Freeter's General Union

Your committee finds that there are many workers in the North American [or world] economy who are not adequately classified in our current List of Industrial Unions. These are casual laborers who frequently change industries (say, more than four times per year) and workers who cannot find a buyer for their labor power. These workers, in their unorganized state, form what Marx calls a “reserve army of labor” or “industrial reserve army”, which is used by the employing class to replace workers who go out on strike or who demand better wages or working conditions. Yet to organize them into any of the Industrial Unions would be problematic at best. Our rules would require casual laborers constantly to transfer membership from one IU to another, generating needless paperwork and expense for the union. Regular dues would be difficult for chronically unemployed workers, and their interests and needs are likely to be quite different from those of employed workers.

Your committee finds that the I. W. W. should organize such workers into an auxiliary Industrial Reserve Organization, in order to build class solidarity among them through education, social activities, the establishment of hiring halls, and other means, thereby turning the bosses’ chief weapon against themselves.