Archives
Our Subprime Economy
Sun, 12/30/2007 - 17:40 — Bobbo
The corporate press has been filled with stories about the subprime mortgage mess, mostly speculation about how it will affect what are referred to as "the markets". It is understood that the "markets" will have to make some "adjustments" to the disaster. Apparently this means large bonuses to the financial wizards who came up with the subprime mortgage idea and some kind of government bailout for the financial industry.
I call it the Bob Dylan theory of economics from his song Love Minus Zero/No Limit.
A Commune in Takoma Park: The Lincoln Avenue Story
Sun, 12/30/2007 - 01:28 — Bobbo
Estelle Carol and me in front of the Lincoln Ave Commune-1974 |
In the early 1970's I was a member of a political commune based in Takoma Park, Maryland. Our small wood frame house was located in some leafy woods between Piney Branch Road and Maple Avenue. Sligo Creek Park was about a quarter mile away with its rocky swift flowing creek.
A number of people were associated with the commune as residents and overnight guests. Following the example of poet and sage Bob Dylan, I have (for the most part), rearranged their faces and given them all other names.
Although named after "Honest Abe", the Lincoln Avenue Commune began with a lie — a monstrous fraud perpetrated on the landlady Mrs. Chu. You see, we didn't think that we could find anyone who would rent to a gang of ruffians like Betty, Becky, Joey, Chet, Sarah, Greg and me (Bobbo) .
Autoworkers step back into a dark past
Wed, 12/05/2007 - 15:56 — Bobbo
"In 1950, General Motors and the United Auto Workers (UAW) signed the 'Treaty of Detroit.' The landmark contract helped create mass prosperity and growing equality in America over the next two decades by setting a standard for other unions that even many non-union employers felt pressure to approximate. Workers shared in rising productivity, and unions shifted to employers many of the risks that come from life in a capitalist economy. The UAW won comprehensive health insurance, pensions, cost-of-living adjustments and income protection during economic downturns.
But the new contracts that the Big Three—GM, Chrysler and Ford—negotiated this fall effectively repeal that treaty."-- Labor journalist David Moberg from In These Times.
There are many bad aspects to these contracts. Here is one of the worst:
Many of the new hires (who will be mostly young), will get inferior pay and benefits. Yes, boys and girls, you may be doing the same work as the person next to you, but that old fart will be taking home a serious chunk of change that you will never see. In fairness to old farts (being one myself), many older UAW workers voted against these contracts because they understood what a disaster they are.
Workers finally get some protective gear...well, some workers anyway
Sun, 11/18/2007 - 05:01 — Bobbo
After nine years, a lawsuit and some 400,000 workplace injuries, the Bush administration is issuing a rule requiring employers to pay for workers’ personal protective safety equipment (PPE)—a measure expected to prevent tens of thousands of workplace injuries every year.
The rule, requiring employers to pay for such safety items as hard hats, lifelines, face shields, gloves and other equipment used by an estimated 20 million workers, was first proposed in 1999, but it was pulled back when the Bush administration came to power. Nearly a year ago, the AFL-CIO and the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) filed a lawsuit over the Bush’ administration’s refusal to issue the rule. The lawsuit and congressional appropriations legislation both set a deadline of Nov. 30 for final action by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)—which itself estimates that some 400,000 workers have been injured and another 50 killed because the rule has not been in place.
Although this is certainly welcome news, protective gear does not "cover"(pun intended), the situation of the baristas at the Cowgirls Espresso chain of coffee bars.
Workplace Survival 101
Sat, 11/10/2007 - 02:40 — Bobbo
Here's an example of what I mean from a book called 30 Ways to Shine as a New Employee by Denise Bissonette.
Coming Home from the War after Flying Close to the Sun
Thu, 11/08/2007 - 22:13 — Bobbo
I recently read Cathy Wilkerson's new memoir, Flying to Close to the Sun about her days in SDS and Weatherman. She was in Chicago recently giving a reading from her book. I attended and here is my report.
Riding the Red Line up to Women and Children First Bookstore had my stomach tied in knots. Cathy Wilkerson was going to give a reading from her new book Flying Close to the Sun.
Thinking about Cathy brought back painful memories of the breakup of SDS, the murder of Fred Hampton, the bloody civil war that tore apart the Black Panther Party, the townhouse explosion that killed three SDS leaders, the splitup of the Mother Bloor Collective.... all of which happened around the last time I had laid eyes on Cathy Wilkerson.
Escaping from Freedom?
Sun, 09/30/2007 - 04:51 — Bobbo
In the wake of the 20th century rise of Nazism, psychologist Eric Fromm wrote a book called Escape from Freedom in which he explored why people choose totalitarianism over freedom. Published in 1941, the book makes this central point:
"The person who gives up his individual self and becomes an automaton, identical with millions of other automatons around him, need not feel alone and anxious any more. But the price he pays, however, is high; it is the loss of his self."
And what does it mean when a person loses their sense of self?
"This loss of identity then makes it still more imperative to conform, it means that one can be sure of oneself only if one lives up to the expectations of others. If we do not live up to this picture, we not only risk disapproval and increased isolation, but we risk losing the identity of our personality, which means jeopardizing sanity."
In short...do what you are told. Go along to get along. Anything else is madness.
Anyone who has spent time at an American workplace meets those walking wounded who shuffle through the workday, their spirits broken and their lives a gray dull routine.
Visiting Chicago? Read This First.
Wed, 09/05/2007 - 04:06 — Bobbo
Chicago is famous for its architecture, its storied political crime and corruption and its hapless but loveable Chicago Cubs. Tourists come from around the world to snap pictures from the top of the Sears Tower, marvel at the Impressionists housed in the Art Institute and tremble before Sue the Tyrannosaur at the Field Museum.
Some even ride the Green Line out to Oak Park to enjoy the work of Frank Lloyd Wright (you know, the guy who designed all those leaky roofs).
Not to put down these tourist attractions, which after all do pump some money into Chicago's 21st century de-industrialized economy, but one of my favorite spots in Chicago is---- a feminist bookstore.
"And who killed the miners? Say the grim bells of Blaina..."
Thu, 08/23/2007 - 08:42 — Bobbo
I
Yet this week it was hard to think of carbon as the element of life. There were simply too many deaths resulting from our mad addiction to the carbon that lies buried in the ground.
Reading Lord of the Rings in 1968
Sat, 08/11/2007 - 02:15 — Bobbo
1968 was not a good year. War, assassination, political violence and creeping fascism fell over the land like a gloomy shadow. It was however, a very good year to read J.R.R. Tolkein's Lord of the Rings for the first time.
I had first come across the epic trilogy in 1965 as a high school senior when I saw it listed as a favorite of 60's college students. Later some of my pals formed a band called Middle Earth and passed out business cards with the word "Hobbit" displayed prominently.
The bassplayer in the band had a hippie-style VW bus named "The Traveling Slum". On the windshield visor was a button that read "Frodo Lives".
But despite my travels with the Middle Earth band members in the Traveling Slum, I still had not read the book that had given birth to their name--- until the summer of 1968.
It's the troubles that cause the rebels.
