industrial worker - issue #1772, march 2015

7/21/2019 Industrial Worker - Issue #1772, March 2015

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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

Review: StaughtonLynd On War &National Identity 9

Celebrating (Working)Womens HistoryMonth 6-8

INDUSTRIAL WORKER

IWW Fights WageTheft At LondonLanguage School 5

M a r c h 2 0 1 5 # 1 7 7 2 V o l . 1 1 2 N o . 2 $ 2 / 2 / 2

Fired Hospitality Workers Fight Back With The London IWW

Romanian GuestWorkers OrganizeWith The FAU 12

Photo: London IWW

Montreal Wobblies Participate In Disruptive Action At Canada Post

London Wobblies join hospitality workers at a demonstrationoutside Friends House on Jan. 29, 2015.

By IWW MontrealOn the morning of Feb. 16, the IWW

Montreal, the Student Workers Union ofthe University of Quebec at Montreal, aswell as several other citizens, took part inthe disruption of a Canada Post distribu-tion center in Laval, Quebec.

This action in solidarity with postalwor kers is set in a current context ofstruggles against austerity, and in thescope of the campaign for a social strikeon May 1, 2015.

Many workers are directly confrontedwith the effects of budget cuts to healthservices, municipal employees, re ght-ers, postal workers, students and workersin the private sector.

Yet , res ist ance is organizin g itselfeverywhere. We will not let different gov-ernments (whether conservative or liberal)and the bosses impose their anti-socialmeasures on us. The time of a minorityenriching itself on the back of an impov-erished majority is nished.

Our unity allows us to wage a radical

struggle in the face of the bosses logic.This struggle must only grow.

The governments different budgetcuts will impact all services, as well asthe quality of public services. As a result,those suffering its everyday effects aregoing to be the general population. Theelimination of door-to-door postal servicesis no exception, since it will affect post ac-cessibility for those people who are older,single parents, or living with a disability.

These measures will also have im-mense consequences for the workers ofCanada Post, since the existence of theirjobs is equally tenuous. In consideration ofall this, we decided to show our solidarityand our anger in the face of the deteriora-tion of public services.

Against the bosses rules: Union Strug-gle General Strike! The IWW Montrealcalls for a mobilization towards a nationalgeneral strike on May 1, 2015. For moreinformation, please consult the MontrealIWWs website: http://sitt.iww.org.

Translated by Tristan W.

By the London IWWSince November 2014, the London

IWW has been supporting three zero-hourhospitality workers who lost their jobs atthe Friends House in London, headquar-ters of British Quakers, known ofcially

as the Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM). Theaffair, with its mix of insecure employmentcontracts, intimidating disciplinary pro-cesses, and union busting, goes to the veryheart of the contradiction between Quakertheory and capitalist practice: manage-ments solution to zero-hours contractswas to sack three workers employed onthem, two of whom were Unite, the unionworkplace representatives at the time. Asituation that should have led to intro-spection and action at BYM has insteadelicited only evasion and harm from seniormanagement.

Over the last few months, we haveheld ve well-attended demonstrationsoutside Friends House. At our rst, a largecontingent of BYM employees came out to

support us, and our actions culminated ina powerful, noisy demonstration on Jan.29, when we were joined by a six-strongsamba band. Workers, Quakers, passers-by and customers have been overwhelm-ingly supportive. In tandem, we have had

over 1,000 hits on our blog since it wentlive in early January, and have organizeda communications blockade in whichhundreds of emails were sent to RecordingClerk Paul Parker, the top boss at BYM.

So far, the bosses have displayed nodesire to reach a resolution; instead, theycirculated disingenuous information aboutthe termination of the zero-hour contracts.When we invited Paul Parker to come andmeet with us during our action on Jan. 29,he declined, citing his (and BYMs) rela-tionship with our recognized union Unite,which has been involved throughout andhas been supportive of our process. Un-fortunately for him, the Unite branch hasnow voted to support the campaign!

Continued on 11

Photo: LactivisteWobblies at the Canada Post distribution center in Laval, Quebec.

IWW Toronto Harm Reduction WorkersWin Pay For Fired Organizer

By the THRWUOn Jan. 7, two days before the end of

her six-month probationary period, IWW

Toronto Harm Reduction Work-

ers Union (THRWU) member S.was terminated from her job as aSenior Harm Reduction Workerat Syme Woolner Neighbourhoodand Family Centre.

S. was terminated immedi-ately and without cause, which isreprehensible but legal in Ontariowithin a probat ionary per iod.During her six months-less-two-days at Syme Woolner, S. hadadvocated for better treatment ofworkers and against discrimina-tion and disrespect of workersand service users. She was the

third person to occupy her position in lessthan a year.

Continued on 11

Photo: thrwu.orgIWW harm reduction workers.


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Page 2 Industrial Worker March 2015

AsiaTaiwanTaiwan IWW: c/o David Temple, 4 Floor, No. 3, Ln. 67,Shujing St., Beitun Dist., Taichung City 40641 Taiwan.098-937-7029. [email protected]

AustraliaNew South WalesSydney GMB: [email protected]. Laura, del.,[email protected]: [email protected]: [email protected]: nor [email protected]: P.O. Box 5842, West End, Qld 4101. Asger, del.,[email protected] AustraliaAdelaide: [email protected], www.wobbliesSA.

org. Jesse, del., 0432 130 082VictoriaMelbourne: P.O. Box 145, Moreland, VIC 3058. [email protected], www.iwwmelbourne.wordpress.com. Loki, del., [email protected]: [email protected] Canadian Regional Organizing Committee (CAN-ROC): c/o Toronto GMB, P.O. Box 45 Toronto P, Toronto ON,M5S 2S6. [email protected] GMB: P.O. Box 4197, T6E 4T2. [email protected], edmonton.iww.ca.British ColumbiaRed Lion Press: [email protected] GMB: P.O. Box 2503 Vancouver Main, V6B3W7. 604-732-9613. [email protected] Island GMB: Box 297 St. A, Nanaimo BC, V9R5K9. iw [email protected]. http://vanislewobs.wordpress.comManitobaWinnipeg GMB: IWW, c/o WORC, P.O. Box 1, R3C 2G1.204-299-5042, [email protected] BrunswickFredericton: frederictoniww.wordpress.comOntarioOttawa-Outaouais GMB & GDC Local 6: 1106 WellingtonSt., P.O. Box 36042, Ottawa, K1Y 4V3. [email protected],[email protected] Panhandlers Union: Raymond Loomer, interimdelegate, [email protected]: c/o PCAP, 393 Water St. #17, K9H 3L7,705-749-9694. Sean Carleton, del., 705-775-0663,[email protected] GMB: P.O. Box 45, Toronto P, M5S 2S6. 647-741-4998. [email protected]. www.torontoiww.orgWindsor GMB: c/o WWAC, 328 Pelissier St., N9A 4K7.519-564-8036. [email protected]. http://wind-soriww.wordpress.comQubecMontreal GMB: cp 60124, Montral, QC, H2J 4E1. 514-268-3394. [email protected] Regional Administration (ERA): P.O. Box 7593,Glasgow, G42 2EX. ww w.iww.org.ukERA Organisation ContactsCentral England Organiser: Russ Spring, [email protected] Department: [email protected]/Wales Organiser: Peter Davies [email protected] of Scotland Organiser: Dek Keenan, [email protected]

Legal Officer: Tawanda NyabangoLondon Regional Organiser: Tawanda NyabangoMembership Administrator: Rob Stirling, [email protected] Committee: [email protected] Regional Organiser: Northern Regional Organ-ising Committee, [email protected] Bar and Hospitality Workers IUB 640: [email protected] and Bargaining Support Department:[email protected] and Survey Department: [email protected]: Frank Syratt, [email protected] England Organiser: Steve Mills, [email protected] Committee: [email protected] Department: [email protected]: Matt Tucker, [email protected] of Scotland Organiser: Keith Millar, [email protected] Officer: Marion Hersh, [email protected] BranchesClydeside GMB: [email protected]/Wales GMB: [email protected] GMB: [email protected] & Wear GMB: [email protected]

Bradford GMB: [email protected]

Leeds GMB: [email protected] GMB: [email protected] GMB: IWW Office, SYAC, 120 Wicker, SheffieldS3 8JD. [email protected] GMB: [email protected] Midlands GMB: [email protected] GMB: [email protected] GMB: [email protected] GMB: [email protected] IWW: IWW Belgi/Belgique, Sint-Bavoplein 7,2530 Boechout, Belgium. [email protected] Language AreaIWW German Language Area Regional OrganizingCommittee (GLAMROC): IWW, Haberweg 19, 61352 BadHomburg, Germany. www.wobblies.deAustria (Wien): [email protected], wien@wobblies.

at. http://wobblies.at. www.facebook.com/pages/IWW-Wien/381153168710911Berlin: Offenes Treffen jeden 2.Montag im Monat im CafeCommune, Reichenberger Str.157, 10999 Berlin, 18 Uhr.(U-Bahnhof Kottbusser Tor). Postadresse: IWW Berlin, c/oRotes Antiquariat, Rungestr. 20, 10179 Berlin, [email protected]: [email protected]. iwwbremen.blogsport.deCologne/Koeln GMB: c/o Allerweltshaus, Koernerstr.77-79, 50823 Koeln, Germany. [email protected] a.M. GMB: [email protected], http://Frankfurt.Wobblies.deHamburg-Waterkant: [email protected]: [email protected]. www.wobblies-kassel.deMunich: [email protected]: [email protected]. iww-rostock.netSwitzerland:[email protected] IWW: [email protected] - Mental Health Services IU610 Cl inic: [email protected]: Heimssamband Verkaflks / IWW Iceland,Reykjavkurakademunni 516, Hringbraut 121,107ReykjavkLithuania: [email protected]: iw [email protected] IWW: 004793656014. [email protected]. http://www.iwwnorge.org, www.facebook.com/iwwnorge. Twitter: @IWWnorgeUnited StatesAlabamaMobile: Jimmy Broadhead, del., P.O. Box 160073, [email protected]: Gerald Lunn. 205-245-4622. [email protected] GMB: P. O. Box 80101, 99708. Chris White, d el.,907-457-2543, [email protected]. Facebook: IWWFairbanksArizonaPhoenix GMB: P.O. Box 7126, 85011-7126. 623-336-1062. [email protected]. www.facebook.com/iww.phoenixFour Corners (AZ, CO, NM, UT): 970-903-8721, [email protected]: P.O. Box 283, 72702. [email protected]

