bwfj.jillianjohnson.net Open in urlscan Pro
192.185.41.192  Public Scan

Form analysis
3 forms found in the DOM

GET https://blackworkersforjustice.com/

<form role="search" method="get" id="searchform" class="searchform" action="https://blackworkersforjustice.com/">
  <div>
    <label class="screen-reader-text" for="s">Search for:</label>
    <input type="text" value="" name="s" id="s">
    <input type="submit" id="searchsubmit" value="Search">
  </div>
</form>

POST http://oi.vresp.com?fid=8571f63c59

<form method="post" action="http://oi.vresp.com?fid=8571f63c59" target="vr_optin_popup" onsubmit="window.open( 'http://www.verticalresponse.com', 'vr_optin_popup', 'scrollbars=yes,width=600,height=450' ); return true;">
  <div style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 11px; width: 160px; padding: 10px; border: 1px solid #000000; background: #dddddd;">
    <strong><span style="color: #333333;">Join Our Email List!</span></strong>
    <p style="text-align: right; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><span style="color: #f00;">* </span><span style="color: #333333">required</span></p>
    <label style="color: #333333;">Email Address:</label> <span style="color: #f00">* </span>
    <br>
    <input name="email_address" size="15" style="margin-top: 5px; margin-bottom: 5px; border: 1px solid #999; padding: 3px;">
    <br>
    <label style="color: #333333;">First Name:</label>
    <br>
    <input name="first_name" size="15" style="margin-top: 5px; margin-bottom: 5px; border: 1px solid #999; padding: 3px;">
    <br>
    <label style="color: #333333;">Last Name:</label>
    <br>
    <input name="last_name" size="15" style="margin-top: 5px; margin-bottom: 5px; border: 1px solid #999; padding: 3px;">
    <br>
    <input type="submit" value="Join Now" style="margin-top: 5px; border: 1px solid #999; padding: 3px;"><br>
  </div>
</form>

POST https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr

<form target="_blank" action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post"><input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_donations"><input type="hidden" name="business" value="bwfj@blackworkersforjustice.com"><input type="hidden" name="item_name"
    value=""><input type="hidden" name="item_number" value=""><input type="hidden" name="currency_code" value="USD"><input type="hidden" name="amount" id="amount_b4414854f9dfadea95293d35023f9911" value=""><input type="hidden" name="no_note"
    value="0"><input type="hidden" name="no_shipping" value="1"><input type="hidden" name="notify_url" value="https://blackworkersforjustice.com/wp-admin/admin-post.php?action=add_wpedon_button_ipn"><input type="hidden" name="lc" value="EN_US"><input
    type="hidden" name="bn" value="WPPlugin_SP"><input type="hidden" name="return" value=""><input type="hidden" name="cancel_return" value=""><input class="wpedon_paypalbuttonimage" type="image"
    src="https://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/btn/btn_donate_LG.gif" border="0" name="submit" alt="Make your payments with PayPal. It is free, secure, effective." style="border: none;"><img alt="" border="0" style="border:none;display:none;"
    src="https://www.paypal.com/EN_US/i/scr/pixel.gif" width="1" height="1"></form>

Text Content

Skip to content
 * Home
 * About Us
 * Our Work
 * Blog
 * Get Involved
 * Resources & Education
 * Multimedia
 * Links
 * Donate

← Older posts



IT’S ABOUT POWER: SOUTHERN WORKER SCHOOL CHARTS PATH FOR BUILDING WORKERS
MOVEMENT IN THE U.S. SOUTH

by Southern Workers Assembly | Apr 26, 2023 | News, Statement, Workers School



“We heard from the rail workers. We heard from the truckers. We’ve got the
longshoremen in the house, too,” said Leonard Riley, a longshore worker with the
International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) Local 1422 and member of the SWA
Coordinating Committee, addressing a packed house at the Teamsters Local 71
union hall during the opening program of the 2023 Southern Worker School.

“The reason I bring that up is because of the power that’s in this room. We’ve
got bus drivers over there, teachers over here. There’s power in this room. It’s
going to take strategy, planning, coming together, and finding out where the
power connectors are to mobilize and exercise it.”

Strategizing, planning, building networks, and engaging in collective discussion
on how to build a stronger and broader workers movement – including local
workers assemblies – in the U.S. South is exactly what the more than 120 rank
and file workers and other activists who participated in the worker school
during the weekend of April 21 – 23 in Charlotte, North Carolina, did.

 

The crowd at Teamsters Local 71 for the opening program, Southern Workers on the
Move.

