Tidbits – May 26, 2022 – Reader Comments: Uvalde School Shootings; Attack on Teachers, Education, Public Schools; Starbucks Union; Dsa and Electoral Politics of the Left; Ozark – The Show; Resources; Announcements; More…
The Daily Sacrifices - In Guns We Trust -- cartoon by Herb Block
The Horrifying Reality -- cartoon by Dr. James MacLeod
Re: The Long Game of White-Power Activists Isn’t Just About Violence (Van Caldwell)
The Super Patriot -- Don Martin - MAD Magazine cartoon
Re: Biden’s Little-Publicized Medicare Privatization Scheme Is Starting To Raise Alarm Bells (Joe Bryak)
Re: How the Attack on Teachers Threatens the Future of Public Schools (Nancy Dulberg)
Re: No More “Normal” (Walli Ann Wisniewski)
Too Heavy a Burden -- cartoon by Mike Luckovich
Re: The Rapidly Growing Starbucks Union in Numbers (A.J. Kempf; Matt Greer; Joseph Barnett; Addison Mercer; Jef Rouner; Graduate Employees' Organization 3550; Kitty Carlisle; Frank Gruba-Mccallister; Jess Ashley; Kristan Overstreet; New York Progressive Action Network)
Re: Amazon Union Victory Shows That Jurisdiction Is Dead (Tevis Burke; Arlene Halfon)
Re: Fox News Suddenly Goes Quiet on ‘Great Replacement’ Theory After Buffalo Shooting (Jim Coughlin)
Re: What’s It Like To Strike? (Rand Wilson)
Call It What It Really Is -- meme
Re: If Degrowth Is Coming, What Does It Propose for Workers? (Carl Davidson)
Re: To Tax the Rich, We Need To Debunk the Myth of Fleeing Millionaires (Carole Kronberg)
Re: Homeless People in the US Are Being Murdered at a Horrific Rate (George Lessard)
Re: Democracy, Strategy, Modes of Struggle: The High-Stakes Strife in DSA
(Marilyn Albert; Eric Cadora)
Re: Ukraine, an Antiwar Dilemma (Robert Fuzesi)
Re: How Everyone Got So Lonely (Sean I Ahern; Jennifer Bowerman)
Re: Was Ozark Actually About the Clintons? (Steve McElroy; Laura Cameron; Heather Smith; Robert Sobel; Beth Schuyler; Taylor Brown; Heidi N Tony Setum; ; Nicholas Schultz; Fred Mason)
Resources:
Thoughts and Prayers Are Not Enough — Poster of the Week (Center for the Study of Political Graphics)
Honor the Sacrifice of Our Brave Children -- sign at an anti gun violence vigil
Recordings from the International Conference ¡No pasarán! Conference 2022 -- Our shared struggle against the far right (transform! europe)
Announcements:
The Pandemic Worker Wave and a New Social Compact - June 2 & 3 (Georgetown University's Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor)
Screening of “The Wobblies” – plus Q&A with director Stewart Bird - June 7 (New York Labor History Association)
The Daily Sacrifices - In Guns We Trust -- cartoon by Herb Block
Herb Block
October 1, 1993
originally published in The Washington Post
available at the Library of Congress
The Horrifying Reality -- cartoon by Dr. James MacLeod
Dr. James MacLeod
May 25, 2022
DrMacLeodCartoons
Re: The Long Game of White-Power Activists Isn’t Just About Violence
“But the explanation for both the choice of targets and the brutality of an attack that killed 10 people can be found in the history of the theory. In the American context, it has in its cross-hairs a host of future targets, among them democracy itself.”
Van Caldwell
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
The Super Patriot -- Don Martin - MAD Magazine cartoon
Don Martin
MAD Magazine Issue #129
September, 1969
Re: Biden’s Little-Publicized Medicare Privatization Scheme Is Starting To Raise Alarm Bells
gulp. I was advised to join up by a well-intentioned friend, and now I regret that I did--I think. Is there any other place I can check this matter out? I didn't know I'd inadvertently bypassed some of my Medicare program. Pardon me for being a slow learner--can you tell me more?
