Tacoma IWW Organizing Tip #6 - Organizing Solidarity

Part 3 of 4

Submitted by Arthur J. Miller on 08/11/08

 

4. Educationals:

 

 

 

 

When building support for a struggle it is always good to have educationals. This could be speaking events, video showings and so on. Educationals are very good in build up to marches and rallies. So remember in what you put out to include sometype of statement that you have speakers and videos (if you have them) for groups and other events.

 

 

 

 

5. Theater:

Good street theater can help explain the struggle in a visual way. That is if it is good, bad theater is boring. It can work good at rallies, or during a march stop at a place for it. Another way it can be used to to pick a place where there are a lot of people, do a short street theater while people are handing out fliers. A number of years ago the Living Theater built a money tower with bosses on top and workers (all real people) on the bottom and set it up infront of factories.

6. Occupations and sit-ins:

 

 

 

 

This are useful at times if directed at something that people can understand why it is happening there. But the actions should never over shadow the reason for the action.

 

 

 

 

7. Informational picketing

 

 

 

 

This is good to get the word out in a community so that folks know some type of struggle is going on. If the struggle is something, like a company or the government, where there are many locations that connect to it, it is good to have as many of those locations having informational picketing.

a. First to inform the community.

 

 

 

 

b. To show good support.

 

 

 

 

c. To create fear that the struggle is growing. Remember, struggles are won when you cost the other side more than they are willing to pay. Say your struggle is about unions, the company seeing a growing struggle at its stores where ever they are could get them to think that it is better to settle now than to let the movement keep growing because they refuse to settle.

 

 

 

 

In one strike we had information pickets in front of the bar the bosses goes to, infront of his church and home.

 

 

 

 

8. Runs and walks:

 

 

 

 

Runs and walks can help promote a struggle in public in a non-treating way. It is also a very good way to get younger folks involved.

L. Event programs:

 

 

 

 

Some folks just put on events without giving much thought to the program. The program is what you put together for people to see and be a part of. When I do events I plan the whole event out trying not to over look anything. So following are some of the things I do:

 

 

 

 

a. With marches I like to have an opening to get folks in the spirit and to inform them on what is going on.

b. at rallies or event inside events. you want an opening welcome and one song or what not (at Peltier rallies we open with the drum and sometimes dancers). When people show up for an event it takes time for them to pay attention and it is good to set a tone for the event.

c. The MC: The job of a good MC is not just to introduce speakers and musicians but rather to also help set the tone for the event and give the event a good community feeling.

d. After your opening your first speaker needs to inform everyone about the struggle that the event is organized for. This should be someone who can reach people with words (see section on speaking). If the struggle you are doing an event for is outside of your local area, have your next speaker explian the local effort in support of that struggle.

e. After that you have two other types of speakers: the solidarity speakers, whose who speak in solidarity with the struggle. This is important because it shows support for the struggle something that you are trying to get from the people at your event. The other type of speaker is the personal experience speaker, that is anyone you have that is direct a part of the struggle you are supporting. This is important because it puts a human face to the struggle.

 

 

 

 

f. Try to know your speakers because you want to mix it up with your strong speakers and your not so strong speakers.

g. Your last speaker: Sometimes people think the last speaker is the less important speaker, that is not true. Though it is true that you will have less people there by the time the last speaker speaks, but many of the people left are those most likely to become active. So your last speaker gives them the words that they will leave the event with. So if you put a dull not much meaning speaker at the end that is what people will leave with. So save a good strong speaker to close out the event.

 

 

 

 

h. Musicians. At rallies it is good to mix your musicians in with your speakers. It is also good to end your rally with a song that people know, or pass out the words of the song to the people at the rally. At most indoor events, though you may want to use a song in the opening, it is not a good idea to mix your speakers in with your musicians. Let your speakers speak first that let people have a good time with your musicians.

i. Have an event coordinator or stage manager. Having coordinated over 100 events and seeing the things that can go wrong has taught me the importance of this role. Yes a few times doing events I have seen where the speaker up next can;t be found because they are using the bathroom or something else. So the coordinator first makes sure of all the speakers and musicians are there (sometimes people don't show up) and make sure they know the order inwhich they will go on. Most of the time I will handout a piece of paper with the order on it to the speakers and musicians.

 

 

 

 

j. donations: Have a donation can on your table but also pass donations cans around during your event. It will make a big difference in how much donations you get if a speaker announces that donations cans are going around and explain why donations are needed.

k. sign-up sheets: Have sign-up sheets (these are sheets that people give their contact information, smail address and e-mail address) on your table and pass them around after a speak announces that they are going around. Have at the top of them what the will be used for and "PLEASE PRINT CLEARLY".

If you are able create an all day event. For example: for a number of years the annual Tacoma Peltier Day of Solidarity would start out with a march, then a rally and then a meal with a program of speakers and musicians. Meal are good because they give people time to talk to each other and network. And such all day events helps organizers to bond with supporters.

