Dear Oliver,

EL LIBERTARIO, # 49, 2007 - on the dark side of the moon.

From the editorial group of El Libertario, newspaper of CRA, Comision de Relaciones Anarquistas from Venezuela, we reflect on the prospects for this country after the seemingly undisputable electoral victory of Hugo Chavez. --- Venezuela has landed on the dark side of the moon. The recently opened 21st century seems to be escaping us for good. We will not have a chance to face it with any prospect of success. Eight years of speeches drawn from a time past, eight years of inefficiency in the management of public funds, of unstoppable corruption, of the waste of immense riches, of awful public services, of leaving the most basic necessities unsatisfied, of unemployment, of the breaking down of the industrial infrastructure, including the oil industry, of no social security, of charity as a way of survival, of lies and debasement as pervading attitudes...eight years of totalitarian control over the social and political system by the faction in power, of lack of ideas and of any initiative which could mark the way, of deprivation of the educational establishment.....yet eight years of all this have not been enough to make it clear to a substantial fraction of the people that a change was needed. And they voted to keep Chavez in power.

Continued...

And so it begins...

Jyrki Raina writes about the project to create the first trans-Atlantic union
Trade Union News from Finland

Helsinki (18.06.2007 – Juhani Artto) Two months ago the United Steelworkers (USW) from the USA and two unions from the United Kingdom, Amicus and T&GWU, announced their intention to merge into the first trans-Atlantic trade union.

Certainly, the first reaction of numerous union activists around the world, when reading the news, was to think about how the merger project relates to the efforts to strengthen the global unions, such as IMF, UNI, ITF, PSI and a handful of others.

Recently Jyrki Raina, one of the most visible Finns in the international trade union movement, approached the same question in his column in Ahjo, the magazine of the Finnish Metalworkers’ union.

“The reasons (of the project), presented by Amicus and USW leaders, are interesting. They want to create an international trade union that really would be able to negotiate about working conditions, by force of their 3.4 million rank and file members, on equal footing with the multinationals.”

Continued...

Chinese "Communist" Liberation

China detains 168 after brick kiln slavery scandal

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese police have detained 168 people accused of holding workers in virtual slavery under appalling conditions at brick kilns in north-central provinces of the country, a state newspaper reported on Monday.

Of those, 48 were caught in Shanxi province and the rest in neighbouring Henan, the official China Daily said.

The scandal has undermined the ruling Communist Party's promises to build a "harmonious" society with improved rights and income for the nation's hundreds of millions of poor farmers.

The State Council, or Cabinet, has sent a team to investigate the abuses, which have shocked the country and provoked public outrage.

The government has given each of the freed workers -- more than 500 so far -- 1,000 yuan ($131.2) as "sympathy" money, the Beijing News added.

In recent days, Chinese media have exposed brutal conditions for mostly migrant workers at kilns and privately run mines across resource-rich central China.

Continued...

Anarchists Throw Poop

Anarchists promise blood bath for Homowo
myjoyonline.com

As if the nasty incident of smearing human excreta, an obnoxious practice referred to as shit bombing on a scared shrine house of the Ga state and a street leading to the shrine and the violence of last Wednesday are not enough, sections of the Ga youth are already promising a blood bath, come the Homowo festival.


The nasty incidence of shit bombing and violence characterized the lifting of the month long ban on drumming and noise making by the Ga Mantse, King Tackie Tawiah II, last Wednesday when several people were hurt and a strong police presence was required to see the ceremony through.


Barely a week after those nasty incidents, some individuals and youth groups in Ga Mashie are promising mayhem until issues surrounding the disputed enstoolment of the Ga King are resolved.


According to The Independent, its investigations have revealed that the youth promising chaos are those against the recent enstoolment and coronation of the current Ga king, Mantse Tackie Tawiah II.

Continued...

Unions on the global gaming industry

Union networks for Asia Pacific Gaming
Labour news from UNI global union - for trade unions in a global services economy.

Union networks across the growing giants of the gaming industry in Asia Pacific were launched at the first ever workshop held by UNI in Macau - the world’s biggest gambling city that is building a new Las Vegas on the South China Sea.

Gaming accounts for about half of the wealth of this former Portuguese colony that, like nearby Hong Kong, is now a Special Administrative Region of Communist China and is fast growing its casinos, hotels and entertainment resorts.

Gaming is in rapid growth regionally - with GGR (gross gaming revenue) rising 20% last year - and globally at 8.8% annually with countries from the UK to Singapore relaxing restrictions or removing bans on casinos that are increasingly seen as part of leisure and tourism.

UNITE HERE from the USA, which has a large membership and collective agreements in Las Vegas and other American cities, joined unions from eleven countries in the region in Macau.

The aim is to develop closer working between Gaming affiliates and exchange information on organising and bargaining - and to begin to build a dialogue with the gaming giants who increasingly dominate the industry.

A follow-up seminar on organising is planned for next year and UNITE HERE has offered assistance to UNI-Asia Pacific and UNI Gaming in training and to share their knowledge from organising successes in the US.

A meeting for Gaming unions in the Americas is planned for September.

Continued...

Tarpinian on CtW's trip to China

The Question Isn't Why We Went to China -- It's Why Wouldn't We?

There’s no question as to why the modern labor movement would need to pay attention to China. Every major U.S. and foreign transnational corporation has growing operations there, meaning Chinese workers are one of the main hammers that global capital uses to drive down wages and conditions for workers in advanced capitalist countries like the United States.

That’s why a leadership delegation from Change to Win went to China to see if we could expand the front in our mission to Restore the American Dream, to follow the jobs and to find out for ourselves whether we there is a realistic prospect of uniting with Chinese workers that face the same challenges, working for the same global corporations that employ workers in the U.S.

I’m going to be discussing what we learned and observed in other posts, but let me start with why we went, because all the buzz in both the Chinese and American press was not that Change to Win went overseas. Rather, our visit was historic for two interrelated reasons: First, it marked the first time that a U.S. labor federation met with the Chinese labor federation on equal footing. Second, it generated new thinking on how to tackle the challenges of globalization and the downward pressure on wages and living conditions in the United States.

Continued...

Ottowa's Jeffrey Monaghan Is No Anarchist!!!!11

Not an anarchist
The Leader-Post
Saturday, June 16, 2007

I am writing to correct the inaccurate use of the label "anarchist" as applied to me in the CanWest News Service article, "Former employee goes public about arrest" (Leader-Post, May 11.)

Contrary to its assertion, at no time have I self-identified as an anarchist.

Though I share many of the ideals of anarchism -- mutual aid, self-determination, equality and freedom, for example -- I decidedly eschew labels and identity politics.

My ethical standpoint is my own and not that of any ideology.support people, not ideology.

Continued...

ABC News Scum Insults Brave Congress Hotel Strikers

After four years, union workers and Congress Hotel are still at odds
By Ben Bradley
ABC 7 Chicago

June 15, 2007 - Four years ago Friday, workers walked off the job at Chicago's Congress Hotel on Michigan Avenue.

On Friday night, dozens of housekeepers, waiters and other workers continued to walk the picket line demanding higher wages and improved benefits. This has become one of the longest running strikes in the nation and despite protestors with picket signs, guests continue to check-in. It is also worth mentioning that the two sides have not talked formally to resolve this matter in six months.

The number of strikers outside the Congress Hotel has ebbed and flowed over the last four years but every year on the anniversary of their walk-out, many of the original 115 strikers return. At least for one day, their numbers and spirits are bolstered by their union.

"This has been a tremendous strain for my family life," said Danny, a striking banquet server. "I have had to change my whole lifestyle completely because I lost my job."

Continued...

Lunch Ladies Rise up

Lunch ladies just looking for a little respect
They serve the food, monitor lunchrooms and feel invisible
June 3, 2007
BY MARK BROWN
Chicago Sun-Times Columnist

The lunch lady knows. The lunch lady knows when the kids aren't going to eat the meal she's been instructed to serve that day, and she knows when she's setting out food that they'll eat but probably shouldn't because of its negligible nutritional value.

The lunch lady knows which kids are vegetarians and which are diabetic. She knows who has a peanut allergy and who gets two meals because they're homeless.

She may not have a master's degree, but the lunch lady knows which kids mind their manners at school, and which ones go hungry at home because their parents are hooked on drugs.

'They treat us like we're not there'

Continued...

Zabalaza on Public Sector Strikes

ZACF Statement of Support for Public Sector Strike

This year, it was recommended by the Independent (state) Commission for the Remunaration of Public Office Bearers that President Thabo Mbeki get a 57,3% pay rise, taking his total package from R1,1-million to R1,8-million annually. The Commission also recommended that Members of Parliament receive a total of R650,000 annually. Compare this to the insulting 6% wage increase initially offered by the state to public sector workers, one of whom, a hospital clerk, told us she fed five mouths with an annual take-home salary of under R12,000.

The Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Federation (southern Africa) supports the public sector strikers in South Africa, not just in their demand for a wage increase of 12%, which has now been reduced to 10%, but also in their struggle to improve the standard of all public sector services. We call on all workers and community members to show their support for this strike, as it is not just about wages but an attempt to raise the quality of public services provided to us all.

Continued...

Metalworkers on African Unions

Building sustainable unions in Africa

The IMF regional office in Africa works closely with affiliates to build international solidarity, strengthen trade unions and improve the lives of workers. As described in this report, the challenges are enormous requiring a strategic focus on building sustainable unions as can be seen in Tanzania and Swaziland.

REPORT BY STEPHEN NHLAPO

Successive waves of political, cultural and economic colonization and global power struggles have left Africa an economic shell. Today, human and mineral resources are extracted and small pockets of industrialisation remain to support the ongoing plunder. Alongside this, vast ghettos of poverty and suffering exist.

The countries that make up Africa are a diverse grouping in terms of geography, population size, language, wealth, distribution of wealth, life expectancy, health, public sector resources, trade union size and cohesion, labour market size and HIV prevalence.

The depth and deepening of poverty in many African countries has often not served to mobilize workers and their organisations but has in fact weakened them both politically and organisationally.

Continued...

Russia: Mikhail Chesalin, dockers' leader, stabbed and beaten

Russia: Mikhail Chesalin, dockers' leader, stabbed and beaten
LabourStart

On Thursday June 7, Mikhail Chesalin, the chairman of the local Dockers Union of Russia in Kaliningrad, was savagely stabbed and beaten outside the union office. An unknown number of assailants attacked Chesalin when he got out of his car at 10:30am local time, stabbing him numerous times in the spine, and beating him severely about the head. He was left lying face-down, unconscious, in a pool of blood.

Chesalin's colleagues believe that the attack was orchestrated by Vladimir Kalinichenko, the General Director of the Sea Commercial Port where the dockworkers' union is currently running an organizing campaign. The union has been in a bitter fight with Kalinichenko for ten years, after Kalinichenko made it his personal goal to destroy the union following their 1997 strike – their battle, and the workers determination has become a symbol of Russia’s young, struggling independent trade union movement. Since April, the union has been conducting an unprecedented organizing drive among the workers in the Kaliningrad port to change a miserly and arbitrary wage system, and win respect and a voice on the job. Kalinichenko has tried to break up every union event by sending his personal "security" forces, together with local thugs, to spy on and intimidate workers.

Mikhail Chesalin is known throughout the region, country, and world, as one of Russia's foremost defenders of workers' rights – the dockworkers' case has received the attention of the ILO, the European Court for Human Rights, and most of all the attention of Kaliningrad residents, who voted for Chesalin when he ran directly against Kalinichenko in 2006 – with 13 times less money, Chesalin received four times the votes of Kalinichenko to be elected as a deputy to the regional parliament. In that sense this attack is not only on free trade unionism, but on an independent governmental representative.

Continued...

CtW Rocks the Capital Strategies

'Broker Votes': Opponents May Win One

NYSE and SEC Look To Rein In the Practice; Criticizing CVS Election
By KARA SCANNELL
Wall Street Journal

Investors who are growing increasingly vocal about the performance of executives and directors may soon get a boost, as the role of shareholder votes cast by brokers comes under closer scrutiny.

In routine matters at annual meetings, such as the election of uncontested directors, shares not voted by shareholders can instead be voted by the brokers who hold those shares, any way they want. That's created controversy in some votes recently, and has gained the attention of regulators, some of which are pushing for a change.

This question arose most recently in the case of Minnesota businessman Roger Headrick, who was re-elected to the board of CVS Caremark Corp. last month after receiving 606 million votes, or 57.2% of the total cast. CtW Investment Group, an arm of Change to Win, a coalition of labor unions, says the contest was swung by 264 million "phantom" votes cast by brokers who hadn't received specific instructions from their clients.

Continued...

Free Advertisement for the Losers Across the Pond

libcom.org is a resource for all people who wish to fight to improve their lives, their communities and their working conditions.

We want to discuss, learn from successes and failures of the past and develop strategies to increase the power we, as ordinary people, have over our own lives.

Who
The libcom group is a small collective of libertarian communists based in and around London, we maintain libcom.org, and as individuals are involved with a number of other groups and activity.

Continued...

We're back motherfuckers

Dear Comrade-Enemies,

After a lengthy hiatus our beloved P-CRAC is born anew. We are in the process of relaunching a new blog site and currently have chapters in Seattle, Chicago and New York City.

We would regret our time away from you if we had anything but disdain for McAnarchyism, its adherents and inanity... but the truth is we hate you all as much as we love you.

Yes. We love you. Like a mother that drowns her babies.

We will assimilate you or destroy you. The choice is yours.

On behalf of P-CRAC,

Thugarchist
Minister of Propaganda

ChuckO Munson "Snitchjackets" Anarchist He Dislikes

ChuckO Munson: Dastardly Villain of Infoshop Fame

Out of pure spite ChuckO Munson accuses well-known anarchist bastard, Duke Aaron, of being an FBI informant after exchanging insults on a public anarchist message board. Duke may be a fucking prick, but this is not how an anarchist deals with conflict. These type of malicious accusations destroy movements and historically, have gotten solid revolutionaries killed.

Discussion Located Here

Munson's email address is chuck@mutualaid.org and his phone number is 913.940.7426 if people would like to let him know what they think of this type of counter-revolutionary tactic.

Possibly the dumbest thing in McAnarchyism

V for Vendetta is about Anarchy
A for Anarchy

Anarchists: This Friday marks the beginning of our most important opportunity in decades to communicate with millions about the possibility of a world without capitalism or coercion. On Friday, March 17, 2006, the long awaited film version of Alan Moore’s classic graphic novel, V for Vendetta, will premier throughout the US. V for Vendetta is the story of an anarchist who dismantles a fascist state through propaganda of the deed, inspiring the masses to revolt with a vision of building an anarchist future. The book’s protagonist does not simply promote vague anti-authoritarianism or nondescript appeals to “question authority” but explicitly and compellingly calls for the masses to eliminate the state and replace it with anarchy.


Unsurprisingly, this radical message has been lost in the translation to Hollywood’s watered-down film version. Warner Bros. presents a hero rebelling against fascism and advocating “freedom”, yet never suggests that until the state is destroyed, no one will truly be free. Alan Moore has described the script of the film as “rubbish” and had demanded that his name be removed from it.

Time and again, anarchists have seen our message distorted, our comrades martyred, and our stories erased by the corporate and governmental
servants of the ruling class. We cannot allow this to happen again!

An ad hoc group of anarchists in New York City have launched AforAnarchy.com, a website and education campaign designed to reinject anarchist politics into V for Vendetta and radicalize audiences of the film.

We are calling for anarchists everywhere to use the film as an opportunity for education and dialogue. Through the use of literature, speakouts, lit tables, and street theater outside movie theaters showing the film, we can inspire moviegoers leaving the film to join the fight for a stateless society. In New York, we will begin doing these things at sneak previews on March 16th and will continue at theaters for the duration of the films’s run in theaters.

To this end, we have created a number of ideas and tools that we hope you will find helpful. (Further information and downloads can be found
at AforAnarchy.org in the Contact & Press section):

* We have prepared a flyer to distribute at your local movie theater where V is showing revealing the graphic novel’s anarchist politics and encouraging moviegoers to embrace anarchy. We’ve deliberately kept the politics fairly general in an attempt to create a document that can represent anarchists of all tendencies.

Feel free to modify it to suit the needs of your local community. And of course, if you don’t like this flyer, by all means, create one that you prefer.

* Engage audience through costumed role playing of “deleted scenes”—acting out portions of the graphic novel where V speaks in support of anarchy.

* We have designed sticker mock-ups to promote the website that you can download, print on sticker paper, and stick all sorts of places. Of course, we DO NOT suggest that you put them on V for Vendetta movie ads, as this would be vandalism, and vandalism is against the law.

* While many of us are skeptical of the corporate and in some cases even the alternative media, they can be a powerful vehicle for getting the attention of large numbers of people. While we obviously can’t expect them to accurately represent our entire message, we can at least use them to pique people’s curiosity and drive people to the website, where we can present an unfiltered message, To this end, we have prepared a model press release available on the website that you can send to your local media documenting your V for Vendetta related outreach activities., and will be sending a national press release, which can include information on your local actions if you email it to adam@wetlands-preserve.org.

