Industrial Worker - Issue #1736, June 2011

8/6/2019 Industrial Worker - Issue #1736, June 2011

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Industrial Worker

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Chicago, IL 60618, USA

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O f f i c i a l n e w s p a p e r O f T h e i n d u s T r i a l w O r k e r s O f T h e w O r l d

Mr. Block Protestson May Day

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The NEW IndustrialWorker BookReview! 8

INDUSTRIAL WORKER

Wobblies CelebrateMay Day Worldwide

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J 2 0 1 1 # 1 7 3 6 V o . 1 0 8 n o . 5 $ 2 / 2 / 2

West Coast Workers Picket Hotels In Solidarity

Union Workers And Immigrants March Together On May Day

Obituary:RememberingHazel Dickens 5

By Marc NortonA non-traditional alliance of workers

in Portland and Seattle organized a Day ofSolidarity with the San Francisco-basedHotel Frank workers on Friday, April29. The Portland IWW, Seattle Solidar-ity Network (SeaSol) and Hotel Frankworkers were all on the streets picketingProvenance hotels. Provenance is the ho-tel management company that threw theUNITE HERE Local 2 contract at Hotel

Frank in the trash almost a year ago.In Portland, the IWW picketed Hotel

Lucia. Provenance has its headquartersin Portland, as well as two upper-crustboutique hotels, Hotel Lucia and HoteldeLuxe. The IWW has a long history asa militant and radical labor union, oftencredited with popularizing the slogan andphilosophy that an injury to one is aninjury to all. This spirit was certainly inevidence when the IWW set up their picket

Workers picket Hotel Frank in San Francisco on April 29. Photo: Marc Norton

in Portland.In Seattle, SeaSol picketed Hotel

Maxanother high-end Provenance bou-tique hotel. SeaSol, founded in 2008, is amuch younger organization than the IWW,but has already established a reputationfor organizing successful campaigns for workers and tenants rights. They canmobilize an impressive number of people,and did just that on April 29.

In San Francisco, Hotel Frank workers

have held a regular Friday afternoon picketsince declaring a boycott in September2010. Since then we have staged an esca-lating series of actions aimed at restoringour union contract, including active picketlines and unannounced delegations tomanagement.

On Saturday, April 30, the day afterthe tri-city action, we set up a loud picketline at Hotel Frank at 7:00 a.m., rousing

Continued on 7

By John KalwaicIn many cities across the United

States, tens of thousands of workers andother activists marched this year for theannual May Day celebration. May Day is anold English holiday celebrating the coming

of spring and was recreated as a calibrationof international labor commemorating theHaymarket massacre, which happened inChicago in 1886. The Haymarket demon-strators were protesting for the eight-hourworkday, as well as other issues. Many ofthese demonstrators were members of theearly radical union known as the Knightsof Labor. These demonstrators were im-migrants and self-described anarchists.Ironically, the United States is one of theonly countries in which May Day is notusually celebrated.

In 2006, May Day was brought backinto mainstream American culture as aday to ght for immigrant rights against ananti-immigrant bill proposed by Wiscon-

sin Congressman James Sensenbrenner.Other issues have been brought to thetable as well. In 2007, the International

Longshore and WarehouseUnion (ILWU) launched a MayDay strike against the U.S. oc-cupation of Iraq and shut downall the West Coast commercialshipping ports for the day.

The revamped tradition ofMay Day in the Unites Stateshas continued, and large-scaleimmigrant marches have nowtaken place every year since2006.

This year, public-sectorworkers protested union-bust-ing measures and other attacksagainst their rights in Wis-consin, Ohio, and other statesacross the country. On theheels of recent anti-immigrantlegislation passed in Arizona in2010, immigrant and public-sector workers joined togetheras one and rallied at annual

May Day events in cities acrossthe United States.

Continued on 6 Members of the Portland IWW march with thousands of workers on May Day. Photo: FW Ian W.

By Grand Rapids IWW

Bartertown Diner and Rocs Cakes, araw, vegan/vegetarian restaurant openingin downtown Grand Rapids, Mich., has de-cided to go Wobbly. The seven memberteam which constitutes the worker-runestablishment, have all decided to join theold and storied Industrial Workers of theWorld labor union.

It just seemed like the perfect t forus. After meeting with members of theIWW, it was clear that we all want the samethings and being that we really dont wantto be just another restaurant, it seemedlogical, said Ryan Cappelletti, a cook atthe new diner.

Bartertown Diner and Rocs Cakes,which will be located at 6 Jefferson Street,

joins a growing list of worker-owned IWW

shops like the Red and Black Cafe in Port-

land, Ore., and Just Coffee in Madison,Wis.

We are very happy that Bartertownand Rocs Cakes has decided to go IWWand believe it can only help in our largercampaign to raise the standard of livingand benefits for all food and beverageworkers in Grand Rapids, said ShannonWilliams, Treasurer of the local IWWbranch.

The Grand Rapids Branch of the In-dustrial Workers of the World has beeninvolved in food service organizing formany years from the IWW StarbucksWorkers Union to the IWW Jimmy JohnsWorkers Union.

For more information, be sure to visit

http://www.bartertowngr.com.

Worker-Owned Restaurant InMichigan Joins Historic Labor Union


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Page 2 Industrial Worker June 2011

AustraliaRegional Organising Committee: P.O. Box 1866,Albany, WAAlbany: 0423473807, [email protected]: P.O. Box 145, Moreland, VIC 3058.0448 712 420Perth: Mike Ballard, [email protected]

British IslesBritish Isles Regional Organising Committee (BI-ROC): PO Box 7593 Glasgow, G42 2EX. Secretariat:[email protected], Organising D epartment Chair:[email protected]. w ww.iww.org.ukIWW UK Web Site administrators and Tech Depart-ment Coordinators: [email protected], www.tech.iww.org.uk

NBS Job Branch National Blood Service: [email protected] Print Job Branch: [email protected] Construction Workers IU 330: [email protected] Workers IU 610: [email protected], www.iww-healthworkers.org.ukEducation Workers IU 620: [email protected],www.geocities.com/iwweducationRecreational Workers (Musicians) IU 630: [email protected], [email protected], Legal, Public Interest & Financial OceWorkers IU 650: [email protected]: [email protected] GMB: P.O. Box 4, 82 Colston street, BS15BB. Tel. 07506592180. [email protected],[email protected] GMB:IWWCambridge, 12 Mill Road,Cambridge CB1 2AD [email protected]: [email protected]: [email protected]

Leeds: [email protected], [email protected] GMB: Unit 107, 40 Halord St., LeicesterLE1 1TQ, England. Tel. 07981 433 637, leics@iw w.org.uk www.leicestershire-iww.org.ukLondon GMB: c/o Freedom Bookshop, Angel Alley,84b Whitechapel High Street, E1 7QX. +44 (0) 203393 1295, [email protected] www.iww.org/en/branches/UK/LondonNottingham: [email protected] GMB: [email protected]: [email protected] and Wear GMB (Newcastle +): [email protected] www.iww.org/en/branches/UK/TyneWest Midlands GMB: The Warehouse, 54-57 AllisonStreet, Digbeth, Birmingham B5 5TH [email protected] www.wmiww.orgYork GMB: [email protected] www.wowyork.orgScotlandClydeside GMB: [email protected] and Galloway GMB: [email protected] , iwwdumries.wordpress.comEdinburgh GMB: c/o 17 W. Montgomery Place, EH75HA. 0131-557-6242, [email protected]

CanadaAlbertaEdmonton GMB: P.O. Box 75175, T6E 6K1. [email protected], edmonton.iww.ca

British ColumbiaVancouver GMB: 204-2274 York Ave., Vancouver,BC, V6K 1C6. Phone/ax 604-732-9613. [email protected], vancouver.iww.ca, vancouverwob.blogspot.comManitobaWinnipeg GMB: IWW, c/o WORC, P.O. Box 1, R3C2G1. [email protected]. Garth Hardy,del., [email protected] GMB & GDC Local 6: 1106 Wel-lington St., PO Box 36042, Ottawa, ON K1Y 4V3Ottawa Panhandlers Union: Andrew Nellis,spokesperson, 613-748-0460. [email protected]

Peterborough: c/o PCAP, 393 Water St. #17, K9H3L7, 705-749-9694Toronto GMB: c/o Libra Knowledge & InormationSvcs Co-op, P.O. Box 353 Stn. A, M5W 1C2. 416-919-7392. iw [email protected] GMB: cp 60124, Montral, QC, H2J 4E1.514-268-3394. [email protected].

Europe

FinlandHelsinki: Reko Ravela, Otto Brandtintie 11 B 25,00650. iwwsuomi@helsinkinet.

