The IWW and Beyond
From Social Justice Wiki
Involvement in the IWW
Lucy Parsons served as a delegate to the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) convention in 1905. The IWW, a labor union committed to eliminating capitalism in an effort to instill workers’ democracy, took the lead in organizing minority workers against capitalism. Its radical strategy stood apart from the American Federation of Labor’s (AFL) white-male-only policy. In her speech at the founding convention of the IWW, Parsons encouraged her brothers and sisters: “And so let me say to you brothers and sisters, don’t engage in any personalities, but simply remember that we are here as one brotherhood and one sisterhood, as one humanity, with a responsibility to the downtrodden and the oppressed of all humanity, it matters not under what flag or in what country they happened to be born. Let us have that idea of Thomas Paine, that ‘The world is my country, and mankind are my countrymen.’”
Parsons partook in declaring American labor’s solidarity with both the working men and women of the world. After the 1905 convention, Parson edited The Liberator – a pro-IWW newspaper that provided a link between the IWW’s agenda to abolish wage-slavery and the earlier Abolitionist movement. Parsons explained the mission of the IWW in her 1970 article “Industrial workers of the world: Aims and Objects,” - “to teach the laboring classes their solidarity of interest as a mass, and how they in [the] future must act as a class, in order to win in their contests with capital.” The Liberator also allowed Parsons to address a variety of women's issues. She took a stand on supporting a woman's right to divorce, remarry, and the ability to have access to birth control. Additionally, she wrote a column about famous women and a history of the working class.
Furthermore, Parsons believed that a revolution could only come through a well-organized working class movement that seized the means of production, and that the IWW's tactics of militant strikes and direct action would enable this movement. She is credited as the originator of the sit-down strike, the idea that instead of refusing to enter the the job site during a strike, workers must occupy them and ultimately use them for their own ends.
Her legacy
Lucy Parsons continued her social activism through the 1920s and 1930s. She was active in the International Labor Defense (ILD), a Communist “front group” dedicated to publicizing, defending and freeing prisoners of class-war. Just as she defended prisoners of the Haymarket Square events, she also defended the IWW’s Centralia prisoners. While some have speculated that she was a member of the Communist Party (CP), her obitutuary in the CP’s Daily Worker made no reference to party membership.
From the 1920s on, Parsons became gradually disappointed by the weakness and disorganization that characterized U.S. anarchism; however, she never renounced anarchism herself. Continuing to uphold the libertarian socialist ideals until her final days, Parsons died at the age of eighty-eight.
Parson’s commanding and inspiring presence ultimately touched the lives of numerous people. Furthermore, her influential oratories, devotion to radical change, and effective contribution are like none other. Her unmatched legacy as well as commitment to social justice, human freedom and equality has had a tremendous impact, which makes Lucy Parsons a figure to be remembered in US labor history as well as world history.
Industrial Workers of the World: Aims and Objects
Source: Lucy Parsons: Woman of Will