My Take

October 31, 2004

 
( this is a 
  black eye 
   jump ball )
--------------------------------



   who's the  imperial  tool here ?


==============================

Congress of South African Trade Unions
October 28, 2004


Media Statement on COSATU Zimbabwe Mision

COSATU congratulates its Zimbabwe mission


The Congress of South African Trade Unions
congratulates its members in the fact-finding
mission to Zimbabwe for their heroism and
commitment.

 Their courage in the face of harassment,
 threats and assault 
from the Zimbabwe security forces
 was in the finest
traditions of the trade union movement.

 We thank
them all for their refusal
 to be intimidated
and to stick to their mission 
in the face of brutal repression.
 And we thank all those,
 in South Africa 
and around the world,
 who have supported the mission
 and shown their solidarity.

We totally condemn 
the actions of the Zimbabwe government,
 which revealed its utter contempt
 not only for the principles 
of respect for human rights 
and
civil liberties, 
but for the rule of law,
 when it brushed aside an order
 of the Harare High Court
interdicting them
 from deporting 
the members of the COSATU mission.

COSATU believes that despite its early forced
departure, the mission achieved its goal. Its aim was
to talk to as many people as possible from the widest
spectrum and establish whether allegations of attacks
on human rights and trade union freedom were true and
whether there were conditions for free and fair
elections next year.

The police invasion of the offices of the Zimbabwe
Congress of Trade Unions, the arrest of the COSATU
mission and their ill-treatment at the hands of the
police all proved beyond doubt that the government has
no respect for human rights and the freedom of trade
unions to function freely within the law. COSATU notes
the statement attributed to SA Foreign Affairs
spokesperson, Ronnie Mamoepa, that "Zimbabwe is an
independent, sovereign state that has an inalienable
right to determine and to apply its immigration
legislation as it may deem appropriate and in its own
interest." Zimbabwe, however, is a signatory to
international conventions that guarantee basic human
rights, including freedom of movement, assembly and
speech. The government's conduct this week has
attacked all these rights. No democratic government has
the right to deny entry and free movement to visitors
who, like the COSATU mission, do not contravene any
immigration laws and who obey the laws of the land.
COSATU's mission was entirely lawful, peaceful and
disciplined. As South African citizens they did not
require a visa. There were no grounds for denying it
entry and COSATU was absolutely right to insist that
they did not require government permission to conduct
the mission and to refuse to accept conditions as to
whom they could and could not meet. We accept that the
ANC government shares with COSATU the common goal of
restoring democracy in Zimbabwe, but that it is
pursuing a different route from COSATU towards
achieving this goal. Ronnie Mamoepa also said, on Radio
702, that the solution to the problems of Zimbabwe had
to come about through amicable discussion with the
parties involved =96 precisely what the COSATU mission
was trying to do. COSATU will not stop campaigning
publicly in support of our comrades in the Zimbabwe
Congress of Trade Unions and in defence of their right
to organize freely without any interference from
government. COSATU rejects with contempt the attack by
the Pan- Africanist Congress, who have congratulated
the government of Zimbabwe for its expulsion of the
mission. Nothing could demonstrate more starkly why the
PAC has been rejected time and again by the South
African voters than this statement in support of
dictatorial actions. The PAC is accusing millions of
South African workers of becoming "agents of
reactionary forces", a ludicrous charge that will be
greeted only with derision by workers and all South
Africans. 

COSATU will continue to campaign for the reinstatement 
of this fact-finding mission and will intensify its 
campaign of solidarity with the Zimbabwe trade union 
movement, whose problems were brought home to so 
vividly in the one meeting with them that the
mission was able to attend. We will be ready, if called
upon by the ZCTU to take solidarity action support of
their struggle for the right to meet, demonstrate and
organize, free of any interference from the state, in
line with the International Labour Organisation and UN
conventions. And we shall also campaign for the
restoration of democracy and for free and fair
elections.

October 26, 2004

    
UNDER CONSTRUCTION 

Comrades and friends,

The international context for this type of national and
regional effort in the South has certainly become more
complicated in the past four years. The undermining of
multilateralism and the use of brute force by the current
gun-toting US government certainly has not helped. We only
hope that American workers have the strength to put an end to
this rampage in a few weeks.

The world labour movement must engage with globalisation on
many levels. Certainly we need to keep up the workplace
struggles, which in this context mean confronting
multinationals through cross-border struggles. But we also
need to develop a broader vision of development. On that
basis, we can engage more strongly at the multilateral
institutions as well as with our own states.

The fact remains that the countries of the North, led by the
United States, have tended to play double standards and
generally to be inconsistent in applying the rules of the
trade game. In particular, the North's protection of local
agriculture, steel and clothing industries against
competition from the South is a case in point. At the same
time, the North has insisted that developing countries open
their economies at all costs, losing jobs and, perhaps even
more important, the power to support new industries that
could create employment in the future.

These issues have sometimes led to sharp differences within
the international trade union family. Genuine solidarity
means a deliberate, coherent and systematic strategy to close
the huge gap between the rich and the poor nations. Trade
policies must play a role in this task. But trade policies
alone can never address all problems of underdevelopment in
the South. That is why we believe local action by the state
and generally state-led development is key to addressing
problems associated with globalisation.

The contradiction is that even a fair and equitable free-
trade strategy may mean that workers in the developed nations
lose jobs to worse-off workers in the South. Real
redistribution of the world resources must mean a level of
pain by the developed nations in favour of the developing
countries. But no country is homogenous: the question is
always which class will win and which will lose in this
process. The debate we should have in the unions and amongst
all progressive forces is how we manage this situation so
that workers and the poor do not bear the burden of change.
If we simply increase unemployment and poverty in the North,
our gains would cancel each other out. Such a scenario is not
sustainable. Real redistribution should mean race to the top
and not to the bottom.

Refusal to engage with this debate will worsen the current
race to the bottom. Many developing countries, led by China,
would continue to trample on workers' rights, including use
of child, slave and prison labour. They will continue to cut
taxes to corporations and generally liberalise their
economies and cut government services to the poor so as to
attract investments from multinational companies from the
North. This will trend will put pressure on governments in
the North to compete in the same way.

The only winners of this race to the bottom will be the
multinational companies from the North. The casualties will
be workers rights,protection of environment and developmental
goals.This is the real imperative for international
solidarity. In the absence of a vision for how we can achieve
employment creation for all of us, we end up with a zero- sum
game, in which the gains for the South can only come at the
cost of the North. That approach would simply divide us
further in the longer run.

For this reason, COSATU is proposing that the ICFTU adopt a
resolution calling for a broader discussion on development
issues. We hope to start with regional processes, which would
culminate in the adoption of some basic shared principles.
The coming ICFTU congress is an important platform to take
these debates forward. Equally important is engagement with
the World Social Forum and democratic and progressive
political parties and governments across the world. We need a
new development path and a new world consensus on how it will
be achieved. To just list global targets and hope that poor
countries will achieve these in 2015 is unrealistic.

 oh by the way 
the retention of the axe-wielding warmonger
 in the White House
will be a serious setback 
          to this type of vision.

under construction

guest shot 
for black eye 



===================

 

lets see here 
    what this 
  big shot union bantu's
    sez his unions   up to


=================================== 

comrades , brothers and sisters,



To understand COSATUs position 
on globalisation,
 you first
have to understand 
our overall approach to the union
movement

 COSATU has long adopted 
what we call
 social trade unionism 
or
 what others call
 transformatory 
or
 revolutionary trade unionism

---- sounds mighty, maaaaan --------

 We are not 
and have never been
 a narrow gumboots
       overalls or wages union

  -------- show me don't tell me maaan ---------

COSATU was formed 
in the middle 
of battles 
waged by our people
 against the tyranny 
of the apartheid system

 We understood 
that we couldn't be successful
 in improving conditions at the workplace
 without first contributing
 to 
the broader liberation struggle
 of our people 
against racist tyranny

Informed by the lessons 
of our history

 COSATU knew 
that it could not fight 
and 
win
 by just uniting workers
 against apartheid

 We had to form 
broader alliances 
with a range 
of
political and social movements

 Today
 on that basis
 COSATU
is part of 
the tripartite alliance 
formed between itself
 the ruling African National Congress 
and
 the South African Communist Party

 It is this Alliance 
that led the united front 
against apartheid 
and 
finally won 
the struggle for democracy in 1994.

Because we know 
that workers
 are members of the society
before they are workers


 we have sought 
to integrate 
their struggles at the workplace 
with those of our communities

 It is these forms 
of struggles 
that over time 
developed the capacity of COSATU
 as the all round movement 
that is the true voice 
of the marginalized

 We have led 
struggles for 
decent houses
 access to electricity
 and
 other basic amenities 
side by side 
with the need
 to pay workers a living wage
 and
 for improved working conditions



Informed by this history
 in the past ten years
 of freedom,
we have taken forward 
this form of trade unionism
 Whilst we maintain
 the tripartite Alliance 
as the key platform
 of
engaging with the transformation
 we have
 at the same time
sought to build coalitions
 with a range 
of other civil society formations

It would be very difficult 
for any conservative government 
in the future 
to isolate COSATU 
because we are integral part
 of
the society

 We believe 
that there is no future today 
for
narrow trade unions 
that only focus
 on bread and butter issues
 instead of taking vigorously
 issues of members
 that are equally issues 
of the broader working class 
and the poor as well

In the past ten years
 informed by this strategy 
we have sought
to position organised workers 
as the leading detachment 
of the working class 
- in a position 
that it will not just lead itself 
but lead all sections of the society

 On some occasions 
we have been successful
          sometimes not

Sometimes 
there been serious tensions 
between COSATU and the ANC led government
 but on balance 
we believe 
that we succeeded
 in ensuring that workers 
have the voice 
and that its message is understood 
in every aspect 
of transformation

On balance
 workers have made 
huge gains
 although we also 
have suffered serious setbacks

 But the struggle
 is never
going to run like clockwork

In November and December this year
 we hope to have 
a major conference 
to analyse 
the first ten years 
of South African freedom
 from the workers's point of view

Globalisation 
has had a huge impact
 on our experiences 
since 1994
 when we won democracy
 Under apartheid
 the sanctions campaign 
meant that our economy 
was largely isolated 
from the forces
 of globalisation building up
 in the 1970s and 80s

Then we opened our economy 
in record time in the 1990s
 just
as we achieved independence

As a result of this situation
 we experienced
 the shocks associated with globalisation 
in a condensed dose 
 - not a pleasant experience 
for tens of thousands of workers
 many of whom 
saw their jobs 
casualised or disappear
 their companies close down
 outsource or be swallowed up 
by foreign multinationals

The opening of the economy 
had three main effects 
on South African workers

 First
 thousands lost their jobs
 as companies faced
 a vast increase incompetition

 A few sectors
have managed 
to increase exports
 but mostly
 they are relatively capital intensive
 and create few jobs
 Yet today
unemployment in South Africa runs at 40%

 That is
 two out of every five 
adults 
is looking for work

 - and 
two of every three workers 
under 30 years old 
are jobless.

