SEIU Stern wants The Working Class Needs Solidarity with Iranian Canada’s New Ministers Wal-Mart as partner Babysitters Workers of Class War 6 7 8 9

IndustrialO f f i c i a l n e w s p a p e r o f the iNdustrial Worker w o r k e r s o f t h e w o r l d March 2007 #1693 Vol. 104 No. 3 $1.00 / 75p US Workers and Communities Reject ‘Surge’ Demand Peace and End to Occupation

Half a million people from every At the same time, many voices in background imaginable, including del- the crowd expressed their belief that the egations of over 150 labor unions, con- occupation of Iraq won’t be stopped by verged on Washington D.C. January 27 Congress but by the concerted action of to protest Bush’s planned “surge” of over workers around the world. Speaking to 21,000 new troops to Iraq and demand the crowd, Maryland AFL-CIO President a swift end to a war that has cost many Fred Mason declared, “Our democracy thousands of lives and billions of dollars provides us the opportunity to express that could have been spent on jobs and the peoples’ will in electoral processes. education. Similar protests were held in However, when there are questions as San Francisco, Los Angeles and other to whether those elected are heeding cities. the people’s will, we have a responsibil- Republican-donating, union-busting” Alan Benjamin, an Executive Board Washington, DC ity to speak with a louder voice and we Hornblower owner, Terry MacRae. member of the San Francisco Labor Council and a member of OPEIU Lo- The massive rally and march in do that in the streets and communi- “We must use our power of with- cal 3, also spoke at the rally, drawing D.C. featured many prominent speakers ties of America.” Echoing this theme, holding our labor to end this war. parallels between the war in Iraq and including half a dozen congressmen, sev- IWW members from across the country Hooking up the union movement and Hornblower’s takeover of the Alcatraz eral Hollywood stars, and Jane Fonda— marched alongside other unions and the anti-war movement is the strongest ferry, which resulted in 55 layoffs and speaking at a protest for the first time in labor groups including US Labor Against power in the world”, Irminger declared, transfer of the ferry service from a union over 30 years. The event may have been the War, UNITE HERE, SEIU, CWA, leading the crowd in a chant of “Shut to a non-union workforce. the largest anti-war protest in the US USWA and the Teamsters. down the union busters! Shut down this war!” since the record-setting February 15th San Francisco continued on P. 10 global day of action against the invasion- In San Francisco, anti-war protest- that shook the world in 2003. Current ers joined with maritime workers to figures show over 70% of the American support a boycott against the anti-union public against the war, and it is widely Hornblower Yachts, Inc., and its sub- Starbucks Union acknowledged that November’s landslide sidiary Alcatraz Cruises [see interview victory for the Democratic Party was a in February 2007 IW]. Members of result of the anti-war vote. Despite this, the Inland Boatmen’s Union and the Expands to Maryland most Congressional Democrats have Masters, Mates and Pilots union led refused to use their power to cut off demonstrators to Pier 31 for the largest funding for the war, instead opting for a picket of the company to date. As the Workers defy anti-union bullying symbolic non-binding resolution regis- last demonstrators arrived at the pier, a By Starbucks Union in the $7 or $8 per hour range and no tering their criticism of Bush’s strategy. raised flatbed truck served as the sound baristas are permitted full-time sta- The protest is in part a challenge to these stage for a brief rally. A former ferry- Employees at a Starbucks store in tus. While Starbucks frequently touts elected officials to fulfill their mandate boat deckhand and member of the IBU, Rockville, Maryland announced their its health care offering, the company by preventing the escalation of troop Robert Irminger, thanked the crowd for membership in the IWW Starbucks insures just 42 per cent of its workforce, levels. coming out to demonstrate against “the Workers Union (SWU) on January 20 less than Wal-Mart, a company notori- and served a list of demands on their ous for its poor health care benefits. Scotland IWWs Fight to Save Campus manager including a living wage, secure “Starbucks’ public relations prowess Scottish Wobblies are fighting the depriving the region of its own Higher work hours, and the reinstatement of won’t change the fact that many baris- closure of the Dumfries-based Crichton Education institution offering courses in union baristas illegally fired for organiz- tas live in poverty and the majority are Campus of the University of Glasgow, the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences ing activity. not covered by company health care,” which only opened eight years ago. and risking the jobs of 47 members of The action marks the expansion of said Laura De Anda, an SWU member The Principal of the University, Sir staff, including two IWW members. the SWU to a third state. The union first recently fired from an NYC Starbucks for Muir Russell, claims that the Scottish Staff and students at Crichton took root in New York City in 2004 and union activity. “As members of the In- Funding Council (SFC) has never pro- started an active campaign against the spread to Chicago last August. dustrial Workers of the World, baristas vided sufficient funds for the running of closure, with massive popular support. “No worker should have to deal are not silenced anymore by Starbucks’ the distant campus, and as a result, the There has been a large demonstration on with understaffing on one hand and fake socially responsible image.” campus is running at a £870,000 deficit. the Crichton campus, a demonstration the inability to get enough work hours Starbucks and its Chairman Howard In turn, the SFC claims the university outside the SFC offices in Edinburgh, on the other,” said Seth Dietz, one of Schultz have come under increasing should use the £2 million operating two pickets of the Scottish Parliament the Maryland baristas who declared his criticism from unions and human rights profit it makes from the £150 million building and two demonstrations on union membership. “Only an indepen- groups over labor abuses against baristas provided by the council. the main campus in Glasgow. The IWW dent voice on the job will win baristas and coffee farmers. In March 2006, As a result of this stand-off between has been amongst the most active in the the respect we deserve and that’s why the company entered into a settlement two rival bureaucracies the Dumfries campaign, co-ordinating with staff and the expansion of the organization to agreement with the National Labor Rela- campus of the University is to close, continued on P. 10 Maryland is so gratifying.” tions Board over unfair labor practice The union believes that consistent charges from the SWU. The company Industrial Worker pressure applied against the company at had to reinstate two workers discharged Periodicals Postage PO Box 13476 Starbucks locations, in the community, for organizing activity and rescind PAID Philadelphia, PA 19101 and in the public arena has resulted in national policies against sharing written Philadelphia, PA higher wages and more steady work union information and wearing union ISSN 0019-8870 and additional hours for baristas. After about two and pins. mailing offices ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED a half years of organizing, many NYC After the settlement agreement, the baristas saw their wage increase by coffee giant has continued union-bust- almost 25 per cent. The SWU has also ing with impunity in a bid to destroy the remedied individual grievances with the SWU. Six SWU baristas are currently company in areas as diverse as sleep- out of a job in retaliation for their union depriving work schedules, unsanitary activity. Company threats, surveillance, working conditions, and abusive manag- and propaganda continue full steam ers. The campaign has received solidar- ahead. Instead of moving toward sub- ity from unions in Europe, Korea, and stantive respect for workers, the com- New Zealand, among other places. pany has responded to its increasingly Despite the union gains, Starbucks vocal critics with more public relations Subscribers: The number (top line of label ) reflects the last issue due on your subscription. workers still start at a poverty wage continued on P. 10 Page  • Industrial Worker • March 2007 Letters Welcome! SweatFree Communities Conference Raise issues and debate with your Fellow Workers or just let us know NYC April 27-29 how we’re doing. The Pittsburgh Anti Sweatshop organizing drive and the role that union Community Alliance has been a part of workers and community activists have Send your letters to [email protected] SweatFree Communities for nearly three to play. Dear Editors, with “Letter” in the subject or mail it years. HumanRightsBaseball.Org and I am writing to suggest that we This is a dynamic and well- SweatFree Baseball activists will be change the name of the IWW paper from to: Industrial Worker, POB 13476, positioned organization in the Anti- hosting at least one workshop. Both The Industrial Worker to something Philadelphia PA 19101 USA Sweatshop Movement. Celeste Taylor PASCA and the United Workers else. The criteria for a successful name serves as our representative on the Association of Maryland (the workers would be that it would appeal to a non- board and the board has been response Dear Editor, who clean up Camden Yards) are wobbly audience, be fun and enticing to numerous issues that we have Recently I attended a “rank and file” confirmed. to a non-activist audience, and would identified. The board has helped us labor conference in St. Louis (Nov. 5). We are figuring out how to be concerned with the present rather have a meaningful dialogue with other Naturally, among other subjects meaningfully connect organizing in than the past. I’m well aware that in labor organizations in the State of of concern to labor, the question of our cities with effective international Wobbly parlance “industrial” means Pennsylvania. The staff played a key immigration came up. solidarity. That’s the name of the game. “unity of all workers”, but to the average role in the development of SweatFree Now this is a complex issue. But the It is the Pittsburgh Anti-Sweatshop Joe (or Jane, or Jamal, for that matter) Baseball… and came through in a big other delegates were shocked when they Community Alliance’s great pleasure to it just means “boring”. It comes off as way to make the most of our action at learned the truth of the US government’s invite like-minded folks to join us. an old left term that has everything to the 2006 All Star Game. simplistic solution. Just build a fence REGISTER: Visit www.sweatfree.org do with the US’ past as a factory-driven There will be many exciting along the US-Mexico border. economy. workshops and speakers at this year’s The proposed “fence” is to be built by SHARE IDEAS: Please help us prepare My suggestion for a new name is conference. Professors at Columbia a major military contractor, the Boeing the most effective workshop by talking the “Disgruntled Worker”. I think that Law School have played a key role in corporation. And is in fact military to us and sharing ideas before you get if you put a newspaper in the hands of developing the local anti-sweatshop technology. there… [email protected] the average coffee shop employee that legislation that we are working to Go to Palestine and you will find or 412-241-1339. had the word “disgruntled” in the title, it implement and we have lots of questions “fences” along the borders. You will would elicit an out-loud laugh and might for them. find fences along the border between DONATE: If you can donate money… even get them to read the paper. I’m Representatives from the National Afghanistan and Pakistan. now is a great time to do that because open to other suggestions too. Garment Workers Federation of In fact wherever military conflict we need scholarships to attend this Perhaps the paper could have a Bangladesh and the International occurs, you will find a “fence”. Naturally, conference and money to carry on our contest to decide a good new name? Textile, Garment and Leather Workers resolutions against the proposed fence Community Collective Bargaining with Sincerely, Federation have been invited. were adopted. the Pittsburgh Pirates throughout the FW Jim Kennedy-Hennessey, We are going to meaningfully assess Robert Rice, St. Louis, MO 2007 baseball season at PNC Park. Philadelphia, PA the state of a global apparel industry Industrial Worker IWW directory The Voice of Revolutionary Australia United States Iowa Ohio Industrial Unionism IWW Regional Organising Committee: M. Payne, Arizona Cedar Rapids: Drew Robertson, del., 206-290-9072. Ohio Valley GMB: PO Box 42233, Cincinnati Secretary, PO Box 1866, Albany W.A. [email protected], Phoenix GMB: 1205 E. Hubbell, 85006-1758. 602- Iowa City: Seamus Mulryan, del., 319-248-3589. 45242. IU 660: PO Box 317741, Cincinnati 45231, Organization www.iww.org.au 254-4057. Aaron Rothenburger, del., 480-303-9580. [email protected] [email protected]. education Sydney: PO Box 241, Surry Hills. [email protected] Arkansas Maine Oklahoma Melbourne: PO Box 145, Moreland 3058. melb@ eMancipation Fayetteville: PO Box 283, 72702. 479-200-1859, Norumbega: Barry Rodrigue, del., PO Box 57, Bath Tulsa: Karl Howeth, P. O. Box 213 Medicine Park iww.org.au [email protected]. 04530. 73557, 580-529-3360. Official newspaper of the British Isles California Maryland Oregon Industrial Workers IWW Regional Organising Committee: PO Box Los Angeles GMB: PO Box 65822, 90065. Baltimore IWW: c/o Red Emmaís, 800 St. Paul St., Lane County: 541-953-3741. of the World 1158, Newcastle Upon Tyne NE99 4XL UK, rocsec@ www.eugeneiww.org North Coast GMB: PO Box 844, Eureka 95502-0844. 21202, 410-230-0450, [email protected]. Post Office Box 23085 iww.org.uk, www.iww.org.uk Portland Industrial District Council: 311 N. Ivy St., 707-725-8090. BST Angie Hart: [email protected] Massachusetts Cincinnati OH 45223 USA IWW London: c/o Freedom Press, 84b Whitechapel 97227, 503-231-5488. [email protected] High Street, London E1 7QX. [email protected] Oakland: Evergreen Printing, 2335 Valley Street, Boston Area GMB: PO Box 391724, Cambridge 513.591.1905 • [email protected] Oakland, CA 94612. 510-835-0254 [email protected] 02139. 617-469-5162. Pennsylvania Leicestershire: PO Box 7903, LE3 0WT. klas-batalo@ www.iww.org Lancaster GMB: PO Box 796, 17608. membership@ aol.com www.leicestershire-iww.org.uk San Francisco Bay Area GMB: (Curbside and Western Mass. Public Service IU 650 Branch: IWW, Buyback IU 670 Recycling Shops; Stonemountain IU Po Box 1581, Northampton 01061. LancasterIWW.org, http://LancasterIWW.org General Secretary-Treasurer: Manchester: www.iww-manchester.org.uk 660 Job Shop) PO Box 11412, Berkeley 94712. 510- Western Massachusetts GMB: 43 Taylor Hill Rd., Philadelphia GMB: PO Box 42777, 19101. 215- Mark Damron Scotland 845-0540. Meetings first Thursdays at 7 p.m. (2022 Montague 01351. 413-367-9356. 