Transport workers IWW delegation May Day 2008 Staughton Lynd: take action Haiti travel diary reports another world is 5 8-9 10-11 possible 12 INDUSTRIAL WORKER Official newspaper o f t h e i N d u s t r i a l w o r k e r s o f t h e w o r l d June 2008 #1706 Vol. 105 No. 4 $1 / £1 / €1 Zimbabwe arrests unionists, opposition Zimbabwe’s ruling party and supporters. Two have been killed to paramilitaries are conducting a terror date, with a third abducted by Zanu-PF campaign of arrests and captive meet- paramilitaries. The teachers’ union has ings of opposition supporters before the received reports that the Zanu-PF are presidential run-off election on June 27. chasing teachers out of schools, beating Police arrested the union presi- them, and demanding “repentance” fines dent Lovemore Motombo and general in the form of cash, goats and cattle, secretary Wellington Chibebe of the according to IRIN, a United Nations Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions news service report. “The situation in the (ZCTU) on May 8. Police charged them schools resembles war zones, and there with “inciting people to rise against the is no way teachers can report for work government and reporting falsehoods to face those death squads,” Raymond about people being killed” during a May Majongwe, president of the Progressive Day rally. Teachers Union of Zimbabwe, told IRIN. The General Agriculture and Planta- “Our fear is that more could be tion Workers Union of Zimbabwe has under torture, or have been killed,” said said that 40,000 farm workers are “af- Majongwe. fected by the current terror campaign” The MDC has placed the death toll that has led to violence and eviction since the March 29 election at 43 people, from their workplaces. with hundreds beaten and more than Teachers in rural classrooms are 5,000 people fleeing to the mountains among those being targetted as MDC Continued on  Photo: Carlos Guarita Teachers in Bristol, United Kingdom, march as part of a one-day national African unions fight strike on April 24 to protest a below-inflation pay offer by government. UK teachers strike, first time in 21 years food crisis in streets The National Union of Teachers More than 130,000 civil servants Unions are responding to rising food said Laurent Ouédraogo, the secretary (NUT) held a one-day national strike in and college lecturers also struck to prices worldwide. Working class people general of the Confédération Nationale 50 cities across the United Kingdom on press demands about low pay. are coping by cutting the number and des Travailleurs du Burkina (CNTB). April 24 to fight low pay for teachers. It was the first teachers’ strike in 21 quantity of their meals and by protesting While the Burkino Faso government has The strike affected 8,000 schools years, signalling a change in tactics for the price increases in street protests. dropped import taxes on certain foods, it and one million students with a third of a union that has relied on lobbying to In Morocco, four public service has refused to budge on pay raises. schools turning students away, accord- make its voice heard. unions struck for one day on May 13. The World Bank has reported that ing to a Guardian newspaper survey. Continued on  The unions are planning a general strike wheat prices have risen by 181 per cent on May 21 to demand lower food prices. over the last 1.5 years, while overall food In South Africa, thousands of Con- is 83 per cent more expensive. gress of South African Trade Unions Africa is particularly vulnerable to E-Z Supply ordered to members marched through the capital food price increases because millions city to demand lower food and electricity of people rely on food aid. The price prices said to be rising by 53 per cent. increases have effectively cut food aid pay IWWs $1 million Workers from the public and private budgets, meaning fewer people get sectors in Burkina Faso protested in fed. The United Nations’ World Food New York City IU 460 legal update the streets of the capital, Ouagadougou, Program said it needed $500 million to struck for two days starting April 8. They meet the shortfall. By Stephanie Basile demanded a 25 per cent pay increase in Kenya, Namibia and other African Since the New York City IWW began E-Z Supply (now Sunrise Plus) the public sector and a reduction in taxes countries are focusing efforts on increas- organizing in foodstuff warehouses three Thirteen workers were awarded a on food and fuel. ing their domestic crop yields. However, years ago, we’ve organized in ten work- total of $1.068 million in back wages and “We need an equalisation between fears of drought this summer across places with varying degrees of success. compensation. The owners have tried to the cost of living and purchasing power,” Africa are amplifying the crisis. The employer’s failure to comply with escape liability by forming a new corpo- wage and hour laws is one common issue ration called Sunrise Plus. The union has Industrial Worker at every shop. made a motion to define Sunrise Plus as Periodicals Postage Many companies have retaliated an alter ego for E-Z Supply, which would PO Box 13476 PAID by firing workers for their union activ- hold Sunrise Plus liable for the judgment Philadelphia, PA 19101 Philadelphia, PA ity. Workers have fought back through against E-Z Supply. and additional ISSN 0019-8870 strikes, pickets, demonstrations, and se- mailing offices lective legal action, among other tactics. Handyfat Trading (now called HDF ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED We find legal action to be most effec- Trading) tive when combined with these other Six workers were awarded a total of methods, and when viewed as a means, $360,000 in back wages and compensa- not an end. tion. The union recently made a motion This is a report on the legal status to require Handyfat to pay interest and of our campaign, but readers should legal fees which could raise the total understand that legal action is only one amount. of many tools workers are using to win their demands. Giant Big Apple About a year and a half after we be- Fifteen of seventeen workers have gan using legal action, several favorable settled their claim for back wages and rulings have recently come down and compensation. The fifteen will receive several settlements have been reached. a total of $325,000. The remaining two Since the rulings are new, companies have yet to settle. Subscribers: The number (top line of label ) reflects the last issue due on your subscription. have not yet begun making payments. Continued on  Page  • Industrial Worker • June 2008 Letters welcome! May Day greetings from Japan’s Freeters Send your letters to: iw@iww. To the Comrades of IWW, over. This year’s theme will be “The org with “Letter” in the subject. We would like to introduce ourselves Precariats Expand and Connect,” ex- Mailing address: IW, PO Box to you: we are the Freeters’ Union. We pressing the idea of making a network of 52003, 298 Dalhousie St, are a Tokyo-based general union, estab- various groups and the people working with various types of informal workers, Ottawa, Ontario lished recently in the face of the out-of- control global situation in which neo- outside our union. That is to say, many K1N 1S0 Canada liberal capitalism is running rampant. As movements of the precariats are appear- precarious workers suffering from work- ing across the country outside Tokyo. We ing conditions that are becoming more will report on these lively movements as and more fluid and amorphous, we are well. Direct action statement confusing intensifying our struggles for freedom We know the glorious history of and survival. IWW in North America. We feel the past Re: GEB statement in the May IW ‘employing’ managing class by recom- At this moment, one of our new and present struggles of yours are very I am concerned that I get mixed mes- mending direct action. campaigns is to organize the Gas Sta- close to ours. We are seeking to share sages from the statement by the GEB. For all that is gained as a result of tion Union to confront Kanto Toyu Co., both your efforts and hardships, going On the one hand, I understand the utilizing approved methods, I am unsure Ltd. –a Japanese member of the Shell beyond the barriers of ethnicity, gen- necessity of stating clearly the bylaws, as to why the IWW GEB needs to tell the Oil Group– that has begun to lay off an der, and historicity. We of the Freeters’ and describing what actions are appro- ELF what methods it should use. increasing number of part-time workers Union send the warmest greetings of priate in the name of the IWW, but, on Is the GEB giving Fellow Workers on the pretext of the rise of oil prices and solidarity to all the comrades of IWW, the other, I am unclear as to why a state- examples of how effective certain kind of financial instability. It is a necessity to who have been consistently fighting for ment about the suitability of ELF [Earth direct action is, in order to make clear a fight this gas station chain and the oil- workers’ essential rights and social revo- Liberation Front] militancy, in compari- mandate that we all should organize with driven conglomerate which forcibly lays lution beyond national borders. son, is useful. a goal of direct action in accordance with off its employees in order to make even Together let us fight against the I am concerned whether it is the role the bylaws so we can carry out cam- bigger profits. We will continue to in- aggression of neo-liberal capitalism by of the IWW to condemn the actions of paigns successfully? form you about this campaign, so please constructing a solidarity relation. Let us militant reformers in terms of the ac- keep an eye on our efforts. fight together for the liberation of the tions approved of by the IWW, when the In the past few years, we have been workers of the world beyond national interest of the IWW is to organize work- Mark Wolff organizing the May Day of Freedom borders! ers to make confrontations with the Boston, Massachusetts and Survival, a May Day by and for the noiz “informal” workers, who are increas- The General Freeters’ Union ing not only in Japan but also the world Japan Industrial Worker IWW directory The Voice of Revolutionary Australia German Language Area phone: 312-638-9155. www.starbucksunion.org Industrial Unionism IWW Regional Organising Committee: M. Payne, IWW German Language Area Regional Organiz- Central Ill: PO Box 841, Charleston 61920 Upstate NY GMB: PO Box 235, Albany 12201-0235, Secretary, PO Box 1866, Albany, WA www.iww.org.au ing Committee (GLAMROC): Post Fach 19 02 03, 217-356-8247 518-833-6853 or 518-861-5627. www.upstate- Organization 60089 Frankfurt/M, Germany iww-germany@gmx. Sydney: PO Box 241, Surry Hills. Champaign: David Johnson, 217-356-8247. nyiww.org, [email protected], Rochelle education net www.wobblies.de Semel, del., PO Box 172, Fly Creek 13337, 607-293- Melbourne: PO Box 145, Moreland 3058. Waukegan IWW: PO Box 274, 60079. emancipation Frankfurt am Main: [email protected]. 6489, [email protected]. British Isles Goettingen: [email protected]. Iowa Ohio Official newspaper of the IWW Regional Organising Committee: PO Box Eastern Iowa GMB: 114 1/2 E. College Street 1158, Newcastle Upon Tyne NE99 4XL UK, Koeln: [email protected]. Ohio Valley GMB: PO Box 42233, Cincinnati 45242. Industrial Workers Iowa City, IA 52240 [email protected] IU 660: PO Box 317741, Cincinnati 45231. [email protected], www.iww.org.uk Munich: [email protected] of the World Baristas United Campaign: baristasunited.org.uk Switzerland: [email protected] Maine Oklahoma Post Office Box 23085 Norumbega: Barry Rodrigue, del., PO Box 57, Bath Tulsa: Karl Howeth, P. O. Box 213 Medicine Park London GMB: c/o Freedom Press, 84b Whitechapel Luxembourg: [email protected] Cincinnati OH 45223 USA 04530. 73557, 580-529-3360. High Street, London E1 7QX. [email protected] Greece 513.591.1905 • [email protected] Maryland Oregon Leicestershire GMB and DMU IU620 Job Branch: Athens: Themistokleous 66 Exarhia Athens www.iww.org Baltimore IWW: c/o Red Emmaís, 800 St. Paul St., Lane County: 541-953-3741. www.eugeneiww.org Unit 107, 40 Halford St., Leicester LE1 1TQ, England. [email protected] [email protected] www.leicestershire-iww.org.uk 21202, 410-230-0450, [email protected]. 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PO Box 11412, Berkeley 94712. 510-845-0540. Twin Cities GMB: PO Box 14111, Minneapolis 55414. Edmonton GMB: PO Box 75175, T6E 6K1. edmon- Washington Evergreen Printing: 2335 Valley Street, Oakland, CA 612- 339-1266. [email protected] [email protected], edmonton.iww.ca. Bellingham: P.O. Box 1793, 98227. BellinghamI- US IW mailing address: 94612. 510-835-0254 [email protected] Red River IWW: POB 103, Moorhead, MN 56561 [email protected] 360-920-6240. POB 13476, Philadelphia British Columbia San Jose: Adam W., [email protected] 218-287-0053. [email protected] Vancouver IWW: 204-2274 York Ave., Vancouver, BC, Tacoma IWW: P.O. Box 5464, Tacoma, WA 98415- PA 19101 USA Missouri V6K 1C6. Phone/fax 604-732-9613. gmb-van@iww. Colorado 0464 [email protected] ISSN 0019-8870 ca, vancouver.iww.ca, vancouverwob.blogspot.com Denver GMB: c/o P&L Printing Job Shop: 2298 Clay, Kansas City GMB: c/o 5506 Holmes St., 64110. Olympia GMB: PO Box 2775, 98507, 360-878-1879 Periodicals postage 816-523-3995. 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A, M5W 1C2. 416-925- Atlanta: Keith Mercer, del., 404-992-7240, iw- 331-6132, [email protected]. Madison, WI 53703 608-204-9011justcoffee.coop 7250. [email protected] Published ten times per year. [email protected] New York GDC Local #4: P.O. Box 811, 53701. 608-262-9036. Articles not so designated do not Hawaii NYC GMB: PO Box 7430, JAF Station, New York City Railroad Workers IU 520: 608-358-5771. reflect the IWW’s official position. Finland Honolulu: Tony Donnes, del., [email protected] 10116, [email protected]. wobblycity.org [email protected]. Helsinki: Reko Ravela, Otto Brandtintie 11 B 25, Starbucks Campaign: 44-61 11th St. Fl. 3, Long Milwaukee GMB: PO Box 070632, 53207. 414- Press Date: May 21, 2008 Illinois 00650. [email protected] Chicago GMB: PO Box 18387, 3750 N. Kedzie, 60618. Island City, NY 11101 [email protected] 481-3557. June 2008 • Industrial Worker • Page  UK blood service protesters demand secret report be released to public By Nick James, Indymedia UK Health workers and supporters the strong public reaction against the picketed the headquarters of the United initial plan to cut the blood service. Top Kingdom’s National Blood Service (NBS) management consultants firm, McKin- in Watford, England, on April 11, calling seys, hired to do the independent review, for an end to a centralization scheme is said to have criticized the bosses and that would cut 600 jobs and put timely the cuts plan. The review and a reduc- blood deliveries at risk. tion in cuts to the NBS in a revised plan, The lively demonstration, with amounted to a partial victory for the people drumming and shouting, “Re- campaign. However, cuts in the South lease the McKinsey report”, was backed West of England were left out of the by community groups Hackney Solidar- review and are going ahead as planned. ity Network, Stop Haringey Health Cuts Campaigners want to see the re- Coalition, the West Midlands Coalition view documents made public, warning of Health Campaigns, and others. The that a critical review of the NBS cuts in noisy demonstration was an unusual the south and west of England is also sight in the otherwise quiet business needed. district in Watford, about 19 miles (30 After half an hour, Mr. Evans, head kilometers) north of London, with a Hil- of Human Resources, emerged and met ton Hotel complex and the central offices with the crowd. of pub giant Wetherspoons, as neighbors Evans told the assembled campaign- Photo: indymedia.org.uk to the NBS headquarters. ers that there was no analysis or report IWW General Executive Board member Nick Durie confronts the head of The demonstration called for the produced by the management firm National Blood Service human resources about a plan to cut 600 jobs. NBS directors to release documents re- McKinseys. His claim resulted in a hot lated to the cuts plans, promised months debate and Evans relented saying that would be released after all. block in Watford, but what they are do- ago, which relate to a review forced by the report documentation did exist and “The [NBS heads] are getting away ing is absolutely outrageous.” with carving up a vital part of the NHS The demonstration showed again to try and break it up into bits that they that the NBS campaign is growing and it UK teachers strike can privatise. Already some patients has again forced management to con- Continued from  Government officials criticized the have lost their lives as a result of all this tradict itself in public and promise to One-third of schools in the country teachers for the one-day strike, saying shakeup and meddling. We need to put a release the McKinsey review. were shut down due to the strike. Teach- it was hurting children’s education and stop to this,” said Nick Durie, a member To track the campaign, visit ers toting signs saying that they can’t that teachers are well paid with an aver- of the IWW’s General Executive Board. nbs-sos.blogspot.com or contact the afford to buy a house. Others said they age salary of £34,000 (US$66,000). “These bosses think they are invin- campaign at [email protected]. are considering getting second jobs to Teachers say that people are leaving cible, sat in ivory towers like this office With files from the IW. help pay the bills. the