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How Undemocratic Is CUPE 3903 -- The Story Of Val

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Cupe Doll	Posted: Tue Mar 02, 2010 4:38 pm
Joined: 06 Jan 2010 Posts: 69 Location: Toronto	Quote: These events were subject to legal disputes and settlements -- among the terms of which we have been told there were gag orders. Nevertheless, as non-parties, we hope to responsibly outline certain germane, personally heard and eye-witnessed particulars. This tale needs telling not only to expose our radical, anti-democratic 3903 regime but, perhaps most importantly, to ensure these events do not vanish without trace -- do not pass seamlessly into darkness. Paul Moist calls CUPE Local 3903 "dysfunctional". Fair enough. Brother Moist can't know the tenth of it -- how dysfunctional we really are -- but he does have some clues. It wasn't always like that, though. Regardless how ideologically out of control -- we never had such total meltdown before. Never even came close to getting ourselves legislated and administrated as in 2009. Regardless how ideologically out of control, we never became completely dysfunctional. Not totally. Something always kept us functioning. More accurately, someone. Specifically, as anyone been around longer than four or five years knows, Val. Our singular 3903 staff rep. What made Val so singular? Not the way he put people at ease, that's for sure. Not with that way he had of looking at people one moment too long. Making one feel like he knew precisely who did what onto whom last summer. It wasn't the little things that made Val singular. It was the important things. The way he stood up, crossed country miles and went to bat for members in distress. The way he knew where everything was, what to do with it, who to take it to. How no door could be shut in one's face when Val said a word. With Val on the job it didn't matter how ideologically out of control we got. It didn't matter what Machiavellian machinating went on. Local 3903 could not become totally dysfunctional with Val around to save the day -- every day. He kept us functioning collectively -- and just as often kept us going personally. That's what made him so singular. How singularly indispensable he was -- to us. But one day Val's health began to visibly suffer. The man who thrived on stress as an essential nutrient, who daily drove from Hamilton as if driven, went missing on stress leave. Began taking stress days. And due to how infinitely reliable Val had always been? Due to how we all relied on him? It was as if the ground itself had stumbled under our feet -- or the stars staggered from their perfect spheres. Nor was Val talking. Wouldn't say what trouble there was. Fortunately, secrets were never what 3903s kept best. From drunken boasting, from FaceBook pages, from accessible electronic listservs, enough puzzling pieces fell into general gossip -- and too neatly into obvious place. Yet none could regard what emerged as the big picture. It was too small. It was just nasty. There was no help concluding 3903's most radical ideologues were conspiring to purge Val from his position. How? Through targeted harassment. Why? Precisely because Val was so singularly indispensable to 3903 functioning. Val's indispensability meant that Local 3903 could not effectively be subjugated to the most radical agenda without first obtaining complete accord or unconditional obedience from him. But Val would never place obedience to one faction before the whole 3903 functioning. Therefore Val had to go. Val had to be purged from his position. Then, following Val's purge, our most radical ideologues could either select a partisan staff rep from among their own -- names were already being speculated and bandied about -- or hire externally someone more dispensable. Someone more easily replaced if disobedient to the radical ideologues' agenda. More regular 3903 members were not in the least surprised. This was our radical ideologues' standard operating procedure, after all. Regular members daring to resist undemocratic, totalitarian initiatives had been endlessly targeted just this way. Harassment, bullying, the atmosphere of persecution and fear. We were not surprised. We were shocked. We were outraged when Val became the target. What if the ideologues actually succeeded hijacking 3903 by purging Val? How could Local 3903 function without him? It couldn't. It would become a dysfunctional, ideological, totalitarian nightmare. We heard there were grievances, by Val's Local, against 3903. We heard there were legal actions taken by Val. We heard perhaps exaggerated horrors how our most radical ideologues were persecuting Val. The more regular membership could not know what was or wasn't true. But we were all too familiar with our most radical ideologues. Their penchant and zeal for persecuting. There was no ignoring the conspiracy against Val involved particular malice -- and entailed unpredictable harm. That's why so many senior regular members got up in arming to help Val. Because we had been around long enough that, at one time or another, Val had helped each of us. Personally. It seemed like hundreds committed to helping Val. About thirty -- give or take -- showed up. But it was enough. That became