48 hours of fighting with La Principessa led to tearful reconciliations and mutually amazing phone sex. Relationships are weird.
Anyway, anti-Scott Walker demo was a bit lackluster. 300 or so New England trade unionists marching in a quiet picket line. Lowell carpenter dude tries chanting, cops come out and tell us to be quiet because there are kids in the high school taking their SATs. Apparently, Scott Walker was kicking off his presidential campaign by whispering. Highlight was a Hispanic trade unionist who, everytime we passed him on the picket line, would shout out "Viva Fidel!" or "Che lives!" Was a little disappointed that my sign was the only one that drew the connection between Walker's assault on the unions and the police killing of Tony Robinson, but, whatever.
Later that night, went to a CAJE vegetarian dinner/meeting at a professor's beautiful loft apartment in Lowell. She had contacted Mr. Comrade for the first Lowell demo to see if her daughter could give a speech to fulfill a requirement for her bat mitzvah. Until they showed up, Mr. Comrade had no idea it was one of his professors from the previous semester.
Anyway, nice meeting with two working class black women, a (wicked hawt) Nigerian student, two lesbians, an anarcho-syndicalist and three dirty commies, kicked off by a havdalah and ended with the professor's daughters' "Smurf cake."
Activism is fun.
Also, La Principessa will soon have an article on the Ipswich UE strike on the website. They finally signed a contract. Look for a link soon and
Vive le Galt!!!
[Restores democratic centralist discipline]
Urban League Attacks Kshama Sawant, Only Woman of Color and Socialist Member of Seattle City Council
Chris Hedges: Kshama Sawant: The Most Dangerous Woman in America
And, for fun,
Sharknado 3 Strike: Production Crew Walks Out For Union Contract
To go along with my finishing reading The Origin of Private Property, the Family and the State:
A commie article randomly spit out when I google searched "punaluan family,"
Lewis Henry Morgan, the punaluan family, the gentes and the defence of materialism
a long talk about
Engels and the origins of womens oppression
by a Britishiznoid SWPer (and for us commie watchers, that's a little loaded with irony) and, finally,
Women's Oppression Under Capitalism,
a talk by 16-year-old NJ High School Student Comrade. What were you doing when you were 16? Sniffing glue and playing Dungeons and Dragons, I bet.
a visit to a car wash strike on Wednesday,
NYT article that came up in my Facebook feed and was more interesting when the headline read:
"Shouting Woman": Giving a Voice to Immigrant Workers in New York
To go along with my finishing reading The Origin of Private Property, the Family and the State
Woops. That should, of course, read The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State. Also, probably should've used my Don Juan hat.
You'd think, what with many dollars worth of repairs needed to be done on the Doodlemobile, that I should be putting my nose to the grindstone, working extra shifts at the salt mines, etc., etc., but, no, instead I volunteered for a three-day furlough so I can go back to Brooklyn!
Yay!
I do need lots of advice on my personal finances, but I'd probably ignore them. Ah, the precarious living of the modern proletariat!
The best advice I can give is to be very careful about cars, they are a scam of the consumer culture to keep poor people broke.
So stop by the Times-Up! space or a recycle-a-bicycle and grab yourself a chariot of the People!
Oh yeah, and when you figure out how to live outside the city without a car, let me know, I have no clue...
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Turned the voluntary three-day furlough into a voluntary five-day furlough. Would have made it six, but I noticed a woman with less seniority had requested next Thursday off.
"Oh, go ahead, Doodlebug, I was kind of torn. I had already decided I wasn't going to take any more time off, but, then, you know..."
"They offered."
"Yeah. But if you want it, go ahead."
"No, no, no, [XXXX]. I'm not going to bump you. I'll just wait until then and then I'll call out. Why should I take your day off when we can both take the day off?"
Teamster Power!
Hmmm. Well, I had a busy week of commie furlough planned, but I've noticed La Principessa's tendency towards emotional breakdowns every 72 hours or so can make maintaining schedules difficult.
