IWW Olympia Branch
Train Riding subCommittee
Gonzo Wobbly
Hey fellow workers. Here’s to a successful wobcon2019. I hope all our delegates got that goodness and brought our organization closer to the General Strike and the abolition of the wage system.
In the spirit of the escalating crisis of the doomsday deathworld we find ourselves in, I bring you a brief action packed reportback, including but not limited to: riding trains.
Without further ado:
We ran off the porch in Missoula Montana with a fistful of homemade pizza and climbed up into a boxcar just in time to dodge the rain. There I was, your faithful Gonzo Wobbly reporter of doom, with Crumbly Roberts, Gesture Wildly and The Moist Reverend. As faithful a squad of old comrades as any anarchist could hope for, we had long ago scattered ourselves to the wind. Gone were the halcyon days of Olympia of yore, but now we had regrouped in a chance encounter in Montana, and decided to make the most of this reunion with a good old-fashioned train ride.
Crumbly Roberts had brought his bicycle along riding trains across the country from New Orleans. I must admit, fellow worker, the train hopping/bike riding combo cannot be beat. It is the future. No doubt.
So we sat in a box car, a rare ride for contemporary riders, and this struck me as particularly nifty considering our shared love of all things old-timey and illegal. We watched the pale light of the wide world rush past through the narrow rectangle of the door. Okay fellow worker, here’s where I wax romantic about trains and doors: yes, oh yes do you read me waxing? Oh the threshold between spring and summer! Oh the power of transportation and travel! Oh the old days of the IWW! Ok there it is. I did the wax.
Now, some more fucking business. We got off the train because it’s tearing itself apart in some god forsaken scratch of civilization where man and meth have fused together into one abysmal beast. After escaping the train yard and realizing once again how useful a bike would be on trips like this, we hump our packs to the gas station. Committee that we are, we set up an impromptu meeting at the picnic table outside and have ourselves a fucking MEETING.
Well long story short we spent some stranded days in that pile of pancakes and had ourselves a little hobo vacation with canned beans and camp fires. Eventually our fellow worker Diego picked me and Crumbly Roberts up in his vehicle and drove us to Minneapolis.
Now, fellow worker Diego had heard tell of last year’s adventures (read: fear and loathing in south dakota) and wanted to get involved this summer. So he picked us up in Montana and thought we were going to South Dakota. BUT! We weren’t. The crazy horse collective was currently in Wisconsin at the 2019 National Rainbow Gathering recruiting for this summer’s sequel to last year’s Black Hills extravaganza.
Diego reminded me of something while we were deep in the Wisconsin woods making cannabis infused chicken wings over the fire:
“You know you kidnapped me Carter”
“I, uh.”
“No, it’s okay, I’m glad you did.”
“Oh, I...”
Our comrades in the crazy horse collective recruited a cluster of hippies with promises of access to a thousand acres of private land in the Black Hills, upon which we could freely build our new society.
The gathering ended and busloads of recruits went west for this promised land. I got lyme disease and had to spend a week recovering.
We never made it to the Black Hills, for reasons I’m not completely sure. I was out of the action for a minute and by the time I got back on my feet a lot had changed.
Luckily a contact and soon to be friend and comrade had a piece of land out on the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe reservation. He had been wanting to build an eco village and so when the whole Black Hills plan fell through for whatever reason, this friend was happy to invite us to his community.
That’s where we started the Two Kettles Alliance and the began the formation of the Scavenger’s Union
There was a lot of people at first, but most of them left. We were down to a core group of people who wanted to build an eco-village. I think a lot of people were really hooked on the idea of the black hills, but personally I want to increase mutual aid to the indigenous people of this country. The rest of the crazy horse collective went off on other missions. It was just yours truly and a cast of all new characters.
First thing first, the land we were to build on had accumulated a sizable amount of trash and sludge, and since I've always been a true believer in garbage, I made this pile of sludge my fucking business.
This got me the respect of fellow beserker named Lion. This guy was great. Built like an actual antifa supersoldier, he could stay up for days at a time working to get this sludge off the land.
Apparently if you watch the netflix documentary "Murder Mountain" you can see him in it.
Anyway, this led us to that magical realm known as “the dump.” Once there, and after having unloaded a load of the the trash, we quickly realized we were surrounded by enormous piles of perfectly usable resources.
"Oh my god look at this sheet metal Look at all this lumber! Oh ho ho ho ho Dude, you know how much this stuff costs, oh my god look here!"
Lion was like a kid in a candy store. He was also never without his custom made sledge hammer, This thing was like an analog power tool. It was like John Henry or Thor's hammer or something. And Lion could swing that fucking thing like a civilization ending meteor. I had the privilege of seeing him annihilate an old washing machine on one dump run. We got the motor out of it to make a wind turbine.
A while back a comrade made a list of joke IWW unions. One was the IWW Post-Collapse Scavenger’s Union. Little did I know at the time, how much scavenging would become my fucking jam.
So back and forth, day after day, we brought out trash and came back with trailer loads of resources. These resources were then put together by comrade Spider and Lion. Soon we had a tool shed for all our tools!
And then one day it happened, All the trash and sludge were gone. It was amazing. It was like we were on another planet. A green world without trash.
Comrade Spider was really instrumental in getting us organized. She had so much experience in living in off-the-grid intentional communities, and enough jocular, verbing anarchy to say the right thing at the right time to prevent any bullshit from taking root.
Next we got an expansion on the first structure: a fucking oven, flat top grill and a coffee bar. There is of course an outhouse we built, a stacked organized resources system, and at the time of this reportback, two new foundations for our next structures.
That’s all for now fellow worker, the hour is fucking late and I’m sure you’re busy building the infrastructure we’re going to need to rely on to brace the fucking storm that’s swelling. Keep up the good work. Solidarity forever!