     Part 1/4

     21ST CENTURY UNION: ORGANIZING SUSTAINABLE INDUSTRIES

///by Carlos Murray, member IWW, co-editor Industrial Worker
newspaper 1992-93.  Free for electronic distribution only. Please
do not print distribute without permission.  copyright Dec.25,
1993 Carlos Murray <indwrk@web.apc.org>.///
------------------------------------------------------------------***
Contents:  Part 1/4:
	1. Taking Control in the 21st Century
a. a vision for the future
b. industry & unions in the 20th century
c. towards a common goal

	2. Evolution
a. social awareness
b. self interest
c. diversity

	3. Industry & Ecology
a. planning for change
b. the waste factor

	4. The Union as Industry
a. work knowledge
b. taking responsibility
c. industrial management

Part 2/4:
	5. Economic Life in Industrial Democracy
a. private property
b. natural resources
c. capital
d. class
e. incentive & workers income
f. value
g. sharing the wealth
h. price controls
i. supply & demand
j. profits
k. collective buying & selling, barter
l. non-essential products, innovation

	6. Who are the Producers?
a. Uncounted Labor
b. Environmentalists
c. Multiple jobs, flexibility & mobility
d. hours of work
e. Why Join the Union?
f. job creation

Parts 3/4 and 4/4:
	7. Projections for Industry
		      * * *

***    The proposals made here are not official IWW proposals, but
are the suggestions of one member. ***

1. TAKING CONTROL IN THE 21ST CENTURY
a. a vision for the future

     The times and conditions of life are changing rapidly. Many
people are activists for specific improvements in society -- but
what are the common directions we can work in, that will actually
produce the kind of society we want?

     And what kind of society do we actually want? Most people
answer this question in the negative. We don't want pollution, we
don't want people to be homeless, we don't want violence in our
communities, and so on to list other negative features of 1990s
society.

     But how will these things be changed? By the government? By
getting rich people to meditate and love each other more? Do we
need a new grassroots political party to take over and change
everything? Should we just band together and overthrow the
governments? Would that be the solution to our problems?

     Perhaps all these suggestions have their place. But the
character of daily life is defined directly by economy. Economy is
made up of industry, and industry is made up of work.

     The society we have today is created by all of us going out
to work at our jobs each day. The way each and all of us get our
income, and the way we spend our money, determines the shape of
our lives. No government or party can change society, for it is we
ourselves who make it what it is. Overthrowing all governments
would not in itself solve the problems. Only individual persons
like you, can change the way you work -- the way you get your
income and spend it. That is the only way industry can be altered
favorably, the only way the economy can be improved, and the only
way the character of daily life will change for the better.

     Daily life does not just happen, it is produced -- at work.

     To change society, we must change the way we work.

     In the 1990s, industry is in a state of upheaval and
     re-structure. Now is the
time and your job is the place to establish economic democracy --
Industrial Democracy. If you don't have a job, you can make one.
If you don't like your job, you can improve it; or you can quit
and make a better job for yourself.

     While industries owned by a few individuals or distant
shareholders are moving farther away from the people, we can move
to take over pieces of industry -- you can take over your piece.

     New industries are being created. Workers, too, can create
new industries that benefit ourselves and our communities.

     It does not matter what you call an economic system. The
point is its effect.  The point is to establish and sustain
general prosperity for all. No system of the past has ever
succeeded. Only Industrial Democracy will create a sustainable
prosperous social economy.

     The key to Industrial Democracy is for workers to own the
means of production.

     In the 21st century, you will own your workplace -- you and
your co- workers. If you work at a gas station you will be part
owner of the pumps and driveway -- maybe just for one summer --
and will help set the prices. If you work at a school or daycare,
you will be part owner of the building and equipment and books.
You will help decide the way education is provided. If you work on
a farm you will be part owner of the land and tools. If you have a
boss or manager, s/he will be elected by you and your co-workers.

     As an owner-worker of industry -- one industry or another --
and a member of the Industrial Union, you will also help make
large decisions affecting the entire industry that you work in.

     The Industrial Union joins together all the workers in a
particular industry.  An industry encompasses all the operations
and occupations that go directly into the making of a particular
product. Instead of the trade union model of a "Floor Sweepers
Union," the floor sweepers at hospitals would be part of the
Health Care Industrial Union, along with doctors and nurses. The
floor sweepers at an automobile factory are part of the Auto
Makers Industrial Union, along with machinists and welders.

     Your Industrial Union will set standards, promote improved
work methods, and make decisions concerning the industry. The
Industrial Union is the democratic forum and voice for all the
workers in your industry.

     Democratic control of production by the workers is an advance
in every way over control by a few, non-working individual or
distant owners. Industrial Democracy will create general
conditions of prosperity, employment opportunities, better quality
products at lower prices, will remove health hazards from
workplaces, provide for training, job security, and retirement,
and will create a quality of life far superior to 20th century
life.

     Industrial Democracy can only be put into effect by workers
themselves, through worker unions organized to take full control
and ownership of their workshops and businesses -- by any means
possible -- and the industry as a whole.

     How can workers take control? What are the structures and
operating methods of democratically run industry? How will
Industrial Union ownership and control of industry result in
prosperity and quality of life?  How do we adapt our industries to
the natural environment, and create sustainable economies for the
future of our children?

     The 1990s are a transitional period in human affairs, with
many industries
changing, some disappearing, others being created. To plan for
ownership of industry, we must plan for sustainable, responsible
industries. Every working person must accept responsibility for
his or her share of the actions of industry.

1-b.  INDUSTRY & UNIONS IN THE 20TH CENTURY
     In economic terms, the essential problem of human social
evolution has always been to produce and distribute products for
survival and material advancement. The 20th century structure of
industrial ownership has succeeded in making a large number of
products widely available. Extensive social and economic
infrastructures were also achieved in the industrialized
countries.

     However, as more and more products are being distributed on a
larger scale in the 1990s, other products and services formerly
available locally -- often for free -- are becoming more expensive
or disappearing. Example: You can now buy frozen fish from the
North Sea, but you can no longer eat fish for free from your local
polluted river. And such important infrastructures as roads and
bridges, railways, health care and education are badly
deteriorating in the 1990s as the owners of manufacturing industry
pull out of formerly prosperous regions leaving unemployment and
poverty. Two areas where infrastructure continues to advance are
long distance freight transportation and communications, both of
which expedite global trade.

     In the 20th century, many working people joined unions to
defend and further their interests on the job. These unions have
taken a variety of forms and engaged in various activities from
Saturday night dances and summer schools, to strikes, boycotts,
and job actions such as slowdowns -- tactics for putting pressure
on industry owners to negotiate workers' demands.

     The biggest unions in the latter part of the 20th century
were trade unions, consisting of workers in similar occupations,
organized by plant locals or across skilled trades. By the 1960s,
in most industrialized countries, unions had become entrenched in
certain industries such as railways, dockyards, auto making, and
government civil service.

     At the same time large sectors of labor remained unorganized,
such as most farm workers and small business employees. Non-union
workers earned lower wages and received fewer benefits with more
injuries and deaths on the job than did union workers.

     Employers, who in the 20th century were organized for the
sole purpose of earning large short term profits for a few
non-working individual owners or distant shareholders, were the
enemy of workers' unions and sought to weaken and destroy them, in
order to reduce labor costs.

     The constant introduction of new labor saving machines
throughout the
20th century was, and continues to be a significant factor to
continually reduce the workforce while increasing production.

     The globalization of production and distribution
(international trade free from national restrictions) taking place
in the 1990s is also reducing the workforce in unionized nations,
while making more jobs available in poor developing nations.
Improvements made by unions are being drastically reversed. The
traditional methods of trade unions are no longer able to protect
workers or their jobs in the face of globalized production
economies.

     Some unions are making new efforts to organize
internationally, and some unions have already been accustomed to
organize among a number of trades, in related or unrelated
industries. These are steps in the right direction. Workers need
to take democratic control of their trade unions, or form
alternative unions to pursue industry-wide organization and
ownership.

     In the 1890s, work had a very different meaning than it has
in the 1990s. At the start of the 20th century, work was a means
of livelihood and a source of identity and self respect. In the
1990s, many people do not have a job. Many people have a job for
one or two years, then later another job for six months.  Many
people who have jobs, don't like their jobs -- either they are not
getting paid enough, or they feel guilty about what their job is
doing to the Earth and society and to their own health.

     Work, the basis of industry, has become very alien and
unhuman in the 1990s. Many people do not like to think about work,
or to think that work is where the problems of society are
produced. It is more comfortable to think of the government being
responsible. It is more convenient to think of the owners of
industries being responsible.

     But the government does not produce the clouds of sulphur
dioxide in our air, or sexist advertizements; the owners of
industry do not make the noisy trucks or build the square boxes we
live in, or place toxins in our food. In our angst, we as
individuals may feel disconnected from our work -- but there is a
very direct connection between our work and the conditions of
life.

1-d. TOWARDS A COMMON GOAL
     In the 1990s we need a common vision of where we're heading,
so we can all work together -- each in our own way -- towards a
unified goal. Governments and owners of industries are not
concerned about the future. They have no unifying plan, no common
goal, and no plans to provide prosperity.

     There are some people who want to end "production for
profit," and replace it with "production for human needs."  But
how will this production happen?

     The re-structure of ownership and decision making powers in
industry has to proceed step by step, starting where industry is
now.

     The Industrial Union program of the IWW is an effective and
practical plan to establish economic democracy. It is not
capitalism, and it is not communism.  Industrial Democracy means
that the people who invest their work into production, are the
same people who own the means of production -- the machines,
tools, buildings and assets of their workplace, as well as their
profits.

     There are forces that result in industrial activity. To gain
control of the means of production, we have to take a clear,
unbiased look at the existing reality of production, economics and
work life. In this we leave behind the labels of capitalism,
socialism/communism, and class. The labels are generalizations of
abstracted elements of reality, and do not encompass the full
realm of economic life. Such labels accurately describe elements,
but are not comprehensive or subjective enough for the purpose of
establishing Industrial Democracy among the population at work.
The industrial and economic operating methods people choose are
based on a full range of practical forces
-- not on abstract considerations.

     Industry -- the substance of economy -- is work activity
carried out by diverse humans in diverse conditions, and it must
be accepted on its own terms.

     The question is, what will be the character of industry,
having established control and ownership by workers? What will it
be like to live and work in industrial democratic society? What
products will be available, how will distribution and trade occur,
will there still be microwave popcorn on the shelf?

     The answers to these questions will provide us with a clearer
picture of just what it is we hope to achieve. By identifying
specific points about it, we can build up a real plan for the
future of industry -- a future for all our children.

     Some would have a better, more honest government, or a
socialist state to issue decrees. But Industrial Democracy is
economy that runs itself -- from the ground up. When it comes to
it, it will be small groups of worker-owners in every industry and
every place who will say, "We need petrol," or "We can get along
without petrol."

     If they need it they will try to get it, and someone will
find a way to sell it to them, regardless of any economic rules
imposed from above.

     It is the workers presently engaged in industrial production,
who can point out the promising and the negative features of their
specific industry. From this, we can forecast a model for a
sustainable future. Through the Industrial Union, practical plans
can be made and steps taken to implement worker ownership and
management in the specific conditions of each workplace and
industry.

     By identifying directions for industrial adjustments, we can
put together a unified plan of attack, which will unite our
efforts to address environmental and social change. Having decided
as a Union goal to stop clearcutting, we can take a number of
actions toward the goal -- including the encouragement of
selective logging, hemp farming and substitute building
materials.

     This identification also points up areas where industrial
change is most urgently needed for the benefit of society as a
whole, and where opportunities exist for Union building.

     It can help us frame a picture of daily life in the
sustainable society of the future. Adjusting our lives for quality
-- as contrasted to "standard of living" -- also solves economic,
social and environmental problems.

2. EVOLUTION 2-a. social awareness
     An evolutionary step is occurring in the Earth, in the
decades just before and after the year 2000. This progression
affects every aspect of human existence: personal, social,
spiritual, material and scientific.

     The major factor in human evolution that will affect
industrial economy is:  recognition of inter-connectedness -- what
might be called, brother-sisterhood, or "We're all in the same
boat."  This helps to foster the idea of fairness. It causes
people to join together in groups of common interest.  It also
entails individual responsibility to the group; each person is
expected to clean up his own mess; standards of social behavior
are enforced through a process of interaction within groups.

     Interconnectedness has added a new factor to social
awareness: natural environment. Natural resources and wildlife can
no longer be used, wasted or damaged indiscriminately because it
is known that this has definite harmful effects on the life
support system as a whole. We have learned that everything is
connected. This new awareness is part of the evolutionary process
-- when we apply what we know in practical structures and
methods.

     Evolution is ruthless. We will not slide effortlessly into a
future of peace and prosperity. Each step has to be taken. Even as
new formations occur which bear the seeds of future liberation,
the decaying and breaking up of old formations is causing grief
around the planet. Scarcity and poverty, repression, toxicity,
disease, disempowerment and social isolation are enforced by the
old system of industrial ownership.

     Every person has a choice, to align with the old decaying
formations, or with the new structure of a brighter, self made
future; or to sit by and be a helpless victim of the crunch. The
lesson of evolution is: it really is we, ourselves, who decide the
conditions of our lives. You can believe it now, or learn it
later.

2-b. SELF INTEREST
     Self interest is part of industry. It causes people to get
jobs, start up a business, seek a promotion or higher wages. At
the same time, many people do take actions based on altruistic or
compassionate motives, such as charity work, Little League
Baseball, religions, environmental work, or various forms of
education and mutual aid. Self interest is not the only factor in
industry, but it is one of the primary factors.

     Evolution may cause people of the 21st century to realize
that -- since we're all in the same boat -- in the long run, self
interest is best served by satisfying the needs of all. Not a new
discovery, but in the 20th century the facts could be ignored --
there was always room to expand. In the 20th century, a few owners
of a factory polluted a neighborhood or paid low wages, in order
to maximize personal profits at the expense of the many. When
community health care taxes got too high, and it became harder to
find healthy employees, the owners could go somewhere else.

     In the 21st century it will become more obvious that the
owners of factories also suffer from pollution -- they have to
live somewhere, and everything is connected. Also more obvious,
that when some people are not getting enough income for their
needs, the entire community suffers from the loss of human
creative and productive potential. Thus, from a strictly
self-interest, common sense point of view, it will be realized
that keeping everyone prosperous and happy is the best way to be
prosperous and happy oneself.

     Of course, not every individual will automatically recognize
the obvious. But the general trend of social awareness will create
pressures towards social responsibility. Greedy bosses will not be
automatically filled with love for their fellow beings, but they
will be increasingly isolated. Evolution is not automatic, but its
pressures are relentless.

     Another effect of social awareness is the tendency to
identify with a group.  People join those with whom they have
affinity and common interest.  Among these affinity groupings are
the Industrial and workplace Unions.  In the 21st century,
ownership and control of industry -- the means of production --
will be more and more a group activity, and less concentrated in
the hands of a few individuals.

2- c. DIVERSITY
     The future will not be a world of super convenience and great
scientific feats at every hand. The future will not be a return to
primitive existence. The future can only be a combination of both
extremes, filled in by every degree in between.

     A major catastrophe wiping out 85% of human life could return
     global human society to a primitive level -- that is
possible. But it is not possible for the entire world to become
highly technologized, cutting off our industrial roots in what is
called primitive craft.

     As a pyramid is built, the lower building blocks must remain
in place, or else the peak of accomplishment will fall.  In 21st
century Industrial Democracy, every industry will consist of a
number of different processes, from the primitive to the most
technologically advanced. This work, occuring in many locations,
is joined by the Industrial Union organization of the workers.

     Production of soap in the future Industrial Democracy may be
done by different methods, using different ingredients, among the
various Soap-Makers Industrial Union local shops. This will lead
to a variety of different soap being available in different
places. The federated Soap-Maker Industrial Unions, regional,
national, or global, will devise methods of relating to each
other, as practical -- for example, developing standards across
the industry for non- allergenic shampoo.

     There will not necessarily be universal distribution of
particular products.  "Tide" laundry detergent will not
necessarily be available in supermarkets throughout the whole
world. Such global distribution in the late 20th century has been
the result of monopolies, for the purpose of profiting the few
owners of companies. It does not necessarily benefit the people of
the world -- and certainly not the Soap Workers -- to consume
identical products everywhere.

     Interconnections between diverse elements leads to solutions.
Science and industry in the 21st century will be applied to the
solution of problems, through inter-connecting the knowledge of
various branches. Medicine consists of scientific knowledge
applied through health care industries. In the 21st century there
will be a merging of different branches of medical science and
branches of health care industry. Instead of the 20th century
medical model of "disease curing," there will be a movement
towards wholistic, preventive health maintenance -- removing the
cause of diseases. This example shows how merging scientific and
industrial knowledge and know-how, will benefit human society. The
Industrial Union of Health Care Workers provides the perfect
vehicle for bringing together all the different branches of
related knowledge and skills.

     In a similar merging process, knowledge, skills, technology,
and capital will be inter-connected to solve basic problems such
as hunger, homelessness, and illiteracy. The Industrial Unions of
farmers, house builders, and educators will conspire with their
communities to bring about these solutions.

     Industrial evolution is the merger of labor with the
accumulated wealth -- capital -- produced by labor. That happens
when workers become owners.

2.d. GLOBALISM
     Organization on industrial terms ignores national borders and
reaches over oceans. We are workers engaged in producing goods or
services, and we have interests in common with all workers
everywhere who are producing the same product. Manufacturers of
farm tractors in Michigan share with similar workers in Russia,
direct economic benefit by sharing information and resources.

     Workers' organizations in the 20th century have dragged their
feet and allowed capital interests to pave the way for global
industrial cooperation.  Already in the 1990s, tractor makers in
Russia and Michigan can order fan belts from factories in Mexico.
By combining as an Industrial Union, Russian and Michigan tractor
makers can combine their orders for fan belts, saving money and
making their spare parts interchangeable.

     Uniting with our fellow workers in every country benefits
everybody. Farmers in America can learn new, low-tech methods from
farmers in Africa and Nicaragua, while Ukraine farmers are
exchanging knowledge with Canadian farmers. Restaurant workers in
Mexico City may wish to know about methods of chefs in New Delhi.
Computer software workers in China will want to integrate their
work with Bolivian programmers. Physiotherapists in Amsterdam want
to learn from Chilean athletic associations.

3.  INDUSTRY & ECOLOGY
a. planning for change
     The ecology crisis of the late 20th century is not a
technical problem inherent to industrialized production. It is an
economic problem inherent to the dictatorship of capital. Natural
economic forces are distorted by diverting excessive profits at
the expense of long term sustainability. When workers own and
control their industry, they will insure their own future job
security through viable long term industrial methods; and will be
amenable to community demands.

    Industrial processes -- the sources of our livelihood and
income -- are the direct cause of all ecological destruction,
which in turn undermines our livelihood and quality of life. Now
that we are aware of this fact, specific plans must be made by
workers in each industry, and immediate steps taken to
balance industry and ecology. Workers who want to take
responsibility for industry, must plan for environmentally
friendly industry.

    Organizations may wish to adopt all or part of the following
short list of urgent steps.

Resolved:  Recognizing these most urgently needed industrial
changes, to reduce the harmful environmental effects of industry,
we call on all Unions and all people to unite with us in taking
every possible action to make these changes:

1. Stop the over-harvest of trees, fish and other endangered life
forms; help those workers start new industries or find new jobs.
a) immediate ban on clearcuts for timber or wood pulp
b) encourage selective timber logging and forest industry
diversification
c) encourage worker and community ownership of forests and forest
industry
d) encourage planting of trees along ALL waterways, and everywhere
possible
e) encourage re-use/recycling of wood, encourage substitute
materials for building construction
f) ban on use of wood pulp for paper by the year 2000, to be
replaced with agriculturally produced rice, cotton and hemp pulp
g) Environmentalists combined with Fishery Worker unions should
make and enforce international agreements on ocean species catch
limits and marine
harvesting methods h) encourage start up of worker owned fishery
and aquaculture industries
i) immediate ban on all herbicides

2. Build new energy industries; discourage the use of petroleum
fuel.
a) encourage start up of worker owned solar, wind, biogas & small
scale hydro electric generation

3. Build new transport industries, including mass rail, electric
cars and bicycles.
a) encourage worker and community owned rail transportation start
ups
b) encourage research into non-toxic electric cars
c) encourage worker owned bicycle manufacture, distribution,
maintenance; encourage bicycle lanes and paths
d) discourage new road construction, instead demanding rails

4. Stop all industrial production of waste, specifically weapons,
unnecessary packaging, throw-away items, socially destructive
media, and toxic industrial waste byproducts.
a) encourage direct action by workers to refuse to produce these
items, or actions on the job to degrade the quality or speed of
production
b) boycotts and other actions to discourage excess packaging
c) actions to protest junk mail
d) boycott single-use disposable items
e) oppose violent movies and television
f) zero tolerance for toxic industrial waste dumping

     These imperatives being recognized as urgent by this
organization, we declare that no member of this organization shall
be employed in the clearcutting of forests, or distribution or use
of herbicides, or in the making of waste products including
socially destructive violent media entertainment, or in the
dumping of known toxic wastes; for to do so is to SCAB on the
future of our children.

