Happy Official newspaper oF The Industrial Workers of the World International Wo m e n ’ s INDUSTRIALMarch 2012 #1743 Vol. 109 No. 2 $2/ £2/ €2 WORKER Day!

Special: Centennial Of Where Are The Wobbly Arts: Lyrics Hose Streets? The Bread & Roses Working-Class To “All The Union Our Streets! Strike 6-7 Women Novelists? 8 Ladies” & More! 11 12 Pizza Hut Workers Demand A Proper Slice By IWW Sheffield hours. Often times, Pizza Hut workers Twenty Pizza Hut workers and their pull shifts late into the night and on bank supporters in Sheffield braved freezing holidays, including Christmas. temperatures and billowing snow on Feb. Additionally, despite the staggering 4 to stage a protest against what they say increases in gas prices, Pizza Hut drivers are “insulting” conditions and pay. receive very little compensation for gas Supporters staged solidarity protests costs from the international franchise. in the United Kingdom in Birmingham, Despite the perceived downward trend Glasgow, London, Wessex, Bradford, Hull, in spending, take-out restaurants like Brighton, Liverpool, Bristol, and around Pizza Hut have been bucking the trend and the world in Richmond, Va., Portland Ore. continue to make huge profits. Workers and Germany. are angry that this boom in business has Members of the Pizza Hut Work- not been reflected in their own pay. ers Union, which is part of the IWW, “Despite our best attempts to talk to surrounded the company’s tiny store management, we feel like we aren’t getting in Crookes, Sheffield, carrying placards anywhere. It’s a joke that as Pizza Hut’s and leaflets that demanded management business continues to grow, the people return to the negotiating table to discuss that work the hardest and who are feel- the workers’ grievances over holiday pay ing the pinch are still receiving the bare and mileage rates. minimum the company can get away with Contrary to traditional practice, Pizza paying,” said a member of the IWW Pizza Hut workers do not receive the custom- Hut Workers Union. ary time-and-a-half for working overtime Read more on page 9 Wobblies brave the snow to confront Pizza Hut in Sheffield. Photo: Tristan Metcalfe Women Workers Fight Back Against Austerity In Poland on subsidizing infrastructural ficult for women to find a decent job than childcare, but this also includes house- projects like football stadiums and men, and since the government is going work, paid housework and elderly care). highways. According to financial to prolong the retirement age, women will In neoliberal discourse–which is oblig- experts, these expenditures will spend an additional seven years working atory for the Polish political class since the never be reimbursed, and many long hours with precarious and unstable capitalist transformation of 1989–care is city budgets are already on the contracts for a minimum wage of 300 considered to be just a cost. In 2010, in verge of bankruptcy. euros a month. In Poland, like in other Poznań, the city in western Poland, 750 As a result, politicians have cut Eastern European countries, the percent- million złoty from the local budget was money from education, childcare age of unstable, fixed-term labor contract spent on a football stadium, 22 million and public institutions. All over employment is amongst the highest in złoty was spent on city promotion, and Poland, schools and kindergar- Europe–almost 30 percent. only 15 million złoty was spent on nurser- tens are being closed down or are Budget cuts and privatization are ies for kids below the age of three, despite getting more expensive, the rent primarily hitting public and care institu- a huge need for childcare. In 2010, 1,600 in municipal housing is going up, tions, where women work and which they children at that age couldn’t be placed and hospitals and other public rely on. There is a huge lack of adequate in public kindergarten in the city–and property are being privatized. infrastructure, such as nurseries and day- private kindergarten costs as much as the Meanwhile, the prices of gas, elec- care facilities, as only 2 percent of children minimum wage workers make. In Warsaw, tricity, water, and medicine have below the age of three are sent to childcare 1,915 million złoty was spent on a football increased rapidly. institutions in the country. We observe the stadium, city promotion costs 60 million Graphic: Women with Initiative Women are going to bear the political nature of the care shortage. (Note: złoty, while subsidies to kindergartens By Women with Initiative costs of expensive football games and When we say “care“ or “care work” we are were decreased by 4.5 million and will In 2012, Poland and the Ukraine are the economic crisis. Polish women earn referring to any waged or unwaged activ- reach less than 60 million złoty. In this going to host Euro2012, the European less than men, are typically the first to be ity, run at public institution or at home, sense, local government policies in Poland Football Championship. For that reason, fired, and wages for workers in feminized which does not produce any commodity continue to operate under a patriarchal hundreds of millions of euros from na- sectors–such as public and healthcare but provides conditions for reproduction model of city management, and these tional and local budgets have been spent workers–are frozen. It is already more dif- of the working class. We focus here on Continued on 9

Industrial Worker Periodicals Postage Wobblies Picket Scabs In Scotland PO Box 180195 PO Box 180195 PAID Adecco—the the largest Chicago, IL 60618 Chicago, IL 60618, USA Chicago, IL employment agency in and additional the world—in Blythes- mailing offices ISSN 0019-8870 wood Square on Jan. ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED 20. Wobblies and oth- ers protested against Adecco’s deployment of scab workers at an ABB factory—a multination- al that operates in over 100 countries—in Cor- doba, Spain. At press time, Spanish workers of the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) have been strik- Picketing on Jan. 20 in Glasgow. Photo: Clydeside IWW ing since Nov. 28, 2011 From the Clydeside IWW due to Adecco’s plans to make subcontrac- IWW members, along with Solidar- tors redundant and replace them with non- ity Federation and Anarchist Federation unionized workers who have no experience members, picketed the Glasgow offices of or qualifications. Page 2 • Industrial Worker • March 2012 Democracy And “Moral Right” More On Marx To the Editor, consciousness understanding,” or class I would just like to say that I really In their article “Whose Ports? Our unconsciousness? enjoyed the article “Anniversary of Marx’s Ports!” (January/February IW, page 6-7), This kind of obscure and overblown Capital,” which appeared on page 2 of the Don M. and Brendan Carrell make a vague rhetoric is typical of Marxist and socialist January/February Industrial Worker. I and semi-coherent argument to the effect grouplets who claim to be the “vanguard” agree with FW Jon Hochschartner’s views that “All workers have a moral right to de- of the proletariat, with the right and duty, in the article. I might add that on the Letters Welcome! cide what happens at that port (Oakland).” moral or otherwise, to command the back- internet there is a great series of classes They then denounce the Inter- ward masses. on studying Marx’s “Capital” by David Send your letters to: [email protected] national Longshore and Ware- How would Wobblies Harvey. Harvey has been teaching this with “Letter” in the subject. house Union (ILWU) officials react to one of these leftist class for over 40 years! Just do an internet Mailing Address: for failing to obey Occupy “vanguards” presenting the search and it will pop up. Industrial Worker, P.O. Box 23216, Oakland’s demand for a port IWW with a set of marching Thank you, Cadman Plaza Post Office, Brooklyn, NY shutdown, insisting that the orders and demanding that FW Mike Kowalski 11202-3216, United States. union bureaucracy “is shirking we obey them, and then call- Grand Rapids, Mich. its own moral duty to act as the ing us cowards if we did not? May Day! May Day! representative of the working All the more surprising Corrections class.” But it just ain’t so. then, that at the end of their The IW was unfortunately on an Photo: iww.org Announcements for the annual “May Graphic: redgreenandblue.org Day” Industrial Worker deadline is Firstly, the ILWU does not essay M. and Carrell com- inaccurate Western Australia kick in the April 6, 2012. Celebrate the real labor represent “the working class,” just a small pletely reverse and contradict their origi- January/February issue. We apologize day with a message of solidarity! Send slice of it—the majority of the Oakland nal argument, calling for the “transition for the following errors: announcements to [email protected]. Much dock workers and nobody else. Secondly, from symbolic demonstrations to sub- - In the piece “IWW In Brisbane Is appreciated donations for the following Occupy Oakland, whatever “moral right” it stantive, collective direct action” based Making A Comeback!” (page 1), we incor- sizes should be sent to:: may claim, does not represent “the work- on “democratic decision-making and rectly stated that Brisbane is in Western ing class.” There was no mass assembly of democratic struggle.” That’s more like it. Australia. Brisbane is in the Australian IWW GHQ, Post Office Box 180195, the working population of Oakland that Welcome back to Earth. By all means let state of Queensland. Chicago, IL 60618, United States. elected or mandated Occupy Oakland to us educate, agitate, organize and spread - In “Western Australia Poultry speak or act in its name. Sober up. Occupy direct democracy with our feet on the Workers Win,” (page 12), we incorrectly $12 for 1” tall, 1 column wide Oakland merely represents a relatively ground, not with our head in the clouds. stated that Laverton is in Western Aus- $40 for 4” by 2 columns small group of militants who, according Solidarity, tralia. Laverton is a suburb in Melbourne, $90 for a quarter page to M. and Carrell, often act out of an “un- Martin Comack, X351621 Victoria. Industrial Worker IWW directory The Voice of Revolutionary Industrial Unionism Australia Québec Illinois Syracuse IWW: [email protected] Regional Organising Committee: P.O. Box 1866, Montreal GMB: cp 60124, Montréal, QC, H2J 4E1. Chicago GMB: P.O. Box 57114, 60657. 312-638- Upstate NY GMB: P.O. Box 235, Albany 12201- Albany, WA 514-268-3394. [email protected] 9155. [email protected] 0235, 518-833-6853 or 518-861-5627. www. Organization Albany: 0423473807, [email protected] Europe Central Ill GMB: 903 S. 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[email protected] 208-371-9752, [email protected] blogspot.com/ 54481. Casey Martinson, del, 608-445-4145. March 2012 • Industrial Worker • Page 3 Nigerian Workers, Students Stage General Strike By Tom Keough blocked. Government and corporate web- as well. The news reported that at On Jan. 9, thousands of people stayed sites were hacked with protest messages. least 15 strikers killed and others out of work and school as part of a nation- People started talking about the need for badly injured. 