Obama’s Choice of Walmart Draws Angry Protests
Quote:
On Thursday evening, Charmaine Givens-Thomas—an electronic sales associate at a Walmart store in Evergreen Park, Illinois—attempted to attend a Democratic National Committee fundraiser at the San Jose Fairmont Hotel, where Obama was giving a speech. The event, which cost between $1,000 to $32,400 a plate, was co-hosted by Yahoo CEO and Walmart Board of Directors member Marissa Mayer.
According to Givens-Thomas, who spoke with In These Times on Thursday evening, she and a UFCW staff member were barred by DNC security from entering the event, despite the fact that they had two $1,000 tickets. (According to a spokesperson for UFCW, the tickets were sponsored by an anonymous donor. ) The DNC’s Washington, D.C. office did not respond to a request for comment.
“I am so devastated,” Givens-Thomas says. “I came all the way from Illinois to attend this fundraiser. The DNC turned me away at the door because they said I would be disruptive.”
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Break with the Democratic fake friends of labor!
Organize the unorganized!
Jeremy Brecher's "Strike!": A Historic Radical Book Returns by PAUL BUHLE
Huzzah! I haven't read Strike! in years.
New York City airport workers overwhelming vote to join 32BJ SEIU, US' largest service workers union
La lucha continua!
Vive le Galt!
No, I didn't make it to Fast Food Strike. :(
My sister's plane was an hour late, by the time I got down to Boston, it was 12:30; I had to spend, I would guess, 45 minutes driving around the Commons (once) looking for parking, and then I was like, "F+~@ it, I'm going home."
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According to Givens-Thomas, who spoke with In These Times on Thursday evening, she and a UFCW staff member were barred by DNC security from entering the event, despite the fact that they had two $1,000 tickets. (According to a spokesperson for UFCW, the tickets were sponsored by an anonymous donor. ) The DNC’s Washington, D.C. office did not respond to a request for comment.---
Break with the Democratic fake friends of labor!
Organize the unorganized!
Okay, I *am* a fake friend of labor and even I find that offensive.
:(
The Socialist Worker has started a series of articles that promise to be thrilling and exciting...if you are me or Brother Kretzer:
UPS and the Package King
The Package King's Faithful Teamster
I knew the outline of the story, but I didn't realize how loathsome Beck was. Anyway, gives me more info for next Founder's Day.
Just saw on FB that General Baker, formerly of the League of Revolutionary Black Workers, has passed away but I don't see any obituaries.
[Clenched fist salute]
The Socialist Worker has started a series of articles that promise to be thrilling and exciting...if you are me or Brother Kretzer:
UPS and the Package King
The Package King's Faithful Teamster
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Indian factory workers kill CEO, beat manager with iron rods after their hours are increasedThe comment below the article is better than the article itself.
so... this is a story from the associated press with a file photo that is two years old and taken elsewhere...the headline that says workers killed the ceo and beat manager for increasing their hours... then the story says CEO refused to give them the 40 (full-time) hours a week that they wanted versus the 25 (part-time) hours they were getting (a DECREASE rather than an INCREASE in hours)... Then it says that the CEO planned to institute a 4 day work week because the business wanted to 'limit' mounting financial loses... then it links the area with violent labour unions and the political opposition parties that support them... then it states the government wants to reassure the business community (and perhaps a growing number of international investors) that it doesn't tolerate union violence and that violence has no place in a democracy (which is why democracies have elections and courts and private and public property and public and private jails and cops and armies of course)... and that the story ends on a personal note of tragedy to say the CEO was survived by a family... WOW... what am I to make of a piece of... journalism like this?
so many questions!
like... why didn't anybody care to edit it? or was the assumption nobody would want to read it (or comment) or even care about the story beyond the erroneous (or accurate) headline? and when DOES a decrease equal an increase: for instance, does 'limit loss' mean 'maximize profit'? (well... really... we are talking about a jute factory after all) still... if it IS violent, is it really a democracy?
Hmm... the problem with asking (too many) questions that aren't (ever going 2 b) answered is that you may 'suddenly' want to cast the first or last stone... or u end up getting accused of causing a disturbance or inciting a riot (or may b charged with murder, vandalism and 'other crimes') and then WHAMMO... a bolt of lightning from the heavens... or was that just a peace officer with a taser? then the thunderclap... or a peacekeeper shooting rubber bullets? Is it enough to rouse or desensitize u? or does it make u want to cry like a volley of tear gas canisters or an afternoon stroll through a factory district in shanghai?
all in all... sounds like business as usual.