     Resolved that this organization will defend the rights of any
worker who refuses to do these things when ordered by an employer;
and will expel any member who knowingly SCABS on our future. (end
of resolution).

     Industrial Unions adopting such strong and clear positions
will instantly ally themselves with the environmental movement.
They will improve that movement by pointing out the specific
industrial processes that lead to the worst problems, and pointing
out the specific substitutes and alternatives.

3-b. The Waste Factor
     At least 40% of all industrial work that gets done in the
1990s, produces explicit garbage. This includes non-functional
packaging, disposable items made to be used once and thrown away,
poorly made goods, useless paperwork, and products of no use such
as weapons. The "waste disposal problem" is not a by-product of
industry; it is a directly manufactured product of these several
industries.

     Workers employed at making garbage must either convert their
workplace to a useful product, or abandon it. If the decision is
to abandon, then the workers should try and get the highest wages
and benefits possible in the interim, while doing as little work
as possible. Industrial Union organization can help workers get
ready for new jobs, or for conversion.

     Nearly all major corporations in the 20th century got to be
major by building weapons that were never used. Banks,
politicians, arms dealers, military brass, corporate executives
and shareholders all profited from this production; even wage
workers benefitted from these jobs. But for the society as a
whole, this was a waste of resources and labor which could have
been applied to improving food, housing, education or a thousand
other things.

     Many weapons and component factories could easily be
converted by workers to make useful objects, such as solar powered
passenger trains or bio- degradable condoms. Then both the workers
and the machinery will be valuable assets to society, instead of a
drag.

     Waste industries can be converted to useful production; but
there is a limit to how many objects and devices the world needs.
If industrial materials are used wisely by the workers, products
will last a long time -- reducing the need for replacements.

     We can safely state that global industrial activity will be
reduced by at least 40%, simply by stopping the production of
waste, including poorly made goods.  This reduced production will
of itself, immediately benefit ecology, eliminate landfill
problems and reduce toxics --  without reducing the standard of
living at all. It proves that the ecology crisis is not caused by
over-population, but by forced over-consumption under the
industrial dictatorship of capital.

     All Industrial Unions must adopt the standard: zero waste in
all industrial processes. Every single thing and substance can be
recycled or composted.

     But here is where the economic forces collide: when waste
becomes profitable. What happens when the workers own their
restaurants, one restaurant begins serving hamburgers in styrofoam
boxes, and suddenly they
get more business? There is a natural tendency for all the other
restaurants to start using the boxes too, to "satisfy the demand."
The same tendency occurs when a worker owned movie producer makes
violent, socially destructive movies, and sells a million. A
spiral of waste is created as others imitate it.

     There is no guarantee against this effect. No state
government or central planning committee can be set up that will
enforce a "no-waste" rule, and the rule itself cannot be
accurately drawn. Only the Industrial Unions of workers can
enforce standards within their workplaces and communities.

     Industrial Democracy provides more hope than any other system
that can be devised. That styrofoam box has to go somewhere --
perhaps to the local "waste management" or Recycling Workers
Industrial Union. Receiving the discarded styrofoam boxes in their
daily rounds, these workers will then go before the community
council and say, "We have no authority or means to dispose of
this." Then the community council would have a problem.
     It might happen -- as in the 20th century -- that the
restaurant owner/workers would go to the community council and
say, "Our customers need the styrofoam boxes," and slip each
councillor a free hamburger so they win the issue. But who will
take the styrofoam boxes?

     "Not us," say the Forest Workers allied Industrial Unions.

     "Not in this field," say the Herb Harvesters and the Wildlife
     Habitat
Environmental Workers.

     In surveying industrial production of waste for profit in the
20th century, we must not overlook social violence. Violent social
behavior is often a directly manufactured product of television,
movies, books, advertising, news media, and interest groups who
promote sexism, racism, violence and fear, for profit.  This
promotion of violence has enormous social economic costs of health
care, damaged property, and the costs of police and security
measures.

     The long-cherished "freedom of speech," anti-censorship
reached its limit when it became known that truth is relative and
subjective. Visual electronic media affect human unconscious
impulses. What you see is what you get.  These simple facts cannot
be ignored, and society cannot allow random destruction of
psychological health any more than it can allow wild bulls loose
in the market.

     Yes it's true you get into a situation where the controller
of censorship is able to suppress legitimate ideas he doesn't
agree with. But no controller can ever stop the production of
violent pornography, and no law can be written to draw the line
exactly. The larger Industrial Unions must ultimately set and
enforce basic standards, while at the local level it is a matter
of democratic interaction in the community to suit the particular
circumstances.

     The Industrial Unions are the only vehicle by which these
media industries can be forced to stop producing socially harmful
violence as their products.

4. THE UNION AS INDUSTRY

a. WORK KNOWLEDGE
     Work is the most valuable product of civilization. There is a
large difference
between academic knowledge, and the practice and knowledge of
actual work.

     To know how to work -- with your body and mind, how to carry
out the progression of tasks that make your product. To have gone
out and done it enough times to learn as second nature, the many
specific details that make the difference between a superior
product or a flawed one. That is the most important kind of
knowledge that exists, the most important product of social
history: the ability of the people to create and sustain wealth
for themselves.
     When work knowledge is lost, the result is poverty and loss
     of self-respect.

     For thousands of years, our mothers and fathers worked to
     make things --
food, shelter, implements, tools. All over the earth, human
societies developed work-based cultures. From earliest forest &
plain dwellers, through agricultural, bronze and iron ages, up to
the recent combustion-engine era, and so to the electronic age.
Everywhere men and women learned to hunt, farm, weave, print
books, cook, weld, pull wagons, and build bridges.

     It is a great achievement to send humans to the Moon. But
human society thrives, not just on the pinnacle but from the
thousands of kinds of work that
combine to make the pinnacle of space flight possible. Someone has
to keep on milling wheat, grafting fruit trees, curing the sick
and driving taxis; we can not all go to the Moon, simply because
it has become possible -- because then the industrial base is
undermined which made it possible.

      In the same way, simply because cars and frozen packaged
dinners exist, it does not follow that every person should use
them every day -- yet that is what modern economic planners tell
us we must do.

      It is direct knowledge by men and women of how to work and
produce things, which is being withdrawn from the people, as a
result of the concentration of industry ownership in the hands of
fewer and fewer non- working owners. In the 1990s the process is
completed by the expansion to global production. It is not that
global trade is bad, but the means being used to accomplish this
feat is corporate monopolization, where fewer and fewer companies,
and fewer owners, take over control of more production.

     While we all wear cheap sweaters made in Indonesia, women and
men in Britain and New Zealand have forgotten how to make
sweaters. While we eat white bread from Nebraska, people in
Tennessee and Moldavia have forgotten how to grow wheat.

     Worse, the Indonesians also forget how to weave sweaters,
because their
domestic work culture cannot duplicate the high technology
machines assembled from abroad by the few foreign owners. The women
and men of Indonesia become wage laborers for the foreign company,
and lose their native low-technology method of weaving. The
Nebraska farmers' wheat production is also based on high
technology and non-reproduceable seeds.

      One may argue that high-tech, cheap labor sweaters, along
with global trade, benefits people in all places by making
sweaters available at low prices.  One may argue that the high
yield methods of Nebraska mechanized chemical farming, along with
global trade, "frees" the people in Egypt and Bolivia from the
need to produce their own wheat, allowing them to specialize in
something
else.
      But the high-tech high-yield global monopoly trade system
makes everyone dependent on somebody else for everything. Somebody
-- but who? Should the system break down in one part, people
somewhere will be in immediate crisis, unable to produce the
missing product -- unable to get it anywhere else -- for their own
needs. Should the larger system break down -- and it has many
weaknesses -- then the entire world is wiped out, people in every
region unable to produce a single thing they need to survive.

     The knowledge of how to make things has been sucked out of
every culture and community by the few non-workers who own the
means of production, who take that knowledge and machinery
somewhere else and divide its application among distant groups of
temporary wage workers.

     To reclaim work knowledge in our communities, ownership and
management of industries must be taken over by the workers
themselves. Quite simply, your community is out on a limb when it
depends more and more on goods and services brought from far away
by companies owned by a few distant individuals whose only
motivation is to make a large short term profit.  The decision on
whether or not your family eats is being made somewhere else.

    Is this total dependence on a top-heavy economy the best we
can do for our children? Or should we try to leave them aware of
and in control of the industries and economy that sustain human
life? We can do it now by establishing worker ownership and self
management of our own local industries, united in Industrial
Unions that link all the workers of the world by industry.

4-b. TAKING RESPONSIBILITY
     Industry is human activity to produce things needed by
     people.

     In North America, it was the IWW in 1905 who pointed out that
     the
production of social wealth is a collective and cumulative
accomplishment of all the working people; therefore, all wealth
should go to those who produce it. In order to reclaim this
wealth, the workers had to take responsibility for the control of
production -- take responsibility and control away from
non-working individual or distant owners, whom the IWW labelled
the "employing class" -- by organizing democratic, industry-wide
Unions.

     The role and function of Industrial labor Unions is
inseparable from the role of industries. In planning Union
structures and activities for the 21st century, we must begin by
planning for industry.

     Democratic Industrial Union control by workers at the point
     of production -
- a control balanced by surrounding Industrial Unions and
community councils -
- will result in a society of ABUNDANCE and fair and equitable
distribution, when the workers themselves OWN the means of
production, operate in their own SELF INTEREST (for profit), and
trade by BUYING AND SELLING on an OPEN
MARKET.


     The problem of priorities -- allocating resources in short
supply -- will be solved, not by top-down decree, but by
cooperation among Industrial Union groups and communities.
Cooperation will be in everyone's best self interest.

     Thus the essential factor is getting ownership and control of
the means of production into the hands of the actual workers, and
away from one or a few individual non-worker owners.

     Taking the steps to worker ownership is much simpler than
trying to come up with a design for a socialist state or central
scientific management plan. It does not require a general strike
of the masses; it does not require people to adopt a class
analysis. What it does require is that workers use every means to
take over ownership and management of their work place and
industry.

     A variety of avenues lead to worker ownership. There are the
     set-up of new worker cooperatives, Employee Stock ownership,
and union buy-outs of
facilities. Also included, are workers who can seize their
workplace and lock out the boss/former owners -- if they can get
away with it. This is, in essence, a form of (leveraged) buy-out.

     When it comes to competition, the "capitalist" business world
is well known for using any means, legal or otherwise, to get what
it wants. Every owner of major capital has broken some laws, and
usually some lives, to get it.

     But this "immoral" behavior is not a quality unique to the
owners of capital.  It derives, rather, from work itself.

     When you set out to do a job of work, you use whatever means
you can -- you use the easiest, most efficient means available. If
you are the owner of a business and set out to accomplish an
objective -- making a profit -- you use whatever means is
available. It is the work principle in operation, often called the
"impersonal" forces of capital. The principle is inherent in
industry.

     The only difference is that, when you are doing a job and
look for ways to make that job easier and cheaper to do, you will
not adopt any method that injures yourself. Owners of capital have
no reason to care if workers, their environments and communities
get injured in the process of making a profit.

     It doesn't matter how you re-organize your social economy,
when people have an incentive to get a job done they will use
whatever means presents itself. There is no use imagining that
Industrial Unions of workers as owners of industry will be
inherently "moral." It is the balance of industrial relations
among the Industrial Unions, as well as the influence of
residential communities, which will maintain justice among them,
and keep them from stealing each other blind.

    There is certainly nothing "immoral" about people seizing the
mining equipment with which they take the ores from the earth
where they live. What about truckers, should they not own the
trucks they drive and practically live in?  The few individual and
distant owners would not be able to stop such workers from seizing
their equipment; however in our present circumstance the police
might become involved. It is simply a question of logistics, and
if a situation occurs where the takeover can be accomplished
peacefully, it should be done as the quickest way to establish
industrial democracy in that particular case.

    Such methods are right up the alley of "laissez faire
capitalists" -- they call it competitive survival of the fittest.
It is not a thing of the past -- in the 1990s, Guatemalan soft
drink competitors steal each other's supplies. In North America,
logging companies violate court injunctions to steal trees off
Native or public land. European companies spy on each other to
steal secrets. In Eastern Europe competitors sometimes use bombs.

     Such routine methods of capital driven business, are called
"direct action" when applied by people who work for a living. But
many workers will find it more practical to buy out or start up
new enterprises.

4-c. INDUSTRIAL MANAGEMENT

     No plant manager has ever been able to grasp the complex
forces involved in working on the shop floor to get a product
made. No political state or central coordinating committee will
ever be able to grasp the complex factors of industrial management
for social prosperity.

     Industry is not a thing to be managed, as some envision.  It
is possible to shift boxcar A onto track B so it goes to town C --
but such a management system automatically undermines itself
because at the point of production, there is no incentive to
produce.

     Whenever you take control of work and control of the product
out of the workers' hands, they no longer care about the job.  A
manager can tell the workers that the state will benefit them, or
the laissez-faire will trickle down, but workers know neither boss
is in touch with the reality of work.

     Nobody controls industry. Industry is subjective human
creative activity -- which in Industrial Democracy is free, up to
the point where it interferes with somebody else. Industry is not
a thing, it is a verb -- an action taken.
     Bootlegging, for example -- how is a government going to stop
people making and selling alcoholic beverage? Never. But the
people of a community, a city block, could easily prohibit such
activity, on the scene -- if they wanted to.

     Government regulation can never stop industrial plants from
dumping pollution, as long as it is profitable to dump. But the
plant workers can easily stop the dumping -- if they have an
incentive.

     Neither can profit-taking be prohibited by any form of
regime. A product has
greater value according to the demand for it, and there is no way
to get around this effect. If apples are in short supply, there is
no way to keep the price from going up. There is no way to prevent
people from selling or buying -- except some sort of police state
where you count every apple on every tree -- and then, if you want
to buy apples the police will sell them to you.

     Industry is subjective human activity driven by the self
interest of individuals and groups -- it cannot be objectively
managed.

     The owner of capital, who uses this accumulated wealth to set
up a factory for profits, is like a man who rides on a horse; the
factory is the horse -- managed industrial activity -- that
carries the owner to the bank. This is objective management. The
trouble is that factory workers are humans, not
horses. And human workers -- like some horses -- have a mind of
their own.  When factory workers get tired of carrying the excess
baggage of the owner's purse, they may throw their rider into the
bushes and manage the profits for themselves.

     Industrial Democracy has no central, controlling authority to
decree the extent of industries, their methods or goals. There
will not be a central planning committee for industry or for all
industries considered together -- sometimes advocated as
"scientific management."

     Instead, the production of goods and services will be
controlled at the local, workplace level, by democratic
participation of the workers. These locals will federate in the
Industrial Unions, to exert democratic control throughout the
entire industry as practical.

     Decisions of the local, and the larger federated Industrial
Unions, will be affected by community relations. If an Industrial
Union plant decides to go ahead and pollute the river, they will
have to answer to the people who live by the river.

     Industrial Union control of its industry will also be
affected by relations with other industries. If the global
federated Steel Workers Industrial Union decides to ration its
product, giving priority to medical equipment and bicycle parts --
then the makers of locomotive springs would simply have to search
for alternative metals.

     But if Steel Workers at a local mill charged higher prices to
Locomotive Spring Makers, while selling at a lower price to
everyone else, then perhaps the Rail Workers Industrial Union --
who own their locomotives -- would divert a boxcar of steel to the
Spring factory.

     The interdependent relationships of industries and
communities acts as a balance to the power of any one group. All
industrial activities will be subject to influence by the
surrounding community and other industries.  Councils of
Industrial Unions, and councils of community residents will be the
basic avenues for discussion and mediation within the community
and its industrial operations.

     The Industrial Union formed of federated workplaces, will
develop into an
industry-wide voice and decision making body. In different
industries, there will be greater or lesser conformity of methods.
The Industrial Union of Health Care Workers for example, might
agree to ban certain drugs around the globe. But the Industrial
Union of Dancers may not find one issue on which universal
agreement is possible, or needed.



    Part 2/4

     21ST CENTURY UNION: ORGANIZING SUSTAINABLE INDUSTRIES

///by Carlos Murray, member IWW, co-editor Industrial Worker
newspaper 1992-93.  Free for electronic distribution only. Please
do not print distribute without permission.  Copyright Dec.25,
1993, Carlos Murray  <indwrk@web.apc.org>///
---------------------------------------------------------------------***

5. ECONOMIC LIFE IN INDUSTRIAL DEMOCRACY

a.  Property

    Industrial Democracy requires that workers control their means
of production as well as their product. They can do this only if
it belongs to them. The local group of workers must quite simply,
own the means of production and the product and hold it as private
property. It is theirs to do with as they please.

    Ownership of industrial property may be shared with
communities, or with other branches of the Industrial Union. If
this is the case, the actual workers must retain final control of
the property in decisions affecting their work.

     As long as the workers own their workplaces, tools, and the
products they make -- and decisions are made democratically, the
workers will receive all the
benefits of their labor;  while society benefits from a natural
undistorted economy.  But what happens when the group of workers
decides to quit? What happens to the industrial assets?

     There is no way, outside of government-type regulation, to
prevent the accumulation of wealth in some degree. This wealth is
exchangeable -- if in
cash it can be traded for goods or services; if in goods, it can
be traded for cash, services, or other goods. There is no way to
prevent wealth being exchanged.

     Yet, in order to preserve Industrial Democracy, we must
prevent the tools and workplaces from being owned by people who do
not work. With ownership comes control. Ownership by Labor allows
democratic control, but there is nothing democratic about capital.
After taking control of their industries, working people must keep
that control.

    Just as the 20th century Union defended its organized shops,
so the Industrial Union must defend ownership of the means of
production within its industry.

    All Industrial Unionized worker-owned shops must guarantee as
a condition of membership in the Industrial Union, that on
retirement or on abandoning the shop for any reason, its property
will only be sold or transferred within the Industrial Union. A
shop can be sold or traded to another group of workers in the
Industrial Union; or sold or traded to the Industrial Union
itself.

    This clause in the Industrial Union contract with
worker-owner-members will keep industrial property from falling
into the hands of capitalists. Once industrial equipment or real
estate passes into the hands of Industrial Union workers, the
workers must promise never to sell it to a capitalist person or
group who has money but are not themselves Industrial Workers.

     In this way the Industrial Union will gradually extend
control over its industry.

5- b. NATURAL RESOURCES
    Forests, soils, waters, minerals in the ground -- must be
taken over by the Industrial Unions of workers who utilize and
depend on the resources.  Specific cases vary. The "owners" of a
forest might be the Unions of ten different harvest industries.
Land containing mineral deposits might be owned exclusively by the
Mine Workers Industrial Union.

    A community may also be owner or part owner of forest,
    farmland, waters or minerals. Remember that communities
include the workers, too. In case of community ownership, the
community will decide about industrial development of the
resource. It may decide to allow, or not allow, Selective Logging;
but once it decides to allow selective logging, the Timber Workers
own the trees selected for harvest.

4-c. CAPITAL
     A dictionary defines "Capital" as: "accumulated wealth used
     or usable for producing more."

     When work is done, wealth accumulates and you have capital.
With Industrial Democracy, the working people will own their
accumulated wealth and use it to buy equipment, supplies, to build
new workshops -- or as a retirement fund.

    "Capitalism: the organization of production by capitalists for
    their own profit."

     It appears that, according to this definition, the workers
must become capitalists, in order to own the wealth they produce.
Capital -- accumulated wealth -- is an economic force that must be
taken into account. It does not matter what a system is called --
the point is its effect on people and society.

