Fellow Workers,

Hopefully you have heard by now that the IWW has a committee to support prisoners called the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee.

If you are interested in participating in the committee, please email us at iwoc@riseup.net and we can send you info to help you get tied in. The main form of support we are seeking right now is writing letters to prisoners and contacting people regarding a current campaign and also helping with IWOC Sub-Committees in areas such as research, prison outreach, public outreach, messaging, legal, media, and coalition building.

Background info

The Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) has been tasked and authorized by the Organizing Department, with the support of the General Executive Board, with supporting the organizing efforts of working class people who are imprisoned in the Prison Industrial Complex (PIC). With over 2,000,000 workers being held prisoner and exploited in the U.S. alone, with the full sanction and support of Corporate-controlled government, the challenge is imposing. But the IWW also recognizes the tremendous opportunity to effect positive change if we succeed in our goals of education, organization, and emancipation for everyone possible.

The One Big Union was initially approached by a group of prisoners currently incarcerated in the Southern U.S. They communicated to us that they had come to the realization that withdrawing their willing labor and cooperation are the only means left to exert constructive pressure on the Prison Industrial Complex. Their predicament is shared by incarcerated workers all over the world. What choice is left to those workers who are held against their will and compelled to labor?

Around the globe are millions of working class men, women, and youth, of every culture and language, struggling to survive within penal systems created not to compassionately rehabilitate, but to ruthlessly exploit. The IWW intends to work with prisoners who struggle against this system that crushes people and penalizes them for not being able to stand the weight. The IWOC exists to facilitate Union organizing of inmate-workers without regard to geographic location.

The IWW Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee, with your help, wishes to:

• Create an Incarcerated Workers Solidarity Committee in your area to raise money, take action, and spread the word of this struggle, including writing to inmates in local, State, and Federal prisons.
• Amplify the voices of prisoners by posting this and future updates to your website, facebook, email lists, and so on
• Join our email list so as to be kept up to date and amplify future updates. Contact us at iwoc@riseup.net and like us on facebook.
• Join our Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee

Questions? Contact us at iwoc@riseup.net. Please forward this email to your respective branch listservs. Thank you.

Solid,
Travis Erickson
IWOC Solidarity Subcommittee Chair