J20 Defense Campaign Goes Global/July 20-27 Week of Solidarity!
Submitted on Tue, 07/25/2017 - 7:22pm
By the members of the Mid Atlantic General Defense Committee, July 20, 2017
This past week, our J20 campaign not only received endorsements from more unions and organizations across the country, but from multiple European unions as well. As we approach the J20 Week of Solidarity July 20-27 organized by Defend J20 Resistance, we're happy to have this boost of energy and support!
Endorsement Update
This past week or so, we received endorsements from multiple IWW branches such as those in Baltimore, Maryland and Tampa, Florida. In addition, we received endorsements from the Washington, D.C. branch of the Socialist Party, USA, and the Seattle Solidarity Network, commonly known as SeaSol. SeaSol has long been an inspiration for many of us in forming the GDC, so we wanted to give a particular shout out to them.
If you haven't encountered SeaSol before, you should do yourself a favor and check them out--they're a "volunteer network of working people who defend each other through collective action," who have amassed an impressive list of victories fighting for tenants' and workers' rights in Seattle over the past decade. Their amazing successes have led to similar groups elsewhere, and has shown a working, democratic model of how working people can take action to fight against abusive bosses and landlords. We're really thrilled that they've endorsed our letter!
In addition to these wonderful organizations, we received word from across the Atlantic that unions in Germany, Italy, and Switzerland had all voted to endorse the campaign! From Germany, we were contacted by the Freie Arbeiterinnen- und Arbeiter Union, and from Italy, the Unione Sindicale Italiana. These unions, along with unions across Europe are part of a landmark multinational organizing drive to raise working conditions for workers in the new bicycle delivery 'gig economy,' focused primarily on the British company Deliveroo. This campaign has brought together unions in nine different countries and is already showing huge results. If you've ever worked for Uber, Lyft, PostMates, or any other similar company, you should check out their website!
Finally, we received an AMAZING letter from a union in Switzerland, which we are just going to reproduce here:
Dear colleagues
We will like to show our solidarity with all arrested participants of the demonstration against the inauguration of Donald Trump in Washington, D.C. In this case we – the Unia Section of Bern - support the above mentioned letter.
We are deeply concerned about the severe repression against all protesters facing charges for exercising their First Amendment rights on January 20, 2017 in Washington, D.C. We assert our support of the demand to drop the charges against all protesters.
For us it’s clear, that the worldwide labor-movement can’t survive in an atmosphere of fear and hate like it is spreading from the Trump-Government. That’s the reason why it is important to maintain the protests with our values of freedom and solidarity against this system of fear and hate.
For the affected activists, the IWW-Union and the whole labor-movement we wish a lot of energy to overcome this hard times. We would let to know you again, that you have our solidarity!
We agree that you add the name of our organization at www.midatlanticgdc.com/letter. Further we will inform our members about the injustice in America – especially in the case of the demonstrations at the inauguration-day – on our local union-newspaper.
Unia is the biggest union in Switzerland. As the section of the capital-region (Bern) we are an important section of our organization. Pleas add our organizations-name as follow: Unia Section of Berne (Switzerland).
With our best wishes
_____________________________________________________________
Florian H. I Gewerkschaft Unia
Honestly, we can't thank everyone who has endorsed the letter enough. It's been amazing watching the support roll in. And of course, feel free to get your union or organization to endorse the letter so you can be in the next post!
Week of Action
Our comrades at Defend J20 Resistance have been working overtime to make July 20-27 a week of solidarity with J20 defendants, and we're proud to be contributing. Set to start 6 months after the inauguration and the brutal mass arrests that accompanied it, it's a perfect opportunity to pick up your cell phone and help out! Along with them, we are pushing everyone we know to demonstrate how broad the support for J20 defendants is by calling the D.C. Office of Police Complaints and demanding they conduct their investigation into police conduct on J20 and release the results as soon as possible. This investigation could yield important information that allows arrestees to defend themselves in court, so it's really important that we make sure the city doesn't drag its feet on this. Find out more and see the script at the facebook event page for the phone-in!
Disclaimer: The views expressed here are not the official position of the IWW and do not necessarily represent the views of anyone but the author’s.