I've been a wobbly for almost three years now. Already an anarchist, I joined when I found employment as a bike courier. I figured, OK, I'm working, so I'll try to organize here. Nothing ever panned out, but since joining I've distributed IWW literature, recruited a few others into the union, and even had a brief stint as a salt, which I hope to continue after this semester ends. I helped a little with a centennary event, primarily organized with Steve Thornton, a vice-president with 1199, which had a very nice turnout with Paul Buhle and Joyce Kornbluh speaking and the Wobblies! exhibit on display.

Steve has been working on a history of the IWW in CT for a long time now, which will probably be published in the next year as a short book/long pamplhet. A sample can be read here: http://homefront.homestead.com/iww.html.

As time has gone on and my understanding of revolution and mass movements has improved, I've made an effort to become acquainted into the inner-workings of the union. I've come a long way since being completely lost on the GEB listserv and this oddity called a "charges process." And I have watched with great pride and interest the campaigns the IWW is undertaking right now. From the SWU to the 460 campaign, I think now is a very cool time to be a wobbly.

But early in the autumn, when I read that the 460 campaign was in the hole by, shall we say, a shitload of money, with meager financial support from the rest of the union, I decided my attention was required. I began talking to other wobblies and labor activists in the area, and soon found enough support for a fundraiser. I will post a more in-depth report on how it goes, but I can safely say that we will be able to raise $1500-2000 without much trouble. Check out the IWW.org calendar for more info.

I've decided to hone in on doing 460 support simply because of the strategic importantce it has. The NYC GMB is organizing in a community that has shown, historically as well as recently, that it has enormous social power. NYC's immigrant community has always been a scene of intense social struggle, dating back to its earliest days, regardless of what particular ethnicities are present. In the context, however, of the 2006 Mayday "general strike," "gran paro," "day without an immigrant," whatever, it has become inescapable that the future of mass militant labor organizing is within this strata. But just as important, this is a community under constant attack and extreme exploitation. Not siding with them would, itself, be a great crime.

CT is no stranger to xenophobia and attacks upon immigrant communities. ICE has carried out largescale raids in Danbury, New Haven, and Hartford, in that order. Danbury's mayor has pushed for local police to become ICE's deputies, while Hartford cops seem to be playing a similar role. New Haven, however, has passed the municipal ID act, which doubles as a debit card, among other things, allowing them a more stable existance, and reduces the extent to which they are a target for crime as they have in the past had to carry around large sums of cash with no access to a bank account. New Haven has also rebuked ICE by discouraging its police force from assisting in raids and deportations. Hartford's city council seems to be following suit in regards to police participation.

At the same time, there have been large organizing efforts in each of these communities. The strength of the movement in New Haven is reflected in the superior consessions they have won, which has been led by a group called Unidad Latina an Accion which is an adherent to the Other Campaign of the Zapatistas. In Danbury and Hartford, however, the movement has been largely led and divided between two groups: local Trotskyists with Socialist Action and the International Socialist Organization, and  the business-oriented sections of the immigrant community.

This has been disastrous as neither of these factions have sought out real solutions to this crisis, nor have they taken the idea of mass organizing seriously. The main tactic employed has been public demonstrations, which has led many in the immigrant community to believe that subsequent raids were provoked by said demonstrations. It is not hard to see why this approach has been worse than useless. They see this is merely as an opportunity to bolster their respective organizations' profile and membership.

However, there are voices in at least Hartford that want to do the one-on-one organizing within the diverse multinational immigrant community, such as Hartford Organizing for Power and Equality (HOPE) and individuals within Stop the Raids! of Trinity College. Ideas such as doing "know your rights" counseling, setting up an emergency response system when a raid occurs (which has just been put in place) and pushing the city to adopt progressive policies regarding undocumented immigrants are all positive steps in the right direction. However, there is little discussion about how to build power within the neighborhoods and workplaces that the immigrant community inhabits. It is my great hope that the fundraiser we are organizing will not only raise a great deal of money for the 460 campaign, but also will give local activists perspective on how to move forward.

Organizing with this community is what I hope our main work will be as we build an IWW group in CT. A previous project I have worked on called the Biblioteca Conmemorative Luisa Capetillo (Memorial Library ) is a mix of a radical/progressive literature with Latino-specific cultural and political materials. It is located in the back room of an important community institution, La Paloma Sabanera Coffee House and Bookstore in Hartford. It is my hope that we can transform this from merely a lending library/reading room/occasional meeting space, into a hub of activity around immigrant rights and workplace organizing. Eventually this could develop into a workers center, under this roof or another. I am also soon to become a library worker, which may also give me the opportunity to be of service to this community and point folks into the right direction when they need information on how to improve their lot in life. I need, however, to work on my Spanish.

But I think much of my individual organizing will go toward salting in an industry that is much different from the one I discussed above. My hope is that I can bring people who are closer to the immigrant community into the union (or in collaboration with it) in order to build an IWW presence there. I come from a very different background, and as such, I am better suited organizing where I am most comfortable and knowledgeable. So I will salt when I go back to work at the end of the semester, and continue while I am interning at a local library. When I finish my internship in the Spring, hopefully I will have made enough progress at the shop for the camapaign to stand on its own when I move on to employment at a library. And in true wobbly fashion, I will organize wherever I go. Indeed, the strains libraries and library workers are under right now (due to budget cuts and attacks on freedom of information) necessitates some good ol' class struggle.

In a year's time, I hope to have a GMB, with at least some activity in three industries. The best indicator I have that this will be successful is the support network I have struggled to build over the past several years. By continuously pushing the envelope and putting forth radical, militant alternatives to the activist status quo, I've drawn a good number of people out of the shadows who would otherwise never have taken any action outside standard political activity. Hopefully, the support we've recieved for the 460 fundraiser is a good indicator of what's possible over the next year.