0wide general strike, which formed out a general strike in response to protest- A young woman, Adetoun of the Occupy Nigeria movement. Only ers being killed. At 1:00 a.m. on Jan. 5, Adetona, appeared in a power- doctors, nurses, and essential emergency police evicted nonviolent Occupy Nigeria ful YouTube video, passionately staff were working during the strike. Some protesters in Kano. They used tear gas and yelling, “If I die, I die. I don’t care police officers in uniform joined the strike, reportedly shot unarmed sleeping protest- about my life, I care about Ni- marching through the streets in formation. ers at the Silver Jubilee Square. Protest- geria. Stand against corruption, Videos show masses of people singing ers quickly regrouped and began a new social injustice, public slavery “Solidarity Forever.” occupation at Sabuwar Kofa, 1 kilometer of the greedy 1 percent, and the Since September, Nigeria’s people away. When the call went out for a general conniving government. We were were inspired by the Occupy movement strike, Denja Yaqub of the Nigeria Labour born for a time like this.” This and started protests against the corrup- Congress (NLC) stated, “We are shutting video rapidly went viral. tion and exploitation they face. Nigerian down the Nigerian airspace to local and During the strike, Christians poverty is intense. For years, average international flights from Sunday night.” protected mosques from po- wages have rested at the equivalents of “If a revolution will solve our prob- lice attacks and Muslim groups $2 per day. Nigeria’s minimum wage was lems, why not? What is going on already protected churches. Nigeria’s recently increased to 18,000 naira, or al- shows that our people are prepared for a people, despite a long history of most $110 per month. The new minimum revolution…But we will not ask for a revo- religious trouble, became united. wage has still not been implemented as a lution that will bring back the military (to The office of the Nigerian Tele- law in many states in the country, and is govern), they are a part of the problem,” vision Authority was occupied not very well enforced where it is the law. Yaqub added. by hundreds of protesters for The Nigerian government is seen as one The major unions joined the call, and broadcasting “state propaganda.” on Jan. 9 the working people shut down of the most overpaid governments in the An interesting tactic was that the Graphic: Occupy Nigeria world. An average Nigerian senator is paid the nation with a general strike until fuel movement paused strike activi- $135,802 a month, or $1.6 million a year subsidies were restored. ties during the weekend so people could NLC President Abdulwaheed Omar in “allowances” and salary. The strike also included the demand replenish their dwindling food supplies said, “We are sure that no government or that Goodluck Jonathan and many other and restart the strike on Monday. institution will take Nigerians for granted Austerity & Effects on Oil Prices politicians resign. The people demanded Support rallies sprang up quickly again.” The NLC described the strike as Nigeria, Africa’s biggest oil producer, an end to the luxurious expenses of the around the world from Finland’s snowy a success. is known for corruption. The nation’s politicians, such as the “refreshments” National Day of support Occupy Nigeria, Still, many Nigerians remain very politicians favor the foreign oil compa- budget, which collects heavy taxes from to protests in London, a march to the angry that gas prices rose at all. nies—they give themselves large salaries the working poor. People are demanding United Nations headquarters in New York The Nigeria Medical Association and while they cut back on spending for the participation in the governing process, an City, and marches throughout Africa, Eu- the Nigeria Bar Association condemned nation’s infrastructure, which includes end to corruption, and the breakup of the rope and North America. the labor leader’s suspension of the in- cuts to the oil refineries and the electric rich “power cabal.” On Jan. 16, Goodluck Jonathan an- definite strike. system, causing power shortages. This The government responded with both nounced that he would back down tempo- Professor Tam David-West accused la- causes a need for expensive imported oil, violence and promises of reform. They rarily and restore part of the fuel subsidies. bor leaders of betraying the masses. “They and Nigeria imports over 70 percent of its announced that they would start a large This still leaves the price higher than it have exposed themselves to be suspected, petroleum products. mass transit system to ease the cost of was before January, when petrol prices rightly or wrongly, to have been bribed by Families often deal with this by buying fuel, while in many places strikes were rose from 65 naira per liter to 140 naira the government,” he said gasoline generators. In the past, people outlawed. Police and troops loyal to the or more. His new price is 97 naira per litre On Jan. 18 Nigerians marched to protested this system, and the govern- government attacked protesters. Festus (or $2.27 per gallon). protest the agreement. People are calling ment responded to pressure by subsidiz- Ozoeze, Vice Chairman of Amalgamated The NLC leaders called for an end to for new ways to deal with the political and ing fuel prices. In an austerity measure, Workers Union, was arrested for disobey- the general strike. This was called a vic- union officials. President Goodluck Jonathan ended this ing the ban on mass actions. The state tried tory by many commentators, and a stab The American news media generally subsidy program on Jan. 1, and fuel prices him instantly and sent him to prison, and in the back by others. Goodluck Jonathan ignores news from Africa, and the six-day increased by 120 percent. Protests swept he has since been released. Civil rights said he will pursue full deregulation of general strike, which called itself Occupy the country, with roads and oil facilities lawyers, pastors and others were arrested the petroleum sector at some future time. Nigeria, got little mention at first, in much IWW Constitution Preamble the same way that they ignored Occupy Join the IWW Today Wall Street. Such mass industrial actions The working class and the employing he IWW is a union for all workers, a union dedicated to organizing on the needs support and exposure from working class have nothing in common. There can job, in our industries and in our communities both to win better conditions class militants around the world—the kind be no peace so long as hunger and want today and to build a world without bosses, a world in which production and of support such actions won’t receive in the are found among millions of working T distribution are organized by workers ourselves to meet the needs of the entire popu- capitalist media. In the United States the people and the few, who make up the em- lation, not merely a handful of exploiters. IWW and, indeed, the Industrial Worker, ploying class, have all the good things of We are the Industrial Workers of the World because we organize industrially ­– life. Between these two classes a struggle is well placed to promote the inspiring ac- 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 tions of the Nigerian working class. organize as a class, take possession of the workers by trade, so that we can pool our strength to fight the bosses together. means of production, abolish the wage Since the IWW was founded in 1905, we have recognized the need to build a truly system, and live in harmony with the international union movement in order to confront the global power of the bosses Subscribe to the earth. and in order to strengthen workers’ ability to stand in solidarity with our fellow We find that the centering of the man- workers no matter what part of the globe they happen to live on. Industrial Worker agement of industries into fewer and fewer We are a union open to all workers, whether or not the IWW happens to have hands makes the trade unions unable to representation rights in your workplace. We organize the worker, not the job, recog- cope with the ever-growing power of the nizing that unionism is not about government certification or employer recognition employing class. The trade unions foster but about workers coming together to address our common concerns. Sometimes a state of affairs which allows one set of this means striking or signing a contract. Sometimes it means refusing to work with workers to be pitted against another set an unsafe machine or following the bosses’ orders so literally that nothing gets done. of workers in the same industry, thereby Sometimes it means agitating around particular issues or grievances in a specific helping defeat one another in wage wars. workplace, or across an industry. Moreover, the trade unions aid the employ- Because the IWW is a democratic, member-run union, decisions about what issues 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 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- 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 any department thereof, thus making an dues are $18 a month. If your monthly income is over $3500 a month, dues See what all the fuss is about! 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. must inscribe on our banner the revolu- • US $22 for institutions. tionary watchword, “Abolition of the wage __I agree to abide by the IWW constitution. • US $30 for internationals. 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, Phone:______Email:______thrown. By organizing industrially we are Chicago IL 60618 USA forming the structure of the new society Amount Enclosed:______within the shell of the old. Membership includes a subscription to the Industrial Worker. Subscribe Today! Page 4 • Industrial Worker • March 2012 Keeping Your Job While Under Fire By Liberte Locke more violation and I could be fired. I have been publicly organizing at Star- This would be a less than climatic end bucks for nearly five years. The fact that I to a career of fighting Starbucks from the have managed to stay employed is no small inside. I filed a ULP about the write-up. I feat. Since our 13-month trial against the went into work the next day and coworkers company, Starbucks has been especially told me that the store manager, district careful to fire outspoken unionists via manager, and regional director had been policy violations, set ups, and pushing us meeting all day. During my shift, I was to either quit in a fiery rage or go off and called into a meeting with the district and be fired for losing composure. store managers. The district manager said, The best position for organizing is be- “I’ve been going over this corrective action ing employed at the shop. Keeping your the store manager gave you and I’m think- job is priority number one. Here is a brief ing that it was not serious enough to war- account of one such time that I protected rant a corrective so I will be removing this my job and won. from your file.” I said, “OK, thank you,” I worked at the Union Square Star- and started to get up to go back to work. bucks in New York City for years. While Then my store manager took out a there, I helped develop a shop committee new corrective action and said, “Do you at the Astor Place store. After the commit- remember anything strange happening tee went public, the majority of the shop with your till the last shift you worked?” members were systemati- I laughed and said, “That cally fired and the remain- was two weeks ago, I don’t ing members endured daily remember but I can go mistreatment from the through my notes.” He anti-union management then said that I was being staff. As an act of solidarity, written up for the till being I decided to transfer to that $13.11 short. I told him I location to further build the committee. I would not sign it and that in almost five approached that store with a core focus years I have never had my till be short of seeing an end to the store manager’s until coming to this store. I also told him employment at Starbucks. He inflicted I did not believe it, because he wrote all economic violence on my fellow workers; the other union members up for shortages they were still looking for work after being too. I said that I would be happy to go to fired for joining the union. Even a week the Starbucks headquarters and meet with of unemployment in a city like New York Partner Asset & Protection and go over can mean homelessness. This is one of the every single transaction I did that shift many reasons that I take the firing of our while watching the camera footage to see members very personally. where the money went. He said that was After my month-long battle, which impossible. included having the store transfer turned I laughed again and tossed the write- down and filing an Unfair Labor Practice up on the desk. I looked at him with a half (ULP) charge, I finally won. During my smirk and said, “Really? After all these fourth shift at Astor Place I called an as- years and countless times you all have sistant store manager “shady” for refusing tried to get rid of me, do you really expect to leave proof that my vacation time had the [National] Labor [Relations] Board to been approved. I told her that refusing to believe that I would throw all my work out leave proof just confirmed my suspicion the window in order to steal $13.11? You that management was hoping to do what I must be outta your mind.” feared—schedule me so they could claim I Then the store manager started to did not show and fire me. Just hours after yell at me. The district manager took the my argument with the assistant manager, write-up away and put it in a folder, say- the store manager came to the store to ing “Well, I’ll have to look into this and give me a write-up for “threatening and get back to you.” They never gave me harassing a fellow partner.” Despite only that write-up. Also, after a very success- receiving two