Worker-Owners of America, Unite!
THE Occupy Wall Street protests have come and mostly gone, and whether they continue to have an impact or not, they have brought an astounding fact to the public’s attention: a mere 1 percent of Americans own just under half of the country’s financial assets and other investments. America, it would seem, is less equitable than ever, thanks to our no-holds-barred capitalist system.
But at another level, something different has been quietly brewing in recent decades: more and more Americans are involved in co-ops, worker-owned companies and other alternatives to the traditional capitalist model. We may, in fact, be moving toward a hybrid system, something different from both traditional capitalism and socialism, without anyone even noticing.
Some 130 million Americans, for example, now participate in the ownership of co-op businesses and credit unions. More than 13 million Americans have become worker-owners of more than 11,000 employee-owned companies, six million more than belong to private-sector unions.
And worker-owned companies make a difference. In Cleveland, for instance, an integrated group of worker-owned companies, supported in part by the purchasing power of large hospitals and universities, has taken the lead in local solar-panel installation, “green” institutional laundry services and a commercial hydroponic greenhouse capable of producing more than three million heads of lettuce a year.
Local and state governments are likewise changing the nature of American capitalism. Almost half the states manage venture capital efforts, taking partial ownership in new businesses. Calpers, California’s public pension authority, helps finance local development projects; in Alaska, state oil revenues provide each resident with dividends from public investment strategies as a matter of right; in Alabama, public pension investing has long focused on state economic development.
Moreover, this year some 14 states began to consider legislation to create public Banks similar to the longstanding Bank of North Dakota; 15 more began to consider some form of single-payer or public-option health care plan.
Some of these developments, like rural co-ops and credit unions, have their origins in the New Deal era; some go back even further, to the Grange movement of the 1880s. The most widespread form of worker ownership stems from 1970s legislation that provided tax benefits to owners of small businesses who sold to their employees when they retired. Reagan-era domestic-spending cuts spurred nonprofits to form social enterprises that used profits to help finance their missions.
Recently, growing economic pain has provided a further catalyst. The Cleveland cooperatives are an answer to urban decay that traditional job training, small-business and other development strategies simply do not touch. They also build on a 30-year history of Ohio employee-ownership experiments traceable to the collapse of the steel industry in the 1970s and ’80s.
Further policy changes are likely. In Indiana, the Republican state treasurer, Richard Mourdock, is using state deposits to lower interest costs to employee-owned companies, a precedent others states could easily follow. Senator Sherrod Brown, Democrat of Ohio, is developing legislation to support worker-owned strategies like that of Cleveland in other cities. And several policy analysts have proposed expanding existing government “set aside” procurement programs for small businesses to include co-ops and other democratized enterprises.
If such cooperative efforts continue to increase in number, scale and sophistication, they may suggest the outlines, however tentative, of something very different from both traditional, corporate-dominated capitalism and traditional socialism.
It’s easy to overestimate the possibilities of a new system. These efforts are minor compared with the power of Wall Street banks and the other giants of the American economy. On the other hand, it is precisely these institutions that have created enormous economic problems and fueled public anger.
During the Populist and Progressive eras, a decades-long buildup of public anger led to major policy shifts, many of which simply took existing ideas from local and state efforts to the national stage. Furthermore, we have already seen how, in moments of crisis, the nationalization of auto giants like General Motors and Chrysler can suddenly become a reality. When the next financial breakdown occurs, huge injections of public money may well lead to de facto takeovers of major banks.
And while the American public has long supported the capitalist model, that, too, may be changing. In 2009 a Rasmussen poll reported that Americans under 30 years old were “essentially evenly divided” as to whether they preferred “capitalism” or “socialism.”
A long era of economic stagnation could well lead to a profound national debate about an America that is dominated neither by giant corporations nor by socialist bureaucrats. It would be a fitting next direction for a troubled nation that has long styled itself as of, by and for the people.
By GAR ALPEROVITZ
Gar Alperovitz, a professor of political economy at the University of Maryland and a founder of the Democracy Collaborative, is the author of “America Beyond Capitalism.”
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Oakland OWS Port Action Dec. 12th, 2011
Occupy Members Swarm Oakland Port
"I am getting tired of seeing my neighbors getting hurt and I am fighting the good fight." Says UPWA Leader Charles Smith
(12-12) 11:58 PST OAKLAND -- Almost half the berths at the Port of Oakland have temporarily ceased operations today after hundreds of protesters spent the morning blocking intersections in the port.
Roughly 150 longshoremen on the dayshift were sent home with little to no pay after they were either unable to get to work or the big rigs used to haul containers couldn't reach the berths, said Craig Merrilees, spokesman for the International Longshore Worker's Union (ILWU). Fifty longshoremen are still working today, Merrilees said.
The employees were sent home after the companies that own the different berths in the port decided to shut down and send workers home. "There have been disruptions, there have been distractions, but we are not shut down," said Isaac Kos-Read, spokesman for the port.
The next shift of workers is expected to start later this afternoon and demonstrators have pledged to again disrupt operations.
"We have a lot to be proud of today," said Clarence Thomas, a Longshoreman after getting the text alert from protest organizers saying they had successfully closed the port and were pulling out. Thomas said he supported the movement.
"We're very very happy," added Judy Greenspan, 59, a public school teacher in Richmond. "Despite all the premonitions of violence, this has been peaceful throughout. I hope we can redouble our efforts again this afternoon."
The group of protesters succeeded in stopping a line of big-rigs from entering the Port of Oakland for nearly five hours this morning during their march to shut down the busy cargo terminal.
Organizers have pledged to march to the port and shut down the terminal, one of the busiest on the West Coast. Some unions, including the one representing Oakland teachers, are supporting the day-long strike while others, like the Longshoremen's union, say shutting down the port will harm hard-working stevedores and truck drivers.
Carrying signs saying "Shutdown Wall St. on the Waterfront" about 200 protesters marched the three blocks from the West Oakland BART Station to the port entrances before sunrise today.
The group marchers were met by a line of police officers in riot gear near the intersection of Seventh Street and Middle Harbor Road. Protesters began marching in a circle, preventing trucks from getting through. At least one demonstrator set up a tent in the intersection.
Around 8:45 a.m. two lines of 50 police officers in riot gear marched toward the group and formed a line on one side of the group for 15 minutes. About 25 officers then walked away, seeming to suggest the standoff would continue into the late morning.
Before dawn, one trucker, clearly frustrated, blew his air horn and tried to drive through the crowd.
Some Longshoremen scheduled to begin work at 8 a.m. decided they didn't want to cross a picket line and went home. Others, though, said they needed the money.
"I am here because I am a union member. Unions have been decimated," Charles Smith, 68, a retired wastewater treatment plant worker said as he trudged to the port. "I am getting tired of seeing my neighbors getting hurt and I am fighting the good fight."
Demonstrators are trying to close ports up and down the West Coast. "It's necessary. It is a way to strike back, to show our numbers and show what the people can do," said William Lovell, 44, who said he participated in the now-dismantled Occupy SF camp. "We are politely breaking the rules as gently as we can."
At a news conference this morning, Oakland Mayor Jean Quan said while she agrees with the concerns of the Occupy movement in general, she did not want to see the port closed.
"We're working hard today to keep the port operations going with minimal disruption," Quan said. "We urge the demonstrators who are coming to the port to respect the rights of the 99 percent who are trying to work today and to keep their protest peaceful. So far, it seems to be going well and operations are minimally disrupted. We hope that this will continue for the day."
Dan Siegel, Quan's legal adviser who quit when she supported a raid of the downtown Occupy camp, spent the morning at the protest. He said the mood was almost "festive."
"It started out kind of tense, there were a lot of threats from police and politicians," he said. "I think ultimately we had large enough numbers (that) police decided to pull back and allow us to picket."
Chronicle staff writers Will Kane and Henry K. Lee contributed to this report.
Edited and emphasis by Bloggger
"I am getting tired of seeing my neighbors getting hurt and I am fighting the good fight." Says UPWA Leader Charles Smith
(12-12) 11:58 PST OAKLAND -- Almost half the berths at the Port of Oakland have temporarily ceased operations today after hundreds of protesters spent the morning blocking intersections in the port.
Roughly 150 longshoremen on the dayshift were sent home with little to no pay after they were either unable to get to work or the big rigs used to haul containers couldn't reach the berths, said Craig Merrilees, spokesman for the International Longshore Worker's Union (ILWU). Fifty longshoremen are still working today, Merrilees said.
The employees were sent home after the companies that own the different berths in the port decided to shut down and send workers home. "There have been disruptions, there have been distractions, but we are not shut down," said Isaac Kos-Read, spokesman for the port.
The next shift of workers is expected to start later this afternoon and demonstrators have pledged to again disrupt operations.
"We have a lot to be proud of today," said Clarence Thomas, a Longshoreman after getting the text alert from protest organizers saying they had successfully closed the port and were pulling out. Thomas said he supported the movement.
"We're very very happy," added Judy Greenspan, 59, a public school teacher in Richmond. "Despite all the premonitions of violence, this has been peaceful throughout. I hope we can redouble our efforts again this afternoon."
The group of protesters succeeded in stopping a line of big-rigs from entering the Port of Oakland for nearly five hours this morning during their march to shut down the busy cargo terminal.
Organizers have pledged to march to the port and shut down the terminal, one of the busiest on the West Coast. Some unions, including the one representing Oakland teachers, are supporting the day-long strike while others, like the Longshoremen's union, say shutting down the port will harm hard-working stevedores and truck drivers.
Carrying signs saying "Shutdown Wall St. on the Waterfront" about 200 protesters marched the three blocks from the West Oakland BART Station to the port entrances before sunrise today.
The group marchers were met by a line of police officers in riot gear near the intersection of Seventh Street and Middle Harbor Road. Protesters began marching in a circle, preventing trucks from getting through. At least one demonstrator set up a tent in the intersection.