Unfortunately
 since 1994
 our main export growth 
has been in minerals
 auto and heavy chemicals
 hardly sectors 
that can dent 
the extraordinarily high levels 
of unemployment 
left by apartheid

Second
 in response to the risks 
of world capital flows
 in the late 1990s 
our government adopted 
the conservative fiscal and monetary policy
   known as GEAR

 Specifically
 GEAR was sold to our government 
as necessary to create
an  environment conducive 
to investment 
and to avoid 
the sort of crisis
 that hit Asia and Mexico 
in the mid-1990s

 COSATU still feels
there were alternatives

GEAR led to real cuts 
in the budget 
and interest rates 
of over 20% in the late 1990s

 Not surprisingly
 economic growth
             stagnated
 the public service downsized 
and unemployment
             soared in this period.

Since 2000
 the government 
      has increased its spending
                            substantially
 and
 relaxed monetary policy
 to some extent

COSATU does not feel 
it has gone far enough 
in either direction
 but at least it's an improvement.

Finally
 the government felt 
it had no choice
 but to adopt
unpopular policies 
including on privatisation

 and went against its stated objectives 
of deepening participatory
                     democracy

 Do not misunderstand: 
South Africa still has 
some of the strongest democratic institutions
 in the world

 But government has been very reluctant
 to open debates
 on macro- economic policy

 since it knows 
its own constituencies oppose
                       its positions.

Comrades and friends,

This is a very short and simplistic overview 
of how globalisation
 and specifically 
the opening of the economy
                   since 1994
         has affected South Africa
 If you want more
               detail
          you can look at our website
             The Secretariat Reports
                   to our Congresses 
                  include a detailed overview 
      of political
and economic developments.

South Africa's experience 
with globalisation is not unique
just rather more intense

 This was the finding 
of the ILO's
World Social Commission
 to which I belonged 
together with
the President of the AFL CIO
 John Sweeney

 That Commission
found that globalisation 
has led to 
the marginalisation
 and
impoverishment of millions
 Its results also demonstrate
 to the surprise of most people
 that globalisation 
has been associated 
with a slowdown in global growth
 in the past
       twenty years

Here
 it seems appropriate 
to speak to the lessons 
we have learned 
      from these hard experiences
 Above all
 our experience may help us 
explore how
 the international labour movement
 should respond to globalisation

 We need to reflect
           both 
      on the root causes 
         of this type of situation
   and on the realities of power 
               that shape our responses.

Generally
 the labour movement internationally 
has seen the joblessness and casualisation 
arising from globalisation
 as a problem of the race to the bottom

 That is
 increased world trade 
makes workers
 increasingly 
compete with each other

leading to worse security 
and lower incomes for all
 while only capital gains

 No one can doubt 
that trade sometimes
brings benefits 
- but growing trade
 under the control 
of the multinational corporations
 is much less likely
 to benefit workers.

Where we as a labour movement 
have been less strong
 however
has been to analyze 
what leads to this undercutting

Generally
 we have effectively given 
two reasons

First
 we have focused on countries
 where the State 
does not protect workers' rights
 or worse
 itself oppresses 
   and
attacks unions
 The solution then is obvious 
- to get the State to live up to
 its obligations to protect workers.

Second
 we have noted 
that national governments
 have lost considerable power 
as a result of globalisation

 They simply cannot control 
multinational firms
 the way they can discipline 
            domestic companies

 Moreover
 multilateral organisations 
like the WTO
 World Bank
 and the IMF 
can wield considerable power over small
                   poor developing states

This analysis leads 
to two main solutions
 On the one hand,
it leads 
to the emphasis
 on linking trade 
to core labour standards

 At least if workers 
can organise themselves
 they are less likely
 to end up 
competing on pay 
and conditions

 On the other hand
 it supports a focus 
on cross-border unity 
to negotiate
 with the multinationals directly
 Together
 workers in the North and South
 can unite and exercise 
their power against their bosses


Obviously
 these are important elements 
in any effort 
to make the international economy 
serve workers and the poor

 But our experience in South Africa
 suggests
 that they are simply not
                       enough

For one thing
 much of our production 
is not controlled by
               multinationals

 The main sectors
 where engagement 
with multinational companies 
makes sense for us 
are in auto pharmaceuticals
 and to a limited extent 
in clothing and appliances production

 The vast majority 
of our members work
in South African owned companies 
   and in the state sector

In addition
 there may be  
a fine line 
 between solidarity and dependence

 South African unions
 cannot afford 
to tell their members
just depend on solidarity 
from workers and consumers
in the North

 We need to find ways 
to control our own destiny
as part 
of the international labor movement.

For this reason

 the international labor movement
 needs to do more 
to focus on 
support for national development strategies

That in turn means
 unions in the South 
must engage
 with the state
 rather than just capital

  It also means
 that the international labor movement
 must increase pressure
 on the states of the North
 to stop sabotaging 
development efforts 
in the South

 whether directly 
or 
  through the WTO and IMF

Again
 our own experience underscores
 the need
 for this kind of shift in direction

 In South Africa
 the state has provided
 strong legal protection for workers
 It has reversed
the oppression of unions
 found under apartheid 
with protection 
for workers' organization
 the right to negotiate
and strike
 and strong measures
 to end child labor
 and
discrimination in the workplace
 It sets minimum pay 
for domestic, farm and other vulnerable workers

 as well as
regulating working time
 dismissals
 and health and safety 
for
all employees.

The fact is
 however
 that with soaring unemployment
 it is increasingly hard 
to enforce these laws
 Our people are
simply too desperate for work

 Moreover
 we have seen 
a flight 
        of some companies
             to neighboring countries
            which are
               even more impoverished.

Overall
 the job losses
 in manufacturing 
and mining 
since the mid-1990s 
mean that COSATU
 has not grown at all
 in the past three years
 after a decade
 in which it more than doubled in size.

In short, 
unless we can overcome
 the unemployment crisis,
 we
cannot ensure sustainable improvement
 in workers' conditions.

Simply having decent labour laws
 and a sympathetic state
                 isn't enough.

COSATU's Eighth Congress 
last year
 recognised this
 in its resolution 
    on a medium-term strategy
 which we call

"Consolidating working-class power,
 for quality jobs Toward 2015."

 A core commitment 
is to pressure
 business
 and
government
 to work with us 
to develop sector strategies
 to create sustainable employment
 We don't have time here 
to go in depth 
into our proposals 
for a development strategy 
for South Africa

. Our core demand
 is that government 
            and business
do more
 to restructure
   the formal sector 
      toward job- creating growth. 

That means, above all, 
supporting expansion
 in light industry and services,
 which were both hard hit 
by the opening of the economy 
in the early 1990s.

To achieve this aim,
 South Africa 
must back off from 
the current trade strategy, 
which seeks to lower barriers 
to trade at all costs.
 We need a more differentiated approach
that will let us
 build up new capacity 
and kinds of production over time. 
Moreover, we need a more careful
                   approach
 to shape access 
to world markets
 so that it will
create jobs on balance,
             and not destroy them.

But we also need to focus more 
on industries that produce 
for
the local and regional market.
 To take an example, 
only 20%
of our clothing production 
goes for exports.
 Of that, around
a third goes to 
the rest of Africa. 
We need to develop 
a strategy 
that relies 
 not just on engaging 
the multinationals 
and brand names from the North,
 but on meeting
the needs of our people 
in South Africa 
and in neighbouring countries.
 A stronger focus 
on meeting local needs 
will insulate us 
to a limited extent 
from the negative effects
 of globalisation.

This type of approach,
 which engages
 both employers and the state
 reflects the long-term experience 
of the labour movement worldwide.
 Unions have always 
had the greatest successes 
where they have gotten
 the state to establish 
an enabling environment.
 In the modern world,
 the state plays a critical role
 in shaping the circumstances 
in which we work.

We cannot simply ignore it.
 At the same time, 
we in the labour movement
 have a critical role to play
 in disciplining business,
 both at home and abroad,
 so that it cannot simply
exploit our people.


======================================

end of part one 

===========================================

 
LAST WEEK A NEWER  STORY 
ROLLED AHEAD
AS ROSS MOVED ON COAL COMPANY 
 UNION BENES

HERE IN STEEL 
 ROSS MAKES A QUICK 2 BILLION
 FOR HIS "GROUP"
ON A PUBLIC STEEL COMPANY  SALE

  HERES WHERE IT ALL ENDS

AFTER THE STRIP COMES THE RIP ......




==========================

 
 
 Mergers Show Steel Industry 
Is Still Worthy of Big Deals

By HEATHER TIMMONS

  LONDON, Oct. 25 - 

Showing that money can still be made 
in the old-line industries

 turnaround specialist 
Wilbur L. Ross 
is selling a steel company 
that he created only three  years ago 

in a deal that could create
 a profit of more than $2 billion 
for himself and his shareholders.

Mr. Ross entered the steel industry 
in 2002
 when his buyout firm 
W. L. Ross & Company 
made a $325 million offer 
for a shuttered Cleveland steel mill.

Five deals
 almost $2.2 billion
 and less than three years later
 Mr. Ross is selling the company 
            for $4.5 billion
 and pocketing a personal stake 
in the new company 
worth nearly $300 million

"The transaction we're announcing 
will change the world's steel map," 
Mr. Ross said 
in a conference call 
with analysts and investors. 

The transaction is Mr. Ross's 
latest high-profile example
 of how to thrive 
in industries that others shun.

 The back-of-the-envelope 
      calculation
 is startling: 
The five deals that created International Steel
 cost $2.165 billion, 
including debt.
 
