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Publicize your IWW Campaigns, Events, and Actions!

By x344543.

Historically, or according to tradition at least, the IWW has never been shy about self-promotion, but in recent years this has changed.  This is due partly to the rapid advances in communications technology and the IWW's hitherto collective inattentiveness towards opportunities to take advantage of these new communications mediums.  In simple English, the union hasn't kept pace with the times.  This guide suggests how we can collectively overcome this shortfall:

Why should we promote our activity publicly and aggressively?

There are several potential advantages to aggressive and assertive public promotion of IWW activity.  These include the following:

  • Publicity can advance the goals of our organizing, by informing supporters of our actions (who would otherwise not learn of them) and by drawing negative attention to the employing class if we engage their agents directly in class struggle.
  • Publicity also informs our members of activity in nearby branches and/or industrial unions as well as globally of our common struggles. This in turn inspires them to join in our campaigns (especially if those creating the publicity request specific action, such as phone blitzes, email/letter campaigns, solidarity pickets, etc.) or initiate similar supportive campaigns.  It also achieves the basic goal of demonstrating that the union is active and not passive.
  • Publicity increases the IWW's overall visibility which can inspire workers and/or organizers to join the organization and spread proactive organizing efforts, or it can inspire agents of the working class to take independent, supportive action.
  • IWW publicity can also inspire rank & file workers in other unions, including mainstream (class collaborationist) unions to engage in more militant, rank & file, class struggle oriented action.

How can rank & file members of the IWW generate publicity for their actions?

  • Generate a press release describing your action.  Be sure to keep it concise and to the point.  Follow the dictum "KISS" (keep it Simple Stupid).  Be sure to list who, what, when, why, how, and where.  Be sure to include contact information for your branch, industrial union, committee, or campaign. 

Here is an example of a useful press release: http://www.iww.org/en/node/5161

  • Once completed, post the press release on iww.org as a news item:

(A) Log-in to your user account (if you are a dues paying IWW member and you do not yet have one, sign up here:  http://www.iww.org/en/user/register );

(B) Select "Create Content" ( http://www.iww.org/en/node/add ) --> "Story" ( http://www.iww.org/en/node/add/story )

(C) Chose a concise but descriptive title

(D) Select the appropriate categories (branch, industrial union, and campaign--if you do not see the appropriate category listed, choose the closest, best category.  If you do not see one that is close enough, do not choose a specific category for the moment, but do contact the iww.org sysadmins at tech [at] iww.org and request one be created.  Once that is done, the sysadmin will assign the missing category to the story later).  It is important to choose the right category so that the news item will appear in the appropriate syndicated news feed (RSS) and taxonomy (category system) on iww.org.  This will make it easier for those looking for news by category to find it later.

(E) Create the actual content of your story in the appropriate place.  If you do not know html code, do not worry about it.  The iww.org sysadmins will clean up the look of the story later if necessary.  If you know html code, excellent.  Use it in the appropriate places.  If you want to learn more you can visit this page:  http://www.w3schools.com/html/ for instructions.  You can include images and PDFs in your story.  If you have difficulty uploading these, send them to tech [at] iww.org, inform the sysadmins which story you wish to use them in (include a link to the story), where you want the images placed in context, and be sure to attach these files to your email message.  Please note:  Try to refrain from stories that are simply collections of images.  Pictures do tell 1000 words, but they are also highly abstract and each viewer is likely to assign a different set of words to your images!  Also, more images per story results in longer times needed for the users' web browsers to upload them!

(F) Be sure to include related links in the appropriate fields.  Related links should include the industrial union, branch, and (if a page for it exists) the campaign website.  For example, notice the related links to this same Jimmy Johns press release discussed above:  [http://www.iww.org/en/node/5161].  Note that these pages are linked as "related links":

(1) Restaurant, Hotel, and Building Service Workers Industrial Union 640 - http://www.iww.org/en/unions/dept600/iu640

(2) Twin Cities GMB - http://www.iww.org/branches/US/MN/twincities

  • Post the press release to your branch email list, and (if your branch has one) your branch's public announcements list.
  • Post the press release to [email protected] (you need to subscribe to this list if you haven't already).  Here's where you subscribe: http://lists.iww.org/listinfo/alerts
  • Post a link to the press release (on iww.org) to your branch Facebook Group page (if your branch has one) and "tweet" it to your branch Twitter page (if your branch has one) as well as any other branch related social networking sites (such as Linked-In, Myspace, Redd-it, Union Book, etc).
  • Repost the story on your local Indymedia site (if you're not sure whether or not there is a local indymedia site in your community, visit http://www.indymedia.org and look through the list of local and regional indymedia sites
  • Repost the story on other websites, such as libcom.com, infoshop.org, etc.
  • If you are a labourstart.org correspondent, post the link to labourstart.org.  Visit this page to become a labourstart.org correspondent: http://www.labourstart.org/newcorrespondents.html
  • Of course, send your article to the Industrial Worker http://www.iww.org/projects/IW/ - [email protected].
  • If you have compiled a list of local media contacts (including capitalist mainstream press, alternative liberal weeklies,  local movement publications, local radio, local TV, etc), send faxes or emailed press releases to each of these outlets.  It's understood that they (most likely) don't share the goals of the IWW, but they may print your story anyway.  Even if they don't publish it in print or broadcast it over the airwaves, they may still post it on their website(s).