Around 8:45 a.m. two lines of 50 police officers in riot gear marched toward the group and formed a line on one side of the group for 15 minutes. About 25 officers then walked away, seeming to suggest the standoff would continue into the late morning.
Before dawn, one trucker, clearly frustrated, blew his air horn and tried to drive through the crowd.
Some Longshoremen scheduled to begin work at 8 a.m. decided they didn't want to cross a picket line and went home. Others, though, said they needed the money.
"I am here because I am a union member. Unions have been decimated," Charles Smith, 68, a retired wastewater treatment plant worker said as he trudged to the port. "I am getting tired of seeing my neighbors getting hurt and I am fighting the good fight."
Demonstrators are trying to close ports up and down the West Coast. "It's necessary. It is a way to strike back, to show our numbers and show what the people can do," said William Lovell, 44, who said he participated in the now-dismantled Occupy SF camp. "We are politely breaking the rules as gently as we can."
At a news conference this morning, Oakland Mayor Jean Quan said while she agrees with the concerns of the Occupy movement in general, she did not want to see the port closed.
"We're working hard today to keep the port operations going with minimal disruption," Quan said. "We urge the demonstrators who are coming to the port to respect the rights of the 99 percent who are trying to work today and to keep their protest peaceful. So far, it seems to be going well and operations are minimally disrupted. We hope that this will continue for the day."
Dan Siegel, Quan's legal adviser who quit when she supported a raid of the downtown Occupy camp, spent the morning at the protest. He said the mood was almost "festive."
"It started out kind of tense, there were a lot of threats from police and politicians," he said. "I think ultimately we had large enough numbers (that) police decided to pull back and allow us to picket."
Chronicle staff writers Will Kane and Henry K. Lee contributed to this report.
Edited and emphasis by Bloggger
Thursday, December 8, 2011
1% Attack on Labor Unions (via NLRB)
The Republican war on unions continues apace. On a near-party-line vote Wednesday, the House passed a bill crafted to thwart a National Labor Relations Board decision, made earlier Wednesday, that would entitle workers to a timely vote on unionization once they’ve petitioned for it. By ruling that employers’ legal challenges can be entertained only after a vote, the board effectively denied employers the ability to hold up a vote for weeks, months or even years. Elections delayed, the NLRB essentially said, are elections denied.
The House legislation, by contrast, stipulated that such legal challenges can go forward before the vote. The bill will almost surely go nowhere in the Democratic-controlled Senate, but then, it’s just one foray in the Republicans’ battle to extirpate worker-controlled organizations in America.
E.J. Dionne Jr.
A New Square Deal
In the run-up to Wednesday’s NLRB vote, there was considerable doubt as to whether a vote could even be held. The five-seat board is down to three members. Republicans have vowed not to confirm any more of President Obama’s appointees, and the Supreme Court ruled last year that if the board’s membership fell to just two, it would no longer have the power to issue rulings. In recent weeks a number of Republicans have urged the board’s remaining GOP member, Brian Hayes, to resign, stripping the board of its rule-setting ability. After NLRB Chairman Mark Pearce scaled back the proposed reform, Hayes decided to stay on, though he did vote against Pearce’s modified proposal.
Also Wednesday, one ostensible casus belli for the GOP war on the board was removed when Boeing and the Machinists Union agreed on a new contract, under which the company committed to expand production at its unionized Washington-state factories. In return, the union agreed to drop its complaint to the NLRB against Boeing’s new factory in non-union South Carolina. When the NLRB’s general counsel took up the case, Republicans pounced: The board, they said, was threatening to kill jobs. This week, the general counsel indicated that if the machinists dropped the case, so would he.
But that won’t stop the GOP’s jihad. The term of NLRB member Craig Becker expires this month, which will winnow board membership down to a powerless two. GOP legislators won’t confirm more members as long as Obama is president, nor will they permit a congressional recess during which Obama could make recess appointments. Throughout 2012, then, the organization that governs labor relations in the United States will govern no more: Lower-level labor-board judges can issue rulings, but the board to which such rulings can be appealed will be MIA. Labor disputes will enter a terra incognita: Can they be heard by a court absent a board ruling? Can employers or unions willfully violate labor law with the assurance that the referees are no longer on the field? Conundrums loom.
Some might reasonably wonder why the GOP war persists when union power has already been so greatly reduced. In the mid-20th century, 40 percent of private-sector workers belonged to unions; today, just 7 percent do. But the Republican struggle continues for two reasons. When it comes to elections, unions are still the most potent mobilizers of the Democratic vote — getting minorities to the polls and persuading members of the white working class to vote Democratic. Indeed, Republican gains among working-class whites (whom they carried by an unprecedented 63 percent to 33 percent in 2010) are, above all, the result of the deunionization of that class. An analysis of exit polling over the past 30 years shows that unionized white working-class men vote Democratic at a rate 20 percent higher than their non-union counterparts. For political reasons, Republicans are determined to de-unionize workers even more.
There’s another reason, too. The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis reports that in the third quarter, wages as a share of gross domestic product were the lowest they’ve been since 1929, and compensation (that includes health insurance) as a share of GDP was at its lowest point since 1955. Corporate profits as a share of GDP, by contrast, are the highest they’ve been since 1929. The destruction of private-sector unions has redistributed income to the rich, which is the Republican Party’s raison d’etre.
Which is why the Republican war on unions — which is also the Republican war on the 99 percent — rolls on.
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Students Back Workers' General Strike
UK Students begin wave of occupations to back public sector strikes
David Willetts abandons Cambridge University speech as protesters take over lecture hall to oppose £9,000 tuition fees. Occupied lecture halls and buildings would act as bases for students to plan further action backing strikes by about 3 million public sector workers – expected to be the biggest day of industrial action since the winter of discontent in 1979.
Police at the student protest over university tuition fees and public sector cuts in London on 9 November, when the Met warned baton rounds could be used.
Students are planning a wave of campus occupations and protests in the run-up to nationwide strikes next week, the Guardian has learned.
Occupations called by the student group National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts (NCAFC) ahead of the trade union day of action on 30 November have already happened at Birmingham and Cambridge universities.
Higher education minister David Willetts had to abandon a speech on the Idea of University on Tuesday night after students heckled him from the stage and began occupying Cambridge's largest lecture hall.
The occupations, in opposition to the government's white paper on education reform, which would formalise the £9,000 rise in tuition fees, are expected to break out across the country.
NCAFC said that occupied lecture halls and buildings would act as bases for students to plan further action backing strikes by about 3 million public sector workers – expected to be the biggest day of industrial action since the winter of discontent in 1979.
The group's co-founder, Michael Chessum, said: "It's all terribly unpredictable. We may well see actions and occupations popping up all other the country today and in the coming week."
In front of an audience of more than a hundred, Willetts was forced to sit in a corner of the stage of Lady Mitchell Hall, as students read out a prepared statement.
Student James Jackson said activists from Cambridge Defend Education read out a prepared statement which was repeated sentence by sentence by other demonstrators in the audience – a technique used by Occupy activists.
Making reference to recent student protests in which the Metropolitan police said baton rounds could be used to prevent disorder, the statement said: "You can threaten to shoot us with rubber bullets; you can arrest us; you can imprison us; you can criminalise our dissent; you can blight a hundred thousand lives … but you cannot break us because we are more resolute, more numerous, and more determined than you … Go home, David."
After sitting on the stage, they eventually forced the minister's departure.
"At first Willetts seemed to want to carry on," Jackson said. "After the second minute he sat in a corner then [the organisers] closed the blinds on him, still waiting for us to stop and leave. When we didn't, I think he decided it was time for him to go and so he just left."
Jackson, 21, who is reading art history, said that after Willetts' departure the group occupied the hall and were now receiving support from academics who were bringing them food and supplies.
Silkie Carlo, 22, studying psychology, who was also part of the action said : "Cambridge is serious about defending education. Particularly from an institution that is seen as upper middle class, the most privileged students, it's important that we understand that the rise in fees affect us and the progress of the university. We don't want to study in that kind of place."
In the early hours of Wedenesday, Birmingham students occupied an abandoned gatehouse on the northern edge of their campus, where they plan to hold a series of lectures.
by Shiv Malik
Guardian (London)
David Willetts abandons Cambridge University speech as protesters take over lecture hall to oppose £9,000 tuition fees. Occupied lecture halls and buildings would act as bases for students to plan further action backing strikes by about 3 million public sector workers – expected to be the biggest day of industrial action since the winter of discontent in 1979.
Police at the student protest over university tuition fees and public sector cuts in London on 9 November, when the Met warned baton rounds could be used.
Students are planning a wave of campus occupations and protests in the run-up to nationwide strikes next week, the Guardian has learned.
Occupations called by the student group National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts (NCAFC) ahead of the trade union day of action on 30 November have already happened at Birmingham and Cambridge universities.
Higher education minister David Willetts had to abandon a speech on the Idea of University on Tuesday night after students heckled him from the stage and began occupying Cambridge's largest lecture hall.
The occupations, in opposition to the government's white paper on education reform, which would formalise the £9,000 rise in tuition fees, are expected to break out across the country.
NCAFC said that occupied lecture halls and buildings would act as bases for students to plan further action backing strikes by about 3 million public sector workers – expected to be the biggest day of industrial action since the winter of discontent in 1979.
The group's co-founder, Michael Chessum, said: "It's all terribly unpredictable. We may well see actions and occupations popping up all other the country today and in the coming week."
In front of an audience of more than a hundred, Willetts was forced to sit in a corner of the stage of Lady Mitchell Hall, as students read out a prepared statement.
Student James Jackson said activists from Cambridge Defend Education read out a prepared statement which was repeated sentence by sentence by other demonstrators in the audience – a technique used by Occupy activists.
Making reference to recent student protests in which the Metropolitan police said baton rounds could be used to prevent disorder, the statement said: "You can threaten to shoot us with rubber bullets; you can arrest us; you can imprison us; you can criminalise our dissent; you can blight a hundred thousand lives … but you cannot break us because we are more resolute, more numerous, and more determined than you … Go home, David."