    In the 1990s, industry in most of the world is owned by
"persons who use or possess capital."  This may be a billionaire
with lots of cash like Conrad Black, who as an individual owns
several newspapers and other large industrial operations. It may
be a large corporation owned by a dozen or a hundred investors
(shareholders); or it may be your next-door neighbor who has taken
a $10,000 bank loan as capital to set up a restaurant.
Billionaires and corporate shareholders do not invest any labor,
only capital. Your neighborhood business person may invest both
labor and capital.

    The corporation exists in order to bring together large
amounts of capital, which is used to buy the means of production
including labor. In Industrial Democracy, the working people own
their labor and do not sell it -- and they also own the wealth
accumulated from profits and overproduction, or: capital.

    There is a set of ideas called "communism" or Marxism which is
supposed to give the whole population possession of all the means
of production. The people would own the whole thing together. In
the 20th century, such systems
did improve the standard of living for poor workers and peasants
in several countries. However, communist systems were plagued by
lack of production incentive on the part of workers, and by an
upper class of state officials. There are people who would say
that these systems were not "true" communism, and they are
probably right.

    Could it be that both labels: "capitalism" and "communism"
fail to take into account some of the real forces of industrial
economy?

    Industrial Democracy is not capitalism, and it is not
communism. In a sense, it combines the best of both -- but forget
the labels. Industrial Democracy is working people owning their
workplaces -- and their accumulated wealth -- united in democratic
Industrial Unions to control their own industries, in cooperation
with their communities.

    In the new society of Industrial Democracy, individual workers
may also accumulate wealth -- as savings, or a pile of gold
nuggets panned from the creek. So too, the community of people,
working and owning their various industries, will accumulate
wealth as a community treasury. This capital wealth accumulated by
individuals and communities will be invested into industries in
some fashion. For example, the community may purchase the services
of Education Workers; or it may assist in setting up a new machine
shop that will provide employment and services to the community.

    Communities -- or individuals -- may invest their accumulated
wealth in local industries/Industrial Unions. A community might
provide money to a local farm co-op, on condition of receiving
part of the cucumbers. Or they might provide capital to set up a
bakery or tap dancing school or railway.

    But only the workers can own their workplace, their production
and their capital -- worker ownership is the key to Industrial
Democracy. Communities or individuals may donate money to help set
up worker-owned industries, in order to provide local employment,
utilize local resources, and produce things for the community.
Their investment is returned indirectly, through benefits to the
community.

    Industrial Unions may also simply borrow money from these
sources, and pay it back. Ideally there will be no interest paid
on borrowed capital, because this practice has a distorting effect
on value. However, the only economic (as opposed to legislative)
way to stifle the practice of charging and paying interest, is to
not allow credit to be used as capital at all, and confine lending
for capital purposes to hard cash or actual goods. The only way to
do this, in turn, is to make it impossible to guarantee credit.

     In the 20th century, banks -- holders of accumulated wealth,
the most powerful corporations in the world -- loaned money they
did not have, and the government insured the money to make it
"real." Of course it was not real, and the government itself was
vastly in debt to the bank, while that bank was in debt to other
banks and depositors. This creation of unreal capital distorts
natural economic forces.

     Although each country places limits on its banks, when banks
operate internationally they make their own rules. Thus a bank in
Hong Kong can lend $US20 million to a German bank, which then
lends it to a multinational corporation that uses it to pay off
loans to banks in Venezuela and Honduras.  The Venezuelan bank may
use part of the same money to pay a debt to the Hong Kong bank,
while the Honduran bank may pay back a loan to the German Bank.

     In all this daisy chain of IOU's not a single penny has to
change hands -- which is a good thing, since not one penny of the
original $20 million ever
existed in the first place. Multiply this little example by ten
thousand, and you get an idea of the amount of bogus capital in
the world: bogus capital that is used to buy the labor of workers
and sell it back to them.

     The same thing happens when a corporation seeks capital to
buy industrial equipment or labor. Upper-income individuals go to
their banks and borrow money to buy corporate stocks. It's all
done with bookkeeping. Of course down at the bottom there is a
tiny percent of real, actual cash or goods, on which a
fantastic construct of illusion is built.

     To erode this phoney business is first, to diffuse the bank's
hoard of accumulated wealth, and get more of it into the hands of
workers and worker owned industry. Other means involve eroding the
ability of banks to back up their credit -- to collect payment on
loans -- such as might occur in a stock market crash or "Savings
and Loan Scandal" type of scenario. Developments in the
electronics industry could also become a factor.

    No one should own the means of production -- or control the
product -- other than the workers themselves. The only exception
is that communities can own natural resources, and share ownership
of industrial equipment.

4-d. CLASS
     To establish Industrial Democracy and worker ownership, the
first purpose of the Industrial Union must be to build healthy
industries. Fighting the employer is only a means -- not the
goal.

     In the Third Printing (1993) of the Seventh Revised Edition
(1979) of the IWW's "One Big Union" pamphlet appears this
statement: "The emancipation of the working class must be the
class conscious act of the working class itself."

     This statement informs us that emancipation cannot be imposed
top-down, it must be an act of the workers. However, this
emancipation will never be a "class conscious" act, nor will the
"working class" ever act as if it were a single entity. It is not
an entity, because the working class only has existence by
contrast with the capital class. The minority capital class does
exist and does exploit -- it is an identifiable group set apart.

     True, the vast majority of people have to work for a living,
so you can call them the working class; but the working class has
nothing else in common.  They are smart, stupid, good, and bad.
Some workers will stand beside you in a fight with the boss, and
some will go over and help the boss. There is no way that this
entire population, the working class, will ever agree on the same
goal and strategy and act as one thing. Except that, each and
every one wants a better life and more money.

     A change of industrial ownership can only be done by the
     economic activity of the workers. The workers do not carry
out economic activity objectively, as a class; they act
subjectively, for a better life for themselves and their families
and communities.

     The workers do not own their workplace as a class, they do
not self- manage their production as a class, and they do not earn
a living as a class.  They carry out this subjective industrial
and economic activity as individuals, and as Industrial Union
members.

     Class will disappear as soon as all capital is put into
industry, and industry is owned by all its workers.

     The Union of the 21st century must base its identity on
industry -- not on
a relationship with employers -- to find the interests of its
members. The way forward is for the Industrial Union to take
responsibility for industry on behalf of its workers and the
communities. When the Union asserts responsibility for industry,
the crimes of employers automatically become sharply visible.
Labor disputes with employers can be dealt with in the context of
responsible industrial practices, applying standards set by the
Industrial Union.

     In the 20th century, unions tried to force the employer to
take more responsibility -- getting the employer to pay for health
insurance, getting the employer to replant more trees. These short
term benefits are counter productive in the long term because it
removes responsibility further away from control by workers
themselves. If the workers' Unions want health insurance, let them
see to it -- commanding higher wages to pay it, if necessary.
Coercing the employer to increase its paternal role reinforces the
class hierarchy.

     Of course, in the 1990s the owner is in immediate control of
the cash flow.  The Union of workers does not want to pay for
installing a wheel ramp or safety valve in a building not owned by
themselves. This calls for creative solutions to give the Union as
much control as possible in the given situation.

     A good approach would be to force the employer to give the
     money to the Union, which would then get the project
installed. Or, the workers may go ahead and install it -- perhaps
getting the community involved in funding -- and then demand the
employer reimburse them.

     If the workers Union can acquire any sort of interest in the
ownership of the premises or equipment, so much the better. If the
employer requires the workers to wear uniforms, the Union can buy
its own uniforms instead of buying or renting them through the
employer.

     With ownership comes control. The workers don't like to wear
uniforms anyway. Once uniforms are under the control and
responsibility of the union, perhaps one day they will not come
back from the cleaners.

     If the workers own their own trucks or computers, they can
have more control of their work. Industrial Unions should "help"
employers by helping workers to purchase pieces of industry.

     An economic war will be fought for the purpose of diffusing
the capital of the few owners of industry. They must be forced to
sell property, corporate shares, etc, or forced to lose it/shut
down through bankruptcy, or it must be taken from them by
subterfuge or by any feasible means. Industrial Unions can use a
variety of methods on the economic landscape to help each other
gain control of industries, one piece at a time.

     In strictly industrial terms, having a large amount of
produced wealth drained off by a few individuals is harmful to the
industry. If more profits are returned to equipment and labor, the
industry will produce better. The Industrial Union is responsible
for its industry. The Industrial Union of workers cannot avoid the
duty of stopping any excessive profit drains to one or a few
individuals. Any accumulation of capital outside of industry is
unhealthy for the economy, and must be diffused.

     The workers who make up the Industrial Union, each in his or
her workplace, will be concerned less with their duty to the whole
society or industry, but more specifically with their personal
income, new equipment for their worker-owned workplace, perhaps a
desire to produce quality products for their communities. They
will see direct self interest in redistributing the excess profits
of a few, for the benefit of themselves and fellow workers.

     The best way to prevent the rise of a new capital class, is
to prevent the use of credit (non-existent wealth) as capital, and
prevent interest payments on borrowed money.

5-e.  INCENTIVE & WORKERS INCOME
     There is a reason for each step in the production and
distribution process.  The farmer grows wheat because s/he can
sell it.  Of course, we all know the real reason for growing wheat
is so people can eat bread and stay alive.  But the individual
farmer -- or Industrial Union of Farmers -- will not grow wheat
simply because other people need to eat. The farmer cannot grow a
crop without some kind of return to sustain the costs of
production -- to keep equipment repaired, buy seeds, fertilizer or
tools for next year. Also, the farmer and family want to eat and
live comfortably.

     What would happen if the farmer grew wheat and dumped it all
in the town square for any who needed it?  In return, the barber
could give the farmer (and everyone) free haircuts, the
veterinarian treats the farmer's dog for free, and metal workers
build farm tools and set them out in the square for the taking.
In theory it seems possible for such a system to function, each
giving what s/he can and taking what s/he needs. Given conditions
of abundant production, no one would feel compelled to hoard up
the wheat or tools, there would be no point because there is
always plenty when needed.

     The problem is, no one would feel compelled to produce
abundantly. The farmer would have no incentive to grow bigger or
better tasting wheat or more of it. In fact, the crop might get
smaller each year. Unless somebody was there to say, you must grow
100 bushels, or no more free haircuts. And then we're
back to self-interest, and we may as well go back to open market
because it is simpler.

     It is no use trying to plan production to meet the social
needs using a top down approach. The federated Industrial Unions
will meet and talk about the big picture. But their basic building
blocks are the workplaces where members are able to secure a
living and a life for themselves. Without the effective operation
of self interest -- where the worker gets what s/he needs as a
result of her/his labor -- there is no industry.
     Humans as social beings have learned that there is strength
in numbers.  Self interest is often identical with social
interest. That is why workers joined trade unions in the 20th
century. Self interest will motivate workers in the 21st
century to pool their labors and wealth in Industrial Union
organizations that provide job protection and economic security
for themselves, their children and their communities.

5-f. VALUE
    The assignment of economic value to goods, services and labor
has proceeded slowly with the development of industrial
civilization. There was a time when most things were not bought or
sold, but obtained free or through labor, directly from the land.
People have always built their own houses, even after it became
possible to buy them or hire someone to build them. People still
build their own houses in many parts of the world, but in
industrially advanced countries it is no longer possible. If you
want a house you have to buy it.

    Many other products have gradually come to be obtained only by
buying and selling -- for example, water, heating fuel, and
kitchen utensils.

    Thus the practice of buying and selling has gradualy
encroached upon more and more of the actual economy. In the 1990s,
even in urban societies there is still some "production" of
benefit to society which is not bought and sold -- personal
services that people do for each other all the time, and volunteer
work.  But there is also an increase of charging money for
personal services.

     The division of labor, increased population, and the
sterility of urban life are partly responsible for this
progression of "value."

     The Industrial Union plan divides labor by industry, and
encourages unrecognized workers to assert their worth and the
place of their industry in the economy of value. This assertion
forces society to acknowledge the real costs and values of the
production of social life. Every person who is producing something
is a contributor to social and economic wealth. A person may
produce art, or fortune telling, or historical research -- all the
things that people actually do, are part of the whole.

      This inclusive view of human society is the same as a
wholistic view of the forest, which counts not only the tall trees
of value, but also mushrooms, muskrats and soil bacteria.

     At the end of the 20th century, the tremendous work done by
women in the home and family has barely begun to be recognized as
part of social economy.

     Some people might prefer to do away with value -- with buying
     and selling -
- altogether. But by forcing society to become aware of the
numerous inter- connected kinds of labor necessary to the wealth
and quality of society, we can
do away with power-class relationships based on inflated values
assigned to certain contributors.

     In some societies soldiers and police have been highly valued
and paid, while women doing equally essential child care and food
services were forced to struggle and often hindered. In the 1990s,
corporate executives are highly valued and paid by shareholders,
while the workers who do the equally valuable work of cleaning the
offices are on the edge of starvation.

     Rather than destroying value, the Industrial Union plan
counts the value of all whose labor makes up the whole.

5-g. SHARING THE WEALTH
      In the 21st century, we may hope society will meet the human
needs of prosperity, security, and peace. This requires that
wealth be adequately distributed -- since civil peace and
prosperity can only result from a well fed, housed, and educated
population.

     In the 20th century, there was often a large gap between the
wages of different occupations. Retail food employees did not have
the same bargaining power as a union of bricklayers.  More skill
and training is necessary to lay bricks; when they withhold their
labor they cannot be replaced easily. In successive union actions
the bricklayers are able to demand higher wages. On the other
hand, when retail food workers withhold their labor, the employer
may find it easier to simply replace them with scabs.

     Industrial Union control of industry will not necessarily
result in equal pay for all. However, it will be recognized that
schools require not only teachers, but also floor sweepers and
window washers as well as students. The recognition is not
automatic, but happens when all these workers participate
democratically in planning and control of the education
workplace.

     Methods for sharing earned wealth will vary. Generally it
will be the local cooperative industrial unit -- the factory,
garage, store, office, farm -- the seller of the product, which
earns income. Workers of that unit can decide how to divide income
among themselves.

     An attitude of tolerance will be standard in 21st century
society -- tolerance for different races, sexes, customs, and
(non-violent) behavior. Industrial Unions will need to facilitate
relations among a great variety of people, allowing freedom to
innovate and do things in different ways. There is not one system
to be imposed on everybody, rather we need flexible systems that
will incorporate and accommodate complexity.

     At the same time, population pressures and ecological
awareness will be intolerant of waste, pollution and needless
damage. Everyone will be expected to take responsibility for their
own actions, including industrial effects.

     People who are not satisfied with a social goal that retains
property, capital, buying and selling as facets of economic life,
are free to pursue more extensive ideals in their local workplaces
and communities. Democratic ownership and control of the workplace
and the product, is a great step forward towards
economic democracy, but it may not bring about universal equality,
or free the individual from all limits. When workers own their
workplaces they are free to order internal structure as they wish,
just as people in residential communities are also free to set up
the kinds of governing structures they want.

    Worker ownership opens up society and the economy for diverse
methods.  While one shoe factory may be communist and share all
income equally, another shoe factory may set competitive pay
quotas. Both are local unions of the same Shoe Makers Industrial
Union. One local Union of Information Workers may run by
consensus, while another local of the same industry elects
managers. The Industrial Union of Food Service workers includes
solitary hot dog vendors and the staffs of large restaurants.
Shared ownership by workers of their own industrial units allows a
wide range of methods to be integrated into the democratic
industry sphere.

5-h. SUPPLY AND DEMAND
    The demand for apples creates the original incentive for the
grower to produce apples. S/he sees that apples are selling for
around 25 cents a bushel, and believes that labor will enable
him/her to produce enough apples to sustain a living at this
price.  If apples were piled up in the village square for free,
s/he would not bother going out to grow apples; and therefore,
there would be no apples produced to pile in the square.

     Yes -- it is possible that Citizens would approach the town
square and say, "Look, fellow Citizens, there are not as many
apples as we would like. Let us
form a Worker Collective to produce more apples next year and pile
them in the square, so the community will be healthy."

     Within Industrial Democracy, any community or group may
decide to share wealth among themselves freely or by some formula.
Perhaps someday the free economy will evolve. A first step for
society as a whole is to advance to worker ownership within the
structure of the buying and selling, supply and demand economy.

     Although no law will stop someone from starting up non-Union
production, Industrial Unions are industrial resource centers as
well as training grounds for apprentices and new workers. The
21st-century individual who wants to grow (supply) apples would
most likely do so by joining the local Industrial Union of
Agriculture Workers/Fruit Orchardists. This would give the worker
access to knowledge, tools, cooperative labor, and marketing
facilities. The local Industrial Union would set the price of
apples by democratic methods, and would also enforce industry
rules about pesticides or wormy apples.

     S/he might be starting his or her own little orchard in the
backyard, but would do so in cooperation with other local apple
growers.

     There might be some competition for markets between say,
Washington state apple growers and Iowa's. Yet in the long run
cooperation between them is more likely to predominate.

5-i. PROFITS
     If there is a bad year for wheat, a natural pressure is
created to drive up the price of bread. First, the wheat farmers
hope to maintain their living. Then there are bakers and
distributors, who -- although producing less bread -- must meet
their operating expenses and sustain their labor. At the same
time, people are clamoring for bread which makes it easy for the
producers to raise prices.

     The problem is when producers deliberately keep on producing
less in order to keep the prices high: enforced scarcity.

     Nearly all commercial farm production in the last half of the
20th century was done with some type of quota system. Each farmer
was assigned a quantity of eggs or corn that s/he could produce.
Prices were thus stabilized -
- fixed -- at a level to allow farmers to meet costs. This is not
an ideal system, because it prevents the price from ever going
down. Farmers who discovered cheaper production methods simply
pocketed the extra profit, instead of lowering their prices. As
individuals they could not lower prices even if they wanted to.
(In reality it was the bank who did the pocketing in most cases.)

     Another problem with the quota system was that excess
production would be thrown away, even while people in the
community were hungry. Not just on farms, but throughout the food
industry. Food not sold at the going price by wholesalers,
retailers or processing plants, was dumped although it was not
spoiled and there were hungry people.

     This "enforced scarcity" is the danger in a system of buying
and selling at
a value price, for profit. Certain Industrial Unions having gained
control of their industries, will have no choice but to utilize
something similar to a quota system, to keep a balance between
their income from product sales and their costs of producing. This
balance prevents wild up-and-down fluctuations in the prices,
which would throw producers out of business in the low points.
However, some factors of Industrial Union society may help prevent
enforced scarcity and replace it with sustained plenty.

     The Industrial Union of producers may not do all their trade
in cash sales.  It seems likely, for example, that the local Union
of Bus Drivers will make a deal with the local Union of Farmers
for a direct exchange: so many bus rides in exchange for so many
apples. A complex of such cross-arrangements may develop, and this
may be enough to cause effective distribution of apples throughout
the local society -- so that no one is left hungry due to being
unable to pay the cash price for apples.

    In addition, the Industrial Unions will be subject to
influence by the communities and the workers of other industries.
Just as in a case of short supply, in a case of artificially high
prices the community will speak to the Apple Growers' Industrial
Union. But will some people in the community be left out --
perhaps the local Poets Industrial Union, who don't make very much
money, and have no power to bring pressure on the Apple Growers?

    It is impossible to say exactly how this problem of price and
profit -- enforced scarcity -- will be prevented. But it was not
prevented by 20th century economic methods, and any top-down plan
to enforce abundance will result in a shortage of apple production
while draining away profits for administration.

     The 20th century problem with buying and selling is the
artificial creation of scarce supply and scarce capital, to
maintain high prices. The factor which
balances this, is competition; another company comes along with
more supply at a lower price; but in competition, one or another
may win and create a new monopoly.

      The only balancing factor which will work against this
scarcity-monopoly
cycle in Industrial Democracy is inter-dependence.

     The Union of workers acting in self interest will generally
seek to obtain a higher income for their labor. However, this
group of industrial workers must function in connection with all
the other industrial union groups. They must obtain supplies, they
rely on trucks or rails, communications and other services from
the surrounding industrial environment.

     These other industrial union locals also have children to
feed and a living to sustain, and so they will bring pressure on
the Apple Growers: If you won't lower the price of your apples,
then we shall raise the price you pay for ladders and buckets you
use to pick the apples.

