Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Pro-War Munchkin Mila" went up Monday morning.
Amazon workers had a very big win last week. Shaun Richman (In These Times) explains:
Jeff Bezos has been brought back down to Earth. No boss is invincible. The workers at Staten Island’s JFK8 Amazon fulfillment center proved it by beating the massively rich and powerful corporation 2,654 to 2,131 in a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election on April 1. Meanwhile, a rerun election campaign by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) at Amazon’s Bessemer, Ala. facility remains too close to call when challenged ballots are considered. That the workers in Staten Island organized themselves into an independent Amazon Labor Union (ALU) is profoundly heartening and begs for some introspection from labor leaders and organizing directors. Maybe, just maybe, workers are ready to organize on a massive scale. What are existing unions doing to make the most of the moment?
One of the first lessons from JFK8 is that the workers did a pretty good job of organizing themselves. It was a worker-led movement with a leadership group that sought out the existing workplace leaders (co-workers who are respected, trusted and listened to). They read books, they had worker-to-worker conversations, and they engaged in job actions and demonstrations to cut through some of the fear. They were transparent about their aims, built trust and kept themselves accountable to each other. This is pretty basic stuff, but far too many unions cut corners to get a quick election before the boss can chip away too much support, instead of organizing for a long-haul struggle. We have decades worth of scientific research about effective organizing model tactics, yet too many union organizing directors still justify their campaigns as exceptions to the rules. This goes a long way to explain why the workers in Staten Island and in many other parts of the country have chosen to go it alone.
I’ll be honest. I didn’t think ALU would win their NLRB election. The rigged rules of union certification campaigns, permitting bosses to spend hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of dollars on 24/7 campaigns of psy-ops, lies, threats, targeted harassment and retaliation are too stacked against workers to typically win the high-stakes, winner-take-all elections. This is the main reason why while 68% of the public supports unions, and half of all workers say they would vote for a union tomorrow, private sector union density hovers at around 7%. (I’ve been encouraging Amazon workers who are organizing elsewhere to consider filing for minority union certifications to win themselves a form of meet-and-confer recognition and build from there.)
Partly, what makes boss campaigns successful is that they tap into fear of the unknown, and what comes the day after an NLRB election is a huge unknown for too many workers. Bosses will threaten that everything you like about the job could be bargained away, or that nothing will change unless the union “makes” you go on strike, and that if you go on strike you could lose your job. The fear they’re stoking is not only of their own dictatorial power, but also the fear of losing agency to the authority of a new boss — the “union boss.” The workers at JFK8, all on their own, could turn to each other and state the obvious: “How the hell am I going to make you strike? We can only go on strike if enough of us agree that it’s necessary and its time has come.” Mind you, this is true of any union and any organized workplace, but too many union campaigns don’t address this crucial piece of inoculation by centering the workers’ own agency in such a life-or-death decision. Similarly, too many unions don’t build bargaining and representation decisions into their new organizing campaigns, despite the research that shows that building for the first contract through surveys, meetings and other democratic practices—before the election — is one of the 10 union tactics most correlated with NLRB election wins.
And Sarah Lazare (In These Times) notes:
Amazon workers in Staten Island, N.Y., astonished the world last week when they voted to form the first-ever U.S. union at the e‑commerce behemoth, which is known for ferociously opposing its workers’ efforts to organize. The Amazon Labor Union (ALU), which won the effort at the JFK8 fulfillment center, had been targeted by such anti-union efforts, and its co-founder, Chris Smalls, had been called “not smart or articulate” by Amazon officials. (Smalls co-founded the union after he was fired for organizing for safer conditions during the pandemic.)
And here's Hard Lens Media covering the strike.
This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot" for Monday:
Monday, April 4, 2022. As the political stalemate continues in Iraq, Ayad Allawi is hospitalized, Julian Assange gets another court date and much more.
Over the weekend a video from BREAKTHROUGH NEWS almost made it up at this site. Almost. The host listed a number of ongoing wars in her opening. She did not list Iraq. I believe she even listed the Afghanistan War -- a war that US forces are supposedly out of -- but she didn't list Iraq.
This is the "Iraw dnapshot" and while vatrious people are willng to betray Iraq, I'm not. US troops remain on the ground in Iraq, the war there continues. This woman has a history of getting Iraq wrong. Over and over. And now she can't even list it as an ongoing war?
No, I'll stand with the people of Iraq, thank you.
We are read -- and cited -- in Iraq (including regularly by one Iraqi newspaper). I'm not going to betray those human beings with a video that erases them and treats them as though they are nothing.
As though they dont even matter.
An Iraqi security source announced that an explosion had taken place in the path of a US convoy in Saladin province in northern Iraq.
The convoy was carrying logistics belonging to the US-led international coalition.
But, hey, BREAKTHROUGH NEWS says nothing to see here, right? Over the weekend, WCBS reported:
Staffers at a New Jersey school helped a soldier surprise his mom.
Sgt. Jake Pletsch had been stationed in Iraq since March 2021, but he got home a month earlier than expected.
His sister and staff at George White Middle School in Hillsdale staged a “Lost and Found Day.”
Again, that war continues and the suffering of the Iraqi people contiues. How sad that a supposed independnt outlet wants to render them invisible.
