PERSONAL

WHAT I LIKE ABOUT THE OCCUPY MOVEMENT (PART 2):

The first part of this series was published over at my Facebook page a little while ago. Yet a movement such as the 'Occupy' protests deserves far more than one comment. There is little doubt that this has become the most extensive political movement of the last century even if the number of participants says that it is not as intensive as many others. Yet, without plan, direction or control a worldwide movement has arisen that directly challenges class society worldwide. While anarchists, especially in Spain, have been at the forefront of this movement and while anarchist methods of organizing have become the accepted standard of the protesters it would be utterly false to say that this is solely an "anarchist movement". The central themes of the movement have been those that anarchism shares with a broad left consensus. The only "point of pride" is that anarchists have shown the way to a much broader constituency that actually extends far beyond the traditional left. This is "propaganda of the deed" at its best, without self-destructive violent acts, without the illusion of provoking an immediate uprising and without the arrogant supposition that the so-called "revolutionary vanguard" (cough, cough) are the posessors of all truth. In other words the Occupy movement is amazingly morally clean for a protest movement.

But one thing I would like to point out now is how what seems to external observers as a fault is actually a virtue. I am hardly the first to point this out, and I would like to refer the reader to the Bureau of Public Secrets website for a much more thorough discussion. What I refer to is a very frequent so-called "criticism" of the Occupy movement as to its lack of "specific demands" and it seeming to be a collection point for a wide spectrum of grievances. All that I can say to this criticism is that it is "true" but it misses the point entirely. The Occupy movement has arisen as a broad protest against the inequalities and injustices of our present class societies. OF COURSE every interest group and demand will attach themselves to such a broad based movement. Perhaps even some of their activists will recognize the fact that their grievances cannot generally be solved under the present socioeconomic system.

Thus they attach themselves to a movement that (metaphorically) goes for the jugular because of the insufficiencies of their single interest group/issue groups. Make no mistake about it, the Occupy movement has "gone for the jugular". What it presents in a world diluted manner is the challenge to the representative "democracy" that revolutionary movements have laid out for almost 150 years (since the Paris Commune) ie the challenge of "direct democracy". This goes far beyond any simple reforms. It is not the question of whether the billionaires will pay their fair share of taxes. It is a question of how ordinary citizens can have enough influence to prevent any such perversions of law occuring.

The Occupy movement merely seems incoherant because its goals are far removed from what is usually considered "politics" in our societies. Its basic message is not this or that reform but rather a totally new way of "doing politics". The Movement Is The Message.

CANADIAN POLITICS:

STOP PUBLIC HOUSING PRIVATIZATION IN ONTARIO:

The following appeal is from the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP).

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Stop the Sell Off of Toronto Community Housing!‏
STOP THE SELL OFF OF TORONTO HOUSING!

Statement from the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty www.ocap.ca

In a move that falls in line with the plans of Rob Ford, Toronto CommunityHousing is looking to sell off close to 1000 homes. The money raised in the sale would, we are told, go to meet the $600 million repair bill that years of neglect have created in public housing owned and operated by the City of Toronto. The sell off will involve ‘stand alone’ homes throughout the City.

Tens of thousands of desperate people sit on the 10 years’ long waiting list for rent geared to income housing in this City and the housing authority is now looking to sell off a major portion of this precious resource. Displaced tenants will have to be moved into units presently standing idle, that will be renovated with the money from the sale. This will mean that few people on the waiting list will get housed while the stock of public housing is reduced massively.

As bad as this move is, for Rob Ford and his allies, this is only a first move. They will carry on until public housing is entirely privatized.

This attack is a major part of an austerity agenda to destroy public services in Toronto and it has to be fought. TCH tenants and their allies must mobilize to stop the sale and defend their homes.

On Friday, October 21, from 9.00 AM to 2.00 PM, the TCH Board is meeting at their main offices at 931 Yonge Street. A call has been issued for people to make deputations to the Board by Tenants for Social Housing which we are including with this statement. However, it is beyond doubt that the fight will continue beyond this Friday and a serious and determined struggle on this vital issue will have to be taken up.

Join Toronto Stop the Cuts Network in the fight-back against city cuts!

Join a neighborhood committee or start a new one! www.torontostopthecuts.com

www.facebook.com/stopthecuts tostopthecuts@gmail.com http://www.youtube.com/user/TOstopthecuts

twitter.com/tostopthecuts

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Join with the Tenants for Social Housing - We Are Not for Sale Mobilization:

Stop the Sell Off of Social Housing - We are Not for Sale!

Toronto Community Housing Corporation Board Meeting

THIS Friday October 21, 9 am to 2 pm 931 Yonge Street

TCHC will be recommending the sale of your home and over 1,000 more at a Board meeting on Friday, October 21. We still have a chance to stop the sale of our homes and the dismantling of our communities!

• Register to make a deputation at the Board meeting by emailjanice.lewkoski@torontohousing.ca or call 416-981-4232 before October 21,2011.

• Send TCHC CEO Len Koroneos an email at len.koroneos@torontohousing.ca today and let him know that you do not support the sale of our homes! Join tenants at the Board meeting and let TCHC know that We’re Not For Sale!

Link for the report: http://www.torontohousing.ca/webfm_send/7677/1?#

PERSONAL:

GROWING UP WITHOUT THE STATE:

It's been many many years since I left my old home town. 48 if I count right. I left it at precisely the right time, when I was turning 13. Enough of "being one with nature". Time to get into some serious trouble. Which, of course, I found in the (cough) "beautiful" city of Regina. My purpose in what I write below is to show a life that was as "stateless" as possible, under harsh climatic conditions. A life that was endured and sometimes enjoyed by a diverse mixture of ethnic groups and not just some favoured "oppressed" group. Perhaps the town of my childhood memories doesn't deserve recording. Except for one salient feature. It was a town in an area that never had a functioning and overbearing government. Now it is true that most natives in this part of the world grew up under exactly the same conditions with the difference that they saw more of the cops than we did. They also suffered a lot more from the (triple cough) helping arm of the churches, something that simply couldn't happen in a town where there were 3 distinct churches and education was public and non-demoninational.

So let's start with the obvious ie the police. We saw the RCMP a grand total of one time in the 13 years I lived in said town. Did this mean that we were a community of saints. Obviously not. There was the usual vandalism and petty theft which the community found it could deal with far better on its own than by calling for the 'tender actions' of government. Not that the retaliation wasn't sometimes overdone, but short of cutting off fingers or toes any physical pain is preferable to being cast as raw material for socia1l workers to "reform". The one occasion where the state/government proved itself useful was when one farmer went nuts and killed his wife. He came down to the general store to surrender, and he sat there for the required hours until the RCMP felt it was convenient to pick him up.

