That's sounds about right. As a Wobbly, I don't think that the IWW's messages will be the only driving force behind a change in the way human beings produce and consume and organize their societies. There are a lot of factors weighing heavily on the inhabitants of our planet now. I agree with you that most people are just trying to get by now and keep what meagre bits of the pie (which they create) that they can. I do think that that view can and mostly likely will change as the environment continues to deterriorate and standards of living which could be going up continue to be cheapened like the commodities which are being produced for the marketplace.
: 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 ?
The IWW is not the "vanguard of the proletariat". We do not provide an all knowing leadership. We are convinced that the social revolution which we aim for should and can only be made by the workers acting for themselves, acting democratically, acting together as a class. We also
strive to organize around basic workplace issues which can be fulfilled today--better wages and working conditions, shorter work week at the same pay....
: 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 ?
Individual classconscious workers, like Wobblies, have ideas about how to organize a society where labor gets and/or controls the wealth they create. I personally think that production based on use and need should be a principal on which a society which has abolished the wage system is run.
Cheers!
Flora Tristan
: The TD's
None.
