Reply from IWW Union member on Starbucks picketing at Penn Pike

Re: IWW union threat to picket Penn Pike Starbucks produces warning of tort action your article declared:

"The IWW was way left of the communists in calling for immediate and constant class struggle and the violent overthrow of capitalism. Anarchists."
 
I've been a member of the IWW since 1990. This sentence is quite inaccurate in several respects.
 
The IWW may seem to be left of the communists, especially today, for the communists are trying to operate within the Democratic Party. But a more accurate characterization would observe that the IWW is anti-authoritarian, and eschews electoral politics, while historically the mainstream communists have tended to be quite authoritarian, and in recent decades have embraced electoral politics.
 
A most egregious error concerns the phrase, "the violent overthrow of capitalism". The IWW has never called for "violent" overthrow of capitalism, just the abolition of the wage system via the general strike. The IWW doesn't believe in violence of any sort, and doesn't advocate any sort of armed contention, except for self defense. (IWW members have frequently been attacked -- with machine guns, with lynching, with tar and feathers... thus, self-defense is not an idle concern.)
 
Another error: the IWW does include some anarchist members, and some of the organization's principles are inspired by anarchist thought, but the organization itself is not, and never has been anarchist. There is a similar European philosophy called anarcho-syndicalism, but this is in no way synonymous with anarchism.
 
This excerpt:
 Some of their leaders were jailed for their support of draft-dodging.
...is likewise an error. Yes, the IWW opposed World War I. But from the moment that the U.S. joined that war, the IWW officially advocated that members register with the draft as conscientious objectors, using the legal protections of the draft laws. Registering is not equivalent to draft dodging. The IWW's attempt to follow the law was ignored, and IWW leadership was persecuted. The second-highest officer in the union, Frank Little, was dragged out of his hotel room and lynched. Why doesn't your article mention this rather relevant detail?
 
The implied comparison to Osama Bin Laden is a low blow, although not surprising, given the basic anti-union tenor of the article.
 
The Starbucks workers that you describe may exist somewhere. The description bears no resemblance whatsoever to the Starbucks employees that i know. The Starbucks campaign is also just one of several organizing drives by the IWW over the past few years.
 
There is no connection whatsoever between the IWW and George Soros. This is another unjustified slander that has been pulled out of the blue.
 
I do hope that you'll print appropriate corrections.
 
best wishes,
Richard Myers
Denver, Colorado"

Editor: my history was based largely on a Wikipedia entry. Your viewpoint is published here in full so readers can make up their own mind where the truth lies. Point by point argument would be tedious and more time than it is worth.

One concession willingly made: I am prejudiced against unions and socalled industrial action. Labor markets work much better for the employed, and the potentially employed, as well as for employers without collectivism in contracts.

Unionism is based on ridiculous but venomous class war slogans that only damage the workplace, diminish the quality of working relations and productivity, and hence the wages and jobs available. It also tends to raise costs and reduces choice for consumers and hence the quality of life of all.

Pickets are bullying and coercive. They are an unwarranted interference in commerce and a disturbance of the peace.

No news on the IWW Starbucks picketing at the Pennsylvania Turnpike's service plazas, so it seems to have been a fizzer.

Big talk from a small union?

That is good news for Turnpike customers and for Starbucks employees, present and future. If you forced their cost of labor to be, say, doubled there would be many fewer Starbucks jobs available. Whose interest would that serve, apart from union bureaucrats and shrieky activists?

TOLLROADSnews 2007-11-23