Official newspaper O f T h e I n d u s t r i a l w O r k e r s o f t h e w O r l d

INDUSTRIALS eptember 2011 #1738 Vol. 108 N o . 7 $ 2 / £ 2 / € 2 WORKER

IKEA Workers Form New! IWW News Joe Hill: The Man Exclusive: Report Union in Virginia Shorts & Around Who Never Died from Gaza Freedom 3 the Union 5 8-9 Flotilla II 12 Pizza Hut Workers: Cheesed Off From Paris To Sheffield Wage theft, union-busting and fighting back at the pizza chain in France, Spain and the United Kingdom By Monika Vykoukal IWW. They are just gearing up to get prop- “The pizzas are better, and they’ve got erly started in Sheffield. The Britain and newer scooters,” observes David as we Ireland Regional Administration (BIRA) hang out just outside a Pizza Hut store on of the IWW received their “Certificate of a hot, sticky July night in Paris. A fellow Independence,” which puts the IWW on worker who is organizing at Pizza Hut in equal footing with other unions in terms Sheffield, U.K., David is here for a couple of labor law, allowing for legal strike ac- of days to connect with local Pizza Hut tion. Once we had the certificate, David workers, who have been on strike for over and his colleagues would really get going. nine weeks at press time. Meanwhile, as we had learned earlier that July 11 was the employment tribunal same day, the Confederación Nacional del hearing for two workers who contend, Trabajo (CNT) at Pizza Hut in Cáceres, with the support of their union Solidaires Spain—who had been protesting since Unitaires Démocratiques (SUD), that they February—had won the reinstatement and have been sacked in connection with their back pay for three workers who were found strike and union activities. As the entire to have been unfairly dismissed because of city seems to wind down for the holiday their union activity. period, the ruling will not be out until As I join David in conversations with early September, and our comrades have the workers in Paris, I learn how much decided it’s best to pause their struggle for their struggle is a shared experience, yet now as well. again, of low pay, lack of pay for hours David, an IWW member since Febru- worked, unsafe working conditions, lack ary, has gotten 25 of his 30 colleagues on of health coverage and other protections, board for concerted action and to join the Continued on 6 Pizza Hut workers picket in Paris on July 10. Photo: Monika Vykoukal Verizon Workers On Strike London IWW Cleaners Fight Back By Mischa Gaus, Labor Notes By Chris Ford, At Verizon locations throughout the London IWW Cleaners northeast, 45,000 workers started walking Cleaners (janitors) organized in picket lines on August 7. the London IWW Cleaners and Allied Their strike, brought on by a flood of Industries Branch (Industrial Union concession demands the Communications 640) have secured a series of impor- Workers of America (CWA) say will pick tant victories with Guildhall, their $20,000 from each worker’s pocket, is employer at the Corporation of Lon- the largest the United States has seen in don—the municipal governing body of four years. the City of London. They have become Verizon, which has made $19 billion a leading example of how solidarity in profits in the last four years, announced and militant action gets results. July 29 its wireless unit would pay a spe- The Guildhall was built between cial $10 billion dividend to shareholders. 1411 and 1440 as a symbol of the At the same time, its negotiators were English ruling elite, and many of its pushing for $1 billion in concessions from labor policies have remained stuck in workers. its medieval past. The workers who “We’re on strike for our bargaining maintain the splendor of the Guildhall rights, just like Wisconsin or Ohio,” CWA earn a miserable £5.93 per hour—the President Larry Cohen told members on legal minimum wage. They also receive a union-wide conference call on August no sick pay or pension. They are hired 7. “We can never end this recession by through Ocean Contract Cleaning, a cutting the wages of workers.” Photo: Diane Krauthamer company with a similarly long history Photo: London IWW Cleaners and Allied Industries Branch Verizon workers picket in NYC. Continued on 7 worthy of a medieval establishment. London cleaners demonstrate at Guildhall. In 2006, London Citizens uncovered Industrial Worker Periodicals Postage that workers employed by Ocean at a The Cleaners Fight Back PO Box 180195 PO Box 180195 PAID London University were frequently being Many of these workers were born and Chicago, IL 60618 Chicago, IL 60618, USA Chicago, IL underpaid or not paid at all. Those clean- lived under brutal regimes. The bosses and additional ers recovered £50,000 in unpaid wages. have misjudged their tenacity to fight ISSN 0019-8870 mailing offices At the Guildhall, the cleaners found back. It didn’t take them long, however, ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED themselves in a similar situation of being to match the management’s arrogance repeatedly underpaid in their wages for with self-organization. The 34 cleaners months at a time. Some waited two to at the Guildhall organized, and on June three months to receive wages they were 14-15 they arrived for work. However, owed. They even had the national Public without any guarantee of actual wages, Holiday for the Royal Wedding deducted they remained in the reception area until from their holiday leave. To add insult to they were given clear assurance that they injury, the workers—who are overwhelm- would be paid their wages for their work. ingly migrants from Latin America, Asia Despite the contractor’s promise that and Africa—are subjected to management the workers would be paid by June 20, by abuses now commonplace in the cleaning that date they were left with an average of industry, including petty bullying and two weeks’ wages still unpaid. The workers being disciplined for almost no reason. raised a collective grievance, submitted by If you are five minutes late, you are sent the IWW, which also failed to resolve the home. If you are late again, you are fired. situation. The IWW cleaners responded by IWW members have reported threats of stepping up their campaign for solidarity dismissal just for being two minutes late. Continued on 7 Page 2 • Industrial Worker • September 2011 Historical Perspective Is Necessary For The IWW Fellow Workers, They would coordinate which goods need community would ask, “Why would we I want to thank FWs O’Reilly and Haw- to go where on a worldwide scale, much go to war against our fellow workers in thorne for their Workers’ Power column the same way they do today. (Only per- that region?” Furthermore, this principle on “Industrial Unionism And One Big haps they would prioritize sending the explains why Wobblies are very cautious Unionism In The History Of The IWW,” necessary goods to those in the most need, when recognizing national borders or us- (July/August IW, page 5). IWW research rather than the most trivial goods to the ing the phrase “national” in our organiz- Letters Welcome! like this helps build our understanding of least in need, as is the present system). ing. We eventually want to get rid of this our historic mission. I like to say, “We need In Nogales, for example, the agricultural divisive concept altogether. Send your letters to: [email protected] to turn up the revolution knob a notch workers would coordinate food and the Lastly, the IWW’s structure is useful with “Letter” in the subject. higher” instead of sliding into uninspiring construction workers would coordinate in imagining the new society. We have a NEW mailing address: reformism. Thanks, FWs, for turning it up. building. They would glue themselves by general headquarters and executive board Industrial Worker, P.O. Box 23216, There is an additional idea our FWs industry to their fellow workers in com- that both coordinate with, but do not have Cadman Plaza Post Office, Brooklyn, NY forgot to mention that helps us appreci- munities across the globe and there would power over, the membership. All IWW of- 11202-3216, United States. ate the IWW’s structure as a road map for be little use for exported labor. ficers are immediately recallable. Their op- the new society, if not a blueprint. This Workers in the unnecessary indus- portunities and incentives for corruption In November We Remember compelling idea is that the new society will tries, such as insurance and financial are low. Their power is routinely checked Announcements for the annual “In have industry, rather than nation-states, schemes, would find that no one needs and offices are regularly rotated. Locally, Photo: iww.org November We Remember” Industrial as the basis of global administration. their services and they would defect to a our branches are autonomous but con- Worker deadline is October 7. Celebrate The IWW has a hidden ideology that by more useful industry in their locale. This is tribute to the whole. We have a delegates’ the lives of those who have struggled for forming industrial unions across national the structure as well as a goal of the IWW convention and a general referendum. the working class with your message of borders, and in spite of these borders, we and it is indeed compelling. We coordinate along industrial lines as solidarity. Send announcements to iw@ will be replacing the nation-state with the One of the main benefits to linking well as regionally. We have committees iww.org. Much appreciated donations industrial union when the new society ourselves by industry would be to elimi- empowered to accomplish tasks but they for the following sizes should be sent to: takes shape. IWW writers have mentioned nate the foundations for war. The new are held accountable for their decisions. IWW GHQ, P.O. Box 180195, this occasionally, but it has never hit the society is less susceptible to war because These structures are not only the natural Chicago, IL 60618, United States. front pages. We want to erase all politi- each administrative body has representa- formations of the working class during $12 for 1” tall, 1 column wide cal borders. If the new society were to be tives, workers, on the local level in every revolutionary upheavals; they are also $40 for 4” by 2 columns formed along industry lines, the transpor- community. If a backwards individual guideposts to a new world based on par- $90 for a quarter page tation workers from each community, for proposes war against another region, the ticipation and solidarity. example, would form a global syndicate. representatives of each industry in that - J. Pierce Industrial Worker IWW directory The Voice of Revolutionary Industrial Unionism Australia Peterborough: c/o PCAP, 393 Water St. #17, K9H Hawaii New Mexico Regional Organising Committee: P.O. Box 1866, 3L7, 705-749-9694 Honolulu: Tony Donnes, del., [email protected] Albuquerque GMB: 202 Harvard Dr. SE, 87106. Albany, WA Toronto GMB: c/o Libra Knowledge & Information 505-227-0206, [email protected]. Organization Albany: 0423473807, [email protected] Svcs Co-op, P.O. Box 353 Stn. A, M5W 1C2. 416- Idaho 919-7392. [email protected] Boise: Ritchie Eppink, del., P.O. Box 453, 83701. New York Education Melbourne: P.O. Box 145, Moreland, VIC 3058. 208-371-9752, [email protected] New York City GMB: P.O. Box 23216, Cadman Plaza Québec Emancipation 0448 712 420 Illinois Post Office, Brooklyn,11202. [email protected]. Perth: Mike Ballard, [email protected] Montreal GMB: cp 60124, Montréal, QC, H2J 4E1. www.wobblycity.org 514-268-3394. [email protected] Chicago GMB: 37 S Ashland Avenue, 60607. 312- Starbucks Campaign: 44-61 11th St. Fl. 3, Long Official newspaper of the British Isles 638-9155. [email protected] Island City 11101 [email protected] Central Ill GMB: 903 S. Elm, Champaign, IL, 61820. British Isles Regional Organising Committee (BI- Europe www.starbucksunion.org Industrial Workers ROC): PO Box 7593 Glasgow, G42 2EX. Secretariat: 217-356-8247. David Johnson, del., unionyes@ ameritech.net Hudson Valley GMB: P.O. Box 48, Huguenot 12746, of the World [email protected], Organising Department Chair: Finland 845-342-3405, [email protected], http://hviww. [email protected]. www.iww.org.uk Helsinki: Reko Ravela, Otto Brandtintie 11 B 25, Freight Truckers Hotline: [email protected] blogspot.com/ Post Office Box 180195 IWW UK Web Site administrators and Tech Depart- 00650. [email protected] Waukegan: P.O Box 274, 60079 ment Coordinators: [email protected], www. Syracuse IWW: [email protected] Chicago, IL 60618 USA tech.iww.org.uk German Language Area Indiana Upstate NY GMB: P.O. Box 235, Albany 12201- IWW German Language Area Regional Organizing 0235, 518-833-6853 or 518-861-5627. www. 773.857.1090 • [email protected] NBS Job Branch National Blood Service: iww.nbs@ Committee (GLAMROC): IWW, Haberweg 19, Lafayette GMB: P.O. Box 3793, West Lafayette, upstate-nyiww.org, secretary@upstate-ny-iww. gmail.com 47906, 765-242-1722 www.iww.org 61352 Bad Homburg, Germany. iww-germany@ org, Rochelle Semel, del., P.O. Box 172, Fly Creek Mission Print Job Branch: tomjoad3@hotmail. gmx.net. www.wobblies.de Iowa 13337, 607-293-6489, [email protected]. co.uk Austria: [email protected]. www.iw- Eastern Iowa GMB: 114 1/2 E. College Street, Iowa Ohio General Secretary-Treasurer: Building Construction Workers IU 330: construc- waustria.wordpress.com City, 52240. [email protected] Mid-Ohio GMB: [email protected] Joe Tessone [email protected] Frankfurt am Main: [email protected] Kansas Ohio Valley GMB: P.O. Box 42233, Cincinnati Health Workers IU 610: [email protected]. Koeln GMB: IWW, c/o BCC, Pfaelzer Str. 2-4, 50677 Lawrence IWW: 785-843-3813. [email protected] 45242. General Executive Board: uk, www.iww-healthworkers.org.uk Koeln, Germany. [email protected] Louisiana Textile & Clothing Workers IU 410: P.O. Box 317741 Education Workers IU 620: [email protected], Munich: [email protected] Cincinnati 45231. [email protected] Koala Largess, Ildiko Sipos, www.geocities.com/iwweducation Louisiana IWW: John Mark Crowder, del., P.O. Box Switzerland: [email protected] 1074, Homer, 71040. 318 957-2715. wogodm@ Oklahoma Ryan G., John Slavin, Jason Krpan Recreational Workers (Musicians) IU 630: peltonc@ yahoo.com, [email protected]. Tulsa: P.O. Box 213 Medicine Park 73557, 580-529- gmail.com, [email protected] Netherlands: [email protected] John Reimann, Greg Giorgio Maine 3360. General, Legal, Public Interest & Financial Office Oregon Workers IU 650: [email protected] South Africa Barry Rodrigue, 75 Russell Street, Bath, 04530. Editor & Graphic Designer : Lane GMB: Ed Gunderson, del., 541-953-3741. Bradford: [email protected] 207-442-7779 Diane Krauthamer Cape Town: 7a Rosebridge, Linray Road, Rosebank, [email protected], www.eugeneiww.org Bristol GMB: P.O. Box 4, 82 Colston street, BS1 Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa 7700. Maryland Portland GMB: 2249 E Burnside St., 97214, [email protected] 5BB. Tel. 07506592180. [email protected], [email protected] Baltimore IWW: P.O. Box 33350, 21218. balti- 503-231-5488. [email protected], pdx. [email protected] [email protected] iww.org Proofreaders : Cambridge GMB: IWWCambridge, 12 Mill Road, United States Massachusetts Portland Red and Black Cafe: 400 SE 12th Ave, Cambridge CB1 2AD [email protected] Maria Rodriguez Gil, Tom Levy, Boston Area GMB: PO Box 391724, Cambridge 97214. 503-231-3899. redandblackbooking@ Dorset: [email protected] Arizona 02139. 617-469-5162 riseup.net. www. redandblackcafe.com. Nick Jusino, FW D. Keenan, Phoenix GMB: P.O. Box 7126, 85011-7126. 623- Hull: [email protected] 336-1062. [email protected] Cape Cod/SE Massachusetts: [email protected] Pennsylvania J.R. Boyd, Neil Parthun, Leeds: [email protected], leeds@iww. Flagstaff: 928-600-7556, [email protected] Western Mass. Public Service IU 650 Branch: IWW, Paper Crane Press IU 450 Job Shop: 610-358- Michael Capobianco, org.uk P.O. Box 1581, Northampton, 01061 9496. [email protected], www. Arkansas papercranepress.com Skylaar Amann, Chris Heffner, Leicester GMB: Unit 107, 40 Halford St., Leicester Michigan Fayetteville: P.O. Box 283, 72702. 479-200-1859. Pittsburgh GMB: P.O. Box 5912,15210. pitts- Rebekah David, Billy O’Connor, LE1 1TQ, England. Tel. 07981 433 637, leics@iww. [email protected] Detroit GMB: 22514 Brittany Avenue, E. Detroit org.uk www.leicestershire-iww.org.uk 48021. [email protected]. Tony Khaled, del., 21328 [email protected] Trevor Hultner London GMB: c/o Freedom Bookshop, Angel Alley, DC Redmond Ave., East Detroit 48021 Rhode Island 84b Whitechapel High Street, E1 7QX. +44 (0) 20 DC GMB (Washington): 741 Morton St NW, Wash- Providence GMB: P.O. Box 5795, 02903. 508-367- ington DC, 20010. 571-276-1935 Grand Rapids GMB: P.O. Box 6629, 49516. 616- Printer: 3393 1295, [email protected] www.iww. 881-5263. [email protected] 6434. [email protected] org/en/branches/UK/London Globe Direct/Boston Globe Media California Grand Rapids Bartertown Diner and Roc’s Cakes: Texas Nottingham: [email protected] Los Angeles GMB: (323) 374-3499. iwwgmbla@ 6 Jefferson St., 49503. [email protected], Dallas & Fort Worth: 1618 6th Ave, Fort Worth, Millbury, MA Reading GMB: [email protected] gmail.com www.bartertowngr.com 76104. Sheffield: [email protected] North Coast GMB: P.O. Box 844, Eureka 95502- Central Michigan: 5007 W. Columbia Rd., Mason South Texas IWW: [email protected] Next deadline is Tyne and Wear GMB (Newcastle +): tyneand- 0844. 707-725-8090, [email protected] 48854. 517-676-9446, happyhippie66@hotmail. Utah com September 9, 2011 [email protected] www.iww.org/en/branches/ San Francisco Bay Area GMB: (Curbside and Buy- Salt Lake City IWW: 801-485-1969. tr_wobbly@ UK/Tyne back IU 670 Recycling Shops; Stonemountain Minnesota yahoo .com West Midlands GMB: The Warehouse, 54-57 Allison Fabrics Job Shop and IU 410 Garment and Textile Duluth IWW: Brad Barrows, del., 1 N. 28th Ave E., Vermont U.S. IW mailing address: Worker’s Industrial Organizing Committee; Shattuck 55812. [email protected]. Street, Digbeth, Birmingham B5 5TH westmids@ Cinemas; Embarcadero Cinemas) P.O. Box 11412, Burlington GMB: P.O. Box 8005, 05402. 802-540- IW, P.O. Box 23216, Cadman iww.org.uk www.wmiww.org Berkeley, 94712. 