April 2012

•

Industrial Worker

• Page 3

__I afrm that I am a wo rker, and that I am not an emp loyer.

__I agree to ab ide by the IWW consti tution. __I will study its principles and acqua int myself with its p urposes.

Name: ________________________________ Address: ______________________________ City, State, Post Code, Country: _______________ Occupation: ____________________________ Phone: ____________ Email: _______________ Amount Enclosed: _________

The working class and the employing class have nothing in common. There can be no peace so long as hunger and wa nt are found among millions of working people and the few, who make up the em- ploying 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 nd that the center ing of the man

- agement 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 a gainst a nother set of workers in the same industry, thereby helping defeat one a nother in wage wars. Moreover, the trade unions aid the employ- ing class to mislead the workers into the belief that the work ing 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 in- dustry, or all industries if necessary, cease work whenever a str ike 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 revolu- tionary watchword, “Abolition of the wage system.” It is the historic mission of the work- ing 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 capitali sm shall have b een over- thrown. By organizing industrially we are forming the structure of the new society within the shell of the old.

TO JOIN:

Mail this form with a check or money order for initiation

and your rst month’s dues to: IWW, Post Ofce Box 180195, Chicago, IL

60618, USA. Initiation is the same as one month’s dues. Our dues are calculated according to your income. If your monthly income is under $2000, dues are $9 a month. If your monthly income is between $2000 and $3500, dues are $18 a month. If your monthly income is over $3500 a month, dues are $27 a month. Dues may vary outside of North America and in Regional Organizing Committees (Australia, British Isles, German Language Area).

Membership includes a subscription to the

Industrial Worker

.

Join the I WW T oday

T

he IWW is a union for all workers, a union dedicated to organizing on the job, in our industries and in our communities both to win better conditions today and to build a world without bosses, a world in which production and distribution are organized by workers ourselves to meet the needs of the entire popu- lation, not merely a handful of exploiters. We are the Industrial Workers of the World because we organize indus trially – that is to say, we organize all workers on the job into one union, rather than dividing

workers by trade, so that we can po ol our strength to ght the bosses together.

Since the IWW was founded in 1905, we have recognized the need to build a truly international union movement in order to confront the global power of the bosses and in order to strengthen workers’ ability to stand in solidarity with our fellow workers no matter what part of the globe they happen to live on. We are a union open to all worke rs, whether or not the IWW happens to have representation rights in your workplace. We organize the worker, not the job, recog-

nizing that unionism is not about government certication or employer recognition

but about workers coming together to add ress our common concerns. Sometimes this means striking or signing a contract. Sometimes it means refusing to work with an unsafe machine or following the bosses’ orders so literally that nothing gets done.

Sometimes it means agitating around particular issues or grievances in a specic

workplace, or across an industr y. Because the IWW is a democratic, member -run union, decisions about what issues to address and what tactics to pursue are made by the workers directly involved.

IWW Constitution Preamble

Direct Unionism And Beyond

By Jomo

This is a response to “Direct Union- ism,” a discussion paper written by some IWW members, available online at http://libcom.org/library/debate-direct- unionism. The paper proposes building networks of militants across industries. My organizing experience shows me the

importance of this. I am a certied nurs

- ing assistant (CNA) in a nursing home and last year my coworkers and I organized

against stafng cuts in a non-unionized,

authoritarian, anti-immigrant workplace. It is crucial that we build a network of CNAs across different workplaces in order to counter the demoralization of working and organizing in this industry. I work at a small facility in a large industry that has no standardized work-

ing conditions. Even when our stafng

ratio went from eight residents per CNA to 10-12 residents per CNA, we were told that we are lucky not to have 16 residents or more. We are highly expendable as low-skilled workers, and the bosses use that against us. It is hard to put economic pressure on a nursing home where fund- ing is a myriad of bureaucracy. We have to break out of a small-shop mentality or our organizing here is not going to get very far. In my view, for CNAs in particular, we

should ght for standard conditions across

the industry. One obstacle to organizing is the role and rhetoric of the capitalist state, which views some people as disposable. Nursing homes and the health care industry as a whole are highly politicized . The main- stream media portrays unionized workers, or workers who struggle for better working conditions, as greedy and uncompassion- ate people. When residents are neglected, the media is more comfortable with high- lighting the personal failings and character of workers. They are silent about the staff- ing ratios and working conditions of health care providers that employers create, and the funding cuts that legislators create that worsen the situation. This allows the state to mediate the

