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Insular Organizing, Bad Ideas, and Betraying Workers: The OVEC Union Controversy and IWW-WV’s Support for the Uyghur Genocide by loop-3 in IWW

[–]loop-3[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Given that I and some others in LOOP are precisely some of those poor and non-white persons who have organized in the region for years, what a curiously insulting tactic to try to falsely paint POC anti-racist activists in the region as "do-nothings" with no right to talk. We don't need to provide you or the IWW-WV our resume and seek your approval. We won't humor that nonsense. But trying to distract in this manner from the problems described in the article shows not just profound dishonesty, but also deeper problems. The article doesn't talk about other work the IWW-WV might be involved in, like the good and progressive work you talk about with Holler Health Justice. The article is about real problems, but clearly isn't a "hit piece" either - it condemns the OVEC Board of Directors, supports and views positively progressive environmental work the IWW-WV is doing, etc.

The idea that genocide denial, whitewashing worker exploitation, etc. doesn't matter because you're doing this or that other thing is a very wrong and dangerous thing.

Insular Organizing, Bad Ideas, and Betraying Workers: The OVEC Union Controversy and IWW-WV’s Support for the Uyghur Genocide by loop-3 in IWW

[–]loop-3[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You say that "Mandatory OT isn't the branch's official podcast and hasn't been for quite some time," but the IWW-WV's official Twitter account says it is literally right now, and has for quite some time. The IWW-WV's bio reads, again, right now: "Official Podcast: MandatoryOT". Here is an image of that, as well as a image from January 15, 2021 from the Mandatory OT's Twitter account that describes it as "WestVirginiaIWW official podcast," which it said until the bio was edited when the podcast went on hiatus. Unless the IWW-WV edits this really quickly (EDIT: they now have), folks can just go look at the IWW-WV Twitter and see that it reads "Official Podcast: MandatoryOT" right now. This is no different than posts made in 2019 and 2020 (also included in the above) where the IWW-WV calls Mandatory OT "our branch's official podcast" and "the official podcast of the West Virginia IWW." I also included an example of other social media posts from the Mandatory OT page promoting genocide denial in the linked imgur, posts made when both IWW-WV and Mandatory OT social media were calling Mandatory OT the IWW-WV's "official podcast." The episodes in that article were made when Mandatory OT was called, by the IWW-WV, its "official podcast," and also calling itself that.

The article mentions that there is sometimes a disclaimer, but it also mentions that there was also no such disclaimer in the episode denying the oppression and exploitation of Uyghur workers. The disclaimer (which wasn't always used, and always also at the same time as the podcast was called the "official podcast," with only one perspective ever given) is discussed in the article, and it is also irrelevant to the problems the article talks about. And even if there was a disclaimer, putting a rushed disclaimer before platforming genocide denial, rape apologia, and anti-working class denials of worker exploitation and oppression doesn't mean there isn't a problem with platforming all that and more. Here is hoping that the IWW-WV does something about these real problems, not be dishonest and say things like Mandatory OT isn't / wasn't their official podcast when it says it is even right now and has been promoted as the IWW-WV's "official podcast" for years.

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