IWW Anarchists

Rapid response unit in full effect.

Dude. While it may not be a good thing for your organization for me to say it, but any wob with sense would just quit and join the WSA. As for me backing off... its a public msg board. Ask to have me banned or something.

I like them, but wait a minute, aren't a lot of wobblies not from the US?!

Seriously.

Go for it. Who is stopping you?

The question was directed towards anarchists who are also syndicalists. There are organizations that exist that reflect those values and political ideals.

I didn't think it was personal. Seriously though why not? In spite of the problems I'm rather fond of the organization I'm in. It's no problem if you don't want to be in it, so why not start your own?

alarmingly poor health and the attendant sense of futility.

dont know what the WSA is about.

Duke it's funny that you of all people are advocating that the thing to do is pick the smaller organization with a better vision.

Mitch, I don't try to promote anarchism in the IWW. That's not a priority for me. I do try to put forward what I think are the best ideas and stuff. I dunno. I don't think the IWW needs any more promotion of political ideology inside it right now, personally, I think it needs other stuff way more. I also think the very last thing the IWW needs is to be less "workplace-centric" or worry about having "a more thorough philosophy." I think in general anarchists in the US could stand to be way, way more workplace focused. (Or over all just way, way less useless.)

That sucks. Someday someone's gonna write the definitive Incompetent Wobbly anthology, which will save a lot of time on internet forums.

Er, on a more constructive note...

I don't think it is especially worthwhile for anarchists to "promote anarchism" within the IWW. I think its probably alot more productive for anarchists to work on trying to be good organizers and agitators and build influence for anarchism through their activity. That said, I don't view the IWW as especially precious in the world of labor organizations, and would encourage anarchists to view it essentially like any other union (albeit a much smaller, and less effective union) and orient their relationship to it accordingly. That's just me though...

Absolutely fucking pointless. Ya know, I always thought it was the right that just tried to disprove an entire organization or ideology anecdotally, clearly this one cuts both ways. And you're right, your last post was far more constructive.

Agreed. Entirely. As usual.

To respond to the initial post, I'm not sure it's about promoting anarchism, but promoting libertarian structures inside the union. Personally, I see the IWW as a sort of clearing house of worker ideologies, given that the workers who join support the goals and methods of the union. Put another way, workers should free to engage in political work outside the union (from social democracy to direct action against the state), but the union itself should be free of outside politics and should be run through horizontal direct democracy and should empower workers at the point of through direct action--both of which, might I add, embody the anarchist tradition.

Syndicalist, I'm curious about your post. It appears in your profile you identify as an anarcho-syndicalist, but the way you phrased your question, you apparently separate the two in practice? I would argue you can't have one without the other.