We invite you to use these resources and join us in any or all of the actions listed above. Our hope is to gain a nationwide, significant, and unsuspected response to the film’s release that will lead moviegoers to a far more radical place than the corporate filmmakers behind this film intended, and help to bring thousands of new people to the anarchist movement. We thank you for your consideration and look forward to hearing from you.

For Anarchy,

aforanarchy.com

(an ad hoc collective on individual members of groups like New York Metro Anarchist Alliance, NEFAC, Wetlands Activism Collective, Freegan.info, Students for A Democratic Society, Libertad Skool Collective and other groups)

A for Anarchy

Chicago Nurses Do something ambiguous

CHICAGO NURSES JOIN NATIONAL CAMPAIGN TO END NURSING CRISIS
SEIU

CHICAGO—Registered nurses in the Chicago area are joining nurses from across the country to advocate for real solutions to the nation’s patient care crisis. The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) announced the launch of the new Nurse Alliance of SEIU, a distinct national membership organization by, for and of nurses. The Nurse Alliance of SEIU also announced the launch of a national campaign, Value Care, Value Nurses, focusing on improving the quality patient care and bringing nurses back to the bedside.

Today the Nurse Alliance of SEIU also released a white paper by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR), emphasizing the importance of registered nurses in the delivery of quality patient care and the ways in which poor conditions in hospitals are devaluing these worthy caregivers. The paper cites low pay, short staffing, and mandatory overtime as conditions that have caused nurses to leave the bedside and shows how raising nurse salaries will help to draw more nurses to the profession.

“Over 83,000 registered nurses chose to leave the bedside right here in Illinois. It is time that we start addressing the real reasons and commit to real solutions to bring them back. The future of patient care and the nursing profession both depend on it,” said Karen Backus, RN, Director of the Nurse Alliance of SEIU-Illinois.

The IWPR report found that, nationally, 35 percent of employed nurses who are not working in nursing are in positions of higher pay and 46 percent of them find better hours in other work environments.

In the spirit of unity, the Illinois Nurses Association (INA) and the Nurse Alliance of SEIU-Illinois will be convening a round table of registered nurses with area legislators and other officials on Monday, April 3rd to discuss possible solutions to the nursing crisis.

“There is a 9% RN vacancy rate in our state, and we as nurses know why RNs are leaving the bedside and what it is going to take to keep them there. We look forward to the opportunity to discuss it with legislators,” said Sandra Robinson, RN, who works at the Chicago Department of Public Health and chairs the INA E&GW Commission.

Parties interested in the April 3rd event should contact Karen Backus at 312.235.4739 for more information.

For more information about the Value Care, Value Nurses campaign, go to:
Nurse Alliance Midwest
Value Care Value Nurses

Go Fedaykin

Public service talks to resume Friday
BCGEU

The union representing 25,000 government employees who provide important public services in communities across the province has agreed to the provincial government’s request to return to the bargaining table. Talks are set to resume tomorrow, March 17, the B.C. Government and Service Employees’ Union (BCGEU) said today.

“I have received word from the government that they are prepared to make us the significant new offer we said we needed. If it’s an offer that addresses our members’ key issues of privatization, contracting out and fair wages, our committee is ready to work hard to get an agreement,” said George Heyman, BCGEU president.

The union stepped away from the bargaining table on Monday, March 13, after seven straight days of talks failed to result in a tentative agreement. The union has since commenced essential service negotiations with the government, in the event of a strike.

“We told the government’s negotiators on Monday that while we are committed to achieving a negotiated settlement, their last offer wasn’t going to do it,” Heyman said. “We reiterated that any deal had to address privatization and contracting out, and provide for fair wage increases that keep pace with inflation.

“The government’s last offer did not provide the assurances our members need to protect them from privatization and contracting out. And their last wage offer was far less than what we need,” Heyman said.

“I’m optimistic that the government has heard the strong message from our members who voted 80 percent in favour of strike to back our contract demands that we deserve better in this round of bargaining and are prepared to fight for it. With a new offer from government and some more hard work by both sides on key issues, there’s no reason why we can’t reach an agreement by Sunday.”

BCGEU

New Issue of Green Anarchy!

Seriously, Read the Bosses News

Hotels Counter False Union Charges -- AH&LA: Hotels Provide Competitive Wages and Generous Benefits, Union Strategy is Designed To Grow Declining Membership Ranks
Hospitality.Net

The American Hotel & Lodging Association today challenged assertions made by the "Change to Win" labor coalition about hotel workers' wages and benefits.

"Contrary to the accusations made by this group yesterday, the hotel industry provides affordable, quality health care, competitive wages that grow year after year, and generous benefits to its hardworking employees," said AH&LA President/CEO Joe McInerney, CHA. "These false claims mask 'Change to Win's' real agenda, which is to use union dues money to grow its declining membership rolls."

According to AH&LA, "Change to Win" has championed an organizing technique called "card check," which would eliminate the traditional secret ballot elections for union representation. The "Change to Win" unions want the company to agree to unionization, instead of letting employees vote on this important issue and decide for themselves. The unions have also demanded that many employers sign a "neutrality agreement," which prevents an employer from communication with employees about the pros and cons of unionization.

Continued...

P-CRAC Recommends Reading the Bosses News

Hilton Reportedly Target of Nationwide Strike Plan
By Eugene Gilligan, Senior Editor
Comercial Property News

Hilton Hotels Corp. may be targeted for a hotel strike in New York, and the lodging industry nationwide may face tough contract negotiations with their workers this year.

According to a report in today's New York Daily News, Peter Ward, president of the New York Hotel and Motel Trade Council, will insist that his union conduct separate negotiations with hotel owners and with Hilton when the workers' contact expires on July 1. He added that Hilton has violated contracts with the union in the past, so he did not want it to be part of any multi-employer negotiations.

"We're a service business, and we have a long history of treating our team members fairly," a Hilton spokesperson told CPN this afternoon reacting to the report. "It's interesting that we're called a target. After Sept. 11, while other hotel companies had mass layoffs, we kept our people working."

Continued...

Lock this out mofo's

AK STEEL: Lockout 'corporate greed at its finest' says Butler, Pa., union leader
Pa., union president shares thoughts on lockout, sale rumor
The Middletown Journal

As members of the Armco Employees Independent Federation continued to staff picket lines at most of the gates at AK Steel Corp.’s Middletown Works, the president of another union paid a visit to Middletown late Friday and Saturday to get a first-hand look at what may be on the horizon for his membership.

Jim Gallagher, president of the United Auto Workers Local 3303 that represents AK employees at its Butler, Pa., facility, came down to Middletown to lend his support to the more than 2,600 AEIF employees who were locked-out Tuesday by AK after contract negotiations failed to reach a settlement.

“I just think the whole thing could have been avoided,” Gallagher said. “The company could have kept talking to the union while they kept working.”

Money AK is spending on extra security and hotels for replacement workers could have gone toward an agreement with the AEIF, he said.

“This situation is corporate greed at its finest,” he said.

As to some of the moves made by AK prior to the lockout, Gallagher said the company videotape sent to employees backfired. The video, which Gallagher said he believed was designed to intimidate employees, instead brought the AEIF closer together.

“AK Steel is a great union organizer,” Gallagher said. “(The video) showed they really don’t understand.

“Hopefully they’ll get to a settlement,” he said. “It’s early and pretty calm now. But is weighs a lot on a person to watch scabs go in each day at the plant.

“AK’s MO is to lock them out,” he said.

Continued...

'Bout time

Public union's 'award' leaves a trail of ill will
S. Renee Mitchell
The Oregonian

Four times in the past four years, Multnomah County's employees union has bestowed a Tar and Feather Award on a county manager who did something union leaders didn't like.

No one complained much about the name of the award. But for many black folks, it stirs painful memories of a not-so-long-ago time in America's history when tarring and feathering complemented lynching like jelly does a child's peanut butter sandwich.

Yet, on July 26, the union gave the Tar and Feather Award to a department led by a black man, Lolenzo Poe, who served on the Portland School Board for four years.

The county has a minuscule number of black managers. And Poe's agency, the Department of School and Community Partnerships, is one of the smallest and most ethnically diverse.

"It offended me and some others," Poe says of the award, "but because it was a union issue, I chose not to say anything. I kind of bit my tongue."

But whatever hurt feelings the award created calcified -- especially since an employee survey in 2004 implied that the county is a hostile workplace for people of color. Of the county's 4,288 employees, only 288 -- 6.7 percent -- are black.

"In its way, it was just unintentional ignorance," says Carolyn Edgett, a senior human resource analyst. "There are a couple of environments that are conducive to this kind of thing."

But life went on. Then, seven months later -- on the afternoon of the first day of Black History Month -- the issue resurfaced. A county employee passed news of the Tar and Feather Award to a manager who gave it to Edgett, who told County Chairwoman Diane Linn, who fired off a strongly written e-mail.

