V.  More Ideas for Organizing New IWW Locals

(A) Make a flyer with your name, mailing address, phone number, e-mail, and/or website and list yourself as a local IWW organizer.  Set a time for a meeting and a location, or at least let others know you are interested in meeting.  Post that flyer everywhere you can.  Take some to public places like picket-lines, strikes, labor rallies, political demonstrations, gatherings, farmers markets, city council meetings, college campuses, public hang-outs, bookstores and hand them out or distribute them.  If you feel you have enough information, publish a pamphlet or even a newsletter.  Make sure you let others know how to contact you!

(B) If you want to augment your literature with more (or you are to lazy to make your own) try contacting other locals and related groups and asking them for some.  Various IWW branches produce their own literature which can be easily adopted to server your own local.  They can all be contacted at the addresses listed in the Industrial Worker or elsewhere in our network of websites.

(C) Set up a table at a public event, such as big political rallies, picket-lines, strikes, solidarity rallies, college campuses, county fairs and farmers markets, church socials, or even your local public hangout.  Make sure you have literature (your own and supporting information), a sign up list, lists of things interested passers by can do, maybe even some merchandise (videos, T-shirts, but-tons, books, tapes, and so forth--anything related to your issue).  Tabling is also a great way to raise funds for your local or group.

(D) Place advertisements in your local alternative or community newspaper.  Produce a PSA for your local alternative / community / college / pirate radio station.  If you can, produce one for a community access TV station.  It helps to know someone involved with these projects.

(E) Arrange to show a video, give a lecture, hold a seminar, or host a workshop related to your issue.  If your guests / participants show some interest, you probably have the beginnings of a new group.

(F) Set up an e-mail discussion list and / or a web-site.  This has advantages and disadvantages.  The biggest advantage is you can hold discussions without actually having to set up a meeting (though they work best when they augment meetings), but the biggest drawback is that you are not likely to be grounded in your local area unless you already know some folks interested in your issue.  Cyberspace kind of exists everywhere at once.  However, if you are already part of a discussion group, more concrete organization can form out of such "virtual" groups.  And, once you get going, the internet can greatly augment your organizing efforts (more about that later).

(G) If all else fails, join a group in your community working on an unrelated issue and pick up political contacts.  You might even be able to interest your that group in your issue.  In fact, this is an excellent way for inexperienced activists to learn how to become effective organizers.
 


 Previous Page   Return to Index   Top of This Page   Next Page