German Language AreaIWW German Language Area Regional Organizing

Committee (GLAMROC): Post Fach 19 02 03, 60089Frankurt/M, Germany [email protected]: [email protected]. www.iw-waustria.wordpress.comFrankurt am Main: [email protected] GMB: IWW, c/o BCC, Paelzer Str. 2-4, 50677Koeln, Germany. [email protected]: [email protected]: [email protected]

Netherlands: iw [email protected]

South AfricaCape Town: 7a Rosebridge, Linray Road, Rosebank,Cape Town, Western Cape, South Arica [email protected]

United States

ArizonaPhoenix GMB: P.O. Box 7126, 85011-7126. 623-336-1062. [email protected]: Courtney Hinman, del., 928-600-7556,

[email protected]: P.O. Box 283, 72702. [email protected] GMB ( Washington): 741 Morton St NW, Wash-ington DC, 20010. 571-276-1935

CaliforniaLos Angeles GMB: P.O. Box 811064, 90081.(310)205-2667. [email protected] Coast GMB: P.O. Box 844, Eureka 95502-0844. 707-725-8090, [email protected] Francisco Bay Area GMB: (Curbside and Buy-back IU 670 Recycling Shops; StonemountainFabrics Job Shop and IU 410 Garment and TextileWorkers Industrial Organizing Committee; ShattuckCinemas; Embarcadero Cinemas) P.O. Box 11412,Berkeley, 94712. 510-845-0540. [email protected] 520 Marine Transport Workers: Steve Ongerth,del., [email protected] 540 Couriers Organizing Committee: 415-789-MESS, [email protected]

Evergreen Printing: 2335 Valley Street, Oakland,94612. 510-835-0254. [email protected] Jose: sjiww@ yahoo.comColoradoDenver GMB: 2727 W. 27th Ave., 80211. LowellMay, del., 303-433-1852. [email protected] Corners (AZ, CO, NM, UT): 970-903-8721,[email protected] GMB: c/o Civic Media Center, 433 S.Main St., 32601. Jason Fults, del., 352-318-0060,[email protected] IWW: [email protected] Sound: P. Shultz, 8274 SE Pine Circle, 33455-6608. 772-545-9591, [email protected] GMB: P.O. Box 2662, Pensacola 32513-2662. 840-437-1323, [email protected],www.angelre.com/f5/iww

GeorgiaAtlanta: M. Bell, del.,404-693-4728, [email protected]

HawaiiHonolulu: Tony Donnes, del., [email protected]

IdahoBoise: Ritchie Eppink, del., P.O. Box 453, 83701.208-371-9752, [email protected] GMB: 2117 W. Irving Park Rd., 60618.773-857-1090. Gregory Ehrendreich, del., 312-479-8825, [email protected] Ill GMB: 903 S. Elm, Champaign, IL, 61820.217-356-8247. David Johnson, del., [email protected] Truckers Hotline: mtw530@iw w.orgWaukegan: P.O Box 274, 60079.

Indiana

Laayette GMB: P.O. Box 3793, West Laayette,47906, 765-242-1722

IowaEastern Iowa GMB: 114 1/2 E. College Street, IowaCity, 52240. [email protected]

Maine

Barry Rodrigue, 75 Russell Street, Bath, 04530.207-442-7779MarylandBaltimore IWW: P.O. Box 33350, 21218. [email protected] Area GMB: PO B ox 391724, Cambridge02139. 617-469-5162Cape Cod/SE Massachusetts: [email protected] Mass. Public Service IU 650 Branch: IWW,P.O. Box 1581, Northamp ton 0 1061

MichiganDetroit GMB: 22514 Brittany Avenue, E. Detroit48021. [email protected]. Tony Khaled, del., 21328Redmond Ave., East Detroit 48021Grand Rapids GMB: P.O. Box 6629 49516, 616-881-

5263 [email protected] Rapids Bartertown Diner and Rocs Cakes:6 Jeerson St., 49503. [email protected],www.bartertowngr.comCentral Michigan: 5007 W. Columbia Rd., Mason48854. 517-676-9446, [email protected] IWW: Brad Barrows, del., 1 N. 28th Ave E.,55812. [email protected] River IWW: POB 103, Moorhead, 56561. 218-287-0053. iw [email protected] Cities GMB: 79 13th Ave NE Suite 103A, Min-neapolis 55413. [email protected] City GMB: c/o 5506 Holmes St., 64110.816-523-3995St. Louis IWW: [email protected] Workers IU 330: Dennis Georg, del.,406-490-3869, [email protected]: Jim Del Duca, 106 Paisley Court, Apt. I,Bozeman 59715. 406-860-0331. [email protected]

Reno GMB: P.O. Box 40132, 89504. Paul Lenart,del., 775-513-7523, [email protected]

IU 520 Railroad Workers: Ron Kaminkow, del., P.O.Box 2131, Reno, 89505. 608-358-5771. [email protected]

New JerseyCentral New Jersey GMB: P.O. Box 10021, NewBrunswick, 08906. 732-801-7001. [email protected]. Bob Ratynski, del., 908-285-5426New MexicoAlbuquerque GMB: 202 Harvard Dr. SE, 87106.505-227-0206, [email protected].

New YorkBinghamton Education Workers Union (IU 620):P.O. Box 685, 13905. [email protected]://bewu.wordpress.com/New York City GMB: P.O. Box 7430, JAF Station,10116, [email protected]. www.wobblycity.orgStarbucks Campaign:44-61 11th St. Fl. 3, LongIsland City 11101 [email protected]

Hudson Valley GMB: P.O. Box 48, Huguenot 12746,845-342-3405, [email protected], http://hviww.blogspot.com/

Syracuse IWW: [email protected]

Upstate NY GMB: P.O. Box 235, Albany 12201-0235, 518-833-6853 or 518-861-5627. www.upstate-nyiww.org, [email protected], Rochelle Semel, del., P.O. Box 172, Fly Creek13337, 607-293-6489, [email protected].

Ohio

Ohio Valley GMB: P.O. Box 42233, Cincinnati45242.

Textile & Clothing Workers IU 410: P.O. Box 317741Cincinnati 45231. [email protected]

OklahomaTulsa: P.O. Box 213 Medicine Park 73557, 580-529-3360.

Oregon

Lane GMB: Ed Gunderson, del., [email protected],www.eugeneiww.org

Portland GMB: 2249 E B urnside St., 97214,503-231-5488. [email protected], pdx.iww.org

Portland Red and Black Cae: 400 SE 12th Ave,97214. 503-231-3899. [email protected]. www. redandblackcae.com.

Pennsylvania

Lancaster GMB: P.O. Box 796, 17608.

Paper Crane Press IU 450 Job Shop: 610-358-9496. [email protected], www.papercranepress.com

Pittsburgh GMB: P.O. Box 5912,15210. [email protected]

Rhode Island

Providence GMB: P.O. Box 5795, 02903. 508-367-6434. [email protected]

Dallas & Fort Worth: 1618 6th Ave, Fort Worth,76104.

South Texas IWW: [email protected]

Utah

Salt Lake City IWW: 801-485-1969. tr_wobbly@yahoo .com

Vermont

Burlington GMB: P.O. Box 8005, 05402. 802-540-2541

Virginia

Richmond IWW: P.O. Box 7055, 23221. 804-496-1568. [email protected], www.richmondiww.org

Washington

Bellingham: P.O. Box 1793, 98227. [email protected].

Tacoma GMB: P.O. Box 7276, 98401. [email protected]. http://tacoma.iww.org/

Olympia GMB: P.O. Box 2775, 98507. Sam Green,del., [email protected]

Seattle GMB: 1122 E. Pike #1142, 98122-3934.206-339-4179. [email protected]. www.seattleiww.org

Wisconsin

Madison GMB: P.O. Box 2442, 53703-2442. ww w.madison.iww.org/

Lakeside Press IU 450 Job Shop: 1334 Williamson,53703. 608-255-1800. Jerry Chernow, del., [email protected]. www.lakesidepress.org

Madison Inoshop Job Shop:1019 Williamson St.#B, 53703. 608-262-9036

Just Coee Job Shop IU 460: 1129 E. Wilson,Madison, 53703. 608-204-9011, justcoee.coop

GDC Local 4: P.O. Box 811, 53701. 608-262-9036.

Railroad Workers IU 520: 608-358-5771. [email protected]

Milwaukee GMB: 1750A N Astor St., 53207. TrevorSmith, 414-573-4992.

IWW directoryIndustrial WorkerThe Voice of Revolutionary

Iustril Uiois

ORganIzaTIOn

EdUcaTIOn

EmancIpaTIOn

Ofcial newspaper of the

IndustrIalWorkers

oftheWorld

Post Ofce Box 180195

Chicago, IL 60618 USA

773.857.1090 [email protected]

www.iww.org

General Secretary-treaSurer:

Joe Tessone

General executive Board:

Koala Largess, Ildiko Sipos,

Ryan G., John Slavin, Jason Krpan

John Reimann, Greg Giorgio

editor & Graphic deSiGner:

Diane [email protected]

Final edit committee :

Maria Rodriguez Gil, Tom Levy,Nick Jusino, FW D. Keenan, J.R.

Boyd, Mathieu Dube, Neil Parthun,Michael Capobianco, Skylaar

Amann, Chris Heffner

printer:

Globe Direct/Boston Globe MediaMillbury, MA

Next deadline isJune 10, 2011

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Articles not so designated donot reect the IWWs

ofcial position.

Press Date: May 20, 2011

Send your letters to: [email protected] Letter in the subject.

Mailing address:IW, P.O. Box 7430, JAF Station, NewYork, NY 10116, United States

Letters Welcome!

Response To Practicing A Solidarity With Women

Get the Word Out!

IWW members, branches, job shops andother afliated bodies can get the wordout about their project, event, campaignor protest each month in theIndustrialWorker. Send announcements to [email protected]. Much appreciated donations forthe following sizes should be sent to:

IWW GHQ, Post Ofce Box 180195,Chicago, IL 60618, United States.

$12 for 1 tall, 1 column wide$40 for 4 by 2 columns

$90 for a quarter page

DearIW,I would like to take a brief moment to

reply to J.R. Boyds column, Practicing aSolidarity with Women, which appearedon page 4 of the March 2011 IW. Replymight actually be the wrong word. What Ihope to do is expand on his argument andstretch his idea of solidarity in referenceto our hierarchical individualistic culturalmodel. As he points out, as Wobblies weseek the appropriate response to domi-nance and oppression in their multitudi-nous formsboth in our working lives, andin our relationships with others. In refer-ence to Boyds column, I think we have tobegin with the very notion of the individualitself, and how this rigid structure in ourdominant cultural model produces andreproduces the modes of oppression thatwe live under today (racism, sexism, ho-mophobia, classism, etc.).

