Police attack IWW pickets at Insomnia Cookies

 

American police are famous the world over for there motto "To protect and serve" -I have no idea what my local police motto is or even if they have one- and its absolutely true police the world over exist to protect property and serve the established order. This why police are militarised and have there powers expanded whenever the status quo is threatened. Though there are some groups that due to there existence will always face aggressive policing, ethnic minorities, political oppositionists and of course Labour organisers. Especially Syndicalists like the IWW since there structure and aims make it difficult for government and industry to co-opt and incorporate it like they occasionally do with big company unions.



In the past Wobblies or strikes and demonstrations believed to be organised by the Wobblies were often met with live ammunition and fatalities. Today police repression continues but thankfully no shoot outs or bodies.


 From Boston IWW iwwboston.org/

Last night the Cambridge Police swarmed a totally legal picket of Insomnia Cookies, demanded we shut down our PA (which we did), then attacked, punched, bloodied, threw on the trunk of a car, threw on the ground and dragged away IWW member Jason Freedman who has been charged with disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and assaulting a cop. Jason sustained injuries to his back and arm. This was a completely unjustified attack on Jason, on civil liberties, labor rights and free speech. It was provoked (and lent legitimacy in the eyes of the cops) by a false report from the company that picketers were obstructing the sidewalk in front of the store. Feel free to register protests with Henrietta Davis, Mayor of Cambridge, at mayor@cambridgema.gov.

In response the Boston IWW organised even more pickets to promote the ongoing strike and protest the intervention by the police.

 This weekend the IWW held two separate actions in Harvard Square to protest the Cambridge Police’s 11/14/13 attack on our legal picket at Insomnia Cookies, where the union is conducting an organizing drive. Cambridge cops swarmed our picket, assaulted and then arrested a Wobbly — supposedly for assaulting them! Our Fellow Worker was punched, thrown on a car trunk and then the ground, and pinned partially under a car before being dragged away. This was a totally unprovoked attack on a legal picket on a public sidewalk. IWW members and allies protested in Harvard Square on Friday 11/15, and returned on Saturday 11/16, making the streets of Cambridge ring with our chants (“Cambridge PD / Stop the brutality!”), and letting community members know what local cops have been doing to suppress labor rights, civil liberties and free speech.

 

 

HOW TO HELP:
1) Feel free to register your protests over the police attack with Cambridge
Mayor Henrietta Davis at mayor@cambridgema.gov or by calling 617-349-4321.
2) To reach Insomnia Cookies' CEO Seth Berkowitz, and let him know how you
feel about his company's apparent complicity in police violence and attacks
on free speech, please call 877 632-6654.
3) For more information about the Insomnia Cookies campaign, find us Online:
https://www.facebook.com/insomniaunion http://iwwboston.org/

 

Jewish Flag not Gay

 

You may remember that Russia has passed a law banning what it calls "Gay Propaganda" and what that actually means wasn't clearly defined. The first person to be fined by this law was Anna Annenkov for holding a Rainbow flag.

At the time I explained that not only is this a deplorable violation the rights LGBT Russians but could potentially lead to the arrest and finning of others who had nothing to do with sexuality. I forgot one group that's part of the Russian Federation and that's people from the Jewish Autonomous Region which despite the name has a minority population of Russian Jews.


 This was causing the Russian authorities a number of headaches, do they make the JAR change its flag and cause a bit of a rift between Moscow and another border territory or drop the Rainbow Flag from the banned objects lists? Well aparently they took a third option, a team of "flag experts" examined the flag and declared it not Gay. No I'm not joking or exaggerating that's precisely what happened

“Obviously, the above described flag, the flag of the Jewish Autonomous Region, whose foundation is a white cloth, has nothing to do with that,” he wrote.
“This flag does not contradict the current law of the Russian Federation and so there is no basis to cancel or change it,” Vilinbakhov wrote.

your tax roubles at work comrades.

See the difference is that the JAR  uses an"extra" light blue stripe whereas apparently the "Gay Flag" only uses six. I don't know where they came up with this I have seen several variations of Rainbow flags with more then six stripes,but aside from being really strange all this does is provide LGBT Russians a nice loophole to the ban. Simply switched flags they look similar enough to apparently warrant an examination by experts so how's a cop on the beat supposed to know without careful examination.

Besides the Gays have already co-opted the peace flag AKA the original six stripe Rainbow flag. Still credit where credits due the expert does know that a Rainbow is supposed to have seven spectrum colours not six, which means he's as qualified as British nursery school child. Though I guess the the rhyme is a little different in Russia.


UK                                                                                                              Russian Federation
Richard                                                                                                                   Russian
Of                                                                                                                           Oligarchy
York                                                                                                                        Yelps 
Gave                                                                                                                        Gays
Battle                                                                                                                       Break
In                                                                                                                             Internal
Vain                                                                                                                         Victory


So the Rainbow flag isn't Gay, but Elton John is (shocker)

The reason for this campaign is the singer has publicly stated his intention to hold a protest in support of sexual minorities, as well as oppose Russian law,’ the band of parents have said.

