INCARCERATED WORKERS ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

Job Opportunity: Prison Branch Builder – Traveling Organizer

IWW Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee

Open until filled: First Review June 1st, 2016

The IWW’s Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee is incarcerated people and their allies organizing to transform prison conditions and end mass incarceration. We work in solidarity with all human beings behind bars. Our purpose is to organize prison labor to make the current prison system unprofitable, unmanageable, and unattractive. We stand for revolutionary democracy in the free world as well.  

The IWOC began two years ago when the IWW was approached for organizing support by the Free Alabama Movement, and has since grown to 800 members in 36 US states, with recent upsurges in Texas, Alabama, Virginia, as well as in Europe. The IWW is a revolutionary, dues funded labor organization, and our growth has been entirely powered by volunteer organizers, inside and out.

However, as our membership in prisons has exploded numerically, we now intend to hire at least one (1) or ideally two (2) full time organizers by the end of 2016 to do the following:

Job Duties:

1. Connect and support organizers in prison to assist the creation of inside branches inside prison and coordinating inside-outside support
2. Connect and support with families and outside allies to grow powerful outside chapters
3. Travel to: grow or strengthen IWOC groups, coordinate outside support for prison strikes and other inside actions, and speak to the media when necessary

Qualifications:

• Has served time. An ideal candidate will already have organized inside in some capacity, with outside experience too.
• Self starter, hard worker, willingness to learn and ask for help when needed
• Commitment to growing a bottom-up, working class movement to end capitalism and prisons, organizing prison labor and outside workers to end these systems, and deep belief in the revolutionary power of liberation struggles: poor, black, brown, indigenous, women’s, queer, etc.
• Ability to speak in a way that inspires and motivates change, and illustrates the unnecessary horror that is the prison system
• Comfortable meeting new people, going to new places, staying in someone else’s house, etc
• Ability to support new organizers, particularly people who have been in prison and their families, grow into strong, politically educated movement leaders
• Experience with work against prisons, campaign strategy, direct action, media, etc, is a plus
• By hiring date, any candidate must be a member of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)
• A current campaign is underway in the US Deep South, so experience organizing in this region would be of added value
• The ability to live well on the salary provided so as to not need another job during the course of employment

Salary and Work Week:

• $20,000 plus health care and other benefits
• 30+ hours a week, 7 weeks vacation at times of your choice
• 1 year contract, with the expectation that this will likely only be a one year position

How to Apply

Applications should include the following:

1. Letter explaining what you bring to this position and why you want the job
2. List of relevant experiences and/or resume
3. Three (3) references with phone numbers

Final applications or questions can be sent to iwoc@riseup.net. We welcome your input, questions, ideas, and are also happy to take questions at our group hotline 816-866-3808.

Note that we are an all volunteer run-organization so may actually be more reachable after business hours, etc.