Yeah, I read it after I posted.
CEO's still dead, though.
[Whistles innocently]
Yeah, I read it after I posted.
CEO's still dead, though.
[Whistles innocently]
I note that the first paragraph says,"KOLKATA, India — An angry mob of Indian workers wielding iron rods and stones beat the CEO of a jute factory to death in a dispute over increasing their working hours, police said Monday after arresting six workers.
Police never get the facts wrong!
[signals to Anklebiter that the cops are around]
Never fear, Comrade Fergie. Those are the Gray Gardeners. You're safe with me.
Vive le Galt!
In order to not politroll (more) the Good Books thread, paragraph I ran into in Michael Harrington's The Other America: Poverty in the United States (1962):
"But, when all is said and done, the decisive moment occurs after all the sociology and the description is in. There is really no such thing as 'the material for a vision.' After one reads the facts, either there are anger and shame, or there are not. And, as usual, the fate of the poor hangs upon the decision of the better-off. If this anger and shame are not forthcoming, someone can write a book about the other America a generation from now and it will be the same, or worse."
Hmmm...
[Looks through bookshelf for Chris Hedges and Joe Sacco's Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt even if Chris is accused of plagiarizing the section denouncing the Democratic Party machine of George Norcross III.]
Also, I was struck in The Other America about his descriptions of slums filled with poor white country bumpkins who were driven off of their farms or came to the cities looking for war production jobs and then just stayed.
We, of course, never had these in Boston. I wonder if they still exist elsewhere, or if, after the past two generations, these ex-hillbillies just integrated into the general, Harringtonian term here, culture of urban poverty.
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Also,
F#&! the Supreme Court!!!
Dude I helped recruit to revolutionary socialism gets published in Salon.com:
Also, held a Skype chat last night (woah, the future, huh?) between our NH branch and a comrade from Brazil who talked about the last year in Brazilian class struggle. "There have been a whole lot of strikes, this past year, but I'm only going to talk about the most important: the subway strike which lasted for five days."
Later, "Hi, Joana, my name is Doodlebug. Here in the United States, we aren't really used to seeing waves of mass, militant strikes. I know that you focused on the subway workers because it was the most dramatic, but could you maybe talk about some of the other strikes?"
"Sure." [Deep breath] Sao Paulo teachers, Rio teachers, Rio sanitatation workers during Carnival," (!!!) "public metallurgical workers who make guns for the army," (!) "public universtity strike, etc., etc., etc."
I was quite jealous.
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U.K. Public Sector Workers Stage Mass Strike
I watched the March through the centre of Leeds, and walked with them for a bit.
I wasn't able to commit to the full march, because I had to look after my son, whose school had closed, and there's a limit to the amount of noise he can stand. I was impressed by his resilience that day, though; he is obviously learning to distinguish between 'bad' noise and 'joyful' noise.It was good to see the event go so peacefully, and in good humour. All the police I met managing the event were friendly and supportive, and wished us well.
The support from the public was also overwhelming; I heard no disparaging comments, whether I was within the crowd, or among the march. I believe the economic, political, ethical and moral argument has been resoundingly proven.
Vive le Galt!
Part 3: UPS and the "outlaw" strike of 1946The Socialist Worker has started a series of articles that promise to be thrilling and exciting...if you are me or Brother Kretzer:
UPS and the Package King
The Package King's Faithful Teamster
Part 4: The Rise of the "Quiet Giant"
Hold on, wait a minute...
Market Basket shelves look bare during corporate strike
It kinda figures that the biggest strike in NH in quite a while is waged in defense of the CEO.
[Shakes head]
What the Heck is Happening at Market Basket?
Fired Market Basket workers spurn union reps
As my good friend Omar the Former Arab Terrorist turned Union Field Rep put it: "Heh, worker rebellion in America's age of ideological anti-labor hegemony leads to some surreal ass s!@#. Striking workers denouncing unions...there may be some historical precedent somewhere of which I'm not aware, but I'll be damned if I ever thought I'd see it before now."