222-1905. [email protected] Union Hall: 4530 Clydeside GMB: iwwclydeside.mahost.org. Blake St., Berkeley) Baltimore Ave., 19143. General Executive Board: Michigan San Jose: Adam Welch, del. 408-795-9672. email: Paper Crane Press IU 450 Job Shop: papercrane- Mike Bell, Patrick Brenner, Edinburgh IWW: c/o 17 W. Montgomery Place, EH7 Detroit GMB: PO Box 08161, 48208. [email protected] Kevin Farkas, Adam Lincoln, SHA. [email protected] [email protected], 610-358-9496. Grand Rapids GMB: PO Box 6629, 49516. Cole Bryan Roberts, Scott Satter- Santa Barbara GMB: PO Box 23008, 93121. 805- Pittsburgh GMB : PO Box 90315, 15224. Canada Dorsey, secretary, 616-881-5263. white, Richard Seymour 689-3086, [email protected] [email protected] Alberta Central Michigan: David Finet, 5007 W. Columbia Edmonton GMB: PO Box 75175, T6E 6K1. edmon- Colorado Rd., Mason 48854. 517-676-9446, happyhippie66@ Texas Co-Editors: [email protected], http://edmonton.iww.ca. Denver GMB: c/o P&L Printing Job Shop: 2298 Clay, hotmail.com Austin GMB: PO Box 650011, 78765. waterloowob@ Peter Moore & Mike Pesa Denver 80211. 303-433-1852. monkeywrenchbooks.org, 512-320-8427. British Columbia Minnesota Four Corners (AZ, CO, NM, UT): delegate: 970-903- [email protected] Vancouver IWW: PO Box 4755, Stn. Terminal, V6B Twin Cities GMB: PO Box 14111, Minneapolis 55414. Utah 8721. [email protected] Contributions welcome. 4A4. 604-682-3269 x8493. [email protected] 612- 339-1266. [email protected] Salt Lake City GMB: PO Box 520835, 84152-0835. Next deadline is March 9. http://vancouver.iww.ca. Florida [email protected]. Missouri Gainesville GMB: 1021 W. University, 32601. 352- Manitoba Kansas City GMB: c/o 5506 Holmes St., 64110. Washington US IW address: 246-2240, [email protected] POB 13476, Philadelphia Winnipeg GMB: IWW, c/o WORC, PO Box 1, R3C 2G1. 816-523-3995. Bellingham: P.O. Box 1793, 98227. BellinghamI- [email protected]. Garth Hardy, del., garth. Pensacola GMB: 610 E Wright St., 32501. 850-429- [email protected] 360-920-6240. PA 19101 USA Montana [email protected]. 0336. www.angelfire.com/fl5/iww iwwpensacola@ Construction Workers IU 330: Dennis Georg, del. Industrial Transportation Project: Arthur J Miller, yahoo.com PO Box 5464, Tacoma 98415-0464. Canada IW address: Ontario 406-490-3869, [email protected] Hobe Sound: Peter Shultz, 8274 SE Pine Circle, Olympia GMB: PO Box 2775, 98507. 360-956-9256. PO Box 52003, 298 Dalhousie St, Ottawa-Outaouais GMB: PO Box 52003, 298 33455-6608, 772-545-9591, okiedogg2002@yahoo. New Jersey Dalhousie St. K1N 1S0, 613-225-9655 Fax: 613- [email protected] Ottawa, ON K1N 1S0 com Central New Jersey GMB: PO Box: 10021, New 274-0819, [email protected] French-language del: Brunswick 08904. 732-979-9973 xaninjurytoallx@ Seattle GMB: 1122 E. Pike #1142, 98122-3934. Mathieu Brule [email protected]. Georgia ISSN 0019-8870 yahoo.com 877-815-5684, www.seattleiww.org. Periodicals postage Peterborough: c/o PCAP, 393 Water St. #17, K9H 3L7, Atlanta: Keith Mercer, del., 404-992-7240, iw- Northern New Jersey GMB: PO Box 844, Saddle Spokane: Tim Hill, 509-218-9622. paid Philadelphia PA. 705-749-9694, [email protected] [email protected] Brook 07663. 201-873-6215. [email protected] Wisconsin Toronto GMB: c/o Libra Knowledge & Information Hawaiíi Madison GMB: PO Box 2442, 53703-2442. www. Postmaster: Send address New Mexico Svcs Co-op, PO Box 353 Stn. A, M5W 1C2. 416-925- Honolulu: Tony Donnes, del., 808-547-2042. madisoniww.info. Lakeside Press IU 450 Job Shop: changes to IW, Post Office Box 7250. [email protected] [email protected] Albuquerque: 202 Harvard SE, 87106-5505. 505- 331-6132, [email protected]. 1334 Williamson, 53703. 608-255-1800. www. 23085, Cincinnati OH 45223 USA Finland Illinois lakesidepress.org. Madison Infoshop Job Shop: 1019 Helsinki: Reko Ravela, Otto Brandtintie 11 B 25, Chicago GMB: PO Box 18387, 3750 N. Kedzie, 60618. New York Williamson St. #B, 53703. 608-262-9036. SUBSCRIPTIONS 00650. [email protected] phone: 312-638-9155. NYC GMB: PO Box 7430, JAF Station, New York City Two Degrees Coffeeshop Job Shop: 307 W. Johnson 10116, [email protected]. Jim Crutchfield, I.U. Individual Subscriptions: $15 Carbondale: Jason Leonard, Southern Illinois St., 53703. 608-257-7888. Just Coffee Job Shop: Germany 650, [email protected]. Library Subs: $20/year delegate. [email protected]. www.justcoffee.net. Union dues includes subscription. IWW Kontakts: Lutz Getzschmann, IWW c/o RMB- Upstate NY GMB: PO Box 235, Albany 12207, Central Ill.: PO Box 841, Charleston 61920. 217- GDC Local #4:P.O. Box 811, 53701. 608-262-9036. Infoladen, Hamburger Allee 35, 60486 Frankfurt am 518-833-6853 or 861-5627. www.upstate-nyiww. Published eleven times per year. Main. [email protected] 356-8247 Railroad Workers IU 520: Ron Kaminkow,PO Box Articles not so designated do not org. [email protected], Rochelle Semel, 3010, Madison 53704, 608-358-5771.eugene_v_ Frankfurt: [email protected]. Champaign: David Johnson, 217-356-8247. reflect the IWW’s official position. del, PO Box 172, Fly Creek 13337, 607-293-6489, [email protected]. Koeln: [email protected]. Waukegan IWW: PO Box 274, 60079. [email protected]. Milwaukee GMB: PO Box 070632, 53207. 414- Press Date: Feb. 20, 2007 Munich: [email protected] 481-3557. March 2007 • Industrial Worker • Page  Anti-Sweatshop Activists Crash PiratesFest 2007 By x361200 down after realizing that IWW unionists officials were hunting the Wobblies. and supporters were unwilling to negoti- Charging into the private staff area, On January 28th, IWW members ate away their constitutional rights. This we found Patty Paytas. Visibly enraged and Friends of Labor infiltrated the diversionary tactic lulled officials into a at our presence amongst their precious Pittsburgh Convention Center floor dur- false sense of security, providing cover core consumers and displaying what can ing Pirates Fest 2007, announcing April for those inside the Convention Center only be described as an occupational pet- 14th as Union Solidarity Night at PNC who did not believe that the Pirates had tiness, Patty announced that we were not Park and informing fans, employees, any right to protect the die-hard element permitted to discuss the daily brutali- and press about sweatshop exploitation of their consumer market from unpleas- ties inflicted upon workers in the supply in factories sewing our hometown logo. ant realities regarding the home team’s chain connected to the Pirates profits Pirates Fest is the annual kickoff for the profit margins. in general and her salary in particular. baseball season, a staged media specta- After casing the event floor inside, Friend of Labor and community orga- cle for the family designed as a promo- activists set out to distribute media re- nizer Crystal Gamet graciously thanked tional vehicle for ticket sales. Through leases to ticketing staff, Pirates employ- Patty for the “small, small steps you have No Sweatshops, Bucco! skillful coordination and superior cun- ees, and press organizations, the whole already taken for Human Rights,” while Members of the Pittsburgh IWW ning the Pittsburgh IWW rendered the time watching each other’s backs and instructing her that it was time for “some are now signing up baseball fans for event a textbook example of the Wobbly giving away anti-sweatshop ‘baseball larger ones.” IWW action participants Union Solidarity Night @ PNC Park tradition of creative direct action, educa- cards’ to fans. Having yet to encounter held their ground admirably, inviting the April 14 when the Pirates play the Gi- tion, and international solidarity. any unwelcome scrutiny, we made our award-winner to join them at the ball- ants. A possible theme for the nights is Members of the Pittsburgh IWW and way to the merchandise booth to gather park on April 14 and delivered to her and “Sweatshops: The Global Economy on the Pittsburgh Anti-Sweatshop Com- data on Pirates apparel produced in other team officials a letter requesting Steroids.” Members of the IWW invite munity Alliance have been talking about Vietnam, Bangladesh, Peru, Thailand, information about group ticket prices Pirates Fans to “register” their favor- sweatshops at PNC Park for years. and elsewhere. While performing this and an anti-sweatshop message on the ite items of Pirates apparel for us to “Fans tell us that they expect their reconnaissance the effectiveness of the jumbotron. research using the Workers Rights team to be accountable for the factories diversionary tactic became apparent, as As we were congratulating Patty for Consortium factory database. sewing our hometown apparel, but they the merchandise staff proceeded to have being the “Communicator of the Year” want to know more,” said IWW orga- a loud conversation about the activities and taking our leave, Friend of Labor nizer Kenneth Miller. “It’s about time outside without noticing the not-so- Hannah Thompson said “We hope you Union officer that labor unions combined a night out discreet behavior of those of us right in will be as diligent in investigating and at PNC Park with some education about front of their face. correcting workers’ rights violations salaries compete the Pirates’ sweatshop profiteering. We “The diversionary tactic worked in the Pirates supply chain as you are are confident that local manufactur- brilliantly. The Pirates thought they had upholding the rules of distributing ma- for organizing funds ing workers will understand the need the situation under control, but we were terials to fans on the Convention Center Organizing funds are being stifled to create solidarity relationships with smarter than that,” said Fellow Worker floor.” With that Patty turned tail, no by massive salary increases for union workers in other parts of the world. We Laney Trautman. doubt furiously pondering how she could officers, according to information filed cannot be competitive with people whose have been so easily outwitted. under the Labor Management Reporting human rights are systematically violated Confronting officials Pirates Fest 2007 was a brilliant and Disclosure Act. at work.” Following some anti-sweatshop tactical success and alerted our home Between the years 2000 and 2004 photo-ops, the inside team attempted to team that the IWW will be coming to (the latest year where complete data Creating a diversion deliver a letter to Patty Paytas, Vice- the ballgame on April 14th, demanding is available) the number of union of- answers about sweatshops. During the Pittsburgh Pirates and Conven- President of Communications for the ficers and staffers making more than All-Star game in Pittsburgh last year the tion Center officials were informed that Pittsburgh Pirates, recent recipient of $100,000 a year more than doubled and Pirates committed themselves to “devote leaflets regarding sweatshop exploitation the Renaissance Communicator of the those making over $150,000 increased serious and proper attention” to evi- in Major League Baseball’s supply chain Year award and PASCA’s Human Rights by 84 per cent. dence of sweatshop exploitation in their would be distributed to fans entering All Star. By this time the Convention According to a table compiled by supply chain. Their follow up has been Pirates Fest. Despite the advance notice, Center floor had been subjected to an Labor Notes, the four highest paid union unacceptable. event security threatened participants hour of sweatshop education, and sym- officials in the U.S. (excluding pro sports until the authorities were forced to back pathetic employees had warned us that and film production unions) are Donald Doser of IUOE ($775,279), Douglas Dor- Preamble of the IWW Constitution ity of UFCW ($633,793), John Bowers of The working class and the employing Join the IWW Today ILA ($568,023) and Terence O’Sullivan class have nothing in common. There can he IWW is a union for all workers, a union dedicated to organizing on the of LIUNA ($457,120). be no peace so long as hunger and want job, in our industries and in our communities both to win better conditions These figures are for salary alone. are found among millions of working T today and to build a world without bosses, a world in which production and When other forms of compensation are people and the few, who make up the em- distribution are organized by workers ourselves to meet the needs of the entire popu- factored in, the price tag is even higher. ploying class, have all the good things of lation, not merely a handful of exploiters. With so much of members’ dues life. Between these two classes a struggle We are the Industrial Workers of the World because we organize industrially going to line the pockets of bureaucrats, must go on until the workers of the world ­– that is to say, we organize all workers on the job into one union, rather than divid- little is left over for organizing expenses. organize as a class, take possession of the ing workers by trade, so that we can pool our strength to fight the bosses together. Labor Notes reporter Mark Brenner means of production, abolish the wage Since the IWW was founded in 1905, we have recognized the need to build a truly found that “based on the 2004 data, a system, and live in harmony with the international union movement in order to confront the global power of the bosses $100,000 salary cap coupled with a ban earth. and in order to strengthen workers’ ability to stand in solidarity with our fellow on multiple salaries would free up $170 We find that the centering of the man- workers no matter what part of the globe they happen to live on. million a year, while a cap of $150,000 agement of industries into fewer and fewer We are a union open to all workers, whether or not the IWW happens to have would save $51 million. Capping to- hands makes the trade unions unable to representation rights in your workplace. We organize the worker, not the job, recog- tal compensation at $100,000 would cope with the ever-growing power of the nizing that unionism is not about government certification or employer recognition employing class. The trade unions foster free up close to $300 million, while a but about workers coming together to address our common concerns. Sometimes a state of affairs which allows one set of $150,000 cap would save $86 million.” this means striking or signing a contract. Sometimes it means refusing to work with workers to be pitted against another set Added together this money could of workers in the same industry, thereby an unsafe machine or following the bosses’ orders so literally that nothing gets done. triple the AFL-CIO’s organizing budget helping defeat one another in wage wars. Sometimes it means agitating around particular issues or grievances in a specific at a time when union membership con- Moreover, the trade unions aid the employ- workplace, or across an industry. tinues to decrease. ing class to mislead the workers into the Because the IWW is a democratic, member-run union, decisions about what issues belief that the working class have interests to address and what tactics to pursue are made by the workers directly involved. in common with their employers. TO JOIN: Mail this form with a check or money order for initiation and IWW Publishes These conditions can be changed and your first month’s dues to: IWW, Post Office Box 23085, Cincinnati OH the interest of the working class upheld 45223, USA. Spanish Newspaper only by an organization formed in such Initiation is the same as one month’s dues. Our dues are calculated ac- The IWW published the first issue a way that all its members in any one in- cording to your income. If your monthly income is under $1,000, dues are of Solidaridad, the IWW’s new Span- dustry, or all industries if necessary, cease ish-language newspaper, in late Janu- work whenever a strike or lockout is on in $6 a month. If your monthly income is between $1,000 - $2,000, dues are ary. Stories include the IWW warehouse any department thereof, thus making an $12 a month. If your monthly income is over $2,000 a month, dues are $18 a workers’ struggle in New York, news injury to one an injury to all. month. from the CNT union in Spain and an up- Instead of the conservative motto, “A o I affirm that I am a worker, and that I am not an employer fair day’s wage for a fair day’s work,” we date on the situation in Oaxaca, Mexico. must inscribe on our banner the revolu- o I agree to abide by the IWW constitution This first issue was a great success. tionary watchword, “Abolition of the wage o I will study its principles and acquaint myself with its purposes. The editorial collective of Solidaridad is system.” seeking writers for the next issue, dead- It is the historic mission of the work- Name:______line March 18. ing class to do away with capitalism. The Address:______Articles in Spanish are ideal but army of production must be organized, City, State, Zip, Country:______translators are available so non-Span- not only for the everyday struggle with ish speakers are also welcome to submit capitalists, but also to carry on production Occupation:______articles. In general, limit submissions to when capitalism shall have been over- Phone:______E-mail:______500 words or less. thrown. By organizing industrially we are Amount Enclosed:______Please send email submissions and forming the structure of the new society subscription requests to paulbocking@ within the shell of the old. Membership includes a subscription to the Industrial Worker. gmail.com . Page  • Industrial Worker • March 2007

