Industrial Worker - Issue #1728, August/September 2010

8/9/2019 Industrial Worker - Issue #1728, August/September 2010

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Industrial Worker

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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

A Self-OrganizedRestaurant inGreece 12

IWW Makes anImpact at the U.S.Social Forum 3

INDUSTRIAL WORKER

Solidarity withPalestinian WorkingClass 6-7

a g t / s t m b 2 0 1 0 # 1 7 2 8 V o . 1 0 7 n o . 7 $ 1 / 1 / 1

Interview: CindySheehan Talks Peace& Socialism 8

Fired Restaurant Workers Announce International Boycott

By New York City IWWIn the sweltering mid-summer heat

in the Hassidic neighborhood of Bor-ough Park in Brooklyn, N.Y., immigrantworkers red en masse from leadingkosher food processor and wholesaler,Flaum Appetizing Corp., rallied along-side dozens of community and laboractivists on July 25 to call on the KRMKollel supermarket to reassess the sale

of Flaum products. Flaum is set to standtrial in federal court after denying work-ers overtime pay for years and launchinga campaign of erce retaliation whenemployees stood up for their legal rights.KRM is currently one of the largestretailers of Flaum products includinghummus, pickles, and Middle Easternsalads.

We worked hard every day to helpFlaum grow and thrive but when we

Immigrant Workers Rally For Justice At Kosher Food Company

Photo: Phoenix IWW

demanded the pay we were owed underthe law, they red us all at once, saidFelipe Romero, a Focus on the FoodChain member who worked at Flaum fornine years.

At least 17 workers, including Rome-ro, were illegally red on May 26, 2008for engaging in a work stoppage over theright to form a labor union and paymentin accordance with the law. Romero said

his starting salary was $4 per hour, andwas many times forced to work upwardsof 70-80 hours per week without receiv-ing the legally-required overtime pay oftime-and-a-half.

Flaum underestimated our senseof dignity and were not going anywhereuntil justice is won, Romero said.

Participants at the July 25th protestincluded such labor and community

Continued on 8

Pei Wei workers and their supporters gather outside P.F.Changs Home Ofce minutes before Scottsdale police arrive.Continued on 5

By Phoenix IWW & Pei WeiWorkers Committee

When 12 Pei Wei restaurant em-ployees visited the corporate ofces ofP.F. Changs (PFCB.O) in North Scott-sdale, Ariz. on June 16, they were told:

You are on private property and we areasking you to leave. The workers hadcome to deliver a letter and speak witha company representative about theirmass ring. Having only skipped a singleday of work at their Chandler Pei Weirestaurant in order to attend, as a group,the historic May 29th DemonstrationAgainst Hate in downtown Phoenix,their immediate termination threw these12 workers lives into chaos, uncertainty,and struggle.

Management at our Pei Wei storehas seen plenty of no call, no shows inthe past and very few of them have everresulted in termination, said Elizabeth,one of the 12 red employees. Elizabethis a charismatic single mother of two andhas become the spokesperson for herco-workers. We felt we had to partici-pate in this march against Senate Bill

1070 because its racist and it will hurtour families. Pei Wei always hassles usfor calling in sick or asking for days offso we decided to exercise our right toprotest. Indeed, the U.S. Constitutionprotects that right to peaceably assemble

and the Wagner Act also protects theright to concerted activity in the work-place. Based on this, the workers, withthe help of the IWW, are in the processof ling an Unfair Labor Practice chargewith the National Labor Relations Board.

Lack of time off for employees andinconsistent discipline are two festeringissues that have revealed themselves inthe aftermath of the rings. Ive workedat Pei Wei for 10 years, since it opened,and I have never called in sick and Ivenever been given a single day of paid va-cation, said Ivonne, a respected workerknown for her reasoned judgment. Myco-workers have been here [for] four,seven, and eight years. Pei Wei shouldbe supporting us against these racistpolitical attacks, but instead theyveabandoned us.

By John HollingsworthMy involvement in organizing

against the Group of Eight (G8) andGroup of Twenty (G20) meetings, alongwith others in Ottawa, began in earnest(after several years of anticipated activ-ity) in December 2009. At that point intime, an open, local umbrella group ofanti-capitalists, including some IWWmembers, called le Collectif du Chat Noir(Black Cat Collective) began meetingand planning our activities in the lead-up to the Summits in Huntsville (G8)and Toronto (G20). Early on, the groupdecided to focus our efforts on Toronto.Members of the organizing collectivewere also meeting in different citieswith our counterparts in consultas fromthat time onward, as part of a multi-city

convergence. Groups from other cities

included the Ontario Coalition AgainstPoverty (OCAP), and No One Is Illegal

(NOII), the Southern Ontario AnarchistResistance (SOAR) and the newly-re-born Anti-Capitalist Convergence (betterknown as CLAC) from Montreal. We allworked within the terms and frameworkset out by the Toronto Community Mobi-lization Network (TCMN).

I was also involved in the labor mo-bilization for Ottawa, as a delegate to thelabor council for my trade union. Whilethe mobilization was already well under-way on the part of the community-basedgroups, the G8/G20 started appearingon the radar of organized labor muchlater. Much of the push locally, includingthe production and dissemination of ma-terials like yers and posters, attending

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The Battle Of Toronto:Protesting The G8/G20 Summits

Photo: Diane KrauthamerFired Flaum workers protest at KRM Kollel supermarket on July 25.


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Page 2 Industrial Worker August/September 2010

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

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

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

Leeds: [email protected], [email protected] GMB: Unit 107, 40 Halord St., LeicesterLE1 1TQ, England. Tel. 07981 433 637, leics@iw w.org.uk www.leicestershire-iww.org.ukLondon GMB: c/o Freedom Bookshop, Angel Alley,84b Whitechapel High Street, E1 7QX. +44 (0) 203393 1295, [email protected] www.iww.org/en/branches/UK/LondonNottingham: [email protected] GMB: [email protected]: [email protected] and Wear GMB (Newcastle +): [email protected] www.iww.org/en/branches/UK/TyneWest Midlands GMB: The Warehouse, 54-57 AllisonStreet, Digbeth, Birmingham B5 5TH [email protected] www.wmiww.orgYork GMB: [email protected] www.wowyork.orgScotlandClydeside GMB: c/o IWW, P.O. Box 7593, Glasgow,G42 2EX. [email protected], www.iw-wscotland.orgDumries and Galloway GMB: [email protected] , iwwdumries.wordpress.comEdinburgh GMB: c/o 17 W. Montgomery Place, EH75HA. 0131-557-6242, [email protected] GMB: P.O. Box 75175, T6E 6K1. [email protected], edmonton.iww.ca

British ColumbiaVancouver GMB: 204-2274 York Ave., Vancouver,BC, V6K 1C6. Phone/ax 604-732-9613. [email protected], vancouver.iww.ca, vancouverwob.blogspot.comManitobaWinnipeg GMB: IWW, c/o WORC, P.O. Box 1, R3C2G1. [email protected]. Garth Hardy,del., [email protected] GMB & GDC Local 6: P.O. Box52003, 390 Rideau Street, Ottawa, K1N 5Y8French: [email protected]. Fred Maack, del.,

[email protected] Panhandlers Union: Andrew Nellis,spokesperson, 613-748-0460. [email protected]: c/o PCAP, 393 Water St. #17, K9H3L7, 705-749-9694Toronto GMB: c/o Libra Knowledge & InormationSvcs Co-op, P.O. Box 353 Stn. A, M5W 1C2. 416-919-7392. iw [email protected]: [email protected]. Paul Lespeance, del., 7673 Saint-Denis, H2R2E7. 514-277-6047, [email protected]

Europe

Finland

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

German Language AreaIWW German Language Area Regional OrganizingCommittee (GLAMROC): Post Fach 19 02 03, 60089Frankurt/M, Germany [email protected]: [email protected]. www.iw-waustria.wordpress.comFrankurt am Main: [email protected]: [email protected] GMB: IWW, c/o BCC, Paelzer Str. 2-4, 50677Koeln, Germany. [email protected]: [email protected]: 0352 691 31 99 71, [email protected]: [email protected]

Netherlands: iw [email protected]

United StatesArizonaPhoenix GMB: P.O. Box 7126, 85011-7126. 602-486-9014 or 480-946-2160. phoenix@iw w.org

Flagsta: Courtney Hinman, del., 928-600-7556,[email protected]: P.O. Box 283, 72702. [email protected] GMB ( Washington): 741 Morton St NW, Wash-ington DC, 20010. 571-276-1935

CaliforniaLos Angeles GMB: P.O. Box 811064, 90081.(310)205-2667. [email protected] Coast GMB: P.O. Box 844, Eureka 95502-0844. 707-725-8090, [email protected]

San Francisco Bay Area GMB: (Curbside andBuyback IU 670 Recycling Shops; StonemountainFabrics Job Shop and IU 410 Garment and TextileWorkers Industrial Organizing Committee; Shat-tuck Cinemas; Embarcadero Cinemas) P.O. Box11412, Berkeley 94712. 510-845-0540. [email protected] 520 Marine Transport Workers: Steve Ongerth,

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

GeorgiaAtlanta: M. Bell, del.,404.693.4728, [email protected]

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

IdahoBoise: Ritchie Eppink, del., P.O. Box 453, 83701.208-371-9752, [email protected]

Chicago GMB: 2117 W. Irving Park Rd., 60618.773-857-1090. Gregory Ehrendreich, del., 312-479-8825, [email protected]

Central Ill GMB: 903 S. Elm, Champaign, IL, 61820.217-356-8247. David Johnson, del., [email protected] Truckers Hotline: mtw530@iw w.orgWaukegan: P.O Box 274, 60079.

