The Industrial Workers of the World is an international labor union that has existed for over a century. It was founded in Chicago in 1905 by a convention of 200 socialists, anarchists, and Marxists. The IWW was founded to oppose the American Federation of Labor, which it saw as excessively pro-capitalist and supportive of the discrimination between skilled and unskilled laborers. The IWW's motto is "An injury to one is an injury to all," which is credited to David C. Coates.
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The black cat symbol was created by
Ralph Chaplin to symbolize sabotage |
The Industrial Workers of the World promotes industrial unionism, which includes unskilled workers, instead of just trade unionism which is exclusive to skilled workers. The IWW pushed for social justice. They were the one union in America that accepted African-Americans, women, immigrants, and Asians.
There were over 900 unions and over 10,000 Industrial Workers of the World members that were assembled in the first few decades of the IWW's founding. Today, there are about 7,500 members of the Industrial Workers of the World.
4 comments:
Even though the IWW are anarchists who opposed the society, they included minorities that were excluded from the AFL. How did the society react to their idea?
It's interesting how even though the goal of this organization was to help people and be a team of workers that looked out for each other, other people and organizations still opposed it. It raises the question of what negatives there might have been to the IWW that people weren't aware of. They raised awareness for workers that were unfairly treated and for workers in minority groups, but it seems like not that many people wanted to be part of it. Maybe people didn't want to be viewed differently by others or receive hate from others, and that's why they were hesitant to join.
What happened when they pushed through the social justice ??
What kinds of work are they doing in the present day? How do their actions impact the industrial and trade unionism around the world and how are they changing things for the better?
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