Sunday, May 16, 2010

Interesting Labor Write-Up

Jessica Mayrers piece in the Independent highlights exactly why The Wobblies are the only ones with a coherent perspective on today's labor struggles. We want to thank FW Bostrom for putting himself out there in this very public forum and articulating a structural analysis that no one else interviewed came anywhere close to. I also want to critique some of the other points of view as they demonstrate perfectly why industrial unionism is the only way forward for worker power.

Many of us know and like Mark Anderlik and appreciate the efforts he puts into the Central Labor Council ( and his participation at our recent May Day Event) but when the article states that only two members of Unite Here took part in the Wells Fargo demonstration you get a sense of how desperate the decline of private sector organized labor really is.

As I see it the problem lies in their limited politics and set of demands. For far too long all these AFL-CIO unions did was bargain for wages and benefits. They settled contracts. They got theirs and cared little about the plight of the worlds exploited workforce until that workforce began to take the jobs, the good manufacturing jobs, and did them well at low wages. These same unions mocked the IWW for it's criticism of the capitalist system and it's goals of true worker power but of course, just as we predicted, global labor has been set against each other to every ones detriment.

Ex-Congressman Pat Williams, posing as a labor supporter, inadvertently explains why the mainstream approach is flawed when he quotes his business- owning father's philosophy: "I'm trying to protect my profits. But I'm trying to do so in a way that I know there will be a little jingle in the pockets of our workers because they'll spend in our restaurants."

We don't want "A Little Jingle"! while the boss gets the business and the profit. And parasites like Montana Chamber of Commerce Pres. Webb Brown wouldn't be able to say inanities like "I think most folks want to do what's right for employees" if workers actually controlled the means of production. Presenting a sentimental picture of "Mom and Pop shops" is a canard. Ask yourself who was really better; the nice slave owner or the cruel one? The "nice" one was actually more effective at perpetuating an evil system and "mom and pop" worship the same capitalist system as Halliburton.

It is time for Anderlik and Houseman and Williams to understand the historical dynamic driving unionism into decrepitude. Workers are in an ideological battle for real power and they can no longer pretend they can "cooperate" with capitalism. They must drive it out of existence or continue their decline.

Dave Jones
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Sunday, April 11, 2010

That Time Again

Mayday is not just a celebration of international workers solidarity. It is also a universally recognized signal of distress. In these times of high unemployment, huge wealth and wage disparity and general disregard for unionism, I think it fitting we incorporate both these meanings in this years event.

Saturday May 1 at 12:00 noon Wobblies and other working class members and allies will gather at Kiwanis Park in Missoula (South of the Library, on the river) to enjoy some music by local bands ( to be announced)and some fiery oratory urging direct action now! It is also possible we may get a sighting of Sir Michael Smurfits $70 million dollar yacht as he gallantly sails by.

Join us to celebrate our proud heritage of struggle for control of the wealth WE and WE ALONE create. Learn what you can do to help sink Sir Michaels profit driven boat once and for all.

For more info call Dave at 363 5292
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Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Dreams of His Father?

The announcement tonight that President Obama will escalate the war in Afghanistan will leave a lot of people depressed and cynical. Combined with the administrations over-all lack of progressive policy, much less a shift in capitalist-imperialist ideology, this latest blow can have several effects on those who were invested in the " Hope for Change We Can Believe In" slogans of so-called "democratic" politics. They will either retreat into apathy and dissociation or they may be shocked into a further radicalized analysis. Much depends on the organization of those with positive, alternative narratives such as the IWW.

Combined with the economic shock of failed Market dogma and the realization that climate catastrophe is inevitable, this continuation of a War Without End on Terror should be the final blow, the final betrayal, that lifts the veil behind which too many American workers have been willing to blindly dream for escape. A general disgust with political parties, spectacularized culture and grotesque consumerism may coalesce into positive transformation if we can find the energy and the courage to engage everyday people in dialogue and if we inspire others through loud, risky, direct action which challenges illegitimate, corrupt, venal authority head on.