teaching profession to find better The union has traditionally relied on paying work. The result is fewer teach- lobbying to achieve its goals. However, ers, larger classrooms and less time to the government proposal for a salary pay attention to individual children. Zimbabwe arrests unionists increase is below inflation and teachers “If parents want the best teaching for Continued from  are fuming. The government has put a their children, then this strike is essen- 2.45 per cent increase on the table, but tial,” said Keith George, a NUT represen- and elsewhere to escape Zanu-PF mili- On April 25, armed police raided the teachers are demanding a 4.1 per cent tative in western England. tias. opposition Movement for Democratic increase instead. Christine Blower, acting general People who have tried to file com- Change (MDC) headquarters in Ha- “If inflation is four per cent and you secretary of the NUT, said that teachers plaints to the police are, in turn, de- rare and arrested more than 300 men, offer a pay award of two per cent, that’s accepted a deal with below inflation pay tained and interrogated, said the MDC, women and children who had taken a pay cut in anybody’s language,” said increases three years ago and “the pros- which means few people are coming refuge there from political violence. Trade Union Congress general secretary pect for a further three years of the same forward. National and international unions Brendan Barber. is the last straw.” have condemned the Zanu-PF for the Preamble of the IWW violence against union members and Join the IWW Today party activists. The working class and the employing he IWW is a union for all workers, a union dedicated to organizing on the Dockworkers affiliated with the class have nothing in common. There can job, in our industries and in our communities both to win better conditions Congress of South African Trade Unions be no peace so long as hunger and want T today and to build a world without bosses, a world in which production and in South Africa and dockworkers in are found among millions of working distribution are organized by workers ourselves to meet the needs of the entire popu- Mozambique refused to unload a ship people and the few, who make up the em- lation, not merely a handful of exploiters. loaded with AK-47 machine gun bullets, ploying class, have all the good things of We are the Industrial Workers of the World because we organize industrially mortars and rocket-propelled grenades life. Between these two classes a struggle ­– that is to say, we organize all workers on the job into one union, rather than divid- sold by China to Zimbabwe. The ship must go on until the workers of the world returned to China without unloading its organize as a class, take possession of the ing 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 cargo. system, and live in harmony with the international union movement in order to confront the global power of the bosses In a speech to the Zanu-PF’s Central earth. and in order to strengthen workers’ ability to stand in solidarity with our fellow Committee on May 16, Zimbabwean We find that the centering of the man- workers no matter what part of the globe they happen to live on. President Robert Mugabe said Zimba- agement of industries into fewer and fewer We are a union open to all workers, whether or not the IWW happens to have bwean democracy was stronger than hands makes the trade unions unable to representation rights in your workplace. We organize the worker, not the job, recog- ever and blamed the opposition Move- cope with the ever-growing power of the nizing that unionism is not about government certification or employer recognition ment for Democratic Change (MDC) for employing class. The trade unions foster but about workers coming together to address our common concerns. Sometimes inciting rural violence to benefit Western a state of affairs which allows one set of this means striking or signing a contract. Sometimes it means refusing to work with political and corporate interests. workers to be pitted against another set an unsafe machine or following the bosses’ orders so literally that nothing gets done. “Such violence is needless and must of workers in the same industry, thereby Sometimes it means agitating around particular issues or grievances in a specific stop forthwith. Our fist is against white helping defeat one another in wage wars. workplace, or across an industry. imperialism; it is a fist for the people of Moreover, the trade unions aid the employ- Because the IWW is a democratic, member-run union, decisions about what issues Zimbabwe, never a fist against them.” ing class to mislead the workers into the to address and what tactics to pursue are made by the workers directly involved. The same day, MDC leader Morgan belief that the working class have interests Tsvangirai delayed his return to Zimba- in common with their employers. TO JOIN: Mail this form with a check or money order for initiation bwe, saying that his party alleged that These conditions can be changed and and your first month’s dues to: IWW, Post Office Box 23085, Cincinnati OH the military planned to kill him and at the interest of the working class upheld 45223, USA. least 36 other opposition leaders. only by an organization formed in such Initiation is the same as one month’s dues. Our dues are calculated ac- a way that all its members in any one in- Tsvangirai had been lobbying cording to your income. If your monthly income is under $1,000, dues are dustry, or all industries if necessary, cease neighbouring countries and the United $6 a month. If your monthly income is between $1,000 - $2,000, dues are work whenever a strike or lockout is on in Nations to pressure Mugabe to release any department thereof, thus making an $12 a month. If your monthly income is over $2,000 a month, dues are $18 and accept the election results. injury to one an injury to all. a month. Dues may vary outside of North America and in Regional Organiz- While the MDC refers to Tsvangirai Instead of the conservative motto, “A ing Committees (Australia, British Isles, German Language Area). as the “President” on its web site, it has 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. agreed to contest the presidential run-off must inscribe on our banner the revolu- in a bid to avoid violence such as that tionary watchword, “Abolition of the wage __I agree to abide by the IWW constitution seen in Kenya after its election. system.” __I will study its principles and acquaint myself with its purposes. Despite the violence, MDC activ- It is the historic mission of the work- Name:______ists are gearing up for the presidential ing class to do away with capitalism. The Address:______election campaign. The MDC said that army of production must be organized, 20,000 activists attended a rally in not only for the everyday struggle with City, State, Post Code, Country:______Harare. capitalists, but also to carry on production Occupation:______“The people are very clear on what when capitalism shall have been over- they want. They want change. The dicta- thrown. By organizing industrially we are Phone:______Email:______torship is dead and on 27 June we must forming the structure of the new society Amount Enclosed:______attend its burial,” said MDC parliamen- within the shell of the old. Industrial Worker Membership includes a subscription to the . tarian Nelson Chamisa. Page  • Industrial Worker • June 2008 Ultra-portable revolution With gas prices soaring and food A third and final reason for the prices at a new high, this seems an odd emergence of the sub-$400 PC is the time to raise the subject of things getting rise of Linux. The Asus “eee” and other cheaper. But in one small corner of our models run on variations of this free, consumer universe, one commodity that open-source operating system. Most used to be owned only by the very rich people who buy computers don’t realize has suddenly, almost overnight, become that they’re paying for Windows when very cheap indeed. it comes pre-installed on their comput- I’m speaking ers, costing about ultra-por- hundreds of table, ultra-light dollars extra. laptop computers. Simply replac- A year ago, if ing Windows you wanted to buy with Linux can a truly portable cut the cost of a computer, you’d laptop dramati- be looking at a cally, as well as Sony Vaio, for increasing its example, weighing speed, power in at a couple of and security. pounds, but cost- You don’t have ing something like $3,000. Even Apple’s to buy an anti-virus software package latest laptop, the MacBook Air, costs either. $1,800 in its cheapest configuration. So what does this mean for our But in the last six months a new unions? If we accept the idea that com- breed of tiny, powerful laptops has be- puters can be useful tools (and I think come available for $400. most of us now buy into this), we have A 90 per cent drop in the price of a an opportunity to arm our organizers, tool that can be so useful to unions is activists, officials, and staff with tiny, something that should make us sit up light, powerful laptops that will give and take notice. them Internet access, email, the web, Why has the price of laptops gone word processing, spreadsheets, data- into freefall? What are the implications bases, and just about everything they for our unions? need, for a fraction of what these things I would say there are three reasons used to cost. For example, the “eee” for the sudden fall in the price of light, comes with Skype as well, and a built-in small laptops. web-camera so you can do free videocon- The first is the One Laptop Per Child ferencing on this $400 machine. (OLPC) initiative. This brainchild of tech Many union staffers, officials and guru Nicholas Negroponte and endorsed activists do not have computers at home; by the United Nations, aimed to produce they rely on desktops in their offices. a net-connected laptop for $100. Mass Many union staff and activists are not production began in November 2007. allowed to do union business on the The first laptops are already in the hands company’s machines. Some have access of school children in developing coun- only to older desktops which are limited tries. in what they can do. Some have laptops If you can create a fully functioning that are portable only in name: huge, laptop computer for $100, it’s kind of clunky machines that are unpleasant to hard to make the case that the lowest carry around. priced laptops should cost 20 times that While Asus has produced the first much money. The OLPC has changed the successful sub-$400 laptop, HP has fol- way the industry and consumers think lowed with its Mini-Note (slightly more about laptop pricing. expensive, at $500, with a larger screen The second reason for the fall in and keyboard). Dell has just announced price has to do with changed perceptions that it, too, will be manufacturing its of what people want and need in a lap- own cheap ultra-portable. The price is top. For many people, such a computer going to fall, and the models will become will be their second machine--keeping a more powerful. The best and cheapest of desktop or heavy “desktop replacement” them will run variants of Linux. laptop for most of their work. This is not good news for Microsoft. That being the case, the new ultra- But it is potentially great news for us. lights don’t need massive hard drives. Giant corporations don’t really need You won’t be storing your entire music very cheap laptops. For years, businesses collection and your digital videos on one have been able to afford laptops for their of these. managers and others. But for unions and In some cases, you can get rid of the other organizations, the price has been a traditional computer hard drive entirely, deterrent. as Asus has done with its hugely popu- No more. Imagine a union where lar “eee” range of $400 mini-laptops everyone had the very latest software, in (they’ve sold 1 million of them in the last a light, portable powerful laptop. Where six months). The “eee” uses a solid-state everyone had wireless net access and memory component rather than the tra- wasn’t chained to their desks. ditional hard drive. This means that they It’s a change as dramatic as the can work faster, are more robust (fewer invention of the portable, battery-pow- parts to break), and cost less. ered radio a few decades ago or more recently, the mobile phone. E-Z Supply ordered to pay workers $1 million

Continued from  ditional eight workers have since joined Flaum Appetizing HWH Amersino the case. The plaintiffs are set to request A back wage case is proceeding HWH changed its name twice before Fifteen of sixteen workers have class certification, which would expand against the company. closing down in Fall 2007. It was one settled. Due to a confidentiality agree- coverage in the case to all current and of the most slave-like warehouses in ment, the union is unable to disclose the former workers going back six years. the industry, requiring workers to put amount of money. A few months after the suit was filed, Penang Restaurant in as many as 116 hours per week, with a federal judge issued a preliminary Penang, a Malaysian restaurant in drivers often working multiple days in a Top City Produce injunction ordering the company not to the Upper East Side, closed down in row with no time off. The union reached The company was investigated by retaliate against any worker who is summer 2007. Workers at the restau- an agreement with the company in July the New York Attorney General’s office. part of the suit. rant had been working 12-hour days for 2007. Shortly after, HWH locked out Negotiations are currently underway for The company has since allegedly under minimum wage when they chose the workers and changed its name to a settlement. violated this injunction several times, to join the IWW in early 2006. The IWW Dragonland, then to US Garden, before and the workers’ lawyers recently filed a carried out a heavy flyer campaign out- closing for good. Wild Edibles motion to hold the company in contempt side the restaurant after the boss refused In September 2007, sixteen work- of court. To date, 11 of the 24 workers to honor an agreement with the union. Jim Crutchfield, Daniel Gross, and ers filed a lawsuit over illegally withheld involved in the case have been fired or Billy Randel contributed to this article. overtime pay and retaliation. An ad- constructively discharged. June 2008 • Industrial Worker • Page  Australian taxi drivers sit down for safety By Viola Wilkins Politicians’ mirror maze More than 500 taxi drivers stopped Past Liberal and present Labor their taxis and occupied a city intersec- Governments have served the rich, the tion in Melbourne, Australia for 22 owners, and not their workers. Mean- hours on April 30 to protest a nearly-fa- while, the Transport Workers Union and tal stabbing of a fellow taxi driver. Taxi-Drivers Association compete in They were joined in their sit-down demarcation disputes. strike by other low paid, so-called unor- Taxi drivers took a strong stand ganized wage workers. this time because the government had Many Australian taxi drivers are said “we’ll look into it” before and did international students from India who little after previous protests. In 2006, a earn $8 per hour working 12-hour shifts. protest that disrupted the International The day- airport at Tulla- long sit-down marine was ended worked. Half of Cab company owners and before the boss their demands lost any money were met: safety politicians do not pick up with politicians’ screens are drunk racists at 2 am. promises. installed for But cab drivers who company owners want them, and politicians do pre-payment of not pick up drunk fares will become mandatory at night, racists at 2 am. Rather, they hire those Photo: www.iww.org.au Australian taxi drivers occupy a major intersection in Melbourne for 22 police promised to take seriously reports desperate enough to sell their time and hours with demands for safety screensand pre-pay fares at night. of bashings and robberies, and the gov- energy for 12 hours of aggravation for ernment agreed to waive parking fines that. For two grinding years the pleas enjoy better conditions. Funding could ies, bus, train & tram drivers, airport & incurred by the protesters. and complaints through the proper come from the superannuation money of shipping would be able to take on the The State Government will pay 50 channels were ignored, leading to the transport workers. An industrial union employers and bring industrial democ- per cent of the cost of introducing safety April 30 uprising. combining chauffeurs and taxi drivers, racy to workers in this sector. screens, with the balance to be paid bicycle and motor bike couriers, truck- by taxi operators. The capitalist racket Cooperative: long-term solution? means the privatization of profits so One idea that could provide work- public taxpayers incur any losses. ers control over their jobs and working California truckers in Stockton strike For years the industry has been conditions would be a cooperative of By www.iww.org divided and ruled by investors in the drivers, organized on an industrial scale. Intermodal truckers in $500,000 licenses to run the 3,800 A cooperative of drivers could organize Stockton, California, led by the taxis. work into eight hour shifts or less and majority Sikh drivers, launched a strike over the issue of fuel prices on May 5, 2008. In contrast to the April 1 N. Carolina log truckers strike and May 1 shutdown protests, By x361737 the 300-400 Stockton truckers Eighteen North Carolina log truck- Many