Who are we?
The IWW is an international union over a century old. The first Australian branch was formed in Adelaide in 1907. The Wobblies were the genesis of many of today's major trade unions. Many current unions organize on the basis of wobbly philosophies and using wobbly methods. The IWW is thoroughly democratic – all delegates are rotated, recallable and unpaid. We only have one modestly paid official worldwide. Unlike trade unions, the wobblies are syndicalist which means that we believe in independent, truly democratic organizing. We believe that every workplace has the right to determine their own actions and should not be controlled by top-heavy bureaucratic union bosses.
What do we want to achieve?
Capitalist society is fundamentally flawed. Workers produce more wealth than they are allowed to take home in the form of wages. This profit is payed out to enrich shareholders (what will they do with their $1 billion – invest it! In 30 years they'll have $100 billion!!). Australian prosperity rests on the exploitation of poverty-stricken workers in the third world. First world workers contribute to this exploitation through buying items sold at 10 times the cost to make them. Workers the world over are exploited at work (by low wages and speed-ups) and at the supermarket (by paying too much for cheaply produced items). The IWW believe that work should be minimized, that every worker is equally valuable, and that all work should profit the community, not individuals. Instead of the conservative motto “a fair day's work for a fair day's pay”, the IWW drum beats the revolutionary cry “abolition of the wage and profit system!”.
How do we want to achieve it?
Direct Action means doing it yourself – from being your own workplace organizer, to using direct action tactics which see wages rise while profits fall! Such as the “sit down strike” - sit down and watch your pay go up! We don't go to the Industrial Relations Commission because this side tracks workers into squabbles over pay and conditions.
What about trade unions?
The trade union movement was formed 150 years ago as a reaction to capitalist industrialization. Workers were grouped into trades. Originally, people in the same trades would have worked together for small-time bosses and were able to withdraw their labour to exert real power to get better pay and working conditions. Today, workplaces are more automated, more multi-skilled with lots of different types of workers in each workplace, each represented by a different trade union. While bosses have become larger-than-life - sometimes one person or entity controlling a whole industry, workplaces are smaller, more fragmented and radical workers have become more isolated from one another. The IWW believes that every worker should belong to one union, acting in solidarity will all other workers. We do the work we should say when and how it is done. The nature of work has changed- the way we organise ourselves needs to change too.
Trade unions often play the bosses games pitting one group of workers against another in fights for wages and union fees. The trade union leaders see themselves as “partners” in business and government. But when business exploits workers and governments send workers to fight foreign wars, its easy to see that the employing class and the working class have nothing in common.
Who is welcome?
The IWW is open to all workers who don't have the power to hire and fire. If you're unemployed, or work at home the IWW recognises your contribution to our system of global exploitation– you're welcome to join us in the fight against international capital. We don't discriminate on the basis of sex, race, or earnings -ours is a democratic grassroots driven union serious about educating, agitating and organising for a world where workers own all that they produce.
