The ILWU is a unique and wonderful organization. We are each proud to be a member and to lay claim to our militant and democratic heritage. Those of us involved in the union as active and retired members know that this heritage is one of the primary reasons we are respected and influential in our communities and in the labor movement. We also know that our track record in representing our members and fighting for social justice was established by decades of direct rank-and-file participation in the life of the union, in shaping policy and implementing programs—and electing leaders who understood and fought for those programs and policies. But we also know a disturbing truth: we are not today as successful as we must be in guaranteeing the constant infusion of new energy and opinions from the rank and file into the daily life of our union.

Each and every member is an essential part of the ILWU. Our numbers and our diversity are the strength of our organization. The size and participation of our membership determines our effectiveness in contract negotiations, organizing, and political action. Less than one month away from our 31st International Convention, it is time to discuss how best to enhance membership participation throughout the union. Central to these discussions is finding ways to build and sustain member education and mobilization. These topics should be a priority for our convention delegates and de-serve careful consideration in our deliberations.

Spending dues dollars on internal organizing and education is an important step to unlocking our greatest natural re-source—the energies and commitment of our members. But we are a small union and our resources are precious. We know that we will never prevail in a protracted fight against our enemies through monetary means—we win our struggles through the determination of our membership. Investing in ourselves through continued education and training is the most effective way to ensure a future in which we will be able continue improving, expanding and sharing the benefits of belonging to a progressive rank-and-file trade union.

We already have some great examples to guide us: Hawaii Local 142’s ongoing Labor Institutes, ILWU-Canada’s annual educational retreats, the International’s inaugural Leadership Education and Development Institute (LEAD), and our training program for local union Secretary-Treasurers and financial officers. These programs all bolster the union internally, but because of expense they can only be held periodically and can only target a relatively small group of members.

We must also develop area workshops—a format used successfully in the early 1970s—designed to meet local needs and maximize member participation. An informed, educated, activated membership is the strength we need to take the next step down the road to effective strategic organizing—which is the kind of outreach and expansion necessary to protect the ILWU family from the corrosion of non-union and substandard conditions in our major industrial jurisdictions.

It is the job of the ILWU to shore up conditions in our core industries: towboats and ferry systems, hotels, warehouse and processing, and longshore. We can only do that by organizing the workers around us. The way to succeed is to have our own members active on the job, reaching out to the workers with whom we rub elbows. To do this we have to give our members the tools to get the job done.

An educated membership shapes programs, defines policies, protects democratic procedures—and elects leaders whose records demonstrate experience with those programs, adherence to those polices and an unwavering commitment to follow those procedures.

These discussions and problems are no different than those facing the founders of the union 65 years ago. Choices had to be made back then about what the union’s priorities are, how to allocate its limited resources and how best to meet these challenges. Our founders chose rank-and-file democracy instead of a top-down bureaucracy. They chose a vision that allowed the locals to keep the lion’s share of the members’ dues and kept size and staffing levels to a minimum at the International. Our founders knew that our unique brand of militant, progressive unionism had to rely on the energy and the involvement of our members.

As a result we do not have either the money or the attitude that the International can or should run the show. In the ILWU that’s a matter of principle—and one of which we can all be proud. But it also means that our union doesn’t work if programs and policies are not the result of member action. It means the International cannot put in place elaborate and expensive programs. At the same time it means we are in trouble if the locals do not step forward to define and support policy and program. The locals cannot look to the International to get the job done on its own. That’s true for organizing, political action, community campaigns and picket lines.

I am talking about cost-effective programs that advance the 1994 education program and area programs initiated by locals using the union’s resources the way the International was set up: to coordinate and facilitate the work of locals (using International staff, working at the direction of the Officers), to help the locals set up programs, identify and facilitate the use of local resources and provide materials.

This approach is being used effectively by several locals for education and organizing. Efforts at Locals 10, 17, 21 and 23 show how locals can draw on the resources and expertise at the International to help with activities as diverse as new member education and volunteer organizing committees.

Another cost-effective tool in this process of distributing information and mobilizing the membership is our newly upgraded web site (www.ilwu.org). In addition to posting information and providing links to other organizations and resources, we can also respond to suggestions from the locals about how to continually improve the design and content of the site to better serve the union.

Once again, it is up to the locals to communicate with the International about what they need and what they want. It’s just like what has to happen around organizing. We can’t expect “others” to do it. That can’t work and won’t happen.

So wherever we look the message is simple and the need is great: Organize! Educate! Activate!