Rebuilding the IWW at NYC campaigns winning, Atom Spies, Horizontalism Armed men break Streetlight shelter but face stiff resistance and IWW history strikes in Philippines 5 7 8-9 10 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 November 2007 #1701 Vol. 104 No. 11 $1 / £1 / €1 Individual contracts undercut equal pay By Australian Council of Trade Unions The research shows the unfair The pay gap between men and industrial relations laws have women has widened under the Liberal particularly hurt women on AWA Party of Australia government led by individual contracts. Women on AWAs John Howard. Women on Australian only earn 81 cents for every dollar Workplace Agreements (AWA)— earned by men on AWAs. Women individual contracts between worker and on collective agreements fare better, boss—are falling furthest behind. earning 90 cents for every dollar earned Australian Council of Trade Unions by men. (ACTU) President Sharan Burrow “Women on AWAs are earning on revealed the findings of this study at the average $87 less per week than their national conference, Shaping the Future counterparts on collective agreements of Women in Australia, in Sydney on and for part-time women, the difference October 10. can be as much as $140 per week,” said The most recent data shows the gap Burrow. between men's and women’s earnings Australia’s booming economy is has widened in the past three years. also leaving women worse off. In July Women working full-time now earn 2007, wage costs in higher-paid, male- only 84 cents for every dollar earned by dominated industries such as mining a man working full-time—a drop from and construction were growing three three years ago, when it was 87 cents for times faster than wage costs in low paid every dollar. sectors such as retail and hospitality, In November, We Remember... “Workplace Relations Minister where many women are employed. The laurels of victory are lain on the head of a Haymarket martyr at their Joe Hockey’s claim that the wages gap Also on the conference agenda were memorial grave in the old Waldheim cemetary in Chicago, United States. The between men and women has narrowed strategies to improve paid maternity Haymarket martyrs were executed on November 11, 1887. The mobilizations under the Howard government is simply leave, promote accessible childcare, around their trial and execution inspired a new generation of labor activists, not supported by the evidence. Mr. support women in leadership, and including many who joined the Industrial Workers of the World in 1905. Hockey is wrong again," said Burrow. increase women's influence. Analysis NLRB permits decertification campaigns UAW strikes to get GM, Chrysler contracts The 73,000 United Auto Workers GM gained key concessions that for voluntarily recognized unions (UAW) at General Motors struck for divide the workforce. New hires won't By americanrightsatwork.org the first time since 1976, bringing the get the same health benefits as current The US national labor board has paign by a minority of anti-union em- automaker back to the bargaining table employees and their starting pay will be undermined voluntary recognition of ployees. This protection allowed stability in just two days. lower than the current rate. unions by allowing a decertification cam- during the bargaining of a first contract. The UAW also used a six hour strike In turn, GM agreed to hire 3,000 paign within 45 days of recognition. In the current case, both Dana Corp. on October 10 to force Chrysler to make temporary workers into “full-time, Voluntary recognition is when em- and Metaldyne Corp. voluntarily recog- a tentative agreement, which has yet to traditional employment,” which for the ployers agree to recognize a union once nized that a majority of their workers be ratified by the rank-and-file. union, removes a potential threat to a majority of workers sign union cards. formed unions with the United Auto The new four-year GM contract, workplace solidarity. It’s a peaceful and quick way to get to the Workers. When the Regional NLRB ratified October 10 by 66 per cent of Still, GM looks to be the big winner bargaining table and, for workers and Director dismissed decertification peti- workers, was widely reported to have by shedding the long-term health cost bosses, a better alternative to the flawed tions filed by anti-union employees a few created a US$50 billion health fund that for current workers and retirees. Not National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) weeks after recognition was granted, the would be run by the UAW on behalf of having this liability will mean it will be election process. anti-union National Right to Work Legal 411,000 current workers and retirees. in a stronger position to demand more The appointed Republican major- Defense Foundation filed charges on GM will also protect jobs on the basis concessions during the 2011 contract ity of the Board sided with anti-union behalf of these employees to challenge of seniority. Last year, GM shut 12 plants negotiations. Auto workers in unions groups to allow as few as 30 per cent of this longstanding protection. and cut 34,000 jobs. such as the Canadian Auto Workers will anti-union employees to petition an elec- As the dissenting Board members While UAW leaders may have now have to compete with a contract tion to decertify the union. wrote, a minority of anti-union employ- breathed a sigh of relief that their gambit that has lowered standards and, thus, This latest NLRB ruling, the Dana ees can now “hijack” this important peri- worked, the contract gives pause. put them at a bargaining disadvantage. Metaldyne decision, will remove a key od of time when an employer and union protection for new unions who could need to begin bargaining a contract, and otherwise face a decertification cam- destabilize the new relationship. German occupied bike factory ready to roll By John Kalwaic Industrial Worker Bicycle workers in Germany who oc- Union) and have launched a website Periodicals Postage PO Box 13476 cupied their factory to prevent its closure www.strike-bike.de to take orders and PAID have met their goal of 1,800 orders to publicize this new direction. Philadelphia, PA 19101 Philadelphia, PA keep it running under workers’ control. Production is planned to start on Oc- ISSN 0019-8870 and additional “Never before in the Federal Re- tober 23. The staff received orders from mailing offices public of Germany [has] self-managed most European countries as well as from ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED production in an occupied factory took Australia, Canada, Egypt, Israel, South place,” said Strike-Bike’s website. Africa and the United States. Workers of the Thuringian Nordhau- The workers are “overwhelmed from sen bicycle factory in Germany occu- the dimension of worldwide solidarity” pied their factory on July 10 to prevent displayed, according to a statement on closure by owner Bike Systems GmbH. the website. While the boss declared bankruptcy on To order bikes, contact: August 10, the workers stayed put and Bikes in Nordhausen e.V., c/o. André decided to found Strike-Bike, a worker- Kegel, Bruno-Kunze-Str. 39 - 99734 owned cooperative that would keep the Nordhausen or telephone 03631-622 124 135 employees in work and in control of and 03631-403 591 or fax 03631-622 the factory. 170. Email is [email protected]. The strikers are affiliated with the Subscribers: The number (top line of label ) reflects the last issue due on your subscription. anarchosyndicalist FAU (Free Workers With files from the IW. Page  • Industrial Worker • November 2007 of any organization that claims its goal is to unite every person on the planet. IW editor adds ‘context’, panders to Zionist Histradut I hope that these measures taken by I was pleasantly surprised at the My major criticism is to the charac- the Women’s Caucus are nothing more coverage of the Palestinian General Fed- terizations of Histradrut in the article than a grand redundancy or there is no eration of Trade Unions (PGFTU) in the bearing my byline. I did not write this. better way to state our group’s inclusive- September IW. I guess I jumped the gun Excluding material is one thing, but, ness than to prevent any official writ- on my concern to see it in print. press protocol mandates that, if addi- ing that would not include a person or A few comments, however. It seems tional material is added to an article, the ‘Culture of inclusion’ persons. to have sparked enough interest in author of that additional material must redundant in IWW Simply put, the fact that there are Palestinian labor struggles to include in be included in the byline, or, if the article so few requirements for members and the same issue several remarks in print, is a group effort, that there be no byline. Regarding the Women’s Caucus in officers speaks volumes of how inclusive seemingly added for “political balance”. Please, either include the added author’s the October Industrial Worker, I am we already are and always have been. A A portion of my article dealt with the name or omit mine. unsure as to whether I should feel it of- real act of inclusion would be to sign up extensive history of the struggles of Pal- Apparently someone felt that His- fensive or redundant. It shames me that new members and organize workplaces. estinian labor (1920-present), particu- tradrut should be consulted before the people aligned with our organization Proposing a ‘Culture of Inclusion’ is, in larly the PGFTU, including their break article appeared. This is like consult- find themselves cornered, singled out or my view, a giant waste of time. with the Fatah and Palestinian General ing the South African White Apartheid dismissed to the point they feel the need Andrew Stang, Kenosha, WI Federation of Trade Unions (PGTU). Unions about black labor in South to draft legislation to condemn bigotry This history is critical to the un- Africa. Or, closer to home, consulting a Editor’s note: All submissions and to document—even require—a derstanding of the Palestinian labor boss or a trade union for “balance” prior to the Industrial Worker are edited culture of inclusion. It is my understand- movement. I can understand the omis- to printing a critical article. for accuracy and coherence within the ing (formed through events such as sion of this information due to space The statements offered by one IW confines of time and space allowed to new member orientation and organizer constraints, but, at the same time, you editor in defense of the Histradrut addi- meet deadlines. Adding content is at training) that the Industrial Workers of allowed John Kalwaic to imply that the tions are that “[it] helped provide some times required. This policy is a standard the World has always been proud of its PGFTU was still Fatah-controlled by context” and “I think articles are always practice in the media. culture of inclusion. repeating the unsubstantiated comment better if there is more than one side.” Edits to the article on Palestinian The organization affirms that a per- that “there are currently four trade These are rationales used to defend unions provided the reader with timely, son, regardless of gender, race, political unions in Palestine—three controlled by editorial suppression of stories in the relevant information and context. From affiliation, religion or any imaginable Al-Fatah and one by Hamas.” pages of ruling class media. It has not the November 2007 issue forward, a note categorization, can join as a member and If FW Kalwaic has a more credible and should not be the policy of IW edi- (“With files from the IW”) will be added that any member has the right to run for source, let him specifically name it and tors. to articles with significant additional any office—as should be the unwritten, the four Palestinian Trade Union Fed- content. but understood policy, almost mantra— erations. Continued on  Industrial Worker IWW directory The Voice of Revolutionary Australia Goettingen: [email protected]. Central Ill: PO Box 841, Charleston 61920 518-833-6853 or 518-861-5627. www.upstate- Industrial Unionism IWW Regional Organising Committee: M. Payne, Koeln: [email protected]. 217-356-8247 nyiww.org, [email protected], Rochelle Secretary, PO Box 1866, Albany W.A. Semel, del., PO Box 172, Fly Creek 13337, 607-293- Organization Munich: [email protected] Champaign: David Johnson, 217-356-8247. www.iww.org.au 6489, [email protected]. education Switzerland: [email protected] Waukegan IWW: PO Box 274, 60079. Sydney: PO Box 241, Surry Hills. Ohio emancipation Luxembourg: [email protected] Iowa Melbourne: PO Box 145, Moreland 3058. Ohio Valley GMB: PO Box 42233, Cincinnati 45242. Greece Eastern Iowa GMB: 114 1/2 E. College Street Official newspaper of the IU 660: PO Box 317741, Cincinnati 45231. British Isles Athens: Themistokleous 66 Exarhia Athens Iowa City, IA 52240 [email protected] Industrial Workers IWW Regional Organising Committee: PO Box Oklahoma [email protected] Maine of the World 1158, Newcastle Upon Tyne NE99 4XL UK, Tulsa: Karl Howeth, P. O. Box 213 Medicine Park Norumbega: Barry Rodrigue, del., PO Box 57, Bath 73557, 580-529-3360. Post Office Box 23085 [email protected], www.iww.org.uk 04530. Cincinnati OH 45223 USA Baristas United Campaign: baristasunited.org.uk United States Oregon Maryland Arizona Lane County: 541-953-3741. www.eugeneiww.org 513.591.1905 • [email protected] London GMB: c/o Freedom Press, 84b Whitechapel Baltimore IWW: c/o Red Emmaís, 800 St. Paul St., Phoenix GMB: Terry Hughes, del., 480-894-6846 and Portland Industrial District Council: 311 N. Ivy St., www.iww.org High Street, London E1 7QX. [email protected] 21202, 410-230-0450, [email protected]. Leicestershire GMB and DMU IU620 Job Branch: Bill Krist, del., 602-254-4057. 97227, 503-231-5488. [email protected] Massachusetts General Secretary-Treasurer: Unit 107, 40 Halford St., Leicester LE1 1TQ, England. Arkansas Pennsylvania Boston Area GMB: PO Box 391724, Cambridge Mark Damron [email protected] www.leicestershire-iww.org.uk Fayetteville: PO Box 283, 72702. 479-200-1859, Lancaster GMB: PO Box 796, 17608. membership@ 02139. 617-469-5162. Manchester: 0791-413-1647 education@iww-man- [email protected]. LancasterIWW.org, http://LancasterIWW.org General Executive Board: Cape Cod/Southeastern Massachusetts: P.O. chester.org.uk www.iww-manchester.org.uk DC GMB (Washington): 741 Morton St NW, Wash- Philadelphia GMB: PO Box 42777, 19101. 215- Mike Bell, Patrick Box 315, West Barnstable, MA 02668. His email is Norwich: [email protected], ington DC, 20010. 571-276-1935. 222-1905. [email protected] Union Hall: 4530 Brenner, Adam Lincoln, [email protected] www.iww-norwich.org.uk Baltimore Ave., 19143. Bryan Roberts, California Western Mass. Public Service IU 650 Branch: IWW, Paper Crane Press IU 450 Job Shop: papercrane- Scott Satterwhite, West Midlands: [email protected] Los Angeles GMB: PO Box 65822, 90065. Po Box 1581, Northampton 01061. [email protected], 610-358-9496. Richard Seymour, Matt White. Tyne and Wear: [email protected] North Coast GMB: PO Box 844, Eureka 95502-0844. Western Massachusetts GMB: 43 Taylor Hill Rd., Pittsburgh GMB : PO Box 90315, 15224. Scotland 707-725-8090. BST Angie Hart: [email protected] Montague 01351. 413-367-9356. Editor & Graphic designer: Oakland: Evergreen Printing, 2335 Valley Street, [email protected] Aberdeen: [email protected] Michigan Peter Moore Oakland, CA 94612. 510-835-0254 [email protected] Texas [email protected] Clydeside GMB: [email protected] Detroit GMB: 22514 Brittany Avenue, E. Detroit, MI iwwscotland.wordpress.com. San Francisco Bay Area GMB: (Curbside and 48021. [email protected] Austin GMB: PO Box 301862, Austin, TX 78703- Buyback IU 670 Recycling Shops; Stonemountain IU 1862. [email protected] 512-320-8427. Grand Rapids GMB: PO Box 6629, 49516. Cole Mailing Coordinator: Edinburgh IWW: c/o 17 W. Montgomery Place, 660 Job Shop) PO Box 11412, Berkeley 94712. 