User:Julius177/IWOC

The Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC) is a standing committee under the General Administration of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), an international revolutionary labor union.

IWW and prisoners
During the IWW's free speech fights in the 1900-10s, a common strategy employed was to flood a small, often rural county with unemployed workers who would commit civil disobedience against whichever law or local ordinance was being opposed, often restrictions against public speaking or picketing. This would frequently lead to local town or county jails being overfilled and the local authorities being unable to imprison any more people, resulting in a de facto victory for the IWW. The frequency with which IWW members would be jailed or put in prison on charges relating to labour organizing resulted in the creation of a General Defense Committee (GDC) in 1917, which operated as a semi-autonomous organization under the umbrella of the IWW and still exists today. The GDC coordinated legal aid for many prisoners, especially those imprisoned as a result of the Palmer Raids in 1919-20.

By the time of the IWW's eleventh general convention in 1919, the union was maintaining correspondence with members in fifteen prisons, and prisoners in Leavenworth had been making efforts to participate in the union while imprisoned. By June 1919, the union's General Defense Committee issued a call for members to renew organizing efforts and to fundraise in the hopes of paying bail for as many imprisoned members as possible. These efforts would gradually decrease as members imprisoned under sedition or criminal syndicalism laws in the 1910s were gradually released and these laws were repealed or became rarely enforced.

Convicts John Perroti, Dennis Wolfel and John Brumfield join IWW and launch organizing campaign at Southwest Ohio Correctional Facility (SOCF). (http://www.iww.org/about/chronology/9)

Prison unions
Attica, 70s prison unrest mention North Carolina Prison Labor Union: http://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=6108&context=jclc

Creation of IWOC
Anything public about IWOC's creation.

Activity
Brief mention of phone zaps followed by 09/09 strike account.

Philosophy and structure
Industrial unionism, IWOC->IWIU transition, point of production organizing.