     In addition, the industrial unit will be subject to demands
made by the geographic community. The community consists of all
the local industrial workers and their families, the retired, the
children, etc. This community will say:  Our children need apples.
The majority of human beings are not overwhelmingly driven by
greed. This can be seen today where trade union members constantly
give away money to support other unions.

     Buying and selling on an open market will work for fair and
equitable
distribution, when democratic controls are in operation at the
point of production.

5.j.  COLLECTIVE BUYING AND SELLING
     Buying and selling expresses the principle of give-and-take
found throughout nature. Each person should contribute something
in return for what s/he receives, in order to be balanced as an
individual. However, if some are left unable to buy what they
need, there are problems.

     For a community, it is very sensible to provide the basic
needs of people on a collective basis. Housing, transportation,
communications, education, certain basic clothing and certain
basic foods, as well as basic health care, water, recycling etc.,
can all be provided universally within the community. This can be
arranged among the combined Industrial Unions and the community
through bartering and payments.

     Let's say that all the people in Chicago receive all the
above. House builders, train drivers, phone workers, and all
workers involved in producing those services/products, would thus
be paid in part by those very services which they, too, receive.
House builders can ride the train free, so don't need money to buy
the fare. They are exempt from any transportation tax, because
they "pay" by building houses. The train driver gets a discount on
his/her housing tax.

     Collective provision of basic necessities simply prevents and
avoids a lot of problems with people getting sick and freezing to
death, or robbing each other.  It is not direct user-pay buying
and selling, although people do pay for the services through
"taxes" or labor.

     Barter may be expected also between Industrial Unions in
different places.  It is an important way for Industrial Unions to
help each other get by on less cash.

5-k. NON ESSENTIAL PRODUCTS -- INNOVATION
     Just as under "capitalist" free market, many new innovations
and unexpected products have appeared, so in the Industrial Union
free market, innovation and creativity will flourish.

     Workers who innovate and produce a new product will benefit
from their own activity.

      To understand this benefit, it helps to consider how workers
benefit in the 20th century in similar circumstances. In the 20th
century, the making of a new product required capital investment
by Mr. Businessman, who hired people to do the actual work of
production, according to Mr. Businessman's design and method. The
workers benefitted from the product, by receiving wages, which are
in effect a (small) portion of the profits.

    In Industrial Union economy, the capital investment necessary
to start up new production will be provided by the workers
themselves -- with or without capital assistance from the
Industrial Union or community. A new product will be created in
response to a perceived demand, very much as Mr. Businessman of
the 20th century perceived a demand before starting up his new
product.  The difference here is that Mr. Businessman will no
longer be part of the
equation. In practice, there is also a difference in perception of
demand.

     Using for an example the Rubix Cube of the 1980s: a demand
was perceived for the Rubix Cube. Someone speculated that people
would buy this item. A Rubix Cube cannot be eaten, it does not
provide housing or clothing or medicine. It is, however, an
educational object. Thus in fact, production of the Rubix Cube
benefitted the owners (Mr. Businessman), the workers who receive
wages for actually making it, AND it benefits society at large by
being an educational tool.

     In 21st century Industrial Unionism, a product like the Rubix
Cube would be created in a very similar fashion. First the cube is
invented by an individual or group. Perhaps its inventor would
attempt to interest a community in capitalizing production. Or the
inventor might logically approach a union of workers in a branch
of the education industry.  Having obtained their interest, the
proposal would be taken to a union of plastics manufacturer
workers. Once the object is placed into production, it will be
sold on an open market; and the proceeds will benefit both the
inventor and the plastic workers. Although the Rubix Cube is an
educational object, the education workers would not be part of the
direct benefit equation. Even if Education Workers helped
capitalize production, they should get no profits above the
repayment of loans.

     This example of the Rubix Cube illustrates how non-essential
products will continue to be created and made widely available in
Industrial Democratic economy.

    But let us consider how a product would not get made. First,
any number of proposed products might be shot down by fellow
workers on grounds of pornography, environmental effects, etc.

    Let's suppose an Industrial Union, worker owned television
factory is doing quite well and wishes to develop a new product so
it can hire more full time (28-hr. week?) workers. Some young
apprentices design a television that can be installed onto a
chair, to be used in bus stations. The viewer sits in the chair
and inserts a quarter, and the TV comes on.

     It's a good technical job and stands to make a good profit,
so they bring
a sample to the bus station. Here the Transport Workers who work
at the depot
-- busily selling tickets and losing people's baggage -- may
reject the design.  It makes the chairs uncomfortable, it's too
noisy in the bus station, and the Cleaning Workers predict people
will butt their cigarettes on top of the plastic casing.

     Even when offered a share of the quarters, depot workers say
no. The bus station, as an individual Transport Workers Industrial
Union, worker-owned workplace, may not need to expand its work
force or its profits. The operation of the bus station is
sustainable at its level of cash flow and salaries, in accord with
standards across the transport industry. The enterprise is not
looking to expand profits -- by any means as an end in itself --
because the self interest of the workers is satisfied.

6. WHO ARE THE PRODUCERS?
6-a. UNCOUNTED LABOR
     The Industrial Union must include all workers whose labor
goes towards making a particular product. While these workers are
easily recognized in a steel mill, in some industries workers have
never been recognized or paid.  Housekeepers and child care
workers are perhaps the most significant example. Many kinds of
community work are done for free by organized clubs and
charity/educational groups.

     There are people who work alone -- "self-employed" craft and
trade workers.  In the 1990s, many employees are technically
classified as "self-employed contract workers."

     It is key to organize all the producers in Industrial Unions,
regardless of the avenues of ownership, tactics or the industrial
methods of different groups. The Industrial Union is the forum of
the workers, the resource and information
base for the industry; these functions give it the ability to
control and manage industry.

     In some cases the formerly unpaid producers will organize to
seek pay from
communities or from those who use their services. But there are
those who work for social motives, providing services to the
community as volunteers.  These producers are also Industrial
Workers.

6-b.  ENVIRONMENTALISTS
     The Environmental Worker whose labor is to measure the toxic
content of
a river downstream from a chemical plant -- and who sounds the
alarm when the pollution count is too high -- must be considered
an essential worker of the chemical industry.

    The Environmental Worker (paid or unpaid) as a member of the
Chemical Workers Industrial Union has voice and vote among the
plant worker-owners.  If working on behalf of the Aquaculture
Workers' industry, s/he would have to notify the Chemical Workers
of a pollution problem, and there must be some method of
discussion between the two Industrial Unions. In either case, the
Environmental Worker is essential. Without her/his work, the river
could become poisoned and kill the plant workers in their
downstream homes; or the poison could wipe out the fishing
industry downstream, which purchases the chemical products for
cleaning its nets.

     The links may be direct or indirect, but there are always
links to be traced
between all industries and their effects.

     This new group of workers known as Environmentalists, must be
given a place and membership in the appropriate Industrial
Unions.

     Forest Environmentalists are a case in point: thousands of
them got arrested, aided by thousands of supporters, to
temporarily stop MacMillan Bloedel corporation from clearcutting
Clayoquot Sound (1993). Stopping one part of the clearcut
operation put 25 Mac-Blo employees out of work -- but the action
saved thousands of jobs for the future.

     These forest-environmentalists, although unpaid -- in fact,
they had to pay fines -- were taking responsibility for the Forest
Industry. The 25 actual wage employees were not, and neither were
the government-registered Foresters.  Which group deserves to be
considered the Industrial Union of Forest Workers?

     Of course, all groups must be included. Anyone who devotes
her or his time and labor to an industry, must be included as a
member of that Industrial Union. Forest Environmental Workers
deserve voice and vote in the Forest Workers Industrial Union, as
long as they remain significantly engaged in the work.

     The Industrial Union is based, not on those who make their
living off a product, but on all those who help make the product.
Lines and definitions between Industrial Unions are based on what
is practical, since ultimately every industry is inter-dependent
with all the rest.

     Environmentalists may form their own Environment Workers
Industry Union (See Earth Stewards IU672), or they may choose to
join the Forest, Aquaculture, or other Industrial Unions.

     Now, the 1990s is the time to build Industrial Unions with
Environmentalists at the core. The industries we build for the
21st century will be sustainable democratic industries.

6-c. MULTIPLE JOBS, FLEXIBILITY & MOBILITY
    Lines between industries are sometimes blurred. Is the parent
raising
children at home a member of Early Childhood Education (IU 620),
or of the HomeMakers (IU 680)? The worker both educates and
provides home services; s/he could well belong to both Industrial
Unions at once.

     Workers in the new society of Industrial Democracy must be
     free to choose
-- or quit -- their work and occupation.

     An individual may work in a number of industries. This has
been the tendency in the late 20th century due to the increase of
part time and temporary jobs. It also happens to be a natural
tendency among industrially- integrated communities. The one
person may spend the summer growing tomatoes as an Agricultural
Worker of Industrial Union 110 -- and spend the winter canning
tomatoes as a worker of Food Processing Workers IU 460, or
shipping them out for General Distribution Workers IU 670. The
same person may take a three-month course in History of
BeeKeeping, becoming for the term a student member of Education
Workers IU 620.

    In the individual worker, there is a meeting of several
industries at any given time -- or over a lifetime. The case of a
student (Education Worker) who spends the summer defending trees
(Forest Worker) is not different from the Midwife (Health Care
Worker) who, between calls, runs a used car dealership (General
Distribution Worker).

     To accommodate all variations, the Industrial Unions must be
set up to provide multiple levels of input. First are those
workers whose full time work is harvesting Persimmon wood --
full-fledged members of Forest Workers IU 120.  Then there is the
worker who may spend only one season as a tree planter.  S/he is a
temporary member of the Forest Workers IU 120, with voice and vote
-
- but perhaps not the same degree of voice and vote as the
"permanent full time" Forest Workers.

     Some people prefer temporary or part time employment. This is
especially true in the late 20th century, because everybody hates
their jobs and wants to leave as soon as possible. The working
conditions of Industrial Democracy will make work enjoyable and
fulfilling; people will shed tears when they leave the pleasant
workplaces and their temporary co-workers. Still, one of the goals
of Industrial Democracy is more free time and flexibility --
giving people more control of their own lives and labor.

     The Industrial Unions must extend fair rights of
participation in decision making to part timers and temps, with a
system to enable workers to enter and leave smoothly. The worker's
rights to participate must begin immediately with his labor in the
industry; she must be informed and enabled from the start.

     "Instant ownership shares" starting at the moment of
employment as an Industrial Union Worker, and ending with
termination, will accommodate the
democratic participation of temp workers in workplace decisions.
     20th century industries under capital control were not
responsible or accountable to the community or society. But in
21st century Industrial Democracy, every person who works is
responsible for the industry s/he works in. It would not be right
for anyone -- even a temporary worker -- to avoid taking her or
his share of responsibility for the industry and its effects on
the community.

     A variety of industrial circumstances within the industry
     will necessitate flexible forms of participation. Some
Building Construction Workers will discuss and vote by electronic
modem, others will rely on face to face meetings or mail.  Their
diverse input is integrated -- dovetailed into a democratic
process of their Industrial Union.

     Unions must be prepared to accommodate a variety of conditions
and participation, in order to fairly represent, and to establish
the Industrial Unions of All the Workers as owners and operators
of industries. Industrial Unions must
embrace individuals who work alone, or in small shops of 2 or more
workers.

6-d.  HOURS OF WORK
    As long as worker-owned cooperatives are competing with
industrial operations owned by a few or distant individuals, and
as long as some workers of the Industrial Union remain enslaved to
work for the profits of capital owners, there will be no major
reduction of work hours. Minor adjustment is possible within
workplaces.

    The 40-hour standard is arbitrary. Any standard of hours or
wages is arbitrary, and in reality there is a great variety of
hours on the job across the spectrum of industries. The arbitrary
standards established in the 20th century, are only needed to
protect wage slaves from being run into the ground by dictatorial
employers. Once we are in a situation of worker owned industries,
then it is up to each individual worker, and each workplace Union
of workers, to decide their hours.

    In Farm, Fishery and Forest industries, where billions will
find employment in the 21st century, there are no fixed hours. At
certain seasonal dates, workers must labor from dawn to dusk. At
other times, they may have only one or two hours of work per day.

      Looking ahead to the point when other industries are
completely self managed, then hours of work within an industry can
be reduced. Then the Industrial Union will coordinate relations
between workplaces, and with other Industry Unions -- suppliers
and buyers of the product. Not to say all this will be
administrated for the workers, but that workers will negotiate
relationships that run smoothly and reduce costs of operating.
This will enable reduced hours.

    Workers in the 20th century have generally been content with a
comfortable living wage, more interested in free time than
overtime. Some workers choose longer hours in order to accomplish
goals such as buying a house. In Industrial Democracy, some people
will enjoy work and spend long hours at it.

    Looking at society as a whole, it is well known that if you
subtract the great amount of useless/waste production, the
production of what humans actually need and want could be
accomplished in less than half the hours people presently spend
working in the 1990s. However, it is no use looking at society as
a whole because we will have no central planner to set the quotas
of production. Initially, workers of the Industrial Union
cooperative workplace will have to compete with industrial units
that exploit their workers.

    This leads to the argument by some, that worker-owned
cooperatives in a "capitalist" economic system merely become
exploiters of themselves, since they are forced to work long hours
for low wages, and must delay improvements in the workplace due to
lack of money.

     Would they then be better off remaining as employees of
capital owners?  As co-op owners, they get to decide how to use
their profits, even if small. Self- exploitation is better than
exploitation by someone else. Taking over ownership and control of
the workplace within the "capitalist" economic system is a step,
which can lead to greater steps.

6-e.  WHY JOIN THE UNION?
     Why will the worker or group of workers join the Industrial
Union? In the 21st century, they no longer need protection from
the boss at their workplace.  They have succeeded in establishing
ownership and self management of their work operation. They are
able to make the product, and there is a market.

     We are back to the factor of self interest, where Unions have
always found the reason for existence. The Union will not ensure
higher wages by squeezing them out of the boss -- for there is no
boss. Instead, the Industrial Union will provide industrial
knowledge and resources which enable workers to make the most of
their labor. The Industrial Union may be a source of capital for
new equipment or manufacturing start ups; the IU will certainly
provide communication of ideas, issues, technology and industrial
methods among industry workers. When one group of clothing makers
discovers that plexiglass can be used effectively for patterns,
this method will be explained to all other clothing makers, who
may or may not wish to duplicate the method.

     The Industrial Union is to take over all the useful functions
which in the 20th century were functions of the "capitalist
owners." In the 20th century, every business owner/manager
belonged to operators or manufacturers associations -
- industrial information networks which provided publications
about issues and methods. Some associations of industry owners
even made rules on product safety.  Such will become the business
of Industrial Unions, as owners and operators of industry in the
21st century.

    The worker, whether a self employed tattoo artist, or one of a
hundred workers employed in a co-op steel plant, will benefit from
joining the Industrial Union because it provides him and her with
information and resource connections pertaining to the industry.
In the 21st century, every worker will be in part responsible for
the successes and mistakes of the industry where they work.

    In the 20th century, the wage employee went to work for a
retail food chain not knowing or caring about the methods and
effects of the industry as a whole. She or he just operated the
cash register and collected the paycheque.  Larger issues of the
industry, such as profitability, efficiency, automation,
environmental effects or economic effects on communities, were the
"legal" responsibility of the owners and managers.

     In 21st century Industrial Democracy it will be up to workers
to run the whole show. If they fail to make ends meet, their jobs
will disappear. If their workplace pollutes and wipes out duck
nesting ponds, they could be shut down by duck-egg industry
workers. The Industrial Unions are the industries.

     Forest Environmental Workers will join the Industrial Union
because that is the way to integrate their work with the work of
tree planters, loggers, tourism operators etc. The
Environmentalist's work may be to document the negative effects of
logging on soil erosion in a particular timber stand. In the 20th
century, to get this point across, the Forest Environmentalist had
to throw up blockades and chain herself to trees. The Industrial
Union provides a forum where the Environmentalist can go as an
equal to the body of forest workers -
- the loggers, the hunters and gatherers and cultivators of forest
herbs, nuts,
fruits, resins, oils, cellulose, and wild animal products -- go to
them and say listen, you're dragging the logs across steep
hillsides and destroying the soil base; you've either got to leave
those steep hills alone, or find a different way to move the
logs.

     There would ensue a discussion -- perhaps a controversy. All
would agree that soil is a priority -- but those workers
immediately engaged in logging steep hillsides might say well wait
a minute, we are depending on that harvest for our living this
season.

     The Industrial Union provides the means of resolving problems
for the best self-interests of all Forest Workers. The Industrial
Union is the forest workers, who are responsible for the health of
the industry and the forests. In the immediate term, the
Industrial Union might help the loggers find more income with
fewer logs, by selling burls to bolo makers in Spain. The
Industrial Union might grant more logging rights in an adjacent
area to compensate; or even compensate loggers directly for lost
income with money from the Industrial Union. In the meantime, an
alternative way of moving the logs on steep hillsides would be
searched for.

     Some cases would be more urgent. The Industrial Unions would
decide that logging on a particular hillside should never happen
at all -- maybe it's habitat for rare wildlife. Those log workers
would have to change jobs -- they might harvest a different
product from the same forest, or search for a different industry.
In that extreme case, the various federated Industrial Unions,
together with the residential community, provide resources to aid
the workers' transitions.  The Forest Workers Industrial Union
might give the hillside loggers a kind of "severance bonus," in
effect buying out their interest in the forest. The local
Industrial Union of Coppersmiths might provide re-training as
copper kettle makers, a training assisted by the Education IU.

    Such local and federated Industrial Union organization
combined with community councils, provides a much more effective
job and income security than government programs of the 20th
century. Instead of being at the mercy of an alien bureaucracy,
the worker is able to appeal directly to co-workers and community
neighbors, as well as to fellow workers abroad whose common
interest is in the same industry.

     All industries are inter-connected. Industrial Unions provide
avenues for facilitating the connections.

6-f. JOB CREATION
     The millions of work hours freed by stopping the production
of waste, by shutting down forest based paper, by putting the
squeeze on petroleum and chemicals, can be accommodated by
Industrial Union organization: mutual support, re-training and
re-location assistance, and the creation of new worker- owned
industries and jobs.

     Vast, almost unlimited opportunities exist in farming, forest
and forest products, and aquaculture. These co-op based, partly
self sufficient industries can be highly flexible in absorbing
extra workers. New jobs can also be created in education,
childcare, housing, healing, criminal rehab, bicycles, recycling,
support for the elderly, and cleaning up the toxic mess -- all of
which will
greatly improve the quality of life.

    There are certainly millions of workers around the world eager
to provide these and other services to their communities. To
liberate industry for the benefit of society, work must be freed
from the dictatorship of capital.

    In the 20th century, work that everyone agrees needs to be
done, such as cleaning pollution from a lake, remains undone
because there is no capital available. There is no capital
available because the owners of capital are not looking to do work
that needs to be done to benefit communities. The owners of
capital are only looking for quick profits for their personal
use.

     Instead of being controlled, bought and sold by capital,
workers must control their accumulated wealth and put it to good
use. The same equation applies: workers in their Industrial Unions
also seek profits from their labor. But the effect is quite
different when the profits are divided among workers. If the
Industrial Union accumulates capital, it may embark on public
works, and pay out that wealth as salaries to its own members.
Communities may also allocate capital towards works of public
benefit.



   Part 3/4

     21ST CENTURY UNION: ORGANIZING FOR SUSTAINABLE INDUSTRIES

///by Carlos Murray, member IWW, editor of Industrial Worker
newspaper 1992-93.  Free for electronic distribution only. Please
do not print distribute without permission.  Copyright Dec.25,
1993 Carlos Murray <indwrk@web.apc.org> ///

Contents:  Part 3/4:

7. PROJECTIONS FOR INDUSTRY

100. Department of Agriculture and Fisheries 110. Farm 120. Forest
130. Fisheries 140. Horticulture & Landscaping

200. Department of Mining 210. Metal Mines 220. Coal Mines 230.
Oil

300. Department of Construction 310. Way & Viaduct Construction &
Maintenance 320. Ship Building 330. Building Construction

400. Department of Manufacture 410. Textile & Leather 420.
Furniture & Wood 430. Chemical

440. Metal & Machine 441. Steel & Metal Mill 442. Motor Vehicle
443. Aerospace Craft

Part 4/4:

444. Machinists & Welders 445. Cycle & Instrument 446. Jewellery

460. Food Processing 470. Electric & Electronic 480. Glass Ceramic
Plastic 490. Pulp & Paper

500. Department of Transportation 510. Marine Transport 520. Rail
530. Motor 540. Municipal 550. Air

600. Department of Public Services
ROLE OF GOVERNMENT
610. Health Care
PRISONS
620. Education 630. Entertainment 640. Restaurant Hotel & Building
Service

660. General Distribution 670. Public Services 671. Finance 672.
Earth Stewards 673. Emergency, Rescue & Security 680. Household
Services 690. Sex Trade

700. Department of Communication 710. Radio TV & Telephone 720.
Data Storage & Retrieval 730. Courier & Postal 740. Information
Research & Advertising 750. Print & Publishing

			* * *
7. PROJECTIONS FOR INDUSTRY

      How will each industry be organized by the Industrial Unions
in the 21st century? It is on the industrial landscape where
workers can benefit themselves and take control -- democratic
control -- of their economic existence.

