Wobblies!
Taught by R.H. Lossin
R.H. Lossin is a writer, former librarian and PhD candidate in Communications at Columbia University. Her interests include, Luddites, industrial sabotage, and the reconfiguration of work and leisure in a networked society. Her work has appeared in The Nation and The Huffingtion Post. She is a regular contributor to The Brooklyn Rail.
More and more “good jobs” are becoming part-time, freelance, or otherwise precarious; jobs we thought only humans could do are being automated out of existence; the federal minimum wage continues to lag behind inflation; and while employees in certain sectors are waging valiant battles to unionize, fewer and fewer jobs are protected by organized labor. So what is to be done?
The Industrial Workers of the World had an answer to this question. Founded in 1905, they sought to organize all workers--including those whose employment was irregular, menial and ineligible for traditional union membership--under “one big union.” They were the only union that actively worked to recruit women, African Americans and immigrants. And, according to Mike Davis, Wobblies were "virtually unique in their advocacy for a concrete plan for workers' control."
The I.W.W. was radical, theatrical, and violently repressed. Most importantly though, it existed, and its very historical occurrence offers us a set of possibilities that are not conventionally visible. Come learn about this fascinating, hopeful and sometimes tragic moment in labor history.
Lecture to be followed by Q&A.
