US Duplicity.

            21st century America and eugenics still alive and well. Any illusion, shred of belief, or fantasy that there is a democracy even breathing slightly, in that land that heralds itself as the defender of world democracy, must surely lie shattered in the swamp of hypocrisy. Watch and rage.

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

Sweatshop Conditions In California.

       Now and again that babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, report on dreadful working conditions in some Eastern sweatshop, but seldom, if ever, on the conditions of those working under similar conditions in the so called Western developed countries. Their finger points east, but we should remember that old movie expression, “Go West young man”. The great food basket of America, California, has some of the worst working condition for agricultural workers any where in the world. An abundance of cheap fruit and veg on the back of appalling conditions suffered by under paid, over worked, abused and harassed workers. Capitalism doesn't recognise east or west, it just sees opportunities to exploit. Profit is king.

This from United Farm Workers: 

 

Should anyone have to go through this?

     The conditions under which many melon pickers in this country work stink. Sometimes literally. Can you help?

Azucena Ordorica has had five years’ experience picking melons in California. Her descriptions of the restrooms near the fields where she has worked are stomach-turning: “The bathrooms were always very dirty,” she says. “When I would open the door, a horrendous smell along with a swarm of flies would come out. The flies were flying and landing all over my body,” she says. “It was horrible.”

    And that’s not the worst of it. According to melon harvester Brenda A. Ruiz, “On occasions bathrooms are not provided.” Brenda also says that “The water that is provided to drink is hot and dirty.” And the bosses find creative ways to take the workers’ meager wages away from them. Brenda reports that she and her co-workers are required to carpool with their supervisors — at a cost of $15 per day!

   Women workers endure special threats and humiliations. Azucena had a particularly traumatic experience with sexual harassment. “On the first day of employment, a supervisor once told me if I had sex with him twice a week, he would make sure I had work for the entire season,” she says. “Since I refused, I was fired.”

People should NOT be subjected to such abuses to support themselves and their families. Cantaloupes and other melon crops bring hundreds of millions of dollars of profit every year to U.S. growers. They can afford to pay their workers better and to ensure that their employees work in safe, sanitary conditions.

     We know it is possible because one exceptional company, Perez Packing Inc. of Firebaugh, California, is working with the UFW to make it happen. We’re currently negotiating with them to give their workers the kind of union contract every farm worker deserves. 

     By sending your contribution today, you’ll allow us to organize at the other melon companies with these horrible abuses. Every donation, regardless of the amount, makes a difference and is greatly appreciated.

https://secure.ufw.org/melons

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Should The Greedy Control Our Food??

    It is obvious that climate change is happening, floods, droughts, extreme storms, along with rising temperatures is no longer a prediction, it is here and now. Of course, as is always the case in this capitalist world, when things go wrong it is always the poor and the low waged that pay the highest price. The adverse conditions are creating havoc with our agriculture, which transfers into higher prices for our food. It is symbolic of the insanity of this greed driven capitalist system, that as food prices are rising across the planet, and people can't afford the food the help to grow, or serve in restaurants, governments across the world are dismantling social services.

     One problem that we don't hear much about is the drought in California. According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, 67% of the state of California is classified as “extreme”, a further 9% is “exceptional”, this means wells running dry, no where for cattle to graze, forcing farmers to sell off their livestock, creating a shortage of dairy produce, glut of meat and then a shortage meat. Some scientists claim that 2013/14 is the driest season for 434 years. California is the top agriculture producer in the U.S. And one of the largest in the world, producing beef, dairy produce, wine, and some of the largest fruit and vegetable crops.

      Why should we worry if California goes dry? Well America is a large, rich and powerful country, when it runs out of food, it starts to suck in more from an already suffering world, creating greater shortages and higher prices. Europe is not exempt from the effects of climate change, scientist state that in southern Europe, from southern France through Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece and to the Balkans, stream and river minimum flow could fall by as much as 40% and in periods of drought that could increase to 80%. This of course would result in food shortages in this area, being exacerbated by the the mighty dollar sucking in food from this and other areas.

      It is also very obvious that if we continue to let “market forces” sort things out, a group of rich people will make a killing from the food crisis, the rich will feed very well indeed, as they usually do, and the poor will go hungry and increase in numbers. Tackling climate change is only one part of the solution, but is to little avail if we don't sort out the system of distribution of the world's food. At the present the food is there to see to our needs, the problem is who owns it, and who decides its distribution method. The “market” is no more than a euphemism for a “bunch of greedy rich bastards”, do we really want them to be in control of OUR survival? 

 

 Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

The Right To A Union.

    An appeal from United Farm Workers for solidarity in a long hard fought campaign.

Workers are this close to a contract at Gerawan. Please help.

This is an urgent message for you because we don’t have much time. Workers at Gerawan Farming, one of the world’s largest fruit growers, are trying to resolve workplace mistreatment issues with a contract to guarantee fair treatment and wages. And the clock is ticking.

      They voted for a union in 1990 and have negotiated with the company without success. Now, thanks to a law that supporters like you helped us pass eleven years ago, the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board has assigned a Mediator to finalize the unresolved issues contained in a contract.