"I have a zero tolerance policy for this kind of behavior in the workplace," Linn writes, "and consider it to be both inappropriate and injurious."

Linn directed a few folks to meet with union leaders. Her chief operating officer, Iris Bell, who is black, acknowledges "things got heated." She adds: "Not everybody in the union was pleased with what we said."

The next day, Becky Steward, who has been union president for a little over a year, apologized. She also changed the name of the award to "Rotten Eggs," and she pulled the offensive phrase from past newsletters posted on www.local88.ws.

Steward also agreed to offer voluntary diversity training to her union leaders and general employees, especially since most of them didn't realize the term could be offensive.

Before management complained, Steward says, "I hadn't heard anyone sharing with me how insensitive and thoughtless we were about that."

Continued...

Micks with Bricks

Dublin Riots: What Happened and Why
A political analysis of the Dublin riots and why nobody saw them coming
by Joe - WSM - personal capacity

I, like almost everybody I know, didn't predict the events of Saturday. In fact the only person I know who did predict a major riot was a friend of mine who happens to hail from the wee North - in retrospect I should have realised that he had his finger on the pulse, for not only does he have much more experience of sectarian marches, but through his job he knows many of the people who were involved and has an unusual insight and sympathy for those people who most Dubliners write off as 'scumbags' and 'knackers'. This article is an analysis of what happened and why almost everybody got it so wrong. This article is a companion piece to the photo essay which I published yesterday.

I have a lot of experience of protesting and policing, having attended many of the most hyped and heavily policed events that Dublin has seen in the last decade as well as some of the biggest and most volatile international protests that have occurred around the world, both as a participant and a cameraman. From this it is obvious to me that the police were similarly completely surprised by the events of Saturday February 25th in central Dublin.

I also know that the Gardai are more than capable of policing contentious and potentially volatile protests in what would be regarded as a way that is in line with international policing norms. I was there on the Navan road when 3,000 anti-capitalist protestors made the march to Farmleigh on Mayday 2004. On that day there were thousands of police deployed and although the protestors managed to get much closer to the location of the summit than the police would have liked, the state was never in any danger of losing control of the situation. They had deployed thousands of police in riot gear, backed up by water cannon and a massive deployment of surveillance technology and they successfully contained the protestors much as their international colleagues routinely do. Therefore, I do not think that it is conceivable that the complete under-preparedness of the gardai could possibly be a result of incompetence in terms of their ability to police events - they have proved very successful at containing much bigger protests in the past....

There have been some suggestions that our power-crazed minister for justice or other sinister forces within the 26 country state may have deliberately failed to prepare adequately to police this event in order to further some security or anti-republican agenda. While I'm sure the minister for justice would love to have the power to do this, I'm also certain that he doesn't and that this theory is entirely implausible. Gardai are generally not happy to be sent out under prepared to face rioters and if there had been any inkling that a riot was likely to ensue, the guards would have been extremely unwilling - to say the least - to be used as target practice in such a scheme, pawns in the minister's power game. As it is the gardai on the ground were extremely angry and remain so that they were sent out to police a situation without anything like the resources that they would have needed to contain the situation. Furthermore, I talked to the Superintendent who appeared to be in charge of operations on the day and several ordinary gardai and they all expressed the same opinion - that they had anticipated some 'trouble' but nothing like the rioting that happened and while it is a foolish person who believes anything just because the Gardai say it is so (I remember the stream of lies and smears that the Garda press office came out with in the run up to Mayday 2004) - these reactions seemed genuine and unscripted.

Therefore, I think it is clear that the guards were genuinely taken completely by surprise by the events of the day and I think that the reasons for them being surprised were exactly the same as the reasons that I and almost all of the other political activists whom I know were similarly taken by surprise.

Continued...

Best of luck losers

AFL-CIO alters negotiation strategy
Union to hold talks with one unit in each of four industries
By BRIAN TUMULTY
Press-Gazette

Trying to reinvent itself, the AFL-CIO is taking a lesson out of the playbook of one of its member unions, the United Auto Workers, that targets one of the Big Three automakers for contract negotiations to set industry standards for pay and benefits.

AFL-CIO officials attending their federation's winter meeting said Tuesday that they are realigning the way they do business by starting four "industry coordinating committees" covering the entertainment and media industry, nurses, telecommunications and public employees.

One of them, the Arts Entertainment Media Industry Coordinating Committee, is likely to target one of the nation's broadcast networks next year for contract negotiations involving union members ranging from actors and TV newscasters to stage technicians and office workers.

Similarly, unions representing public employees have formed a coalition that is considering trying to target one or more states where they have recently lost or never had collective bargaining power. In the past year, Republican governors in Indiana, Missouri and Kentucky have abolished bargaining rights for public employees.

"We have to reinvigorate ourselves with the sense that we can protect ourselves," said Ed McElroy, president of the American Federation of Teachers.

Continued...

Nothing but hawks left

Forward Association Mourns Passing of Harold Ostroff
Forward

Harold Ostroff, the longtime general manager of America's best-known Jewish newspaper and a giant in the worlds of affordable housing and Yiddish culture, died Thursday March 2 at the age of 82.

Ostroff became general manager of the Forward Association, owner of the Jewish Daily Forward and its radio station WEVD, in 1976. At the time the two Yiddish cultural institutions were struggling to survive in the face of a steep decline in the Yiddish-speaking population, largely a legacy of the Holocaust. Over the next two decades, Mr. Ostroff revamped the newspaper and launched prestigious new publications in English and Russian, restoring the institution to financial stability and reestablishing it as a premier source of news and information on Jewish affairs. He retired as general manager in 1997.

"Harold loved newspapers," Samuel Norich, his successor as publisher of the Forward, said. "He valued them as an instrument of community, and of social justice. He loved to read them, and he loved to have a hand in making them."

Continued...

Wiki War

Sexton’s Wiki page under fire
by Josh Burd
Washington Square News

The labor dispute at NYU has reached a new frontier — Wikipedia.

Internet users who support the Graduate Student Organizing Committee have been making their views known on the free, nonprofit online encyclopedia that allows visitors to edit articles. Many users — either identified by user name or IP address — have repeatedly edited the biographical article about NYU President John Sexton, whose administration has been at odds with the striking graduate students.

More than 100 total edits have been made to the article, including edits with one-sided accounts of the labor conflict as well as direct attacks on Sexton.

One of the more contentious changes to the article was made this past January, when someone anonymously wrote, “Sexton is a major-buster. He’s a trying to get rid of the legitimately organized and majority-approved union of graduate employees.”

The edits on Wikipedia, which allow visitors to view the editing history and compare past revisions of a given article, were first made in July and appeared more frequently after GSOC began striking on Nov. 9. Since then, several other hostile edits have been made by unnamed users, including one in October that referred to Sexton’s trademark hugs as “obnoxiously patronizing and demagogic.”

The administration does not seem concerned, but university spokesman Josh Taylor said the activity on the site is a sign of tampering with NYU's image.

“While President Sexton is familiar with Wikipedia, he has not personally used the site,” Taylor said on Sexton's behalf in an e-mail. “From my perspective, however, the disputed posts are all too reflective of the distorted view that many outside our community continue to try to spread.”

Continued...

FBI CLC Raid

Newscast

Not yet Broken News

The NYC Central Labor Council is currently being raided by the FBI. P-CRAC is sure the mainstream news will have the story momentarily.

What exactly is a radical again?

Why Are There So Many Radicals in New Orleans?
Written by Owen Thompson
Toward Freedom

In my two weeks volunteering with the anarchist-friendly Common Ground Collective this past January, I met a lot of people who considered themselves progressives, radicals, and/or anarchists, enough to make it clear that a lot of them saw their sociopolitical views as having some connection to their volunteer work in New Orleans. That work consisted (and consists, as Common Ground will continue to drawn in hundreds and maybe thousands of new and returning volunteers in the coming months) mostly of gutting houses for residents of the devastated Ninth Ward and other impoverished areas, but also of providing medical services, distributing supplies (food, clothing, hygienic products, cleaning supplies, etc.), and doing outreach in an attempt to help the community organize its response to the city’s controversial rebuilding plan.

Identifying the connection between the former (those aforementioned sociopolitical views) and the latter (the volunteer work) turned out to be much harder than I expected. In fact, I remain doubtful that I’ve found an answer at all.

It is certainly not hard to come up with some reasons why anarchists would see New Orleans as a good gathering point right now—not only in terms of flocking to the city itself, but also by placing the issues raised by Katrina at the center of radical discussions. The failure at all levels of government to protect or even rescue the people of this city was near absolute, and surely prompted a crisis of conscience among many Americans who had previously assumed that their tax dollars guaranteed their safety in the event of such a catastrophe. As pointed out by a disturbingly enthusiastic forward sent around the Internet (by apparent "anarchists") in the immediate aftermath of the hurricane, this presented a golden opportunity to call attention not just to the corruption and inefficiency of the current state, but to the failure of states in general as a model for organizing society.