As he points out, this individual movesin reference to the groups he/she belongsto based on consent. When this agree-ment ceases, the individual opts out ofgroup participation (in Boyds words, goesmissing in action). For Boyd, the prob-

lems of sexism can only be ameliorated

through the practice of solidarity. While Iagree with this thought wholeheartedly, Ithink it needs to be expanded just a bit inreference to his notion of setting aside ourinner boss. As he points out, our agree-ment hinges on an inter-subjectivity ofexperiences. What becomes hard for Boydis practicing solidarity when we (as men)are implicated in dominant practices dueto a lack of inter-subjective interpretationof a situation (such as a common responseto incidences of sexism: Well, I was theretoo, and I didnt think sexism had any-thing to do with it). Here again we ndthe problem of the sovereign individualin reference to group problems. We thuscreate a situation in which this rigidly bor-dered sovereign individual moves throughgroup space acting and opting out, all thewhile ensuring a level of insulation fromchallenging dialogue.

The question, for me, then becomes:how can this sovereign individual practicesolidarity with others when participationin fact reproduces the very authoritativestructure of the sovereign individualthat we seek to remove. Put simply, if

solidarity is in fact togetherness, how

can the individual (as de-ned in our cultural milieu)participate? To begin with,one must begin a practiceof challenging the sovereignindividual. What I meanhere is one must begin to seethis individual in a more critical light. Inreference to the above quote from Boyd,the criticism would be: Can I experiencesexism (or racism, homophobia, etc.) asthe other person did? Do I have a frameof reference for their experience of a situ-ation or am I merely transposing my ownexperiences into a situation where they donot t? In this sense, the dispute can cometo be a forum for meaningful discussion ofproblems, i.e. why did you experience thesituation as a manifestation of sexism (orracism, homophobia, etc) and I didnt?In other words, solidarity as a personalpractice becomes a means of blurring therigidly-dened borders of the individualas a member of the group, and allows oneto locate oneself within a larger whole. Byengaging our inner boss and becomingmore open to outside interpretations of

Continued on 9


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June 2011 Industrial Worker Page 3

__I afrm that I am a worker, and that I am not an employer.

__I agree to abide by the IWW constitution.

__I will study its principles and acquaint myself with its purposes.Name: ________________________________

Address: ______________________________

City, State, Post Code, Country: _______________

Occupation: ____________________________

Phone: ____________ Email:_______________

Amount Enclosed: _________

The working class and the employingclass have nothing in common. There canbe no peace so long as hunger and wantare found among millions of workingpeople and the few, who make up the em-ploying class, have all the good things oflife. Between these two classes a strugglemust go on until the workers of the worldorganize as a class, take possession of themeans of production, abolish the wage

system, and live in harmony with theearth.

We nd that the centering of the man-agement of industries into fewer and fewerhands makes the trade unions unable tocope with the ever-growing power of theemploying class. The trade unions fostera state of affairs which allows one set ofworkers to be pitted against another setof workers in the same industry, therebyhelping defeat one another in wage wars.Moreover, the trade unions aid the employ-ing class to mislead the workers into thebelief that the working class have interestsin common with their employers.

These conditions can be changed andthe interest of the working class upheldonly by an organization formed in sucha way that all its members in any one in-dustry, or all industries if necessary, ceasework whenever a strike or lockout is on inany department thereof, thus making aninjury to one an injury to all.

Instead of the conservative motto, Afair days wage for a fair days work, wemust inscribe on our banner the revolu-tionary watchword, Abolition of the wagesystem.

It is the historic mission of the work-ing class to do away with capitalism. Thearmy of production must be organized,not only for the everyday struggle withcapitalists, but also to carry on productionwhen capitalism shall have been over-thrown. By organizing industrially we areforming the structure of the new societywithin the shell of the old.

TO JOIN: Mail this form with a check or money order for initiationand your rst months dues to: IWW, Post Ofce Box 180195, Chicago, IL60618, USA.

Initiation is the same as one months dues. Our dues are calculated

according to your income. If your monthly income is under $2000, duesare $9 a month. If your monthly income is between $2000 and $3500,dues are $18 a month. If your monthly income is over $3500 a month, duesare $27 a month. Dues may vary outside of North America and in RegionalOrganizing Committees (Australia, British Isles, German Language Area).

Membership includes a subscription to theIndustrial Worker.

Join the IWW Today

The IWW is a union for all workers, a union dedicated to organizing on thejob, in our industries and in our communities both to win better conditionstoday and to build a world without bosses, a world in which production and

distribution are organized by workers ourselves to meet the needs of the entire popu-lation, not merely a handful of exploiters.

We are the Industrial Workers of the World because we organize industrially that is to say, we organize all workers on the job into one union, rather than dividingworkers by trade, so that we can pool our strength to ght the bosses together.

Since the IWW was founded in 1905, we have recognized the need to build a trulyinternational union movement in order to confront the global power of the bossesand in order to strengthen workers ability to stand in solidarity with our fellowworkers no matter what part of the globe they happen to live on.

We are a union open to all workers, whether or not the IWW happens to haverepresentation rights in your workplace. We organize the worker, not the job, recog-nizing that unionism is not about government certication or employer recognitionbut about workers coming together to address our common concerns. Sometimesthis means striking or signing a contract. Sometimes it means refusing to work withan unsafe machine or following the bosses orders so literally that nothing gets done.Sometimes it means agitating around particular issues or grievances in a specicworkplace, or across an industry.

Because the IWW is a democratic, member-run union, decisions about what issuesto address and what tactics to pursue are made by the workers directly involved.

IWW Constitution Preamble

For A Union Of 10,000 WobbliesBy Alex Erikson

The percentage of the workforce thatis unionized in the private sector is at anall-time low, and while the number of rep-resentation petitions against restaurantshas increased in the past few years, thenumbers are still extremely low in anygiven year. That being said, fast foodrestaurant owners and operators shouldtake heed of the recent organizing cam-

paign in Minneapolis against ten JimmyJohns locations. The Wobblies are at itagain. Seyfarth Shaw, prominent U.S.anti-union law rm

In the year 2011, the IWW is onceagain feared by the capitalist class as aghting union. Wobblies on shop oorsacross the world deserve to take a minuteto congratulate ourselves: we are a threatagain. But our work is far from done. As faras we have come, there is a long road aheadof us. We need to reect on how we havecome this far, and plan out our next steps.

Our successes in the last few yearswere built on a foundation that was laidover the last decade. At a time when thelabor movement was at a low ebb, dis-oriented by the realities of globalization

and the service economy, a handful of visionary workers picked up the bannerof the IWW and began organizing theirown workplaces. The results were mixed,but lessons were learned. Now, we havedistilled the lessons we have learned aboutshop-floor organizing into a coherenttraining so that they can be easily passedon to others. With the help of our organizertraining program, our campaigns start outleaps and bounds ahead of where we wereten years ago. With a mastery of the nutsand bolts of organizing, our organizersare capable of waging struggles againstthe bosses involving hundreds of workers. While it is difcult to make generaliza-tions about an organization of hundreds

of people that has evolved over decades, itseems safe to say that the IWW is strongerthan it has been in years.

However, as Wobblies, we are alwaysthinking of ways to bring the class struggleto another level. Thats what brought us

into the IWW in the rst place: the beliefin a possibility of a better world for work-ers and a desire to build a better workersmovement to get us there. Over the yearswe have gained experience with a varietyof approaches to organizing. We have hadcorridor campaigns, attempts to organizeparticular segments of industry with highlevels of industrial power, campaignsagainst individual corporate chains, and

many campaigns against individual shopsinitiated by workers who came to us forhelp. While we have learned a lot from allof these experiences, many Wobblies feelthat we need to be more strategic withour next steps in order to maximize theimpact we can make as a relatively smallorganization. There have been many sev-eral proposals for strategic campaignsover the years, but none of them havematerialized. Why is that?

Before we are able to successfully im-plement a strategy, we need to build up theparts of our organization that would put astrategy into practice. We need to take onestep backward and develop a plan to bringus to a point where we can implement anorganizing plan. In other words, we need

a strategy to implement a strategy.In the next couple years, I think we

should focus on building functioningbranches of the IWW. We should look atour branches that are most effective atghting bosses and building power, andreplicate those successes. If we could takeour largest branches of 100-200 membersand copy that success in all of our 40-50North American branches, we would have4,000-10,000 members. We would havemore organizers, more campaigns, andmore funds to support all of our activi-ties. We would be able to pick ghts withbigger targets and organize them moreeffectively. We would have more brains wrestling with the question of how to

build a new workers movement. We wouldhave more workers learning more lessonsabout the class struggle. We would havemore social leaders involved in the union,laying the basis for even broader recruit-ment and bringing us closer to a tipping

point in society where our vision of classstruggle for industrial democracy becomesa major current within the working class.An IWW with 10,000 members would bea qualitative and quantitative leap in theclass struggle in North America.

Of course we arent going to build10,000 Wobblies just by hoping it will hap-pen. Just like in workplace organizing, weneed to break this task down into smaller

steps, and plan ahead so that a few yearsfrom now we will be successful. While wedo need to ne-tune our approach to orga-nizing and esh out our solidarity union-ism model, I think that we already have theknowledge in the union that would allowus to grow. We have branches that have100-200 members. Lets just gure outwhat has allowed some branches to thrive,and apply these lessons to all branchesacross the union.