obvious soon as we walked into the general membership meeting. We were more than enough. Since there were maybe eleven other bodies in that room -- even counting the partisan chair and the usual suspects on the podium. We began to feel confident. If not for our initial confidence? We might sooner have recognized what totalitarian parody of membership-driven democracy was about to ensue. When the first thing that partisan chair did was insert whatever our concerns were as agenda item five. That much, though, we thought we were prepared for. No way would we sit for six hours' droning on agenda items one through four -- just so agenda item five could never be addressed. "Ninety percent everyone is here to address that," we said. Words to that effect. "Better make it first priority job one, don't you think?" "Oh, yeah," demanded the partisan chair, " Just what are you even here to address?" Again, in words to that effect. "We want you to stop persecuting Val," we said. And, "Stop oppressing Val." And "Stop harassing Val." And some of us simply said "Leave Val alone." The partisan chair did not respond. He elected that moment to throw fits at us. Started scream ranting how we were never to mention Val. How our lawyers had said never to mention Val. How illegal it therefore was for us to ever even mention Val. That's how it went forty-five minutes subsequent the appointed start time. That chair absolutely refusing to let the meeting start. Ranting, raving, threatening dire personal repercussions against anyone daring to mention Val. And yet more odd? All partisans of that raving chair seemed to have vanished. They left their partisan chair ranting alone. How come? Were they too mortified by his public displaying to remain associated with it? Hardly. They were eye-witnessed in the hallway just outside. Madly gabbling on their cellphones. Giving street directions. Repeatedly providing instructions how to locate and arrive at the meeting. Some of us left then. But most stayed. Still believing we could help Val. We still had our commanding majority -- didn't we? No. We didn't. Not after those forty-five minutes that chair ranted away. Not after all the calls for partisan reinforcements had been placed. Forty-five minutes subsequent appointed starting time? Sufficient partisan reinforcements had arrived. We were reduced to minority. And the ring-leading, most radical of ideologues rose to the podium, silenced that raving chair and took charge of the meeting. It was so well done, the way he took over. So diplomatic. So brilliant tactically. Magnanimous, even. As if to spare us further humiliation from collapsing chairs. And, indeed, with his majority at beck to call, he could afford to be magnanimous. All conclusions were foregone but his. It was resolved that Val would never more be mentioned. It was further resolved the minutes would be subjected to revision -- as if Val had never been mentioned in the first place. How undemocratic is CUPE Local 3903? Utterly. It has been hijacked into some dark totalitarian sub-space underneath our relatively free and democratic Canadian society. What makes it totalitarian is not the radical agenda of the hijackers. Nor is it how unpopular the hijackers' agenda is. Since their radical agenda sometimes proves popular indeed in 3903. What makes 3903 totalitarian is how utterly undemocratically the hijackers' agenda has and shall continue to be implemented. Unless, of course, CUPE National were actually to do something about it in the course of 3903 Administration. It can't be true that everything has to come down to money. But even only in financial terms -- the totalitarian hijacking of 3903 instigated serial disasters from very first moments. Long prior our spectacular meltdown, the speculation had been that -- between 3903's legal costs and settlement costs in the Val affair -- three to five hundred thousand dollars were depleted from our strike fund. We cannot know. We cannot officially mention Val. Even unofficially, reference to Val has become taboo. Finding out would require third-party forensic auditing. Forensic auditing such as taking place this minute right now. Is there enough CUPE National concern to open those books? Nothing could offer greater hope for sanity and democracy in 3903 than resolution, however belated, regarding Val. Because he alone stood best for us. Quote: We believe Val's story has to be told. Both for sake of human dignity and the possibility of restoring some democracy in 3903. We have sought, short of sacrificing the tale altogether, to avoid every specific reference that could compromise anyone's identity in particulars. If you do recognize those involved? Then your familiarity with these events may well exceeds ours. We encourage you to help us correct any inadvertent falsehood you can perceive in our account. _________________ www.ultimatecultureclash.com
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Laboryes	Posted: Tue Mar 02, 2010 5:35 pm
