NLRB strips more In November We Remember workers of labor rights workers’ history & martyrs Working “supervisors” lose IWW founder William Trautmann, right to unionize, engaged in Brotherhood of Timber Workers, concerted activity on job 4 Victor Miners’ Hall, and more 5-8 Industrial International support for Starbucks workers As picket lines and other actions reach new Starbucks locations across the United States and the world every week, the coffee giant has told workers it is raising starting pay in an effort to blunt unionization efforts. In Chicago, where workers at a Logan Worker Square store demanded IWW union recogni- tion August 29, Starbucks has raised starting pay from $7.50 an hour to $7.80. After six months, Chicago baristas who receive favor- able performance reviews will make $8.58. Picket lines went up at Paris Starbucks Official newspaper of the In New York City, where Starbucks or- anti-union campaign. UAW Local 2320 in ganizing began, baristas will make $9.63 an Brooklyn has told Starbucks that its members iNdustrial workers of the world hour after six months on the job and a favor- will not drink their coffee until the fired November 2006 #1689 Vol. 103 No. 10 $1.00 / 75 p able performance review. Senior baristas will unionists are reinstated. Several union locals, receive only a ten-cent raise to discourage student groups and the National Lawyers long-term employment. Similar raises are Guild have declared they are boycotting Star- being implemented across the country. bucks in solidarity with the fired workers. Talkin’ Union Meanwhile, the National Labor Relations In England, Manchester Wobblies pick- b y N i c k D r i e dg er, Wobbly D ispatc h Board continues its investigation into the fir- eted a Starbucks in Albert Square Sept. 23, ( e D m o nto n iww n e ws l e tt e r ) ings of four New York IWW baristas for union reducing the clientele to a gaggle of police Kate and Hannah: The first day Hannah activity on pretexts ranging from insubor- officers monitoring the picket line and bussed into camp she was tired. It had been a while dination to undermining employee morale. drinking what are believed to be free drinks since she worked this kind of job, and the long trip A resolution of these unfair labor practice provided by management. The British Isles up Highway 2 was not one she made willingly. But charges is not expected before next year. Regional Organising Committee has launched she was broke, and it was either this or moving back Messages of solidarity have come from an outreach campaign to coffeeshop workers in with her parents. Taking this job meant she could far and wide. The C.E.K. union in Guinea, at www.baristasunited.org.uk. make rent quickly and keep her apartment. The Africa, wrote Starbucks Sept. 23 declaring its The coffee giant is a 100 percent part- camp was like many others Hannah had worked on support for the Starbucks workers. In France, time employer, and workers rarely know what and off for the past few years. About fifty men and members of the National Confederation of their schedule or hours will be week to week. women, including the gas workers and the kitchen Workers (CNT) entered Starbucks outlets While the wage increase is a step in the right staff, populated a remote cluster of ATCO trailers in Paris, distributing leaflets to customers direction, low pay and a lack of secure hours in the woods just north of Slave Lake. and workers about the company’s repeated still combine to mean poverty. And the ma- She met Kate that night working her first shift violations of workers’ rights. The Comité de jority of Starbucks workers remain without and they quickly hit it off. Maybe it was the kitchen Solidarité de Madagascar has also condemned health insurance from the company. supervisor, who they both hated, or maybe that they liked the same music. The work rate Starbucks’ union busting, joining earlier “We fought hard and this is a great union in the kitchen was fast, among the most demanding conditions they had ever worked solidarity statements received from Austria, victory, but there’s still a ways to go,” said under. A few times Kate told off the supervisor and Hannah quickly came to her aid; Canada, England, Germany, Korea, New Zea- Isis Saenz, an IWW member and Starbucks sometimes he would let them work a bit slower, but sometimes he was hard-nosed and land, and across the United States. barista in New York City. “Starbucks Chair- wouldn’t budge. With knives flying about, and a couple of nasty burns each by the end In Massachusetts, the Cambridge City man Howard Schultz needs to accept that of the first week, their resolve only strengthened – working fast is dangerous in a small Council has passed a resolution supporting baristas deserve a living wage and have a right kitchen, and they decided they would rather work safe and do the job right. the right of Starbucks workers to organize to join a union free of coercion.” After a few days of dicing onions, weighing sandwiches, and generally trying to ignore with the IWW and condemning Starbucks’ continued on page 3 the supervisor, they made a deal. The deal was simple: they would work the same rate, they would stick up for each other, and if one were to quit she would give the other one week’s notice, though none was required to be given to the supervisor. The weeks flew by, and over time Kate and Hannah won a couple other people over Garment strike closes to their deal, though they still jokingly referred to their arrangement as a “two person union.” The longer they stuck with it, the better things got. Soon the supervisor stayed right out of the kitchen almost entirely, finding other jobs to do or taking his work else- Bangladeshi sweatshops where. For the last months of that long, dark winter, they ran their own show. When Workers began a 24-hour general strike Smaller groups spread through the capital, the thaw finally came, Kate and Hannah parted ways. As they stepped on to the bus, the October 15 as riot police fanned through blocking roads and attacking factories. grouchy old supervisor bid them good riddance: “It was almost like there was some kind factory districts, ostensibly to prevent attacks Eventually a massive force of Rapid Action of union in this camp as soon as you two showed up, and even worse, your bad attitude upon factories. “None would be allowed to Battalion paramilitaries and police reinforce- was starting to catch on in other parts of the camp. Now that you kids are gone we can create anarchy in the garment sector,” said ments managed to regain control. try and get things back to normal.” Home Minister Lutfuzzaman Babar. The garment bosses’ federation, BGMEA, They smiled, grabbed their pay stubs and went home. Police have arrested more than 100 demanded that the government arrest several Phil: Phil had been working in the lumberyard for a few months before he decided workers for allegedly participating in ear- union leaders they named as supposed insti- to talk to his co-workers about the conditions. Their job mostly consisted of unloading lier protests in which thousands of workers gators of the unrest. “If steps are not taken, rail cars full of wood and sometimes steel. Even when done properly, the work was dan- fought pitched battles with police and factory we may close down our factories together for gerous: all of the equipment was aging, and the cars themselves continued page 10 security guards Oct. 10. Employers have an indefinite period.” filed charges against some 10,000 workers, Meanwhile, the National Garment Work- on charges ranging from blocking roads to ers Federation has once again launched a Jailed for Indy Journalism 2 German IWW 3 Detroit Newspaper Strike 4 assault. national campaign demanding payment of The IWW: Democracy is the Key 8 Korean Govt. Workers Under Attack 12 The protests broke out as the government the EID festival bonus equal to one month’s was announcing a “compromise” minimum wages. Such a bonus is customary in Bangla- Industrial Worker Periodicals Postage wage of Tk 1662.50 (up only pennies from the desh, but garment workers had been excluded PO Box 13476 PAID original proposal of about US$23 a month), until the NGWF launched its first campaign Philadelphia, PA 19101 Philadelphia, PA far below the Tk 3,000 minimum workers three years ago which won at least partial have been demanding as the bare minimum ISSN 0019-8870 and additional bonuses for half of the country’s garment mailing offices to sustain life. workers. ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED Since the garment workers’ revolt in May Workers rely on the bonus in order to and June, negotiations on promised improve- return to their home villages during the holi- ments in conditions and setting of a livable days and spend time with their families. The minimum wage have broken down as em- bonus is particularly urgent this year, as the ployers refused any substantive concessions, cost of living has risen sharply, while wages claiming this would render Bangladeshi gar- have remained stagnant. ments uncompetitive on the world market. The NGWF has registered branches in 28 Workers poured out of factories in the factories, and committees in hundreds more. thousands Oct. 10 at 9 a.m. (several hours It claims 21,655 dues-paying members, and is into the work day), and marched to other one of six unions making up the Bangladesh Subscribers: The number (top line) reflects the last issue due on your subscription factories still working and closed them down. Garments Workers Unity Council. Page  • Industrial Worker • November 2006 Bosses’ strikes It seems that wealthy speculators are Radical attorney Lynne Stewart sentenced When an industrial plant closes, often driving up prices by buying crude oil “fu- Attorney Lynne Stewart was sentenced to 28 months in prison to relocate in another country, it is a strike tures” on news of violence there, thus raising Oct. 16, far less than prosecutors had been seeking. The 67-year-old by management. The great Big Bill Haywood the price of gasoline and heating oil here in grandmother, who is suffering from breast cancer and other ailments, made this point. But it is different from a North America by buying and selling barrels has also been barred from practicing law. labor strike, because a labor strike is usually of oil that have not yet been produced, and Stewart was convicted of defrauding the government, conspiracy settled. As far as I know, perhaps never will be. and providing support for terrorism; charges stemming from her rep- there is no law for stopping Workers should not resentation of Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, an Egyptian Islamic scholar or postponing management trust the capitalist press convicted in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. She was charged strikes. Often, they put a as it tries to whip up with sharing her client’s views with the press, violating a prison rule whole town out of work. war fever. prohibiting him from communicating with anyone except his wife and attorney, and dis- Meanwhile, we are in Robert G. Rice II cussing matters with him that went beyond what the government permitted. An interpreter, a war for democracy, or so St. Louis Mohammed Yousry, was also convicted for doing nothing more than translating conversations we are told. The first world war (1914-1918) between Stewart and her client; paralegal Ahmed Abdel Sattar was convicted of disseminating was the “war to end wars” and to “make the Farewell, Fellow Worker Rahman’s views to others. world safe for democracy.” — Joe Glazer — Over the course of the prosecution it became clear that the government had eavesdropped Rabbi Avraham Karelitz wrote, toward Labor singer������������������������� Joe Glazer died Sept. 19 on Stewart’s conversations with her client, and may have wiretapped her phones. the beginning of the war, of the great suffering at age 88, after more than 60 years of sing- San Francisco journalist jailed for refusing to aid frame-up it caused: “This land is engulfed by a way... ing and writing songs of solidarity, justice, Indymedia videographer Josh Wolf is entering his third month in federal prison for re- Provinces and cities have been ravaged and unions and workers. Among his 30 albums fusing to surrender video he shot of a July 2005 San Francisco protest to a grand jury, and if destroyed; tens of thousands of people have was a collection of IWW songs, reissued for authorities hold him to July 2007, as they have threatened, would become the longest-jailed been exiled with no support of any kind.” the centenary and available from the IWW journalist in U.S. history. California law protects journalists’ right to protect confidential Thousands of Wobblies were jailed for Literature Department ($15). sources and unpublished materials, but federal prosecutors took control of the investigation opposing the slaughter. And still it goes on. Born in New York City in 1918, Glazer’s under the pretext that a police car that a demonstrator might have attempted to light on fire Raymond Solomon father was a member of the Ladies’ Garment (a piece of smoldering Styrofoam was on the ground nearby) was purchased in (small) part editor, Free Voices, New York Workers Union. After Glazer took a job with with federal dollars. A policeman was also reportedly injured by demonstrators. the Textile Workers Union in 1944, he and Wolf’s video does not capture those scenes, but prosecutors are seeking footage of his Rumors of war and oil his guitar were dispatched to picket lines interviews with 10 protesters. Wolf posted a highly critical video report on the protest against We have heard a great deal of late about in the south where he began writing labor the G9 economic summit on the Internet (www.joshwolf.net) and sold some footage to a local the possibility of a war between the United songs, sometimes based on gospel hymns. television station. When police went to his home, asked him questions about local anarchists, States and Iran – a war in which working Among his best-known were “Automation,” and demanded his footage he refused to surrender it. people on both sides would be killing each “The Mill Was Made of Marble,” and “Too Wolf spent much of August behind bars at the order of a U.S. District Judge, was freed other. The capitalist press tells us that Iran’s Old to Work.” during his initial appeal, and returned to prison Sept. 22 when the appeals court ruled against “nuclear ambitions” are driving up world oil In his memoir, Labour’s Troubadour, Glaz- him. His is one of several cases in which federal prosecutors are trying to imprison journal- prices, and prices are indeed going up. But is er described leading strikers around a textile ists for refusing to reveal confidential sources. “This is yet another sign that the government there another reason? mill singing those songs. They were “basi- doesn’t understand what journalists do,” Gregg Leslie, legal defense director of the Reporters A spokesperson for the Oppenheimer cally one-line verses that could be quickly Committee for Freedom of the Press, told the San Francisco Chronicle. He added that Wolf risks brokerage firm admitted on the PBS Nightly changed” to suit any situation, he said. being “seen as an agent of the police and the state,” which would destroy his credibility. Business Report August 30 that much of the price increase is attributable to violence in the West African oil exporting nation of Nigeria, where IWW directory residents are fighting the devastation Australia United States Maine 45231, [email protected]. IWW Regional Organising Committee Norumbega: Barry Rodrigue, del., PO Box 57, of their lands by the oil companies. Arizona Oklahoma M. Payne, Secretary, PO Box 1866, Albany W.A. Bath 04530. Phoenix GMB: 1205 E. Hubbell St., 85006- Tulsa: Karl Howeth, 4510 W. Archer, 74127. [email protected], www.iww.org.au 1758. 602-254-4057. Aaron Rothenburger, del., Maryland 918-282-7348. [email protected] Sydney: PO Box 241, Surry Hills. sydney@ 480-303-9580. Baltimore IWW: c/o Red Emma’s, 800 St. Industrial Worker Oregon iww.org.au Paul St., 21202, 410-230-0450, iww@redem- Arkansas Portland Industrial District Council: 311 N. The Voice of Revolutionary Melbourne: PO Box 145, Moreland 3058. mas.org. Fayetteville: PO Box 283, 72702. 479-200- Ivy St., 97227, 503-231-5488. pdxiwwhall@ Industrial Unionism [email protected] 1859, [email protected]. Massachusetts riseup.net Boston Area GMB: PO Box 391724, Cam- H British Isles California Pennsylvania Organization bridge 02139. 617-469-5162. IWW Regional Organising Committee: Los Angeles GMB: PO Box 65822, 90065. Lancaster GMB: PO Box 796, 17608. H Education PO Box 1158,����� N�ewcastle�������� Up��on�� T�yne��� NE99������ 4XL� North Coast GMB: PO Box 844, Eureka Western Mass. Public Service IU 650 Branch: [email protected], http:// H Emancipation UK, [email protected]����������������, www.iww.org.uk 95502-0844. 707-725-8090. BST Angie Hart: IWW, Po Box 1581, Northampton 01061. LancasterIWW.org IWW London: c/o Freedom Press, 84b [email protected] Western Massachusetts GMB: 43 Taylor Hill Philadelphia GMB: PO Box 42777, 19101. Official newspaper of the Whitechapel High Street, London E1 7QX. San Francisco Bay Area GMB: (Curbside and Rd., Montague 01351. 413-367-9356. 215-222-1905. [email protected] [email protected] Industrial Workers Buyback IU 670 Recycling Shops; Stonemoun- Michigan Union Hall: 4530 Baltimore Ave., 19143. Leicestershire: PO Box 7903, LE3 0WT. klas- tain IU 660 Job Shop) PO Box 11412, Berkeley Detroit GMB: PO Box 08161, 48208. detroit@ South Street Workers Union /Workers Rights of the World [email protected] www.leicestershire-iww.org.uk 94712. 