CaliforniaLos Angeles GMB: 323-374-3499. [email protected] IWW: [email protected]

San Diego IWW: 619-630-5537, [email protected] Francisco Bay Area GMB: (Curbside and Buyback IU670 Recycling Shops; Stonemountain Fabrics Job Shopand IU 410 Garment and Textile Workers IndustrialOrganizing Committee; Shattuck Cinemas; EmbarcaderoCinemas) P.O. Box 11412, Berkeley, 94712. 510-845-0540. [email protected] Francisco IUB 660: 2940 16th Street, Suite 216, SanFrancisco, 94103. 415-985-4499. [email protected] 520 Marine Transport Workers: Steve Ongerth, del.,[email protected] Printing: 2412 Palmetto Street, Oakland94602. 510-482-4547. [email protected] Jose: [email protected], www.facebook.com/SJSV.IWWColoradoDenver GMB: c/o Hughes, 7700 E. 29th Avenue, Unit 107,80238. 303-355-2032. [email protected]: John W., del., 914-258-0941. [email protected] DC GMB: P.O. Box 1303, 20013. 202-630-9620. [email protected]. www.dciww.org, www.facebook.com/dciwwFloridaDaytona Beach: 386-316-8745. [email protected]. www.facebook.com/pages/Daytona-Beach-

IWW/133648520173882

Gainesville GMB: c/o Civic Media Center, 433 S. Main St.,32601. Robbie Czopek, del., 904-315-5292, [email protected], ww w.gainesvilleiww.orgHobe Sound: P. Shultz, 8274 SE Pine Circle, 33455-6608.772-545-9591, [email protected] Florida GMB: P.O. Box 370457, 33137. 305-894-6515. [email protected], http://iwwmiami.wordpress.com. Facebook: Miami IWWSt. Augustine: C/O The Lincolnville Public Library, 97 M LKing Ave., St. Augustine, 32084. [email protected]. www.facebook.com/StAugustineIWWTallahassee: www.facebook.com/IwwTallahasseeGeorgiaAtlanta GMB: P.O. Box 5390, 31107. 678-964-5169,[email protected], www.atliww.orgIdahoBoise: Ritchie Eppink, del., P.O. Box 453, 83701. 208-371-9752, [email protected]

IllinoisChicago GMB: P.O. Box 15384, 60615. 312-638-9155,[email protected]

IndianaIndiana GMB: [email protected]. Facebook:Indiana IWWIowaEastern Iowa IWW: 319-333-2476. [email protected] GMB: P.O. Box 1462, 66044. 816-875-6060Wichita: Richard Stephenson, del., [email protected] GMB: Mick Parsons, Secretary Treasurer,[email protected]. 502-658-0299LouisianaLouisiana IWW: John Mark Crowder, del, [email protected]. https://www.facebook.com/groups/iw-wofnwlouisiana/MaineMaine IWW: 207-619-0842. [email protected], www.southernmaineiww.org

MarylandBaltimore GMB: P.O. Box 33350, 21218. [email protected] Area GMB: P.O. Box 391724, Cambridge, 02139.617-863-7920, [email protected], www.IW-WBoston.orgWestern Mass. Public Service IU 650 Branch: IWW, P.O.Box 1581, Northampton, 01061

MichiganDetroit GMB: 4210 Trumbull Blvd., 48208. [email protected] Rapids GMB: P.O. Box 6629, 49516. [email protected] Rapids Bartertown Diner and Rocs Cakes: 6Jefferson St., 49503. [email protected], www.bartertowngr.comCentral Michigan: 5007 W. Columbia Rd., Mason 48854.517-676-9446, [email protected] IWW: P.O. Box 3232, 55803. [email protected] Country Food Alliance: 2104 Stevens Ave S, Min-neapolis, 55404. 612-568-4585. www.northcountry-foodalliance.orgPedal Power Press: P.O. Box 3232 Duluth 55803.www.pedalpowerpress.comPhoenix Mental Health, P.L.C.: FW Jeffrey Shea Jones,3137 Hennepin Ave. S., #102, Minneapolis, 55408.612-501-6807

Red River GMB: [email protected], [email protected] Cities GMB: 3019 Minnehaha Ave. South, Suite 50,Minneapolis, 55406. [email protected] Kansas City IWW: P.O. Box 414304, Kansas City,64141. 816-875-6060. 816-866-3808. [email protected]. Louis IWW: P.O. Box 63142, 63163. Secretary: [email protected]. Treasurer [email protected] Workers IU 330: Dennis Georg, del., 406-490-3869, [email protected] IWW: Diane Keefauver, 1250 34th Street #D202,59801. 406-531-0601Two Rivers IWW: Jim Del D uca, del., 106 Paisley Court,Apt. I, Bozeman 59715. 406-599-2463. [email protected] a GMB: P.O. Box 27811, Ralston, 68127. [email protected]. ww w.nebraskaiww.orgNevadaReno GMB: P.O. Box 12173, 89510. Paul Lenart, del.,775-513-7523, [email protected] 520 Railroad Workers: Ron Kaminkow, del., P.O. Box2131, Reno, 89505. 608-358-5771. ronkaminkow@

yahoo.com

New JerseyCentral New Jersey GMB: P.O. Box 10021, New Bru ns-wick, 08906. 732-692-3491. [email protected] Ratynski, del., 908-285-5426. www.newjerseyiww.orgNew MexicoAlbuquerque GMB: 505-569-0168, [email protected] YorkNew York City GMB: 45-02 23rd Street, Suite #2, LongIsland City,11101. iw [email protected]. w ww.wobblycity.orgStarbucks Campaign: i [email protected],www.starbucksunion.orgSyracuse IWW: [email protected] NY GMB: P.O. Box 77, Altamont, 12009. 518-861-5627. [email protected] IWW: Brendan Maslauskas Dunn, del., 315-240-3149.

North CarolinaGreensboro: 336-279-9334. [email protected] DakotaRed River GMB: [email protected], [email protected] GMB: c/o Riffe, 4071 Indianola Ave., Colum-bus, 43214. [email protected] Ohio GMB: P.O. Box 1096, Cleveland, 44114.440-941-0999Ohio Valley GMB: P.O. Box 6042, Ci ncinnati 45206, 513-510-1486, [email protected] Patches Screenprinting: [email protected] IWW: 539-664-6769. [email protected] GMB: Ed Gunderson, del., 541-743-5681. [email protected], www.iwwlane.orgPortland GMB: 2249 E Burnside St., 97214, 503-231-5488. [email protected], portlandiww.orgPrimal Screens Screen Printing: 1127 SE 10th Ave.#160 Portland, 97214. 503-267-1372. [email protected] IWW: P.O. Box 352, 17608. 717-559-0797.

[email protected] Valley GMB: P.O. Box 1477, Allentown, 18105-1477. 484-275-0873. [email protected]. facebook.com/lehighvalleyiwwPaper Crane Press IU 450 Job Shop: 610-358-9496. [email protected], www.papercranepress.comPittsburgh GMB: P.O. Box 5912,15210. [email protected] IslandProvidence GMB: P.O. Box 23067, 02903. [email protected] IWW: Jonathan Beasley, del., 218 S 3rdSt. Apt. 7-6, Clarksville, 37040. [email protected]: Gus Breslauer, del., [email protected]: Houston IWWRio Grande Valley, South Texas IWW: P.O. Box 5456McAllen, Texas 78502. Greg, del., 956-278-5235 orMarco, del., 979-436-3719. [email protected]. www.facebook.com/IWWRGVUtahSalt Lake City GMB: P.O. Box 1227, 84110. 801-871-9057. [email protected]: John MacLean, del., 802-540-2561Virginia

Richmond IWW: P.O. Box 7055, 23221. [email protected], ww w.richmondiww.orgWashingtonBremerton: Gordon Glick, d el., [email protected] GMB: [email protected]. Facebook: Whatcom-SkagitIWWSeattle GMB: 1122 E. Pike #1142, 98122-3934. 206-429-5285. [email protected]. www.seattleiww.org,www.seattle.netSpokane: P.O. Box 30222, 99223. [email protected] GMB: P.O. Box 2442, 53701-2442. www.madison.iww.orgIUB 560 - Communications and Computer Workers: P.O.Box 259279, Madison 53725. 608-620-IWW1. [email protected]. www.Madisoniub560.iww.orgLakeside Press IU 450 Job Shop: 1334 Williamson,53703. 608-255-1800. Jerry Chernow, del., [email protected]. w ww.lakesidepress.orgMadison Infoshop Job Shop:1019 Williamson St. #B,53703. 608-262-9036Railroad Workers IU 520: 608-358-5771. [email protected] GMB: P.O. Box 342294, 53234. [email protected]. 630-415-7315