510-845-0540. [email protected] Red River IWW: POB 103, Moorhead, 56561. 218- 2541 287-0053. [email protected] Plaza Post Office, Brooklyn, York GMB: [email protected] www.wowyork.org IU 520 Marine Transport Workers: Steve Ongerth, Virginia Scotland del., [email protected] Twin Cities GMB: 79 13th Ave NE Suite 103A, Min- Richmond IWW: P.O. Box 7055, 23221. 804- NY 11202-3216, United States neapolis 55413. [email protected] Clydeside GMB: [email protected] IU 540 Couriers Organizing Committee: 415- 496-1568. [email protected], www. ISSN 0019-8870 Dumfries and Galloway GMB: [email protected]. 789-MESS, [email protected]. Missouri richmondiww.org Greater Kansas City IWW: P.O. Box 414304, Kansas Washington Periodicals postage uk , iwwdumfries.wordpress.com messengersunion.org Edinburgh GMB: c/o 17 W. Montgomery Place, EH7 Evergreen Printing: 2335 Valley Street, Oakland, City 64141-4304. 816.875.6060. greaterkciww@ Bellingham: P.O. Box 1793, 98227. 360-920-6240. paid Chicago, IL. 5HA. 0131-557-6242, [email protected] 94612. 510-835-0254. [email protected] gmail.com [email protected]. San Jose: [email protected] St. Louis IWW: [email protected] Tacoma GMB: P.O. Box 7276, 98401. TacIWW@ Postmaster: Send address Canada Colorado Montana iww.org. http://tacoma.iww.org/ changes to IW, Post Office Box Alberta Denver GMB: 2727 W. 27th Ave., 80211. Lowell Construction Workers IU 330: Dennis Georg, del., Olympia GMB: P.O. Box 2775, 98507. Sam Green, 180195, Chicago, IL 60618 USA Edmonton GMB: P.O. Box 75175, T6E 6K1. edmon- May, del., 303-433-1852. breadandroses@msn. 406-490-3869, [email protected] del., [email protected] [email protected], edmonton.iww.ca com Billings: Jim Del Duca, 106 Paisley Court, Apt. I, Seattle GMB: 1122 E. Pike #1142, 98122-3934. British Columbia Four Corners (AZ, CO, NM, UT): 970-903-8721, Bozeman 59715. 406-860-0331. delducja@gmail. 206-339-4179. [email protected]. www. SUBSCRIPTIONS Vancouver GMB: 204-2274 York Ave., Vancouver, [email protected] com seattleiww.org Individual Subscriptions: $18 BC, V6K 1C6. Phone/fax 604-732-9613. gmb-van@ Florida Nebraska Wisconsin International Subscriptions: $30 iww.ca, vancouver.iww.ca, vancouverwob. Nebraska GMB: [email protected]. www. Madison GMB: P.O. Box 2442, 53701-2442. www. blogspot.com Gainesville GMB: c/o Civic Media Center, 433 S. madison.iww.org Library Subs: $22/year Main St., 32601. Jason Fults, del., 352-318-0060, nebraskaiww.org Union dues includes subscription. Vancouver Island GMB: [email protected] [email protected] Lakeside Press IU 450 Job Shop: 1334 Williamson, Nevada 53703. 608-255-1800. Jerry Chernow, del., jerry@ Manitoba Miami IWW: [email protected] Published monthly with the excep- Winnipeg GMB: IWW, c/o WORC, P.O. Box 1, R3C Reno GMB: P.O. Box 40132, 89504. Paul Lenart, lakesidepress.org. www.lakesidepress.org Hobe Sound: P. Shultz, 8274 SE Pine Circle, 33455- del., 775-513-7523, [email protected] tion of February and August. 2G1. [email protected]. Garth Hardy, Madison Infoshop Job Shop:1019 Williamson St. del., [email protected] 6608. 772-545-9591, [email protected] IU 520 Railroad Workers: Ron Kaminkow, del., P.O. #B, 53703. 608-262-9036 Ontario Pensacola GMB: P.O. Box 2662, Pensacola 32513- Box 2131, Reno, 89505. 608-358-5771. ronka- Just Coffee Job Shop IU 460: 1129 E. Wilson, Articles not so designated do Ottawa-Outaouais GMB & GDC Local 6: 1106 Wel- 2662. 840-437-1323, [email protected], [email protected] Madison, 53703. 608-204-9011, justcoffee.coop www.angelfire.com/fl5/iww not reflect the IWW’s lington St., PO Box 36042, Ottawa, ON K1Y 4V3 New Jersey Railroad Workers IU 520: 608-358-5771. railfal- official position. Ottawa Panhandlers Union: Andrew Nellis, Georgia Central New Jersey GMB: P.O. Box 10021, New [email protected] spokesperson, 613-748-0460. ottawapanhandler- Atlanta GMB: 542 Moreland Avenue, Southeast Brunswick, 08906. 732-801-7001. iwwcnj@gmail. Milwaukee GMB: 1750A N Astor St., 53207. Trevor Press Date: August 18, 2011 [email protected] Atlanta, 30316. 404-693-4728 com. Bob Ratynski, del., 908-285-5426 Smith, 414-573-4992. September 2011 • Industrial Worker • Page 3 Machinists Union Fights For Justice At Virginia IKEA Factory By Nicholas DeFilippis a.m. and sent to work in IKEA may be known in Sweden for the lowest-paying de- the decent pay it gives its employees, but partments. workers at the furniture company’s first “If we put in for a factory in the United States found out better job, we wouldn’t that IKEA’s progressive image is only a get it—it would always go veneer on self-assembled exploitation. to a white person,” said On July 24, the workers at the Danville, former employee Jackie Va. factory overwhelmingly voted for the Maubin. International Association of Machinists The exploitation in and Aerospace Workers (IAM) to be their Danville became so ex- union. IAM and IKEA initially held nego- treme that the Inter- tiations, but talks fell apart in the months national Trade Union leading up to the election. Confederation issued a Attracted by Virginia’s anti-union statement saying that right-to-work laws, the furniture company it would dedicate its re- was brought in at a cost of $12 million to sources to ensure that the taxpayers. Paying its workers less than IKEA treated its Ameri- their Swedish counterparts, Swedwood— can workers with dignity. the IKEA subsidiary that runs the Danville The Richmond IWW factory—cut starting pay and halted its also sent a letter of soli- scheduled pay raises. It also hired the darity to the Danville union-busting firm Jackson Lewis to ter- workers upon hearing rorize its workers. about their struggle: Swedwood fired many of its employ- “The State of Vir- ees and replaced them with temporary ginia has a long history IKEA workers stand together in Danville, Va. Photo: mike-servethepeople.blogspot.com workers that received no benefits and less of attracting companies money. However, under pressure from la- that count on weak labor laws, which “right-to-work” laws aim to stop): “So we can have a voice,” said worker bor activists, Swedwood was forced to cut without a union can leave workers vul- “As the labor movement grows, so will Coretta Giles, explaining why she supports down on its use of temp workers in May. nerable to exploitation. This is why, more our strength, and ability to demand the the union. “So we can all be heard and have IKEA also hired an auditing firm to speak than ever, it is important to encourage eventual abolition of the class and wage another leg we can stand on when we need with the workers about their conditions, workers in all industries to unite in class system, effectively removing the means of to. I just thank Jesus.” but many were afraid to tell the auditors struggle. With an organized working production from the clutches of the bosses, IAM won by the impressive margin of their true feelings out of fear of losing class we can build a labor movement that and placing those means into the hands of 221 (76 percent) to 69 (24 percent), which their jobs. successfully demands dignity and respect, the workers, where it belongs,” concluded seems like divine intervention. But it may The auditors found out that manage- not only at our respective workplaces, but the Wobbly statement. just take a real miracle for justice to be ment was forcing the employees to work also in our communities. It was through working-class solidar- served at Swedwood. overtime. Many workers complained that “Every time we organize and form a ity, our most powerful weapon, that this On August 1, two workers were injured it was common for management to alert union, the power of the working class is election was won. and needed to leave for treatment. Instead them on a Friday that they must work a magnified… United, we can realize not “This struggle was global, with sup- of giving them time off to recover, the weekend shift or be punished. only increased wages, better and safer port and assistance from every continent workers were put back on the production “It’s the strictest place I have ever working conditions, health care, and paid by more than 120,000 workers, various line while they were still bleeding. At the worked,” said former employee Janis vacations, but also, quality union jobs, social partners, and many other global end of July, a supervisor wanted to dis- Wilborne. better schools, social services, and the en- union federations,” said Bill Street, union tribute Gatorade to the workers, but she African-American workers pointed out forcement of civil rights, for all workers.” organizer and director of the Wood Works was disallowed to do so by management the racial discrimination at the factory, The Richmond IWW went on to en- Department of IAM. despite the sweltering heat. Management and six of them filed a complaint with the courage the workers to support the Wood Once certified as the official represen- then began harassing the workers, saying Equal Employment Opportunity Commis- Workers Division of IAM, as well as to tative of the IKEA/Swedwood workers in they should all be fired and insisting that sion. These workers were assigned to the pay their dues in order to keep the union Danville, the union hopes to buff out these the shop would close due to their support least-desirable shift of 11:00 p.m. to 7:00 functioning financially (something that nasty issues. for the union. A human resources rep- IWW Constitution Preamble resentative went so far as to say that the Join the IWW Today workers lied to her about how they would The working class and the employing he IWW is a union for all workers, a union dedicated to organizing on the vote, acknowledging that the company class have nothing in common. There can job, in our industries and in our communities both to win better conditions broke the law and questioned workers be no peace so long as hunger and want today and to build a world without bosses, a world in which production and before the election. Other bosses have tried are found among millions of working T distribution are organized by workers ourselves to meet the needs of the entire popu- to break the workers spirit by insisting people and the few, who make up the em- lation, not merely a handful of exploiters. ploying class, have all the good things of that Swedwood would never bargain with We are the Industrial Workers of the World because we organize industrially ­– life. Between these two classes a struggle IAM, which is a violation of the National that is to say, we organize all workers on the job into one union, rather than dividing must go on until the workers of the world Labor Relations Act (NLRA). Company organize as a class, take possession of the workers by trade, so that we can pool our strength to fight the bosses together. radio was also used to single out union means of production, abolish the wage Since the IWW was founded in 1905, we have recognized the need to build a truly supporters by name. system, and live in harmony with the international union movement in order to confront the global power of the bosses This situation shows that solidarity earth. and in order to strengthen workers’ ability to stand in solidarity with our fellow and bravery on the part of the working We find that the centering of the man- workers no matter what part of the globe they happen to live on. class and its allies can make gains in the agement of industries into fewer and fewer We are a union open to all workers, whether or not the IWW happens to have struggle for justice. It also shows the hands makes the trade unions unable to representation rights in your workplace. We organize the worker, not the job, recog- demeaning, uncompromising stance the cope with the ever-growing power of the nizing that unionism is not about government certification or employer recognition capitalist class takes towards the workers, employing class. The trade unions foster but about workers coming together to address our common concerns. Sometimes and that the abolition of capitalism is the a state of affairs which allows one set of this means striking or signing a contract. Sometimes it means refusing to work with only hope for a better world. An injury to workers to be pitted against another set an unsafe machine or following the bosses’ orders so literally that nothing gets done. one will still be an injury to all until that of workers in the same industry, thereby Sometimes it means agitating around particular issues or grievances in a specific day comes, so we must, and will, continue helping defeat one another in wage wars. workplace, or across an industry. to support the Danville workers and IAM Moreover, the trade unions aid the employ- Because the IWW is a democratic, member-run union, decisions about what issues in their battle for workers’ rights. ing class to mislead the workers into the to address and what tactics to pursue are made by the workers directly involved. belief that the working class have interests in common with their employers. TO JOIN: Mail this form with a check or money order for initiation These conditions can be changed and and your first month’s dues to: IWW, Post Office Box 180195, Chicago, IL Subscribe to the the interest of the working class upheld 60618, USA. only by an organization formed in such Initiation is the same as one month’s dues. Our dues are calculated a way that all its members in any one in- Industrial Worker according to your income. If your monthly income is under $2000, dues dustry, or all industries if necessary, cease are $9 a month. If your monthly income is between $2000 and $3500, work whenever a strike or lockout is on in Raise eyebrows! Get ideas! any department thereof, thus making an dues are $18 a month. If your monthly income is over $3500 a month, dues injury to one an injury to all. are $27 a month. Dues may vary outside of North America and in Regional 10 issues for: Instead of the conservative motto, “A Organizing Committees (Australia, British Isles, German Language Area). • US $18 for individuals. fair day’s wage for a fair day’s work,” we __I affirm that I am a worker, and that I am not an employer. • US $22 for institutions. must inscribe on our banner the revolu- • US $30 for internationals. tionary watchword, “Abolition of the wage __I agree to abide by the IWW constitution. system.” __I will study its principles and acquaint myself with its purposes. Name: ______It is the historic mission of the work- Name:______ing class to do away with capitalism. The Address:______Address:______army of production must be organized, State/Province:______not only for the everyday struggle with City, State, Post Code, Country:______Zip/PC______capitalists, but also to carry on production Occupation:______when capitalism shall have been over- Send to: PO Box 180195, thrown. By organizing industrially we are Phone:______Email:______Chicago IL 60618 USA forming the structure of the new society Amount Enclosed:______Subscribe Today! within the shell of the old. Membership includes a subscription to the Industrial Worker. Page 4 • Industrial Worker • September 2011 What Industrial Unionism And One Big Unionism Mean Today By John O’Reilly and campaign and the vision of the IWW dur- Nate Hawthorne ing a service. Or members could convince This article is the third in a series a social justice committee of the congre- discussing the themes of the One Big gation to put pressure on their boss in a Union and Industrial Unionism. We way that involves church members and believe these themes are relevant to the allows organizers to have conversations future of our organization and our or- with different workers and agitate them ganization’s vision and values. Through about conditions on their jobs. Using these articles, we hope to push for a our members’ access and participation in discussion about possible ways forward social networks and cultural groups is a for the IWW and how we can get from great way for us to build our membership where we are to where we need to be outwards, in addition to organizing shop to build a new society. We welcome by shop, and it reflects our ideas about One replies, whether in print or sent to us in Big Unionism. private at [email protected]. While organizing outwards, we cannot In this series we’ve discussed One Big neglect another lesson of One Big Union- Unionism and Industrial Unionism as ism: just because our fellow workers leave ideas and activities within the IWW. In a job or an industry does not mean that this article, we turn our attention to how they become less important as a Wobbly. carefully balancing our emphasis on One To move our organization forward in the Big Unionism and Industrial Unionism short term, we need to focus more strongly allows us to build the IWW in the short on retention of members who switch jobs. term. While none of us has a magic bullet Finding ways for these members to plug answer that will make organizing easy, we in to campaigns in a new industry or job can think out and discuss possible solu- is integral to keeping them in the union. tions to ongoing issues If one considers how that we face as a way of much time organizers approaching our work spend building rela- more strategically. How tionship with each of can One Big Unionism their coworkers, agitat- and Industrial Union- ing and educating them ism guide us towards into becoming an IWW better practices? They member, and helping do so by pushing us to both build members them acquire the skills necessary for orga- up and build members out. nizing successfully, it’s clear that washing When we talk about building members our hands of members so that they leave outwards, we mean developing practical the union when they leave a job is a huge units of struggle within the industries waste of our limited energies. where we are organizing that most ef- While we build members out, we must fectively share the message of our union also focus on building our existing mem- and get more people involved in our bership up. In fact, by doing one thing we work. That is: more members, organized also do the other. As members become to fight more effectively. Building out is more involved in the IWW, participate like laying railroad tracks into the vast, and