@iww.org

INTERNATIONAL WORKERS' DAY

MAY DAY -

THE REAL LABOR DAY

May 1st, International Workers' Day, commemorates the historic struggle of working people throughout the world, and is recognized in every country except the United States and Canada. This despite the fact that the holiday began in the 1880s in the United States, with the fight for an eight-hour work day.

In 1884, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions passed a resolution stating that eight hours would constitute a legal day's work from and after May 1, 1886. The resolution called for a general strike to achieve the goal, since legislative methods had already failed. With workers being forced to work ten, twelve, and fourteen hours a day, rank-and-file support for the eight-hour movement grew rapidly, despite the indifference and hostility of many union leaders. By April 1886, 250,000 workers were involved in the May Day movement.

The heart of the movement was in Chicago, organized primarily by the anarchist International Working People's Association. Businesses and the state were terrified by the increasingly revolutionary character of the movement and prepared accordingly. The police and militia were increased in size and received new and powerful weapons financed by local business leaders. Chicago's Commercial Club purchased a $2000 machine gun for the Illinois National Guard to be used against strikers. Nevertheless, by May 1st, the movement had already won gains for many Chicago clothing cutters, shoemakers, and packing-house workers. But on May 3, 1886, police fired into a crowd of strikers at the McCormick Reaper Works Factory, killing four and wounding many. Anarchists called for a mass meeting the next day in Haymarket Square to protest the brutality.

The meeting proceeded without incident, and by the time the last speaker was on the platform, the rainy gathering was already breaking up, with only a few hundred people remaining. It was then that 180 cops marched into the square and ordered the meeting to disperse. As the speakers climbed down from the platform, a bomb was thrown at the police, killing one and injuring seventy. Police responded by firing into the crowd, killing one worker and injuring many others.

Although it was never determined who threw the bomb, the incident was used as an excuse to attack the entire Left and labor movement. Police ransacked the homes and offices of suspected radicals, and hundreds were arrested without charge. Anarchists in particular were harassed, and eight of Chicago's most active were charged with conspiracy to murder in connection with the Haymarket bombing. A kangaroo court found all eight guilty, despite a lack of evidence connecting any of them to the bomb-thrower (only one was even present at the meeting, and he was on the speakers' platform), and they were sentenced to die. Albert Parsons, August Spies, Adolf Fischer, and George Engel were hanged on November 11, 1887. Louis Lingg committed suicide in prison. The remaining three were finally pardoned in 1893.

It is not surprising that the state, business leaders, mainstream union officials, and the media would want to hide the true history of May Day, portraying it as a holiday celebrated only in Moscow's Red Square. In its attempt to erase the history and significance of May Day, the United States government declared May 1st to be "Law Day", and gave us instead Labor Day­a holiday devoid of any historical significance other than its importance as a day to swill beer and sit in traffic jams.

But rather than suppressing labor and radical movements, the events of 1886 and the execution of the Chicago anarchists actually mobilized many generations of radicals. Emma Goldman, a young immigrant at the time, later pointed to the Haymarket affair as her political birth. Lucy Parsons, widow of Albert Parsons, called upon the poor to direct their anger toward those responsible--the rich. Instead of disappearing, the anarchist movement only grew in the wake of Haymarket, spawning other radical movements and organizations, including the Industrial Workers of the World.

By covering up the history of May Day, the state, business, mainstream unions and the media have covered up an entire legacy of dissent in this country. They are terrified of what a similarly militant and organized movement could accomplish today, and they suppress the seeds of such organization whenever and wherever they can. As workers, we must recognize and commemorate May Day not only for its historical significance, but also as a time to organize around issues of vital importance to working-class people today. As IWW songwriter Joe Hill wrote in one of his most powerful songs:

Workers of the world, awaken!

Rise in all your splendid might

Take the wealth that you are making,

It belongs to you by right.

No one will for bread be crying

We'll have freedom, love and health,

When the grand red flag is flying

In the Workers' Commonwealth.

THE BRIEF ORIGINS OF MAY DAY

Most people living in the United States know little about the International Workers' Day of May Day. For many others there is an assumption that it is a holiday celebrated in state communist countries like Cuba or the former Soviet Union. Most Americans don't realize that May Day has its origins here in this country and is as "American" as baseball and apple pie, and stemmed from the pre-Christian holiday of Beltane, a celebration of rebirth and fertility.

