Marianne Garneau reflects on how to bring pressure against the boss
The IWW is distinct from most unions — we don’t collect dues through the employer, and we rely on “shop committees” of workers taking direct action in the workplace instead of contracts serviced by a paid external staff. Using this approach, the IWW has sometimes
MK Lees and Marianne Garneau reexamine whether it is necessary for solidarity unions to declare themselves a union to the boss. This piece originally appeared at Libcom.org. Introduction In an election-driven workplace-organizing campaign, going public is a key step. The workers or union try to
JS Richard describes the difference between activism and organizing, arguing that activism is politically ineffective and should be abandoned for an organizing approach. This is further afield than our usual workplace organizing pieces, but is relevant to debates within the IWW about what kinds of
MK Lees and Marianne Garneau describe what a solidarity union looks like in the long term, and what it can accomplish. More to the point, they argue against the popular perception that contracts are needed to lend stability to a union, or to achieve major
This piece was originally written five years ago, in response to some activity in the IWW, but never published. I learned about it a few weeks ago and was shocked by its contemporary relevance. It talks about an apparently common impulse to take the IWW