There are certainly external circum-stances that impact branch growth, butits more important to focus on the thingswe can control. I would say that there area few key areas of competency that haveallowed some branches to thrive:

1) Stable Administration. Havingregular, efcient meetings makes it easyfor people to get plugged in to the union.It also allows us to begin accumulatingfunds and personnel that can be used tobuild up our projects. However, stabilityis not an answer in and of itself. It is alsocritical that branches rotate tasks such asSecretary-Treasurer, allowing all membersto take ownership over the administrationof the branch.

2) Focus on Organizing. Our mostsuccessful branches are the ones that haveactive organizing campaigns. We need tomake sure that all branch members un-derstand that the IWW is an organizationof working-class ghters who are building

power on the job. We are not a social clubor a political organization. There is roomfor folks who are not always actively orga-nizing at their own workplace, but unioncampaigns waged by the workers them-selves are the core of what we do. That

means you need to organize in your ownworkplace or get a job somewhere where you can organize, and push your FellowWorkers to do the same.

3) Supporting Each Other. Orga-nizing is tough. There are often setbacksand things rarely go as planned. Thats whyits important to support and help eachother get through the difculties we facewhile organizing. If there is no one with

organizing experience in your branch, thenget plugged in to networks of organizers inyour industry from across the country. Thegreatest strength of our union is the enor-mous wealth of experience that Wobblieshave in the class struggle.

Those are some general ideas. Hereare a few specic proposals to strengthenthe IWW in these areas:

1) Build More and Better Branch-es. The General Administration shouldcreate an updated manual on buildingIWW branches and set up a funded com-mission to fast-track the chartering of newGeneral Membership Branches (GMBs)and Industrial Union Branches (IUBs)across North America, and help members

who are seeking to revive stagnant GMBs.This commission would be made up ofmembers who have experience success-fully building GMBs and can help newbranch-builders overcome the pitfalls of building the IWW from scratch in theirarea. In addition, branches could inte-grate themselves more fully into the IWWby making sure they have liaisons to theOrganizing Department, InternationalSolidarity Commission, General DefenseCommittee, and other union-wide bodies.

2) Build Regional Networks.Begin building stronger regional IWWnetworks with email lists and regularface-to-face conferences in each area ofthe continent. It is exciting to feel that

we are part of a growing movement. Also,this will help cross-pollinate good ideas between branches. In the Twin Cities,we have started an email list to put us inmore frequent communication with otherbranches in the area. The connections wehad established over the last year helpedus respond effectively to the situation inMadison, Wis.

3) Build a Corps of Trainers inEach Branch. The Organizing Depart-ment has been a major success story forthe IWW. Lets build on that success byestablishing a corps of trainers in each branch in the IWW to cut down on thetime and expense of sending trainers todifferent cities to do trainings. This wouldalso help ensure that the most importantlessons of organizing are imparted to eachand every branch.

4) Build Industrial Networks.In order to maintain a union culturethat is focused on organizing, we needto develop stronger networks betweenworkers who are organizing in the sameindustry. Ultimately, these networkswould form the basis of Industrial Unions.They could also conduct industry-specicrecruitment, much in the same way theStarbucks Workers Union has recruitedamongst Starbucks workers. Also, buildingnetworks of workers in the same industryacross geographic areas could allow us tospread best practices in different types oforganizing campaigns between branches

more easily.If we implement these ideas, I think we

have a chance of building 40-50 functional branches of 100-200 members in thenext ve years with networks of workersready to take on industry-wide organiz-ing campaigns across North America. AnIWW of 10,000 Wobblies is within reach.This would position us to initiate biggerand badder organizing campaigns thanever before, bringing us one step closerto One Big Union of all workers. Whetheryou agree with these specic proposals ornot, its clear that we stand on the cusp ofmaking substantial gains in building ourorganization and increasing the power ofthe working class. Its time to think big and

its time to act.


4/12


Graphic: Mike Konopacki

Two Concepts For IWW Organizing:Industrial Unionism And One Big UnionismBy John OReilly andNate Hawthorne

This article is the rst in a series dis-cussing the themes of the One Big Unionand Industrial Unionism. We believe thesethemes are relevant to the future of ourorganization. Through these articles, wehope to push for a discussion about pos-sible ways forward for the IWW and howwe can get from where we are to wherewe need to be to build a new society. Wewelcome replies, whether in print orsent to us in private at [email protected].

The question how do we best or-ganize the workingclass? has been onthe minds of many ofour members recently.Our organization issmall, but we havemade great strides to-wards creating a mod-el that builds powerfor working people.

We have one of the best member trainingprograms in any union in North Americaand Europe, we are building solidaritywith working peoples organizations in ourcommunities and around the world, andwe are continually raising our own bar bytaking on and winning bigger ghts withbosses. As we continue to build the IWW,sometimes the ideas we have about howour organization ought to function comeinto conict with the way that our organi-zation actually functions. These conictsrequire us to develop our ideas aboutrevolutionary unionism in the long-termand in our day-to-day activity.

In this article, we reflect on ideasthat have been around in our organiza-

tion for a long time: One Big Unionismand Industrial Unionism. Reecting onthe relationship between these ideas andhow they relate to our organizing can helpclarify both our thoughts and our actions.By understanding how these ideas bothoverlap and conict, we want to set thestage for a larger discussion about ourorganization.

One Big Unionism is the idea thatguides us in the work of building the IWWas a revolutionary organization. It is a wayto think about the organizing work that wedo and the reasons we do this work. TheOne Big Union is the idea that we wantthe entire working class to be united toact in our interests as a class and againstcapitalism. The united working class mustcross geographic, cultural, and industrial boundaries, be democratic, and be ableto coordinate and marshal the forces ofworkers against the united power of the bosses and their rule over our lives andcommunities.

We in the IWW believe that the work-ing class needs to be unied to ght thebattle for economic democracy. We areOne Big Unionists because we are commit-ted to uniting all workers across industriesand crafts and because we believe work un-der capitalism shares basic, fundamentalsimilarities. While we do different kinds ofwork, we have the same basic role in theeconomy: were the people that make oursociety run but who have no power over

how it is run. One of the most importantlessons that we have learned in the lastfew years in our organizing is that becausewe all occupy the same place in the classsystem, the basic framework for organiz-ing workers does not change depending onwhat kind of work they do. Regardless ofcraft or industry, the basic skills and toolsand techniques of organizing are prettymuch the same. We organize by talkingwith workers, asking questions, buildingrelationships with them, getting them tobuild relationships with each other, havingfrank discussions about the problems theyand we all face under capitalism, buildingsolidarity as a group, and taking action toght the boss. These basic elements of our

approach to organizing, based on our com-mitment to the revolutionary principle of

One Big Unionism, come from the fact thatall workplace organizing uses basically thesame set of skills and practices that anyworking person can learn and do.

Industrial Unionism, on the otherhand, is the idea that we need to build la-bor organizations connected to each otherlogically based on the way that the moderneconomy runs. By organizing unions inthis way, we can strengthen our poweracross connected industrial chains. WhileOne Big Unionism is a set of principlesthat guides our work, Industrial Unionismgives us practical suggestions about how tobest implement our ideas and win when we

ght the bosses.Industrial Union-

ism is understandinghow we carry out ourprinciples in action.Industrial Unionism isfundamentally abouthow to build and exertpower in the most ef-fective way possible

in the near future. Organizing along thesupply chain amplies our power: a unionof agricultural workers, food processingworkers, truckers, and fast food workersin one chain has more power against theemployer or employers on that chain thanorganizing all the fast food workers in onecity. Industrial Unionism builds upon thestrength of workers whose jobs are relatedas way to win ghts. We use these ghts towin membership to our union and use ourmembership to win these ghts.

If we de-link One Big Unionism andIndustrial Unionism and only pursue oneof them, we become lopsided. If a branchor a group of organizers focus too much onOne Big Unionism, they build bodies and

activities that only work to build class con-sciousness, or worse, only gather togetherpeople who have already become classconscious through experiences outside theIWW. Class consciousness is important,but consciousness alone does not ght orbuild organization. By thinking only in theOne Big Unionist model, we are unableto shape our world and build industrialdemocracy because we have no power.Theres no way to stage and win ghtsin specic shops if we are everywhere atonce; leaet a Starbucks on Monday, talkto truckers on Tuesday, a hospital work-ers forum on Wednesday...by the end ofthe week, we have not made progress inbuilding shop-oor organizing in any oneof those workplaces. Plus, if we overstressthe idea that all workers are fundamentallythe same, we will miss the concrete dif-ferences that do exist right now betweenshops, crafts, and industries and makethem distinct: demographics, legal rights,concentration, forms of oppression, etc.

The other side of the coin is equallyimportant. If we focus too narrowly onIndustrial Unionism, we get cut off fromthe revolutionary idea that forms the basisof the IWW: all workers, as workers, arefundamentally in the same place in rela-tion to the capitalist class and thereforecan and should organize together to makeimprovements today and end capitalismtomorrow. When branches or groups oforganizers focus only on one industry

without seeing how all workers need toparticipate in the work of building theIWW, we lose our ability to learn fromworkers in different industries, from theirsuccesses and failures, tactics and ideas.Many of the best lessons implemented inour most active campaigns were learnedfrom other IWW campaigns across a va-riety of industries. Additionally, turnoverand firings associated with our uniondrives mean that if we only look at oneindustry, we will lose our members whochange jobs. In the low-wage sector wheremany of our current campaigns are takingoff, many workers move between differentindustries very quickly. Finally, if we onlyfocus on Industrial Unionism, we lose our

ability to turn workers into Wobblies andmiss the big picture of our organization, a

united working-class movement ghting tonot only for a better life for ourselves undercapitalism but also ghting to end capital-ism and replace it with a better society.

