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World Federation of Democratic Youth
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 3/17/20

Meanwhile, even as Mao spoke in December 1947 a shift was occurring within the Indian Communist party which was bringing into control a faction which interpreted Zhdanov's September directive simplistically, not only assuming it to be a call for armed struggle against the Nehru government but also seeing it as a demand for a limited worker-peasant alliance against all sections of the Indian bourgeoisie to bring about a one-stage revolution overthrowing capitalism and ushering in socialism. This shift took place at a December 1947 CPI central committee meeting in which the balance of power within the party swung away from P. C. Joshi — the old CPI general secretary who had led the party since the middle thirties, and who had advocated support for the new Nehru government — toward B.T. Ranadive, who has since to this day remained at least the titular leader of the CPI leftist faction. The central committee adopted a resolution making no distinction between sections of the Indian bourgeoisie, and lumping all of the bourgeoisie with imperialism and feudalism as the enemy to be fought now.

This line was confirmed and developed three months later at the Second Congress of the CPI in February 1948, when Ranadive formally replaced Joshi as general secretary. The Political Thesis adopted by this congress identified the entire world bourgeoisie with the imperialist camp as the common enemy in every country; explicitly rejected the notion of significant differences among the bourgeoisie; called for a united front from below (to entice away the proletarian following of the Congress party) rather than a united front from above (which would have meant the Joshi line of alliances with and support for Congress party leaders); held that "a revolutionary situation now existed in India, and called for a violent effort to bring about a one-stage revolution. This party congress was held in Calcutta immediately upon the conclusion of an international youth congress there sponsored jointly by the World Federation of Democratic Youth and the International Union of Students which is believed to have given the signal for the armed Communist uprisings which soon afterward began in a number of other Asian countries.

-- The Indian Communist Party and the Sino-Soviet Dispute, by Office of Current Intelligence, Central Intelligence Agency

World Federation of Democratic Youth
Formation: 10 November 1945; 74 years ago
Founded at: London
Headquarters: Budapest, Hungary
President: UJCE - Aritz Rodríguez
Secretary General: UJC - Yusdaquy Larduet
Vice President: ULDY - Adnan Al Mokdad
Vice President: Lasantha Abeywarna
Affiliations: ECOSOC (general consultative status); UNESCO
Website http://www.wfdy.org

The World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY) is an international youth organization, recognized by the United Nations as an international youth non-governmental organization, and has historically characterized itself as anti-imperialist and left-wing. WFDY was founded in London in 1945 as a broad international youth movement, organized in the context of the end of World War II with the aim of uniting youth from the Allies behind an anti-fascist platform that was broadly pro-peace, anti-nuclear war, expressing friendship between youth of the capitalist and socialist nations. The WFDY Headquarters are in Budapest, Hungary. The main event of WFDY is the World Festival of Youth and Students. The last festival was held in Sochi, Russia, in October 2017. It was one of the first organizations granted general consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council.

History

On 10 November 1945, the World Youth Conference, organized in London, founded the World Federation of Democratic Youth. This historic conference was convened at the initiative of the World Youth Council which was formed during World War II to encourage the fight against fascism by the youth of the allied nations. The conference brought together, for the first time in the history of the international youth movement, representatives of more than 30,000,000 young people of diverse different political ideologies and religious beliefs from 63 nations. It adopted a pledge for peace.

Shortly after, with the onset of the Cold War and Winston Churchill's Iron Curtain speech, the organization was accused by the US State Department of being a "Moscow front". Many of the founding organizations quit, leaving mostly youth from socialist nations, national liberation movements, and communist youth.[1] Like the International Union of Students (IUS) and other pro-Soviet organizations, the WFDY became a target and victim of CIA espionage as well as part of active measures conducted by the Soviet state security.[2][3][4][5]

The WFYD's first General Secretary, Alexander Shelepin, was a former leader of the Young Communist International which had been dissolved in 1943. Shelepin had been a guerilla fighter during World War II (after his work with the WFDY, he was appointed head of Soviet State Security).[2] Both the WFDY and IUS vocally criticized the Marshall Plan, supported the Czechoslovak coup d'état of 1948 and the new People's Democracies in Europe. They opposed the Korean War.[2]

The main event of the WFDY became the World Festival of Youth and Students, a massive political and cultural celebration for peace and friendship between the youth of the world. Most, but not all, of the early festivals were held in socialist nations in Europe. During the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s the WFDY's festivals were one of the few places where young people from the so-called "Free World" could meet youth struggling against apartheid from South Africa, or militant youth from Vietnam, Palestine, Cuba and other nations. Famous people who participated in festivals included Angela Davis, Yuri Gagarin, Yasser Arafat, Fidel Castro, Ruth First, Jan Myrdal and Nelson Mandela.

When the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc collapsed, the WFDY entered a crisis. With the power vacuum left by the collapse of the most important member organization, the Soviet Komsomol, there were conflicting views of the future character of the organization. Some wanted a more apolitical structure, whereas others were more inclined to an openly leftist federation. The WFDY, however, survived this crisis, and is today an active international youth organization that holds regular activities.

Pledge


Guy de Boisson, President of the World Federation of Democratic Youth, speaks at the opening of the 2nd World Festival of Youth and Students (Budapest, 1949).

We pledge that we shall remember this unity, forged in this month, November 1945

Not only today, not only this week, this year, but always Until we have built the world we have dreamed of and fought for We pledge ourselves to build the unity of youth of the world All races, all colors, all nationalities, all beliefs To eliminate all traces of fascism from the earth To build a deep and sincere international friendship among the peoples of the world To keep a just lasting peace To eliminate want, frustration and enforced idleness

We have come to confirm the unity of all youth salute our comrades who have died-and pledge our word that skilful hands, keen brains and young enthusiasm shall never more be wasted in war

— Pledge of the World Federation of Democratic Youth

General Assembly

The WFDY conducts a General Assembly every four years, the last taking place in Nikosia in 2019.[6] During the Assembly, leadership and a General Council are elected and an organisational declaration is approved.[7]

Member organizations

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Africa

Country / Name / Notes / Ref

Angola Juventude do Movimento Popular da Libertação de Angola Youth wing of MPLA [8]
Congo, Dem. Rep. PPRD Youth League Youth wing of the People's Party for Reconstruction and Democracy
Eritrea National Union of Eritrean Youth and Students [8]
Ethiopia Ethiopian Youth League [8]
Ghana Democratic Youth League of Ghana
African Youth Command
Mozambique Mozambican Youth Organisation Youth wing of FRELIMO [8]
Namibia SWAPO Party Youth League Youth wing of SWAPO
Senegal Mouvement de la Jeunesse Démocratique Youth wing of the Democratic League/Movement for the Labour Party
UJDAN Youth wing of the Party of Independence and Labour
South Africa African National Congress Youth League Youth wing of the African National Congress [8]
South African Students Congress
Young Communist League of South Africa Youth wing of the South African Communist Party
Sudan Sudanese Youth Union Youth wing of the Sudanese Communist Party
Tanzania Umoja Wa Vijana Youth wing of Chama Cha Mapinduzi [8]
Senegal Democratic Youth Union Alboury Ndiaye Youth wing of the Party of Independence and Work
Western Sahara Saharawi Youth Union Youth wing of the Polisario Front [8]
Zambia United National Independence Party Youth League Youth wing of the United National Independence Party
Zimbabwe ZANU-PF Youth League Youth wing of ZANU-PF [8]

Asia and the Pacific

Country / Name / Notes / Ref

Australia Resistance: Young Socialist Alliance Youth wing of the Socialist Alliance
Bangladesh Socialist Students' Front Student wing of the Socialist Party of Bangladesh
Bangladesh Students Union
Bangladesh Youth Union Youth wing of the Communist Party of Bangladesh [8]
Bhutan Democratic Youth of Bhutan Youth wing of the Bhutan National Democratic Party
Students Union of Bhutan
India All India Students Federation Student wing of the Communist Party of India
All India Youth Federation Youth wing of the Communist Party of India [8]
Students Federation of India Student wing of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)
Democratic Youth Federation of India Youth Wing of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)
All India Youth League Youth wing of the All India Forward Bloc
Iran Tudeh Youth Youth wing of the Tudeh Party of Iran [9]
Japan Japan League of Socialist Youth [8]
Korean Youth League in Japan Youth wing of Chongryon
Korea, DPR Kimilsungist-Kimjongilist Youth League Youth wing of the Workers' Party of Korea [8]
Korea, Rep. 7th-term Hanchongryun
Laos Lao People's Revolutionary Youth Union Youth wing of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party
Myanmar All Burma Students' Democratic Front
All Burma Students League
Nepal All Nepal National Free Students Union Student wing of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist)
Youth Federation Nepal Youth wing of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist) [8]
Nepal National Federation of Students Student wing of the Nepal Communist Party (United)
Nepal National Youth Federation Youth wing of the Nepal Communist Party (United)
Pakistan Democratic Students Federation Student wing of the Communist Party of Pakistan
Pashtoonkhwa Students Organization
Philippines ANAKBAYAN
Sri Lanka Communist Youth Federation Youth wing of the Communist Party of Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka National Union Of Students Student wing of the Communist Party of Sri Lanka
Federation of All Lanka(Ceylon) Youth League Youth wing of Mahajana Eksath Peramuna
Socialist Students Union Student wing of Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna [8]
Socialist Youth Union Youth wing of Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna
Vietnam Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union Youth wing of the Communist Party of Vietnam [8]
Vietnam Youth Federation

Europe and North America

Country / Name / Notes / Ref

Armenia Young Communist League Armenia Youth wing of the Armenian Communist Party
Azerbaijan Young Communist League Azerbaijan Youth wing of the Azerbaijan Communist Party
Austria Communist Youth of Austria
Belgium COMAC Youth wing of the Workers' Party of Belgium
Bulgaria Bulgarian Socialist Youth Union
Canada Young Communist League of Canada Affiliated with the Communist Party of Canada
Catalonia Communist Youth of Catalonia Youth wing of the Communists of Catalonia
Czech Republic Communist Youth Union Youth wing of the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia [8]
Cyprus United Democratic Youth Organisation Youth wing of the Progressive Party of Working People [8]
Denmark Ungkommunisterne Shared youth organization of the Communist Party in Denmark and the Communist Party of Denmark
Finland Communist Youth League
France Mouvement Jeunes Communistes de France
Georgia Young Communist League of Georgia
Germany Free German Youth
Socialist German Workers Youth Youth wing of the German Communist Party [8]
Greece Communist Youth of Greece Youth wing of the Communist Party of Greece [8]
Hungary Baloldali Front Youth wing of the Hungarian Workers' Party
Ireland Connolly Youth Movement Youth wing of the Communist Party of Ireland
Workers Party Youth Youth wing of the Workers' Party of Ireland
Italy Italian Young Communist Federation Youth wing of the Italian Communist Party; known as Youth Federation of Italian Communists until 2016
Front of the Communist Youth Youth wing of the Communist Party
Giovani Comuniste e Comunisti Youth wing of the Communist Refoundation Party
Republic of Moldova Young Communist League of the Republic of Moldova Youth wing of the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova
Norway Young Communists in Norway Youth wing of the Communist Party of Norway
Young Communist League of Norway
Portugal Portuguese Communist Youth Youth wing of the Portuguese Communist Party [8]
Russia Leninist Young Communist League of the Russian Federation Youth wing of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation
Revolutionary Communist Youth League (Bolshevik) Youth wing of the Russian Communist Workers' Party of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Serbia Young Communist League of Yugoslavia Youth wing of the New Communist Party of Yugoslavia
Slovakia Socialistický Zväz Mladých Youth wing of the Communist Party of Slovakia
Spain Collectives of Communist Youth Youth wing of the Communist Party of the Workers of Spain
Communist Youth Union of Spain Youth wing of the Communist Party of Spain [8]
Sweden Communist Youth of Sweden Youth wing of the Communist Party of Sweden
Switzerland Communist Youth of Switzerland Youth wing of the Swiss Party of Labour
Turkey Communist Youth of Turkey Youth wing of the Communist Party of Turkey [8]
Ukraine Komsomol of Ukraine Youth wing of the Communist Party of Ukraine
United Kingdom Young Communist League Youth wing of the Communist Party of Britain
Young Socialists Youth wing of the Communist League
United States Young Socialists Youth wing of the Socialist Workers Party

Latin America and Caribbean

Country / Name / Notes / Ref

Argentina Federación Juvenil Comunista Youth wing of the Communist Party of Argentina [8]
Barbados League of Progressive Youth
Bolivia Juventud Comunista de Bolivia Youth wing of the Communist Party of Bolivia
Brazil Juventude Revolucionaria 8 de Outubro Youth wing of the MR-8
Juventude do PDT Youth wing of the Democratic Labour Party
Juventude do PMDB Youth wing of the Party of the Brazilian Democratic Movement
Juventude Comunista Avançando Youth wing of the Polo Comunista Luiz Carlos Prestes
União da Juventude Comunista Youth wing of the Brazilian Communist Party [8]
União da Juventude Socialista Youth wing of the Communist Party of Brazil [8]
Juventude Socialista Brasileira Youth wing of the Brazilian Socialist Party
Chile Juventudes Comunistas de Chile Youth wing of the Communist Party of Chile [8]
Colombia Juventud Comunista de Colombia Youth wing of the Colombian Communist Party [8]
Costa Rica Juventud Frente Amplio Youth wing of the Broad Front (Costa Rica) [8]
Cuba Unión de Jóvenes Comunistas Youth wing of the Communist Party of Cuba [8]
Ecuador Federación Estudiantes Universitarios
Juventud Socialista Ecuatoriana Youth wing of the Socialist Party of Ecuador
El Salvador Juventud del Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional Youth wing of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front
Grenada Maurice Bishop Youth Movement
Guatemala Juventud URNG Youth wing of the URNG
Guyana Guyana Youth and Students Movement
Walter Rodney Youth Movement
Mexico Federation of Young Communists Youth wing of the Communist Party of Mexico
Juventud Popular Socialista Youth wing of the Popular Socialist Party [8]
Nicaragua Juventud Sandinista 19 de Julio Youth wing of the Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional
Paraguay Casa de la Juventud del Paraguay
Peru Juventud Comunista Peruana Youth wing of the Peruvian Communist Party
Uruguay Juventud del Movimiento 26 de Marzo Youth wing of the 26 March Movement
Venezuela Juventud Comunista de Venezuela Youth wing of the Communist Party of Venezuela [8]
United Socialist Party of Venezuela Youth Youth wing of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela

Middle East

Country / Name / Notes / Ref

Algeria Union de la Jeunesse Algérienne Youth wing of the FLN
National Union of Algerian Students Students of the FLN
Egypt Union of Progressive Youth of Egypt Youth wing of the Progressive National Unionist Party [8]
Iraq Iraqi Democratic Youth Federation Youth wing of the Iraqi Communist Party [8]
General Union of Students in Iraqi Republic
Israel Young Communist League of Israel [he] Youth wing of the Communist Party of Israel [8]
Lebanon Union of Lebanese Democratic Youth Youth wing of the Lebanese Communist Party [8]
Libya National Youth Organization of Libya
Bahrain Shabeeba Society of Bahrain Youth wing of the Progressive Democratic Tribune [8]
Morocco Istiqlal Party Youth Youth wing of the Istiqlal Party
USFP Jeunesse Ittihadiya Youth wing of the Socialist Union of Popular Forces
Jeunesse Socialiste Youth wing of the Party of Progress and Socialism
Palestine General Union of Palestine Students [8]
Palestinian Democratic Youth Union Youth wing of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine [8]
Syria Union of Democratic Youth of Syria-Khaled Baghdash Youth wing of the Syrian Communist Party [8]
Syrian Democratic Youth Union Youth wing of the Syrian Unified Communist Party
Revolutionary Youth Union Youth wing of the Ba'ath Party
Kuwait Democratic Youth Union Youth wing of the KPM

Former members

• Afghanistan - Democratic Youth Organization of Afghanistan
• Albania - Bashkimi i Rinisë së Punës së Shqipërisë
• Argentina - Juventud Intrasigente Argentina
• Argentina - Juventud Socialista Auténtica
• Australia - Eureka Youth League
• Belgium - Graffiti Jeugendsdienst
• Belgium - Jeunesse Communiste de Belgique
• Bolivia - Confederación Universitaria Boliviana
• Brazil - Juventude do PCB
• Bulgaria - Dimitrov Komsomol
• Byelorussian SSR - Leninist Communist Youth Union of Belarus
• Cambodia - People's Revolutionary Youth Union of Kampuchea
• Chile - Juventud de la Izquierda Cristiana de Chile
• Chile - Juventud del MIR
• Chile - Juventud Rebelde Miguel Enríquez
• Chile - Unión de Jóvenes Socialistas
• China - Communist Youth League of China
• China - All-China Youth Federation
• Colombia - Federación Juvenil Obrera
• Colombia - Juventud de la Alianza Nacional Popular
• Colombia - Juventud del Poder Popular
• Colombia - Unión Nacional de los Estudiantes Secundarios
• Colombia - Unión de Jóvenes Patriotas
• Congo - Union de la jeunesse congolaise, Republic of Congo
• Costa Rica - Juventud del Pueblo Costarriquense
• Costa Rica - Juventudes Patrióticas
• Costa Rica - Juventud Vanguardista Costarriquense
• Czechoslovakia - Svaz Mládeže, Czechoslovakia
• Dominican Republic - Juventud Revolucionaria Dominicana
• Dominican Republic - Unión Democrática Orlando Martínez
• Ecuador - Departamento Juvenil del Central de Trabajadores de Ecuador
• Ecuador - Juventud Comunista de Ecuador
• El Salvador - Asociación General de Estudiantes Universitarios de El Salvador
• Faroe Islands - Færøske Socialister
• Finland - Democratic Youth League of Finland
• Finland - Finnish Union of Democratic Pioneers
• Germany - Socialist Youth League Karl Liebknecht
• East Germany - Free German Youth
• Greece - Greek Communist Youth (Internal)
• Guadeloupe - Union de la Jeunesse Communiste Guadeloupe
• France - Union nationale des étudiants de france-Solidarité Etudiante
• Guatemala - Juventud Patriótica del Trabajo
• Guyana - Young Socialist Movement
• Haiti - Jeunesse Communiste de Haiti
• Honduras - Federación de la Juventud Comunista
• Iceland - Revolutionary Communist Youth League
• Indonesia - People's Youth (Indonesia)
• Italy - Italian Communist Youth Federation
• Jamaica - Young Communist League of the Workers' Party (Workers Party of Jamaica)
• Luxembourg - Jeunesse Communiste Luxembourgoise
• Martinique - Union de la Jeunesse Communiste Martinique
• Mexico - Frente Juvenil Revolucionario
• Mexico - Juventud Socialista de los Trabajadores
• Mongolia - Revolutionary Youth League (REVSOMOL)
• Netherlands - Algemeen Nederlands Jeugd Verbond
• Hungary - Kommunista Ifjúsági Szövetség
• Panama - Juventud del PRD
• Panama - Juventud Popular Revolucionaria
• Paraguay - Federación Juvenil Comunista de Paraguay
• Peru - CGTP Sección Juvenil
• Peru - Juventud Aprista Peruana
• Peru - Juventud Mariateguista
• Poland - Związek Socjalistycznej Młodzieży Polskiej
• Puerto Rico - Federación Universitaria para la Indpendencia
• Puerto Rico - Juventud Comunista de Puerto Rico
• Puerto Rico - Juventud Socialista de Puerto Rico
• San Marino - Federazione Giovanile Comunista San Marino
• Sri Lanka - Congress of Sama Samaja Youth Leagues
• Sri Lanka - Federation of Communist and Progressive Youth
• Saint Vincent and the Grenadines - Vanguard Youth Organization
• Surinam - National Youth Movement
• Sweden - Ung Vänster (1975–1992)
• Switzerland - Jeunesse Communiste Suisse
• Tunisia - Destourian Youth
• Turkey - İlerici Gençler Derneği
• United States - Young Communist League USA
• United States - Young Socialist Alliance
• Uruguay - Juventud Socialista del Uruguay
• Soviet Union - Committee of Youth Organizations of the USSR
• Soviet Union - All-Union Leninist Young Communist League (Komsomol)
• Venezuela - Juventud Socialista-MEP
• Japan - Democratic Youth League of Japan

Observers

• Youth for Communist Rebirth In France (Youth of the Pole of Communist Rebirth in France)
• Communist Youth Movement (Youth of the New Communist Party of the Netherlands)
• Communist Youth of Luxemburg (Refounded youth organisation of the Communist Party of Luxembourg), Luxembourg
• Revolutionary Communist Youth (Youth organization of the Communist Party), Sweden

See also

• Active measures
• Christian Peace Conference
• International Association of Democratic Lawyers
• International Federation of Resistance Fighters – Association of Anti-Fascists
• International Organization of Journalists
• International Union of Students
• Women's International Democratic Federation
• World Federation of Scientific Workers
• World Federation of Trade Unions
• World Peace Council

References

1. Richard Felix Staar, Foreign policies of the Soviet Union, Hoover Press, 1991, ISBN 0-8179-9102-6, p.84
2. Jump up to:a b c The cultural Cold War in Western Europe, 1945-1960. Giles Scott-Smith, Hans Krabbendam. p. 169
3. A century of spies: intelligence in the twentieth century. Jeffrey T. Richelson. p. 252
4. Soviet foreign policy in a changing world, Volume 1986. Robbin Frederick Laird, Erik P. Hoffmann. p. 211
5. Europe since 1945: an encyclopedia, Volume 1. Bernard A. Cook. p. 212
6. https://dialogos.com.cy/rik-kai-ta-ypol ... -tis-podn/
7. "Approved Political Declaration Of the 19th Assembly of WFDY (1).pdf". Google Docs. Retrieved 2020-02-11.
8. "Members". wfdy.org. Archived from the original on 11 November 2016.
9. United States Congress, House Committee on Un-American Activities (1956), Soviet Total War: "Historic Mission" of Violence and Deceit, 1–2, U.S. Government Printing Office, pp. 589–90

External links

• Official website

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World Festival of Youth and Students
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 3/17/20


The 10th World Festival of Youth and Students in 1972

The World Festival of Youth and Students is an international event, organized by the World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY) and the International Union of Students after 1947. Initially pluralist, the event became an outlet for Soviet propaganda for foreign audiences during the Cold War.[1]

History

The festival has been held regularly since 1947 as an event of global youth solidarity for democracy and against war and imperialism. The largest festival was the 6th, held in 1957 in Moscow, when 34,000 young people from 131 countries attended the event. This festival also marked the international debut of the song "Moscow Nights", which subsequently went on to become perhaps the most widely recognized Russian song in the world. Until the 19th festival in Sochi, Russia in 2017 (with 185 countries participating),[2] the largest festival by number of countries with participants was the 13th, held in 1989 in Pyongyang when 177 countries attended the event.[3]

The most recent festival took place in Sochi, Russia, from 13 to 22 October 2017.

Editions

Edition / Year / Logo / Country / Host City / Participants / Number of Represented Countries / Motto

1st 1947 Czechoslovakia Prague 17,000 71 "Youth Unite, Forward for Lasting Peace!"

2nd 1949 Hungary Budapest 20,000 82 "Youth Unite, Forward for Lasting Peace, Democracy, National Independence and a better future for the people"

3rd 1951 East Germany East Berlin 26,000 104 "For Peace and Friendship – Against Nuclear Weapons"

4th 1953 Romania Bucharest 30,000 111 "No! Our generation will not serve death and destruction!"

5th 1955 Poland Warsaw 30,000 114 "For Peace and Friendship – Against the Aggressive Imperialist Pacts"

6th 1957 Soviet Union Moscow 34,000 131 "For Peace and Friendship"

7th 1959 Austria Vienna 18,000 112 "For Peace and Friendship and Peaceful Coexistence"

8th 1962 Finland Helsinki 18,000 137 "For Peace and Friendship"

9th 1968 Bulgaria Sofia 20,000 138 "For Solidarity, Peace and Friendship"

10th 1973 East Germany East Berlin 25,600 140 "For Anti-Imperialist Solidarity, Peace and Friendship"

11th 1978 Cuba Havana 18,500 145 "For Anti-Imperialist Solidarity, Peace and Friendship"

12th 1985 Soviet Union Moscow 26,000 157 "For Anti-Imperialist Solidarity, Peace and Friendship"

13th 1989 North Korea Pyongyang 22,000 177 "For Anti-Imperialist Solidarity, Peace and Friendship"

14th 1997 Cuba Havana 12,325 136 "For Anti-Imperialist Solidarity, Peace and Friendship"

15th 2001 Algeria Algiers 6,500 110 "Let’s Globalize the Struggle For Peace, Solidarity, Development, Against Imperialism"

16th 2005 Venezuela Caracas 17,000 144 "For Peace and Solidarity, We Struggle Against Imperialism and War"

17th 2010 South Africa Pretoria 15,000 126 "Let's Defeat Imperialism, for a World of Peace, Solidarity and Social Transformation!"

18th 2013 Ecuador Quito 8,500 80[4] "Youth Unite Against Imperialism, for a World of Peace, Solidarity and Social Transformation!"

19th 2017 Russia Sochi 30,000 185[5] "For peace, solidarity and social justice, we struggle against imperialism. Honoring our past, we build the future!"

Gallery


1949, Budapest.


1951, East Berlin, children holding mandolins and accordion in front of a flag (with Stalin's face).

References

1. Kotek, Joel (1996). Students and the Cold War. London: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 63–4. ISBN 978-1-349-24840-7.
2. "#WFYS2017". russia2017.com.
3. "North Korea's Would-Be Olympics: A Tale of a Cold War Boondoggle". nytimes.com.
4. "El festival busca que los jóvenes tengan presencia". telegrafo.com.ec.
5. "#WFYS2017". russia2017.com.

External links

• Official Website of the 17th World Festival of Youth and Students
• Official Website of the 19th World Festival of Youth and Students
• Official Website of the World Federation of Democratic Youth
• Chronology of World Festivals of Youth and Students
• 16th World Festival of Youth and Students, Official Website
• Video of the 16th World Festival of Youth and Students in Caracas
• North Korea Youth Festival 1989

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International Union of Students [International Students' Council]
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 3/17/20


International Union of Students
Abbreviation: IUS
Successor: International Council of Students
Formation: 1946
Purpose: Association of World's Students' Organizations
Headquarters: Czech Republic
Location: Prague, Czech Republic
Region served: Worldwide
Membership: 155 Students' Organizations from 112 Countries
Official language: English, French, Spanish
Secretary General: Frage Sherif
Treasurer: Liz Carlyle
Advisory Council Chief: Akhil Ennamsetty
Key people: Ingo Jaeger, Maria Lucia, Syed Mustaffa Ali
Main organ: Executive Secretariat
Affiliations: UNESCO, ECOSOC
Remarks: Ideologically influenced by Left-Wing, Communist, Socialist and Marxist views.
Formerly called: International Students' Council

The International Union of Students (IUS) is a worldwide nonpartisan association of university student organizations.[1][2][3]

The IUS is the umbrella organization for 155 such students' organizations across 112 countries and territories representing approximately 25 million students. This is recognised by the United Nations Organization granting the IUS a consultative status in UNESCO. The primary aim of the IUS is to defend the rights and interests of students to promote improvement in their welfare and standard of education and to prepare them for their tasks as democratic citizens.[2][4]

Aim and work areas

The aims of the IUS are spelled out in the 1946 preamble to the organization's Constitution:[5]

The purpose of the International Union of Students, which is founded upon the representative student organizations of different countries, shall be to defend the rights and interests of students to promote improvement in their welfare and standard of education and to prepare them for their tasks as democratic citizens.