Lessee,
Spent a lot of time helping La Principessa with her article on the UE strike and her "lead-off" on the labor movement for her weekly Branch Meeting. Had fun at the latter, talked commie talk, sold some books, squabbled, had Mexican. Found editing La Principessa to be an interesting experience. I secretly fancy myself a better writer than her, but she's got a Master's in English and is very stubborn. She kept putting back all the weak wordings (language-wise, not commie-) that I had struck (??--stricken? Hey, I didn't say I was a great writer!).
Did a paper sale on Saturday in a Queens Metro station. I sold five papers in an hour. The whole branch can go a couple of months before we sell five in New Hampshire! Man, I love cities!
Then, last three nights in a row, boom! She keeps having bad days, so I blow off commie plans to hang around the house, smoke weed and have sex. It's a real drag, lemme tell ya. And what can make La Principessa have a bad day? You name it--a stern lecture from her vice-principal, a tense UFT delegate assembly, my not having enough orgasms (she speculated that her ratio of climaxes to mine is 8:1, he modestly added). Like I said, a drag. On the plus, though, my cooking's getting better, I've gotten a bit of reading done and I've listened to a lot of Gong.
Has La Principessa made any comment about the 'very early '70s' approach to gender relations (see track four, side 1 on Angel's Egg, for example) on Gong records?
La Principessa artfully combines the sexual mores of the very early '70s with those of the late 1870s. She has no truck with those polyamorous theories of Mde. Kollontai; she was more impressed with the parts in Engels about socialism bringing about stronger, truer, whatever, monogamy. She makes a big deal about how she's all mine and she's made it quite clear what would happen if I were to ever let my eponymous attentions stray.
Whatever. I'm just happy to be here.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Weather forecast looks likes it's going to snow tomorrow, which would make moving The Black Goblin's Pregnant Libertarian Dreadlocked Girlfriend difficult. Maybe I can squeeze out another day in Brooklyn?
I already helped The Black Goblin move his new gun safes into the Free NH Goblin Resistance Hideout, soon to be renamed something more domestic. Gun safes, it turns out, like everything else have brand names. One was dubbed "Revolution" and the other was "The Ammo Can."
"What is that?" I quipped in between exertions, "The title of the biopic they're gonna make about your life?"
[Hollywood trailer narrator voice]
"He was an anarcho-syndicalist Teamster, she was a Ron Paul-voting welder; together their love was going to overthrow the government! Coming this April to a theater near you, Revolution and the Ammo Can!
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Weather forecast looks likes it's going to snow tomorrow, which would make moving The Black Goblin's Pregnant Libertarian Dreadlocked Girlfriend difficult. Maybe I can squeeze out another day in Brooklyn?
I already helped The Black Goblin move his new gun safes into the Free NH Goblin Resistance Hideout, soon to be renamed something more domestic. Gun safes, it turns out, like everything else have brand names. One was dubbed "Revolution" and the other was "The Ammo Can."
"What is that?" I quipped in between exertions, "The title of the biopic they're gonna make about your life?"
[Hollywood trailer narrator voice]
"He was an anarcho-syndicalist Teamster, she was a Ron Paul-voting welder; together their love was going to overthrow the government! Coming this April to a theater near you, Revolution and the Ammo Can!
Sounds like a Manic Street Preachers album, too...
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Went on the Leeds Save the National Health Service march, which around 1,500 people attended in total, they think...
Pics here, but I'm not in any of 'em EDIT: actually, I think I am, as a vague sort of blur.
My Pinko Bingo score was well into double figures, too, thanks to special guest appearances from actual members of the Labour Party and the IWW.
Award yourself points for every LW sect you see on the march/rally you're on. Someone obvious like the SWP, Socialist Party, Green Party and so on gets you 1 point; a more obscure grouplet like Workers Liberty, Socialist Appeal, the CPB, the CPGB (ML) and so on will get you between 2 and 3 points, while a very rare sighting of someone particularly out there like the Sparts, Bordigists, ICC, Hoxhaists and so on can get you up to 5. If you manage to spot all the successor organisations to the WRP in one place, shout "HOUSIE!!!" (or perhaps "HEALY!!!" at the top of your voice and inform your fellow marchers that they're all now obliged to buy you beer.
Anti-Cuomo education reform rally in Manhattan earlier today:
Pinko Bingo score: 7 (American Cliffites-1; CWI--1; Freedom Socialist Party--5)
No Sparts, alas. :(
Was supposed to leave directly back to New England, but decided to stick around for another day.
