Friday, May 1, 2015

(from iww.org )

Most people living in the United States know little about the International Workers' Day of May Day. For many others there is an assumption that it is a holiday celebrated in state communist countries like Cuba or the former Soviet Union. Most Americans don't realize that May Day has its origins here in this country and is as "American" as baseball and apple pie, and stemmed from the pre-Christian holiday of Beltane, a celebration of rebirth and fertility.

 In the late nineteenth century, the working class was in constant struggle to gain the 8-hour work day. Working conditions were severe and it was quite common to work 10 to 16 hour days in unsafe conditions. Death and injury were commonplace at many work places and inspired such books as Upton Sinclair's The Jungle and Jack London's The Iron Heel. As early as the 1860's, working people agitated to shorten the workday without a cut in pay, but it wasn't until the late 1880's that organized labor was able to garner enough strength to declare the 8-hour workday. This proclamation was without consent of employers, yet demanded by many of the working class.

At this time, socialism was a new and attractive idea to working people, many of whom were drawn to its ideology of working class control over the production and distribution of all goods and services. Workers had seen first-hand that Capitalism benefited only their bosses, trading workers' lives for profit. Thousands of men, women and children were dying needlessly every year in the workplace, with life expectancy as low as their early twenties in some industries, and little hope but death of rising out of their destitution. Socialism offered another option.

A variety of socialist organizations sprung up throughout the later half of the 19th century, ranging from political parties to choir groups. In fact, many socialists were elected into governmental office by their constituency. But again, many of these socialists were ham-strung by the political process which was so evidently controlled by big business and the bi-partisan political machine. Tens of thousands of socialists broke ranks from their parties, rebuffed the entire political process, which was seen as nothing more than protection for the wealthy, and created anarchist groups throughout the country. Literally thousands of working people embraced the ideals of anarchism, which sought to put an end to all hierarchical structures (including government), emphasized worker controlled industry, and valued direct action over the bureaucratic political process. It is inaccurate to say that labor unions were "taken over" by anarchists and socialists, but rather anarchists and socialist made up the labor unions.

At its national convention in Chicago, held in 1884, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions (which later became the American Federation of Labor), proclaimed that "eight hours shall constitute a legal day's labor from and after May 1, 1886." The following year, the FOTLU, backed by many Knights of Labor locals, reiterated their proclamation stating that it would be supported by strikes and demonstrations. At first, most radicals and anarchists regarded this demand as too reformist, failing to strike "at the root of the evil." A year before the Haymarket Massacre, Samuel Fielden pointed out in the anarchist newspaper, The Alarm, that "whether a man works eight hours a day or ten hours a day, he is still a slave."

Despite the misgivings of many of the anarchists, an estimated quarter million workers in the Chicago area became directly involved in the crusade to implement the eight hour work day, including the Trades and Labor Assembly, the Socialistic Labor Party and local Knights of Labor. As more and more of the workforce mobilized against the employers, these radicals conceded to fight for the 8-hour day, realizing that "the tide of opinion and determination of most wage-workers was set in this direction." With the involvement of the anarchists, there seemed to be an infusion of greater issues than the 8-hour day. There grew a sense of a greater social revolution beyond the more immediate gains of shortened hours, but a drastic change in the economic structure of capitalism.
In a proclamation printed just before May 1, 1886, one publisher appealed to working people with this plea:
  • Workingmen to Arms!
  • War to the Palace, Peace to the Cottage, and Death to LUXURIOUS IDLENESS.
  • The wage system is the only cause of the World's misery. It is supported by the rich classes, and to destroy it, they must be either made to work or DIE.
  • One pound of DYNAMITE is better than a bushel of BALLOTS!
  • MAKE YOUR DEMAND FOR EIGHT HOURS with weapons in your hands to meet the capitalistic bloodhounds, police, and militia in proper manner.
Not surprisingly the entire city was prepared for mass bloodshed, reminiscent of the railroad strike a decade earlier when police and soldiers gunned down hundreds of striking workers. On May 1, 1886, more than 300,000 workers in 13,000 businesses across the United States walked off their jobs in the first May Day celebration in history. In Chicago, the epicenter for the 8-hour day agitators, 40,000 went out on strike with the anarchists in the forefront of the public's eye. With their fiery speeches and revolutionary ideology of direct action, anarchists and anarchism became respected and embraced by the working people and despised by the capitalists.