workers expressed their frus- working out of the Union Pacific ers joined other transport workers tration with paying upwards of $1200 to and Burlington Northern-Santa across the country on May 1 by parking fill tanks that only one year ago averaged Fe railyards have shut down their rigs to protest the high cost of $500-$600 to fill. their industry until their de- diesel fuel. “The prices of fuel are getting so high mands are met. “Truckers strike all over the world, that it’s hard for truckers to maintain Intermodal truck drivers but this is the first time that I know of [a decent standard of living],” said local carry goods from one transport they’ve ever struck in North Carolina,” driver Levis Lane. hub to another, such as from a said local organizer Roy Toler. Despite The truckers, identified as ‘indepen- port to a rail yard. rumors of retali- dent contractors’ Rather than demand the fuel Photo: J. Pierce Stockton, California, truck drivers ation from Wey- by the log process- surcharges paid by shippers that are picket on the highway, urging drivers I believe it might be often pocketed by companies rather than erhaeuser, which ing companies that to join their strike over fuel prices, owns the majority something called greed. employ them, had passed along to drivers, the Stockton which amounts to “working for free.” of local log mills, one key demand: truckers are asking for a dramatic in- the strikers did —Roy Toler, organizer to secure a meeting crease in the rates paid in order to keep decade. After six business days, rail yard not back down with representa- up with the increasing costs such as fuel. officials announced an embargo on all and gave inter- tives of the truckers, While there is a history of Stockton container shipments to California in views with local representatives of truckers working with the IWW, this order to prevent a major backlog from media who covered the protest. the loggers from whom they pull wood, strike was taken on their own initiative. occurring. The embargo forced employ- When asked why diesel prices are and Weyerhaeuser management. Once On April 30, 2004, Stockton in- ers to negotiate. so high and why truckers do not have a all parties agree to come to the table termodal truckers were the first to This 2004 example speaks to the transparent paper trail to ensure they —a demand to which the loggers and join a west coast port truckers’ strike power of intermodal truckers to create receive full pay for their hard work, Weyerhaeuser have yet to respond— the which spread to southern and eastern bottlenecks at ports and rail yards and Toler responded, “I believe it might be truckers hope an equitable solution to ports. The issues were increasing fuel halt the movement of goods. something called greed, I’m not really the rising cost of diesel can be arranged costs coupled with rates that had not Several hundred drivers briefly affili- for sure, but that’s what I’m thinking.” and enforced. increased, in some cases, for over a ated with the IWW after the 2004 strike. Port Newark Drivers Federation stops work By Maria Rodriguez Gil Independent Port Newark truck The PDF 18 members and sym- give its members a voice that will be tion and lack of sleep. Although a few drivers from the fledgling Port Driver pathizers, included representatives heard and can create lasting, significant can afford to pay a monthly deductible Federation 18 (PDF 18) stopped work on from the United Auto Workers and the change. According to its website pdf018. offered by the companies that hire them April 30 in order to protest high diesel International Longshoremen’s Associa- ning.com, the drivers federation’s pur- for medical coverage, that coverage is prices and poor working conditions. tion (ILA) Local pose is to organize limited to on-the-job health conditions They held a press conference at the 1588, and IWW independent truck and does not cover medical problems Vince Lombardi Service Area off Route members. They Without these guys, we drivers at Port New- outside of work. Family members are not 95 in Newark, New Jersey, to protest gathered at the ark in order to work covered. conditions that threaten to put their truck stop to wouldn’t have a job. together “inside and PDF 18 member Luis Gaora, who members, along with thousands of other protest low hourly —Robert Gantry, ILA out of the ports” has been in the business for five years independent truckers across the country, rates, lack of af- to ensure they can and owns his truck, points out that many out of business. fordable medical continue to make a drivers are still making payments for PDF 18 members explained that insurance, lack of living in the indus- their trucks. freight rates have not increased in years paid sick leave and vacations, and diesel try. Among their immediate goals are Some have already lost their trucks even though the price of fuel has qua- costs that have risen 45 per cent in the obtaining affordable medical benefits for due to the high cost of fuel, lack of ad- drupled. past year. the membership, increasing their hourly equate reimbursement for fuel surcharg- In addition, the companies they Edison Villacis, one of the founders wages, and finding ways of coping with es, and low wages, he said. contract with are charging shippers of PDF 18, says the lack of organization the devastating effect of diesel prices. Several PDF 18 members say the higher fuel surcharges on their freight, on the part of Port Newark’s inde- The drivers have not received a raise waiting times at Port Newark for load- but refusing to pass that increase to the pendent truckers has weakened their in four years and must work 12 hours or ing their merchandise for delivery are drivers, which continue to get minimal demands for better working conditions. more a day to make ends meet, making amounts to defray fuel surcharges. He says the federation was founded to them prone to accidents due to exhaus- Continued on  Page  • Industrial Worker • June 2008 Supermarket story: “Get out as fast as you can” By Adam Welch Working at a grocery store is a world While most of the departments were She was a short Filipina who worked Untouchable Mr. McGoo to its own. Although the customers on lower wage scales that topped $15 in the cash room that none of us were One of my favorite co-workers was strolling through the aisles may not see per hour, all the produce people were allowed into. Her husband worked at this older, light-skinned, Argentinian it, the workers at a store can be like a on the highest wage scale that went up another Safeway too. When she would checker, Alex. Having been the longest family, brothers and sisters, older parent to $20. come by to give more change, count our running checker at the store, he had figures, crazy uncles. Just like a family, But you couldn’t just walk off the drawers or refill our change machines, a following of customers that would there can be generation gaps. street into produce. You had to work she would talk to all the checkers, espe- only go through his line. He checked so At my store, we had mainly two kind in the store for a couple of years and cially if it was a slow day. slow other workers would call him Mr. of folks, the 20-something-workers, be approved by the older guys who When it was lotto week she would McGoo. But he didn’t care. He only had many who were slowly working their worked there. come around asking everyone to pitch a few years until he retired with his pen- way through community college, and A middle-aged white guy, Gary, in $5. Part of this ritual was everyone sion, and no matter how many “Produc- the older workers we called the “lifers.” started working at my store as a bag- dreaming up stories of what they would tivity Training Sessions” management It wasn’t just how the young folks saw ger straight out of high school in the do if we all won the money. Some would made him attend, he knew they couldn’t them, but how they saw themselves– Sixties. Now, he has a mortgage and say we could all retire together in Ha- touch him. stuck. two kids in college. waii, never having to work again. Checking began to make my back His thing was day trading. Every While a few people would talk about and wrist hurt all the time. Sometimes, Gary the day trader morning, the phone in the backroom being able to buy a big house, one guy I would even hear that “beep” sound in In the break room was where I would near produce would ring and someone would always talk up how he would buy my sleep. But I loved talking with the chop it up with the lifers. When the man- would say, “Hey Gary, it’s your bro- the store up so he could burn the whole customers every day. agers would do their paperwork in the ker.” You could tell when the market place down and laugh. He was a white I worked there for a year, and early mornings, Gary, a lifer with words was hot because you could hear him guy who wore jerseys and sported his never ended up as a lifer. Yet, any of the of wisdom, would sit across the break arguing about which ones to buy or tattoos on the back of his arms on his younger workers could have become a room table from me. sell through the whole backroom. days off. About 21, he was always trying lifer. We worked together and shared “You gotta get out of that credit card That’s how he was trying to make up to act like a thug, and his attitude always the same problems. We all dreamed of debt, start saving money right away. Are for his lack of savings. got him into arguments with the custom- an easy way out. What we needed most, you going to school?” he would lecture. ers. though, was a way to work together and With a stern look and a pointing fin- Two-job Jack While I was sure that he would get make the industry meet our needs for ger covered by a rubber glove, he would Then there was Jack. We would fired one day for another argument with once. Plainly, we needed a union able to talk straight to me like an older uncle. always talk when we worked in the a middle aged housewife, he always give us hope and a practical strategy to He would tell the story about back in his check stands together on slow morn- thought his way out was his hip-hop T- making the supermarket something we day, working at Safeway was like being ings. He always looked completely shirt business that he swore would take didn’t need to escape. a teacher, nurse, or a firefighter. It was a exhausted with his coffee cup in hand. off. respected job that you could buy a house He would drink five cups every shift and send your kids to college with. and sometimes eat nothing for lunch, Not anymore. except more coffee. His hands were Over and over, Gary and the other calloused and sometimes blackened workers would tell me how it wasn’t like because every morning at 3 am, he how it used to be anymore. They would would wake up to deliver newspa- sigh and say, “Get out as fast as you can.” pers to vending machines around the They wished they could, but they had city in his VW bus. He was married, worked there so long that they couldn’t though I got the impression he was even think of doing something else. Most never really able to spend any time of the younger workers brushed it off, as with her. they would be moving on. But a few would wind up staying, like Debra the climber the ones who were getting married and The person that everyone loved needed the benefits, or those who just to talk smack about and hate on was couldn’t get themselves through school. Debra. She was a single mother who To the lifers, buying a house seemed dropped out of college while studying out of reach. They couldn’t afford to send chemistry some years back. Something their kids to college and they would al- told me she probably had her share of ways try to catch the occasional overtime fun then. or holiday shift where they could make Her strategy was pretty clear: she double-time. Each of them had differ- was trying to impress the managers so ent strategies to get their own piece of she could move up the Safeway ladder the pie–their way of trying to get ahead and become a store manager or work when they were being pushed behind. for the corporate office in Pleasanton. The kick-back produce department Everyone knew she was working was where Gary worked. If you planned off the clock and on her days off. After on sticking with the supermarket job, she was promoted to supervisor, she then this is where you wanted to wind would write everyone up for the slight- up. The produce section was its own est thing, even for being a minute late little castle. Unlike the check stands coming back from break. where management was always hawking over you, all the workers at the produce Lotto liberation section had to do was meet their quotas, Anytime the jackpot would get keep the stands looking clean and the really high, say $80-$100 million, Stimulate real manager didn’t ever mess with them. Brenda would organize the lotto pool. Another world is possible economic change! Continued from 12 We must demythologize not only enforcement device.” John L. Lewis, but also all such leaders The miners stayed out despite wage including Philip Murray, Walter Re- Donate your Bush stimulus rebate to cuts and promised wage increases uther, Cesar Chavez, Arnold Miller, Ed because Pope says what they wanted Sadlowksi, Ron Carey, John Sweeney, was “structural change” and a “new and Andrew Stern, and we must re-con- the Organizing Fund of the industrial order.” The strikers organized ceptualize rank-and-file movements as themselves through pit committees that something more than caucuses to elect Industrial Workers of the World. superseded the official UMW apparatus. new bureaucratic union leaders. Pope concludes: “Throughout the The rank-and-file movements of the struggle, John L. Lewis had been a step early Thirties ran candidates for office, behind the local union activists. His but they also refused to accept collec- Send cheques to: IWW, PO Box 23085, Cin- celebrated organizing campaign was not tive bargaining agreements negotiated cinnati, OH 45223-3085, USA. launched until after rank-and-file min- behind closed doors; initiated wildcat ers had already rejuvenated the union. strikes, local general strikes, and a Once deployed, his organizers worked national textile strike; and did not shy persistently to undermine the strike away from the option of seceding to start Forget the invisible hand of movement. [...] Thus, the sensational re- new unions. covery of the UMW union —later touted They believed, in the language of the market. by Lewis as a product of centralized the anti-globalization movement, that discipline and federal government law- another world is possible, and in the lan- making— was in fact brought about by a guage of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Raise the hands of the work- democratic movement of local activists that they had a world to win. enforcing their own vision of the right to First published in the Working USA ers for a democratic economy. organize.” journal, March 2008. June 2008 • Industrial Worker • Page  Indian guest workers launch hunger strike Five Indian guest workers who Leading Together (SAALT), Asian Pacific worked and lived in poor conditions American Labor Alliance (APALA), the at Signal International in Mississippi, United Food and Commercial Work- United States, launched a hunger strike ers, the Hip Hop Caucus, the Low Wage in Washington, DC, on May 14. Worker Coalition. They have set up camp at Lafayette The workers consider their hunger Park, within view of the White House strike part of the satyagraha tradition where President George W. Bush resides. of “truth-seeking” through non-violent “We aren’t doing this for ourselves,” resistance, a campaign style used by said hunger striker, Paul Konar, 54. Mahatma Gandhi in his fight against “We need the system to change. If this British imperialism. They are drinking weren’t about changing the system, there water only. would be no reason to do all of this.” Their struggle first came to light with The workers are demanding that dramatic protests where they held signs they be able to remain in the US wihtout saying “I am a man”, recalling Martin fear of deportation so they can partici- Luther King Jr.’s famous civil rights slo- pate in a trafficking investigation into gan. The workers say they were recruited their former employer, Northrop Grum- in late 2006 to work at Signal Interna- man, a labor subcontractor of Signal tional under the false pretense that their International and other American and temporary guest worker visa would get Indian labor guest worker recruiters. them residency status and a green card Signal International denies any wrong- allowing them to stay. They also said doing. that the shelter provided by the company They also want the US Congress —24 men per trailer, at a cost of $1,050 hold hearings into abuses of the guest per month— was inhumane. workers visa program in the Gulf Coast When the company arbitrarily area and that the Indian government reduced their hourly wage from $18 take “concrete action” to protect future per hour to $13.50, the workers tried to Indian guest workers. organize a strike. Knowing that without On May 21, they held a rally against a job, workers would not be forced to human labor trafficking. They have pick- leave the country, Signal fired the strike Photo: nolaworkerscenter.wordpress.com eted the Indian embassy, attended rallies organizer. In response, 200 guest work- Indian guest workers rallied on May 14 outside the White House to launch a and marched through Washington to ers quit their jobs. hunger strike, demanding an investigation of Signal