Workers who participated in the gathering came from nine Southern states – South
Carolina, Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Georgia,
Florida, Kentucky – and numerous sectors, including the service industry,
logistics, education, the public sector, construction, and more. Notably,
several worker organizations and other political formations sent delegations of
their membership to participate in the convening, including the Union of
Southern Service Workers (USSW), Railroad Workers United (RWU), the
International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) Local 1422, UE Locals 150 (NC)
and 111 (Virginia Beach), Truckers Movement for Justice (TMJ), the National
Black Food and Justice Alliance, the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee
(EWOC), the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA) & We Dream in Black
(WeDiB), and Black Workers for Justice, among others.

Even beyond the programming and discussions that took place throughout the
weekend, the gathering was significant and reflected both quantitative and
qualitative steps forward in the development of a South-wide network of
militant, class conscious, rank and file workers engaged in struggle across
various strategic sectors of the economy. The gathering had a strong
multi-national character, helped to consolidate the work of existing workers
assemblies and drew in workers and other forces who are interested in developing
one in their city, and was the largest Southern Worker School held to date.





BUILDING WORKERS ASSEMBLIES: A STRATEGY THAT FLOWS FROM AN ASSESSMENT OF
CONDITIONS

The worker school opened on the evening of Friday, April 21, with an exciting
program – titled “Southern Workers on the Move” –  featuring workers on the
frontlines of struggle in mostly non-collective bargaining workplaces. The
discussion began with opening greetings from Ashely Hawkins, president of the
Charlotte Metrolina Central Labor Council, and Nichel Dunlap-Thompson, recording
secretary for UE Local 150 and a leader in the Charlotte Workers Assembly. Ajamu
Dillahunt, a member of the SWA Coordinating Committee and Black Workers for
Justice, then opened the program by speaking to the political climate and the
need for a social movement oriented workers movement in the South.

He was followed by reports and lessons from Mama Cookie Bradley from the Union
of Southern Service Workers, Hugh Sawyer of Railroad Workers United, UE Local
150 Charlotte Chapter president Dominic Harris, worker organizer and former CLT4
(an Amazon fulfillment center in Charlotte) worker Dion Coutrier, and concluded
by Sharon James with the National Domestic Workers Alliance.

“We are up against Precision Scheduled Railroading (PSR). They’re trying to run
the price of the stock up, and then these hedge funds will sell out and leave a
skelton left. It will lead to decimation that we’ll all end up paying for,” Hugh
Sawyer told the crowd. “Railroad Workers United today is taking on the
monumental task of public ownership of railroads… From an environmental point of
view, you want healthy railways, and the only way we’re going to get it is
through public ownership.”

A lively general discussion, sharing of other reports from workers present, and
remarks on strategy and tactics for the period then followed.

Speakers at the Friday evening program. (L – R) Mama Cookie Bradley, USSW;
Dominic Harris, UE 150; Ajamu Dillahunt, SWA CC and BWFJ; Dion Coutrier, Amazon
worker organizer; Hugh Sawyer, RWU; Sharon James, NDWA

“It’s clear to us that we’re in a crisis. The crisis is a crisis of capitalism,
and it’s showing up in the economy, it’s showing up in politics, and it’s
showing up in social relationships,” said Ajamu Dillahunt at the start of the
day on Saturday. “It’s showing up in how they run us at work, it’s showing up in
how they deal with our education system, it’s showing up in every aspect, and
we’ve got to respond to that now in a unified way.”

Saturday’s session focused on putting forward a ten step methodology for
developing workers assemblies, and began with an assessment of the conditions
that informs this approach to developing a basic level of working class
organization and struggle.

“There are 118 million private sector workers in the country. Last year only
65,000 participated in union recognition elections. By that math it would take
2,000 years to organize half of the working class. We have to move people to
collective action despite prospects for government recognition,” stated Ed
Bruno, member of the SWA Coordinating Committee, former UE Director of
Organizing, and former National Nurses United Southern Regional Director. “It
isn’t the election that gives us the union. The election gives us a ticket to
the dance, the union is the dance. We need to be talking to workers in the
beginning about work stoppages, picketing, and strikes. We need to start by
workers realizing they can depend on one another, by doing it.”

Bruno continued, “We want to make the shop issue a public issue, it gives the
boss a problem that he can’t bottle it up in his office. The question of
maximizing our power is crucial, so we have to start to build networks of
workers in strategic industries across the region. We did this in Texas, where
there were no union hospitals, now there are 15. We didn’t start by organizing a
union. We started out by organizing the National Nurses Organizing Committee in
Texas, Florida, and Tennessee.”