M.. Car pools:

 

 

 

 

If your event will draw people throughout a region then car pools/caravans can be very useful. Pick a place for people to meet up at. You should pick a time to leave that gets you to the event early, how early depends on the event. If it is a march you may want to get there earlier because, one thing we tried to organize at our Peltier marches, is for the caravans to drop people off at the start of the march and the drivers drive to the end of the march and park and then a car or more if needed, drives the drivers back to the start of the march and park there and after the march those drivers with cars at the start of the march are driven back to their cars.

If you want to leave at say 11 am then say in your promotion information that you are leaving at 10:30 am. For some reason people like to show up at the last moment and this way you will not get off late.

Some times your car pools can meet up together and create a caravan. Out here in Washington state most people drive up I-5 to get to an event. For example, one year we had our annual Peltier march and rally at the U.S./Candian border so we started a caravan in Olympia, then stopped in Tacoma to pick cars up and then stopped in Seattle. Heading out of Seattle we had over 30 cars and a school bus with "Free Leonard Peltier" signs heading up to the border. A rather impressive sight.

The lead car make sure that it does not go fast because some cars may not be able to keep up and the last car should have a group member who makes sure no cars get lost. The other thing we did was to have two stops at reststops along the way. Everyone knew we would stop there and so if folks had to get gas or something else they could and then meet up with the caravan.

N. Signon statements:

 

 

 

 

In doing solidarity work the two things you need to get established is creditablity and momentum. Using signon statements can help with that. Just write up a good statement, make it clear as to who is issuing the statement and then send it out to people, groups and organizations to signon to the statement. Then issue that statendment to the public. Signon statements are also usefull to send out with your press releases.

O.. Petitions, letter writing, faxes and phone calling:

 

 

 

 

Some people who view themselves as more radical or militant than others sometimes tell people that petitions and letter writing is a waste of time. Sometimes it is, It depends upon what the issue is and who you are sending petitions and letters to. In all struggles the tactic to win is to try to cost the other side more than they are willing to pay. That could be a strike that is costing a boss too much money or it could be creating bad publicity.

I know know how much of an effect the standrard e-mail petition has because I have never used them. How I do an e-mail petition is a lot different. I will write up a good petition and send it out to people and e-mail lists and ask people to put their names to it and send it back to me. Then I'll add all the names to the petition and make a list of all the e-mail addresses of those that signed the petition. I will set a deadline for the petition. I will include a short informational piece with the petition. First I request that everyone forward the petition to lists, groups and people they know. Also in that I will say that after the deadline I will be sending the petition back to all that have signed it with all the names on it and that I request that they send a copy of it, with all the names on it, to who ever is the target along with a cover letter. So if you get 500 people signing the petition the target gets up to 500 copies of it with cover letters. And I have an additional list of people who support the cause.

Regular paper petitions when I send them out in a mailing I will sometimes ask people to send a copy, when filled out, to the target and send the original back to us. Once we have a lot of filled out petitions we may hold a rally and press conference in front of where the target is, then try to persent the target the petitions.

A part of organizing solidarity is getting others to do things in support of the cause. Petitions is an easy starting point for people.

I will also sometimes use the addresses off petitions for follow-up support mailings.

When asking for support letters is is important to tell people the tone that they should be. You don't want to piss off the target with trash talk. You need to tell folks what issues are the most important for letters It is useful to have a sample support letter.

Sometimes support letters and petitions will not in themselves prodice what you want. But they are still very inportant in letting the target know that there are a lot of people out there concerned and watching what they do. That can have the effect of the target modifying what they do. A court could be less likely to not follow the law on someones rights. With prisoners it can mean safer conditions. I am 100% sure that the reason Leonard Peltier is still alive today is because of all the letters and petitions.

In targeting letters and petitions realize that the more a target is use to getting letters and what not and the higher up the later of power, the greater amount of letters and what not you will need to have an effect. Also understand that if you do a halfass campaign for letters and what not, it can also show the target your lack of support.

Such support campaigns can. in themselves, have the great impact and even gain your goals. I'll use one example..

 

 

 

 

The City of Tacoma refused to give the local Peltier support group a march permit without paying for all the police that wanted to be there and a million dollar insurence bond. Even if we were willing to do that we did not have that type of money so I sued the City of Tacoma with the help of the ACLU. I did publicized the suit, you never know when you will need support so keeping your supporters up-dated is important. I won the suit Then next year I filled out all the paperwork early, then two weeks before the march they sent me a letter saying that I had to fulfil a bunch of bureaucratic bullshit to get the permit. Included they said I had to submit a fire plan to the fire department one month before the march. There was no way to do that two weeks before the march. So they thought they could stop the march this way, their mistake! On Friday night I sent out an e-mail appeal for solidarity everywhere I could. I asked people to send e-mails to the mayor, city council and others in city government. When all these city people got to work on Monday morning their e-mail boxes were all overlaoded with e-mails. Then I asked people to send faxes and make phone calles Monday morning. I was told by one city worker that it was like an earthquake had hit city hall. Everyone was trying to deal with all the e-mails, faxes and phone calls. By Monday afternoon I had a march permit in my hands.

One point on this. I had all my lists of supporters, e-mail lists, and news web sites already organized. If I had to do that and first organize all that the out come may have been very different.