Views in brief
Why I'm marching for equality
THE SPEECH given by Cleve Jones and then transcribed and published by SocialistWorker.org was one of the most inspirational talks I've read ("Nothing less than full equality").
As an activist for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights, I understand the difficulties we face as we try to rebuild a movement that demands equality. Here in Vermont, we won gay marriage, and on that special day, it felt great to be on the side of victory.
However, I realize that this is not enough. I want to see my brothers and sisters in Virginia, California and Texas to be able to join me in celebration. The only way to achieve this is to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act and the horrible military policy of don't ask, don't tell.
It's time President Obama joins us on the right side of history, but we know we have to push him in the right direction. So let's draw inspiration from Harvey Milk, Cleve Jones and--as mentioned by Jones himself--the civil rights movement. Gay, straight, Black, white--same struggle, same fight! See you in Washington!
Michelle Risley, fron the Internet
Why a union matters
I CURRENTLY work in Rhode Island for a restoration company. It is a franchise and, needless to say, it does not have any form of a union. In other words, we the workers have no ability to collectively bargain with our employer.
In recent weeks, the owner of this company has begun a campaign to squeeze and exploit his workforce. He first started by forcing an employee to sign a form saying that he was a temporary worker, forfeiting his rights to unemployment and relieving the owner from having to provide any further benefits to him. The employee who was forced to sign has been working with the company for a year at full time, 40-plus hours a week.
Another divisive move by the owner was to embark on a campaign of denying his employees benefits under workers' compensation. An employee recently injured his back severely at work. It requires a surgery and weeks of physical therapy to rehab it. The employee, following protocol, informed the management of the injury, and proceeded to the hospital.
A few days later, he wanted to go to a follow-up appointment and was told that there was an issue with payment. He then returned to work to be told by the owner that his workers' compensation insurance company said they would not cover it. Feeling as though he was wronged, the employee called the insurance company. Mind you, by this point, two weeks had passed, and the surgery had been put off--he was in pain needlessly, day after day.
Well, when he made contact with the insurance company, they informed him that no one had ever even reported the incident. So what the owner had told him was a lie. The owner of the company deliberately attempted to deny this worker health care due to his wanting to keep his insurance costs down.
Another point of anger for our workforce is the lack of Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) adherence. We are mandated by OSHA to receive vaccines that protect against blood-born pathogens and hepatitis A and B. About a third of the workforce does not have the required vaccines. They have requested shots repeatedly, to no avail.
To make matters worse, they are repeatedly subjected to job sites that are infected with sewage leaks and sludge conditions. OSHA regulations require 10 days to pass after the administration of vaccines before work can be performed on any contaminated site. Once again, workers are being denied due to the potential costs to the owner.
The owner refuses to pay overtime to individuals who work on Sundays, despite state law; mandates an on-call system which requires workers to be on 24-hour call without any compensation; and forces workers to work beyond their normal 10-hour workday at any time he desires (i.e., forced overtime).
The bottom line is that we, the workers, are under attack and have no way of defending ourselves. I have tried everything I can think of to address this. I have spoken to the ownership and management about our concerns. I was told "too bad," and "if you don't like it, then leave." They have even threatened that unemployment won't be granted.
I guess our only hope would be unionizing, but current guidelines are impossible to meet within this mega-franchise. We are at the end of our rope and do not know what to do.
Marc, from the Internet
An inglourious review
IN HIS review of Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, Joe Allen presumes we have asked ourselves who the heroes are in this movie ("Inglourious savages"). He's wrong. It's pretty clear to us, Joe. The heroes are the ones killing the Nazis.
The Basterds exist to terrorize and undermine the morale of a genocidal fascist army occupying France. By recounting their exploits as "war crimes," Joe displays shameful moral equivalence. We unapologetically defend the violence committed against fascists in Spain, during the Jewish resistance, and we should celebrate it on screen.
Far from a "bedtime story" reaffirming the U.S. as the "benevolent defender of freedom," Tarantino's film makes a point of setting U.S. racism next to Nazi fascism. In the middle of a drinking game, a Gestapo officer easily confuses the capture of King Kong with the story of American slavery. The King Kong reference, a film notorious for its racial undertones, is Tarantino's challenge to film history to acknowledge itself. Similar to Spike Lee's Miracle at St. Anna, a response to the racism in Clint Eastwood's Flags of our Fathers. Like so much else, this point was lost on Joe.
But what we can't lose sight of is that liberal pacifism is no response to fascist barbarity. "Nazis ain't got no humanity. They're the foot soldiers of a Jew-hatin', mass-murderin' maniac and they need to be dee-stroyed."
Alex Fu and Jeff Guarrera, San Francisco
Obama is anything but socialist
IN RESPONSE to "Hammer and sickle high?": I honestly cried when I read the speech at the end of the article. One can dream, huh?
It really frustrates me how these clowns spread outrageous lies about how "socialist" Obama is when he is anything but.
A socialist leader wouldn't enable corporate greed and irresponsibility. A socialist leader wouldn't deny Americans, no matter how small a minority they represent, basic civil rights. A socialist leader wouldn't compromise with a private-interest lobby (incidentally, known as the Republican Party) that holds peoples' lives in contempt, going so far as to make a mockery of the struggles they do (or soon will) face.
I wish he was as socialist as the right makes him out to be. At least then we would be making progress amid all the self-righteous, ignorant mudslinging.
JF, Chicago
