Trip to Taipei where taIWWan Begins

9-20-13 8:34am Fri. (1)

      We had a very nice day in Taipei yesterday despite the rain there. When we got off the HSR, we took the Metro to the City Hall station to visit the large bookstore and CD department at Eslite I picked up Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser for 525NT-$17.50 but the other books I wanted evaded me. I also got Ry Cooder’s new “Corridos Famous – Live” for 450NT-$15, Cockney Rejects “Join The Rejects,” a three CD set for 600NT-$20us, and a DVD of “It’s a Wonderful Life,” with Chinese subtitles, for 99NT- $3.33us. I’m awaiting the 50^th Anniversary Edition of the film from New York that I bought on Amazon for $6US. That edition has a booklet and other features, but I wouldn’t have bought it if I had known I could get the copy here in Taipei. At the bookstore, we learned that their branch near Taiwan University had another book I wanted, Becoming “Japanese”; Colonial Taiwan and the Politics of Identity Formation by Leo T.S. Ching for 1015NT-$33.80. At the bookstore, Leona noticed a promotional 20% off if you buy two books so I thought I’d get Anne of Green Gables except I couldn’t remember the author Montgomery’s name. I asked at the info desk and they said the book was out of stock. Learning the author’s name, I looked on the shelves nevertheless and found a copy for 210NT-$7us. With the discount, it made up for the hefty price of the Japan in Taiwan book.

      After we got back from the bookstore in the 101 building area, we took the subway to Taiwan University to have Thai food for lunch and finally meet Catta, Yihan, and Em, two of them Wobblies in good standing. We spent over three hours in Dante coffee shop discussing the IWW. I ended up doing most of the talking as I answered their questions about organizing in Taiwan. They talked about how they had been active pushing for recognition of workers’ rights for workers who seemed to resent their help. I pointed out that we should let the workers come to us who want to organize their work place but we should agitate workers and show solidarity to them in demonstrations. The first step was organizing in our own work places. Yihan, who works in a small crew for a documentary producer, shouldn’t consider him a friend since he is a boss with power to hire, fire, and pay. Yihan should ask for an increase in salary. I was just making a point.

      We touched on all subjects. Someone had asked if I was affiliated with the NYC branch anymore and I explained why I wasn’t; because a job-shop Starbucks Workers “Union” was eating up GMB funds but not sharing any of their own fundraising with the GMB. I explained how Gross was right in organizing his own work place but jumped the gun by filing with the NLRB for recognition before getting a super majority or understanding the nature of stuffing Starbucks would engage in to make the union lose the election. I told my three fellow workers in Taiwan that we shouldn’t look for stardom as Gross had or, in a closer example, Shih Mind-De. Because of the conditions of no government union protection, we had to be clandestine here. I gave the example of Tiger in Chinatown NYC who shunned the limiting UNITE union and got better working conditions for garment workers as a result. Especially when there is apathy from workers and gangster-ism from bosses, we really must let the workers come to us. This means establishing a set time and date each month for a GMB meeting and promoting it on our taIWWan blog at outreach, street actions, and demonstrations. I said I’d be willing to come up to Taipei once a month for the meeting. I will follow up with them on the time and place.

      I gave Catta and Yihan some gifts on behalf of the IWW and lent them the Kerr IWW Anthology I brought from Brooklyn. I gave them my signed copy of Wobblies, the graphic history and will get another singed copy from Tom when I return to Brooklyn next summer. I also gave them a print out of Henry’s 25 page Mandarin (with Taiwanese characteristics, I learned) translation of IWW history and goals and one of three Wobbly pennants I brought. Catta was interested in the Wobbly City I brought as I discussed how David Graeber had come to our GMB meeting in 2005 when he was fired from Yale and now was a good author; we should be that for disgruntled Taiwanese workers. I will copy the newsletter and send it as an attachment to her.

      I also brought up my desire to keep localism as our focus even as we are international. I pointed out how Jacob Zhu of China Tide was a spy for China who came to the Wisteria Tea House talk I did about the IWW and grass-root unionism. He distracting Taiwan University student with his ulterior motive of promoting unification with China even while he was anti-WTO, mainly to be anti-American, not pro-worker. Yihan looked him up on his smart phone and knew who I was referring to. I also showed he and Catta the list of students I’d met ten years ago in Taipei and they recognized at least one former student as still being an activist. We should be aware of the forces that would co-op and distract us from helping local workers improve their work conditions.

      I just sent Tom Keough a copy of my journal account of our “First Taiwan IWW GMB Meeting.”