IWW members in Chicago, and a friend from Teamsters Local 705, leafleted half-a-dozen Starbucks locations in downtown Chicago on Friday, 24 November as part of the international day of solidarity with Starbucks Workers Union. We distributed about 900 leaflets in a couple of hours and made contact with a number of baristas. Hopefully these contacts will get in touch with our SWU organizing committee and the start we've made at the Logan Square store will expand to other locations. Solidarity Forever!

September 28, 2006
To Whom it May Concern,

We are writing you in light of the unjust and reprehensible raids made against the Korean Government Employees Union by your government. The brutality and suppression of workers' most basic rights is offensive, and must be corrected. We demand that you immediately recognize the right to the Korean Government Employee's Union's existence, and allow it to operate freely and legally. Additionally, we ask that you fix any damages you have caused to the union and its members.

We eagerly await your response.

The International Solidarity Committee of the Industrial Workers of the World.

Radical bookstore opening in Out ch'Yonda at 929 4th St SW. Albuquerque, New Mexico Libre-ría “La Semilla” --- books, zines, posters, music, maté, art, shirts, coffee, films, music and more . Our focus is on: people of color, radical childrens & young adult books, queer theory, feminism, resistance movements, gay and lesbian, new mexican resistance movements, appropriate technology, political prisoners, magonismo, spanish language radical literature, workers' stories, Xicano movement, working class history, african american history, local poets, anarchism, local writers and artists, radical thought and history, zapatismo, indigenous history and struggles, socialism, ecological struggles, zines, punk rock, hip hop, anti war, and anti imperialist materials.

The bookstore will also provide a meeting and office space for the IWW, which is providing a mountain of books to the collective to start up.

A Force More Powerful is a new game produced by the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict and York Zimmerman as a followup to their collaboration on the PBS documentary of the same name.  It is billed as "The Game of Nonviolent Tactics" and is intended as a fun, educational game for people involved in mass struggle worldwide.

 

 Above: An anti-goverment rally in the city of Grbac

In AFMP, the player controls one movement, the Opposition, which is attempting to defeat the other movement, the Regime, using nonviolent tactics.  There are ten scenarios included with the game, though with various difficulty levels and choices of victory conditions for each scenario it seems likely that there will be a lot of gameplay possibilities even before you download the scenario editor and have a go at designing your own.  An interactive online forum provides a space for discussion of these scenarios and for you to upload any new scenarios you create for sharing with other gamers.

Disclaimer - The following article is reposted here because it is an issue with some relevance to the IWW. The views of the author do not necessarily agree with those of the IWW and vice versa.

By Julie Hyland - From wsws.net, 29 March 2006

Thousands of schools, local government facilities and transport services across the United Kingdom were closed or partially closed Tuesday as almost 1.5 million local government workers took strike action to defend their pension rights.

But from the outset, the leadership of the 11 unions involved in the dispute sought to demobilize any active participation by workers. In the main, pickets were at a minimum and any visible signs of protest were patchy and kept limited. In Manchester, England’s third largest city, the regional trade unions called off a lunchtime rally at the eleventh hour.

By CYDNEY GILLIS - Staff Reporter; reposted from RealChangeNews.Org, March 9, 2006.

Starbucks settled 15 charges of unfair labor practices in New York Tuesday — a move the Industrial Workers of the World are hailing as a victory in their drive to unionize the coffee’s giants baristas.

The Wobblies say Starbucks agreed to reinstate two union members who had lost their jobs — Sarah Bender and Anthony Polanco — and stop interfering with union organizing activities.

The settlement is so complete, says one IWW member, it’s a virtual “neutrality agreement” that sets the stage for the union to expand its efforts.

By Jeff Shantz, Punching Out Collective (NEFAC-Toronto)

Recently much interest and discussion has been generated by the emergence of union flying squads in Ontario. Flying squads -- rapid response networks of workers that can be mobilized for strike support, demonstrations, direct action and working class defense of immigrants, poor people, and unemployed workers -- present a potentially significant development in revitalizing organized labor activism and rank-and-file militancy.

Here are organizations with rank-and-file participation working to build solidarity across unions and locals and alongside community groups, engaging in direct action while striving to democratize their own unions. No wonder then that the re-appearance of flying squads in Ontario, in a context of halting resistance to a vicious neoliberal attack, notably among some sectors of the labor movement, has been cause for much excitement.

Disclaimer - The following article is reposted here because it is an issue with some relevance to the IWW. The views of the author do not necessarily agree with those of the IWW and vice versa.

By Paul Finch - external secretary of Northwestern Anarchist Federation, formerly FNAC; reposted from nefac.net

The most significant period of labor unrest in British Columbia since 1983 took place in late April and early May of 2004, as a result of the failed province-wide “General Strike” movement. During this period, dissatisfaction with government policies and ensuing legislation escalated into wildcat strikes, walkouts, and significant mass public support for the actions of labor unions, community groups, and students in opposition to the government.