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Eamonn Fingleton gives a stunning account of how the elite press – the Wall Street Journal, The Economist, the New York Times and Washington Post - pilloried US autworkers while systematically concealing the hidden subsidies which have allowed Japan and Korea to destroy Detroit. All this with the connivance of the US government. Also in our latest newsletter: Michelle Obama comes to Merced. Bill Hatch, the Balzac of the Central Valley, gives an uproarious account of Michelle’s state visit to UC’s new campus. Get your new edition today by subscribing online or calling 1-800-840-3683 Contributions to CounterPunch are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! CounterPunch books and gear make great presents.
How the U.S. Press Helped Destroy the Auto IndustryOrder CounterPunch By Email For Only $35 a Year !
Meet & Debate (Perhaps Even Date) CPers Online at CounterPunch's New Facebook Page!
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Today's Stories June 9, 2009 Winslow T. Wheeler June 8, 2009 John Ross Paul Craig Roberts Franklin C. Spinney Franklin Lamb Uri Avnery Jonathan Cook Eric Toussaint Jim Goodman Norman Solomon Reza Fiyouzat Website of the Day June 5 -7, 200 Alexander Cockburn George Galloway Paul Craig Roberts Jennifer Loewenstein Franklin Lamb Mike Whitney Andy Worthington Missy Comley Beattie Farzana Versey Stanley Heller John V. Whitbeck Robert Weissman Lee Sustar Dave Lindorff William Blum Ernest Callenbach / Greg Moses Ron Jacobs David Yearsley Tim Stelloh Belén Fernández David Ker Thomson Karyn Strickler Christopher Brauchli Charles R. Larson Kim Nicolini Lorenzo Wolff Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend June 4, 2009 Arno J. Mayer Mike Whitney Gareth Porter Ayesha Ijaz Khan Mouin Rabbani Jordan Flaherty Adam Turl Nikolas Kozloff Yifat Susskind Website of the Day June 3, 2009 Paul Craig Roberts Kathy Kelly Alan Farago Franklin Lamb Bill Hatch Nadia Hijab Dean Baker Binoy Kampmark Manuel Garcia, Jr. Remi Kanazi Behzad Yaghmaian Website of the Day June 2, 2009 Uri Avnery Robert Weissman Conn Hallinan Gideon Spiro Roger Burbach Dylan Quigley Dave Lindorff Ray McGovern Belén Fernández Martha Rosenberg Willie L. Pelote, Sr. Website of the Day June 1, 2009 Pam Martens Yitzhak Laor Mark Weisbrot Ramzy Baroud Saul Landau Eugenia Tsao Afshin Rattansi Debra Sweet Abdul Malik Mujahid Bill Quigley John Wright Website of the Day May 29-31, 2009 Alexander Cockburn Patrick Cockburn Vijay Prashad Gary Leupp Ray McGovern Rannie Amiri Bill Hatch Chellis Glendinning, Stephanie Mills and Kirkpatrick Sale Phyllis Pollack David Yearsley Jean-Christophe Servant Dave Lindorff James McEnteer Missy Beattie James C. Faris David Macaray Harvey Wasserman Adam Federman David Ker Thomson Mark Seth Lender Stephen Martin Joseph Nevins Sophia Mihic Lorenzo Wolff Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend May 28, 2009 Joan Roelofs Paul Craig Roberts Ralph Nader Mouin Rabbani Joe Bageant James McEnteer Dedrick Muhammad Richard Morse David Macaray Harvey Wasserman Website of the Day May 27, 2009 Joanne Mariner Paul Craig Roberts Walden Bello Dave Lindorff Brian M. Downing Carlos Villarreal Nadia Hijab Adam Federman Laray Polk Isabella Kenfield David Michael Green Website of the Day May 26, 2009 Manuel Garcia, Jr. Mike Whitney Sharon Smith Marjorie Cohn Dean Baker Deepankar Basu Fred Gardner Jordan Flaherty Josh Ruebner Brian Cloughley Website of the Day May 25, 2009 Diane Christian John Ross Kenneth Hartman Uri Avnery Fred Gardner Cindy Sheehan Sen. Russell Feingold Sibel Edmonds Franklin Lamb Dave Lindorff Daniel Wolff Website of the Day May 22-24, 2009 Alexander Cockburn Michael Teitelman Mike Whitney Ray McGovern Sonia Cardenas / Clive Hamilton Conn Hallinan Fred Gardner Carlo Cristofori Dean Baker Rannie Amiri Andy Worthington David Macaray Nadia Hijab Franklin Lamb Ted Newcomen David Ker Thomson David Rosen Mark Weisbrot Robert Fantina Heather Gray Farzana Versey Chris Genovali Ron Jacobs Jay Diamond Dr. Susan Block Ben Sonnenberg David Yearsley Lorenzo Wolff Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend May 21, 2009 Jeffrey St. Clair / Paul Craig Roberts Chris Floyd Gerald Paoli Zach Mason Uri Avnery Andy Worthington Niranjan Ramakrishnan Norman Solomon Dave Lindorff Website of the Day May 20, 2009 Michael Hudson Gary Leupp