I mention this just because it is the most obvious "state function" that comes to people's minds, right up there with firefighters and above education and health care. The point that I want to make is that many of the functions that government now performs were or are provided by other means in the not-so-distant past, Or a little bit beyond the city limits in most provinces where rural firefighting is on a volunteer basis. Many other things such as education or health care could easily be provided via cooperatives rather than government. Sometimes a person may recognize all of this but still draw the line at police and the "justice" system. It seems almost unbelievable that people could do without what radicals call "the oppressive arm of the state". It is, however, true that the vast majority of people in history have lived without police (unless you count the agents of the landlord coming to steal things), and there are those such as myself who grew up in such conditions ie it is a living memory.

This doesn't mean that I think some almost mythical revolution could abolish the need for police, courts and prisons overnight. If I were having coffee with a cop I would admit that people like him or her are needed in the near future. Yet I would also say that it is indeed possible to do without police. More than possible. It is a fact that I can remember in my own life. Yet a change in the way people in a neighbourhood act towards each other is a much more effective remedy for crime than more police even today. What anarchists, at least those in the broad majority tradition of anarchism is not a society without demands and rules. It is a society without a specialized caste who enforce such rules or in the case of our present society also enforce the rules of the more wealthy.

What anarchists propose is perhaps summed up by a very clumsy neologism ie the "smalltownization" of a society that presently lives mostly in cities. This is not some marijuana addled vision from the 60s and 70s where everyone has to "go back to the land" and "pretend" to be indpendent of the wider society. What it means is that urban neighbourhoods could grow to have many of the virtues of a small town (such as its ability to live without police) without some of the vices.

Not that my home town was any anarchist utopia by far. We were connected into the wider society by such things as electricity from Sask Power. The electrical grid came in on the same year as I was born. Before that the town had its own generator like most northern communities have even today. This was also the same year, ironically enough, that they took passenger service on the railway away from the town. I see no reason, however, why a crown corporation such as Sask Power couldn't be run as a cooperative. Many advantages actually. Similarily the Province paid teachers' salaries, something that was different from my father's time when teachers were paid by the local community. Another example of memory of a different life. We actually had a Provincial highway a couple of miles from town, but the road to town was maintained (or not) by the RM as were the dirt trails that led out to various farms.

Then, most importantly, we were connected to the wider society and hence to the state by the fact that our rural economy was built on the availability of gasoline (and also oil for the privileged few who didn't have to depend on wood in the winter). Can the universal availability of hyrdocarbon products be provided outside of the state or big business ? The answer is obviously yes as Co-op service stations are a constant feature of most of the western provinces of Canada. If it is done it is possible.

I have to admit that what I have said may seem like something conservative rather than radical, but I have to say that most "conservatives" are actually quite "progressive" in their desire to clear away all obstacles to the increase in power and wealth of the people they imagine are the "wealth creators". My vision is frankly reactionary in the desire to turn back the clock (or ahead if you like) to a different sort of politics and economy. I stand in the anarchist tradition of such people as Paul Goodman in his book 'Notes Of A Neolithic Conservative'.

More on this topic later.

HUMOUR:

THE WAY IT GOES:

Another winner from the pen of Stephanie McMillan.

INTERNATIONAL LABOUR GEORGIA:

RESPECT WORKER RIGHTS IN GEORGIA:

The now independent Caucasus republic of Georgia is (in)famous as the homeland of Soviet dictator Josep Stalin. Sorta like being noted as the homeland of malaria. Living down to this "fine" tradition the present government of this republic is trying to supress the independent unions of that country. The economy may change but the urge to dominate remains the same. Here's an appeal from the onl;ine labour solidarity site Labour Start for solidarity with Georgia's unionists.

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Georgia: Stop attacks on trade unions - respect labour rights
An iconic example of the potential to build free unions in post-Soviet states, the Georgian Trade Union Confederation (GTUC) is in serious jeopardy of being destroyed. Even as its fate hangs in the balance, the GTUC is the largest and most viable civil society organization in Georgia, with a reform-minded leadership that possesses an increasingly sophisticated understanding of the role democratic and representative trade unions play in the promotion of labour rights and democracy. Immediate action is necessary to combat the Georgian government’s concerted, intensifying efforts to dismantle the GTUC and take over the GTUC's teachers' union by violating international labour standards and actions aimed at starving it of financial resources.

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THE LETTER:

Please go to this link to send the following letter to Georgian authorities.

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President Mikheil Saakashvili
Office of the President of Georgia
1 M. Abdushelishvili Street
Tbilisi, Georgia 0103

Dear President Saakashvili,

I am writing to protest the continuing attacks by the Government of Georgia on the Georgian Trade Union Confederation (GTUC) including the Educators and Scientists Free Trade Union of Georgia (ESFTUG). Your government, which claims to uphold democratic values, is revealing its true nature by actively and aggressively working to destroy the basic labor rights of the Georgian people. I understand that the AFL-CIO has filed a Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) petition against the Georgian government due to your lack of respect for international labour standards. I urge the Government of Georgia to take the importance of labour rights seriously and immediately stop the harassment of the GTUC and ESFTUG. Your government should begin serious negotiations with the GTUC to strengthen labour rights and particularly change the labour code to allow for real freedom of association and other labour protections. You may be assured that the international labour movement is united in this call for your government to respect their international obligations and cease these attacks on Georgian working people.

INTERNATIONAL POLITICS BAHRAIN:

TELL US WOMEN'S WORLD CUP PLAYERS TO SUPPORT THEIR FELLOW PLAYERS IN BAHRAIN:

As this is being written the US Team at The Women's World Football Cup has advanced to playing in the finals against Japan. With each advance the significance of the team showing solidarity with other footballers in Bahrain becomes more significant. Here's an appeal from the Human Rights First organization asking you to add your voice saying that the US Team should take a stand.

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Guard The Line: Stand Up for Bahraini Athletes Supporting Democracy!
By Quinn O’Keefe
Senior Associate, Human Rights Defenders

The Women’s World Cup semifinal will take place tomorrow in Germany where the U.S. women’s soccer team has already given fans reason to cheer the players’ skill, resolve and tenacity. Half a world away, the government of Bahrain has launched a brutal attack on its athletes. It has suspended over 150 athletes, coaches and referees for supporting the democracy movement and arrested several others. The Bahraini government is hoping that its crackdown will pass unnoticed. We must not allow them to succeed.

Ask the members of the U.S. women’s soccer team to use the opportunity of appearing in the World Cup semifinals to publicly take a stand in support of Bahraini pro-democracy athletes.

The good news is that many Bahraini athletes have been released. But several were tortured and humiliated while in custody including soccer player Mohammed Hubail and his brother, striker A’ala Hubail, as well as goalkeeper Ali Saeed. Mohammed was recently sentenced to two years in prison during a sham military trial. Now, he and others fear another round of detention and torture if they speak out to journalists.