According to the IUS's entry in the UNESCO Non-Governmental Organization list, the priority work areas of the IUS are: "Exchange of information, defence of students' status, peace, environment, development, human rights".[2]

Activities

The IUS currently works through:[2][4]

• Issuing Student Statements
• Circular News Letters and Calls for Action to members
• Celebration of the International Students' Day on November 17
• Organizing Student Conferences

Logo symbolism

The logo and flag of the IUS is a burning torch and an open book set against the red and blue outline of a stylized globe. It symbolizes youth's persistent quest for knowledge.[6]

History


Stamp of the 25th congress of IUS in USSR

Early history 1946 - 1956

The International Union of Students was founded in Prague on August 27, 1946.[1] Student organizations from 62 countries participated in its founding envisioning a more inclusive successor to the short lived 1941-1944 International Council of Students (also known as the International Students' Council) which was set up on the initiative of the British National Union of Students to maintain open lines of communication with student organizations in allied countries during World War II.[7]

From its earliest inception, the IUS was marked by a fundamental schism:

"The spirit of [post-war] co-operation and the desire to prevent a resurgence of fascism in Europe brought together otherwise divergent groups. The main divisions, evident even at the founding congress, were between the Communist student organizations, which gained control of the executive bodies of the IUS from the beginning, and the student unions from western Europe, many of which were primarily interested in preserving the idea of a non-political international agency which would provide concrete services to the students of various countries"[8]

In response to the increasingly partisan Communist course of the IUS and the broad powers of its secretariat and executive committee to initiate new policy programmes on behalf of the members, several non-Communist members withdrew their membership in the following years. Following which the IUS also referred itself as Independent Federation of Left-Wing and Alternative Student Unions.[9]

Consequently, 21 such break-away national students organizations met in Stockholm in 1950 to form the International Student Conference (ISC) as a nonpartisan rival organization to the pro-Communist IUS.[11] Notable among these founders was the United States National Student Association (USNSA or NSA)[11] though "Anglo-Saxons, Scandinavians and Dutch wielded the greatest influence [in the ISC]".[12][10]

At the time of the formation of the ISC, the dominant view in later analyses is that the IUS had become Communist controlled to such a degree that it is often referred to as a Soviet Union Communist front organization with the IUS and ISC aligned along the Cold War fronts toward the Soviet Union and the United States of America respectively.[13][14][15][16]

A dissenting view that the IUS was strongly influenced by socialism and communism but not de facto controlled by Soviet Communist interests, has also been expressed, however, by Trotskyist Lawrence Brammer:[17]

"It is significant that several former IUS officers later became outspoken liberals in Czechoslovakia and in the French and Italian Communist Parties. The outward pro-Soviet orientation of the IUS often obscured real differences within the organization"[18]

IUS activities in this period included Student Games held by the IUS Sports Council. The first such games were held in Paris in 1946 and were subsequently integrated into the World Youth Festivals (also known as World Festival of Youth and Students) which the IUS co-sponsored with the equally Communist oriented World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY).[19]

Such festivals brought up to 30,000 youth and students together for a social, cultural and sporting event[20] (see World Federation of Democratic Youth).

IUS from 1956 - 1969

From 1956 onwards, the IUS and ISC competed to attract student unions non-aligned in the Cold War sense. Focus was on Latin America, Asia and Africa and recruitment of member unions from here resulted in a broader political base for the IUS.[20][21]

Activities in this period included among others regional student seminars, donation of duplication machines and cameras to help affiliates, the establishment of student Health Centres in India,[22] international student conferences as well as the publication in German, Russian and Czech of the World Student News journal of the IUS, the Democratic Education journal of the IUS, and topical pamphlets concerning education. More spectacularly, the IUS continued to co-sponsor World Youth Festivals with the World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY).[20]

It was well known from the outset that the IUS was funded by Soviet and Czech government contributions:[23]

"The cost of international meetings, large-scale publications, and the other activities in which they engage, are beyond the financial resources of university students"[24]

However, the IUS's inability to win leadership in left-wing student movements in Europe despite its many activities caused the Soviet Union to re-evaluate its support.[25]

The major challenge for the IUS in this period turned out to be its preoccupation with an ideological agenda rather than a focus on actual student concerns and affairs.[16][25] As a consequence of this stance, the organization became detached from its student base and was circumvented by grassroots movements in, e.g. the planning of international anti-war demonstrations in relation to the Vietnam War. The major achievements of the IUS in this period were therefore firstly helping create national student unions in developing countries and secondly aiding student union members with information and idea exchange.[26]

The dissolution of the IUS's rival organization the International Student Conference (ISC) owing to lack of funds became a reality in 1969.[27] The demise of the ISC were hastened by the 1967 revelation that the CIA had indirectly funded the ISC and recruited student representatives from the United States National Student Association (USNSA) to actively oppose Communism in the IUS. This undermined both the financial and student political support of the ISC leaving, once again, the IUS as the only worldwide student organization.[28]

IUS from 1970 - present

This period in IUS history is marked by the chairmanship of the same chairman from 1977 to 1986[29] under whom a flurry of international IUS activity took place in 1979.[30][31][32][33][34][35][36]

The most significant event of the period for the IUS, however, was the turmoil the organization encountered after the 1989 - 1991 fall of Communism (see also World Federation of Democratic Youth) during which the IUS lost most of its funding.[37] Additionally, in August 1991, the Czechoslovak Minister of the Interior decided to expel the IUS and other Communist front organizations from Czechoslovakia.[38][38][39] The reasons given for the expulsion were close ties with the old Communist regime and abuse of tax privileges granted during the old Communist regime.[37][40][41]

Despite the hardships caused by the changing power dynamics of the 1990s,[42] the organization elected a new leadership at its 1992 Cyprus Congress[41] and initiated structural changes of its Constitution to renew itself and evolve beyond its Communist past:

"At the 16th Congress of the International Union of Students (IUS), which took place in January 1992 in Larnaca, Cyprus, the organisation underwent major changes, including the development of a new constitution. These initiatives were adopted to establish the basis for a more democratic, representative, and independent international student organisation"[43]

The new leadership and its successors continued to make press appearances in, e.g., relation to International Students' Day celebration in Dublin in 1994[44] and the 1998 UNESCO World Conference on Higher Education.[45]

In August 2003, the International Union of Students marked a comeback by calling for a worldwide day of protest against the inclusion of Higher Education in the WTO's General Agreement on Trade in Services.[37][46]

The IUS is still, however, struggling with its expulsion from its Prague headquarters as of October 2006:

"Most cold war institutions shriveled in the 1990s, along with their superpower backing. The big communist front outfits that fought propaganda wars, awash with cash and stuffed with spies, have fizzled away in a mixture of apathy and swindles. This week's court-enforced auction of a hulking concrete pile in the heart of Prague belonging to one of them, the International Union of Students, was halted amid squabbles among its dozens of creditors" [47]

Members

The IUS has the following members:[48]

Country / Member / Membership

Afghanistan Union of Afghan Youth Consultative
Algeria Union Nationale des Étudiants Algériens Full
Argentina Argentine University Federation Full
Bahrain National Union of Bahrain Students Full
Bangladesh Bangladesh Students' Union Shared
Bangladesh Chatra Federation Shared
Students Unity of Bangladesh Shared
Bangladesh Chatra League Shared
Bangladesh Chathro Somite Shared
Bangladesh Student League Shared
National Student League Frozen
Barbados Guild of Undergraduates Full
Belgium Flemish Union of Students Associate
Benin Fédération Nationale des Étudiants du Bénin Full
Bolivia Confederacion Universitaria Boliviana Full
Botswana Botswana Student Council Frozen
Brazil National Union of Students Full
União Brasileira dos Estudantes Secundaristas [pt] Consultative
Bulgaria National Student Coordinating Center of Bulgaria Full
Burkina Faso Alliance Démocratique des Étudiants Pour le Développement du Burkina Full
Burma All Burma Students Democratic Front Full
Burundi Jeunesse Révolutionnaire Rwagasore (Commission Estudiantine) Frozen
Cambodia Youth Association of Cambodia Frozen
Cameroon Union Nationale des Étudiants Socialistes du Kamerun Full
Canada Canadian Federation of Students Full
Cape Verde Juventude Africana Amilcar Cabral-Cabo Verde Frozen
Chad Union Générale des Étudiants et Stagiaires du Tchad Full
Chile Consejo Nacional de Federaciones de Estudiantes Chilenos Frozen
Commonwealth of Independent States Student Council of Associations and Unions of Higher Educational Institutions of the CIS Consultative
Colombia Union Nacional de Estudiantes Colombianos Frozen
Comoros Union Nationale de la Jeunesse et des Étudiants des Comores Consultative
Congo, Rep. Union Nationale des Étudiants Congolais Full
Congo, Dem. Rep. Étudiants Congolais Progressistes Consultative
Costa Rica Federación de Estudiantes de la Universidad de Costa Rica [es] Shared
Federación de Estudiantes de la Universidad Nacional Shared
Cuba Federación Estudiantil Universitaria [es] Full
Cyprus Pancyprian Federation of Students and Young Scientists Full
Turkish-Cypriot Student Association Consultative
Dominican Republic Federación de Estudiantes Dominicanos Full
Ecuador Federación de Estudiantes Universitarios del Ecuador Frozen
Federación de Estudiantes Politécnicos del Ecuador Shared
Egypt General Union of Students of the Arab Republic of Egypt Frozen
Union of Democratic Egyptian Youth (Student Section) Shared
El Salvador General de Estudiantes Universitarios Salvadoreños Full
Eritrea National Union of Eritrean Youth Full
Fiji University of the South Pacific Students Association Full
France Union Nationale des Étudiants de France Shared
Union Nationale des Étudiants de France - Indépendante et Démocratique [fr] Shared
Gambia National Union of Gambian Students Full
Germany Freier Zusammenschluss von StudentInnenschaften [de] Full
Ghana National Union of Ghana Students Full
Guatemala Asociación de Estudiantes Universitarios Full
Guinea Bissau African Youth Amílcar Cabral Frozen
Guyana Student Council of the Progressive Youth Organization Frozen
Haiti Fédération Nationale des Étudiants Haïtiens Full
Honduras Federación de Estudiantes Universitarios de Honduras Frozen
India All India Students Federation Shared
Students' Federation of India Shared
All-India Students Bloc Shared
Radical Students Forum (RSF) Shared
Chatra Janata Dal Shared
Iran Organization of Democratic Youth and Students of Iran Frozen
Iraq General Union of Students in Iraqi Republic Shared
National Union of Iraqi Students Frozen
Jamaica Jamaica Union of Tertiary Students Full
Japan All-Japan Federation of Student Unions Full
Jordan National Union of Jordan Students Frozen
Kenya Student Organization of Nairobi University Frozen
Kiribati Kiribati Students' Association Consultative
North Korea Korean Students Committee Full
Kurdistan Kurdish Students Society in Europe Full
Kuwait National Union of Kuwait Students Frozen
Laos Lao People's Revolutionary Youth Union Consultative
Lebanon Union Nationale des Étudiants de l'Université Libanaise Frozen
Lesotho Students' Representative Council Full
Liberia Liberia National Students Union Full
Libyan Arab Jamahiriya General Union of Great Jamahiriya Students Full
Madagascar Comité Démocratique des Jeunes et des Étudiants de Madagascar Full
Organisation de la Jeunesse Révolutionnaire du Parti d'Avantgarde de la Révolution Malgache-Arema Consultative
Malawi Malawi Students Union of Lesoma Full
Malta Young Students' Movement Consultative
Mauritius Mauritius Union of Student Councils Consultative
Council of Students & Youth Movements Consultative
Mexico Coordinadora Nacional de Estudiantes Mexicanos Full
Federación de Estudiantes de Guadalajara [de] Consultative
Mongolia Union of Mongolian Students Full
Morocco Union Nationale des Étudiants du Maroc [fr] Frozen
Union Générale des Étudiants du Maroc Consultative
Mozambique Associaçao dos Estudantes Universitarios de Moçambique Full
Mozambican Youth Organisation Frozen
Namibia Namibian National Student Organization Full
Nepal Nepal National Federation of Students Shared
All Nepal National Free Student Union Shared
Nepal Progressive Student Union Frozen
Netherlands Dutch Student Union Full
Nicaragua Unión Nacional de Estudiantes de Nicaragua Full
Niger Union des Scolaires Nigériens Full
Nigeria National Association of Nigerian Students Full
Oman National Union of Oman Students Full
Pakistan Democratic Students Federation Frozen
Jeay Sindh Taraqui Pasand Student Federation Consultative
Sindhi Shagird Tehreek Consultative
Baloch Students Organization Consultative
Palestine General Union of Palestine Students Full
Panama Federación de Estudiantes de Panamá Full
Papua New Guinea National Union of Students Full
Paraguay Unión Estudiantil de Paraguay Full
Peru Federación de Estudiantes del Perú Full
Philippines National Union of Students of the Philippines Full
Poland Polish Students' Association Full
Puerto Rico Puerto Rico Pro-Independence University Federation Full
Quebec Mouvement des Étudiants et Étudiantes du Québec Full
Romania National Union of Independent Students Full
Rwanda Association Générale des Étudiants de l'Université Nationale du Ruanda Full
Saint Lucia Student Bureau (National Youth Council) Full
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines National Student Council Full
Samoa University of South Pacific-Alafuna Campus Students Association Full
Sao Tome and Principe Jeunesse du Mouvement de Libération de Sao Tomé et Principe Full
Saudi Arabia National Union of Students of Saudi Arabia Consultative
Senegal Union Démocratique des Étudiants de Dakar Full
Seychelles Seychelles People's Progressive Front (Youth League) Frozen
Sierra Leone National Union of Sierra Leone Students Full
South Africa South African Students Congress Full
Congress of South African Students Consultative
Somalia National Union of Somali Students Full
Spain Estudiantes Progresistas Full
Unión de Estudiantes Consultative
Coordinadora d'Estudiants d'Ensenyament Mitjà de Catalunya Consultative
Sri Lanka Sri Lanka National Union of Students Shared
United National Party (Youth League) Shared
Sudan Democratic Front of Sudanese Students Full
Suriname Surinaamse Studenten Unie Frozen
Switzerland VSS-UNES-USU Full
Syria National Union of Syrian Students Full
Tanzania National Union of Tanzanian Students Frozen
Dar Es Salaam University Student Union Consultative
Togo Mouvement National des Étudiants et Stagiaires du Togo Full
Trinidad and Tobago Guild of Undergraduates Full
Tunisia Union Générale des Étudiants de Tunisie [fr] Shared
Union Générale Tunisienne des Étudiants [fr] Frozen
Uganda Makerere Students Guild Shared
Uganda National Students Association Shared
Uruguay Asociación Social y Cultural de Estudiantes de la Enseñanza Pública (Federación de Estudiantes Universitarios del Uruguay [es]) Full
United States United States Student Association Full
Vanuatu Vanuatu National Union of Students Consultative
Venezuela Federación de Estudiantes Universitarios de Venezuela Consultative
Federación de Centros Universitarios Consultative
Vietnam Union Nationale des Étudiants du Vietnam Full
Western Sahara Sahrawi Youth Union (Sección Estudiantil) Full
Yemen Supreme Student Committee Shared
Central Council of Yemeni Students Shared
Zambia University of Zambia Student Union Full
Zimbabwe Zimbabwe National Students Union Full

See also

• Student activism
• World Federation of Democratic Youth
• World Peace Council
• International Association of Democratic Lawyers
• Women's International Democratic Federation
• World Federation of Trade Unions

Notes

1. "The IUS Constitution - Preamble". International Union of Students. 2002-07-18. Archived from the original on 2007-06-07. Retrieved 2007-05-03.
2. "UNESCO List of Non-Governmental Organizations". UNESCO. Archived from the originalon 2002-08-26. Retrieved 2007-05-03.
3. "Collection International Union of Students". International Institute of Social History. 2005-08-12. Retrieved 2007-05-03.
4. "IUS Website". International Union of Students. 2002-11-18. Archived from the original on 2007-04-30. Retrieved 2007-05-03.
5. "About Us". isicworld.org. 22 October 2013. Archived from the original on 22 October 2013.
6. Rzhevsky, Valery (1988): 'International Day of Students Marked Today'; Prague, November 17; The Russian Information Agency ITAR-TASS
7. Altbach, Philip G. (1970): 'The International Student Movement'; Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 161-162
8. Altbach, Philip G. (1970): 'The International Student Movement'; Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 5, No. 1, p. 161
9. Altbach, Philip G. (1970): 'The International Student Movement'; Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 162-164
10. Altbach, Philip G. (1970): 'The International Student Movement'; Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 5, No. 1, p. 163
11. Kehr, Marguerite (1958): 'The International Program of the USNSA'; The Journal of Higher Education, Vol. 29, No. 6. (June, 1958), p. 317
12. Pinner, Frank A. : 'Student Trade-Unionism in France, Belgium and Holland: Anticipatory Socialization and Role-Seeking'; Sociology of Education, Vol. 37, No. 3. (Spring, 1964), p. 182
13. Masani, M. R. (1951): 'The Communist Party in India'; Pacific Affairs, Vol. 24, No. 1. (March, 1951), p. 26
14. Kroef, Justus M. Van Der (1955): 'Higher Education in Indonesia'; The Journal of Higher Education, Vol. 26, No. 7. (October, 1955), p. 370
15. Morris, Bernard S. (1956): 'Communist International Front Organizations: Their Nature and Function'; World Politics, Vol. 9, No. 1. (October, 1956), p. 78
16. Lyonette, Kevin (1966): 'Student Organisations in Latin America'; International Affairs" (Royal Institute of International Affairs 1944-), Vol. 42, No. 4. (October, 1966), p. 660
17. Brammer, Lawrence M. (1967): 'The Student Rebel in the University: A World-wide View'; The Journal of Higher Education, Vol. 38, No. 5. (May 1967), pp. 259
18. Altbach, Philip G. (1970): 'The International Student Movement'; Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 162
19. Riordan, James (1974): 'Soviet Sport and Soviet Foreign Policy'; Soviet Studies, Vol. 26, No. 3. (July, 1974), p. 328
20. Altbach, Philip G. (1970): 'The International Student Movement'; Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 171-172
21. Ibingira, Grace (1965): 'Political Movements and Their Role in Promoting Unity in East Africa'; Transition, No. 20. (1965), p. 42
22. Altbach, Philip G. (1970): 'The International Student Movement'; Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 5, No. 1, p. 164
23. Rudner, Martin (1996): 'East European Aid to Asian Developing Countries: The Legacy of the Communist Era'; Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 30, No. 1. (February, 1996), p. 23
24. Altbach, Philip G. (1970): 'The International Student Movement'; Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 5, No. 1, p. 167
25. Altbach, Philip G. (1970): 'The International Student Movement'; Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 5, No. 1, p. 173
26. Altbach, Philip G. (1970): 'The International Student Movement'; Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 5, No. 1, p. 171
27. Altbach, Philip G. (1970): 'The International Student Movement'; Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 5, No. 1, p. 174
28. McDonald, Robert (1967): 'NSA/CIA: The Kiddies and Their Playmates'; Transition, No. 31 (June - Jul, 1967), pp. 14-19
29. United Press International (1990): 'Former Communist Party boss goes on trial in Prague'; June 25, 1990, SECTION: International
30. The British Broadcasting Corporation (1979a): 'Indochina. IUS delegation in Cambodia'; BBC Summary of World Broadcasts; November 7, 1979, Part 3 The Far East; A. International Affairs; 2. The USSR and East-ern Europe; FE/6265/A2/3
31. The British Broadcasting Corporation (1979b): 'Indochina; IUS delegation in Vietnam'; BBC Summary of World Broadcasts, October 5, 1979, Part 3 The Far East; A. International Affairs; 2. The USSR and East-ern Europe; FE/6237/A2/2
32. The British Broadcasting Corporation (1979c): 'IUS delegation leaves for Indochina'; BBC Summary of World Broadcasts, September 26, 1979, Part 2 Eastern Europe; A. International Affairs; 3. The Far East; EE/6229/A3/1
33. The British Broadcasting Corporation (1979d): 'Afghan Youth Organization delegation in Prague'; BBC Summary of World Broadcasts, September 18, 1979, Part 2 Eastern Europe; A. International Affairs; 3. The Far East; EE/6222/A3/3
34. The British Broadcasting Corporation (1979e): 'Panamanian student leader in Czechoslovakia'; BBC Summary of World Broadcasts, September 6, 1979, Part 2 Eastern Europe; A. International Affairs; 1. General and Western Affairs; EE/6212/A1/4
35. The British Broadcasting Corporation (1979f): 'Latin American student official in Czechoslovakia'; BBC Summary of World Broadcasts, August 29, 1979, PART 2 EASTERN EUROPE; A. INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS; 1. GENERAL AND WESTERN AFFAIRS; EE/6205/A1/5
36. The British Broadcasting Corporation (1979g): 'International students' forum in Helsinki'; BBC Summary of World Broadcasts, August 21, 1979, PART 2 EASTERN EUROPE; A. INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS; 1. GENERAL AND WESTERN AFFAIRS; EE/6199/A1/3
37. Fine, Philip (2003): 'International Union of Students Marks Its Comeback With Call For Worldwide Day of Protest'; The Times Higher Education Supplement, TSL Education Limited, August 8, 2003, No.1601; Pg.2
38. The British Broadcasting Corporation (1992): 'International organisations protest expulsion from Czechoslovakia'; BBC Summary of World Broadcasts, January 15, 1992, Part 2 Eastern Europe; A. INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS; 1. GENERAL AND WESTERN AFFAIRS; EE/1278/A1/ 1
39. The Russian Information Agency ITAR-TASS (1990): 'STUDENTS' SEMINAR DEALS WITH EMPLOYMENT, SEAT OF IUS HQ'; TASS, December 19, 1990, BY TASS CORRESPONDENT NIKOLAI PASKA, HAVANA, DECEMBER 19
40. The Russian Information Agency ITAR-TASS (1990): 'CZECHO-SLOVAKIA DECIDES TO EXPEL IOJ AND IUS FROM COUNTRY'; TASS, November 22, 1990
41. CTK National News Wire (1992): 'INTERNATIONAL UNION OF STUDENTS ANNOUNCES NEW LEADERSHIP'; CTK National News Wire, April 23, 1992, NEWS
42. Fine, Philip (2003): 'International Union Of Students Marks Its Comeback With Call For Worldwide Day of Protest'; The Times Higher Education Supplement, TSL Education Limited, August 8, 2003, No.1601; Pg.2
43. International Union of Students (2000): Report of the Executive Secretariat to The Council and 17th Congress of The International Union of Students. For the Period from February 1992 to March 2000; dated March 19, 2000, p. 2
44. The Irish Times (1994): "Students' Day marked by Dublin march"; The Irish Times, November 18, 1994, CITY EDITION, HOME NEWS; Pg. 4
45. FT Asia Intelligence Wire (1998): 'Free access to education demanded'; The Hindu
46. Jobbins, David (2003): 'Qatar's Iraq Gesture Challenges Us Grip'; The Times Higher Education Supplement, TSL Education Limited, June 27, 2003, No.1595; Pg.11
47. The Economist Newspapers Ltd. (2006): 'Let each stand in his place: Cold war survivors'; The Economist October 28, 2006, U.S. Edition, SECTION: INTERNATIONAL, Dateline: Prague
48. "List of IUS Member Organizations". stud.uni-hannover.de. IUS. Archived from the original on 22 July 2016.

Further reading

• Cornell, Richard (1965): Youth And Communism: An Historical Analysis of International Communist Youth Movements; Walker & Co.: New York
• Clews, John (1952): Students Unite: The International Union of Students and Its Work; foreword by S. Spender, Congress for Cultural Freedom; British Society for Cultural Freedom: Paris (ASIN: B0000CIEJO)
• Maanen, Gert Van (1966): The International Student Movement. History and Background; International Documentation and Information Centre: The Hague

External links

• Official website
• Old (2002) website
• ESU - The European Students' Union: The International Student Movement during the Cold War (1946 - 1969)

[admin]

R. Palme Dutt [Rajani Palme Dutt]
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 3/1/20

When next the temper of Kashmiri politics boiled over, it was Freda rather than B.P.L. who was on the spot and propelled to prominence. In the spring of 1946, Sheikh Abdullah launched the Quit Kashmir movement. While the Congress's earlier Quit India campaign was directed against the British, Sheikh Abdullah was seeking the eviction of Kashmir's royal family and the establishment of representative government. The maharaja responded with repression. Protests were violently dispersed. Sheikh Abdullah was arrested in May 1946; hundreds of his supporters were also detained. Several of his key colleagues managed to reach Lahore. Some leaders of the National Conference, notably G.M. Karra, operated underground. Bedi was in Lahore and too well-known to make the journey to Srinagar without attracting immediate arrest. Freda, by chance, was in Kashmir on a camping holiday with her new baby, Kabir, then just four months old and still being breastfed. On Kabir's nineteenth birthday, Freda wrote him a long and intensely personal letter in which she dwelt on the political drama in which he was caught up.

In summer, we went up to Kashmir as usual. Papa left me in Haji Brar, and went down to Lahore again, promising to return. Then the storm burst. Sheikh Abdullah started the 'Quit Kashmir' agitation. He was promptly jailed along with all his followers. I felt I must do something. What, I didn't know. Srinagar was a long way away and all the people I could discuss things with were behind bars. I came down to Srinagar. You were always with me like my skin, tucked up in your little Moses basket. I daren't leave you for a minute so wherever you + I had to go, we went together.

How can I put in words that painful summer? The police wanted me to leave Kashmir as they knew Papa and I were friends of the rebels. So they issued a notice to me to leave. I wrote on the back of the notice that I didn't accept it, as I didn't recognise the people who issued it. From then on they pursued me. C.I.D. watching, following. I was doing nothing, of course; just feeding you. Whoever I stayed with, the poor boatman, were called and harassed [sic] by the Police. It was so difficult: they wanted to protect me, but I was giving them trouble. Finally, to save the boat people, I took a room in a cheap Punjabi hotel in the city, with a Frontierman Manager, some Peshawari Hindu, I've forgotten his name, but he had a heart of gold. 'Just you sit here and feed that baby,' he said, 'and don't worry about anything.'