Yesterday I was demonstrating message there. campaigns that are waged offline. the use of Google ads to a union which You don’t need an account on the People checking out Starbucks on needed to focus attention on a giant Wikipedia to do anything – you can the Wikipedia, to choose an example transnational corporation which is make changes anonymously – but it relevant to this union, will find exactly attempting to smash a local union in helps and adds some credibility if you do the kind of effort we are looking for. The south-west Asia. (I won’t give any sign up and, in essence, sign what you sub-section of Wikipedia’s Starbucks details here for reasons that may become do. So I signed in, having earlier set up page entitled “Labor disputes” includes readily apparent in a moment.) an account there. a paragraph which begins, “Since 2004, We went to Google, placed our ad, We went into a section of the page Starbucks employees at several locations and were delighted to see within minutes about this company, and entered a single in New York City and Chicago have that anyone searching for that company, paragraph, filled with links to the union joined the Industrial Workers of the or its flagship product, or even the website, pointing out that this company World labor union, calling themselves name of the country where they were has been engaged in union-busting in the IWW Starbucks Workers Union.” A new online attempting to smash a union, would see this country in 2007. And the Starbucks Workers Union our ad appearing on top of the Google A second or two later, our account is, in turn, a separate page on the battleground for search results. of what had happened was live on the Wikipedia. All unions and campaigning But we noticed one other thing too. Wikipedia. If you were looking up this organizations should follow this model. union campaigns The first three search results reported company or its most famous product on Second, we should be aware of, by Google were official, company-owned Google, this is the first page you’d find and sensitive to, how a free, open- Several years ago, shortly after it was websites. But the fourth was the listing in its listings after the official company source, volunteer-based project like the launched I looked into Google’s key- for this company on the Wikipedia, the pages. Wikipedia works. We should create word-based online advertising as a tool online encyclopedia. The story doesn’t end there, accounts and make our changes under for trade union campaigns. In other words, anyone looking however. As this is a very well-known our own names, not anonymously. We I thought it seemed a really good for information on this company or company, the pages on the wikipedia are should pay attention to Wikipedia’s idea, tested it, and promoted its use to its well-known products would likely constantly being edited and reviewed by unique syntax, making sure that our unions. visit the page on the Wikipedia. If only volunteers. Within 24 hours, our change change and additions to pages are Today, I think that more and more there were a way we could put our own had disappeared – not because the written as they should be, with proper unions and campaigning organizations message there ... company censored it, but because we’d links. No other volunteer should have to recognize that by using Google ads, we I smile as I type this. Anyone who put it on the page devoted to criticizing come in an clean up our mess. can send out a subversive message about knows anything about the Wikipedia the company’s product, not the company Third, we cannot simply post and corporations at a very low price to a very knows that unlike more traditional itself. forget, as the first example I gave large audience. encyclopedias, this one is based on the That, it turns out, is another page showed. Either because we’ve made But if we think of Google ads as the technology of Wikis – meaning that entirely – now updated with the original a mistake (for example, posting to the final word in using the net to promote anyone who can read a page can write to text we used. wrong page) or because someone is our campaigns, we are kidding ourselves. it. It’s entirely user-controlled. I learned a few things from this trying to censor us, we have to monitor Using our imaginations, we can find So while demonstrating the use of experience. regularly whether the change we made is many more ways, often free of charge, Google ads to my colleague yesterday, I First, we should always incorporate still there. to counter the dominant pro-corporate suggested that we click on the link to the the Wikipedia into any online campaigns message and to tell the workers’ side of Wikipedia page about this company – we wage – and even into organizing continued on P. 10 any story. and that we include our own subversive

The game of Credit is a sport actively more subtle is the higher price he pays participated in by most Americans today. for each item in the credit store than he In some of its aspects it resembles a would pay elsewhere. Some customers duel of wits. In other respects it’s a blind don’t play a fair game, you know, so all gamble, elevated to a plain of respect- the other customers must compensate ability by common practice. for the consequent loss to Business. Be- The game is indulged in by grown-up sides, all of Business’ little helpers—the children with a nostalgic yearning for typists, file clerks, phone clerks, corre- pampered nursery days when they yelled spondents, interviewers, checkers—must for immediate gratification of all their be paid a token for their services. That is, whims. Now, instead of yelling for candy, Customer must pay. they stock their homes with furniture, Rule #3 is the Rule of Forfeiture. hang new clothes in their closets, park Now the game of Credit gets rough. The shiny deluxe autos in their garages right artful dodge is a maneuver tried by a few now—and pay later. customers when they (1) lose their jobs Like chess and poker, Credit adopts a and (2) become fully conscious of what set of rules, an elaborate formula which has happened to them in steps #1 and the players apply most studiously. There #2 of the game. They moved to another are two contestants, Business and the address—with partly paid-for furniture, Consumer. One of the parties in this con- clothes, auto—and refuse to answer the test lays down the rules of the game for doorbell. the other party. This appears a bit unfair But Business is also resourceful. to the spectator. Most players, however, The climax of the credit game is the accept this as a normal arrangement. most dramatic, the most challenging to Rule #1 is Psychological Condition- skill. While this lively contest between ing. In order to lure the prospective Business and Consumer is in progress, customer into the store and induce him many minor functionaries are busy to consent to play this one-sided game, behind the scenes. An elaborate intelli- Business must plant all kinds of snares. gence system gathers facts, reports data. Subtle advertising in press and TV, Paper work stacks up. Phones jingle. alluring window display aesthetically File clerks, those guardians of the secret arranged under soft violet lights inveigle archives of Business, track down per- him inside where experienced clerks and sonal information. The skip tracer, and credit personnel take him in hand. From finally the sheriff join the contest on the them he learns the apparent advantage side of Business. The chase is close, with to be derived from shopping without Consumer darting around corners and paying cash, of paying later, month by Business in hot persuit. There comes the weary month. A charming girl presents day when Consumer feels a tap on his him with a metal charge account plate shoulder. Someone whispers, “The game or attractive card—his membership on is up”. the team playing Credit. Now he is in, he Business has one last ploy: Credit becomes a regular fellow, a Solid Citizen. rating. This little device delivers the coup Rule #2 is the Concealed Penalty. It de grâce. It marks Consumer forever as is a slightly veiled factor not stressed in a bad risk, a cheat. He is odd man out. the suave circles of the credit office. The Nobody will play Credit with him. Now, service charge is an appendage attached are you ready to play? to the convenient lump sum Customer pays at the end of the month. Even March 2007 • Industrial Worker • Page  Leicestershire IWW Joins Protest Against Deporting 50 Kurds to Iraq By X352032 war and terrorism,” said Blow, “but I precarious service sector jobs. Accord- Leicester, U.K. – Saturday, Febru- “I never hear them complaining never hear them complaining about ing to one local IWW organizer with con- ary 10, 2007 – Between 250-300 Iraqi the politicians and capitalists who get tacts in the Kurdish community, some Kurds, supporters and curious spectators about the politicians and capitalists rich from the misery they’ve caused in workers routinely are earning below gathered in front of the historic clock who get rich from the misery those same countries.” Meanwhile other minimum wage. tower in Leicester’s bustling city centre they’ve caused in those same members of the branch, situated around The Leicestershire IWW will con- in a spirited rally, chanting slogans, wav- the IWW banner (the only union banner tinue to organize amongst the many ing placards and heating up an otherwise countries.” present) distributed 200 bilingual Eng- ethnic working class sectors of the region damp, chilly afternoon. lish/Arabic IWW leaflets to the crowd. in order to improve wages and working The demonstration, organized by the Like many ethnic groups and newly conditions by building workers’ power International Federation of Iraqi Refu- increasing numbers of displaced people, arrived immigrants in Leicester, Iraqi- on the shop floor through solidarity gees in conjunction with protests in Lon- unemployment, and inadequate housing. Kurds are often employed in low-wage, unionism. don and Manchester, denounced New Members of the Leicestershire IWW Labour’s plan to forcibly deport over 50 General Membership Branch joined the recently detained Kurdish asylum seek- demonstrators in solidarity, condemning NYC warehouse workers need solidarity ers back to war-torn Iraq on a “charter the callous policy of deporting refugees Immigrant flight”, scheduled to depart on February from England to a country that the Brit- warehouse work- 12. The detainees are being held at Royal ish armed forces helped to destabilize. ers at Sunrise Plus, Air Force Brize Norton military base in Branch Secretary Rob Blow gave a Top City, Handy- Oxfordshire. rousing, well-received speech, linking fat, Amersino and Aside from the obvious danger of the plight of the asylum seekers to the Big Giant Apple living under the U.S./British occupation, neoliberal economic system that allows in New York City the asylum seekers also face sectarian capital to move freely across borders are waging a violence by various extremist groups and while severely restricting the free move- courageous battle political factions, food and water short- ment of people. “Politicians and the against poverty ages, a lack of proper medical facilities, newspapers complain about asylum wages and sweat- and an uncertain existence in a politi- seekers and are keen to send them back shop-like condi- cally unstable region characterized by to countries devastated by dictatorship, tions. Despite the bosses’ best at- tempts to crush the General Strikes in Guinea, Zimbabwe union, the struggle Guinean president orders Zimbabwean unions set deadline continues. Recent- ly the union has or- crackdown The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade ganized three large demonstrations The Guinean president has ordered Unions (ZCTU) has given the govern- and is picketing martial law in response to a general ment until February 23 to address work- and leafleting on strike by the country’s union movement. ers’ grievances or face a nationwide gen- an ongoing basis. The unionists want the president’s eral strike. The government has a history After December’s resignation. of using military force to crush strikes. mass firings, there This latest strike follows an 18- Last September ZCTU Secretary General is an urgent need day strike in January that forced the Wellington Chibebe and about 30 other for financial sup- president to promise he would hand over union leaders were severely beaten and port. Many people have given generous- power to the prime minister. He broke tortured by police for attempting to or- Send financial contributions to: ly, but so far the union has only raised his promise, said union leaders, by nam- ganize peaceful demonstrations. Yet the New York City Industrial Workers of only about one tenth of the money they ing a man too close to him. More than 50 threat of repression did little to quell the the World, P.O. Box 8266, J.A.F. Station, had to pay out. The shortage has been people died when troops opened fire on mounting pressure for a general strike. New York, NY 10116. made up out of some individual workers’ protesters in January. Doctors are already on strike, refusing to Or, you can contribute on-line pockets and we’d like to pay them back. So far, clashes between the army work for wages that are worthless thanks through PayPal by making a payment The NYC General Membership