The U.S. women’s national soccer team will compete on the world stage again as they play against France in the Women’s World Cup semifinals tomorrow. They’ll have every soccer fan’s attention.

Ask the members of the U.S. women’s soccer team to stand in solidarity with their fellow soccer players and denounce Bahrain’s abusive treatment of its athletes.
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THE LETTER:
Please go to this link to send the following letter to the USA Women's Team at the World Cup.
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Dear U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team,

We are deeply concerned about reports that Bahraini soccer team members were tortured during the country’s brutal crackdown on pro-democracy activists. Mohammed Hubail, A’ala Hubail, and Ali Saeed were reportedly abused during their detainment, according to friends and relatives. Additionally, Mohammed Hubail has been sentenced to two years in prison simply because he was involved in a wave of peaceful protests.

You will have the world’s attention as you take the field for the semifinal game with France tomorrow. The Bahraini government is hoping its abusive treatment of its athletes will pass unnoticed. We ask you to stand in solidarity with your fellow footballers and publicly denounce Bahrain’s treatment of its soccer players. Athlete should not be unjustly targeted by oppressive regimes because of their public prominence.

Please join us in speaking out against the arbitrary arrest, detention, and torture of athletes and all others who have been detained for peacefully expressing their views.

Thank you,

AS I SEE IT:
PSEUDO RADICAL BABBLE:


I've been at this game (leftism) for over 40 years now, and I certainly have accumulated a scrapbook full of "stupid things lefties believe and do". Back in those deep dark days of my youth a lot of the smellier bullshit used to revolve around the word dialectics .This, of course, had its own secret Marxist meaning in addition to a regular definition that had nothing whatsoever to do with either Hegel or Marx.



To be "dialectic about it" the use of the language that surrounded this supposed "quick key to understanding the world" was "contradictory". It was a supposed path to understanding that might change the world, but, on the other hand, it was the occasion of nothing more than endless word games and attempts at pseudointellectual posturing. As such its acceptance which was supposedly a "plus" for changing the world made the left an object of ridicule or disgust. Exactly the opposite of what its speakers intended. I wonder what the synthesis of this quandary would be if you were to stay in this literary form ?


Back in those days , as it did in generations past "dialectics" served a number of leftist functions but was an absolute failure in what it was supposed to do. While it never led to any unexpected insights that couldn't have been seen via less complex common sense it did give its practitioners at least the illusion of superiority to those of lesser "consciousness". But that illusion provoked more hostility (and sometimes ridicule)than acceptance of the "dialectical message" because of its "superiority". Posturing has a tendency to finally be found out.



Ah but academic lefty fashions come and go, and these days it is hard to find many advocates for "dialectics" except amongst a quite aged cadre of academics. A few decades ago the fashion shifted, both in the academy and in the real world. The interests of younger radicals (once again unfortunately most represented in social science departments of universities) changed from Leninist dreams of becoming a new ruling class (though that's never how they would have put it) to issues that had more "emotional charge" if not exactly the same objective importance as "class struggle".


It is not coincidental that the final social configuration that the rebellious 60s and 70s produced offered all sorts of hitherto unknown opportunities to exercise power over others outside the realm of actual productive enterprise. "Revolution" would hardly be of benefit to this emerging caste/class who, in the end, prey on the weaknesses of various marginals in a society that produces more and more of them. Similarly a totalitarian vision of the world such as Marxist philosophy held little attraction for the "resentariat" who saw the road to power open and clear.


The new 'magical key' that replaced dialectics was "post modernism". If anything this replacement in academic fashion was even more trivial and useless than its ancestor. The trivial disguise of such commonplaces as, "nothing lasts forever and everything changes", "there is struggle in all social systems", etc. including some statements that are demonstrably false such as Marxism's belief that history in inevitably "progressive" gave way to a new set of truisms and falsehood.

The baby was named "post-modernism", and it was born in the most appropriate academic manger ie literature departments which didn't even have the tenuous connection to reality that many social sciences had. The baby was a bastard from the get-go. It espoused a "radical relativism" towards anything but its own theories and conclusions. In this it repeated the fallacy of the 'necessary being argument' for the existence of God while being blithely unaware that it was setting up an eternal mirror paradox.

But essential value or not the baby was indeed born at the right time when there was widespread "radical sympathy" for a great number of 'new causes' while at the same time the traditional leftism was saying its before death prayers. The totalitarian system of Marxism had been replaced by a vague collection of "oppressions", not all of them of equal importance. The trainers of the new segment of the ruling class arrived at their tenure, usually without any opposition that they couldn't shout down. What to do ? What to do ?

By the time that post-modernism became the dominant ideology, at least in the North American academy, pretty well everything that could be said about "oppressions" had been said already repeatedly. Now understand something about that particularly vicious, close to chimpanzee social interactions, "politics" that happens in the academy. The theory is that an academic has to continually produce original thought or investigation. By the time the "anti-ists" began to populate the departments the various oppression veins of ore had pretty well been mined out. Not such a good thing if you are trying to advance yourself in such a cutthroat situation as a social science department.


Now "dialectics" and writing about it certainly had its stylistic difficulties of which a vague abstract way of speaking was one. Still, it was a cut above the academic fashion of post-modernism. The champions of dialectics did indeed say things that were wrong and even ridiculous to those outside the magic circle. But most of what they said actually made sense. With the advent of post-modernism it became the fashion to write in a way that was both "beyond grammar" and also "beyond sense". Without the imaginary clothes of the emperor what was called "intersectionality" would have been seen as the triviality that it is. For those without an acquaintance with academic leftism (lucky you) "intersectionality" means that you collect a handful of "isms", sexism, racism, classicism (sic), etc., etc., etc. off into increasingly bizarre "oppressions" and you note that almost all individuals may be both "oppressors" or "victims" depending upon how you look at their situation.


To say that this is a trivial observation actually overstates the case. One can expand the oppressions and the isms endlessly and there is no dou7bt that leftists have already plumbed most of what is open to human imagination..."lookism" ???? The problem is that even with this tool there comes a point where there is no longer anything, true or false, to be said about the subject. A bad situation for those who wish to be published in academic journals.


Ah here's the meat of this long essay. I came across the following question on an usually sane anarchist board, "Is the idea of Kyriarchy more revealing and useful than intersectionality"?. Well, the short reply is that it is somewhat difficult to be less than zero, but it still can be achieved. Now, I had an advantage here as an ex-Catholic in that I remember the old "Kyrie eléison" which meant "Lord have mercy" in the Mass. So I go in search of the originator of this neologism. I'm not disappointed as the originator is one Elizabeth Schussler Fiorenza a "feminist Catholic theologian". Work your mind around that little tidbit of information.

