----- Original Message ----- From: Les Schaffer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, January 03, 2001 11:27 AM Subject: forwarded from Alan Maki > [alan: you need to send posts to the list from your subscribed > address. Les] > > > > Dear friends, > > I would like to take this opportunity to extend Season's Greetings to old > friends and new. Over the past several years I have had the opportunity to > meet many new people in Canada and the United States. In the last year I > have become reacquainted with many of my fellow activists from years past in > the United States. > > I just got laid-off three days before Christmas from the sweatshop I was > working in. Ain't capitalism great? > > Many of us have been communicating over many years. Some topics have come up > that I think need to be looked at as we approach the New Year. Struggles > don't come and go by dates and deadlines; yet, often we think that once a > New Year is upon us things will somehow just get better. Life never "just > happens" to get better for working people. Working people have to struggle > for everything in this life. > > Some really great news this past year comes from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. > The city named a park after Jacob Penner--- the legendary working class > fighter and longest serving elected Communist politician in North America. > Jacob Penner was a life-long member of the Communist Party of Canada. > Members of the Penner-Bethune Club of the Communist Party of Canada take > great pride in this development. This was done with support from elected > members of the socialist oriented provincial New Democratic Party--- which > now constitutes the majority governing party in the Province of Manitoba. > The electoral victory of the NDP which defeated a most racist, anti-labor, > right-wing reactionary Conservative government is a tremendous political > victory of working people in the past year. Most of the credit is due the > Manitoba Federation of Labour. > > I find it very interesting that in the US newspapers, what little coverage > we received about recent Canadian elections, no mention was made of the New > Democratic Party--- a socialist oriented party that represents Canadian > workers. This Party now holds majority power in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and > British Columbia. The backbone of the NDP being the Canadian Labour > Congress, which is to Canadian workers, what the AFL-CIO is in the US. US > workers and labor leaders would be well served to take a good look at > politics north of our border and the political activities of Canadian > Unions. Great things are going on in the Canadian labour movement. Unions > like the Canadian Union of Postal Workers--- talk about rank-and-file > control of a union, they have built strong bonds of friendship with the > Cuban people and leaders and have built a militant fighting union to defend > the rights of postal workers in Canada. > > As the New Year is upon us the political situation in the United States is > very dismal. The "election" of George Bush is casting dark gray clouds over > our country and most of the world. The class struggle is sure to intensify. > Working people can't afford to sit by and let Bush run roughshod over our > rights. Gore can afford to bow out graciously. Working women and men have no > choice but to continue to fight on-our very survival is at stake. > > For working women and men Bush's election means he will attempt to drive > down further the standard of living for working people. Bush's economic > polices will push wages down and the cost-of-living up; we can expect > increased unemployment; more dangerous and unsafe working conditions. I > suspect we will now see the wide spread proliferation of sweatshops not only > here in the "new" South, but across the United States and even into Canada. > American corporations will make a more concerted effort to "trim" costs at > all their North American operations in the name of remaining "competitive". > Cities like Winnipeg, Vancouver, Sudbury, Peterborough, Windsor and Oshawa > will undoubtedly suffer as Bush exerts pressure on the Canadian government > to make life easier and of course more profitable for American owned > corporations. As Canadian workers resist US pressures Canadian corporate > operations will threaten to continue the "move to the 'new' South" here in > the States. > > Bush and the corporations will use their old stand-by of racism and > anti-communism to try to divide our class as we fight-back. These corporate > profiteers will try to pit Canadian and US workers against each other. > > We working people are hurting because we have not yet developed a unified > strategy to deal with "globalization" and its devastating effects on the > standard of living of workers and our communities. Anarchists, > ultra-leftists and to one degree or another-- right-wing influences in the > labor movement, have been an impediment to attempts to organize the > unorganized in the proliferating new sweatshops that are now making their > re-appearance in almost every mass production industry. We need stronger > unions not weaker unions. We need organization, not anarchy. We don't need > workers or union leaders buying into nationalist schemes based on > competition. We don't have to fall for the trap of anarchist ideas in the > working class movement. Eugene V. Debs, William Z. Foster, Tim Buck, Big > Bill Haywood exposed the anarchist trap years ago. Workers need not get > caught in the anarchist trap today anymore than get caught up in the sleazy > schemes of some union "leaders" who buy the corporate master's line of > competition in the marketplace. Ultra-leftists still think revolutionary > phrase mongering can mystically perform miracles when organizational work > gets difficult. To organize against modern day capitalist globalization > means that working people need to understand what is happening around them, > and, to them. We can't organize without educating. We can't educate without > organizing. And we can't educate or organize without being in the workplace. > Anyone who thinks it is possible to organize against globalization without > bringing the workers in the "new" sweatshops spun by globalization into the > struggle is dreaming. > > I had a labor "leader" tell me he didn't have an organizer to send into a > sweatshop to work with me because, "None