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The New Print Edition of CounterPunch, Only for Our Newsletter Subscribers! General Petraeus' Fake War
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The New Print Edition of CounterPunch, Only for Our Newsletter Subscribers!
General Petraeus' Fake War
How the Press and Congress Eagerly Swallowed It
EXCLUSIVE to subscribers in our latest newsletter, Gareth Porter dissects two years’ worth of successful lying by Gen Petraeus and his propaganda team. Guess what? The FBI AND DOJ didn’t specially target Muhammad Ali. Those G-men were just following normal procedures! Alexander Cockburn reviews the latest effort to “revise” the Sixties. Dick Cheney “didn’t understand the legalities.” James Abourezk describes his efforts to close down the lethal liquor operators that prey on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Whatever happened to the class war? Read Serge Halimi and find out. Get your copy 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.
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Today's Stories July 12, 2008 Nicole Colson July 11, 2008 Kevin Alexander Gray Sasan Fayazmanesh Peter Morici Mike Whitney Manuel Garcia, Jr. Robert Weissman Ramzy Baroud Kelly Overton Adrian Burgos Website of the Day July 10, 2008 Brian McKenna Paul Craig Roberts Saul Landau Ron Jacobs Joshua Frank Peter Morici Alan Maass Robert Weissman William Blum Alan Farago Website of the Day July 9, 2008 Ismael Hossein-Zadeh Luis Rodriguez Sheldon Richman Fatemeh Keshavarz Chad Hanson Sen. Russ Feingold Niranjan Ramakrishnan Dave Lindorff Stanley Heller Philip Rizk Website of the Day July 8, 2008 Nikolas Kozloff Laura Carlsen Mike Whitney Andy Worthington Patrick Irelan Chellis Glendinning David Macaray Dave Lindorff John Chuckman Phillip Doe Website of the Day July 7, 2008 Patrick Bond Kathy Kelly Andy Worthington Clifton Ross Elizabeth Schulte Ralph Nader Dave Lindorff Binoy Kampmark Stephen Fleischman Website of the Day July 5 / 6, 2008 Alexander Cockburn Jeffrey St. Clair / Patrick Cockburn Mike Whitney Robert Fantina Binoy Kampmark Rannie Amiri Eric Ruder Brian Cloughley William Blum Frank Barat Christopher Brauchli David Yearsley Ron Jacobs Karim Makdisi Wendy Thompson / N.D. Jayaprakash Ramzy Baroud Kelly Overton Richard Neville Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend
July 4, 2008 Kathy Kelly Dave Lindorff Paul Krassner Jackie Corr Laray Polk Dan Bacher Walter Brasch Charles Modiano Website of the Day July 3, 2008 Sharon Smith Andy Worthington Laura Carlsen Peter Morici Ramzi Kysia Martha Rosenberg Anne Landman Dave Zirin Kristin Bricker Website of the Day
July 2, 2008 Patrick Irelan Vijay Prashad Brian Cloughley Ralph Nader Robert Fantina Dave Lindorff Parvez Ahmed Robert Bryce Website of the Day July 1, 2008 Alexander Cockburn Mike Whitney Douglas Macgregor Steven Higgs Andy Worthington Binoy Kampmark Dave Lindorff Roger Burbach Richard W. Behan Gary Leupp Website of the Day June 30, 2008 Peter Lee Jeff Sommers David Macaray Martha Rosenberg David Price Alexandra Early June 28 / 29, 2008 Alexander Cockburn Jeffrey St. Clair Joan P. Mencher Nikolas Kozloff Jason Hribal Alan Maass Robert Fantina Bill Moyers / Mike Whitney Justin E. H. Smith Pham Binh David Yearsley Christopher Ketcham Jeremy R. Hammond Kathleen M. Barry Walter Brasch Brett Drugge Susie Day Website of the Day June 27, 2008 Franklin C. Spinney Jonathan Cook Brian Cloughley Saree Makdisi Liliana Segura Paul Krassner William S. Lind Candace Cohn Ron Jacobs Binoy Kampmark Website of the Day June 26, 2008 Patrick Cockburn Nikolas Kozloff William P. O'Connor Saul Landau Ashley Smith Dave Lindorff David Macaray Binoy Kampmark Matt Reichel Remi Kenazi Website of the Day
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Weekend Edition Adventures in Union Bargaining Will There be an Actors Strike?By DAVID MACARAY On Thursday, July 10, SAG (Screen Actors Guild) rejected what the AMPTP (Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers) called their “last, best and final offer,” setting the stage for either more negotiations between the parties or the union’s reluctant acceptance of the terms. In truth, there’s virtually no chance of the third option—a strike. And the Alliance knows it. For a strike vote to gain traction, it has to be perceived as more than an exercise in saber-rattling; the threat of an actual shutdown has to be feasible. And, tragically, too much is stacked up against SAG to make the threat of an Actors’ work stoppage a viable tactic. SAG members are understandably skittish. This is not to suggest that the rank-and-file is demoralized or unwilling to fight, or that they couldn’t surprise everyone and declare war on the