Debs, Thomas Hagerty, Lucy Parsons, Mary Harris "Mother" Jones, Frank Bohn, William Trautmann, Vincent Saint John, Ralph Chaplin, and many others. The IWW aimed to promote worker solidarity in the revolutionary struggle to overthrow the employing class; its motto was "an injury to one is an injury to all", which improved upon the Knights of Labor's creed, "an injury to one is the concern of all" which was at its most popular in the 1880s.
Several Tasmanian Labour "groupings" in the 1890s cited their earlier New Zealand experience of activism e.g.
The origin of the nickname "Wobblies" is uncertain. ==History 1905–1950== ===Founding=== The first meeting to plan the IWW was held in Chicago in 1904.
The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), members of which are commonly termed "Wobblies", is an international labor union that was founded in 1905 in Chicago, Illinois, in the United States.
The origin of the nickname "Wobblies" is uncertain. ==History 1905–1950== ===Founding=== The first meeting to plan the IWW was held in Chicago in 1904.
Sherman of the United Metal Workers were involved but were unable to attend the meeting. The IWW was officially founded in Chicago, Illinois in June 1905.
The IWW opposed the American Federation of Labor's acceptance of capitalism and its refusal to include unskilled workers in craft unions. The convention had taken place on June 24, 1905, and was referred to as the "Industrial Congress" or the "Industrial Union Convention".
The SLP's "Yellow IWW" eventually took the name Workers' International Industrial Union, which was disbanded in 1924. ===Organizing=== The IWW first attracted attention in Goldfield, Nevada in 1906 and during the Pressed Steel Car Strike of 1909 at McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania.
Members of the IWW were active throughout the country and were involved in the Seattle General Strike of 1919, were arrested or killed in the Everett Massacre, organized among Mexican workers in the Southwest, became a large and powerful longshoremen's union in Philadelphia, and more. ===IWW versus AFL Carpenters, Goldfield, Nevada, 1907=== The IWW assumed a prominent role in 1906 and 1907, in the gold-mining boom town of Goldfield, Nevada.
In 1906, the IWW became so powerful in Goldfield that it could dictate wages and working conditions. Resisting IWW domination was the AFL-affiliated Carpenters Union.
Schisms between the WFM and IWW had emerged at the annual IWW convention in 1906, when a majority of WFM delegates walked out. When WFM executives Bill Haywood, George Pettibone, and Charles Moyer were accused of complicity in the murder of former Idaho governor Frank Steunenberg, the IWW used the case to raise funds and support, and paid for the legal defense.
Formerly known as the Britain and Ireland Regional Administration (BIRA), its name was changed as a result of a referendum vote by WISERA members. ===== Early history ===== The British Advocates of Industrial Unionism, founded in 1906, supported the IWW.
Members of the IWW were active throughout the country and were involved in the Seattle General Strike of 1919, were arrested or killed in the Everett Massacre, organized among Mexican workers in the Southwest, became a large and powerful longshoremen's union in Philadelphia, and more. ===IWW versus AFL Carpenters, Goldfield, Nevada, 1907=== The IWW assumed a prominent role in 1906 and 1907, in the gold-mining boom town of Goldfield, Nevada.
At that time, the Western Federation of Miners was still an affiliate of the IWW (the WFM withdrew from the IWW in the summer of 1907).
In March 1907, the IWW demanded that the mines deny employment to AFL Carpenters, which led mine owners to challenge the IWW.
In the summer of 1907, the WFM withdrew from the IWW, Vincent St.
When it could not do so, IWW agitators undermined WFM locals, which caused the national union to shed nearly half its membership. ===IWW versus the Western Federation of Miners=== The Western Federation of Miners left the IWW in 1907, but the IWW wanted the WFM back.
The SLP formed an IWW Club in Sydney in October 1907.
Led by Ben Fletcher, an African American, Local 8 had more than 5,000 members, the majority of whom were African American, along with more than a thousand immigrants (primarily Lithuanians and Poles), Irish Americans, and numerous white ethnics. ===Divide on political action or direct action=== In 1908 a group led by Daniel DeLeon argued that political action through DeLeon's Socialist Labor Party (SLP) was the best way to attain the IWW's goals.
However, his increasingly radical speeches became more at odds with the WFM, and in April 1908, the WFM announced that the union had ended Haywood's role as a union representative.
From 1908 to 1921, Jensen and others have written, the IWW attempted to win power in WFM locals which had once formed the federation's backbone.
In 1908, Vincent St.
The 1908 split between the Chicago and Detroit factions in the United States was echoed by internal unrest in the Australian IWW from late 1908, resulting in the formation of a pro-Chicago local in Adelaide in May 1911 and another in Sydney six months later.
This group split in 1908, with the majority supporting Daniel De Leon and a minority supporting E.
Further, many Swedish immigrants, particularly those blacklisted after the 1909 Swedish General Strike, joined the IWW and set up similar cultural institutions around the Scandinavian Socialist Clubs.
The SLP's "Yellow IWW" eventually took the name Workers' International Industrial Union, which was disbanded in 1924. ===Organizing=== The IWW first attracted attention in Goldfield, Nevada in 1906 and during the Pressed Steel Car Strike of 1909 at McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania.
The philosophy and tactics of the IWW are described as "revolutionary industrial unionism", with ties to socialist, syndicalist, and anarchist labor movements. In the 1910s and early 1920s, the IWW achieved many of their short-term goals, particularly in the American West, and cut across traditional guild and union lines to organize workers in a variety of trades and industries.