of my people will work in a fucking > hell-hole like that. Do you really expect me to ask someone on my staff to > go to work in that place?" And he said even if he did, "the union was > putting its resources into the election to keep Bush out of the White > House". After the election he said, "Sorry, Al, everything we had we used on > the election. it'll be awhile before we can undertake an organizing project > like that. keep in touch. let me know how things are going from > time-to-time. my door is always open to you. your committee is doing one > hell of a job". I told him gees, "put yourself in our position and play > your words back to yourself". He said, "I see what you mean. let me see what > we can do for you". > > In these sweatshops workers are working long hours with low pay in dirty and > unsafe conditions; speed-up is becoming unbearable. Often workers are forced > to work ten to twelve hours a day with two ten or fifteen minute breaks and > half an hour for lunch--- five, six and seven days a week. This is now a > reality of life for tens of thousands of working women and men in the "New > South" working in "Right-to-Work-for-Less states" in a "union free > environment". States like Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama and > Georgia. > > Virginia's racist and viciously anti-labor governor has been selected by > Bush to lead the national Republican Party. > > Major accounting firms like Price-Waterhouse that do the yearly statements > aimed at enticing investors to put their money in these proliferating > sweatshops boast of "no labor contracts" as a primary incentive for > investors. > > The infamous union busting thugs-- Pinkerton Security Company, reign over > these sweatshops by placing spies and infiltrators among workers to scout > out "union plants" and workers sympathetic to unions. These Pinkerton guards > terrorize workers and their families in the communities and harass workers > in the workplace. > > These sweatshops employ anywhere from 500 to 5,000 workers-making everything > from parts for the auto industry, household and office furniture, to > catalogue distribution centers for products produced in sweatshops overseas > where the pay is even less and working conditions even more harsh. > > Workers can often be heard making comments like, "Why don't they just bring > back the chains?" or from workers employed through temporary agencies like > ManPower, "I feel like I'm on the auction block". Many of the workers in > these sweatshops are workers of color- African-American, Hispanic, Haitian, > Panamanian, Puerto Rican and Philippino- many are women. Young workers are > used by the bosses to push and exert pressure on older workers to meet > production goals and quotas. Racism and sexism promoted by the bosses is > felt on a daily basis by women and workers of color-the discrimination and > the harassment more often than not are very blatant and viciously demeaning. > Pregnant women and workers with disabilities are treated "just like everyone > else". It is common for a supervisor to be heard telling a pregnant woman on > the line who says she needs to sit down to rest, "Do you think you are > better than everyone else?" > > Workers are often heard referring to these sweatshops as the "new > plantations". Government "inspectors" tour these plants and turn their heads > in indifference to obvious filthy, dusty air and safety violations; While > government agencies charged with stamping out racial and sexual > discrimination in the workplace file complaints in the "round file". Retired > military officers are being hired as "supervisors" and plant managers to > regiment the work-force in these sweatshops where people are often forced to > stand the entire duration of their shift and get yelled at and screamed at > by "group leaders" for leaving the production line to get a drink of water > or to go to the bath-room. Plant managers think nothing of issuing written > reminders that workers should get drinks or go to the bathroom only on > scheduled breaks. Workers who defend their rights to be treated like human > beings rather than like animals are "written up"-which means having a memo > placed in the file of the Human Resources Department then facing loss of > employment-the ultimate threat to a worker. > > Workers whose back, legs or feet begin to give out after being forced to > stand entire shifts for days and weeks on end, and, then take a moment to > sit on a crate or a table are fired on the spot after first being ridiculed > in front of co-workers; than scolded and lectured about being "lazy" and a > "slacker". > > Often an individual worker is forced to do what normally three or four > workers would do. > > Workers are being forced into poverty because these sweatshops pay poverty > wages. These sweatshops find no shortage of workers. The States force > workers to work-for-less by cutting unemployment payments and the duration > of compensation payments while "welfare-reform" has forced many entire > families to work double-shifts or two low-paying full-time jobs in an > attempt to make ends meet. It is not uncommon to find workers who are > working as long as sixteen to eighteen hours every day of the week! One > shift at a factory, another "second job" at a convenience store or > supermarket chain. This is the reality of sweatshop life in the "new South". > I have worked side-by-side with a worker for ten and a half hours only to > leave work and stop off at a Kmart or Wal-Mart to find the same worker > working at one of these places or a fast food restaurant. > > This is why conservatives push the "state's rights" agenda so vigorously. In > times past state's rights meant defending the institution of chattel > slavery. Today, "state's rights" advocates are interested in defending > modern day wage slavery. Often utilizing the some most cruel and vicious > methods of control over labor learned from the days of chattel slavery. > > Carpet-baggers (investors) from the Northern United States and all parts of > the world are now invading the "new South" in quest of super cheap labor. > Jobs that normally pay $18.00 to $20.00 an hour with benefits pay $5.85 to > $9.00 per hour without a single benefit. Companies like the German > multinational Stihl boast that they can hire workers in Virginia to do the > same job as their German counterparts in factory production jobs for > one-fifth