510- Dorsey, secretary, 616-881-5263. Dallas & Fort Worth: 1618 6th Ave, Fort Worth, Matt White, Philadelphia GMB EH7 5HA. 0131-557-6242 845-0540. Meetings first Thursdays at 7 p.m. (2022 TX 76104 Blake St., Berkeley) Central Michigan: David Finet, 5007 W. Columbia Canada Rd., Mason 48854. 517-676-9446, happyhippie66@ Utah Send contributions and letters San Jose: Adam Welch, del. 408-795-9672. email: Alberta hotmail.com Salt Lake City GMB: PO Box 520835, 84152-0835. to: PO Box 52003, 298 Dalhousie [email protected] Edmonton GMB: PO Box 75175, T6E 6K1. edmon- [email protected]. St, Ottawa, ON K1N 1S0 Canada. [email protected], http://edmonton.iww.ca. Santa Barbara GMB: PO Box 23008, 93121. 805- Minnesota 689-3086, [email protected] Twin Cities GMB: PO Box 14111, Minneapolis 55414. Washington Next deadline is British Columbia 612- 339-1266. [email protected] Bellingham: P.O. Box 1793, 98227. BellinghamI- November 9. Vancouver IWW: PO Box 4755, Stn. Terminal, V6B Colorado [email protected] 360-920-6240. Denver GMB: c/o P&L Printing Job Shop: 2298 Clay, Missouri 4A4. 604-682-3269 x8493. http://vancouver.iww.ca. Tacoma IWW: P.O. Box 5464, Tacoma, WA 98415- Denver 80211. 303-433-1852. Kansas City GMB: c/o 5506 Holmes St., 64110. US IW mailing address: Manitoba 0464 [email protected] Four Corners (AZ, CO, NM, UT): delegate: 970-903- 816-523-3995. POB 13476, Philadelphia Winnipeg GMB: IWW, c/o WORC, PO Box 1, R3C 2G1. Olympia GMB: PO Box 2775, 98507. 360-956-9256. 8721. [email protected] PA 19101 USA [email protected]. Garth Hardy, del., garth. Montana [email protected] Construction Workers IU 330: Dennis Georg, del. [email protected]. Florida Seattle GMB: 1122 E. Pike #1142, 98122-3934. ISSN 0019-8870 406-490-3869, [email protected] Gainesville GMB: 1021 W. University, 32601. 352- 877-815-5684. Periodicals postage Ontario 246-2240, [email protected] New Jersey paid Philadelphia PA. Ottawa-Outaouais GMB: PO Box 52003, 298 Spokane: Tim Hill, 509-218-9622. Pensacola GMB: PO Box 2662, Pensacola, FL Central New Jersey GMB: PO Box: 10021, New Dalhousie St. K1N 1S0, 613-225-9655 Fax: 613- Wisconsin 274-0819, [email protected] French-language del: 32513-2662. 840-437-1323, iwwpensacola@ Brunswick 08904. 732-979-9973 xaninjurytoallx@ yahoo.com, www.angelfire.com/fl5/iww yahoo.com Madison GMB: PO Box 2442, 53703-2442. www. Postmaster: Send address Mathieu Brule [email protected]. madisoniww.info. [email protected] Hobe Sound: Peter Shultz, 8274 SE Pine Circle, Northern New Jersey GMB: PO Box 844, Saddle Peterborough: c/o PCAP, 393 Water St. #17, K9H 3L7, Lakeside Press IU 450 Job Shop: 1334 Williamson, changes to IW, Post Office Box 33455-6608, 772-545-9591 Brook 07663. 201-873-6215. [email protected] 705-749-9694, [email protected] 53703. 608-255-1800. www.lakesidepress.org. 23085, Cincinnati OH 45223 USA [email protected] Toronto GMB: c/o Libra Knowledge & Information New Mexico Madison Infoshop Job Shop: 1019 Williamson St. Svcs Co-op, PO Box 353 Stn. A, M5W 1C2. 416-925- Georgia Albuquerque: 202 Harvard SE, 87106-5505. 505- #B, 53703. 608-262-9036. SUBSCRIPTIONS 331-6132, [email protected]. 7250. [email protected] Atlanta: Keith Mercer, del., 404-992-7240, iw- Two Degrees Coffeeshop Job Shop: 307 W. Individual Subscriptions: $15 [email protected] New York Johnson St., 53703. 608-257-7888. Just Coffee Job Library Subs: $20/year Finland Helsinki: Reko Ravela, Otto Brandtintie 11 B 25, NYC GMB: PO Box 7430, JAF Station, New York City Shop: www.justcoffee.net. Union dues includes subscription. Hawaiíi 00650. [email protected] Honolulu: Tony Donnes, del., 808-547-2042. 10116, [email protected]. Jim Crutchfield, I.U. GDC Local #4: P.O. Box 811, 53701. 608-262-9036. Published ten times per year. 650, [email protected]. German Language Area [email protected] Railroad Workers IU 520: Ron Kaminkow,PO Box Articles not so designated do not Starbucks Campaign: 347 Maujer St. Apt. #C, IWW German Language Area Regional Organiz- 3010, Madison 53704, 608-358-5771.eugene_v_ reflect the IWW’s official position. Illinois Brooklyn, NY 11206 Daniel Gross: 917-577-1110 ing Committee (GLAMROC): Post Fach 19 02 03, Chicago GMB: PO Box 18387, 3750 N. Kedzie, 60618. [email protected]. 60089 Frankfurt/M, Germany iww-germany@gmx. phone: 312-638-9155. Tomer Malchi: 646-753-1167 Milwaukee GMB: PO Box 070632, 53207. 414- [email protected] 481-3557. Press Date: October 17, 2007 net www.wobblies.de Carbondale: Jason Leonard, Southern Illinois Frankfurt am Main: [email protected]. delegate. [email protected]. Upstate NY GMB: PO Box 235, Albany 12201-0235, November 2007 • Industrial Worker • Page  UK postal 48-hour strikes take fight to Royal Mail

By West Midlands GMB The IWW also wanted to remind This modernization is coupled with a Royal Mail sought and won a court strike breakers that they are scabs and, proposed below-inflation pay raise of 2.5 injunction to stop two back-to-back 48 if they continue to betray their fellow per cent, essentially a pay cut. hour strikes on October 15-17. The post office is also The Communications proposing ‘modernising’ the high Workers Union (CWU) had Strikes are a proportionate response street post offices by shifting held two 48 hour strikes to an employer that is completely out the counter staff into WH Smith on October 5-6 and 8-9 to stores. pressure Royal Mail to end of control. —Dave Ward, CWU These management proposals the bargaining deadlock. are sending a clear message of “Strikes are a contempt to those who use the proportionate response post office on a regular basis. to an employer that is completely workers in future disputes, would be The post office is now seen no longer out of control. Rather than running held responsible for their actions. as a service but yet another way for the business, Royal Mail’s actions “The Newtown sorting office had capitalists to earn cash at our expense. demonstrate they are intent on plenty of workers who were prepared to destroying it,” said Dave Ward, Deputy break the picket. This cannot continue. Save Leicester Post Office petition General Secretary of the CWU postal We believe in ‘one out-all out’. Scabs The Leicester IWW branch's petition workers union. will not be tolerated and dealt with to save the Bishop Street post office West Midlands IWW have showed accordingly,” said one IWW member. is still available for signatures. The solidarity with fellow workers at the post The crux of the dispute boils petition, supported by the local CWU office every time they have chosen to down to the post office being privately postal workers' union, is a way to rally strike. The IWW continued this support owned. In order to create more community support against the closure by hitting all the large sorting offices profit, the management have sought of a readily-accessible and historic across Birmingham to build public to ‘modernise’ through the possible post office. Royal Mail plans to move Placard supporting the postal strike. awareness about the strike to the public. sacking of thousands of workers. the post office into the basement of a local WH Smith bookstore. Sign the IWW women’s caucus calls for project volunteers petition at www.ipetitions.com/petition/ bishopstreet/ The Women’s Caucus has drawn up Project: Booklet of diversity stories people of all genders as well as people of With files from the IW. several projects that we are all interested Description: Compile a booklet of any race, age, disability, sexuality, etc. in working on. We welcome all wobblies writing in which women, queers, and Contact: Stephanie at callthedoc- Ottawa IWW wins to participate, including women, men, people of color share personal anecdotes [email protected] and transgendered people. Please email from their experiences in labor activ- Rumba backpay the project contact, if you would like to ism. This booklet will include stories, Project: Publicize the Sato Fund The Ottawa-Outaouais IWW branch work on any of these projects. interviews, poetry and art. The focus of Description: Work with the GST to won its fight to get Aurora Herrera her all submissions should be based on their publicize the Sato Fund through iww. pay from the Rumba nightclub. Project: Work with IWW Organizers relevance to the IWW: its history, meth- org, the IW, and other outlets. We will The IWW met with the club owner Description: Work with the Or- ods and members. Other parts include also research Charlie Sato to raise aware- and received the remaining money owed ganizing Department and Organizing direct action and worker-run community ness of her life and work. to Herrera. Training Committee to incorporate into organizing. Contact: Stephanie at callthedoc- The branch had picketed the club in their training sessions information on Contact: Kirsten at kmayoh@gmail. [email protected] August, which forced the owner to pay how workers can deal with sexism/rac- com half of the wages owed. ism/homophobia while trying to orga- For info on how to get involved in However, he reneged on a promise to nize. This group also can do research Project: “Culture of Inclusion” policy the women’s caucus in general, contact pay the rest by the end of the week. and make recommendations about the Description: The Women’s Caucus Stephanie via mail at PO Box 1211 / New IWW member Herrera has since issue of stipends for low-income union will draw up a policy to be presented at York, NY 10029-9998 or via e-mail at returned to school in Toronto with all of organizers. Contact: Sarah at sarah@ GA 08. This policy will call for the inclu- [email protected]. Or join the money she earned over the summer gmail.com sion not just of women and men but of our email list for all genders and colors. and not a penny less. Preamble of the IWW Constitution IWW defence committee The working class and the employing Join the IWW Today he IWW is a union for all workers, a union dedicated to organizing on the class have nothing in common. There can calls for nominees be no peace so long as hunger and want job, in our industries and in our communities both to win better conditions are found among millions of working T today and to build a world without bosses, a world in which production and By Tom Kappas, GDC people and the few, who make up the em- distribution are organized by workers ourselves to meet the needs of the entire popu- Central Secretary ploying class, have all the good things of lation, not merely a handful of exploiters. Treasurer life. Between these two classes a struggle We are the Industrial Workers of the World because we organize industrially The General must go on until the workers of the world ­– that is to say, we organize all workers on the job into one union, rather than divid- Defence Committee organize as a class, take possession of the ing workers by trade, so that we can pool our strength to fight the bosses together. (GDC) is calling means of production, abolish the wage Since the IWW was founded in 1905, we have recognized the need to build a truly for nominations system, and live in harmony with the international union movement in order to confront the global power of the bosses for a new steering earth. and in order to strengthen workers’ ability to stand in solidarity with our fellow committee. All members in good We find that the centering of the man- workers no matter what part of the globe they happen to live on. standing of the IWW’s defence agement of industries into fewer and fewer We are a union open to all workers, whether or not the IWW happens to have committee are invited to stand for hands makes the trade unions unable to representation rights in your workplace. We organize the worker, not the job, recog- election or make a nomination. cope with the ever-growing power of the nizing that unionism is not about government certification or employer recognition Nominees must be a member of the employing class. The trade unions foster but about workers coming together to address our common concerns. Sometimes a state of affairs which allows one set of IWW for one year and a member of the this means striking or signing a contract. Sometimes it means refusing to work with workers to be pitted against another set GDC for the last six months. an unsafe machine or following the bosses’ orders so literally that nothing gets done. of workers in the same industry, thereby People who don’t belong to the IWW Sometimes it means agitating around particular issues or grievances in a specific helping defeat one another in wage wars. can be members of the General Defence Moreover, the trade unions aid the employ- workplace, or across an industry. Committee, too. Nominees who are not ing class to mislead the workers into the Because the IWW is a democratic, member-run union, decisions about what issues IWW members can stand for election, belief that the working class have interests to address and what tactics to pursue are made by the workers directly involved. providing they have been continuous in common with their employers. TO JOIN: Mail this form with a check or money order for initiation and GDC members for the past two years. These conditions can be changed and your first month’s dues to: IWW, Post Office Box 23085, Cincinnati OH The deadline for nominees is November the interest of the working class upheld 45223, USA. 9. only by an organization formed in such Initiation is the same as one month’s dues. Our dues are calculated ac- Current nominees include, from a way that all its members in any one in- cording to your income. If your monthly income is under $1,000, dues are the United States, William Frazier from dustry, or all industries if necessary, cease Sterling Heights, Minnesota; Marie work whenever a strike or lockout is on in $6 a month. If your monthly income is between $1,000 - $2,000, dues are $12 a month. If your monthly income is over $2,000 a month, dues are $18 Mason from Cincinnati, Ohio; Kenneth any department thereof, thus making an Miller from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; injury to one an injury to all. a month. Dues may vary in Regional Organizing Committees (Australia, and from Canada, Kirsten Mayoh of Instead of the conservative motto, “A British Isles, German Language Area). Edmonton. 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 Only GDC members can elect must inscribe on our banner the revolu- • I agree to abide by the IWW constitution tionary watchword, “Abolition of the wage the steering committe so members system.” • I will study its principles and acquaint myself with its purposes. can expect their ballot and read the It is the historic mission of the work- Name:______candidate statements in the November ing class to do away with capitalism. The Defiant Spirit newsletter. Address:______army of production must be organized, People who want to join the GDC are not only for the everyday struggle with City, State, Postcode, Country: ______urged to visit the committee’s web site capitalists, but also to carry on production Occupation:______www.iww.org/projects/gdc/ to print the when capitalism shall have been over- application and send it to The General Phone:______Email:______thrown. By organizing industrially we are Defense Committee of the IWW, c/o forming the structure of the new society Amount Enclosed:______IWW, P.O. Box 23085, Cincinnati, OH within the shell of the old. Membership includes a subscription to the Industrial Worker. 45223, United States or email gdc@iww. org for more information. Page  • Industrial Worker • November 2007