Unemployment, home foreclosures, falling wages and foreign wars are all connected in ways that the IWW has been talking about throughout it's proud history. At every kitchen table, in every workplace lunchroom, on every street corner and local gathering place, people will be asking hard questions about their core beliefs. They will be confused, frightened and worried and we need to share our ideas about Industrial Unionism with folks and welcome them to a safe community committed to real justice.
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Tuesday, October 6, 2009

We're Back!

I thought the commemoration event came off great. We had good participation, good press and some solid gains in terms of recognition, new members, new collaborations and the promise of an actual monument celebrating some proud Wobbly history. Lots and lots of credit has to go to FW Vicki Watson for her untiring efforts and organizational skills. That is another good reason to do these kinds of events, in my opinion, the capacity it builds in our members to do the actual work of day to day organizing. That means showing up for meetings, returning phone calls, sending out emails, meeting with people from all walks of life in the community and showing them we are reasonable radicals.

Some might wonder at the connection between free speech and labor organizing but I don't think it is too much of a stretch to say building democratic workplaces and a democratic society are linked by the necessity of building a democratic culture. Power is afraid of free speech, it wants weak citizens willing to let others think and speak for them. Actively engaged citizens and a lively discourse are the last things Capital wants to see! Workers who have re-learned how to think and speak will be way harder to keep under the bosses thumb.

Moving forward, we have a new Secretary/Treas. ,Me, troutsky (aka Dave Jones),and hopefully two new delegates, John from N Carolina (sorry I don't remember your last name) and Brent. Casey has volunteered to work on a new, more user-friendly listserve platform and Fig and Dustin agreed to deal with merchandise. I would like to express my appreciation for the incredible job Jay Bostrom has done as interim Sec/ Treas., a job that fell into his lap by de-fault.

Lets all step up this winter and keep momentum and energy level high. Show up at First Friday Free Speech, attend meetings and provide input, make this YOUR GMB. In solidarity, Dave
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Tuesday, September 8, 2009

The Upcoming Commemoration

On Friday October 2nd the Two Rivers General Membership Branch of the IWW will celebrate the one hundred year anniversary of Missoula's most important historical event, our nations first struggle over the exercise of free speech rights.

in 1909 the city began enforcing an ordinance preventing labor organizers and others from speaking on street corners. As the famous Wobblie organizer Elizabeth Gurley Flynn describes in her autobiography "Rebel Girl", "We sent out a call to all foot-loose rebels to come at once- to defend the Bill of Rights."

As each of the "rebels" took to the soapbox on the corner of Front and Higgins they were immediately arrested, soon filling the jails of Missoula, where they "disrupted the citizenry with their ruckus". On Oct. 2nd the city capitulated and declared that IWW orators could speak wherever and whenever they chose. Following this victory Flynn and her fellow agitators took the fight to Spokane and Aberdeen Wash.,Kansas City and Fresno Calif.,where they taught a young nation that rights are only as strong as the hearts of those willing to stand up for them.

The Two Rivers chapter will start the festivities with an open soap box at 5:00 pm on the corner of Front and Higgins Street Missoula and followed with a re-enactment beginning at 6:00. From there we will go to the upstairs theatre at the Union Hall on East Main Street to view the film "Jailed for Their Words" beginning at 7:00 pm. Following the screening there will be a short discussion on the current work of the IWW. The public is invited to attend and participate.

For more information contact Dave Jones at 363 5292 email at flyfeverdj@hotmail.com
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Friday, March 13, 2009

This Time Around- A Response to Progressives

It is not just"free market" capitalism which has failed us in this current global crisis. It should also be recognized that social democracy has also failed to do what it promised, that is , empower the state to protect it's citizens from the deprivations of capitalism and redistribute it's product equitably. After the last great Global Depression, when laissez faire capitalism proved itself both unstable and brutally savage, social unrest brought upon a compact between governments and markets. Unfortunately for those who still believe a social democratic solution will again save society, I believe history is a lesson in how capitalist ideology will always work to successfully undermine this compact and the Right will forever insist on it's "free markets" until we once and for all bury the profit system.

