Update: anarchist news and information from all over the world - 16.12.2019

Today's Topics:

  
 1.  Workers Solidarity Movement - Exposing the far right in
      Ireland (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
2.  [Chile] Santiago: 53rd Day of Social Uprising By ANA (pt)
      [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
3.  Britain, Class War: Media name CLASS WAR as part of a secret
      'hard left (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
4.  Canada, ucl-saguenay, Collectif Emma Goldman - Neo-fascism
      and piracy or confusionism at work (fr, it, pt)[machine
      translation (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
5.  France, Union Communiste Libertaire AL #299 - Interview:
      D1ST1, the rapper in yellow vest (fr, it, pt)[machine
      translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
6.  alternativa libertaria fdca: From the season of workers 'and
      students' struggles to the strategy of tension (ca, it) [machine
      translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
7.  avtonom: From Tehran to Beirut - One Middle East Revolution
      ... by Michael Shraibman [machine translation] 
     (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   
8.  US, black rose fed: ROC Confidential: Exposé of a Social
      Movement NGO (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)


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Message: 1






Over the last year we have monitored the attempt to build a swamp of far-right organisations, very often funded by fascist groups in
Britain. As part of this a number of far-right rallies have already been staged. Our video uses footage and photos from two of the more
recent far-right rallies in Dublin. This Saturday Dec 14th they are to attempt another rally outside the Dail but this time a massive
anti-fascist Rally for Peace has been called for the same location. Be there at 13.00, the Molesworth st side and stand up to hate. ----
Because of its record of hate, dictatorship and causing the deaths of some 80 million people fascism is hardly popular. Hence modern day
fascists will try and 'hide their power level' and pretend to be something else. And in several countries including Ireland they have hit on
the tactic of calling far-right rallies 'free speech' rallies. In the footage from the two recent far-right 'free speech' rallies in Dublin
you can see for yourself how seriously that disguise should be taken.

It should also be remembered Saturdays anti-fascist protest takes place in a context where over the last year there have been at least 7
fascist fire bombing attacks. 6 of these have been attempts to burn down buildings that were to be used as Direct Provision centres. One was
the fire bombing of Sinn Fein TD Martin Kenny's car outside his home after he had spoken out against local far-right organising in
Ballinamore. Many individuals who have spoken up against the far-right have received harassment and death threats, sometimes including their
children as well as themselves.

Outside Ireland fascists have murdered well over a hundred people this year alone, we can't wait for a similar escalation here before we
act. Some of the Irish fascists are already linked with those that have carried out these killings, others openly fantasise about doing
similar here. And the more mainstream acting far-right political parties tolerate these people amongst their ranks while the YouTubers seek
to incite them from words to action.

Add your voice to the thousands who will be speaking up against fascism this Saturday 14th December outside the Dail at 13.00.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2769968413042817

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Message: 2





LOVE FOR FIGHT IS OUR ENERGY! ---- In Dignity Square, fewer and fewer people gather. Today we are not thousands, we are only hundreds.
Nevertheless, the conflict does not diminish, the love of fighting and the thirst for revenge are incombustible. ---- The monument to
Baquedano is interposed with anti-abuse stripes from SENAME, beautiful fabrics and rebel seams. There are also some mapuches ( chemamüll )
costumes . ---- Until then came the column that walked 500 kilometers from the city of Concepción, they make their way through the applause
and, in their eyes you can see the decision to move on, the bumps that covered the place are the ones that retreat. ---- Soon a caravan of
armored police vehicles arrives and are greeted by hooded with a shower of incendiary bombs and stones.
First-line brothers report that on Friday they saw a protester with a fractured skull and internal bleeding when struck directly with a tear
bomb on his head, who was severely hospitalized. The "Social Table" camp outside the Federal Supreme Court begins.

Hooded people make a lively protest inside a mall against Christmas consumerism.

Sturbucks workers demand the resignation of the manager who scoffed at the women and the sex dissidents who performed the "you are the
rapist" performance.

At the Parliament's human rights commission, the police chief is questioned and said the liquid released by the shielded fire hydrant
contains CS gas, which, according to studies, causes severe lung, heart and liver damage.

At the Central Post, they have already created a protocol for the injured by the significant increase in cases of chemical burns.

According to doctors, two new gases used by anti-disturbances, which would have 27% arsenic, were detected. These chemical weapons are the
ones that make the protesters explosively vomit.

In Valparaiso on Saturday night, a civilian policeman is identified and a mob attacks him with stones, blows and he is stabbed five times.
They report that from helicopters, minions fired bullets at Viña del Mar and civil police in a municipal car tried to kidnap a protester,
solidarity forces managed to avoid and save the boy.

In Copiapó, two hooded men sprayed the house of the Carabineiros general with insults and anarchic slogans. In the escape they were
intercepted and detained by PDI.

In Loncoche, the fascists attacked the only cultural center of the place. Anonymous Chile filters names, addresses, and phone numbers of
fascist groups.

For fear of attacks and threats, the fascist restaurant "Lili Marlen" closes for good.

In Quilicura, where there used to be a bank, today grows a beautiful square with gardens cared for by neighbors, who also exchange seeds.

At the COP25 in Madrid, the Minister of Energy announces the closure of the Ventanas I coal plant by 2020 and Ventanas II by 2022. Quintero
environmentalists and residents are happy but warn and describe the closure as a triumph of social pressure.

The president cancels his trip to the change of command in Argentina, we all assume that it is because of the fear of demonstrations against
him in the transandean country.

The situation of the prisoners of the social revolt is becoming more widespread thanks to the articulation of the "October 18 Coordinator".

ANEF announces strike for Tuesday, December 10th.

Called for the activity on Saturday, 14, on the Rondizzoni subway, for the 105th anniversary of the avenging anarchist Antonio Ramón Ramón
against the butcher of the Santa Maria de Iquique school.

We are still awaiting improvements in pensions, salaries, health, education and the environment... This is not over yet.

We are nobody's cannon fodder, we fight with our own convictions!

THE GREATEST REVOLT IS IN OUR HEARTS!

Honor to Sebastían Oversluij (Angry), killed in a bank expropriation on 12/11/2013. This one goes for you too...

