Southern Maine IWW members joined their fellow workers from points south in Boston last weekend for an Organizer Training 101 class hosted by the Boston general membership branch.

The class was held over 2 days, Saturday and Sunday. It was the perfect course for anyone who wants to organize in their workplace but doesn’t know where to start, introducing participants to a step-by-step process from gathering contacts, to social and physical mapping, to engaging with other workers in direct action and recruiting them into a union.

Our instructors were experienced organizers from successful IWW campaigns in NYC and in the Twin Cities. They were able to share perspectives drawn from their own experiences, including mistakes made and how they overcame repression and union busting efforts by their employers.

The class has made SMIWW much more capable both of organizing in our own workplaces and assisting organizing efforts in other Maine workplaces. It also gave us the opportunity to network with Wobblies throughout New England and to gain a broader perspective on the union as a whole, beyond our local area. As we build the union and establish a chartered branch in Maine, these skills are sure to come in handy!