Northwoods IWW: P.O. Box 452, Stevens Point, 54481

IWW directoryIndustrial WorkerThe Voice of Revolutionary

Industrial Unionism

ORGANIZATION

EDUCATION

EMANCIPATION

Ofcial newspaper of the

INDUSTRIALWORKERS

OFTHEWORLD

Post Ofce Box 180195

Chicago, IL 60618 USA

773.728.0996 [email protected]

GENERALSECRETARY-TREASURER:

Randall L. Jamrok

GENERALEXECUTIVEBOARD:

K. Maria Parrotta, Michael White,D.J. Alperovitz, Drake Hoffmaster

Michael MoonDog GarciaJimi Del Duca, Elliot Hughes

EDITORS:

Diane Krauthamer & Nicki [email protected]

GRAPHICDESIGNER:

Diane Krauthamer

PROOFREADERS:

Maria Rodriguez Gil,Jonathan D. Beasley,

Don Sawyer, Neil Parthun,Skylaar Amann, Joel Gosse,

Chris Heffner, Billy OConnor

PRINTER:

Globe Direct/Boston Globe MediaMillbury, MA

Next deadline isMarch 6, 2015

U.S. IW mailing address:IW, Post Ofce Box 180195,

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ISSN 0019-8870

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POSTMASTER: Send addresschanges to IW, Post Ofce Box180195, Chicago, IL 60618 USA

SUBSCRIPTIONSIndividual Subscriptions: $18

International Subscriptions: $30Library/Institution Subs: $30/yearUnion dues includes subscription.

Published monthly with the excep-tion of February and August.

Articles not so designated donot reect the IWWs

ofcial position.

Press Date: February 27, 2015

Letters Welcome!Send your letters to: [email protected] withLetter in the subject.

Mailing Address:Industrial Worker, P.O. Box 180195,Chicago, IL 60618, United States.

Remembering Joe Hill This Year

May Day! May Day!

The deadline for announcements for theannual May DayIndustrial Workeris

April 3, 2015. Celebrate the real laborday with a message of solidarity! Sendannouncements to [email protected]. Muchappreciated donations for the followingsizes should be sent to:

IWW GHQ, P.O. 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

You can start to soapbox with a resur-rection story. Those are popular. Even themost diverse group of baseball fans areinterested in a good resurrection story.Tell them that Joe Hill was murdered bythe capitalist class on Nov. 19, 1915 andthat the Wobblies got eternal youth. ThatJoe Hill never gets old. You are not goingto be silent. You live.

For me, soapboxing feels good when

you start to pivot at your waist and yourngers start to drip. Some Wobblies candeliver an f-bomb with great, miraculouspositive effect. Most cannot. All Wobbliescan do the Wobbly doxologyhelp peopleremember something about their laborunions.

What I am saying is, this is the JoeHill centenary. When you plan out youryear and schedule your events, make sureyou know when and where you can soap-box. Prepare a lit tle. Youll want a stackof song sheets, posters of Ben Fletcherand Lucy Parsons and a selection of IWWmemoirs.

IWW Literature Department Coordi-nators have a row to hoe here. When you

plan to soapbox, IWW literature is on yourcoattails. It is about raising money for theunion. But more importantly, it is aboutputting the best of the IWW at everyonesnger tips.

Solidarity,Kenneth Miller

The IWW Bangladesh Working Group(BWG) will hold a conference call onWednesday, April 10, at 8 p.m. Easterntime. The call will focus on planning MayDay actions that highlight the struggles ofthe garment workers of Bangladesh, par-ticularly those who belong to the NationalGarment Workers Federation.

The BWG was formed two years ago,

with input from the IWW InternationalSolidarity Commission. The BWG issuesa sweatshop newsletter, The Black CatMoan, on May Day and on Black Fridayeach year.

To learn more and to participate in thecall, please contact Fellow Worker GregGiorgio at 518-861-5627 or ggwob56@

yahoo.com.

IWW Bangladesh Working Group To Conference April 10

Fellow Workers!Now you can

give recognition tothe story, essay, car-toon, or song thathas inspired youthis year!

The IWW Lit-

erature Committeeis seeking nomina-tions for the rst annual Working Writ-ers Contest. Submissions can be in thefollowing categories: workplace writing,contemporary labor or economic analysis,agitational cartoons, or songs.

We are especially excited to rec-ognize writing that was published in theIndustrial WorkerorSolidaridadbetweenMay 2014 and April 2015 (even if it waswritten by a non-member). Unpublishedpieces can also be submitted, as long asthey were written by members, during thesame time period.

P l e a s e s e n d n o m i n a t i o n s t owri tin gco ntes t@i ww.or g before June1. Recognition will be given at the 2015

General Convention. Good luck!

IWW Literature Committees

Working Writers Contest

Graphic: iww.org


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March 2015 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 wagesystem, and live in harmony with theearth.

We nd that the center ing of themanagement of industries into fewer andfewer hands makes the trade unions un-able to cope with the ever-growing powerof the employing class. The trade unionsfoster a state of affairs which allows oneset of workers to be pitted against anotherset of workers in the same industry,thereby helping defeat one another inwage wars. Moreover, the trade unionsaid the employing class to mislead theworkers into the belie f that the workingclass have interests in common with theiremployers.

These conditions can be changed andthe interest of the working class upheldonly by an organization formed in such

a way that all its members in any oneindustry, or all industries if necessary,cease work whenever a strike or lockout ison in any department thereof, thus mak-ing an injury 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 w ithcapitalists, but also to carry on produc-tion when capitalism shall have beenoverthrown. By organizing industriallywe are forming the structure of the new

society within 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 entirepopulation, 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 atruly international union movement in order to confront the global power of thebosses and in order to strengthen workers ability to stand in solidarity with our fel-low workers 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 is-sues to address and what tactics to pursue are made by the workers directly involved.

IWW Constitution Preamble

By Sean SwainX380847. Thats my membership

number in the Industrial Workers of theWorld (IWW). The IWW has been aroundsince 1905, making typical unions with thebosses and bureaucratic party nervous ,since the stated goal of the IWW is the

abolition of the wage system altogether,rather than reformist efforts to improvethe conditions of the owners and unionbosses. Unlike every other union duringits formation that sought to divide theworkers into trades, the Wobblies, as IWWmembers are called, had the ambitiousprogram of unionizing all workers intoOne Big Union and thereby put the powerinto the hands of all workers collectivelyto shut down the industrial productionsystem entirely.

Like the famed anarcho-syndicalistunions of Spain, the FAI (FederacinAnarquista Ibrica) and the CNT (Confed-eracin Nacional del Trabajo), Wobbliespromoted worker direct action. In the1910s and 1920s, Wobblies were targeted

with char ges of crim inal syndica lism,sabotage and sedition.

Yeah. It was treason to demand a fairshake, to imagine power wrested from thehands of Crapitalists.

Still is, of course.Afte r Fran klin D. Roosevelts New

Deal and the rise of the more reformist andindustrial friendly unions like the Ameri-can Federation of Labor and Congress ofIndustrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), theInternational Brotherhood of Teamsters(IBT), and the United Automobile Work-ers (UAW), the threat and the inuence ofthe IWW faded. Between state repressionand the major unions collaborating tosqueeze out the Wobblies, the IWW was

largely neutralized during a time when an-archists were evolving new strategies andapproaches that didnt necessarily involvethe seemingly impossible task of organiz-ing all the workers of the entire world into

Letters from Prisoners

Why Incarcerated Workers Should Join The IWWthe same union. But the Wobblies didnot go away. They didnt become extinct.Theyre still around and making a come-back, if you can call it that. Innovating tobecome relevant. The IWW is actively so-liciting prisoner membership, somethingno other unionapart from specically

prisoner unionshas attempted to do. Youdont see, for instance, the UAW or Team-sters organizing prisoners, even thoughyouve got Honda wardens at ManseldCorrectional in Ohio as just one example.Theres been a trend over the last 20 or30 years for corporations to outsourceproduction to prisoners who receive slavewages and lack the hea lth and saf etyprotections enforced in the so-called freeworld. Thats one of the driving engines,by the way, of the prison boom and theincarceration boomcheap laborleavingeveryone else sleeping in their cars.

Prisons are now third world colonies;fenced off and ready for exploitation. Whymove a factory all the way to Mexico orIndia when you can take advantage of slave

labor in Alabama prisons?Apart from simply keeping the repres-

sive machinery of the State operating, andthereby allowing the State to ratchet up therepression, prison labor is now an integrat-ed component of the global economy. Asan indication of just how essential prisonslave labor has become, in an Each OneTeach One interview with Anthony Ray-son of the South Chicago Anarchist BlackCross Zine Distro, I mentioned that if Ohioprisoners simply laid on their bunks for30 days the states entire economy wouldcollapse. It wouldnt simply disrupt theprison system, it would tank the statesentire economy, and it wouldnt recoverfor a decade.

In 2008, a year after I made thatobservation, the State attempted to getme transferred to a supermax (super-maximum security) prison. So, if there wasany doubt about my assessment of how

critical prisoner slave labor is to Ohios

economy, the States reaction certainlyconrmed I was right.

But prison authorities cant legallypunish union membership. The U.S.Supreme Court in Jones v. North Caro-

lina Prisoner Labor Union, Inc., made a

distinction between union membership,which is legally pro tected , and uni onactivity (like striking), which is not le-gally protected. And this is where theWobblies can become very effective atconsciousness-raising among prisoners,educating and radicalizing. Everyone canbe a Wobbly. And once all the prisonersare Wobblies and act collectively its toolate to put the proverbial poop back intothe donkey. The State can shoot us todeath but it cant shoot us back to work.And they cant put all 3 million of us in asuperdupermax either.

