Re: [Marxism] Anti-Imperialism and the IWW

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Calvin wrote:
> Magon probably refers to the average white worker, whom the IWW so
> militantly represented the class interests of. Not that the IWW was
> national chauvinist or openly white supremacist; it most certainly was
> not. However, part of the reason for the decline and rollback of wobblie
> unionism, according to J. Sakai, was that it did not properly tackle the
> imperialism of the US government and link its trade union agitations and
> victories to the political struggles of oppressed nationalities in the US
> and in its wider imperial environs.

I haven't read Sakai but this does not seem plausible. The IWW was far
ahead of the rest of the left and the labor movement in organizing Black
and Latino workers and opposing WWI. The IWW declined for other reasons. It
was repressed brutally by the government on a nonstop basis. But more
importantly, after 1917 workers wanted to construct a party based on
Bolshevik principles. The fact that Big Bill Haywood, James P. Cannon and
other IWW leaders got involved with the construction of a Communist party
is significant.


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