But the total sale price 

for International Steel
is $5.1 billion, 

 " we didn't know
  what we were trying to do 
              was impossible
  and not knowing it was impossible
 we went ahead and did it."  says Ross

--- u fucking monster 
          the pit of hell awaits u --------------



Mr. Ross  a former
 Rothschild banker
        is widely credited
          with reviving 
the United States steel industry 
by buying up dead 
                 Or dying steel  companies
              and then 
               persuading 
their powerful union
 the United Steelworkers of America
 to  streamline operations 
             and 
agree to pension reforms

--------------  suckered bastards  who got paid off here..---------------------
-------------------------------

THE HIT PARADE :  

In April 2002
 W. L. Ross & Co. purchased 
the steel mills 
of LTV Corporation in Cleveland

 then added on 
Acme Steel Corporation
 the Bethlehem Steel Corporation 
and Weirton Steel
--------------------------------------------------
 In December
 International Steel
held a public offering 
               

 The company's stock
 rose 26 percent
 on its first day of trading 

Analysts said 
that the deal could be followed 
by other bids
 for American steel companies

  ---- long as the steel union 
       helps  find a way
    to recycle its membership 
         out of their benes  -------------

================================================

 
 

 
 
 
   

  here's my beat down of a piece 
  on the HERE and now 

   UNITED WE FANNED ?



====================================

  ANALYSIS IN PROGRESS 
(UNDER CONSTRUCTION)

-------------------------------------


SAN FRANCISCO -- 
The limited lockout, instituted by 10 hotels after
UNITE HERE's Local 2 struck four others, will  be
continued indefinitely


There are many things
 about the San Francisco hotel
strike 
that might seem reminiscent 
of the agonizing
conflict that embroiled
 southern California grocery
workers
 for four and a half months last winter.

 It is a
local battle challenging powerful national
corporations. Like Safeway, Albertsons, and Ralph's,
the big San Francisco hotel chains -- Starwood (which
runs the Sheraton Palace and the St. Francis), Hilton,
Hyatt, and Intercontinental (which run the Mark Hopkins
and the Holiday Inns) -- have a mutual support
arrangement. A strike against any member of the Multi-
Employer Group, they agreed long ago, would bring a
lockout in the rest.

Yet, unlike the picket lines in the south, which had an
air of desperation after the first few weeks, San
Francisco strikers are nothing if not upbeat. In many
ways, this strike could be called the "ungrocery"
strike. Its objective is the elimination of the very
problem that brought such a bitter resolution to the
supermarket dispute. It is a strategic strike, a test
run for the kind of long-term planning advocated by
many voices now calling for reform and renovation in
the AFL-CIO itself.





In San Francisco, the hotel chains have demanded the
same kind of increases, proposing that workers go from
paying $10 a month for insurance today to $273 five
years from now. "That would be a complete disaster for
us," says Linda Knighten, another Sheraton worker.
While Barbara French, the spokeswoman for the Multi-
Employer Group, notes carefully that this is just a
proposal and subject to negotiation, workers look at
Los Angeles supermarkets and see it's not just a
gambit. Employers in many industries, even highly
profitable ones, are making the same demands, as
health-insurance premiums skyrocket at about 15 percent
per year. The question is, who will pay the increase,
workers or employers?

To avoid the fate of their supermarket counterparts,
hotel workers are trying to strengthen their union and
increase its bargaining power. Over the last few years,
Local 2 and its parent union have made several changes
in this direction, and the current hotel lockout
revolves around one in particular. The union's locals
want to synchronize their contracts with large
corporations so that in many cities they'll end in the
same year, 2006. Eight cities -- New York; Chicago;
Honolulu, Hawaii; Monterey, California; Toronto;
Detroit; Boston; and Sacramento, California -- have
already achieved this goal. Although bargaining, to
begin with, would still take place for separate
contracts in each area, the union would be able to make
similar demands, and possibly even strike or take job
action in multiple locations at the same time.

Until recently, the chains may have been caught
napping, but that's changed. Contracts have expired in
three of the country's largest hotel markets (San
Francisco, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C.). The same
demands are on the table in each area, and this time,
the companies are refusing to budge. While French
emphasizes the convenience of negotiating only once
every five years, the problem isn't really the duration
of future contracts. It's whether there will be
simultaneous negotiations in 18 months.

The San Francisco strike, therefore, may soon spread to
Los Angeles and the nation's capital. If it does, it
will preview on a smaller scale the kind of multicity
union coordination that the companies find so
disadvantageous. On their side, therefore, the hotels
have raised the stakes, first turning a four-hotel
strike into a14-hotel dispute involving 4,000 workers,
and now making a two-week lockout indefinite.

The plan for increasing union strength hasn't just
concentrated on coordinated bargaining, though. A
strike threat is an empty one unless workers are able
to carry it through. Until recently, the Local 2 strike
fund only held $3 million. For families like the
Durans, who now depend on the $200 weekly strike-
benefit checks to buy food and avoid eviction, the fund
was dangerously inadequate. For every 1,000 workers on
strike, $200,000 is needed a week. In a prolonged,
wider strike, the fund wouldn't last long. But on July
4, the old Hotel Employees Restaurant Employees (HERE)
union merged with the former Union of Needletrades,
Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE) to create the
new UNITE HERE.

UNITE has been devastated by massive relocation of
clothing production to low-wage countries around the
world. San Francisco's own union Koret and Levi's
plants all closed during the last two decades. Still,
after years of investing in New York real estate and a
labor bank, the garment union has huge financial
resources. Furthermore, it also has members in laundry
plants around the country, those often wash the
tablecloths and sheets from the hotels. By merging the
two unions, the new entity gained the ability to
weather much longer strikes and brought together two
parts of the same industrial workforce.

UNITE HERE was also the union that initiated the
Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride a year ago, which
brought caravans of immigrant workers and their
supporters to Washington and New York. The cross-
country action promoted the kind of immigration reform
that would make it easier for immigrant workers to join
unions, go on strike, and advocate for their labor
rights. For a decade, Local 2 in San Francisco and
Local 11 in Los Angeles have proposed and won language
in their contracts protecting members from
discrimination and firing because of immigration
status.

On San Francisco picket lines, one hears voices with
accents from Mexico and Central America, the Caribbean,
China, the Philippines, and a host of other countries.
In big cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New
York, immigrants today make up a majority of the hotel
workforce (and therefore the union). But the Immigrant
Workers Freedom Ride, in its conscious use of the
language of the civil-rights movement, highlighted
growing efforts by UNITE HERE to find common ground
between African American and immigrant communities,
which are often pitted against one another for jobs in
hotels and other service industries.

This year the union added new language to its existing
proposal on immigrant rights, asking hotels to set up a
diversity committee and hire an ombudsman to begin
increasing the percentage of African American workers.
The Sheraton Palace, where Duran and Knighten work, was
the scene of the most famous civil-rights demonstration
in San Francisco history. In 1963, civil-rights
activists staged a sit-in and were arrested in the
hotel lobby as they demanded that management hire
African Americans for jobs in visible, front-of-the-
house locations, where the color line had kept them
out.

Richard Lee Mason, an African American banquet waiter
at the St. Francis, remembers, "African Americans had
been kept in the back of the house for far too long.
People wanted to be in the front of the house, and
rightly so." The day after the arrests, thousands of
people ringed the entire block, picketing and chanting
for hours. Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, who
finally retired last year, launched his political
career as a lawyer for the demonstrators.

But while employment prospects got better for black
workers for some years afterward, the situation changed
by the 1980s and '90s. Hotels hired increasing
percentages of immigrants in a move they hoped would
create a less demanding and expensive workforce. Mason
moved from New York to San Francisco at the end of the
1970s, and says that already by then the percentages of
black workers had fallen.

"I suspect that, because the industry had had a great
struggle with African Americans, they thought we were
too aggressive," he speculates. "A lot of us had come
out of the civil-rights movement, and we were willing
to fight for higher wages and to make sure we were
treated fairly." Steven Pitts, an economist at the
Center for Labor Research and Education at the
University of California, Berkeley, says Mason's
experience was not uncommon. "This perception by
employers of African American workers is true
nationwide," he says. "Blacks aren't perceived as
compliant, and therefore when many employers make
hiring decisions, they simply don't hire them."

If the hotel industry hoped its new immigrant workforce
would be more compliant, however, those hopes were not
realized. Immigrants proved to be as militant as the
workers who came before: The city's hotels were struck
in 1980, and smaller strikes took place in the
following two decades. But one lasting consequence of
the turnover was a fall in the percentage of African
American workers, who now make up less than 6 percent
of the San Francisco hotel workforce.

The union's civil-rights proposal "is an important
first step," according to Pitts. "But one of the
lessons of the civil-rights movement is the need for
structural change. We need structures in communities,
including the black community, that can bring residents
into the hotels and make sure they progress."

Achieving that kind of structural reform, essentially
reinstituting the old affirmative-action consent
decrees, would take a lot of bargaining power (itself
an argument for multicity negotiations). But by putting
the demand on the table in San Francisco and Los
Angeles, the union is moving beyond simply taking a
good position, even if the goal is still a long way
off. That can help gain it the support, even in the
current strike, of African American and other
communities that feel excluded from hotel employment.

These internal changes inside the hotel union and in
its community relations are as strategic as lining up
common contract-expiration dates. They reflect elements
of a new reform program advocated by UNITE HERE and
three other unions, called the New Unity Partnership.
Last August, another of those unions, the Service
Employees International Union (SEIU), held its
convention in San Francisco. Its president, Andy Stern,
made national headlines when he announced that if the
AFL-CIO didn't adopt some of these suggested changes,
these unions might leave the federation.

Significantly, all of the unions involved, which also
include the Laborers International Union of North
America and United Brotherhood of Carpenters and
Joiners unions, have been vocal advocates for immigrant
rights and helped the AFL-CIO adopt a new, pro-
immigrant policy in 2000. Their program calls for
merging smaller unions into larger ones, devoting more
resources to organizing new workers, and developing a
strategic plan for increasing union power in the
industries they represent. Unions around the country
are looking at the San Francisco hotel strike (and its
possible spread to Los Angeles and Washington) as an
effort to put these ideas into practice.

Some of these ideas are hardly new. Coordinated
bargaining with hotels itself is just a step toward
having a single contract with each chain, and perhaps
eventually for the entire industry. The gains of San
Francisco's dockworkers' union, the International
Longshore and Warehouse Union, demonstrate the
potential results. Longshoremen were considered bums
and derelicts through the 1920s. But after the West
Coast maritime strike (and San Francisco General
Strike) of 1934, they won the ability to negotiate a
single contract with all the shipping companies on the
West Coast, covering all the ports. As a result,
longshoremen's wages are now among the highest of U.S.
industrial workers. At the end of World War II, workers
had similar industry-wide contracts in auto, steel,
meatpacking, and other industries as well.

