That Big Weapon, Solidarity.

       It is always encouraging to see people come together in solidarity against an injustice inflicted on one individual. Time and time again solidarity and direct action win battles where appeals to adjudicators, and lawyers fail, or drag out for ages adding to the injustice. Solidarity is a weapon we should always have in our minds it does win battles, and it creates bonds and builds confidence in our ability to take control of our own lives. Lots of little victories can lead to the one final victory when we abolish this vicious system of exploitation for profit.

Another victory though solidarity:

      Report from Little Village Solidarity Network who recently won back lost wages through a direct action campaign.
Thank you to everyone who helped us fight the wage thieving bosses at Jojo’s Milk Bar! They finally paid up last week, after nearly a month of struggle, due to the pressure our picket was putting on their business.
We more or less shut down their ice cream shop on the evenings of Saturday Aug. 3, and Tuesday, Aug. 6. They paid up on Wednesday, delivering a check for $545.00 to Federico Ramirez.

        It is important to emphasize that solidarity as it was manifested via collective direct action is what rendered these results possible. It wasn’t by appealing to attorneys or the department of labor. This is only a small sample size of what is possible if we organize!.

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We Can Do It Ourselves.

      In most emergencies, "natural" or otherwise, the state never seems to step up to the line. It gets bogged down in legislation and concern for costs and a bias to protect property. It always falls to the communities to step forward and organise in a hands on and unstinting manner. Yes charities do step in but the are always dependent on the money factor, communities use mutual aid and utilise what is available, cost is seldom a factor.

    The following article shows this coming into play in the recent brutal cold spell to hit the Chicago area, if only the communities would hold onto this strategy after the crisis has passed, then perhaps we would see a more rapid collapse of the failed system of capitalism.  

This extract from Its Going Down:

Street Team Response

---------Several teams sprung up and mobilized quickly from a coalition of anarchist groups which included Little Village Solidarity Network, Haymaker, Tenants United Hyde Park Woodlawn, Blood Fruit Anarchist Library, Chicago Recovery Alliance, Lucy Parsons Labs, Four Red Stars, Chicago General Defense Committee, Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee, and Chicago Black Rose/Rosa Negra Anarchist Federation, among others. Raising funds from family, friends, and allies, they were able to immediately put together a plan to track temporary warming shelters and open spaces that were available like Haymaker gym.
     Teams fanned out to purchase supplies and deliver them to whichever neighborhoods they knew best, giving rides to shelter where needed and checking in on people in encampments who were less mobile or didn’t want to leave. While hitting the streets other individuals were encountered who had the same idea, and some independent groups like ChiRides. As well, a warming school bus was making rounds and giving rides. Trinity Lutheran Church in Bridgeport was passing out socks that the teams were able to take with them, and shelters like Flood’s Hall in Hyde Park were looking for help with the early morning shifts, being especially busy at night. Provided by Chicago Recovery Alliance, narcan was available and distributed to whoever was in need.
     The city has a long history of criminalizing homelessness and prioritizing the needs of developers and landlords over tenants and people without housing, while hundreds of houses sit empty or foreclosed across Chicago. Though we don’t depend on the City of Chicago to come through in times like this, we used whatever tools we had to keep people safe tonight. A lot of the warming shelters that would be open during the day on Wednesday weren’t open at night, but the trains that were running 24/7 weren’t charging readmission. Passing out single ride ventra cards downtown and elsewhere has already kept a lot of people out of the cold, and then we have teams going in and out of train cards offering food and supplies through the night and all day today.
      We’re not here to be thanked or anything, but mutual aid and direct action are what’s going to save us from capitalism and that’s something that doesn’t just come about when you need it–it’s something that requires organizing now and practicing community care all the time.--------

Read the full article HERE: 

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Workers, Know Your History, Ben Reitman.

       Ben Reitman was an anarchist, born 1879, died from a heart attack in Chicago 1943. During his life he was kidnapped, beaten, tarred and feather and branded and later, 100 years ago tomorrow, in January 17th, 1916, imprisoned for the horrific crime of, distributing leaflets on birth control. That's democracy for you. These heroes of the working class are airbrushed out of history, the establishment  would rather they never happened, or at least are forgotten. We have a duty to remember and record those who fought on the side of the ordinary people for that better world for all.

