(Including a private letter to GST Randall Jamrok) http://taiwwan.blogspot.tw/2015/03/iww-in-taiwan-second-year.html
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The Taiwan initiative of the IWW has been
coming to terms with the political situation in Taiwan. There is a tug-of-war
here between Chinese and American influences that captivates the youth of the
island and distracts them from the basic problem: a paucity of good jobs, all
at low pay, all without union protection.
Organizing for the One
Big Union in Taiwan has been an education since I was made a delegate in September
2013 and entrusted with the goal of starting a Regional Organizing Committee
(ROC) in Asia based in Taiwan.
With referrals From
GST Sam, I sought out and met two young college students who were signed up by
the Perth, Australia branch. In addition, I was referred to an interested
education worker in Northern Taiwan who referred me to another interested
worker in Southern Taiwan. I traveled from my central location to meet both men
and issue Red Cards. In addition, I contacted an activist friend I had met ten
years earlier who introduced me to student activists that worked in his café.
They were not interested in starting a union and the two activists from Perth
didn’t show their Red Cards. The education workers paid one month dues and
ceased contact. The organizing campaign reached a dead end.
In Taiwan, despite low
wages stuck at a sixteen year old rate, overwork, and unsafe working
conditions, both older and younger workers are reluctant to organize into
unions. The older workers lived through a brutal thirty-seven years of martial
law from the U.S. supported dictatorship. The younger workers grew up with
neo-liberal two-party market capitalism where independent unions were
restricted. The ruling class embedded sweetheart unions with special privileges
as a way of controlling the work force, stifling labor unrest, and insuring
voter sympathy.
Student activism falls
into two basic camps; pro-China or laissez-faire U.S. influence. There is a
small group of student activists leaning towards Taiwan independence. Unionism
equals radical communism because of fear-mongering from propaganda against a
China take-over or U.S. anti-worker capitalism. Pro-China student activists
condemn the WTO and sweatshops but generally don’t see clear to support union
solidarity as a remedy. Other students have bourgeois tendencies.
Where does that leave
the pro-union anarcho-syndicalism of the IWW in Taiwan? Even less than the IWW
in the U.S. has been able to influence the Occupy Wall Street movement because
of the split camps of pro-China and pro U.S. For many bad reasons, old and
young oppressed workers in Taiwan cannot or will not make the connection that
organizing themselves in their workplace is the only way to start addressing
the dilemma of top-down management.
A delegate for the IWW
should organize with his fellow workers his or her own work place. As a teacher
of English as a Foreign Language, I am faced with the handicap of organizing a
transient workforce of ex-pats who rarely stay on the job long enough to
organize. Another problem I have as a delegate of the IWW in Taiwan is that I
am a sixty-year-old immigrant of European descent; there is prejudice and
suspicion about me. Even though I speak Mandarin Chinese, I am still seen as an
outsider by most Taiwanese. An organizer who is indigenous to Taiwan stands a
better chance of being successful here. There are many handicaps we must
overcome before a Regional Organizing Committee can take hold in Taiwan and
Asia.
It will be very
difficult to succeed in promoting organizing workers in Taiwan and Asia without
indigenous delegates. To address the issues inhibiting union solidarity and
organizing in Taiwan, your delegate proposes to do the following:
1. Find
a Taiwanese group or political party to bore into that will appreciate the
goals of the IWW union organizing effort.
2. Continue
promoting the OBU on the internet in digest of worker actions in Taiwan. I
have received over eight thousand hits worldwide.
3. Continue
the community Facebook page of taIWWan. We have over eight hundred friends
supporting our efforts worldwide.
4. Post
to local Facebook pages articles that will raise the consciousness of English
speaking workers here in hopes of building a support group to form an ROC.
5. Continue
offering free workshops on “How to Start Your Own Union.”
6. Continue
offering a free progressive lending library to the community.
7. Promote
my website where readers can access my proletarian creative writing and blogs
8. Keep
GHQ informed of developments in Taiwan IWW organizing, receive and follow up on
referrals from GHQ of fellow workers in the Asian/Taiwan theatre.
Most importantly to
our organizing campaign here is finding indigenous fellow workers willing to
organize themselves and fellow workers into a union with the IWW. As it is
illegal to organize a union without thirty workers in a shop and approval from
the Ministry of Labor, clandestine union organizing campaigns must be stressed.
Your delegate must be able to meet indigenous workers with fire and guts to
improve their working conditions and compensation at the grass root level and
to grieve unfair labor practices. I believe this can be done.
The
following issues act as obstructions to union organizing in Taiwan:
1. Minimum
wage is to low; there is no living-wage.
2. Tipping
is prohibited or collected and kept by the boss.
3. Overtime
work is not compensated in family businesses; rules are not enforced.
4. Year-end
bonuses are used to entrap workers into compliance with unfair workplace
conditions.
5. Only
government approved unions may be organized.
6. A
workplace must have at least 30 employees to file to unionize.