learn, they increase their ability to do unorganized working class; the act of lay- the work of the union, and so they help ing the tracks means placing one railroad bring in more members, and begin to build tie after another, each of which advances others up. At this point in time, we would the line out farther and each of which is an argue that it’s more important to focus on individual task that can be completed. Yet building members up than out because it each tie allows us to lay another tie and we allows us to win more fights and improve are unable to lay the next tie until we’ve our organizing strategy, which will lead us completed the one we’re working on. Even to reap greater rewards further down the as we lay tie after tie, we continue to find line. In any case, by educating members that there’s further to go and more ties to into the IWW—getting them to take part be laid. After all, if the destination for our in the democratic process, meeting and rail line is Industrial Democracy, we have sharing ideas about our directions and a long way to go! goals, taking on tasks at different levels of Concretely, building outwards means the union including local, regional, craft, several things. Using the social networks industrial, administrative, and interna- that we find in our jobs and our industries tional—we amplify our ability as organiz- and finding ways to tie them together are ers by producing more organizers who can important aspects of building out. This do more work. These new organizers in plays on the importance of Industrial turn help produce more organizers. Unionism in our organizing. When a group One crucial way that we can build of fast food workers organizes in their res- our members up is by training them to taurant chain, they may find that they have organize. This work, undertaken by the contact with workers who transport food Organizer Training Committee of the and supplies to their stores. These delivery Organizing Department, constitutes the workers may work for a different company most important work of the union right but likely have grievances of their own. now outside of shop-floor organizing. Good organizers can take these contacts It highlights one of the most important and begin a campaign with the delivery values of One Big Unionism: organizing workers. By using the relationships that is an interchangeable skill, regardless of form during work itself, we can grow our industry or craft, and is something that membership out across the industries we workers can and should do for themselves work in, as well as up and down the supply instead of leaving these skills to special- chains within our industries. This ampli- ized professionals. While there are some fies the union’s power. concrete legal and structural differences Industrial links aren’t the only way between industries, the work of organizing Graphic: Mike Konopacki that we can build our membership out. is basically the same. Organizing means the next level. Here, we find many oppor- to grow as Wobblies and push themselves During an organizing campaign, we seek the work of creating relationships with tunities for building our members up. We to further heights. to understand social groups in the work- fellow workers, building organization, and can create connections between workers Like a staircase, the IWW can grow place as a way to identify and win over key fighting bosses together to improve our in different industries as a way of sharing both outwards and upwards at the same social leaders—that is, people respected by lives. Whether in an eight worker café with ideas and experiences about organizing time. When we stand on the top step of a their co-workers and whose opinions carry one boss or a giant factory with thousands and to create networks that support our staircase we are not just standing on that a lot of weight—in order to move groups of employees, organizing is the same basic organizing work. Starting solidarity com- step, we are standing on all the steps below of workers to support the union. These skill set. When we give our members the mittees for public campaigns, providing as well. Depending on the moment, we same social groups can be useful outside confidence they need to organize in their food or childcare for campaign meetings, may emphasize growing out or building of organizing in one shop. For instance, if shops, we teach them skills that they can discussing important IWW campaigns up, but the two factors develop together. an active part of a campaign is made up of use anywhere they work. This fundamental with coworkers, raising funds or organiz- Each step is built on top of the last one and members of a certain church, we can use insight of One Big Unionism cannot be ing pickets: these and many more are ways creates the basis for the next one. As we those cultural connections to meet and link overstated in our approach to organizing that we can give our members tasks that walk up the staircase, we have to step care- up with other workers in the same church. in the short term. deepen their relationship with the IWW fully, the two feet of Industrial Unionism Perhaps the church members in the union Currently, more of our campaigns are and build new bonds across industries. and One Big Unionism guiding us, always could speak about the importance of their going public and need support to push to This builds members up and allows them in balance and working together. September 2011 • Industrial Worker • Page 5 NEW Wobbly News Shorts What’s Happening Across The U.S. & Around The Union By Adam W. is being produced by each worker, income A new column with labor news high- and wages have stagnated for most Ameri- lights from across the U.S., and items of cans. If the median household income interest from the IWW. had kept pace with the economy since 1970, it would now be nearly $92,000, not U.S. Prisoner Strikes Continue $50,000. Sounds like it’s time to organize Prisoners across California launched and squeeze back. a several-week strike by refusing state issued meals beginning on July 1 at New Biography on IWW Songwriter the Pelican Bay State Prison, which is Joe Hill notorious for specializing in 22½ hour Joe Hill, the famous Wobbly trouba- per day solitary confinement. The strike dour made labor martyr by a Utah firing spread to 11 prisons over the July 4th squad, is the subject of a new biography holiday weekend. Following strikes and to be released in late August. With new work stoppages in Ohio and Georgia, the documentary evidence about the life of Hill California prisoner strike is estimated to and his frame up trial backed by the copper involve one-third of the prisoners in the mine bosses, “The Man Who Never Died: state and is in protest of cruel and inhu- The Life, Times, and Legacy of Joe Hill,” man conditions. Supporters announced by William M. Adler is the first full-scale The cast of “The Silent Room: A Worker's Musical.” Photo: Ted Dewberry that a tentative agreement was reached biography of Joe Hill. Read a full review Wobbly Musical “The Silent Room” ganizers from Jimmy John’s, Starbucks, with the prison authorities to end the of this book on page 8, and read about the Premieres in Twin Cities and New York City’s warehouse and retail strike in late July, but as of press time author’s speaking tour at: http://theman- Premiering at the Minnesota Fringe grocery campaigns. “We are laying the the strike may resume. Read more at: whoneverdied.com. Fest from August 5-7 with an all-volunteer, foundation for an unprecedented wave http://prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity. all-worker cast, “The Silent Room: A of organizing in the new mass industries- wordpress.com. Los Angeles Wobblies Table L.A. Workers Musical” tells the tale of a low- food service and retail,” says Starbucks Rising Concert wage retail worker, Ray, whose dreams are organizer Erik Foreman who is helping Bosses Reap Gains While U.S. Members of the Los Angeles General dashed “by the double-shifts and tyran- to organize the convention. See the full Workers Lose Ground Membership Branch spread the message nical bosses of corporate America until a announcement on page 12. More info: More U.S. workers are feeling the of the IWW to thousands of attendees at ghostly visit from martyred union legend http://portlandiww.org/food-chain- squeeze of capitalism as prices of food the July 30 L.A. Rising Concert, with a Joe Hill shows him that when workers workers-organizing-project/founding- and energy have risen 4 percent and 8 well-stocked merchandise and literature unite, everything can change.” According convention. percent respectively for the first four table. With nearly 60,000 in attendance, to the musical’s Facebook page, “Ray’s months of 2011, according to the U.S. the day long festival featured Rage Against coworkers begin talking union, and soon IWW General Convention Bureau of Labor Statistics. While food the Machine, Muse, Rise Against, Lauryn find themselves toe-to-toe with corporate Over Labor Day weekend in Balti- and energy costs are rising, the average Hill, Immortal Technique and El Gran union busters. As the fight heats up, Ray more, the IWW is holding its annual hourly wage earnings from May 2010 Silencio from Mexico. Branch mem- has to decide which side he is on.” The General Convention. On the table for to May 2011 have fallen by 1.6 percent. bers were also joined by IWW General- production was written by Ted Dewberry delegates this year were proposals re- For those not working, the true unem- Secretary Treasurer Joe Tessone, who and based on his own experience of decid- lated to an anti-harassment and anti- ployment rate—which counts those that flew in from Chicago, as well as FW Tom ing to join the IWW and fight the bosses at discrimination policy from the Gender the traditional gov- Morello of Rage Against the Mall of America Starbucks from 2007- Issues Committee, the union’s General ernment unemploy- the Machine and The 2009. More info: http://www.facebook. Defense Committee, several proposals ment statistics leaves Nightwatchman, who com/thesilentroom?sk=info. on due process and representation, and out—is estimated to personally stopped by a discussion of the IWW’s involvement be between 15 to 22 to visit the table during Food, Distribution and Retail IWWs in the protests and uprising against at- percent. the concert and helped Step Up Their Organizing tacks on labor in Wisconsin. The October Yet while work- arrange for the branch Linking and coordinating their orga- issue of the Industrial Worker will offer ers’ belts are tighten- to table along with nu- nizing across related industries, members in-depth coverage, and there will be live ing, the bosses aren’t merous other left and of the IWW active in food, distribution and coverage of the convention on Twitter feeling the same, as labor organizations. retail (Industrial Unions 460, 640 and (for members only) at: http://twitter. CEOs saw their com- Watch a video of Tom 660) will be holding an Industrial Orga- com/IWWConvention. pensation rise over 28 Photo: minnesota.publicradio.org Morello speaking on the nizing Network founding convention in Would you like to see something Wobbly musician Tom Morello. percent from 2009 to concert at: http://www. Portland, Ore., in late October. Supported exciting that your campaign or branch 2010. One study showed that while pro- youtube.com/watch?feature=player_ by the IWW’s Organizing Department, the is doing written about in the IW? If so, ductivity has surged, which means more embedded&v=CGLen4Z5jB0. weekend meeting will bring together or- email [email protected]. Global Week of Action Against Starbucks Solidarity Picket At Starbucks In Poland By the IWW Starbucks By the International Workers Union Workers Association / NEW YORK – The Asociación Internacio- IWW Starbucks Workers nal de los Trabajadores Union (SWU) launched (IWA-AIT) a Global Week of Action On July 30, the ZSP on Monday, July 25 in (Związek Syndykalistów support of affiliate union Polski—or Union of Syndi- El Sindicato de Traba- calists—of the Internation- jadores de Starbucks en al Workers’ Association) Chile (Starbucks Workers held a solidarity picket in Union in Chile). front of a Starbucks café Over 200 baristas and in Warsaw. The action was shift supervisors that work meant to express solidarity in Chile’s 32 Starbucks with Starbucks workers Photo: Andrew Wasser locations went on strike on Wobblies picket in Boston on July 25. organizing for better work- July 7 in an effort to improve workplace told her that because she was a mother, ing conditions and to draw The ZSP pickets Starbucks on July 30. Photo: zsp.net.pl conditions and obtain a higher wage. Cur- she would not have the time necessary to attention to both the strike situation. The manager of the café acted rently, baristas at Starbucks in Chile make dedicate to the company; therefore, she of Starbucks workers in Chile and the con- aggressively towards the picketers, trying the equivalent of $2.50 an hour, while would not be promoted. A letter delivered tinued anti-union practices of Starbucks (unsuccessfully) to prevent them from drinks are sold for high U.S. prices. They to Tiffany’s managers by Wobblies in New in the United States, where a member leafleting the customers. The picketers haven’t received raises in eight years. The York City made reference to the collec- of the IWW, Tiffany White-Thomas, was held signs in Polish, English and Span- baristas are also asking for a lunch stipend tive efforts of the SWU and the Chilean dismissed the day after revealing her union ish expressing solidarity with the Chilean in order to eat during their shifts, which strikers. Both unions feel that that this affiliation. workers and demanding the reinstatement their managers are already allowed to do. solidarity across borders is seen as a threat Informational fliers were handed out of Tiffany. A banner read “Enough repres- Two weeks after the strike began, a to the company and is, in part, what led to to customers and passersby describing the sion of unionists.” New York City barista and mother of two Tiffany’s termination. young children was fired for announcing In New York City, the first solidarity her membership in the SWU. The com- action was a picket in front of the Canal Wobblies In Ontario Show Solidarity pany gave no official reason for her termi- and Broadway Starbucks location on July By Peterborough IWW nation. They fired her when she refused to 25. The IWW demanded the full reinstate- On July 11, Wobblies in Peterborough, meet with higher-ups without her attorney ment of Tiffany White-Thomas, and that Ontario, handed out fliers and sang IWW and union representative present, which Starbucks negotiate in good faith with the songs in solidarity with Chilean Starbucks violated a previous agreement between fellow workers of El Sindicato de Traba- workers at local Starbucks stores. We the union and management. jadores de Starbucks en Chile. talked to many baristas and sympathetic Tiffany White-Thomas worked at Similar actions in support of the customers before the managers called the the Canal/Broadway Starbucks for more Chilean strikers occurred in various cit- police. The sign in the photo (right) says: than two years. She was up for a promo- ies throughout the United States and the “Canadian IWW Solidarity with Sindicato tion when her store manager, Rafael Fox, world throughout the week. de Trabajadores de Starbucks.” Photo: Matt Davidson Page 6 • Industrial Worker • September 2011 Special Pizza Hut Workers: Cheesed Off From Paris To Sheffield Continued from 1 tive at Pizza Hut for some time, there was food safety issues at the stores, lack of no previous union presence in Sheffield, support from business unions, and union- as is characteristic of the commercial and busting efforts when workers get together services sector in general. Since organizing to ask not even for improvements, but with the IWW earlier this summer, fellow merely for the adherence to existing rights workers have begun to start their union and protections. activity for safety in maintaining the scoot- ers they use for delivery and to support Workers’ Struggles At Pizza Hut workers individually. Their main demands Pizza Hut, a U.S.