SUMMER 2016 #1777 VOLUME 113 NO. 3 $4 (U.S. IWW members) / $6 (U.S. non-members) / $8 (International) 2 Industrial Worker • Summer 2016 IWW DIRECTORY IWW Contract Shops Queensland Secretary: Dave Pike, secretary@ Lithuania: lithuania.iww@gmail. Kentucky Utica IWW: Brendan Maslauskas California Brisbane GMB: P.O. Box 5842, West iww.org.uk com Kentucky GMB: Mick Parsons, Dunn, del., 315-240-3149. End, Qld 4101. Asger, del., hap- Southern England Organiser: Nikki Netherlands: [email protected] Secretary Treasurer, papamick.iww@ Ohio San Francisco Bay Area GMB: [email protected]. Dancey, [email protected] gmail.com. 502-658-0299 P.O. Box 11412, Berkeley, 94712. Norway IWW: 004793656014. Northeast Ohio GMB: P.O. Box 1096, 510-845-0540. [email protected]. Victoria Tech Committee: [email protected] [email protected]. http://www. Louisiana Cleveland, 44114. 440-941-0999 Melbourne GMB: P.O. Box 145, Training Department: Chair - Chris iwwnorge.org, www.facebook.com/ Louisiana IWW: John Mark Crowder, Contact for: Berkeley Ecology Center iwwnorge. Twitter: @IWWnorge Ohio Valley GMB: P.O. Box 6042, (Curbside) Recycling - IU 670 IWW Moreland, VIC 3058. melbourne- Wellbrook, [email protected] del, [email protected]. https:// Cincinnati 45206, 513- 510-1486, Shop; Community Conservation [email protected]. Treasurer: Jed Forward, treasurer@ United States www.facebook.com/groups/iwwof- [email protected] Centers (Buyback) Recycling – IU Canada iww.org.uk Alabama nwlouisiana/ Maine Sweet Patches Screenprinting: 670 – IWW Shop; Stone Mountain IWW Canadian Regional Organizing West of Scotland Organiser: Rona Mobile: Jimmy Broadhead, del., P.O. [email protected] & Daughters fabrics - IU 410 IWW Committee (CANROC): c/o Toronto McAlpine, westscotland@iww. Box 160073, 36616. [email protected] Maine IWW: 207-619-0842. maine@ Oklahoma Shop; Embarcadero Center Cinemas GMB, P.O. Box 45 Toronto P, Toronto org.uk Tuscaloosa: Gerald Lunn. 205-245- iww.org, www.southernmaineiww. - IU 630 IWW Shop ON, M5S 2S6. [email protected] Women’s Officer: Jen Fox, women@ 4622. [email protected] org Oklahoma IWW: 539-664-6769. Oregon Alberta iww.org.uk Alaska Maryland [email protected] Portland GMB: 2249 E Burnside St., Edmonton GMB: P.O. Box 4197, ERA Branches Fairbanks GMB: P. O. Box 80101, Baltimore GMB: P.O. Box 33350, Oregon 97214. 503-893-2382, portland. T6E 4T2. [email protected], Clydeside GMB: clydeside@iww. 99708. Chris White, del., 907- 21218. [email protected] Lane GMB: Ed Gunderson, del., 541- [email protected], portlandiww.org. edmonton.iww.ca. org.uk 457-2543, [email protected]. Massachusetts 743-5681. [email protected], www. Contact for: Janus Youth Shelters. Cymru/Wales GMB: caerdydd@ Facebook: IWW Fairbanks Boston Area GMB: P.O. Box 391724, iwwlane.org Washington GMB: IWW Vancouver, iww.org.uk Arkansas Cambridge, 02139. 617-863-7920, Portland GMB: 2249 E Burnside St., Seattle GMB: 1122 E. Pike #1142 c/o Spartacus Books, 3378 Findlay Edinburgh GMB: edinburgh@iww. Northwest Arkansas IWW: P.O. Box [email protected], www. 97214. 503-231-5488, portland. Seattle, WA 98122-3934. 206-429- Street, V5N 4E7. contact@vancou- org.uk 4062, Fayetteville, 72702-4062.iww. IWWBoston.org [email protected], portlandiww.org 5285. [email protected]. veriww.com. www.vancouveriww. Western Mass. Public Service IU com Tyne & Wear GMB: tyneandwear@ [email protected] Pennsylvania Contact for: Central Co-op iww.org.uk 650 Branch: IWW, P.O. Box 1581, Vancouver Island GMB: Box 297 St. California Northampton, 01061 Pittsburgh GMB: P.O. Box A, Nanaimo BC, V9R 5K9. iwwvi@ Bradford GMB: [email protected] Los Angeles GMB: P.O. Box 74344, 5912,15210. 412-438-3499, bst@ IWW Shop Cards telus.net. Leeds GMB: IWW, Ebor Court, Cooper 90004. 323-374-3499. iwwgmbla@ Michigan pghiww.org Gate, Leeds. [email protected] gmail.com Detroit GMB: P.O. Box 32236, 48232. Anarpsy-Mental Health Services – Manitoba Rhode Island Piraeus, Greece: [email protected] Manchester GMB: manchester@ Sacramento IWW: 916-672-8881, 313-437-3404, [email protected]. Winnipeg GMB: IWW, c/o WORC, iww.org.uk [email protected] Grand Rapids GMB: P.O. Box 6629, Providence GMB: P.O. Box 23067, Baltimore Bicycle Works: 1813 Falls P.O. Box 1, R3C 2G1. 204-299-5042, 49516. 616-881-5263. griww@ 02903. 401-484-8523. providence@ Road. Baltimore, MD 21201. www. [email protected] Sheffield GMB: IWW Office, SYAC, San Diego IWW: 619-630-5537, baltimorebicycleworks.com/about 120 Wicker, Sheffield S3 8JD (0114 [email protected] iww.org iww.org New Brunswick 223 2100). [email protected] Central Michigan: 5007 W. Columbia Tennessee Daniel J. Fornika Scientific Consult- Fredericton: frederictoniww. San Francisco Bay Area GMB: P.O. Box Rd., Mason 48854. 517-676-9446, ing: [email protected] wordpress.com Norwich Bar and Hospitality Workers 11412, Berkeley, 94712. 510-845- [email protected] Clarksville: Jonathan Beasley, del., IUB 640: [email protected] 0540. [email protected] 218 S 3rd St. Apt. 7-6, 37040. 931- Evergreen Printing: 2412 Palmetto Ontario Minnesota Street, Oakland, CA. 510-482-4547, Ottawa-Outaouais GMB & GDC Local Nottingham GMB: [email protected] San Jose: SouthBayIWW@gmail. 220-9665. [email protected] com, www.facebook.com/SJSV.IWW Duluth IWW: P.O. Box 3232, 55803. 6: 1106 Wellington St., P.O. Box West Midlands GMB: IWW, Bike [email protected] Trenton: Jeremy Butler, del., 221 Lakeside Printing Cooperative: 1334 36042, Ottawa, K1Y 4V3. ott-out@ Foundry, 1539 Pershore Rd, Birming- Colorado Milan Hwy, 38382. 731-613-3067, Twin Cities GMB: 2 E. Franklin Williamson Street, Madison WI. 608- iww.org, [email protected] ham B30 2JH (0121 459 7276). Denver GMB: IWW, P.O. Box 12451, [email protected] 255-1800, www.lakesidepress.org [email protected] Ave Suite. 1, Minneapolis, 55406. Ottawa Panhandlers Union: Denver, 80212. 814-758-7761. [email protected] Texas MoonDog’s Edibles: 54 East 200 Raymond Loomer, interim delegate, Bristol GMB: [email protected] [email protected] Missouri Houston: Gus Breslauer, del., North, Salt Lake City, UT [email protected] Reading GMB: [email protected] Connecticut [email protected]. Facebook: North Country Food Alliance: 770 Peterborough: c/o PCAP, 393 Water Greater Kansas City IWW: P.O. London GMB: [email protected] Connecticut: John W., del., 914-258- Box 414304, Kansas City 64141. Houston IWW Hamline Ave. N., St. Paul, MN. St. #17, K9H 3L7, 705-749-9694. 0941. [email protected] 612-568-4585. northcountryfoodal- Sean Carleton, del., 705-775-0663, Belgium 816-866-3808. greaterkciww@ Rio Grande Valley, South Texas IWW: liance.org [email protected] Belgium IWW: [email protected] DC gmail.com P.O. Box 5456 McAllen, Texas 78502. P & L Printing: 2727 W. 27th Ave., Toronto GMB: P.O. Box 45, Toronto P, German Language Area Washington DC GMB: P.O. Box 1303, St. Louis IWW: P.O. Box 63142, Greg, del., 956-278-5235 or Marco, Denver, CO. [email protected] M5S 2S6. 647-741-4998. toronto@ IWW German Language Area 20013. 202-630-9620. dc.iww. 63163. Secretary: stl.iww.secre- del., 979-436-3719. iwwrgv@riseup. iww.org. www.torontoiww.org [email protected]. www.dciww.org, [email protected]. Treasurer: stl.iww. net. www.facebook.com/IWWRGV Paper Crane Press: 2 New Rd, Aston, Regional Organizing Committee www.facebook.com/dciww [email protected] PA. 610-358-9496, papercrane- Windsor GMB: c/o WWAC, 328 Pelis- (GLAMROC): [email protected]. Utah [email protected]. www. sier St., N9A 4K7. 519-564-8036. www.wobblies.org Florida Montana Salt Lake City: Michael Garcia, del., papercranepress.com [email protected]. http:// Austria (Vienna): iwwaustria@ Gainesville GMB: c/o Civic Media Construction Workers IU 330: 801-891-5706, iwwmoondog@ Pedal Power Press: P.O. Box 3232 windsoriww.wordpress.com gmail.com, wien@wobblies. Center, 433 S. Main St., 32601. Dennis Georg, del., 406-490-3869, gmail.com. [email protected] Duluth, MN 55802. www.pedal- Québec at. http://wobblies.org. www. [email protected], www. [email protected] gainesvilleiww.org Vermont powerpress.com Montreal GMB: cp 60124, Montréal, facebook.com/pages/IWW- Missoula IWW: Diane Keefauver, Phoenix Health PLC: FW Jeffrey Shea QC, H2J 4E1. 514-268-3394. iww_ Wien/381153168710911 Hobe Sound: P. Shultz, 8274 SE Pine 1250 34th Street #D202, 59801. Burlington: John MacLean, del., Jones #102- 3237 Hennepin Ave. S, [email protected] Berlin: Offenes Treffen jeden 2.Mon- Circle, 33455-6608. 772-545-9591, 406-531-0601, [email protected] 802-540-2561 Minneapolis, MN. 612-501-6897 Europe tag im Monat im Cafe Commune, [email protected] Two Rivers IWW: Jim Del Duca, del., Virginia Primal Screens Screen Printing: Reichenberger Str.157, 10999 Berlin, Orlando: Joey Leach, del., 978-424- 106 Paisley Court, Apt. I, Bozeman Richmond IWW: P.O. Box European Regional Administration 18 Uhr. (U-Bahnhof Kottbusser 8758. [email protected]. 59715. 406-599-2463. delducja@ 1127 SE 10th Ave. #160, Portland, (ERA): P.O. Box 7593, Glasgow, Tor). Postadresse: IWW Berlin, c/o gmail.com 7055, 23221. 804-496-1568. OR. 503-267-1372, primalscreens@ Facebook: OrlandoIWW [email protected], www. G42 2EX. www.iww.org.uk. 0800 Rotes Antiquariat, Rungestr. 20, Nebraska gmail.com 998 9149 10179 Berlin, Germany. berlin@ South Florida GMB: P.O. Box 370457, richmondiww.org Profession Roofcare: 708 13th Bell- wobblies.org 33137. 305-894-6515. miami@iww. Nebraska GMB: P.O. Box 27811, ingham, WA 98225. 360-734-974, ERA Organisation Contacts org, http://iwwmiami.wordpress. Ralston, 68127. nebraskagmb@iww. Washington Access Facilitator: Sue Fortune, Bremen: [email protected]. com. Facebook: Miami IWW org. www.nebraskaiww.org Bremerton: Gordon Glick, del., [email protected]. www.iww-bremen.org Red Emma’s Bookstore Co-op: 30 W. [email protected] Tallahassee: www.facebook.com/ Nevada [email protected] North Avenue, Baltimore, MD. 410- Central England Organiser: Russ Cologne/Koeln GMB: c/o IwwTallahassee Olympia: [email protected]. Spring, [email protected] Allerweltshaus, Koernerstr. 77-79, Reno GMB: P.O. Box 12173, 89510. 230-0450, [email protected] 50823 Koeln, Germany. cologne1@ Georgia Paul Lenart, del., 775-513-7523, Dylan Brooks, del., x37pegasus@ Red Lion Press - British Columbia, Communications Department, wobblies.org. www.iwwcologne. Atlanta GMB: P.O. Box 5390, 31107. [email protected] riseup.net Canada: [email protected] Chair - Xav Bear, communications@ iww.org.uk wordpress.com 678-964-5169, [email protected], IU 520 Railroad Workers: Ron Seattle GMB: 1122 E. Pike #1142 Sweet Patches Screenprinting: Frankfurt a.M. GMB: Frankfurt@ www.atliww.org Kaminkow, del., P.O. Box 2131, 98122-3934. 206-429-5285. [email protected] Cymru/Wales Organiser: Peter wobblies.org. http://Frankfurt. Idaho Reno, 89505. 608-358-5771. [email protected]. Jess Grant, Davies, [email protected] [email protected] Worth’s Lawn Care and More: 2 Wobblies.org Boise: Ritchie Eppink, del., P.O. Box del., [email protected] Sandalwood Dr., Davenport, FL. East of Scotland Organiser: Carol Hamburg-Waterkant: hamburg@ 453, 83701. 208-371-9752, eppink@ New Jersey Spokane: P.O. Box 30222, 99223. [email protected] Ince, [email protected] wobblies.org gmail.com Central New Jersey GMB: P.O. Box [email protected] Legal Officer: Guy Mitchel, Legal@ Kassel: Rothe Ecke, Naumburger Str. 10021, New Brunswick, 08906. 732- iww.org.uk Illinois 692-3491. [email protected]. Whatcom-Skagit GMB: skagitiww@ IWW Branches & 20a, 34127 Kassel. kontakt@wobblies- Chicago: Christopher Preciado, gmail.com, IWWBellingham@gmail. London Regional Organiser: Tawa- kassel.de. www.wobblies-kassel.de Bob Ratynski, del., 908-285-5426. Local/Regional Contacts del., 470-326-6531. X363823@ www.newjerseyiww.org com. www.bellinghamiww.com. nda Nyabango Leipzig: [email protected] Asia gmail.com New Mexico Facebook: Whatcom-Skagit IWW. Membership Administrator: Philip Munich: [email protected] Taiwan LeMarque, [email protected] Indiana Albuquerque GMB: [email protected] Wisconsin Taiwan IWW: c/o David Temple, Rostock: iww-rostock@systemausfall. Michiana GMB: Brad Laird, del., 574- Madison GMB: P.O. Box 2442, 53701- Merchandise Committee: merchan- org. iwwrostock.blogsport.eu 245-0605, [email protected] New York 4 Floor, No. 3, Ln. 67, Shujing St., [email protected] New York City GMB: 45-02 23rd 2442. www.madison.iww.org Beitun Dist., Taichung City 40641 Northern Regional Organiser: Sam Switzerland: [email protected] Iowa Street, Suite #2, Long Island Madison (I.U. 620): c/o Taiwan. 098-937-7029. taIW- Greece Rainbow Bookstore, 426 W. Gilman, [email protected] Frowien, [email protected] Eastern Iowa IWW: 319-333-2476. City,11101. [email protected]. Organising Department: Chair - Greece IWW: [email protected] [email protected] www.wobblycity.org 53703. 608-260-0900. madinfos- Australia Tawanda Nyabango, organising@ Iceland: Heimssamband Kansas Syracuse IWW: [email protected] hop.wordpress.com/ New South Wales iww.org.uk Verkafólks / IWW Iceland, Reykja- Wichita: Richard Stephenson, Upstate NY GMB: P.O. Box 77, Milwaukee GMB: P.O. Box 342294, Sydney GMB: IWW-Sydney-gmb@ Research and Survey Department: víkurakademíunni 516, Hringbraut del., 620-481-1442. barfolumu@ Altamont, 12009. 518-861-5627. 53234. [email protected]. iww.org.au. [email protected] 121,107 Reykjavík gmail.com [email protected] 630-415-7315