The names of many - Albert Parsons, Johann Most, August Spies and Louis Lingg - became household words in Chicago and throughout the country. Parades, bands and tens of thousands of demonstrators in the streets exemplified the workers' strength and unity, yet didn't become violent as the newspapers and authorities predicted.

More and more workers continued to walk off their jobs until the numbers swelled to nearly 100,000, yet peace prevailed. It was not until two days later, May 3, 1886, that violence broke out at the McCormick Reaper Works between police and strikers.

For six months, armed Pinkerton agents and the police harassed and beat locked-out steelworkers as they picketed. Most of these workers belonged to the "anarchist-dominated" Metal Workers' Union. During a speech near the McCormick plant, some two hundred demonstrators joined the steelworkers on the picket line. Beatings with police clubs escalated into rock throwing by the strikers which the police responded to with gunfire. At least two strikers were killed and an unknown number were wounded.

Full of rage, a public meeting was called by some of the anarchists for the following day in Haymarket Square to discuss the police brutality. Due to bad weather and short notice, only about 3000 of the tens of thousands of people showed up from the day before. This affair included families with children and the mayor of Chicago himself. Later, the mayor would testify that the crowd remained calm and orderly and that speaker August Spies made "no suggestion... for immediate use of force or violence toward any person..."

As the speech wound down, two detectives rushed to the main body of police, reporting that a speaker was using inflammatory language, inciting the police to march on the speakers' wagon. As the police began to disperse the already thinning crowd, a bomb was thrown into the police ranks. No one knows who threw the bomb, but speculations varied from blaming any one of the anarchists, to an agent provocateur working for the police.

Enraged, the police fired into the crowd. The exact number of civilians killed or wounded was never determined, but an estimated seven or eight civilians died, and up to forty were wounded. One officer died immediately and another seven died in the following weeks. Later evidence indicated that only one of the police deaths could be attributed to the bomb and that all the other police fatalities had or could have had been due to their own indiscriminate gun fire. Aside from the bomb thrower, who was never identified, it was the police, not the anarchists, who perpetrated the violence.

Eight anarchists - Albert Parsons, August Spies, Samuel Fielden, Oscar Neebe, Michael Schwab, George Engel, Adolph Fischer and Louis Lingg - were arrested and convicted of murder, though only three were even present at Haymarket and those three were in full view of all when the bombing occurred. The jury in their trial was comprised of business leaders in a gross mockery of justice similar to the Sacco-Vanzetti case thirty years later, or the trials of AIM and Black Panther members in the seventies. The entire world watched as these eight organizers were convicted, not for their actions, of which all of were innocent, but for their political and social beliefs. On November 11, 1887, after many failed appeals, Parsons, Spies, Engel and Fisher were hung to death. Louis Lingg, in his final protest of the state's claim of authority and punishment, took his own life the night before with an explosive device in his mouth.

The remaining organizers, Fielden, Neebe and Schwab, were pardoned six years later by Governor Altgeld, who publicly lambasted the judge on a travesty of justice. Immediately after the Haymarket Massacre, big business and government conducted what some say was the very first "Red Scare" in this country. Spun by mainstream media, anarchism became synonymous with bomb throwing and socialism became un-American. The common image of an anarchist became a bearded, eastern European immigrant with a bomb in one hand and a dagger in the other.

Today we see tens of thousands of activists embracing the ideals of the Haymarket Martyrs and those who established May Day as an International Workers' Day. Ironically, May Day is an official holiday in 66 countries and unofficially celebrated in many more, but rarely is it recognized in this country where it began.

Over one hundred years have passed since that first May Day. In the earlier part of the 20th century, the US government tried to curb the celebration and further wipe it from the public's memory by establishing "Law and Order Day" on May 1. We can draw many parallels between the events of 1886 and today. We still have locked out steelworkers struggling for justice. We still have voices of freedom behind bars as in the cases of Mumia Abu Jamal and Leonard Peltier. We still had the ability to mobilize tens of thousands of people in the streets of a major city to proclaim "THIS IS WHAT DEMOCRACY LOOKS LIKE!" at the WTO and FTAA demonstrations.