But the hotel food made me sick, + my milk began to suffer. It was then that that saintly old man, a Kashmiri Pandit, ... heard of my plight and sent me every morning and evening a tiffin box full of pure vegetarian food. That kept me going, and you too ....

Once, the 'underground' Kashmiri nationalists wanted to meet me, and I was given a 'burqua' (you were tucked away under it, close to my heart) and slipped out of a house I was visiting by the back door, + so reached a room in the centre of the old city.14

In this intimate letter written many years after the events described, Freda downplayed both the bravery and the political significance of her actions. The state authorities' issuing of an 'externment' or deportation order against Freda in June 1946 was widely reported -- so too was her refusal to comply. This was a political trial of will, and Freda could not be sure that if the maharaja's police moved in, she would be gently treated. The British communist Rajani Palme Dutt -- in Kashmir in late July as a public show of support for Sheikh Abdullah -- complained of the 'reign of terror' let loose by the maharaja and his police. He met Bedi in Lahore, noting that he was 'large' and 'robust'. Bedi, in turn, helped to organise meetings for Palme Dutt in Srinagar, including with Freda. 'I saw armed sentries posted on all the bridges and strategic points,' he wrote in Labour Monthly. 'An Indian journalist who accompanied me to Srinagar was subjected to a police raid at night by ten C.I.D. men, who made a complete search of his room, as well as of the room of Freda Bedi in the same hotel. The driver of the car which I had used in Srinagar was ... arrested and beaten up to extract from him information as to my movements.'

Freda's secret meeting was to pass on messages between the National Conference leaders -- presumably those in Lahore -- and those such as G.M. Karra who were operating undercover in Srinagar. In the absence of much of the male leadership of the National Conference, women activists stepped into the breach. At the behest of some of these women, Freda dressed up in clothes which would have disguised her European appearance but hardly made her inconspicuous. '"People wouldn't put me in an old muddy burka," said Freda. "They wanted to dress me in the best they had, and they would go to the bride's chest." In ballooning garments encrusted with embroidery, and with daintily crocheted inserts just big enough for her blue English eyes to peer through, Freda moved about, relaying directives ... Her temporary retreat into purdah had been an experience for her. "It's a strange sensation it gives you," she said. "You're behind a bridge. You have this queer knowledge that you can observe everybody and no one can see you. It's a peculiar mentality that must develop among Muslim women."' Sajida Zameer Ahmed recalls escorting Freda, disguised in a burqa, on a horse-drawn buggy around Srinagar to meet underground activists. She also took on another invaluable role for Freda -- babysitting Kabir so that his mother could devote herself more fully to the political role she had taken on.

-- The Lives of Freda: The Political, Spiritual and Personal Journeys of Freda Bedi, by Andrew Whitehead

Rajani Palme Dutt
Born: 19 June 1896, Cambridge, England
Died: 20 December 1974 (aged 78)
Political party: Communist Party of Great Britain

Rajani Palme Dutt (19 June 1896 – 20 December 1974), generally known as R. Palme Dutt, was a leading journalist and theoretician in the Communist Party of Great Britain.

Biography

Early years

Rajani Palme Dutt was born in 1896 on Mill Road in Cambridge, England. His father, Dr. Upendra Dutt, was a Bengali Hindu surgeon and Indian national, while his mother Anna Palme was Swedish; he was thus half-Bengali and half-Swedish.[1][2]

Anna Augusta Palme Dutt; born January 5, 1868, in Kalmar, H. Sverige, Sweden; daughter of Christian Adolph Palme [Christian Adolph Palme (Kristian Adolf), born 30 April, 1811 in Applerum, Arby, Kalmar, Sverige; died 31 March, 1889 in Kalmar, Kalmar, Sverige; son of Johan Palm and Carolina von Sydow; Secretary of State in Kalmar, lawyer in Kalmar] and Augusta Johanna Amalia Hasselqvist; Sister of Sven Theodor Palme [grandfather of Prime Minister Olof Palme]; married Upendra Krishna Dutt 1890 in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, UK; great aunt of Olof Palme.

Anna Palme was a great aunt of the future Prime Minister of Sweden Olof Palme.[3]

Sven Olof Joachim Palme (/ˈpɑːlmə/; Swedish: [ˈûːlɔf ˈpâlːmɛ]; 30 January 1927 – 28 February 1986) was a Swedish politician and statesman. A longtime protégé of Prime Minister Tage Erlander, Palme led the Swedish Social Democratic Party from 1969 until his assassination in 1986, and was twice Prime Minister of Sweden, heading a Privy Council Government from 1969 to 1976 and a cabinet government from 1982 until his death. Electoral defeats in 1976 and 1979 marked the end of Social Democratic hegemony in Swedish politics, which had seen 40 years of unbroken rule by the party. While leader of the opposition, he parted domestic and international interests and served as special mediator of the United Nations in the Iran–Iraq War, and was President of the Nordic Council in 1979. He returned as Prime Minister after electoral victories in 1982 and 1985.

Palme was a pivotal and polarizing figure domestically as well as in international politics from the 1960s. He was steadfast in his non-alignment policy towards the superpowers, accompanied by support for numerous third world liberation movements following decolonization including, most controversially, economic and vocal support for a number of Third World governments. He was the first Western head of government to visit Cuba after its revolution, giving a speech in Santiago praising contemporary Cuban and Cambodian revolutionaries.

Frequently a critic of United States and Soviet foreign policy, he resorted to fierce and often polarizing criticism in pinpointing his resistance towards imperialist ambitions and authoritarian regimes, including those of Francisco Franco of Spain, Leonid Brezhnev of the Soviet Union, António de Oliveira Salazar of Portugal and Gustáv Husák of Czechoslovakia, as well as John Vorster and P. W. Botha of South Africa. His 1972 condemnation of the Hanoi bombings, notably comparing the tactic to the Treblinka extermination camp, resulted in a temporary freeze in Sweden–United States relations.

Palme's murder on a Stockholm street on 28 February 1986 was the first assassination of a national leader in Sweden since Gustav III in 1792, and had a great impact across Scandinavia. Local convict and addict Christer Pettersson was originally convicted of the murder in district court but was acquitted on appeal to the Svea Court of Appeal.

-- Olof Palme, by Wikipedia

Dutt was educated at The Perse School, Cambridge and Balliol College, Oxford, where he obtained a first class degree in Classics, after being suspended for a time because of his deemed subversive propaganda as a conscientious objector in World War I.[4]

Dutt married an Estonian, Salme Murrik, the sister of Finnish writer Hella Wuolijoki, in 1922. His wife had come to Great Britain in 1920 as a representative of the Communist International.[4]

Salme Murrik was born in Helme Parish, Governorate of Livonia, Russian Empire (present-day Estonia), and spent her childhood in Valga. She was expelled from the A.S. Pushkin Gymnasium in Tartu due to her participation in the Revolution of 1905, and moved to Moscow, and to Siberia, and Finland before settling in Britain. Her first husband was notable Finnish left wing politician Eino Pekkala, brother of Mauno Pekkala.

Eino Oskari Pekkala (29 November 1887 − 30 September 1956) was a Finnish lawyer and politician. He was a member of the Parliament of Finland, representing the Socialist Electoral Organisation of Workers and Smallholders 1927–1930 and the Finnish People's Democratic League 1945–1948...

As the political situation in Finland changed after the World War II, Pekkala was the Minister of Education 1945–1946, and the Minister of Justice 1946–1948...

His brother was the Prime Minister of Finland Mauno Pekkala....

-- Eino Pekkala, by Wikipedia

During the early years of the Communist Party of Great Britain, Murrik, a Comintern agent, acted as Dutt's link to Moscow.

Salme Murrik had been directed to Britain on Lenin's orders to participate in forming the Communist Party there. She remained an ardent admirer of Stalin even after Khruschchev's 1956 secret speech critical of Stalin's cult of personality.

Salme Dutt's treatment of the Chartist movement, When England Arose, was published in 1939. A collection of poems, entitled Lucifer and Other Poems, was published in London in 1966.

-- Salme Pekkala-Dutt, by Wikipedia

Political career

Dutt joined the Labour Research Department, a left wing statistical bureau, in 1919. The following year, he joined the newly formed Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) and in 1921 founded a monthly magazine called Labour Monthly, a publication which he edited until his death.

In 1922, Dutt was named the editor of the CPGB's weekly newspaper, the Workers' Weekly.[4]

Dutt was on the Executive Committee of the CPGB from 1923 until 1965 and was the party's chief theorist for many years.[5]

Dutt first visited the Soviet Union in 1923, where he attended deliberations of the Executive Committee of the Communist International (ECCI) relating to the British movement.[4] He was elected an alternate to the ECCI Presidium in 1924.

Following an illness in 1925 which forced him to stand down as editor of Workers' Weekly, Dutt spent several years in Belgium and Sweden as a representative of the Comintern.[4] He also played an important role for the Comintern by supervising the Communist Party of India for some years.

Palme Dutt was loyal to the Soviet Union and to Leninist ideals. In 1939, when the CPGB General Secretary Harry Pollitt supported the United Kingdom's entry into World War II, it was Palme Dutt who promoted Stalin's line, forcing Pollitt's temporary resignation. As a result, he became the party's General Secretary until Pollitt was reappointed in 1941, after the German invasion of the USSR and consequent reversal of the Communist Party attitude towards World War II.

In his book Fascism and Social Revolution a scathing criticism and analysis of fascism is presented with a study of the rise of fascism in Germany, Italy and other countries, he called fascism a violent authoritarian, ultra nationalist, and irrational theory. In his own words: "Fascism is antithetical to everything of substance within the liberal tradition."[6]

After Stalin's death, Palme Dutt's reaction to Khrushchev's Secret Speech played down its significance, with Dutt arguing that Stalin's "sun" unsurprisingly contained some "spots".[7] A hardliner within the CPGB, he disagreed with its criticisms of the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 and opposed the CPGB's increasingly Eurocommunist line in the 1970s, retiring from his party positions, although remaining a member until his death[8] in 1974. According to historian Geoff Andrews, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was still paying the CPGB around £15,000 a year "for pensions" into the seventies, recipients of which "included Rajani Palme Dutt".[9]

The Labour History Archive and Study Centre at the People's History Museum in Manchester has the papers of Rajani Palme Dutt in their collection, spanning 1908-1971.[10]

Works

Works:[11] 1920: The Sabotage of Europe
1921: Back to Plotinus, Review of Shaw's Back to Methusela: A Metaphysical Pentateuch
1921: Psycho-Analysing the Bolshevik, Review of Kolnai's Psycho-analysis and Sociology
1922: The End of Gandhi
1923: The British Empire
1923: The Issue in Europe
1926: The Meaning of the General Strike (pamphlet)
1926: Trotsky and His English Critics
1928: Indian Awakening
1931: India
1931: Capitalism or Socialism in Britain? (pamphlet)[12]
1933: Democracy and Fascism (pamphlet)
1933: A Note on the Falsification of Engels’ Preface to “Marx’s ‘Class Struggles in France”
1934: Fascism and Social Revolution
1935: The Question of Fascism and Capitalist Decay
1935: British Policy and Nazi Germany
1935: The British-German Alliance in the Open
1935: For a united Communist Party: an appeal to I.L.P'ers and to all revolutionary workers
1936: In Memory of Shapurji Saklatvala
1936: Anti-Imperialist People's Front in India, written with Ben Bradley
1936: Left Nationalism in India
1938: On the Eve of the Indian National Congress, with Harry Pollitt and Ben Bradley
1938: The Philosophy of a Natural Scientist
1938: The Philosophy of a Natural Scientist, a Rejoinder to Levy
1938: Review of Marx & Engels on the U.S. Civil War
1939: Why this War? (pamphlet)[13]
1940: Twentieth Anniversary of the Communist Party of Great Britain
1940: India Today[14]
1947: Declaration on Palestine, at the Empire Communist Parties Conference, London on 26 February to 3 March 1947
1949: Introductory Report on Election Programme
1953: Stalin and the Future
1953: The crisis of Britain and the British Empire
1963: Problems of Contemporary History
1967: Whither China?[15]

Footnotes

1. Gopalkrishna Gandhi, Of a Certain Age: Twenty Life Sketches, Penguin Books, pp. 135, 2011
2. Faruque Ahmed, Bengal Politics in Britain – Logic, Dynamics & Disharmony pp. 57, 2010.
3. Henrik Berggren, Underbara dagar framför oss. En biografi över Olof Palme, Stockholm: Norstedts, 2010; p.659
4. Colin Holmes "Rajani Palme Dutt", in A. Thomas Lane (ed.), Biographical Dictionary of European Labor Leaders, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1995; vol. 2, p.284
5. Francis Beckett Enemy Within: The Rise and Fall of the British Communist Party, London: John Murray, 1995
6. Roberts, Edwin A. (1997). The Anglo-Marxists: A Study in Ideology and Culture. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9780847683963.
7. Rajani Palme Dutt - Biography Archived 15 March 2010 at the Wayback Machine
8. J. Callaghan, Rajani Palme Dutt. London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1993.
9. Geoff Andrews, Endgames and New Times, The Final Years of British Communism 1964–1991, Lawrence and Wishart, London 2004, p. 94
10. Collection Catalogues and Descriptions, Labour History Archive and Study Centre
11. Dutt, R. Palme. "R. Palme Dutt Archive". http://www.marxists.org. Retrieved 9 February 2018.
12. Dutt, Rajani Palme (1931). Capitalism or socialism in Britain?. Communist Party of Great Britain.
13. Dutt, Rajani Palme (1939). Why this war?. Communist Party of Great Britain.
14. Dutt, Rajani Palme (1949). India today. People's Publishing House.
15. Dutt, Rajani Palme; Britain, Communist Party of Great (1967). Whither China?. Communist Party.

External links

• Fascism and Social Revolution: A Study of the economics and Politics of the Extreme Stages of Capitalism in Decay (1934)
• The Internationale (1964)
• R. Palme Dutt Archive Marxists Internet Archive
• Resistance to the Soul : Gandhi and His Critics

***************************

R. Palme Dutt, 79, British Marxist: Chief Voice of Marxism
by Robert D. McFadden
The New York Times
Dec. 21, 1974

LONDON, Dec. 20—R. Palme Dutt, a founder and for many years the leading theoretician of the British Communist party, died here today after a long illness. He was 79 years old.

The author of a score of books and dozens of articles and polemic tracts, Rajani Palme Dutt was for many years the chief voice of British Marxism, an opponent of colonial empire and distinctions of class and air advocate of peace, health and education reforms and a variety of less popular causes.

One of the founding members of the British Communist party in 1920, he served on the party's executive committee from 1922 to 1965. In addition to his role as party theoretician, he was vice chairman from 1956 to 1965, when he resigned, in leadership shuffle.

Mr. Dutt was the first editor of The Workers' Weekly from 1922 to 1924, and was editor of its successor, The Daily Worker, from 1936 to 1938. He also edited The Labour Monthly from 1921 until his death.

A tall, thin intellectual who wore conservative suits and bifocals, parted his grayish hair in the middle and listed his leisure interests in the International Who's Who as “anything except sports,” Mr. Dutt was known in British Communist circles as a hard‐liner on many controversial issues.

But this hard line most often hewed to the official Soviet view of international policy. He opposed British entry into World War II, for example, until the Soviet Union was invaded by Germany and entered the fight.

[b]Opposed NATO Formation

Similarly, he opposed the establishment of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, supported the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 and opposed Chinese Communist ideologies generally.[/b]

Mr. Dutt was born at Cambridge in 1896, the son of Upendra Krishna Dutt, an Indian physician, and Anna Palme Dutt, who was Swedish and Finnish. He attended the Perse School at Cambridge and Balliol College at Oxford, achieving honors in his studies. But his political activities led to a brief imprisonment in 1916 and he was expelled from Oxford in 1917 for Marxist propagandizing.

Mr. Dutt twice ran unsuccessfully for Parliament on the Communist ticket, in Birmingham in 1945 and in East Woolwich in 1950. He was supported in his first campaign by George Bernard Shaw, who contended that the candidate stood for “intelligence, knowledge of the world and essential righteousness.”

The University of Moscow conferred an honorary doctorate of history on Mr. Dutt in 1962, and he was the recipient of the Lenin Centenary Medal in 1970.

Mr. Dutt's books included “The Life and Teachings of V. I. Lenin,” published in 1934; “World Politics,” 1936; “The Problem of India,” 1943, and “The Crisis of Britain and the British Empire,” 1953.

In a review of “The Problem of India” in The New York Times Book Review on Sept. 5, 1943, Bertram D. Wolfe called the book “a veritable arsenal of arguments for India's freedom.” “World Politics,” was described in a 1936 review in The Times as a “sweeping and often persuasive survey of world politics.”

Mr. Dutt himself was often characterized unfavorably in the western press, particularly during the late nineteen‐forties and early fifties.

[admin]

Anna Louise Strong
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 3/17/20

In Old Tibet there were small numbers of farmers who subsisted as a kind of free peasantry, and perhaps an additional 10,000 people who composed the "middle-class" families of merchants, shopkeepers, and small traders. Thousands of others were beggars. A small minority were slaves, usually domestic servants, who owned nothing. Their offspring were born into slavery. (13)

In 1953, the greater part of the rural population -- some 700,000 of an estimated total population of 1,250,000 -- were serfs. Tied to the land, they were allotted only a small parcel to grow their own food. Serfs and other peasants generally went without schooling or medical care. They spent most of their time laboring for the monasteries and individual high-ranking lamas, or for a secular aristocracy that numbered not more than 200 wealthy families. In effect, they were owned by their masters who told them what crops to grow and what animals to raise. They could not get married without the consent of their lord or lama. A serf might easily be separated from his family should the owner send him to work in a distant location. Serfs could be sold by their masters, or subjected to torture and death. (14)

A Tibetan lord would often take his pick of females in the serf population, if we are to believe one 22-year old woman, herself a runaway serf: "All pretty serf girls were usually taken by the owner as house servants and used as he wished." They "were just slaves without rights." (15) Serfs needed permission to go anywhere. Landowners had legal authority to capture and forcibly bring back those who tried to flee. A 24-year old runaway serf, interviewed by Anna Louise Strong, welcomed the Chinese intervention as a "liberation." During his time as a serf he claims he was not much different from a draft animal, subjected to incessant toil, hunger, and cold, unable to read or write, and knowing nothing at all. He tells of his attempts to flee:

The first time [the landlord's men] caught me running away, I was very small, and they only cuffed me and cursed me. The second time they beat me up. The third time I was already fifteen and they gave me fifty heavy lashes, with two men sitting on me, one on my head and one on my feet. Blood came then from my nose and mouth. The overseer said: "This is only blood from the nose; maybe you take heavier sticks and bring some blood from the brain." They beat then with heavier sticks and poured alcohol and water with caustic soda on the wounds to make more pain. I passed out for two hours. (16) [16. Strong, Tibetan Interviews, 31.]

In addition to being under a lifetime bond to work the lord's land -- or the monastery's land -- without pay, the serfs were obliged to repair the lord's houses, transport his crops, and collect his firewood. They were also expected to provide carrying animals and transportation on demand. "It was an efficient system of economic exploitation that guaranteed to the country's religious and secular elites a permanent and secure labor force to cultivate their land holdings without burdening them either with any direct day-to-day responsibility for the serf's subsistence and without the need to compete for labor in a market context." (17)

The common people labored under the twin burdens of the corvée (forced unpaid labor on behalf of the lord) and onerous tithes. They were taxed upon getting married, taxed for the birth of each child, and for every death in the family. They were taxed for planting a new tree in their yard, for keeping domestic or barnyard animals, for owning a flower pot, or putting a bell on an animal. There were taxes for religious festivals, for singing, dancing, drumming, and bell ringing. People were taxed for being sent to prison and upon being released. Even beggars were taxed. Those who could not find work were taxed for being unemployed, and if they traveled to another village in search of work, they paid a passage tax. When people could not pay, the monasteries lent them money at 20 to 50 percent interest. Some debts were handed down from father to son to grandson. Debtors who could not meet their obligations risked being placed into slavery for as long as the monastery demanded, sometimes for the rest of their lives. (18)

The theocracy's religious teachings buttressed its class order. The poor and afflicted were taught that they had brought their troubles upon themselves because of their foolish and wicked ways in previous lives. Hence they had to accept the misery of their present existence as an atonement and in anticipation that their lot would improve upon being reborn. The rich and powerful of course treated their good fortune as a reward for -- and tangible evidence of -- virtue in past and present lives....

For the Tibetan upper class lamas and lords, the Communist intervention was a calamity. Most of them fled abroad, as did the Dalai Lama himself, who was assisted in his flight by the CIA. Some discovered to their horror that they would have to work for a living. Those feudal elites who remained in Tibet and decided to cooperate with the new regime faced difficult adjustments. Consider the following:

In 1959, Anna Louise Strong visited the Central Institute of National Minorities in Beijing which trained various ethnic minorities for the civil service or prepared them for entrance into agricultural and medical schools. Of the 900 Tibetan students attending, most were runaway serfs and slaves. But about 100 were from privileged Tibetan families, sent by their parents so that they might win favorable posts in the new administration. The class divide between these two groups of students was all too evident. As the institute's director noted:

Those from noble families at first consider that in all ways they are superior. They resent having to carry their own suitcases, make their own beds, look after their own room. This, they think, is the task of slaves; they are insulted because we expect them to do this. Some never accept it but go home; others accept it at last. The serfs at first fear the others and cannot sit at ease in the same room. In the next stage they have less fear but still feel separate and cannot mix. Only after some time and considerable discussion do they reach the stage in which they mix easily as fellow students, criticizing and helping each other. (42)

The émigrés' plight received fulsome play in the West and substantial support from U.S. agencies dedicated to making the world safe for economic inequality. Throughout the 1960s the Tibetan exile community secretly received $1.7 million a year from the CIA, according to documents released by the State Department in 1998. Once this fact was publicized, the Dalai Lama's organization itself issued a statement admitting that it had received millions of dollars from the CIA during the 1960s to send armed squads of exiles into Tibet to undermine the Maoist revolution. The Dalai Lama's annual share was $186,000, making him a paid agent of the CIA.

-- Friendly Feudalism: The Tibet Myth, by Michael Parenti

Anna Louise Strong Book

A more dramatic piece of evidence — and a reason why the CPSU at this time may have been unwilling to publish the seemingly innocuous statement above, which in subsequent years has been repeated many times by Moscow — was provided by the case of Anna Louise Strong and her book, "Tomorrow's China." This book, based on a year's stay in China from July 1946 to July 1947 and on repeated conversations with the top CCP leaders, was published by the Communist press of many countries late in 1948 and early in 1949. In India, it was published by the CPI's People's Publishing House of Bombay in the fall of 1948 under the title "Dawn Out of China." In this work Miss Strong paid repeated tribute to the experience and authority of the Chinese Communist party and Mao and the particular and unique relevance of Mao's teachings to the revolutions of Asia. She even went so far as to state explicitly that "it is to Mao Tse-tung and to Communist China much more than to present-day Moscow that the nationalist revolutions of Indonesia, Indo-China, Burma, look for their latest, most practical ideas," and that Mao's strategy was made to fit such peoples because China's problems are similar to theirs. Mao's analysis of China's revolution, she said, "is studied eagerly in the colonial lands of Southeast Asia;" and she thought that "Marxists all over the world agree that in order to understand the modern problems of Asia, it is necessary to study Mao's thought," since Mao was the "first Marxist in Asia" to succeed in applying Marxist principles to new conditions and in giving those principles a new development.

One aspect of the Maoist teachings thus lauded by this book is the "New Democracy" line calling for an alliance with the middle bourgeoisie and preservation of some native capitalism for the sake of the common struggle against imperialism and its adherents. In a later private conversation, Anna Louise Strong stated that in her last interview with Mao in 1947, she declared her intention to bring this Maoist line for the anti-imperialist struggle to the attention of other Asian Communist parties; thereupon, according to her account, Mao interrupted her to urge that she bring it to the attention of the Russians as well. In fact, after her book had already been published by a number of Communist parties, she did visit the Soviet Union in an effort to get the work published there, and appears to have been naively surprised at the insistence of the Moscow publishing house that drastic changes be made in the text. Finally, she was arrested in Moscow in February in 1949, charged with espionage, and subsequently expelled from the country. Her old friend Borodin, who had attempted to help her in dealing with the Moscow publishers, was also arrested and later died in prison.

-- The Indian Communist Party and the Sino-Soviet Dispute, by Office of Current Intelligence, Central Intelligence Agency

Resolutions... Through a Child's Eyes, by Dr. Anna Louise Strong...Strong, Dr. Anna Louise, National Child Welfare Exhibition Com., New York, N. Y.

-- Proceedings of the first National Conference on Race Betterment, Battle Creek, Michigan, January 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 1914, published by the Race Betterment Foundation

He is a distant cousin of Anna Louise Strong.

-- Maurice Strong, by Wikipedia

Anna Louise Strong
Ms. Strong in Moscow, 1937
Born: November 24, 1885, Friend, Nebraska, U.S.
Died: March 29, 1970 (aged 84), Beijing, China
Alma mater: Bryn Mawr College; Oberlin College; University of Chicago
Spouse(s): Joel Shubin (1931–1942)

Anna Louise Strong (November 24, 1885 – March 29, 1970) was a 20th-century American journalist and activist, best known for her reporting on and support for communist movements in the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China.[1][2][3][4] She wrote over 30 books and varied articles.[5]

Biography

Early years

Strong was born on November 14, 1885, in a "two-room parsonage" in Friend, Nebraska, the "Middle West," to parents who were middle class liberals active in the Congregational Church and missionary work.[6][7][4][8][9] She lived with her family from 1887 to 1891 in Mount Vernon, Ohio and in Cincinnati beginning in 1891.[7] Her father, Sydney Dix Strong, was a Social Gospel minister in the Congregational Church, active in missionary work, and dedicated pacifist.[10][1][9] Strong worked quickly through grammar and high school, and then studied languages in Europe.[6]

She first attended Pennsylvania's Bryn Mawr College from 1903 to 1904, then graduated from Oberlin College in Ohio in 1905 where she later returned to speak many times.[6][7][8] In 1908, at the age of 23, she finished her education and received a PhD in philosophy from the University of Chicago with a thesis later published as The Social Psychology of Prayer.[1][7][4][11][12][8][9] Being an advocate for child welfare while she worked for the United States Education Office, joining the National Child Labor Committee around the same time, she organized an exhibit and toured it extensively throughout the United States and abroad.[1][6][7] When she brought it to Seattle, in May 1914, 6,000 people came to visit it every day, culminating with an audience, on May 31, of 40,000 people.[6]

At this point, Strong was still convinced that capitalism was responsible for poverty, and sufferings of the working class.[6] She was 30 years old when she returned to Seattle to live with her father, then pastor of Queen Anne Congregational Church.[4] Living with her father from 1916 to 1921, she favored the political climate there, which was pro-labor and progressive, with "radicalizing events" like the Seattle General Strike and Everett massacre.[1][6][4]

Strong also enjoyed mountain climbing. She organized cooperative summer camps in the Cascades and led climbing parties up Mt. Rainier, leading to the Washington Alpine Club, formed in 1916.[6][13]

Political career


Anna Louise Strong at the time of her recall from the Seattle School Board in 1918.