Branch of and strikers have reportedly killed nine to inflation. State-employed electricians to [email protected], at www.paypal. the IWW is asking everyone who hasn’t people in the capital, Conakry. and tobacco workers are also threaten- com. You can also sign up on PayPal for yet made a donation to step up and give Corruption allegations and a percep- ing to strike. The teachers union has a monthly, automatic payment in any whatever they can. tion the president is too sick with diabe- announced a slow-down, which organiz- amount that’s manageable for you. Please show some solidarity for our tes to rule are factors in the unrest. ers warn could escalate into a full-scale Thank you for your support! strike. The government has yet to reply. fellow workers in New York. Smithfield Meatpackers Walk Out For MLK Day Immigration raids against undocu- and other attempts to crush their United and his commitment to workers rights. these workers are “unlikely to complain mented workers continue to reinforce an Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW)- The leaflets explain that King was assas- or challenge authority, to file lawsuits, atmosphere of fear and repression in the affiliated organizing committee. sinated while supporting a sanitation organize unions or fight for their legal meatpacking industry. One month after workers strike in Memphis, Tennessee. rights. They tend to be poor, vulnerable a massive raid on nearly 1,300 workers Jesus or King? According to UFCW organizer Edu- and fearful. From the industry’s point at Swift & Co., Immigration and Cus- The MLK Day dispute was the lat- ardo Peña, the educational work paid off. of view, they are ideal workers: Cheap, toms Enforcement (ICE) has arrested 21 est chapter to unfold in this ongoing “We’ve got Latino workers here largely interchangeable and disposable.” immigrant workers at Smithfield Foods struggle. On January 9, Smithfield Vice ready to walk out for the holiday,” Peña If Smithfield workers get their way, in Tar Heel, North Carolina. President Larry Johnson refused to ac- told journalist William Johnson. they will establish a historic precedent Many workers believe the raid is in cept a petition by workers to have King’s “I hear them saying things like, and usher in a new era of hope for others retaliation for a walkout staged by work- birthday off as a paid holiday. Accord- ‘People assume that we don’t know who in their situation. To do this, they must ers on Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK) ing to Smithfield worker Keith Ludlum, King was—his struggle was the same face not only their bosses but also the Day. Johnson argued that workers already struggle we’re going through now’.” might of the federal government. Only On January 15, 400-500 Smithfield made their choice when they were re- For their solidarity, the Latino/a through solidarity will this be possible. workers—who are engaged in a long- cently told to vote on whether they could workers were rewarded with an immi- standing unionization struggle--refused have a paid holiday for Martin Luther gration raid, which took place on Janu- to work, protesting the company’s King Day or Easter. The workers chose ary 24. Subscribe to the decision not to give them the day off in Easter. This explanation, however, did Although ICE spokespeople told the Industrial Worker today honor of King. Many of the workers also Associated Press that the workers were not satisfy the workers. Subscriptions are $15 per year. attended a rally the same day. “What we’re telling the company,” arrested on “administrative immigra- Many other workers signed a peti- tion charges”, Peña and others suspect Enclosed: $15 for 1 year said Ludlum, “is they’re asking us to $_____ donation to IW Sustaining Fund tion demanding that the company honor that Smithfield Foods colluded with the choose between Jesus and Martin Luther $15, bundle of 5 for 6 issues MLK day but refrained from walking out King. We think they’re both important government to orchestrate the raid in (ask about special IWW member rates or non-US because the company publicly and pri- and we should honor both of them.” retaliation for the walkout. subscription rates) vately threatened to fire them if they did. During the lead up to the MLK Day After the walkout Smithfield recanted action, organizers worked to mend the Breaking the silence Name: ______this threat, lending credibility to the rift that existed between Smithfield’s The Smithfield struggle poses a Address:______union. Smithfield workers continue to black and Latino/a workers (the latter of serious threat to meat industry bosses City/State:______organize and assert their right to form a whom make up the majority of the work- because it represents a break from the union. force). Spanish-language leaflets were longstanding tradition of submission Postal Code: These workers have withstood illegal distributed to educate recent immigrants among meatpackers. According to a send to: Industrial Worker Distribution firings, beatings, threats, racist epithets about the legacy of Martin Luther King 2001 article in Mother Jones magazine, PO Box 23085, Cincinnati OH 45223 USA Page  • Industrial Worker • March 2007 SEIU Stern Wants Wal-Mart as Partner Strange bedfellows or dream match?

In a recent interview with the Wall understand their competitive issues and Street Journal, SEIU President and try to add value, not create problems.” Change to Win co-founder Andy Stern He added: “Unions need to appreciate dismissed the idea of organizing Wal- there are ways in which we add value Mart workers in the United States. and can be helpful. This is especially the “We have not been trying to orga- case in relation to healthcare. The em- nize them but to change their business ployer-based healthcare system is dead. model,” said Stern. It’s a relic of the industrial economy, and Going back on earlier statements it makes corporations unable to compete made when he was still part of the AFL- fairly when America is the only country CIO, Stern argued that a traditional that asks its employers to put the price of organizing drive at Wal-Mart would be healthcare on the cost of its products.” Press. According to the AP, “Wal-Mart Burger had written a public letter to destined for failure, citing the company’s To execute this plan, Stern and CEO Lee Scott said that Wal-Mart is not the Congressional Black Caucus, blast- incredible size and rabidly anti-union Wal-Mart have announced a health care committed to spending more on health- ing them for participating in a joint management team. “partnership” along with Intel Corp., care or making any immediate prom- fundraiser with Wal-Mart. According to His solution? If you can’t beat ‘em, AT&T and Kelley Services Inc. The goal ises to provide health coverage to more the report, Burger wrote the letter “to join ‘em. of the partnership is ostensibly to push workers.” express SEIU’s disappointment that the “I think Wal-Mart has the opportu- for universal health care coverage, pre- Labor activists are criticizing this Congressional Black Caucus has given nity to create an entirely new model of sumably by placing the financial burden plan as little more than a PR gift from Wal-Mart an opportunity to fashion a worker representation,” Stern said in the on taxpayers. Stern to Wal-Mart, the world’s largest false image as a friend of African Ameri- January 22 interview. “The question is, Wal-Mart, notorious for its expen- union buster. Stern’s statements are a cans and of working people generally by do they want partners?” sive and inadequate healthcare plan shocking about-face from the strong organizing the April 27 joint fundraiser.” Removing any doubts about what (which many of its employees cannot anti-collaboration stance that SEIU took Now Stern and his cohorts have a lot this meant, Stern explained: “We must even afford), has proposed “no specific toward Wal-Mart less than two years of explaining to do. The key question he try to be partners with our employers, policies…to achieve this goal”, according ago. On May 15, 2005 the Washington must answer from the labor movement who have told us we should change and to a February 7 report by the Associated Post reported that SEIU leader Anna is: “Which side are you on?” Harley-Davidson Workers Locked Out

By x355028 enterprise. Now the company wants about the situation. They talked about And it is true: Most Americans love concessions from workers while it is how top CEOs are making astronomi- Harleys; it is part of our culture. I wish Union workers at a Harley-Davidson making record profits. They want to cal salaries but won’t even provide their the company could see that and under- Motorcycles plant in York, Pennsylvania start new employees at a lower wage and employees with free health care. stand they are making themselves look went on strike on Friday, February 2nd. make current employees start paying for Harley is making more money than bad when they are not supporting their The strike was scheduled to begin Friday health care. The International Associa- ever and they want to start taking away employees. at 12:01am. tion of Machinists and Aerospace Work- from their workers. That’s a slap in the What kind of image are they setting On Thursday morning workers were ers Local 175 voted to strike. The strike face to the workers. Workers are the for themselves? Is this American to have surprised to find that they were locked passed by a 98 percent margin. backbone of any industry. They do most a profitable business and not offer a fair out when they arrived to work. When the The Lancaster General Member- of the work and reap less of the profits. If wage or free health care to your employ- company heard the union was prepar- ship Branch of the Industrial Workers you work for a company as large as Har- ees? I am proud of the workers of Harley ing to strike, they locked the gates and of the World visited these hard-working ley-Davidson there is no reason in the for standing up for themselves. You put a shut down the plant. And so begins women and men at the picket line. When world that you can’t give your employees lot on the line when you decide to strike. yet another story of corporate greed in we arrived at the gate we were greeted health care without making them pay for Workers and their families suffer. It also America. by friendly workers toughing it out in it. takes a lot of strength to stand outside in In the 80’s when Harley-Davidson extremely cold weather. Some made People that work for Harley love the freezing cold temperatures to make your was going through tough times, the little shelters from plywood and tarps to product. They put their heart and soul point. Solidarity to all the workers. Stand union stood by the company and helped contain the heat from kerosene heaters. into it. Harley is as American as apple strong! Don’t settle for a contract that create what is now a very profitable All were very friendly and anxious to talk pie, as one striker put it. isn’t fair. Volkswagen to close factories in Brussells Scottish workers occupy Simclar By Workers Initiative, Poland Closure blamed on inability to compete. workers disagree Volkswagon has decided to move the The employees interpreted the production of the Golf from Brussels to consortium’s actions as an attack on Electronics manufacturer Simclar Mosel and Wolfsburg in Germany. This their life conditions. However, the media Ayrshire fired 450 workers on January “Simclar management means that 4,000 out of 5,400 jobs in shows that struggle as a desperate act 29 and closed two factories in Kilwin- have acted more Brussels are threatened by redundancy. against fatality. The background to the ning and Irvine, citing their inability to like Victorian mill A similar fate may await 1,000 jobs in conflict in Belgium is an agreement of compete and claiming bankruptcy in the VW Pamplona, Spain and VW Palmela in the German trade unions to extend the county. Workers received no notice of owners...” Portugal. official working week from 28.8 to 33 the closures. The VW workers started a sponta- hours for the same wage. The closure is another blow to “Simclar (Ayrshire) had a full order neous strike in response. The Workers’ Currently, the trade unions in the Scotland’s manufacturing industry. book for the next 9 months with exist- Initiative organized the leaflets action in consortium do everything to make the “Simclar management have acted ing customers such as NCR & Motorola solidarity with the workers’ struggle in radical fight impossible. They focus dis- more like Victorian mill owners than re- quoting for new business. We had just December, distributing more than 2,000 cussion on trivial items at the negotiat- sponsible 21st century business people,” won a major order to supply 150 sheet leaflets. ing level, thus revealing their acceptance said Willie Paterson, the regional secre- metal parts to Alcatel-Lucent, a major The strike began on November 17. of the pending job cuts. tary for the workers’ union, Community. supplier to the telecommunications On November 21 the workers started a On a company-wide, transnational At least 20 workers responded by industry for the global market. […] Does sit-in in the factory in order to prevent scale, the rhetoric of the trade unions occupying the Kilwinning factory on this really sound to you like a company the transport of products and machines. shows only a narrow national concern February 2 during a picket of the factory. facing ‘challenging business conditions?” In the talks with the trade unions, VW and not a focus on the welfare of all Workers occupied the factory to prevent Since the end of the occupation, refused to make any promises. The Volkswagon workers internationally. the removal and sale of its machinery, Community has turned to lobbying unions solicited good conditions for the Certainly, such politics lead to nowhere accusing Simclar of asset stripping and the Scottish Parliament, calling for an early retirement of over-50-year-olds and allows the closing down of one demanding better redundancy pay. investigation into Simclar’s closure of without success. factory after another. Taken in a long Community said the occupation the plants. It has also issued an appeal On a meeting on November 23 VW term perspective, the company’s actions helped highlight the “despicable way” for solidarity donations to help the fired workers in Brussels decided to continue threaten all European jobs. Simclar treated them, although it re- workers whose last pay is mired in bank- the strike until the middle of December. That’s why the only way is the mains unclear why the union called it off ruptcy proceedings. On December 2, there was an interna- resistance against national trade unions so quickly. Community has 34,528 members in tional union demonstration in Brussels boundaries and leading common fight Simclar workers on simclarthetruth. the United Kingdom. with between 15,000 (police numbers) on the basis of workers’ self-organizing blogspot.com said that Simclar’s claim and 30,000 (organizers’ numbers) par- above national divisions. of a fall in business making the factories ticipants. unviable is far from the truth. March 2007 • Industrial Worker • Page  Raising a Working-Class Culture Twin Cities IWW provide childcare to include parents, men and women, in the union The example of