If imminent rebellion and social upheaval were on the minds of most volunteers at Common Ground, though, it didn’t really show. There was plenty of discussion regarding the evils of racism, inequality, and hierarchy—with a strong consensus that all these things were bad, and that our presence in New Orleans was somehow combating them—I never heard anyone indicate that they expected a wave of revolutionary fury to spiral out from Louisiana and engulf the nation. More to the point, if anyone did believe that might happen, they never cited it as their reason for volunteering.

Instead, I found most people I talked to subscribed to either one or both of the following two statements:

1. I came to New Orleans because people here need help, and I can help them (or at least can try to help them).

2. I came to New Orleans to make myself a better person (or a better anarchist, activist, citizen, radical, American, etc.).

Continued...

Anarchist Women Power Lifting

Platform of the Federation of Anarchist Communists of Bulgaria, 1945
Federatsia na Anarkho Komunistite ot Balgaria - FAKB

Basic positions

We reject the present social system of State and capitalist centralization, as it is founded on the principle of the State which is contrary to the initiative and freedom of the people. Every form of power involves economic, political or spiritual privilege. Its application on an economic level is represented by private property, on a political level by the State and on a spiritual level by religion. These three forms of power are linked. If you touch one, the others are changed and, inversely, if you keep one form of power, it will inevitably lead to the re-establishment of the other two. This is why we repudiate the very principle of power.

We are supporters of the abolition of private property, of the State and of religion, and of the total suppression of every form and institution of constraint and violence. We reject every teaching and every social, political and economic-political movement aimed at maintaining the State, private property, the church, and constraint and violence in social relations.

We repudiate fascism, which is a historic attempt to restore absolutism, autocracy and the strength of the political form of power with the aim of defending the economic and spiritual dominance of the privileged classes.

We reject political democracy, as it does not foresee the disappearance of the principle of power, and drives the masses to bewilderment by leading them, through lies and illusions, into fights which are against their interests, and corrupts them through the exercise of power and the maintaining of the appetite for domination. Political democracy, furthermore, shows that it is totally incapable of solving the great social problems and that it fosters chaos, contradictions and crime as a result of its social foundations based on the centralized State and capitalism.

We repudiate State socialism as it leads to State capitalism - the most monstrous form of economic exploitation and oppression, and of total domination of social and individual freedom.

We are for anarchist communism or free communism, which will replace private property with the complete socialization of lands, factories and mines, and of all goods and instruments of production. The State will be replaced by a federation of free communes regionally, provincially, nationally and internationally united. The church and religion will be replaced by a free individual moral and a scientific vision.

Unlike all other socio-economic and political concepts and organizations, Anarchist Communism is federalist.

The new social organization that will replace the State will be built and run from the bottom upwards. All the inhabitants of any given village will form the local free commune, and all the local free communes will unite regionally, provincially, nationally and internationally in unions and federations and in a universal general social confederation.

The new organization of society's production will be formed by a tight network of countless local agricultural enterprises, artisans, mines, industry, transport, etc., united on a regional, provincial, national and international level in production unions and federations as part of a general confederation of production.

Society's new organization of exchange, consumption and supply will likewise be represented by a dense and complex network of regional, provincial and national organizations, unions and federations, grouped in a general confederation of exchange and consumption for satisfying the needs of all inhabitants.

All human social activity and all transport, communications, education, healthcare, and so on, will be organized in a similar fashion.

With this organizational system of all the functions of the various aspects of social life, there will be no place in society for the power of one individual over another or for the exploitation of one by another.

The basic principle of production and distribution for the building of the new social system will be: everyone will produce according to their possibilities and everyone will receive according to their needs.

Continued...

Anarchist Women Power Lifting

Platform of the Federation of Anarchist Communists of Bulgaria, 1945
Federatsia na Anarkho Komunistite ot Balgaria - FAKB

Basic positions

We reject the present social system of State and capitalist centralization, as it is founded on the principle of the State which is contrary to the initiative and freedom of the people. Every form of power involves economic, political or spiritual privilege. Its application on an economic level is represented by private property, on a political level by the State and on a spiritual level by religion. These three forms of power are linked. If you touch one, the others are changed and, inversely, if you keep one form of power, it will inevitably lead to the re-establishment of the other two. This is why we repudiate the very principle of power.

We are supporters of the abolition of private property, of the State and of religion, and of the total suppression of every form and institution of constraint and violence. We reject every teaching and every social, political and economic-political movement aimed at maintaining the State, private property, the church, and constraint and violence in social relations.

We repudiate fascism, which is a historic attempt to restore absolutism, autocracy and the strength of the political form of power with the aim of defending the economic and spiritual dominance of the privileged classes.

We reject political democracy, as it does not foresee the disappearance of the principle of power, and drives the masses to bewilderment by leading them, through lies and illusions, into fights which are against their interests, and corrupts them through the exercise of power and the maintaining of the appetite for domination. Political democracy, furthermore, shows that it is totally incapable of solving the great social problems and that it fosters chaos, contradictions and crime as a result of its social foundations based on the centralized State and capitalism.

We repudiate State socialism as it leads to State capitalism - the most monstrous form of economic exploitation and oppression, and of total domination of social and individual freedom.

We are for anarchist communism or free communism, which will replace private property with the complete socialization of lands, factories and mines, and of all goods and instruments of production. The State will be replaced by a federation of free communes regionally, provincially, nationally and internationally united. The church and religion will be replaced by a free individual moral and a scientific vision.

Unlike all other socio-economic and political concepts and organizations, Anarchist Communism is federalist.

The new social organization that will replace the State will be built and run from the bottom upwards. All the inhabitants of any given village will form the local free commune, and all the local free communes will unite regionally, provincially, nationally and internationally in unions and federations and in a universal general social confederation.

The new organization of society's production will be formed by a tight network of countless local agricultural enterprises, artisans, mines, industry, transport, etc., united on a regional, provincial, national and international level in production unions and federations as part of a general confederation of production.

Society's new organization of exchange, consumption and supply will likewise be represented by a dense and complex network of regional, provincial and national organizations, unions and federations, grouped in a general confederation of exchange and consumption for satisfying the needs of all inhabitants.

All human social activity and all transport, communications, education, healthcare, and so on, will be organized in a similar fashion.

With this organizational system of all the functions of the various aspects of social life, there will be no place in society for the power of one individual over another or for the exploitation of one by another.

The basic principle of production and distribution for the building of the new social system will be: everyone will produce according to their possibilities and everyone will receive according to their needs.

Continued.../A>

Zombies Hate Workers

CAFTA's Corpse Revived
by MARK ENGLER
The Nation

A year ago the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) was a corpse. The Bush Administration resurrected it with the darkest of political sorcery. And now the lumbering beast is growing ever more monstrous--and arousing new controversy.

On March 1, two months after the planned January implementation date for the trade deal, CAFTA goes into effect between the United States and El Salvador. Yet for the five other countries that are party to the treaty--Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic--a starting date remains undetermined. In past months, contentious debates about the implementation of the agreement have triggered new protests throughout Central America, calling into question what the trade pact will look like in practice.

After the White House succeeded in narrowly passing CAFTA through Congress last summer, many "free trade" advocates considered the treaty a done deal. The agreement squeaked through the House in a historically close vote of 217 to 215 and appeared to have finally weathered the storm generated by its diverse critics.

A new wave of dissent in Central America, however, is creating fresh difficulties for CAFTA defenders. In Costa Rica, the only country that has yet to ratify the deal, former president and Nobel Peace Prize winner Oscar Arias was expected to win back the presidency by a landslide in early February. In a surprise turn, his opponent Ottón Solís surged in the polls at the last minute, carried by his objection to Arias's strong pro-CAFTA stance. The final contest was so close as to warrant a lengthy recount to identify the winner.

Based on the current tally, it appears almost certain that election officials will declare Arias the winner. Still, Solís's opposition party will likely carry enough seats in the legislative assembly to make it very difficult for Arias to pass CAFTA. Contending that the treaty would "bankrupt Costa Rica's agricultural sector," Solís vowed this week that, regardless of the election's final outcome, he would continue championing the demand for CAFTA's renegotiation.

As the experience of other Central American countries shows, controversy can reignite even after CAFTA is ratified. In Guatemala and El Salvador, the Bush Administration's advocacy on behalf of US special interests has sparked new disputes during the implementation phase of the treaty. There, US Trade Representative Rob Portman has tried to squeeze even more concessions out of the Central American partners before agreeing to certify their inclusion in the deal. Governments in Guatemala and El Salvador have cried foul, saying that the White House's current agenda for reforms goes beyond the terms of the agreement.