You know where 3 million Wobbliessit? Wherever they want to sit. If you havea friend or loved one locked up or you just

want more information, contact the IWWat 773-728-0996 or email them at [email protected]. You can write the IWW via snailmail at P.O. 180195, Chicago, IL 60618.Membership for prisoners is free.

Whereve r there is exploi tation letsgrind it to a halt!

This is IWW X380847 at Ohios super-max facility. If youre reading this, you arethe resistance.

This originally aired on The FinalStraw radio show and was publishedin The Incarcerated WorkerVol. 1 No. 1February 2015.

Graphic: Kevin Rasheed Johnson

There are nearly 400 members ofthe IWW behind bars. Help growthis effort. Create your own let-ter writing group, or get involvedin other ways by emailing [email protected]. Donate to your delegateor online at: https://fundly.com/the-incarcerated-workers-organizing-committee#. We cant do this alone.

Graphic: The Incarcerated Worker


4/12


What Does It Mean To Be A Wobbly?By Colin Bossen

Last year I interviewed StaughtonLynd a few times for an essay I am writ-ing on his religious ethics (given thatFellow Worker Staughton is a Quaker).During one of our conversations I askedhim what he thought of the recent essay,Wobblyism. I cant remember his exactresponse, or even if he had read it. But one

thing he said in response to my questionhas stuck with me. I paraphrase, Themost important theoretical question thatmembers of the IWW can wrestle with is:What does it mean to live a Wobbly life?What does it mean to com-mit yourself to 20, 30, 50years of struggle?

I have thought aboutStaughtons question a lotin the intervening months.It has particularly beenon my mind since I learned a couple ofweeks ago that my friend Federico Ar-cos was in the hospital after suffering aheart attack. Federico will turn 95 thisyear. A lifelong anarchis t and member

of the Spanish anarcho-syndicalist laborunion Confederacion Nacional de Trabajo(CNT), Federico has lived in Canada sincethe 1950s, when he ed fascist Spain. Bythe time he left Spain he had spent closeto two decades ghting and organizingagainst the forces of Spanish fascism,rst as a union militant, then as a militiamember, and, nally, as part of the anti-fascist underground.

Federico has never joined the IWW.The CNT, of which he is still a member, isa bit like a Spanish version of our union.It is committed to the vision that peoplecan run the world without bosses, cops, orsoldiers. Like other members of his union,Federico believes that working people

have everything that we need to create apeaceful, sustainable society. All we needto do is get together and organize. At thesame time, he is very practical. Since mov-ing to Canada he has been involved in theCanadian Auto Workersfor years he wasa tool and die maker at an auto plantandin countless efforts to create and sustainthe anarchist movement in Detroit, Wind-sor, and throughout the world. When Ithink of living a Wobbly life, Federico isone of the people I think of.

Commitment, love, and memory are

three important principles that he hasemphasized throughout the years that Ihave known him. It might seem odd, butprobably the most important of these islove. He believes in its transformativepower and often says, Life without loveis like a long death. Federico has quitea romantic spirit and was devoted to hiswife Pura until her death almost 20 years

ago. For him, love is what makes lifeworth living: not just the love one mighthave for a partner but the love that onecan have for ones comrades and for all ofhumanity. This love is what has sustained

across more than 80 yearsof struggle.

Throughout that timehe has remained com-mitted to the vision ofthe CNT and the ideasthat working people have

power to change the world. No matterhow harsh the odds, he hasnt given upon his ideals. This is an essential elementto the Wobbly life. I doubt that revolutionis coming anytime soon. If, and when,

things change for the better, it will bebecause people organized for and stuckwith their vision over decades.

As for memory, our union is morethan 100 years old. We embody the hopesof those who came before us. Theres astory that Federico has shared with methat I think expresses this well. On theday of the fascist coup in Spain, it wasthe workers who rose up in the streetsand resisted. While the governmentdid nothing to defend itself they seizedarms from the army and the police anddistributed them to the masses. WhenFederico went to the Anarchist DefenseCommittee to get his gun he was given anold rie and six bullets. He and his friends

demanded new weapons. They were told,There are people here much older thanyou who will need the newer ries. Whenthey die you will take their place. That isyour responsibility and our trust in you.

What is a Wobbly life? I admit thatI am still trying to answer Staughtonsquestion. But I think theres something instudying a life like Federicos. It providesa model for the rest of us to follow and areminder that, as Brazilian popular edu-cator Paolo Fiere used to say, We makethe road by walking.

Graphic: Mike Konopacki

By Patrick ODonohue

People need to stop making things aboutrace.

Agreed. Racist institutions and peopleneed to stop making things about race bytreating people of color unfairly. Until theydo, we should all point out their racism andcriticize them for it.

We need to come together, not be di-vided!

Yes, we should come together againstracism.

ALL lives matter!Agreed. So, when the police treat lives

as if they dont matter, we object. Whenthe police target some ethnic groups, suchas black people or Native Americans, fordisproportionate abuse, we point out thatracist targeting. When police continueto summarily execute black people andget away with it over and over, and treatblack lives as if they do not matter, it isappropriate for us all to say, Black livesmatter!because all lives matter.

Irish-Americans were persecuted, too.Many decades ago, but agreed. Thats

why Irish-Americans should stand on theside of people who are currently going

through discrimination similar to whatour ancestors went through. Same goesfor people whose ancestors were Italian,German, Jewish, Slavic, Spanish, or anyother ethnicity thatfaced discriminationwhen they rst cameto America. Really,the same goes forall of us.

All this race stuffj u s t d i v i d e s u sagainst the realproblems like classand governmentabuses of power.

Agreed. Racismhas historically been used to keep ex-ploited and governed populations fromworking together against their commoninterests. As such, racism is a supportingpillar maintaining the power of class andthe state. Instead of allowing racism tofool us into supporting the institutions ofthe state and of class, we should unite withpeople of color against those institutionsand against the racism that upholds them.

White people get killed by the police, too!This is true. We get killed at a much

lower rate, and the media doesnt demon-

ize the white victims of police brutality tonearly the same degree that black victimsof police brutality get demonized, butyes: white people get killed by the po-

lice, tooespeciallywhite qu ee r, me n-tally ill, homeless, orworki ng- cla ss peo -ple. These aspects ofpolice discriminationshould be discussed,just like the racial as-pect should beand,of course, every sum-mary execution bythe police should becondemned. The de-mands that the Black

Lives Matter movement is makingde-mands like body cameras, independentinvestigations of police violence, commu-nity oversight of the police, and an end tobroken windows policing and the drugwarare demands that will help all victimsof police brutality, regardless of our race.

Youre inconveniencing people!Thats the point of civil disobedi-

encewe aim to make it impossible tocontinue ignoring the problem of policebrutality and racism. We aim to make ourmovement a constant problem for those

in power and for those who have ignoredthe problem, because we have seen thatpolitely asking for the State to please stopsummarily executing people doesnt work.If you only support social change when itsconvenient, non-disruptive, and doesntinterrupt business as usual, then you dontsupport social change at all. Change isdisruptive by denition.

You protestors are breaking the law!This may be so, but the law is breaking

human beings and communities every day.The law targets working-class people andpeople of color through mass incarcerationin a racially-targeted drug war, brokenwindows policing that gives unforgivingpunishment for minor offenses, and poli-cies of minimum sentencing. The law oper-ates as a back-door tax on the communitiesthe police target, and as a way to funnelpeople into prisons to be used as cheaplabor. The law covers for the police whenthe police murder unarmed people. We areabsolutely breaking the law, and hope tobreak it so thoroughly it can no longer beused to target and oppress working-classpeople and people of color.

This piece was originally published inThe Organizer, a blog of the Twin CitiesIWW, on Jan. 16, 2015.

Addressing Some Common Objections

To The Black Lives Matter Movement

Photo: rolereboot.org


5/12


Wobbly & North American News

By Jerome BaxterAs part of their continu-

ing campaign targeting theirwage-stealing boss, workersat the Leicester Square Schoolof English (LSSE), supportedby the Angry Language Bri-gade and the IWW, held anearly morning picket outside

the Drapers Hall in the Cityof London on Feb. 16.

Workers chose to targetthe Drapersonce a mastercraftsmens guild, now littlemore than an elite businessclubbecause their boss,LSSE owner Craig Tallents,is a noteworthy member. Infact, an earlier action causedTallents to resign as a gov-ernor from the BancroftsAcademya position he attained throughnomination by the Drapers.

Workers are ghting for thousands ofpounds in unpaid wages resulting fromthe Tallents decision to permanently shut

down the school over Christmas withoutinforming staff or students. To be moreprecise, one teacher received a letter in-forming her that the school was shuttingdown. The other two teacherswho wereon illegal self-employed contractsdidntget as much as an email or a phone call,never mind a letter.

Apart from effectively stealing holidaypay, notice pay, and straight-up unpaidwages, Tallents allowed newly arri vedinternational students to arrive at a closedschool unable to provide the lessons andaccommodation theyd been promised. Ifit hadnt been for the staffat that timeoccupying the school buildingthesevulnerable students, some with very littleEnglish-speaking abilities, would haveliterally been left out in the cold.

Ensuring they caught the morningrush hour, workers arrived to the DrapersHall bright and early. Donning hi-vis IWWjackets and carrying ags and banners, theworkers quickly made themselves noticed.

As theyd chosen to install themselves onthe privately-owned Throgmorton Avenue,they were soon asked to leave on threat ofthe police being called.

After protesters made it clear they

wouldnt be moving, the Drapers Hallsecurity took the interesting decision ofrst closing and then locking the gates ateach end of Throgmorton Avenue, leavingthe picketers barred inside.

