Labour

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See the full statement, updates on arrests and charges, additional comments, and how you can help at:

http://vancouversolidarity.wordpress.com/2010/07/01/vancouversolidarity/  
and http://vancouversolidarity.wordpress.com/2010/07/02/endorsements-cont/

We, a broad-based network of Vancouver and BC civil society organizations and individuals, call for the immediate release of all those currently being held as part of the G8/G20 Summit police operations, and for all charges against community organizers to be dropped.

Hi all,   Most of the time, "tough on crime" populism is reactionary. However, can there be instances where it is progressive, in that it separates us politically from liberal "restorative" views on crime, and that the nonetheless Utilitarian basis for the separation - the greatest good for the greatest number of working-class folks - is not Hedonistic?

I'm looking at things like outright wage theft, other labour law violations, and the usual canard of corporate crime. Very rarely is wage theft punishable by jail time, let alone longer sentences (as opposed to fines and even class action lawsuits). Ditto with other labour law violations. Meanwhile, not enough corporate crime is met with practically lifelong jail time.

http://toronto.mediacoop.ca/node/3883

Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightening. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.
Frederick Douglass, 1857

This page grows out of dialogue with many community members between the Vancouver Olympics in February and the Toronto G8/G20 in June. It needs saying.

Continued from here.

http://www.chomsky.info/articles/1986----.htm

I'd like to know some thoughts that people have on this article by famous anarchist/linguist/activist Noam Comsky.

"The Soviet leadership thus portrays itself as socialist to protect its right to wield the club, and Western ideologists adopt the same pretense in order to forestall the threat of a more free and just society. This joint attack on socialism has been highly effective in undermining it in the modern period."

This is the way Debbie Lorenzana tells it: Her bosses told her they couldn't concentrate on their work because her appearance was too distracting. They ordered her to stop wearing turtlenecks. She was also forbidden to wear pencil skirts, three-inch heels, or fitted business suits.

hello babblers!!hope all are well! i have a new report/proposed action almost ready for sharing here and will post it as soon as it's ready! the coop received a substantial donation as well so things are rolling along!!

in the mean time...good news out of new zealand!

Decriminalisation of sex industry positive move

http://www.chmeds.ac.nz/newsevents/media_release/2010/decriminalisation.htm

Thursday May 13, 2010

Decriminalisation of New Zealand's sex industry has resulted in safer, healthier sex workers, a new book by University of Otago, Christchurch, researcher Gillian Abel shows.

It's time to tax the banks.

A campaign is already underway in the U.K. (see http://robinhoodtax.org.uk/) and some version of the idea has even been proposed by the IMF, strange as that may sound. You may have heard the news recently, with Finance Minister Flaherty going public with his veto on the idea:

http://www.thestar.com/business/bank/article/798599--flaherty-no-bank-tax-for-canada?bn=1

Seems to me that this should be a no-brainer, as a campaign that can lift with wings...

25 dead

The Art Gallery of Ontario's CEO Matthew Teitelbaum has carved himself out a kings ransom of $981,000 in salary and taxable benefits for 2009. Meanwhile, the frontline workers at the AGO have been without a contract since November, 2009. The key issue during negotiations has been job security.

http://www.blackhatmedia.ca/index.php?pr=Reigning_in_the_AGO

Some 1,300 graduate teaching assistants, and teaching fellows at Queen’s University in Kingston ON have voted to join PSAC.

See: PSAC organizes teaching assistants and fellows at Queen's

I need a little help with a serious issue that is directly affecting my workplace.

(By the way mods...I checked the rules to see if using actual names of people was against those rules and I did'nt find anything.It is'nt my intention to break any right now,so if I do it's unintentional,so feel free to edit anything that could get the site in trouble...Thanks in advance)

A little background....

I am precisely what my handle says I am.I am a certified welder who is currently laid off from my job.I've been laid off for almost 6 months and I know how tough it is out there for tradespeople.My intention is to get my Red Seal endorsement which will allow me to be a Journeyman in my field and I can work interprovincially.The Red Seal stuff is'nt the problem.

It's an interesting idea and there's great reasons to do it, but I can see the danger in it as well. If work time can be any time, it might become all the time.

A senior manager at Prada Japan has filed a legal complaint against the Italian fashion label, accusing the company of harassment and discrimination based on appearance and alleging it maltreated other employees in the past.

They'd have gotten more if they did well but the rewards of failure can be substantial.

Maybe you missed your earnings target last year or your stock was crushed. But if you're a corporate executive, that might not necessarily prohibit you from earning a generous bonus.

So, not only is Obama presiding over the biggest giveaway to US private insurance companies ever with his travesty of a health care bill with no public option that requires people to buy shitty private plans or pay a fine, but he's also applauding the firing of EVERY SINGLE TEACHER at Central Falls High School.