NT

Translation> Liberto

anarchist news agency-ana

https://noticiasanarquistas.noblogs.org/post/2019/12/12/chile-santiago-53o-dia-de-revolta-social/

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Message: 3






Military chiefs name CLASS WAR as part of a secret 'hard left network centred on Jeremy Corbyn. The article by TOM NEWTON-DUNN in last
Saturday's Sun was hastily withdrawn and now the archived piece naming CW has been removed.
This maybe the shape of things to come comrades where conspiracy theorists link with right wing libertarian groups to provide the government
with cover to crack down on groups like CW . Newton Dunn is political editor of The Sun so his contacts in military intelligence will be
good but this is crap but will serve to set the agenda for what Boris can get away with in the coming months.

facebook.com/ClassWarOfficial/posts/2416257941925152

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Message: 4






A poster of the neo-fascist group Atalante. ---- Here is the first text of a series of three treatants of piracy. ---- In general, when we
refer to piracy, some clichés like the black flags with the skull (Jolly Roger), the treasures and the physical mutilations come to us
quickly in mind. The pirate also takes the contemporary forms of Somali fisherman converts to piracy, computer scientist or pirate radios.
But a neo-Nazi, really? ---- Buccaneer, buccaneer, pirate or privateer? ---- Piracy, sometimes also called the flibust (1), is an ancient
phenomenon that has long served the states before it allowed sailors to free themselves for a time from the oppression of empires and the
brutality of their world. In their heyday (1715-1725), these enterprises caused a crisis in the lucrative Atlantic trading system and
greatly disrupted the slave trade.

Far from considering themselves as vulgar thieves, these pariahs of all nations see themselves as homeless men who have declared war on the
world. As Marcus Rediker points out, the author of the book Pirates of All Countries: " Pirates oppose the elite and the powers of the time.
By their actions, they become "scoundrels" of all nations ... the more the pirates build and profit from their autonomous existence, the
more the authorities are determined to destroy them. "(P. 274)

  To learn more about this book you can read the text: [Book]Pirates of All Countries: The Golden Age of Atlantic Piracy (1716-1726)

So far, we are far from the racist theories promoted by neo-Nazi skinheads.

Corsairs or racing war

During the Second World War in Germany, a network of young anti-fascists, who declared war on the Hitler youth, claimed to be the pirates of
the Edelweiss. So today, how can Atalante's fascists claim to be privateer? Quite simply because the corsair is not a pirate but a mercenary
accredited in the service of a king. The corsairs, armed with private capital, were provided with a letter of race issued by the State which
authorized them to wage war. Like Woods Roger, a British privateer who later became governor general of the Bahamas (1728-1732) or the
French privateer Jean-François de La Rocque de Roberval says the sieur de Roberval who was lieutenant-governor in Canada.

The discipline of Jamaica

The buccaneers (1650-1680), who adopted the expression of the brothers from the coast, took their name from the boucan, a smoking technique
they took from the Arawak. Originally, the buccaneers came mainly from England, France and the Netherlands. But they were quickly joined by
Amerindians and Africans. They squatted land on the large island of Hispaniola and their activities revolved around hunting wild pigs and
collecting gold from the King of Spain.

In the libertarian movement, buccaneers and pirates of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries are often considered proto-anarchists (2)
because of their horizontal social organization. The mode of organization of these sailors is called the discipline of Jamaica and provides
for democratic checks of authority as well as provisions for the wounded: " By developing their own social order, the buccaneers (3) try to
emulate utopia a peasant called pays de cocagne (4) where work is abolished, property redistributed, social differences leveled, health
restored and food produced in abundance. "(116)

It will be readily admitted that we are a thousand leagues from the thousand-year Reich.

 From pirate to pirate

The explosion of piracy follows the end of the Spanish War of Succession. Captains like Benjamin Hornigold, John Jenning and John Cockram
continue to attack their traditional enemies: " we were looting for others, we are now looting for ourselves ". (p. 88)

These pirates choose a way of life that challenges the traditions of a society they reject. They rely on buccaneers' traditions: " Each ship
operates under the terms of a short contract approved by the crew, established at the beginning of a voyage or on the occasion of the
election of a new captain. (P.120)

Even today, pirates continue to fascinate and inspire those who resist the powerful. For example, the ecologists of the organization founded
by Paul Watson, Sea Shepherd . Watson is even nicknamed the environmental pirate. There are also the zadists of Notre-Dame-des-Landes who
claim the spirit of revolt of the flibuste.

The next text in the series: Women and pirates

(1) The term is used in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to designate the profession and activities of the pirates of the Caribbean
(filibusters, buccaneers, corsairs)
(2) Hakim Bey, Temporary autonomy zone
(3) One of the references underlying the culture of buccaneers is the English Revolution.
(4) Larousse: Imaginary country where one has everything in abundance and without pain.
by Collectif Emma Goldman

http://ucl-saguenay.blogspot.com/2019/12/neo-fascisme-et-piraterie-ou-le.html

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Message: 5






It all started when a young rapper named D1ST1, who collected more than a million shots in less than 24 hours, released a clip called Act I
Yellow Vests . Very quickly propelled to the rank of star of the yellow vests, Toulouse was one of the guests at the counter-summit of the
G7 last August. Back on his career and his involvement in the movement of yellow vests. ---- D1ST1, can you introduce yourself in a few
words ? ---- I live in Toulouse, I grew up partly in Saint-Cyprien, but actually throughout the city because I alternated between home life,
home, or even the street. I spent half of my life rapping, I started at 14 and I have 28 today. I have always been independent, I finance my
music alone, which brings me nothing today. ---- You have been present in the yellow vests since the beginning of the movement. How and why
did you join this revolt  ?

I am present since the first act of Toulouse, that is to say the act 2. Since very small, I was a victim of injustice, whether police,
social or otherwise. When we are alone and the system is fighting against us, we must do more than others to survive. In addition, I did not
grow up with my family, but from an early age I saw my parents struggling for lack of money. It's this feeling of gall and anger that has
come to the fore in yellow vests, and seeing thousands of people shouting loudly for so long, I have not hesitated to rejoin.

"  Since I was little, I have been a victim of social injustice  "
What touched you the most in these weeks of yellow vest wrestling ?

What immediately touched me during the demonstrations was the humanity that emanated from them. Mutual support, sharing and goodwill in the
movement marked me, being able to discuss and freely exchange topics that concern us, it did me a lot of good, and removed the prejudices
that I sometimes had. It is also the fact of seeing these elderly, disabled, or in difficulty, explain to us that they have no more life,
and that they find themselves unable to defend themselves or to arrange their situation. . I think a lot of people are part of the movement
for that: helping others.

In your texts, you often describe the misery experienced by the popular classes, or the police violence in the protests and at the foot of
the HLM. Do you consider your music as militant rap ?

I do not know how to categorize my music. Basically, I always talk about my story, my feelings. The harshness of social class life from
below, grandpas crying at the camera because they can not eat while they have worked all their lives, all that I knew, but seeing it changed
things. I did not want to "   surf   " on the movement of the yellow vests, but after several weeks I needed to write, I composed the act 1
very quickly. I thought it was my role, a good way to get a message across, to show the reality on the ground. Since the beginning of the
year, I have been talking about important things for all and all the protesters, so I think we can say that it is militant rap.

Projects for the future ?

I started making concerts, and I intend to release an album by the end of the year. There is also my brand of t-shirts that I launched.
Otherwise, I'm just going to do my best to get things done, for a better world.

