Flickers of a Resurgent Labor Movement: Our Report from Labor Notes ’22

Black Rose / Rosa Negra

By Black Rose / Rosa Negra Labor Committee

Over the weekend of June 17-19, some 4,000 union members and affiliates congregated in Chicago for the 2022 Labor Notes Conference. Owing both to the fact that the biennial conference had been postponed in 2020 and to a modest (but nonetheless exciting) uptick in new union activity in recent months, most notably at Amazon and Starbucks, this year’s event set a new record for attendance.

Labor Notes began its life in 1979 as a monthly newsletter intending to challenge the sedate business and service models of AFL-CIO affiliated unions. The newsletter focused on spotlighting and linking together rank-and-file reform caucuses within these unions. Today, Labor Notes the periodical lives on, while Labor Notes the organization has dramatically expanded in scope to support year round “troublemaker” training schools and a publishing wing, in addition to its growing conference.

Labor Notes the organization acts on the social-political, or intermediate level, within the US (and Canadian)

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#Corona Capitalism: six ways capitalism spreads the crisis

Corporate watch

Are people sunbathing in parks the real villains of the corona crisis? What about the corporations pushing industrial agriculture, Big Pharma companies locking up drug research, or the investment funds draining health services? What about the bosses refusing their workers paid leave, media barons spreading fear for ad-clicks, or governments using a pandemic as cover for power grabs?

This article looks at a few ways the economic system we call capitalism has been fundamental in spreading the virus – and in fostering a wider crisis of panic, repression, and looming poverty. And this is by no means a complete list. The general point is that capitalism, based on prioritising profits over people’s lives, is incapable of serving our health and well-being. To care for each other now and in the future, can we use our anger to fight for change?

Feature image above: occupation of Deutsche Bank owned building to create a mutual aid hub in Chicago, US

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Happy Birthday Red Emma!

Events around Mayday 2015.

We’ll probably add more as we hear of them, send us yours!

Why we celebrate May Day.

Bridport: Sat 2nd May 2015. Autonomy film show, The WI Hall, North Street, Bridport.

Brighton: Mayday weekend, 29 April – 4 May, Hosted by Brighton Solfed

29 Wednesday – Syndicalism and Education Sussex Uni Fulton building 113 = 6−8pm This event will feature an introduction to the current campaigns engaged in by SolFed, along with a discussion of contemporary issues pertaining to education and how they relate to workers’ control. The documentary “Street Politics 101” will also be shown.
01 Friday – MayDay
2 Saturday – Syndicalism in Brighton at the Cowley Club 4−6 pm
03 Sunday – Roast + Film and Discussion after at the Cowley Club 1−6 pm
04 Monday – Demonstration 12 0’Clock from Old Steine + picnic

Bristol: Friday 1st May. May Day Demo – Combat Workfare with Bristol Anarchist Federation

We’ve been lucky to mark International Workers Day (1st May) with some effective & fun demonstrations and direct actions for the past four years.

Last year we directly a large local organisation to end all involvement with workfare – picture of the demo is the one above! This year we hope to build on that, and our other anti workfare successes.

Boycott Workfare have called for a week of action that covers May Day, we aim to target a couple of companies who are profiting from the forced exploitation it represents – and hopefully help out some people affected by the schemes at the same time.

We’ll post more details nearer the time, yes we know its during the day on a workday but we also know a lot of you use any means at your disposal to avoid working on May Day! If you are forced into it you have our sympathy, if not see you on the streets again!

Gig afterwards

Cardiff: Radical Workers Bloc  Saturday 2nd May facebook

Caerdydd: Bloc Radicalaidd y Gweithwyr.

“THE DAY WILL COME WHEN OUR SILENCE WILL BE MORE POWERFUL THAN THE VOICES YOU ARE THROTTLING TODAY.”

– (August Spies on the scaffold before his execution)

South Wales Anarchists will be demonstating in Cardiff to celebrate this years May Day. Originally a pagan festival, the modern May Day bank holiday has its roots in the fight for the eight hour day and is celebrated across the globe as an International Workers’ Day to commemorate the anarchist trade union organisers who were executed in Chicago 1887. They were framed and wrongly accused of throwing a bomb at police breaking up a crowd in the Haymarket during a demonstration involving over 400,000 working in Chicago on May 4, 1886.

