This brief explanation of the IWW’s Preamble was adapted from a piece written by FW Sasha, a 12-year-old member of the Junior Wobblies, which appeared in the ​ Industrial Worker (September 2012).

Introduction 

In 1905 a group of workers founded the IWW and wrote the “Preamble to the IWW Constitution” to explain why the IWW was started.

“The   working   class and   the employing   class have nothing   in common.” 

There are two types of people in the world: workers and bosses. The two different kinds of people want two different things.

Workers want better pay, a shorter time working, better and safer jobs, work that keeps the earth clean and safe, and the power to decide what they do with their work. Bosses want to make sure they get more money no matter how little they pay their workers or how dangerous the work is for the workers or the planet.

“There   can be   no peace   so long as   hunger and want   are found among millions   of working people and the   few, who make up the employing   class, have all the good things   in life.” 

It isn’t fair and really just doesn’t make sense that very few, very rich people have everything they want when tons of working people don’t even have the basic things they need.

“We   find that   the centering   of management of   industries into fewer   and fewer hands makes   the trade unions unable to   cope with the ever growing power   of the employing class.”

There are other kinds of unions that only organize one kind of job or trade—that’s why they are called trade unions. There area lot of good working organizers in trade unions, but trade unions themselves won’t lead to a revolution. Trade unions only unionize part of the workers and sometimes they even work against each other.

“An injury to one is an injury to all.” 

In the IWW everyone is equal, no matter their race, sex, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, ability, or age.

The IWW is not connected to any country, government, religion or business. If one person needs help organizing, everyone will help. The IWW is one big union.

“It   is the   historic mission   of the working class   to do away with capitalism.” 

Capitalism is the system in which bosses make money off workers. No one can be equal when capitalism is the way the world is run. The reason capitalism thrives is because the bosses have power. They have power because they live off the work of the workers. If all the workers stopped working, the bosses would have no power.

“The   army of   production must   be organized, not   for the everyday struggle   with capitalists, but also   to carry on  production when capitalism shall have been overthrown.” 

People should organize not only to deal with the bosses now, but also to get rid of capitalism. We can figure out how things will work when capitalism has been stopped.

“By   organizing   industrially   we are forming   the structure of the new society within the shell of the old.” 

How the IWW is organized is the way the world should be organized when capitalism is abolished. By organizing people now, we will have a base to organize from and we won’t have to start from scratch once capitalism has been stopped.