[Restores democratic centralist discipline]
Urban League Attacks Kshama Sawant, Only Woman of Color and Socialist Member of Seattle City Council
Chris Hedges: Kshama Sawant: The Most Dangerous Woman in America
What's Going On In Seattle? Is Kshama Sawant Really Caving in to the Democrats?
Give Sawant the Benefit of the Doubt
Also, pictures of cute kids being subjected to socialist paper peddlers:
Huh. I didn't even know La Principessa's UFT caucus had a webpage:
Alright, guess I should go back to New Hampshire now...
:(
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Potential recruit, comrade, if you can follow the logic:
Rysky presents on the Messageboards as a succubus and even claims to be one in some threads.
In the "I Blame Cosmo" thread, the afore mentioned succubus has been trying to destroy pugwampis.
Pugwampis spread chaos and destruction, what demons state are their main objectives.
By aggressively eliminating pugwampis, Rysky is removing agents of chaos and destruction from existence and thus lessening their effect.
Thus Rysky has no national pride and is therefore not a patriot.
I have it on good authority from the Republican party that anyone who is not a patriot is a communist (alternatively using the terms stinkin' commie or pinko—even though the communist colour is red—like that of the Republican Party—
O.O
I may have just slipped down a rabbit hole, please excuse me a moment...
...
...
OK, I'm good).
Therefore Rysky be a communist.
Please give Rysky something to do (pamphlets, protests, orgies, whatever) and spare the poor endangered pugwampis. Thank you.
Sorry, Comrade Pugwampi, I don't follow the logic. Furthermore, although I have a fondness for succubi, I can't get behind any campaign of racial genocide. (Unless, of course, it's of the filthy pinkskins*.)
[Rejects Citizen Rysky's application for membership in the Commonwealth Party of Galt (M-L)]
*
No, he neglected to mention that.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
1st Comrade Mincepony: End pugsploitation now! You can't spell 'capitalist' without 'candy'!
2nd Comrade Schnauserpie: Yes, you can.
1st Comrade Mincepony: I'm First Comrade, and I say you can't! {shouts} Pugs and Mites!
2nd Comrade Schnauserpie:Unite and fight!
1st Comrade Mincepony: Gobs and Succs!
2nd Comrade Schnauserpie:Unite and... er... er... Tee hee!
*JPLF hurries off to its filthy burrow hand in hand, dripping with male privilege and leaving a long, shiny trail behind it*
I've had something through from my Union asking whether or not I want to continue to contribute to the Labour Party..........
I'm in a very similar situation.... I cracked and voted Green rather than Labor in my state election.
While the "Right" hold sway over the party I am very cranky.... The problem is my preferred leader (and the majority of party members) is my local member so Federally I have to vote Labor.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Mumia Abu-Jamal Taken to Hospital in Emergency, Surrounded by Guards; Family & Friends Denied Access
Queen Elizabeth’s Windsor Castle staff threaten to strike over pay
Venezuela: Alcedo Mora must be found alive!
And all my comrades are talking about Yemen, but I have yet to see any articles.
Three articles that caught my eye:
China Forges Ahead with Development Banks as an Alternative to the Western Financial System
Group Founded by MLK Calls for Black Americans to Buy Guns to Defend Themselves From Killer Cops
although, apparently, it was only the Georgia chapter head of the SCLC' and,
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Also, La Principessa will soon have an article on the Ipswich UE strike on the website. They finally signed a contract. Look for a link soon and
Vive le Galt!!!
UE Workers End Successful and Militant Strike
That's my girl!
Also, it tickled something in my THC-addled memory. Hold on a second...
Alright, class struggle fans, sorry I've been away, but, uh, can't really say I'm sorry.
Anyway, as near as I can tell the strike at Weir Valve was an almost complete success* with attacks against seniority and subcontracting being warded off. The economic gains were modest (5%, 3%, 3%) but, I think, only by ultra-left standards, and, as the striking workers stressed over and over to everyone who would listen, it was never about the money, it was about the language.
