Fellow Workers,
With a new year now upon us, I’d like to take this opportunity to offer some reflections from the previous 2 years of organising and observing the status of the union as Co-Secretary.
When I took on my role as the Co-Secretary of WISE-RA at the start of 2023 the union was just starting to rebuild after losing many regional institutions and officers following the Covid pandemic. Our capacity was very low and it felt that just a few individuals were holding things together and there was a fear that we might not recover. More than 30 regional posts were vacant including key posts for us to function. Our audit of the union conducted at that time concluded that there was a risk that the IWW might not be viable within the next 6 months.
Many brave fights continued at this time, we still won victories, defended our members and the IWW has always managed to set an example to the whole union movement through our solidarity, use of creative direct action, and organising in precarious sectors. However, our internal structures and strategy was far from where we wanted to be.
In January 2023 I tried to set out our situation and asked our members to step up. I am so proud to say that your union did just that. People stepped up. Often with little handover or guidance fellow workers trail blazed and reshaped our union from the ground up. From this new core of officers, delegates, and active members, the union has captured a new hope for our collective potential. This work over 2 years has led to a rebirth of the IWW as a force for change and I am glad to say that while there are still challenges ahead and a need for every member to do their part for their union, the IWW is not going anywhere but forward!
In 2025 I encourage you once again to consider standing in our elections to fill vacant posts at our regional level and in branches; contribute to union democracy in your branch and workplace; help the union grow, organise and recruit in your workplace; fight back against injustice in your workplace and show solidarity with all workers doing the same; take the trainings available to you and help support others with their issues too. Step up and become a leader (we are all leaders) in a movement for the justice and liberation of workers all over the world!
In 2024, the IWW trained more new reps than in any previous year, we also certified 21 new trainers across many branches. There are many branches that continue to struggle with participation and capacity to support members, but the support is there and in 2025 it is down to you to help us build the kind of union that you want to see. We are not a service, we are a weapon for you to fight back, but only you can pull the trigger.
The scope of new participation within our union has also been demonstrated by the rebirth or creation of many committees such as The Incarcerated Workers Organising Committee (IWOC), Literature Committee, Equalities Committee, Transformative Justice and Complaints Committee, Tech Committee, and Training Committee to name a few. There are now so many new ways for members to contribute their skills and interests to the One Big Union and in 2025 I hope to see this continue to blossom. In particular, this year we intend to launch a new Legal Committee (in both 2023 and 2024 approximately £100,000 in union dues went on fighting legal cases for workers who could not have accessed this support alone, so thank you for contributing!) and re-launch the IWW Organising Department to expand the support and advice available to our members.
The IWW has always been an international organisation, and we have put this into practice in 2024 as the International Committee has connected our members around the world and allowed us the opportunity to support new projects such as the Cyprus Regional Organising Committee (CY-ROC) which was formally chartered in February and has been an inspiration for many looking to build the IWW outside of the UK.
We have also now finally become ratified members of the ICL-CIT, the International Confederation of Labour, which we hope will allow us to contribute more to solidarity and coordination with other unions around the world. As we grow steadily internationally, I think this year we should reflect on this aspect of our identity and strategy as a union and consider the relevancy of the Wales, Ireland, Scotland, England Regional Administration (WISE-RA) as an organisation that is increasingly becoming an international confederation within its own right.
In May 2024 we held our annual conference in Bristol which was a personal highlight of my time in the IWW. Members attended from all over the world, we voted on motions but also used the opportunity to discuss ideas and participate in education about issues ranging from organising migrant workers to tackling sexism and abuse within the trade union movement. There was such a fantastic atmosphere of shared learning and friendship at the conference and I strongly encourage any members who are able to attend our next annual conference which will be held in Edinburgh on the 20th-22nd June 2025.
In January 2023 I asked the union a question, “where can we make a difference and expand the scope of class conflict in the UK?”.
I believe that we have begun to answer this question over the last year as we have seen the IWW breaking new ground, with ERWU winning the first ever recognised escape room in the industry and several other workplaces in many different sectors fighting ballots and establishing ‘flagships’ for our union. An approach that we have not used as much previously. Several of these victories we hope to announce soon! While the IWW is well known for it’s tactics of direct action, these organised workplaces allow us to demonstrate a much more important aspect of our heritage, industrial unionism. We want workers to have their voices heard both in their union and in the workplace and this requires us not just to be militant in our conflicts with employers but to be committed to the project of building democracy, facilitating grassroots decision making, empowering workers to challenge the status-quo across entire industries. Whereas governments change and workers remain powerless, Industrial unionism seeks to give workers power over how work is done by proving just how much our labour is needed at the point of production to function. Without us, not a single wheel can turn. United and organised we have the power to not only improve our lives at work but to affect the whole capitalist system, to end wars, make sure everyone’s needs are met and live in harmony with the Earth.
Recognition agreements are nothing new to the union movement as a whole, and often can be restrictive, but I am glad to see us begin to experiment with what the IWW can do differently and take our own approach to this practice that is unique to us and spreads our message further than we have been able to before.
The need for industrial unionism has been shown clearly through the work of the IWW Pan-African Workers Association (PAWA). The Association has done tremendous work at highlighting the issues faced by migrant workers, especially care workers, in the UK and informing workers of their rights. In 2024, 200 workers joined the IWW through PAWA, leading to many cases where our reps have challenged many, often illegal, forms of exploitation that go under the radar in the UK and Ireland. The vast majority of the issues faced by workers in PAWA are not exclusive to one workplace but experienced commonly across the industries utilising migrant labour. An industrial approach is therefore the key to breaking the bosses chains that keep these fellow workers from having the dignified lives that everyone deserves. Let 2025 be the year when we shift the balance of power and support PAWA to unite workers together into one big union and take a collective approach to the issues shared by thousands.
Ever since I first became a member of our union I have heard it promised that the IWW will have it’s day again, eventually…
Well fellow workers, I think our time might have finally come!
Going into 2025 I hope you will share this hope for the IWW that I have felt seeing things change. We have an opportunity now to leap forward, don’t let that be wasted.
My goals for 2025, while coming to the end of my term as your Co-Secretary, is to see even more new members step up once again, that together we can continue to make a difference by ensuring that every new member of the IWW has the opportunity to develop, learn their rights, to get training to help them start organising their workplace, and we can start to see the few workplaces where we are building industrial unionism spread into a strong network.
In solidarity to all fighting for a better world…
against genocide, bosses, patriarchy and ecocide…
and with commitment to the One Big Union…
I wish you all a happy new year!
Sab Cat
IWW (WISE-RA) Co-Secretary