Joined: 29 Jan 2006 Posts: 1967	Cupe.....what the hell happened to “freedom of speech”? How can anyone tell you members who you can mention and who you can’t mention? This story is so outrages it’s almost unbelievable! Don’t get me wrong, I believe every word! My first thought off the cuff....... At your next biz meeting or at a protest at the local’s office it would be awesome to see a few hundred members in support of Val to take over the meeting or the office with mass chants of “Val”, “Val”, “Val”!!!! I mean really what could they do??? How about in all your work places mass posters and banners all in support of Val? Fuck em Cupe! They say “no mention of Val” I’d be screaming “Val” so loud that us Californians could hear it! _________________ "When people refuse to obey, then democracy comes alive." Howard Zinn
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SharynS	Posted: Tue Mar 02, 2010 6:15 pm
Joined: 28 Jan 2006 Posts: 2939 Location: the 'puter	It is refreshing to see that ufcw isn't the only defunct union and that the whole concept of paid representation is basically flushing as we speak eh Ly? Ha, I for one can't wait until it's entirely extinct, another story. Quote: I [Moist] will be calling a special general membership meeting in order to meet directly with you to discuss the following issues:.... I'd be interested to know, first if the "special" GMM materialized, how many attended and then what came out at that meeting? Apart from his lame follow your new leader advice, did Moist show any sort of leadership that actually dealt with the serious "issues"? _________________ Free speech is the whole thing, the whole ball game. Free speech is life itself. - Salman Rushdie
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Cupe Doll	Posted: Tue Mar 02, 2010 10:23 pm
Joined: 06 Jan 2010 Posts: 69 Location: Toronto	Quote: did Moist show any sort of leadership that actually dealt with the serious "issues"? Wow. You hit the head nail right there. I can't say for sure yet. If National is even trying or could give a flying flock. So long they get their money back and maybe un-ruffle some gov't feathers for having to get involved and stop the kids running down the littler kids. One of the things I'm trying to do is flush more crap into the open. Maybe they'll have to notice it then? Nah. Not likely. Well, that's only one of the things I'm hoping to accomplish. _________________ www.ultimatecultureclash.com
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wm pasz	Posted: Wed Mar 03, 2010 3:22 am
Joined: 29 Jan 2006 Posts: 1219 Location: Toronto	That's a really great tribute to Val, CP. It's a shame what happened to him. He was a good person. But, you know, what happened to him is soooooo common among the mainstream unions. If you're a staff rep who's not kissing the butts of the ruling junta, you'll be hounded out of the club. It's only a matter of time and tactics. The scene you describe at the GMM is, I'm sure, hauntingly familiar to many UFCW members (and members of other unions as well). Only the costumes of the guys at the podium are different. But whether they're wearing Armani suits or anarchist t-shirts, that lust for power, control and the perks associated with those is what drives them. That's why, as long as there's no meaningful democracy in unions, you're going to get this sort of crap. How is Val doing? Does anyone hear from him? I hear he landed with OPSEU. _________________ Time is on the side of the oppressed today, it's against the oppressor. Truth is on the side of the oppressed today, it's against the oppressor. You don't need anything else. - Malcolm X
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wm pasz	Posted: Wed Mar 03, 2010 4:12 am
Joined: 29 Jan 2006 Posts: 1219 Location: Toronto	Damn! Just read http://ultimatecultureclash.com/2120 I can totally relate that what the "online nom de plume" can bring out in a body. I discovered a side of me I always knew existed. It's surprising where it can lead - so I'm eager to hear where it led you. This, btw, really kicks ass - Quote: Why do it in the first place, then? Is Cupe Doll crazy? An unstable personality — like 3903 ideologues keep claiming? Is there a split personality disorder? Honestly — who cares. Cupe Doll simply doesn’t need the money like I do. Doesn’t care about personal consequences like I care. When I write as Cupe Doll it isn’t my own personal, pragmatic best interests I’m most concerned with. Yeah — I know. It sounds absurd. It is absurd. As if the alias were a costume. Except not a crime-fighting costume. It’s an ideology fighting costume. Because ideology is infinitely more devastating than criminality. Think about it. When societies grow most ideologically out of control — that’s when virtue and truth get criminalized most. See? False criminality is merely one outcome of ideology. Not even the worst outcome — but plenty bad enough. Since false criminality can mean nothing but injustice. But out of control ideology doesn’t just mean exploitation, oppression and injustice. It means ultimate devastation. It means genocide of cultural others. It means extinction of every natural kind we keep ideologically believing g0d-given to human consumption. And although I don’t really think anything can be done about it — Cupe Doll seems to think different. Cupe Doll absolutely believes something can be done about human ideology always getting out of control. When I write as Cupe Doll? Call me crazy if you like. That’s when I do believe there’s hope for humans. I wouldn’t have bothered if I didn’t. _________________ Time is on the side of the oppressed today, it's against the oppressor. Truth is on the side of the oppressed today, it's against the oppressor. You don't need anything else. - Malcolm X
