Industrial Worker - Issue #1731, December 2010

8/8/2019 Industrial Worker - Issue #1731, December 2010

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Industrial Worker

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Review: Zionism,Judaism andMythistory 8

Students, Workers Occupy The Millbank Tower In Londonproperty destruction and occupation atMillbank Tower, home to the Conserva-tive Party Headquarters. Direct actionwas not limited to this either, with theLondon School of Economics going intooccupation shortly after the end of the

protest, a sit-down protest in ParliamentSquare and some limited property destruc-tion at Liberal Democrat Headquarters.Students and education workers have notonly demonstrated their anger at the waveof attacks in store for a whole generationof young people, but their lack of faith inparliamentary democracy and the needto take the struggle into their own hands.

The media and ofcial union responseto this has hardly been surprising. Com-mentators were quick to denounce theactions at Millbank tower as that of amilitant minority, the Socialist WorkerParty or anarchists, who, to quoteHarry Mount from the Telegraph perhaps with a student card, from a third-rateinstitution they never visit, that cloakstheir criminal violence with the g leaf ofprincipled protest. NUS President Aaron

Continued on 5

Photo: Henry Langston, libcom.org

More than 50,000 students and education workers occupy Londons MillbankTower on Nov. 10.

From afed.org.uk A report on the demonstration and

attack on the Tory headquarters bystudents and education workers againstcuts.

One of the largest and most vibrant

protests in London in recent history tookplace on Nov. 10. More than 50,000 edu-cation workers and students took to thecapital not only to protest against the r isein tuition fees but reforms in educationin general and to protest for a fairer, freehigher education system. The AnarchistFederation was among them, forminga radical workers and students blocwhich, along with London Solidarity Fed-eration, argued that capitalism is the causeof this crisis; that the Left and the unionleaders cannot be trusted to fight ourbattles (a point that the National Unionof Students (NUS) president Aaron Porterlater so aptly demonstrated); and that weneed united, grassroots direct action aspart of a sustained ght back.

Contrary to the corporate mediacommentaries, a significant portion ofthe march also involved itself in the

Port Shutdown Demands Justice For Oscar GrantBy Judy Greenspan

The stage and steps of Frank OgawaPlaza in downtown Oakland, Calif., shookand trembled with the strong unifying cryof We are all Oscar Grant! as over 1,000peopleBlack, Brown, Native, Asian and whitecame out to attend a rally thatfollowed the dramatic shutdown of BayArea ports by workers of the InternationalLongshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU).

The ILWU drill team opened the Oct.

23rd program in full uniform, marchingto the beat of What time is it? Uniontime! and We are the unionthe mighty,mighty union!

Clarence Thomas, long-time ILWULocal 10 member and labor activist whoco-chaired the rally with Jack Heyman,another ILWU dockworker, proudly an-nounced, All of the Bay Area ports areshut down today in honor of the ght forjustice for Oscar Grant.

This rally came just two weeks beforethe sentencing of Johannes Mehserle,the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) copwho shot and killed 22-year-old Grant,an unarmed Black man, as he was tightlyrestrained face down on a BART platform

on Jan. 1, 2009. The labor and communityprotest was held to send a message to thecourt demanding the harshest possiblesentence for Mehserle.

Mehserle was charged with second-degree murder, but he was convicted ofonly involuntary manslaughter. Grantsmother, Wanda Johnson, said immediate-ly after the verdict, My son was murdered.He was murdered and the law has not heldthe ofcer accountable ( San FranciscoChronicle, July 9, 2010).

Many speakers noted the incrediblerole played by the ILWU in supportingthe rally. The union has a long history ofsupporting anti-racist and progressivecauses with work stoppages. The dockand warehouse workers union has also,

since its 1934 general strike, developed astrong relationship with the Black com-munity in West Oakland and other partsof the Bay Area.

Power of the Working ClassRichard Mead, president of ILWU

Local 10, recalled that the shooting of two workers sparked the 1934 general strikeled by the dock and maritime workersin San Francisco. Oscar Grants death

was also murder, Mead said. [A generalstrike]thats where we need to go now.

Thomas put Grants killing in a largerperspective: The war on the Black com-munity, particularly on the youth of color,always intensies during times of econom-ic crisis. Oscar Grant could have been anyone of our sons, nephews or grandsons.

We stopped international commercetoday. We shut down all of the ports. Thatsthe power of the working class, Thomasannounced.

Cristina Gutierrez, a Latina activistrepresenting Barrio Unido, a San Fran-cisco-based organization for general andunconditional amnesty for immigrants,delivered a moving statement on the

strength of the unity of all people againstoppression. Yo soy Oscar Grant, I amOscar Grant, I am Mumia, I am LynneStewart, I am Black, I am Brown, I am Chi-nese, I am a worker, Gutierrez exclaimed.

I am the one who came to this coun-try to seek work. Unless we work hand inhand with our Black brothers and sisters,we cannot win, said Gutierrez.

BART workers from the Amalgam-ated Transit Union Local 1555, led by pastpresident Harold Brown, stood together onstage and delivered a moving statement insupport of justice for Oscar Grant. Brown,a train operator on the BART line whichpasses through the Fruitvale station, thesite of Grants killing, noted, Theres not a

Continued on 5

Photo: Judy GreenspanCommunity activists demand justice for Oscar Grant on Oct. 23.


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Page 2 Industrial Worker December 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]

CanadaAlbertaEdmonton 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].

Ottawa 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] GMB: cp 60124, Montral, QC, H2J 4E1.514-268-3394. [email protected].

Europe

FinlandHelsinki: 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]

South AfricaCape Town: 7a Rosebridge, Linray Road, Rosebank,Cape Town, Western Cape, South Arica [email protected]

United States

ArizonaPhoenix GMB: P.O. Box 7126, 85011-7126. 623-336-1062. [email protected]: 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] Francisco Bay Area GMB: (Curbside and Buy-back IU 670 Recycling Shops; StonemountainFabrics Job Shop and IU 410 Garment and TextileWorkers Industrial Organizing Committee; ShattuckCinemas; Embarcadero Cinemas) P.O. Box 11412,Berkeley, 94712. 510-845-0540. [email protected]

IU 520 Marine Transport Workers: Steve Ongerth,del., [email protected] 540 Couriers Organizing Committee: 415-789-MESS, [email protected] Printing: 2335 Valley Street, Oakland,94612. 510-835-0254. [email protected] Jose: sjiww@ yahoo.comColoradoDenver GMB: 2727 W. 27th Ave., 80211. LowellMay, 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]: Tony Donnes, del., [email protected]

IdahoBoise: Ritchie Eppink, del., P.O. Box 453, 83701.208-371-9752, [email protected] GMB: 2117 W. Irving Park Rd., 60618.773-857-1090. Gregory Ehrendreich, del., 312-479-8825, [email protected] Ill GMB: 903 S. Elm, Champaign, IL, 61820.217-356-8247. David Johnson, del., [email protected]

Freight Truckers Hotline: mtw530@iw w.orgWaukegan: P.O Box 274, 60079.

Indiana

Laayette 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] 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., 21328Redmond 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]: 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 GMB: P.O. Box 685, 13905. Bingham-ton Education Workers Union: [email protected]. http://bewu.wordpress.com/

New York City GMB: P.O. Box 7430, JAF Station,10116, iw [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, Cincinnati

45242.Textile & Clothing Workers IU 410: P.O. Box 317741Cincinnati 45231. [email protected]

Oklahoma

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, [email protected] 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: P.O. 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

Ofcial newspaper of the

IndustrIalWorkers

oftheWorld

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ofcial position.

Press Date: November 18, 2010.

former player Dave Meggysey said, play-ers are being compensated for giving uptheir middle age.

