[ Reader Comments: Kidnapping Immigrants; Railroad Workers and
Railroad Profits; Religion; Ukraine War; Sweden; My Revolutionary
Inspiration, Barbara Ehrenreich; New Book: Frank Emspak, Troublemaker;
The Worker-Led Upsurge: Amazon and Starbucks; more]
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TIDBITS – SEPT. 22, 2022 – READER COMMENTS: KIDNAPPING
IMMIGRANTS; RAILROAD WORKERS, RAILROAD PROFITS; RELIGION; UKRAINE WAR;
SWEDEN; MY REVOLUTIONARY INSPIRATION, BARBARA EHRENREICH; FRANK
EMSPAK, TROUBLEMAKER; THE WORKER-LED UPSURGE; MORE..  
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September 22, 2022
xxxxxx
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_ Reader Comments: Kidnapping Immigrants; Railroad Workers and
Railroad Profits; Religion; Ukraine War; Sweden; My Revolutionary
Inspiration, Barbara Ehrenreich; New Book: Frank Emspak, Troublemaker;
The Worker-Led Upsurge: Amazon and Starbucks; more _

Tidbits - Reader Comments, Resources, Announcements, AND cartoons -
Sept. 22, 2022, xxxxxx

 

Open letter to Gov. DeSantis (Seymour Joseph)
Re: Railroad Companies Almost Inflicted an Economic Disaster on the
U.S. (Patrick Dirden; Karl Edler; Elrick Somar; Raymond Parsons; Roger
Person; Paula Franco)
Re: How an Attendance Policy Has Led the U.S. to the Brink of a
Nationwide Rail Strike (Geoff Mirelowitz)
Re: Strike Settled. Now Let’s Nationalize the Railroads.(Linda)
National Abortion Ban  --  cartoon by Bill Bramhall
Two Quarterbacks  --  meme
Re: How Lawyers From One Giant DC Firm Influenced Trump’s Supreme
Court Picks (Jean Douthwright)
Re: Modeling the Future of Religion in America (George Lessard;
Maurice Wade; Tom Conroy)
Re: Peace Activists Hit the Streets From DC to San Francisco Urging
Ceasefire in Ukraine (Ethan Young; Stan Nadel; Fred Niles; George
Fish)
Re: Ukraine’s Tale of Two Colonizations (Jan Gilbrecht; Ethan Young)
Re: They Will Beat Their Swords Into Plowshares (Stan Nadel)
Re: Sweden: Right-Wing Coalition Wins Election by the Narrowest of
Margins (Jennifer Nouri)
Re: Incarceration on TV Is Nothing Like the Prison Where I Live (Linda
Gillison)

RESOURCES:

My Revolutionary Inspiration, Barbara Ehrenreich (Lynne Segal in The
Boston Review)
New Book: Frank Emspak, Troublemaker: Saying No to Power

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

The Worker-Led Upsurge: Amazon and Starbucks - September 23 (CUNY
School of Labor and Urban Studies)
Examining Gil Scott-Heron's Genius - September 28 (Institute of
Politics Policy and History (IPPH)- University of the District of
Columbia)

 

OPEN LETTER TO GOV. DESANTIS
 

Congratulations on that stunt you pulled with the migrants. Lying
about where they were headed and that they could expect work papers,
whatever, was really neat.

I presume you got the idea from a much earlier and more tragic stunt
pulled by the Nazis in those concentration camps — telling the
prisoners they were going to take showers when they were actually
going to be gassed to death.

I hope you realize that what you did is costly for you. It's widely
being called “cruel” and “inhumane.” But so what? Who cares
what people think about you? Politics is a nasty profession, and you,
Governor, top the Nasty list.
Good luck. You'll need it.

Seymour Joseph

 

RE: RAILROAD COMPANIES ALMOST INFLICTED AN ECONOMIC DISASTER ON THE
U.S.
 

