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Change the Workplace Order & the Social Order Will Follo

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Kelsey	Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2006 8:56 am
Site Admin Joined: 11 Jan 2006 Posts: 133	Does the workplace order hold the keys to changing our social order? Considering how much time we spend each day obeying and submitting to authority, the workplace may well be a center of programming and brainwashing that enables a bunch of autocrats to dominate our supposedly democratic society. http://www.uncharted.ca/content/view/49/35/ _________________ The PG is your friend.
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SharynS	Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2006 3:40 pm
Joined: 28 Jan 2006 Posts: 2940 Location: the 'puter	Exceptional insight btw. Quote: If entire societies with all of their complexities and communities of interest can govern themselves democratically, why can't democratic principles govern relations among people at the workplace level? Isn't it incredible how we check in our everyday values and expectations when we walk thru the employer's door? _________________ Free speech is the whole thing, the whole ball game. Free speech is life itself. - Salman Rushdie
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blackcat	Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2006 1:21 am
Joined: 03 Feb 2006 Posts: 17	This reminds me of a movie I watched a while back... http://www.thetake.org And ya...I don't understand how we look at dictatorships with disgust and yet we allow a dictator (boss, owner) to rule over us when we punch a clock and report for work. The always drawn up argument in favour of dictatorship of the workplace is that you can quit your job if you don't like it. Sure you get freedom of choice...you can choose to work for one slave master dictator or another. _________________ A strike that is initiated, controlled, and settled by the workers directly affected is direct action...Direct action is industrial democracy.
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Plutodog	Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2006 8:23 pm
Joined: 06 Feb 2006 Posts: 300 Location: Oregon	Re Blackcat's signature line. I agree. However, there are many other forms of direct action outside of strikes and they can be greatly effective when you've got a democratic, unified union. (A hollow corporate shell union, of course, makes it a wimpy different matter.) We need to keep in mind that the strike is our WMD and long before we get there we need to be working on building unity and establishing our power in the minds of management with other direct actions... Arf Arf _________________ "I'm not a humanitarian,I'm a hell-raiser" -- Mother Jones
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atuuschaaw	Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2006 8:46 pm
Joined: 29 Jan 2006 Posts: 781 Location: an ahwangan	Quote: We need to keep in mind that the strike is our WMD and long before we get there we need to be working on building unity and establishing our power in the minds of management with other direct actions... I agree that there are more direct actions than the strike, but I'm afraid down here in the lower 48 of the U.S., the strike has no teeth. It resembles a mortar shell with everything removed excluding the primer. All we get when we try to send that round over is a little bang with no hope of a big boom! So there is no saving the 'big gun' for the last resort as there is no 'big gun' anymore! The only hope for a strike to work here is by utilizing illegal means or through a general strike of multiple union players. _________________ "Speaking the truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act." George Orwell
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blackcat	Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2006 11:07 pm
Joined: 03 Feb 2006 Posts: 17	Plutodog wrote: Re Blackcat's signature line. I agree. However, there are many other forms of direct action outside of strikes and they can be greatly effective when you've got a democratic, unified union. (A hollow corporate shell union, of course, makes it a wimpy different matter.) We need to keep in mind that the strike is our WMD and long before we get there we need to be working on building unity and establishing our power in the minds of management with other direct actions... Arf Arf There was more to it but the sigs here in the new forums are limited in characters (at least when I tried to input it). See www.ufcw.net for the full sig line. _________________ A strike that is initiated, controlled, and settled by the workers directly affected is direct action...Direct action is industrial democracy.