Now I have little doubt that Professor Fiorenza has a vast academic knowledge of the subject of Biblical studies, and she even hold many opinions that she doesn't dare voice for fear of the discipline of the Church. I also suspect, though I am not certain of this, that she is literate in ancient Greek. Since that may be the case let's get really pedantic here. The word from which this all derives is the Greek "Kyrios" for Lord. In the Catholic mass "Kyrie" is the 'vocative case' use in speaking to an individual, in this case the Lord. Now to make an English word out of this Greek and to mean it to say "rule of the Lord" you would have to use "kyrionarchy"(the possessive case). Not as snappy as the using the old Catholic vocative case for sure.


However that may be one can forgive Professor Fiorenza for using a word form that she was convinced nobody would check up on. But let's investigate the meaning of her neologism. "Kyriarchy" means, if you excuse the grammar of its originator" "Lord Rule" ie "Rule of the Lord". Fascinating isn't it that the definition of "Lord" already assumes the function of "ruling". What else do "Lords" do pray tell ? So what does 'Kyriearchy' mean ? It means "rule by those who rule". Only in the hothouse of academic leftism where connection to reality has long since been abandoned could this be said to be an "advance" on anything.

Anyways I'm sure everybody has been bored to death now, but that's as I see it.

LOCAL EVENTS:

'STOP SIGNS: CARS AND CAPITALISM' BOOK LAUNCH:

Coming up this Wednesday at Winnipeg's Infoshop the Mondragon, 92 Albert St.

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Stop Signs Book Launch with Yves Engler
Time Wednesday, July 6 · 7:00pm - 10:00pm

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Location Mondragon Bookstore & Coffee House
------------------------
More Info

Stop Signs —Cars and Capitalism
on the Road to Economic,
Social and Ecological Decay— 2011 Cars and Capitalism on the Road to Economic, Social and Ecological Decay

In North America, human beings have become enthralled by the automobile: A quarter of our working lives are spent paying for them; communities fight each other for the right to build more of them; our cities have been torn down, remade and planned with their needs as the... overriding concern; wars are fought to keep their fuel tanks filled; songs are written to praise them; cathedrals are built to worship them. In Stop Signs: Cars and Capitalism on the Road to Economic, Social and Ecological Decay, authors Yves Engler and Bianca Mugyenyi argue that the automobile’s ascendancy is inextricably linked to capitalism and involved corporate malfeasance, political intrigue, backroom payoffs, media manipulation, racism, academic corruption, third world coups, secret armies, environmental destruction and war. When we challenge the domination of cars, we also challenge capitalism. An anti-car, road-trip story, Stop Signs is a unique must-read for all those who wish to escape the clutches of auto insanity.

AS I SEE IT:

FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS:

The 104 year old Bell Hotel which closed in August 2007 was just one other downtown flophouse, but when it closed it forced 50 people living there to scramble and find other accommodation. Well the years have passed and 5.3 million dollars has flowed under the bridge. This "heritage" minded town has kept the external facade because, after all, frontage is more important than people.

So now the reopening is celebrated with much breaking of arms as various social service bureaucrats pat themselves furiously on the back. You can guess where I'm going with this can't you ? The upgraded premises now have a toilet for every room and, guess what, several social service outlets in the building. Not unexpected and neither is the self congratulation of the bureaucrats as they talk about opening space for 42 new tenants who will be housed whether they have substance abuse problems or not. Oh goody, goody, goody you're so liberal guys !

Let's have a little look at this wonderful gift to Winnipeg's down and out. In case some people are truly mathematically "challenged" it is hard to accept that it isn't obvious that 42 is smaller than 50. That's right. $5.3 million and three years have provided exactly eight fewer places for the poor than there were before. Look at another way. I have little doubt, having grown up without same, that a private indoor toilet is a very good thing , but each of the suites cost about $126,000 each. This in a city that recently spent a goodly amount of tax money hunting down "backyard huts" that otherwise homeless people rented to escape the unwanted "help" of social service bureaucrats. I don't think I'm out of line in saying that there are large numbers of abandoned properties in this town (a lot of which would cost nothing as they are long overdue for expropriation for non-payment of taxes)that could be upgraded far faster at a fraction of the cost. Ah, but palaces for social workers to pretend to work in wouldn't be part of such deals.

There is actually a local initiative that shows a totally different way of doing things. When the infamous Occidental Hotel was morphed into the 'Red Road Lodge' there was indeed government support for putting something else in place of the booze can. Somehow I don't think it was $5.3 million. The RRL also decided to make a go of it by renting out part of the premises to various other businesses and community groups, but no, no social workers (or booze). And the residents were not summarily evicted like they were at the Bell.

Let's look at in yet another way. It's true that this little "initiative" has managed to build accommodation of 42 people at $126,000 per person. Yet it has also managed to "dehouse" eight people at a cost of $664,000 per person. What an advance !

There is, of course, no silver lining for those displaced by this project. Neither is there any sense of accomplishment (whatever the propaganda says) for the taxpayer who has been forced to cough up the millions to do less than was being done before. Who actually benefits from this ? The answer was given in a recent Winnipeg Free Press article where it was stated that "tenants at the Bell must commit to staying in touch with social service agencies". Ah huh ! The big liberal/conservative argument was whether the tenants had to be "clean" before being housed. The answers were predictable. But one thing that both leftists and conservatives agree on in this society is that people have to be controlled.

The Bell Hotel fiasco is a prime example of how NOT to help the poor ie don't throw millions at a problem where there are bureaucracies that stand to benefit financially. And peoplke ask me why I'm an anarchist.

HUMOUR:

A QUICK AND EASY GUIDE TO FORMS OF GOVERNMENT:

INTERNATIONAL LABOUR COLOMBIA:

STOP VALE UNION BUSTING IN COLOMBIA:

The other year workers in Ontario and Newfoundland were "treated" to an exhibition of just how hard hearted and tight fisted the international mining giant Vale is. But Canada and Brazil are only two countries that figure in the global assets of the company. In Colombia Vale goes even further in its disdain for workers and democracy. Here's a petition from the online labour solidarity site Labour Start asking people to protest Vale's tactics in Colombia.

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Colombia: Tell Vale no more union busting
As if it wasn’t hard enough for unions to operate in Colombia, now Vale wants to make it harder. Workers at global giant Vale’s El Hatillo coal mine in Colombia recently organized with the union SINTRAMIENERGETICA and presented modest bargaining demands. Rather than negotiate, Vale has attempted to dictate the process by which the union formulates its demands. Vale supervisors have threatened every worker with dismissal unless they renounce the union. Vale’s superintendent locked one union supporter in his office and threatened him to the point that the supporter showed symptoms of a heart attack and was hospitalized in serious condition. The majority of workers at El Hatillo are subcontracted which also limits their right to organize.

