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Any Wobblies on here?


pelicanAndrew
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Andrew aren't you in college?

 

I was. You can still join if you're in college apparently. The only way you can't join is if you're an employer. As long as you agree with the preamble (which believe me I do) you can join. I know it even says on their website that students are welcome and they're actually encouraging that.

 

But right now I'm taking a break and working as a low voltage electrician so I felt it necessary to join and help out my fellow working class people. I really do believe in solidarity.

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I wasn't aware the IWW had mandatory dues, doesn't seem like an anarchist thing to do. I was actually going to join as there was a cabal of grad students at my school who wanted to form a union and force it on all the other grad students. Fortunately I have not had to join them, and I don't want to. They are ineffective at best and very unresponsive. I figure if I was an IWW member no need to join these other people. I'm good with solidarity, but just don't force me into the group. If I want to join I will.

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If you're a student I believe the dues are free.

 

Everything has operating costs. And they're not solely an anarchist group. They are FAR FAR FAR left, but not exclusively anarchist. The dues really only seem to be mandatory if you're full on active in the group and go to General Assembly meetings. I'll let you guys know more info after I go to the meeting.

 

Being forced to join a union is maybe the shittiest deal ever. IE Jewel. You get paid minimum wage, have to join a Union to work there, and then you have to pay union dues, effectively making you earn less than minimum wage just because a Union has a contract with the store.

 

There's a bunch of shit like this that's keeping me from joining the IBEW Local 134 in Chicago. I could make about 6 times as much money as I do now, but I'd have to deal with a ton of bullshit. The IWW is a way for me to get together with other workers and help people out who make far less than I do. And it will teach me skills to organize my workplace if need be.

 

I could go on and on about Unions, but I worked 8.5 hours of OT today and missed the Food Not Bombs serve because of it, so I'm gonna be emo and play Fable 2 all night. Huzzah!

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I'm not a Wobbly myself, although I think I belonged at one point, but I'm glad to hear there are Wobs among us. The Wobs--Big Bill Haywood, Joe Hill, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, and the rest--did some wonderful activist work in their heyday in the early 1900s, before Woodrow Wilson and his henchmen persecuted them almost out of existence during World War I. I wish more people would realize how little voting for Democrats over Republicans is going to do for us, compared with all the more effective things people could be doing to make the world a better place. Personally, I'm a member of Solidarity (www.solidarity-us.org), a US revolutionary socialist organization.

 

Eugene Debs, who was not a Wob but who worked closely with them for many years, was from Terre Haute, Indiana, only an hour away from me. They've turned his house into a museum that's definitely worth a visit if you're ever in that area. I have a cool poster of Debs and Ben Hanford, from their Socialist Party electoral campaign in 1904, on my wall that I got from there.

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