DEAR FELLOW WORKERS:

The IWW, the historic revolutionary union, smashedin the 1920's, is now 
resurrecting itself in this period. It is once again building a mass 
movement  of the poor and super-poor, once called the "most despised 
sector of the working class." But while the IWW is building this new 
movement, it must recognize that the world has changed radically in the 
last 50 odd years, and that we are now living in a period very much 
shaped by the civil rights movement, the largest and deepest radical 
social change movement, possibly since the Civil War.

What does this mean? We cannot allow the IWW to just be a "white workers 
movement," and not take note of the crucial role for Black/People of 
Color workers in the revolutionary social movement we are building. 
Wemust include activists from PoC communities, but more importantly we 
must fightevery vestige of racism by the employing class and resist any 
attempt at maintaining unions as "white job trusts" as practiced by the 
AFL-CIO unions. We must also recognize that a large part of the 
unorganized in this country are African, Latino, Asian and other racial 
groups. We must organize them as workers, but also recognize that we must 
fight for their democratic rights (i.e. racial equality and national 
liberation).

We cannot compromise in any way with white supremacy, not on the grounds 
of "common economic issues of the class," fear of a white worker 
backlash, or other reasons which have been used by majority white radical 
social movements to justify a narrow campaign in the past. Of course, the 
refusal to challenge white supremacy only helped the state and the boss 
class, who never failed to incite class and race hatred to prevent a 
united fightback. This argument of race and class organizing is not hard 
to figure out, but apparently hard to put into practice. It requires a 
large amount of soul searching, especially by white workers, who don't 
many times understand how the capitalists use race and class to divide 
and rule over our class.

It is not enough to say that "anyone" can join the IWW, a special effort 
mustbe made to raise issues which Black/PoC workers agree with, and using 
this organizing,  bring them into the union. They are suffering from not 
just an excessof racial discrimination, but higher unemployment and 
homelessness, vicious police brutality, lackof health care, the worst 
housing situation, and so on. In fact, every socio-economic indicator 
points to these workers of color as suffering the deepest sort of 
exploitation and oppression of workers as a whole. This cannot be ignored 
or minimized, with inane arguments about "we should not make distinctions 
about who is the most oppressed" or raise the false idea that  this will 
divide us.

Actually, what will continue to divide us is when we pretend that there 
is no difference in the status of workers of color and whites. We must 
fight racism, class oppression like homelessness and unemployment, job 
speed-up, and other on-the-job issues. We must also be willing to work in 
the community against these and other issues.

So the IWW has received a proposal for the building of a Black/People of 
Color Worker Organizing Campaign to act as a semi-autonomous project. It 
will raise the politics of the specially-oppressed PoC workers, while 
carrying out the general program of the IWW. We feel that this will both 
revitalize the Union, but also will allow us to build a mass poor people/ 
worker movement at this time. That is what this is all about, rebuilding 
the IWW. This union once had over 100,000 Black workers (10% of its total 
base), who played major roles. We must once again bring these workers to 
the core of the work of the IWW.


WHAT CAN YOU DO?

1. Let communities of color know about the work of the IWW, and make 
especial efforts to invite them to our meetings, rallies and other functions.

2. Attend meetings in PoC communities to express solidarity and to do 
joint work.

3. Distribute IWW materials to bookstores, churches, and community 
meeting halls in Black, Latino and PoC communities.

4. Raise money for the B/PoC Organizing drive by buying our assessment 
stamp and other materials, providing donations and securing office 
equipment for the office in Atlanta.

5. Letting the B/PoC committee know of any prospective organizer in your 
community.


Well, thanks fellow workers, now let's get out there and make it happen.


Sincerely,

Lorenzo Komboa Ervin, x342398
Black/People of Color Organizing Campaign
145 Park Drive
Decatur, GA  30030