Kathryn is instruc- tive. Kathryn is a part-time ESL teacher and mother of a two-year old. She is By Erik Davis most vital of labors, radical men tend to FW Jeff Pilacinski of the Twin Cities have more relative freedom to engage in GMB and Industrial Union 620, under- highly active in the radical community of the Twin Cities, though not a wobbly. Building a radical working class cul- public work, union organizing, or activ- stands this project as both an expres- For her, childcare is one of the keys to ture is part of the aim of many activists, ism. By default, men continue to domi- sion of basic worker solidarity and good allowing her to continue to do both her unionists, and workers. For us in the nate our institutions, set our priorities, branch-building strategy. paid labor and her activist work. She Industrial Workers of the World, that and find themselves as the most active “Organizing and building solidarity says that “This program definitely fills idea is actually built into the Preamble members of our union. at your workplace is taxing. With some a need; I often cannot afford to pay for to our constitution. The Preamble states Raising children is both difficult and of our most dedicated branch organiz- childcare, and this program allows me to that “By organizing industrially we are rewarding: it takes endurance, compas- ers being working parents, burnout is accomplish specific tasks or to relax and forming the structure of the new society sion, and a balance of mind that pushes a very real danger for them”, Pilacinski regroup, both things that are harder to within the shell of the old.” But it is not our limits and our buttons! But it also explained. accomplish while with a small child.” only our workplaces that need reorgani- requires resources—food, housing, “Providing some space for IWW par- We have chosen to start small: if this zation and solidarity: it’s also our homes clothing, medicine. Most parents work ents to participate in the class struggle project grows, and shows the results we and families, no matter what they look to meet these requirements. Without and/or recharge is critical for the want and need, we may choose to offer like. Women and single parents are espe- including children and working families continued growth of the One Big Union. it more often. Some of us would cer- cially hard hit by the way in which capi- in our lives we cannot expect our new Between the weight of the bosses and tainly like to. So far, all the volunteers talism considers childrearing a ‘personal culture to grow and sustain itself, or for the incredible responsibilities of parent- for Paidea have been over-committed choice’ with no bearing on employer the lessons we learn to be passed on to hood, this is the least fellow workers can unionists for whom this is yet another, responsibilities. Pregnant women are the next generation. Similarly, children do for one another.” albeit wonderful and different, commit- pressured to leave decent jobs, and after and families without a community to rely There’s nothing unusual about what ment. One of the members is a parent of giving birth find it increasingly difficult on quickly fall away from movements. we do at Paidea: no strange practices or two who has had three nights to himself to find a job that will pay their bills. No We need each other. ‘radical singalongs’ (unless the children in the last two years. We know it’s a parent wants to give up their children, And yet, demands delivered to em- demand them). We’re terribly ‘normal,’ humble beginning, but we hope it’s also but our society makes it intensely dif- ployers are much less likely to include except that we don’t use television to a real one: we know that our community ficult to both have children and care for the ‘feminine’ concerns of rank-and-file pacify the children, and we take children needs to grow, and that we will grow them. This burden falls disproportion- women and parents, and even less likely seriously. We’ve done everything from stronger and more comprehensive as a ately on women. Working women are to receive full union support. Looking read books to play basketball to help union if we support working parents. 41% more likely to live in poverty than around our own local branches, the tutor students with their math home- ‘Paidea: Radical Babysitting,’ hap- men, according to a study published by vast majority of the faces in the meet- work. Volunteers benefit by learning pens on the third Thursday of every policy research center Legal Momentum. ings could grow beards. Wobblies at with and from the children. But the most month. Parents and guardians are Of all the adults living in extreme pov- the General Membership Branch of the important benefit is intended for the encouraged to contact the IWW with erty—defined as making less than half of Twin Cities IWW became increasingly overworked parents who haven’t had questions, come visit and observe, or the poverty standard—sixty percent are concerned about this trend, which is not time to themselves in months—no time reserve a space. We will refuse to accept women. limited to union meetings but crosses for spouses, lovers, friends, or commu- more children than can be handled by Childcare is a part of this problem. the spectrum of unions, activist groups, nity. No time to read or go on a walk. No our volunteers, so reservations are ac- Parents who need to work to pay for and even socializing in public, and began time to soak in a warm bathtub. Once cepted, and will help us plan staffing to housing, clothing, and groceries need to think of ways to address this problem. a month we offer three hours for these accept as many children as we can. We to pay for childcare, and the aver- In Summer 2006 the branch decided to parents to recuperate their sense of self, are always looking for more volunteers age monthly cost of childcare in 2003 mandate that childcare would be avail- so that they can return to their children from the community. Come and see us! was $340. Single women are again hit able at all union events. By September, more energized and prepared, and hope- Please call the Twin Cities IWW with disproportionately by this problem. the branch had drafted and approved a fully remain active in the working class questions at: (612) 339-1266, or email us Although men (like the author of this document outlining expectations of both culture we’re helping to develop. at [email protected]. sentence) may talk a lot about gender union volunteers providing childcare, equality and feminism, we rarely pull and parents bringing their children. We equal weight in the home, whether the hope that by doing this we are starting work involved is the raising of our own to take some small steps toward building children or the doing of the dishes. Even a more robust and sustainable radical in dual-income families, women still workers’ movement. Childcare is pro- do the vast majority of this ‘reproduc- vided at all union meetings and events, tive labor.’ Increasingly, we recognize from business meetings to classes at the importance of supporting parents the new Work People’s College. Since and children within the activist and November, we have also held a monthly union culture. Once they have children, children’s event called “Paidea” - the new parents—especially mothers—of- Greek word for education, and a word ten find themselves marginalized and that implies the development of an au- overworked by the very movements that tonomous culture. This event is currently they helped build. Dependable childcare held only one three-hour period a month is often not provided at events. This is (the last Thursday of each month), but a problem for all parents, but women it’s growing, and bringing our branch are the hardest hit. Across nearly every new attention from groups which had category, women still do the vast bulk of previously not been interested, or not childraising. While women are doing this had the time to get involved. Palestinian union fed faces attacks

The Palestinian General Federation station. Two days later, the PGFTU led a of Trade Unions (PGFTU) suffered mul- march through Ramalah protesting the tiple attacks in late January and early attacks and declaring that they would February. Around 2 AM on January 29, not be silenced. Employee Free Choice Act the home of its Deputy General Secretary “This attack will not silence the Rasem Al Bayari was bombed and shot workers and will not stop our activi- introduced in US Congress at by unknown gunmen. The attackers ties to build structures of the Palestin- A new piece of legislation called the Union leaders are expressing returned the following night. Al Bayari ian state for the benefit of our people Employee Free Choice Act was intro- strong support for the Act. According was reported not injured although the and workers,” the organization said in duced in the House of Representatives to AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, front entrance of his house was de- a statement. Unions and human rights by Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) on the bill brings “fresh hope to millions of stroyed. groups from around the world are calling February 6 with 231 cosponsors and America’s workers who desperately want On February 2, a rocket destroyed on Palestinian President Mahmoud Ab- bipartisan support. and need the free choice to join or form a the PGFTU’s Gaza headquarters and the bas to stop the violence and uphold the The bill would help protect work- union to improve their families’ lives.” federation’s “Voice of Workers” radio rights of Palestinian unionists. ers’ right to form unions and bargain by On the other hand, the binding strengthening penalties for companies arbitration clause—depending on how that coerce or intimidate employees, it is worded in the final version of the Workers Initiative tangles with Polish Post establishing mediation and binding arbi- bill—could represent a threat to workers’ tration when the employer and workers right to strike. Workers’ Initiative in Poland is ac- were threatened with being sacked for cannot agree on a first contract, and Should the Act pass, it is not clear cusing Polish Post (Poczta Polska) of tar- their support of the wildcats and their enabling employees to form unions when whether it will genuinely strengthen geting trade union activists and protest- demands for workers rights. a majority decide to join the union by workers’ rights or merely serve to ers following a series of wildcat strikes Workers’ Initiative has responded signing authorization cards. streamline the collaborationist labor- in November 2006. A well-known strike by promising pickets at post offices in This last provision circumvents the management model advocated by the leader, Bartosz Kantorczyk, was moved Gadansk, Poznan, and Warsaw. They are National Labor Relations Board election business unions and many employers. to another post office, separating him demanding that Kantorczyk be moved process, which can take months or even from his fellow workers. Other activists back to his job. years and generally favors the employer. Page  • Industrial Worker • March 2007 member David Duke. Students protested outside of the conference, calling for Solidarity with Iranian Workers humanist socialism and an end to war and “Sexual Apartheid”. Despite its anti- By John Kalwaic The grassroots movement of labor, fired, and bullied by armed thugs. Bus occupation rhetoric, the Iranian govern- women and student groups only grew workers, who tried to form an indepen- ment has ties to Shi’a Muslim political When Western political pundits larger. And the antics of both grassroots dent labor union known as the Workers parties that support and participate in discuss Iran, it can usually be assumed movements and the reform minded Syndicate of the Tehran and Suburbs the occupied government of Iraq. The that they are talking about the country’s politicians alarmed the new Ayatollah Bus Company (Syndeket Vahed), were invasion and occupation of its neighbor relationship to Israel, the United States, (Ali Khamenei) and the other clerics. As all fired and the leaders were arrested by has increased the Iranian government’s and occupied Iraq. (Discussion of Iran’s a result the clerics banned Khatami and Iranian authorities. These workers were influence in Iraq. nuclear capabilities also falls under this his IIPF party from running for reelec- most likely clamped down upon because category). Even in news sources such as tion (a power afforded to them under they did not go through the state-con- Solidarity, not war the BBC, the political dynamics inside Iran’s theocratic constitution). Instead, trolled House of Labor or the Islamic Activists often forget that when de- Iran are rarely discussed. Yet in recent the only candidates allowed to run for Shoras. fending a country against the immediate times there has been an upsurge of labor president were Rafsanjani EC party and Only recently has the primary leader threat of nuclear war and invasion, they unrest in Iran that rivals that of any Mahmoud Ahmadinijad’s more popu- of the union, Monsour Oslanoo, been re- can still support that country’s workers other country. While we can applaud list (but rigidly fundamentalist) Islamic leased from jail after much international against oppression by their govern- this ongoing worker uprising, we must Society Coalition (ISC). Amudinijad and outcry. There have also been multiple ment. If this element of solidarity is remain mindful that it exists alongside a the ISC won in a landslide victory. attempts to strike this last year. Work- ignored, it leaves wide open the chances great deal of suppression. In the western press this was seen ers who went on strike at a tire factory for right-leaning imperialists to co-opt as a victory of fundamentalism over formed a barricade of burning tires to any seemingly progressive movement reformism with the Iranian masses, and prevent armed thugs from assaulting in that country. It is also important that The Islamic Shoras it might appear so to us at first glance In Iran there is only one official labor them. In December 2006, carpet work- the Western Left keep up its opposition too. However, consider the fact that only union known as the House of Labor. It ers gathered in front of government to any neo-conservative plans to attack two parties were allowed to run: Amu- is controlled by Iran’s theocratic govern- buildings to protest non-payment of or bomb Iran. Imperialist powers will dinijad and the ISC versus Rafsanjani ment. The only other official labor bodies their wages. Many of these workers were often exploit the oppressiveness of an and his ECs. The few people who voted in Iran are the Islamic Shoras: govern- beaten or arrested. anti-western regime in order to vilify the preferred Ahmadinejad and his popu- ment installed worker-management Recently on January 30, workers country. Already British Prime Minister list rhetoric for the poor and peasant mediation committees that most often at Iran’s largest ship building company Tony Blair has been quick to point out classes to Rafsanjani and his neo-liberal side with management. These commit- (Iran Sadra) went on a spontaneous the suppression of Iranian workers when agenda and corrupt politics. In many tees were created by the government to strike to protest the sacking of 38 of