other write-ups in over four ful call-in campaign and union pressure, years—one for being late and the other for the store manager quit. Now we can push a fight with a coworker who was homopho- forward and add this boss to the notches bic to me—I was put on “final notice.” One on our belt. Feminism And Class Solidarity By Ben Debney, x368045 noted, the IWW has, from the moment of Feminism gets a bad rap these days. its inception, been practically “the easiest Anti-feminist attitudes range from the and most noticeable scapegoat for the puerile (“Feminism was established to anti-labor and anti-radical passions of allow unattractive women easier access the country.” In fact, from a historical to the mainstream,” Rush Limbaugh) to point of view, the corporate aristocracy the hilarious (“The feminist agenda is not has defined its opposition to organized about equal rights for women. It is about labor specifically in terms of its hostility a socialist, anti-family political movement toward the IWW. that encourages women to leave their Typically the defenders of class privi- husbands, kill their children, practice lege have invoked the ideal of freedom witchcraft, destroy capitalism, and become in defense of their right to exploit wage Graphic: Mike Konopacki lesbians,” Pat Robertson). However anti- labor, while accusing anyone who has claim that feminism is divisive because it a female sexual trade union, growing in feminists choose to voice their disdain for tried to hold them to account of being a demonizes women who value family and political power in exact correspondence feminism, what is common to them is their threat to society, or being authoritarian, traditional roles, because it is an agent of with the steady loss of female sexual power tendency to demonize what they don’t like. or both. Though the irony of the corporate Marxism, and because it seeks to elimi- caused by the continual widening of the It seems pretty obvious that most of aristocracy accusing anyone else of being nate European-American males. Accus- sexual market.” What this tract appears the crowing about the perceived perils of a threat to democracy is hard to miss, it ing feminists of demonizing others, while to infer is that women want to be free of feminism comes from those who benefit has nevertheless successfully managed to calling feminism “an agent of Marxism,” sexist discrimination and be agents of most from socially and economically-en- shift the blame for class conflict to orga- is somewhat hypocritical. their own destiny, apparently because of trenched sexism. Is this really surprising? nizations such as the IWW. This type of Red-baiting is another means by which an underlying sexual inadequacy. Here Hardly. In fact, one might argue that it blame shifting is enabled through what anti-feminists effect moral disengage- we might define irony as someone who does not seem hard to draw parallels social psychology knows today as “moral ment. Here especially the class nature of regards a strong, empowered woman as a between the demonization of feminism disengagement.” anti-feminism is revealed as anyone who threat, and accusing anyone else of being by those who benefit most from sexism In very simple terms, moral disengage- calls the rich to account for the fact that sexually inadequate. and the demonization of the IWW by the ment is the process we use to convince women are even more heavily exploited At any rate, the pattern of demoni- defenders of class privilege and inequality. ourselves that unethical and harmful under the wage system than men is made zation common to enemies of gender Since feminism and revolutionary union- behavior we perpetrate against others is out to be authoritarian, anti-democratic and economic justice is indicative of a ism might be considered different angles morally justifiable. Its main purpose is to and demonic. society that sees women the same way it of the same fight (which is particularly protect the positive self-image we have of Ignoring one’s own responsibility and sees workers and the environment—as true if we consider the fact that women ourselves from unsettling or even disturb- the consequences of one’s own actions are things to be exploited for economic gain. do two-thirds of the world’s work while ing realities by shifting the blame for our other means of effecting moral disengage- Therefore it would seem fair to conclude only receiving 10 percent of the world’s behavior elsewhere—most typically onto ment. A bizarre blog post entitled ‘The that in the interests of building solidarity income), the fact that they are subject the victim. History of Feminism as a Sexual Trade and promoting justice, all class-conscious to the same process of “othering” seems Blaming the victim is the most obvious Union” unwittingly illustrates the classist workers have a responsibility to recognize hardly surprising. means by which defenders of male privi- assumptions of anti-feminism, writing: anti-feminism and to expose it wherever As the historian William Preston has lege perpetuate sexism. Anti-feminists “The history of feminism is the history of and whenever they can. March 2012 • Industrial Worker • Page 5 Wobbly & North American News Commemorating The Bread & Roses Strike Where The Fraser River Flows By Steve Kellerman By the Vancouver The Lawrence, Mass., textile work- Island GMB ers’ strike of 1912 was one of the most Fellow Workers, pay at- momentous events in labor history, tention to what we’re about one which continues to resonate a cen- to mention, for it is the clear tury later. In response to a cut in their intention of the Vancouver already severely inadequate wages, Island General Member- 25,000 women, men and children ship Branch (GMB) to com- walked off their jobs in January 1912, memorate the centennial striking the American Woolen Company of the IWW-led Canadian (or “The Woolen Trust”) and the other Northern and Grand Trunk textile employers of the city. Pacific Railroad Strikes IWW organizers created a strike with a Wob Camp on the Graphic: Robin Thompson committee and a relief effort that fa- banks of the Fraser River. cilitated the workers’ complete victory On March 27, 1912, in response to “job delegate” system of the Agricultural at the conclusion of a nine-week effort. dreadful working conditions and exploi- Workers Organization (AWO). This occurred in the face of bitter winter tation, the IWW led the walkout of 4,000 It was during this strike that the term weather, martial law enforced by the railway navvies (navigational engineers) “Wobbly” as a nickname for the IWW came state militia, large-scale police violence, on the Canadian Northern Railroad. By into popular use. (Editor’s Note: This is an attempted bomb frame-up, murder early April, Joe Hill was on the scene and debatable). frame-ups, attempted scabbing, and wrote “Where The Fraser River Flows.” On July 27-29, 2012, the Vancouver opposition from government, religious Graphic: “Bread and Roses 1912-2012” Facebook page IWW members working on the Grand Island GMB will establish a Wob Camp groups and press. Trunk Railroad struck on July 20, making just north of Yale, British Columbia. This On Jan. 12, 2012, approximately featured presentations by representatives for a total of 8,000 men out on strike and is the location of the former IWW strike 500 people, including a contingent of of the labor movement, historians of the tying up work from Hope to Kamloops and headquarters, and alongside of the rail Wobblies, gathered at the Everett Mills strike and politicians. People knowledge- from Prince Rupert to Edmonton. grade that Wobblies carved out of the rug- building in Lawrence, where the 1912 able of the events of 1912 found it ironic This strike established the “thousand- ged mountains under dangerous working strike originated. They participated in that representatives of the city and state mile picket line,” east to Minneapolis and conditions for low wages and long hours a reenactment of the strike’s beginning government and of the state AFL-CIO south to San Francisco. while living in terrible camps. and marched to City Hall, IWW banners praised the strikers and laid claim to their Due to the distance of the camps along Plans are in the works for speakers, an flying, through the mix of rain and snow. heritage, despite their predecessors having the track, the delegate at strike head- IWW art show and soapboxing. The City Hall program featured presenta- opposed the strike with great brutality and, quarters set up the first system of camp For more information contact the Van- tions by local dignitaries of plans to erect a in the case of the AFL, attempting unsuc- delegates that later became refined as the couver Island GMB at [email protected]. permanent monument to the strike, which cessfully to scab. will include two depictions of the IWW Other programs commemorating label. The Lawrence High School chorus the strike have and will continue to take St. Louis IWW Pickets Facility Services also sang the revolutionary anthem “The place throughout the year in Lawrence, regularly used racial slurs to describe Internationale.” San Francisco, Boston, London, Tokyo, non-white workers. On one occasion, Participants then marched back to the and Haledon, N.J. For a schedule of these Pillon was within earshot when Radic Everett Mills for the ceremonial opening events, visit http://breadandrosescenten- referred to Webb using a derogatory of a permanent exhibit on the strike that nial.org. Read more on pages 6-7. slur. Later, after hearing about this, Webb followed company policy and Flight Attendants Protest Layoffs, Pay Cuts reported the incident to the WFF/ layoffs and lack of pay raises. LCC site director Arnold Witte. Witte The union was also protesting defended the racist supervisor and a “secret deal” that the airline refused to take action. companies were making with On Nov. 21, 2011, a verbal con- lawmakers in Washington, frontation occurred between Pillon D.C., which would affect work- and Radic, which ended in a physical ers’ right to unionize. This altercation. Pillon was injured dur- deal would undermine work- ing the scuffle. The entire incident ers’ decisions on whether to was captured on surveillance video. have union representation by Webb and Pillon then contacted the altering the Railway Labor Lansing Workers’ Center (LWC), an Act, one of the oldest labor independent community organiza- laws in the United States. Al- tion that provides advocacy and though the U.S. Senate has not support for workers who are dealing Flight attendants protest in L.A. Photo: calaborfed.org passed such a bill, the Federal with problems on the job and in their By John Kalwaic Aviation Administration (FAA) now has a communities. Members of the LWC The flight attendants’ union, Associa- provision to make it difficult for flight at- met with Pillon and Webb and also Wobs of all ages picket. Photo: St. Louis IWW tion of Flight Attendants-Communications tendants to unionize. Meanwhile, the firm contacted other WFF employees, who Workers of America (AFA-CWA), as well known as Bain Capital, which is associated By the St. Louis IWW corroborated their stories. However, on as other concerned citizens, started a with presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, On Jan. 23, 2012, members of the Dec. 21, before the LWC could organize protest at various airlines in Los Angeles has recommended massive layoffs of St. Louis IWW, along with about a dozen another meeting with workers to address on Feb. 6. OccuFLY is an effort to protest 13,000 American Airline employees. other activists and supporters, walked a these issues, Pillon was fired. Webb, after picket line outside the corporate head- hearing of Pillon’s termination, walked off Pittsburgh IWW Solidarity Against Racism quarters of WFF Facility Services (WFF) the job in solidarity. WFF also terminated By Kenneth Miller near downtown St. Louis, Mo. This com- Radic at this time. The Pittsburgh IWW loaned its pany, which is subcontracted by Lansing WFF has refused, after repeated re- support to the Pittsburgh Summit Community College (LCC) in Michigan quests by the LWC, to reinstate Pillon or Against Racism for the third or to provide custodial labor, recently fired Webb. After news of this incident reached fourth consecutive year. Through- worker Jeff Pillon after he was involved the Workers Solidarity Alliance—an out January, members of the Pitts- in a physical altercation with supervisor organization several St. Louis Wobblies burgh IWW did outreach for the Stony Radic. Another worker, Cedrick belong to—a solidarity