-based global fast food are focused on the working conditions of chain, is a subsidiary of Yum! Brands—the delivery drivers and on wage increases. world’s largest restaurant company. Pizza “Working conditions at the company Hut and Yum! Brands are, under differ- are very bad, the hourly rate is £5.83,” ent guises, attacking their workers across David went on to explain in an interview Europe once more, apparently going just with activists from the youth section of as far as they can under the different legal the left-political New Anti-capitalist Party frameworks of each country. In France (NPA), who covered the strike in their this backlash might be particularly bitter, newspaper Tout Est À Nous: as numerous earlier struggles at the chain “Delivery drivers who have no license had fought hard for and won the very same for the scooters have to use their own ve- demands that now have to be fought for hicle, but they are only reimbursed £0.6 once more. per delivery. It’s a total rip off! We have Strike action has taken place almost filed a collective grievance against this yearly since 2000, in the early years sig- situation.” Pizza Hut workers Saint-Ouen’s, a suburb of Paris, on May 29. Photo: Pauline Idalgo nificantly led by the business union Con- In late July, due to pressure from fédération Générale du Travail (CGT), and discover this, although they had records While it’s impossible to predict the IWW members, management at Pizza largely by its militant organizer and long- that showed they were aware of his cir- results of this specific tribunal, past tri- Hut admitted that the IWW’s demand for time Pizza Hut worker Abdel Mabrouki. cumstances long before, just a few months bunals of this kind were won. During the better commission for delivery drivers was Around 2003, concerted action by CGT before he could get legal,” explains Hichem 2009 Pizza Hut strike, one of the workers justified. However, as David writes, this organizers across the fast food sector also Aktouche, the SUD delegate at Pizza Hut. eventually won his reinstatement and back review does not in any way guarantee an included a major strike in a McDonald’s “Not only did Pizza Hut fail to inform him pay after an 18-month trial. Pizza Hut then adequate outcome, and it could be used store that lasted for almost a year. Abdel, of the situation previously, he also had gave the worker a substantial additional to justify further reduction of the delivery who worked at Pizza Hut from the late no other immediate means to support payment on the condition that he did not drivers’ pay. IWW organizing is expanding 1980s until 2009, went on to become a himself.” return to work. to other Pizza Hut stores in Sheffield and co-founder of Paris-based network Stop Additional grievances included the On July 11, the day of the tribunal elsewhere. Précarité (http://www.stop-precarite. firing of the manager of a store who had hearing, the Communist Group and the fr), which remains central in supporting been “too nice to his employees.” A few elected representatives of the Left Party Looking Forward struggles like those at Pizza Hut, and wrote days into the protest, organizers also presented a resolution in support of the A few days after David leaves to return the book “Génération Précaire” (Le Cher- checked out the workers’ paychecks, and, striking workers at The Council of Paris, to Sheffield, I am chatting with Hichem, che Midi, 2004) about union organizing to Hichem, “it was obvious that some which passed, asking the mayor to write who is getting ready for his own summer in the casualized retail sector in France, at hours were ‘forgotten’ every month, from to Pizza Hut demanding they respect em- break. I think this is the first time I’ve seen companies such as Pizza Hut, McDonald’s August 2009 on.” The demand for the back ployment legislation. However, despite him sit still since I came to their picket for and Disneyland. In 2005, Pizza Hut also payment of all hours worked became a key their determined and fierce fight, and after the first time a few weeks ago. Having been saw strike action in New Zealand as part focus of the following strike, in addition to nine weeks of struggle at press time, the at Pizza Hut since he was 20, he’s seen of the organizing campaign “Supersize the “usual” demands of timely payment of company is still unwilling to negotiate, and past strikes, past wins and the losses that My Pay” of the Unite Union (http://www. wages, paid sick leave, complete coverage the workers have not won any concessions. followed. He tells me, somewhat wryly, unite.org.nz), who remain active there and of work accidents, and the payment of Most notably, the company still owes the that we can’t know yet whether workers at other fast food chains, such as KFC and the 13th month salary (Editor’s note: In workers full payment of all hours they have will be in a position to renew their strike McDonald’s. France and other countries, a “13th month worked in the last year. Yet at least, they in the fall. Too many new hires will still be Changing ownership of Pizza Hut in salary” is a common form of a bonus that hope, they have shown their anger and in their trial period. The bosses have also France, as well as the gradual franchis- is not mandatory, but can be negotiated). willingness to stick together and fight for changed shifts, so more militant workers ing of previously directly held stores—a The fight began on May 13, with strikes their rights. are now surrounded by those new hires. process which forms part of Yum!’s busi- on weekends at alternating take-out and And, perhaps, by the fall, too many people ness strategy—have caused the loss of the delivery store locations across the city. Struggles in Spain and the U.K. will be desperate to earn a bit of money, hard-won gains made in those multiple This strategy lends an element of surprise Union busting, meanwhile, has been or they will need to return to their studies. struggles and have had a negative impact and hits the stores in some of their busiest rebuffed in the CNT’s struggle in Spain, Yet, with David’s visit, we have given on the Pizza Hut workers’ ability to or- periods of the week. Strikers have been where they have organized stores in each other a better insight into our shared ganize. In France, the company tends to hard-hit financially, and the company ap- Cáceres and Badajoz. In February, sev- situation than any abstract analysis of retain direct ownership of pears unlikely to be willing eral workers posted a list of demands— “precarious labor” could have provided. more profitable locations, to compensate them for any including weekends off, holiday pay and We have also seen each other’s determi- while benefiting from the of their strike days. To raise transportation contributions—on a notice nation to keep fighting, and to find ways fixed rates it gets from less funds, donations were solic- board at their store. The company, despite to not only oppose the attacks of manage- successful, franchised loca- ited during the pickets, at its recognition of the union, promptly ment, but to make demands for—and tions. A watershed moment the presidential campaign sacked three of the unionized workers. In win—better working conditions. Since the here appears to be the 2009 launch rally of the Front de addition to regular pickets on Fridays and employment tribunal hearing here in Paris sale of its French operations Gauche (“Left Front”), at Saturdays, as well as a demonstration in on July 11, it looks like our fellow work- by Yum! to a new “master the “Indignant Assembly” Cáceres in April, the union filed a com- ers in France face even more attacks on franchise” holder: the Bel- and from other sympathetic plaint with the labor court and eventually their union rights. Meanwhile, Wobblies gian company Top Brands, political organizations. won the reinstatement with full back pay in Sheffield have now presented their which was already running Pizza Hut, refusing to of all three workers. Beyond this initial demands and are awaiting the company’s Belgium’s Pizza Huts. negotiate with the strikers, victory, the struggle for better conditions response. In September, the heat might Most Pizza Hut workers instead asked the represen- is set to continue. be on. are in their early- to mid- tative of the majority union Workers’ demands in Sheffield are not For updates from Pizza Hut Sheffield, 20s, but some of them have Confédération Française dissimilar to those elsewhere, but they see the IWW Sheffield Blog at http:// worked for the company for Démocratique du Travail respond to the slightly different circum- www.iwwgmbsheffield.wordpress.com. many years. Many workers Photo: Monika Vykoukal (CFDT) to end the strike, stances of the U.K. labor situation and The SUD Pizza Hut Strike Fund is are also students, and everyone I meet which they attempted without success. its exploitation by Pizza Hut. Unlike in still in need of donations: SYND SUD works part time, making just a couple Subsequently, management also wrote to France, where the CFDT—who opposed COMMERCES SERVICES IDF; BIC: hundred euros a month, while living in a a leader of SUD to contend that the strike the recent strike action, as well as the CCOPFRPP; IBAN: FR 76 4255 9000 0121 very costly city with a long-term housing action was illegal. The result: the contacted smaller radical union SUD—had been ac- 0264 5370 690. crisis. Keeping up with both a fast food union leader appeared at the next picket job and studies can be tricky, and some of himself and yelled into his megaphone: “I the workers here in Paris are from North demand to see Chapalain [the director of African countries such as Morocco, Tu- Pizza Hut France] now!” nisia or Algeria, so they also depend on Pizza Hut’s next move was to contact their student status to allow them to stay Inspection du Travail, a body of civil ser- in Paris. This vulnerability to such double vants who surveil employment and labor pressure was one of the triggers for the re- law—yet again backfired when workers newed action at Pizza Hut stores in Paris. provided the inspector with their evidence, who then asked the company to pay work- Workers Strike ers for their unpaid hours. With a renewed “This strike started when a migrant flaring up of support in late June, workers worker, who had been doing a manager’s decided to continue their weekend pickets job for an employee’s pay, was suspended until the day before their employment when the company claimed to ‘suddenly’ tribunal on July 11. September 2011 • Industrial Worker • Page 7 Special Verizon Workers On Strike Continued from 1 members to point out that the union would Strikers said Verizon’s attacks would bargaining stance doesn’t improve. The company proposed to eliminate rather lift cable and wireless workers up to spread to other unions, and push down If Verizon, frustrated, locks the work- pension accruals for current workers and their standards. “We’re not going the way non-union workers even further. ers out, their access to unemployment defined-benefit pensions for new hires. Its of Walmart,” said John Colleran, a Local Union members don’t pay healthcare insurance is triggered and the union bargainers want to eliminate job security 2222 steward. premiums at Verizon, a plum they have could file unfair labor practices over the and shift the cost of health care to workers. Verizon signed a neutrality agreement defended through previous strikes—and company’s bad-faith bargaining position. They demanded to replace regular as part of the settlement ending the 18-day one which is increasingly hard to defend, Leaning on state benefits would take some raises with management-determined strike in 2000. It promised to allow the because President Obama’s 2010 health of the pressure off the CWA’s $400 million productivity measures. They want the unions to organize its wireless workforce— care reform will levy a tax on their so- strike fund and help the IBEW—which has right to shift more work away from union but the company violated the agreement as called “Cadillac” plans. no fund—stay in the game. members and out of the country. They soon as the ink was dry, fighting viciously “We fought for those benefits for all “It’s possible to carry out a guerrilla are looking to axe paid sick days and take against every organizing drive. Today, only those years,” said Brian Tyrrell, a special strike campaign—though there are some away Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and 50 Verizon wireless workers have a union. services technician in Manhattan, recalling risks,” says Boston labor attorney Bob Veteran’s Day as paid holidays. They want the sacrifices of past strikes, including the Schwartz, author of “Strikes, Picketing, to fight items as small as a $3.00 parking Mobile Pickets 219-day strike in 1972. and Inside Campaigns.” The company reimbursement. At the Verizon headquarters in Man- Although the tax won’t be levied until could discharge strikers if it convinces A hundred concession proposals still hattan on Monday, August 8, passing cars 2018, thanks to union lobbying, Verizon the National Labor Relations Board that sat on the bargaining table shared by the and trucks honked in support of picket- is demanding that union members start the union is engaging in premeditated CWA and International Brotherhood of ers, to loud cheers and whistles. Workers paying thousands of dollars now. intermittent strikes. Electrical Workers (IBEW) as the contract chanted and booed as managers entered Some leaders, like CWA Local 1400 But the unions are in uncharted ter- expired the night of August 6. and left office doors just feet away. President Don Trementozzi, argue that the ritory, he said. He pointed out that the The strike appeared to surprise some, Two cops stood watch under the Ve- unions should instead push the companies unions maintain their right to shut down on both the union and management side. rizon sign, while others directed anyone to back single-payer health care plans in all parts of their employer’s business— One pair of managers who were rushed wearing a red shirt into an area enclosed by East Coast states, which would take the union and non-union—and apply pressure into the field “fixed” a shorn phone line metal barricades. In Albany, a tight group issue off the bargaining table—and off to its suppliers, which both unions are with duct tape. of picketers blocked doors until police the company’s back—without decimating pursuing aggressively. Patti Egan-Walters, a business agent forced them to let managers through. One workers’ paychecks or coverage. On the conference call with members, for CWA Local 1005 in New York, said injury was reported in Monday’s picketing. CWA District 1 Vice President Chris Shel- another manager confided that he had Thirty managers in Manhattan, some Off The Picket Line ton promised more. been dispatched to drive around the city in with suitcases, entered the building at 7:00 Both CWA and IBEW leaders are clear “We’re going to use some tactics we’re a Verizon truck—but without any training a.m. Later a group of seven managers in that traditional strike tactics won’t win not used to,” he said. “But we have to, be- in how to fix or install anything. work boots and backpacks (presumably this walkout—and that they’re not going cause the old tactics don’t work anymore.” His orders? “When you run out of gas, filled with tools) were seen leaving. A to play by the usual rules. Heavy automa- Jenny Brown contributed to this come on back.” dozen picketers followed them into the tion and outsourcing enable the company story. This piece originally appeared in Negotiations in 2003 and 2008 ran subway. “Are you kidding, you’re going to to maintain the network and send struck Labor Notes on August 8, 2011, and was through contract expirations. The com- follow me?” said one manager to a striker. work, especially the sales and service work reprinted with permission from the au- pany flew in a replacement workforce Workers from the headquarters office of call centers, flying around the globe. thor. and housed them, but when the unions normally travel on foot to do installation “Our work is going to India, China— stayed inside, the cost of keeping a scab and repair in lower Manhattan. The pick- with globalization, the company is at an Fighting Scabs In Pittsburgh workforce idle quickly escalated, prompt- ets would follow struck work throughout advantage,” Jackson said. By X353983 ing a settlement. This time, members say the day, said Local 1101 steward Ron So the unions are targeting Verizon Members of the IWW in Pittsburgh the company’s demands are so severe, the Spaulding, making life as difficult as pos- wireless stores, where pickets are turning along with other community members unions had little choice but to walk out. sible for scabs. away customers and denying the company have been out helping their fellow “They want to take 60 percent of the At press time, the “mobile picketing” revenue at its most profitable source. workers on the picket line in the Ve- contract and dump it,” said Ed Fitzpatrick, strategy, honed in a four-month strike in Union negotiators met with the com- rizon strike. Local CWA members are president of IBEW Local 2222 in Massa- 1989, was under way in Massachusetts, pany on August 8. Rebutting Verizon’s legally restricted from certain activities chusetts. “These boys are making billions too. Techs track the vehicles leaving ga- claims, they say the company canceled while picketing. Not all these prohibi- and all they want is cheap labor.” rages and send out the call. “We can get bargaining sessions leading up to the tions apply to community members. Tashauna Jackson, a CWA Local 50 people in a heartbeat,” Colleran said, strike, and that they are prepared to talk. We have learned that Verizon opened a 1105 steward, noted that the chairman surrounding a manhole or scab truck in Cohen has said the goal of the strike is business center in Oklahoma recently, of Verizon’s board took home $55,000 a the field. not necessarily a contract settlement but and some of the scabs coming in to day last year—and that in four years, the Members have noticed that many simply to stimulate serious bargaining. the Pittsburgh building report they company’s top five executives bagged $258 safety precautions have fallen away in This leaves open the possibility that are from Oklahoma and have been million between them. Verizon’s rush to get managers into the the unions could submit an unconditional threatened with termination if they did Yet Verizon says union members field, and mentioned their concerns to the offer to return to work, coming back inside not come out to the Pittsburgh office. must suffer to bring labor costs into line Occupational Safety and Health Adminis- to restart talks—and holding open the Scabs are working 12-hour shifts from with non-union competitors, prompting tration (OSHA). possibility of walking back out if Verizon’s 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. in Pittsburgh. London IWW Cleaners Fight Back Continued from 1 customed to hymns of praise to the Lords ending protest. At negotiations with the Ocean Clean- with a day of action on July 15. Once of capital! The July 15th protest, alongside the ing Contractors on July 28, the IWW again, the cleaners refused to provide free It was only as a result of the IWW previous actions in June, resulted in the made it clear that it would defend any labor to clean the Guildhall without being members stepping up their campaign cleaners achieving their demands at the member faced with retaliatory actions by paid the wages they are owed in return. that the Corporation of London manage- Guildhall. It has been a significant victory, the bosses. The very next day, an IWW This time a demonstration, which was ment intervened, inviting our union to and all the IWW members at Guildhall member was sacked at 6:00 a.m. He had, supported by the IWW London General meet with them and their sub-contractor, and in the Cleaners Branch should be con- in fact, been informed in advance that if