Iowa City

My stop in Iowa City was organized by the good folks over at the Wild Rose Collective. It was great to reconnect with a sister organization in the project of developing a nationwide organization. The Wild Rose Collective have been instrumental in helping to coordinate much of the national dialogue between groups. So, being able to spend a little time with some of their members talking about the process of regroupment has been very helpful.

I was surprised immediately at how small Iowa City really is. I had thought I was headed to a city about the size of Rochester. But it's actually a small fraction of that size, which the local college making up much of the local population.

The talk however, had just over 20 people at it, making it larger than some others. There was local media there from the Daily Iowan. It was generally well organized and went really smoothly. It was good to be able to direct people to join the local organization if they agreed with the perspectives being shared, rather than advocating the creation of something totally new. And, in a great surprise the audience included by half-brother and his sister who both work with Ajax, a long-time anarchist internet personality that I've known via MYSPACE! (yea, I'm that old!)

Of course an O'Malley family reunion meant staying out late and up until around 5am partying. This didn't mean good things for the drive to Milwaukee the next day!

St. Louis

Today begins my rapid fire end of the tour. The next few days will be right on top of each other! Today I'm in St. Louis, tomorrow Iowa City, the next day Milwaukee, the next Chicago. I'm getting ready to pass out in my bed though.

In St. Louis the stop was coordinated by another comrade from the Worker Solidarity Alliance, who had actually attended the stop in El Paso as well. The talk was in a space called the World Community Center that seemed like a catch-all space for various social justice organizations in the city. 

There were just under 20 people at this talk. The talk went very smoothly, and didn't really get much push back. It seemed like a few people there were looking for more of an introduction to anarchism than to especifismo. 

There was a brief question about "especifismo's critique of industrial civilization". This was confusing to me for a couple of reasons. First, the language sounded like it was coming from a primitivist perspective, but when I said that was told that I was misunderstanding. Second, I think the question seems to come from the notion that especifismo is like a new suffix to anarcho-. It's as if we are advocating for an anarcho-especifismo rather than especifismo as it's own theory of the role of revolutionary anarchist organizing, which is definitely not the intention. 

I'm not actually sure if there are especifista groups that would call themselves anything other than anarchist communists. But, if there are, I've never seen them. 

Salt Lake City

Being in Salt Lake City was surreal. I grew up here for much of my childhood. The city has developed a ton since last I was there. There is now an above-ground light rail line running down one of the streets I used to live on. The neighborhood I grew up in has turned into a sort of hip neighborhood rather than the fairly sketchy place it was when I was there.

This talk was at the public library (which was a beautiful space!). It was put on by a new, platformist-influence group calling themselves the Wasatch Anarchist Organization. The talk was pretty small. As it turned out many people that would have otherwise been there were downstate involved in an anti-tar sands pipeline action.

Small conversations though, allow for such a more participatory presentation. Being able to really engage in conversation with people rather than just present was a great switch. The folks there seemed really solid, and I hope that we'll stay connected through the process of creating our national organization.

I didn't get as much of a chance to connect with the organizers of this talk though, as I spent much of the time there exploring neighborhoods that I remembered as a child.

Seattle

After Portland, I think I ran into Seattle a little cocky. The event went so well in Portland that I didn't really prepare for many of the specifics that may come up in Seattle, didn't have some of the conversations about the local context that I had in other cities, and didn't really reflect on the anarchist history of those cities as I knew them. So, it doesn't surprise me that this talk didn't go quite as well. Well, that and it seems there were some people there with a preconceived notion of who I am and what I stand for.

The talk was organized by an old friend of mine who had been involved in Common Action and is now a member of the Seattle Solidarity Network. The talk was held at the Black Coffee Co-op and had about 30 people in attendance.

This more than any other talk was one that I was intimidated by the audience. Not because of the many people there that disagreed with my perspectives, but because of the presence of my friend Marie Trigona, whose writing and video work during a decade of involvement with the anarchist media project Grupo Alavio has informed much of my own understanding of the movements of Argentina.

One major conversation that was raised during the discussion was about the revolutionary potential of some of the major mainstream unions in the US versus the Industrial Workers of the World. In their current form I don't think either are likely to bring us closer to revolution. But, one statement of mine was certainly taken out of context there and spread around a bit. I had said that given their size that if there was a serious shift in internal ideology that the 2 million member Service Employees International Union would obviously have greater revolutionary potential given it's size. This was then quoted as "the SEIU is more revolutionary than the IWW."

Here is what I think we need: massive workers movements and their self-managed, self-directed, sustainable worker organizations that understands themselves as a tool of class struggle for all working people, including their members, and engage in militant industrial strategy (note: not simply workplace action). The SEIU is obviously a long ways off here. They've got sustainable. They've even got massive. Work self-directed? Not really. Engaged in class struggle? Not as the basis of their work and not militantly. Large scale industrial strategy? Inconsistently, although I'm more excited by the fast food organizing than my more purist friends.

What about the IWW? Worker self-managed? Maybe. They are certainly internally democratic. But so many of the members are activists disconnected from workplaces that it's hard to say it's worker self-managed. Massive? Clearly not. Has a class struggle orientation and readiness for militant organizing. Absolutely. Sustainable? Not really. In fact sometimes there are ideological stances taken to maintain a purity of revolutionary thought rather than allow for serious sustained growth. I'd rather see the IWW act as a union than an anarchist and socialist history club. The decisions that I see tell me that in some places that transition is happening and in most places, it remains a social club for revolutionaries.

So does this mean I give up on both of them? No, it means that I give up on neither of them. But they both have serious work to do if they intend to be organizations that move us towards a revolutionary tomorrow.

At the end of the day, this discussion has been had hundreds of times over. Rather than outing one another for strategic disagreements here, I think as anarchists we need to develop a strategy for developing labor organization and militancy that incorporates engagement in both mainstream unions and the IWW.

Beyond the talk though, Seattle was great to be able to reconnect with Marie and relax for a couple of days. Hanging out on a porch near the beach grilling food, drinking wine, and learning a ton in great conversation. That is exactly what vacation is about, and really should just be what life is.

Marie also pointed out a real problem with my presentation, which I made a point to incorporate into future talks. The analysis that I was offering about the build up to the factory occupations didn't include any mention of the piqueteros! Utter failure on my part. Go read up on the piqueteros! 

Portland

The stop in Portland was a huge success. Around 80 people were packed into the Red and Black Cafe for this talk. I feel like the presentation was stronger than it had been in other stops, and was received in great ways with a pretty large grouping of people interested in joining a nationwide anarchist organization and building a local group based on especifist thought.