After sitting on the stage, they eventually forced the minister's departure.
"At first Willetts seemed to want to carry on," Jackson said. "After the second minute he sat in a corner then [the organisers] closed the blinds on him, still waiting for us to stop and leave. When we didn't, I think he decided it was time for him to go and so he just left."
Jackson, 21, who is reading art history, said that after Willetts' departure the group occupied the hall and were now receiving support from academics who were bringing them food and supplies.
Silkie Carlo, 22, studying psychology, who was also part of the action said : "Cambridge is serious about defending education. Particularly from an institution that is seen as upper middle class, the most privileged students, it's important that we understand that the rise in fees affect us and the progress of the university. We don't want to study in that kind of place."
In the early hours of Wedenesday, Birmingham students occupied an abandoned gatehouse on the northern edge of their campus, where they plan to hold a series of lectures.
by Shiv Malik
Guardian (London)
Friday, November 4, 2011
Partial History of General Strikes
Shutting It All Down:
The Power of General Strikes in U.S. History
BY ERIK LOOMIS
A flyer advertises Occupy Oakland's call for a general strike. (Photo by Flickr userallaboutgeorge, Creative Commons license)
Incredibly threatening to those in power, they rarely succeed. But they do build solidarity.
As protesters gather Wednesday for the general strike called by Occupy Oakland, it's worth looking at the history of this tactic. General strikes are rare in American social movements, because they are difficult to coordinate. On the other hand, few actions offer a more direct challenge to those in power. What can Occupy Oakland learn from their activist ancestors to help its participants draw strength? How have general strikes affected long-term labor and social movements?
The two major general strikes in American history are the Seattle General Strike of 1919 and the Oakland General Strike of 1946. In 1919, the workers of Seattle engaged in a three-day mass action calling all city workers onto the streets. This was the first citywide collective action in American history known as a general strike.
The Pacific Northwest in the early 20th century was a center of radicalism. Horrible working conditions in the timber industry, already radicalized immigrants from Scandinavia, activist dockworkers and the popularity of the Industrial Workers of the World among the region’s thousands of transient workers made Seattle a fertile center of radical thought that even influenced labor organizations affiliated with the traditionally moderate American Federation of Labor (AFL).
The strike began with shipyard workers but was quickly joined by workers around the city. By February 6, over 60,000 workers were on the streets where they remained for four days. In an atmosphere fearful of radicalism after the Bolshevik Revolution, conservatives around the nation declared the strike the first step toward revolution.
Seattle mayor Ole Hanson took the lead in crushing the strike ordering the National Guard to take control of the city’s light company. Fearing long-term fallout, national AFL leaders denounced the strike and it quickly fell apart. After its defeat, the labor movement in Seattle fell apart, a victim of both internal fighting and the vicious Red Scare that followed World War I.
The Oakland General Strike came out of the massive changes to the Bay Area during World War II. Hundreds of thousands of Americans moved to San Francisco, Oakland, Richmond, and other cities to work in wartime industries. The Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) had achieved major successes in organizing American workers during the late 1930s. Often using communist organizers, the CIO built on the militancy of American labor to become a powerful force in opposition to both the more traditional AFL and conservative business interests.
During World War II, the AFL and CIO turned their energies toward defeating the fascist menace of Germany and Japan. The administration of Franklin Roosevelt, wanting to avoid strikes that would undermine wartime production, brought both the AFL and CIO into wartime planning. But while consumer prices rose during the war, wages did not. The motivated and radicalized workers wanted to strike, but their leaders and the federal government urged them to work through it.
When the war ended however, the country was overtaken by a wave of strikes. In 1946, 4.5 million workers went on strike throughout the United States, the greatest number of strikers in one year in American history. Wages did not keep up with rapidly rising prices and higher wages were the core demand of almost all the strikers.
The situation in Oakland was especially volatile because of the city’s Retail Merchants Association, a powerful and deeply anti-union business organization. These department stores owners employed mostly women, who they believed would accept low wages. The Department and Specialty Store Employees Union Local 1265 organized workers at these downtown stores. Early in 1946, they won victories at smaller stores and decided to take on the biggest retailers, Kahn’s and Hastings. A month-long strike ensued in the late fall of 1946. Beginning mere blocks from Occupy Oakland’s encampment, this turned into one of the biggest challenges to corporate America in the postwar years.
Although the CIO had the more radical agenda, it was actually the AFL who decided to call for a general strike on December 2, 1946 in support of the striking department store workers. AFL workers around Oakland walked off their jobs—bus drivers, teamsters, sailors, machinists, cannery workers, railroad porters, waiters, waitresses, cooks. For over two days, Oakland shut down. Over 100,000 workers participated in the strike.
The strikers controlled Oakland. All businesses except for pharmacies and food markets shut down. Bars could stay open but could only serve beer and had to put their juke boxes outside and allow for their free use. Couples literally danced in the streets. Recently returned war veterans created squadrons to prepare for battle. Union leadership took a back seat to rank and file actions.
Although it is often spun in Oakland legend that the General Strike was a successful action, it really wasn’t. A majority of workers wanted to continue striking and CIO unions considered joining in support, but the strike fell apart because of a single corrupt labor leader. Dave Beck, the head of the Teamsters and Jimmy Hoffa’s mentor, forced a compromise when he pulled his powerful union off the lines and endorsed a moderate settlement that accomplished almost nothing and quite literally did not address the department store workers concerns at all. While the still agitated workers managed to elect several labor representatives to the city council, the entire apparatus of the city used the General Strike to attack all labor. The police, the city government, and the Oakland Tribune combined to resist not only the Unionization of the department stores, but all Labor in Oakland.
While Oakland remained a strong Union city after this, the strikes of 1946 around the nation and especially the Oakland General Strike led to the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947. Taft-Hartley was an open attack on the labor movement, limiting labor’s ability to strike, banning sympathy strikes (which could make it legally difficult for today’s unions to support Occupy Oakland’s General Strike), and allow individual states to pass so-called “right to work” laws, meaning that just because there is a Union at your workplace doesn’t mean you have to join it.
Soon after, the McCarthy era began and radical Unionism of any kind became suspicious, with the CIO kicking the Communist organizers and entire Communist-led unions out of the Federation, turning its back on its radical history.
If there is one lesson to take from these general strikes, it’s that they are extremely threatening to those in power. If successful, they show that the 1% have lost the control they so ardently seek. They will react with ferocity against the organizers, laying bare structural and legal inequalities in this nation. Neither strike was successful, but we remember them as moments of incredible worker solidarity when it seemed massive changes were about to happen. They need to be seen as part of the larger struggles of working people to achieve basic rights, decent wages, and safe living conditions in this country.
The Occupy Wall Street movement is picking up this torch and providing a strong voice for those who have become disempowered in the unregulated capitalism of the early 21st century. Whether the new general strike succeeds or not is less important than the public stand it takes against the exploitation of working-class people. The general strike is not the end of the road but rather one step on the path to taking back our country.
Finally, I want to encourage everyone involved in the Occupy movement, as well as anyone who identifies as progressive, to deeply read labor history and the history of social movements. Knowing about your ancestors is great, but the past offers a more direct lesson: understanding how various tactics and strategies have worked in the past, and how they can work in the present.
Financial Tax Protest by Unions
Unions, Occupy Wall Street to protest outside Treasury for ‘Robin Hood’ tax-Push For Franchise Tax (F.T.T.)
Pivoting off the Occupy Wall Street movement, unions are planning coordinated protests Thursday for a financial transactions tax (F.T.T.).
Organizers estimate more than 1,500 union members from more than 20 Labor groups, including the AFL-CIO, the American Federation of County, State and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and the Communications Workers of America (CWA), will be outside the Treasury Department Thursday to call for what has become known as the “Robin Hood Tax.”
Occupy Wall Street protesters also are being bused in from New York by National Nurses United (NNU) — yet another example of the evolving relationship between Labor and the protesters that have targeted the financial sector.Karen Higgins, co-president of the NNU, told The Hill that instituting a financial transactions tax could help fund social programs that are under threat.
“This is actually the first step to do something concrete and beneficial and not harm others by taking money out of social programs that help people survive,” Higgins said. “It is only reasonable that Wall Street contributes its fair share.”
The protest outside Treasury will be one of many planned for Thursday.
Union members, including AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, will be in Cannes, France, to call for the tax at the opening of the G-20 Summit that will be attended by President Obama and other world leaders.
There are also protests planned for Los Angeles (November 5th) and San Francisco.
Labor leaders have adopted the rhetoric of the protest movement, citing how the 99 percent of the country have suffered at the hands of the wealthiest 1 percent. Unions have provided logistical support for the protesters as well.
NNU members have set up first aid stations in several cities, including at Wall Street, to help the protesters. CWA members marched with protesters to a Verizon wireless store in New York last month. And one of AFSCME’s local Wisconsin unions helped provide pizzas for the protesters.
The protests come as Labor has grown frustrated with a proposal by Democratic members of the Super Committee — the panel tasked with reducing the federal deficit by at least $1.2 trillion. The Democrats’ plan would reduce the deficit by $3 trillion — partly through $500 billion in cuts to entitlement programs — and would include $1.3 trillion in tax hikes and Obama’s $447 billion jobs bill.
Higgins and others in Labor have long been calling for a financial transactions tax (F.T.T.) to help provide government funds for social programs. In September, the AFL-CIO drafted a memo that said a financial transactions tax could bring in $1 trillion in new government revenue over the 10 years.
Higgins said Lawmakers are targeting the wrong things to bring down the debt.
“Again, it is still going back to programs that we should not touch during a time of crisis, and this is a time of crisis,” Higgins said. “We need to be very disturbed about what suggestions are being made.”