Membership Branch and Wobblies from Ocean. A delegation—composed of Alberto gratulated for what has been an inspiring he joined the union, he would be fired. across London, joined the cleaners’ protest Durango, Secretary of the London IWW campaign. The IWW responded immediately by called by the IWW Cleaners Branch. This Cleaners Branch; Chris Ford, of London informing the employer that it would be received support from cleaners in other General Membership Branch; and three IWW Stops Victimization mounting an effective defense campaign. workplaces, University College London IWW members from the cleaners at Guild- On several occasions, the management By 2:00 p.m. that afternoon, the IWW was (UCL) and School of Oriental and African hall—then met with the Guildhall manage- at the Corporation of London’s Guildhall notified that our member was reinstated. Studies (SOAS) workers and students, ment and the Ocean Contract Cleaning. has challenged the IWW that the action It was a second important victory for Colombia Solidarity Campaign and mem- To facilitate the negotiations, and with of the cleaners is illegal industrial action. workers’ solidarity. In addition to their bers of National Union of Rail, Maritime the approval of the cleaners, we agreed Unlike the traditional unions, the IWW newfound strength, IWW members have and Transport Workers (RMT), National to relocate the demonstration from the is not running scared of the anti-trade begun rolling back the free reign of local Union of Journalists (NUJ), University Guildhall Yard—allegedly, we were on union laws introduced by former Prime management to intimidate and bully them. and College Union (UCU), UNISON (the private property, even though the City of Minister Maggie Thatcher to stop workers Public Service Union) and Unite The London Police had twice given us permis- from taking effective industrial action. The A Major Breakthrough Union. sion to demonstrate there. The bosses were IWW does not disown or refute the actions The dispute at the Corporation of Lon- Over 60 people demonstrated in clearly irritated by the demonstration and democratically decided upon by members don has not only been a major victory for solidarity at the Guildhall, beginning at repeatedly tried to trick the IWW into ac- to advance their interests. the workers and an example to traditional 5:30 a.m. When police complained that cepting their offer of a room for the work- However, contrary to what the bosses unions on how to win their demands—it the protesters were disturbing a nearby ers to wait while negotiations continued. and even some websites unrelated to the has also been a major step forward for church, the vicar, David Parrott, stepped Wage slaves we may be, fools we are not! IWW have said, the IWW did not need to independent trade unionism. The IWW is in to offer coffee and the facilities to the Under pressure, and with the Cor- call a strike at the Guildhall. Instead, what on the verge of securing legal recognition workers. poration of London management openly arose was tantamount to a virtual lockout from the contractors at the Corporation arguing with the Ocean management, the against the cleaners by their employer. of London. This has also spurned a great Round One: To The Workers IWW secured an agreement of immediate The cleaners have been accused of taking deal of interest in our union from other Workers painted their hands with payment of wages owed and a review of illegal action, but it has been the employer workers who are tired of the do-nothing phrases like “stop the abuse,” chanted slo- the wages over the last six months. After who has repeatedly failed to fulfill their attitude of the established unions and are gans such as “no pay, no work,” and sang five hours of protest action, the IWW contractual obligation—to pay wages owed desperate for change. With the victory in the old IWW anthem “Solidarity Forever secured written evidence from Ocean HR to workers in return for their labor. These this dispute, the IWW in England is now (For the Union Makes Us Strong),” which department that direct payments to the minimum wage workers are not providing establishing itself as a serious independent echoed around the Guildhall—a place ac- cleaners’ accounts had been made before charity. workers’ union. Page 8 • Industrial Worker • September 2011 Industrial Worker Book Review On Centennial Of Joe Hill’s Death, New Details Uncovered: Complete review online at folklorist, we learn that in spite of esoteric very night of the murders? Joe’s http://www.iwwbookreview.com. history, with key puzzle pieces absent or off-the-record explanation attrib- misinterpreted, Joe Hill has been the uted the gunshot to a dispute over Adler, William. “The Man Who Never subject of more media accolades than any a woman. That story never came Died, The Life, Times, and Legacy of Joe other labor hero, from novels to videos, out in court, and to the extent it Hill, American Labor Icon.” New York: from post cards to bumper stickers. Writ- has been explored in subsequent Bloomsbury USA, 2011. Hardcover, 249 ing in “Laborlore Explorations,” Green of- published accounts, it has gener- pages, $30. fers the cultural Joe Hill, recounting poets, ated far more muddled speculation novelists, and playwrights who developed that insight. By Richard Myers protagonists based upon Hill’s perceived Biographer Gibbs Smith pro- The name “Joe Hill” garners nearly 2 character. The martyr extraordinaire in- vides a wealth of Joe Hill detail, million hits on the Google search engine. spires well beyond the industrial unionists conveying many original docu- By this crude measure, Joe Hill is more of the radical union to which he belonged. ments related to Hill’s trial, yet popular than William Howard Taft, the Green remarks that Hill has even been leaves the reader wondering about U.S. president when Hill was engaged in embraced by “enemies” of the IWW, past that unexplained gunshot wound union organizing and free speech fights and present. For example, he traces a and culpability for a capital crime along the western coast of the United Communist Party attempt at appropria- (forgive the double meaning). In States. My first awareness of Joe Hill’s tion of Hill’s symbolism and acknowledges his 1969 book “Joe Hill,” published ubiquity was occasioned by graffiti at a occasional Wobbly irritation that orthodox in Utah, Smith asserted that “the college, noted briefly more than 25 years unionism dares to adopt the Wobbly icon question of Joe Hill’s guilt or in- ago, yet seared into memory: Who was without conveying the radical context that nocence is no more certain today Joe Hill? If you don’t know, ask. If you was necessarily part of Joe Hill’s life. than it was in 1915.” Smith con- know, teach. Wallace Stegner penned a controver- cludes, “Hill may have been a guilty It wasn’t simply the question of Joe sial book of fiction about Hill, portraying man seeking to create for himself Hill’s identity that piqued my interest. the revolutionary song writer as a flawed a martyr image, or [he may have In a hierarchical, supremely credentials- hero. Stegner’s fictional Joe Hill was rough been] an idealistic and unusually conscious institution, this silent agitation and tumble, opportunistic, sporadically stubborn man.” conveys a peculiarly proletarian notion: violent, and probably guilty. The real op- On the other side, many of that Joe Hill doesn’t simply belong to portunistic party was doubtless Stegner Hill’s supporters portrayed the Graphic: themanwhoneverdied.com the history books, he somehow belongs himself; with so few facts known about Joe prosecution of Hill as an attack on to all of us. I later came across Joe Hill Hill’s life, the author saw him as a blank the union from the outset. Articles, books, grocery store shootings, they were thrown while continuing my research into a mas- slate upon which to create a fictitious anti- and songs have attributed Joe Hill’s per- off by his artful lying and his routine use of sacre of Colorado’s union coal miners in hero with an already built-in reputation, secution to Governor Spry, the Mormon pseudonyms. In spite of some incriminat- 1927. Five-hundred strikers were fired presumably conducive to selling novels. Church, or the Copper Bosses. Marxist ing evidence, they failed to identify Olson upon at the Columbine Mine, 30 or more Artistic and ethical questions aside, con- biographer Philip Foner’s most significant as the notorious wanted criminal, and they were wounded and six died. In the face of troversy ensued, with the Industrial Work- contribution may be a clarification of this let him go. company machine guns and the call-up of ers of the World picketing the New York assertion. Foner writes, “In establishing Ironically, when they arrested Joe Hill the notorious Colorado National Guard, office of The New Republic, which had the frame-up of Joe Hill, it is not neces- (who resembled Olson) for the crime, Utah miners were talking about returning published an article Stegner wrote about sary to subscribe to the theory advanced by authorities suspected that Olson (under a from their homes with deer rifles and the his fictitious Joe Hill. Much later, Stegner many writers, especially those associated different name) was the murderer. For a .30-30 Winchesters that had seen them regretted having used a “person with living with the IWW, that he was arrested and time they even believed Hill and Olson to through the “Ten Days War,” aftermath relatives who can be hurt” as his model. charged with the murder of [grocer] J. G. be the same man. Having failed to sort out of Colorado’s Ludlow Massacre just 13 For nearly a century, the man executed Morrison ... in a plot to get rid of a militant the real identities of their detainees, Utah years earlier. IWW organizers counseled by the state of Utah in 1915 has remained union organizer.” Foner concludes that authorities eventually settled on the union the miners with Joe Hill’s words: Don’t “shrouded in legends concocted by wor- although Hill may not have been initially agitator as their trophy prisoner. After all, Mourn, Organize. shipful admirers and venomous detrac- targeted by Utah authorities for his union Hill’s gunshot wound seemed persuasive Decades later, by chance, a packet of tors” [Rosemont]. We know well what Joe activities, the locomotive bound for ex- enough for a conviction, and they tailored Joe Hill’s ashes was discovered in the U.S. Hill represents to us. What of Joe Hill, ecution left the station after they realized their case to that one unalterable fact. National Archives. In a 1989 ceremony, as the man? who they had. Unfortunately, Foner’s 1965 Was the real Olson a more likely per- 300 of us looked on, Fellow Worker Carlos Numerous writers have sought to publication of “The Case of Joe Hill” is petrator of the grocery store murders than Cortez scattered a portion of those ashes distill the non-fictional Joe Hill, weigh- marred by accusations of extensive plagia- Joe Hill? Adler notes that during a career on the graves of five union miners mur- ing evidence and testimony, searching rism from an unpublished Master’s thesis of some five decades, Olson “burglarized dered by corporate greed 62 years before. documents for clues, arguing Joe Hill’s written by James O. Morris. homes, retail stores, and boxcars; he blew Publicity for that commemoration—a re- presumed character. Yet through uncer- Joe Hill we have in plenitude, as safes, robbed banks, stole cars, committed membrance of the first Columbine Massa- tainty or obfuscation, all existing accounts working-class symbol and literary icon. assault and arson, and in all likelihood, cre—resulted in news stories from coast to of Hill’s life and death have failed to ad- Yet none of Hill’s earlier biographers deal had committed murder.” Adler’s painstak- coast, in Mexico and around the world. The equately address the question: was Joe convincingly, nor to biographical satisfac- ing research places Olson in the Salt Lake plight of unarmed working folk gunned Hill guilty of murder? They tend instead tion, with the question of innocence or City area at the time of the murders, and down with impunity by the state while to answer in the negative, the much easier guilt. Now comes a book—the product of most probably, in the very neighborhood fighting for a living wage ought to have question: did Joe Hill receive a fair trial? five years of intensive research—in which where the murders occurred. The mur- carried the media’s attention that day. But Rosemont noted liberal biographers in new, intimate secrets of Joe Hill’s life are dered grocer—a former police officer—had it was Joe Hill that brought the network particular who split the difference, acqui- revealed. William M. Adler’s excellent been attacked before and believed that he news cameras to that quiet cemetery in escing that in the fog of history, Joe Hill work, “The Man Who Never Died,” pro- was being targeted. Olson had a reputation Lafayette, Colorado. Somehow, it seems, may have been guilty, balancing their vides significant, previously unpublished for violent revenge against his adversaries, the media cannot get enough of Joe Hill. equivocation with what has long been be- information. Adler walked the ground, a probable motive which nicely dovetailed Ubiquitous and appealing though yond refutation—that his trial was flawed. poked into the dark places, and discovered with the crime for which Joe Hill would he may be, Joe Hill has yet remained an This is an easy conclusion: the judge long-hidden truths. He traveled to Sweden die. Joe Hill was newly arrived in Utah enigma. short-circuited the jury selection process, to meet Joe’s family, to explore the work and no motive was established for Hill Not quite a decade ago, the late Frank- assigning hand-picked jurors to the case in of Swedish biographers, and to research as perpetrator. In spite of uncertainty lin Rosemont published a cerebral study spite of defense objections. Jury instruc- Hill’s childhood. Adler then followed Joe whether either of the two assailants at the of Joe Hill and the IWW called “Joe Hill, tions delivered by the judge mischaracter- to America, to California and Canada, grocery store had been fired upon, let alone The IWW & the Making of a Revolution- ized Utah’s laws of evidence. Any attempt through his brief role in the Mexican wounded, Hill’s gunshot injury was all the ary Workingclass Counterculture.” Rose- to introduce evidence that might have ex- Revolution, and subsequently, to the bitter evidence necessary. mont observed that the Wobbly bard “is onerated Joe Hill was routinely ruled out end in Utah. But what of Joe Hill’s alibi that he’d one of the most admired, best hated, and of order. Evidence that didn’t fit the facts Like much of North America at the been shot over a woman, a person whose least known figures in U.S. history—the was made to fit by prosecution attorneys time, Utah was experiencing labor discon- identity was never officially revealed to story of his life is largely lost in mist and given leeway to lead witnesses. When Joe tent. Railroad construction workers carry- the court? Adler identifies Hilda Erickson, shadow.” Rosemont noted that Joe Hill Hill, angered at the travesty that had be- ing the banner of the Industrial Workers of Hill’s host family in Utah, as his secret “entered mass consciousness as a ‘real’ come his trial, fired his first set of attorneys of the World won a strike in the summer love interest. Joe’s unofficial—yet far from historic figure, but even more as a folk in court, the judge basically overruled him, of 1913, and business leaders vowed that unnoticed—sweetheart, Hilda must have hero and ... a multi-faceted symbol of the ordering those same attorneys to remain it wouldn’t happen again. Joe Hill arrived been much on the minds of onlookers downtrodden rising in revolt.” Rosemont’s on the case. a short time later, and within a year, the throughout Joe Hill’s trial. She visited study of Hill draws upon a resource largely The appeals process was likewise popular Wobbly troubadour would be Joe through the prison bars every Sunday, unmatched in other biographies—com- inexcusable. Three judges who sat on an condemned to death. yet at Joe’s direction, they were careful to ments and reminiscences by Hill’s fellow appeals court made up the pardons board In the aftermath of two murders at prevent anyone from overhearing their workers and friends. The volume examines as well, in essence reviewing their own a grocery store, Utah authorities let slip conversations. When Hill, facing death, “Hill’s attitude toward race, gender, law, decisions. Stung by widespread criticism from their grasp a real criminal, a thug was allowed a private meeting with associ- crime, religion, the arts, and nature.” It is of the trial (including two inquiries from now known to have been engaged in a no- ates, Hilda was among the few people he an analysis not just of Joe Hill the union the president of the United States), the torious and violent crime wave throughout saw. Hilda later stood vigil at the prison man, but also of what Joe Hill meant to pardons board itself became a source of the region. Magnus Olson did time in Fol- when Joe was executed, and she was one the union, and what Joe Hill means to “malicious and deceitful” falsehoods about som State Prison in California, the Nevada of the pall bearers at his funeral. society. Rosemont’s book reminds us that the condemned prisoner. State Penitentiary, and at least seven other Moving Joe Hill’s secret romantic a symbol is as useful to the spirit as a tool Even considering that Hill was rail- lockups during his fifty year crime spree. saga from conjecture to historical record, is to the hand. roaded to his execution, what of the fact While the Salt Lake City police took Olson Adler’s book includes a sensational dis- From Archie Green, the late labor lore that Hill received a gunshot wound on the into custody on suspicion related to the covery, a letter penned by Hilda Erickson September 2011 • Industrial Worker • Page 9 Industrial Worker Book Review A Review Of “The Man Who Never Died” describing what had