demonstration was Summit in conjunction with Occupy Webb, quit the job in solidarity. organized to coincide with one occurring Pittsburgh, “What Does Trouble Cedrick Webb worked for WFF for in Lansing, Mich. Around mid-morning on Mean? Nate Smith’s Revolution” seven years. He was promoted to crew Jan. 23, half a dozen St. Louis Wobblies (the movie), and the Starbucks leader at the Lansing Community Col- gathered in front of the inconspicuous Workers Union’s recent victory of lege Gannon Building in 2006 and was WFF headquarters building to show their winning time-and-a-half pay on also made employee of the month at least support for Webb and Pillon and demand Martin Luther King, Jr. (MLK) Day. Photo: J.L. Martello / New Pittsburgh Courier once every year afterward. Jeff Pillon was they be offered their jobs back. Soon, the Summit Organizers at the end of a hard day. This was the 14th Annual Sum- hired by WFF/LCC in 2009 and was also picket grew to around 20 people with mit Against Racism, hosted each year on Two years ago, the Pittsburgh IWW made employee of the month on more than others coming and going until the early the Saturday after MLK Day in the Social and the IWW International Solidarity one occasion. When a new management afternoon. While there was little foot traf- Hall of East Liberty Presbyterian Church. Commission joined the National Garment team came in to WFF/LCC in 2010, the fic in this mostly industrial area of the The summit is a fundraiser for the Jonny Workers Federation of Bangladesh for an atmosphere changed. Just doing your job city, numerous cars honked their horns in Gammage Scholarship. Jonny Gammage MLK Day celebration. Other than May was no longer enough; you had to know support, and one or two stopped for more was murdered by police who never went to Day, MLK Day might be the most impor- your place. information. jail. In honor of his death, the Pittsburgh’s tant day of the year for the global labor Pillon was quickly targeted by Radic, Webb and Pillon are the victims of Citizen Police Review Board and the schol- movement. who caused a number of problems for an abusive and racist supervisor and a arship were established. In previous years, A special thank you to the members the employees who worked under him. management which has effectively worked the Pittsburgh IWW has co-hosted the of the Pittsburgh IWW whose consistent He went about turning worker against to maintain an intimidating and hostile October 22 National Day of Action Against support for the Summit Against Racism is worker, spreading false rumors and shar- work environment. An injustice to workers Police Brutality and the Criminalization of providing us with another global launch ing confidential information. Among anywhere is an injustice to workers every- a Generation with the group who organizes pad to celebrate MLK Day with workers other things, he was also a racist. When where! We demand that WFF rehire Jeff the Summit Against Racism. all over the world. he was with other white workers, Radic Pillon and offer Cedrick Webb his job back! Page 6 • Industrial Worker • March 2012 Special Bread And Roses A Hundred Years On: By Andy Piascik predominated. In 1912, by which One hundred years ago, in the dead time Lawrence was the textile capi- of a Massachusetts winter, the great 1912 tol of the United States, its textile Lawrence Textile Strike—commonly re- workforce was made up primarily of ferred to as the “Bread and Roses” strike— Southern and Eastern Europeans— began. Accounts differ as to whether a Poles, Italians and Lithuanians were woman striker actually held a sign that the largest groups, and there were read “We Want Bread and We Want Roses, also significant numbers of Rus- Too.” No matter. It’s a wonderful phrase, sians, Portuguese, and Armenians. as appropriate for the Lawrence strikers Smaller immigrant communities as for any group at any time: the notion from beyond Europe had also been that, in addition to the necessities for established, with Syrians being the survival, people should have “a sharing of largest. Though very small in num- life’s glories,” as James Oppenheim put it ber, a high percentage of the city’s in his poem “Bread and Roses.” African-American population also Though 100 years have passed, the labored in textile. Lawrence strike resonates as one of the Mill workers experienced most most important in the history of the of the horrors that characterized 19th United States. Like many labor conflicts century industrial labor. Six-day of the 19th and early 20th centuries, the workweeks of 60 hours or more were strike was marked by obscene dispari- the norm, workers were regularly ties in wealth and power, open collusion killed on the job, and many grew between the state and business owners, sick and died slowly from breathing large scale violence against unarmed strik- in toxic fibers and dust while others ers, and great ingenuity and solidarity on were maimed or crippled in the fre- the part of workers. In important ways, quent accidents in the mills. Death though, the strike was also unique. It was and disability benefits were virtually the first large-scale industrial strike, the nonexistent. Life expectancy for tex- overwhelming majority of the strikers tile workers was far less than other were immigrants, most were women and members of the working class and 20 children, and the strike was guided in large years shorter than the population as part by the revolutionary strategy and vi- a whole. It was a work environment, sion of the IWW. in short, that poet William Blake, Beyond its historical significance, ele- writing about similar hellholes in Elizabeth Gurley Flynn & “Big Bill Haywood” w/ children. Photo: breadandrosescentennial.org ments of this massive textile strike may be England, captured perfectly with the vated. Though there was an undeniable fundamental belief in the ability of work- instructive to building a radical working phrase “these dark Satanic mills.” spontaneity to the Lawrence strike, the ers to do for themselves. He, Giovannitti, class movement today. It is noteworthy Living conditions were similarly revolutionary seeds the IWW planted in and, later, Bill Haywood and Elizabeth that the Occupy movement shares many abominable: unsanitary drinking water, the years before 1912 were also a catalyst. Gurley Flynn, made every aspect of the philosophical and strategic characteristics overcrowded apartments, malnutrition strike a learning experience. As the strik- with the Lawrence strike—direct action, and disease were widespread. Thousands Workers walk out on strike ers worked to achieve greater power in the prominent role of women, the central- of children worked full time and were The spark was lit on Jan. 11, 1912, the short term by winning their demands, ity of class, participatory decision-making, deprived of schooling and any semblance the first payday since a law reducing the many came to see that the society could not egalitarianism, an authentic belief in the of childhood because families could not maximum hours per week from 56 to 54 function without workers and that there Wobbly principle that We Are All Lead- survive on the pay of two adult wage went into effect on Jan. 1. Because mill was no job or task that was beyond the ers—to name just a few. During the two earners. Constituent unions of the Ameri- owners speeded up the line to make up collective skill of the working class. months of the strike, the best parts of the can Federation of Labor (AFL) had no the difference, workers expected their pay Ettor, Haywood, and Flynn also revolutionary movement the IWW aspired interest in organizing workers who were would remain the same. Upon discovering provided a vision of workers manag- to build were expressed. The Occupy immigrants, “unskilled,” and overwhelm- that their pay had been reduced, a group ing society, underscoring that it was an movement carries that tradition forward, ingly women and children. The local of of Polish women employed at the Everett achievable goal. Without ever downplay- and as the attempts at a general strike and the United Textile Workers (UTW) had Cotton Mill walked off the job. By the fol- ing the particularities of the strike or of the shutting of the ports in Oakland as well a small number of members drawn, true lowing morning, half of the city’s 30,000 the strikers’ lives, they boldly proclaimed as solidarity events such as in New York for to the AFL’s creed, exclusively from the mill hands were on strike. On Monday, their opposition to the capitalist system striking Teamsters indicate, many in Oc- higher-skilled, higher-paid segment of Jan. 15, 20,000 workers were out on the and encouraged the Lawrence workers to cupy understand that the working class is the workforce. picket line. Soon, every mill in town was explore what that meant. In practice, the uniquely positioned to challenge corporate The IWW was also in Lawrence. The closed and the number of strikers had vision of a new world played out in the power. While we deepen our understand- Wobblies led several job actions in 1911 swelled to 25,000, including virtually all decision-making process; the support ser- ing of what that means and work to make and its radical philosophy resonated of the less-skilled workers. The owners, vices the strikers established with the help it happen, there is much of value we can with mill hands far beyond the several contemptuous of the ability of uneducated, of contributions from around the country learn from what happened in Lawrence a hundred who were members. Faced with immigrant workers to do for themselves, (soup kitchens, food and fuel banks, medi- century ago. lives of squalor and brutally difficult work, did not bother to recruit scabs, certain they cal clinics, free winter clothing and blan- despised by their employers, the politi- would prevail quickly. By the time they kets), in direct action on picket lines, in A town on the brink of labor unrest cal sub-class, the press, and mainstream realized they had a fight on their hands, the courts, during the strike’s many rallies The city of Lawrence was founded as labor, textile workers, once introduced to the strikers were so well-organized that and parades, and in the IWW’s insistence a one-industry town along the Merrimack the IWW, came increasingly to see that importing scabs was a far more difficult that all negotiating be done directly by River in the 1840s by magnates looking to militant direct action was both viable and proposition. rank and filers. expand the local textile industry beyond necessary. Many had experience with mili- Several days after the strike began, Perhaps the most important of the the nearby city of Lowell. Immigrant labor tant working class traditions in their native workers in Lawrence contacted the IWW’s IWW’s contributions was its incessant was the bedrock of the city’s development. lands—experience the IWW, in contrast national office for assistance, and Joe Ettor emphasis on solidarity. The only way to Early on, French Canadians and Irish to the AFL, not only respected but culti- and Arturo Giovannitti were dispatched victory, they emphasized, was unity and from New York to help organize the the only way to unity was to respect the strike. Though Ettor would spend language and culture of each national- most of the two-month strike as ity group. Ettor, Haywood and the other well as the rest of 1912 in a Law- Wobblies understood that solidarity did rence prison, the work he did in the not mean dissolving differences; it meant strike’s early days was indispensable enriching the experience of all by creating to victory. Radiating confidence and space for each to participate in their own optimism, Smilin’ Joe had the work- way. They encouraged the workers to view ers form nationality committees for each other that way and emphasized again every ethnic group in the workforce. and again that the only people in Lawrence The strike committee consisted of who were foreigners were the mill own- elected reps from each group. THe ers (none of whom lived in town). With meetings, printed strike updates and each passing day, the strikers’ solidarity speeches were thereafter translated increased. They came to understand that into all of the major languages. solidarity was not just the only way they In addition to the democratic could win the strike; it was also the only nuts and bolts, Ettor brought an way to build a better world. unshakable belief in the workers to So inspired, the strikers rose to every the strike. The IWW had a faith in challenge. They circumvented injunc- the working