From Wikipedia:

        Reitman was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, to poor Russian Jewish immigrants in 1879, but grew up in Chicago. At the age of ten, he became a hobo, but returned to Chicago and worked in the Polyclinic Laboratory as a "laboratory boy".[2] In 1900, he entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Chicago, completing his medical studies in 1904. During this time he was briefly married; he and his wife had a daughter together.[2]
        He worked as a physician in Chicago, choosing to offer services to hobos, prostitutes, the poor, and other outcasts. Notably, he performed abortions, which were illegal at the time.[2]
      Reitman met Emma Goldman in 1908, and the two began a passionate love affair, which Goldman described as the "Great Grand Passion" of her life.[1] The two traveled together for almost eight years, working for the cause of birth control, free speech, worker's rights, and anarchism.
        During this time, the couple became involved in the San Diego free speech fight in 1912–13. Reitman was kidnapped by a mob, severely beaten, tarred and feathered, branded with "I.W.W.,"[1] and his rectum and testicles were abused.[3] Several years later, the couple were arrested in 1916 under the Comstock laws for advocating birth control, and Reitman served six months in prison.[4]
        Both believed in free love, but Reitman's practice incited feelings of jealousy in Goldman.[5] He remarried when one of his lovers became pregnant; their son was born while he was in prison.[2] Goldman and Reitman ended their relationship in 1917, after Reitman was released from prison.[2]
         Reitman returned to Chicago, ultimately working with the City of Chicago, establishing the Chicago Society for the Prevention of Venereal Disease in the 1930s.[2] His second wife died in 1930, and Reitman married a third time, to Rose Siegal.[2] Reitman later became seriously involved with Medina Oliver, and the couple had four daughters — Mecca, Medina, Victoria, and Olive.[2]
      Reitman died in Chicago of a heart attack at the age of sixty-three. He was buried at the Waldheim Cemetery[6] (now Forest Home Cemetery), in Forest Park, Chicago.

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WORKERS BUY-OUT.

An Appeal from SumOfUs:

When the workers at a window and door factory in Chicago were told their factory was closing and they would lose their jobs, they decided that instead of letting the company's global investors determine their fate, they would raise the money to buy the factory and save their jobs.

But they can’t do it, even though they’ve put in a competitive bid on the factory. Why? Because the owner, Serious Energy, and its global investors Mesirow Financial, are in a rush to sell the factory to people who will sell it off for scrap instead.

We can help the workers save their jobs. Serious and Mesirow know pressure is mounting, which is why they are rushing to sell the factory off. If we weigh in today, the workers believe Serious and Mesirow will have to give them a fair shot at buying the factory and saving their jobs.

Stand with the factory workers in calling for Serious and Mesirow to discuss a fair deal that saves the factory and the workers’ jobs.

At the end of the day, this is about much more than saving one factory. This is a chance to showcase an innovative model of American manufacturing -- worker-owned cooperatives -- and deal another blow to the financial sector that relies on the failure of these companies to line their pockets. By saving this factory, we are helping to build a more just economy for all of us.

Thanks for joining us in fighting for good jobs,
Claiborne, Kaytee and the rest of us 

 Background story:

In February, workers at an energy efficient-window and door factory in Chicago were told that their plant -- owned by Serious Energy -- was about to be shut down, sliced up and sold off for parts.

The workers staged a factory occupation and got an agreement from Serious to delay the factory’s liquidation and give workers the opportunity to buy the plant themselves, with their newly-formed cooperative, New Era Windows. With no overhead for executive salaries, and the potential for contracts with the city of Chicago, which is gearing up for a big energy-efficiency campaign, New Era Windows was looking at a bright future as a worker-run factory.

But then, after months of stalling by Serious, the company suddenly announced on Sunday that all factory bids were due immediately, and that it wouldn’t accept New Era’s offer of $1.2 million -- instead, it asked for more money than it bought the factory for in 2009, and rigged the process to ensure that New Era didn’t have a chance.

These workers want a solution. They have been scraping money together to afford the factory and save their jobs. And they’ve fought like hell before -- back in 2008 they occupied their factory for six days and stood down their previous owner who attempted to fire 250 workers without severance pay.

Part of the pressure to sell is coming from Serious Energy’s owners, including Chicago-based Mesirow Financial. For Mesirow, selling the factory off to vultures means padding its profit by a couple percentage points. For the workers at New Era, the factory’s sale represents their livelihoods.

Stand with the workers at New Era Windows: Tell Serious Energy and Mesirow Financial to work with New Era Windows to find a reasonable solution.

