Re: [Marxism] PG electricity shutdown in N. California
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * OK, fine. B-. :) On Fri, Oct 11, 2019 at 12:07 PM John Reimann via Marxism < marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote: > > Finally, when I was in school, I always considered it beneath me to contest > a grade since I hated both school and the grading system. But in this case, > I must do so. Not a C-, but I will accept a B- (maybe even C+). > > John Reimann > -- > *“In politics, abstract terms conceal treachery.” *from "The Black > Jacobins" by C. L. R. James > Check out:https:http://oaklandsocialist.com also on Facebook > _ > Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm > Set your options at: > https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/dwaltersmia%40gmail.com _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] PG electricity shutdown in N. California
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * I agree that the piece I wrote was not really thoroughly thought out or researched. In part it was an emotional response to what I had been hearing about on the news and reading in the capitalist press (i.e., the SF Chronicle). Having just written two rather extensive articles on the Trump impeachment crisis, and trying to carefully follow subsequent developments, I lacked the time and energy to do more. But I was really pissed off at what I'd been seeing and hearing about the PG shutdown and wanted to respond to it. And I was legitimately upset at the fact that there was not a thought to the fact that 1.1 billion people are living without electricity every day of their lives. On my Facebook page, where I posted this article, some people talked about the problems they're facing. One woman without a lot of money talked about losing a week's worth of food that she cannot afford to replace. Yes, that sort of thing should be recognized. I did comment on some of the points that David Walters raises, regarding PG's criminal behavior. However, I also do think that we we are seeing regarding this shutdown simply forewarns what is to come due to global climate disruption. Blackouts, mass flooding - including of entire cities (or entire countries in the case of some Pacific Island nations or Bangladesh), and worse. I think we are also likely to see mass poisoning on a scale larger and more intense than what we've seen up until now as toxic waste dumps become inundated. This and more. The fact is that in the last analysis, it is "Mother Nature" who caused this crisis. Or rather, it is Mother Nature's reaction to the depredations of capitalism. Sure, the profit addicted PG behaved totally irresponsibly. What do we expect? Is it really any different from how arms manufacturers send "our boys (and now girls too)" off to war with weapons that don't function properly because that's more profitable? Sure, the weapons manufacturers should be condemned, but more than that, capitalism should be condemned for leading the working class into war in the first place. So, when Governor Newsom says he's "outraged" - at whom or what is he outraged? At Mother Nature? Again, I agree that my piece wasn't a thoroughly thought-out and researched piece, but if it got Dave Walters' blood pumping a little bit in annoyance... well, you know, Dave, at our age a little bit of stress (not too much, but a little bit) is a good thing. It helps us live longer! Finally, when I was in school, I always considered it beneath me to contest a grade since I hated both school and the grading system. But in this case, I must do so. Not a C-, but I will accept a B- (maybe even C+). John Reimann -- *“In politics, abstract terms conceal treachery.” *from "The Black Jacobins" by C. L. R. James Check out:https:http://oaklandsocialist.com also on Facebook _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] PG electricity shutdown in N. California
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Andy, unfortunately, while the union is key in keeping job numbers up, thus their defense of tree trimmers and the unionized tree trimming companies, it generally is very right wing. There is agreement that neither the union nor the company will attack each other in public or oppose the demands of either party when discussions over rate increases, public power proposals and so on come up in the State. Thus, the union deploys its staff to lobby to support rate increases even as the company and union bargain for a new contract every 3 or 4 years. One will never find the union attacking the Company in public unless a Company action directly negatively effects the membership. With the spate of proposals for *Municipalization* in San Francisco and other communities, the union mobilizes resources to oppose it, like they did in 2000 when two similar proposals for a buy out of the grid occurred in SF. I see no change in this class collaboration. Understand, Local members are paid far in excess of similar employees at Public Power entities like SMUD or the DWP in LA. There is likely no question that had the proposals gone through in 2000, which I worked for as it happens, ex-PG and now public power workers would of taken a big hit eventually. Of course that would depend as well on the dynamic of fighting to maintain high wages and could of been taken up by other SF employees to raise standards to what the PG contract had in it. It is hard to tell what would of happened. Additionally there was an "institutional" prerogative against this as public employees are not part of the NLRA and thus representation if 100% based on City laws, in this case the San Francisco, or State, Charter. With 2000 employees in SF it would of meant the possible