Opposed to social democracy stands the proud tradition of democratic socialism which always stood by the Marxian tenet that capitalism would end in crisis and that it is the socialists job to organize and articulate the possible forms of the new society which will replace the old. This does not mean a socialist cannot work for pragmatic goals such as pensions or health care within the "shell", only that we must always keep the eventual goal clearly in our minds as we do so. The problem for us to solve is how we divide our energy between the two projects. I also don't think it is necessary to say "this crisis is the definitive end of capitalism" as we explain the values we think would make the new society superior. It might be the next crisis or the next, it might come through a ballot box or it might come through a strike, but eventually the system is unsustainable from the point of profit, from the point of ecosystems and from the point of justice.
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Monday, February 2, 2009

What Is To Be Done?

The crisis of economic collapse will affect everyone but it is workers who will bear the brunt of the pain. They will be asked to work harder, to expect less, and to be patient in their misery. Many will be searching for answers as to "what went wrong?". After all, they played by the rules, they bought into every aspect of the American Dream as it was advertised, they did just as they were told and their reward is standing in line at a food bank and knowing they could lose everything over a health emergency for which they have no insurance. They look to the "experts" for answers and hear the same message reinforced over and over again. "It is just another recession" say the pundits and media,"after all the over-capacity is cleared out of the system and the bubble deflated we can get back to capitalism as usual."

What workers don't understand ( their heads filled with "liberal" and "conservative" mush) is that HUMAN LIVES are the "over-capacity" that is to be eliminated and bubbles and imperialism are the engines of a state-capitalist economy. Attempts will be made to create a "kinder, gentler" house of cards so as to avoid social unrest but the only real innovation will be the creation of a more elaborate facade to hide the theft perpetrated by one class from another.

So what can workers do? All the decision making seems to be in the hands of politicians and academics and the corporate pirates who made off with the last thirty years worth of wealth. Should workers want the "bailout" to succeed? Should workers support the "Stimulus Plan"? Should workers fight other workers to keep their jobs and be happy it is not THEM getting the pink slip?

I say NO. I say Workers should organize and force an end to the system which only serves to exploit them. Because they are not organized they are powerless and don't sense any possibility for determining their own future. Because they are not organized they thought voting for Democrats was their only possibility for exercising their power. A united force that was unwilling to "work harder" or "sacrifice more" could at this crucial moment demand full ownership and control and get it. They could scrap the absurd system of thievery, barbarity and inefficiency known as capitalism and design their own system of production, distribution and allocation. One that was fair, sustainable, and democratic. If not NOW,... WHEN ?
Dave Jones aka Troutsky
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Saturday, December 20, 2008

Article on Employee Free Choice Act







Unions: A Surprise American Favor

December 20, 2008 By Dick Meister


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You certainly wouldn't think that most Americans approve of unions. After all, only about 12 percent of those who work for a living are union members.

But despite that low percentage, and despite the frequent anti-union messages delivered by some of the country's most influential corporate and political leaders, a new Gallup poll shows that almost 60 percent of the people surveyed approved of unions. Less than 30 percent disapproved.

Most of the support for unions comes from Democrats and independents. It works out to 72 percent of Democrats favoring unions, 63 percent of independents favoring them - but only 38 percent of Republicans in favor.

Almost two-thirds of those polled believed that unions should have more influence, or at least the same amount of influence, as now. Only about one-third said they wanted unions to have less influence.

Other polls have also shown strong public support for unions. One of the most significant showed that more than three-fourths of Americans support enactment of strong laws to protect the right of workers to decide freely on whether they want their workplaces to be unionized.

The National Labor Relations Act is supposed to guarantee that, but the law is only barely enforced and is greatly in need of strengthening.

