Professional Documents
Culture Documents
O f f i c i a l n e w s p a p e r oF T h e I n d u s t r i a l Wo r k e r s o f t h e Wo r l d
Ap r i l 2 0 13 #175 4 Vol . 110 No. 3 $2/ 2/ 2
100 Million Workers Special: Requiem For OBU & Horizontal Worker Cooperatives Go On General Strike A Campaign 12 11 In India 3 6-7 In Texas
By Evelyn Stone After three years of careful organizing, the IWW Star Tickets Workers Union went public in late January. Star Tickets is a ticketing agency owned by Detroit-area millionaire Jack Krasula with an office in Grand Rapids, Mich. The company consists of a small call center with customer service representatives who sell event
lowest pay. Although we have pointed out this problem over and over, he refuses to make changes. We had always pictured our ideal scenario for going public as a union at a time when we had a strong majority of support in the office and could affect a big walkon-the-boss straight to Krasula, who is rarely in our office. We wanted to include everyone on the organizing committee. However, we realized that we couldnt wait any longer for that ideal scenario. The committee held an emergency meeting and decided to file a petition with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). It was a difficult decision, but we knew Krasula and knew that he would never bargain with us without legal force. After filing the petition, three of our core members went into the office of the highest manager on site, the vice president of sales, and made our demands for her to pass on to Krasula. These demands were for him to create two new positionsone more client services position and one marketing assistant position to take care of all the various marketing duties that have been dumped on Continued on 9
Industrial Worker PO Box 180195 Chicago, IL 60618, USA ISSN 0019-8870 ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED
PAID
Chicago, IL
Send your letters to: iw@iww.org with Letter in the subject. Mailing Address: Industrial Worker, P.O. Box 180195, Chicago, IL 60618, United States.
Photo: washington.edu
mands that we know about but that fellow workers dont necessarily understand that we advocate. I think having such a list to pass on to fellow workers might elicit the response, Well, yeah, I agree with that. What else do you stand for? Finally, be fair. I didnt and dont ask anyone to define themselves as an accompanyingist. I said that the labor movement might accomplish more if, instead of trying to organize people we sought to accompany them, that is, to walk beside them, sharing ideas on a basis of equality. Staughton Lynd, just an old retired historian and lawyer
Industrial Worker
The Voice of Revolutionary Industrial Unionism
Africa
IWW directory
South Africa Cape Town: 7a Rosebridge, Linray Road, Rosebank, Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa 7700. iww-ct@live. co.za Uganda IWW Kabale Uganda: Justus Tukwasibwe Weijagye, P.O. Box 217, Kabale , Uganda, East Africa. jkweijagye[at]yahoo.com
Australia
New South Wales Sydney GMB: sydneywobs@gmail.com. Laura, del., lalalaura@gmail.com. Newcastle: newcastlewobs@gmail.com Woolongong: gongwobs@gmail.com Lismore: northernriverswobblies@gmail.com Queensland Brisbane: P.O. Box 5842, West End, Qld 4101. iwwbrisbane@riseup.net. Asger, del., happyanarchy@riseup. net South Australia Adelaide: wobbliesSA@gmail.com, www.wobbliesSA. org. Jesse, del., 0432 130 082 Victoria Melbourne: P.O. Box 145, Moreland, VIC 3058. melbournewobblies@gmail.com, www.iwwmelbourne. wordpress.com. Loki, del., lachlan.campbell.type@ gmail.com Geelong: tropicaljimbo@gmail.com Western Australia Perth GMB: P.O. Box 1, Cannington WA 6987. perthwobblies@gmail.com. Bruce, del.,coronation78@hotmail. com
Vancouver Island GMB: Box 297 St. A, Nanaimo BC, V9R 5K9. iwwvi@telus.net. http://vanislewobs.wordpress. com Manitoba Winnipeg GMB: IWW, c/o WORC, P.O. Box 1, R3C 2G1. winnipegiww@hotmail.com New Brunswick Fredericton: jono_29@riseup.net Ontario Ottawa-Outaouais GMB & GDC Local 6: 1106 Wellington St., P.O. Box 36042, Ottawa, K1Y 4V3. ott-out@iww.org, gdc6@ottawaiww.org Ottawa Panhandlers Union: Karen Crossman, spokesperson, 613-282-7968, karencrossman17@yahoo.com Peterborough: c/o PCAP, 393 Water St. #17, K9H 3L7, 705-749-9694. Sean Carleton, del., 705-775-0663, seancarleton@iww.org Toronto GMB: c/o Libra Knowledge & Information Svcs Co-op, P.O. Box 353 Stn. A, M5W 1C2. 416-919-7392. iwwtoronto@gmail.com. Max Bang, del., nowitstime610@ gmail.com Windsor GMB: c/o WWAC, 328 Pelissier St., N9A 4K7. (519) 564-8036. windsoriww@gmail.com. http:// windsoriww.wordpress.com Qubec Montreal GMB: cp 60124, Montral, QC, H2J 4E1. 514268-3394. iww_quebec@riseup.net
Europe
British Isles
British Isles Regional Organising Committee (BIROC): PO Box 7593 Glasgow, G42 2EX. Secretariat: rocsec@iww. org.uk, Organising Department Chair: south@iww.org. uk. www.iww.org.uk IWW UK Web Site administrators and Tech Department Coordinators: admin@iww.org.uk, www.tech.iww.org.uk NBS Job Branch National Blood Service: iww.nbs@ gmail.com Mission Print Job Branch: tomjoad3@hotmail.co.uk Building Construction Workers IU 330: constructionbranch@iww.org.uk Health Workers IU 610: healthworkers@iww.org.uk, www.iww-healthworkers.org.uk Education Workers IU 620: education@iww.org.uk, www. geocities.com/iwweducation Recreational Workers (Musicians) IU 630: peltonc@gmail. com, longadan@gmail.com General, Legal, Public Interest & Financial Office Workers IU 650: rocsec@iww.org.uk Bradford: bradford@iww.org.uk Bristol GMB: Hydra Books, 34 Old Market, BS2 0EZ. bristol@iww.org.uk, www.bristoliww.org.uk/ Cambridge GMB: IWWCambridge, 12 Mill Road, Cambridge CB1 2AD cambridge@iww.org.uk Dorset: 0044(0)7570891030. thehipleft@yahoo.co.uk Hull: hull@iww.org.uk Leeds: leedsiww@hotmail.co.uk, leeds@iww.org.uk Leicester GMB: Unit 107, 40 Halford St., Leicester LE1 1TQ, England. 07981 433 637. leics@iww.org.uk www. leicestershire-iww.org.uk London GMB: c/o Freedom Bookshop, Angel Alley, 84b Whitechapel High Street, E1 7QX. +44 (0) 20 3393 1295, londoniww@gmail.com www.iww.org/en/branches/ UK/London Nottingham: notts@iww.org.uk Reading GMB: reading@iww.org.uk Sheffield: sheffield@iww.org.uk Tyne and Wear GMB (Newcastle +): tyneandwear@iww. org.uk. www.iww.org/en/branches/UK/Tyne West Midlands GMB: The Warehouse, 54-57 Allison Street, Digbeth, Birmingham B5 5TH westmids@iww. org.uk www.wmiww.org York GMB: york@iww.org.uk www.wowyork.org Scotland Clydeside GMB: hereandnowscot@gmail.com Dumfries and Galloway GMB: dumfries@iww.org.uk , iwwdumfries.wordpress.com Edinburgh GMB: c/o 17 W. Montgomery Place, EH7 5HA. 0131-557-6242. edinburgh@iww.org.uk
German Language Area IWW German Language Area Regional Organizing Committee (GLAMROC): IWW, Haberweg 19, 61352 Bad Homburg, Germany. iww-germany@gmx.net. www. wobblies.de Austria: iwwaustria@gmail.com. www.iwwaustria. wordpress.com Berlin: Offenes Treffen jeden 2.Montag im Monat im Cafe Commune, Reichenberger Str.157, 10999 Berlin, 18 Uhr. (U-Bahnhof Kottbusser Tor). Postadresse: IWW Berlin, c/o Rotes Antiquariat, Rungestr. 20, 10179 Berlin, Germany. berlin@wobblies.de. Frankfurt am Main: iww-frankfurt@gmx.net Cologne/Koeln GMB: c/o Allerweltshaus, Koernerstr. 77-79, 50823 Koeln, Germany. cologne1@wobblies.de. www.iwwcologne.wordpress.com Munich: iww.muenchen@gmx.de Switzerland: IWW-Zurich@gmx.ch Netherlands: iww.ned@gmail.com Norway IWW: 004793656014. post@iwwnorge.org. http://www.iwwnorge.org, http://www.facebook.com/ iwwnorge. Twitter: @IWWnorge
United States
Canada
IWW Canadian Regional Organizing Committee (CANROC): iww@iww.ca Alberta Edmonton GMB: P.O. Box 75175, T6E 6K1. edmontongmb@iww.org, edmonton.iww.ca. Gabriel Cardenas, del., 780-990-9081, x349429@gmail.com British Columbia Vancouver GMB: 204-2274 York Ave., V6K 1C6. 604-732-9613. contact@vancouveriww.com. www. vancouveriww.com
Alaska Fairbanks: P.O. Box 72938, 99707. Chris White, del. Arizona Phoenix GMB: P.O. Box 7126, 85011-7126. 623-3361062. phoenix@iww.org Flagstaff IWW: 928-600-7556, chuy@iww.org Arkansas Fayetteville: P.O. Box 283, 72702. 479-200-1859. nwar_iww@hotmail.com California Los Angeles GMB: (323) 374-3499. iwwgmbla@gmail. com North Coast GMB: P.O. Box 844, Eureka 95502-0844. 707-725-8090, angstink@gmail.com Sacramento IWW: P.O. Box 2445, 95812-2445. 916-8250873, iwwsacramento@gmail.com San Francisco Bay Area GMB: (Curbside and Buyback IU 670 Recycling Shops; Stonemountain Fabrics Job Shop and IU 410 Garment and Textile Workers Industrial Organizing Committee; Shattuck Cinemas; Embarcadero Cinemas) P.O. Box 11412, Berkeley, 94712. 510-8450540. bayarea@iww.org IU 520 Marine Transport Workers: Steve Ongerth, del., intextile@iww.org Evergreen Printing: 2412 Palmetto Street, Oakland 94602. 510-482-4547. evergreen@igc.org San Jose: sjiww@yahoo.com Colorado Denver GMB: 2727 W. 27th Ave., 80211. Lowell May, del., 303-433-1852. breadandroses@msn.com Four Corners (AZ, CO, NM, UT): 970-903-8721, 4corners@ iww.org DC DC GMB (Washington): 741 Morton St. NW, Washington DC, 20010. 571-276-1935 Florida Gainesville GMB: c/o Civic Media Center, 433 S. Main St., 32601. Robbie Czopek, del., 904-315-5292, gainesvilleiww@riseup.net, www.gainesvilleiww.org Miami IWW: miami@iww.org Hobe Sound: P. Shultz, 8274 SE Pine Circle, 33455-6608. 772-545-9591, okiedogg2002@yahoo.com Pensacola GMB: P.O. Box 2662, Pensacola 32513-2662. 840-437-1323, iwwpensacola@yahoo.com, www. angelfire.com/fl5/iww
