This first part is a reprint of what was written in the October 1997 edition of the Industrial Worker, the main paper organ of the IWW.
Organizing and international communication dominated the agenda as 59 Wobblies gathered in St. Louis, Missouri, for the IWW's annual General Assembly. Delegates came from Hawaii to Massachusetts, from Seattle to Florida. Representation from the South was stronger than it has been in many years, but no delegates attended from outside the U.S.
General Secretary-Treasurer Fred Chase told delegates that the 1996-97 year was a good one, and that he looked forward to "our 93rd year of bashing the bosses." Membership continues to climb, and we added seven new General Membership Branches (Portland, Asheville, Austin, Toronto, Detroit, Olympia, Lancaster) and a Construction Workers Industrial Union 330 branch out of Portland. And several new branches are in the works, Chase reported.
Delegates reported on local activities ranging from organizing drives and negotiating contracts to walking the picket lines in solidarity with workers in other unions. In the San Francisco Bay Area, IU 620 Wobs have reached a Memorandum of Understanding with the University of California, recently negotiated a new contract with the Berkeley Recycling Center, waged several organizing campaigns in the past year, and are gearing up to help a new forest workers drive and for a campaign against Waste Management Inc., which is trying to grab work from two IWW shops.
In Atlanta, a new branch is doing solidarity work and investigating possibilities for a campaign among temporary and casual workers. In O'ahu, the Branch is a bit Wobbly at present, but has a couple organizing efforts under way. Lawrence, Kansas, is on the verge of organizing a General Membership Branch and is active in the fight against Borders, which is opening a new store there.
Detroit Wobs reported that the newspaper strikers are following the labor laws in a march to oblivion. In Butte, Montana, Wobs led 300 construction workers off the job to join the UPS picket lines. In Albany, NY, Wobs are reorganizing Printing & Publishing Workers IU 450 and have been walking the lines at Borders and for the living wage campaign. In St. Louis, Wobs leafleted workers at Library Ltd., the largest independent bookseller in the area until it was recently gobbled up by Borders. They also have several local and international solidarity campaigns underway.
In Asheville, North Carolina, a food and beverage workers drive is getting underway, and the branch has been doing programs on local labor history in the public schools. Our Portland, Oregon, branch has grown rapidly in the last year, recently spinning off a Construction Workers IU branch and is on the verge of spinning off a branch in IU 630 as well. Philadelphia Wobs brought t-shirts produced by their Fired Workers Work Camp (the bosses do not take kindly to IWW organizing). In Austin, Texas, several restaurant workers have lined up in the OBU, and the branch is also organizing among day laborers.
In Washington state, Wobs have been involved in several organizing drives and a strike at Seattle's Lincoln Park Mini Mart. And Madison Wobs continue to be active in local May Day activities (the city hosts what is almost certainly the country's largest May Day celebrations) and have been active in several local campaigns with housing and labor activists.
With increased IWW organizing efforts underway around the world, this year's Assembly heard Industrial Union reports for the first time since the 1950s. Construction Workers IU 330 reported on their efforts among traveling construction workers in the West, which have aided several rank-and-file campaigns for better conditions. IU 460 is organizing brewery workers in Portland, and has won some demands. In New York City Municipal Transport Workers are fighting to build a genuine union that will defend workers. Two San Francisco area computer firms are organized in Communications & Computer Workers IU 560/570, and efforts are underway to organize itinerant computer workers who go from job to job as "independent contractors."
The biggest Education Workers IU 620 campaign underway at present is the Job Corps drive, which has seen four Wobs terminated to date as workers fight to establish their rights. IU 620 has recently petitioned the General Executive Board for an Industrial Union Charter, and hopes to develop a series of leaflets addressing specific issues facing education workers. IWW recycling workers at the University of California won a $2 an hour pay hike this year, and are increasingly active in the UC Labor Coalition. They were the only UC union to honor Teaching Assistant picket lines earlier this year.
Portland Wobs are organizing entertainment workers, and are working to build contacts among IU 630 Wobs around the country. Asheville, NC, has begun a drive in Restaurant Workers IU 640. In Austin, IU 640 briefly had majorities in two restaurants but was not able to sustain them.