Contents IWW DIRECTORY Workplace Organizing Workers at Portland fast food chain Burgerville 4 unionize with the IWW

Berry pickers Win Sakuma Brothers Farms agrees to a union 6 election with Familias Unidas por la Justicia

BLACK LIVES Matter Protests erupt worldwide in response to 10 racist police shootings

Wy obbl Arts Monday Morning Denial brings IWW folk 14 music back to life

Social War in france CNT-F reports on the wave of popular 18 protests sweeping the country

Industrial Worker Editor & Designer: Postmaster: Send address changes to IW, Diane Krauthamer P.O. Box 180195, Chicago, IL 60618 USA [email protected]

Subscriptions Cover Photos/Design: Electronic subscription for IWW members: Free The Voice of Revolutionary Ben Ferguson Annual print subscription rate: Proofreaders: - U.S. IWW members: $16 USD Official newspaper of the Blaise Farina, Bill O’Connor, Matt Dube, - Regular U.S. subscriptions: $20 USD Industrial Workers Neil Parthun, Chris Heffner, Dave Johnson - ALL international subscriptions: $28 USD of the World Post Office Box 180195 Annual bundle subscription of 5 copies (20 total): Printer: Chicago, IL 60618 USA - U.S. subs: $60 USD Sommers and Fahrenbach, Inc. 773.728.0996 • [email protected] Chicago, IL - International subs: $80 USD www.iww.org Next deadline is Published quarterly in the fall, winter, IWW General Secretary-Treasurer: September 30, 2016 summer and spring. Randall L. Jamrok U.S. IW mailing address: Articles not so designated do not reflect IWW General Executive Board: IW, Post Office Box 180195, K. Maria Parrotta, Adam K. Jones, Chicago, IL 60618 the IWW’s official position. DJ Alperovitz, Mitchel Runnels, ISSN 0019-8870 shugE Mississippi, Brandon Sowers Periodicals postage paid Chicago, IL. Press Date: July 21, 2016 4 Industrial Worker • Summer 2016 Portland Burgerville workers unionize By the Portland IWW a one-bedroom apartment, and most apartment In a historic move on April 26, 2016, workers complexes require a prospective tenant’s income to exceed three times the amount of the rent. at the Portland, Ore.-area fast food chain Burger- “Most people can’t even afford to have an ville announced at a rally that they were forming apartment. In Portland, everyone knows that the Burgerville Workers Union in affiliation with the cost of living is insane. It basically took me a the Portland branch of the IWW. The workers second job to be able to have a place of my own. I marched from the Clinton Street Theater to the couldn’t afford it with what Burgerville pays me,” Burgerville location at Southeast 26th Avenue and said Greg, Burgerville worker and union member. Clinton Street to present their demands, which in- Other workers cited problems with manage- clude: an immediate $5 an hour raise; affordable, ment’s uncaring attitude toward their employees: quality healthcare; a safe and healthy workplace; Photo: Burgerville Workers Union “I need to be able to take a sick day without fear Burgerville Workers Union members and supporters fair and consistent scheduling with ample notice; of retaliation,” said Robert, a Burgerville worker at march through Portland on April 26, 2016. a supportive, sustainable workplace including paid the Powell location. maternity/paternity leave; and free childcare and The workers forming the Burgerville Workers paid a living wage. This is going to make Burger- transportation stipends. Union represent a cross-section of the commu- ville better, by having happy employees that work A typical Burgerville worker makes only $9.60 nity—young people, seniors, mothers, fathers, hard and are proud of their jobs,” said Debbie, an hour, and is typically scheduled to work just 26 students and grandparents. They put passion into Burgerville Workers Union member. hours per week—just under the 30 hours per week their work, and want to improve their workplaces The Burgerville Workers Union is supported that would make them eligible to receive benefits. for themselves, their co-workers, and the com- by the Portland IWW and endorsed by a coalition That equals out to about $990 a month before munity. of local unions and community groups. To lend taxes. To put that into perspective, the average “We’re trying to make Burgerville a better your support and solidarity, check out http://www. apartment rent in Portland is $1,275 a month for place—I just want to be able to do my job and be burgervilleworkersunion.org. Maryland IT workers strike and win with the IWW By Benjamin Charles with a little encouragement, Target will soon Workers at True Technical Experts LLC extend its ideals to them as well. (TTX), an information technology (IT) sub- After Gerlak fired two striking workers and contractor for major retailers based in Frederick, made it known that he would rather shut down Md., went on strike on May 26, 2016, demand- his business than treat his employees with respect, ing an end to wage theft, harassment and for TTX workers decided to take him up on the recognition of their union, the Industrial Workers offer. They successfully shut down almost all of the World. The workers submitted a list of de- work and publicized the strike to the point where mands that includes raising wages to the industry several of Gerlak’s business contacts realized that

standard, regular hours, and an anti-harassment Photo: Baltimore IWW he would not be able to run his business without pledge from the business’s owner, David Gerlak. TTX workers on strike. workers and cancelled their contracts with him. Although Gerlak has refused to recognize the tractors, producing a “race to the bottom” where The two fired workers filed a ULP charge with union, IWW workers at TTX went on strike wage theft and poor working conditions are com- the National Labor Relations Board and settled twice in two months over unpaid wages, winning mon. For more than a year, workers at TTX had for the back pay they were owed. They continue their back pay both times. Minutes after being organized underground for job stability, respect to fight for the several other strikers who are still contacted by an IWW representative, Gerlak at work, and an end to substandard wages and owed back wages. declared that he had fired two striking employees, conditions. “While we all would have preferred for David in obvious violation of federal labor law. After This is not the first time these major retail- [Gerlak] to sit down and meet our demands, Gerlak decided he would rather declare bank- ers have had labor issues with their subcontrac- there’s an important lesson here not to under- ruptcy than negotiate with the IWW, workers tors. Following years of protests and strikes by a estimate the power of workers acting together,” decided to fight for unpaid wages, winning some Minneapolis-based workers’ center representing said Andrew V., an organizer at TTX. “When we in unfair labor practice (ULP) settlements and janitorial workers, Target agreed to language say that we will fight to the end, we mean it. The vowing to fight for the rest. stipulating that “cleaning companies it works next time a small business owner thinks they can TTX is a small IT subcontractor whose work- with cannot interfere with workers’ organizing disregard the IWW, maybe they’ll think twice af- ers install cabling and other hardware for some rights, must follow wage-and-hour laws and ter seeing what happened at Tru Tech,” he added. of the nation’s largest retailers, such as Target and must establish worker safety committees.” While For more updates on the struggle to win back CVS. As is often the case, their work is handled no such language currently exists for their IT wages for the rest of the TTX strikers, follow the by a complex chain of contractors and subcon- subcontractors, TTX workers are confident that, Baltimore IWW on Facebook.

