from Instagram
Fellow workers holding it down outside of the Philly GCI office this morning in Solidarity with workers in Seattle facing a branch closure in response to Union activity.
Call GCI today at (617) 338-7800 and let them know what you think of their union busting!
From Philly IWW
Whereas, many of our members are participating in protests and actions against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE); and,
Whereas, the actions of ICE target the most vulnerable of the working class, splitting up families and incarcerating workers for trying to make a better life for themselves; and,
Whereas, ICE drives down the wages and working conditions of immigrant workers, attempts to pit immigrant & non-immigrant workers against each other, and is an obstacle to the progress of all working people; and,
Whereas, An injury to one is an injury to all;
Therefore Be it Resolved, the IWW Philadelphia GMB:
Nothing in this resolution shall be interpreted to imply endorsement of any political party, candidate for office, or any position on any election whatsoever.
from Radical Education Department
“Anarchists, Communists, Socialists: Bridging the Divides in Philly”
Part 1 of RED’s series on “Building a Revolutionary Coalition in Philly”
With Activists from IWW, Philly Socialists, Food Not Bombs Solidarity, RED
Wooden Shoe Books, Philadelphia
July 11, 2018
Event Description:
In Philly, like in many other cities, radical groups often work separately. We come together for certain events, or anniversaries like May Day, but beyond these we can tend to stick to our own projects. How can we create more radical support for, and coordination with, each other? How can we build a radical, durable, and broad-based coalition in Philly?
This summer, the Radical Education Department (RED) is working with other radical groups in the city to coordinate a series of three discussions—building off of our Wooden Shoe discussion this past spring on “Antifascist Education.”
The overall theme for this summer series is “Building a Revolutionary Coalition in Philly.” The first talk, at the Wooden Shoe, will be around the theme “Anarchists, Communists, Socialists: Bridging the Divides in Philly.” One goal is to discuss ways to create more solidarity between groups in the city, exploring the deep history of radical coalitions—among anarchists, communists, and well beyond—along the way.
Download the flyer for the event here.
from Philly IWW
West Virginia. Oklahoma. Arizona.
Burgerville. Stardust Diner. The Onion. Vox.
Labor has found its voice again. Do you want to be apart of this labor movement? Join the Philadelphia IWW for our organizer 101 training to learn how to organize your workplace.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/iww-organizer-training-101-tickets-45613775029
from Facebook
This International Worker’s Memorial Day, socialize with your local IWW and memorialize fallen workers!
This is a family friendly event with snacks, beverages and boardgames for the Junior Wobblies!
Solidarity Forever!
[April 28 from 1pm to 5pm at A-Space 4722 Baltimore Ave]
from Philly IWW
Fellow Workers,
Another May is soon to come. May is a special month for working people around the world. It is a time to remember fellow workers martyred for daring to say the common people deserve a say in the trajectory of their lives. Martyred for suggesting people exist with comfort at the expense of profits for business owners. Martyred for dreaming of something better. May is a time when workers come together to experiment for a new world, like the students of Paris in 1968. May is a time when workers rejoice at all they have won, like Philadelphia’s Dock Workers Local 8 in 1913. What will May be for you?
On May 1st, 1886, workers across the United States went on strike for an eight-hour workday. On May 3rd, police fired on striking workers at the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company, killing two. This was only the beginning of violence against working people that May, the most famous incident of which was the sentencing and execution of four workers accused of bombing a gathering of people on May 4th in Haymarket Square, Chicago – these workers were pardoned posthumously by the governor of Illinois in 1893. The trial-execution-pardon cycle has been repeated countlessly and persists today, though anymore it seems the cycle is execution-trial-pardon with a one-sided trial by media.
May 1st is a day to remember and a day to dream. We workers claim this day for all workers across the globe.
We won the eight-hour workday. We won a guaranteed minimum wage. However, it is increasingly common for people to work multiple jobs, part time, at a wage well below livable. Medicine advances daily, but access to health care is evaporating. A four year college degree is required in more workplaces, but access to education continues to fall for the majority of people. Politicians stand by as our neighborhoods are bull-dozed so developers can build condos we can’t afford – letting them stand empty so wealthy investors can store their money.