class that is markedly tions against plant-gate picketing with different from the often self-serving roaming lines of thousands that flowed proclamations of union organizers through Lawrence’s streets and turned of today who are mostly out to build away would-be scabs. After early incidents their organizations. In contrast to the where some scabs were attacked, they all too common practice of organizers embraced Ettor’s emphasis on nonviolent The textile mills of Lawrence. Photo: breadandrosescentennial.org “taking charge,” Ettor displayed a Continued on next page March 2012 • Industrial Worker • Page 7 Special Lessons From The Lawrence Textile Strike Continued from previous page direct action without ever diminishing their militancy. When Massachusetts Governor Eugene Foss—himself a mill owner—pleaded with them to return to work and accept arbitration, the workers refused, recognizing the offer as a ploy that would leave their demands unaddressed. Whenever strikers were arrested (as hun- dreds were), supporters descended en masse to Lawrence’s courtroom to express their outrage. The involvement of women was ab- solutely crucial to victory, beginning with the rejection of the self-destructive violence of some male strikers. Though the IWW’s record on promoting female leadership was spotty at best, Ettor and the other Wobblies in Lawrence were sensible enough to let the women’s initia- tive fly free. The presence of Flynn, the “Rebel Girl,” was a factor, but the large- scale participation of women resulted overwhelmingly from the efforts of the women themselves. Knowing all too well that violence always reverberates hard- est on those who are on society’s lowest rungs, women strikers called the men on their beatings of scabs and their fights The workers of Lawrence celebrate the end of a hard-fought strike. Photo: breadandrosescentennial.org with police and militia. It was women who moved to the front of many of the marches orously against “outside agitators” in the not presented such an option is neither and though Ettor, Haywood and Flynn’s in an effort to curtail state violence against years after the strike and IWW member- accidental nor inevitable; it is because the efforts on this score were not insignificant, the strike (though the police and militia ship eventually slid back to pre-strike lev- union bureaucracy is as threatened by an it was the tireless work of thousands of proved not at all shy about beating women els. Still, despite tremendous repression, independent rank and file as any employer. rank and filers that proved decisive. and children as well as men). It was also the IWW maintained a solid local chapter Workers are not even really free to The degree to which women took to the women who led the way in the con- in Lawrence until the state effectively join the union of their choosing. Once heart Ettor’s declarations that striker stant singing and spontaneous parading destroyed the organization with a mas- an exclusive bargaining representative is violence would inevitably boomerang a that was such a feature of the strike that sive campaign of jailings, deportations, chosen, no matter how that’s determined, hundredfold was also crucial. Few believed Mary Heaton Vorse, Margaret Sanger and lynchings and other violence after U.S. the affected workers cannot join any other that a non-violent approach would cause numerous others remarked at length about entry into World War I. labor organization, often at the risk of the state to reciprocate, certainly not as in their accounts of Lawrence. It was the However, just as it was never the expulsion and loss of employment. The the strike progressed and state violence women who made the decision to ship chil- IWW’s objective to gain official recogni- IWW, rather than seeking to ensure itself escalated, nor did it necessarily mean that dren out of town to supportive families so tion from employers, its accomplishments a steady flow of dues revenue, sought an absolute principle of nonviolence was they would be better cared for. A common should not be measured by its membership to challenge capitalism. Through direct appropriate in all situations. In Lawrence, practice in Europe unknown in the United rolls or the limited span of it organization- action, particularly strikes, the working however, it was clear early on that the States, the transporting of children drew al presence. The goal was to build a revolu- class would learn how to fight capital and strikers would lose if the physical con- much attention to the strike, first because tionary movement of the working class and in so doing would discover and develop its frontations that have been so prominent it revealed much to the world about living the Wobblies implemented the strategy for own potential until it was strong enough to in the almost apocalyptic vision that many conditions in Lawrence, and later because achieving that end in Lawrence. This is not wrest control of work away on a massive men through history have brought to the of the stark violence of the police who at- to say the IWW was without weaknesses scale. That goal remains. To build such a class struggle continued. The women, tacked a group of mothers attempting to in building lasting organization; it was and movement today and on into the future, more than the men, understood that the put their children on an outbound train. there are lessons for Occupy and all future we will either have to do away with many complete withdrawal of their labor was the State violence was so extreme that it movements to learn from those weak- of organized labor’s entrenched ways strongest blow the workers could strike. In may actually have aided the strikers’ cause, nesses. However, the IWW’s weaknesses or increasingly circumvent mainstream the end, it was the ability to keep the mills as there were outcries from around the are ones that virtually every radical group unions altogether, much as is happening almost completely non-functional for two country over the police killings of a young from the Knights of Labor to the Student so far with Occupy. months that won the strike. woman and a 16-year-old boy as well as the Nonviolent Coordinating Committee The flip side of the IWW/striker rela- Women were also at the heart of the large-scale beating of women and children. (SNCC) and Students for a Democratic tionship in Lawrence is that the workers singing and parading that characterized There were also national howls of outrage Society (SDS) share. These weaknesses did not strike to gain unionization or even the Bread and Roses strike. Surrounded by when strikers were arrested for “possess- speak more to the difficulty of building to get a contract. They struck over specific enemies, with death a very real possibility, ing” dynamite in what turned out to be a a revolutionary movement than to spe- demands while understanding the need to the Lawrence strikers, the women most of crude frame (it was later determined that a cific organizational flaws. The fact that the change the balance of their relationship all (much like the black liberation activists prominent citizen close to the mill owners Wobblies were not able to sustain the great with mill owners. Early on, they sensed in the Deep South in the early 1960s, also had planted it). Similarly, the Stalin-esque work they did over a longer period does not intuitively what they came to understand mostly women), sang to foster strength, jailing of Ettor and Giovannitti without detract from the thoroughgoing way they explicitly as the strike lengthened: that courage and solidarity. Their songs and bail as “accessories before the act of mur- imbued the Bread and Roses strike with politicians and the courts were against that tradition echo as loud and true as a der” in the police killing of Annie LoPizzo, revolutionary values, strategy and vision. them almost as completely as the bosses drum circle through Occupy. was widely criticized and served only to and Pinkertons were. When Governor Lastly, Lawrence was the first major spur the strikers on. Lessons from the Strike Foss offered arbitration in an attempt to strike along industrial lines. Not only did In the end, in the face of the state mi- There are several aspects of the Law- end the strike without addressing any of the strike inspire other textile workers, litia, U.S. Marines, Pinkerton infiltrators rence strike that may be helpful to building their demands, for example, the workers it made real the IWW goal of organizing and hundreds of local police, the strikers a radical working class movement today. refused. Their distrust extended not just wall-to-wall. The violent suppression prevailed. They achieved a settlement One is the symbiotic relationship between to the owners but to the machinery of the of the IWW forestalled capital’s day of close to their original demands, includ- the strikers and the IWW. Since at least state, not to mention the top-down UTW, reckoning, but the seed had been planted. ing significant pay raises and time-and- the bureaucratization of the Congress of whose head attacked them relentlessly When industrial organizing exploded two a-quarter for overtime, which previously Industrial Organizations (CIO) 70 years throughout and whose members scabbed decades later, it was thoroughly Wobbly- had been paid at the straight hourly rate. ago, unions have approached organiz- from the outset. The strikers embraced the esque, especially in the sit-down strike Workers in Lowell and New Bedford struck ing workers with the goal of building IWW philosophy of doing for themselves with its explicit challenge to private own- successfully a short while later, and mill membership rolls, as opposed to building while utilizing its highly developed soli- ership. Again, the degree to which Occupy owners throughout New England soon working-class power. The type of organi- darity network, because their experience implicitly understands the importance granted significant pay raises rather than zation workers may want, not to mention showed them it was the only way they of such approaches is one of its great risk repeats of Lawrence. When the trials what they may want beyond organization, could win. strengths. The massive withdrawal of of Ettor, Giovannitti and a third defen- has been largely irrelevant. The choices A second lesson from Lawrence is a labor, the large scale occupation of work- dant commenced in the fall, workers in that workers are presented with are quite feminist approach to organizing. Though places—these are lessons of Lawrence, Lawrence’s mills pulled a work stoppage limited: join one or another top-down the IWW too often adopted an approach direct and indirect, that Occupy (as well to show that a miscarriage of justice would union, or else fight on alone. The best premised on rugged (male) individualism as movements of the future) carry forward not be tolerated. The three were subse- features of pre-union formations—direct that relegated women to secondary roles, and do well to consider more deeply. In so quently acquitted. democracy, easy recall of representatives, that was not the case in Lawrence. Rather, doing, we can perhaps begin to create a In the long term, the strike focused requirements that all officers remain in its radical approach encouraged women world where everyone has both sufficient national attention on workplace safety, the workplace, widespread rank-and-file strikers and supporters to act in highly bread to eat and “life’s glories” as vivid as minimum wage laws and child labor. initiatives, and so forth—are almost always creative ways. Whenever women workers the reddest roses. Though change in these areas was still killed quickly after affiliation. Workers will in Lawrence struggled with the men for Andy Piascik has written about work- too slow in coming, it did come and it reject top-down approaches and embrace full participation, Flynn and the other ing-class issues for the Industrial Worker, came much sooner because of Lawrence. unionism that speaks to their needs if they Wobblies sided with them. It is impossible Z Magazine, Union Democracy Review, Locally, patriotic forces campaigned vig- are given the chance. The fact that they are to imagine the strikers winning otherwise, Labor Notes and other publications. Page 8 • Industrial Worker • March 2012 Industrial Worker Book Review Where Are The Working Class Women Novelists? By William Hastings but most of that came in the form of to be.” This is the compas- Knowing this issue would be devoted manifestos and essays. The wake of that sion lacking from Campbell’s to