September 2012

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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 acquaint myself w ith its purposes.

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 a s hunger and want 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

Building Blocks

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

Send to: PO Box 180195, Chicago IL 60618 USA

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It’s All Relat ive: Building The IWW GMB In Richmond, Part 1

By Kenneth Yates

In January 2010 several community organizers reacted to a trend of notices appearing in the more destitute areas of Richmond, Va. These notices declared that public transportation access would be reduced or eliminated and fares would be raised to make up for a shortfall in the operating budget of about $1.5 million. In a city where the vast majority of riders are dependent on public transportation in order to survive, this seemed like a logical place to begin organizing. In part one of this series on build- ing the Richmond General Membership Branch (GMB), I would like to address, from my perspective, what led to our initial development and why it may be important for struggling or prospective IWW branches to choose an issue—if not shop- or industry- based organizing—that addresses working people’s concerns on a practical level and helps develop class consciousness. I joined the IWW in August 2009 as an at-large member, online, while visiting a friend in Minneapolis. Why I didn’t just

nd a Twin Cities delegate and sign up

through them, I don’t know. Shortly after joining, I received my red card, a General Organization Bulletin (GOB), and some- thing about voting in some referendum thing. Regardless of my enthusiasm, I had absolutely no idea what was going on. As an at-large member, I felt a little discon- nected, but I wore my pin proud, read the

Industrial Worker

and dove into the his- tory of the union. I feel it’s important to point out that the labor movement in Virginia is virtually non-existent. Because of Virginia being a “right-to-work” state, union density is less than 4.6 percent and people believe this means that unions are either illegal in Virginia, or that you have to be grand- fathered in. You can imagine how abstract and frightening the concept of organizing in the workplace must be to people who suddenly realize they have that right. Naturally, knowing we had a lot to learn, we decided to go with what we knew and took to the streets. After putting in some research, we realized that no one in the city was addressing the issues of public transportation—including the impending fare increase and route reductions. If peo- ple were addressing these issues, it wasn’t from the perspective of the community who was dependent on it. Rather, it took on more of an environmentalist, or “how can we get more white people to ride,” slant. We thought the transit-dependent

communities required an organization all

their own that wasn’t mired with alliances

to nonprot organizations, developers or

business associations . Over the next few months, we took it upon ourselves to conduct a lot of inde- pendent research. We became intimate with the transit system—how it’ s fund ed and structured, where it goes and doesn’t go, etc. We familiarized ourselves with transit riders unions in other cities like Milwaukee, Los Angeles and Laredo, Texas. We decided that a transit riders’ union was something Richmond needed,

Graphic: Ben Debney

but questions still remained: How would

it be organized? Who would organize it? How should it be structured? Those of us doing the research hap- pened to also be interested in building the Richmond GMB. This would bring us to about three card-carrying members. We

thought that that this would be a good rst

campaign to take up under the banner of the One Big Union. We took our research to a May Day workshop titled “Why Rich- mond needs the Industrial Workers of the World” in hopes of gauging people’s interest and recruiting more organizers. In this workshop, we gave a brief history of the union, dispelled the aforementioned myths that unions are illegal in Virginia, discussed the IWW’s organization al structure, and attempted to articulate why the IWW and revolutionary union- ism is important to building a principled and effective anti-capitalist working-class movement and culture. We knew that people would want to know what we were doing right now, s o we made our case for the Richmond Transit Riders Union (RTRU), discussed the role of IWW members in the initial research

and dened what our roles as organizers

would be in building the organization. We emphasized the importance of approach- ing the issue of transportation justice from the perspective of class, and that by doing so we would inherently create dialog around relative issues. These include is- sues that are currently being addressed as unrelated single concerns: unemployment, housing, racism, sexism, accessibility and immigration, among others. At the end of the workshop, we encouraged people to join an d announced what would become

the rst of many Richmond GMB meet

- ings. From there, over the course of three week s, a motle y, but grow ing, crew of Wobblies took to the streets armed with

clipboards and iers announcing an inter

- est meeting for the formation of the RTRU. We introduced ourselves as members of the IWW, and many of us being choice riders, made it clear that we wanted to help organize, not be decision-makers. We talked to people as they waited for their buses, collecting over 500 contacts. We then invited ever y single person to a presentation where we laid out all that we learned and made the case for a transit- dependent-led organization. All the hard work resulted in over 30 riders attending, and the idea was enthusiastically received.

The RTRU was born and thus our rst

campaign deemed a success. For many, if not all of us, the com-

munity approach was a natural rst step

to building a branch that would become a driving force in how people view the local and international labor movement. It’s dif-

cult to be completely objective; however,

I think it’s safe to say that Richmond has become a more dynamic city in terms of class-based organizing since the IWW was established in town. Our involvement continues with the RTRU as a partner organization, and we have gained several IWW members from the RTRU directly due to this.

Photo: rvanews.com