International for traf- make themselves known. As of the press The hunger strikers have launched ficking workers and making false promises of permanent residency status. date, one hunger striker was hospitalized a blog nolaworkerscenter.wordpress. and six new hunger strikers have joined com to provide daily updates on their the campaign. strike. They are asking people to sign a American backers of the guest petition and to write Congress and the workers include Jobs with Justice, and Department of Justice to demand an IWW red van helps representatives from the AFL-CIO, metal investigation into abuses of guest worker trades workers, South Asian Americans programs. organize day laborers Extremists attack CNT France members By x353554 By CNT France, www.cnt-f.org Day laborers in and around Olympia, the state minimum wage of $8.07 an Extremists attacked members of the activists with truncheons in the street. Washington are finding it easier to get to hour, for which the company charges French syndicalist Confédération Natio- The activists had been attending a public work these days, thanks to the IWW. between $17 and $22 per worker hour. nale du Travail (CNT) in two separate in- solidarity meeting with Palestinian refu- The Olympia IWW has launched a The laborers must provide their own cidents on May 15, according to an email gees, organized by the CNT’s Palestinian new organizing drive among day labor- transportation to the job. from the CNT international secretary. section and other groups. ers using a beat up old, red van to get to The Olympia IWW’s initiative to help Members of the fascist youth orga- One CNT member was seriously in- day labor offices and jobs. The van itself organize with day laborers started with nization, Le Bloc identitaire, attacked jured with a broken nose and rib, staying belongs to a long-time Olympia wobbly, Jesse Shultz, himself a day laborer, who the CNT block of protesters in Lille, one night in hospital. the insurance is being paid by the local came to Olympia to help organize poor northern France, during the civil service The attacks come less than a week Unitarian Universalist church, and the and working people. Shultz was a laborer march against cuts. The CNT activists before a major demonstration on May daily expenses are paid for by donations long before many of today’s wobblies also clashed with police who were at- 22 by public and private workers to from the workers getting transportation entered the workforce. His previous tempting to arrest undocumented work- preserve pension and other benefits that and the Olympia IWW. experience was at an organizing drive in ers marching with them. are under threat by the government and Transportation is a major issue Maryland that won concessions from day In Paris, 25 activists of the zionist employers. among day laborers, along with mini- job agency Labor Ready for not offering Ligue de Défense Juive attacked CNT mum pay, no workplace health and to show up and pay workers that were safety, and companies that squeeze them overbooked by competing Labor Ready for every dime. By providing transpor- offices. Shultz wakes up at 4:30 every Swedish syndicalists disrupt tation the IWW can demonstrate that morning to drive workers to hiring of- worker solidarity can be used to meet the fices and job sites. Bonniers to press stalled talks needs of each worker. Day labor sharks like Labor Ready, By SAC, transla\ted by Rickard Svensson Day laborers are unique in that so Labor Finders and Labor Works and Members in the union at one of they put on their strike-vests and started many of them are homeless. An estimat- others employ millions of workers across Sweden’s biggest media corporations, mingling with the people and handing ed two-thirds of the workforce is without North America in every community. Bonniers, joined Solna LS, a local of the out flyers that informed them about the a house. This means some workers must These workers are the baseline of the Swedish syndicalist union, the SAC. conflict. walk many miles at daybreak from their workforce and are some of the most Wage negotiations with the company Guards and police quickly got in camps to the offices of the nearest labor victimized members of the working had yielded no result. So the Solna local place both days, and as the police started shark. class. Conditions for laborers are often contacted the Gothenburg local for help pulling out the activists that were inside Day laborers in Olympia, as else- deplorable and often they have nowhere and back-up, and they decided to cause on the second day, half of them sat down where, must be at the corporate hiring else to turn for work. They are frequently a ruckus at the Swedish book and library on the floor and threw up the flyers in hall several miles outside of town early disrespected and treated as disposable fair in Gothenburg. the air, which spread all over the show- in the morning in order to get their job people. For example, Labor Ready in The theme of the 2007 fair was case. placements for the day. Pay starts when Olympia closed its bathroom to its own freedom of speech and union rights in After a 15 minute sit-in they, on the they get to the job site and they are paid day laborers, forcing workers to go out Burma. The fair also happened to be the condition that they spread out in smaller back to do their business. biggest public relations opportunity of groups, were allowed to keep handing the year for the multi-national Bonniers. out flyers and informing visitors about Australian labor The morning of September 29, 2007, the conflict. Port Newark Drivers’ syndicalists from Solna LS, Gothen- After a while, the CEO of the fair police burg LS and Jonkoping LS stood ready came down and struck a deal that if the Federation Continued from 16 Continued from 5 outside of the fair with banners and their syndicalists stopped handing out flyers, are likely to discourage any involvement traditional neon-yellow strike-guard they would get to hold a press confer- in industrial activity due to fear of the so long they lose significant amounts of vests, handing out flyers, ironically say- ence inside of the fair. The SAC accepted consequences.” money because they work by the hour ing “no freedom of speech at Bonniers.” the offer and an hour later the activists A Victoria official of the Construction and don’t get paid for waiting. The response from the visitors was good, left. Forestry Mining Energy Union (CFMEU) ILA member Robert Gantry said and new flyers had to be printed over the That same afternoon, the SAC’s is facing charges for refusing to cooper- he was there to support PDF 18 mem- weekend. Solna LS local held a press conference at ate with the ABCC. bers “because without these guys, we The next day alongside people with the fair, where they informed onlookers “Over 50 ordinary men and women wouldn’t have a job.” tickets, separate groups went inside, and the media about how the owners of have been forced and many more are Truckers had staged a slow-down on heading for the companies’ showcase, the fair’s biggest showcase treated their still being forced to attend secret inter- the New Jersey Turnpike in April that where they gathered and, on a given workers. rogations by Howard’s ABCC enforcers,” crippled Port Newark and slowed traffic signal, took the company by surprise as With files from the IW. said the CFMEU web site. to a near halt. Page  • Industrial Worker • June 2008 Haitian unions host IWW solidarity delegates: A travel diary of the IWW delegation By Cody Anderson, Nathaniel Miller, Justin Vitiello, Joseph Lapp The Confederation of Haitian Work- ideas and convictions to organize work- ers (CTH) invited an IWW delegation to ers into unions. He specializes in conflict Haiti to learn about their fight against “le resolution, the formation of workers’ plan neoliberal” and recruit help in the cadres, and international relationships, form of material aid and solidarity. The particularly with Canada, the United delegation arrived in the Haitian capital States and Venezuela. Unionists gaining of Port-au-Prince on April 24 to May 5. the people’s trust and expressing their will is the basis of this work, he said. His Haiti in a nutshell vision for Haiti is justice and dignity for Haiti shares the Hispaniola island his extraordinarily creative and energetic with the Dominican Republic, to the people so his nation could be “one of the east of Cuba in the Caribbean. It has first order.” close to ten million people, with another Ginette introduced herself as a four million living abroad, mainly in the unionist, a nurse, and a member of the United States and Canada. CTH Commission. She explained her Unemployment is a serious problem. main battles are for better health care, For seven million people in the ac- living and working conditions. Equally tive workforce, there are only 200,000 important for her as a feminist are the formal jobs, split between 50,000 in the training, education, and equal opportu- public sector and 150,000 in the private nities for women in all social and eco- sector. The government has privatized nomic sectors. Women are the majority much of its infrastructure and now is in in Haiti, she said, but most are victim- the process of cutting public sector jobs. ized by patriarchy, machismo, lack of ed- Nearly $1 billion sent from Haitians ucation and work, and objectification in living abroad make up about 20 per cent the media. She joined the CTH because of the country’s Gross Domestic Prod- it had the most progressive approach to uct, propping up the country’s economy. women in Haiti. Through the union, she Yet, six per cent of Haiti’s population feels women organizers must reach other controls 85 per cent of the wealth. The women to raise their consciousness, richest billionaire in Latin America is empower them, and to develop female Haitian, while Haiti has the most billion- cadres. She works predominantly with aires in the Caribbean. younger women so her two main areas Haitian political instability has are women organized against violence marred the country time and again. and women fighting for justice. Hopes rose in 1991 with Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s election, only the second April 25-26: Plateau Central elected Haitian president in its history, We left Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s but he was overthrown shortly afterward sprawling capital, to visit the Plateau- Photo: Cody Anderson in a military coup. Aristide returned in Central, the poorest region of Haiti. Farm workers breaking land for a landowner in Roche-à-Bateau. Agriculture 1994 to resume his presidency, albeit The road that led us there resembled is the biggest part of the Haitian economy, with most work done by hand. with many US-imposed conditions, such a mountain riverbed as opposed to a as forced privatization. Rene Preval, a smooth paved highway, mirroring the improve agriculture and people’s quality The judge did not show up for the close political ally of Aristide, won the life of ordinary Haitians. On the way, we of life: food, health care, education and hearing and Mileot was whisked away 1996 elections. witnessed acute poverty: shanty homes job training, decent housing, dignified amid the outcry of those present. Aristide was elected president again built of scrap wood and metal, sparse, work, and leisure time. Basic irrigation in 2000 with a new political party, Fan- but elaborately decorated vehicles could solve many of these problems. April 29: Teleco workers demand mi Lavalas, but a US-backed coup forced loaded with mangoes and bananas, and The meeting was held in a building used compensation him out of power in 2004. Rene Preval people in the spaces left. to raise pigs. Later that week a flood This morning we went to a confer- is currently Haiti’s president. Shortly be- Arriving in Hinche, the capital of the destroyed even this rudimentary meet- ence held by the Assocation des Em- fore the IWW delegation went to Haiti, Plateau-Central, we met with regional ing space. ployés Victimes de la Teleco at the CTH a sudden rise in food prices prompted coordinators of the CTH, none of whom office. Since its 2004 privatization, riots throughout the island. In response, are paid for their union work. They April 28: Port-au-Prince docks Teleco has laid off over 5,000 workers. the government ousted Prime Minister represented: commerce, cooperatives, Today we visited Port-au-Prince’s The workers received a 12-month sever- Jacques-Edouard Alexis on April 12 in a journalism, construction, youth work, docks, where the CTH has a presence ance package. They are now demanding non-confidence vote. However, the food transportation, women’s issues, agricul- with the trade union of the National an extension to 36 months. prices problem remains. tural workers, professional artisans, and Harbor Authority employees (SEAPN). Later we met with union represen- others. We met with the union’s president and tatives from Electricité d’Haiti (EDH), CTH history and evolution Their overwhelming obstacle is seven committee members. The docks the state electrical company. There are The Confederation of Haitian an utter lack of infrastructure such as have 1,800 employees, with 1,275 as 2,500 EDH employees, each of which Workers (CTH) was founded in 1959 by transportation, irrigation, modern tools, union members. The port has just been support roughly 10 dependents. In workers in the sweatshops of Haitian meeting space, schools, drinkable water, privatized and 1,300 workers are about October 2007, before the food crisis, dictator Francois Duvalier. Many were electricity, hospitals, social security or to be laid-off. the union concluded that the salary tortured, killed, and forced into exile for services, job training, child care, and There is no opposition to the layoffs needed to bring a family of four up to their union activity, but a small cadre so on. For the 55,000 people on the in the Haitian government. The port the poverty line is $450 a month. This remained and went underground. CTH plateau, the only options are subsistence director Jean Evans Charles, the hatchet means two meals a day, and does not organized as dictators and military work in the sugar cane fields of the rac- man, during a long debate in French include the cost of schooling and health governments came and went. In recent ist neighboring Dominican Republic or with Cody said, “We are capitalists, we care, both of which are now private. The years, the CTH has struggled to rebuild informal economy work in the capital, have to make money in a competitive average EDH worker’s salary is only $80 amid the economic hardship facing Port-au-Prince. For many women this system, and the best way to do this is a month. Currently, the EDH is striking Haitians. It is composed of 11 union means prostitution. For many men, this to privatize.” No one from the SEAPN in order to get the 35 per cent raise in federations covering as many industries, means unemployment, begging or petty listened to the director’s spiel; instead, salaries promised in March to deal with an office in every department of the crime. they talked on their cell phones, engaged the increased cost of living. country and three national commissions Our final stop in this area was in the in non-verbal communication with us, The EDH is the next target for on women, health and youth, according countryside where we met with peas- and one even fell asleep. As we left the privatization following “le plan neo- to its web site www.haitilabour.org. The ant groups affiliated with the CTH. We port some Haitians shouted at us “CIA, liberal.” The problem is practical, they CTH is currently campaigning against asked them whether they have received CIA fuck off,” alluding to US cooperation said. How can you furnish the necessary privatization, which has led to the tri- any of the international aid our govern- with the port’s privatization. service when 75 per cent of Haitians lack pling or quadrupling of the cost of living ments claim to be giving to Haiti. The We proceeded to the Parquet, a local electricity, even in the capital city, where over recent weeks. CTH organizing has answer was a resounding and unified, courthouse, where 30-40 hospital work- there are three hours or less of power per found more support in this time of crisis “No!” ers stood in solidarity with their union’s day? The EDH is calling for the state to as Haitians search for answers. The peasants displayed a profound president, who was arrested after an invest in sustainable energy (solar, wind, political consciousness, explaining that altercation between some workers and hydro), but the state is not interested. April 24: meeting our hosts the United States and Canada did not the hospital’s director. The workers had To date, the government’s argu- The IWW delegation’s hosts were want Haiti to be politically or economi- not been paid for seven months. The ment for privatization has been that Paul “Loulou” Chery, the General Sec- cally independent because the people union president, Levy Mileot, was not the public sector operates at a loss, but retary of the CTH, and his wife Ginette would use their independence to develop even present at the incident. the evidence suggests that this is due Apollon, also a union member. Lou- and redistribute the country’s resources. In a crowd surveyed by plainclothes- to under-funding and theft. The EDH lou was born into a peasant family. The farmers explained that the peasants men who carried M-16 machine guns receives payment for only 50 per cent He worked for his own education and are the motor of the economy because and shotguns, we learned that a 35 per of all the electricity consumed in Haiti obtained a degree so he could teach without food there is no work, singing us cent increase in hospital worker pay had because people who have access to the English. Not earning enough, he went to a song to dramatize their point. been approved bon March 15, but it has work in industry where he developed his They described six main points to yet to be implemented. Continued on  June 2008 • Industrial Worker • Page  Workers fight privatization, unemployment