The extremely high rate of IWW membership turnover during this era (estimated at 133% per decade) makes it difficult for historians to state membership totals with any certainty, as workers tended to join the IWW in large numbers for relatively short periods (e.g., during labor strikes and periods of generalized economic distress). Due to several factors, membership declined dramatically in the late 1910s and 1920s.
This in turn exerted a political influence on the Swedish labor movement's left, that in 1910 formed the Syndicalist union SAC which soon contained a minority seeking to mimick the tactics and strategies of the IWW.
The AMIEU established closed shops and workers councils and effectively regulated management behavior toward the end of the 1910s. The IWW was well known for opposing the First World War from 1914 onwards, and in many ways was at the front of the anti-conscription fight.
We need a radical change of shift, not in words but in action." ===Africa=== ====South Africa==== The IWW has a rich and complex history in South Africa, with an original South African IWW organization being founded in 1910 and existing through most of the 1910s until disintegrating by around 1916.
The 1908 split between the Chicago and Detroit factions in the United States was echoed by internal unrest in the Australian IWW from late 1908, resulting in the formation of a pro-Chicago local in Adelaide in May 1911 and another in Sydney six months later.
In San Diego, although there was no particular organizing campaign at stake, vigilantes supported by local officials and powerful businessmen mounted a particularly brutal counter-offensive. By 1912 the organization had around 25,000 members, concentrated in the Northwest, among dock workers, agricultural workers in the central states, and in textile and mining areas.
The IWW of 1912 disdained collective bargaining agreements and preached instead the need for constant struggle against the boss on the shop floor.
They were also involved in what came to be known as the Wheatland Hop Riot on August 3, 1913. ===Geography=== In its first decades, the IWW created more than 900 unions located in more than 350 cities and towns in 38 states and territories of the United States and 5 Canadian provinces.
Though mid-century historians would give credit to the US Government and "forward thinking lumber magnates" for agreeing to such reforms, an IWW strike forced these concessions. From 1913 through the mid-1930s, the IWW's Marine Transport Workers Industrial Union (MTWIU), proved a force to be reckoned with and competed with AFL unions for ascendance in the industry.
Allen's group soon disappeared, but the first IWW group in Britain was founded by members of the Industrial Syndicalist Education League led by Guy Bowman in 1913. The IWW was present, to varying extents, in many of the struggles of the early decades of the 20th century, including the UK General Strike of 1926 and the dockers' strike of 1947.
Vincent promised: "… once we can control the officers of the WFM for the IWW, the big bulk of the membership will go with them." But the takeover did not succeed. In 1914, Butte, Montana, erupted into a series of riots as miners dissatisfied with the Western Federation of Miners local at Butte formed a new union, and demanded that all miners join the new union, or be subject to beatings or worse.
In 1914, Wobbly Joe Hill (born Joel Hägglund) was accused of murder in Utah and, on what many regarded as flimsy evidence, was executed in 1915.
The AMIEU established closed shops and workers councils and effectively regulated management behavior toward the end of the 1910s. The IWW was well known for opposing the First World War from 1914 onwards, and in many ways was at the front of the anti-conscription fight.
The strike was broken at gunpoint. ===Other Organizing Drives=== Between 1915 and 1917, the IWW's Agricultural Workers Organization (AWO) organized more than a hundred thousand migratory farm workers throughout the Midwest and western United States, often signing up and organizing members in the field, in rail yards and in hobo jungles.
In 1914, Wobbly Joe Hill (born Joel Hägglund) was accused of murder in Utah and, on what many regarded as flimsy evidence, was executed in 1915.
The Pennsylvania State Police arrived in force, prevented picket line violence, and allowed the UMWA members to peacefully pass through the IWW picket lines. ===The Bisbee Deportation=== In November 1916, the 10th convention of the IWW authorized an organizing drive in the Arizona copper mines.
On November 5, 1916, at Everett, Washington, a group of deputized businessmen led by Sheriff Donald McRae attacked Wobblies on the steamer Verona, killing at least five union members (six more were never accounted for and probably were lost in Puget Sound).
The organization passed a resolution against the war at its convention in November 1916.
In 1916 the "Detroit" IWW in Australia followed the lead of the US body and renamed itself the Workers' International Industrial Union. The early Australian IWW used a number of tactics from the US, including free speech fights.
A narrow majority of Australians voted against conscription in a very bitter hard-fought referendum in October 1916, and then again in December 1917, Australia being the only belligerent in World War One without conscription.
The IWW founded the Anti-Conscription League (ACL) in which members worked with the broader labor and peace movement, and also carried on an aggressive propaganda campaign in its own name; leading to the imprisonment of Tom Barker (1887–1970) the editor of the IWW paper Direct Action, sentenced to twelve months in March 1916.
He was indeed released in August 1916, but twelve mostly prominent IWW activists, the so-called Sydney Twelve were arrested in NSW in September 1916 for arson and other offenses.
(Their trial and eventual imprisonment would become a cause célèbre of the Australian labor movement on the basis that there was no convincing evidence that any of them had been involved in the arson attacks.) A number of other scandals were associated with the IWW, a five-pound note forgery scandal, the so-called Tottenham tragedy in which the murder of a police officer was blamed on the IWW, and above all it was blamed for the defeat of the October 1916 conscription referendum.
In December 1916 the Commonwealth government led by Labour Party renegade Billy Hughes declared the IWW an illegal organization under the Unlawful Associations Act.
