Best and worst IWW reads

Submitted by syndicalist on August 2, 2019

Just curious what, if any, are folks best & worst IWW writings.

Links, of course, welcomed.

R Totale

4 years 7 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by R Totale on August 4, 2019

Contemporary: Recomposition would be the big one for me, I really value the effort they put into putting out stuff that shows what "the big ideas" look like at the level of "the little picture"*. Organizing Work too, to some extent. New Syndicalist never really did it for me as much.
I guess the "direct unionism" debate was pretty important, at least for a while?

Classic: I guess Joe Hill's and Ralph Chaplin's songs, and the preamble, if they count?

In-between: I quite like the 60s Rebel Worker, haven't actually read Rosemont's biography of Joe Hill but I hear that's very good.

*just went to have a look and saw the actual Recomp site is down, how quickly these things go.

Owentiffie

4 years 2 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Owentiffie on January 28, 2020

Great recommendations. Might as well take note of them.

Fozzie

4 years 2 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Fozzie on January 29, 2020

I'm reading the Rosemont (Joe Hill: The IWW & the Making of a Revolutionary Workingclass Counterculture) at the moment and it is ace.

Red Marriott

4 years 1 month ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Red Marriott on January 29, 2020

https://libcom.org/library/memoirs-wobbly-mcguckin-iww

R Totale

4 years 1 month ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by R Totale on February 1, 2020

Has anyone read either of the Peter Cole books, Wobblies on the Waterfront or Wobblies of the World?

syndicalist

4 years 1 month ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by syndicalist on February 2, 2020

I have a book on Ben Fletcher that I think Cole edited
Haven’t really read it

The book that I most want to read is “From Syndicalism to Trade Unionism”.
Long out of print. About IWW IU 440 Cleveland

Hieronymous

4 years 1 month ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Hieronymous on February 10, 2020

R Totale

Has anyone read either of the Peter Cole books, Wobblies on the Waterfront or Wobblies of the World?

Yes, both — and which I’d highly recommend. And I’d also suggest his Dockworker Power: Race and Activism in Durban and the San Francisco Bay Area. Not explicitly Wobbly, but it does trace the ILWU’s roots in IWW ideals, like industrial organizing, and the former Wobs who were among the founders of the union. The proof is in the pudding: dock work at all 29 ports on the U.S. West Coast is organized solely by the ILWU. Even their motto is “An injury to one is an injury to all.”