In 1916, Strong ran for the Seattle School Board and won easily due to the support she garnered from women's groups and organized labor and to her work on child welfare.[6][7][4][9] She was the only female board member.[1][6] She argued that the public schools should offer social service programs for underprivileged children, with these schools serving as community centers, but other members wanted to "devote meetings to mundane matters like plumbing fixtures."[6][4]

The year she was elected to the Seattle School Board, the Everett massacre happened. The New York Evening Post hired her as a stringer to report on the conflict between armed guards, hired by Everett mill owners, and the Industrial Workers of the World (or "Wobblies").[6][4] Quickly dropping her neutrality, she soon became an dedicated spokesperson for workers' rights.[6][4]

Strong's endorsement of left-wing causes set her apart from her colleagues on the school board.[6] She opposed war as a pacifist. When the United States entered World War I in April 1917, she spoke out against the draft.[6][4] On one hand, the Parent-Teacher Association and women's clubs joined her in opposing military training in the schools, but the former military veterans of the Spanish–American War, the Seattle Minute Men, took a jingoistic tone, branding her as "unpatriotic."[6][4] The same year, she wrote a letter to the Department of Justice, saying[14]

...it is quite commonly felt in this vicinity that persons with personal grudges need only call in the Department of Justice and lodge complaint, in order to make life miserable for the person they complain against...it has become increasingly evident, however, at least in this vicinity, that the activities of the Department of Justice are doing more than any other one thing to create distrust, suspicion, and dissension among the American people...Wild accusations and attempts to injure persons and organizations who cannot be prosecuted because of lack of evidence does not tend to create confidence in the government...it is my hope that somewhere in your department I may reach some person who sincerely desires to create within this country the unity of democratic loyalty, rather than the hidden disunion of fear.

The pacifist stance of the Wobblies led to mass arrests at the Seattle office where Louise Olivereau was a typist. Olivereau had been mailing mimeographed circulars to draftees urging them to become conscientious objectors.[6] [4] In 1918, Strong stood by Olivereau's side in the courtroom as she was found guilty of sedition and sent to prison.[6][4]

After this, Strong's fellow school board members were quick to launch a recall campaign against her due to her association with the IWW, and won by a narrow margin.[1][6][9] She appeared at their next meeting to argue that they must appoint a woman as her successor. Her former colleagues acceded to her request, but they made it clear that they wanted a mainstream, patriotic representative, a mother with children in the schools. They replaced Anna Louise Strong with Evangeline C. Harper, a prominent country club woman in 1918.[6][4][9] As a result, Strong went "elsewhere in search of socialism in practice" with her search bringing her first to the Soviet Union where she stayed from 1921 to 1940 for part of the year, returning to the U.S. "for a lecture tour, usually between January and April."[1][3]

Journalistic career

Strong became openly associated with the Seattle’s labor-owned daily newspaper, The Union Record, writing forceful pro-labor articles and promoting the new Soviet government.[1][6][7][4][9] On February 6, 1919, two days before the beginning of the Seattle General Strike of 1919, she proclaimed in her famous editorial: "We are undertaking the most tremendous move ever made by labor in this country, a move which will lead — NO ONE KNOWS WHERE!"[6][4][15][16] The strike shut down the city for four days and then ended peacefully and with its goals still unattained.


1921 in Samara, Russia, for the American Friends Service Committee.

At a loss as to what to do she took her friend Lincoln Steffens' advice and in 1921 traveled to Poland and Russia serving as a correspondent for the American Friends Service Committee.[6][9] The purpose of going was to provide the first foreign relief to the Volga famine victims. After a year of that, she was named Moscow correspondent for the International News Service.[4][9] Strong drew many observations while in Europe which inspired her to write. Some of her works are The First Time in History (preface by Leon Trotsky) (1924), and Children of Revolution (1925).[4][17][18]

After remaining in the area for several years, Strong grew to become an enthusiastic supporter of socialism in the newly formed Soviet Union, supporting herself as a foreign correspondent for varying "radical American newspapers" and others such as The Nation.[6][19][20] In 1925, during the era of the New Economic Policy in the USSR, she returned to the United States to arouse interest among businessmen in industrial investment and development in the Soviet Union. During this time Strong also lectured widely and became well known as an authority on "soft news" (e.g. How to get an apartment) about the USSR. As she continued to "wave the banner for the needy and downtrodden" wherever there was a revolution there was "Ms. Strong," and she became further convinced that "socialism might be the answer" to problems in the world.[7] There were even invitations sent out to "hear Anna Louise Strong discuss her travels in Russia."[21]

In the late 1920s, Strong travelled in China and other parts of Asia. She became friends with Soong Ching-ling and Zhou Enlai. As always her travels led to books: China's Millions (1928), Red Star in Samarkand (1929). It was during this time that she became friends with "Communist leader Zhou Enlai."[4] She would visit China in 1925, meeting with Feng Yuxiang and Soong Qing-ling and again in 1927, witnessing the failure of KMT-CPC cooperation, leading to her book, " China's Millions" which was published in the United States.[11]

In 1930 she returned to Moscow and helped found Moscow News, the first English-language newspaper in the city.[4][7][9] She was managing editor for a year and then became a featured writer. In 1931 she married fellow socialist and journalist Joel Shubin, and they remained married until his death in 1942.[22] While Shubin often accompanied Strong during her return trips to the United States, the two were often separated due to work commitments. According to Rewi Alley's account, Strong later said: "perhaps we married because we were both so doggone lonely ... but we were very happy."[1]

While living in the Soviet Union she became more enthused with the Soviet government and wrote many books praising it. They include: The Soviets Conquer Wheat (1931), an updated version of China's Millions: The Revolutionary Struggles from 1927 to 1935 (1935), the best-selling autobiographical I Change Worlds: the Remaking of an American (1935), This Soviet World (1936), and The Soviet Constitution (1937).[4][9] She also wrote several articles for The American Mercury praising Soviet life.[23]

In 1936 she returned once again to the United States. Quietly and privately distressed with developments in the USSR (The "Great Purges"), she continued to write for leading periodicals, including The Atlantic Monthly, Harper's, The Nation and Asia.[4][9][24]

A visit to Spain resulted in Spain in Arms (1937); visits to China, visiting anti-Japanese "base areas," leading to her book, One Fifth of Mankind (1938).[11] In 1940 she published My Native Land, the same year that she journeyed to China and met Zhou Enlai several times.[11] The following year, she exposed the plot by Chiang Kai-Shek to divide the "united front" against Japan in the 15-page article, "The Kuomintang-communist crisis in China; a first-hand account of one of the most critical periods in Far Eastern history" published in March.[11][25] Other books include The Soviets Expected It (1941); the novel Wild River (1943), set in Russia; Peoples of the U.S.S.R. (1944), I Saw the New Poland (1946) (based on her reporting from Poland as she accompanied the occupying Red Army); and three books on the success of the early Communist Party of China in the Chinese Civil War.[4] In her book, "The Soviets Expected It," Strong wrote that "the unbroken rise of Stalin's prestige for twenty years both within the Soviet Union and beyond its borders is really worth attention by students of politics."[26]

While in the USSR she travelled throughout the huge nation, including the Ukraine, Kuznetsk, Stalingrad, Kiev, Siberia, Central Asia, Uzbekistan, and many more.[4] She also travelled into Poland, Germany, and Britain. While in the Soviet Union, Strong met with Joseph Stalin, Vyacheslav Molotov, and many other Soviet officials.[4] She also interviewed farmers, pedestrians, and factory workers.[27] She wrote articles for newspapers and magazines, along with pamphlets as well, gaining "many friends and to become very popular throughout the world."[7] At the same time, she created "suspicion regarding her political loyalties" among the Soviets and the FBI who gained a large file on Strong herself.[7][3][9] Through all this, she stayed committed to the Soviet political project, defending the USSR from anti-communism, but favoring the Chinese more than the Soviets as time went on, especially after the Soviets expelled her.[3][9][28]

In World War II, when the Red Army began its advance against Nazi Germany, Strong stayed in the rear following the soldiers through Warsaw, Łódź and Gdańsk. Her overtly pro-Chinese Communist sympathies, which had been fostered by her visits to China in 1925 and until 1947 in which she interviewed Chinese Communist leaders like Mao Zedong, may have led to her "arrest, imprisonment and expulsion" from the USSR in 1949, reportedly claiming she was an "American spy," a charge which was reportedly repeated years later, in 1953, by a Soviet newspaper, Izvestia.[1][4][8][9][29] After this, she was cut off from the USSR, shunned by Communists in the United States, and denied a passport by the U.S. government, settling in California where she wrote, lectured, and "invested in real estate."[1] In 1955, she was finally cleared of Soviet charges against her, which the CIA thought was a "gesture to the Chinese Communists." By 1958 her passport was restored, after she won a case at the U.S. Supreme Court, and she immediately went back to China, where she remained until her death.[1][11][8][9][30][31] She was one of the only Westerners to gain "the admiration of Mao Tse-tung."[6]

Living in China


Strong with Mao Zedong in 1967

Strong met W. E. B. Du Bois, who visited Communist China during the Great Leap Forward in the late 1950s, with a photograph of Mao Zedong, Anna Louise Strong, and W. E. B. Du Bois taken on one of Du Bois's trips in circa 1959.[32] Neither Du Bois or Strong ever supported famine-related criticisms of the Great Leap. Strong wrote a book titled When Serfs Stood Up in Tibet based on her experience during this period, which include the Chinese incorporation of Tibet, and criticized individuals such as Allen Dulles, calling him "a man bound by dull words."[11][33] By 1966, Strong had become an "honorary member of the Red Guards" who returned to the Soviet Union from time to time.[3][8][9]

Partly from fear of losing her passport should she return to the USA, she settled permanently in China until her death, publishing a "Letter from China."[3][4] During that time she fostered a close relationship with Zhou Enlai and was on familiar terms with Mao Zedong.[34] It was in an interview with her, in August 1946, that Mao propagated his famous catchphrase of "paper tigers".[35][11][36][37]

Two years after that, she made a keynote speech on China's realities and tried to change the stance of the U.S. government in backing the Chinese nationalists.[11] Strong lived in the old Italian Legation in Beijing which had been converted into flats for the leading "foreign friends". They were allocated on the "bleak basis" of seniority; New Zealand civil servant Gerald Hensley recalled that when he visited Rewi Alley in 1973 Alley was living in the best downstairs front apartment which had been allocated to Strong until she died, at which time Alley moved into it and everyone else moved on one place.[34] Through all of this, she became "disaffected with political systems and people" but did not lose her zeal for justice, continuing to write, with Chinese publishers republishing "much of her writing as a Works set."[7][3] She was not stopped, even by her old age, in her dedication to "Marxist doctrine," especially in China and across the world, writing emotional and colorful accounts which were very popular.[8]

In the later part of her life, Strong was "honored and revered by the Chinese," despite reports in the Toronto Star that the Red Guards were calling her an "imperialist agent," and even remained "in the good graces of the Chinese through the cultural revolution" with Chinese leaders considering her "their unofficial spokesperson to the English speaking world."[1][8][38]

Strong died in a hospital in Beijing (then Peking) on March 29, 1970, pulling out her "intravenous tubes and had refused to eat and take medication." Before her death, she had important visitors like Premier Zhou Enlai who encouraged her to cooperate with the doctors in the hospital because "you have important things to do for us and the rest of the world," Guo Moruo and other "high government officials.[7][4][8][9] After her death, there was "mourning and memorial throughout China" with Strong buried in Beijing's "Revolutionary Martyrs' Cemetery."[39][11]

Legacy

Strong's papers reside at the Libraries Special Collections at the University of Washington in Seattle.[4] Within the papers of Eleanor Roosevelt are "reports from Anna Louise Strong during and after her visits to Russia and China" although this does not mean there was any relationship, professionally, between Strong and Eleanor.[40] Strong's distant cousin Maurice Strong, would play an important role in the environmental movement, including in the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).[41]

Selected works

Fiction

• - (1904). Storm Songs and Fables. Chicago: Langston Press.
• - (1908). King's Palace. Illinois: Oak Leaves. (one-act play)
• - (c. 1908). The Song of the City. Oak Park, Illinois: Oak Leaves Company.
• - (1937). Ragged Verse. Seattle: Piggott-Washington. (poems, by Anise)
• - (1943). Wild River. Boston: Little, Brown. (novel, set in Ukraine)
• - (1951). God and the Millionaires. Montrose, California: Middlebury College. (poems, by Anise)

Religious tracts and social work

• - (1906). Biographical Studies in the Bible. Pilgrim Press. (co-author with Sydney Strong, her father)
• - (1906–1908). Bible Hero Classics. Hope Publishing Company. (co-author with Sydney Strong, her father), including The story of Jacob in words of the Scripture (found in Genesis) and likely the
• - (1909). The Psychology of Prayer. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
• - (1911). Boys and Girls of the Bible. Chicago: Howard-Severance.
• - (1914). On the Eve of Home Rule: snapshots of Ireland in the momentous summer of 1914. Austin: O'Connell Press.
• - (1915). Child-welfare Exhibits: Types and Preparation. Washington: Government Printing Office.

Reportage and travelogues

• - (1924). The First Time in History: Two Years of Russia's New Life. New York: Boni & Liveright. (with preface by Leon Trotsky), also on Internet Archive.
• - (1925). Children of Revolution; story of the John Reed Children's Colony on the Volga, which is as well a story of the whole great structure of Russia. Seattle: Sydney Strong.
• - (1930). Modern Farming – Soviet Style: The Revolution in the Russian Village. Boston: International Publishers., also available at Hathi Trust.
• - (1931). The Road to the Grey Pamir. Boston: Little, Brown & Company.
• - (1931). The Soviets Conquer Wheat. New York: Henry Holt and Company.
• - (1935). China's millions: the revolutionary struggles from 1927 to 1935. New York: Knight Publishing Company.
• - (1936). The Soviet World. New York: Henry Holt and Company.
• - (1937). Spain in Arms, 1937. New York: Henry Holt and Company.
• - (1937). The New Soviet Constitution: A Study in Socialist Democracy. New York: Henry Holt and Company.
• - (1938). One-fifth of mankind. New York: Modern Age Books.
• - (1941). Lithuania's New Way. Boston: Lawrence and Wishart.
• - (1942). The Soviets Expected It. New York: The Dial Press.
• - (1944). Peoples of the USSR. New York: The Macmillan Company., second printing in 1945.
• - (1946). I Saw The New Poland. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company.
• - (1948). Tomorrow's China. New York: Committee for a Democratic Far Eastern Policy.
• - (1949). Inside North Korea: an Eye-witness Report. Montrose, California.
• - (1956). The Stalin Era. New York: Mainstream Publishers., also in a PDF format.
• - (1959). The rise of the Chinese people's communes. Peking: New World Press.
• - (1959). Tibetan interviews. Peking: New World Press.
• - (1960). When Serfs Stood Up in Tibet. Peking: New World Press., also on Internet Archive
• - (1962). Cash and Violence in Laos and Vietnam. New York: Mainstream Publishers.
• - (1963). Letters from China, Numbers 1–10. Peking: New World Press.

Autobiography

• - (1935). I Change Worlds: the Remaking of an American. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. (republished 1979 by The Seal Press, Seattle—the Introduction by Barbara Wilson contains the statement: "She left behind a second volume of autobiography which, so far, has remained in China.")

See also

• Agnes Smedley
• Edgar Snow
• Mikhail Borodin
• Rewi Alley
• Helen Foster Snow

Notes

• See Judith Nies. Nine Women: Portraits from the American Radical Tradition, University of California Press, 2002, ISBN 0-520-22965-7 p. 166

References

1. Archives West, "Anna Louise Strong papers, 1885-1971," deriving from this page, accessed January 26, 2018. Archived here.
2. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Anna Louise Strong: American journalist and scholar, accessed January 26, 2018.
3. John Cory, "TV: 'WITNESS TO REVOLUTION,' ANNA LOUISE STRONG, The New York Times, March 22, 1986.
4. "Today in history: Anna Louise Strong is born, changes worlds," People's World, November 24, 2015.
5. University of Pennsylvania, "Online Books by Anna Louise Strong," accessed January 26, 2018.
6. Mildred Andrews, "Strong, Anna Louise (1885-1970)," HistoryLink, November 7, 1998.
7. B. K. Clinker, "Anna Louise Strong (1885-1970)," Knox Historical Society, 2004, accessed January 26, 2018.
8. Reuters, "Anna Louise Strong Dies in Peking at 84," reprinted in The New York Times, March 30, 1970, accessed January 26, 2018.
9. Darren Selter, "Witness to Revolution: The Story of Anna Louise Strong," University of Washington, accessed January 26, 2018.
10. Hughes, Heather. First President: A Life of John Dube, Founding President of the ANC. Auckland Park, South Africa: Jacana Media. p. 116. ISBN 1770098135.
11. China Daily, "Anna Louise Strong," September 29, 2010, accessed January 26, 2018.
12. Anna Louise Strong, "A Consideration of Prayer from the Standpoint of Social Psychology," 1908, accessed January 26, 2018.
13. Dave Galvin, "Sahalie Historical Note #9:Our Neighbors, Washington Alpine Club," January 2011, accessed January 26, 2018.
14. Anna Louise Strong, "Letter to the Department of Justice in Washington, DC from Anna Louise Strong in Seattle, Dec. 14, 1917," Marxist History, accessed January 26, 2018.
15. Anna Louise Strong, "No One Knows Where," The Seattle Union Record, February 4, 1919, p. 1; Marxists Internet Archive, accessed January 26, 2018.
16. Rebecca G. Jackson, "The Politics of Gender in the Writings of Anna Louise Strong," Seattle General Strike Project, 1999, accessed January 26, 2018.
17. Anna Louise Strong, "Children of Revolution," Piggott Printing, 1925; Marxists Internet Archive, accessed January 26, 2018.
18. Anna Louise Strong, "The First Time in History," Boni & Liveright, 1925; Marxists Internet Archive, accessed January 26, 2018.
19. Anna Louise Strong, "Stalin 'The Voice of the Party' Breaks Trotsky: The Rubber-Stamp Secretary Versus the Fiery Idealist Sidelights on the Russian Revolution," Gateway, mid-December 1925, pp. 18-24; Marxists Internet Archive, accessed January 26, 2018.
20. Anna Louise Strong, "Moscow Looks at Dumbarton Oaks," The Nation, accessed January 26, 2018.
21. Invitation to meet Miss Anna Louise Strong, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries Special Collections and University ArchivesW. E. B. Du Bois Papers, 1803-1999 (bulk 1877-1963), accessed January 26, 2018.
22. Cattoi, Louise (February 26, 1984). "Strong live, strongly written". The Milwaukee Journal via Google News Archive Search. Retrieved March 10, 2016.
23. See, e.g., "We Soviet Wives,"(August 1934), "The Soviets Fight Bureaucracy," (September 1934), and "The Soviet 'Dictatorship'" (October 1934).
24. Anna Louise Strong, "The Terrorists' Trial," Soviet Russia Today, Vol. 5 No. 8, October 1936, accessed January 26, 2018.
25. Anna Louise Strong, "The Kuomintang-communist crisis in China: a first-hand account of one of the most critical periods in Far Eastern history," Reprinted from 'Amerasia,' March 1941, accessed January 26, 2018.
26. Strong, "Stalin," The Soviets Expected It, The Dial Press, New York, 1941, pp. 46-64; Marxists Internet Archive, accessed January 26, 2018.
27. Anna Louise Strong, "Women in The Stalin Era," accessed January 26, 2018.
28. Jack Brad, "Peking versus Moscow: the case of Anna Louise Strong, part 1," Worker's Liberty, October 8, 2009, accessed January 26, 2018.
29. "SOVIET AUTHOR BARES RECORD OF U.S. SPIES AGAINST USSR," CIA reprint of article, February 9, 1953, accessed January 26, 2018.
30. CIA, "SOVIET REVERSAL OF CHARGES AGAINST ANNA LOUISE STRONG SEEN AS GESTURE TO PEIPING," 1955, accessed January 26, 2018.
31. "Strong, Anna Louise," Nebraska Historical Society, accessed January 26, 2018.
32. University of Massachusetts Amherst, "Mao Zedong, Anna Louise Strong, and W. E. B. Du Bois, ca. 1959," University of Massachusetts Amherst, accessed January 26, 2018.
33. CIA, "Anna Louise Strong," 1958, accessed January 26, 2018.
34. Final Approaches: A Memoir by Gerald Hensley, page 171 (2006, Auckland University Press)
35. Lary, Diana (2015). China's Civil War: A Social History, 1945-1949. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 80. ISBN 978-1-107-05467-7.
36. Anna Louise Strong, "Talk with Mao," Selected Works of Mao-Tse Tung Vol. IV, Peking: Foreign Languages Press, 1969; Marxists Internet Archive, accessed January 26, 2018.
37. Wilson Center, "Talk with the American Correspondent Anna Louise Strong," August 1946, accessed January 26, 2018.
38. Toronto Star, "Red Guard Accuses Anna Louise Strong," CIA reprint, June 16, 1968, accessed January 26, 2018.
39. Find A Grave, Anna Louise Strong memorial, accessed January 26, 2018.
40. Frances M. Seeber, ""I Want You to Write to Me": The Papers of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt," Summer 1987 issue of Prologue, accessed January 26, 2018.
41. Maurice Strong biography, mauricestrong.net, accessed January 26, 2018.

Further reading

• Cattoi, Louise, "Strong life, strongly written," Milwaukee Journal, February 24, 1984, book review about the life of Anna Louise Strong.
• Herken, Gregg (2002). Brotherhood of the Bomb: The Tangled Lives and Loyalties of Robert Oppenheimer, Ernest Lawrence, and Edward Teller. New York: Henry Holt and Company.
• Jackson, Rebecca, The Politics of Gender in the Writings of Anna Louise Strong, Seattle General Strike Project, 1999.
• Kim Il-sung (August 8, 1947). Talk to American Journalist Anna Louis [sic] Strong (PDF).
• Mao Zedong (August 1946). "Talk with the American Correspondent Anna Luise Strong". Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung. IV. Beijing: Foreign Languages Press. OCLC 898328894.
• — (July 14, 1956). "U.S. imperialism is a paper tiger". Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung. V. Beijing: Foreign Languages Press. OCLC 898328894.
• — (November 18, 1957). "All reactionaries are paper tigers". Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung. V. Beijing: Foreign Languages Press. OCLC 898328894.
• Strong, Tracy B.; Keyssar, Helene (1983). Right in Her Soul: the Life of Anna Louise Strong. New York: Random House.

External links

• Anna Louise Strong Archive at marxists.org
• Newspaper clippings about Anna Louise Strong in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW

[admin]

American Friends Service Committee
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 3/17/20


American Friends Service Committee
Founded: April 30, 1917
Founder: 17 members of the Religious Society of Friends
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US
Origins: Haverford, Pennsylvania, US
Area served: Worldwide with U.S. emphasis
Key people: Joyce Ajlouny, General Secretary
Revenue: US$28.6 million
Employees: 350
Volunteers: thousands
Award(s): Nobel Prize in Peace (1947)
Website: afsc.org
Designations: Pennsylvania Historical Marker
Official name: American Friends Service Committee
Type: City
Criteria: Religion
Designated: November 6, 1999
Location: 1501 Cherry St., at Friends Ctr., Philadelphia

The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) is a Religious Society of Friends (Quaker) founded organization working for peace and social justice in the United States and around the world. AFSC was founded in 1917 as a combined effort by American members of the Religious Society of Friends to assist civilian victims of World War I. It continued to engage in relief action in Europe and the Soviet Union after the Armistice of 1918. By the mid-1920s it focused on improving racial relations in the U.S., as well as exploring ways to prevent the outbreak of another conflict before and after World War II. As the Cold War developed, it moved to employ more professionals rather than Quaker volunteers, over time attempting to broaden its appeal and respond more forcefully to racial injustice, women's issues, and demands of sexual minorities for equal treatment.

Background

Quakers traditionally oppose violence in all of its forms and therefore many refuse to serve in the military, including when drafted. AFSC's original mission grew from the need to provide conscientious objectors (COs) with a constructive alternative to military service. In 1947 AFSC received the Nobel Peace Prize along with its British counterpart, the Friends Service Council (now called Quaker Peace and Social Witness) on behalf of all Quakers worldwide.[1] Although established by Friends, acting individually, AFSC and the Society of Friends have no legal connections, as stated by its long-time Executive Secretary Clarence Pickett in 1945.[2]

History

In April 1917—days after the United States joined World War I by declaring war on Germany and its allies—a group of Quakers met in Philadelphia to discuss the pending military draft and how it would affect members of peace churches such as Quakers, Mennonites, Brethren, and the Amish. They developed ideas for alternative service that could be done directly in the battle zones of northern France.[3]


A historic AFSC logo

They also developed plans for dealing with the United States Army, since it had been inconsistent in its dealing with religious objectors to previous wars. Although legally members of pacifist churches were exempt from the draft, individual state draft boards interpreted the law in a variety of ways. Many Quakers and other COs were ordered to report to army camps for military service. Some COs, unaware of the significance of reporting for duty, found that this was interpreted by the military as willingness to fight. One of AFSC's first tasks was to identify CO's, find the camps where they were located, and then visit them to provide spiritual guidance and moral support. In areas where the pacifist churches were more well known (such as Pennsylvania), a number of draft boards were willing to assign COs to AFSC for alternative service.[4]

In addition to conducting alternative service programs for COs, AFSC collected relief in the form of food, clothing, and other supplies for displaced persons in France. Quakers were asked to collect old and make new clothing; to grow fruits and vegetables, can them, and send them to AFSC headquarters in Philadelphia. AFSC then shipped the materials to France for distribution. The young men and women sent to work in France, working with British Quakers, provided relief and medical care to refugees, repaired and rebuilt homes, helped farmers replant fields damaged by the war, and founded a maternity hospital.[5]

After the end of the war in 1918, AFSCs began working in Russia, Serbia, and Poland with orphans and with the victims of famine and disease, and in Germany and Austria, where they set up kitchens to feed hungry children.[5] Eventually AFSC was chartered by President Herbert Hoover to provide the United States sponsored relief to Germans.[6]

During the 1930s and through World War II, AFSC helped refugees escape from Nazi Germany, aiding people who were not being helped by other organizations, primarily non-religious Jews and Jews married to non-Jews.[7] They also provided relief for children on both sides of the Spanish Civil War,[8] and provided relief to refugees in Vichy France.[9] At the same time AFSC operated several Civilian Public Service camps for a new generation of COs. When Japanese Americans were "evacuated" from the West Coast into inland concentration camps, the AFSC headed the effort to help college students transfer to Midwest and East Coast schools in order to avoid camp, and worked with Japanese Americans resettling in several cities during and after the war.[10] After the war ended, they did relief and reconstruction work in Europe, Japan, India, and China. In 1947 they worked to resettle refugees during the partition of India, and in the Gaza Strip. Between 1937 and 1943, the AFSC built the Penn-Craft community for unemployed coal miners in Fayette County, Pennsylvania.[11]

As the Cold War escalated, AFSC was involved in relief and service efforts, often supporting civilians on both sides of conflicts around the world including the Korean War, the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, the Algerian War, and the Nigerian-Biafran War. Beginning in 1966, AFSC developed programs to help children and provided medical supplies and artificial limbs to civilians in both North Vietnam and South Vietnam. Unable to secure U.S. State Department approval to send medical supplies to North Vietnam, the committee dispatched goods through Canada. AFSC also supported draft counseling for young American men throughout the conflict.[12]

In 1955, the committee published Speak Truth to Power: A Quaker Search for an Alternative to Violence, drafted by a group including Stephen G. Cary, A. J. Muste, Robert Pickus, and Bayard Rustin.[13] Focused on the Cold War, the 71-page pamphlet asserted that it sought "to give practical demonstration to the effectiveness of love in human relations".[14] It was widely commented on in the press, both secular and religious, and proved to be a major statement of Christian pacifism.