rights of our residents—people with dis

- abilities and the elderly. In state visits, they come and follow us, checking items off of their checklist. When we are unable to satisfy the tasks because we are short staffed, we are individually held respon- sible and written up for neglect and abus e

as the management sees t under loose state denitions, or we are threatened with

the loss of our licenses. This is a major threat to our livelihoods. For workers in an already expendable, low-skilled industry, having a clean record is super important. We also need to challenge the political narratives of the state and capitalists. We should debate in the realm of ideas about what health car e, disabilities and justice mean. In my industry we do not produce lifeless products which we can abandon at will. As health care workers, our care for our patients and residents plays into how we struggle, and how our struggle is perceived. One reason why the state suc- ceeds is because it is able to present itself as the spokesperson for the well-being of elderly people and people with disabilities in health care settings. We, the workers, need to break down that state monopoly and claim that role alongside our patients and their families. This is a struggle that is beyond any single workplace, and really is beyond workplaces altogether. This is a battle against the state and capitalism in the realm of ideas and analysis about health care, disabilities, justice and the like. These are matters that require study, conversation, debate and discussion. We won’t be able to win here throu gh shop-

oor conict alone, with a simple story that

we are workers. I don’t see any attention to such tasks in “Direct Unionism.” We should have an organization-wide con- versation about what these tasks r equire of the IWW. While I share the criticism that “Direct Unionism” makes of service unions, they put important resources

into research—which, granted, is done after they have done their cost-benet

analysis and decide who is “worth” or- ganizing/research- ing based on how dues-worthy they are. Whether lining up contracts to expire at the same time, or strategiz- ing around who is the main target to publicize around nationwide, or co- ordinating struggles across cities, the business unions take this sort of national strategy into consideration. We need to de- velop an industrial strategy within the IWW, with similar considerations. I value that the article emphasizes the need for anti- capitalist organization, as reflected in the IWW Preamble. However, the piece says little about what our anti-capitalism actually means in the process of struggle.

This should be eshed out more. In ad

-

dition, “Direct Unionism” conates non-

contractualism and the anti-capitalism of the Preamble. In general, “Direct Union- ism” presents anti-capitalism hazily. The essay makes it seem like we will do our

labor organizing—organizing shop-by- shop—through direct action, until a big

break happens in society. I think it is less important for “Direct Unionism” to dwell on the anti-capitalism of the historical IWW than to clarify how we enga ge in anti- capit alist work place struggle right now in practice, in the de- mands we articulate and in the way we organize ourselves. We need to have a dis- cussion about how our organizing, over the long run, can prepare for a qualitative shift from a capitalist mode of production to a

new form of society—one that is not a tran

- sitional state controlled by bureaucrats. This qualitative shift is a process that in-

Name: _______________________ Address: __________ ___________ State/Pro vince: ___________ ___ Zip/PC________________________

Send to: PO Box 180195, Chicago IL 60618 USA

Subscribe To day!

Subscribe to the Industrial Worker

10 issues for:

• US $18 for individuals. • US $22 for institutions. • US $30 for internationals.

Graphic: recompositionblog.wordpress. com

volves changing capitalist social relations. Even though this process can only take place during revolution, we need to agitate

and educate around it now as we ght. Our

demands should be directed not only at the necessity of better working conditions and wages, but also at breaking down the divi- sion between mental and manual labor, between gendered and racial divisions at the workplace and the like. I believe that some people in the IWW are already doing this on their jobs, but it would be helpful to

have this claried and made explicit, and this is something we would benet from

discussing organization-wide. Another issue we need to discuss in the IWW is our orientation to the unem- ployed. The high unemployment rate in

the United States reects deeper racial

divisions and segregation. A strategy for the working class needs to also include the demands of the unemployed. Those of us in precarious, low-wage jobs are not that far from those who are unemployed, in lifestyle and in prospects. As part of an IWW-wide conversation about vision and strategy, I would recommend that people read the “Workplace Papers” by the

Sojourner Truth Organization—a 1970s