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Cupe Doll	Posted: Wed Mar 03, 2010 7:07 am
Joined: 06 Jan 2010 Posts: 69 Location: Toronto	Particularly ironic in 3903 is that the "ruling junta" (aptly put, WMP) could get their way democratically at least sometimes. It isn't as if most 3903s are against radical agendas. But then they could no longer rule as a junta. They would have to become somewhat accountable -- or face eventual populist rejection. No, haven't been in contact with Val. There was a little talk about forwarding the post -- but it could be he'd prefer no reminders from those days whatsoever. So didn't. Quote: I can totally relate that what the "online nom de plume" can bring out in a body. I discovered a side of me I always knew existed. It's surprising where it can lead - so I'm eager to hear where it led you. Glad you liked I'll continue the tale.. but I need to take a break for a bit first. Quote: How can anyone tell you members who you can mention and who you can’t mention? Well LY, it's all in the tone of voice I guess. In the harassment, the bullying and the general atmosphere of intimidation and fear. There's always a few "dissident voices" that dare speak regardless to personal consequences. But regular members or citizens can be cowed fairly easily, no? _________________ www.ultimatecultureclash.com
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wm pasz	Posted: Wed Mar 03, 2010 6:00 pm
Joined: 29 Jan 2006 Posts: 1219 Location: Toronto	I was reading some of the material on your site last night and again came across the references to the ruling junta's strategy to bring about some kind neo-liberal armageddon through the collective bargaining process. As I understand it the plan was to surface bargain, prompt a strike and hold out until YU was on the brink of destruction. Then, the junta leaders believed, YU administrators would demand that the provincial government intervene and do something that would lead to a rolling back of the neo-liberal university. Did they every flesh this out in more detail? How did they see this happening? What was it that they thought the province would do and why? What would rolling back the neo-liberal university involve? I'm totally fascinated by this. I agree that ideology is like a poison or maybe a drug that can make even the most rational of people completely delusional but believing that any of this had a snow ball's chance in hell of happening would require ingesting a truckload of shrooms. _________________ Time is on the side of the oppressed today, it's against the oppressor. Truth is on the side of the oppressed today, it's against the oppressor. You don't need anything else. - Malcolm X
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Cupe Doll	Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2010 3:10 am
Joined: 06 Jan 2010 Posts: 69 Location: Toronto	Whew. You raise great points and issues. But you're making me work here, WMP. Too late tonight, I'll reply tomorrow. May I ask a favour? Would you be willing to cut and paste your last comment into the relevant comment area at the clash? I'd like our discussions to be represented there too. No need to register -- you can post as guest. _________________ www.ultimatecultureclash.com
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Laboryes	Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2010 9:49 am
Joined: 29 Jan 2006 Posts: 1967	Cupe Doll wrote: Well LY, it's all in the tone of voice I guess. In the harassment, the bullying and the general atmosphere of intimidation and fear. There's always a few "dissident voices" that dare speak regardless to personal consequences. But regular members or citizens can be cowed fairly easily, no? Cupe you are right, members & citizens can be cowed easily and I believe this comes from the ignorance of not knowing the strength of “unity”! There’s no trust among workers today like in the early birth of labor unions back in the 30's and 40's. I believe the corporate work places and society in general have brainwashed people for years now that the way to get ahead(earn a better standard of living) is by stabbing co-workers in the back, snitching them off, etc! If a worker or citizen isn’t the perfect “little tin soldier”, if they’ve got a mind of their own gawd forbid they can’t be good for the corporation or society in general. The sad part of it all is you watch most people try so hard to fit the mold, be the perfect tin soldier, never stepping out of line, but they, as the rest of us are plummeting into the depths of corporate slavery and poverty at alarming rates! It always amazes me that most people never think that sticking together and speaking the same voice on issues of workers rights and working conditions will give them power and results! When and if it ever happens it’s only because workers/citizens have been beaten so low there’s no other means of fighting back. It’s ashamed people have to let themselves be so beaten down before unity ever becomes an option! Go figure? _________________ "When people refuse to obey, then democracy comes alive." Howard Zinn
