Welcome to IWW.org - Preambule

Posted Sat, 05/22/2010 - 11:58am by webadmin

De arbeidersklasse en de werkgeversklasse hebben niets gemeenschappelijk. Vrede is niet mogelijk zolang er honger en nood heersen bij miljoenen arbeidende mensen, en zolang de enkelen die de werkgevende klasse uitmaken al de goede dingen in het leven bezitten.

Tussen deze twee klassen moet de strijd voortduren totdat de arbeiders van alle landen zich in een klasse organizeren, de produktiemiddelen in handen nemen, het loonsysteem afschaffen, en in harmonie met de aarde leven.

Wij ondervinden dat het beheer van de industrieën in alsmaar minder handen geconcentreerd raakt en dat dit het de vakverenigingen onmogelijk maakt met de alsmaar groeiende macht van de werkgeversklasse te wedijveren. De vakverenigingen kweken een stand van zaken die toelaat één groep van arbeiders tegen een andere op te zetten binnen éénzelfde industrie, en zo bijdraagt tot een nederlaag voor beiden in een klassestrijd. Daarenboven helpen de vakverenigingen de werkgeversklasse doordat ze de arbeiders doen geloven dat de arbeidersklasse gemeenschappelijke belangen met hun werkgevers heeft.

Deze omstandigheden kunnen worden veranderd en de belangen van de arbeidersklasse verdedigd enkel en alleen door een organizatie die zo gevormd is dat alle leden binnen een industrie, of wanneer nodig in alle industrieën, het werk neerleggen zodra een staking of lockout aan de gang is in eender welk departement van de organizatie. Op die manier wordt een onrecht tegen één een onrecht tegen allen.

May 1st in the Twin Cities

Posted Wed, 05/23/2012 - 9:42pm by IWW.org Editor

By Elijah Marks - The Organizer May 16, 2012

The celebration of International Workers’ Day in the Twin Cities brought together many groups organizing around various struggles. The resurgent Occupy movement has injected new energy into the holiday.

Local organizing coalesced in an Occupy May 1st Twin Cities group, planning for a day of action around ‘no work, no school’ and a ‘day without the 99%’ For months leading up to the action, they met weekly at the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)’s office to coordinate with other groups, plan events for the day, and make and spread posters and leaflets.

The mutual aid ethos of the wider Occupy movement was demonstrated through Occuprint, an offshoot of Occupy Wall Street in New York City, who helped with May 1st publicity in the Twin Cities—and other cities across the country—by distributing hundreds of high-quality, large-format posters and newspapers. Additionally, local designers created their own innovative designs, such as the following poster:

Another form of circulation of common media across the country was a zine with an illustrated history of May Day. During the meet-up at the beginning of the day, I found this zine to be a useful means for meeting new people and sparking conversations. Talking about this history made us feel connected with the tradition of struggle for immigrants’ and workers’ rights, such as the 8-hour workday, that most people take for granted, and seeing that nothing will be gained—and much could be lost—without continued militant struggle.

Flaum workers win in biggest victory yet with IWW support!

Posted Wed, 05/23/2012 - 8:55pm by IWW.org Editor

By Daniel Gross - May 7, 2012

We are overjoyed to announce the biggest victory yet from Focus on the Food Chain!  Workers at Flaum Appetizing, with your unwavering support, have won their campaign with an exemplary global agreement.  Our members have recovered $577,000 in unpaid wages and compensation for retaliation along with a binding code of conduct ensuring Flaum comports with all workplace rights going forward including anti-discrimination and health & safety protections.

You can check out some of the press coverage on today's victory:

New York Times: Kosher-Food Manufacturer to Pay $577,000 in Settlement

Crain's New York: Settlement paves way for end of hummus boycott

Jewish Daily Forward: Uri L'Tzedek Celebrates Flaums Victory

For over a decade, workers at Flaum Appetizing worked grueling sixty to eighty hour work weeks without overtime pay and sometimes not even the minimum wage.  Latino workers were subjected to constant verbal harassment and forced to work at unsafe speeds.  Focus on the Food Chain, a joint project of Brandworkers and the NYC IWW, helped the workers launch a powerful campaign that persuaded over 120 grocery store locations to remove Flaum products from their shelves and convinced the world's largest kosher cheese company to stop using Flaum as a distributor until workers' rights were respected. In the process, Flaum workers won a precedent-setting victory at the Labor Board in D.C. helping workers nationwide fend off unfounded allegations into their immigration status.

IWW International Solidarity Commission in solidarity with the CGT-Barcelona and Laura Gómez

Posted Tue, 05/22/2012 - 7:57pm by IWW.org Editor

The International Solidarity Commission of the Industrial Workers of the World condemns the actions taken by the Mossos d'Esquadra, Catalonia police. Laura Gómez, the General Secretary of CGT-Barcelona was arrested by the Mossos d'Esquadra for trumped up charges that have no basis in fact. It is obvious that this is nothing more than an act of repression and intimidation in response to the growing workers' mobilizations in Spain. We demand the immediate release of Laura Gómez and the withdrawal of all charges.

We are in solidarity with, and commend, the CGT-Barcelona, Laura Gómez, and the rest of Spain's working class for their ongoing struggle against police repression and labour injustice.

Solidarity Forever,
International Solidarity Commission
Industrial Workers of the World.

IWW Shops Hold May Day Rally

Posted Fri, 05/04/2012 - 10:30am by IWW.org Editor

By John Reimann

The boss was sweating bullets. The IWW was in the house, his workers were about to stop work for May Day, and he wasn’t happy about it at all. But there was nothing he could do about it since all his workers were IWW members and they support the union. This was at Buy Back recycling in Berkeley, which functions under an IWW contract as does Curbside Pickups, the work place next door, whose workers were also about to stop work for May Day, 2012.

IWW organizers and union members on the job had been organizing a stop-work rally for the previous two weeks and here it was.

Workers from both work places stopped work for about an hour to celebrate International Workers Day in a work place rally. Most of those who spoke were the Curbside and Buy Back workers themselves, and they spoke about the conditions of their jobs and the attacks on their health benefits and other such concerns. A worker at Curbside had recently had a very serious injury (which resulted in having to have a foot amputated). Several Curbside workers commented on this and the belief that the long hours of overtime may well have been related to this, because when workers are tired accidents are more likely to happen. There were several speakers from outside the work place including Boots Riley, the revolutionary Oakland rap artist, who spoke among other things about his experiences with workers in Italy. Other fellow workers spoke on a number of issues including the history of May Day, issues for grocery workers, and on privatization and the union busting in the Oakland public school system. One noteworthy message of greeting was read from a representative of the Pakistan Labor Party. The message referred to some of the strikes in Pakistan recently and concluded by calling for the workers of the world to unite. The rally concluded with a speech from a fellow worker who called for revolution (and got a good hand of applause for that).

We all gathered round for a group photo taken by one of our members. The executive director of the Curbside operation just “happened” to be on hand and came running over, a big s___t-eating grin spread over his face. He offered to take the photo for us so that we could all be in the photo at once. We sent him packing.

It was the perfect end to a great event. We started the event by making one boss sweat. We ended it by telling another to get lost. What better way to celebrate International Workers Day?