Biwater multinational corporation in the 1990s against the LabourNet web- site. Libel suits are a powerful way to deal with dissent. Ms. Sawyers was well aware of this. With a bravado born of innocence, we laughed off the threat. When one colleague asked for the original copy of any registered letter we might receive from the Fremantle Trust’s lawyers, I announced that we’d auction off such Several months ago, I was ap- a letter on eBay. We took for granted proached by a friend with a request that that no lawsuit would actually happen LabourStart launch an online campaign because there was no basis for the alle- in support of local care home workers gation that what we had done was in any in the area where I live–north London, way libellous. England. In a further escalation of the dispute, “We don’t do local,” I said. La- Fremantle chose that week to sack a Uni- bourStart specializes in global cam- son shop steward on trumped up charges paigns in support of workers’ rights of misconduct. around the globe. A local campaign in What we did not anticipate was that support of a couple of hundred workers Ms. Sawyers had also contacted our was out of the question. Internet Service Provider, and sent them There were the same text she a number of sent us. On Septem- reasons for my With a bravado born of ber 6, we received an decision, includ- innocence, we laughed email message from ing the assump- off the threat. the ISP’s legal de- tion that local partment which said, campaigns were “We have received by definition a recent complaint small campaigns. After all, how could we on behalf of the Fremantle Trust on the mobilize trade unionists on six conti- basis that you have placed on your web- nents in support of what was essentially site induce [sic] trade unionists to send a local dispute in north London? e-mails to The Fremantle Trust which is But my friend did not give up. She considered to be inaccurate, misleading pointed out that this campaign touched and potentially libellous. Please remove on broader themes–these were formerly it and cease forwarding e-mail traffic public-sector workers now employed by that contains it ... Please could you re- a private company. They were almost all move the material by Friday 12pm on the women. The issues of low pay, privatiza- September 7, 2007 or we have no option tion, gender equality and others were at but to close your website down.” play here. And the local union was being It was an extraordinary mes- quite innovative in its use of the Inter- sage–based on an allegation made by an net–it was even putting up videos on the employer in an email, saying that we had web on a regular basis. published something they didn’t like. In the end, I reluctantly agreed. Without any court case, with no legal ba- The campaign in support of care home sis at all, the ISP had panicked. A phone workers in north London, employees of call to them clarified matters—we had 24 a registered charity known as Fremantle hours to either close down the campaign Trust, went live on August 25, 2007. or lose the entire LabourStart website. As usual in these cases, initially We tried to explain to the legal very few people signed up in support of department of the ISP that this was an the campaign. Merely putting up links industrial dispute, that there was no on LabourStart and other websites had libel—just a disagreement over facts, almost no impact. It took a mass mailing to no avail. Finally, the ISP agreed that several days later to get the word out. if we could get an email sent from the By the beginning of September, the first union—Unison, Britain’s giant public few hundred messages began to reach sector union—clarifying this, they would the inbox of the Fremantle Trusts’s chief remove the threat. Within minutes, Uni- executive, Carol Sawyers. son had sent off the letter. Eddie Coul- Generally, the targets of such son, Unison’s regional organizer, told online campaigns have reacted in one the ISP, “It is inevitable that Fremantle of two ways. Either they ignore us or will try and cease the distribution of they answer us. A good example of the information that is detrimental to them latter was the chief executive officer of as much as they would try and stop the Air New Zealand, who responded to a distribution of incorrect information. We LabourStart campaign by answering are only guilty of exposing them and I individually every one of the thousands trust this reassurance is enough to reas- of messages he received–initially with sure you that you are not being placed in a form letter. But when people would a vulnerable position.” follow up, he’d take the time to answer We waited for the ISP to confirm those letters individually. that everything was alright, that we did Ms. Sawyers chose a third route–she not need to remove the campaign. But neither ignored the campaign nor sought we heard nothing. Working right up to answer it, but instead decided to until the deadline on noon on Friday, close it down. On August 31, she wrote we phoned, emailed, did everything to to me, saying that our campaign was contact 1&1 to confirm that the threat “inaccurate, misleading and potentially to LabourStart had been lifted. But we libellous. Please remove it and cease for- heard nothing. warding e-mail traffic that contains it.” At noon on Friday, we closed down The “potentially libellous” phrase was the Fremantle campaign. And two hours not placed there accidentally. later, we launched it on another web attempts to silence us had backfired. are correct and that from looking at the England has some of the worst libel server, based in Australia. We created A few days later the workers demon- text closely i do not believe that they are laws in the world. Here, the burden of a special domain name—wewillnotbe- strated at Fremantle Trust’s headquar- considered to be defamatory.” Note the proof is on the defendant. Libel laws silenced.org and launched a Google ad ters. They held up signs spelling out “We semi-literate nature of the email—as one have been used repeatedly against cam- campaign on the keyword “Fremantle” will not be silenced.” In addition to the friend pointed out, it seems as if the ISP, paigning organizations, most notably pointing visitors to the new site. We pub- struggle against low pay, against priva- in a cost-cutting move, was hiring six in the case of the infamous “McLibel” licized this attempt to silence us to our tization, and for gender equality, the year olds for their legal department. campaign when McDonald’s waged the mailing lists and word got out. Fremantle dispute had now turned into a We wrote to the ISP and complained longest court battle in English history to Within a few days, the campaign had free speech fight. about their shameful behaviour during shut down a campaign consisting of two become the largest LabourStart had ever Three days after the Friday noon this entire episode, and spoke about the activists who’d had the temerity to hand run. Our previous record-holder had deadline given to LabourStart, the ISP’s time and money we had to waste to move out a leaflet critical of the corporate gi- been the 2005 campaign in support of legal department sent an email mes- the campaign over to a new server. We ant. striking Gate Gourmet catering work- sage which read in part, “Sorry for the asked that the ISP take this up at a high- Back in the 1980s, an international ers at London’s Heathrow Airport. That late reply i have spoken to UNISON, er level and get back to us—and raised labour rights journal published in the produced some 8,000 protest messages. and request that you restore all the the possibility of bringing their conduct UK was nearly closed down by similar But the Fremantle campaign reached deleted items on the website since he threats, and attacks were made by the over 12,000 messages. Carol Sawyers’ has conifmred [sic] that the exact figures Continued on  November 2007 • Industrial Worker • Page  Rebuilding the IWW at Streetlight Shelter By Chris Knudtsen, Portland General Mem- One of our strengths was that we supervisor being confronted by his bring things together. His dedication has bership Branch were organizing on the shop level while boss, which still plays into unfair power also inspired the workers who are the I was excited to find out that my doing the negotiations. Anya, one of the dynamics, but at least it’s our boss being ones who stand to gain or lose the most shop was with the IWW when I first workers in the shop, invoked her Wein- screwed for once. from negotiations. started working at Streetlight Youth garten Rights when she was presented We are currently nearing a stand- It is sad to leave before the negotia- Shelter. with a formal write-up for not having an still over economics and paid time off. tions are over, not to mention frustrat- The shelters are run by Janus Youth updated timesheet. (Weingarten Rights Janus claims that there is not enough ing to not be able to see the conclusion Programs, a non-profit that offers a give employees the right to have union money to meet our demands. This claim of one of the most powerful organizing wide variety of services for homeless representation when managers meet comes from every level of their negotiat- campaigns I’ve been able to work on. and at-risk youth. Within a short time with them to discuss disciplinary issues.) ing team (some of whom make around Watching my co-workers step up to I found out that the shop had not been She refused to sign it. Not surprisingly, $78,000) as well as the Executive Direc- take control and stand up for themselves actively ‘union’ in nearly a year because our boss flipped on her. Within a few tor of Janus (earning over $116,000). has been an honor that I reluctantly walk of low worker participation. As a result days, every write-up related to time Their crocodile tears do nothing more away from. there had been a lack of communication sheets was removed from workers’ files. than frustrate the workers and are slowly With that being said, our two newest between the union and the shop until The first negotiations meeting that leading us towards new tactics such as workers are incredibly strong charac- myself and a co-worker re-initiated con- I chaired, on Gabe’s suggestion, went contacting County and City officials to ters who are pro-IWW so there is little tact. This was my first time unionizing fairly well although I lacked some of the try to push for leverage. concern that the organizing will have through my own work. confidence and assertiveness to feel com- Facilitating our current progress to be done by only a few. I leave with a I have two more weeks at my job fortable with ‘taking point’ at the table. is our newest delegate, Ryan, who has mixed sense of accomplishment, regret, as of the time writing this and we are The next night at work, my boss called spent countless hours over the past few and optimism that the workers of Street- nearing the end of a contract negotiation me in for a supervision meeting, during months in negotiations, shop meetings, light and Porchlight will get what they between the IWW and Janus. We started which he presented me with a write-up and meeting with us individually to deserve. slow, re-mapping the entire shop to get for having unauthorized overtime. Up a feel as to where our co-workers stood. until this time, I had always had “un- Opinion There had been a fairly large turnover authorized” overtime to come in early between the current shop and when I to my shifts and make sure the shelter Big Labour forgets to bring backbone to first started, mainly for the better. The was ready before opening. Several other shop was full of new workers that were workers also did this on a regular basis. the Montebello trade summit in Canada Following Anya’s lead, I also cited critical of management’s treatment of us tough and smiling for the press, Big my Weingarten Rights, much to my boss’ By Nelson Ross whereas a number of the former work- On August 21, a beautiful Monday Labour tucked its tail between its legs. dismay. He immediately scheduled a ers had become jaded, both by the job morning, thousands of protesters rallied They instructed all of the labour protest- follow-up meeting. Gabe and I walked in and by past organizing. Within a month in the small town of Montebello, Québec. ers to stay at the back of the rally in the a few days later and threatened my boss of meeting with our delegates, Matt and They gathered to send a strong message “green zone.” with an Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) Doug, we were ready. that the three leaders of North Ameri- The CLC even had marshals who suit because the write-up seemed like it After the preparation, our shop was ca—George Bush, Stephen Harper and walked around telling labour activists targeted me for union participation. The paired with another delegate, Gabe, Felipe Calderón—were not welcome. to leave the front lines and return to the boss was pissed and refused to take the from the Portland General Membership Dubbed the “three amigos”, the police-designated protest areas. write-up away. The next morning Gabe Branch. Gabe stepped up in a big way leaders were in Québec to discuss a new, Only Steelworkers from Local 1005, brought me down to the NLRB offices for our shop, coming to the first several destructive trade partnership: the Secu- the IWW and four OPSEU members in downtown Portland where we filed negotiations and meeting with us on a rity and Prosperity Partnership (SPP). remained. As I stated to a marshal: “I a ULP. The write-up was taken off my regular basis. He chaired the negotia- The SPP is a tool for creatively working didn’t come here to hide in the corner.” record about a week later and my other tions by being assertive, at times con- to erode labour laws, environmental Big Labour’s presence without sub- immediate supervisor was written up for frontational, when the workers still felt policies and establish security perim- stance is nothing new. One only needs to not dealing with time-sheets properly. uncomfortable doing so. Janus’ negotia- eters, among other issues. The SPP is look back at the Summit of the Ameri- Since then, we’ve run through parts tions team was completely unprepared described as “NAFTA on speed.” cas in Québec and World Trade Orga- of negotiations and dragged through for the level of organization and energy Big Labour in Canada is rightly op- nization (WTO) in Seattle for further others. Management was unwilling to we brought with us. posed to the secrecy and cloaked nature examples. However, as a young activist bend on any language regarding the We called bullshit on them when of these meetings between government with passion and commitment to both “no strike/no lockout” articles in the one of their representatives sat at the leaders and big business. This and all sending a message and living it, I was contract and as of now they’ve made table reading a paper when he should trade discussion directly limits work- disheartened to see labour walk away minor concessions in terms of wages or have been negotiating. We called bullshit ers rights and security both here and and leave the rest of the protesters on paid time off. They have, however, made on them when one of their representa- abroad. the front lines. some substantial moves towards having tives left the union hall with a copy of To its credit, labour was present I remember seeing an old woman a more concrete discipline and grievance this very paper without paying for it. It and supported the events. The Cana- pleading with them to stay in solidar- procedure, better recognition of worker was great. It was the first time I got the dian Labour Congress (CLC) promoted ity. Big Labour effectively made those rights, and