(6) The industry they work for makesbillions. As a worker, they would be insanenot to demand as much of the revenueas possible. Only for some reason, FWX365465 sees t to demean and punishthem for their bargaining successes.

Just because FW X365465has a great deal of difficultythinking of anybody in that sal-

ary range as workers does notdiscount the idea. He skillfullyand deftly avoided our discus-

sion about most players risking their liveson every snap as well as the concurrentpoint that most players are not those thatreceive national media attention. .

Furthermore, it should be noted thatthere is not only one professional foot-ball league. The United Football League,Canadian Football League, AmericanProfessional Football League, Atlantic/ American Indoor Football League, Con-tinental Indoor Football League, IndoorFootball League, Southern Indoor Foot-ball League and the slated All AmericanFootball League and the Ultimate IndoorFootball League all beg to differ.

Continued on 4

Send your letters to: [email protected] Letter in the subject.

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IWW members, branches, job shops andother afliated bodies can get the wordout about their project, event, campaignor protest each month in theIndustrialWorker. Send announcements to [email protected]. Much appreciated donationsfor the following sizes should be sent to:

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Literature Review Is InvaluableFellow Workers,

It was with considerable sadness that Iread on pages 12-13 in the November 2010Industrial Workerthat FW Jon BekkensAnnual Survey of Historical Writing onthe IWW is to be the last of the series.Jon has performed an invaluable servicefor people interested in this literature bycompiling this information year by year. Itis unlikely that any of our members will be

able to continue this effort in the future.For this, as for many other services to theIWW, we are indebted to Jon Bekken.

Steve Kellerman, X325068

By Neil Parthun andDann McKeegan Editors Note: This will be the last in aseries of debate regarding this issue.

The combination of arrogance andignorance shown in FW X365465s let-ter, NFL Players Are Not Workers: TheDebate Continues, which appeared in theAugust/September IW,was awe-inspiring.

From apparently knowing my co-au-thor and myself so well that our argumentswere not based on our love of radical poli-

tics and sports but rather a tender set of

nerves, it was quite amusing to see that hemisspelled our names multiple times. (Forfuture reference when you write your nextscreed, it is Parthun and McKeegan notPathun and McGeehan).

X365465 continuously admits that hehas limited knowledge of the subject, butthat does not stop him from gloriouslypontificating. While he beats the deadhorse of high pay for certain players,his ignorance of the subject fails tomention:

(1) The average career of anNFL player is three years.(2) A player must play 3.5 years

to get the minimum health care benetwhich is only ve years.

(3) Players will likely have healthmaladies requiring necessary care forlonger than those ve years which meansthe next 50+ years (if they live to expectedlife span for adult male) must be paid outof their own earnings.

(4) Nearly 50 percent of what theymake is gone when factoring in incometaxes, their agents cut and their associa-tion dues. Long term income is far fromguaranteed.

(5) Many NFL players die earlier thanthe expected life span due to the punish-ment taken in their chosen profession. As

Football Players ARE Workers!


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December 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.

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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.

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IWW Constitution Preamble

Cuban Group Knocking Down Walls

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By Dalia AcostaThe wall had to be torn down anyway.

Scrawled on its white surface had beenthe words opportunism, mediocrity,bureaucracy and similar words that weregradually fading under the force of sledgehammers and the beat of music.

This symbolic action, which took placein Havana in November 2009 to com-memorate the 20th anniversary of thefall of the Berlin Wall, was given directionby the youths of the Critical ObservatoryLeadership Network (La Red ProtagnicaObservatorio Crtico).

That spirit was also present in a fo-rum held this past March in the Havanatown of San Jose de Las Lajas. The groupanalyzed Cubas past and present, but notfrom the usual position of complacencyor triumphalism; instead, they examinedthe islands wide range of contradictions.

A few years ago, the Haydee Santama-ria Critical Thought and Emerging Cul-tures Collective organized a forum titledThe Other Legacies of October. In it theyanalyzed the experiences of socialism inthe 20th century, including Stalinism and

the degeneration of the left, explainedresearcher Dmitri Prieto.

Since 2005, the Haydee SantamariaCollective has been included as a socio-cultural project of the Criticism and Re-search Section of the Asociacion Herma-nos Saiz (AHS), a national group of youngcreators. In turn, the Collective created theCritical Observatory in 2006 as an annualmechanism to allow for the conuence ofresearch efforts and alternative proposals.

Since then, various socio-culturalself-management representatives and ini-tiatives have built up the network, whichhas facilitated the exchange, coordinationand the promotion of joint actions of socialimpact that break with those of the domi-

nant dynamics existing in every society.We learned how to dialogue in a coun-

try where theres no culture of dialogue.We were sharing and creating a commoncollection of readings, experiences andpolemics. Gradually, the focus turned

from more universal issues to the specicproblems of Cubans, affirmed RamonGarcia Guerra, one of the founders of theHaydee Santamaria Collective.

Citing another of the promoters, Gar-cia noted that the observatory was becom-ing a setting that created other settings.

Youth are not lost, nor do they wantto be lost. Youth are looking for their pathin a context marked by a crisis of societalmodels at the global level and by a crisisof references that should give security tothe next generation, said Carlos Simon,a professor at the Superior Institute of Artand another founder of the initiative.

We have to ask ourselves what wewant for Cuba. There are traditions of thepast that are not worth rescuing. I wouldnever attempt it, Simon added during adebate that emerged concerning two worksabout the loss of cultural traditions inan old batey (various facilities in a sugarrenery) and in the eastern province ofSantiago de Cuba.

The issues of the rescue of traditions,memory and history arose on the firstday of the Fourth Socio-cultural Forum

of the Critical Observatory of Cuba (heldon March 13 and 14 in San Jose de LasLajas, 25 miles from the capital) with theparticipation of intellectuals from seven ofthe 14 provinces of the country.

In a relaxed and participative atmo-sphere, a wide variety of urgencies weretackled, such as university autonomy, theexpansion of very limited opportunitiesfor the creation of cooperatives, racism,ways of life respectful of nature, the center-periphery contradiction, diasporas andimmigration.

The Observatorys forum coincidedwith another one sponsored by AHS inthe heart of Havana. Titled the PensamosCuba (Thinking Cuba) theoretical-cultural

forum, it included round tables on partici-pation and work, the art of criticism, thevision of the country in audiovisual workof the young generation and the writer inthe face of social reality.

For Hiram Hernandez, a professor at

the University of Havana and one of thecoordinators of Pensamos Cuba, the co-

incidence in the timing of the two forumswas not accidental. To her it was evidencethat were connected with reality, andthats why were having similar events withsimilar audiences, she said.

With the premise that reality has to beobserved, thought about, criticized, andalso constructed, the Critical ObservatoryLeadership Network concluded 2009 as ayear of active presence at the communitylevel, but also in different cultural forumsand in debates that continue to be carriedout concerning Cuba today.

Down with the bureaucracy, up withthe workers, more socialism, could beread on a banner carried by Network mem-bers in the May 1st International Workers

Day march. Members of the group alsoparticipated in a march against violence,and on Nov. 27, 2009, they were amongthose who paid homage to the ve blackheroes forgotten by history.

The network is comprised of a group

of initiatives and people who work in thecommunity in a self-managed manner,

generally as volunteers. Among the otherinitiatives are El Guardabosque, Social-ismo Participativo y Democrtico, El Tren-cito, Ahimsa (meaning no to violencein Sanskrit) and El Grupo de EstudiosCulturales Nuestra Amrica.

The participating initiatives offerfree services for digital publications, freesoftware, tree planting and reforestation,animal vaccinations, ecological monitor-ing and childrens recreation. The HaydeeSantamaria Collective has a mini booklibrary and a public media library in itscentral ofce in Havana.