Continued from  organization, when it can help the struggle, but it draws the electrical infrastructure illegally tap into line at supporting candidates the electrical lines. Of course, people in or participating themselves the countryside and the shantytowns in electoral politics. Paul told have no infrastructure, so there is no us how one of BO’s support- so-called theft in the countryside. The ers ran for senate because he EDH believes that the government’s believed that he could take the underfunding of the EDH is a deliberate workers’ fight there. He was strategy to justify handing over poten- shot and left for dead by assas- tially profitable public sector industries sins and was forced to flee the to corporations. country. He has since returned In contrast with the government’s to Haiti and serves as the BO’s privatization plan, Venezuela and Hydro attorney. Paul mentioned that Québec have proposed a coopera- he himself had been shot in the tive agreement that would build sev- leg, but differentiated between eral power plants around the country. the authorities “shooting to Venezuela has offered to provide their deter” and “shooting to kill.” own technicians to start the project and He was only “shot to deter.” would train Haitians to replace them. In While driving us back to addition, Venezuela provides Haiti with St. Joseph’s he told us how 14,000 barrels of oil a day at a reduced Venezuela donated asphalt to rate. Sixty per cent of the cost is paid Haiti for the construction of now, while the remaining 40 per cent roads, but the current govern- must be invested in state infrastructure ment turned around and sold Laid off Teleco workers in Haiti march on May Day, demanding an and re-paid in 25 years time. Venezuelan the asphalt to the Dominican Photo: Cody Anderson extension of their 12-month severance pay to 38 months. President Chavez does not promise aid, Republic for their own profit. he gives it, said the electrical workers. He also said that Venezuela’s gas is sold While taking a break, we heard sing- for profit, too. tourism, but it has no infrastructure to Our next and last meeting was in ing in the adjacent room. We saw that Paul invited us to a conference on develop. LouLou’s hometown, a small village it was the union representatives, Hary organizing in Latin America being held We met with town “notables” in the outside Roche-a-Bateau. Despite a tor- Saint-Felix and Pierre Nadal, singing sol- in Minas Gerais, Brazil on July 7-8 local school, which lacked bathroom rential downpour, 20 or so local peasant idarity songs describing how the union convened by the Latin American and and running water. There were only four men and women congregated in the local fights not just for the betterment of its Carribbean Workers’ Encounter (ELAC, women in a crowd of 35. Those present school, which was little more than an members but also for the betterment of www.elac.org.br). discussed the town’s main problems: no open-walled concrete shell with a leaky the whole country. They said that songs drinking water; no recreation for youth; corrugated metal roof. Many of the chil- demonstrate that “union members walk May Day no spaces nor equipment for sports; no dren present seemed disoriented, many with their heads high, not down, they May Day is a national holiday in community center; no theater; no art were sick, as their parents left them to don’t walk alone, but with each other.” Haiti so people were out in the streets or artisan materials; no fishing gear (in find work. The school seemed more like IWW delegate Nathaniel returned the enjoying themselves. We arrived at CTH a seaside village). The state has done a daycare than an actual school. favor, singing “Solidarity Forever.” headquarters where the fired Teleco nothing. Lamour Chery, Loulou’s brother, workers were gathering for a rally and The ultimate focus of our meeting welcomed our delegation emphasiz- April 30: Batay Ouvriye march to demand their 36-month sever- concerned how the IWW could respond ing that the people congregated could Today we met with Paul Philome of ance package. Their slogan, written in to these needs. Some of our thoughts expect something concrete from us, with the Batay Ouvriye (BO, Worker’s Battle), French, English, and Creole, was “do are: 1) The importance of collaboration real hopes for change. Loulou explain- a radical left coalition that coordinates you want to hurt our people and coun- rather than charity, with the urgency of ing the CTH had brought internationals workers, artisans, peasants and commu- try or fight with us against poverty and the citizens taking the initiative to realize to see how Haitians live, and to study nity organizations. Their biggest pres- hunger.” They concluded the first part their own needs, then acting together to conditions for which no one should be ence is in the free trade zone factories of their demonstration by telling the gov- attain them. 2) The IWW’s commitment ashamed of other than those who create around Cap-Haitian, most of which them, such as the state and particularly make apparel and things like baseballs. the US and Canada. Paul described his basic ideology The people themselves, profoundly of consciousness raising, advancing aware of their problems, made a seem- the workers’ struggle, and accusing the ingly endless list of them: Homelessness, Haitian government of being the lackeys housing in shambles; malnutrition and of the employing class. Paul believes starvation (many who were there were the wage worker has direct contact with clearly malnourished); ill health; sick capitalism, not the peasant or the arti- loved ones without aid, medical centers, san, and therefore it is the wage worker or even beds which to bring them; no that must lead the revolution. potable water; no money for the school He stated that the working class in (one person commented “just look Haiti has come to an impasse, where at it”); children so hungry they can’t their misery is actually enforced to keep concentrate to last a whole day; no eco- wages low and working conditions re- nomic activity; no commerce; no work; main poor to maximize profits. A radical no roads. They said in chorus “we have reorganization of society is required to nothing.” “sever the umbilical cord” that connects Returning to Port-A-Prince we the state to the people, said Paul. The noticed one of the few rice paddies delegates asked Paul if “there [is] enough remaining, a vestige of Haiti’s former political consciousness to restructure so- self-sufficiency in rice production prior ciety?” He said there is, particularly with to the domestic market being undercut the current unrest that forces workers to and destroyed by cheap, subsidized rice “remove the wool from their eyes.” from North America. A white egret flew He said the Haitian Constitution up from the paddy and disappeared makes it a legal obligation to raise the above the Caribbean ocean. Cow herders minimum wage to keep up with inflation. walked to Port-au-Prince, driving their This promise has never been kept. The ernment “our destiny is to struggle with to use our network to inform our com- livestock at night to the capital, three only adjustment to the minimum wage, a you or against you.” munities of Haiti’s problems. hours away by car. five per cent increase, was over five years Ginette reiterated the importance of Back in the capital, torrential rains ago and didn’t match the then-10 per the community taking the initiative to overwhelmed the city’s hopelessly cent increase to the cost of living. Infla- May 2-3: Roche-à-Bateau decide its needs. She told a story about inadequate sewers, flooding the city in tion has reached 100 per cent or more, In the afternoon, we left for our trip how, a few years ago, an NGO decided, two-feet deep rivers of garbage. said Paul. The minimum wage is about to Haiti’s South East to a town called without consulting the locals, to build a During the visit, the IWW gave four $1.75 per day to cover transportation, Roche-a-Bateau. The road there was fountain in the town’s center, because computers and $500 in material aid to gas ($5 per gallon in Haiti), and meals. paved but littered with potholes. The the fountain used by the residents was the CTH and two computers to Batay This leads to workers taking a shot of highway is also a main artery for pedes- “too far away.” People did not use the Ouvriye. We returned to North America cheap, homemade liquor at lunch, in trian traffic, which often comes danger- new fountain because they wanted the two days later determined to share place of a meal, to give them enough ously close to oncoming vehicles. Driv- exercise required to travel to the old one our experience with all who will listen. energy to get through the rest of the day. ers, most of whom are wealthy, seem to where they could above all socialize. Haitian workers need our solidarity in This has led to le vie de Clorox or the life have an utter disregard for pedestrians. We observed 20 barefoot peasants the direst ways and those interested in of bleach, which refers both to starva- Roche-a-Bateau is a radiant village outside hoeing the field by hand and supporting their struggle should contact tion pains and a means of suicide, such beneath the mountains, next to the sea. singing songs to the beet of a drum, [email protected] . as that of his friend, Manu, who killed It is in a horseshoe inlet surrounded for a man who paid them in food. We For a full account of the trip, visit himself by drinking a bottle of bleach. by coconut palms, banyan, mango, and were amazed at how much ground they www.haiti.blogspot.org. This report is a Batay Ouvriye has relationships with poppy trees. It could be a great place cleared under the blazing sun. Virtually edited account of the International Soli- some politicians who are part of their for small-scale, community-controlled all agriculture in Haiti is done this way. darity Commission delegation to Haiti. Page 10 • Industrial Worker • June 2008 IWWs curry resistance on May Day in England, Scotland West Midlands, England The West Midlands branch in literature, sell our spanking new hoodies England celebrated May Day with an and t-shirts, and sign people up to the evening of films and food at the Lamp One Big Union. Tavern pub in Birmingham. Decorated By Douglas Fielding-Smith with posters produced by our syndical- ist comrades in Europe and our new, Edinburgh, Scotland huge IWW banner, the room was packed Wobblies attended the Edinburgh with 50-60 fellow workers, friends and May Day march and rally on May 3. comrades. The march, which rallied in Princes We showed Travis Wilkerson’s An Street Gardens, was about 300 strong, Injury to One film, which follows the representing a range of political parties story of wobbly agitator Frank Little. and trade unions. This was followed by Charlie Chaplin’s The Edinburgh IWW branch plus fel- classic “Modern Times”, which depicts low workers who made the journey from workers struggling to survive in the St. Andrews and Dundee, distributed a modern, industrialised capitalist world. special May Day leaflet. People had brought lots of home- It also staffed the traditional litera- made vegan cookies and cakes to share ture stall featuring union materials and along with Indian food supplied by the books. Photo: Jeannette Gysbers branch. We also had a stall to distribute By Bill Joseph, Edinburgh branch secretary The Edmonton IWW’s marching band plays as birds representing immigrant workers look on at the annual May Day rally in Alberta, Canada.

“Capitalism cannot be reformed” reads the French banner of the Ottawa- Outaouais IWW branch which came out to support the IWW Ottawa Panhan- dlers Union on May 1. A tea party and march to impeach the anti-panhandler Ottawa Mayor Larry O’Brien proceeded, despite the early morning arrest of organizer, Andrew Nellis. Protesters were thrown out of the court building Photo: Mark Wolff before Nellis’ bail hearing. Nellis was released with minimal bail conditions. A young May Day protester leads the way for the Boston IWW. German IWWs mark May Day By Lutz Getzschmann No one is illegal in Toronto Wobblies in several German cit- agency the next day. At the demonstra- ies participated in demonstrations and tion the next day, the IWW band played events around May Day. The two recent- and revived the idea that music can be a ly chartered branches in Cologne and strong agitator. Frankfurt organized their own activities. The Cologne branch organized an The Frankfurt wobs had a stall on event the evening of May Day with its May 1 in Bad Homburg, supporting the newly founded music band, the Grand initiative of a fellow worker to bring May Industrial Band, which played songs Day back to the streets, after the official of Joe Hill and T-Bone Slim, and read trade unions in the area refused to orga- from Louis Adamic and Augustin Souchy nize anything. before 60 people. The event was to help Afterward, wobblies participated in mobilize for an unemployed workers the traditional May Day barbecue of the demonstration at the Cologne works Free Workers’ union (FAU).

Photo: Rachel Rosen Toronto, Canada, IWW members carry their banner in heavy winds and rain on a rally demanding permanent status for all immigrants. By Paul Bocking The Toronto IWW branch in On- would be expanded under the proposed tario, Canada, participated in a march legislation. Many activists oppose the on the Saturday following May Day, led changes because it would leave immi- by the local chapter of immigrant rights grant workers more vulnerable and open group, No One Is Illegal. to exploitation, since their legal status in The steady downpour of rain didn’t Canada would depend on their employ- dampen the spirits of several hundred ment status. people who rallied for permanent status Dozens of community and labour for all immigrants in Canada. groups participated, with banners and The protest also denounced pro- chants seen and heard in languages posed government legislation that would reflecting the diversity of the city. mirror American laws by making it more Wobblies unveiled our newly rediscov- difficult to claim permanent residence ered branch banner, with its message, status as a worker, relative of a cur- “An Injury to One is An Injury to All”, rent resident, or a refugee. Meanwhile, providing a welcome message of solidar- temporary guest worker programs ity and unity. June 2008 • Industrial Worker • Page 11 May 1 ports shutdown More than 25,000 members of the education, health care and International Longshore and Warehouse social services at home. Union (ILWU) in the United States The General Union of struck for eight hours on May 1 against Port Workers in Iraq an- the United States’ “war on terror” in nounced their intention to Afghanistan and Iraq. join the work stoppage in A Pacific Maritime Association solidarity with the ILWU spokesperson said the action stopped workers. Reportedly, workers 6,000 containers from being loaded at succeeded in closing down 29 ports during the work stoppage on the Iraqi ports of Umm Qasr the West Coast. The employer said it and Khor Al Zubair. was an illegal strike, but the ILWU has “The courageous deci- responded that its members are exercis- sion you made to carry out a ing their First Amendment rights to free strike on May Day to protest expression and free assembly. against the war and occupa- The strike proved to be a rallying tion of Iraq advances our point for the United States peace move- struggle against occupation.” ment and organized labor. Branches and The letter detailed the chal- members of the IWW were among the lenge of being an indepen- many who mobilized locally to support dent workers’ union, while the strike. the government is trying to ILWU International President Bob impose a one-union certifica- McEllrath framed the strike in patriotic tion scheme and “sectarian terms in a media release. gangs” try to turn the unions “Big foreign corporations that into political tools or target control global shipping aren’t loyal or them with violence. Photo: J. Pierce accountable to any country. For them it’s “We are struggling today IWWs in the Bay Area, California rally to support the International Longshore and all about making money,” he said. to defeat both the occupa- Warehouse Union anti-war port shutdown for 8 hours on May 1. “But longshore workers are different. tion and sectarian militias’ We’re loyal to America, and we won’t agenda.” stand by while our country, our troops, While the ILWU action took the and our economy are destroyed by a war media spotlight, thousands of people that’s bankrupting us to the tune of $3 demonstrated across the United States trillion. It’s time to stand up, and we’re for immigrant rights, access to citizen- doing our part today.” ship, and an end to the round-ups and Speakers at different rallies often mass deportations of undocumented referred to how there is always money workers. There are an estimated 12 mil- for war, but never enough money for lion undocumented migrants in the US.

