The History of the Workers' Unemployment Insurance Bill
Submitted by Marx-lover on Aug 23 2018 00:25
In this article I tell the story of the Workers’ Unemployment Insurance Bill, both to fill a gap in our historical knowledge and because it resonates in our own time of troubles and struggles.
“We must do away with racial prejudice and imaginary boundary lines”: British Columbia wobblies before the First World War – Mark Leier
Submitted by RobynK on Aug 11 2018 22:31
Labour historian Mark Leier’s chapter from Wobblies of the World: A Global History of the IWW, in which he examines the transnationalism of the IWW, particularly across the US-Canadian border.
Connollism – Solidarity
A review in Solidarity for Workers' Power vol. 7, no. 11 of James Connolly: Selected Writings edited by P. Berresford Ellis and published by Pelican Books in 1973.
Monopoly capitalism and the rise of syndicalism – Mark Leier
Submitted by RobynK on Jan 27 2018 03:42
A portion of the first chapter of labour historian Mark Leier’s 1990 book Where the Fraser River Flows: The Industrial Workers of the World in British Columbia, which may serve as an introduction to the IWW’s syndicalist ideas and practices, as well as what conditions brought about the revolutionary union in the first place.
(Note: Besides the final paragraph, ~3,200 of the last words were left out for the sake of being concise. What was left out went further in depth about how "the essence of the new system of production was [...] in increasing the division of labour and in reducing the initiative of the workers over the work process," showing how some tried to achieve this.)
Anarchist social organization
Submitted by s.nappalos on Dec 10 2017 17:21
A piece discussing debates over the role of political ideas within social movements, and the debate within anarchism over political organization applied to the current context of North American anarchism.
Do solidarity unions need to ‘go public’?
Marianne Garneau and MK Lees reexamine the value of the "Going Public" step in solidarity union organizing drives.
Eleven blind leaders or "practical socialism" and "revolutionary tactics" from an I.W.W.standpoint – B.H. Williams
This is a pamphlet from the IWW Publishing Bureau in 1910 about intellectual Socialist Party leaders with their "practical socialism" advocating co-operatives, government ownership, and reformism, and the revolutionary tactics of the IWW. It argues that the working class must organise industrially to bring about revolution rather than expect a revolution to come about through the capitalist state.