  Let that sink in for a moment, this group is advocating a ban on Elton John, not because they don't like his music but because he wishes to support Sexual Minorities. You know Western bigots get a lot of stick for their comments about LGBT people and rightfully so but most of them usually cloak there disdain by focussing on supposed acts that are deplorable, their campaigns against "homosexual propaganda" revolve around often false claims that such and such a person's acts constitute explicit imagery or something.

Oh and in addition to the parents group Elton John faces opposition from the Communist Party if he fails to were Cossack garb. Now I agree that performers and models can wear some very strange and frankly crap costumes on occasion but arguing that clothing can be classified as Gay Propaganda, or propaganda of any sort is absurd. And doesn't the Communist Party have more important things to worry about like the economic situation, the rise of Far Right groups, Putin's autocratic government.
 Nah, clearly Eltons wardrobe takes priority.


Apparently Condemning the the Holocaust and providing a tribute to its victims is also Gay by Russian standards.

The intention of the tribute was to also spread the message about not repeating past mistakes and ensuring something like the Holocaust never happens again.

But the authorities rejected the application, saying paying tribute to gay victims of Nazi Germany could potentially ‘influence’ children on homosexuality.

I don't know about you but seeing Schindlers List doesn't put me in the mood for sex of any kind with anyone. Russian Authorities had a choice here, either side with common decency and say forced exterminations of people is wrong (why should be irrelevant to the fact it happened) or the Nazi's. And they chose to side with the Nazi's.  Also bear in mind that in some parts of Europe and Asia like Russia Nazi like groups are not uncommon so the "it was all in the past" argument doesn't apply.

Well since the Russian government won't condemn the Holocaust in this instance I will.

 

The mortality rate for homosexuals incarcerated by the Nazis was, it appears, relatively higher, in the camps, then that of other persecuted groups. Researchers learned that the gays, marked by pink triangles, were a relatively small  minority in the camps but had a proportionately higher mortality rate than, for example, the more numerous political prisoners, who wore red patches.

 Rudolf Hoess, a high Nazi official, in his Kommandant in Auschwitz(1959), elaborately recounted how he attempted to "re-educate" decadent homosexuals by assigning them them to the toughest work details and by forcing them to visit prostitutes.

 Between 1933 to 1944 at between 50,000 and 63,000.

From  The Pink Triangle: The Nazi War Against Homosexuals.

1927: Colorado miners strike and Columbine mine massacre

Columbine Colorado seems to be one of those places that'll be forever tied to tragedy and bloodshed in the popular culture. I'm sure the words Columbine and Massacre got you thinking about the 1999 tragedy at the Columbine  High school when two students carried out a mass shooting killing over a dozen. But this is an account of another dark chapter in Columbine's history, this time set at the local mine. Those familiar with Labour history will know the gist of this story.

A dispute leads the mine workers to work with Industrial Workers of the World to call a general strike throughout Colorado. Scab labour kept some mines around Columbine open so it became the front line of the struggle. The mine owners relies on the police and the state militia to try breaking the strike physically.  Confrontations escalated until the miners were fired upon with Tear Gas and live ammunition resulting in fatalities.

Short history of a strike by miners in Colorado in 1927 and the massacre of strikers at the Columbine mine by the state militia. The strike lead to an almost complete shut down of the mining industry in the state.

For the fifty years prior to 1927, the struggles in the Colorado mines had been a flashpoint for labour relations throughout the mining industry and had been marked by many strikes, aborted uprisings and confrontations between miners and mine owners, and the state militia.
The presence of the state militia in many strikes of course made the coal mine disputes not only memorable because of the heroic actions of the miners, but also because confrontations, more often than not, led to the spilling of worker's blood.

One of the most well-known strikes of this nature was the Ludlow strike of 1914, where 17 workers and members of their families were murdered by the militia. The subsequent actions of workers across the state after the attack at Ludlow had created one of the largest uprisings by workers in American labour history, with whole towns being occupied by armed miners. However, although this history of labour unrest in the Colorado mines had brought about some gains for workers, the severe repression the miners faced had enabled their employers to, on the whole, ignore the miners' demands, so under these circumstances, conditions and wages had not changed considerably.
Another of the most well remembered strikes of the time was the mine strike of 1927, and the subsequent massacre of workers by the militia at the Columbine mine.

As they had remained since the late 1800s, conditions in the mines were deplorable, and large accidents often leading to scores of deaths were common. In 1917, 121 miners had been killed in an accident at a mine in Hastings, two years later 31 miners were killed in explosions at the Oakdale and Empire mines and in 1922 and 1923, 27 were killed in mines in Sopris and Southwestern. Individual accidents resulting in deaths were almost daily occurrences. Conditions of pay weren't any better, with many miners often being paid in scrip, money which was only redeemable at company owned stores in mining towns. Workers had to pay for their own tools, blasting powder and were not paid for "dead work", which was work that was not directly mining for coal, but important to the mine nonetheless, such as timbering supports to keep the mine safe.

