Help 25+ Anarchist Labor Organizers Get to Labor Notes

Call from the Black Rose/ Rosa Negra anarchist federation to help send anarchist labor organizers to the upcoming Labor Notes conference.

Since Black Rose / Rosa Negra (BRRN) was founded 10 years ago, labor has remained a key focus of our sectoral organizing approach. For our members this has meant organizing the unorganized in campaigns to build entirely new unions, fighting within existing unions for greater rank-and-file control, and building the capacity of workers to lead their own struggles from the shopfloor.

In the last few years our members have participated in paradigm shifting wildcat strikes, successful organizing campaigns in ‘right to work’ states like Texas and North Carolina, massive strikes in higher education in California and New Jersey, and efforts to build and expand rank-and-file networks of healthcare workers. Most recently, our members have been experimenting with ways to bring the fight for Palestinian liberation into our workplace campaigns.

We are resolutely committed to building a pole for revolutionary anarchist politics and strategy in the labor movement. This is reflected in our recently published political program Turning the Tide, where we specifically commit to “developing and expanding a militant minority of anarchists committed to organizing at a rank-and-file level within strategic industries.”

There is perhaps no better opportunity to make the connections for such a project than at the biennial Labor Notes conference. Labor Notes brings together thousands of union members for a weekend of critical discussion, training, and workshops. In 2022 the conference saw its highest attendance ever and this year it is again set to break records. Members of BRRN have been attending Labor Notes for some time and have organized, facilitated, and sat on a number of its panels over the years. During the 2018 edition of Labor Notes, we held an open ‘Red & Black Party’ adjacent to the conference, which featured anarchist workers involved in campaigns in the US, UK, and Poland, and allowed for other anarchist and fellow traveler militant unionists to meet and network.

This year BRRN is poised to bring over 25 members to the conference, including those of us who are workers in the building trades, transit, healthcare, K-12 education, higher education, public services, and laboratory science.

We are also extremely excited to announce that we are sponsoring the attendance of comrades from our sister organization Federación Anarquista Rosario (FAR) in Argentina, who are workers in the public sector. This comes at a crucial time for the Argentinian labor movement, as workers there have recently undertaken a general strike in response to the extreme neoliberal program of the newly elected president Javier Milei.

This year we plan to host an expanded redux of the ‘Red & Black Party’, in order to highlight the work many of our members are doing, to hear from our comrades in FAR and Spanish comrades from the General Confederation of Labor (CGT), and to provide a space to network with other militant unionists. Details on the party are forthcoming!

We are setting our sights high for the conference this year, but everything that we have planned does not come cheap. From plane tickets and visa costs, to food, lodging, and party supplies. While BRRN will be fronting a significant amount of money for this effort, we are also an independent political organization that relies only on membership dues and individual donations. But that’s where you come in.

We’re counting on your solidarity to help us continue our effort toward building a wing of the labor movement committed to self-management, class struggle, rank-and-file democracy, direct action, class independence, and internationalism.

Any donations received in excess of our goal will be used for the production of Spanish language copies of our political program Turning the Tide.

Donate now and receive one or more of these gifts as a thank you!