Indonesian workers protest food prices By John Kalwaic A spirited May Day took place in (SPRI), the Labor Union of Indonesian Indonesia as tens of thousands of work- Informal Workers (Serbiindo), the Labor ers and other activists gathered to com- Union of Indonesian National Maritime memorate the international holiday. The (SBMNI), the Labor Union of National demonstrators called for an end to the Transportation (SBTN), and the Labor rising prices of food and fuel as well as Union of Indonesian Automotive (SPOI). the government’s unwillingness to pro- Fifteen thousand police and security tect workers against unpaid overtime. guards stood by with guns and water Workers are forced to double shifts cannons. Both the State Palace and the for less money, according to rally coordi- US Embassy were heavily guarded with nator Samsul Arifin. barbed wire placed around them. Dozens of labor organizations Police dispersed a separate demon- Facebook labor activists arrested in Egypt demonstrated in the streets, including stration for the independence of West Egyptian state security officers “This is the work of thugs, pure and the Labor Union of Indonesian People Papua from Indonesia. arrested a man who used Facebook to simple,” said Joe Stork, Middle East promote a general strike on May 4 to deputy director at Human Rights Watch. coincide with the president’s birthday. “If we allow ourselves to fear them, Police attack May Day rally in Turkey While the strike fizzled, state security we won’t do anything,” he told the BBC took notice. before his arrest. Ahmed Maher Ibrahim, 27, was “Maher’s treatment is part of a pat- arrested on the street in the suburb of tern of abuse and extralegal intimidation New Cairo, blindfolded and taken to a by state officials,” said Stork. police station for interrogation. He was Egyptian police arrested 500 people stripped naked and beaten repeatedly in the industrial city of Mahalla al-Kobra for 12 hours and asked for the password in the Nile Delta. They were allegedly to his Facebook account and about involved in a call for a strike on April 6. members of the group. After threatening Isra’a Abd al-Fattah, 29, was also using further beatings, he was released without Facebook as a publicity tool. She was charge. detained until April 23. Independent unions defy Iranian govt. By John Kalwaic Iranian workers are in a constant bakers union knows as the Saqez Bakery struggle against employers and the gov- Workers Association and attempted to ernment, facing repression and winning form a national independent Iranian small victories. Workers Organization. The founders of the National Union On April 12, Iranian Special Forces of Unemployed and Dismissed Workers drove bulldozers into the Kian Tire plant were arrested along with many others and arrested 1,000 striking tire workers. Photo: www.ituc-csi.org during May Day demonstrations. The None of the workers’ families or friends Turkish police use tear gas and truncheons to disperse May Day protesters. union’s former president, Sheia Amani, knew where they had been taken for 36 By John Kalwaic was arrested again, while he appealed hours. Some workers escaped detention Governments repressed May Day major trade union federations, includ- the conditions of his release on bail. by escaping through the sewer system. rallies in Turkey and Iran. ing The Progressive Trade Unions of Three thousand workers from the Four days before, the Kian Tire In Turkey, the government in Is- Turkey, The Confederation of Turkish Haft Tapeh sugar cane company also workers burned tires in protest of having tanbul was determined not to let the pro- Trade Unions, The Confederation of struck to demand unpaid wages and an not been paid in five months. Kian Tire testors reach their destination of Taskim Public Employees’ Trade Unions and the end to abuses by management. has since paid workers two months pay. Square, where in 1977, 37 workers were Revolutionary Confederation of Labor Firefighters were ordered to spray gunned down by unidentified attackers. Unions. Organizer released boiling water on the striking workers; Riot police attacked demonstrators This is one of the most severe crack- Iranian workers and an international six of these firefighters were detained for with clubs and tear gas. The number downs on workers since the July 2007 campaign won the release on April 6 of refusing to spray the tire workers. of people arrested ranged from 530 to election of the Justice and Development union organizer and baker, Mahmoud Independent unions in Iran are il- estimates as high as 2,800 people, with Party or AKP, a conservative party bent Salehi. Selahi, imprisoned since July legal as the government controls legal 38 injured. The marchers were from the on unpopular neo-liberal reforms. 2007, had formed a local independent unions. Page 12 • Industrial Worker • June 2008 Unions listen! Another world is possible By Staughton Lynd What is the problem? What needs to tially realized by the IWW in work that management prerogative and no-strike dia Act and the little Norris-LaGuardia be set right? desperately needs updating.” clauses that exist in almost all collec- laws of a number of states. Currently, the mother of all wrong The new worldwide movement tive bargaining agreements. These two The indispensable precondition for solutions is card-check voting, which against “globalization”, meaning United clauses give profit-maximizing manage- a new bottom-up labor movement is would give more access to unorganized States imperialism, and for a better day, ment the right to make the fundamental to give up the quest for a magical new workers for the same top-down unions, has come up with a defining slogan: decisions and take away from workers leader of the existing trade union move- with the same unaccountability to the Another World Is Possible. The words the ability to do anything about it. ment who will make all well again. membership because of the dues check- remind us that a social movement is Another widely endorsed strategy is Intellectuals associated with the off, with the same ever-readiness to give unlikely to bring about what it does not “card-check elections”. If enacted into labor movement have a special respon- up the right to strike. sibility. In 1995, two labor historians cir- Equally misguided, in my view, is culated an Open Letter to President-elect the notion that the Taft-Hartley law We must de-mythologize all leaders and we must John Sweeney, which greeted Sweeney’s represented a decisive turning point elevation as “the most heartening devel- and that its repeal would release the re-conceptualize rank-and-file movements as some- opment in our nation’s political life since original pristine impulse of the Congress thing more than caucuses to elect new bureaucratic the heyday of the civil rights movement,” of Industrial Organizations to flower assessed his election as “promis[ing] to again. All major trade union leaders union leaders. once again make the house of labor a beginning with United Mine Workers social movement around which we can (UMW) President John L. Lewis have rally” and pledged “to play our part in devised means whereby workers would even try to achieve. law, that procedure would very likely helping realize the promise of October.” give up the right to collective self-activity Current efforts to revive the US labor increase the number of bargaining units When Andrew Stern later denounced embodied in Section 7 in exchange for a movement define their objectives so nar- represented by existing unions. It would Sweeney and led several major unions mess of pottage. rowly, that even if successful, they would do nothing to change the top-down, into a new organization, Barbara Eh- So we, labor lawyers and labor not change anything fundamental. One bureaucratic character of those organiza- renreich declared that “the future of the historians, can only begin to be useful such proposal is to “increase the amount tions. American dream” was now “in the hands when we forego our endless apologies of money spent on ‘organizing’ to in- Indeed, in the absence of prolonged of Andrew Stern” possessing a “vital for the latest hoped-for “progressive” crease the percentage of the labor force election campaigns and vigorous public agenda for change” and “a bold vision union leader. Our task is to envision an that belongs to unions. Such an increase controversy, card-check elections might for reform.” This was presumably before institutional “embodiment of the class in ‘union density’ might maximize the very well cause unions to become even Stern’s coalition with Wal-Mart. self-activity discovered and imagined by influence of existing unions, but would less democratic than they now are. The foregoing makes clear why it E.P. Thompson and colleagues and par- not change their entanglement in the Moreover, experience suggests that is so important to look again at John in the absence of legislation, in order to L. Lewis, to move beyond Saul Alinsky, obtain card-check elections, unions often Melvyn Dubofsky, David Brody,and Rob- South African dockworkers’ solidarity make significant concessions (about ert Zieger, indeed beyond the consen- saves Zimbabwean lives which the affected workers have no say) sus of labor historians, concerning this as to what will be in the contract after paradigmatic figure. Here, the research By X342055, About Time, IWW Australia the union is recognized. of Jim Pope on the United Mine Workers Everybody knew just what sort of to power in Zimbabwe and solidified A third widely articulated strategy is drive in 1933 is the gateway to under- “defence” the Chinese weapons would his regime with the help of troops from “minority or members-only unionism”. standing the importance of rank-and-file be used to inflict upon the population if the 50-year-old so-called revolutionary The idea is that an employer should be activity as central to labor movement they ever reached Zimbabwe. Cuba; and 14 years since multi-racial required to bargain with any group of growth. All the politicians hummed and elections were first held in South Africa. employees who request it, even if those Pope has written that that the hawed and generally wrung their hands. Still, with all this political change workers are not a majority of the work- standard story is that section 7[a] of the South African president Thabo Mbeki and revolution, the workers remain force. This is much the best mainstream National Industrial Recovery Act made told journalists that South Africa would where we have always been. We are on formulation for improving the labor possible a brilliant organizing campaign not, could not, possibly, interfere in a the bottom, forced to use direct action movement because it requires a union led by UMW President John L. Lewis legitimate transaction between Zimba- to protect the basic human rights of our to prove its value through actions, not that reestablished the mine workers’ bwe and China. colleagues. It is where we always were promises. union in the soft coalfields. Lewis in late So, in the end, it was up to the work- and where we always will be. A change of However, the idea has significant May 1933 committed the union’s entire ers. The 300,000-strong South African politicians is the joy of fools. drawbacks. Those who favor minority treasury to put 100 organizers into the Transport and Allied Workers Union We can develop our economic power unionism see it as an intermediate step coalfields “claiming ‘the President’ wants (Satawu) said it and solidarity on toward majority support and recogni- the miners to join the union. [W]ithin would be “grossly the job, however, tion of the union as exclusive bargain- weeks of section 7(a)’s signing, the union irresponsible” to by following the ing agent. Moreover, like so many other enrolls the overwhelming majority of touch the cargo of excellent example notions of labor law reform, it seems miners in the soft coalfields.” ammunition, gre- of the Durban dock to require legitimation by some arm of In this standard story, Pope rightly nades and mortar workers and mak- government (such as Congress or the observes that “coal miners rarely appear rounds on board ing an injury to one National Labor Relations Board) before and strikes —if they enter the story at the Chinese ship an injury to all, the it becomes real. all— play a subsidiary role”. The victory An Yue Jiang motto on the Satawu Better than any of these strategic was masterminded by Lewis. However, anchored outside badge. If we do that, visions would be a deliberate return to Pope saw something different had the port. then we could push the essential principle of the labor move- happened when the New York Times “Our mem- through some real ment: the principle of solidarity. The headline “Coal Men tell Roosevelt Code bers employed at change. Knights of Labor and the IWW articu- will be Signed Today: 16 Shot in Riots at Durban container In South Africa, lated this principle of solidarity for all Mines” caught his attention. Inquiry re- terminal will not workers have shown time in the words, “an injury to one is an vealed that strike activity in the summer unload this cargo, that they are not injury to all.” Certain applications of this of 1933 involved 100,000 miners spread neither will any of our members in the passive victims of a neoliberal, com- principle are self-evident. For example, out over 1,000 miles of mountainous truck-driving sector move this cargo by modity economy sitting on their funda- it would finally preclude the creation of terrain. The self-activity of coal miners road. mentals at the end of history watching separate wage tiers for workers who do in southwestern Pennsylvania and West “South Africa cannot be seen to be the spectacle of it all. (Read: A flock of essentially the same jobs and differ only Virginia began before any initiative by facilitating the flow of weapons into Zim- bloody sheep.) with respect to their dates of hire. Again, Lewis and without his help. In Pope’s babwe at a time where there is a political Now Australia has supported calls it would require the labor movement to words, they “brought their common law dispute and a volatile situation between for a global ban on arms sales to Zim- seek solutions that benefit both “workers of solidarity into the realm of public Zanu-PF and the MDC,” said Satawu babwe. Only after workers had taken who seek to enter the US” and “workers struggle.” Section 7(a) of the National spokesman Randall Howard. action, did Foreign Minister Stephen who are already here.” Industrial Recovery Act “neither sparked The London-based International Smith announce how appalled he was In order to develop such solidarity the movement nor shaped its demands.” Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) about Mugabe’s delay of the election unionism in practice, workers, labor his- By May 17, 1933, when the NIRA was and the Congress of South African Trade results. torians, trade union officials, and labor presented to Congress, “the organizing Unions (Cosatu) said they were mobilis- “The continued delay demonstrates lawyers must affirm the underlying idea upsurge in garment and coal was already ing unions in China and Africa, including the Mugabe government’s utter con- that answers to the miseries presently in full swing.” those in Angola, to take a firm stand and tempt for democratic principles and experienced by workers in the US (and From self-organization, the miners to stop the ship from offloading its cargo processes,” he said. “I strongly sup- elsewhere) will develop from the bot- moved on, according to Pope, to enforce- of weapons. port international efforts that prevent tom-up, not from the top-down. ment from below. Lewis advised min- The ITF, which consists of more than the Mugabe regime from being further We need to go back to the experience ers not to strike because the real action 650 unions representing 4.5 million equipped to commit further human of workers in this country in the early would be in Washington and announced workers in 148 countries, is believed rights violations against the already long Thirties who were unable to get help that strike activity was unauthorized. to have been instrumental in Mozam- suffering Zimbabwe people.” from either national unions or the na- When President Roosevelt intervened bique’s refusal allow the ship to dock in This government position contra- tional government, and who, therefore, personally to broker a truce, striking Maputo, after ITF-affiliate Satawu asked dicts entirely the current law and Labor turned to each other, improvising new miners refused to return to work. UMW it to intervene. Party’s domestic policy. If Australian central labor bodies to coordinate their Vice President Philip Murray then It is some 60 years after the revolu- workers took the same actions as the local general strikes. entered into an agreement with the own- tion in China that brought the Commu- South African dock workers, they would Rather than seek assistance from the ers that banned all mass picketing. The nist Party to power, theoretically in the be prosecuted for illegal action. It seems courts, they sought to get the judges off strikers, however, viewed picketing “not interests of the workers and poor peas- Zimbabwe is not the only country in their backs, through the anti-injunction as a form of communication, but as an ants; nearly 30 years after Mugabe came need of change through solidarity. provisions of the federal Norris-LaGuar- Continued on 12 June 2008 • Industrial Worker • Page 13 Grad students organize at U of Chicago

