OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER oF THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD INDUSTRIALOctober 2014 #1768 Vol. 111 No. 7 $2/ £2/ €2 WORKER New Survey Of Online Baltimore Jimmy Review: Wobbly Poet Sharing Lessons IWW Sign-Ups: A Wake- John’s Workers File Keeps Tradition Of With Comrades In Up Call 3 ULP Lawsuit 5 Labor Poetry Alive 8 The FAU 12 IWW UPS Workers Organize Against Police Brutality By Screw Ups targets and holds hundreds of contracts ferry these packages to their intended Starting on Friday, Aug. 22, IWW with police departments, federal agencies, trailers. Those who were uncomfort- workers at a United Parcel Service (UPS) and military branches across the United able or unable to directly engage in sorting facility in Minneapolis began orga- States. The company has held at least 10 these actions posed with a sign reading nizing against their labor supporting the contracts with federal agencies in Mis- “#handsupdontship” in order to speak ongoing police violence against the popu- souri, and far more with county and local out. Actions like this took place in vari- lation of Ferguson, Mo., in the aftermath of police departments and other agencies. ous work areas across the building, and the murder of Michael Brown, an unarmed They sell product lines like “Urban Street were taken by people with a variety of 18-year-old black man. In a series of ac- Violence,” featuring photos of stereotypi- job positions. The following Monday, tions aimed at a local company shipping cal “thugs,” and previously were forced to several workers continued the action, questionable shooting-range targets to law withdraw a line of targets called “No setting more targets aside for the second enforcement agencies nationwide, workers More Hesitation,” featuring pictures of consecutive shift. This small group in- stood up to the idea that they should have gun-wielding children, pregnant women, cluded both workers of color and white to support racism, brutality, or murder in mothers, and elderly people, all as if to workers, both IWW members and not. order to make ends meet. This action was say that you should consider everyone you It was agreed that this protest would organized in conjunction with, and under see as a threat to be gunned down. Their be publicized online through the Screw the banner of Screw Ups, a rank-and-file products are shipped through the UPS Ups newsletter. newsletter which has been published by sorting facility in Minneapolis every day. For just over two years, the IWW IWW workers at the facility for the past After discovering what products LET has actively been organizing workers year. shipped, and to whom, a group of UPS committees within the UPS hub in Min- Shortly after the murder of Michael workers decided they would not be si- neapolis. One of the main outgrowths of Brown and the deployment of militarized lent about the connection between their this campaign has been the publication police and national guardsmen to Fergu- work and murders, such as that of Mike of Screw Ups, which is handed out by al- son, IWW workers and in-shop allies be- Brown. Some workers removed targets lies outside the building to workers who gan researching Law Enforcement Targets, from trailers that would deliver them to are on their way to clock in. This news- Inc. (LET), a company based in Blaine, law enforcement agencies, while others letter has consistently raised issues of UPS workers display signs Photos: Screw Ups Minn., which produces shooting range stood in solidarity and decided not to Continued on 6 opposing police brutality. The 2014 IWW General Convention: Learning From Our Mistakes, Moving Forward By Maria Parrotta serious accusations that kept other fellow This year I had an opportunity to join workers from participating. Supporters of fellow workers from all over the IWW for the accused stormed out in a whirlwind the 2014 General Convention. The jovial of obscenities as the convention hall fell Wobblies I knew and loved have been silent except for the scattered slap of hands infected with the frustration, defeat and meeting foreheads. collective burnout that could have been The Chicago split faction ruled that the this year’s unofficial convention theme. primary legislative body of the union did As a delegate representing the mumbling not have the right to decide who could be voice of the Washington, D.C. General present for their session. They proclaimed Membership Branch (GMB), it was my their authority as the chosen Complaint duty to defend the positions we spent five Committee tasked with determining the whole minutes crafting in a meeting that safety of this member’s actions.They barely reached a quorum. I arrived at the claimed that since they had