Official newspaper oF The Industrial Workers of the World

INDUSTRIALNovember 2013 #1760 Vol. 110 No. 9 $2/ £2/ €2 WORKER

A Response To In November We Re-Remembering The Worldwide IWA Patriarchy In The IWW Remember Every Mexican IWW Action Against 3 Wobbly Killed 6-7 8 Santander Bank 16 The Story And Struggle Of Starbucks Workers In Chile Interview by Adam Weaver Industrial Worker (IW): Could you During a week-long visit to Santiago describe the issues that motivated you to connect with social movement and to first start organizing? political organizations, I had the chance to meet with Andrés Giordano, the presi- Andrés Giordano (AG): Well, the dent of the Starbucks Workers Union in first main issue was that the company Chile. Organized as an independent union decided to lay off workers from every beginning in 2009, they have a supportive store. Starbucks decided that they had relationship with their U.S. counterparts too many workers for the operation. So, in the IWW’s Starbucks Workers Union. in my store, we went from being like On Sept. 22, I took the subway out to 25 partners to being 13 or 14, and that the middle-class suburbs of Santiago to caused a huge impact on the team. So we meet him at his store, which was where started to write complaints to the main the union effort began in 2009. Andrés office, through the human resources is currently a student, previously in pho- [HR] department. The company didn’t tography and now studying music, and take that too well and fired some of the has worked at his store for about eight people or took reprisals. Two partners years, with six years as a shift supervi- at my store and at least one other from sor. He was excited to tell the story of another store that did this got fired. So, their union, completely organized and we decided to seek legal protection and led by rank-and-file workers, as well as organized as a union. to discuss their current negotiations and I remember one of the biggest cases struggles. You can stay in touch with them was a partner named Andy Israel, who on Facebook at: http://www.facebook. had superb performance. He was going com/SindicatoStarbucksChile. Continued on 12 Starbucks Workers Union picket in July 2011. Photo: Juanita Galleguillos Droguett

EurestBy Harald Stubbe Fires IWW Member In Frankfurt SexualBy Grace Parker Harassment In The Workplace Global catering company Eurest, My first major experience with sexual which is engaged in brutal human harassment at work occurred when I was resource management practices all 17 and working at a Mexican restaurant. around the world, and part of the One of the managers, a member of the British Compass Group, has fired family that owned the restaurant, put his our long-standing fellow worker hand down the back of my 16-year-old co- Anil Vermani. Anil was put on a worker’s pants. She and I confronted the plane from Kabul to Germany when head manager together, and he responded he was just 14. In Germany, he was by giving the offending manager two put into a youth center, then, at 18, weeks of paid leave. After two weeks, he he had to make his own way. He was back and still working the same shifts started as a kitchen hand at Eurest. A with the worker he’d assaulted. shy young man, he was bullied from We organized a march on the boss, the Eurest demo in January 2012. Photo: IWW Eurest the start, and only given the worst first I had ever done, and went back to the jobs. In 2006 he joined the IWW. His first protest emails to the managing director head manager with two more of our co- experience of fighting back was when he Jürgen Thamm. Then we sent letters to workers. We demanded that the offending took part in a demonstration outside the the workers’ representatives of many of manager be fired, but instead the head Commerzbank in solidarity with Eurest Eurest’s client companies. With the sup- manager changed my co-worker’s sched- workers in Cologne. He learned not to port of the IWW, Anil has contacted one ule so she wouldn’t have to work on the put up with everything. Meanwhile he got of the best lawyers in Frankfurt. same shift as the man who assaulted her. married and had two children. But all this is not enough. We need to While this was not a win in the least bit, it Now, Eurest fired him, the sole wage- continue to fight, globally, to give Eurest was still better than nothing. This was two Chi-Lake picket flyer. Graphic: Twin Cities IWW earner of his household, without giving and Compass Group a hard time, and in- years before I joined the IWW, and I was any reason. We won’t accept this inhu- form Eurest’s customers of the company’s clueless about building workers’ power were making some progress in talking to mane action. In September we organized inhumane labor practices! and making changes at work. I wish that I their co-workers, building relationships, had known then what I know now, because and agitating around issues at work. How- Industrial Worker Periodicals Postage we could have organized more around this ever, there was one problem: they were PO Box 180195 PAID issue and actually made some gains in a both men. The workforce at Chi-Lake was Chicago, IL 60618, USA Chicago, IL workplace where sexual harassment was incredibly gender segregated, with all of and additional the norm, not the exception. the cashiers being women and all of the ISSN 0019-8870 mailing offices Four years later, I found myself again stockers being men. ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED working in an environment where sexual This division of labor was based on harassment was something to be expected, two fucked-up ideas on the part of man- was “just part of the job,” and was written agement: one being that women can’t lift off as inevitable by bosses and workers heavy things, and the second being that alike. This time, however, was different. I staffing the cash registers with young, had gotten the job for the purpose of orga- attractive women will make men want to nizing, and was salting (getting a job with buy more booze. It also served to divide the intent of organizing) into the campaign the workforce in very powerful ways. Stock in its very early stages. guys had grievances that the cashiers The store was called Chicago-Lake Li- couldn’t identify with, and vice versa. quors (Chi-Lake), located in Minneapolis, It prevented cross-gender relationships and we would go on to do a series of actions from forming, and this was the issue that that would culminate in a mass firing of the two organizers were facing in trying five workers, including myself, in retali- to build a committee that was fully repre- ation for a march on the boss asking for sentative of the workplace. That’s where raises. At this point, however, there were I came in. only two IWW members in the shop. They Continued on 13 Page 2 • Industrial Worker • November 2013 “Comp Time” Is Bad For Workers To the Editor, quit about 30 years ago still owe me more days before the end of the year. Some jobs Do you know about the “Working than two full weeks each, which they never give seniority privileges for choosing vaca- Families Flexibility Act? Members of U.S. let me take off and would not pay for. This tions. Some places would let Jewish people Congress are trying to legalize “comp happened to all kinds of people I knew. If take a vacation day on a Jewish holiday time.” Comp time was declared unconsti- comp time becomes legal again, employers and ask non-Jewish staff to not take those tutional by the U.S. Supreme Court when that pay time-and-a-half for overtime can days off, for example. Comp time, in places Letters Welcome! Reagan was president. The Court said just promise time off in the future. This where I or my friends worked, never had Send your letters to: [email protected] with that it violated the anti-slavery amend- will mean that in the company’s busy sea- such customs or laws to enforce that the “Letter” in the subject. ment since it allowed employers to force son, people will work extra unpaid hours, time off. Lots of jobs give the day off for Mailing Address: people to work without getting paid. We and when and if the boss decides it, the Thanksgiving but there is no traditional Industrial Worker, P.O. Box 180195, never heard of unpaid “internships” in workers would get time off. This is similar comp day. That was something people said Chicago, IL 60618, United States. those days. Unpaid internships were il- to the situation in Poland, reported in the often as we complained about not getting legal as violations of the minimum wage IW recently, where the eight-hour work our comp time approved. It was always Get the Word Out! law. Comp time used to be very, very com- day will cease to exist soon. hard to get permission to take the time off, mon. It was a policy in which an employer All of a sudden at work you could be especially when the job was understaffed. IWW members, branches, job shops and would promise to give time off in the future told to take a break in the middle of a Comp time was bad and many of us other affiliated bodies can get the word instead of paying overtime or any extra shift. If you work in a hospital kitchen, for older folks forgot all about it. I did, un- out about their project, event, campaign pay for extra work. I have had jobs where example, maybe after lunch the boss gives til I heard about the Working Families or protest each month in the Industrial we worked 60-hour weeks but were paid you two comp hours and you must get back Flexibility Act. The members of Congress Worker. Send announcements to iw@ for 37.5 hours, and promised that in some before dinner. That time off might not be (about half of whom are millionaires) are iww.org. Much appreciated donations future week we could take some hours off a time when you can really do anything. If trying to bring it back saying that it is good for the following sizes should be sent to: and work less than 37.5 hours that week you commute to work an hour each way, for families with kids to sometimes have but still get paid for that full week. you wouldn’t head home just to go right less rigid schedules. It will be the bosses IWW GHQ, Post Office Box 180195, In theory we might work five extra back. This is the way it often worked. Comp who decide those schedules though not Chicago, IL 60618, United States. hours this week for no extra pay but work time sounds like extra vacation days, but it the employees deciding when they want to $12 for 1” tall, 1 column wide five hours less next week and get a full was not treated like formal time off like a work extra late or leave early. For younger $40 for 4” by 2 columns paycheck that week also. It was very easy holiday, vacation days or sick time. Vaca- people, it will come as a shock and you will $90 for a quarter page to lose track of the extra hours. Brooklyn tion days often had more of a system. Some have less control over your time. Catholic Charities and another job that I places would say you must take vacation Tom Keough Industrial Worker IWW directory The Voice of Revolutionary Africa Southeast England RO: [email protected] Florida New York Industrial Unionism Uganda Wales: [email protected] Gainesville GMB: c/o Civic Media Center, 433 S. Main St., New York City GMB: 45-02 23rd Street, Suite #2, Long IWW Kabale Uganda: Justus Tukwasibwe Weij- British Isles 32601. Robbie Czopek, del., 904-315-5292, gainesvil- Island City,11101. [email protected]. www.wobblycity. Organization agye, P.O. Box 217, Kabale , Uganda, East Africa. [email protected], www.gainesvilleiww.org org Health Workers IU 610: [email protected] Starbucks Campaign: iwwstarbucksunion@gmail. jkweijagye[at]yahoo.com Pizza Hut Workers IU 640: [email protected] Miami IWW: [email protected] Education Hobe Sound: P. Shultz, 8274 SE Pine Circle, 33455-6608. com, www.starbucksunion.org Australia Sheffield Education Workers: [email protected] Hudson Valley GMB: P.O. Box 48, Huguenot 12746, 845- New South Wales 772-545-9591, [email protected] Emancipation London Bus Drivers: [email protected] Pensacola GMB: P.O. Box 2662, Pensacola 32513-2662. 342-3405, [email protected], http://hviww.blogspot. Sydney GMB: [email protected]. Laura, del., London Cleaners: [email protected] 840-437-1323, [email protected], www. com/ Official newspaper of the [email protected]. Bradford GMB: [email protected] angelfire.com/fl5/iww Syracuse IWW: [email protected] Newcastle: [email protected] Bristol GMB: [email protected] Georgia Upstate NY GMB: P.O. Box 235, Albany 12201-0235, Industrial Workers Woolongong: [email protected] 518-833-6853 or 518-861-5627. www.upstate-nyiww. Leeds GMB: [email protected] Atlanta GMB: 542 Moreland Avenue, Southeast Atlanta, org, [email protected], Rochelle Semel, of the World Lismore: [email protected] London GMB: [email protected] 30316. 404-693-4728 del., P.O. Box 172, Fly Creek 13337, 607-293-6489, Post Office Box 180195 Queensland Manchester GMB: [email protected] Hawaii [email protected] Brisbane: P.O. Box 5842, West End, Qld 4101. iww- Nottingham: [email protected] Honolulu: Tony Donnes, del., [email protected] Utica IWW: Brendan Maslauskas Dunn, del., 315-240- Chicago, IL 60618 USA [email protected]. Asger, del., happyanarchy@riseup. 3149. [email protected] net Reading GMB: [email protected] Idaho 773.728.0996 • [email protected] Sheffield GMB: [email protected] Boise: Ritchie Eppink, del., P.O. Box 453, 83701. 208-371- North Carolina South Australia Carolina Mountains GMB: P.O. Box 1005, 28802. 828- www.iww.org Adelaide: [email protected], www.wobbliesSA. Sussex GMB: [email protected] 9752, [email protected] Illinois 407-1979. [email protected] org. Jesse, del., 0432 130 082 West Midlands GMB: [email protected] Greensboro GMB: P. O. Box 5022, 27435. 1-855-IWW-4- Victoria York GMB: [email protected] Chicago GMB: P.O. Box 57114, 60657. 312-638-9155. GSO (855-499-4476). [email protected] General Secretary-Treasurer: [email protected] Melbourne: P.O. Box 145, Moreland, VIC 3058. mel- Scotland North Dakota Sam Green [email protected], www.iwwmelbourne. Freight Truckers Hotline: [email protected] wordpress.com. Loki, del., lachlan.campbell.type@ Clydeside GMB: [email protected] Red River GMB: [email protected], redriveriww@gmail. gmail.com Dumfries and Galloway GMB: [email protected] Indiana com General Executive Board: Geelong: [email protected] Edinburgh GMB: [email protected] Indiana GMB: 219-308-8634. [email protected]. Ohio Belgium Facebook: Indiana IWW Mid-Ohio GMB: c/o Riffe, 4071 Indianola Ave., Columbus Monika Vykoukal, Katie Jennings, Western Australia 43214. [email protected] Perth GMB: P.O. Box 1, Cannington WA 6987. perthwob- Floris De Rycker, Sint-Bavoplein 7, 2530 Boechout, Iowa DJ Alperovitz, John Slavin, [email protected]. Bruce, del.,coronation78@hotmail. Belgium. [email protected] Eastern Iowa IWW: 319-333-2476. EasternIowaIWW@ Northeast Ohio GMB: P.O. Box 141072, Cleveland 44114. Dave Pike, Meg Beyer, com German Language Area gmail.com 216-502-5325 Kansas Ohio Valley GMB: P.O. Box 6042, Cincinnati 45206, 513- Montigue Magruder Canada IWW German Language Area Regional Organizing 510-1486, [email protected] IWW Canadian Regional Organizing Committee (CAN- Committee (GLAMROC): IWW, Haberweg 19, 61352 Bad Greater Kansas City/Lawrence GMB: 816-875-6060. Homburg, Germany. [email protected]. www. [email protected] Sweet Patches Screenprinting IU 410 Job Shop: ROC): [email protected] wobblies.de [email protected] Alberta Wichita: Naythan Smith, del., 316-633-0591. Editor & Graphic Designer: Austria: [email protected], [email protected]. [email protected] Oklahoma Diane Krauthamer Edmonton GMB: P.O. Box 75175, T6E 6K1. edmon- www.iwwaustria.wordpress.com. Tulsa: P.O. Box 213, Medicine Park 73557, 580-529-3360 [email protected], edmonton.iww.ca. Gabriel Cardenas, Berlin: Offenes Treffen jeden 2.Montag im Monat im Cafe Louisiana [email protected] del., 780-990-9081, [email protected] Commune, Reichenberger Str.157, 10999 Berlin, 18 Uhr. Louisiana IWW: John Mark Crowder, del.,126 Kelly Lane, Oregon British Columbia (U-Bahnhof Kottbusser Tor). Postadresse: IWW Berlin, c/o Homer, 71040. 318-224-1472. [email protected] Lane GMB: Ed Gunderson, del., 541-743-5681. x355153@ Vancouver GMB: 204-2274 York Ave., V6K 1C6. Rotes Antiquariat, Rungestr. 20, 10179 Berlin, Germany. Maine iww.org, www.eugeneiww.org Proofreaders: 604-732-9613. [email protected]. www. [email protected]. Portland GMB: 2249 E Burnside St., 97214, 503-231- vancouveriww.com Bremen: [email protected]. iwwbremen. Maine IWW: 207-619-0842. [email protected], www. 5488. [email protected], pdx.iww.org Maria Rodriguez Gil, Afreen Azim, Vancouver Island GMB: Box 297 St. A, Nanaimo BC, V9R blogsport.de southernmaineiww.org Portland Red and Black Cafe: 400 SE 12th Ave, 97214. Jerome Baxter, Anthony Cage, 5K9. [email protected]. http://vanislewobs.wordpress. Cologne/Koeln GMB: c/o Allerweltshaus, Koernerstr. Maryland 503-231-3899. [email protected]. www. com 77-79, 50823 Koeln, Germany. [email protected]. Baltimore GMB: P.O. Box 33350, 21218. baltimoreiww@ redandblackcafe.com Jonathan D. Beasley, Jacob Brent, Manitoba www.iwwcologne.wordpress.com gmail.com Pennsylvania Frankfurt - Eurest: IWW Betriebsgruppe Eurest Massachusetts Mathieu Dube, Neil Parthun, Winnipeg GMB: IWW, c/o WORC, P.O. Box 1, R3C 2G1. Haberweg 19 D- 61352 Bad Homburg. harald.stubbe@ Lancaster IWW: P.O. Box 352, 17608. 717-559-0797. Skylaar Amann, Chris Heffner, [email protected] yahoo.de. Boston Area GMB: P.O. Box 391724, Cambridge, 02139. [email protected] New Brunswick 617-863-7920, [email protected], www.IW- Lehigh Valley GMB: P.O. Box 1477, Allentown, 18105- Billy O’Connor, Eric Wind, Fredericton: [email protected], Hamburg-Waterkant: [email protected] WBoston.org 1477. 484-275-0873. [email protected]. frederictoniww.wordpress.com Kassel: [email protected]. www.wobblies-kassel. Cape Cod/SE Massachusetts: [email protected] www. facebook.com/lehighvalleyiww David Patrick, Joel Gosse, Ontario de Western Mass. Public Service IU 650 Branch: IWW, P.O. Paper Crane Press IU 450 Job Shop: 610-358-9496. pa- Zachary Snowdon Smith Ottawa-Outaouais GMB & GDC Local 6: 1106 Wellington Munich: [email protected] Box 1581, Northampton, 01061 [email protected], www.papercranepress.com Rostock: [email protected]. iww-rostock.net St., P.O. Box 36042, Ottawa, K1Y 4V3. [email protected], Michigan Pittsburgh GMB: P.O. Box 5912,15210. 412-894-0558. [email protected] Switzerland: [email protected] Detroit GMB: 4210 Trumbull Blvd., 48208. detroit@ [email protected] Printer: Ottawa Panhandlers Union: Karen Crossman, spokesper- Iceland: Jamie McQuilkin,del.,Stangarholti 26 Reykjavik iww.org. Rhode Island Globe Direct/Boston Globe Media son, 613-282-7968, [email protected] 105. +354 7825894. [email protected] Grand Rapids GMB: P.O. Box 6629, 49516. 616-881-5263. Providence GMB: P.O. Box 5795, 02903. 508-367-6434. Peterborough: c/o PCAP, 393 Water St. #17, K9H 3L7, Lithuania: [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Millbury, MA 705-749-9694. Sean Carleton, del., 705-775-0663, Netherlands: [email protected] Grand Rapids Bartertown Diner and Roc’s Cakes: 6 Tennessee [email protected] Norway IWW: 004793656014. [email protected]. Jefferson St., 49503. [email protected], www. Mid-Tennessee IWW: Lara Jennings, del., 106 N. 3rd St., Toronto GMB: c/o Libra Knowledge & Information Svcs http://www.iwwnorge.org, www.facebook.com/iw- bartertowngr.com Clarksville, 37040. 931-206-3656. Jonathan Beasley, Co-op, P.O. Box 353 Stn. A, M5W 1C2. 416-919-7392. iw- wnorge. Twitter: @IWWnorge del., 2002 Post Rd., Clarksville, 37043 931-220-9665. Next deadline is [email protected]. Max Bang, del., nowitstime610@ Central Michigan: 5007 W. Columbia Rd., Mason 48854. November 8, 2013 gmail.com United States 517-676-9446, [email protected] Texas Windsor GMB: c/o WWAC, 328 Pelissier St., N9A 4K7. Alaska Minnesota El Paso IWW: Sarah Michelson, del., 314-600-2762. (519) 564-8036. [email protected]. http:// Fairbanks GMB: P. O. Box 80101, 99708. Chris White, del., Red River GMB: [email protected], redriveriww@gmail. [email protected] U.S. IW mailing address: windsoriww.wordpress.com 907-457-2543, [email protected]. com Golden Triangle IWW (Beaumont - Port Arthur): gt- [email protected] IW, Post Office Box 180195, Québec Arizona Twin Cities GMB: 3019 Minnehaha Ave. South, Suite 50, Montreal GMB: cp 60124, Montréal, QC, H2J 4E1. 514- Phoenix GMB: P.O. Box 7126, 85011-7126. 623-336- Minneapolis 55406. [email protected] South Texas IWW: [email protected] Chicago, IL 60618, United 268-3394. [email protected] 1062. [email protected] Duluth IWW: P.O. Box 3232, 55803. iwwduluth@riseup. Utah States Europe Flagstaff IWW: 206-327-4158, [email protected] net Salt Lake City GMB: P.O. Box 1227, 84110. 801-871- European Regional Administration (ERA): P.O. Box 7593 Arkansas Missouri 9057. [email protected] ISSN 0019-8870 Glasgow, G42 2EX. www.iww.org.uk Fayetteville: P.O. Box 283, 72702. 479-200-1859. Greater Kansas City IWW: P.O. Box 414304, Kansas City Vermont [email protected] 64141-4304. 816.875.6060. [email protected] Periodicals postage ERA Officers, Departments, Committees Burlington GMB: P.O. Box 8005, 05402. 