Studies show that thousands of employers regularly intimidate workers who support or attempt to organize unions. They often fire or threaten to fire them or otherwise punish them, despite the law.

Employers order supervisors to spy on organizers. They force workers to attend meetings at which employers describe unions as evil dues-grubbing outsiders. They often claim - falsely- that unionization will lead to pay cuts, layoffs, outsourcing of work or even force them out of business.

The legal penalties for such actions are slight - usually small fines at most. Often the fines are not even imposed. And workers fear complaining to the government about violations because it usually takes months - if not years - for the government to act, and the complaining workers could meanwhile be fired.

That keeps many workers from even trying to exercise their union rights. Surveys show, in fact, that more than 60 million non-union workers want to unionize but won't try because they fear employer retaliation. And for good reason: Every year, more than 60,000 workers who do try to organize unions are punished, half of them fired.

There's a remedy for that - the Employee Free Choice Act that's been before Congress for several years. It would greatly increase the penalties on employers who violate workers' union rights, fining them up to $20,000 per violation. And employers who stall in contract negotiations with workers who vote to unionize - another common tactic - would have the contract terms determined in mediation or dictated by an arbitrator.

The key provision of the proposed law would grant union recognition on the showing of union membership cards by a majority of an employer's workers, rather than holding an election, as is now done in most cases. The law was like that originally, with no lengthy election campaigns and thus less opportunity for employers to intimidate workers.

Opponents of the Free Choice Act have seized on that so-called card check provision as a violation of democratic principles. They claim it would deny workers the basic democratic right of a secret ballot. But there are at least two major flaws in that argument:

The Free Choice Act says if a majority of an employer's workers ask for unionization to be determined by a secret ballot election rather than by a card check, an election will be held. Secondly, those union representation elections that opponents of the proposed law like so much are in themselves serious violations of basic democratic principles.

Employers now openly violate the provisions of the Labor Relations Act that govern election campaigning. They electioneer among voters at their workplaces any time they wish, while prohibiting organizers from entering the premises or even posting pro-union material. And they require voters to attend pre-election meetings at which only the employer's side is presented.

What's more, the voting is held on the employer's property, with voters escorted to the polls by employer representatives. And employers who lose elections can delay recognizing the results for years. That's democracy?

The Free Choice Act passed the House handily last year, but failed to get the 60-vote majority to overcome a Republican filibuster in the Senate. Chances seem much better this year, in part because of strong support by President-elect Obama, who was a co-sponsor of the measure in the Senate and has pledged his continued strong support, as have most Democratic members of Congress.

The AFL-CIO's campaign for the law is one of organized labor's biggest ever, involving millions of dollars and millions of members. But the opposition is waging what's shaping up as an even more expensive effort, the biggest anti-union campaign in many years. It's being waged by many powerful corporate employers, the entire Republican establishment, U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other influential stalwarts of the anti-union right.

They may think they have a majority of Americans on their side, since such a small percentage of workers belong to unions. But even should they win their battle with organized labor, the polls make clear that a significant majority of Americans nevertheless support the unions that the powerful opponents of free choice would destroy.

Dick Meister is a San Francisco-based journalist who has covered labor and political issues for a half-century. Contact him through his website, www.dickmeister.com.




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Thursday, December 18, 2008

Tis the Season of Sadness


I have never been very fond of the Xmas season.  It is not a very socially acceptable, and verboten with the kids, to have a negative attitude about the season of giving. I have struggled mightily to reform my attitude, but to little success.