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

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

Maine

Barry Rodrigue, 75 Russell Street, Bath, 04530.207-442-7779

MarylandBaltimore IWW: P.O. Box 33350, 21218. [email protected] Area GMB: PO B ox 391724, Cambridge02139. 617-469-5162Cape Cod/SE Massachusetts: [email protected]

Western Mass. Public Service IU 650 Branch: IWW,P.O. Box 1581, Northamp ton 0 1061

MichiganDetroit GMB: 22514 Brittany Avenue, E. Detroit48021. [email protected]. Tony Khaled, del., 21328

Redmond Ave., East Detroit 48021Grand Rapids GMB: PO Box 6629, 49516. 616-881-5263. Shannon Williams, del., 616-881-5263Central Michigan: 5007 W. Columbia Rd., Mason48854. 517-676-9446, [email protected] IWW: Brad Barrows, del., 1 N. 28th Ave E.,55812. [email protected] River IWW: POB 103, Moorhead, 56561. 218-287-0053. iw [email protected] Cities GMB: 79 13th Ave NE Suite 103A, Min-neapolis 55413. [email protected] City GMB: c/o 5506 Holmes St., 64110.816-523-3995

MontanaTwo Rivers GMB: PO Box 9366, Missoula 59807.406-459-7585. [email protected]

Construction Workers IU 330: Dennis Georg, del.,406-490-3869, [email protected]

Billings: Jim Del D uca, del., 406-860-0331,[email protected]

Nevada

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

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

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

New YorkBinghamton Education Workers Union: [email protected]. http://bewu.wordpress.com/New York City GMB: P.O. Box 7430, JAF Station,New York, 10116, [email protected]. www.wobblycity.org

Starbucks Campaign:44-61 11th St. Fl. 3, LongIsland City 11101 [email protected]

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

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

Ohio

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

Textile & Clothing Workers IU 410: P.O. Box 317741

Cincinnati 45231. [email protected]

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

Oregon

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

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

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

Pennsylvania

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

Philadelphia GMB: PO Box 42777, 19101. 215-222-1905. [email protected]. Union Hall: 4530Baltimore Ave., 19143.

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

Pittsburgh GMB : P.O. Box 831, Monroeville,15146. [email protected]

Rhode Island

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

Texas

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

South Texas IWW: [email protected]

Utah

Salt Lake City: Tony Roehrig, del., 801-485-1969.tr_wobbly@yahoo .com

Vermont

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

Washington

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

Tacoma GMB: P.O. Box 2052, 98401.TacIWW@

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

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

Wisconsin

Madison GMB: P.O. Box 2442, 53703-2442. ww w.madisoniww.ino

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

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

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

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

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

Milwaukee GMB: P.O. Box 070632, 53207. 414-481-3557.

IWW directoryIndustrial WorkerThe Voice of Revolutionary

Iustril Uiois

ORganIzaTIOn

EdUcaTIOn

EmancIpaTIOn

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IndustrIalWorkers

oftheWorld

Post Ofce Box 180195

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In November We RememberAnnouncements for the annual InNovember We RememberIndustrialWorkerdeadline is October 8. Celebratethe lives of those who have struggled forthe working class with your message ofsolidarity. Send announcements to [email protected]. Much appreciated donationsfor the following sizes should be sent to:IWW GHQ, Post Ofce Box 180195,Chicago, IL 60618, United States.

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NFL Players Are Not Workers: The Debate ContinuesHowdy again, Fellow Workers:

This letter is in regard to AuthorsRespond To NFL Players Are Not Work-ers Too, which appeared on page 2 ofthe JuneIndustrial Worker.

Apparently, my response (NFLPlayers Are Not Workers Too, page2, AprilIW) to the two-part article,Football Through Labors Lens, whichappeared in the February/March and

April issues of theIndustrial Worker,has stuck a tender set of nerves withthe authors, FWs Neil Parthun andDann McGeehan. To paraphrase Wil-liam Shakespeare, Methinks thou dothprotest too much.

While their knowledge and devotionto football is overly abundant (teamspirit?), it is reminiscent of one of themost quoted sayings of Karl Marx: Reli-gion is the opiate of the people. All gov-ernments and autocratic structures, forthousands of years, have used grandioseentertainment vehicles as a method ofpsychological distinction to the workingclass, the thinking being that a popula-tion diverted by amusement spends lesstime thinking about how to better its

living/working situations. Instead, we

are subtly (and not so subtly!) temptedto spend our leisure time (what there isof it!) wasting our thinking energies andour communicative strategies on mind-less hours of trash and ction, overdoneand overrated movies, and endless hoursof televisionincluding all sportingevents, not just football.

I have to admit that my knowledge ofplayers salaries was entirely predicated

upon the football players who seem tomake the loudest press and Im gratefulthat both FW Parthun and McGeehanhave corrected my over-enthusiasmby offering the median salary range ofNFL players as between $484, 000 to$1,325,000 annually.

However, I doubt very strongly thatanybody reading theIndustrial Workermakes anywhere near that lesser amount(and probably less than 5 percent ofthat amount, or between $24,000 and$48,400). Despite what both FW Pathunand McGeehan maintain, I have a greatdeal of difculty thinking of anybody inthat salary range as workers. Undertheir rather broad interpretation, then,we would also have to include John D.

Rockefeller, James J. Hill, Henry Ford

(and so on and so on) as workers, sim-ply because they, too, struggled from ahumble beginning, and fought their wayto the top. Sorry, Im not buying it.

The football players union is moreproperly dened as a performers asso-ciation, and has many similarities to theunions of middle-management profes-sionals, as well as movie and televisionperformers. One of the distinguishable

characteristics of many members ofthese performers associations, whichis not characteristic to most membersof other unions, is the retinue that ismaintained by the individual performer(and not his employer). This retinueof paid employees, either on salary orwages, may include: publicists, businessmanagers, secretaries, accountants, at-torneys, chauffeurs, gardeners, butlers,maids, etc. In fact, these members ofperformers associations seem to havemore in common with the bosses thanthey do with the rest of us workers. And,how does that rst sentence in the IWWPreamble read? Oh yeah, The workingclass and the employing class have noth-ing in common.

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August/September 2010 Industrial Worker Page 3

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

__I agree to abide by the IWW constitution.

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

Address: ______________________________

City, State, Post Code, Country: _______________

Occupation: ____________________________

Phone: ____________ Email:_______________

Amount Enclosed: _________

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

system, and live in harmony with theearth.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Membership includes a subscription to theIndustrial Worker.

Join the IWW Today

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

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

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

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

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

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

IWW Constitution Preamble

Wobbly Thoughts On The U.S. Social Forum In Detroit

as does our open membership structurethat, like workers centers, can use awider net strategy for building member-ship and industrial power. What couldmake us unique is having some seriousvictories that we could build collabora-tions around, as well as visibility andawareness, which would certainly givea boost to our organization as a whole.That said, we are currently extraor-dinarily disconnected from the mostmilitant sectors of the working class, ourstrongest ties being to certain sections of

the white working class and how we uti-lize successes should seek to transformthat situation. Nevertheless, the whiteworking class is extraordinarily impor-tant and the fact that it is made invisiblein most liberal and leftist organizing

By FW bIn going to the U.S. Social Forum for

the rst time (and building on my rstexperience at the Labor Notes Confer-ence this last April) it seems to me thatthere are three core centers of poten-tially militant unionism within the labormovement today. It is my feeling thatif we, as the IWW, dont build relation-ships, join together or act in solidaritywith these constellations, we may missthe boat on this generation of struggles.