While the picket had already garneredconsiderable interest from both passersbyand local ofce workers, the shutting downof this usually busy passageway onlyserved to dramatically increase the vis-ibility and effectiveness of the picket.And despite the fact their morning wasbeing disrupted, passing commuters werealmost unanimously supportive.

Once the police had arrived and work-ers were released from their enforcedstreet occupation, they set up in the frontof the building to nish off the picket andsnap some pictures.

As part of the campaign, workers havealready occupied their unused schoolbuilding, caused Tallents to take down thewebsite of his company Asparagus Con-sulting, and held a series of rowdy pickets.

Wobblies Help Spread Berry BoycottBy X331980

The Sakuma BrothersFarms, Inc. berry boycottcampaign spread to yet an-other grocery store in Bell-ingham, Wash. on Feb. 21.A large group of Wobs andfriends picketed a HaggenFoods grocery store on behalf

of the Familias Unidas por laJusticia farm workers union.This was the first of theseboycott pickets organized bythe Whatcom-Skagit IWW,and it drew a good crowd.A large, bright red BoycottBerries banner attractedattention from the busy street in frontof the store. Others picketed on the busystreet corner two blocks down. Somepicketers held signs supporting the na-tionwide boycott of Driscolls berries andHagen-Dazs ice cream, large purchasersof berries grown at Sakuma Farms in Bur-lington, Wash. Some signs urged driversto honk if they supported farm worker

justice and drivers did. Others leaetedcustomers entering the parking lot withinformation about the boycott. Similarpickets occur frequently in Bellingham,Mount Vernon, Burlington, and Seattle,organized by various groups supporting

Familias Unidas. There is a need to spreadthese pickets to groceries everywhereDriscolls berries and Hagen-Dazs icecream are sold. Contact the Whatcom-Skagit IWW for information (see theIWDirectory on page 2).

The migrant farm workers at SakumaBrothers Farms organized themselvesinto an independent farm workers union

in 2013, and have since held six strikesfor better conditions and higher pay.Courts have so far upheld all lawsuits theworkers have brought against the farmcorporation, but management has yet torecognize the union or agree to negotiate.

IWW Tackling Wage Theft In London

Wobs Support Striking Refinery WorkersByX331980

Striking refinery work-ers and numerous supportersmarched at the gates at the Tes-oro renery in Anacortes,Wash.on Feb. 7. Among the 100 orso picketers at the main gatewere members of the Whatcom-Skagit General MembershipBranch (GMB), who serenadedthe crowd with good ol Wob-bly songs , perhaps somewhatoff-key. TheSkagit Valley Her-alds Feb. 8th edition carried afront-page photo of some of theWhatcom-Skagit Wobs and their banneramong the supporting unions at the picket.Picketing continues at the refinery (atpress time), with managers and contractworkers locked in behind the gates and

protected by county sheriffs. Wobs havebeen asked by striking United Steel Work-ers Local 12-591 to show up in shifts togive strikers a break from picket duty, andseveral we know of have signed up to do so.

LSSE workers picket on Feb. 16. Photo: libcom.org

Photo: Liisa Wale

Whatcom-Skagit GMBparades their banner on the picket line.

Photo: Whatcom-Skagit IWW

Trans-Atlantic Workers Focus On Same CompanyBy FW Bill B.

The Sheffield IWW con-tacted the IWW InternationalSolidarity Commission (ISC) inlate 2014 requesting aid in get-ting in contact with Marty of theInternational Association of Ma-chinists and Aerospace Workers

(IAMAW) in Klamath Falls, Ore.Klamath Falls organizers are inthe process of organizing Jeld-Wen Industries. The Shefeld,England plant had been an inde-pendent company but has sincebecome a Jeld-Wen division dueto a buyout. Working conditions havedeteriorated considerably since that time.

Fellow Worker (FW) Bill B. of thePortland IWW branch boarded the CoastStarlight train heading south. As thewinter sun sank early in the west, thetrain made its way through the wild andsnowy Cascade Mountains of Oregon.Cell (mobile) phone connectivity disap-peared, only to be restored as the trainapproached Klamath Falls an hour lateand just as the hands of the clock nearedmidnight. Bill and Marty arranged tomeet for breakfast the next morning.

The IAMAW was threatened with gunviolence by a Jeld-Wen manager whilepicketing on public property outside thelocal plant. It perhaps goes without say-ing that threats of that nature are illegal.Workers at Jeld-Wen receive strong anti-union indoctrination upon hiring and aretold that if a union representative speakswith them and they dont immediately re-port it to management, they will be red.Firing for union activity is also illegal.However workers in Klamath Falls arecowed and feel lucky to have a job. It isalso a small town and word gets around.

Dick Wendt, said to be very anti-union, founded Jeld-Wen in 1960. Hedied in 2010 and his sons began divestingportions of the company. Onex Corpo-ration, based in Toronto, recently pur-chased a controlling interest in Jeld-Wenand has moved some of its managementfunctions to North Carolina, including itsCEO. This was said to be due to the factthat the new CEO did not want to moveto Klamath Falls. It should also be notedthat North Carolina is much more hostileto union organizing.

A large manufacturing complex re-mains in the town and is one of its largestemployers. Bill and Marty drove aroundthe various factory buildings and tookphotographs of the plant and its sur-roundings. These include a golf course.The late Mr. Wentz was very interestedin sports and hoped to bring the winterOlympics to Klamath Falls. The Jeld-Wen name was on the Portland soccer(football) stadium for a number of years.

IWW members in Shefeld are anx-ious to work in concert with organizingefforts in Klamath Falls. Here is to a longand productive association!

Pittsburg IWW & MOVE Ban Together

By Carla Vianna,The Independent Flori-da Alligator

The controversial dis-

missal of several CitizensCo-op employees last yearin Gainesville, Fla., led toan almost year-long labordispute, but a much-antici-pated settlement is now onthe horizon.

An agreement to rehire four of the veworkers who were red last year has beenreached between the co-ops new board ofdirectors and the Gainesville IWW, saidThomas Hawkins, board chairman.

The tentative agreement would rehirefour of the ve workers, pay them a col-lective $10,000 and recognize GainesvilleIWW as their union.

The National Labor Relations Board

(NLRB) must approve the terms by March

16 or the labor complaintwill appear in court.

Hawkins said he is con-dent the deadline will be

met.The agreement would

end a dispute that began inMarch 2013 when seven co-op employees allegedly usedthe stores email database tosend out a message about

unionizing.Five of the workers refused to cooper-

ate with an internal investigation and wereconsequently red. The dismissed workersthen led a complaint with the NLRB ac-cusing the co-op of ring them for wantingto unionize.

This story appeared in its originalversion in The Independent Florida Al-ligatoron Jan. 26, 2015. It was reprinted

with permission from the author.

Co-op In Gainesville Rehires Fired IWW Workers

Jeld-Wen production facilities inKlamath Falls.

Photo: FW Bill B.

By Martin ZherWobblies Jeff Cummings (far right)

and Martin Zehr (far left), joined with

MOVE activist Pam Africa and rappersin fundraising at the New Bohemian inPittsburgh, Pa. for the legal defense ofthe Dallas 6, a group of incarceratedworkers facing prosecution for exposinginhumane practices of the PennsylvaniaDepartment of Corrections. For moreinformation, see http://bit.ly/11OL24x.

Get in touch with the Dallas 6 cam-paign through [email protected] or412-403-6101.Photo: 1Hood Media

Photo: southernmaineiww.org

Wobblies demonstrate on Feb. 21.


6/12


Womens History Month

Portrait Of Penny Pixler, Feminist And WobblyBy Patrick Murfn

I was stunned and attered when NickiMeier asked me to prole my old friendand Fellow Worker Penny Pixler for thisspecial womens issue of the IndustrialWorker (IW). I was a bit intimidated too.I havent been asked to contribute to thepaper I once helped edit for over three

decades, and I fretted how some mightrespond to a man proling one of the lead-ing Wobbly women of the last 40 someodd years. Mostly I fretted about how topaint a human portrait that transcendedbiography or a hagiographic obituary. Istarted and stopped half a dozen times.

Then I went to see the lm Selma theother night, and it all became clear. As youprobably know, the movie tells the tale ofthe 1963 voting rights drive in Selma, Ala.and revolves around the charismatic pres-ence of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.But it was not a movie about King, no mat-ter how much screen time he commanded.It was a movie about all of the people whocame together in a tough and dangerous

moment to really change history. We seeand are introduced to all of his key associ-atesHosea Williams, Ralph Abernathy,Andrew Young, James Bevel, C.T. Vivian,John Lewis and Bayard Ruskin. But wealso see the ordinary people of Selma,the rank and le of the movement, andespecially the overlooked often erased-from-history women. Sure, there is CorettaScott King who in a critical moment proveswiser than her husband, but there is alsokey Student Nonviolent CoordinatingCommittee (SNCC) leader Diane Nash;54-year-old nursing home aide Annie LeeCooper who frames the indignity of tryingto register to vote and becomes one of therst victims of police violence; local stal-wart Amelia Boynton; Viola Lee Jackson,marcher and mother of the rst martyr ofthe campaign against Jimmy Lee Jackson;and Viola Liuzzo, the young white Detroitmother who came unbidden, volunteered,and died. This was not Kings one-manshow. It was a movement.

The IWW in the 1970s did not have agreat charismatic leader, undoubtedly forthe better. The radical feminists had some-times rancorously competing claimants tothat mantle. But both were genuine move-ments arising from the real need of realpeople and helped along by remarkablehuman beings. Penny Pixler bridged thoseworlds. I can only tell her story through myown un-objective eyes.