7. Hooligans
harass workers attempting to unionize.
8. Ex-pat
worker community is transient; foreigners may not unionize or participate in
public demonstrations or face deportation.
At the end of 2013, it
seemed possible to establish an R.O.C. in Taiwan; I had signed up two American
residents, we had the two Taiwanese members who had joined in Perth, Australia
and they had brought two more interested activists to the two monthly meetings
I held in Taipei. In addition, I had visited with my old activist friend and
met the college student activists who were working at his café. Then reality
hit. The two Taiwanese who joined in Perth never showed their Red Cards or paid
dues. Their comrades were in a China unification group and not interested in
grass root organizing. My old activist friend was working for the neo-liberal Democratic
Progress Party (DPP) and not interested in labor union organizing, either. By
February 2014, it became clear to me that forming an R.O.C. wasn’t going to be
that easy.
In March, 2014,
hundreds of students and demonstrators occupied the legislative chamber in
Taipei. One of the leading speakers was the young man introduced to me by my
old activist friend a few months earlier. As thousands of supporters gathered
on the streets outside the chamber, the leaders of the so-called “Sunflower
Movement” outlined their demands:
“We
do not want to see young people still living on a
NT$22,000 salary (Note: *32 Taiwan dollars = $1.00 U.S. dollar)10
years from now,” the statement read. “In the future, Taiwanese small and
medium-sized enterprises will face challenges from competition with
Chinese-invested companies that have abundant capital and use vertically
integrated business models,” it said. The demonstration was against a
Taiwan-China service trade pact.
The protesters ignored
the exploitation already existent in Taiwan for sixty-seven years since the
U.S. began to use the KMT’s “Free China” as a puppet for business and military
interests. The DPP used the takeover as a political tool to condemn the ruling
class detente with the Chinese government and re-gain power in the Nov. 2014
election.
Private letter to GST Randall Jamrok
Dear FW GST Randall Jamrok:
I was happy to get a copy of the
latest GOB mailed to me in Taiwan along with voting materiel for the upcoming
election; I am mailing my ballot in this week. I have some thoughts on the some
of the content regarding my old General Membership Branch from New York City.
Though my concerns are localized in Taiwan, I still follow the developments of
the branch I abandoned because of the corruption I witnessed after the
Starbucks Workers Union broke off from the GMB and started having their own
meetings.
One decision of the GEB, to
not give the Starbucks contingent in NYC GMB a $3000 loan because they didn't
petition for it through the GMB, was encouraging. It is not the first time
through devious means that money was taken from the NYC GMB for selfish
purposes that did not benefit all the members in good standing, paying dues.
But does the decision by GMB not to give a loan to the SWU mean anything? Are
NYC Secretary-Treasurer Benjamin Ferguson and the other members of the GMB that
have knowingly or knowingly been appeasing FW Daniel Gross organizer-pirates
there for ten years finally had enough?
The Starbucks Workers Union,
or so it is called, has been appropriating money from the NYC GMB since I was
there as treasurer from 2004 to 2006. They took the $3000+ I helped raise at
the DUMBO event, and raided our treasury for their purposes without
replenishing the general funds. They simply stuffed the vote and made off with
the loot. GMB paid for stocking hats that they ordered, took the $300 raised at
an Alpin concert in Williamsburg and who knows what else after I resigned from
the branch for good in 2009.
In the GOB, I also noticed
that you, GST Randall Jamrok, were running for a second term in that office. I
endorse and will vote for you because of your sincerity and interest in seeing
the IWW grow, not for your own selfish motives. You helped me here in Taiwan
have my delegate status renewed and sent me election materials, unlike last
year when the former GST, Monika V. intentionally or unintentionally neglected
to send my rightful materials.
In addition to endorsing
you, Randall, I have a word of caution about FW DJ Alperovitz who is running
for re-election to the GEB. He spearheaded the push to remove the R.O.C.
initiative from Taiwan for no good reason and accused me of dishonesty and
being an insincere Wobbly; I have the rude e-mail he sent me, and I threatened
to resign because of the irrelevant GEB action, I would like to make a
plea not to endorse FW Alperovitz for pushing to end the initiative and writing
a sarcastic note questioning my solidarity to the IWW when I complained about
unfair accusations against me.
Nowhere in the contents of
the $7.00+ envelope I received yesterday was there mention of Monika V. or
Erik Foreman; maybe they've both taken a hike. Monika was GST for one year only
when you took over the reins; your running again has my vote. Last year's
election, I wasn't even sent a ballot by Monika's crew.
One stateside Wobbly friend
of mine had written to me about how the treasury was almost bankrupt and
money was lost. There is a motion to raise the dues so it would at least cut
$20,000 from the deficit. It is a step in the right direction back to the
soluble foundation of the '00's in Philadelphia and the early years before
things turned sour in Chicago.