First, there is an increasinglywell-organized anti-racist, grassrootsand internationalist pole of the labormovement.It is madeup of work-ers centers,independentunions andcoalitionsthings like the Excluded WorkersCongress (which includes such groups asthe Domestic Workers Alliance, NationalDay Labors network, NYC Taxi Driv-ers Alliance and many other workers

centers)and larger collaborations likeBasta Ya! Moreover, there is organiz-ing work forming around whole supplychains, most notably the newly-formedFood Chain Workers Alliance, which isbuilding on the on the important workof the Coalition of Immokalee Work-ers. Individuals in all these groups areworking hard to build together and tond funding streams that give themmore leeway than corporate foundations.They are looking for partners that aremore democratic than unions for whomcollaboration mostly means taking duesfrom those already organized by thesegroups or giving small amounts of re-sources, but with demands for control.

Second, there has been a wholeswath of struggles around the public sec-tor. Union workers are often on the frontlines of these struggles, but they canonly be won if they organize on a largerscale than existing union formations. All

public work is at stake, although issueslike education and health care have themost public resonance. What denesthese struggles currently is that criseseconomic, political, and moralare usedto transform the public sector towardsprivatization, which is currently theonly solution on the table. Jobs withJustice, The United Electrical, Radio andMachine Workers of America (UE), anda number of other community-basedgroups seem to be ahead in general onthese struggles, though there is yet tobe a coherent alternative vision on thetable and, as in most things, struggles

south of the border andaround the world providethe best picture of wherewe need to go. As such,and given the explod-ing situations in Mexicoand elsewhere, learning

from and supporting those struggles andgetting people to see such struggles asprecursors to our own could be extreme-ly important in giving people the meansnecessary to win these types of struggles

here in the U.S. These cutbacks will onlyintensify in the years ahead, and creat-ing mass-based ghting coalitions at therank-and-le level will be essential tosaving the livelihood not only of publicsector workers, but also large sections ofthe public at large.

As such, what is important aboutboth the work in the public sector andof workers center organizing is thatthey move beyond just labor issuesinto core questions about what societycan be, including issues of economicdemocracy, food, sustainability, race andgender justice, and potentially, creatingthe new world in the shell of the old.

Third, of course, is the work that we

of the IWW are doing within unorganiz-able workplaces, and as part of seri-ous campaigns. We are not particularlyunique in this, though our internationalstructure and lack of strings to corporatefoundations provides solid possibilities,

today is dangerous indeed.I also think that bringing our

analysis and experience to collabora-tive projects on larger scales around thepublic sector, supply chain organizing,or industrial campaigns would be usefulfor the work and for our organizationas a whole. Moreover, our benet as acollaborator and as an organizing forcewould be far stronger if we could becomean effective national apparatus forsolidarity actions for our own campaignsand for others, and what it would take to

be this is a conversation of pressing im-portance. Lastly, as a rank-and-le unionwe have the potential to experiment, andI would love to see more working classcommunity projects as a way of buildinga membership base, and more projectswith local artists generally.

All of this points out to the fact thatthe IWW is not going to be the dominantforce in the labor movement in our gen-eration, though if we do our job, we canbe an important contributor. As such,our goal should be to push the entirelabor movement to operate like whatwe do at our very best, summarized byopen membership, rank-and-le control,internationalism and direct action.

What is needed then is a plan for thefuture of our union in relation to these,and other trends, debated through thediscussions of the membership and g-ured out on local, regional, national andinternational scales. Our relevance to thelabor movement is going to be denedby our ability to organize ourselves toparticipate as effectively as possible.In conclusion, I am deeply impressedby the work and vision the OrganizingDepartment has done to move towardsthis goal, but it is on all of us to gureout how to prioritize our energies to bequalitatively more organized, effective,and visionary.

IWW Makes An Impact At The U.S. Social ForumBy Stephanie Basile

On June 22-26, nearly 26,000 people converged in Detroit for the second U.S.Social Forum. The forum consisted of hundreds of workshops, cultural events, walk-ing tours, and more. Activists, organizers, and others involved in grassroots organizingcame from around the country to network and share ideas.

A number of IWW members were in attendance at the Social Forum, and manywere able to meet and connect with one another. They came from places such as Grand

Rapids, the Twin Cities, New York City, upstate New York, Philadelphia, Albuquerque,Detroit and Richmond, Va., among other places.

Wobblies took the time to meet with one another and report on what was going onin each persons city or town. Highlights from their conversations include the follow-ing:

- Richmond: Wobblies helped form a Transit Riders Union and are actively reach-ing out to the community to grow the union.

- Albuquerque: Wobblies organized the staff at a CWA local and currently have acontract there

- Detroit: Wobblies operate the Wobbly Kitchen, which feeds workers for variousevents and fed hundreds of people during the Social Forum.

- Starbucks Workers Union: Organizing continues nationwide, and SWU memberssaid they were looking forward to attending the rst international SWU conference inNew York City, which took place in July.

- New branches continue to form around the country.The IWW also hosted a workshop called Building an Alternative Workers Move-

ment: Opportunities and Challenges, in which participants broke into small groups toesh out ideas and share experiences. Small groups discussed such topics as organizingon the job, organizing across industries, membership recruitment and retention, andpolitics in organizing. Each group then shared and discussed with the larger group. SanFrancisco's Chinese Progressive Association and El Comit de Apoyo a los TrabajadoresAgricolas (CATA) co-hosted the workshop with the IWW.

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4/12


Editors Note: The Workers Power column is on vacation this month. It

will return in the OctoberIndustrial Worker.

Graphic: Mike Konopacki

By Kenneth MillerTodays IWW is lled with people

concerned about free speech, police bru-tality and many other defense issues.They are working to organize responsesto rights violations. Many of themare members of the General DefenseCommittee (GDC). Others are making

inquiries about the GDC. Either way, itis obvious to them that ourunion needs a GDC. Howev-er, is not quite clear to themwhat the GDC does or how tot in. Today, we are a groupmostly of IWW memberswith vast experience doingdefense organizing, workingto make that experience, andthe experience of this union,available to others. Youshould join the GDC today.

How is the GDC going to grow?The GDC was created to raise money

for defense. Workers dont have a lot ofmoney to give, but everyone has a little.The GDC correlated memberships withfundraising. The membership of theGDC exploded after the Palmer Raids,during the subsequent ghts for freespeech. We needed to pay lawyers andafford bail. People, thousands of non-Wobblies too, who wanted to help withthis joined the GDC. We should be aim-ing to grow in the same way today. Weneed the right cases. We need a coordi-nated outreach effort to educate aboutthose cases and present the GDC as away to contribute nancial support.

Problems at the GDC?In late June, I spent a weekend in

upstate New York at the Wobble-In

and I heard two specic complaintsabout the GDC:

The rst complaint I heard wasabout a situation in which the NYC IWWfought the Department of Labor toothand nail to avoid handing over theirmembership records. Signicant legalsupport was mobilized and they were onthe cusp of a victory. As that victory wasimminent, and the sanctity of our mem-bership records withheld, they learnedthat the records were handed over. Crap!What a slap in the face! What great workundermined. The GDC has the resources

and organization to provide signicantsupport.

The second complaint I heardwas regarding a Fellow Workers whomade an error. After he went publicabout workers rights violations at asilk screening shop where he had beenorganizing, the boss went after him

with a Strategic Lawsuits Against PublicParticipation (SLAPP) suit.This Fellow Worker made abig mistake, in my opinion,by going to a lawyer ratherthan seeking advice from hisFellow Workers. Wobbliesshould never cave to SLAPPsuits, and this membershould have known to goto the GDC for help priorto paying a lawyer $6,500.People need to know thatthe GDC is not continuing

to raise money to pay the legal debt thatthis member incurred.

Mobilize with the GDCThe GDC has not fully embraced

some of the most high-prole instancesof police/picket line violencethoseperpetrated against Alex Svoboda inProvidence, R.I., and Erik Davis inthe Twin Cities. Donations need to becorrelated with membership organiz-ing drives, and not contributed directlyfrom our general fund. If people want togive money to support Alex or Erik, forexample, joining the GDC is supposed tobe a mechanism for them to do so. As amember of the GDC Steering Committee,this is what I believe the GDC is designedfor. I ask that you please join the GDCtoday and help us make concrete steps inthis direction.

A GDC Delegate will be in atten-dance and signing up new members atthe IWW General Convention in theTwin Cities this September. You candownload a membership applicationform online at: http://www.iww.org/en/projects/gdc/join.shtml and send it to:The General Defense Committee of theIWW, c/o IWW, P. O. Box 317741, Cin-cinnati, OH, 45231, United States. Youcan contact Kenneth directly with anysuggestions, concerns or recommenda-tions for the General Defense Committeeat 412-867-9213.