Source:
By Kevin Bogardus - 11/02/11 02:12 PM ET
By Kevin Bogardus - 11/02/11 02:12 PM ET
http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/191383-unions-occupy-wall-street-to-protest-for-robin-ho od-tax
Thursday, November 3, 2011
GENERAL STRIKE OAKLAND
Occupy Oakland General Strike
Shuts Down Port of Oakland
November 2, 2011 11:52 PM
OAKLAND (CBS SF) — Many Occupy Oakland protesters Wednesday evening
returned to Frank Ogawa Plaza after demonstrating at the Port of Oakland,
forcing the Port to shut down operations.
Port officials said Wednesday night’s protest was peaceful and no injuries or property damage were reported.
Port Executive Director Omar Benjamin said maritime operations will only
resume “when it is safe and secure to do so.”
Ben Bruso, 23, a direct service provider for developmentally disabled individuals, was one of hundreds who blocked the Port’s Gate One, where the demonstration has a party-like feel, complete with a brass band.
Bruso said he was there because he wants to get rid of lobbying in government.
“Our government is being bought by corporations,” said Bruso, a Service Employees International Union member, who came to the march of his own accord.
“The middle class and lower class are being subjugated,” he said.
Related Coverage:
Banks Targeted In Marches, Rallies In General Strike
Photo Gallery: Occupy Oakland General Strike
On the closure of the Port, Bruso said, “Obviously it sends a message to the corporate world that we’re not going to sit by and take it anymore.”
Colin Holtzinger, 24, a mental health counselor, said he was at the Port because he believes “we need to tax the rich and get rid of the barriers of entry to small businesses.”
Holtzinger also said, “I feel great. This is the largest movement I’ve seen in my lifetime.”
A group of several hundred demonstrators gathered to block entrances to the Port at Maritime and Seventh streets.
KCBS Team Coverage Of Occupy Oakland General Strike:
Occupy Oakland Protest Continues At Port
“I support the Occupy movement and the 99 percent. The priorities of this country need to be re-examined and re-ordered,” said Marti Mogensen, 63, a teacher at Berkeley High School.
Mogensen was formerly a teacher in the small town of Onalaska, Wis., the town where Scott Olsen, is from—Olsen is a former marine who was injured in last week’s demonstration.
“I think his case is interesting because it’s done a lot to move Occupy Oakland into international attention. I really think it’s tragic,” she said.
She said some of the teachers at Berkeley High School did “teach-ins” Wednesday to support the general strike.
On closing the Port, Mogrensen said, “I think it really shows that people want change and they want to organize and these tactics do work.”
Jessica Hendricks, 27, a chair of the Berkeley chapter of the ACLU, said, “I’m here exercising my freedom of speech and making sure the rest can do so peacefully.”
On closing the Port she said, “I think it shows the strength and power of the people.”
The group at Maritime and Seventh streets had blocked trucks from entering and exiting the Port all night and the numbers appear to be growing.
Trucks that tried to exit with cargo were forced to turn around. However, drivers who attempted to leave without cargo are allowed to pass.
Monday, October 24, 2011
L.A. PROGRESSIVES REBEL - OCTOBER
OCT. 1 OCCUPATION LOS ANGELES – LA CITY HALL LAWN 250 rebels
Occupy Wall St in LA, 99% vs. 1%; Young, leaderless.
OCT. 7 ICUJP, US Labor Against the War, Inter Faith Coalition
Fund Jobs, Stop Torture, End All US Wars 200 rebels
La Placita Church to downtown Federal Building Leaders arrested
LA ANSWER PROTEST Against 5 Global Wars (US Imperialism)
Westwood / Wilshire Federal Building unkn #
SM Peace Club, Progressive Democratic Workers 50 Bike rebels
“We - are - The - 99%” and “Tax Wall Street” - Night riders rally
SM Pier to Abbot Kinney, Venice for Friday Street Fair
OCT. 13 MOVE ON, PDWA, SMPeaceClub Rally at BofA 250 rebels
Banksters “Pay Your Taxes” “Foreclosure Moratorium Now”
OCT. 15 MOVE ON, JOBS-NOT-CUTS.org Sat. National Action 3000 rebels
950 cities nationwide Rally for JOBS-NOT-CUTS; MOVE ON
LA Pershing Square to Rally at Occupy LA, City Hall, SATURDAY
OCT. 19 SEIU, long term care, AFL CIO Unions, GoodJobsLA.org
99 % vs 1%, “Stop Cuts to Grammas”, Latino and AA 1000 rebels
“Hey, hey. Ho, ho. Corporate Greed's Gotta Go”
Pershing Square to Occupy LA, City Hall North and South lawns
OCT. 21 FAUX-NEWS-LIES PROTEST (first), Pico Blvd. Studios 200 rebels
GoodJobsLA.org, ChangeToWin, FreePress, AVAAP.org
50 rebels from Occupy LA. “Fox News Lies”, “Murdoch
hacked terror victim = Felony”, “Fox brainwashed my baby”
OCT. 22 200 US Cities OCCUPIED – 1000 Cities World Wide OCCUPIED
W.L.A. Santa Monica MOVE ON's Upcoming Local-National Actions
NOV. 5 MAKE BANKS PAY Rally at Chase Foreclosures, Westwood / Wilshire
NOV. 9 NATIONAL TEACH-IN; Banks caused Crash; must pay to rehire America
NOV. 19 Wall St/Fox/GOP TV , Pico Blvd at Motor (parking lot in Rancho Pk)
Contact MoveOn's Elizabeth / Linda at Blueprl@yahoo.com
Or Bill at PDWAmerica @ gmail.com – MoveOn + Unions + Peace orgs
Friday, October 21, 2011
Wildcat Strikes vs Alabama Laws
Alabama Workers Meet Harsh Immigration Law with WildcatsEduardo Soriano-Castillo | October 21, 2011
Tens of thousands of protesters marched through downtown Atlanta July 2 to protest an anti-immigrant law. Georgia's was one of four bills passed this year that are creating fear in immigrant communities, driving people out of state, and leaving crops rotting in the fields. Photo: Caitie Leary. Login or register to post comments
An all-out attack on immigrant workers, their families, and communities continues in the South and West. In Alabama, immigrant workers met it with a day of wildcat strikes.
The now-infamous Arizona anti-immigrant law SB1070 kicked off the current wave of anti-immigrant legislation last year. This year Georgia, Utah, South Carolina, and Alabama jumped on the “show me your papers” bandwagon with copycat legislation.
Immigrant rights advocates say Alabama’s law is the harshest. It gives police the right to stop and investigate anyone they “reasonably suspect” of being undocumented—in other words, an open invitation to racially profile.
The legislation also denies immigrants state medical aid and unemployment benefits. It forbids individuals and employers to hire, harbor, rent property to, or even give a ride to undocumented immigrants. Public schools must check the immigration status of children when they enroll.
One town, Allgood, announced that all water customers must have a state picture ID on file or “you may lose water service.”
ON HOLD
Most of Alabama’s law, and the other states’ laws, are on hold pending Department of Justice challenges. The government has argued that these state laws are unconstitutional because immigration is a federal matter.
The anti-immigrant laws come as federal initiatives have driven deportations to an all-time high. A partnership between local law enforcement agencies and the federal immigration service (ICE), known as Secure Communities, has led to the deportation of a record 400,000 undocumented immigrants in 2011. They can be deported for any crime, no matter how small or nonviolent.
Dulce Guerrero, a DREAM activist and 18-year-old high school graduate from Mableton, Georgia, said three of her uncles have been deported after being stopped “for things like speeding and broken tail lights.”
Legislators’ strategy is to make conditions so unbearable for immigrant workers that they flee the country. But cruelty hasn’t led to out-migration. For many reasons, including a dangerously militarized border, the undocumented population has stayed in the U.S.—even as workers have fled to more welcoming states.
Workers, students, and small business owners in Alabama gave lawmakers a taste of what society would look like without them.
They led a “Day Without Immigrants” action October 12 that involved student walkouts and wildcat strikes, shuttering at least 40 businesses and slowing operations in half a dozen poultry plants.
SHUT IT DOWN
More than 2,000 mostly undocumented workers shut down the processing lines and butchering room floors in Albertville, in the state’s northeast corner.
Although a majority of the poultry plant workers are Latinos, a few white and Black workers also came off the line for the day in a show of solidarity with immigrant workers, said José Contreras, a Dominican immigrant. He’s the owner of a small grocery store and restaurant in Albertville who shut down his business for the day.
Plants closed included Diamond Food, Tyson, and Wayne Farms, which is a union shop.
Rick Major, secretary-treasurer of Food and Commercial Workers Local 1995, said “We had many members calling in to work and saying that they needed to pick up their children at school because of fears associated with the law.”
ONE STEP FORWARD
In a victory for undocumented students, California Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill October 8 that allows them to apply for California grants and state financial aid.
An earlier bill allowed such students to get financial aid from private sources. The two laws are the state’s equivalent of the federal DREAM Act that students have been advocating for two years—often risking arrest to publicize their plight, declaring themselves “undocumented and unafraid.”
Despite a new federal policy supposedly giving judges the ability to cancel deportations on a case-by-case basis, DREAM activists have recently faced a wave of deportations.
Major said the climate of fear is pervasive. Children are bullying Latino students, telling them, “They are going to come for your mom and deport her.”
School districts are reporting a sudden exodus of children, pulled from school by their parents, who fear retaliation or immigration agents coming to their front steps.
But the union didn’t back the October 12 strike.
“We could not support the wildcat action because our members have a no-strike clause in their contract,” Major said. “As the union, our concerns are upholding and enforcing the contract between the workers and the employer.”
Some unionists in the state were supportive. “Immigrants in Alabama are rightfully scared, and the whole time the boss is enjoying the benefits of a divided workforce that's working under the fear of deportation,” said Mark Bass, president of Longshore (ILA) Local 1410 in Mobile.
Contreras said that 40 business owners, including auto repair shop mechanics, car dealers, and restaurant owners all shut down in solidarity.
“Our goal was to illustrate the economic and social contributions of immigrant workers,” he said.
Elia Ortega Arista, a DJ at the Spanish-language radio station Doble X in Albertville, said a shutdown instead of a march was chosen because “community members are being terrorized and are understandably afraid of any confrontation with local authorities.”