International Women’s Day, I thought protest, a protest where women radically fiction, and I would say, the I would review a novel whose themes and and forcefully broke away from the other majority of so-called “working core focused on issues of class and labor. student and youth movements of the day, class” fiction today, regardless The novel had to be written by a woman. where they found themselves asked to take of the author. Campbell, like I ordered books I hadn’t read before, I a back seat to the male majority, should others, has chosen her subject reread old ones. Now, with a deadline have produced a novelist who wanted to because they are under. They bearing down on me, the house empty of claim a bit of turf too long held by men, but are specimens and not people. whiskey, I have to face the ugly truth and it didn’t, and we must ask ourselves why. Compassion—true compassion, write about it: there has never been an I have no clear answers and it bothers me. which means in the religious American novel, written by a woman, that Now, in a nation wrecked by never- sense, “to suffer with”—lacks holds class and labor at its core. ending war, massive debt and corporate- from her fiction. She writes of The majority of fiction written by political whoredom, one would think that these people but does not feel women that comes close to looking at class a female novelist would rise forth and with them. Gustave Flaubert and labor always ends up eschewing the write of the issues at hand from a female said, “I am Madame Bovary.” issues of class in favor of issues of race, perspective. Let me also be clear about Campbell would not say that gender identity or minority struggles. this: writing from a female perspective is about her characters. Let me be clear from the outset: we need not the same thing as writing about issues Algren knew this and this those types of novels. For without them of gender. It is simply the lens through is why he chose to live amongst Industrial Worker Book Review we would be avoiding the truths held by which the issues at hand are viewed. We the people he wrote about. He Fiction Issue large segments of our population, and that need that perspective to be heard, for wasn’t much different than the April 2012 neither makes for good fiction nor for an without it we will not gain a clear picture people he wrote about, which is Featuring A Dozen of America’s Best Writers accurate representation of American life. of how life in America is lived. I argue for the point anyway. However, as close as these novels come this to happen in fiction because it is in This past year Sibohan Continuing the Tradition of Jack London, Upton to raging down hard on the issues of class fiction that the greatest truths about the Fallon released “You Know Sinclair and Nelson Algren and exposing them for readers to witness human heart, about people, are shown on When the Men Are Gone”—a www.iwwbookreview.com and feel, these novels never shine their the grandest scale. collection of interlinked short focus on class at their core. By rendering Other writers will argue that Bon- stories set on the Fort Hood army base. the novel. In “The Lonely Voice,” Frank the focus of a novel on issues of gender or nie Jo Campbell is the writer doing this. The stories concern the women left behind O’Connor argued that the short story is race, the underlying issues of class are hid- She has made a name for herself in the while the men have been sent over to Iraq the form that is best able to deal with a den. Beyond that, it continues the idea that past few years as being a woman writing or Afghanistan. The book was very much “submerged population group.” O’Connor there are differences between working- about an underclass of America. However, under the radar, no doubt because of the writes: class whites and African Americans and Campbell’s books, especially the short writing establishment’s fear of overtly “‘Defeat?’—what does this mean? Here Mexicans and Brazilians and women and story collection “American Salvage,” lack political works, and it is the closest thing [in the novella or short story] it does not children. There are differences, yes, but something other writers of fiction con- we have to a class-focused book written mean mere material squalor, though this when I lived in a $200 per month apart- cerned with class have—and that is sym- by a female. Still, it is not a novel. It is is often characteristic of the submerged ment in Boulder, Colo., and drank Tecate pathy or compassion for her characters. her first book and as writers tend to do, population groups. Ultimately it seems to beer with my Mexican neighbors on the “American Salvage” is an excellent book. she has linked the stories together to give mean defeat inflicted by a society that has long afternoons when none of us were It is well crafted, the stories shift enough the book the sense of a novel while avoid- no sign posts, a society that offers no goals hired for day labor, it didn’t matter where stylistically so that it reads as something ing the novel’s particular problems and and no answers. The submerged popula- we came from. None of us had jobs. All we greater than the sum of its parts and it structure. “You Know When the Men Are tion is not submerged entirely by material had to do, and we did this often, to remind is fairly nuanced. In other words, it is a Gone” is structurally similar to Ernest considerations; it can also be submerged ourselves that something was wrong was pretty perfect book. Its very perfection Hemingway’s “In Our Time” and Sher- by the absence of spiritual ones.” to walk around the corner and head down is what mars it almost irredeemably. It wood Anderson’s “Winesburg, Ohio,” for As American society funnels its re- Arapahoe and watch the mountain yuppies doesn’t swell with passion and lust and as close as the stories come to focusing in sources toward the top and the vast cities cruise by in their SUVs with Greenpeace anger and indignation. It doesn’t scream. on class, class still remains just far enough of this continent are left to be hollow, stickers plastered on the back windshield. What is more important is that the book outside their core to not be the central wrecked hulls. As our laboring class I’ve digressed. The novels produced is a look at an underclass in America from theme of the work. That being said, the remains both submerged and poor and by women in this country are admirable the outside in, as if Campbell were peering collection is a start, and Fallon is worth uneducated, defeat will continue and we and strong, but I am left to wonder why we through a window at a bunch of people reading and watching. will then be left with hollow, wrecked souls have not seen a female version of Nelson screwing away on the kitchen floor while In 2000, Diana Garcia released “When as well. We are without sign posts. We Algren or Upton Sinclair or Jack London she wondered how to describe it all. Nel- I Was Living in a Labor Camp,” a collec- must create our own. Because of its size or John Steinbeck or Sinclair Lewis. Why son Algren, in his story “Otto Preminger’s tion of poems focusing on the struggles of and scope, and its ability to deal with the has America not produced, especially after Strange Suspenjers,” details his time in the migrant laborers in California’s San same people the short story does, perhaps the second wave of radical feminism in the Hollywood dealing with Preminger over Jaoquin Valley. Political, lyrical, forceful, it is time, now more than ever, to use the 1970s, a female novelist who focuses her the script for the movie being made of and dynamic, it is a superb collection that novel to write of American life as it is lived talents on the issue of class? One would Algren’s novel, “The Man with the Golden focuses on the issues of class and labor and by the submerged and defeated, instead think that the fallout of that second great Arm.” Preminger said, “You like under- genuine human struggle. But it is a collec- of focusing it on the minor troubles of the wave of radical feminists would have pro- dogs?” Algren replied, “I like some people tion of poems and not a novel. wealthy few. Perhaps the novelists best duced such a novelist. That wave of anger who are under, but not because they’re I hope that female writers as talented suited to do this are women, for they have and protest created incredible literature, under. Under is just where they happen as Fallon and Garcia focus their efforts on held back for too long. Industrial Strength Homecoming By Eric Miles Williamson smoke a cigarette, the first person I saw taurant (featured, for some reason, in a Ra- until the whistle dopplered away into the Last month I went back to Oakland, was a shirtless man with hippie hair and an diohead video). It’s a diner on the railroad petrochemical dark. Dogs howled. At the my hometown, the town I was raised in, Oakland Raiders logo tattooed beneath his tracks in the industrial/warehouse blear end of the night I helped the 94-year-old and my father before me, and his father chest fur. I made my way to the Alamo Car of San Leandro, on the Oakland border. man off his bar stool and into his wheel- before him. I hadn’t been back for over Rental booth ($9 a day—it’s Oakland, after Both my younger brother and my father chair so he could sleep away the ache and 20 years, since my father died. I’ve been all), and behind the counter was a large had their wedding receptions at Dick’s. the loneliness of having outlived most of trying to escape that town ever since I black woman in a purple dress, fake pearl There I met Ken Franklin, with whom I his family and friends; everyone but the can remember. necklace and fingernails long as chisels grew up. Neither of us had known who our people at Dick’s. The reason I went back was to receive and painted red. She asked for my license fathers were, as is the fashion in Oakland. On the way to my hotel, I stopped the PEN/Oakland Josephine Miles Liter- and my credit card, which I gave her, and He’s now a lawyer, and I’m a professor. at Taggart’s Liquors on Dolittle, the ary Award for my most recent book of fic- to which she laid scrutiny. My driver’s Jim Blewer, another childhood friend who road that runs from Alameda, through tion. PEN (Poets, Essayists and Novelists) license is from Texas and has been since now stocks vegetables at Safeway, also met Oakland, and ends in San Leandro. It’s is an international writers’ organization, 1986, when I took my first tour. up with me there, and we walked into the a road built on landfill, on the garbage and Oakland is a local branch. Norman I was dressed in my usual duds: a unmarked bar, the door a secret to all but dumps that ring the San Francisco Bay. Mailer won the award once, and the heavy flannel shirt, a white undershirt, regulars. Taggart’s is where we used to buy our New York Times called it “the blue collar torn Levi’s, beaten-up cowboy boots, my “Hey, it’s Eric, the skinny Williamson booze when we were teenagers, Taggart PEN,” probably not in a flattering context. 