added an unpaid ‘mental chance to fight the boss (or the boss’ the protests in Montebello. They also protesters more vulnerable by dividing health day’ off for every month. boss in this case) in an organized way, worked in conjunction with the District an already small rally of approximately Many of the articles that we’ve when I knew that my co-workers were Labour Councils who paid for ten buses 2,000 people. They put an even smaller argued in negotiations have led to our behind me. to convoy protesters to and from the re- group of protesters at the mercy of mote site. In addition, the Public Service repressive police forces. As the CLC an- Eyewitness Alliance of Canada (PSAC) gave space in nounced to the crowd that labour was their head office in Ottawa for organizing leaving, they also turned their backs on The meat grinder churns on leading up to the action. working people. They may talk the talk, By x347368 lance arrived. I was told I could go back However, beyond the promotion and but they definitely didn’t walk the walk. Today one of my co-workers shred- to work. I walked back up to the room, funding for logistics, Big Labour’s role CLC’s sellout was disgraceful to me ded a couple fingers down a knuckle where the filler piece he cut still eerily was disappointing. For instance, as the as a working class activist. The old IWW length on the table saw. He had been hung from the saw off the safety guard. first march began, labour led the way to motto “an injury to one is an injury to in a hurry and distracted while feeling Blood was splattered everywhere. the front gates demanding a halt to the all” is often proclaimed by Big Labour. insecure about his job status. Tile layers, tapers, laborers, carpen- meetings. They shouted that “war crimi- Apparently, on August 20 in Montebello, The guy had been working for a scab ters were scurrying about as if nothing nals are not welcome here.” the CLC showed us that they don’t really outfit that is supplying cabinetry to my significant had really happened. A shard After only ten minutes of talking believe in it. job site. He was hired by my company of bone like a wispy toothpick lay by the because of his familiarity with the sys- blade. I checked with my tape measure tem we’re installing, and was allowed to to find the guide had been set a full 1/8” Subscription rates are rising! join the carpenter’s union. Unfortunate- out of line, likely a result of “corner cut- Recent periodical mail rate hikes by the US postal ser- ly, he brought with him retrograde work ting.” vice will force us to raise subscription rates in 2008 to offset practices non-union contractors typi- Fingertip skin and partial nail lay on costs. cally encourage and continue to promote the floor. I thought to myself: “I’d rather So you have until December 31, 2007 to subscribe or re- throughout the industry. be begging for change on the street than new your Industrial Worker subscription at our old rates. Or I walked into the cutting room, and this.” give a gift subscription to a family member or friend. he was standing there grasping his cut The union mantra rings true: safety- down fingers in his hand to stem the plus-quality = productivity. That is, start blood flow, looking imploringly to me. methodically and pick up speed later. Get 10 issues of working class news and views for: I called the general foreman to send up Management usually wants immediate • US $15 for individuals. the hoist, but no can do. I unhooked my gains before reasonable processes can be • US $20 for library/institutions. co-worker’s tool belt and took his hard- established, misplacing priorities. • $15 to get a bundle of 5 for 6 issues. hat off, then walked him down 11 flights It is our responsibility as workers Name: ______of stairs to the street where I finally got to stand up for values and ethics at the Address: ______cell reception for 911. point of production, because we cannot While we were waiting, curbside trust the bosses to conform.... and the City/State/Province: ______chelsea, he asks me to get him some wa- meat grinder churns on. Zip/Postal Code: ______ter. I go to the deli, return, then hold it Thirty-four stories below the top, in Send this subscription form to: Industrial Worker Sub- up for him as he drinks, water dripping a bathroom stall reads the graffiti: “Ask scriptions, PO Box 23085, Cincinnati OH 45223 USA off his chin, the pool of blood growing yourself: do you work to live or live to larger on the asphalt. Finally, the ambu- work?” Subscribe to the Industrial Worker today and save! Page  • Industrial Worker • November 2007

Wobblies on the Waterfront: Interracial Unionism in Progressive-Era Philadel- Ben Fletcher, Local 8, and Me phia. Although a few other historians have written some good pieces about By Peter Cole ones. I didn’t buy that; it was too sim- blacks and immigrants—something that Local 8 and Ben Fletcher, I do think that I wanted Local 8 to exist before I plistic. Hence, I was thinking about how the American Federation of Labor and my books and articles set the standard. knew it did. issues of class and race fit together, how most white organizations (working class I am not suggesting that all the work on When I was an undergraduate, I solving one of these matters would not or other) were unwilling to do. Local 8 Local 8 or Fletcher is complete, not by a knew I wanted to be a historian before I necessarily solve the other, how social lined up African Americans, Irish Ameri- long shot, because many questions still knew what aspect of United States his- movements had to figure into the solu- cans, Poles, Lithuanians, West Indians, remain unanswered. To me, the most tory interested me. I was inspired by the tion. But only some very special group and other native-born and immigrant important unanswered question is what example of the modern civil rights move- of humans, who would be willing to fight white workers, put them into a single the rank-and-file members of Local 8 ment, as well as from the myths and pop the good fight on multiple fronts simul- unit, integrated work gangs, and fought were thinking; I cannot say with confi- culture creations of that time. It was the taneously, could do the job. to treat all workers as equal, regardless dence that I know. Sure, thousands of first social movement that I seriously Then I read Mel Dubofsky’s We Shall of their race, ethnicity, nationality or job black and white Americans and thou- thought about. I came to appreciate that Be All, still considered by academics if skills. The Delaware riverfront never had sands of immigrants proudly belonged race matters and racism were perhaps not Wobblies, as the standard history seen such a militant, successful union to Local 8. But what did they think of the central paradox of US history. For- of the Industrial Workers of the World. but, the truth is, no American port of call their interracial, multiethnic union that tunately, while still in college, I also was Though there are plenty of problems ever had. belonged to the most radical outfit in the introduced to labor history—so few are, with Dubofsky’s book, I still credit it for Of course, the combination of be- nation? a real bias in education—and started to opening my eyes up to the IWW. Like ing so inclusive and radical (the two go In a way, I wish I could not write read about the American labor move- many folks, even those who claim to seri- together, don’t they?) meant that Local that last sentence but there it is. And, ment. ously study US history, I knew absolutely 8 was a threat to local business interests who knows what other materials might Predictably, when I entered graduate nothing about the Wobs. This book was and even the US federal government. be uncovered in future years. If there are school, I learned how little I knew. The an eye-opener. Hence, the wartime repression that people out there who are as fascinated by only certainty was that I wanted to write One line in We Shall Be All, just one Wobblies know so well along with, ironi- this Philadelphia story as I am, I encour- about social movements. Though from line, aroused my curiosity and eventu- cally, many of the records that I would age you to keep digging! We all would a privileged background (upper-middle ally turned into the numerous articles use to write their story. For instance, benefit from the effort. class, white, suburban—well, that last and the two books I have written on federal spies infiltrated Local 8 and gave I am so happy that I “found” Local 8, one is a questionable privilege), I already Local 8 in Philadelphia. In a section on regular reports to employers after World as it opened my eyes and gave me hope. appreciated that the world was seri- governmental repression of the IWW War I. Without these records, my job as When I think about how the world could ously messed up and that the only way during World War I, Dubofsky made a historian of Local 8 would have been be made better—and we all should be it was going to get better was if people a brief reference to Ben Fletcher, the much harder. doing that—I think about Fletcher and organized and fought to make it better. only African American arrested during To many people, Local 8 equals Ben the thousands of other proud, militant, Unless you’re rich, individuals don’t the 1917 federal raids. Who was Ben Fletcher, for good reason. Fletcher, a egalitarian members of Local 8. stand much of a chance to change things. Fletcher?!? How in the world did a black black man born and raised in Philadel- Today, nearly a hundred years after Ordinary folks need numbers to make man get involved with the Wobblies? phia, was not only Local 8’s best known the founding of Local 8, America and things happen. History told me as much. Sure, the IWW had a lot to offer African black member, but also the IWW’s best the world still are divided economically, I also was starting to understand Americans and other oppressed groups known black member. He joined the racially, and ethnically. Today, American that economic inequality, increasing but—let’s face it—precious few blacks IWW and became a local leader prior workers and workers the world over are exponentially under capitalism, was the were in the IWW, right? to the formation of Local 8, though to divided, placing their national identities main culprit, though studying the black Over the next few years, I wrote a this day how and why he first joined the above their class ones. freedom struggle made me realize that dissertation on Local 8, which organized IWW remains a mystery. I recently spent five months in Tan- reducing any important problem to a thousands of Philadelphia longshoremen Fletcher traveled up and down the zania and they are as hung up on their single cause is problematic. I also saw into the most radically inclusive labor Atlantic coast to organize waterfront differences with Kenyans and Ugandans that race (ethnicity and nationality) was union of the early twentieth century. The workers, especially black ones, in Nor- as Americans are about Mexicans and a real blind spot for many on the Left; union dominated waterfront labor rela- folk, Baltimore, Providence, and Boston. Chinese people. Who benefits? Well, somehow, a class-based revolution was tions through its militant, direct action He attended national conventions. He most of all, global corporations that play going to solve the reality that white folks tactics, willingness to organize all work- gave brilliant lecture tours and soapbox workers in different countries off of each had risen up on the backs of non-white ers in marine transport, and openness to oratories. He was loved by his fellow other every single day; just consider the workers in Philadelphia, especially the recent UAW strike against General Mo- black ones. He scared the hell out of “the tors. A 21st century Free Speech fight Man.” Truly, the IWW is needed as much Continued from  As I slowly and quietly toiled to today as it was when a group of bold to the attention of government regula- ence as well. I’ve learned that small local produce a publishable history of Local 8, men and women got together to form the tory bodies in the UK such as Ofcom. campaigns can sometimes capture the I also managed to connect with Franklin union. I sincerely believe that one of the A month has passed and we have imagination of many thousands of peo- and Penelope Rosemont, the publish- keys to our future success at making the gotten no reply from the ISP. Mean- ple around the world. I’ve also learned ers of the legendary Charles H. Kerr world a better, fairer, healthier, hap- while, the online campaign continues that a combination of terrible libel laws Press. Together, we came up with a thin pier place is not just forming powerful and the Fremantle workers continue and our dependence upon a commercial volume that was my honor to work on: unions. No, Local 8 shows us what must their struggle on the ground. web server has made LabourStart vul- a short biography of Fletcher (though, be done: we must organize people of all They have called a national demon- nerable to attacks like this one. really, since we know so little about his ethnic, national, and racial backgrounds, stration for November 10th. Film direc- I have no doubt that the Fremantle personal life, it is mostly about Fletcher no questions asked. They are workers, tor Ken Loach has been by to see them. workers will win improved pay and in Local 8) with a collection of most enough said. The genius of Ben Fletcher The profile of their campaign is quite conditions and their union will emerge every item ever written by or about Ben. and Local 8 was to wed these issues high and tens of thousands of people much stronger from this dispute. We’ve As it turned out, that book came out a bit together so that they were inseparable. know about their dispute. seen once again proof that online cam- before the general history of Local 8. They rose, and fell, upon solidarity. We For us, it’s not only been an invigo- paigning is an effective tool, one that all Finally, this summer, the Univer- are their heirs. rating experience, but a learning experi- unions should use regularly. sity of Illinois Press published my book Let us get to it. Readers Soapbox John Kalwaic responds IW editor panders to Zionist Histradut When I said there are four trade Continued from  unions in Palestine, "three controlled A Palestinian activist described it Fellow Worker Alice Scanlon sug- called Yahad]. It is a progressive or- by Al-Fattah and one by Hamas” it was to me years ago: “Israel controls 90 per gested checking out “the really radical ganization that works solely to protect from an article on LabourStart.org. I, by cent of the public debate on the Middle Israeli groups like Israc, whose activities the workers and there’s another orga- no means, meant that the PGFTU was East. Yet, when we speak out we are have been suppressed within Zionist nization called The Worker’s Line [Kav not worthy of international support, just drowned out by the cries for balance and Israel by the government and Right-wing L’Oved] which also does the same kind that some Palestinians were critical of its equal time.” thugs like Meir Kahane” (IW 1973). of work.” ties with Al-Fattah. If Histradrut takes a public stance As far as the current situation of His- With its long history of support for I was also talking about some of the against Zionist apartheid, then, by all tadrut and labor inside Israel, PGFTU labor world-wide, the IWW must take sectarian in-fighting between Al-Fattah means, they should have a voice, but Executive Committee member Abdellal a stand in support of Palestinian labor and Hamas and how it was detrimental absent this, they remain part of the