Miners in Colorado had observed a general strike called by the revolutionary syndicalist union the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) in 1927 in support of the arrested anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti, who were executed in August of that year and later in the year, taking notice of the continuing discontent amongst the miners, the IWW called a strike of all mine workers on October 18.

The striking miners shut down every one of the coal mines in northern Colorado except the Columbine mine, situated just north of Denver in a small town called Serene, which was being kept running (albeit with a very slow rate of production) by 150 scabs who had been brought in on the promise of a fifty cents a day increase in pay. The imported scabs were housed in Serene, which had been turned into something resembling a fortress, with barbed wire on the fences and armed guards at the gates.

All in all, 113 mines across the state had been closed, with 13 still running. The majority of miners in the state were on strike, about 8,400. As in Columbine, the 1,750 scabs who were keeping the 13 remaining mines open were lured away from the strike by promises of increased pay and other such incentives. However, frequent mass gatherings on the coalfields in the south of the state brought more and more of the miners still at work out to join the strike. Picket lines were almost constantly harassed by the police, and arrests were frequent. Union halls were closed, often violently, and arrested strikers were moved from one jail to another to prevent access by IWW lawyers, while many were just driven to the state line and left there.

The imprisoned IWW members however, did not stay silent in the jails. A number of them participated in demonstrations from inside jails and on one occasion, workers from the Lafayette mine refused to leave a jail they had been placed in because, as they anticipated, that on their leaving they would just be replaced by more arrested miners. Since they had grown acclimatised to the cells, they thought it best to stay so as there would be no room for other strikers to be locked up. Another group of jailed miners even managed to convince their jailers to form a deputies' union to obtain better wages and conditions.

The local press launched frequent attacks on the IWW and the strikers from their pages, often using the diverse nationalities of miners involved in the strike to stir up racial tension. The IWW leaders were also often smeared, being described by one paper as "tramps with their pants pressed". By and large these attempts to discredit the strike failed, and the communities local to strike centres mostly ignored them.

In the south of the state, the company that owned most of the local mines, Colorado Fuel and Iron (CF+I), had been at the 'bargaining' table with the company controlled 'union' that had been in place since the Ludlow strike. The company union was granted a 68 cent a day increase and a resolution was unanimously passed by the 'workers representatives' to fire any IWW members on the payroll. These actions played a large part in breaking the strike in the south. The Columbine mine, still the only mine in northern Colorado remaining in operation became a focal point of attempts by the company that owned it, the Rocky Mountain Fuel Company, to break the strike in the north. After five weeks of strike action and economic stagnation for the mine owners, they became increasingly desperate to find a way to end the strike quickly, and many more police and National Guardsmen were drafted into Serene, bringing with them weapons including several machine guns.

Mass rallies had been held by workers outside the Columbine mine in Serene for several weeks and on the morning of November 21, about 500 miners and their families marched towards the north gate of the town. On their arrival, they were met by plainclothed militiamen with rifles, blocking the entrance to the gate, backed up by mine guards inside the town also armed with rifles and tear gas grenades. Upon being refused entry into the town and after a short discussion, the miners asserted their wish to enter, telling the militiamen that many of them had children in Serene's school, that they needed access to a public post office in the town and that they still had a right to hold rallies.
With the militiamen still refusing the open the gate, Adam Bell, a strike leader, approached the gate and was struck on the head with a baton. As he fell to the floor, the miners surged forward to protect him as he lay unconscious. Tear gas canisters were fired by the militia, and many were thrown back by the rushing miners. The strikers began to scale the gate and a battle soon ensued, with police beating the miners back and seriously injuring several people, including a mother of sixteen, while the miners fought back with rocks.

The militiamen and police sustained minor injuries, the general consensus of the day amongst the IWW men had been to leave their weapons at the union hall or at home. Eventually, the miners forced their way through the gate, and many began to scale the fences around the gates. The police retreated about a hundred yards inside the town, and fired into the mass of surging strikers with their rifles and at least two machine guns. The miners quickly scattered, but at least six people had been killed and more than sixty injured by the hail of bullets, several seriously. The miners also later claimed that not only were they fired upon by the retreated police line, but also from another machine gun positioned at the mine tipple on their flank, which would have created a devastating crossfire.
The massacre at Columbine was not the last instance of violence against miners during the strike, with two strikers being killed in Walsenburg two weeks later, as well as numerous attacks on pickets and union halls.

The owner of the Rocky Mountain Fuel Company, Josephine Roche (a liberal, who recognised the need for a union, so long as said union wasn't the IWW), brought an end to the strike several weeks after the incident at Columbine, declaring that the company union was to be affiliated with the American Federation of Labour, as well as eventually recognising the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA).

The UMWA, whose members had responded to the massacre at Ludlow thirteen years previously with such a stunning show of aggression against the Colorado mine owners and authorities, collaborated with the owners at the Rocky Mountain Fuel Company for token improvements in pay and conditions for years proceeding the end of the strike.