5 Fired UPS worker fights, wins job back By the Package Handlers’ Organizing Committee (PHOC), a militant rank-and-file Committee committee of Minneapolis UPS workers, orga- On April 14, 2016, Chris Wilson was fired nized a phone blast of Local 638 President Tom from the United Parcel Service (UPS) for speaking Bucher. According to Wilson, Bucher received up about dangerous working conditions. He was phone calls from three different countries. At accused of swearing at a supervisor and “creating a work, we distributed fliers explaining Wilson’s his- hostile work environment.” UPS has been targeting tory at UPS and the firing, asking our co-workers long-time employees with this same accusation for their support. Despite the Local 638’s attempts for the past year. Teamsters Local 638, the union to postpone Wilson’s appeal, our combined de- representing workers at the Minneapolis UPS hub, termination and pressure resulted in a timely and has put up no resistance to these retaliatory firings. favorable appeal. In several cases, the union bosses have collaborated We are now working with Wilson to fight his with the company to ensure that terminations were suspension. This will likely be another struggle upheld. directed simultaneously against the company and But, only a week after being fired, Wilson the bureaucrats in Local 638. Please stay alert to Photo: socialistworker.org returned to work. Just a few days after his firing, future calls to action. Minneapolis UPS workers take a stand in solidarity members of the Package Handlers’ Organizing Solidarity! with protesters in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014.

It’s time to end self-enslaved incarceration The cycle, 360 degrees, a finished unit. This we cannot reproduce. If we cannot reproduce, for prisoners.” Which means if you are incarcer- article is specifically for my IWW and IWOC and…we’re being taken away behind senseless ated then whichever state you are incarcerated in [Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee] murders, that puts us almost in extinction. has the right to work you for minimal to no pay. members. We have to break the “cycle” of mass You have to think, if five African Americans Well, these large corporations found out this little incarceration of African Americans. We are “self- get into a shoot-out, three die, and two go to fine print of old Abe’s and now are using prisons enslaving” ourselves and crippling generations prison for the remainder of their lives. That’s five to manufacture products. So you see, by educat- at the same time. We are feeding this genocidal black men that will not have a chance to repro- ing and eliminating our sons, uncles, cousins, cycle that keeps taking generation after genera- duce. And if they have had children, then that etc., from joining the chain gang, we’ll create a tion, causing fights to have to fight harder. Yes, leaves a single mother to raise a child as you were bigger wound than they ever thought we would. the fight will always continue but we deserve raised, and most likely he’ll have the same fate. But, by fueling and filling prisons, we help to pick and choose our battles instead of being So what do we do? We have to mount up make the rich richer and the poor poorer. We’re metaphorically “forced” into the pit with the and take a stand and realize that self-enslaving literally placing ourselves in chains and setting hungry lion. ourselves will not get the job done. I’m sure ourselves back over 400 years by falling victim to Ending mass incarceration starts with you! everyone is in agreement when I say that our the penal system. It won’t happen overnight, but The father, brother, son, cousin. We have to in- IWW can only do so much. It takes an outside if we can stop at least our sons and nephews from fluence the generations below us to go in the op- source, that’s why this organization is so strong. coming to prison and educating them, then we posite direction. We have to be the pavement lay- Incarcerated men and women are the back- can begin the real fight and our community can ers so that the next generation can walk smoothly bone to a lot of multi-million and billion dollar lead the pack. without stumbling. You have to view the cycle as enterprises. There’s a lot of companies that bank It’s the small things that create big problems the “circle.” We grow up in fatherless homes in on us catching cases and coming to prison. Why? impoverished poverties surrounded by drugs and Because multi-million and billion dollar compa- for the oppressors and manipulators that oppress liquor stores. And, ironically, some of the most nies can sign contracts with independent prisons us. This is step one to our strategy. The blueprint powerful handguns and assault rifles just appear that allow incarcerated men/women to do their we must use to achieve success. We must establish in our neighborhoods. We are set at a disadvan- laborious work for pennies. tactics and techniques and execute them with tage the day we are born. Amerikkka is set up for We are literally slaves! perfection. We must end self-enslavement and the African American to fail. But THAT IS NO How crazy is that? But what’s worse is the fact stop falling victim to capitalism. EXCUSE! But you have to admit, the odds are that they are supported by the 13th Amendment, Read, meditate, and act upon!!! stacked against us. It’s up to us, the writers and which is the Amendment that abolished slavery Each one, teach a multitude fighters of this generation, to stop “the circle of in Amerikkka. Well, for you who didn’t know: Solidarity, enslavement.” We are putting ourselves through when the 13th Amendment was created, Abra- James Thomas #1206542 our own genocidal-suicide. Listen, we catch ham Lincoln, the man who uneducated individu- S.E.C.C. cases, or get framed because we resemble another als believe freed slaves, put a little side note in 300 E. Pedro Simmons Dr. brother and go to prison. While we’re in prison, saying “slavery is abolished in America…except Charleston, MO 63834

Industrial Worker • Summer 2016 6 Industrial Worker • Summer 2016 Photo: x331980 Familias Unidas por la Justicia members lead nearly 300 supporters at the rally in Burlington, Washington on July 11, 2016. Berry pickers to hold union election By x331980 of workers now have FUJ union cards to disprove intimidation is an unfair labor practice in other in- On July 8, 2016, Sakuma Brothers Farms in the company’s contention that FUJ is not the dustries, but U.S. and Washington labor law does Burlington, Wash. agreed to a union election for representative for the workers. not apply to farm workers. There are concerns that its berry pickers. Following four years of unrelent- The company’s willingness to hold good-faith Sakuma will try to subvert the process by the time- ing boycott pressure and occasional strikes, the discussions is doubtful. Sakuma Chief Execu- worn tactic of setting up a phony company union. independent farm workers union, Familias Unidas tive Officer (CEO) Danny Weeden claims the “Despite Sakuma’s attempt to unilaterally por la Justicia (FUJ), has won the first round in company has “established a process to allow our impose an election process, FUJ has been and the fight. A meeting on July 14 discussed the employees to vote,” according to a press release. is ready to meet and negotiate a fair process for terms for holding the union election—concluding Weeden’s press release included classic anti-union the workers to choose their union representatives with no agreement. However, Sakuma negotia- wording, saying “It is important to me that our without intimidation or coercion on July 14th or tors said they would work with FUJ to organize a employees have the opportunity to decide whether before, if necessary,” said FUJ President Ramon union vote. or not they want to pay FUJ to be their represen- Torres, prior to the meeting. Sakuma Farms has never before agreed to tative.” Nearly 300 people marched on July 11 to meet with the union. Successful walkouts this past Field bosses have reportedly been telling work- celebrate the fourth anniversary of the first strike spring over piece rates were supported by larger ers that if FUJ is elected, those who vote against at Sakuma Farms and the birth of FUJ. Union numbers of workers than in the past. Hundreds the union would be harassed into quitting. Such members, including a strong IWW contingent, Brown Berets, and sustainable food, immigration Who to call to support Familias Unidas por la Justicia justice, and church groups walked for one-and- a-half miles down a highway to a rally at Sakuma Call during business hours: headquarters. A representative of a Seattle Interna- Sakuma Brothers Farms Main Office: 360 757 6611; Danny Weeden’s office: 808-561-5545 tional Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Driscoll’s Marketing Director: 831-763-3259 local electrified the crowd by announcing that Häagen-Dazs: 1-800-767-0120 longshore workers were refusing to load Driscoll’s Sample phone call message: berries on a ship bound for Asia. “I have heard from Familias Unidas that there are factual errors in the recent press release from your In 2015, IWW members approved a union- supplier Sakuma Bros. Berry Farms. While it is encouraging to hear that they are ready to negotiate. I am calling in to express concern about potential reprisals and intimidation against their seasonal harvest wide referendum supporting FUJ. FUJ now asks employees. As a former consumer of your products I am calling to encourage you to follow up with IWW members and other supporters to step up Sakuma and ensure that they follow through with the negotiation process in good faith. I am still boycot- the pressure on Sakuma and its principal buy- ting (Driscoll’s berries, Häagen-Dazs ice cream), and I’m telling my friends, peers, and other consumers ers, Driscoll’s berries and Häagen-Dazs ice cream to also boycott your products. I plan to continue to do so until FUJ tells me to stop. Do the right thing (owned by Nestlé). Even a single person carrying and settle this manner once and for all with a fair election followed by good faith negotiations. I will be a boycott sign outside a grocery store and handing excited to buy your products knowing that workers have union representation and justice in the fields, out leaflets helps. Organized pickets are even more but until then I will continue to boycott your products.” effective. Calls to corporate offices should be made every day.

7 Announcing the 2016 Nearly- Annual Cascadia IWW Campout By G. x364388, Olympia IWW The Pacific Northwest, comprising the water- shed from the crests of the Cascade Range down to the Salish Sea and the beaches of the Pacific, and Western British Columbia, has been a region our union has been organizing since its found- ing in 1905. It is a vast geographical area, with industries in which our union has deep roots. The place we call Cascadia has seen growth in IWW membership and activity, with a new general membership branch (GMB) recently chartered in Olympia, Wash., and large, active branches in Portland, Ore.; Vancouver, British Columbia; and Photo: G. x364388 Bellingham, Wash. The IWW has held a campout Fishing at the Cascadia IWW campout. and celebration almost every year since 2011, and watershed, and definitely reinvigorating our is strongly encouraged for bookkeeping and future we have a great one coming up this summer. culture as a singing union; bring your instruments, planning. Plan for bad weather (NOT expected The 2016 IWW Campout will be held at your voices, and the “Little Red Songbook,” in late August), but even if it rains the entire time, Battle Ground Lake State Park in Battle Ground, because we do sing around the campfire. Alcohol Wash., northeast of Portland, Ore. We have there are enough covered shelters so that we will is permitted, but no midnight skinny-dipping in reserved Group Camp No. 1, which has its own not be totally bummed out if Zeus is angry. Please the lake; Yogi thinks Mr. Ranger would not like entrance at the north end of the Park, and parking check camp rules regarding pets, available at the that. Bring your own food, as we have vegans and for perhaps 15 to 20 vehicles. The campground following websites: http://www.parks.wa.gov and omnivores in the mix. Children are welcome, and is the best we have seen, and is the closest thing http://parks.state.wa.us/472/Battle-Ground-Lake. we could find this year that has many features for any FWs with a need for assistance with camping We hope to see many Wobblies at the 2016 gear or anything else will be helped. our fellow workers (FWs) with disabilities. There Nearly Annual Campout, Food Fight, Song Fest, We are asking for a donation of $25 per tent, is a large, central fire pit, and smaller, satellite and Canoe Regatta. For questions, first refer or $10 if you want to sleep in a logging camp fire rings, so bring firewood, or purchase some at to the State Park website, or email G. Glick at bunk. That donation is for the entire weekend. nearby stores. There is a vault toilet with two sides [email protected]. We occupy the camp after 2 p.m., and we clean accessible to all genders, a large covered kitchen For all payments, please follow up with an shelter with barbecue grills and tables, and a grassy up and leave before 1 p.m., from Friday, Aug. email to the Olympia GMB at OlympiaIWW@ area for tents. Those who enjoy privacy can pitch a 26 until Sunday, Aug 28, 2016. RSVP and send riseup.net and to the Seattle branch at seattleiww@ tent in the surrounding coniferous woods. payment to Seattle GMB, c/o FW Kristin King: gmail.com, showing the amount of the pay- We found a feature that we had not encoun- [email protected]. Please make sure to tell tered before when looking at state and federal her: 1) how many campers in your group, 2) the ment and indicating that the payment is for the campsites: four “Adirondack” shelters. Those who number of tents or bunks desired, and 3) how campout. We are instituting this procedure for have minimal camping gear can bunk in these much money you are sending. You can pay by financial transparency. open shelters (three walls and a roof) and they look mail, the Seattle GMB PayPal account, or at the The postal address is: 1122 E Pike ST #1142, pretty snug, with eight bunks each. Only personal event itself, but telling her how many will attend Seattle, WA 98122. bedding is required, so roll up your bindle and hop a freight to Battle Ground. There are four of these shelters at cardinal points around the central fire Clydeside IWW remembers radical weavers ring, so there should be plenty of room for all. The By Keith, x348444 park has a small lake, which is a tarn in the center For the last three years, the Clydeside of the park, big enough for paddling a canoe, and IWW has had a stall at the Sma Shot Day stocked with fish (you will need a Washington in Paisley, to the west of Glasgow. This State license if you want to catch any). There are year we also marched in the procession trails connecting every area of the park, including a for Sma Shot Day on July 2, 2016. This horse trail for the IWW Cavalry Scouts. was to commemorate how, in the late Our union works hard at organizing, and 18th century into the early 19th century, sometimes that urgency needs to be put on the radical weavers from Paisley formed asso- back burner for a while. This camping trip has ciations of workers and promulgated the relaxation and socializing as the main goals, estab- ideas of Tom Paine. Photo: Keith x348444 lishing contact with other Wobs in the Cascadia