stated: unions and against Israeli apartheid. The to Palestinian trade unionists. I do not problem. “[T]he Histadrut and the labor IWW must take a stand in support of the think that the PGFTU is a state or party- In the February 1973 issue of The movement in Israel is declining and Boycott against Israeli goods. controlled union; rather I think that the Industrial Worker, Fellow Worker going backwards and suffering from As the Industrial Worker in 1976 PGFTU is tied to Al-Fattah the same Martin Comack wrote “...the Histadrut, financial crisis. Our information is from editorialized: “The only way to avoid a way the AFL-CIO is to the Democratic Israel’s version of the AFL-CIO, backs up the Israeli newspapers and the public major bloodletting is for world labor, Party in the US. We can always give Zionism, the same as George Meany and information sources. This weakness is especially US workers, to enforce a our support to unions like the PGFTU Teddy Gleason approve the mass murder absolutely an outcome of the distancing total ban on trade with South Africa in against the occupation. However, I think in Vietnam. of the leadership from the real interests support of the black workers struggles the forming of an independent trade “There is a radical socialist opposi- of the workers. Each and every labor there. Such a boycott would be more union should always be welcomed. tion forming in Israel, composed of Jew- organization, if you distance yourself crippling to the white-supremacist I have evidence from these ish and Arab workers and students. Even from the basic interests of the workers, governments than any “sanctions” taken sources that there are four trade union the most sectarian of the Bolsheviki rags you will be weak. Now there are orga- by nations that have no intention of en- federations in Palestine. Here are the have carried articles about the real Left- nizations inside Israel that protect the forcing them.” We can do no less for the web sites I used: www.labourstart.org/ ist opposition in Palestine. Is it asking workers as an alternative to role that Palestinian workers. docs/en/000420.html, www.nosweat. too much for the Industrial Worker to Histadrut has to play in it. One is called In Struggle for OBU, org.uk/node/528, www.greenleft.org. do likewise?” Together [the small Meretz party, now sparrow au/2007/720/37373 November 2007 • Industrial Worker • Page  NYC campaigns winning, but face stiff resistance Top City Produce: 5 locked out remains in effect as the IW goes to print. Workers at Top City had been nego- Despite the court order, Wild Edibles tiating a contract and were awaiting a terminated a fifth worker. Rankin and signature from the boss. the union will be in court arguing for In early October, however, five union the company to be held in contempt workers were fired before the contract and fined. Meanwhile, Brandworkers they negotiated was executed. The “Gang International, a workers advocacy group of Five” – Osvaldo Garcia, Mario Mora that is coordinating the union’s media Marin, Diego Aruando Pino, Esau Lopez and legal efforts, held a press conference Hernandez, and Carlos Campos– have with the workers announcing the lawsuit been some of the strongest and most in front of Pastis, a shi-shi Manhattan active members of the IU 460/640 over restaurant that purchases fish from Wild the past two years. Edibles. Rather than deal with continued The incident began when Mario was scrutiny over his relationship with Wild suspended for arguing with a driver, Edibles, Pastis owner Keith McNally who refused to help him unload their agreed with Brandworkers to cease doing truck. The next workday, the gang of business with Wild Edibles in all six of five approached Top City’s owner in an his high-priced Manhattan restaurants. attempt to discuss the situation. The owner responded by locking them out Penang restaurant closes then subsequently telling them they were The combination of health code fired. Workers picketed at 5:30 AM every violations, rising rent, and a relentless morning in protest. Teamsters’ Local IU 460/640 leafleting campaign forced 202 pledged to honor the picket and upper west side pan-Asian restaurant pressure Top City’s supplier in the Hunts Penang to close. A week before closing, Point market to sever their relation- the restaurant’s owner received a sub- ship. The pickets ended in a boisterous poena from the New York State Attorney Saturday morning picket followed by IU 460/640 workers from Flaum, Amersino, Handyfat, Starbucks, General’s office over the restaurant’s fail- a media conference where three of the and others from the NYC GMB with the Sheet Metal Workers Union ure to pay six kitchen workers minimum fired workers shared their stories. The Local 137’s Fat Cat in front of Wild Edibles. wage and overtime. five workers remain locked out. the Bush Administration, far lower than under previous presidencies such as Wild Edibles fires 5, defies court HWH Trading/Dragonland Handyfat Trading: NLRB appeals Clinton. On October 5, the union and the When Richard Martin, owner of Trading/USA Garden still slippery As reported in the October IW, fired NLRB went to Federal court to seek the the #1 Zagat’s rated seafood distribu- HWH Trading has changed its name workers from Handyfat were ordered injunction (both against EZ-Supply and tor and retailer Wild Edibles, told a twice since IU 460/640 marched on its re-instated after a judge ruled that man- its alter ego Sunrise Plus). The judge as- crowd of striking workers that he would facilities on July 1. The union has logged agement had fired them for concerted signed the case to a magistrate, meaning “never deal with a union” and “never pay at least five separate addresses for the activity. Amazingly, it wasn’t Handyfat that the union will be back at the table overtime,” he clearly didn’t know what company. It appears that HWH’s slick but the federal National Labor Relations with EZ within a month. However, the kind of union he was dealing with. IU owner may be trying to sell his busi- Board (NLRB) who decided to appeal the injunction will not return any of the EZ 460/640 is making him eat his words ness in another desperate attempt to decision. The NLRB itself had prosecut- workers fired last December to the job. like they were a delicious tuna steak. avoid justice. The NLRB has issued a ed Handyfat, fought for reinstatement A month later, workers are receiving complaint against the unlawful termina- for the IWW workers, and won. How- Giant Big Apple Beer tries settling overtime pay. Martin clearly likes a good tion of all three IWWs who were fired ever, NLRB appointees at the federal Negotiations in the unpaid overtime fight: he locked out workers when they after the union’s march and the Attorney level–Bush appointees–argued that the and minimum wage lawsuit between demanded to be paid overtime and that General’s office is expected to issue a case was flawed. management at Giant Big Apple (GBA) he reinstate a fellow worker. Over the subpoena against the company within and 17 former workers represented by subsequent month he fired four workers weeks over the unpaid overtime and EZ-Supply/Sunrise Plus served one of 460/640’s lawyers, Stuart Lich- in retaliation for their concerted activity. subsequent retaliation. On September 17, the NLRB in ten, are coming to a head. The company On September 17, the workers’ Washington voted to request an injunc- and its attorneys have made individual lawyer, David Rankin, filed a class action Flaum Appetizing makes progress tion from the Federal court that would settlement offers to each of the work- suit in Federal court alleging overtime The workers at Flaum Appetizing re- force EZ-Supply Corp./Sunrise Plus (EZ) ers. In some cases, the amount was and a request for a temporary injunction main strong and united. So far they have to execute the contract tentatively agreed satisfactory, while several workers will against Wild Edibles to halt the com- won paid time off while the business is upon by IU 460/640 and management. continue to press for higher settlements. pany’s retaliatory activities. The judge closed during Jewish holidays, improved The fact that the Washington board has The union expects the settlement will sided with the workers and ordered a job conditions and respect, and overtime gone along with the injunction request total between $300,000 and $400,000 temporary restraining order prohibiting pay, although some workers are still not indicates EZ’s flagrant disregard for the including lawyer’s fees. This settlement the company from making any changes being paid properly. Given the IWW’s law. The Washington board has aver- represents the first of IU 460/640’s to working conditions without consult- solid majority in the shop, the union has aged only 16 injunctions per year under many back wage suits to reach a payoff. ing the workers’ attorney first, which filed for an election. Women chainmakers’ strike still inspires UK labor By Andrew Denning and the IWW West began to receive women voted to rulers tell us things are getting better Midlands GMB government “come out and stay and better. At the official chainmakers Ninety-seven years ago, 700 attention, who out” and 700 did. remembrance festival, government, desperately poor and overworked considered Money Labour party and union bosses stood women chainmakers in Cradley Heath, regulating collected from and smiled. They still believe that they England, said enough is enough, stood wages, supporters helped have a direct connection to the working up and took action to improve their lives. ostensibly to the women avoid class struggles of yesteryear. The main industry of Cradley Heath improve the lot being starved back The irony that they are celebrating during the industrial revolution was iron of workers. to work. Even a big women fighting capitalism, while their working, specifically chain making. In During the businessman like function is to preserve and maintain this The White Slaves of England, Robert negotiations George Cadbury unfair system, was completely lost on Sherard said that the Cradley Heath to establish a donated to the them. District made 1,000 tons of chain each better wage, fund. We live in a world shaped by the week. the employers The women concessions of the ruling elite. Our Sherard used the word “slave” as a complained that struck for ten ancestors forced these concessions critique of the wage system as “chronic higher wages weeks and they through the class struggle. hunger can bind tighter than any iron would make won. The money The Women Chainmakers of Cradley link.” Chronic hunger was the lot of them vulnerable left over from the Heath are an inspirational example of the women chainmakers of Cradley to foreign strike fund was how we, the working class, can push for Heath. Sherard told how many of the competition used to found The change. women were 70 or over and others were and would Workers Institute In remembrance of the Women younger than 15, working twelve-plus encourage faster in Cradley Heath. Chainmakers strike in 1910, the West hours a day. Their overseer was called a mechanisation Photo by IWW Midlands GMB The institute, built Midlands Branch of the IWW placed “sweater”. thus the loss of jobs. Remember this was for the benefit of a plaque and wreath at the Peace Some 3,500 chainmakers worked in 1910, not 2007. working people in the area was moved Gardens in Birmingham city centre small shops, two-thirds of them women. Finally, a wage, mostly affecting in 2004 to make way for a road enabling and on September 13 erected a series Their low wages were one of the reasons the women workers, was agreed within easier access to a shopping centre. of twenty placards along High Street they weren’t organized. They were faced the nationally organised board. The The Women Chainmakers of Cradley commemorating Cradley’s proud history with a choice between union dues or employers, however, quickly tried to Heath resistance to the capitalist class of working class resistance. With the some bread for the table. wriggle out of their obligations and tried should never be forgotten. They are an advent of a new Tesco superstore being In 1905, a Women’s Chain Making to find loopholes in the agreement. The inspiration to all workers fighting for a built, the placards also questioned the organisation was formed as part of the dirty tricks backfired. This mistreatment better tomorrow. interests of big business versus those of National Federation of Women Workers. galvanised the women into action and So what has changed for Cradley the community. Chain making in the Black Country a mass meeting was organised. The Heath since 1910? Our New Labour With files from the IW. Page  • Industrial Worker • November 2007 2007: The IWW in the history books By Jon Bekken Rosemont also writes on poet Ken- voice. It is a present-minded argument prosecution, examining prosecutions Without question, the most impor- neth Rexroth’s encounters as a young that ignores the IWW’s persistent and around the country and the judicial rul- tant work on the history of the IWW man with Wobblies and Chicago radical- often successful efforts to bring these ings that made it possible. While many to be published in the last year is Peter ism more generally in “Rexroth’s Chi- workers into the union and to persuade criminal syndicalism convictions were Cole’s long-awaited Wobblies on the Wa- cago, Chicago’s Rexroth: Wobblies, Dil workers more accustomed to focusing on overturned on appeal, White notes, these terfront: Interracial Unionism in Pro- Picklers, and Windy City Dada” (Chicago their differences to instead examine and decisions were justified on evidentiary gressive-era Philadelphia (University of Review, 2006, pp. 151-163). His actual act upon their common interests. or procedural grounds, rather than on Illinois, 2007, 256 pages, available from experience with the IWW was brief and Dan LaBotz summarizes his disser- the basis of the right to free speech or to IWW Literature Dept. for $40). sporadic, but Rexroth wrote of his affin- tation in a recent The Americas (April organize. In this book, Cole recounts the ity for the movement in later years. 