We need a radical change of shift, not in words but in action." ===Africa=== ====South Africa==== The IWW has a rich and complex history in South Africa, with an original South African IWW organization being founded in 1910 and existing through most of the 1910s until disintegrating by around 1916.
At their peak in August 1917, IWW membership was estimated at more than 150,000, with active wings in the United States, Canada, and Australia.
During the first months of 1917, thousands joined the Metal Mine Workers' Union #800.
Nearly 5000 miners worked in Bisbee's mines. On June 27, 1917, Bisbee's miners went on strike.
The strike was broken at gunpoint. ===Other Organizing Drives=== Between 1915 and 1917, the IWW's Agricultural Workers Organization (AWO) organized more than a hundred thousand migratory farm workers throughout the Midwest and western United States, often signing up and organizing members in the field, in rail yards and in hobo jungles.
Railroad boxcars, called "side door coaches" by the hobos, were frequently plastered with silent agitators from the IWW. Building on the success of the AWO, the IWW's Lumber Workers Industrial Union (LWIU) used similar tactics to organize lumberjacks and other timber workers, both in the deep South and the Pacific Northwest of the United States and Canada, between 1917 and 1924.
The IWW lumber strike of 1917 led to the eight-hour day and vastly improved working conditions in the Pacific Northwest.
Congress in April 1917, the IWW's general secretary-treasurer Bill Haywood became determined that the organization should adopt a low profile in order to avoid perceived threats to its existence.
Frank Little, the IWW's most outspoken war opponent, was lynched in Butte, Montana, in August 1917, just four months after war had been declared. During World War I the U.S.
On September 5, 1917, U.S.
This seized material was scoured for possible violations of the Espionage Act of 1917 and other laws, with a view to future prosecution of the organization's leaders, organizers, and key activists. Based in large measure on the documents seized September 5, one hundred and sixty-six IWW leaders were indicted by a Federal Grand Jury in Chicago for conspiring to hinder the draft, encourage desertion, and intimidate others in connection with labor disputes, under the new Espionage Act.
Sentenced to prison by Judge Landis and released on bail, Haywood fled to the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic where he remained until his death. In 1917, during an incident known as the Tulsa Outrage, a group of black-robed Knights of Liberty tarred and feathered seventeen members of the IWW in Oklahoma.
A narrow majority of Australians voted against conscription in a very bitter hard-fought referendum in October 1916, and then again in December 1917, Australia being the only belligerent in World War One without conscription.
In Canada the IWW was outlawed by the federal government by an Order in Council on September 24, 1918. Probably the most decisive factor in the decline in IWW membership and influence was a 1924 schism in the organization, from which the IWW never fully recovered. The IWW promotes the concept of "One Big Union", and contends that all workers should be united as a social class to supplant capitalism and wage labor with industrial democracy.
One hundred and one went on trial en masse before Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis in 1918.
Members of the IWW were active throughout the country and were involved in the Seattle General Strike of 1919, were arrested or killed in the Everett Massacre, organized among Mexican workers in the Southwest, became a large and powerful longshoremen's union in Philadelphia, and more. ===IWW versus AFL Carpenters, Goldfield, Nevada, 1907=== The IWW assumed a prominent role in 1906 and 1907, in the gold-mining boom town of Goldfield, Nevada.
Five other men who testified in defense of the Wobblies were also fined by the court and subjected to the same torture and humiliations at the hands of the Knights of Liberty. In 1919, an Armistice Day parade by the American Legion in Centralia, Washington, turned into a fight between legionnaires and IWW members in which four legionnaires and a Centralia deputy sheriff were shot dead.
By the 1980s, the Vancouver branch was supporting unemployed activism through the Vancouver Unemployed Action Centre by helping to shut down the scam operation Vancouver Job Mart and supporting the campaign for a fixed-income transit pass. By the end of the 1990s, the IWW in Canada was following the general pattern of ascendancy, winning government recognition at Harvest Collective in Manitoba, the first shop certified in Canada since 1919.
The philosophy and tactics of the IWW are described as "revolutionary industrial unionism", with ties to socialist, syndicalist, and anarchist labor movements. In the 1910s and early 1920s, the IWW achieved many of their short-term goals, particularly in the American West, and cut across traditional guild and union lines to organize workers in a variety of trades and industries.
The extremely high rate of IWW membership turnover during this era (estimated at 133% per decade) makes it difficult for historians to state membership totals with any certainty, as workers tended to join the IWW in large numbers for relatively short periods (e.g., during labor strikes and periods of generalized economic distress). Due to several factors, membership declined dramatically in the late 1910s and 1920s.
Released from prison in August 1920 he would soon break with the IWW over its anti-political stand, standing for the NSW Parliament for the Industrial Socialist Labour Party unsuccessfully in 1922 and then in 1925 for the mainstream Australian Labor Party (ALP) also unsuccessfully.
Membership slowly decreased during the 1920s and 30s despite continued organizing and strike activity as the IWW lost ground to the One Big Union and Communist Party-controlled organizations such as the Workers' Unity League (WUL).
From 1908 to 1921, Jensen and others have written, the IWW attempted to win power in WFM locals which had once formed the federation's backbone.
Released from prison in August 1920 he would soon break with the IWW over its anti-political stand, standing for the NSW Parliament for the Industrial Socialist Labour Party unsuccessfully in 1922 and then in 1925 for the mainstream Australian Labor Party (ALP) also unsuccessfully.
The impact of Ginger Goodwin influenced various left and progressive groups in Canada, including a progressive group of MPs in the House of Commons called the Ginger Group. Despite the IWW being banned as a subversive organization in Canada during the First World War, the organization rebounded swiftly after being unbanned after the war, reaching a post-WWI high of 5600 Canadian members in 1923.