In the United States, AFSC supported the American Civil Rights Movement, and the rights of African-Americans, Native Americans, Mexican Americans, and Asian Americans. Since the 1970s AFSC has also worked extensively as part of the peace movement, especially work to stop the production and deployment of nuclear weapons.

Budget

In fiscal year 2015, AFSC had revenues of US$28.6 million and expenses of US$36.1 million.[15] AFSC had net assets of US$87.8 million.[16]

Programs and projects

Today AFSC programs address a wide range of issues, countries, and communities. AFSC describes the programs as united by "the unfaltering belief in the essential worth of every human being, non-violence as the way to resolve conflict, and the power of love to overcome oppression, discrimination, and violence".[17]

AFSC employs more than two hundred staff working in dozens of programs throughout the United States and works in thirteen other nations.[18] AFSC has divided the organization's programs between 8 geographic regions, each of which runs programs related to peace, immigrant rights, restorative justice, economic justice, and other causes.[19] AFSC's international programs often work in conjunction with Quaker Peace and Social Witness (formerly the British Friends Service Council) and other partners.

AFSC also provides administrative support to the Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO) in New York City. This office is the official voice of Quakerism in the United Nations headquarters. There is a second QUNO office in Geneva, Switzerland; support for that office is provided by European Quakers. QUNO is overseen by the Friends World Committee for Consultation.

AFSC carries out many programs around the world. The organization's 2010 annual report[20] describes work in several African countries, Haiti, Indonesia, and the United States. Recently AFSC opened a traveling art exhibit called Windows & Mirrors, examining the impact on the war in Afghanistan on civilians.[21]

Cost of War project

Cost of War are real-time cost-estimation exhibits, each featuring a counter/estimator for the Iraq War and the Afghanistan War. These exhibits are maintained by the National Priorities Project.[22] As of June 1, 2010 both wars had a combined estimated cost of over 1 trillion dollars, separately the Iraq War had an estimated cost of 725 billion dollars and the Afghanistan War had an estimated cost of 276 billion dollars. The numbers are based on US Congress appropriation reports and do not include "future medical care for soldiers and veterans wounded in the war".[23]

Exhibits

Based on National Priorities Project Cost of War concept, American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) launched an exhibit title titled "Cost of War" in May 2007, at the close of the National Eyes Wide Open Exhibit. It features ten budget trade-offs displayed on 3x7 foot full-color vinyl banners. AFSC uses to cost of the Iraq War estimated by economists Linda Bilmes and Joseph Stiglitz in the article "Economic Costs of the Iraq War: An Appraisal Three Years After The Beginning Of The Conflict", written in January 2006 that estimates the total daily cost of the Iraq War at $720 million.[24] AFSC uses The National Priorities Project's per unit costs for human needs such as health care and education to make budget comparisons between the U.S. budget for human needs to "One Day of the Iraq War".[25] The ten banners read:[26]

• One Day of the Iraq War = 720 Million Dollars, How Would You Spend it?
• One Day of the Iraq War = 84 New Elementary Schools
• One Day of the Iraq War = 12,478 Elementary School Teachers
• One Day of the Iraq War = 95,364 Head Start Places for Children
• One Day of the Iraq War = 1,153,846 Children with Free School Lunches
• One Day of the Iraq War = 34,904 Four-Year Scholarships for University Students
• One Day of the Iraq War = 163,525 People with Health Care
• One Day of the Iraq War = 423,529 Children with Health Care
• One Day of the Iraq War = 6,482 Families with Homes
• One Day of the Iraq War = 1,274,336 Homes with Renewable Energy

There are currently 22 Cost of War exhibits located in Northern and Southern California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas/Missouri, Maryland, Massachusetts/Maine, Michigan, New Hampshire, New York/New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, West Virginia.

Eyes Wide Open project

In 2004, AFSC started the project Eyes Wide Open in Chicago. Eyes Wide Open is an exhibition on the human cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.[27]

Current key issues

The AFSC has five key issues:[28]

• Building peace
• Immigrant rights
• Addressing prisons
• Just economies
• Ending discrimination

Throughout much of the group's history the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and other government agencies have monitored the work of this and many other similar organizations.[29][30][31]

Since the 1970s, criticism has also come from liberals within the Society of Friends, who charge that AFSC has drifted from its Quaker roots and has become indistinguishable from other political pressure groups. Quakers expressed concern with AFSC's abolition of their youth work camps during the 1960s and what some saw as a decline of Quaker participation in the organization.

In June 1979, a cover article in The New Republic attacked AFSC for abandoning the tradition of pacifism.[32] The criticisms became prominent after a gathering of Friends General Conference in Richmond, Indiana, in the summer of 1979 when many Friends joined with prominent leaders, such as Kenneth Boulding, to call for a firmer Quaker orientation toward public issues.[33] Subsequent to the FGC Gathering, a letter listing the points of criticism was signed by 130 Friends and sent to the AFSC Board. In 1988, the book Peace and Revolution[34] by conservative scholar Guenter Lewy repeated charges that AFSC had abandoned pacifism and religion.[32] In response to Lewy's book, Chuck Fager published Quaker Service at the Crossroads[33] in 1988.[35]

In 2010, Fager described that AFSC was "divorced" from Quakers' life as faith community due to "an increasingly pronounced drift toward a lefty secularism" since the 1970s.[32] It was reported that the Committee in 1975 adopted "a formal decision to make the Middle East its major issue".[36][37]

Some Jewish supporters of Israeli government policies have accused AFSC of having an anti-Jewish bias.[38] In 1993, Jacob Neusner called the Committee "the most militant and aggressive of Christian anti-Israel groups".[39]

The AFSC's position on its web site is that it "supports the use of boycott and divestment campaigns targeting only companies that support the occupation, settlements, militarism, or any other violations of international humanitarian or human rights law. Our position does not call for a full boycott of Israel nor of companies because they are either Israeli or doing business in Israel. Our actions also never focus on individuals."[40]

See also

• Christianity portal
• Philadelphia portal
• Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL)
• Peace Testimony about the Quaker peace testimony
• Pacifism in the United States

References

1. "Nobel Peace Prize". 2010-04-10. Retrieved 2016-06-28.
2. H. Larry Ingle (2016). "'Truly Radical, Non-violent, Friendly Approaches': Challenges to the American Friends Service Committee". Quaker History. 105 (Spring): 1–21. doi:10.1353/qkh.2016.0004.
3. "Origin of the American Friends Service Committee". 2010-03-29. Retrieved 2016-07-01.
4. Origin of AFSC Archived 2010-12-09 at the Wayback Machine by former AFSC Archivist Jack Sutters
5. "American Friends Service Committee – History". http://www.nobelprize.org. Retrieved 2016-07-01.
6. "The Nobel Peace Prize 1947 – Presentation Speech". http://www.nobelprize.org. Retrieved 2016-07-01.
7. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. "Quakers". Holocaust Encyclopedia. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Retrieved 10 December 2017.
8. Maul, Daniel (2016-01-02). "The politics of neutrality: the American Friends Service Committee and the Spanish Civil War, 1936–1939". European Review of History: Revue Européenne d'Histoire. 23 (1–2): 82–100. doi:10.1080/13507486.2015.1121972. ISSN 1350-7486.
9. All in the Same Boat: Non-French Women and Resistance in France, 1940–1944, Hillary Mohaupt, Spring 2010.
10. Austin, Allan W. "American Friends Service Committee" Densho Encyclopedia. Accessed July 10, 2014.
11. "National Historic Landmarks & National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania" (Searchable database). CRGIS: Cultural Resources Geographic Information System. Note: This includes Louis Orslene and Susan Shearer (February 1989). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form: Penn-Craft Historic District" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-07-14. Retrieved 2012-01-29.
12. "Frances Crowe to read from her memoir at First Churches in Northampton on Sunday". Retrieved 2016-07-01.
13. Wendy Chmielewski, “Speak Truth to Power: Religion, Race, and Sexuality, and Politics During the Cold War”
14. Speak truth to power: a Quaker search for an alternative for violence Archived 2017-08-30 at the Wayback Machine from AFSC's archives
15. "Financial Statements and Report" (PDF). Tait Weller. 2016-02-02. Archived from the original(PDF) on 2016-05-28. Retrieved 2016-07-02.
16. "Annual Report 2015" (PDF). American Friends Service Committee. Archived from the original(PDF) on 2016-04-20. Retrieved 2016-07-02.
17. AFSC's Our Work page; afsc.org
18. AFSC's Where We Work page; afsc.org
19. AFSC's structure page; Afsc.org
20. Building Peace One Community at a Time: Annual Report 2010
21. The official Windows and Mirrors Archived 2011-12-09 at the Wayback Machine information page.
22. Official Site; National Priorities Project
23. "The Cost of War – How we got the numbers". Archived from the original on 2003-06-01. Retrieved 2007-02-08.
24. Bilmes, Linda; Stiglitz, Joseph E. (January 2006). "The Economic Costs of the Iraq War: An Appraisal Three Years after the Beginning of the Conflict" (PDF). doi:10.2139/ssrn.832646. KSG Working Paper No. 06-002.
25. "Cost of War to the United States".
26. "Cost of War – How would you spend it?". 2013-02-06. Archived from the original on 2007-08-14. Retrieved 2013-04-29.
27. "Eyes Wide Open". 2010-03-19. Retrieved 2016-07-17.
28. "Key issues". Retrieved 2016-07-02.
29. "Washington Post article, Monitoring America". Archived from the original on 2011-04-02. Retrieved 2011-04-12.
30. Documents released under the freedom of information act are hosted on the FBI's websiteArchived 2014-12-05 at the Library of Congress Web Archives
31. In recent years AFSC has worked with the ACLU on several efforts to end spying by local police, the FBI, the Pentagon Archived 2006-04-26 at the Wayback Machine and the NSA Archived2006-09-07 at the Wayback Machine targeted at AFSC and other organizations.
32. "AFSC & Quakers I: The Background of a Concern – A Friendly Letter". 2010-06-19. Retrieved 2016-07-09.
33. Chuck Fager, ed., Quaker Service at the Crossroads: American Friends, The American Friends Service Committee, and Peace and Revolution, Kimo Press, 1988.
34. Lewy, Guenter (1988-01-01). Peace & revolution: the moral crisis of American pacifism. Grand Rapids, Mich.: W.B. Eerdmans Pub. Co. ISBN 978-0802836403. OCLC 17439651.
35. Fager, Chuck (1988). "Quaker Service at the Crossroads" (PDF). Retrieved 2016-07-17.
36. Romirowsky, Alexander Joffe and Asaf. "The Quakers, No Friends of Israel". Retrieved 2016-07-17.
37. Romirowsky, Alexander Joffe And Asaf (2015-11-06). "The Quakers, No Friends of Israel". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2016-07-17.
38. Kirk, H. David (1979). The Friendly Perversion: Quakers as Reconciliers: Good People and Dirty Work. Americans for a Safe Israel.
39. Neusner, Jacob (1993). In the aftermath of the Holocaust. Garland. p. 17.
40. Allison Kaplan Sommer (January 8, 2018). "How a U.S. Quaker Group That Won the Nobel Peace Prize Ended Up on Israel's BDS Blacklist". Haaretz.

Further reading

• Austin, Allan W. Quaker Brotherhood: Interracial Activism and the American Friends Service Committee, 1917–1950. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2012.
• Barnes, Gregory A. A Centennial History of the American Friends Service Committee. Philadelphia: FriendsPress, 2016.
• H. Larry Ingle, "The American Friends Service Committee, 1947–49: The Cold War's Effect," Peace & Change, 23 (January 1998), 27–48. doi:10.1111/0149-0508.691998035.
• Mary Hoxie Jones, Swords into ploughshares: an account of the American Friends Service Committee, 1917–1937. New York: Macmillan, 1937.

Archives

• Tyree Scott Papers. 1970–1995. 73 cubic feet (73 boxes). Contains records from Scott's service with the American Friends Service Committee, Pacific Northwest Regional Offices in the late 1970s. At the Labor Archives of Washington, University of Washington Libraries Special Collections.
• Records of the American Friends Service Committee, Midwest Branch, Advisory Committee for Evacuees. 1942–1963. 10 linear ft. (25 boxes).
• Emery E. Andrews Papers. 1925–1969. 2.93 cubic ft. Collection materials are in English and Japanese. At the University of Washington Libraries Special Collections.

External links

• American Friends Service Committee
• American Friends Service Committee's FBI files on the Internet Archive
• Quaker United Nations Offices
• Cost of War Official Site

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Part 1 of 3

Industrial Workers of the World [Wobblies]
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 3/18/20


IWW
Full name: Industrial Workers of the World
Founded: June 27, 1905; 114 years ago[1][2]
Members: Increase 5,875[a]
Journal: Industrial Worker
Key people: § Notable members
Office location: Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Country: International
Website: http://www.iww.org

The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), members of which are commonly termed "Wobblies", is an international labor union that was founded in 1905 in Chicago, Illinois, in the United States. The union combines general unionism with industrial unionism, as it is a general union, subdivided between the various industries which employ its members. The philosophy and tactics of the IWW are described as "revolutionary industrial unionism", with ties to both socialist[4] and anarchist labor movements.

In the 1910s and early 1920s, the IWW achieved many of their short-term goals, particularly in the American West, and cut across traditional guild and union lines to organize workers in a variety of trades and industries. At their peak in August 1917, IWW membership was more than 150,000, with active wings in the United States, Canada, and Australia.[5] The extremely high rate of IWW membership turnover during this era (estimated at 133% per decade) makes it difficult for historians to state membership totals with any certainty, as workers tended to join the IWW in large numbers for relatively short periods (e.g., during labor strikes and periods of generalized economic distress).[6]

Due to several factors, membership declined dramatically in the late 1910s and 1920s. There were conflicts with other labor groups, particularly the American Federation of Labor (AFL), which regarded the IWW as too radical, while the IWW regarded the AFL as too conservative and dividing workers by craft.[7] Membership also declined due to government crackdowns on radical, anarchist and socialist groups during the First Red Scare after World War I. In Canada the IWW was outlawed by the federal government.

Probably the most decisive factor in the decline in IWW membership and influence, however, was a 1924 schism in the organization, from which the IWW never fully recovered.[7][8]

The IWW promotes the concept of "One Big Union", and contends that all workers should be united as a social class to supplant capitalism and wage labor with industrial democracy.[9] They are known for the Wobbly Shop model of workplace democracy, in which workers elect their managers[10] and other forms of grassroots democracy (self-management) are implemented. IWW membership does not require that one work in a represented workplace,[11] nor does it exclude membership in another labor union.[12]

In 2012, the IWW moved its General Headquarters offices to 2036 West Montrose in Chicago.[13] The origin of the nickname "Wobblies" is uncertain.[14]

History 1905–1950

Main article: Industrial Workers of the World organizational evolution

Founding


Big Bill Haywood and office workers in the IWW General Office, Chicago, summer 1917.

The IWW was founded in Chicago, Illinois, in the United States in June 1905. A convention was held of 200 socialists, anarchists, Marxists (primarily members of the Socialist Party of America and Socialist Labor Party) radical trade unionists from all over the United States (mainly the Western Federation of Miners) who strongly opposed the policies of the American Federation of Labor (AFL). The IWW opposed the American Federation of Labor's acceptance of capitalism and its refusal to include unskilled workers in craft unions.[15]

The convention had taken place on June 24, 1905, and was referred to as the "Industrial Congress" or the "Industrial Union Convention". It would later be known as the First Annual Convention of the IWW.[6]:67 It later became considered one of the most important events in the history of industrial unionism.[6]:67

The IWW's founders included William D. ("Big Bill") Haywood, James Connolly, Daniel De Leon, Eugene V. Debs, Thomas Hagerty, Lucy Parsons, Mary Harris "Mother" Jones, Frank Bohn, William Trautmann, Vincent Saint John, Ralph Chaplin, and many others.

The IWW aimed to promote worker solidarity in the revolutionary struggle to overthrow the employing class; its motto was "an injury to one is an injury to all", which improved upon the Knights of Labor's creed, "an injury to one is the concern of all" which was at its most popular in the 1880s. In particular, the IWW was organized because of the belief among many unionists, socialists, anarchists, Marxists, and radicals that the AFL not only had failed to effectively organize the U.S. working class, but it was causing separation rather than unity within groups of workers by organizing according to narrow craft principles. The Wobblies believed that all workers should organize as a class, a philosophy which is still reflected in the Preamble to the current IWW Constitution:

The working class and the employing class have nothing in common. There can be no peace so long as hunger and want are found among millions of the working people and the few, who make up the employing class, have all the good things of life.

Between these two classes a struggle must go on until the workers of the world organize as a class, take possession of the means of production, abolish the wage system, and live in harmony with the Earth.

We find that the centering of the management of industries into fewer and fewer hands makes the trade unions unable to cope with the ever growing power of the employing class. The trade unions foster a state of affairs which allows one set of workers to be pitted against another set of workers in the same industry, thereby helping defeat one another in wage wars. Moreover, the trade unions aid the employing class to mislead the workers into the belief that the working class have interests in common with their employers.

These conditions can be changed and the interest of the working class upheld only by an organization formed in such a way that all its members in any one industry, or in all industries if necessary, cease work whenever a strike or lockout is on in any department thereof, thus making an injury to one an injury to all.

Instead of the conservative motto, "A fair day's wage for a fair day's work," we must inscribe on our banner the revolutionary watchword, "Abolition of the wage system."

It is the historic mission of the working class to do away with capitalism. The army of production must be organized, not only for everyday struggle with capitalists, but also to carry on production when capitalism shall have been overthrown. By organizing industrially we are forming the structure of the new society within the shell of the old.[9]

The first IWW charter in Canada, Vancouver Industrial Mixed Union no.322, May 5, 1906.

The Wobblies, as they were informally known, differed from other union movements of the time by promotion of industrial unionism, as opposed to the craft unionism of the American Federation of Labor. The IWW emphasized rank-and-file organization, as opposed to empowering leaders who would bargain with employers on behalf of workers. The early IWW chapters' consistently refused to sign contracts, which they believed would restrict workers' abilities to aid each other when called upon. Though never developed in any detail, Wobblies envisioned the general strike as the means by which the wage system would be overthrown and a new economic system ushered in, one which emphasized people over profit, cooperation over competition.

One of the IWW's most important contributions to the labor movement and broader push towards social justice was that, when founded, it was the only American union to welcome all workers, including women, immigrants, African Americans and Asians, into the same organization. Many of its early members were immigrants, and some, such as Carlo Tresca, Joe Hill and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, rose to prominence in the leadership. Finns formed a sizeable portion of the immigrant IWW membership. "Conceivably, the number of Finns belonging to the I.W.W. was somewhere between five and ten thousand."[16] The Finnish-language newspaper of the IWW, Industrialisti, published in Duluth, Minnesota, a center of the mining industry, was the union's only daily paper. At its peak, it ran 10,000 copies per issue. Another Finnish-language Wobbly publication was the monthly Tie Vapauteen ("Road to Freedom"). Also of note was the Finnish IWW educational institute, the Work People's College in Duluth, and the Finnish Labour Temple in Port Arthur, Ontario, Canada, which served as the IWW Canadian administration for several years. Further, many Swedish immigrants, particularly those blacklisted after the 1909 Swedish General Strike, joined the IWW and set up similar cultural institutions around the Scandinavian Socialist Clubs. This in turn exerted a political influence on the Swedish labour movement's left, that in 1910 formed the Syndicalist union SAC which soon contained a minority seeking to mimick the tactics and strategies of the IWW.[17] One example of the union's commitment to equality was Local 8, a longshoremen's branch in Philadelphia, one of the largest ports in the nation in the WWI era. Led by Ben Fletcher, an African American, Local 8 had more than 5,000 members, the majority of whom were African American, along with more than a thousand immigrants (primarily Lithuanians and Poles), Irish Americans, and numerous white ethnics.

Divide on political action or direct action

Main article: Industrial Workers of the World philosophy and tactics

In 1908 a group led by Daniel DeLeon argued that political action through DeLeon's Socialist Labor Party (SLP) was the best way to attain the IWW's goals. The other faction, led by Vincent Saint John, William Trautmann, and Big Bill Haywood, believed that direct action in the form of strikes, propaganda, and boycotts was more likely to accomplish sustainable gains for working people; they were opposed to arbitration and to political affiliation. Haywood's faction prevailed, and De Leon and his supporters left the organization, forming their own version of the IWW. The SLP's "Yellow IWW" eventually took the name Workers' International Industrial Union, which was disbanded in 1924.


The black cat symbol, created by IWW member Ralph Chaplin, is often used to signify sabotage or wildcat strikes.

Organizing


A Wobbly membership card, or "red card"

"The few own the many because they possess the means of livelihood of all ... The country is governed for the richest, for the corporations, the bankers, the land speculators, and for the exploiters of labor. The majority of mankind are working people. So long as their fair demands – the ownership and control of their livelihoods – are set at naught, we can have neither men's rights nor women's rights. The majority of mankind is ground down by industrial oppression in order that the small remnant may live in ease."

— Helen Keller, IWW member, 1911[18]

The IWW first attracted attention in Goldfield, Nevada in 1906 and during the Pressed Steel Car Strike of 1909[19] at McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania. Further fame was gained later that year, when they took their stand on free speech. The town of Spokane, Washington, had outlawed street meetings, and arrested Elizabeth Gurley Flynn,[20] a Wobbly organizer, for breaking this ordinance. The response was simple but effective: when a fellow member was arrested for speaking, large numbers of people descended on the location and invited the authorities to arrest all of them, until it became too expensive for the town. In Spokane, over 500 people went to jail and four people died. The tactic of fighting for free speech to popularize the cause and preserve the right to organize openly was used effectively in Fresno, Aberdeen, and other locations. In San Diego, although there was no particular organizing campaign at stake, vigilantes supported by local officials and powerful businessmen mounted a particularly brutal counter-offensive.


1914 IWW demonstration in New York City

By 1912 the organization had around 25,000 members,[21] concentrated in the Northwest, among dock workers, agricultural workers in the central states, and in textile and mining areas. The IWW was involved in over 150 strikes, including the Lawrence textile strike (1912), the Paterson silk strike (1913) and the Mesabi range (1916). They were also involved in what came to be known as the Wheatland Hop Riot on August 3, 1913.

Geography

In its first decades, the IWW created more than 900 unions located in more than 350 cities and towns in 38 states and territories of the United States and 5 Canadian provinces.[22] Throughout the country, there were 90 newspapers and periodicals affiliated with the IWW, published in 19 different languages. Members of the IWW were active throughout the country and were involved in the Seattle General Strike,[23] were arrested or killed in the Everett Massacre,[24] organized among Mexican workers in the Southwest,[25] became a largest and powerful longshoremen's union in Philadelphia,[26] and more.

IWW versus AFL Carpenters, Goldfield, Nevada, 1907

The IWW assumed a prominent role in 1906 and 1907, in the gold-mining boom town of Goldfield, Nevada. At that time, the Western Federation of Miners was still an affiliate of the IWW (the WFM withdrew from the IWW in the summer of 1907). In 1906, the IWW became so powerful in Goldfield that it could dictate wages and working conditions.

Resisting IWW domination was the AFL-affiliated Carpenters Union. In March 1907, the IWW demanded that the mines deny employment to AFL Carpenters, which led mine owners to challenge the IWW. The mine owners banded together and pledged not to employ any IWW members. The mine and business owners of Goldfield staged a lockout, vowing to remain shut until they had broken the power of the IWW. The lockout prompted a split within the Goldfield workforce, between conservative and radical union members.[27]

The mine owners persuaded the Nevada governor to ask for federal troops. Under the protection of federal troops, the mine owners reopened the mines with non-union labor, breaking the influence of the IWW in Goldfield.

The Haywood trial and the exit of the Western Federation of Miners

Leaders of the Western Federation of Miners such as Bill Haywood and Vincent St. John were instrumental in forming the IWW, and the WFM affiliated with the new union organization shortly after the IWW was formed. The WFM became the IWW's "mining section." However, many in the rank and file of the WFM were uncomfortable with the open radicalism of the IWW, and wanted the WFM to maintain its independence. Schisms between the WFM and IWW had emerged at the annual IWW convention in 1906, when a majority of WFM delegates walked out.[6]

When WFM executives Bill Haywood, George Pettibone, and Charles Moyer were accused of complicity in the murder of former Idaho governor Frank Steunenberg, the IWW used the case to raise funds and support, and paid for the legal defense. However, even the not guilty verdicts worked against the IWW, because the IWW was deprived of martyrs, and at the same time, a large portion of the public remained convinced of the guilt of the accused.[28] The trials caused a bitter split between Haywood and Moyer. The Haywood trial also provoked a reaction within the WFM against violence and radicalism. In the summer of 1907, the WFM withdrew from the IWW, Vincent St. John left the WFM to spend his time organizing the IWW.