Continued from 2If I get laid off or red from my job,

I can eventually get another job, prob-ably in the same eld, maybe even in thesame state. But if a professional footballplayer gets laid off or red, end of story.Hes not going to be playing professionalfootball againand thats another differ-ence between the performers associa-tion and the rest of us.

Another difference is that we un-derstand the morality of honoring otherworkers picket lineswe dont crossthem! And yet, members of the NFLroutinely cross the picket lines of hotelsand restaurants. You would think thatthese guys would remember that theywere workers too, but they dont. Andheres a thought: When do you think theArizona Cardinals will begin protest-ing the blatantly racist anti-immigrantlaws in their home state? Wouldnt it besomething if they arose as one workersunion in solidarity with all fellow work-ers, and refused to play until the lawwas revoked? It could bring Arizona toits nancial knees, and open up talks forreal, meaningful immigration reform.

But dont hold your breath. In thewords of Malcolm X, Well, you couldput a shoe in an oven and that wouldntmake it a biscuit, and the NationalFootball Players Association is a unionin name only.

Up The Revolution!X365465

I am a member of the San Francisco

Bay Area region of the Inland BoatmansUnion (IBU), which is the Marine Divi-sion of the union. I serve on the IBUsExecutive Board (unpaid, and I am notspeaking here in any ofcial capacity.)I am a ferryboat deckhand and I justreceived my 100-ton masters license. Iam also a 15-year, dues-paying memberof the IWW. This letter is in response toMike Davis story, Labor War In TheMojave: California Miners Struggle,which appeared on page 9 of the JuneIndustrial Worker.

I am unwilling to call the results ofthe struggle in Boron a victory for themembers of International Longshoreand Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local30, the union movement, or the working

class in general. All along, Rio Tintosgoal was to undermine the ILWUsseniority system and, bytheir own admission, RioTinto has done exactlythat.

Sure, Rio Tintosmost extreme demandswere beaten back, butthat is no doubt by design (i.e. it wasthe strategy all along by the Rio Tintobosses). In fact, this is fairly typical ofthe employing class these days: startwith a specic goal, couch that goal ina set of extremely draconian demands,make those demands and enforce themthrough lockouts or provoking a strike,stir up rank-and-le anger (which is then

tempered by increasingly conservative

and class collaborationist union bureau-crats), concede most of the draconiandemands, but win the key one, usually aconcession by the union which ultimate-

ly has long-term erosive effects on unionsecurity and rank-and-lecontrol of the workplace.The Boron struggle is atextbook example of this.

Surely, the authors,editors, and informedmembers who help createand produceLabor Notes

should be able to see this. Dont let thewool be pulled over your eyes and donthave a blind spot, just because its theILWU. Sadly, the ILWU is becomingmore and more like the SEIU every day.

This is nothing new. As an aside, butrelated note, I am soon to have a book

published, to be called One Big Union:Judi Baris Vision of Green-WorkerAlliances in Redwood Country (detailshere: http://www.judibari.info).

Judi Bari was a veteran of manyrank-and-le labor struggles and she in-stinctively knew that the union bureau-crats could rarely be trusted, no matterwhich union they ran (my book willdetail some of the struggles that she andher fellow Earth First!/IWW membersengaged in defense of union mill work-ers, sometimes against their own, cor-rupt, class collaborationist union). Thesituation was no different in Boron. Thisis no victory, except in as much as it isnta total defeat.

Yours for the One Big Union,Fellow Worker Steve Ongerth,x344543

NFL Players Are Not Workers:The Debate Continues

Victory In Boron? I Think Not

The Defiant Spirit:News from your General Defense Committee


5/12


By John Terry, The OregonianTime was when mere mention of

Wobblies was enough to provoke fearand loathing in the hearts of societyscapitalistic elements. Never was suchfear and loathing more pronouncedin Oregon than in February 1911. Andnever was there a time when the radicalIndustrial Workers of the World evoked

greater sympathy in the state. The moti-vation for IWW demonstrations in Port-land that year was not outrage againstlocal or even regional business. The in-centive came from Fresno, Calif., whereWobblies were battling city ofcials overthe right to preach their doctrine on citystreets. Fresno authorities were jailingthe speakers. The IWW was respondingby sending more speakers to overcrowdcity jails and jam local courts.

The IWW successfully used thattactic in a 1910 free speech campaign inSpokane and decided to put it to the testin Fresno.

Hundreds demonstrated their soli-darity with Fresno by parading through

downtown Portland, banners aloft,history professor Jay Carlton Mullen ofSouthern Oregon University writes.

The Portland IWW held a meetingwith local Socialists, and an executivecommittee was formed. It voted to referto the crusaders by numbers instead ofnames to emphasize oneness. It raisedsome money and dispatched scouts toassess trains.

Army Goes South, read The Or-egonians headline on Feb. 17, 1911, withsubheads: Workers of World Take Pos-session of Train, Loaded Cars BrokenOpen and Campaign for Free SpeechIs Planned by Socialists. Mullen says

take possession was a stretch. Al-though Southern Pacic bigwigs in Port-land would rather have denied accessto their trains, he says, the brakemen,engineers and so forth, who probablywere union men as well, were probablymore responsive and freely providedspace in empty boxcars.

In all, 112 men headed south.

At a stop in Albany, the crusadersdemonstrated their travel regimen,Mullen says. A few solicited funds, butmost sat quietly, exchanging stares oroccasional pleasantries with curiousonlookers.

In Junction City, Almost all of themale population was waiting for them,backed up by a formidable array ofweapons The scene turned peace-ful as townsfolk began to suspect aprank and turned a sympathetic ear tothe Wobblies cause, Mullen says. Stopsin Eugene and Roseburg were likewisequiet.

Problems arose in Ashland. Ofcialsof Southern Pacics Shasta Division

managed to block access. The group de-cided to hike 10 miles south to Steinmanin hopes of boarding a train there.

There was snow in the mountains. InSteinman, the railroad section boss lentthe ill-clad protesters shovels and axesto clear snow and build res. His wifedistributed apples and crackers.

Southbound trains sped past, sothe protesters trudged four miles uphillto the Siskiyou Tunnel. They boughtvegetables from a store and feasted onMulligan stew.

Railroad detectives again barredthem from southbound trains. The groupdebated whether to forcibly board a

Oregon Wobblies Make Mark With Long Walk For Free Speech

Continued from 1Since being terminated, the workers

have resolved to ght for reinstatementto their jobs, back pay, and an apologyfrom P.F. Changs corporate ofce. ThePhoenix IWW made contact with theworkers after seeing them on the news,and have been providing assistance andencouragement.

The strengthened group of workershas undertaken ve actions so far: pick-eting at the Chandler store and at three

other Valley Pei Wei stores, and boycot-ting Pei Wei and P.F. Changs locationsacross the United States and Mexico.With the workers determination andsupport from IWW branches in approxi-mately 50 U.S. cities and six countries,the social and economic impacts on theP.F. Changs brand could be signicant.We will continue to stay united until wegain justice over this discriminationboth for ourselves and for our compan-ions, said Erik, a high-spirited Pei Weiworker and father who is enthusiasticabout involving his family and friends inMexico City in the boycott.

Pei Wei P.F. Changs is a repeatoffender, said Victor, an independent

investigator and activist who has been

supporting the Pei Wei workers in theirght. Chandler supervisors have statedthat this decision came mainly fromhigher up the chain and its clear to usthat political concerns had a lot to dowith it. Youll recall that Pei Wei madethe news two years ago by unjustly r-ing a Fountain Hills store manager. Heallegedly miffed some Maricopa Countysheriffs ofcers. As the story goes, oldJoe threw his weight around and P.F.Changs did what they were told like

regular cowards. Additionally, in 2009P.F. Changs in Kansas City, Mo. was hitwith a lawsuit by an African-Americanserver who said that P.F. Changs man-agement protected the racist practices ofwhite servers and retaliated against herand an African-American manager whospoke up about the discrimination.

So far, the ongoing campaign hasbeen featured in theArizona Republic,theArizona Daily Sun,La Voz, NationalPublic Radio, on TV news stations CBS5 & 13, FOX 10, and NBC 12, and ondozens of left- and right-wing websites.Both the workers and organizers for theIWW say that the Pei Wei P.F. Changsboycott will continue until the matter is

resolved to the workers satisfaction.

Fired Restaurant Workers AnnounceInternational Boycott

freight but decided to demonstrate theirpeacefulness by walking the rest of theway to Fresno.

They tramped on through the Sis-kiyou Mountains, in snow as deep as sixfeet, and on into California as far as RedBluff. They did hitch a ride 12 miles fromMount Shasta to Dunsmuir in the pri-vate rail car of an itinerant actress, MayRoberts. Other than that, they walkedthe 150 miles from Ashland.