2006, pp. 563-590), “American ‘Slack- While he does not discuss the IWW’s success in building a vibrant and Australian poet Lesbia Keogh Har- ers’ in the Mexican Revolution: Interna- criminal syndicalism prosecutions that successful interracial union in a city ford, who was briefly a member of the tional Proletarian Politics in the Midst were brought against IWW members as characterized by virulent racism. Marine Melbourne IWW, is discussed in Jeff of a National Revolution.” The editors recently as the 1970s and the laws’ use Transport (LaBotz knows better) against environmentalists with limited Workers IU get the name of our success, this is an important contribu- Local 8 has Most historians of the IWW pay little attention union wrong, and the ar- tion to the history of the IWW and of received little ticle focuses on socialists state repression in the interests of the attention from to criminal syndicalism prosecutions which cost and the nascent commu- employing class which is worth the historians thousands of Wobblies their liberty. nist movement, but does trouble to seek out. even though it include some discussion controlled the of the role these exiles Joe Hill Lives Philadelphia played in IWW organiz- by Len Wallace waterfront for nearly a decade before it Sparrow’s “’Signed Up In a Rebel Band’: ing in Tampico, Mexico. was broken by an alliance of employers, Lesbia Harford Re-Viewed” (Hecate, Finally, Ahmed White’s “The Crime Get wise! Get wise! Get wise! the federal government and the Inter- 2006, pp. 8-35). Sparrow downplays of Economic Radicalism: Criminal Don’t you know national Longshoreman’s Association. the significance of her IWW member- Syndicalism Laws and the Industrial that Joe Hill Under the ILA contracts that followed, ship (she evidently joined because of the Workers of the World, 1917-1927” (Or- took the hit for us? employers were able to slash wages and union’s anti-war efforts, she was later egon Law Review, 2006, pp. 648-769) The bullets that seared his reinstitute segregated work gangs, 50- active in class war prisoner relief and compares the legal campaign to crush body and heart hour weeks, and the shape-up. related defense efforts), instead prefer- the IWW to the current onslaught were aimed Despite its ultimate defeat, Local 8 ring to view her against the context of against civil liberties in the name of the at the heart of the working class: speaks to the power of the IWW’s vision Australia’s larger nonsectarian radical war on terror. to make us obey and its ability to organize thousands of movement. White describes the criminal syn- to keep us quiet workers across deeply entrenched racial Bruce Olds’ novel, The Moments dicalism prosecutions as “the most to make us bow barriers to forge a unionism that spoke Lost: A Midwest Pilgrim’s Progress explicit, straightforward, and altogether to make us consent. both to immediate conditions and the (Farrar, 2007), is set against the back- remarkable effort in modern America Every bullet a history of need for social transformation. drop of the 1916 IWW strike of metal to use the power of the state, backed by the whip on the back of a slave, I reviewed Cole’s collection, Ben miners in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. law, to stamp out a radical organization.” the lynching of my Black brother, Fletcher: The Life and Times of a Black I have not laid hands on a copy of the Most historians of the IWW pay little at- a policeman’s club cracking a head, Wobbly (Charles H. Kerr Publish- novel, which has received mixed reviews, tention to this decade-long effort, which the blood of my brothers and sisters ers, 2007) in the February Industrial but it appears that the most basic facts cost thousands of Wobblies their liberty, on the streets, Worker, noting that despite heavy-hand- about the strike are mangled, climax- made it impossible to continue union a child chained to a machine. ed and shoddy editing, the book remains ing with an orgy of union violence that organizing in many parts of the country, 102 years later a useful introduction to an important pushes the “socialist” protagonist into and consumed the IWW’s energies and his injury is mine and often neglected IWW organizer. the arms of the employing class. In resources with defense work. and 102 years Cole also has an article in the Journal actual fact, of course, it was the employ- White offers a legal history of this isn’t too long to forget. of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era ers’ goons who carried out the violence, (July 2007), “Philadelphia’s Lords of the and the workers who paid the price, but Review Docks: Interracial Unionism Wobbly- perhaps such a story was too ordinary to Style,” which focuses on the use of direct suit the novelist’s needs. Voices of Horizontalism in Argentina action tactics to build what he refers to Former IWW organizer Lenny Flank Marina Sitrin, as “one of the most, perhaps the most, has published I.W.W.: A Documentary Editor. Horizontal- racially inclusive unions of its era.” History (Red and Black, 2007, $13.99), ism: Voices of Popular Steve Kellerman’s essential com- compiling 18 pamphlets, speeches and Power in Argentina. AK prehensive bibliography, A Century of other documents and eight pages of Press, Oakland, 2006, Writing on the IWW 1905 - 2005: An poorly reproduced images. Brief notes 255 pages, paperback, Annotated Bibliography of Books on the introduce the sections, which seem to $18.95. Industrial Workers of the World (Bos- have been selected more to explain the ton General Membership Branch, 2007, union’s ideas than its history. Included Review by Joseph Lapp II 38 pages, $5 from the IWW Literature are pamphlets by Ralph Chaplin and Horizontalism Dept.) is organized by category in chron- Wm. D. Haywood on the General Strike; follows the story of ological order. Thus, the first book listed, E.G. Flynn and Walker K. Smith on Argentina’s political and under General Works, is the Proceedings Sabotage; two speeches by Eugene V. social upheaval from of the First Convention of the IWW, first Debs from his brief association with the massive, neo-lib- published in 1905, and the last is Archie the union; writings by Justus Ebert, eral inspired financial Green’s compilation of IWW songs, The Joseph Ettor, Thomas Haggerty, James collapse, through the Big Red Songbook, published in 2007. Kennedy, Vincent St. John and Wm. protest-filled days that Brief critical notes describe the books, Trautmann on the IWW’s ideas and brought down five suc- quickly identifying their strengths and organizational structure; John Reed on cessive governments in weaknesses. Other categories are Bio- the Paterson strike; the 1920 Comintern less than two weeks, led graphical Works, Miscellaneous Works statement urging the IWW to abandon to neighborhood assem- including substantial discussion of the its efforts (its presence here is unex- blies organized to meet IWW, Writings by Wobblies, and novels plained); the IWW resolution opposing the community’s essen- featuring the union. All but six of the World War I; and a pamphlet on the tial needs, and spawned books listed are in English. 1919 Seattle General Strike. hundreds of the now- The Big Red Songbook has finally Graduate students continue to pro- famous worker occupied been issued by the Charles Kerr Co. duce Ph.D. dissertations on the IWW, factories. (Archie Green, David Roediger, Franklin most recently Peter Morse’s “Wobbly This book, as op- Rosemont and Salvatore Salerno, eds., identities: Race, gender, and radical posed to being some kind of theoretical involved we can hear their frustrations, 2007). Reviewed in the May Industrial industrial unionists in the United States, work, brings the voices of people who their hopes, and their determination Worker, the heart of the book is the text 1900-1920” (State University of New participated in these historic events and coming through in every page. of 190 songs that appeared in songbooks York Binghamton, 2006). Morse looks to who continue to participate in these No book put together by an Ameri- from 1909 through 1973 with short English-language IWW newspapers (he struggles to the fore in interviews orga- can on a Latin American issue can be introductions to each song, 61 songs and apparently ignores the more numerous nized around different facets of social above reproach. Horizontalism is no poems that did not make the songbook foreign-language press) and pamphlets movements involved. exception. (some with no discernable connection to and the independent International Wobblies will find inspiration in But Sitrin’s choice to use only the the IWW), a checklist of all songs from Socialist Review to argue that despite every area covered by this book, from the transcripts of interviews she performed the various editions of the IWW song- the union’s declared commitment to or- militant unemployed protest movement and her choice to publish the book first book and the edition in which they first ganizing “Negroes,” Asians and women to the consensus-based neighbourhood in Spanish, does set it above most of the appeared, and a discography including into One Big Union, IWW rhetoric was assemblies. Of special interest are the countless books coming out about the surviving recordings by song title, and implicitly constructed from a white male stories of workers re-occupying aban- current upheaval in the Global South. commentary. Unfortunately, the editors perspective that perceived these workers doned businesses and producing without I recommend this book as an exam- do not note subsequent appearances or as problems or questions to be ad- bosses and, in most cases, without ple of the capabilities of people who are the frequency with which songs were dressed, rather than as integral parts of wages. Because the narrative is derived fed up with capitalism and fed up with reprinted. the working class speaking in their own directly from the voices of the workers government by the employing class. November 2007 • Industrial Worker • Page  Review Revenge of the Atom Spies nukes War on Terror

Flames of Discontent, Revenge of the communist hysteria, providing Senator Atom Spies, Hidden Agenda Records/ McCarthy with the wave of fear he and BMI, 2007, CD, $12.97 on CDbaby.com. his Committee of Un-American Activities used to persecute hundreds of activists, IWW John Pietaro and Laurie Tow- artists and others through public hear- ers are back as the Flames of Discontent ings, blacklisting and blackmailing. with the new CD, Revenge of the Atom The spoken word tracks by actor and Spies. activist Paul Robeson and the principled Wobblies are well-familiar with Pi- Lillian Hellman help provide the histori- etaro and Towers as they recorded their cal context for the CD. first CD, I Dreamed I Heard Joe Hill “I am being tried for fighting for my Last Night...A Century of IWW Songs people. My father was a slave and my for the IWW centenary and perform in people died fighting for this country… and around New York’s Hudson Valley No fascist-minded people will drive me and New York City. from it. Is that clear?” Paul Robeson told This second 14-track disc of the the Committee in 1956. Flames links the American theme of the American playwright Lillian Hellman Red Scare from the Fifties to today’s new told the Committee in 1954: “To hurt in- cold war, the so-called War on Terror nocent people whom I knew many years which has criminalized dissent domesti- ago in order to save myself is, to me, in- cally and globally. human and indecent and dishonorable. The music is an eclectic mix of I cannot and will not cut my conscience melancholy, irony, humor, and rebellion. to fit this year’s fashions.” Hollywood The slow tempo and tragic mood of Sep- put her on its blacklist for years for her tember’s Divide and Contrasts clashes statement. against the Elvis-inspired title track, Robeson and Hellman’s words still Revenge of the Atom Spies and Ballad of ring true today in the need to directly the Big Wind. Thrown in for good mea- confront the encroaching surveillance sure is the ska punk narrative of Who’s of the state and to hold ourselves to a to Blame?, two spoken word tracks, the moral standard that is higher than what boppy Song of the Translucent Liberal, is laughably called public morals today. jazzy Walls, and the simply beautiful gui- Pietaro and Towers use a combina- tar and bass of Injustice. Then there are tion of wit and rhetoric to tie the blun- the classic IWW songs, Stung Right and ders of the past to the blundering idiots Joe Hill, and the Spanish civil war song, in power today. Long Live the Fifteenth Brigade. In Who’s to Blame?, the Flames try With such an array of musical styles, to identify who leaked to the media that the Red Scare theme of the lyrics holds Valerie Plame, the wife of White House the CD together. critic Joseph Wilson, was a CIA agent. The atom spies who are getting their After listing all of Bush’s cronies as Photo from www.flamesofdiscontent.org John Pietaro and Laurie Towers play at an anti-war rally at West Point. “revenge” are presumably the American suspects, Pietaro sings: “It’s so hard to communists Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, choose. This insidious bunch has control voting for war and domestic oppression silence, walls of illusion, walls of blind- executed on June 19, 1953, after being of the news.” In other words, it doesn’t to retain credibility—is going to do any- ness, walls of elusion,” croons Pietaro. convicted of passing nuclear secrets to matter who leaked the information thing more than co-opt the activist. “The This theme of wilful ignorance and the Soviet Union. There is doubt to this because the issue is that Washington greatest fall is from within, work the complicity is echoed in the sorrowful day that they transmitted secrets that already controls journalists dependent system with a grin,” mocks the lyrics. Contrasts: “Dissent is shunned. Thought actually helped the Russians build a on it for news content. Walls decries not only the physical is crime.” nuclear bomb and that they received a Democrats and so-called progres- walls, such as the one on the Mexico-US ““People learn to tolerate what you fair trial. The Rosenberg’s were the only sives are not spared either. “When did border and the one being used to expro- feed them,” declared the title track, Re- people tried and executed by the US for you drop your ideals of fighting the good priate land from Palestinians in Israel, venge of the Atom Spies. “Is American espionage during the Cold War. They fight?” asks the Song of the Translucent but the psychological barriers to resis- pride just so fragile, that government lies were buried in Pinelawn, New York. Liberal, which skewers the liberals who tance. “Walls of steel, walls of fire, walls must be so agile. They deny what they Their trial fanned the flames of anti- insist that reforming the system—and that crush your heart’s desire. Walls of don’t know, close their minds and just say no.” Review But Flames of Discontent does more than bemoan the tragedies of today and yesterday, they call for action. Wages: cynicism isn’t enough “With endless corporate wars, they’ve overspent our trust. They’re John Armstrong, Wages, New Star with funny and horrible anecdotes, relat- mind would want to, and all for a paltry closing all the doors, dissent is a must,” Books, Vancouver, 2007, 213 pages, ed through the cynicism of bitter experi- sum of money promised sometime in the calls Pietaro in Injustice. The Ballad of paperback, $21. ence. He rebelled in many small ways as future.” the Big Wind calls for nothing short of Behind every punk musician-turned- an individual. He went on welfare. He On the value of work: “The value of revolution: Big Wind, blew away New journalist are dozens of god-awful jobs. fooled around on the job. He stole. He the dollar was exceedingly high, in terms Orleans, through lives and homes and This is the essence of John Armstrong’s tried to work as little as possible. of getting it, and exceedingly low for reality. Nothing was done by the fortu- memoir about his work life, Wages. But the thought of collective re- what it brought you.” nate son, storm this right-wing regime. From his first job, as a rabbit cage sistance or organizing on the job is On paying off debts: “The world The Flames of Discontent are hard cleaner, to his last job in the book as a never considered. Resistance, it seems, conspired to keep [his parents] in debt at work, promoting this new CD, play- journalist at a major Vancouver daily interferes with survival, even though, and it was created and organized for just ing the Dissident Folk and Arts Festival newspaper, Armstrong, former member as Armstrong says repeatedly, there are that purpose.” in Beacon, New York, in October, and of Vancouver’s punk rockers, The Mod- always jobs out there. Even in the one On how coercion defines work: have dates set in the New York cities of ernettes, brings a mix of cynicism and job as a paper boy where he discovered “Work is what you are made to do by Kingston, High Falls, Poughkeepsie, and humor to his memoir. It’s safe to assume that he couldn’t get fired no matter how others, whether by threat or promise. Woodstock in November. Joining Pi- that this book is yet another attempt incompetent he was (the boss would Work can’t simply be defined as toil, etaro and Towers will be new drummer to make a living, following up his punk have to do his route), it was an oppor- it’s anything with a boss added to it and Angelo Moscarelli to give the group’s live rocker memoir, Guilty of Everything. tunity lost for organizing. Without the your own consent subtracted.” performance more of a rock edge. Armstrong is conscious of his work- support of his parents or a local union or On capitalism’s indifference to legal To find out more about the Flames, ing class background—and sees no even a solidarity group on the job, I can and illegal trade: “[D]ope was an ex- visit their website www.flamesofdiscon- advantage, due to his parents’ faith in understand why not. ample of the founding principle of capi- tent.org. capitalism and God, despite their own When he did sign his first union card talism—find a need and fill it. That the “litany of bankruptcy and abandoned as a journalist, he was happy to do so. “I economic system itself created the need but no-one thought anything of it if you homesteads. [...] My family were Irish/ was fairly thrilled to sign the thing. I’d [of people trying to forget their exploita- had to stay past the end of your shift to English immigrants and took a perverse been a staunch unionist my entire adult tion as workers] was just the evidence of talk to the boss about something he had country pride in being treated badly; life. Of course, I’d never belonged to one its inherent beauty, a closed loop and a all day to ask you. And there were all the how hard you worked and how little you before.” However, for Armstrong as for captive market.” hours you spent talking about work, or got for it were a point of honour,” he so many other workers, union mem- On journalism: “You needed a seri- just thinking about it when you weren’t said. When his uncle started up a dairy bership means protection from being ous head injury to write the shit and there. .