Words stronger than any I could write are engraved on the Haymarket Monument:
THE DAY WILL COME WHEN OUR SILENCE WILL BE MORE POWERFUL THAN THE VOICES YOU ARE THROTTLING TODAY.
Truly, history has a lot to teach us about the roots of our radicalism. When we remember that people were shot so we could have the 8-hour day; if we acknowledge that homes with families in them were burned to the ground so we could have Saturday as part of the weekend; when we recall 8-year old victims of industrial accidents who marched in the streets protesting working conditions and child labor only to be beat down by the police and company thugs, we understand that our current condition cannot be taken for granted - people fought for the rights and dignities we enjoy today, and there is still a lot more to fight for. The sacrifices of so many people can not be forgotten or we'll end up fighting for those same gains all over again. This is why we celebrate May Day.




Thursday, April 30, 2015

Notes for Derby Weekend

A lull in communication but the KY IWW keeps trucking along.

A few weekends ago FW Kate and I held down tabling duties at the Mighty Kindness festival on the waterfront. We met several wonderful people and made good contacts with workers in the area, including one who greeted us with "I haven't seen you guys since 1910."

And it's in that spirit that we recommit ourselves to active, direct engagement with our city and beyond as we roll into the summer months. With Baltimore rising up, the political class looking to 2016, the wage fight continuing, and as much discrimination in our workplaces as ever, now is as good a time as any for the Wobblies and workers to start the summer with a surge in action and activism toward equal representation, solidarity and dignity in our workplaces and communities.

Here's what's on tap on our end moving forward:


  • Fellow Worker J.P. Wright has headed out to spread the good word of Joe Hill, and will be performing at a Chicago stop on the Roadshow tomorrow, May 1. You can support the tour on its GoFundMe page, and read all about it at their website and Facebook page. Rumor has it Louisville will be a fall stop on the tour, so stay tuned for that.
  • Patrick, Kate, and FW Virginia will be tabling the Louisville Socialist's May Day Launch Party at the Cure Lounge tomorrow night, May 1, at 7 p.m. Our own secretary-treasurer FW Mick Parsons will be speaking. Minimum $5 donations will be accepted at the door, and plenty of IWW books, posters, and pamphlets will be available. You'll be able to see IWW folk at flea markets, fairs, and events throughout the city this summer. With a new outreach network in place, we expect to be vocal and visible in the coming months.
  • In the works is a budding Louisville Solidarity Network, co-organized and operated by the Louisville Socialists and KY IWW. The Network will be in place to assist with direct and indirect action any worker or tenet with a grievance against the managerial and landlord classes. We look forward to working alongside, and with, the Socialists in this major community endeavor.
  • Our space at the Mammoth is a few tweaks away from being finished. We'll be running it as a real labor temple in the city, open to lefties of all stripes and opinions, as long as community engagement and the dignity of the lower classes are the primary causes championed in that space.
  • As one of our first actions in the new meeting space, we're working toward putting on an organizing seminar sometime toward the end of this year. Fellow Wobs from Indiana should be in attendance -- but more on that as the details roll in.
  • And finally, the Woblog is set to be relocated to another site soon and very soon. I'm putting out a general call for content (opinion pieces, poems, essays, cartoons) for anyone who would like to contribute to that site. Simply e-mail me at patrick.a.danner@gmail.com.
The next meeting of the KY IWW GMB is scheduled for Friday, May 22nd. There we'll address space use, the solidarity network, and ongoing projects within our community and in solidarity with other organizations. Stay tuned and I hope to see you all on the 22nd.

Cheers,

Patrick Danner
Press Officer
KY IWW GMB

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Notes from the Mammoth: KY IWW Tabling Events and our Latest Resolution


Despite the recent cold snap the KY GMB has been soldiering on. At our most recent meeting, FW Patrick Danner presented a motion in solidarity with his NJ contacts to support the upcoming demonstrations for a $15/hr minimum wage. See the resolution below:

Having seen the successes across the nation (most prominently in Seattle) as well as in the city of Louisville, the KY IWW has re-committed itself to supporting this fight wherever and whenever possible. So, in solidarity:

"From KY to NJ: $15 and a Union!"
We also have a few events coming up where you can come out and talk shop (and maybe even buy a book or two) with some real life Wobblies. First, FWs Patrick and Kate will be tabling the Mighty Kindness Earth Day festival, which just so happens to fall on the same day as GonzoFest, April 11th. This will be a can't-miss convergence of Thompson-ites and Greens that I personally can't wait to be a part of--don't miss out!

