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ORGANIZING IN DALLAS / FORT WORTH / ARLINGTON / MID CITIES / DENTON
General Metroplex Gathering:
Every second Sunday, 7pm, rotating between Fort Worth and Dallas.

Example: 2008
April - Fort Worth
May - Dallas
June - Fort Worth
July - Dallas
August - Fort Worth

The above example is subject to change if more interest comes from Arlington, the mid-cities, Denton or in between.

Fort Worth and surrounding local meetings:
Every Sunday, 1919 hemphill st. (1919hemphill.org) EXCEPT for once every second Sunday of rotation for Metroplex meetings. The schedule for Fort Worth Sunday meetings looks like this:

1st Sunday - Committee meeting. Committee and time to be set by Fort Worth collective meetings on the 3rd Sunday. Usually at 7pm.

2nd Sunday - DFW region federal meeting. 1/2 of the time it is not held in Fort Worth. When it is it is held at 7pm.

3rd Sunday - Committee meeting. Committee and time to be set by committee on first Sunday or the collective on the 2nd. Usually at 7pm.

4th Sunday - Fort Worth and Surrounding Areas local meeting. This is a good meeting for new interest to come out to! 7 PM

5th Sunday - There will be fun events scheduled for months that have 5 Sundays in the near future!

Dallas, Denton, and Arlington to be scheduled soon

Who Can Join the IWW?

-Anyone who does not have the ability to hire or fire at work can join and is encouraged to do so. You don't even have to pay dues to help out and be involved in most decisions. IF YOU WORK AT A RESTAURANT, A FACTORY, A RETAIL STORE, A MINE, A HOTEL, AN OFFICE, PUBLIC SERVICE, OR ANY JOB WHERE YOU ARE NOT THE BOSS YOU CAN JOIN US. Industrial unions don't mean unions for factory laborers, they mean unions between workers in the same industry. This includes the service industry as well as the others. If you work at Grocery Store A we'd like you to be in a union with workers in other grocery stores; Another Grocery Store A, Grocery Store B, C, D, etc. because you're grocery workers and if all the grocery workers go on strike other grocery workers won't take their jobs. It is much more effective this way. We see class as access to decisions more than particular income (though one definitely affects the other!), so when we talk about the working class this should not exclude those with family members who may be bosses. We are not here to hurt anyone. We're here to make more people happier.
-Womyn and people of color strongly encouraged to join. Sexism and racism are directly related to capitalism.

DIY politics, directly democratic union!

The Case for Revolutionary Syndicalism

It is apparent from history that wealth has always held a grasp on government. In fact, if we look at history we find that in the feudal ages wealth was the government. Lords were just people who had come across power through violence. The distinction between warlords and legal lords was the arrangement of feudalism where the lord would distribute land (fiefs) to vassals for military and/or other services. Serfs were native slaves, tied to the land, who would work in the fields and village for the vassal.

In modern capitalism we have separated from a system of lords, fiefs, and vassals and come to a world of bosses, politicians, landlords, and police officers. No longer are the working people referred to as serfs, in fact class is highly ignored in our society. It seems as though someone is trying to hide it. It is apparent to syndicalists that through the change of hands the owners of capital, (people who had come across wealth through generations of passed down war profits like George Washington) who administrated the birth of this country, had a class loyalty and an understanding of their access to wealth. The means of production and distribution had been switched from the hands of lords and vassals to usurers and capitalists who still run the government, but through legal bribery and oligopoly.

As a result of the irresponsible decisions that occur when capital is held privately some of us have come to the conclusion that capital should be held by those who use it and controlled democratically without hierarchy. This would ensure equity and liberty in the workplace. Revolutionary syndicalism is a tactic of bringing about such a non-hierarchical workplace.

We’ve all heard the word syndicate. Anarchists, syndicalists and other libertarian socialists use the word "syndicate" to refer to an enterprise democratically managed by its workers. Such an enterprise is governed by a face-to-face meeting of everyone who works there, in which each worker has one vote. Either there are no managers, or the managers are democratically elected and recallable. In either case, the most important decisions are made collectively by the whole workforce. This is known as workers’ self-management.

Syndicalism on the other hand refers to a tactic to make syndicates possible. Because of the capital monopoly by the upper class it is important to look at our situation in the working classes. There is minimal access provided to capital through school and what have you but capitalism relies on an employer and an employee. There will always exist a class of people who have no capital but their own labor under this relationship. Some feel this is a form of social Darwinism but syndicalists see it as a caste system passed down from feudalism.