Within the IWW as a living organiza-tion, One Big Unionism and IndustrialUnionism should be linked together asways of thinking about our organizing. Thebalance of the two allows us to build ourorganization and move our class forward.One Big Unionism allows us to visualize aunited working class and sets our sightson organizing all workers. Its a visionof association which thinks about howmore workers can be organized and work

together for our class, as a class. It is theidea that all workers have interests in com-

mon as workers, have interests opposed toemployers, and includes a commitment tobuilding a new society to replace capital-ism. Industrial Unionism is a vision ofshort-term conict, expressing our com-mitment to creating the most effectiveorganization possible for accomplishinggoals. Industrial Unionism is about build-ing an effective means to challenge thebosses power under capitalism.

Only by carefully balancing the per-spectives of One Big Unionism and Indus-trial Unionism can we push forward thework that needs to be done. Our organiza-tion has great ideas about how to organize

and why, its up to us to implement themand build up our class.


5/12


IWW Work Peoples CollegeEvent A Success

drawn in. Military forces around the worldare hotbeds of such abuse and misconduct;they both attract many brutes and turnmany soldiers into brutes. It cannot beotherwise, since the military requires nothuman beings but obedient killers.

Imperialism on FranchiseThe United States is overwhelmingly

the most powerful country in the world,with the largest economy and a militarywhich dwarfs all others. With that power,it dominates world affairs, maintaining aworld order favorable to it (though not tothe same extent as in previous decades).This domination is known as imperial-ism. Australia supports the United Statesin maintaining this order and, in return,gets to dominate East Timor and theSouth Pacic. It is effectively a franchisearrangement and the franchise fee is Aus-tralian participation in Uncle Sams warsacross the region, regardless of either thejustication or the direct relevance to thenational interests of Australian capitalism.

Workers of the World, Unite!There is an alternative, a path to

peace, to a world without the violenceof war and the brutality that it breeds inorder to produce soldiers. As workers, weneed international solidarity for the dailyght against global capitalism. Withoutit, we are played off against each othercountry by country, in an endless race tothe bottom. With it, we can sweep awaynationalist myths and stand as comradesacross national borders. And it is this in-ternationalism that will enable us to builda global movement and have a workersrevolution that spreads around the globe. We can establish a world society of lib-ertarian communism and put an end toimperialism, militarism and war. Then,

and only then, can we have peace.- Melbourne Anarchist Communist Group,April 25, 2011

From the MelbourneProtests Blog

As has been the traditionin previous years, there was aprotest to the ofcial AnzacDay events in Melbourne, Australia on April 25. Thetraditional Anzac (Austra-

lian and New Zealand ArmyCorps) Day is a national dayof remembrance. This year,the protest took on the formof a celebration of IWW suc-cess in defeating attempts tointroduce conscription during World War I. The gatheringwas held at the 8 Hour Monu-ment across the road from Trades Hall, which is currently adorned by bannerspromoting the annual Comedy Festivaland anti-nuclear messages.

In addition to some spirited singing of,amongst other things, (a modied) I Walkthe Line, Jeremy of the Melbourne IWWread a selection of poems by Lesbia Harf-

ord. Additionally, members of MelbourneAnarchist Communist Group (MACG)circulated a statement entitled End theAnzac Myth, which follows:

A Myth is Born

On April 25, 1915, Anzac troopsstormed a Turkish beach at Gallipoli andwere mown down by the defenders. Theyhung on until January 1916 before evacu-ating. It was an ill thought out attempt bythe British to knock the Ottoman Empireout of World War I. Between 1914 and1918, 9.6 million soldiers and 6.8 millioncivilians died in this clash of two rivalimperialist alliances, each out to conquerterritories and markets from the other. Thesoldiers and civilians died, not for free-dom or democracy, but for the power andprots of their ruling classes. In Australia, Anzac Day has become a foundationalmyth for nationalism and militarism. Theundoubted sacrices of the troops are usedto sanctify both the Australian military andAustralias imperialist wars.

Militarism is BrutalityThis year, Anzac Day occurs in the

midst of a series of scandals involvingAustralian military personnel. The Skypescandal involves a female soldier unwit-tingly being broadcast to a group of malesoldiers while having sex. This has releaseda ood of other complaints, some currentand some from decades ago, about beat-

ings, sexual assaults and other examplesof abuse. Even an independent Memberof Parliament, Andrew Wilkie, has been

Australian Wobblies CelebrateAnti-Conscription Movement

Obituary

Remembering Hazel Dickens, 1935 -2011By John Pietaro

The high lonesome sound that touchedso many, so deeply, could only have beenborn of both strife and ght-back in equalproportions. Singer/guitarist Hazel Dick-ens sound was probably about as highand lonesome as it got. The soundtrack ofHarlan County USA introduced her tothe many outside of the country home sheremained a visceral part of, even long after

shed physically moved on. Dickens didnt just sing the anthems of labor, she livedthem and her place on many a picket line,staring down gunre and goon squads,embedded her into the cause.

She was born on June 1, 1935 in Mont-calm, W.Va.one of the faceless townsdotting Appalachian coal country. Herfather was an amateur banjo player whoworked as a truck driver for the minesand ran a Primitive Baptist church eachSunday. Here was where Hazel rst begansinging, unaccompanied out of necessityand the laws of tradition. But the devotion-al songs melded with the mountain tunesand ballads, creating a unique personalstyle. Bearing a rough, at times coarse tim-

ber, her voice eagerly reected the broken

topography about her as well as the painsof poverty in her midst. In a family of 13residing in a three-room shack, the musicwas far from distant symbolism for her.

At age 16 Dickens relocated to Balti-more where she encountered Mike Seegeron the still edgling folk scene. Seeger,working alongside his parents Charles andRuth Crawford Seeger in the Library ofCongress Archive of American Folksong,

began performing with the Dickens familytrio, but it was Hazels association withSeegers wife Alice Gerrard that offerednotable opportunity for impact on the mu-sic. The duet of Hazel and Alice recordedoriginal compositions and deeply exploredthe feminist archetypes in Appalachiansong. Dickens was sure to not only raiseissues such as the need for equal pay forwomen workers, but to actively ght forthese on and off stage. Among the titlesshe penned were Working Girl Bluesand Dont Put Her Down, You HelpedPut Her There. She also composed thenoted Black Lung, which called on theminers plight back home. Like Aunt Mol-lie Jackson before her, Dickens was able

to capture the struggle of the moment in

song, and this was most evidentin her on-screen performancesin celebrated lms such as Mate-wan and Song Catcher, and herwork on the above noted HarlanCounty USA.

The union cause was hercause and it lived anew each timeshe conjured a topical song set toa melody that sounded as old as

the ages. A clear heir to the Appala-

chian stylings of Aunt MollieJackson and Sarah Ogan, Dickensbecame a respected gure and wasa featured singer at folk festivalsfor decades. Since the 1970s,Dickens had performed with a wide array of musicians includ-ing Emmy Lou Harris, ElvisCostello, Linda Ronstadt, Mary ChapinCarpenter and Rosanne Cash. In 2007she was inducted into the West VirginiaMusic Hall of Fame. Dickens was activeas recently as March when she was seenattending the South By Southwest Festivalin Austin, Texas. Hazel Dickens died of

complications of pneumonia in Washing-

ton, D.C. on April 22. In the blackenedcrawlspaces of West Virginias minesthe lament was a deafening silence asthe mountain peaks seemed to bow insolemn reverence.

This piece originally appeared on April 25, 2011 on http://thecultural-

worker.blogspot.com.

we dont often get the time to talk aboutin business meetings, said FW Knutson.

The Work Peoples College Committeealso comes out of an older IWW educa-tional body. The name comes from a laborschool that the IWW ran in northern Min-nesota for several decades.

The original Work Peoples Collegehelped educate and train working-class

activists and organizers, FW Knutsonsaid. We are trying to root ourselves inthat tradition, he added.

The Work Peoples College of old, lo-cated just outside of Duluth, was a centerfor workers education and IWW ideas andtactics and ran off the strength of the Finn-ish unionist movement of the Iron Range.

Today, the efforts of the Twin CitiesWork Peoples College Committee are cen-tered on the modern-day need for workersto educate ourselves about our movementand our world.

There are plans to evaluate and reecton the effectiveness of the Work PeoplesCollege event. If post-event considerationsare positive enough, plans may be made tohost another in upcoming months.

By FW John OReillyOn Saturday, April 16, IWW

members and friends enjoyed aday of free educational talks inthe new union office in SouthMinneapolis, Minn. The event wasorganized by the Work PeoplesCollege Committeea project of

the Twin Cities IWW branchandpromoted ideas and conversa-tions about different importantthemes that working people arefacing today. Over 60 peopleattended the talks through thecourse of the day, and many mem-bers took away important lessonsand invaluable conversations.

Class topics included an update anddiscussion about the current strugglesfaced by pro-democracy movements inthe Middle East and Northern Africa, apanel featuring organizers working inthe low-wage sector and a talk about theimportance of the strike as a tactic forworkers. Members of the Madison IWW

branch came to help lead reflectionsabout the movement for a general strikein Wisconsin and explain where the situ-ation stands today. Throughout the day,Wobblies talked and showed a character-istic dedication to educating one anotherand themselves.

Event organizer Kieran Knutson saidthat the purpose of the event was to re-activate the educational arm of the TwinCities IWW and to try out the format of anall-day program. Participants listened totalks and panels, but audience participa-tion and discussion was a key part of theevents success.

The most exciting part of the day wasthe opportunity to hear fellow workersthoughts on broad issues and analysis that

The Seattle IWW showed solidarity with the IWW Jimmy Johns Workers Unionon April 23, showing support for the union and sending a big screw you tomanagement. We took up a collection in advance and tipped the staff.

