From deke Tue Aug 16 14:11:58 1994 Received: from localhost by fido.wps.com (8.6.5/wps.com-hackery) id HAA01915; Tue, 16 Aug 1994 07:11:57 -0700 From: deke (Deke Motif Nihilson) Message-Id: <199408161411.HAA01915@wps.com> Subject: My New Delegate-type Letter... To: sciww (Santa Cruz IWW) Date: Tue, 16 Aug 1994 07:11:56 -0700 (PDT) Cc: maile (Maile Pickett), vad (Crys-Vad Hyphus), deke (Deke Motif Nihilson) X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL23] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Length: 8780 Status: O OK, so here's the final draft of the Gen. Asmb. letter I'm sending out this morning. Since it's going to current or have-been-wobs, I went ahead and put all the phone numbers that were on the registration form. (Come to think of it, I should copy some of those off...) Hope it's OK, but I really *did* need feedback last night. Vad didn't seem too enthusiastic about finding someone to go online and check it out, but I gotta say, SF/SC phone calls are moidah! honey. I was in a hurry and didn't wanna call third-number all over SC. ANYway... If I fucked up, I'll eat shit, but I think it's OK. I dunno how everyone's gonna deal with the, uh, open tone of my letter, but if it's really a problem, it was really my initiative to do such a thing. I think it's a really important and special component of what's coming down. I've started working a somewhat wider politi-social crowd about it too (even someone in the ISO, an ex-wob who showed me his card from '91.) But enough chat for now, I got work to do. What follows is the text of the letter. If there's not a list of everyone I'm sending it to appended, then I'll send that later. This letter is going out with the Sentinel article on the sitting ban getting pitched, a flyer for the video benefit, and (of course!) the ...MANAGING SOCIAL DISSENT pamphlet, which are really quite a hit BTW. If you can send me more with the next batch of flyers, it would be much appreciated... That's about it, off the top of my head. Pleeeze, check the e-mail at least once a day!!! Kitty's meowin' awfully hard... Bear with me, and I'll hang in there. Stay FABulous! As ever, yours for the revolution, --Deke ************* 15 August, 1994 e.v. San Francisco, CA Dear Fellow Worker (of whichever genderfication), Hi, this is Deke. As you probably know by now, the general membership of the IWW has recently, and overwhelmingly, voted to hold its annual General Assembly (G.A.) in Santa Cruz, CA. This is scheduled to take place over Labor Day weekend, 3-5 September, and wobblies from all over the world will descend on Santa Cruz for meetings, schmoozing, a huge show, and a large direct action against laws that forbid displays of poverty in public, such as sleeping and panhandling. Now, not everyone I'm sending a copy of this to is * currently* a wob. However, there will be as much going on outside of the specific proceedings of the G.A. as there surely will be within it. Even if you don't care to throw your Fuck-Yes-I'm-Union hat back into the One Big Union ring, there will still be a *lot* of opportunity to both meet and share ideas with people who are, in some way or another, similar to you. Also, there will be lots of chances to bring your own trip into the mix. After all, (at the risk of sloganeering) Together We Can Do Things That We Cannot Do Alone! The direct action will involve a large-scale challenge of the local law that makes it illegal to sleep out of doors in Santa Cruz between the hours of 11 p.m. and 8 a.m. On Labor Day, Mon. 5 Sep., there will either be a rally at the jail (if some of us are incarcerated there), or a vociferous and public celebration of victory if none of us are. For more information on this, or anything else preplanned for Assembly weekend, check out the proposal the Santa Cruz branch had published in the April '94 General Organization Bulletin of the IWW, the one that won the referendum. If you don't have that GOB (or at least a copy of the proposal, which I sent to many of you), please feel free to contact me for a copy and/or conversation. On Saturday night, 4 September, there will be the long-traditional Assembly show, featuring a wide array of fine wobbly and working-class music, fabulous people to check out, tables full of the ideas and labors of various peoples and groups (yours too?)