[…] It was a weight you carried farm, a dairy conglomerate put him out fired, not as an opportunity to assert job brain damage to live yourself after it was behind you constantly like a cinder block of business. When he moved to mush- control. Still, Armstrong doles out work- printed. It was the literary equivalent of chained to your leg.” room farming, a mushroom company ing class wisdom wittily which is worth sorting turds by hand...” Armstrong’s book is a laugh and in did the same. Capitalism wasn’t working repeating. On the eight-hour day: “[T]he idea of no way politically sensitive. But it makes for his entrepreneur uncle. On a job’s worth: “I could see the an eight-hour day was an utter lie… I still clear that if we are going to make our Steeped in this family culture of pas- flaws in this scheme—shot from your bed had to get up an hour before I had to be working lives anything other than a soul- sive acceptance and blind optimism, it is by a blaring alarm at a ridiculous hour in at work. Show up five minutes late in the killing, time thief, resistance to cynicism no wonder that his job history is marked order to do things no-one in their right morning and there was an inquisition and apathy is essential. Page 10 • Industrial Worker • November 2007 Armed men break strikes in Philippines Free trade zone uses counterinsurgencty tactics at strike of Wal-Mart supplier Filipino workers’ rights activist Arnel fusal” to negotiate, said Salvador, forced V. Salvador said his government’s labour the unions to strike simultaneously and ministry, local government, police and press for recognition and a contract on military were “conniving” with union- September 26, 2006. busting employers with free trade zone “The workers realized that they have employers at a presentation on Tuesday, only themselves to depend on,” he said. October 11, in Ottawa, Canada. “No strike has ever won a legal case.” The presentation, organized by the They set up shelters outside of the facto- Ontario Committee for Human Rights ries and picketed for 24 hours. in the Philippines, is part of a three-city While government officials, the tour featuring Salvador that includes police and military are prohibited from Montréal and Toronto. interfering in a strike, the free trade The tour is designed to inform and zone’s own police force (PEZA) and local gain the support of working class Ca- police confronted the picketers in riot nadians for Filipinos’ right to organize, gear, beating them and injuring doz- according to Salvador. He is the deputy ens of people. Salvador showed photo executive director of an independent after photo of union members’ bruises, Workers Assistance Center (WAC) based including the union president, Resurrec- in Cavite, in the northern part of the cion Ravelo. Philippines archipelago. The WAC had “Under the law, the police have no targeted workers in the government- right to disperse a strike,” he said. Police owned and operated free trade zone in also seized company and free trade Cavite which employed 65,000 workers, zone identity cards, required to enter with over 80 per cent being women, in the zone. At one point, security guards 267 factories. ran the union president out of the zone, The Cavite free trade zone provides chasing her with a shotgun. employers tax-free and duty-free status For three weeks, the police used the on the goods they produce. Salvador “food blockade” counterinsurgency tactic said that the government established the in order to starve the strikers into sub- zone to “showcase that there are jobs” mission or to force them to leave. in the Philippines and deal with the The police and employers contin- critique that there are not enough jobs. ued to escalate the violence against the By government statistics, only half of the picketers. working population have full-time jobs Nine months after the strike started, while the remaining 16 million people in June 2007, a factory manager armed work part-time, as street vendors and in 800 scabs with scissors and led them the informal economy. into the zone. Plainsclothes police were Arnel Salvador of the Workers Assistance Center in Cavite, Philippines, The centre, founded in 1995, initially among them, said Salvador, and they at- spoke in Ottawa, Canada about strike-breaking in free trade zones. had success in organizing in the free tacked the strikers’ encampment, attack- The death and kidnapping threats Salvador is not optimistic that the trade zone, forming up to 50 unions. ing the union members and tearing apart forced the workers out of the zone, but strikers’ hopes for a job and pay will be However, in 2000 and 2001, the govern- the tarps that protected them from the “the strike only ended in the strike area” fulfilled. The Philippines supreme court ment and employers cracked down on rain. Still, the workers maintained their and the unions are carrying on their has since ruled that the union is the what they called the “communists”, with picket, until the men in ski masks came. campaign outside the free trade zone’s rightful representative of the workers. a combination of government complicity On June 10, 20 men armed with walls. However, the bosses continue to ignore and employer impunity with incidents of army issue M-16 assault rifles appeared The Chon Won factory has since de- it. threats, firings, beatings, kidnapping and at the Chon Won Fashion factory at 3 clared bankruptcy, leaving 400 workers “[The government and courts] don’t the murder of at least two union organiz- AM, telling the picketers that if they jobless. It is arguing in the courts that enforce rulings in favour of the union, ers. didn’t leave, they would be dead by it owes the workers nothing as they had but they do enforce rulings against the Salvador presented two organiz- morning. One day later, a similar group been already terminated. When the WAC union,” said Salvador. Combined with ing drives that demonstrated how hard of armed men visited the strikers at the contacted Wal-Mart to pressure its sup- the armed attacks, police interference, workers had to fight to organize their other encampment, kidnapped the strik- plier to deal with the workers’ demands, and a culture of impunity, organizing is workplace. ers and left them, alive and terrified for the multinational said it couldn’t do an uphill battle. To find out more about A two-year organizing drive had re- their life, in the free trade zone’s garbage anything about a closed factory. Philippine workers’ day-to-day struggle sulted in union certification at Wal-Mart dump. If they returned, said the masked The Phils Jeon factory continues to to organize in free trade zones, visit supplier Chong Won Fashion and Phils men, they would die the next day or operate. www.wacphilippines.com. Jeon Garments, both Korean-owned disappear. factories, employing 800 workers. The Salvador said he believes the govern- Egypt: Occupation win for textile workers court confirmed that each factory’s ment and employers let the armed men union had sole bargaining rights and into the zone so they could break the By John Kalwaic ordered the employers to negotiate a strike. “If they could filter the strikers [at Egypt is experiencing another wave worrisome for Egypt’s one-party state contract. However, the labour ministry, the gates], why couldn’t they detect 20 of strikes to demand payment of unpaid that has prohibited strikes or opposition as is common, sent no one to enforce its people with high-powered rifles?” asked wages and bonuses, among other issues. parties. The government controls the decision. The employers’ “insistent re- Salvador. The latest occupation was at the only legal trade union the General Misr Spinning and Weaving Company Federation of Trade Unions (GFTU). Iranian sugar cane workers strike in Mahalla el-Kubra, north of Cairo. It is Despite this situation, the workers By John Kalwaic Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine. Why can’t the second occupation this year, the May won the Mahalla strike. The strikers Workers at Iran’s Haft Tapeh sugar they help their own Ahwazi Arabs?” an occupation of Spanish-owned Mansoura- included all workers at the factory, from plantation in the southern province of Iranian worker told Radio Farda. España Garments Company by women officer workers to managers to laborers, Khuzestan, Iran have struck for unpaid The British Ahwazi Friendship So- textile workers over raises that would except the board of directors. wages. ciety published a report that the Iranian provide a living wage and eight years of The Egyptian government is now Sugar workers in Shush City say they government is using “foreign” militants, missed May Day bonuses. trying a new approach to these strikes have a trade union representing them including members of Lebanon’s Hez- Workers in the key Egyptian textile by “giving in” and acquiescing to the and want an independent, democratic bollah, to crush the strike. manufacturing industry are becoming workers’ demands. trade union to represent their interests With files from the IW. more militant and daring, which is However, consolatory action seems and get the wages denied to them. The to be failing to pacify the workers. 2,000 workers have alleged that a “sugar Fired Thai Garment workers strip protest Success is breeding hope and more mafia” is operating in the industry and strikes. Often when workers pressure By John Kalwaic is influencing the government to adapt their boss for earned back wages or In a Bangkok suburb, laid off where the Thai prime minister was in a bad policies. The government has made promised bonuses the bosses, public or garment workers from the closed cabinet meeting. promises to the workers about the un- private, make promises and then renege. Modal garment plant protested their Ten workers stripped to their bras paid wages, but have kept none. The only thing that seems to work is lack of severance pay by stripping to and panties to show the desperate state This is the sixteenth strike in two direct action, sit-in strikes, pickets and their underwear, setting their uniforms they were in without the severance years at the plantation. The plantation factory occupations. on fire and wrapping themselves in payment. is threatened with bankruptcy due to a The government blames Islamist protest banners. “We have nothing to feed our heavy debt load. Trade liberalization has groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood, The garment company said it had families with,” said one protester. reduced a 140 per cent tariff on imported for being behind the strikes. However, to close because it couldn’t compete Unemployment is rising in sugar to four per cent. Management did bread and butter issues are driving the with cheap foreign imports. In turn, Thailand. In August alone, 160 factories little to prepare for the tariff cut so with- strikes. the government promised the workers closed. Other factories have reduced out it the factory’s future is in jeopardy. At the Mahalla plant, workers were their severance pay amounting to 24 wages and benefit packages to cut costs. Most of these workers are from the waving their membership cards from the million baht (US$763,000) after the Thailand has 460,000 people Ahwazi Arab minority who consider ruling National Democratic Party saying, factory closed. unemployed, according to the Thai themselves an oppressed group, in a na- “we are not Brotherhood, we are not The 300 union members protested Labour Campaign. tion which is predominately Persian. opposition” while on strike. in front of a government building With files from the IW. “Iran helps Arab nations such as With files from the IW. November 2007 • Industrial Worker • Page 11 Burma protests: Is India looking the other way? World’s largest democracy faces a test of its beliefs over its capitalist interests By Jason Fults On October 6, 2007, people in doz- mese government’s ens of cities around the world took to the crackdown in 1988 streets in solidarity with activists inside was decidedly pro- Myanmar, also known as Burma. The democracy, in recent aim of these actions was to both call at- years New Delhi has tention to 45 years of harsh military rule become much more and to put an immediate global spotlight pragmatic in its on the upsurge of protest within Burma relations. Coopera- in recent weeks. tion with Burma is Dubbed the “Saffron Revolution,” in fact a central facet these are the largest and most vociferous of India’s important demonstrations that have taken place “Look East” policy, inside the country since the protests of and India continues August 1988, which ended in a military to increase its mili- coup and the massacre of thousands of tary, diplomatic, and civilians. financial ties to the As in 1988, the current protests Than Shwe regime, within Burma were catalyzed by in- often at the expense creased economic austerities imposed of the Burmese de- by the Burmese government, but quickly mocracy movement. assumed a pro-democracy character High-level given the harsh suppression of any form diplomatic rela- of public dissent. tions have grown Organizers are now demanding, in significantly between Photo by Jason Fults addition to economic relief, national the two countries, Burmese expatriates and Indians protest the military repression against protesters in Burma. reconciliation and the release of move- and India’s former ment leaders such as May Win Myint, Minister of External Dr. Than Nyein, and Aung San Suu Kyi. Affairs Natwar Singh declared India’s aim of neutralizing separatist groups tumult in Burma is receiving significant Myint and Nyein have been imprisoned desire for a “long-term partnership” with that have been troubling