      Control begins on the shop floor where work is done, with
control of labor itself -- conditions, hours, benefits, and a
healthy workplace. To control your own body and mind, is to
control your work.

     Next is to control the equipment, premises, product -- and
profits.  Workers' Industrial Unions must reach into business
self-management, and into the banks and boardrooms of capital --
to bring control of accumulated wealth home, to the shop floor.
Capital -- accumulated wealth -- must be dissolved into industry,
with industry owned by all its workers.

      We are using the numbered system of the IWW, the only
comprehensive industrial plan ever created in the history of the
world. Industrial Union categories have been added or deleted,
Industrial Sections added within Industrial Unions, names changed,
and minor changes made from the original, official IWW Hagerty's
wheel of industry created in the early years of the 20th century.

     These proposals are not official proposals of the IWW, only
the views of one member. The comments for each industry are far
from complete, but may serve as a starting point. Workers like you
should follow up by determining exactly what changes and
directions are needed in your industry, and what are the best
strategies for worker ownership. Such discussions and plans may be
submitted by workers to the IWW.

     Democratic coordination of work enables workers of the
Industrial Unions to take full responsibility for industrial
production.

     Industry is the responsibility of every person who works in
     it.
			   * * *

100. Department of Agriculture & Fisheries (IWW--Industrial
Department 100) 110. Farm Workers Industrial Union (IWW--IU110)

     Agricultural production was done mainly by family farms at
the beginning of the 20th century. Subsequent years saw steady
growth of agribusiness and corporate farming characterized by
machines and chemicals. While this has increased quantity
production per man-hour, the quality of food has steadily
deteriorated. Toxic chemicals saturate food damaging health, and
devastate soil, water and wildlife.

     Small independent and family farmers barely earn enough to
survive in this agribusiness, although large amounts of cash pass
through their hands on the way to the bank.

     Increasing dependence on expensive machines and chemicals has
caused a steady decrease in the numbers of workers who benefit
from being able to work on farms, either as hired labor or small
farm owners. Yet there is no shortage in any country of unemployed
workers willing to engage in agricultural production, given good
working conditions and a fair share of the profits.
     When all the effects and hidden costs are counted, the
agribusiness model is not efficient, except to create profits for
the few owners of corporate farms, banks, and machinery and
chemical companies. Consideration of the side effects makes it
clear that chemical-mechanical farm industry is not sustainable,
and therefore cannot possibly be the farm industry of the 21st
century.

     The family farm will flourish in the 21st century, simply
because it is what happens when people choose to live, work and
raise children on a piece of farm land. The family may be a larger
extended communal or cooperative group. 21st century industry
methods will combine advanced technology such as greenhouses,
hydroponics, and on-site renewable energy, with old labor-
intensive, organic methods.

      Industrial Union farms of the 21st century will consist of
varities of worker- owned cooperatives. Already in the 1990s,
several kinds of organic, multi- crop, & specialty farming are
gaining markets. Most are family farms and many belong to
associations to promote their industries.

     The Industrial Union, beginning now and pointing to the 21st
century, must set out -- not simply to organize all farm workers
-- but to establish a sustainable farm industry. The Industrial
Union of Farm Workers must set forth methods and models, educate,
and actively promote sustainable farming as the main foundation
for a new society.

      The Industrial Union can be built in affiliation with
existing organizations of progressive farmers, farm worker unions
such as UFW, and by setting up Union-owned farms. Such new farm
industry start-ups are greatly needed to give many unemployed
people an escape from deteriorating city life.  To move onto a
cooperative Union farm, a worker must be willing to accept food,
housing, and other benefits of rural life, in place of high wages.
Many people are willing to make this trade-off, given good living
and working conditions and time off to go fishing. Farms can
support a lot of people on a small cash flow, when resources of
field and woodlot are utilized for self-sufficiency.

      Agribusiness corporate farms may be bought out by the
Industrial Union of their employees. Equipped for mono-crop export
production, in most cases they will return to multi-crop for local
marketing.

      To buy out a big farm is expensive. Such a corporate farm
may hire only
a dozen full time, and a hundred seasonal employees. This small
group of wage workers, forming a cooperative entity, cannot
finance the purchase alone. By planning for more labor intensive
methods, they can bring three times their own number into the
cooperative to pool their resources.

      The larger Farm Workers Industrial Union -- consisting of
many workers on different types of farms -- should also invest in
such unit farm purchases,
becoming a co-owner with the actual local worker cooperative.

     The local community may also invest in farm purchases, in
return for a steady supply of food. Food-buying co-ops can be
formed for such investments. This is already being done in the
1990s by some farmers and
communities. For the community it is a dependable food supply; for
the farmers it provides advance sale of their crop so they don't
have to go to the bank for loans to buy seeds and supplies.

     Labor intensive methods reduce operating costs for machines
and chemicals, which will help new cooperatives survive. However,
bank loans and government loan assistance in most countries
require the use of chemical, mechanized, mono-cropping. The Union
Farm will have to avoid such encumbrances through paying more cash
up front for land purchases.

     The price of farm land is not fixed. Although a corporate
farm may be very expensive, and may not even be for sale when it
is turning a good profit, a
depression of food prices or run of bad weather can lower the
price. In fact, anything that lowers the profits of the corporate
farm operation, will also lower the sale price of their land.

      Farm workers seeking to start up a co-op farm, can seek
bargains where land prices are low. If desiring to purchase a
corporate farm where they already work, they can use various means
to bring down the purchase price and increase the employer's
eagerness to sell. The corporate farm's dependency on machines and
chemicals makes it highly vulnerable to malfunctions or
misapplications.

     Along with organic, labor intensive cooperative farm models,
the Industrial Union will promote new crops and products which
benefit society and the natural environment while helping the
industry prosper. This includes crops for biogas and liquid fuel,
paper, textiles, fibers, cellulose, oils, wax, etc.

     Biogas fuel production is simple. Many valuable products can
be obtained from hemp. Both these facts are well known, yet these
methods will not be
employed until the Industrial Union of Farmers makes it happen. In
making biogas, the farm industry is in competition for the profits
of the mighty oil monopolies. In growing hemp, the farmers'
industry is in competition for the profits of giant chemical
corporations who make synthetic textiles; clearcut rapist
corporations who make paper from wood; and alcoholic beverage,
pharmaceutical, and tobacco corporations who make legal drugs.

    It can be readily seen how competition for profits by those
who merely own capital, shapes the character of industries and the
lives of people who work.  Farmers lose their lands and jobs -- or
labor in poverty -- while vast profits
flow to a few distant non-working owners of the oil, chemical,
paper and legal drug companies.

    This effect of "unfree" enterprise can only be changed by
direct industrial and economic action: competition from the
organizations of workers themselves.

    Each farmer or farm worker acting alone can never compete with
vast corporations. But united, an effective industrial competition
can be asserted; united, farmers can reduce start up costs and
create marketing systems; united, farmers can resist the attacks
which can be expected from private or
government forces attempting to defend corporate profits.

     "The Right to Farm," is the battle cry for the Farm Workers
Industrial Union. It is here at the first base of industrial
development, the agriculture industry, where the forces of
monopoly and exploitation can suffer their most significant
defeat; to free and re-vitalize the farm industry will have the
most profound effects on the economy.

      As long as people in Greenland like to eat bananas, there
will continue to be banana plantations for high-yield export of a
good-looking banana.  Someday, a local Greenland union of workers
may produce a thing made of whale flippers that tastes like a
banana, undercutting the import market. Until that happens,
however, there will continue to be fairly wide distribution of a
number of food products. Growing for export requires an emphasis
on mono- cropping and high quantity yields; but this can be done
with labor intensive, organic methods.  It is more efficient in
the long run to avoid the costly and destructive chemicals and
machinery, letting hand labor take their place.

    We may predict that when the Industrial Union of Farmer
Workers begins to set up co-op farm operations in competition with
corporate farms -- while at the same time agitating among the
corporate farm employees to take over their lands and tractors --
the corporations may take actions against the Industrial Union.
This would consist of price competition and other such "normal"
business means, financial pressure through banks or suppliers, and
actual disruption and harassment of farm workers or operations.

     Farm workers who embark on the mission to take control of
their work life and their products, must prepare to take a full
range of offensive and defensive actions in the process. We do
have another choice; we can allow the farm industry to become more
toxic and mechanized for the profits of fewer owners -- and let
our children live with that.

      A vigorous farm industry is the foundation of social and
      economic health.  Fight for the Right to Farm!

120. Forest Workers Industrial Union (IWW--IU120)

      Without trees there would not be human life on Earth. People
who work in forest products are trustees of a crucial part of our
life support system.

      Timber clearcuts of the late 20th century degraded more than
they benefitted human life.  In addition to wood timber, forests
contain hundreds of raw materials and products. Forest communities
-- where people live in forests and work in forest product
industries -- will proliferate in the 21st century as forests are
planted, cultivated and defended.

      New understanding of forest ecosystems will enable
"semi-forest,"  "micro- forest," and varying degrees of tree
population environments; from relatively sparse plantings along
urban waterways and streams, to dense natural wild woods. In all
these types of forests humans will live, harvesting and utilizing
resources for a rich variety of valuable products: foods, herbs,
wooden articles, paper & cellulose, resins, oils, and animal
products.

      A flexible approach to forests permits a community of
      workers to utilize diverse available resources for
efficiency, and a good quality of life. A forest can sustain a
number of humans who are willing to live on less cash and obtain
more of their needs from the forest itself.

     The Industrial Union role is to encourage the formation of
sustainable forest industries.  Forest Workers may form
cooperatives to purchase forest land and establish industries.

     In order to have prosperous forest products industries, there
must be abundant forests. The Industrial Union of Forest Workers
must actively oppose commercial use of wood pulp for making paper.
Wood timber in building construction should be strictly limited,
and substitute materials used such as ferrocrete or recycled
plastic.

     The only logging industry should be Selective Logging. It is
up to the Industrial Unions of forest product workers -- those who
depend on gathering,
hunting, tourism, and wood products manufacture -- as well as
forest environmentalist workers -- to enforce standards and make
sure forests are sustained. It is these workers and industries
that communities will hold responsible and accountable for the
health of local forests.

130. Fishery & Aquaculture Workers Industrial Union  (IWW --
IU130)

     The corporate profit fishing industry model has created large
scale production methods with little regard for efficiency and
much waste of marine species. Large fishing ships may continue to
operate in the 21st century, but refinement of methods will allow
precise selection of desired catches. Other flexible harvesting
methods will realize greater utilization of multiple species.

     Fish farming, algae and shellfish farming, aquaculture of
many types will
increase and provide more food. New understanding of marine
biological systems, new technology and cooperation by large
numbers of people in the Fish & Aquaculture Industrial Union will
enable expanded diverse operations in oceans and inland waters.

    Although large ships and large fish-farms may be owned
cooperatively by workers, the primary expansion of this industry
will probably be in smaller operations which are easier for
workers to set up.

    Fish stocks are disappearing from over-harvest and pollution
of waters.  Fisher Unions and Environmentalists together should
set and enforce quotas and standards. The bulk of fish for human
consumption should be raised in ponds and lakes through
re-stocking of natural species. Fish may also be cultured in
oceans. Water can be sectioned off with netting, and used to grow
species for harvest, or as hatcheries for re-stocking the oceans
themselves.  Ocean re-stocking will require a high degree of
international cooperation by the Industrial Unions.

      Some species of fish and marine life whose habitat is
diminished should be banned from commercial harvest. This
Industrial Union program to take responsibility for Fish and
marine life industries, will be supported by native peoples and
coastal dwellers whose main resource is the ocean.

140. Horticulture Workers Industrial Union (IWW -- Floriculture
Workers IU 140)
   Here is an industry that needs to be reduced on one hand, and
increased on the other. In the 1990s, roses and carnations are
grown in Colombia and flown by jet to Canada to be sold to
romantic people at $15 a dozen.

     The Horticulture Workers Industrial Union should oppose this
wasteful and polluting method, and encourage development of small
local flower growing and distribution. Cut flowers are a luxury,
but there is nothing harmful about it if done locally and
organically. We must insist that it be done this way, or not at
all.

     Cut flowers and dried flowers are one example of products
that were formerly free; growing wild or in community gardens. Of
course the Napoleons of the world had their gardeners and
greenhouses to produce exotic flowers for the dining table. But
most people of the world in Napoleon's time could obtain all the
flowers they wanted simply by picking them.

    This industrial group includes all workers in greenhouses and
tree nurseries, those who cultivate silk, makers of perfume and
other floral products.

     Tree seedlings and nurseries are a growth industry, an
opportunity for workers to start co-op industry. Perfumery can be
done almost anywhere with low capital. Gatherers and processors of
wild flowers and herbs, may be included in this Industrial Union.

    Greenhouses can be used in northern climates to extend the
local growing season for vegetables. It is feasible to build and
operate energy-efficient greenhouses in the north, however set up
costs are high. When workers can form a cooperative for this
venture -- perhaps assisted by their Industrial Union or community
-- this local industry will help replace long distance transport
of food or flowers to their community.

     Workers may not wish to take over existing greenhouse
operations, based on high-volume production and requiring high
heating costs, due to inefficient construction. In such cases it
may be difficult to change the business for local production and
still make a living for workers. The best greenhouse models
combine renewable energy, fish culture, watering systems, and
living quarters for workers.

200. Department of Mining (IWW--Industrial Department. 200)

      The goal of the Mine Workers Industrial Union in the 21st
century, is to be responsible for every aspect of the making and
use of their products.  Miners themselves must own the mineral
deposits -- or the rights and leases -
- machinery and equipment. Mine Workers will determine who gets
their product. Some minerals are rare, or expensive to produce --
when proper safety and environmental practices are used. By taking
over control and ownership of their mining industry, the workers
themselves will make safety the first priority in their work.

    In the 19th and 20th centuries, hundreds of thousands of
workers were killed and injured in mining industries. As
automation reduces the workforce, high unemployment causes workers
to compete for lower wages at non-union mines. In the end,
communities no longer benefit from their local resource at all.
For a few low paid jobs, the community suffers injury and deaths,
pollution, and explosions. Mine communities also subsidize roads,
railways, electricity and water used by the mining industry.

     How to make the leap to worker control of the West Virginia
coal mine -- the Ontario nickel mine -- the South African diamond
mine? The first step is when the workers, and their communities,
make the decision that they will take control even if it takes ten
years or more. The bottom line for Mine Workers and communities
is: we are the people who live where the resource is, we are the
ones who work to obtain the ores and minerals -- this gives us a
natural right to assert control of our local resource, the
industry and the wealth we produce.  Once this determination is
made, there are ways and means.

     The task of the Industrial Union of Miners therefore is to
form an economic alliance with the community -- the county,
township, or village where the resource is located, and where mine
workers live. A strong coalition of residents and local businesses
is needed, to support the Miners Union -- first in its role as
exclusive bargaining agent with the existing employer/owner.
While the Union is bargaining for more safety and benefits, the
community can help keep scabs from being brought in; and can play
a major role in defense when mine workers are under seige by
police and hired corporate or state armies.

     Pooling financial resources, an Industrial Union co-op is
formed to capitalize equipment, operating and labor costs
(workers' profit shares).  Opportunities for purchase are
investigated and plans put into effect.

     Mine workers who set the goal of ownership and self
management need not fear job losses when the corporation is driven
to shut down and pull out due to its inability to sustain high
profits. Pressure can encourage a cheap sell-out to the Industrial
Union. At the moment of negotiating the purchase, the corporation
may even find itself unable to deliver the product.

     Where purchase cannot be achieved, miner community
organizations -- when ready to run the industry -- may wish to
assert direct control of the mine site. Once in possession of the
goods, if the Industrial Union agrees to satisfy past obligations
of the mine company, the banks and creditors may go along
-- as long as they get paid, they have no reason to care who pays
them. The people who buy coal or gold don't care who sells it to
them.

210.  Metal & Mineral Mine Workers (IWW_- IU210)

     Metals will continue to find uses, including special alloys
for sensitive new technologies such as micro-electronics. Each
metal has various uses. In the 1990s, all metals are used
wastefully and in excess of what is needed. In general, we need to
downscale metals production -- and start recycling metals instead
of dumping scrap. Metal ore should be extracted only where it is
easy to reach without danger to workers or the use of huge
machines and explosives.

    This industrial group includes miners of borax, sulphur,
mercuric oxide, etc.  It will be found that some products made
from these minerals are not needed; but that some production
should be maintained on a labor intensive scale.

     Also included are miners of gemstones and stone quarry
workers.  220. Coal Mine Workers Industrial Union (IWW -- IU 220)
      Coal use as an energy resource will reduce drastically in
the 21st century, but some coal will continue to be extracted and
refined. Both coal and petroleum are sources of a number of other
products, including medicines, oils, plastics, etc. which will
continue to be in demand after fuel uses are replaced by simpler,
more efficient technologies.

    Coal fired electric generation should cease immediately, to be
replaced with wind, solar and small scale hydro.  Use of coal for
steel and other industrial uses should be permitted, at reduced
levels. Only the best grade, less polluting coal should be burned,
and furnace exhausts should be thoroughly captured and cleaned to
reduce emissions.

      Some coal mines can thus expect to shut down, and coal
miners should unite into an Industrial Union to help workers
provide themselves new job starts in other industries.

      High yields per worker-hour are not needed in the mining
industry. Coal should not be used in such quantities, and there
are substitutes. Therefore the miners who take over a coal mine,
can expect to reduce production, increase the number of workers
and work safely at a reasonable pace. Dangerous shafts, and pits
in ecologically sensitive areas, should be shut down.  The
community of mine workers does not need the vast profits from
mega- shipments to distant ports -- profits which, in the 20th
century, were wasted in the pockets of a few non-working
individual owners or distant shareholders.

     Producing lesser quantity, higher quality coal for closer
market users, selling at a higher price -- will bring in
sufficient wealth to sustain the community.

      Mine communities' only hope for a decent life is to take
control -- by one means or another -- of their resource and the
machinery of production. If this can be done by union or
government assisted worker buyouts, so much the better. If not,
other methods must be used. Mine workers and mine communities are
responsible and accountable to the rest of society for all aspects
of the production and use of their resource.

     In the former Soviet republics, mine workers are becoming
part owners of their mines, as part of the privatization process
from former state ownership. However, Russian workers report the
process does not give them any effective control.

230. Oil Workers Industrial Union (IWW--IU 230)

     All workers who drill, pump and refine petroleum as wage
slaves must organize to take control of their rigs, pipelines and
refineries. But the Industrial Union of Oil Workers should plan
for conversion, as other energy sources replace petroleum fuels in
the 21st century.

     Drill rigs are often small outfits owned by a contractor, 2
to 5 employees to the rig.  For the worker on a small drilling
rig, it is hard to think about taking the rig away from your boss.
Perhaps, however, you and fellow workers can persuade the
contractor-boss to let workers buy into the outfit, sharing
equipment costs and decisions, as well as profits.

     Oil drilling equipment can be converted to drill for natural
     gas or water.

     Oil refinery employees can become involved in worker buy-outs
     or stock
ownership through their Industrial Union. Wage workers at
refineries should make every effort to raise wages and benefits as
high as possible. The best strategy for workers is to get as much
money out of the refinery as they can, while planning to shut down
in the long term. When the price of oil rises or demand drops,
this will not be a cause for alarm because the workers are already
planning alternatives. Industrial Union organization can set up
new
jobs for themselves in advance, or have a re-training or
re-location fund for idled workers.

