Thursday, February 26, 2009


POLL NUMBER 16:
WHAT ARE THE CHANCES FOR THE IWW ? :
As regular readers of Molly's Blog probably know this blog is an addendum to the main blog, set up to do certain things that the old Blogspot cannot do. I've tried to transfer things over to the new Blogspot, but it results in disaster. Thus...you get two blogs in one. there are other things planned for this secondary blog, but more of that in the future.
There have been a few changes to this blog recently, most significantly allowing people to vote for a longer time in most cases. One week hardly seemed sufficient. Look for other changes in the future, as well as more regular polls.
Anyways, over at Molly's Blog I have been doing a major editing job recently, listing the IWW separately from other anarcho-syndicalist links. Some in the IWW may, of course, say something to the effect of "it's about god-damn time". All that long argument aside, I have also featured the IWW in several recent stories. The question here is..."Can the IWW Become a major labour union ?" . It's an important question because the IWW is where a large part of the "sane" (excluding the primmies and the so-called "post-anarchists") anarchist movement in North America have "parked their chips".
When you exclude the obviously stupid and juvenile, such as "breaking windows and doing graffiti as propaganda" or "pretending you can prearrange a riot that will actually beat anything other than a police force composed of three officers" then you have to consider the perennial question. What is to be done ? Is anarchism a legitimate way to effect social change or is it merely a mutual masturbation society ? The "labour question" is actually the major question in society today- or in any historical society in the last few centuries.
What do we do in terms of labour organization ? Do we organize within present unions ? Do we attempt to build alternative unions such as the IWW or other "purer" anarcho-syndicalist unions ? Do we condemn unions entirely and put our faith in some spontaneous uprising ? Hence the question, nested within other questions. Can the IWW become a major labour union ? Is it even worth while to try and build such a thing ? Your opinions are needed.