Film Night for the 2021 CanROC Summit

The Canadian Regional Organizing Committee (CanROC) of the IWW will be hosting its 2021 Summit from August 13-15, with panels and workshops. As part of the Summit, the Ottawa-Outaouais General Membership Branch is excited to host an online broadcast of the film Salt of the Earth (1954) on Saturday, August 14 7:30pm EST (runtime: 94 minutes; commentary 60+ minutes).

The broadcast will include union members providing live commentary alongside the film. Our Twitch stream will be open to the public for watching and chatting about the movie with us! Follow us and turn on notifications by going to https://twitch.tv/OttawaIWW

Salt of the Earth is based on the 1951 strike against the Empire Zinc Company in Grant County, New Mexico. The story of centres on Mexican migrant miners and their families as they fight for safer working conditions. After its release in 1954, it had been marred by McCarthyist anti-communist campaigns including a proposal to ban its export and the blacklisting of workers on the film. UPDATE: The film will be broadcast with French subtitles.

The 2021 CanROC Summit has released the list of workshops hosted by members of the IWW. The list includes:

  • Organizing Non-Unionized Teachers
  • Q&A with CanROC Officers and Representatives
  • Health & Safety: 3 Rights For Workers
  • Survivor Centred Complaints
  • The Organizing Department Board: EXPLAINED
  • Special Laws and Essential Workers in Our Times
  • Environmental Unionism
  • Gender Equity Committee 101
  • Reclaim Your Pay, Freelancer’s Edition

Dates, times and workshop descriptions can be found at iww.ca.

Digital May Day 2021 wrap up

This past International Workers’ Day, we celebrated with another successful Digital May Day! We want to share the recorded collection of the celebration on Twitch for anyone who missed it or wants to rewatch it.

The event kicked off with music, a couple of exclusive podcasts, clips from previous May Day street actions in Ottawa and a panel discussion from our fellow workers in the Ottawa-Outaouais general membership branch.

The first podcast we streamed was exclusive before we posted it on our site. Fellow Worker D of the Ottawa-Outaouais IWW interviews longtime Montreal Activist and Anarchist Jaggi Singh on COVID-19, capital and cops.

We broadcasted a new podcast called Boot Party, which included our member ToolUsingMammal with spaceprole and as_a_worker of The Antifada podcast. Topics ranged from joining organizations and the IWW, mutual aid, music and politics.

We were also excited to share the Ottawa Anti-Imperialist Alliance and Ontario Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines virtual May Day celebration that included speeches and live music from Himig Masa, Ottawa IWW’s Heavysnack, and Fen Racketa member of Loon Choir.

The Burning Hell, our fellow workers from PEI, held a live May Day performance of their amazing indie rock sound, however technical difficulties lead us to host their catalogue of music videos over our stream instead.

Finally, we closed off the night with a live panel discussion among three of our fellow workers on the union organizing subplot of the mainstream TV show Superstore. We discuss do’s and do not’s when organizing a union on the job, what’s realistic and not in the show’s depiction and the importance of having positive union representation in popular media.

An archive of our 2020 Digital May Day events is still online. Fellow Worker Starr interviews FW Ahmad about her articles on Canadian labour law around unions and the Rand Formula and shortening the 40-hour workweek. The interview also goes on to talk about Ahmad’s band The Apparatchiks, her history of union activities and horror movies!

It was a fun and busy day for our branch and we’re looking forward to engaging in more, similar digital events. Be sure to follow the Ottawa-Outaouais IWW on Twitch and turn on notifications for when we’re back on!

Announcing our Digital May Day 2021

This Saturday May 1st is International Workers’ Day, also known as May Day. It’s a day to celebrate workers’ power and protest the capitalist economic system that exploits our class. We’re excited to announce our own digital May Day event running all day.

Since the COVID-19 public health crisis, our branch of the IWW has been meeting workers and members online. We want to keep our fellow workers safe during the pandemic, which is why we hosted May Day 2020 online as well.

For last year’s event, we hosted readings, speeches, music and an interview with a local branch member over live stream. Most of this content is still hosted on our Twitch channel and can be watched right now.

This year, we’ve prepared live music, podcasts and popular culture commentary featuring members of the IWW. We’re also excited to stream other local Ottawa activities, including the Anti-Imperialist Alliance and Ontario Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines May Day celebration.

Join the event on Facebook and follow us on Twitch – turn on notifications so you know when we’re live streaming different events!