204 lines
9.3 KiB
Plaintext
204 lines
9.3 KiB
Plaintext
|
|
INDUSTRIAL DEMOCRACY
|
|
|
|
Excerpts from *One Big Union* pamphlet
|
|
|
|
The Industrial Workers of the World see no good in leaving
|
|
the decisions to corporate managers and politicians. Instead, we
|
|
want Industrial Democracy -- industry run by its workers. We ask
|
|
these questions:
|
|
|
|
If a representative government takes control of everyone's
|
|
bread and butter, how can it be kept representative?
|
|
|
|
If the already vast body of laws and regulations over labor
|
|
are added to, do we not become the puppets of appointed
|
|
administrators?
|
|
|
|
How can we have a totatitarian economy and yet avoid
|
|
totalitarian politics?
|
|
|
|
The greatest problem facing humanity is not production and
|
|
distribution; it is the
|
|
problem of power. IT NEVER HAS BEEN safe to let a few control the
|
|
affairs of the many. IT NEVER WILL BE SAFE. The depressions,
|
|
wars, and other ills of the modern world have been possible only
|
|
because of the concentration of power in the hands of a few. What
|
|
happened was the result of the will of these few, not the will of
|
|
the many.
|
|
|
|
Every invention that has increased our power to produce or
|
|
destroy, has increased the power of the few and decreased the
|
|
power of the rest of us. Every improvement in communication has
|
|
extended the power of this minority. And every time we give more
|
|
power to someone to try and remedy existing evils, we increase the
|
|
problem. This is true whether we allow that power to fall into the
|
|
hands of the present managers of industry, their friends in
|
|
government or their friends in Trade Unions. The only safe choice
|
|
is Industrial Democracy -- industry run by those who do the work.
|
|
|
|
IT'S UP TO US
|
|
|
|
We can run industry and thereby solve the problem of power,
|
|
for all the power that runs this dynamic world comes from our own
|
|
efforts and work. The working class has only to stop doing what it
|
|
is told to do, and start doing what it collectively decides to do.
|
|
This will deprive the ruling class of all the power they ever had.
|
|
It will give the working class all the power it will ever need.
|
|
|
|
Management of industry by the workers organized to do the
|
|
job, can only be achieved with planning and organizing towards the
|
|
goal. This planning and organizing is the special job of the IWW.
|
|
If this job is not done, the opposite will happen -- regimentation
|
|
of everything by business and government and its alliance,
|
|
fascism.
|
|
|
|
Industrial Democracy is the answer to many problems. It can
|
|
keep alive democracy that cannot survive when practiced only on
|
|
election day. It can free us from poverty and fear, waste and
|
|
war. With modern production methods it can enable ordinary people
|
|
to get all the goods and services they can use, by working about
|
|
as much as they want to. It can give us security and freedom -- a
|
|
person driven by needs can never be free, and a puppet is never
|
|
secure. It can make all humanity a harmonious whole,
|
|
intelligently working for the good of all -- only when the general
|
|
run of humanity can decide what is to be produced and what is to
|
|
become of the product, can society know what it is doing.
|
|
|
|
Working class organization must serve two purposes:
|
|
|
|
1. It must provide the most efficient structure for carrying on
|
|
our daily struggle for better conditions and better pay;
|
|
|
|
2. It must provide a complete solution of the industrial problem
|
|
by making possible the efficient management of modern industry by
|
|
organized labor.
|
|
|
|
It is no coincidence that the same type of organization serves
|
|
both purposes; by organizing the way we work, so that we have the
|
|
same relations in our unions as we have in the process of
|
|
production, we are lined up for the best advantage in our everyday
|
|
struggle, and we have the necessary coordination for assuming the
|
|
responsibility of industrial production.
|
|
|
|
PRACTICAL POLICY OF THE IWW
|
|
|
|
1. Union Democracy
|
|
|
|
The purpose of the IWW is to establish democracy in our
|
|
everyday life on the job. Its practical policies are directed
|
|
towards that end. They are determined by two basic principles:
|
|
solidarity and democracy within the union.
|
|
|
|
It is necessary to avoid any policies that will interfere
|
|
with the unity of the working class, and it is necessary to make
|
|
sure that the union, instead of running its members, is run by its
|
|
members.
|
|
As safeguards against any clique running this union to suit
|
|
themselves, the following safeguards have been devised:
|
|
a) No officer is elected for more than one year.
|
|
b) No officer may be elected for more than three successive
|
|
terms.
|
|
c) All officers are elected by referendum ballot -- all members
|
|
on the job vote for Job Branch officer; all members in Job
|
|
Branches vote for officers of the Industrial Union that unites
|
|
them; and all members in the IWW vote for officers of the general
|
|
organization.
|
|
d) All officers are subject to recall by majority vote.
