Talk:Industrial Workers of the World

Mission.
Look, I'm a big a lefty/union guy as anyone, but I don't see how this fits our mission. Theory of Practice Still tryin' to figure it all out. 04:01, 7 December 2012 (UTC)
 * They were heavily associated with socialism/communism in their origin, and are currently associated with anarchism and anarchist organizations. I wont say its directly on-topic, but its relevant to things that are.--Just relax, and stay funny (talk) 04:09, 7 December 2012 (UTC)
 * About as on-mission (or off-mission as the case may be) as Eugene Debs, Joe Hill, Daniel De Leon and about 100 other articles. Yeah, I know, that's the WP:OTHERSTUFFEXISTS argument and it doesn't cut it.  No big deal either way if it's deleted or not.  But I'd sort of think articles on radical movements of any sort are on-mission, even if they aren't really crank ideas or related to pseudoscience, etc. Secret Squirrel (talk) 04:17, 7 December 2012 (UTC)
 * I'd say that socialism and anarchy are crank ideas enough, by and large.--Just relax, and stay funny (talk) 04:22, 7 December 2012 (UTC)
 * I was going to do one on Students for a Democratic Society too, but I'll wait and see how this shakes out first. Secret Squirrel (talk) 05:38, 7 December 2012 (UTC)
 * The SDS were grade-A cranks, or, to be kind, had swallowed too much dope for their brains to remain fully functional; their modern reincarnation cannot even use that excuse.
 * The IWW, which had actual workers in it at one point, did not get quite that far up its own backside. Still, I think this article should be kept; the IWW's free-speech fights alone make it a valid topic under plank 3 of the mission. 06:18, 7 December 2012 (UTC)
 * A bit more complicated than that about SDS, IMO. Their early period of idealistic college students going into the ghettos to do social work has to be contrasted to their later period when competing Maoist nuts were expelling each other from the group and spinning off terrorist cells like the notorious and idiotic Weather Underground.  But yeah, the IWW's free speech fights may have been their most enduring contribution in the long run.  Secret Squirrel (talk) 13:15, 7 December 2012 (UTC)