Uh, I realize you can't spend a lot of time with every single person who asks dumb questions, so if you could point me to some other articles, etc. I'd be obliged.
Thanks,
Joe Bryak
Re: How the Attack on Teachers Threatens the Future of Public Schools
This has been going on for about 40 years ???? So sad
Nancy Dulberg
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
(posting on Portside Labor)
Really, you should know that an educated populace is a danger to the status quo. Keeping folks ignorant, having excellent teachers quit, banning books— all part of the plan. Have you heard NPR’s “on point” this morning n Replacement Theory?? Scary stuff.
Walli Ann Wisniewski
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
Too Heavy a Burden -- cartoon by Mike Luckovich
Mike Luckovich
May 22, 2022
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Re: The Rapidly Growing Starbucks Union in Numbers
Boy do people get upset when working people make good living wages and benefits. And a lot of these same people (not all) complain nobody wants to work. Instead of complain its not fair. They might wanna look into how a good Union could improve their benefits (pension, wage, better overtime rates, better health insurance). Are Unions needed for small business? No. They are needed for big business/corporate world. Cry me a river when someone else is improving their situation. Workers stand together, workers win. Corporate world wants kiss asses, or who you know, and stabbing others in the back mentality. 11yr factory worker (chair upholstery) Get a lil ahead then corporate comes out and cuts your rate. Now a 5yr Teamster member (delivery driver) No more cutting this mans rate when they feel like it. So much better when you are rewarded the longer you stay at a company rather than “next man up” mentality.
A.J. Kempf
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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Unions are popular among Americans and it’s only corporations or brainwashed people that don’t like Unions.
Approval of Labor Unions at Highest Point Since 1965
September 2, 2021
Gallup
Matt Greer
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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Unions are the future of America's middle class. This is a good sign. Joining a union isn't always about wages, sometimes it is about being treated with dignity.
Joseph Barnett
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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Joseph Barnett: The “middle class” is an illusion meant to divide workers. These unions are the future of the working class. These are workers
Addison Mercer
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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90 percent success rate is pretty damn good!
Jef Rouner
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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Union power on the rise!
Graduate Employees' Organization 3550
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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Hooray for Starbucks employees! Hate their coffee, but they do make one of the only non-pork breakfast sandwiches around, so I'll be happy to look for that union sticker when I need quick brekkies.
Kitty Carlisle
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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Starbucks workers are showing us the way. Let others join them and make the labor movement strong once more.
Frank Gruba-Mccallister
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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Do we know what percentage of their workforce is union?
Jess Ashley
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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Jess Ashley: hard to tell. They have about 350,000 employees worldwide, but I can’t find a breakdown of just store employees in America. Even so, I’m guessing it’s less than 5 percent so far based on the 6,400 number. On the other hand, up from zero percent a year ago.
Jef Rouner
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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Jess Ashley: Always remember that Starbucks, from its founding, has been aggressively anti-union.
Kristan Overstreet
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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New York Progressive Action Network
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
Re: Amazon Union Victory Shows That Jurisdiction Is Dead
(posting on Portside Labor)
This has been a problem for decades. I have been a member of both the Food and Commercial Workers and the Teamsters. At one point - while a Teamster working at a grocery distribution center - I applied to transfer to one of the stores as that is where much of my experience was at. The stores were under UFCW jurisdiction. I took s*** from both unions in the process and was forced to pull out of the job. I eventually left for non-union Home Depot. When I started looking into getting a union going at HD both unions and the Retail Clerks again argued about jurisdiction and all three said that it would be a waste of their resources to try and organize (going in we had 80% of hourly staffing ready to unionize at our store and similar numbers at several other stores in the area) but the unions could not be bothered and argued about jurisdiction. Of course it never happened.