Industrial Worker • Summer 2016 8 Industrial Worker • Summer 2016 Illegally-fired Starbucks worker receives settlement from company By Anja Witek these accusations and Mebrahtu’s reinstatement. sum of $5,000, and accepted. “I know I deserve In July 2009, Azmera (Aizze) Mebrahtu was il- When no response was given, Mebrahtu turned more, but after five years of fighting, I’m tired,” Me- legally fired from a Starbucks in Saint Paul, Minn., to the Minnesota Department of Human Rights brahtu said, “I don’t want to go to court.” She was under the guise that she had stolen money. (DHR) to file a claim of discrimination. With able to use the sum to return to her native home of Mebrahtu, a native of Ethiopia, was interro- help from the Law Clinic at the University of Ethiopia and visit family. “She may not have gotten gated in a back room for more than an hour and Minnesota, a claim was filed in early 2010. The what she deserved, but she still fought and won, and forced to sign a promissory note that stated she DHR found merit with Mebrahtu’s case and Star- that is worth celebrating,” Witek said. would pay the company $1,200. This was in spite bucks failed to produce any evidence of stealing. The Twin Cities branch of the IWW planned of the fact that Mebrahtu informed the managers After many appeals, as is the way of the to host a party on July 23, 2016, in Mebrahtu’s that she did not understand what they were saying “justice” system, Starbucks was forced to offer honor to celebrate the victory. “When nobody due to her limited English proficiency. Mebrahtu a settlement. She had since acquired [from Starbucks] would help me, the union was Her co-worker Anja Witek and the IWW another, better job and did not wish to return to there. I won because of their help with the DHR worked with Mebrahtu the employer who discriminated against her. and I will stay in the union for the love and pro- to plan several direct actions, demanding proof of In July 2014, Mebrahtu was offered the measly tection we give to each other,” Mebrahtu said. Wobblies to commemorate in November By x331980 All Wobs and their friends and families from November 2016 marks the centennial of everywhere in the world are invited to attend this the brutal massacre of 12 IWW members at the regional IWW event. More details will appear hands of Everett, Washington’s sheriff and his in the next issue of the Industrial Worker, IWW vigilante posse of largely drunken business own- media, member listservs, and the General Organi- ers and their flunkeys. The IWW members were zation Bulletin (GOB). Contact Whatcom-Skagit aboard the steamer Verona, sailing up from Se- IWW for more information (see the directory attle to continue a free speech fight and to show listing on page 2). support for the striking International Shingle On Nov. 12, 2016, the Pacific Northwest Weavers’ Union. They were shot down as the Labor History Association (PNLHA) and the Verona reached the public dock. This was known Snohomish County Labor Council will sponsor as the Everett Massacre. a round-trip cruise from Seattle to Everett aboard IWW members will meet in Everett on Sat- a lovely restored steamship, Virginia V (as in urday, Nov. 5, 2016—100 years to the day from “5”), launched in 1922. Tickets are steep, $100 a the cowardly act by the sheriff and his goons. The pop, but there are already 15 or more Wobs from event is open to all Wobblies and our friends. northwestern IWW branches with tickets, largely Wobs will gather near the site of the former City thanks to generous donors. IWW members will Photo: x331980 Dock and walk uptown a few blocks to “speaker’s The commemorative cruise on Nov. 12, 2016 lay commemorative wreaths and sing “Hold The corner” at Hewitt and Wetmore Avenues. The will be aboard the 125-foot-long steam powered Fort” as the boat arrives in Everett, just as those Verona Virginia V, a restored 1922 wooden boat that once old-time Wobblies were singing when they tried 300 Wobblies aboard and a smaller ship, ferried passengers between Puget Sound cities. Calista were planning to go there from the dock to dock in 1916. The Virginia V holds 130 and to continue their free speech fight. So we will at last check there were still plenty of tickets Gerlot, Abraham Rabinowitz and Gus Johnson. complete the journey for them and soapbox, lay available. Learn more and purchase a ticket (hold Seven other Wobblies were missing after the wreaths, and speechify. At present, the idea is a fundraiser!) at the PNLHA’s website: https:// to drive on to Seattle to visit the mass grave of shooting started and are presumed to have fallen pnlha.wordpress.com/2016/04/18/everett-massa- the five Wobblies whose bodies were recovered: overboard and drowned, or jumped in to escape cre-commemoration-and-boat-tour-planned-for- Fellow Workers John Looney, Felix Baran, Hugo only to be gunned down by the gun thugs. november-12-2016.

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9 Farewell, Fellow Worker Paul Poulos By FW Greg Giorgio Paul was the untiring and ever-ready avenging Fellow Worker (FW) Paul Poulos left a huge angel for those of us who had workplace struggles, void in the Upstate New York IWW community injury claims, unjust firings, harassment and other he called home for more than 30 years when he problems with the boss class. I can testify to his died on April 3, 2016. He was 77 years old. total dedication to a struggle of over two years Paul grew up in Long Island City, N.Y. As the to keep me employed in a public sector job. He son of Greek and Polish parents, he learned the fought many other cases for aggrieved workers toil of wage slavery early from his father’s restau- with great success. rant and deli. He knew the alienation of working- He was a visionary, too. He signed up over 200 class struggle through the alcoholism and conflict prisoners in the Ohio state system more than 30 of his home life. years ago. Ultimately the courts won out over the “My politics are all bound up in the IWW,” IWW upstart in what might have been a revolu- Paul would declare proudly. He often reflected tionary turn for incarcerated workers. about how he lacked a real working-class con- I clearly remember my first meeting with FW sciousness until he became involved with the Poulos at the home he shared with longtime IWW IWW in his late 30s. FW Chris White got Paul delegate Rochelle Semel in Fly Creek, N.Y. “What Photo: Ben Ferguson connected with IWW delegate Ruth Sheridan to We will miss you, FW Paul Poulos. do you say laddie?” was how he greeted me as he take out his red card. Paul’s life partner, Rochelle worked the grill at a Wobbly cookout. He called Semel, was a big influence on his commitment to Paul at a rally, where his likeness was hung in effigy most younger men “laddie” or just “lad.” the union from the outset. with a shirt adorned with a hammer and sickle. But what I take away most and best from the Many IWW members are radicalized by the FW Poulos was clear about this period of his many days laughing, working and often picketing exploitation of the workplace generally. Paul was working life and union activism. Last September, with Paul was his fierce pursuit of clarity and clarity radicalized by the corruption of the New York in a video produced by FWs Daniel Gross and of purpose—perhaps no more fierce and daunting City area Teamsters locals’ mobbed-up hierarchies. Benjamin Ferguson (titled “Paul Poulos Speaks”), he than his tireless efforts to ensure democratic princi- His natural anti-authoritarian ways manifested pauses a moment when asked if his life was in dan- ples in the IWW and due process for deliberations. themselves in the early Teamster union reform ger because of his activism. “Yeah,” he admits then. His whole heart was dedicated to the IWW and groups, Professional Drivers’ Council (PROD) Paul was the consummate rebel worker. His its legacy. I remember his radio interview in the and The Brotherhood. Already an outcast with proudest day at work was the time his boss told late 1990s with me when he talked so passionately employers in New York trucking, FW Poulos him, “Paul, you make me sick to my stomach.” about the “impressive—and I mean impressive— gained no civil discourse from Teamsters officials Paul bragged about being fired from every job he history of direct action” in the IWW. and those who went along with them. ever had, too! “I made the job better, not only for me, but for Paul once ran for Teamsters Local 814 For many of us who worked with FW Poulos my Fellow Workers,” Paul said about six months president in an effort to gain some semblance in the IWW, we could see how the pride derived before he died. We couldn’t really ask for much of democracy for the organization. Sitting Local from causing the boss discomfort was his raison more than that. 814 top-dog Vinnie Brocco campaigned against d’être. No one could make him obey. Rest in peace, Fellow Worker. You earned it.

May Day with Nicaraguan workers in Lane, Oregon By the Lane IWW Pictured here is an inspiring moment taken at our May Day concert and celebration, which was on May 1, 2016: Lane Wobblies, labor and community activists from Eugene and Spring- field, Ore., standing in global solidarity with members of the Aso- ciación de Trabajadores

del Campo of Nicaragua. Photo: Erika Takeo

Industrial Worker • Summer 2016 10 Industrial Worker • Summer 2016 Photo: c.m. Despears Wobblies and other protesters march on Wauwatosa police headquarters in Wisconsin on July 8, 2016 to protest the killing of community member Jay Anderson. Black Lives Matter Global uprising against police brutality By Juan Conatz riot gear and forced the marchers out of the road. Chicago, Illinois After a tumultuous week at the beginning of There were more than 120 people arrested over Traffic was disrupted and the yearly “Taste July 2016, in which police murders of black men the weekend. DeRay McKesson, celebrity activist of Chicago” event on July 9 was interrupted as were caught on film in Minnesota and Louisiana, and school privatization crusader, was among people marched through downtown. Approxi- and a dozen police were shot by a lone gunman in those arrested. mately 20 people were arrested. Dallas, protests against racialized police brutality went ahead in many U.S. cities. Memphis, Tennessee Rochester, New York A large rally took place at the FedExForum on Around 70 people were arrested on July 8 as St. Paul, Minnesota July 9, followed by a march. Hundreds from the police responded aggressively to a march that took Protestors started an occupation in front of march went onto the Interstate 40 bridge, bring- up the roads and delayed traffic. the governor’s mansion. On July 10, Interstate ing traffic to a standstill. The city’s interim police 94 was blockaded and shut down for five hours. director was shouted down after he attempted to Marches and solidarity actions took place Later on in the night, protestors and police speak. in many more cities in the United States, and clashed. Over 100 people were arrested. Efforts to obtain information and bail money for those Atlanta, Georgia even spread to Europe, where rallies occurred arrested is underway at the time of writing. A “sea of thousands” attempted to march and in London, Amsterdam and Berlin. Although block off interstate on-ramps on July 8, but were considerable energy is now being spent support- Baton Rouge, Louisiana turned away by police. A large crowd gathered ing people who have been arrested, there is no After a 1,000-strong march through the city outside the headquarters of CNN as well, seem- indication that the movement against racialized on July 10, police attempted to keep the march ingly to protest the cable station’s coverage of re- police brutality, commonly referred to as Black from continuing into the evening. They donned cent high-profile police killings of people of color. Lives Matter, is going away any time soon.