      Workers are close to gaining what they have needed and longed for. They’re asking the ALRB mediator to create a contract that ensures that:

• The company pays workers fairly and counts ALL the hours they work.
• The company provides adequate protection for workers working with TOXIC chemicals.
• The company does not REUSE disposable safety equipment.
• The company STOPS unreasonably pressuring workers.
• The company provides NECESSARY equipment like wheelbarrows for moving fruit.
• The company provides CLEAN bathrooms and GOOD water for drinking.
• The company does not discipline or discharge workers unless there is JUST CAUSE.

       These are just some of the issues workers have raised. You may have seen slick TV ads where Gerawan Farming claims to care about farm workers rights. If so, then why have charges been filed against Gerawan accusing its management of impeding ALRB agents from talking to workers and investigating claims of unlawful actions?

      Maybe it’s because workers don’t feel that their employer is as caring as it tells the public. In fact, Gerawan cares so little about its workers having a contract, that it has filed a lawsuit against the State of California so that that a court can declare that the State Mediation law is unconstitutional, even though a Court of Appeals has already ruled that the law is constitutional. Gerawan has spared no expense, hiring three separate high-priced law firms to represent it in court.

       That’s why we must stand with the workers of Gerawan to help them so Gerawan will implement and respect the contract the State Mediator decides.

     We need your help. Time is very short. Under the State Mediation process, the Mediator could issue his decision by about mid-September. Without your support, Gerawan workers will face the high-priced legal teams of giant agricultural companies alone. Thank you.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Prisons Are Big Business.

      It is a cruel and strange world where large corporations make money from locking people up in cages.The prison "service" is big business especially in the US, where large corporations invest billions on building and running prisons. Like all large corporations, the have to keep cutting costs and increasing profits to keep their greedy shareholders happy. This can only mean deteriorating conditions for those unfortunate to get caught up in the web of greed. What sort of conditions would make 30,000 prisoners go on hunger strike, it is difficult to imagine those sort of conditions, and what is more distressing is that they are administered by ordinary people doing the dirty work for the corporations.

30,000 prisoners start hunger strike in California

     Around 30,000 prisoners in California have begun an indefinite hunger strike and work stoppage. They say:

     “We are grateful for your support of our peaceful protest against the state-sanctioned torture that happens not only here at Pelican Bay but in prisons everywhere. We have taken up this hunger strike and work stoppage, which has included 30,000 prisoners in California so far, not only to improve our own conditions but also an act of solidarity with all prisoners and oppressed people around the world.” 

 

       Nearly 12,000 prisoners in California are being held in extreme isolation, in cells with no windows, and no access to fresh air or sunlight. In 2011 Juan Méndez, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, recommended a ban on subjecting prisoners to solitary confinement for more than 15 days. But people in state prisons in California have been held in solitary confinement for 10-40 years.

 

More information and action you can take to support the hunger-strikers:
http://www.stopisolation.org/blog/prisoners-hunger-strike-california/

WORLD WIDE EPIDEMIC.

          It just goes on and on like a world wide epidemic, across the world we get the picture that the police can kill with impunity, a government issued gun kills and it is law and order, protest the killing and it is violence to be crushed. This from Democracy Now:

            Police in the California city of Anaheim are facing allegations of murder and brutality after fatally shooting two Latino men over the weekend and firing rubber bullets at crowds of protesters. On Saturday, Anaheim police shot and killed 24-year-old Manuel Diaz after he reportedly ran away from a group of officers who confronted him in the street. Diaz was unarmed. Hours after his death, a chaotic scene broke out when police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at a crowd of local residents protesting the shooting. Another Latino resident, Joel Acevedo, was shot dead by police the following day. Police say Acevedo was suspected in a car robbery, but the circumstances around his death remain unconfirmed. From Theresa Smith, who has worked with families to call for police accountability in Anaheim since 2009, when officers shot and killed her son, Cesar Cruz, a 35-year-old father of five. "Given the fact that this is the eighth officer-involved shooting within one year in the city of Anaheim ... the community is going to be very upset," Arellano says. "There’s a lot of angry residents, and rightfully so."

ann arky's home.

OAKLAND PORT CLOSURE.

        
              The latest from Oakland California, from that great paper, The Commune. The question is where next, what next? A group, large or other wise, camped in the centre of the city is not going to bring dramatic change to the system, it can be tolerated in the hope that it will fade and die away. It has to grow, it has to find new strategies, to gather more support and move to a wider range of protests. Occupation and organising strikes is a road that has to be considered, but more co-operation and communication between local community groups and the various occupation movements across the world, working in federation with each other, learning from each other and organising co-ordinated enlarged protests in solidarity with each other.

The occupy movement closes US's 5th. busiest port at Oakland.

“… they fear this logical next step from the movement more than anything else. They fear it because they know how much appeal it will have. All across the US thousands upon thousands of commercial and residential spaces sit empty while more and more people are forced to sleep in the streets, or driven deep into poverty while trying to pay their rent despite unemployment or poverty wages… [The police] say: you can stay in your rat-infested park. You can camp out here as long as we [sic] want. But the moment that you threaten property rights, we will come at you with everything we have.”
READ the full article.

ann arky's home.