In Canada the IWW was outlawed by the federal government by an Order in Council on September 24, 1918. Probably the most decisive factor in the decline in IWW membership and influence was a 1924 schism in the organization, from which the IWW never fully recovered. The IWW promotes the concept of "One Big Union", and contends that all workers should be united as a social class to supplant capitalism and wage labor with industrial democracy.
The SLP's "Yellow IWW" eventually took the name Workers' International Industrial Union, which was disbanded in 1924. ===Organizing=== The IWW first attracted attention in Goldfield, Nevada in 1906 and during the Pressed Steel Car Strike of 1909 at McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania.
Railroad boxcars, called "side door coaches" by the hobos, were frequently plastered with silent agitators from the IWW. Building on the success of the AWO, the IWW's Lumber Workers Industrial Union (LWIU) used similar tactics to organize lumberjacks and other timber workers, both in the deep South and the Pacific Northwest of the United States and Canada, between 1917 and 1924.
But recurring internal debates, especially between those who sought either to centralize or decentralize the organization, ultimately brought about the IWW's 1924 schism. At the beginning of the 1949 Smith Act trials, FBI director J.
Released from prison in August 1920 he would soon break with the IWW over its anti-political stand, standing for the NSW Parliament for the Industrial Socialist Labour Party unsuccessfully in 1922 and then in 1925 for the mainstream Australian Labor Party (ALP) also unsuccessfully.
Allen's group soon disappeared, but the first IWW group in Britain was founded by members of the Industrial Syndicalist Education League led by Guy Bowman in 1913. The IWW was present, to varying extents, in many of the struggles of the early decades of the 20th century, including the UK General Strike of 1926 and the dockers' strike of 1947.
However, this reconciliation with the ALP and the electoral system did not prevent him being imprisoned again in 1927 for street demonstrations supporting Sacco and Vanzetti.
This was considered the largest and most successful intervention in a working-class struggle that the IWW has undertaken since the 1930s.
The IWW, however, left the CPA shortly after its formation. By the early 1930s, most Australian IWW branches had dispersed as the Communist Party grew in influence.
He would eventually represent the ALP in the NSW Legislative Council in 1931–1940 and the Australian Senate 1943–1956.
Marie in 1933, where the Finnish workers in the IWW and WUL faced discrimination and violence from the Anglo citizens of the town.
Fitzgerald (an adherent of the De Leon school). Arthur "Slim" Evans, organizer in the Relief Camp Workers' Union and the On-to-Ottawa Trek of 1935 was once a Wobbly, although during the On-to-Ottawa Trek he was with the One Big Union.
The IWW also successfully unionized Ritchie's Dairy in Toronto and formed a fishery workers' branch in MacDiarmid (now Greenstone, Ontario). In 1936, the IWW in Canada supported the Spanish Revolution and began to recruit for the militia of the anarcho-syndicalist Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT), in direct conflict with Communist Party recruiters for the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion, a conflict which resulted in a number of violent clashes at recruitment rallies in Northern Ontario.
In 1938, the IWW voted to allow contracts with employers, so long as they would not undermine any strike. ===Government suppression=== The IWW's efforts were met with "unparalleled" resistance from Federal, state and local governments in America; from company management and labor spies, and from groups of citizens functioning as vigilantes.
In the aftermath, the strike was said by some to be 'The General Strike that didn't happen' because eventually ongoing efforts at industrial action were "completely overwhelmed by the recall effort" against the governor during the crisis. ====Since 2012==== In 2012, the IWW moved its headquarters to 2036 West Montrose, Chicago. The IWW has seen rapid growth since 2012, particularly since 2017, the union's US membership numbers as of 2020 were at the highest they had been since the 1940s.
The Australian IWW has grown since the 1940s, but due to the nature of the Australian industrial relations system, it is unlikely to win union representation in any workplaces in the immediate future.
He would eventually represent the ALP in the NSW Legislative Council in 1931–1940 and the Australian Senate 1943–1956.
By the middle of the Second World War, IWW membership had dropped to 500, but had rebounded to 2000 by 1946.
Allen's group soon disappeared, but the first IWW group in Britain was founded by members of the Industrial Syndicalist Education League led by Guy Bowman in 1913. The IWW was present, to varying extents, in many of the struggles of the early decades of the 20th century, including the UK General Strike of 1926 and the dockers' strike of 1947.
But recurring internal debates, especially between those who sought either to centralize or decentralize the organization, ultimately brought about the IWW's 1924 schism. At the beginning of the 1949 Smith Act trials, FBI director J.
In 1949, US Attorney General Tom C.
In 1950, Cedervall led the 1500-member MMWIU national organization to split from the IWW, as the Lumber Workers Industrial Union had almost thirty years earlier.
Despite its brief affiliation with the Congress of Industrial Organizations, it would face serious raiding from AFL and CIO and would be defunct by the late 1950s, less than ten years after separating from the IWW. The loss of the MMWIU, at the time the IWW's largest industrial union, was almost a deathblow to the IWW.
These changes would have a profound effect on the union, which by 1972 would have sixty-seven percent of members under the age of thirty, with a total of nearly five hundred members. The IWW's links to the 60s counterculture led to organizing campaigns at counterculture businesses, as well as a wave of over two dozen co-ops affiliating with the IWW under its Wobbly Shop model in the 1960s to 1980s.