If hotel workers achieve the same kind of bargaining,
they can begin to challenge one of the most basic
assumptions about the U.S. workplace: that service
workers, and immigrants, are destined by nature to get
wages at the bottom. Yet the reason why room cleaners
get paid less than dockworkers has little to do with
the exhausting nature of each form of labor, or of the
nationality or skin color of the person performing it.
It is a function of bargaining power. The current
strike, intended as a step toward stronger unions with
more bargaining power, could begin to end this second-
class status. That would certainly make unions more
attractive to unorganized workers, and help the labor
movement start to grow again, instead of shrinking
steadily every year.

That gives hotels a big reason to resist. But Mike
Casey, Local 2's president, points to other occasions
in the past where employers put up a similar fight.
"They said we'd never get successorship [the right of
workers to keep their jobs and contract when a hotel
changes owners] in 1996, but we got it," he recalls.
"They said we'd never get a ban on outsourcing the jobs
in food service, but we got that. We can win this one,
too."

October 25, 2004

I've held off on a comment
cause they got one thing right on 

sync up the contracts 
nation wide /chain wide

but the bay area  hotel
job actions
are beginning to look like 
  a frisco fiasco  


=======================

  yes the sync-up-thing's 
got the hotel profiteers humming 

but the unions  tactics 
so far are lookin'
pretty  stupid 
    from down south 
  here in my barcolounger 

----------------------

you got what 14 hotels

u strike four they key the rest 
now u want back in
so whammo 
 they  key the 4 struck shops 
now too

 what have we got here ?

a lot of out of work folks 
 hoteliers lookin solid
up on their toes
movin jabbin
while 
u sanctimonious geeps 
are lookin flat footed 

shit fellas face it
u're suddenly 
 more then a few  steps
 behind the beat   

  and to think
this action's only a piece 
of a way broader  tale

yes believe it or not

the wizzed up 
 new set of duds
               HERE
just a few years past its 
 three decade long  van winklation  
        iz actually fighting 
afucking  two coaster 
and a  two fronter  
both at the same time 

 this bit
in frisco 
is just the center ring  

 a  wider 
 three ring  
sea to shining sea
wrangle dangle 

this actions  
 hooked up
 to contract talks 
at   hotels down the coast
in my  beloved la 
and all the way cross country
      in washburnham  DC


and then 
theres a seperate war
10,000 strong 
 on the atlantic city casinos 
--------------------------------------
   hey 
bally hoo 
bull horns 
picket signs 
and 
a mile long bread line  
won't get this all done
brothers and sisters  
------------------

jesus guys 
what wasn't done right 
for 35 years ain't about
 to get turned around 
with  one big tremendous fart 
  in the face

but still
i'm pullin it for ya 
 and pullin it hard 
 cause god bless ya
          u're tryin ' 
                a  sync up

too bad 
the garment 
money bags
 back east  
 who  gummed 
u guyz together
into this flub a dub
 push me pull  
union of unions
won't cut loose
and  borrow heavy 
 against their 
 piggly wiggly
mound of  assets 


u know 
slap down 
 a real strike fund 
on the table here

show  these dick weed 
 hotelier mother suckers  
some serious table stakes  
---------------------
oh hell no no 
forget that

positional war is out
u ain't got 
the legs for that  

u need to hiccup em

  a sneek preview
of whats headed their way
once sync up '06 happens  
  
stage  
a wave of wild ass 
sit ins and flash actions 
everywhere and anywhere
across the board 
where ever 
these chains operate

ya 
right the fuck  
across the board

wave after wave

like  
that little do dad 
lobby sit down
u pulled in boston
the other day 
good idea 
just no where near 
 enough bodies 

need 
overwhelming numbers
or another tactic

big thing 
take the initiative back 

if all else squibs

brake  the law 

thats what gets the press  up 
civil but felonious 
make em cluck like hens 

get this one big union  contract
for all americas hotels
across
sell you're mighty vision

ahab it up 

 think  high and dry enough 

so all  see
and wonder


 i mean flash close
hotels every where
 nation wide 

everywhere u got a local 
close your shops
one by one
flash flash flash 
 all of em 

but from the inside out 
not the outside in 
-----------------------
  u oughta want to  see
 headlines like thiz


 " what the fucks up 
      with this here HERE gang "

you got all the high cards guyz
all of em

shit 

wear the right slogans 

shout the right shit 

and 
no moron 
could  
possibly miss 
whats up 

" christ in his glory 
         honey bun 
 but ain't that
 about  the ugliest
 fucking   
 most  gruesome 
  bloated and down right
    shameless
    ocotopussy 
of a conglomerated
corporate monster 
 that those fine workin folks 
     is   in the ring 
                 there with " 
 
meanwhile 
back in frisco
up the ante
why not 
go for 
the extreme drama 
 
use  what you got
       un jobbed  people
gettin desperate 

  tell  
 your  wildest 
most theatrical 
most fun and frolic starved 
                   critters
 
 " come on pokes 
  now you're locked out 
 what ya say 
  shit 
the least we  can do 
iz 
 get our fuckin selves 
 the fuck locked up "
 
------------------------------

 

 thats the freak out
they aren't ready for

an occupation-posession  
      tied to  
a collective  contract
 
linked by social   steel 




=======================================

 thought that bit 
          of over blown 

quixotic  horse shit
might grab ya

always helps me evade
 my 
downed spirits 
to fantasize about wild job actions

and i'm down today

"what do you fuckin expect"
 (trick sleeves here)
" you're a perpetual sedent herb 
maybe if you lifted
 your butt off that soft chair
once or twice a week
 your spirits  wouldn't need a dream  lift
who do you think you areanyway
 Mycroft Holmes ?"

-----------------------

here's the onus on me ..


  we had a skull session here 
over
the week end

with some "renegade "
long haul  teamsters 
from around that state 

good guyz really

just wanting to put
 the national pact
back on the road again

get back "the lock"

 like they had 
 before "the great  wipe off "
 engineered
 by 
the post hoffa - pre carey 
wall street quislings  

"the fuckin fat fagots
broke up our power 
shit in the old days 
we coulda 
 stopped this entire  country cold"
--------------------------

well 
the thing 
 started poorly 
bad blood from elsewhere and way back 
and
ended in a branigan 

i guess the unity of brothers
has limited currency
even  among " honest " truckers 

at least after enough free beer flows

 seems some  guys from up state 
and other  guys from down....
you get it ..

after keg 13 
blim blam bloom 

 i'm sure i needn't draw 
a detailed  picture 


  some tute cadre 
eventually
over my protests
stepped in 
   and 
  "cleaned things up a bit "

parting words weren't 
            very encouraging 
------------------------------------- 

post mortem?

  well


 that got to a place 
where  scarlet frank   
 iz  screaming at me 

" fuck u herb
our guests fuck u
 what  ya want
from uz anyway
 stand off
 throw a  fight 
  just  to preserve 
fuckin solidarity 
with a bunch of of of 
tatooed axil birds  .....
i mean shit 
who'd respect us then ? " 

a fair point i suppose 

-------------------------------


 by the way no exciting 
  news  from puebla 

chigs only up date in a couple of weeks

 "  i think u and me 
  could make a small  fortune 
         down here
     building armoirs
    and platform beds 
you know 
       for the marin county crowd 
these mexo's work like bastards ...."

  " .....and oh
my two pigeon brained side shows
                 
         they've gone  awol on me herb  "



under cover 
of  all this farce 
do u suppose
  chig and hiz  boyz
 are   secretly 
taking  it to the next level?

stay tuned 
--------------------------------------------

  ok a strikes a strike

but what are ya throwin in there

a fast ball a curve or a knuckler

shit the fuckers are waitin on the fast ball

they're hittin our  straight stuff mates


soooo
what else

we need to 
throw 
a lot more curves and asorted other junk
at the bastards 

maybe we could use
 a few 
 knuckle ballers out there
                 on the mound 


=======================================

  so what
if what  follows 
has little connection
 to whats
above in my tease

 they're both 
 wise  as abe lincoln 



------------------------------------------ 

hey union talk by the general multitude
 has got to move from 
the past tense to the  future tense

they  gotta start hearing union 
talk not like its about 
something as gone
as the fucking buffalo herds 
of the pre railroad era 

no we got to get the notion out there maybe a unions in our future not our past

the next time u hear some one say
" unions were necessary but.."


cut em off with a rant 

 its  job free speech time 

  job action don't mean 
after we're in the parking lot shit

 now make sure you rant
 so u don't bring 
any ass hole innocent bystander
 down the  human retread drain 
    with ya

stand out there alone
so the wall guards
figure on its
 u and only u 
"talkin union"

act crazed with fearless conviction  

make a job martyrdom happen

jesus 
had  good motion on his ball
we can learn alot 
from   
the mother fuckin
take it on the chin team 

look at their  org resultz 
------------------------

the jesus freaks
 success
as much as anything else
wasfrom  throwin' 
 the knuckler
             in there
right  brothers
and sisters  !


so hows about we 
toss in a knuckler
   now and then 

throw it from your nails
 make the pitch 
 move crazy

 make em flay at ya
flay till
   they  draw blood

just keep 
peppering  em with variety junk


remember
 today's job site martyr
 is tomorrow's
off site 
orger with cred 



not all 
 great and good orgers 
got to be popeye types 

the lone wolf with a righteous message 
gets the message out 
when the wall guards
 "shoot him down" 


=================================================

October 24, 2004

 
that 
some rubber holed
  fuckin judge 
just
bent and 
 cocked  open
a union outfit
ain't no news story 

shit
this act 
is in syndication !

but......