India on its media attention, and numerous Indian without a trial since October 1997, while Burma in 2005. India is currently seek- northeastern frontier. Yet, these actions opinion leaders are calling on the coun- Suu Kyi has spent more than 11 of the ing to expand its bilateral trade with the not only lend legitimacy to Than Shwe’s try to increase diplomatic pressure and last 17 years under house arrest. country, has extended millions of dollars government, they also subvert United pay attention to more than just its own Predictably, the Than Shwe regime’s in grants and loans, and is engaged in States and European Union bans on short-term interests. In response, Indian response to the protests has been vio- several joint development projects. In- military imports into Burma, with India leaders are attempting to negotiate a lent, resulting in hundreds of injuries dian oil and natural gas companies also acting as a middleman for the transfer of tricky middle way which will encourage and at least nine deaths. Many activists continue their explorations in Burma Western technologies and expertise. Fur- reform in Burma without jeopardizing are calling for immediate intervention by unabated. ther, India’s military aid (along with the India’s own economic and security goals. the international community. In particu- Might these deepening economic ties handful of other nations which continue Whether Burma’s Saffron Revolu- lar, organizers have implicated Burma’s somehow compromise India’s purported to arm Burma) undermines both armed tion will indeed bring about substantive main ally, China, as well as multinational interests in supporting the growth of and nonviolent resistance movements change in the country, or give way to corporations doing business in Burma. democracy in the country? Mani Shan- within the country, thereby prolonging business as usual, remains to be seen. October 9 was an international day of kar Aiyer, Minister for Development of the lifespan of the Than Shwe govern- What is imperative, however, is that we action against Chevron for its ties to the India’s North Eastern Region, thinks ment. not give Burma the “Las Vegas treat- Burmese government, and a global ad- not: “We have long been champions of Not surprisingly, there is no evidence ment” and turn away. Despite Than vertising campaign has targeted the Chi- democracy. We haven’t compromised of any October 6 protests in China, but Shwe’s attempts to quash Burmese civil nese Communist Party for its support via on that, but ground realities are ground India’s rich civil society has begun to society and isolate it from the outside “investment, imports, and armaments.” realities.” step up to the plate. Activists in at least world, what happens in Rangoon will not Somewhat overlooked in this focus is the India’s Petroleum and Natural Gas three Indian cities have staged solidarity stay in Rangoon. The international com- important role of Burma’s other major Minister Murli Deora, who paid a visit to demonstrations. A small protest march munity must act in solidarity with the neighbor, India. the Than Shwe government within days and rally took place October 6 in central people of Burma, and any actions that In addition to long-standing cultural of it opening fire on nonviolent protes- Delhi, followed by a candlelight vigil that solidify Than Shwe’s grip on power are a ties, India and Burma have a shared tors, was even more straightforward: evening at nearby India Gate. The recent crime against humanity. political history, dating back to their “We have a good understanding with former integration under the Brit- the military junta and we are confident ish Empire. Sizable numbers of ethnic that our companies will do big business Chinese strikes rise in 2006 Indians continue to reside in Burma and there in the direction of seeking energy By John Kalwaic Burmese in India, again owing to the up- security for the country.” Chinese strikes and labor unrest are assets looted at the risk of losing their heavals of colonialism and its aftermath. Military relations with Burma have on the rise, according to the Green Left jobs or pensions. Burma served as a headquarters for the also grown, and serve multiple purposes Weekly. The second group is young workers Indian revolutionary Subhash Chan- for India, including securing both coun- In August, 5,000 workers at a working in foreign-owned Dickensian dra Bose and his anti-colonial Indian tries’ borders and counteracting China’s mobile phone company in Shenzhen, sweatshops in China’s southern coast. National Army from 1943-5, thus playing increasing influence in the region. southern China, struck to protest These employers want to work their a significant role in India’s struggle for Earlier this year, India’s Foreign increased hours. The same month, 800 employees to the bone as they produce independence. Minister Pranab Mukherjee promised miners struck to save their pay when the goods for developed countries. What role will an independent, a continued flow of military equipment privatization of the mine turned into the The third group is casual democratic India play in the modern-day to Burma. The two countries have also misappropriation of funds. Transport construction workers who migrate from struggles of the Burmese people? conducted joint military operations workers at the Qingyang Municipal job to job. Many workers are seeking While India’s response to the Bur- along the Indo-Burma border with the Transport Company struck to protest refuge from rural poverty and often privatization. Overall, China’s Ministry return to their homes in rural areas. of Labor and Social Security reported They come seeking temporary relief that 2006 had 447,000 labor disputes, a but find they are often overworked and 42 per cent increase from 2005. underpaid. The government statistics do not include unofficial labor disputes, Hong Kong has right to strike which don’t go to arbitration. These Hong Kong is the only place where informal strikes have been steadily strikes are legal. The Hong Kong Con- on the rise since the 1990s when the federation of Trade Unions is an inde- government rapidly increased its pendent labor union. The HKCTU is pro-capitalist reforms. There is only now currently involved in a strike in the one legal union in China outside of food service sector and fast food outlets Hong Kong and that is the All-China protesting for better wages. Federation of Trade Unions. Controlled Chinese workers have been by the ruling communist party, the portrayed in the western media, as union's purpose is to pacify the workers dutiful servant of China’s economic rather than represent their interests. reforms but this is far from the truth. Government police and private security China’s workers are organizing for have frequently fired on and repressed their rights and have been since the day Chinese workers on strike. the government started its economic There are three groups of workers reforms. who are agitating for change. These reforms have created a lot of The first group is workers and wealth for foreign entrepreneurs and pensioners from state-owned factories party bosses but, predictably, the money in the north. These workers fear losing has not trickled down to the people. their factory to privatization, having its With files from the IW. Page 12 • Industrial Worker • November 2007 ILWU protests racial profiling

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 Salvadoran anti- there have been disturbing signs that privatization activists the human rights commitments estab- Thirteen people are facing charges of lished by the 1992 Peace Accords are up to 60 years in prison in El Salvador being seriously undermined and that the for trumped up “public disorder” charges Salvadoran right is plunging the nation stemming from a peaceful protest back into its troubled past. against water privatization in the Salva- doran municipality of Suchitoto. Defending Argentina’s On September 2, police violently underground railway workers charged the protesters, injuring over 75 The ISC passed a resolution declar- By John Kalwaic and arresting 14 (one of whom was later ing its solidarity with the embattled Members of the International sive stands against the war in Iraq. The released). Police chased away children workers of Buenos Aires’ underground Longshoremen Warehouse Union, ILWU has also been involved with many trying to treat the wounded. One of railway system (the subte), who are rep- ILWU Local 10 in Sacramento, Califor- other progressive causes such as solidar- the arrested individuals almost died in resented by the Unión Tranviarios Auto- nia, struck and picketed their job after ity with the anti-apartheid movement in jail from a wound sustained during the motor (UTA). The resolution condemns members were arrested for “obstruction South Africa in the 1980s and the civil protest. a recent offensive against UTA delegate of justice.” rights movement against racial discrimi- The arrested protesters are being Néstor Segovia and urged Metrovías, On their return to work, African– nation and racial profiling in the United prosecuted under an “anti-terrorism” the U.S.-owned company that runs American dockworkers and members of States. law that was modeled after the Patriot Argentina’s subte, to put and end to the ILWU Local 10, Jason Ruffin and Aaron The ILWU Local 10 also rallied Act. The September 2nd protest was or- intimidation. In the resolution, the ISC Harrison, were arrested by port secu- behind the cause of the Charleston 5. ganized by the Salvadoran water workers also “joins the subte workers and their rity guards. The guards asked for their The Charleston 5 were members of union (SETA) in response to the ruling delegates in decrying the company’s lack identity cards. When they gave it to the the ILWU’s more conservative east ARENA party’s attempts to “decentral- of investment in this incredibly impor- guards, the guards asked for more, so coast sister union, the International ize” the water supply by encouraging tant public service” and pledges full the two men asked the guards for identi- Longshoremen’s’ Association, ILA Local local governments to turn over control support for the actions of the UTA. ISC fication and attempted to call their union 1422, who were arrested during a strike of water supply and service to private delegate Rhiannon Edwards remains in representative on the docks where they in Charleston in 2005. The ILA Local companies. Water privatization schemes Argentina and is closely monitoring the worked. The guards called the police, 1422 has written letters of solidarity to in other parts of Latin America have situation there. who on arrival maced, assaulted and the ILWU Local 10 in solidarity with the been disastrous for unionized water arrested Ruffin and Harrison. Members picket against the arrest of Ruffin and workers and low-income residents alike. Supporting occupied bike factory of the ILWU Local 10 were infuriated by Harrison. The IWW responded to the crisis by in Germany this incident and 150 members gathered Longshoremen work long hours un- demanding the immediate release of the The ISC sent a letter of support outside the Sacramento courthouse to der dangerous conditions, many of their Suchitoto 13, an investigation into the to the workers of an occupied bicycle protest their treatment. leaders have been killed while on the job. police brutality that occurred, and an factory in Thuringian Nordhausen, This is not the first time ILWU mem- The workers also face constant harass- end to government-sponsored privatiza- Germany and to the anarcho-syndicalist bers were targeted by police and govern- ment from the port security as part of tion schemes. The 13 have since been Freie Arbeiterinnen-und Arbeiter-Union ment officials because of their progres- Bush’s Patriot Act. released and are currently free pending (FAU) which is backing the occupation. their trial. The trial was originally sched- The resolution calls upon the manage- uled for the first week of October but was ment of the corporate managers of Bike Write a postcard to Akin Sari postponed for six months. Systems GmbH the German government On September 26, two ISC repre- to recognize the workers’ cooperative In jail on remand, Akin is an sentatives and members of the Philly and its claim to the factory. To finance Australian IWW member arrested General Membership of the IWW their struggle, the workers are building for his involvement in the Novem- participated in a lively demonstration “strike bikes” to sell to supporters. To ber 2006 Group of 20 protests. outside Philadelphia’s City Hall. The learn how to purchase a strike bike, con- Let Akin know that the IWW rally was organized by a diverse coalition tact the ISC at [email protected]. of solidarity organizations and included never forgets its own. street theater, a rock band, and a lot of ISC invited to visit Haiti leafleting. As the rally wrapped up, a The ISC has been invited by the Con- critical mass bike ride began to gather fédération des travailleurs haitiens (Con- and the two events fed into each other. federation of Haitian Workers) to send Local media was on hand. a delegation to Haiti and learn about the Send postcards to: Akin Sari, Melbourne Assessment Prison, 371 The Committee in Solidarity with the struggles that workers are waging there. Spencer Street, Melbourne, 3000. Victoria, Australia. People of El Salvador (CISPES) spon- The CTH represents workers across sored an international week of action to many industries and describes itself as free the Suchitoto 13, October 6-13. The “one of the few [Haitian] unions not ISC is keeping abreast of the situation bought off by the US State Department.” and is in direct communication with They are trying to gain more internation- leaders of the Salvadoran Union Front al publicity for their campaigns. You can which SETA is a part of. read their website and blog in English and French at www.haitilabor.org. The Demanding the release of ISC is in dialogue with the CTH and is imprisoned Salvadoran health considering the feasibility of an official care union members delegation to Haiti in the near future. The International Solidarity Com- Any IWW member who is interested in mission sent a letter to the Salvadoran being part of such a delegation should government demanding “the immedi- contact the ISC immediately at solidar- ate release of—and the dropping of all [email protected]. charges against—eight union members belonging to the Salvadoran General The ISC “behind the scenes” Hospitals Union (SIGEESAL)” who were The ISC does a lot of “behind the illegally detained during a nonviolent scenes” work. Some examples from this protest against health privatization in past month include: conducting research El Salvador. The ISC also urged govern- on electronics manufacturer AVX (which ment leaders to “abandon their ill-con- is union-busting in El Salvador) and the ceived plan to privatize the national unions that represent its workers in the health care system and to create—in United States, planning a major printing the words of Health Minister Guillermo of IWW materials in Bangla, strategizing Maza—a ‘zero unions’ environment”. The for the delegation to Mexico, searching eight unionists have since been freed but for delegates for an upcoming confer- the ISC remains very concerned about ence international solidarity conference, the increase in police repression against putting Salvadoran and Bangladeshi union members and anti-privatization union leaders in contact with each other, activists in El Salvador. In the past few and sending faxes and emails in re- years and especially in recent months, sponse to actions from around the world.