11 May Day reclaimed in Turkey By the Devrimci Anarsist Faaliyet (DAF) 2016. Three DAF members, This year, as in previous years, we celebrated who are also members of the May Day in Taksim Square against all prohibitions Construction Workers Union, of state, all violence of police, and all efforts of were in the square with the capitalists. placard that read “Fight, street, One week before May Day this year, the Turk- resistance; Long Live May Day” ish state declared that it would not allow us to at 8:30 a.m. They managed to hold demonstrations in Taksim Square (as they did get into the square from the in past years). The Turkish state offered another building site nearby. They were place for the “celebration of May Day.” This “dem- taken into custody by police. onstration space” became a discussion between At 10 a.m., the DAF cortege Photo: Devrimci Anarsist Faaliyet revolutionary organizations. was in Mecidiyeköy where the Members of Devrimci Anarşist Faaliyet march to Taksim Square on May Day. Although there was a “legal celebration for march to Taksim started. We May Day” in Bakırköy, the revolutionary organiza- walked against the prohibition of violence. Three comrades were brutally taken into tions went to Taksim Square. In 1977, a bloody the state with our placard that read “To Anarchist custody by police. May Day event occurred here, so this square has Revolution With Action.” We kept walking with We have not participated the “May Day become a symbol of resistance. the Construction Workers Union against the celebration of the state,” and we will not. They will As the Devrimci Anarşist Faaliyet (DAF), we restrictions of the capitalists. The police tried to not keep us from our struggle. We will keep on were in the square from the early hours of May 1, block the march with tear gas, plastic bullets, and struggling against the state and capitalists. Teachers rise up, face repression in Oaxaca By John Kalwaic the Coordinadora Nacional de Trabajadores de June 19 the Mexican government made good In the city of Oaxaca in Southern Mexico la Educación (CNTE), which has fought back on its threats to attack striking teachers. Twelve teachers have started massive protests against against these proposals. In May 2016, the Mexi- people were killed and many more were injured. neoliberal education reforms. These protests can government stopped negotiating with CNTE At the time many teachers had also already been have come at a time when many Mexicans are over the implantation of the reforms made three arrested in the previous weeks. In response to protesting corruption in their government. The years prior: this is when the protests started. the June 19 attack, the guerrilla group known teachers came into conflict with Mexican police Because the government would not negotiate as Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional and troopers have frequently fired on them, kill- with them, the CNTE launched a massive strike (the EZLN, or Zapatistas) in Chiapas released ing several of the teachers. This has been a mirror in southern Mexico, which started on May 15. a solidarity statement for the CNTE teachers of another rebellion in Oaxaca that took place in During the strike there were cases of police and of Oaxaca, condemning the “cowardly act” of troopers firing on demonstrating teachers, and 2006 and led to what was known as the Oaxaca President Nieto’s government repression. Doctors on May 25 the situation grew extremely tense as from the medical group #YoSoyMedico17, which Commune. Mass demonstrations started again police brought military-style vehicles. The police includes pediatricians, surgeons, anesthesiolo- when the government of Mexico and its presi- then shot rubber bullets at demonstrators. On gists and nurses, joined 200,000 physicians in a dent Enrique Peña Nieto wanted to impose an the same day, May 25, tens of thousands of peo- on June 22 in solidarity with the educational reform bill from 2013 that imposes ple marched through Mexico City in solidarity CNTE teachers and also against Nieto’s universal new teacher evaluations and tests on the educa- with the CNTE teachers. On May 28, striking health system reform. Many doctors and medical tion system. teachers in Chiapas took over the central media staff in Mexico believe Nieto’s medical reform is Many teachers say that the tests and evalu- radio stations including Sistema Chiapaneco de often the same as privatization of healthcare. ations do not reflect the needs of students in Radio y Televisión (Chiapas Radio and Television Support for the CNTE teachers has come Oaxaca, Guerrero, Tabasco, Chiapas and other System) and the Chiapas channel. A reason for from all over the world. On June 22 the Chicago predominately indigenous areas of Mexico. The this has been the mainstream Mexican media’s Teachers Union conducted a solidarity dem- reforms had been dictated to the Mexican gov- negative portrayal of the struggle as demonstra- onstration for the CNTE teachers in front of ernment by international organizations like the tions of “radical teachers.” the Mexican Consulate. It remains to be seen World Bank and the Organization of Economic From June 11 to June 13 barricades began whether this uprising will end in another Oaxaca Cooperation and Development (OECD) and to form again in Oaxaca as more demonstrators Commune, a narrow policy victory, or just more then promoted by the government. The govern- battled with police. Many at this point were repression. ment’s reforms have led to the dismissal of nearly wondering whether the Oaxaca Commune of With files from Telesur TV, Popular Resistance, 10,000 teachers so far. 2006 would re-appear again in 2016 in reaction Left Voice, Common Dreams, Roar Magazine, and The union that represents the teachers is to President Nieto’s “education reforms.” On Abc 7 News.

Industrial Worker • Summer 2016 12 Industrial Worker • Summer 2016 Review: Memories of Sam Dolgoff Dolgoff, Anatole. Left of the Left: My Memories Union 510 hall in a decrepit, now-razed loft where of Sam Dolgoff. Chico, CA: AK Press, 2016. they spent many Sundays with old-time Wobbly Paperback, 400 pages, $22. sailors. I’m a historian of the IWW but in this vignette, as in many others in the book, Anatole Reviewed by Peter Cole Dolgoff captured the essence of the Wobblies bet- If you want to read the god-honest and god- ter than I ever have (I’m ashamed to admit). awful truth about being a left-wing radical in 20th Full disclosure: it is because I researched century America, drop whatever you’re doing, pick and wrote on the Wobblies that I met Anatole up this book, and read it. Pronto! If you’re not Dolgoff. A few years after my books “Wobblies on crying within five pages, you might want to check the Waterfront” (which was about Philadelphia’s on whether you’ve got a heart and a pulse. Anatole interracial longshore union), and an edited volume Dolgoff’s love, admiration, and memories of his on Ben Fletcher, their “Black Wobbly” leader, I father Sam Dolgoff saturate the pages, making it got an email from Anatole. As a young boy, he required reading for folks interested in the Wob- had known Fletcher. Here was a man who could blies, anarchists, workers, unionists, New Yorkers, tell me stories about the most prominent African Americans, non-Americans, un-Americans, and American in IWW history because his father and every other human being, for that matter. Make Fletcher were close friends. As a child, Anatole no mistake, the 79-year-old Anatole Dolgoff spent quality time with Fletcher and remembered might be a first-time book author but he’s one hell him fondly and well. But let me also confess, and of a brilliant storyteller. meaning no disrespect, that I had no idea that Sam Dolgoff met or was friends with Carlo Anatole’s stories were this good or that he could Photo: akpress.org Tresca (one of his closest friends before being write so damned well! murdered), Dorothy Day, Bayard Rustin, Murray In addition to capturing the history but also— child, Sam went to work at the tender age of eight, Bookchin, Ammon Hennesy, David van Ronk, harder—the feel of many of the Wobblies and delivering milk off a horse-drawn wagon before , Michael Harrington, Paul other anarchist/left individuals, organizations, and dawn. A few years later, his father apprenticed him Avrich, and Peter Kropotkin’s only daughter, Alex- moments, this book is wonderful for those simply to a house painter, a trade at which he worked for andra. He had friends who knew Vladimir Lenin, wanting to open a window into the past. the next 60 years. Mao Zedong, and Mohandas Gandhi. Take New York City, an incredible city that Sam Dolgoff was working class through and On the 50th anniversary of the state of Illinois’ justifiably has received countless authors’ atten- through and proud of it, as were nearly all the execution of the Haymarket anarchists, in 1937, tions. Dolgoff poignantly captures the feel of 20th Wobblies who toiled as Jack tars and timber beasts, Sam Dolgoff shared a speaker’s platform with Lucy century working-class New York, a “lost New gandy dancers and harvest stiffs. First drawn to Parsons, the legendary anarchist, revolutionary, York.” Lower Manhattan, parts of Brooklyn, the the Socialist Party and the Young People’s Social- Wobbly co-founder, and widow of Haymarket occasional foray into the Bronx. New Yorkers and ist League (YPSL), he abandoned their vision of martyr Albert Parsons. those who love New York will find much to love evolutionary and electoral compromises Sam Dolgoff met Eugene Debs. He knew the about this book as he walks “through lower Man- for the anarchists. A while later, he found his writer Eugene O’Neill and the artist Diego Rivera. hattan streets not to be gentrified for fifty years,” ideological home, the IWW, the great revolution- He was great friends with Dr. Ben Reitman, along with the Puerto Rican, Italian, Jewish, and ary industrial union founded in Chicago in 1905. Emma Goldman’s on-again off-again lover known other residents. Dolgoff believed that revolutionary industrial as the “clap doctor” for treating street prostitutes Moreover, the language is, well, of a time and unionism was the only path to socialism—at the who had sexually transmitted diseases in an era a place. Where else, these days, can one read words point of production where workers had real power. when no “respectable” doctor would. like “floor moppers” and “sonofabitch”? He committed himself for the next 70 years to Anatole Dolgoff’s middle name is Durruti, As Dolgoff declared near his memoir’s start: that belief. Anti-capitalist and unrepentant, he after Buenaventura Durruti, one of Spain’s greatest “What I can do is tell stories: of my parents and never took a job that required him to fire or hire anarchist fighters who died defending Madrid their world, which spans seventy years of revolu- another fellow worker. Supporter of the underdog from the fascists during the Spanish Civil War tionary activity…Hopefully it will add up to a his- and the little guy. Hater of the 1 percent before (more on Spain later). The Soviet Union, China tory of sorts…Do not look for ‘objectivity.’ To hell the term existed. Humanist. Wanting to build a and Mexico, the Dominican Republic and many with it. I have read many such ‘objective’ accounts new world from the ashes of the old. Willing to parts of North America figure into Sam’s life and of the anarchists and Wobblies, and few of them fight for it, strike for it, suffer for it, go hungry for Anatole’s telling of it. bear any resemblance to the flesh-and-blood hu- it, to help out someone who’s even hungrier. The book is worth reading simply for the man beings who broke bread with us or snored on To Dolgoff, capitalism, the state, and orga- opening chapter, set sometime in the 1940s, in our sagging couch. I’ve opted for the truth instead.” nized religion caused most of the world’s suffering, which Anatole recounts walking with his father Like so many others, Sam Dolgoff was the which was why he became an anarchist. He hated and older brother, Abe, from their Lower East son of desperately poor Jewish immigrants from hierarchy, oppression, and the institutions that Side apartment across lower Manhattan to get to tsarist Russia. Like so many others, they ended both caused and perpetuated it, so he loved the the Marine Transport Workers (MTW) Industrial up in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. As the oldest Wobblies. He also loved to sing Wobbly tunes like