In the late nineteenth century, the working class was in constant struggle to gain the 8-hour work day. Working conditions were severe and it was quite common to work 10 to 16 hour days in unsafe conditions. Death and injury were commonplace at many work places and inspired such books as Upton Sinclair's The Jungle and Jack London's The Iron Heel. As early as the 1860's, working people agitated to shorten the workday without a cut in pay, but it wasn't until the late 1880's that organized labor was able to garner enough strength to declare the 8-hour workday. This proclamation was without consent of employers, yet demanded by many of the working class.

At this time, socialism was a new and attractive idea to working people, many of whom were drawn to its ideology of working class control over the production and distribution of all goods and services. Workers had seen first-hand that Capitalism benefited only their bosses, trading workers' lives for profit. Thousands of men, women and children were dying needlessly every year in the workplace, with life expectancy as low as their early twenties in some industries, and little hope but death of rising out of their destitution. Socialism offered another option.

A variety of socialist organizations sprung up throughout the later half of the 19th century, ranging from political parties to choir groups. In fact, many socialists were elected into governmental office by their constituency. But again, many of these socialists were ham-strung by the political process which was so evidently controlled by big business and the bi-partisan political machine. Tens of thousands of socialists broke ranks from their parties, rebuffed the entire political process, which was seen as nothing more than protection for the wealthy, and created anarchist groups throughout the country. Literally thousands of working people embraced the ideals of anarchism, which sought to put an end to all hierarchical structures (including government), emphasized worker controlled industry, and valued direct action over the bureaucratic political process. It is inaccurate to say that labor unions were "taken over" by anarchists and socialists, but rather anarchists and socialist made up the labor unions.

At its national convention in Chicago, held in 1884, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions (which later became the American Federation of Labor), proclaimed that "eight hours shall constitute a legal day's labor from and after May 1, 1886." The following year, the FOTLU, backed by many Knights of Labor locals, reiterated their proclamation stating that it would be supported by strikes and demonstrations. At first, most radicals and anarchists regarded this demand as too reformist, failing to strike "at the root of the evil." A year before the Haymarket Massacre, Samuel Fielden pointed out in the anarchist newspaper, The Alarm, that "whether a man works eight hours a day or ten hours a day, he is still a slave."

Despite the misgivings of many of the anarchists, an estimated quarter million workers in the Chicago area became directly involved in the crusade to implement the eight hour work day, including the Trades and Labor Assembly, the Socialistic Labor Party and local Knights of Labor. As more and more of the workforce mobilized against the employers, these radicals conceded to fight for the 8-hour day, realizing that "the tide of opinion and determination of most wage-workers was set in this direction." With the involvement of the anarchists, there seemed to be an infusion of greater issues than the 8-hour day. There grew a sense of a greater social revolution beyond the more immediate gains of shortened hours, but a drastic change in the economic structure of capitalism. In a proclamation printed just before May 1, 1886, one publisher appealed to working people with this plea:

Workingmen to Arms!

War to the Palace, Peace to the Cottage, and Death to LUXURIOUS IDLENESS.

The wage system is the only cause of the World's misery. It is supported by the rich classes, and to destroy it, they must be either made to work or DIE.

One pound of DYNAMITE is better than a bushel of BALLOTS!

MAKE YOUR DEMAND FOR EIGHT HOURS with weapons in your hands to meet the capitalistic bloodhounds, police, and militia in proper manner.

Not surprisingly the entire city was prepared for mass bloodshed, reminiscent of the railroad strike a decade earlier when police and soldiers gunned down hundreds of striking workers. On May 1, 1886, more than 300,000 workers in 13,000 businesses across the United States walked off their jobs in the first May Day celebration in history. In Chicago, the epicenter for the 8-hour day agitators, 40,000 went out on strike with the anarchists in the forefront of the public's eye. With their fiery speeches and revolutionary ideology of direct action, anarchists and anarchism became respected and embraced by the working people and despised by the capitalists. The names of many - Albert Parsons, Johann Most, August Spies and Louis Lingg - became household words in Chicago and throughout the country. Parades, bands and tens of thousands of demonstrators in the streets exemplified the workers' strength and unity, yet didn't become violent as the newspapers and authorities predicted.

