This is why teachers in Los Angeles are on strike.

More than 25,000 teachers in Los Angeles won't be going to work Monday after a breakdown in contract talks. The strike in the nation's second largest school district affects more than 1,000 schools and more than 600,000 students. A funding battle between teachers and the districts follows similar walkouts last year in six states.

Party poopers

“Nothing could be more ill-judged than that intolerant spirit which has, at all times, characterized political parties.” -- Alexander Hamilton, 1787

While at present political parties are practical mechanisms for the expression of political intentions, for average citizens allegiance to party -- partisanship -- is self-defeating.

It was the existence of independent concentrations of power and influence, especially labor unions, national associations (such as the NAACP) and, on the local level, social clubs, that gave ordinary people muscle in the long struggle for economic and social justice.

Restoring such organizations must be part of any long-term reform of our democracy.

“If I could not go to heaven but with a party, I would not go there at all.” -- Thomas Jefferson, 1789

The nation’s largest private-sector employer is told to obey the law

A federal administrative law judge has ordered

Wal-Mart to offer 16 former workers their previous jobs and to make them "whole for any loss of earnings and other benefits suffered as a result of the discrimination against them." The company must also hold meetings in more than two dozen stores to inform workers of their rights to organize under U.S. labor law.

The rest of the story:
Wal-Mart strikes lawful, must reinstate workers: NLRB judge by Nathan Layne (Reuters).

Further reading:
How Walmart Keeps an Eye on Its Massive Workforce: The retail giant is always watching by Susan Berfield (Bloomberg Businessweek).

Life as a Wal-Mart worker -- and how its employees are monitored at all times: America’s real-life dystopia: Wal-Mart is straight out of George Orwell and Aldous Huxley by Aaron R. Hanlon (Salon).

“We are not anti-union; we are pro-associate”: A Manager's Toolbox To Remaining Union Free ("CONFIDENTIAL" Wal-Mart document) (source: ReclaimDemocracy.org).

The Wal-Mart Effect: How the World's Most Powerful Company Really Works--and How It's Transforming the American Economy by Charles Fishman (Amazon). "[T]he story of Wal-Mart is really the story of the transformation of the American economy over the past 20 years." Fishman is "careful to present the consumer benefits of Wal-Mart's staggering growth and to place Wal-Mart in the larger context of globalization and the rise of mega-corporations. But he also presents the case against Wal-Mart in arresting detail, and his carefully balanced approach only makes the downside of Wal-Mart's market dominance more vivid." -- Publisher's Weekly

The discount giant is closing 269 stores worldwide—and not even bothering to build stores it promised in poor neighborhoods: Can Cities Afford to Trust Walmart? by Kriston Capps (CityLab)

Extra credit:
This video is shown to all "associates" at on-boarding: it's imperative that everyone working for Wal-Mart understands that s/he is "better off" without a union.


The parody t-shirt at the top of this post and other merchandise is available from Reclaim Democracy!: "Reclaim Democracy! is dedicated to restoring democratic authority over corporations, reviving grassroots democracy, and establishing appropriate limits on corporate influence. We work for systemic change, instead of reacting to corporate agendas."

FIGHT WAGE THEFT! Support garment workers organizing!

Garment Worker Center in Los Angeles invites all to join September 9, 2015 press conference and benefit performance of award winning play "Real Women Have Curves" at Pasadena Playhouse. FIGHT WAGE THEFT! Support garment workers organizing!

Frank Little: The Hobo Agitator (PBS)

The summer of 1917: the war of the Copper Kings was winding down, a highly charged time for Butte, which had a socialist mayor and no unions. This extremely well done profile of Frank Little, the hobo agitator, brings that summer to life, when vigilantes roamed freely though the city and dominated the mines. Little was one of the major IWW leaders of the time; he was lynched at Butte on August 1 1917. The doc also provides background on Butte and copper, the emergence of militant unionism, and some of the radicalism of the times. Don't pass this up.

Where is Big Bill Haywood when you need him?

The Wobblies were right.

Workers of the world, and nearly everyone else, must unite against the predator class that will otherwise enslave and finally destroy the planet.

Actions: Tahrir Square?

"A joy, yes, in the way people greet one another, the way they're energized by one another. They're excited that even though there's a grim prospect of the bill being adopted, that in the long run they're building something that can be strong for the working class." -- Paul Soglin, the former mayor of Madison, who has been at the state capitol all week, spending the night on the floor as part of demonstrations against changes to collective bargaining rights pushed by the state's anti-union Republican governor, Scott Walker. (Yahoo News/Associated Press 2011-02-19).

See, also: Independent Egyptian Unions Express Solidarity with Wisconsin Workers (Blue Cheddar, a progressive blog in Wisconsin 2011-02-21).