textfiles/politics/SPUNK/sp000759.txt

EDUCATION WORKERS IU620-IWW ORGANIZING
>From an article in Nov.-Dec.1994 _Industrial Worker_ newspaper

Scottish Teachers Sold Out

     The Educational Institute of Scotland/College Lecturers
Assoc., is once again selling its members out.  2 members have
withdrawn from EIS's Sighthill (Edinburgh) Chapter to join
Education Workers Industrial Union 620 (IWW), after a Sept.7
meeting where local members acceded to EIS leaders' demand that 2
planned one-day strikes (approved by the membership) be called
off.

The Sighthill branch also rejected a motion to ignore the EIS
Presidents Committee and honor picketlines set up by another
union.

The day after the EIS meeting, Wobblies at Stevenson College
(Sighthill) issued the following leaflet urging their fellow
workers to withdraw from the craft unions and join the
IWW:

**When is an industrial dispute not an industrial dispute?  When
the EIS is involved.

Time and time again, the cry of `sell out' comes from the mouths
of union members who feel they have been `sold down the river' by
union officials.  The present chapter in the farcical history of
failed lecturers' disputes has reached new depths of tragi-comedy
as the token, `non-serious' EIS-CLA strike action of June has been
replaced by a `militant groundswell' of industrial activity that
has apparently been cancelled on the whim of a bloke called Jim
Martin and the President's committee.

While union bores go scurrying for the rare copies of unseen
rulebooks and suddenly become experts on anti-trade union
legislation, it is worth asking a serious question: What kind of
union are you in, if one member can overturn a democratic decision
of the membership?  Quite clearly you are in an organization
containing leaders and the led.  If this is the case you owe it to
yourself to leave such an anti-democratic organization today.
Because after all, this isn't the first time it has happened -- is
it?

To make matters worse, the EIS-CLA has consistently failed to
actively seek the cooperation of the SFHEA to coordinate
effective, joint action;  so much so, that the self-styled
radicals within the EIS-CLA would be prepared to cross any picket
line SFHEA might mount.  The management of the Education Business
must be quivering with fear at the thought of more industrial
action like we've witnessed over the past few months...

Any effective organization to improve conditions requires the
involvement of workers throughout the Education Industry. This is
where the IWW is different from all other unions, because it is
not a trade union, but a union for all workers.

Why You Should Join the IWW

At the moment the existing unions within the Education Industry
are demonstrating that they are incapable of defending our
conditions and pay.  The EIS and SFHEA hardly ever communicate and
neither of them ever communicate with non-teaching staff, whose
members are mostly in UNISON.

The recent changes in further education are likely to lead to a
situation where all of us will be engaged in local bargaining with
our employers. None of us stand a chance if we remain divided in
these joke unions, and management will have a field day at our
expense.

The IWW takes a very different view of things.  A very simple
view.  We think that if janitors, technicians, catering staff,
cleaners or teaching staff are in an industrial dispute then they
should be able to count on the support of all other groups of
workers.

(remainder of article deleted)**

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> For a copy of the Fall
1994 issue of _Education WOB_ send $1 to:
IWW-EWIU 620
4043 N. Ravenswood #205 Chicago IL 60613.

This issue of _Education WOB_ (WOB=Workers Organizing Bulletin)
includes a call for Teaching Assistants to join the IWW, a report
on education cutbacks at Texas high schools, update of the ongoing
strike at Marriott/Queens University in Toronto, examples of
efforts to radicalize the math curriculum, a draft EWIU organizing
leaflet, and a call for including industry-specific get-togethers
on the agendas for regional and general IWW Assemblies in the
coming year.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>


`International Workers Aid To Bosnia'

SYNDICALISTS TRUCK FLOUR DIRECTLY TO BOSNIA UNIONS
************************************************** (This article,
from a presentation June 1993 European Syndicalist Conference
appears in Nov.-Dec.1994 _Industrial Worker_ newspaper)
------------------------------------------------------------- by
Eva X

I'd like to present to you a very concrete example of
international solidarity and proof that it really works.  I'm here
as spokeswoman for International Workers Aid but I'm also a member
of SAC which played an important role in developing this idea to
reality.

International Workers Aid started last summer with a plea for help
from mine workers in Tuzla, a mining town in central Bosnia, to
comrades in Britain.  The miners of Tuzla have a long history of
solidarity.  During the British miners strike in 1984-85, members
of the Kreka Miners trade union sent one day's pay each during the
whole strike in spite of their poverty.  So when the plea for help
came in the midst of burning war, the English thought it was the
right time to pay back.

This was a very abstract idea which was caught up by unionists and
Trotskyist groups.  When the call came to Sweden it was through a
Socialist Party and it was like it always is:  when you need to
get some hard work done, send in the anarchists.

This was the initial idea:
-Collect money and aid (food and medicine) for the workers of
Tuzla.
-Develop an international solidarity network between trade
unionists, peace and women's groups and other radical, anti-
nationalist movements throughout Europe in order to give political
support to those forces in former Yugoslavia striving for peace,
multi-ethnicism and democracy.

Tuzla: A Mining Town

Tuzla is one of the major industrial cities of Bosnia with a
population of 170,000 counting the refugees.  The principal
industry is mining -- coal and salt.

During the war, Tuzla has profiled itself as a symbol of human
values in all this madness -- it is a city where people still live
together despite ethnic and religious origins, and have many times
expressed their determination to continue to do so.