But this holiday season many people are struggling not with bad attitudes about Xmas but with a dark mood.  The families in Iraq and Afghanistan who are living under a  hail of death from the sky, and those of us here who extend them our vigilant compassion, feel the weight of sadness acutely. The growing ranks of the homeless, many of them families, will have little to lighten their mood.  The growing number of folks struggling without, or with inadequate, medical coverage, many (19,000 last year) who face avoidable deaths as a result of lack of access to needed medical care, face a crushing sadness.  The hundreds of thousands of workers being fired and laid off on the eve of Xmas have little to celebrate. The victims of Katrina who STILL are without help must struggle with bitterness rather than inviting joy.  The vast numbers of young people who watch their futures foreclosed for lack of jobs or affordable education may be tempted to find joy in a bottle or a syringe. And no such list can be a complete inventory of those who's Xmas stocking is filled with sadness due to the tidal wave of injustice that is crashing over the world. The majority of whom will never reach our attention. And such a list is being added to by the moment as the forces of greed consume the earth and its people.  But individually we can summon the gumption to seek some happiness of some kind, hopefully from the companionship of family and friends, and if out of nothing more than spite, spit in the face of adversity and suffering and enjoy some good feeling.  I certainly hope so.


In the mean time the news, known and less known, relentlessly pounds us down.  I feel especially for all those folks who invested their hope for better times in recent presidential politics.  Personally, I had little hope that the verbiage about CHANGE was little more than window dressing for the reality of LITTLE OR NO CHANGE. Expect little, disappointed less. But I feel for those who sincerely hoped and worked for a better government in Washington.  How can it feel to these people to watch the daily parade of appointments of high level administrative officials who's record is one of support for the same policies that have so stricken the country over the last several decades of corrupt leadership?


But hope is an irrational feeling. It's purpose is to allow us to continue on in spite of it all, and in situations of great stress, such as we are experiencing now, it is the main and last defense against despair and depression.  So I say to those who still cling to hope of short term salvation, keep it up, its good for you and its good for me to see you exercising your defenses.  I too have hope, but it is the paradoxical sort that expects things to get better only after they get as bad as we can possibly imagine.  It is not the kind of hope that most people need or wisely want.


Who knows?  Maybe Obama is some kind of wizard who will charm the dragons of destruction that he is inviting into government and surprise us all.  Go ahead and have such irrational day dreams, but while you are at it I suggest that you do what you can to protest.  For instance I just signed a petition against the appointment of former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack to be the next Secretary of Agriculture at the Organic Consumers Association's web site ( http://www.care2.com/news/go/989157 ).  Any such forms of resistance, whether or not they can be seen as effective, can be considered an Xmas gift to everyone.  So, ultimately in this season of giving the best gift is to give a damn and keep stubbornly giving.


Happy holidays,

herb

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Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Proposal From FWs Del Ducas

Our Organizing Approach Isn’t Working; So Let’s Try Something Radical

By Kristin and Jim Del Duca

Have you ever wondered why our union, which we consider to be the most valuable in the history of the planet, has become so small in numbers? With capitalism running rampant across the globe, slavery and exploitation at an all time high, our planet’s life support systems starting to melt down, and workers losing their jobs and homes at a record breaking pace, why aren’t we IWW members numbering in the tens of millions instead of a couple thousand? Wouldn’t you say these questions are vitally relevant?

We won’t waste time restating the OBU’s philosophy, history, or how time has proven that we, of all the unions in the world, understood long ago what needs to be done before the workers will enjoy their fair share of this earth’s bounty. There is no point in preaching to the choir. What we will put before you members is our observation that WE ARE FAILING to make measurable progress towards achieving our goal of a Worker’s World. We have the vision, experience, and organizational structure to accommodate and empower MILLIONS of workers. The fact that we only have a few thousand card-carrying Wobblies means that our current approach to organizing and recruitment simply isn’t working and should be scrapped A.S.A.P. I don’t know who said it originally, but some smart person once offered, “Insanity is repeating the same behavior and expecting a different result.” Well, we are crazy to continue what we have been doing when the results are worse than miserable.