510-845-0540. Meetings first Thursdays iww.org Hotline 215-990-8250. [email protected] Paper Crane Press IU 450 Job Shop: paper- P. O. Box 23085 Manchester: www.iww-manchester.org.uk at 7 p.m. (2022 Blake St., Berkeley) Grand Rapids GMB: PO Box 6629, 49516. [email protected], 610-358-9496. Cincinnati, OH 45223 Scotland San Jose: Adam Welch, del. 408-795-9672. Chuck Neller, Secretary.; Cole Dorsey (del.) Pittsburgh GMB / Education Workers Or- Clydeside GMB: iwwclydeside.mahost.org. email: [email protected] 616-881-5263. [email protected] USA, 513-591-1905 ganizing Committee: PO Box 90315, 15224. Santa Barbara GMB: PO Box 23008, 93121. Central Michigan: David Finet, 5007 W. email: [email protected] Edinburgh IWW: c/o 17 W. Montgomery [email protected] 805-689-3086, [email protected] Columbia Rd., Mason 48854. 517-676-9446, http://www.iww.org Place, EH7 SHA. Colorado [email protected] Texas Canada Austin GMB: PO Box 650011, 78765. Denver GMB: c/o P&L Printing Job Shop: 2298 Minnesota General Secretary-Treasurer: 512-320-8427, waterloowob@ Alberta Clay, Denver 80211. 303-433-1852. Duluth: Laverne Capan, 1522 N 8th Ave E, Mark Damron monkeywrenchbooks.org Edmonton GMB: PO Box 75175, T6E 6K1. Four Corners (AZ, CO, NM, UT): delegate: 55805-1115. 218-724-2647. [email protected], http://edmonton. General Executive Board: 970-903-8721. [email protected] Twin Cities GMB: PO Box 14111, Minneapolis Utah iww.ca. Salt Lake City GMB: PO Box 520835, 84152- E. Wolfson (chair), Patrick Florida 55414. 612-339-4418. [email protected] British Columbia 0835. [email protected]. Gainesville GMB: 1021 W. University, 32601. Missouri Brenner, Jeannette Gysbers, Vancouver IWW: PO Box 4755, Stn. Terminal, 352-246-2240, [email protected] Kansas City GMB: c/o 5506 Holmes St., 64110. Washington Adam Lincoln, Ted Nebus, V6B 4A4. 604-682-3269 x8493. gmb-van@ Pensacola GMB: ������������������������610 E Wright St., 32501. 816-523-3995. Bellingham: P.O. Box 1793, 98227. Belling- Scott Satterwhite and iww.ca http://vancouver.iww.ca. [email protected] 360-920-6240. 850-429-0336.������������������� www.angelfire.com/f5/iww����� Montana Richard Seymour Manitoba Industrial Transportation Project: Arthur J [email protected] Construction Workers IU 330: Dennis Georg, Winnipeg GMB: IWW, c/o WORC, PO Box 1, Miller, PO Box 5464, Tacoma 98415-0464. Editor: Jon Bekken Hobe Sound: Peter Shultz, 8274 SE Pine Circle, del. 406-490-3869, [email protected] R3C 2G1. [email protected]. Garth 33455-6608, 772-545-9591, okiedogg2002@ Olympia GMB: PO Box 2775, 98507. 4530 Baltimore Avenue Hardy, del., [email protected]. yahoo.com New Jersey 360-956-9256. [email protected] Central New Jersey GMB: PO Box: 10021������,� Philadelphia PA 19143 Ontario Seattle GMB: 1122 E. Pike #1142, 98122-3934. Georgia New Brunswick 08904. 732-979-9973 email: [email protected] Ottawa-Outaouais GMB: PO Box 52003, 877-815-5684, www.seattleiww.org, seattle@ Atlanta: Keith Mercer, del., 404-992-7240, [email protected] 298 Dalhousie St. K1N 1S0, (613) 241-0382. [email protected] iww.org. John Persak, General Distribution ISSN 0019-8870 Periodicals [email protected] French-language del: Northern New Jersey GMB: 60 Martha Ave. IU660: [email protected]. Apt. 3, Elmwood Park 07407. 201-873-6215. postage paid Philadelphia PA. Mathieu Brúle [email protected]. Hawai’i Spokane: Tim Hill, 509-218-9622. [email protected] Peterborough: c/o PCAP, 393 Water St. #17, Honolulu: Tony Donnes, del., 808-547-2042. Postmaster: Send address [email protected] Wisconsin K9H 3L7, 705-749-9694, [email protected] New Mexico Madison GMB: PO Box 2442, 53703-2442. Albuquerque: 202 Harvard SE, 87106-5505. changes to: Industrial Worker, Toronto GMB: c/o Libra Knowledge & Infor- Illinois www.madisoniww.info. Lakeside Press IU 450 505-331-6132, [email protected]. POB 23085, Cincinnati OH 45223 mation Svcs Co-op, PO Box 353 Stn. A, M5W Chicago GMB & General Defense Committee Job Shop: 1334 Williamson, 53703. 608-255- 1C2. 416-925-7250. [email protected] Local 3: PO Box 18387, 3750 N. Kedzie, 60618. New York 1800. ������������www.lakeside�p���������ress.org. Madison Infos- Individual Subscriptions: $15 phone: 312-638-9155. Finland NYC GMB: PO Box 7430, JAF Station, New hop Job Shop: 1019 Williamson St. #B, 53703. Library Subs: $20/year Carbondale: Jason�������������������������������� Leonard,������������������� Southern Illinois Helsinki: Reko Ravela, Otto Brandtintie 11 B York City 10116, [email protected]. 608-262-9036. Two Degrees Coffeeshop Job delegate. [email protected]���������������������������.� (Member sub included in dues) 25, 00650. [email protected] Jim Crutchfield, I.U. 650, [email protected]. Shop: 307 W. Johnson St., 53703. 608-257- Champaign: David Johnson, 217-356-8247. 7888. Just Coffee Job Shop: www.justcoffee. Published eleven times per year; Upstate NY GMB: PO Box 235, Albany 12207, Germany 518-833-6853 or 861-5627. �����www.u�p���������state-ny- net. General Defense Committee Local #4: Indexed by Alternative Press Center Waukegan IWW: PO Box 274, 60079. waukeg- IWW Kontakts: Lutz Getzschmann, IWW c/o [email protected] iww.org�. [email protected], Ro- P.O. Box 811, 53701. 608-262-9036. RMB-Infoladen, Hamburger Allee 35, 60486 chelle Semel, del, PO Box 172, Fly Creek 13337, Railroad Workers IU 520: Ron Kaminkow, Articles not so designated do not Iowa Frankfurt am Main. [email protected]. 607-293-6489, [email protected]. PO Box 3010, Madison 53704, 608-358-5771. reflect the official position of the Cedar Rapids: Drew Robertson, del., 206-290- Frankfurt: [email protected]. [email protected]. IWW. Contributions welcome. 9072. Ohio Koeln: [email protected]. Ohio Valley GMB: PO Box 42233, Cincinnati Milwaukee GMB: PO Box 070632, 53207. Iowa City: Seamus Mulryan, del., 319-248- 414-481-3557. Press Date: Oct. 18, 2006 3589. [email protected] 45242. IU 660: PO Box 317741, Cincinnati November 2006 • Industrial Worker • Page  Chicago couriers fight Solidarity with Starbucks workers... Senior workers were given a disproportionately low NICA contractor scam wage increase, reflecting a trend of large retailers to elimi- The Chicago Couriers Union continues nate costlier long-term workers. The performance review its fight to remove the National Independent basis for the six-month raise is problematic as well. Star- Contractors Association (a pay-to-work bucks often issues negative performance reviews to punish scam) from our industry. After Intercept baristas who challenge unjust company policies. Courier seemed to renege on removing NICA, Starbucks has instructed store-level management to we held an informational picket outside the hold one-on-one meetings with employees to push its claim company’s office October 10. We spoke to sev- that the pay hike is the result of a company survey, not union eral couriers coming in to get their paychecks, pressure. Starbucks has similarly characterized past gains who were glad to learn of our efforts. won by the union as “random acts of kindness.” One worker who had recently quit found The IWW Starbucks Workers Union now has an that his last paycheck was missing; he was organized presence at seven Starbucks locations in New told he’d have to take it up with the boss, who York City and Chicago fighting for systemic change at the had left for the day. Several calls yielded no company and remedying individual grievances. In New results, but we soon learned that the boss was York, the union has raised the wage of many workers almost on his way back from the Northwest suburbs 25 percent in less than two and a half years of organizing. CNT members distribute leaflets about Starbucks’ union-busting inside one because of our picket. IWW baristas have also fought successfully for improved of its Paris outlets. Updated information on the campaign and downloadable When the boss arrived an argument en- scheduling and store safety. leaflets and other resources are available at www.starbucksunion.org. sued. Two delegates accompanied the courier into the office, but were told the boss was Border fence bill passes Workers for McD’s supplier writing a check and were kicked out. Portland Industrial District The U.S. House and Senate approved leg- live in “squalid housing” The end result was that the courier was Council anniversary bash islation to build 700 miles of double-layered According to an expose published in given a check for $24 for two weeks of work. Portland Wobs will be celebrating the fencing on the U.S.-Mexico border, costing North Carolina’s News and Observer, entitled He did owe money to Intercept for bike parts, anniversary of the IDC’s founding November an estimated $6 billion, as they prepared for “Ag-Mart workers land in poor housing,” but he says he was overcharged and that the 18 and 19 with a gathering at their new hall. midterm elections. The government would state labor officials found 30 to 40 workers company owes him much more money. The West Coast Wobs (and Wobs from further first erect a network of surveillance cameras who pick grape tomatoes for Florida-based union is helping pursue the matter and also afield who can make it) are invited to come along the Arizona border, followed by the tomato giant Ag-Mart crowded into a former helped him out financially, as his 3-year-old to Portland for discussions, a book fair, and massive fence. nightclub building with “no hot water, no daughter’s birthday was last weekend, and he Joe Hill night. The legislation also calls for unmanned shower, and not enough beds.” would have been unable to even pay bills let Saturday will see two discussions – one aerial vehicles, ground-based sensors, sat- The workers were placed in the hous- alone the planned birthday party. on long-term goals for the union, the second ellites, radar and cameras to prevent “all” ing by contractors “who not only hire and By the time the sun went down we had on prospects for interbranch organizing. If unlawful entries and achieve “operational supervise Ag-Mart workers but also arrange disseminated information about NICA, Inter- numbers permit, there would also be indus- control” of the border. housing.” Ag-Mart is a key supplier of grape cept and the CCU to a majority of Intercept’s trial union break-out sessions. A members- Another 1,300 miles of border would tomatoes to McDonald’s. The story says couriers, demonstrated to the company that only party is planned for the evening. remain unfenced, including the most dan- “many of Ag-Mart’s workers live crowded in we were escalating the fight to boot NICA Sunday’s meeting would seek to synthe- gerous terrain along the border – inevitably fly- and roach-infested dwellings.” from their business, and assisted an indi- size the discussions, followed by an afternoon increasing the number of immigrants who You can find the article at the Coalition of vidual courier with a serious grievance. We book fair. The annual Joe Hill night would will die attempting the crossing. Immokalee Workers web site, at http://www. continue the fight. close the proceedings with traditional and The fence may prove difficult to build, ciw-online.org. From Oct. 15-23, the CIW folk music. as the designated route plunges down steep caravaned from Immokalee, FL – home of one East End workers still union Pre-registration is essential in order to ravines, climbs steep mountain peaks, crosses of the largest farm worker communities in the Workers at Pittsburgh’s East End Food arrange food, housing and other logistics. rivers and streams, and cuts through the lands country – to Chicago, home of the world’s Co-op continue fighting on the job for better Please contact [email protected] as soon as of the native Tohono O’odham Nation, which largest restaurant chain, McDonald’s. conditions, despite losing a representation possible with contact and other information, strongly opposes it. The Coalition is pressing McDonald’s to election by one vote. However, that elec- and with any proposals (at least two weeks The bill passed with the votes of nearly accept responsibility for the conditions under tion was set aside because of management’s in advance) that you or your branch would all Republicans and a sizable block of Demo- which its tomatoes are harvested, and negoti- unlawful conduct. Since the election loss, like to submit for consideration. crats, despite its self-evident absurdity. ate with workers to improve them. workers have won small increases in store credit, and successfully insisted on having Preamble to the union witnesses present during disciplinary Join the IWW Today IWW Constitution he IWW is a union for all workers, a union dedicated to organizing on the proceedings. The working class and the employing class job, in our industries and in our communities both to win better conditions have nothing in common. There can be no today and to build a world without bosses, a world in which production and German Language Area ROC peace so long as hunger and want are found T distribution are organized by workers ourselves to meet the needs of the entire popula- Wobblies in Germany, Austria and among millions of working people and the few, tion, not merely a handful of exploiters. Luxembourg have begun the process of ap- who make up the employing class, have all the We are the Industrial Workers of the World because we organize industrially – that plying for the establishment of the German good things of life. Language Area Regional Organizing Commit- Between these two classes a struggle must is to say, we organize all workers on the job into one union, rather than dividing workers tee of the IWW. They have begun the work go on until the workers of the world organize by trade, so that we can pool our strength to fight the bosses together. of translating union literature into German, as a class, take possession of the means of pro- Since the IWW was founded in 1905, we have recognized the need to build a truly established a web site (www.wobblies.org), duction, abolish the wage system, and live in international union movement in order to confront the global power of the bosses and and are planning a German-language organiz- harmony with the earth. in order to strengthen workers’ ability to stand in solidarity with our fellow workers ing bulletin. They held a regional meeting in We find that the centering of the manage- no matter what part of the globe they happen to live on. September, and will meet again Dec. 16 to ment of industries into fewer and fewer hands We are a union open to all workers, whether or not the IWW happens to have rep- approve bylaws. makes the trade unions unable to cope with resentation rights in your workplace. We organize the worker, not the job, recognizing the ever-growing power of the employing class. that unionism is not about government certification or employer recognition but about Organizing in England The trade unions foster a state of affairs which workers coming together to address our common concerns. Sometimes this means The British Isles ROC is chartering three allows one set of workers to be pitted against striking or signing a contract. Sometimes it means refusing to work with an unsafe new branches, in London, Manchester and another set of workers in the same industry, machine or following the bosses’ orders so literally that nothing gets done. Sometimes Leicester, is working to form a number of thereby helping defeat one another in wage it means agitating around particular issues or grievances in a specific workplace, or industrial union branches, and has launched a wars. Moreover, the trade unions aid the em- across an industry. coffee shop workers organising campaign. ploying class to mislead the workers into the Because the IWW is a democratic, member-run union, decisions about what issues belief that the working class have interests in to address and what tactics to pursue are made by the workers directly involved. Australian officers common with their employers. TO JOIN: Mail this form with a check or money order for initiation and your first The AusROC has elected FW Mike Payne These conditions can be changed and the month’s dues to: IWW, Post Office Box 23085, Cincinnati OH 45223, USA. to serve as secretary, Meela Davis as interna- interest of the working class upheld only by an Initiation is the same as one month’s dues. Our dues are calculated according to tional secretary, and Evan Young as Direct organization formed in such a way that all its your income. If your monthly income is under $1,000, dues are $6 a month. If your Action editor. members in any one industry, or all industries if necessary, cease work whenever a strike or monthly income is between $1,000 - $2,000, dues are $12 a month. If your monthly Work Peoples College lockout is on in any department thereof, thus income is over $2,000 a month, dues are $18 a month. The Twin Cities Branch is pleased to making an injury to one an injury to all. o I affirm that I am a worker, and that I am not an employer Instead of the conservative motto, “A fair announce the opening session of the Work o I agree to abide by the IWW constitution Peoples College, which continues the legacy day’s wage for a fair day’s work,” we must in- scribe on our banner the revolutionary watch- o I will study its principles and make myself acquainted with its purposes. of working-class education for emancipation word, “Abolition of the wage system.” carried out by the Duluth, Minn., IWW in the Name:______It is the historic mission of the working first half of the 20th Century. Address:______class to do away with capitalism. The army of The first