The history of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers (UE) can best be illustrated, I think, in the following anecdote:
I was standing at the rally, beaming, being introduced to 150 New England union activists as "Commie [Doodlebug]" when Comrade Omar pulls out his smartphone and laughs. "Some right-wing troll just buzzed the 279 page. She's goin' on about 'Did you know your union was kicked out of the CIO during McCarthyism because they were led by Communists?' And Jimmy McBagodonuts just writes back 'Hail Mother Russia!'"
Anyway, in other news, I have no f*#!ing idea what's going on in the world. The CIA raped boys in Abu-Ghraib? Los Estatounidenses normalized relations with Cuba? DiBlasio turned out to be a right piece of shiznit, like Comrade Anklebiter predicted? I have no idea, I've been up all night four nights running talking to la Principessa.
But I am going to a FairPoint rally in Concord today.
One day longer!/One day stronger!
For workers revolution!---
*Ultra-left quibble: The workers accepted increases in health care. As they spun it, they "successfully controlled" increases in health care. Normally, I wouldn't be so pedantic, but: When I initially announced victory via union-rally/catcall video on Facebook, the contract hadn't officially been signed yet. It was done so later in the week, but before that, a certain comrade may have scoffed at the strike, adding, "It sounds like they didn't really win anything." When this was relayed to me second-hand, I fumed and shouted "Oh yeah?!? Go do...
So...the contract here (with the raises of 5%, 3%, 3%) is not the same as the contract in the article. Weeks after I reported this, I discovered that Comrade Omar was talking about an entirely different shop altogether. I, uh, neglected to run a correction.
Look, I ain't no f@~$in' journalist, I'm a goblin!
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
More labor reporting from Comrade Omar:
Five years ago, the Kennametal workers fought for nine months without a contract in an attempt to prevent the company from adding tiered wages and personal/sick time for new employees, among other concessions demanded by the company. Eventually the tiers were reluctantly agreed to. Last year, Kennametal closed an operation in Vermont and moved the work to the Greenfield plant, doubling the workforce there. Of course this now meant half the workforce was on the lower tier, and that when the contract came up for negotiations in March, eliminating the tier would be the top priority.
Both top and bottom tier employees unanimously agreed prior to negotiations that elimination of the tiers was the number one bargaining priority. Unfortunately, the excise tax of the Affordable Care Act (ACA/"Obamacare") threw a monkey wrench into those plans. The company already wanted to force workers into its company-wide high deductible health plan known as Flex, the terms of which they would not bargain with the union, nor guarantee the plan would not significantly change during the term of the life of the contract. Besides that the current health plan for Greenfield union employees would exceed the cap when the tax goes into effect in 2018, triggering the 40% "Cadillac" excise tax.
Since the union made clear they would not agree to the "Flex plan," nor would they agree for the members to incur all costs of an excise tax on the current plan, the company, wanting to avoid a showdown on these issues, suggested a two year contract. While this would avoid a big battle over health insurance it would also prevent the union from being able to close the gap in the wage tiers over the life of the contract, especially after the company insisted from day one they would NOT eliminate the tiers under any circumstance.
Instead the union committee, which consisted of all top tier employees except for one member, concentrated on getting large wage increases for the bottom tier in this contract. Assisted by membership activity, the committee was able to negotiate a 4.5% general wage increase for bottom tier workers in each year and a 2.75% lump sum in each year for the top tier-- closing an over 12.5% gap to within only 3.5% in only two years, hopefully making the job of closing the gap entirely in the next contract much more manageable.
In addition to the wage increases, employees kept their present health insurance plan without design changes, and only modest increases to the payroll contributions. Sickness and Accident benefits also increased, and the union and company negotiated the terms of a new weekend shift to help the company get caught up on its backorders in a way that was also beneficial to UE members.
The bargaining committee consisted of [redacted redacted]
Workers making Nike and Adidas shoes in Vietnam go on strike – video
And, yes, when I wear sneakers, I wear Converse All-Stars.
Boston comrades in In These Times
Also, intriguingly titled article from The Free Thought Project, which may or may not be internet hipster douchebaggery clickbait:
Man Imprisoned After Filming Eric Garner’s Death, Refusing to Eat, Rat Poison Found in Jail Food
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Damn it! I forgot to post that one...