By Joe Grim Feinberg Song More than 100 University of Chi- derfunded stipends and research grants cago graduate students have joined an by increasing the number of competitive The Work of a Graduate Student: A Study in Social organizing committee to found Graduate scholarships available, a grossly inad- Contradictions and Their Potential Sublation Students United, an independent gradu- equate measure. Or , Join GSU ate employee organization. The administration has hopes that By Joe Grim Feinberg Organizing began last year when students will be satisfied with the new students set up a basic structure, orga- state of affairs, but, so far, they have G Am G Am G Am G Am nized two well-attended demonstrations, achieved the opposite, showing us how Once more now students, workers, here the truth it will be told. and collected about 500 signatures on a powerful we can be when we act together G Am G Am G Am G Am petition demanding health insurance for to an extent that no one predicted just It won’t be long, now gather ‘round, come young and come old. student employees and an end to gradu- over one year ago. G Am G Am G Em Dm C Am ate student fees. Dues are $5 per year. Graduate Students United main- Come all of you who seek and make the beautiful and true. Our strategy is to build strength with tains an open strategy for the future. G Am G Am G Em Dm C Am a growing membership that can act in It remains unaffiliated with any other I am a graduate student…and I wish the best to you. union to put pressure on the administra- union, but affiliation remains a possibil- tion, to win concrete, work-related gains, ity, with several supportive union locals Oh, graduate studying is the hardest work I’ve ever done. and eventually to establish our organiza- at the university and nearby. Our goal It sucks away your spirit, and it kills all of your fun. tion as an organ of power for workers at is to unite university workers to democ- In exchange for future dreams you give up years and hours. the university. ratize the university by the best means And while others walk through poppy fields…we live with paper flowers. The National Labor Relations Board available. (NLRB) does not recognize graduate The movement for graduate stu- Whiles muscles wither in our arms we press our keys to dust. students at private universities as em- dent organizing began in 1969 at the We write about libido and forget about our lust. ployees, and it gives us no special legal University of Wisconsin-Madison, We theorize utopias and live a life of slaves. protection. It is likely that this NLRB when teaching assistants affiliated with All for an ounce of prestige…and some letters on our graves. decision will be soon overturned, but we the American Federation of Teachers. have taken the opportunity to develop There are now some 23 legally recog- We spend our youth in musty halls and laboratories cold. a strategy that does not depend on the nized graduate employee unions across We spend our nights in beds of books with lovers ages old. NLRB for success. the country, including at some of the Each day we say tomorrow then at last we will be free We will continue to build our largest public universities such as the Until we’re tenured and retired then…(then) we’ll finally live our dreams. strength and not wait to be recognized University of California. There have been by an agency from outside. long-running organizing campaigns at We dream of picking up our pens as swords to save the world. other places like Yale and New York Instead we work for warlords under flags of greed unfurled. Progress from pressure University. In some places, such as Yale, We teach of revolutions we forgot how to believe. Already the administration has graduate students have successfully won We’ve got to raise our pens to change…the University. responded to our efforts by hinting that additional rights and benefits without they will raise teaching wages approxi- ever becoming officially recognized. The I am a graduate student and I wish the best to you. mately 50 per cent by the start of the Coalition of Graduate Employee Unions Let’s get together and transform this system through and through. next school year. (www.cgeu.org) formed in 1992, con- For if we act in union there is nothing we can’t do. The administration also made the nects these different groups, including Come one, come all, right now, come join…come join in GSU. minor concession of freezing a yearly ours. Come all of you good students now, come join in GSU. increase in graduate student fees. They Visit www.uchicagogsu.org for infor- Come all of you good workers now…come join in GSU. recently tried to address the issue of un- mation about the union. 3 years of organizing under Right-to-Work They’ll say one thing to one teacher have a different survey. It could be a dif- that were either not agreed upon or were and say something completely dif- ferent question, misspelled word, differ- designed to sidetrack our demands and ferent to another teacher. When we ent numbered pages so that the boss can place the meeting into chaos. That was compare the first inkling that we notes, we had a faker. find the The last episode most ad- We have all resorted to using work-to-rule tactics. was when he got in vantageous trouble for something “saying” and If management tells us to “speed up”, we ignore it. that happened in his By x359212 then hold them class. I live and work in a “right-to-work” to it. They hate From what we can state in the United States where all that because not gather, he unloaded workers have the right to quit at any only does it limit their ability to talk to know at least what department it came his guts about what the teachers really time, yet they can also be terminated workers, it also limits their ability to pit from, even if it is not signed. thought about everything. at any time. Where’s the benefit in that one worker against another. They lose 5. The most hurtful episode was In consequence, the teaching staff at- type of work environment? power and control. when we had a labor faker in our midst. tended two “mandatory meetings” where For the last three years, that work He came out all gung ho for everything the management asked everyone “what environment has had a huge influence Learning from failure union. He expressed the same senti- was really going on?” while the labor on my unionizing efforts. Unfortunately, everything hasn’t ments as everyone else. He had some faker sat there with us. At my place of employment I am the been bread and roses. Here are some good ideas. None of us admitted to anything and only IWW member. At times, it can be examples of failures. All that changed when we were hav- the faker remains employed. Needless very discouraging, but I have learned 1. I have succeeded in signing one ing a meeting with the two bosses. He to say but we treat him as someone not that persistence is a must if anything is co-worker to our union. She then she acted like Rambo by expressing opinions worth our trust or loyalty. to be accomplished. moved on and discontinued her mem- bership. Successes 2. I have been unable to sustain my Subscribe to the Industrial Worker fellow workers’ interest in being more 1. I have been able to get my fel- Subscribe or renew your Industrial Worker subscription. low teachers together at a restaurant militant. Once something improves they or someone’s house a number of times stop. Give a gift that keeps your family or friends thinking. where we have developed and agreed to 3. I have not been able to keep co- a list of concerns that have been present- workers together. They leave as soon as ed to our boss and her boss. they can for a “better” job. Consequently, Get 10 issues of working class news and views for: 2. We have had three meetings with there is a high turnover rate that hinders • US $18 for individuals. management with all teachers present. worker solidarity and makes it harder to • US $24 for library/institutions. 3. We have all resorted to using keep the gains we have made together. • US $20 for international subscriptions. work-to-rule tactics, i.e., we do only the 4. Beware the Canary Letter. Name: ______absolute minimum by following the rules Once a year the company has all exactly. employees fill out a survey. The teachers Address: ______4. If management tells us to do made sure they were negative and un- City/State/Province: ______something more, “speed up”, we ignore signed. Our boss wanted us to turn them Zip/Postal Code: ______it. We make management get off their in to her. Instead I mixed them up with asses and come to us with their concerns non-teaching staff then slid them under Send this subscription form to: and then we ignore them again. Man- the Human Resources door unseen. agement frequently doesn’t ask again Within 30 minutes our boss was run- Industrial Worker Subscriptions, because it makes them work harder. ning around asking all the teachers why PO Box 23085, Cincinnati OH 45223 USA 5. We keep labor journals and com- everyone was so upset, etc. Subscribe to the Industrial Worker today! pare notes daily. For example, manage- How did the bosses know? It’s called ment will play favorites with employees. the canary letter. Each department will PageJune 120084 • Industrial• Industrial Worker Worker • June •2 Page008 14

Nafta From Below: Maquiladora Workers, Campesinos, and Indigenous IWW T-shirts: Sabo-cat or Communities Speak Out on the Impact globe design, printed on of Free Trade in Mexico black shirt. EDITED BY MARTHA OJEDA AND ROSEMARY Sizes S-XL $15.00 HENNESSY The Industrial Workers of the Size XXL $17.00 When ordering, please specify design In testimonies from scores of maquiladora workers, World: Its First 100 Years by campesinos, and indigenous communities from across Fred W. Thompson & Jon Bekken Mexico, Nafta from Below details the impact of free trade on forward by Utah Phillips those it has most severely affected. First-hand accounts of The IWW: Its First 100 Years is the most workers organizing for their rights, of farmers and indig- comprehensive history of the union ever enous peoples fighting to preserve their land, and of efforts north and south to build published. Written by two Wobblies who alternatives document the courage of ordinary people who dare to join together and lived through many of the struggles they stand up for decent work conditions, just salaries, a clean environment, and lives with chronicle, it documents the famous dignity. Published by the Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras, this book contains struggles such as the Lawrence and chapters on stuggles in textile, electronics and auto parts manufacturing among many Paterson strikes, the fight for decent more. Especially inspiring is discussion on movements bulding alternatives to NAFTA’s conditions in the Pacific Northwest race to the bottom. timber fields, the IWW's pioneering oversized paperback, $30.00 organizing among harvest hands in the 1910s and 1920s, and the war-time Chumbawamba: English Rebel repression that sent thousands of IWW Songs 1381-1984 CD members to jail. But it is the only general English Rebel Songs 1381-1984 is history to give substantive attention to Chumbawamba’s homage to the men and the IWW's successful organizing of African-American and immigrant dock women who never had obituaries in the Images of broadsheets; those who never received titles workers on the Philadelphia waterfront, or appeared in as entry in “Who’s Who.” This the international union of seamen the American is an album that conjures up the tragedies and IWW built from 1913 through the 1930s, Radicalism triumphs of the people who shaped England: smaller job actions through which the BY PAUL BUHLE its citizens. The songs were discovered in AND EDMUND B. IWW transformed working conditions, SULLIVAN songbooks, in folk clubs and on cassette tapes, Wobbly successes organizing in Historians Buhle chopped and changed and bludgeoned into manufacturing in the 1930s and 1940s, and Sullivan en- shape with utmost respect for the original and the union's recent resurgence. gagingly docu- tunes. Originally released in 1988, this new Extensive source notes provide guidance ment here the history of American radi- CD version is fierce, sweet and powerful, and contains ballads not included on the original to readers wishing to explore particular calism. The more than 1500 illustrations album. It’s guaranteed to sway the listener, break hearts and encourage hope...just as those campaigns in more depth. There is no provided – 72 in color – are paintings, who inspired the songs by changing history. 13 tracks, $14.95 better history for the reader looking for drawings, cartoons, photographs, litho- graphs, posters, and other graphics de- A Century of Writing on the IWW 1905 - 2005: An Anno- an overview of the history of the IWW, picting religious visionaries, Shakers, abo- tated Bibliography of Books on the Industrial Workers of and for an understanding of its ideas and litionists, suffragists, anarchists, socialists, the World Compiled by Steve Kellerman tactics. 255 pages, $19.95 Wobblies, feminists, Civil Rights work- This annotated bibliography published by the Boston Gen- ers, gay and lesbian activists, environmen- eral Membership Branch of the IWW lists all known books on talists, and others in their quest for a co- the IWW, organized by category in chronological order. Brief Static Cling Decal operative society overcoming a competi- Embroidered critical notes describe the books, quickly and helpfully identi- 3.5” black and red IWW tive capitalism. This handsome book is a Patches fying their strengths and weaknesses. Other categories are Bio- logo, suitable for car superb visual approach to an important 3” circle with IWW logo graphical Works, Miscellaneous Works including substantial dis- and “An injury to windows but little discussed aspect of American cussion of the IWW, Writings by Wobblies, and a listing of nov- one is an injury to all” $2.50 each social, political, and cultural history. embroidered in els featuring the union. An excellent resource for anyone doing $20 PAPERBACK, $25 HARDCOVER black, red, white and research on the IWW. golden $3.50 each 38 pages, $5.00 Order Form Mail to: IWW Literature, PO Box 42777, Phila, PA 19101 Name:______

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*Shipping/Handling In the U.S., please add $2.00 for first Sub-Total:______item and 50¢ for each additional item Canada: Add $3.00 for the first item Shipping*:______Pyramid of the Capitalist System poster. 17"x22" color Don't Be A Scab poster. 17"x22" Duotone reproduction of 50¢ for each additional item reproduction of the classic graphic $9.50 two girls flyering during a NYC transit strike $8.50 organizing fund donation: ______Overseas: Add $4.00 for the first item SALE THROUGH JUNE 2008! Get both posters for $12.00 plus shipping! $1.00 for each additional item Total Enclosed:______June 2008 • Industrial Worker • Page 15 Militant, independent, all-Cambodian union Union perseveres despite murders, threats By Erik Davis Chea Vichea was the president and founder of Cambodia’s largest and most radical union, the Free Trade Union of the Workers of the Kingdom of Cambo- dia (FTUWKC). In January 2004, he was sitting at a newspaper stand reading the morning paper, when a man walked into the shop and shot him repeatedly in the face and chest. A few days later, the largest mass street protest in Cambodia’s post-war history took place. Tens of thousands of workers and citizens dressed for mourn- ing and proclaimed their love for this “hero of the workers.” Over the next four years, three more union officials would be assassinated, and many more at- tacked.

