When I was seven, I got beat up by a group of kids outside of my school after recess. I didn't want to snitch, so I set them up to fall by letting other kids know they had those Lemonheads and didn't want to share. After about twenty minutes of getting mobbed, I snuck up behind the ring leader (shout out to Davey) and robbed him of his candy riches.
Ever since then, planning the demise of others has been a lovely thing for me. One could say I've built a career on it. Airing dudes out with their own stolen fan has been an adventure and a half but nothing smells sweeter than, or so I always thought, seeing the look on their face as they realize their dilemma. Lately, all I can appreciate is the shock of seeing that I got them. The "Oh, shit!" moment when they finally see how gutter I actually am.
Don't get excited though. I'm not letting you know that I'm actually some kind of sociopath or something... I actually have a deep love for all things justice-related. Some have suggested lawyer or superhero, but I chose organizer. I LOVE it when people make their own plan and proceed to tighten the screws on the explosive device all by themselves. It takes a special person to want to do that shit, but it takes a CRAZY person to enjoy it... (ahem) or so they say. :)
Lately there's been little of that going down. I started something heavy, so I thought, a little while ago through the magic of bullshit and two-facedness I was robbed of my simple joy. I felt really guilty about how forcefully my inner Gollum protected that shit... I mean, who the fuck fights for the right to ruin someone's day, even if its justified? Other than, say, a crazy person?
Then, today, I read that the person I was working over like a dude who fucked up the raw while trying to stretch it... took a powder...
More later...
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Baltimore Love Thing Part 2
I took a job in Baltimore a few years ago. Before that, I'd lived way across the hill in Montgomery Village, MD. To say that it was a different place... heh.
First of all, my MD hometown is probably one of the most affluent counties in the United States. I have a mother who enjoyed the benefits of a unionized federal government job (now still in the same organization but in management...) and we moved together to MD when I was about 12. My familiarity with Baltimore then only came from visiting the airport. So to be introduced to it during a snowstorm was intimidating.
Second of all, towns that are destroyed by economic blight hit me square in the gut. I hate seeing kids and adults both visiting playgrounds that are covered in trash and/or spent construction materials. I loathe corner stores run by people who live miles and miles away. I really can't stand, most of all, communities that are underfunded and schools that are overwhelmed (and vice versa.) Baltimore has it all, mixed together in this pissy-flavored gumbo.
The job, though, showed me the other parts too.
I love the marketplaces that smell like crabcakes all day. I like cops that sit on the corner and talk to kids about their parents. I like sweet tea and lemonade with whitefish subs. I like the slang that takes weird pieces and parts of traderspeak slammed together with corner jive fried in fish oil and serves it to you sprinkled with Old Bay. I fell in real love with summer mornings at Lexington Market drinking fresh lemonade.
Shit is so dope... but so gutter. How do you rectify the two? I spent most of my days there, when not frustrated by the American Labor Movement, trying to love her even though she hated herself.
MurderMall, North Ave., even downtown Baltimore with all its glitz and one-way streets... you can love the game and hate it, but you can't do that with your girlfriend.
I lasted three months in that job.
New Math Pt. 2
How can someone work like this?
I keep going into our office, thinking that if I walk into it that someone will say something or do something that will change my mind or change the world. I walk in, avoid the coffee, sit down at my desk, and read through the news. Our union, for some reason, keeps making the news. SEIU this, SEIU that... I say that with some level of astonishment because I can't figure out why people are surprised at the events that have unfolded.
The New Unity Partnership, which birthed Change to Win, was designed to build partnerships with management from the beginning. The unions within it, all early adopters of the strict model of funding organizing first and the rest second, were already superstars of the organization they broke away from (AFLCIO) but were not treated that way. AFLCIO prez John Sweeney took a real disliking to the attitudes expressed by many of the CTW's leaders because of the assertions made about the political ties to Dems and the shunning of real organizing plans. The upstarts, after all, were really right (the data shows it even to this day,) but they touched on something that rang true to the negative: are you really talking about organizing? Or are we really talking about negotiating with the threat of organizing looming on the horizon? When asked this question in the beginning, CTW leaders would often mention (particularly SEIU prez Andy Stern) the amount of money spent on politics in the AFLCIO (even though we turned right around and threw every cent into supporting Barack Obama in 2008, we haven't exactly changed our mission statement.) Haven't heard much of that lately...