Conversations at the grocery store, on Facebook, and on local radio stations helped organize the statewide shutdowns and walkouts.
Direct action is not new to Albertville. Five thousand supporters of immigration reform mobilized in 2006 for a mass strike, part of immigrant rights protests and walkouts nationwide.
“We asked that supporters do zero business and buy nothing,” Contreras said. “After seeing the economic devastation left behind in states like Arizona and Georgia, we thought it would be a useful illustration of what’s to come if Alabama lawmakers continue on this dangerous and self-destructive path.”
ROTTING IN THE FIELDS
Farmworkers, their families, and tax dollars have fled harshly anti-immigrant states like Arizona and Georgia in search of friendlier states, so farm owners have turned to probationers and prisoners on work-release programs to fill the void.
But those workers have been unable to keep up with the requirements of these backbreaking jobs, many quitting after just hours in the sun and leaving farm owners to watch their crops rot in the fields.
In the process, they dispel the myth that immigrants are “stealing our jobs,” confirming that citizens are simply not interested in such exhausting and low-wage work.
Fox News Latino reported that on one Georgia cucumber farm, some Mexican and Guatemalan laborers were accustomed to filling 200 buckets before lunch, bucking for incentive pay. The fastest probationer filled only 134 buckets in a day.
DON’T SPARE WOMEN AND CHILDREN
Other immigrant workers are not as visible but equally important to performing the services middle-class Americans depend on.
They include the women workers who work inside their bosses’ homes. Domestic workers clean the houses, fold the clothes, prepare the meals, and take care of children and the elderly, for low wages and with no legal protections against wage theft or forced overtime, sometimes facing sexual harassment or worse.
They share with other immigrants the attack on their communities by politicians looking to make a name for themselves.
A diverse group from two dozen human rights organizations around the country—calling itself the We Belong Together Delegation—visited Georgia in September to document the impact of that state’s anti-immigrant law.
Women told of being afraid to report sexual harassment or wage theft to authorities for fear of being deported. They described choosing to stay with an abusive partner rather than report domestic violence and risk deportation and separation from their children. Many go without basic health care for fear of coming into view of law enforcement.
“It’s important that we highlight the issues which uniquely affect women and children,” said Linda Burnham with the National Domestic Workers Alliance.
As immigrants wage the uphill battle to reclaim the most basic of human rights, they too are among the 99 percent
Tens of thousands of protesters marched through downtown Atlanta July 2 to protest an anti-immigrant law. Georgia's was one of four bills passed this year that are creating fear in immigrant communities, driving people out of state, and leaving crops rotting in the fields. Photo: Caitie Leary. Login or register to post comments
An all-out attack on immigrant workers, their families, and communities continues in the South and West. In Alabama, immigrant workers met it with a day of wildcat strikes.
The now-infamous Arizona anti-immigrant law SB1070 kicked off the current wave of anti-immigrant legislation last year. This year Georgia, Utah, South Carolina, and Alabama jumped on the “show me your papers” bandwagon with copycat legislation.
Immigrant rights advocates say Alabama’s law is the harshest. It gives police the right to stop and investigate anyone they “reasonably suspect” of being undocumented—in other words, an open invitation to racially profile.
The legislation also denies immigrants state medical aid and unemployment benefits. It forbids individuals and employers to hire, harbor, rent property to, or even give a ride to undocumented immigrants. Public schools must check the immigration status of children when they enroll.
One town, Allgood, announced that all water customers must have a state picture ID on file or “you may lose water service.”
ON HOLD
Most of Alabama’s law, and the other states’ laws, are on hold pending Department of Justice challenges. The government has argued that these state laws are unconstitutional because immigration is a federal matter.
The anti-immigrant laws come as federal initiatives have driven deportations to an all-time high. A partnership between local law enforcement agencies and the federal immigration service (ICE), known as Secure Communities, has led to the deportation of a record 400,000 undocumented immigrants in 2011. They can be deported for any crime, no matter how small or nonviolent.
Dulce Guerrero, a DREAM activist and 18-year-old high school graduate from Mableton, Georgia, said three of her uncles have been deported after being stopped “for things like speeding and broken tail lights.”
Legislators’ strategy is to make conditions so unbearable for immigrant workers that they flee the country. But cruelty hasn’t led to out-migration. For many reasons, including a dangerously militarized border, the undocumented population has stayed in the U.S.—even as workers have fled to more welcoming states.
Workers, students, and small business owners in Alabama gave lawmakers a taste of what society would look like without them.
They led a “Day Without Immigrants” action October 12 that involved student walkouts and wildcat strikes, shuttering at least 40 businesses and slowing operations in half a dozen poultry plants.
SHUT IT DOWN
More than 2,000 mostly undocumented workers shut down the processing lines and butchering room floors in Albertville, in the state’s northeast corner.
Although a majority of the poultry plant workers are Latinos, a few white and Black workers also came off the line for the day in a show of solidarity with immigrant workers, said José Contreras, a Dominican immigrant. He’s the owner of a small grocery store and restaurant in Albertville who shut down his business for the day.
Plants closed included Diamond Food, Tyson, and Wayne Farms, which is a union shop.
Rick Major, secretary-treasurer of Food and Commercial Workers Local 1995, said “We had many members calling in to work and saying that they needed to pick up their children at school because of fears associated with the law.”
ONE STEP FORWARD
In a victory for undocumented students, California Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill October 8 that allows them to apply for California grants and state financial aid.
An earlier bill allowed such students to get financial aid from private sources. The two laws are the state’s equivalent of the federal DREAM Act that students have been advocating for two years—often risking arrest to publicize their plight, declaring themselves “undocumented and unafraid.”
Despite a new federal policy supposedly giving judges the ability to cancel deportations on a case-by-case basis, DREAM activists have recently faced a wave of deportations.
Major said the climate of fear is pervasive. Children are bullying Latino students, telling them, “They are going to come for your mom and deport her.”
School districts are reporting a sudden exodus of children, pulled from school by their parents, who fear retaliation or immigration agents coming to their front steps.
But the union didn’t back the October 12 strike.
“We could not support the wildcat action because our members have a no-strike clause in their contract,” Major said. “As the union, our concerns are upholding and enforcing the contract between the workers and the employer.”
Some unionists in the state were supportive. “Immigrants in Alabama are rightfully scared, and the whole time the boss is enjoying the benefits of a divided workforce that's working under the fear of deportation,” said Mark Bass, president of Longshore (ILA) Local 1410 in Mobile.
Contreras said that 40 business owners, including auto repair shop mechanics, car dealers, and restaurant owners all shut down in solidarity.
“Our goal was to illustrate the economic and social contributions of immigrant workers,” he said.
Elia Ortega Arista, a DJ at the Spanish-language radio station Doble X in Albertville, said a shutdown instead of a march was chosen because “community members are being terrorized and are understandably afraid of any confrontation with local authorities.”
Conversations at the grocery store, on Facebook, and on local radio stations helped organize the statewide shutdowns and walkouts.
Direct action is not new to Albertville. Five thousand supporters of immigration reform mobilized in 2006 for a mass strike, part of immigrant rights protests and walkouts nationwide.
“We asked that supporters do zero business and buy nothing,” Contreras said. “After seeing the economic devastation left behind in states like Arizona and Georgia, we thought it would be a useful illustration of what’s to come if Alabama lawmakers continue on this dangerous and self-destructive path.”
ROTTING IN THE FIELDS
Farmworkers, their families, and tax dollars have fled harshly anti-immigrant states like Arizona and Georgia in search of friendlier states, so farm owners have turned to probationers and prisoners on work-release programs to fill the void.
But those workers have been unable to keep up with the requirements of these backbreaking jobs, many quitting after just hours in the sun and leaving farm owners to watch their crops rot in the fields.
In the process, they dispel the myth that immigrants are “stealing our jobs,” confirming that citizens are simply not interested in such exhausting and low-wage work.
Fox News Latino reported that on one Georgia cucumber farm, some Mexican and Guatemalan laborers were accustomed to filling 200 buckets before lunch, bucking for incentive pay. The fastest probationer filled only 134 buckets in a day.
DON’T SPARE WOMEN AND CHILDREN
Other immigrant workers are not as visible but equally important to performing the services middle-class Americans depend on.
They include the women workers who work inside their bosses’ homes. Domestic workers clean the houses, fold the clothes, prepare the meals, and take care of children and the elderly, for low wages and with no legal protections against wage theft or forced overtime, sometimes facing sexual harassment or worse.
They share with other immigrants the attack on their communities by politicians looking to make a name for themselves.
A diverse group from two dozen human rights organizations around the country—calling itself the We Belong Together Delegation—visited Georgia in September to document the impact of that state’s anti-immigrant law.
Women told of being afraid to report sexual harassment or wage theft to authorities for fear of being deported. They described choosing to stay with an abusive partner rather than report domestic violence and risk deportation and separation from their children. Many go without basic health care for fear of coming into view of law enforcement.
“It’s important that we highlight the issues which uniquely affect women and children,” said Linda Burnham with the National Domestic Workers Alliance.
As immigrants wage the uphill battle to reclaim the most basic of human rights, they too are among the 99 percent
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
FOX WIRETAPPING SCANDAL
Phone hacking: QC warned of
'culture of illegal information access'
at Fox's 'News of the World'
Phone hacking: News of the World lawyer Tom Crone warned editor Colin Myler of about a 'damning email' in 2008. Photograph: PA
This afternoon's events as they unfolded: Publish Post
The parliamentary select committee investigating phone-hacking at the News of the World has just published a slew of internal News International documents.
They represent a treasure trove of new material and give fresh insight into how the News of the World, its editors and legal managers and ultimate boss, James Murdoch, handled serious phone-hacking allegations back in 2008.
There are dozens of pages including notes relating to key conversations with Murdoch regarding a settlement with Gordon Taylor, the Professional Footballers Association boss who sued News International back in 2008 for phone hacking.
