Dispatch from the Front Lines of Occupy Wall Street
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OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER oF THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD INDUSTRIALNovember 2011 #1740 Vol. 108 No. 9 $2/ £2/ €2 WORKER In November We Remember Financial Crisis & the Mr. Block Reacts to The Annual IW Year In November We American Working Occupy Wall Street in (Book) Review Remember Fallen Class 3 7 12 Comrades 14-16 Dispatch From The Front Lines Of Occupy Wall Street By FW Arthur Smilios, X362847 community, have all been left wonder- NEW YORK – As the Occupy Wall ing, “When will the working class finally Street (OWS) movement is now in its awaken, en masse?” We have our answer. third week (at press time), I can truly Autumn 2011 is proving to be the moment. report that it is, in fact, a movement. Despite the misinformation (or complete Having been away from my beloved ignorance) purveyed by the capitalist hometown, I began attending OWS on press, OWS has caught the imagination Oct. 3, returning every day since. My and tapped into the indignation of working experiences have borne out that this is, people nationwide. The network fossils, in indeed, a legitimate people’s uprising. their comfortable torpor of past relevance, This is not the “astroturf networking,” believe that they can kill a movement by with its empty platitudes and glossy disregarding or misrepresenting it. They placards, paid for by the banking prove their irrelevance. We have democra- cartels, that the Obama campaign so tized communication and, as a result, OWS successfully sold to the working class has become an unstoppable conflagration. three years ago; this is a demand from Fighting the urge simply to revel below. It seems that the working class in the joy of community, I have walked has finally grown weary of waiting for around, engaged all manner of people in the elusive and illusory noblesse oblige. conversation and interviews. While the Good! backgrounds of those with whom I’ve in- We have all attended numerous an- teracted differ, there is a commonality: we ti-Wall Street rallies over the years and, are the working class. We’ ve been abused. Wobblies march with Occupy Wall Street on Oct. 5. Photo: Thomas Good, Next Left Notes while buoyed by the camaraderie of our Continued on 6 What Is Occupy Wall Street All About? Starbucks, Wisconsin, Occupy X & Economic Crisis: One Wobbly’s Perspective Building An IWW For The Present Moment By Diane Krauthamer ity of voices: It’s time for DEMOCRACY By db When a friend of mine invited me to NOT CORPORATOCRACY.” Starbucks, Wisconsin, Occupy X: these Occupy Wall Street on the morning of Sept. There didn’t seem to be much more all name organizing initiatives that the 17, I thought nothing of it. Actually, that’s to it than that, and, while I didn’t neces- IWW has been intimately connected with, not true; I honestly thought it was a waste sarily oppose the occupation, I didn’t though, obviously, with different levels of of time. This was an occupation of a public think it was worth my time either. A few responsibility and impact. space, which, as far as I could tell, had no days later, I’d heard that the occupation The Starbucks Workers Union is an clear purpose, no articulated demands, was continuing, and while I thought such IWW campaign initiated by “salts”—or and no seemingly developed strategy. It persistence was impressive, I maintained workplace organizing—in New York City, was to begin on a Saturday morning—a my doubts. Most people could not even and has grown to be a large-scale cam- day when Wall Street is typically filled attend due to work, school or family, and paign organizing Starbucks workers across with tourists, not bankers. It was to last if they did attend, it was only for a short the United States and internationally. The “for a few months” and was organized in period of time to show their support. Oc- growth of this campaign has required the response to a call put out by Adbusters, a cupy Wall Street seemed like a place for creation of national infrastructure to sign publication/group based out of Canada over-privileged youth who did not have up, train, and support workers organiz- which is vaguely anti-corporate and seems many, if any, responsibilities. These were ing; coordinating media messaging and to run the spectrum from liberal to social- my initial impressions, and cynical as I solidarity actions across the country; and democratic. In a piece published on July was, part of me hoped that I would be fighting to put pressure on the company to 13, Adbusters wrote: proven wrong. make gains, prevent illegal union busting, “On September 17, we want to see One week after it began, on Sept. 24, and change the message around