13

“Halleliuah, I’m a bum,” “Solidarity Forever,” and Russian anarchist Gregorii Maximoff made Dol- munist state. Steinberg had been there to protest countless other gems. goff into the man and reader he became. Anatole the vicious crackdown of the Cheka on all dissent This historian of the IWW found it especially describes Maximoff this way: “a man who had and suspected dissenters. Vanishing people, tor- interesting that Sam Dolgoff’s time in the union faced down the power of Lenin; had come within ture, murder—all without trial or even a hearing.” began in the early-to-mid 1920s. That is, after hours of a ring squad; had conducted a successful Steinberg was one of many anti-CP leftists who its so-called heyday, after the government had ar- hunger strike in the Cheka dungeons; had orga- pepper this book. rested and imprisoned most of its most important nized steel mills and peasant ; had served Dolgoff never gave up on his beliefs nor leaders and deported others, after many states had as an editor of important journals and, while in stopped organizing. For instance, during the made belonging to the IWW illegal under uncon- Berlin, helped found an international anarchist height of the Cold War, Dolgoff helped found stitutional “criminal syndicalist” laws, after many organization comprising—it may surprise you— the Libertarian League that proclaimed: “The local and state police and vigilantes had further several million people.” Maximoff and his fellow ‘free’ world is not free; the ‘communist’ world is beaten and imprisoned Wobblies and shut down Russian anarchists who lived in permanent exile not communist. We reject both: one is becoming their halls, after the lynchings of and made Dolgoff read Mikhail Bakunin and Peter totalitarian; the other is already so.” Wesley Everest, after the and Kropotkin but also Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin Anatole is not uncritical of his father, par- Everett Massacre. And after the rise of the Soviet as well as William Shakespeare and Mark Twain. ticularly his father’s drinking problems as well as Union and Communist Party (CP) that did all in He read constantly—even after a full day of work poor treatment of his devoted, loving wife and life its power to undermine, co-opt, and destroy the and despite having a wife and two sons. partner, or his falling out with his older son. Ana- IWW for presenting an alternative view of what One of the pivotal times in Sam Dolgoff’s life, tole also discusses, briefly, his own life and travails socialism looked like. as well as for others on the Left was the Spanish though he would be the first to admit that his life We read about Wobblies in the interwar years, Civil War. Recall Anatole’s middle name, Durruti. mostly has been a good one, greatly enriched by organizing the Unemployed Union in Chicago in Predictably, Sam was not just a kindred spirit with his father. the early days of the Great Depression. Anatole the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT), Anatole wrote this book, after retiring, because actually makes an argument that underneath, the anarchist union and spiritual sibling of the friends “urged me to put my ghosts and shadows behind, to the side of many great Left actions, IWW. The CNT stronghold of Barcelona proved down on paper. And so I have. I leave behind a events, and organizations in the 1920s, 1930s, and the high point, early in the Civil War, of the cause. record of my parents’ life and through them a 1940s were Wobblies. While perhaps overstating Dolgoff was a leading supporter, propagandist, history of sorts, the history of a culture, and of a his case, undeniably many unions, most obviously and fundraiser for the CNT and Spanish Repub- chapter of American radicalism that few people in the newly-founded Congress of Industrial Or- licans. For those interested in this tragedy and its know about. It is an incomplete and inadequate ganizations (CIO), and other progressive organiza- long shadow, this book offers much. record no doubt.” tions were influenced by the IWW. Some chapters in the book, vignettes really, are I cried at the beginning of this book and again A great deal of this book is about , amazing stories of people few ever knew about. at its end. Since it is so wonderful, I will not reveal an ideology that attracted Sam Dolgoff. Over Dolgoff knew I.N. Steinberg, the “Peoples Com- more details—no spoilers here—but suffice it to time, he became a much in-demand speaker, bril- missar of Justice in the Soviet government from say that the last few years of Sam Dolgoff’s incred- liant author, and even theoretician of anarchism. December 1917 to March 1918 and a central ible life were as honest and compelling as his first Though only finishing eighth grade, Sam figure in the drafting of the Soviet Constitution, 85. Truly, there is no other way for me to end this Dolgoff evolved into a great intellectual, schooled [who] came to tell us of his private, face-to-face essay than: Sam Dolgoff, Presente! by some of the greatest anarchists of the early 20th meeting with Lenin in that sparsely furnished This essay first appeared at: http://www.stans- century. Familiar to precious few, the legendary Kremlin room where he [literally] forged the com- buryforum.com. Subscribe To the IndustrIAL WORKER! Get a one-year subscription (that’s 4 issues) for: 1______U.S. IWW members: $16 1______U.S. regular subscribers: $20 1______ALL international subscribers: $28 One-year bundle subscription (5 copies/issue, 20 total) for: 1______U.S. bundles: $60 1______International bundles: $80 (please check off which option you would like) Your mailing address: ______Name Street/P.O. Box City/State/Province Postal Code Country

Send this form & a check or money order to: Industrial Worker, P.O. Box 180195, Chicago, IL 60618 or subscribe online: http://store.iww.org/industrial-worker.html . Questions? Email [email protected]

Industrial Worker • Summer 2016 14 Industrial Worker • Summer 2016 A new era of Wobbly folk music with Monday Morning Denial Monday Morning Denial. Scoundrels That We Utah Phillips, Alistair Hulett, and Hazel Dickens. Are. Released on Jan. 17, 2016. Available online: Kate and I are hugely influenced by our friend http://mondaymorningdenial.bandcamp.com/releases. Harry Stamper, who passed away in 2012. He was a folksinger and longshoreman from Coos Bay, By W.H. Glazer Oregon, and he wrote the classic labor song “We Much like peanut butter and jelly, folk music Just Come to Work Here (We Don’t Come Here and the IWW are inextricably intertwined. Folk to Die).” music has served as an important vehicle for WHG: What is it about folk music that makes radical politics since before the formation of it such an important and useful vehicle for express- the union, owing in large part to familiar and ing radical politics? catchy tunes, clever wordplay, and easy-to-learn KD & NM: There is a familiarity to the genre instrumentation. The list of prominent Wobbly Photo: mondaymorningdenial.bandcamp.com that resonates with audiences. We don’t often write Nathan Moore (left) and Kate Downing (right). troubadours is a long one, and indeed continues to lyrics to existing melodies like did, but grow even as traditional folk music becomes more manifesto online and realized that it would make we do try to create accessible, sing-along choruses. of a niche form. a great lyric. I do think that the most effective The participatory nature of folk music goes hand- Following in the footsteps of these luminaries working-class activists to this day are often seen as in-hand with radical politics. is Monday Morning Denial, an Oregon duo fea- “scoundrels” because they are independent, unruly, turing husband-and-wife songwriters Kate Down- WHG: What’s your writing process like? Do and impossible to control. I’ll take a scoundrel ing and Nathan Moore. Their debut EP “Scoun- you tend to write songs together? over a boss any day. drels That We Are” was released earlier this year, KD: We co-write almost all of our songs. WHG: What’s the inspiration for the song and it is a delightful listen. Downing’s crystalline Nathan frequently starts the lyrics and I finish “Fragments?” voice and banjo plucking effortlessly meshes with them. Often, we get the melodies by me singing KD: It’s about parenting and our responsibil- Moore’s bright tenor and guitar, lending credence the tune I hear and Nathan finding the chords on ity to the next generation, both as individuals to the idea that partners in love often make the the guitar and then arguing that I’ve stolen the and as a society. As parents and grown-ups in an best partners in music. I talked to them about melody. But a few rearranged notes will make a unkind world, we need to look at how we interact their beginnings, folk music, and the process that new song and that’s usually the easiest part. There went into creating “Scoundrels.” are a couple songs on “Scoundrels” that we wrote with children and find compassion for these little solo—Nathan penned “Days All Dark with Dust” humans—who happen into this world in an inher- W.H. Glazer (WHG): Tell me about how you and I wrote “Fish On, Papa” for my dad. ently powerless position—and treat them with started playing music together. dignity and respect. Kate Downing (KD): Nathan and I have been WHG: Describe the recording process for me. making music since about 2002 and performing KD: DIY all the way. We recorded this WHG: Nature seems to inform a lot of your out since 2007 with various different musicians. [album] almost exclusively in our bedroom after writing. Nathan Moore (NM): About a year ago, we our kid went to sleep. We live in a little townhouse KD: In Oregon the nature is just there. It’s not started playing one or two duo songs during each apartment with nowhere to conveniently leave uncommon to see a deer on your way to school in set [in their earlier name of Low Tide Drifters] and equipment set up, so we just tripped over cords the morning, even in the city. We’re deeply rooted audiences didn’t throw anything at us. Kate and I and stubbed our toes on mic stands for a couple of in the Pacific Northwest. The salt air is home and began playing regular Sunday evening shows at a months. I come from a place where kids competed to have local pub, so our good friend and former bandmate the best seagull call. Running on driftwood was WHG: The title track lovingly refers to the suggested Monday Morning Denial as a duo name. strictly prohibited and practically executed. So, working class as “scoundrels.” What made you that’s all in the lyrics. WHG: Tell me about your musical influences. choose this word specifically? Whose playing inspires you to write and perform? NM: “Scoundrels That We Are” is an example WHG: What brought you to the IWW? KD: Well, my banjo stylings are very Pete of good old-fashioned folk music plagiarism. NM: I joined the IWW around 2000. Coming Seeger influenced. I took lessons for a while from The song is about an 1883 trial of anarchists that from a working-class background, I felt more at FW [Fellow Worker] Mark Ross. Vocally, I defi- took place in Lyon, France during a period of home in the IWW than I did with other activ- nitely pull from old-timey and folk musicians— mass working-class unrest. Instead of blaming the ist organizations in Eugene. Kate joined about a The Carter Family, Jean Ritchie, and a little Dave people at the top, the “authorities” arrested over 60 year later. We are proud to be in a democratic, Van Ronk. In terms of writing inspiration, Nathan anarchists, including Peter Kropotkin, the famous member-run union that believes in direct action is constantly shoving a topic or lyric in front of me scientist. During the trial, the anarchists composed and has strong musical traditions. and making me finish a song. But he does most of a manifesto that said “Scoundrels that we are, we “Scoundrels That We Are” is available for the dishes, so… claim bread for all, knowledge for all, work for all, streaming and download at mondaymorningdenial. NM: There are folks who have passed on like independence and justice for all.” I came across the bandcamp.com.

15 The labor movement, digital media, and tools for resistance Dencik, Lina and Peter Wilkin. how it effectively has weakened the has its place in labour activism, and social media Worker Resistance and Media: labor movement as a whole, primarily has an important part to play here, but there needs Challenging Global Corporate in the Western world. to be broader overhaul of the union structures for Power in the 21st Century. The authors go on to explore the these potentials to be as effective as they could be.” New York: Peter Lang Publishing, evolution of labor’s relationship with The bulk of this book analyzes three major Inc., 2015. Paperback, 260 pages, big business as corporate globalization labor campaigns over the past two decades: Service $40.95. began to rise. This is what the authors Employees International Union (SEIU)’s Justice term as the “second wave of globaliza- for Janitors and UNITE and Unison’s Justice for Reviewed by tion,” defined by “a political ideology Cleaners movements; SEIU’s Fast Food Forward Diane Krauthamer that would require the support of the (or #FightFor15) campaign; and the domestic What is that role that emerg- state to enforce it, a form of capital- workers movements in Hong Kong and Singapore.

ing digital media should play in peterlang.comPhoto: ism that freed markets from social The overarching theme of these three cases were building effective worker resis- regulation and that would prioritize that, while digital activism and social media have tance to a global capitalist system? How should the corporate profits over social concerns or the brought and continue to bring much visibility and labor movement utilize digital and social media, common good.” Here, the authors point to Keith even some wins for these struggles, the aforemen- and to what end? These are some of the questions D. Ewing’s observation in his 2005 article, “The tioned limitations of focusing on these tools brings that authors Lina Dencik and Peter Wilkin raise Function of Trade Unions,” how “increasingly about larger questions of where the labor move- in “Worker Resistance and Media: Challenging unions have become subordinate partners, at best, ment is going and how we effectively utilize the Global Corporate Power in the 21st Century.” to corporations, with many instances of unions tools of digital media to help strengthen our work. While new media technologies bring about accepting recognition agreements in return for In addition to the possibility that over-reliance new opportunities for labor, these are merely tools helping corporations with their restructuring of on digital/social media may impede organizing, and will never be a substitute for shop-floor grass- the workforce.” According to Dencik and Wilkin, one major aspect that union activists need to un- roots organizing. Dencik and Wilkin argue just this growing business unionism illustrates “how far derstand is the larger context in which social/digi- that: the developing digital media technologies many unions have fallen in their role as defenders tal media exists: namely, corporate/state control are, and should continue to be, used by organized of their own membership, never mind the working of media. The authors describe the current media labor as tools in fighting against the dominant class in general.” landscape as “thoroughly corporate spaces.” It is paradigm of capitalist exploitation. But they are Building on these observations, Dencik and here that they call for unions to define themselves merely tools, and have limitations. Wilkin note that the labor movement is in “par- as “independent bodies” in order to present them- The book begins with the premise that the lous condition” but “has many tools that it needs selves as “a genuine challenge to state-corporate labor movement is in decline and global corporate in order to revive rebuild”—and this is where control.” power is on the rise, and goes on to explain the social media and digital activism enter the picture. This brings us to the conclusion—a redefini- sometimes-contradictory relationship that the Here, the authors look at how emerging digital tion of the labor movement and an overhaul media has had with labor throughout the 20th media tools play a role in new (or revisited) forms the predominant model of business unionism. century—as a “space for visibility and resistance” of worker organization. In particular, they look at Dencik and Wilkin call for the labor movement to but also as “an instrument for repression and how “different repertoires of digital activism that “rebuild its activities as an independent movement social control.” More specifically, the modern are emerging as forms of resistance” are becoming that is not subordinate to political parties or the media landscape defined here includes the public increasingly integrated into union activities. While state.” They envision this as a concept defined as relations, marketing and advertising industry that the benefits of having our own forms of media to “utopian realism,” which as “a conception of a emerged in the early 20th century “when both counter the corporate-owned mainstream media better world that can be built through cooperation capitalism and the nation-state system faced tre- are numerous, the authors are concerned about and mutual aid in alliance with progressive social mendous challenges from socialists and the labor putting too much emphasis on these tools, which movements, in the workplace and in communi- movement.” Dencik and Wilkin continue by offer- have limitations: ties.” This idea is influenced by the authors’ obser- ing concise histories of trade unionism, corporate “Rather than using digital media to mobilise vation of the successes and failures of the modern- globalization and developing digital media tech- industrial power in new ways, therefore, the focus day labor movement’s use of coalition-building nologies. Of specific importance in this context has been on building symbolic power by enhanc- and sometimes successful, yet also limiting, use of was that, over the course of the 20th century, “it ing pressure through public image campaigns… social media and digital activism. became increasingly common for unions to seek Often the emphasis on media in this regard is seen Overall, “Worker Resistance and Media” can to align themselves with political parties, the state at the expense of actual organizing as resources help modern-day labor activists gain a broader and even business, in effect to align themselves and energies within the union are finite.” and more critical understanding of how to utilize with the very institutions that would threaten and This is where Dencik and Wilkin get to the the tools at our disposal in the context of a larger, end their independence.” The book highlights this impetus of why they analyzed digital media’s rela- socialist-oriented vision. It is with this that we can general pattern over the next 100 years or so, and tionship to worker resistance: “Of course advocacy continue fighting for a better world.

