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Libertarian Labor Review #13
Winter 1992-93, pages 43-44
Excommunicated? WSA vs. LLR
The following exchange of letters, we believe, speaks for
itself. We regret the fact that the "Workers Solidarity Alliance"
continues to be successful in its efforts to sow dissension and
disunity in the anarcho-syndicalist movement. We have no interest
in arguing with WSA, but we will not allow their ceaseless attacks
against ourselves and our comrades to proceed unrebutted.
To the editors:
We of the Workers Solidarity Alliance were disturbed to find
that issue #11 of Libertarian Labor Review continues the long
series of attacks on the WSA and its members by LLR. These attacks
have been going on for years now. Why, in all that time, has no one
from your paper attempted to engage us in civil, comradely
dialogue? Why have you spent so much time and effort on
perpetuating this rift, rather than on trying to solve it?
If you have problems with our politics or with the way we
conduct ourselves, join us in an open discussion of these issues,
a discussion focussed on real issues rather than on imagined
slights or useless mudslinging. Let's discuss the real nature of
this disupte without the inflammaroty rhetoric and untruths that
have been so much a part of LLR's attacks on the WSA.
We invite you to enter into an open dialogue with us. Whether
you choose to do so or not, we must demand that you cease your
attacks on the Workers Solidarity Alliance and all individual
members of the WSA. If you refuse to do so, you leave us with no
alternative but to request that the IWA institute a formal ban on
relations with your group, as has been done with hostile groups in
the past. WSA is the US affiliate to the IWA and an attack on us is
an attack on the IWA.
We have absolutely no interest in deepening the conflict
between our groups. The cause of anarcho-syundicalism can only
benefit from improved relations between WSA and LLR. We hope that
you will choose dialogue over diatribe and work with us to resolve
our differences.
Ginger Hutton
National Secretary
Workers Solidarity Alliance
LLR Note: We received this threatening letter just three weeks
prior to the 1992 International Workers Association (AIT) Congress.
We believe it to be a response to "The Specter Haunting Wetzel,"
published in LLR 12. That article was a response to attacks against
LLR circulated by WSA leader Tom Wetzel at the 1991 Convention of
the Industrial Workers of the World, in which Wetzel claimed that
LLR was behind a conspiracy against WSA within the IWW. As we
pointed out in that article, these charges were a smokescreen for
WSA's maneuvering to keep the IWW from affiliating to the AIT
(interestingly, in WSA's magazine ideas & action #16, Hutton
discusses the possibility of the IWW joining the AIT: "The best
thing that could happen is that the IWW decide this is not
something they want to do and just drop it..."). WSA International
Secretary Mitchell Miller writes, in Direct Action, that IWW
affiliation to the AIT "is now moot."
In response to WSA's threat to cut off our communications with
the AIT, we sent the following letter to the AIT Congress and to
those AIT sections for which we have addresses:
Fellow Workers,
The Libertarian Labor Review sends greetings to the IWA
Congress. The tasks facing the international anarcho-syndicalist
movement are immense. In virtually every country of the world,
transnational capitalist employers pit the workers of each country
against workers of other countries. National governments and the
official labor unions assist the employers by telling workers that
they must compete with foreign labor if they wish to keep their
jobs. The IWA is one of the few labor federations which seeks to
turn international working-class solidarity from a slogan into
practical reality. As an anarcho-syndicalist journal we are
committed to the same goals as the IWA, and hope that you continue
to make progress.
The Libertarian Labor Review is committed to building
solidarity between anarcho-syndicalists worldwide by providing
information about revolutionary unions. Every issue of the LLR
carries news of the IWA and its sections. This information might
otherwise be unavailable in North America. For example, we know of
no other U.S. publication (aside from the Industrial Worker, which
reprinted our report) that reported on the general strikes against
the Gulf War called by the USI and sections of the Cobas. We also
review IWA literature and reprint articles from your press. And
each issue of LLR includes the IWA's Principles of Revolutionary
Syndicalism, which we endorse.
The members of our collective have also shown solidarity with
the IWA in our practical work. When the CNT 'renevados' split from
the CNT-AIT, our members defended the CNT-AIT and helped influence
the Industrial Workers of the World to adopt its policy of
recognizing only the CNT-AIT. Our members pass along IWA news and
communiques to the IWW press as we receive them. For many years we
have encouraged the IWW to affiliate with the IWA, and we hope that
this will be accomplished soon.
Unfortunately, on March 20 we received an official notice from
Ginger Hutton, National Secretary of the Workers Solidarity
Alliance, objecting to an article in issue #12 of our journal.
(Hutton says she is objecting to #11, which mentions WSA only in an
index to our first 10 issues--her confusion may have been caused by
a production error which resulted in pages of #12 being
misnumbered.) That article criticized a leaflet attacking us that
was circulated by WSA leaers at the IWW's 1991 General Assembly.