Photo: Seattle IWW

Twin Cities Wobs in March. Photo: Diane KrauthamerIWW on Anzac Day. Photo: melbourneprotests.wordpress.com

Photo: theculturalworker.blogspot.com

Solidarity With Jimmy Johns Workers


6/12


May Day 2011

Richmond Wobs March For Immigrants, WorkersBy Kenneth Yates, Richmond IWW

Organizing began this year for MayDay in Richmond, Va., with some antici-pation surrounding a dozen or so piecesof anti-worker and anti-immigrant leg-islation.

One bill in particular, House Bill 2332,would have given Virginia State Police theauthority to ascertain citizenship of sus-pected individuals. Just like the racist anti-immigrant legislation passed in Arizonain 2010, Senate Bill 1070, the possibilitywould be left to the discretion of the statepolice in whether or not individuals areproled and arrested based solely on thecolor of their skin.

Fortunately, this bill, along with oth-ers concerning immigration, was killed inFebruary by a special Senate Committeecalled the Kill Bill Committee.

Passing such legislation would haveundoubtedly determined the focus of thisyears May Day, and transformed a day ofcelebration into a full-blown protest. Andalthough a battle has been won, organizing

must continue in Latin American com-munities with the goal of building a grass-roots network of immigrant workers andorganizations who are capable of taking amore direct and offensive approach to rac-ist legislation and exploitative employers.

As May 1st approached, our organiz-ing became more focused on acquiringcommitments and endorsements fromcommunity organizations, student groups,labor unions, faith-based groups, and oth-er radical and progressive organizations.

Although this process is growing in-creasingly more uid as May Day becomesan annual event in Richmond, comradesin the African-American community haverightfully made the holes in our organizing

apparent to us. They urge organizers tonot forget the inclusion of the often mar-ginalized African Americans, and remindus that there needs to be a commitment

made by every organizer for meaningfuloutreach and solidarity, not just whenMay Day is approaching, but throughoutthe entire year.

Ana Edwards from Virginia Defendersfor Freedom, Justice & Equality stated atone point that May Day should be viewedas a bookend on a year of organizing,and that is exactly our goal. Organizing with the intent of articulating the inter-sectionality of each of our causes will onlymake our movements stronger and moreeffective.

Entering the last few weeks beforeMay Day, the coalition ran into a snag sur-rounding a permit to march, transforminga May Day rally for workers rights into abattle for free speech.

The Richmond Police Department in-formed us that in order to acquire a permitto march, we would rst need to pay for atleast two off-duty police ofcers and theirvehicles, at a cost of $294.

The coalition, along with the AmericanCivil Liberties Union (ACLU), sued the

city on the grounds that a limitation ofones ability to express their right to freespeech and freedom of assembly based onwhether they could afford the presenceof police escorts is a violation of the U.S.Constitution, not to mention extortion.

Nowhere in the city code does it saythat Richmond police have the authorityto assess fees on parade organizers, saidACLU of Virginia Legal Director RebeccaGlenberg. The police cannot arbitrarilyimpose costs on individuals exercisingtheir First Amendment rights.

The city argued that it was an issue ofpublic safety, to which we argued that asworking people, we have already borne theexpense of public safety through our tax

dollars. We further argued that:We nd it redundant and unneces-sary to pay extra for public safety at apeaceful demonstration. Apparently, the

Members of the Richmond IWW march downtown on May Day. Photo: Jennida Chase

Richmond Police Department believestaxes pay only for the security of people

who keep their mouths shut and continueshopping.

In the end, a federal judge sided withthe Richmond Police Department anddenied our permit to march in the street,forcing participants to legally limit theirrights to the side walk.

The Richmond May Day Coalitionreleased a statement which outlined ourefforts to inform participants of the pos-sible legal repercussions that may follow ifthey decided to take to the streets, whichincluded the following:

While we believe the sidewalks arenot the safest, least disruptive or mostpractical place for us to demonstrate, themembers of the Organizing Committee

intend to abide by all trafc and safetylaws. Any necessary adjustments to ac-commodate our group on the sidewalkshall be made, but this is a diverse and

large group, so it is impossible to guaran-tee that all parade participants will follow

our lead. All we can do is make every effortto advise participants of the restrictionsthe [Richmond Police Department] hasplaced on their rights.

When all was said and done, May Day2011 in Richmond witnessed participa-tion from approximately 300-350 people,in what resulted in a spirited rally and amarch through the streets and sidewalksof the city. Two-thirds of the marchs par-ticipants took to the streets of their ownaccord while parade marshals, volunteermedics and cop-watch activists made surepeople were safe.

The No BS Brass Band led the paradeand laid the rhythmic foundation for anever-so-appropriate chant of Whose

Streets? Our Streets! as we took BroadStreeta three-lane thoroughfare on theway to our destination. There were no inci-dents and police made themselves sparse.

By the NYC IWWMembers of the New

York City IWW marchedwith thousands of work-ers from Union Squaredown to Foley Squarefor the annual MayDay march and rally.This year, the Wobbliesjoined the May 1st

Coalition for Worker &Immigrant Rights andThe Labor Rights, Im-migrant Rights, Jobs forAll Coalition for a jointmarch and two rallies.

In Philadelphia, theindependent security

guards union at the Phila-delphia Museum of Art

celebrated May Day withthe signature of its rst

contract after a four-year

struggle for recognition bythe museum. This the rsttime that the museums

security guards have hada contract since the early

1990s, when former MayorEd Rendell privatized the

citys museum securityforce through the use of

private security companyworkers.

The new May Day contract raisesguards wages by 14.5 percent, which in-creases their pay to $10.88 an hour. Thecontract also gives the security guards agrievance procedure and seniority system.

Many May Day marches in differentcities carried ags from all over the world,

May Day In Vienna, AustriaBy Benjamin Fasching-Gray

Wobblies in Vienna began the daywith a picnic, meeting comrades from theanarcho-syndicalist social workers union,Libertre Initiative Sozial Arbeitender(LISA), in a public park. Despite the coldrain, we broke bread and sang along toa CD of Utah Phillips and other ghtingunion singers. Fortunately, the sun cameout in time for the May Day parade, which

drew attention to the precariousness ofwork for migrants, temporary workers andothers. Together with some 2,000 otheractivists, we marched through working-class districts waving IWW ags.

Continued from 1In some places, such as Milwaukee, im-migrants and union workersparticularlyteachers and other public-sector workersjoined together in a march of approximate-ly 25,000 people. This unity unfortunatelydid not occur in every city. In Minneapolis,

unions did not come out to join immigrantworkers and the rallies were much smaller.In Los Angeles, the annual May Day marchwas smaller than in recent years; however,the march did bring out 3,000 car wash-ers, along with restaurant workers andday laborers, who joined with unionizedteachers, service employees and buildingunion members. The Los Angeles May Daymarchers chanted, This is California! Thisis not Arizona! This is not Wisconsin! anddemanded immigration reform, an endto deportations and the separation of im-migrant families, and union rights for all.

In other cities, such as Madison,Wis.the heart of the recent strugglesby public-sector workers to protect theirrightsMay Day demonstrations were

larger than in previousyears as immigrants,public-sector workersand other workers joinedtogether. Along with thespeeches, a companyof reghters played

bagpipes at the MayDay rally. In Vermont,marchers used MayDay to demonstrate infavor of the new single-payer health care billand against the moveby many Vermont statesenators to exclude im-migrant workers fromeligibility for participa-tion in single-payer healthcare coverage.

Around 2,000 Vermont workersin-cluding nurses, farm workers, teachers,and IBM workersmarched on the statecapitol in Montpelier to protest in favor ofcreating a universal healthcare bill withoutexemptions for immigrant workers.

as well as U.S. ags and peace ags. Somemore radical marcherssocialists, com-munists and anarchistscarried red, blackor red-and-black ags at demonstrationsand marches. Many unions also marchedwith their banners, including members ofthe IWW.

It is important to keep in perspectivethat a lot of the issues discussed in themainstream mediasuch as the strippingof public-sector workers rights in the Mid-west and attacks on immigrants in Arizonaand elsewhereare not isolated prob-lems. Both conservatives and socialistsin Europe, as well as left-wing and right-wing governments all over the world, areimplementing similar repressive measuresthat both Democrats and Republicans areimplementing in the United States.

These are long-term ghts that will notbe easily fought or won. However, workersand activists seem to be rediscovering theirMay Day roots in the United States, andhopefully this trend will continue.

With les from Labor Notes.

Union Workers And Immigrants March Together On May Day

Photo: wobblies.at

NYC Wobs March On May Day

Photo: NYC IWW

Graphic: infoshop.orgFlyer for May Day 2006 in NYC.


7/12


May Day 2011

Beautiful May Day In Western AustraliaBy Richard Titelius

On a beautiful sunny day, 4,000 work-ers, families and friends gathered to cel-ebrate the international day of solidaritywith the working class for the annual rallyand march in the port city of Fremantle,Western Australia (WA).

Overall, the number of participantswas down from previous years. However,a few of the blue-collar unions, includingthe Construction, Forestry, Mining andEnergy Union, Communications ElectricalPlumbing Union, Australian Manufactur-ing Workers Union and Maritime Unionof Australiawho have over the past fewyears marched under the grouping calledSolidaritywere able to increase theirnumbers from previous years.

The working-class masses came togather in solidarity to celebrate the victo-ries and recall some of the struggles of thepast and the heroes of the working class,whose unwavering commitment spurred workers on to achieve better wages andconditionsincluding a safe and healthy

workplace. These men and women includ-

ed ghting communists such as SusannahPritchard, Vic and Joan Williams andPaddy Troy. The latters daughter, HazelButorac, was the keynote speaker for thisyears May Day rally.