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The Letter:

Please go to this link to send the following message to the President of Colombia and the Vale management:

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Dear Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and Vale Colombia CEO Zenaldo Olivera,

We demand that you respect the fundamental rights of workers employed at Vale’s El Hatillo coal mine in Colombia. Vale must cease its obstruction tactics and threats. It must recognize the union that these workers have organized with, SINTRAMIENERGETICA, and negotiate in good faith. The Government of Colombia must ensure that the fundamental rights of workers employed at Vale and those of all other Colombian workers are respected. Specifically, the Government must ensure that companies cannot use cooperatives or other subcontracting arrangements to deprive workers of their basic rights.

THE CALENDER:

WELCOME TO SUMMER:

Today is the summer solstice, the beginning of summer. Here's an article that tells what it all about.

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Summer solstice

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the Earth's axial tilt.
Diagram of the Earth's seasons as seen from the north. Far left: summer solstice for the northern hemisphere. Front right: summer solstice for the southern hemisphere.The summer solstice occurs exactly when the Earth's semi-axis in a given hemisphere is most inclined towards the sun, at its maximum tilt of 23° 26'. Though the summer solstice is an instant in time, the term is also colloquially used like Midsummer to refer to the day on which it occurs. Except in the polar regions (where daylight is continuous for many months), the day on which the summer solstice occurs is the day of the year with the longest period of daylight. The summer solstice occurs in June in the Northern Hemisphere north of the Tropic of Cancer (23°26'N) and in December in the Southern Hemisphere south of the Tropic of Capricorn (23°26'S). The Sun reaches its highest position in the sky on the day of the summer solstice. However, between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn, the highest sun position does not occur at the summer solstice, since the sun reaches the zenith here and it does so at different times of the year depending on the latitude of the observer.[1] Depending on the shift of the calendar, the summer solstice occurs some time between December 21 and December 22 each year in the Southern Hemisphere, and between June 20 and June 21 in the Northern Hemisphere.[2]

Worldwide, interpretation of the event has varied among cultures, but most have held a recognition of sign of the fertility, involving holidays, festivals, gatherings, rituals or other celebrations around that time.[3]

The word solstice derives from Latin sol (sun) and sistere (to stand still).

Dates and times The following lists the dates and UTC times of the summer solstice for the early portion of the 21st century.[4]

Year Northern Hemisphere Southern Hemisphere
2000 June 21, 01:48 December 21, 13:37
2001 June 21, 07:38 December 21, 19:21
2002 June 21, 13:24 December 22, 01:14
2003 June 21, 19:10 December 22, 07:04
2004 June 21, 00:57 December 21, 12:42
2005 June 21, 06:46 December 21, 18:35
2006 June 21, 12:26 December 22, 00:22
2007 June 21, 18:06 December 22, 06:08
2008 June 20, 23:59 December 21, 12:04
2009 June 21, 05:46 December 21, 17:47
2010 June 21, 11:28 December 21, 23:38
2011 June 21, 17:16 December 22, 05:30
2012 June 20, 23:09 December 21, 11:12
2013 June 21, 05:04 December 21, 17:11
2014 June 21, 10:51 December 21, 21:23
2015 June 21, 16:38 December 22, 04:48
2016 June 20, 22:34 December 21, 10:44
2017 June 21, 04:24 December 21, 16:28
2018 June 21, 10:07 December 21, 22:23
2019 June 21, 15:54 December 22, 04:19
2020 June 20, 21:44 December 21, 10:02

INTERNATIONAL ANARCHIST MOVEMENT:
A TALE OF THREE COUNTRIES:


The usual historiography of anarchism traces its beginnings to the international socialist movement and the First International. Like most things in the social sciences this is only approximately true. The pre-International workers' movement in France, the most advanced on the European continent, generally held to a variety of anarchism called Mutualism. Still it is true that anarchism, for better or for worse, acquired most of its modern characteristics in the struggle against Marxism within the First International. This development is often portrayed as a stuggle between the Latin sections that held, more or less, to the ideas of Bakunin with the Marxoid German movement. The English trade unionists generally kept aloof from both factions.


This is, once more, approximately true. It was in the Latin countries (with the addition of Belgium- half Latin, Switzerland and the Netherlands) that the anti-authoritarian strain of the workers' movement gained purchase and laid the foundation for modern anti-statist socialism. Yet there was and is a wide difference between these countries as to the degree that anarchism 'caught on'. Why ?


I've just finished reading 'Bakunin and the Italians' by T.R. Ravindranathan, and it tells basically the same story as another book 'Italian Anarchism: 1864-1892' by Nunzio Pernicone. The Introduction and first chaper of yet another book, 'The French Anarchist Movement' by David Berry twells the story of early anarchism in France. Herein lies the question. Both France and Italy were much more likely to become the 'motherland of anarchy' than Spain was. France had the existence of a large mutualist labour movement as well as its tradition of revolution. Italy was the 'centrepiece' of the antiauthoritarian sections of the First International, and its early history of anarchism would seem to say that it should have become the centre. What if fact occured was that Spain went on to become the classic land of anarchism, ending up exporting it to much of the Spanish speaking world. The Italian movement while 'large' in a comparative sense never grew to the extent that the Spanish one did, and offered far less resistance to fascism in Italy than the Spaniards did in Spain. The French movement managed to escape its ghetto for a brief period in the glory days of the CGT, but was later to become a rump of its original self. Once more why ?


All three countries shared the same basic social structure ie a combative upper class, in the case of France and Italy one that rose to the top via previous revolutions or wars, and in the case of Spain an decaying aristocratic and clerical class. In terms of the difference between regions Italy was almost a carbon copy of Spain. The messogiorno was pretty well the same as southern Spain. Ther French situation was somewhat different insofar as most rural provinces were conservative after having their land hunger satisfied by the revolution of 1789.


So similar and yet so different. My own suggestion is that the difference came about via certain choices that the 'proto-anarchists' of that day made in different countries. In Italy as in France the choice of syndicalism was delayed by decades. The most prominant action of the early Italian anarchists were the comic-opera "insurrections" that they engaged in. To say thery were laughable understates the case. Meanwhile in Spain the anarchists were organizing strikes and actually "going to the people". Any premature insurrections in Spain in the late 1800s and the early 1900s were peasant rebellions that the leadership of the anarchists supported but not too much.


Let's put it another way. While the anarchist movement in France and Italy was mired ion tactics that were doomed to fail the Spanish anarchists did one salient thing. They organized the working class for bopth its immediate demands and for the eventual social evolution. This combination was something that eluded both the French and the Italians.