Grateful, but more work needs to be done. Train and Engine crews need
stronger leave policies. Negotiation teams believed the root problem
is money. The real problem is quality of life. The class one RR’s
have implemented draconian attendance policies that punish crews for
taking time off for everything from routine physicals to bereavement
leave. While the accommodations from the class one railroads are a
good start, they need to go further by eliminating the attendance
policies completely, allowing crews adequate rest times, etc. The real
motive is to eliminate crews by attrition and terminations and allow
for one person crews. Imagine one person controlling a two mile train
hauling a million plus gallons of ethanol?

Patrick Dirden
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
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      =====

They set the country up for disaster.

 But they never got blamed by anyone in main stream media or
politics.
 
There will be no accountability.  And the supply chain and its costs
will still be broken

Karl Edler
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
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      =====

The actual reason for the conflict between railroad workers and their
employers. The potential strike or lockout was not because of any
dispute over pay, but because of inhumane attendance policies that
currently mean railroad engineers and conductors are either working or
“on call” 90 percent of the time. When they’re on call, they can
be summoned to work on two hours’ notice or less, and then may be
away from home for days at a time. Workers report that they have no
sick days, paid or unpaid.  weekends. A wife of an engineer told
Vice, “They go to work sick, they miss funerals of loved ones, they
miss final goodbyes to parents on hospice, they miss holidays,
birthdays, all of it.”

Elrick Somar
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
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      =====

What did you expect? The railroad capitalists, among others, run the
government....it's not "our" government and in this sense it's not
"our" country....not yet.

This highlights the true elephant-in-the-room question.

Until the working class fights in it's own name, no improvements in
our conditions of life and work can be wrest from the bosses. Until
the working class take control of the government away from the
capitalists, they will continue to wreck havoc upon us.

Raymond Parsons
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
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      =====

Many companies view there workers not as assets but rather as
financial liability

Roger Person
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
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      =====

Thanks President and the hard working peeps.
Though they probably deserve much better!

Paula Franco
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
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RE: HOW AN ATTENDANCE POLICY HAS LED THE U.S. TO THE BRINK OF A
NATIONWIDE RAIL STRIKE
 

"The rage among RR workers over their intolerable working and living
conditions has been widely underestimated for months. This was
captured by the action of the Presidential Emergency Board (PEB)
appointed by Biden that recommended a contract settlement that
rejected these concerns.

"Details concerning the most important issue fueling the anger of RR
workers are only beginning to emerge. That issue is relief from
draconian attendance policies that deny workers adequate time off for
rest, family, and medical needs. Whatever concessions the billionaire
RR owners may have made at the last minute were only the result of the
strike deadline that was set for 12:01 am September 16. Until RR
workers themselves can read and discuss the proposed contract, nothing
is settled."

Railroad Workers Will Have Final Word on National Contract
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Geoff Mirelowitz
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
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RE: STRIKE SETTLED. NOW LET’S NATIONALIZE THE RAILROADS.
 

Settled? Have the members voted??

Linda

 

NATIONAL ABORTION BAN  --  CARTOON BY BILL BRAMHALL

 

Bill Bramhall's editorial cartoon for Thursday, Sept. 15, 2022, after
republicans introduced a 15-week abortion ban in the Senate. 

Bill Bramhall
September 15, 2022
New York Daily News
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TWO QUARTERBACKS  --  MEME

 

Facebook Tweet
WomenForJustice
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September 17, 2022

 

RE: HOW LAWYERS FROM ONE GIANT DC FIRM INFLUENCED TRUMP’S SUPREME
COURT PICKS
 

Follow the law firm....

Just like "follow the money"....

Jean Douthwright
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
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RE: MODELING THE FUTURE OF RELIGION IN AMERICA
 

Not a day too soon for the rest of humanity …

George Lessard
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
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      =====

"I like your Christ, but not your Christianity." -- Gandhi

Maurice Wade
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
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      =====

Good news.

Tom Conroy
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
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RE: PEACE ACTIVISTS HIT THE STREETS FROM DC TO SAN FRANCISCO URGING
CEASEFIRE IN UKRAINE
 

Has anyone seen an elephant? I swear there was one in the room. Oh,
there he is - making a quick, neutral walk-on in the article about
peace in Ukraine. Putin.