When this union of ours was most powerful and admired, with hundreds of thousands of members and supporters, they didn’t have the Internet or cell-phones for communication. They had to stick a stamp on a letter or spend a day’s pay on an operator-assisted long distance telephone call. There was no such thing as a DVD. If they wanted to witness a speech they had to travel, wait, brave the cops, and hope they had train fare to get home. The list of inconveniences is a long one, but the point we want to bring up here is that despite all the trouble they got the word out to those who wanted to hear it and welcomed every worker who was ready to carry the Red Card and practice Direct Action. We’ll say this again: They got the word out so everyone knew about what the IWW is, and they welcomed everyone who wanted to be a part of our movement. So why aren’t we doing this today? We can hear the whines now…”But we’re doing everything we can….” To those spouting weak excuses for poor performance we must respectfully say “Like Hell we are!”

Our train of thought about this situation got started when we weren’t able to attend an Organizers Training seminar a few months ago. Yes, we had been puzzled before then about why practically no one had heard of the IWW and what we are fighting for. We had heard about the One Big Union from our elders and from references in old radical literature, but thought that the IWW had closed up shop half a century ago. It was a Google search on the Internet that led to our becoming members. Pure serendipity. We don’t think that depending on luck is the way to build a union. So the story goes back to how we missed the organizing seminar and thought “Wouldn’t it be great if there was a DVD that we could learn this information from?” Sounds simple enough, doesn’t it? With the Internet and You-tube we could be empowering thousands of workers a day, with exponential growth in our unions membership. Even more importantly, we could be teaching Direct Action and Worker Solidarity on a worldwide scale, with the time-tested methods of the Old IWW, the union that was about RESULTS, and getting the goods NOW.

We promptly wrote to the Organizing Committee and GHQ, certain that an idea like this would catch fire like a dry forest in July. Much to our surprise, they didn’t like the idea. The most positive feedback we got from the Main Office folks was, (paraphrased) “A DVD to augment our organizing seminars might be good, but we feel that the skills of organizing are too complex to be communicated in any way other than in person.” Furthermore, if we wanted to make it we would be on our own. It is tempting to speculate that power and control is very important to some people within the very union that is founded upon de-centralization of power and individual self-determination within the collective. Ironic, isn’t it?

We were not only shocked at this stone-age attitude, but we also couldn’t believe that this view reflected that of the general membership. So we sent about a hundred emails out to Branches all over the world. Guess what? Those folks who wrote back were 100% in support of the idea. This would suggest that the elected officials in charge of organizing and recruitment are out of touch with current needs and wishes of the rank and file. That is why this article is being offered in the GOB. The Capitalists are no longer relying on door-to-door salesmen to disseminate their message. They use the most up to date marketing strategies and methods and they are kicking our collective tails in the propaganda and organizing arenas. For us to continue to rely upon Guru-to-disciple organizing will only yield more success for Capital.

The strategy that we are proposing is that of producing a radical recruitment/organizing video for free electronic and other distribution. A working title could be “How to be a Successful Wobbly and a Labor Radical”. It would teach who we are, where we came from, where we are all going together, and how to implement Direct Action, Worker Solidarity, and Getting the Goods. These principles apply to every worker around the globe and do not need to be country specific at all in terms of laws, etc. It is our heart-felt belief that there are literally hundreds of thousands of workers who will join the IWW if they can be made aware that we exist and MEAN BUSINESS! We also assert that hundreds of thousands of other workers who will not become IWW members would nevertheless use our strategies and tactics to better there own conditions if only supplied with the tools. What are we waiting for?

Maybe this idea is a lousy one and won’t produce the hoped for results. If it doesn’t prove successful we’ll dump it, learn from our mistakes, and try something else. The important thing here is that we have to become aggressive about achieving our goals and producing recognizable results. If we want to burn down the theoretical Capitalist forest then we have got to set ten thousand little fires in every part of it so there will be no chance of their killing the flames. Every DVD or download would be a match set to kindling. We want to see those little sparks flying all over the world, and soon.

