New York

To our comrades and fellow workers around the world

May 28, 2008

Flaum Appetizing, a kosher food distributor, terminated 20 IWW members last week. The IWW had a strong presence at Flaum, with about two-thirds of the warehouse being union members. Workers had been struggling for respect from the boss for almost a year before the firings occurred.

On, February 1st, I got a call from Ruth Benn that Ralph DiGia, 93, had died at St. Vincent's in New York City. I had visited him recently and sensed he was losing his battle - he had fallen and broken a hip about two weeks before, got an infection in the hospital (hospitals in the US are notoriously dangerous places for the sick and .wounded to go!), and despite rallying several times, died.

Workers, not politicians, will end this war
Build Our Solidarity, Not Their Elections

Mollie Steimer: An Anarchist Life
By Paul Avrich

Cabbies opposed to plans to install credit card and video devices in cabs across the city’s fleet are planning to stage a two-day stoppage. The hi-tech video screens, which the city authorities want to have installed in every yellow cab, will allow passengers to watch TV, make payments with credit cards and watch the progress of their cab journey via a global satellite link.

Introduction

In this wide-ranging interview with IWW organizer Daniel Gross conducted by the UK-based Now or Never!, Gross discusses the innovative worker-controlled organizing model, known as solidarity unionism, that has made gains for Starbucks workers where the bureaucratic union model has failed.

The Last of the Anarchists: A working-class hero passes away.
By Paul Berman

Russell Blackwell
Born 1904 - USA, died 1969 - USA

Born in 1904 in the Northern United States, a Yankee, Russell Blackwell learnt the profession of cartographer. He joined the Communist Party of the United States of America in the 1920s. He was sent to Mexico by the CPUSA to help organise the Communist youth movement there, under the name of Rosalio Negrete.

Rudolf Rocker
Born 25 March 1873 - Mainz, Germany, died 19 September 1958 - New York, USA

At the beginning of the 20th Century, anarchists were in the middle of what was known as the ‘Propaganda by the Deed’ period. The idea was that by killing members of the ruling order, not only would the ‘fear of God’ be put into them but that it would eventually inspire the masses into rising up against their masters.

"If we can't live as men, we sure as hell can die as men"
- Attica prisoner

Union President Roger Toussaint will also face 10 days in prison.

The Associated Press reported that a judge fined the city transit union $2.5 million Monday for the illegal strike that brought buses and subways to a standstill for three days just before Christmas.

...in the first National Labour Relations Board conflict over unfair labour practices between the world's largest coffee chain and the baristas who work there.

Faced with the prospect of having its widespread union-busting campaign exposed in a public hearing, Starbucks agreed to remedy all of the myriad violations committed against workers who have organised a union.

The nominal vote was close, with sixteen votes for the union and fifteen against, but the "no" votes included six office workers whom management inappropriately tried to include in the bargaining unit. Among the warehouse workers, fork-lift operators, truck drivers, and helpers who make up the unit petitioned for by the union, the vote was sixteen to nine.

Little over a month earlier they had come to the workers’ night at Make The Road by Walking, and told of working long hours without being paid overtime, which ultimately amounted to being paid less than minimum wage. Sometimes the trucks would finally be loaded to the top at 3 p.m., and the workers would be told that all 25 stops in Manhattan had to be made.