These partnerships did happen though, although they often occurred outside of discussions with members, sometimes even organizing entire units with no one knowing outside of top management in both the union and the company:
Why then wouldn't you expect a union that was forced to adopt pro-corporate tactics and policies to suddenly, seemingly without warning, turn into a corporation?
I already know my answer: Because regardless of your changing tactics, you are still union. Telling the truth is a labor value.
I keep going into our office, thinking that if I walk into it that someone will say something or do something that will change my mind or change the world. I walk in, avoid the coffee, sit down at my desk, and read through the news. Our union, for some reason, keeps making the news. SEIU this, SEIU that... I say that with some level of astonishment because I can't figure out why people are surprised at the events that have unfolded.
The New Unity Partnership, which birthed Change to Win, was designed to build partnerships with management from the beginning. The unions within it, all early adopters of the strict model of funding organizing first and the rest second, were already superstars of the organization they broke away from (AFLCIO) but were not treated that way. AFLCIO prez John Sweeney took a real disliking to the attitudes expressed by many of the CTW's leaders because of the assertions made about the political ties to Dems and the shunning of real organizing plans. The upstarts, after all, were really right (the data shows it even to this day,) but they touched on something that rang true to the negative: are you really talking about organizing? Or are we really talking about negotiating with the threat of organizing looming on the horizon? When asked this question in the beginning, CTW leaders would often mention (particularly SEIU prez Andy Stern) the amount of money spent on politics in the AFLCIO (even though we turned right around and threw every cent into supporting Barack Obama in 2008, we haven't exactly changed our mission statement.) Haven't heard much of that lately...
These partnerships did happen though, although they often occurred outside of discussions with members, sometimes even organizing entire units with no one knowing outside of top management in both the union and the company:
On May 10, Kris Maher reported that the SEIU and UNITE/HERE (Change to Win allies) had entered into secret agreements with two global employers of service workers, Sodexho and the Compass Group. "The old ways aren't working," Stern told Maher, "and we're trying to find different relationships with employers that guarantee workers a voice." And so, unions are formed behind the backs of workers and with the permission and cooperation of the employers. Not just the terms of the agreements, but their very existence is not to be disclosed, not even to the lucky new union members. Of the several hundred thousand workers employed in North America, the union will be permitted to organize a limited number at designated sites; the companies will cooperate by providing lists of the employees and permitting union access to their work sites. The unions agree to be barred from attempting to organize the others; and they will not post derogatory remarks about the companies anywhere in the world.
Why then wouldn't you expect a union that was forced to adopt pro-corporate tactics and policies to suddenly, seemingly without warning, turn into a corporation?
I already know my answer: Because regardless of your changing tactics, you are still union. Telling the truth is a labor value.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
New Math Pt. 1
Canvassing is the art of hitting the target the first time.
I've talked about organizing here before, but never technically because you just... can't.
Some people try to train on it that way, but it just doesn't do it right.
My first training ever, the guy that was running it was probably one of the best "technicians" that ever did it. He originated the Mt. Olive "Don't Pay a Nickel for a Mount Olive Pickle" campaign. He started the Organizing Institute. Needless to say, he's one bad motherfucker.
When I got him alone for five minutes, he told me that basically the best way to learn is to do it. The raps, the readthroughs, the critiques... all of that shit is technical. Everything else is experiential.
-----
SEIU has changed a little since my first housecall.
We've since spent 60.7 million dollars on the Obama campaign. We spent less than one percent of that number on membership education in the two years I've been working.
We've since overthrown UHW.
We've since sought to overtake UNITE HERE, only succeeding and taking one piece.