According to the journal Inside US Trade, Portman has pushed for changes to Guatemalan intellectual property law that would extend the life of patents on many name-brand pharmaceuticals. Already, the United States has compelled Guatemala to repeal a law designed to expand access to generic drugs. Organizations such as Doctors Without Borders have denounced CAFTA's impact on the Guatemalan AIDS epidemic, arguing that limits on generic antiretrovirals amount to a death sentence for many patients. The White House's demands only worsen the restrictions.

In response, Guatemalan Vice President Eduardo Stein has blasted the Bush Administration's hardball tactics: "It's an affront to Latin America when a government says it wants to be a 'partner' but then is only interested in our money and commodities," he told the Associated Press in December.

Continued...

RWDSU Still Better than UFCW

Macy's Employees, Members of Local 1-S, RWDSU/UFCW Rally for Fair and Decent Contract
RWDSU

Members of RWDSU Local 1-S (Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, UFCW), local and national labor leaders, elected officials and other supporters rallied today for a "fair and decent" contract for all Macy's New York employees. RWDSU Local 1-S currently represents over 3,500 workers in Macy's Herald Square, Bronx, Queens and White Plains stores.

Last week, the retail workers union announced that its members, employed by Macy's Federated Department Stores, voted to authorize a strike should a job action become necessary to obtain what the union calls a fair and decent contract. A strike could occur if a new contract is not agreed upon by the current deadline of March 3rd. No strike date has been set.

Contract negotiations with Macy's started last month, but have moved at a slow pace, and a federal mediator has been called in by both sides. Major conflict issues include Macy's proposals that demand employee concessions in areas such as healthcare, job security, and general wage increases. Under Macy's current healthcare proposal, a majority of employees, mostly women and minorities, will be unable to afford healthcare benefits and will force workers to pay upwards of 60% of their healthcare premiums. Federated is currently one of the top employers in the state that is transferring the cost of healthcare for its employees to New York taxpayers. Macy's is also refusing general wage increases. Last week, Federated announced triple digit profits during the Company's annual earnings report.

Continued...

what a total fuckbag

Civil rights icon Young to defend Wal-Mart
Former aide to Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to combat criticism of retailer
Reuters

Civil rights leader and former Atlanta mayor Andrew Young will become the public face of a Wal-Mart-backed group whose aim is to combat criticism of the world’s largest retailer, the group said Monday.

Young, who was an aide to Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. during the civil rights protests of the 1960s and served as ambassador to the United Nations under President Jimmy Carter, will serve as chairman of Working Families for Wal-Mart’s national steering committee, the group said in a statement.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. was among the financial backers of Working Families for Wal-Mart, a group of people ”who understand and appreciate Wal-Mart’s positive impact on the working families of America,” according to its Web site.

Continued...

Race, Hotels, and Crap

Picket Fences: From Dream to Fantasy
Hotel workers seek to beat poverty
By STEVEN MIKULAN
LA Weekly

When Ana Mendez’s home was built 60 years ago, its serpentine flagstone walkway and sunken living room embodied the middle-class dream for white Los Angeles after World War II. Today, the Lennox house still represents middle-class membership for many immigrant workers — but getting there is a lot harder than it used to be, making home ownership a virtual fantasy for millions of low-income wage earners. Mendez and her family moved into their Felton Street home about a year ago, after living for 20 years in one of the hulking apartment complexes that sit across the street. Houses in Mendez’s crime-plagued neighborhood, three blocks from the San Diego Freeway and about 1,000 feet beneath planes landing at nearby LAX, sell for about $400,000 — nearly four times what they went for a decade ago.

Last week the Mendezes’ living room was crowded with employees of the big nonunionized airport hotels on Century Boulevard, and they had lots to say about obstacles to the American Dream. They had come, organized by the UNITE HERE union, to share stories of abuse and indifference with actor Danny Glover, who was in town as part of UNITE HERE’s Hotel Workers Rising campaign, a nationwide push to raise working and living standards in one of the few American industries whose work force cannot be offshored.

Glover was in the middle of a long day that wouldn’t end until that evening, when he spoke at a downtown rally in front of the Sheraton Hotel. He and City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo, along with UNITE HERE President John Wilhelm, had begun the morning by strolling into the LAX Hilton, where they exchanged unauthorized pleasantries with workers in the kitchen, reception desk and lobby areas — as stone-faced security staff looked on. Some workers wore union buttons and embraced Glover. Others were more guarded; one woman told Glover in a low voice that she was very afraid of management but grateful for his support.

After leaving the Hilton, the Lethal Weapon co-star joined former Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards for a luncheon at Inglewood’s Forum Club. That event was chaired by embattled County Federation of Labor head Martin Ludlow, four days before he resigned amid an investigation into campaign violations. (City Attorney Delgadillo did not attend.) Union presidents Andy Stern, Bruce Raynor and Maria Elena Durazo were served chicken and rice, as were L.A. Councilman Herb Wesson, Los Angeles Sentinel owner Danny Bakewell and community activist Tony Muhammad.

The largely African-American audience heard from Wilhelm that, according to his union’s statistics, the hotel industry, once an employment haven for blacks, has all but stopped hiring them. They also heard that the average annual wage for a housekeeper is $17,340 when the federally computed poverty line for a family of four is $19,157, and that the medical insurance offered workers by hotel chains is an empty gesture because few can afford it.

Continued...

Hoffa seems left of Labor Notes lately

Teamsters call death probe tainted
By SCOTT FALLON
North Jersey News

U.S. Embassy officials in El Salvador insisted Wednesday that the right people were tried in the 2004 murder of a Cliffside Park labor leader, even though two of three were acquitted over the weekend.

The response came on the same day Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa blasted the Salvadoran government for what he said was a coverup in the shooting death of union official Gilberto Soto.

"We received assurances that the Salvadoran government would conduct an objective, open-ended inquiry," Hoffa said. "That never happened."

Teamsters have long claimed that Soto, 49, was shot dead on Nov. 5, 2004, because of his efforts to organize truck drivers as part of a trip through Central America.

A month later, his mother-in-law, Rosa Elba Zelaya de Ortiz, was charged with hiring hit men to kill Soto because of a dispute between him and his estranged third wife.

But Zelaya de Ortiz and alleged gunman Santos Sanchez Ayala were acquitted Saturday night. Herbert Joel Gomez, who was charged with supplying the murder weapon, was convicted.

Embassy officials maintained they did everything to ensure Salvadoran police investigated all angles of the killing and were pleased with the results of their work.

"We had confidence in the investigation and the police and thought the right people were on trial," said Rebecca Thompson, an embassy spokeswoman in San Salvador. "We're still awaiting the sentencing. But in the end you have to respect the results of the judicial process, even if you're disappointed with the outcome."

Continued...

Good job Andy ya moron

Nurses from eight unions band together
By WILL LESTER
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

WASHINGTON -- Nurses from eight AFL-CIO unions are banding together in hopes of increasing their political and organizing strength, leaders announced Thursday.

The move foreshadows more coalitions within specific industries as organized labor attempts to regain clout.

About 200,000 nurses, describing themselves as RNs Working Together, are bidding to become the first union members to form such a group - called an industry coordinating committee - within the AFL-CIO. The AFL-CIO executive council will vote on recognizing the nurses' group during its winter meeting in San Diego next week.

"This is valuable because nurses are represented all over the country by many different unions, there's so much we need to do collectively that we're doing individually," said Kathy Sackman, president of the United Nurses Association of California. "This gives us a more powerful voice, gives us more clout politically."

After a difficult year that saw several large unions break away from the AFL-CIO, the labor federation is taking numerous steps to reinvigorate the labor movement.

On a separate front, leaders of the independent National Education Association, with 2.7 million members, and the AFL-CIO are discussing an arrangement that would allow local affiliates to join the labor federation, officials confirmed. The NEA would remain separate from the AFL-CIO at the national level, but local unions could apply for membership in central labor councils, which are active in local politics and organizing. Officials with the NEA and AFL-CIO plan to formally announce their plans early next week.

Continued...

P-CRAC Was On The Roof

Dear Comrade-Enemies,

Loyal readers have whined and complained that we didn't update the last few days. P-CRAC was ill. Get over it.

Love,

P-CRAC

Spare the Rod, spoil the...

S.D. grand jury indicts Earth Liberation Front leader
Union-Tribune

A federal indictment unsealed Wednesday in San Diego charges a recognized national leader of the Earth Liberation Front with teaching others how to make a bomb with the intent that it be used to commit arson.

Rodney Adam Coronado, who was arrested today in Arizona, is charged with teaching and demonstrating the making of a destructive device before dozens of people in Hillcrest on Aug. 1, 2003.