Amazon threatens to come to town. A neighborhood will be razed to make way for HQ2. Rents will increase – rents we cannot afford. Jeff Bezos and his politicians promise jobs, but we know they only want us in the Amazon warehouses, restaurants, and convenience stores earning minimum wage. The city has promised Amazon will not pay taxes or for our education.
The Philadelphia Industrial Workers of the World call on you to strike! Walk out with all of your coworkers and enjoy the day. The bosses cannot threaten you if there is no one to take your place.
Strike against police brutality, mass incarceration, and racism.
Strike for justice.
Strike against ICE.
Strike for workers of all nationalities.
Strike against low wages and reduced hours.
Strike for the ability to thrive.
Strike against environmental destruction.
Strike for life.
Strike against gentrification.
Strike for your community.
Strike against disenfranchisement.
Strike for control of your life.
Strike for a future without work.
Strike for imagination.
Strike for yourself.
Strike for those who cannot.
Strike for liberation.
Strike to remember.
Strike for fun.
from Philly IWW
As we come marching, marching, we bring the greater days.
The rising of the women means the rising of the (human) race.
No more the drudge and idler — ten that toil where one reposes,
But a sharing of life’s glories: Bread and roses! Bread and roses!
There is no major movement – social or political – that has not been touched indelibly by women. No movement more so, perhaps, than the International Labor Movement.
Where there have been principled, passionate, and strident gains for working people, women have been a crucial guiding force, though they have often gone unheralded. We recently saw that once more in West Virginia as their teachers, most of whom are women, defied the orders of their government and their union leaders by staging a wildcat strike.
That goes especially for our Union, The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). It was a Union co-founded by women at a time when virtually all major, American labor organizations did not allow women; much less allow them leadership roles. Yet in its earliest years, its most visible and effective members were women – including Lucy Parsons, Mary Harris (“Mother”) Jones, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Dorothy Day, and Helen Keller. Among its greatest moments – including the 1912 Lawrence, MA Textile Workers Strike – depended on the mass mobilization and leadership of women, many of whom were immigrants.
Textile workers in Pennsylvania and New Jersey also marched under the banner of the “One Big Union” in the early 20th century. Unfortunately, whether by accident or on purpose, many of their words and deeds have been lost to history. They have largely gone unnoticed by the culture-at-large and are scarcely taught to children.
But the latest incarnation of the Philadelphia IWW – along with its contingency in the Harrisburg area – hasn’t forgotten their struggle. From them, we have acquired an ambitious, hard-earned legacy. That legacy is vision of a world beyond the exploitative wage system but what’s more, it is a vision in which all forms of bigotry and alienation – including sexism – are eradicated and the present, patriarchal orientation of our society is permanently recalibrated. Not only do we believe it to be the right thing to do but we believe our goals will be impossible to achieve one without the other.
On this International Women’s Day – March 8, 2018 – we recommit ourselves to the billions of working class people across the gender spectrum. We offer our support and our efforts, especially to those who find themselves on society’s margins due to their gender identity. We also strive to make our Union a more inclusive and affirming place for non-men; we will do our best to uproot any and all forms of toxic masculinity we find in our Union, our branch, and ourselves.
In our workplaces and in our communities, the Philadelphia IWW will fight sexism by any means necessary.
from Philly IWW
The Philadelphia Industrial Workers of the World is collecting non-perishable food items to donate to striking teachers in West Virginia. We will be driving the collected food to fellow workers next week.
If you want to contribute to the food drive, you can leave non-perishable food items in the food drive box at Wooden Shoe Books on south street.
Are you not sure what to donate? Here are some ideas:
1. Canned beans
2. Peanut butter
3. Canned fruit in fruit juice (not syrup)
4. Canned vegetables,
5. Rice
6. Quinoa
7. Nuts
8. Shelf-stable milk
9. Whole grain pasta
10. Pasta sauce
11. Cereal
12. Dried fruits
If the strike ends before we can deliver the food, we will be donating the food to the Cedar Haven Nursing Home strikers.
from Instagram
We got your back West Virginia, solidarity photos are a start but we are also organizing a non perishables food drive this week that we will deliver next weekend! We will have a box for donation drop offs at wooden shoe by the end of the day and further updates will come out over the course of the week. #AnInjuryToOneIsAnInjuryToAll #SolidarityForever #55United #55Strong
from Radical Education Department
Introduction
West Virginia has been rocked by a statewide strike by teachers, bus drivers, and other school employees. Today, March 2nd, the strike enters its seventh day.