A tavern owner and the Knights ofPythias in Dunsmuir extended hospital-ity, as did the Eagles Lodge in warmerKennett. The Wobblies played the Ken-nett baseball team and lost 2-1. In RedBluff came word that the Fresno conicthad been settled. The Oregon contingentdisbanded and, presumably, headed

home.Nonetheless, theirs was an epic jour-

ney that should be remembered, Mullen

says.A committee is seeking to memori-alize what it calls those brave men ofconviction whose solidarity stand forfree speech is absolutely amazing. WesBrain of Medford, the de facto executivesecretary, said the 16-member commit-tee promoting the Wobbly Walk FreeSpeech Monument has no nancing.But its determined to see an appropri-ate marking of the route in time for theevents centennial. For information,email [email protected].

This story originally appeared inthe June 19, 2010 edition ofThe Orego-nian. It was reprinted with permission.

By Kenneth MillerThis summer was lled with strikes

and police riots in Bangladesh. ThePittsburgh Anti-Sweatshop CommunityAlliance, and it seems the rest of theanti-sweatshop movement, was unableto offer any concrete support. Even afterthe Bangladesh Center for WorkersSolidarity spent the month of April tour-ing the United States, it is unclear thatanyone in the United States could doanything to support them.

The Pittsburgh Anti-SweatshopCommunity Alliance is headed back toPNC Park to talk about sweatshops. Pilotepisodes of a new television program

that will be aired on Pittsburghs com-

munity television station, PCTV, willbe shot this fall. Were going to dem-onstrate how to commandeer RobertoClemente Bridge and how a Civil RightsBridge from PNC Park to the oor ofglobal sweatshops can be built when thePittsburgh Pirates respond to workertestimony in a timely way.

On Sept. 1 the new statue of formerPirates player Bill Mazeroski will beunveiled, 50 years after the 1960 WorldSeries homeruna shot heard aroundthe world. Dennis Brutus will be remem-bered at this ceremony. We are going topractice talking about Dennis Brutus, hisimpact on sports, black consciousness,

and international solidarity at this event.

On the weekend of Sept. 17, the Ari-zona Diamondbacks will be at PNC Park.Well be there to continue the boycott ofeverything Arizona in response to Sen-ate Bill 1070, which has legalized racialproling in Arizona. The PittsburghIWW has endorsed this event. We willbe at the grand opening of the PittsburghPenguins new hockey arena, the ConsolEnergy Center, to speak out against themyth of clean coal. In the fall we willbe supporting the campaign to merge thePittsburgh Public Schools athletic leaguewith the other schools in Western Penn-sylvania. The City League has its baseballplayoff at PNC Park in the fall. Well be

there talking about sweatshops!

We are inviting Starbucks workersto come to PNC Park, and folks to dovoter registration on Roberto ClementeBridge. Pittsburghers paid a quarter of abillion dollars for this space. The Pitts-burgh Pirates claim to represent our city.

We invite you to PNC Park and towatch our show. The goal will be todemonstrate that we can commandeerthis real estate and use it effectively asa Civil Rights Bridge. If you have ideasfor a segment or some technical skillswe can use, we need the help! Also,please keep Jonathan ChristiansontheIWW delegate currently representing usin Bangladeshand his family in your

hearts and minds.

Lets Talk About Sweatshops At PNC Park

Photo: mailtribune.com

The Wobblies 1911 journey from Portland to Fresno, Calif., draws a crowd duringtheir stop in Ashland in this rare photograph provided by the Southern OregonHistorical Society.

Photo: NYC IWWBy Diane Krauthamer

From June 25-27, members of the New York City and Pittsburgh IWWs joinedlong-time Wobblies Rochelle Semel and Paul Poulos for an informal retreat at theWobble-In, located in Hartwick, N.Y. We used the beautiful weekend to reecton current and past experiences and engaged in meaningful discussion on cur-rent and past organizing work while thinking about future goals and targets forour union. The IWWs founding convention took place on June 27, 1905, and theretreat served as a great reminder that 105 years later, we are still going strong.

Celebrating 105 Years Of Industrial Unionism


6/12


By x347544Anyone who

stayed around inDetroit long enough

to participate in theNational PeoplesMovement As-sembly (PMA) thatserved as the culmi-nation of the 2010U.S. Social Forumcouldnt help butnotice the energyand enthusiasmexhibited by thoseadvocating for theadoption of Boycott,Divestment andSanctions (BDS)against Israel. Callsto spread the BDSmovement and forparticipation inevents that supportBDS attracted theloudest cheers andthe most stridentwaving of yellowand blue half-sheetsof paperthe mech-anism by whichparticipants were toexpress their com-mitment to solidar-ity with the proposalbeing put forward,either in principlewith a yellow paper,or in action with a blue paper.

Having spent much of my timeover the last couple of years since atwo-year sojourn in Cairo working onPalestine solidarity, I was heartenedby the palpable momentum behind theBDS campaign, which I support. ButI found something troubling about itas well. Someone learning about thequestion of Palestine through the BDSPeoples Movement Assembly could beforgiven for thinking that west of theRiver Jordan resided but two classes ofpeople: the Israelis and the Palestinians.And such a person could be forgiven forthinking that, were it not for the con-stant and brutal repression visited uponthe Palestinians by the Israelis, Palestine

would be the ideal classless society; amyth based on the fact that there areno classes of Christians, Muslims andDruze, there are no classes of city-dwellers (madanyeen) and rural peas-ants (felaheen), and there is certainly noworking class or employing class.

Beneath this instrumentalist myth ofthe valorized yet repressed Palestinian,however, is of course a much messier

reality. There most certainly is, in fact,

a very wide gulf between the Palestinianworking class and the Palestinian rulingclass (to refer to them as the employingclass perhaps overstates their useful-ness to society). In Palestine proper, thismanifests in all sorts of familiar ways:well-dressed men being chauffeuredaround in clean black SUVs, preaching tothe dirty, dusty, smelly throngs about theneed to keep their chins up, along withtheir productivity, in the face of dailyhumiliations. They are subjected to thesehumiliations more by their Palestinianbosses, who have paid for their travelpermits and their freedom through yearsof subservience to Israeli demands at thenegotiating (sic) table and through their

self-interested efforts to quash (or, morerecently, co-opt) domestic resistance.

In the Palestinian diaspora, especial-ly in Central America, the role of the Pal-estinian ruling class against the interna-tional working class is even more stark.For one thing, those Palestinians livingin the diaspora were naturally those whocould afford, by hook or by crook (or,more likely, by pound or by shekel), to

get out of Palestine. Many of them were

petty merchants who moved to otherformer British colonies like Honduras,and now, several generations later, havemanaged to cement themselves in posi-tions as the ruling elite. Some of you mayremember that there was a coup dtatin Honduras just over a year ago (a coupthat is still ongoing, it should be noted).The vast majority of the intellectualauthors of that coupwere members of thePalestinian-Honduranelite families: theFacusss, the Cana-huatis, the Handals,the Laraches, and theKafatis, among others.

These Palestinian elitesin the diaspora, withtheir vast accumulatedwealth, have been someof the most signicantfunders of the PalestineLiberation Organiza-tion (PLO) and thepolitical and economicinstruments of thePalestinian Authority.None of this, apparently,prevents them from enlisting the aidof former Mossad (Israeli intelligence)mercenaries or importing weapons fromIsrael in order to suppress the Honduranresistance movements.

The last point is key. Neither theruling class in Palestine proper nor thePalestinian elites in the diaspora haveany apparent qualms about acting inclass solidarity with their Israeli breth-ren, despite this rhetoric that were fedabout some existential enmity betweenJews and Arabs. If only the interna-tional working class were so uniedin its solidarity. It is for precisely thisreason that I am advocating for adop-tion of BDS within the IWW. BDS is aninitiative from the grassroots of Palestin-ian society, and has been endorsed byPalestines labor organizations. Notably,our International Solidarity Committee,during their delegation to Palestine, wasspecically asked to endorse it by both

the mainstreamPalestinian Gen-eral Federationof Trade Unions

(PGFTU), as wellas the Federationof Independent &Democratic TradeUnions & WorkersCommittees in Pal-estine, with whomthe IWW maintainsclose solidarity.

After years oftrying to subvertand underminethe BDS campaignalong with otherforms of grassrootscivil resistance,the leadership ofthe PalestinianAuthority, hailingfrom the Palestin-ian ruling class, hasapparently begun tojoin the rest of theworld in realizingthe power of BDS,and the likelihoodthat it will succeedin bringing aboutsome sort of negoti-ated peace betweenIsraelis andPalestinians. Theyhave begun to try to

position themselves,albeit in a clumsy, theatrical fashion, at

the head of the boycott and non-violentresistance movements in an attempt toregain the legitimacy theyve lost afterdecades of self-interested capitulationand collaboration.