In 1971 its office was attacked by an organization calling itself the Minutemen, and IWW member Ricardo Gonzalves was indicted for criminal syndicalism along with two members of the Brown Berets. These ties to anti-authoritarian and radical artistic and literary currents would link the IWW even more heavily to the 60s counterculture, exemplified by the publication in Chicago in the 1960s of Rebel Worker by the surrealists Franklin and Penelope Rosemont.
This targeting of students would result in a Bay Area branch of the union with over a hundred members in 1964, almost as many as the union's total membership in 1961.
This targeting of students would result in a Bay Area branch of the union with over a hundred members in 1964, almost as many as the union's total membership in 1961.
Riding on this high, the decision in 1967 to allow college and university students to join the Education Workers Industrial Union (IU 620) as full members spurred campaigns in 1968 at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, and the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
The IWW would send representatives to Students for a Democratic Society conventions in 1967, 1968, and 1969, and as the SDS collapsed into infighting, the IWW would gain members who were fleeing this discord.
Riding on this high, the decision in 1967 to allow college and university students to join the Education Workers Industrial Union (IU 620) as full members spurred campaigns in 1968 at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, and the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
The IWW would send representatives to Students for a Democratic Society conventions in 1967, 1968, and 1969, and as the SDS collapsed into infighting, the IWW would gain members who were fleeing this discord.
An Education Workers Industrial Union branch was established at the University of Waterloo in 1968, but failed to achieve success and dissolved.
The IWW would send representatives to Students for a Democratic Society conventions in 1967, 1968, and 1969, and as the SDS collapsed into infighting, the IWW would gain members who were fleeing this discord.
Finally, in San Francisco, the IWW ran campaigns for radio station and food service workers. In Chicago, the IWW was an early opponent of so-called urban renewal programs, and supported the creation of the "Chicago People's Park" in 1969.
This close affiliation with radical publishers and printing houses sometimes led to legal difficulties for the union, such as when La Presse Populaire was shut down in 1970 by provincial police for publishing pro-FLQ materials, which were banned at the time under an official censorship law.
Also in 1970, the San Diego, California, "street journal" El Barrio became an official IWW shop.
These largely took a regional form and they, as well as the union's overall membership, concentrated in Portland, Chicago, Ann Arbor, and throughout the state of California, which when combined accounted for over half of union drives from 1970 to 1979.
The union launched a similar campaign at another local bookstore, Charing Cross Books, but was unable to maintain its foothold there despite reaching a settlement with management. In the late 1970s, the IWW came to regional prominence in entertainment industry organizing, with an Entertainment Workers Organizing Committee being founded in Chicago in 1976, followed by campaigns organizing musicians in Cleveland in 1977 and Ann Arbor in 1978.
As well, in 1970 La Presse Populaire du Montréal, an IWW-run print shop, was shut down under the War Measures Act due to its support for the FLQ during the October Crisis.
These soon died off, before a modest resurgence in northwest England during the 1970s. ===== Membership ===== Between 2001 and 2003, there was a marked increase in UK membership, with the creation of the Hull General Membership Branch.
In 1971 its office was attacked by an organization calling itself the Minutemen, and IWW member Ricardo Gonzalves was indicted for criminal syndicalism along with two members of the Brown Berets. These ties to anti-authoritarian and radical artistic and literary currents would link the IWW even more heavily to the 60s counterculture, exemplified by the publication in Chicago in the 1960s of Rebel Worker by the surrealists Franklin and Penelope Rosemont.
These changes would have a profound effect on the union, which by 1972 would have sixty-seven percent of members under the age of thirty, with a total of nearly five hundred members. The IWW's links to the 60s counterculture led to organizing campaigns at counterculture businesses, as well as a wave of over two dozen co-ops affiliating with the IWW under its Wobbly Shop model in the 1960s to 1980s.
In Portland, Oregon, the IWW led campaigns at Winter Products (a brass plating plant) in 1972, at a local Winchell's Donuts (where a strike was waged and lost), at the Albina Day Care (where key union demands were won, including the firing of the director of the day care), of healthcare workers at West Side School and the Portland Medical Center, and of agricultural workers in 1974.
The IWW also became one of the first unions to try to organize fast food workers, with an organizing campaign at a local McDonald's in 1973. The IWW also built on its existing presence in Ann Arbor, which had existed since student organizing began at the University of Michigan, to launch an organizing campaign at the University Cellar, a college bookstore.
As a sign of the times, the old Canadian Administration in Port Arthur was dissolved in 1973 and replaced by a Canadian Regional Organizing Committee, meaning that Canadian branches would be administrated by the General Administration in the United States.
IWW activity in Canada began to shift largely toward strike support and labor activism, such as support for the 1973 Artistic Woodwork strike in Toronto.
In Portland, Oregon, the IWW led campaigns at Winter Products (a brass plating plant) in 1972, at a local Winchell's Donuts (where a strike was waged and lost), at the Albina Day Care (where key union demands were won, including the firing of the director of the day care), of healthcare workers at West Side School and the Portland Medical Center, and of agricultural workers in 1974.
The union launched a similar campaign at another local bookstore, Charing Cross Books, but was unable to maintain its foothold there despite reaching a settlement with management. In the late 1970s, the IWW came to regional prominence in entertainment industry organizing, with an Entertainment Workers Organizing Committee being founded in Chicago in 1976, followed by campaigns organizing musicians in Cleveland in 1977 and Ann Arbor in 1978.