How can we discuss the Ukraine war by denying agency to the man who
ordered it? Marcy Winograd calls it "a proxy war." The suggestion is
that Ukraine is a US proxy. Who is Russia a proxy for? There is
nothing proxy about a gigantic military blasting foreign civilians to
bits in their own homes. The US empire's endless trail of gore cannot
and should not be nullified in past and present history. At the same
time, the idea that we nullify Putin as the #1 warmonger in Ukraine,
as his invading army rages through a far weaker neighbor, would put
out the pilot light of internationalism.

Ethan Young
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
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      =====

More like surrender activists in my opinion-- given that a cease fire
in place now would leave Ukraine crippled and at the mercy of Putin's
imperialism.

Stan Nadel

      =====

Incredible this article appears at the same time that the invading
army is suffering military defeat and is being pushed back by the
people and army of those being invaded.  The invading army is now
mobilizing a reserve force of 300,000, and get this, there are those
that are calling on people who are suffering at the hands of murder,
plunder and foreign invasion to surrender and "negotiate". Just
incredible.

Fred Niles

      =====

Negotiations that preserve the territorial integrity of the Ukraine
are the only acceptable ones; negotiations that benefit Russia for
illegally, immorally attacking the Ukraine and attempting to undermine
its independence, that reward Russia with Ukrainian territory, are not
acceptable. 

Just as in the negotiations between the US and the North Vietnamese to
end the Vietnam War in the 1960s-1970s, the US antiwar movement
demanded then that there be no "negotiated" giving up of Vietnamese
territory to the US, because, same as with Russia today, the US was in
the wrong, so must that be the US antiwar position today! 

Our antiwar position on the Ukraine must be the same as was our
antiwar position on Vietnam back then, and must steadfastly stand now
against Russian invasion and annexation, and for the independence and
territorial integrity of the Ukraine. A "negotiated settlement" to the
war that degrades or sacrifices Ukrainian independence and territorial
integrity is negotiating Russia's "successful" aggression against a
smaller nation by a larger one--same as Vietnam vs. the US back some
over five decades ago.

George Fish

 

RE: UKRAINE’S TALE OF TWO COLONIZATIONS
 

I'm sorry, but I missed the explanation about how neo-colonization by
Russia would be worse than neo-colonization by the US. Could someone
explain that to me? How about a Ukrainian referendum on that?

Jan Gilbrecht
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
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      =====

Where can Ukraine be expected to turn, but the west? If they win the
war, they will be screwed that way. Will the working people be ok with
nationalism that trades anti-Russia for permanent annexation to
US/NATO's hind end? Maybe a long time. In the immediate run, their
choice is understandable. In the long run, things could take a
different turn. But maybe not so long. People make democracy; states
follow or react.

Ethan Young
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
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RE: THEY WILL BEAT THEIR SWORDS INTO PLOWSHARES
 

This is classic appeasement, let the Ukraine go the way of the Spanish
Republic in the Spanish Civil War and Czechoslovakia after Munich
(after all don't the Sudeten Germans have real grievances?) and all
will be well. It was nonsense then and nonsense now.  Of course war
is an environmental and human disaster, but sometimes there's no
avoiding it and postponing it only makes it worse.

Stan Nadel

 

RE: SWEDEN: RIGHT-WING COALITION WINS ELECTION BY THE NARROWEST OF
MARGINS
 

Sweden: Right-Wing Coalition Wins Election by the Narrowest of Margins

Jennifer Nouri
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
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RE: INCARCERATION ON TV IS NOTHING LIKE THE PRISON WHERE I LIVE
 

Sensationalism must be part of it. But staging the false narrative
that the incarcerated MUST be incarcerated for reasons of PUBLIC
SAFETY??? That's the story told by the carceral state to increase
police, surveillance, and prison budgets.

Linda Gillison
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
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MY REVOLUTIONARY INSPIRATION, BARBARA EHRENREICH

 

Lynne Segal in The Boston Review, September 15, 2022
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Remembrances of the late author have focused on her best-selling
Nickel and Dimed with only rare acknowledgement of the major roles she
played in women’s liberation and U.S. socialism.