Butorac spoke of her father as a manwho lived life according to his ideals ofworld peace, decent wages and safe work-ing conditions and free speech, the last ofwhich he went to jail ghting for.

Troy was most well known as the sec-retary of the Rivers and Harbours WorkersUnion, and later in the 1950s helped toestablish the state branch of the Feder-ated Miscellaneous Workers Union, theforerunner of todays United VoicetheWA branch of the Liquor, Hospitality andMiscellaneous Workers Union.

In 1936, Butorac continued,Paddy Troy was sacked from his job as arigger and safety ofcer at the Youanmigold mine in the Murchison district forcalling the industrial inspectorate to re-port on the unsafe work practices at themine, following a death of a worker. His

actions were vindicated when the indus-

trial inspectorate foundthat it was the verypractices at the minewhich he had reportedthat had contributedto the workers death.A study program hasrecently been launchedwhich will awardscholarships to researchPaddy Troys contribu-tion to workplace condi-tions and safety.

A body represent-ing over 40 afliatedunions and their members, UnionsWA,participated as well. UnionsWA Secre-tary Simone McGurk acknowledged thatthe ght will need to be taken up by theunion movement to the Liberal govern-ment of Colin Barnett who is seeking tore-create a Howard-era WorkChoicesindustrial relations system for the thirdof the workers in WA still on state-basedawards and agreements.

For these workers and the rest of us

Wobbly Music In Ontario

Wobbly musicianSean Carleton performed at

the Peterborough May DayCabaret in Peterborough,

Ontario, this year. To viewsome of what FW Carleton

has been up to, check outWobbly Arts on page 9!

By Dek KeenanWobblies,

friends and familyenjoyed the Glasgowsun to take partin this years MayDay march. Fellowworkers from theClydeside GeneralMembership Branchare pictured withthe Branch ban-

ner. The Branchhas grown in recentmonths and isdeveloping outreachplans for the sum-mer months.

Continued from 1the guests out of their beds a bit earlierthan they were expecting and prompt-ing a ood of complaints by guests to thebeleaguered managers. Union-bustingcompanies and guests who cross picketlines reap what they sow.

We are the room cleaners, front deskhosts, bellmen, housemen and laundry andmaintenance workers who have worked atHotel Frank for 10, 20, or even 30 years.Most of us have worked at the hotel sinceit was the Maxwell Hotel, and before thatthe Raphael Hotel. We have had a unioncontract for nearly 40 years. But in May2010, Wells Fargo Bank bought the hotelin a foreclosure sale. The bank brought ina new management company, Provenance,and declared our contract null and void.Since then, it has been one travesty afteranother.

The room cleaners are cleaning manymore rooms, often skipping their breaksout of necessity and suffering debilitat-ing injuries to boot. Everybody works an

extra half hour per day for free. Stafnghas been cut to the bone. There has beenno agreement about medical coverage orpensions. And the hotel has red unionactivists, including myself, and disciplinedworkers on frivolous and discriminatorycharges. We are waiting for a decision by

a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)regarding the hotels numerous violationsof federal labor law.

All the San Francisco hotel contractsexpired at the end of 2009. Since then,Local 2 has been waging a series of battlesagainst the big hotel bosses. Recently theunion won a series of contracts at theHilton, the Westin St. Francis, the Palace,the St. Regis, the W, and the Fairmont,amongst other places.

But the situation at Hotel Frank isunique. Workers at other hotels wherethere have not yet been settlements areworking under the terms of their expiredcontracts, preserving some semblance ofwork rules, rights and benets, although without any raises since 2009. At Hotel

Frank, there is no contract, no rules andno grievance procedure. Nevertheless,Hotel Frank workers battle on. Local 2 isa union that doesnt quit. We know we willwin in the end. In the meantime, however,the road is hard.

Provenance, the new management

company, is based in the Northwest, whichis why the Portland IWW and SeaSol gotinto the act. In addition to Provenancestwo hotels in Portland and the one in Se-attle, they also run the Hotel Murano inTacoma, Wash., and the Hotel Preston inNashville, Tenn.

Provenance is in turn owned by As-pen Capital. Both companies are basedin Portland. The CEO of both Provenanceand Aspen Capital is Gordon Sondland.Sondland sits on the Oregon GovernorsEconomic Advisory Board and the Gover-nors Ofce of Film and Television, chair-ing the Portland Art Museum, and servingon several corporate boards.

Last December, Wells Fargo sold thehotel to another nancial speculator, AEW

Capital Management, based in Boston,Mass. AEW kept Provenance on as themanagement company, which has contin-ued their anti-worker campaign unabated.

Hotel Frank workers have dug in, havestayed strong, and remain very solid andunited. This is a small group of workers

facing a big bully, said Maria Guillen ofJobs with Justice.The hotel calls the police every time

we set up our picket line, but so far theonly action the police have taken is toarrest an out-of-control guest who took aswing at me.

The solidarity of workers in Portlandand Seattle is, of course, music to our ears,and the support we have received fromother workers and community folks onour picket lines keeps us going day by-day.

Feel free to join us. Its a true storyaninjury to one is an injury to all.

This story originally appeared on May 5, 2011 on http://www.beyond-chron.org. It was reprinted with permis-sion from the author.

West Coast Workers Picket Hotels In Solidarity

there will be difficult times ahead notonly in regard to protecting jobs, wagesand conditions, but also housing, publichealth, education, climate change, energyand food.

United in struggle and victory theworkers of the world will prevail to builda decent life for all.

This story originally appeared onMay 4, 2011 on htttp://cpa.org.au. It was

reprinted with permission.

Workers celebrate May Day in Fremantle. Photo: cpa.org.au

Remembering HaymarketBy Michael Vincent

Haymarket ReenactmentOn Saturday, April 30, numerous

Wobblies were present at the site of theHaymarket riot in Chicago. To markthe 125th anniversary of this landmarkevent in labor history, a full-scale re-enactment of the riot took place, com-plete with an exploding bomb andcharging police equipped with capguns and foam batons. The crowd wastreated to speeches by Lucy and Albert

Parsons and other important gures asthe story of the riot, its origins, and itsunjust aftermath unfolded from atopa makeshift cart next to the Haymarket monument. Members of the IWW alsoaddressed the crowd. The re-enactment was organized by Paul Durica of PocketGuide to Hell, and music was supplied by Environmental Encroachment.

Haymarket MemorialRededication

The IWW was again well repre-sented on Sunday, May 1 at ForestHome Cemetery, where a large crowdturned out for the unveiling of thenewly-restored memorial commemo-rating the Haymarket Martyrs. After along round of speeches from businessunion leaders and politicians, the

black and red ag was nally removedfrom the monument, and the crowdsang Solidarity Forever. Many of the Wobs later participated in the MayDay march in downtown Chicago.

Photos: Michael Vincent

Lucy Parsons reenactor in Chicago.

The Haymarket Memorial.

Festive May Day In Scotland

Photo: Dek Keenan

Photo: Matt Davidson


8/12


By William HastingsIn America, where our major book

reviewing outlets plaster novels aboutupper-middle class angst all over theirfront pages, Arab literature is a welcomemiddle nger to the dilettantes praisedhere. What modern mainstream Americanwriter is willing to risk citizenship, impris-

onment, or their life to say what shouldbe said? To stop making art for arts sake,but instead for the broken and lost? Cer-tainly, the American state is slow to stripthe citizenship of its writers, but thats notto say the inuence of advertising dollarsisnt helping to decide what the Americanreading public doesnt hear about. TheWashington Post, owners of the for-protKaplan University, needs federal studentloan dollars in order to draw students.Does that not affect what is excludedfromthePosts book review pages? In light ofthe governments need to justify never-ending wars in the region, why would it bebenecial for American readers to nd outthat the subjects of Arab books have muchmore in common with them than they aretold to believe? A Syrian cab driver work-ing for $60 a month in Kuwait is grindinghimself to dust for pennies. Thats not anydifferent than the immigrant cabbies ofBaltimore, San Francisco, or New York.To review works such as Alaa Al-Aswanysmasterpiece, The Yacoubian Building,or Nobel Laureate Naguib Mahfouzsclassic, Midaq Alley, would be to showthe desperate masses in our ghettos thatthe ghettos of Cairo arent much differ-ent. There has also been no coverage ofAl-Aswanys latest book, On the State ofEgypt: What Made the Revolution Inevi-table. This is not surprising consideringthat in it he writes: Tahrir Square becamelike the Paris Commune. The authority of

the regime collapsed and the authorityof the people took its place. Committeeswere formed everywhere. TheNew York

Times Book Review wouldnt go anywherenear that.

Not once since the Arab Spring beganhas any reviewing outlet in this countrygiven focus to Arab literature. That will-ful ignorance reects cooperation withofcial doctrine and helps to continue themanipulation of understanding and the

cutting off of empathy that is requiredto perpetuate two endless wars. It allowsthe American public to continue to seeArabs as the enemy: By not reading theirliterature we close our ears to their voices.

In the Middle East, state censorshipor control over the press has led writers,poets and playwrights to be the most force-ful group depicting and commenting onthe political realities of peoples lives, notto mention the effects of politics on the la-boring class. In doing so, these writers ndthemselves exiled, imprisoned, deported,assassinated or stripped of their citizen-ship papers. With the continued presenceof dictatorships and foreign intervention,it is no wonder then that modern Arabliterature is intensely political, in its bestcases without being bludgeoning, and fo-cused sharply on the downtrodden. Takefor example the rst great book of mod-ern Arab literature, Taha Husseins TheDays. In this three-part autobiography,Hussein details his struggle to rise up frompoverty and blindness to become one ofthe rst Egyptians to attend the Sorbonne.Truly the blind-seer, Hussein became a gi-ant amongst men of letters. More recently,Ibrahim Abdel Meguids The Other Placetakes a close look at the vapidness of thepetrodollar culture in the Arabian Gulf,focusing heavily on the desolation wroughton the migrant workers there.