his own record of labor rights is poor. ways Bush himself was responsible for co-opt and smash the real Shoras which their colleagues. About 150 workers were They claim to support workers rights this occurrence. After his infamous “War were created by the workers themselves arrested on February 2 after the Sadra against Islamists. But for the Iranian on Terror” and his labeling Iran as part during the 1979 revolution against the management complained to the govern- workers, Islamism is not the issue. The of the “Axis of Evil” the clerics in Iran Shah, as they were deposing the capital- ment that the public order had been issue is the corporate global attack on knew they could stir up nationalist and ist management and putting factories disturbed because of their protest. There workers rights, whether that oppres- religious sentiment against the United under the self-management of the work- are countless other stories of Iranian sion comes from Islamists, Christians States as a way of distracting from issues ers. The new Islamic government found workers not being paid by corporations or neo-liberals. Iranian progressive, at home. this to be as much of a threat as the Shah or getting fired for union actively and labor, women and student groups have did, and replaced them with “Islamic beaten or arrested by police or armed denounced Bush and his attempt at an Shoras” that answered to the govern- Amudinijad shows his true stripes thugs for picket line activity. attack on Iran. It is definitely possible to ment and the factory management. Amudinijad is credited for being President Amudinijad has made show solidarity with the people of Iran There is a good deal of similarity with from a working class background and for repeated statements denying the Holo- without supporting the Iranian govern- this and the way Bolsheviks suppressed redistributing some land to poor peas- caust. This President made a mockery ment. Progressives in the West must and co-opted the Soviets and workers ants. However, his labor record shows of anti-Zionism and anti-imperialism by take a stand against Bush, Amudinijad councils after the Russian Revolution in a different story: Since his ascension to holding a conference at a university in and any other dictator or imperialist 1917. power, repression of labor rights has Tehran where some of the world’s worst oppressor. risen to new levels. Workers who have right wing bigots came to this confer- For more information, visit www.ete- attempted to strike have been arrested, ence including former US Ku Klux Klan hadchap.org/antiwar-sanctions.html Post-revolution politics After the 1979 revolution, the new Islamist government nationalized most of the major industries, which had been Oaxaca on the barricades owned by foreign western corporations under the Shah. However, this did not By “Jaime” PRIistas have yet to attack the house, a Suddenly Chato is yelling. “Hide last after the death of the first Ayatollah fact undoubtedly due to the amounts of (Ruhollah Khomeini). A more moderate yourself!” “It’s gonna be an intense night. We international solidarity (in terms of pub- The truck turned around early. I fol- and clever politician named Akbar Ruf- just found this out that they’re gonna licity and money) that came from people shanjani came into power as president. low him as we race into his parents’ pan- come at us....” around the world, including many IWW try a few doors down. Chato and some He and his Executives of Construction That’s what I wrote on the evening fellow workers. The following is an (ECs) political party set Iran on a neo- of the other youngsters giggle nervously. of Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2006, from the excerpt from a diary entry October 12, They don’t necessarily understand the liberal course for privatization, foreign Santa Lucia del Camino colonia in Oax- 2006. investment, and corporate downsiz- gravity of some of what is happening. aca City. I’d been there since mid-Sep- Later in the night we’ll have to ex- ing. This agenda did not leave room for tember, and, when things started to get any reforms regarding state controlled plain to el comandante why several com- hot, I started sending regular updates to Little Chato will pas won’t be with us for at least a week. labor unions and labor councils. As a friends and compañera/os in the U.S. result, a grassroots movement among soon become Two of them seem to have been targeted On Nov. 1, we discovered, through a during the last police attack, last week, the working class began to form against neighborhood informant, that the same “el comandante”... privatization. This movement began which I wrote about in my last entry. shock groups of PRIistas (loyalists to the He’s probably 12 And they had recently gotten some death to form alliances with professional Institutional Party of the Revolution, or middle class and student groups who years old. threats. They’re were going to leave the PRI) who killed U.S.-based Indymedia state for a while. already despised the clerical regime. journalist Brad Will a block away from The leftist tradition among the work- Back at the snack shop, a little boy my house the week before, had agreed to “Early” evening -- at about 10 pm -- ers had already been marginalized both explains to me and his mother that the “throw out” our house: more than likely, is the most dangerous at the barricades. because of enormous repression by both police truck has stopped at the grassy lot that meant a middle-of-the-night raid, It’s when we’re probably fewest, and it’s the Shah and the clerical regime and maybe a half mile from us. We’ll have to with bricks and guns and pick-up trucks. when we need to set up the barricades because of widespread disillusionment get the barricades up quick. The house in question is the space for the night. It’s when we hang around with Marxist-Leninism following the fall Within a half hour, three big trucks of the Magonista group CIPO-RFM a street corner between the Santa Lucia of the Soviet Union. This gave way to a and buses have been commandeered. (Popular Indigenous Council of Oaxaca and Calicanto neighborhoods, trying somewhat more horizontal rather than One bus driver tried to drive through, – Ricardo Flores Magón). After months to look inconspicuous, waiting for the a vanguard approach, in part leading rather than stop as ordered, and the of peasant, workers, student, and rest of the compañeros to show up. It’s to reform-minded president Mohamed bus was pelted with re-bar and paving neighborhood groups controlling the city the liminal moment when little Chato, Khatami and his Iran Islamic Participa- stones. through popular assemblies, barricades, a neighborhood kid with a Yankees cap, tion Front/Party (IIPF) to be “elected” If the barricade was up down the and occupations, the federal government will soon become “el comandante,” a to power. This president was slightly road, the compas would surely stop the sent in the Federal Preventative Police balaclava’d militant who’s usually in more to the political left than previous bus and detain the driver for a while, to establish “order.” But this violent, re- charge of the walkie talkie. Ayatollah’s and presidents. He loos- perhaps hog-tying him, perhaps strip- pressive, and lawless “order” created an He’s probably 12 years old. ened censorship and repression against ping him, perhaps neither. Most drivers opportunity for the PRIistas to do what The other side attacks when we’re political dissidents, and restrictions on oblige and let us use their trucks as bar- they do best: intimidate, beat, or “dis- weak, and we’re weak when we’re few, the rights of women were relaxed. Unlike ricades, perhaps out of fear but often out appear” anyone who won’t accept their and when our barricades our not yet up Rafsanjani, Khatami did this without of support for the movement. brutal model of statecraft. we’re vulnerable. wholeheartedly embracing the neo-lib- Either way, the twigs and cardboard This insurgency, gestating for years My hooded sweatshirt helps me pass eral agenda. He also attempted to appear in our nightly bonfire were starting to in the villages and colonias of this pov- as a legitimate loiterer, and when a po- more like an advocate for an “Islamic crackle, and in about an hour some erty-stricken, and largely indigenous, lice patrol truck with probably 12 officers democracy.” But many leftist, labor and neighborhood people would probably state, took on its current form after the approaches, I scurry into the little snack student groups viewed him as a usurper bring out coffee, sweet breads, and violent dislodgement of striking teach- shop on the corner. The others -- still and as fake reformer. lemon tea. ers and supporters from the central trying to look inconspicuous -- say it will plaza of Oaxaca City on June 14. The turn around and come back. March 2007 • Industrial Worker • Page  another round of collective bar- gaining in 2007 when contracts Canada’s New Ministers of Class War for more than 130,000 workers expire. Prime Minister Harper said he picked Toews, whom By Eugene Plawiuk “Canada’s new government has been college collected more than $200,000 in he called “an economic conser- listening to employers in Alberta and tuition from Kihew to educate students vative”, because he wanted a skilled The Canadian government recently British Columbia, and they are truly hav- who attended virtually no classes. politician who has the skills to grasp the shuffled ministers, but the mainstream ing a hard time finding enough workers. Auditor General Fred Dunn said details and ‘big picture’ of such a com- overlooked the change that matters The improvements we are announcing in his report on Lakeland’s contract- plex portfolio. most to workers – the appointment of today are making it easier, faster, and ing practices that the former general Outgoing Treasury Board President new ministries in human resources and less costly for employers to hire tem- manager and three people who reported John Baird spent most of his time suck- treasury. porary foreign workers,” said Solberg, to him also failed to follow the college’s ing up to the public sector unions in his This change is the decision to put when he was the Minister of Citizenship policy about who can issue letters to riding, speaking out on their behalf when Monte Solberg in charge of Human Re- and Immigration. Citizenship and Immigration Canada he was in opposition. So he was tainted sources and Social Development Canada Temporary workers are not allowed verifying international student registra- as a tough negotiator. (HRSDC), the ministry responsible the same rights as other workers, includ- tion. As many as 158 letters were sent to That the mainstream media made for labor policy, unemployment, social ing immigrant workers. They are subject the federal agency. no mention of Toews’ appointment benefits and job retraining. This step is a to exploitation by the state and employ- While Solberg cracked down on ‘il- once again illustrates Harper’s master- dangerous one for workers and the trade ers while being used to undermine wages legal’ workers in Canada, in particular ful handling of the media. So it looks union movement in Canada. and working conditions, through no fault Portuguese workers in Toronto’s Con- like Harper is preparing for class war in Monte’s electoral riding was the site of their own. struction industry, he did not declare Ottawa. of last year’s long, ugly labor dispute be- Already scandals around exploitation a general amnesty as was done in the tween Tysons and its largely immigrant of Polish workers in the oil patch have eighties, quite successfully. Instead, he unionized workforce. This was a strike come to light. deported them raising the concerns of US Senate Kills Monte didn’t bother to comment on. A group of 30 Polish welders who Toronto’s Portuguese community – with Minimum Wage Bill “It doesn’t matter whether you’re in say they were brought to work in Canada up to 15,000 undocumented members, Camrose or Calgary, Edson or Edmon- under false pretenses are suing an en- working mainly in the booming con- Giving in to a filibuster by the Re- ton, ‘Help Wanted’ signs are every- ergy services company, Lakeland College struction industry. publican minority, the U.S. Senate has where,” Solberg said. “And you know, and three individuals for more than CDN By placing Monte in charge of Canada’s abandoned the “clean” minimum wage when it starts to affect our ability to go $5.5 million. Human Resources ministry with this bill that was approved by the House of to Tim Horton’s and get a double-double The lawsuit, filed in Edmonton’s agenda to carry forward, Harper is Representatives on January 10th. [coffee], it ceases to be a laughing mat- Court of Queen’s Bench on February 5, rewarding his Western power base, In place of it, the Senate on Febru- ter. It’s a serious issue.” makes two main claims: the Alberta government and its Big Oil ary 1st voted 94-3 to pass a compromise Solberg was in charge of liberalizing - That the men believed they were partners in an attempt to undermine bill that provides for a $2.10 raise in the Canada’s temporary worker program being hired by Kihew Energy Services the building trade unions in Alberta. minimum wage but also includes $8.3 under his Immigration portfolio. Now he Ltd. to work in Alberta as full-time weld- It can only mean more confrontations billion in tax cuts to businesses. Later, can see this liberalization to its logical ers, not full-time students as their visas between the federal government, Big Oil, 28 Senate Republicans even voted to conclusion in his new job. That means said. the Alberta Government and the labour repeal the minimum wage altogether. more flexibility for the employers in the - That once here, they received inad- movement. Now Congress must reconcile the oil patch to hire temporary workers for equate pay for their work, earning $10 The second dangerous appointment two bills in a joint session, but as of Alberta, which they and the Alberta gov- to $12 an hour from Kihew while four the Prime Minister’s second dangerous press time, no date is set. Meanwhile, ernment have lobbied for long and hard. companies contracted with Kihew paid appointment for workers and unions minimum wage workers continue to British Colombia, Alberta and Saskatch- up to $28 an hour for their services. in Canada was Vic Toews as Treasurery struggle to get by on $5.15 per hour. ewan will benefit from a government The court action comes one month Board president. In charge of the public Editors note: The February 2007 program designed to ease regulations after Alberta’s Auditor General raised service. Uh oh. issue of the Industrial Worker featured concerning foreign workers coming into questions around Lakeland College’s Toews takes over the job at a time the headline “Minimum Wage Hike Canada. involvement in the program where the when federal unions are gearing up for Passes”. The headline should have read “Minimum Wage Hike Passes House of Representatives”. Ontario Labor Federation US Union Numbers Slip The US Labor Department reported union membership declined last year, Campaigns for $10 Minimum Wage continuing a decades-long downward trend. The report said that labor unions By Marc B. Young These sorts of mobilizations/infor- Unionists and NDP politicians, who