Please contact us at delducja@gmail.com if you want to be part of this project. There is no question that we will need plenty of help. In Total Solidarity for the One Big Union, Kristin & Jim.
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Thursday, December 4, 2008

The conundrum of extreme wealth


I often find myself puzzling about why the general public, including many in journalism and academia who should know better, have such a hard time noticing that the plutocracy is in the process of dismantling the US and the rest of the world's economy and condemning the world to generations of poverty, disease, despair, death and decay.  An objective look at the predictable effects of extreme wealth concentration, neglect of basic services, education, agricultural fertility, ecological destruction and induced stupidity by means of mass media manipulation, indicates that we are nearing the bottom of a deep hole with no hope of climbing out any generation soon.  Historically the current phase of world civilization resembles most the period when Europe was headed into the Dark Ages.  Some perceptive academics have caught on, but very, very few.  The only candid portrayal of the situation being the one presented by Jane Jacobs in her last book, Dark Age Ahead (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Age_Ahead)


Then it came to me this morning while doing the washing.  We have a pervasive fundamentalist belief that is so strongly held across the world that no one is really aware of its blinding effect.  It is a religious belief in Progress.  People find it impossible to believe that we could be led deliberately into decline. Something like this happened toward the end of the Roman Empire.  Pax Romana was such an amazing success, on a scale, in terms of general improvement of standards of living and personal security, comparable to the Industrial Revolution, that even as the institutions of the Roman state were becoming hollow caricatures of themselves, even as banditry, pestilence and war were depopulating large swaths of the Empire, even as barbarian tribes were routinely sacking great Roman cities, the general population continued to believe in the glory of Roman civilization.  Then, as now, the vested interests of a very narrow, hyper-wealthy segment of the Roman citizenship, were working actively against the interests of the general population as they savaged the machinery of the empire in the process of concentrating their personal wealth at the expense of everyone else.


These days it is nearly impossible to read any progressive screed without encountering advice about what we need to do, as a world wide society, to ward off climate destruction, bring the population explosion under control, improve the lives of the poor and bring an end to war.  The brilliance of many of these proposals is startling and the conclusion, that at least I come to, is that saving the world is not a technical problem.  It is a political problem.  It is a problem of concentrated power that, in every instance, is working against positive change and for a regression to a feudalistic form of order, euphemistically referred to in the inner sanctums of power as the New World Order.


Great wealth and power seems to have the effect of transforming otherwise well educated and modern people into stone cold troglodytes content to see the rest of humanity suffer in the extreme in order to glorify their unopposed dominance.  The spiritual decay induced by wealth was hinted at in the biblical parable of the camel and the eye of the needle. Our fortune lies not in our stars but in our hearts, and in our quest of avarice we abandon hope in the future in favor of the coin of the present.


The single most powerful predictor of a societies health and longevity is economic equality.  Though pockets of equality still exist, generally secondary, as with Western Europe, to their ability to parasitize the third world economies, the overall, worldwide reality is of rapidly increasing inequality and the emergence of mass abject poverty.  The dominant reality, in our age of splendid achievements and excesses for the few, is of an accelerating downhill course that is headed for the edge of a steep cliff, and no realistic possibility of a reversal of this trend is easily imagined.


A Short History of Progress is a book-length essay by Ronald Wright published in 2004.  In this insightful, and I think little appreciated study, Wright contemplates just what I am talking about here.  I highly recommend it for any thoughtful reader.  He lays out in a concise and scholarly way the facts of past misadventures of civilization, their paths to eventual collapse and the lost opportunities that could have saved them from destruction.  But I guess, not surprisingly for the author of a popular book, he ends up challenging us to not make the same mistakes.  He, like all the progressive thinkers, prescribes a choice of intelligent innovations that can save us from falling off the cliff.  But of course the real situation is not that we lack the ability to make intelligent choices, it is who is making the intelligent choices.  The troglodytes of extreme wealth may be primitive in their mental stance, but they are far from being unintelligent.  For greatly concentrated power the intelligent choice, the best service of self interest, is the promotion of a general decay that leaves them high and dry, secure in their castles defended by their armored knights and supremely superior to the groveling rabble at the gates.  The primitive human animal lusts for the adoration of a court and impunity of action.  Once you  have nearly everything the only thing left is to see that no one else has anything at all.