Tevis Burke
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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No, we don't need "multi-union coalitions"; we need one labor movement with multiple jurisdictions of geography, industry, and workplace. EVERYONE should be included; not just those who work for an industry that has unionized in a location that is unionized. NO competition between unions; one organization. EVERYONE should be covered and being a "member" should be irrelevant. These should NOT be individual fights; it should be one big fight for all workers.
Arlene Halfon
Re: Fox News Suddenly Goes Quiet on ‘Great Replacement’ Theory After Buffalo Shooting
Know the enemy! The evil Rupert Murdoch hates our country and seeks to undermine the democratic process. He feeds lies to his parrots who spew disinformation and nonsense to unsuspecting viewers.
Jim Coughlin
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
(posting on Portside Labor)
The UPS strike was in 1997, not 1987. Otherwise great article!
Rand Wilson
Call It What It Really Is -- meme
Re: If Degrowth Is Coming, What Does It Propose for Workers?
(posting on Portside Labor)
'Degrowth' advocates make a basic error. All economies have three sectors--hardware, software, and wetware, We know what hardware is, factories, cars, clothes, food and such. Software includes everything you can find in a library these days. But wetware? That's the software growing between your ears, all the new know-how and high design. Here's the point: we want the 'knowledge' section to grow toward infinity. Why? Because its only in that way that we can create all the rest with a lighter ecological footprint, with zero waste and other sustainabilities. Full disclosure. This is not new from me. I learned it from Paul Romer, a Nobel winner in Economics.
Carl Davidson
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
Re: To Tax the Rich, We Need To Debunk the Myth of Fleeing Millionaires
Family History: William Tate Kronberg, when he was the City of Dearborn Tax Assessor, wisely (ingeniously) assessed the taxes of the Ford Motor Company (his friend and neighbor, Henry Ford) almost as high as the cost of relocating would have been! He claimed that was a more efficient way to fairly tax the company than counting every nut and bolt among its vast assets!
But his son, (my dad, SEIU Union Organizer, Theodore "Ted" Kronberg) told me that his father also wanted to shift the burden of taxation from Ford's home-owning workers. (William T. Kronberg's sympathy for the exploited working class, expressed in the paper he founded, "The Dearborn Press," was the reason, my dad said, for Henry Ford's founding a competing paper, "The Dearborn Independent.)
With Ford and another wealthy corporation (U.S. Steel) paying roughly A THIRD of its taxes, Dearborn was able to offer its residents such amenities as neighborhood parks, including swimming pools, state-of-the-art public schools and well-maintained vehicles for Police and Sanitation Departments as well as Camp Dearborn!
Carole Kronberg
Re: Homeless People in the US Are Being Murdered at a Horrific Rate
Homelessness is one of the most grotesque horrors of US capitalism. And even worse, according to new reporting by Jacobin, the rate of murders of homeless people has spiked to appalling new highs.
George Lessard
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
Re: Democracy, Strategy, Modes of Struggle: The High-Stakes Strife in DSA
Very good analysis of DSA politics.
Marilyn Albert
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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As a recently new member of the DSA, I read Max Elbaum's article on the deeper issue at work involving the vote to expel Bowman with a nodding head to the integrate and leverage strategy towards the Democratic Party.
However, a couple points are lost on me. First, while the NPC vote came out against expulsion, I know that my Nassau County DSA chapter voted overwhelmingly in favor of expulsion. Where is mention of the results of that more membership driven Opa vote? I would like to know.
Secondly, Elbaum's two-for-one argument that, instead of expelling Bowman, we lost an opportunity to advance understanding of the Palestine BDS movement by not launching a public education campaign around the issue in Bowman's district, is a bit apologistic. After all, expelling Bowman because of the issue is much more likely to raise the profile of the issue and stimulate debate and education among his constituency.
Finally, can we get real. On what planet is voting for military arming of Israel in this day and age anything but a full fledged cow-towing to the Israeli lobby? I mean really; it's not like that vote was some kind of compromise that could raise the profile of the issue or bring his constituents along. Moreover, it's Bowman's job to raise the issue and educate his electorate; not the DSA itself to make up for that inexcusable vote.
