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The Fourth Star: The New Junior Wobblies and the Next Generation of Union Militants

Submitted on Tue, 07/18/2017 - 8:36pm

By Sadie Farrell and M.K. Lees - Institute for Anarchist Studies, July 10, 2017

Several factors played into our collective decision not to run a print issue of Perspectives on Anarchist Theory for the current year. We sincerely thank all inquiries and submissions sent for what was hoped to be an issue on Play. A call out for submissions for a Beyond The Crisis print issue of Perspectives (2018) will be announced shortly. 

This is an article written by two Wobblies in response to our call for Play essays. These organizers bridge the gap between play and the practice of organizing skills via educational skits and fun activities led by the New Junior Wobblies, the young members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).

The IWW globe logo holds three stars representing Education, Organization and Emancipation. This article looks at Recreation – a  fourth star – from challenging uneven relations of power, to making joy central to organizing against capitalism, regardless of age. 

Shortly after a wave of government repression and internal splits nearly destroyed the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) as a functioning labor organization, a group of Wobblies felt the immediate need to find new ways to raise the next generation of revolutionary unionists.  As a part of solidarity support for striking IWW coal miners in Colorado, children of union members were invited to join an IWW organization of their own.  These Wobbly kids formed “locals” to organize support for their striking parents, and alongside them, develop a rudimentary understanding of the world and how they might soon be a part of organizing to change it.  To the IWW tripartite motto, “Education, Organization, Emancipation” they added “Recreation,” and in 1927, the Junior Wobblies Union was born.

junior-wobblies-1920s-2

(Junior Wobblies in the 1920s)

 

This effort to formally carve out a space for children in the IWW was lost as the union fell into obscurity, but with the IWW revival of the past few decades, old traditions have been revived.  In 2011, the Twin Cities branch of the IWW reconstituted both the self-educational institution, the Work People’s College, as well as the Junior Wobblies.  It began as a combination of IWW members coordinating childcare to enable parents to attend trainings, panels, and other IWW events.  But as the network of Wobblies with kids grew, so did the desire to provide concrete ways for kids to engage with union activity.

In July, 2012, the Twin Cities put on the first Junior Wobblies summer camp in decades, hosting IWW children ages 2 through 12 at Mesaba Park campground for a week of games, outdoor play, and structured learning activities.  The camp has continued annually ever since, drawing a larger crowd from across the US and Canada each year.

Burgerville pays $10,000 to settle wage and hour violations

Submitted on Tue, 07/18/2017 - 8:28pm

By staff - NW Labor Press, July 6, 2017

The Burgerville fast food chain — target of a 14-month union campaign to improve wages and working conditions — on June 22 agreed to pay $10,000 to settle charges that it willfully failed to give workers meal and rest breaks as required by law.

Oregon law requires employers to provide paid rest periods of at least 10 minutes for each four-hour work period, and a duty-free meal period of at least 30 minutes when employees work six or more hours at a time.

The Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI) first wrote to Burgerville on April 7, 2016, saying it received information that the company may not have been providing rest breaks and meal periods at its Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard restaurant in Portland. The letter asked the company to review its practices and take immediate steps to correct the situation. Burgerville’s chief operating officer wrote back April 18 to say the company had retrained the entire management team and would meet with all 40 employees to make sure they know about the requirement that they take breaks.

But the practice continued: Two other employees complained in August, and BOLI sent another letter, and opened an investigation. The investigation found that over two-week periods in August and December 2016, managers “willfully” failed to provide meal periods to 28 and 16 employees respectively. Willful, in this case, is a legal term meaning the company knew about the requirement for meal breaks, and also knew that workers weren’t getting them. The agency found 44 violations total, and assessed $250 per violation, for $11,000 in all. BOLI also found three cases in which minors were performing a hazardous duty — operating a trash compactor — and assessed $250 per violation for those.

On June 2, 2017, the agency issued a notice that it intended to assess civil penalties of $11,750. The Vancouver-based fast food chain agreed to pay $10,000 to settle all the charges.

