P-CRAC's Worker & Parasite # 2 - Revolutionary Does Not Mean Fringe

Worker & Parasite # 2
Revolutionary Does Not Mean Fringe:
The Modern IWW "Revolutionizes" Syndicalism
Worker & Parasite is the weekly Editorial of P-CRAC's News and Information Blog.




Greetings Comrade-Enemies,

Let's be clear... The IWW is Fringe Unionism. No. We're wrong. The IWW is not Unionism, fringe or otherwise. Lets all be honest... just for once here in McAnarchy World. Can we? Seriously…

The IWW does not actually exist as a Union. It exists as a tiny leftist propaganda group and labor support network. There are less than 2000 people in the whole "Union" and most of them are either crazy old lunatic labor historians masturbating to Big Bill Heywood pictures in the dark or hippy-punk lefty Anarchists that have a friend that has a friend that once read the first four pages of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn's Sabotage pamphlet and are busily organizing themselves and their siblings against the oppression of having to do chores at home.

The IWW is not a Revolutionary Union.
The IWW is not a Radical Union.
The IWW is not a Mainstream Union.
The IWW is not a Fucking Union.

The IWW is a reactionary and counter-revolutionary organization, as are all Syndicalist and Anarcho-Syndicalist "Unions."

Syndicalism has two possible outcomes:

One is that the Union in question will remain true to its ideological underpinnings of Revolutionary Unionism. This forces a reality that it cannot grow seriously as a base membership requirement must be to believe in the union's ideology. People's social understanding and consciousness’ change while in struggle not before engaging in struggle. This deliberate ideological isolation forces Syndicalist unions that are honest and true to themselves to remain a tiny force of agitation within a larger labor movement which can be a good thing, but isn't even Unionism, never mind not being Revolutionary Unionism;

The other option is that a Syndicalist Union can choose to forget about its ideological underpinnings. When that happens, the Union actually becomes successful. It organizes lots of people. Takes on the boss. Builds to a force in society. However, that’s done by increasing in size without requiring that members of the Union actually believe in the Union's ideas and mission. So as the Union grows and becomes successful there becomes an internal division. The majority of the membership doesn't give a shit about Revolutionary Unionism and a small inner core does. This creates hierarchy and conflict with democracy while simultaneously removing the practical application of revolutionary ideology to the Union's decision making. This is Unionism, but it isn't Revolutionary Unionism.

So the only two possible outcomes of Syndicalism are:

1. Remain a Marginal Fringe “Union” That’s Completely Useless.
2. Become a Mainstream Union and Pretend You Aren't.

However, having said that, we at P-CRAC have been modifying our analysis slightly. We now believe that there is a third possible outcome of Syndicalism in practice as exemplified by the modern IWW. The IWW is actually becoming the worst of both of those two scenarios.

Congrats Fellow Workers! You've done something new in the history of Syndicalist organization. The IWW sucks more effectively than anyone has sucked before.

With this new theoretical understanding of the eventualities of Syndicalist Organization, we now have three possible outcomes for the Syndicalist "Union:"

1. Remain a Marginal Fringe “Union” That’s Completely Useless.
2. Become a Mainstream Union and Pretend You Aren't.
3. Become a Marginal Fringe Mainstream Para-Union That's Useless and Pretends it Isn't.

So the IWW is an organization of innovation. They remind me of that famed American artist Walt Disney who once said, “I believe in being an innovator.” Which holds a beautiful symmetry if you think about it for a second.

The IWW and Walt Disney were/are both committed to innovation and both believe(d) in innovating by creating cartoons, one of them on the page and one in the world.

Go Fellow Workers! Go!