However, the backbone of IWW support in the Colorado mines had been broken by the companies, and the union would never return to such prominence in the industry again. Rather unsurprisingly, no militia or policemen were ever held accountable for the massacre at the Columbine mine, the only physical reminder of the attack being a small monument at the site of the shootings. However, the striking miners and the victims of the militia's bullets will always be remembered as the manifestation of decades of struggle in the Colorado coal pits, which, while having limited actual accomplishments, was one of the finest examples of mass working class action in American labour history.
From Libcom.org
PDF Version

“We’ve been robbed long enough. It’s time to strike” : Remember the 1916 strike on Minnesota’s iron range

Jeff Pilacinski takes a look back at a 1916 IWW struggle in northern Minnesota.

On Saturday, June 3 we remember the valiant struggle of over 15,000 fellow workers and through our continued agitating in 2006, carry their fighting spirit forward. This date marks the 90th anniversary of the great mine workers strike on Minnesota’s Mesabi, Cuyuna, and Vermillion Iron Ranges – a strike that threatened the economic grip of the U.S. Steel war profiteers and strained relations between several prominent Wobbly organizers and the union’s general headquarters.

After a large uprising was crushed with the help of immigrant strike breakers in 1907, Minnesota mine workers were poised to confront the steel trust once again. In a report to the Minneapolis headquarters of the IWW’s Agricultural Workers Organization dated May 2, 1916, one organizer had “never before found the time so ripe for organization and action as just now.” The appeal from one Minnesota miner in the May 13, 1916 issue of the Industrial Worker summarized the workers’ discontent best as “the spirit of revolt is growing among the workers on the Iron Range,” and that there was a need for “workers who have an understanding of the tactics and methods of the IWW and who would go on the job, and agitate and organize on the job.” Less than a month later, an Italian worker at the St. James underground mine in Aurora opened his pay envelope and raged over his meager earnings under the corrupt contract system, whereby wages were based upon the load of ore dug and supplies used, not hours worked. By the time other miners arrived at the St. James for the night shift, production at the mine was halted. All pits in Aurora were soon shut down as the strikers proclaimed, “We’ve been robbed long enough. It’s time to strike.”

40 striking workers from Aurora, along with their families, then marched through other mining communities on the Iron Range and discontent spread like wild fire. By month’s end, almost 10,000 mine workers were out on strike. Frustrated by previous experience with Western Federation of Miners and having been ignored by the Minnesota State Federation of Labor, the disorganized strikers appealed to the Industrial Workers of the World for assistance. Wobbly organizers, including the likes of Carlo Tresca, Joe Schmidt, Frank Little, and later Joe Ettor and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn arrived to help local strike leaders draw up a list of demands. IWW membership in the Metal Mine Workers’ Industrial Union swelled amongst the strikers with the following list of demands crafted: an 8 hour working day timed from when workers entered the mine until they were outside; a pay scale based upon the day worked; pay days twice a month; immediate back-pay for hours worked upon severance; abolition of the Saturday night shift; abolition of the contract mining system. With a majority of the strikers being non-English speaking European immigrants, IWW and local leaders conversed with the workers in their native language - from Polish, German, and Croatian to Finnish and Italian. This commitment to engaging workers in the language of their homeland was sustained through IWW publications and the Work Peoples College well into the 1970s.

Without asking for union recognition or IWW affiliation, the strikers closed the mines that shipped vast quantities of iron ore to plants producing the highly profitable materials of the great European war – iron and steel. This direct threat to wartime profits forced the employing class to mount an all-out attack against the striking workers. U.S. Steel companies on the Iron Range deputized 1,000 special mine guards and strike breakers to keep the picket lines open. Bloodshed soon followed.
In the town of Virginia (where the strike was headquartered), armed company thugs confronted a group of pickets holding signs of “One Big Union, One Big Enemy” and opened fire on them. When the smoke cleared, a Slovenian striker by the name of John Alar was dead from gunshot wounds. Despite city bans against mass marches, several thousand mourning workers marched from Virginia to the fairgrounds in Hibbing where speeches in many different languages urged the strikers to maintain the struggle and fight back in spite of company repression. With this show of boldness by the workers, the U.S. Steel bulls struck back and raided the Biwabik home of a Montenegrin miner in search of a “blind pig” or illegal alcohol still. Violence ensued, leaving one deputized strike breaker and a bystander dead. Philip Masonovich and his wife were arrested along with three immigrant boarders in their home. Within a day of the incident, a number of IWW organizers (who were at strike headquarters in Virginia during the scuffle) were also jailed on the grounds that they were accessories to murder. It was claimed that their impassioned speeches against the bosses encouraged chaos. Despite violent repression and with strike leaders locked up, the miners’ struggle pressed forward.