class offering is “Lessons of the production must be organized, not only for the City, State, Zip:______Spanish Revolution” (Meeting Saturday after- everyday struggle with capitalists, but also to Occupation:______noons, Oct. 14 - Nov. 18), with films, discus- carry on production when capitalism shall have sions and readings. Classes will initially meet Phone:______E-mail:______been overthrown. By organizing industrially we at the Minneapolis Central Library. To register Amount Enclosed:______are forming the structure of the new society or for more information email twincities@ within the shell of the old. Membership includes a subscription to the Industrial Worker. iww.org or phone (612) 339-4418. Page  • Industrial Worker • November 2006 NLRB ruling will Nurses protest NLRB rulings Nurses formed pickets outside hospitals strip thousands of and rallied to protest the Sept. 29 NLRB decision excluding RNs who make clinical union rights decisions at Oakwood Heritage Hospital in The National Labor Relations Board has Taylor, Mich., from union protections by voted along party lines to expand the defini- reinterpreting the criteria utilized to distin- tion of workers it considers supervisors, and guish supervisors, foremen and lead workers so not covered by U.S. labor law. from other employees. On Oct. 5, outside While less sweeping that many unions the entrance of Good Samaritan Hospital in had feared, the decision will nonetheless Los Angeles, hundreds of union nurses and encourage employers to claim that lead supporters marched, chanting “Hey, hey, ho, workers and other employees with limited ho, Kentucky River has got to go!” using coordinating duties are supervisory, slowing the name of the 2001 Supreme Court deci- the process of setting a union election and sion that laid the groundwork for redefining allowing union-busting consultants several what constitutes a supervisor under the more months to intimidate workers. And Taft-Hartley Act of 1947. Some 400 people in the case-by-case analysis that the ruling marched through downtown Los Angeles to mandates, hundreds of thousands of workers the NLRB offices, where they railed against could lose their right to union representation the Republican-controlled NLRB. and concerted activities. Rallies and pickets were also held by the The decision turns on how to interpret 11 unions comprising the AFL-CIO’s RNs the Taft-Hartley Act; among its many anti- the NLRB said that “lead men” at a metals ordinary employees,” they wrote. Working Together in Chicago, St. Louis, Lou- union provisions was one stripping supervi- company “directed” other employees, but The Oakwood case joins a growing list of isville and Bangor, Maine. At Stroger Hospital sors of the right to union representation. At were not supervisors because they could not NLRB decisions which have slashed workers in Chicago, nurses from the National Nurses the time, the demarcation between super- exercise independent judgment. Instead, their already very limited protections. Last year, Organizing Committee representing 1,800 visory and line workers was fairly clear in decisions were governed by pre-established the NLRB overturned a union victory at the Cook County nurses picketed on Oct. 6. most workplaces, but in recent years growing guidelines and production schedules. Chinese Daily News after managers fired a In Boston, nurses confronted Robert Bat- numbers of workers find themselves helping The decisions dramatically expand em- worker for union organizing and success- tista, chairman of the NLRB, who attended to set schedules or maintain quality standards ployers’ ability to transform workers who fully defended their action to the NLRB by the Mass. Nurses Association Conference. in addition to their regular work duties. The exercise initiative on the job into “supervi- claiming the worker had supervisory duties. Nurses at the conference said the ruling not NLRB had not considered such workers su- sors,” and could hit professional workers They then used that decision to claim that only endangers nurses’ workplace rights, pervisors unless they exercised independent particularly hard. But as employers learn to managers had coerced workers into joining but also will delay union votes as the board authority in directing workers for a significant manipulate the Board’s definition, many lead the union. Of such Alice-in-Wonderland fan- decides case-by-case who should be classified portion of their work day. workers and working foremen might also lose tasies are dangerous precedents built. as a supervisor and excluded from bargain- Now “charge nurses” who assign other their rights under U.S. labor law. ing units. Members of the Boston IWW, Jobs nurses to patients at Oakwood Heritage with Justice affiliates and the Green-Rainbow “This could be the worst thing to happen Supreme Court will consider Hospital in Michigan have been ruled to be to workers in a long, long time,” says Stewart party picketed the Greater Boston Chamber of supervisors, even though they spend only Acuff, organizing director of the AFL-CIO. union agency fee challenge Commerce Oct. 7 to protest the rulings. about 10 percent of their time in such activi- AFL-CIO president John Sweeney said the The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to California Nurses Association organizers ties and then join their coworkers in taking NLRB should be renamed the “National Labor decide whether states may bar a labor union warn of strikes should hospital management care of patients. Charge nurses who rotate Attack Board.” from using non-union workers’ representation attempt to utilize the rulings. The CNA has through the position on a temporary basis In their dissents, two NLRB members said fees for political activities if those workers collected thousands of strike pledges in the were held not to be supervisors. Charge millions of professionals who have some su- have not explicitly consented. The issue San Francisco Bay area and elsewhere. nurses at a second hospital were held not pervisory duties could be hurt by the ruling. arises in two cases – Davenport v. Washington Members of other unions have said they to be supervisors because they lacked the The decision “threatens to create a new class Education Association and Washington v. may refuse charge nurse duties if managers authority to require other nurses to work past of workers under federal labor law: workers Washington Education Association. try to implement the ruling, invoking their the end of their shift, call off-duty workers who have neither the genuine prerogatives A Washington state law prohibited contractual right to refuse managerial work. in, or discipline other nurses. In a third case, of management, nor the statutory rights of unions from using agency shop fees paid by non-members to influence elections “unless No taxes for union-busting affirmatively authorized by the individual,” In a 12-3 ruling, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Detroit news strike legal battles end or opt-in. The Washington State Supreme Court of Appeals has reinstated a law that prohibits California employers from spending Three workers (one of whom is now form of concerted activity.” Court ruled the law unconstitutional as a money they get from the state on anti-union dead) fired during the Detroit newspaper The unions have offered to take a 7 per- violation of the WEA’s First Amendment activities. Employers claim the law infringes strike for picketing a distribution facility dur- cent pay cut, increase their share of health rights. Fourteen states have similar laws. upon their free speech rights. The National ing the 1995-1997 strike will get their jobs care costs, give up two paid holidays and The Washington Educational Association Labor Relations Board argued the law should back, after the U.S. Supreme Court refused accept a sweeping management rights clause, is the exclusive bargaining agent for be overturned, as did the U.S. Chamber of to hear the publishers’ appeal. but the Blade insists on 14 percent pay cuts, approximately 70,000 state educational Commerce and other business groups. The workers are also entitled to ac- unlimited subcontracting, and draconian employees. Membership is voluntary, but “Employers remain free to convey their cumulated back pay and benefits, less any health care cuts (workers already pay nearly nonmembers must contribute for the costs views regarding unionization, ... provided amounts they earned in other jobs during two-thirds of the cost of health coverage). related to collective bargaining. Twice each only that they do not use state grant and the ten years that their case dragged through The Toledo Council of Newspaper year, WEA notifies employees of their right to program funds to do so,’’ Judge Raymond first the National Labor relations Board and Unions responded to the lock-outs with an object to paying the portion of fees used for Fisher said in the majority opinion. then the courts. The dead fellow worker will advertising and subscriber boycott, and has political and other exempt expenditures. presumably have his pay docked for time offered to buy the paper from publisher Block spent in the ground. Communications. Northwest Airlines mechanics surrender The three were among some 200 work- Fourteen months after 4,400 mechanics injunction of dubious legality imposed. ers fired during the 19-month strike, which No right to speak and plane cleaners went on strike against Results of AMFA members’ ratification ended in February 1997 when the unions Reuters has fired one of its two editors in Northwest Airlines, the Aircraft Mechanics vote will be announced in mid-November. surrendered with an unconditional offer to charge of U.S. markets coverage, Joe Maguire, Fraternal Association has recommended The proposed agreement would grant return to work. The National Labor Relations after reading the proofs of his new book, a tentative agreement to its members that Northwest the unlimited subcontracting and Board ruled that the workers did nothing Brainless: The Lies and Lunacy of Ann Coulter. would see most workers surrender their jobs 26 percent wage cuts it demanded. ‘’We’re wrong and ordered the Detroit Newspaper Maguire had received permission to write the in exchange for modest cash payments. just hoping some of our members, especially Agency to reinstate them with back pay. book from his bosses, who apparently in the Some mechanics could return to work those that are close to retirement, would have Several workers were reinstated, while end did not like what he had to say. alongside scabs hired to break the strike and the opportunity to go back,’’ said AMFA con- others settled their cases. But publishers re- U.S. workers generally have no free some 880 mechanics who crossed union tract coordinator Jeff Mathews. fused to reinstate these three, despite a Court speech rights at work, and several have been picket lines. No cleaners would get their Workers who resigned could collect of Appeals ruling upholding the NLRB. fired in recent years for posting lawn signs jobs back, as Northwest has subcontracted unemployment benefits. Cleaners could Meanwhile, the Toledo (Ohio) Blade has at their homes for mainstream politicians, their work. receive as much as $6,008; mechanics as locked out several smaller unions in an at- comments posted to blogs, criticizing bosses The strike was undercut by union scab- much as $10,612, for surrendering their tempt to pressure its two strongest unions to in private email messages, and speaking out bing, as every other union representing jobs, depending on seniority and pay grade. agree to wage cuts, higher co-pays for health against U.S. foreign policy. However, workers Northwest workers crossed picket lines and Mechanics who wanted to return would insurance, and work rule changes. with union representation are usually protect- members of some unions did AMFA work receive a one-time payment of as much as Nine unions represent some 500 work- ed against this sort of arbitrary dismissal. despite labor laws that allow airline and rail $5,306 and be placed on furlough; they could ers at the newspaper. The electrical workers workers to honor each other’s picket lines. apply for jobs over the next two years, as settled for deep concessions in July. In August Teachers defy injunction Northwest offered the deal as its flight positions opened. Northwest now hires far the Blade locked out its engravers, paper Detroit public school teachers struck for attendants asked a federal mediator to declare fewer mechanics than it did before the strike, handlers (both part of GCIU), typographers 16 days, defying a judge’s back-to-work order. a 30-day cooling-off period as required under relying on subcontractors for the bulk of its and mailers (both CWA). The GCIU-affili- When teachers refused to accept the deep pay the Railway Labor Act before they could strike maintenance work. ated pressmen and Newspaper Guild/CWA cuts demanded by the school board (which against deep concessions imposed by a bank- Northwest commuter line Mesaba Air- editorial and business office staff continue to gave hefty pay hikes to administrators) the ruptcy judge. The mediator refused, instead lines, meanwhile, is back in court seeking work during the lock-out, and have assured school board came up with a tiny pay hike, calling for more talks. The flight attendants permission to overturn its contracts with the publisher that they “have no intention of coupled with increased health care costs and voted to launch intermittent strike action pilots, mechanics and flight attendants and striking, boycotting, or engaging in any other other concessions on benefits. against Northwest, only to have a federal impose deep concessions. November 2006 • Industrial Worker • Page  William E. Trautmann, New Zealand Wobbly B y m A r k D e r b y & J ay m I l l e r children, was left there in the care of a mili- looked to break this pattern by “I was born in a country considered tary orphanage while the rest of the family concentrating his organising ef- to be free – in New Zealand,” said William departed again, this time for New York. forts among his fellow European Trautmann, when he accepted the position of Ten years later, at the age of 14, Ernest migrant workers in the industri- general secretary at the IWW’s founding con- moved to Poland and began an apprenticeship alised eastern states. In 1909 he vention in Chicago in the summer of 1905. in a brewery owned by a distant relative. The told readers of the IWW newspa- Although he left New Zealand at an early age apprenticeship was pure peonage as Traut- per the Industrial Worker, “I am off and never returned, Trautmann seems never mann was required to work unlimited hours, for McKees Rocks, perhaps to face to have forgotten his connection with his at the beck and call of the brewmaster. After the bullets of the foe.” McKees country of birth. He would no doubt have qualifying, he moved to Dresden, Germany, Rocks, Pennsylvania, was a steel been proud to learn that his many publica- where he agitated on behalf of child workers company town. When employers tions on industrial unionism strategies, and in the bottling shops. He emerged from these introduced an unpopular change his achievements as a Wobbly organiser in experiences with an anarchist’s allegiance to to the pay system, five thousand the United States, became well-known and individual liberty and a Marxist’s certainty in workers, mostly eastern Euro- influential in New Zealand as well as in many the class struggle. peans, spontaneously walked other countries, and that a book published Trautmann worked his way through East- out of the mills. Violent clashes in New Zealand this year finally recognises ern Europe as far as Odessa in Russia before followed when the company’s his contribution to the rise of the Wobblies returning to Germany. En route he encoun- private police force tried to bring in his homeland. tered traditions of European radical thought in scab labour. As the violence William Ernest Trautmann was born on from which he would draw throughout his escalated, the Pennsylvania state 1 July 1869 in Grahamstown, a gold rush life. After agitating on behalf of the most constabulary charged and clubbed settlement on the Coromandel Peninsula, in abused workers in the brewery industry, he picketing workers. New Zealand’s North Island. The town was was expelled from Germany as a dangerous In response to a call from a then just a year old but already had a popula- radical in 1890, and followed his family to group of exiled European revolutionaries, of strikebreakers reinforced by armed and tion of 18,000, mostly miners who worked the New World, which proved to be indis- Trautmann arrived to head the strike organi- mounted police. These police were soon by candlelight to hack gold-bearing rock from tinguishable from the Old. sation. He cautioned against further violence, labelled ‘Cossacks’ by the strikers, a term poorly ventilated shafts in mines which bore After settling in Massachusetts, Traut- but tensions in the town were already at first used to refer to the mounted troops at their owners’ optimistic names – Queen of mann became active in the United Brewery breaking point. A gunfight broke out in which McKees Rocks. The police deliberately en- Beauty, Lucky Hit, Bright Smile. To prevent Workers Union, the first major industrial several strikers and five state troopers were couraged violent riots between the strikers the theft of ore, those owners forced each union in the United States. In 1900, he be- killed, and Trautmann himself was