Inside the Current Issue

100 Years of Wobblies at the GC

Spencer Sunshine

In tandem with the current exhibit in the hallway outside of 365 Café, on September 13th the GC hosted a celebration of both the 100th anniversary of the radical labor union, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), and the release of the book Wobblies! A Graphic History of the IWW. The book's editors, Paul Buhle and Nicole Schulman, were on hand, in addition to several of the contributing artists and Daniel Gross, an organizer with IWW's Starbucks Workers Union.

The IWW was founded in 1905 as a new kind of labor union. Influenced by European syndicalism, it organized all workers regardless of industry, job or identity. At that time other unions such as the AFL would only organize specific job categories or individual industries, and often refused membership to people of color or women. The Wobblies (the nickname given to IWW members) refused alliances with political parties and relied on strategies of direct action, such a sabotage and strikes. They advocated abolishing capitalism by organizing the workers into "one big union," which would then take over industries and run them themselves (instead of having them administered by a centralized state).

Buhle quipped that on his speaking tour, people tended to either be over 55 or under 30, and the crowd at the GC proved to be no exception. Although the Wobblies are more closely associated with left-wing anarchism than Marxist socialism, the crowd in general was scarcely distinguishable from the usual grey-haired Communist crowd that is so ubiquitous in this city.

One of the exceptions to this rule was Daniel Gross, who spoke about the current campaign by the IWW to organize Starbucks workers, especially in New York City. After giving the update on the current situation of the union, he proclaimed "We look forward to the day when the partners at Starbucks, associates at Wal-Mart, and team members at Kinkos all march together under Wobblie banner reading ´for the abolition of wage slavery.'" (One wonders what the small business owners driven out of business by Starbucks and Wal-mart would think of this proposal.) He received a rousing ovation.

Artists Sabrina Jones, Peter Kuper and Seth Tobocman all showed slides of their work from the book. John Pietaro and Laurie Towers played renditions of old Wobblie songs, which were clearly geared toward the over 55 crowd, especially in juxtaposition to an artist like Tobocman, a famous figure in the punk countercultural scene.

The IWW exhibit will remain up in the 1st floor hallway until September 30th.