We are going through the documents now.
First up is an admission that Taylor has potential "fatal" evidence on phone hacking at the News of the World.
It is contained in an email from the paper's former legal manager to the former editor of the News of the World Colin Myler in May 2008 regarding the discovery by Taylor of "a large number of transcripts of voicemails" from his phone.
The email also raises concerns about alleged illegal activity on the News of the World including the identification of car owners via their number plates. A number of the people involved have moved to the Sun, Crone notes.
Among the documents Taylor's lawyers got through a process of discovery were a list of News of the World journalists and detailed table of data protection infringements between 2001 and 2003.
"A number of these names are still with us and some of them have moved to prominent positions on NoW and The Sun. Typical infringements are 'turning around' car reg and mobile phone numbers (illegal)," says the email.
It adds: "This evidence, particularly the email from the News of the World is fatal to our case."
In the same email Crone tells Myler that "recognising the inevitable", he has authorised the company's solicitors Farrers, to make a formal offer to Taylor of £150k plus costs.
An hour and 15 minutes after this email, Crone emails Julian Pike, the lawyer dealing with the Taylor case at Farrers.
The email is redacted but Crone tells Pike he has been through the Taylor documents and spoke to individuals at the News of the World regarding the transcripts and that that the private investigator [Glenn] "Mulcaire had been dealing with Greg Miskiw for months on it before that.
Miskiw is a former news editor on the paper.
James Murdoch's solution to phone hacking at the News of the World would be to "get rid of the cancer", the former editor of the paper tells Farrer lawyer Julian Pike in a telephone call on May 27 2008.
A handwritten note of the phone conversation shows that Myler reported back to Pike.
"Spoke to James Murdoch - not any options - wait for silks [sic] view." Myler goes on to discuss various individuals in the newsroom which are identified by initials. He refers to former royal editor Clive Goodman.
"CG sprayed around allegations, horrid process."
This appears to refer to a Goodman letter, already published by the culture select committee, in which he alleged phone hacking was not limited to a single rogue reporter.
Former News of the World editor Colin Myler. Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images Myler tells Pike he could not substantiate these allegations.
"appealed agst his sacking failed to give direct evidence."
The hand-written note show Myler then went on to discuss what top management would do and refers to Les Hinton, the former executive chairman of News International who had been sent to New York to run the Wall Street Journal, then recently acquired by Rupert Murdoch.
"Les no longer here - James wld say get rid of them - cut out cancer'.
The note does not specify who 'them' refers to, or whether this was a verbatim report of a conversation Myler had with Murdoch earlier.
He has just had a conversation with James Murdoch and subsequently spoke to lawyers at Farrers.
A hand-written note of a conversation lawyer Julian Pike had with Myler on 27 May 2008 has also been published.
Another handwritten note of a conversation between Pike and Mark Lewis, Taylor's solicitor. They were discussing a potential settlement after Taylor had got hold of the highly damaging 'for Neville' email that proved phone hacking at the tabloid was not confined to "one rogue reporter".
A figure of £1.2m is discussed, according to the notes.
Taylor wanted "7 figures not to open his mouth". The Football Professionals Association boss also wanted to "be vindicated or rich", the note says, confirming evidence submitted in September to the select committee.
The two lawyers go on to discuss costs and Taylor's determination to go to court if he has to. "One way or another this is going to hurt," Lewis tells Pike, also warning that phone hacking was "rife in organisation".
This is the transcript of what Lewis said:
"Don't know if that is a [indecipherable'
7 figures not to open his mouth
be vindicated or rich
paid £1m all costs - indemnity costs 200k inc barrister + VAT he [Taylor] won't be beat"advised not be casual not at risk an more - j might think been generous
"i want to carry on because of issues because NGN is wrong then carry on - one way or another this is going to hurt
"want to show NoW stories - NoW doing this - rife in organisation - Palt enquiries told this not happening when it was. I want to speak out about this."
The telephone conversation between News International's lawyers and Gordon Taylor's lawyers subsequently relayed to New Group Newspapers, publishers of the News of the World.
PFA boss Gordon Taylor. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/Guardian The memo published by the select committee shows how Taylor was driven to seek £1m in compensation plus £200,000 in costs because he was not happy that the company was telling parliament that phone-hacking was limited to one rogue reporter.
"Taylor wanted to show that the News of the World stories had been illegally obtained".
"He wanted to demonstrate that the NoW had been doing this and that it was rife in the organisation when The NoW had been making public statements including statements in parliament telling them that they [sic] were simply a rogue trader. Taylor was not happy about this. He wanted to speak out about all of this."
Farrer partner Julian Pike has a subsequent conversation with the then News of the World legal affairs manager Tom Crone on June 10, 2008.
Crone tells Pike he has had a meeting with JM - presumably James Murdoch - and CM - presumably the then editor Colin Myler.
The note of the conversation is confusing but two points are clear - Murdoch wants to consider his options and Myler wants to Taylor to "fuck off".
Here's the transcript:
"Tom
Mtg with JM + CM
JM sd he wanted to think through optionsCM moving towards to tell Taylor to fuck off
- on the end of drip drip - do a deal with them
- paying them off + then silence fails
- if intriguing progressGM in more deeply - if damages award admitting liability - be in jointly for + if he is."
News Group was advised by legal counsel as far back as June 2008 that the evidence uncovered by Taylor's legal team was "very damaging to NGN" and that the police disclosures showed that "at least three" journalists were "intimately involved" in illegal research.
Barrister Michael Silverleaf said in a written legal opinion to NGN dated 3 June 2008, that "it seems clear that Mr Mulcaire was specifically asked to look into certain activities by Mr Taylor".
Silverleaf says the material obtained from the Metropolitan police "has disclosed that at least three NGN journalists ... appear to haver been intimately involved in Mr Mulcaire's illegal researching into Mr Taylor's affairs."
He refers to a document dated 4 February 2005, and signed by Greg Miskiw, a former news editor on the paper which agrees to pay a Paul Williams £7,000 on publication of a story.
Williams is a pseudonym used by the private investigator at the centre of the phone-hacking scandal, Glenn Mulcaire.
News Group was also advised by Silverleaf that there was nothing that could "possibly justify the use of unlawful means to obtain information" about the Taylor story.
He advises them that the prospects of winning against Taylor in a breach of confidence and invasion of privacy case are "slim" to "non-existent".
Silverleaf told News Group that it was "vicariously liable for the conduct of its employees unless they were acting on a frolic of their own".
If you are wondering why the expression "vicariously liable" seems familiar, it's because the phrase was used by James Murdoch in a letter to the select committee last week.
In the letter Murdoch admitted that News International will have to pay any damages awarded against the private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, in instances where it is proven he was instructed to hack phones by News of the World staff.
Silverleaf does not pull his punches.
He says there is a "powerful case" that there was a culture of "illegal information access" at the paper and if this came out in court it would be "extremely damaging to NGN's public reputation".
Paragraph 6 of his legal opinion to NGN in June 2008 says:
"There is overwhelming evidence of the involvement of senior NGN journalists in the illegal enquiries into ...[redacted]."
"In addition there is substantial surrounding material about the extent of NGN's journalists' attempts to obtain information access to information illegally in relation to other individuals.
"In light of these facts there is a powerful case that there is (or was) a culture of illegal information access used at NGN in order to produce stories for publication.
"Not only does this mean that NGN is virtually certain to be held liable to Mr Taylor, to have this paraded at a public trial, would I imagine, be extremely damaging to NGN's public reputation."
John Whittingdale, chairman of the select committee says the documents are proof that senior managers at News of the World were aware "for a long time" of evidence that phone hacking was widespread at the tabloid.
"This contradicts the evidence given to us previously and we shall be asking about this when James Murdoch comes before the committee," he said.
A summary of the day's events:
• News International was advised by legal counsel as far back as 2008 that there was "overwhelming evidence" that at "a number of senior journalists" at the News of the World were involved in phone-hacking.
• Michael Silverleaf, QC, told the publisher there was "a powerful case" that a "culture of illegal information access" existed on the paper and this would be "extremely damaging" to the "company's public reputation" if this got out in a court case.
• The News of the World's chief lawyer Tom Crone privately told the paper's editor as long ago as 2008 that a "damning email" existed showing that the tabloid made use of "extremely private voicemails" left on the telephone of football boss Gordon Taylor in 2008
• Taylor's lawyers had obtained evidence that "at least three journalists" on the paper were "intimately involved" in Glenn Mulcaire's illegal researching.
• Crone described the evidence as "fatal to our case" in a memo to ex editor Colin Myler ahead of a meeting with James Murdoch to discuss whether to settle Taylor's claim. He said the company's position was "perilous".
.
• This article was amended on 2 November 2011 to remove an incorrect reference to former News International chief operating officer Clive Milner in the 3.47pm update. The "CM" referred to was presumably News of the World editor Colin Myler.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Labor Supports Occupy Wall St.and LA
AFL-CIO Summit Supports
Occupy Wall Street Protests
by Donna Jablonski, Oct 2, 2011
The 800 young workers, activists and students at the AFL-CIO Next Up Young Worker Summit in Minneapolis announced their strong support of the Occupy Wall Street protesters:
”The world in which we live isn’t working for the vast majority of people. The top 1 percent controls the economy, makes profits at the expense of working people, and dominates the political debate. Wall Street symbolizes this simple truth: a small group of people have the lives and livelihoods of working Americans in their hands.
“In the last two weeks, young people have sparked a movement on Wall Street, just as they did through the Arab Spring and in Wisconsin against Scott Walker. Participants at the AFL-CIO Next Up Young Worker Summit left Occupy Wall Street to join with young people in the labor movement to talk about how best to take back our economy for the middle class.
“Today, more than 800 Next Up participants from around the country stand with those on Wall Street who are making their voices heard. The future of our country depends on young people demanding the future we believe in.
And we believe that Wall Street should pay for the damage they’ve done to our economy, our jobs, and our communities – foreclosing on homes, making massive profits with no oversight, and not sharing in building a future for the next generation.