lost 326,000 members in 2006, reduc- mation sessions will also occur in other opposed the hike, have been able to ing the percentage of employed work- In February 2007, the Ontario mini- cities, according to Dana Boettger, OFL wring mileage from the evident hypoc- ers that are unionized to 12 percent, mum wage rose to CAN $8 per hour. media officer. risy of government leaders eager to down from 12.5 percent in 2005. Union But many residents of Canada’s most There are some interesting sub-texts feather their own nests but tight with the membership decreased in both the populous province remain unhappy with to this campaign. Whenever OFL-affili- province’s poorest workers. public and private sectors. the measure. ated unions mount an initiative there Not surprisingly, the government Union membership peaked in the On the left, the New Democratic is a chance one of their objectives is to has countered that a mandatory $10 an 1950s when about one-third of all US Party (NDP) and the Ontario Federa- improve the electoral fortunes of the hour would put unnecessary pressure on workers belonged to unions. Since tion of Labor (OFL), with a special push NDP. Or, as they put it, to complement employers, endangering, according to then, the percentage has plunged due from the Toronto and York Region Labor the initiatives of their “political partner”. elastic Ministry of Finance data, between to a combination of factors including Council, have kicked off a public cam- In this case, the party poured resources 22,000 and 66,000 jobs. the loss of industry and the rise of a paign in favor of a $10-an-hour-mini- into a February 8 by-election in the low- Minister Greg Sorbara also observed service economy, the effects of free mum wage. income Toronto riding of York South- that some two-thirds of those earning trade policies and outsourcing, priva- Even John Tory, leader of the op- Weston. The second of the town hall minimum wage live at home with their tization, aggressive anti-union cam- position Conservatives, has added his meetings took place precisely there. As it parents, thus acknowledging that the paigns and a lack of militancy on the voice to the chorus of those asserting the turned out, the NDP won the vote. state expects working families to subsi- part of union leaders. obvious – that this wage is not enough to Another point worth reflection: dize corporations. The importance of this latter fac- live on, especially in expensive cities like one of the individual unions affixing Toronto labor council figures suggest tor is ignored by top union officials Toronto and Ottawa. Tory, apart from its stamp to the campaign in Toronto that only 29 per cent of low wage jobs such as AFL-CIO Organizing Director whatever genuine convictions he brings is a local of the United Food and Com- are in small, family run businesses. Stewart Acuff, who blames last year’s to the issue, is seeking to re-position his mercial Workers. The UFCW recently “Cabinet Ministers …should be losses on external causes, taking no party as a centrist option to the govern- negotiated a new contract for workers ashamed of themselves,” said Don Fra- responsibility for the shortcomings of ing Liberals. at, among other establishments owned ser, the Hamilton and District Labour his federation and the labor movement. The initiative, scheduled to unfold in by the grocery giant Loblaw Companies, Council President. Despite two successive waves of union the provincial capital in a series of town Real Canadian Super Stores. The pact Still, union leaders may want to reform in the past 25 years, the decline hall meetings between the end of Janu- will provide a starting wage of $8.50 for be wary. Charges of hypocrisy have a continues. The rhetoric about more or- ary and the beginning of March, seeks part-timers at this discount outlet. tricky way of sticking to more than their ganizing repeated by labor leaders like to give extra-parliamentary momentum Some critics of mainstream union intended targets. With their new salary, SEIU’s Andy Stern has not changed the to a bill introduced in the legislature last organizations like the UFCW suggest simple Members of Provincial Parlia- movement’s committment to the failed fall by the NDP’s Cheri DiNovo. that its leaders see a $10 minimum ment are not in danger of encroaching policies of labor-management coopera- Across the province, OFL president wage as an opportunity to win gains for on elite CEO territory. But they’ll soon tion and electoral politics. Wayne Samuelson also held a series of lower-paid members – without breaking be in the wage neighborhood of quite a Militant rank-and-file unions have February press conferences with local a serious sweat at either the bargaining few top union officials, including UFCW not fared much better over the past labor council leaders calling on the gov- table or on the sidewalk. figures. year. The IWW, for instance, lost near- ernment to embrace the $10 proposal. Finally, a fortuitous event helped In the meantime, the $10-an-hour ly 5 percent of its members in 2006 In Toronto, the labor council has the campaign draw attention from the campaign is lighting some fires and (although the number of members been astute enough to team up with province’s media outlets. Just before helping some poor Ontarians assert their in good standing increased slightly). immigrant organizations and student Christmas, members of the Ontario right to a near-respectable minimum Clearly, unions of all stripes must groups. The result is that its two initial legislature voted themselves a base sal- wage. confront these troubling figures, take a town hall meetings were attended by ary increase of $22,000, pushing their Anti-poverty activists hope the ini- creative approach and breathe new life many new Canadians. annual pay over $110,000. tiative isn’t merely gas to fuel a not-too- into the American labor movement. distant provincial election campaign. Page 10 • Industrial Worker • March 2007 do my part. As luck would have it the home base of this Starbucks was right Tightline Johnson returns and is there in Seattle so I set my mind on doin’ some infiltratin’. I didn’t have any idea what this giant ready to organize at Starbucks actually did, business wise, until I found one of its shops. This wasn’t very hard to FICTION there, and some mighty soul searchin’ decided that capitalists could never have do; it seems these things are everywhere. By Joseph Lapp II quiet, but I was ready to set nose to the come up with it, no matter what they It appeared that all they did was brew up grind stone and get caught up in the said. This tool seemed much to valuable coffee. Now a huge corporate giant that Author note: Ralph Winstead (1894- proletarian revolution. to the radical prol for him to have had no only made coffee was a new idea to me, 1957) published a series of short stories With the wad of greenbacks in part in developin’ it. Fact is, I’m amazed this wasn’t the steel or lumber industry in the 1920s about the fictitious Wobbly my pocket, I booked myself a luxury the Rockefellers of the world haven’t after all, but I’d made plenty of coffee troublemaker Tightline Johnson. I’m ferry down from Seward, Alaska to made it illegal yet. But give ‘em time, workin’ as a cook in logging camps all up commandeering his character for this Seattle. The whole way down I was sip- says I, give ‘em time. and down this coast so I wasn’t gonna do story, although RW’s wit, humor, and pin’ bubbly water and nibblin’ on finger Well, without digging into the hoary any complainin’. In fact I figured I’d be undeniable skill as a writer are not eas- foods, enjoyin’ some of the good things details let me just say that I figured the the perfect man for this outfit, red card ily replaced. This is for RW. in life that we Wobs have been fightin’ thing out. Ol’ Tightline Johnson can or not. Feelin’ mighty sure of myself I for all this time. Let me tell you, brothers work any machine he gets his hands on, walked on in and asked about a job. and sisters, the victory will be well worth I say with only a little boasting. Before Part 1 Seems that this establishment must all the trouble. long I was once again a card carrier in Back in 1917 me and some other have some trouble keepin’ workers Seattle was much changed since last good standing (the only state for any courageous Wobs were locked up under because the manager that came out to I’d been through town. As soon as my worker to be in, if ya ask me) with a head something called the Sedition Act. Sedi- talk with me was mighty enthusiastic boot touched solid ground I was on my full of news. Seems that the struggle tion, in case you hadn’t heard, is when about signin’ me up. While he was talkin’ way to the IWW hall to get stamped up has shifted near as much as this crazy a member of our noble class speaks up up a storm about “team environment” and filled in on the state of the move- old world has. The Wobs was out of against a rich man’s war that somehow and “partners” I was busy gettin’ an ment. When I got to the address I found the freight cars and the hobo jungles, only manages to make poor people dead eyeful of my new labor situation. This the old hall to be gone, and in its place moved on from the logging camps and and leaves things even more in control of place was right jam packed with thirsty was some massive orange thing called a the camps of the seasonal farm hands, those unproductive leeches who started folks lookin’ for a sip of something warm Home Depot or some damn fool thing. and was now workin’ hard at some other the whole thing. “War is the health of while three wild-eyed workers rushed to Dismayed, I took to stoppin’ folks in the sectors. The two big drives goin’ on, ac- the State,” I’ve heard it said, but “war is and fro like crazed ants in a stirred up street to see if they could direct me to cording to the Worker were in the retail the health of the elite” is nearer to the hill. They was movin’ so damn fast that I the new hall. To my chagrin and great end of things and organizin’ immigrant mark. Anyway, just keep that all in mind could only just barely make ‘em out. surprise I didn’t stumble across a single workers. Well folks, I’m all for solidar- next time some Sunday School teacher Meanwhile, Ol’ Bill the manager was fella who’d even heard of the Eye-Dou- ity and everybody, regardless of color, starts in on you about free speech and still gabbin’ somethin’ about “corporate ble-You-Double-You. I knew I’d been out language, or “immigration status” has all that. Well, as I was saying, I was in responsibility” and “fair trade beans”. I of commission awhile, but I didn’t think an equal place in this union, says I, but the can a long time, one of the last to be could see my first battle already set up I’d been gone so long as for the bosses to as my knowledge of Spanish starts and turned loose. They finally set me out into for me. Anytime the workers are havin’ completely wipe us out! I figured I’d try ends with words you wouldn’t say to the sunshine again, without so much as to run like chickens that’s been separat- another tack. your grandmother I figured that par- a “Sorry for the trouble, Tightline old ed from their heads while the bosses sit Unsure of where to turn I decided to ticular battle wasn’t the one for me right boy” from the government that put me in around talking nonsense is a workplace stop by the library figurin’ they’d have to then and there. A quick good luck to you there and I decided that I was deserving ripe for a little Wobbly sabotaging. carry the Industrial Worker or somethin’ IU460 cats, give the bosses hell for Old of a little vacation. Finally Scissor Bill the company to point me in the direction of a delegate Tightline, and any Wob who happens Somewhere along the way, back in stooge wrapped up his preachin’ on the who’d have some stamps and some to be worth their salt and isn’t agitatin’ those heady hoboin’ days of the early glories of holy Starbucks (and boy was news. After askin’ around a bit, I found where they’re at has got to be brushin’ nineteen-teens, I’d picked up a little this fella a true believer if ever there was the section with the papers and journals up on their Español so help, brothers spread of land in the Chugach Moun- one) and supplied me with the necessary and sure enough they had a fresh copy and sisters, should be on its way. tains of Alaska. This was where I went gear to start up work in the morning. I of the Worker. Nothin’ benefits man or The other big push seemed to be to set up a little homestead and get away left the place still thinkin’ about those woman (or child, while we’re at it) like more on my level. My fellow Wobs were from the world awhile. I stayed up there poor fellow workers and the panicked a little education on the class struggle, tacklin’ a big ol’ corporate giant call a long time farmin’, trappin’, scrapin’ by look in their eyes. and boy was I ever educated. A helluva Starbucks. I always sort of saw myself however I could until a big old land bull Worry not, brothers and sisters, the lot had changed in the world while I was and my fellow Wobbly cohorts as class came to me about some “imminent do- One Big Union is comin’ to the rescue! off coaxin’ gold out of the rocky Alaskan conscious Davids fighting the big ugly main” for a pipeline of some kind or an- ground. Seems like the whole union hall Goliath of capitalism so I felt drawn to Read Tightline’s story next month... other. I knew better than to argue when idea was pretty much a thing of the past he offered me compensation for it in and something called the Internet was good hard currency. Why didn’t I duke it On-Line Picket Scotland IWWs the new thing for keepin’ up with fellow continued from p. 1 out over my home, you ask? Well, when workers. students in Dumfries and linking up with the law wants your land the law is gener- Line: Eric Lee Lucky for me that old library was supporters in Glasgow. ally gonna get it, particularly if you’re continued from p. 4 jammed full of computers and with a “It’s important too for all those that just one lone man off in the middle of Fourth, we need to keep any entries little help from a nasty librarian who are in struggle, from staff to students, the woods, cause he’s just gonna keep we’ve made up to date. If we’ve reported seemed to have forgotten which side of to see that the IWW is with them all the comin’ until you’re run off, but he’s only on union-busting, on a worker being the class line he fell on I was readin’ up way,” said Nick Durie, IWW organizer gonna offer to pay ya for it once. Besides, sacked, or on a strike, we should from on the struggle by way of IWW dot org. for central Scotland. The pressure is bar- a man can only neglect his organizin’ time to time make sure the text we added Thinkin’ about this new technology I ing some fruit, the Scottish Parliament duties for so long. I’d had some peace up is updated. debated the Crichton closure on Thurs- Fifth, if someone in the Wikipedia day 15, 2007, with MSPs, from all parties community challenges us using the calling on the Scottish Executive action online discussion built into every Anti-War Protests: Washington, San Fran to prevent the withdrawal of the site, Wikipedia page, we should engage that although the Principal seems adamant continued from p. 1 person in discussion. Others will read to continue with