Submitted by x344543 on Mon, 04/10/2006 - 12:16pm
Whereas: the working class knows no borders or races, but exists wherever workers are exploited for the benefit of capital; and
Whereas: all human beings are entitled to the means of obtaining the necessities of life for themselves and their families, regardless of any artificial barriers created by government; and
Whereas: the nature of capitalist economies is to draw workers from all over to the centers of capitalist investment, while at the same time drawing wealth out of less-developed economies, thereby eliminating opportunities to earn a living within such economies; and
Whereas: the recent rise in immigration to the United States of America is directly attributable to this process, as exemplified by the destructive free-trade treaties forced upon Latin America by the United States government, as well as the insatiable lust of North American employers for a dependent, immigrant work-force that can be compelled to labor under sub-minimum wages and deplorable working conditions and used to undermine the working conditions of all workers; and
Submitted by x344543 on Mon, 03/27/2006 - 12:48am
By Mike Hargis, Chicago - Industrial Worker, April 2006
It was so incredible: I never saw the beginning of the march, nor the end. I didn’t hear one speech and never even made it to the Loop where the march was supposed to end. There was just this sea of humanity gathered in the streets, flowing in the same direction with the same object in mind: defeat the new, draconian immigration bill known as “The Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005” (HR4437).
On March 10 at least 300,000 people took the day off work or school and converged in Chicago’s Loop to protest this bill, which would turn undocumented workers into “aggravated criminal felons” and those who assist them, such as priests and nurses (and unionists) into criminals as well for “aiding and abetting” them. The bill passed the House of Representatives just before Christmas, it is currently being debated in the Senate.
Submitted by x344543 on Tue, 01/03/2006 - 3:20am
This article has been moved to the "blog" section of the IWW website:
And two further responses to Thomas Brewton and his apologists have been added.
Please note that these statements are not official publications of the IWW and as such represent the individual opinions of IWW members.
Submitted by x344543 on Tue, 11/08/2005 - 3:22pm
This week, we are launching LabourStart TV.
No, it's not a television station. (That would be nice, but we don't have the money for that just yet.) But it is a big step forward for us, and I think for the international trade union movement as well.
Basically, we will start collecting the web addresses of videos produced by and for unions the same way we now do with text-based news stories.
That sounds simple enough, and it is.
But we're doing more than just listing what's available elsewhere on the web.
We're telling trade unionists what other unions have done. We're showing cutting-edge technology that is now fairly widely used in our movement. And we're encouraging other unions to move forward and use the new technology.
A beta version of LabourStart TV is already online. It has no logo nor graphics, and the text is not yet finalized, but it will have these by the end of this week. You can already see it here:
http://www.labourstart.tv
(Don't you just love the simplicity of that address?)
As correspondents, you can already begin adding content now. We will be announcing LabourStart TV towards the end of this week and it would be great to feature content from unions in your country. Here's all you need to do to add shows:
Submitted by x344543 on Tue, 10/25/2005 - 4:55pm
By Jon Bekken - Industrial Worker, October 2005.
More than 50 economists and labor activists went to Kansas City Sept. 15 – 17 for a conference on radical economics and the labor movement organized as part of the IWW centenary. Presentations addressed a wide variety of topics, from historical work to studies of recent efforts by Latin American workers to defend their labor standards through strikes and worker collectives. Other papers sought to update IWW and Marxian economic analysis, reported on initiatives to bring radical economic analysis to broader audiences, and explored the intersection between radical economics and economic thinkers such as Galbraith and Sraffa. In addition, there was a tour of Kansas City labor history sites (shortened by bad weather), culminating in a performance of Wobbly songs in the old City Market by Bob and Judy Sukiel. The idea was to bring together economists and labor activists for a dialogue which might restore the dialogue between economists and working-class movements that once posed a vital challenge to the dominance of capitalism’s house economists. As Dirk Philipsen of Virginia State University noted in his presentation on historical struggles for economic democracy, “It is clear that corporate capitalism is not sustainable. It is not realistic to believe that it can survive.” And so there is an urgent need to open a conversation about economic alternatives.
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