happened many that wasn’t good enough, calling such a order. Curiously, the Mormon Church graph about the career criminal Magnus years before, and her account confirms possibility “humiliating.” In response to had a historical tolerance of unions. But Olson (under one of his many pseud- Joe Hill’s ostensible alibi. She had been entreaties to explain the gunshot wound, the tolerated economic organizations had onyms, Frank Z. Wilson), Adler provides the sweetheart of Joe Hill’s friend and fel- Hill promised the pardons board that he always been comprised of believers. more than a chapter. Rosemont devoted low Swedish immigrant, Otto Appelquist would offer them the full story, if he was “The Man Who Never Died” explores a speculative chapter entitled “The Mys- (who had arrived in Utah before Joe). granted a new trial. The pardons board the deck stacked against itinerant work- tery Woman” to what are now known to Hilda broke off that engagement after Joe declared it had no authority to order a new ers—the wealth and power of union-de- be false leads. Like all other biographers, arrived, leaving Otto and Joe to become trial. Having embraced the slogan “New spising Harrison Gray Otis, editor-owner Rosemont failed to note Hilda Erickson, rivals for her attention. One day, Erickson Trial or Bust” before his many supporters, of the Los Angeles Times, for example. It despite her frequent but reticent visits returned to her family’s home (where the Hill told the pardons board, “If I can’t have details Hill’s participation in organizing throughout Hill’s trial, incarceration, and two men were boarding) to discover that a new trial, I don’t want anything.” campaigns and the free speech fights in execution. Adler not only identified Joe Joe had a bullet wound, while Otto was Equally stubborn in its own way, the Fresno and San Diego. Hill’s mystery woman, he provides Hill’s making excuses for leaving—for good, as pardons board determined that Hill would Adler also contributes a sympathetic explanation of the shooting as recorded it turned out. Otto Appelquist had shot Joe either “eat crow” (as Hill chapter on the Morrisons, in her own words. The Erickson letter in a fit of jealousy, then regretted the deed, described it) in the manner the other victims frequent- describing what appeared, at least from immediately carrying Joe to a doctor. that they demanded—tell ly ignored by previous the two suitors’ purview, a love triangle Perhaps fearful of arrest for the shooting all with contrition before historians. amounts to a metaphorical smoking gun and uncertain whether Joe would survive, the pardons board, with Stylistically, Adler’s in this century-old mystery. Otto left (to find work, he had declared) at no guarantees that it would book is a direct and pleas- With the back story of Hill’s love re- two in the morning, and never returned. make any difference—or ant read. Photos and il- lationship as an important touchstone, The doctor would later turn Joe in after die. lustrations relate closely Adler traces how Joe Hill’s plight, and hearing of the grocery store murders—and Adler explains why Joe to the history, and while the publicity generated by the campaign a sizable reward. Hill may have seen martyr- adequate, they are not to set him free, gradually changed Hill’s Why didn’t Hilda voluntarily step dom as a noble and worth- the main selling point of consciousness and, perhaps, his purpose forward when her testimony might have while cause. Joe Hill was the book. Never before in life. This, likewise, is a contribution saved Joe Hill? She was just 20 years old, too idealistic, too stubborn, seen photos of Hilda Er- which heretofore had remained uncon- and there is some indication that Joe Hill and too proud to give them ickson, mug shots of the vincing, for the simple reason that no other advised her not to. He probably sought to the satisfaction of breaking Photo: Randy Nelson presumed villain, Magnus biographer had the facts as a foundation shield her from publicity, an instinctive him. Joe Hill effectively William Adler. Olson, and family photos for such reflection. reaction for the Swede with roots in his told the pardons board, “Gentlemen, the are the exception, with one Olson photo Adler’s prose is first rate, his analysis family’s experiences in their homeland. cause I stand for, that of a fair and honest revealing a startling resemblance to Joe of history impeccable. He draws conclu- Ever the idealist, Joe Hill may also have trial, is worth more than human life— Hill. Rosemont’s photos and illustrations sions where appropriate and presents an sought to avoid testimony that might en- much more than mine.” In his estimation, in “Joe Hill” tend toward the curious, the honest account, yet acknowledges there danger his friend, countryman, and fellow they hadn’t proved him guilty; why should delightful, and the rare; for example, a is much that we still do not know. Why worker, Otto. he be required to prove himself innocent? copy of the “IWW Preamble” written in did Hill choose death when he might have At first, Joe was convinced that Utah The Joe Hill that shines through Chinese. Rosemont’s tendency to include chanced a different course? Why did he couldn’t convict him because he was in- Adler’s work is idealistic, unselfish, proud, esoteric information may be considered protect Hilda to the end when she might nocent. Utah society had sought to throw impulsive, principled, protective, stub- either a plus or a minus; some, but not all have held the sole key to his ultimate off its reputation for frontier justice and born, and at times, a little naïve in the face readers will be intrigued by speculation vindication? Was his protective nature it was almost possible to believe that the of implacable authority. That the govern- on printing technologies available to early grounded in the travails of his family so rule of law meant something. Somewhat ments and courts of Salt Lake City and IWW publications. many years before? Adler acknowledges surprisingly, Joe Hill accepted implicitly the state of Utah should prove themselves Rosemont writes with an affection for the questions and offers some thoughts, the legal principle that a defendant would as intransigent and unprincipled as the his subject that is apparent on page after yet allows the reader to put together the not be considered guilty for not testifying captains of industry about whom he’d so page. Adler’s style is a little more sober, final pieces of the puzzle. and he overvalued the judicial aphorism often sloganeered, may have caught Joe providing carefully marshaled facts to At the end, do we know for certain of innocent until proven guilty. by surprise. Having discovered the truth detail the times, the circumstances, and who committed the grocery store mur- Utah courts routinely disregarded of the matter, he dedicated his very being the essence of Joe Hill’s life. If Rosemont ders? No. But we have a narrative which both of these principles in the Joe Hill to the principle that justice must prevail, is the supremely knowledgeable champion clearly demonstrates: Joe Hill never fit case. Throughout the trial it became in- that sacrifice for such a cause was a worth- of his subject matter, Adler is the dispas- the profile of a killer, while another man creasingly apparent that the Utah system while endeavor. In spite of incarceration sionate investigator, unveiling a narra- detained momentarily for the same crime of justice intended to claim its pound of and a capital sentence, Joe Hill managed tive all the more credible for his careful definitively fit such a profile. The other flesh. A prominent union man had been to the very end to exercise some measure scrutiny. For five years his singular focus man was released to continue his life of accused of a heinous crime and evidence of control over his own life. And, to the has been on objectivity. Having become crime, while Joe Hill, the union man, was to the contrary simply wasn’t to be con- extent he was able, over his death. acquainted with William Adler and aware sent to his death. sidered. Joe Hill’s full appreciation of the There are now two biographers of of his ongoing research for this book, I If by some alchemy Utah society in danger of his predicament came too late, Joe Hill whose work stands above the once invited him to a local performance 1915 had been privy to the research col- his course had already been set. rest. Franklin Rosemont’s “Joe Hill, the of the Barrie Stavis play about Joe Hill. lected in this book, with its powerful evi- The circumstances of Joe Hill’s trial IWW and the Making of a Revolutionary He politely declined, explaining that while dence that a lovers’ triangle was behind in Utah—a union man accused of murder Workingclass Counterculture” speaks still assembling the historical account to the mysterious gunshot wound, the yellow and fighting for his life—may be profitably to the meaning of Hill’s life—Joe Hill as the best of his ability, he dared not pollute journals of the period may have come compared with another murder which oc- folk hero and symbol of the downtrodden his thoughts with the myth. alive with sensational gossip. Yet I believe curred during, and as a direct result of, the rising in revolt. But Rosemont’s text isn’t Yet the resulting historical account is the circumstantial evidence is persuasive trial. Inveighing against injustice, 25 year just about Joe Hill, it is a summation of not dry, nor lacking in innovative thought. enough that Joe Hill would have gone free. old Ray Horton—president of Salt Lake the entire Industrial Workers of the World For example, at one point Adler compares Instead, he sacrificed his life to become the City’s IWW branch—publicly cursed the experience. Rosemont’s Chicago base Hill’s legacy to that of John Brown, the man who never died, the Joe Hill that we imperative that causes some men to wear and his close association with Charles H. “mouldering abolitionist” whose own all have come to know. a badge. For his vocal audacity, Horton Kerr Company frequently lend a sense of cause went marching on long after his So who, then, was Joe Hill? If you was abruptly shot by an onlooker and then “inside baseball,” allowing him to reveal death. Adler also distills much of the know, teach. received two more bullets in the back as details of the IWW’s history found in no “personal” Hill; for example, the fact that, “The Man Who Never Died” by Wil- he staggered away. The killer, a retired other account. His broad grasp of Marx- just before his execution, Hill might have liam Adler became available on August lawman, was initially jailed for first degree ist theory, as well as of the revolutionary delayed the date by affirming a fraudulent 30, 2011, for $30. For tour dates, music murder, but was held for only one day. industrial unionism philosophy of the claim—a supposed alibi sent forth by an samples, and a photo gallery, please see Upon his release, the killer was hailed as a Wobblies—what Rosemont describes as unknown supporter, perhaps in a mis- http://www.themanwhoneverdied.com. hero at the Salt Lake City Elks Club with a an “anti-authoritarian Marxism”—lends guided attempt to forestall the terrible end. William M. Adler has written for luncheon in his honor. Newspapers edito- itself to comparison, with the IWW’s Hill calmly chose the truth, and imminent many national and regional magazines, rialized that this cold blooded murder was “hobo philosophers” coming off rather execution, rather than embrace the lie. including Esquire, Rolling Stone, Mother justified because Horton—a union man well. Rosemont observes, “Socialists, Com- Rosemont, in publishing his first edi- Jones, and the Texas Observer. In addi- exercising free speech—was asking for it. munists, and Trotskyists published papers tion of “Joe Hill, The IWW & the Making tion to “The Man Who Never Died,” he That a union man in Utah may be for workers—some of them admittedly of of a Revolutionary Workingclass Coun- has authored two other books of narrative killed with impunity for his attitude high quality. The IWW, however, always terculture” in 2002, provides one very nonfiction: “Land of Opportunity” (Atlan- seemed to likewise play a role in Hill’s published workers’ papers: of and by as important service to those interested in tic Monthly Press, 1995), an intimate look pardons board hearing. One cannot say well as for.” Joe Hill lore—an overview and critique at the rise and fall of a crack cocaine em- that Joe Hill had no chance whatsoever William M. Adler largely skirts ques- of all previous such histories. It is a very pire, and “Mollie’s Job” (Scribner, 2000), to save his own life. His pride and his tions of theory, relying upon demograph- significant and comprehensive contribu- which follows the flight of a single factory contempt for a flawed process played a ics to build a case for radical unionism. tion, valuable not only for what it tells us, job from the U.S. to Mexico over the course significant role in his fate. As intransigent For example, of 90 million Americans at but also for what is missing. of fifty years. His work explores the inter- as Utah justice seemed for a union man, the time, he reports that 10 million lived In the end, Adler provides something section of individual lives and the larger one has the sense from the recorded par- in poverty. Two-thirds of male workers that Rosemont cannot—a very plausible forces of their times, and it describes the dons board discussion that even at that earned less than the minimum considered narrative of Joe Hill’s injury on the night gap between American ideals and Ameri- late date, Joe Hill might have derailed his necessary for a decent life. Adler nicely sets in question. When educators, scholars, can realities. Adler lives with his wife and imminent execution if he threw himself the scene in Utah, exploring the history of or future biographers inquire what really son in Denver, Colorado. upon the mercy of the court, explaining at the Mormon Church and, with the appear- happened in Joe Hill’s life and death, they Richard Myers is a writer, author, long last how he had been wounded by a ance of the IWW, the conflict between a will turn to Adler’s work because of the and union activist in Denver, Colorado. gunshot. The board dangled a pardon or a radical utopian materialist organization essential new information that it provides. An abbreviated version of this review commutation before him, but Hill insisted and an older, utopian-socialist theocratic While Rosemont offers a brief para- has appeared elsewhere. Page 10 • Industrial Worker • September 2011 Industrial Strength Customer Satisfaction, Capitalism And The Ivory Tower Complete column online at one student had even cracked open the the department called me to ask if I winner, you’re a loser. In capitalism, one http://www.iwwbookreview.com. book. The next class period, in an effort thought she should be given a job teach- person’s loss is another’s gain. to be a “nice” professor, I gave them the ing at the university. I declined to have an It’s hard for me to comprehend how By Eric Miles Williamson same quiz. The results were the same: opinion: if I said no, I’d be a racist and a pitting professors against each other, like Texas A&M University and the Univer- not a single student had even yet cracked sexist; if I said yes, I’d be a sniveling scum- pit-bulls in a dirt ring in Matamoros or sity of Oklahoma have instituted bonuses the book open. During the course of the bag just like most of the other professors Reynosa or El Paso, could possibly benefit for professors who get the best ratings on semester, I gave a dozen or so quizzes. in the country. students. their student evaluations. These are not Always with the same result: no student She ended up going to another Uni- Other than health care, if anything in insubstantial bonuses: they range from had read any of the assignments. versity of Texas campus to work on a this capitalism-run-amok country needs $2,500 to $10,000 (10K). If we figure I decided to eliminate the portion of PhD. This is an extreme and disgusting to be socialized, it’s education. Enticing that an assistant professor makes about their final grade that demonstrated that example of what is now merely the norm. teachers to compete against each other 50K, a 10K bonus is a 20 percent raise the students had actually read the books. And the norm now is this: academic dis- instead of work together toward a common for the year. For professors who are not Every student passed, most with A’s and honesty. good is a splendid way of ensuring the ab- from wealthy families, this is potentially B’s, and I got exemplary student evalua- For five years now at the University of solute destruction of the minds of our chil- a life-changing raise. With ten grand (six tions. I knew the game: don’t make the stu- Texas, Pan American, I have been teaching dren. I care more about my four children or seven after taxes), a professor can move dents do any work, give them high grades, literature and giving essay examinations than I do about the tens of thousands of out of his cockroach-infested apartment in and they rate you as a superior professor. and quizzes. And for five years the quiz- students I’ve taught, and if it comes down the slums and slap down a down-payment One semester there, however, right zes and exams have come back nearly to getting a raise for my kids by handing on a splendid, dilapidated shack. before I quit and moved to Texas (to get identical. Students, generally, do not write out A’s or not getting the raise by being a I teach at the University of Texas, a raise—I hadn’t had one in five years in essays: they copy and paste information responsible professor, I choose taking care Pan American, and it’s been several years Missouri), I decided to give the students they’ve found on the internet. of my children without hesitation. At my since I got a pay increase of any kind. My the grades they actually deserved. I graded When I’ve had graduate students— current university we already have in place last raise was about $1,600 a year, which, the students on whether or not they’d read