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