Beginning on February 22nd, workers shut down public schools in all 55 of West Virginia’s counties, rejecting abysmal and declining teacher pay and the state’s attack on public employees’ health insurance. The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), one of the unions helping to organize the strikers, reports the following worker demands:
A natural gas severance tax that creates a self-sustaining source of revenue for PEIA [Public Employees Insurance Agency] and public employee pay.
No regressive taxes, which ultimately affect working-class families more than the wealthy elite.
A permanent tabling to any and all legislation pertaining to co-tenancy and joint development, which allow large natural gas industries to engulf local landowners.
A pay raise of 5% per year over the next half decade.
A permanent tabling to any and all legislation pertaining to charter schools, voucher systems, and any attempts to privatize public schools.
On February 27th, Governor Justice announced an agreement with three of the major teacher unions in the state: a 5% pay increase for teachers as well as a 3% increase for state employees generally. Union officials and the governor alike pleaded for school employees to return to work, despite the fact that key demands remain unmet.
On March 1st, however–defying the governor and official union leaders–teachers refused to return to work, swarming the capitol and chanting “It’s not over.”
Meanwhile, that same day, even the modest pay raise was refused in the state legislature.
Below is an interview conducted via email between John Schultz of RED and Michael Mochaidean, a West Virginia teacher and member of the IWW.
JS: Can you give a brief account of how the statewide teachers’ strike in West Virginia began and developed? What role did the rank-and-file play, and what role did the IWW as well as the major teacher unions (AFT, WVEA, etc.) play?
MM: I am speaking here as an individual within the IWW, not as a representative for the West Virginia IWW or the IWW broadly speaking. […]
The statewide strike did not originate with the unions and their leadership, but rather with the rank-and-file of their membership. It began as an effort by members to do away with the strategies of leadership that seemed stale and unable to adapt to changing times. For example, leadership had endorsed Governor Jim Justice as a Democrat, but he soon changed his party and was in opposition to the unions and teachers by and large, so we felt that this strategy of endorsing and electing conservative Democrats would only backfire in the future. This movement was entirely rank-and-file in its beginning and as it has progressed over the past week. Both AFT and WVEA have worked jointly on these issues at the county and state level, with many members acting on behalf of the other.
This cross union solidarity raised the consciousness among many teachers of the need to perhaps consider uniting the associations in the future. The IWW is relatively new to West Virginia in the sense that we have no official chapter in the state and only a few disconnected members. However, the outpouring of support from IWW members has been immense. Wobblies from the southern states reached out to me after they listened to my interview with IGD and we began organizing for more direct control over the unions. We developed brochures, pamphlets, and literature to be distributed throughout the state to keep up the momentum for grassroots organizing within and outside the official associations. We also set up a strike fund to fund possible leafleting campaigns, renting halls, inviting speakers, and the like.
JS: What conditions as well as organizing strategies do you think helped make this strike a broad and powerful one? And what could others–not only unions, but social movements generally–learn from the West Virginia teachers?
MM: The anarcho-syndicalist tradition offers the best analysis, in my mind, as to how we can understand the teachers movement and its efficacy. The inherent contradictions in capitalism and the resource paradox nature of our state provided necessary conditions for public service personnel to slowly lose their rights as laborers. However, the history of West Virginia is one of mutual aid and community support that grows organically rather than through vanguard party structures. Therefore, anarchist traditions of mutual aid and support are more palatable and grew within the associations themselves. Furthermore, by framing this discussion as one of public employees versus the state, we engaged in the syndicalist tradition that workers of those areas should determine their destinies.
I would say that other social movements should try to look at what is happening here in the state as part and parcel of our current late stage of capitalism. Focus the discourse on larger, interrelated issues, but at the heart, deal with one issue that can connect all others. For us, it was our insurance plan. By tying the issues in our insurance plan to larger issues of worker autonomy, capitalism, and corporate elites profiting off of our labor, we could bring in these other points simultaneously without losing traction on the issue of healthcare.