So far the dark powers of war, meaning national chauvinism, hunger
for political power, territory and economic supremacy --- have not
yet managed to corrupt this profound conviction in Tuzla.  I
didn't dare to believe it before I actually got there, but it's
true.

Tuzla is also a city where unions are and have always been
extremely strong.  Three days ago I spoke to a gentleman who came
to Sweden from Tuzla 31 years ago.  He told me a lot about the
role unions played in people's lives.  These were social security,
education and survival.  In Tuzla, the Kreka Miners union has been
the very heart of the city.  The system for monitoring, taking
care of and organizing was already there -- it was a perfect
partner to our project.

Tuzla has also been flooded with refugees from all over Bosnia,
Serbia and Croatia -- people fleeing from ethnic cleansing,
military conscription and nationalist mayhem.

As the military situation is now, Tuzla is surrounded on 3 sides
by Serbian forces.  Since the federation between Croats and
Bosnians was agreed upon, there has been a more or less peaceful
corridor through Bosnia from the Adriatic coast.  But shelling
from the Serbs is not unusual, and the newly opened airport has
been a popular target. Tuzla suffers mainly from the effects of
siege and isolation, and there is a constant fear that Tuzla will
be cut off from the rest of Bosnia;  if you look on a map this
fear seems well founded.

Humanitarian Aid and Power

When we started this campaign we were amateurs.  We didn't know
anything about this vast field of political, econimic, social and
technical complications called `humanitarian aid'.  We just loaded
up everything people gave us, and didn't give the political
implications much thought.

Convoy I dissolved after months of hopeless struggle, but 3
trucks, among them the Swedish one, decided to give it one more
try.  In November of 1993 they succeeded.  This was our first
personal contact with the miners of Tuzla, and this is where the
real work started:  a rebuilding program in cooperation with the
miners union.

Humanitarian aid is a political factor of power in all disaster
and war situations.  Food is used to blackmail against unwanted
developments, or parts of the population.  Starvation is a very
powerful weapon and the ones in control of the food often control
the entire situation.  We had to avoid this trap.

Dumping tons of corned beef in the streets of Tuzla is not a way
to help rebuild and reinforce the civil society inhabitants have
been fighting for.  The civil society -- as an antipole to the
military perverted societies that are blossoming over Bosnia in
the tracks of the war.

These are societies where all normal, inter-human structures and
frameworks have been totally destroyed.  Often well-meant
humanitarian aid in fact helps to prolong and entrench this deeply
disturbed situation.  The big organizations, including the UN very
soon get institutionalized.  The bureaucracy surrounding each kilo
of milk powder is enormous.  A lot of money is plowed into the
humanitarian aid business, but not much comes out of it.

We decided to stick to one singular, very concrete project:  the
Bread Program.  The concept is simple.  We deliver flour, oil,
sugar and yeast in regular, smaller convoys directly to the miners
union.  From the union's warehouse these ingredients are to be
distributed to local bakeries where the bakers produce bread -- a
staple of the Bosnian diet.  The bread is distributed to people in
need.

In doing this we hope to help strengthen civil society where
people still work, some machines still function in civil
production, and where some people can bake bread that other people
can eat.

It may look symbolic.  But the Bread Program would be of no value
if it only worked on a symbolic level.  One ton of wheat flour
means 2,000 loaves of bread.  Ten tons means 20,000 loaves of
bread.  This is not, as we say in Sweden, cat shit. So far we have
delivered 70 tons of flour.

Worker Control and Solidarity

It was from the very beginning important to us to be in total
control of every link in the chain, from the collecting of money
and aid in our home countries to the actual delivery in Tuzla.  We
cannot, as was recommended so many times, just deliver our aid to
another UN warehouse.  Too much aid ends up on the black market.

It was around the Bread Program and the political impact Tuzla
stands for, that we tried to get support.  Here in Sweden the
campaigning went, and still goes remarkably well.  SAC played the
leading role in this work, but we cooperated with other groups:
Bosnian clubs, trade unions, and organizations of the political
left.  The organization is also alive and well in Denmark,
Belgium, Germany, Netherlands, Britain and to some extent in Spain
and Italy.

We have tried to strengthen our contacts in this fragile network
in Europe and also with independent unions in Croatia and Serbia.
The practical arrangements with the actual convoy driving (for
which Stockholm office has been responsible), have been so
overwhelming that too little work has been done to make these
contacts really creative.

It is nevertheless a crucial part of International Workers Aid and
one of the things that separate us from ordinary humanitarian aid
organizations.  With an active, functioning solidarity network we
have enough political power to act against war, neo-fascism and
nationalism in the near future.

I finally reached Tuzla in April and it was an overwhelming
experience.  After months and months of work, we did manage to get
our first Bread Convoy on the road. By then we had an office and
warehouses in Split in Croatia, 3 ex-army 4-wheel drive trucks,
and over 100 tons of bread ingredients waiting to be delivered.
WE also had the necessary contacts and endorsements from the
governments concerned and the UN.

The welcome was very, very warm.  The people in Tuzla have been
starving for a long time.  Last winter was absolutely horrible
with very little aid getting through.  Still the miners union has
managed to support its workers and their families with food
packages and meals, as is its tradition.

I spent 3 days in Tuzla and have never met such hospitality,
warmth, pride and courage anywhere.  The situation in Tuzla is a
bit better now, but our friends are still in need of absolutely
everything.  To keep this project going we need to reinforce our
efforts until the war is over and we can start working on the
revolution.

I think it is just about time to put some action behind the
slogans and try to re-establish the political potential of the
unions!

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