Starbucks 20,000 people flood into lower Manhat- the occupiers staged a march to Union and the culture of its workers. Photo: Diane Krauthamer The Occupy Wall Street encampment. tan, set up tents, kitchens, peaceful bar- Square as part of a “Day of Outrage” over The Wisconsin uprising was a mass ricades and occupy Wall Street for a few the execution of Troy Davis, approximately upsurge of rank-and-file action in re- tions and ideas. As such, if we are going months. Once there, we shall incessantly 35 city blocks north of the encampment sponse to a budget bill designed to crush to meaningfully support and grow this repeat one simple demand in a plural- Continued on 7 the working class, including ending movement we need to have coherence collective bargaining for state workers. on our role—to grow, expand, increase The IWW was the key actor in getting Industrial Worker Periodicals Postage nonviolent disruption and analysis—as the idea of a general strike on the table well as coordinate our efforts, share our PO Box 180195 PO Box 180195 PAID and pushed for an independent worker- propaganda, and fight against cooptation Chicago, IL 60618 Chicago, IL 60618, USA Chicago, IL based response rather than the suicide of from liberal or right wing force, while and additional recall. Unfortunately the unions and the mailing offices representing ourselves well and being an ISSN 0019-8870 Democratic Party won out on pursuing a organization people can commit to if they ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED recall, and in doing so the workers lost. want to deepen their involvement. Reflecting on Wisconsin necessitates cre- These types of struggles will continue ating independent rank-and-file power to and likely grow. If we as the IWW are go- expand the struggle and take action when ing to meaningfully add our experience, the leadership won’t, which means having analysis and energy to these struggles we organized and organizing IWW tendencies need to learn from them, reflect on how within other unions and across class, from we could be more effective, and push our- farm laborers to the urban and rural poor. selves to meet the formal, organizational The Occupy X movement, though only challenges they represent. beginning, is an open-source protest that The forms of actions mentioned here anyone can take up and that is rapidly include one or more of the following: spreading to hundreds of cities around the 1. Workplace organizing United States. A mini-mass movement, it 2. Coordinated outside pressure is hitting a whole new section of the class 3. Coordinated networks of militants structure. Many of the people involved 4. Independent dual-card formations have no formal organizing experience, 5. Mass-based organizational solidarity and there is a complicated mess of posi- Continued on 6 Page 2 • Industrial Worker • November 2011 Addendum On Joe Hill’s Ashes Fellow Workers, returned and that the enve- of the ashes appeared in a Richard Myers’s review of William lope containing the ashes variety of outlets, such as Adler’s book, “The Man Who Never Died,” should remain part of the the Chicago Tribune, the (“On Centennial Of Joe Hill’s Death, New Archives. Later in July, I New York Times, and the Details Uncovered: A Review Of ‘The Man talked with them about the Wall Street Journal. This Who Never Died,’” pg. 8-9, September request and was told that generated a great deal of Letters Welcome! IW) and Adler himself briefly allude to the they was still looking into publicity for the IWW. Send your letters to: [email protected] union’s recovery of Joe Hill’s ashes from the matter. Upon arriving back with “Letter” in the subject. the U.S. National Archives. Both note the After another two in Chicago, I turned the NEW mailing address: spreading of the ashes a year later over months of silence, I re- ashes over to the union. Industrial Worker, P.O. Box 23216, the graves of fellow workers killed at the ceived a letter from the As to what happened with Cadman Plaza Post Office, Brooklyn, NY Columbine Mine. However, there is more National Archives on Sept. them, my understanding is 11202-3216, United States. to the story of retrieving Hill’s ashes from 28, 1988, stating that the that part of the ashes were the National Archives. IWW could have the ashes spread at Columbine, but The April 1988 issue of the United but not the envelope. I the rest of them were mixed Get the Word Out! Graphic: recollectionbooks.com Auto Workers’ publication, Solidarity, contacted them to arrange with grey sand, put in plas- Photo: iww.org IWW members, branches, job shops and reported the existence of Joe Hill’s ashes the transfer and chose Nov.18 to pick up tic envelopes and distributed to various other affiliated bodies can get the word at the National Archives.