The union launched a similar campaign at another local bookstore, Charing Cross Books, but was unable to maintain its foothold there despite reaching a settlement with management. In the late 1970s, the IWW came to regional prominence in entertainment industry organizing, with an Entertainment Workers Organizing Committee being founded in Chicago in 1976, followed by campaigns organizing musicians in Cleveland in 1977 and Ann Arbor in 1978.
Some of the printing and publishing industry co-ops and job shops included Black & Red (Detroit), Glad Day Press (New York), RPM Press (Michigan), New Media Graphics (Ohio), Babylon Print (Wisconsin), Hill Press (Illinois), Lakeside (Madison, Wisconsin), Harbinger (Columbia, South Carolina), Eastown Printing in Grand Rapids, Michigan (where the IWW negotiated a contract in 1978), and La Presse Populaire (Montréal).
Metalworker organizing would largely end in 1978 after a failed strike at Mid-American Metal in Virden, Illinois.
The union launched a similar campaign at another local bookstore, Charing Cross Books, but was unable to maintain its foothold there despite reaching a settlement with management. In the late 1970s, the IWW came to regional prominence in entertainment industry organizing, with an Entertainment Workers Organizing Committee being founded in Chicago in 1976, followed by campaigns organizing musicians in Cleveland in 1977 and Ann Arbor in 1978.
These largely took a regional form and they, as well as the union's overall membership, concentrated in Portland, Chicago, Ann Arbor, and throughout the state of California, which when combined accounted for over half of union drives from 1970 to 1979.
The union won National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) certification there in 1979 following a strike, and the store would become a strong job shop for the union until it was closed in 1986.
These changes would have a profound effect on the union, which by 1972 would have sixty-seven percent of members under the age of thirty, with a total of nearly five hundred members. The IWW's links to the 60s counterculture led to organizing campaigns at counterculture businesses, as well as a wave of over two dozen co-ops affiliating with the IWW under its Wobbly Shop model in the 1960s to 1980s.
By the 1980s, the Rebel Worker was being published as an official organ again, from the IWW's headquarters in Chicago, and the New York area was publishing a newsletter as well. ====Return to workplace campaigns==== Invigorated by the arrival of enthusiastic new members, the IWW began a wave of organizing drives.
By the 1980s, the Vancouver branch was supporting unemployed activism through the Vancouver Unemployed Action Centre by helping to shut down the scam operation Vancouver Job Mart and supporting the campaign for a fixed-income transit pass. By the end of the 1990s, the IWW in Canada was following the general pattern of ascendancy, winning government recognition at Harvest Collective in Manitoba, the first shop certified in Canada since 1919.
The campaign led to pay raises, the implementation of a grievance procedure, and medical and dental coverage, but the union failed to maintain its foothold, and in 1982 the CETA program would be replaced by the Job Training Partnership Act.
The union won National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) certification there in 1979 following a strike, and the store would become a strong job shop for the union until it was closed in 1986.
By the 1980s, the Vancouver branch was supporting unemployed activism through the Vancouver Unemployed Action Centre by helping to shut down the scam operation Vancouver Job Mart and supporting the campaign for a fixed-income transit pass. By the end of the 1990s, the IWW in Canada was following the general pattern of ascendancy, winning government recognition at Harvest Collective in Manitoba, the first shop certified in Canada since 1919.
This was followed up with a National Day of Action in 1997, where Borders stores were again picketed nationwide, and a second organizing campaign in London, England. Also in 1996, the IWW began organizing at Wherehouse Music in El Cerrito, California.
This was followed up with a National Day of Action in 1997, where Borders stores were again picketed nationwide, and a second organizing campaign in London, England. Also in 1996, the IWW began organizing at Wherehouse Music in El Cerrito, California.
The campaign continued until 1997, when management fired two organizers and laid off over half the employees, as well as reducing the hours of known union members.
By the middle of the Second World War, IWW membership had dropped to 500, but had rebounded to 2000 by 1946.
During the 2000s, branches were chartered in several new cities, and existing branches were revitalized.
These soon died off, before a modest resurgence in northwest England during the 1970s. ===== Membership ===== Between 2001 and 2003, there was a marked increase in UK membership, with the creation of the Hull General Membership Branch.
Contact between the Sierra Leone members and headquarters was lost after a military coup which was an episode in the Sierra Leone Civil War, which would last until 2002.
The shop continues to remain an IWW organized shop. The city of Berkeley's recycling is picked up, sorted, processed and sent out all through two different IWW-organized enterprises. In 2003, the IWW began organizing street people and other non-traditional occupations with the formation of the Ottawa Panhandlers Union.
Negotiations with the city resulted in the city government promising to fund a newspaper written and sold by the homeless. Between 2003 and 2006, the IWW organized unions at food co-operatives in Seattle, Washington and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
These soon died off, before a modest resurgence in northwest England during the 1970s. ===== Membership ===== Between 2001 and 2003, there was a marked increase in UK membership, with the creation of the Hull General Membership Branch.
The IWW represents administrative and maintenance workers under contract in Seattle, while the union in Pittsburgh lost 22–21 in an NLRB election, only to have the results invalidated in late 2006, based on management's behavior before the election. In 2004, an IWW union was organized in a New York City Starbucks.
In 2006, the IWW continued efforts at Starbucks by organizing several Chicago area shops. In Chicago the IWW began an effort to organize bicycle messengers with some success. In September 2004, IWW-organized short haul truck drivers in Stockton, California walked off their jobs and went on a strike.
In the summer of 2004, the Union led strike by the Homeless (the Homeless Action Strike) in Ottawa.