“We stand together in calling for a country that doesn’t just work for the top 1 percent. We stand together to call for a sustainable future that doesn’t begin with massive tax breaks for the wealthy and end with austerity measures and a jobs crisis.
“We are one."
Occupy Wall Street Protests
by Donna Jablonski, Oct 2, 2011
The 800 young workers, activists and students at the AFL-CIO Next Up Young Worker Summit in Minneapolis announced their strong support of the Occupy Wall Street protesters:
”The world in which we live isn’t working for the vast majority of people. The top 1 percent controls the economy, makes profits at the expense of working people, and dominates the political debate. Wall Street symbolizes this simple truth: a small group of people have the lives and livelihoods of working Americans in their hands.
“In the last two weeks, young people have sparked a movement on Wall Street, just as they did through the Arab Spring and in Wisconsin against Scott Walker. Participants at the AFL-CIO Next Up Young Worker Summit left Occupy Wall Street to join with young people in the labor movement to talk about how best to take back our economy for the middle class.
“Today, more than 800 Next Up participants from around the country stand with those on Wall Street who are making their voices heard. The future of our country depends on young people demanding the future we believe in.
And we believe that Wall Street should pay for the damage they’ve done to our economy, our jobs, and our communities – foreclosing on homes, making massive profits with no oversight, and not sharing in building a future for the next generation.
“We stand together in calling for a country that doesn’t just work for the top 1 percent. We stand together to call for a sustainable future that doesn’t begin with massive tax breaks for the wealthy and end with austerity measures and a jobs crisis.
“We are one."
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Speculators Drive Up Oil Prices
Sanders writes: "Why have oil prices spiked wildly? Some argue that the volatility is a result of supply-and-demand fundamentals. More and more observers, however, believe that excessive speculation in the oil futures market by investors is driving oil prices sky high."
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) (photo: WDCpix)
Wall Street's Secret Oil Games 
he top six financial institutions in this country own assets equal to more than 60 percent of our gross domestic product and possess enormous economic and political power. One of the great questions of our time is whether the American people, through Congress, will control the greed, recklessness and illegal behavior on Wall Street, or whether Wall Street will continue to wreak havoc on our economy and the lives of working families.
he top six financial institutions in this country own assets equal to more than 60 percent of our gross domestic product and possess enormous economic and political power. One of the great questions of our time is whether the American people, through Congress, will control the greed, recklessness and illegal behavior on Wall Street, or whether Wall Street will continue to wreak havoc on our economy and the lives of working families. I represent Vermont, where many workers drive long distances to jobs that pay $12 an hour or less. Many seniors living on fixed incomes heat their homes with oil during our cold winters. These people have asked me to do all that I can to lower outrageously high gasoline and heating-oil prices. I intend to do just that.
Why have oil prices spiked wildly? Some argue that the volatility is a result of supply-and-demand fundamentals. More and more observers, however, believe that excessive speculation in the oil futures market by investors is driving oil prices sky high.
A June 2 article in the Wall Street Journal said it all: "Wall Street is tapping a real gusher in 2011, as heightened volatility and higher prices of oil and other raw materials boost banks' profits." ExxonMobil Chairman Rex Tillerson, testifying before a Senate panel this year, said that excessive speculation may have increased oil prices by as much as 40 percent. Delta Air Lines general counsel Richard Hirst wrote to federal regulators in December that "the speculative bubble in oil prices has concrete detrimental consequences for the real economy." An American Trucking Association vice president, Richard Moskowitz, said, "Excessive speculation has caused dramatic increases in the price of crude oil, which harms end-users like America's trucking industry."
I released records last month that documented the role of speculators and put the information on my Web site for three reasons.
First, the American people have a right to know why oil prices are artificially high. The CFTC report proved that when oil prices climbed in 2008 to more than $140 a barrel, Wall Street speculators dominated the oil futures market. Goldman Sachs alone bought and sold more than 860 million barrels of oil in the summer of 2008 with no intention of using a drop for any purpose other than to make a quick buck.
Wall Street, of course, wants to hide this information. They don't want the American people to know the extent to which speculators keep oil prices artificially high and the great damage that does to our economy. After the information became public, it was suggested that some on Wall Street may stop trading in the oil futures market. Good!
Second, Congress recognized last year that excessive oil speculation must end. The Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation required the CFTC to eliminate, prevent or diminish excessive oil speculation by Jan. 17, 2011. Months after that deadline, the commission still has failed to enforce the law, and speculators still are making out like bandits.
Third, the commodity regulators' claim that they cannot end excessive oil speculation because they lack sufficient data is nonsense. As the information I released makes clear, the commission has been collecting this information for more than three years. The time for studying is over. It is time for action.
I agree with those who say trust in government is at an all-time low. That's not because Washington is too heavy-handed with Wall Street. Quite the contrary! The American people are angry and disillusioned because they see our government act boldly to protect Wall Street CEOs but not ordinary Americans. When Wall Street needed a $700 billion bailout, the government was there for them. When working families need an end to excessive oil speculation and real relief at the gas pump, the government has failed to act.
The same Dodd-Frank bill that required commodity regulators to limit speculators included my amendment calling for an audit of the Federal Reserve from Dec. 1, 2007, to July 21, 2010, the period of the financial crisis. What we learned was that the Fed provided $16 trillion in secret, low-interest loans to every major American financial institution and to other central banks, large corporations and wealthy individuals. The audit provision was vigorously opposed by the Federal Reserve chairman.
It was right, however, that the veil of secrecy at the Fed was lifted and the American people learned about its actions.
Now it is appropriate to lift the veil of secrecy in the oil futures market. The American people have a right to know how much excessive speculation has driven up oil prices and which Wall Street firms are doing it.
WALL STREET CROOKS AGAIN?
TWU Supports 'Occupy Wall Street'
Occupy Wall Street Protests Poised to Grow Rapidly With Union Support
by Carl Franzen
The “Occupy Wall Street” protests, now entering their third week, are poised to get a whole lot bigger than its core of 200 to 300 people, potentially even exceeding the protesters original goals of 20,000 demonstrators, thanks to recent pledges of support from some of New York City’s largest labor unions and community groups.
On Tuesday, over 700 uniformed Pilots, members of the Air Line Pilots Association, took to the streets outside of Wall Street demanding better pay.
On Wednesday night, the executive board of the New York Transit Workers Union (TWU Local 100), which represents New York City's all-important Train and Bus workers, voted unanimously to support Occupy Wall Street.
TWU Local 100 counts 38,000 active members and covers 26,000 retirees, according to its website. The Union on Thursday used Twitter to urge members to take part in a massive march and rally on Wednesday, Oct. 5. That effort is being co-sponsored by another eight labor and community outreach organizations.
The Village Voice spoke with TWU Local 100’s spokesman Jim Gannon on Wednesday, who explained the group’s reasons for joining the protests:
“Well, actually, the protesters, it’s pretty courageous what they’re doing,” he said, “and it’s brought a new public focus in a different way to what we’ve been saying along. While Wall Street and the banks and the corporations are the ones that caused the mess that’s flowed down into the states and cities, it seems there’s no shared sacrifice. It’s the workers having to sacrifice while the wealthy get away scott-free. It’s kind of a natural alliance with the young people and the students — they’re voicing our message, why not join them? On many levels, our workers feel an affinity with the kids. They just seem to be hanging out there getting the crap beaten out of them, and maybe union support will help them out a little bit.” The other eight organizations expected to join in the October 5 rally, based on its Facebook page, are United NY, Strong Economy for All Coalition, Working Families Party, VOCAL-NY, Community Voices Heard, Alliance for Quality Education, New York Communities for Change, Coalition for the Homeless, which have a collective membership of over 1 million.
As Jon Kest, the executive director of New York Communities for Change, told Crain’s New York Business: “It’s a responsibility for the progressive organizations in town to show their support and connect Occupy Wall Street to some of the struggles that are real in the city today. They’re speaking about issues we’re trying to speak about.”
Crain’s also quoted a political consultant who said of the demonstration: “”It’s become too big to ignore.”
Meanwhile, the New York Metro 32BJ SEIU, which represents maintenance workers and security officers and counts some 70,000 members, is also re-purposing a previously planned rally on Oct. 12 to express solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street protesters, the Huffington Post reports.
“The call went out over a month ago, before actually the occupancy of Wall Street took place,” said 32BJ spokesman Kwame Patterson. Now, he added, “we’re all coming under one cause, even though we have our different initiatives.” Occupy Wall Street, which was first proposed by Canadian countercultural magazine Adbusters in July, initially received traction online thanks the support of Anonymous, the loosely-knit “hacktivist” collective. The event began on September 17 with around 3,000 protesters, but the numbers have varied considerably since then, with a core group of around 200 to 300 people maintaining a camp in nearby Zuccotti Park, despite being pepper-sprayed, beaten and arrested for frivolous offenses by police.
But its appeal appears to be spreading, not only to other groups, but other U.S. cities as well. Around 200 protesters in Boston took to the streets around Boston Common to begin their own related demonstration there. An Occupy Chicago event also began on September 23, but has so far remained limited to a small number of protesters in the double digits.
http://idealab.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/09/occupy-wall-street-protests-poised-to-grow-rapidly-with-union-support.php
Welcome to Infoshop News
Saturday, October 01 2011 @ 04:10 PM CDT
Occupy Wall Street Protests Poised to Grow Rapidly With Union Support
The “Occupy Wall Street” protests, now entering their third week, are poised to get a whole lot bigger than its core of 200 to 300 people, potentially even exceeding the protesters original goals of 20,000 demonstrators, thanks to recent pledges of support from some of New York City’s largest labor unions and community groups.
Occupy Wall Street Protests Poised to Grow Rapidly With Union Support
by CARL FRANZEN
The “Occupy Wall Street” protests, now entering their third week, are poised to get a whole lot bigger than its core of 200 to 300 people, potentially even exceeding the protesters original goals of 20,000 demonstrators, thanks to recent pledges of support from some of New York City’s largest labor unions and community groups.