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Cupe Doll	Posted: Sun Mar 07, 2010 5:20 am
Joined: 06 Jan 2010 Posts: 69 Location: Toronto	Quote: It always amazes me that most people never think that sticking together and speaking the same voice on issues of workers rights and working conditions will give them power and results! That's too funny, LY. I just posted a longish message in the "Paul Moist has no ideas" thread about needing to re-define our notions of what power even means. I'd just add that standing together must only come from genuinely standing the same ground. Standing for the same ideals. From voluntary agreement in principles. Otherwise? If people get herded together instead? That would just be repeating the worst of everything that corrupted state communism and trade unionism in the first place. That would most precisely be exactly what my loco 3903 local specializes in. More totalitarian coercion. How can we get people to stand powerfully together without coercively herding them into doing so (for their own good -- gahhhhh) and thereby making them more utterly powerless? That might be, like, a main issue or something. _________________ www.ultimatecultureclash.com
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gbuddy	Posted: Sun Mar 07, 2010 10:35 pm
Joined: 07 Mar 2006 Posts: 77 Location: Vancouver	I haven't posted anything at uncharted in a long while, partly because my long ago fight with CUPE (Local 15) and my former employer morphed into a battle with the higher echelons of power - principally what I call the juristocracy (the judges and quasi-judges). As I had often said before, the one person who most assisted me in understanding the question - of what is power and how it is abused - is Canadian author John Ralston Saul. Ironically, Saul is personally acquainted with Canada's Chief Juristocrat, Beverley McLachlin. I suspect she made a point of befriending him at some point after she arrived in Ottawa (his home town) from Vancouver. Saul spent about ten years researching and writing "Voltaire's Bastards: the Dictatorship of Reason in the West", published in 1992. It is over 600 pages in length and for a long time after I became aware of it, I was not prepared to invest the time to read it. That was a mistake. I had read his two much slimmer volumes, "The Doubter's Companion" and "The Unconscious Civilization" (the CBC/ Massey lecture series for 1995) and found them inspirational. Fundamental to all of Saul's other ideas is that we cannot understand the current state of our society without a full appreciation of history - how we got here. In the three books of his "trilogy" there is scant mention of the role of trade unions. I don't think that is in itself a deficiency. There is a huge literature I'm sure about the history of trade unions. But if you read all three books you'll find there is a wealth of ideas, a comprehensive thesis, about power and how it is abused, by all institutions. Even assuming that we all have a similar notion of what "democracy" means (and I suspect we do), we can't expect it to appear in trade unions when what Saul calls the "corporatist elites" (and in his most recent book, "the Castrati") have been able to prevent the development of democratic processes throughout society. Something to keep in mind when reading Saul's trilogy is that these books were all written before the Internet became accessible to the public. I haven't found anything in his writing yet that discusses what we may be able to accomplish with the Net, but I believe it provides us with the means to re-animate the pursuit of democracy. The abuse I suffered about ten years ago at the hands of my former employer and CUPE's staff and officials resulted in an arbitration hearing that was an ambush. From there I went to the LRB and then to the courts, where I experienced a series of kangaroo courts. As a result, I believe I understand the hierarchy of power, how it is maintained, and how it is abused. I'll be initiating two more court actions shortly, one a judicial review and the other the laying of a criminal charge (for perjury) through what is called a "private prosecution". When it finally became apparent to me what I was dealing with in the legal establishment, I realized that this particular elite sits at the center of the web of power. Subsequently, when I read "Voltaire's Bastards" I was very encouraged to find that Saul had included a chapter about the judges (starting at around page 340). With the legal regime that has been in place for many decades, the cabals that run the unions rely on the lawyers (including the judges) to maintain their control over the members. I believe we must persist in challenging what I call the tyranny of lawyers. We cannot have a democracy without a justice system, and what we have right now makes a mockery of the notion of justice. The simple act of repealing the statutory provisions that grant a monopoly to the law societies would probably end that tyranny. We pay through our taxes for the courts and tribunals, and our Chief Justice says it's a shame most of us have no access to those institutions, but there's nothing she can do about it because justice is expensive. She is not a leader, but a figurehead, a mouthpiece for the orthodoxy.