Interviewed by Benjamin (UCL Angers)

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Interview-D1ST1-le-rappeur-en-gilet-jaune

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Message: 6






50 years have passed since that 12 December 1969, when in Milan in Piazza Fontana a bomb exploded in the National Agricultural Bank and made
a massacre of innocent victims, 17 dead, 18 with the assassination of Giuseppe Pinelli, anarchist railroad worker, pushed down from the
window on the fourth floor of the police station on December 15th. He said he was a massacre of state without denial. It was a season of
attacks, where the guilty anarchists were wanted at all costs, years of plots and misleadings without ever reaching the real culprits and
who saw another victim Pietro Valpreda, slammed on the front page as a monster, remained in prison for 1110 days before being acquitted.
Bombs, innocent and casual victims, without convictions and without guilty. Between 1968 and 1974 there were 140 attacks, all of them
neo-fascist, the Piazza Fontana massacre started what will be called Tension Strategy. The stragista strategy was used to stop the workers
'and students' struggles as a preventive action against the feared revolutionary break, to prevent a possible social transformation that
could no longer be recovered.

Towards the end of the 1960s, a very strong labor movement was emerging, the years of contract renewals, workers 'and students' struggles
and social conquests. All this is preceded by dramatic episodes where the police shoot at the protesters during the strikes and
demonstrations: as in Avola where two laborers and wounded 48 are killed, the episode of the "Bussola" in Viareggio where the police shoot
at a boy who he will remain paralyzed forever, or in Battipaglia the police shoot and kill two people and injure two hundred. Bombs explode
at the trade fair and at the central station as well as bombs on trains in Milan in August '69. Also in Milan on 19 November during the
general strike involving 20 million workers on a national level, against the high cost of living and in support of the house reform, the
police brutally attacked the procession of workers and students, police officer Annarumma was killed in a terrible battle, struck, according
to the manipulated official version, by an innocent tube during the clashes. This will give the fascist Sanbabilini thugs (of Piazza
Sanbabila in Milan) the chance to stage violent demonstrations in the "hunt for the red". Following these facts, a general strike will be
proclaimed on December 19, which will not be due to city mourning. In Pisa during a demonstration the police kill a student with a tear gas
canister. Trade union struggles in Italy will be accompanied by demonstrations against the war in Vietnam. In October, in many American
cities, millions of citizens will march against American military intervention.

These were years of great participation in the demands, such as the pensions of the beginning of '69, known as the Brodolini reform, named
after the socialist minister who proposed it. But the autumn of 1969 will be remembered as "the hot autumn", due to the demands for contract
renewals, millions of workers awaiting renewal after contributing to the economic boom by raising profits while their wages remained at
stake. The workers' struggles explode on economic and political claims: equal pay increases for all, reduction of working hours to 40 hours
per week on 5 days, equalization of workers / employees in the treatment of illness and accidents, abolition of wage cages, right to
assembly during working hours,

At Fiat, 122 workers are fired, and union officials are reported everywhere who take the factory to assemblies during strikes. They will be
sentenced two years later.

However, new opportunities have opened up for contract renewals. Construction workers will be the first to sign a good contract followed by
chemists, Pirelli closes the labor dispute with an increase in the production bonus and the recognition of the department delegates, however
the metalworkers and laborers remain without a contract who will influence the subsequent political climate making it incandescent. In
December, workers and the union, not at all intimidated, re-launch the claims, this is where the trade union demands are united with the
social demands: that of the reform of the house with the block of rents for 3 years and that of the tax reform by raising the share of the
tax exempt tax.

Workers and the union, especially in its most conflicting and antagonistic component, will be the protagonists of that season of struggles.
The great mass participation in the strikes, in the assemblies, in the decision-making moments on the wage claims and not only, have made of
that historical period an important reference and a patrimony of not indifferent struggles, for the future generations. The welding of wage
struggles and social demands: housing, rights, the needs of workers who are then citizens when they leave the factory, the unity between
workers and in some sectors of employees and technicians, of students, have been elements important for the class struggle in the broadest
sense of the term. The working class will know how to hold up for a long time, making use of precisely those experiences of struggle, to the
bosses and to those reactionary sectors that will do their strategy in the following years. We cannot say the same thing about the parties,
not even the PCI that adapts to the struggles without enthusiasm, always very critical and excessively gradual, for some time had begun a
process of transformation getting closer, in an opportunist way, to the majorities of government.

The warm autumn will close with the funerals of the victims of the Piazza Fontana massacre with a large citizen participation and the
signing of the metalworkers' contract, in fact imposed on the parties, by the minister Donat Cattin that the metalworkers approve.

Left forces will increase their popular support especially the PCI. The new phase with the line of the historic compromise, the new
strategic element of the PCI and the compatibility with the system in order to enter the area of government, will change its policy. Not
only that, the line of the CGIL with the politics of sacrifices and the turning of the EUR, in 1978, will sell off a patrimony of struggles
conquered with hard sacrifices. From here on it will be another story.

The massacre is of state

Before the bomb - a short chronology

Yet our idea ...

http://alternativalibertaria.fdca.it/wpAL/blog/2019/12/12/dalla-stagione-delle-lotte-operaie-e-studentesche-alla-strategia-della-tensione

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Message: 7






The Iranians joked gloomily: "We were scared that if there were protests, we would become like North Korea, Syria or Venezuela - now we have
become a mixture of all three: from the point of view of the economy - Venezuela, the Internet - North Korea, protests - Syria." ---- Is the
Iranian Empire collapsing? ---- From Tehran to Beirut - One Revolution! In these words, protesters in the capital of Lebanon, Beirut,
expressed support for the demonstrators in Iran. What comes from Tehran to Beirut - the protests and riots of the poorest segments of the
population, including largely the Shiites of Lebanon, Iraq and Iran itself - is, at the same time, nothing more than a rebellion against the
Shiite empire created by Iran . ---- Having made titanic efforts to create this empire (the Shiite crescent), the Iranians achieved success
by beating the United States, Israel and the Saudis, but then the ground went under their feet. Virtuosos of political intrigue, they turned
out to be mediocre economists and sociologists. They brought only poverty, social stratification and corruption to the countries they
control, causing widespread anger.

The New York Times recently published a new investigation based on a spill of 700 pages of secret intelligence reports from the Iranian
Ministry of Intelligence and Security. This investigation sheds light on Iran's deep penetration into all structures of Iraqi society. It
was Iran, with its vast network of spies and powerful assets, that manipulated Iraqi politics, forming power structures, giving gifts and
financing the right politicians. Iraq, with its oil wealth, has become a dependent country, a "pearl in the crown of the Iranian empire." In
line with this shift, the current movement of Iraqis seeking to gain control of their own lives is anti-Iranian. Cursing their own regime,
the Iraqis systematically attack the Iranian consulates in revenge for the demonstrators killed by pro-Iranian militants.

