A devastating 7.0 earthquake hit Haiti Tuesday January 12th. Thousands have been killed, and much Port au Prince leveled. This follows a series of deadly hurricanes in late 2008, and decades of foreign-influenced economic terrorism, culminating in a US-led coup in 2004, and continuing UN occupation. Haiti, the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, is the only country to successfully liberate itself from slavery and the former colonial masters have not let them forget. Most people live on less than $2 a day, and many on less than $1. In April 2008 representatives of the ISC participated in an IWW delegation to Haiti where they met with workers and peasants struggling against neo-liberal slavery. We pledged our continued support to their struggle, and FW's donated generously to support their organizing, and again for aid following the hurricanes. Currently communications with Haiti are nearly impossible, but no doubt they will need our help again.

By DAVID MACARAY

One of life’s gross inequities is that the people who actually do the work receive relatively little in the way of credit or compensation, while the people in charge of the work—the ones who plan it, assign it, oversee and critique it—receive regular promotions and large paychecks. 

This discrepancy wouldn’t be so objectionable if it could be shown that the planning and supervisory aspects of the job were what made all the difference—that it was the boss’s contributions, the efforts of the guys in the front office, and not those of the workers on the floor, that determined the success or failure of a venture, but, unfortunately, that’s not always the case.

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Don't want to support domestic fascism?  Here's what not to buy.

from  http://foxnewsboycott.com/fox-news-sponsors/

 

The Democrats Have Much to Answer For

By DAVID MACARAY

In 1935, as part of the National Labor Relations Act (popularly known as the Wagner Act), the federal government gave labor unions the “right to organize,” which meant, among other things, that it was now a federal crime for companies to attempt to dissuade employees from joining a union by issuing threats of reprisal or discharging union activists.

In principle, if management did something blatantly illegal, such as firing the employees who were promoting (or, in management’s view, “instigating”) the union membership drive, the company could be charged with a violation of federal labor law.  If found guilty, the company would be fined, the employees would be reinstated, and the company would be forced to pay back wages to the reinstated employees (minus any wages they earned at other jobs during the interim).  That’s how it was intended to work.

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By DAVID MACARAY

This being Labor Day and all, it might be appropriate to assess—from the express vantage point of organized labor—the job President Obama has done in his eight and a half months in office.

Our appraisal should be “realistic” rather than doctrinaire.  Which means we ignore the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, RNC (Republican National Committee), and Wall Street Journal, all of whom have accused Obama of being “dangerously pro-labor,” as well as those hope-to-die radicals on the other side who think Obama has sold out the Movement.

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