At the culmination of the rst theo-retical Digital Media and Culture Forum,organized by the cultural initiative Esquife

in December, a letter was drafted and pre-sented to the Ministry of Culture rejectingcertain obstructions and prohibitionsagainst social and cultural initiativesthat occurred in 2009 (the letter can befound here: http://www.ainfos.ca/en/ainfos23464.html).

The message, which was signed byseveral initiatives and 77 people, calledattention to the increase in bureaucratic-authoritarian control and the need tocounteract that trend through promotingdialogue and respecting the autonomyof initiatives and people that emerge incurrent Cuban society.

It is not so much about demanding,its about us doing things for ourselves,

contributing to Cuba. Although its legiti-mate, we dont believe in the usefulness ofa position that solely accuses and criticizes.In addition to pointing out the problems,its necessary to project toward futurerealities that have an emancipatory char-acter, summed up Dmitri Prieto.

Assistance is needed with translationand other forms of solidarity. For more in-formation, contact [email protected]. For further background, youmay also visit http://elblogdelacatedra. blogspot.com and http://observatorio-critico.blogspot.com.

This story appeared in its original format in March 2010 on http://www.havanatimes.org.

Photo: havanatimes.org

Network activists participate in the annual May 1st International Workers Day marchin Havana. The banner reads: Socialism is Democracy Dump the Bureaucracy!


4/12


Graphic: Mike Konopacki

By Michael EdwardsSpain in June was hot. Not in the tem-

perature sense, but in the labor struggle isheating up sense. The rhetoric in Europeisnt about recovery the way it is herein North America: everything is crisis,austerity, and we must all sacrice.We, of course, means workers. The rsttarget was the militant public sector work-

ers. This sector includes staff in hospitals,schools, and government ofces. My rstquestion upon arriving in Barcelona to myhost was, Whats going on, and how doI help? His response was, Come to ouraction.

The action wasa n i n f o r m a t i o npicket at a univer-sity outside of Bar-celona. We had atwo-sided pamphletin wordy and less- wordy form. There were multiple ac-cess points to thecampus, but it was possible to occupythem all with about three groups. I was

initially confused about the objectives,and clearly others were as well. Beforearriving I thought we were doing a full blockade. Then I later thought we were just handing out pamphlets; later still I was informed that our objective was toruin traffic around the university. Wewere to functionally block the universitywithout announcing it. That didnt requireactually stopping every driver. This was animportant distinction.

During the initial phase, when wewere just handing out pamphlets, thedrivers began treating the pamphletsas their passport to the campus. After awhile we started getting cars that alreadyhad a pamphlet. It was almost cute the

way the drivers would desperately waveit in order to get past us. What I realizedwas that this was an assent to our power.

Whether or not they acknowledged thelegitimacy of our makeshift passport, theyacknowledged our power. Legitimate ornot, we controlled access to the campus.Not only that, we had a lasting effect withthe pamphlet as passport. If these peopleplanned on leaving campus and returning,they had to carry that pamphlet with themthe entire day. All of a sudden a disposable

piece of propaganda had acquired thestatus of one of those critical things youcarry around with you every day, like yourdrivers license.

Realizing the power we had and seeinghow we could useit shocked me. Wespeak a lot aboutclass consciousness, but we rarely talkabout power. Rais-ing class conscious-ness needs to havea component thatacknowledges thefact that we are us-

ing and wielding power. We dont reallyhave the ability to be surgical with that

power. Mostly it takes the form of we cando a lot of economic damage if we dontget what we want. This is the core of thestrike action. Recognizing this truth iscritical. The what we want part can befair and equitable, but it is utterly irrel-evant without a foundation of we can doa lot of economic damage.

Class consciousness is not just mybuddy and I at work have the same griev-ances. It is the acknowledgement of ourcollective power and our willingness touse it for our benefit. Exercising thatpower, even in small ways like pamphlet-as-passport, demonstrate the kind of classconsciousness that is the bread-and-butterunderpinning day-to-day class struggle.

Without this experience and understand-ing of collective power we risk cripplingour own class consciousness.

The Pamphlet As Passport

By J.R. BoydAs we build the new so-

ciety in the shell of the old,feminism is an essentialpractice. All too often, how-ever, the work of feminismis the work of women, notthe shared goal of workers. Inacknowledging this necessity,a new blog brings togethermale and male-identifiedWobblies around the struggle

Feminist Men In Solidarity With Women

Continued from 2There are myriad options if one is cut

from a National Football League (NFL)franchise. They may not pay at such a rateas the NFL but there are other optionsavailable.

And last, but certainly not least, is themention of the lack of solidarity. While theNFL Players Associa-tion (NFLPA) has nothad the best record on

solidarity issues, thesame can be said of ev-ery major trade union.This fact, however,does not invalidate theentirety of the organi-zations, no matter how much FW X365465wishes and wills it to be so. Under the cur-rent leadership of DeMaurice Smith, theNFLPA has been fairly proactive in gettinginvolved with the struggles of other labor-ers. According to UNITE HEREs website:

Indianapolis Colts star Jeff Saturdayand DeMaurice Smith, Executive Direc-tor of the NFLPA, have sent letters to theCEOs of three major hotel companies Hyatt, Starwood and Hostexpressing

concern over the treatment of workersin non-union hotels in downtown India-napolis.

The letters afrm the NFLPAs supportfor hotel workers organizing in Indianapo-lis, who are among the lowest paid hotel workers in North America. The lettersstate, We believe that working peopledeserve living wages, dignity, respect andfreedom to organize without employerintimidation. Additionally, they warnthat the NFL Combine in Indianapolis[Editors Note: which will take place inFebruary 2011] lls many rooms, and wewill do business with hotel companies thattreat employees with fairness.

As for the idea that the NFLPA wouldnot speak out about issues of racism in

Arizona, it is upon their footsteps thatmuch of the current sports/politics workhas been built. While the Major LeagueBaseball Players Association has made apublic statement against SB 1070 sincethe 2011 All Star Game may take place inArizona, they acknowledged that it was theNFLPAs and the NFLs precedence that

allowed them to makesuch a political state-ment. In 1990, the

NFLPA and the NFLworked together to re-move the 1993 SuperBowl from Phoenix asa punishment whenArizona refused to ac-

knowledge Martin Luther King Jr.s birth-day as a federal holiday. So, the NFLPAdoes have a history of working for causesof racial justice in Arizona.

In conclusion, sports and politics areintertwined. Nobody speaks about thegains of the civil rights movement in theUnited States and does not mention JackieRobinson of the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947.A person cannot speak about the anti-warand black liberation struggles of the 1960s

without discussing The GreatestMu-hammad Ali. People cannot talk about thesuccess of the womens rights movement without pointing to the successes thathave come for women via Title IX sportsprograms and the prowess of Billie JeanKing (not only in her Battle of the Sexesmatch but also for openly acknowledgingon the cover ofMs. Magazine that she hadan abortion and for her work to help theU.S. womens team gain equal pay rightsduring the late 1990s).

FW X365465 can be willfully ignorantof the facts about sports and politics, howour names are spelled and a basic historyof the NFLPA, but he should not be ableto get away with spewing these ridiculousmusings unchallenged.

Football Players ARE Workers!

Call For Submissions!

for feminism as part of thecommon struggle for hu-manity.

Feminist men and male-identified Wobblies, andother interested parties, areencouraged to read and con-tribute at http://femenins. blogspot.com. Please con-tact J.R. Boyd at [email protected] for moreinformation.


5/12


from the Department of Labor, Mulliganspent over $84,500 on an anti-unioncampaign intended to prevent workersfrom unionizing.