Ayad allawi. Social media has him in the hospital with his condition deteriorating.. Allawi was the man who was supposed to be prime minister in 2010. Iraqis were tired of the divisions and wanted a united front. That's whythey backed the bran new party Iraqiya which had a place for everyone, regardless of sect, regardless of gender, regardless of divisions. It wasn't just lip service. They had Shiites and Sunnis. They had women in important roles. It was a rejection of the fundamentalism that the US had imposed upon them.
And Allawi should be prime minister. But Nouri, the incumbent, would not allow it to happen. Nouri's loss came as a surprise to some. He haede bribed ahead of the election -- heavily bribed. Certainly NPR was susprised since they put Quil Lawrence on air less than 48 hours after voting and Quil declared a big win for Nouri. There was no big win when the votes were counted, not for Nouri.
And he refused to step down. That was something Gen Ray Odierno had warned of -- then the top US commander in Iraq. Then-US Ambassador Chirs Pig-Pen Hill, roused himself from his daily naps long enough to insist that wouldn't happen and, besides, Nouri would win. Chris was wrong on both counts.
Eight months of a political stalemeate followed. Despite the US government originally insisting that the will of the Iraqi people would be followed, the US went back on that. Then-Vice President Joe Biden would oversee The Erbil Agreement, a contract that overturned the vote and gave Nouri a second term.
Joe would insist to Allawi's face that this was good because it guaranteed that Allawi would be over national secuirty (among other things). When the Parliament finally met to name a president and to designate a prime minister, Allawyi's people walked out as Nouri immediately made indications he would not honor the contract.
Barack Obama himself then called Allawi and implored him to get his MPs back into the Parliament, he promised that the contract had the full backing of the US government. It would be enforced.
It wasn't. That was November. By January, Nouri's spokesperson (who would later flee the country when Nouri turned on him) insisted that the contract was illegal (it probably was) and NOuri would not be bound by it.
Nouri would use it to get his second term and then he would discard it.
Iraq could have moved forward on a mission of uniting further and leaving the violent divisions behind.
But Joe and Barack saw to it that didn't happen.
Now, as Iraq is once again in the midst of another political stalemate, an important voice is side-lined and may be about to pass away.
At a time when Iraq really needs him.
Though Iraq held elections October 10th, Iraq still doesn't have a new prime minister -- they don't even have a prime minister-designate. Moqtada al-Sadr wants that person to be his cousin but the cleric and cult leader has failed for months not to form a large enough coalition for a new government. He hasn't even been able to see his nominee for president (actually nominees -- the first was struck down by the Iraqi court) be confirmed -- which is actually the step required before you can even move on to the topic of prime minister.
Last week, Moqtada finally announced he was going to step away for forty days to see if anyone else could form a government. The KDP and the Sunnis supporting Moqtada immediately stated that they would remain firm with Moqtada.
Well . . .
Their leaders said that. The goal now is for opposing groups to try to peel away that support. In the past that hasn't been difficult. Who was it that mastered peeling away support? Getting members to step away from their leaders?
Oh, Nouri.
Nouri al-Maliki, former prime minister and forever thug. Two terms as prime minister -- elected neither time. First time 2006 and he was supported by Bully Boy Bush due to the infamous CIA profile on him which found his motivating force was paranoia which, the CIA believed, could be used to manipulate and control him. In 2010, the voters tried to kick him out of office but the US government wanted him to remain prime minister. So Joe Biden oversaw the negotiations of The Erbil Agreement which tossed aside the votes and gave Nouri a second term. President Barack Obama had put Joe in charge of Iraq and -- like an Academy Award Board Governor -- when a test came up, Joe failed.
The second term led to the rise of ISIS in Iraq.
NRT Tweets:
ALAHAD TV Tweeted:
Baria Alamuddin (ARAB NEWS) offers:
Perhaps the most detested man in Iraq, former Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki, has exploited the deadlock to insist that his faction must be part of any future “consensus” government — even though the leader of the largest faction, Moqtada Al-Sadr, has insisted on Maliki’s exclusion because of the numerous catastrophes he has inflicted upon Iraq at the bidding of Iran and sectarian militants. Sadr told Maliki and Hashd leaders: “I will not reach consensus with you. Consensus means putting an end to the country… What you describe as political deadlock is better than agreeing with you and dividing the cake with you.” Nevertheless, the result is likely to be indefinite deadlock.
Joe Biden has done so much damage to Iraq.
He does a great deal of damage period. He continues to persecute Julian Assange because Julian carried out the 'crime' of journalism. Joe, if you haven't noticed, doesn't care for journalists or journalism ("he's a real son of a bitch," for example). Julian exposed US War Crimes in Iraq and Joe wants to punish him for reporting on that.
The UK’s Westminster Magistrate’s Court has set a hearing for April 20 to authorize the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the United States, where he is accused of espionage and could face up to 175 years in prison. for the publication of classified official documents.
“The Westminster Magistrate’s Court has set the hearing to issue the extradition order for Julian Assange to the United States for Wednesday, April 20,” WikiLeaks itself explained in a message posted on Twitter.
“The order will then go to (British Home Secretary Priti) Patel for approval. Assange’s defense will be able to present allegations to Patel” until May 18, the organization added.
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