I rst saw Penny at a social gathering

of Chicago Wobs sometime in the early1970s. At rst, frankly, I didnt take muchnotice. She sat cross-legged on the oorand seemed quiet, even meek as conver-sation, booze, and other recreational sub-stances swirled around her. Long blondehair cascaded with wavy neglect acrossher shoulders. She had a faint scar from arepaired cleft lip that left her with a minorspeech impediment. I later noted how shewould use that to her advantage, to invitefolks in the circle to lean forward to listento her when she shook off reticence andspoke. She would rst rock forward, cockand nod her head, and raise a pointednger to punctuate a comment. And thecomment was inevitably wise and/or

funny. Penny, it turned out, had a wicked,dry sense of humor.Penny had arrived in Chicago a couple

of years earlier after graduating from theUniversity of Iowa in her home state andhaving done graduate work at the hotbedof radicalism, the University of Californiaat Berkley. She was already a veteranstudent and anti-war activist and had asense of adventurousness that belied herunassuming personality. She had joinedone of the rst tours of China by Americanactivists after that country was opened tovisitors. The eye-opening experience hadturned her away from any temptation togo down the path of radical chic Maoism.She was already in on the ground oor ofmovements that were just taking shape

radical feminism and ecology, whichbarely had a name.

Penny joined the Chicago WomensLiberation Union (CWLU). The CWLU hadbeen founded in 1969 by women, includ-ing Naomi Weisstein, Vivian Rothstein,Heather Booth, and Ruth Surgal, who weredissatised with the reformist leadership

of the National Organization of Womenand its obsessions with the problems ofupwardly-mobile career women. Theorganization wanted to confront genderinequality across class and ethnic lines.Many of the women were committedMarxists, others, notably anarcha-feministand Wobbly Arlen Wilson, provided amore libertarian left analysis. The CWLUwas action-oriented and divided into sev-eral semi-autonomous working groupsconcentrating on consciousness rais-ing, education, and the introduction ofWomens Studies on Chicago campuses,reproductive rights and abortion, lesbianrights and issues, anti-rape campaigns,workplace organizing through alliances

with groups like Nine to Five, arts and ex-pression through groups like the WomensGraphic Collective and CWLU Band, andbuild ing solidari ty with movements ofminorities and women of color. One ofthe CWLUs most famousand danger-ousprojects was the Jane Collective andAbortion Counseling Service of WomensLiberation (JANE) which went beyondadvocating for abortion rights to anony-mously arranging then illegal proceduresfor hundreds of desperate women.

Penny thrived in the CWLU, workingon many projects, including contributingto the organizations several publications.She was among those who helped denethe organization as Socialist Feminist,which was made explicit in the important1972 pamphlet Socialist Feminism: AStrategy for the Womens Movement,compiled by the Hyde Park Chapter and ateam led by community organizer HeatherBooth.

In the mid-1970s Arlen Wilson intro-duced several young CWLU members,including Penny, to the IWW, at firstthrough social gatherings. The womenfound Chicago Wobs less patriarchal andhierarchical than many Marxist partiesand sects. Not that the IWW was perfect,just that it was less rigid, more open, andhad a history of women organizing on thejob going back to the Lawrence and Pat-terson strikes. Several joined the unionand became active in the Chicago branch

in addition to their continued work withCWLU projects.

The CWLU dissolved acrimoniouslyin 1976. Penny and the other formermembers shifted their primary activity tothe union.

The IWW has a mythological characternamed Jimmy Higginsa rank-and-lemember who shuns the spotlight and glorybut is always there to do any work thatneeds to be done. Penny Pixler could havebeen a model for Jill Higgins. Althoughworking full time wiring computer motherboa rds and doi ng computer repair abreakthrough job for women in thos edaysshe could be found most eveningsand on Saturdays and Sundays lending a

hand at the hall the Chicago branch sharedwith IWW General Headquarters (GHQ).In fact, she spent much time offering GHQher aid, especially when it moved to a newstorefront location on Webster near Hal-stead. She was always there forIW mail-ings, back when yellow manila sheets wererun through the Addressograph, slatheredwith library paste, and then rolled aroundcopies of the paper which then needed tobe bundled by zip code. She did typing,answered phones, collated and stapledpamphlets, and did dozens of things tohelp the General Secretary Treasurer(GST), part-time bookkeeper, and theeditorial collective.

In the process, she became a voice inthe ongoing conversation about the union

that percolated through the officean

ever more important voice. Soon, she wasregularly contributing to the IWbookreviews, international labor news, andalways-insightful articles on womens is-sues. Many of the articles were unsignedor simply initialed. Penny never soughtto draw attention to herself. She quicklybecame a member of the staff collectivethen managing the paper, which includedformer editor and continuing columnistCarlos Cortez, veteran organizer and his-torian Fred W. Thompson, and me. Shewould continue to contribute to the paperalmost all of the rest of her life.

Penny also found time for branchdutiesa delegate, frequent recordingsecretary at meetings, on committees,and on any picket line or demonstrationthat called. She particularly mentoredand nourished young women entering theunion. Penny would serve as the Chicagobranch secretary on more than one occa-sion. At the end of her life as she knew shewas dying of the cancer that eventuallykilled her, she made sure that the Chicagobranch got her vast personal collection ofradical, labor, and feminist books to formthe basis of a lasting library. She evenarranged for the bookshelves to hold thebooks. It was a tting legacy for one of themost well-read and thoughtful membersthe Chicago branch ever had.

Penny never sought a high-prole rolein the union. She was not, unless pressed, apublic speaker. She was seldom involved in

the workplace organizing drives that makestars among us, not to say that she ignoredthat side of things. She went back to schooland became a Chicago Public Schoolteacher. At rst, she was a Full-Time BasisSubstitute (FTB), meaning that she had nobenets and just a at rate daily stipend.She was assigned to teach math at thecitys toughest inner-city schools. Shiftedfrom school to school, sometimes multipletimes a year, she relished the challenge ofworking with young people of color, butshe also became active in the FTB move-ment for better pay and conditions. Whenshe became a regular district employee,she became active in the Chicago TeachersUnion and was an outspoken supporter for

its most militant faction.In the 1980s Penny served termson the General Executive Board and asGST. She was not the rst woman to llthe chair of Vincent St. John and Big BillHaywoodKathleen Taylor did that backin our days in the Webster street ofceand others followed. But the routine ac-ceptance of women at the highest levelsof IWW leadership owed a lot to pathsshe blazed. Penny continued to be a pillarof the union and of the Chicago branch.

As time went on, Penny and I were notin as close of contact as I was with otherWobs because Penny, although a pioneer-ing computer tech, resolutely refused touse one to access email or the internet, notbecause she was a some sort of a Luddite

but because she was convinced the inter-

net and electronic communication couldnever be secure from government spyingor manipulation. She considered it to bean unsafe and unsuitable means for revo-lutionaries and radicals to communicate. Ifyou wanted to get a hold of Penny you hadto phone, write an honest-to-god letter,or meet her in person. In retrospect, herseeming paranoia seems to be prescient.

Penny always kept up with our fellowworkers in Chicago and around the coun-try, including those who most of us hadlost contact with. With or without socialmedia, she was the glue that knit many ofus together. It became something of a jokebetween us as the years rolled onPennywould call my landline in Crystal Lake, Iwould answer and on hearing her voiceask, Who died? She broke the newsabout so many over the years and helpedarrange memorial gatherings in the citythat I would get to when I could.

Penny had retired from teaching. Inaddition to her continued activism with theIWW, she now found time to engage in anold interest in the environment. As usual,she preferred hands-on service to theory.She adopted a wetland prairieChicagosall but obliterated original environmentin the Cook County Forest Preservesandworked regularly at its restorat ion. Shealso carefully monitored frog and amphib-ian populations.

More than two years ago, Penny gotword that a cancer she had once beaten

had returned with a vengeance, spreadingthrough her body. It was inoperable buttreatable with a rigorous and rehabilitat-ing regime of chemotherapy and radia-tion. Penny remained both hopeful andrealistic. She knew that she would becomeunable to continue her activities and keepher long-time apartment. The decision toleave Chicago and all of her friends andfellow workers after so many years was adifcult one, but she faced it. She electedto move to Denver, where she had familyand where she would have access to qualitymedical treatment. She hoped for enoughtime to enjoy her sister, get healthy enoughto resume some conservation activities,and get active in the Denver branch.

Before she left, she carefully wrappedup her affairs and gave away a lifetime ofaccumulated possessions, including thatinvaluable library. Many of her old friendsand fellow workers gathered at one of herfavorite places, Women and Children FirstBook Store in the Andersonville area, togive her a farewell. A great time was had byall, and no one laughed harder than Penny.

She had a few months in Denver. Sheimpressed and bonded with Denver Wobsbut never got well enough to resume regu-lar physical activity. She died on March 29,2014. I got the word from Kathy Taylorand via several Facebook and social mediaposts.

But I kept waiting for that phone callfrom Penny to make it real.

Old friends and Fellow Workers gathered at Women and Children First Book-store in Chicago for a farewell party. Penny Pixler is seated at the far right.

Photo: Patrick Murn


7/12


Womens History Month

A statement by the IWW GenderEquity Committee for International

Womens DayThe Gender Equity Committee (GEC)

is both honored and excited to reect onthe impact working women have had onthe labor movement and working-class

struggle, contributing to the creation ofInternational Womens Day (IWD).This day, for more than a century, has

been and continues to be a day of work-ing-class womens resistance and orga-nizing, bridging the womens movementand the working-class labor movement. Itdates back to the garment workers picketin New York City on March 8, 1857, whenwome n workers dema nded a 10-hourworkday, better working conditions, andequal rights for women. Fifty-one yearslater, on March 8, 1908, a group of NewYork needle trades women workers wenton strike in honor of their sisters from thegarment workers strike of 1857, in whichthey demanded an end to sweatshop andchild labor and the right to vote.