Tim Louris, of Minneapolis labor rmMiller OBrien Cummins, is assisting theunion pro-bono in nav-igating the tricky wa-ters of labor law. Unionspokespeople say the

written objection to theelection results will beavailable to the publicwithin a few days.

While filing withthe NLRB to have theelection results nulli-ed, the workers alsoplan to mount a cam-paign to win their de-mands without unionrecognition.

Eighty-five yes votes, in spite of sixweeks of vicious union-busting, is a man-date for change, said Ayo Collins, anotherworker and union member. There are a

thousand ways we can put pressure onJimmy Johns to win our demands for fairwages, sick days, consistent hours, andrespect. Were red up, this ght is justbeginning.

Continued from 1

By the Chicago IWWAt the October meeting of the Chicago General Mem-

bership Branch of the Industrial Workers of the World,the members voted unanimously to draft a Letter of Soli-darity with the Peace Activists raided by the FBI on Sept.24, 2010. We wish to show our support specically forthe three Chicago activists and one from Minneapolis, aswell as all other activists who were raided by the FBI:

Stephanie WeinerJoe IsobakerHatem AbudayyehMick Kelly

The Membership of the Chicago IWW GMB call on the U.S. Department ofJustice to drop the Grand Jury proceedings against the Peace Activists, and forthe FBI to cease spying on and raiding Labor and Peace activists, and to return allmaterials seized in the recent raids to the U.S. Citizens who were raided.

The Jimmy Johns Election Is Only A Beginning

Graphic: jimmyjohnsworkers.org

Photo: The Invisible Photographer

Students, Workers Occupy The Millbank Tower In London Port Shutdown Demands Justice For Oscar Grant

By Jimmy Johns Workers UnionMINNEAPOLIS The Jimmy Johns

Workers Union has led a 12-page Ob- jection to the Oct. 22 National LaborRelations Board (NLRB) election at 10Minneapolis sandwich shops, outlininga pattern of pervasive and systemic laborrights violations that prevented the pos-sibility of a free and fair vote. The unionelection, a rst in fast food in the United

States, was as close as they come, with 85votes in favor of the union, 87 against, andtwo challenged ballots.

Franchise owner Mike Mulligan de-cided to go beyond the pale. His managersasked workers to wear anti-union pins,fired pro-union workers, threatened amass ring, implemented an illegal wagefreeze, tightened policies and retaliatedagainst union members, offered bribes,and pressured workers to vote no. Hebroke the law repeatedly in order to win,and he just barely won. Thats not right.We are calling on the NLRB to set aside theresults of this election, said worker andunion member Emily Przybylski.

In response to his employees union

campaign, franchise owner Mike Mulliganhired a third-party anti-union consultingfirm, Labor Relations Inc., to preventemployees from winning an NLRB unionelection. According to documents obtained

By FW bOn Oct. 22, the IWW Jimmy Johns

Workers Union lost a National Labor Rela-tions Board (NLRB) election at a 10-storeJimmy Johns franchise by a single vote.

This election itself was of historicimportance for thefast food industry aswell as for Americanworkers who are low

on the food chain.It was also a hugestep forward for theIWWas a whole aswell as for our TwinCities GMB.

That being said,this moment is not without grief. All ofus had to grieve, andthe grieving will bea longer process forsome of us than oth-ers. Even still, poor

Jimmy Johns workers made bureaucraticlabor union history.

When we met afterwards, it started out

as a pretty sad gathering. However, whilewe may have started low, we did not staythere. As time crept on, it became moreand more apparent that low is not reallythe place we are at.

Were realizing that we are strongernow. We can continue to build this up because there are a lot of ways towardsachieving our goal of being a majorityunion at Jimmy Johns.

We lost a battle but were in a war,and were not going to lose unless we giveup and stop fightingwhether it be inthis struggle at Jimmy Johns or in thissociety which systematically attacks and

undermines the power and livelihood ofworking people.

Our lives are not a game. We are notgoing to let winning or losing a govern-ment game, however close it may be,determine whether or not were going tocontinue to ght to improve our lives.

Votes do not make our bills, kids ordreams disappear.

We continue to meet every Sunday, aswe have been doing for nearly two years.Please keep an eye out or contact us forways that you can help. When we standtogether in solidarity, we make history.Fast food workers need a new futuresodoes our society and so do we.

Get involved. Organize with your co-

workers or peers. Join the IWW. Standup, make history. We have a whole worldto win.

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

Workers Object To Manipulated Union Election

Solidarity With Peace Activists Raided By The FBI

Members of the recently-formed Bristol IWW demonstrate to defend pub-lic services at a rally on Oct. 23 in the City Centre of Bristol, U.K. The demon-stration was called by the Bristol & District Anti-Cuts Alliance.

Bristol Wobblies Defend Public Services

Porter quickly lined himself up behindhis future employers joining the LabourParty in its denunciations. Prime Min-ister David Cameron, for his part, has

been quick to criminalize the protesters,talking once more of ramping up policingin the capitalthis is while the death ofIan Tomlinson at the hands of the Metro-politan Police lingers strong in the mindsof many of us. None of the assessmentsof the Millbank protesters as a militantminority, the Socialist Worker Party oranarchist alone is accurate. Such a claimis made even more ridiculous by the roll-ing 24-hour news coverage that not onlyshowed a clear diversity of students andeducation workers (yes, we were theretoo) taking great pleasure in smashingwindows, ofce equipment and scufingwith the police, but the interviews with theoccupiers themselves who often admittedthis had been their rst protest.

Yes, the anarchists were also involvedin this action: of course we were. But whatis this notion of the apolitical studentand education worker that is being pro-moted by the media? Does the fact thatwe are anarchists preclude us from beingnormal people, from acting in solidaritywith our fellow workers and students? Wereject such a paralyzing construct. It is de-signed to suffocate us, to force us into theimage of the respectful, peaceful and, ulti-mately, obedient and ineffectual protester.We, like many of our fellow students andworkers, recognize that only direct actionwill bring about meaningful change. Thatin order to ght the cuts we need to be notonly ghting on the streets but building

communities in our campuses, pushingfor occupations, sit-ins, walkouts and theinclusion of those often excluded and mar-ginalized in these struggles (the cleaners,porters, administrative and security staff

who quietly labor in our universities forless than the minimum wage).

Media pundits and politicians havealso argued, and continue to argue, thatstudents are somehow privileged or self-interested. This is the same divisive tacticbeing used against all public sector work-ers. In reality, as many students explainedthrough TV interviews, this protest wasnot so much for themselves but for their younger brothers and sisters or evenfor their future children who otherwisewouldnt be able to go to university. Thisis similar to the concern that many publicworkers have for service users, who willundoubtedly also suffer from cuts to ser-vices. We cannot allow these strong ties of

solidarity, across generations and betweenservice providers and service users, to beundermined. The rhetoric that certain workers/students are a privileged groupimplies they should not be supported byothers. We need to recognize this for whatit isdivide and rule.

We also affirm our commitment tosupporting all those who were victimizedand arrested as the result of their actions atMillbank Towers. We encourage all educa-tion workers and students to do the same.

The action on Nov. 10 was a sign ofthings to come. The students and educa-tion workers have been the rst to speakin response to the austerity attacks, and weencourage the rest of the working class tofollow (seepage 12).

Continued from 1day that goes by that I dont think of OscarGrant. This should never have happened.

The impetus for the justice rally camefrom members of Oscar Grants family,

who went to the ILWU seeking their sup-port. The highpoint of the event camewhen a large group of Grants family andfriends took the stage.

The atmosphere on the plaza becameelectrified when Grants six-year-olddaughter Tatiana was introduced to thecrowd. A moving letter to the sentencingjudge demanding the maximum sentencefor Grants killer was read by Tatianasaunt.