Further Reading:

Workers seek arbitration to save Goose Island window factory, The Chicago Tribune, 3 July 2012
Workers vs. Investors: Chicago Window Factory in Danger of Liquidation, The Nation, 5 July 2012

SumOfUs is a world-wide movement of people like you, working together to hold corporations accountable for their actions and forge a new, sustainable path for our global economy. You can follow us on Twitter, and like us on Facebook.

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NATO PROTEST CHICAGO - 2012.

This from Contra Info:

          In the context of the 2012 NATO Chicago summit, on 20th and 21st May of 2012, many counter-protesters were detained during anti-NATO protest marches. Several anarchists were arrested ‘preemptively’. They were accused of scheduling and preparing militant actions against the summit meeting of the world’s largest warmonger. There are yet no reliable information from friends and comrades who were actually there, but due to the need of dissemination of some facts about the arrests, here follows a first summary by ABC Berlin.

          Late on Wednesday evening of the 16th of May, the cops stormed a house in the neighborhood of Bridgeport in Chicago, without showing an arrest warrant or search warrant, and arrested nine people. Six were released without charges on Friday. However, three were remanded in custody, and are now being subject to investigation and threatened with charges of ‘conspiracy to commit terrorism, material support for terrorism, and possession of explosives or explosive or incendiary devices.’ They are accused of having planned to attack with Molotov cocktails four cops’ stations, the local campaign headquarters of US president Obama, the residence of Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel and other targets in the city. All three were described by the prosecution authorities as self-proclaimed anarchists, having travelled together from Florida several weeks before the scheduled anti-NATO protests in Chicago. During the police raid in the Bridgeport house, a device was confiscated by the cops, who now claim that this was used to make Molotov cocktails; nevertheless, according to the residents, this was simply a kit for making beer at home. A bail bond of 5 million US dollars cash was set for each defendant (a total amount of 1.5 million).

Continue READING:

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MAY DAY, WHERE DID THAT COME FROM?

         Glasgow's “Official” May Day march was a well attended and colourful affair, if a rather short journey from George Square to the Concert Hall at the top of Buchanan Street. As the party faithful filed into the hall to listen to their “leaders” spout their usual party line, the Anarchists and Wobblies reformed and set off on a colourful parade through the city centre to the pedestrian precinct in Argyle Street. The parade was lead by a wonderful contraption made from two bikes joined side-by-side with a sound system in the middle and festooned with lots of red and black balloons. Lots of literature was handed out on route and at the stall set up in Argyle Street where there was free vegan cakes on offer.

         It is sad that so few celebrate this marking of all that is wonderful in working class hopes and dreams. I suppose even fewer know where it all started.

This from UFCW Voice for Working America:

       The fight for the eight-hour workday began in earnest in the United States, over a century ago, when the American Federation of Labor adopted an historic resolution asserting that "eight hours shall constitute a legal day's labor from and after May 1st, 1886." Up until that time, working people were routinely required to work 10 to 16 hours a day, 6 days a week! In the months prior to May 1st, 1886, American workers in the hundreds of thousands were drawn into the struggle for the shorter day. Skilled and unskilled, black and white, men and women, native-born and immigrant - all became involved.

       In Chicago alone 400,000 were out on strike for the shorter workday. A newspaper of that city reported that "…no smoke curled up from the tall chimneys of the factories and mills, and things had assumed a Sabbath-like appearance." On May 3, 1886, peaceful public demonstrations by the strikers precipitated violent police retaliation, resulting in the death of at least one striker, and serious injury to many more.

The next day in Haymarket Square a public meeting was held to protest the brutal assaults on the demonstrating strikers. The crowd was orderly, and Chicago mayor Carter Harrison advised the police captain to send home the large contingent of police reservists who were waiting at the stationhouse in case they were needed for crowd control.

         By ten o'clock that rainy evening the meeting was winding down and only about 200 of the demonstrators remained in the Square. Suddenly, a police column of 180 men, led by the police captain, moved in and ordered the people to disperse immediately. At that moment, the peaceful assembly became violent - a bomb was thrown into the police ranks, killing one policeman outright, fatally wounding six more, and seriously injuring about seventy. The police opened fire into the crowd; the number of wounded and killed has never been ascertained.

         A reign of terror swept over Chicago. The press and the pulpit called for revenge, insisting the bomb was the work of socialists and anarchists. Meeting halls, union offices, printing works, and private homes were raided, and known socialists and anarchists were rounded up. Even many individuals who had no connections at all to the socialists or anarchists were arrested and tortured. "Make the raids first and look up the law afterwards," was the public statement of Julius Grinnell, the state's attorney.