Anyway, despite my general agreement with Elbaum on the integrate with and leverage Democratic Party success, Bowman should be held to account and the political strategy behind that inexplicable vote should be too.
Eric Cadora
Justice Mapping
Re: Ukraine, an Antiwar Dilemma
Finally!!!! Instead of the onslaught of the US and Western Media's relentless HATRED and hostility toward Russia -- which was always there and the silence about the Western aggression that continued toward Russia , even after that naive Gorbachev swallowed the supposed peaceful intentions of the predatory West, Russia woke up to what has happened to it. We are spoon fed the endless lies here in the West and Portside which I thought was a cut above it all, ---followed the herd indoctrination I have been astonished by the articles in Portside about this issue! and very upset about it.
Robert Fuzesi
Re: How Everyone Got So Lonely
(posting on Portside Culture)
The New Yorker has degenerated from a venerable journal highlighting the art of the written word and some of the best investigative journalism in the US to a bible of the trust fund artist and manhattan literati.
No surprise that the recent article on loneliness would omit any mention of the fact that the RENT IS TOO HIGH and that young people forced to live with their parents or grandparents or with friends in crowded apartments, working long hours at dead end jobs with little hope for their futures might not be in a love making state of mind.
Sean I Ahern
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I think this article says something important about free market liberalism. It has been a colossal failure in so many ways. People living in care homes and hospitals with ptsd and other metal issues turned onto the streets for the community to look after them. The community couldn’t and didn’t. The needs were just too great. One reason there are so many homeless and addicted individuals now on the streets and in our ravines.
Jennifer Bowerman
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
Re: Was Ozark Actually About the Clintons?
(posting on Portside Culture)
People liked Ozark because Jason Bateman wasn’t particularly stronger or more fierce than really just about anyone. He was just smart. Smarter than everyone else, and the viewer wondered every week how he was going to get out of whatever he had gotten himself into.
So this author thinks it’s about the Clintons???? Talk about a political hack. Even the biggest Clinton Critics can never adequately describe the plot of the so called Clinton scandals. Nobody even understands what Whitewater was. The Ozarks on the other hand was brilliantly written.
Steve McElroy
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/Portside.PortsideLabor
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Interesting correlations and read.
Laura Cameron
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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I hope not…I loved the show and The Clinton’s are a sham
Heather Smith
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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While watching, I actually almost immediately thought of the failed trump foundation, which was fined $2 million dollars for their illegal misuse of all those charitable contributions, and which is now defunct, just like trump university, trump steaks, etc., etc.
Robert Sobel
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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I think the Clinton's are corrupt buy no never reminded me of them.
Beth Schuyler
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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To compare Marty Byrd to Bill Clinton is just plain insulting to Marty's character.
Taylor Brown
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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Great series, awful ending, it was almost like they -in the last episode or two- just gave up, they could’ve done so much more. Very disappointed
Heidi N Tony Setum
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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Heidi N Tony Setum: the ending was incredible it was laced in symbolism that wrapped up the show beautifully
Nicholas Schultz
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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How dare they!
Republicans hypocrites will try everything & anything to put the spotlight off their underground corruption to deflect their crimes on to someone else.
Etc.
The Iraq Iran Contraband wasn’t started by the Clintons but when Bill Clinton got in the WH Republicans tried to lay the blame at his feet knowing full well the Administration before the Clinton’s did.
Fred Mason
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
Where Today?
Griffin Landon, Jordan Kleinburg
Letterpress, 2018
Los Angeles, CA
Tuesday's mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvade, Texas marks the 30th shooting at a K-12 school in 2022. There have been over 200 mass shootings in the United States so far this year.
Thoughts and prayers are not enough. Shame on the politicians who kowtow to the NRA. We need action!