Other speakers at the gathering in-cluded Bobby Seale and Elaine Brown,former leaders of the Black Panther Party,and representatives from several unionsincluding the Service Employees and theOakland Education Association/California

Teachers Association.Throughout the afternoon, rally orga-

nizers reminded the crowd, We cannotlet this movement end today. Plans areunderway to keep the momentum of this

coalition going.(Article copyright 1995-2010Workers

World. Verbatim copying and distributionof this entire article is permitted in anymedium without royalty provided thisnotice is preserved).--------Editors Note: Former BART police Of-cer Johannes Mehserle was sentenced onNov. 5. He received a two-year sentencebut, with credit for time he has alreadyserved behind bars, Mehserle will be eli-gible for release in about seven months.His attorney, Michael Rains, said he willappeal the involuntary manslaughterconviction and in the meantime will tryto win Mehserle's release on bail.

100 Donors For The Organizing Fund!From the Organizer's Notebook

The Organizers Notebook is proud to spearhead an effort to secure 100 dona-tions to the Organizing Department Fund Drive.

There can be no doubt that the Organizer Training Program has been instru-mental in all of the IWWs recent campaigns and in the creation of the nationalorganizing committees in the construction, courier, education, freight trucker, andfoodstuffs industries. Fellow Workers, we need to build on this success! The rststep to achieving this is to go into your own workplace and keep plugging away atthe organizing. The second is to go to http://pledgie.com/campaigns/11822 andmake a donation to the Organizer Training Fund so that the union can develop thetraining program further and make sure that our trainers continue to travel aroundthe country and help workers in need.

Do not delay, lets make it a group goal to get 100 donations to the fund before thetime the next Organizers Notebook is published! Five minutes and $10 is all that ittakes to ensure the IWW continues to grow as a force for working-class power. Checkout the donate button on the left-hand side of http://www.iww.org for more info.

Graphic: stopfbi.net


6/12


Special

Order Your Copy ofSolidarity Unionism At Starbucks !

Legendary legal scholar Staughton Lynd teams up with

inuential labor organizer Daniel Gross in this exposition on

solidarity unionism, the do-it-yourself workplace organizing

system that is rapidly gaining prominence around the countryand around the world. Lynd and Gross make the audacious ar-

gument that workers themselves on the shop oor, not outside

union ofcials, are the real hope for labors future. Utilizing

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like the workers at Starbucks, can start building an organiza-

tion to win an independent voice at work without waiting for a

traditional trade union to come and organize them. Indeed,

in a leaked recording of a conference call, the nations most

prominent union-busting lobbyist coined a term, the Starbucks

problem, as a warning to business executives about the risk of working people organizing

themselves and taking direct action to improve issues at work.

Combining history and theory with the groundbreaking practice

of the model by Starbucks workers, Lynd and Gross make a compel-

ling case for solidarity unionism as an effective, resilient, and deeply

democratic approach to winning a voice on the job and in society.

Pre-order your copy for only $4.95 at:https://secure.pmpress.org/index.php?l=product_detail&p=302

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By James Robert PorterWe got ve miles into California before

I started gagging.Gah! I gasped, stumbling out of the

car before dropping to the ground, retch-ing. What the hell is this stuff?

Jackie was in the passenger seat,coughing spasmodically.

Its...I think its fresh air, she said.A lifetime of living in Nevada means

not being ready for the actual trees thatcreate actual air. Our lungs arent designedfor something that isnt 95 percent dustand ve percent poison.

Aw, Gawd! I said. Its horrible!Jackie didnt answer. She was busy

coughing up 28 years worth of dust outof her lungs. It took a while.

Besides the fact that California is notthe howling radioactive wasteland Nevadais, theres another reason why we dont gothere, and thats the trafc. As a residentof Reno, Im more used to the apathetickind of trafc we get here. Nobody is ina hurry because theres no place worthgoing to. Were an island in the middle ofan honest-to-God Wild West movie, onlynone of us have guns and everyones tootired to kill someone anyway.

Compare that to California, which isfull of irritating go-getters who get up inthe morning to be places, and oh my GodIm already exhausted just describing it.Since everyone is in a hurry to be every-where all at once, you wind up with some

kind of shiny version of Lord Humongous'sarmy from Mad Max, and since I left myhockey mask and gimp slave in my otherchariot, I was woefully under-equipped.

So why would I leave the safety ofMother Desert, with her sandstorms andsoothing radiation, to brave the untamedcapitalist wilds of California? The only

things California has are rich people andthe ocean, and I hate one of those and amterried of the other.

Well, almost a year ago, the Castle-wood Country Club in Pleasanton foundtheir contract with the workers unionrunning out. Most of the time this is no bigdeal. Usually management and the unionleaders get together, address any issueseither party has, and then hammer out acontract that usually sounds an awful lotlike the last contract, because the last onewas working, damn it. Nine times out often, nobody gives a damn.

However, this is an unusual climate.Since the intellectual elite had the uttergall to elect a black liberal communistNazi socialist demon-worshiping secretUhuru devil God to ofce, the right-wingcrazies have suddenly crawled out of theholes theyve been sitting inside all thistime, penning manifestos. Someone gavethem all the mistaken idea that they havesomething resembling legitimacy, andthey started throwing their outdated ideasto each other like it was the Worlds Soft-ball Tournament for Fools.

Hey, wait a second, one of them said.What's all this union shit about, anyway?Isnt this America? Dont we have the rightto pay our workers whatever we want?Whos the government to say that we cantpay them 11 cents an hour if the marketwill bear it?

Thats what was going through the

Castlewood owners minds as they pon-dered the unique situation they were in.Suddenly, it was okay to start screwingworkers again. And since they pretty muchresemble every evil 1980s movie villainall wrapped up, they weretotally cool with that.

The previous contract,admittedly, was prettysweet. It provided freehealth care to all employ-ees, a guaranteed $1 raiseevery year, guaranteedhours regardless of full-time or part-time employ-ment and seniority recog-nition when consideringmanagement openings,among other things. Alsoadmittedly, the economy was and is kind of goingthrough a rough patch. Theowners most likely HAD todrop something. I under-stand that.

But they cut EVERY-THING.

Healthcare for employees with fami-lies went from zero to $739.08 a monthand became available only to full-timeemployees, of which there were now nonethanks to the new decision to scrambleup the schedule to make sure nobodygot enough hours to get there. Senior-

ity, always more of an abstract conceptrather than an actual thing, was now justcompletely gone. No one had seen their$1 pay raise in a while. Rumors that theowners were also trying to put Delta Houseon academic probation and attemptingto steal Christmas also began circulating.

In addition to this, the managementbegan putting up signs telling the staff notto speak to the guests at the golf course.The housekeeping staff found themselvesreplaced by non-union contractors,pushed out of a job with no warning atall. When the workers protested this, theycame to work one day to nd themselveslocked out.

A few days later, the owners invited alllocked out Castlewood staff to a breakfaston the companys dime, all on the clockand paid, which immediately set off alarmbells. Undoubtedly they expected manage-ment to seal them all in there and set theplace on re, which would be in keepingwith their business practices thus far. Butthey went anyway, and were greeted withthe only proposal the owners of the placehave been willing to give since the contractexpired.

They were told that they were goingto vote on whether they still wanted theirunion or not. If they voted against theunion, then the bosses promised themtheir jobs back the very next day. If they voted for the union, they would remainlocked out and their jobs would be re-

placed.At this point, most of the staff had no

idea that they even had a union. TheyContinued on next page

Workers picket outside the Castlewood Country Club in May. Photo: Brooke Anderson, indybay.org

Kids & parents against injustice. Photo: endthelockout.org

Observations On The Struggle At Castlewood:


7/12


Special

Continued from previous pagehad never spoken to any union representa-tive, had never gone to any union events,and had only the vaguest idea of who ranthe damn thing. Regardless of this, andin the face of losing their jobs and theirlivelihood to a bunch of 1980s villain

caricatures, they courageously voted tokeep their union in a near-landslide vote.