The anarchist idea did not die with these workers in 1887 and continues to be the inspiration for many fighting capitalism around the world. We call on all those struggling for a world of justice, dignity and freedom to come together and join us this May Day in Cardiff.

Bring your red and black flags and class struggle banners!

Meet at 12 noon at the southern end of St Mary St, under the railway bridge near the Great Western Wetherspoons. March starts at 12.30 through the streets of Cardiff City centre to…. somewhere with no bureaucrats’ speeches!!!

London: Reclaim the Beats – join the Fuck Parade! Class War 12V multi rig street party at 1 Commercial Street, London, from 6pm on Friday May 1.

Sisters Uncut Bank holiday action 4th May 2015, The Scoop. Queen’s Walk, London SE1 2DB

Direct action to prevent cuts to vital domestic violence services. Open to self-defining women only. This includes trans* and intersex women, as well as those with multi genders that include ‘woman’. We invite male allies to support us by creating hype on social media and by facilitating their sisters to go in any way they can. For more info on Sisters Uncut check out our FB page or our Twitter @sistersuncut.

Manchester: 0161 Festival Friday 1st, Saturday 2nd, Sunday 3rd May 2015 Facebook

Milano: NoExpo 2015

May 1, 2015: from Milan, capital of the crisis, to Europe.

After seven years of crisis the precarious pride has become rage and indignation against the burgeoning unemployment and the growth of poverty imposed by BCE & IMF  to most of the population with austerity policies, particularly in Italy, Greece and the rest of the Latin Europe. Social slaughter, plunder of wealth and common goods, the end of the public city are the bases upon which governments build their response to the economic crisis.

Make a week of it:

APRIL 28: INTERNATIONAL NO EXPO CAMPING. Until May 3 with debates and workshops
APRIL 29: THE CITY OF MILAN AGAINST THE FASCIST MARCH
APRIL 30: NATIONAL STUDENTS DEMONSTRATION
MAY 1: #NOEXPOMAYDAY
MAY 2: MOBILIZATIONS AGAINST EXPO
MAY 3: GENERAL ASSEMBLY for 6 months of mobilizations
FROM MAY 3: 6 months of meetings and conflict against and beyond the Expo paradigm.

Plymouth: TIME TO GET RID OF THE RICH – ANTI CAPITALIST BLOC – PLYMOUTH MAYDAY MARCH 2nd May.

Tyne & Wear:

“Flood the Embassy – Justice for Michael Brown – Darren Wilson is GUILTY” London Black Revs 26th November 2014

IWW Convention Statement on Solidarity with Ferguson

This motion was passed at the Industrial Workers of the World’s 2014 General Convention in Chicago

September 1, 2014

Motion for Solidarity with Ferguson

Whereas the IWW has historically operated in opposition to white supremacy and its relationship to capital, class, exploitation of fellow workers,

And whereas the residents of Ferguson, Missouri are openly defying white supremacy,

And whereas capitalism and white supremacy have conspired to construct a social reality which values private property above the lives of Black people,

And whereas these systems operate in a fashion which seeks to dehumanize rather than empower our fellow workers through tactics of economic, physical, psychological violence,

And whereas the residents of Ferguson have a longstanding history of oppression, disenfranchisement, marginalization due to intersecting mechanisms of economic and racial
control, And whereas the economic and social structures which simultaneously exploit and oppress all fellow workers also finance the technological advancement and surplus of military equipment deployed against the people of Ferguson,

Be it resolved that the Industrial Workers of the World stand in solidarity with the oppressed and exploited residents of Ferguson currently enduring a militarized denial of
basic human dignity,

Be it further resolved that the IWW supports industrial action to combat oppression and spread the struggle, such as taken by UPS workers in Minneapolis, and commits to support and organize similar action in the future.

Why we celebrate May Day.

The ‘Haymarket Affair’, Chicago Martyrs, ‘bomb throwing anarchists’ and the fight for the eight-hour working day.

