Anti-capitalist actions around mass transit in San Francisco, 1993-1995
Submitted by Kevin Keating on May 27 2007 00:01
A personal account of some actions towards encouraging a "culture of non-payment" in a big city public transit system.
In the spring of 1993, San Francisco Mayor Frank Jordan launched an attack on the living standards of the city’s working class by demanding a fare increase of 25 cents per ride on MUNI. MUNI is San Francisco’s main public transit system, made up of motor coaches, trolleys, metro trains, and the world-famous cable cars, with approximately 686,000 passenger boardings every weekday.
Detroit bus drivers on wildcat strike
Submitted by Steven. on May 24 2007 11:36
All of Detroit's bus drivers walked out yesterday over concerns about safety and crime.
About 800 bus drivers of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 26 were involved in the stoppage.
Union president Henry Gaffney said that the strike grew from his members' frustration with the growing dangers on the unpatrolled buses - two drivers were assaulted in the last two days.
Oakland dockers honour anti-war picket lines
Submitted by Ed on May 22 2007 21:22
Oakland Port anti-war and labor protesters close SSA terminal for the day. ILWU 10 & ILWU 34 members refuse to cross lines.
Dozens of anti-war protesters including the leadership and many members of the Oakland Education Association (OEA) joined the picket lines this morning and in the evening of the SSA (Stevedoring Services of America) shipping terminal in Oakland, California to protest the war and the lack of funding for schools in Oakland.
Spatial deconcentration in D.C. - Yulanda Ward
Submitted by Red Marriott on May 16 2007 23:13
1981 article about a US Government housing policy - conceived in the aftermath of the 1960s ghetto riots - arguing that the policy was aimed at removing concentrations of potentially rebellious blacks and other poor people from the inner city and disperse them in small groups to the suburbs. Serious issues have been raised about some of the facts of this article, which are discussed here, but we reproduce it for reference.
Published in 'Midnight Notes', Vol. II, #2, July 1981, MA, USA
Original article first published by the Yulanda Ward Memorial Fund, Washington, 1981(?).
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Spatial Deconcentration in D.C.
[Introduction By Midnight Notes]
Black particularity reconsidered - Adolph L. Reed Jr.
Submitted by Red Marriott on May 16 2007 01:00
An in-depth 1970s analysis of how the management of black dissent by the black American middle-class/professional elite helped restructure capitalism to its own advantage.
"[i]Black Power presupposed a mass-organizational model built on the assumption of a homogeneity of black political interests to be dealt with through community leadership. It is this notion of "black community" that has blocked development of a radical critique in the Civil Rights movement by contraposing an undifferentiated mass to a leadership stratum representing it.
Operation Northwoods: Justification for US military intervention in Cuba documents
Submitted by daniel on May 13 2007 22:25
Below is the complete text from the Freedom of Information Act-released US government document detailing the Pentagon plan to murder innocent civilians and blame the Cuban government as a pretext to invade Cuba.
[b]Code-named Operation Northwoods, US Navy members were also to be killed as part of a "terror campaign" This plan, which President John F. Kennedy refused to implement, had the written approval of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Lyman Louis Lemnitzer, and every other member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
1942-1944: US musicians recording ban
Submitted by Pepe on May 6 2007 11:53
The musicians’ union called a ban on all commercial recordings, as part of a struggle to get royalties from record sales for a union fund for out-of-work musicians.
The union, the American Federation of Musicians, led by trumpeter James Petrillo, had previously opposed the recording of music, or “canned music”. Musicians were replaced with records in radio, and in cafes and bars bands were replaced with jukeboxes.
Anarchy, precarity, and the revenge of the IWW: An interview with Starbucks union organiser Daniel Gross
Submitted by jrivera on Apr 30 2007 18:32
Interview with IWW organizer Daniel Gross where he discusses 'solidarity unionism,' the innovative organizing model that has made gains for Starbucks workers where bureaucratic unions have failed.
In this wide-ranging interview with IWW organizer Daniel Gross conducted by the UK-based Now or Never!, Gross discusses the innovative worker-controlled organizing model, known as solidarity unionism, that has made gains for Starbucks workers where the bureaucratic union model has failed.
Fare strike - San Francisco 2005
Submitted by Steven. on Apr 19 2007 15:38
Pamphlet with first-hand accounts and analysis of the self-organised 2005 fare strike, in PDF and text format.
Fare strike in PDF format (2.14Mb)
Fare strike!
San Francisco 2005
First-Hand Accounts
INTRODUCTION
US: Truck plant strike leaders sacked
Submitted by Steven. on Apr 19 2007 11:41
Two weeks after a wildcat strike against layoffs, eleven Freightliner LLC workers in North Carolina have been fired.
Christopher Kirkpatrick reported in the Charlotte Observer that more than two weeks after an unauthorized strike sputtered, Freightliner LLC workers in Rowan County are set to vote today on a new contract, similar to agreements overwhelmingly approved by the company's Mount Holly and Gastonia workers.