Georgia Atlanta GMB: 542 Moreland Avenue, Southeast Atlanta, 30316. 404-693-4728 Hawaii Honolulu: Tony Donnes, del., donnes@hawaii.edu Idaho Boise: Ritchie Eppink, del., P.O. Box 453, 83701. 208-3719752, eppink@gmail.com Illinois Chicago GMB: P.O. Box 57114, 60657. 312-638-9155. chicago@iww.org Freight Truckers Hotline: mtw530@iww.orgv Indiana Indiana GMB: 219-308-8634. iwwindiana@gmail.com. Facebook: Indiana IWW Celestial Panther Publishing IU 450 Job Shop: 317-4201025. celestialpanther@gmail.com. http://celestialpanther.me Iowa Eastern Iowa GMB: 563-265-5330. William.R.Juhl@ gmail.com Kansas Greater Kansas City/Lawrence GMB: P.O. Box 1462, Lawrence, 66044. 816-875-6060. x358465@iww.org Wichita: Naythan Smith, del., 316-633-0591. nrsmith85@gmail.com Louisiana Louisiana IWW: John Mark Crowder, del.,126 Kelly Lane, Homer, 71040. 318-224-1472. wogodm@iww.org Maine Maine IWW: 206-350-9130. maine@iww.org, www. southernmaineiww.org Maryland Baltimore GMB: P.O. Box 33350, 21218. baltimoreiww@ gmail.com Massachusetts Boston Area GMB: P.O. Box 391724, Cambridge, 02139. 617-863-7920, iww.boston@riseup.net, www.IWWBoston.org Cape Cod/SE Massachusetts: thematch@riseup.net Western Mass. Public Service IU 650 Branch: IWW, P.O. Box 1581, Northampton, 01061 Michigan Detroit GMB: 4210 Trumbull Blvd., 48208. detroit@ iww.org. Grand Rapids GMB: P.O. Box 6629, 49516. 616-881-5263. griww@iww.org Grand Rapids Bartertown Diner and Rocs Cakes: 6 Jefferson St., 49503. onya@bartertowngr.com, www. bartertowngr.com Central Michigan: 5007 W. Columbia Rd., Mason 48854. 517-676-9446, happyhippie66@hotmail.com Minnesota Red River GMB: redriver@iww.org, redriveriww@gmail. com Twin Cities GMB: 3019 Minnehaha Ave. South, Suite 50, Minneapolis 55406. twincities@iww.org Duluth IWW: P.O. Box 3232, 55803. iwwduluth@riseup. net Missouri Greater Kansas City IWW: P.O. Box 414304, Kansas City 64141-4304. 816.875.6060. greaterkciww@gmail.com St. Louis IWW: P.O. Box 63142, 63163. stlwobbly@gmail. com Montana Construction Workers IU 330: Dennis Georg, del., 406490-3869, tramp233@hotmail.com Billings: Jim Del Duca, 106 Paisley Court, Apt. I, Bozeman 59715. 406-860-0331. delducja@gmail.com Nebraska Nebraska GMB: P.O. Box 81175, Lincoln 68501-1175. 402-370-6962. nebraskagmb@iww.org. www. nebraskaiww.org Nevada Reno GMB: P.O. Box 12173, 89510. Paul Lenart, del., 775-513-7523, hekmatista@yahoo.com IU 520 Railroad Workers: Ron Kaminkow, del., P.O. Box 2131, Reno, 89505. 608-358-5771. ronkaminkow@ yahoo.com New Hampshire New Hampshire IWW: Paul Broch, del.,112 Middle St. #5, Manchester 03101. 603-867-3680 . SevenSixTwoRevolution@yahoo.com New Jersey Central New Jersey GMB: P.O. Box 10021, New Brunswick, 08906. 732-801-7001. iwwcnj@gmail.com. Bob Ratynski, del., 908-285-5426 New Mexico Albuquerque GMB: 202 Harvard Dr. SE, 87106. 505-2270206, abq@iww.org New York New York City GMB: 45-02 23rd Street, Suite #2, Long Island City,11101. iww-nyc@iww.org. www.wobblycity. org Starbucks Campaign: starbucksunion@yahoo.com www. starbucksunion.org
Hudson Valley GMB: P.O. Box 48, Huguenot 12746, 845342-3405, hviww@aol.com, http://hviww.blogspot. com/ Syracuse IWW: syracuse@iww.org Upstate NY GMB: P.O. Box 235, Albany 12201-0235, 518-833-6853 or 518-861-5627. www.upstate-nyiww. org, secretary@upstate-ny-iww.org, Rochelle Semel, del., P.O. Box 172, Fly Creek 13337, 607-293-6489, rochelle71@peoplepc.com Utica IWW: Brendan Maslauskas Dunn, del., 315-2403149. maslauskas@riseup.net North Carolina Carolina Mountains GMB: P.O. Box 1005, 28802. 828407-1979. iww.asheville@gmail.com Greensboro GMB: P. O. Box 5022, 27435. 1-855-IWW-4GSO (855-499-4476). gsoiww@riseup.net North Dakota Red River GMB: redriver@iww.org, redriveriww@gmail. com Ohio Mid-Ohio GMB: c/o Riffe, 4071 Indianola Ave., Columbus 43214. midohioiww@gmail.com Northeast Ohio GMB: P.O. Box 141072, Cleveland 44114. 216-502-5325 Ohio Valley GMB: P.O. Box 6042, Cincinnati 45206, 513510-1486, ohiovalleyiww@gmail.com Sweet Patches Screenprinting IU 410 Job Shop: sweetptchs@aol.com Oklahoma Tulsa: P.O. Box 213, Medicine Park 73557, 580-529-3360 Oregon Lane GMB: Ed Gunderson, del., 541-743-5681. x355153@ iww.org, www.eugeneiww.org Portland GMB: 2249 E Burnside St., 97214, 503-2315488. portland.iww@gmail.com, pdx.iww.org Portland Red and Black Cafe: 400 SE 12th Ave, 97214. 503-231-3899. general@redandblackcafe.com. www. redandblackcafe.com Pennsylvania Lancaster IWW: P.O. Box 352, 17608. iwwlancasterpa@ gmail.com Lehigh Valley GMB: P.O. Box 1477, Allentown, 181051477. 484-275-0873. lehighvalleyiww@gmail.com. www. facebook.com/lehighvalleyiww Paper Crane Press IU 450 Job Shop: 610-358-9496. papercranepress@verizon.net, www.papercranepress.com Pittsburgh GMB: P.O. Box 5912,15210. pittsburghiww@ yahoo.com Rhode Island Providence GMB: P.O. Box 5795, 02903. 508-367-6434. providenceiww@gmail.com Tennessee Mid-Tennessee IWW: Lara Jennings, del., 106 N. 3rd St., Clarksville, 37040. 931-206-3656. Jonathan Beasley, del., 2002 Post Rd., Clarksville, 37043 931-220-9665. Texas Dallas & Fort Worth IWW: 1618 6th Ave, Fort Worth, 76104 El Paso IWW: Sarah Michelson, del., 314-600-2762. srmichelson@gmail.com Golden Triangle IWW (Beaumont - Port Arthur): gtiww@riseup.net South Texas IWW: rgviww@gmail.com Utah Salt Lake City GMB: P.O. Box 1227, 84110. 801-8719057. slciww@gmail.com Vermont Burlington GMB: P.O. Box 8005, 05402. 802-540-2541 Virginia Richmond IWW: P.O. Box 7055, 23221. 804-496-1568. richmondiww@gmail.com, www.richmondiww.org Washington Bellingham: P.O. Box 1793, 98227. 360-920-6240. BellinghamIWW@gmail.com. Tacoma GMB: P.O. Box 7276, 98401. TacIWW@iww.org. http://tacoma.iww.org/ Seattle GMB: 1122 E. Pike #1142, 98122-3934. 206-3394179. seattleiww@gmail.com. www.seattleiww.org Wisconsin Madison GMB: P.O. Box 2442, 53701-2442. www. madison.iww.org IUB 560 - Communications and Computer Workers: P.O. Box 259279, Madison 53725. 608-620-IWW1. Madisoniub560@iww.org. www.Madisoniub560.iww.org Lakeside Press IU 450 Job Shop: 1334 Williamson, 53703. 608-255-1800. Jerry Chernow, del., jerry@ lakesidepress.org. www.lakesidepress.org Madison Infoshop Job Shop:1019 Williamson St. #B, 53703. 608-262-9036 Just Coffee Job Shop IU 460: 1129 E. Wilson, Madison, 53703. 608-204-9011, justcoffee.coop Railroad Workers IU 520: 608-358-5771. railfalcon@ yahoo.com Milwaukee GMB: 1750A N Astor St., 53207. Trevor Smith, 414-573-4992 Northwoods IWW: P.O. Box 452, Stevens Point, 54481
Feminism
By Susan Dorazio In the first decade of the 20th century, agitation by women in the industrial parts of the world for their civil rights and for their rights as workers was gaining momentum. Inspired by this increased militancyand by the organizing in 1909 of National Womens Day by the Womens National Committee of the Socialist Party of Americathe Womens Congress of the Second International, meeting in Copenhagen in 1910, approved the call by German socialist Clara Zetkin and other delegates to create a Womens Day to foster international solidarity among socialist women. In contrast to the liberal movements for womens suffrage and workers rights, and in opposition to war and social injustice, International Womens Day would be firmly placed in the context of the global capitalist system, one that basically refuses to recognize, let alone heed, the needs and rights of women. In the last decade of the 20th century, another reawakening, also focusing on workers rights in the context of the range of womens roles in society, was occurring in the United States. For the better part of the 1990s, hundreds of child care workers, including myself, took part in a grassroots project called the Worthy Wage Campaign. Through fact-finding, consciousnessraising, marches, rallies, street festivals, letter-writing, and media contactand under the banner of Rights, Raises, and Respectwe confronted what was called the staffing crisis, and were determined to reverse it. Of immediate concern was the revolving door of miserably paid child care workers and the effect this has had on children and families. As this phenomenon started getting sorted out through data from centers and interviews with workers, certain facts became clear. First and foremost was that our low wages, lack of benefits and good working conditions were subsidizing the cost of child care, either to ease
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 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 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 days wage for a fair days 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 the 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.