So how do syndicalists propose that the working class, whose only capital is their own labor, can procure the means of production/distribution/education (their workplaces, schools, etc.) and set it under democratic control between the workers and students? A revolutionary union.

Just as workplaces that are run by the workers are called syndicates (also cooperatives or collectives); unions that are supposed to bring about this economic change are called syndicates as well. There are many syndicalist unions throughout the world- the most famous of which are probably the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) or the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (National Confederation of Labor- CNT). The CNT has actually played a role in the revolution of 1936 in Spain.

Where trade unions end up dividing workers in an industry syndicates are industrial unions for the entire working class. Trade unions often get caught up in the competition of the market and the bosses direct unions against each other. Industrial unions unify the workers and take back liberties from the bosses. Industrial unions are set up as collectives inside the current structure. All decisions are made as a group and as a union action are taken. The bosses profit from the labor of others because they can hold a monopoly of industry, but through unions we can influence decisions as a mass where we already have to be- work!

As soon as industrial unionism picks up and people become class conscious again we will have a movement filled with strikes and direct action in the workplace. Syndicalists favor direct action over protest; though we may participate in that as well. Direct action gets a lot of bad rap (from the bosses) but it is a winning tactic. In the struggle for the 8-hour-day workers would blow their own whistles to end the day. The workers would pack up and go home instead of sticking around for the rest of the longer workday. Recently in the IWW Starbucks Union (the first Starbucks union- a syndicate) workers were struggling for safer conditions on the job. Objects placed high on a shelf were unreachable without climbing the shelf itself and the workers asked management for a ladder. Management refused and ignored the request so the workers got together as a union purchased their own ladder. This ladder was not the grade required in Starbucks, but instead of throwing it away and not replacing it, which would get them bad media, the management had no choice but to purchase a better quality step ladder. This is an example of direct action and the power of workers to take control of their own lives.

The revolution that syndicalists talk about is not that of a violent revolution (though the counter-revolution may use violence) but of general strikes. It is a highly democratic process because it requires the majority to take part and is thus the will of the people. We can not vote for politicians to rid us of bosses (they’re rich- they are the bosses). When the industrial unions reach a point where membership is strong enough we will decide to participate in general strikes. A general strike is a strike held by the labor force of an entire industry, region, or country with a goal of political or economic change. A revolutionary general strike would be that of many industrial participants with goals of paralyzing the economy for a transition of capital from the hands of the bosses to the hands of the workers. Our syndicalist unions will become syndicalist collectives and industry will be run by all of those involved.

Think about where workplace democracy could play a role in current politics. There would no longer be individuals powerful enough to influence the power of government for their own advantage like corporations do today. Not having a direct say in politics and our lives has led to others having a direct say for us and we all know that people think about themselves first. This is why corporations in the United States aren’t too worried about environmental destruction in the third world- they don’t have to live in what they leave behind. Wars have always been fought between capital owners and the state is there to send workers to die for the bosses’ war profits. Struck with a strong sense of nationalism despite their class, many workers join the military thinking they will be taking part in progressive work or getting access to school and thus a way out of their class-caste with possible access to capital. This is a direct result of capitalism making people desperate.

WHERE YOU FIT INTO THIS

There is a syndicalist union being formed in the DFW. Mentioned previously, this group is called the IWW- locally the DFW IWW. We are just forming and like all volunteer collective groups we are starting out small but we have big goals and have been shown much interest. We have not yet organized a union shop, but we are still building interest and getting more people involved. We need to take these crucial steps before we can participate in direct actions like strikes.

All of our meetings are open to the working class public. That means anyone who does not have a hiring/firing position like a manager or an employer can come to our meetings. All of the meetings are run on consensus. Consensus is a form of direct democracy in which decisions are not put into action until they sit well with everyone involved. Sometimes it may be necessary to consent on a quicker process like majority rule, but this will have to have the consent of everyone involved first and shall be taken on a case-by-case scenario. A

s we have no hierarchy it is important to have a positive flow of discussion and we have decided to participate through a facilitated meeting. The facilitator holds no power over the meeting but acts as the director of the flow of conversation. Facilitators are respected as they are considered necessary, but are instantly recallable and replaceable. We are also open to facilitation rotation between everyone involved who wishes to take part.

Here is the preamble to the 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.

So if you’re tired of having a boss, join us! If you’re tired of seeing wars between the bosses of the world fought by the workers who have no involvement in them, but are trapped by a caste that makes them vulnerable, join us! If you’re tired of seeing tax-breaks for the rich and giving your taxes to their war machines instead of education and community, join us!