About us

The Cascadian Workers’ Association (CWA) was founded in 2020 by like-minded students and workers from the Pacific Northwest who witnessed deep poverty, inadequate infrastructure, and societal neglect ravaging working-class communities all across the Cascadian region. Previously, our members were involved in a variety of community organizations and managed a free food program for low-income tenants in south King County in Washington State. The experiences of our work, and the lives of our members, were a constant reminder of the working class of our region suffering under inadequate social programs, low pay and expensive yet poor living conditions.

Nothing made this reality clearer than the COVID-19 pandemic. The U.S. federal government ignored all warnings of the danger of the virus, and when it reached U.S. shores, there was no common plan; no useful relief or aid was coming. The response of the United States government was only to send insultingly small “relief” checks to American citizens, and only after endless bickering by wealthy politicians while hundreds of thousands of Americans lost their lives in overcrowded hospitals, their bodies dumped in refrigerated trucks or mass graves. And when mass social unrest broke out in the Summer of 2020 due to racial injustice fueled by economic hardship, the U.S. government ordered the National Guard into dozens of U.S. cities to contain the protests; spending far more on tear gas, rubber bullets, and armored cars than hospitals, ventilators or meaningful economic relief.

The Pandemic laid bare the weakness of U.S. institutions and the sheer depth of its cruelty against its own people. But it also demonstrated the need for a truly viable alternative that is better able to meet the needs of the vast majority; the working class, which is always the first to suffer, the first to be sent back to work without adequate protection, and the last to receive any aid as the struggle to survive in the pandemic-stricken nation.

For us, that alternative in our region is Cascadia; a Cascadia for its workers.

For the past several years, our organization has worked to organize the working class of the region, arming them with the knowledge and tactics necessary to strike back and fight for our own interests. Our goal is to affect meaningful, long-lasting changes in our region by empowering the working class to demand a better, more equitable future.

Members of the CWA must be involved in the hands-on experience of organizing their fellow working-class people, which is often a difficult, complicated and frustrating process, especially for those who are new to organizing or who want to learn more about the process. To improve the skills and confidence of our members, our organization places a strong emphasis on gaining new practical skills through training and other kinds of experience.

Experience and training can be gained in many ways, such as taking classes to improve one’s own knowledge or skills (having Structured Organizing Conversations, charting a jobsite, identifying natural leaders, etc), or participating in joint projects with community organizations with similar goals as ours (such as fighting for working-class tenants through building campaigns and legislative advocacy).

Examples of our members’ training in practice includes:

  • Getting involved in political advocacy campaigns
  • Participating in community organizing projects, such as tenant organizing
  • Taking and facilitating online and in-person training courses related to organizing and leadership
  • Taking certain jobs which provide useful skillsets for organizing people, access to specialized knowledge, or resources that can aid our organizing efforts

Every working-class person that seeks to make positive change in the world must understand theories and histories of making effective change, and understand how and why the work they carry out will be successful in creating that change. As a result, education is one of the most important elements of our organization, helping to make our members well-informed, more confident, and better equipped as they face various challenges from organizing and activism.

As an organization, we regularly study and hold group discussions on a variety of topics that help our organizing work, or give us context and knowledge to better understand the general situation we are in, and what to do about it. This includes books, videos, podcasts, and articles which cover the following:

  • Local, Regional and Global History
  • Social, Political and Economic Theory
  • Organizing methods and strategies
  • Current or recent events
  • Labor, Social and Political movements

As a labor organization based in the Cascadian region, we highly recommend the following books and resources that offer excellent context for local labor history:

  • Empire of Timber by Erik Loomis
    • An exploration in the Pacific Northwest’s timber industries’ unions, and the controversial political fights that many in our region still remember, from the 1910’s to the 1990’s.
  • The Red Coast: Radicalism and Anti-Radicalism in Southwest Washington by Aaron Goings
    • Numerous stories of pitched, bloody labor battles that rocked the ports, towns and forests of the Pacific Northwest.
  • Wobbly War: The Centralia Story by John McClelland
    • Details the hidden history of the Centralia Massacre, in the backdrop of the battles between the radical Industrial Workers of the World and the American Legion in 1919.
  • One Union in Wood: A Political History of the International Woodworkers of America by Jerry Lembcke and William M. Tattam.
    • This excellent book covers the fascinating politics, external and internal, of the powerful International Woodworkers of America, one of the foremost unions in the Pacific Northwest’s forests.

Historically, it was the hard work of brave, revolutionary workers that carved out the unforgiving path towards organized labor, unions and contract agreements. Decades of neoliberal policies however, which favored free-trade agreements, crackdowns on unions and dependency on the corporate-owned Democratic Party, has left organized labor a shadow of its former glory, and in dire need of fixing. Our organization is actively rebuilding the Cascadian region’s labor movement, which is currently exploding with energy and enthusiasm as new unionization campaigns, strikes and new generations of workers get organized all around us. Our members coordinate their activities together, meeting and planning to create strategies and employ tactics that empower our labor organizations. We span across many industries, sectors and unions, and always position ourselves to slowly turn labor back into the great power that it once was in our region.

Every CWA member who is part of a labor union carries the mandate of reconstituting and rebuilding the labor movement by directly participating in their union; often alongside other CWA members. This includes:

  • Working for unionized workplaces
  • Holding union office positions
  • Working for labor unions as staffers and organizers
  • Participating in regional and statewide labor councils

Labor actions our members participate in include:

  • Shop floor organizing
  • Informational pickets
  • Pressure campaigns
  • Fundraising
  • Strikes and more!

As it stands, there are many working people who seek the return of a more powerful labor movement, but they are often scattered and unorganized as individuals. Our organization finds them, works alongside them, trains them and brings them aboard so that our plans and actions may grow in scope and impact. Organizing passionate and driven people was what galvanized and established the labor movement as the home of revolutionary social change, and with our efforts, it will be again.

If you are a fellow labor activist or organizer, join us! We look forward to working with you!

Join our Association of Cascadian Workers!

We are looking for working-class Cascadians to join in our common fight for our region, a worker’s economy, true sustainability, and a united working class in the Pacific Northwest! We need your ideas, your experience and your abilities as a fellow worker invested in the shaping of our future region. If you are a working-class Cascadian, join our Association today!