     The Industrial Union looks after the industry, and the needs
of its workers.  No laid-off Union worker should ever have to
worry about finding a new job. Cooperation between the Industrial
Unions will allow for transfers and training.

     Some refineries may be converted to refine other substances
-- peanut oil or methane. But most will likely be scrapped as
demand falls.

     Alternative fuels/energy source industries have to be
implemented step by step in any particular local situation. While
for some processes it is easy to find substitutes, others are not
so easily found. A realistic plan for the future might be to cut
off oil supplies to certain industrial operations, sensitive
environment areas, and areas where substitutes are available,
while a certain amount of petrol production can be expected to
continue for some purposes.

300. Department of Construction (IWW--Department of General
Construction 300)

310. Way and Viaduct Workers Industrial Union (IWW--General
Construction Workers IU 310)

     Docks, Railways, Highways, Streets, Sidewalks, Bridges,
Sewers, Tunnels, Canals and Pipelines must continue to be built
and maintained -- with a reduction of highways and an increase in
railways and paths for non- motorized vehicles.  Presently most of
this construction work is done by government contractors, some of
whom are Trade-Unionized.

     These existing Trade Unions should become the contractors,
and unite with each other to form the Industrial Union.

     Communities where such construction is needed can form an
Industrial Union cooperative to improve local facilities. Where
the community does not have enough capital to hire this work done
at the going rate, special arrangements can be made. The workers
may be given access to community- owned land, tools and equipment.
Businesses and individuals in the community may agree to
compensate the workers in some measure; either financially, or
through barter such as food, clothing, or free housing and
utilities.

     Every city, every town, and most rural communities in the
1990s, are in need of structural improvements to Ways and
Viaducts. Yet the work goes undone for lack of capital. Well, the
capital exists but there's no large short term profit in it.
People who want a better quality of life in their communities can
act to get the jobs done. General Construction Workers who form
such volunteer or community based project industries, should be
included in the same Industrial Union as waged or worker-owned
contractors. The goals of the Industrial Union are: high quality
work and materials used throughout the lands, and the safety and
well-being of all those doing the work.

320. Ship Builders Industrial Union (IWW -- IU 320)

   Ships, barges, boats and ferries have a great future in the new
society.  They can be made energy efficient with the use of solar
and wind power.  Marine transport will be the main basis of global
commerce in the 21st century since it can be much safer and
cleaner than air or ground transport.

   Immediately, there is a need for shipbuilder workers to take
control of their industry.  Tankers and barges should be carefully
and scientifically built. This includes double hulls to prevent
spills, onboard spill-recovery and fire prevention equipment.
Crews should be larger -- a safety measure -- with better living
conditions for crews. Electronic and radio equipment can prevent
collisions.  Production of military ships and subs should cease.

    These goals of the industry can be accomplished when workers
own the shipyards and drydocks, and control the product including
its sale and profits from sale.

330.  Building Construction Workers Industrial Union (IWW--IU 330)
      There are commercial, industrial or institutional buildings
-- and housing.  The world does not need any more shopping malls
and mega-office towers, although existing buildings should be
maintained for useful purposes. Instead, hospitals, schools,
houses and workplace buildings are needed.

      The community can be involved to build houses cooperatively,
using skilled trade construction workers along with volunteers who
are compensated through community barter, or by living in the
houses. Local Industrial Unions can also provide materials. In
this way, needed housing can be built with less outside capital.

     Similar community projects can build hospitals, schools,
     workplaces.

     Thus we see a change in the construction business, where the
Construction Workers Industrial Union forms temporary co-ops with
people who want something built. The Industrial Union is
responsible for safety and quality, and all workers paid or unpaid
become Industrial Union members for the duration of the job.

     Construction trades are different from each other although
they all work on the same building. The trades may be organized as
for example:

 Bricklayers & Masonry Industrial Union Section 331 Carpenter &
 Drywall IU Sec. 332 Plumbers IU Sec. 333 Painters & Decorators IU
 Sec. 334....and so on.

     All building construction trades should unite into one
Industrial Union and take over the setting and enforcing of
standards formerly done by governments. The Building Construction
Workers Industrial Union may keep ownership of some of its
buildings -- becoming a landlord/real estate co-op in the 1990s --
and use them for housing and community services.

340. Energy & Electricity Workers Industrial Union (New)
     Solar, geothermal, hydroelectric, biogas plant, and windfarm
workers.  Also, electricians and utility grid workers. Existing
alternative energy associations and small enterprises might form a
base for the Industrial Union, possibly combined with public
utility workers' trade unions. This Industrial Union can be a
force to advocate and build sustainable energy industries, while
opposing nuclear, coal, oil and large-scale hydro dam generation.

400. Department of Manufacture (IWW--Department of Manufacture and
General Production 400)

MANUFACTURING AND CAPITALIZATION
     Manufacturing differs from primary, resource-extraction
industries. In the case of farmers, fishers, foresters and miners,
the product is practically lying on the ground in front of these
workers, who only have to pick it up and brush it off to get it
ready for sale. There is always someone who wants to buy tomatoes,
tuna, timber, or tin. A factory, by contrast, comes into existence
by human artifice, and requires initial and continued cooperation
of numbers of workers as well as pooled resources (capital).

     Factories in the 20th century have been built for the purpose
of making profits for a few owners. 20th century factory workers
also "profit" in the form of wages -- but that is not the reason
the factory was built. The consuming public may also benefit from
the product which enhances their standard of living; but although
public benefit is part of the market equation (demand), still the
factory was not built to benefit the public. The factory was built
and capitalized by a few non-working owners for the purpose of
making their own selves some profits; should it stop making
profits, the owners will withdraw their capital from the factory.

     Factory workers of the 20th century also had only one purpose
for employment: to earn personal wages. The workers, like the
owners, were not acting with a motive to benefit society or fill a
human need with their product.

     The transitions of manufacturing facilities from few capital
owners to more worker-owners, will vary. In general it is easy
enough for any group of people to pool their resources --
financial and labor -- and set up or purchase manufacturing
premises and equipment. This has always been an avenue open to
working people, which was done during the 20th century in the form
of worker cooperatives in small shops such as furniture and
crafts.

     Workers must become the sole shareholders of their own
manufacturing industries. Practical difficulties include the fact
that banks are always involved in the necessary money transactions
as lenders of credit for operating capital.  This makes it
impossible for the co-op to actually exert complete control of its
product. Partial control is better than no control.

     There is of course the credit union type of bank/lending
institution, pooling the resources of numbers of workers and
numbers of co-op businesses. (See Finance Workers IU671).

      Factories and equipment abandoned by corporations in their
haste to move out, can be seized and utilized by unemployed
workers, assisted by Industrial Unions and communities.

410. Textile & Leather Workers Industrial Union 410 (IWW--Textile
Workers IU 410 and Leather Workers IU 470)

    This 20th century industry is characterized by the sweatshop
workplace, driven by "fashion" and "shopping" culture where huge
profits are made on hype; the profits of course going to owners
other than the workers.  Somewhere at the bottom of this industry
is the human need for protection from the elements, followed by a
human desire to display aesthetic expression with decorative
clothing.

     The entire industry ranges from the processing and weaving of
cotton, wool, flax and synthetic fabrics, to seamstresses of Los
Angeles and Malaysia, Guatemala and Korea who assemble the final
products. Though not all workplaces are sweatshops, assembly line
sewing is labor-intensive work, and wages are never very high.

     The opportunity is clear.  These weavers and sewing workers
can own their workplaces, their looms and sewing machines. In the
1990s it has already become common practice for small
"entrepreneurs" to do contract sewing work for brand-name
companies, utilizing nothing more than a rented back room and a
few sewing machines, hiring women to run them at low wages. This
contract model can easily be copied by the workers themselves,
organized as Textile Workers Industrial Union cooperatives. Even
poor workers can, by pooling resources, finance the purchase of
sewing machines for themselves. Three workers can buy one machine
and work shifts. Owning their machines, being their own boss,
workers can give themselves a pay raise immediately.

     Existing contract shops and factories may also provide
opportunities for organized workers to simply seize ownership of
their sewing machines, move them to another location, and assemble
clothing as an Industrial Union cooperative. New worker-owned
enterprises should be started, in concert with the fight to
organize wage slaves in the capital-owned industry.

    The typical brand name clothier hires contractors, large or
small, who hire seamstresses. Seamstresses and other sewing
factory employees may pursue a strategy to force up their own
wages. The Industrial Unions -- of combined co-op and wage
employees -- may at the same time promote a general boycott of the
entire corporate fashion industry and the brand name clothiers.
Industrial Union Textile shops should come out with their own
brand names, stressing local materials and labor, high quality
durable products, and environmentally sustainable methods. This
can create an "anti-Fashion fashion" culture.

    It is hard for local, sustainable clothing industry to compete
with prices of the multinational cheap-fast industry. That is why
it is essential in the transition period, to drive up those
imported prices by organizing wage employees of the
multinationals, for better wages and conditions. At the same time,
small local textile shops gain economic strength by uniting in the
Industrial Union.

    This two-fisted competitive strategy will help drive the
corporations owned by a few individual or distant owners, into
bankruptcy, allowing workers of the Industrial Union to take over
those company workplaces for themselves.

    While the bulk of clothing should be distributed in the region
where it is made, there will continue to be a demand for "exotic"
clothing made for export. Inevitably, regional Textile Workers
Industrial Unions will evolve clothing styles of their own, having
in-house designers. There is no way to prevent people from
periodically choosing to adopt new styles in large numbers,
driving up demand and hence the price of certain products. Quite
naturally, other industrial units will then begin to copy the
successful item in order to satisfy the markets -- an effect of
"competition" which tends to prevent monopolies and drive prices
down again.

     20th century fashion industry cash flow is assisted by
copious advertising.  The character of advertising may change with
Industrial Democracy, but it is not likely to disappear. We will
speculate about this in the section on Information Workers
Industrial Union Section 675.

415. Leather Workers Industrial Union Section 415 (New)
     I have combined leather with textiles because of the close
relation of products and production methods. Large amounts of
leather are available in the 1990s as a byproduct of the beef
industry. Beef consumption can be expected to decline fairly
quickly in the 21st century, so leather will become harder to get.
Therefore various synthetic substitutes will continue to be
needed. But leather remains the superior material for shoes and
other uses.

     All leather shoes and other products should be made locally
in community based cooperatively owned shops. The best footwear
for human health is a custom fitted shoe made by your local craft
shop.

     But the 1990s shoe industry runs on massive quantity
production, which makes it impossible for small shoemakers to
compete. The same applies to luggage and other accessories or
articles made from leather, canvas, vinyl etc. So the Industrial
Union must organize the wage slaves where shoes, etc., are made,
which is mostly in the third world. The best thing is to drive up
the price of poor quality imported goods, because this will create
a better climate for localized production of high quality goods in
all countries. Small local craft shops, by combining into their
Industrial Union, create economies of scale similar to chain
stores. Their combination can be used for purchasing supplies at
lower prices.

      Leather tanneries should also be locally established with
non-toxic methods.

420. Furniture & Wood Workers Industrial Union (IWW--Furniture
Workers IU 420)
     Many new Industrial Union co-op jobs can be created utilizing
local forest woods. This will be of great help to unemployed
workers who previously worked in timber or pulp wood harvesting,
and for carpenters formerly employed in wood building
construction. Furniture should be a local industry serving local
needs, for the most part. Struggles to establish local Union
furniture making co-ops would be assisted by the boycott of large
corporate furnishers who transport their mostly-shoddy products
over long distances packed in styrofoam etc. Existing furniture
factories should be the focus of Union organizing drives, to force
the multinationals out of business and clear the market for
worker-owned enterprises.

     Many products can be made from wood. Certain woods are
superior for certain products. Many specialty-use hardwood or
fruitwood trees have become rare because of clearcutting for
building timber, making skids or toothpicks, land clearing for
pasture and industrial or urban development, and pollution. As the
Industrial Union of Forest Workers cultivates and replenishes
these once-plentiful hardwood species, people will once again be
able to manufacture superior wood products for our use.

    In the late 20th century, wood products manufacturing is
somewhat distributed, with small independent shops producing
kitchen cabinets or wooden ducks. Still, a lot of raw logs are
needlessly shipped over distances.

    Responsible Forester Herb Hammond has predicted 300,000 new
jobs would be created in British Columbia (1992), by adopting
Selective Logging instead of clearcutting. Imagine the number of
jobs that would be created if all those logs were then made into
furniture, tool handles and violins by workers in the region
instead of being shipped to Mexico and Japan. (True, this creates
wood-manufacturing jobs in Mexico and Japan. But the fact is,
trees also grow in Mexico and Japan, so they can have their own
woodworking jobs too.)

     Industrial Union organization of Furniture and Wood Workers
must focus on small local and regional wood shops. Often these
consist of one person, who may hire a few employees. In this kind
of shop it is no use going in to set the workers apart from the
boss, forming a Union to demand more benefits. This will not work.
The Industrial Union must instead bring together the workers and
the worker/employer, convincing them to structure the workplace as
a co-operative with part ownership shared by all the workers.
Even small steps towards workplace democracy should be
encouraged.

    There are woodwork trade magazines and associations, and these
models can be imitated by or integrated into the Industrial Union
to promote industrial
knowledge and economic cooperation between workers and workplaces
of the industry.

     Furniture and Wood Workers should combine efforts with Forest
Workers, to stop tree harvesting for pulp and construction timber,
so that plentiful wood will be available for manufactured
products. New start ups in wood manufacturing should be encouraged
in all forest areas. The Industrial Union of Furniture and Wood
Workers can assist by providing information about wood products
and the uses of wood species.

430. Chemical Workers Industrial Union (IWW --Chemical Workers IU
430)
     About 75% of these jobs have got to shut down. Pharmaceutical
drugs should be mostly replaced by nutrition and the natural
substances from which they obtain.

     Herbicide chemicals should be eliminated immediately, and
chemical soil fertilizers cut back severely. The whole society
will benefit radically in quality of life when the production of
chemicals is thus reduced. Instead of chemicals, farm industry
will use human labor to chop the weeds and shovel the compost.
Horticulture Workers will use mowing blades and human labor to
control weeds in parks and roadsides instead of poisons.

     Some chemicals will continue to be needed. Chemical Workers
should identify those chemicals that will be useful in a
sustainable society, and attempt to take over ownership and
production of those products. The waste portion of the industry
should be shut down by the fastest possible means.  Chemical plant
employees engaged in toxic waste production should immediately
re-structure their trade unions on an industrial basis, and then
seize their socially harmful plants. Cash can be demanded from
corporations or governments as a condition of releasing this
property, to help workers re- train, re-locate and start up new
self-owned Union industries.

440. Metal & Machinery Workers Federated Industrial Unions
(IWW--IU440)
***     I have divided this large IWW Industrial Union into
sections due to the increase of these industries in the 20th
century.***

441. Steel & Metal Mill Workers Industrial Union (Section 441)
     All workers in blast furnaces, steel mills, aluminum plants,
etc. Union buyouts, Employee Stock Ownership, community and
government assistance.  Link up with others to form an Industrial
Union consortium. Plan for overall market decrease of 30% by 2020,
reflecting reduced waste, more recycling and longer lasting metal
products.

     More jobs for safety, no new bigger machines, means
employment can remain at 1990s levels. Plan for non-toxic
production -- demand it now from your employer! Let the price go
up, drive it up everywhere at once.

442. Motor Vehicle Workers Industrial Union (Section 442)
      The automobile is the key with which big Oil Corporations
control society.  Automobiles in the 1990s are the world's biggest
polluter, and number one mechanical killer. They de-humanize the
design of communities and degrade the quality of life in cities.
      Responsible workers will support the development of railways
as the basis of mass ground transportation.  Urban transportation
can be significantly given to bicycles,  in addition to rail. A
top priority of all responsible workers must be to eliminate the
petroleum powered automobile. Not one more part should be
manufactured.

       Nevertheless, the love people have for private automobiles
presents an insurmountable barrier. The auto gives people freedom
of mobility and they
like that. So while we can decrease auto travel with rails and
pedals, we must accept cars with different power sources.

      The electric car is a good alternative provided the electric
power is generated by solar or wind methods, and provided
non-toxic batteries are used. Switching to electric cars when the
generation is by new hydro mega- dams or fuel burning, only
creates more problems. More beneficial in the immediate term is
switching to fuels such as propane, methane and alcohol.  One job
that must be done by Auto Workers is breaking loose the secret
inventions for combustion engine efficiency which have been
suppressed by auto companies of the 20th century.

      Makers of railway locomotive engines, rail cars,
agricultural machinery, bulldozers, trucks, and buses are in this
Industrial Union. Auto Workers involved in taking over ownership
and control of their industry, do not need to worry about a
decline in auto markets if they are organized into one Motor
Vehicle Industrial Union owning their factories. They can re-tool
to build rail cars and buses.

     Garage mechanics who work on motor vehicles can be combined
into the Motor Vehicle Workers Industrial Union, unless they are
employed at a Transport Workers facility.

443. Aerospace Craft Workers Industrial Union (Section 443)
     Included are airplane and spacecraft builders and mechanics.
20th century corporations involved in aerospace are large,
capital-intensive, and heavily dependent on government military
contracts. To pursue the goal of a responsible industry, workers
in all the various company factories need to unite into one
Industrial Union to take over control of the aerospace industry.
They should refuse to take part in military production and
encourage development of peaceful and non-toxic aerospace uses.

      With the loss of government cash for military planes and
missiles, the aerospace industry will collapse down to a very few
large enterprises on the planet capable of building jet liners and
moon rockets. The Industrial Union of Aerospace Workers should
manoeuvre to be the owners of this reduced industry. As with other
industries, human labor can be retained instead of getting more
machines, to keep the workforce employed. Smaller and mid- size
cargo and passenger planes are likely to be in demand.

     Of course a flying machine includes many components made in
various locations, so the flight industry is of interest to all
workers who make these components. Air Transport Workers also have
an interest, who make up the flight and port facility crews.

     On the world scene and in the long term, transportation by
water should become dominant because it can be done with less
environmental damage.  However, future developments in flight
power technology could make aerospace more attractive.

     The communications and data satellites which are the only
non-military basis of space industry in the 1990s, are useful for
scientific, weather and atmosphere studies and environmental data.
They also serve a useful function in international television and
telephone exchange. These facilities should be
maintained. There may be room for some medical science laboratory
work in space stations. But the space industry will never be able
to expand using rocket technology because it is too toxic.



   Part 4/4

     21ST CENTURY UNION: ORGANIZING SUSTAINABLE INDUSTRIES

///by Carlos Murray, member IWW, co-editor Industrial Worker
newspaper 1992-93.  Free for electronic distribution only. Please
do not print distribute without permission.  Copyright Dec.25,
1993 Carlos Murray <indwrk@web.apc.org> ///
------------------------------------------------------------------***

444. Machinists & Welders Industrial Union (Section 444)

     Includes makers of metal tools, sheet metal and duct
fabricators etc. who must all take over and own their workplaces.
A lot of small shops to link up in this Industrial Union.

445. Cycle and Instrument Makers Industrial Union (Section 445)
     All those workers whose products are scales, gauges, pumps,
locks, door openers, valves, mechanical devices, bicycles...   New
bicycle production and maintenance industries should be set up as
Industrial Union co-operatives.  As demand for bicycles grows, a
strong industry can be built. Communities, bike-rights activist
groups and even governments may assist start-ups. The Industrial
Union should advocate a bicycle between every pair of legs, set
high safety standards for frames and parts, provide rider safety
training, and unite with environmentalists to demand bicycle
paths, lanes and rights.

     Safety and quality standards should also be set in all other
cycle and instrument type products.

446. Jewellery Workers Industrial Union (Section 446)
    Includes the independent craft worker, as well as employees at
mass production shops. The Industrial Union can unite the
independent workers by providing industry information useful to
them, access to materials and tools etc. The Industrial Union
should engage in wholesaling for its members, functioning as a
cooperative. Also by setting standards for quality.

     Jewellery products range from dollar abalone rings for school
boys and girls, to the fantastic gem creations that attract the
world's wealthy customers.  In its higher forms, jewellery has
always been considered a safe investment of value in times of
economic trouble. And so it will continue, because its fascination
holds for humans. Thus jewellery comes to embody accumulated
wealth or capital.

     While it will not harm Industrial Democracy for workers to
own diamond earrings, jewellery traders in the 20th century often
accumulated hoards of wealth. This is not healthy for the economy.