30-year-old black Stetson fedora. boy!” yelled J.R., the bartender. People himself taking our cash and telling us to I’m proud of it though, winning the “blue She gave me the up-down with her raised their drinks in toast. It had been 20 shove the pint bottles down our pants be- collar PEN.” It’s the greatest honor of my quick eyes. “You from here,” she said, and years since I’d been in Dick’s, but there at fore we left the store so the cops wouldn’t life, other than writing for the IWW. I’ve she cut me a look. the bar sat the men I pumped gas for in my bust him or us. Now it was manned by a got my Laborers’ union card, Local 304, “What?” I said. “What’s the deal? What youth. Now they were old, but I am too. An Chinese guy, but the same ice-bin of malt Oakland, Calif., in my pocket as I write gives me away?” oldster sat at the end of the bar rigged up liquors—Old English, Mickey’s, Schlitz, this. All my novels are set in the Bay “It’s in your blood,” she said. She to an oxygen tank and smoking, his wife High Gravity, Colt—sat in front of the Area, and my characters are the workers didn’t laugh. She looked at me hard, a at his side. At the other end of the bar a register. I bought a few Schlitz tallboys I grew up with and toiled with and bled chastisement, an accusation, a look that 94-year-old man slammed boilermakers. and a pack of Newports. I bought a pint with and drank with, the men and women condemned me for abandoning my home. J.R. brought me a Scotch and a beer with- of Gilbey’s gin and tucked it into my pants who reared me. I walked toward my rental car in out my asking for it, my two-fister of choice in nostalgia. I was home. When I got off the plane and into shame. for 30 years now. A train passed and the The full column can be found online the arc-welded ozone air where I could My first Oakland stop was Dick’s Res- ice in our glasses rattled and nobody talked at http://www.iwwbookreview.com. March 2012 • Industrial Worker • Page 9 Women Workers Fight Back Against Austerity In Poland Continued from 1 many years. Nearly 150 policies deepen the unequal division of of them have joined the work among the sexes. militant Workers’ Initia- While women are going to pay off tive trade union to enter the debt after Euro2012 by taking care the wage conflict with the of children for free, or almost for free, bosses, which are the lo- politicians and investors are going to cal government since the drink champagne while sitting in a sta- reform in 2011. Workers dium V.I.P. section. The message is clear: have written letters to men are invited for games, women to the the mayor demanding kitchen! Without subsidies, care work higher wages, and they is going to be the private duty of female have organized rallies workers, not the responsibility of the and decided to enter a entire community. The state is pushing collective labor dispute, women back to the private sphere, as in which might end with a the end someone will have to do the care simultaneous strike ac- work. Women will stay home with kids and tion in several nurseries. they will ask grandmothers for help while An important part of care-takers will earn starvation wages, and this struggle is resistance single parents (mostly women) will get against the privatization no support at all. There will not be a way of nurseries. As kinder- to escape the gender trap: those who try gartens are being closed to escape poverty and decide to emigrate down all over Poland, to Western Europe will work as domestic the local government workers or take care of the elderly. This is in Poznań wants to get a growing trend, as almost 3 million Polish rid of them by handing Blocakade of trainway against low wages of kindergarten workers Photo: paspartoo citizens have left the country since 2004, off these institutions to and expensive nurseries. Poznań, December 2011. when Poland joined the European Union. private foundations. Ironically, the au- those who are formally employed together cownicza). The group was created in 2009 Half of them are women. thorities have called this process “social- with unpaid workers, domestic workers, in order to focus on analyzing the prob- These politics have led to a growing ization,” but it is in fact the marketization migrants; care-takers, teachers, doctors, lems of female unionists and the specific resistance. When proletarian households and commercialization of the childcare nurses, and receivers of social benefits. As situation of female workers in the Polish suffer from social spending cuts and the sector in order to reduce costs. Thanks to we observe in Poland, there is a crisis of labor market. The group has been sup- state withdraws from its responsibility the protests, the authorities had to give up traditional unionism (only approximately porting protests and actions run by female to support care work, this is no longer a their plan to give childcare institutions to 10 percent of the workforce is unionized), workers (e.g., an occupational strike of private problem for individual families. profit-based foundations, and now only and the lack of a strong independent seamstresses in the city of Opatow in 2010, In 2011 and 2012 there have been pro- workers’ cooperatives could take over and workers’ movement forces us to look for annual International Women’s Day dem- tests against the increasing costs of living run them. The local government might still other ways towards self-organization. That onstrations in Warsaw, a demonstration of and against closures of schools and kin- transfer the burden of running non-profit means we also have to address the broader nurses, nursery workers and other mem- dergartens. Parents are getting together facilities onto workers without provid- issues and change the overall conditions bers of Workers’ Initiative), and tries to with teachers to express their anger. For ing them with any protection, guarantee of the reproduction of the working class. strengthen the position of women within instance, in the town of Biskupice a nurs- of employment, or regular subsidies. In Childcare workers can link resistance in the workers’ movement. To do so, Women ery was occupied for nearly three weeks response, workers have refused to run workplaces with protests against national with Initiative also conducts interviews by approximately 100 parents, who stood these facilities on the terms proposed by and local state policy, and demand a share with female unionists, runs a column in the outside the nursery during the day so the the city halls. Instead, at the beginning of in local budgets. This could lead us to a dis- union bulletin, and organizes discussions. workers could take care of the children, 2012, together with union activists, they cussion about other forms of the commons Members of the group take active part in and stayed in the building overnight. created a working group to research the (resources that are owned in common or resistance against higher fees and priva- In Poznań, female workers, local possibilities of taking over the nurseries shared between or among communities tization of nurseries in Poznań. In order activists, and parents have been protest- for the benefit of workers and parents, not populations) provided by the city that can’t to improve the exchange among women ing against the increasing costs of public the authorities. bring in profits, such as public transport, from local sections of Workers’ Initiative, kindergartens for more than half a year. What is special about the struggle for municipal housing, and public parks. the group is planning a national meeting of Besides lower fees and higher wages, the cheap access to childcare and for higher To satisfy our social needs, we have its female members in April 2012 in War- coalition has demanded more funding for wages of care-takers in Poland is that it to change the conditions in our work- saw. In June 2012, Women with Initiative childcare institutions from the city budget. is not limited to a conflict in a particu- places, but also how the local and state will co-organize a demonstration during For many months, they have been attend- lar workplace. This struggle is trying to budget is created. The aim is to create a the Euro2012 football championships to ing meetings in the town hall and putting change the way people are thinking about society in which care will be a priority, protest against spending money on games pressure on the councilors responsible for care overall. As we could see, care work- not just another cost, and in which it will while workers, especially female workers, social policy and the budget. They have ers are poorly paid and undervalued in be considered beyond the market and the pay the costs of the crisis. also been trying to garner support from Poland. These workers are hit by the state, and beyond the gender-based work This article summarizes the brochure other groups of workers, organizing open crisis first, as they are employed by the divisions that put the double burden of “New Strategies and Analyses: Crisis of meetings and debates and staging pickets local governments that are nearly bank- low wages and undervalued reproductive Care. Challenge for the Militant Workers’ and other street actions. Kindergarten rupt. However, there is a potential for work on women. Movement,” by Women with Initiative. workers are demanding higher wages. change as the field of care opens up the Women with Initiative (Kobiety z For more information, visit the Work- They currently earn 300 to 350 euros possibility of new allies and new forms Inicjatywą) is a working group within the ers’ Initiative website: http://www.ozzip. per month, and their wages have not ad- of self-organization. It connects different Polish grassroots militant trade union pl. To contact Women with Initiative, justed according to the inflation rate for groups: parents, children, grandparents; Workers’ Initiative (Inicjatywa Pra- email [email protected]. Solidarity Picket With IWW Pizza Hut Workers Union In Birmingham From the West Midlands IWW with management and have the right for On Saturday, Feb. 4, members of our union to be recognized, giving us all the West Midlands IWW picketed the stronger voice. Pizza Hut on New Street in Birmingham in With Pizza Hut management not solidarity with Sheffield workers who are budging on these issues, a national day fighting for improved pay and conditions. of action was called for IWW branches This was part of a national day of action, around the United Kingdom to demon- with pickets also held in Sheffield, London, strate outside Pizza Hut’s local restau- Bristol, Liverpool and Hull. The IWW has rants. been organizing amongst Pizza Hut work- In Birmingham, 10 members pick- ers and delivery drivers in Sheffield with eted the New Street branch of Pizza Hut the following demands: during the busy lunchtime period, leaving Improved driving conditions: as the snow began to fall to ensure a safe Regular modifications of all moped driv- return home. With the cold and predicted ers’ safety gear, and an increase to the snow, the city center was quieter than ex- delivery drivers’ commission, which now pected for a Saturday afternoon, but there stands at 60 pence per delivery and does were still plenty of people around, and not cover costs. many customers heading for Pizza Hut Fair pay: Pay increases in line with stopped to listen to our reasons for being inflation, as the pay currently decreases there. We had some success in turning on a regular basis. We also deserve time- people away, and many who still entered and-a-half for working bank and national expressed sympathy with the demands, holiday days. This is industry standard, we particularly of the delivery drivers’ rates. are not demanding the earth! Management noticed our picket and Union recognition: We believe as took a photo, presumably to send on to the workers that make Pizza Hut what it Pizza Hut’s headquarters, and asked us is, we deserve to be on an equal footing to move. Birmingham picket. Photo: West Midlands IWW Snow in Sheffield. Photo: Tristan Metcalfe Page 10 • Industrial Worker • March 2012 March 2012 • Industrial Worker • Page 11 Wobbly Arts All The Union Ladies Music For The Working Class Abortion Song By x371988 By (@nonymous) I’m a Fellow Worker in I.U. 660 from the The following song was pulled Twin Cities branch. For the past couple months, from a new edition of the “Little Red I’ve been rewriting popular songs into union Songbook,” to be produced by Wobblies songs, Joe Hill style. This is one of my favor- in Melbourne, Australia! ites, and it’s to the tune of “Single Ladies” by Beyonce. You can listen to and download a In Australia, in Australia version I recorded on my ukulele at: http:// Where abortion is a crime www.soundclick.com/beerandroses. You can die of septicemia All the union ladies, all the union ladies Yes, it happens all the time All the union ladies, all the union ladies All the union ladies, all the union ladies In the city, there’s a woman All the union ladies, all the union ladies Where the welfare workers are Now throw your cards up Have the baby it won’t hurt you And she quietly suicides. Up in the job Tryin to hold up In a sweet church on the hill side I’m doing my own little thing Father Joseph saves a soul The boss is a jerk While there’s women out there frantic And I’m doing all the work Cos they can’t afford to go When a sister worker approaches me Photo: Wobbly Dave She’s tired of being screwed Foetus lovers, foetus lovers Music For the Working Class was held in January 2012 at the Red and Can’t you see the life you save She said she’s through Black Cafe in Portland, Oregon. This photo is of I Wobble Wobble (the Grow into a little baby She said, “Let’s start a union” Portland Branch house band of sorts). I said, “Sounds nice Bashed and battered while you rave Like good advice Now we’ve got some organizing to do.” I’m a woman and my body Must remain for me alone Chorus: Throw your fucked laws out the So if you like it then you should sign a card on it window So if you like it then you should sign a card on it My decisions are my own. Don’t you worry bout your boss and what he say bout it Cause if you like it then you should sign a card on it Oh oh oh ohhh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh Oh oh oh ohhh oh oh oh oh oh