the burden on parwith our low pay, ents if there were low status, and a fees to pay, or on tendency to undergovernment whose value ourselves. spending priorities Unfortunately, invariably put huliberal politics won man services such out, and by 2002, as child care at the the Worthy Wage bottom of the list. Campaign was now As we got headquartered in deeper into our Washington, D.C., understanding of renamed the Centhe various crises ter for the Child in child care, many Care Workforce, of us started to unand officially a derstand their sysproject of the temic nature and mainstream Amerthe ways workers, ican Federation of families and comTeachers Educamunity members tional Foundation. were getting maEmpowerment for nipulated and pitradical change of Graphic: amirisara.blogspot.com the relationship ted against each other. We would see that this was serving between workers, families and communito derail us from taking the kind of collec- tiesbased on full government funding for tive action that would really challenge and good wages and benefits, low child-staff transform capitalism, the root cause of the ratios, high quality facilities, support sercrises that riddles the care and education vices and free tuitionhad become a vague sectors. reference to a well-educated workforce, To find allies, some of us who par- receiving better compensation and a ticipated in the Worthy Wage Campaign voice in their workplace. worked hard to get the rights of child Meanwhile, in Scotland, the public care workers, families and children on sector nursery nurses, members of Unithe agenda of human rights, social justice son, were getting fed up with government and radical labor groups. At the same stone-walling on their own child care critime, those of us affiliated with the IWW, sis. The ruse of so-called professionalism socialist organizations, and/or womens that had undermined the militancy of the rights/liberation projects did the reverse Worthy Wage Campaign was playing itself (i.e., encouraged child care workers to get out in Scotland in the form of expanded involved with the broader movement for job descriptions but no pay increases for social change), since our issues were so the added responsibilities. In fact, there often the same. I had what I considered had been no salary review since 1988 in the extra advantage of being a socialist any of the Scottish councils in charge of feminist in an overwhelmingly female overseeing the nurseries. workforce. This helped me see my experiBy the end of 2003, between 4,000 ences as a child care worker from both a and 5,000 nursery nurses, disgusted by the class-based and a gender perspective. Oth- intransigence of both the councils and the ers, also, came to appreciate the fact that Convention of Scottish Local Authorities patriarchy and misogyny had a lot to do had voted for strike action that led to a he IWW is a union for all workers, a union dedicated to organizing on the job, in our industries and in our communities both to win better conditions today and to build a world without bosses, a world in which production and distribution are organized by workers ourselves to meet the needs of the entire population, not merely a handful of exploiters. We are the Industrial Workers of the World because we organize industrially that is to say, we organize all workers on the job into one union, rather than dividing workers by trade, so that we can pool our strength to fight the bosses together. Since the IWW was founded in 1905, we have recognized the need to build a truly international union movement in order to confront the global power of the bosses and in order to strengthen workers ability to stand in solidarity with our fellow workers no matter what part of the globe they happen to live on. We are a union open to all workers, whether or not the IWW happens to have representation rights in your workplace. We organize the worker, not the job, recognizing that unionism is not about government certification or employer recognition but about workers coming together to address our common concerns. Sometimes this means striking or signing a contract. Sometimes it means refusing to work with an unsafe machine or following the bosses orders so literally that nothing gets done. Sometimes it means agitating around particular issues or grievances in a specific workplace, or across an industry. Because the IWW is a democratic, member-run union, decisions about what issues to address and what tactics to pursue are made by the workers directly involved. TO JOIN: Mail this form with a check or money order for initiation and your first months dues to: IWW, Post Office Box 180195, Chicago, IL 60618, USA. Initiation is the same as one months dues. Our dues are calculated according to your income. If your monthly income is under $2000, dues are $9 a month. If your monthly income is between $2000 and $3500, dues are $18 a month. If your monthly income is over $3500 a month, dues are $27 a month. Dues may vary outside of North America and in Regional Organizing Committees (Australia, British Isles, German Language Area).
__I affirm that I am a worker, and that I am not an employer. __I agree to abide by the IWW constitution. __I will study its principles and acquaint myself with its purposes.
Name:_________________________________ Address:_______________________________ City, State, Post Code, Country:________________ Occupation:_____________________________ Phone:_____________ Email:________________
Membership includes a subscription to the Industrial Worker.
Amount Enclosed:__________
series of regional one- or two-day strikes, accompanied by rallies and demonstrations. By March 1, 2004, the nursery nurses were ready to engage in an all-out, indefinite strike for a national settlement on pay raises in line with their current job requirements and the importance of their work. Unfortunately, but predictably, the standard business union tactics of Unison not only failed to sufficiently support solidarity among the nursery nurses but failed to foster links between the nursery nurses and workers in other sectors, and between the nurses and their centers families and communities when more picket support and public outcry might well have changed the strikes outcome. Instead, the rallying cry for a national settlementbasic to the goal of equal pay for equal work and so vital to enabling the nursery nurses to maintain their resolve was dropped by Unison based on a pledge of a national review of pay and working conditions at some point in the future. This led to significant discrepancies between the pay settlements negotiated between the union and individual councils and, undoubtedly, to demoralization among the workers when the 12-week strike ended. Fast forward to London at the end of January 2013, when early years minister Elizabeth Truss proposed changes to child-staff ratios in child care centers in England, as well as the expansion of education requirements for the workers. In child care and other human service sectors this strategy usually works particularly well because it employs the mythology of success through individual effort and perseverance and platitudes about the importance of our work, while exploiting the workers collective dedication and compassion. At the same time, it promises families and tax payers that with one stroke of administrative genius, child care (or whatever) will be cost-effective and thus less burdensome. This is a sham, and workers, families and community activists need to say so via direct and coordinated actions. Child care workers and supporters must hammer away at the fact that wages, benefits, staffing ratios, appreciation of our efforts, and recognition and support of our skills and interests are prime determinants of quality child careand none of these factors should or need to get ignored. For those of us who participated in the Worthy Wage Campaign in the United States or the nursery nurses strike in Scotland, the ridiculous atomizing of quality child care that Truss proposal represents is an all-too-familiar tactic for diverting attention from those responsible for the wholly inadequate public funding of social services by cleverly focusing attention on the blameless. Truss and her ilk need to be told that we wont stand for their continual trade-off schemes, such as further education and training as a precondition for good wages and working conditions. By this time, we should know that quality care and quality jobs cannot be an either/or proposition. Ways must be found to enable them to occur simultaneously, and with the rights, needs, and final say of the staff at the core of this planning. By turning the spotlight, and turning up the heat, on purposely convoluted pseudo-solutions to serious social problems and on the rapid erosion of the public sector leading to the withering of social services, we will surely advance the struggle for the global unity of the working class. Furthermore, by remembering the courage and commitment of such women workers as those who participated in the Worthy Wage Campaign in the United States and the striking nursery nurses in Scotlandacting on behalf of all women and all workerswe honor the founders, and perpetuate the meaning, of International Womens Day in the best way possible.
By the OttawaOutaouais IWW Fifteen months is a long time for workers depending on minimum wage to wait for justice. On Feb. 20, the Ontario Ministry of Labour issued checks to IWW members Stephen Toth and Brandon Wallans, owed unpaid wages, in response to a long and arduous battle with a holdout employer. This satisfactory settlement is a message to other Ottawa employers that respecting their workers and paying them their wages is not optional, said Ahmed, an IWW member.