802-540-2541 Access Facilitator (disabilities issues): [email protected] California St. Louis IWW: P.O. Box 63142, 63163. stlwobbly@gmail. Virginia paid Chicago, IL. Communications Officer / Comms Dept Chair: communi- Los Angeles GMB: (323) 374-3499. iwwgmbla@gmail. com Richmond IWW: P.O. Box 7055, 23221. 804-496-1568. [email protected] com Montana [email protected], www.richmondiww.org GLAMROC Liaison: [email protected] North Coast GMB: P.O. Box 844, Eureka 95502-0844. Construction Workers IU 330: Dennis Georg, del., 406- Washington Postmaster: Send address 707-725-8090, [email protected] Internal Bulletin: [email protected] 490-3869, [email protected] Bellingham: P.O. Box 1793, 98227. 360-920-6240. changes to IW, Post Office Box Sacramento IWW: P.O. Box 2445, 95812-2445. 916-825- Billings: Jim Del Duca, 106 Paisley Court, Apt. I, Bozeman [email protected]. International Solidarity Committee: international@iww. 0873, [email protected] 180195, Chicago, IL 60618 USA org.uk 59715. 406-860-0331. [email protected] Tacoma GMB: P.O. Box 7276, 98401. [email protected]. San Diego IWW: 619-630-5537, [email protected] Nebraska http://tacoma.iww.org/ Literature Committee: [email protected] San Francisco Bay Area GMB: (Curbside and Buyback IU Membership Administrator: [email protected] Nebraska GMB: P.O. Box 27811, Ralston, 68127. nebras- Seattle GMB: 1122 E. Pike #1142, 98122-3934. 206-339- 670 Recycling Shops; Stonemountain Fabrics Job Shop [email protected]. www.nebraskaiww.org 4179. [email protected]. www.seattleiww.org SUBSCRIPTIONS Merchandise Committee: [email protected] and IU 410 Garment and Textile Worker’s Industrial Nevada Wisconsin Individual Subscriptions: $18 Organising and Bargaining Support Department: Organizing Committee; Shattuck Cinemas; Embarcadero [email protected] Cinemas) P.O. Box 11412, Berkeley, 94712. 510-845- Reno GMB: P.O. Box 12173, 89510. Paul Lenart, del., Madison GMB: P.O. Box 2442, 53701-2442. www. International Subscriptions: $30 0540. [email protected] 775-513-7523, [email protected] madison.iww.org Research and Survey Department: [email protected] IU 520 Marine Transport Workers: Steve Ongerth, del., IUB 560 - Communications and Computer Workers: P.O. Library/Institution Subs: $30/year / [email protected] IU 520 Railroad Workers: Ron Kaminkow, del., P.O. Box Union dues includes subscription. [email protected] Box 259279, Madison 53725. 608-620-IWW1. Madiso- National Secretary: [email protected] Evergreen Printing: 2412 Palmetto Street, Oakland 2131, Reno, 89505. 608-358-5771. ronkaminkow@ [email protected]. www.Madisoniub560.iww.org Support for people having trouble with GoCardless 94602. 510-482-4547. [email protected] yahoo.com Lakeside Press IU 450 Job Shop: 1334 Williamson, Published monthly with the excep- signup: [email protected] San Jose: [email protected], www.facebook. New Hampshire 53703. 608-255-1800. Jerry Chernow, del., jerry@ tion of February and August. IT Committee (all IT related enquiries): [email protected] com/SJSV.IWW New Hampshire IWW: Paul Broch, del.,112 Middle St. #5, lakesidepress.org. www.lakesidepress.org Manchester 03101. 603-867-3680 . SevenSixTwoRevolu- Training Department: [email protected] Colorado [email protected] Madison Infoshop Job Shop:1019 Williamson St. #B, National Treasurer: [email protected] Denver GMB: 2727 West 27th Ave., Unit D, 80211. 303- 53703. 608-262-9036 Articles not so designated do Regional Organisers 355-2032. [email protected] New Jersey Just Coffee Job Shop IU 460: 1129 E. Wilson, Madison, not reflect the IWW’s Four Corners (AZ, CO, NM, UT): 970-903-8721, 4corners@ Central New Jersey GMB: P.O. Box 10021, New Brunswick, 53703. 608-204-9011, justcoffee.coop Central England RO: [email protected] iww.org 08906. 732-692-3491. [email protected]. Bob Railroad Workers IU 520: 608-358-5771. railfalcon@ official position. Central Scotland RO: [email protected], Ratynski, del., 908-285-5426. www.newjerseyiww.org yahoo.com [email protected] DC Washington DC GMB: 1027 18th St. NE #2, Washington, New Mexico Milwaukee GMB: 1750A N Astor St., 53207. Trevor Northern England RO: [email protected] DC 20002. 202-630-9620. [email protected], Albuquerque GMB: P.O. Box 4892, 87196-4892. 505-569- Smith, 414-573-4992 Press Date: October 23, 2013 Southern England RO: [email protected] www.dciww.org, www.facebook.com/dciww 0168, [email protected] Northwoods IWW: P.O. Box 452, Stevens Point, 54481 November 2013 • Industrial Worker • Page 3 Feminism How We Struggle: A Response To Ongoing Patriarchal Violence In The IWW To our Fellow Workers: tactics that will be most effective while behaviors and structures are oppressive. oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on The Patriarchy Resistance Committee keeping the workers safe from the bosses. As a radical organization that seeks the the tail of a mouse and you say that you (PRC) of the Portland General Member- We would like to start a discussion on liberation of the entire working class, we are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate ship Branch (GMB) has recently been how these principles may also be useful in must address these fears and issues with your neutrality.” – Desmond Tutu notified of multiple instances of misogyny addressing gendered and sexual violence the same passionate direct action with We must therefore consider alterna- and sexual assault that have occurred within our union. The “charges” process which we address capitalist exploitation. tive approaches. This may include, but is within branches of the IWW. We write described in the IWW’s Con- It is not sufficient to state not limited to, directly expelling perpetra- today to condemn these acts of violence stitution (see Article III of the that capitalism is the linchpin tors from not just one branch, but from the and to encourage fellow workers around Bylaws) can be a useful tool on which all other oppressions union as a whole. We don’t allow bosses in the world to actively resist misogynist and for some situations. Similarly, depend and that, with the our union, so why would we allow rapists? patriarchal behavior in all of its forms. some survivors have found destruction of capitalism, all With that in mind, we support the Kansas A member of the Kansas City GMB accountability processes to people will be free from op- City members who worked collectively and was recently accused of being a serial be helpful. However, both pression. If that were true, it swiftly to address the patriarchal behavior rapist. In order to secure the immediate systems have serious flaws is likely that our “democratic, of one of their members, and encourage all personal safety of the rest of the branch, and can bring negative reper- anti-capitalist” organization Wobblies to use survivor-centered solidar- he was asked by a coalition of the Kansas cussions to both individuals would be more representative ity, creativity, and direct action to support City Wobblies to resign. The PRC supports and communities including: of the working class instead one another and resist the patriarchy the members of the Kansas City GMB who retraumatization, alienation, of being dominated by the within the One Big Union. Graphic: PRC have prioritized the participation of all and lack of transparency, same people who dominate Activists are not immune to wide- workers over that of a potentially violent justice, and survivor-focused approaches. capitalist society at large. In this vein, we spread cultural ignorance of the warning man. Consider the following analogy: the pose the question: to whom is classism a signs of abusive and predatory behavior, Time and time again, we see people IWW does not rely on the law for the “personal issue” and to whom is it a real nor systemic apologism for such behavior. (specifically and disproportionately wom- protection of workers, recognizing that issue? To whom is patriarchy a “personal We must be proactive in fighting oppres- en and people who do not identify with those who have the power to design and issue” and to whom is it a real issue? As a sion in our organizing, or else we face the gender binary) leave our organizing enforce the law do not share the interest union, we know that classism is a personal losing friends and comrades and watching projects in response to physical, emo- of workers. IWW organizers are often issue for working people, as well as a very our organizing drives deteriorate. As radi- tional and/or symbolic manifestations of told by capitalist sympathizers that we real issue. We wonder why patriarchy is cal organizers, we are cautious of agents of gendered or sexual violence in our circles. should just engage the legal system, that so often dismissed as a “personal issue” the state, informant infiltration, and Mr. In the essay “On Solidarity and Sexual the system is fair and democratic. Our ex- without any regard for its equally real Blocks who can derail our organizing. We Violence: An open letter to the Palestine perience has proven otherwise. Similarly, consequences. We should all know that need to be just as wary of the destructive Solidarity Movement,” Cassandra Solanas some individuals may find it hard to trust the personal is political. Perhaps we need behaviors of patriarchal fellow workers. states: a charges process when those who are in to reassess what it means to struggle or As many of us have unfortunately already “Often targets of patriarchy don’t control of the process often do not expe- what resistance looks like. experienced, the unchecked “broletariat” want to be a victim twice; once from the rience the dynamics of our oppressions. We know it is important to struggle can be just as effective at undermining our original incident and again for having We also are reassured that the system is against our bosses. We would never tell anti-capitalist efforts. As Courtney Desiree comrades betray them by not listening, fair and democratic, but our experience a co-worker that we “aren’t taking sides” Morris observes in the essay “Why Misogy- not taking them seriously, and not act- proves otherwise. This is demonstrated when they confide in us about abuse perpe- nists Make Great Informants”: ing.” by the growing number of Wobblies who trated by the boss. Staying “neutral” is up- “Informants are hard to spot, but my We wonder why, in radical circles and continue to leave the union due to a lack holding the status quo. “Not taking sides” guess is that where there is smoke there in our own union, are so many willing to of organizational support. when someone is called out on patriarchal is fire, and someone who creates chaos fight against bosses who disempower the We wonder why workers can see how behaviors means leaving fellow workers wherever he goes is either an informant working class, but choose to ignore, or capitalism is upheld by systemic social is- without support and allowing abusers to or an irresponsible, unaccountable time worse, actively defend individuals whose sues such as patriarchy, but when abuses continue, never being held accountable. bomb who can be unintentionally as patriarchal behaviors systematically dis- occur that present the opportunity to dis- Whereas, silence is compliance, Be it effective at undermining social justice empower survivors. mantle these systems collectively and per- resolved that standing in solidarity with organizing as an informant. Ultimately The IWW is built around the principles sonally, so many of us shy away, become people facing patriarchal oppression is they both do the work of the state and of direct action in the struggle against defensive, or apply class reductionism. subverting the status quo that harms us all. need to be held accountable.” capitalism. We empower workers within Perhaps it is because it is scary and diffi- “If you are neutral in situations of We as individuals and as One Big the shop to determine the organizing cult to confront the ways in which our own injustice, you have chosen the side of the Union have a choice when we hear about an instance of sexual violence, or of anyone IWW Constitution Preamble speaking up to say that they feel unsafe. The working class and the employing Join the IWW Today We can choose to explain away the situa- class have nothing in common. There can he IWW is a union for all workers, a union dedicated to organizing on the tion, leaving survivors behind to deal with be no peace so long as hunger and want job, in our industries and in our communities both to win better conditions are found among millions of working today and to build a world without bosses, a world in which production and it on their own. Or, we can choose to align T ourselves with survivors and, in solidarity, people and the few, who make up the em- distribution are organized by workers ourselves to meet the needs of the entire ploying class, have all the good things of population, not merely a handful of exploiters. resist the individuals and the systems that life. Between these two classes a struggle We are the Industrial Workers of the World because we organize industrially ­– harm so many working-class people. must go on until the workers of the world that is to say, we organize all workers on the job into one union, rather than dividing organize as a class, take possession of the workers by trade, so that we can pool our strength to fight the bosses together. They only call it class war when we means of production, abolish the wage Since the IWW was founded in 1905, we have recognized the need to build a fight back: system, and live in harmony with the truly international union movement in order to confront the global power of the They only call it earth. bosses and in order to strengthen workers’ ability to stand in solidarity with our fel- crazy bitch We find that the centering of the low workers no matter what part of the globe they happen to live on. divisive management of industries into fewer and We are a union open to all workers, whether or not the IWW happens to have distracting fewer hands makes the trade unions un- representation rights in your workplace. We organize the worker, not the job, recog- identity politics able to cope with the ever-growing power nizing that unionism is not about government certification or employer recognition when we fight back! of the employing class. The trade unions but about workers coming together to address our common concerns. Sometimes foster a state of affairs which allows one this means striking or signing a contract. Sometimes it means refusing to work with In Solidarity, set of workers to be pitted against another the Patriarchy Resistance set of workers in the same industry, an unsafe machine or following the bosses’ orders so literally that nothing gets done. Committee of the Portland GMB. thereby helping defeat one another in Sometimes it means agitating around particular issues or grievances in a specific [email protected]. Oct. 9, 2013 wage wars. Moreover, the trade unions workplace, or across an industry. aid the employing class to mislead the Because the IWW is a democratic, member-run union, decisions about what is- workers into the belief that the working sues to address and what tactics to pursue are made by the workers directly involved. class have interests in common with their Subscribe to the employers. TO JOIN: Mail this form with a check or money order for initiation Industrial Worker These conditions can be changed and and your first month’s dues to: IWW, Post Office Box 180195, Chicago, IL the interest of the working class upheld 60618, USA. Educate yourself and your only by an organization formed in such Initiation is the same as one month’s dues. Our dues are calculated fellow workers with the official a way that all its members in any one according to your income. If your monthly income is under $2000, dues newspaper of the IWW. industry, or all industries if necessary, are $9 a month. If your monthly income is between $2000 and $3500, cease work whenever a strike or lockout is dues are $18 a month. If your monthly income is over $3500 a month, dues Just mail in this form, on in any department thereof, thus mak- are $27 a month. Dues may vary outside of North America and in Regional or visit us online at: ing an injury to one an injury to all. Organizing Committees (Australia, British Isles, German Language Area). http://store.iww.org/industrial-worker.html Instead of the conservative motto, “A to subscribe today! fair day’s wage for a fair day’s work,” we __I affirm that I am a worker, and that I am not an employer. must inscribe on our banner the revolu- __I agree to abide by the IWW constitution. 10 issues for: tionary watchword, “Abolition of the wage • US $18 for individuals. system.” __I will study its principles and acquaint myself with its purposes. • US $30 for institutions. • US $30 for internationals. It is the historic mission of the work- Name:______ing class to do away with capitalism. The Address:______Name: ______army of production must be organized, Address:______City, State, Post Code, Country:______not only for the everyday struggle with State/Province:______capitalists, but also to carry on produc- Occupation:______Zip/PC______tion when capitalism shall have been Phone:______Email:______Send to: PO Box 180195, overthrown. By organizing industrially Chicago IL 60618 USA we are forming the structure of the new Amount Enclosed:______Subscribe Today! society within the shell of the old. Membership includes a subscription to the Industrial Worker. Page 4 • Industrial Worker • November 2013 You Might Just Be A Wobbly: A Speech From The 2013 IWW Convention By Nick Driedger This month we run the words of welcome which a member from the Edmon- ton General Membership Branch delivered at this year’s convention. My name is Nick Driedger and I, like all of you, am a Wobbly. But what does it mean to be a Wobbly? Well, if you think a wildcat by the members is better than a deal cut by the leaders, you might just be a Wobbly. FW Nick Driedger in Edmonton. Photo: Diane Krauthamer If you think it’s better to have 10 members who are in the union Well, I think it goes without saying that because they believe in it, than 100 who as one of the oldest, un-reconstituted revo- are in it because they legally have to be in lutionary organizations in North America, it, you might just be a Wobbly. we understand time. If you think there is more radical po- If there is one thing we know as tential in seeing a co-worker stand up for Wobblies it is heat, heat from the state, herself than a $1 raise, you might just be heat from our bosses and heat from a cul- a Wobbly. ture that rewards kissing ass over standing If you think the phrase, “We are the up for others. union” isn’t just a way of deferring criti- If there is one other thing we know cism but needs to be the driving force be- as Wobblies it is pressure. The pressure hind every action we take as workers on of loved ones getting injured at work, the the job, you might just be a Wobbly. pressure of making ends meet, and the A very experienced trade unionist once pressure of making a union that conforms told me, “A union is only as good as the and bargains within the constraints that people in it.” Now without falling short of the bosses and mainstream unions say flattering the audience I would have to say legitimate unions accept willingly. this room full of Wobblies is proof we have Now I just want to start wrapping up the best union going. this introduction to this weekend by say- If you took chemistry in high school, ing one last thing. A revolutionary union at some point your teacher probably is not different just because it preaches a explained that a lump of coal is more or revolutionary message. As a revolutionary less the same as a diamond as far as the union we need to represent something actual parts that make it up. However, different. This means we don’t just talk coal and diamonds don’t look the same. differently, it means we must act differ- Why is that? ently. We won’t always get this right but It’s because of the way the pieces are it needs to be our goal. arranged, the way they fit together, not As many of you know these conven- just on a small level but pretty much on tions are a lot of work, but the face-to-face the smallest level possible, on the level contact and the experiences we will gain of the molecules that make up the object over the weekend by sharing victories and itself. This is why a piece of coal crumbles trading arguments are the foundation of a in your hands and diamond is pretty much working-class democracy. This democracy the hardest thing there is. is what will form the structure of the new You see diamonds come from coal; society within the shell of the old, as the they are just lumps of carbon. But if you old saying goes. apply pressure, heat, and time to a piece So, one more time, I would like to of carbon it packs down. Slowly the bonds thank all of you for making this long trip between the component parts become out to Edmonton. It means a lot to us stronger and stronger until what comes because we know you being here means a out is something very different than what lot to you and we are honored to host you went in. in our homes and in our city this weekend. Traitors To The Ruling Class By Jon Hochschartner radical causes and support revolutionar- There are folks out there who are sym- ies, such as his close friend Marx. pathetic to socialist ideas, but because of Even before he became relatively their class origins they are unsure if there wealthy, Dash continues, Engels fre- is a place in the movement for them. May- quently sent Marx as much as £50 a be they were born into families of small year—equivalent to around $7,500 now, or large-scale capitalists. Maybe, like me, and about one-third of the annual allow- they were born into comparative privilege ance he received from his parents. but don’t fit quite so neatly into the class However necessary his income might Graphic: Mike Konopacki divisions emphasized by socialists. have been to finance the work of Marx and for his activism, was born into the Russian dinner-time...and girls innumerable in the For these people, it’s sometimes help- others, Engels was clearly a reluctant busi- aristocracy. In addition to huge landhold- maid-servants’ room, how could anyone ful to learn of influential anti-capitalists ness owner. His office duties encroached ings, his father owned approximately do with less than this?” who betrayed their economic interests on on his socialist activism and writing. 