Of course, we know from historical labor studies that the owners usually resorted to using police and hired thug violence to quell strikes.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
By Philip A Farruggio, Z Network<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n When the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW AKA The Wobblies) was established in 1905, their goal was to see \u2018 One Big Union \u2018 formed in the USA. The Wobblies came from the socialist Western Federation of Miners organization led by William D Haywood. Up to that point the major union organization at the time was the AFL (American Federation of Labor) which was a gaggle of many autonomous unions. Sadly, the AFL and its member unions only represented high skilled and high paid workers. They refused to encompass the majority of American working stiffs, who happened to be low paid and low or unskilled laborers. One could only imagine if the AFL would have \u2018 opened its doors \u2018 to the majority. It didn\u2019t, for many reasons, one being that it was allowed by the super rich who ran industry to \u2018 sit at their table\u2019. There was also much discrimination by the AFL towards lower classes of immigrants. They wanted to curtail immigration, even advocating a literacy test for all immigrants\u2026 and this was a labor union! <\/em> Remember, this happened over 100 years ago. Sounds familiar?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Claude Berri\u2019s 1993 blockbuster French film Germinal <\/em>was based on an Emile Zola novel concerning French coal miner strikes in the 1860s. In the film one can see what a feudal world looked like. As with John Sayles\u2019s 1987 film Matawan<\/em> ,about a 1920 coal miners\u2019 strike in West Virginia, the miners lived in company owned rental properties and shopped in company owned stores\u2026 in both instances paying high prices for what they received. As it has always been with non union workplaces (duh, like Florida\u2019s \u2018 Right to work\u2019 laws making it more difficult for union organizing) the working stiffs always got the short end of the stick. Both of these films ended with the strikers ultimately failing to get what they wanted. One scene in Germinal <\/em>captured the feudal nature of things and the mindset it established. The French miners finally organize a bit and send a small committee to meet with the mine owner (an actual replica of a \u2018 Lord of the Manor \u2018) at his majestic <\/em>home. They are ushered into his drawing room, with him seated behind his lavish desk. The small group of them then take off their caps and hats and actually bow their heads a bit, as they stood in front of him\u2026 but never too close.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What helped to instigate failure by the striking miners in both films was the appearance of those good old scabs.<\/em> In Matawan <\/em>they were poor Italian immigrants and poor unemployed Blacks sent in by train; in Germinal <\/em>they came mostly from within their own ranks. Now imagine if you would if there was a situation of having \u2018 One Big Union\u2019 in both of these cases. Imagine if all <\/em>the coal miners and all <\/em>paid labor in the entire region around the mines belonged to \u2018 One Big Union\u2019. There is no way that the owners could ever conceive of ending those strikes without first engaging in fair and open negotiations\u2026Period! Of course, we know from historical labor studies that the owners usually resorted to using police and hired thug violence to quell strikes. Even then, this writer soundly believes that the presence of \u2018 One Big Union\u2019 would dissipate such tactics. When an overwhelming number of people stand together under the banner of one common cause\u2026cooler heads by the bosses may just have to prevail. Perhaps I am too na\u00efve\u2026 perhaps not.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" MAY 3, 2023 (progressivehub.net) |IN ACTION Of course, we know from historical labor studies that the owners usually resorted to using police and hired thug violence to quell strikes. By Philip A Farruggio, Z Network When the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW AKA The Wobblies) was established in 1905, their goal was… Continue reading ![\"IWW](\"https:\/\/progressivehub.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/IWW-workers-in-parade-uai-720x405.png\")
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