While American ction is just begin-ning to explore the effects of globalization,

and even more recently the interactionsbetween the Muslim world and our own,Arab literature has been exploring these

themes for more than 80 years. It appallsone to think what things might be like hadwe listened earlier.

Arab literature is as diverse as thepeople writing it. The reflections andpreoccupations of Iraqi writers are vastlydifferent than the writers working inEgypt or Lebanon for example, though

our media would have us believe Arabsare the same everywhere. But as diverseand locally focused as it can be, modernArab literature is also marked by universalthemes, struggles and outlooks. Tewk Al-Hakims play The Fate of a Cockroach, while distinctly Egyptian, is a savagesatire of the shallowness of governmentand organized religion and a meditationon mans existential isolation. Likewiseis Ghassan Kanafanis novella, an uttermasterpiece, Men in the Sun, depictingthe psychological and moral struggles ofmen forced to smuggle themselves intoKuwait for work. While offering a hardlook at migrant labor, it also examinesIsraels effects on the Palestinians. Thebook, and Kanafanis writing in general,was powerful enough to have the Mossadassassinate him.

For obvious reasons, Israels creationlooms large over the vast diaspora ofPalestinian poets and writers scatteredall over the world. But this diaspora hasled to Palestinian writing absorbing theworldly tones of exile. This year, Mah-moud Darwishs Journal of an OrdinaryGrief, was published in the United Statesby Archipelago Press. The journal, one ofthree pieces of autobiography the Palestin-ian poet left behind, is a raw look at themassacres and destruction laid upon thePalestinians by the Israelis in 1948. Andyet, for all its blunt force trauma, it readsin a lyrical style that marks Darwish as one

of the worlds great writers. Thankfully hispoetry is widely available in this country.

The sheer volume and diversity of

Arab literature available in translationmay seem daunting, but that should be awelcome challenge to American readers.Because there is so much of it (thoughmore needs to be translated), there is thatmuch more to explore, that much moreto glean from. Since American coverageof the Middle East is paltry at best and

grossly misinformed at worst, it is moreimportant than ever to start reading Arabliterature. It is a way to disassociate fromthe ofcial narrative being forced uponus, and it is a way to begin understandingthese events from Arab eyes. A thoroughreading of modern Arab literature willprovide context for the events the Ameri-can media fails to cover properly. After all,Tahrir Square, despite what it was madeout to be, was not an isolated reaction tothe Tunisian uprisings. Instead, it was ir-revocably tied into the 2008 general strikelaunched by textile workers in Mahalla.And what of our continued petroleumuse without questioning the cultural ef-fects of this usage? Abdelrahman Munifsevisceration of this in his Cities of Salttrilogy is the long needed emetic. Onecould also look at Ahlem MosteghanemisMemories of the Flesh or Joumana Had-dads magazine Jasad to utterly destroyour false notions of Arab female timidity.Beyond all of this though, there are worksin Arab literature that are hallmarks ofworld letters, and it is high time that theybe admitted into The Canon.

In the coming months, these booksand others will receive their critical duehere and on theIndustrial Worker BookReview website, http://www.iwwbookre-view.com, as they have been purposefullyignored for too long. Perhaps then, of-cial narratives will be broken down andthe major book reviewing outlets in this

country can be shown for what they are:mouthpieces of a wealthy few, totally ig-norant of the struggles of millions.

Industrial Worker Book Review

Youve Been Made Deaf And Blind: A Brief Look At Arab Literature

By William HastingsEric Miles Williamson will be writing

a monthly column, Industrial Strength,for the newIndustrial Worker Book Re-view. Williamson is now a professor ofEnglish at the University of Texas, PanAmerican. A director for the NationalBook Critics Circle, he is also the ctioneditor for The Texas Review, a senior edi-tor at Boulevardand an associate editorat The American Book Review. He is theauthor of four books of ction and a book

of criticism. A second collection of criti-cism is forthcoming from Texas ReviewPress, Say it Hot: Essays on Writers Liv-ing, Dying and Dead. For the inauguralIndustrial Strength column we presentan excerpt of an interview conducted withWilliamson by theIndustrial Worker BookReview, the rest of which can be found athttp://www.iwwbookreview.com.

Industrial Worker Book Review:Youhave labored as a gunite worker, cementmason, professional trumpet player, andlongshoreman amongst other things. Atwhat point did you say writer and beginpushing yourself toward it? Why, whenso many choose not to, did you claw your

way out of destitution and struggle? Howcan others do it?

Eric Miles Williamson: I get askedvariations on a theme of this question of-ten, I suppose because its a good question.

I never wantedto be a writer, neverset out to become a writer, and, eventoday, with six published books and an-other on the way, I still dont considermyself a writer. Im a college professor.My university, the University of Texas,Pan-American, gives me a paycheck and benets, not my books. What happenedwas this: I was a union laborer with Labor-ers Local Union #304 in Oakland, Calif.,working as a guniter, shooting walls andditches and so forth, when one day the

foremans son pulled a knife on me. I had

a shovel in my hand, and in my world,shovel beats knife. I clubbed him upsidethe head with it, and his daddy red me.Thats when I decided to go to college. Yousee, Id grown up in the Oakland ghettos,and I was sick of the constant violence.I decided I wanted to go to college; to become a musician. I was a really goodsecond-rate trumpet player. My father hadplayed in the Oakland Symphony beforehe married my mother, who divorced himand reduced him to bankruptcy and ruin

and a life working at a gas station, and Iwanted to be a jazz musician to rebuild thefamily heritage.

I got to playing lots of gigs, but not thejazz I wanted to play. I played in Mexican bands: cumbias, rancheras, salsa, me-rengue. Then one night I was playing at apretty good club with a pretty good band,and the band had hired another trumpeterto play alongside me, an older man namedThomas Ledesma. When he played it waslike angels singing and warriors whoopingat the same time. It was beautiful, and Idnever personally been alongside someonewho played so well. It was then that I un-derstood Id never be anything more thana very good second-rate player.

About that same time my roommateat college, a now successful saxophonistnamed Tom Christensen, insisted I reada book he admired. I didnt want to readthe damned thing, Id always been bad atEnglish and bored by books, but one nightI started reading it, and I was so exhila-rated that I stayed up all night and nishedit. The book was Henry Millers Tropic ofCancer. Reading that book changed mylife. I couldnt believe that a writer couldsay things the way people actually talked.It was like sitting at a workingmans barin Oakland and listening to the men crankit up after a long day at work. So I walkedup the hill to the administration buildingand changed my major from Music toEnglish, took a creative writing course,

wrote a story, and it got published in a na-

tional journal (what is nowThe NebraskaReview).

I ended up working my way throughcollegespending summers guniting anddoing demolition while taking classesduring the rest of the year. When I got mydegree I went back to Johnson WesternGunite Company, and the boss took meoff the site and began training me as anarchitect so I could bid jobs, since I knewthe work from the eld. But Id also appliedto graduate school in Creative Writing at

the University of Colorado, and they calledand gave me a full fellowship: a graduatedegree for free. And the same happened atthe University of Houston.

So, in a way, writing chose me. I neverwanted to be a writer. Hell, I dont evenlike writing. I wrote so I could get freeeducation. I write because I feel worsewhen I dont.

So how did I climb out of the ghetto?I busted my ass on the construction sites,and I busted my ass in college, out-workingall the rich kids who never had to workat all because mommy and daddy werepaying their tuition and living expenses.How can other people do it? Work. Workas if youre working for more than just a

paycheck.Let me tell you something though: Idont consider the life of a laborer to bedestitution. The value of labor has beendevalued by our service and white-collarpush in America is all. A good plumber orelectrician is a more useful human beingthan a scumbag lawyer. What this countryneeds to understand is that nothing worksproperly without labor, the most digniedand necessary element in any society. Afarmer is more important than a doctor.Without food, we die. Without doctors,often we do just ne.

IWBR: Is the lack of an educated laboringclass a worse threat than broken unions?Likewise, is the laboring class defeating

itself by not voraciously reaching out and

educating itself, that is, recapturing thatwhich is being purposefully withheld fromthem?

EMW: Being educated has never inhuman history been a right. Beingminimally educated, since the onset of theindustrial revolution, has been a require-ment. Industrialized nations needed tohave a minimally competent work force,and a work force that was civically loyal.Hence, public education was sponsored by

the state. Not greateducation, butpubliceducation. The idea that public educationshould do anything more than produceresponsible and competent citizens soundslike something that would come out of themouth of a hippy.

Education is not being purposefullywithheld from workers. Theyre getting just the minimum of what they need toserve the society. Public education isntsupposed to teach kids to read Latin, itssupposed to teach them to read stop signs.Its not a conspiracy. Its perfect.

Workers, poor people, can becomeeducated if they want, now more thanever. The great books are available onthe internet, and there are plenty of sites

which inform people of which books theyshould read. Professors are not neces-sary. Im a professor, and the only thing Iactually do is direct students to the stuffI think they should pay attention to, andthey could get just as much from a book ora website, often written by someone whoknows much more than I do.

If a worker wants to be educated in away that is more than the public schools of-fer and nds himself not educated, then itsthat workers fault. Jack London educatedhimself at the Berkeley Public Library.I loathe people who think an educationshould be given to them. You want an edu-cation? Read some fucking books insteadof screwing around on Facebook, surngcelebrity websites, watching NASCAR, or

looking at p

Industrial Worker - Issue #1736, June 2011

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Transcript of Industrial Worker - Issue #1736, June 2011