Anti-Revolutionary Wear!

This design has been around for a bit, but I'm just now getting around to it.  Or at least, I'm just getting around to admitting that I (sometimes/maybe/often) have this problem...

I hear you naysayers...soccer shouldn't concern me as an "opiate of the masses"!  You'll bemoan the dozens and dozens of amateur/professional soccer clubs founded by employers looking to keep workers occupied or more pointedly, away from radical thoughts or activities.  Shoot, even I enjoy sharing this tidbit about the foundation of Thames Ironworks F.C. - later to become West Ham United - when I'm talking to people about the club I support.

"Hills, who had been involved in a bitter industrial dispute with his employees that year, thought that the formation of a football club might help improve the mood of his workforce. On 29th June, 1895, Hills announced in his newspaper, the Thames Ironworks Gazette, that he intended to establish a football club. The information appeared under the headline: "The importance of co-operation between workers and management". He referred to the dispute that had just taken place and insisted he wanted to "wipe away the bitterness left by the recent strike". Hills added: "Thank God this midsummer madness is passed and gone; inequities and anomalies have been done away with and now, under the Good Fellowship system and Profit Sharing Scheme, every worker knows that his individual and social rights are absolutely secured.""

Forget about your grievances you shipbuilding mob - kick around a ball and get cozy with Chairman Hills!  After all, he swears your social rights are now "absolutely secured!"  Look at these workers from the first Thames Ironworks club below - do they look fooled?

Our Work, Our Lives, Our Music - IWW Songs To Fan The Flames Of Discontent

A few of my favorite things collide on this flaming collaboration between Maddie Ruthless, Vic Ruggiero, and Jack Wright.  From the musicians:

"The IWW was, at one point, the world's largest and most radical union. In a time of institutionalized racism, members of the IWW organized side by side in solidarity with workers from many different ethnicities and backgrounds. They developed, and in some cases implemented, ideas of workplace democracy, wage slavery abolition, and the four hour work day. They developed the platform for what today we take for granted as workers' legal rights.
One way the IWW rallied together their wobbly members (a nick name for IWW union members) was to sing songs based on famous tunes of the day. Famous working class poets and authors, such as Joe Hill (who served as a legendary pen name as well as an actual figure), wrote new words inspiring revolutionary direct democracy, solidarity, and satire against the scabs, bulls, and scissorbills. For a small dictionary of IWW lingo visit here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wobbly_lingo.

As Reggae musicians, Vic and Maddie and Jack recognize the songs of the IWW as sisters of reggae music in their use of clever and powerful VERSION. By that we mean there are clear parallels between the wobblies and reggae artists. They both reinterpreted popular songs to make them applicable to the popular class.

We are asking only for a donation if you feel able to give one as we are union-less, and yet working, musicians."

Enjoy, share widely, and support these workers.  Though the IWW is a storied organization with a rich history, the union is very much alive and continues to do all the things mentioned in the bit above.  You don't have to work in a certain job or industry, carry around a contract or card, or be recognized by a state government to be part of a union.  Check out the IWW and learn more about making this world a little bit better place.