At a time when Black Americans were under attack from
Jim Crow laws, lynch mobs, boss racism, exclusion from the
American Federation of Labor, and other forms of institutionalized
racism, the "Industrial Workers of the World" welcomed all working people into the union as equals.
Incidentally laborers such as Ben Fletcher, that fell outside of the
AFL's preference for skilled white anglo saxon males, were able
to join forces in the "One Big Union". Through the recognition
of the bosses dependence on workers for profits, and the IWW's
willingness to withdraw their labor and efficiency in political battle, the "Wobblies"
demanded and won a better standard of living, and respect in the
democratic spaces they created on the job.
Fletcher was born in Philadelphia in April of 1890. Little is known
about his life until his affiliation with the IWW in 1913. Thereupon
he made a name for himself among blacks and whites working on the docks of the East Coast as a successful union organizer.
By 1916 all but two of Philadelphia's docks
were under IWW control. By 1917 dock workers had won their demand for .65 cents/hr
against the bosses prefernce of .25cents. And in non-IWW ships along the East Coast maritime
employers could face a strike if the meals provided did not live up to
the IWW standard.
Improving race relations was recognized as a top priority by Fletcher
and other union members. With a disunited workforce, organizers reasoned
that working class solidarity would be impossible. Consequently
employers could get away with more. To prevent their bosses
from taking advantage of divide and rule tactics, IWW dockworkers
sponsored anti-racist forums to educate members. Additionally
IWW picnics were held for workers and their
families to socialize with the intention of building comradery.
Unfortunately this was also a highpoint of working class
solidarity on the docks. Industries drive to enter
into WW1 and their campaign to create a national
mood for class collaboration, xenophobic scapegoating, and the repeal of civil rights
was a success on their part. In early September the newly created FBI
vandalized IWW offices across the country, stealing membership records
on the false pretext that the union was on the side of the Axis
nations and was plotting to render America weaker. Later that
same month Fletcher was arrested for "conspiring to strike" -an act
labeled by the boss press as treason. Afterwords Fletcher landed in
Leavenworth prison with hundreds of other wobblies serving time on a
myriad of charges ranging from speaking out against the war, dodging
the draft, refusing to sign no strike contracts with their bosses, and
engaging in "criminal syndicalism"- a law enacted by some states that aimed
to outlaw the IWW as an organization all together.
Nevertheless, Fletchers legacy of direct action unionism
on the docks hasn't vanished. In 1984 dock workers in San Francisco refused to unload cargo from South Africa, which Nelson Mandela later cited as reigniting the anti-apartheid movement in his country.(3)In 1998 Wobblies and others
within the progressive "International Longshore And Warehouse Union" were
taken to court by the Pacific Maritime Association. The PMA
tried to sue dock workers that used a picket line to successfully prevent a ship
with scab cargo out of the U.K. from being unloaded. The PMA's McCarthyite
request that IWW and ILWU member Robert Irminger name names of those
that participated in the protest, so that they could be sued for the resulting business
losses, was ruled out by the court on basic first ammendment grounds. Further pressure motivating the prosecution to back down in their witchhunt is the ILWU's success in shutting
down the docks on the days of the court hearings. (4).
More recently the ILWU has voted to strike West Coast U.S. docks on April 24th 1999 in Solidarity with political prisoner Mumia Abu Jamal, a man
on death row for a crime that millions doubt he commited.(5)
Then, as now, there is a recognition of the need for independent direct action on the part of dock workers.
Our class has tried obedience to management aims and it has gotten us nowhere but a stay at the poorhouse. So now its high time to continue
with our tradition of worker autonomy, because freedom is not given. It's taken by those who demand it.
References
"Solidarity Forever", Deborah Shaffer
"Ben Fletcher, I.W.W. Organizer", William Seraile(available upon request from Mario Hey at: occupato@yahoo.com)