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In July, 1905, the Industrial
Workers of the World (IWW) was founded. Throughout the years, the
IWW, the Wobblies have continued the struggle for
working class solidarity. During the 1930s, at the height of the
Great Depression, Wobblies fought hard and won the right to organize,
strike and collectively bargain. Out of the struggle came Social
Security and the shorter work week. The Wobbly motto, "One Big
Union" is as relevant today as it was in 1905. From this era
(1930) comes the famous poster
entitled, "Is your washroom breeding Bolsheviks?" Revolt
was in the air and the corporate-state was looking for ways to ease, or at
least discredit, the discontent. The idea
behind the "washroom" poster was the suggestion that workers become disgruntled when the
paper towels just were not soft enough. This corporate attempt to
trivialize the important labor issues of the time, while branding labor and
union activists as red agitators, is a classic ploy in use today.
Attacking the messenger instead of their message. Produced by the ScotTissue Towel company, the "washroom" poster was a commercial
advertisement for its paper products.
The ad (original appearing at the end of this essay) boasted that big corporations purchasing
ScotTissue Towel products with their cloth-like
softness could prevent employees from becoming Bolsheviks. Corporate ass wipes do have a tendency to create disgruntled
employees. Soft paper towels presumably keep employees content
enough so that they do not agitate for workers rights, especially the
right to organize. The latter impassioned the Wobblies to act.
The ScotTissue Towel advertising campaign
misses the important points as to what makes a "disgruntled
employee." It suggests that a mundane worker
inconvenience leads to labor opposition and union activism. It was not coarse
paper towels, but,
the need for an eight-hour work day, a forty hour work
week, paid vacations, safer working conditions, the right to organize, and
collectively bargain that impassioned the Wobblies to act.
The IWW celebrates
its 100th anniversary in July, 2005. This issue is dedicated to
the IWW which survives today with the best of its ideals intact. May
the One Big Union continue to thrive amidst the most anti-worker
administration in United States working class history.
Bushevik Rewrite
The following paragraph is a rewrite of the text on the
1930's ScotTissue Towel poster. It is a parody directed toward the
Democratic Party, the enablers of George W. Bush and the members of his
Christo-fascist death cult.
Is the Democratic Party
breeding Busheviks?
Workers lose respect for
politicians that fail to provide decent protection in their work environment and
a government that fails to provide a livable wage and protect the
Constitution.
Workers and others of
conscience resent sending their children to
fight and die in illegal wars for the profit of the wealthy owning
class. Try making ends meet seven days per week,
working at two or three jobs, in harsh working conditions while loved ones are
sent to war, leaving those behind struggling to
pay the bills without healthcare and maybe you,
too, would grumble. A
livable wage, universal health insurance, quality education, taking care of
veterans and no more wars of choice nor for profit are just a few of the not so small but
very important worker rights, that would help build confidence and trust in
the Democratic Party that professes to be of, for and by the working
class. That's
why you will find Progressives and union activists fighting for livable wage contracts and universal health care.
That's why articles of impeachment having been drawn up against George
W. Bush for his crimes against humanity await a courageous introduction
in the House of Representatives. The
Democratic Party contains many tepid progressives, made of
"spineless fiber"...an amazing amalgam of co-opted politicians
who long ago abandoned their base. Democrats are soft and pliant,
Bush-lite, desirous of appeasing their fascist neo-con brethren. They continue
supporting yet another illegal war, so strong in that support that their
ethics and morality crumbles. . .even as they profess the moral high
ground. And they
spend more on war, again -- because standing for their
twisted "patriotic" principles makes their hands bloody --
instead of ending the war and washing them clean. Write
for your free set of bloody hands. Join the Democratic Party,
politicians who abrogate
their responsibilities as they continue giving George W. Bush
the unconstitutional power to make war, destroy cities, kill darker
skinned people, and make torture an instrument of foreign policy. The
Democratic Party -- really bloody hands! Just like the
Republican Party.
Democrats - Opposition
voices AWOL
March 16, 2005 was the
second anniversary of activist Rachel Corrie's assassination in Ramallah,
Palestine. She was run over by an Israeli
bulldozer specially built by Caterpillar in the United States to demolish
homes. On that day, the United States Congress voted on House
Resolution (HR) 1268 for yet another authorization to continue funding the
illegal and unjustified war on Iraq. The final vote
to continue funding a war based upon lies was
388 yea, 43 nay, and 3 not voting. Another 81.4 billion dollars will
be sent into the quagmire that the military-industrial-complex chose
to create in Iraq. 162 Democrats joined Republicans in continuing the
slaughter and the crimes. This is the fifth emergency
spending plan that George W. Bush has sent to Congress since September 11,
2001. This is the fifth time that the Democrats have capitulated to
the Busheviks. The Democrats and their party are breeding Busheviks.