The mining companies refused to recognize any of the strikers’ demands and instead red-baited the workers by calling them IWW revolutionaries and vile anarchists in the newspapers. After futile negotiations between U.S. Steel and local businessmen/public officials in support of the strikers, the workers looked to the federal government to mediate. Mediation broke down, and with winter fast approaching, the Iron Range locals of the IWW voted to end their strike on September 17, 1916. Though heralded as a defeat for the workers, their bold confrontation struck fear in the companies, who by mid-October granted a few of the strikers’ primary demands. In November of 1916, only two months after the strike’s end, large wage increases were introduced by all of the mining companies. The bosses claimed these increases were meant for workers to benefit from wartime prosperity, but the IWW and even the otherwise hostile local papers realized what prompted this action. The Duluth News Tribune accepted that the concessions by the bosses were an “answer to the threat of a renewed IWW strike on the ranges next spring.”

Attentions then turned to defending those still in jail from the Biwabik episode. A large defense campaign was mounted, with support coming from the IWW’s AWO office in Minneapolis and other workers from around the country, including Eugene Debs. Shortly before the murder trials were to begin, a settlement was reached between prosecutors and attorneys speaking on behalf the IWW whereby Masonovich and two of his immigrant boarders would plead guilty to manslaughter, and all others would be released. Masonovich and the two immigrants accepted the offer with the understanding that they’d serve one year. However, the three were handed terms up to twenty years with parole eligibility after one year served. This outcome angered Bill Haywood, the IWW’s General Secretary-Treasurer for what he saw as a betrayal of the workers in exchange for the freedom of the Wobbly organizers. Haywood lashed out at Gurley Flynn and Ettor, who in turn criticized the IWW’s leader of withholding much needed defense funds for the case while transforming the organization into a top-heavy bureaucracy. Some say this tension led Tresca, Ettor, and Gurley Flynn to withdraw from IWW involvement. Whatever the organizational fallout from the legal settlement, the workers on Minnesota’s iron ranges continued to participate in IWW agitation, with many of the 1916 strikers involving themselves in the great lumber workers struggle the following year.
With the 90th anniversary of the strike upon us, Twin Cities and Duluth IWWs will host a public event on Saturday, June 3rd in the old Virginia Socialist Hall, where the 1916 strike was headquartered. The program will feature music, historical presentations, poetry, and the stories of area residents about the strike. The event is free and open to the public. Area residents with old stories from the strike or the IWW are encouraged to attend and share.

We gather to remember those who came before us, and also to celebrate the renewed organizing efforts on Minnesota’s iron ranges. Fellow Workers, we’ve been robbed long enough. We must continue to bite the hand that robs us of the products of our labor.
Originally posted: May 30, 2006 at iww.org
From Libcom.org
PDF Version 

Blog Action Day 2013

Courtesy of: http://www.blogactionday.org

Today is Blog Action Day (BAD), and since I have a blog and the liberal press has told me non stop how bloggers are21st century Che Guevara's and the laptop the new AK 47 why not take part? If you're unfamiliar BAD is a day where bloggers do what they do every other day of the year only around a certain theme. So its sort of like collective action.

This years theme is human rights and BAD has received backing by Unions to raise awareness of attacks on members and workers rights.Now I didn't know about this day until yesterday so instead of preparing something I've just taken a number of stubs I was working on and put them here so it'll be brief.

Uganda:
First some good news, the Ugandan section of the Industrial Workers of the World has successfully completed another in a series of fund raising initiatives to turn a good idea into a fully functioning branch and organising committee. In addition to successfully funding and completing a series of organiser trainings and establishing a functional office for administration and communication Ugandan Wobblies established a local producer for Union propaganda and local fund raising and purchased a motorcycle so organisers can travel to more remote parts outside of the cities.



This is pace of growth has been phenomenal, while the IWW has had contacts in Uganda for some time the actual work to establish an active presence in the country was started only a few months ago. Further information can be found on page five of the Industrial Worker.

Scotland:

In Scotland local Wobblies have recently formed the "Scottish Education Workers Network" that aims to build links between those who work in education, from porters to lecturers and students. Its early days but it has a lot of potential. Since education doesn't work like a business the lack of direct return for investment means universities will always be under pressure to "Make economies" i.e. cut funding.

And despite the student bodies famous history of radicalism student lead movements very really if ever come closer to achieving their goals. There's a couple of reasons for this, the first is simply that the Student Union isn't a Union its a social club, and an opportunity for corporate climbers to pad out their CV's with a flashy title. But since its the only organising body most Universities have its the one that takes the lead when things kick off. So its lack of experience often means the whole movement muddles about and then either fizzles out or breaks down into isolated and not very effective stunts and violence.

The ruling parties offices were occupied, and nothing changed. In other countries when that happens everyone has to learn a new anthem and hang up a portrait or two.

 And then there's the disgusting snobbery of students towards staff who aren't bearded Professors. Earn a wage without letters after your name and some students will treat you like a robot with squeaking joints. So naturally whenever staff or students are threatened there's little in the way of support from the other side. This is bad because in addition to limiting the potential support from the start and preventing some important experience being passed on it can open up a divide and rule strategy for the Administration. I know a few cases were staff strikes  where post grads and Doctoral students were used as replacement lecturers and assistants, and where porters have been used as extra security to remove demonstrators and occupiers.