Industrial Worker • Summer 2016 16 Industrial Worker • Summer 2016 Reviving class consciousness By FW Ben Robertson class in mines, farms, factories, and homesteads ists of the employing class? Must we passively rely “As a rule, [working women and men] vote just across the planet are placed immediately into the on those who, in the alternate universe of polling as they would bet on a prize fight—to see if they can vaults of the employing class. From these over- are shown to hold similar political ideals as us, but pick a winner.” - Ralph Chaplin flowing vaults they graciously and with wisdom of in the real world have nothing in common with Wobbly Ralph Chaplin’s description of typical foresight dole out the smallest pittance legally (or the working class? Are we to simply look after our political thinking in 1933 rings depressingly true illegally) possible back to the worker. own individual interests at work, hoping a few 83 years later. Not only are workers still lulled into extra scraps will fall from the banquet table of believing that their ability to better the condi- the ultra-wealthy? Must we try to find a measure tions in which they find themselves is confined to of isolated happiness as we helplessly watch the selecting from a list of names on a ballot, they are bosses hoard unconscionable profits off our backs also increasingly having that selection dictated for while the politicians they buy find new “markets” them. On a near-daily basis in the United States to tap by poisoning the earth (which we toil to for instance, we are told who can or cannot win feed both them and ourselves), and by pumping elections, as if endlessly repeated voter prefer- the bodies of our young people full of bullets? ence statistics have anything to do with the daily Class consciousness—loyalty to one another as struggles of the working class. workers across national, political, ethnic, sexual, This stale, recycled information is not at all and social divisions—leads us to a winsome concerned with uprooting wage slavery, state bru-

Graphic: IWW imagination for a better world, and to courageous tality, or exploitation (if capitalism has consistently proven capable of anything, it is an inexhaustible This is grand larceny on an epic scale commit- direct actions which confront the real-life struggles capacity for reinventing all manner of violence to- ted in broad daylight with nodding approval from faced by workers on a daily basis. Wage theft, ward earthly life, conveniently packaged with even passersby. Yet the worker is encouraged in the intimidation and unnecessary stress, inhumane more ways to privatize, distract and profit from it). political realm not to act immediately to stop this work environments, working hours which make Buying mouthpieces in corporate media outlets crime when and where it is committed, but to take the enjoyment of home life impossible, lack of to obsess over the constantly shifting opinions of his or her time voting for a kind-hearted capital- maternity leave—and any other conditions work- very scientific-sounding “demographic” divisions ist who promises to “look into” such matters and ers of a given place determine to be a hindrance to has proven to be a fairly successful strategy for the perhaps encourage the bosses themselves to write their flourishing in that place—all contribute to bosses. This line of attack seeks to dupe workers up some sort of legislation which is not likely to the systematic exclusion of workers from a proper into believing that they have no unifying interests become law, but which will allow the kind-hearted share in the wealth they have quite literally labored as a class because of their many different political capitalist to display some admirable willingness to create. preferences, and that the best one can do is choose to “stand up to Wall Street” and “fight for Main We hope those who find themselves in posi- the “lesser evil” from among some sad rabble of a Street.” This advice propagates the idea that voting tions of political power will muster the motivation few ultra-wealthy candidates labeled “serious” only (especially in national elections) and indirect po- to join us in these struggles. But we do well to after ingratiating themselves to the boss class. litical action, rather than class consciousness and remember the words of Big and Ralph Chaplin goes on to remind us that, direct action on the job, is the most effective way “refuse to have the ballot interpreted for [us].” For, “Regardless of how much political dissatisfaction to rearrange the prevailing order. “when the workers are brought together in a great may exist at any given time, the workers’ bedrock “Workers must not delude themselves about organization they are not going to cease to vote. complaint against capitalism will continue to be the efficacy of political action,” Chaplin urges. That is when the workers will begin to vote…” economic,” not political. For they are robbed as a “The danger of overstressing the importance of Whether or not we silently cast the single vote class, “at the point of production, and at the point political action lies in the fact that the workers allotted to us by those who are afforded a bit more of production [they] must fight against continued are thereby led to trust someone else (usually not influence than that, it is not political participation exploitation.” We must vigilantly resist the narra- which ultimately empowers the working class. We tive that the ones to blame for economic suffering a member of the working class) to do something can spit out the pacifier by making noise and or- are fellow workers who “steal jobs” or “mooch” for them which, with a little understanding and off of the system. There is indeed a class directly determination, they could have done a whole lot ganizing at the point of production for industrial responsible for the theft of countless jobs, and the easier by themselves…Confidence in political ac- democracy. There in we retain that reaping of profits from harvests where they have tion not only robs the worker of the initiative for power which the bosses know we have; that power sown no seed by their own sweat or ingenuity. We independent action, it also leads [them] into that they so desperately hope we dilute and forfeit to need no polls or pundits to explain to us which state of mind where [they are] willing to exchange their politicians. class that is. one kind of dictatorship for another.” And as we work together to form a new world At the root of all the political injustices faced Is it true that our only reasonable option is to within the shell of the old, we may even have the by particular groups of workers is a singular trough behave ourselves and let the fighting be done for simple and time-honored joy of causing some from which the salivating jaws of the capitalist us by elected officials foisted into power by dark harmless trouble for the bosses (who surely will monster are fed: fruits produced by the working money from the most corrupt and devoted capital- find it all quite educational). Solidarity forever!

17 Original Wobbly, Pierce Wetter

By Steve Thornton Historian Melvyn Dubofsky writes in his I recently met Rénice Alban, age 90, the history of the Wobblies: “The Justice Department daughter of Pierce T. Wetter. Wetter was arrested was indeed fortunate that public hysteria had in 1917 in a nationwide roundup of more than convicted the Wobblies before the jury heard the 100 IWW activists for opposing the United prosecution’s evidence, for the prosecution, in States’ entry into World War I. He and many fact, had no evidence.” Wetter served his full five others were imprisoned; he served five years in years; some of the defendants received 20-year the Cook County Jail in Chicago and the United sentences. States Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas. His Immediately after he was released from prison brother Telfair ran the Baltimore IWW office dur- in 1922, Wetter was threatened with deportation ing this period. by the federal immigration authorities. He was As soon as she mentioned her father, Rénice charged with being an illegal alien, even though Alban launched into “The Internationale”: “Arise the government had his citizenship records on you prisoners of starvation / Arise you wretched file. With the help of the American Civil Liberties of the earth / for justice thunders condemnation / Union (ACLU), Wetter was able to stay in the There’s a better world in birth!” United States. A Kansas newspaper called the Her dad taught her the song. This was the government’s attempt “a legal kidnapping.” first time she had sung it since she was a young After Leavenworth, Wetter continued to fight Graphic: shoeleatherhistoryproject.com girl. Now, living in a Hartford-area retirement for the remaining Wobblies in prison. He wrote Well-worn pamphlet on the trial of 100 Wobblies, community, Alban began to remember more. She “Men I Left at Leavenworth,” a passionate plea including Pierce Wetter. knew he had written an article on behalf of those for their release that focused on the personal to fight the power, challenging Robert Moses, the still imprisoned. “It’s in Joyce Kornbluh’s book stories of a number of the inmates. His article em- controversial “master builder” of New York City. [‘Rebel Voices’],” she recalled. phasized that they were jailed for their beliefs and Moses wielded great power that he used to Pierce Wetter led an amazing life, before and nothing more. build highways and parks, willfully ignoring the after his five-year act of conscience. Besides being “War hysteria prevented a fair trial,” he told a a Wobbly, he was a Quaker and a pacifist. He group of college students after his release. “When consequences to residents and their neighbor- was born on April 4, 1895 in Madagascar, the newspapers like the Chicago Tribune advocated hoods (he was also the reason the Dodgers left son of the American consul. He and his siblings that we should be shot without trial, when 10 Brooklyn). When Moses wanted to put an encir- were raised in Georgia and Ohio, mostly by his tons of [our trial defense] material was held up cling double roadway around Washington Square aunt. His daughter remembered that Wetter was at the post office, when funds for the defense in 1939, Wetter organized community opposition effectively abandoned at 12 years old, and with were not permitted to reach us, the handicap was to successfully stop the plan. his brother they tramped around the country. too great,” Wetter said. With a sense of humor He faced Moses again in 1942 when the He eventually inherited some family property. that must have helped keep him sane in prison, power broker planned to eliminate a waterfront Pierce could trace his ancestry back to a member he added: “I was rather fortunate when Judge complex in the Battery Park section of Manhat- of the Continental Congress during the American [Kenesaw Mountain] Landis parceled out the tan. Before Ellis Island opened, Fort Clinton Revolutionary War and former U.S. President sentences, for I only got only five years, though I had been the first stopping point for 8 million Franklin Pierce. don't know why.” immigrant families coming to America. Moses In 1916, Wetter was an officer of the IWW’s In 1923 Wetter worked to organize a massive cared little about that kind of history and began Coal Mine Workers Industrial Union in Great IWW mobilization at Port Arthur, Texas. The demolition. Wetter led a campaign to halt its total Falls, Mont. He wrote to Bill Haywood of the union had announced its intention of organiz- destruction, saving the immigrant building. workers’ enthusiasm for “sabotage” as a tactic in ing longshoremen and sailors there. Wobbly Wetter felt the rage of Moses when the mogul their organizing campaign, but Haywood did not James Holland and two other unidentified fellow used red baiting and ad hominem attacks against approve, writing back that “there is nothing the en- workers were murdered after being arrested by the activist during this fight. Moses, referring to emy would like better” than to publicize the tactic. police and turned over to the Ku Klux Klan. The the activist’s IWW membership, publicly called The letter was used against Wetter at his trial. New York Times wrote that “The plan, according Wetter “one of a gang of thugs and saboteurs who The federal government simultaneously raided to Wetter, is to ‘overrun the town with jobless interfered with the military and civil works of 64 IWW offices in September 1917, arresting I.W.W.s and thus create a problem for local au- the United States government during the World Wetter and many of the union’s most well-known thorities. At the same time, resolutions of protest War.” Wetter “did not have a single characteristic leaders. The charges included interfering with will be forwarded to the Mayor.’” of a Quaker,” Moses sputtered, and he deserved “a the war effort and violating the Espionage Act Wetter had moved to Brooklyn by 1923 and good public sock in the jaw.” Fort Clinton is now of 1917. Their trial began on April 1, 1918. He studied to become a mechanical engineer. He a national monument. and 114 other Wobblies were charged with 100 and his family lived on Washington Square in Pierce Wetter was pardoned by Franklin D. separate crimes each—over 10,000 criminal acts Manhattan with Robertson Trowbridge (who had Roosevelt in 1933. He died at the age of 68 on in total. adopted Wetter at a late age). There he continued May 10, 1963.