Restaurant, Education, Printing, Computer, Health Care and Education workers met during the Assembly to discuss organizing strategies and to better coordinate their efforts. Computer workers are organizing an Industrial Union Branch in the San Francisco Bay Area as a building block in forming a functioning Industrial Union. Restaurant workers are launching a newsletter and developing organizing literature. Printing and Publishing workers are drafting a Statement of Solidarity, and working around issues of standards for job shops, workplace safety, subcontracting and conglomerate ownership.
Other workshop sessions examined issues ranging from defense work to the union's difficult financial situation. An International Language Roundtable decided to create a repository of translated union literature in Austin with many items available in translation on the Portland Branch's web site. Their initial focus will be on Spanish-language materials, as this seems to be our most urgent need.
Participants in a round table discussion on Industrial Union & General Membership Branches agreed that GMBs should serve as a resource base for industrial organizing. They proposed that next year's Assembly include a full day of nuts-and-bolts organizing workshops, either immediately preceding or following the business sessions. Also discussed was the need to develop a core of trained organizers who could travel to assist local Branches in organizing campaigns.
A well-attended session on collectives in the IWW spent much of its time discussing how best to integrate these into the IWW's structure and to ensure that union standards were upheld. Delegates hammered out a proposed constitutional amendment which will be sent to referendum this fall. And a meeting of newer members discussed how to overcome barriers to fuller participation in the organization.
The IWW's rapid overseas growth and several inquiries from workers interested in organizing IWW branches in their countries have made the need to more carefully consider how we can maintain ourselves as a functioning international industrial union, at the same time that transnational capital raises ever more potent needs for effective international solidarity and coordination. FW Kevin Brandstatter sent a letter noting the difficulty the Labor Day weekend poses for Wobblies seeking to attend from overseas, suggesting that meeting on the May Day weekend might better facilitate their participation. Alternately, he suggested the possibility of continental Assemblies, perhaps linked over the internet.
Other delegates pointed to the barrier the IWW dues structure presents to Third World workers. Given the enormous disparities in wages around the world, this is indeed a serious problem. But other delegates pointed to the costs of international postage, and the difficulties of conducting routine business over uneven international communications networks, suggesting that the problem might better be addressed by developing a network of autonomous regional sections united on a federal basis by the IWW Preamble and regular exchanges of publications and information. But some delegates felt such an approach would create a loose network of autonomous groups not strong enough to combat capitalism.
Also discussed was the possibility of organizing an international conference of revolutionary labor unions for 1999. An international commission is to be formed to explore these issues and come back to the membership with concrete suggestions for addressing them.
Other discussion addressed the union's ongoing financial crisis, which we have been attempting to grow our way out of with some success. But it seems fairly clear that while continued growth will continue reducing our operating deficit, a fund-raising campaign will be necessary in the short run to keep the union's office and publications going until membership once again returns to the levels necessary to sustain operations.
There was also extensive discussion of a proposal to revive the IWW's General Defense Committee, with many delegates arguing that under present conditions the GDC served little purpose and that its functions could be better carried out by the General Membership Branches. However, several West Coast locals argued that the GDC could play a useful role in mobilizing strike support and legal representation during disputes.
The Assembly adjourned with delegates gathering in a circle for a slightly off-key but vigorous rendition of Solidarity Forever. As always, I took special pleasure in hearing my fellow workers belt out the verses (e.g., "Is there aught we have in common with the greedy parasite...") censored out when the piecards call the tune.
The Assembly was preceded by two workshops organized by the St. Louis General Membership Branch on organizing and legal research. A Friday evening coffee house brought together delegates and local labor activists for lively conversation and labor songs, though this reporter saw rather more beer flowing than coffee. On Saturday evening, Al Grierson and Joshua Freeze headlined an evening of music. And on Labor Day, those who were able to stay over joined St. Louis Wobs for a lively contingent in the local Labor Day parade. We drew cheers as we marched, chanting "Join the union of your class, Kick the Bosses in the Ass" and other slogans, though efforts to get some labor songs going in the sweltering heat proved less successful.
Read a recount by GS/T Fred Chase concerning his trip to St. Louis for the GA (published in the Oct 1997 ed. of the Industrial Worker).
For other articles published in the Industrial Worker either by St. Louis rank-and-file members or about St. Louis, click here: St. Louis IW