In 1887 four Chicago anarchists were executed. A fifth cheated the hangman by killing himself in prison. Three more were to spend 6 years in prison until pardoned by Governor Altgeld who said the trial that convicted them was characterised by “hysteria, packed juries and a biased judge”. The state had, in the words of the prosecution put “Anarchy.. on trial” and hoped their deaths would also be the death of the anarchist idea… Read the full story on Libcom.

Oscar Neebe not shown received 15 years.

There was never any pretence of proving their guilt, then as now, working class self-organisation was treated as a menace, to be eliminated by fair means or foul.

“We are all creatures of circumstance; we are what we have been made to be. This truth is becoming clearer day by day …

… My children — well, their father had better die in the endeavor to secure their liberty and happiness than live contented in a society which condemns nine-tenths of its children to a life of wage-slavery and poverty.” – Albert to Lucy Parsons, in his final letter.

So what’s changed?

Adolph Fischer, Albert Parsons, August Spies, George Engel, Louis Lingg, Michael Schwab, Oscar Neebe, and Samuel Fielden are brought back to life every May Day by the actions of militant workers across the world. (And not a fucking tank in sight!)

“If you think that by hanging us you can stamp out the labour movement… the movement from which the downtrodden millions, the millions who toil in misery and want, expect salvation – if this is your opinion, then hang us! Here you will tread on a spark, but there and there, behind you – and in front of you, and everywhere, flames blaze up. It is a subterranean fire. You cannot put it out”. – August Spies.

Take to the streets this May Day! What are you waiting for?

The Anarchist origins of May Day  – a leaflet by the Workers Solidarity Movement (pdf)

National socialist synchronised team diving.

13th Annual Chicago Anarchist Film Festival Now Seeks Entries.

Chicago Anarchist Film Festival organizers now seek videos to include in the 13th Chicago Anarchist Film Festival. For the 13th year, April 26-28, 2013 the Chicago Anarchist Film Festival will present the works of un- and under-distributed filmmakers world wide, who are engaged in providing radical entertainment, documenting social change, and projecting a world that could be. This is a film festival with an anarchist vision. We invite you to share your images and stories that reveal and invigorate a rich anarchist presence in society.
SUBMISSION DEADLINE- March 1, 2013

Guidelines:
All entries must be submitted with an entry form. A contributors statement and promotional material is appreciated. Please indicate availability and interest in attending the festival.

Submissions should be DVD (2 copies, any zone) or vhs (pal or ntsc). Videos that you would like to submit electronically we will watch, but if selected we must receive hard copies to avoid technical problems. Selection is based on time allocation, relevance, quality and resonance. There are no rewards or prizes beyond our appreciation and heartfelt thanks, but we will be collecting audience feedback which can be provided to contributors on request. All entrants will be updated on the status of their submissions as soon as possible. We ask the contributions be made with the anarchist spirit of community and celebration with which they will be received. Solidarity!

Shipping costs are the responsibility of the entrants. Videos will be returned upon request. To ensure prompt return of material, please enclose $3 per submission. Otherwise material submitted to the festival will become part of the CAFF library catalog and/or donated to a suitable community recipient.

MAIL ALL ENTRIES TO WITH ENTRY FORM (Available on website) to:
Chicago Anarchist Film Festival (CAFF)
1321 N Milwaukee Ave #453
Chicago IL 60642

CONTACT US:
CAFF at riseup dot net
Chicago Anarchist Film Festival

Autonomy Films presents: Workers’ Republic.

7 p.m Wednesday 11th January in the Dorset Room, Colliton Club Colliton Park, Dorchester, Dorset, DT1 1XJ

Entry is £3 (less if you can’t afford that).
Debate after the film and refreshments available from the bar

Defeat the dole queue – get together and run your company!

What can you do when your company goes bust, putting you all out of work? It’s happening now all over the UK as we follow the US into recession. But in Chicago at Republic Windows the story had a different ending. In 2008 Republic Windows declared bankruptcy using it as an opportunity to offload the debts, the union and the workforce leaving them unpaid and with no redundancy money.  Ironically the Receiver was the newly bailed-out Bank of America that put the workforce at the bottom of the list of creditors.With little prospect of seeing their money the workers, with the help of their union, took matters into their own hands.

The rest is history, and “Workers Republic” is their story