So any initiative to organise the education sector and build links between the two groups is welcome in my opinnion.

USA:

I've got not one but two good news stories from America. In the city of Minneapolis (spelt that right first time) IWW members working for the Sisters of Camelot a "Non-profit"* food service for the community, have been in a long term strike due to the management (Who call themselves "the Collective") refused to recognise the Canvassers Union, and bring the canvassers into "the collective". Oh and they fired one the "ring leaders" for good measure. If you have no experience of charities beyond giving change to tin shakers this may surprise you. As someone whose work for and with a number of charities and "Social partnerships" I can tell you it doesn't surprise me that the boss or bosses of a charity act the same way as a CEO when there fiefdom is threatened.

Anyway while the strike goes on the Canvassers have decided to set up their own food sharing organisation to serve their community while the strike continues, since they used to bring in over 90% of Sisters of Camelot's funds and have experience in most of the roles required to run a food shelf.

 You maybe wondering why I'm including this in the "good" section since the struggle is still ongoing, well because in addition to the Canvassers maintaining a strong strike the establishment of a new food shelf means the local community will still be served, the Canvassers will now be receiving at least some regular funding for their families rather then depending on strike fund donations. And they are showing just how little use the boss and upper management types are in economic production. And the preamble of IWW does end with

The army of production must be organized, not only for everyday struggle with capitalists, but also to carry on production when capitalism shall have been overthrown. By organizing industrially we are forming the structure of the new society within the shell of the old.

Which is just what the Canvassers are doing, one box of fruit and veg at a time.

Are second feel good story from the land of the free, concerns the return of the IWW to the Railways with the Mobile Rail Workers Union. The MRWU represents workers at a specialist truck company that services the rail way network. The MRWU has resisting retaliatory suspending and won recognition by ballot, as well as forcing a safety investigation which validated a number of the staffs grievances.

Again a small start but a promising one, that workers would seek out the IWW despite its lack of name recognition and material assets is encouraging, as is the hard work that the MRWU have taken to defend themselves and their fellow workers at Mobile Rail. I look forward to my inbox receiving further promising updates in the future.


Now its time I'm afraid for the bad news.

Colombia:

Not really surprising to see this country in the bad column for Workers rights is it? This time the complaint concerns the arrest of Colombian Trade Union leader Huber Ballesteros Vice President of an agricultural workers Union. Who was busy organising a series of protests that grew into a general strike of Colombia's farmers which recently shook the Colombian government and forced them to rethink their controversial seed laws.

Here's what Labourstart and Justice for Colombia had to say
Colombia is the most dangerous country in the world to be a trade unionist. According to UN figures almost 3,000 trade unionists have been killed since 1986. In the first six months of 2013 at least 11 trade unionists were killed. State authorities are directly involved in many of these killings. In addition to physical attacks, imprisonment is often used to punish and silence trade unionists. On Sunday 25 August 2013, trade union leader Huber Ballesteros was arrested and imprisoned. Huber is one of Colombia's most recognised trade union leaders. He sits on the Executive Committee of Colombia's largest trade union federation, the CUT, as well as being Vice President of FENSUAGRO Agricultural Workers' Union and National Organiser for the union-backed Patriotic March movement. At the time of his arrest he was organising mass strikes across the country. His arrest is a clear attempt by Colombian authorities to punish him for his trade union activities and has been condemned by the ETUC and the ITUC. His release must be secured to send a clear message to the Colombian authorities that persecuting trade unionists will not be accepted.

Petition link


South Korea: 



The Korean government has given the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union (KTU) until 23 October to amend its by-laws to ban dismissed and retired teachers from union membership -- or face deregistration. Currently, the KTU's constitution allows dismissed workers to remain members of the union. However, the Trade Union and Labour Relations Adjustment Act contains provisions prohibiting dismissed and unemployed workers from keeping their membership and making non-union members ineligible to stand for trade union office, in violation of international labour law. Recently, the Ministry of Employment and Labour refused, for the fourth time, to register the Korean Government Employees Union for the same reason. The International Labour Organization and the National Human Rights Commission of Korea have repeatedly criticized these exclusions, and recommended the government amend its legislation in order to comply with international labour standards.

 Yes the South Korean government is gearing up for a fight with the Teachers Union to prepare for education reforms. The Union has two choices, either accept empowering administrations to fire teachers more regularly as once they've lost their contract they lose all protections and legal support. This will of course open the Union to a slower but assured demise as its membership haemorrhages with each round of redundancies. Or as seems likely the Union will resist meaning the entire organisation will lose its legal bargaining power.

Petition link to add your support.