Despite early victories in Stockton, the truck driver union ceased to exist in mid-2005. In New York City, the IWW has been organizing immigrant foodstuffs workers since 2005.
As of 2005, the 100th anniversary of its founding, the IWW had around 5,000 members, compared to 13 million members in the AFL-CIO.
By 2005, there were around 100 members in the United Kingdom.
Negotiations with the city resulted in the city government promising to fund a newspaper written and sold by the homeless. Between 2003 and 2006, the IWW organized unions at food co-operatives in Seattle, Washington and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
The IWW represents administrative and maintenance workers under contract in Seattle, while the union in Pittsburgh lost 22–21 in an NLRB election, only to have the results invalidated in late 2006, based on management's behavior before the election. In 2004, an IWW union was organized in a New York City Starbucks.
In 2006, the IWW continued efforts at Starbucks by organizing several Chicago area shops. In Chicago the IWW began an effort to organize bicycle messengers with some success. In September 2004, IWW-organized short haul truck drivers in Stockton, California walked off their jobs and went on a strike.
Workers at these warehouses made gains such as receiving the minimum wage and being paid overtime. In 2006, the IWW moved its headquarters to Cincinnati, Ohio, and in 2010, headquarters was moved back to Chicago, Illinois. Also in 2006, the IWW Bay Area Branch organized the Landmark Shattuck Cinemas.
On May 1, 2006, the Union took over the Elgin Street Police Station for a day.
Fritz Wolffheim played a significant role in establishing the IWW in Hamburg. A German Language Membership Regional Organizing Committee (GLAMROC) was founded in December 2006 in Cologne.
The Union has been negotiating for a contract and hopes to gain one through workplace democracy and organizing directly and taking action when necessary. In May 2007, the NYC warehouse workers came together with the Starbucks Workers Union to form The Food and Allied Workers Union IU 460/640.
In the summer of 2007, the IWW organized workers at two new warehouses: Flaum Appetizing, a Kosher food distributor, and Wild Edibles, a seafood company.
Over the course of 2007–08, workers at both shops were illegally terminated for their union activity.
In 2007 it launched a campaign alongside the anti-capitalist group No Sweat which attempted to replicate some of the successes of the US IWW's organizing drives amongst Starbucks workers.
In the same year its health-workers' network launched a national campaign against cuts in the National Blood Service, which is ongoing. Also in 2007, IWW branches in Glasgow and Dumfries were a key driving force in a successful campaign to prevent the closure of one of Glasgow University's campuses, (The Crichton) in Dumfries.
In 2008, the workers at Wild Edibles actively fought to get their jobs back and to secure overtime pay owed to them by the boss.
The dissolved Canadian Regional Organizing Committee was refounded in 2011. In 2009, after Starbucks established policies that would mean demotions and loss of salary for some workers, the Quebec branches of Montreal and Sherbrooke helped found the Starbucks Workers' Union (STTS) which made a breakthrough in Quebec City at an establishment in Sainte-Foy.
In August 2009, Canadian members voted to ratify the constitution of the Canadian Regional Organizing Committee (CanROC) to improve inter-branch coordination and communication.
Workers at these warehouses made gains such as receiving the minimum wage and being paid overtime. In 2006, the IWW moved its headquarters to Cincinnati, Ohio, and in 2010, headquarters was moved back to Chicago, Illinois. Also in 2006, the IWW Bay Area Branch organized the Landmark Shattuck Cinemas.
Other IWW branches are located in Australia, Austria, Canada, Ireland, Germany, Uganda and the United Kingdom. ====2011 Wisconsin General Strike==== In early 2011, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker announced a budget bill which the IWW held would effectively outlaw unions for state or municipal workers.
The dissolved Canadian Regional Organizing Committee was refounded in 2011. In 2009, after Starbucks established policies that would mean demotions and loss of salary for some workers, the Quebec branches of Montreal and Sherbrooke helped found the Starbucks Workers' Union (STTS) which made a breakthrough in Quebec City at an establishment in Sainte-Foy.
This decision was confirmed at the 2011 IWW International Convention where the representatives agreed that no union affiliated with the IWW could sign a contract questioning its right to strike.
Its success, coupled with the National Blood Service campaign, has raised the IWW's profile significantly since then. In 2011, the IWW representing cleaners at the Guildhall won back-pay and the right to collective negotiation with their employers, Ocean.
Also in 2011, branches of the IWW were set up in Lincoln, Manchester and Sheffield (notably workers employed by Pizza Hut). The Edinburgh General Membership Branch of the IWW along with other branches of the IWW's Scottish section voted in 2014 to become a signatory to the "From Yes to Action Statement" produced by the Autonomous Centre of Edinburgh.
The IWW does not require its members to work in a represented workplace, neither does it exclude membership in another labor union. In 2012, the IWW moved its headquarters to 2036 West Montrose in Chicago.
In the aftermath, the strike was said by some to be 'The General Strike that didn't happen' because eventually ongoing efforts at industrial action were "completely overwhelmed by the recall effort" against the governor during the crisis. ====Since 2012==== In 2012, the IWW moved its headquarters to 2036 West Montrose, Chicago. The IWW has seen rapid growth since 2012, particularly since 2017, the union's US membership numbers as of 2020 were at the highest they had been since the 1940s.
The intensification of the civil war caused a number of IWW members, including the only official union delegate in the country, to flee to Guinea. In 2012, IWW members in Uganda formed a Ugandan Regional Organizing Committee (ROC) and began to raise funds to establish a Ugandan office for the IWW.