the closure plans. this, and potentially a huge audience can “The war we are facing is a corpo- presence is expected. Meanwhile, the read a discussion that can go far beyond Call for solidarity rate-driven war against working people growth of organizations like U.S. Labor what we might put on the actual page. While the Principal at the University at home and abroad,” Benjamin de- Against the War is helping to forge And finally, if you think the of Glasgow and the Chief Executive of clared. stronger bonds between U.S. anti-war Wikipedia is a fantastic resource and the Scottish Funding Council are happy “This fight here is a fight to defend groups and the Iraqi labor movement. you’re thrilled by the fact that it’s free to blame each other, we need solidarity. these union members’ jobs and work- In the legislative arena, a movement and independent, with no advertising, Send emails protesting the closure to: ing conditions, but it is more than that. led by progressive Congressman Den- you have a moral responsibility to help Principal Sir Muir Russell, principal@ It is a fight to defend trade unionism in nis Kucinich (D-Cleveland) is putting keep it that way. gla.ac.uk AND Roger McClure, Chief Ex- San Francisco, a labor town; it is a fight internal pressure on Democratic leaders Please join me in becoming a regular ecutive of the Scottish Funding Council, to defend union labor on the water- to use the fiscal power given to them by financial contributor, giving whatever [email protected] . front, where modern industrial unions the Constitution to put an end to the you can afford. were forged in the bloody battles of the madness. However, those who look to Make no mistake about this: the 1930s.” elected officials for salvation should bear Wikipedia is becoming a massively He continued: “We cannot, we will in mind the words of Black Sabbath in Union in Maryland important resource for millions not, allow Hornblower and its cronies their 1970 song, “War Pigs”: continued from p. 1 of people. It is now generating to break our unions…We must exert our efforts including full-page ads in the approximately 30,000 requests per full union muscle to send them a signal Politicians hide themselves away. New York Times defending its benefits second (about 2.5 billion requests per that labor and its allies are united, that They only started the war. and the slick but hollow website www. day). And the growth in use, as well we will fight back, and that, if necessary, Why should they go out to fight? whatmakescoffeegood.com. as content, has been exponential over we will shut them down.” They leave that role to the poor. “If Starbucks respects employees several years. As pressure to end the war mounts, right to join a union, a Caramel Frappuc- While it remains important to unions are increasingly taking a stand Boss-serving politicians started this cino is an authentic Italian coffee drink,” get our message out to conventional against Bush’s failed policies in Iraq and war but it is we the workers who are quipped New York City barista and SWU media through press releases and so connecting this struggle to the ongoing made to do the killing and dying. Only member Pete Montalbano. on, it may be even more important to struggle for workers rights and eco- we can stop the bloodbath and bring the “Howard Schultz and Starbucks need make sure that our side of every story nomic justice. More demonstrations are troops home once and for all. to face the fact that we’re here, we’re – the workers’ side – is featured in the planned for March 17-19 (the fourth an- growing, and we have a right to exist.” Wikipedia. niversary of the war) and a large union With files from alcatrazunion.com. March 2007 • Industrial Worker • Page 11 Page 12 • Industrial Worker • March 2007

benefit,” said Tran Quang Chinh, a 74- Vietnam year-old farmer from Ha Dong. Meanwhile, 4,500 workers from Vietnamese workers defy the Hansoll Vina garment factory in ban on independent unions the Binh Duong province are on strike against low wages and poor working Vietnam is fast becoming a hot bed conditions. According to sources cited by of labor unrest and repression. the Associated Press, managers regularly Vietnamese authorities have arrested insult workers and force them to work The IWW formed the International Iberostar management has attempted to Tran Quoc Hien, a leader of the recently- when they are sick. The union is trying to Solidarity Commission to help the union suppress the union, firing union orga- formed United Workers and Farmers’ negotiate an agreement with the factory build the worker-to-worker solidarity nizer Antonio Garcia Romas and then Association (UWFA), and are holding bosses. that can lead to effective action against trying to bribe him with 300,560 Euros. him without charge in a local jail. This is not the first surge in union the bosses of the world.To contact the The ISC is demanding Romas’ immedi- Tran is the latest in a series of UFWA activity to take hold in Vietnam recently. ISC, email [email protected] . ate reinstatement and that the company organizers jailed for their union activ- From January to March of last year, a recognize the union. ity. At least eight others, including the massive strike wave swept the country, union’s main leader Nguyen Tan Hoanh, Repression of Ethiopian forcing the government to raise the Unionists targeted for face similar situations. The UFWA and minimum wage by 40 percent in Febru- teachers another union called the Vietnamese ary 2006. murder in Guatemala Independent Union (VIU) were founded During the strike wave, Taiwanese, in late October. The International Solidarity Com- Japanese and European bosses associa- Although independent unions are mission sent a letter to the Ethiopian The International Solidarity Com- tions demanded that the Vietnamese illegal in Vietnam leaving a state-run government protesting their use of mission sent a letter to the government government crack down more firmly on union as the only legal organization, torture, arbitrary detention, and sus- of Guatemala expressing urgent con- strikers. At the time Vietnamese officials UFWA and VIA leaders openly an- picious disappearances to crush the cern for the safety of four members of refused to heed these demands, point- nounced the existence of their organiza- Ethiopian Teacher’s Association (ETA). the Executive Committee of STEPQ, a ing out that the strikes occurred because tions in order to fuel the movement for The ISC also criticized the establishment dockworkers union. These organizers employers were violating Vietnamese the legalization of independent unions. of a government-controlled “union” to received death threats on January 17 fol- labor law. The government immediately cracked compete with the ETA and called on the lowing the reinstatement of nine dock- However, anyone who interpret- down on the two unions, rounding up government to “cease all intimidation workers who had been illegally fired in ed this stance to signal a change in the leaders and forcing employers to fire and harassment” of union members. October. The threats came two days after Vietnam’s policy toward independent STEPQ General Secretary Pedro Zamora their members. unions was sorely mistaken, as the cur- Alvarez was murdered by a well-orga- Farm workers continue to take ac- rent crackdown on the UFWA and VIU West Bengal farm workers nized group of gunmen while returning tion in defense of their livelihoods. On demonstrate. Yet, it is equally clear that resist govt giveaways of land home from a local clinic with his two January 16, over 150 farmers peacefully Vietnamese workers are not willing to be small children. The ISC urged the Guate- protested outside a government office in cowed into submission. malan government to take urgent mea- Hanoi, accusing Ha Dong provincial of- Vietnam has long been a haven The ISC released a statement in mid- sures to protect the threatened unionists ficials of illegally confiscating their land for sweatshops, not only because of its January supporting the farmers of West and to investigate Zamora’s murder. in 2005 without adequate compensation, low wages, but especially because—in Bengal (and the PBMKS union) and their as reported by the Committee to Protect the words of the head of the European active resistance to the government’s Vietnamese Workers. Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam—“the planned giveaway of thousands of acres Brazil seizes occupied The workers were “protesting against workforce is not prone to industrial of land to the multinational Tata Group factory’s assets corrupt local officials who took our land action”. In light of current events, this conglomerate and the Indonesia-based and repressed us for their personal claim needs to be re-evaluated. Salim Group. The plan would displace thousands of farmers in order to build The ISC sent a letter to key officials a car factory and a chemical plant. The in the Brazilian government protesting statement also condemned the West the recent decision of a federal judge The arrests are apparently in connec- Bengal regional government’s repression in Joinville to seize 11% of the revenue Korea tion with posters that the teachers had of farmer protests against the measures, of Cipla, a worker-run occupied fac- uploaded to the internet in July 2006. exemplified by the unjust arrest and tory. The seizure is in connection with a Victory for Migrant The union denounced the arrests in a detention of several unionists and the large debt owed by the former corporate Workers Union press release. government killing of eight Nadigram shareholders of the company before “If the police are going to arrest and detain teachers for referring to North residents and a 17-year-old girl in Sin- it was taken over by the workers. This The Migrants Trade Union (MTU) Korean politics, prosecutors should gur. action could set a precedent to allow won a major victory on February 1 when investigate officials at the Ministry of further seizures that would result in a High Court in Seoul struck down the Education as well,” said the release. the closure of the factory and a loss of Labor Ministry’s claim that migrant Solidarity with Hotel “Their Internet Peace School, for employment for all its workers, some of workers had no right to union represen- example, encourages students and teach- Workers in Canary Islands whom have worked there for decades. tation or collective bargaining. ers to explore the political ideologies of The ISC expressed its solidarity with When the MTU was founded in April the North.” According to the union, the The Commission sent a letter of Cipla workers and insisted that the 2005 its leaders applied to the Labor National Security Law is often used to solidarity to the FECOHY-CC.OO union government of Brazil abide by a 2005 Ministry to register as an official union. crack down on dissent in the labor move- which represents workers at the Ibero- agreement not to seize anything over 1% The Ministry rejected the application. ment and stifle public debate. Amnesty star Hotel chain in the Canary Islands. of Cipla’s revenue. Now that the courts have declared this International and many other organiza- decision illegal, the union is pushing for tions have repeatedly called for reform of immediate recognition. the law because it restricts basic rights to China freedom of speech and association. Teachers detained for Suspicious death sparks riot: ‘national security’ Construction workers On January 19, the Seoul National Hotel set ablaze place in China. Police in Jangandong arrested two prosecuted for The hotel offered the family the middle school teachers and members of demonstration By John Kalwaic equivalent of US $65,000 in compensa- the Korean Teachers Union. They have tion, but the family demanded a proper been held in isolation since then on On January 19, a judge in the Po- A worker’s unexplained death caused investigation, refusing the money. charges of national security violations. hang District of Korea sentenced Yoo a riot at an upscale hotel in the city of Unsatisfied with the official answers, The charges they face carry a maximum Ki Soo, General Secretary of the Korean Dazhu located in the Chinese province of the friends of Daili, their relatives and penalty of death. Their crime: Educating Federation of Construction Industry Sichuan on January 17, 2007. supporters gathered in protest for two students about the unification of North Trade Unions (KFCITU), to two years A 16-year-old worker at the hotel, days outside the hotel to declare what and South Korea. in prison for leading a demonstration in Yang Daili, was found raped, mutilated they saw as a cover-up. Award-winning teachers Choi Hwa- August 2006. The union plans to appeal and murdered at work in the early hours By January 17 up to 20,000 people seop and Kim Maeng-gyu were netted in the ruling. of December 30, 2006. Police inquiries had gathered. Protesters entered the a January 12 raid on their homes and of- Around the same time, Korea’s found little evidence to process or arrest hotel, vandalized it and set it on fire. The fices and were pressured by police to ap- National Human Rights Commission anyone for the murder. rioters prevented fire crews from put- pear for questioning. The teachers were released a statement about the protest The girl’s family received conflicting ting out the blaze. The crowd reportedly allowed to remain free while consulting in question. The Commission formally reports from the police, government and cheered on the blaze. a lawyer. They pledged to submit to acknowledged that riot police had used hotel officials. One report said she died This is one of many incidents like questioning by January 22. However, on “excessive violence to break up the of alcohol poisoning after tending to this in China that are on the increase. January 18 Prosecutor Kim Shin ordered demonstration”, which resulted in the guests, reportedly thought to be govern- The peasants are being evicted from police to arrest the two. death by head injury of demonstrator Ha ment officials. Another report said she their land. Unpaid workers and citizens According to a report by the Korean Joong Keun. died from a drug overdose. As the con- outraged at corruption have all rioted Teachers and Education Workers Union, In December Ha’s family filed a civil flicting reports accumulated, the friends against police, government party officials Kim had expressed concern that “if the suit against the government holding and family of the girl became suspicious and the corporate elites. Often abuse by teachers were not in custody, they might them responsible for the death. Despite of a cover-up. employers does not just include abys- attempt to contact an underground these revelations, 25 KFCITU members A police station director and govern- mal wages and benefits but cover-ups of North Korean group, and that they remain in jail on trumpted up charges ment officials are owners of the hotel. hideous crimes like this one, as both cor- would in any case brainwash innocent related to their struggle against con- Collusion between government and party porate and government interests collude. young students with unification educa- struction company POSCO. Some face officials and corporate elites is common- Source: asianfoodworker.net tion.” sentences up to three years.