More and more workers continued to walk off their jobs until the numbers swelled to nearly 100,000, yet peace prevailed. It was not until two days later, May 3, 1886, that violence broke out at the McCormick Reaper Works between police and strikers. For six months, armed Pinkerton agents and the police harassed and beat locked-out steelworkers as they picketed. Most of these workers belonged to the "anarchist-dominated" Metal Workers' Union. During a speech near the McCormick plant, some two hundred demonstrators joined the steelworkers on the picket line. Beatings with police clubs escalated into rock throwing by the strikers which the police responded to with gunfire. At least two strikers were killed and an unknown number were wounded.

Full of rage, a public meeting was called by some of the anarchists for the following day in Haymarket Square to discuss the police brutality. Due to bad weather and short notice, only about 3000 of the tens of thousands of people showed up from the day before. This affair included families with children and the mayor of Chicago himself. Later, the mayor would testify that the crowd remained calm and orderly and that speaker August Spies made "no suggestion... for immediate use of force or violence toward any person..."

As the speech wound down, two detectives rushed to the main body of police, reporting that a speaker was using inflammatory language, inciting the police to march on the speakers' wagon. As the police began to disperse the already thinning crowd, a bomb was thrown into the police ranks. No one knows who threw the bomb, but speculations varied from blaming any one of the anarchists, to an agent provocateur working for the police.

Enraged, the police fired into the crowd. The exact number of civilians killed or wounded was never determined, but an estimated seven or eight civilians died, and up to forty were wounded. One officer died immediately and another seven died in the following weeks. Later evidence indicated that only one of the police deaths could be attributed to the bomb and that all the other police fatalities had or could have had been due to their own indiscriminate gun fire. Aside from the bomb thrower, who was never identified, it was the police, not the anarchists, who perpetrated the violence.

Eight anarchists - Albert Parsons, August Spies, Samuel Fielden, Oscar Neebe, Michael Schwab, George Engel, Adolph Fischer and Louis Lingg - were arrested and convicted of murder, though only three were even present at Haymarket and those three were in full view of all when the bombing occurred. The jury in their trial was comprised of business leaders in a gross mockery of justice similar to the Sacco-Vanzetti case thirty years later, or the trials of AIM and Black Panther members in the seventies. The entire world watched as these eight organizers were convicted, not for their actions, of which all of were innocent, but for their political and social beliefs. On November 11, 1887, after many failed appeals, Parsons, Spies, Engel and Fisher were hung to death. Louis Lingg, in his final protest of the state's claim of authority and punishment, took his own life the night before with an explosive device in his mouth.

The remaining organizers, Fielden, Neebe and Schwab, were pardoned six years later by Governor Altgeld, who publicly lambasted the judge on a travesty of justice. Immediately after the Haymarket Massacre, big business and government conducted what some say was the very first "Red Scare" in this country. Spun by mainstream media, anarchism became synonymous with bomb throwing and socialism became un-American. The common image of an anarchist became a bearded, eastern European immigrant with a bomb in one hand and a dagger in the other.

Today we see tens of thousands of activists embracing the ideals of the Haymarket Martyrs and those who established May Day as an International Workers' Day. Ironically, May Day is an official holiday in 66 countries and unofficially celebrated in many more, but rarely is it recognized in this country where it began.

Over one hundred years have passed since that first May Day. In the earlier part of the 20th century, the US government tried to curb the celebration and further wipe it from the public's memory by establishing "Law and Order Day" on May 1. We can draw many parallels between the events of 1886 and today. We still have locked out steelworkers struggling for justice. We still have voices of freedom behind bars as in the cases of Mumia Abu Jamal and Leonard Peltier. We still had the ability to mobilize tens of thousands of people in the streets of a major city to proclaim "THIS IS WHAT DEMOCRACY LOOKS LIKE!" at the WTO and FTAA demonstrations.

Words stronger than any I could write are engraved on the Haymarket Monument:

THE DAY WILL COME WHEN OUR SILENCE WILL BE MORE POWERFUL THAN THE VOICES YOU ARE THROTTLING TODAY.

Truly, history has a lot to teach us about the roots of our radicalism. When we remember that people were shot so we could have the 8-hour day; if we acknowledge that homes with families in them were burned to the ground so we could have Saturday as part of the weekend; when we recall 8-year old victims of industrial accidents who marched in the streets protesting working conditions and child labor only to be beat down by the police and company thugs, we understand that our current condition cannot be taken for granted - people fought for the rights and dignities we enjoy today, and there is still a lot more to fight for. The sacrifices of so many people can not be forgotten or we'll end up fighting for those same gains all over again. This is why we celebrate May Day.

