WHAT WOULD A WOBBLIE DO
Sometime during the fast-paced years of the 1960s I was in Washington, D.C. at a hearing held by a committee of the House of Representatives, a group of doughy-faced white men in suits who were quizzing a number of college students to find out what hell was wrong with them, why did they have to cause so much trouble over such things as civil rights, free speech, the war in Vietnam, why couldn't’t they be satisfied to study, graduate, and get a job as they were expected to? The hearing dragged on through the day as polite student body presidents tried to explain something they knew little about—what was really going on among radical students on their campus. At the back of the room, sat an elderly man (probably about my age now) waiting patiently to he heard. Late in the afternoon, there were smiles all around as he made his way to the front of the room, humor born from the odd juxtaposition of a old, white-haired man in work clothes following a group of earnest, fresh-faced kids in coats and ties. Apparently he was on the agenda, for the committee chair confirmed the man’s name and then asked his business. The man identified himself as a long-time member of the IWW, the International Workers of the World, also known as the Wobblies.
With that news, a few of us sat up a little straighter and paid more attention, respectful attention, because sitting at the witness table in front of us was a genuine, honest-to-god, in-the-flesh member of a labor union that we idolized and romanticized—the Wobblies were the toughest, most radical, most demanding, most uncompromising, and sometimes most violent men and women in the history of the labor movement in the Unites States. They were also the most courageous and most victimized by violence at the hands of corporate bosses, shotgun-toting company thugs, armed mobs, local sheriffs, state police and the National Guard.
Founded at the turn of the twentieth century, the IWW was the first union to organize unskilled workers—lumberjacks in the Pacific Northwest, miners in Wisconsin, Montana and Minnesota, mill workers in New England, and migrant farm laborers wherever crops were being harvested. When the IWW called a strike, men and women dropped their tools, jumped on rail cars and headed cross country in support, sometimes showing up in such numbers their rough-edged presence changed the nature of contract negotiations. Those were the days before any child labor laws, mine, mill and factory safety laws—any laws protecting workers from accident, injury and abuse, laws which the IWW pushed for as they organized under the slogan “an injury to one is an injury to all.” But most threatening, the Wobblies believed their ultimate work was to create “one big union” and to organize until workers controlled all the means of production, positions which had earned the IWW a place on the federal government’s subversive list, which was supervised by the House committee of the day.
As the elderly gentleman addressed the committee, he spoke softly about fair wages, safety regulation, health care, job protection, a long list, and as he raised each issue, he referenced a recent accident, injury, or abuse of some sort which underscored the need for greater worker protection. He finished to a quiet room. The committee chair thanked the man for his concerns, and asked, was there a specific reason why he was before the committee that day. The man said he wanted the IWW taken off the subversive list. There was just a flicker of smiles among the committee members as the chair asked, why, after so many years, did he want the IWW removed from the list.
The man answered, “Because our work remains to be done.”
Let today’s union leaders judge their actions by that earnest man’s simple manifesto. The United States has, at heart, always been anti-union, sometimes violently so. But there have been times when presidents and congress have curbed the power and abuses of rapacious capitalism by encouraging labor unions, priming them in one way or another to create a counter balance to the big corporate giants, who say, might squander money on private jets and pay themselves millions in bonuses while seeking greater government protection or assistance. (Let us pause here for a quick fact check: John McCain among others likes to quote 26% as the tax rate on American corporations, which is correct, until you get to the deductions, which drops the average rate to 3%, the second lowest in the industrial world). Other presidents trimmed their sails for a different tact, such as Ronald Reagan who broke the Air Traffic Controllers union, which stared an avalanche of union busting and gave big business notice that a no-foul rule was in effect for them—-anything goes, boys, greed is a patriotic duty.
Now comes payback time with the economic mess, and what do we hear from the talking heads and so many politicians. Oh, those unions, they make it so costly to make a car, don’t they, Harriet. Yes, they do, Ozzie, gosh darn it. At the same time, people in power and press are mouthing whispers of concern about the decline of the middle class. Well, check it out, fools, the rise of the middle class accompanied the rise of post-war industrialization and the unions, which promoted and protected worker rights. Those unions were the lever that elevated workers into the middle class and yielded corporations and stock holders unimagined profits and luxuries.
Now that the high cotton has been harvested and the dry spell has come upon us, politicians, pundits and corporate leaders are talking about the “shared sacrifices” needed to save big industry, particularly auto manufacturers. In contract after contract the leadership of the United Auto Workers union has made concessions after concession: weakened job security, reduced wages, agreed to manipulating overtime, shortened lunch hours—and, check this out—most recently, the union has assumed major responsibility for the health care of current and retired workers. And, you might ask, what did Ford Motors barter away in exchange? Why, compensation to the union in the form of FORD MOTORS STOCK!
What would the Wobblies do? Turn this corporate-generated economic mess to their advantage. They would stiffen the backbone of their members, send organizers to every factory and shop where workers are being shorted or laid off, recruit new membership with the promise of solidarity and security—-people died for the rights that are being squandered-—“Big Bill” Haywood, Mary Harris Jones (AKA “Mother” Jones, Eugene V. Debbs and their Wobblie comrades would convince workers that power and wealth is never willingly shared—-it must be seized, and a crisis is the perfect time to begin.