Lebanon
In Lebanon, mass protests also spilled onto the streets: members of public movements did not want to let deputies into the parliament
building. Previously, protesters took to the streets a quarter of the Lebanese population, about 2 million people, including hundreds of
thousands of Shiites who burned several offices of the pro-Iranian Shiite party (and armed militia) of Hezbollah. Hezbollah is the most
powerful military force in Lebanon and, in fact, rules in this country. In Lebanon, leaderless protests organized through social networks
have led to the resignation of the government and the abolition of unpopular taxes.

Iraq
In Iraq, thousands of people occupied the central squares of Shiite cities, from Baghdad to Basra and Nasiriyya, demanding the departure of
the government and the improvement of their economic situation. They did not calm down after the resignation of the prime minister.
Protesters are very active in Tahrir Baghdad Square, where they created a daily newspaper called Tuk-Tuk. They repair streets, sidewalks and
fountains, manage clinics and other public institutions. The center of Baghdad has become a place of youth self-organization, primarily from
the poorest segments of the population. Meanwhile, from October 1 (protests began in Iraq on that day), pro-Iranian police and, possibly,
Iranian special forces have already killed more than 400 Iraqis and injured about 15 thousand.

Iran
Meanwhile, in Iran itself there were massive protests caused by rising fuel prices. Performances spanned over 100 cities. Protesters blocked
roads and set fire to offices of government services, banks and the police. The authorities used live ammunition to disperse the
demonstrators, the number of dead was up to 200 people, according to Amnesty International, but over 1000 in the opinion of the Iranian
opposition.

Although the leadership of Iran is difficult to cope with the protests in several countries, including their own, it is possible. Iranian
spiritual leader Ali Khamenei has several hundred thousand armed militants from different countries. This network of pro-Iranian militias,
armies and armed detachments funded by the Iranian leadership is built so that the Iranians can be sent to pacify Baghdad, and the Lebanese,
for example, to Tehran.

According to the Iranian opposition,"Everything about Iran's November national protests, which spread to 189 cities, is unprecedented. From
dozens of security institutions and hundreds of bank offices burned down by protesters in just five days, to the regime's brutal reaction.
More than 1,000 unarmed demonstrators, many of whom were random passers-by, including at least 19 children, were shot and killed in the
streets, at least 4,000 were injured and 12,000 were detained, some of whom were injured. torture death in prisons, while the regime is busy
celebrating its victory and boasting that it was not overthrown during protests, Iranians vent their anger during small protests and on
social media platforms. December 7, National Student Day Iran students at more than 10 universities across Iran gathered to denounce the
regime's brutality, calling for resistance and unity. Twitter, Instagram and other social media platforms are awash with angry messages and
anti-regime statements. Some Iranians say that next time they will take up arms ... Although it is not clear exactly when the next round of
national protests in Iran will take place, it is clear that Iran is a powder keg ready to explode. And this time, the explosion will blow
the regime. " when exactly the next round of nationwide protests in Iran will happen, it is clear that Iran is a powder keg ready to
explode. And this time, the explosion will blow the regime. " when exactly the next round of national protests in Iran will happen, it is
clear that Iran is a powder keg ready to explode. And this time, the explosion will blow the regime. "

However, the Iranian opposition may exaggerate the scale and radicalism of the protests. Some of their participants write that they did not
commit any violence, and that rumors about it are spread by the regime itself.
***
The general requirements of all the protesters in the Shiite belt, including Iran, are jobs, the establishment of public utilities, the
provision of the population with the necessary basic services, medicine and education, and tax cuts. In addition, these performances have a
strong nationalist component. Iraqis and Lebanese are united in the fight against Iranian influence. Nationalism is becoming the basis for
the struggle within Iran. Many of its residents do not like the fact that the government spends billions of dollars to support its friendly
movements in other countries. That is why, along with economic slogans, the following is put forward: "Neither Gaza, nor Lebanon, I will
give my life only for Iran!". This slogan is anti-war and socio-economic, but in it, as in the slogans of Iraqis and Lebanese, there is also
a nationalist component.

The peoples of the region, especially the representatives of the poorest segments of the population, are protesting against their own
governments and against the Iranian regime - the true owner of these countries. This is a very naive movement that requires the government
to provide workers with a dream, supply of electricity and clean water. Many use the symbol of the Joker from the American film of the same
name, painting their faces to become like this movie hero - a distraught rebel who is violent and devoid of any positive ideas.

And yet, it is a broad, decentralized, leaderless, non-partisan movement, encompassing millions of people throughout the empire created by
Iran. It is directed against the ruling class, it wants to improve its social position and its initiators are the poorest segments of the
population - the working class with factories, the unemployed, students, and self-employed workers. Perhaps these protests will become a
force that will help in the future to forge a new autonomous class consciousness of workers, a new movement of self-governing assemblies of
workers and Councils subordinate to them? So thinks, for example, a social researcher from the Netherlands - Fredo Corvo. In his opinion, in
these mass leaderless protests, the social lower classes gradually acquire the skills of self-organized class resistance and form the
beginnings of a future system of autonomous Soviets. But that look seems to be

In any case, the protest movement in Lebanon, Iraq and Iran has already changed the whole region. He will never be the same.

https://avtonom.org/author_columns/ot-tegerana-do-beyruta-odna-blizhnevostochnaya-revolyuciya

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Message: 8






The presence of social movement NGO's cannot be missed within the American political landscape. And while they have faced well deserved
critiques with the publishing of works such as The Revolution Will Not Be Funded or the related Accomplices Not Allies, there still remains
much to unpack on all the ways they work against building the power from below we need. This piece by a food service worker and organizer on
the Restaurant Opportunities Center is an important contribution. ---- By Jean-Carl Elliott ---- From the time I was 14 years old until the
time I turned 30, the only jobs I had ever held were in the food service industry. At 30, when I got offered a job as an organizer at a
non-profit worker center called Restaurant Opportunities Center (ROC), I thought that I had achieved my dream job. Not only was it a
salaried position with insurance and a retirement plan, but I would be fighting full-time on behalf of the low-wage workers, single parents,
immigrants and other marginalized people that I had gotten to know through all the places I had worked.

It took four long years before I came to the realization that I wasn't going to do that working at ROC. Despite their glossy brochures, big
budgets, staffers and other resources, I now believe that non-profits are a dead end for social movements and for aspiring organizers. It
wasn't until I quit my job at ROC and decided to organize directly with my coworkers at a small restaurant that I really began to grasp what
real worker power could look like.
***
In 2012, I was a waiter at Maggiano's Little Italy in Detroit, which is part of the second-biggest restaurant conglomerate in the US,
Brinker International. During a pre-shift meeting, the managers handed out paperwork to everyone and said we had to sign it. The line at the
top read "Agreement to Arbitrate" and it had a bunch of language about waiving my right to participate in lawsuits.