Michael D. Yates Jonathan Cook Peter Lee Binoy Kampmark Peter Zinn William Loren Katz Gary Lapon Trudy Bond Website of the Day May 19, 2009 Kristoffer Rehder Mike Whitney Ray McGovern Vijay Prashad Mirjam Hadar Meerschwam Mustafa Barghouthi Andy Worthington Binoy Kampmark John Walsh David Macaray Website of the Day May 18, 2009 Dave Lindorff Abdul Malik Mujahid Jonathan Cook Ben Rosenfeld Patrick Cockburn Ralph Nader Stephen Soldz Eugenia Tsao Walter Brasch Roberto Rodriguez Charlotte Laws Website of the Day May 15-17, 2009 Alexander Cockburn Jeffrey St. Clair David Rosen Mike Whitney Bruce Page Jeremy Scahill Fred Gardner Tom Barry Mats Svensson Ramzy Baroud Mark Engler Mark Weisbrot Farzana Versey Ron Jacobs Hannah Wolfe Cal Winslow David Macaray Christopher Brauchli Mark Seth Lender Robert Fantina David Ker Thomson Stephen Martin Charles R. Larson Chase Madar Kim Nicolini David Yearsley Lorenzo Wolff Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend May 14, 2009 Michael Hudson Andy Worthington Paul Craig Roberts Jonathan Cook Ray McGovern Lance Selfa David Green Dave Lindorff Frida Berrigan Sue Udry Website of the Day May 13, 2009 Brian M. Downing Gareth Porter Robert Sandels Ricardo Alarcón Eric Walberg Dave Lindorff Deepak Tripathi William S. Lind Kevin Zeese Franklin Lamb Website of the Day May 12, 2009 Gary Leupp Richard Neville Wajahat Ali Dean Baker Franklin Lamb Norman Solomon Paul Craig Roberts Lisa M. Hamilton Bob Fitrakis / David Macaray Website of the Day May 11, 2009 Andrea Peacock Michael Hudson Patrick Cockburn Ralph Nader John Kelly Saul Landau Dave Lindorff David Michael Green Anthony Papa Paul Krassner Website of the Day
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June 9, 2009 Does Organizaed Labor Need to Get Ugly?A Bad Time for UnionsBy DAVID MACARAY It’s a bad time for unions. Not just for the most visible ones—like the UAW, which has been ravaged by the collapse of the domestic auto industry, or SAG, whose 120,000 members are being whip-sawed into signing an inferior contract by Hollywood’s producers (AMPTP)—but for unions everywhere: the miners, steelworkers, UBC, IAM, ILWU. They’re all being squeezed. There’s also been some unfortunate internecine action. The big, bad SEIU is fighting a series of highly publicized jurisdictional battles with nursing groups all over the country. Its president, Ivy-educated Andy Stern, is being characterized, contradictorily, as both a swaggering “union goon” and an obsequious “corporate lackey.” Pick your poison. And then there’s UNITE HERE—two independent unions that came together just a few years ago in what was believed to be a marriage made in Heaven—breaking apart rancorously, Hatfield-McCoy style, before our eyes. But America’s workers haven’t given up. Strikes are still occasionally called, and toxic contracts are still voted down. The problem doesn’t lie with the workers; it lies with the national leadership. Sadly, these nouveau riche union jackasses are behaving like businessmen instead of working people. Those big salaries and that hobnobbing with corporate executives have caused them not only to forget what their mission was, but to lose sight of what was attainable. Yes, things are bad. Yes, membership rolls are down, and there’s a recession. But when have things ever been “good” for labor? When have unions ever not had to fight and scrape for every dime? The following is a true story. It’s an account of an employee (“Derek”) of a Fortune 100 company, who came out of nowhere to become president of a 750-member AWPPW local union, and take the membership on a spectacular two-year ride. What Derek did, in a word, was reinvent union radicalism. Although there was already a union in place, it had become complacent and predictable; management had figured out ways to pacify and circumvent it. So how did young Derek reinvent the union? He transformed a Model-T into a Trans-Am. For one thing, he generated an inordinate number of grievances. In one year alone the local filed a staggering 270 grievances, more than triple the usual number. For another, he went outside the facility; he filed lawsuits and ULPs (Unfair Labor Practice charges); he took more cases to arbitration in one year than in the previous decade combined; he visited OSHA regularly, he made so many phone calls to the NLRB, he practically had an open line. If there was ever a top-down