loss of these 2000 employees to other unions already established in City. Lastly, to give you an idea of my unions collaborationist perspectives, in the 90s I went to a pre-negotiation union conference for all shop stewards. The Assistant Union manager got up and first thing he does is "do you want to negotiate or do you want to strike?". Amazingly every one bought into this nonsense except for a few socialists and ex-socialists who were there. The unions *brags* about never having gone on strike. That is what we were up against and what rank and file militants are still up against. David Walters On Fri, Oct 11, 2019 at 7:44 AM Andrew Pollack via Marxism < marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote: > POSTING RULES & NOTES > #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. > #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. > * > > Would like to hear more about the union's position and activities, as well > as of communities. > This is important not only for energy workers and consumers but for climate > change activism as well -- i.e. if we are to get past the (hugely > impressive) street rallies the question of worker/community control will > have to be posed at specific strategic sites. > _ > Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm > Set your options at: > https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/dwaltersmia%40gmail.com > _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] PG electricity shutdown in N. California
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Would like to hear more about the union's position and activities, as well as of communities. This is important not only for energy workers and consumers but for climate change activism as well -- i.e. if we are to get past the (hugely impressive) street rallies the question of worker/community control will have to be posed at specific strategic sites. _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] PG electricity shutdown in N. California
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * [First, John's usually well written essays on topical subjects I think gets a C- this time. I don't understand his snarky attitude toward these black outs and previous fires. Maybe his means something else but it doesn't appear so.] This was a totally the fault of PG, my former employer. PG admits it has only accomplished 31% of the required PUC mandated tree trimming. This story is an old one going back to the mid-1980s when the Company started scaling back tree trimming operations and diverting funding for other Corporate expenses. Tree trimming is mandated by state regulations. The company can send tree trimmers in with chain saws to cut down or trim back trees that have branches that could hit power lines in neighborhoods. They can removed dead trees around the easements for their transmission lines. PG has failed to do this. We have had higher wind situations 20 and 30 years ago which did not cause any fires whatsoever. Yes, the number of actually fully dead trees has, because of climate change caused droughts increased. But this was seen before it happened and the Company should of started to take care of this problem at least 5 years ago when we were in a drought situation. My union, IBEW Local 1245 reported regularly throughout the 80s, 90s and 2000s on the *failure* of PG to abide by it's mandate. The new PUC regs now allow PG to turn off the power to millions of people instead of mandating what they should do and *were paid to do* which is to upgrade their transmission and distribution network, replace poles that are too old and are in danger of falling, and trimming back the vegetation through out it's 20,000 miles of wires. David Walters IBEW 1245, Ret. _ > Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm > Set your options at: > https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/dwaltersmia%40gmail.com > _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] PG electricity shutdown in N. California
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * It is an outrage. >From @CorbettOToole via Facebook on #PGEshutoff: Folks who need power. If you do not have a back up power system (generator, etc) and you need power, the Emergency Preparedness folks are saying Go to your local hospital (probably the ER waiting room) for power. https://twitter.com/SFdirewolf/status/1181866075710992384 _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] PG electricity shutdown in N. California
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * "Oh, the horror of it! The absolute scandal unfolding as over 100,000 Californians are having to go without electricity for several days. Restaurants are having to close and some school children are having endure the absolute nightmare of having their schools shut down. (I spoke with one ten-year old whose school had remained open. She looked very sad… I assume on behalf of the other kids who didn’t have the great joy of sitting in a classroom for six hours on a beautiful, sunny fall day.) A caller to a news show complained that she had had to undergo the unacceptable disruption to her life because the gas station where she normally gets gas was shut down. California Governor Gavin Newsom, ever the man of the people, expressed it perfectly: “People are outraged as we (meaning himself) are.”" "Get used to it. This is what capitalism has in store for us." https://oaklandsocialist.com/2019/10/10/pge-electricity-shutdown-in-california/ -- *“In politics, abstract terms conceal treachery.” *from "The Black Jacobins" by C. L. R. James Check out:https:http://oaklandsocialist.com also on Facebook _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