You’ll also find us tabling the Louisville Socialist’s Benefit Show, May 1st, at the Cure Lounge on Shelby (plugged in our last post as well), at which our branch secretary Mick will be speaking. Again, we hope to have a critical mass coming out to support this event, the proceeds from which will go to assist in building a solidarity network across the city as well as ongoing activist efforts from the Louisville Socialists (such as the ongoing minimum wage fight, among others).

Finally, one last plug for the Joe Hill Tour. The Indianapolis date, sponsored by our comrades in the
Indiana IWW GMB, has been tentatively set for May 2nd, though the final lineup for that particular date is TBD. Our delegate, FW J.P. will be there, however, so anyone who can make the trek and wants to hear some great folk and labor singers (and storytellers) should do so.

Stayed tuned for notes from Earth Day, as well as updates on the Joe Hill Tour and the May Day Benefit Show.

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

KY GMB Meeting - Thursday @ 8 p.m.

As the members of the KY IWW regroup after a week of summits out west and in Louisville, we’re set to hold our next meeting at the newly renovated space at the Mammoth. Come on out, Thursday at 8 p.m., and discuss the upcoming Joe Hill Tour (dates for the first legs--midwest and west coast--of the tour have been announced) as well as our organizing and networking strategies for moving forward.

On the topic of organizing and networking, I want to send a big "thanks" the members of the Louisville and Philadelphia Socialists, as well as our fellow activists from Lexington and West Virginia, for coming out and holding an amazing organizing summit last week. A few wobblies attended and formed great working relationships with organizers throughout the Kentuckiana region and beyond. Seeing so many lefties in one place solidifies the notion that the way forward is through building these networks--both within your community and beyond it.


So keep an eye out for updates, and new events after the meeting. And also have both ears open for details on the May Day benefit concert being held by the Louisville Socialists (an answer to all the decadence and depravity of Derby, if you will). The group is raising funds for a city-wide solidarity network for Louisville, which is a project that's worth more than a little of our support.

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Louisville IWW: Big Plans Ahead

Fellow workers,

Spring's around the corner and can't come soon enough. Soon we can canvas and recruit and promote our collective causes out in the open and unimpeded by feet of snow.

In that spirit I wanted to take the chance to announce some changes for the KY Branch of the IWW, as well as our upcoming and ongoing projects.

During our February meeting two new Fellow Workers were elected to serve executive positions. Fellow Worker Kate Lafferty will be spearheading organizing activities, a task she has proven to be more than capable of given her work on the recent National Adjunct Walkout Day teach-in at the downtown campus of Jefferson Community and Technical College, as well as her organizing activities with the newly formed Kentucky College Faculty Association. I, Fellow Worker Patrick Danner, have been elected to take over our press, a job which I believe--judging by my verbosity here--I am capable of doing to the highest standard. Fellow Worker Mick Parsons remains in his position as secretary-treasurer and Fellow Worker JP Wright remains our delegate and fearless leader. I think I can speak for Kate as well when I say that we look forward to working with and learning from these two veterans of the cause.

The meeting space for the KY General Membership Branch is also undergoing some spring cleaning and renovation, spearheaded by our delegate, FW Wright. The space will house not only our regular meetings but also be open to hosting other community groups, as well as a free labor library. In the future we'll set aside a space pay homage to railroad unions and organizers past and present. So not only do we plan to operate the day-to-day of the KY GMB out of this space, but we also hope to provide a home to all those active in the community, working for the common causes of organizing workers, raising the wage, and protecting the exploited whenever and wherever possible.

The space (you can see to the left) is a renovated section of The Mammoth, which is home to a number of local artists that we look forward to working alongside. The Mammoth has also become a staple in the artisan community of Louisville, hosting regular craft fairs and events where we have the chance to mingle with the creative crowd. The building has a long history of industry, having been built in 1865 and home to a pork-packing plant. We're especially excited to be putting down roots in a part of town where the biggest markers are railroad tracks, factories and warehouses. It reminds us what we organize for.


