The IWW is a revolutionary organisation because it advocates the abolition of the current system of production--the wages system. This distinguishes us from garden variety leftist groups as we are not just asking for parts of the social product of our labour e.g. a better, more comprehensive medicare system which by-passes private, commodified sales of health insurance, we're organising for the eventual TOTAL return of the social product to the democratic control of its producers, the working class. We have a critiique of the the wages system which is based in the everyday life of the working class. Workers produce the wealth of the world using what if found in Nature and their own brain and muscle. Why is it that they have to struggle to keep their heads above water? It's the wages system. Why is it that they have virtually no political power? They're unorganised as a class. Being organised as a class would give workers the power to control the wealth they create. As long as capitalists and landlords control the lion's share of the wealth workers produce, workers insterests will take a backseat to the interests of their rulers.
The left has increasingly become marginalized because of its lack of theory and its embrace of mindless, liberal reformism. The fellow worker being memorialized in this piece saw it.
Happiest of May Day's to all the workers of the world.