Bill Haywood for a time remained a member of both organizations. His murder trial had made Haywood a celebrity, and he was in demand as a speaker for the WFM. However, his increasingly radical speeches became more at odds with the WFM, and in April 1908, the WFM announced that the union had ended Haywood's role as a union representative. Haywood left the WFM, and devoted all his time to organizing for the IWW.[6]:216–217

Historian Vernon H. Jensen has asserted that the IWW had a "rule or ruin" policy, under which it attempted to wreck local unions which it could not control. From 1908 to 1921, Jensen and others have written, the IWW attempted to win power in WFM locals which had once formed the federation's backbone. When it could not do so, IWW agitators undermined WFM locals, which caused the national union to shed nearly half its membership.[29][30][31][32][33][34][35]

IWW versus the Western Federation of Miners

The Western Federation of Miners left the IWW in 1907, but the IWW wanted the WFM back. The WFM had made up about a third of the IWW membership, and the western miners were tough union men, and good allies in a labor dispute. In 1908, Vincent St. John tried to organize a stealth takeover of the WFM. He wrote to WFM organizer Albert Ryan, encouraging him to find reliable IWW sympathizers at each WFM local, and have them appointed delegates to the annual convention by pretending to share whatever opinions of that local needed to become a delegate. Once at the convention, they could vote in a pro-IWW slate. St. Vincent promised: “… once we can control the officers of the WFM for the IWW, the big bulk of the membership will go with them.” But the takeover did not succeed.[36]

In 1914, Butte, Montana, erupted into a series of riots as miners dissatisfied with the Western Federation of Miners local at Butte formed a new union, and demanded that all miners join the new union, or be subject to beatings or worse. Although the new rival union had no affiliation with the IWW, it was widely seen as IWW-inspired. The leadership of the new union contained many who were members of the IWW, or agreed with the IWW's methods and objectives. However, the new union failed to supplant the WFM, and the ongoing fight between the two factions had the result that the copper mines of Butte, which had long been a union stronghold for the WFM, became open shops, and the mine owners recognized no union from 1914 until 1934.[37]

IWW versus United Mine Workers, Scranton, Pennsylvania, 1916

The IWW clashed with the United Mine Workers union in April 1916, when the IWW picketed the anthracite mines around Scranton, Pennsylvania, intending, by persuasion or force, to keep UMWA members from going to work. The IWW considered the UMWA too reactionary, because the United Mine Workers negotiated contracts with the mine owners for fixed time periods; the IWW considered that contracts hindered their revolutionary goals. In what a contemporary writer pointed out was a complete reversal of their usual policy, UMWA officials called for police to protect United Mine Workers members who wished to cross the picket lines. The Pennsylvania State Police arrived in force, prevented picket line violence, and allowed the UMWA members to peacefully pass through the IWW picket lines.[6][38]

Between 1915 and 1917, the IWW's Agricultural Workers Organization (AWO) organized more than a hundred thousand migratory farm workers throughout the Midwest and western United States,[39] often signing up and organizing members in the field, in rail yards and in hobo jungles. During this time, the IWW member became synonymous with the hobo riding the rails; migratory farmworkers could scarcely afford any other means of transportation to get to the next jobsite. Railroad boxcars, called "side door coaches" by the hobos, were frequently plastered with silent agitators from the IWW.

Building on the success of the AWO, the IWW's Lumber Workers Industrial Union (LWIU) used similar tactics to organize lumberjacks and other timber workers, both in the deep South and the Pacific Northwest of the United States and Canada, between 1917 and 1924. The IWW lumber strike of 1917 led to the eight-hour day and vastly improved working conditions in the Pacific Northwest. Even though mid-century historians would give credit to the US Government and "forward thinking lumber magnates" for agreeing to such reforms, an IWW strike forced these concessions.[40]

From 1913 through the mid-1930s, the IWW's Marine Transport Workers Industrial Union (MTWIU), proved a force to be reckoned with and competed with AFL unions for ascendance in the industry. Given the union's commitment to international solidarity, its efforts and success in the field come as no surprise. Local 8 of the Marine Transport Workers was led by Ben Fletcher, who organized predominantly African-American longshoremen on the Philadelphia and Baltimore waterfronts, but other leaders included the Swiss immigrant Walter Nef, Jack Walsh, E.F. Doree, and the Spanish sailor Manuel Rey. The IWW also had a presence among waterfront workers in Boston, New York City, New Orleans, Houston, San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Eureka, Portland, Tacoma, Seattle, Vancouver as well as in ports in the Caribbean, Mexico, South America, Australia, New Zealand, Germany and other nations. IWW members played a role in the 1934 San Francisco general strike and the other organizing efforts by rank-and-filers within the International Longshoremen's Association up and down the West Coast.

Wobblies also played a role in the sit-down strikes and other organizing efforts by the United Auto Workers in the 1930s, particularly in Detroit, though they never established a strong union presence there.

Where the IWW did win strikes, such as in Lawrence, they often found it hard to hold onto their gains. The IWW of 1912 disdained collective bargaining agreements and preached instead the need for constant struggle against the boss on the shop floor. It proved difficult, however, to maintain that sort of revolutionary enthusiasm against employers. In Lawrence, the IWW lost nearly all of its membership in the years after the strike, as the employers wore down their employees' resistance and eliminated many of the strongest union supporters. In 1938, the IWW voted to allow contracts with employers,[41] so long as they would not undermine any strike.

Government suppression


Joseph J. Ettor, who had been arrested in 1912, giving a speech to barbers on strike


A newspaper editorial cartoon from 1917, critical of the IWW's antiwar stance during World War I


Anti-socialist cartoon in a railroad-sponsored magazine, 1912

The IWW's efforts were met with "unparalleled" resistance from Federal, state and local governments in America;[7] from company management and labor spies, and from groups of citizens functioning as vigilantes. In 1914, Wobbly Joe Hill (born Joel Hägglund) was accused of murder in Utah and, on what many regarded as flimsy evidence, was executed in 1915.[42][43] On November 5, 1916, at Everett, Washington, a group of deputized businessmen led by Sheriff Donald McRae attacked Wobblies on the steamer Verona, killing at least five union members[44] (six more were never accounted for and probably were lost in Puget Sound). Two members of the police force — one a regular officer and another a deputized citizen from the National Guard Reserve — were killed, probably by "friendly fire".[45] At least five Everett civilians were wounded.[46]

Many IWW members opposed United States participation in World War I. The organization passed a resolution against the war at its convention in November 1916.[47]:241 This echoed the view, expressed at the IWW's founding convention, that war represents struggles among capitalists in which the rich become richer, and the working poor all too often die at the hands of other workers.

An IWW newspaper, the Industrial Worker, wrote just before the U.S. declaration of war: "Capitalists of America, we will fight against you, not for you! There is not a power in the world that can make the working class fight if they refuse." Yet when a declaration of war was passed by the U.S. Congress in April 1917, the IWW's general secretary-treasurer Bill Haywood became determined that the organization should adopt a low profile in order to avoid perceived threats to its existence. The printing of anti-war stickers was discontinued, stockpiles of existing anti-war documents were put into storage, and anti-war propagandizing ceased as official union policy. After much debate on the General Executive Board, with Haywood advocating a low profile and GEB member Frank Little championing continued agitation, Ralph Chaplin brokered a compromise agreement. A statement was issued that denounced the war, but IWW members were advised to channel their opposition through the legal mechanisms of conscription. They were advised to register for the draft, marking their claims for exemption "IWW, opposed to war."[47]:242–244

In spite of the IWW moderating its vocal opposition, the IWW's antiwar stance made it highly unpopular. Frank Little, the IWW's most outspoken war opponent, was lynched in Butte, Montana, in August 1917, just four months after war had been declared.


Cover of The Evolution of Industrial Democracy by Abner E. Woodruff, initialed by illustrator Ralph Hosea Chaplin, published by IWW. Notably stamped as evidence used in a trial.

During World War I the U.S. government moved strongly against the IWW. On September 5, 1917, U.S. Department of Justice agents made simultaneous raids on dozens of IWW meeting halls across the country.[30]:406 Minutes books, correspondence, mailing lists, and publications were seized, with the U.S. Department of Justice removing five tons of material from the IWW's General Office in Chicago alone.[30]:406 This seized material was scoured for possible violations of the Espionage Act of 1917 and other laws, with a view to future prosecution of the organization's leaders, organizers, and key activists.

Based in large measure on the documents seized September 5, one hundred and sixty-six IWW leaders were indicted by a Federal Grand Jury in Chicago for conspiring to hinder the draft, encourage desertion, and intimidate others in connection with labor disputes, under the new Espionage Act.[30]:407 One hundred and one went on trial en masse before Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis in 1918. Their lawyer was George Vanderveer of Seattle.[48] They were all convicted — including those who had not been members of the union for years — and given prison terms of up to twenty years. Sentenced to prison by Judge Landis and released on bail, Haywood fled to the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic where he remained until his death.

In 1917, during an incident known as the Tulsa Outrage, a group of black-robed Knights of Liberty tarred and feathered seventeen members of the IWW in Oklahoma. The attack was cited as revenge for the Green Corn Rebellion, a preemptive attack caused by fear of an impending attack on the oil fields and as punishment for not supporting the war effort. The IWW members had been turned over to the Knights of Liberty by local authorities after they were beaten, arrested at their headquarters and convicted of the crime of vagrancy. Five other men who testified in defense of the Wobblies were also fined by the court and subjected to the same torture and humiliations at the hands of the Knights of Liberty.[49][50][51][52][53]

In 1919, an Armistice Day parade by the American Legion in Centralia, Washington, turned into a fight between legionnaires and IWW members in which four legionnaires and a Centralia deputy sheriff were shot dead. Which side initiated the violence of the Centralia massacre is disputed. A number of IWWs were arrested, one of whom, Wesley Everest, was lynched by a mob that night.[54]

Members of the IWW were prosecuted under various State and federal laws and the 1920 Palmer Raids singled out the foreign-born members of the organization.

Organizational schism and afterwards

IWW quickly recovered from the setbacks of 1919 and 1920, with membership peaking in 1923 (58,300 estimated by dues paid per capita, though membership was likely much higher as the union tolerated delinquent members).[55] But recurring internal debates, especially between those who sought either to centralize or decentralize the organization, ultimately brought about the IWW's 1924 schism.[56]

At the beginning of the 1949 Smith Act trials, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover was disappointed when prosecutors indicted fewer CPUSA members than he had hoped, and – recalling the arrests and convictions of over one hundred IWW leaders in 1917 – complained to the Justice Department, stating, "the IWW was crushed and never revived, similar action at this time would have been as effective against the Communist Party."

Activity after World War II

1950–2000

Taft–Hartley Act


An injury to one is an injury to all.

After the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act in 1946 by Congress, which called for the removal of Communist union leadership, the IWW experienced a loss of membership as differences of opinion occurred over how to respond to the challenge. In 1949, US Attorney General Tom C. Clark[57] placed the IWW on the Attorney General's List of Subversive Organizations[58] in the category of "organizations seeking to change the government by unconstitutional means" under Executive Order 9835, which offered no means of appeal, and which excluded all IWW members from Federal employment and federally subsidized housing programs (this order was revoked by Executive Order 10450 in 1953).

At this time, the Cleveland local of the Metal and Machinery Workers Industrial Union (MMWIU) was the strongest IWW branch in the United States. Leading figures such as Frank Cedervall, who had helped build the branch up for over ten years, were concerned about the possibility of raiding from AFL-CIO unions if the IWW had its legal status as a union revoked. In 1950, Cedervall led the 1500-member MMWIU national organization to split from the IWW, as the Lumber Workers Industrial Union had almost thirty years earlier. Unfortunately for the MMWIU, this act would not save it. Despite its brief affiliation with the Congress of Industrial Organizations, it would face serious raiding from AFL and CIO and would be defunct by the late 1950s, less than ten years after separating from the IWW.[59]

The loss of the MMWIU, at the time the IWW's largest industrial union, was almost a deathblow to the IWW. The union's membership fell to its lowest level in the 1950s during the Second Red Scare, and by 1955, the union's fiftieth anniversary, it was near extinction, though it still appeared on government lists of Communist-led groups.[60]

1960s rejuvenation

The 1960s civil rights movement, anti-war protests, and various university student movements brought new life to the IWW, albeit with many fewer new members than the great organizing drives of the early part of the 20th century.

The first signs of new life for the IWW in the 1960s would be organizing efforts among students in San Francisco and Berkeley, which were hotbeds of student radicalism at the time. This targeting of students would result in a Bay Area branch of the union with over a hundred members in 1964, almost as many as the union's total membership in 1961. Wobblies old and new would unite for one more "free speech fight": Berkeley's Free Speech Movement. Riding on this high, the decision in 1967 to allow college and university students to join the Education Workers Industrial Union (IU 620) as full members spurred campaigns in 1968 at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, and the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.[61]:13 The IWW would send representatives to Students for a Democratic Society conventions in 1967, 1968, and 1969, and as the SDS collapsed into infighting, the IWW would gain members who were fleeing this discord. These changes would have a profound effect on the union, which by 1972 would have sixty-seven percent of members under the age of thirty, with a total of nearly five hundred members.[61]:14

The IWW's links to the 60s counterculture led to organizing campaigns at counterculture businesses, as well as a wave of over two dozen co-ops affiliating with the IWW under its Wobbly Shop model in the 1960s to 1980s. These businesses were primarily in printing, publishing, and food distribution; from underground newspapers and radical print shops to community co-op grocery stores. Some of the printing and publishing industry co-ops and job shops included Black & Red (Detroit), Glad Day Press (New York),[61]:17 RPM Press (Michigan),[61]:17 New Media Graphics (Ohio),[61]:17 Babylon Print (Wisconsin),[61]:17 Hill Press (Illinois),[61]:17 Lakeside (Madison, Wisconsin), Harbinger (Columbia, South Carolina), Eastown Printing in Grand Rapids, Michigan (where the IWW negotiated a contract in 1978),[61]:17 and La Presse Populaire (Montréal). This close affiliation with radical publishers and printing houses sometimes led to legal difficulties for the union, such as when La Presse Populaire was shut down in 1970 by provincial police for publishing pro-FLQ materials, which were banned at the time under an official censorship law. Also in 1970, the San Diego, California, "street journal" El Barrio became an official IWW shop. In 1971 its office was attacked by an organization calling itself the Minutemen, and IWW member Ricardo Gonzalves was indicted for criminal syndicalism along with two members of the Brown Berets.[60]

These ties to anti-authoritarian and radical artistic and literary currents would link the IWW even more heavily to the 60s counterculture, exemplified by the publication in Chicago in the 1960s of Rebel Worker by the surrealists Franklin and Penelope Rosemont. One edition was published in London with Charles Radcliffe, who went on to become involved with the Situationist International. By the 1980s, the Rebel Worker was being published as an official organ again, from the IWW's headquarters in Chicago, and the New York area was publishing a newsletter as well.

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Part 2 of 3

Return to workplace campaigns

Invigorated by the arrival of enthusiastic new members, the IWW began a wave of organizing drives. These largely took a regional form and they, as well as the union's overall membership, concentrated in Portland, Chicago, Ann Arbor, and throughout the state of California, which when combined accounted for over half of union drives from 1970 to 1979. In Portland, Oregon, the IWW led campaigns at Winter Products (a brass plating plant) in 1972, at a local Winchell's Donuts (where a strike was waged and lost), at the Albina Day Care (where key union demands were won, including the firing of the director of the day care), of healthcare workers at West Side School and the Portland Medical Center, and of agricultural workers in 1974. The latter effort led to the opening of an IWW union hall in Portland to compete with extortionate hiring halls and day labor agencies. Organizing efforts led to a growth in membership, but repeated loss of strikes and organizing campaigns would anticipate the decline of the Portland branch after the mid-1970s, a stagnancy period which would last until the 1990s.[61]:15

In California, union activities were based in Santa Cruz, where in 1977 the IWW engaged in one of its most ambitious campaigns of the 1970s: an attempt in 1977 to organize 3,000 workers hired under the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) in Santa Cruz County. The campaign led to pay raises, the implementation of a grievance procedure, and medical and dental coverage, but the union failed to maintain its foothold, and in 1982 the CETA program would be replaced by the Job Training Partnership Act.[61]:15–16 The IWW would win some lasting victories in Santa Cruz, however, with successful campaigns at the Janus Alcohol Recovery Center, the Santa Cruz Law Center, Project Hope, and the Santa Cruz Community Switchboard.[61]:16


Memorial service

Elsewhere in California, the IWW was active in Long Beach in 1972, where it organized workers at International Wood Products and Park International Corporation (a manufacturer of plastic swimming pool filters) and went on strike after the firing of one worker for union-related activities.[62] Finally, in San Francisco, the IWW ran campaigns for radio station and food service workers.[61]:15–16

In Chicago, the IWW was an early opponent of so-called urban renewal programs, and supported the creation of the "Chicago People's Park" in 1969. The Chicago branch also ran citywide campaigns for healthcare, food service, entertainment, construction, and metal workers, and its success with the latter led to an attempt to revive the national Metal and Machinery Workers Industrial Union, which twenty years earlier had been a major component of the union. Metalworker organizing would largely end in 1978 after a failed strike at Mid-American Metal in Virden, Illinois. The IWW also became one of the first unions to try to organize fast food workers, with an organizing campaign at a local McDonald's in 1973.[61]:16

The IWW also built on its existing presence in Ann Arbor, which had existed since student organizing began at the University of Michigan, to launch an organizing campaign at the University Cellar, a college bookstore. The union won National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) certification there in 1979 following a strike, and the store would become a strong job shop for the union until it was closed in 1986. The union launched a similar campaign at another local bookstore, Charing Cross Books, but was unable to maintain its foothold there despite reaching a settlement with management.[61]:17

In the late 1970s, the IWW came to regional prominence in entertainment industry organizing, with an Entertainment Workers Organizing Committee being founded in Chicago in 1976, followed by campaigns organizing musicians in Cleveland in 1977 and Ann Arbor in 1978. The Chicago committee published a model contract which was distributed to musicians in the hopes of raising industry standards, as well as maintaining an active phone line for booking information. IWW musicians such as Utah Phillips, Faith Petric, Bob Bovee, and Jim Ringer also toured and promoted the union,[61]:17 and in 1987 an anthology album, Rebel Voices, was released.

Other IWW organizing campaigns of the 1970s included a ShopRite supermarket in Milwaukee, at Coronet Foods in Wheeling, West Virginia, chemical and fast food workers (including KFC and Roy Rogers) in State College, Pennsylvania, and hospital workers in Boston, all in 1973; shipyards in Houston, Texas, and restaurant workers in Pittsburgh in 1974; unsuccessful campaigns at the Prospect Nursing Home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and a Pizza Hut in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, in 1975; and a construction workers organizing drive in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 1978.[61]:18

1990s

In the 1990s, the IWW was involved in many labor struggles and free speech fights, including Redwood Summer, and the picketing of the Neptune Jade in the port of Oakland in late 1997.

In 1996, the IWW launched an organizing drive against Borders Books in Philadelphia. In March, the union lost an NLRB certification vote by a narrow margin but continued to organize. In June, IWW member Miriam Fried was fired on trumped-up charges and a national boycott of Borders was launched in response. IWW members picketed at Borders stores nationwide, including Ann Arbor; Washington, D.C.; San Francisco; Miami; Chicago; Palo Alto; Portland, OR; Portland, ME; Boston; Philadelphia; Albany; Richmond; St. Louis; Los Angeles; and other cities. This was followed up with a National Day of Action in 1997, where Borders stores were again picketed nationwide, and a second organizing campaign in London, England.[63]

Also in 1996, the IWW began organizing at Wherehouse Music in El Cerrito, California. The campaign continued until 1997, when management fired two organizers and laid off over half the employees, as well as reducing the hours of known union members. This directly affected the NLRB certification vote which followed, where the IWW lost over 2:1.[63]

A group of seven people stand near the entrance of a building.


Three IWW General Secretary-Treasurers: Mark Kaufman, Jeff Ditz, and Fred Chase, at a funeral for a friend.

In 1998, the IWW chartered a San Francisco branch of the Marine Transport Workers Industrial Union (MTWIU), which trained hundreds of waterfront workers in health and safety techniques and attempted to institutionalize these safety practices on the San Francisco waterfront.[64]

In 1999, the IWW chartered a local branch of the Education Workers Industrial Union in Boston, Massachusetts, which started to organize workers at local colleges and universities.

Additionally, IWW organizing drives in the late 90s included a strike at the Lincoln Park Mini Mart in Seattle in 1996, Keystone Job Corps, the community organization ACORN, various homeless and youth centers in Portland, Oregon, sex industry workers, and recycling shops in Berkeley, California. IWW members were also active in the building trades, shipyards, high tech industries, hotels and restaurants, public interest organizations, railroads, bike messengers, and lumber yards.

The IWW stepped in several times to help the rank and file in mainstream unions, including saw mill workers in Fort Bragg in California in 1989, concession stand workers in the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1990s, and shipyards along the Mississippi River.

2000–2010


Members in good standing (legal records)

In the early 2000s, the IWW organized Stonemountain and Daughter Fabrics, a fabric shop in Berkeley, California. The shop continues to remain an IWW organized shop.

The city of Berkeley's recycling is picked up, sorted, processed and sent out all through two different IWW-organized enterprises.

In 2003, the IWW began organizing street people and other non-traditional occupations with the formation of the Ottawa Panhandlers Union. A year later, the Panhandlers Union led a strike by the homeless. Negotiations with the city resulted in the city government promising to fund a newspaper written and sold by the homeless.

Between 2003 and 2006, the IWW organized unions at food co-operatives in Seattle, Washington and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The IWW represents administrative and maintenance workers under contract in Seattle, while the union in Pittsburgh lost 22–21 in an NLRB election, only to have the results invalidated in late 2006, based on management's behavior before the election.

In 2004, an IWW union was organized in a New York City Starbucks. In 2006, the IWW continued efforts at Starbucks by organizing several Chicago area shops.[67][68]

In Chicago the IWW began an effort to organize bicycle messengers with some success.

In September 2004, IWW-organized short haul truck drivers in Stockton, California walked off their jobs and went on a strike. Nearly all demands were met. Despite early victories in Stockton, the truck driver union ceased to exist in mid-2005.

In New York City, the IWW has been organizing immigrant foodstuffs workers since 2005. That summer, workers from Handyfat Trading joined the IWW, and were soon followed by workers from four more warehouses.[69] Workers at these warehouses made gains such as receiving the minimum wage and being paid overtime.

In 2006, the IWW moved its headquarters to Cincinnati, Ohio, and in 2010, headquarters was moved back to Chicago, Illinois.

Also in 2006, the IWW Bay Area Branch organized the Landmark Shattuck Cinemas. The Union has been negotiating for a contract and hopes to gain one through workplace democracy and organizing directly and taking action when necessary.


IWW flags at a 2007 rally in Seattle.

The Wobblies are back. Many young radicals find the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) the most congenial available platform on which to stand in trying to change the world.

— Staughton Lynd, 2014.[70]

In May 2007, the NYC warehouse workers came together with the Starbucks Workers Union to form The Food and Allied Workers Union IU 460/640. In the summer of 2007, the IWW organized workers at two new warehouses: Flaum Appetizing, a Kosher food distributor, and Wild Edibles, a seafood company. Over the course of 2007–08, workers at both shops were illegally terminated for their union activity. In 2008, the workers at Wild Edibles actively fought to get their jobs back and to secure overtime pay owed to them by the boss. In a workplace justice campaign called Focus on the Food Chain, carried out jointly with Brandworkers International, the IWW workers won settlements against employers including Pur Pac, Flaum Appetizing and Wild Edibles.[71][72][73][74]

Besides IWW's traditional practice of organizing industrially, the Union has been open to new methods such as organizing geographically: for instance, seeking to organize retail workers in a certain business district, as in Philadelphia.

The union has also participated in such worker-related issues as protesting involvement in the war in Iraq, opposing sweatshops and supporting a boycott of Coca-Cola for that company's support of the suppression of workers rights in Colombia.

On July 5, 2008, the Grand Rapids, Michigan, Starbucks Workers Union and CNT-AIT in Seville, Spain, organized a global day of action against alleged Starbucks union busting, in particular the firing of two union members in Grand Rapids and Seville. According to the Grand Rapids Starbucks Workers Union website,[75] pickets were held in several dozen cities in more than a dozen countries.


IWW in Washington D.C.

The Portland, Oregon General Membership Branch is one of the largest and most active branches of the IWW currently. The branch holds three contracts currently, two with Janus Youth Programs and one with Portland Women's Crisis Line.[76] There has been some debate within the branch about whether or not union contracts such as this are desirable in the long run, with some members favoring solidarity unionism as opposed to contract unionism and some members believing there is room for both strategies for organizing. The branch has successfully supported workers wrongfully fired from several different workplaces in the last two years. Due to picketing by Wobblies, these workers have received significant compensation from their former employers. Branch membership has been increasing, as has shop organizing. As of 2005, the 100th anniversary of its founding, the IWW had around 5,000 members, compared to 13 million members in the AFL-CIO.[77] Other IWW branches are located in Australia, Austria, Canada, Ireland, Germany, Uganda and the United Kingdom.

2011 Wisconsin General Strike
In early 2011, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker announced a budget bill which the IWW held would effectively outlaw unions for state or municipal workers. In response, there was an emergency meeting of the Midwestern IWW member organizations. The participants decided that organizing a general strike was an absolute priority. IWW members presented a proposal at a meeting of South-Central Federation of Labor (SCFL) which would endorse a general strike and create an ad-hoc Committee to instruct affiliated locals in preparations for the general strike. The IWW proposal passed nearly unanimously. The Madison branch made an international appeal translating various materials concerning the strike into Arabic, French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese. Additionally, an appeal was made to European unions (CNT – Spain, CGT – Spain and CGT – France) to send organizers to Madison who could present their experience of general strikes at union meetings and help organize the strike in other ways. The CNT (France) sent letters of solidarity to the IWW. This was considered the largest and most successful intervention in a working-class struggle that the IWW has undertaken since the 1930s.[78] In the aftermath, the strike was said by some to be 'The General Strike that didn't happen' because eventually ongoing efforts at industrial action were "completely overwhelmed by the recall effort" against the governor during the crisis.[79]

Since 2012

In 2012, the IWW moved its General Headquarters offices to 2036 West Montrose, Chicago.[13]

The IWW waged an organizing campaign at Chicago-Lake Liquors in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 2013. The store, which advertises itself as the highest-volume liquor store in Minnesota, had a wage cap of $10.50 per hour, but in the face of IWW demands for the wage cap to be lifted, store management fired five organizers. On April 6, the Twin Cities branch of the union responded with a picket around the store informing customers of the situation. This was followed by a second picket on May 4, a day which customarily had heavy business at the store. The union claimed to have made "what should have been an extremely busy Saturday into a quiet afternoon inside the store".[80] After several months, the National Labor Relations Board announced that it found merit in the union's unfair dismissal complaint.[81] As a result, the union and store management agreed to a $32,000 settlement as a form of compensation to the fired workers and the campaign officially ended.