They have met the enemies of peace and justice and found
themselves. Democrats
have made a habit of professing being tough on national defense, as if bombing,
maiming and killing hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians makes us any safer. Dead people don't have friendly opinions and
their surviving family members and friends hate you for it. The
insistence on supporting our
troops by continued funding of illegal operations in Iraq is an oxymoron.
The
Democrats, enablers of murder are
murderers themselves. Given a chose between voting for more death and destruction, and, being branded as not supporting the troops the
Democrats choose war. They fail to see that bringing the troops home
now is the best form of supporting them. The
Democratic Party members of the so-called "Progressive Coalition" in the House
of Representatives who voted in favor of HR1268 include: Peter DeFazio (OR), Jesse Jackson,
Jr (IL), Hilda Solis (CA), Xavier Becera (CA), Corrin Brown (FL), Sherrod
Brown (FL), Julia Carson (IN), John Conyers (MI), Rosa DeLauro (CT), Lane
Evans (IL), Eni Faleomavaega (American Samoa), Chaka Fatah (PA), Luis
Guitterez (IL), Stephanie Tubbs Jones (OH), Nancy Kaptur (OH), Tom Lantos
(CA), Eleanor Holmes Norton (DC), John Oliver (MA), Ed Pastor (AZ), Nancy
Pelosi (CA), Bobby Rush (IL), Bennie Thompson (MS), Tom Udall (NM), Diane
Watson (CA), Mel Watt (CA), Henry Waxman (CA). No wonder Busheviks
continue their crimes with impunity. Time and time again the Democrats make it so.
Like adult children of alcoholics who enable the alcoholic family member, the Democrats
enable and perpetuate the Bushevik pathology. Torturers
are OK The Democrats
professing their opposition to torture have voted for the confirmation of Alberto
Gonzales for Attorney General. Mr. Gonzales is the architect of
the plan that put torture in place here in the land of free where the
Constitution forbids cruel and unusual punishment. These
are the same Democrats that gave the go-ahead for the Iraq war (circa
2003), and, who recently voted with the Busheviks to change the bankruptcy
laws so that socialist bailouts and welfare exists only for the corporate rich.
The poor no longer qualify for similar bankruptcy protection. While
the rich reorganize, eliminate jobs and abscond with workers pensions, the
workers, newly indebted for life, are unable to pay their rent, go without food, medical insurance, and education.
It is the Democrats who are
the bankrupt party. On March 19, 2005, tens of thousands around the
world protested the second anniversary of the 2003 military invasion and
occupation of Iraq. Not one leading politician from the Democratic
Party participated in the anti-war protests. Not one major Democratic
politician made a speech at any of the more than 800 rallies across
the United States. The events were organized by a nationwide coalition
representing an array of grassroots community peace and social justice
groups. How telling that no well-known Democratic Party politician
participated. While the Republican Party is the party of the neo-cons,
the Democratic Party is the party
of the willingly neo-conned. Mark Twain sums it up nicely:
Look at the tyranny of
party--at what is called party allegiance, party loyalty--a snare
invented by designing men for selfish purposes--and which turns voters
into chattels, slaves, rabbits, and all the while their masters, and
they themselves are shouting rubbish about liberty, independence,
freedom of opinion, freedom of speech, honestly unconscious of the
fantastic contradiction; and forgetting or ignoring that their fathers
and the churches shouted the same blasphemies a generation earlier when
they were closing their doors against the hunted slave, beating his
handful of humane defenders with Bible texts and billies, and pocketing
the insults and licking the shoes of his Southern master. "The
Character of Man," Mark Twain's Autobiography
Mark Twain's commentary could
have been written today specifically with the present U.S. regime in mind,
though it is doubtful that the president would ever be reading Mark
Twain. Democrats
and Republicans Busheviks Both The
Busheviks continue tightening the screws against Cuba. Compliant
Democratic Party neo-con fellow-travelers with their, "Yes, massa!"
mind-set rubber stamp the four-decades old failed policy of trying to
isolate Cuba. The most
recent example is the attempt at having a resolution passed at the United
National Human Rights Commission condemning human rights violations in
Cuba. One need only begin at the US prison facilities in the
occupied Cuban territory of Guantanamo Bay to find human rights
violations. The world sees the super-power in its glass house
throwing stones. The empire may have superior firepower, but, like its
emperor, stands naked exposed to world scrutiny. The world beyond the
US public,
especially in the so-called "Third World" recognizes the double
standard. Our torture is justified. Any other torture
is a human rights violation. Our torture is policy. Any
other torture is condemned as unacceptable. Our tens-of-thousands of
nuclear weapons are acceptable. Any one else's nuclear weapons are a
threat to humanity. Our weapons of mass
destruction are a necessary deterrent. Other nation's nuclear
weapons are a threat to world peace. Our weapons of mass
destruction are acceptable. Any other weapons of mass destruction
are not. Democrats
need to wake up and smell the coffee though I doubt they will. The
aroma growing stronger is the stench of complicity. It includes the
pro-war odor of the John Kerry campaign, and, the soon to be Hillary Clinton
presidential campaign. Clinton's position shift on abortion portends
further tacking to the political Right. As another example of
Democrats capitulating to the Right consider Martin Frost, former member
of Congress from Dallas TX (D), who ran as an opponent against Howard Dean for
being the head of the Democratic Party's National Committee. After Dean
won, Frost became a news reporter for FOX news. Frost learned well
how to play the game after spending thirteen terms as
a Democrat in the House of Representatives. To think that Frost would, had he won, have
been responsible for guiding the Democratic Party. Frost's move to FOX says much about
the Democratic Party commitment to its traditional base values. It says much about the Democratic
Party.