Although the IWW still organizes in every sector of employment they have enjoyed the most success among education and food service workers. For example, the IWW waged an organizing campaign at Chicago-Lake Liquors in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 2013.
Also in 2011, branches of the IWW were set up in Lincoln, Manchester and Sheffield (notably workers employed by Pizza Hut). The Edinburgh General Membership Branch of the IWW along with other branches of the IWW's Scottish section voted in 2014 to become a signatory to the "From Yes to Action Statement" produced by the Autonomous Centre of Edinburgh.
Between 2015 - 2017, the IWW-SITT hosted a radio program titled Action en Direct (Direct Action) which was broadcast from Radio Centre-Ville 102.3FM before moving to CHOQ radio at the Université du Québec à Montréal and being placed on hiatus.
In 2015, the GLAMROC is reported as having 200 members in good standing ==== Wales, Ireland, Scotland, England ==== The regional body of the union in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland is the Wales, Ireland, Scotland, England Regional Administration (WISERA).
In 2015, along with similar groups such as the Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty and Edinburgh Anarchist Federation, they joined the Scottish Action Against Austerity network. In 2016, WISERA promoted a campaign targeting couriers working for companies such as Deliveroo. ====Elsewhere in Europe==== An Iceland Regional Organizing Committee (IceROC) was chartered in 2015.
In particular, the IWW in Iceland has taken a strong position against the Swedish model of policing sex work, where sex workers are not criminalized but their customers are, and instead has argued in favor of "organizing all workers without moral or legal judgement". Also in 2015, a Greek Regional Organizing Committee (GreROC) was chartered.
In July of that year, it released a statement condemning the Greek government's response to the results of the 2015 Greek bailout referendum, saying that "despite the Left tone of dignity that the Left governmental administrators use, this is a one-way blackmail.
As part of the campaign, the workers formed the Production Services Collective and continue as a workers cooperative and organizing with IWW-CT. The IWW announced the Burgerville Workers Union (BVWU) in April 2016, which focuses on workers at the Oregon regional fast food chain, Burgerville.
In April and May 2018 the IWW won NLRB elections in 2 Burgerville Locations. In August 2016, workers at Ellen's Stardust Diner in Manhattan formed Stardust Family United (SFU) under the IWW, driven by the firing of thirty employees, as well as an unpopular new scheduling system.
After going public, the union accused Stardust management of retaliatory firings and posting anti-union materials in the restaurant. On September 9, 2016, the 45th anniversary of the Attica Prison Riots, 900 incarcerated workers organized by the IWW and many other prisoners participated in the 9/9 National Prison Strike declared by the IWW's Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee.
In 2016, CanROC members voted to split the Secretary-Treasurer role into separate Regional Secretary and Regional Treasurer positions. There are currently five job shops in Canada: Libra Knowledge and Information Services Co-op in Toronto, ParIT Workers Cooperative in Winnipeg, the Windsor Button Collective, the Ottawa Panhandlers' Union and the Street Labourers of Windsor (SLOW).
In 2015, along with similar groups such as the Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty and Edinburgh Anarchist Federation, they joined the Scottish Action Against Austerity network. In 2016, WISERA promoted a campaign targeting couriers working for companies such as Deliveroo. ====Elsewhere in Europe==== An Iceland Regional Organizing Committee (IceROC) was chartered in 2015.
In the aftermath, the strike was said by some to be 'The General Strike that didn't happen' because eventually ongoing efforts at industrial action were "completely overwhelmed by the recall effort" against the governor during the crisis. ====Since 2012==== In 2012, the IWW moved its headquarters to 2036 West Montrose, Chicago. The IWW has seen rapid growth since 2012, particularly since 2017, the union's US membership numbers as of 2020 were at the highest they had been since the 1940s.
In June 2017, Burgerville paid a settlement of $10,000 after an investigation by the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries, which found that the company had violated state-mandated break periods for workers.
Between 2015 - 2017, the IWW-SITT hosted a radio program titled Action en Direct (Direct Action) which was broadcast from Radio Centre-Ville 102.3FM before moving to CHOQ radio at the Université du Québec à Montréal and being placed on hiatus.
In April and May 2018 the IWW won NLRB elections in 2 Burgerville Locations. In August 2016, workers at Ellen's Stardust Diner in Manhattan formed Stardust Family United (SFU) under the IWW, driven by the firing of thirty employees, as well as an unpopular new scheduling system.
In the aftermath, the strike was said by some to be 'The General Strike that didn't happen' because eventually ongoing efforts at industrial action were "completely overwhelmed by the recall effort" against the governor during the crisis. ====Since 2012==== In 2012, the IWW moved its headquarters to 2036 West Montrose, Chicago. The IWW has seen rapid growth since 2012, particularly since 2017, the union's US membership numbers as of 2020 were at the highest they had been since the 1940s.
Initial media coverage was slow, with strike organizers complaining of a "mainstream-media blackout", which could be attributed to the difficulty in communicating with prisoners, as many prisons went on lockdown either in response to prisoner strike activity or in anticipation of it. The IWW has also been organizing workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, such as with the May 2020 establishment of the Voodoo Doughnut Workers Union (DWU) in Portland, Oregon.
The IWW also publicly announced the Second Staff (2S) workers union in May 2020 at the Faison school, a private school serving students on the autism spectrum in Richmond, VA in response to what the union called a "reckless endangerment of staff and students" in trying to force the school to open too soon.
In February of 2021, after months of organizing, DWU workers officially filed for a union certification election with the National Labor Relations Board.
March 2021 saw a rash of organizing with the IWW.
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