Workers at the Paulo Freire Social Justice Charter School in Holyoke, Massachusetts were organized with the IWW in 2015, hoping to address the "authoritarian leadership" of the school administration and perceived racial bias in hiring.[82]

On 14 September 2015, after a year long organizing campaign, workers at Sound Stage Production in North Haven Connecticut declared their membership in the IWW.[83] Within a week they were threatened with legal action and fired. After several months of negotiation through the National Labor Relations Board, a settlement was reached and the workers agreed to back pay and severance compensation. As part of the campaign, the workers formed the Production Services Collective and continue as a workers cooperative and organizing with IWW-CT.

The IWW announced the Burgerville Workers Union (BVWU) in April 2016, which focuses on workers at the Oregon regional fast food chain, Burgerville. A subsidiary of the IWW, the BVWU went public on April 26 at a rally of workers and supporters outside a Portland, Oregon Burgerville location. Upon going public, the BVWU was endorsed by a number of local Oregon community organizations, including union locals, the Portland Solidarity Network, and food and racial justice organizations.[84] It was also endorsed by then-Democratic presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). The union received pushback with a letter from Burgerville's CEO, Jeff Harvey, being distributed to workers discouraging them from joining the union.[85] In June 2017, Burgerville paid a settlement of $10,000 after an investigation by the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries, which found that the company had violated state-mandated break periods for workers.[86] In April and May 2018 the IWW won NLRB elections in 2 Burgerville Locations.

In August 2016, workers at Ellen's Stardust Diner in Manhattan formed Stardust Family United (SFU) under the IWW, driven by the firing of thirty employees, as well as an unpopular new scheduling system.[87] After going public, the union accused Stardust management of retaliatory firings and posting anti-union materials in the restaurant.[88]

On 9 September 2016, the 45th anniversary of the Attica Prison Riots, 900[89] incarcerated workers organized by the IWW and many other prisoners participated in the 9/9 National Prison Strike declared by the IWW's Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee. Supported by a number of anti-incarceration and prisoners' organizations such as the Free Alabama Movement, the strike focused on the poor conditions in many American prisons and the low rates of prisoner pay for maintaining prisons and engaging in commercial production of goods for third-party companies.[90] The strike affected an estimated twenty[91] prisons in eleven states and had its epicenter at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Alabama.[91] Estimates of the number of inmates affected range from 20,000,[91] to 50,000,[92] to as high as 72,000,[93] with David Fathi of the ACLU National Prison Project judging it to be the "largest prisoner strike in recent memory".[91] Initial media coverage was slow, with strike organizers complaining of a "mainstream-media blackout", which could be attributed to the difficulty in communicating with prisoners, as many prisons went on lockdown either in response to prisoner strike activity or in anticipation of it.[89]

Outside the US

Australia

Australia encountered the IWW tradition early. In part this was due to the local De Leonist Socialist Labor Party following the industrial turn of the US SLP. The SLP formed an IWW Club in Sydney in October 1907. Members of other socialist groups also joined it, and the special relationship with the SLP soon proved to be a problem. The 1908 split between the Chicago and Detroit factions in the United States was echoed by internal unrest in the Australian IWW from late 1908, resulting in the formation of a pro-Chicago local in Adelaide in May 1911 and another in Sydney six months later. By mid-1913 the "Chicago" IWW was flourishing and the SLP-associated pro-Detroit IWW Club in decline.[94] In 1916 the "Detroit" IWW in Australia followed the lead of the US body and renamed itself the Workers' International Industrial Union.[95]

The early Australian IWW used a number of tactics from the US, including free speech fights. However, there early appeared significant differences of practice between the Australian IWW and its US parent; the Australian IWW tended to co-operate where possible with existing unions rather than forming its own, and in contrast with the US body took an extremely open and forthright stand against involvement in World War One. The IWW cooperated with many other unions, encouraging industrial unionism and militancy. In particular, the IWW's strategies had a large effect on the Australasian Meat Industry Employees Union. The AMIEU established closed shops and workers councils and effectively regulated management behaviour toward the end of the 1910s.


Australian anti-conscription poster, 1916

The IWW was well known for opposing the First World War from 1914 onwards, and in many ways was at the front of the anti-conscription fight. A narrow majority of Australians voted against conscription in a very bitter hard-fought referendum in October 1916, and then again in December 1917, Australia being the only belligerent in World War One without conscription. In very significant part this was due to the agitation of the IWW, a group which probably never had as many as 500 members in Australia at its peak. The IWW founded the Anti-Conscription League (ACL) in which members worked with the broader labour and peace movement, and also carried on an aggressive propaganda campaign in its own name; leading to the imprisonment of Tom Barker (1887–1970) the editor of the IWW paper Direct Action, sentenced to twelve months in March 1916. A series of arson attacks on commercial properties in Sydney was widely attributed to the IWW campaign to have Tom Barker released. He was indeed released in August 1916, but twelve mostly prominent IWW activists, the so-called Sydney Twelve were arrested in NSW in September 1916 for arson and other offences. (Their trial and eventual imprisonment would become a cause célèbre of the Australian labour movement on the basis that there was no convincing evidence that any of them had been involved in the arson attacks.) A number of other scandals were associated with the IWW, a five-pound note forgery scandal, the so-called Tottenham tragedy in which the murder of a police officer was blamed on the IWW, and above all it was blamed for the defeat of the October 1916 conscription referendum. In December 1916 the Commonwealth government led by Labour Party renegade Billy Hughes declared the IWW an illegal organization under the Unlawful Associations Act. Eighty six members immediately defied the law and were sentenced to six months imprisonment. Direct Action was suppressed, its circulation was at its peak of something over 12,000.[96] During the war over 100 members Australia-wide were sentenced to imprisonment on political charges,[97] including the veteran activist Monty Miller.

The IWW continued illegally operating with the aim of freeing its class war prisoners and briefly fused with two other radical tendencies – from the old Socialist parties and Trades Halls – to form a larval communist party at the suggestion of the militant revolutionist and Council Communist Adela Pankhurst. The IWW, however, left the CPA shortly after its formation.

By the early 1930s, most Australian IWW branches had dispersed as the Communist Party grew in influence.[98]


IWW members picket in Sydney, June 1981

The Australian IWW has grown since the 1940s, but due to the nature of the Australian industrial relations system, it is unlikely to win union representation in any workplaces in the immediate future. More significant is its continuing place in the mythology of the militant end of the Australian labour movement.[99] As an extreme example of the integration of ex-IWW militants into the mainstream labour movement one might instance the career of Donald Grant, one of the Sydney Twelve sentenced to fifteen years imprisonment for conspiracy to commit arson and other crimes. Released from prison in August 1920 he would soon break with the IWW over its anti-political stand, standing for the NSW Parliament for the Industrial Socialist Labour Party unsuccessfully in 1922 and then in 1925 for the mainstream Australian Labor Party (ALP) also unsuccessfully. However, this reconciliation with the ALP and the electoral system did not prevent him being imprisoned again in 1927 for street demonstrations supporting Sacco and Vanzetti. He would eventually represent the ALP in the NSW Legislative Council in 1931–1940 and the Australian Senate 1943–1956.[100] No other member of the Australian IWW actually entered Parliament but Grant's career is emblematic in the sense that the ex-IWW militants by and large remained in the broader labour movement, bringing some greater or lesser part of their heritage with them.

"Bump Me Into Parliament"[101] is the most notable Australian IWW song, and is still current. It was written by ship's fireman William "Bill" Casey, later Secretary of the Seaman's Union in Queensland.[96]

New Zealand

Australian influence was strong in early 20th century left-wing groups, and several founders of the New Zealand Labour Party (e.g. Bob Semple) were from Australia. The trans-Tasman interchange was two-way, particularly for miners. Several Tasmanian Labour "groupings" in the 1890s cited their earlier New Zealand experience of activism e.g. later premier Robert Cosgrove, and also Chris Watson from New South Wales.[102]

"Wobbly" activists in New Zealand pre-WWI were John Benjamin King and H. M. Fitzgerald (an adherent of the De Leon school) from Canada. Another was Robert Rivers La Monte from America, who was (briefly) an organiser for the New Zealand Socialist Party (as was Fitzgerald). IWW strongholds were Auckland "a city with the demographic characteristics of a frontier town"; Wellington where a branch survived briefly and in mining towns, on the wharves and among labourers.[103]

Canada

The IWW was active in Canada from a very early point in the organization's history, especially in Western Canada, primarily in British Columbia. The union was active in organizing large swaths of the lumber and mining industry along the coast, in the Interior of BC, and Vancouver Island. Joe Hill wrote the song "Where the Fraser River Flows" during this period when the IWW was organizing in British Columbia. Some members of the IWW had relatively close links with the Socialist Party of Canada.[104] Canadians who went to Australia and New Zealand before WWI included John Benjamin King and H. M. Fitzgerald (an adherent of the De Leon school).[103]

Arthur "Slim" Evans, organizer in the Relief Camp Workers' Union and the On-to-Ottawa Trek of 1935 was once a Wobbly, although during the On-to-Ottawa Trek he was with the One Big Union. He was also a friend of another well-known Canadian, Ginger Goodwin, who was shot in Cumberland, British Columbia by a Dominion Police constable when he was resisting the First World War. The impact of Ginger Goodwin influenced various left and progressive groups in Canada, including a progressive group of MPs in the House of Commons called the Ginger Group.

Despite the IWW being banned as a subversive organization in Canada during the First World War, the organization rebounded swiftly after being unbanned after the war, reaching a post-WWI high of 5600 Canadian members in 1923.[105] The union entered a short "golden age" in Canada with an official Canadian Administration located at the Finnish Labour Temple in Port Arthur (now Thunder Bay, Ontario) and a strong base among immigrant labourers in Northern Ontario and Manitoba, especially Finns, which included harvest workers, lumberjacks, and miners. During this period, the IWW would compete for members with a number of other radical and socialist organizations such as the Finnish Organization of Canada (FOC), with the IWW's Industrialisti newspaper competing with the FOC's Vapaus for attention and readership. During this period. Membership slowly decreased during the 1920s and 30s despite continued organizing and strike activity as the IWW lost ground to the One Big Union and Communist Party-controlled organizations such as the Workers' Unity League (WUL). Despite this competition, the IWW and WUL cooperated during strikes, such as at the Abitibi Pulp & Paper Company near Sault Ste. Marie in 1933, where the Finnish workers in the IWW and WUL faced discrimination and violence from the Anglo citizens of the town. The IWW also successfully unionized Ritchie's Dairy in Toronto and formed a fishery workers' branch in MacDiarmid (now Greenstone, Ontario).[106]

In 1936, the IWW in Canada supported the Spanish Revolution and began to recruit for the militia of the anarcho-syndicalist Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT), in direct conflict with Communist Party recruiters for the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion, a conflict which resulted in a number of violent clashes at recruitment rallies in Northern Ontario. Several Canadian IWW members were killed in the Spanish Civil War and the CNT's ensuing defeat at the hands of both Fascist and Stalinist forces.[106] By the middle of the Second World War, IWW membership had dropped to 500, but had rebounded to 2000 by 1946. After this, the IWW entered a long period of decline, with the Canadian Administration slowly shrinking back to its traditional strongholds in Port Arthur and Vancouver, and becoming more of a social club and mutual aid society of mostly Finnish members in Port Arthur and the co-operative businesses they controlled. An Education Workers Industrial Union branch was established at the University of Waterloo in 1968, but failed to achieve success and dissolved. As well, in 1970 La Presse Populaire du Montréal, an IWW-run print shop, was shut down under the War Measures Act due to its support for the FLQ during the October Crisis. As a sign of the times, the old Canadian Administration in Port Arthur was dissolved in 1973 and replaced by a Canadian Regional Organizing Committee, meaning that Canadian branches would be administrated by the General Administration in the United States. IWW activity in Canada began to shift largely toward strike support and labour activism, such as support for the Artistic Woodwork strike in Toronto in 1974. By the 80s, the Vancouver branch was supporting unemployed activism through the Vancouver Unemployed Action Centre by helping to shut down the scam operation Vancouver Job Mart and supporting the campaign for a fixed-income transit pass.

By the end of the 1990s, the IWW in Canada was following the general pattern of ascendancy, winning government recognition at Harvest Collective in Manitoba, the first shop certified in Canada since 1919. During the 2000s, branches were chartered in several new cities, and existing branches were revitalized. The dissolved Canadian Regional Organizing Committee was refounded in 2011.

In 2009, after Starbucks established policies that would mean demotions and loss of salary for some workers, the Quebec branches of Montreal and Sherbrooke helped found the Starbucks Workers' Union (STTS) which made a breakthrough in Quebec City at an establishment in Sainte-Foy.[107] Leaders Simon Gosselin, Dominic Dupont and Andrew Fletcher were harassed in the months following unionization, and union efforts were defeated by law firm Heenan Blaike in the series of hearings before Quebec Labor Relations Board.[108] Following this episode and judging that the place of a wobblie is on the floor of his workplace and not in a court room, the local decided, once and for all, to abandon the consultation syndicalism of the Commission of labor relations to put forward a para-legal practice with solidarity syndicalism and direct action. This decision was confirmed at the 2011 IWW International Convention where the representatives agreed that no union affiliated with the IWW could sign a contract questioning its right to strike.[109] The result of those tactics provided very good results and Starbucks management backed up on their new policies even though the union process was officially over.

Today the IWW remains active in the country with branches in Vancouver, Vancouver Island, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Ottawa/Outaouais, Toronto, Windsor, Sherbrooke, Québec City and Montréal.[110] In August 2009, Canadian members voted to ratify the constitution of the Canadian Regional Organizing Committee (CanROC) to improve inter-branch coordination and communication. Affiliated branches are Winnipeg, Ottawa-Outaouais, Toronto, Windsor, Sherbrooke, Montréal and Québec City. Each branch elects a representative to make decisions on the Canadian board. There were originally three officers, the Secretary-Treasurer, Organizing Department Liaison, and Editor of the Canadian Organizing Bulletin.[111] In 2016, CanROC members voted to split the Secretary-Treasurer role into separate Regional Secretary and Regional Treasurer positions.

There are currently five job shops in Canada: Libra Knowledge and Information Services Co-op in Toronto, ParIT Workers Cooperative in Winnipeg, the Windsor Button Collective, the Ottawa Panhandlers' Union and the Street Labourers of Windsor (SLOW). The Ottawa Panhandlers' Union continues a tradition in the IWW of expanding the definition of worker. The union members include anyone who makes their living in the street, including buskers, street vendors, the homeless, scrappers and panhandlers. In the summer of 2004, the Union led strike by the Homeless (the Homeless Action Strike) in Ottawa. The strike resulted in the city agreeing to fund a newspaper created and sold by the Homeless on the street. On May 1, 2006, the Union took over the Elgin Street Police Station for a day. A similar IWW organization, the Street Labourers of Windsor (SLOW), has garnered local,[112] provincial,[113] and national[114] news coverage for its organizing efforts in 2015.

Recently, the IWW has also engaged in campaigns among harm reduction workers (resulting in the Toronto Harm Reduction Workers Union in 2014) and workers at the Québec fast food chain Frite Alors! in 2016.

Montreal

The largest Canadian General Membership Branch of the IWW is located in Montréal, Québec, where it officially operates under the name of Syndicat Industriel des Travailleurs et Travailleuses de Montréal (IWW-SITT).[115]

Media

Between 2015 - 2017, the IWW-SITT hosted a radio program titled Action en Direct (Direct Action) which was broadcast from Radio Centre-Ville 102.3FM[116] before moving to CHOQ radio at the Université du Québec à Montréal and being placed on hiatus.

Union Locals

The IWW-SITT maintains several active union locals in Montreal, including a freelancers union (Syndicat Associatif des Travailleurs-euses Autonome du Québec),[117][118] and a union for employees of student union, and student-union owned enterprises (Les travailleurs et les travailleuses des milieux associatifs en éducation).[119][120]

Europe

Germany, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Austria

The IWW started to organise in Germany following the First World War. Fritz Wolffheim played a significant role in establishing the IWW in Hamburg. A German Language Membership Regional Organizing Committee (GLAMROC) was founded in December 2006 in Cologne. It encompasses the German-language area of Germany, Luxembourg, Austria, and Switzerland with branches or contacts in 16 cities.[121] In 2015, the GLAMROC is reported as having 200 members in good standing[122]

Wales, Ireland, Scotland, England

The regional body of the union in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland is the Wales, Ireland, Scotland, England Regional Administration (WISERA). Formerly known as the Britain and Ireland Regional Administration (BIRA), its name was changed as a result of a referendum vote by WISERA members.[123]

Early history

The British Advocates of Industrial Unionism, founded in 1906, supported the IWW. This group split in 1908, with the majority supporting Daniel De Leon and a minority supporting E. J. B. Allen founding the Industrialist Union and developing links with the Chicago-based IWW. Allen's group soon disappeared, but the first IWW group in Britain was founded by members of the Industrial Syndicalist Education League led by Guy Bowman in 1913.

The IWW was present to varying extents in many of the struggles in the early decades of the 20th century, including the UK General Strike of 1926, and the dockers' strike of 1947. A Neath Wobbly who had been active in Mexico trained volunteers who went to the International Brigade to fight against Franco but did not return.

During the decade after World War II, the IWW had two active branches in London and Glasgow. These soon died off, before a modest resurgence in northwest England during the 1970s.

Membership


IWW membership numbers in WISE from 2006-2018

Between 2001 and 2003, there was a marked increase in UK membership, with the creation of the Hull General Membership Branch. During this time the Hull branch had 27 members of good standing, being at that time the largest branch outside of the United States. By 2005, there were around 100 members in the United Kingdom. For the IWW's centenary, a stone was laid (51°41'598N 4°17.135W Geocacher), in a public access forest in Wales, commemorating the centenary of the union. As well, Sequoias were planted as a memorial to US IWW and Earth First! activist Judi Bari. 2006 saw the IWW formally registered by the UK government as a recognised trade union.

The IWW currently has a presence in several major urban areas as well as regional centres, with chartered branches in London, Glasgow (Clydeside GMB), Bradford, Bristol, Edinburgh, Leeds, Manchester, Nottingham, Reading, Sheffield, in the Tyne and Wear and West Midlands areas, and most recently in Wales.

Overall, membership has increased rapidly; in 2014, the union reported a total UK membership of 750,[124] which increased to 1000 by April 2015.[125] In 2016, the 1,500 member limit was passed

Campaigns

IWW members were involved in the Liverpool dockers' strike that took place between 1995 and 1998, and numerous other events and struggles throughout the 1990s and 2000s, including the successful unionising of several workplaces, such as support workers for the Scottish Socialist Party.

Recently, the IWW has focused its efforts on health and education workers, publishing a national industrial newsletter for health workers and a specific bulletin for workers in the National Blood Service. In 2007 it launched a campaign alongside the anti-capitalist group No Sweat which attempted to replicate some of the successes of the US IWW's organising drives amongst Starbucks workers. In the same year its health-workers' network launched a national campaign against cuts in the National Blood Service, which is ongoing.

Also in 2007, IWW branches in Glasgow and Dumfries were a key driving force in a successful campaign to prevent the closure of one of Glasgow University's campuses, (The Crichton) in Dumfries.[126] The campaign united IWW members, other unions, students and the local community to build a powerful coalition. Its success, coupled with the National Blood Service campaign, has raised the IWW's profile significantly since then.

In 2011, the IWW representing cleaners at the Guildhall won back-pay and the right to collective negotiation with their employers, Ocean. Also in 2011, branches of the IWW were set up in Lincoln, Manchester and Sheffield (notably workers employed by Pizza Hut).

The Edinburgh General Membership Branch of the IWW along with other branches of the IWW's Scottish section voted in 2014 to become a signatory to the "From Yes to Action Statement" produced by the Autonomous Centre of Edinburgh. In 2015, along with similar groups such as the Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty and Edinburgh Anarchist Federation, they joined the Scottish Action Against Austerity network.[127]

In 2016, WISERA promoted a campaign targeting couriers working for companies such as Deliveroo.[128]

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Part 3 of 3

Elsewhere in Europe

An Iceland Regional Organizing Committee (IceROC) was chartered in 2015. The union has become a trailblazer in supporting sex workers in Iceland, who lack access to services which do not automatically treat them as victims of abuse.[129] In particular, the IWW in Iceland has taken a strong position against the Swedish model of policing sex work, where sex workers are not criminalized but their customers are, and instead has argued in favour of "organizing all workers without moral or legal judgement".[130]

Also in 2015, a Greek Regional Organizing Committee (GreROC) was chartered. In July of that year, it released a statement condemning the Greek government's response to the results of the 2015 Greek bailout referendum, saying that "despite the Left tone of dignity that the Left governmental administrators use, this is a one-way blackmail. We need a radical change of shift, not in words but in action."[131]

Africa

South Africa

Main article: Industrial Workers of the World (South Africa)

The IWW has a rich and complex history in South Africa, with an original South African IWW organization being founded in 1910 and existing through most of the 1910s until disintegrating by around 1916.[132] The union's insistence on multiracial unionism set it at odds with the white trade union movement and brought severe political repression from the apartheid-era South African government. The major South African port of Durban was an important link in the IWW's international network which was largely maintained by its Marine Transport Workers Industrial Union, that connected the mainline North American IWW to ports in Africa, India, South America, and Australasia.

After the collapse of the formal IWW organization in South Africa, it would be succeeded by an Industrial Socialist League, the Industrial Workers of Africa, and finally the Industrial and Commercial Workers' Union (ICU), which would become the major black union in South Africa in the 1920s and 30s. Nevertheless, IWW and syndicalist influences would decline as the black workers' movement was brought into the trade union fold and came under the domination of the Communist Party of South Africa, which opposed syndicalist tendencies in the unions.[133]

Almost a hundred years later, multiple attempts were made to rebuild the South African IWW, with a short-lived South African Regional Organising Committee being founded in the early 2000s in Durban and attempts made to build a branch in Cape Town in the early 2010s, with neither resulting in success.[134]

Elsewhere in Africa

In 1997, there was a total of 3,240[135] workers in Sierra Leone, mostly miners, who registered themselves as IWW members in Sierra Leone government records largely independently of the international General Administration in Chicago (i.e. without the official issuing of membership cards or taking of dues). Contact between the Sierra Leone members and General Headquarters was lost after a military coup which was an episode in the Sierra Leone Civil War, which would last until 2002. The intensification of the civil war caused a number of IWW members, including the only official union delegate in the country, to flee to Guinea.[136][63]

In 2012, IWW members in Uganda formed a Ugandan Regional Organizing Committee (ROC) and began to raise funds to establish a Ugandan office for the IWW. However, it was discovered that the union officers in Uganda had been violating the Constitution of the IWW in multiple ways, such as by permitting employers to join the union, and the ROC was dissolved.[137]

Folk music and protest songs


Songs to Fan the Flames of Discontent: The "Little Red Songbook"

One Wobbly characteristic since their inception has been a penchant for song. To counteract management sending in the Salvation Army band to cover up the Wobbly speakers, Joe Hill wrote parodies of Christian hymns so that union members could sing along with the Salvation Army band, but with their own purposes. For example, "In the Sweet By and By" became "There'll Be Pie in the Sky When You Die (That's a Lie)". From that start in exigency, Wobbly song writing became common because they "articulated the frustrations, hostilities, and humor of the homeless and the dispossessed."[138] The IWW collected its official songs in the Little Red Songbook and continues to update this book to the present time. In the 1960s, the American folk music revival in the United States brought a renewed interest in the songs of Joe Hill and other Wobblies, and seminal folk revival figures such as Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie had a pro-Wobbly tone, while some were members of the IWW. Among the protest songs in the book are "Hallelujah, I'm a Bum" (this song was never popular among members), "Union Maid", and "I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill Last Night". Perhaps the best known IWW song is "Solidarity Forever". The songs have been performed by dozens of artists, and Utah Phillips performed the songs in concert and on recordings for decades. Other prominent IWW songwriters include Ralph Chaplin who authored "Solidarity Forever", and Leslie Fish.

The Finnish IWW community produced several folk singers, poets and songwriters, the most famous being Matti Valentine Huhta (better known as T-Bone Slim), who penned "The Popular Wobbly" and "The Mysteries of a Hobo's Life". Slim's poem, "The Lumberjack's Prayer" was recorded by Studs Terkel on labor singer Bucky Halker's Don't Want Your Millions. Hiski Salomaa, whose songs were composed entirely in Finnish (and Finglish), remains a widely recognized early folk musician in his native Finland as well as in sections of the Midwest United States, Northern Ontario, and other areas of North America with high concentrations of Finns. Salomaa, who was a tailor by trade, has been referred to as the Finnish Woody Guthrie. Arthur Kylander, who worked as a lumberjack, is a lesser known, but important Finnish IWW folk musician. Kylander's lyrics range from the difficulties of the immigrant labourer's experience to more humorous themes. Arguably, the wanderer, a recurring theme in Finnish folklore dating back to pre-Christian oral tradition (as with Lemminkäinen in the Kalevala), translated quite easily to the music of Huhta, Salomaa, and Kylander; each of whom have songs about the trials and tribulations of the hobo.

In literature

Much of the plot of the U.S.A. trilogy, a series of three novels by American writer John Dos Passos - comprising the novels The 42nd Parallel (1930), 1919 (1932) and The Big Money (1936) - is devoted to the IWW, and several of the more sympathetic characters are its members. Written at the time when Dos Passos was politically on the Left, the novels reflect the author's sympathy, at the time of writing, for the IWW and his outrage at its suppression, for which he expresses his deep grudge for President Woodrow Wilson.

Lingo

Wobbly lingo is a collection of technical language, jargon, and historic slang used by the Wobblies, for more than a century. Many Wobbly terms derive from or are coextensive with hobo expressions used through the 1940s.[139][140] The origin of the name "Wobbly" itself is uncertain.[14][141][142] For several decades, many hobos in the United States were members of, or were sympathetic to, the IWW. Because of this, some of the terms describe the life of a hobo such as "riding the rails", living in "jungles", dodging the "bulls". The IWW's efforts to organize all trades allowed the lingo to expand to include terms relating to mining camps, timber work, and farming.[143][144]

Some words and phrases believed to have originated within Wobbly lingo have gained cultural significance outside of the IWW. For example, from Joe Hill's song "The Preacher and the Slave", the expression pie in the sky has passed into common usage, referring to a "preposterously optimistic goal".[145]

Notable members

See also: Category:Industrial Workers of the World members.

