Sunday, September 14, 2008
Sarah Palin
I feel like I should say something but I am speechless- so I will let the Alaskan Women Oppose Palin Rally (which outnumbered the pro-Palin Welcome Home Rally) speak for me. I got these from the comments section of Jack and Jill Politics. Don't know how to resize them.
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Case Manager/ Wife
Many changes that I like a lot may be attributed to feminism. Men ( most of them a generation or two younger than me) that can and will talk to women about all manner of things- including fashion and grooming, that is nice. Male nurses and female soldiers, ditto.
Many changes that I am less enthusiastic may also be attributed to feminism. I am a case manager- a job that until recently was done mainly by the wife, mother, sister, or other female member of the family. I encourage and refer and connect and cook and clean and transport and otherwise support. There are many of us. We are pretty much invisible in society and like wives, mothers,aunts, and sisters are under appreciated and underpaid.
Part of the class bias or elitism of The Women's Liberation Movement was a devaluation of care giving and volunteerism. There may be 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling but the pink collar ghetto is alive and growing. Who is more under appreciated and underpaid than day care workers? social workers?
We need some different answers and some different voices- time for a fourth wave?
Many changes that I am less enthusiastic may also be attributed to feminism. I am a case manager- a job that until recently was done mainly by the wife, mother, sister, or other female member of the family. I encourage and refer and connect and cook and clean and transport and otherwise support. There are many of us. We are pretty much invisible in society and like wives, mothers,aunts, and sisters are under appreciated and underpaid.
Part of the class bias or elitism of The Women's Liberation Movement was a devaluation of care giving and volunteerism. There may be 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling but the pink collar ghetto is alive and growing. Who is more under appreciated and underpaid than day care workers? social workers?
We need some different answers and some different voices- time for a fourth wave?
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Gee! Some history...
"Not freedom for all, not equality for all, but struggle against the oppressors and exploiters, and the doing away with the opportunity to oppress and exploit. That is our slogan! Freedom and equality for the oppressed sex." V.I. Lenin, Soviet Power and the Status of Women
Friday, July 11, 2008
Logo- Signature Piece
I only had one suggestion for my personal logo - the human rights symbol. I do not know it. So, in support of Michelle Obama I will be wearing a string of pearls until that big Inauguration Dance. It is my one little action to support Michelle and the Girls. It is one little action to keep the focus on getting Mr. Obama into the White House.
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Good Advice!
From Tammy - The Hollywood Farm Girl-
I will Stop Wishing for Your Sobriety and Start Wishing for my Serenity
Clearly you have no problem- that beverage is a drink not a medication, a refreshment not a friend, lover, mentor, mother ....you can refuse the drink, you just do not care to today...hmmm
I did not understand- after all these years she still seems like a nice person. But she is your devil isn't she? She accepts your rationalizations and adds her own. She supports your prejudices and lies. She tolerates your male chauvinism. She joins you in a drink and a fight. Your dysfunctions are enmeshed. I wish you'd picked the honest one- the one that pushed you to be your best self= the one that knew it was not too late at 25 to be everything you wanted to be. You picked the devil. It is your hell.
I will Stop Wishing for Your Sobriety and Start Wishing for my Serenity
Clearly you have no problem- that beverage is a drink not a medication, a refreshment not a friend, lover, mentor, mother ....you can refuse the drink, you just do not care to today...hmmm
I did not understand- after all these years she still seems like a nice person. But she is your devil isn't she? She accepts your rationalizations and adds her own. She supports your prejudices and lies. She tolerates your male chauvinism. She joins you in a drink and a fight. Your dysfunctions are enmeshed. I wish you'd picked the honest one- the one that pushed you to be your best self= the one that knew it was not too late at 25 to be everything you wanted to be. You picked the devil. It is your hell.
Solidarity Role Model
Welcome to Democracy Now!, Jack Heyman. Can you talk about the significance of what happened yesterday?
JACK HEYMAN: Well, yeah. We were really proud here on the West Coast, as far as the longshore union, the ILWU, making this stand, because it’s part of our legacy, really, of standing up on principled issues. And this, I think, is the first strike ever—well, I would call it a stop work, work stoppage, whatever you want—workers withholding their labor in demand—and demanding an end to the war and immediate withdrawal of the troops.
AMY GOODMAN: What about the significance of the arbitrator saying that the longshoremen should not go out on strike?
JACK HEYMAN: Well, you know, the interesting thing about this action is that not only did we defy the arbitrator, but in a certain sense we defied our own union officials. The union officials did not want to have the actions that we organized up and down the coast. And the arbitrator’s decision is simply—we don’t take our orders from the arbitrators. We don’t take it from judges. The rank and file goes out and does what it has to do. We did that in 1984, when the ship came in from South Africa, the Nedlloyd Kimberley. We refused to work that ship for, I think it was ten or eleven days. And that was in defiance of what an arbitrator said and also against what our union officials were telling us. So we’ve got a strong tradition in the ILWU of rank-and-file democracy, workers’ democracy, where we implement what we decide in a democratic fashion. And our action took place based on a motion that came out of our caucus, which is like a convention of all longshoremen represented up and down the coast. And we decided to stop work to stop this war, and that’s what was carried out.