arrested. and the scabs, which culminated in the death miner to strip naked at the start and end of came editor of the union’s German-Eng- Thousands of strikers thronged the town to of striker F. E. Evans. each 10-hour shift, and cross a passageway lish newspaper, Brauer-Zeitung, where his demand his release and with a full-scale riot The following year a strike on the Wel- separating their street clothes from those they dedication to the principles of socialism and threatening, he was taken from his cell to an lington waterfront spread to most of the port wore in the mine. industrial unionism soon put him in conflict improvised courtroom, tried and acquitted. cities of the country. The ‘Great Strike’ of 1913 One of the first miners to arrive in Gra- with the American Federation of Labor. His Two weeks later the strike was settled, the saw the greatest civil unrest ever seen in New hamstown in 1868 was the German-born vocal opposition to the increasing political company compromising on most issues. Zealand, before or since. Tens of thousands Edmund Trautmann, who had earlier been conservatism of the AFL cost him his posi- In the few exultant years following this were on strike, headed by Wobblies such as a ‘miner, forty-niner’ in the California gold tion as editor, and he was forced out in the victory Trautmann criss-crossed the eastern the English-born Tom Barker who produced rush. By 1874 Edmund and his wife Augusta spring of 1905. industrial states in response to a flood of a weekly paper with regular articles in the had four small children. In May of that year, Between 1900 and 1905 Trautmann requests to lead direct actions and set up Maori language. However they were con- during a graveyard shift, Edmund Trautmann combined his experience of the U.S. labour IWW locals. In the northern winter of 1912, fronted by police, military and large bands of died after entering a pocket of poisonous gas movement with his knowledge of intellectual he joined Big Bill Haywood and other lead- strikebreakers from the rural districts, armed in the Crown Prince mine. His work mates currents in the European working class to de- ing Wobblies as an organiser of the textile officially with long wooden batons and unof- formed a committee to send his ailing wife velop ideas which later formed the theoretical workers’ strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts, ficially with Army revolvers. As at Waihi, this and her children, ranging in age from seven framework of the IWW. One labor historian the legendary ‘Bread and Roses’ strike. The combination of state-sponsored violence and years to nine months, back to their relatives has suggested Trautmann “played the most strikers, mainly women and children, were organised mass scabbery caused the defeat in Germany. Ernest, the second of these central role in the founding of the IWW... opposed by a mounted militia of vigilantes, of the strike, and most of the Wobblies were [H]e provided the ideological starting point local businesspeople and students, who rode forced to leave the country. In November of the revolutionary industrial unionism of down the picket lines with bayonets and ba- Trautmann’s autobiography shows that the IWW.” In 1904 Trautmann was appointed tons. Using a pedal-powered printing press, he considered his greatest achievement We Remember to the three-member committee that drew up Trautmann and his team deluged the militia to be the many publications that helped Every November, the IWW remembers the Industrial Union Manifesto calling for with pamphlets, urging them, with some suc- spread the revolutionary industrial union- the many fellow workers who have fallen in the formation of the IWW “as the economic cess, to covertly support the strikers. ism movement throughout the world. the struggle for labor’s emancipation. No- organization of the working class, without The same period saw a surge of revo- Today, he would find that despite such efforts vember is a particularly fitting month for affiliation with any political party.” At the lutionary industrial unionism in his home- his country of birth remains unfree. Gold this remembering – it is the month the Hay- IWW’s founding convention in 1905, a suc- land. As Trautmann had rightly observed in is still mined in the hills above Coroman- market Martyrs were hanged; when IWW cession of tributes testified to Trautmann’s 1905, New Zealand at that time could only del, where a vast and ugly open-cast mine organizers Wesley Everett and Joe Hill were broad knowledge of international labour be “considered to be free.” A long period of disfigures a landscape which is otherwise murdered; the massacres of Wobblies in movements, his dedication and his personal liberal, mildly progressive government had one of the most beautiful in a very beautiful Centralia, Washington, and Columbine, qualities (“he stands almost peerless in the introduced better conditions for workers, but country. Some locals defend the mine for the Colorado, where striking miners were shot way of a personal sacrifice to the interests of required all unions to submit to compulsory jobs it provides, yet the average income for down by the militia in 1927. the working people”). arbitration of their disputes. This regime Coromandel people is lower than elsewhere The IWW has contributed more than In its first years the IWW had fought meant real wages fell during the early 20th in the country, as the foreign owners of the its fair share of labor’s martyrs, because numerous industrial skirmishes without century, and workers were chafing under a mine siphon off the profits. we have always been in the forefront of winning a single major strike. Trautmann paternalistic form of state socialism. However, We close with a Maori salutation: No the struggle for workers’ rights. Some, like from about 1908 an influx of seasoned labour reira, e te kaituhi o te Uiniana o Nga Kaimahi Joe Hill (killed Nov. 19, 1915) are famous; agitators from the United States, Canada, o te Ao, ka whawhai tonu tatou, ake ake, ake. others, like James Brew (killed resisting the UK and Australia introduced IWW-style (Loosely: Therefore, to the one who wrote deportation in Bisbee) or Dalton Gentry direct action strategies and side-stepped the on behalf of the IWW, we will carry on your (shot to death Nov. 4, 1936, on an IWW arbitration system by negotiating directly struggle for as long as necessary.) picket line in Idaho) largely forgotten. with employers, through strike action if Mark Derby lives in Wellington, Aote- The history of the IWW – indeed the necessary. The response from miners, wharf aroa/NZ, and wrote “The Case of William E. history of the labor movement as a whole workers, drivers, labourers and thousands of Trautmann and the role of the Wobblies” in – is written in blood. Too many victims other mainly unskilled workers was immedi- Revolution – the 1913 Great Strike in New remain unknown, including the Stettin, ate and enthusiastic. Branches of the IWW Zealand, ed. Melanie Nolan, Canterbury Uni- Germany, IWW dockworkers murdered were set up in major cities and mining towns, versity Press, 2006. by the Nazi regime, or the fellow workers helped by the distribution of large quantities Jay Miller is author of “Soldier of the Class who fell to military dictatorships in Chile, of revolutionary literature, some of it written War – the life and writing of William E. Traut- Argentina and Peru. or translated by Trautmann. mann,” a Ph.D. dissertation completed in 2000 Every right we possess today, we possess In 1912 a prolonged strike broke out just at Wayne State University, where Trautmann’s because our fellow workers fought and In November We Remember a short distance from Trautmann’s birthplace unpublished memoir can also be found. died for it. We owe it to them not simply those who have fallen in the struggle in the company town of Waihi, which was run to defend the rights and conditions they for workers’ emancipation by a foreign-owned gold-mining consortium. • won, not just to preserve their memory, but The Canadian Wobbly J.B. King played an In November We Remember: to carry the struggle they began forward Anarcho-Syndicalist Review active part on the strike committee. After Jenny (Lahti) Velsek (1913 - 2006) – to bring an end to this bloody capitalist POB 42531 • Philadelphia PA 19101 several months, the company persuaded system built on murder and exploitation. www.syndicalist.org • sample $4 the government to send in large numbers Steve Lindenmeyer (1953 - 2006) Page  • Industrial Worker • November 2006 The IWW in the history books This is our annual summary of recent his- local elites’ determination to crush the union 1796 and concludes in 1913 with the struggle torical writing about the IWW, which appears through brutal vigilante attacks. of farm workers to organize through the every November as part of our “In November Mark Fannin’s Labor’s Promised Land: IWW, but also includes some material from We Remember” coverage: Radical Visions of Gender, Race & Religion the 1920s including an anecdote by IWW The new edition of The Industrial Workers (University of Tennessee Press, 2003) is a organizer and historian Fred Thompson of the World: Its First 100 Years (Jon Bekken comparative history of the IWW-affiliated about a successful direct action through and Fred Thompson, IWW, 2006) is shipping Brotherhood of Timber Workers and the which orange pickers defeated attempts to from the printer as we go to press, and readers Southern Tenant Farmers Union of the 1930s, pay them in company scrip instead of cash. who ordered pre-publication copies should with which the IWW maintained friendly (This incident, which I believe has not been soon have them in hand. This, our union’s relations. Fannin does this in alternating previously written about, is drawn from the official history, offers the most comprehensive chapters presenting an overview of each author’s interview, part of exhaustive research overview of the history of the IWW available organization, and then examining each in documented in 240 pages of notes.) – discussing countless strikes and organizing terms of its approach to gender roles, race and The IWW is not the focus of this book, campaigns that have been ignored by other religion. It is the most comprehensive treat- the bulk of which is devoted to a detailed, historians; demolishing the common myth ment of the Brotherhood presently available, meticulously researched description of Cali- that the IWW was a fly-by-night organization even if the organizational scheme results in fornia farm workers’ lives and struggles and that would blow into a community, organize a a good bit of jumping around. He notes that to the changing composition of the workforce strike, and then disappear; and documenting both organizations were built by indigenous as an ever more commercialized agricultural the union’s efforts to adjust to changing con- southerners and enjoyed substantial popu- industry sought a cheap, docile and reliable ditions and find new ways to carry out direct lar support as they challenged the region’s work force. But its 936 pages leave room for The IWW’s official history is now available action unionism on the job as we rebuilt in racial hierarchy and the entrenched poverty discussion of IWW efforts. Chapter 21 opens the post-Cold War years. It includes extensive it helped enforce. with FW Thompson’s anecdote, framing a “Marxist,” “a radical offshoot of the American notes pointing to sources for further research The Brotherhood was initially indepen- discussion of the role of bindlemen who rode Federation of Labor.” Lefebvre praises Joe’s on the union’s history, and dozens of photos dent, but modeled on the IWW. After the the rails and worked the fields in the 1910s songs and condemns the trial, and while and other illustrations. Anyone interested in 1912 election, in which the Brotherhood and 1920s. That chapter, and one that follows adding nothing to our understanding of ei- IWW history should start with two books: actively worked for the Socialist ticket only on jungle camps and slave markets, notes the ther will help preserve Fellow Worker Hill’s Joyce Kornbluh’s Rebel Voices, and this one. to be snubbed by a party unwilling to be hard lives these workers led and their deter- memory for a new generation. seen embracing a multi-racial union, the mination to assert their human dignity. Joseph Grim Feinberg, in “Gifts of the Wobblies confronting racism Brotherhood’s 20,000 members affiliated to The book’s final chapter, “I’ve Been IWW” (Against the Current, July 2005), notes: Some of the most important work being the IWW, seeking alliances to help them Robbed,” examines the IWW’s effort to orga- “The IWW has been both a pioneering revo- done on IWW history looks at our local his- overcome the brutal repression already aimed nize the bindlemen, beginning in 1906 with lutionary organization in the history of North tory, focusing attention on the rank and file at them and which was soon to escalate. Fan- soapboxing in the slave markets, developing America, and one of the most aesthetic.” “It and their efforts to realize Wobbly principles nin cites a Maryville spy’s estimate that the into a more systematic campaign in 1908, lived through years of slander and repression; in day-to-day struggles on the job. James BTW had the support of 83 percent of white and by 1913 introducing the job delegate limped along, still proud and singing, through Koshan’s unpublished dissertation, “We hold workers, 95 percent of blacks and 100 percent system that made the IWW a strong force in decades when its membership dropped ever the center of the line of battle: The IWW, of Mexicans in that lumber camp. agriculture (and also construction, timber closer toward zero; and remains, not only as immigrant labor, and industrial unionism Brotherhood organizers appealed to and other industries that relied on migratory a piece of history, but as a force in the present in the Pittsburgh district, 1909-1913” (Kent Southern “traditions” of revolt, chivalry and labor). Street places the free speech fights in and an inspiration for the future.” State University, 2005), focuses on organizing spirituality, but recast these in class terms. the context of this organizing work, notes His essay quotes many IWW songs and of Pittsburgh’s ethnically diverse immigrant Women played an active role even though that IWW efforts far outstripped the better- discusses their role in building an activist workforce during and immediately after they did not work in the lumber camps, put- financed United Laborers Union the AFL culture, concluding: “The Little Red Song the industrial conflicts of 1909. “Wobbly” ting their bodies on the line during strikes established in an attempt to blunt the Wobbly Book stands out... as a masterpiece of world organizing bridged differences that divided and holding local office. While Brotherhood campaign, and concludes that IWW tactics literature. ... The songs of the IWW are not immigrant workers elsewhere, something organizers said they did not call for “social and strategies continue to “inform the farm great because they sit published in a book, al- Koshan attributes to the IWW’s emphasis on equality” and initially organized blacks into worker movement even today.” Although it ready made. Like any folk songs, they remain an industrial unionism that encompassed segregated lodges under the supervision of does not add much to our overall knowledge great only as long as they are sung. May the “social justice” issues. white workers, from the outset they suc- of the IWW’s role in organizing farm workers, IWW live another 100 years, and its songs live Several books were released in time for cessfully organized across racial lines. At the Beasts of the field brings together that litera- on forever – but recreated, always changing, the IWW centenary with so little fanfare that insistence of IWW leaders, the Brotherhood ture and places it in a broader social context. with each new voice that sings.” we have only just learned of them. Kristofer integrated its meetings in 1912. The book is highly readable, available in Similarly, Virginia Martin’s unpublished Allerfeldt’s Race, Radicalism, Religion and The Brotherhood’s rhetoric turned no- paperback ($31.95, 936 oversize pages), and dissertation “’You can’t weave cloth with Restriction (Praeger, 2003) looks at the rise tions of racial superiority on their head, deserves a wide audience. bayonets’: The role of singing in the 1912 of nativism in Oregon and Washington from insisting that black workers who had joined Also overlooked when it appeared was Lawrence textile strike” (Rensselaer Polytech- 1890 and culminating in 1924 with the pas- in the common struggle for better conditions Katherine Benton-Cohen’s “Docile Children nic Institute, 2005) argues that communal sage of restrictive immigration legislation were more “manly” and entitled to respect and Dangerous Revolutionaries: The Racial singing helped create a sense of community authored by Washington congressman Albert than white workers who had not. Nor was this Hierarchy of Manliness and the Bisbee De- that transcended interethnic antagonisms Johnson. Allerfeldt argues that the Pacific simply rhetoric; the Brotherhood practiced portation of 1917” (Frontiers 14, 2003, pp. and knit together Lawrence’s diverse textile Northwest experienced rapid urbanization equality in struggle, repeatedly demonstrating 30-50), which notes the critical role played workers through song – both the stories the and immigration, giving rise not only to radi- its determination (and