Alliance, which would be magnificent. It’s just that contract bargaining is largely about timing, and right now the timing is unfavorable. The Directors have already settled with the AMPTP; the Writers have already settled (after their debilitating 100-day strike, the effects of which are still being felt); and, most recently, AFTRA (American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) settled, after bickering publicly with SAG over a jurisdictional matter, which, unfortunately, made the unions appear even less “unified.” Of course, the AMPTP is taking maximum advantage of these unique circumstances, not only presenting themselves as willing to hold off as long as it takes, but pretending that they can’t afford to make concessions in the all-important area of residuals on DVD sales. Hollywood management is wallowing in money. To pretend that they can’t afford to part with a few extra pennies of DVD revenue is absurd, an insult to the Actors. But a contract negotiation isn’t about fairness or equality. It’s about muscle and leverage. Still, the problem with describing a company offer as “inadequate and frightening” (which is how SAG president Alan Rosenberg described the AMPTP’s most recent offer) is that as much as that characterization puts management on the defensive and gets the membership all fired up and ready to do battle, it’s also risky. The union has to tread with caution. That same “frightening” offer might turn out to be the package you’re forced to take, which can be awkward. Asking the membership to ratify a contract you’ve portrayed as unacceptable is reminiscent of that old joke where the person complains about a particular restaurant, saying that the food tastes bad and is poor quality . . . and the portions are too small. On the other hand, when you’re getting down to the short strokes, you have no choice but to continue fighting, otherwise you’re sunk. You can’t say to the company, “Okay, what you have on the table is acceptable, but we’d prefer that you sweeten it a bit.” As programmatic as it sounds, you have to stick to the script. You have to continue pushing for more. It’s astonishing how similar all union negotiations are. No matter what the industry or union, the dynamics of the bargaining are almost identical. For example, the company is almost always going to describe a late offer as their “final” offer. It makes little sense to do otherwise. What are they going to say? “While we hope you agree to this, it isn’t all we have. We have more in reserve”? Accordingly, when management does eventually move, even incrementally, off its so-called “final” offer, all that does is reinforce the union’s dismissal of any talk of “final this” or “final that” in future negotiations. It’s a vicious cycle. Yet, experienced negotiating teams understand the intricacies of the process. It’s only when you have inexperienced or arrogant management negotiators at the table that things fall apart. But the same logic applies, more or less, to the threat of a strike. What is the union supposed to say about going on strike, even when—for whatever reason—a strike is untenable? In this regard, every union is in the same boat, whether it’s SAG, the UAW (United Auto Workers) or my old union the AWPPW (Association of Western Pulp and Paper Workers). You can’t go into a bargain and say to the management team, “We’re going to yell and scream and call you names, but we promise that, under no circumstances, will we do the one thing you fear most.” You can’t go into a gunfight carrying a knife, and you can’t go into a bargain without wielding the threat of pulling the plug. It’s as simple as that. Not if you have any hope of getting a decent contract. As for the membership, the same rules apply. Some years ago, a woman approached the union bargaining team, in private, and asked if the strike vote we were about to take was being done to “send a message” to the company, or was being done because we were actually prepared to shut down the plant if necessary. Even though the Local had gone on a 54-day strike just a few years earlier, and the union bargaining team knew in their hearts that what was already on the table was enough to preclude a shutdown, we were forced to maintain a defiant posture. Because we couldn’t have word leak out that the bargaining board had admitted to using the strike vote as a mere bluff, we told her that, yes, we were prepared to go nuclear if it came to that. We needed this information to get back to the company. I still recall her response. “In that case,” she said, “I’m voting No.” David Macaray, a Los Angeles playwright and writer, was a former labor union rep. He can be reached at dmacaray@earthlink.net
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