Theyve been locked out of their jobsfor more than nine months now, since Feb.25. Theyve been bravely soldiering on forwhats right, picketing every morning andevening, six days a week. Theyve causedthe golf course to lose thousands of dollars,to hire a union-busting lawyer which coststhe company approximately $500 a day,and to miss out on the majority of eventsthey were counting on.

Still, the owners havent budged.Ben Atteberry, a man who invited us to aprotest in support on Sept. 18, summedit up perfectly by saying that its a battleof ideology. The owners are ideologicallyopposed to unions. It has nothing to dowith money. Not really. They want theirworkers to know their place in the world,which is as far down as possible.

Ben met us at the golf course shortlyafter we arrived. Hes a member of theIndustrial Workers of the World and isa lot like youd imaginea clone of TerryPratchett to be if you took away the Disc- world books and replaced them with aseething hatred for the ruling class. Ashe liked to say, the ruling class and theworking class will never have anything incommon.

The workers morale was high when we arrived. The picket line was set upacross from the country club parking lot,overlooking the lines of gleaming new cars

and pasty white people in summer cloth-ing. The locked out Castlewood workershad a drum circle set up, with chanting go-

By Alessandro TinongaPLEASANTON, Calif. Manage-

ment at the Castlewood Country Club

has locked out 65 food-beverage andmaintenance workers on Feb. 25.

The workers, represented by UNITEHERE Local 2850, have been in negotia-tions with management since November2009, but General Manager Jerry Olson,under the direction of board PresidentJim Clouser, has proposed that employ-ees pay $739.08 a month, out of pocket,for family health insurance.

I would no longer be able to affordto cover my family on my health care,said Marisol Gil, a banquet server whosworked at Castlewood for ve years. Ifear that because I only work when thereare parties, I might not get enough hoursto qualify for my own coverage.

ing over the megaphone courtesy of Sergio,who was an unofcial spokesperson for thegroup. After conversing with Lian, the of-cial spokesperson, and assuring him that,despite our wheezing and gasping we weremore than qualied to picket, we grabbedour signs and got to work.

Protesting like this just makes you want to mess with people, but we wereguests there, so we tried our best to be-have. I restrained myself to simply raisingmy st at approaching cars and makingdirect eye contact, which was pretty ef-fective for a while. Then I did it at theold black guy who started laughing at theskinny white kid raising what looked likea Black Panther salute, and that fairly tookthe wind out of my sails. We resorted tosimply waving.

We were dealing with a hostile atmo-sphere. Apparently, unions are as commu-nist as collective farms and tractor plants.And, really, how dare the workers try tomake things better for themselves. Its notlike we live in a democracy or anything.

After the picket we all got together fora barbeque, which was great. Everyone hadgotten their ll and we all circled up andheard about the headway the workers weremaking. The news was impressive to saythe least. As I stated before, the strike hadcaused many of the clubs usual custom-ers to pull out of their events. Castlewoodwent from holding at least one wedding aweek to maybe two per month. They werehemorrhaging money, and were forced tohire a lawyer that so far wasnt doing jackexcept counting the huge pile of money hewas accruing. The workers, despite whatothers would have you believe about thissort of thing, were winning.

Ben and I had cornered Sergio and

several workers, trying to nail down theexact chain of events that had led up tothis, when we noticed that there was an

Most Castlewood workers cant affordthe increase, which comes out to morethan 35 percent of a full-time maintenance

workers gross wages. Affordable healthinsurance is the most important factor inemployees compensation, especially sincethe average wage is $12.50 an hour.

Furthermore, the state of California isslashing funding for public benets andis considering capping or eliminating theHealthy Families childrens insurance pro-gram. So if Castlewood workers lose theirbenets, they cant count on a safety net,and their children may go without healthcare entirely.

I dont want to go on welfare pro-grams when, for 20 years, I have been ableto take care of my family, said MartinTostado, a pantry cook at the club. Weare willing to pay something reasonable

but locking us out is not right.During negotiations, the union offered

many concessions in order to strike a deal

with management. Workers offered to pay$175 per month for family medical on acheaper plan with lower benets, whichwould reduce the clubs labor costs by 5percent. In addition, workers agreed toa one-year wage freeze and an extremelylow wage increase (10 cents an hour) forthe following year.

Despite these concessions, manage-ment is committed to force through theirproposals by threatening a lockout. Ac-cording to a letter by the club's boardof directors in the Pleasanton Weekly,[Managements] choices in reacting to thecurrent union negotiating situation appearto boil down to two optionseither (1) con-tinue indenitely according to the unions

current contract negotiations approach,or (2) lock out the current employees.

The letter goes onto say, if [the

club] instead take the second option,we can attempt to impose at least someeconomic leverage on the unions nego-tiating position and avoid the unionsapparent belief that its threats of con-tinuing delays, opposition and future job actions will change the clubs owngood-faith economic positions.

Community pressure and laborsolidarity is needed to pressure thecompany. We must give support andsolidarity to the workers in their strugglefor justice. For more information, visithttp://endthelockout.org/.

This story appeared in its originalformat on Feb. 26, 2010 on http://so-cialistworker.org.

awful lot of attention going towards theother side of the railroad tracks.

Apparently, Jackie had tried wavingto the wrong person, who was cruisingaround on his little golf cart, just seeth-ing at the fact that there were liberalsdoing communist things on his preciousgolf course. After glaring at her, Jackieupped the ante by asking And how areyou today?

Fine, until you spoke to me! Hesnarled, stopped the cart across the tracksand got out.

Oh. Jackie cast around for a topic ofconversation. Um...Im sorry?

And with that, the man lit into a froth-

ing rage, screaming about how the clubdidnt want the workers back, how even ifthe workers came back, he certainly didntwant them back.

Sometime around then Sergio got in-volved, saying that all he and his friendswanted was a living wage and somethingresembling dignity in the workplace. Thiswas at odds with the old white guys views,

who seemed to want everyone to dress upas bears and to ride around on unicycleswhile he threw beer bottles at them orsomething of that nature. I dont know,I couldn't really follow his line of reason-ing after the vein in his forehead startedbulging.

At some point, Castlewood had calledthe cops. The ofcer, who had to comeall the way from Stockton, was less thanenthused at having to come over whenabsolutely nobody was breaking the law.He watched the argument for a while, which must have depressed the old guybecause he ended with BUT...thats justmy opinion, and driving off before we

could point out all the things he said whichtotally werent opinions. The ofcer justnodded, wished us a nice day, and left.

What I want people to get out of thisis that unions work.

James Porter is a freelance authorand dabbler in social protests. He cur-rently resides in Reno, Nevada.

Background On The Lockout At Castlewood Country Club

Soldarity With Locked-Out Country Club Workers

The workers are part of UNITE HERE Local 2830. Photo: Brooke Anderson, indybay.org

Pay $739.08 per month for healthcare? I think not! Photo: Brooke Anderson, indybay.org


8/12


Reviews

Sand, Shlomo. The Invention of the JewishPeople. New York: Verso, 2009. Hard-cover, 332 pages, $34.95.

By Mike BallardSchlomo Sand is employed as a profes-

sor of contemporary history at the Uni-

versity of Tel Aviv. The Invention of theJewish People was originally publishedin Hebrew in Israel. Translations of hiswork are now being published throughoutthe world in many languages, includingEnglish.