The question, as I see it, is notwhether BDS will succeed, but whom itwill benet when it does succeed. Paral-lels are often drawn between Palestine

and South Africafor good reason. Iremain optimistic,however, about thepossibility that oursuccesses in Pal-estine can exceedthe successes of

the anti-Apartheidmovement. For onething, the Pales-tinian BDS cam-paign has gainedmomentum muchmore quickly thanits South Africanprecedent and,while the AfricanNational Congresswas in ascendance

throughout the decline of the Apartheidregime, there is practically no politicalorganization that can credibly claim amandate in Palestine. There is consider-ably more open space for independent,democratic, rank-and-le Palestinianworking class organizations to consti-tute themselves as loci of power, severalamong many, in a constellation of non-state solutions in the land west of theRiver Jordan.

As an early endorser of BDS, theIWW can participate in the constitutionof that power.

If you are concerned with laborrights and human rights in Palestineand want to get involved in organizingsolidarity between IWW members andPalestinian workers and developinga Boycott, Divestment and Sanctionscampaign in the IWW, email [email protected] or visit: http://www.iww.org/projects/isc/palestine.

Building Solidarity With The Palestinian WorkingClass Through Boycott, Divestment And Sanctions

Special

A common stencil of the Honduran resistance reads: Code of the chafa (pejora-tive slang for soldier): #1, Serve the Turk. Palestinian Hondurans are referredto most often as Turks, in reference to the identity papers they carried whenmany of the elite families rst arrived in Honduras after the collapse of the Ot-toman Empire. This racial bias is unfortunately repeated with little reection inHonduras, but it nevertheless points to the prevalence of Palestinian immigrantsin the golpista (coup-making) Honduran elite.

Photo: Adrienne Pine

Photo: Rob Mulford

Photo: Rob Mulford

Artists reclaim space on Israels Apartheid Wall near Bethlehem, in the West Bank.

The PGTFU ofce.


7/12


Swedish Dockworkers Block IsraeliGoods In Boycott ActionBy Saed Bannoura, IMEMC News

After similar boycott actions inCalifornia, Norway and South Africa,dockworkers in Sweden have decided toblock the import of Israeli goods.

The boycott action was launchedon June 23 by 1,500 members of theSwedish Dockworkers Union, affecting95 percent of Swedens ports. Tradewith Israel accounts for just 0.2 percentof Swedish imports and exports, so theaction is largely symbolic, but it couldhave an impact on the Israeli compa-

nies that export to Sweden.According to a union spokesper-

son, the boycott action was organizedbecause of the [Israeli navys] assaulton the ship to Gaza, that we supportedbefore they took off...and the blockadeof the Gaza Strip, which affects thecivilian population.

The spokesperson was referring toan Israeli attack on a humanitarian aidconvoy on May 31, in which nine inter-national aid workers were killed andnearly 60 were injured. Participants inthe caravan say the attack was unpro-voked, and took place in internationalwaters. Although Israel does not denythat the ships were in internationalwaters when the Israeli forces attacked,

Israeli authorities claim that they are atwar, and that the attack in internationalwaters is thus justied.

The aid convoy was carrying hun-dreds of tons of humanitarian aid forthe people of Gaza, including medicalsupplies, school supplies, and buildingmaterials. Israeli occupying authoritieshave prevented these materials fromentering Gaza since 2007 when thedemocratically-elected Hamas partytook power in the Gaza Strip.

Israel announced that it would

ease some of the restrictions on goodsallowed into Gaza, but the blockaderemains in place, and the new amountsallowed in are still only a small fractionof the amount that entered before theblockade was put in place.

One Swedish Dockworkers Unionspokesperson said, We dont think it isfar-reaching enough. We want them tolift the blockade.

This is not the rst time thatSwedish dockworkers have engaged inboycott actions against what they seeas oppressive regimes. They launcheda similar boycott of the notorious dic-tatorship of Augusto Pinochet in Chile,and of the apartheid regime in SouthAfrica in the 1980s.

By FW SparrowHistory was made Today.

Met together to ame the sparkstruck by the Gaza Flotilla.

800 of us.

Long day to me. Up ready at a.m. 4:30Copwatch Security crew swept into ofce gearing up.

Last minute hustling for rides to docks.Wobbly universal-labeled drum carried by Copwatch

car.

Down empty streets, past committed comradesstringing out along the road hiking Bart to the dock at

Berth 58.Dropped off across tracks from closest gate

and walked across to growing clustered pickets.

Sorting out.Fellow workers Bruce and Donna

ying red/black ag.

Picket sign.

First forty formed a line at rst gate.Took back copwatch Wobbly drum.

Drum beat march to main gate,numbers growing.

Wobbly Banner strung across wire fencefellow workers down from Reno.

Fellow Workers with Security,Steve and John waving a Wobbly ag.

6 am line swelled to hundreds.main gate circle lengthening to fty,

then seventy, then a hundred feetas more marchers crowded in.

Cadenced couple hours with Wobbly drum,

handed off to another on the linebeating out rhythm with his hands.

Kept cadencing with claves as crowded line grew.

More instruments appeared, saxaphone,trumpet, more drums

Mixed with bullhorned chantsand passioned line responses.

Sound system set upchanting down Apartheid Wall

powerful women pacing usSweet as song, strong as struggle

Third gate opened up.Joined a third line formingmoving, chanting, militant

No more cars got thro

First shift wouldnt cross our line.Arbitrators checked our numbersdetermined our show of strength,

ruled for shift and for full pay.

Two hours rest at Wobbly halluntil Second Shift came on4:30, back down the line

to repeat the morning

cops wearing thinbroke agreementno sound system

Missed their Fathers Day?

tired morning pickets

mixed with late risersmarching on the crestof mornings victory

Free, Free Palestine,Do not Cross the Picket Line!walking, chanting, drummingwaiting for Arbitrators again

Finally heard the newsAs the Israeli ship was docking

that 2nd shift was cancelledThanks to First Shift, wed won.

Kept the line going till 7:30 thoin case a 2nd shift late call.

then speeches and a nal chant,An Injury to One Is An Injury To All

Thoughts On The Successful

Picketing Of The Israeli Zin Line Ship

Oakland, California

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Historic Victory At Oakland Port:Israeli Ship Blocked From Unloading

Special

By Gloria La RivaEditors Note: This ac-

tion was not called by theIWW, though some IWWmembers participated inthe planning of the eventand at least a dozen joinedin the action. The organiz-ers included the TransportWorkers Solidarity Com-mittee and the ANSWERCoalition.

In a historic and unprec-edented action on June 20,over 800 labor and community activ-ists blocked the gates of the Oakland,Calif. docks in the early morning hours,prompting longshore workers to refuseto cross the picket lines where they werescheduled to unload an Israeli ship.

From 5:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m., amilitant and spirited protest was held infront of four gates of the Stevedore Ser-

vices of America, with people chantingFree, Free Palestine, Dont Cross thePicket Line, and An injury to one is aninjury to all, bring down the apartheidwall.

Citing the health and safety provi-sions of their contract, the Interna-tional Longshore and Warehouse Union(ILWU) workers refused to cross thepicket line to report for duty.

Between 8:30 and 9:00 a.m., anemergency arbitration was conducted atthe Maersk parking lot nearby, with aninstant arbitrator called to the site torule on whether the workers could refuseto cross the picket line without disciplin-ary measure.

At 9:15 a.m., after again reviewingthe protests of hundreds at each gate,the arbitrator ruled in favor of the unionthat it was indeed unsafe for the workersto enter the docks.

Amidst loud cheers of Long LivePalestine!, Jess Ghannam of the FreePalestine Alliance and Richard Beckerof the ANSWER Coalition announcedthe victory. This is truly historic, neverbefore has an Israeli ship been blockedin the United States! said Ghannam.

The news that a container shipfrom the Zim Israeli shipping line wasscheduled to arrive in the Bay Area hassparked a tremendous outpouring ofsolidarity for Palestine, especially in

the aftermath of the Israeli massacre ofvolunteers bringing humanitarian aid toGaza on May 31.

With 10 days advance notice of theships arrival, the emergency Labor/Community Committee in Solidaritywith the Palestinian People was set up.Prior to the blockade, some 110 peoplefrom unions and community organiza-

tions came to help organize logistics,outreach and community support. Initi-ating organizations included the Al-Aw-da Palestine Right to Return Coalition,the ANSWER Coalition, the Bay AreaLabor Chapter of U.S. Labor AgainstWar and the Bay Area Labor Committeefor Peace & Justice.