=================================
 
 

i know i know 

reruns and sequels 
on this theme 
are everywhere

sorry for 
being
such
 a "  darn drag"



its just 

fuck this boils my beef

 every fuckin time
don't 
some 
right  honorable salamander 
 open
 fucking  trap- door 11 
just in time 
 to flush a few more  
   mid -race wacked over 
         wage freaks 
               down the fucking 
                            drain
before
" the big 50 off  sale "
            goes down


-----------------------------------
at any rate 

ya got ta love 
these slick
corporate escape artists 

 " thats it judge
open ...open ...
wider.... wider.... 
                     just a  little wider
                         there ... perfect"


  lets be clear here 

  for those tower rats 
  who want 
a cleaned off jobling benefit slate
before they gavel down 
 the asset strip itself .....
there's 
nothin that refreshes 
like a good court ordered
  " promise sqwelch  " 

  come on
 its 
for the good of" society"

high society anyway 

------------------------------------------------------

  heres todays 
   for instance 
                   fucklebuck

------------------------------------------
and yo gang

 
look whose's  
here at the trough 

 old Willllbuuuur P Ross hizzself 
                         
 rammein'it up  to the  hilt
 
 guess he just likes
 polin'
 all these
derelict corporations 
   financial ass holes 
       

and just 
how does  wilburry's tool 
     feel all the way up there

nice

if you happen to be 
one of  
Rossaroni's 
 "inside men"
-----------------------


  "eeeehem 
tell me 
     gentlemen 
           of the board 
what exactly
may u have  done
 to the assets 
             of  
 the Horizon coal company 
lately 
you prolly won't be 
 telling
 yer grand kids  about ? "

------------------------------------

(  FROM A RECENT NYT ARTICLE )


 The Horizon Coal Company 
 based in Ashland, Ky
 was  among 
the nation's 
largest coal producers 
before 
  falling  deeply 
              into debt

---  shamelessly pillaged by insiders no doubt  ----------

 In 2002 Horizon  sought Chapter 11 protection
                from its creditors 

             -------- creditors ? 
            non sense those pussy katz
                no 11 was recommended
        by  famed
              " rebound shark" burrhead willy  Ross 
 
                     fuck we're talkin 
             valuable 
                   coal properties here 
              that  fit nicely in clepto cap 
                             Rossaroni's pocket ---------------



 earlier This year, 
HORIZON'S BOARD 
 asked Judge Timbo T  Howard 
to abrogate its union contracts

the company asserted

" high cost"  union benefits 
had made 
their" coal  properties"
 unattractive 
to potential buyers

---  guess as an incentive
   ROBBER ROSS musta  dangled
           a  kick back sliding scale 
in the eyes of the board bozos ----------

Judge "tiny timbo"  Howard 
            agreed
        In a ruling in August
 --horse head--- Howard said 
  
 there existed 
        "unrefuted evidence"

--- two fart ball bag
notice "unrefuted'
   a fucking world klass 
               weasil word ----

        
 Horizon's mines
 could not be sold 
       as long as 
"its expensive obligations" 
to union retirees 
   remained in place

        ---  shabby  judge babbit type  VENALITY ----------


 the judge 
asserted that
 elimination of the benefits


 "while painful"

---- PAINFUL TO WHO ASS CAN ?
                      OBVIOUSLY  NOT U -------

 was in the" public interest"
 because 
it would 
"preserve  nonunion jobs " 
at about
 two dozen other mines 
that might have closed
 in a liquidation

------------ THIS IS MONSTROUS FAKERY  
         A SALE IS A SALE IS A SALE
    " A LIQUIDATION "
            CHANGES NOTHING

CHOP THE PACKAGE INTO UNION NO UNION
THE NO UNION SITES 
WILL COMMAND THE SAME PRICE 

 
IF AS THESE ARE
THE  MINES ARE BOUGHT FOR  USE 
AS MINES 

HOW COULD NON UNION JOBLINGS
AT ONE SITE
SUFFER UNDER NEW OWNERSHIP 
ANY MORE OR LESS

BECAUSE SOME OTHER MINE SITE SOMEWHERE ELSE
HAS OR HASN'T GOT
UNION CONTRACTS  
THE EMCUMMBERING COMES CONTRACT BY CONTRACT 
SITE BY SITE   ------------

THE JUDGE'S decision 
paved the way 
for Horizon 
to fire 
about 
800 current union workers
and wipe out their 
 medical coverage 
as well as the pensions 
and health coverage
of another 3,000
      now  retired union 
                 coal miners 

--- HOW PUBLIC SPIRITED ----


 and to sell 
two dozen mining operations
 both union and nonunion
 for $786 million 
to International Coal Group
 led by
 the financier Wilbur T. Ross 

    ------------   behold the bull shit scum skid  -------------------
International Coal Group 
then sold 
two of the union mines 
to Massey Energy Company

 ---- get the idea ...the audacity ?
Ross  flipped em at the closing
 bango
       for a quick profit ----------
               

 Mr. Ross has also 
led consortiums 
that acquired steel mills 
through similar bankruptcy proceedings 
in recent years

 -------- indeed this
  three dicked  fuckin bull frog
  is a past master
         at leaping
       over these union "price" hurdles
                           -------------


-------------------------------
WHAM !
done deal 

union pokes

 u now got 
 no benes no jobs no ....

and Wiiillllllbbuuuurrrrr 's
got over a billions worth  
                   of union free  coal properties 
      

                          for under 800 mills  
--------------------------------------------------


judge howard to the miners:

  
 " OK think yer  tough guyz
 well
     TRY  CRAWLIN 
      YER WAY 
OUT OF THIS SHAFT  "

=========================================

October 23, 2004

 its a law of technical progress   

all plants are created unequal

   so U fuckin better
    take down 
  the boss mans 
    top dog first 
    or buy a lady's hat 
     and
      hit the life boats  



========================================

  ok 
"still here"
vs 
" now over there" 
         is one issue

but
 you can stay state's side
 and fuck your wage  force too 


 after world war II
 that's how 
   the  "new" dixie 
got off tobaco row 

the green field right to work 
plants 
taft- hartley built 
had a fine southern drawl 
 
----------------------------
 i guess its no surprise 
in this light
that a recent study
showed
the tech level 
of americans 
industrial plants 
bares 
an  inverse relation 
to each plants
       "union strength"

 in the long run
 unionized plants
get fucked

and why not

if we give management 
                    a choice

come on 
 what the fuck 
would you do
if you got paid 
to profit max ?
 
in partly organized corporations
unionized plants
get a tech starvation job done on them

while naked player
 green field plants
 get the latest gizzzmos 

this goes on
 
until the fuckin old unionized ruster
  has 
 fallen  so far behind 
 management has no choice
but to  close the fuckin shit box down  
------------------------------------
if the top plants are un-union 
the future 
at the organized plants
    amounts to zero 

=========================================

October 20, 2004

heres two do good hachademics
with a message on target


=========== 

piven and cloward 
results of reseach
 on movements and social change 

--------------------------

In every case we examined
  movements found their
concerns fell on deaf ears 
until they directly
disrupted 'business as usual' 
either in government 
or
business operations

 then and only then
did they made significant
gains

----- get it point of profit 
pinch em where it hurts fastest and mostest-----

"When unemployed workers
 sat in at relief
offices
 local officials somehow found 
the money to pay them benefits"

 "when movement participants
created chaos on the local level
 officials noticed at
the state and federal levels 
and began to make concessions "

 "contrary to conventional wisdom
 movements  lost ground quickly 
as soon as they changed
their methods
 to more acceptable means 
to achieve their ends
 negotiating through representatives
 working with candidates
 helping them get elected
 lobbying and so on " 

---- great so far butfuck 
here comes the zoinger-----

 "At times when voting 
  was much more restricted
 a direct challenge to authority
 could easily result in massacre,
lynching or other violent
                     responses "

------ be afraid be awefully afraid -----------

 "But when poor and working class people
              have "the vote"

-------what happened to get the vote ---------------

   they must  mobilize around their concerns 
            and turn out to vote
 governments were much
more responsive to social movements
                             that vote "

-- what the fuck is this 
they turn out and their two facer 
candidate of choice
gets in instead of gets whipped...
ok 
and then he what ? goes along with some "reforms" 
as long as the hell raisers 
 keep 
his left foot to the fire 
by point of profit bonfires ?

if so then 
here's my query
aren't 
   cause and coincidence 
 conflated here

  a rascally uppity 
prole- pleb
       movement 
powerful enough 
to turn an election around
and then "enforce " promises 
by direct actions 
prolly succeeded 
by direct action alone 

i say
movements that succeed
would succeed under any gov form

even a dictator
 would cave 
to a  movement "objectively"
able to wring out  the changes 
that take the above form
 in a state where 
the geeps face 
an   electoral road 
restrained
corporate klass   

even if the forms
 of struggle 
would need profound  motification
where popular  rights type rules 
were thrown out the window
and club rules 
were firmly 
in the drivers seat 

if by not voting 
they let the  other ass hole get in 
what ?
he'll weather their direct actions
  and just crack down ?

of course he will
 escalation ?
maybe 
movement strength 
is measured by persistence

 
    does  this petty good guy  argument
 boil it down 
to gettin the proper sell out elected?

of the  two types of politicians 

 elect 
the one's who can't sell out  
cause they need the hell raisers 
to stop raisin hell
or they won't  get re elected 

and  defeat all others
  
including
the  politicians who promise 
to  crack down 
  cause they don't want 
 the hell raiser vote 
to get elected in the first place 
   
 the true blue sell outs
who need the hellers vote to get elected
but 
who figure or find out
they can get re elected 
either 
no matter what the fuck 
the hell raisers do  
or 
because they plan on 
 turning on 
the hell raisers
 once they are elected 

or or or 

any which way here
i see not causation 
but 
i do  smell tautology    ----



===============================

October 19, 2004

 here's my idea of defeat
                    as victory

   stop progress
      to save superceeded
                skills and proceedures 


====================================

 actually this openner quote
           is great


  from "jack up" jack  Welch
 former CEO of General Electric
  

 "if I had my  way, 
  i'd put my factories on barges 
and drag them around the world,
in search of the lowest wages 
       and least regulation.  "

thats not progress talkin folks 

thats same jobs for less wages
 and more natural hell

we stop that by buildin 
the plants in iowa 
and alabama 

state of the art 
green and mean plants 

and go for
 wage rate  max
and hour max 

that and a low enough dollar 
will get it done  

that iz
 if we plant 
 real live   job soviets 
inside the gates

and keep plantin' em 
fast
furious and 
as far as the eye can see  

----------------------------------------------------

now for his real tale and pitch


" Jack Welch's dream of infinitely mobile factories 
is
one in which the workforce has been made
irrelevant

 < really? seems they're critical 
   only they're  availible
        cheaperharder and longer
       else where
   and with "state"
         authorities
   willing  to tolerate
  more air water and earth
  stinks sinks and shrinks 
    iincluding 
       more 
     on the job  poisoning
       of  human organs  >
 

where workers have little 
or no control over
the production process

  < ok agree job soviets needed here >

 and workers have all become replaceable cogs
 in
a management-controlled machine
 and have lost key
sources of leverage

< here already 
   the skunk starts to smell
 cogs ?
 so what about the skill content
or individual control

i say 
 better a 25 dollar an hour" cog"
then a 12 dollar an hour
 "black smith" >

In many ways Jack Welch's vision is becoming a reality,
as advances in technology and work organization allow
management to take increasing control over work
processes and ultimately put work on "electronic
barges" 

  < clever but non substantive
out sourcing of service functions
like back office stuff
 presents no new obsticle to organization 
then garments made in losotho > 

(through a combination of computerization and
telecommunications)--moving it around the world at will

< thanks for the redundency pal
new technology always means 
job disruption and de skilling 
or the fuckin bit wouldn't happen
cause it wouldn't up profitz >


The failure of unions 
to take on the restructuring of
the workplace 
is a disaster for workers' future

< truism as oracle>.