By Brendan Maslauskas Dunn The 9th Circuit Court of Ap peals in Seattle ruled in favor of Wobblies and other activists in a lawsuit against the U.S. Army. The case of Panagacos v. Towery was filed against the Army, Navy, Coast Guard, Air Force, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF), Department of Homeland Security Photo: Portland Indymedia Police & protestors face (DHS), and countless police agencies off at the Port of Olympia who were involved with infiltrating, in 2007. data mining and spying on many during George W. Bushs presidency and activists (see Remember, Remember, continued under current U.S. President The 5th Of November: IWW Legal Battle Barack Obama. With U.S. Army Rages On, November Attorney Larry Hildes represents the 2012 IW, page 5). plaintiffs and himself joined the IWW The case comes out of the street during the Redwood Summer campaign battles waged in the ports of Olympia, waged by environmentalists and timber Tacoma and Aberdeen, Wash., between workers to save Californias old growth 2006 and 2009. In November 2007, the redwood forests from the late 1980s to Port of Olympia was shut down by a direct the early 1990s. Hildes recently started action of hundreds of anti-war demon- the discovery process in the case to see strators connected with Port Militariza- what the scope and nature of the spying tion Resistance (PMR) who were resisting was. Two other attorneys recently joined the shipment of military vehicles through the case as well. Pacific Northwest ports. Wobblies from Olympia and Tacoma It was discovered in 2009 through were spied on, including the General Secpublic records requests that the activ- retary Treasurer of the IWW, Sam Green. ist John Jacob was actually John J. Its clear that the activists reliance on Towery II, an army operative connected direct action to disrupt the war effort and with a Fusion Center at nearby Joint Base effectively shut down the Port of Olympia Lewis-McChord. The records showed was the catalyst for the governments spy that Towery was not working alone in program in the region. The legal battle infiltrating and spying on the anti-war continues, as will the direct action. Deand anarchist movements in Washington. positions for the trial are expected to take This surveillance program was unleashed place this year.
Stephen and Brandon are very happy with the result and look forward to helping other workers defend their rights on the job and fight wage theft. Wage theft is a growing trend among Graphic: change.org bosses who decide not to pay some or all of the wages earned by their employees. These thefts can be fought by workers most effectively when they unite and take action, not just through formal legal channels but also by hitting the picket lines. For more information, visit: http:// ottawaiww.org.
13 to protest NECAP by dressing up as zombies to bring to light the zombie-like education high stakes testing encourages. Demonstrators also claimed that less than 60 percent of Providence students would pass the NECAP. In Portland, Ore., members of the Photo: edvoices.com Portland Student Union (PSU) launched a campaign to opt-out of standardized tests. Members of PSU denounced the Oregon Knowledge and Assessment Test (OAK) and prompted students to opt-out of the OAK tests. Students can opt-out of many of these newly mandated high stakes standardized test as long as they have a note from their parents; in many cases, they have to make up for it with some other project. Some parents and students fear that they will not graduate if they do not take these tests, so the support for the test boycott is mixed. On Feb. 4, the day that the MAP test was administered at Garfield High School, very few students took the test seriously, and many had permission from their parents to opt-out of the test. Some refused to take the test while other students had their scores dismissed because they rushed through it. It is important to note that not every job action has to be based on wages and benefits; some can revolve around job-related issues, even ones that dont directly affect the workers. Students are the most important part of a teachers job, so concern for them is of the utmost importance especially in these times where austerity measures threaten the livelihood of both teachers and students. Rigidity, zero tolerance policies, teacher evaluations and high stakes testing all threaten teachers and students alike. With files from U.S.News & World Report, The Washington Post, and EdVoices.com. From the Alaska IWW Heres a photo from the Alaska soonto-be-branch. This is from Feb. 15, when the group joined other union members in protesting a citywide plan which would limit pay increases, extinguish the right to strike and hand the final decision on stalled labor negotiations to the Anchorage Assembly rather than a third-party arbitrator.
shouldnt be as much of a problem now because we have 10 delegates throughout the state to sign up new members and meet people. We dealt with it in the past by making the Facebook page, creating an Indiana IWW email list, and driving out to meet people face-to-face in their town or city. Another problem has been how to connect with people who are not on Facebook. This was solved by using email to contact those people, by making phone number contact lists, and continu- February GMB meeting. Photo: Hope Asya ously meeting with and talking to members and workers. Of course another ling with my friends and fellow workers, issue is that people generally do not know meeting new people, and singing Solithat an IWW branch exists or is actively darity Forever in a room full of 32 Wobs organizing within the state. To get the more than makes up for all the effort. As for right now, some of our plans word out about our branch we have done as much as possible, by handing out flyers, for the future include a publication for the putting up posters, using silent agitators, Indiana IWW, which we are in the proconnecting with people on Facebook and cess of hammering out, and also we are Twitter, talking to any and all workers that planning a May Day rally in Indianapolis. we can, holding call-out meetings in differ- So far we have gotten much of the early ent locales and other such outreach efforts. paperwork figured out and turned in and There have been other minor troubles of we have been contacting other groups, course; coordinating things, trying to get unions, and people to spread the word in contact with people, waiting on things, and get as many people out as possible. and the dreaded paperwork. But the prob- We plan to have speakers, food and fun. lems have been nothing compared to the If anybody is in the Indianapolis area satisfaction of overcoming them. Travel- around May Day, come find us!
Special
Graphic: iww.org
ditionally, by telling our entire GMB about our campaign, it created the impression that we were much farther along in our organizing than we actually were. Fellow workers became incredibly excited about the campaign, and many were convinced that it was the new campaign following the JJWUs NLRB loss. This brings up an interesting point about the use of resources in the union. We typically think of these as financial or material, but there are also emotional resources that exist within the union, meaning that fellow workers put time and energy into thinking about and supporting a campaign and its organizers. By telling the entire branch about our organizing, as well as NOT telling them about the flaws and stagnation within the campaign, we became an emotional drain on the branch and the international. It also created a sense of guilt amongst the organizers, which was an emotional drain on us as well. This is something to keep in mind for future projects. Not only did our campaign fail to communicate directly and effectively with the branch, we also failed to communicate with each other. Oftentimes, we were not open or direct when issues arose. Sometimes these issues were personal, and they would boil under the surface until they occasionally blew up. More often however, the issues were organizational. Without clear communication, we were unable to have solid, consistent meetings, and it was difficult to follow up with each other on assigned tasks. There was often a lack of honesty in reporting progress in each store, leading others to believe that we were further along than we actually were. If we had been honest and open with each other and ourselves, we could have made more progress in organizing. Alternatively, we could have realized much sooner that this campaign was going nowhere, and we could have redirected our energies to a different project that was more worth our time. Coming back to the subject of IOCs: if your branch has at least four workers in a given industry and you are actively organizing, I highly recommend forming an IOC. I dont care if your branch only has 10 active members; just start an IOC already. For one, shop-talk has no place at a GMB meeting. Anyone off the street can come to an IWW branch, meaning that any culture of discretion that has been created is negated. IOCs should be open only to IWW members, and preferably those who work in that specific industry, thus preserving the privacy of campaigns and individual fellow workers. Also, GMB meetings can be long, boring, and tedious, which can quickly turn a co-worker off from the union if it is their first exposure to the IWW. Instead, bringing them to an IOC meeting is empowering. They get to
meet other union members who are in a similar life situation, which makes them feel less isolated. When facilitated in the right way, an IOC creates a safe space to talk about working conditions, organizing, and the industry in a way that cannot occur at a GMB meeting. Our grocery store campaign was unique in that it was one of the first campaigns that came to the Twin Cities IWW and stuck around, instead of being chosen by the branch in a purposeful way. This created some interesting dynamics. For one, there was no need for us to salt into the stores, and we already had established relationships with our co-workers. We had existing contact lists, social and physical mapping was a breeze, and in some ways a few of us were already social leaders in our workplaces. However, this led to some problems. The first issue was that we immediately began to organize within our existing social groups in our own departments. In less than two weeks, grocery store W already had around six workers take out red cards. Sounds great, right? Unfortunately, it was not that easy. All of these workers were from the same social group in the same department. It quickly became clear that, although these workers were agitated about their conditions, many of them only signed cards and came to meetings because their friends were. It felt cliquish, which meant that it became harder to bring in new workers who were not a part of that social group, and meetings quickly devolved into complaining sessions amongst friends. Most importantly, when these workers realized that union organizing meant much more than bitching about work and going to parties, they dropped off the map. As organizers, we learned that while existing friendships in the workplace can sometimes be useful in a campaign, they are no substitute for true agitation, education and organization. Another issue that arose from the fact that we came to the IWW instead of the IWW coming to us was that, in hindsight, the grocery stores were just not great targets. While my own department had many issues surrounding pay and management, the majority of workers in the stores actually have it relatively good. The material conditions at the grocery stores are some of the best in the Twin Cities. Wages are the same, if not better, than United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) grocery stores. Now, Im not saying that everything is wonderful and sunny and covered with rainbows, but compared to the rest of the class in our industry, its a fairly cushy job. At Jimmy Johns, for example, it is easy to agitate co-workers about issues surrounding pay because minimum wage sucks. But earning $10 to $13 per hour at a grocery store when you are a 20-something years old without a college degree is