On Tuesday, over 700 uniformed pilots, members of the Air Line Pilots Association, took to the streets outside of Wall Street demanding better pay.
On Wednesday night, the executive board of the New York Transit Workers Union (TWU Local 100), which represents the city’s all-important train and bus workers, voted unanimously to support Occupy Wall Street. TWU Local 100 counts 38,000 active members and covers 26,000 retirees, according to its website.
The Union on Thursday used Twitter to urge members to take part in a massive march and rally on Wednesday, Oct. 5. That effort is being co-sponsored by another eight labor and community outreach organizations.
The Village Voice spoke with TWU Local 100’s spokesman Jim Gannon on Wednesday, who explained the group’s reasons for joining the protests:
“Well, actually, the protesters, it’s pretty courageous what they’re doing,” he said, “and it’s brought a new public focus in a different way to what we’ve been saying along. While Wall Street and the banks and the corporations are the ones that caused the mess that’s flowed down into the states and cities, it seems there’s no shared sacrifice. It’s the workers having to sacrifice while the wealthy get away scot-free. It’s kind of a natural alliance with the young people and the students — they’re voicing our message, why not join them? On many levels, our workers feel an affinity with the kids. They just seem to be hanging out there getting the crap beaten out of them, and maybe union support will help them out a little bit.”
The other eight organizations expected to join in the October 5 rally, based on its Facebook page, are United NY, Strong Economy for All Coalition, Working Families Party, VOCAL-NY, Community Voices Heard, Alliance for Quality Education, New York Communities for Change, Coalition for the Homeless, which have a collective membership of over 1 million.
As Jon Kest, the executive director of New York Communities for Change, told Crain’s New York Business: “It’s a responsibility for the progressive organizations in town to show their support and connect Occupy Wall Street to some of the struggles that are real in the city today. They’re speaking about issues we’re trying to speak about.”
Crain’s also quoted a political consultant who said of the demonstration: “”It’s become too big to ignore.”
Meanwhile, the New York Metro 32BJ SEIU, which represents maintenance workers and security officers and counts some 70,000 members, is also re-purposing a previously planned rally on Oct. 12 to express solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street protesters, the Huffington Post reports.
“The call went out over a month ago, before actually the occupancy of Wall Street took place,” said 32BJ spokesman Kwame Patterson. Now, he added, “we’re all coming under one cause, even though we have our different initiatives.” Occupy Wall Street, which was first proposed by Canadian counter cultural magazine Adbusters in July, initially received traction online thanks the support of Anonymous, the loosely-knit “hacktivist” collective. The event began on September 17 with around 3,000 protesters, but the numbers have varied considerably since then, with a core group of around 200 to 300 people maintaining a camp in nearby Zuccotti Park, despite being pepper-sprayed, beaten and arrested for frivolous offenses by police.
But its appeal appears to be spreading, not only to other groups, but other U.S. cities as well. Around 200 protesters in Boston took to the streets around Boston Common to begin their own related demonstration there. An Occupy Chicago event also began on September 23, but has so far remained limited to a small number of protesters in the double digits.
http://idealab.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/09/occupy-wall-street-protests-poised-to-grow-rapidly-with-union-support.php
Welcome to Infoshop News
Saturday, October 01 2011
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Greek Teachers Fight AUSTERITY
Striking Greek Teachers’ Union to attend London Conference
Against Bankster's Austerity1
OLME – the Greek federation of secondary education state school teachers – is to attend the ’Europe Against Austerity Conference hosted by the Coalition of Resistance (CoR) in London this weekend, on Saturday October 1.
OLME is one of the leading Greek unions in dispute with the Government over draconian cuts to public sector pay, higher taxes and lower pension entitlements. Greek unions social and youth organisations have organised a series of protests, mobilizations and strikes against the imposition of cuts in public spending.
The cuts have been imposed by the Greek government in line with the impositions of the ’'Troika’ of the EU/IMF/ECB. These ’austerity’ measures are part of the failed attempt to get Working people to pay for the bail-out of Greece’s bankers and creditors.
Themis Kotsifakis, General Secretary of OLME will be speaking at the conference. He said,“The Greek Government and the Troika (EU-IMF-ECB) have imposed severe austerity measures, slashing our salaries and pensions, destroying public goods (education-health-public transport etc), privatizing public companies and organisations, and selling off the wealth of the country to the Banks and Capital. Greece is the point of departure as similar policies are being implemented or are under implementation across Europe – especially in the countries of the European South. Therefore, we believe that there should be a coordinated reaction of all Workers, youth and social movements across Europe. Together for another Europe without neoliberalism. People first, not profit.”
Andrew Burgin, one of the London organizers of the conference said,“We are extremely pleased to welcome representatives of the Greek workers who have struggled so determinedly against ferocious cuts. They will be joining representatives from political parties, Unions and social organisations across Europe who are uniting in the battle against cuts”
Contact: 07939 242229
Notes to Editors 1. The Coalition of Resistance is a broad national campaign uniting against cuts and privatisation in workplaces, community and welfare services, based on general agreement with the Founding Statement issued by Tony Benn in August 2010.
2. The Founding Statement can be found here
3. The CoR conference takes place on Saturday 1 October, 10am-5pm Camden Centre, London WC1H 9AU
4. OLME is the Federation of state secondary school teachers. It has been involved in a series of strikes this year and last against the cuts, as well as a series of mobilisations, demonstrations and other actions.
5. Other attendees and speakers include elected representatives from the following parties, Trade Unions and social organisations:
The Labour Party (Britain), the European Left Party, Die Linke (Germany), Left Bloc (Portugal), NPA (France), Sinn Fein (Ireland), and others UNITE (Britain), USTEC-STES (Catalonia), CWU (Britain), CADTM (Greece), OLME (Greece), NUJ (Britain), Soldaires (France), COBAS (Italy), (LAB, Basque country), RMT (Britain), CADTM (Belgium), NUS (Britain), August 80 Free trade union (Poland), nUT (Britain) CoR (Britain), Attac (Germany), BARAC(Britain), Transform! Europe, Transform (France), Stop the War Coalition (Britain), Afri – Ireland, Jubilee (Britain), London Living Wage campaign, No-one is illegal (France), CADTM (Poland), Movement for Social Justice (Poland), CND, Disabled People against Cuts (Britain), TUC Disabled members’ council (Britain), War on Want (Britain), G20 Mobilising Committee (France)
As well as a large number of representatives from specific strike actions across Europe.
Our mailing address is:
Coalition of Resistance
Coalition of Resistance c/o Housmans Bookshop
5 Caledonian Road
London, London N1 9DX
Our telephone:
07939 242229
Against Bankster's Austerity1
OLME – the Greek federation of secondary education state school teachers – is to attend the ’Europe Against Austerity Conference hosted by the Coalition of Resistance (CoR) in London this weekend, on Saturday October 1.
OLME is one of the leading Greek unions in dispute with the Government over draconian cuts to public sector pay, higher taxes and lower pension entitlements. Greek unions social and youth organisations have organised a series of protests, mobilizations and strikes against the imposition of cuts in public spending.
The cuts have been imposed by the Greek government in line with the impositions of the ’'Troika’ of the EU/IMF/ECB. These ’austerity’ measures are part of the failed attempt to get Working people to pay for the bail-out of Greece’s bankers and creditors.
Themis Kotsifakis, General Secretary of OLME will be speaking at the conference. He said,“The Greek Government and the Troika (EU-IMF-ECB) have imposed severe austerity measures, slashing our salaries and pensions, destroying public goods (education-health-public transport etc), privatizing public companies and organisations, and selling off the wealth of the country to the Banks and Capital. Greece is the point of departure as similar policies are being implemented or are under implementation across Europe – especially in the countries of the European South. Therefore, we believe that there should be a coordinated reaction of all Workers, youth and social movements across Europe. Together for another Europe without neoliberalism. People first, not profit.”
Andrew Burgin, one of the London organizers of the conference said,“We are extremely pleased to welcome representatives of the Greek workers who have struggled so determinedly against ferocious cuts. They will be joining representatives from political parties, Unions and social organisations across Europe who are uniting in the battle against cuts”
Contact: 07939 242229
Notes to Editors 1. The Coalition of Resistance is a broad national campaign uniting against cuts and privatisation in workplaces, community and welfare services, based on general agreement with the Founding Statement issued by Tony Benn in August 2010.
2. The Founding Statement can be found here
3. The CoR conference takes place on Saturday 1 October, 10am-5pm Camden Centre, London WC1H 9AU
4. OLME is the Federation of state secondary school teachers. It has been involved in a series of strikes this year and last against the cuts, as well as a series of mobilisations, demonstrations and other actions.
5. Other attendees and speakers include elected representatives from the following parties, Trade Unions and social organisations:
The Labour Party (Britain), the European Left Party, Die Linke (Germany), Left Bloc (Portugal), NPA (France), Sinn Fein (Ireland), and others UNITE (Britain), USTEC-STES (Catalonia), CWU (Britain), CADTM (Greece), OLME (Greece), NUJ (Britain), Soldaires (France), COBAS (Italy), (LAB, Basque country), RMT (Britain), CADTM (Belgium), NUS (Britain), August 80 Free trade union (Poland), nUT (Britain) CoR (Britain), Attac (Germany), BARAC(Britain), Transform! Europe, Transform (France), Stop the War Coalition (Britain), Afri – Ireland, Jubilee (Britain), London Living Wage campaign, No-one is illegal (France), CADTM (Poland), Movement for Social Justice (Poland), CND, Disabled People against Cuts (Britain), TUC Disabled members’ council (Britain), War on Want (Britain), G20 Mobilising Committee (France)
As well as a large number of representatives from specific strike actions across Europe.
Our mailing address is:
Coalition of Resistance
Coalition of Resistance c/o Housmans Bookshop
5 Caledonian Road
London, London N1 9DX
Our telephone:
07939 242229
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