"None of the obituaries I have read of feminist fighter, activist, and
writer Barbara Ehrenreich come close to capturing her significance to
the movement, apart from the one penned by her lifelong friend Deirdre
English for Mother Jones. Nearly all others give center stage to her
powerful best-seller Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America
(2001), a stirring undercover account of the appalling poverty,
stress, and disrespect faced by the working poor, especially women.
Written at the beginning of twenty-first century, it remains a
shocking description of the obscene inequality characterizing our
times. It is a book that any person of progressive leanings will
applaud.

However, by the time Nickel and Dimed was published, Ehrenreich had
already had a long career stretching back to the heyday of women’s
liberation, when she’d left her indelible mark on the movement by
battling to preserve within it the revolutionary socialist current
initially at the heart of Western feminism. First and foremost she
was, and remained, the archetypal socialist feminist."

Read the full article here
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NEW BOOK: FRANK EMSPAK, TROUBLEMAKER: SAYING NO TO POWER
 

Reviewed by James Young

TROUBLEMAKER: Saying No to Power
by Frank Emspak
Publisher: Frank Emspak; 326 pages
August 15, 2022
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 979-8218038915
Order from Barnes & Noble
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Readers will be pleased that Frank Emspak wrote this memoir in the
language used by people in everyday life. That is in keeping with an
author who claims “Class consciousness at birth” and who urges
others to organize democratic unions and worksites. Emspak believes
that his recounting of his and others’ successes, failures, and
stalemates over sixty-odd years of activism will aid new generations
as they meet the challenges of today and tomorrow. He values the rise
and important gains made by identity movements concerning matters
grounded largely in sex, race, climate change , and other weighty
issues, but Emspak – who’s both a skilled machinist and a
doctoral-level historian – finds that the crux still revolves around
decisions and actions that are rooted deeply in the world of work, its
purposes, and its control and its impact  on everything else. 

The angles from which the author looks at his life are several, and
the narrative therefore is not a smooth series of cause-and-effect
events and relationships. But, not only is that to be expected of a
life’s tale that includes an unconventional family background, a
razor-sharp mind, and a high degree of interest in the way things work
and how they may be improved through democratic labor unions and
progressively conscious and socially skilled allies for social change.
And the timing of this radicalized life? Begun just prior to the
births of baby boomers in the USA and still making trouble for elites.
Perfect for a hindsight and a foresight from today. Read this book.

_[JAMES YOUNG is Professor of History Emeritus at Edinboro University,
Pennsylvania, is the author of Union Power: The United Electrical
Workers in Erie, Pennsylvania
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member all his life and a worker in several unions, including the SEIU
and USWA. President of the Pennsylvania Labor History Society.]_

 

THE WORKER-LED UPSURGE: AMAZON AND STARBUCKS - SEPTEMBER 23 (CUNY
SCHOOL OF LABOR AND URBAN STUDIES)

 

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Join us in-person at SLU or virtually via Zoom.  Click here to
register [[link removed]].

PLEASE NOTE:  in-person attendees must bring proof of vaccination and
be masked during event.

CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies [[link removed]]
25 West 43rd Street, 19th Floor
New York, NY 10036
(646) 313-8300

 

EXAMINING GIL SCOTT-HERON'S GENIUS - SEPTEMBER 28 (INSTITUTE OF
POLITICS POLICY AND HISTORY (IPPH)- UNIVERSITY OF THE DISTRICT OF
COLUMBIA)

 

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More information
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* Reader Comments
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* Ron DeSantis
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* Immigrants
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* migrants
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* kidnapping
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* Racism
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* railroads
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* railroad safety
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* corporate profits
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* railroad workers
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* lobbyists
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* Supreme Court
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* religion
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* Ukraine war
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* Ukraine
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* Russia
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* Appeasement
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* Sweden
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* Barbara Ehrenreich
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* Frank Emspak
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* workers
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* Labor Organizing
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* Trade Unions
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* Rank and File
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* Amazon
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* Starbucks
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* Starbucks Workers United
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* Amazon Labor Union
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* Cartoons
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* resources
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* Announcements
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