The Hobo Anomalous
Class, minorities and political invention in the Industrial Workers of the World
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6220127 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Nicholas Thoburn (0000-0003-3624-4579, Goldsmiths University of London, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2003 |
| Volume | 2 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 61-84 |
| Publication date | 2003-04-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Social movement studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1474-2829 • E-ISSN: 1474-2837 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/1474283032000062567 |
| OpenAlex | W2002867239 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 7 |
| References cited | 29 |
This article is an analysis of minority political invention in the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Against the tendency in recent social and cultural theory to dichotomize class and difference, it argues that it was in and through the IWW's formulation of class that minority political and cultural invention occurred. Using the framework of Deleuze and Guattari's minor politics, the article shows how the IWW's composition in the simultaneously diffuse and cramped plane of work operated against the major political identities and subjects of worker, immigrant, American, citizen and 'people', and towards the creation of minority political knowledges, tactics and cultural styles premised on the condition that 'the people are missing'. Seeking to understand the IWW's modes and techniques of invention, the article explores the general plane of IWW composition, its particular political and cultural expressions (in songs, manifestos, cartoons and tactics), and its minor mode of authorship. The article focuses in particular on two aspects of IWW minority composition, the itinerant worker, or hobo, and the politics of sabotage
Composition (language · Immigration · Linguistics · Media studies · Minor (academic · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Gender Studies · Labor Movements and Unions · Law · Philosophy · Political theory and Gramsci · Race, History, and American Society
The Roots of American Communism
The Casual Laborer and Other Essays, by Carleton H. Parker
When Workers Fight
The American Hobo
Deleuze, Marx and Politics
Aliens and Dissenters
Rebel Voices
Aliens and Dissenters
Bread and Roses Too
Bread and Roses Too
Knights of the Road
The Rising of the Women
Rebel Voices
The Psychology of Floating Workers
Capitalism and Communism
American Tramp and Underworld Slang
Anti-Oedipus
Race, nation, class
A thousand plateaus
Sister of the Road
Organized Labor and the Black Worker 1619-1973
The Many-Headed Hydra
Walking to Work
No Pie in the Sky
Social Movements and Social Classes
The Dying of Class or or Marxist Class Theory
Autonomous Production
Difference in Marx
| Unique citing works | 7 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,39 |
| Citation span | 2008 - 2025 (18) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 7 |