New technologies and new ways 
of organizing work are
flooding into our workplaces.

< here comes the horizon tour>

 From global positioning
systems installed in trucks 
to monitor drivers
 < ya ok so by itself what ...>

 to
electronic medical records
 and hospital information
systems 
that are replacing 
health care workers 
and
centralizing control< oh so we want to let health costs rise at the rate of wages per hour
or just let wage rates stagnate
and keep more doing less for longer 
then technically possible
you fucking ludite klown>

 
 to lean production 
and other
programs that standardize 
and intensify work
< ok 
heres a stupid trick
couple  standardize
a code name for de skill
and divide 
which is part of 
the inevitable progress
toward eventual automation
a good thing 
charley brown
with a potentially
bad thing 
  intensification
code for harder faster better 
which may or may not be  ok
depending on wage and hour rate changes
and  which whatever the vredict on go or no go 
is
definitely not a direct result
 of efficiency enhancing 
work design change
and thus is a variable
under the control of a well run
 job soviet >
     

 no sector
of the economy escapes change.
< yes indeed mate
     services will not be spared >

< watch out !
 here comes
 the de rigour 
   cry baby
  poor poor pitiful wageling shit>

Management's workplace offensive 
is devastating
workers' conditions.
 
Stress, 
repetitive strain injuries, 
and other manifestations 
of intensified work
processes 
and on going monitoring
 are 
taking their toll.

< speed em up stretch em out >


But perhaps more importantly,
 these changes are
undercutting 
the sources of worker leverage and power
that are embedded in 
and grow out of the work process

< see where he's going here
 the system now gives more
worker  control 
then its replacement 
fuck this is an ancient lament
 like talk of a long siberian wimter  >
   


The changes undercut 
access to and control over
critical skills 

< does this not seem like gibberish?
why do he gibber?
   cause he's hack obsolete job rescuing here

"access" means
 still used
and "control"
 means keep usinin the future 
translation:
"save our phoney balonge jobs
from technical progress
 like the fireman on the electric locmotive" >

they(the changes in work technique ) eliminate the opportunities
 to
build solidarity 
through interaction in the workplace

< jesus god he's a latter day menonite  
we need to restrict technical progress
to keep our job site community together>


and they (the changesin work technique )
contribute to 
a loss of faith in the union
 as
a voice for the future.

< no need of that 
this jack assery here does
the trick all by its lonesome >


DE-SKILLING
< out of the closet at last
heres where we been headed all along>


Despite promises of high skills and high wages, most
workers will tell you that with computerization and
work restructuring, their jobs are becoming less
skilled and they are becoming more replaceable.
  < right face it and  live with it 
get the highest wage rate 
and lowest hour min 
you can >

Computers gather information on how the job is done,
and then use that information to standardize and
control the work process.
 Automated teller machines
lead to automated check-in 
at the airport 
and automated
check-out at the supermarket
 with fewer workers doing
more work 
controlled by more machines

< aahh progress
should lead to shorter hours 
and more per hour right?>


Lean production techniques 
use kaizen (continuous
improvement) 
< shit jap talk>


and other forms
 of employee involvement 
to harvest workers' knowledge 
and build it into 
the processes of production 
and service delivery

< and whats so wrong with that dopey
by itself it only creates more for less
i.e higher value added per hour 
handled right
 the new wage  force 
may well " de-skilled"
 but then 
this
" de-skilled" remnant "harvests"
 a higher wage rate 
i.e.
makes more then de-skilled used to make>


< remember 
once the job soviet system
  grabs the reins 
the innovation lay off lottery
makes the leavers  the winners>

 thus
standardizing and intensifying work.
  < clever to claim worker involvement 
in process improvement
is just helping "the other side"
 the profiteers straw men
 to speed ya up
  cut ya back
lay ya off 
and thats true and important
but the answer is not shut yer trap 
its seize control by job soviet contract>

LOSS OF SOLIDARITY

Critical skills are well recognized 
as a source of
union and worker strength.

< god is this ever the cry of the labor better offs
 their"skill"
needs preserving cause they'll use it
to protect theit skilless mates
bull shit
they need u
not u need them

their endangered listed
skills are gonzo unless u fight 
to preserve em
like snail darters
we at the tute
 say 
maintain their phonus balonus 
old hat  bag of  out  dated tricks 
as socially  progressive  jobs?

 why baby why 
honest sweat is just stupid if its not necessary
 so is keeping around
a pack of ancient  
skillheads
 that are ready for the  stripper> 

 But with changing work and
advances in technology, 
a new workplace is created
where sustaining solidarity 
becomes increasingly
difficult.

< ie common wagery sez
hey fuck that skill head >

 As workers are increasingly 
monitored and
work is computerized 
and intensified, 
direct
human-to-human
 communication is diminished.
  < actually the mechanized depersonalized factories 
proved far  easier
 to  org  then offices>


A robot used in office settings to deliver mail
replaces a person who was often a key source of
interconnectivity and an important distributor of
workplace information. Automated communication funneled
through computer systems is limiting and controlling
the nature of worker interaction.
   < non sense total silly non sense>




"Flexible" schedules, new shift patterns, mandatory
overtime, and temporary/contract arrangements are
making social interaction difficult 
even outside of work
 

Shift change--historically a critical time for
socializing and sharing work--has diminished in
significance as fewer workers change shift at the same
time,
< heres a real point
the flex creates a new set 
of org requirements

but so what >
more workers are in a hurry to get home (in part
because of long hours of work),
 and workers are simply
too tired to relax at the end of the "day." 

 


Technology has a role to play 
in this arena as well.
Because of automated dispatch technology in the
trucking industry, service drivers in utility companies
are being allowed to "home garage" company vans. For
these workers, the single significant opportunity for
interacting with peers and sharing experience is
eliminated.

< the home work menace 
we'll all end up doing small meaningless
 bits
at home and letting the machines run the deal
     we need to be forced each job day to congregate 
or we'l never get it together to get it on >
 
Unions' failure to take action on work restructuring
and technological change means surrendering core
sources of union strength that allow workers to exert
power and feel solidarity in the course of their
working day.

 < non sense 
set up job soviets 
even if its tupperware orged
  will succeed once the wage sea rises
lets get goin
existing 
org cadre need 
to get the hang of the job soviet system now
and more cadre need to be  recruited
 and the national  "org" orgs need building
testing perfecting>
 
LACK OF RESPONSE

Why isn't there more of a reaction when management
makes changes that have such profound impacts on union
members and on their leverage against management? Why
aren't unions more concerned and prepared? Why don't
they have a strategy?
  < check out the fucking hole in your fucking head
           dildo 
u got the wrong goals the wrong methods the wrong people >
 
The surrender of the "shop floor"--of decisions about
work--to management is a disaster for working people and
for the future of collective action.
  < hey fella now yer talkin 
  why not drop the boo hoo
da man strppied my skil my benes and my manhood
  and figure out
 what it will take 
to grab control 
of these job site's work floors >


Labor's focus on periodic contract bargaining and
ongoing contract enforcement, combined with an
acceptance of management's right to introduce new
technologies and restructure work, are out of synch
with the reality of ongoing change in the workplace.

 < right on brother richardson>

Conceding today's decisions about work process and
technology sets the stage for defeat in the future.

  < in the future ?
   how about already
for 30 years at least >

One local union president, who was facing an Electronic
Medical Records system in the hospital she represents,
said: "The members are really being taught that they
should just put up with it, that there is nothing that
the union can do."
  < shoot that president she's a virtual yellow dog >

This despite the de-skilling, monitoring, job
disruption, and job loss that will result. She said
that members had been taught over and over that things
not settled by the contract are up to management. And
the result is that "the members are losing faith in the
union because we aren't winning the big battles."

When members call the union with their concerns about
restructured work and technological displacement, their
question is, "What should I do?" Unions often respond
with information about re-training and bumping
procedures, and a large dose of, "We're not sure."
 

The members are not asking, 
"What are we going to do?",

< what in hell is his point here?>

and the union is not prepared to change the question
into an opportunity for organizing and struggle.
  < which question ?
the one rankers aren't asking
shit cadre act not react
they don't pay dues to solve their own problems alone 
u dudes are supposed to have answers to situations not questions> 

CONTINUOUS BARGAINING

A framework of "continuous bargaining" is critical to
the future of unions and working people. This means
inserting the voice and interests of workers into every
decision about new technologies and the restructuring
of work.

< right thats the job soviet system>

Unions need to treat every discussion between labor and
management as bargaining, whether it is called a team
meeting, a problem-solving session, or a steering
committee meeting. The union should insist on being
notified about every kind of change in the way work is
done, in advance, and insist on discussing the
specifics.

< no the job soviet is a ranker outfit
they'l call on cadre if needed 
this is bottom up stuff
empowerment
 not biz agent hand jobbing stuff >

According to the NLRB, 
the union has the right to
bargain over any change in wages, hours, and conditions
of employment unless there is a "clear and
unmistakable" waiver of that right in the contract.

< big fuckin deal
u get  not a flea hop closer to realizing 
  job site worker control 
 just cause the stinkin'
N L R B GEEZERS 
   seez its kosher>

BARGAIN OVER IMPACT OF CHANGE

Even where management has the right to make a change
(such as implementing a new technology), the union has
the right to bargain over the impact of that change.
But these rights exist only if the union takes action
and demands bargaining.
  < JESUS >


Unions can use formal information requests as a way to
monitor the implementation of new technologies, educate
and communicate with members, and bargain over
technological change.
< LIKE THATS THE ISSUE
GETTING THE FACTS OUT >

For unions to win in the future, they must begin using
such tactics to reclaim the shop floor."
  < WHAT TACTICS
YOU HAVEN'T SUGGESTED ANY TACTICS
ONLY
A  "CONTINUOUS BARGAINING" STRATEGY

PRECISELY
 WHAT WE NEED IS 
THE TACTICAL DISCUSION
U DON'T GIVE HERE
WE DON'T NEED 
 THIS BROAD BEAMERS 
GAS RELEASE 

SHOW US THE WINNING PUNCHES PAL
NOT THIS  SHIT >

Charley Richardson 
 

October 18, 2004

brief up date from 

the grunt org thang




=========================================

  according to son of sam

the target now is

" the armies right nut"
 ft bragg 

 " shit the way the brass
has high hoed those bastards
we'll open that shit box 
like a can of tomato soup "

 sam sez they'll "hit oil"
                    at bragg

so keep watch at fox
   for him and his crew
                 " coming out of a piney lookin 
                                 motel room 
                                in custody and  in cuffs"
                         

"I'LL BE THE HANDSOME 
dark haired TALL GUY
WUTH THE GARY COOPER GRIN"

==========================================

my dad used to say that
just
 before 
he dove 
into any large body of water 



=======================================

 
 you never catch up to that dream 


" its stuck out there
    like the hot dog on a pole
           just 6 inches in front 
              of the poor jack asses nose "


==================================================
 corporate 
   retirement benefit systems 
         at least for their 
                        for wagery
               are on that same fuckin pole 

each year more geeps are seeing
                  the retire in style
                                   mirage disolve
                          into  a dear sap letter 
                                      from some chapter 11 judge 


===============================================================

i kinda
   like that label

look in the mirror

is it 
on your forehead
               dingleberry?