It's not shocking how strong this event was. The Red and Black Cafe is a space that has a long history of great talks like this and serves as an important resource for Portland's anarchist community. The Institute for Anarchist Studies co-sponsored the event and had their board coming into town for a meeting in the next few days. Two former members of Rochester Red and Black live in Portland now and helped to do the on-the-ground organizing for this event. And there were three spots on KBOO local community radio helping to pump the event - one by me, one by another member of Rochester Red and Black, and another with Jeff Shantz about anarchist organizing. The strength of the local IWW was apparent with lots of their membership in the room and participating in the conversation. There was at least one former member of the past northwest regional anarchist federation, Common Action.

The conversation here seemed to focus very much on how the process of social insertion into broader movements can help to strengthen anarchist ideals and organizing skill. The notion of building depth of connection in communities was something that I raised a handful of times and that was echoed by others in the room.

I left Portland really excited for the remainder of the talk and the possibilities that the tour has for helping us to build a stronger nationwide anarchist organization in the US.

Eureka

Eureka California was a really rapid stop for me. The drive from San Jose is a long one, and I've got to be in Portland, Oregon the next day which is also a long drive.

The talk here was put on by the Humboldt Grassroots, a county-wide organization of Anarchists Communists. They're a local affiliate of the Anarkismo editorial board and have a warehouse space in Eureka with what they call the Rhizome Infoshop. They are also the key organizers of the Humboldt Anarchist Bookfair each year, which sounds like it makes some great connections in town.

The talk had around 10 people attending and was overall a very positive conversation. It seemed like an in-depth conversation on especifismo was something that few people there had attended before. But, there were a couple of Humboldt Grassroots folk that already had some understanding of the ideas and that have previously been in contact with the various Class Struggle Anarchist groups in the US. It seems like that connection has gotten a bit weaker in the time that the In Our Hearts Network has been undergoing it's rapprochment process.

Their upcoming Anarchist bookfair would be a great place to help revive this connection by sending some folks engaged in the rapprochment process to talk through what's been accomplished so far with them.

San Jose

The San Jose talk was the largest yet, with over 30 people in attendance. The talk was organized by the South Bay IWW and was held at the San Jose Peace and Justice Center. As is becoming a really common occurrence at these talks, there was another member of the Worker Solidarity Alliance present, Tom Wetzel. It's been exciting to have the WSA be a common element of many of the talks! There was also a recently confirmed member of Miami Autonomy and Solidarity in the room, which is great since this tour wasn't able to go all the way to Miami. That member of MAS is the author of the article "Especifismo: The Anarchist Praxis of Building Popular Movements and Revolutionary Organization in South America." That article has really been the basis of a large chunk of the presentation, and is one that I really wish I had brought printed versions with me to each stop around the country!

It was at this conversation that I finally began feeling like I had a pretty comfortable rap down for the presentation. The presentation has been changing slightly at each stop based on the different crowds and this one was no different.

This presentation had a larger portion of people that were there out of an interest in organizing worker cooperatives. It's probably silly that I was surprised by this, given that time I spent around cooperatives in Argentina is much of the premise of the talk. But, my reflection on the form of workplace cooperatives has been one that doesn't really prioritize the creation of cooperatives as the best way to challenge capitalism - or even to establish worker democracy internal to capitalist economies.

To me, cooperatives are a tool. Without a similar degree of class consciousness and without an orientation of the cooperative as a tool to further a broad class struggle in favor of worldwide worker and community self-management, I find cooperatives can often simply be small businesses with multiple owners rather than anti-capitalist counter-economies. So, I've increasingly found myself thinking of cooperatives as something I'm excited about only when they're created as part of a larger class struggle. I can think now of two forms in which cooperatives can be just that: 1) offensive expropriation of a workplace away from capitalist ownership and 2) as part of an survival program initiated by unemployed workers movements.

There were some really friendly people here building a very new IWW branch in San Jose. I think they'll be very successful based on their ability to be good with new folks in town! On to Eureka!

Los Angeles

It was only a few days before the Los Angeles stop, and there wasn't really any information yet on where exactly the stop would be or any publicity out. So, I was starting to get worried that this stop wouldn't happen at all. Luckily, a local member of the Worker Solidarity Alliance saved the day, got it set up, and got some folks out to take part in the conversation.

There were a couple of people there that have been working with the Institute for Anarchist Studies and who were also previously members of Amanecer in the Bay Area. Most of the people in the room belonged to a group called the Free Association of Anarchists. The folks in the FAA claimed after hearing this talk that they have been effectively been acting as an especifist organization without having the language to self-describe in this way. It seems to me that they seem relatively disconnected from the broader class struggle anarchist groupings in the country and that this has created some fairly significant differences with their aims and principles than would be seen today in many other class struggle anarchist organizations in the US. I hope that from this talk that we can keep in better touch with them and possibly begin some conversations about the different approaches to anarchist organization and especifismo that are manifesting around the country.

In this discussion, I again found myself in the increasingly familiar territory of being intimidated by the presence of more informed individuals than myself. But, I'm starting to get more comfortable with the idea that a speaking tour doesn't need to present me as an expert, but as someone brought in to provoke and organize a conversation around.

One of those great conversations that came up was about how similar or different platformism and especifismo are. My answer, as has been my answer in the past, is that in effect I find they are nearly synonymous. As I think about this answer more, I find that I certainly don't think that The Organizational Platform of the General Union of Anarchists is the same as the concepts of especifismo. But, that the practices of people that now call themselves platfomists essentially ends up being identical to especifismo.

In the Federação Anarquista do Rio de Janeiro's recent release "Social Anarchism and Organization" says "The Platform advocates an anarchist organization, at the political level, that acts in the midst of social movements, a social level, and emphasizes the role of active minority of the anarchist organization." And further that "[the Platform] is an important document and has considerable influence in especifismo."

But they do also go on to say: "However, we do not believe that especifismo is the same thing as Platformism".

The details of the platform itself express a form of organization that I think very few platformists today would argue for - likely for many of the same reasons as the FARJ differentiates especifismo from the Platform. The Platform was specifically constructed from the experience of military action in a revolutionary period. Of course, I have met almost no platformists who argue that we should take on the draft organizational structure offered in the Platform as a way to organize. Instead, what I suppose we could call neo-platformists tend to water the ideas in the Platform down to the more essential components of the necessity of an explicitly anarchist organization built on a unity of theory and practice. Especifismo makes the important further arguments about the need for social insertion and the relationship between the revolutionary anarchist organization and the social movements while coming from a perspective of movement building in times that are not militarily revolutionary. All of these are elements that nearly every platformist I've met agrees with.