Burgerville Workers Union, affiliated with the Industrial Workers of the World, has been campaigning since April 2016 for a $5 an hour raise, affordable health care, and other demands. The Oregon AFL-CIO and half a dozen other labor organizations have endorsed their campaign.

Letter from J20 Defense Campaign from Mid-Atlantic GDC

Submitted on Wed, 06/28/2017 - 7:38pm

By Mid Atlantic General Defense Committee - It's Going Down, June 27, 2017

PDF Version Here

Looking for a solidarity statement that you can take to your union, local organization, or faith based group to sign and build a base of support for J20 arrestees facing repression? The Mid-Atlantic General Defense Committee of the IWW has created one along with a petition for individuals to sign here.

On January 20, 2017, thousands took to the streets of Washington, D.C., to protest the presidential inauguration of Donald Trump. During one of the many marches held on Inauguration Day, the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department showed the world how it planned to treat dissent moving forward: Shortly after the protest began, hundreds of protesters were attacked with pepper spray, rubber bullets, and batons. Police confined over 200 people within a “kettle” for hours before arresting them. Every protester’s cell phone was confiscated as evidence and rooted through. Upon being released, they were handed a riot charge. Months later, US attorneys piled on 8 additional felony charges, including “Conspiracy to Riot”. Protesters now face up to 75 years in prison – all for attending a demonstration.

Among the people arrested were over two dozen members of our union, the Industrial Workers of the World, and its affiliated legal defense and community organizing body, the IWW General Defense Committee (GDC). Within the IWW and GDC, we don’t shy away from our members’ politics, and support our members’ rights to express their politics through protests and marches, a tradition that goes back within our union to battles over free speech in the early 20th century.

Since the arrests, D.C. prosecutors and police have shown a disturbing pattern of repression as well as specific targeting of IWW and GDC members. Our members had their union cards and buttons confiscated and held as evidence. Months after the protest, three individuals (including two prominent members of the DC IWW local branch) were served with warrants for their arrest on charges of conspiracy to riot. Prior to their warrants being issued, the prosecutor’s office revealed that they had created separate trial groupings, including one grouping where nearly all defendants were IWW or GDC members. While they will not say as much in public, it has become clear that the city attorneys for Washington, D.C. are treating membership in our union as evidence of a criminal act.

This is not the first time the IWW has been targeted for repression, and it is unlikely to be the last. The crackdown on protesters in D.C. is part of a larger effort to criminalize and silence dissent in working-class and marginalized communities. D.C. is just one of more than a dozen states that are attempting to quell dissent through legislation or harsh legal penalties. This is not a coincidence. People in power want activists and organizations to be afraid to protest Trump’s agenda.

The labor movement cannot succeed if union members are treated as criminals when protesting anti-union and anti-worker politicians and their policies. No social movement can operate in repressive conditions like that. We have always stood by the principle that “an injury to one is an injury to all.” In this spirit, we are calling on our friends and allies in the labor movement, as well as in allied progressive or left groups, to share this letter and pass the following motion within your union local or organization:

We are deeply concerned about the severe repression against all protesters facing charges for exercising their First Amendment rights on January 20, 2017 in Washington, D.C. We assert our support of the demand to drop the charges against all protesters. We further commit to:

Contacting info@midatlanticgdc.com to add our organization’s name to those endorsing this letter, to be found at www.midatlanticGDC.com/letter

Requesting the appropriate individual post to our organization’s social media accounts that we support this letter

Requesting the appropriate officer or individual send an expression of our support for the above demand to the United States Attorney’s Office, ATTN: Channing Phillips, 555 4th Street NW, Washington, DC 20530

Encouraging our members to get involved in the effort to support all defendants at www.defendj20resistance.org and www.midatlanticGDC.com.

