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i am sad to say that the Portland IWW is a toxic organization with no accountability. I am still dedicated to the cause of labor but I can no longer call myself a wobbly
as an organizer with the @BVWU_IWW for over three years I saw firsthand how the @PortlandIWW repeatedly marginalized, pushed out, and outright harmed large portions of its own membership through a toxic work culture and zero processes for accountability. #1u
the Portland IWW mostly had a bad reputation in town before the BVWU, because a couple decades ago this dynamic played out in a really nasty way that i will not detail out of respect for the people involved. the point is that this problem is not new.
the actions of members of the Portland IWW last year triggered a psychotic episode which could& #39;ve gotten me killed, then interned me at the abusive and transphobic Cedar Hills hospital. I then had to leave my home and experienced months of housing insecurity.
one of the people involved did say sorry. i& #39;m not angry at them anymore. but two of the other people involved, very prominent members within the organization—one of them a member during the org& #39;s incident decades ago—these people have not apologized.
instead they silenced me and gaslighted me. i stopped going to union meetings because I no longer felt safe, because the person who harmed me might be there. nobody in the union seemed to think this was a problem. nobody in the union checked up with me about it.
I should be clear and share that for years I was the admin for the @BVWU_IWW twitter account, and was a shop-floor organizer who brought a shop public and organized many shopfloor actions and multiple strikes. I was, in my opinion, a good and thoughtful organizer.
the broader @IWW also has many well-documented problems with accountability and misogyny. my interactions with the broader union beyond the Portland local have often been great, but just as often rife with toxicity and outright hostility.
I ran the @BVWU_IWW account for years but my access was revoked today after I tweeted from the account that the Portland IWW is a toxic organization with zero accountability. My access was revoked without a word, with no contact made by anybody. #1u
So a word of advice to people in Portland: if you want to organize a union, do NOT go with the @PortlandIWW. There are so many other good unions in this town to organize with. The Portland IWW does not deserve your time until they sort out their shit. #1u
