Want to join the Wobblies? The Industrial Workers of the World are organizing a chapter here in the Rogue Valley. There will be a free information meeting this Saturday at the Bellview Grange in Ashland.

Please contact iwwrogue@gmail.com Your interest is the only requirement. Free Space Invaders and chili Join us July 6th 5-8pm at the Bellview Grange

The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), whose members are nicknamed “Wobblies”, is an international labor union founded in Chicago in 1905. The nickname’s origin is uncertain. Its ideology 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 socialist, syndicalist and anarchist labor movements.

In the 1910s and early 1920s, the IWW achieved many of its short-term goals, particularly in the American West, and cut across traditional guild and union lines to organize workers in various trades and industries. At their peak in August 1917, IWW membership was estimated at more than 150,000, with active wings in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. 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).

Organizing for better conditions at work today and a better world tomorrow.
Fighting for effective mutual defense on the job as well as negotiating and enforce collectively bargained contracts.
We place action in all forms at the heart of our union.

One Big Union
We organize workers across all industries. Building the power to win better conditions at work with the combined strength and support of the entire workforce, not just your profession.

Learn to organize
Our organizer training program helps give you the skills to start organizing a union at your job. We encourage all our members to be union organizers, not just a select few.

Member-driven
We are a democratic and volunteer-driven union so we — not union bosses — run things. Officers at your local branch are elected, not appointed from above.

Organizing Experts
Our Organizing Department will help you get started with organizing at your job, and you can count on our support in legal disputes with your employer.