Sometime during the fast-paced years of the 1960s I was in Washington, D.C. at a hearing held by a committee of the House of Representatives, a group of doughy-faced white men in suits who were quizzing a number of college students to find out what hell was wrong with them, why did they have to cause so much trouble over such things as civil rights, free speech, the war in Vietnam, why couldn't’t they be satisfied to study, graduate, and get a job as they were expected to? The hearing dragged on through the day as polite student body presidents tried to explain something they knew little about—what was really going on among radical students on their campus. At the back of the room, sat an elderly man (probably about my age now) waiting patiently to he heard. Late in the afternoon, there were smiles all around as he made his way to the front of the room, humor born from the odd juxtaposition of a old, white-haired man in work clothes following a group of earnest, fresh-faced kids in coats and ties. Apparently he was on the agenda, for the committee chair confirmed the man’s name and then asked his business. The man identified himself as a long-time member of the IWW, the International Workers of the World, also known as the Wobblies.
With that news, a few of us sat up a little straighter and paid more attention, respectful attention, because sitting at the witness table in front of us was a genuine, honest-to-god, in-the-flesh member of a labor union that we idolized and romanticized—the Wobblies were the toughest, most radical, most demanding, most uncompromising, and sometimes most violent men and women in the history of the labor movement in the Unites States. They were also the most courageous and most victimized by violence at the hands of corporate bosses, shotgun-toting company thugs, armed mobs, local sheriffs, state police and the National Guard.
Founded at the turn of the twentieth century, the IWW was the first union to organize unskilled workers—lumberjacks in the Pacific Northwest, miners in Wisconsin, Montana and Minnesota, mill workers in New England, and migrant farm laborers wherever crops were being harvested. When the IWW called a strike, men and women dropped their tools, jumped on rail cars and headed cross country in support, sometimes showing up in such numbers their rough-edged presence changed the nature of contract negotiations. Those were the days before any child labor laws, mine, mill and factory safety laws—any laws protecting workers from accident, injury and abuse, laws which the IWW pushed for as they organized under the slogan “an injury to one is an injury to all.” But most threatening, the Wobblies believed their ultimate work was to create “one big union” and to organize until workers controlled all the means of production, positions which had earned the IWW a place on the federal government’s subversive list, which was supervised by the House committee of the day.
As the elderly gentleman addressed the committee, he spoke softly about fair wages, safety regulation, health care, job protection, a long list, and as he raised each issue, he referenced a recent accident, injury, or abuse of some sort which underscored the need for greater worker protection. He finished to a quiet room. The committee chair thanked the man for his concerns, and asked, was there a specific reason why he was before the committee that day. The man said he wanted the IWW taken off the subversive list. There was just a flicker of smiles among the committee members as the chair asked, why, after so many years, did he want the IWW removed from the list.
The man answered, “Because our work remains to be done.”
Let today’s union leaders judge their actions by that earnest man’s simple manifesto. The United States has, at heart, always been anti-union, sometimes violently so. But there have been times when presidents and congress have curbed the power and abuses of rapacious capitalism by encouraging labor unions, priming them in one way or another to create a counter balance to the big corporate giants, who say, might squander money on private jets and pay themselves millions in bonuses while seeking greater government protection or assistance. (Let us pause here for a quick fact check: John McCain among others likes to quote 26% as the tax rate on American corporations, which is correct, until you get to the deductions, which drops the average rate to 3%, the second lowest in the industrial world). Other presidents trimmed their sails for a different tact, such as Ronald Reagan who broke the Air Traffic Controllers union, which stared an avalanche of union busting and gave big business notice that a no-foul rule was in effect for them—-anything goes, boys, greed is a patriotic duty.
Now comes payback time with the economic mess, and what do we hear from the talking heads and so many politicians. Oh, those unions, they make it so costly to make a car, don’t they, Harriet. Yes, they do, Ozzie, gosh darn it. At the same time, people in power and press are mouthing whispers of concern about the decline of the middle class. Well, check it out, fools, the rise of the middle class accompanied the rise of post-war industrialization and the unions, which promoted and protected worker rights. Those unions were the lever that elevated workers into the middle class and yielded corporations and stock holders unimagined profits and luxuries.
Now that the high cotton has been harvested and the dry spell has come upon us, politicians, pundits and corporate leaders are talking about the “shared sacrifices” needed to save big industry, particularly auto manufacturers. In contract after contract the leadership of the United Auto Workers union has made concessions after concession: weakened job security, reduced wages, agreed to manipulating overtime, shortened lunch hours—and, check this out—most recently, the union has assumed major responsibility for the health care of current and retired workers. And, you might ask, what did Ford Motors barter away in exchange? Why, compensation to the union in the form of FORD MOTORS STOCK!
What would the Wobblies do? Turn this corporate-generated economic mess to their advantage. They would stiffen the backbone of their members, send organizers to every factory and shop where workers are being shorted or laid off, recruit new membership with the promise of solidarity and security—-people died for the rights that are being squandered-—“Big Bill” Haywood, Mary Harris Jones (AKA “Mother” Jones, Eugene V. Debbs and their Wobblie comrades would convince workers that power and wealth is never willingly shared—-it must be seized, and a crisis is the perfect time to begin.
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