PO Box 1293, Olympia Wa, 98507 Organize@OlympiaIWW.com (564) 225-2472

Why Organize a Union with Your Fellow Workers?

It is only through collective action that we can come together to win our demands on the job and recognize within ourselves that we have the power to change the world around us for the better.

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It’s Our One Year Anniversary!

On May 18th, 2016 we, the Olympia General Membership Branch of the Industrial Workers of the World, were chartered!  We have come along way since then.  We appreciate all the hard work that our members have put in, and continue to put in, to organize the branch!

It seems like it has not been a year, but so much has been done to get us here and to prepare us for the struggles ahead.  We are here to fight!  We are here to organize!  We are here to stay!

Don’t forget to come and see us on May 1st, International Workers Day, at Sylvester Park in downtown Olympia from noon to 5pm.  We will have speakers, music, food, and fun!!

In Love and Stuggle

Oly I.W.W.

May Day 2017 Olympia

Come celebrate International Worker’s Day AKA May Day with the Olympia I.W.W. and others!!  There will be food, friends, music, literature, and fun!

This event is for all ages.  Come and have some fun as we celebrate the Working Class!  Learn about the history of May Day and other working class struggles as we talk about the struggles ahead and take refuge in friends and family.

There will be performances by:
Lenee Reid
Nomy Lamm
Kaitlyn Smith
And more!!

Here is the link the Facebook event.

If you have any questions please contact us.
Email – OlympiaIWW@riseup.net

Regional Organizing Assembly

Hi Fellow Workers,

The Olympia General Membership Branch will be hosting a Regional Organizing Assembly the weekend of May 2­7th.

This assembly will bring together organizers from all over our region for a weekend of networking, strategizing, skills sharing, and maybe even some troublemaking. We plan to have workshops, facilitated discussions, social events, and more, all geared towards building regional solidarity and collaboration. Registration is now open!

Please email us with any questions at:
OlympiaIWW@riseup.net

Warm Regards and Solidarity,
Olympia I.W.W.

Legal Support

On March 4th, 2017 four people were arrested at a counter-demonstration in response to a Trump rally in Olympia, Washington. The arrested were there to oppose the Trump administration’s attacks on immigrants, Muslims, people of color, LGBTQ people, women, workers, the environment, and much more. They were there to take a principled stand.
Charges against some of the arrested include serious felonies. For the safety of the arrested we are withholding their identity at this time. We are also refraining from going into detail about the circumstances of their arrests until we are able to consult with their legal counsel. However, it is reasonable to say that the arrests were the result of overly aggressive action by the police.
At this time, we know that two of the people arrested are members of the Industrial Workers of the World and our General Defense Committee.  The Union supports our fellow worker(s) as well as the other people who were arrested and we are calling on you to support them as well with donations to support their legal defense. Funds raised will be provided equally to support the legal expenses of all four of the arrestees, which may run several thousand dollars.
Any money in excess of what is needed to pay legal expenses of the March 4 arrestees will go to Local 20 General Defense Committee to support future legal expenses of Olympia area activists resulting from involvement in labor struggles, anti-oppression, and environmental defense work.

You can donate to the legal fund of those who were arrested here.

An Olympia IWW General Defense Committee: A Response to Extraordinary Times

gdcsabcat

 

Our organization must be effective. The sense of despair many of us feel is grounded in the reality of an ascendant far right. Right now they face little resistance. The sense of urgency many of us have felt is a recognition of the need to build that resistance. It is time for us to take up that task, to find new comrades ready to fight and to fight. No one is coming to save us- we cannot use the electoral system to fight the right effectively. It is time to stop waiting and defend each other in the streets.

-From No One Is Coming to Save Us: An Anarchist Response to the Election of Donald Trump, itsgoingdown.org/no-one-coming-save-us-anarchist-response-election-donald-trump/, 11 November 2016

 

We should not fool ourselves. These are not ordinary times. The election of Donald Trump signals a full scale assault by the state on Muslims, immigrants, the LGBTQ community, women, and many other people. The environment and the social safety net are going to come under increased attack. Problems like police violence and imperialism abroad are going to get worse.

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Statement of Solidarity with Standing Rock

The International Convention of the Industrial Workers of the World stands in solidarity with the resistance against the Dakota Access Pipeline.  We call on the labor movement and working class to take a stand against enviromental racism and join the fight for a just transition as our collective future is at stake.  We recognize that the capitalist system that oppresses the working class has always oppressed indigenous people of the world.

Therefore we feel that settlers and indigenous workers should unite to take direct action against colonial industrial capitalism and do everything in our power to restore justice to indigenous people and Mother Earth.  An injury to one is an injury to all.

Calling All Workers! Come to Everett on November 5th!

All IWWs and friends are requested to make the trip to Everett, Washington at 1:30 PM on Saturday, November 5th to commemorate the massacre of our members at that time and date in 1916.  “Completing the Voyage” honors the 12 murdered and 27 injured Wobblies aboard the steamer Verona shot down by the sheriff and his drunken goons at 2 PM.  Three hundred Fellow Workers were attempting to return to the city in northwest Washinton State to carry on with their free speech fight.

As important as the centennial memorial is, the real goal is to let workers in the Everett area know that IWW is here.  Whatcom-Skagit Branch is planning two public “Introduction to the IWW” presentations in Everett later in November; the town is ripe for reestablishing the IWW.  We are hoping for cooperation and assistance from Vancouver, Seattle, Olympia, and Portland GMBs.