professors-to-be—many haven’t read the an incentive to publish. after taxes, amounted to $100 a month, the texts. Most of the students got C’s. books. I’ve heard they even chuckle and It’s called “College-Level Merit Pay”: if money that instantly got chewed up by Many failed. No one got an A. My student boast about getting away with not study- we publish better than the other faculty in increases in food, gasoline and utilities evaluations reflected this: the students ing. They might pass, but fuck them. I our departments, we get an extra $500 a costs. Every year I work without a raise, my hated me. Some called me an asshole. don’t get a raise for giving students the year (of course, for the past three years, we inflation-adjusted salary goes down. Every Others called me Satan. grade they deserve: I get a raise for pleas- haven’t received jack shit). The people who year I’m a professor, I get poorer. Over the Even before Texas A&M and Oklaho- ing them. Great job, young scholars. Go decide if we get this huge pile of loot that past 27 years, the only way I’ve been able ma led the charge for professor “account- to Harvard. we could earn in a few days mowing lawns to keep up with inflation has been to quit ability” in the form of student evaluations, When I began teaching college in 1984 (my God! $40 a month before taxes for my job and get a job at another university, professors’ jobs, tenure and promotion at the University of Colorado, if students publishing a book!) are our colleagues— where, inevitably, my salary stagnates and depended on student evaluations. In all my wanted to plagiarize, they had to go to the often our subordinates—“lecturers” on I have to once again seek another job. I years as a college teacher (27), only four library to do so, and it was an arduous task short-term contracts who have no obliga- began professoring full-time in 1987, and times have I been subjected to mandatory for students to perform, a difficult one for tions to the university. They are elected if I adjust my 1987 salary for inflation, I teaching observations and consequent professors to detect. onto the committee that votes on whether make less money now than I did when I evaluation by a professor. If I want a peer Now students sit in their seats with or not the professors’ achievements are was a rookie. evaluation of my teaching, I ask one of my their smart phones and do a Wikipedia adequate, even if they themselves have Mike McKinney, A&M’s Chancel- professer friends to come to class and write search and copy down the entry, thinking done nothing but ingratiate themselves lor, says, “Money is not an incentive for me up. The resultant glowing letter is, of the professor is such a moron that he can’t to the unknown and poorly (if at all) pub- [faculty]. They show up every day and do course, a given, since I’ll likely return the figure out that since every student answer lished faculty members running the show the best they can. They can’t logically do favor with a six-pack of beer. is the exact same, uses the exact same all across the country. You’ll note that the better than their best. I call it [the bonus So usually the students decide if the language, word for word, something is best professors in the nation are rarely, if program] a reward.” professor is any good or not. Sorry—the amiss. Forty students using the same exact ever, administrators. I’ve never been given We might not be able to do better, but customers decide. It’s like asking the phrases. a raise by someone with more published we can sure as shit do a lot worse and get prisoners to rate their favorite guards. It’s So, what to do. Well, if you fail them books than me. the same pay, or even worse than that and like asking people to rate their favorite IRS all, you get shitty student evaluations, Since the cash is handed out by vote get a raise. What planet is this dude living agents. If you have two construction fore- and therefore don’t get a raise. If you give and not by objective standards, the profes- on, that he thinks faculty don’t care about men, one who makes you bust your ass all them all A’s, you get called into the Chair’s sors who please everyone, who have the their paychecks? day with no breaks, and another who lets office and are accused of pandering to the best hallway smiles, get the merit raises. If I were told that at my university all you goof off and sit on your ass and then students trying to get high student evalu- Socrates didn’t please everyone, and I had to do to get a 10K bonus was to get at day’s end buys the crew a couple cases ations. What you do is this: you find some neither did Jesus of Nazareth. Nor his perfect student evaluations, I’m pretty of beer, who do you think the workers will grammar errors on the scholars’ papers daddy the Big G. Shakespeare and Milton sure I could pull off the trick. No problem. prefer? and give them B’s; to the rest of them, the don’t please illiterates, and exacting bosses Since the early 1980s, colleges and There’s another twist, however. Times scholars who don’t make as many gram- don’t please lazy slobs and idiots. Anyone universities across the United States have have changed in the past dozen years. My mar errors, scholars who will soon be who pleases everyone is a suspicious per- moved, under legislative pressures and second year at the University of Texas, Pan running America, who will soon be your son, likely a megalomaniac. If everyone in dictates, increasingly toward a corporate, American, where I now teach, I directed a bosses, who will be managing your retire- the world were pleased by me, I’d know I capitalist model. Whereas 30 years ago Master’s thesis. After reading the psycho- ment funds, who will be drilling holes in was a total shitbag. students were students, now they are babble gibberish and showing it to my your teeth, who will be fixing the broken But I want that $40. I want it, and so “consumers” or “customers.” Of course, if wife, we both agreed that the language bones of your children and who will be the does everyone else. I want it really, really students were once students, and profes- being used was not quite normal. Each teachers of those kids and the caretakers bad, if for no other reason than I want sors were professors, now, if the students sentence read like something written on of your rotting carcasses, you give A’s. my colleagues not to get it. That’s the are “customers,” what are the professors? LSD or heroin. So my wife began looking You got a choice: your job, or your dignity. new name of the game in academia. As a They’re not salesmen, because sales- up phrases on Google. What she found Unless you’re independently wealthy, you professor, I no longer have “colleagues”: men try to get people to purchase goods: was that nearly every sentence was an choose your job. In the new corporate- I have competitors. student-customers have already decided to amalgam, a collage, a pastiche of phrases model academia, dignity and honesty don’t If I want my College-Level Merit Pay, make their purchases. Perhaps professors taken from articles easily found on the pay very well. and all I have to do is ruin my colleagues/ are now “servers,” academic waiters and internet. The student had plagiarized her By choosing your job over your morals competitors, it’s not all that hard to do, waitresses serving up intellectual platters Master’s thesis. and dignity you get good student evalua- since I know hundreds of editors around in hopes that what’s on those platters I was on tenure track, having given tions. Then you get a raise. The only cost the country and internationally. I know pleases the customers enough that the cus- up tenure in Missouri for a raise in Texas. is your soul. Not much to lose when you’re dozens of agents. I know many, many tomers give the academic wait-corps tips I was not in a position to attempt to fail talking about 10K and the chance to climb hundreds of professors. It’s not that hard in the form of good student evaluations. this Mexican-American female Master’s out of student-loan poverty (I’ll be paying to tank someone’s career and their chances The question that arises next, of student. I’d be accused of being both a on mine for another 20 years—I owe more for publication. As in any business, it’s not course, is: just what are the professors racist (I’m white) and a sexist (I have a on my student loans than I did on my first that hard to be blackballed, backstabbed, serving? penis). When a professor accuses a student house). and secretly screwed over. It’s happened At Texas A&M and the University of of malfeasance, the professor always suf- Oh, this: all the other professors are to me a time or twenty. Oklahoma, they’re serving, according to fers more than the student, getting raked thinking the same thing. Don’t think There are some really, really nasty Mike McKinney, Chancellor of the Texas over the sulphurous coals in an academic they’re not. I want the bonus, but so do tricks I can pull if I want my raise. And A&M University system, “customer sat- inquisition: the student is, after all, an they. Golly, that means we’re competing, I want my raise. I’m not going to tell you isfaction.” asset, while the professor is an economic just like we’re supposed to in the corporate my tricks. I’m sure I’ll need them soon Next: how does a professor “satisfy”? liability, snorting funds from the trough and capitalist academic model. So let’s and, in the capitalist/corporate model of An anecdote or two is in order here. through his liberal snout. compete for those raises and bonuses. We higher education, continually. Oh, and the Eleven years ago I got a job teaching at After all, the student is a customer. all want them. But how do we go about students? They’ll get what they pay for. Central Missouri State University. Among Accusing a student of malfeasance is like competing with each other? After all, they’re consumers, and they’re the first classes I taught was American a waiter telling a customer that it’s not How’s about this for starters: we ac- purchasing a product. Literature. I required the students to read the cocktail that sucks, but the customer’s tively work toward destroying each other, What that product is ultimately worth Mark Twain’s “The Adventures of Huck- taste in fine liquor that’s sub-par. Or like toward defeating, annihilating each other. is a question taxpayers, who have pit pro- leberry Finn.” I gave the students a very telling the customer that the tête de monde We work to ruin each others’ reputations. fessor against professor, college against simple reading quiz—anyone who’d read is not bad—the customer is just an idiot. We try to ruin each others’ marriages and college, university against university, even the first few chapters of the book I reported the incident through the ap- cause each other nervous breakdowns. We might consider asking themselves the would have gotten an A. propriate channels. Their opinion? Let her try to catch each other in some wrongdo- next time they vote for public officials who Every student in the class—40 or 50 take a couple of classes instead of writing ing. We seek to discredit each others’ want to slash funds for education and who of them—failed. I asked them how many a thesis, and just let her get her degree. service, teaching methodologies, research demand that competition be the name of of them had even begun the reading. Not Then, after she’d gotten that degree, findings. In capitalism, if you’re not a the game for the teachers of their children. September 2011 • Industrial Worker • Page 11 Environmental Justice Capitalism And The Environment: An Interview With Chris Williams By Jon Hochschartner with oil industry lobbyists as the Bush tions] can now do is fund climate denial We’re already locked into a certain Chris Williams is a long-time environ- administration was. What’s your take? the same [way] that they funded studies amount of global warming. There’s noth- mental activist and author of “Ecology CW: The British government was re- to show cancer wasn’t caused by smoking ing we can any longer do about that. But and Socialism: Solutions to Capitalist cently found out to be colluding with the cigarettes. we need to reduce things back down. Ecological Crisis.” His writings have ap- nuclear industry to play down the effects of JH: So is it just a stalling mechanism? So what are the possibilities for doing peared in the International Socialist Re- Fukushima through Freedom Of Informa- CW: The United States’ infrastruc- that? On one hand, I think the possibilities view, The Indypendent, Socialist Worker, tion requests. If the British government is ture, because of when it was mostly devel- are immense. This is not really a techni- Truthout and Znet. He is a chemistry and doing it, I find it hard to believe that the oped, is centered around the automobile. cal issue at all. This is purely a social and physics professor at Pace University, and American government is not doing similar The layout of cities and so on, unlike oth- political issue. The amount of just solar chairperson of the Packer Collegiate In- things. We all know about er developed countries— energy coming down onto this planet each stitute science department. This interview the secret meetings that which developed earlier, day is 10,000 times more than we use was conducted on July 5, 2011. were led by Dick Cheney not around cars—is predi- globally. So we only have to harness a tiny Jon Hochschartner: Children in when he set up his en- cated on cheap gasoline, fraction of one percent of what’s available Fukushima [Japan] recently tested posi- ergy policy group. T. Boone with far less public trans- to power the planet. I’m not saying we’d go tive for trace amounts of radiation expo- Pickens, multibillionaire port provision. That’s why just solar. But it gives you an indication. sure. Is concern about nuclear plants in who is advocating for mas- it’s been one of the most Similar things have been shown for wind the United States alarmist? sive expansion of natural intransigent [countries] in [and] geothermal [energy], and so on. Chris Williams: I think Americans gas, has written a bill that all of the international cli- JH: Are capitalism and ecological bal- should definitely be concerned about the he wants to present to dic- mate change negotiations. ance mutually exclusive? nuclear power plants that exist in this tate the energy policies of On the other hand, Europe CW: I believe so, very strongly. I’ll country, all 104 of them. There have been the country. Ted Turner, can see that it can obtain give three reasons for that. Number one, several reports out recently, since the another billionaire obvi- an economic advantage by capitalism is based on constant expansion. spotlight has been shone on the murky ously, has done something pressing things more. Not Whatever it’s producing today has to be ex- and obscure world of nuclear power and similar, advocating natural because they are a more ceeded tomorrow. The inner logic of com- nuclear power regulation. I don’t know if gas expansion. There are far-sighted set of capital- petition and profit-driven growth dictate you’re familiar with the Associated Press some people who clearly ists or anything, but they that if any world economy is not growing reports that came out recently saying that have the ear of politicians can see a competitive edge at 2-3 percent a year—then what happens? Photo: Jeffrey Boyette three-quarters of plants have leaked radio- much more than ordinary Chris Williams. where they’re better able Well, we see today. The whole economy active tritium, some of which has been ac- people. We don’t get any to adapt their industry, to goes into a spiral of layoffs, unemploy- companied by longer-lived isotopes, such say over what our policy should be. Most be less carbon intensive than the United ment and cuts to social services. So built as casium 137. There have been a whole people are against nuclear power, and yet States is. into the way the system operates is this number of fires. There are many plants they want to expand it regardless. Whether JH: In the midst of a recession, car- expansion— which means that energy use, that are not up to standard in terms of there were secret meetings or not, dictated bon emissions reached the highest level in waste streams, material inputs, all have to being subjected to large earthquakes. The by the corporations, these people meet all history last year, according to the Interna- keep increasing too. The [second reason San Onofre plant in California is built on the time. tional Energy Agency. What will it take in is] the fact that [capitalism] is based on the beach, for example. The nuclear plant JH: The American Association of a systemic sense to avoid global climate profit means that they don’t just make at Indian Point, just 30 miles north of New the Advancement of Science, the world’s meltdown? things that we might need. They make York City, is on two earthquake fault lines largest general scientific society, recently CW: We are really reaching a criti- things based on what will make the most and has had leaks and so on and so forth. released a statement condemning the cal period. Nobody knows whether we’re amount of money in the shortest amount The nuclear power plant in Fort Calhoun, harassment of climate researchers by con- about to reach it. Or maybe, possibly, we of time. So that means we get all kinds of Nebraska, is practically underwater. Any servative groups. What’s the motivation already have reached it. But we certainly useless crap produced, that we don’t really time that they’re putting sandbags up to behind these attacks? need to make some significant changes in need. But they convince us that we do need protect a nuclear power plant—it’s kind CW: I think that it follows the tried the next ten years or so, radically reduce [it] through huge and extremely wasteful of problematic (laughs). and true method of shooting the messen- the amount of CO2 and other greenhouse advertising and marketing budgets. So it’s not just a question of a cata- ger in order to discredit the message. It’s gases going into the atmosphere. Most I think the