I asked my manager why we were signing this and if I could take a few days to think about it. He said, "When you first got hired, you signed
one of these with your paperwork. I think corporate just wants another one so that we can have one in our store office and one at the
corporate office." Seemed sketchy, so I just said "okay" and went and worked my shift. That night after work, I went to the parking lot and
called a friend. He was involved with a bunch of different activist groups, so I wanted his input. I said, "Hey man, I'm working at a
restaurant right now and it's really sketchy and fucked up. Do you know of any restaurant unions in the area?" He said that there weren't
any to his knowledge, but there was an organization called ROC which had organized workers at a local restaurant a couple years back and
that I should contact them. As soon as we got off the phone, I called the number on their website and left a voicemail.

I didn't even really know what organizing was or even how unions actually worked. I just sort of figured that when things got bad at work,
you "called in the union." Then some rowdy people would show up and then by some weird alchemy you got what you wanted.

Federal minimum wage for tipped workers such as restaurant servers has remained at $2.13 since 1991.
"Time to Kick Some Ass": Joining ROC
The next day, I was contacted by a ROC organizer and was asked to come to a new member orientation. I was able to meet their staff and a
local attorney. I told them about what was going on and they said that I had the right to see my employee file and make copies of anything
that was in there. I thought, "Cool, now I know my rights. Time to kick some ass."

At work, I went straight to the general manager and said, "I'd like to see my employee file and make a copy of the arbitration agreement I
signed." I thought he would give me a hard time and then I would say, "I have a right to see it!" but he didn't even flinch and said,
"Great. We can make a copy after your shift." After my shift, we made a copy and he smiled at me and I thanked him and left. When I got
home, I went to my girlfriend and said, "Okay, you read me the new one and I'll follow along with the old one to see if they match." She
started reading and everything matched up verbatim, but then she read a part that wasn't in the old copy. It was about class action
lawsuits. I did a Google search for the name of my company, plus "class action lawsuit," and sure enough, they were being sued by workers at
their other locations.

I was gonna make a big fuss about this because I knew my rights and I was a member of ROC and it was time to stand up!

The next day at the pre-shift meeting, the managers reminded us about needing to sign the arbitration agreement. I raised my hand and asked,
"Are we signing these because of the East Coast class action lawsuits this company is facing?" They calmly replied that it was because of
the reasons stated before and said it was time to end the meeting. I thought, "Alright. I just scared the shit out of them. It's about to go
down now." My manager stopped me and asked if I could chat with him in the office. So I went and he brought in another manager. They asked
me a bunch of open-ended questions and just let me talk. They assured me that I was worried about nothing and that signing the agreement
wouldn't change anything about the way things were with my job. So I wrote "under duress" on the form, signed it and turned it in.

"The most effective way for this to happen[defang the left]is to make the left completely dependent on foundation money, i.e. the funding of
rich people. Capitalists won't pay you to get rid of capitalism, but they will pay you to make a spectacle that tricks you into thinking you
are."
But things did start to change at work. Even though the company policy was that no server could have more than four tables in their section,
I was given a ten-table section on Sundays with no busser and no food runner. I had to do everything myself and was always overwhelmed.
During my shifts, my managers would come to me and tell me that I was getting complaints online from customers. I would ask if I could see
them and they would say no. Eventually they said I was getting too many complaints and that they had to let me go. I was gonna tell ROC
about this.

A couple years prior, ROC had had a very high-profile campaign at an Italian restaurant in Michigan called Andiamo. The workers there were
facing all sorts of issues, ranging from stolen wages to illegal firings. ROC held meetings with the workers at Andiamo and garnered support
from various community groups. There were a series of actions at the restaurant, including a "tip-in" (where customers sit at the tables but
don't order anything; they stood up and sung protest songs to the managers) and large demonstrations outside of the restaurant with tons of
people, floats, and dramatized conflicts between a ROC superhero and the owner of the company. Eventually, Andiamo and ROC settled the
conflict and the workers were awarded a large sum of money, although since it happened outside of court, Andiamo can still tout that they
were never found guilty of any wrongdoing.

When I went to ROC, I was expecting to be able to pull off these sorts of actions and force my bosses to give me and my coworkers similar
concessions. At my membership orientation, they told me about the different perks of being a ROC member: free hospitality trainings, free
legal counseling, and being able to participate in "workplace justice" campaigns (like the one at Andiamo).

 From Low Road to "High Road"
I told ROC that my coworkers and I were fed up with the way our company was treating us, that I was wrongfully fired, and that we should
have protests like the ones at Andiamo. I said, "The company handbook explicitly says they can't give me a section this big, but they did it
anyways! They can't fire me for something that's against their own policy!" ROC said that the company handbook is not legally binding and
there was nothing they could do, but one of their "High Road" employers was coming in for a visit later in the week and I could talk to him
about a job. I didn't want a new job, I wanted ROC to march into the restaurant I had been fired from and demand justice! But they kept
saying that there was nothing they could do. So I went to meet with their employer partner later in the week.

I ended up getting a job there and was able to get started right away. It was a pretty standard sports grill in the middle of downtown
Detroit: steaks, chicken wings, draft beers and lots of boozy cocktails. I had worked in a similar workplace on the other side of town. I
figured since this employer was taking the "high road to profitability" the workers would be making bank. When I talked to people about how
much money they made, most were making minimum wage and the tips weren't very good. I even heard stories of some of the bussers not
receiving their full share of tips from the servers. How was this the "High Road"?

ROC had monthly meetings where members could come down to their building and hear updates about what was happening in the organization. At
the next meeting, I met with the Workforce Development Director and asked her why my employer was considered "High Road." She said it was
because the boss had hired some formerly incarcerated workers who had gone through ROC's hospitality training programs. There wasn't a set
of standards that they necessarily had to follow - they just had to be trying to do the "right thing." I had figured that a restaurant that
had an endorsement from a national organization like ROC would be a really awesome place to work, but this place had pretty low standards;
in many cases, worse than most of the other places I had worked. The back of house[i.e. kitchen]was filthy, servers would have to pay when a
table pulled a dine-and-dash, and the boss would always call the cooks "stupid motherfuckers." But since the owner was willing to hire
formerly incarcerated workers, it didn't matter how staff were treated - even if there was wage theft. I tried getting some of my coworkers
to come to ROC, but they weren't interested. The job sucked, so when a friend of mine told me that the sushi restaurant she worked at was
hiring, I left the sports bar and got a job with her.

During this time, I was becoming more active with ROC and I had also joined the IWW. Even though I had not witnessed it in person, the
thought of restaurant workers coming together to leverage power was a new and exciting idea to me and I wanted to commit 100% of my energy
to the cause. So when a ROC organizer contacted me and asked me to come to a national convening for restaurant workers, I said "YES!"
immediately and booked a ticket.

I don't really recall a whole lot from that first convening. It was kind of an overwhelming experience to be in a conference room that was
packed full of workers and organizers. One thing I do remember though is that this was the first time I met Saru Jayaraman, a co-founder of
ROC. In many of the workshops and breakout groups, the staffers talked about Saru. A lot. And when Saru talked, she talked about herself. A
lot. And her book. A lot.