ability) to mobilize by Mexican miners in the Bisbee strike and songs captured, and the physical experiences cal movements but also to a Ku Klux Klan workers in solidarity across racial lines. argues that contemporary understandings of hearing and singing them in unison. that came to play a major role in local politics On religion, the argument is more mud- of “manliness” help explain why authorities Paul Buhle continues recycling ele- and helped channel unrest into attacks on dled, perhaps because this chapter relies more responded so brutally to the IWW strike. ments of his co-edited Wobblies! A Graphic Catholics, Wobblies and the Japanese. on Covington Hall’s poetry and other writings The mines paid “Mexicans” much lower history, spreading its radical comics and his The mainstream labor movement was from the BTW press than on struggles in the wages, and managers spoke of their child-like sometimes misleading introductions far and eager to establish its “American” credentials, camps. Hall spoke of the “rebel carpenter of character. When they struck in support of the wide. Kevin Pyle’s contribution appears as even as the IWW violated local norms by suc- Nazareth,” and the BTW press noted that the IWW’s demand for equal pay, these work- “The Wobbly year: Remembering Judi Bari” cessfully reaching out to immigrant workers, “wrath of God” had been visited upon scabs. ers were suddenly transformed from docile (Capitalism, Nature, Socialism 16:3, 2005, fighting the miserable job conditions imposed But Hall also invoked Lucifer as a symbol of children into dangerous revolutionaries, and 63-73). In “Toward the Understanding of by the region’s leading citizens, refusing to rebellion, and it would be interesting to learn the sheriff made no attempt to disguise the the Visual Vernacular” (Rethinking Marx- keep quiet about the bosses’ war, and bringing how these rather contradictory rhetorical ap- fact that his deputies deported any Mexican ism 18:3, 2006, 367-381), Buhle argues that class conflict into the streets where it could no proaches played with the Brotherhood’s mem- worker they could find, without regard to contemporary radical comics have reclaimed longer be ignored. These traits helped orga- bership and with the workers it was trying to whether they were strikers. “How could you the visual tradition pioneered by the IWW, nize many new Wobblies into a truly diverse organize. By 1916 the BTW had been crushed, separate one Mexican from another?” he pointing to Wobblies! as a bridge between movement (Allerfeldt cites a 1925 survey that less by the violence meted out against it than asked the federal commission investigating these two worlds. found that nearly half of Portland Wobblies by the blacklisting of thousands of union the deportation, saying the last straw was Van Gosse’s review essay of Wobblies!, were of Chinese descent), but also galvanized activists, and its members scattered across when a delegation of Mexican Wobblies ap- “Heroes and Villains: Picturing the IWW” the southwest, playing a key role in IWW proached white female laundry workers to (Reviews in American History 34, 2006, pp. organizing in Oklahoma and elsewhere. ask them to join the union. Some may ques- 57-63), criticizes the book for its focus on the William Jones’ The Tribe of Black Ulysses: tion the usefulness of the theoretical schema, nonpolitical, direct action IWW for master- African American Lumber Workers in the Jim but the article calls needed attention to the fully invoking a radical tradition “that does Crow South (University of Illinois Press, role of Mexican workers in this strike and in not exist.” Gosse laments the decision not 2005) also briefly touches on the IWW in the IWW more generally, a role overlooked to focus on one or two great leaders, and his history of black lumber workers and how by too many historians. to ignore “the core problem that faced the they shaped the rural South – but focuses on organization: its equivocal relationship to We Remember the 1920s and beyond, and so looks at the The singing union the Socialist Party,” while ignoring the many aftermath of the IWW’s inter-racial organizing Ben Lefebvre revisits the legacy of the factual errors – more in Buhle’s introductions Our friend & mentor in the Louisiana woods. IWW’s most famous martyr in “Joe Hill: ‘I than in the artists’ work. This essay is more Richard Street’s monumental history of Never Died,’ Said He” (American History 40:5, interesting as an example of the academy’s California farm labor (Beasts of the field: A December 2005, pp. 56-62). This richly illus- inability to incorporate the IWW into its Carlos Cortez narrative history of California farmworkers, trated article, aimed at a popular audience, prefabricated explanations than for anything is friendly enough and notes that the IWW it tells us about the IWW or the volume Gary and Carol Cox Stanford University Press, 2004) starts with campesinos from the Spanish missions in still exists, even if it falsely describes us as under review. continued on page 10 November 2006 • Industrial Worker • Page  Western Federation of Miners landmark at risk b y r I c h a r d M y e r s 13 miners. Orchard fled from the district to the WFM. By March of 1904, Emma Langdon Ludlow. Columbine. Cripple Creek. The Idaho where he killed Ex-Governor Steunen- had already published two books about the names conjure unmistakable sentiments for berg with another bomb. Orchard was appre- union’s “lawful, law-abiding and manly fight Colorado unionists, memories of workers hended for these tragic acts and served the against the lawless, corrupt and un-American fighting for their rights against ruthless rest his life in the Idaho prison.” methods” of the mine owners and the Colo- corporate interests. At least three Colorado Corporations trumpet their “union-free” rado state government. The governor’s orders locations qualify as landmarks worthy of status as a signal to investors. When company willfully superseded a fully functional local great honor. First is the sacred soil of Ludlow propaganda describes “periods of labor un- government. Although local courts sided with where, in 1914, the babies and the wives of rest” as attacks by one violent individual, it the union, their decrees were ignored and a obscures much more than it reveals. state of martial law was imposed. Scabs were striking miners lay suffocating and dying as Victor, Colorado, at the turn of the century. angry flames consumed their tent colony. Undoubtedly, Harry Orchard was a shipped in under military protection. The Ludlow’s grounds are owned and protected scoundrel. He was a seriously disturbed for- union’s safe was burglarized, and assaults Unable to tolerate a union presence in by the United Mine Workers. mer businessman who confessed to commit- against union miners were commonplace. the district, General Bell used military force The second hallowed site, location of the ting arson for the insurance, as well as placing After a full year of strike-related turmoil, to close the Portland Mine (and others) be- (first) Columbine Massacre, was a nonde- explosives meant to kill. But there had been with the National Guard enforcing military cause its owner, James Burns, had come to an script company town called Serene, the en- violence on both sides of the union struggle rule, anti-union forces were ready to rid agreement with the WFM. Military force was tirety of which history has swept into a public in the Cripple Creek district, and it was often themselves of the union once and for all. Im- used to enforce a rigid, universal anti-union landfill – an ignominious end as outrageous impossible to know who was responsible. mediately after one of Harry Orchard’s bloody policy on the part of all district businesses. By as the machine guns used to murder unarmed For example, mine owners were said to have provocations, the union-friendly sheriff was such methods did the companies accomplish workers, and to bloody their wives. formed a shadowy vigilante force calling held at bayonet point and ordered to choose their “union-free” status. A third significant landmark hangs in the itself the Committee of 40 to “uphold law between resignation and immediate lynching. For a time the WFM union hall in Vic- balance. The Western Federation of Miners and order.” The miners feared this group was The Mine Owner’s Association put their own tor was used by the local school district, and union hall in Victor, Colorado, was central to planning provocative acts of violence which man in as the new sheriff, and the county more recently it was operated as a restaurant. a titanic struggle for labor rights at the turn could be blamed on the union. Whether commissioners were bribed or terrorized into While the building has been deteriorating, of the last century. Nine bullet holes in the Harry Orchard’s attacks were committed in a acquiescence. some stabilization work has been completed. bricks still testify to the building’s history. misguided attempt to assist union miners, or The Mine Owner’s Association and an The Victor Historical Preservation Society Today the building is owned by the Vic- were really provocations calculated to justify anti-union vigilante group called the Citizen’s is fighting to save this historic landmark as tor Historical Preservation Society (VHPS,) the destruction of the WFM at the behest of Alliance, an organization made up mostly of part of the legacy of working class struggles. which seeks to restore the hall to its origi- the rumored Committee of 40, has never been businessmen and merchants, then called a They’re asking for your help. nal state – with bullet holes left intact. In determined. An Idaho jury found the WFM’s public meeting in a vacant lot across from The Total rehabilitation of the Miners’ 2005 the VHPS obtained a restoration grant leaders innocent of alleged complicity in the Victor union hall. The secretary of the Union Hall Local #32 is estimated at $3.2 from Colorado’s State Historical Fund for Harry Orchard’s murderous activities. Mine Owner’s Association proclaimed that million, with a start to finish timeline of $242,295. However, in an unusual decision The CC&V account also fails to record nonunion miners should purge the district three years. The purchase of the buildings that has never been fully explained, the Fund’s the brutal repression by mine owners against of all union influence. Someone suggested and completion of Phase I Emergency sta- board of directors rescinded the grant. Some union miners. In 1894 Colorado’s Governor burning pro-union businesses throughout the bilization has been funded exclusively by suspect anti-union politics played a role, and Waite called out the National Guard to pro- community. A union miner dared to object supportive individuals and unions across the that powerful interests would like to abolish tect union miners from an attack by 1,200 and a fist fight erupted, culminating in indis- nation. The VHPS is currently fundraising for every trace of unions in the Cripple Creek armed men, a private army of thugs in the pay criminate gunfire that killed two and injured Phase II and III of Emergency Stabilization. area for the sake of the gambling lobby and a of mine owners. With violence by the mine five. Members of the WFM took refuge in the Estimated cost to complete the emergency burgeoning tourist industry. Whether Victor’s owners thwarted, Waite brokered an agree- union hall, which was subsequently attacked stabilization is $250,000. Upon completion of WFM union hall becomes an inspiration like ment on hours and pay between the owners by Company L of the Colorado National the emergency stabilization phase, the threat Ludlow or is lost forever is up to all of us. and the WFM that lasted nearly a decade. Guard. The militia laid siege with marksmen of abatement will be removed from the build- A century ago, most of Cripple Creek’s From its inception in 1893, the Western lining nearby rooftops. Forty union men ing and the finishing stages can begin. mine owners lived in Colorado Springs, a Federation of Miners grew to 180 locals eventually surrendered, with four of them The Victor Historical Preservation safe distance away from the chaos that their from Wisconsin and Michigan in the east, wounded. The Citizen’s Alliance entered the Society is asking for letters of support to policies created in the mining area. Today into Canada and to the west coast. Its base hall and destroyed everything in sight. preserve the landmark, and for donations. the Cripple Creek & Victor (CC&V) Gold of power remained in the Rocky Mountain In his 1972 history of Colorado’s War On To encourage support for restoration, please Mining Company partners with a South region, and most of its leaders came from Militant Unionism, Suggs observed that mobs contact: Mark Wolfe, Director Colorado State Africa conglomerate called AngloGold. The Colorado. Historian George G. Suggs, Jr., de- “directed by prominent members of the local Historical Fund, 225 E 16th Ave Suite 950, CC&V web site briefly mentions the district’s clared the WFM in its time the most militant alliances ... turned their fury against union Denver CO 80203 (303) 866-2776; Nan history: labor organization in the United States. The halls and stores, looting and destroying re- Rickey, CSHF; David N. Wetzel, Publica- “Two periods of labor unrest (1893-1894 WFM gave us Big Bill Haywood, spawned cords and merchandise. By midnight of June tions Director, Colorado History Now, 1300 and 1903-1904) led to the Cripple Creek the Industrial Workers of the World, and in 6, every union store and hall in Teller County Broadway, Denver CO 80203; CPI (Colorado Mining District being union-free after 1904. a later incarnation inspired the movie “Salt had been wrecked.” The alliance members Preservation Inc.), 333 W. Colfax Ave. Suite Government troops were called out in both of the Earth.” beat up pro-union merchants and threatened 300, Denver CO 80204. instances but most violence took place in In 1903 the WFM was organizing mill pro-union ministers. Union men were sent to To prevent possible condemnation of the 1903-1904 period. Albert Horsely, better and smelter workers in accordance with a “bull pen” at the local armory. Union clerks the structure, please send letters supporting known as Harry Orchard, came to the district its philosophy of industrial unionism – all were banished, while lawyers for the union preservation to: Mayor Kathy Justice, City of from the Coeur d’Alene and set a bomb on the workers in an industry were invited to join and an assistant district attorney suspected of Victor, PO Box 86, Victor CO 80860 (719) 600 level of the Vindicator Mine resulting in the same organization. Gov. James H. Pea- union sympathies were beaten and ordered 689-2284; Hank����������������������������� Gibson and Lonesa Wyatt, the death of the Superintendent and one of body, a former businessman, used the WFM’s out of the area. Victor City Council members, PO Box 86, the foremen. Shortly, thereafter, he blew up a organizing strike as an excuse to eradicate At one point the union newspaper in Victor CO 80860; Jim Harris, Teller County railroad station in the town of Independence unionism in the Cripple Creek district. It is Victor was ordered to shut down; when it Building Department, PO Box 1886, 540 as the night shift crew from the nearby Find- impossible to record in one article all of the refused to do so, the publisher and several Manor Court, Woodland Park CO 80866. lay Mine were waiting to go home, killing outrages and illegal actions committed against pressmen were arrested and sent to the bull The VHPS is a 501(c)(3) non-profit pen. Mine Owner’s Alliance members were organization and all donations are tax seen destroying the print shop’s presses with deductible. Donations will be acknowledged, mber We Rem sledge hammers, and the publisher faced and receipts provided. The VHPS would ove emb bankruptcy. Anti-union agitators blamed the appreciate a copy of all letters of support as N er union for the destruction, and Governor Pea- an aid in fund-raising efforts. Please send In ! body arranged compensation for the damage donations, and copies of support letters to: – and brokered some sort of agreement under Victor Historical Preservation Society, Miners’ which the publisher switched sides. Union Hall Preservation Project, PO Box 151, The plan to eradicate unionism in Crip- Victor CO 80860 (719) 689-5568. ple Creek was systematic and ruthless. Union members were given a choice: denounce the Fred Thompson inducted into union or be deported. Those who declined Labor’s Intl. Hall of Fame were charged with vagrancy or soliciting pros- Long-time IWW organizer, editor and titution, but their real crime was loyalty to class war prisoner Fred Thompson was the WFM. It didn’t matter how long banished inducted into Labor’s International Hall of miners had lived in the district, whether they Fame at the George Meany Center Oct. 5, in had family or property. They were transported a ceremony attended by IWW General Secre- to the prairie and ordered never to return on tary-Treasurer Mark Damron. Also honored pain of death. were former United Farm Workers Secretary- National Guard General Sherman Bell, Treasurer Pete Velasco and former AFL-CIO The Chicago general membership Branch himself a former mine manager, ensured President Lane Kirkland. salutes all those fellow and sister workers who have that families were also forced out, giving the Phil Mason of Wayne State University, the made the ultimate sacrifice in the struggle for miners no reason to return. He