a bit harder to agitate around. It still sucks, but the it-could-be-worse mentality is extremely prevalent. Additionally, from the unions perspective, the grocery stores are not strategic in the greater picture of the struggle. While they are a major part of life in the Twin Cities (for a certain socioeconomic group that much of the GMB is a part of), the grocery store campaign had a limited ability to create a greater impact within the class. For example, the JJWU campaign not only affected Minneapolis, it also started a ripple effect that touched fast food workers across the country. But these grocery stores are part of an incredibly niche sector of the food chain. The potential for creating a greater splash in the industry was negligible. Also, the workforce largely consists of downwardly mobile middle class white people, a demographic that by no means lacks representation within our union. Because of these factors, it is highly doubtful that the Twin Cities GMB would have ever sought out an organizing drive at the grocery stores. But since we came to the IWW instead of the other way around, the campaign took hold. The branch was excited that a group of workers had decided on their own to organize with the IWW, and that it was finally big enough and visible enough to bring new folks around without having to seek us out. But I also believe that this excitement stemmed from the successes of the Jimmy Johns campaign. Twin Cities Wobblies were still riding the JJWU high, and they were eager to jump onto the first opportunity that came at them. Unfortunately, that excitement also clouded our strategic judgment. Im not arguing that we should say no to groups of workers that come to the union for help. That would also be un-strategic and just plain silly. Instead, I believe that the grocery store campaign is a good lesson in setting boundaries and being honest with each other. Instead of continuing to work on a campaign that was bound to die from the start, we should have had some serious conversations about why we want to organize and what we are trying to get out of it. We were brand new to workplace organizing, and someone needed to have those discussions with us. Its a tricky situation and a difficult conversation to have, but it would ultimately have been beneficial for the branch, the union, and us as organizers. Some fellow workers have pointed out that we as organizers should not abandon the grocery store campaigns because they are low-hanging fruit in the sense that they are doing very well business-wise, are socially tied to our existing networks, are a winnable size, and that a victory in the stores would put the Twin Cities IWW firmly on the labor map. With all due respect to those making these arguments, I would have to disagree. While its true that these stores are doing incredibly well financially, because of the unique nature of the ownership structure, many workers and other members of the community feel as though they actually have a stake in the economic success of the businesses. I will not go into further detail as doing so would easily identify the stores in question, but this mentality has greatly influenced organizing on the shop floor, and if the campaign were ever to go public, it would also affect the communitys reaction towards unionization in a negative way. In response to the statement that a clear victory would put the IWW on the Twin Cities labor map, I would argue that the campaign at Jimmy Johns was incredibly successful in that sense, and that further campaigns in that sector would achieve the same desired effect as a campaign at the grocery stores. Im not particularly interested in putting in more time and effort into attempts at radicalizing the petty-bourgeoisie in South Minneapolis. An issue that has risen in the Twin Continued on next page
Special
Continued from previous page Cities GMB is our affiliation with the South Minneapolis youth subculture. The Jimmy Johns campaign was closely tied with the punk and bicycle scenes, which was not necessarily a negative thing, but it definitely made it more difficult to organize outside of those social groups. However, it did bring in many new members, including myself. The issue now is that we are having a hard time reaching into other segments of the working class. The grocery store campaign did nothing to help with this issue. The subcultural identities of workers at Jimmy Johns and at the grocery stores are very similar and the social scenes often overlap. The Twin Cities GMB is becoming, or already has become, the union for young, hip 20-somethings in Minneapolis. Of course, that is not a completely realistic picture of our branch, but it is what the public sees. We want to be seen as a union for ALL workers, which is what we are in theory, but unless we actively work to make that a reality, we will forever be raising money at punk shows and dance parties attended by largely white, downwardly-mobile middle class kids. On a similar note, I think it is important to reflect on the differences between those who stayed around in the union from the grocery store campaign and those who came and went. I would put the total number of workers who either signed a red card or came to a committee meeting at around 30 since December 2010, but now the current number is around six. Two of those remaining workers salted into the campaign and were previously highly involved in the IWW and had experience in workplace organizing. The rest of us worked there before the campaign began. What prevented the other 24 workers from sticking around? Some moved to other cities, some quit or were fired and got new jobs, and others just dropped out of the committee. None of these are valid excuses that we as organizers can make. Most workers who moved away went to Portland or New York, both cities with IWW branches to plug into. And if we are organizing correctly, workers should be going to another job and organizing there as well. Once again, this stems back to our lackluster attempts at agitation, education, and organization. However, the most important workers who fell off the grid are the ones who are still working in the grocery stores. What made them not want to participate? Of course, I cannot speak for all of the workers, and there are probably various reasons why they left that they are not willing to disclose to us. But I know that at least one worker was turned off by the party culture that has developed amongst food and retail Wobblies in the Twin Cities. The post-meeting drinking that often occurs made this worker feel uncomfortable, and although I suspect that there were other contributing factors that I will refrain from delving into, it was enough to make this fellow worker want to renounce their involvement with the IWW and the grocery store campaign. Ironically,
since this worker dropped out, our IOC has drastically cut down on our post-meeting parties for reasons unrelated to this workers departure from the union. However, the incident is still a lesson in the importance of creating sober spaces and non-late night social activities. That being said, workers who were the most involved Photo: tcorganizer.com with the campaign at various stages also had the strongest social ties to the Twin Cities GMB. I think this reflects as much on us as organizers as it does on the workers. We often fell into the trap of letting our socializing do the organizing for us, and when the balance between socializing and organizing falls too heavily on the former, the worker is not going to have the skills or knowledge of the IWW to become an organizer themselves in the fullest capacity. When they leave the shop, which is a common occurrence in the highturnover food and retail industry, its likely that their union involvement will wane as well. Another grocery store campaign is in the process of developing a mentorship program within their shop committee, and I think that something of that nature could have been extremely helpful to our campaign. However, at the height of the campaign in my shop last summer, I know that I did not have an adequate level of political education or organizing experience to be able to serve as a mentor for a new member. In such a case, the IOC would be a great resource to use. Thus far, I have only discussed negative aspects of the campaign that we can learn from, but there were many positives as well that I do not wish to gloss over. One of the most successful outcomes was that we built up four solid union members who previously had very little-to-no experience in workplace organizing. Not only did we gain valuable skills, but we also grew as radical, class-conscious workers. We now have knowledge that we can bring with us to new campaigns and projects, and we can share our experiences with others in the IWW. We became strong, committed members of our branch, and we have also become involved in the politics of the international, whether through the founding and administration of Food and Retail Workers United, working as branch Organizing Department liaisons, writing for the Industrial Worker, or by becoming trainers. Without the grocery store campaign, there is a good chance that most, if not all, of us would have dropped out of the union following the height of the JJWU campaign. The grocery stores gave us something to plug into, a project to call our own. The best way for workers to stay involved in the IWW is to organize, and thats what we did. Another reason that I am proud of our campaign is that it was started, led, and ultimately finished by women and gender-queer fellow workers. Because of this, our committee was predominantly made up of non-males. Wobblies from other branches often ask me why the Twin Cities GMB has so many women who are involved, and my answer to that is that we already have a strong non-male presence, and that in turn makes it easier for new women and non-gender conforming folks to join and become involved. It may seem like a chicken-or-the-egg situation, but its really not that difficult. Non-male identified organizers are better at organizing non-male identified workers. Its that simple. Im not saying that men cant also organize these workers or be great allies;
its just that we are better at it. I have seen this firsthand, and I firmly believe it to be true. Some may disagree with this statement, but I would challenge those folks to look at the gender makeup of the Twin Cities GMB, and then compare it to their own branches. Which branch has more involved and committed women and gender-queer organizers? With few exceptions, the answer is going to be the Twin Cities. Of course, we still have a long way to go in terms of achieving gender equality within our branch, but I would say that we have built a solid foundation. So, my message to all the union ladies and non-gender conforming rebel workers out there is GO OUT AND ORGANIZE. Seriously. Your branch will thank you, the union will thank you, and you will thank yourself.
Personal Lessons I often view the grocery store campaign as a child. My fellow organizers and I brought this child into the world, and as a consequence, it had to be nurtured or it would die. Ultimately, we were bad parents, as the campaign failed in many respects. We did not do our best to raise it in the best possible way. It was often neglected, and that is part of the reason why it did not mature into a fully functioning campaign. During the meeting in July 2012 when we decided to end the campaign, the words that I actually used to describe my feelings were throwing our baby into the garbage. This is indeed a graphic and disturbing analogy, but I cannot deny that this was how I felt. I had become incredibly attached to the idea of unionizing at the grocery stores. I had been around these stores my entire life (my mother has worked in that industry since the mid-1980s), and it became a very personal struggle for me. The changes that have been occurring in the grocery stores for the past 5 to 10 years were, in my mind, not only attacks on the workers and working conditions, but also attacks on my childhood and all of the work that my mother and her peers put in throughout the years. It is difficult to describe, but I believe that this feeling contributed greatly to my attachment to the campaign. Thus, there is a sense of guilt that I have about abandoning our organizing. We often only speak of organizing in logistical terms. In trainings, we are inoculated about issues that we will face in a campaign, but it is usually only in a practical sense. As Wobblies, we often gloss over the personal stresses on our emotions and mental well-being that arise as we organize. Over the course of the grocery store campaign, I came to realize that addressing these issues are just as important as learning how to run a meeting, how to have a one-on-one meeting with a fellow worker, or asking someone to join the union. For example, after a particularly heightened point of struggle in my shop, a co-worker was fired. We learn how to do a march on the boss or file an Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) complaint, but we are never taught how to deal with the emotional fallout of such a situation. I now bear the burden of responsibility for this co-workers firing, and that fact is forever on my conscience. I was the one who agitated her, I was the one who convinced her to participate in an action, and as a result, she lost her job. Im trying to come to terms with this, and it is an issue that I will have to continue to work out emotionally Logo for Food and Retail Workers United.