POLITICS Vs. SYNDICALISM: A CASE STUDY OF THE IWW

Luther M. Gaylord

On June 27, 1905, William D. Haywood of the Western Federation of Miners called to order the founding convention of the Industrial Workers of the World. It was to be the "One Big Union," an economic movement of all workers in all industries to bring about heir emancipation from wage slavery.

But the vision of One Big Union faded quickly amid bitter divisions following the founding convention, and by 1908 the organization had split into two groups, both calling themselves the Industrial Workers of the World, one headquartered in Chicago, the other in Detroit.

The IWW with which most Americans are familiar is the Chicago, or "red" IWW. This is the union of the Lawrence and Paterson strikes, of Joe Hill and Frank Little, of free speech and direct action--the union that still exists today with branches across the United States, Canada, Australia and England.

The Detroit IWW was organized upon the departure (or expulsion, depending upon whose history one reads) of Socialist Labor Party leader Daniel DeLeon and his adherents from the union after the fourth convention. Also known as the "yellow" IWW, this doctrinaire faction rechristened itself "The Workers International Industrial Union" in 1915 and finally expired in 1925.

The Detroit group claimed to be the custodian of the original IWW idea, seeing itself as the keeper of the tradition of the founders as expressed in the first preamble to the IWW constitution. Likewise, the Chicago group maintained that it had restored the preamble to its originally intended form at the 1908 convention and was therefore the _real_ IWW.

Fortunately, I am not faced with the task of proving which IWW is "the one and only true union." Since Detroit gave up the name (and ultimately the ghost), Chicago won by default. The importance of the schism for the purposes of this paper is as a case study of yndicalist vs. political approaches to confronting capitalism. We will first examine the division as it manifested itself within the union, then explore the larger philosophical debate.

SOCIALIST/ANARCHIST DIFFICULTIES

Though personal antagonisms between delegates certainly weighed in as factors, the real cause of the IWW split in 1908 was a fundamental ideological dispute. On one side was Daniel DeLeon, arguing that political action was an essential component in the struggle of the working class against the capitalist system. On the other was a collection of delegates from the West popularly known as the "Overalls Brigade" who had tramped their way from Portland to Chicago on freight trains. Concerning these, Paul Brissenden writes:

The western IWWs had not borrowed any theoretical criticism of the state from the French syndicalists, but the actual concrete experiences of the lower grades of workers in the western states had developed in their minds a conception of the political party very similar to that of the revolutionary syndicalists of France. Indeed, the Western American Wobblies looked upon the whole modern system of congressional or parliamentary government with considerable disdain.

Parliaments, they say, are little more than clearing-houses for the exchange of "vague and sterile platitudes." In so far as they do more than this, they merely further the designs of the big business groups whom they serve as retainers. [1]

While such anarchist sentiment was probably strongest among western Wobblies, it was by no means exclusive to them, nor was it new to the IWW. According to Patrick Renshaw, almost all of the delegates who came together at the founding convention in 1905 could be described either as socialists, militant trade unionists or anarcho-syndicalists. [2] (Parliamentary reformers, making up the right and center wings of the Socialist Party, wanted no part of the IWW, deciding instead to "bore from within" the AF of L.)

Indeed, Sal Salerno devotes an entire chapter of his book _Red November, Black November_ to the influence of anarchists at the founding convention, who included Thomas J. Hagerty, Lucy Parsons (widow of one of the Haymarket martyrs), and William Trautmann.

Of particular interest is Hagerty, a tall black-bearded Catholic priest who had at one time been a member of the Socialist Party, until he became disgusted with the "slowcialists," as he called them, and turned to revolutionary industrial unionism. In a speech to miners at Telluride, Colorado, in 1902, Hagerty had advised: "That railroad is yours; those large business blocks and office buildings downtown that bring in big rent are yours; if you want them, go and take them." [3]

Father Hagerty's disdain for politics was made very clear in his speech at the convention, when he declared that "The ballot box is simply a capitalist concession. Dropping pieces of paper into a hole in a box never did achieve emancipation for the working class, and to my thinking it never will." [4]

It was Hagerty who composed the first draft of the IWW preamble, which, predictably, did not include a role for politics. Rather, it emphasized the importance of the union as the center of revolutionary struggle, contending that the proletariat should "take and hold that which they produce through an economic organization of the working class." [5]