At one point in the convening, all the ROC members were gathered into a room for a protest rehearsal. We learned about the Darden
Restaurants conglomerate, and about how they were the largest donor to the National Restaurant Association, a large lobbying group that
fights against minimum wage initiatives and other legislation that would benefit workers. Somehow we had a petition that had been signed by
a large number of Darden workers demanding respect and so we were going to do a mass Jazzercize event in front of their doors as delegates
from ROC delivered the petition to the store managers. I still haven't figured out what Jazzercize had to do with anything, but it was
high-energy and fun and I figured that the people who put all this together knew what they were doing so I just went with it. Nothing ever
became of that petition, to my knowledge.

The next year's convening went a little different. It still followed the same formula where a bunch of members were flown to the convening,
and we had a bunch of breakout sessions where we talked about raising the minimum wage and then about the evils of Darden and the "other"
NRA (National Restaurant Association). Saru would talk about her book, but then correct herself to say "our book" - even though her name is
on the cover and she collects the royalties, the content of the book is comprised of anecdotes from workers, so they're "our stories," I
guess. Once all that was finished, we were going to do another mass demonstration at a Darden location. I don't think I ever met any Darden
workers at a ROC convening, but we were assured that we represented their best interests and that they loved us for it.

ROC co-founder Saru Jayaraman speaking on wage theft in 2015 at the Women's Economic Agenda Press Conference.
The Staff Union and "Reunification Plan"
The convening really did a 180 after lunch one day when the ROC staffers gathered all the members in the conference room and told us that
they had locked Saru and the other directors out of the room. The organizers had some pressing news to tell the members: they had formed a
union and they needed to let us know what the top brass of ROC had been up to. Up until this point, ROC locals each acted with a pretty
large amount of autonomy. Each local director was in charge of their own fundraising and they could then use that money to address local
issues, local workplaces, etc. Money came in through lawsuits against employers, donations from local unions and faith groups, small
government grants, etc. Saru and her cohort were trying to push through what was called the "Reunification Plan," which the organizers
explained was a megalomaniacal scheme to take over ROC. The way ROC would be restructured would be that all fundraising would happen at the
national level and then be dispersed to the local affiliates. As time went by, I learned that this meant that less money would come from the
community and more and more money would come from big foundations.

Right around that time, our state director announced that she was leaving ROC. I was really bummed out because she was very personable with
me and the other members and she seemed to really care about us. She and one of the organizers helped me and other members graduate from
ROC's Leadership Institute, where we learned about community organizing and how to bring worker and community issues to our local elected
officials. Our graduation happened at a small gala event in which we were honored alongside some local "High Road" employers and politicians.

When our new director was introduced, she spoke very briefly about how she was just filling in as an interim director. Everyone's jaw
basically hit the floor when she said she didn't know anything about restaurant workers or workers' rights and that she wanted to be there
for as short a time as possible. I now understand that non-profit administration acts like a revolving door: an executive director of one
organization one day will be the executive director of another organization the next, depending on who pays more. This new director's
background was in consulting, so she hopped from place to place pretty often, and I think that was her initial plan with ROC. She ended up
staying in that position for about five years.

As the directors were transitioning, I was asked to work on a contract basis as a "hospitality instructor." My first contract was to teach
"Front of House 101: Introduction to Fine Dining." Students learned proper wine service, setting the table for fine dining, and other skills
that would help them move up in the industry. Trainings were held at ROC's social enterprise restaurant Colors. I really enjoyed teaching,
but it was strange that our new director was asking me to remove the parts of the curriculum that covered minimum wage laws, health and
safety protections, sexual harassment, and other worker rights. I argued that these were some of the most worthwhile parts of the training:
nobody knows about these things and restaurant workers get screwed on a daily basis. She said that our funders didn't want us politicizing
workers. "We aren't telling them who to vote for," I said. "These are the laws and workers should know them." She insisted that I not teach
these parts of the curriculum because we could lose funding. I told her okay, but she was never actually in the building so I kept teaching
them anyways.

My student reviews were good and I kept getting more contracts to teach. All sorts of students enrolled in our classes: low-wage workers who
wanted better jobs, people who had never worked in restaurants at all, and sometimes folks who were just getting released from incarceration
who needed help getting back on their feet. They had special programs for the formerly incarcerated called "re-entry programs" and one day,
I received a piece of mail from the city's workforce development department, inviting me to a re-entry conference. This part of the letter
struck me really hard:

Employers who hire returning citizens have concluded that returning citizens make excellent employees because they are grateful for a second
chance, are under the supervision of a probation officer who serves as a resource for the employer and assists with the employee retention
and success, and are drug tested regularly. Tax credits and bonding programs provide additional incentives for employers to hire returning
citizens.

I immediately thought back to the "High Road" restaurant I had worked at. I wondered if the workers who didn't want to say anything about
stolen wages were also "under the supervision of a probation officer who serves as a resource to the employer." I felt sick and decided that
I was going to go to this conference and I was going to speak up.

At the conference, I went to the breakfast table. There was a banquet server who was checking the fruit and replenishing the coffee. I
struck up a conversation and was going to talk to her about ROC. After some small talk, I asked, "So is this a union job?" and she said
"yes." I wasn't expecting that because I didn't even know restaurant workers had unions. I said, "Oh cool. Which one?" "Local 24," she
answered. "Local 24 of what union?" I asked. "I don't know," she replied. "They just take money out of my check and it goes to Local 24." At
that point they called us to our seats. Near the end of the event, there was a Q&A session, so I stood up and said, "I think it's important
that people have a second chance once they've been released from prison, but what are we doing to keep people out of jail in the first
place?" Everyone just stared at me, many with smug grins on their faces. I didn't know what else to do, so I just packed up my shit and left.

Jayaraman with actress Amy Poehler at the 2018 Golden Globe Awards.
Three Prongs Like a Fork
Around this time, all of ROC's staff were jumping ship. Even the chef at their restaurant, Colors. The organizer who I had worked with the
closest invited me out to coffee and told me she was leaving too. I was really bummed out because I respected her a lot and admired her
passion. She had shown me how to talk to people on the streets about our "Good Food, Good Jobs" campaign and had helped me prep for
presentations in front of city council members and state representatives. I gained a lot of confidence from working with her. But what she
told me next blew my mind: she said she thought that I should apply for the job she was leaving. She said, "I think you'd be really good at
it and I'd love to see you in that position." (Throughout all this time, my ROC involvement had been as an unpaid "member" and then as a
contract instructor - I still had my job at the sushi restaurant.) I had never even imagined that I could be an organizer - I thought you
needed some kind of degree or something. But I was gonna go for it and if I got hired, ROC was going to have actions like the ones at
Andiamo on a daily basis. Not only did they call me in for an interview, but they gave me the job!