... and who knows what else? Scheduled performances include: local folk/punk wobbly band Just Kidding, blues+ guitar fierceness from Del Rey (and honey, she's HOT! Drives the grrrls wild), the tensely melodic punk rock of the Mission District's own Strawman, and of course the grandpa, musician and storyteller (public memorykeeper) of the IWW, Utah Phillips. The show is open to everyone, and offers something for everyone, even to an audience that diverse. Tickets are ten bucks, and if you want one/some in advance, get in touch with either the Santa Cruz GMB or myself. The meetings of the General Assembly itself is the wobs-only part. As the assembled body of the IWW, it is the participatory-democratic ideals of our union made tangible. Issues are debated, items are brought forth for referendum vote of the entire membership (in later balloting), candidates are nominated for the yearly change of guard. As such, they can be as cantankerous as they can be deeply stirring (what many vanguardists call "democratic to a fault." Despite its faults, we nonetheless insist on it!) Anyone with a Red Card showing their good standing is entitled to full voice and vote in the Assembly. Direct democracy has never been about convenience. Please take a moment to consider lending your hand as a proud card-carrier. I'd be glad to make a date to issue you a card. But even if the thought of another GOB in your mailbox makes you some degree of queasy and uneasy, the lack of a Red Card is not going to keep you out of the action! The daily meal is going to be produced by Food Not Bombs Santa Cruz. There's lots of reasons why there's so much overlap in many places between the two groups-- but rarely, if ever, do those "dual-carders" (not really! FNB doesn't have formal membership!) come together as such. With the rising tide of anti-poor repression hitting FNB's all over, the kitchen should be at least as happening as the Assembly floor! Also, as the Santa Cruz local has been so active in the direct action clinic defense movement, there's bound to be some of that around too. Connections between the IWW and Earth First! are by now legendary. Hippies and commies and queers abound in both our union and in Santa Cruz. (I mean, security at the show will be provided by the Lesbian Avengers!) Truly, in our diversity is our strength! We just won't be as relentlessly FABulous without you, Red Card or no... Meanwhile, on the admitted presumption that maybe you wanna know more, I've enclosed some materials of relevance to what's going down in Santa Cruz. Even if you can't be there in person, there's surely something you can do or contribute that otherwise we just won't have. Or maybe you know someone who does. And there's surely a lot still to do to get ready! There will be more specific information forthcoming, both from there and from here, in the next couple of weeks. It'll keep me busy too, but hopefully part of that will involve getting with you, my friend, reading this right now. If there's anything I can do, let me know-- but if there's anything *you* can do, I will spare no quarter to help you get it connected. So drop a line (postal or virtual), or give a call. Various relevant contacts are listed below. Whatever your abilities, interests or contexts, there's a place and a need for it here. As you've probably noticed, alleged people like mayor Ballpark Frank (S.F.), the Berkeley City Council and the Public Safety [sic] Committee of the Oakland city council are all pushing variations of recent Santa Cruz-style anti-poor schemes in their respective locality. The same Downtown Business-types are manufacturing consent for these cynically oppressive removals of basic civil liberties and human rights. The advent of "neo"-liberalism is heralding outrages against the people that the conservative goons of the '80s never dreamed of getting away with. Steps have been successfully taken in Santa Cruz to lay a groundwork for effective resistance, and results are already starting to show. It's people like you and me down there-- but they need help (as we shall soon). Please, however you can, won't you lend a hand? I remain Yours for the Revolution, Deke Motif Nihilson, Faggot x341697, I.U. 570, S.F. GMB, IWW How to contact: Deke Nihilson-- mail: c/o The Little Garden, 3004 16th St. #201, S.F. CA 94103 tel: at work, 487-1902 (TLG, above, M-F 10 am-6 pm); hm. 282-4834 e-mail: deke@fido.wps.com Santa Cruz IWW-- mail: P.O. Box 534, Santa Cruz CA 95061 tel: all (408); Tai 423-9511; Maile 457-8152; vad 458-3781 e-mail: sciww@fido.wps.com General Headquarters, IWW mail: 1095 Market St. #204, S.F. CA 94103 (office hours: M-F 1-5 p.m.) tel: 415-863-WOBS; fax 626-2685 e-mail: iww@igc.apc.org ************* Yeah, I'll send the mailing list names later. BTW, the letter is two pages exactly. I'll send a packet along to y'all... --Deke