This draft of the preamble found strong support among left wing socialists and militant trade unionists. It was altered before it reached the founding convention, however, after Daniel DeLeon declared that it would be unacceptable to his delegation unless the clause "and on the political field without affiliation with any political party," was inserted. Given the rivalries between the two socialist parties and the need for a basis of unification between anarcho-syndicalist and political socialist versions of industrial unionism, the clause was accepted. Renshaw argues that DeLeon's overriding aim at Chicago in 1905 was to prevent any close political identification of the IWW with the Socialist Party. Thus, by insisting on the "political clause" in the preamble, he could keep the union unaffiliated and more easily dominate it himself on behalf of his own SLP, all under the pretense of _excluding_ political influence. [6] Whether or not this is an accurate assessment of DeLeon's motives is an open question. Nevertheless, the inclusion of the political clause was cause for much heated debate:

It seems to me that this paragraph of the Preamble particularly is intended, not to represent the principles of industrialism, but represents a toadyism to three different factions of this convention, and I am opposed to this organization toadying to any man or any faction of men...It seems to me that this paragraph could not have been more confusing if it had been written by the platform committee of the Republican or Democratic party. [7]

The clause was ultimately ratified by the convention, but it did not put an end to the controversy surrounding political action in the industrial union movement. In fact, the reference to politics in the preamble did much to create the rift which split the union just three years later.

DOCTRINAIRE vs. DIRECT-ACTIONIST

The debate over the necessity and efficacy of political action continued to rage within the union between 1905 and 1908. An amendment to the political clause to the effect that "the IWW does not endorse nor wish to be endorsed by any political party" was adopted by delegates at the second convention, but failed when put to referendum vote. [8] Meanwhile, IWW anarchists were busily writing letters to the SLP's newspaper, _The People_, advocating the dropping of political action altogether. Most of these were answered in print by DeLeon, who couched his rebuttals in the most condescending language possible.

It was against this backdrop that the Overalls Brigade faced off against the SLP in September 1908 to determine the future of the union. DeLeon's credentials were immediately challenged on the grounds that he was enrolled in the wrong local, and after four days of wrangling he was expelled from the convention.

Recalling Father Hagerty's original preamble, Renshaw's analysis of these events is that "After three years of flirting with politics, the IWW had returned to its basically antipolitical attitude of direct action on the industrial front." [9]

Brissenden, writing in 1917, disagrees completely, arguing that "The DeLeonites held to that original preamble, and the fact that they did so lends weight to their claim that they, and they alone, are the true exponents of the spirit and purpose which animated the first convention." [10]

The Detroit and Chicago IWWs hated each other with a passion, and each took advantage of any opportunity to defame the other.

DeLeon referred to the Chicago group as "slum proletarians" and "anarchist scum." [11] Writing of the "Bummery," as the Chicago IWW was pejoratively known, Detroit declared:

This, then is the inspiring task of the IWW, and its purpose and reason of being: To decry the ballot, which is a civilized method of settling social issues; to advocate physical force only; to preach petty larceny, rioting, smashing machines, and all these things that come under the term "direct action," is unnecessary, and also invites disaster to the workers and helps the forces of reaction.

Such measures are suicidal and condemned by civilization. The working class cannot "sabotage," cannot dynamite itself into possession of the plants of production. [12]

For its part, Chicago denounced the DeLeonites as reformist politicians:

[They] attempted to set up another organization claiming to be the real industrial movement. It is nothing but a duplicate of their political party and does not function at all. It is committed to a program of the "civilized plane," i.e. parliamentarism. Its publications are the official organs of a political sect which never misses an opportunity to assail the revolutionary workers while they are engaged in combat with some division of the ruling class. Their favorite method is to charge the revolutionists with all the crimes that a cowardly imagination can conjure into being...Their only virtue is that they put their assertions into print, while the other wing of the politicians spread their venom in secret. [13]

THEORETICAL QUESTIONS

Our discussion thus far has focused on the 1908 split of the union and the historical background of that split. But what of the ideological context for the conflict? What made the policy of political action coupled with economic action so controversial?

The best way to answer these questions is to review the exchange between DeLeon and his anarcho-syndicalist opponents which went on from 1906 to 1907 in the pages of _The People_.