1,200 serfs. After reading about the class back- behalf of revolutionary workers. To that Besides the opportunity costs in- Kropotkin’s ancestors had been grand ground of Engels and Kropotkin, who both end, I will highlight two socialists of differ- volved, Engels loathed the position simply princes of Smolensk in medieval Russia, made enormous contributions to their ent tendencies, Frederick Engels and Peter as a way to spend his time. According to descended from a branch of the Rurik clan, respective socialist tendencies, one hopes Kropotkin, whose treason to the exploitive biographer Tristram Hunt, Engels’ letters which had ruled in Muscovy before the ad- that those, whose families belong to either classes was particularly dramatic. include frequent references to accursed vent of the Romanovs, wrote Paul Avrich. the exploitive classes or comparatively Many are familiar with Engels as the commerce and filthy commerce. Writing According to writer Roger N. Baldwin, privileged economic groups that are less collaborator of Karl Marx, the preeminent to Marx, Engels confessed, “I am bored to at age 12 Kropotkin stopped using his clearly delineated in anti-capitalist theory, communist who wrote “Capital.” Fewer death here.” Of course Engels was aware noble title after being exposed to republi- who are flirting with radicalism, will not may be aware that Engels, while striving his occupation would also undermine his can thought, and even rebuked his friends, feel their origins bar them from working for working-class revolution, was himself a political arguments. when they so referred to him. for a better world. capitalist. His father owned textile opera- “You wait and see,” Hunt quotes him In his memoir, Kropotkin described Those in the socialist movement from tions in both Germany and England. En- telling Marx, “the louts will be saying, his lavish upbringing with no small the lower rungs of the capitalist system will gels managed a family mill in Manchester. ‘what’s that Engels after, how can he speak amount of sarcasm: “We were a family of be understandably suspicious of the sin- As part-owner of the mill, according in our name and tell us what to do, the eight, occasionally of ten or twelve; but cerity of better-off comrades. In fact, the to historian Mike Dash, he eventually fellow’s up there in Manchester exploit- fifty servants at Moscow, and half as many latter might have to go to greater lengths received a 7.5 percent share in Ermen & ing the workers, etc.’ To be sure, I don’t more in the country, were considered not to prove their commitment to working- Engels’ rising profits, earning £263 in 1855 give a damn about it now, but it’s bound one too many,” Kropotkin wrote. “Four class liberation. and as much as £1,080 in 1859—the latter to come.” coachmen to attend a dozen horses, three But the trust and respect of the former a sum worth around $168,000 today. Peter Kropotkin, the influential anar- cooks for the masters and two more for the can be earned, as shown by Engels and Engels used his fortune to bankroll cho-communist who spent years in prison servants, a dozen men to wait upon us at Kropotkin. November 2013 • Industrial Worker • Page 5 Wobbly & North American News Fired Palermo’s Pizza Workers Win Compensation Student Walkout Supports Teachers In Santa Cruz By John Kalwaic On Sept. 13, the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) ruled in favor of the Palermo’s Pizza workers, in Milwaukee, Wis. These workers were fired for trying to unionize and for walking out over unsafe conditions in May 2012 (see “Milwaukee Pizza Factory Workers Graphic: sliceofjustice.com Strike,” September 2012 IW, page 1 & 7). four of the seven fired employees also got They had organized as the independent their jobs back due to illegal terminations, Palermo’s Workers Union to stand up to which resulted from “threats, surveillance, unsafe working conditions that cost one and harassment of union supporters,” ac- worker three fingers. The workers have cording to SliceofJustice.com. won more than $106,000 in back pay, and With files from SliceOfJustice.com. Wobblies Picket In Scotland

Students walk out of Santa Cruz High School. Photo: Barry Kirschen, YouTube.com By John Kalwaic The walkout at Santa Cruz was in- Between 150 and 200 students walked spired by a neighboring high school stu- out of Santa Cruz High School in California dent walk out. On Sept. 19, around 350 in support of their teachers on Sept. 26. students at Pajaro Valley High School Teachers are in a dispute with the school also walked out of their school district to district over retroactive raises. They are support their teachers who were engaged seeking more than the 1 percent offered in a similar dispute. to them by the district administration in The teachers and the union leadership the 2012-2013 school year. The district denied any responsibility for the walkout, now has a surplus in revenue and there but welcomed the support. are disputes as to how much the teachers With files from the Santa Cruz Sen- will get. tinel. IWW Quote Of The Month “As my 67th birthday approaches this March, I am grateful for my age. Before it was too late I met Wobblies and local activists participate in a “Walk of Shame” Photo: Red Dwarfer picket at Burtons Store on Sauchiehall Street in Glasgow on Wobblies from the decade before July 13. the Great War, the 1930s Com- munists who gave their all for the CIO [Congress of Industrial Giant Eagle Workers Need Strike Support System Organizations], fought fascism at By Kenneth Miller home and the valleys and moun- The United Food and Commercial tains of Spain. They were called Workers (UFCW) Local 23 has two Giant Workers’ barricade Photo: libcom.org Anarchists, Communists and Eagle contracts (a Pittsburgh-based su- during the Spanish Civil War. Socialists and they were right. These wonderful permarket): one for the meat department ancient ones are all gone now, but they live, sing, and one for the grocery department, that clasped hands and dance deep in my soul and light up my heart with expire at the end of June 2014. No, we can- their warmth. They changed me and molded what I am today. These Photo: wikimedia.org not take whatever the company decides to simple and beautiful ancient women and men they will always be my offer and we cannot bargain selfishly, it is higher standard. culture, my religion and my life’s song.” not about how the contract affects you, we There cannot be more than a dozen or – FW Michael Francisconi, a faculty member at the University of are bargaining for all Giant Eagle employ- so retail contracts like ours in the country. Montana Western, in Dillon ees, in the union stores and the non-union This company and each workplace have stores, and retail workers everywhere. to be charted. We all need to be actively Giant Eagle is a double-breasted com- sharing large amounts of information with Just Say “No” To Sweatshop Baseball pany, using its huge non-union footprint one another. We need maps and graphs By Kenneth Miller to bargain against us, the workers. There to explain this to one another; we have to The Pittsburgh Pirates are still losers are at least two other union contracts at the see ourselves in context. We have to free and the playoffs are upon us. At the Giant OK Grocery Warehouse, where the Giant ourselves from this particular moment in Eagle grocery store and almost every other Eagle warehouse workers and truckers are each of our individual lives and see each workplace in the region, uniform policies represented by the International Brother- other as human beings. We are going to have been suspended and employees are hood of Teamsters, Locals 249 and 636. I have to develop some skills that we did not being asked to support the team by wear- don’t think these contracts even have the previously know we each had. ing baseball shirts. The region is sprinkled same expiration date as ours. Don’t ever fill out that form in the with lawyers from Major League Baseball Giant Eagle knows more about each HR department called “Voluntary Resig- Properties doing spot checks and threaten- of us than we feel comfortable admitting. nation.” Use those Weingarten Rights at ing lawsuits against anyone violating their The company has a world class human every opportunity. copyright. resources (HR) department and accom- I hand out copies of the Universal When you walk into the Gear Shop panying surveillance system. What do we Declaration of Human Rights and invite at PNC Park, the first shirt says, “We play know about ourselves that Giant Eagle my co-workers to consider it a supplement for October” and the tag says, “Made in does not know? to their union contract. It is, and it does not Bangor, PA” by Majestic. The Pittsburgh We have rights at work that Walmart expire. In June of next year, when every- Pirates’ talking points about sweatshops workers don’t have. Those rights are one is in the final throws of negotiations, and social responsibility are exactly the important to me. They mean we can talk we’ll have to ask one another if we have same as Majestic’s. The group of UNITE union all night long at work. They mean we indeed created a strike support network HERE workers in Bangor, Pa. have been can protect our free speech with the griev- for every single Giant Eagle family and told that they can keep their jobs as long Graphic: Upstate New York IWW ance procedure all the way up through remind ourselves that the Universal Dec- as they allow themselves to be used as have paid my IWW dues for a year with binding arbitration. They mean we can laration of Human Rights does not expire. public relations talking points for baseball that money. organize against police brutality and for One of my co-workers suggested that apparel production. They are using a few Bill Peduto, the Democratic Party public transportation while we are at work. we should not talk about religion or poli- union shops to market the whole spectrum candidate for our mayoral election in No- We cannot let ourselves be divided by tics at work. I think we should talk to one of Major League sweatshop apparel. This is vember, was on his way down to the Labor age or race or nationality. Those are all another about all kinds of things, like free what “union label” contract language has Day parade while I was handing copies strengths of our union and we can experi- people talk, and be kind to one another. been reduced to. of the Black Cat Moan, the Upstate New ence the strength of that diversity instead We have to start asking for community The Pittsburgh Pirates and the news York IWW’s anti-sweatshop newsletter, to of allowing ourselves to be overwhelmed support now. What the community people media are explaining the economic ben- the labor council folks. He asked if I was by it. We can try extra hard to understand who support us can do is join a strike sup- efits of a winning baseball team endlessly. marching with the United Steelworkers and accept and celebrate one another. port committee and adopt a Giant Eagle They never seem to calculate the cost of (USW) and Service Employees Interna- I’m asking our UFCW reps for more family. If we cannot imagine striking, if PNC Park, and the requests of the Pirates tional Union (SEIU). I said to him, “You’d information about the history at Giant we are not ready to strike, to stop trucks, for more city services and stadium work better remember that in Pittsburgh, hu- Eagle—our history of collective bargain- to let the milk spoil, then there is nothing from the Sports and Exhibition Authority man rights really are more important than ing and organizing. We need to compare for us. We are deciding tonight, at work, by are endless. sports! And don’t forget your open process our wages and benefits to the non-union talking and encouraging one another. We I bet against the Pirates finishing for board appointments; I want my crack Giant Eagle stores and to Walmart. We are going to be ready. We should ask the above .500 again this year (winning the at the Sports and Exhibition Authority. all need to understand how the contract elected union officers of UFCW Local 23 to same amount of games that they lose). You’ve got one schmooze fest with the treats older workers differently than please seek strike authorization through a That means I am out an additional $150. Pirates after the next. Now is the time to younger workers and bargain up to the mail-in ballot repeatedly. That is my last bet on sports, ever. I could hammer on sweatshops.” Page 6 • Industrial Worker • November 2013 In November We Remember In November Who Do We Remember? By FW DJ Alperovitz, x364631 Workers Joe Hill, Frank Little and Wesley and unrecorded at the Everest, yet how many remember FW Fred hands of railroad bulls, Red November, black November. Warn being shot in the head for declaring vigilantes and the like. Bleak November, black and red; that he was an IWW or the murderer of While we remember Hallowed month of Labors martyrs, FW John S. Walker being given a parade our fellow workers that Labor’s heroes, Labor’s dead. of honor? Have we forgotten the severe were murdered we must Labor’s hope and wrath and sorrow – beating of FW Lisa Sunstedt delivered at not forget those thousands Red the promise, black the threat; the hands of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) that of Wobblies that sustained Who are we not to remember? resulted in her death and that FW Frank injury in our name; those Who are we to forget! Hastings died a class-war prisoner? that were beaten, wound- Killed for organizing, striking, taking ed, horse whipped, de- Black and red the colors blended, direct action, or for carrying a red card; ported, stranded in the Black and red the pledge we made; members were shot, stabbed, beaten, tor- desert without food or Red, until the fight is ended, tured, stoned, starved and lynched. Some water, choked, tarred and Black until the debt is paid. died standing their ground in the company feathered, or had their Wesley Everest and Al Parsons of their fellow workers and were buried flesh branded with IWW. With Joe Hill and all the rest. with stone and ceremony while others They stood the gaff. Who are we not to remember? died not only alone but also unknown and In November We Re- Who are we to dare forget! were consigned to an unmarked pauper’s member our union’s mem- grave. Some that died during IWW strikes, bers that suffered and While reading the poem “In Novem- actions, and roundups were innocent by- died for the emancipation ber We Remember,” we ask ourselves not standers or were alleged to be IWWs and of the working class and only “Who are we not to remember?” but their deaths deserve our recognition and also that all year we are also who are we forgetting? We all know remembrance. We must also pay homage charged with carrying on Tribute to Wobblies killed during the Everett Massacre, the stories of the martyrdoms of Fellow to those fellow IWWs who died nameless their struggle. from the Nov. 25, 1916 issue of the Industrial Worker.

Members of the IWW and innocent bystanders—killed for organizing, striking, taking direct action, or for carrying a red card. They were shot, stabbed, beaten, tortured, starved, strangled, lynched, drowned, disappeared and executed.

Aug. 28, 1907 Unidentified IWW Killed on the picket line when scabs overloaded a charge at the mine. Cobalt, Ontario. Aug. 2, 1909 Stjepan “Steve” Hovath Shot by state trooper during the “Pressed Steel Car Strike.” McKees Rocks, Pa. Aug. 22, 1909 George Mollhasser (Millhaszer) Shootout with state troopers “Pressed Steel Car Strike.” McKees Rocks, Pa. Aug. 22, 1909 Anton Gubernet Shootout with state troopers “Pressed Steel Car Strike.” McKees Rocks, Pa. Aug. 22, 1909 Mickel Tysowski Shootout with state troopers “Pressed Steel Car Strike.” McKees Rocks, Pa. Aug. 22, 1909 Frank Namet Shootout with state troopers “Pressed Steel Car Strike.” McKees Rocks, Pa. Aug. 22, 1909 John Suter Shootout with state troopers “Pressed Steel Car Strike.” McKees Rocks, Pa. Aug. 22, 1909 Three unidentified strikers Shootout with state troopers “Pressed Steel Car Strike.” McKees Rocks, Pa. Aug. 22, 1909 Estimated as many as 26 others Fearing retaliation many bury their dead in unmarked graves. McKees Rocks, Pa. Dec. 26, 1909 Andrew McCormack Killed by a policeman in a shootout over the price of a drink. San Francisco, Calif. March 18, 1910 Samuel O. Chinn Died of untreated injuries from a jailhouse beating. Spokane Free Speech Fight. March 18, 1910 Charles Main Found with his throat cut. Police suspect murder. Bakersfield, Calif. April 5, 1910 F.J. Ferry Died as the result of ill treatment while in jail. Spokane Free Speech Fight. Sept. 21, 1910 Joe Palmer Shot by a station agent for an alleged attempted robbery. Firebaugh, Calif. October 1910 William Mewis Decomposed body found. Allegedly committed suicide by poison. Seattle, Wash. 1910-1930 Unidentified IWW, undated Gruesome postcard photo of a dead, castrated IWW. University of Washington Special Collections. Feb. 15, 1911 Antonio Fuertes Died during the battle for Mexicali, Mexico during the Baja Insurrection. Feb. 15, 1911 J.R. Pesqueira Died during the battle for Mexicali, Mexico during the Baja Insurrection. Feb. 1911 Henry Bordet Succumbed to injuries received in the Spokane Free Speech Fight. Holtville, Calif. March 19, 1911 Louis Rodriquez With 18 others, seized, lost and died in Tecate, Mexico. Baja Insurrection. April 8, 1911 William Stanley Shot leading an attack south of Mexicali, Mexico. Taken to Calexico, Calif. to die. April 15, 1911 Simón Berthold Shot during a skirmish at El Alamo, Mexico during the Baja Insurrection. Dec. 23, 1911 Caleb A. Barton Murdered while organizing in Nelson, British Columbia. Dec. 23, 1911 John LeTual Murdered while organizing in Nelson, British Columbia. December 1911 Tex Sanford Shot and received no medical attention. Lingered five days. Holtville, Calif. 