Industrial Worker • Summer 2016 18 Industrial Worker • Summer 2016 The Social War in France By the French CNT International Secretariat’s European Workgroup To understand the present struggle, we find it useful to identify the ingredients contribut- ing to the explosion of a social war that has been sweeping the country in wave after wave of popular protests.

Ingredient number 1: Instill a Little Fear The day after the November 2015 attacks in Paris by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the French government decreed a nation- wide state of emergency. First used in 1955 fol-

lowing the Algerian Front de Libération Nationale Photo: Nuit Debout (FLN) attacks on mainland France, these “special Demonstration in Paris on June 14, 2016, with 1 million protesters from all over the country attending. powers” were revived in 2005 under the presidency terrorist” measures to any French activist foolhardy who could not? Indeed, where could a prison be of Jacques Chirac in the context of widespread enough to claim that in fact capitalism, not global found for somebody with no nationality? On the rioting over the accidental electrocution of two warming, represented the real threat to our planet. moon? youngsters pursued by the police. It seemed at All street protests against COP 21 were purely and Unsurprisingly, in the wake of this debacle, the time a civil war might start between poor, simply banned! The semantic shift from “defending popularity ratings for Hollande and Valls hit an suburban, immigrant communities and the French the nation” from an external enemy to defending all-time low. middle classes, but curfews and the dream of the it from an “internal” one was seamlessly relayed “suburban vote” in subsequent elections put an end by the government to the media. Few journalists Ingredient Number 3: A Quick Change of to that notion. batted an eye when, during an unauthorized anti- Recipe or...the Government of the People The new security measures include the milita- COP 21 demonstration in Place de la République Against the People rization of local police forces, the multiplication and environs, 341 people were arrested. La Loi Travail (the labor reform act) is com- of people placed under police custody, increased On a positive note, organizations like France’s posed of 50 articles designed to destroy victories military presence, searches and arrests night and human rights association, la Ligue des droits gained by social movements over the past century, day (without the need for a warrant), and a recent de l’Homme, rallied against this attack on civil most notably those forged and fought for by mem- attempt to stifle social protest by banning dem- liberties and joined trade union, left-wing, and bers of Résistance, many of whom were tortured onstrations opposing la Loi Travail—labor reform magistrates’ groups to denounce the Valls strong- and killed during the Nazi occupation of France. legislation. This latter attack showed us how weak and isolated the state has now become, as its efforts man initiative. Nationwide protests took place In short, “in-company agreements” will replace to stop the people fighting to preserve the country’s and benumbed journalists asked dissenters how bargaining. Previously, the terms of collec- social model have proved futile. The struggle and they could possibly justify their behavior to the tive bargaining had to be accepted by 30 percent of demonstrations go on and the cry “On ne lâche families of the 130 victims. Embarrassingly enough representative unions. With the law, agreements will rien!” (We shall not give an inch!), is fast becoming for the mainstream press, at a highly mediatized need to be accepted by 50 percent. Why? Because a term of salutation. commemoration for the victims, one of the three the government knows quite well that it is highly Clearly, the state of emergency seeks both to families who refused French President François unlikely that half the unions would agree to terms muzzle activists and to stigmatize French Muslims. Hollande’s outstretched hand pointed a finger at unfavorable to workers. If no agreement can be By pitting one community against the other, the France’s “disastrous Middle East policy” and the reached in such conditions, employers will cynically government is trying to destroy solidarity and abandonment of underclass suburbs to despair. organize a simple in-company referendum, a system replace it with fear and mutual suspicion. The Small wonder that this indictment by the father in which the pressure to keep one’s job will see frag- measures intended to “counter” terrorism have of a 17-year-old girl killed at the Bataclan Theater ile workers voting to have colleagues laid off. been perverted. In reality, the police have arrested should first be published not on a French, but on Additionally, the protection of workers will be innumerably more activists than terrorists. an American media website. greatly reduced, as the interest of the company will Finally, in a comic incident, the government’s prevail over that of its workers. Bosses may freely Ingredient Number 2: The Chef’s Slight of Hand effort to modify the state of emergency by adding increase the hours of the work week and reduce While most French people would have been in a clause which would withdraw French citizenship salaries. Previously, the French labor code imposed favor of a state of emergency in the aftermath of from bi-nationals accused of terrorism, floundered a maximum of 10 hours work per day. With the ISIL’s brutal murder of innocent people, it quickly on the rocks of reality. Firstly, in a country histori- new law, employees may have to work up to 12 became clear during the 2015 United Nations cally priding itself on its egalitarian treatment of all hours or more per day. If a worker refuses the boss’s Climate Change Conference (COP 21) in De- citizens, wouldn’t it be unfair to make a distinction modifications to their employment contract, they cember that Prime Minister Manuel Valls and his between bi-nationals who could have their French can easily be fired—in the interest of the company, team were only too happy to apply the “counter- nationality taken away and French-born citizens of course.

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Previously if a worker was not able to work Ingredient Number 5: Stir In a Strong Dose of This was the first time in France that the police en- anymore because of sickness or industrial injury, Repression tered a union office in this way. Recently, the police the boss had to find them a new job. With the new The fact that the infamous riot police, the stopped and searched one of our union trucks in law, if the boss cannot find a new job, they can Compagnies Républicaines de Sécurité (CRS), Bordeaux. In Rennes, the Recherche, Assistance, simply dismiss the worker. should be presented by the media as the unfor- Intervention, Dissuasion (RAID, an elite law Previously, the labor laws imposed an 11-hour tunate victims of vandals—while the hundreds if enforcement unit of the French National Police) break between two working days. With the new not thousands of protestors who in the past few evacuated a youth club which was being peacefully law, these 11 hours may be divided up and it will months have been savagely beaten, gassed and im- occupied as a protest against the new labor law. be jolly-well too bad if workers do not get enough prisoned, are being portrayed as casseurs (rioters)— Police violence is not simply made up of sleep! speaks mountains about the power of journalists isolated incidences. It clearly constitutes the policy Also, with the exception of workers who apply and their capacity to brainwash anyone witless of the Ministry of the Interior and the government for employment to do dangerous jobs, occupation- enough to take their reports for granted. to destroy our movement, very much to the delight al medical visits prior to hiring will be consigned to During the national, inter-professional strike of French fascists, who recently demonstrated the dustbin of history. As a result, the majority of on June 14, 2016, for example, demonstrators were alongside policemen fed up of the growing popular workers will not know if they really are medically cattled between a water cannon and two lines of hatred for cops. and physically apt to do the jobs they have been riot police in full battle array positioned in front of employed for. a children’s hospital. Mobile autonomous groups Popular French Cuisine: The People’s Own Recipe Last but not least, with the new law, if a of protestors, who limit their actions to writing This people’s movement grew out of protests company experiences a financial deficit for more libertarian slogans on walls and publicity billboards against the new labor law, but touches on broader than six consecutive months, the boss can cobble or in some cases, smashing bank windows, replied issues such as ecology and direct democracy. People together a redundancy plan and fire all the em- to police aggression by stoning the CRS in what involved in the movement organize themselves into ployees. was undoubtedly the fiercest street fighting our working groups and committees to talk and act on Seventy-five percent of the French people generation has ever seen. Naturally enough, some the issues. The movement has given rise to a fresh are against the new law. Even before it went to windows of the hospital were broken. When the look at today’s society. parliament, over 1 million people signed a petition tear gas had cleared, the CRS moved on and as the The biggest Nuit Debout sessions took place in against the law. Moreover, two of France’s most last demonstrators were licking their wounds, the Rennes, Nantes and Paris. Smaller sessions are to representative trade unions, Confédération générale media homed in and showed to a horrified nation, be found in many other cities with varying degrees du travail (CGT) and Force Ouvrière, plus all shots of windows broken in the children’s hospital. of success. In Paris, it was not uncommon to see student organizations, as well as 85 percent of small Not one mention was made of how the police pres- well over 1,000 people standing in Place de la Ré- companies belonging to craftsmen or professional sured, harassed and brutalized the demonstrators. publique every night. They lost no time in creating people, are against it. Even a majority of parlia- At best, such reports show the gross ineptitude of a united front with some unions, like our own. The mentarians and Members of Parliament (MPs) are journalists. At worst, these reports point to cleverly sessions are run along lines of direct but restricted against the law! orchestrated state-media collusion. democracy. They suggest that we reconsider parlia- Using the state of emergency as a shield, the mentary representation and give people a voice. Ingredient Number 4: Add a Pinch of police are cracking down more and more violently. Today, the Nuit Debout movement is under- Authoritarianism Innumerable activists and young people—even going a mutation. It is as if the time for action The tactic known as “49.3” refers to Article junior high school students, for example, protest- has come after the months of debate. Groups are 49.3 of the French Constitution. The government ing over the planned closure of their school—are taking their own initiatives and getting involved started using 49.3, which meant that it was able being arrested, injured by the police and attacked in many local struggles. The Nuit Debout “label” to pass the labor reform act without a debate or a with tear gas, flash-balls, or batons. People are going has added a refreshing zest to a movement which vote in parliament or in concrete terms, without to jail simply for being union activists. We have to is not likely to peter out, given the determination the agreement of France’s MPs—the men and cope with a systematic police crackdown against ev- of activists, the multiplicity of battlefronts, and the women who represent the people. ery protest movement, even the most peaceful ones. extremely high stakes this war represents for work- Back in 2006 when he was in the opposition, At the beginning of the protests against the ing people. François Hollande went on record as stating that new labor law, we relied on high school and “49.3 is brutality, a denial of democracy.” Today, university students to start the movement. But the Our View the state and employers, hand in hand, are waging government strategy was to severely intimidate Like some other unions, we still think that the a class war, one they mean to win in the most au- young people and their parents. The goal was to try general strike must continue until the new labor thoritarian manner. Moreover, in a 2012 pre-elec- to sweep the movement under the carpet and to law is withdrawn. This will be the only way to get tion promise, Hollande swore that he would never break up student-worker solidarity. what we want. Other unions, however, those which have recourse to 49.3. “Ah, how times change,” he In the spring of 2016, seven comrades of have the greatest impact with the people, think might now well add! the Confédération nationale du travail of France of the general strike in terms of theory but not in Finally, to add insult to injury and indeed, in (CNT-F) were arrested and held for questioning. practice, hence the rolling nature of the general keeping with the authoritarianism of Article 49.3, Since that time, this tendency has been become strike, with all-out strikes occurring only every 10 disgruntled members of reformist unions which commonplace. Many people have been physically days or so. support the law are being suspended for having injured in big cities like Nantes and Rennes. In CNT-France is deeply convinced that the fight outspokenly criticized their unions’ pro-govern- Lille, police smashed down the door of our union must go on and more than ever, with a social and ment position. office with a battering ram to arrest activists inside. libertarian revolution as a finality.

Industrial Worker • Summer 2016 Industrial Worker PO Box 180195 Periodicals Postage Chicago, IL 60618 USA PAID ISSN 0019-8870 Chicago, IL ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED

Front cover: Protesters demand justice for Eric Garner on the 2nd anniversary of his killing, July 17, 2016, in New York. Photos/design by Ben Ferguson.

Back cover: Demonstration on the one-year anniversary of the Tamir Rice shooting on Nov. 22, 2015 in Cleveland, Ohio. Photo by Carter Eugene Adams.