my pic Eric Hayes Patkowski
Administrative Assistant
RLM 5.208
(Campus Mail Code: C1600)
Office Hours: M-F 7:30am-4:30pm

University Staff Council Representative, District 291
http://www.utexas.edu/staff/council/

US Postal Mailing Address:
The University of Texas at Austin
Department of Physics
1 University Station C1600
Austin, Tx 78712-0264

Telephone: 512-475-7769
Fax: 512-471-9637

Emails:
erichp@physics[nospam].utexas.edu
patkowski@gmail[nospam].com


Preamble to IWW Constitution

The working class and the employing class have nothing in common. There can be no peace so long as hunger and want are found among millions of the working people and the few, who make up the employing class, have all the good things of life.

Between these two classes a struggle must go on until the workers of the world organize as a class, take possession of the means of production, abolish the wage system, and live in harmony with the Earth.

We find that the centering of the management of industries into fewer and fewer hands makes the trade unions unable to cope with the ever-growing power of the employing class. The trade unions foster a state of affairs which allows one set of workers to be pitted against another set of workers in the same industry, thereby helping defeat one another in wage wars. Moreover, the trade unions aid the employing class to mislead the workers into the belief that the working class have interests in common with their employers.

These conditions can be changed and the interest of the working class upheld only by an organization formed in such a way that all its members in any one industry, or in all industries if necessary, cease work whenever a strike or lockout is on in any department thereof, thus making an injury to one an injury to all.

Instead of the conservative motto, "A fair day's wage for a fair day's work," we must inscribe on our banner the revolutionary watchword, "Abolition of the wage system."

It is the historic mission of the working class to do away with capitalism. The army of production must be organized, not only for everyday struggle with capitalists, but also to carry on production when capitalism shall have been overthrown. By organizing industrially we are forming the structure of the new society within the shell of the old.


My allegiance is to the working class, my flag is the people's flag, and my union is the Industrial Workers of the World -- visit them today and make it your own.

At any given moment when I'm at home, I may be listening to the the dynamic yet under-rated Scottish communist singer Dick Gaughan, popular British socialist singer Billy Bragg, or the British anarchist group Chumbawamba. Through music, they all ask the most important question known to members of the working class -- "which side are YOU on?".

Preferring books to pixels, I don't read much online, but I do help put up quite a bit of texts online -- the James Connolly Society is a good place to start if you want to know more about James Connolly, of Easter Rising fame. The Marx-Engels Internet Archive liked it so much they mirrored the site.

I've also put up a lot of the historical and policy documents found on the Irish Republican Socialist Movement's History section of their website. On another Irish note, I administer the Irish Hunger Strikes Commemorative Project.

I spent/served time on the Editorial Committee and was part of the collective of the now-defunct The Working Stiff Journal, Austin's only labor paper, of, by and for the working class in Texas. Rumors have it that some folks associated with the IWW are going to be coming out with a new labor-oriented paper with the same name, and all I can say is, keep the fire burning.

Thanks for visiting.


Last Updated 13 April 2007
Send comments, critiques, or interesting working class songs or websites to one of the email addresses above.