1911 W.E. Clark Killed in a gun fight over ideological differences during the Baja Insurrection. Jan. 29, 1912 Anna LoPizzo Shot by the police during the Lawrence Textile Strike. Lawrence, Mass. Jan. 30, 1912 John Ramey Bayoneted in the back on Jan. 15 by a militiaman. Lawrence Textile Strike. January – March 1912 Two miscarriages (anecdotal) Picketing pregnant women were beaten by police. Lawrence Textile Strike. Feb. 24, 1912 One miscarriage (anecdotal) Woman beaten for attempting to send children away during the Lawrence Strike. March 28, 1912 Michael Hoy Died after a severe beating by police during the San Diego Free Speech Fight. The Tacoma Times, June 16, 1913. May 7, 1912 Joseph Mikolasch Shot by the police during a raid on the San Diego, Calif. IWW Hall. July 7, 1912 Asbery Decator “Cate” Hall Murdered by gun thugs during the “Grabow Riot.” Merryville, La. July 7, 1912 Edward Brown Murdered by gun thugs during the “Grabow Riot.” Merryville, La. July 7, 1912 J. Tooley Murdered by gun thugs during the “Grabow Riot.” Merryville, La. July 7, 1912 Roy Martin Murdered by gun thugs during the “Grabow Riot.” Merryville, La. July 7, 1912 Phillip Fazeral Murdered by gun thugs during the “Grabow Riot.” Merryville, La. July 21, 1912 John J. ”Mac” McGuire Placed on railroad tracks and run over after being murdered. Spokane, Wash. Oct. 22, 1912 Jonas Smolskas Beaten to death for wearing an IWW pin. Lawrence, Mass. 1912 Unidentified IWW Disappeared while organizing the Kahuku plantation and never found. Hawaii. April 20, 1913 Valentino Modestino Innocent bystander shot by an O’Brien detective during the Paterson Silk Strike. April 24, 1913 Emilio Bacchiocci Shot by the special police while picketing the Draper Company. Hopedale, Mass. May 1913 Unidentified IWW Murdered while organizing in Tete Jaunne Cache, British Columbia. June 7, 1913 Unidentified IWW Stoned and beaten to death while fighting scabs. Wilson Creek, Wash. June 10, 1913 Nicoletta Pantelopoulou Innocent bystander shot by police during the Hosiery Mill Strike. Ipswich, Mass. June 14, 1913 Robert Neuman Shot by company detectives during the United Fruit Co. Strike. New Orleans, La. June 15, 1913 Unidentified IWW Staggered beaten into a lumber camp. Died several days later. Eatonville, Wash. June 15, 1913 Charles “Carl” Paulus Shot by company detectives during the United Fruit Co. Strike. New Orleans, La. July 13, 1913 Vincenzo Madonna Shot by a scab during the Paterson Silk Strike. Paterson, N.J. Aug. 3, 1913 Unidentified Puerto Rican worker Shot during the “Wheatland Hop Riot,” Durst Ranch, Wheatland, Calif. Aug. 3, 1913 Unidentified English worker Shot during the “Wheatland Hop Riot,” Durst Ranch, Wheatland, Calif. Oct. 4, 1913 James “Whitey” Donovan Shot by a scab on June 17 while on strike in Missoula, Mont. Nov. 17, 1913 Nels Nelson Found strangled in his jail cell after being shot at Durst Ranch. Wheatland, Calif. Dec. 25, 1913 Rafael Adames Shot by the police breaking up a meeting of the unemployed. Los Angeles, Calif. The Seattle Star, June 9, 1913. March 21, 1914 Antonio Musoini (a.k.a. “L. Morrie”) After being accused of murder he was shot by a city marshal. Corona, Calif. July 4, 1914 Arthur Caron Killed by the premature detonation of a bomb planned for John D. Rockefeller. New York, N.Y. July 1914 Hiram Johnson Victim of a brutal axe and knife murder while organizing at Lac La Biche, Alberta. July 20, 1914 Samuel Olsen Crushed when thrown off a train by Railroad Bulls. Salt Lake City, Utah. Aug. 20, 1914 Clark Wallace Connell Died from an abscess on the brain incurred from a police beating. Vancouver, British Columbia. Aug. 20, 1914 Unidentified IWW Body found in the Delaware River. Identified by his IWW pin. Philadelphia, Pa. Oct. 3, 1914 Two unidentified IWWs Shot while trying to seize food from a commissary railcar. Poplar, Mont. Oct. 3, 1914 A.J. Giantvalley Innocent bystander shot during an IWW fight to obtain food. Wolf Point, Mont. Feb. 2, 1915 Jack Whyte (White) Shot during an unprovoked attack. Tonopah, Nev. June 1915 B.J. Bradley Beaten and strangled while organizing harvest workers. Arlington, Kan. Oct. 31, 1915 “Doc” Ray (Roy) Joseph Horton Shot by a former lawman for street speaking in support of Joe Hill. Salt Lake City, Utah. Nov. 19, 1915 Joe Hill (Joel E. Hägglund) Murdered by the state of Utah. Salt Lake City, Utah. May 8, 1916 Unidentified IWW Drowned. Alleged by the police to have jumped from a bridge. Groveland, Mass. June 22, 1916 John Alar Shot by Oliver Mining gun thugs during the Mesabi Range Strike. Virginia, Minn. July 3, 1916 Thomas Ladvala Innocent bystander died during a shootout. Mesabi Range Strike. Biwabik, Minn. July 16, 1916 W.D. Holland Shot by a policeman for sleeping in a door way. Kansas City, Mo. July 27, 1916 Frank Wells Shot during a shootout with anti-IWW harvesters. Redfield, S.D. Aug. 13, 1916 Henry Burk A Flying Squad member shot during an alleged “hi-jack.” Monievideo, Minn. Sept.. 24, 1916 Walter Young Shot during an altercation with trainmen. Judith Gap, Mont. Oct. 29, 1916 William D. Brown Had his throat cut while sleeping in a barn near San Mateo, Calif. Nov. 5, 1916 Hugo Gerlat Ambushed and killed by cops and vigilantes “Everett Massacre.” Everett, Wash. Nov. 5, 1916 Abraham Rabinowitz Ambushed and killed by cops and vigilantes “Everett Massacre.’’ Everett, Wash. Nov. 5, 1916 Gustav Johnson Ambushed and killed by cops and vigilantes “Everett Massacre.” Everett, Wash. Nov. 5, 1916 John D. Looney Ambushed and killed by cops and vigilantes “Everett Massacre.” Everett, Wash. Nov. 5, 1916 Felix Baran Ambushed and killed by cops and vigilantes “Everett Massacre.” Everett, Wash. Springfield Republican, July 5, 1913. Nov. 5, 1916 As many as seven IWWs not found Ambushed and killed by cops and vigilantes “Everett Massacre.” Everett, Wash. Dec. 20, 1916 Frank Franz Framed for murder and executed during a time of IWW hysteria. New South Wales, Australia. Dec. 20, 1916 Roland Nickolas Kennedy Framed for murder and executed during a time of IWW hysteria. New South Wales, Australia. November 2013 • Industrial Worker • Page 7 In November We Remember In November Who Do We Remember? Feb. 21, 1917 Martinas Petkeviczia Shot by the police while on a solidarity strike. Philadelphia, Pa. March 1917 Louis Jalleani IWW organizer shot by police during a “riot” at Niagara Falls, N.Y. June 4, 1917 J.G. McLeod Never regained consciousness after being found injured. Aberdeen, Wash. June 10, 1917 James Fox Shot by railroad guards during an alleged gun fight. Los Angeles, Calif. June 12, 1917 Nick Luona Shot in the back by the police while being arrested as a slacker. Virginia, Minn. June 26, 1917 Pete Jurcich Decomposed remains discovered. Newspaper puts blame on his FWs. Bard, S.D. July 12, 1917 James H. Brew Shot resisting arrest during the Bisbee deportation. Bisbee, Ariz. July 18, 1917 Karl August Ialminen His decomposed remains were found in the woods near Homer’s Gap, Pa. July 22, 1917 John Cline His body was found beside railroad tracks. Allegedly “hit by a train.” Warren, Ill. Aug. 1, 1917 Frank H. Little Brutally mistreated and lynched by vigilantes. Butte, Mont. Sept. 6, 1917 Robert Williams Shot by railroad detectives for allegedly trying to hold them up. Haggart, N.D. Sept. 7, 1917 Jalmer Holn Shot by a farm laborer allegedly after having words. Fargo, N.D. Sept. 8, 1917 Unidentified IWW Shot during a shootout while “boxcar organizing.” Glencoe, Minn. Sept. 8, 1917 Thomas Simon Killed during a draft resistance fight. Hawkinsville, Ga. Sept. 8, 1917 Mrs. Thomas Simon Killed during a draft resistance fight. Hawkinsville, Ga. Sept. 12, 1917 J.J. Fricker Allegedly dived head first from a bridge. Carlton, Ore. Oct. 4, 1917 Verner Nelson Shot twice in the chest for calling a scab a scab. Butte, Mont. Nov. 15, 1917 Unidentified IWW Shot through the heart by the police chief of Sapula, Okla. Nov. 27, 1917 Mike Jzlik Shot-gunned for “cursing the government.” Modoc, Ohio. Nov. 28, 1917 Kaisa Kreeta Jackson An Innocent bystander shot during the harassment of IWWs. Red Lodge, Mont. “Crosses on the Hill,” May 6, 1939 issue of the IW. 1917 “IWW John” Found dead one morning after soapboxing. Not buried until 1942. Sapula, Okla. 1918/1920 Unknown numbers Died fighting Don Cossacks that were loyal to the Tsar Nicholas II. Russia. Feb. 18, 1918 Lyle Clifford Donaldson Shot when mistaken for an IWW by vigilantes. Hillsboro, Ill. April 9, 1918 Nestor Junkala Allegedly strangled himself while in jail. Marshfield, Ore. April 15, 1918 John S. Walker Murdered by a retired U.S. Navy Captain for slandering the flag. Honolulu, Hawaii April 16, 1918 Pasquale Marsico Shot while collecting for the IWW Defense Fund. Old Forge, Pa. July 12, 1918 Joseph Schoon Railroaded and hung for the 1st degree murder of a cop. Folsom Prison, Calif. Sept. 7, 1918 Fred Warn Shot in the head for belonging to the IWW. Isabella, Calif. Sept. 24, 1918 Kosti “Gus” Kangas Shot by the city police reportedly in self-defense. Butte, Mont. Oct. 22, 1918 Edward Burns Succumbed to influenza while in jail awaiting trial. Sacramento, Calif. Oct. 27, 1918 James Nolan Died from tuberculosis while in jail awaiting trial. Sacramento, Calif. Oct. 28, 1918 Robert James Blaine Succumbed to influenza while in jail awaiting trial. Sacramento, Calif. Oct. 30, 1918 Henry C. Evans Succumbed to influenza while in jail awaiting trial. Sacramento, Calif. Oct. 31, 1918 James Gossard Succumbed to influenza while in jail awaiting trial. Wichita, Kan. Nov. 1, 1918 Frank Travis Succumbed to influenza while in jail awaiting trial. Sacramento, Calif. Dec. 2, 1918 Otto Frederick Schmidt Died from inhumane treatment while awaiting deportation. Walla Walla Jail, Wash. Feb. 20, 1919 James Patterson Alleged to have been shot by FWs for squealing on a bomb plot. Chicago, Ill. Feb. 24, 1919 Unidentified IWW Found dead in the snow after being driven from an oil camp. Riverton, Wyo. Feb. 28, 1919 James Pargin Died in a “sabotage” explosion. IWW scapegoated as cause. Franklin, Mass. San Diego Union-Tribune, Sept. 9, 1918. Feb. 28, 1919 Eustacio Di Chellis, Died in a “sabotage” explosion. IWW scapegoated as cause. Franklin, Mass. Feb. 28, 1919 Silvario Di Chellis, Died in a “sabotage” explosion. IWW scapegoated as cause. Franklin, Mass. Feb. 28, 1919 Dominic Columbo Died in a “sabotage” explosion. IWW scapegoated as cause. Franklin, Mass. April 28, 1919 Michael Palombo Stabbed 17 times and left laying on railroad tracks. Canton, Ohio. June 18, 1919 Ten unidentified Mexican IWWs Shot by Mexican federal troops during a labour dispute, Tampico, Mexico. July 8, 1919 Joseph “J.A.” Kelly Died of ill treatment during multiple incarcerations. Seattle, Wash. July 9, 1919 John Washington Cochron Allegedly committed suicide by drinking poison. Wenatchee, Wash. Sept. 7, 1919 Max Rosenstein Found dead having been shot twice in the head. Carrington, N.D. Sept. 18, 1919 Carl Swenson Alleged to have taken his own life by strangulation while in jail. Spokane, Wash. Sept. 18, 1919 Carl Swanson 2nd alleged suicide by strangulation in jail reported the same day. Spokane, Wash. Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 19, 1919. Nov. 11, 1919 Nathan Wesley Everest Lynched by the good citizens and vigilantes of Centralia, Wash. November 1919 Two unidentified IWWs Lynched by vigilantes and found hanging in the forest around Centralia, Wash. Nov. 16, 1919 James Anderson Shot in the head after an unsuccessful attempt to lynch him. Moberly, Mo. Nov. 16, 1919 Unidentified IWW Believed to have drowned while trying to escape from being lynched. Moberly, Mo. April 21, 1920 Thomas W. Manning Shot in the back while on picket duty by a Neversweat Mine guard. Butte, Mont. April 22, 1920 Hugh B. Haran Accidentally shot while guarding the Daily Bulletin office. Butte, Mont. May 19, 1920 John McCarthy Shot by a guard on April 21 at the Neversweat Mine. Butte, Mont. May 24, 1920 Ole Hansen Alleged suicide. Found shot in the head with revolver at his side. Oakville, Wash. June 3, 1920 Ernest Holman Depression following being beaten by thugs led to his suicide. New York, N.Y. June 10, 1920 Stanley Pavzlack Shot by a scab on a shooting rampage during a Longshore Strike. Philadelphia, Pa. June 27, 1920 G. Stain Shot by a scab during a Longshore Strike. Philadelphia, Pa. June 1920 Two innocent bystanders Shot by armed scabs during a Longshore Strike. Philadelphia, Pa. Sept. 29, 1920 José Domingo Gómez Rojas Tortured and driven mad then died of untreated meningitis. Santiago, Chile. One Big Union Monthly, July 1929. Oct. 2, 1920 Joe Bagley Shot by a railroad special agent for “stealing a ride.” Hannaford, N.D. March 3, 1921 B.F. or F.B. “Whitey” Clark Succumbed to diseases incurred while being jailed in Fresno. Visalia, Calif. March 7-17, 1921 Unknown numbers Died during the defense of Kronstadt against the Bolsheviks. Kotlin Island, Russia. May 13, 1921 I. Lelmul (sic) Found in his hotel room shot in the head. Alleged suicide. Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. July 19, 1921 Arthur McDonald Alleged to have committed suicide through self-crucifixion. Superior, Wis. Nov. 6, 1921 William B. Bousfleid Mysteriously shot in the head and found lying in a pasture. Ft. Worth, Texas. Dec. 16, 1921 William Kelly (a.k.a. “Sparks”) Found with his head smashed in with a rock. Colorado Springs, Colo. Dec. 3, 1921 Tomas Martinez Lack of medical care from an operation at Leavenworth. Guadalajara, Mexico. June 16, 1922 Paul Bernarcek (Bednartik) Shot during confrontation with a fink. Cherokee, Okla. Nov. 21, 1922 Ricardo Flores Magón Died while serving 20 years for “obstructing the war effort.” Ft. Leavenworth, Kan. Dec. 10, 1922 C.J. Dilley Discovered beaten to death in a boxcar. San Jose, Calif. Feb. 23, 1923 Frank Hastings Died a class war prisoner at Walla Walla State Penitentiary, Wash. May 3, 1923 William J. McKay Shot in the back by a mill watchman while on the picket line. Aberdeen, Wash. June 30, 1923 James Holland Disappeared after being turned over to the KKK by the police. Port Arthur, Texas. June 30, 1923 Two unidentified IWWs Disappeared after being turned over to the KKK by the police. Port Arthur, Texas. July 1923 William “Big Heavy” Sanders Shot by a hi-jack while riding a train near Elko, Nev. Aug. 9, 1923 Abraham Shocker Hung himself after 43 days of solitary confinement at San Quentin, Calif. March 7, 1924 William Weyh Untreated tuberculosis contracted at Leavenworth. Tucson, Ariz. May 12, 1924 Joe Coya Died of pneumonia due to ill treatment. Sacramento County Jail, Calif. Aug. 1, 1924 Lisa “Lizzie’” Sundstedt Died from a severe beating during a KKK attack on the San Pedro, Calif. IWW Hall. Aug. 15, 1924 Olin B. Anderson Mental breakdown & tuberculosis contracted awaiting trial in Cook County Jail, Chicago, Ill. San Diego Evening Tribune, Dec. 13, 1924 J.A. Teal Accused of attempted auto theft. Shot three times by a policeman. Calexico, Calif May 3, 1923. April 27, 1926 Primo Tapia de la Cruz Captured, tortured, and executed by Mexican federales. Michoacán, Mexico. 1926 Unknown numbers The IWW states that members were murdered in the Kuzbas Colony, Russia. Nov. 21, 1927 Jerry Davis Beaten to death after being wounded. Columbine Mine Strike. Serene, Colo. Nov. 21, 1927 John Eastenes Machine gunned by police during the Columbine Mine Strike. Serene, Colo. Nov. 21, 1927 Rene Jacques Machine gunned by police during the Columbine Mine Strike. Serene, Colo. Nov. 21, 1927 Frank Kovitch Shot at close range after being wounded. Columbine Mine Strike. Serene, Colo. Nov. 21, 1927 Nick Spanudakhis Machine gunned by police during the Columbine Mine Strike. Serene, Colo. Nov. 28, 1927 Mike Vidovitch Machine gunned by police during the Columbine Mine Strike. Serene, Colo. Jan. 12, 1928 Klementi Chavez Shot by the Colorado State Police in front of the IWW Hall. Walsenburg. Colo. Jan. 12, 1928 Celestinio Marchtinez Shot by the Colorado State Police in front of the IWW Hall. Walsenburg. Colo. Aug. 13, 1930 James McInerney Centralia defendant died while in prison. Walla Walla State Penitentiary, Wash. Oct. 28, 1930 Bert Banker Succumbed to broken health incurred while in prison. Aberdeen, Wash. March 14, 1931 Byron Kitto Succumbed to tuberculosis contracted during the Colo. Coal Strike. San Francisco, Calif. March 20, 1932 Elmer Stuart Smith Selfishly ruined his health and died fighting to free the Centralia IWW prisoners. May 16, 1932 Jack Vanetter Gunned down by a gun-thug during a drive by shooting. Evarts, Ky. Riverside Daily Press, Aug. 9, 1923. 1933 Unknown numbers IWW dockworkers murdered by Nazis in Stettin and Hamburg, Germany. Sept. 4, 1935 Arthur G. Ross Attacked by a vigilante and died from severe head injuries. San Pedro, Calif. Nov. 29, 1936 Blackie Hyman Killed during a rank and file waterfront solidarity strike. Philadelphia, Pa. Dec. 15, 1936 John A. “Johnny” Kane Jr. Shot by a corrupt International Seamen’s Union agent during the Seamen’s Strike of 1936. Houston, Texas. 1936 -1939 Unknown numbers of IWWs Died fighting fascists while serving with the Republican forces in Spain. May 30, 1937 Konrad (Conrad) Hill Succumbed to injuries sustained in the 1936 Pierce, Idaho ambush. Lewiston, Idaho. June 8, 1937 Mike Stetz Succumbed to injuries sustained in the 1936 Pierce, Idaho ambush. Orofino, Idaho. June 16, 1937 Lou Walsh Died while fighting fascists with the Catalonian Militia. Aragon front, Spain. 1936 -1939 Vladimir Sergeyevich “Bill” Shatov Sent to Siberia and disappeared during the Great Purge of 1936-39. Soviet Union. September 1938 Ivan Silverman Forced by commies onto a bare field to face fascist machine guns. Spain. September 1938 Two unidentified IWWs Forced by commies onto a bare field to face fascist machine guns. Spain. Nov. 4, 1940 Dalton Lee Gentry Succumbed to injuries sustained in the 1936 Pierce, Idaho ambush. Monroe, La. Sept. 3, 1942 John “Jack” Beavert Driven insane at San Quentin in 1928. Died in a state asylum. Talmage, Calif. 1947-1948 George Andreychine After 18 years in Siberia he was eliminated during the 1947-48 purge in Bulgaria. Sept. 23, 1973 Frank Terrugi Shot by the Chilean military during the Pinochet- led coup d’état. Santiago, Chile. September 1974 Frank Gould Disappeared while covering the Moro guerrilla rebellion. Mindanao, Philippines. Errors and omissions are solely the responsibility of the compiler FW DJ Alperovitz, x364631. Images from the University of Washington Industrial Worker, Suzzallo Library Newspaper Collection, the Oregon Historical Society Newspaper Collection and Genealogybank. Sept. 10, 1938. Page 8 • Industrial Worker • November 2013 In November We Remember Re-Remembering The Mexican IWW By J. Pierce public facilities in the area. A The history we tell ourselves about year later, in April 1917, an- the Mexican IWW is quite brief. Two other IWW-led strike broke out events are most often repeated that carry against El Aguila, an oil com- the IWW banner: the Insurrectos that pany. In the ensuing months, invaded Baja, Calif., and proclaimed the the El Aguila strike spread to Tijuana Commune in 1911, which included at least six other petroleum amongst them Joe Hill; and the “Tampico companies as well as to long- General Strike,” of which most of us know shore workers and boatmen, very little. resulting in a general strike of Additionally, we hold up Ricardo 15,000 workers and halting all Flores Magon, his brother Enrique and oil production. The strike was the Partido Liberal Mexicana (PLM) as violently repressed but another somewhat of a stand-in for the Mexican large strike in November 1917 IWW. “Well, the IWW and the PLM had was launched after the work- many dual members and they were anar- ers regrouped. In July 1920, chists so they were like the IWW in Mexico, the IWW along with the COM basically,” we say to those who inquire. fomented yet another general However, it was only while I was read- strike of 10,000 oil workers. ing Norman Caulfield’s book, “Mexican Workers and the State: From the Porfiriato Coahuila, Monterrey to NAFTA,” did this general sketch of the and Sonora Mexican IWW come into full view as whol- FW Ramon Cornejo orga- ly inadequate. This book has been sold nized textile workers in Villa by the IWW’s Literature Department for de Santiago, Monterrey. Andres nigh on 10 years, yet I suspect that many de León was one IWW leader of us have never read it. “Mexican Work- active in Torreón, Coahuila, Enrique Flores Magón with IWW members and family, Photo: Labor Archives of Washington State, ers” is a treasure trove of research into the where the IWW is reported to Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico, 1923. University of Washington extensive IWW organizing and fighting all have had five branches of metal over Mexico and the borderlands from the workers in 1912. One name to emerge from 5,000 Mexican American miners. Mexican belde, to bring them IWW news coverage. 1900s to the 1920s. the strikes in Cananea, Sonora, was IWW American miners helped established IWW Other IWW organizers associated with the It is true that the IWW in Mexico and organizer Antonio C. Ramirez who helped branches in Bisbee, Jerome and Ajo. Mexi- Los Angeles branch include Primo Tapia the American Southwest was intimately lead the three-week strike of October 1920 cans were the core leadership of the IWW de la Cruz, Julio Castillo, Tomás Martínez, linked with our allies, the PLM and the against the Cananea Consolidated Copper miners in Globe-Miami, which claimed B. Negreira, Feliz Cedeño, Manuel Rey and Casa del Obrero Munidal (COM), as well Company. 