not yet reached convention concerned that our union was a conclusion on this case, the convention falling into a rut, but I left afraid that we should have continued as if no question of are just falling apart. safety was ever raised, and the delegates Our first order of business became traveling from all over the world to serve a battle between members of our dys- this union were just going to have to take functional and slightly intimidating host the risk of sitting next to a dangerous branch and almost everyone else. The del- person, because procedure. egates voted to remove a Chicago branch I am a big supporter of following the Delegates and members at the 2014 IWW General Convention. Photo: D.J. Alperovitz member from the convention due to very Continued on 6 Industrial Worker Periodicals Postage A Labor Day Weekend For The Unseen Laborers PO Box 180195 PAID By Kaia Hodo Chicago, IL 60618, USA Chicago, IL At around 3 a.m. and additional on Saturday, Aug. 30, a ISSN 0019-8870 mailing offices group of four exhausted ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED Wobblies from Arkansas did our best to fall asleep in a Chicago multicul- tural center, all the while being serenaded by jam bands who probably didn’t sleep at all. By about 9 a.m., we had already left for a union hall, where we would spend the rest of our day meeting with other IWW members from Members of IWOC meet in Chicago. Photo: Lenz across the country (Illinois, Minnesota, up to this point, was prisoner organizing. California, Missouri, Alabama and Ohio, to Just to give a brief overview, the 13th be specific). The purpose of the conference, Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, a two-day set of meetings of people who passed in 1865, abolished slavery and had mostly only spoken over the phone Continued on 7 Page 2 • Industrial Worker • October 2014 The IW Should Be Encouraging Organizing Read & Contribute To A Dear Editor, from Just Coffee to the New Wobbly Blog! I am so very disap- Sisters’ Camelot strikers Dear IW pointed in the June 2014 who have formed a new readers, IW article, “Worker Co- co-op, the North County I’ve recently operatives: Crashing In Food Alliance. The North launched a new The Same Car,” by Ogier County Wobs sent $300 blog, “Life-Long Letters Welcome! (page 4). It starts off with for solidarity on the first Wobbly,” which Send your letters to: [email protected] with information and facts day of the strike of the will explore “Letter” in the subject. about a worker-owned Citizens Co-op Wobs in what it means Mailing Address: cooperative store. The Gainesville, Fla. I wish to make IWW Industrial Worker, P.O. Box 180195, job sounds better than the rest of us could be membership a Chicago, IL 60618, United States. any working-class job that strong in our soli- sustainable part I have ever heard of in darity. Why can’t the of the rest of In November We Remember the United States. The paper report on positives your life. Topics Send in your announcements for the workers cooperatively Graphic: stickerkitty.com like those more often? so far include annual “In November We Remember” found ways to be able to This article in the Photo: iww.org “Getting your IWW membership card. issue of the Industrial Worker by build much better lives for themselves. The IW will only deny, degrade and disrupt second five-year Friday, October 3, 2014. Celebrate the second part changes away from facts to a the best efforts of the IWW and our allies. card,” “Wildcat political strikes,” a report lives of those who have struggled for list of complaints based on Ogier’s guesses, This style of a story is the opposite of the from the 2014 IWW General Conven- the working class with your message of one out-of-context sentence he disliked organizing and recruiting tool the IW used tion and an ongoing series called “Taboo solidarity. Send announcements to iw@ from one moment with one worker, and to always be. Please try to have reports Marxist of the Month.” iww.org. Much appreciated donations then goes into a classic right-wing attack that educate, and organize our people, I invite my fellow workers to check out for the following sizes should be sent to: on the left. not show some immature ultra-leftist who the blog, and to consider writing a guest The whole point of the IWW is to build thinks he or she is a perfectionist and ev- submission. The URL is: http://lifelong- IWW GHQ, P.O. Box 180195, toward a cooperative society run by work- erybody else is wrong, especially our most wobbly.wordpress.com. Chicago, IL 60618, United States. ers that gives us a much better life. While successful people. One class one enemy, $12 for 1” tall, 1 column wide we work toward that goal, many of our Best wishes for the future IW.