Serfing the Tide! - Josie, x341890 Philadelphia GMB
The 1990's are witnessing a rising tide within the IWW. Starting with
the founding of the Lehigh Valley IWW and the activities of IWW Local
1/Earth First! new groups of activists have joined and stayed with the
IWW. While Wobs have always been organizers, and there have been
innumerable activities that characterized the earlier IWW, these new Wobs
have brought with them a certain hunger, activism, and sense of daring
that have helped to shape our current Union. While not every new Wob
traces their commitment to the pioneering works of the Lehigh Valley and
Mendocino IWW, much of what we are today was inspired by the willingness
to start new ideas and to fight at all costs.
In the last year, many of us have been forging links of solidarity and support across our many localities. With the advent of internet access, we have been able to exchange ideas and get to know each other better than we were ever able before. While we do not agree on everything we realize that the IWW must take its rightful role in organizing the millions of disenfranchised and alienated workers that span the globe. Each in our own way we have been building a new IWW, one that can bring the legacy of the old IWW into harmony with the struggles of the workers of today.
It is time to stop bickering and backstabbing, theorizing and
haranguing, and time to roll up our sleeves and get to work. Whether by
forming alliances with workers in other unions, organizing workers into
our own, developing community networks, fighting corporate campaigns,
supporting our comrades in prison, building organizational resources, or
otherwise fighting to reinvigorate the union, we must take the challenge
head on.
It is time for a revitalized IWW. We can no longer afford to confine ourselves to an historical club, or stamp collecting society. We must judge our actions not in the minutiae of "Masonic" ritual but in the broader vision of fighting to organize the workers of the world. Our ranks are filled with skilled and experienced organizers and propagandists, both young and old, and we must stop this preoccupation with bureaucracy and bickering that makes the GOB our best member-losing strategy. We must build a vision and a strength reflective of our talents, and welcoming to new activists.
To grow and be effective we must diversify our membership through our
conscious efforts to seek out new activists; we must build and sustain new
local organizations; we must construct and make available resources to
these new organizations so that they can grow; we must guarantee and
encourage independent and innovative organizing; we must facilitate
information sharing and member exchanges so we can learn and grow
together. With a healthy, diverse, growing, active IWW, we can build an
unstoppable force that will eventually sweep across the globe.