700 dues-paying members including Ital- Liunitas Gutiérrez. as with the Confederación General del Tra- ians, Finns, Poles and Anglos and would bajo (CGT) and the communists at times. Mexico City gather on “Wobbly Hill” during strikes and Nunca Olvidamos However, it is not necessary to conflate With their headquarters established demonstrations. The goal of this article is to highlight these organizations; Los Trabajadores In- in Mexico City in 1919, Jose Refugio Ro- Phoenix Local No. 272 produced the names of individual Wobblies who dustriales del Mundo (the Spanish transla- driguez and Wenceslao Espinoza were two leaders such as Guillermo Velarde, Javier organized and fought on both sides of the tion of “Industrial Workers of the World”) of the Mexico City IWWs who published Buitimea, Jacinto Barrera and branch sec- border and to help bring this history into has its own wealth of history in Mexico. El Obrero Industrial and attempted to retary Rosendo A. Dorame. In the mining our contemporary recollection. Further ar- In particular, I would like to highlight the establish a national presence for the IWW. towns, Wobblies Julio Blanco and José Ro- ticles and research will help us incorporate names of individual Mexican Wobblies so Other names associated with the IWW in dríguez were active in Globe-Miami, and these Wobblies and their rich history into that we can research them and induct them Mexico, perhaps in Mexico City, included Abelardo Ordoñez was active in Morenci. our work. For starters, let’s remember one into our IWW hall of fame, so to speak. Walter Fortmeyer and A. Sortmary, who FW Fernando Palomares, a Mayo Indian Wobbly who we lost too early: FW Marcos were both deported as the Mexican gov- and a Magonista, participated in both the Martinez, an IWW organizer, killed by po- La Prensa del IWW Mexicana ernment tried to crack down on foreign El Paso smelter strike as well as the Bis- lice as they shot into an open air meeting of There existed a bonafide IWW in Mexi- agitators, and Benito Pavon, Edmundo bee copper strike of 1917 that lead to the striking copper miners on June 30, 1924, co and a constant flow of Mexican IWWs to Ibarra and Pablo Ollo. infamous Bisbee Deportation. in Los Lamentos, Chihuahua, Mexico. and from the United States. These workers created fearless newspapers such as: La Chihuahua California Unión Industrial, produced in Phoenix Five thousand smelter workers struck Los Angeles Local No. 602 starting in 1909; Huelga General, out of at Santa Eulalia in Chihuahua in 1924. has an extensive Mexican IWW Los Angeles in 1913-1914; Solidaridad and Three of the IWW strike leaders there history, rich enough to warrant Nueva Solidaridad, from Chicago; and El were Francisco Morales, Enrique Castillo further articles. This branch was a Obrero Industrial, produced in Mexico and Francisco Nuñez. At Los Lamentos, swarming beehive of revolutionary City in 1919. These publications made their Marcos Martinez, Jesus Gonzalez, Basilio activity surrounding Mexico and way all over Mexico. Caulfield’s research Pedroza and Pascual Diaz, who was the the borderlands. It was in Los An- found mention of these IWW newspa- branch secretary for Metal Mine Workers geles where PLMistas and IWWs pers in complaints of government agents IU 210, were all thrust into leadership dur- prepared for the invasion of Baja, and company manag- ing strike waves there. Calif., and printed a wealth of agi- ers to their superiors During strikes in Santa tational material that helped spur in the United States. Barbara, Chihuahua, the Mexican Revolution. These IWW newspapers FWs Eduardo Modesto In addition to Huelga General, Photo: theblackrosesociety.wordpress.com showed up in rebellious Flores, Alfredo Lugo and workers relied upon FW Aurelio Gravestone of Rosendo A. Dorame in Evergreen districts in Guanajuato, Albert Fodor were all ac- Azuara’s unofficial paper, El Re- Cemetery in Los Angeles. Hidalgo, Coahuila, Chi- tive organizers. huahua and Sonora. Many of the radi- cal miners in Chihua- Tamaulipas hua were those who had Oil and marine worked higher-paying transport workers in jobs in Arizona and had Tampico were constant- joined the IWW there. ly engaged in struggle The mining bosses com- under the banner of the plained that “Arizona IWW throughout the Mexicans” were “over- 1910s and early 1920s. running” the mining Most likely, the IWW districts of Chihuahua, idea was brought to the spreading their radical Tampico area by sailors ideas of higher wages, from the Marine Trans- expropriation of foreign port Workers’ Industrial companies, and workers’ Union (IU). FWs Pedro Graphic: “Mexican Workers & the State” self-management. Coria (from Arizona), Ramón Parreno, Francisco Gamallo, Arizona Rafael Zamudio, Victor Martinez and As the Western Federation of Min- Jose Zapata are all names that emerged ers drifted to the right politically (as did from the constant strikes and agitation its successor, the International Union of in Tampico. Mine, Mill, and Smelter Workers), Mexi- In April 1916, mass protests erupted can American miners in Arizona’s copper to improve working and living conditions mines were leaving these unions and led by the IWW and COM members. These joining the IWW’s Metal Mine Workers’ demonstrations turned into a strike that IU, at that time called Local No. 800. By shut down most of the oil companies and 1917, the IWW claimed a membership of November 2013 • Industrial Worker • Page 9 In November We Remember IWW Members Who Fought In The Spanish Civil War By Matt White According to his friend D.P. Stephens, Not surprisingly, a number of Ryan died a year later in Canada, prob- Wobblies went to Spain to fight in the ably related to his Jarama wound. Spanish Civil War. Several served with Herbert Schlessinger. In an the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo interview, Schlessinger claimed to (CNT), while it appears the bulk served have been a liaison between the Sail- in the International Brigades. Wobblies ors’ Union of the Pacific (SUP) and the such as Mike Raddock, Ray Steele and IWW, which makes perfect sense as then-future Industrial Worker editor the SUP had an alliance with the IWW Pat Read acquired reputations as some during the latter half of the 1930s into of the finest soldiers in the 15th Interna- the 1940s. He was killed in action with tional Brigade. Records from the Span- Lincoln Battalion in the latter part of ish Civil War and 1930s IWW are in- 1938. complete, making it impossible to know Ivan Alroy Silverman. Sil- with any certainty how many Wobblies verman was a member of the IWW went to Spain. I’ve discovered over 20 construction workers in Los Angeles. people who either listed themselves as Silverman arrived in Spain during the Wobblies or who others remembered latter half of 1937 and was a member of as Wobblies. Of that group of Wobblies, the Lincoln Battalion. Silverman was eight were killed in Spain and one died listed as killed at Gandesa in April 1938. shortly after he returned from Spain The 15th International Brigade in 1937. Pat Read appears third from left. Photo: dlib.nyu.edu Raymond Albert Steele. Steele from wounds he received there. For was another Wobbly seaman. Accord- reasons unknown, the Industrial Worker the Australian IWW paper, Direct Action. Louis Rosenberg. According to ing to Lincoln Battalion veteran Dave never commemorated the deaths of five Dickinson was jailed for his IWW activi- his death notice from the CNT, Louis Smith, “Ray Steele always expounded on of the nine fellow workers listed here. So ties. Dickinson went to England shortly Rosenberg was killed in action with the the superiority of direct action as a tactic.” this November, 75 years since the last act after his release from prison in the late Durruti International Battalion of the Steele was fondly remembered as one of of the Spanish Civil War, we remember. 1920s. Dickinson joined the British Bat- 26th Division, on the Aragon front, June the best soldiers in the Lincoln Battalion Heinrich Bortz. According to his talion of the International Brigades and 16, 1937. Rosenberg was 24 years old and and one of the best machine gunners of the obituary in the Oct. 23, 1937 issue of the was second in command of the second joined the IWW Industrial Union (IU) 120 Tom Mooney Machine Gun Company. Ac- Industrial Worker: “Fellow worker Bortz company. In 1937, he was captured and Timber Workers at Port Arthur, Ontario. cording to International Brigades records, was a German and belonged to the I.W.W. executed by the fascists. He took part in the Thunder Bay strike he was killed on July 15, 1937, during the [sailors’] branch in Stettin.” The obituary Harry F. Owens. Owens was an of 1934 and the Algoma District strike of Brunete campaign. There are several dif- related that the Nazis threw Bortz into a outspoken anarchist sailor who joined the 1935. His obituary mentions an unnamed ferent versions of Steele’s death, but the concentration camp. Bortz then escaped IWW in 1921 after he became infuriated Pennsylvania anarchist who was killed at consensus view is that he was killed by a the camp and made his way to Denmark with the conduct of the International Sea- the same time. sniper. and then to Sweden. In Sweden he contin- men’s Union. Before Owens left for Spain, Lawrence K. Ryan. Ryan was the Robert Charles Watts. Watts was ued to be active in radical labor. In 1936 he helped lead an IWW strike against a Las Vegas branch secretary in the early a Gulf port sailor when he volunteered for he traveled to Spain and joined the CNT’s ship carrying goods to the fascists in Spain. 1930s. In that role he would have been Spain. He claimed to have served in the Durruti International Battalion where he There is not too much information about involved in the Boulder Dam organizing Mexican Army in the 1920s. He served in was killed in action. Owens in Spain, but he was a member drive. Ryan was an early Lincoln Battal- the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion and Ted Dickinson. Dickinson joined of the Lincoln Battalion and was killed ion volunteer who was severely wounded was killed in action in late March or early the Australian IWW in 1923 and edited sometime in mid-1937. during the Feb. 27, 1937, attack at Jarama. April of 1938. This November We Remember Fellow Worker Helen Keller By Raymond S. Solomon farm workers and also as sharecroppers. was immortalized in In 1933, Helen Keller was so outraged Agricultural workers were not covered in the film and play, “The by the severe persecution of Jews in Nazi the 1935 National Labor Relations Act (the Miracle Worker.” By Germany, and by Nazi book burnings, Wagner Act). Many small independent strategically placing that she directed the following statement farmers were also, in effect, wage workers Helen’s hand on her to the German Nazis: for banks and the railroads. (Anne Sullivan’s) face “Do not imagine that your barbari- Helen Keller joined, and was active and throat, includ- ties to the Jews are unknown here. God in, the Industrial Workers of the World ing the larynx and sleepeth not, and He will visit His judg- and the Socialist Party. She decried the lips, when Helen was ment on you.” divisions and bickering within the labor a young child, Anne Helen Keller resisted the prevalent movement. When Wobbly leader Big Bill Sullivan taught her, in bigotry against handicapped people. Haywood was expelled from the Socialist several lessons, to be- Blindness and deafness continue to carry Party, she wrote: gin speaking. The first a stigma. As we know, Helen Keller suf- “Are we putting difference of party sentence that Helen fered from both. She demonstrated that tactics before the desperate needs of the Keller articulated was: blind and deaf people were hardly stupid, workers? While countless women and “I’m not dumb now.” as was commonly believed. Helen Keller children are…ruining their bodies in long These two amaz- brought attention to the problems of the days of toil, we are fighting one another. ingly remarkable disabled. There are visual disabilities Shame on us.” women were together short of complete blindness. There are Howard Zinn wrote that at one point for almost a lifetime. people with diminished vision, who are she decried voting, saying, “We have a It is hard to think of not blind. Many people with multiple choice between Tweedledum and Twee- one without the other. sclerosis have diminished vision, espe- dledee.” Yet she fought for women’s suf- On the internet you Helen Keller (left) & Anne Sullivan Photo: braillebug.afb.org cially in the right eye. Even now, many frage. She was critical of those people who can tap into a rare (right) play chess in 1900. people are indifferent to their needs. admired her as a deaf and blind person, audiovisual of Anne Sullivan and Helen professor. By the way, I have 18 gradu- There is still great discrimination against who demonstrated what handicapped Keller, demonstrating how Helen Keller ate school credits, have co-authored two disabled workers, often, very unfortu- people could overcome and accomplish, was taught to say the above sentence. It books that were published by a major nately, by other workers. but were critical of her activities on behalf was filmed in 1930. I am impressed by the publisher, and have published more than Working-class people were and are of exploited workers and doubly exploited lack of any pretension by either of these 60 articles, including one in a psychol- not always free of religious and racial handicapped workers. two women. ogy journal—not bad for someone who prejudice. In this regard, I would like Helen Keller could appreciate books, Despite the fact that she was blind was profiled as “retarded” and “illiter- to recall that Mike Quill, organizer and much more than many sighted people do, and deaf, Helen Keller earned a bachelor’s ate.” Since I am dyslexic, this article was leader of New York City’s Transport who do not give the fact that they can see degree. She turned down at least one mar- proofread by my visually disabled wife, Workers Union ruined his health fighting a second thought, or even a first thought. riage proposal. Judy. I thank her very much. Among the for his workers. He ultimately died as a This was manifest by her condemnation of We do not know for sure which illness problems that dyslexic people have is result of his imprisonment for leading an Nazi Germany’s book burnings. The burn- caused Helen Keller’s childhood blindness omitting words and repeating words and “illegal” and unpopular strike in 1965. He ing of books led to the gassing of people. and deafness. Theories about the disease phrases without noticing it, and groping also fought bigotry among his own union She was also a prolific writer, and her that afflicted this child with blindness and for words when talking. members, including, anti-Semitism and work includes an autobiography, “The deafness include measles and meningitis. If only so many sighted politicians racism. Story of My Life.” Helen Keller was able There was a measles epidemic in Alabama and statesmen could have seen the Nazis Helen Keller was a labor activist at to accurately describe President Eisen- around the time that young Helen Keller for what they were, the way our blind a time when child labor was common in hower’s face by using her fingers to feel his lost her sight and hearing. fellow worker Helen Keller clearly saw the United States as people worked 14 face. Eisenhower probably did not realize On a personal note, without in any way them, the history of the 20th century to 18 hours daily in mines, mills, logging that he was dealing with a Wobbly. She whatsoever comparing myself to Helen could have turned out much better, in- camps, shipyards, sweatshops, restau- learned to “hear” through vibrations she Keller, I have experienced discrimination cluding saving of the lives of over 50 rant kitchens and factories. could feel with her fingers. She learned this for my disability. Being dyslexic, I was million people who were killed in war, Many people also worked at subsis- great technique when she was a child, from profiled as being “retarded” in the first by atrocities, and genocide committed tence farms as tenant farmers, migrant her fantastic teacher Anne Sullivan, who grade and as “illiterate” by a college history by the Nazis. Page 10 • Industrial Worker • November 2013 Review “The Given Day”: Novel Of The Decade…Or Of Generations Of “Indignants”? Lehane, Dennis. The Given Day. New history, side by side with those on the field, books for a long time): Peter Watkins’ “La York: Harper Perennial, 2008 (reprint telling these men and women’s stories as a Commune (Paris, 1871).” edition). Paperback, 720 pages, $15.99. lively and poignant log of their struggles. Watkins and Lehane notably listen to And no trace of a classic, conformist and those that history rarely takes into consid- By Jérôme Diaz, rigid lesson: first, for he powerfully evokes eration. They illustrate this in their own Independent journalist, France these moments of life, these guys, police- way by attaching fictitious elements to his- “So somebody better start thinking of men, being perfectly conscious of playing tory, giving that history a new lease on life. how to pay us what’s right.” their fate in the full tumult; then, because What’s this: the words extracted from we get of these depictions an obvious but “Absent fires and screams and dark- an activist paper? The catchphrase of a tragic echo of present history. The doubts, ness, the streets had lost their ghoulish poster announcing a demonstration? The wrath and fears felt by the characters about flavor, but stark evidence of the mob lay last provocative sentence of some politi- their living and working conditions are so everywhere. Nary a window was left cian? vigorously expressed that we sometimes intact along Washington or Tremont or Not at all. Simply the words pro- wonder if we are not instead along with any streets that intersected them. Husks nounced by one of the characters in the the Indignados in Spain, New York City’s where once stood businesses. The skeleton “The Given Day,” Dennis Lehane’s master- Occupy Wall Street or in Greece. frames of charted automobiles. So much ful historical novel. The same restlessness about a quite trash and debris in the streets Peters could Getting us into the heart of the 1918- obscure future, the same demands about only assume this was what cities looked 1919 riots and the Boston policemen’s the same economic problems and, more like after protracted battles and sporadic strike, the author of “Mystic River,” “Shut- generally, the same expression of a deep bombings.” ter Island,” “Gone, Baby, Gone” and “Live feeling of injustice. As not Karl Marx, but It is also interesting to mention that by Night” takes the reader for a travel back the narrator sums up: “the system fucked Lehane, from Massachusetts, has par- through the past, to an unknown chapter the workingman.” ticipated in the writing of a few episodes of America’s history. And takes it back “Steve said, ‘Have you ever noticed of the great television drama series, “The to life. that when they need us, they talk about Wire.” The highly realistic and quasi- Graphic: collider.com As pages go by, his fictive heroes Lu- duty, but when we need them, they talk documentary aspect of the series indeed and its irrepressible need for making the ther Laurence, a Black worker, and Danny about budgets?’ finds echoes in the writing of the novel: world according to its own image. Coughlin, a young officer of the Boston ‘What are we supposed to do about it?’ lively, sound and very detailed. “‘[…] You Americans—there is no his- Police Department (that his superiors, ‘Fight,’ Steve said. “-There’s a principle here to be hon- tory. There is only now. Now, now, now. mostly being of his own family, put in Danny shook his head. ‘Whole world’s ored, boy. Can you appreciate that? I want this now. I want that now.’ charge of infiltrating the anarchist field fighting right now. France, fucking Bel- -And which one is that, sir? Danny felt a sudden rise of irritation. and the Boston Police’s syndicate), meet gium, how many dead? No one even has -Public safety above all other ideals ‘And yet everyone seems in a hell of a real characters such as John Hoover, a number. You see progress there?’” for men who hold the badge. hurry to leave their country to get here.’ future chief of the FBI, or baseball star Profoundly humanist, harsh and de- -Putting food on the table, sir, that’s ‘Ah, yes. Streets paved with gold. Babe Ruth. In a burning political and void of over-simplification, “The Given another ideal.” The great America where every man social atmosphere, at the dawn of 1920s Day,” reminds us of Emile Zola’s “Germi- Among the historical sources of the can make his fortune. But what of those full with racism, class struggle, soldiers nal,” Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath,” novel, we pleasantly (and logically) find who don’t? What of the workers, Officer coming back from the front lines of World Alice Walker’s “The Color Purple,” or more the names of great historians such as Danny? Yes? They work and work and War I, and a terrible flu epidemic, emerge recently Thomas Kelly’s “Empire Rising.” the much-missed Howard Zinn and his work and if they get sick from the work, Bolshevik and anarchist movements. We also think of one of the best films fabulous “A People’s History of the United the company says, “Bah. Go home and no Lehane has chosen, and perfectly suc- ever made about a revolutionary move- States.” This book is a historical fresco come back”. And if they hurt themselves ceeded, to make us feel the human aspect of ment (but knowingly left out of history going from the “discovery” of America to on the work? Same thing. You Americans our time, except that he takes history on talk of your freedom, but I see slaves who the opposite side in order to, here again, think they are free. I see companies that revive it but “from the other side.” Thus, use children and families like hogs and— like Lehane, “A People’s History” aims Danny waved it away. ‘And yet you’re not to counter “the telling of history from here.’” the standpoint of the conquerors,” writes After “Mystic River,” “Shutter Island,” Zinn. or his series showing up Bostonian private As an added bonus, “The Given Day” detectives Patrick Kenzie and Angela presents an uncompromising look at a Gennaro, Lehane offers a singular work post- World War I America, (already) a bit crowded with incident. It is a mix of violent lost and in quest of itself, closer to James thriller, and also a social, historical and Ellroy or George P. Pelecanos than to the political novel. American dream so proudly promoted, Timeless and universal, intimate and and that millions of immigrants have been poignant, this novel is a real masterstroke. dreaming of—a dream that has slowly but The question is: what filmmaker would surely collapsed since then, as a result of be worthy of adapting such a powerful and America’s obsession with itself, its myths gripping novel for the screen ?