Members of the Industrial Workers of the World have included:

• Roger Nash Baldwin, ACLU founder
• Judi Bari, labor and environmental organizer
• Harry Bridges (briefly, later helped form ILWU)
• James P. Cannon
• Lee J. Carter
• Ralph Chaplin
• Noam Chomsky
• James Connolly
• Carlos Cortez, graphic artist
• Dorothy Day, Catholic Worker
• Daniel De Leon
• Eugene V. Debs
• David Dellinger
• Sam Dolgoff
• Vincent R. Dunne
• Joseph Ettor
• Anne Feeney, folk musician
• Ben Fletcher
• Ricardo Flores Magón
• Elizabeth Gurley Flynn
• William Z. Foster
• Otis Gibbs, folk musician
• Arturo Giovannitti
• Lala Hardayal, Indian Nationalist
• Big Bill Haywood
• Howie Hawkins
• Ammon Hennacy, Catholic Worker
• Lesbia Harford, Australian poet
• Joe Hill
• Harry Hooton, Australian poet
• Mary Harris "Mother" Jones
• Andy Irvine, folk musician
• Rosie Kane, former Member of the Scottish Parliament
• Helen Keller[146]
• Jim Larkin
• Carolyn Leckie, former Member of the Scottish Parliament
• Frank Little
• Paul Mattick
• Harry McClintock, folk musician
• Kevin McCoy, artist
• Monty Miller
• Tom Morello
• Eugene O'Neill
• Floyd B. Olson, Minnesota Governor[147]
• Lucy Parsons
• Fredy Perlman
• Faith Petric, folk musician
• Utah Phillips, folk musician
• John Reed, journalist
• Kenneth Rexroth, counterculture icon
• Franklin Rosemont, Surrealist
• David Rovics, folk musician
• Hiski Salomaa, Finnish folk music singer
• Gary Snyder, Buddhist beat poet
• Jim Thompson, crime writer
• Dave Van Ronk, folk musician
• Fritz Wolffheim

Former lieutenant governor of Colorado David C. Coates was a labor militant, and was present at the founding convention,[47]:242–78 although it is unknown if he became a member. It has long been rumored, but not yet proven, that baseball legend Honus Wagner was also a Wobbly. Senator Joe McCarthy accused Edward R. Murrow of having been an IWW member, which Murrow denied.[148] Some of the organization's most famous current members include Noam Chomsky, Tom Morello, mixed martial arts fighter Jeff Monson, and anthropologist David Graeber.

See also

• Organized Labour portal
• Anarchism portal
• Communism portal
• Socialism portal
• 1933 Yakima Valley strike
• Bérmunkás
• Centralia massacre
• Eugene V. Debs
• History of the Industrial Workers of the World
• Industrial democracy
• Industrial Workers of the World philosophy and tactics
• Labor federation competition in the United States
• List of Industrial Workers of the World unions
• One Big Union (concept)
• Seattle General Strike
• Solidarity unionism
• Syndicalism

Notes

1. 3,845 (2019, USA) [3], 1,730 (2018, UK & Ireland), 200 (2015, German-language area), 100 (2019, Australia)

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116. "25 : Radio Action en Direct". Life by Selena Photography. Retrieved March 17, 2019.
117. Canada, S'ATTAQ. "S'ATTAQ | Le syndicat pour pigistes". sattaq.xyz. Retrieved March 17, 2019.
118. "S'ATTAQ (@s_attaq) | Twitter". twitter.com. Retrieved March 17, 2019.
119. Iww, Sitt. "SITT-IWW | Les travailleurs et travailleuses des milieux associatifs en éducation se syndiquent avec les IWW" (in French). Retrieved March 17, 2019.
120. "Syndicat des travailleuses-eurs des milieux associatifs en éducation". http://www.facebook.com. Retrieved March 17, 2019.
121. "IWW IM DEUTSCHSPRACHIGEN RAUM (GLAMROC)". wobblies.de. Retrieved November 20,2015.
122. Richter, Mark (February 10, 2017). "Industrial Worker Winter 2016, Issue 1776, vol 113". Industrial Worker.
123. "Who We Are | IWW". iww.org.uk. Retrieved December 16, 2016.
124. UK Government Certification Office 2014: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/s ... T_2014.pdf
125. "Step Up". New Syndicalist. May 30, 2015. Retrieved April 10, 2016.
126. "Archive of Crichton Campaign". August 29, 2007. Retrieved April 10, 2016.
127. "From Yes to Action – Joint statement on post-referendum organising". Autonomous.org.uk. Autonomous Centre of Edinburgh. November 21, 2014. Retrieved December 16, 2016.
128. "Deliver Union". DeliverUnion.com. Industrial Workers of the World. Retrieved December 23, 2016.
129. "Sex Worker-Led Organisation formed in Iceland". NSWP.org. Global Network of Sex Work Projects. August 31, 2016. Retrieved December 26, 2016.
130. "IWW: Organizing All Workers Without Moral or Legal Judgement". July 25, 2016. Retrieved December 26, 2016.
131. "IWW Greece Announcement Regarding The Referendum". IWW.org. Industrial Workers of the World. July 1, 2015. Retrieved December 26, 2016.
132. van der Walt, Lucien (November 2011). "A look at three figures from the IWW in South Africa"(PDF). Industrial Worker. Chicago: Industrial Workers of the World. p. 15. Retrieved December 28,2016.
133. Philips, John (October 1976). "Digging into IWW History: South Africa". Industrial Worker. Industrial Workers of the World. p. 8.
134. van der Walt, Lucien (January 6, 2014). "Industrial Workers of World pamphlet, Durban, early 2000s". Retrieved December 28, 2016.
135. "Sierra Leone IWW". Archived from the original on 31 October 2013. Retrieved 23 December2016.
136. "Update on Sierra Leone IWW". Archived from the original on 24 December 2016. Retrieved 23 December 2016.
137. "IWW Launches In Uganda". Retrieved September 30, 2015.
138. Kornbluh, Joyce L., Rebel Voices: An I.W.W. Anthology, University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, 1964 p.131
139. Nelson, Eugene (1993). Break Their Haughty Power: Joe Murphy in the Heyday of the Wobblies. Ism Press. pp. glossary pages 12i–15i. ISBN 9780910383318.
140. "IWW Union Dictionary and Glossary". Industrial Workers of the World. Retrieved October 14, 2018.
141. Leier, Mark (1990). Where the Fraser River Flows: The Industrial Workers of the World in British Columbia. Vancouver: New Star Books. pp. 35, 54 n 8. ISBN 978-0921586012.
142. Stewart Bird and Deborah Shaffer (directors), The Wobblies (1979).
143. DePastino, Todd (2010). Citizen Hobo: How a Century of Homelessness Shaped America. University of Chicago Press. pp. 110–111. ISBN 9780226143804.
144. American Civil Liberties Union (1918). The Truth about the I.W.W.: Facts in Relation to the Trial at Chicago. National Civil Liberties Bureau. pp. 45–46.
145. Hirsch, E. D., Jr. (1988). Dictionary of Cultural Literacy. p. 72.
146. Helen Keller (January 16, 1916). "Why I Became an IWW". Marxists.org. Retrieved August 20,2009.
147. Radicalism in the States: The Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party and the American Political Economy, Richard M. Valelly, 1989, p. 100.
148. "Response to Senator Joe McCarthy on CBS' See It Now". Retrieved February 9, 2016.

Further reading

Archives

• Industrial Workers of the World Archives. Archives contain over 40 archival collections spanning 1903–1996, containing the records of the International Union, several local branches, and numerous personal papers including those of Joe Hill, William Trautmann, and Matilda Robbins. Located at the Walter P. Reuther Library of Labor and Urban Affairs.
• Documents, Essays and Analysis for a History of the Industrial Workers of the World. Online archive at the Marxists Internet Archive. Retrieved April 16, 2005.
• Industrial Workers of the World Records, 1906–1944, undated. Approximately .05 cubic feet of textual materials, 1 microfilm cassette (negative). At the Labor Archives of Washington State, University of Washington Libraries Special Collections.
o Industrial Workers of the World Photograph Collection. Circa 1910s-1940s. 121 Photographs (2 boxes); varying sizes.
o John Leonard Miller Papers. 1923–1986. circa 3.75 cubic feet plus 2 sound cassettes.
o Eugene Barnett Oral History Collection. 1940–1961. .21 cubic feet (1 box), 3 sound cassettes (154 min.), 1 transcript (24 pages).
o Pacific Northwest Labor History Association Records. 1971–1995. 1.83 cubic feet (3 boxes).
• IWW Publications and Ephemera at Newberry Library

Official documents

• The Founding Convention of the IWW—Proceedings. New York: Merit Publishers. 1969. p. 616. Library of Congress Catalog Number 70-85538.
• Proceedings of the Second Annual Convention of the Industrial Workers of the World, Held at Chicago, Illinois, September 17 to October 3, 1906. Chicago: Industrial Workers of the World, 1906.
• Proceedings of the Tenth Convention of the Industrial Workers of the World, Held at Chicago, Illinois, Nov. 20 to Dec. 1, 1916. Chicago: Industrial Workers of the World, 1917.
• With Drops of Blood the History of the Industrial Workers of the World Has Been Written. n.c. [Chicago]: Industrial Workers of the World, n.d. [1919].
• Raids! Raids!! Raids!!! n.c. [Chicago]: Industrial Workers of the World, n.d. [Dec. 1919].

Books

• Bennett, James (2004). Rats and Revolutionaries:The Labour Movement in Australia and New Zealand 1890-1940. Dunedin, NZ: University of Otago Press. ISBN 978-1-877276-49-1.
• Brissenden, Ph.D., Paul Frederick (1920). "The I.W.W.: A Study of American Syndicalism". 83 (193) (2 ed.). Columbia University.
• Buhle, Paul, ed. (2005). Wobblies: A Graphic History of the Industrial Workers of the World. Nicole Schulman. Verso. ISBN 978-1-84467-525-8.
• Chester, Eric Thomas (2014). The Wobblies in Their Heyday: The Rise and Destruction of the Industrial Workers of the World during the World War I Era. Praeger Publishers. ISBN 978-1440833014.
• Cole, Peter (2007). Wobblies on the Waterfront: Interracial Unionism in Progressive-Era Philadelphia. University of Illinois Press. p. 256. ISBN 978-0-252-03186-1.
• Cole, Peter; Struthers, David; Zimmer, Kenyon, eds. (2017). Wobblies of the World: A Global History of the IWW. Pluto Press. ISBN 978-0745399591.
• Dubofsky, Melvyn. We Shall Be All: A History of the Industrial Workers of the World. [1969] First paperbound edition. New York: Quadrangle/New York Times Books, 1973.
• Duda, John, ed. (2009). Wanted! Men to Fill the Jails of Spokane: Fighting for Free Speech with the Hobo Agitators of the Industrial Workers of the World. Chicago: Charles H. Kerr. ISBN 978-0-88286-270-5.
• Flank, Lenny (2007). IWW: A Documentary History. St. Petersburg, Florida: Red and Black Publishers.
• Green, Archie (1993). Wobblies, Pile Butts, and Other Heroes. University of Illinois Press. p. 534. ISBN 978-0-252-01963-0. Archived from the original on September 5, 2006.
• Green, Archie, ed. (2007). The Big Red Songbook. David Roediger, Franklin Rosemont, and Salvatore Salerno. Charles H. Kerr. p. 538. ISBN 978-0-88286-277-4.
• Higbie, Frank Tobias (2003). Indispensable Outcasts: Hobo Workers and Community in the American Midwest, 1880–1930. University of Illinois Press. p. 280. ISBN 978-0-252-07098-3.
• Kornbluh, Joyce L., ed. (1988) [1964]. Rebel Voices: An IWW Anthology (Charles H. Kerr with new introduction and essays ed.). Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. 419, illustrated. ISBN 978-0-88286-237-8.
• McClelland, John, Jr. (1987). Wobbly War: The Centralia Story. Washington State Historical Society.
• Moran, William (2002). Belles of New England: The Women of the Textile Mills and the Families Whose Wealth They Wove. St. Martin's Press. p. 320.
• Ness, Immanuel (2014). New Forms of Worker Organization: The Syndicalist and Autonomist Restoration of Class-Struggle Unionism. PM Press. ISBN 978-1604869569.
• Rosemont, Franklin, ed. (2005). Dancin' in the Streets: Anarchists, IWWs, Surrealists, Situationists and Provos in the 1960s as Recorded in the Pages of Rebel Worker and Heatwave. Charles Radcliffe. Chicago: Charles H. Kerr. ISBN 978-0-88286-301-6.
• Rosen, Ellen Doree (2004). A Wobbly Life: IWW Organizer E. F. Doree. Introduction by Melvyn Dubofsky. Detroit, Michigan: Wayne State University Press. p. 256. ISBN 978-0-8143-3203-0.
• St. John, Vincent (1917). The I.W.W.: Its History, Structure & Methods. I.W.W. Publishing Bureau. Archived from the original on August 7, 2007.
• Thompson, Fred (1955). The I.W.W.: Its First Fifty Years. Chicago: IWW.
• Thornton, Steve (2013). A Shoeleather History of the Wobblies: Stories of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) in Connecticut. The Shoeleather History Project. p. 150. ISBN 978-0989822404.
• Tyler, Robert (1967). Rebels of the Woods: The I.W.W. in the Pacific Northwest. Eugene, OR: University of Oregon Press.

Documentary films

• The Wobblies. Directed by Stewart Bird, Deborah Shaffer, 1979. DVD 2006 NTSC English 90 minutes. (Includes interviews with 19 elderly Wobblies)
• An Injury to One. A film by Travis Wilkerson, 2003 First Run Icarus Films. English 53 minutes. Chronicles the 1917 unsolved murder of Wobbly organizer Frank Little in Butte, Montana, during a strike by 16,000 miners against the Anaconda Copper Company. The film connects "corporate domination to government repression, local repression to national repression, labor history to environmental history, popular culture to the history of class struggle", according to one review. (Yoshie Furuhashi (August 2005). "Peter Rachleff, "An Injury to One: A Film by Travis Wilkerson"". Mrzine.monthlyreview.org. Retrieved August 20, 2009.)

External links

• Media from Wikimedia Commons
• Quotations from Wikiquote
• Texts from Wikisource
• Data from Wikidata
• Official website
• International Directory of regional and local branches
• Brief History/Timeline 1905–1920 of the IWW
• IWW Strikes, Campaigns, Arrests 1906–1920 (maps)
• IWW Local Unions 1906–1917 (maps)
• IWW Newspapers 1906–1946 (maps)
• IWW Starbucks Workers Union
• IWW Jimmy John's Workers Union
• IWW Sisters' Camelot Canvassers Union
• NYC IWW Newsletter
• Jim Crutchfield's IWW Page current and historical documents
• Paul Buhle, "The Legacy of the IWW", Monthly Review
• Staughton Lynd, "The Wobblies in Their Heyday, a Hard-headed History of the IWW", Monthly Review Magazine
• Songs of the workers to fan the flames of discontent The famous "little red songbook" 32nd ed. April 1968
• Songs of the Wobblies: 1954 LP
• Strikes! Labor History Encyclopedia for the Pacific Northwest, a collection of resources on IWW activity in the region, including their role in the 1919 Seattle General Strike and farm worker organizing in the early 1900s.
• Interview with British Wobblies, autrefutur.net, 2013.
• My Whole Foods nightmare: How a full-time job there left me in poverty. Nick Rahaim, Salon.com, December 8, 2014.
• Why a D.C. bike shop is joining a radical socialist union. The Washington Post. March 5, 2015.
• The radical IWW – "Wobblies" – gaining strength in Oklahoma after an absence of nearly a century. Red Dirt Report, April 3, 2015.
• Rattling the Bars: Industrial Workers of the World Against Prison Slavery. The Real News. May 14, 2017.

[admin]

Andrew Harvey (religious writer)
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 3/18/20


Andrew Harvey
Born: 1952 (age 67–68), Coimbatore, India
Occupation: Author, religious scholar, mystic
Language: English and French
Citizenship: British
Alma mater: Oxford University
Period: 1970–1977
Website: andrewharvey.net

Andrew Harvey (born 1952) is a British author, religious scholar and teacher of mystic traditions, known primarily for his popular nonfiction books on spiritual or mystical themes, beginning with his 1983 A Journey in Ladakh. He is the author of over 30 books, including, The Hope, A Guide to Sacred Activism, The Direct Path, the critically acclaimed Way of Passion: A Celebration of Rumi, The Return of the Mother and Son of Man.[1][2] He was the subject of the 1993 BBC documentary "The Making of a Modern Mystic"[3] and is the founder of the Sacred Activism movement.[4]

Harvey lives in a rural area of the Ozark Mountains in Arkansas, where he continues to write when he is not lecturing. Harvey conducts workshops on Sacred Activism, the teachings of Rumi, yoga and practices that will lead to deeper spiritual awareness. Harvey travels with students to sacred sites in India, Australia and South Africa, and offers personal spiritual direction. Harvey was listed as number 33 in the Watkins' Mind Body Spirit magazine as one of the 100 Most Spiritually Influential Living People in 2012.[5] In 2012, he was nominated for the Templeton Prize, which was eventually awarded to the Dalai Lama.

Early life and education

Harvey was born in Coimbatore, India in 1952[6] and lived there until he was nine years old. He was educated at English boarding schools and then Oxford University, where he later taught Shakespeare and French literature until 1977. He wrote his dissertation on madness in Shakespeare and Erasmus.[7]

Career

At 21 in the early 1970s, Harvey became a fellow of All Souls College, University of Oxford.[8] By 1977 he had become disillusioned with life at Oxford and returned to his native India, where a series of mystical experiences initiated his spiritual journey. Over the next thirty years he plunged into different mystical traditions to learn their secrets and practices. In 1978 he met a succession of Indian saints and sages and began his study and practice of Hinduism. In 1983, in Ladakh, he met a Tibetan adept, Thuksey Rinpoche,[9] and undertook with him the Mahayana Buddhist bodhisattva vows; later, in 1990, he would collaborate with Sogyal Rinpoche and Patrick Gaffney in the writing of The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying.[10] In 1984, Harvey began a ten-year-long exploration and explication of Rumi and Sufi mysticism in Paris with a group of French Sufis under the guidance of Eva de Vitray-Meyerovitch, the translator of Rumi into French.[11] In 1992, he met Father Bede Griffiths in his ashram in south India near where Harvey had been born. It was this meeting that helped him synthesize the whole of his mystical explorations and reconcile Eastern with Western mysticism.

While in India, Harvey encountered Mother Meera, who became his guru and the subject of his book Hidden Journey.[12] His memoir, The Sun at Midnight, describes their subsequent break and his disillusionment with gurus.

For the last 30 years, Harvey has travelled widely, living in India, London, Paris, New York and San Francisco, studying, teaching at university level and in seminars and workshops. A prolific writer, Harvey has authored or co-authored over 30 books. His focus since 2005 has been the advocacy of what he terms "Sacred Activism". He is the founder and director of the Institute of Sacred Activism, which trains leaders and social justice advocates.[13]

Teachings

Harvey is a scholar of mystic traditions. He envisions true spirituality to be the divinisation of earthly life through spiritual practice. These practices can take many forms and can be taken from religious traditions. Harvey sees six poets and religious figures as having universal appeal:

• Buddha as portrayed in the Dhammapada
• Jesus as portrayed in the Gospel of Thomas
• Rumi, a 13th century Sufi poet.
• Kabir, a 15th century Indian poet
• Ramakrishna, a 19th century Hindu sadhu
• Aurobindo, a 20th century Hindu philosopher-sage

Harvey also emphasises the Divine Feminine, as expressed in the Virgin Mary, Kali, the Black Madonna and Mother Earth.

Since 2005, Andrew Harvey's work has focused on teaching Sacred Activism around the globe. Harvey describes sacred activism as "the product of the union of a profound spiritual and mystical knowledge, understanding, and compassion, peace and energy, with focused, wise, radical action in the world."[14]

Bibliography

• Hidden Journey: A Spiritual Awakening, 1991[15]
• The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying: A New Spiritual Classic from One of the Foremost Interpreters of Tibetan Buddhism to the West (co-editor), 1992[16]
• The Way of Passion: A Celebration of Rumi. North Atlantic Books/Frog, 1994.[17]
• The Divine Feminine: Exploring the Feminine Face of God Throughout the World, 1996 ISBN 1-57324-035-4[18]
• Light upon light: inspirations from Rumi. North Atlantic Books, 1996. ISBN 1-55643-206-2[19]
• Mary's Vineyard: Daily Meditations, Readings, and Revelations. with Eryk Hanut. Quest Books, 1996. ISBN 0835607453[20]
• The Essential Mystics: The Soul's Journey Into Truth. Castle Books, 1998[21]
• The Essential Gay Mystics, 1998 ISBN 0-06-250905-5 (cloth), ISBN 0-06-251524-1[22]
• Son of Man: The Mystical Path to Christ, J.P. Tarcher/Putnam, 1998[23]
• Perfume of the Desert: Inspirations from Sufi Wisdom, with Eryk Hanut. Quest Books, 1999. ISBN 0-8356-0767-4[24]
• The Return of the Mother, 2000[25]
• A Journey in Ladakh: Encounters with Buddhism, 2000. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2000. ISBN 0-618-05675-0[26]
• The Direct Path: Creating a Personal Journey to the Divine Through the World's Traditions, 2001 ISBN 0-7679-0299-8[27]
• The Sun at Midnight: A Memoir of the Dark Night, 2002 ISBN 1-58542-179-0[28]
• A Walk With Four Spiritual Guides: Krishna, Buddha, Jesus, And Ramakrishna. SkyLight Paths Publishing, 2005. ISBN 1594731381[29]
• The Hope: A Guide to Sacred Activism, Hay House, 2009. ISBN 1-4019-2003-9[30]
• Heart Yoga: The Sacred Marriage of Yoga and Mysticism, North Atlantic Books. 2010. ISBN 9781556438974[31]
• Radical passion : sacred love and wisdom in action. North Atlantic Books. 2012. ISBN 9781583945032[32]

References

1. Author Biography Hay House.
2. O'Reilly, Jane (11 August 1991). "Soul Searching". The New York Times. Retrieved 25 April 2010.
3. The Making of a Modern Mystic (1993), retrieved 18 December 2019
4. Harvey, Andrew, 1952- (2009). The hope : a guide to sacred activism (1st ed.). Carlsbad, Calif.: Hay House. ISBN 978-1-4019-2003-6. OCLC 262892403.
5. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 14 June 2013. Retrieved 6 March 2012.
6. "Conscious TV - Andrew Harvey – The Death and the Birth". conscious.tv. Retrieved 18 December2019.
7. Harvey, Andrew (3 October 1993). "The Merry Mystic". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 16 March 2020.
8. Andrew Harvey Random House.
9. http://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?titl ... y_Rinpoche
10. Rolston, Dean. "The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying". Tricycle: The Buddhist Review. Retrieved 18 December 2019.
11. Harvey, Andrew (30 September 2010). The Direct Path. London. p. 23. ISBN 978-1-4090-0388-5. OCLC 1100655877.
12. Shawn, Author (19 August 2016). "Mother Meera". SpiritualTeachers.org. Retrieved 18 December2019.
13. "Home". Andrewharvey. Retrieved 18 December 2019.
14. "Sacred Activism". Andrewharvey. Retrieved 18 December 2019.
15. Harvey, Andrew, 1952- (1991). Hidden journey : a spiritual awakening (1st ed.). New York: Holt. ISBN 0-8050-1454-3. OCLC 22278056.
16. Sogyal, Rinpoche. (1992). The Tibetan book of living and dying. Gaffney, Patrick, 1949-, Harvey, Andrew, 1952-. [San Francisco, Calif.]: Harper San Francisco. ISBN 0-06-250793-1. OCLC 25552286.
17. Harvey, Andrew, 1952- (2001). The way of passion : a celebration of Rumi. Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī, Maulana, 1207-1273. (1st Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam ed.). New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam. ISBN 1-58542-074-3. OCLC 44573434.
18. The divine feminine : exploring the feminine face of God throughout the world. Harvey, Andrew, 1952-, Baring, Anne, 1931-. Berkeley, CA: Conari Press. 1996. ISBN 1-57324-035-4. OCLC 34151580.
19. Harvey, Andrew, 1952- (1996). Light upon light : inspirations from Rumi. Berkeley, Calif.: North Atlantic Books. ISBN 1-55643-206-2. OCLC 33983720.
20. Harvey, Andrew, 1952- (1997), Mary's vineyard, Quest Audio, ISBN 0-8356-2009-3, OCLC 39665695
21. The essential mystics : the soul's journey into truth. Harvey, Andrew, 1952- (1st ed.). [San Francisco]: HarperSanFrancisco. 1996. ISBN 0-06-250904-7. OCLC 34742352.
22. The essential gay mystics. Harvey, Andrew, 1952-. Edison, N.J.: Castle Books. 1997. ISBN 0-7858-0907-4. OCLC 39865383.
23. Harvey, Andrew, 1952- (1999). Son of Man : the mystical path to Christ (1st trade pbk. ed.). New York: J.P. Tarcher/Putnam. ISBN 0-87477-992-8. OCLC 40954120.
24. Harvey, Andrew, 1952- (1999). Perfume of the desert : inspirations from Sufi wisdom. Hanut, Eryk, 1967- (1st Quest ed.). Wheaton, Ill.: Quest Books. ISBN 0-8356-0767-4. OCLC 39810984.
25. Harvey, Andrew, 1952- (2001). The return of the mother. New York: J.P. Tarcher/Putnam. ISBN 1-58542-073-5. OCLC 44613074.
26. Harvey, Andrew, 1952- (2000). A journey in Ladakh (1st Mariner Books ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0-618-05675-0. OCLC 43978270.
27. Harvey, Andrew (30 September 2010). The Direct Path. London. ISBN 978-1-4090-0388-5. OCLC 1100655877.
28. Harvey, Andrew, 1952- (2002). Sun at midnight : a memoir of the dark night. New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam. ISBN 1-58542-179-0. OCLC 49719105.
29. Harvey, Andrew, 1952- (2003). A walk with four spiritual guides : Krishna, Buddha, Jesus, and Ramakrishna. Woodstock, VT: SkyLight Paths Pub. ISBN 1-893361-73-X. OCLC 51177404.
30. Harvey, Andrew, 1952- (2009). The hope : a guide to sacred activism (1st ed.). Carlsbad, Calif.: Hay House. ISBN 978-1-4019-2003-6. OCLC 262892403.
31. Harvey, Andrew, 1952- (2010). Heart yoga : the sacred marriage of yoga and mysticism. Erickson, Karuna. Berkeley, Calif.: North Atlantic Books. ISBN 978-1-55643-897-4. OCLC 430839021.
32. Harvey, Andrew, 1952- (2012). Radical passion : sacred love and wisdom in action. Berkeley, Calif.: North Atlantic Books. ISBN 978-1-58394-503-2. OCLC 775415649.