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Laboryes	Posted: Mon Mar 08, 2010 5:43 pm
Joined: 29 Jan 2006 Posts: 1967	Cupe Doll wrote: I'd just add that standing together must only come from genuinely standing the same ground. Standing for the same ideals. From voluntary agreement in principles. Otherwise? If people get herded together instead? That would just be repeating the worst of everything that corrupted state communism and trade unionism in the first place. That would most precisely be exactly what my loco 3903 local specializes in. More totalitarian coercion. Very good point Cupe! Thank you for the reminder! Sometimes I get so passionate about my views of what "may" make things better and more democratic I forget to ask others, especially the young people what they may vision for “their” future of the labor movement. Fact is, I’m old and a short timer and what I may vision is pretty irrelevant for the future, no? My generation had their chance and through their complacency, apathy and need to measure their life’s existence through useless material objects have created a whirlpool of losing scenarios, not only for ourselves, but for the children and maybe even the grandchildren of our generation! The last thing I want to do is “herd” another generation into the same old totalitarian mentality that many of us are stuck with today. Maybe now is the time for us old fucks to stop overloading are youth with our opinions, whether good or bad and start asking our youth what their vision is for the future of labor? I must thank you Cupe, your comment made me think and reflect, it also gave me an idea for another thread that hopefully we could get some young people views on their visions for “their” working future and the future of labor unions. _________________ "When people refuse to obey, then democracy comes alive." Howard Zinn
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Cupe Doll	Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 2:03 am
Joined: 06 Jan 2010 Posts: 69 Location: Toronto	Hey LY, I could well be older than you Just think it's time we get the idiotic left versus right ideologies out of our systems. Like, how does it matter if ruling totalitarian elites are fascist or state communist? I don't give rodent testicles what ideology gets used to justify oppression. Only more genuine democracy can mean less oppression. _________________ www.ultimatecultureclash.com
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gbuddy	Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 5:28 am
Joined: 07 Mar 2006 Posts: 77 Location: Vancouver	Although fewer people today may be ready to blindly buy into the false Left versus Right dichotomy, I think a major impediment to developing working democratic institutions and processes is that most of us are slaves to another pervasive ideology, and that we need to understand that ideology and the instruments used to ensure we accept it. It's all about expertise. Think about what goes on in every workplace. Competition, not cooperation. Everyone is encouraged to fight for their own piece of territory. How often do we put aside the defensive mechanisms and willingly share our knowledge and resources with our colleagues, instead of hording that knowledge and resources? We are taught throughout our lives that we must compete, must prevail over the competition, or using the Olympic paradigm, that Silver isn't good enough. This is a key part of JR Saul's message. The workplace issue that sent me to the courts was largely that as a new employee in an environment where many people had worked for decades, I was resented simply because all the pieces of the pie had long ago been divied up. I had no right to anything because I had not earned that right. I hadn't "paid my dues". I had no seniority. This attitude is common to both union and management cultures. Knowledge. Expertise. Go into the courtroom and you will find the worst offenders: judges - the world's supreme know-it-alls. But what actually do lawyers know? Check out the rhetoric, the "jurisprudence" and you'll find it's largely just bullshit, and it's not even particularly clever. Once you abandon the blind faith and discover some of their tricks it all looks pretty sad. The stupidest legal debate I've uncovered so far is one the Supreme Court of Canada initiated and is still pursuing after decades. It's called the "patently unreasonable standard". In an act of obvious desperation, they pretended that citing the synonym "clearly irrational standard" helps to explain the term. This is Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland stuff, straight from Canada's highest court. And they're still debating it even after making a valiant attempt to end the debate with the "Dunsmuir v. New Brunswick" decision. Look it up on the Net. See what the legal establishment has had to say about it. This is exactly what Lewis Carroll was parodying, how many years ago? Go into a major courthouse and look at the statue of Themis / Justicia. This is what we were taught in school. Justice. Truth. The rule of law - as dictated to us by the experts, the judges. But it's all bullshit. Connections get one an appointment to the bench. And those connections are extensive. They reach out everywhere, to all the other elites, from the bankers and the arms merchants down to the people who run the unions. When we meet someone for the first time, especially when we want to make an impression, how do we identify ourselves? By our "profession", our expertise. Why do we do that? Is that really how most us see ourselves? Well, one of the things the Net allows us to do is free ourselves from that obsession, that limitation. Two hundred years ago the people started to challenge the truth as defined by the Mother Church, delivered by the its experts, the priests. Now we have the means to challenge all the experts.
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How Undemocratic Is CUPE 3903 -- The Story Of Val


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