arrangement that worked, this was it. Because Derek was this gushing fountain of ideas and tactics, the Executive Board deferred to him, allowing him to morph from president to King. Single-handedly, he re-energized the shop steward corps, aroused the membership, and “radicalized” what had been an apathetic, if not inert, Center. As a consequence, he placed the company in the heretofore unheard of position of having to play defense. No one—union or management—had ever seen anything like it. I knew Derek. I was there when he first streaked across the sky, and I was there when he burned out, which is to say I witnessed his breakdown. While Derek’s legacy is a mixed bag, there’s no denying he temporarily reversed the roles, taking the whip out of management’s hand and placing it in the union’s. Yes! Predictably, management gave him no credit. Despite having to hunker down under his merciless assault, management insisted that Derek’s audacious, wild-assed stunts had no effect. That was their orthodox, buttoned-down response, and they were sticking to it. Only one manager (“Clayton”) had the courage to admit he’d been “afraid” of Derek. “He could come into my office and pretty much ruin my day,” Clayton confessed. Because he knew the trouble Derek could stir up when he was on the warpath, Clayton, like every other manager, did what he could to accommodate him. And that, in a nutshell, was Derek’s modus operandi—threaten to create such a mess, management didn’t dare ignore you. The tactic’s simplicity was elegant. The only difference between Clayton’s appraisal of Derek’s effectiveness and the other managers’ appraisal of it, was that Clayton was being honest. When management tells you that radicalism doesn’t work—that calm, eminently rational discourse is what carries the day—they’re either lying or deluding themselves. Indeed, the potency of a threat is inversely proportional to the intensity of the denial by those claiming it doesn’t work. The lesson here is that unions should stop being so reasonable. Union officials should start embarrassing themselves. Maybe, instead of worrying about being “respected” by their corporate buddies, they should consider giving the ruling class a dose of what it means to go ape-shit. After all, could getting down in the dirt be any less effective than what’s being done now? What has organized labor gained by behaving like good little boys and girls? It certainly hasn’t stopped workers from making concessions. If labor can’t prevent further damage, the least it can do is make management uncomfortable. Regrettably, Derek was unable to hang on. Anyone who really knew him—anyone who saw how undisciplined and insecure he was—could have predicted the ending. After running at full speed for almost two years, Derek more or less burst into flame. The early signs were there. He began forgetting things, important things, like appeal deadlines. He began missing scheduled meetings. Then it became difficult to reach him. And for a man who was ridiculously accessible—who boasted of giving his home phone number to anyone who asked for it—this was a red flag. Then he had his breakdown. He took a six-week medical leave during which he couldn’t be contacted by anyone except his father. Even his mom couldn’t reach him. And because he was a one-man wrecking crew, a president who rarely delegated the simplest task, the local fell apart without him. People didn’t know where to go or whom to ask. It was chaos. Had Derek been more stable, he could have had a huge and lasting impact on the union. Still, as flawed as he was, he proved one very important thing: He proved that a tiny local could move a giant corporation. Management swears his tactics were ineffective. An HR guy actually told me, ”Derek was your typical bully. All bark and no bite.” The irony was that I already knew this guy’s history; he’d been one of those management folks whom Derek had terrorized and left scared shitless. So when a company insists that courtesy and rational discourse are what get the job done—that radicalism only makes things worse—they’re being dishonest. Everyone dreads an ugly confrontation. And American management is no exception. David Macaray, a Los Angeles playwright (“Americana,” “Larva Boy”) and writer, was a former labor union rep. He can be reached at Dmacaray@earthlink.net
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