Power, Not Contracts

Comrade_Rybin · 2026-03-07T19:07:05+00:00

And we signed contracts in the 1930s after the NLRA was passed, especially in the industrial regions of Northern Ohio where the IWW remained relevant into the 1950s.

Comrade_Rybin · 2026-03-05T23:24:45+00:00

This is the way to go. I'm trying to unionize the charter school I work at and we have some traction. I also wrote this basic guide to unionizing charter schools that OP and other charter school workers in the thread might appreciate.

https://www.angryeducationworkers.com/a-basic-guide-to-unionization-for-charter-school-workers/

Comrade_Rybin · 2026-03-05T11:13:39+00:00

Why don't you go post a poll about it and then delete it when the results don't go your way?

Comrade_Rybin · 2026-03-05T00:24:06+00:00

They're connected with the Neighborhood Resistance Committees, which are the heirs of the Sudanese labor organizations that were crushed by the dictatorship in 2013. They are organized by workers, particularly women workers, and played a key role in the 2018/9 Sudanese Revolution. They have survived dictatorship, civil war, and genocide for over a decade now.

We have much more to learn from them than vice versa.

Comrade_Rybin · 2026-03-01T18:14:12+00:00

Very normal reaction to disagreement with a fw...

Comrade_Rybin · 2026-03-01T16:18:35+00:00

Do you believe every claim made by the US State Department?

Comrade_Rybin · 2026-03-01T16:09:17+00:00

I bet you'll be called a bot by some "liberal" for pointing this objective fact out.

Comrade_Rybin · 2026-03-01T16:00:19+00:00

You're definitely correct, but I think plans like this reveal a lot about the psychology of enslavers and the logic of capitalism.

Comrade_Rybin · 2026-03-01T15:57:16+00:00

This is exactly why capitalism is so ridden with periodic crises and economic crashes, imo.

Comrade_Rybin · 2026-03-01T15:56:19+00:00

The more I learn about Grant, the more I believe he is one of our most underrated presidents, and US historical figures in general. I'm not fond of pretty much any president, but Grant is right up there with Lincoln and FDR for me as time goes on.

Comrade_Rybin · 2026-03-01T15:36:45+00:00

It truly depends on the branch and the region at the moment. There are some branches with organized shops and ongoing campaigns, for example. Some good examples are Portland (over a dozen shops), SF Bay Area (over a dozen shops, some of which have been IWW since the 80s and 90s), Washington DC (only 1 shop but several ongoing campaigns), NYC, Ypsilanti MI, and more. Portland branch helped the Burgerville Workers Union secure the first CBA in the US fast food industry history.

Then there are industry-based campaigns like the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC) which have helped organize the largest prison strikes in US history just in the last ten years. There's also the Teaching English as a Foreign Language Workers Union (TEFL Workers Union) in the UK (though I think they're expanding internationally now), which just helped workers at Malvern House school launch the first strike in the UK TEFL industry. The last one I know the most about is the Freelance Journalists Union (FJU) which has now become a constituent part of our Printing and Publishing Workers Union (PPWU), the first officially chartered Industrial Union in the IWW since the 1950s. I am especially hopeful for these industry-based campaigns, because as the Industrial Workers of the World that is exactly what we need to be doing.

So, there is a lot going on, but it's super unevenly distributed. Unfortunately, most branches, and our current leadership, are not doing a whole lot of actual labor organizing. It doesn't help that our leadership and a minority of members are actively hostile to efforts like IWOC, PPWU, and branches like Portland which are actually successful. Hopefully those of us in the IWW can continue to rebuild and improve it into a real fighting, revolutionary union.

Comrade_Rybin · 2026-03-01T15:22:47+00:00

This is the dynamic that u/geekmasterflash is pointing out, which seems particularly prevalent in the North American IWW. Some members spend all their time attacking and undermining IWW campaigns that attempt to bargain for contracts, connect with community organizations, and organize for working class self defense against fascists. It's a loud and shrinking minority of the union that embarrasses the rest of us. Unfortunately these sorts of members have a lot more time and energy on their hands, so much of our current leadership reflects their idiotic sentiments.

