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I really consider this article essential reading for anyone who is or wants to organize

Big Strikes and the sabotage of the labor movement

https://organizing.work/2020/11/big-strikes-and-the-sabotage-of-the-labor-movement/

Marianne Garneau challenges the current focus on bringing back large strikes, arguing that the wellspring of labor militancy historically has been worker-led action on the shopfloor.

This takes a look at the history of labor militancy on scales smaller than strikes, and advocates for guerilla labor actions as a solid foundation for larger actions like strike.

It's a really good look at practical examples from history of how to make gains at work even when you are between contracts or maybe even don't have a union.

4 comments

Maoo

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Good stuff!

A related issue is the idea of organized labor being the fight for legal union recognition. Lots of folks pour all of their energy into that fight and don't realize that they can do the walkouts (etc) and make gains without and before having a legal union. And, as the article notes, they can actually do even more, as they are not yet bound by any contract terms that favor the employer. It is actually very helpful to do this on the way to a legal union, as it builds confidence and a set of wins rather than the fairly common thing of 1-2 years of management stalling on the first contract or fucking around on challenging the union in bad faith. Nothing like a work stoppage, bad PR, and community support to bring them back to the table. And maybe the boss's Ferrari mysteriously gets scratched up who knows how that happened it must've been the wind.

Nagarjuna

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IMO, this is why the IWW has victories at notoriously un-organizable shops like Starbucks, Target, Whole Foods, and Fast Food. It's the approach of showing what a union is before making it legally official, and prioritizing direct action over a legal contract.

SEIU took a lot of notes from the Burgerville campaign (and in fact, some of the IWW external organizers were also SEIU staff) when they started their Starbucks drive, and it's one of the most successful drives into fast food in recent history.

I would really love to see what would happen if an org like the Portland IWW had the dues base and ambition of a union like SEIU. Unfortunately, we're pathologically afraid of closed shops and staff organizers so that will never happen.

Maoo

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Yeah Portland IWW is very cool. I'm a bit skeptical towards SEIU since they really half-assed it until just the last few months. I know for a fact that they didn't train many of their few staff organizers for SBWU, for example. Those organizers were really flailing. In many ways SB workers succeeded despite SEIU's contribution and more due to groups like IWW and other left labor groups - plus SB workers being very cool themselves. I've also seen a few groups that were essential to organizing SB shops in different cities suddenly left out of the loop since SEIU decided it actually wanted to take a hands-on approach as well. Part of that's on those groups as well but it's still questionable.

SBWU is basically perfect for radicalization and militant labor. It could actually do even more than the great job it's already doing if lefty labor groups were a bit more coherent and on top of things.

Clippy

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bump