Next week, FWs Wright and Parsons will be heading out to Richmond, CA, for a conference on the Future of Railroads. Sponsored primarily by Railroad Workers United, the conference will include speakers and summits with groups such as Greenpeace USA, the Bay Area branch of Socialist Alternative, the Sierra Club, and the Aboriginal Alliance of Northern Alberta. The confluence of labor, community, and environmental activists will give us new steam to reach out to the community and build on alliances locally and nationally. To whoever thought that environmentalists and unions couldn't work together, you can read their resolution here.

While our delegate and secretary-treasurer set out for the sunshine of California, FWs Lafferty, Reagan Sova and myself are set to meet for a summit and organizing workshop with our local Louisville Socialist group (who were instrumental in raising the minimum wage for the city of Louisville last year) as well as the Philadelphia Socialists. Emphasizing community outreach and organizing, the summit promises to energize our efforts in the coming months as well as build on the working relationships already formed between the two cities.

Finally, the Joe Hill Tour that was written about last month continues to come together. As will all organizing efforts, it takes time and patience. Trust you'll hear more on that soon.

The next meeting of the Louisville GMB will be on March 26th at our new space at the Mammoth, 8 p.m. We'll all have updates, ideas, and energy. Hope to see you there.

Cheers,

Patrick Danner
Press Officer
KY IWW

Thursday, February 19, 2015

The Joe Hill Road Show... TBA

The “Joe Hill Road Show” 2015 



In January, Wobblies and friends began to meet via conference call to organize what has now become known as “The Joe Hill Road Show”. To our delight, there seems to be unbounded enthusiasm and optimism about such a tour, with musicians both local and national poised to play and sing the songs of Joe Hill at locations across the continent. Each local sponsoring IWW Branch (or other grouping) will have relative autonomy to plan each event. Some will be larger than others, some will have more audience participation, some will inject other activities – poetry, readings, theatre, etc. However, each sponsoring group will be asked and expected to meet certain basic criteria, such as responsibility for local publicity, booking the venue, providing accommodation for the travelling musicians, etc.

To date, musicians that have committed to playing at least one show include: Anne Feeney, Mark Ross, Bucky Halker, George Mann, J.P. Wright, Lil’ Rev, John McCutcheon, Si Kahn, Rich Rittenhouse, John James Tourville, Brody Douglas Hunt, Tim Gorelangton, Patrick Dodd, Daryl Cherney, Eddie Jeff Cahill, Charlie Parr, Dave Rovics, Duncan Phillips (Utah Phillips’ son), Len Wallace, Otis Gibbs, Chance McCoy (from Old Crow Medicine Show) and Elspeth Summersgill. 

There are many others who have been suggested as likely candidates. And depending on how this whole thing develops, there is the prospect to attract some “big” names (I will refrain from mentioning names here). To date, we have commitments in locations including: Chicago (where the tour is slated to kick off on May Day), Milwaukee, Madison, Oshkosh, Green Bay, Twin Cities and Fargo for the Upper Midwest “leg”. For the east coast leg, we have hopes for Albany, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, D.C. among others. In the South, Roanoke, VA, Asheville and Charlotte, NC, New Orleans. Out west, Reno and Virginia City, NV, Sacramento, San Diego, L.A., the Bay Area, Nevada City and Weed, CA. In the Pacific Northwest, Bellingham, Seattle, Portland, Eugene, and of course Salt Lake City (where the tour is scheduled to conclude around November 19th).



And really, we are just now getting this thing started! I urge all affiliates of this great organization to step up and sponsor a show in your local area. Not only will it be a great way for local Wobblies and friends to spend an evening, but a local event brings great public relations to the local IWW, and it informs the community of our existence and our ideas. And we will certainly spread good will for the organization and sign up a few members along the way. For more information about the tour, to get involved in the national organizing or to build a local event,

 contact J.P. Wright at railroadmusic333@gmail.com or Ron Kaminkow at ronkaminkow@gmail.com And check out 

https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Joe-Hill-100-tour/426997447452407


Friday, January 30, 2015

National Adjunct Walk Out Day

See the press release here.

Two of our Fellow Workers, Kentucky GMB Branch Secretary-Treasurer Mick Parsons and FW Kate Lafferty are working to organize educational workers around this event. Spread it around. Support your Fellow Workers!