third thing is connected to strophic accident. We’ve already had one been done numerous times before. But scientists, as you probably know, see 350 those in terms of capitalism being inher- of those: Three Mile Island in 1979. It’s just it’s very difficult when the overwhelming parts-per-million of carbon dioxide in the ently short-term. It’s impossible to have the daily operation of nuclear power plants majority of climate scientists agree on two atmosphere as the maximum allowable a long-term outlook, which is exactly the that make them inherently unsafe, not to things: first, that the climate is warming amount before we start losing control of outlook that we need right now. [Corpora- mention extremely expensive. and changing quite radically; and sec- our ability to moderate climate change. tions] need to compete against each other JH: The Center for Biological Diversi- ondly, the cause of that is overwhelmingly And we’re already at 390. So we’re over on a daily basis by lowering their costs, by ty has said that the Obama administration human activity, specifically the burning and above what most scientists will say paying their workers less, and by disre- has been as secretive regarding meetings of fossil fuels. The only thing [corpora- is safe. garding the environment. In September We Remember Sports 100 Years Later, Joe Hill Lives On The NFL Lockout Is Over! From the Bread and Roses By Neil Parthun hits to the head and concussions in long- Workers Cultural Center At the outset, things did not look good term brain injuries, dementia and chronic The Denver-Boulder IWW and the for the players. There were worries about traumatic encephalopathy—a degenera- Bread and Roses Workers’ Cultural DeMaurice Smith, the new executive direc- tive brain disease. But the most shocking Center in Denver produced a multi- tor of the National Football League Play- aspect of this, the longest NFL labor dis- media event to celebrate the legacy of ers Association (NFLPA), having to learn pute in history, was the intense solidarity the great union organizer and song- the ropes during the first labor standoff amongst the players. They rallied around writer, Joe Hill, held from August 26-27. since 1987. Another question mark was support of their interests in one voice. Exactly one century ago Joe Hill, a the potential for solidarity. During the The tentative collective bargaining Swedish immigrant, was fighting on the 1987 strike, it was star players like Mark agreement that ended the lockout was a side of the Mexican peasants and work- Gastineau and Joe Montana who crossed huge success for the players. While owners ers for freedom. In the next four years, the picket line to continue to play. There got a rookie wage scale that limits rookie Joe would become heavily involved in were real beliefs that since players have compensation, the players have almost many famous strikes and free speech short and precarious careers, some may guaranteed increased pay for veterans by fights throughout the United States. In split away and demand a quick end to establishing not only a salary cap, but a the process, he penned dozens of the the lockout. Add in the perceived public minimum spending require- most beloved songs of the labor move- animosity against complaints ment for owners across the ment of the time—songs that even- of labor—especially league. The players prevent- tually inspired Woody Guthrie, Pete “millionaire play- ed the regular season from Seeger, Joan Baez, Bob Dylan and others. ers” and a televi- being expanded from 16 Then, the state of Utah accused Joe sion deal that would games to 18 games and got of killing a shopkeeper in Salt Lake City, Graphic: Bread and Roses Workers Cultural Center guarantee money to other significant gains in convicted and executed him, despite in- owners even if no safety. Off-season activi- ternational pleas for a fair trial. Denver continuing Joe Hill events will be the book games were played, ties were cut by five weeks, writer and activist William M. Adler has tour and the extended performance of at it appeared that the contact levels are limited at recently finished a book that convincingly least one new play honoring Hill’s legacy. union had little chance practices and players have received more shows Joe was innocent of the charges and Headlining the Denver events was of success. days off to recover. Most importantly, wrongly executed—something the public Grammy-nominated folksinger, songwrit- However, the players surprised ev- players can now remain in the medical has believed for generations and was er and balladeer John McCutcheon. To- eryone. The players won in court by prov- plan for life rather than the previous limit popularized by Baez in the famous song gether with local folk artist Elena Klaver, ing that the television deal was indeed of five years. “I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill Last Night” they performed a number of Joe’s songs a lockout fund and thus prevented the Now that we have football back for at the Woodstock Festival in the 1960s. and a portion of the new musical play about owners from touching the money during this fall, let’s not forget that amongst the The release of this significant new book Joe Hill written by Si Kahn at a Friday the lockout. The public also rallied around breathtaking bombs, screens, sacks and was an important part of the festivities. night concert at Denver’s Mercury Café. the players once people saw the realities touchdown rushes, NFL players not only Now as we approach the 100th anni- Then on Saturday, August 27, the of the game. An average career for an NFL show what ability and focus can do on versary of Joe’s untimely death, the festival festival featured films, documentaries and player is 3.4 seasons. Studies have shown the field, but they show what it can do off kicked off a tribute to Joe to re-inspire the poetry dedicated to Joe Hill’s immigrant that NFL players are dying approximately the field as well. They provided a shining global movement for workers’ power and rebel legacy, and ended with a sing along 20 years earlier and we’re seeing more example of labor solidarity, and what can to win his formal exoneration. Among the with several of the area’s finest musicians. research about the detrimental effects of happen when united workers fight back. Page 12 • Industrial Worker • September 2011

The IWW formed the International Solidarity Commission to help the union build the worker-to-worker solidarity that can lead to effective action against the bosses of the world. To contact the ISC, email [email protected].

The Gaza Freedom Flotilla II FW Steve Fake, X359328 crew, on the U.S. vessel, christened “The Direct action on the high seas—that Audacity of Hope.” was the core of the idea. The Freedom Flo- After several days of meetings and tilla II: “Stay Human” was the latest itera- media, as well as medical and nonviolence tion in a tactic begun in 2008, which has trainings, we were prepared to sail. How- attempted to subvert the Israeli blockade ever, it quickly became evident that our of Gaza by sailing ships to Gaza’s shores. boat, and those of the rest of the coalition, From those first small fishing boats, the would have difficulty getting out of Greek Unveiling the boat on June 30. Photo: Johnny Barber, U.S. Boat to Gaza actions have grown into this year’s 22-na- waters. An error-filled complaint had been tion Freedom Flotilla II Coalition, with ten lodged against our ship that ludicrously be subjected to our chants and speeches. Israeli pressure and reach international boats and hundreds of participants. alleged to have knowledge that our boat Eventually, under the threat of a forceful waters, nearing Gaza on July 19 before This summer also marked the fifth was un-seaworthy. The paperwork was boarding of our ship, we agreed to be es- being stopped by Israeli forces. As the sole year of the blockade in its current iteration, lodged by Shurat HaDin, a Tel Aviv-based corted to a new port where our boat was representative of our coalition to near the though the territory has endured some organization dedicated to using litigation placed on lockdown and our captain ar- beaches of Gaza, it served as a promise of form of external control of its borders for to repress dissent against the Israeli gov- rested. He was later freed, though not be- what will come. The flotilla movement will many years. The Gaza Strip, an extremely ernment. fore four tense days passed while he faced not stop until the blockade is ended. youthful society and one of the most It was clear that the boats would face the unheard-of threat of a felony charge. In the midst of our preparations, the densely populated areas on Earth, has interminable delays. By late Friday, July 1, In response to the expansion of the conflict over the austerity package being been placed under the current “medieval the Greek Ministry of Citizen Protection, blockade to European waters, the inspiring imposed upon Greek society by the global siege,” according to U.N. official John an Orwellian name if there ever was one, Greek protestors of the “real democracy” financial elite reached a climax. Due to Ging, since 2006. The ostensible reason issued a general statement of policy that movement based in Syntagma Square our unexpectedly extended stay in Athens, for the U.S.-backed Israeli policy is Gaza’s no boats would be permitted to depart for quickly organized a demonstration of some we managed to participate in, and forge election of the Hamas party to replace Gaza. The U.S. contingent, unable to wait 650 people in support of the flotilla on July connections with, the Athens protest the Fatah party. The prevailing thought is any longer without losing passengers and 3, which passed in front of the Ministry of movement. that the people of Gaza voted the wrong the corporate media we had secured, de- Citizen Protection and then marched on to A two-day general strike was held on way and must be punished. The blockade, cided to make a symbolic run for it. the U.S. and Israeli Embassies. June 28-29 to coincide with the Papan- widely regarded as a form of collective After an emotional half hour of clear This was followed on July 5 with a dreou regime’s passage of the austerity punishment—imposed, as noted, largely sailing, we were confronted by Greek Coast march by the Freedom Flotilla II Coalition, package through parliament. The mili- upon children—is a violation of the Fourth Guard authorities and a two-hour standoff carrying a banner composed of the flags of tancy of the protests, the widespread and Geneva Convention, and therefore a war ensued. The Coast Guard captain asked the 22 nations represented, plus Palestine. broad-based support they drew from the crime under international law. us to return to dock, citing the alleged We marched to the Spanish Embassy in general populace, and the ruthlessness of After the brutal executions of pas- un-seaworthiness of our vessel. Our cap- Athens, where members of the Spanish the police were all on full display. As much sengers in the 2010 Freedom Flotilla, tain responded, asserting—with far more initiative had begun an occupation of the as we have drawn energy from the Arab activists in the United States immediately plausibility—that in light of the incidents building that would continue on for many Spring that emerged as plans for the flotilla recognized the need for a U.S. boat to join of sabotage suffered earlier in the week days. In stark contrast, a similar action at were being finalized earlier this year, we the next flotilla. I had the remarkable by two of the other coalition boats, one the imposing, fortress-like U.S. Embassy drew considerable inspiration from this privilege of joining 36 other passengers, as in Greek waters, it was necessary for our would have been unthinkable, though a courageous movement for real democracy well as a small team of (almost exclusively vessel to depart for safety reasons. Coast number of passengers from our boat did by the Greek people. volunteer) organizers, and a five-person Guard commandos with M16s arrived to engage in a multi-day fasting outside the I have emerged from my time in Ath- Embassy’s walls until our captain was ens with a sense of invigorated re-com- IWW Food & Retail Workers Union Founding Convention released. mitment to the work ahead. The strength October 21, 22 & 23, 2011: Portland, Oregon The parliamentary figures participat- of solidarity between us and the unity of Hosted by the Portland General Membership Branch of the I.W.W. ing in the flotilla from many nations served purpose, the sense of immediacy, and the as a further reminder of the wildly differ- full time devotion to the cause at hand all ent political contexts at play outside of the combined to forge a very strong sense of United States, which operates in virtual mutual support and camaraderie within international isolation in its full-throttled our group that I will not soon forget. backing of Tel Aviv’s oppressive policies. We are well placed to continue the A few days after The Audacity of Hope struggle. While we did not reach Gaza, but attempted to depart for Gaza, the Cana- vessels have not fallen into Israeli hands. dian boat, the Tahrir, also made a break for Contrary to Tel Aviv’s spin, by most mean- it, creatively employing kayakers to block ingful criteria, the Freedom Flotilla II has a Greek Coast Guard boat from prevent- been a major success. The early attempts ing the Tahrir’s departure. Learning from of a few years ago utilizing small fishing the fate of the U.S. boat, the Canadians boats did in fact succeed in reaching the left their crew on shore and, when finally beaches of Gaza. Yet the much larger flotil- boarded by Greek authorities and asked las are far more concerned with publicizing to identify their captain, triumphantly the cruel and deliberate suffering imposed declared “we are all captains!” upon Gaza’s society. A French yacht, the Dignité Al Karama, The people of Gaza must be free. Until did eventually escape the clutches of U.S.- they are, we will continue to sail.

The IWW Food and Retail Workers Union is an organization of workers at every link in the supply chain of food and retail products- from processing facilities to warehouses to restaurants, cafes, grocery stores, strip Imortance Of Dockworker/IWW Solidarity malls, big box stores, and other retail shops. We have come together to fight for fundamental change in our The importance of labor solidarity in strengthening the movement was industries. In the short term, we seek to build power with our coworkers to win improved wages, guaranteed hours, healthcare, and other crucial improvements to our working conditions. In the long term, we aim to brought home for us in a direct and personal manner by the engagement of the establish industrial democracy through worker self-management of production for human needs, rather than International Dockworkers Council (IDC), representing some 50,000 workers, capitalist profit. which issued a statement in support of the flotilla and its right to sail freely into The convention will lay the organization’s structural foundation, develop an organizing and outreach strategy based on our approach of solidarity unionism, and plan for the building of industrial unionism in the international waters and against the Greek government’s political interference. The food industry. IDC statement was initiated through the involvement of a Swedish passenger in the flotilla, Erik Helgeson, who is a member of the Swedish Dockworkers Union. Convention Schedule: This is not the first foray by dockworkers into solidarity with the people Friday, October 21: Welcoming Evening Dinner and Discussion Panel Saturday, October 22 & Sunday, October 23: Convention of Palestine. On June 7, 2010, Palestinian labor organizations issued an in- Attendance: ternational call to blockade Israeli ships, effectively reversing the blockade. Attendance is open to all IWW members, though voting is limited to IWW members of Industrial The responses were not long in coming. In California, Bay Area dock workers Unions 460, 640, and 660. All IWW members working in food service, processing, and distribution are invited to attend. in the International Longshore Workers Union (ILWU) conducted a 24-hour Registration: strike when the Israeli Zim Lines shipping company tried to dock on June 20. Registration is required and can be done online at: http://portlandiww.org/founding-convention/ The action recalled a similar work stoppage against Apartheid South African Deadline for registration is August 31. Travel and Accommodations: cargo in 1984 by the same ILWU local. Similar actions have been taken by The Portland GMB is coordinating both needed accommodations and travel assistance. To request a South African, Australian, Swedish, and Indian port workers and their unions. stipend to assist in covering the cost of travel costs, please complete the Travel Reimbursement Request Unsurprisingly, the IWW is far ahead of most establishment labor unions form (available online) and a convention organizer will contact you. in its support for the workers and people of Palestine, becoming the first U.S. Donations: Organizers from around the United States and Canada will be traveling to Portland for this Convention. union to support the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Campaign. None- In order to ensure all interested members are able to attend regardless of financial circumstances, all theless, there are signs of local pressure for change among the larger unions: donations made to the Founding Convention will go towards assisting our fellow workers with their the San Francisco and Alameda County Labor Councils of the AFL-CIO travel expenses. Contact: both stated their support for the actions of the ILWU workers last June. To receive more information about the Founding Convention or the IWW’s organizing within the food Fellow Workers are encouraged to join the Friends of Palestine contingent and retail industries, please contact us at by email at [email protected]. within the IWW to support the further development labor solidarity on this issue.