     The Jewellery Workers Industrial Union should strive to take
over control of marketing its products through retail outlets run
by Distribution Workers Industrial Unions. It should also support
and work with Industrial Unions of Miners and Refiners who supply
metals and gems, so that the source end of the industry is also
Union owned. Jewellery Workers are allied to Metal Workers who
provide them with tools.

***   Print & Publishing Workers Industrial Union, IWW--IU450, has
been moved from the Dept. of Manufacture to the newly created
Dept. of Communications 700, and renamed Print and Publishing
Workers IU 750.***

460. Food Processing Workers Industrial Union (IWW-- IU 460)
     In conjunction with Farm Workers Industrial Unions, new co-op
local industries need to do the work of preserving and processing
of food products for mostly local use. Included are bakeries,
flour milling, canning and preserving, freezing, drying of foods,
also herbs, tobacco, etc.

     Food processing, like food growing should be to some extent a
community activity, since the community depends on food for
survival. The local Union of skilled food workers can make
cooperative arrangements with the community -- organizing a
maple-sugaring for the town, or small shops to make tofu out of
soybeans, for examples.

     The larger Industrial Union provides industry methods and
access to resources, and can act as a cooperative to take control
of larger processing facilities.

     Food obtains from the combination of fishing and farming,
processing and distribution. All these Industrial Unions need to
work together as the only way to end starvation. In the day to day
life of society anywhere in the world, there must not be one
person going hungry and malnourished while food is being thrown
away elsewhere. All Food Workers in the various industries should
unite at the start, towards the goal of FOOD FOR ALL, and make
this a central feature of industrial planning.

     Universal nourishment is really the most primary function of
organized society, and a society that cannot feed its citizens is
a failure. Humans could get food before there was any social
organization.

     The Food Not Bombs movement and tactics are an example and
ally for Food Workers. In the immediate term, any edible food to
be thrown away must instead be made available for the needy. We
must all work in our communities to establish this as law, written
or unwritten. This seems to conflict with the profit motive but in
practice the impact is not significant. In the long term Food
Workers will serve their own self interest by seeing to it that
nobody goes hungry. For one thing there will be less theft. It
means that restaurants and retail and wholesale food dealers must
give their excess food out the back door or to a free distribution
centre. On the larger scales, food production planning by the
Industrial Unions needs to include extra for needy areas, and a
means of getting it there.

     In the long term, universal nutrition can best be achieved by
developing local food industries on sound ecological and economic
principles.

470. Electric & Electronic Appliance Workers Industrial Union
(470)
***   The IWW includes these with Metal & Machinery Workers IU
440. They are here in the "470" position replacing Leather
Workers, who are combined with Textile Workers IU 410. The
explosion of electric and electronic manufacturing seems to
justify a separate IU.***

      Makers of computers, circuit boards, sensors, radio, TV,
video, communications equipment, electric appliances, electric
generation equipment. Although in the 1990s several large
companies exist in the electronics field, developments in
microchip miniaturization provides opportunities for new starts
and takeovers of smaller firms. But flexibility is needed as
changing technology is ongoing. A particular product model may
only run for one or two years production, then the factory must
re-tool or disband.

     It must be admitted that the 20th century system of capital
ownership permits quick production starts and short runs in this
rapidly changing industry. Yet workers organized to be owners can
make the same quick moves if they are up to date on industrial
trends. Workers in electronic systems design can create new
products and help set up Industrial Union manufacturing or
servicing facilities. The Electric and Electronics Workers
Industrial Union functions in research and development, setting up
manufacturing, keeping members informed of technology. As worker
owned firms are established, these can link up with each other.

     The manufacture of electric generating equipment for small
scale wind, solar and water power will grow, and now is the time
for the Industrial Union to ally with existing associations to
unite all who work in the industry.  Generating equipment for
mega-hydro projects such as James Bay, should not be manufactured
or installed by any workers, nor should any oil or coal- burning
facilities be made.

     In electric appliances generally the goals of the Industrial
Union are to make products durable, safe and efficient.

480. Glass Ceramic and Plastic Workers Industrial Union
(IWW--Glass and Pottery Workers IU 480)
     Including ceramic heat tiles for spacecraft, and microchips,
as well as coffee mugs.  Hazardous fumes in most workplaces.
Includes brick and cement plant workers. Energy intensive
requiring high-heat kilns. The cleanest burning, least
environmentally destructive fuels would be propane, methane or
alcohol. Includes those who make plastic and plastic articles.

490. Pulp & Paper Workers Industrial Union (IWW--IU 490)
     This industry must switch immediately from a wood base to
agricultural (hemp & other plants) base. This means shutting down
ALL existing pulp mills in forest areas everywhere in the world,
replacing with recycling mills and small scale, non-polluting,
Industrial Union co-op paper making, located in agricultural
areas. Wood-pulp mill workers need re-training for other forest
product industries, or assistance relocating to their own new
rural paper mills.

500. Department of Transport (IWW--Dept of Transportation &
Communications 500) 510. Marine Transport Workers Industrial Union
(IWW--IU 510)
     A growth industry in the 21st century with more goods and
     passengers transported by efficient, clean, safe ships. It is
an international industry, with ships under various flags carrying
crews of various language and nationality.  A good place for a
true international Union. Organizing efforts must be multi-
lingual, and not dependent on the labor laws of any country.

      Crews on commercial vessels could organize into one
Industrial Union, and simply keep sailing under their own flag. If
they all act together, and are prepared to continue to supply
shipping services, this direct seizure might be simpler than
trying to buy ships. But co-ops can be formed to pursue the
"legitimate" methods as well.

     Inland waterways transport -- ferry, barge, and riverboat
operators -- can link up together as worker-owned cooperatives,
supporting each other and working together to take over the whole
industry.

     As with all the transport unions, safety is a top priority.

     Marine Transport Workers, and other transport industries as
     well, by
organizing across the industry will play a significant role in
global politics. As main providers of the means of distribution,
the methods and operating principles adopted by the MTW will
largely determine international relations.  The same is true of
all transport workers, as their work connects areas, regions, and
provinces. All forms of economic activity -- all industries --
depend to some extent on transport, thus the nature of transport
shapes the character of the whole economy. Communications workers,
and of course Distribution Workers, in providing connections have
a similar important influence on social operations.

520. Rail Workers Industrial Union (IWW-- IU 520)
      Another growth industry in the 21st century, to largely
replace autos, trucks and buses. Existing rail unions may be
re-structured and united as the base from which an Industrial
Union can be built. Larger communities of people can pool
resources to start-up new short run railways, owned and operated
by the Industrial Union.

     Employees of railway companies should begin to buy them.
Uniting all rail workers trade unions into one Industrial Union
would make possible the purchase of one whole company to start
with.

530. Motor Transport Workers (IWW--IU 530)
     Independent truckers can be united with employees of freight
companies in one Industrial Union. It does not matter that the
independents are self employed. So what? The Industrial Union
unites all production under the control of all producers.

     In the 1990s there is a boom in trucking due to increased
trade over long distances. Conditions are bleak for drivers and of
first concern is safety. The Industrial Union can have its start
by standing up for safety and providing all drivers with
information and support on safety issues. The safety issue is also
of concern to the public, since there is an increase in the number
of trucks on the roads. The goal is to force maintenance of safe
equipment, precautions for toxic loads, and safe hours and
conditions for drivers. In the 1990s, governments are involved in
regulation and enforcement of safety standards, so the Industrial
Union drivers should work with this system and attempt to take
over parts of it. The drivers will become responsible for carrying
out the enforcement of safety regulations.

     The companies always try to force the responsibility onto the
drivers, for it is the driver who gets a fine if the tires are
bad. The Industrial Union should go along with this, taking the
responsibility on themselves -- and refusing to run unsafe
equipment. A consistent policy of ratting to the DOT for all boss
violations, will soon teach bosses that they can't force drivers
to put themselves at risk.

     Another way the Industrial Union may "cooperate" with company
owners, is to negotiate lease-to-buy arrangements, so that each
driver is making payments toward the purchase of his/her truck,
becoming a co-owner until becoming the sole owner. In this way the
responsibility for equipment safety is gradually passed over to
the drivers and mechanics of the Industrial Union.

     Independent truckers of the Industrial Union can start up
their own co-ops, or join company employees to buy out existing
freight companies. These new starts should be cooperatively owned
and run by all the drivers and terminal workers. By linking
together such facilities in different places, the Motor Transport
Workers Industrial Union soon becomes a powerful force in the
trucking industry.

     Long haul passenger bus drivers other than Greyhound, may
pursue different avenues towards ownership according to
circumstances. They may be able to buy into their company. There
are some opportunities for new co- op starts in charters and
regional bus lines.

     Greyhound could be bought out by a combination of all its
employees with community or user backing (such as a 1,000-mile
pass for $99). In fact once workers became determined and prepared
to buy it out, the current shareholders would have little choice
but to deal, since workers have control over buses and terminals.

540. Municipal Transport Workers Industrial Union (IWW-- IU 540)
     Taxi drivers, city bus workers, delivery drivers. Taxi and
delivery drivers are "self employed" in some places - they too,
should become members of the Industrial Union.

     City bus and train workers may be unable to finance purchase
of their facilities, without assistance from the other Transport
Industrial Unions or the community. They may allow capital
arrangements to exist with the city government, as long as the
workers themselves gain control of all aspects of their work.

    In some cases, once the Industrial Union is prepared to take
over management the urban bus line can be seized and run by
workers.  Eliminating the salaries of bosses should enable lower
fares.

550. Air Transport Workers Industrial Union (IWW-- IU 550)
     To take control of the industry, employees of the many
airline companies can pool resources to buy out one company at a
time. With self-management, superior service and safety, these
nuclei can attempt to beat out the capital- owned competition,
forcing up standards while keeping prices down, simultaneously
organizing the competition's employees to put on wage demand
pressure from below. While this latter group pursues aggressive
wage demands, it also offers to buy out the company when the
management declares they are near bankruptcy.

     A kind of rider cooperative or rider membership plan could
     help to raise capital for takeover purchases. This public
support could be significant if their memberships extend to a
various and growing number of Industrial Union airlines.

600. Department of Public Service (IWW Dept. 600)
***     In the IWW, this department serves as a catch-all for
various government-run and miscellaneous services.***

ROLE OF GOVERNMENT
     The role government will play in Industrial Union society of
the 21st century is a matter of what people choose. We have
examined the way communities will interact with local industries
to provide a regulating and balancing force. The community
council, or city or county government may be the vehicle for such
local exchanges.

     Governments have been a form used in the 20th century to
finance large projects like road building, hospitals and
education, which benefit the whole society. These and other
industries formerly managed by government, such as postal service,
regulation of health standards or building codes, will be managed
in the 21st century by democratic Industrial Unions.

    The Industrial Union of Road Way Workers might levy taxes for
their job of road maintenance. The Education Workers Industrial
Union might levy its own fees; perhaps a total of ten or twelve
"Public Service" Industrial Unions would collect directly from the
people of the community.

     Once governments are freed from all economic and industrial
responsibilities -- because those responsibilities have been taken
on directly by the people -- then it remains to be seen whether
government is still needed to guarantee equal rights, resolve
disputes among communities, police and rehabilitate criminals, or
for other social services.  Certainly some form of representative
council voice of the people must exist at all levels including the
national, continental and global.

    It may be noted that in the 1990s, governments are rapidly
losing their powers to control economy and industry. This is
because of multinational corporations who bring economic pressure
to bear on governments; and because governments are selling or
privatizing their publicly-built service industries. These facts,
combined with the fact that governments will finally oppose
Industrial Union takeovers of industry on a large scale (though
they may assist local start-ups/buyouts in the beginning) --means
that workers are better off to focus their efforts on gaining
economic and industrial power, rather than trying to gain
political power to influence job and economic issues.  Perhaps it
may be worthwhile to work on a new global political system.

     Many government service workers are trade-unionized in the
1990s. These trade unions could provide the basis for
re-organization as (democratic international) Industrial Unions --
reaching across national boundaries.  Government workers organized
in their Industrial Unions must take control of every possible
aspect of their industries, including self-financing and self-
regulation. With governments eager to privatize, some
opportunities exist.
    Privatized government services often use contract temp
workers. The Industrial Union needs to set up its own Temp
agencies, and obtain the contracts. Establishing a presence, the
Industrial Union can proceed to publish standards, pointers, and
useful info for Temp contract workers, attracting members employed
by private agencies.

    In the long run, governments can be expected to hold onto
their military, court-justice, and police "industries" to the
last. Aside from these workers, only some clerical, legal and
other support staff may be needed to run the legislative and
executive departments of governments in the 21st century.

     The Industrial Union plan does not include replacing
political government.  But all industry must be organized and
controlled democratically by workers, and that includes service
industries formerly controlled by governments. All capital must be
absorbed by Industrial Union industries and all economic and trade
decisions made by them, so perhaps government will consist of
delegate councils of the people of communities, regions, nations
and the world. Which is perhaps, what both "democracy" and
"communism" claimed to be in the first place!

610. Health Care Workers Industrial Union (IWW-- Health Service
Workers IU 610)
     By forming an Industrial Union, health care workers can
     transform the medical industry into a health industry. The
situation is not good at the end of the 20th century. Doctors
command a salary out of all proportion to the work they do or the
number of people they treat. Their Medical Associations for
doctors have taken control of industry factors, including
certification and knowledge; and used this control to further
their own self interests, at the expense of the sick, and at the
expense of other Health Care Workers. Yet a majority of doctors
are nothing more than pushers for the pharmaceutical industry. At
the same time, nurses and hospital staff work too hard and have
little control over job conditions.

     Doctors who take seriously their Hippocratic Oath must join
nurses and hospital staff to run Industrial Union co-operatively
owned community health care facilities. Brought into this Union
must be nutritionists, psychologists, therapists, acupuncturists,
herbalists, and midwives.

     Control and regulation of the health industry should be taken
     away from governments, and made a democratic function of the
Industrial Union of Health Care Workers. The disproportionate
power and pay of doctors must be taken away, so that a person who
becomes a doctor does so for the public service, and for a decent
living -- not as a means to become wealthy.

     The Health Care Workers Industrial Union can work closely
with Chemical Workers in Pharmaceutical factories, to determine
which drugs are actually beneficial for health. They should ally
to smash the economic power of the big pharmaceutical
corporations, and de-certify or re-train drug-happy doctors.  The
democratic Industrial Union of ALL Health Care Workers must
replace the AMA and similar elitist associations.

PRISONS
     Prisons should be opposed by all responsible Industrial Union
workers because they waste social resources and tend to make the
criminals worse.  Here the opportunity -- the responsibility -- is
for Health Care Psychology Workers to organize an Industrial
Union, pointing out the incredible waste and cost to society of
inhumanely -- and ineffectively -- caging lawbreakers.  Instead,
psychology workers must put forward systems of therapy, including
community service and victim compensation where appropriate, and
the various forms of behavioral and neuroses therapies. Flexible
methods should include spiritual learning along with other
psychological treatments.  Psychology workers can create a whole
new industry for themselves in "criminal rehabilitation."

     The best tack is for Health Care Industrial Union workers to
set up their own counselling and therapy firms, then with a united
voice to press these demands for penal reform. That way they can
get the contracts for the rehab.

     In the while they can also set up rehab facilities for people
who work as prison guards for wages.

     Prisoner-labor industries should be opposed, because people
should not be spending long terms in prison -- except for a very
small minority of violent, uncurable persons.

620. Education Workers Industrial Union (IWW--IU 620)
     Schools should be seized by teachers in combination with
students and parents. These can secede from the local school
boards and pay their own way from neighborhood donations. The
industry needs to get rid of its administration and budget
problems, by getting rid of the bosses on school boards and in
schools.

     Students can be organized from high school upwards, to demand
what they want: hours, course structures, music in the halls...

      One may predict that in the 21st century, televisions or
computers will be almost universally accepted as tools of
education, much as books were in previous centuries. But we can
also predict a wider variety of educational methods -- "products"
-- in various communities. The rigid institutional style of
education will diminish in favor of more effective informal
settings.

     Education in the 20th century has been regimented social
conformity training, continuing a tradition started in earlier
times. The level of academic educating actually accomplished by
this means has fallen throughout the 20th century, in proportion
to the increase of socializing, conformity, "life-skills"
training.

      Methods already exist proving that academic knowledge can be
imparted efficiently without the use of classroom regimentation or
conformity training, and in much less time.  These methods will
come to the fore, if for no reason other than that it is cheaper;
freeing children's time to learn "life skills" in real life
settings, including direct participation in community activities
and industries.

     Some form of apprenticeship work training is the only way to
effectively transmit work knowledge in its detail and
beyond-intellectual substance.  Industrial Unions will each have
their apprenticeship training programs to bring new and young
workers into the industry.

     The Education Workers Industrial Union can set standards for
skills testing and accreditation within branches of knowledge.
Academic studies will be pursued by people of all ages from time
to time. Using high technology devices, and new understanding of
the psychology of learning, educator workers will present
education as a commodity, readily and conveniently available to
all. While techniques will vary for early childhood education, in
general there will be no need for schools as we know them, where
children congregate for great periods of time. The educators, or
their products, will come into the home, the playground and the
workplace.

     Education products cannot always be seen. We can see a Rubix
Cube, or a Primary Reader, or a computer game that teaches the
alphabet. It is possible such educational products may be owned
and controlled by the Education Workers Industrial Union.

     Implicit in the tangible Certificate of Achievement is all
the intangible work of teaching and testing done by the Education
Workers Industrial Union. The real product, education itself, is
invisible and it will be up to Education Workers, and the public,
to determine the value of education work and the methods of
payment.

     Early childhood education in daycare style situations, will
be a function of organized Education Industrial Workers. Where
daycare merges with home care situations, the function may extend
to educational assistance for parents teaching their young
children.

630. Entertainment Workers Industrial Union (IWW-- IU 630)
      An industry wide open for takeover on a co-op Union basis,
from local band & gig co-ops to networks for co-distribution of
recordings. Performers can concentrate on building their own
entertainment industries and ignore the capitalist middlemen. The
millions of independent, non-unionized performers,
self-distribution initiatives, and music co-ops are a ready base.
Joined together in one Entertainment Industrial Union they gain
desired circulation of their products, can share resources and job
contacts.

     It is not feasible to establish uniform wages throughout the
entertainment industry. The existing American Federation of
Musicians has established a degree of uniformity within certain
sectors. Actor's unions enforce a scale within certain sectors of
theatre. Other sectors, also might be brought up to certain
levels, but the circumstances of entertainment are highly
variable. A variety of cooperative arrangements are possible
within communities of "users" of performance products.

640. Restaurant, Hotel & Building Service Workers (IWW--IU 640)
     Some trade unions exist in this industry, which could be
linked to form the basis of an Industrial Union. The workers
should go ahead and set up Union owned co-op hotels, restaurants
and building services, creating jobs and an alternative industry.

     Industrial Union self-management of food services in the 21st
century will create a boom in the industry.  More restaurants will
be opened, along with food vendors and caterers. More great cooks
will be paid for their art, and communities will have a wider
range of options for "eating out." These may include buying apples
on the street corner, or going to a private home which opens as a
restaurant for the dinner hour only.

     The boom will happen when Food Service industries are
regulated and controlled by the Industrial Union of Food Service
Workers, instead of governments. Will there be health inspectors
coming round from the Industrial Union headquarters? Yes --
elected ones. Self-regulation will permit more flexibility within
health guidelines.

     Hurry-up take-outs in the style of McDonalds can be expected
to continue, though some of their clientele will choose other,
equally convenient options.  Wherever there are people, food
service industries will be there to cater to their various needs.
Industrial Union food service industries must be owned
cooperatively by their workers, and decisions in the workplace
must be made democratically.

    Restaurants often consist of a "permanent" staff of cooks,
managers and head waiters, while table servers, bartenders and
kitchen helpers often are short term employees. The short term
employees must become part owners of the place for the term of
their jobs, sharing in decisions and profits.  However, more
decision making power may be given to the longer term "career"
workers. Cooks and head waiters may be highly skilled and familiar
with the industry and the long term interests of their operation.
A "casual worker" who does tables or dish washing for a season is
entitled to control the conditions of his or her work -- but may
not be qualified to make decisions affecting larger aspects of the
industry. It is likely that higher pay scales -- a higher
percentage of the profit -- will exist for longer-term and skilled
workers, because they will demand it. Demands are made, not of the
boss, but of co- workers in the Union. Negotiation takes place
among themselves. It is up to each workplace to determine its
division of earnings for labor, equipment, supplies and upkeep of
the premises.