INTERNATIONAL LABOUR IVORY COAST:
FREE BASIL MAHAN GAHÉ:

Free Ivory Coast union leader Basil Mahan Gahé!
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The following appeal is from the international union confederation the IUF.
*******************
On April 26, Basil Mahan Gahé, general secretary of the national trade union center Dignité, was arrested at his Abidjan home and taken into detention. The union office was sacked, and many union officers have gone into hiding. Since then, the IUF and other international and national trade unions, including the Ivory Coast's national center UGTCI as well as the Director General of the ILO, have contacted the government authorities to demand his release and guarantees of his physical wellbeing.

To date, the government has refused to respond, or even to disclose the charges on which he is being held. Basil Mahan Gahé's only contact with the outside world has been a brief visit from the Red Cross.

Act now! - use the form below to send a message to President Ouattara (with copies to Ivory Coast embassies in France and Belgium) calling for the immediate and unconditional release of Basil Mahan Gahé.
*******************
The Letter: Please go to this link to send a message to the President of the Ivory Coast
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To Mr. Alassane Ouattara, President of Ivory Coast
(copies to the Ambassadors of Ivory Coast in Belgium/France)

Dear President Ouattara,

On April 26, Basil Mahan Gahé, general secretary of the national trade union center Dignité, was arrested at his Abidjan home and taken into detention. The union office was sacked, and many union officers have gone into hiding.

According to our information, he is being held by police in the Williamsville quarter of Abidjan

We are deeply concerned for his safety and physical integrity, and by the government's failure to date to respond to numerous interventions on his behalf, including from the Director General of the ILO. Basil Mahan Gahé's detention is a violation of international law and of your own commitment to national reconciliation, and I accordingly demand his immediate and unconditional release as well as firm guarantees for his physical safety. I will closely follow your government's actions in this regard.


Yours sincerely

PERSONAL:

THEN AND NOW:

As part of the cleanup that never ends I recently came across a series of old publications ie the 'Discussion Bulletin' published by Frank Girard down Michegan way. The issues in question date to the late 80s/early 90s. Appreciate what this means. This was pre-internet days when a decently working photocopier was the height of technology. Unfortunately Frank never had access to such a good machine, and the DB usually came out looking exactly like what it was ie a photocopy effort.

The DB, however, was never meant to be an 'outreach' publication. As an expelled member of the American DeLenist 'Socialist Labor Party' Franks' idea was that there was no great reason why the various strains of libertarian socialism should remain apart from each other. The DB was an attempt and a noble one at just such a dialogue. Frank has not been with us for many years now, and in his absence the barriers on the libertarian left remain what they have been for decades.

Perhaps Frank's dream is an impossibility because any "union" would have to plaster over wide gaps in terms of tactics (and "theory" of course insofar as 'theory' is far too often the only action that far left groupuscles engage in). I also wonder if many of the organizations who wrote items for the DB in those days are also just as deceased as Frank.

Looking back I find that the first thing that comes to my mind is just how trivial all the disputes in places such as the DB were. By this I mean 'unimportant'. It was very much a matter of individuals speaking to organizations that had less than 50 members worldwide and their replies. Not that the dialogue wasn't at a high level; indeed far higher than the nonsense that comes out of academic leftydom these days. Almost all the people contributed to the DB were far removed from that hothouse.

As one of the participants in this project I also found what I wrote at the time quite trivial. It was not a hopeful time. The revival of anarchism via the "punk scene" was very much a tiny baby at the time. Seattle and the internet were (not so) far in the future. The situation nowadays is so incredibly different. In those days of yore pretty well everyone who claimed the anarchist labels felt an overwhelming sense of "responsibility". It's quite different today when anarchist bookfairs are occurring in what are actually small cities, and anarchism has to all intents replaced Marxism as the default theoretical position for younger people as they enter the wild and wacky world of activism.

When the ideology that you hold demands proselytizing you feel a much greater sense of responsibility when it is small compared to when it is large. Once there are is a certain number of people involved in any project it relieves the burden on all in such a group because if you can't do it somebody else who can is near at hand. There is actually a great amount of peace in recognizing that you are NOT indispensable, that whatever mistakes you make can easily be corrected by others. I love it.

I also love the fact that the anarchist movement has expanded beyond belief from when I first adopted the ideology in the early 70s. I can remember the state of the anarchist movement in Canada in those days. In terms of sheer naked numbers and geographical penetration what exists today represents a growth of between one and two orders of magnitude. I am always thrilled when I see a notice of an anarchist bookfair in a town that this amateur geographer has never heard of.

How to sum up ? Having lived through the growth of anarchism in the past few decades I am pleased, but I am also worried about certain trends in the movement. What non-CGT anarchism has achieved is actually only an acceptance ie a long term general sympathy from what hovers around 0.03% of the population. That's better than what I saw in my day, but it is also far less than what I estimate in Spain where, courtesy of the CGT, perhaps 5% of the population has a long term favourable view of anarchism. Anarchism, however, has even here for better or for worse crossed a threshold. It is now possible for a person to immerse themselves in some "counter-culture" of which anarchism is a part and be deluded about their actual strength because they cannot see beyond their social circles.

Of course I also know that such things as "victory", "influence" and "popularity" are things that are just not thought about amongst a certain section of anarchism in North America. Mostly because they are very happy to be separated from (and in their delusions superior to) the average person in their locality. All these people care about is their absolute certainty in what they believe this month.

I do also recognize that many of the faults I find with a certain (mostly American) anarchism is simple intellectual laziness. The history about the futility of 'terrorist tactics' is there for anyone to view. The revolutionary verbiage comes crashing up against the fact that the great 99% in most industrial countries wants to try no such thing. Neither do they generally listen to any left wing, let alone anarchist, comment. All of which, of course, is a call for people to reform their writing style both in terms of content but also in terms of tone.

All of which doesn't say that anarchism has no future. It merely says that along term view is necessary to appreciate BOTH how anarchism has grown and just how much further it has to go.

CANADIAN POLITICS:

MARCH WITH OCAP AND CUPE THIS THURSDAY:

This appeal from the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) asks you to join the 'Raise the Rates' contingent at the upcoming Canadian Union Of Public Employees Ontario (CUPE) convention. This is for our readers down Ontario way.

******************
Join OCAP at CUPE Ontario Rally: Thursday, May 26th 12Noon‏

Join the OCAP Raise the Rates Contingent at the CUPE Ontario Rally:

Meet: Thursday, May 26, Noon at the Sheraton Centre, 393 Queen Street West (at York - across from City Hall)

This coming Thursday, CUPE Ontario will be holding a rally during their Annual Convention in Toronto. It will demand decent jobs, improved public services as well as a raise in social assistance rates (OW/ODSP), a living wage, and restoration of the Special Diet.

For the last year (since 2010 Convention and the passing of a 'Raise the Rates' Resolution), OCAP has been working closely with CUPE Ontario to push forward jointly the 'Raise the Rates Campaign' to demand of the McGuinty Provincial Government a reversal of the Harris era cuts, a raise in Social Assistance rates to where people can live with health and dignity, and a restoration of the Special Diet Allowance.