|
|
e) Election, not appointment, is the uniform policy.
|
|
|
|
BUSINESS METHODS
|
|
The business methods within the union are further assurance
|
|
of democracy. The power of the purse must be kept in the hands of
|
|
members, both in collection and expenditures. The IWW does not
|
|
accept the dues checkoff system, where the bosses act as bankers
|
|
for the union by taking union dues out of workers wages. Direct
|
|
collection of dues establishes contact between members and
|
|
officers.
|
|
The IWW has devised a simple system for collection of dues by
|
|
delegates on the job. This prevents dishonesty in handling of
|
|
funds, and permits shop committees to know the union standing of
|
|
every member on the job. All delegates and officers must make a
|
|
report to the Job Branch meeting, and have their accounts audited
|
|
by a committee elected at each meeting. This makes it necessary to
|
|
handle business to the satisfaction of members.
|
|
No assessment can be levied except when approved by a
|
|
referendum of those who have to pay them.
|
|
|
|
These additional safeguards prevent clique control:
|
|
a) Pay for officers cannot exceed the average pay of the workers
|
|
they represent. Monthly and annual financial statements of the
|
|
union are audited by elected committees.
|
|
b) Strikes cannot be called or called off by officers; this can
|
|
only be done by the members themselves. Settlements can only be
|
|
negotiated by committees of the workers themselves;
|
|
committee members and union officers are not allowed to confer
|
|
with employers except in the presence of the negotiating
|
|
committee. c) Political or similar cliques seeking to control or
|
|
subvert the union to their own ends are thwarted by the
|
|
nonpolitical policy adopted to ensure unity.
|
|
|
|
Politics and religion are not union questions. The union is
|
|
formed to reach and enforce
|
|
decisions about industrial questions, so that all workers can be
|
|
united regardless of religion or politics.
|
|
|
|
LEGISLATION VS. JOB ACTION
|
|
As workers and members of communities, we want chemical
|
|
plants and storage kept away from residences and environmentally
|
|
sensitive areas. One method is to try to get laws passed, and then
|
|
try to get them enforced. Much simpler and more reliable is to
|
|
simply refuse to build in unsafe places; and to refuse to work in
|
|
plants that endanger any community or the environment.
|
|
Laws are usually based on actual practice. It is best for the
|
|
union to concern ourselves with controlling the actual practice.
|
|
This makes good lawmaking easy and bad lawmaking hard to enforce.
|
|
Lawmakers pay attention to the powerful ones in society; One Big
|
|
Union makes labor all-powerful. Once labor is organized, the
|
|
lawmakers will pay attention to it; and if they don't it will not
|
|
matter, for what happens is what the working class decides to make
|
|
happen.
|
|
To unite the working class it is necessary to avoid high
|
|
union dues, closed books, racial, or sexist discrimination. In the
|
|
union we are all equal.
|
|
|
|
UNION EFFICIENCY
|
|
An aspect of those two principles, solidarity and democracy,
|
|
is effectiveness and
|
|
efficiency. Our effectiveness is measured solely by what we can
|
|
do. Our efficiency is measured by our gains compared to the cost
|
|
of those gains.
|
|
We do not win union goals just by paying dues into a
|
|
treasury. What makes the union go is the effort and enthusiasm of
|
|
its members. Direct participation in the union business makes the
|
|
IWW a force with which we can organize our own future. The union
|
|
is built like a hand, each joint of which can move separately, but
|
|
all parts of which can be clenched into a fist.
|
|
|
|
WHAT TO DO
|
|
|
|
A sane world run by producers for the common good is an aim
|
|
that should and can be achieved. There is really only one
|
|
problem in the world: a working class too disorganized to act for
|
|
the good of all. The IWW has the solution. It is up to you to be
|
|
part of the solution, not part of the problem.
|
|
If your work is unorganized, get in touch with the IWW and we
|
|
will help you and your
|
|
fellow workers to get organized. While you are organizing for
|
|
better hours, wages, conditions, safety, and more control of your
|
|
job, you are also helping to build a better world and solve the
|
|
problems of society.
|
|
Members of other unions are welcome to take their place in
|
|
the IWW. The IWW asks you to continue your IWW membership no
|
|
matter what job you go to;
|
|
to make yourself acquainted with the policies and principles so
|
|
you can be more effective as a union member; and to take every
|
|
opportunity to help the union grow and to be of service to fellow
|
|
workers everywhere.
|
|
|
|
TAKE YOUR PLACE IN THE INDUSTRIAL UNIONS -- JOIN THE IWW
|
|
TODAY
|
|
General Head Quarters 1095 Market St. #204, San Francisco CA
|
|
94103. 415/863-WOBS E-mail: iww@igc.apc.org
|
|
|