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Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Lemons Into Lemonade

Fellow workers, Here is the Op Ed piece I worked up. I would appreciate comments, suggestions and discussion and if I get three yeas I will send it off to Missoulian with suggested edits.

Dave Jones
aka www.troutsky.blogspot.com/

While the global economic meltdown and resulting recession will undoubtedly be a time of challenge and hardship for working citizens all around the world, it also presents opportunities for deep, lasting change not seen for generations. Due to it’s spectacular failure,the very logic of neo-liberalism is being questioned and new models discussed. Issues like fairness and sustainability are rising to the forefront. Here in the US, the country with the most responsibility for precipitating this collapse, the working class also carries a responsibility. It is incumbent on us to see that solutions for recovery go beyond mere re-regulation and involve a fundamental re-ordering of relative power in society. The larger political questions we face are: what form will a rescue take and who will pay for it?

Because the burden for any rescue will fall, as it always does, on the backs of the workers, it is time to make three demands in return. The first is single payer health care for all citizens. For too long the US has lagged behind the rest of the developed world in providing comprehensive care for all its citizens. The second is a public pension system for all. A dignified, secure retirement with defined benefits should await each worker who has contributed. The third demand should be for a jobs creation program directed at building public infrastructure. Creating a green energy system, localized food systems and carbon free methods of transport will both provide jobs and be an investment in the future.


Of course taking advantage of this opportunity for change will depend on citizens’ ability to correctly identify their interests as workers and to mobilize with a unified voice. This is why we see such an aggressive attack on unions by Big Business and the media which serves them as this crisis unfolds. Only through solidarity will we see not just a bailout for financial markets but a re-invigoration of true democracy and a society which works for all of its citizens. Instead of top-down decrees we call for public discussion. It is time for workers to have a say.

Two Rivers Branch IWW
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Friday, October 10, 2008

Rupture- Possibility

The economic meltdown has generated responses and analysis from many positions but what do the workers have to say? Hard to tell because there exists no medium for worker opinion to surface into the mainstream. Even twenty years ago labor would at least have had a say in negotiations. Economists such as Walden Bellow have made attempts to go beyond the usual CNN-style simplistic platitudes ( Mainstreet vs Wall Street etc.) and look at underlying causes, the contradictions and limits of capitalism such as over -accumulation and the declining rate of profit. He argues persuasively that such 20th century strategies as globalization, financialization and primitive accumulation (expropriation such as US occupation of Iraqi oilfields) are but symptoms of the historic crisis of capital.

Others, such as Naomi Klien, see this as a classic case of the "Shock Doctrine",a convenient disaster for increasing the neoliberal agenda, and certainly the "bailout" provisions seem to be openings for increasing control and monopoly. But what to make of recent nationalizations of banks and the increasing calls for socialization of institutions? Pundits and politicians assure us that "the American worker" will get us out of this mess by WORKING HARDER and increasing their productivity and the unorganized and disoriented masses do seem vulnerable to this rhetoric of national exceptionalism. Many are caught up in the promises of politicians who have no desire whatsoever to disrupt the current structure of power relations but pander to workers concerns and fears.

This is why a response from those organized in the IWW and other unions is imperative. We need to demand an end to the power of capital to dictate the terms and install worker run and worker controlled institutions and structures. We need to "design political projects that can be called post-neoliberal." While we may not be ready to challenge capitalism directly, we can restore democratically controlled state functions such as the regulatory capacity to curb the barbarity of capital and carry out universally inclusive social policies. By "creating new mechanisms of political participation and redefining the links between the social and the political" we can balance the hegemony of the state through "cohabitation with a sizeable private sector" and with socialized properties taking many forms- cooperatives, worker managed and community owned. We are talking about a unique opportunity to rehabilitate the public domain with the universilization of rights and a thoroughgoing de-marketization. Only we, the workers, can make this happen.

quotes are from an essay by Emir Sader
This post is from Dave Jones (again) aka Troutsky
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