Exploit's in Detroit

So I flew into Detroit Saturday evening and met up with my new friend and fellow Wobbly, Phil Bailey. Originally from Wilmington, NC, he's been living in Detroit for seven years.  Phil has been showing me around Detroit and is a vast vessel of knowledge and history.  I'm really fortunate to have found such a willing and able guide to a city with so much history, even if most of it is in the form of a vacant lot and crumbling communities. 

Some things I've had a hard time grappling with before I got here have started to become more feasible, and perhaps less of a theoretical dream.  One of those things, which I hope to learn even more about at the U.S. Social Forum, is Solidarity Unionism.  It's a form of organizing that basically requires the active participation of workers to continue organizing even when it seems there is nothing left to organize around in the work place.  It's a type of organizing whose end goal isn't obtaining a contractual agreement with an employer, but rather an understanding, or unofficial agreement for the employers to adhere by worker demands or else direct action will ensue. 

This is the kind of organizing that existed before the state and federal government even recognized labor unions as a legit organization.  It was a form of organizing that recognized all who were employed and unemployed as fellow workers.  They lived by the old mantra 'an injury to one, is an injury to all'. 

I found this concept really hard to swallow, because solidarity amongst workers seem to be a distant dream, but maybe it isn't.  It's just going to require a lot of work, and maybe not as much time as people might thing. 

The IWW has been practicing solidarity organizing and gaining a lot of ground with the Starbucks workers.  Organizers are not only building workplace solidarity and gaining benefits and higher wages for the workers, they are also building strong communities with the residents, patrons and workers in the community, bypassing the power of the corporate front with grassroots education and direct action.

Another thing is that, the 'right to work' laws mean nothing to the IWW and Solidarity Unionizing.  We don't need no stinking contract!  The will of the working class are the contract!