The San Francisco Labor Counciland Alameda Labor Council passed re-sounding resolutions denouncing Israelsblockade of Gaza. Both councils sent outpublic notices of the dock action.

The ILWU has a proud history ofextending its solidarity to struggling peo-ples the world over. In 1984, as the blackmasses of South Africa were engaged

in an intense struggle against SouthAfrican apartheid, the ILWU refused fora record-setting 10 days to unload cargofrom the South African Ned Lloyd ship.Despite million-dollar nes imposed onthe union, the longshore workers heldstrong, providing a tremendous boost tothe anti-apartheid movement.

The blockade action in Oakland,in the sixth largest port in the UnitedStates, is the rst of several protests andwork stoppages that occurred around theworld. It is sure to inspire others to dothe same.

This story appeared in its originalformat on June 20, 2010 on http://www.PSLweb.org.

Photo: Bill Hackwell,pslweb.org


8/12


Interview

you explain what you mean?

CS: Ill just give some examples. AfterCamp Casey, we had something called[the] Bring Them Home Now Tour. Wehad three buses leave Crawford, Texasand take different routes to Washington,

D.C. When we got there I met with doz-ens of House Representatives and Sena-tors. The Democratic oneslike NancyPelosi, Harry Reid, Hillary Clinton, JohnKerrythey told me to my face, Cindyhelp us regain the majority and wellhelp you end the wars. Then in 2007,when I went and called them on it, theysaid, We need a larger majority.JH: Youve dubbed 2010 the year of re-sistance against war. What can averagepeople do to help?

CS: Well, you know, Ive expanded myactivism way beyond war. Theres arobber class and a robbed class. [Therobber class] are the ones waging thewar. They count on their propagandaand the myths and the illusion that wehave a democracy, or even a republic.They keep divisions going in the robbedclass. So we not only ght members ofthe working class in other countries, butwere ghting each other. We ght eachother over all these wedge issues thatthe robber class couldnt care less about.Here we are ghting each other over gaymarriage, abortion, whatever. Divideand conquer so they can steal from us.The only way anythings going to changein this system is when working peopleget together and say, Were not going tosupport you elites in the style to whichyouve become accustomed to anymore.

Were tired of you stealing our wealth,our resources, [and] our children to killin your wars. So my focus has widenedinto this class struggle, and I think theonly way we can win a class struggleis through revolution. Its not going tobe an armed revolution, because wereghting against people who have nukes,

By Jon HochschartnerCindy Sheehan is a woman who

needs no introduction. When her sonwas killed in Iraq, she threw herself intoanti-war activism across the country,quickly becoming the public face of thepeace movement. I interviewed her on

June 14 for the Industrial Worker.

Jon Hochschartner:What do youthink the state of the anti-war movementis today? Is it stronger or weaker sinceBush left ofce?

Cindy Sheehan: It got even weakersince Bush was in ofce. When theDemocrats regained the majority in bothhouses of Congress, thats when theanti-war movement started to weaken. Iremember, it was the fth anniversary ofthe invasion of Iraq in March 2008, and[the two anti-war groups], United forPeace and Justice, and Iraq Vets Againstthe War, decided that their movementwould not have a mass mobilization inWashington, D.C. on the anniversary be-cause they didnt want to embarrass theDemocrats. So, in 2006, a lot of energywas wasted in electing Democrats. Weveseen that they havent done anything toend the wars or really any of the Bushpolicies.

JH: That was around the time you leftthe Democratic Party, right?

CS: I did. I left the Democratic Partyin May 2007 when they passed the rstfunding bill, and when organizationslike MoveOn.org encouraged people tosupport that vote to fund George Bushswars. When Barack Obama was elected it

was practically the last nail in the cofnfor the anti-war movement. Theres noenergy in it. Its very small. Its almostlike the wars have just left everybodysconsciousness.

JH: Youve said the anti-war movementwas used by the Democratic Party. Can

who have [an] unlimitedamount ofmoney, and they have themedia too. Sowhat we need to do ishave a real, grassroots-based working-class

revolutionthat takes back our power,our economy,our ecology, our educa-tionanythingthats been stolen from us.

JH: I think its prettyclear, but how would youdescribe your economicpolitics?

CS: I think socialism isthe only economic systemthat helps the people,helps the robbed class.But what Im talkingabout in socialism is nota state socialism. I wouldalmost be like a commu-nist with a small c. Allget together in voluntarycollectives to support eachother, not collectives forced on us by anoppressive state.

JH: Could you tell us a little about yourupcoming documentary, Revolution: ALove Story?

CS: My lm, Revolution: A Love Storyhas three main goals. The rst goal is todispel the myths about President HugoChavez of Venezuela and the Bolivar-ian Revolution that he instituted, and to

tell the truth about it, to show people inthe United States that the robber classmedia and the government are not tell-ing the truth about President Chavez.Hes not a Communist dictator. There[are] elections in Venezuela all the time.Thats democracy. The second goal ofRevolution: A Love Story is to show

how people in Venezuela are empoweredby the revolution. How theyre not onlyempowered but how the revolution hasimproved their lives. You know, fromalmost total illiteracy in the poor andworking class to almost full literacy.[The revolution has also improved] themissions: the healthcare missions, thedental missions, the education missions,the subsidized groceries and subsidizedenergy. The revolution was using the re-sources to help the people, not to enrich

the state and the elite classes. The thirdgoal of Revolution: A Love Story is toinspire people here in the United Statesto start taking back our power.

To download the entire unedited

interview please visit: http://www.mediafre.com/?tbblgjmzy3x

organizations as the New York

City IWW, Domestic WorkersUnited, the Retail, Wholesaleand Department Store Union(RWDSU), the Green Party ofNew York City, and La Uninde la Comunidad Latina. Ad-ditional endorsers includedthe Restaurant OpportunitiesCenter of New York (ROC-NY)and New Immigrant Commu-nity Empowerment (NICE).

Workers rights are as-saulted everywhere, saidLeticia Alanis of La Unin dela Comunidad Latina. It isreally important that we standup for our rights, she added.

We domestic workersare continually exploited aswell, said Joyce Gil Camp-bell of Domestic Workers United. Westand with you in solidarity because wewant you to know that workers rightsare human rights.

The campaign for justice at Flaumis being carried out by the Focus on theFood Chain initiative, a joint effort ofnon-prot organization Brandworkersand the New York City IWW. The Na-tional Labor Relations Board has alreadyfound Flaum liable for extensive viola-tions of workers rights and the employ-ees are condent that they will prevail infederal court this fall in their overtime

and retaliation case. Workers at Flaum

prepare, process, pack, and deliver largeorders of kosher foodstuffs to supermar-kets around New York.

Food processing workers in NewYork City, mostly recent immigrants,have been ripped off by unscrupulousemployers for far too long, said DanielGross, the director of Brandworkers.But through organizing, communityaction, and litigation, workers like thoseat Flaum are standing together to ensuretheir tremendous contribution to oureconomy is recognized and respected.

For more information, visit http://www.brandworkers.org.

Immigrant Workers Rally ForJustice At Kosher Food Company

Cindy Sheehan Talks Peace And Socialism

Continued from 1

Former Flaum worker Felipe Romero discussesworkers rights violations in Brooklyn.

Photo: Diane Krauthamer

Photo: peaceoftheaction.org

Cindy Sheehan protests in front of the White House.

Graphic: Art by Robin Thompson, concept by DJ Alperovitz


9/12


The Battle Of Toronto: Protesting The G8/G20 SummitsContinued from 1meetings of union locals to speak on theG8/G20 (and to encourage motions insupport, including fundraising ones),and coordination with other nationaland provincial unions, came from ahandful of delegates and activists at thebase. We also ensured that organizedlabor supported the broader mobiliza-tion which extended throughout a weekof actions (not including the PeoplesSummit the weekend before the G8/G20meetings). This shaped the characterof the Ottawa labor mobilization as onein which labors grassroots was drivingthe mobilization work, ensuring thatthe organizational resources of laborwere made available for communityorganizing, while funding for busing(our primary expense) was organized onmore of a horizontal basis (local by local,community group by community group).This was born of necessity as inghtingwithin the leadership of the Ontario Fed-eration of Labour (OFL) had precipitated

a nancial crisis which led to promisesof funding evaporating, as other centrallabor bodies were having to pick up costsassociated with their main event on Sat-urday, June 26 (the People First marchand rally). In spite of this, we were ableto cover our busing costs and were evenable to raise a surplus to help with addi-tional transportation costs for arresteesback to Ottawa and legal defense.

Our experience in mobilizing in Ot-tawa was that there was a signicantlygreater uptake in interest and willing-ness to get on the bus from the moreopen, community-organizing side ofthings than through the institutionalframework of the trade unions doing

outreach to their respective member-ships, including for the Saturday laborrally and march.