Be sure to post and send follow-up reports to all of these outlets as new developments take place. 

Posting Alerts and Urgent Actions

Alerts are a special type of announcement.  They are designed to mobilize people rapidly, sometimes in substantial numbers.  Alerts include meeting announcements, fund-raising appeals, and/or calls to action. When posting an alert, of course make sure that it is information that your branch, campaign, or industrial union wishes to be made public.  Take care to be discrete if the situation warrants discretion. When posting an alert where publicity is needed and desirable, take the following steps:

  • If your alert is an event, post your alert on the IWW.ORG events calendar.  Log-in, select create event.  In addition to your title and the text of your alert (and make sure you include contact information in case potential attendees need more information), include location, start and finishing times, and (in the body of your event) directions on how to get to your event.  It might be useful to indicate whether the event is accessible to those with limited mobility, or if childcare is available.
  • If you desire large attendance at your event, be sure to repost it on your public branch email list, your branch social media sites (such as Facebook, Twitter, etc.--in the case of Facebook, it is sometimes useful to create a group event and invite all of your group's members), the local indymedia site, and any other public web site which allows for announcing events to the desired audience.
  • You can also attempt to have local mainstream media announce your event, either in a print (or web) news calendar, or as a radio or TV spot, if such outlets are available.
  • By all means, post your event to <[email protected]>.  Again, you must be subscribed to this email list ( http://lists.iww.org/listinfo/alerts ).

Discretion and Sensitivity

Not all alerts or stories should be publicized.  There are times when it is better not to reveal information about IWW activities.  This goes without saying, but it should be emphasized anyway. At the very least:

  • Do not reveal information about organizing campaigns before the organizers in the shop have declared them openly.
  • Do not reveal the names of key organizers, especially if it can place them at risk of losing their jobs.
  • Do not list a member's name or contact information without their explicte permission.

And certain actions should be publicized discretely:

  • If your call to action includes some sort of direct action, such as the hanging of a banner, a strike action, or other high risk action--particularly an action that can have an economic impact on a targeted employer, it should never be publicized, as the employer will take countermeasures.
  • Never reveal the locations or targets of direct actions (other than pickets or strikes), especially surprise actions, in public announcements.  Such announcements will inevitably result in preemptive countermeasures by the targeted employer (and usually include a substantial police presence).
  • Never, under any circumstances, announce (or intend for that matter) any blatantly illegal or dangerous action, especially any action that can put others or yourselves at risk.  This serves no useful purpose.  Mass civil disobedience to achieve a goal is not included in this admonishment--as this is strategic (and usually principled) action.

Clarification

Nothing in this guide should be taken to suggest that face-to-face organizing is the best method for advancing the goal of organizing industrially and abolishing wage slavery.  However, the use of electronic communications to enhance and facilitate face-to-face organizing cannot be underestimated.

Recently, a Pakistani labor militant credited Facebook with being a key organizing tool that allowed mass militant workers' strikes of 50,000 or more, whereas before they had to wait for almost two months to receive accurate news and information that confirmed that conditions for winning such a strike existed. 

Although generally access to news is much more instantaneous and reliable in most places, there is no reason to withhold information or hesitate to increase the IWWs visibility.

What should IWW Members Publicize?

Certainly the following actions, events, and/or information should be publicized:

  • Direct Actions, including, but not limited to:

(1) Strikes
(2) Demonstrations
(3) Marches
(4) Sit Ins

  • Editorials related to organizing and/or negotiations
  • Events, including, but not limited to:

(1) Meetings
(2) Pickets
(3) Forums
(4) Teach-ins
(5) Marches
(6) Concerts
(7) Benefits

  • Events in which the IWW participates or events sponsored by your IWW branch.  In such cases it is advisable and desirable to give credit where it is due, but it is also (usually) acceptable to give an IWW perspective if it differs from that of the organizers.

Finally, just a reminder:  Use these tools often.  The more positive activity the IWW publicizes, the more positive activity we are likely to inspire and generate, and this helps us build our organization and movement!