So, in my experience many of the people that call themselves platfomists are essentially especifista in their orientation while simultaneously being inspired and influenced by the Platform - just like the FARJ say in their experience. Functionally to me, this means that these traditions and terms in the context of the United States have such close similarities and unity that treating them as the same is helpful in an organizing context. However, in an internal process of theory developing and political education, I can certainly see the value in showing the distinctions to help us all have a more developed understanding of the terms that we use.

More than anything, at this stop in Los Angeles (with around 10 people in attendance), I was glad to have a conversation that challenged my admittedly introductory level understanding of especifismo. Most of the conversations at this point have remained at that introductory level, and this one went into conversations that I think any organization of anarchists should be having!

El Paso

In El Paso the talk was set up by Sarah, a comrade that I know from the Worker Solidarity Alliance, one of the other organizations involved in the formation of a nationwide anarchist organization. The talk was scheduled to be held at Maternidad de Luz, a midwifery school in El Paso where Sarah is working.

The first thing that was pretty apparent on arriving in El Paso was that this talk would certainly be better there if done in Spanish. From most of the places that I went, it seemed as though Spanish was the language people assumed you knew, and maybe you'd also speak English. While I have ok Spanish, I don't think that it's strong enough to give this presentation in Spanish.

The group that attended the talk was also a really great group of some people that had a strong understanding of anarchism and others that were there to learn more about the idea. From the talks I had with Sarah leading up to the presentation, it seemed like there was a pretty light presence of an organized radical left in El Paso. There were a couple of folks that showed up who had been involved in Occupy El Paso. There was also a couple that had been engaged in indigenous community organizing in Minnesota that were present, which led to some great conversation. Another member of the WSA was also there from St. Louis, which gave him an opportunity to see how the talk goes before we do the same thing in St. Louis later this month.

Maternidad de Luz was a great place for the presentation and really was the perfect size. A couple of new, and really valuable conversations came up at this presentation that weren't raised previously. First was really a question of the efficacy of consensus-based organizing. And, the further west I go, the more I expect this to be a major point of contention. So, I'm glad to start practicing how to talk more effectively about this now.

Second, and this conversation actually happened a lot more after the presentation than it did during the presentation, was about the importance of nationalism or anti-nationalism in anti-colonial and anti-occupation struggles. It was particularly relevant as it came to the question of indigenous autonomy struggles in North America.

To me, this presented much the same situation as working with other organizations of marginalized and oppressed folks in the United States and really points to the strength and flexibility of especifismo. When anarchists have their own organized group connected to struggles it helps us to engage in imminently important struggles that are far from perfect (from our perspectives) while still maintaining our own positions and not giving into a watered down revolutionary outlook. So, in the midst of anti-colonial struggles, it seems apparent to me that anarchists should certainly organize against the aspects of domination -- cultural, political, economic -- that all impose themselves on colonized people both as an immediate part of the anti-colonial struggle. But the key is to be in the position to point out the weaknesses of simple nationalism -- a propensity to empower an elite class within the previously dominated people, to enact many of the same styles of economic and political organization as the previous colonizers, and to avoid acknowledging important power differentials internal to the colonized peoples.

While I don't have a ton of information and understanding about anti-colonial struggles, I do have a pretty comfortable working knowledge of the Irish nationalist and republican movements. And, that history, I think very clearly points to the weaknesses of a purely nationalist strategy or even of a two-stage revolutionary process (nationalist then communist for instance). And to ignore the potentials for an anarcho-communist revolution during an anti-colonial struggle seems to me very similar to saying something like "We'll deal with patriarchy after the revolution."

Again though, I'll admit my own weakness on these questions and hope that this can help to spawn a conversation in discussion that we can further develop our analysis on this question.

Austin

In Austin, I spoke at MonkeyWrench Books, a long time anarchist bookstore that apparently was set up by a couple that have helped set up a number of anarchist bookstores across the country.

This talk was coordinated by Rogue, a long-time organizer in the class struggle anarchist crew. Most recently, I met her as a member of Common Action when she was still living in Seattle, WA. Not long before I came into Austin she had apparently given a talk in Austin that you can listen to here. She also co-edited Queering Anarchism: Addressing and Undressing Power and Desire. As you can imagine, I was rolling into town a little intimidated. Rogue could likely give a better presentation on the topic of why anarchists should create their own organization than I could. Luckily when I arrived in town she took me to a nearby bar and we got a couple of drinks, which certainly helped me to loosen up before the presentation.

The talk here was also recorded by Allan Campbell and you can listen to it here. The crowd here was really mixed in terms of understanding of anarchism and involvement in local social movements. There were a couple of people there that didn't have much of a grasp of anarchism as itself and then others that had already incorporated these ideas some into their organizing within local movements. I didn't get a great chance to hear much about the organizing that many people were doing, although one of the people that helped to set up this stop spoke with me some about his organizing with a group called Grassroots Leadership, which seems similar in many ways to Chattanooga Organized for Change. 

One of the great points of conversation that came up near the end of the talk was about whether or not it was essential, valuable, or important to specifically connect our work to the word anarchism rather than simply incorporate many of the ideas and principles into our work on the day to day. There was certainly no great answer to this question, as it's obviously something that varies by situation. While in some cities, there have been very counter-productive anarchist strategies that have often further separated anarchist ideas from the communities most directly and heavily impacted by capitalism, white supremacy, and patriarchy. 

I do think however that it's important that someone, not necessarily everyone be involved in reclaiming the history of anarchist ideas, the inspiration of many of our heroes and movements, and the road-map of struggle that they've helped to lay out for us. To lose the word anarchism could very easily lose us the connection to many ideas, principles, and histories and allow the ideas of anarchism to slowly be watered down into a much weaker "radicalism". And, I think it's a term that needs to be re-captured by those that actually hold a connection to the long tradition of class struggle anarchism so that those ideas can't so easily be manipulated by opportunists. But, clearly the conversation about when and how to use the word anarchism is clearly important given the very mixed history that term has in different parts of the country today. 

Chattanooga

Only about an hour drive from Knoxville, the day I presented in Chattanooga allowed for a real slow day to drive and hang out with the host of the Chattanooga stop. This turned out to be a great opportunity to learn a bunch about the history of the city and the context of current social movements there.