This general dynamic seemed to bereected in the composition of the crowdon Saturday, which was much largerthan many of us had anticipated. Sixty toseventy percent of the crowd was out-side the union blocs that the CanadianLabour Congress (CLC) had specied intheir standing orders location. Therewere also many organizers from theranks of labor who pushed hard to cre-ate space for those who wanted to seemore than the usual march to nowherecharacteristic of mainstream union and

NGO mobilizationsto confront the actualperimeter.

These dynam-icssomewhat thereverse of the lastmajor mobilization on

this scale in Canada,the Summit of theAmericas in QuebecCity (2001)ensuredthat there would be agreater likelihood ofmilitant and confron-tational action, butalso respect for theframework and toneof all actions, includ-ing the labor marchitself. One of theactions that many ofus supported was theGet Off The Fenceaction, which aimedat confronting the

perimeter and (ap-parently) it was alsoaimed at disrupting(or humiliating) thesecurity operationmuch of the $1.3billion spent on over20,000 personnel andspecial equipment,including surveillancecameras throughout Canadas largestcity and the re-emergence of the long-range acoustical device (LRAD) seen inthe 2009 Pittsburgh summit.

I went down to Queens Park onSaturday with a friend (wearing his rainponcho from Seattle 1999!) as well as

some folks from OCAP. We subsequentlylearned that there were no pre-emptivearrests made of the OCAP folks, fortu-nately. I was also able to meet up withother union sisters and brothers in-volved in the mobilization from Ottawa,as well as FWs Moore and Starr fromthe Ottawa-Outaouais IWW, but I foundmyself often wandering through themarch on my own, running into manypeople (including our District LabourCongresss president) along the way. Thewide diversity of groups and unions inSaturdays march energized the crowd,and from my point of view, the plannedmarching blocs of the CLC had faded

into more of amish-mash ofvarious differ-ent groups ofpeople.

Up untilthe marchturned southon Spa-dina fromits westwardpath downQueen Street,to head backto QueensPark (andaway fromthe directionof the perim-

eter), therehad been afew attemptson the part ofsome groupsto break offfrom the mainmarch to con-front the secu-rity perimeter,but theseattempts wereunsuccessful.Nonethe-less, manythousandsof people

remained to

confront the perimeter, including manyunion brothers and sisters movingsouthward on Spadina, after the labormarch retreated to Queens Park. Thetone became more serious, as mountedriot police moved in and many of usbecame worried that we were going to besurrounded without a way to get out. The

standoff was eventually broken when asection towards the back broke off anddoubled-back on the earlier march route,catching security completely off-guard.When we managed to get out of thepotential kettle, we found a trail oftargeted property destruction, includ-ing several trashed cop cars, along theway east. The scene seemed very surreal,almost as though we were in the eye ofthe hurricane, watching cop cars get-ting trashed while buying hotdogs fromvendors up the street as a row of riotpolice remained guarding a route southa few blocks up. Clearly, the instructionswere to protect the perimeter at all costs,and the top-down operational chain ofcommand of the security apparatus wasunable to cope with other developments.

Eventually I managed to reconnectwith some of the other people fromOttawa, and we attempted to rejoin theprotest at Queens Park (the designatedfree speech area). We were impededfrom doing so by phalanxes of riotcops who were busy attacking peacefulprotestors (given their apparent inabil-ity to get at those more confrontationaldemonstrators who were actually break-ing the law). I expressed my confusionat why we werent able to access thedesignated free speech area as hadbeen promised, but I dont think that theriot police appreciated my sarcasm. Weskirted the area west of Queens Park

as we had a number of friends trappedwithin, all the while dodging rubberbullets, snatch squads, and the generalmayhem of a police riot, before somehowmanaging to join the large group thathad been pushed to the northern end ofQueens Park.

At this point, the crowd, energizedand angered by police attacks, had itsown momentum. I noticed that therewere many, many afnity groups, anda kind of organic collective intelligenceof the crowd started manifesting itself.As we were being pushed out of QueensPark, the crowds chants coalesced intoWhich Street? Bloor Street! as we tookover a major road in the downtown core.

The support of non-protestors at this

point added further energy (and ranks)to the snake march. Unknown to us atthat point was that there were othersimilar groups of 1,000+ people withvarying degrees of militancy, snakingtheir way elsewhere across Toronto.

Eventually, many different groupshad been able to get much closer to the

perimeter than anyone had thoughtpossible, and attempts to breach theperimeter were made among some of themore militant groups. Many people wereable to actually touch the fence, whichwas quite the feat since the informa-tion previously known to us was thatthe provincial government had passeda secret order-in-council to amend thePublic Works Protection Act so that be-ing within ve meters of the fence wasgrounds for arrest and detention. Butoverall, the tone of the crowd I was with,realizing we were vastly outnumbered byriot police and others effecting mass ar-rests, was to shift tactics to sitting downand de-escalation. We were also joinedby many everyday people of Toronto whowere caught in the snare of this lateststage of an incompetent policing opera-tion aimed at restoring order. Some-how, we managed to escape three linesof riot police and to leave the scene.

In the aftermath of everything,about 1,090 people were arrested anddetainedthe largest mass arrest in Ca-nadian history. The vast majorityabout800were released much later withoutany charges, but had to endure terribleconditions and treatment at the handsof an angry and seemingly directionlessmass of police in a vast detention center(a lm studio in the east end of the city),many for well over 48 hours.

At the time this story was written,

about 16 organizers remain imprisonedon a variety of conspiracy charges. Manypeople were woken up at gunpoint in themiddle of the night on Friday and cartedoff before anything had happened onthe streets of Toronto. People who cameto jail solidarity events on Saturday andSunday were brutalized and arrested.Everyday people who were at the wrongplace at the wrong time (hundreds ofthem) were subjected to incredible policeabuse. All of this, as well as endless foot-age of burning police cars and smashedwindows of corporate retail outlets in thetelevised media, has changed the tenorof political protest in Canada probablyirrevocably, and has signicantly upped

the ante for resistance.

Anti-Globalization

Photo: John Hollingsworth

Photo: John Hollingsworth

Thousands of demonstrators converge on the streets of Toronto to protest the G20.


10/12


Doctorow, Cory. For The Win.NewYork: Tor Teen 2010. Hardcover, 480pages, $17.99.

By Erik W. DavisThe more she read, the more sense

this group from out of history made for

the world of right noweverything thatthe IWW had done needed doing today,and whats more, it would be easiertoday than it had been. - FTW

Cory Doctorow is a signicant gurein popular culture. He is one of theoriginal founders of BoingBoing.net, themost popular weblog in the world and abest-selling science ction author. Hisinuence is extensive and he has thecapacity to reach out to a large audi-ence. Perhaps more importantly, hesa compelling prose writer who orientsmost of his work to young adult read-ers. Hes also a son of the working classand publicly owns that inheritance.Finally, he has been a major advocateand inuential force in the copyghting

wars, where artists and consumers alikehave banded together (in some cases)to combat the predatory practices of thecopyright lawyers and publishers.

His new book is called FTW, orFor The Win, the tagline of which isOnline or ofine, youve got to organizeto survive. I dont often read youngadult novels, but that grabbed me.Whats it about? Gold farming.

In a video of Doctorow discussing hisbook on June 10, 2010, located on thehttp://fora.tv website, he describes:

For The Win is a book about goldfarming. Gold farming is something thatreally happens in video games. Its whenpeople undertake repetitive tasks in

order to pile up virtual wealth, whetherthats gold, or swords, or spaceships, orlaser guns...and those people then sellthose assets to other players who areeither too lazy or too time-strapped to dothis boring repetitive work themselves.Mostly the people who do the work livein poor countries and the people whobuy the stuff live in rich countries andits considered cheating by the peoplewho run these games, but neverthelessthere are about 400,000 who make aliving doing this right now in the world,mostly in China, and also in Vietnam,Cambodia, a little bit in Central America,and Eastern Europe.

This [book] is about what happenswhen they form a union. The idea beingthat, unlike workers in todays global-ized world, all the workers who are intheir industry are in the same placeavideo game. So it doesnt matter whetherthat worker is in Vietnam or Cambodiaor South China or rural China or Indiaor Singapore or Malayasia; theyre all inthe same place. They can all talk to each

For The Win Teaches Young Adults How To OrganizeReviews

other. Moreover, their bosses are wayworse at using the games than they are.So, they can do stuff in the games thattheir bosses cant nd out about.

A lot of that sounds awfully familiarto Wobbliesthe emphasis on gettin

Documents

Industrial Worker - Issue #1728, August/September 2010