=========================================

	Posted by herb jr. jr. at 12:11 PM
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		| TrackBack
	

  some keeed sent me this....


 calls himself jumpin johnny 



=================================

  the house of labor 
  better start sponsoring
  a better  contract
        for working america 

a  new improved up to date 
jobwork   contract 
of  by and  for wagelings 
 in this new and growing 
 job world beyond the factory gates 


first we left the farm now we’re leaving the factory 
stop crying and get orged 

  sure in the long run 
wageworkers unions must 
continue to  lobby
and litigate  
keep up their  two front war 
against corporate state control 

obviously job rights 
require both  lobbying
and litigating  
   both  the halls of justice
 and the congress/legislature

 hell gang 
its the political loop dee loop 

but what about right  on the job ?
 working more enjoying it less 
 ladies and gentlemen
 maybe you all need some 
 collective self   representation 
lets put it on paper 
the boss classes 
   got their paper pledges 
lets get us some of that 
enforcible paper too

we suggest you try a   
general on the job org drive

union /contract 
thats what our slogans all about 

get organized folks 

  
   win your own  job site freedom
 thru collective action 

let 10,000
  unions contend 
there’s only one house of labor 
but we need a hell of a lot more rooms 
and maybe we ought to build them different too 

unity through diversity
diversity thru unity 
our vast and narrow  differences and 
our bare  mutual necessities
are what tie
us together 

if we were all the same we wouldn’t want or need each other 
 some little difference and some big difference we need them both
we like closeness and remoteness
 but we done like hopeless  forever aloneness
thats hell enough for anyone 
 
we all have our parts to play
we are all our own best audience and our own
best  players

hit the job sites  
job sites job sites job sites

the opportunities aren’t coming in the union hall door 
are they 
get out and raise holy hell 

are we going to get licked by fragmentation
 of the job site

 we can beat   the jobling diaspora 

only a broadcast approach let the tower bells all peal 
  
only all the  unions together have the megawatts to be heard 
 try a unified  org drive 
collect seperately and strictly for org work 
 create a new environment 
 get everyone talking union 
a revival of the old time religion 
unions are plain great for you 

 seperate from dues for admin of existing units 
strike funds etc 

  get some publicity cooking here
get the chat wave roling from coast to coast 
 create a goal like 30 million 
orged in five years 
 get a fund raising target out there 
scare the boss class into exposing themselves 
set off a wave of snap strikes
 take some fucking on the job liberties
kick out you jackasses kick out and keep kicking out 
and heehaw as loud as you fucking can 
sure 
recruit and train orgers 
 but lets try a little open mike nite a little
orgers karioake 

 show need and means to existing members
get the ranks moving on this 
for a few weeks forget the lobby shit and the campaign 
 for office shit 
 kick this off now hard and big as texas 

 like the old cio effort in 35-37

 we want action  
lets go right to the contract 
 sit down with us or 
sit out with us 
sit down or we close down 

 have one big house of labor org bureau 

assign barg units after election to one union or other 
individual unions  job is get that  contract
 not org/agitprop 
instead of complaining about the termites of time and change 
 
 set the whole house of labor  on fire
bombard the headquarters  
 org the unorged 
you fatso dc loopers hit the asphalt 
org on the curbs in the strip centers in the warehouses 
  go where the new wageforce goes every day 
  go there and set them afire 
org work is for the org
you are  the house of labors
you should be  one big org bureau 

raise money directly like pol  campaigns
   union crusades 
  workers empowerment 
salvation redemption call it anything puff and rage 
 just fucking reanimate 

 the new workers
craftless  
selling general skills  
 targets the care providers and the food  servers
the security and commercial workers
the new office workers 
the distribution workers 

  organize working america 
 
the media will go wild 
the public  will get the word 
fast and with lots of twists 

changing distribution of work force

growth of service employment vs industrial employment 
were production jobs largely just  exported or
  automated out of existence 
is the global ratios still changing 
between extraction/agri  - construction -   transport and handling 
     -industrial -    in person services - communication
  - commercial - financial   

 mechanization/automation of services 

 the  death of the salesman 
  like the death of the gods 
is   possible
but never confuse salesmen with selling 
anymore then gods with superstition
 we still need selling and superstition  
to bind ourselves to the two weird  wheels of the economic world 
the lesser but wider   wheel of commerce  
 and the greater but narrower  wheel of profit
 the buying  out and selling off 
 of america’s hopes and fears 
 is still the profiteers game 
and he’ll make sure one way or other 
that we all  work extra 
 for our wage 
that is unless we’re one of them  
  are there really three seats 
 the exploiters the exploited 
and the neither nors 
what about those neither nors 
remember going  back and forth between ers and eds 
 is not a third way just a toughers calculation on judgement day 
when everyones  plus/minus gets toted up 

overcome post industrial diaspora  of wageling  workforce 
 look at history
each stage different and conflicting sets of obstacles 
 some sectors  more easily  orged others not 
  mine sites construction sites transportation lines 

vs fields   

  miners vs agri workers 

 factory floor vs office floor 

   there's a real 
 new storm center
  over at 

  speak up america  !


tellin' it like it iz
right there  on the job

=======================================

the wobbly movement had a spectacular
 free speech phase

but it was out side the gate 

times change
here it is over 90 years later

about  time we  take 
 the wobbly  free speech gig
right inside 
              the beast's belly 

u know
test the operational range 
           of the first amendment 
--------------------------------------------

  simple recipe here
   
  all u dedicated jobakazees 
        out there
oughta be able
to figure a  "site appropriate"
                  variation on the basic theme

---------------------------------------------------

go to yer job site
 and start talking 
nasty devisive worker talk

no contracts
no sit downs

general but  incendiary chatter

get it  general not specific
to yer site

maybe in  the brake room 

maybe even
say over and over

 "of course i mean
some place else 
then this employee paradise
we hardly need a union here"


thatr type of aesop speak 
will drive em wild 
record it all of course

in fact maybe bring in a pre cooked tape 

but be loud and entertainingly two plied 

and "but of course"

wear shirts pins 

and whatever u do or don't do 

force the issue 

 be ironically dogmatic

like a "born again" spoofer 


test the wall guards reactions

make em flex their fiber 

watch em 
run to their top kicks

or higher even 

start the straw boss
cross talk
behind the old oaken door 

see 
 how far  
u  gotta  go
before they spazz out 
   
------------------------------------
my favorite

try 
collecting
donations forsome 
 workers support group
filled with bathos
 make it 
in alabama 

make one up 

make it black and white  

  give the money right back of course



these are your co-workers 
they'lll trust u

go for it

if a mole gets thru

all the better

a boss informer 
is your best ally here
--------------------------
end game ?

what else

they fire u 

greatest story ever told 
now has a new episode

jobakazee 101

" boss fires u....
   you're points carried "

  its always
  easier after blood is spilled
                  to " pass the cards around"
-----------------------------------------

but heres the real beauty of this gig

cause its just speech

not orging

u sue 
     
 first amendment  violation

------------------------------

there will be lots more here 
on this free job speech shit

i promise


==============================================

 


 this post is under construction




==============================

  Employees on nonfarm payrolls by industry 
              (in round numbers)                       
                                                                                                                                      Industry                     

Natural resources and mining      585        
   Logging    67       
   Oil and gas extraction    131      
   Coal mining     71       
  Support activities for mining.     181       
------------------------------------------------
Construction    6,900 
        Construction of buildings  1,600
     Heavy and civil engineering
   construction    930      
  Specialty trade contractors  4,350     
----------------------------------------------------
Manufacturing    14,350      
   Production workers   10,000    
 Durable goods    8,90      
   Production workers    6,110       

  Wood products    540    
  Nonmetallic mineral products    500     
  Primary metals    460      
  Fabricated metal products  1,500    
  Machinery  1,150      
  Computer and electronic
   products 1,340       
   Computer and peripheral
    equipment    220     
   Communications equipment    155  
   Semiconductors and electronic
    components    450      
   Electronic instruments    425   
  Electrical equipment and
   appliances    445    
  Transportation equipment  1,770      
  Furniture and related products       580     
  Miscellaneous manufacturing    650    

 Nondurable goods    5,450       
   Production workers  4,000        

  Food manufacturing  1,500      
  Beverages and tobacco products     200     
  Textile mills    240   
   Textile product mills    180      
  Apparel    300     
  Leather and allied products     45       
  Paper and paper products    510      
  Printing and related support
   activities    660     
  Petroleum and coal products   112     
  Chemicals    900    
  Plastics and rubber products    800     

          

           
--------------------------------------
Trade, transportation, and
 utilities   25,500      
----------------------------------
 Wholesale trade  5,630    
  Durable goods  2,970    
  Nondurable goods 2,000   
  Electronic markets and agents
   and brokers    670   
--------------------------------

 Retail trade 15,040 

-----------------------------    
  Motor vehicle and parts
   dealers  1,915     
   Automobile dealers  1,270    
  Furniture and home furnishings
   stores    545       
  Electronics and appliance
  stores   515     
--------------------------------
  Building material and garden
   supply stores  1,250     

  Food and beverage stores  2,830    
  Health and personal care
   stores   960   
  Gasoline stations    870    
  Clothing and clothing
   accessories stores  1,325 
  Sporting goods, hobby, book,
   and music stores    635     