This stop was coordinated by a man that is well connected to a number of other great organizers in town. The talk had about 15 people attend, and they were nearly all organizers involved in a variety of efforts in the city. Two social movement groups present were particularly well represented. Chattanooga Organized for Action is an organization that works to help develop the power and organization of everyday people from marginalized and oppressed communities.  Their efforts to organize alongside tenants in public housing was particularly exciting to me as it related to past efforts of Buffalo Tenants United. Their model of offering their efforts and resources as a catalyst to help with the development of organizations of marginalized and oppressed peoples' was itself a model that I think deserves a lot of thought and attention. Concerned Citizens for Justice also had a number of members in the room. CCJ was partly founded by Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin before he moved to Memphis and were really excited about the success of a recent march against the acquittal of George Zimmerman. CCJ also does work towards the direct organizing and empowerment of marginalized and oppressed communities and were having some great conversations about potential upcoming campaigns with public housing tenants while I was there. There were also some members of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization there who seemed to mostly be engaged in CCJ. They had been pretty heavily involved in trips to Jackson to help with the election of Chokwe Lumumba. Leaving here I was hopeful to spend some time in Jackson, Mississippi to see what the situation there was like on the ground.

The presentation itself went far better than the stop in Knoxville. I felt more confident and tried to squeeze in less information. Also, the entire room had a fairly strong working knowledge of anarchism and class struggle anarchism specifically. It seems like there is a strong group of a few people there that would be interested in forming a local anarchist organization, given the right resources and support. A lot of the conversation after the presentation focused on details about the growing nationwide anarchist organization. Some of the questions I was in a position to answer based off of our ratified constitution. Some of the questions were unanswerable, as they have not been collectively figured out yet.

Because many people in the room were organizers, the notion and importance of especifismo wasn't hard to pass on to them. Many were radicals involved in broader movements alongside reformist and more moderate elements.

The day I was in Chattanooga, the front page article of the paper was also one of the most absurd stories I had ever seen. Apparently Volkswagen is planning to expand an auto-factory that they have in the area. But, VW has said they would only make this expansion if the factory would be represented by the United Auto Workers as a closed union shop. Amazingly, conservative activists on the ground were coordinating efforts to sop the expansion by VW and the creation of many jobs in the area because of the expectation that those jobs would be union! Apparently in the South it isn't necessary for the right wing to couch their anti-unionism in anything at all. Just outright anti-unionism even in the face of a business that wants the union there and the promise of creating lots of jobs. Just amazing.

Knoxville

Yesterday was the first presentation of the Building Revolutionary Anarchism tour, and honestly it didn't go great from my end. It's been about 2 years since the last time I did this presentation, and I really came into the conversation feeling like I didn't need any serious preparation. The presentation ended up being a bit scattered, and probably tried to make too many points in one sitting.

There were some good folks there though. It was scheduled for midday on Saturday at a space called The Birdhouse. This space seemed like a sort of eclectic little spot. There was a art and music show being prepared in the background while the presentation took place. There were 8 people there, and a couple that didn't have much of a base-line understanding of anarchism. So, there was some need to do a brief introduction to anarchism. I gave the introduction, but it was probably a little too brief, as there was a lot of ground to cover with the more in-depth organizational conversations.

Many of the people in the room seemed to identify anti-mountain top removal activism as the major form of organizing happening in the Knoxville area. So many of the people there had an affinity for a sort of "green anarchism", which I always have a hard time with. Sometimes this term is used to identify as anarchists who focus their organizing efforts in the environmental movements and other times it means an affinity for anarcho-primitivism.  It seemed to mean a little of both in Knoxville.

It also seemed as though the term anarchism wasn't very frequently used in Knoxville. The smaller group had a some what mixed batch of anarchist ideas among them and they seemed fairly disconnected from the nationwide anarchist discussions. Although there were a few people that certainly seemed interested in keeping up with the formation of a nationwide organization and that may be interested in developing a local group.

On arrival I didn't actually know who exactly was my personal contact when I came into town, and didn't even know if I'd have a place to stay for the night. But, the people that came to the event were very hospitable. After asking the group if anyone could put me up, one couple immediately offered a place at their house and then showed me a fun night on the town too. Through one of them, I was also able to meet a local activist with Jobs with Justice and union postal worker.

I was glad to find a connection to local economic justice work, as Knoxville was pretty apparently poor and segregated. I don't want to diminish the importance of anti-mountaintop removal work, but just to highlight that it was pretty noticeable that I didn't make much connection with anti-poverty or union organizers while in Knoxville.

New York City and Fast Food Workers!

The first stop of the Building a Revolutionary Anarchism Speaking Tour isn't until Saturday the 20th in Knoxville, Tennessee. I had hoped for stops at Wooden Shoes Books in Philadelphia and Red Emma's in Baltimore. But, I think the details for the tour went out a little too late for those dates to get put together.

This gives me some time to stop by New York City and visit some friends. A couple of those friends work for New York Communities for Change, one organizing tenants and the other organizing fast food workers for the Fast Food Forward campaign.

That campaign has some exciting moments coming up. A third strike of New York fast food workers is planned for July 29th. While in NYC I was able to attend a meeting of organizers and workers that was one of many meetings throughout the day helping to plan and build for the strike. They also used these moments as opportunities to talk about the strategy of their work and do some base level political education with some of the fast food workers present.

They've clearly got a strong intention of having their activities reach hundreds, even thousands of fast food workers in the city. Their first strike had around 100 participants, their second around 400, and they were calling for around 1,000 to participate in the third day of strikes.

As a former restaurant worker, who spent a decent amount of time in a Pizza Hut, this is incredibly exciting work to me. In 2008, I attended a Restaurant Opportunities Center conference around their efforts to build a nationwide worker center of restaurants. There were some things that bothered me there. Firstly, it didn't seem like there was unanimity within the organization that their aim was to eventually form a union for all restaurant workers. Second, there was a strategic focus on higher-end restaurants as the drivers of industrial standards. I don't know the argument for them being the drivers of those standards, so that might actually be a very good strategy. Unfortunately for me, I was working in a little cheap diner. I wasn't the sort of worker they were organizing, especially in a city where they didn't have an established office and line of funding.

Since fast food seems to represent the floor in terms of working standards, benefits, pay, and job security in the US, it seems like an important place to see serious workplace organizing despite how difficult this work would be.

Had you asked me 4 years ago if we'd see a movement of fast food workers organizing in their workplaces in multiple cities around the country, I'd have laughed at you. But, not only are we there, these workers are demanding a union for all fast food workers, $15/hr starting wage, and are striking to demand recognition rather than relying on the awful NLRB election process. This is an exciting moment, and I was glad to participate in the meeting of those workers beginning to build their strike for the 29th.

I hope that all fast food workers will go out in solidarity on that day, and that anarchists throughout the country will also support those efforts!