This orientation on the need to build workplace organization that is anchored by
the most conscious and active workers in different strategic workplaces – in
other words, cadre that form a militant minority – that are then connected
together in local and regional networks to coordinate and engage in public
collective action provided the foundation for day and the overall approach to
building workers assemblies. It was also emphasized how these workplace
committees and networks should engage in taking up issues that can connect the
workplace and the broader community, and particularly taking on fights against
racism and other forms of oppression and placing a strong emphasis on the
leadership of Black workers, to build a broader social movement oriented workers
movement.

“We are looking to put together cadre in many workplaces. The first thing we
have to do is go out and establish leaflet brigades to leaflet workplaces all
over the South,” said Libby Devlin, a member of the SWA Coordinating Committee
and former National Bargaining Director for National Nurses United.

Discussions throughout the day raised how to form leaflet brigades, how to
identify significant workplaces to focus outreach efforts around and best
practices for that work, how to have initial followup conversations and more
focused organizing conversations, and how to connect workers from different
workplaces together to form workers assemblies. Rank and file leaders from
workers assemblies helped to lead each section, sharing their experiences and
lessons from their work. Other workers at the school then had the opportunity to
ask questions, to contribute their own experiences and lessons, and engaged in
roleplays and other training activities to deepen their skills on the topic at
hand.

 



Small group discussions during Saturday’s session of the Southern Worker School.

“The worker school gave me the foundation for the movement, how it was started,
what it takes to keep the work going, and the role of collective action and
militancy. The training showed how to do outreach and recruit workers, and ways
to keep the workers engaged in the organizing,” reflected Felicidad Bryant, a
clerical worker from Virginia Beach, VA, who was previously a member of UE Local
111. “The exercise that made us replicate the workplace organizing conversations
was really helpful. I do have more clarity now on how to identify sites for
leafleting and I’m excited to bring that back to our work here.”

The Fruit of Labor Singing Ensemble contributed political narratives and
cultural presentations throughout Saturday’s sessions.

The school concluded on Sunday with a political education session led by SWA
Education Committee member Abdul Alkalimat. The presentation and subsequent
discussion focused on laying out an assessment of developments in the capitalist
economy in the U.S. and internationally, the growth of the right wing and
attacks on oppressed and working class people, and the ramifications of these
developments on our work.

“I really appreciated hearing the Fruit of Labor sing the song about ‘You don’t
make a dime, unless we move.’ That was a powerful song because up until this
past year when we moved to a strike vote with CATS, it was the first time in 20+
years of the drivers taking a stand for their rights and ready to strike,” noted
Gia Lockhart, a Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS) operator. “I can’t wait
until I can review the slides that were put up on Sunday by Abdul Alkalimat.
I’ve already shared a few of them in our Facebook group that’s dedicated just to
the workers.”


DEEPEN AND EXPAND THE MOVEMENT TO ORGANIZE THE SOUTH

This was the first worker school held by the Southern Workers Assembly since the
passing of co-founder Saladin Muhammad. Muhammad was acknowledged and honored
throughout the gathering, and the delegation from the ILA Local 1422 presented a
plaque in his honor during Saturday’s session, pledging their continued
commitment to building the SWA.

Before his passing, Muhammad had raised a proposal for the formation of a
Council of Workers Assemblies to institutionalize the various networks of
workers coalescing within the SWA, to create a venue for workers from different
assemblies or who are engaged in developing an assembly in their area to better
exchange and coordinate their work across the region, and to bring forward more
rank and file leadership of the SWA network.

The gathering in Charlotte advanced the development of such a council, with
plans to convene the first meeting in June.

Expanding political education efforts, broadening outreach and leafleting
efforts across the region, along with deepening the work of existing assemblies
and supporting the development of new assemblies by workers who attended from
areas that do not currently have an active workers assembly, are also high on
the agenda in the months ahead. Videos and other materials from the worker
school will soon be shared on the SWA website and disseminated throughout the
network to additionally support these efforts.

In the midst of the deepening crises facing workers and oppressed peoples,
alongside the growing flight of capital to the South to exploit labor and take
advantage of the reactionary political climate and low level of working class
organization, the worker school offered a framework and a strategy to fight
back. It was, ultimately, a reflection of the motion of workers across various
sectors and the role of the workers assemblies to tie it together, build
solidarity, and help to orient that motion to further engage our class and wage
a unified struggle in the midst of these attacks and worsening conditions.