I would further
like to comment on the passing of FW Mike May, about his memorial, and the
local NYC GMB that sent money to the family. I don't want to trouble you fellow
workers with my disappointment concerning the NYC GMB, GHQ GEB, and the R.O.C.
initiative I was given in 2013 and had taken away to start the IWW here in
Taiwan. However, as one of the true Wobbly for for over sixteen years, and
since the '60's in the progressive movement in NYC, one who sincerely cares
about the One Big Union's future
prospects, I owe it to you to let you know how I
feel.
I have already told
you about my attempts to start an R.O.C. in Taiwan, how I went north to Taipei
and south to Kaohsiung to follow up on referrals I got from FW GST Sam. The
R.O.C. initiative given me by the GEB was what I was hoping to have. I came out
of "Wobbly retirement" in 2012 to try anew to organize for the One
Big Union. The follow up GST to FW Sam was FW Monika V. We got off on the wrong
foot, me and one FW Erik Foreman, because I wrote against her election on my
taIWWan blog and Facebook pages; I was accused of abusing my own personal
page by contacting fellow workers with what I feel was valid reason not to vote
for these two Wobblies. Monika is no longer the GST and I was glad you picked
up the baton from her, FW GST. In the year she was in office, I got no
referrals from her (nor have I any from you.) The know-it-all Foreman (who
refused to accept my expertise on Asian politics and culture) on the
International Solidarity Committee soured my desire to work together on a forum
with him.
As the new GST, you
were kind and understanding to me. You helped me get re-upped as a delegate in
April 2015. My incentive renewed, I went back to my new contacts in Taiwan to
try to pick up the pieces of the R.O.C. initiative. Then, the shit hit the fan:
First, I happened
to see a news story from the NYC GMB on-line Wobbly City, from Oct. 2014,
telling about a visit to the branch from the very same Catta Chou, one of the
referrals from FW Sam, who refused to show her red card, pay dues, or do
outreach for the IWW in Taiwan that she said '[she] knew nothing about.' There
she was, apparently, seven months earlier, being welcomed by the NYC GMB!!! I
was in shock, and angry that my old branch would welcome her when I thought I
had made clear in reports to my rep in the GEB and to GST's FW's Sam, Monika,
and yourself, how she, with a cohort named Yi-Han, had been non-cooperative for
the IWW with me in an e-mail, indeed, had sabotaged what I thought would be a
youthful native connection to the progressive movement here.
I have given a report on
this situation which appeared in the G.O.B. last year and had written articles
about the co-opted "Sunflower Movement" in Taiwan on my blog. They
have been ignored by the NYC GMB officials. Sec/Treas. Benjamin Ferguson
and SWU FW Daniel Gross should be brought up on charges for not checking with
me and giving me the heads-up about Catta, if indeed she was actually there and
not just a figment of their imagination; the details of her situation printed
in W.C. did not match what she had told me and Leona when we met her twice in
person. Catta is in possession of a Wobbly Illustrated History you autographed
for me. I regrettably gave it to her as a gift before I realized
I had wasted my time talking with her and her fellow classmate.
Second, you had no
control over the GEB voting to remove instead of extending the R.O.C.
initiative they had given me, which I never asked for in the first place, I may
add. I was falsely accused of not submitting the required reports as a delegate
as an excuse for it. All it meant, in fact, was that I could no longer keep any
dues I was given by Wobblies here and would have to send my own dues back to
Chicago, something I was not going to do because the postage would have cost
more than the dues I would send. It was then I resigned from the IWW for the
third and last time. FW Randall was sympathetic saying I was nevertheless still
a legit delegate and could work on establishing a GMB here. I thanked him but
had no spirit to organize for the IWW anymore when most of my enemies seemed to
come from with it. I have been treated badly by the IWW, though FW
Sam, Randall and a few others have been kind to me. No one else has, including
Diane K. who reneged on printing an article I sent her into the Industrial Worker;
I did have a report printed in the GOB. I do not endorse Diane's
plans to modify and consolidate the I.W. in her way because of her partisan
politics.
My heart was broken
about FW Mike May. I loved him so much. We spent hours and hours together in
vehicles heading to IWW regional gatherings in Philly, demos in DC, and at
local branch meetings which he attended every month from 1999 to 2004 when he
couldn't take the new breed of Starbucks Union Wobblies in the branch, The
branch was not the same without him. I kept in touch with him as he settled
with Delfina who was ill herself in Staten Island. FW Mike got more and more
involved with raising Cain there against local politicians. He even though of
starting a Staten Island branch with another Fellow Worker who had moved there.
One of my deepest disappointments this year was not going to visit him in May
when I returned to New York in May on business.
I continue to post
to taIWWan news about labor issues in Taiwan. I communicate with the 700+
friends from around the world I have on the taIWWan Facebook page I administer.
I write articles and communicate with local Facebook friends in Taiwan to talk
up solidarity with workers and how a union they must fight for in this
oppressive neo-liberal former dictatorship deeply influenced by U.S. business
and military interests. I will always be a Wobbly at heart and never turn away
from my class consciousness.
November 5, 2015
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