Since I failed on that one, here's something completely unrelated to make up for it:
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Also, intriguingly titled article from The Free Thought Project, which may or may not be internet hipster douchebaggery clickbait:Man Imprisoned After Filming Eric Garner’s Death, Refusing to Eat, Rat Poison Found in Jail Food
Damn, as if prison food wasn't bad enough... F~*!ing RAT POISON?
Good News Everybody! [/Farnsworth]
Bail money raised!
|
Doodlebug, I listened to part of the podcast you told us about with La Principesa and the two dudes from Brooklyn. She was interesting, but those two guys were boring as hell. She should have nationalized the microphone and taken over the show.
In other news, did you know that your pernicious philosophy of the destruction of all right-thinking people had spread to the Middle East?
I had.
Very interesting article about the influence of Murray Bookchin on free Kurdistan, whose militias, of course, are doing the bulk of the fighting against Daesh/IS at present.
Here in NH, our high school student comrade has prepared a "lead-off" on the PKK, but we haven't been able to get everyone in the same room for awhile, alas.
Doodlebug, I listened to part of the podcast you told us about with La Principesa and the two dudes from Brooklyn. She was interesting, but those two guys were boring as hell. She should have nationalized the microphone and taken over the show.
That's my girl!
She actually came up last night and I have passed along your praise. She blushed.
Couple of articles that caught my eye:
Slave Rebellions on the Open Seas: The Black Struggle Against Slavery by LOUIS PROYECT
and, from some neo-Confederate website:
Finish the Civil War!
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
"Here is a gold statue of my father. A thirty foot high gold statue in Poland!
I am not overly fond of princes, Polish or otherwise, but this chap challenges Nigel Farage to a sabre duel, which is something I would very much like to see. En garde, to gazowy żaba obliczu laleczka, ty!
[Volunteers as a second]
Also, La Principessa will soon have an article on the Ipswich UE strike on the website. They finally signed a contract. Look for a link soon and
Vive le Galt!!!
UE Workers End Successful and Militant Strike
That's my girl!
Also, it tickled something in my THC-addled memory. Hold on a second...
Huh. I live in Ipswich. Hadn't heard a word about that dispute since sometime in the fall. I'm surprised to hear it here first.
Then again, they must have been striking during that month and a half, before my car emerged from the snow like a mechanical Otzi the Iceman. Haven't been out to Rt. 1 in a while.
The strike ended on December 16th*. They held out against signing a contract with a no-strike pledge until rather recently.
*Which is the anniversary of me putting a catcalling video on La Principessa's Facebook page and, hence, the anniversary of our relationship.
I am starting to remember why I stayed single for those long, long years.
La Principessa is not doing well. She had a couple of flare-ups while she was here, but now that she's back in NYC where I can't calm her down, she hasn't been doing well. At all. I am rather scared and have suggested that she ask her therapist about checking into a hospital.
Meanwhile, Mr. and Mrs. Comrade are coming apart rather spectacularly. This has been going on since January, and I've come to the conclusion that she's an undiagnosed borderline personality disorder-er. Not that I know anything about psychiatry or such.
Meanwhile, meanwhile, Comrade Omar and The Black Goblin have also fallen out. Which goes to show it isn't just the chicks who are irrational and crazy.
Despite all of this, the class struggle marches on. A whole bunch of low-wage worker and anti-police brutality protests locally and nationlly, but I haven't been following the news very closely (too busy alternately fighting with/consoling La Principessa). I imagine that anyone who's interested has already seen the articles, videos, Facebook memes, etc., etc.
Have been cohering our Lowell group, though. For example, went to a "Green Summit" last night (although environmentalism still bores me to tears) at the UU church and I already knew half the people in attendance! Even got one of the non-commie members of our activist group ("The system is a caje!") to make a speech! Woo-hoo!
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Sorry to hear about *spoiler*, DA - hope things sort themselves out soon...
I missed Branch on Weds as I was busy producing surplus value, but since it's the time of year for environmental things, etc., prospective Lady Longears has invited me to come along to tree planting on Saturday. I don't really want to go tree planting, but I do want to see her, so I'm going. Maybe I'll get to have an argument with a member of the Green Party, or at least get covered in mud.
In other news,The Baker's Union is trying to organise British fast food workers and pushing for a £10 an hour minimum wage