From sciww Wed Jun  8 06:47:12 1994
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From: sciww (Santa Cruz IWW)
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Subject: Wob Past & Present in S.C.
To: iww.news@conf.igc.apc.org
Date: Tue, 7 Jun 1994 23:47:10 -0700 (PDT)
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Fellow Workers! Hello from Serf City Santa Cruz! Just thought you 
might appreciate a bit of Wob history as told by Howard Zinn in 
People's History of the United States, pages 324-325;

They were attacked with all the weapons the system could put 
together: the newspapers, the courts, the police, the army, mob 
violence. Local authorities passed laws to stop them from 
speaking; the I.W.W defied these laws. In Missoula, Montana, a 
lumber mining area, hundreds of Wobblies arrived by boxcar after 
some had been prevented from speaking. They were arrested one 
after another until they clogged the jails and the courts, and 
finally forced the town to repeal its anti-speech ordinance.

In Spokane, Washington, in 1909 an ordinance was passed to stop 
street meetings, and an I.W.W. organizer who insisted on speaking 
was arrested. Thousands of Wobblies marched into the center of 
town to speak. One by one they were arrested, until six hundred 
were in jail. Jail conditions were brutal, and several men died in
their cells, but the IWW won the right to speak.
	
In Fresno California, in 1911, there was another free speech 
fight. The San Francisco Call commented:
	
'It is one of those strange situations which crop up suddenly and 
are hard to understand. Some thousands of men, whose business it 
is to work with their hands, tramping and stealing rides, 
suffering hardships and facing dangers--to get into jail...'
	
In jail they sang, they shouted, they made speeches through the 
bars to groups that gathered outside the prison....When city 
officials heard that thousands more were planning to come into 
town. they lifted the ban on street speaking and released the 
prisoners in small groups."


HAVE YOU HEARD ABOUT WHAT IS GOING ON IN SANTA CRUZ? Six new city 
ordinances have been passed which outlaw a variety of things 
including; asking for spare change (considered a free speech right
by the California Supreme Court), sitting down on the sidewalk, 
having political tables and or gatherings within certain 
'forbidden zones,' sleeping anywhere in public or in a vehicle and
on and on. These laws regulate "public space" by excluding 
everyone who is not middle -class from the definition of "public."
What can the Wobblies do about this?

WELL, HAVE YOU SEEN THE SANTA CRUZ ACTION ASSEMBLY PROPOSAL?! If 
not, check it out in the April GOB! We're facing a situation that 
is so similar to the above history it just might make you angry 
enough to consider risking arrest with us. We hope you'll really 
take a look at our assembly proposal/ call to action. Watch for 
clarifying letters from our branch in the upcoming GOB. 

We did it before and we can do it again. SEE YOU IN SEPTEMBER!