In 1910, at a meeting of the SecondInternational, German socialist ClaraZetkin proposed that March 8 be cel-ebrated as International Womens Dayto commemorate both previously men-tioned strikes and lay a fertile groundfor working womens resistance and or-ganizing across the globe. Since the early1900s, workers have, rst and foremost,used IWD as a day to resist and organizetogether, and second to celebrate thehard-fought struggles of working peopleall across the world. Many countriesin-cluding Afghanistan, Cuba, Vietnam, andRussiacelebrate March 8 as an ofcialholiday.

The true working-class roots of In-

ternational Womens Day must not beforgotten. It is crucial that we continue

forward, in a similar spirit of our sisterswho went on strike in 1857 and 1908 ,ghting to abolish patriarchy and sexismalongside capitalism, as both systems ofoppression and exploitation are deeplyintertwined. We must struggle for genderequity in our union, workplaces, and the

world at large.Because we recognize that our ownunion is sometimes the source of gender-based violence and inequity, we are hereto seek out and offer resources for peermediation, conict resolution, anti-sexismtraining, literature, consent training anddirect actions. Our aim is to foster anatmosphere of inclusiveness in the labormovement and the IWW in particular. Ifyou are in need of assistance, solidarity oraction concerning (but not limited to) anyof the points listed above, please send anemail to [email protected].

The GEC is also responsible for admin-istering the IWW Sato Fund in memory ofCharlene Charlie Sato. The Sato Fundwas started to aid IWW members who are

women, genderqueer or trans* to attendimportant meetings, trainings, classesand workshops, therefore elevating theparticipation, ability, and presence ofnon-cissexual (cis) male membership. Ifyou qualify and this resource would be ofhelp to you, please ll out the application(http://bit.ly/1ySjYiW) or contact us [email protected]. If you can, please considerdonating to the Sato fund here: http://store.iww.org/sato-donations.html.

Last summer the Toronto IWW Fun-draising and Literature Committee helda fundraising competition for the SatoFund. Several branches around the unionparticipated or organized events and cre-ated new art work and literature. We are

currently working on publicizing the fundbetter, including our new online applica-

tion process, and we hopeto create some assessmentsfor the fund shortly.

In 2014, we published acall to action for membersand branches to addressharassment, sexual vio-

lence, abuse and misogynyin the IWW (see Fight-ing Patriarchy in the OneBig Union, September2014 Indu strial Worker,page 3, or online at www.iww.org/projects/gec).We also helped develop asafer spaces policy for theunions General Headquar-ters. Since then, following apetition of fellow workers(some of them serving onthe GEC), a union-widesafer spaces policy wasadopted in our annual ref-erendum (and is now foundin the IWW Constitution).

We also support fellowworkers interested in form-ing subgroups of the GECor separate committees/caucuses with others who identify as, or,in regards to the last two, have interestin working on: trans* members, peopleof color, disability/access (some fellowworkers have also created an AccessibleIWW group on Facebook), and fat posi-tivity. We are happy to put you in contactwith folks working on/interested in theseissues/areas.

For our work this year, we have iden-tied three main priorities: reviewing theIWWs complaint process, developingworkshops (such as on consent culture),

and continuing to provide support to anymembers who are facing gender-based

discrimination and harassment at workor in the union.

More information on our work isalso available at http://www.iww.org/projects/gec. You can also find us onFacebook at https://www.facebook.com/GenderEquityCommitteeIWW andemail us at [email protected]. The ve votingmembers of the GECelected at the IWWGeneral Convention each yearcommu-nicate with each other as well as othermembers through the GEC listserv. AnyIWW member is welcome to join. If you

are interested, please sign up at http://lists.iww.org/listinfo/genderequity.

International (Working) Womens Day

Graphic: Sarah R. from the Toronto GMB

By Mike KuhlenbeckThe name Pearl McGill may be lost on

even the most serious student of the U.S.labor movement. Nevertheless, this nearlyforgotten Rebel Girl continues to inspirea new generation of workers.

McGill was born near Grandview, Iowain 1894. She dreamed of becoming a schoolteacher but did not have the means to payfor her education. At age 15, she left herhometown to look for work. By 1911 she

had moved to Muscatine, Iowa to work ata button factory.

The button industry in the Midwest,which started around 1891, employed atleast 10,000 workers in the early 1900s. Atthat time, buttons were made from shells,such as mussel shells, culled from fourmajor sources: the Illinois, Mississippi,Missouri and Ohio Rivers. This put Iowaat the heart of this booming industry. Itis estimated that in 1916 alone, over 20

million buttons were sold.Author Mark Twain, wholived in Muscatine for afew months, referred toit as Pearl City for thenatural treasures foundon its shores.

Not long after her ar-rival, McGill was recruitedby factory bosses as a spyto observe fellow work-

ers to see if they wereshiftless and lazy or ifthey were secretly talkingunion. Seeking to makea good impression on heremployers, she acceptedthis dubious position. Inthis capacity, the teenagerdiscovered that if any atrocities were beingcommitted in the factory, they were beingcommitted by the bosses and not by theworkers.

Workers put in an average of 60 to72 hours per week to earn their $5.00salary if they were female, $7.00 to $8.00if they were male, according to the TonyMazzocchi Center for Health, Safety and

Environmental Education (TMC).The long hours, low wages and appall-

ing working conditions fanned the amesof discontent in McGills heart. After someof the workers attempted to organize aunion, the bosses responded with a lock-out. It was not long before the workerswent on strike, with McGill becoming oneof its most prominent leaders at age 16.

In a letter dated April 25, 1911, McGillrecalls her Muscatine experiences:

They had all the hardest Union work-ers on the black list. The factory whereI worked had the most. They had eightmen, and me. I was the only girl in the fac-tory they wouldnt take back. So becausethere were so many discriminated against

the rest of them that could have gone

back wouldnt go until the[manufacturers] will takeus all back and deal fairwith us. They dont wantto recognize the Unionat all but they will haveto before they ever startthose factories up again.

In the course of hisresearch author JeffreyCopeland, who penned

the book Shell Gamesba se d on McGi ll s li fe ,came across several epi-sodes of violence leadingup to the strike, muchof it instigated by detec-tives from the PinkertonDetective Agency. These

detectives, also known as Pinks, werean agency that was like an army for hire,Copeland said in an interview with theMuscatine Journal, and that the agencyhad questionable legal status. They werenotorious strike-breakers who suppliedarms to anti-union vigilantes and helpedform goon squads to intimidate workers.

Around this time, the Industrial Work-

ers of the World (IWW) was spreading itsmessage of industrial unionism across theMidwest, including Iowa. Before long, shejoined the IWW and started organizingacross the country, giving speeches andlending support wherever she could. Shefound herself in the middle of the land-mark textile strike in Lawrence, Mass.,in 1912.

During her journey, McGill met thefearless IWW member and socialist Hel-len Keller in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Kellerbecame a friend and mentor who encour-aged McGill to become a teacher. Thatsame year, she joined the Womens TradeUnion League and continued her efforts asa labor organizer. She was soon blacklisted

in the textile industry.

McGill later fullled her wishes to be-come a teacher. She taught briey in Mus-catine and later moved to Buffalo, Iowa.She was married for six years before sheand her husband, who was reported to bementally ill, divorced. In 1924, authoritiesruled that her ex-husband killed her, andthen took his own life. She was only 29. Tothis day, the circumstances surroundingher death have not been conclusive.

Some people, including Copeland, be-

lieve she was not killed by her ex-husbandbut rather by anti -uni on forces. Somemight see this theory as speculation, butit was not uncommon for union organizersto be killed for their beliefs. As recountedby IWW lead er Big Bill Haywood , theIWW has been foully dealt with; dropsof blood, bitter tears of anguish, frightfulheart pains have marked its every step inits onward march of progress.

Regardless of who the culprit was inMcGills untimely death, her examplestill inspires a new generation, who areawakening with a renewed sense of classconsciousness.

In February 2013, McGill made head-lines nearly 90 years after her death when

an Iowa high school student named ElenaHildebrandt portrayed McGill at the Na-tional History Day competition. Hildeb-randt was moved by McGills passion.

[McGill] became a huge advocate forall the women and children working infactories across the country, Hildebrandttold The Des Moines Register.

Seldom do champions of social justiceand equality receive the recognition theydeserve in their lifetime. But the contribu-tions of McGill and countless other work-ers transcend generations in the ongoingstruggle for a better world. In the words ofthe great IWW organizer and songwriterJoe Hill: Thats the Rebel Girl, thats theRebel Girl/To the working class shes a

precious pearl.

The Story of Pearl McGill

Industrial Worker

SubscriptionsReminder!As per GEB motionJWS-09, the pricing

for IWbundles is$0.50/copy. Yearlybundle subscriptions(10 issues) are as follows:

Monthly Bundle of 5: $25Monthly Bundle of 10: $50Monthly Bundle of 25: $125Monthly Bundle of 50: $250Monthly Bundle of 100: $500

Pricing has already taken effect asreflected on the store website and del-egate forms. Starting January 1, 2015,any incoming renewal requests will beat the above rate.

To request a renewal or inquire onyour subscription expiration date [email protected]. Please title your emailSubscription Inquiry.

Photo: uswtmc.orgPearl McGill.