the wages paid in Germany! Milken Industries out of Canada boasts > to their investors that wages and costs in Tennessee are one-third of those > in Canada! > > This is "globalization"! Demonstrations against globalization are needed. > But, what is really needed in addition to demonstrations is a massive union > organizing drive right through the south. All those opposed to capitalist > "globalization" will have to come to this reality. Hundreds of workers have > been fired from their jobs, just for using the "U" word. > > It is no wonder that workers in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada at the huge > Falconbridge mining complex owned by a Norwegian multi-national now find > themselves in a very lengthy and bitter labor dispute that has forced the > workers to picket line for months on end defending one of the best > steward-based union contracts in the world. In the name of "globalization" > and "remaining competitive" the huge multi-national that owns Falconbrdge > would like nothing better than to leave the union a life-less crippled shell > of an organization that does little more than collect dues from its members. > The workers at Falconbridge have fought and sacrificed over many decades to > get to the point where they are today. The contracts won through bitter > struggles and great sacrifice over the years by Falconbridge workers first > as members of Mine, Mill, Smelters' and now Mine,Mill, and Smelters Workers' > Local 598 /Canadian Auto Workers came to be the envy of every worker in > North America. Their fight is OUR fight! > > Falconbridge workers who now find themselves staring globalization in the > face. As part of the struggle against globalization we need to act in > solidarity with the miners of Sudbury today. > > As we approach the New Year we must intensify our efforts to make the > "United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights" a living reality for > all working people and their families whether laboring in the mines of > Sudbury, Ontario or the sweatshops of the "New" South, Mexico, Thailand, > Korea, Chile, Russia or Nigeria. > > One way to do this is to begin to organize a massive movement for a real > living wage. This means a guaranteed forty-hour workweek with a living wage > as the minimum wage for every worker. The minimum wage all over this globe > should be a living wage! What is a living wage? Whatever it takes to make > the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights a living reality > for every working-class family. The answer to capitalist "globalization" > must be to strengthen our unions and build unions in work places where none > exist. International working-class solidarity must be our answer to > capitalist "globalization". This is the way to end poverty in the world. > > The so-called leaders of the world gathered at the United Nations last year > to proclaim that they were going to set ending poverty as one of the "goals" > to be reached early on in this new millenium. They can't legislate an end to > poverty because most of these so-called leaders serve corporate masters and > many still serve at the beck and call of kings and queens, and even > dictators--- those who rule over a way of life that creates the poverty in > the first place. It will take united working class action to overcome > poverty. Exploitation of man by man is the source of poverty. Poverty is an > inherent characteristic of the capitalist system itself. > > We must find new and creative ways to defend the rights of workers to > organize in the "new South" and to support the Falconbridge workers in > Sudbury, Ontario, Canada battling a giant multi-national. There is no simple > or easy way. It takes organizing. Organizing means educating in a way that > leads to action. > > On another, but related subject that requires our immediate action. I would > urge each and every one of you reading this to do everything possible to > pressure President Clinton to release Leonard Peltier from prison- hold > solidarity meetings and press conferences; organize demonstrations, write, > phone and call the White House hotline at: 1-800-663-9566; 9am to 4pm EST. > Join with the Canadian Labor Congress and hundreds of unions, civil rights > and human rights organizations in the United States, Canada and throughout > the world-demand freedom for Leonard Peltier. His only crime: fighting for > the rights of Native Americans. Let us make sure that the legacy that > follows Clinton from the White House is what he does in regards to clemency > for Leonard Peltier and not what he stuck in Monica Lewinsky's mouth! Urgent > action is needed now! Leonard Peltier is a political prisoner framed by the > FBI. FBI agents lied on the witness stand and went free while Leonard > Peltier an innocent man was railroaded to jail. > > Let the New Year of 2001 begin with an intensified struggle on the part of > working people and all progressive minded people for a better life. > > As the New Year begins let us serve notice on George Bush and the Big > Business interests he represents that working people have been kicked around > long enough and we are going to fight like hell for a decent life. > > I urge you to take an in depth look at the web site set up by Mine, Mill, > Smelters Workers' Local 598/CAW: > http://www.minemill598.com/index.html > Just click and look, figure out what you can do to help. The struggle of > these sisters and brothers is our struggle. By supporting these sisters and > brothers we defend our families and ourselves. Also, if you would like, I > can e-mail you a copy of the popular pamphlet that gives a short history of > Mine, Mill in Sudbury written by Jim Tester (now deceased), a former member > and president of Mine, Mill Local 598. It remains an excellent read. This > little pamphlet is a study in building rank-and-file trade unions. > > I will forward you any materials or information you need on the Peltier > case. Just ask. Don't forget to vote for freedom for Leonard Peltier in the > on-line poll, just point and click: http://www.vote.com > > The Workers' Education and Action Campaign is preparing a report on life in > a sweatshop in the "new" South. If you would like a copy e-mailed to you, > let me know. > > I look forward to exchanging info and views with you in the New Year. > > Best wishes for a happy and healthy New Year! > > Yours in the Struggle, > > Alan Maki