Sand is the son of a World War II era veteran of the Polish Communist Party.He is also the son-in-law of a Spanishanarchist who fought Franco national-ists in the streets of Barcelona during theSpanish Civil War. Sand would probablydescribe himself as an apple, fallen some-what distant from those trees, perhaps asa cosmopolitan liberal. His view is that Is-rael would be better off giving up being anethnocracySands term for the ethno-biologically dened Jewish political state.

Sands preference is for Israel to becomea secular capitalist democracy like Franceor the United States.

Sand gives his readers many insightsinto the general intellectual foundationsof the modern eras nationalist ideologicalproject, and of the Zionist nationalist proj-ect in particular. In this reviewers opinion,The Invention of the Jewish People isworth reading for these critical observa-tions alone, as nationalism has been andcontinues to be a strong ideological forcein our time.

Sand makes the case that class societ-ies up until the 18th century were made upmostly of sedentary peasants and nomadicherdsmen. Sand effectively argues that

there was no ofcial ideology of national-ism embedded in the consciousness of thepeople who lived within these pre-indus-trial societies. Historically speaking, theseagrarian formations were dominated byclasses of aristocrats, landlords and slaveowners. The nomadic and peasant majori-ties of this ancient world had no notion ofbeing part of a nation. Comprehending thisinsight is fundamental to grasping Sandsarguments about how nationalism, andin particular Jewish nationalism, was anideological invention. As opposed to mod-ern day nationalist consciousnessbasedon self-regulated patriotism, schooled with pledges of allegiance, ubiquitousposters of our fearless leader and hatsoff at the sports match in honor of thenational anthemancient rulers reliedon keeping the mostly peasant producersof wealth in a constant state of fear of theabsolute power of the sovereign. There wasno sense of being a part of a national politi-cal state amongst the general populace. Atbest, the sovereign only had to secure theloyalty of the states administration in or-der to preserve the continuity and stabilityof the government, but the peasants wererequired simply to pass along the surplusagricultural produce and sometimes toprovide the monarchy and nobility withsoldiers. Taxes were of course collected byforce, or at any rate by its constant implicitthreat, rather than by persuasion or effortsat consensus, writes Sands.

Capitalist rule erupted out of politicalrevolutions against these ancient expres-sions of absolutism. The revolutions ofmodernityfrom Cromwells Puritansin the mid- 17th century to Colonial Americas yeoman farmers and privateproperty owners, to the overthrow ofmonarchism in France by its citizens andin country after country well into the 19thand 20th centuriesall resulted in theestablishment of national political states.All nationalisms were political expressionsof the rapidly changing social relationsof the producers of wealth. From peas-ant subjects to wage-laboring citizens,the producing classes were united, afternationalist revolt, as citizens with the rul-

ing capitalist and landlord classes in one

big political state. These conditions wereaccompanied by new political notions;primary amongst them, the rule of lawand the classless identity politics whichproclaimed that sovereignty was no longthe kings, but for the people of the na-tion. From these material circumstances

sprang the ruling classs need for legitima-tion of their system of political dominance,thus the impetus for public intellectuals toinvent and spread the gospel of the vari-ous and sundry nationalist brands. One ofthe rst tasks these amplied intellectualvoices had to confront was to dene whothe people were.

Sand contends that modern publicintellectuals invented all nationalist ide-ologies, thus all peoples. Most of theseintellectuals mixed history with culturalmyths in order to fashion their national-ist ideologies. Sand calls these nationalistideologies passing for history, mythis-tory. More than a few of these national-ist mythistories were combined with thepseudo-scientic invention of racean

ideology originating in the 18th century:In the 19th century, national cultures

often tied the soft term, people, to therigid and problematic race, and manyregarded the two words as intersecting,supporting, or complimentary (sic). Thehomogeneous collective origin of thepeoplealways, of course, superior andunique, if not actually purebecame akind of insurance against the risks repre-sented by fragmentary, though persistent,sub-identities that continued to swarmbeneath the unifying modernity. Theimagined origin also served as an efcient filter against undesirable mixing withhostile neighbouring nations.

However, by 1945 the horror of the

Nazi holocaust, especially its connectionwith Aryan racist mythhistory, prompt-ed world leaders and public intellectualsto ofcially renounce race as having anyscientifically-based, genetic substance.The United Nations Educational, Scienticand Cultural Organizations (UNESCO)statements on race in the early 1950sexplained race as a social myth and the1998 American Anthropological Associa-tion statement on race proclaimed it to be a pseudo-scientic concept. Still, thecommon sense notion that there areraces has persisted and is present tothis day in public discourse even though,as Sand observes, pre-WWII notions ofrace have more and more morphed intothe bourgeois intellectually acceptableconcept of ethnicity.

To be sure, the oppressive force of rac-ism persists. Not only that, but it is oftenlegitimized, Sand would argue, by continu-ing to legitimate an ethno-biological link-age with nationalist ideological conceptsdening the people.

The Nazi extermination of inferiorraces during WWII threw a spanner inthe ideological works of those attemptingto link race with nation. However, asSand points out, it was particularly prob-lematic for Zionist ideologists. Since itsinception in the mid-19th century, Zion-isms legitimacy was based on the notionof a genetic connection between ancientand modern peoples of the Jewish faith

and culture. According to this mythistory,modern-day Jews were genetically linkedto those people who inhabited that portionof the Middle East known as Israel, Judeaand Palestine in the early 1st century C.E. A fusing of Biblical stories with actualhistory had long become part of the Zion-ist ideological project. As the nationalistideological story goes (Sand writes a muchmore detailed account in a chapter he titlesMythistory), the Jewish people were de-ported from their homeland after much ofJerusalem, along with the Second Temple,was destroyed in 70 C.E. by the Roman sol-diers under the command of Titus. As thestory went, this came as punishment foran unsuccessful revolt against the Roman

Empire by the Jewish people. According to

this mythical tale, the whole of thisJewish people then wandered theEarth in exile from their homeland.The Zionist nationalist projectwas designed to bring the Jewishpeople home to Eretz Israel fromtheir long exile.

What Sand demonstrates, inhis meticulously researched book,is that great mass of the people who lived in what was then theRoman province of Palestine in70 C.E. were not exiled. As heconclusively shows, conquerors ofthat era, including the Babylonianconquerors related in the Biblicalstory of the destruction of the FirstTemple and the Romans who de-stroyed the Second Temple, neverexiled whole peoples because thosepeoples were the peasant produc-ers of wealth; and obtaining thatwealth, along with the power thatgoes with it, is what being a rulingclass is all about. Peasants are gen-

erally tied to their land and mostpeople living in Roman Palestinewere peasants. Peasants dont movearoundtheyre sedentary. Ancientruling classes always liked it thatway. As Sand points out, conquering rulersof ancient times would routinely enslavedefeated elites from the ruling class whomthey had conquered, but they would leavethe great mass of the people (mostlypeasant farmers) on the land to continueto produce wealth, as these peasants haddone for various other ruling classes forcenturies before. The implications of thisrevelation for the current relation betweenpeoples identifying themselves as Palestin-ians and those identifying themselves as

Jews, both inside and outside the imme-diate borders of Israel, are pretty obviousin this reviewers opinion. The classlessnationalist identity politics, which keeprank-and-le Palestinian and Israeli work-ers at each others throats, is based on aseries of invented ctions. Of course, this istrue for all the worlds nationalisms, for allare ideological inventions which assumethat the working class and the employingclass have interests in common.

So, where do most of the people of theJewish faith in the world come from, ifnot from an ethno-biologically connectedpeople who were exiled from their home-land by the Romans in 70 C.E?

Sands answer is that most comefrom proselytizing. Sand demonstratesthat the rst great monotheistic religion,Judaism, was spread to eager paganconverts throughout the Mediterranean basin a long time before the competingmonotheistic religions of Christianity andIslam arose.