Though the tasks ahead of us are daunting, the school made clear: workers are
determined to continue to struggle and build a movement to organize the South!


 * 

 





JUSTICE FOR TYRE NICHOLS! STOP THE WAR ON BLACK AMERICA

When Dr. King was murdered, Nina Simone, in song, raised the question “are they
men or are they beast?” On January  7, 2023, the Memphis PD Scorpion Squad once
again answered the question. They, representatives of a racist system,  are
monsters in service  of controlling oppressed communities, defending the social
order and the profits of the capitalist class. Policing in the US is a  system
that has grown out of the history of slave catchers (paddy rollers) and the
enforcing of  Jim Crow chain gangs. This is what colonialism looks like.
Continue reading →





MEMORIAL CELEBRATION FOR SALADIN MUHAMMAD





SALADIN MUHAMMAD, BLACK WORKERS FOR JUSTICE FOUNDER AND LEADER JOINS THE
ANCESTORS

It is with great sadness and profound loss that we announce the passing of our
exemplary revolutionary warrior and leader, Comrade Brother Saladin Muhammad.  
Saladin passed this morning after a long battle with illness.   His wife, Naeema
and son Muhammad were with him as he transitioned.  He fought until the end. 
They described him as being at peace.Saladin on courthourse steps

Brother Saladin leaves an outstanding legacy of revolutionary commitment,
leadership, consciousness,  and direct organizing of our people’s struggle for
liberation.   He was a commander-in-chief of revolutionary forces throughout the
Black Liberation Movement and a staunch fighter for the Black Working Class.  
He worked tirelessly and with phenomenal energy to organize, guide, and lead our
people’s fights and battles against oppression.   He was an internationalist,
upholding the world-wide struggle against capitalism and imperialism.   His
intellect, insight and analysis was outstanding in the theory and practice of
organizing class and revolutionary struggle and the tactics and strategy of
social transformation, national liberation, and socialism for the African
American people.

Saladin’s unmatched organizing skills led to the formation of the Black Workers
for Justice, UE Local 150, and the Southern Workers Assembly, just to recognize
only a few of his impactful accomplishments.   And these organizational
formations of the Black working class were built in the context of North
Carolina, a state widely recognized for it’s anti-unionism and racist history
and in the US South where the lack of a strong, progressive labor movement in
the southeast region has been the Achilles heel of the US national labor
movement.   The struggle to build a “new trade unionism” in the US South must
continue.

His leadership and guidance, upon which thousands around the country and the
world relied, is irreplaceable and will be sorely missed by all of us.  Saladin
was active in the struggles for justice and liberation  for more than 50 years.

Saladin Muhammad, PRESENTE!!!

The Executive Committee,Black Workers for Justice





THE NORTH CAROLINA PUBLIC SERVICE WORKERS UNION, UE LOCAL 150 HOLDS CONVENTION

On August 20-21, the Union held its annual convention and celebrated  25 years
of struggle with and on behalf of Workers in North Carolina. The following
videos capture the event far better than a written description. We congratulate
the members and leaders and wish them the best for the next 25 years of working
for justice for North Carolina workers and building a rank and file, democratic
and militant union.



 



← Older posts

 * The BWFJ is an organization of Black workers formed in December of 1982 out
   of a struggle led by Black women workers at a K-mart store in Rocky Mount,
   North Carolina against race and gender discrimination. After organizing a
   boycott of the local K-mart store and reaching out to workers at other
   workplaces and communities, Black workers and community activists from 10
   counties met at the First Missionary Baptist Church in Fremont, NC in
   December 1982 to form BWFJ as a statewide organization.
 * Search for:
 * 
   
       
   


 * OUR VIDEOS
   
   
   


 * AREAS OF WORK
   
   * Anti-War
   * Black Liberation
   * Black/Brown Unity
   * Blog
   * Cooperatives/Solidarity Economy
   * Environmental Justice
   * Fruit of Labor Singing Ensemble and Cultural Work
   * Human Rights
   * International Solidarity
   * Jobs Now
   * Justice Speaks
   * Labor Organizing
   * MLK Support for Labor Banquet
   * Multimedia
   * Presente
   * Public Employee Organizing
   * Resources & Education
   * Uncategorized
   * United Front
   * Women's Commission/ Women's Issues
   * Youth Work/ Hip-Hop for Justice
 * Join Our Email List!
   
   * required
   
   Email Address: *
   
   First Name:
   
   Last Name:
   
   
   
 * 

 * 
   

Black Workers for Justice
Proudly powered by WordPress.