Boss is on a power trip My wages look like shit So us workers we are organizing We’re taking control Of everything they stole In our workplace we will soon be free We need no permission Did I mention Don’t pay the boss any attention Cause he had his turn And now he’s gonna learn That us workers have solidarity Photo: Tom Keough Chorus

Tell all your fellow workers of the world We are the rebel girls A union’s what we prefer What we deserve If someone did ask me what would save me And would guarantee solidarity And class unity and beyond I’d say go sign a card Say a union’s what you want If you don’t you’ll be alone And like the boss you’ll be gone

All the union ladies, all the union ladies All the union ladies, all the union ladies All the union ladies, all the union ladies All the union ladies, all the union ladies Now throw your cards up Oh oh oh ohhh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh Oh oh oh ohhh oh oh oh oh oh

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ByGeneral John Kalwaic Strike In Israel On Feb. 8, thousands of workers staged a general strike and walkout over negotiations failed between the Israel Finance Ministry and the Histadrut labor federation, the umbrella union for hun- dreds of thousands of public sector work- ers. This is Israel’s first general strike in The IWW formed the International Solidarity Commission to help the union build about five years—a long time considering the worker-to-worker solidarity that can lead to effective action against the bosses the country’s history of frequent general of the world. To contact the ISC, email [email protected]. strikes. Ben-Gurion International Airport was shut down because the airport was using non-union security staffers who Photo: info-wars.org Labor Solidarity Around The World were paid less than the union staffers. The tion, saying that the economy was in “a By the ISC South Africa use of temporary non-union staffers is also delicate situation,” according to the New The new year started with In early January, 5,000 a problem in schools and other public sec- York Times. This signals a greater shift a bang for the international workers at the Implat Platinum tor institutions. The Israeli Supreme Court to use government intervention against working class, and we have hit mine 80 miles northwest of rejected a petition from the Federation of strikes, though in Israel this has not hap- the ground running. This article Johannesburg, South Africa, Chambers of Commerce, which wanted to pened yet. Netanyahu is allegedly trying to is an excerpt of a longer report went out on a wildcat strike de- place an injunction on the striking work- make a compromise, which signals an aus- highlighting major developments in the manding a pay increase to match a raise ers. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu terity attack on workers around the world. labor movement around the world, and given to the “more skilled” workers at the has considered intervening in the situa- With files from the New York Times. summarizes the current projects of the mine. The union representing the workers ISC. For the longer report, check the ISC condemned the strike and urged workers page on IWW.org. to go back to work, but the 5,000 strikers Hose Streets? Our Streets!the prime minister’s office in protest were successfully able to get all 17,000 at the government’s tougher retire- Egypt miners to lower their tools. The company ment plans—forcing the firefighters In Egypt, thousands rallied in Tahrir has fired all 17,000 workers in retaliation, to retire in their 60s instead of the Square on Jan. 25 for the one-year an- and the strike has escalated into violence, age of 58. The striking firefighters niversary of the protests that toppled with the torching of a police substation, turned their hoses on the police, dictator Hosni Mubarak and inspired some looting, and one death so far. The giving them a good soaking. Bel- popular movements across the world. This mine is still shut down, costing Implat over gium seems to be a far cry from the year’s protest was directed at the Supreme $150 million in economic damages to date United States, where there is often Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), a (at press time). a close affinity between firefight- military junta which shares power with ers and police officers. Belgium’s the newly-elected Egyptian parliament. Kazakhstan By John Kalwaic Photo:guardian.co.uk Deputy Prime Minister Diedner Since the January 2011 revolution, over In December 2011, police attacked Firefighters in Belgium went on strike Reynders said caving to the firefighters 12,000 Egyptians have been jailed by the striking oil workers in Zhanaozen, Ka- against tougher retirement plans at the would “send the wrong signal,” reports military. Exact figures are unavailable, zakhstan, killing at least 15 and injuring beginning of February. Several hundred The Guardian. However, the strike will but experts estimate that the Egyptian hundreds. Since May 2011, over 18,000 of Belgium’s 17,000 firefighters broke probably continue. military controls 15-40 percent of the na- workers across Kazakhstan have joined through police barricades and hosed down With files from The Guardian. tion’s economy through direct ownership the strike, with thousands more in other of factories and other assets. The Junta has industries participating in solidarity ac- for the town. This successful uprising has Spain pledged to cede authority to the civilian tions. Local authorities declared the strike inspired the already-militant Chinese Spanish unions called for mass pro- government this summer. Left groups and illegal. In August, the union’s lawyer was working class, which has launched dozens tests on Feb. 19 in opposition to govern- some unions called for a general strike on arrested and is now serving a six-year of strikes for improved pay and conditions ment austerity measures which make it Feb. 11, demanding that SCAF hand over sentence in prison for “inciting social con- in state-owned and private enterprises in easier for employers to cut pay and fire all power immediately, but the call failed flict.” The oil company has fired over 1,000 the first months of 2012, usually without workers. Unemployment is at 22 percent to gain traction. strikers and is seeking to bring in scabs. the approval of the state-run All-China in Spain. Kazakhstan’s oil industry is booming with Confederation of Trade Unions. Palestine investment from the United States, United Columbia Protests took place across the West Kingdom, and China, but oil wealth is con- Greece Since 2007, 195 trade unionists have Bank against layoffs, austerity measures, centrated in the hands of elites, while most In February, Greece was rocked by a been murdered in Colombia since 2007, and increased taxes proposed by the oil workers live in poverty. Kazakhstan’s two-day general strike and street fight- including 26 between January and No- Palestinian Authority (PA), as well as the western and Chinese-backed autocratic ing in opposition to austerity measures vember 2011. Only six suspects have ever PA’s failure to end Israel’s occupation of ruler, Nursultan Nazarbayev, has imposed proposed by the Socialist-led govern- been prosecuted, and no one has ever Palestine and the attendant chokehold on martial law on Zhanaozen, allaying fears ment in order to qualify for a European been convicted. Two workers have been Palestinian economic life. Unemployment that the unrest in Kazakhstan would dis- Union bailout of $173 billion to float killed so far in 2012. On Jan. 9, the ag- stands at 20 percent in the West Bank and rupt oil supplies and increase crude prices. Greece’s banks. The proposal would cut ricultural workers’ union leader, Manuel 35 percent in Gaza, where there is also Since the massacre, Chevron announced a the minimum wage by 22 percent and lay Hilarion Palacios, disappeared en route to widespread poverty. The western-backed new $25 billion investment in the Kazakh off 150,000 public sector workers, inflict- an event in Río Nevado. He was killed by Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, oil industry. ing further misery on the Greek working the Colombian Army who then returned a former World Bank economist, faces a class. Illustrating the breadth of opposition his body, which was found with visible deficit of $350 million for his budget of India to the measures, the largest Greek police signs of torture. On Jan. 17, the oil work- $3.5 billion. The shortfall is caused by The All-India Trade Union Congress union has issued “arrest warrants” for the ers’ union leader, Mauricio Redondo, and the stagnation of the Palestinian economy has called for a nationwide general strike ministers of international finance for “sub- his wife were murdered, leaving behind under the Israeli occupation, as well as the on Feb. 28 over government policies verting democracy,” while protesters have five children. The United States provides U.S. decision to withhold $150 million in which promote low wages, long working burned down scores of buildings across over $500 million in aid to the Colombian aid this year in retaliation for Palestine’s days, layoffs, unemployment, and the rise Athens. Workers have occupied a hospital government annually, most of which goes bid for statehood at the United Nations. of contract employment. If successful, a in Kilkis, declaring their workplace under for military and police purchases. general strike in this country of 1.2 billion “direct and absolute workers’ control.” Israel would be the largest in history. ISC Projects The Histadrut, Israel’s largest labor United Kingdom In January, a representative of the ISC union, launched a four-day general strike China British Electricians, or “Sparks” as met with the Federation of Independent against the Israeli government demanding The year 2012 began much the same they are known in the United Kingdom, Unions in Palestine at the Workers Advice an end to contract employment by govern- way 2011 ended in China—with strikes and are celebrating their defeat of an attempt Center/Ma’an in Israel to discuss ways ment agencies. See full story on right. rebellions. In September 2011, the 12,000 to undermine wage levels established by we can support the revolutionary anti- villagers of Wukan in Guangong province pattern bargaining in the construction capitalist internationalist labor movement Turkey rose up against corrupt local Communist industry. The employers had presented a in the Middle East. A full report will be On Feb. 13, Turkish police raided the Party leaders who had sold off communal contract offer in Fall 2011 that would cut out soon. Our primary tasks for the next homes and arrested 15 women leaders of village farmlands in exchange for bribes. pay by 30 percent or more, down to around month are to continue to get branches to public sector trade unions. All 15 women The villagers successfully expelled all £10 per hour. The Sparks won through a elect liaisons to the ISC, and continue to were active in the union’s preparations for Communist Party officials and police from multi-month campaign of direct action, recruit regional experts to strengthen our International Women’s Day. The union the town. After a standoff with Chinese including a wildcat strike when the courts union’s ties to the global labor movement. has appealed for international solidarity police, the Communist Party agreed to refused to let their union launch an official and protest against the Turkish govern- allow the villagers to elect their own lead- strike. IWW members were on the front Questions? Want to help? Get in ment. ers by secret ballot—the first such election lines of this struggle. touch! Email us at [email protected]. Support international solidarity! Come To The Work People’s College! Assessments for $3 From June 30 - July 5, 2012, Wobblies will come together at Me- and $6 are available saba Co-op Park in Northern Min- from your delegate or nesota for the 2012 Work People’s IWW headquarters: College: a six-day intensive training PO Box 180195, on all the skills workers need to know to tools they need to fight and win the next Chicago, IL 60618, build a fighting union branch. Our goal battles in the class struggle. Learn more USA. is to strengthen IWW branches by giving and pre-register your branch at http:// a new, diverse generation of leaders the www.workpeoplescollege.org.