Union keeps pressure on Despite the violence, the Cambo- dian union movement continues to win victories. Most recently, the FTUWKC strategically organized to hold a national garment workers’ strike during the 2008 election year in Cambodia. This forced the government to pressure garment manufacturing employers to agree to some of the union’s demands. They won a US$5 increase, boosting monthly pay to US$55 per month. However, other demands, such as removing the five-year Chea Mony, current president of the Free Trade Union of the Workers of the Kingdom of Cambodia with Photo: FTUWKC cap on seniority benefits, remained out fellow workers protesting his brother’s assassination. of reach in this round. “If workers didn’t strike, they would Mann Senghak: tactics to win He helped organize a three-day but not charged for leading an ‘illegal’ not [have] reached this offer at all,” said There are approximately 30 unions strike in 2000, which resulted in a mini- strike. He was released after more than Chea Mony, the current union president, in Cambodia. Of these, only three are mum salary raise from $40 to $45 per a month in prison, and is now illegally and brother to the slain Chea Vichea. independent: the FTUWKC, the Cam- month. Senghak stressed to me that this blacklisted from working in factories for Enforcing the national agreement is bodian Independent Teachers’ Union strike was not solely a union strike, but five years. the next challenge for the union, he said. (CITU), and the Coalition of Cambodian was a solidarity strike of many different “Many factories seem to [be] misunder- Apparel Workers Democratic Union workers –including non-union workers– Chea Mony: skeptical about “help” standing/rejecting to pay the workers (CCAWDU). The others are all unions acting collectively against the Garment Chea Mony, current president of the properly,” said Chea Mony in an email. run by either the companies themselves Association Manufacturers of Cambodia FTUWKC, now sits in the same union In January 2008, I was fortunate or various proxies of ‘big men’ in govern- (GMAC), a consortium of roughly 50 office where his murdered brother lay in enough to visit Cambodia as a temporary ment ministries. manufacturers. state for mourners to see. delegate for the International Solidarity The FTUWKC has over 70,000 The garment manufacturers’ have My discussion with fellow worker Committee. I met with the current presi- members, 90 per cent of whom work in responded to union demands by say- Mony focused on the possibility of our dent Chea Mony and two other officers the garment industry. The other ten per ing that the garment sector faces an two unions working together. I was of the union, Mann Senghak and Sorl cent work in a variety of other indus- uncertain future in the coming global disappointed to hear that the general Kimsorn. tries. Eighty per cent of all members are economic recession. The message is clear attitude from the officials was that non- women. and one of fear: unions should stop mak- Cambodian unions tend to see Cambodi- Cambodia in crisis Mann Senghak is the General Sec- ing demands or the industry will close an unions as a sort of ‘solidarity charity Ten years after the final collapse of retary of the FTUWKC, a post he has down. In effect, workers should suffer in case.’ the Khmer Rouge and a 30-year-long occupied for three years. Prior to that, he silence. Groups like the AFL-CIO, Acorn, civil war, Cambodia remains a country spent three years as a Deputy Secretary, and others occasionally approach the in crisis. The country is classified as one one year as a union official, and before Sorl Kimsorn: jailed, blacklisted FTUWKC (as I was doing) asking what of 12 Least Developed Countries in the that he worked in factories as an ironing Sorl Kimsorn is a union official it is we can be doing to “help” them. The world. Transparency International re- department supervisor. He joined the (montrei), a post he had held for one results are what you might expect: one- cently ranked the country as the second- union because “I saw that the bosses had year. Prior to that he, too, was a produc- time donations of cash to subsidize the most corrupt in the world. Thirty-four too much power over the workers; over tion supervisor in a garment factory. printing of a pamphlet or educational per cent of the population survives on their time, their hours, their days, and of He joined the 2004 strike, and materials, but little in the way of support less than US$1 per day. Out of 1,000 course, their wages.” helped lead the strike in 2006 which for effective, direct action. live births, 143 will die before they reach Senghak told me about some of the raised the minimum wage from US$45 This perception of foreign unions the age of five, according to UNICEF. Of successful tactics employed by the union. to $50 per month. He was arrested was so pervasive that while Kimsorn those that survive past this age, 45 per and Senghak were friendly to the idea cent suffer from malnutrition so severe that foreign unions could perhaps ‘help,’ that they are permanently stunted. there was little point in working too hard If you read the bosses’ press, how- to build such relations, since foreigners ever, you get a very different impression would likely never take the Cambodian of Cambodia. Last December, Cambodia movement seriously, let alone find them- became the world’s sixth largest garment selves willing to learn from it. exporter. This is impressive for a country Chea Mony stressed that the FTU- the size of Missouri, with less than 14 WKC’s history of working with other million people, more than 80 per cent groups was not a positive one. Although of whom live away from the cities and originally founded by members of the factories. Sam Rainsy Party, the union split from Cambodia’s garment factories use them in 2006, disenchanted with prom- the country as an export-processing ises of political solutions or the possibil- zone: the factories are owned and man- ity that non-governmental organizations aged almost exclusively by non-nation- would work with them. als, with most of the profits leaving the The fellow workers in the FTUWKC country. and the other two democratic fighting Along with economic ‘development,’ unions in Cambodia are doing work pressure on workers has started coming that is not only important for them, but from land-related conflict. Land grabs in light of their country’s position as a have become the number one human major garment exporter, a possible pres- rights issue. Violent conflicts between sure point for some of the international squatters and police are now common- networks that compose modern capital- place. The squatters are called ‘anar- ism. chists’ (neak anadhipati) by the press We have a lot to learn from the and the government, but they insist that FTUWKC. I hope we also find ways to Photo: Erik Davis they have the legal right to live in their The Free Trade Union of the Workers of the Kingdom of Cambodia have effectively make our separate struggles own homes. launched a campaign demanding a 44-hour week. one. Page 16 • Industrial Worker • June 2008 Mexican broadcasters ambushed in Oaxaca

The IWW formed the International Solidarity Commission to help the union build the worker-to-worker solidarity that can lead to effective action against the bosses of the world. To contact the ISC, email [email protected]. By Mike Pesa Solidarity with Dave Kerin and All Freeters Union. This delegation will Union Solidarity help us to reach that goal. One of the The ISC issued a statement in sup- delegates, Sabu Kohso, is a member of port of embattled Australian union both the IWW and the coalition that the organizer Dave Kerin, coordinator of All Freeters Union is part of. Delegates the rank-and-file labor coalition, Union have requested financial aid to help them Solidarity. The Australian Workplace make this trip. To help, please email soli- Ombudsman has issued Kerin with a [email protected]. “notice to produce documents” in rela- tion to a recent strike at Boeing. If he IWW Haiti delegation returns refuses to give the government infor- Four ISC delegates returned to their mation that they intend to use against homes on May 5 after a two-week trip to Union Solidarity and other rank and file Haiti, where they met with labor unions, union members by May 8, he faces as peasants’ organizations and other seg- much as six months in prison. The ISC ments of the Haitian population. The pledged its solidarity with Dave Kerin trip was a huge success and is being and Union Solidarity, while demanding vigorously followed up. The delegation that the Australian government call off was documented extensively in writing, this legal harassment. photos and video. A day by day report with photos is available online at iwwin- Solidarity with Iranian tire haiti.blogspot.com. Photo: The Voice That Breaks The Silence workers An article about the trip appears in Felicitas Martínez Sánchez, left, a volunteer, and Teresa Bautista Merino, The ISC wrote a letter to the govern- this issue of the Industrial Worker on right, at their radio station. Felicitas and Teresa helped found a community ment of Iran expressing outrage at the pages 8-9, with another article to be radio in Oaxaca, Mexico, but were killed in a highway ambush on April 7. arrest and beating of hundreds of Alborz published in Z Magazine. A video docu- Two indigenous women broadcast- “Killing journalists is a heinous Tire Manufacturing Company near Teh- mentary about the trip is being produced ers in the Oaxacan highland town of San crime which harms the whole of society ran on April 12, 2008. The workers had by IWW filmmaker Diane Krauthamer. Juan Copala, Mexico, were murdered on as it undermines the democratic right been protesting five months non-pay- To advance order a copy, email solidar- April 7, three months after helping bring of citizens to hold informed debate and ment of wages. As a condition of release, [email protected]. a community radio to air. make informed political choices,” said workers were forced to sign letters Teresa Bautista Merino, 21, and the director-general of UNESCO, the guaranteeing that they would not protest May Day Felicitas Martínez Sánchez, 24, were key UN’s cultural agency, in a statement con- again.The ISC condemned this gross vio- The ISC issued a statement on May organizers who helped equip, engi- demning the murders. lation of basic human rights, declared its 1 honoring May Day, its origins and neer and launch the community radio Oaxaca was the scene last year of support for the workers, and demanded history, and the present struggles being station, called The Voice That Breaks confrontations between teachers and that the government of Iran immediately waged by workers around the world. The Silence. They were killed while on community activists and the police release all remaining detained workers The statement focused on the cur- assignment by automatic gunfire during of Governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz of the and withdraw the conditions on released rent crisis in Haiti and the ISC delega- a highway ambush, that injured other Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), workers. The ISC also insisted that the tion that was sent to bear witness to the people. which ruled Mexico for seven decades Alborz Tire Manufacturing Company situation. The message was sent to all of “Indigenous, reporters, women. Vital without significant challenge. and its corporate partners must be held the ISC’s international allies as part of intelligent young women with names, Mexican president Felipe Calde- accountable for violating workers rights. our first monthly electronic bulletin. In who could be our sisters, companions, rón, affiliated with a rival party that is turn, the ISC received May Day state- our daughters or nieces, our grand- seeking to take Oaxaca in the 2010 state ISC delegation to visit Japan ments from unions in Haiti, Japan, Iran, daughters,” said a message sent to the election, has deployed the Mexican army The ISC is sending a delegation of Palestine, and El Salvador. Oaxaca Sigue Sigue solidarity email to set up a base near San Juan Copala. workers to Japan in late May and early International Workers Day is alive group. The message called for people to Activists allege that the military do little June at the invitation of the Tokyo-based and well around the world and the ISC is protest their murders by calling, faxing to make the state safer and that their All Freeters Union and the G8 Action honored to participate in it. and emailing Mexican embassies and role is to indoctrinate and train paramili- Coalition. During their trip, delegates consulates as well as politicians. taries in rural areas. will meet with independent unions and Workers Memorial Day statement workers centers in Japan. As part of The ISC issued a statement on April an international labor contingent, ISC 28, Workers Memorial Day, remem- Australian unions demand delegates will also attend demonstra- bering the millions of workers who are tions and conferences against the Group injured or killed in industrial accidents repeal of labor police agency of Eight (G8) summit being held in June. every year, often as a result of unsafe Construction workers in Queensland, immediately,” said a May 15 statement They may have the opportunity to speak conditions that could have been prevent- Australia, demanded the abolition of the on the Australian Manufacturing to an international audience about the ed by employers. Australian Building and Construction Workers Union (AMWU) web site. IWW. The statement, which was published Commissioner (ABCC) in May for under- “It’s totally unacceptable to us that The All Freeters Union is of special in the previous issue of the Industrial mining union rights. any organisation has the ability to sum- interest to the ISC. A new organization Worker, paid special tribute to Ryan The ABCC is a government agency mon people to compulsory ‘interroga- of class-conscious temp workers, the Boudreau, a bike messenger and IWW brought in by the previous Liberal gov- tions’ with the threat of fines or jail and Freeters have published articles in the Chicago Couriers Union member who ernment in October 2005 to police build- to make it illegal to discuss what was Industrial Worker and sent us an official was killed in a collision on August 13, ing and construction trade workplaces. said there,” said Glenn Thompson, assis- letter of solidarity in early April. The ISC 2007. The ISC called for concerted The new Labor Party government tant national secretary of the AMWU. responded with an official statement of industrial action around the world to had promised during its 2007 election Most recently, the ABCC has asked our own, declaring our desire to build a secure the basic right of all workers to a campaign to abolish the ABCC by 2010. union members to talk about what strong solidarity relationship with the safe workplace. “Unions are calling for it to be scrapped happened in union meetings. Testi- mony is compulsory and refusal means six months in jail. Workers who have stopped work to prevent the firing of Australian labor activist resists forced disclosure a union delegate, who have taken sick Union Solidarity coordinator Dave Union Solidarity organized pickets sign a petition on their web site www. days, and who have stopped work due Kerin is now facing up to six months in and other activities to support the Boe- unionsolidarity.org to show their sup- to fears about health and safety, have all jail for supporting striking workers at ing workers. Secondary picketing, among port for Kerin. faced ABCC investigators. Boeing in Australia. other activities needed for an effective “Through the Community Assembly, An International Labor Organiza- The Australian Workplace Ombuds- strike, are illegal for the union on strike attacks on workers’ rights are dealt with tion (ILO) complaints committee con- man has issued Kerin with a legal notice to do. So Union Solidarity steps in as a in a whole-of-class way, based upon the demned the law for giving the ABCC to provide the government with informa- community group whose free assembly old principle that ‘an injury to one is an “expansive powers… without clearly tion and documents related to the recent rights are not restricted by labor law. injury to all’,” said its web site. defined limits or judicial control, [that] strike at Boeing. Kerin is “being asked to ‘rat’, he “From now on it is irrelevant could give rise to serious interference in The dispute started on April 7 when won’t,” said a Union Solidarity email. “In which industry we work in, or for which the internal affairs of trade unions.” The Boeing sacked a worker and suspended the last election the Australian people employer we work. It simply does not ILO also noted that the “heavy and wide- another without going through the voted overwhelming to get rid of anti- matter whether we are acting against an ly applicable penalties and sanctions… agreed dispute settlement procedure. union laws. Union Solidarity operates employer directly involved in a dispute, Boeing then threatened workers with within the spirit of that intention!” or against secondary employers who legal action and possible fines. Union Solidarity is asking people to service the attacking boss.” Continued on