We are a democratic union dedicated to organizing workers in all industries. In the Portland IWW you will find people who work in restaurants, grocery stores, construction, social services, and a number of other fields. We help each other organize at our workplaces, and we host a variety of social events which help create the culture of solidarity needed to build a sustainable revolutionary working class movement.

We would love to hear from you! Please give us a call at 503-231-5488, or send an email to: portland.iww (at) gmail.com. An IWW Delegate will contact you to set up a time to meet and talk about the union, and to let you know about public events the IWW is involved in.

Mayday is this Thursday, and we hope that everyone will be able to turn out for the march downtown.  If you’d like to meet up with the IWW, here are the details:

• Meet at SW 10th & Market St. downtown at 3:45p.  We will assemble as an IWW contingent, and walk over to the rally starting in the S. Park Blocks at 4:00p.  The march starts at 5:00p, and will wind through downtown for a couple of hours.  The march has generally been pretty kid friendly the last couple of years, and a few of our little ones have been marching with us.  Keep an eye out for the red IWW balloons if you’re showing up late.

• After the march there will be a party at Liberty Hall from 7:00p-midnight (flyer attached to this email).  The party is being hosted by W.E.R.C., the administrative committee that runs Liberty Hall.  Food from Nicholas’ Lebanese Restaurant will be available, as well as beer and many other beverages.  This event is intended as a relaxed way for workers to unwind after the march, eat some great food, and talk it up with our friends and family.

Hi all you readers,

Get your calendars ready for this years PDX IWW-Glaberman Library Book Fair.

Sunday December 2nd 11-5pm

Book Vendors include:

LaughingHorse, Eberhardt press, Red Letter Press, Great NW Books, St. Johns Booksellers, Taranchula, Glaberman Library, Black Rose Collective, Charles H. Kerr, Malkriad@s, PDX IWW, PCASC,and more.

Also in the House: Liberty Hall Bake Sale, Red & Black Cafe

Childcare available: RSVP 503.231.5488

Also Children’s Book Swap!!!

Come sing old labor tunes with Wobblies and friends. Every 1st and 3rd Tuesday of the month @ 7:00PM You don’t have to be a good singer, you just have to be willing to sing. Good times! At Liberty Hall- 311 N. Ivy.

Portland IWW’s,

It’s that time. Time for monthly membership meeting

Rusty’s rules of order training given at 2pm-for new members

Childcare available.

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Coming at you this Sunday(9th) @3PM @Liberty Hall. We will be taking on monthly business, as well as attemting to knock out branch bylaws . There will be a Rusty’s Rules of Order Training starting at 2:00PM for those whom are not accustomed to our meeting structure.

Help the Work Along.

On Saturday, August 11, 2007, the Providence wobblies organized a march on Jackie’s Galaxy, which is a restaurant chain that is being supplied by HWH in New York City, a supplier who is notorious for its slave labor conditions of up to 110 hours per week without basic labor rights (minimum wage and overtime).

Roughly 30-40 wobblies and supporters (including Providence and Boston SDSers) were marching towards Jackie’s Galaxy in North Providence when the police began following them en mass. They told the marches to move to the sidewalk, while this was initially ignored, the marchers listened to the police and began slowly moving to the sidewalk.

The police then surrounded the marchers in their squad cars and began getting out. With the police in full force, they began attacking the marchers, one fellow worker, Alex Svoboda, was pinned down by the police during her arrest and suffered a broken and dislocated leg and ruptured blood vessel in the knee. These injuries will require at least two surgeries and extensive rehab and even then may not completely repair the damage. Jason, another wob, was arrested during the police’ attack. Ashley, a supporter from Boston, was also severely maced during the attack, suffered chemical burns and required medical treatment.

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FW Gifford from the Bay Area will be giving a multimedia presentation on the 1948 Oakland General Strike Wednesday, 6PM August 15th at Liberty Hall.

Not addressed much in US or Labor history, the Oakland General Strike was a high point of the post-World War 2 strike wave. Gifford has been researching the strike for a book. This presentation was quite popular when he presented it at the 2005 IWW Centeniary in Chicago.

This meeting is being hosted by the Workers Education and Resource Center (WERC) and the Glaberman Library.