We have developed a 'train the trainers' for CUPE members on 'why social assistance is a worker's issue' and how to concretely get involved in the campaign (see here: http://www.cupe.on.ca/doc.php?subject_id=287 ). We have had the chance to meet with CUPE members at sectoral conferences and in locals from Windsor to Ottawa to North Bay and beyond; building CUPE-community Raise the Rates alliances wherever possible. This work is ongoing and we know all too well that the broader fight back against austerity is only just beginning. Solidarity and alliances between poor communities and public sector workers is more important now than ever before!

Join with OCAP and the Raise the Rates Contingent on Thursday, May 26th as we march to Queen's Park and fight alongside public sector workers to defend public services and those who deliver them.

Join the Raise the Rates Campaign: http://update.ocap.ca/node/947

Ontario Coalition Against Poverty www.ocap.ca 416-925-6939

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pls forward widely All community allies, activists, workers, students, Torontonians, are invited to a RALLY!

Rally

Thurs May 26 Noon

@ Sheraton Hotel, 123 Queen St.

*This rally is held during CUPE Ontario’s Convention and ends at Queen’s Park In the lead up to the provincial election on October 6 there is an opportunity to make a difference in the province of Ontario. You are invited to join members of CUPE Ontario during their annual Convention to send a message to the provincial government.

BUILD A BETTER ONTARIO DEMAND:

1.AN END TO POVERTY: A raise in social assistance rates, a livable wage and a full restoration of the Special Diet allowance

2.PUBLIC SERVICES: An increase in public funding to services like: housing, childcare and post-secondary education to ensure key services are public and accessible for all

3.GOOD JOBS: Strengthen employment standards, safety provisions, sick pay and restore anti-scab laws and card certification

Join CUPE Ontario to send a message about poverty and public services in Ontario. Tell this government what kind of Ontario we want & need!

Bring your flags, noise makers and voice! *Wheel-trains vehicle provided

CANADIAN ANARCHIST MOVEMENT:

THE CALGARY FESTIVAL OF ANARCHY:


How different from when I was young. Anarchist festivals in 'Calgary' !!!!



FESTIVAL OF ANARCHY!
Time Friday, May 27 at 6:00pm - May 29 at 4:00pm

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Location The Old Y for Communities, 223 12th Avenue SW Calgary, Canada

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More Info
The Calgary Anarchist Bookfair Committee is happy to announce the 2011 Festival of Anarchy in Calgary from May 27th-29th!


BELOW IS A TENTATIVE SUMMARY OF THE WEEKEND

When:
May 27 -
5:30 pm Critical Mass ride leaving from the Good Life Community Bicycle Shop in Eau Claire
8 pm Divergence presents a queer film night at the Old Y
10 pm Anarchy Mixer!
May 28 -
Zinester readings, 1-6pm vending/workshops time available, evening film and presentation
May 29 – Anarchist Black Cross fundraising brunch, workshops and vending available 12-4pm, afternoon games (outside and indoor)

Where:
The Old Y for Communities, 223 12th Avenue SW Calgary, Canada

Why:
Because Calgary needs some radicalizing and it's great to get together and share some knowledge!

please let us know if you are able to attend. We look forward to working with you!

More info at: www.anarchistservices.ca/bookfair

CANADIAN POLITICS:

SOME LATE LATE NIGHT THOUGHTS ON THE RECENT CANADIAN ELECTION:

It's been decades since I voted in any governmental elections (the associations that I belong to don't count). Still, like a reformed smoker, I find myself glued to the TV as election results pour in. The recent election results here in Canada were, if nothing else, interesting. It's been almost two weeks so far, and I have yet to hear the 5:00 am knock at the door that signals that Stephan Harper's friends have come to take me away to the re-education camp. Not that such a thing is beyond him or his buddies, but I give him more credit than that for intelligence.

This election was a do or die affair for Harper and also for the Conservative Party. Without a win Harper would be gone, and the next leader would have either been from the wacky fringe of Biblical literalists (think Stockwell Day) or would have had nowhere near the talent and vision of Harper. Make no mistake about it; Harper does indeed have what has been called his "hidden agenda", but he also has the realism that says that this horror should be imposed by a thousand cuts rather than a "revolution". Look to more of the same with, of course, a bit more corruption and a bit more arrogance in terms of corporate giveaways. In other words a slim Conservative majority will be about the same, though a bit sleazier, as a Conservative minority government. The sky hasn't fallen nor have the evangelical militias come to take your poor little scribe away.

It's true that to borrow the old and hoary Zen koan form, "before the election life goes on; during the election things become confused and after the election life goes on". Unless, of course, you are a Liberal or BQiste. For them the sky did indeed fall and rather spectacularly. To all intents the BQ is finished, and it would be better for them to fold up with as much grace as they can muster. They've always occupied a rather odd spot in the Canadian political spectrum anyways. As for the Liberals it is exceedingly hard to feel any sympathy for them. While in power they became almost as arrogant and crooked as the Conservatives...which takes some doing. Whether they remain as a rump of their past glory depends pretty well exclusively on what the NDP does with its new-found status as official opposition. Nothing !!!! the Liberals can do on their own matters very much.

The NDP. I think it goes without saying that nobody expected the surge in NDP support on election night, even the NDP themselves with their bluster about Layton as Prime Minister. Not that this new status is without its dangers. The natural tendency of a party like the NDP would be to swing right and vacuum up the Liberal support. There is, however, a limit to this in the fact that the majority of their sitting members come from Québec. Not all of these people are "symbolic candidates" who got elected on the party's coat-tails. A good number of them will want policy that is to the left of where the NDP is presently, let alone where they would have to go to sponge up Liberal support. I'm surprised that more people haven't noticed the historical parallels to the explosion of Social Credit support in Québec, and what happened subsequently.

So where does that leave us Canadians ? I can say that I wasn't disappointed by the NDP surge even though I have few illusions about the Party. They ran what has probably been one of the most effective campaigns in Canadian political history, carefully avoiding the over-the-top attack rhetoric of both the Conservatives and Liberals. They were also able to distract attention from the fact that they had little in the way of large scale vision and policy by making a few attractive promises and using the emotional buzz words to far greater effect than the old parties. I honestly believe that if you were to read the speeches of Layton as compared to those of Harper that you would find that Layton used the term "family" far more than than the 'Family Guy Harper'.