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Send this subscription form to: Industrial Worker Subscriptions, PO Box 180195, Chicago, IL 60618 USA Subscribe to the Industrial Worker today! November 2013 • Industrial Worker • Page 11 Review Climate Change And Our Future Alley, Richard B. The Two-Mile Time Ma- the layers or by trying to reactions of weather- “scare civilized peoples,” have happened chine: Ice Cores, Abrupt Climate Change, identify a “time marker” ing have “given Earth a repeatedly in our deep past. In the Earth and Our Future. Princeton, NJ: Princeton like a volcanic eruption. thermostat that keeps system, heat energy, from the equator, is University Press, 2002 (reprint edition). According to Alley there the surface habitable being moved to the poles by oceanic and Paperback, 240 pages, $25.95. are “no events older than for creatures such as us, atmospheric currents. As much as 30 2,000 years that are who like liquid water.” percent of this energy is reflected back By John MacLean both reliably dated by The slow “changes of into space by snow, ice and the tops of “Is our spell of good weather almost historical records and deep time serve as the clouds. The greenhouse effect of our at- over?” – Richard B. Alley that left a clear signal in stage on which faster mospheric blanket keeps the planet from Richard B. Alley, in his book “The the ice cores.” Testing events occur.” being frozen, and the “simple geometry” Two-Mile Time Machine: Ice Cores, the electrical conductivi- Given that 10 per- of a curved Earth profoundly impacts our Abrupt Climate Change, And Our Fu- ty of the layers can high- cent of the Earth’s sur- weather. Alley writes that the roots of the ture,” finds a history of “climate crazi- light the sulfuric acid face is currently covered “crazy climate stories,” in the Greenland ness” in “cave formations, ocean and lake left behind by known by ice, and that 30 per- ice cores, are to be found in “the interplay sediments, and other places.” The “finest volcanic eruptions, and cent was ice-covered between ocean temperature and salinity.” records,” in this regard, are to be found looking into the isotopic some 20,000 years ago, The study of old shells in ocean sediment in the three-foot long by four to five inch composition of the ice, we know that “we are tells us that heat-bearing currents can be thick cores, pulled from the Greenland ice how heavy or light it is, away from the warm altered. A partial explanation for past cold sheet. The pattern emerging from all these how close to falling from end of the full range of spells in the North Atlantic can be found sources is one of “a long stagger into an the sky or evaporating, Earth climates.” If you in “sudden meltwater deluges” brought ice age, a faster stagger out of the ice age, can help with dating, Graphic: press.princeton.edu follow the melting water on by the breaking of ice sheet dams, and a few millennia of stability, [and then a] also. streams, to the ocean the issuing of icebergs, jamming up the repeat.” Ice sheets tell us much about the Temperature, at the time when the sediments, you can find what Alley refers warmth giving current. Alley contends past, and the sum of this knowledge has snow fell, can be estimated by using “two to as a “dipstick,” showing “how much that science does not fully understand the “revolutionized our view of Earth.” There paleothermometers,” the already-men- water was left in the oceans and how much Dansgaard-Oeschger oscillations, and that is great concern that greenhouse warming, tioned isotope ratios and the temperature was locked up as ice on land at different there may be “switches and amplifiers” in increased rain and the melting of ice, will along the depths of the “borehole.” Finally, times.” As past temperatures can be esti- play outside of this ocean region; he hum- freshen the North Atlantic and slow down ice captures “samples of old air” in bub- mated from the isotope composition of ice bly describes the climate community as “a or shut off the natural circulation of warm bles, which can hint at past atmospheric in cores, past ice sheet size can be found Stone Age tribe clustered around [a] North equatorial waters to this region. Small conditions as well. also in the makeup of “the shells of tiny Atlantic light switch, the first one we’ve pushes can do a little, or a great deal, “al- Climate can be thought of “as a drunk; plants and animals…piled up in layers [on ever seen, and just now figuring it out.” most as if someone had flipped a switch.” when left alone, it sits; when forced to the ocean bottom] over millions of years.” The last section of the book is titled Alley was involved with the second move, it staggers.” In the planet’s deep past These shells, dated and ran through a mass “Coming Craziness?” Generally our planet Greenland Ice Sheet Project, which toiled “drifting continents” have altered ocean spectrometer, are a naturally written “his- recycles organic matter very well, but for five summers between 1989 and 1993 currents, and “wiggles” in the Earth’s or- tory of ice volume.” The “rotation axis” of “leaking” allows some to escape, yielding and produced two miles of core. Ice is a bit have encouraged the expansion, and the Earth, its “inclination, or obliquity” fossil fuels: “oil mostly from algae, coal “warm solid” which sits close to its melting withdrawal, of ice sheets. There are “feed- between the poles, can vary from 22 to 24 mostly from woody plants, and natural point and is always flowing from higher backs,” both positive and negative, which degrees, over tens of thousands of years, gas—mainly methane—from either one.” and thicker locations out to the ice sheet can “magnify or shrink” a climate change. as does the elliptical orbit of our planet, Large, rapid and wide-ranging climate edges, eventually crumbling into bergs. Of all the amplifiers, greenhouse gases are around the sun. This gives us seasons, changes have been “common on Earth,” The snow is laid down annually in layers, among the most significant. On Earth, we and under normal circumstances regular but have been relatively absent during pressed by its own weight over time until have been spared by chemistry from the periods of ice growth and contraction. Al- the establishment of our civilizations. The it becomes ice; recognizable winter and frozen condition of Mars and the broil ley writes that the changing distribution of author writes that “for billions of years” “summertime hoarfrost” layers remain. of Venus. The release of carbon dioxide solar energy on earth’s surface “must have warming has come along with elevated This ice can be dated by simply counting from volcanoes and the constant chemical been causing the ice to grow and shrink.” levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, At the moment, we “naturally should and that despite a “natural trend” toward be near the start of the next long, slow, cooling “[h]uman-induced changes are bumpy slide into an ice age.” The usual likely to be one hundred or more times Danny Perez, pattern is for ice to expand for 90,000 faster, so the next natural ice age won’t years, and then shrink for 10,000, into an save us from ourselves.” In the Earth’s “interglacial period.” During these past past there have been both warm and cold ¡Presente! long drawn-out coolings and warmings, periods of climate stability, and it is in the climate in the North Atlantic was all over “middle ground” between the two where the place, mixed cold and warm centuries, drunken climate jumps are more likely to Danny Perez (1931- as heat-circulating currents switched off occur. The “losers from climate change will and on. These ocean current and tem- outnumber the winners” no matter how 2004) was born in Brook- perature swings are called “Dansgaard- mightily we put our minds to adapting. lyn, N.Y. He worked as a Oeschger cycles.” As the cold deepened Alley writes that we are poised before a textile cutter on both coasts “a Heinrich event” would see icebergs “trench,” which we can’t see into, and we dumped into the Atlantic, debris layers need to jump; we don’t know if the trench and then became an orga- in the ocean sediment testify to this, and is “shallow,” or if it is “deep [and] could nizer for the International finally, with the next warming, a “Bond swallow much of what we hold dear.” cycle” would, with time, resume the cool- The author is a cautious scientist, Ladies’ Garment Workers’ ing. These cycles and events have been awash in a media landscape as likely to Union (ILGWU). His suc- named after scientists, and many now see feature denialist voices as ones like his. At the climate of Greenland as coupled with times he seems to want to imagine that he cess could be accounted for that of the world. Alley writes that the cold can avoid being contentious in his effort. in a number of ways—he times in the north Atlantic were also “cold, What kind of Olympian trench jump would dry, and windy in broad regions extend- it take to swallow up a poverty-creating built networks throughout ing into subtropical Africa and Asia, and money system, dear to the hearts of so Connecticut cities, among across Europe and North America.” many, whose motivations are driving us on Hispanic individuals and Great climate changes, which can to such an uncertain, unattractive future? groups and with other la- bor folks. When there was a Sponsor an Industrial Worker need to organize a new shop Subscription for a Prisoner in any industry, Danny was Danny Perez (left) speak- Photo: Nick Lacy Sponsor an Industrial Worker the first person everyone ing to workers at the Plastonics strike in 1992. subscription for a prisoner! The IWW thought of. That’s good luck, often has fellow workers & allies in but it came through a lot of work. As Danny always said, prison who write to us requesting a subscription to the Industrial Worker, “there are lucky organizers and lazy organizers, but there are the official newspaper of the IWW. This no lucky, lazy organizers.” He made a lasting mark in the is your chance to show solidarity! struggle for workers’ rights, especially in the area of health For only $18 you can buy one full and safety. He gravitated toward the poorest workers in the year’s worth of working-class news most dangerous jobs and inspired them to organize for their from around the world for a fellow mutual protection. His work taught a new generation of labor worker in prison. Just visit: activists. He will be missed but his legacy lives on. http://store.iww.org/industrial-worker- sub-prisoner.html to order the – from his friends and co-workers in Connecticut subscription TODAY! Page 12 • Industrial Worker • November 2013 Special The Story And Struggle Of Starbucks Workers In Chile Continued from 1 tions we thought the company was going strike was going to to be promoted to shift supervisor and to respond in a good manner. We were hit them pretty hard when he went to the office to have a talk naïve, thinking the company was going on their public im- with the HR manager, Francesca Faraggi, to give in on some of the points, trying to age. But, of course, regarding this new company policy and reach a consensus. For example, we were the company didn’t other work environment issues, they im- asking for the company to provide us our care at all. When we mediately removed him from the selection uniforms and also a lunch. Almost every were getting close to process and started to look for a reason to food chain here does it. If you go to Ruby our third week of the lay him off. He actually wasn’t convinced Tuesday’s [a large corporate chain restau- strike, we decided about organizing as a union before the rant] they have their lunch and right next that the three union company did this to him. But after that, to us, Domino’s, they even have someone leaders will go on he was one of the key leaders in building to cook for them. I know when I first talked a hunger strike to up the organization. to some American journalists back in 2011, make this contradic- that they were kind of surprised by this. tion with their ethics IW: Talk about the campaign and how it But here in Chile it’s really common. So we more obvious. progressed. were asking to have the same benefits that every other company in our market has. IW: During the AG: We remained anonymous for about We were also asking for a small wage strike did Starbucks Starbucks workers in Santiago. Photo: Adam Weaver two years. I was, at first, the only visible raise, based on the CPI [Consumer Price bring in replace- face for about three months, and then Index]. It’s the cost of living. And of course ment workers? Are they allowed to bring AG: We now have less than 10 percent when we reached 25 members this legally that seemed too strange to the Starbucks in other workers to continue the opera- of the company unionized. We are a very allowed us to elect two more organization Corporation so they didn’t want that ei- tions of the store? small union, but we are starting on nego- leaders in the form of a president, a sec- ther. They refused to even discuss any of tiations with the hope the four trials we retary and a treasurer. From then on we these points because, as a global policy, AG: They can replace the strikers, paying have won in the past two years make an had to deal with some silent union-busting they don’t negotiate with unions. a small fee to each striking worker—but impact on the course of the negotiation. techniques. Managers started to approach Starbucks doesn’t like anyone telling they didn’t pay for that either. They just Starbucks has already been punished for employees with friendly advice about not them how to run their business or how replaced everyone and didn’t pay anything. refusing to negotiate with us, so we are getting involved with this new union. They to do things better. It’s not about money; Then we went to trial with the labor board hoping that the company—that’s now had one-on-one meetings with each one it’s a political issue. And they kind of bet over that and they were punished. But they starting to be controlled by a new op- of them, telling them that the union was on that we were never going to vote for a never paid anything to us. They illegally erator, the Mexican restaurant and food against the company and that they better strike, and did everything in their hands to replaced striking members of the union. corporation Alsea—has changed its modus remain on the company’s side, for their guarantee that. But, we did. And that was operandi. They have about 70 percent of own sake. It was a classic “union bad” and really hard to achieve because to make the IW: They did that illegally, but once the their workers unionized, so they should be “company good” argument. strike legal we had to convince 50 percent strike ends, they have to allow you back more used to working with unions and I And after two years, we started nego- plus one of our members to vote for the to work, right? think that might make a difference in the tiations with the company on April 9, 2011. strike. Before the voting date, Starbucks negotiations. But, if that doesn’t happen, We presented an ideal collective bargain- began a tremendous union-busting cam- AG: Yeah, but we have a huge turnover we are doomed because we have no pres- ing agreement to start the negotiations. paign to convince every member that the rate, so it was easy for Starbucks to keep sure to put on the company this time. And, And of course, after Starbucks refused to strike was only going to bring chaos and many of them. Most of the people hired for if we didn’t get anything last time, with the negotiate with us, we were forced to go on disgrace on them; that they were going that particular period weren’t conscious of 50 percent of the company on our side, a labor strike, and then a hunger strike. to lose their wages for a month; that the why they were hired. Of course, there was what can we expect now? union was following political interests; a small tension, but it was unfair to them IW: Before going into that, I was wonder- that no matter what, the company wasn’t to be blamed for something the company IW: So you don’t see a strike happening? ing if you could describe how you built the going to give in. Of course, they scared the was doing. The problem was Starbucks. union from one store to half the workforce hell out of our members. The workers, they were just trying to make AG: I couldn’t really tell, but I’m sure that across Chile? I’m really curious. You can’t imagine how hard we had to a living. is not the best way to put pressure on the work to maintain our support level, and to company right now. It may happen any- AG: Well, we started visiting every store get our people to vote. Subsequently, you IW: For the hunger strike, did you feel way; it depends on how partners feel the and explaining to everyone how our inten- are allowed under Chilean labor law to it was successful? How long did it go on? company’s responding to their inquiries, tion wasn’t to be in a constant struggle start the strike about 10 days after the vote, but in this precise moment, I don’t see it with the company, but to make our labor but you need for 50 percent plus one of AG: It went for 12 days and on the 13th happening. conditions better. That was the first thing your people to skip their shifts. For exam- day of the hunger strike, we put an end to we did. We built a huge email database and ple, you can vote to strike, but never really everything because we realized there was IW: As far as Starbucks workers around started sending information to everyone go for it. It’s putting a lot of pressure on nothing else we could do to put any more the world and other workers in the food constantly. That communication platform the company for 10 more days. But if you pressure on the company, and a month service industry, how can we support your allowed us to keep them informed, in touch do not vote it, you accept the company’s without getting paid was too much for efforts? What might be the best ways? with us, and connect- offer, which, in this many of our members. After the strike ed to our ideas. So case, was nothing. ended Starbucks gave a 10 percent wage AG: I think it would be good to have media some of them started The question is, what raise to every barista, explained that it had attention around the globe, especially in to join naturally. We do you do if things nothing to do with the union, the strike or the United States because that is where actually didn’t real- don’t change in those the collective bargaining process. But most Starbucks’ headquarters is. We need to ize until we started 10 days? of the partners knew that was because of build some kind of union solidarity net- negotiating that al- I’m telling you, the strike. work between all of the fast-food chains most half of the Star- we gave everything of that’s effective in making a difference. I’ve bucks workers in the ourselves over those IW: Also, you recently had a victory over seen some of the unionizing efforts in some country joined the 10 days to avoid the the uniforms? of the big chains like McDonald’s, but union—around 250 Photo: Juanita Galleguillos Droguett strike, to reach an here in Chile, we don’t have any fast-food members. Starbucks management was, agreement, but of course that wasn’t possi- AG: Yeah. Legally, in Chile, if you require chains with unions. Besides Starbucks, of course, really surprised with that. They ble. The company didn’t change its mind at workers to have any particular kind of there aren’t any. So, we need to figure out didn’t expect it. As you know, they have al- all. So we had to struggle to get 50 percent custom of clothes, the company must a formula to work together as workers ways defended the idea that unions aren’t plus one of the unionized partners that provide it to the [workers] free of any cost. and to create consciousness in people who necessary at Starbucks. So this freaked were scheduled for the day that the strike It’s illegal to force them to pay or buy any choose to, or have to, work in these kinds them out. was going to happen, to miss their shifts. sort of uniform. Apparently, Starbucks of chains. doesn’t do that anywhere in the world and, Companies are ahead of us; they have IW: How were you able to go around to IW: And when did that start? for that reason, they never agreed with us, developed studies and techniques to keep every store and talk to the workers and even though they were breaking our labor workers separated, forgetting what they gathering emails without any of this get- AG: It was July 7, 2011, and the strike code. So we had to go to our labor office really are: workers. Partners, collabora- ting back to management for two years? was official by a really small margin. From and they made a full investigation on our tors, crews, you name it. We’re not any of about 120 scheduled unionized partners complaint, and after a year issued a 100- that really—we’re workers before every- AG: Management was aware of this, but for that particular day, about 50 of them page report. We showed this to the judge thing else. This false illusion that you are they didn’t think the partners would re- came to work, and the other 60 didn’t. We and he ruled on our behalf for Starbucks to part of a family makes no sense. You don’t ally feel represented by us. They kind of were really close to losing it. We almost provide us with the uniforms. From [this fire your family, you don’t put all your re- thought that no one was going to listen to had a heart attack. coming] December on, they’ll have to give sources to prevent your supposed family us because we were just a few “unhappy a pair of pants and a shirt to every worker from having collective ideas. At the end people” with the company, pretending to IW: But once you have that, then the strike from the moment they start working for of the day we are just disposable workers, be union organizers, and that, as they were becomes legal? the company. That’s a pretty huge change unless we wake up and realize the power explicitly telling partners not to unionize, and I’m guessing Starbucks must be really within our hands. Awareness is the key to we weren’t going to have much of an im- AG: Yeah, everyone must go on strike and furious with us for that. It’s a victory to us building a strong and a powerful move- pact on them. History proved them wrong. the company cannot allow them to go to all. Of course, Starbucks publicly stated ment with no boundaries. It’s not about work. So, we started the strike thinking this was a decision made by the company, Chile, or the United States; it’s about every IW: Could you describe the [labor] strike, that it wasn’t going to last for too long. We having nothing to do with the labor office, worker in the world. what happened, and then the hunger always thought that the company was go- the trial, or the union. strike? ing to give in, because they are very brand Note: This interview was edited for conscious with the whole social respon- IW: What’s the situation now, as far as the clarity and length. AG: Well, when we started the negotia- sibility marketing. We thought that the union and what you’re facing? Transcribed by Eric Wind. November 2013 • Industrial Worker • Page 13 Special Sexual Harassment In The Workplace Continued from 1 keeping a smile on your face. During this Some quick background information time, I was lucky that my girls were there on Chicago-Lake Liquors: it is owned to support me and tell the customer to by John Wolf, a multimillionaire who shut the fuck up or else we wouldn’t sell was raised incredibly rich, but shunned them booze. Eventually, I became con- his family’s money and instead made fident enough to take care of it myself his wealth as a sports agent. He bought and also keep an eye on the safety of the Chi-Lake in the early 2000s as a fun side other cashiers. It was solidarity in action project, as well as a way to get back at and it was a beautiful thing. his family, who also owned a large and My co-workers told me horror profitable liquor store in