Action for Action's Sake: Or How Activists Can Hurt Social Justice Movements

Note: Obviously I'm not keeping up this blog anymore. But, I've recently found this article I wrote back in 2007, before going to Argentina. It's come up in a couple of conversations with organizers I used to work with in college. So, I'm posting it partly so anyone out there can read it, and mostly so that I can keep better track of what I've written!

Action for Action’s Sake

Or How Activists Can Hurt Social Justice Movements

By Colin O’Malley 

January 2007

            It’s January 2007, despite 4 years of massive protest, President Bush has said that he is the sole decision maker in the ongoing occupation of Iraq. He says that even the disagreement of congress would not deter him. As part of the movement against this war, I think it is important that we now consider our path forward with a bit more depth than we have in the past. But the peace movement isn’t the only progressive force in our society that is under attack. Workers rights are being destroyed by the minute in the new global economy. Prisons are being built at new and astonishing rates. Democratic controls of our communities are falling apart. But, it isn’t all lost.

As such, I write this appeal to local and national organizations. More importantly I write this for new activists of new movements in the hopes that we can learn to build a resistance movement in the United States to take our nation back.

Philosophy of Futility

In building grassroots movements, we are faced with a need to develop and activate the power of communities that are withheld power in our society. We do this in hopes of changing the course of those in power, to assert a people’s perspective over those in power, or even to overturn the structures that creates those with power and those without. In building our own communities collective power, we mobilize, and are forced to ask the question: What motivates our community to action?

            The left, particularly the academic left, in the United States seems to have assumed an answer – knowledge motivates. We need to educate people about our issues and the problems inherent in our society to get them motivated. It seems with this method of motivation that we are trying to activate people disconnected from the issues at hand.  Or even worse, that we are coming to teach the poor about poverty, the war torn family of the problems with war, the disenfranchised and marginalized of their own lack of power.

            Acknowledging a variety of reasons that people do or don’t get involved, I believe our major roadblock is the philosophy of futility. This philosophy is a belief that we are already defeated, that there is no alternative. This belief pushes us away from taking action in the defense of our own communities. It stops us from fighting the injustices around us and teaches us to accept them. Even more insidiously, it demonstrates that knowledge of our own oppression is worthless -- or at the very least depressing as hell!

            So, if our own powerlessness and futile outlook on the world keeps us from action, then our previously mentioned method of motivation seems particularly useless, even harmful. We are working to reinforce our own powerlessness and strengthen the philosophy of futility. This is why I believe that action for action’s sake doesn’t build us an effective resistance. Just because you’re doing something doesn’t mean that you’re helping anything.  We’ve all heard it before – the road to hell was paved on good intentions. That isn’t to say that we should stop or slow down our action. Instead, we need to consider more carefully the way we act. If our own sense of powerlessness is what holds us back, then what can we do to move forward? 

Breaking Free

If the main roadblock to building serious social justice movements in this country is a simple philosophy that each of us has internalized, that means that we have the ability to break free. But, this means that we need to reconsider the basis of our movements and organizations. Rather than looking at our organizations as tools to show people how horrible the world around them really is, we need to use them to show that victory is possible. Our movement needs to offer a road to that victory, even if it’s a long road.

            This of course means that we as activists need to envision that road as well. In their recently made article “Building a Successful Anti-War Movement” Beyond the Choir does an excellent job of articulating a need for strategic planning and action:  “Taking action with a faith in the possibility that we may somehow end the war is very different from taking action with a strategy about how to do it. The former is a shot in the dark. The latter is a hard target, but one we’re likely to get closer to with more practice.”  Building this strategy is where our movements should focus. 

            What exactly do I mean by strategic planning and action? In short, this means that we need to be less obsessed with tactics, and more concerned with the goal of a particular tactic. We can develop goals by considering the support that a particular oppressive structure, or symptom of that structure, needs to continue its existence.  We then consider how we can isolate and deprive that structure of its support, rather than continuing to shoot in the dark hoping that politicians and corporations are suddenly going to care for public opinion more than profit and power. 

This also means training. Building our movements isn’t always intuitive. We should always be open to learning and refining our strategic plans. There are dozens of organizations that provide these trainings specifically for social justice groups – beyond the choir, the Midwest academy, and the ruckus society to name just a few.  Find them and build on your base of well-trained and experienced activists and work with them to constantly train new activists.

Let’s fill it with hope.

            In the end, can our movements survive if they don’t have a passion and hope that eventually we will win? Any experienced and committed activist I’ve ever met had some amount of hope that a more just world could be obtained. Otherwise, why would we even involve ourselves in these struggles? But, so often our messaging is fatalist, or our attitude shows how burnt out we are in the fight. Who would join such a movement? Who would aspire to be burnt out and overworked? We absolutely must build a movement that doesn’t hold these defeatist slogans to be a part of our work. We need to build a movement that excites, empowers and builds hope for a better future. I for one think we’re capable of that and more.

 

Buffalo Class Action Participates in Class Struggle Anarchist Conference

In Detroit, on October 24-25, the organized North American anarchist movement met at the 2009 Class Struggle Anarchist Conference. The second annual conference brought together 9 different anarchist organizations that work to engage within mass movements to help provide a revolutionary anarchist perspective. In part, the conference was a space for these organizations to talk about the possibilities of a future unified anarchist organization throughout North America that could help to broaden a struggle against capitalism and for a world where every day people control the resources in their community and workers control their workplaces.

Members from Buffalo’s local anarchist-communist organization, Buffalo Class Action, participated in the conversations. They attended with an interest in learning from some of the longer-lasting anarchist organizations, their successes and challenges. These local anarchists also went with the purpose of spreading the idea of City Wide Tenants’ Unions beyond their efforts to organize such a group here in Buffalo.

At the conference they met members of many other anarchist organizations. Those organizations involved in planning the conference were: Solidarity and Defense (Michigan), Common Action (Pacific Northwest), Common Cause (Ontario), Four Star Anarchist Organization (Chicago), Miami Autonomy and Solidarity, Michigan-Minnesota Group, Northeast Federation of Anarchist Communists, and the Worker Solidarity Alliance.

There were many discussions about the future of movements of marginalized peoples in North America, and how anarchists can constructively work within those movements to help develop genuine, long-term peoples’ power. Some of the specific workshops were: Anarchists in the Struggle for Housing Justice, Worker Center Movements, Building Anarchist Groups, Intersectional Class Struggle Anarchism, Anarchists & the Workplace, Queer Anarchism, Internal Education, and the questions of Re-grouping the North American anarchist movement.