8/12


9/12


Review

Wobbly Arts

Appy, Christian. American Reckoning:The Vietnam War and Our National Iden-tity. New York: Viking, 2015. Hardcover,416 pages, $28.95.

By Staughton LyndChristian Appy is the author of two

splendid previous books about the Viet-nam War: Working-Class War: Ameri-can Combat Soldiers and Vietnam andPatriots: The Vietnam War Rememberedfrom All Sides. Patriots was extraor-dinary in that it offered oral histories bysoldiers on both sides of the conict.

The main argument of Appys newbook, American Reckoning, is that theVietnam War shattered the central tenetof American national identity, namely,faith in American exceptionalism.

Appy denes exceptionalism as thebelief that the United States is a uniqueforce for good in the world, superior notonly in its military and economic power,

but in the quality of its government andinstitutions, the character and moralityof its people, and its way of life. Ameri-can presidents tend to lapse into excep-tionalist mode at the end of importantaddresses, as in referring to the UnitedStates as the indispensable nation orotherwise suggesting that ours is the bestcountry in the world.

This book, with this central theme,could not have appeared at a more ap-propriate moment. The U.S. govern-ment has initiated a program, plannedto extend over several years, to celebratethe Vietnam War. The emphasis, as Appyincisively observes, will be not so muchon the war itself, because this country

lost that war, and not at all on the cata-strophic harm inicted by the Americaninvasion on the Vietnamese people andthe very ecology of Vietnam. Rather ourgovernment will seek to stir up positivesentiment about the valor and sacriceof American soldiers. In this way, it isapparently hoped, the Vietnam syndromeof disillusionment and suspicion of gov-ernment undertakings abroad can at lastbe overcome.

Why Were We In Vietnam?The anti-war movement was never

able to answer this question. There werereferences to rubber, tin, and oil, butnatural resources simply didntanddontseem to explain the enormity of

the American effort.Appy follows the clues

left, first, by the John F.Kennedy (JFK) administra-tion, then by the kitchencabinet of Ivy Leaguers thatsurrounded President Lyn-don B. Johnson (LBJ). Hefastens on some notes tohimself made by McGeorgeBundy in March 1965: Isour interest economic? heasks himself. Obviouslynot Is our interest mili-tary? Not really

What then? According toAppy, as always, Bundy returns to whathe regarded as the cardinal principle ofU.S. policy in Vietnam: not to be a PaperTiger. Not to have it thought that whenwe commit ourselves we really mean nomajor risk. Or as JFK had previously tolda journalist: Now we have a problem in

making our power credible and Vietnamlooks like the place.

Appy challenges us to consider wheth-er [a]n aggressive masculinity shapedAmerican Cold War policy, and still does.He concludes that policymakers wereafraid to appear weak. Lyndon Johnsonspersonal style was crude compared to thatof the privileged men around him.

But they, too, were every bit as con-cerned as was LBJ to demonstrate theirmanly resolve.

It was an astonishingly homogeneousgroup. Their ideas about manhood wereforged in a common set of elite, male-onlyenvironmentsprivate boarding schools,Ivy League secret societies and fraterni-

ties, military service in World War II, andmetropolitan mens clubs.

What About Capitalism?Does this mean that we should set

Marxism aside and look to neo-Freudianexplanations? It does not. But the pointto understand about the Kennedys, theBundys, the Rostows, Arthur Schlesinger,Jr., Richard Bissell (the Yale professorwho was chief strategist for the Bay ofPigs), and their cohorts, is: They were notpersonally greedy. They didnt need to be.They looked down on individual money-grubbing but considered themselvesentrusted with managing the system asa whole.

Ame ric an cap ita lis m, as they saw

the world, was essential topreserving freedom. HenceVietnam was critica lly im-portant, not as a market forAmerican exports, but as amarket for goods producedin Japan lest Japan fail inits function of offering acounterweight in Asia to theexpansion of CommunistChina.

In practice, so Appy con-tinues his analysis, the Unit-ed States has been far moreconsistent in its support ofcapitalism than democratic

rights. The Cold War provided a power-ful ideological cover for economic goals.

Ironically, as things turned out, whilethe war brought big profits to someAmerican corporations, the prots of U.S.businesses and banks as a whole actuallydeclined in the late 1960s. In Vietnam, the

war did not produce solid capital invest-ment but a South Vietnamese economy inwhich commodities, not capital goods,were the quickest and safest way to makemoney. The economy became orientedto services catering to foreign soldiers.Indeed, what was characteristic of SouthVietnams economy during the war becamethe shape of things to come in America aswell, beginning in the 1970s as manufac-turing ed to lower-wage settings outsidethe United States.

What About The Grunts And TheVeterans?

Appy says that Daniel Patrick Moyni-han viewed the military as a vast, un-

tapped agent of upward mobility with thepotential to train the unskilled, employthe young and the poor, and bring self-esteem to the psychologically defeated.During the years of massive escalation inVietnam (1965-1967), many articles toutedthe military as a bastion of democratic op-portunity, particularly for African Ameri-cans. Thus Timemagazine declared, theintegrated military vindicated Americanexceptionalism.

Appy, in contrast, argues that Vietnamwas not only a working-class war but a warthat gave rise to a signicantly working-class peace movement. He provides a vividaccount of the marauding constructionworkers who attacked anti-war protest-ers in New York City. But he also reminds

Staughton Lynd On The Vietnam War And Our National Identityus that protesters were killed at JacksonState as well as at Kent State, and addsan account of the highly suspicious deathof Hispanic journalist Ruben Salazar inLos Angeles.

Three days after Kent State and twodays before his own death in an airplanecrash, Walter Reuther, president of theUnited Automobile Workers (UAW)who had refused to condemn the warwhile Democrat Lyndon Johnso n waspresident, sent a telegram to PresidentRichard Nixon protesting the bank-ruptcy of our policy of force and violencein Vietnam.

And if it was workin g-class youngmen who were disproportionately drawninto military service, it was presumablythat same demographic group who pre-dominated in the army that by 1971 wasreported in the Armed Forces Journalto be in a state approaching collapse,with individual units avoiding or hav-

ing refused combat, murdering theirofcers and noncommissioned ofcers,drug-ridden and dispirited where notnear-mutinous. Appy reports numbers:In the army, desertions jumped from14.9 per 1,000 soldiers in 1966 to 73.5per 1,000 in 1971. Conscientious objectorapplications submitted by active-dutysoldiers jumped from 829 in 1967 to4,381 in 1971.

I can offer one small vignette frommy own experience suggesting cautionwhen it comes to ascribing to the workingclass a blind belief in American excep-tionalism.

Shortly before the United States in-vaded Iraq in 2003, a group that called

itself Labor Against the War held a found-ing meeting in Chicago. I took the Grey-hound bus from Youngstown, Ohio, withtwo friends, a Teamster shop steward anda man who had been chemically poisonedworking at General Motors Lordstown.

Arriving in the Windy City, we wereastonished to learn that the street addresswe had been provided was the locationof a Teamsters local union. The Interna-tional Brotherhood of Teamsters is notknown for its opposition to U.S. foreignpolicy. I sought out a couple of shop stew-ards and asked them what was going on.

It was the Vietnam vets, I was told.They hit the mike at the local unionmeeting and said that they had seen thismovie before.

By John A WalkerThis painting depicts

a midwife riding a bicycleset against an industrialtownscape of the 1920s.Like delivery boys, mid-wives have recently become

icons of popular culture inBritain. The compositionwas based on an old docu-mentary, black-and-whitephotograph. The midwifehas just crossed the oldCorporation swing bridgethat spanned the HavenDock in the fishing portof Grimsby, Lincolnshire.The dock dated from 1800bu t be ca me pa rt of theAlexandra Dock in 1879. Itcreated a barrier betweenthe East and West Marshdistricts of the town, hence the need for the bridge (1872-1925) available to pedestrians and cyclists only. Thetug boat seen on the left was used to open and close the bridge. In the background are buildings that have sincevanished. On the extreme left is a brick structure that was part of Marshalls our mill complex (1889 and 1906,demolished in the 1950s). Next to it is the blank rear wall of the Palace Theatre (1904-79) a music hall and latercinema. Adjoining the theater is the Palace Theatre Buffet which is the only building still standing at the time ofwriting. Across the bridge in the center is the Central Market Square built in the 1850s with a clock tower datingfrom 1870 (all demolished in the 1950s and 1960s). On the right is an engineering works that no longer exists.Modern Grimsby was a consequence of 19th and 20th century industrialization but has since been subject to theopposite process of de-industrialization.

Graphic: John A Walker

Midwife heading towards the West Marsh circa 1920 (2014)oil on linen, 71 x 107cm

Graphic: amazon.com

This piece is one of many in my collection of art workin the form of sculptures. It represents womens strugglefor equality and freedom around the world. The physicalrepresentation is that of a Muslim woman and oppositeher, a liberated peer. The message is the same regardless ofethnicity, culture, religion or national origin. The conceptof struggle is universal.

If you would like more information about me and myart work I would be happy to speak with you about mycollection of work, whose genre is that of political art andpolitical expression. My website is currently under revision.I can be reached at this phone number: 505-907-6481.

Respectfully Submitted, Ferydoun Mahinfarahmand

Womens Rights & Freedom

Sculptures & photos: Ferydoun Mahinfarahmand


10/12



11/12


Front Page News

Continued from 1Along with an escalating program of

direct action, we are now launching ouronline petition and fundraising website.Friends House managements current in-transigent attitude of denial and indiffer-ence suggests that this will be a long cam-paign for justice. The workers concerned

have been strugg

industrial worker - issue #1772, march 2015

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