There were 3 "prongs" (like a fork) to ROC's work when I first joined as a member: Workplace Justice (organizing workers around workplace
issues), Research and Policy (advocating to change the laws in favor of workers), and High Road (hospitality trainings, ethical employers,
and ROC's restaurant, Colors). Each of these prongs had its own staff person. By the time I was hired as an organizer, there were no other
staff people - I would have to do all three prongs by myself. But I was fresh and eager and knew I could do it!

I remembered that ROC staffers had formed a union a couple years back. I wanted to join, so I started asking how to sign up. It took a few
weeks of me sending emails until someone finally got me in touch with a union rep. I was expecting some kind of pep talk about how "We're
all in this together!" and how great unions are, but instead I just got an email with a dues form attached, which said that failure to sign
up could get me disciplined because our contract had a "closed shop" clause. I suddenly thought about the banquet server from Local 24. (I
later found out that Local 24 belonged to UNITE HERE; our union was a part of the Communications Workers of America, Local 38010.)

Not too long after that, we had an all-staff convening in Washington, DC. Staff from all over the country would be there. It was gonna be my
first one as a staffer and I was really pumped to meet everyone and get to work. On the first day, we were handed packets with a new
organizational chart. Apparently a lot of jobs had been shuffled around and the organization was very top-heavy with management positions.
There were actually more directors and supervisors than there were staff. The other organizers were chatting during lunch and we decided to
have a meeting that night in someone's hotel room. In the meantime, we had to sit through a bunch of presentations from consultants who had
heavy ties to the Democratic Party. I remember one presenter brought up that we needed to change our image. He said that the image of an
angry worker waving a sign at a protest isn't going to appeal to the sympathy of voters in the same way that a small business "High Road"
employer would. All of the organizers in the room looked at each other and rolled our eyes, almost in unison.

That night, we had our impromptu union meeting in a cramped hotel room. Our contract clearly stated that changes to our jobs had to be
cleared by us and the union before they went into writing. But the new organizational chart clearly changed our positions without our
consent, so we were gonna plan an action. We talked about having an action during the next day's session, but apparently ROC had already
filed some sort of grievance against the union for a similar action because it constituted a "work stoppage." I remember saying, "So
interrupting a consultant from the Democratic Party is a work stoppage?" and apparently it was. The next day, we asked if we could have a
debrief session about the first day of the conference. They said yes, so all of the staffers immediately stood up and one by one, we each
said, "My debrief is that our union contract was violated," and then after the last person spoke, we told Saru that we wanted to discuss the
issue. She said, "absolutely not" and that we had too much other business to cover. So we responded by saying that our union reps would be
contacting her. The following week or so resulted in a few phone calls and emails, but nothing was resolved.

How to Kill a Revolution: The Funding Trap
I was starting to see that the ROC I was working for was not the ROC I had joined as a worker. The driving purpose seemed to be to satisfy
our funders, i.e. foundations. In order to understand that, we need to understand what a foundation is.

Wealthy people donate their money to "charitable" foundations to get tax breaks. Foundations then fund nonprofits like ROC to do
"charitable" work. In order to keep the foundation money coming in, you have to abide by their terms; in other words, you have to act in a
way that rich people will want to keep giving you money. Now I understood what the consultant was saying about not wanting the image of the
agitated worker. The famous Black Panther chairman Fred Hampton has a famous quote, "You can kill a revolutionary, but you can't kill a
revolution" and I think foundations understand this the best. In the 1960s, it was becoming difficult for the government to infiltrate
left-wing groups and to jail or kill their leaders. There were just too many. So the next best thing would be for capital to just organize
the left and completely defang it. The most effective way for this to happen is to make the left completely dependent on foundation money,
i.e. the funding of rich people. Capitalists won't pay you to get rid of capitalism, but they will pay you to make a spectacle that tricks
you into thinking you are. A lot of groups buy into this without actually reflecting on what their actions are actually accomplishing.

Back in Michigan, a former organizer was brought in to give me a training about how she used to recruit workers. One of these methods was
the one-on-one conversation. She helped me learn the Socratic method of asking questions to help workers understand the root of their
issues. During a role-play exercise, I pretended to be a worker. She asked me why my wages were so low. I thought of my restaurant
experience and said, "Because my boss is an asshole." She didn't seem to want to accept that answer. She explained to me that the "other"
NRA lobbied our elected officials to keep wages down. I said, "Okay, but that doesn't mean that my boss is being forced to not pay me more."
It was difficult for me to explain that I wasn't trying to give her a hard time; I just didn't think that the "other" NRA was a good target
for action. During these sessions and also during conversations with ROC directors, it was explained to me that going after individual
employers wasn't feasible. There were too many of them and we could affect all of the restaurant workers at once if we changed policy. We
were also told that unions represented only 1/10 of 1% of the restaurant workforce and that was a result of the shortcomings of the labor
movement, and the inability of unions to form bargaining units in restaurants. They said employee turnover was just too high and workers
were too vulnerable to speak up for themselves. Policy was the best way forward.

Months later, I was sitting in a coalition meeting with the director of ROC and other directors and staffers from some other local
nonprofits. There was an icebreaker question, asking what we were excited about on that particular day. I responded that I had just heard
about workers at a restaurant called Burgerville in Portland, who had just held the first ever successful union election at a fast food
restaurant, and that it gave me hope that workers were finding ways to fight for what they deserve. My director immediately cut me off. She
said, "Perhaps Jean-Carl is confused about who signs his paychecks as he's over here talking about Burger Town or whatever, but I'm here for
ROC and so I'm excited for ROC and One Fair Wage," which was a minimum wage initiative that ROC was going to spearhead (more on that in a
minute).

Why was this such an issue? Why couldn't I be excited for a group that wasn't ROC? Because of funders. When you're a nonprofit, you are
constantly competing for funding. So if you're not always advertising yourself to them, you risk losing a grant. This came up again after I
had brought ROC members to a "Fight for 15" event. My director asked, "Can I see the pictures you took?" I said, "I didn't take any
pictures. I didn't know I was supposed to." She replied, "Our funders want to see action. If you didn't take any pictures, you might as well
have just not gone."

One day at work, one of the staffers from Colors restaurant asked me, "How come ROC fights for all these issues for restaurant workers, but
they don't give them to the workers at their own restaurant?" She told me that she had heard about ROC's efforts for paid sick leave, but
she had just gotten sick and didn't get paid time off. So I told her that the rest of ROC's staff had a union contract and that Colors
should sign up. I discussed it with our union president and he told me to absolutely sign them up, so I uploaded our union website onto my
computer and I brought everyone in, one by one, to enroll them in the union. At the end of the week, on Friday, we send the executive team a
petition for voluntary recognition and said, "We look forward to working with you." When we came back into work on Monday, Colors was closed
indefinitely.