After the conference, it has become clear that there are now great ties growing between these different organizations and their efforts. There was great hope at the conference that this type of gathering can really help to bring together the organized, class struggle-oriented anarchist movement to spread their ideas, increase the influence of anarchist ideas within North American social movements, and develop a solid alternative to the regular injustices poor and marginalized people face in today’s world.

Buffalo Indymedia Center Has Returned!

With hopes of rebuilding a community-based, social justice media outlet in Buffalo a public forum for the rebirth of Buffalo Indymedia was recently organized. A panel discussion with presenters from Rochester Indymedia, a former Bay Area Indymedia editor, and Buffalo activists began a powerful conversation about the possibilities and challenges that lie in the road ahead for local media activists.

Hannah Dobbz, from Pittsburgh, spoke about her involvement in the Bay Area Indymedia newspaper Fault Lines and the importance it had in garnering attention to local activist efforts. Andy Dillon and Ted Forsyth from Rochester Indymedia shared their experiences with Indy TV and a their work on distributing a print version of much of their website content. Local activists Joe Schmidbauer and Colin O'Malley talked of their inspiration to re-build local Indymedia in a way that would challenge the official story of those in power and help to build the voice of everyday people and their movements.

In coming years, Buffalo Indymedia hopes to build that voice in the region and report those stories that effect people's lives in huge ways that are often left unreported by local and national corporate media outlets. There was some discussion about the possibilities of not only maintaining the website, but also working on radio, print, and film efforts for Buffalo IMC. If you'd like to get involved in Buffalo IMC, you can register and begin writing and commenting on stories immediately on this site. To get further involved, or to inform the organizing group of an important story, please contact them at BuffaloIMC@gmail.com

Tenants' Union: Fight your landlord and win

Decent housing should be an absolute right for all people. But, we continue to live in a world that homelessness, evictions of the poor, and degrading housing conditions are all too common. At the same time, we see abandoned housing left to rot. This should convince us that our housing problems come not from a lack of resources, but from a poor distribution of those resources. As is the problem with so many facets of our lives, housing is organized for private profit and not for people’s common needs. The only way for us to change these problems is to organize together and demand it. But, who do we organize and how? And, who is the enemy?

Who is the landlord?

For most working class people, owning our home isn’t a possibility and we’re often forced into a housing market with large landlords. Just as often, the tenants and the landlords have conflicting sets of interests. While we’re simply trying to hold onto a basic necessity of life, landlords hope to gain a profit from us. Sadly, the interests of the landlords are usually dominant, thanks to a system of legal and government support rarely enjoyed by tenants.

Supposedly, we have a choice. We can live wherever we’d like – if we can afford it. So the “choice” offered to those of us that live in or near poverty is between a variety of bad housing situations and homelessness. This is obviously not a choice, but a threat. Where can you go to leave an unfair housing market? Our life experiences repeatedly tell us: “You will take whatever horrible standards your income can afford, or you will have nothing.”

Not all working class people are renters and many in poor cities, have managed to buy their own home. While at times, we may rent out a room or floor of our house, we generally have more in common with tenants than the large landlords. Homeowners are very often tenants themselves of the largest of landlords – the banks. Even if the mortgage has been paid, working class homeowners occupy a very small and isolated part of the housing market, where much larger landlords have real control. These homeowners may be in a more comfortable immediate position. But, they’re also in a very precarious situation and could easily lose their home in any number of ways.

On the other hand large landlords own apartment buildings or dozens of houses throughout the city. They use our basic need for housing as a tool to create profits, often massive, for themselves. Their interest is to make the greatest possible profit for themselves. That means keeping repairs to a minimum and charging as much rent as they believe they can.

Having little power individually, renters are often on the losing end of this conflict. Homelessness, evictions, and poor living standards are clear signs of our current weak position.

Tenant Power

The beauty of our situation, is that collectively we have far greater power than our landlords. Our rent is the source of their wealth. For them to continue their life of luxury without work they need us to continue living in their apartments, continue paying their rent, and keep accepting the living conditions that they choose for us. Our landlords are absolutely reliant upon us. They rely on the hope that we will never understand our true strength.

The power of the working class has the same limits in the struggle for decent and affordable housing as it does in the workplace – it’s collective. When we struggle alone in isolation the landlord has nearly absolute power. Our power is only real power when we get together with others in similar situations and organize for justice.

Tenants Union

Just as we would organize in our workplace against exploitative bosses, we propose the organization of a Citywide Tenants’ Union to organize our power to assert that decent, affordable housing is a right for all people. A City Wide Tenants’ Union should commit itself to organize all tenants of the large landlords in our city to aggressively demand our necessary rights to good quality housing. The tools of a serious Tenants’ Union are incredibly powerful:

Public Pressure: Through rallies, media events, and public meetings we can hurt the image of our landlords. A bad public image can hurt their ability to find new renters and force public demand for investigations of the conditions in their properties.
Eviction Blockades: In the case that any of the members of the tenants’ union are being unjustly evicted or evicted in retaliation for their organizing efforts, other members of the union should organize a blockade of that member’s house or apartment. With the tenants’ union, the normally disempowering experience of being evicted becomes a show of the power of solidarity. The act that we usually suffer in isolation becomes a moment of true community as serious attention is brought to the eviction.
Direct Action: In the case that our organized public pressure doesn’t solve the problems that we are having with our landlords, we could target them more aggressively by actively disrupting their ability to continue business. Occupation of company offices and disrupting the visits of new tenants are a couple of possibilities that may force our landlords to listen our demands.
Rent Strike: The greatest source of our power with landlords is actually one of the easiest for us to use. A collective refusal to pay rent until demands are met should bring even the most abusive landlords to the table. If an individual were to refuse to pay rent, the landlord would have an easy time fighting back. But when all of their tenants refuse to pay rent, they quickly find themselves outmatched.
Solidarity: An injury to one is an injury to all. When we begin to fight our landlords, we have to know that we aren’t doing so alone, and this is the purpose of our union. Having a Tenant Union would mean that none of us struggle in isolation. Just because one group of tenants has won a fight against their landlord doesn’t mean that they are no longer part of the struggle. They will provide resources, experience, and volunteers to the effort of organizing other renters throughout the city.

Landlords Need Us, We Don’t Need Them

In the struggle against our landlords, there is one important realization. Our landlords don’t do anything for us that we aren’t capable of doing for ourselves. We are more than capable of organizing ourselves to make repairs and maintain the buildings where we live. There are cooperative housing associations throughout the world that show us proof of our ability to live without landlords. So, if we can organize ourselves to maintain our housing needs, what do landlords do? That is exactly the point. Landlords exist purely to take rent from us.