Explaining his view that politics is a futile exercise for workers, John Sandgren wrote in November 1906:

Political activity may justly be considered of little or no value for the overthrow of the capitalist system...Let us assume that a revolutionary political party carries a national election, and is allowed to take possession of all offices from President down. What will be the result? As has been so frequently demonstrated, that day of our political victory would be our political funeral. The function of government is to make and enforce laws for the running of the capitalist system and to safeguard it against all comers. Or in other words, the sole purpose and function of government is to regulate the relations springing from the private ownership of the means of production and distribution, and everything connected therewith. But the new form of society, which we are preparing for, does not recognize this private ownership.

It proposes to recognize production and distribution on collective lines, a function which cannot possibly be filled by politicians. Like Shakespeare's Moor, the politicians would find their occupation gone. There would be positively nothing for them to do, unless they were to continue to run society on capitalist lines, the very thing they were supposedly elected to discontinue. Neither can it be reasonably suggested that these men, thus elected, should instantly sit down and reorganize society on co-operative lines. Society may be _reformed_ by decrees and resolutions, but a complete organic change, a _revolution_, as we contemplate, must begin at the bottom. The so-called political organization does not occupy itself with this task.

It is left to the economic organization of the IWW. [14]

In a similar vein, J. A. La Bille maintained that "It is practically the same for the pioneer to attempt to be an Indian in order to capture their war councils as for the worker to be a politician in order to capture the war councils of the capitalist class. I wish to see my fellow workers quit wasting their time and energy on an illusion, drop politics, and unite on a plan of action which will bring about the results we desire." [15]

DeLeon, on the other hand, considered the ballot to be "a conquest of civilization," and "the peaceful method of social debate and of ascertaining numbers." [16] Those who advocated direct action at the exclusion of politics were, to his way of thinking, "physical forcists."

How do you expect to recruit and organize your Industrial army if you begin by rejecting the peaceful method of solving the Social Question? How can the ranks of the IWW recruit the necessary forces for that eventful and final act of the revolution, if it starts by rejecting the civilized method of settling disputes, offered by the political platform, and plants itself instead upon the principle of physical force exclusively? He who rejects political action places himself upon the barbarian plane, a plane where the capitalist class would be but too glad to see him. The capitalist class, however powerful, is not omnipotent. It feels constrained to render at least external homage to the Genius of the Age. The Genius of the Age demands free speech and a free vote. So soon, however, as a Labor Organization were to reject the peaceful trial of strength, the capitalist class would be but too delighted to apply the system of Russian Terrorism. The long and the short of it all is that the revolution could not gather the necessary recruits. On the other hand, clad in the vestments of fully civilized conflict, the IWW may recruit, drill, and organize the physical force which it may need to demand the unconditional surrender of the capitalist class. [17]

DeLeon did accept the use of force to enforce a legitimate victory at the polls, however:

...if we have the majority, and the capitalists [and] officials who count the ballots, refuse to count us in, well, then there will be a scrap. But we are going to test the peaceful method first. [18]

In response to the naive trust DeLeon put in capitalists—that having been fairly defeated at the polls they will peacefully hand over the reigns of power--Arturo Giovannitti asked:

How can we believe that even with the most rigid logic and with the fear of a strong revolutionary organization we could convince the master class to give itself up into the hands of the rival class that knows no Christian charity and will not commute the death sentence of capitalism? Are we to understand that capitalism will commit suicide rather than face the IWW executioner. Is there an example in history that can justify such a sweet dream of peace and love? [19]

John Sandgren continues:

The capitalist class has already chosen war. Our blood has run in torrents, as in the Paris Commune, or bespattered the road to Hazelton and Cripple Creek; the rope has strangled some of our early champions and is in preparation for others.

To speak of the possibility of peaceable settlement between us and the master class is the same as the mutual agreement between the man flat on his back and him who holds the dagger to his throat. The war has been going on these many years and is raging fiercely now. How can anybody suggest a peaceable settlement, especially as we demand complete surrender? [20]

Ultimately, then, the message of the anarchists can be summed up as follows:

Politics is the game of capitalism; it is a flimsy shell game in which your very lives are the stakes played for. As long as you workingmen are allowing yourselves to be bamboozled into pinning your faith to the ballot, the capitalist class does not want any better snap. For no matter how you vote, capitalism is perfectly safe. "Praise be to God," the capitalist class whispers, "the blamed fools are still voting!" Therefore, throw away that old weapon of times bygone, the boomerang vote, and spring into the ranks of the militant industrial army, where shoulder to shoulder with our fellows we shall gain victory through organized strength. [21]

