IWWs and comrades gather before the Akron Pride Equity March begins its route through downtown.
In July, the Northeast Ohio IWW membership voted to participate in Akron Pride Festival’s 2022 Equity March. Many of us had high hopes for a strong turnout in solidarity with local LGBTQ+ workers. Despite short notice, our members pulled together and we were not disappointed!
At least 15 Wobblies, Socialist Rifle Association members, and local leftists assembled near Spaghetti Warehouse at 9 AM on Saturday, August 27. The procession onto the street began at approximately 10 AM. Altogether, we marched for a little over half a mile. We moved through downtown into the festival location.
Fellow Workers carried our branch banner and several IWW flags. Marchers also carried numerous Pride flags and leftist or workers flags. Multiple marchers shouted down an evangelical Christofascist group alongside other participants and attendees.
STRONG LABOR PRESENCE ENCOURAGES LOCAL WORKING CLASS
A Wobbly displays a specially designed IWW Trans Pride flag used for the march.
Notably, numerous Wobblies were present assisting other organizations. So were many representatives of working class groups, including SRA. While our group had no contact with them, Akron DSA was also present in the march. The other union presence we’re aware of was United Steelworkers Local 979. We were very warmly received by the Akron LGBTQ+ community and our members were happy to be there together.
Altogether, a sizable representation of labor rank-and-file and various leftist or working class organizations showed up. This fact was a material sign of hope for many within the Union and numerous spectators. Strangers voiced their support (and, more than once, pleasant surprise) for our presence there.
When the march finished, our delegation officially dispersed. Many participating IWWs & comrades gathered together at Tear-ez for an outstanding pizza and beer social.
AN INJURY TO LGBTQ+ WORKERS IS AN INJURY TO ALL
A comrade holds the Defend Equality flag aloft as the group passes Christofascist hate preachers. (Photo credit Northeast Ohio SRA, here.)
The Northeast Ohio Industrial Workers of the World is proud to stand hand in hand with our LGBTQ+ fellow workers in their sustained fight for dignity and equity. No worker is safe until all workers are safe– until LGBTQ+ workers are safe! It is especially vital in these times of increased attacks on LGBTQ+ communities that all workers reaffirm their commitment to their total liberation.
Seeing that the Akron Police Department continues to escalate tensions and unrest in the local community, working people here need to organize more than any time in living memory. APD are meeting members of the community with illegal hostility and senseless violence for exercising their rights to collectively grieve and protest.
The Northeast Ohio IWW recommends all its Fellow Workers and organizers at protest actions avail themselves of the National Lawyers Guild Legal Observers. Working people must organize in the face of growing violence from a rapidly decaying state. This also requires protecting ourselves and each other from the brutality of this filthy, rotten system.
Take all safety precautions and proper preparation before any direct action. Be familiar with your rights as a protestor, and look over the Know Your Rights booklet or the Know Your Rights webpage for up to date information from the National Lawyers Guild and the National Police Accountability Project.
If you are organizing an action, follow the National Lawyers Guild’s tips below to request legal observers who can document police misconduct during demonstrations, rallies, protests, and political actions. These tools are meant to help all working people uniting against oppression and brutality stay safer as well as address any further illegal actions whether here and now by Akron police or anywhere in Northeast Ohio.
We stand in solidarity with the loved ones of Jayland Walker and demand justice by any means necessary.
Please, share this important resource freely and widely!
Today’s Supreme Court decision marks the latest reactionary escalation against working people, specifically against Women, bodily autonomy, and the right to privacy. Northeast Ohio IWW stands in Solidarity anytime the rights of workers are attacked, uniformly condemning the decision of the court. We recognize that this will not be the last fight the Right Wing uses the court as a weapon for. Justice Thomas is already salivating at the prospect of using this decision to attack gay marriage and access to contraception,
“For that reason, in future cases, we should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell,” he wrote. “Because any substantive due process decision is ‘demonstrably erroneous.'”
Now more than ever it is important for the working class to organize and struggle with our fellow workers being pressed from the courts, whether that decision comes from the Supreme Court or the State Court of Ohio.
“It’s going to take the dishwashers, the bricklayers, the carpenters and the wage workers to make the revolution. And once you get that in your head and understand that, we’ll get somewhere.” – Frank Cedervall
The Valley Labor Report, Alabama’s ONLY union talk radio program, is a weekly talk radio show hosted by Jacob Morrison and Adam Keller. The hosts are union members dedicated to the project of educating workers about the power they have to lift themselves up, make their lives better, and shift the balance of power on the job and in society.
Each episode highlights ongoing local and national labor news including interviews with labor leaders and organizers.
In this overtime segment, Jacob and Adam along with guest Mel Buer of The Morning Riot podcast examine the disturbing language found in The Labor Relations Institute’s union busting white paper: Left of Boom: What Can Your Business Learn From the Iraq War?