The following months consisted of endless emails and phone calls, trying to figure out what to do. ROC argued that there were budgetary
issues which caused the closure. They said that because I wasn't meeting my goals as a staffer our foundation funding had been cut. They
tried to blame everything on me. After three months of endless emails, phone calls and meetings, we finally got Colors open again, but
morale seemed really low and several people had found new jobs and wouldn't return my calls. I had really thought that since ROC owned and
ran Colors to be the flagship "High Road" restaurant, and because ROC was a self-proclaimed advocate for workers' rights, that they would
never union-bust their own people. I had to learn the hard way that a boss is a boss is a boss is a boss. Feeling defeated, the only thing
to do was to get back to trying to do advocacy work.

Around this time, ROC was kicking off another project: Sanctuary Restaurants, based off of the Sanctuary City movement that was gaining
traction. The director in charge of this program said that we were working on a curriculum for sexual harassment trainings for restaurants.
I had voiced that it might work better to have gender diversity in trainers and since I was a man and the only staffer in Michigan, I wanted
to recruit non-men workers to be trained as trainers. I put the word out on Facebook and got some responses. One was from a bartender at El
Club in Detroit, and her coworker. I looked at our list and El Club was listed as a Sanctuary Restaurant, so I was pretty excited to meet
them. I told them about what was going on and asked if they knew about Sanctuary Restaurants. They said no and that El Club was definitely
not that. I asked why and they told me stories of wage theft, harassment, racism and that the owner had drugged and sexually assaulted a
manager. I asked them if they wanted help and they said they'd like to keep talking with me but not to do anything drastic yet. At the next
ROC directors and staff meeting, I asked how a restaurant becomes a Sanctuary Restaurant. It was pretty simple: the owner just signs up
online. No questions asked. So then I asked, "Shouldn't the workers decide if a restaurant is a Sanctuary Restaurant?" The tone of the call
switched instantaneously. "Are you gonna go out and single-handedly ask every worker?!" they asked. I didn't know how that was possible
either, but it definitely sounded like we needed to pump the brakes a little bit on designating Sanctuary Restaurants. But we had grant
deliverables, so that wasn't an option.

Speaking of grant deliverables, we were getting funding for the One Fair Wage campaign (OFW). OFW is similar to the Fight for 15 (FF15)
campaign, which was launched in 2012 by SEIU. In 2014, ROC and other organizations in Michigan launched a petition to raise the minimum wage
to $10.10 - much lower than $15, however it included tipped workers, who are often left out of minimum wage increases. Michigan laws can be
changed through ballot initiatives, which come about through circulating a petition and getting a certain number of people to sign it. ROC
decided to go this route for OFW, and needed about 400,000 signatures before the $10.10 minimum wage could be voted on by the general public
in the November election. Although the campaign collected enough signatures, the Michigan legislature pulled a parliamentary move and the
initiative was not put on the ballot. We were told by ROC administrators that there would be lawsuits and the next step we were presented
with was to elect the "right people" to office (Democrats) who would give workers the raises they deserved. No lawsuits happened and $10.10
was not achieved (the legislature got away with killing the ballot initiative by passing a much smaller minimum wage increase instead).

In 2018, ROC decided to launch another One Fair Wage petition, this time for a whopping $12/hr. I asked several times what would happen if
the legislature pulled a similar move to what happened in 2014. I was told over and over that the last episode was a fluke and wouldn't
happen again. Next thing I knew, consultants were being brought in from out of state and paid petition-gatherers were being brought in to
collect signatures from registered voters. I didn't see any involvement from restaurant workers at all. The campaign was being championed by
Jane Fonda and Lilly Tomlin, so all of our effort was dedicated to promoting their speaking events and fancy dinners. Some of the
fundraisers cost hundreds of dollars per ticket - not a price that your average restaurant worker could afford. So this meant that the faces
of the campaign were not restaurant workers, the people funding the campaign were not restaurant workers and the boots on the ground were
not restaurant workers. For a publicity video, they even dressed up Jane Fonda as a restaurant worker. But they said that this is what we
have to do to get the issue on the ballot. In the end, they paid enough people to collect enough signatures, but the legislature overturned
the ballot again, and the non-profits put out a message that a Blue Wave was gonna save us. Still waiting on that to happen. I was told the
2018 OFW campaign cost about $5 million dollars at the end of the day.

Workers at Portland based Burgerville pose for a picture welcoming another store announcing go public with their union affiliation. Image:
Burgerville Workers Union
Back to Work: Building Alternatives
Around the same time as Burgerville, another IWW worker-led campaign had kicked off in the food service industry at a restaurant called
Ellen's Stardust Diner in New York City. This campaign was sparking a lot of conversation because it wasn't trying to negotiate a contract
or get government recognition for the union - workers were directly confronting their managers over thing like pay and safety and winning.
Since joining the IWW, I had been trained as an Organizer Trainer and had been teaching the training in different cities around the US and
Canada. I was becoming more and more familiar with the curriculum of training workers to talk to each other and take action on grievances,
and was seeing unions pop up at restaurants, despite the fact that ROC had said that unions were an outdated model of worker power,
especially for restaurant workers. After a lot of thought and sorting out some heavy Stockholm Syndrome, I visited the sushi restaurant I
had worked at before taking the organizer job and asked if they could put me back on the schedule. They said yes, so I submitted my two-week
notice to ROC.

Not much had changed at the restaurant, but at least I didn't feel like a fraud working there. Not too much later, a friend of mine who had
been to an IWW training told me she was looking for a job. I said, "You should sign up for the IWW and we should organize this place." She
got hired and then signed a Red Card.

The company schedules at least one cleaning day per year, in which servers come in on their day off and scrub walls, clean under tables, and
do other deep-cleaning duties that are too intensive to get done during a regular shift. And we would only get paid our server wage of just
over $3 per hour. So we decided that we were going to fix this. We talked to some of the workers at Ellen's Stardust Diner about how they
have taken on the boss and won. Then we made a plan. When he was least expecting it, we cornered the owner at the bar and told him that we
were not going to work these cleaning days for any less than $10 per hour. At first he resisted, but we had prepared for that and we were
able to shut him down every time he tried to respond. He caved and on the cleaning day everyone got $10 per hour in cash. After that, we
were able to show coworkers that direct action is how we get things done. We signed up more workers with Red Cards and we had more wins at
work, including raises. One time we won back stolen wages for the cook, and the owner apologized and cried.

I was recently talking to some friends about Rube Goldberg machines. For a while, I had described the non-profit model as a Rube Goldberg
machine for social justice, but that's not fair to Rube Goldberg machines - at least they produce a final product. Non-profits are more of a
hamster wheel: always in motion, yet always stagnant and extremely exhausting for the subjects caught inside. Power doesn't come from glossy
brochures, paid professionals or celebrities. Power comes from solidarity, and solidarity is us acting together on the job.

Jean-Carl Elliott currently works and organizes in the food service industry and is a member of Black Rose/Rosa Negra.

This interview was originally published by Organizing Work blog which provides a platform for shop floor organizing struggles as well as
reporting and commentary on the labor movement.

https://blackrosefed.org/roc-confidential-social-movement-ngo/


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