TL;DR: The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) are proving that old-school radical unionism still has teeth in the 21st century. Known for their fiery defiance of capitalism and relentless focus on direct action, the Wobblies have adapted to the chaos of modern work—from gig economies to precarious jobs—by doubling down on grassroots organizing and their no-compromise approach. Fiercely anti-authoritarian and unyielding, the IWW remains a thorn in the side of bosses and a beacon for workers ready to fight back.

The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)—scrappy, defiant, unruly and the eternal thorn in the ruling class's side. Founded in 1905, the IWW’s vision of “One Big Union” in many ways foresaw a globalised, borderless, decentralised future. But in an age where billionaires rocket themselves into space as gig workers pedal themselves about town to deliver takeaways for peanuts, it’s clear the Wobblies are needed more today than ever. 

The IWW’s resurrection in the 21st century isn’t nostalgia; it’s necessity. Its radical DNA—opposing wage slavery, rejecting corporate hierarchies and calling for direct action—reads less like a historical footnote and more like a survival guide for modern workers navigating algorithmic exploitation and surveillance capitalism. 

Supply Chains and Sweatshops

Capitalism has done what capitalism does best—outsourced its worst abuses. From Bangladeshi garment factories to Chinese electronics plants, the Global South has become a sacrifice zone for the West’s convenience. But the IWW was built for this. Its vision of international solidarity cuts across borders, race, and language, uniting workers in the supply chain’s dark corners with those on the retail frontlines. Recent examples include garment worker strikes in Asia demanding living wages, dockworker solidarity actions that shut down ports in support of migrant workers and mutual aid networks offering legal defence and emergency funds

Private Tyrannies. Corporations Now Run The Show

The days of corporations, forced to comply with state regulations, are nearly over. In the new neoliberal paradigm companies rule the roost. Any country viewed as impeding profit-making is likely to be hauled up in front of the International Centre for Settlement of Investor Disputes (ICSID). Corporations increasingly rely on security services that fall one step short of private armies. The dystopian Brave New World has made no concessions to their own workers. Wages have underperformed asset prices for fifty years. Put simply, your salary won’t buy you a house. Rights have been decimated. Attempts have even been made to allow child labour. A cursory Google search reveals that in large-scale corporations, CEO salaries outstrip worker salaries by 200:1.

Going Nowhere Fast

Welcome to the treadmill of modern capitalism—where running faster just keeps you in place. For young people today, the promise of a stable career, a home, and a family is as mythical as a unicorn in a cubicle. The old pathways to security—union protections, pensions, affordable housing—have been bulldozed, replaced by a labyrinth of zero-hour contracts, unpaid internships, and side hustles that barely cover the rent.

Instead of building a life, we're assembling gig-jobs like scraps of junkyard metal, hoping to weld together something that won’t collapse next month. Freedom is just another word for owning nothing—and it’s not liberating, it’s terrifying.

Your choices? Work yourself to death for a company that treats you like an expendable cog, sell your labour piecemeal in the gig economy, or join the swelling ranks of debt-ridden freelancers pretending to live the dream while working out of coffee shops and campervans.

Meanwhile, billionaires lecture you about bootstraps and hustle culture from their yachts, and politicians tell you to stop whining and work harder. But deep down, you know the truth—they sold your future for shareholder dividends and golden parachutes, And when the whole capitalist system collapses again and has to be bailed out by socialism, they’ll say it’s your fault for not trying hard enough. Then they’ll save themselves from bankruptcy with tax-payer money amid lectures about meritocracy.

Reshaping and Reprogramming the Resistance

Technology isn't just being reshaped as late-stage capitalism makes a desperate, tyrannical bid to stay relevant; it’s also reshaping the resistance. Platforms for organising, encrypted messaging and Bitcoin, for example, allow workers to coordinate like never before with permissionless, censorship-resistant tools that respond to central banks and currency debasement, offering financial sovereignty to workers facing corporate and state repression.

Other 21st-century IWW tools include crowdsourced strikes, using apps and social media to coordinate flash protests, hacktivism, cyber-attacks and leaks exposing corporate abuses and platform cooperatives that build worker-owned alternatives to exploitative gig platforms. 

The Wobbly Spanner in the Works

The IWW isn’t just a relic of the past; it’s a blueprint for the future. It's a 120-year old union with a radical vision of worker solidarity, decentralised organising, economic democracy and cross-platform solidarity that remains a powerful antidote to exploitation. 

It's anarchic, bottom-up and based on social, not political organisation while remaining a flat, decentralised structure to ensure no one leader can be bought off or silenced, or no member denied participation.

The modern IWW message is clear: it’s still possible to unionise even if your ‘office’ is a bike saddle, the back seat of someone else’s car or a laptop in a chiringuito.  

Organize! …and expect fireworks!

#Snarchy #Anarcos #Anarchism #Decentralisation #MutualAid #IWW #Bitcoin #GigEconomy #Unions #Solidarity #OneBigUnion #Organize #EatTheRich

GLOSSARY

• Algorithmic Exploitation (UK: /ˌælgəˈrɪdmɪk ɪkˈsplɔɪtʃən/) n. - The use of data and algorithms to monitor, control, or exploit workers.
• Direct Action (UK: /dɪˈrɛkt ˈækʃən/) n. - Protest strategies like strikes or boycotts that bypass legal or institutional channels.
• Cypherpunk (UK: /ˈsaɪfəpʌŋk/) n. - A movement promoting privacy and encryption as tools for social and political change.
• Surveillance Capitalism (UK: /sə(ˈ)veɪləns ˈkæpɪtəlɪzəm/) n. - An economic system built on the extraction and monetisation of personal data.
• Gig Economy (UK: /ɡɪɡ ɪkɒnəmi/) n. - A labour market characterised by short-term, freelance, or flexible work arrangements.
• Decentralisation (UK: /di:ˌsɛntrəlaɪˈzeɪʃn/) n. - The process of distributing power away from central authorities.
• Blockchain (UK: /ˈblɒkt∫eɪn/) n. - A decentralised, digital ledger technology used for cryptocurrencies.
• Neoliberalism (UK: /ni:əʊlɪˈbərəlɪzəm/) n. - An economic ideology promoting free markets and minimal government intervention.

FOOTNOTES 

1. Standing, G. (2011). "The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class." Bloomsbury Academic.
2. Scholz, T. (2016). "Platform Cooperativism: Challenging the Corporate Gig Economy." Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung.
3. Graeber, D. (2013). "The Democracy Project." Spiegel & Grau.
4. Zuboff, S. (2019). "The Age of Surveillance Capitalism." PublicAffairs.
5. Chomsky, N. (1999). "Profit Over People: Neoliberalism and Global Order." Seven Stories Press.