JS: On February 27th, it was announced that the teachers’ strike would end: Governor Jim Justice had come to an agreement with leaders from three of the major unions organizing the strike. And yet the IWW-WVA points out that key demands haven’t been met: a tax on natural gas to help fund teachers’ health insurance and pay, for example. What does this deal signify about the major unions and their relationship to workers?
MM: Our statement [which can be found here] is reflective of the conditions of public employees who were overwhelmingly opposed to any compromise with the state that did not include long term funding for PEIA. The severance tax, proposed by Sen. Ojeda, has been continuously shot down by the legislature, in part because of the control the oil and natural gas industry lobby has in the state. Public employees seemed to feel that the deal was intended to fracture the unions and their support among all public employees, as well as the communities they serve. Thus, they decided to engage in another day of work stoppage (03/01) until these issues have been voted on.
We do not wish for rank-and-file members to leave their primary unions, but rather to engage in more direct efforts to hold their leadership accountable and ensure that whatever deals are made are done so with full knowledge by all of those involved.
JS: Teacher have often been on the front lines of union struggles in recent years. What role do teachers play within the broader struggles of workers in America? What possibilities are there for teachers to connect with and support other kinds of workers?
MM: Teachers had to take to the front lines in this state because other public employees – police officers, DOH, EMTs – are unable to call a walkout because their careers are deemed essential. Since we still have a relatively strong union presence for educators in this state, we used this avenue to push for benefits for all public employees, knowing that if we succeeded, they would succeed, but also that if we failed, they would fail, too.
Teachers are the public face of our communities, and work stoppages by educators can highlight the complexities of local autonomy, funding, and the economic conditions of our time.
JS: Where does the IWW in West Virginia go from here? Can you share some key short-term and long-term goals, not only as for teachers but beyond too?
MM: Short-term, we hope to push union leadership to not compromise on deals that their rank-and-file members reject. After all, it is the members that pay their salaries, so the members deserve to have a say in what is voted upon.
Long-term, we hope to grow the IWW in the state and in major areas where membership can be sustained. This strike has brought attention to issues we as an industrial union have been describing for over a century – the working class and the capitalist class have nothing in common. Business unions, while good in their own right, will make decisions for their members against their wishes. Since the IWW is entirely democratically run, we hope to raise awareness in the state about these ideas, how to continue organizing against capitalism and its effects, and connect the local struggles in our state with international struggles for worker solidarity.
JS: I’ll end with a broader question: what limits are worker struggles facing in the coming year, and what important possibilities are opening up for them? What do you think is needed for those struggles to become broader, more coordinated, and more powerful?
Currently, we are seeing electoral strategies touting the singular way that the working class can regain its rights in this state and in the country at large. The Democrats are pushing hard at midterms for a blue wave to bring a coalition of forces to Congress and state legislatures. However, in this state, we have a long history of conservative Democrats who differ little from the Republican Party. We do not wish to see this movement become simply another Wisconsin in 2011, where the working class struggle was diverted by establishment politicians into establishment politics. When that struggle ended, and we had lost, the momentum had been shattered. By not allowing our struggle to be co-opted, we can control the narrative, direct its course, and ultimately use direct action to gain our freedom.
Solidarity from WV.
from Philly IWW
On January 15, 2018, prisoners across the state of Florida will cease working and participating in the prison economy. The prisoners pledged to make this a non-violent lay-down strike. The demands of the inmates are simple:
1. Payment for their labor
2. A stop to canteen price gouging
3. The reinstatement of parole
The Philadelphia IWW supports the efforts of the prisoners and asks for all fellow workers to stand in solidarity with the strikers. The prison system is predatory and racist; we commend our fellow workers behind bars for their courageous actions in the face of injustice.
Read the striker’s statement here.
from Facebook
from Facebook
Monthly IWW branch meeting will be in the Basemnt of the Wooden Shoe.
[October 1st from 6-9PM at Wooden Shoe Books 704 South St]
from Facebook
[August 26 2PM to 6PM at Clark Park 43rd St and Baltimore Ave]
from Facebook