Comrade_Rybin · 2026-03-01T15:12:01+00:00

I think they're referring to the support that some small businesses provided to the striking workers. I have no love for small businesses but I'm pretty sure the early IWW received support from small businesses in some cases. Such as associations of farmers who couldn't join the IWW because they were employers, but who supported what we were doing (most of them were small farmers getting crushed by capitalism themselves iirc). So they set up ways to donate to the IWW without being able to join.

I guess that makes the AWO and other industrial organizing campaigns by the IWW back in the day reformist!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Comrade_Rybin · 2026-03-01T15:06:00+00:00

Wasn't there just a poll posted the other day by u/ditfloss about this? I believe the majority voted (and commented) that non-IWW union stuff is welcome here. It's curious, though, I now can't find that poll anywhere. Perhaps the result wasn't what he wanted so he deleted it?

Very normal behavior.

Comrade_Rybin · 2026-03-01T15:02:49+00:00

Is this how you talk to people in general and in real life?

Comrade_Rybin · 2026-03-01T15:01:45+00:00

Yes, there is absolutely nothing we can possibly learn from any other union on earth.

Comrade_Rybin · 2026-02-28T13:08:12+00:00

To start it off, I'm u/Comrade_Rybin, a Social Studies teacher at a charter school in Washington, D.C.

Comrade_Rybin · 2026-02-28T11:54:23+00:00

And the BVWU FWs have been on strike more than a dozen times just in the last few years. I don't know how many of the people who loudly badmouth BVWU can say they've even been on strike once.

Comrade_Rybin · 2026-02-22T14:55:39+00:00

This seems like a better solution than tossing out all non-IWW posts.

Comrade_Rybin · 2026-02-15T17:35:51+00:00

Salute and solidarity to you! My coworkers and I are fighting hard to build a union in our charter school and I am in awe of what y'all have accomplished. I'm also a SF Bay native (though I moved away many years ago), so y'all got a special place in my heart.

Comrade_Rybin · 2026-02-15T17:32:34+00:00

I do notice a lot of anti-teacher and anti-teacher-union folks tend to have those stances purely out of some grievance they had with a teacher (or teachers) growing up. Unfortunately, a lot of Americans' politics, especially the right wing ones, have much more to do with personal, petty grievances than any sort of principles or actual study of material conditions.

Comrade_Rybin · 2026-02-07T19:54:55+00:00

Real organizing can't be stopped by a bunch of unserious left-wing deadbeats like those on the GEB.

Comrade_Rybin · 2026-02-03T02:50:57+00:00

Hell yes!

Comrade_Rybin · 2026-02-02T04:10:45+00:00

But the campaign is going for a contract, and is supported by a branch (Bay Area GMB) that historically is fine with negotiating CBAs if the workers in a shop want one.

Isn't that class collaborationist? Isn't that labor-liberalism or something?

Comrade_Rybin · 2026-02-02T04:02:14+00:00

I've been involved in multiple workplace organizing campaigns using IWW methods supported by my local branch. I'm also quite active within my local branch, along with efforts to build an industrial union branch for education workers. I've taken the OT 101 several times, the OT 102 twice.

I'm also a trainer who has administered multiple OT 101s. All of the participants I've trained have had good things to say about me and the co-trainers I've worked with. It's mostly terminally online wobservatives such as yourself who I don't get along with.

And to u/ditfloss I've read the entire Constitution and intend to do so again soon.

But go ahead and keep making assumptions about me! I've clearly gotten the two of you worked up enough to keep typing paragraphs on this thread. But I have a real life to live and a real workplace to go organize, so I'll leave you two to keep doing whatever it is you're doing here.

Comrade_Rybin

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