As we develop true power as renters, we will realize that the real battle is for a system of housing that recognizes our right to decent, affordable place to live no matter what. This means getting rid of a world of for-profit housing. No one should exploit a system of vulgar inequality to create massive profits from our need to survive. We know that these inequalities will only exist as long as we permit them. So let’s begin the struggle for just housing today!

Poverty: The Struggle for Justice

As the working class and unemployed, we are the victims of theft everyday. We continually live on the edge of survival, hoping that we may someday, through hard work and perseverance, achieve the simple dignity of security. At the same time, a few elites enjoy a life of luxury without worry for themselves or their children. It’s a vulgar arrangement that we all know to be unjust in which they gain their wealth. We spend precious hours of our lives working to produce all of the wealth of the world only to see it stolen with a pitiful portion returned to us in the form of wages. Poverty forced on the unemployed and homeless is needed by those in power to threaten working people into accepting this terrible deal.

This bleak state isn’t one that we have to endure forever. The incredible truth is that those of us that are the victims of this theft have much greater power than the thieves, if only we’d learn how to use it. Let’s begin by better understanding the tools of the elite so that we can build our power to create genuine change - our only real hope for a life that is more than meager survival.

The Great Theft

Many of us know the system that allows the rich to rob the poor – its capitalism! Capitalism is the foolish system that puts profit before people and promotes the ridiculous belief that if we compete against one another, it will create the greatest outcome for us all. Under this system, just a few people control massive amounts of property and wealth that make up our economy. These people own the factories, hotels, banks, shopping malls, etc. where we work. Unfortunately for them, simply owning a workplace doesn’t produce any wealth. People are needed to labor in that workplace. This group, the working class, is in a desperate situation- they have nothing but their labor to sell. Property owners use this desperation to make their money; and in order to survive, the worker will produce wealth for their new boss instead of themselves. As we work, we can see the real wealth we create. Service workers will put huge stacks of money into a register. Factory workers watch as the product of their labor is sold. Then, the boss will return a very small portion of the wealth we produced for him and call it our wage. The larger portion is kept and used to buy and control more property to create more wealth to steal from more workers and so on. This repulsive cycle maintains the power of the wealthy and forces more working people into wage slavery, where the great potential of our lives is lost.

Robbery Requires Threat

As all workers understand, working isn’t a choice. We are forced into working by a lifetime of constant threat. This threat is the “choice” between poverty, starvation and homelessness or wasting our days creating wealth for those at the top. And we know it isn’t an empty threat. We see crushing and brutal poverty around us all the time. These threats come from hundreds of fronts and we are constantly shown the reality of such threats. Will we be able to feed our children? Can we go to a hospital when we need? Could we end up homeless? How can we afford heating in winter? Can we educate ourselves and our children? These questions beat us like the waves of an incoming hurricane. We watch as our brothers and sisters get pulled under and drown until even those in the middle class are forced into constant fear that they may fall into the coming surge.

If the rich are to hold onto their armies of poor ready to work for their crumbs, this threat must be maintained. A certain level of poverty is required of any capitalist society. While we have won some advances to soften the blow of poverty, politicians and businessmen have worked together to ensure that services available for the poor don’t actually rid the world of poverty. We are purposefully deprived of the tools to empower ourselves and our communities to solve our own problems. Fearing independence from their system of theft, we are kept in a stasis of lifelong struggle.

Hope Begins Within

How long will this inequality exist for us? The answer is the same as it has always been: for as long as we permit it. We as common people throughout the world have a power of spirit that is anything but common. Facing a callous onslaught of insult and corruption from bankers, bosses and government lackeys, we still maintain pride and courage that brings us into the next day. Despite the forces of oppression that surround us, we fight to raise our families with optimism to see better days. In our dance, music, art, families, and friendships we see the great force of our common spirit.

If we ever hope to achieve a life of true equality, we need to understand that spirit alone will not move us forward. Common purpose and collective action are the foundations of social change. We as working people must realize individuals acting alone will not solve problems of poverty and exploitation. It’s working together in a common struggle that will free us all. Those of us in work need to organize ourselves into a labor movement, joining and actively participating in our unions. Those of us that are unemployed need to form our own organizations capable of truly destroying poverty. We need to join or form community organizations that will guarantee us quality housing, transportation, health care, education, and all of the other rights of a liberated people.

There is undeniable power in the hands of organized people. Especially, when those organizations are run democratically and aggressively pursue an uncompromising goal of absolute freedom and equality. These are the realistic first steps that we have to take on the course to future free from the theft of the bosses and the oppressive state that grants them power. As has always been the case, we will win what we are willing to fight for!

Resistance and Recovery Speaking Tour comes to Buffalo

In the most stirring recent victory of the US labor movement, workers at the Chicago Republic Windows and Doors militantly fought the company as it closed. On the last day of scheduled work, these members of UE Local 1110 chose a tactic from a different era of labor and occupied the factory. In six days they won an agreement with the company and its financier, Bank of America, which gave the workers $1.75 million in severance and vacation pay. In these six days the Republic workers provided an inspiring example of how organized workers can respond to the layoffs and cutbacks forced upon them in a recession. Since this victory, they’ve organized a speaking tour to share their story with activists and workers throughout the country.

The UE Comes Home

On February 12^th this tour made a stop in Buffalo. Organized by the Coalition for Economic Justice, the event had around 100 people in attendance with people from People United for Sustainable Housing, United Auto Workers, the Teamsters, Buffalo Class Action, and University at Buffalo Students Against Sweatshops.

It was Emanuel Fried who started the night off. Fried is an activist and playwright from the Buffalo area and former organizer with the UE that had once been forced to appear before the House of Un-American Activities Committee. He reminded each of us of Buffalo’s legacy as the birthplace of the militant and member-run UE. Fried spoke about the important role the UE has consistently played in reminding the US labor movement that their role is to take powerful and daring collective action to win the demands of their members rather than treat their members like clients of a service organization.

Chicago Shows Us How It’s Done

After screening a brief documentary about their experiences, Ron Bender, a Republic worker spoke about the UE’s most recent reminder that a real labor union is one that fights. He spoke of his experiences organizing the occupation with other rank and file members, how workers maintained a 24-hour watch over the factory equipment, and how the community came out to support their efforts. Through his words and actions we were reminded that it’s in uncompromisingly and courageously asserting our demands with a willingness to take aggressive action that will assure the broader working class the victories that we need. In the first days of negotiations the Bank of America made it clear that they were a business that needed to make money and that the Republic workers were not their concern. However, in only a couple of days Bank of America had completely different priorities, even saying that the well-being of the Republic workers was a primary concern. This change in priorities comes from a change in power dynamic, as more people came out to fight alongside the UE local.