declared it a chief historian for the Hall of Fame, spoke of working class emancipation. crime to aid the families of deported union his warm friendship with FW Thompson, and miners beyond the meager survival rations of Fred’s commitment to labor, the IWW, and We never forget ! We never forgive ! provided by the militia. to preserving the history of our union. Page  • Industrial Worker • November 2006 been destroyed and will no longer sustain its people. Oil is running out as a source of The IWW is the Class Act power, clean water will probably be the cause I joined the IWW in ’68 or ’69, shortly idea being offered. Test yourself. Would you of many future wars. Do the bosses say “slow after the Democratic Convention where I got trust your future to the democratic decisions down, cut back, or live within your means”? my first up-close feel for how US democracy of the workers in the USA? If not, why not? How can they? They are trapped in a double really works. I was 26 cards short of a deck, I have heard some of the nicest, most bind of their own making. but slowly Fred Thompson, Jon Bekken, Car- well-intentioned leftists say they could not Are the socialist bureaucracies any bet- los Cortez, U. Utah Phillips, with his pregnant trust today’s workers with democracy and ter? Bureaucrats behave like bureaucrats in one-liners, and others began to explain to they seem not to understand how elitist that every top-down authoritarian system. In me why the “wage system” and the “labor sounds to me. It tells me that they believe capitalism, they behave in favor of markets. In market” were only more subtle extensions of themselves smarter, more moral, more ca- workers, give the bosses the right to hire our authoritarian socialism, bureaucrats respond the “slave market,” leaving Mr. Money Bags pable to make decisions, than us common replacements if we strike, force us to get per- to fear and privilege, just as capitalist bureau- in complete charge of our lives. They also folk. They would have to be our new bosses mission from the government to strike at all if crats do, not because the system demands it, explained their objection to the capitalist until we measure up, you see. we work for the railroads or airlines. We sat but because socialist bosses demand it. term, “wages.” “Wages” describe the value Not in the IWW. Democracy is the back and allowed the bosses’ government to China is destroying its own environment the bosses decide they will pay today for my radicalizing force in the IWW. Through the gut our unions. Our union leadership became at a faster pace than we. One (1) percent of back, my hands, my mind, whatever it is I can democratic process itself will workers become partners with the government and the capital- the Chinese national gross income is spent on rent out to the corporations in order to feed radical, not through political classes given ist bosses and we workers allowed ourselves education at present. Many Chinese working myself and those six children that showed up by the vanguard of, which party, comrade? to be stripped of any chance to show solidar- families can no longer afford to send their on my front porch. Party politics is the most divisive force I have ity or have any real power. If my pension is children to school. Why spend more than Unlike those poor slaves sold on the auc- come in contact with in my 71 years. “One invested in GM stock, how can I fight GM one percent? Workers don’t need to think, tion block, I no longer have to stand naked to Big Union” will be made up of millions of and still have a retirement income? only to listen. Workers in Shanghai have be inspected by the public like cattle on sale. diverse workers from every corner of the I read recently that if I train another per- jumped to their deaths from the scaffolding No sir, if I applied for work at Coors brewery world. Anyone think we must convert them son to take a place on my production line, I they built to construct China’s new growth in the 1970s, I was taken to a nice private all to one mind before we can organize One will be classified as a supervisor by the NLRB because they haven’t been paid in months. room, bent over, stretched out, mouth looked Big Union? No room in the IWW for that kind and cannot belong to any union. Are China’s coal mines any safer than ours into, blood tested, body X-rayed, drug tested, of divisive fundamentalism, in my opinion. I have never worked any job on construc- in West Virginia? examined by a psychiatrist, and then given Democracy is the only structure that can unite tion, in a factory, in a mine, in a warehouse, We do not even need to discuss the a lie detector test to find out if I was gay, a such a powerful diversity. in an office, in the oil fields, any job, where USSR, do we? Those Wobblies who thought thief, or, worse, a radical. The labor market Democracy is a powerful idea. I have re- it is not the responsibility of workers to train that politics might be a shortcut to industrial is much more efficient for the bosses than the mained a Wobbly for almost 40 years because other workers on the job. Who else could? freedom after the Russian revolution and gave slave market was. It took awhile for Southern of the strength in that idea. It takes time and Can a boss train a welder to weld a pipeline? up on the slower but surer method of workers bosses to see the advantages of not having to patience to trust your fellow worker, to let Perish the thought. Will a boss show a new running their own lives through their indus- provide housing, clothing, food or permanent your ego meld with the idea of “democracy.” iron worker how to walk a beam 300 feet trial unions have been proven wrong. I can employment for slaves but they caught on. The bosses, preachers, union bureaucrats, the above the ground? Maybe they could before understand their error in the 1920s. Russia Southern bosses began to see that they could universities, the media, the political parties WW2, when foremen were chosen from the appeared to have an answer then. Hindsight is bend a “worker” to their will much easier if all tell you that we workers are too racist and ranks; but that is ridiculous for our college- always easier. But what excuses can we make workers had to beg for work on their planta- too stupid to be trusted with democracy. All educated bosses of today. Most haven’t a clue for these political dreamers in 2006? tions, and then degrade them even further by I am suggesting is that democracy, having how to do our jobs. We workers train other The IWW was at its best when we who offering raises and titles to the workers most some control of our lives, is the quickest workers willingly, often to save our own lives were lumberjacks, migrant workers, sailors, easily dominated, than they could by forcing cure for these weaknesses. The alternative to and theirs. dockworkers, railroad workers, and factory their will on “slaves” with a whip. democracy is to accept bossism in one of the Will we cower to this boss-controlled workers were in the majority. We wrote the Slowly, I began to understand that the ugly forms that exist on our planet today. I’m NLRB decision too? We have got to stop al- songs and the poetry that made the most IWW was not just another political party that not ready to accept this degrading alternative. lowing rich men to decide the value of our sense. We decided what was important and mouthed the word “democracy.” Everyone How about you? labor for us, and from “defining” for us who made our own plans to achieve the goals of uses that word from Bush to the fascists in Another reason I have remained a mem- can belong to our unions and when we can the IWW. This is still happening. One hun- North Korea. Democracy is the most abused ber of the IWW so long is that I watched the and cannot withhold our labor. Those are our dred years later, I am invited to express myself word in every language. Few, however, can AFL-CIO accept a role as a partner in the capi- decisions to make. If we don’t, we are not a in this paper even though I did not finish the tolerate real democracy. “Real democracy” talist system. Capitalism made its fortunes off union, we are a scout troop. ninth grade. I decided for myself what books defined as a society in which one has some of the exploitation of all the other workers Capitalist bosses are deciding for us to to read from that point to this. control over everything that has an affect on that were not part of this holy alliance. How bomb Iraq, the birthplace of civilized man- The IWW and Yip Harburg have taught one’s life. Every politician I have ever met, could the leadership of the AFL-CIO do this kind, off the map. Seventy percent of the me that we do have a brain, and a heart, and from right to left, feels threatened by the word and call themselves the unions of workers? people in the United States opposed this war the courage to run our own lives through our democracy. They might tolerate it after work- I criticize my fellow workers in the AFL- without a UN mandate before the war began. unions. We’ll make mistakes, but we have ers have been converted to their particular CIO with great love. Every advantage I live U.S. bosses declared war on Iraq with our come to a time in the evolution of this frag- “ism,” but not until then would they trust with in terms of time off, safety, security in my kids, not theirs, anyway. Many felt they must ile earth when we must remove from power workers to guide “their” revolution. Every old age, pension, education, decent income, support those kids after they were in Iraq; but capitalist and socialist bosses along with their socialist revolution has failed, in my opinion, the freedom to write this column, and on now, over 60 percent of those polled want the lackeys, their preachers and their politicians, because the “vanguard” would not trust the and on, came from the struggle of millions troops home today. The bosses say never. This who together are steering a straight and people to run their own communities, their of these fellow workers walking picket lines, is democracy as it is actually practiced in the certain course towards disaster; and begin to own factories, their own farms, or to defend getting their heads cracked, losing their jobs, U.S. We can change that. Will we? take responsibility for our own lives. Thanks their own revolution. The IWW is the only and sometimes their lives for us. I was a dual Capitalism sells soap and cars. Even again, socialist, capitalist, religious nuts, trade organization I have found that asks you and carder every time I had the opportunity to though the bosses know that this earth can union fakers of all kinds for your offers to me to accept NO bosses; capitalist, socialist, work organized AFL-CIO jobs, so this is also only sustain so many human beings at our lead us out of the mess you have made, but communist, anarchist (sound like a contra- self-criticism. It is easy to criticize now that level of consumption, they cannot bring NO THANKS. diction?), religious, or union bosses. we have the advantage of hindsight, I know; themselves to say that we should consume Next month, my view of how our IWW Fundamentalism comes in all forms. Ask but criticize I will because the future looks less or decrease the birth rates. That would forefathers conspired to operate such a large any new convert to an “ism” if theirs isn’t the very bleak for my six children and 13 grand- decrease their profits. So the earth heats up, and diverse group of workers democratically only truth. The fact rarely enters the mind of a children because of the serious errors we have wars explode and “illegal emigration” hap- in the One Big Union, The Industrial Workers vanguard elitist that books will not make one made as workers in this country. pens in countries where the environment has of the World. Impossible? a good farmer, mechanic, machinist, stone When we chose, in the twenties, to suck mason, etc. Decisions affecting workers must up to capitalism and settle for a piece of the Solidarity forces Harvard to rehire janitor who fainted on job be left to workers or you get the incredibly capitalist pie (later we even invested our b y m A r k R . W o l f f pressure the university to guarantee every stupid bungling that we have seen in every pensions in their stocks, talk about schizo- During Oct. 4 negotiations with SEIU custodial worker a living wage. socialist revolution to date. phrenia), we lay down with a rattlesnake. We Local 615, Harvard University has agreed to Paul was fired after his supervisor found The older I get, the more I understand watched the bosses’ courts strip our unions reinstate Saintely Paul with back pay to July him unconscious at work June 27. He had that “democracy” is the most radical political of the right to strike in sympathy with other 3, when he was fired for fainting at work. notified his boss that he was feeling unwell, Students, researchers and faculty who had fainted a few days previous, and was see- knew Saintley Paul from his workplace pe- ing a doctor. Paul had worked for Harvard for This November the Boston GMB would like to titioned Harvard to rehire him. Along with six and a half years without incident. marchers from SEIU 615, IWW, Student honor the thousands of workers in Eastern Europe Labor Action Movement, and the Haitian Teacher blacklisted for shot down by the Soviet army in 1956. community, they joined the second large rally opposing ROTC in schools of about 100 people at the Holyoke Center The American Civil Liberties Union and We commemorate, fifty years on, the chain administration building Sept. 22. the Boston Teachers Union have filed a fed- of events that started with a General Strike in SEIU 615’s Courtney Snegroff decried eral lawsuit on behalf of long-time substitute Poznan, Poland, and culminated with the mass the firing and Harvard’s disregard for work- teacher Jeffrey Herman against the headmas- uprising along the banks of the Danube (Buda- ers. Cambridge City Councillor Marjorie C. ter of Boston’s English High School. Duarte pest) in late October. With their cries of Ruszkik Decker asked if worker mistreatment is what put Herman on the public school’s “do not Haza! (Russians Go Home), industrial workers is taught in Harvard classes. Marchers then call” list after he testified on his own time carried banners protesting the firing and at a Boston City Council hearing against the across Hungary drew new lines for the realiza- the Harvard corporation’s abuses of workers school department spending $1.2 million a tion of a classless society; forming Workers’ across Massachusetts Ave to Memorial Hall year for Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps Councils in defiance of the Soviet government. – occupied by student protesters in 2000 to programs in the public schools. November 2006 • Industrial Worker • Page  Human Rights Baseball b y B r e t G r ot e , C l a r k C l ag e tt, role and bargaining experience of USAS in and K e nn e t h m I l l e r winning sweatfree policy victories is another Members of the Pittsburgh Anti-Sweat- crucial component of the movement. It was shop Community Alliance, United Workers in this spirit that Solidarity Greetings were Association of Maryland, and baseball fans formally sent to the 2006 General Assembly from Kansas, Maryland and Pennsylvania from the HumanRightsBaseball.org found- met at the UWA offices in Baltimore the last ing meeting and the “From Cooperstown to weekend of August to found HumanRights- Dhaka” Voluntary Assessment Stamp issued Baseball.Org. by the Upstate General Membership Branch The United Workers Association, which of the IWW was presented and discussed. works with low-wage workers who clean While traditional union models have no Baltimore’s Camden Yards, hosted the found- answer for the flexibility and insecurity of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1700 – Greyhound drivers and mechanics – hosted a rally ing meeting. Evolving from UWA’s relation- a temporary labor market, whether in the and contract meeting in Cleveland Sept. 27. Their contract expires Jan. 31, 2007. ship with PASCA, HumanRightsBaseball.Org global apparel industry or amongst day labor Walter Thomas, a driver from Chicago, is wearing his uniform. The jacket is made in a comes at the end of a summer of solidarity at inner city stadiums, the United Workers Cintas sweatshop in Costa Rica. To his right is Herman Green who invited members of the between the two organizations. On June 24 Association’s human rights model has proven Pittsburgh Anti-Sweatshop Community Alliance to the meeting. PASCA members traveled to Baltimore for a successful in organizing workers around an Members of PASCA and SweatFree Communities are helping craft anti-sweatshop contract Freedom from Poverty Vigil and March, and expansive vision of justice that speaks to the language with the ATU Local 1700 Bargaining Team. on July 11th the UWA lent a vocal presence shared experiences of poor workers in today’s to PASCA’s Anti-Sweatshop Carnival at the global economy. This model has allowed the Phony ‘direct action’ in baseball All-Star game in Pittsburgh. UWA to build the substantial community San Francisco The new alliance will coordinate the support necessary for workers to win, and Los Angeles hotel protest work of local organizations that recognize organizers left Baltimore with every intention hotel workers win In an increasingly common spectacle, that professional baseball in the United States of bringing those lessons home. Workers at several downtown San Fran- organizers of a September “direct action” is a