Milwaukee IWW, Supporters March in Solidarity With Immigrants
Skip Porter, 06.09.2006 00:46
As the labor movement puts itself into disarray, some workers have a clear vision.
The wobbllies and friends assemble.
The boxcar rolls out.
Sheriff Clarke in his pimpmobile.
Underway.
The vanguard of the immigrant march.
Through downtown Milwaukee. Spectators were thin; this parade was partipatory.
Friends
Escort for Sheriff Clarke.
The National Lawyers Guild marching briefcase drill team.
Table at Laborfest
The 2006 Milwaukee Labor Day parade, marred by the threat of rain and withdrawal of numerous retrograde business unions, wended its way through downtown Milwaukee for over a mile to the lakefront festival grounds. The IWW presence lent members of the boycotting locals a safe harbor to scold their business unions and march in solidarity with the One Big Union. Supporters eagerly turned to for the chore of pushing the popular Milwaukee IWW Milwaukee Road replica boxcar along a sometimes-hilly parade route. In addition to local membership and disaffected trade unionists, IWW numbers were expanded by support from friends, and the Milwaukee cadre of the Every Day is May Day Coalition.
Marching in the same section with the IWW and supporters was the National Lawyers Guild, Milwaukee Graduate Assistants Association, some people with an ARA banner and a contingent of Machinists. Milwaukee County sheriff David Clarke Jr himself provided escort service and security for this part of the parade. Driving his new pimpmobile solo, Sheriff Clarke campaigned with confidence, even lending his protection to those endorsing his opponent.
To some observers, this year’s parade looked a little sparse. However, Sheila Cochran, Secretary/Treasurer of the Milwaukee County Labor Council opined in published accounts that 3,000 to 4,500 marchers was within normal range for a rainy holiday.
Sparse or not, the parade size more than doubled when a march of mainly Spanish speaking immigrants joined the tail of the procession as it left the assembly point at a downtown park. As the last few marchers set out, they were treated to the sight of side streets clogged for blocks with waiting unorganized workers chanting ‘Sí, se puede’ and holding signs asserting ‘An Injury to One is an Injury to All’, ‘Don’t Roll Back Workers’ Rights’ and in Spanish, ‘If Unionists and Immigrants Struggle Together We Will Win Big Time!’ These workers may be unorganized but they know plenty about solidarity and class struggle.
At the festival, activity around the IWW booth was brisk: visitors seemed readier than usual to recognize the facts of class struggle and eagerly collected copies past and present of The Industrial Worker. Some came by to thank the IWW for the example the union sets for business unions. Others asked for IWW t-shirts, declaring their intent to come by the Wob information table at an upcoming neighborhood community festival.
The boycotting unions, perhaps numbering a half dozen, have much to answer for. Unions known to have withdrawn include Plumbers and Gasfitters Local 75, IBEW 494 (electricians), Steamfitters Local 601, and Millwrights Local 2337. Other locals rumored to have skipped out could not be verified. Some of the boycotting unions went to observances in Janesville, where they heard AFL-CIO president John Sweeny urge an alliance with immigrant workers. Other unions went to the labor festival in Racine, where the local branch of the immigrant group Voces de la Frontera joined in the observances there.
By repudiating the principles of class solidarity and ‘An injury to one is an injury to all’ the business unions illustrate the exclusionist and fractionating practices inherent in organizing by trade rather than industrial organizing. It nearly goes without saying that these actions do not serve the interests of their members or working people in general. It was partially in response to these behaviors that the IWW was organized in 1905 and we still have a lot of work to do.
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