the Twin Cities. stories of being a cashier at Chi-Lake. The guy’s a “grade A” douche. Under his Keisha told me about the man who kept ownership, Chi-Lake became incredibly calling the store asking to talk to her successful and is now the highest-grossing during her shift, and it eventually esca- liquor store in not only Minnesota, but lated to the point where he was waiting also Iowa, Wisconsin and the Dakotas. The outside the store for her to get done with store is located in one of the lowest income work before management finally banned Graphic: radicalgraphics.org neighborhoods in Minneapolis, and John the guy. Alex told me about how our boss Wolf makes his money by exploiting the al- offered to give her a ride home and tried was, “Damn, you thick for a white girl.” do so. I still refused, so my boss brought cohol dependence of working-class Black, to make a pass at her. Days later, she was If I had a dollar for every marriage pro- him to another line and rang him up, but white, First Nations, Latino, and Somali fired. Alice, a woman who had worked posal I received, I could finally afford to not before telling me to see him in his of- folks who live in the neighborhood, as well there for almost 10 years, told a story from buy a new front wheel for my bike. The fice immediately after Matt’s transaction as the vast network of lumpenproletarians a few years back when a customer reached comments were annoying, but I could was finished. As I was closing my register who hang out at the intersection of Chi- across the counter and grabbed a cashier’s generally handle them. As a young woman down, Matt walked passed me on his way cago Avenue and Lake Street. Chi-Lake is chest. The man was banned, but only until who grew up in the city just blocks away out the door and yelled, “Fucking cunt!” known for its low prices (hence the slogan, that cashier no longer worked at Chi-Lake. from Chicago-Lake Liquors, I’ve become I went into the back to my boss’s of- “Great place to stock up, terrible place to Now he is back in every single day buying quite accustomed to the hollering and fice and was sat down and given a lecture be a stock boy”) and crazy atmosphere his 24-ounce cans of Olde English. cat-calling on the street and can block it about how I never have the right to refuse (another slogan: “I survived Chicago-Lake I saw how Crystal put up with all of the out pretty well. service to a customer and that I need to call Liquors”). It’s constantly busy inside the men hitting on her because she knew she The hardest situations to handle were a manager if I have a problem. They were store, and on any given Friday or Saturday could go home with $15 in tips a night—the when customers would touch me without getting ready to give me an official verbal night, the line to the register regularly equivalent of almost two hours’ worth of my permission. I have a visible tattoo on warning when I mentioned the fact that stretches all the way down the aisles. wages. I would overhear the stock guys my forearm and oftentimes people would Matt had called me a “cunt” just minutes When I first started working at Chi- in the cooler talking about Liya’s ass, just reach across the counter and grasp earlier. Suddenly, my manager changed Lake, I was a bit overwhelmed. I had knowing full well that as a conservative my arm to get a closer look. One time, I his tone, and decided not to write me up. experienced sexual harassment at other Ethiopian Orthodox Christian she would refused service to a drunk man and he They ended up trespassing Matt from jobs before, but nothing approaching the be extremely offended. I would see the way got mad and grabbed my wrist so hard it the store for the name-calling, but only frequency and intensity seen at this liquor that men would treat Selam and Tsega, left a mark for an hour. I’ve gotten blood, under the stipulation that I would never store. Luckily, I had my co-workers to help my Amhara and Oromo co-workers also spit, and other questionable substances on again refuse to serve a customer without me. There was an instant sense of cama- from Ethiopia, and noticed that the sexual me. One particularly unsettling instance manager approval. Apparently, manage- raderie between the women that I worked harassment they dealt with was ethnically- occurred not at work, but when I was at ment is more qualified to decide when I with, and a culture had developed in the based, reeking with Orientalist overtones. the grocery store in my neighborhood. A feel uncomfortable enough to tell someone workplace of always watching each other’s Jane confided in me that she was trying to liquor store regular saw me and followed they can’t interact with me than I am. backs. When I was being trained, the co- leave her abusive boyfriend, but couldn’t me home. I started keeping a bat under The whole experience was by no means worker who I shadowed not only showed afford to until management gave her more my bed after that. unique.In fact, it was a pretty typical me how to use the register and stock the shifts. Vanessa had to eventually quit the The first big incident that I dealt with management response to such incidents, airplane shots, but also taught me how to job when she was pregnant with twins happened in September 2012, about two and most of my co-workers have similar deal with the endless stream of men intent because management wouldn’t let her sit months after I started working at the stories. The bosses aren’t concerned about on sexually harassing us. My co-workers on a stool when her feet became too tired liquor store. I was ringing at a register on our well-being, just the safety of the mer- told me when to draw the line, how to tell to stand during the 10-hour shifts they a busy Saturday afternoon when a stock chandise and, thus, their profits. In their off men without getting in trouble with kept giving her. Gender-related concerns guy came up carrying a case of beer for eyes, cashiers are expendable objects that the boss, when to call security if necessary came in many forms, and it was only a his friend, Matt, who was there shopping. cost just $8 an hour to use, abuse, and (there is always a cop or a security guard matter of time before I had my own horror Matt has something of what you might throw away. If we want to feel safe at work, on duty to prevent shoplifting), and when stories to tell. call an alcohol problem, and was already if we don’t want our souls crushed every to call a manager. They helped me pick out I was called a “bitch” so many times incredibly drunk by 4 p.m. Normally, I day, if we want to preserve the last shreds the fake name to give customers when they that I nearly started to respond to the wouldn’t serve someone who was that of dignity we have at work, we have to asked too many personal questions (mine name. “Cunt” and “whore” were also com- intoxicated, but he was friends with my fight for ourselves. Management involve- was Grace, which is my middle name and monplace, but not as frequent as “honey,” co-worker, so I let it slide. He proceeded ment has never been and never will be a also my pseudonym for writing). “sweetie,” or “baby.” One customer to start hitting on me with a perseverance sufficient solution to sexual harassment. In the beginning, I had trouble being referred to me simply as “legs,” since ap- that I had never seen before. He asked for When I got fired from my job, part of assertive because I was so used to work- parently he really liked my legs and as a my number multiple times, and was mak- me was relieved that I wouldn’t have to put ing at a yuppie natural foods grocery store woman I obviously don’t have anything ing non-stop comments about my body up with all of the bullshit from customers where you had to bend over and take it else worthwhile going for me except for and all the different ways that he wanted anymore. But another part of me was sad when a customer was yelling at you, always my body. One of my favorite comments to have sex with me. knowing that a new woman would be hired By this point, Matt was causing a and would have to be the one the deal with scene, but I didn’t want to call my manager the harassment. An injury to one is an in- GEORGE ORWELL because I would have gotten in trouble jury to all. I wanted a union so bad at the for selling to someone so intoxicated. I store so that we could fight back together finished the transaction as fast as possible, even harder against the conditions under but Matt still wouldn’t stop asking for my which we were forced to work. The solidar- number. As he was leaving, he took the ity amongst the cashiers at the liquor store receipt and wrote his number on it and is amazing, but it would be so much stron- gave it back to me. I took it and tore it ger if our actions were concerted and tied in half right in front of his face, ripped it in with a store-wide organized workforce. to shreds and threw it in the trash. That Being on the defensive against custom- pissed him off, but all he said was, “Ahh, ers isn’t enough to combat harassment. you’re a feisty one.” I thought that I was To be truly effective, we must take the of- in the clear after he left, but he came back fensive. If our organizing hadn’t been cut the next week doing the same thing. I told short by the retaliatory firings, we could P.O.U.M. militia; George Orwell is third from left. Photo: libcom.org him not to talk to me or come through my have done any series of shop-floor actions, line ever again or else I would call security such as work stoppages or slow-downs, in Orwell fought in the Spanish workers’ revolution and he would be banned from the store. It order to enforce a zero-tolerance policy in the militia of the P.O.U.M. (Workers’ Party of actually seemed to work. for sexual harassment. Unfortunately, He respected that for a couple months, the campaign fizzled out and we took a Marxist Unification) until one particularly busy evening. He monetary settlement that does not include seemed to be in a hurry, so he must have reinstatement. However, I learned some If you want a free copy of my article, “George figured I would be lenient with him for valuable lessons about how to fight back Orwell: The Revolutionary,” send a self-addressed just one day. He thought wrong, and I on the shop floor, and in an industry full told him to get out of my line and go to a of situations like those at Chi-Lake, I’ll be stamped envelope to: different register. I wouldn’t give in and able to use the skills I learned during this Raymond S. Solomon we started getting in a shouting match. campaign and apply them in other orga- My boss noticed that my line was being nizing settings. If there is one thing that is 98-12 66th Ave. held up, so he came over to check out the for certain, it’s that Chicago-Lake Liquors Rego Park, NY 11374 situation. I told him why I wouldn’t ring won’t be the last job I have where gender- up Matt, but my manager insisted that I related concerns are a major grievance. Page 14 • Industrial Worker • November 2013 Environmentalism The IWW And Earth First! - Part 4: I Knew Nothin’ ‘Til I Met Judi By X344543 First! there had never used tree spiking, al.) was a whitewash, and that drew The following is part 4 of a series on and they had gone to great lengths to ex- a rebuke in the pages of the Anar- Earth First! and the IWW. Part 3, “Tree press their sympathy for the timber work- cho-Syndicalist Review (known Spikes And Wedges,” appeared in the ers’ plight—identifying capitalist timber then as the Libertarian Labor July/August 2013 IW, page 11. harvesting practices as the actual threat Review), co-founded by the late to the workers’ livelihoods. Sam Dolgoff—a long time IWW “Every once in a while a new radical And it was. The timber workers’ job member—and others. Meanwhile, movement arises and illustrates the social security and working conditions had been even the primitivist publication firmament so suddenly and so dazzlingly adversely impacted by automation (by Fifth Estate called out Earth First! that many people are caught off guard 1988, it took two people to do the work for its ill-chosen romanticization and wonder: ‘What’s going on here? Who that 11 people did in the 1930s), raw log of Malthus. are these new radicals, and what do they exports, depletion of standing timber due None of this had much rel- want?’ to over-harvesting, and speed-ups (made evance to Humboldt Earth First! “This new movement...starts deliver- worse by union busting). activists, Greg King and Darryl ing real blows to the power and prestige The capitalists—largely through the Cherney, who were doing their best of the ruling exploiters and their govern- use of very effective propaganda and to communicate with angry timber mental stooges. This in turn inevitably public relations—were successfully able to workers who’d been whipped up arouses the hostility of the guardians of divert many (though not all) of the work- into vigilante mob hysteria by the status quo...who raise a hue and cry ers’ attention and shift the blame to envi- the bosses and their front groups for the punishment and suppression of the ronmentalists, including especially Earth (Taxpayers for the Environment trouble making upstarts... First!. Taking advantage of half-truths and its Management [TEAM] and “The new movement, with wild songs and gross exaggerations of Earth First!’s WECARE). On top of that, the local and high humor, captures the imagina- own shortcoming, the bosses framed the politicians (Democrat and Repub- tion of masses of young rebels, spreads former as “unwashed-out-of-town-jobless- lican alike) had aligned themselves like wildfire, turns up everywhere, gets hippies-on-drugs.” with corporate timber. blamed for everything interesting that The Earth First! chapters in north- All of them kept repeating happens, and all the while writes page western California found themselves corporate timber’s standard litany after page in the annals of freedom and unable to respond (though they certainly of falsehoods as talking points: the justice for all...” tried). Despite their best efforts, they corporations “were the backbone Judi Bari and Darryl Photo: ecowobbly.blogspot.com These words were written by IWW lacked experience at cultivating the rela- of the local economy” (never men- Cherney in 1989. member Franklin Rosemont in one of tionships necessary to build meaningful tioning that they siphoned all of the profits carpenter named Judi Bari, who—along his four articles about Earth First! which connections between radical environmen- out of the community); they “planted more with Gary Ball—worked for a small local appeared in the May 1988 edition of the talists and rank-and-file timber workers, trees than they cut down” (neglecting to company called California Yurts. Bari was Industrial Worker. In doing so, he brought who—when stripped of superficial cultural point out that this was meaningless, since a very skilled layout artist (as well as highly the IWW squarely into the middle of a differences—actually had a great deal in most saplings died before reaching over- intelligent), and while she agreed to help firestorm of controversy, and not just on common. story status and forest ecosystems were far Darryl with his design, she pointed out that the left, but in timber-dependent rural The IWW would soon provide that more complex); that the environmentalists his campaign was ultimately futile. communities as well. missing link, but not without a great were “unwashed-out-of-town-jobless- Bari, a one-time union activist, im- On the left, Earth First! had been (with deal of heated debate among Wobblies hippies-on-drugs” (mostly false); and that pressed Cherney with her knowledge of some justification) excoriated for the reac- and Earth First!ers. The May 1988 issue California had “the best forestry regula- labor and environmental issues. He was tionary sounding positions taken by Dave of the Industrial Worker proved highly tions on the books” (which had no teeth, at the same time impressed with how ef- Foreman, Ed Abbey, and Chris Manes controversial. While a clear majority sup- since the capitalists made sure that their fortlessly she wove class and ecological on starvation among Africans, limiting ported the idea of the IWW working closely foxes were guarding the state henhouse). struggle into a single all-encompassing immigration, and AIDS being “nature’s” with Earth First!, there was a substantial Deciding that enough was enough, whole. Bari, meanwhile, thought Cherney remedy for excess population, all of which enough minority of skeptics and naysayers King and Cherney decided to run for office. had much to learn about how class issues were based on the wrongheaded notion who were vocal enough to force a debate, Cherney, in particular, ran for Congress underpinned environmentalism. The two that Thomas Malthus’s views on popula- which raged for several months. against the incumbent Democrat in his also shared a mutual romantic attraction tion and starvation had any merit or any As one would expect, the Malthusian district, Doug Bosco. They described their for each other. relevance to the environment (they don’t). dogma championed by Foreman, Ab- “Earth First! Platform” (which was neither Cherney exhorted Bari to join Earth Timber-dependent communities lam- bey, and Manes sparked the opposition. anti-worker, anti-immigrant, racist nor First!, but the latter initially demurred. basted Earth First! for entirely different Franklin Rosemont—writing under the homophobic) as being six feet by three She believed Earth First! was saddled reasons. Obviously, the bosses hated Earth pseudonym “Lobo x99”—tried to defend feet and 150 feet up in the trees. Talented with too much white male middle-class First! because the latter threatened their Earth First! by drawing sharp distinctions musician and former childhood actor that privilege to be truly effective (and she profits. Timber workers—many of whom between Foreman, Abbey, and Manes, but he was, Darryl used his guitar and voice to cited Foreman’s, Abbey’s, and Manes’s suffered from a sort of capitalist induced it didn’t help. Rosemont’s article, “Earth spread his message and billed himself as Malthusian perspectives in particular). “Stockholm Syndrome,” not the least of First! vs. the Rumor Mongers,” published “the singing candidate.” Cherney countered by pointing out that which was made worse by collaboration- in the September issue of the Industrial In spite of that, Cherney still needed to Earth First!’s anarchic structure allowed ist business unions (where they existed at Worker drew a backlash from Ed Abbey. use more conventional means of outreach, local chapters to adopt their own unique all)—echoed the bosses’ rhetoric, particu- That in turn drew a host of rebuttals from including old fashioned handbills. While character. larly when the capitalists used the word various Wobblies, the most vocal being he was a skilled songsmith he was not a After some thought, Bari finally agreed “jobs” when they actually meant profits. Louis Prisco and Jess Grant of the Bay particularly adept layout artist. Seeking to join Earth First! on one condition: at the Earth First!’s association with tree spiking, Area IWW, whom Abbey then denounced help, he happened into the recently opened upcoming California Earth First! rendez- and their stubborn refusal to jettison the as “Bookchinites” and “Marxoid Dogma- Mendocino Environment Center (MEC) vous in September in the nearby Siskiyou tactic didn’t help matters much. tists” (which was ironic considering that on 106 West Standley Street in Ukiah one National Forest, Bari would lead a work- Ironically, few on the left, and practi- Murray Bookchin’s own perspectives on day in May 1988. shop on the IWW and its relevance to the cally nobody in the corporate media, paid “social ecology” assigned Marxism and The “MEC” was principally staffed by current ecological struggles of Earth First!. any attention to what was going on in syndicalism to the “dustbin of history”). two Earth First!ers, the wife and husband To be continued... “ground zero” of the timber wars, Califor- If anything, Rosemont’s defense of team of Betty and Gary Ball. The Balls Next installment: Part 5: “The Earth nia’s northwestern redwood coast. Earth Earth First! (at the expense of Abbey, et. referred Cherney to another volunteer, a isn’t Dying; it’s Being Killed.” 2013 Statement of Ownership, Management, and Circulation 1. Publication Title: Industrial Worker 2. Publication Number: 263-780 Looking for that perfect holiday gift? 3. Filing Date: 10/18/13 4. Issue Frequency: 10 per year 5. Number Issues Published Annually: 10 6. Annual Subscription Price: $18 Order a one-year subscription to the Industrial Worker! 7. Complete Mailing Address of Known Office of Publication: P.O. Box 180195, Chicago, IL 60618 Contact Person: Sam Green Telephone: 773-728-0996 Get 10 issues of the IW for: 8. Complete Mailing Address of Headquarters: P.O. Box 180195, Chicago, IL 60618 9. Full Names and Complete Mailing Address of Publisher, Editor, and Managing Editor • US $18 for individuals Publisher: Industrial Workers of the World, P.O. 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Total circulation includes electronic copes: N/A 17. Publication of Statement of Ownership If the publication is a general publication, publication of this statement is required. Will be printed in the November issue of this Give a gift that keeps on giving! Subscribe to the Industrial Worker today! publication. 18. Signature and Title of Owner: Sam Green, Publisher, 10/18/13 November 2013 • Industrial Worker • Page 15 Analysis The Anti-Democratic Nature Of Big Unions By Burkely Hermann along with corporatists like Barack Obama ing that must be “Ten thousand times has the labor and Bill Clinton. The website Watchdog. noted as well. movement stumbled and fallen and org reported that Barrett was “sticking This is what bruised itself, and risen again; been seized by a plan that could mean up to $14,000 Noam Chomsky by the throat and choked and clubbed into in compensation cuts for state workers... and numerous insensibility; enjoined by courts, assault- [and] ‘rightsize’…state government and others call the ed by thugs, charged by the militia, shot put public-worker pay and benefits more “climate catas- down by regulars, traduced by the press, in line with private-sector compensation.” trophe” which frowned upon by public opinion, deceived This follows what Barrett planned to do comes from by politicians, threatened by priests, in 2010, as outlined in his report, “Tom man-made cli- repudiated by renegades, preyed upon Barrett’s Plan to Create Wisconsin Jobs”: mate change. It by grafters, infested by spies, deserted “simplify[ing] regulations and streamline was widely re- by cowards, betrayed by traitors, bled the regulatory process to lighten the bur- ported, starting by leeches, and sold out by leaders, but den on business.” Additionally, the report with the New notwithstanding all this, and all these, it is “Tom Barrett’s Plan to Put Madison on York Times: today the most vital and potential power a Diet” was slated to “introduc[e]...tech- “the AFL-CIO, this planet has ever known.” – American nologies and revising processes to lessen the nation’s union leader and socialist Eugene Debs, the need for replacement employees... largest federa- 1904 [and] keep...compensation and sick/ tion of unions, In the age of Obama, unions have had leave accrual for state employees in line has issued an an even more diminished role than before. with the private sector, including wages, apparent en- Graphic: Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University Despite this, a recent poll from the Pew health care, pension, retirement age, job dorsement of the Keystone XL oil pipe- non-unionized and low-wage workers... Research Center for the People and the security, and overtime pay.” Due to this, line—apparent because it enthusiastically [in] new groups called ‘alt-labor,’ [like].... Press has shown that a slim majority, or he only gave lip service to the unions, called for expanding the nation’s pipeline OURWalmart, Restaurant Opportunities 51 percent, approves of “organized labor... making protesters disenchanted along system, without specifically mentioning Centers, Dancers’ Alliance and elements up a full 10 percentage points from two with conducting a horrible campaign that Keystone…Richard Trumka…voiced sup- of the fast food organizing movement... years ago” and also “labor unions had the didn’t mention Act 10. As a result, the port for building the Keystone pipeline… taking on workplaces that were once con- highest approval ratings among women, propaganda machine, in part funded by Leo W. Gerard, president of the United sidered totally impossible to organize... people of color, and young people between the Koch Brothers, propelled Scott Walker Steelworkers, said he would back the [since] the current AFL-CIO leadership the ages of 18 and 29 [but not] whites and to victory. The concentration of capital had pipeline…[and] Cecil E. Roberts, president does not reflect today’s workforce, which retirees.” The right-wing has launched sadly won against people power. of the United Mine Workers, also backed is becoming younger, with a rising number a massive attack on unions as can be Examples like what happened in it.” Then, there was a recent article on of people of color.” seen in the “right-to-work” bills in recent Wisconsin are further proof that there is the website of the IWW’s Environmental There is also a political alternative to years and other measures. As a result, the something wrong with the unions. As was Unionist Caucus, that after the announce- backing the Democrats. A recent article big unions, part of the labor aristocracy, said by J. Lindley in 1896, “the moment ment by Richard Trumka to partner with by a staff writer of Labor Notes noted like the AFL-CIO and the Change to Win that trade unions become tyrants in their “Big Green” non-governmental orga- that after “President Obama...the labor Federation have backed the Democratic turn, they are engines for evil.” Those nizations (NGOs) like the Sierra Club, movement...