The question which came to this re-viewers mind was, Why would polythe-ists nd this monotheistic religion, withits invisible deity so attractive? Shorter work time is one of Sands fascinatinginsights. The weekly day of rest, the Sab-bath, turned the practice of Judaism into away of legitimising free time, much to theconsternation of the slave owning rulingclasses of the ancient, polytheistic world.

As Sand relates, a great victory for

the proselytizers of the Jewish faith camewith the conversion of the Punics. PunicCarthage was not a Hebrew-speaking city-state. It was located in what is today thepolitical State of Tunisia. After the defeatof Carthage by the Roman Republic in 146B.C.E., the Jewish religion continued to bepracticed amongst the peasant people ofthis region. The faith also spread to nearbynomadic Berbers, who were later to ac-company the Arabic Muslim conquerorsof Spain as soldiers in 711 C.E. The im-plications here are enormous, especiallyconsidering what happened to Jews whorefused to convert to Christianity duringFerdinand and Isabellas reign in Spain,circa 1492 C.E.

Sand presents historically document-

ed evidence of the many other conversionsto Judaism within the confines of theheavily used trading routes of Mediterra-nean, in the late B.C.E. and the early C.E.of the Roman Empire. He shows that thisproselytizing tendency was more or lesssuppressed with the rise of Christianity asthe ofcial religion of the Roman Empirein the 2nd century C.E. and of Islam afterthe 8th century C.E.

Proselytizing Jews were driven fromthe arena of rival monotheisms, Christian-ity or Islam, to the land of paganism, with

immigrants who convinced the pagans thattheir faith was preferable. The great massproselytizing campaign that began in the2nd century B.C.E., with the rise of theHasmonean kingdom, reached its climaxin Khazaria in the 8th century C.E.

As Sand shows, the conversion of theKagan of Khazaria, a kingdom locatedabove the Black Sea, helped create a greatmass of people of the Jewish faith. Manyof these Jewish religionists spread out intowhat is now Eastern Europe after Khazariawas overrun by the Mongols under Geng-his Khan in the early 13th century C.E.Sand writes, The Khazars were a coalitionof strong Turkic or Hunnic-Bulgar clanswho, as they began to settle down, mingled with the Scythians who had inhabitedthese mountains and steppes between theBlack Sea and the Caspian Sea, which wasknown for a long time as the Khazar Sea.At its peak, the kingdom encompassed anassortment of tribes and linguistic groups,Alans and Bulgars, Magyars and Slavs.The Khazars collected taxes from them alland ruled over a vast landmass, stretchingfrom Kiev in the northwest to the CrimeanPeninsula in the south, and from the upperVolga to present-day Georgia.

As Sand demonstrates time and again,actual history profoundly conicts withthe mythistory of the Bible which formsthe very foundation on which Israelinationalist ideology and, ultimately, theIsraeli political state rests. For example,

the Declaration of the Establishment of theState of Israel of 1948 states: After beingforcibly exiled from their land, the peoplekept faith with it throughout their Disper-sion and never ceased to pray and hope fortheir return to it and for the restoration init of their political freedom.

The Invention of the Jewish People isa work which will be useful to any Wobblyinterested in making sense of the socialrelations of power and current politicalconicts arising from them in the modernday Middle East. Schlomo Sands workshould be helpful to those eager to graspthe conceptual intricacies of nationalistideology and how it has come to distortpolitical judgments amongst and between

workers of the world today.

Understanding Zionism, Judaism And Mythistory

Graphic: londonbookclub.co.uk


9/12


Wobbly Arts

What Shall We Do With TheJimmy Johns Bosses?

Inspired by Joe Grim Feinbergs What Shall We Do with the StarbucksBosses (2007)

By Sean Carleton, X364847This song is dedicated to the ghting spirit of the Jimmy Johns workers. The close

vote on Oct. 22, 2010 may be disappointing, but the ght continues. Abolishing thewage system is not just about winning or losing electionsit is about impassionedstruggle. In carrying on this struggle, the inspiring workers of the Jimmy JohnsWorkers Union must know that fellow workers from all over the world are with themin love, struggle, and solidarity! As Ralph Chaplin would say, all hell cant stop us!

Tune: What Shall We Do with a Drunken Sailor?

AmWhat shall we do with the Jimmy Johns bosses,GWhat shall we do with the Jimmy Johns bosses,AmWhat shall we do with the Jimmy Johns bosses,Em Bm AmEarl-eye in the morning?

CHORUS (same chords as verse):Hey, ho, up we rise now x3Em Bm AmJimmy Johns Workers Union!

Smack em in the face with subs till they listen

Picket their stores on our bikes together

Server em rotten meat till they give us a raise, now

Put up tip jars on Dollar Sub Day

Sing this song till they cant take it anymore

Thats what well do with the Jimmy Johns bossesLate until the evening!

Women Are Waiting TonightPoem by Joe Corrie (1894-1968)

Women are waiting tonight on the pit-bank,Pale at the heart with dread,

Watching the dead-still wheelsThat loom in the mirky sky,

The silent wheels of Fate,Which is the system under which they slave.

They stand together in groups,As sheep shelter in storm,

Silent, passive, dumb.For in the caverns under their feet,

The cofn seams of coal'Twixt the rock and the rock,The gas has burst into ame,

And has scattered the hail of Death.Cold the night is, and dark,And the rain falls in a mist.

Their shawls and their rags are sodden,And their thin, starved cheeks are blue,But they will not go home to their res,Tho' the news has been broken to them

That a miracle is their only hope.They will wait and watch till the dawn,

Till the wheels begin to revolve,And the men whom they loved so well,

The strong, kind, loving men,Are brought up in canvas sheets,

To be identied by a watch,Or a button,

Or, perhaps, only a wish.And three days from now,

They will be buried together,

In one big hole in the earth.And the King will send his sympathy,

And the Member of Parliament will be there,Who voted that the military be used

When last these miners came on strikeTo win a living wage.

His shining black hat will glisten over a sorrowful face,And his elegantly shod feet will go slowly behind the bier.

And the director of the company will be there,Who had vowed many a time

That he would make the miner eat grass.And the parson, who sits on the Parish Council,

Starving the children and saving the rates,Will pray in a mournful voice,

And tear the very hearts of the bereaved.He will emphasize in godly phrase,

The danger of the mine,

And the bravery and valour of the miner.And the PressThat has spilled oceans of ink

Poisoning the public against the 'destroyers of industry',Will tell the sad tale,

And the public will say, 'How sad.'But a week today all will be forgotten,

And the Member of Parliament,The coal owner,

The parson,The Press,

And the public,Will keep storing up their venom and their hatred,

For the next big miners' strike.Women are waiting tonight at the pit-bank,

But even God does not seeThe hypocrisy and the shame of it all.

Remembering Miners Struggles,Past And Present

From David DouglassSo, while I wish to take nothing away from those lads who were trapped in the

Chilean mine, their families and their rescuers, I have reproduced below a soberingthought or two in the shape of a poem by Scottish miner Joe Corrie who died in 1968.

Anyway, I'd like to share the poem.

Graphic: Tom Keough


10/12



11/12


Getting to Know Fellow Workers

This interview was conducted byIWW member Brendan Maslauskas Dunnat the Syracuse, N.Y. Green Party ofce onAug. 28, 2010. Hawkins is a co-founder ofthe U.S. Green Party, a Teamster, a Wob-bly and recently ran as a Green for Gover-nor of New York state, where he receivedmuch rank-and-le labor support. For the

full transcript and audio recording of theinterview, visit: http://howiehawkins.com/2010/interviews/399-interview-by-brendan-maslauskas-

Industrial Worker - Issue #1731, December 2010

Documents