Hands OFF "Direct Action"!

A call by the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) to all who care about fairness and decency in this country and especially to all those presenting themselves as left wing or progressive.

Fellow Workers

As you might have heard a group of politicos (the Revolutionary Socialist Party) (recently split, we are informed, from the Democratic Socialist Party) have taken it upon themselves to expropriate without consultation or compensation, the title of our paper "Direct Action." This was the paper started by the IWW in world war one and brutally suppressed by the government then, restarted by the IWW in the late 1920's and published by the IWW in several editions from 1990.

In this publication of theirs, that they are calling Direct Action, the RSP make reference to the IWW in the past tense only. They make no reference whatsoever to the editions of Direct Action after 1990. This is particularly dishonest because I wrote to them before publication commenced reminding them of our existence and the fact that we maintain ownership of the title "Direct Action".

This ownership is given to us not by some legalistic copyright but by the persecution, imprisonment and deportation of the members of our organisation in Australia; working men and women who worked for their class; who fought to build a paper to educate that class, to organise it and to put it on the path to emancipation.

Basically the RSP show themselves as thieves prepared to steal any title not nailed down by some form of bourgeois copyright.

The IWW in Australia has a long history. Some of our members might have been irascible and belligerent. We have had our ideas and we have fought for them and defended them against all comers. But whenever solidarity was called for, whenever a just cause or an under-dog was struggling then we have been there. In recent years we have remained a small group and one lacking in resources but this should not mean that basic principles of fair play and solidarity should be trampled underfoot in this way.

I suggest everyone reading this write expressing their outrage at this thievery to:

• Editor: Doug Lorimer - editorial@directaction.org.au
• Assistant editor: Allen Myers
• Design/layout: Dani Barley, Kathy Newnam - layout@directaction.org.au
• Website manager: Jorge Jorquera webmanager@directaction.org.au
• Subscriptions manager: Marce Cameron - subs@directaction.org.au

and let them know what you think of them.

This situation is especially ironically because, in the debate between those advocating direct as against political action (which is as old as the organised working class movement), the RSP like the DSP it split from is a political outfit. They do not believe in direct action as a means of effecting change. They believe in political action which is why they have always been putting people up for elections, telling us to vote labor and giving their support to all those third world governments. Really they should call their publication "Action mediated by the State and the Party" that at least would be honest. To call it Direct Action is a manifestation of the dishonesty of the leadership of this organisation which, given its youth, does not bode well for its future integrity. We call upon the rank and file membership of the RSP (if there are any such) to make their voices heard against this injustice.

In solidarity

Miek - (Sec,Treas AusROC)