for some time to come. We need to be better at collectively addressing these sorts of situations, and I think writing about our experiences is a great way to do that. My involvement in the grocery store campaign also led to some serious mental health issues in my life. Last year, I was going to school full-time, working 25 to 30 hours a week, and organizing on my job. Between classes, homework, wage work, one-on-ones, meetings almost every night, and keeping up with my social life as a 20-year-old, things were going faster than I could keep up. I loved it and thrived on it, but it was incredibly demanding physically. Instead of taking a step back and trying to cut something out, which is what I should have done, I turned to less-than-natural ways to cope with the situation. By the end of summer 2011, I was completely addicted to Adderall, and I couldnt function without it. When I first began using at the beginning of 2011, it seemed like a godsend. I could do everything and I was on top of the world, but it eventually caught up with me. As I continued to use, my body would adjust to the dosage and I would have to keep taking more and more. I was barely eating, lost close to 30 pounds, and even collapsed during a meeting as a result of a panic attack. I realized that not only was I hurting myself and those close to me, my dependence was also affecting the grocery store campaign. Sure, I was doing some hardcore organizing and direct actions, but what I didnt realize was that everyone, including my co-workers, could see that I was in an altered state. Who would want to join a union when the organizer is in an induced manic episode? By September 2011, I was off of the medication, but as a result I experienced an immense drop in energy and drive. The campaign at my store stagnated, and my work in the branch tapered off until I was barely holding on. Once you get into that state, it is hard to pull yourself out. It wasnt until Work Peoples College this past July that I felt like I had finally rebounded from that low point. The lesson here is that we need to watch out for our fellow workers, not only on the shop floor, but in our personal lives as well. Our current society teaches us to go harder, longer, and more intensely than we should, and in our fight against capitalism, we must also confront those unrealistic bourgeois expectations. In conclusion, the grocery store campaign, despite its flaws, was in a sense incredibly successful. The IWW doesnt just organize shops, it organizes people and it builds up workers into radical militant unionists. The grocery store campaign created a space in the Twin Cities GMB for that to occur. It also taught us valuable lessons about what not to do in an organizing campaign. Through our mistakes, we have become better organizers and we now have the opportunity to share those lessons with others in the union, as well as to bring our skills to new union projects. In the aftermath of the grocery store campaign, we are now equipped to build the union in a more purposeful and organized way.
Graphic: iww.org
Review
be. Furthermore, we become a more realistic organization, one that understands ebbs and flows of struggle, rather than a number-obsessed party-building union. Recommended Reading Fighting For Ourselves is a good read that IWW members should consider picking up. Perhaps what struck me the most about it was that despite some disagreements here or there, it presents a call to organize in accessible terms. It took complex systems and broke them down for me. It could potentially become a good educational tool for IWW members, because as we move forward as an organization we need to not just recruit members, we need to create Wobblies. As an organization this means we need to become a thinking organization that is not afraid to have political conversations. Fighting For Ourselves is the type of book I would recommend as a follow-up to classics like Rudolph Rockers AnarchoSyndicalism: Theory and Practice. I think the two would complement each other well in succession. We should be taking in books like this, as well as other readings, and incorporating them into our educational and organizing practices. Printed materials like Weakening the Dam, Direct Unionism, and Dismantling Capitalism, Dismantling Patriarchy, should all be recommended reading for us. Wobblies should also be interested in learning about our history so that we can move forward. Check out Black Flame: The Revolutionary Class Politics of Anarchism and Syndicalism about the syndicalist movement worldwide, or Truth and Revolution: A History of the Sojourner Truth Organization, 19691986. We all know that you have to think before you act, and so we should. Fighting For Ourselves is available from thoughtcrime ink, an IWW printing collective in Edmonton, Canada. Their website is http://thoughtcrimeink.com.
Continued from 1 demands are to eliminate the canvass director position; obtain worker/union control over hiring and firing; make it an all-union shop in which new canvassers would have one month to join the union; have vacation/sick pay and medical coverage; and get a rotating union rep on the collective to protect the canvassers. They also want a small base pay raise, which if met would still be below the industry standard, and common sense items like professional van maintenance.
Escalation & Reactions After the strike began on March 1, both sides sent press releases and made phone calls back and forth. When the union offered to meet for negotiations again via phone, the collective claimed they could not meet or make any decisions as a collective until their regular meeting on Monday, March 4, and invited the workers to meet then. The collective then proceeded to meet over the weekend without informing Becker, the pro-union canvass director and collective member, thereby violating their own consensus process. When workers and union supporters arrived at the meeting, the collective read a statement in which they complained of being forced into a boss role, then fired Shuge Mississippi, a striking worker and ex-collective member who they accused of manipulating other workers into unionizing. The bosses also offered in a carrot-and-stick manner to let one canvasser immediately join the collective, and made it easier for others to apply for membership (ignoring the larger causes and blaming the conflict on one troublemaker). The workers walked out dazed, but galvanized to remain united in the face of managements divide-and-conquer
times painful experience for the workers, who despite being on strike and faced with vicious smearing and divide-and-conquer tactics, have been hesitant to escalate due to strong emotional ties to the organization. The union has shown strong support for the strike, as FW John Snortum explained: The larger union has done everything from attending meetings and giving us advice to taking notes and facilitating. As well Sisters Camelot workers march on Photo: Bridget Laurenson as an amazing fund - the collective on Feb. 25. raising effort the union has helped us in inspire and empower other fellow workers outreach to the public, media, and other in similar situations to take action and IWW branches. And most importantly has bring justice to their workplace. kept us grounded and stable on our views Meanwhile the strikers have been and beliefs that remind us that we are do- impressively united and remain hopeful ing the right thing. for a quick victory. While being a small This in contrast to the collectives re- shop and taking many by surprise as a sponse, said Snortum: The collective has hot shop, in which there were no salts reacted in a way that clearly demonstrates and there was no external prodding by the that [they] are unwilling to give up any union, the strike is the biggest thing for the power over us that they have. They have Twin Cities branch since the Jimmy Johns made clear that they are not following Workers Union campaign in 2010-2011. A their own rules and are willing to lie on win at Sisters Camelot could be a big boost top of that. Although I knew this was all for the whole union, while a loss could possible, I did have more faith in the col- prove deeply demoralizing. Additionally, lective and didnt actually expect us to go the union drive raises questions about down this path. what constitutes a worker-run collective Asked about the campaigns prospects, and workplace democracy. Snortum added: In the short term I want When asked what message the strikto see recognition of the whole union so we ers would like to convey to the rest of the can begin negotiations and end the strike. union, the public, and the bosses, FW Long term, aside from Camelot continu- Snortum simply said, Solidarity all the ing to prosper, I hope our campaign can way.
Review
greatest benefit, what is a greater current, when called seignorage. In a what is really needed is country like Great Britto change the direction ain were the government of the prevailing low. currently allows comHe writes bluntly that, mercial banks to create We are running out of 97 percent of the money time. Avarice and usury supply, this is quite a are carrying us all too fast significant entitlement. toward self-destruction. The tricks of the finanCan we wean ourselves cial trade run the gamut off them in time to surfrom kings of old cheatvive their consequences? ing the people through That is an open question the debasement of their now. coinage to the newer Commercial banks trick of creating money are allowed to create out of nothing in order credit, literally write it to lend it out at a profit. out of nothing into bank In this way money can accounts as interestGraphic: renegadeeconomist.com bearing loans, through be written into customer bank accounts as credit, transferred to what is called fractional reserve banking. others as payment, and the shift is on from If they are required to keep 10 percent of debt-free cash to bank-account money their deposits on hand, they can create created by the commercial banks as debt. 900 for every 1,000 deposited with Robertson calls the creation of the Bank them. Robertson provocatively contrasts of England in 1694 a landmark event in this privilege, handed over to bankers, the modern history of money. The idea with the punishments meted out to forgwas sold by William Paterson to London ers and counterfeiters. There is a history investors, with the incredible provision suppressed and ignored behind this disthat government would pay the interest cussion of how money gets created; in on the loans out of taxes to be raised in 1844, the Bank Charter Act in the United future years. This was in spite of the fact Kingdom deprived commercial banks of that the endeavor was from the beginning the privilege of issuing their own credit an attempt to subvert Parliament and fund notes, because they slowly started to bethe foreign adventures of a king. In 1946, come actual money and the failure the bank was nationalized, and it still had to control their issue was damaging the only an indirect control over the money economy as a whole. Despite the fact supply through interest rates. In Roman that the Bank of England was handed a times authors such as Pliny the Elder and monopoly over the creation of money, Juvenal railed against indebtedness, and the commercial banks continued turning the 1 percent driving society to ruin, and their trick by causing money to appear in sadly, writes Robertson, todays Socialist the bank accounts of their customers. The and Labour governments have been help- effects of this arrangement are profound less before the money system. and rarely addressed; everyone who Robertson contends that ethical ques- spends money is taxed, made to subsidize tions have been almost cleansed from the the banks, which originated the notes as economics profession. This can be seen, he debt, and the money supply, indebtedness writes, in their hostile responses to the and poverty are continually made to grow. ideas of Henry George and C.H. Douglas, Robertson writes that the present way of both of whom inspired movements in past providing the money supply systematically centuries dedicated to the ethical purpose works to increase poverty and widen the of making the money system work for the gap between rich and poor. Furthermore, common interest. He doesnt recommend this situation yields destructive ecological getting bogged down in the intricacies of outcomes, and also ensures that money Georgist or Social Credit thought, but over will initially be put toward harmful but the years he came to realize that his prac- profitable ends. Finally, it all lends itself tical conclusions are very much theirs. to financial instability and at each stage, The fact that money values conflict with through boom, bust, and aftermath, real-life values is not natural, or divinely windfall profits are secured by the bankers. ordained, as some advocates of the market Robertson calls for a radical reform claim, but bears the marks of powerful of the money system, as well as a shift in people and of governments that allow tax emphasis, both of which he sees as banks to hold our societies to ransom. currently favoring the rich over the poor, Robertson sees ethical business and fi- and, another change, in public spending, nance as impractical, swimming against which he refers to as a universal Citizens
Income. Current taxation patterns are dysfunctional, and at worse positively perverse. Tax avoidance is epidemic, there is an estimated $11.5 trillion currently held in tax havens; these crossborder flows of money distort economic priorities, and tend toward the criminal. It is obviously desirable to shift taxes off of things that can be moved and onto the value of land and other environmental resources that cannot be moved from one tax jurisdiction to another. A government, or a money system, working in the public interest would make corporations pay for the value they take from common resources for their own benefit. For Robertson, the value coming out of creating a vital common resource like money should be captured as public revenue and no longer as private profit. All of these reforms are directed toward getting rid of burdens that crush, as the late Utah Phillips would say, and combinations of them would yield affordable housing, an income for all as a right, financial stability, and an eventual phasing out of borrowing and costly regulation. These reforms may seem to apply mostly to well-developed national currencies, but Robertson does not lose sight of the importance of international and local currencies. In 2002, it is estimated that the rest of the world was made to pay the $400 billion for use of the U.S. dollar, and many see the development of a genuine international currency as preferable to this 1944 Bretton Woods survival. From the suggestions of John Maynard Keynes, at the above economic conference, for a true international currency, called bancor, the author moves easily to encouraging local currencies, even regional alternatives to national ones. Robertson sees the urgent need for a revival of local and household economies worldwide, and writes that they must become significant components of national economies in the coming decades. The current dramatic situation in Greece, in which the remote euro is embraced, while the people are allowed to sink, is a perfect example of the need for a return to the local, and the possibility of opening a path toward radical monetary reform. The entitled advocates of austerity in the United States never mention that Social Security cannot add to our debt, or that, in order to deal with indebtedness, we must first deal with how money is created. Robertson illustrates this best when he writes: Internationally, as well as nationally and locally, we must reform the whole money system that generates the money values that motivate us all to live in the ways we now do.