 Canada:

 
 Crown Holdings, a U.S.-based multinational company, is one of the major metal container companies in the world, producing cans for beverage and food containers in 149 countries. Despite almost doubling its profits in 2012, Crown has launched its latest attack on workers in Toronto, Canada, where members of the United Steelworkers (USW) were forced on strike. Crown is demanding the elimination of a cost of living allowance, the establishment of a two-tier wage system, and the continuation of an already nine-year freeze on pensions. These demands came soon after Crown gave these union members an achievement award for their "dedication, commitment, teamwork and personal accountability." USW members have drawn a line in the sand and are leading the "Take-Backs No More" global campaign to stop years of Crown building its profits on the backs of workers. Unite (UK), the International Association of Machinists, and IndustriALL are building a global union network to stop Crown's attacks. Join the "Take-Backs No More Campaign" by sending a letter to Crown Holdings CEO John Conway.


 The classic, "You've worked much harder and made us much richer.... however we still need to cutback our outgoings so here's a wage freeze and forget your cover". If you've had a fizzy or alcoholic drink you've held some of these workers handiwork. Its also good to see some international solidarity, I have my criticisms of craft and business unions but its good to see them putting some of there dues money to good use. Of course I think the best network is the One Big Union model offered by the IWW but I must be honest and admit that'll be awhile coming.

Untill then I'll lend a hand and hope you do like wise.
Petition link



*There's been some controversy about this, apparently in 2005 they reformed themselves in a way that meant they were now profitable but kept the status.

1912: The Lawrence textile strike

The IWW in addition to pulling off some impressive Industrial victories against very powerful and ruthless opponents, from scabs and private Detective Agencies to the FBI and State Militia Wobblies have also had a big impact on culture. The phrase Pie in the Sky was popularised by the Wobbly song Preacher and the Slave, and they were early advocates of Direct Action while other Union groups stuck to delegations and appeals.

Another very prominent cultural icon that's tied to the IWW is the phrase Bread and Roses. Now they didn't invent the phrase, Rose Schneiderman coined it a year earlier in a speech but the phrase didn't become well known until the textile workers strike in Lawrence Massachusetts in 1912 when reporters noticed a prominent placard that read "Bread yes, but roses too" and as such the Lawrence Textile strike became known as the Bread and Roses strike. The IWW was a very active and important supporter of the Strike as the account below goes on to detail.

Picketers face off against the State Milita

A short history of the strike of 20,000 textile workers, mostly women and girls who included native and immigrant workers, which won big concessions over wages, conditions and hours for the entire textile industry

At the turn of the 20th century, Lawrence, Massachusetts was one of the most important textile manufacturing towns in the United States. The mills in the area were principally under the ownership of the American Woollen Company, which employed about 40,000 people. The Company's consolidation of thirty-four factories across New England had a yearly output of about $45,000,000. The dawn of the Industrial Revolution had allowed many employers to lay off skilled workers in favour of large numbers of unskilled, immigrant labourers who were working on average for less than $9.00 for a full week’s work. A large proportion of the work was done by women, and about half of the workers in the four mills in Lawrence owned by the American Woollen Company were girls aged between fourteen and eighteen.

The workers lived in small, cramped, and often dangerous tenement buildings and survived mostly on bread, beans, and molasses as their staple diet. 50% of the children brought up in these conditions did not survive to reach the age of six, while thirty-six out of every hundred men died before the age of twenty-five. As well as these inhumane conditions, workers had to contend with rent prices that were higher than rent prices in the rest of New England, and ranged from about $1.00 to $6.00 a week for the small apartments the workers lived in. 58% of these homes found it necessary to take in lodgers in order to be able to pay the rent.

The conditions in the mills became steadily worse before the strike began in January of 1912. With the introduction of a two-loom system, the pace of work became much faster for the workers, which in turn led to a series of layoffs and wage cuts for those that remained.

The skilled textile jobs in Lawrence were mostly held by 'native-born' workers of English, German and Irish descent, about 2,500 of whom, in theory, belonged to the United Textile Workers, a section of the conservative American Federation of Labor (AFL), although it is estimated only a couple of hundred of them were fully paid up by 1912. The unskilled workforce was made up mostly of Italian, French-Canadian, Portuguese, Slavic, Hungarian and Syrian immigrants who the revolutionary syndicalist union the Industrial Workers of the World... had been attempting to organise since 1907, they claimed over a thousand members in the area, but as with the United Textile Workers, only about 300 were regularly paying dues by 1912.

Following a reduction of hours from fifty-six to fifty-four hours a week to comply with new state legislation, a letter was sent from the small English speaking IWW branch to President Wood of the American Woollen Company asking how the new law would affect wages. Wood did not reply. Anger with the company increased when workers realised that a reduction of two hours pay would mean (as the IWW publicly pointed out) three fewer loaves of bread a week to put on the table.