Sources
Center for the Study of Political Graphics
3916 Sepulveda Blvd, Suite 103, Culver City, CA 90230
T: 310.397.3100 / F: 310.397.9305
admin@politicalgraphics.org
Honor the Sacrifice of Our Brave Children -- sign at an anti gun violence vigil
The ¡No pasarán! conference brought together activists and experts from Europe and beyond to plan the most effective ways of challenging the far right. They shared experiences, analyses, and strategies for mobilisation and action. Find here the workshops' recordings!
Over the last decade, the rise of the far right has accelerated globally, in its biggest upsurge since the 1930s. It takes many different forms, but it presents a real threat to our democracy and diverse communities wherever it is found. From street attacks and mobilisations to government office, they use Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, xenophobia and racism to spread hate and fear. They attack trade unionists and the left, and the rights and liberties of us all; the onslaught on women’s rights, in particular, has been severe. They used ‘lawfare’ and coups to overthrow legitimate governments and exclude left candidates. Their increasing paramilitary orientation, fake news and anti-fact approach presents an enormous challenge, particularly during the pandemic. The far right has weaponised the pandemic in its own political interests, and the economic crisis that is running alongside the virus is being exploited by the far right to build its social and political base. But there are victories too, where the people mobilise for a different vision of society and defeat the hate and fear. We must build that alternative together.
Organised by the Party of the European Left, Die LINKE, and transform! europe
The Pandemic Worker Wave and a New Social Compact
Thursday, June 2 - Friday June 3, 2022 | Virtual
You are invited to join Georgetown University's Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor for a virtual gathering: “The Pandemic Worker Wave and a New Social Compact: A Public Forum on Working-Class Prosperity in a Transformed World,” June 2-3, 2022.
The convening will explore and amplify the intersection of a fresh wave of global worker activism and new social compacts. It will bring together disparate allies including workers, activists, academics, faith leaders, policy experts, global labor activists, workers, philanthropists, labor organizations, environmentalists, and young people.
Register now to join us for:
- "Rethinking Collective Bargaining," featuring Erica Smiley, Director, Jobs with Justice, Anannya Bhattacharjee, Asia Floor Wage Alliance, and representatives of the CA FAST Act and NYC nail salon campaigns
- "Voting and Democracy in a New Social Compact," with journalist E.J. Dionne, Washington Post
- "Why Are So Many Young Workers Organizing?," with Kim Kelly, journalist and author of Fight Like Hell, with workers organizing at REI, Google and Starbucks;
- "Migration, Climate and Labor," with representatives of the AFL-CIO, ITUC, CUNY, Solidarity Center and MLK Labor;
- Sessions on labor and climate; global gig work; the future of worker cooperatives; the next generation of social partnership; post-pandemic worker safety and health and more.
Explore the schedule and register here.
Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor
37th & O Streets, NW Maguire 209
Georgetown University
Washington, DC 20057
Tuesday, June 7, 2022, 5-7 pm ET
Register Here for the Online Event
(Limited to 100 registrants)
The documentary “The Wobblies” tells the story of the radical labor union the Industrial Workers of the World, the IWW, a.k.a. “The Wobblies” – “one big union” for all unskilled laborers, regardless of race or gender. The film combines rare archival footage, illuminating interviews with union members, period artwork, & songs written by martyred IWW songwriter/ organizer Joe Hill. ”The Wobblies” returns 33 years after first premiering at the 1979 NY Film Festival – in a digitally remastered 4K restoration. Last year “The Wobblies” was inducted into the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress.
Filmmakers Stewart Bird and Deborah Shaffer original goal was to rescue & record an almost completely neglected chapter of American history -- as told by its elderly survivors. “We never imagined then that the themes of labor exploitation, anti-immigrant legislation, and racial and gender discrimination would resonate as strongly 30 years later.”
This ZOOM event is free. It will start promptly at 5 p.m. Please ask your questions for director Stewart Bird in the ZOOM chat. He will answer them immediately after the screening.
Registration required (limited to the first 100 people who sign up)
image - Wobblies_composite
Co-Sponsor: Tamiment Library/New York University
Spread the word