AMY GOODMAN: The action within Iraq in solidarity with your strike, can you talk about that?
JACK HEYMAN: Well, I think that really was the icing on the cake, because we were appealing for solidarity actions. And I know there was some actions in New York with the college teachers at a New York community college and teach-ins with students and so forth; there were postal workers that had a few moments of silence, a few minutes of silence in New York, Greensboro, North Carolina, and out here in the Bay Area; but really, the most stunning solidarity came from the port workers in Iraq, who struck in solidarity with us. And that was really a very courageous move, because they’re literally under the gun of a military occupation there.
AMY GOODMAN: What are your plans now?
JACK HEYMAN: Well, what this action was was raising the level of struggle from protest to resistance, and we’re hoping that these kinds of actions will resonate to other unions and workers. It’s already catching on with some of the port truckers. Actually, they’ve been doing actions for quite awhile. While it’s not mainly based on the war—I think they’re very much affected by the high price of fuel—they’ve been shutting down ports over that issue, but also immigrant rights, because many of them are immigrant workers. And I hope that this will be an example to other workers that we have the power, we’ve got to use it. And that’s how we can bring this war to a halt.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, I want to thank you very much, Jack Heyman, for joining us from San Francisco, an officer of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.
The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. .. For further information ... contact us.
JACK HEYMAN: Well, yeah. We were really proud here on the West Coast, as far as the longshore union, the ILWU, making this stand, because it’s part of our legacy, really, of standing up on principled issues. And this, I think, is the first strike ever—well, I would call it a stop work, work stoppage, whatever you want—workers withholding their labor in demand—and demanding an end to the war and immediate withdrawal of the troops.
AMY GOODMAN: What about the significance of the arbitrator saying that the longshoremen should not go out on strike?
JACK HEYMAN: Well, you know, the interesting thing about this action is that not only did we defy the arbitrator, but in a certain sense we defied our own union officials. The union officials did not want to have the actions that we organized up and down the coast. And the arbitrator’s decision is simply—we don’t take our orders from the arbitrators. We don’t take it from judges. The rank and file goes out and does what it has to do. We did that in 1984, when the ship came in from South Africa, the Nedlloyd Kimberley. We refused to work that ship for, I think it was ten or eleven days. And that was in defiance of what an arbitrator said and also against what our union officials were telling us. So we’ve got a strong tradition in the ILWU of rank-and-file democracy, workers’ democracy, where we implement what we decide in a democratic fashion. And our action took place based on a motion that came out of our caucus, which is like a convention of all longshoremen represented up and down the coast. And we decided to stop work to stop this war, and that’s what was carried out.
AMY GOODMAN: The action within Iraq in solidarity with your strike, can you talk about that?
JACK HEYMAN: Well, I think that really was the icing on the cake, because we were appealing for solidarity actions. And I know there was some actions in New York with the college teachers at a New York community college and teach-ins with students and so forth; there were postal workers that had a few moments of silence, a few minutes of silence in New York, Greensboro, North Carolina, and out here in the Bay Area; but really, the most stunning solidarity came from the port workers in Iraq, who struck in solidarity with us. And that was really a very courageous move, because they’re literally under the gun of a military occupation there.
AMY GOODMAN: What are your plans now?
JACK HEYMAN: Well, what this action was was raising the level of struggle from protest to resistance, and we’re hoping that these kinds of actions will resonate to other unions and workers. It’s already catching on with some of the port truckers. Actually, they’ve been doing actions for quite awhile. While it’s not mainly based on the war—I think they’re very much affected by the high price of fuel—they’ve been shutting down ports over that issue, but also immigrant rights, because many of them are immigrant workers. And I hope that this will be an example to other workers that we have the power, we’ve got to use it. And that’s how we can bring this war to a halt.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, I want to thank you very much, Jack Heyman, for joining us from San Francisco, an officer of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.
The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. .. For further information ... contact us.
Friday, May 2, 2008
Martin Luther King's Birthday? President Hillary's Birthday Holiday?
We do not celebrate Dr. King's birthday because he is a great Black man. There are many in our past and present. We celebrate Dr. King's birthday because he is the leader of the movement that concluded the American Revolution- that extended full rights of citizenship to all citizens regardless of race. That is why he stands with Washington- the revolutionary and Lincoln the revolution's preserver. That is why Hillary's birthday will probably never be a holiday. She says she is a fighter but that is not necessarily a leader. Hillary will not extend the revolution- she will not marshall or unleash the forces that will extend full equality to women. She won't.
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