"I Heard You Paint Houses": Frank "The Irishman" Sheeran & Closing the Case on Jimmy Hoffa by Charles Brandt (Steerforth Press 2004)

"I spent the war as a rifleman in Europe in the Thunderbird Division—the 45th Infantry Division. They say the average number of days of actual combat for a veteran is around eighty. By the time the war was over the Army told me I had 411 combat days, which entitled me to $20 extra pay a month. I was one of the lucky ones. The real heroes, some of them with only one combat day, are still over there. As big a target as I was and as many fire fights as I was in, I never got hit by a German bullet or shrapnel. I said a lot of foxhole prayers, especially pinned down in a dugout in Anzio. And whatever anybody wants to say about my childhood, one thing my childhood did teach me was how to take care of myself, how to survive.”

Tom Mann by Joseph White (Manchester University Press 1991)

" . . . Perhaps the first thing to be noted is its resemblance to a main theme in Paul Lafargue's unjustifiably neglected pamphlet 'The Right to Be Lazy', which was written at about the same time. (Lafargue was, among other things, Karl Marx's son-in-law. There is also something to be said for the contention that he knew only too well whereof he wrote.) If anything, 'What is Ca' canny?' is far blunter than anything Lafargue wrote in 'The Right to Be Lazy', which is in the main a discussion of popular culture and the need for more leisure time. Secondly, whether or not Mann knew anything of Lafargue's literary efforts (and there is no evidence that he did), was he perhaps 'theorising' his own lessons and experiences of 1890, when, as we have seen, the dockers of London indeed engaged in a fair amount of 'ca' canny' of their own? I think it is quite plausible. Finally, one can ask whether the leaflet prefigured syndicalism and was possibly influenced by anarchist thought? Again, there is a strong case to be made that it was. The syndicalists, particularly the IWW, indeed advocated 'ca' canny'. In Dynamite, Louis Adamic tells the story of the construction labourers in Bedford, Indiana, who in 1908 took their shovels round to the machine shop to have them shortened. 'Short pay, short shovel', they said.

Free Mansour Osanloo - Action Day 6 March 2008

No doubt you've seen the story elsewhere via various blogs but, as a reminder, today is an international day of action by the trade union movement in support of raising awareness of the plight of Mansour Osanloo, a trade unionist imprisoned by the Iranian authorities because of his trade union activities.

Cut and pasted below is the press release that was issued by the International Transport Workers' Federation in support of the day of action, and further information about the campaign is available at Labour Start and International Transport Workers' Federation website.

World support for Osanloo release

5 March 2008

"Hundreds of thousands of people will take to the streets in over 41 countries tomorrow (6 March) to demand the release of imprisoned Iranian trade unionist Mansour Onsanloo.

Supporters will protest at Iranian Embassies and Consulates; lobby diplomats and governments; leaflet, demonstrate and rally. The mass of protests worldwide are all in support of Mansour Osanloo, 48, the elected leader of the Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company, a trade union founded three years ago. Even though the organisation is free, democratic and legal it has been violently attacked by Iranian security forces. As a result of his work Osanloo has been beaten, arrested and had his tongue sliced as a warning against speaking out. He is now being held in Evin Prison in Tehran, where he is in danger of losing his sight in one eye due to a previous beating.

David Cockroft, General Secretary of global union the ITF (International Transport Workers’ Federation), which has spearheaded the fight for Osanloo, added: “Today workers across the world stand alongside their Iranian counterparts, whose request is a reasonable one – the basic right to belong to a union. The Iranian government’s brutal attempts to stifle that call are just making it heard more loudly and more widely.”

He continued: “For three years we and our colleagues in the trade union movement have fought to defend Mansour and his colleagues from the vicious and sustained attacks that have culminated with his imprisonment on trumped up charges of endangering national security. Today’s worldwide action day allows us to shout out that enough is enough, and it is time to set this innocent man free.”

The ITF and ITUC (International Trade Union Confederation) are committed to securing the release of Mansour Osanloo, who has been declared a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International, which is supporting the campaign. See www.freeosanloo.org for further information about Osanloo and his union’s struggle. A short film about him can be seen at www.itfglobal.org/campaigns/osanloo-film.cfm The following actions will be taking place on 6 March 2008 as part of the campaign to free him, with more being confirmed all the time. Updates on these can be seen at www.freeosanloo.org."

