The IWW is a democratically led solidarity union that is for all workers as long as they are not an employer.

We believe in building labor power through organizing as a class instead of dividing workers by skills or trades. We practice a wide range of direct action tactics which empower workers to win in the short-term and the long-term. We are fighting for better working conditions today and the complete abolishment of the wage system tomorrow. 

Chartered body of IWW members located in a geographic area composed of workers from different industries.

A General Membership Branch (GMB) is a structure designed to aid in the formation of Industrial Union Branches, which are industry-specific. A GMB provides a place for fellow workers to seek guidance, share experiences, educate each other, and build tighter networks to strengthen our labor power. 

The logic of direct action is simple enough. If we stop doing what we are told to do and start doing what we collectively decide to do instead, there isn’t anything much that can stop us. The IWW expects to build a decent world in that simple way.

The IWW has a long history of using strategic direct action tactics at the point of production. This can take many forms, one of the most extreme being the strike. The IWW typically tries to avoid long strikes as they are very costly to our members and our union. Instead, we employ simple tactics that either slow production down or change working conditions for the better. Direct action requires workers to act collectively as we have strength in our numbers and in our solidarity. The potential of direct action is nearly limitless and is where workers can really get creative and take ownership of their collective power.

An example of direct action is a “March on the Boss”, this is when a sizeable group of workers confronts the boss with a clear demand.

Workers slowing down their work or inefficiently completing tasks is direct action.

Workers uniting as a class and conducting a general strike to defend their interests is, in some ways, the ultimate direct action we are building towards.

A solidarity union is any group of workers democratically formulating strategies and taking action against their company.

This process emphasizes the direct participation of the workers themselves instead of paid union representatives or government bodies. That means that NLRB elections are not required to get real wins, in fact, solidarity unions don’t need to ever publicly declare themselves. 

Solidarity unionism is a contrast to typical business unions which rely heavily on government intervention and paid organizers. Business unions typically focus on achieving a contract with the employer through a painful and slow process of bargaining. This bargaining process almost always results in “no-strike” clauses which defang the workers by legally removing their most powerful action. Our constitution prohibits any agreement between an employer and a worker that prevents our members from any form of work stoppage such as the “no-strike” clause. 

We believe that labor is most powerful at the point of production, so when lawyers and governments are leading the fight we lose our real leverage and start to play the boss’s game. 

On the job, there lies two opposing interests, that of the boss and that of the workers. The worker wants to work shorter hours for more money while the boss wants them to work longer hours for less money. This conflicting relationship helps to define the diverging interests that these two classes have.  

From the Preamble to the Constitution of the IWW:
“There can be no peace so long as hunger and want are found among millions of working people and the few- who make up the employing class- have all the good things in life.”

“Between these two classes, a struggle must go on until the workers of the world organize as a class, take possession of the earth and the machinery of production, and abolish the wage system.”

 The IWW is a fortress of democracy. While majority vote rules, there is scrupulous regard for the right of a minority to hold differing views. All the important questions, including the election of officials, are decided by a referendum vote of the membership. Officials who fail to carry out the desire of the majority are subject to immediate recall. 

Terms in the office are rigidly limited. Most of the work in the IWW is done without charge because the organization is composed of workers who believe in their movement and gladly give their utmost to promote its growth.

A cornerstone of the IWW is the belief that the rank and file must control the union and its officers, instead of being controlled by them. No union can be rank and file that limits the freedom of its members or muzzles minorities with a host of unnecessary regulations. Therefore the IWW makes no more rules than there is a genuine need for.

We believe that workers at a workplace have the exclusive rights to collectively engage in decision-making related to that workplace. The IWW itself does not have the right to dictate how your workplace will be run (as long as there is no conflict with the IWW constitution such as a “no-strike” clause)

While the structure and constitution of the IWW were crafted to protect democracy, no law devised can secure or retain democracy once the will for it is lost. The root of freedom is not the law, which people can change, but people themselves. The best guarantee of democracy lies in the membership of the IWW; its members, who war against tyranny and injustice, will never allow freedom to be abridged in labor’s finest organization.

IWW General Bylaws, ARTICLE IV, Political Alliances Prohibited – To the end of promoting industrial unity and securing necessary discipline within the organization, the IWW refuses all alliances, direct or indirect, with any political parties or anti-political sects, and disclaims responsibility for any individual opinion or act which may be at variance with the purposes herein expressed.

Since 1908 the IWW has taken a stance on the issue of electoral and political strategy. The IWW will never use the ballot box as a strategy to meet our ultimate ends of abolishing the wage system and installing worker control of production. We will never endorse politicians or affiliate ourselves with a political party. 

The only power that the working class has is the power to produce wealth. The IWW aims to organize the workers to control the use of their labor so that they will be able to stop the production of wealth except upon terms dictated by the workers themselves.

Any worker may join our radical union. Even non-standard professions, unemployed people, and workers apart of a different union may join! Any worker in South Carolina (And Charlotte, North Carolina!) may join! 

However, no boss can join- if you have hiring and firing powers you are considered an employer and are therefore barred from joining. 

Police officers, correctional officers, or anyone who has the power to arrest are barred from joining.

Paid union officers are also barred from joining