***IWW--Park & Highway Maintenance Workers IU 650 has been
eliminated.  Park workers who handle plants can be represented by
Forest Workers or Horticulture Workers Industrial Unions.
Maintenance and repair of sidewalks, streets and highways could be
done by the same Industrial Union that builds them, Way and
Viaduct Construction Workers IU310.***

660. General Distribution Workers Industrial Union (IWW--IU660)
     This includes the cashier at the convenience store, staff of
department stores, bookstores, hardware stores, consumer co-ops;
warehouse workers, salespersons, delivery workers, etc.  All such
workers should unite into the Industrial Union, and proceed to buy
out their workplaces or start up new worker-owned co-op stores and
distribution services.

     Distributors of petroleum fuel and gasoline should prepare to
     equip for different fuels such as propane, methane, and
alcohol. Industrial Union Distributors will best focus on
distributing sustainable products.

670. Public Service Workers Industrial Union Federation (IWW-- IU
670)

671. Finance Workers Industrial Union Section 671 (New)
     Finance Workers in Industrial Union democracy, will be
essentially accountants (which is essentially all that bankers
ever have been). They will simply keep track of transfers of
wealth between workplaces, between Industrial Unions, communities,
and individuals.

     Finance Industry operations in Industrial Democracy will not
hold and invest capital -- accumulated wealth -- the way banks or
investment funds did in the 20th century. There won't be a law
against it -- but when the means of production, the product and
the profit is owned and controlled by the workers themselves, they
will invest the accumulated wealth for their own profit, instead
of the profit of bankers. Profits and accumulated wealth will be
used to improve the workplace, pay higher incomes, buy education
or health services, or provide for retired fellow workers in the
community.

      Self-managed Finance Worker Industrial Union shops will
profit, not by skimming capital, but by being paid for their
accounting services. (More comments on finance at end of this
book.)
      Insurance companies should not exist. Compensation for
injuries or property damage can be provided through Industrial
Unions and communities.

672. Earth Steward Workers Industrial Union Section 672  (New)

     Environmentalists working in Water, Air, Forest, Wildlife,
     Soil, or other areas may be members of various Industrial
Unions. Others may form their own Industrial Union with a goal to
establish environmental methods, awareness, guidelines and
practices throughout society.

     A large Earth Stewards Industrial Union can be formed in the
     1990s based on the activists and workers of environmental
groups.

673. Emergency Rescue & Security Workers Industrial Union Section
673

     Police present some organizing potential -- many police
forces already have unions or associations. Police work is often
difficult and not so rewarding. Communities of Industrial Union
workers should try and police themselves as much as possible, and
encourage local police departments to focus on prevention and
humanitarian aid.

    Military "industry" is destructive in every way except two.
One way the military is helpful, is in emergency aid to
earthquakes, floods etc. Therefore the responsible workers of
Industrial Unions will encourage the military departments to focus
on such good work, while discouraging war activity. The second
benefit of military industry is that they pay for training.
Industrial Unions may be able to get involved in administering the
training programs.

    In 1993, Norway soldiers in Somalia resigned en masse, two
weeks before their terms expired, to protest pay. This small
action shows that organization is possible among military
workers.

    Although desirable to governments, military organizations are
not healthy for democracy because they tend to become a law unto
themself which aligns with the ruling classes to maintain order
within the status quo. In other words, the military is a force
that resists positive social change. This is shown very clearly in
the 20th century as the USA always allied itself with military
individual leaders in poor countries, in order to secure friendly
economic relations there.

     Any people who disobey an unjust law in such numbers that the
civil police cannot do anything, are then put down by the
military. That is the problem, and the reason why responsible
workers must encourage the down- sizing and dismantling of the
military organizations. Their fighting "defense" functions can be
absorbed into the population in the form of militias. Large
stockpiles of sophisticated weapons are an irrational waste of
resources. A healthy society of responsible workers can always
adapt industrial technology to military purposes if it should need
to.

680. Home Service Workers Industrial Union (IWW--Household Service
Workers IU 680)
    Humans live in a wide variety of homes, all requiring some
services. The Home Service Workers Industrial Union is the
organization for workers who provide home services for other
people besides themselves.

    First are "housewives" -- and househusbands (house-spouse?) --
homemakers who provide services for their families: children,
mates, elderly relatives -- or collective house mates.

    There are domestic workers, the cleaning lady who visits and
the nanny, maid, butler etc. who may live-in.

    There are also wage workers for home service companies.

    Housekeeping is a traditional art, the knowledge and practice
    of which is
passed mostly through families. The Home Service Workers
organization functions to share methods and information, and
encourage a high standard of housekeeping throughout the society.

    We may see this function being carried out in the 20th century
by certain commercial magazines. Through these media, many home
makers obtain important ideas for their work.

    The Union also wants to ensure that all who work in the
household service industry are fairly compensated for their labor.
Persons doing house work for family and house mates may not wish
to demand wages -- imagine parents demanding that children pay for
their dish washing service! But persons doing housework are
entitled to a share of the wealth of the household. For example,
in the case of a working spouse or elder worker with a pension,
the homemaker is entitled to a share of the income.

    Household Service workers for family are also entitled to
assert rights of control, and a fair portion of ownership, of the
house and the wealth contained in the house. S/he earns this
entitlement by investing labor in the upkeep of the household.

    Waged Home Service Workers can use the Industrial Union
organization to ensure standards of fair treatment, work rules and
job descriptions. A standard contract for this purpose will be
useful. Enforcement of these demands can be accomplished by their
united action against abusive employers -- starting with the
withdrawal of housekeeping services, continuing with the
solidarity of all the unwaged homeworkers in the community united
in the same Industrial Union.

     All persons who enter private homes alone as wage workers
need training in self defense; their organization can also provide
mutual security.

     In the late 20th century many domestic workers are new
immigrant women. To organize them, the Industrial Union must speak
their native language and offer them assistance: information and
pointers on housework, getting used to the new country and
language, information about their legal rights (if any) and
protection from abuse.

     Industrial Union ownership of the industry means that the
workers, members of the Union, own and control their labor, and
the product of their labor.  The maid cannot seize the entire
house just because she cleans it, but she can demand good working
conditions and compensation for her services.  The Industrial
Union should serve as agency for independent Home Service Workers.
House Cleaning Workers may also form local Union cooperative
agencies, owned and managed by themselves.

690. Sex Trade Workers Industrial Union (IWW--IU 690)
     Will sex be traded in 21st century Industrial Democracy? Yes.
Industrial Union society is not utopia, it is only a more
sustainable industrial economy.  With broadened tolerance and a
more rational social attitude, sex trades will flourish and be
accepted in the community. This openness will tend to clean up the
business and make it safer for all parties, and sex trade
operations will come to be considered therapeutic.

     In the 20th century, pressure of anti-prostitution laws, as
well as anti-sex and anti-female public sentiments, forces the
business underground where its workers have no protection. When
prostitutes or sex dancers do try and organize, they can get no
public support.

     The production of sex services by workers for their own
profit must be legalized. When brothels are allowed to operate
openly, then their workers can be organized openly. Experienced
sex trade workers of the 1990s will support work towards
legalization, through public awareness and political campaigns.

     It is a broad industry with a wide range of different kinds
of workers. In many cases it is destructive for workers unprepared
for some of the dangers.  The goal of the Sex Trade Workers
Industrial Union is to establish, regulate and enforce high
standards of sex services, and to protect the integrity of its
workers. The type of operations suited for these goals are the
cooperative brothel and escort service.

     Even under illegal and unrecognized conditions, sex trade
workers in the 1990s can organize their own Union co-op brothel or
escort services. Joining together will enable them to provide
security and mutual aid networks, training for new workers, and
health education. Such Union co-ops provide sex workers with
alternatives to bosses, pimps and escort agencies.

700. Department of Communications 700  (New) (IWW--Dept. of
Transportation and Communication 500)

710. Radio Television and Telephone Workers Industrial Union 710
(IWW--Communications Workers IU 560)

      Radio & TV stations and facilities must be bought, seized
and run by their workers. Linked by their Industrial Union,
broadcast workers will set standards for programming, and take
over regulation of airwaves.

     Telephone company workers must be organized to build up to a
takeover.  Telephone solicitors have become a large temp group in
the 1990s, best organized by Industrial Union Temp co-op hiring
agencies. Telephone solicitation agencies, owned and controlled by
the Industrial Union, can also be started up and contracted out to
business or governments who wish to do surveys, sales or
fundraising.

720. Data Storage & Retrieval Workers Industrial Union 720
(IWW--IU 570)
     Computer programmers and systems analysts are often "self
employed," working on term contract. All must become members of
the Industrial Union -
- along with salaried or wage employees, data entry and word
processors -- with a goal of taking control of the industry.
Altogether, a vastly powerful group of workers who, united, have
all the skills to create worker-owned cooperative enterprises.

730. Courier & Postal Workers Industrial Union 730 (New)
***   Postal Workers would have been included with the IWW's
Public Service Workers IU670, workers in public supply services
and institutions.***

     In the 1990s, public postal services run by governments are
merging with private courier companies; the public services are
shaping themselves to resemble the private, and the private
services are taking on more of the former functions of the public.
So the two branches of messenger service are growing together.
Both can benefit by uniting into one Industrial Union.

     Anywhere that the laws prohibit government worker unions from
organizing outside the government service, or other such
prohibitions, parallel structures can be set up so that the effect
is one of Industrial solidarity. Such laws must be removed so that
Industrial Unions are free to make their own democratic decisions.


     People in 21st century Industrial Democracy will continue to
desire postal/messenger services, even after electronic
communications has taken over part of these functions.

     While the large workplaces and companies are being taken over
by organized employees through buyouts and shop floor control,
local couriers can best be organized by the Industrial Union
setting up its own cooperative courier firms. These outfits are
easy to set up with a telephone, since the workers are hired on
the basis of having their own bicycle or small truck.  Such
workers are often transient, so there has to be some permanent
staff to run the cooperative. Of course, as working conditions are
improved worker transience will also decline.

     The goals of the Courier and Postal Workers Industrial Union
is to provide secure and convenient messenger services, as well as
to further the interests of its members.

740. Information Workers Industrial Union 740
     Sharing of industrial methods, trends, and data is vital to
establish Industrial Democracy as the controlling, owning and
managing force of industries. Information exchange allows
different Industrial Unions to coordinate, barter, and cooperate
between themselves.

      Wide distribution and availability of all sorts of
information, is necessary to a prosperous and democratic society.

    Information is closely allied with Communication; information
is published and printed, or broadcast or transmitted
electronically. Workers in information may choose to belong to the
Publishing Workers or the Broadcast Workers or the Electronic
Communications Workers Industrial Unions. But information
specialists working independently as researchers, advertisers, or
public relations may wish to form their own Industrial Union of
Information Workers.

    In 21st century Industrial Democracy, more products will be
traded locally, and there will be less distant distribution of
uniform products. Advertizing will move away from national and
international campaigns, to regional and local.

    Although the excessive barrage of advertizing is one of the
worst parts about life in the late 20th century, Industrial Unions
of the future will still have to make it known that they have a
product. When a producer operation is not producing at capacity,
in other words when it has room for growth -- the producers will
increase advertizing efforts. Because the organization of
industries in the 20th century allowed ALL operations room for
UNLIMITED growth, there was an unlimited flood of advertizing.

     But when each industrial operation is owned by its workers,
     they will seek
a balance of production capacity and market demand. The workers
cannot control workplaces other than their own -- although their
Industrial Union may enable cooperation between workplaces. If
more apples are wanted in a region, more apple trees will be
planted in the region. Apples may even be shipped from areas of
abundance to areas of scarcity. But the Apple Farmers cannot
"expand" over into the next valley and "own" the trees that are
cultivated by another group of workers.

     The Apple Farmers, in advertizing, need only say that the
apples are picked and ready for sale at a certain price, and that
the supply is plentiful or short this year.

     A newly started bakery or dress shop may indulge in heavy
     advertizing that attempts to engage the desires of the
customer. But after a customer base is built and the shop has
reached its production capacity, there will be no need for more
than basic advertizing.  Certain industries however, rely on
constant advertizing to inform their single-sale customers. A
travelling circus of Entertainment Workers, for example, must
continually advertize in the towns that lie ahead on its route.
Hotels must advertize themselves to people who are in the process
of travelling.

     The goals of the Information Workers Industrial Union are to
set standards of accuracy, access and social responsibility,
whether in research data, newswires or advertizements.

750. Print & Publishing Workers Industrial Union 750 (IWW--IU 450)
      Opportunities increase for Union co-op enterprises owned and
controlled by workers. Commercial book, magazine and newspaper
workers are partly trade unionized, mostly not. These media must
be seized through a combination of share purchase and shop floor
control -- or shut down.  In reality, P&P workers do not need
Conrad Black to pay their wages. The workers have all the skills
and knowledge to combine into Union co-op projects who might even
be free to print a broader spectrum of the truth.

     The IU includes duplicators and photocopy shop workers.

     Writers should combine with this Industrial Union. Thus, the
     GCIU
(Graphics Communications International Union) and the Newspaper
Guild and other similar unions can combine with the National
Writers Union and its international counterparts to form a strong
base for the Industrial Union of Print and Publishing Workers of
the 21st century.

     Goals of the industry include free accurate print
information. Connections exist with the education industry. Print
Workers have close interests with Paper Workers, and should
vigorously ally themselves with the transition from forest to
agriculturally produced paper, and the recycling of paper.  The
Federated Industrial Union Local

     Just as capital-owned companies sometimes branch out into
many industries, Industrial Union workers can set up worker-owned
co-ops to provide a variety of products and services.  Thus, if in
a locality there is a small Horticulture Industrial Union
landscaping co-op, a Public Service Workers Industrial Union Temp
Agency, and a Food Processing Workers Industrial Union bakery,
these three could combine forces and become a three-sided entity.
Sharing resources such as office space will save money, and other
ways of cooperating will be found.

    One model for this kind of multiple service shop, is the
Infrastructure Company of the 1990s, which provides everything to
a company that is peripheral to its main production -- providing
for example, cleaning, plant maintenance, training videos, paper
shredding, daycare and other support services to a company that
publishes books.

DOMINOES AND DOLLARS
     Industries are interconnected. Social life is welded to
economic life. A change in one part, causes effects and
adjustments in other parts.

      When 21st century Transportation Workers increase railway
usage and decrease automobile production, less rubber and
synthetics will be needed for tires. As Auto Workers improve
quality so cars last longer, less production of new metal and
plastic will be needed for cars.

    Fewer gasoline-powered vehicles, and better quality vehicles
will result in less injuries and deaths from accidents -- less
demand for Traffic Police Workers, and less repair work for Motor
Mechanics. Safer streets will cause an increase of bicycle, roller
skate, and skateboard production. Use of these products will
reduce the demand for drugs.

    As Auto Workers diversify and liberate technology, cars,
trucks, trains and buses will utilize different (other than
petroleum) fuels and energy sources.  The air will become cleaner
and quieter. There will be reduction of oil tankers crossing the
oceans, and reduced oil drilling and refining.

    If Truck Transport Workers reduce load weights, roadways will
require less maintenance -- less limestone-crushing and
asphalt-making. If many industries increase local and regional
distribution, there will be less demand for long distance freight
transport.

     If Forest Workers propagate plentiful, vigorous forests and
develop harvest industries of various forest products, there will
be a corresponding drop in demand for foods, medicines, textiles,
and resins from other sources. As Building Construction Workers
adopt other materials (besides wood), those materials will have to
be produced by other industrial workers. As Paper Workers switch
from wood to hemp, a huge boom will be created for Farm Workers.
This in turn will provide hemp fibers for local Textile Workers
industries, making tents, clothes and rope.

     As Brewery Workers de-centralize their production facilities,
a Hops- growing boom will result for Farm Workers. If Farm Workers
move to labor intensive, cooperative methods there will be an
exodus of workers out of cities. Communications facilities and
railways will spread (again) to rural areas.  Building
Construction, Food Processing, General Distribution, Education,
Health Care, Financial and Entertainment Workers will all find new
work in smaller towns.

     Less urban congestion will lead to less crime, disease and
insanity, reducing the demand for Police, hospitals and drugs. If
Health Care Workers succeed in turning their industry to a variety
of disease prevention and health promotion work, less drugs will
be needed. A herbal industry boom will rely on products from
Farmers and Forest Workers.

    If Electric Utility Workers abandon large-scale generation, a
huge demand will be created for production of windmills and solar
cells. Demand for coal, oil, and uranium will be negatively
affected. Fewer coal trains and coal barges will be required.  As
Energy Workers promote heat pumps, solar, biogas and other space
heating alternatives, the demand for oil drilling, refining and
transporting will reduce.

     The list goes on. As one industry changes, a complex of
domino effects is created. What we see is a transition period of
shuffling industries as production and demand are affected by
ecology and changing methods. This transitional period to
establish sustainable Industrial Democracy could take from 20 to
100 years.

     In the beginning, Industrial Unions control only a small
portion of their industry. As workplaces and production equipment
are bought, taken over or started up, control of the industry
grows. The Industrial Union must also utilize every means to
attract as members every waged employee of "capital owned"
industrial operation. These wage employees use union organization
to assert control over every aspect of their work life, as the
circumstances permit -- with always a goal to take over ownership
as soon as possible.

     Wage workers will be more eager to ally themselves with an
organization that is already involved in industrial management for
the benefit of workers.

     The shuffling of production will be difficult because just
when a work crew gains ownership of their oil rig, the bottom may
fall out of oil prices. Migration and re-training should thus be
included among the self managed functions of the Industrial Union.
Even waged employees can organize to help each other find new jobs
after they are laid off.

     Notable in the shuffle is a steady decrease in oil, coal, and
chemicals production -- followed by a notable increase in the
quality of water, air, soil and food.  Also notable, a series of
expansions in agriculture, forestry and aquaculture production.
These can absorb millions of workers displaced from
waste-producing or obsolete industries.  Certain Industrial Unions
may end up owning the means of production as one entity -- the
whole Union would own the whole industry, rather than each
workplace being separately owned by its workforce.

      Worker ownership through Industrial Union organization is
the key to economic democracy and employment security; at least,
it is a major step in the right direction. As can be seen from
this examination, the crucial issue is what happens to accumulated
wealth. As long as the only large accumulations of capital are
owned by Industrial Unions of workers, the workers remain in
control of production.  But if non-workers are able to use
accumulated wealth (capital) for profit -- by owning industrial
equipment or buying the labor of others -- then workers will be
selling their labor and along with it, their rights to control
production.

      Whether workers can, by seizing the means of production,
also succeed in gaining control of the major portion of capital
(all except individual "savings" and community treasuries) remains
to be seen. How much real "wealth" exists is uncertain, since in
the 1990s capital is ninety percent borrowed credit, and the banks
can generate or depreciate capital with the stroke of an interest
rate.

      Real wealth is the ability of people to sustain production
of all that is needed for social advancement. This ability
includes access to accumulated capital wealth. If the practice of
lending money for interest could be banned, this would solve the
problem. But it is foolish to try to ban economic forces.  Instead
the economy must be so rooted that it grows naturally and freely
in the desired direction with a minimum of problems.

     As accumulated wealth, or capital, is continually re-invested
into industrial maintenance, community improvement, and the
workers' pockets, Finance Workers will no longer own, control, or
profit from accumulated wealth.  One thing leads to another. In
the 20th century, finance institutions conspired with governments
to manipulate, stabilize and guarantee national dollar values --
by controlling capital flow in the economy. In order to move this
currency guarantee outside of banks and national governments in
the 21st century, there must be one international money.

     How will this money be guaranteed? In the early 20th century,
national currencies were still backed up by gold bullion stolen
from Indigenous peoples. But by century's end, the guarantor of
money was simply the official government bank -- backed by the
wealth of the national economy, and its armed forces.

     That system worked after a fashion, but when workers control
their produced wealth they are likely to be more realistic.
Knowing that all accumulated wealth is produced by labor, the
global coin of the 21st century will be guaranteed by the official
seal of about 30 globally organized and federated Industrial
Unions.

     That vast economic federation of united workers might well be
named: the Industrial Workers of the World.  If so, the coin,
bill, or plastic card need carry only one symbol to guarantee its
worth: the Universal Label of the IWW.

     Perhaps this is where social evolution truly begins!
     14,142