Coronado is not charged with setting a fire 15 hours earlier that caused $50 million in damages and destroyed a large apartment complex under construction in the University Towne Center area of San Diego, prosecutors said.

"America will not tolerate terrorists," said Daniel R. Dzwilewski, special agent in charge of the San Diego division of the FBI. "Whether you were born here or abroad, we will not stand back and allow you to terrorize our communities under the guise of free speech."

Coronado, 39, is scheduled to be arraigned in Tucson on Thursday and could be brought to San Diego within the next couple of weeks, said Shane Harrigan, chief of the criminal division of the U.S. Attorney's Office in San Diego.

He faces a maximum of 20 years in federal prison if convicted, according to Harrigan, who said a federal grand jury in San Diego returned the one-count indictment last week.

Continued...

This guy should be beaten to death with a shoe

Is it time for unions to go?
By Richard Berman
Washington Examiner

Publicity is a lot like warfare-it is always sound strategy to occupy and hold the high ground at any cost. Union leaders have been doing just that for decades now. By rhetorically positioning themselves at the forefront of struggles for economic justice and equality, they have effectively inoculated themselves against criticism. To criticize labor leaders, even from a pro-labor standpoint, is to side against the angels. Worse-in a democracy like ours-it is to side against the people. It is to back big business, often depicted in this case as a rapacious, plutocratic caricature straight out of Upton Sinclair's worst nightmares.

By consistently claiming the moral high ground for themselves, union leaders have acquired a kind of diplomatic immunity in the public eye. According to Gallup, the public favors unions over businesses 52 percent to 34 percent in labor disputes and a majority of people still believe that unions help the businesses they organize.

The facts tell a different story. Union leaders have fallen prey to what might be called the "Godfather syndrome." Almost everyone knows the story of Michael Corleone's rise to power (and fall from grace). But most significant was the fact that he began as an idealist using increasingly unsavory methods to do what he considered good and necessary. Eventually those ideals vanished, leaving only the pursuit of power and little trace of the man he once was.

This is hardly an uncommon story in public life; indeed, it is almost expected of politicians in this cynical day and age. But we assume for some reason that union leaders are exempt from the rule that power corrupts.

Their profligacy, however, should not come as a surprise. For, union leaders have greater power than most comparable figures. Politicians and lawmakers are held accountable by voters. Major companies and their managers are responsible to shareholders. To whom do union leaders answer? In theory, the democratic process should make them accountable to their membership. But that process is under serious attack.

Where once a secret ballot vote was used to establish and determine the direction of unions, organizers have now resorted to card checks, which essentially amounts to collecting names on a petition. This method is public and leaves participants open to harassment and intimidation, not to mention the room it creates for false signatures and fraudulent voting outcomes.

Continued...

All out offensive

Hub radio stations to air anti-union ads
By Diane E. Lewis
Boston Globe

An anti-union group says it will start airing ads this week on three Boston radio stations as part of a media blitz against the US labor movement and its push to change the way most workers are organized.

''Union members are tired of the corruption and huge salary packages for union chiefs . . . and sick of being forced to pay union dues that end up in the pockets of politicians they don't agree with," according to the ads, which the Center for Union Facts says will begin airing as early as today on three Boston radio stations.

The campaign started earlier this month with full-page newspaper ads in the Washington Post, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Los Angeles Times. The organization also launched an Internet website, UnionFacts.com, and erected a large dinosaur outside the headquarters of the AFL-CIO.

Richard Berman, 62, director of the Center for Union Facts in Washington, D.C., said he launched the site himself, and then sought financial support from firms for the media effort. Berman declined to identify his backers. He said the media campaign will cost about $5 million.

Berman said he was inspired to speak out against unions after he noticed that labor had stepped up its promotion of card-check recognition as a way of organizing new members. The strategy allows unions to circumvent the time-consuming process of a National Labor Relations Board election. In a card-check campaign, the union seeks a pledge of neutrality from the employer and a promise to recognize a bargaining unit after more than 50 percent of a workforce signs union cards.

''They want to force people to join unions," Berman said in a telephone interview. ''They are going to corporations and intimidating them into being neutral."

Continued...

Government oversight screws workers? Shocking!

Unions seek end to Act 47 oversight of city
By Rich Lord
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Labor leaders launched a multipronged assault on state oversight of the city of Pittsburgh yesterday, asking City Council to call for its end, backing a state bill to curb its effects and attacking its key privatization initiative.

But council postponed for three weeks a vote on a union-backed bill asking to end oversight under state Act 47. Its sponsor, Councilwoman Twanda Carlisle, said she wanted to give Mayor Bob O'Connor "the benefit of the doubt" while he rewrites the 2006 budget.

Only the state secretary of community and economic development can end oversight, though city officials can request that action.

Mr. O'Connor has been lukewarm to ending oversight, which started in 2003 and gives the city a means of limiting union contracts.

Ms. Carlisle said her bill was "not just for one group of people, but to make the city whole," and pledged to work with the mayor to modify it.

International Association of Fire Fighters Local 1 President Joe King told council that the city no longer needs oversight, since it announced last week that it brought in $15 million more than it spent in 2005. Some officials have questioned that figure, but Mr. King said they have not presented an alternative number.

"My group, especially, has taken a tremendous amount, the bulk, of the hit," he said. The Fire Bureau budget has been cut from $60.4 million in 2004 to $43 million this year.

The firefighters' contract runs through 2009, but can be changed next year.

"We want the right to bargain with our employers on a level playing field," he said.

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Students are boring

Student labor group renews call for higher wages at unions
Andrew Peck
The Daily Cardinal

A proposed referendum by the Student Labor Action Coalition would require Memorial Union and several other UW-Madison organizations to either pay employees a higher wage or lose funding.

The Union also provided a plan last week to deal with the issue of compensation for limited-term employees, who do not receive benefits, but it may not do enough, according to SLAC representative Josh Healey.

“The Union’s policy is about giving limited-term employees full-term employment, which is very important, but it doesn’t necessarily say anything about all workers having a living wage, so it doesn’t affect students,” Healey said.

However, he acknowledged that “what the Union is doing doesn’t contradict what we’re doing; our initiative should compliment, not add to what they’re doing.”

But Michael Imbrogno, a representative of Local Union 171 and employee of Memorial Union, remains skeptical of the Union’s plan. “We’ve heard this song and dance before,” he said, “and I don’t believe it until it actually happens.”

Shayna Hetzel, vice president of external relations for the Wisconsin Union said the Union is neither for, nor against the proposal.

“If it passes, we’d work with the University and other auxiliaries to find a way to implement it,” Hetzel said.

Continued...

Love the WSM, but rhetoric is moronic... as is debating with Marxists

What type of society do anarchists want to live in?

Text of a WSM part of Marxism v Anarchism debate organised by the (Irish) Socialist Party / CWI

Anarchism essentially sees a free society where everybody has the opportunity to live as they want as achievable. But what does that mean in practice, and how do we get there.

The first thing about a revolution is that it must result in an expansion of freedom and not a new set of rulers.

Popular revolt got rid of the dictatorships in Stalinist Europe, recently in Georgia, Serbia, and Indonesia. All these states were police states and yet they fell, which goes to show the power that workers have when they get going.

While in these cases workers knew perfectly well what they didn't want, i.e. the old rulers, but putting something new in their place was a different story. They put in different rulers instead of a different political system with the result that the same old patterns of exploitation continued.

We have got to try the road of freedom.

And being bossed about isn't something that people are willing to fight for. This discussion is based on the premise of a post-revolutionary society, one that is under threat, presumably, of counter-revolution. Well, if the people don't think the new life is better than the old one, they won't lift a finger to defend it. And that will be the end of that.

So that means freedom in the most general sense is an absolute necessity; no secret police, political courts, to the freedom to participate in making decisions that affect you. And of course, as socialists, for this freedom to have any meaning, people need to have enough food in their bellies.

Freedom in Revolution
Freedom of speech & organisation
It is vital in a revolutionary situation that freedom of organisation is available to all political strands.

When it comes to advancing one's political ideas on how society should be organised this freedom needs to be available to all. And not just because it is a nice thing but also because it is useful. Anarchists believe that the best decisions are made after a debate that has the opportunity to hear all sides. If one political faction institutes itself as the thought police of the population then the population won't be able to hear all the arguments for particular policies. Useful options will inevitably become excluded from the mix.


What do anarchists mean by revolution?
Forerunner to the revolution
We don't see a libertarian revolution coming out of nowhere. The example of Spain is instructive. There was a long build up to the revolution, probably the high point of workers' self-management in history. It was was preceded by 70 years of militant activity. Workers learned how to run society through self-organisation and direct action.

