The Industrial Workers of the World: A West Coast Perspective

James Pruitt

he Industrial Workers of put it, “to do away with capitalism.”1 the World (IWW) appeared Despite their failure on that front, the or- in American history slightly ganization still warrants a look by those Tmore than 100 years ago. In in the labor-relations mainstream. that era, the American Federation of La- bor (AFL) produced one historical fgure, West Coast Presence Samuel Gompers. The IWW contributed By 1908, a faction of the IWW from Port- several. Its founding convention in 1905 land, Oregon, took control of the nation- included Bill Haywood, Lucy Parsons, al organization. The Portland “overalls Mother Jones, Eugene Debs, and Daniel brigade” defeated an opposing camp lead De Leon. Joe Hill is a celebrated martyr. by Daniel De Leon, a New York-based Clarence Darrow defended Haywood at socialist lawyer. The conflict was, philo- a murder trial. sophically, between political action and The Wobblies, as they were known, direct action. Looked at more emotional- reacted to the craft unionism of the day, ly, it was between the intellectual DeLeon which they regarded as a primary obsta- and those whom he called “slummists” cle to radical change. They or “bummery.” After the called for “One Big Union.” The laws were slummists won, a union The IWW’s advocacy for newspaper referred to the unskilled workers recalled stacked against IWW as a collection of “ev- the Knights of Labor of an them. ery freak and bug” in the earlier generation, and their labor movement.2 Although style of “direct action” evoked, for some, it remained a national organization, the the sprit of the American frontier. They IWW had its greatest presence in the Pa- operated in the same environment that cifc Northwest and the far west. had spawned the Knights: the laws were The IWW advocated low initiation stacked against them; the courts enjoined fees, inexpensive dues, and interchange- their actions; and troops suppressed their able union cards. It opposed contracts strikes. with employers. The new faction be- The Wobblies sought to organize along lieved politics corrupted radical commit- the lines of industry. They developed ment. This anarchism was abetted by the thirteen industrial “departments,” often homelessness and lack of roots of many in extractive industries such as lumber, workers. IWW halls became mailrooms, mining, and fsheries. Their long-term social clubs, reading rooms, and places goal was, as their founding document to sleep.

42 W I N t e r 2 0 0 7 The IWW had songs and a zest for pub- a form of compromise with the “mas- It often operates among small employers licity. It rallied its membership, outraged ter class” hindered development. Strikes with young workers. Starbucks coffee conservative interests, engaged liberals, were essentially agitation and harass- shops are a prime target. Other employ- and initiated minor reform. Wobblies ment. Historians associate ers include theaters, food led free-speech demonstra- the downward cooperatives, and natural Suspicion tions in the pre–World War The Wobblies path of the foods retailers.3 I era in Spokane, San Di- IWW with toward collective Sometimes the IWW engaged in street ego, and Fresno. They orga- the execution bargaining hindered operates with a labor agree- nized agricultural workers theater. of Joe Hill, ment, but it frequently re- in Wheatland, California. the rise of the development. lies only on direct action; In Portland, the union convened street American Communist Party both approaches seem ac- demonstrations, annoyed Spanish-Amer- (which absorbed radical energies), gov- ceptable to the members. It links its web ican War veterans by using the war ernment repression after World War I, page to articles and news from other monument as a platform for speeches, the exile of Bill Haywood to the Soviet radical groups. Not surprisingly, it offers and schemed to get free food by order- Union, and—most important—the lack criticism of the AFL-CIO and Change-to- ing restaurant meals and refusing to of an institutional base. Win, and gives advice to union members pay. It utilized street theater mixed with on their rights with respect to their own class warfare extremism, and sponsored The IWW Today unions. marches by an “army” of about 125 un- The IWW currently has about 1,500 Today’s Wobblies turn to the law employed workers. members in the United States. Its dues in ways that would be foreign to the The IWW left an imprint on the la- are approximately six dollars per month. group’s founders. In New York, for ex- bor movement and society. Early IWW ample, members recently fled a federal campaigns initiated long-lasting repre- complaint of religious discrimination on sentation for dockworkers and other behalf of a female employee who is a employees. These campaigns also practicing Wiccan. In other cities, the served as training grounds for IWW has sought government-su- organizers who later worked pervised recognition elections for the Congress of In- through the NLRB. dustrial Organizations (CIO). IWW efforts to Wobblies in Portland organize agricultural IWW activity in Portland workers inspired the paints a microcosm of United Farm Work- the modern IWW. The ers two generations 100–year anti-institu- later. Its free-speech tional illness remains fghts were to the uncured.4 pre–World War I Since 2000, the era what sit-down IWW in Portland has strikes were to the attempted to organize 1930s and what civil social service agencies rights sit-ins were to and other nonprofts, a the 1960s. few coffee shops, a bi- Of course, the union cycle messenger service, failed to bring revolu- and some natural food tion. The western Wobblies stores. In some instances, did not comprehend that in- labor agreements were reached dustrial unionism required the with the help of the NLRB; in same day-to-day, member-service others, direct action was used to activity that the AFL provided. Their force bad publicity or to otherwise pres- suspicion that collective bargaining was sure the employer. Workers attracted to

