Organization
The IWA admits organizations which are in full agreement with its Aims and Principles in countries where there is not already an affiliated group in existence, requiring them to pay affiliation fees to help maintain the IWA's structure.
Member groups are then able to participate in and benefit from the global community the IWA provides and can vote in its highest decision-making event, the International Congress, which is currently held once every two years. Proposals are submitted at national level at least six months before congress, to allow other national groups to consult and mandate members to vote. The agreements and resolutions adopted by the International Congresses are binding for all affiliated groups.
The sample flowchart on the right shows the relationship of the individual to the organisation within UK IWA affiliate the Solidarity Federation. If an individual wishes to change the organisation's policies, they must win agreement from their Local to formally place the idea before National Conference, which in turn, if other Locals agree, may place the idea before the IWA as a whole for a decision. While national officers are mandated by the National Conference, they have no influence over policymaking other than through their own Locals.
No permanent positions of paid or elected authority are present at any stage within the international and its affiliates. Instead, unpaid volunteer positions are created to deal with administrative issues, and individuals are restricted to carrying out these activities within a mandate decided directly by their peers and subject to instant recall. Beyond the collective agreements of the IWA itself, all decision-making takes place within base units (such as Locals) organised by geography or trade, as most applicable (where industrial organising is not possible due to low density, geographical units are the norm).
Administration of the IWA's functions is carried out by the Secretariat consisting of at least three people residing in the country nominated by the International to take on the role. The IWA also elects a Secretary General, who acts as a liaison and representative for the International but again, does not wield any direct powers over policy. The Secretariat may only hold office for two terms concurrently. For specific tasks, such as financial audits, separate commissions are set up.
Internal communications are maintained through each member group's International Secretaries, and through wide circulation of members' own internal publications. Informal online communication is also a mainstay of this process.
Read more about this topic: International Workers' Association
Famous quotes containing the word organization:
“... every woman’s organization recognizes that reformers are far more common than feminists, that the passion to look after your fellow man, and especially woman, to do good to her in your way is far more common than the desire to put into every one’s hand the power to look after themselves.”
—Crystal Eastman (1881–1928)
“The organization controlling the material equipment of our everyday life is such that what in itself would enable us to construct it richly plunges us instead into a poverty of abundance, making alienation all the more intolerable as each convenience promises liberation and turns out to be only one more burden. We are condemned to slavery to the means of liberation.”
—Raoul Vaneigem (b. 1934)
“In any great organization it is far, far safer to be wrong with the majority than to be right alone.”
—John Kenneth Galbraith (b. 1908)