May we suggest a compromise ? How about pink ? It's a nice colour.But seriously - all we want to know is how the IWW is going to change the attitudes of the masses. Sure, there are many who recognise the hopelessness of their situation, and want to improve it, but there are also many many more who simply can't be bothered, or are too nervous about the effect of the massive upheaval that "abolishing the wage system" will bring. For the IWW to achieve it's aims it will have to prod a hell of a lot of people into action. Attracting the young, who don't have many resposibilities, is easy because they don't have a lot to lose, but people who have worked hard for a long time, have families and mortgages, have a lot riding on their ability to go out and work and earn a wage. These people are going to be very reluctant to step into the unknown and radically change their lifestyles. They are risking a lot more than say, a teenager working in a fast food restaurant, who will probably jump in with both feet, because it isn't going to make their situation any worse if things don't work out. Life, on the whole, isn't fair, and most people just try to make the best of their situation. This usually means looking out for themselves. The IWW ideals are fine in principle, we just don't believe they can change enough attitudes to make a difference. They tell us they have had some successes in isolated areas, but this does not mean there has been a significant change globally. If they set more realistic goals, and had, say, a timescale by which they wanted to achieve x and y, and monitored their progress in a way that would convince people they were instigating change, maybe their support would be more widespread. At the moment, the IWW seems to bark out it's theories, what it think's is right and wrong, what action has been taking place where.. There's not enough detailed analysis, taking into account the contemporary industrial and economic situations in different parts of the world, of how they expect it to happen. We know where they want us to be, how are we supposed to get there ? Noone has yet come up with an alternative to the wage system. Now when there's no basic plan of what to replace it with, how do they expect people accept their alternatives ?
Have a nice day !
The TD's