public utility that needs to be regulated in With its roots so deeply entrenched in cisco hotels have claimed victory in a two- organized to raise awareness of the plight exchange for the public benefits it receives; the mythology of Americana, baseball is a year battle that saw a short strike transformed of immigrant workers in the hotel industry challenging sweatshop practices and other legitimate and vital terrain in the struggle into a prolonged lock-out. After workers were negotiated every detail of their protest with human rights abuses by professional baseball against poverty and oppression. By reclaim- allowed to return to their jobs, their union local police, down to the number and names teams by appealing to the values the game ing the values of fair play, teamwork and waged a boycott campaign while negotiations of those who would be arrested for blocking claims to represent, and to the fans. cooperation, community, collective struggle, dragged on to the two-year mark. roads in a sit-down protest that disrupted a The Alliance hopes to work with the IWW and equality, HumanRightsBaseball.org will Workers turned back the hotels’ demands major airport access road for about 40 min- and United Students Against Sweatshops. act as a vehicle for those dedicated to reclaim- for a two-tier health plan under which new utes during the tail end of rush hour. The IWW’s One-Big-Union internationalist ing the shared values of our society that have hires wouldn’t receive full coverage for their Police were provided with advance iden- outlook dovetails with the anti-sweatshop been hijacked in the crass pursuit of profits first five years on the job, and also won wage tification for the arrestees, and warned six of movement’s challenge of tackling a global accrued at the expense of human dignity, and pension improvements. The contract them that they might wish to reconsider their apparel union organizing drive. The student honesty and justice. also improves workload rules and protects plans. Arrestees also wore colored armbands workers against losing their jobs if hotels so that they could be readily distinguishable Wal-Mart fined $78 are sold. from protesters who would not be arrested. Negotiations continue with several hotels The action was part of Unite Here’s cam- million for stealing outside the master contract, including large paign to publicize conditions at 13 hotels workers’ time hotels like the Marriott and the smaller bou- around the Los Angeles airport, which pay A Pennsylvania jury has tique hotels which are capturing a growing substantially less than hotels in the city. determined that Wal-Mart broke percentage of the hotel market. state labor laws by forcing up to Vigil protests cluster bombs 187,000 hourly employees to Janitors’ hunger strike Some 80 people joined the Northampton work through rest breaks and off the clock, wages. Workers had also sought compen- sation for being forced to work through Janitors working at Gutierrez Company, (Mass.) Committee to Stop the War in Iraq in and will pay at least $78 million. in Burlington, Mass., began a five-day hunger an Oct. 5 vigil outside Textron Systems to pro- The jury found that Wal-Mart acted in meal breaks, but that claim was tossed out based upon a technicality in Massachusetts strike Sept. 23 to protest unjust working test its manufacture of cluster bombs. Textron bad faith, but rejected claims that the com- conditions, low wages, and a lack of health is one of the two companies (Alliant Tech- pany denied workers their meal breaks. labor law. Wal-Mart managers are accused of al- care and paid leave. The eight workers systems is the other) producing the greatest Lead plaintiff Dolores Hummel, who represented by SEIU 615 initiated the strike number of cluster bombs in the U.S. worked at a Sam’s Club in Reading from tering pay records electronically for the past decade, altering overtime punched on the to force Guierrez Company to reinstate four Recently cluster bombs have drawn at- 1992-2002, charged that she had to work janitors fired by cleaning contractor American tention because of their use in Lebanon. The through breaks and after quitting time to clock, and claiming workers were on break when they were actually working. Housekeeping in July. Three of the fired United Nations High Commissioner for Refu- meet work demands in the bakery. She janitors had filed discrimination charges gees said that 200,000 Lebanese displaced by worked eight to 12 unpaid hours a month. against a supervisor for sexual harassment. the recent war were delayed from returning “One of Wal-Mart’s undisclosed secrets Teachers need shorter hours American Housekeeping says they were home because of the danger posed by the A survey by the UK Office of Manpower for its profitability is its creation and imple- fired for repeatedly being late. unexploded bomblets. Economics showed “no statistically signifi- mentation of a system that encourages off- The eight janitors began the fast near Cluster munitions are particularly dan- cant changes” in full-time teachers’ hours the-clock work for its hourly employees,” the Burlington commercial center and then gerous because they are used in such high since a new “social partnership” workload Hummel said in her suit, which was filed moved campsites to key locations, such as the numbers (sometimes in the hundreds of agreement was struck last year. The agree- in 2002. Burlington High School to draw attention to thousands of bomblets). They are designed ment was supposed to allot more time for The retail giant is facing a slew of similar residents attending the Town Meeting. The to kill, and an explosion from a cluster muni- planning, preparation and assessment, thus suits around the country. Wal-Mart settled Massachusetts Inter-faith Committee for tion bomblet or submunition can kill anyone reducing uncompensated work time. a Colorado case for $50 million and is ap- Worker Justice, the Jewish Labor Committee, within 50 meters. Cluster munitions are small However, notes the National Union of pealing a $172 million award handed down the Catholic Labor Guild, and other groups and are often brightly colored, and therefore Teachers, which opposed the agreement, last year by a California jury. joined the action in support of the workers. are very attractive to children. A class action suit involving some average work hours for secondary teachers 65,000 Massachusetts Wal-Mart workers have declined by only 2 minutes and 24 goes to trial Oct. 25, seeking compensation seconds a week. Other teachers have actu- for unpaid overtime and illegally docked ally seen their work hours increase. In November We Remember that the bigger and better the IWW becomes, the more we are going to More rights for adjuncts? to written explanations for a non-reappoint- The American Association of University ment and the right to appeal any such action need a POWERFUL DEFENSE. Join the General Defense Committee Professors has long had detailed guidelines “that appears to be discriminatory, based of the IWW, a fund raising committee open to IWW members and on how colleges should evaluate tenure-track significantly on considerations violating aca- supporters too. $25 for initiation and one year membership. faculty members. Now the association is now demic freedom, or attributable to inadequate Mail To: GDC Secretary Treasurer Tom Kapas, PO Box 23085, Cincinnati OH 45223-3085. asking members to approve a detailed set of consideration.” guidelines for adjunct instructors. Those who have served seven years IWW The GDC is a proud supporter, for a second year, The proposed guidelines outline a path during which they have taught at least 12 GDC of the October 22 Coalition to Stop Police Brutality, through which part timers could achieve courses would be entitled to consideration Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation some measure of job security and due process for permanent status, much like tenure (www.october22.org). The targeting of youth, poor rights. Under the guidelines, which are sure provisions governing most full-time faculty. communities, immigrants and Muslim people will to meet resistance from administrators, all Some adjunct leaders fear this could discour- continue to escalate in the years to come. Working part timers would have the right to written age some colleges from employing the same Oct. 22, 2006 with groups like the October 22 Coalition – we have terms of appointment and a hearing in case adjuncts for long periods of time. $3 Voluntary to fight back becauseWE REMEMBER that an Injury of dismissal before the end of a term. Many colleges historically have pledged Assessment Those who have served for three or more themselves to abiding by the AAUP guide- to One is an Injury to All. terms within three years would be assured of lines, and on some campuses, AAUP has 2006 Steering Committee, John Baranski & Kenneth Miller notice of reappointment or non-reappoint- worked through its collective bargaining Questions about the GDC? Get the attention of the Steering ment no later than one month before the chapters or faculty senates to bring policies end of a term. They would also be entitled into compliance with the rules. Committee, call Kenneth 412-241-1339 Page 10 • Industrial Worker • November 2006

Talkin’ Union... to pick up an extra shift or drop a shift, in continued from page 1 many workplaces the first people you actually were old and rusty. To make matters worse, talk to are your co-workers. The boss doesn’t in order to cut down on costs there were only care who fills a given shift in many jobs; he about five people working a job that should just cares that someone fills the shift at all. probably have been done by eight. Production relies on the relationships that the One afternoon Phil had enough. While producers have with each other. Businesses on coffee break, he talked to his cowork- try and hitch their wagon to this motor force ers – well, in reality, he ran his mouth off. in order to propel their business and increase When he was done ranting the other men their profits. However, businesses also try in the yard agreed, and surprisingly one of to limit these relationships: they stagger them used to be a shop steward for the steel breaks, managers watch who talks to whom, workers union. They went over their options, and when possible they manipulate their including calling the union to come organize employees’ relationships. For example, in them, but decided against it. A few of them many call centers seating plans are chosen had experience with unions around town and by management to make sure people don’t sit decided that the unions probably wouldn’t be next to the same person too often. interested in a five-person shop, nor were any Unions often miss out on opportunities of them interested in sticking around long that arise out of workers’ relationships with enough to try and organize. What they did each other. Primarily they see themselves decide to do was fight back. as legal entities, created by and operating They all agreed to take their breaks at the under the law. This can partially account for same time, to work as slow as possible until the labour movement’s declining militancy. Economy grows, but wages do not the safety of the workplace improved, and, Unions tend to see themselves not as a set of Unemployment remains high, and wages are barely keeping up with inflation, if that. In whenever possible, not to let any managers social relationships constantly training the fact, the share of the U.S. economy devoted to workers’ wages and benefits has declined by talk to them alone. Well, management flipped existing way of doing business, but as a party 2.5 percent over the last five years, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, even out. Soon they couldn’t force the workers to doing business itself. They don’t challenge as working hours have increased. Inflation-adjusted wages are now 10 percent lower than do anything. Management tried to imple- the existence of bosses because their mere they were in the early 1970s. ment a rule that stated that they couldn’t existence as a union depends on the presence Workers in some countries have lost even more. According to data from the Organization take breaks together, so the group simply of a boss with whom they negogiate. Instead for Economic Cooperation and Development, workers’ share of gross domestic product in defied them. They made their safety concerns of a fighting organization that takes as its Germany fell 3.1 percent over the last five years. In Japan, the decline was 3 points. Over all, abundantly clear, and one would have to be starting point the relationships between the workers’ share of the economy fell in four of the Group of 7 industrialized nations. daft not to see their slow work as an obvious workers built through struggle with the Economists claim to be mystified as to why workers are losing ground while the economy protest. Slowly but surely shop conditions ultimate goal of making bosses redundant, is booming. (The way they measure the economy has little to do with the well-being of the steadily improved, and the more they stuck they exist to advocate for the better treatment population or even with the amount of useful production.) Wobblies will be less confused. It together the better things got. of workers under the existence of bosses. has to do with the ever-growing horde of parasites living ever more richly off our labor, and So what do we do as the IWW? Our job the heavy costs of their wars, their financial speculations, and their planet-wrecking. These shouldn’t simply be to replicate the pattern What is a union workplace? bosses are an expensive luxury, and one we can no longer afford. Now by conventional standards, these of the existing unions under a red and black were not union workplaces even once the banner. Our entire project would be the shop stewards, taking the wind out of the sails and in fact, work would be impossible and workers banded together. We tend to think height of futility if we were simply to fall into of rank-and-file workers. Most of the fight unbearable without it. of unions in very specific terms – that is, a the same pattern of contracts and grievances is conducted with pen in hand, and much Now think of the current conditions in group of workers legally recognized to ne- that other unions have done. Our primary of the rest in boardrooms. This isn’t entirely your workplace as a truck stuck in the mud. gotiate collectively with their employer. To task should be to raise hell, and to try to get the fault of the unions, however; most labour If you get one person pushing, you might be the mainstream unions there are “organized better at raising it, too. If we measure our legislation encourages this. But unions largely able to rock that truck a bit, but it is likely to shops” and “unorganized shops.” Those they success by bargaining units we likely won’t go along with this process, thinking their stay stuck. A couple people pushing can get represent and negotiate for are considered or- get far without the business unions’ money, cooperation will pay off in the long run. that truck out if it’s a little deep. I think you ganized, and those they are trying to get into and will also have thrown the fight before we “Phil” and “Hannah” are pseudonyms for get my point: the more people pushing in the their organization are not. This misses a very have even started. As ambitious as it sounds, two members of the IWW Edmonton Branch. same direction, the more weight you can put important fact – every workplace, to a certain our primary goal is a world without bosses, Their stories are not unique – everyday stories behind your demands. Every person involved degree, is organized. In fact, bosses often rely and this fight was here long before we started of resistance come out of workplaces all compounds the strength of an action, and on the relationships between employees and it, and would exist in our absence. over the world, and I could just have easily small actions can get small results but there is their natural tendency to shape their environ- The existing way of conducting union used stories from personal apolitical friends. a reason why mass direct actions are so rarely ment to run their business. business largely ensures that the business of What is unique is that these two people encouraged: direct action by necessity cannot Take staffing, for example. If you need fighting the boss is the job of negotiators and were conscious of what they were doing, and be directed from above. Unlike a faucet you thought of themselves as part of a movement. cannot turn militancy on or off. Every day Direct action is a matter of course in most each of us pulls our own way, and the bosses continued from page 6 The IWW in the history books... workplaces, and on a small scale almost pull another. What if all workers pulled the Wobbly internationalism Wobblies were very much involved in the everyone uses it. This is because it works, same way together? John Laslett’s essay, “Linking the old strike (most fled the country in its aftermath), world with the new: Recent studies of la- and Trautmann’s writings were influential. bor migration, race, and political protest Ward Churchill’s “The Trajectory of Po- Book Review: The enemy of nature in America and the British Empire” (Labor litical Policing in the United States, 1870 to r e v i e w b y p e r r y sand e r s Kovel says part of the goal of “the revolution” History 46:2, 2005, pp. 185-194) argues that the Present” (CR: The New Centennial Review Joel