The rally point is the west end of Hewitt Avenue, only 200 yards from the site of the murders.  IWWs will lay wreaths and have a short ceremony, then walk seven blocks to “Speakers Corner” at the corner of Hewitt and Wetmore, where only days before the massacre IWWS were thrown in jail for asserting their right to free speech.  We will soapbox about the modern IWW on the busy downtow street corner, and sing, too.  The commemoration will end with a caravan 25 miles south to Seattle’s Mount Pleasent Cemetery where we will visit the gravesite of 3 of the 1916 victims, Fellow Workers Felix Baran, James Looney, and Hugo Gerlot.

PLEASE COME!  Everett will receive a lot of publicity from IWW prior to our event, and there may be a lot of local media attention.  We need every Wob who can to come to Everett.  For more information, contact the Whatcom-Skagit IWW branch: iwwbellingham@gmail.com.  Traveling wobs are urged to make wreaths or large bouquets, or ask our branch to make one in your name.  GMBs should bring their banners and IWW flags.

Fellow Worker Roberta’s canidate statement for editor of the “Industial Worker.”

To the General Membership of the Industrial Workers of the World:

Knowledge is the real power. Knowledge of the truth, that is.

What’s the best way of distracting people from their freedoms being taken
away and realizing how huge the financial inequities actually are? What will
keep them from pushing for unions, fair pay, and better sources of energy so
that their children and grandchildren will be able to breathe, grow food and
flowers, and live in health?

Deny them access to truthful information.

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Wobbly Campout August 26th – 28th

IWW branchs in the Northwest are hosting a campout in late August!  See below for all the info!

 

Aug.26th -28th
Battle Ground Lake State Park, WA
Group Camp Site #1 (NOT the Horse Camp). Check in at the main entrance, then drive around the Park to the north side, where the entrance to the Group Camp is. It is a forest service-type, steel bar gate, which the Advance Party will force open with C-4 charges, or just ask the Rangers for the key. We will make some pie-plate signage beginning at the crucial left-hand turn on Grace St. in Battle Ground (town), about 3 miles from the Park entrance. The Town is substantial enough to have a Clinic, diners, rib joints, drug stores, speakeasies, a Medical Cannabis dispensary, gun shops, major and minor grocery outlets, and a Rotary Club. If there is an American Legion post, we shall take appropriate measures to insure them that Wobblies Never Forget.
Check-in after 14:00 (2:00 PM)
$25.00 per tent, $10.00 per individual wanting to use 1 of 32 possible bunks. This is for the whole weekend, which is less than half of the full price for individuals or families.

There are 4 Adirondack shelters, which are wooden structures with a roof and three walls. Bring firewood if desired, as there is a large wood storage shed for the main fire pit which is surrounded by benches. There are satellite fire rings near shelters, also three iron barbecues at one end of the picnic shelter. The site has its own shed with two vault toilets, which we will keep clean during our stay. Two water points, one with a garden hose hookup, the other with a drinking fountain-type faucet. The tent area is large and grassy (maybe 1/4 acre?), and it is possible to find more secluded places to pitch a tent in the woods if one is more inclined to privacy. The whole site is tailor-made for convivial gatherings. The picnic shelter is big enough so that Vegans and FWs with special dietary considerations can set up their own kitchen and thus join in meals with their omnivorous Fellow Workers. No plans for a group kitchen or organized serving of meals have been made, so bringing enough of one’s own food is encouraged. The bunk rooms have no bedding, so please bring your own. No Wobbly will be turned away for lack of funds, nor shall they be mocked. The eponymous Lake is about a quarter mile long and oval shaped. Bring bathing suits; Naked Wobblies scare the Citizens. The Lake has trout stocked in it, but one needs a Washington State License to catch any, unless the Rangers can’t see your rebreathing equipment or hard-hat diving suits. Foot trails connect everything, and a map of the Park is available on the web site.
A really good Country Store is close by (Heisson Grocery) which has … everything, and ice cream, too. Intoxicating Liquors are permitted, but be mindful of the requirements of decorum; the Ayahuasca ceremony was cancelled due to the Shaman’s Union strike, which we will of course honor. Cross that picket line at your peril. RSVP and pay Seattle GMB, c/o Kristen King. Please make sure to tell her 1) how many campers, 2) Tent or Bunk, 3) and how much money you are sending. You can pay by mail, their Pay Pal account, or at the event itself, but telling her how many is strongly encouraged for bookkeeping and future planning. Plan for bad weather (NOT expected in late August), but even if it rains the entire time, there are enough covered shelters so that we won’t be totes bummed out if Zeus is angry. Please check camp rules regarding pets, available here:
http://www.parks.wa.gov/
http://parks.state.wa.us/472/Battle-Ground-Lake

Further money info:
Remember that no one will be turned away for lack of funds.
$25 for a tent space (this is for a space for a tent, so if there are mulitable people using the same tent only $25 has to be paid)
$10 for a bunk (this is per bunk, so per person)
Payments can be made to the Seattle General Membership Branch (GMB) by paypal or mail.  The Paypal account is seattleiww@gmail.com. The postal address is “1122 E. Pike Street #1142, Seattle, Wa 98122.”
For all payments, please follow up with an eamil to the Olympia GMB at OlympiaIWW@riseup.net and the Seattle GMB at SeattleIWW@gmail.com – showing the amount of payment and that it is for the campout.  This is for financial transparency.