This fighting mentality didn’t appear from nowhere. It is no coincidence that the first union to act this boldly in the interest of its members is a union clearly controlled by its rank-and-file. As Ron said, “The UE really is the rank-and-file union.” Strategic decisions leading up to and throughout the occupation were made democratically by members on the shop floor. This ownership of the organization that members feel is an essential ingredient in the militancy that followed, empowering workers to take greater risks than they normally would and allowing them to trust that their actions wouldn’t be used to sell them out at any point in the struggle.

Moving Forward as a Movement

Throughout the evening it was repeatedly stressed that the importance of the Republic workers victory is not simply to a single factory, but an example to an entire movement. We are in a critical moment for working people throughout the world and we need to act with the serious urgency that these moments deserve. Spreading their story now becomes an essential task. Every militant throughout the country should know the story of UE Local 1110. In our organizations we should be organizing discussions of the struggle at Republic, distributing their documentary outside of workplaces threatened with layoffs, and organizing rank-and-file resistance groups within our workplaces. UE Local 1110 workers have offered an inspiration to us that can help to unify the left and thrust existing worker discontent into a commanding movement of aggressive collective action. Now, the responsibility falls on the rest of us to continue the struggle that they have so powerfully pushed forward.

How Republic Workers Occupied Their Plant

By Leah Fried, UE Organizer. From Labor Notes

December 5 was to be the last day of work at Republic Windows and Doors in Chicago. But managers soon realized that workers would not go quietly: they had voted to occupy the factory.

Members of United Electrical Workers (UE) Local 1110, they’d made plans to scatter throughout the plant, chain themselves to machines, and risk arrest. This is the story of how they did it.

The occupation that won workers their back pay and the admiration of union members around the world didn’t happen out of the blue. It was the culmination of years of struggle to build a democratic, fighting union able to take on the boss.

LAYING THE FOUNDATION

In early 2004 workers at Republic suffered under a gangster “union” that represented the boss more than the workers. Chicago is one of the last bastions of these old-school outfits that help companies keep workers down.

Workers had their wages frozen at $8 an hour for three years and had seen hundreds of their co-workers fired for no good reason. Discrimination, unfair treatment, and low wages were the hallmark of their former union, Novelty and Production Workers Local 16. So workers sought a change.

First they approached several worker centers, which arranged a meeting with UE organizers. Workers were impressed with UE’s record of democratic, aggressive unionism. In November 2004 they organized an election, joined UE, and went on to win their best contract ever.

In the contract fight of 2005, workers regularly wore UE buttons and stickers with contract demands. They organized marches to the boss’s office, practiced picketing, and voted and publicly vowed to strike if necessary. A contract was won on the eve of the planned strike, with raises of $1.75 immediately and improvements to working conditions and benefits. This struggle set the tone for years to come.

Unity, however, wasn’t automatic. Democratic unionism doesn’t exist without some growing pains.

Republic workers are a diverse workforce: 80 percent Latino, 20 percent Black, and 25 percent women. Hotly contested elections for stewards and officers, intense debate, divisions based on race or gender—all took place in this local.

Leaders had to work hard to build black-brown unity, overcome factionalism, and be willing to lose some debates (such as one over a dues increase) in order to create a local in which all the workers felt ownership.

Some leaders of the occupation had campaigned against each other in elections and each had their own following. But in the end, the workers were able to come together every time they needed to fight the boss.

UE had also been dedicated to building alliances in the community and the labor movement. Years of work to forge links with worker centers, religious groups, community organizations, and immigrants rights organizations laid the base for solidarity.

Rank-and-file members’ longstanding participation in solidarity activities, Jobs with Justice, and immigrant rights marches in Chicago helped local leaders get to know UE better. And regular participation in national political action helped lawmakers know UE as well.

PLANNING AHEAD

UE began planning for a possible plant occupation in November, when machinery started disappearing from the plant. Local leaders were prepared for the worst-case scenarios.

We bought chains with locks and organized a core group committed to civil disobedience if necessary. We knew it might come down to getting arrested. Workers understood they had to keep the company’s assets from leaving the factory.

As workers met again and again to talk over what might happen and organize for a fight, we developed a strategy that focused on Bank of America. The bank, which had just received $25 billion in bailout funds, would decide whether Republic would continue to receive financing.

UE reached out to allies and elected officials to mobilize public pressure on the bank, including a big picket of its offices in Chicago two days before the occupation. Members of Congress, most significantly Representative Luis Gutierrez, pressed the bank to negotiate with the union.

The occupation was launched after the company didn’t show up to a meeting with the bank and UE. Workers came to their last day of work and decided unanimously not to leave until their demands were met: vacation pay, 60 days’ severance as the law required, and two months’ health insurance.

The company was informed of the workers’ vote to occupy the factory. They knew they faced more than 200 angry and organized workers who were not about to leave quietly.

Management called the police, but at the same time our longstanding allies mobilized hundreds of supporters, via urgent alerts and phone calls, to come to the plant.

By this time the press had become a steady presence. The idea of the whole world seeing 200 workers dragged out by the cops in front of a supportive crowd rallying outside the factory—it all helped the company decide not to fight the union.

The police left, and the chains stayed in their bags. The workers had taken the plant.

As word of the factory takeover spread, solidarity started pouring in, from unions and community, religious, immigrant rights, and civil rights organizations. The messages visitors left on posters in the plant lobby, the donations, and letters from all over the world were key in strengthening the workers’ resolve.

But most important was the unity of the workers, who despite their differences, rose to the occasion and showed incredible strength.

The day the occupation began the local executive board and stewards organized their co-workers into three shifts, round the clock. UE organizers also took shifts (although those tended to last 20 hours).

Rules were agreed upon and posted in the cafeteria: No alcohol, smoking, or drugs. Non-UE members, unless immediate family, were not allowed onto the factory floor.

Committees for welcoming and security at the door, clean-up, food, and patrols to keep the assets safe were staffed in eight-hour shifts. At the beginning of each shift all the workers and organizers would meet to give updates, take volunteers for each committee, and review what would happen that day.

Workers kept busy with rallies and press interviews outside the plant in addition to their committee responsibilities. Children accompanied their parents, doing homework and playing amid the adults’ work. Donated food, blankets, and two TVs (one for news, the other for sports) were shared equally by all.

After six long days, the lead committee made up of shop leaders and UE reps came back with a settlement that workers voted enthusiastically to accept. We had won all our demands and then some.

Now, we are working to reopen the factory with all the workers back on the job. But we know that something beyond jobs or money owed has been won. We have inspired millions to know that the world is what we fight to make it, that we can win.