Kovel, The Enemy of Nature (Zed is “no more lower classes.” (10) This implies studies of social movements including the 4:1, 2004, pp. 1-72) tracks the evolution Books, 2002), 273 pages. a class society, with a middle and upper class. IWW, Knights of Labor and women’s labor of repression from privatized and vigilante A few weeks ago a political conversation But for me, the goal of the international struggles must be examined in the context of forces to the more “professional” approach of turned to ecology when I asserted that capital- working-class revolution is the elimination the large-scale labor migrations that led to a the FBI, including several pages on repression ism is destroying the world we live in, which of all classes, and the creation of a global cross-fertilization of ideas and the movement against the IWW from 1905 through 1924, makes its overthrow a practical necessity. My classless society. of labor militants between Africa, Australia, based on a rather superficial reading of the friend agreed, adding that he had read a good The third and last part of the book Canada, England and the United States. literature that captures the more famous book on just that subject. contains the following chapters: Towards Also exploring the role of radical diaspo- instances but is far from a comprehensive Soon after our conversation I went to the Ecosocialism, Critique of Actually Existing ras is Dan La Botz’s “American ‘Slackers’ in picture of a reign of terror against IWW public library and asked for the book, which Ecopolitics, Prefiguration, and Ecosocialism. the Mexican Revolution” (The Americas 62:4, organizers that continued well past when he arrived several days later via inter-library Although Kovel advocates what he calls “eco- 2006, pp. 563-590), based upon his disserta- drops the story. It is hard to understand how loan. I was thrilled, especially after reading socialism – carried out in a dreamy, utopian, tion. La Botz’s focus is on the thousands of the absurd claim that William Haywood was the subtitle: “The end of capitalism or the end populist way – he actually advocates a form draft dodgers and other radicals who fled to the “first” IWW president (an office he never of the world?” “Yes!” I said to myself, went of state capitalism, complete with a state Mexico after the U.S. entered World War I, held, and of course there only was one presi- home, and eagerly started reading the book, (the Soviet state is cited as a form of public and quickly became active in Mexico’s labor dent, the office having been abolished at the which turned out to be sound ecologically ownership of the means of production, p. and radical movements, and particularly in second convention) gets into print. but disappointing politically. 242), markets (244), money (ecoprices and those circles that helped give birth to the Previously reviewed in the Industrial The first two parts are a searing, well- ecodollars), and renumeration differentials Mexican Communist Party. But in the pro- Worker are Bruce Watson’s Bread & Roses: documented indictment of capitalism’s dis- of “perhaps” 3 to 1 (243). cess, he touches upon (in the later pages) the Mills, Migrants and the Struggle for the Ameri- gusting, life-threatening ecological record. This is some kind of impossible people’s role of several of these exiles who joined with can Dream (Viking, reviewed June 2006), who The author extrapolates the “grow or die” state, and it’s not a truly ecological society Wobbly seamen to build a Mexican IWW with offers a well-written narrative of the IWW’s motion of capital to make Earth uninhabit- either. We need to get rid of the state (which particular strength among maritime and oil massive 1912 Lawrence textile strike, but able for humans (and many other species as serves and must serve the employing class), workers and which (though no historian ac- unfortunately is unable to understand the well) in the not-too-distant future, without commodities, markets, money, and the like. knowledges this) survived into the 1960s. workers’ desire for a life freed of the fetters its revolutionary overthrow internationally. We need and want an ecological society Mark Derby’s “The Case of William E. of capitalism, and Franklin Rosemont and It includes the following chapters: Part I: too. Trautmann and the role of the Wobblies” Charles Radcliffe’s Dancin’ in the Streets: The Culprit, The Ecological Crisis, Capital, Although this book is state capitalist in its appears in Revolution – the 1913 Great Strike Anarchists, IWWs, Surrealists, Situationists & Capitalism; Part II: The Domination of Na- essence, it still contains important facts and in New Zealand (Melanie Nolan, editor, Provos in the 1960s (Kerr, reviewed December ture, On Ecologies, and Capitalism and the insights. But to create a truly sustaintable, Canterbury University Press, 2006). While 2005), largely reprinted from the pages of the Domination of Nature. ecological society we must rid ourselves of Trautmann was long gone from New Zealand, Chicago journal Rebel Worker. These are “must” reading, even though all forms of capitalism. November 2006 • Industrial Worker • Page 11 Page 12 • Industrial Worker • November 2006 Korean general strike planned The Korean Confederation of Trade They also called for easing restrictions on the Unions has announced plans for a general right to strike, repealing provisions barring strike beginning Nov. 15 to protest free trade fired and unemployed workers from retaining talks, labor law “reform” and attacks on the union membership or holding union office, rights of workers on temporary contracts. and allowing workers to join unions of their The Workers’ Group of the 14th Asian own choice even where this means more than Regional Meeting of the ILO released a state- one union in a single workplace. ment August 31 expressing its deep concern Meanwhile, the government continues Crisis in Oaxaca Oaxaca. The international community is well “over the worsening labour situation in Korea its efforts to crush the KCTU-affiliated Gov- In September, the IWW’s International aware that many of these gunmen are, in fact, where serious violations of workers and trade ernment Employees Union. As of October Solidarity Commission issued an urgent ap- currently or recently employed police officers, union rights are taking place... 10, the local offices of 125 out of 251 KGEU peal calling on IWW branches to organize ultimately under the command of Ulises Ruiz “We condemn the violence and police chapters have been forcibly closed, and many delegations to visit local offices of the Mexi- Ortiz; as are the Oaxacan CTM and CROC brutality perpetrated against workers in- have been sealed off with iron plates or bars to can government to protest the threatened union officials currently conspiring to harrass volved in peaceful rallies and demonstrations ensure that workers can not return to them. repression of the teachers’ union and popular and assault the people of Oaxaca for opposing to uphold their fundamental rights and im- At least 101 KGEU members and sup- movement in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. this corrupt government... prove their wages and working conditions. porters have been arrested and several were To the Federal Government of Mexico, The International Solidarity Commission Such aggression had caused the deaths of severely beaten up and hospitalized. Twelve National Union of Education Workers Section of the IWW will work to make the violent acts two workers and injuries to many others and KGEU leaders have been summoned by the 22, Popular Assemblies of the People of Oaxaca, of the Mexican government known in our led in recent months to the imprisonment police on charges of leading illegal activities and the people of Oaxaca, communities around the world, and will take of more than one hundred unionists. We of an illegal organization and violation of the The International Solidarity Commis- every step possible to support the members demand the[ir] immediate release.” National Security Law. sion of the Industrial Workers of the World of SNTE-CNTE Section 22, and the APPO, in The delegates called on the government The federal government has announced stands strongly in support of the National their courageous resistance to injustice. Union of Education Workers Section 22 to respect the rights of public employees to it will penalize local governments that do Korean government workers unionize and to reverse its decision to forcibly not close down KGEU offices and withdraw (SNTE-CNTE) and the Popular Assemblies close the offices of public employee unions. recognition from the union. of the People of Oaxaca (APPO) in their de- union under attack mands for the immediate resignation of the The ISC wrote South Korean labor offi- governor of the state of Oaxaca, Ulises Ruiz cials condemning “the unjust and reprehen- “Communist” Korea violates workers’ rights Ortiz, for the repeated acts of violence com- sible raids made against the Korean Govern- Human Rights Watch has called on the North Korean government to amend its law gov- mitted against the people of Oaxaca by police ment Employees Union” and demanding that erning the Kaesong Industrial Complex, a new industrial joint venture between North Korea under his command. The IWW demands the the government immediately recognize the and South Korean companies, to ensure adequate protections of basic workers’ rights. Mexican government cease its military and right to the Korean Government Employee’s The Complex opened in June 2004 under a contract between North Korea and South police preparations to attack the members Union’s existence, and allow it to operate Korea’s Hyundai Asan Corporation and South Korea’s state-owned Korea Land Corporation. and supporters of APPO and the SNTE sec- freely and legally. The complex is located between the North Korean city of Kaesong and the western border tion 22 in Oaxaca state, and instead honestly between the two Koreas. Workers produce goods mostly for the South Korean market, includ- address these groups’ concerns. Furthermore, Disappeared in Argentina ing watches, shoes, clothes, kitchenware, plastic containers, electrical cords and car parts, the IWW demands the Mexican government The ISC added its voice to human rights among other items. As of August, more than 8,000 North Korean workers were employed free the political prisoners, Germán Mendoza organizations protesting the “disappearance” by 13 South Korean companies. Nube, Erangelio Mendoza González, Catarino and presumed kidnapping of Julio Lopez Human Rights Watch found that South Korean companies are violating the KIC Labor Torres Pereda and Ramiro Aragón Pérez. shortly after his testimony in a trial against Law, which stipulates that employers should pay workers directly in cash. Instead, the South The IWW also condemns the paramilitary former human rights violators under the last Korean companies are paying workers’ wages in U.S. dollars to the North Korean govern- mobilizations which through acts of violence Argentine dictatorship: ment, which in turn pays the workers in North Korean won after deducting a mandatory 30 threaten the protests of members of APPO “We recognize that witnesses like Julio percent contribution to a social welfare fund. and the SNTE-CNTE, as well as the citizens of are key to bringing to justice the military The group has not been permitted to interview workers, who it believes are also being and police officers who during the military denied their right to form and join independent unions, among other core labor rights. dictatorship from 1976 to 1983 committed crimes against humanity. BNP racist meeting stopped the protesting workers and Iranian military “The ISC supports the demands of Argen- by workers’ direct action forces; 40 of the workers were badly injured tinean civil society that the Argentine govern- The racist anti-immigrant party known as and another 40 were arrested. ment exercise its responsibility to protect the British National Party booked a meeting The Iranian MP from Babols, Hojatollah such witnesses. We urge the government to in the Doncaster, UK, Throne Democratic Rouhi, apologized for the massacre but then employ all the resources of the State to find Club to prepare for the BNP’s upcoming appealed to the workers to stay calm and wait him, alive and intact. The ISC stand in soli- political campaign for local council seats. As for an investigation. He admitted the factory darity with the compañeros and compañeras local anti-fascist activists planned to disrupt management was trying to downsize the fac- who are searching for Julio and hope for his the meeting, the workers who staffed the club tory from 800 to 300 workers and said that Mexican teachers rally in Oaxaca. immediate safe return.” took matters into their own hands. The shop management should have informed the work- trainal labor union, said that U.S. district steward threatened to resign and the bar staff ers of this. One worker said, “We understand Workers’ demo in Thailand judge Jose Martinez didn’t determine the threatened to strike if the meeting was held. his proclaimed Mehrvarzi or ‘government of defies strict martial law company was innocent but found he lacked As a result the meeting was cancelled. kindness’ all too well. No matter which side The very first massive demonstration jurisdiction over the matter. of the infamous ‘war on terror’ your country is Carpet factory workers since the coup in Thailand was staged Oct 8 “This is not a ruling over the merits placed on, the result is the same for workers: by textile workers in front of the American of the case, it’s a decision on procedural attacked in Iran state repression of workers’ rights.” Embassy, demanding the U.S. authorities in- grounds,” Correa said. “We believe our case Workers of the Rash Alborz Carpet Fac- Meanwhile, the head of the official Ira- vestigate why the company they work for as is conclusive and we expect the justice to tory in Babols, Iran, were attacked by security nian labor union admits that some 200,000 lingerie workers, producing bras for Gap and rule favorably.” forces Sept. 16. After waiting for a resolution workers have not received their salaries for Victoria’s Secret, is being closed down. The Colombia union and several workers between strikers and the factory management, months or, in some cases, years. Troops did not intervene although the sued Coca-Cola and four of its local bottlers workers who returned to the Alborz carpet “Some of these workers have been wait- demonstration violated strict laws on public in 2001, claiming that it collaborated with factory were in for a rude awakening. They ing for their wages for about 50 months,” assembly. The grievances of the 1,400 work- local paramilitary groups to use murders, came back to the “re-opened” factory only to said Alireza Mahjoub, the secretary general ers to be dismissed without severance pay. torture, threats and intimidation to eliminate find themselves and their families attacked by of Iran’s House of Labour. Some 800 Thai lingerie workers waved union activity at its bottling plants. security guards. When other workers heard According to Mahjoub, 18.5 percent of bras and placards during the protest. They In the past years, nine union leaders rumors of security forces attacking innocent Iran’s 70 million people live under the poverty were laid off by Gina Form Bra. working at Coca-Cola plants were killed in workers, many decided to march in front of line. He also expressed concern over rising Somsak Praiyoowong, adviser for the Colombia while more than 60 others received government offices to protest the repression. prices, despite official claims that inflation Gina Relation Worker Union, said around death threats. More than 3,800 union lead- As a result, a confrontation occurred between is under control. 80 police were present at the rally, but that ers and activists have been assassinated in The IWW Edmonton it went ahead peacefully. “We are afraid but Colombia since the mid-1980s. Branch is holding we make it clear to police that we are not weekly strike support gathering for politics, we have a problem,” Uniontex struggle continues actions in solidarity he told the AFP news agency. “Our workers The anarcho-syndicalist All-Polish Trade with the 250 workers are suffering so fear is no big deal.” Union Workers’ Initiative continues its fight of the Palace Casino Gina Form Bra is due to close by the end to restore worker ownership of the Uniontex in West Edmonton of October after company officials said they factory despite a recent labor court ruling al- Mall who struck Sept. could no longer afford costs in Thailand and lowing the firing of union activist Slawomir 9 seeking a first union were moving operations to China. Skrzypczak two years ago. Other fired work- contract. Negotiations ers have won rulings only to receive token dragged on for over Coca-Cola case dismissed compensation without reinstatement. The a year, and managers The Colombian labor union that sued union continues to fight the privatization. refused the UFCW’s Coca-Cola in a Florida court with the backing Polish companies are increasingly turn- request for arbitration. of the Steelworkers Union and human rights ing to lay offs and firings to rid themselves p h oto b y groups will appeal the ruling of the federal of independent union activists. While illegal, D o n C r isa l l , judge who dismissed the complaint. labor courts have proved reluctant to require W o b b ly D ispatc h Javier Correa, president of the Sinal- companies to reinstate workers.