outside of our office on the Monday before the election. In the end, the fact that the union busters had all the money and all the time to spend working on those workers who they knew were weak spots almost paid off for them. The vote on March 6 was seven-to-six in our favor. We would have liked to have had a stronger majority, but apparently all but one of the people who werent already on our organizing committee succumbed to the shameless anti-union campaigning. Based on that, Id say the union lost the six-week public campaign, but it didnt matter because we had won the three-year campaign. The biggest challenge is ahead of us nowthe bosses are now going to focus all of their energy on continuing to divide the people in the office and on making the union look ineffective. We now have to focus on staying positive, healing the rifts caused by the campaign, and learning how to function as a certified union. This has all been a learning experience, but the new territory ahead of us is going to be an even bigger and more important learning experience.
Analysis
An Ecology Action barrel (left) and a group shot of the workers (right), part of the oldest worker cooperative in Texas.
By scott crow They were doing it in Texas They were drinking from a fountain That was pouring like an avalanche Coming down the mountain Butthole Surfers Pepper In the hot summer heat of Austin, Texas, in the year 2000, the workers of Ecology Action, a recycling center, decided they had enough. The staff of 12, many of them longtime employees, were working hard informally running the center doing both the manual labor and much of the administrative functions as well as running its various programs, all while earning on average $7 per hour while the largely absent executive director was pulling a $40,000 per year salary. Their boss was taking vacations while the workers continued operations in all weather. Under mismanagement, Ecology Action was running out of money quickly. The workers hit on the idea of running the center collectively, but how could they get that past an indifferent boss and out of touch board of directors? They needed to do something, beginning a journey that would change the course of their lives and Ecology Action. Roots to Grow From Austins Ecology Action had its humble birth on Earth Day 1970 when a handful of volunteers took direct action to do something about the garbage around them. They incorporated cooperative ideas into the nascent organization. Up until 1977-1978, Ecology Action was largely run collectively by volunteers and some paid staff with no boss. In 1976, Ecology Action joined with other burgeoning coops (consumer, housing and worker) and businesses to form a mutual aid network dubbed Austin Community Project (ACP), rooted in the ideas of direct democracy and cooperation. ACP only lasted a short time before it collapsed, leaving only two surviving businesses. At the draw of the 1970s, Ecology Action fell into a traditional nonprofit model trap with a typical topdown approach. Its only twist was that it generated a large portion of its money from being a business, instead of through donations. It remained this way until the millennium, going through executive directors who took it through economic boom and bust cycles of business.
Summers of Change No one can say exactly when the change in the workers came, but it started in that hot summer of 2000 and would lead to historic changes over the next year at the little ol recycling center in Texas. The workers decided they wanted collective bargaining to raise their wages to a living wage with benefits. Predictably, the director and board refused to recognize their grievances for months. The small staff first reached out to the professional local unions for support, but was dismissed since it was a nonprofit and their staff was too small. Once again union bureaucrats left workers to deal with these issues on their own. Then the local IWW General Membership Branch (GMB), which had been quite active since the mid1990s on local campaigns, stepped in to help formally bring grievances forward with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The director continued to ignore the concernsdemanding people return to workwhich led to a work stoppage at the recycling center. Finally, under the summer heat in 2001, it all erupted with the unfair firing of an employee who helped to unionize. Most of the staff went on strike. Hot days were filled with picket lines of workers, and those who stood in solidarity including Wobs and other supporters. Eventually, all the staff joined the strike. The center, normally open 24 hours a day for drop-off, soon piled up in mountains of recycling materials edging towards the streets on all sides of the small corner lot. Scabs brought in were soundly blocked from entering by the strikers. As the strike entered its sixth week the board of directors finally fired the director and promised the workers they could run the center. All the staff returned to work diligently reducing the mountains to rubble again. A few weeks later the board sneakily rescinded and brought in another temporary director to take the reins, fire disrupters, hire new employees and take control again. Texas is a right-to-work state without much worker protection, so the workers did what they had to do, ultimately striking again while the IWW filed grievances with the NLRB and helped mount a media campaign. This time the board quickly caved in to the demands under much controversy, with many, including the new director, resign-
ing. The workers began to return Ecology Action to its collective roots for the first time since the 1970s. Making Our New Roads is Not Always Easy Now that the workers had self-management of everything, they had to start asking hard questions. How do we run a cooperative? How do we equal out wage disparities? What does work-sharing look like? This was in addition to all the normal questions that all businesses have about their operations. There were more than a few anarchists on staff who brought some of their principles and practices to the organization, including horizontal decision-making. They also looked to other horizontal worker cooperatives like Mondragon Caf in Canada for inspiration, and set out to write new policies based on direct democracy, with mixed success. The staff members were able to give themselves benefits including health insurance for the first time, as well as vacations. They also raised the wages of those who had been at the bottom to a living wage, but there were still people who made more money from the old system (from being ex-management or seniority) and it was a constant issue sorting it out. Also there were vastly different interpretations of what self-management meant for those engaged in it. Some felt like everyone was a boss looking over their shoulders, others wanted self-management to mean that no one could tell them what to do and they didnt have to be accountable to the collective, while still others tried to engage everyone in a path of power-sharing that is really what cooperatives are about. Without the boss to hate they turned on each other while trying to sort it out. In 2006 the question of how to make Ecology Action operate horizontally entered the dialogue. People like me, who had experience in cooperatives or horizontal organizing, were hired in. The organization became rooted in set principles and guidelines and an experimental nature was adopted, with staff members consciously trying out different models, concepts and practices based on the values of shared leadership, power and voices. Over the next two years tough decisions were made. We fired people because they didnt want to be accountable to the collective or werent willing to change. Others left on their own because we still had the gnawing issue to address of wage discrepancy to
deal with. They were given a choice to take a pay cut or leave with compensation. It was messy and rocky but we finally equalized the wage. An interesting thing began to happen on the road to power sharing: as some of the old-guard Left (which was largely white men), the collective evolved in a more diverse group, with the inclusion of women and queer folks in roles they had not previously been in before. We continued to try different and new ideas as we struggled through not only the hard dirty work of recycling but also all of the internal work of creating a horizontal, sustainable workplace; ecologically, economically, socially and culturally. Its a tall order to fill on any given day, but those were and are our lofty goals for creating just worlds. We continued to be members of the IWW and became a job shop in 2009 as well as joining the U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives. Our philosophy was that horizontal worker co-ops are an evolutionary step in workplace democracy. We wanted to be IWW for three reasons: the first was to have union representation to support us if needed, the second was to support other workers if they needed it, and the third reason was to continue to push horizontal worker cooperatives as the model to possibly adopt for future worker control. We believe that to create new participatory economies we have to build businesses from the ground-up if we want to be in control and that is what we focused on, in addition to the recycling. Two of us from Ecology Action co-founded another worker co-op called Treasure City Thrift as a sister project (that is still thriving today). Our evolving business models looked at multiple bottom lines and sometimes that meant making a lot less money or it meant dealing with the devil. Capitalism and its tentacles still reach into every corner, but we have always striven to balance survival with principles with varying degrees of success. There are still many challenges to face and successes to be had, but we have lived firsthand the closest thing to a fair blue-collar business under the capitalist system that I have ever been a part of. Ecology Action is still experimenting, still changing and hopefully opening doors for other workers to think about different strategies in creating democratic workplaces. The IWW was the engine of the catalyst that propelled us into becoming now the oldest worker cooperative in Texas (13 years as of this writing). Dont give in! Dont give up! Resist, Rebel, Create and Build!
