Farewell, Red Card
This week I received my new IWW membership card. The British IWW has gone plastic, and we now have those neat little rectangles that we can stow alongside all the other little rectangles.
As the British Administration grows it must needs become more efficient, more up to date, and we old timers will feel a little saddened by such changes. No more of those dinky little stamps. And what happens to assessment stamps recording voluntary donations to particular campaigns?
When I first joined the OBU (not quite so B) it was explained that the advantage of our method of dues payment was that every Wob would see their delegate regularly, the organisation was always at hand, unlike the way some unions are run.
The deduction of dues from wages is anathema to the IWW, being seen as collaboration with the exploiter.
One good thing about the new cards, they won't attract the '30 day wonders', people who signed up and paid one month's dues just to get their hands on one of those historic artefacts.