Continue READING:

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FINANCIAL COLONIALISM.

        The corporate fascists continue with their hatchet job on the Greek people and at the same time having imposed an financial technocrat as boss of the Greek government, they are now intent on demolishing any semblance of democracy that the Greek people ever had. As well as demanding that the politicians put in writing that they will carry on with the “austerity” measures as directed by the corporate fascists, even after new elections, they are also demanding that they put officials in place in Greece to run the Greek fiscal policies. It is modern colonialism, corporate financial colonialism. What is more there is nothing that says that they can not, and will not, do the same to Italy, Spain, Portugal, Romania, or any other country that they feel they need to, to protect their billions and their power. After all they already have installed a Goldman Sachs hit man to run Italy. We, the ordinary people have to stand with the Greek people, we have to accept that this is not a national struggle, it is international struggle and only by international solidarity of all our people do we have a hope in hell of defeating this corporate assault on all our living conditions.

EDINBURGH.

       It is encouraging to see that there have been demonstrations of solidarity with the Greek people across Europe and there has also been demonstrations of solidarity in the US. Are we slowly awakening to the reality of our situation?  Just some of the support for the Greek people from around the world, may it rapidly grow. 

MADRID.

ATLANTA

GERMANY.

CHICAGO.

CYPRUS.

SYDNEY.

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A REMINDER.

Just a wee reminder that tomorrow ios MAY DAY, family fun day, workers day, our day.See HERE.

This from The Freedom Socialists.

May Day 2011:

A tribute to modern-day Haymarket heroes and heroines.

    On this day, amid spiraling resistance around the world, we pay respects to struggles that gave birth to May Day as an international workingclass holiday 125 years ago in Chicago, Illinois. The fight for the eight-hour day, led by anarchists and socialists, was gaining steam. In an attempt to destroy the movement, police provocateurs threw a bomb at a peaceful labor rally in Haymarket Square. Eight radical leaders were charged with murder, and four were hung. A defiant August Spies exclaimed before his execution:

    If you think that by hanging us you can stamp out the labor movement...the movement from which the downtrodden millions, the millions who toil in want and misery expect salvation--if that is your opinion, then hang us! Here you will tread upon 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.

The Freedom Socialist Party offers its gratitude to the Haymarket Martyrs and those who tried to save them, such as Lucy Gonzalez Parsons, the widow of Albert Parsons. She spent the rest of her life building
international recognition for her fallen comrades, while also speaking out as an ardent Chicana feminist and antiracist agitator. These early radicals were principled internationalists. Albert Parsons dismissed bigots who derided his Haymarket brothers for being "foreigners":

     My patriotism covers more than the boundary lines of a single state; the world is my country, all mankind my countrymen. That is what the emblem of the red flag signifies; it is the symbol of the free, of emancipated labor.

       Today, the Haymarket rebels' vision of international class solidarity is alive and growing. This was dramatically clear when democracy protesters in Egypt and labor activists in Wisconsin carried signs supporting each other's struggles. Both movements have wakened ever-widening revolts. Rebels across North Africa and the Mideast, from Tunisia to Yemen, are exchanging strategies and tactics to foment change. Many workers and students are realizing they need to move beyond replacing corrupt officials at the top. Protests globally are opposing imperialist intervention in Libya. Solidarity with Palestine is rising. Iraqis are demanding that the U.S. get out of their country. The U.S. and its allies are doing everything possible to contain these insurgencies and prevent them from concluding that socialism is the solution. But is this possible in a world where rebellion is reaching the boiling point?

      In the Ukraine this March, female electronics workers who had not been paid for 14 months stormed the bosses' offices and overwhelmed top officials and the police who tried to save them. Throughout March, teachers in Honduras held massive demonstrations against privatization of schools that sparked a general strike against austerity measures. For several weeks in April, thousands of Bolivian workers, farmers and students protested neoliberal economic policies. Miners expressed their discontent by throwing dynamite and battling police in the capitol of La Paz.

In the U.S., outrage is mounting over the criminal slashing of needed social services and jobs by both Democrats and Republicans. Radical voices are calling for a new political party, one that will represent workers' interests and make the bosses pay for their crisis.

The Freedom Socialist Party offers solidarity to modern-day Haymarket heroes and heroines across the globe. This is a crucial time for those on the left to work together in united front efforts to challenge capitalist rulers and create revolutionary change. Together, we will prevail!      May 1, 2011

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