A view from the plains: on organizing in smaller areas of the Midwest
A reflection on organizing in areas outside of major metropolises and the last few years of class struggle organizing in eastern Iowa.
What would it look like to develop strategies in apolitical areas and smaller areas far from more active and developed places of leftist activity? This is obviously an open-ended question with many implications and courses of action. Since our experiences in Occupy here in Iowa, this question has increasingly become, for me, an important one for revolutionary left organizing in areas like ours.
Solidarity to the students of Quebec!
A statement of solidarity from Iowa's Wild Rose Collective to the student strikes in Quebec.
WRC operates in the moderately sized Iowa City, home to the state’s largest university — the University of Iowa. Like many university towns the student population, perhaps the most present in Iowa City, remain relatively silent as political actors.
May Day and the Fight Back We Need
Occupy Iowa City held a rally and march as part of Occupy May 1st and the national Day of Action / General Strike. This was given as a speech there by Wild Rose Collective member R. Spourgìtis.
On May 1st, 1886, workers across the US went on strike for the 8 hour day. In Haymarket Square in Chicago, a massacre took place. In the years that followed, May 1st became known as International Workers Day in commemoration of these events, and most nations of the world now celebrate their Labor Day on or around May Day.
Occupy the class war
A member of Wild Rose Collective writes about how Occupy's '99% vs 1%' rhetoric is problematic and who in reality in includes and excludes.
It would seem the division is clear. There is the “1%,” and there is the “99%.”
We know what, and a lot of time we even know who this “1%” is, although for some reason no one seems to be talking about it. Instead, we tend to speak to the inverse—the “99%”. It is a created concept really, an imagined unity that says somewhat clearly: “those who have been fucked by the 1%.”
Occupy Iowa City: Notes after the First Weekend
A look at Occupy Iowa City and its prospects for growth and escalation.
After the first weekend of the occupation—“Occupy Iowa City”—the project is still being defined. It has been seemingly static throughout the weekend, if not a little declining as GAs wither and the evening crawls. But this is to be expected. Many showed up curious on day one just to check it out, so an initial fall in numbers was to be expected.
The work and the job - Wild Rose Collective
A piece about the alienation of work and how even work that is directed towards helping people is structured in a way to be about profits over everything else.
“I don’t think I’m cut out to be an employee.”
The specific anarchist group - Wild Rose Collective
This document from their new member packet explains the type of group that Wild Rose Collective is, and gives some background on the ideas.
What is a specific anarchist group?
Redwing Workers Organization History
Submitted by Juan Conatz on Feb 25 2011 04:04
A short history on the activity of various small groups that eventually went on to become the Redwing Workers Organization, a libertarian socialist organization from Des Moines, Iowa that existed in the late 1970s.
November 1972: Marxist-Leninist Educational 2 days, 13 people; high level of solidarity; decided to meet to discuss forming an ongoing group
December 1972: Follow-up meeting to the educational; decided to form an ongoing group
Summer 1973: Women’s and Men’s caucuses form; initiated by FSG; included all FSG members and people not in FSG, met bi-weekly.
Notes on the Midwest Libertarian Conference, May 28-31, 1976
Submitted by Juan Conatz on Feb 19 2011 23:50
In 1976, anarchists and libertarian socialists in Iowa called for a "Continental Organizing and Communications Conference" with the aim of moving towards forming a midwest federation.
A history of Wild Rose Rebellion, 2007-2009
Submitted by Juan Conatz on Jan 26 2011 21:45
A history of an Iowa-based anarchist group.
by Juan Conatz and R.Spourgítis
Wild Rose Rebellion (WRR) was an anarchist group primarily based in Iowa City, Iowa. Its beginnings can be traced to late 2007, when anarchists involved in a local student antiwar group, infoshop and IWW branch decided they wanted to hold meetings to plan for the 2008 Republican National Convention protests in the Twin Cities.
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