What Have The Unions Ever Done For Us?

Wait up. As I'm a supposed armchair ultra-leftist, I should be denouncing this as yellow propaganda, put out by the union bureaucracy to derail the spontaneity and revolutionary potential of the rank and file.

As the title of the book goes: From the people who brought you the weekend:

Hat tip 'Urbanblues' over at Urban 75.

An Injury To One Is An Injury To All (II)

From Daniel Gross of the Starbucks Union Campaign:

Please forward widely and immediately:

Dear Sisters and Brothers,

Christina Rosevear, a Starbucks Barista and IWW member is in extreme distress and needs your help. Although she is over 8 months pregnant, Christina is being forced back to work on Monday, September 3rd. If she does not return, she will lose her job and her health benefits. Starbucks will not extend Christina's pregnancy leave and she is due in just weeks.

For the sake of Christina and her family please do two things:

1) Participate in the e-mail action to Starbucks at http://www.starbucksunion.org/node/1866

2) Call "Partner" Resources Manager Jenelyn Marinas at 415-241-0256 x 2228 and demand Christina not be fired

Thank you in advance for your immediate solidarity in this matter. Please also consider making a donation to the campaign so we can continue to have a voice for Christina and others like her. Contribute online now at: http://starbucksunion.org/contribute

Again, please sign the petition, repost and/or forward on.

An Injury To One Is An Injury To All (I)

From Eric Lee at LabourStart:

This week's message is going to be very brief and to the point.

Workers employed in care homes in north London (UK) have been told by their employer -- a private company called Fremantle -- that their wages are being cut by 30%, their hours are being increased, their sick pay will be a thing of the past, and their pensions are being reduced.

Their union, Unison, is calling for an international campaign of support for those workers.

I actually live in north London, so this campaign is taking place in my own neighborhood.

If you live in the UK, you should be concerned that privatized care homes are treating their workers this way. If you live anywhere in the world and work in the public sector, you should be concerned because this could happen to you next.

It will take you only a few seconds to fill in your name and email address and to send a strong message to the chief executive of Fremantle. If we all take the time to do this, we can flood her inbox today with thousands of messages from all over the world -- and we can turn this around.

I know that I can count on you.

Please visit our campaign page now. And please do pass this message on. Thanks.

Eric Lee

Please sign the petition, repost and/or forward on.

RUSSIAN DOCKERS' LEADER BEATEN AND STABBED - AN URGENT APPEAL FOR HELP

From the NYC Wobs discussion list:

. . . . on 7 June, Mikhail Chesalin, the chairman of the local Dockers Union in Kaliningrad, Russia, was savagely stabbed and beaten outside the union office. An unknown number of assailants attacked Chesalin when he got out of his car, stabbing him numerous times in the spine, and beating him severely about the head. He was left lying face-down, unconscious, in a pool of blood. Chesalin's colleagues believe that the attack was orchestrated by Vladimir Kalinichenko, the General Director of the Sea Commercial Port where the dockworkers' union is currently running an organizing campaign.

When we talk about "urgent action appeals" this is exactly the sort of thing that we mean. It is our responsibility as trade unionists to rally to the support of our brothers and sisters in Kaliningrad and to demand that attacks on trade unionists cease and workers' rights be respected. Please send your message of protest today:

Labor Start Solidarity Campaign

And most important -- pass this message on, mobilize members of your unions, let's send thousands of messages to Russia today.

With These Hands I Demand the Future

Simple, but brilliantly effective.

From the Coalition of Immokalee Workers website.

A day late, a hundred years on

One of the most interesting bloggers on the block, Charlie Pottins, has a post marking the hundredth anniversary of the Belfast 1907 strike led by Jim Larkin.

International Workers' Memorial Day

As today is International Workers' Memorial Day, I thought I'd post the following article from the forthcoming May 2007 Socialist Standard:

Underlying Cause

It's just one example of many where the pursuit of profits take primacy over the lives of working people.

What's International Workers' Memorial Day?

"The purpose behind Workers' Memorial Day has always been to "remember the dead: fight for the living" . Two million people are killed at work around the world every year according to the International Labour Organisation. This is greater than the numbers killed in wars, by AIDS or by alcohol and drugs."

Hope people find it of interest.