Anonymous Comrade writes

"This was written to share the experience of one waitress with
others. We often work in small places for short times, but if we all
stand together we have a chance to fight back against the crap we
get at work.. This starts with sharing what is going on...

There are lots of us working in insecure, part time, cash-in-hand
service and catering jobs. We are often fairly isolated. We all put
up with similar stuff, but it seems like each thing is a one-off
incident. Well it's not.Here is one story and some thoughts.

Alice's Restaurant

When I moved to Germany, not able to speak German at all, my
choices of employment were pretty limited. I tried all the temporary
agencies, but no luck. The only place I could work speaking English
was the Irish pub. There the boss was Irish and all the work took
place in English. The boss knew that was the only place we could
work and so she could be pretty sure I would accept the 11 marks
an hour she was offering. Which I did.

Arthur Zinault writes "Barricada #11 presented the organizational views of some anarchists of the past, including the anti-union views of Italian anarchist Luigi Galleani. The series of articles on "anarchist organization" in that issue merit some comments on the relation of workers' groups to the anarchist movement.

Luigi Galleani wrote that the "anarchist movement and the labor movement follow two parallel lines, and it has been geometrically proven that parallel lines never meet." (Galleani's comments were, I noticed, prefaced with a note by the editors that they "disagree strongly with" some of Galleani's ideas.) While no mathemetician would argue with Galleani's geometry, a historian might: the real history of the anarchist and labor movements can not be framed in terms so simple or absolute.

hydrarchist writes: "Book Review: Defining Global Justice and the ILO

Defining Global Justice: The History of U.S. International Labor
Standards Policy. By Edward C. Lorenz. (Notre Dame, Indiana, 2001. Pp.
X, 318. Index.)

Edward C. Lorenz's Defining Global Justice gives us the first attempt at
a broad overview of the history of the role of the United States in the
International Labor Organization. Based on an impressive command of a
wide variety of sources, this well organized and clearly written account
explains how the social gospel movement, progressive era reformers,
academics and attorneys, feminists and consumers, and labor unions
attempted to shape an international organization that could establish
standards to protect workers around the world.

Finance and Economics after the Dotcom Crash

Interview with Doug Henwood

By Geert Lovink

Doug Henwood is one of the few marxist economists whose opinions and
analyses of the world of finance and trade are being taken serious by the
mainstream media. Seen as a toy rebel Wall Street analysts love to hate him.
Doug is very friendly and open, quite the opposite of what you may fear
dogmatic revolutionaries turned crusty academics look like. Unlike most of
his comrades Henwood is able to remain in dialogue with his liberal and
conservative opponents. In public debates he can surprise you with his
marvelous negative dialectics. Online he is sharp, short and precise.

In an interview with salon.com,Doug Henwood described his position as such:
"Wall Street is populated by some of the most cynical, greedy bastards on
earth. But it's not enough just to say that. The last thing I want to do is
sound like a guy on a soapbox moralizing. It's not their personal moral
characteristics that create the system they populate. Capitalism is
essentially an amoral system based on exploitation. And Wall Street is part
of the class struggle, to use an unfashionable term. But most people don't
realize this, so the market looks incomprehensible to them."

NY Domestic Worker Challenges Involuntary Servitude

Filipino Workers Center

"Justice for Elma, End Abuse Now!" is a new initiative of the Filipino
Workers Center that seeks to obtain justice for Elma Manliguez, a domestic
worker who was severely mistreated by her employer in Queens, and to
highlight the plight of domestic workers in New York.

On Tuesday, November 13, 2001, Elma Manliguez filed a civil action in the
United States Eastern District Court against Martin and Somanti Joseph. The
suit alleges that the defendants violated the U.S. Constitution, federal
and state laws by coercing Ms. Manliguez into coming to the U.S., forcibly
confining her in their house, subjecting her to inhumane work conditions,
and inflicting on her other forms of abuse and humiliation. The suit seeks
compensation for unpaid wages, as well as compensatory and punitive damages.

Louis Lingg writes: "For its compliance and cooperation with the U.S. 'war on terrorism' Pakistan anticipates generous direct aid, debt restructuring, and most importantly, relaxation of tariffs, quotas, and other restrictions on exported goods, especially textiles. A boon for Pakistan's rapacious capitalists? A nightmare for Pakistan's most exploited workers?

The democratic-socialist Labour Party of Pakistan has posted an article on Pakistan's bonded laborers and their efforts to organize."

David Grenier writes:

"Signs you didn't see at the "Walk for Capitalism"

The Capitalists are trying to coopt our tactics, just as some of them have tried to coopt our language. Nothing is funnier than seeing Capitalists claim they are "anarchists" because they want private tyrannies to replace ones that at least theoretically have a small modicum of popular control. Any understanding of the history and theory of anarchism would make a person realize that property rights (designed not to ensure that you can use something, but to ensure that everyone else can't), corporate hierarchy, and a transfer of wealth from laborers to "owners" (stockholders) has absolutely nothing to do with the anarchist vision of a leaderless society based on cooperation, freedom, and mutual aid with abundance for workers and nothing for parasites.

So now the Capitalists are trying to pull off a "global day of action" a la World AIDS Day and May Day. But people who feel that the only real motive is greed and the only reason to do anything is for money are obviously incredibly bad at organizing. This is why two years ago there were fifty thousand people in downtown Seattle fighting global Capitalism (and managing to shut down the WTO meetings) while yesterday, on "D2" (see, the Capitalists are even trying to co-opt the worst part of current radical culture - the Bingo naming system) about three dozen people showed up at the "Walk for Capitalism."

Read the rest of this story at the infoshop.

Arthur Zinault writes:

WORKERS IN CONTROL OR WORKERS UNDER CONTROL?

Which will it be?

by Brian Oliver Sheppard

Clusters of small white domes stretch across the countryside, gleaming in rows that resemble massive, neatly laid eggs. There are over 4,300 of these "eggs," and each of them are about 40 feet tall. The impression from a distance is one of an otherworldly hatchery rather than a community of humans. But New Oroville is a city, and it does not have a mayor. Instead, it has a CEO.

The "cubicle domes," as one libertarian cyberculture journal referred to them, house human beings, shops, temples, and most importantly, places of work. The co-founders of the town call it an "information technology township," and it exists to house, train, and provide leisure for at least 4,000 high tech workers. The founders of the town are three former executives of Microsoft who left to form their own company, called Catalytic Software. They needed cheap labor, and they needed it in one place, where it could be regulated, structured, compartmentalized, and renewed indefinitely, as business needs demanded. That led to the creation of this 21st century experiment just outside Hyderabad, India. "New Oroville is our place," Catalytic CEO Swain Porter declared to Wired. "We set the rules. We enforce them. We're not going to have a lot of discontents."

Louis Lingg writes: "palestinechronicle.com has posted an essay by Ramzy Baroud in which he discusses the dangers and risks in working and trying to find work in the Occupied Territories and Israel: The Worst Ten Jobs in Palestine."

Louis Lingg writes: "The Times (UK) is reporting that North Korean President Kim has renogotiated a deal to service North Korea's debt to Russia by providing thousands of "free" workers to Siberian logging camps.

Last year approximately 90% of North Korea's debt to Moscow was serviced through similar arrangements, and is "blamed for the torture and summary execution of some of [North Korea's] most desperate refugees.""