Final Straw: August 19th Day of Action, “Millions for Prisoners”

Submitted on Tue, 06/27/2017 - 5:49pm

By Final Straw - It's Going Down, June 20, 2017

Listen and Download Here

This week, Bursts spoke with Ben Turk about the August 19th call out for solidarity with prisoners. The Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee, a project of the Industrial Workers of the World (or IWW) syndicalist labor union is one body organizing the inside and outside actions, and Ben is a member. Ben’s also affiliated with Lucasville Amnesty

Last year was a huge time for radical organizing around the U.S. Prisoners from around the country participated in the September 9th national prisoner strike, the first of it’s size and scope that we’ve seen. This event mobilized individual prisoners and also sprang from groups like the Free Alabama Movement and it’s sister pushes in other carceral states, Anarchist Black Cross chapters, the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee, or IWOC, of the Industrial Workers of the World labor union and also by just lots of unaffiliated prisoners.

Now, we have what could be called a hard Law and Disorder administration in the White House talking about increasing funding and support for cops, further militarizing the border and terrorizing residents, reviving the 1980’s style war on drugs and other repressive actions. In this context, it feels necessary for those who have a different vision of the world to push back and keep pushing as we were under Obama, under Bush & before.

This August 19th there is a call for another prisoner-led show of resistance supported by folks on the outside as well.

More on IWOC can be found at https://incarceratedworkers.org and more about public call for the strike can be found at IAmWeUbuntu.com

Raleigh-Durham, NC: IWOC and Friends Picket NC Department of ‘Public Safety’

Submitted on Tue, 06/27/2017 - 5:43pm

By Raleigh-Durham IWOC - It's Going Down, June 20, 2017

Members and supporters of the Raleigh-Durham General Membership Branch (GMB) of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) held a picket outside the headquarters of the North Carolina Department of Public Safety, 831 W. Morgan Street, in Raleigh, at 12 noon on Friday, June 23rd in solidarity with members and comrades of their union incarcerated in North Carolina.

The “soft” picket, which did not blockade the street, sidewalk, or the entrance to NCDPS, but which forced DPS workers to walk through the line on their lunch break, was organized by the Raleigh-Durham GMB’s local of the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee in response to repression faced by IWW/IWOC members on the inside who are working to form a union, to organize against prison slavery, and make other inside struggles known on the outside.

Also present at the action were organizers for the Millions for Prisoners March on August 19th in Washington DC. Organizers shared the reasoning behind the march and expressed the need for everyone invested in the abolition of prison slavery to either join them in Washington or organize a local march in their hometown. IWOC fully supports the Millions for Prisoners March and will be there in force.

The forms of repression faced by the fellow workers in the NC prison system are diverse, but they all stem directly from decisions made by those who work in the Department of Public Safety, which supervises NC Prisons. Stanley Corbett Jr., for example, writes:

These people (officers Synder, Falliner, & Walker, including Sgt. Lancaster) have stopped all of my mail from my family, friends, & associates. It’s another form of retaliation, in which their striving to keep me from communicating with society, due to the fact that I’m letting the public know what’s going on in here. I need you & anyone else that can help me to call this facility, and speak to Mr. Marshall about getting me transferred or swapped.” Allen Littlejohn III writes “They have pushed my release date back for no reason. I was on 9-29-17 but now they have pushed my release date back to 1-11-18 for no reason. I’ve not received a infraction so what is the reason behind these games.

In the lead-up to the picket, the Raleigh-Durham IWOC shared some letters written by Fellow Workers currently locked inside the North Carolina prison system. Those letters can be found here. 

Members of the IWW have created the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee, or IWOC, which functions as a liaison for prisoners to organize each other, unionize, and build solid bridges between prisoners on the inside and fellow workers on the outside. IWOC has been actively reaching out to prisoners while at the same time prisoners have been reaching out to the IWW for representation and assistance in building a prisoners union. IWOC has taken up the cause and is helping prisoners in every facility organize and build a union branch for themselves, which will together form a powerful IWW Industrial Union.