  General merchandise stores  2,840    
   Department stores 1,615      
  Miscellaneous store retailers    925   
  Nonstore retailers   425      
-----------------------------------------
 Transportation and warehousing.  4,190   
  Air transportation    515     
  Rail transportation    215     
  Water transportation    50    
  Truck transportation  1,350   
  Transit and ground passenger
   transportation    375    
  Pipeline transportation    40       
  Scenic and sightseeing
   transportation     30    
  Support activities for
   transportation    520  
  Couriers and messengers    570   
  Warehousing and storage    530       
--------------------------------------
 Utilities    580       
------------------------------------
Information    3,170        
  Publishing industries, except
   Internet    915   
  Motion picture and sound
   recording industries    385   
  Broadcasting, except Internet    335      
  Internet publishing and
   broadcasting    32       
  Telecommunications  1,055   
  ISPs, search portals, and data
   processing   400
  Other information services    50       

---------------------------------
Financial activities    8,000        
---------------------------------
 Finance and insurance  5,950   
  Monetary authorities - central
   bank    22  
  Credit intermediation and
   related activities  2,800      
   Depository credit
    intermediation  1,770       
    Commercial banking  1,285    
  Securities, commodity
   contracts, investments   780      
  Insurance carriers and related
   activities  2,255    
  Funds, trusts, and other
   financial vehicles    80     
------------------------------------

 Real estate and rental and
  leasing  2,065      
  Real estate  1,405
  Rental and leasing services   630 
  Lessors of nonfinancial
   intangible assets     30 
------------------------------------
Professional and business
 services  16,375   
 Professional and technical
  services  6,700    
   Legal services  1,140 
   Accounting and bookkeeping
    services    820
   Architectural and engineering
    services 1,255     
   Computer systems design and
    related services  1,100 
   Management and technical
    consulting services    780     
 Management of companies and
  enterprises 1,680      
 Administrative and waste
  services 7,990   
  Administrative and support
   services  7,665  
   Employment services  3,555  
    Temporary help services  2,420    
   Business support services    750   
   Services to buildings and
    dwellings 1,680     
  Waste management and
   remediation services    325      

-----------------------------
Education and health services   16,850     
----------------------------------

 Educational services  2,735    
==============================  


 Health care and social
  assistance 14,105    
  Ambulatory health care
   services  4,885     
   Offices of physicians 2,045    
   Outpatient care centers   430  
   Home health care services    750     
  Hospitals 4,300     
  Nursing and residential care
   facilities  2,800
   Nursing care facilities 1,600
  Social assistance 2,115      
   Child day care services    775    
-----------------------------
Leisure and hospitality   12,300       
 Arts, entertainment, and
  recreation 1,790    
  Performing arts and spectator
   sports   360     
  Museums, historical sites,
   zoos, and parks    115     
  Amusements, gambling, and
   recreation  1,315     
 Accommodations and food
  services 10,510     
  Accommodations 1,765     
  Food services and drinking
   places 8,745   

Other services    5,400   
  Repair and maintenance 1,240    
  Personal and laundry services  1,260     
  Membership associations and
   organizations  2,900     
------------------------------


Government   21,600       
 Federal   2,720       
  Federal, except U.S. Postal
   Service 1,930   
  U.S. Postal Service    790    
 State government    5,030        
  State government education  2,300      
  State government, excluding
   education 2,740      
 Local government   13,900       
  Local government education  7,710     
  Local government, excluding
   education 6,115     

 
 
 
 
 

 

 one of my 
favorite 
  east coast counter parts 

 is "the  barron"
    
     victor rostdostsky 
  
 this wonderful man
    has carried on 
a twenty five year long
   tireless
   attempt to gell
a  residential real estate  
             "agents association"  
 24/7/365 
and  with every inch 
 of his dashing   six feet five  
   " made for gallantry " frame  

======================== 

 
  
   my dear  dear brother herbert

 you asked for a brief report

to post at your site 

wonderful wonderful 

delighted 
to lend my humble quill

but my companion 

i must as always
 be candid

more lately
 has been  up hill 
then down

-----------------------

aaahhh yes
 comrade  
what can one say

the struggle the struggle the struggle 

it's fruit 
 can be so 
 bittersweet at times
can it not ?

quite frankly 
there are moments 
when one feels
like
taking 
 this  fucking 
          house  racket
         and pitching it 
and all its  fat fucking slut flunky dunky types  
            right into long island  sound 
----------------------------

as brother mel   sez

" such a fox in the hen coop gimmick
these brokers got goin here " 

 yes indeed
 these lovely lovely
 house wife ladies 
working off
shared  desks
at shared hours
with shared lists 
and  shared  phones

most of the time 
 using  their cars
 their kitchens
and 
their spare pieces of mind
to  dance the dance

 willing 
  captives
   cutting the rug 
 to the tune of 
some fat fuck  brokers horn pipe 

and yet organize 
  gather together for justice

fuck no

 
 a koffee klatch for bess  
to say bye bye
and wish her a happy sun coast retirement ?   
     you bet

   but meet to talk up  a collective contract
     
    please  where's the time ...
----------------------------------------

where's the time ?

  they give up half their take
 and all their independence
for this red headed frog voiced
  three piece pimp ....

and
where's the time 

--------------------------

ok 
so i vented

heres the opportunity

  nation wide

  do you got a guess what numbers sell houses ?
  
   < to be continued>?
       

 this dude used to org with me
but he's moved on to a higher grift

 turned away from job country
and headed
straight 
into  the heart of home sweet home amerika 


=======================

i call my new out fit

   the plebs rally


“  hey just a moment there buster
    before you fly this coop  
  before I let you pass
on to better things
       answer me this 
  one question  
  in all your big doings here
   in all your plans     
what about the little guy   
 
 that question 
is the soul and spirit
of   plebs rally

 what about the little guy


    thats plebs rally in a take home pouch


what IM proposing  here is
   an umbrella for
 tickling the dark side
   of Americas plebocracy 
                  it   
                   purports to be an attempt
                                       
                  to soothe and salve the 
ruffled ridges of middle American life
  in reality 
its dedicated
    to the pumping up
even  todays petticoats
   yes our timid little petticoats   
 turn in their  years of
thwarted desperation
 for a moment of red cap madness
   a very special moment
 ju                of  the demon side of all those desperate pettys
       lurking  out there
    the  side that bleeds through in the check out line 
           the I just can’t take it anymore side
  the side that starred in
 the Paris   terror
 back  in good  old 1793
   that shining flash of class rage
   when the riff raff
   fringes
  of the  humble tradesmen
  and shop keeper klass  
   became a red mob 
 became  glorious head choppers
  everyone knows
 what 
    America needs
      is a few good jacobins
  but    how do we build’m

   well first by
starting with the little ironies and pricks
    of everyday life
    then pushing  it
      and pushing it
 till  we got ‘em  turned
all the way around 

till their showing
   even  themselves
  just how pissed off
 they really are

   thats it pals
    we push them around 
till    
   the side beyond the two toms
 starts to show
   
                the side 
 beyond paine and Jefferson
    the enraged side
 where st for  fires
   

and  ofcourse some proper looting
      a time just for
       
 burning up
 and  braking down

tons and tons of their better
   off  countrymen’s
  ill gotten gains
   give the plutos 
 a shot
  of that vaunted higher 
social criticism and justice
  the criticism 
of the throng’s rampage
    the justice
 of the leveler’s ax 
         
  heres
   a  partial  list of approach paths
   tame enough by themselves
  one must admit

but remember
 their tinders dry  mates
  bone dry


   1 taxes fines fees licenses tolls red tape 
         government tarnation of all breeds 
  
2 mortgages loans banks insurance

 3 the   stock and bond markets  high corporate secrets 

4 the utilities highways and schools

5 medicals and drugs

6 corporate insiders
insiders and higher ups everywhere

 7 retirement  will it be
the life of Riley or the wheel and rack

   8 jobs these days for the experienced

     9 independence and security

10 betterment  self help

11 kids 


 12 the shaded other america
      brown slack
  and
     yellow swindles



  and last 
best and brightest

      13 small bizness America
     the great start ups
        little America’s
       adventures in 
    ventures
 inventions 
creations impossible dreams 

  

this is another lazzeeeee sue post

 by the way
the last one
is still ticking

  it 
hasn't
 exploded yet 

it will...


++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    
the reserved army of the unemployed
  

 what a lovely phrase

      long denied
               by burger flackers of all ilks


and with fair reason


now its economics 101 shit


take stigs text book

    efficiency wage theory

" we can all easily see
that it would not pay
any worker to make any effort on the job
if all firms paid a market clearing wage "

" if i shirk
     i will be caught 
but so what
i just get another job"

this is a very nasty slap
to saint alfreds world
      of margin to margin perfecto marketeering

it means we got to have 
not only wall guards informers and the sack
but unquenchable
 job hunger too
job lose fear 
based on 
tona and tons
of wretched shameful
chronic job lost folks 

" too useless for exploitation"
-------------------------------
a wage drop fear 
is the mid range of the deal
the fear of slipping back
compared to polly jones
but its the bottom that really counts

the thwarted
mug
 of the guy wjo's heard
too mant times
 "sorry pal no job today "

---------------------------------

yes some where around 20 billion job hours
a year
go unbought by the profiteers  
  andall time is is pershishability itself

unsold means lost for ever

if society is 
headed for a paradise
we gotta  work
 our way to
its goin to take longer

cause the system can't
buy up and  "use "
those hours

without losing 
output
by shirking
----------------------------------

some of uz involuntarily slack 
so the rest of uz won't  shirk 

-------------------------------------------
 < to be continued>
next time

why smart whores 
 ask 
 top dollar for blow jobs 

-----------------------------------------------

  

 u can guess my take on 
union staff giffs 
taking dues dollars
and junketting off 
to a  battle ground state
to canvas for 
the ultimo chin chiller

Lt jg john "st pauls "
                      kerry 
-----------------------------
well in an effort
to stay fair
 here's a report 
direct
   from the hustings


==============================

------------------------- 

  1199
is just wild about 
    johnny 
  but.....
-----------------------

cincinnati ohio

october 8 2004


the city that couldn't stop larry flynt
  hopefully can't stop john kerry

but it sure as hell
    is trying

at least thats
      so
according to my 1199 mates 
who have been  
out here
for two weeks now
 gang banging on
         white blue collar doors
                canvasing  for johnny k
-----------------------------------------------
  nope
seems 
here in the heart
   of the american rhine land

        "john kerry 
    is about as well liked
                    as  Charles DeGaulle or Vanilla Ice     "

----------------------------------
  but if we 9ers
 can't convert 
 we sure can greave

greave and 
         take down 
        a robust lunch brake

and put it all on 
her majesty 
the dueser-ship of workingham's 
      running tab 

-----------------------------
 case i