In light of the tremendous battle between the anarcho-syndicalists and the revolutionary socialists within the IWW, it is indeed interesting to note the extent to which Daniel DeLeon’s own political philosophy evolved during the first years of this century. In 1892, for example, DeLeon had been convinced that the "ultimate socialist revolution" would be won at the polls, when he wrote: "Thanks to universal suffrage, the revolution will be achieved peacefully, in our day, by a mere expression of will at the ballot box." [22] By 1907, he no longer believed in reliance on the ballot alone, but still held that the economic organization of workers needed a political organ as well. At the same time, he recognized that a socialist victory at the polls _would have to be backed up by physical force_ when the capitalist class refused to honor the results of the election or resisted the peaceful transfer of power to the working class.

One wonders how DeLeon's theoretical perspective might have continued to evolve had he lived to see the 1920s and 1930s. Had he lived to see police and soldiers open fire on peaceful strikers time and time again, might his faith in the restraint of capitalists have faltered? Had he lived to see the election of a Democrat to the presidency during the Great Depression, and the efficacy of New Deal policies in doping the American public into accepting paltry reforms rather than real change, might he have abandoned his dedication to the "civilized plane" of electoral politics?

It is my contention, after all the reading I have done for this paper, that DeLeon was moving very slowly away from his rock-hard devotion to political action, and that at some point he might have found himself closer to the anarchists than he (or they) could have ever imagined possible.

NOTES

[1] Brissenden, Paul F. _The IWW: A Study of American Syndicalism_. (New York: Russell & Russell, 1957), 232-233.

[2] Renshaw, Patrick. _The Wobblies: The Story of Syndicalism in the United States_. (Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Co., 1967), 76.

[3] Dubofsky, Melvyn. _We Shall Be All: A History of the Industrial Workers of the World_. (Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1969), 92.

[4] Industrial Workers of the World. _Proceedings of the Founding Convention of the IWW_. 1905. Reprint. (New York: Merit Publishers, 1969), 152.

[5] Salerno, Salvatore. _Red November, Black November: Culture and Community in the Industrial Workers of the World_. (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989), 76.

[6] Renshaw, 102.

[7] _Proceedings_, 229.

[8] DeLeon, Daniel. _As To Politics: A Discussion Upon the Relative Importance of Political Action and of Class-conscious Economic Action, and the Urgent Necessity of Both_. 1907. Reprint. (New York: New York Labor News, 1956), 2.

[9] Renshaw, 102.

[10] Brissenden, 234.

[11] Thompson, Fred W. and Patrick Murfin, _The IWW: Its First Seventy Years 1905-1975_. (Chicago: Industrial Workers of the World, 1976), 39.

[12] Brissenden, 253.

[13] _Ibid._, 248.

[14] DeLeon, 8-9.

[15] _Ibid._, 25.

[16] _Ibid._, 51.

[17] _Ibid._, 58.

[18] Brissenden, 251.

[19] DeLeon, 45.

[20] _Ibid._, 69.

[21] _Ibid._, 67.

[22] Renshaw, 80.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Brissenden, Paul F. _The IWW: A Study of American Syndicalism_. New York: Russell & Russell, 1957.

Brooks, John G. _American Syndicalism: The IWW_. New York: Arno Press, 1969.

Chaplin, Ralph. _The General Strike_. 1933. Reprint. Chicago: Industrial Workers of the World, 1986.

De Caux, Len. _The Living Spirit of the Wobblies_. New York: International Publishers, 1978.

DeLeon, Daniel. _As To Politics: A Discussion Upon the Relative Importance of Political Action and of Class-conscious Economic Action, and the Urgent Necessity of Both_. 1907. Reprint. New York: New York Labor News, 1956.

Dubofsky, Melvyn. _We Shall Be All: A History of the Industrial Workers of the World_. Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1969.

Industrial Workers of the World. _Proceedings of the Founding Convention of the IWW_. 1905. Reprint. New York: Merit Publishers, 1969.

Kornbluh, Joyce L., ed. _Rebel Voices: An IWW Anthology_. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1964.

Renshaw, Patrick. _The Wobblies: The Story of Syndicalism in the United States_. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Co., 1967.

Salerno, Salvatore. _Red November, Black November: Culture and Community in the Industrial Workers of the World_. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989.

Thompson, Fred W. and Patrick Murfin, _The IWW: Its First Seventy Years 1905-1975_. Chicago: Industrial Workers of the World, 1976.