Obvious things that come with revolution

Overthrow of the capitalist regime: mass occupations, militias, dismantling of the state apparatus.
Mass involvement in running society
Take the wealth of the rich and redistribute it.
Start producing things with need in mind.
Start thinking about our impact on Earth and factoring this in to the cost of production.
Getting rid of the system of leaders and led in work and in society. That is, changing the social relationship involved in production.
An end to invading and pillaging weaker nation

Continued...

IWW uses innovative organizing tactic by announcing Summit without also announcing when it will be. Brilliant!

IWW Organizing Summit 2006

"By building organizations based on solidarity, rather than on bureaucratic chain-of-command, we build organizations that by their very existence help to bring a new kind of society into being." --Staughton Lynd, Solidarity Unionism

For the first time in recent memory wobblies from all over will be meeting with the primary objective of discussing organizing. The Organizing Summit is what many wobs have been wanting for years. It is a chance to focus on organizing in the union and what it means to say, "Every member is an organizer."

The weekend will be hosted by the Austin GMB and was proposed at General Assembly 2005 in the hopes of supporting the work of the Organizing Department Formation Committee (ODFC). The assembly endorsed the Summit and the ODFC has also endorsed the meeting.

As proposed by the Austin GMB, the weekend will have four goals:

* organizing workshops
* organizing discussions and presentations
* the state of organizing in the union
* discussion of the preliminary report of the ODFC

Attendees must be in good standing in the IWW. Presenters in some cases will not be required to be IWWs.

For some reason P-CRAC blames Fedaykin for this, we aren't sure why

Vancouver: Anarchist/Surrealist Jamboree

Friday March 3 to Sunday March 5

Carnegie Centre
401 Main Street
Vancouver, Canada

Anarchism: No Bosses, No Leaders
Surrealism: Convulsive Beauty
Jamboree: A noisy revel

More info: check the Carnegie Newsletter or at the front desk

DEMANDING THE IMPOSSIBLE
An Anarcho-Surrealist Manifesto *

I is an other. So what if a piece of wood discovers it is a violin…
If brass wakes as a bugle, it is not its fault at all.
-Arthur Rimbaud (1871)

By demanding the impossible, we become impossible in our demands. Make no mistake about it, we demand an end to all forms of domination and insist on the realization of poetry in everyday life. Only by erasing the artificial dichotomy between dream and reality can we sever the ties that bind revolutionary demands to a miserabilist search for the best of all possible rulers. What is more humiliating than to be ruled? What is more beautiful to a surrealist than the shattered glass of reality? All power to the insurgent imagination!

The unfurling of the black flag of anarchy augers all the wonders that can be created when subservience dies and the impossible is unleashed. What is more debilitating than to follow orders? What is more inspiring to an anarchist than the refusal to obey? Mutiny is a collective form of refusal in which the intensity of the fevered desire for liberty breaks the authoritarian chains of duty and coercion in the convulsive heat of mutual aid. Impatient to emancipate ourselves, as soon as the uncharted land of our dreams is in sight, we don't petition the captain to take us ashore, we simply jump ship.

Swimming to shore, we are swiftly carried along by the billowing waves of the social revolution. The splendid winds of change, blowing at gale force as if in harmony with the intensity of our desires, even cause the brass ornaments on deck to reverberate wildly in a jamboree bugle call of Marvelous Freedom. Looking back, we see the floundering ship of state, from which we have only narrowly escaped with our lives, suddenly hit a hidden reef and explode into a shower of debris. In awe, we watch the flying splinters of wood transform themselves as if by alchemy into a thousand screaming violins. In spontaneous freedom, they improvise with the aolian harpsound of the wind, the ocean's leonine roar and the seagulls' incessant cries; all vibrating together in the surreal key of anarchy.

Reality is no obstacle now as the impossible looms up before us on the horizon like the purple aura that circles the moon in a subversive halo of Mad Love. We dance all night in sweaty abandon on the beach, swim naked in the coolness of the moonlight, then fall asleep in each other's arms dreaming of anarchy and surrealism—-the impossible compass points of a world turned upside down.

* Written by Ron Sakolsky for the Anarchist/Surrealist Jamboree (Vancouver, March 3 - 5, 2006)

Stop fucking around Andy

Q&A: Leader of breakaway labor movement sees global change ahead
Brian Tumulty
The Statesman Journal

Whether you call it credit or blame, Andrew Stern is the one person most often mentioned as the key player in the decision by several labor unions to break away from the AFL-CIO last summer.

Stern is president of the fast growing Service Employees International Union, which has 1.8 million members ranging from janitors to nurses to security guards.

Despite his own union’s success, Stern said in a recent interview that he doesn’t expect a significant turnaround in the decline of the American labor movement until the end of the decade.

But his union and six others involved in the new Change to Win Federation that will hold their organizing convention March 19-22 in Las Vegas have big plans for this year and the future.

Question: What have been the benefits of creating the Change to Win Federation?
Answer: I think we’ll brand Change to Win as an organization for the 50 million service workers whose jobs aren’t going to leave this country, to raise the question about what are we going to do to make sure that the service jobs today are like the manufacturing jobs of yesterday where you could own a home, raise a family and live the American dream.

Q: On the topic of organizing, the big news last year was home day-care workers?
A: Child-care workers in Illinois, Oregon and Washington. And workers in the South. We won a victory in Houston. I was down in Miami on Martin Luther King’s birthday and the entire religious community came out in support of living wages. I think a lot of what we are seeing now in our union is an attempt to take our success in the North and bring it where the population and where workers need it the most in the South.

Q: How much did your union grow last year?
A: We have 200,000 new potential members. Now we have to bargain contracts in some of the right-to-work states. But we gained recognition for 200,000 gross. We’re at 1.8 million now. We should go over 2 million in the next couple of years.

Q: Are you working with the United Food and Commercial Workers in trying to organize Wal-Mart workers?
A: We are trying to change Wal-Mart’s business model. We founded an organization called Wal-Mart Watch, which has been active exposing their reliance on Medicaid. The Wal-Mart business model is exactly what’s wrong with America. Everybody goes to work. People work hard. And five members of the family have a hundred billion dollars together. And everybody else is going to state government asking for your and my tax dollars to pay for the Wal-Mart workers’ health care.

Q: What are you doing on the international scene?
A: First of all — which I never thought I would say — we have staff now stationed in London, Geneva, Paris, Australia and South America. We have been in discussions for a long time with a company called Securitas, which is the largest security company in the world that owns Burns, Wells Fargo and Pinkerton in our country, about a global relationship.

Continued...

A fat bald Friend of P-CRACs favorite new book

Activist argues that unions are corrupt
Reviewed by John Brady
San Francisco Chronicle

Solidarity for Sale
How Corruption Destroyed the Labor Movement and Undermined America's Promise
By Robert Fitch

Should friends of labor devote their time and energy to exposing union corruption?

In his new book, "Solidarity for Sale," writer and union activist Robert Fitch makes the case for answering this question with a resounding yes. Fitch is a lifelong union supporter. He joined the Laborer's Union, Local 5, in Chicago Heights, Ill., as a teenager. He has been a union organizer, and he has written extensively about unions and union organizing for a wide range of newspaper and magazines. He remains a union member.

But since he's such a union supporter, is corruption really the most pressing issue to engage? It's hardly earth-shattering to say that the house of labor sits on a shaky foundation. With a few exceptions, unions have been losing members for decades. The controversy over how to best reverse the decline recently led to a major split within the union movement, with five major unions leaving the AFL-CIO in June to form their own coalition, the Change to Win Coalition. And although unions have poured millions of dollars into national electoral politics (an estimated $250 million in 2004), they have little to show for it in terms of labor-friendly legislation.

Given such a situation, wouldn't it be more helpful to focus on better organizing techniques or more imaginative political strategies instead of on union corruption? Only if one believes, Fitch answers, that corruption is an anomaly in the union movement, the result of a few bad, and in some cases very bad, apples who have managed to tarnish what is basically a sound institution.

In his book's opening chapters Fitch argues that corruption is systemic and has sapped the ability of unions to fight on behalf of their members. From there, he goes on to survey union history and traces corruption back to the union movement's origins. He revisits key moments in union history, including the 1905 Chicago Teamsters strike, which some labor historians have interpreted as an example of union solidarity in action, to highlight the baleful effects of labor racketeering.

The final parts of the book survey the contemporary scene. Concentrating on the case of New York, Fitch tells the story of corrupt locals from the Laborers International Union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, and the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees. In the closing chapters, he examines efforts at union reform, including what he considers to be the failure of the Teamsters for a Democratic Union to achieve a clean union.

Running through the book is Fitch's core argument: Corruption is rooted in the very structure of how American unions are organized.

Continued...