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Plutodog	Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2006 2:51 am
Joined: 06 Feb 2006 Posts: 300 Location: Oregon	I had to choose a shorter one than I had in mind too. Being in the lower 48, I understand and agree with atuuschaaw on the problem with strikes now. It's part of the problem of the corporate union. They cannot build unity and they will not do what it takes to do that. If they could, all the possible actions SHORT of a strike would be effective and then the strike would be less often necessary. Until we're able to take back our unions for democratic membership and then able to work out a way to be politically active without that activity getting into areas or methods that are counter to the solidarity of the workers, we have a major problem. Sadly we need to get unified against our corporate union bosses and clean our union houses before we're going to be able to take on Management effectively. It's a huge job, but a necessary one. Arf Arf _________________ "I'm not a humanitarian,I'm a hell-raiser" -- Mother Jones
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SharynS	Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2006 4:11 am
Joined: 28 Jan 2006 Posts: 2940 Location: the 'puter	I know there are those who disagree, but if an organization isn't able (or willing) to risk all or nothing for reasonable gain then it's of little or no value to it's membership. (concessions are rarely if ever reasonable). Please, the biz-u will never break a law, whether newly inked by a oppressive state or carved in Charter stone - it has nothing to do with legality and everything to do with risk of hefty fines cutting into (off) executive take home. Set the people free so they can live! _________________ Free speech is the whole thing, the whole ball game. Free speech is life itself. - Salman Rushdie
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Plutodog	Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2006 4:40 am
Joined: 06 Feb 2006 Posts: 300 Location: Oregon	I'm certainly not arguing for the biz union model... Arf Arf! _________________ "I'm not a humanitarian,I'm a hell-raiser" -- Mother Jones
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SharynS	Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2006 4:45 am
Joined: 28 Jan 2006 Posts: 2940 Location: the 'puter	No, I wasn't suggesting that you were. I think the point is that if people are going to make progress, or regain what's been lost, it obviously has to include stepping over drawn lines, breaking unjust laws. Biz-u won't risk it - where does that leave people? _________________ Free speech is the whole thing, the whole ball game. Free speech is life itself. - Salman Rushdie
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Plutodog	Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2006 4:59 am
Joined: 06 Feb 2006 Posts: 300 Location: Oregon	On the cusp of a dilemna -- to hang on to what little bit of crust and crumb we have now for fear of losing it or to see the writing on the wall and realize it's time we started our own wall writing and uniting and fighting... So we gots some comforting and some agitating and some educating to do. We gotta learn each other! And speaking for me, I'd say we could do a lot worse than ol' Saul Alinsky's texts. Arf Arf _________________ "I'm not a humanitarian,I'm a hell-raiser" -- Mother Jones
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atuuschaaw	Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2006 12:21 pm
Joined: 29 Jan 2006 Posts: 781 Location: an ahwangan	Quote: Things go from bad to worse for themselves and their communities but still they cling to some desperate hope of success in the corporatist paradigm. Either that or they're too busy or too skeptical or just plain apathetic. We all tend to hope that things will turn around soon because of our belief in a system that we've been taught is the best the world has to offer. Forgive me, but let me put it in a "good ol' boy's context. If anyone has ever been 'mud-riding' (that's actually entertainment down south by the way), and your vehicle slips off into the deep ruts left by the previous joy rider, then you know it's virtually impossible to get out of them without driving to the very end of the damn things. We are in the ruts created by the 'Corporate Bigfoot'; our differential is dragging, our frame is bottoming out, and our tires are just barely reaching the bottom. We're moving, but our rpms are high and we're just barely moving. We now realize we aren't far away from being "STUCK". But we don't want to give up, so we just give er' a little more gas, peg the rpms and hope for the best. Because we don't want to have to walk out of this waist deep gunk. And we know that if we do get stuck, the cost of getting out is going to be very taxing on our already struggling budget. That's kind of where we are now. I think it's natural for people to give er' a little more gas in the hopes of making it through. If we had known, or if we could have seen those ruts before hand, we could have chosen a different path. But the ruts are well hidden beneath the slop and by the time we realize it, we're already committed, and backing up is not an option. If somebody had just marked that route, we would've known to stay away from it! So some of us are walking out of the crap and we are trying to mark these ruts left by the path of the 'Corporate Bigfoot'. And if we get enough of us who have walked out, we can begin to help the ones who finally realize they are in trouble and we are marking the ruts for the people who haven't yet locked-in their hubs. We're working on building a huge 'snatch rope'! A block-n-tackle made up of people! _________________ "Speaking the truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act." George Orwell
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