The Wobblies (1979)

Directors:

Stewart Bird
Deborah Shaffer

Genre:

Documentary

Runtime:

89 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Joint Federation for Support

Good but not exactly a complete picture

The "Wobblies" was a nickname for a radical labor union that was founded in 1905. Unlike other unions of the day, the IWW was open to all people--regardless of gender or ethnicity as they were a very democratic organization. This and their anti-war stances were admirable--especially in WWI when the US went to war for no particular reason. They were also hard-core theoretical Marxists who believed in the ownership of industries by the workers. At the time, I guess I couldn't blame them--as working conditions at the time were often dangerous and some employers didn't seem to care about their welfare or decent wages. However, the Wobblies belief that all private ownership was evil and their looking towards eventual worldwide revolution scared the powers that be--particularly following the successful revolution in Russia.

The film is a well-constructed film--with lots of interviews with surviving union members from the early days and vintage footage. However, the film really does not seem like it was very objective, as it tended to present the story just from the Wobblies' point of view. In other words, the context for the labor problems and government persecution of the movement wasn't really explored--making them look virtuous and the government and bosses 100% evil. The members were definitely political prisoners--harassed by the government. However, the IWW was a Marxist group who wanted to eliminate private ownership and were anti-Capitalist. The film called them Socialists, but advocating an eventual destruction of the business owners, they would more correctly be called Marxists or Communists--believing and advocating the eventual destruction of the rich that Marx prophesied. While repression and a laissez-faire attitude of the early 20th century was evil as was the persecution of the Wobblies, the Marxist ideal is also rather "pie in the sky" and selfish as well. Because there is no balance to this film, it seems more like propaganda and loses a few points. Here they are simply portrayed as victims and all their post-WWI activities are ignored.

FYI--Though very, very small today, the IWW still exists today. Much of the reason, I assume, for its huge drop in membership is probably attributable to improved labor conditions and the utter failure of modern Communism due to its anti-democratic practices--something even most of the egalitarian IWW members in the early days would not have tolerated, as in the IWW there were no real leaders and everyone had a voice in its business. Too bad, as IN THEORY, this might have been a lovely system--too bad that human nature makes this, in my opinion, impossible.