Organizing industrial workers of the world
- Wobblies
Description
Organizing unskilled and immigrant workers to take over the world and the implements of production and abolish the wage system; as practised in the USA, through strikes and industrial sabotage.
Context
In response to the influx of poor immigrants into American industry in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and the failure of the American Federation of Labour to deal with the great mass of unskilled immigrant labour, the IWW sought by violent means to create a more inclusive labour movement than that proposed by more specialized unions then in formation.
Claim
The Wobblies were a revolutionary elite, leading the masses to economic and social salvation. They had a number of successes in winning by strikes.
Counter-claim
1. The inherent conservatism of immigrant, often illegal, labour makes it extremely difficult to organize, especially for violent industrial action in a rapidly growing labour market. 2. The IWW was unable or disinclined to actually run labour unions. 3. It refused to countenance "class collaboration" when excessive purism barred it from signing wage and conditions contracts with employers.
Broader
SDG