The IWW formed the International Solidarity Commission to help the union build the worker-to-worker solidarity that can lead to effective action against the bosses of the world. To contact the ISC, email solidarity@iww.org.
By Mathieu Dube In what is most likely the largest strike in human history, 100 million workers went on strike in India on Feb. 20-21. They were opposing price hikes on commodities such as diesel, gas and electricity, as well as day-today goods. The strike The general strike. was initiated by a very large number of unions across the political spectrum in opposition to the governments immobility regarding these issues. This coalition of unions has written a 10-point program of demands, most of them having to do with battling the social repercussions of high inflation in the country, but also including points on defending workers rights. The all-India general strike was a true show of force by the Indian working class, shutting down many parts of the country. Workers both from the public and the private sectors were involved. The organizing committee released a statement afterwards describing the strength of the mobilization this way: Starting from Meghalaya, Assam to Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Karnataka and again from West Bengal, Odisha, Bihar and Jharkhand to Uttar Pradesh, MP [Madhya Pradesh], Delhi, Punjab, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Haryana and Himachal Pradesheverywhere the workers took to the street in the thousands, voicing their demands, defying all sorts of threats, intimidations, arrests, organized armed attacks and even the brutal killing of a striker of Haryana. Several examples outline the size of the strike: in Tirupur, 200,000 garment workers went on strike; 8,000 stateowned buses were off the road in the western state of Gurajat; in Calcutta, the capital of the West Bengal state, the roads were deserted and public transportation was nonexistent. According to Reuters, The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry saidthe two-day strike was expected to cause a loss of 150 billion-200 billion rupees ($2.8 billion-$3.8 billion), hurting sectors such as banking, insurance and transport. Around the globe, the tendency is toward stagnating or lowering wages, while inflation and price markups are rampant. This effectively means that the bosses are stealing more and more wealth out of the economy, which makes life harder on workers everywhere. The inflation rate in India is at 7.5 percent, while the rate of economic growth has been 7 percent. The
cost of almost every commodity has gone up. As Amarjeet Kaur, National Secretary of the All-India Trade Union Congress, said, Just take the example of petrol. In 1989, the price of one liter of petrol was 8.50 rupees (or the equivalent of 16 cents), and Photo: wftucentral.org as of now, in Delhi it is 69.06 rupees (or $1.28) and much higher in other cities. By demanding through solidarity that the government intervene, the Indian workers are fighting to take back what theyre producing. The mobilization was initiated by a coalition of unions from all parts of the political spectrum; a lot of unions in India have ties to political parties. A national convention of trade unions was held on Sept. 4, 2012, and the preparations for the 48-hour strike started there. Despite having been given a five-month warning about the possible shutdown of the country, the government didnt act on any of the workers demands. The strike therefore went on, regrouping workers from 11 Central Trade Union Organizations and Independent Federations of Workers and Employees. Unaffiliated unions as well as unorganized workers also took part in the mobilization. Even though the initial demands focused on commodity prices, several other demands were included. For instance, the 10-point charter contained demands for protection of the right of workers to organize, an increase in the minimum wage, universal social security coverage for unorganized sectors of workers and assured pensions for all. Attacks on benefits that were acquired thanks to previous struggles, as well as basic democratic rights such as freedom of association, need to be fought against, as the Indian workers demonstrated to their ruling class and to the world, despite the lack of coverage of these events in the mainstream media. As the general strike in India has shown, the strength of workers across the world lies in our numbers. The general traits of the economy are basically the same in the so-called advanced economies, as well as in the emerging countries like India and China. The bosses and their lackey states are serving austerity, inflation and stagnation, with lower wages and diminishing benefits for workers. Only through united organizing can we fight back as workers. With files from BBC News, Workers World, Equal Times and Reuters.
By the ISC system or state bureaucrats, the workers of Vio.Me decided to take The IWWs International Solidarity Commission (ISC) congratuthe factory into their own hands and to operate it themselves. The lates the workers of Viomichaniki Metaleftiki (Vio.Me), a building Vio.Me workers have given us all a materials factory, for taking control living example of workers power and have lit the way for all of us of their workplace and restarting production after having occupied it in the struggle against capitalism Graphic: iww.org throughout the world. It is now up for more than 20 months (see Factory In Greece Under Workers Control, to all of us to take the next steps in our own March 2013 IW, page 12). workplaces and struggles. Let this be one After fighting for the payment of their of millions of workplace takeovers to come stolen wages since May 2011, the workers across Greece and the world. The IWW is committed to a grassroots have now decided in a directly democratic assembly to collectively organize produc- global resistance to the employing class. tion without bosses. They have brought the We aim to work with others to build a factory back into operation, shifting to the movement that can defeat the capitalists production of building materials that are and construct a new world-based worknot toxic or damaging for the environment. ers control of the means of production The ISC is in full support of this move. and a radically democratic economy. We As the world plunges deeper into eco- salute the seizure of the Vio.Me factory as nomic and ecological crisis, the workers at a step in the right direction and pledge our Vio.Me have shown us the way forward. solidarity and commitment to stand at the Instead of waiting for the state to decrease side of all workers in the struggle for the unemployment, instead of leaving their emancipation of the working class, for the fate in the hands of the capitalist legal creation of a world without bosses! By J. Pierce STOP: Read this column while using the internet. This will be practical and fun. The goal of this column is to have every IWW branch establish direct connections with workers abroad, based on which companies call your city home. The Phoenix IWW has 100-plus Facebook friends who work for Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold, a mining company in West Papua, Indonesia. We had several actions at Freeports headquarters in Phoenix, Ariz., prompted by requests from Serikat Pekerja Seluruh Indonesia (SPSI) unionists at the Grasberg Mine. We are thrilled about this connection and we want to duplicate it for more branches. Step 1: Search the internet for Corporate Headquarters _______ and type in your city. If we take Phoenix as an example, 72 major corporate operations pop up. Some of these are assets, some are regional headquarters and others are international headquarters like Freeport-McMoRan. Now, peruse your list and select a recognizable company that might have overseas operations and whose employees might advertise their employment. We are looking for miners, plantation workers, assembly workers, transportation workers, garment workers, etc. Contractors for companies such as Walmart and Nike might be harder to find, but it can be done. I will select American President Lines (APL) as my example. The APL shipping company has their North American headquarters in Scottsdale, a suburb of Phoenix. APL likely has operations overseas, is unionized and might have a presence on Facebook. Plus, we are aware of previous dock worker struggles with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) and anti-war campaigns against APL war shipments. These elements make APL a great target for IWW solidarity. Step 2: Search for your companys overseas operations. Look for their operations in a familiar locale or for their unionized workers. Wikipedia says that APL is owned by Neptune Orient Lines (NOL), that NOL is headquartered in Singapore and wholly owned by the Singapore government and that APL is the fifth largest shipping company globally. They have 10 terminals in the United States, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam and China. They have 153 shipping vessels that call at 90 ports. So we are now thinking about the possibilities of supporting dock workers and seafarers. From my own experience wandering into the International Maritime Center, a religious hospitality house near the Oakland docks, I know that seafarers come from all over. I pulled out my old International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) magazines from that house. Evidently, the magazine is printed in English, Arabic, Japanese, Tagalog, Chinese, German, Indonesian, Pol-
Five Steps To Direct International Solidarity ish, Russian, Spanish and Turkish. So the
Assessments for $3 and $6 are available from your delegate or IWW headquarters: PO Box 180195, Chicago,
ITF and its workers might be our target. Step 3: Search for a union in your target area. I quickly found the Singapore Port Workers Union (SPWU) which matches all threethey are dock workers, they are in the country where APL-NOL is headquartered and in which 80 APL vessels call and they work out of the Port of Singapore. However, it seems that APL does not have its own terminal in this port. So we are starting to narrow down, if possible, to Singapore, seafarers and dock workers, and the ITF and SPWU. All this is based off of APLs North American headquarters being recently moved from Oakland to Scottsdale. Step 4: Search for radical labor in your target area. In a quick search, I found a history of left-wing unionism in Singapore, including communist, anti-colonialist and ethnic struggles. I discovered a very interesting Left union called the Industrial Workers Union which may still be in existence. So in addition to contacting the ILWU, ILA, ITF and SPWU, I would search for the IWU and other contemporary radical labor groups in Singapore. I could do this for other APL port cities as well. Step 5: Search for groups and individuals on Facebook that fit your combination. For APL-NOL, I could not find the exact combination of an APL seafarer or dock worker that lives in Singapore. I did find some Singapore port workers, however. The key is finding the right name combination. For FreeportMcMoRan, they call it PT Freeport Indonesia. Using this name, you will find hundreds on Facebook employed by Freeport. So far I have found individuals and groups for Port of Singapore Authority. I located a post by a Tamil individual that had a funny trickle-down income cartoon. I sent this individual a message in English and Tamil using Google Translate. Also, I discovered that Tamil-speaking Indians are historically known for their radical unionism in Singapore. This part could take some time. Once you establish the correct circle of people and they know the value of connecting with militants in the company headquarters city, the friending will be easy. Our experience with Freeport was effortless because they were engaged in an occupation and strike, we did a solidarity action, they found the Phoenix IWW Facebook page, and they friended us! When each IWW branch establishes direct connections with workers abroad and offers to support their struggles in the headquarters city, it could become common knowledge all over the world that you contact the IWW in the home city when you go on strike. Additionally, these relationships could grow over the years into formidable alliances and the possibilities are endless.