My union has become something that I can't continue to love in the same way. How do you love someone that doesn't really love you?
Black rods and iron bars make a prison and that seems to be all that SEIU is buying.
And I have never wanted to live in a cage.
I've talked about organizing here before, but never technically because you just... can't.
Some people try to train on it that way, but it just doesn't do it right.
My first training ever, the guy that was running it was probably one of the best "technicians" that ever did it. He originated the Mt. Olive "Don't Pay a Nickel for a Mount Olive Pickle" campaign. He started the Organizing Institute. Needless to say, he's one bad motherfucker.
When I got him alone for five minutes, he told me that basically the best way to learn is to do it. The raps, the readthroughs, the critiques... all of that shit is technical. Everything else is experiential.
-----
SEIU has changed a little since my first housecall.
We've since spent 60.7 million dollars on the Obama campaign. We spent less than one percent of that number on membership education in the two years I've been working.
We've since overthrown UHW.
We've since sought to overtake UNITE HERE, only succeeding and taking one piece.
My union has become something that I can't continue to love in the same way. How do you love someone that doesn't really love you?
Black rods and iron bars make a prison and that seems to be all that SEIU is buying.
And I have never wanted to live in a cage.
Friday, April 03, 2009
Old Communiques, Part One
Just to let you know what's been happening since we've last tuned in, I'll repost the old news... I wrote a series of letters to relatives...
"... Well, after the layoffs in TN, I moved back to DC... it's been pretty cool to be back home, especially with the new apartment and old friends around. One by one, all of our adventures (me and my friends) ended with us leaving the South and venturing onward. I don't know how good that makes me feel about the land below the Mason Dixon line (does that mean that they just aren't ready for three-dimensional thinking and economic justice down there? I'm getting nervous that its really and truly an independant nation...) but I know this much, I'm really happy to be here..."
"... my old boss went a little crazy and now we are bossless.... weird."
"Months pass, and now suddenly I'm all weird and lonely when she leaves on business. When I leave town, we call each other and talk for hours on the phone.... hell, we do that when she leaves too. I was the guy that said "I'll never get married" a very short time ago. Now, suddenly, I'm making plans like a guy preparing himself to be married to a woman. Cleaning my shit up, resolving old debts, even trying to secure an actual career for myself.... I'm making long term plans, and I'm Mr. Short Term."
"I guess I'm in love with this woman."
"My journal entries stopped because of a lack of internet access. I'll be back up in a week or so."
You make promises to yourself about what your life will look like. Fast cars, beautiful women... then you wake up and you've got a slow car and YOUR beautiful woman. One out of two isn't that bad.
More later, this time I'll add it to Outlook. In the meantime, I'll make a few layout changes.
"... Well, after the layoffs in TN, I moved back to DC... it's been pretty cool to be back home, especially with the new apartment and old friends around. One by one, all of our adventures (me and my friends) ended with us leaving the South and venturing onward. I don't know how good that makes me feel about the land below the Mason Dixon line (does that mean that they just aren't ready for three-dimensional thinking and economic justice down there? I'm getting nervous that its really and truly an independant nation...) but I know this much, I'm really happy to be here..."
"... my old boss went a little crazy and now we are bossless.... weird."
"Months pass, and now suddenly I'm all weird and lonely when she leaves on business. When I leave town, we call each other and talk for hours on the phone.... hell, we do that when she leaves too. I was the guy that said "I'll never get married" a very short time ago. Now, suddenly, I'm making plans like a guy preparing himself to be married to a woman. Cleaning my shit up, resolving old debts, even trying to secure an actual career for myself.... I'm making long term plans, and I'm Mr. Short Term."
"I guess I'm in love with this woman."
"My journal entries stopped because of a lack of internet access. I'll be back up in a week or so."
You make promises to yourself about what your life will look like. Fast cars, beautiful women... then you wake up and you've got a slow car and YOUR beautiful woman. One out of two isn't that bad.
More later, this time I'll add it to Outlook. In the meantime, I'll make a few layout changes.
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