Industrial Workers of the World

Economic Possibilities for our

Grandchildren (1930)*



I



We are suffering just now from a bad attack of economic pessimism. It is
common to hear people say that the epoch of enormous economic progress
which characterised the nineteenth cen­tury is over; that the rapid
improvement in the standard of life is now going to slow down
--at any rate in Great Britain; that a decline in prosperity is
more likely than an improve­ment in the decade which lies ahead of
us.



I believe that this is a wildly mistaken inter­pretation of what is
happening to us. We are suffering, not from the rheumatics of old age,
but from the growing-pains of over-rapid changes, from the
painfulness of readjustment between one economic period and another. The
increase of technical efficiency has been taking place faster than we
can deal with the problem of labour absorption; the improve­ment in
the standard of life has been a little too quick; the banking and
monetary system of the world has been preventing the rate of interest

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxcNzRWWkig

FWs of the world unite.

Listen to these Wobs from Canada.

IWW members have been promoting class consciousness for decades, yet our voices are still small compared with the very amplified voice of the capitalist media and all the players within the capitalist hire-arky who feel they have a stake in promoting 'the free market' or the 'invisible hand' or some other such nonsense.

But, if the workers of the world had the knowledge, they'd most likely be making decisions such as those advocated by the IWW in its Preamble.  If you ever doubted this and thought that the workers are just stupid, check out the article below.  The implications are enormous and heartening:

"The U.S. economy likely will not see a recession for years to come.  We don't want one, we don't need one, and, as we have the tools to keep the current expansion going, we won't have one. This expansion will run forever."

Rudi Dornbusch, "Growth Forever", Wall Street Journal, July 30, 1998, 
p. A18.

So, not only do we give up control of the social product of our labour, under the contractural arrangements of the wages system, we're also seeing the relation between output per hour and real wages, real compensation decline.  I would add that any decline in control over the amount of wealth we get in relation to the amount we produce is accompanied by a decline in political influence and serves only to increase our rulers' rate of profit.

see information is on page 12 of the study--graph 6.

http://www.economicmobility.org/assets/pdfs/PEW_EMP_AMERICAN_DREAM.pdf

Also:

(12/24/08) Wall St. Journal we find this remark:

"Examining data on changes in the US work force, the authors show that job losses due to higher productivity -- often the result of improving technology -- greatly outnumber those lost to globalization.  The authors cite Commerce Department figures estimating that 65% of job losses in manufacturing between 2000 and 2006 were due to productivity increases; just 35% of job losses owed to overseas outsourcing."

Gerhard Bosch points out: 120 years ago average working time was around 3,000 hours a year. Since then average working time has decreased by almost 50 percent. Hourly productivity has risen thirteen times and wages have increased ninefold. The growth in productivity was achieved only through the introduction of more intensive ways of working that could not have been done given the extended hours of 120 years ago.

December 17, 2008
 
Dyrekcja Centrum Poczly
Oddzial Regionalny w Gdansku
Ul. Targ Rakowy 7/8
80-940 Gdansk
POLAND
 
Dear Management:
 
We demand the immediate reinstatement of Bartosz Kantorczyk, postman and activist of the Workers’ Initiative Trade Union.  We understand that you require workers like Mr. Kantorczyk to carry and make large cash deliveries and that this puts workers in your employ in danger. 
 
Mr. Kantorczyk and The Workers’ Initiative are only attempting to get you, the management, to increase security measures for workers delivering large amounts of cash.
 
Be advised that the I.W.W. will continue to publicise your illegal, immoral acts of harrassement at our site on the World Wide Web until you cease and desist.
 
 
Yours truly,
 
 
Mike Ballard
x334260
I.W.W.
Perth, Australia
 
http://www.iww.org.au/

**************

 December 17, 2008