[realized their]...relative pow- Party, the second-most capitalistic party at the top of these groups are paid high National Association for the Advance- erlessness in the political arena,” renewing in American politics. In electoral battles salaries which are not as high as CEOs, but ment of Colored People (NAACP) and calls for “a labor-based political alterna- with the Republicans, the unions fund ads there is still enough of a disparity between others, the “more conservative elements tive—a labor party...a party unequivocally to help out their favored candidates: big the wages of average workers. Back in the within the federation, namely the build- for working people...[which was spawned business Democrats. Along with the agents beginning of the 20th century, as Howard ing trades” opposed such an alliance. The by] a Democratic Party that took our work, of oligarchy, these unions applauded when Zinn wrote in “A People’s History of the author continues writing that it should be votes, and money, and gave us nothing the Wall Street marketing creation named United States,” “AFL officials drew large questioned how much “the building trades in return...Then as now, the Democratic Barack Obama was elected as U.S. Presi- salaries, hobnobbed with employers, even themselves represent workers, because the Party was busy lowering expectations.” dent in 2008, and continued to support moved in high society…The well-paid lead- evidence suggest that for the most part, Once it was established, people talked him throughout his presidency. Some of ers of the AFL were protected from criti- they represent the capitalist class more with “co-workers and the public about the the only sticking points have been the cism by tightly controlled meetings and by than anything else” and notes that “what Labor Party’s program: a guaranteed job protectionist multinational-empowering ‘goon’ squads-hired toughs originally used Trumka is proposing is hardly anything for everyone at a living wage, the right to investor-rights agreements that promote against strikebreakers but after a while close to a meaningful Blue-Green alliance organize and strike without fear of losing “trade” like the North American Free used to intimidate and beat up opponents and is…[about] building coalitions to keep your job, a shorter work week, free higher Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the United inside the union.” Today it is a bit similar, the labor movement [and the progressive education, paid family leave, guaranteed States-Dominican Republic-Central as the average total pay of the top three NGOs] firmly tied to capitalism and the pensions, a paid year off for every seven America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), officers of the AFL-CIO is over $275,000, Democratic Party…Clearly, the way for- years worked, an end to the ‘corporate the United States–Republic of Korea or over five-and-a-half times the aver- ward doesn’t involve reforming capitalism abuse of trade,’ and more,” telling people Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA), age wage of a worker. If you average the or top-down ‘coalitions’ between the class additionally that the “Democratic Party the Panama–United States Trade Pro- numbers of top leadership officers of the collaborationist business unionism of the doesn’t advocate for them...[and] limits motion Agreement (TLC), the upcoming American Federation of State, County AFL-CIO or the corporate environmental- the debate and lowers expectations in Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), ism of the Big (gang) Green NGOs. We the labor movement and in the country.” Transatlantic Free Trade Area (TAFTA), the American Federation of Teachers need a different model entirely.” Journal- An article by the original founders of the among many others. At the same time, (AFT), the International Brotherhood of ist and activist Naomi Klein, tied to a big Labor Party published in December 2012 these unions have not tried very hard to Electrical Workers (IBEW), and United NGO (350.org) herself, made a speech noted that “after the Obama administra- reverse trends that have caused unioniza- Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural before a new Canadian union, Unifor, tion didn’t follow through on campaign tion in the American economy to be on Implement Workers of America (UAW), telling them that “the most important promises to labor on job-creation and the decline. From here, it is important to they receive seven times the wage of the message to come out of that process is that labor law reform...[it] should have marked discuss what the subservience of the labor average American workers or over $314, our coalitions cannot just be about top- the date when labor finally disowned the aristocracy means to working-class and 473 each year. Still, don’t fall for the myth down agreements between leaders; the Democratic Party and declared its support middle-class Americans. perpetuated by the right-wing that unions change has to come from the bottom up, for the establishment of a political party Recall the Wisconsin uprising of 2011. are overpaid. Let’s not forget that for years, with full engagement from members…our with a working-class agenda,” but instead According to his website, Governor Scott the IBEW has been considered one of the current economic model is not only wag- many of these unions endorsed Obama for Walker wanted to “create an atmosphere most corrupt unions, seeking bribes and ing war on workers, on communities, on another term while an independent worker where business can thrive and success embezzling money, among other factors. public services and social safety nets. It’s movement never emerged. will follow” and the unions were in his While not corrupt, AFL-CIO’s top ex- waging war on the life support systems of There is much change needed in the way. One of the state’s biggest unions ecutive Richard Trumka lives in a house the planet itself. The conditions for life on structure of unions. Using the processes decided to back some of the cuts sought that has at total property value of over earth…climate change…is the most power- available, workers can instigate a revolu- by anti-union stalwart Governor Walker, $740,000, according to City-Data.com, ful weapon progressives have ever had in tion from below to change the unions to in the infamous 2011 Wisconsin Act 10, which also has four baths according to the fight for equality and social justice… do their bidding. However, this may not also known as the Wisconsin Budget Zillow.com. Additionally, as noted in my Environmentalists can’t lead that kind of alone produce a powerful labor move- Repair Bill, at first, only opposing a pro- blog post about the corrupted nature of the revolution on their own. No political party ment. Joining and strengthening radical vision limiting collective bargaining of AFL-CIO, the top three executives received is rising to the challenge. We need you to anti-capitalist unions like the member-run public employees. Later, they changed between 5.9 and 6.6 times the average lead… not only is corporate globalization International Workers of the Worldwhich their position after Walker rejected their wage, and the union’s Investment Trust largely responsible for soaring emissions, organizes to “win better conditions today compromise, as reported in the Milwalkee Corporation (ITC) has “key leadership but now the logic of free trade is directly and build a world with economic democ- Journal Sentinel. Numerous protesters [which included]…former employee[s] of blocking us from making the specific racy tomorrow…[where] workplaces [are] demonstrated a different view by calling Price Waterhouse LLP…Lockheed Mar- changes needed to reduce climate chaos run for the benefit of workers and commu- for the defeat of the whole bill, not just tin…Deloitte and Touche or Deloitte…and in response.” Clearly, the big unions are nities rather than for a handful of bosses one provision. Once Act 10 had passed, a former advisor to corporatist Nancy Pe- not stepping up the plate, so unionists, and executives” is another important step. the unions pushed the next step: recalling losi” while its “Building Investment Fund workers and those outside of labor need Then, you wouldn’t be part of an organi- Governor Walker. Almost a million signed that has one the biggest banks in America, to stand up and demand: system change, zation that supports dirty energy like the a petition to recall him. However in the PNC Bank, as a trustee and investment not climate change! Keystone XL pipeline as in the AFL-CIO. primaries, big labor’s favorite candidate advisor.” This is why some say they are There has been a growing trend to Workers must work to bring radicalism to Kathleen Falk was defeated by Tom Bar- part of a broader labor aristocracy since build unions outside of the control of the the big unions or join radical unions that rett. Barrett was a Democratic machine they make no effort to oppose the capital- big unions. Michelle Kern wrote in Peo- challenge the capitalist system. politician who Walker had defeated in ist system. ple’s World that there is a “rapidly grow- As the great Joe Hill said: “Don’t waste 2010, but the unions backed him anyway There is something even more press- ing trend in innovative organizing among any time mourning. Organize!” Page 16 • Industrial Worker • November 2013 Chinese Worker Imprisoned For Striking By John Kalwaic A Chinese migrant worker named Wu Guijun has been detained since May 23, 2013 for leading his fellow migrant workers in a protest to defend their rights. Since Wu was ar- rested he has been denied con- tact with his friends and family Internation Action Against Santander Bank by Chinese authorites and now From iwa-ait.org management, not in the streets with the faces criminal charges. Wu Anarcho-syndicalists from all over workers. and his co-workers worked the world, federated in the International The dismissed comrade made a sym- at Diweixin Product Factory, Workers’ Association (IWA), are standing bolic gesture of thanks to the comrades which produces furniture, in Photo: popularresistance.org in solidarity with the workers of Isban in solidarity by putting up a banner in Shenzhen (southern China). Wu Workers strike in Shenzhen. (Ingeniería de Software Bancario), which English in his current workplace, Panel and his co-workers were concerned about Wu who faces criminal prosecution for “as- does information technology (IT) services Sistemas. cutbacks at their factory as well as plans to sembling a crowd to disturb social order.” for the Santander Group, a Spanish bank- There were also actions of sabotage move the factory to the interior of China The detention of workers is not uncommon ing group. Members of the IWA are de- made as a form of solidarity. These types where the wages are often lower. Manage- in China. Workers are technically not al- manding the reinstatement of a dismissed of actions were seen especially in the ment, however did not want to negotiate, lowed to strike and some activists have comrade and an end to the outsourcing of working-class areas of Madrid. and refused to disclose any information been detained for as long as two years. the workers. The conflict started in August 2013, on these cutbacks to the seven workers, An international campaign has now been Confederação Operária Brasileira when workers publically denounced including Wu who was chosen to represent set up to help free these activists includ- (COB) in Brazil organized informational the illegal outsourcing of the staff of Is- the workers. As a result, workers dropped ing Wu Guijun. On Oct. 1, the Hong Kong actions and protests in ban. This caused the im- tools and went on strike. They also peti- Confederation of Trade Unions (HKCTU) cities like Aracajú and mediate dismissal of the tioned the local government to intervene. held a solidarity rally at the Liaison Office Araxá at the end of Sep- union delegate, who was On May 23, 300 workers were besieged of the Central People Government office tember. sent back to the “agent” by the police while marching to the City in Hong Kong. HKCTU President Cheng The Związek Syn- company of origin, Panel Government; more than 20 workers were Ching-fat declared Oct. 1 a “National Day dykalistów Polski (ZSP) Sistemas, in an attempt by arrested and detained, including Wu of Anger” on behalf of Wu Gujin and all from Poland concentrat- the management to avoid Guijun. Later, all of the 20 workers who other imprisoned Chinese labor activists. ed its efforts on actions any contagious effect. were detained were released except for With files from Popular Resistance.org. in Warsaw. There the Revolutionary unions Santander Group has im- around the world, federat- portant strategic interests ed in the IWA, responded Belgium Firefighters Soak Police In Foam in expansion through the to the attack demanding office, riot police blocked them off with Brazil action. Photo: iwa-ait.org acquisition of new banks. the reinstatement of the barbed wire so they could go no further. The police and security presence at the dismissed comrade in the places where the The firefighters then decided it was time to entrance of the bank called even more at- multinational is present. Isban manages give the police a foaming. The fire trucks tention to the comrades. some “agent” firms which provide cheap were parked right before the police bar- The anarcho-syndicalists of Montevi- and precarious staff. They deal with more ricades, as they stood idle before a legion deo visited the headquarters of Santander than 10,000 workers illegally outsourced of riot cops and makeshift barbed wire. Bank in Uruguay, informing passersby to other companies all over the world, The firefighters then turned on the hoses about the conflict in the office and outside. which can be dismissed at any moment and proceeded to hose the police in fire The Portuguese section of the IWA without any cost to the bank since these Photo: businessinsider.com retardant foam. The entire street filled up organized informational acts in the center workers are not recognized as the bank’s By John Kalwaic with the foam and the cops were covered of Lisbon and Oporto. personnel. On Oct. 7 firefighters took to the streets from head to toe. This has not been the first In Norway, the Norsk Syndikalistisk The workers of Isban are afraid of of Brussels to protest working conditions time the firefighters of Belgium have done Forbund (NSF) informed people in the winding up on the streets if they make even and budget cuts. The firefighters had this; they also did the same thing in 2011. center of Oslo. There the information was the slightest protests, which makes them around 30 trucks to block off the streets; The fire department has come under attack well-received and people were interested accept surrealistic work days, overtime, they burned tires and waved their union in recent years from the austerity-driven in knowing more details about the conflict. obligatory transfers, half-time work, jobs flags during the street protests as they government in Brussels which has faced a In the United Kingdom, the Solidarity and salaries too low for the real work per- made their way to the prime minister’s of- militant backlash. Federation visited banks in Brighton and formed, and lots of other abuses. fice. When they got to the prime minister’s With files from BusinessInsider.com. Hove with informational posters about The workers have denounced hun- the conflict. dreds of irregular dismissals. The dismiss- Tegel Prison Introduces The 78-Hour Week In Germany, the Freie Arbeiterinnen- als have hit these workers the hardest: By the Olli R. Solidarity Committee particularly restricted possibilities to take und Arbeiter-Union (FAU) in Cologne the ones who were illegally outsourced, It’s not the first time that the Tegel action, the demands made of him are ones informed people about the conflict. mothers on reduced working days and Prison in Berlin is attempting to force in- no employer would dare make under con- Unions located in regions where there workers who were transferred abroad have mates, who are full-time distance-learning ditions of collective bargaining. At a day are no offices of the Santander Group, been the preferred targets for cuts. With students at Hagen University, to take on rate of 11,25 euros (only the actual days like Konfederatsiya Revolyutsionnikh the complicity of the government and the an additional 40 hours of work in jail. worked are paid), work in jail is already Anarkho-Sindikalistov (KRAS) in Russia yellow unions, Santander has gotten away The prison already failed to impose this more than underpaid. If you take it down or Priama Akcia (PA) in Slovakia, showed with the mass destruction of employment in previous cases, but yet, they’re trying to an hourly wage, you end up with 1,40 their solidarity by sending protest messag- at practically no cost to them. again now. euros an hour. At 78 hours per week, that’s es to the companies involved in the conflict The Santander Group not only is mak- Now, jailed anti-militarist and union just 72 cents. (Santander, Isban and Panel Sistemas). ing money, but it had a profit of 2,255 activist Oliver (Olli) R. is expected to spend The Olli R. Solidarity Committee de- In Spain, dozens of actions were held million euros in the first six months of 40 hours a week gluing bags and folding mands that the Tegel Prison exempt Olli at Bank Santander branches. Salamanca, 2013, almost a 30 percent increase from boxes, despite his studies, which take R. from this work immediately. We also Ciudad Rodrigo, Barcelona, Madrid, Vil- the same period in 2012. around 38 hours a week. He can always challenge the legality of the wage-dumping laverde, Zaragoza, Málaga and León are Emilio Botín, Rodrigo Rato, Alfredo study after work, according to the prison practiced there. While the number of some of the places where the Confeder- Sáenz, Jose María Amusátegui and other apparatus. Social worker and group leader people on the outside who face job losses ación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) ex- directors of Santander Bank have been Ms. Behrendt said that although she was grows daily, the prison shamelessly adver- pressed their opposition to the outsourcing denounced for illegal practices and even in favor of R.’s application, she has never tises on its website that “especially where of workers and demanded the reinstate- found guilty, but they were never pun- come across any prisoner who was actu- high-waged manual labor is needed,” ment of the fired comrade. ished. Some of their most infamous deeds ally exempted from working because of orders from companies can be “realized The main headquarters of Isban, in include continued tax evasion, the ir- their full-time studies. However, the Olli at low cost.” A thorough investigation of Boadilla del Monte, became the preferred regular purchases of banks like Banesto or R. Solidarity Committee knows of at least working—or rather exploitation—condi- place of protest for the anarcho-syndi- Totta, the collapse and subsequent bailout two cases of students at Tegel who did not tions is highly needed here! We demand calists of Madrid. There they distributed of Bankia, millions of euros in severance have to work in addition to their studies. at least an end to forced labor, adequate more than 1,000 leaflets to workers in a pay for managers, the case of Swiss ac- In one case this was, admittedly, only after wages, paid sick-days, and a right to strike situation of absolute precarity. counts of the Botin family, the sale of trash a legal victory, but by all accounts this was for prisoners. We also contacted the Isban manage- mortgages, foreclosures, charging abusive not an isolated case. We call upon unions, prisoner support ment at the Alhambra building. They interest rates, shady dealings with univer- Meanwhile, the forced labor con- initiatives, and civil liberties organizations refused to discuss with us, protected by sities, the participation in arms businesses tinues. True to the institution’s favored to support those demands, by sharing this numerous private police deployed espe- and the financial management of the ter- tactics, the decision is at first delayed as statement, putting our demands to the ap- cially for the occasion. rible prison system. Santander has a long much as possible; because you can only propriate bodies, pursuing investigations, Also the most centrally located branch- list of crimes which are well-documented. sue once there is a written notification. and contacting us. es of the banks in Madrid were visited in The interests of Santander now are Thus, Oct. 1, the official start of the term, Send donations to: the morning, informing the employees and clashing with the organized workers who passed for Olli R. without him ever having Bank: Deutsche Kreditbank Berlin passersby of the situation in the conflict. are fighting to change the world. We never received a reply about the matter. And, as Name: Hauke Benner Dozens of workers gave their support give up and will not be silenced by their long as nothing is decided, he just has to Account Number: 1031053851 to the protests. bribes or repression. continue the daily eight-hour shift in the IBAN: De12 120300001031053851 Due to the attempts of the national Solidarity Against Santander-Isban! prison’s packaging facility. BIC: BYLADEM 1001 police to disperse the informational picket, Reinstate the Dismissed Comrade! It is somewhat ironic that it is a fellow Reference: Spende Olli R. about 500 leaflets were given out. They To find out more, visit: http://infor- worker in the IWW who finds himself con- Get further information on Oliver R.’s did not want to understand that the real maticamadrid.cnt.es or email: isban[at] fronted with this particular labor struggle imprisonment here: http://solikom-olli. criminals are in the offices of the corrupt cnt.es. in prison. Taking advantage of prisoners’ site36.net.