Although the main point of our article was self-defense, Hutton
accuses LLR of attacking WSA and issues an ultimatum: "we must...
cease [our] attacks on the Workers Solidarity Alliance and all
individual members of the WSA" or WSA will ask the IWA to
"institute a formal ban on relations with your group" since "an
attack on [WSA] is an attack on the IWA."
We believe that the role of the anarcho-syndicalist press is
not just to give blanket praise to any group or individual claiming
to be anarcho-syndicalist, but to also criticize them for their
mistakes. A free and critical press plays a vital role in
maintaining liberty for rank-and-file workers and in holding our
officials accountable. The point of our article in LLR #12, which
so offended WSA, was that WSA does not want to see the IWW
affiliate with the IWA and has tried to make LLR into a scapegoat
to conceal this fact. In the most recent issue of WSA's journal,
Ideas and Action (#16, p. 36), Ginger Hutton admits that WSA is
opposed to the IWW joining the international: "The best thing that
could happen is that the IWW decides this is not something they
want to do and just drop it... I really don't think it's something
that's going to happen."
This simply reflects long-standing WSA policy. When
representatives of the Libertarian Workers Group (the WSA's earlier
name) attended the 1984 IWA Congress, they urged the IWA to drop
its efforts to get the IWW to affiliate. WSA also made several
derogatory remarks about the IWW, which amounted to a false charge
that the IWW was class collaborationist. When our group of anarcho-
syndicalists, active in the IWW, found out about this, we wrote an
open letter to the IWA to protest these attacks. Thus, our
'quarrel' with WSA dates back to what we saw as a divisive and
sectarian report they made against the IWW.
While the Libertarian Labor Review has serious differences
with the WSA over how to build an anarcho-syndicalist movement in
North America, we wholly support the IWA's priciples. We believe
that revolutionary unionism and international working-class
solidarity are essential to the construction of a free, self-
managed society. Familiarity with the activities, tactics, goals
and aspirations of our fellow workers around the world is essential
to building such solidarity.
At present, we exchange publications with several IWA
sections, and would gladly add other IWA sections to our exchange
list. On occasion, the IWA Secretariat has sent us copies of
communiques, which we have published in our journal and sent to
other labor papers and sympathetic organizations. We would very
much appreciate it if we could receive such information on a
regular basis, and if we could be provided with copies of the
resolutions and other materials acted on by the Congress.
For international working-class solidarity,
Libertarian Labor Review Collective
We subsequently received the following resolution from the newly
elected AIT General Secretary, Jose Jimenez:
"On XIX I.W.A. Congress our resolution is condemning the
unjustified attacks on the U.S. section by the Libertarian Labor
Review group and given that these attacks have not ceased the
I.W.A. shall declare a boycott of this group and all sections shall
cease to have formal relations with them, until such time as they
cease their attacks on the W.S.A. and clearly recognize them as the
U.S. section of the I.W.A. Valencia, 5.12.92"
We responded as follows:
Fellow Worker Jiminez,
We recently received the congress resolution you forwarded on
May 12th, and must admit that we find it quite perplexing.
Your resolution refers (1) to our "unjustified attacks"
against the Workers Solidarity Alliance, (2) infers that we refuse
to recognize them as the A.I.T.'s U.S. section, and (3) calls upon
all sections to cease to have formal relations with us.
We do not know what to make of this. We are unaware of having
made any unjustified attacks against the W.S.A. Indeed, to the best
of our knowledge we have never published any criticism of W.S.A.
for which we did not have documentation. We would appreciate
receiving a list of all "unjustified attacks" against W.S.A.
published in our journal so that we may either provide the
documentation proving their accuracy or, in the event that we have
made an error, retract them.
We have long acknowledged that the W.S.A. was the A.I.T.'s
U.S. section, even if we would have preferred that the
International exercise greater caution in admitting new sections.
The Libertarian Labor Review does not dispute the fact that W.S.A.
is a section of the A.I.T. For example, in LLR issue #7, page 2
(Editorial), we specifically referred to WSA as "the IWA's
affiliate in the U.S."
Finally, although we exchange publications with some A.I.T.
sections' newspapers, we are not aware of any "formal relations"
between our collective and the A.I.T. or its sections. As an
independent anarcho-syndicalist magazine, we have never attempted
to enter into formal relations with the A.I.T.
We trust that this will clarify the latter two points, and
that you will advise us as to what "unjustified attacks" we might
have made against the W.S.A. While we have serious political
differences with that organization, we would not wish to level any
unproven accusations against them.
Anarcho-syndicalist Greetings,
the Libertarian Labor Review Collective
One final note: As we go to press we have not received a response
from the Secrtariat. Nor are we sure what the practical
consequences of being "banned" will be. Nevertheless, this episode
should demonstrate to anarcho-syndicalists in the U.S. the W.S.A.'s
sectarian nature and their hypocrisy when they claim to be
"pluralistic" and to want "open discussion." It is unfortunate that
the IWA/AIT has allowed itself to be dragged into the middle of
this disupte. It would be better to make WSA fight its own battles,
rather than allow them to use their AIT affiliation as a gag to
silence their critics.