I can also say, however, that I was disappointed that we didn't have another minority government. That configuration sets much more comfortable limits on the damage that a political party can do. Which spins us back to Harper again. No doubt there is a selection of the so-called "radical" political class that is quaking in its boots over the removal of the petty funding it has been provided with for many years to pretend to be an opposition. The main result of Harper's first (and one hopes only) term will be a redivision of the spoils as debts are collected so to speak. I have little doubt that Harper does indeed have a "hidden agenda", but he also has a public one that he has hardly been shy about expressing. What the guy wants to do is build a long lasting "conservative consensus" in the country. This doesn't preclude "paying off his buddies". I would expect an ever accelerating number of scandals as Conservative politics seems to attract a great number of people who are "down to the bone crooked". I think, however, that both Harper's friends and his enemies seriously underestimate both his cunning and his opportunism.

So, as I said, I expect very much more of the same in the days to come. I am not complaining too much. For a much more pessimistic view of Canada's politics I refer the reader to a recent item at the Porkupine Blog. On a personal note I am happy that the Greens got a member elected, but I wish it could have been somebody other than Elizabeth May. This isn't solely because her opportunism puts Harper to shame nor is it because she is the right wing favourite in a party whose ideological infighting supasses that of the NDP (Conservatives and Liberals, like countries, have no friends or beliefs...only interests). It finally came to me appropriately enough while I was taking a leak. The reason she inspires a visceral dislike in me is because her act could best be described as that of an elementary school teacher strung out on amphetamines.

LOCAL EVENTS WINNIPEG:

'THE LISTENER' BOOK LAUNCH:

Coming up soon here in Winnipeg: the book launch of the graphic novel 'The Listener' about the political propaganda surrounding the rise of teh Nazis to power in Germany. Down at the Mondragon - 81 Albert St.

◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘
David Lester & Mecca Normal Present "The Listener"
Time Wednesday, June 8 · 7:30pm - 10:30pm

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Location Mondragon Bookstore & Coffee House
91 Albert St
Winnipeg, Manitoba

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More Info

Arbeiter Ring Publishers & CKUW Present:
THE LISTENER - Book Launch By David Lester & Performance by Matador Records artists Mecca Normal.

What is THE LISTENER about:

...The Listener, a 312-page graphic novel by David Lester reveals a tragic act of spin doctoring that changed the course of history. Complacency, art and murder collide in Hitler's terrible rise to power in 1933, and in the artist Louise Shearing's search for meaning in the art of Europe after the fictional modern death of a political activist.

Who is David Lester:

David Lester is a painter, graphic designer, cartoonist, and the guitarist in the rock duo Mecca Normal (13 albums on K Records, Matador and Kill Rock Starts). His book, The Gruesome Acts of Capitalism went into a revised second printing and has been required reading in a university English course called Studies in Contemporary Literature. He has created the poster series “Inspired Agitators,” archived at The Center for the Study of Political Graphics in Los Angeles, and designed the popular t-shirt “Actually, I like crap.” Lester also does a weekly illustration, with text by Mecca Normal bandmate Jean Smith, for Magnet Magazine. His art has been published in DrippyTown #4, Warburger (Slovenia), MungBeing, Z Magazine, Reproduce & Revolt: A Graphic Toolbox for the 21st Century Activist (AK Press), Celebrate People’s History (Feminist Press), and The San Diego Reader.

Who is Jean Smith:

Jean Smith is the author of two published novels and a two-time recipient of Canada Council for the Arts awards as a professional writer of creative fiction. Excerpts of her fiction and articles on culture have appeared in Village Voice, NPR online, the American Book Award winning anthology Sounding Off!: Music as Resistance / Rebellion / Revolution, The Globe & Mail, the New York Foundation of Arts' Current magazine, Rolling Stone, Review of Contemporary Fiction, McSweeney's, and 3:AM Literary Magazine. Editors at Magnet and MungBeing Literary Magazine nominated excerpts of Smith’s fiction for the 2010 Pushcart Prize.

AMERICAN LABOUR:

BETTER CONDITIONS FOR US GUESTWORKERS:

All across the "developed" world temporary workers, often referred to as "guestworkers" are employed usually at much lower wages and longer hours than workers in the country they are "imported to". Here's an item from the Jobs With Justice group asking all US citizens to support legislation that would extend equal labour rights to 'guestworkers' in that country.

◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘
Support Collective Bargaining Rights for ALL workers‏

Every year, thousands of workers come to the United States via the H-2B guestworker visa program. Under this program, a workers' visa is tied to his or her employer, giving their bosses a great deal of control over their lives. All too often, workers in the US on the H-2B visa find themselves in unfair, unsafe, or even illegal work situations, but because their immigration status is tied to their employer, it is very difficult to organize for better working conditions. You may remember the story of Hilario Jimenez, a guestworker who escaped company housing to expose his employers for using taxpayer money to exploit migrant workers while excluding local workers from jobs.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. On March 17, 2011, the National Guestworker Alliance won a major victory and a vindication of five years of organizing, advocacy, and litigation as the Department of Labor (DOL) proposed new regulations of the H-2B non-agricultural visa program. The proposed regulations would ensure that workers in the U.S. through this program are not trapped in debt to recruiters and do not face retaliation for organizing to become members of workers’ centers or unions. The new regulations would also ensure that employers keep their promises to workers about the type of work, working conditions, and hours they will have, and that if they break the rules they are punished.

Big businesses are gearing up to fight these new rules that would protect workers’ rights.

Support the rights of ALL workers to organize! The DOL is accepting comments on the new regulations until May 17th.

CLICK HERE TO MAKE YOUR COMMENTS TO THE DEPARTMENT OF LABOR.

Please personalize the sample comments below.

I believe in dignified work, just migration, and equality for all workers. [ Include your personal experience/ opinion on why these rights are important for guestworkers and U.S. workers].

The current H-2B program does not protect workers. Under the current rules, debt, retaliation, and a lack of enforcement block workers from organizing and defending their rights. Any time a worker’s visa is tied to his employer, the employer has a lot of control.

I support DOL’s new proposed rules for the H-2B program because I believe:

1) Workers should not be trapped in Debt. Employers should pay the costs of a workers’ travel, visa, and recruitment for an H-2B job. U.S. employers should be responsible for actions by their agents and recruiters.

2) Employers should keep with their promises about the job. Employers should have to comply with their promises about the type of work, working conditions, and hours. Job contractors should not be allowed to bring in H-2B workers. Workers should receive copies of the paperwork filed with the government describing their job so they can defend their rights.

3) Workers should not face retaliation for organizing. Employers should not retaliate against workers who organize and become members of Workers’ Centers or unions. DOL should protect a worker’s right to continue working and not face deportation if the employer retaliates against him.

4) Employers who break the rules should be punished. They should have to pay the workers what they are owed. If they break the rules, they should not be able to bring in more H-2B workers. Workers should be able to participate in the administrative processes to make sure this happens. Workers are experts on their workplace and have the information to help make sure employers cannot continue to break the rules and exploit future workers.

I support the more detailed comments of the National Guestworker Alliance. They are a membership organization of guestworkers, and they know the solutions to make this program more fair for the workers and their families.