P e r s P E C t i v e s O N W o r k 43 the IWW are typically young, well edu- land runaway shelter acknowledges that 3. J. Bekken, “The Industrial Workers of the World at 100,” Perspectives on cated, and low paid. Some have turned to bargaining contracts is not the IWW’s Work (Winter 2007), forthcoming. See the IWW after other organizations—such strong suit. She laments that without also K. Maher and J. Adamy, “Do Hot as the American Federation of State, some type of institutionalization the Coffee and ‘Wobblies’ Go Together?” County, and Municipal Employees (AF- IWW will not grow in the area. She also The Wall Street Journal, March 21, 2006; available online at http://www. SCME) and the Service Em- criticizes the organization iww.org/gu/node/2239. ployees International Union for not being politically ac- Workers attracted 4. To prepare this article, the author talk- (SEIU)—declined to orga- tive on a broad array of ed with a number of IWW workers and nize their workplace. to the IWW are social issues. their employers in the Portland area. Instead of major wage typically young, Today, sectarianism gains, IWW negotiations in and the lack of an institu- Portland have often focused educated, and low tional base seem to be IWW on “worker control.” This paid. disabilities as great as they traditional IWW emphasis were 100 years ago. Despite meshes with the independent-minded Americans’ widespread dissatisfaction outlook of the workers it represents. with mainstream labor organizations, Such bargaining, however, has rarely Wobblies continue to fnd it exceedingly been successful. diffcult to directly affect the growth of In 2006, perhaps the primary IWW the union movement. bargaining relationship in Portland is at As in the past, however, segments of a social service agency serving runaway the labor movement may build on the les- youth. The program delivers twenty- sons and “direct action” doctrine of the James Pruitt four-hour crisis intervention services IWW. The SEIU, for example—with its James Pruitt is director of labor relations at Kaiser and an emergency shelter. attention to low-paid home Permanente Northwest. He lives in Portland, Oregon. The labor agreement cov- care workers and its focus ers seventeen employees, The IWW often on industry-based bargain- mostly the overnight coun- brings its entire ing—recalls both IWW’s selors and offce staff. Fam- bargaining unit concern for the working ily counselors, ruled by the poor and its “departments” NLRB to be a separate unit, to the negotiating from 1905. Moreover, some voted against IWW repre- table. IWW activists might apply sentation. The labor agree- their union training to fu- ment provides for an open shop, and ture campaigns on behalf of immigrant only one of the seventeen members of the rights or in opposition to free-trade bargaining unit is actually a member of agreements. As major U.S. labor organi- the IWW. zations search for new ways to address IWW bargaining and contract en- the concerns of American workers, there forcement are often chaotic. In one agen- is still much to learn from the accom- cy, two bargaining units certifed by the plishments and failures that together NLRB did not coordinate their efforts. make up the 100–year history of the Another agency shut down during ne- IWW. gotiations due to a lack of funds. The IWW often brings its entire bargaining NOTES unit to the negotiating table. Bargaining 1. Preamble to the IWW constitution, has taken as long as two years for a tiny http://www.iww.org/culture/official/ unit. Agreements provide for arbitration, preamble.shtml. but the union often lacks money to cover 2. See N. Lichtenstein, The Most Danger- its half of the arbitrator’s fee. ous Man in Detroit: Walter Ruther and the Fate of American Labor (New The IWW’s sole member at the Port- York: Basic Books, 1995), 6.

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