Polish women in the Everett cotton mills were the first to notice a shortage of thirty-two cents in their pay envelopes on January 11th, stopping their looms and leaving the mill shouting, "Short pay, short pay!" Similar events happened throughout Lawrence and the next morning workers from the Washington and Woods mills also walked out, within a week there were 20,000 workers on strike.
The IWW immediately took hold of the strike and after a mass meeting, a telegram was sent to the IWW in New York, requesting that Joseph Ettor (an Executive Board member well known for organising in Lawrence) be sent to Lawrence to lead the strike. He arrived quickly and set up a strike committee, two representatives from each ethnic group of strikers sat on the committee and took responsibility for most major decisions. The meetings of the committee were also translated into 25 different languages for the immigrant workers. The strike committee decided on a set of demands it was to make to the American Woollen Company; a 15% increase in wages, a return to the fifty hour work week, double time for overtime work and a stopping of discrimination for union activity.
In response to the circulation of strike leaflets, the Mayor ordered out the local Militia to patrol the streets, and the city's alarm bells rang for the first time. The strikers responded with mass picketing of the mills, and the women of the strike adopted the now famous slogan, "We want bread and roses too!" The sight of mass picketing (which had never been seen before in New England) prompted a vicious response from the authorities and strikers were attacked with water hoses from the rooftops of adjoining houses, the strikers responded by throwing chunks of ice. Thirty-six strikers were arrested and sentenced to one year each in prison.

A few days after the strike began, Arturo Giovannitti (another well known IWW organiser) arrived in Lawrence to organise strike relief. Relief committees, a network of soup kitchens and food distribution stations were set up to help the strikers, and families received between $2-$5 cash a week from a strike fund.

Lawrence was the first time large numbers of unskilled, immigrant workers had followed the leadership of the IWW John Golden, president of the United Textile Workers denounced the strike as 'revolutionary' and 'anarchistic' and unsuccessfully tried to take the leadership of the strike away from the IWW and into the hands of the AFL in order to break it up. Failing this, the AFL offered token words of support to the strikers.

Less than a week later, dynamite was found in several places around Lawrence, and the press was quick to lay blame to the strikers. However, a local undertaker was arrested and charged with planting the explosives in an attempt to discredit the workers. He was fined $500 and released, President Wood of the American Woollen Company was implicated in the plot, but cleared by the court although he could not explain why he had made a recent large cash payment to the undertaker.

Contemporary cartoon from Industrial Worker depicting the bosses' brutality in Lawrence
On the evening of January 29th, a woman striker, Anna LoPizzo was killed by the police when they tried to break up a picket line, and, although three miles away at the time addressing a large rally of workers, Ettor and Giovannitti were arrested as 'accessories to murder'. They were refused bail and held for eight months without trial. The IWW responded by sending Bill Haywood and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn to take over leadership of the strike, and later, Carlo Tresco, an Italian anarchist, who was met by 15,000 strikers at the train station and carried down Essex Street to Lawrence Common, where he addressed 25,000 workers, each nationality singing the 'Internationale' for him in their various tongues.
 
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn organised for several hundred children from Lawrence to be temporarily fostered at supporters homes in New York for the duration of the strike, and on February 10th 120 children were met in New York by 5,000 members of the Italian Socialist Federation and the Socialist Party singing the 'Marseille' and the 'Internationale'. A few weeks later, ninety-two more children left for New York, and before going to their foster homes, were paraded with banners down Fifth Avenue. Troubled by the publicity this was creating for the strikers, the authorities in Lawrence ordered that no more children could leave for their temporary foster homes, and on February 24th when a group of 150 children were ready to leave for Philadelphia, fifty policemen and two militia companies surrounded the Lawrence railroad station. They took children away from their parents and threw 30 women and children into jail. The assault on the children and their mothers was all caught by the press, there to photograph the event. The matter ignited public outrage, to which Congress responded with investigative hearings into the matter, hearing many testimonies from the children of Lawrence.
On March 1st, the workers were offered a 5% pay rise, which they rejected. They then held out for another two weeks and the American Woollen Company conceded to all four of their original demands. Other textile companies soon followed, as well as other textile companies throughout New England who wanted to avoid a strike similar to Lawrence.

Poster calling for strike action in defence of Ettor and Giovanitti
However, Ettor and Giovannitti were still in prison after the strike had ended. The IWW had raised $60,000 for their defence and had campaigned for their release, holding demonstrations and mass meetings throughout the country. In Boston, every member of the Ettor-Giovannitti Defence Committee was arrested, and 15,000 workers in Lawrence went on strike for a day on September 30th to demand Ettor and Giovannitti's release. Swedish and French workers proposed a boycott of all woollen goods from the United States and a refusal to load ships heading for the U.S. and Italian supporters rallied in front of the United States consulate in Rome.

The trial of Ettor and Giovannitti took place in Salem, Massachusetts at the end of September and lasted for two months during which workers would wait outside the courtroom and cheer the two men as they arrived and left each day. They were both acquitted on November 26th, 1912.
The strike and subsequent struggle for the release of Ettor and Giovannitti lasted nearly a year. However, within the next few years nearly all of the gains fought for by the workers and the IWW had been chiselled away by the mill companies and there were drops in pay and conditions, and the installation of labour spies to keep an eye on the workers, leading to the firing of many union activists. The workers had won a temporary victory in Lawrence, but eventually lost all that they had fought for due to the bullying and intimidation of the American Woollen Company of union members, and the coming economic decline in the US.
Sam Lowry
Lightly edited by libcom.org
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