FUNDING PROPOSAL FOR A PEOPLE OF COLOR/BLACK WORKERS' ORGANIZING PROJECT By FW Lorenzo Komboa Ervin, x342389 In its early history, the Industrial Workers of the World had over one million members, one hundred thousand of whom were African or African-descended. This included over 60,000 in the United States and 40,000 in South Africa, Australia and various other countries. When it lost its mass-membership base due to government repression during and after World War I, this included the entire Black membership. And ever since the IWW has been an overwhelmingly white organization. Thus one must ask the same question "Big Bill" Haywood asked in 1920 to an IWW meeting: "Where are the [Black] workers?" Well, the answer is that they are out there waiting to be recruited, but that only a Black workers' organizing project is going to bring them on board. Because the condition of black and white workers is not the same: there is still widespread racial discrimination in employment and other social sectors, unemployment 3-5 times higher for young Black males; and drugs and gang violence (due mainly to economic factors) are decimating the Black community, it's clear that we need a special organizing project to bring in Black workers in the South and Hispanic workers in the Southwest. Because of both deep social problems caused by homelessness and chronic unemployment, which effects minority communities more intensely,, a movement to do both community and workplace organizing is a vital necessity. This movement, with deep roots in the community is in fact the only way to tackle these ills, not the government, the church or any external institution. This movement, which we propose for funding, will be allied politically with the IWW, in fact we propose it as a project of the IWW. However, many of the Black workers in the South, where it will be based, are not union members of any kind, whether it is the IWW or the AFL-CIO. In fact, the Southern region is rabidly anti-union, but everyone has always known that the key to organizing the region is the Black (and now Hispanic) workers. After working with the IWW on issues like police brutality, homelessness, and other issues, and finding that it is a revolutionary syndicalist union, many African-Americans will in fact join. The Black Workers Organizing Project however is not just contemplated as an IWW recruitment project, but rather will be concerned with fighting for the rights of the working class in the U.S. It will have fraternal relations with the IWW and will seek class unity in its labor battles. Program for the Black Workers Organizing Project The Black Workers Organizing Project, however, is just one aspect of a total project to challenge the bosses in their superexploitation of the workers, especially in the South/Southwest. Although it must be recognized that the working class has changed itself, and has much more racial diversity, it also means that new tactics must be employed in this period, if we are to rebuild the IWW. The BWOP is a worker/student/youth alliance, which will try to organize the unorganized as well as fight for better treatment in the workplace. In fact, we should be working toward building worker-community councils <"COMMUNITY UNIONS"> in cities all over the U.S. to counter class collaborationism by the business unions and revitalize the struggle against the bosses. We want to unite all workers, especially the homeless and the unemployed, and champion their struggles, along with those who are employed in this period, in a mass fightback campaign for jobs, justice, and human rights. As workers of color, we especially understand that we have to deal with the problems of gang warfare and drug-dealing, along with other social ills bedeviling our communities, which is actually the result of capitalist economic crisis and "malign neglect" by the capitalists and their political henchmen, who have been withholding community development funding to black and poor communities. Here is what we stand for: We want to organize the unorganized, especially in the South and in grossly exploitative industries like fast food, poultry, textiles into the IWW. We want to bring an end to racism and police brutality by the capitalist state. We must end all manner of discrimination, white supremacy, and "white skin privilege." We want to build a Black/People of Color anti-authoritarian tendency within Anarchism. We want to build a "Poor People's Survival Network" to organize for class unity on a massive scale and challenge the rich during this period. Therefore, we want to ideologically defeat the misleaders, demagogues, sky-pilots, opportunist politicians, and other sellouts in our community, who have been retarding our struggle for the past 20 years. Finally, we want to end capital, wage slavery, and class rule. We want the IWW to organize *all* workers, especially the homeless and unemployed, and champion their struggles, along with those who are employed in this period, in a mass fightback campaign for jobs, justice, and human rights. Funds needed to make the project a reality: This entire project can be set up for a fairly moderate amount, which could secure an office space, pay for printing a newspaper, and prepare training materials. Our projections are as follows: Financial breakdown: printing of "Autonomy: the Journal of Anarchism and the Black Revolution" on a bi-monthly basis (5,000 copies ea. at $200 per issue) = $1,200 Printing of training materials & purchase of office materials (purchased and/or prepared periodically) = $800 office rent and utilities for space = $2,400/year ($200/mo.) travel and training expenses = $600-$1,000/year Total funding sought: $5,000 Principals in the project and the staff members proposed: Program Director: Lorenzo Komboa Ervin, IWWmember, long-time community and Southern civil rights activist, and author of "Anarchism and the Black Revolution." Ervin will have overall supervision of the project, but it will be administered by a collective. Veteran activist trained by Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee in the 1960's, retrained at Highlander Center during the 1980's, Peoples' Institute, CITP and other programs. Training Facilitator: Dwayne Stewart, long-term organizer in Atlanta since the 1970's when a student at Atlanta University. Anti-authoritarian, and trained at Midwest Academy, Highlander Institute, Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, and others. National Secretary: Greg Jackson, Seattle, Washington. New generation of grassroots organizer, trained at ACORN. In conclusion: This is a serious question, requiring a large amount of new thinking: not only a recognition that the working class itself has changed with more racial diversity, it also means that new tactics must be employed in this period, if we are to rebuild the IWW. In fact, we should be working toward building worker-community action committees in cities all over the U.S. to counter class collaborationism by the business unions and revitalize the struggle against the bosses. We need to unite our class, and not allow them to continue to be divided over who has a job and who doesn't have one. ***end*** Prepared by: Lorenzo Komboa Ervin, x342389 145 Park Drive Decatur, Georgia 30030 (404) 687-8324