Pollution The
Democratic party is polluted by the Bushevik mindset. One need look only
to Zell Miller to see the extreme example of Democratic Bushevism.
Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut is a milder example. The
Democrats remain unaccountable for their lack of opposition. Marie Cocco writing her January 11, 2005, Newsday column
entitled, "Democrats' Fury, and Values, Go Awol", states,
Enabling the Bush
administration's habit of escaping accountability for even the grossest
failure isn't smart politics. It's cowardice. If Democrats are to
compete on the political turf of values, they'd better find some they
stand for.
Democratic Party values are
Bushevist values, the values of the ruling
elite. As James Wolcott in an article entitled, "Groundhog
surfaces for sunlight" on his website http://jameswolcott.com
(archives 03/2205) puts it,
The elites in this
country have never had it so good, and as long as they're prospering the
distress will be smothered under the surface, kept under a lid.
More sheeple will
become Bushevists as a consequence of Democratic Party complicity
and its solidarity with the elites of the ruling class. Wolcott
further states, "You can kiss that (American Dream) dream
goodbye". I would add that by their enabling and breeding
Bushevists, "Democrats" such as Bill Clinton, John Kerry, Joe Lieberman, Zel Miller, Hillary Clinton, et al,
create the working class
nightmare. The working class has these and many other Democrats to
thank for the so-called "free trade agreements" of the
1990s. We have them to thank for the recent bankruptcy bill that
further exacerbates the plight of the unemployed, disabled, and the
elderly. We have them to thank for the tens of millions of
graduates indebted with tens of thousands of dollars of college tuition debt working at minimum wage jobs and going backwards. We have these
Busheviks to thank for allowing workers at McDonalds, Wendy's and Burger
who slap together hamburgers to be classified as
"manufacturers". And to what purpose? So that the
"manufacturing" sector employment statistics can look much less
horrid than they are. We have these Busheviks to thank for redefining
what it means to be a "manager" so that fewer workers qualify
for overtime pay. God
bless the Bushevists. God bless the Democratic Party, the enablers
and breeders of Bushevists. God bless the Democratic Party
Bushevists. God bless them, as I am certain they believe they are
blessed for theirs is the kingdom, the power and the glory. The scales of social justice, however, have a way of tipping
the balance toward a social justice equilibrium. The people do not
remain ignorant and docile forever. While the Bushevists swim in the
opulence and luxury of their deluded God-given class, the flames of hell
will consume them. The fat and pork of the
ruling class burns well. While the barbecue may not be televised, it will
take place before their rapture. Count on it.
The mass of mankind has
not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few to ride
them. -- Thomas Jefferson
Happy birthday to the
Industrial Workers of the World, 1905 - 2005.
©
2005
Jozef
Hand-Boniakowski
Original Text of Scot Towel Bathroom Poster
Is your washroom breeding
Bolsheviks? Employees
lose respect for a company that fails to provide decent facilities for
their comfort. Try
wiping you hands six days a week on harsh, cheap paper towels or awkward,
unsanitary roller towels __ and maybe you, too, would grumble. Towel
service is just one of those mall, but important courtesies -- such as
proper air and lighting -- that help build up the good will of your employees. That's
why you'll find clothlike Scot-Tissue Towels in the washrooms of large
well-run organizations such as R.C.A. Victor Co., Inc., National Lead Co.
and Campbell Soup Co. ScotTissue
Towels are made of "thirsty fibre"...an amazing cellulose
product that drinks up moisture 12 time as fast as ordinary paper
towels. They feel soft and pliant as a linen towel. Yet
they're so strong and tough in texture they won't crumble or go to pieces.
. . even when they are wet. And
they cost less, too -- because one is enough to dry the hands -- instead
of three or four. Write
for free trial coupon. Scot Paper Company, Chester, Pennsylvania. ScotTissue
Towels - really dry. ©
Red Scare Products 1-800/258-8579 www.northernsun.com/cgi-bin/ns/4004.html
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