There are works that are valuable both for their content and for the editorial or
scientific project that is at the origin. This book is one of them. Peter Cole,David Struthers and Kenyon Zimmer, three American historians brought togethersome twenty contributors to sketch a global history of the IWW, an emblematicunion of the beginning of the twentieth century whose name still shines todayaround the world. ---- The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) activists whowere nicknamed the Woblies were at the origin of a revolutionary trade uniontradition for which the slogan "An injury to one is an injury to all" (an attackon one or one of us is an attack on all of us) was heard regardless of color,religion, gender and of course nationality.The very name of the union carried this demand for internationalism: for theworking class everywhere, all the time. Yet until now the history of the Woblieshas essentially been an American story, ignoring a whole section of the activityof these indefatigable activists and internationalists. It is this oblivion thatis repaired today with this global history of the actions of the Woblies outsidethe borders of the United States.the largest transnational movementThis logically begins with the transnational influences that marked the birth ofthe IWW, by plunging in the context of the very end of the XIX th century andearly XX th , where activists socialists and anarchists were many cross Atlantic.The anarchists then formed the largest transnational movement organized by thegrassroots. Coming from Europe or Mexico, they played a decisive role in thebirth of the IWW and the development of its doctrine, but also, and this is lessknown, in its propaganda through their multilingualism and by their numerouspublications both on concrete activism and on that of the revolutionary project,both locally - and in particular among immigrant proletarians - and internationally.Transnational exchanges are an opportunity for innovations, including in thetrade union field. Thus we learn, through the example of sabotage, closelyassociated with the IWW and which will be broadcast internationally after 1918following resounding trials, that the practices of revolutionary unionism of theFrench CGT have been imported into the United States.International exchanges helped to nourish practices and widen the fields ofaction as much as they built a class consciousness to fight capitalism, includingin its imperialist and colonial dimensions.Without going into a Prévert-style list, the different chapters (there arenineteen of them) of this dense work are as many adventures and individual orcollective portraits, the most anticipated - the struggle against racialprejudices that we know that she was at the heart of Woblies' action,particularly in the South of the United States, the battles waged in the ports ofMexico or in solidarity with the workers fighting during the Spanish Civil War -to the most surprising - such as the action of the New Zealand Woblies towardsthe Maoris or the portrait of Edith Frenette, a grassroots activist who workedtirelessly on the border between the United States and Canada - which lead usinto an epic which ignores the borders drawn by the States.a radical and emancipatory trade unionismIn a world marked by the return of nationalisms and the closing of borders,punctuated by the systemic crises of an ever more deadly capitalist system, thisbook reminds us of the news of the project carried by the IWW, a radical,emancipatory and transnational trade unionism. supported by a strong classconsciousness. With Joe Hill everywhere we will be chanting "Don't mourn,organize !" » (Don't cry, organize !).David (UCL Grand Paris sud)l Peter Cole, David Struthers and Kenyon Zimmer, Solidarity forever: Globalhistory of the Industrial Workers of the World union, Out of reach, 2021, 480pages, 24 euros.https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Lire-Cole-Struthers-Zimmer-Solidarite-forever-histoire-globale-du-syndicat-9363_________________________________________A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C EBy, For, and About AnarchistsSend news reports to A-infos-en mailing listA-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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