In order to achieve concrete gains, workers must impact the boss where they are most vulnerable: at the point of production. There is absoloutely no substitute for organized, economic, direct action. Unfortunately, most workers are confused about the specifics of such action. This page exists to answer that challenge.

(Image by Gary Huck - used by Permission) 

Solidarity Unionism - Organizing without majority bargaining unit status:

• Introducing the Employee Liberation Act - Unleashing the Power of Worker Self-Activity and Direct Action - by Daniel Dross, Znet, June 30, 2009.

• The Minority Report - A series of articles about "minority unionism" by IWW General Secretary-Treasurer, Alexis Buss.
  • December 2002 - Industrial Worker
  • November 2002 - Industrial Worker
  • October 2002 - Industrial Worker
  • July 2002 - Industrial Worker
  • June 2003 - Industrial Worker


• A Wobbly Strategy for Fundamental Change - Excerpts from Staughton Lynd's speech to the 2002 IWW General Assembly, published in the October 2002 Issue of the Industrial Worker.
• See also Joshua DeVries' Response to Staughton Lynd - October 2002.


• Open Source Unionism - Richard B. Freeman & Joel Rogers, The Nation, June 6 2002.

Direct Action - Strikes and other tactics:

• Effective Strikes and Economic Actions - Fighting Back on the Job.
• Plates on the Roof - Stories of Direct Action from IU640 Wobblies.
• Salting - Organizing under cover.
• Why Strikes are Lost & How to Win - By W. E. Trautmann, 1912


• The Ultimate Direct Action - The General Strike
  • The General Strike - By Ralph Chaplin, 1933.
  • The General Strike - By Bill Haywood, March 16, 1911.

Using the Internet for Union Organizing

• Online Picket Line - Columns from the Industrial Worker.
• Eric Lee's Home Page - Web design and Internet consulting for the trade union movement.
• Organizing in the Digital Age - By Richard Myers - November 23, 2004.

A Critical Look at Business Unionism

• A Strike by Any Other Name - The way the Southern California Grocery Worker's strike of 2003 was handled speaks volumes about the (dis)organization and orientation of the UFCW--the union representing the grocery workers--and the labor movement in general - By By Natasha Moss-Dedrick, Tuesday, September 28, 2004.


• Reutherism Redux - What Happens When Poor Workers' Unions Wear The Color Purple - By Steve Early, Labor Notes, September 2004.


• Organize From Below! - A Message to Young People Who Are Considering Taking a Job as a Union Staffer - By Richard Mellor and John Reimann, April 11, 2004.


• Flying Squads and the Crisis of Workers' Self-Organization - How tactics and strategy need a broader vision than business unionism - By Alex Levant, March 2003.


• SEIU and Antiglobalization Protesters - How Labor Bureaucrats Exploited the Antiglobalization Movement & How to Not Get Fooled Again This Year - February 17, 2003, by an Anonymous SEIU Staffer.


• Slaughterhouse Fight: A Look at the Hormel Strike - How Hormel and the UFCW sabotaged Rank & File unionism in the P-9 Strike - By Steve Boyce, Jake Edwards and Tom Wetzel, Summer, 1986.

The controversial debate about "Sabotage":

The IWW does not endorse wanton property destruction, but it does advocate organized inefficiency as a tactic against the employing class. Unfortunately, both tactics have been represented by the word "sabotage". Find out the difference and understand why the IWW does not advocate "sabotage":

• Sabotage, The Concious Withdrawal of the Workers' Industrial Efficiency - by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, October 1916.
• Rethinking Sabotage - Three historical IWW statements against "Sabotage".