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Peter waterman's Blog – May 2012 Archive (26)
Canadian Unions to Open up to Retired and Unemployed? (via Sid Shniad, Canada)
Top Canadian unions may open membership to everyone
May 24, 2012 – 11:53 PM ET | Last Updated: May 25, 2012 12:12 AM ET…
Added by peter waterman on May 25, 2012 at 18:22 — No Comments
First(?) International Mineworkers Meeting, Chile, August 2012 (WFTU Bulletin, Athens, Greece)
Peter sez:
Although I have above suggested some scepticism about whether this is, in fact, the first-ever such meeting (mineworker internationals must go back to the 19th century), it will be interesting to see what kind of appeal this meeting, promoted by the Communist WFTU, will have. I await with interest the promised charter. And I would love to see an independent report of the event itself. Anyone have an idea about how we could get such a report?
Now read…
ContinueAdded by peter waterman on May 25, 2012 at 11:09 — No Comments
New Book: 'Building from the Local for Global Justice' (PM Press, USA)
 View Larger Image |
Organize!: Building from the Local for Global Justice
SKU: 9781604864335
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Added by peter waterman on May 24, 2012 at 18:11 — No Comments
DA-Cosatu Conflict in South Africa (Steven Friedman, Pambazuka, South Africa)
The DA/Cosatu fracas: Appreciating the moral high ground
Steven Friedman
2012-05-24, Issue 586
http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/82413…
Added by peter waterman on May 24, 2012 at 18:06 — No Comments
Democratic Alliance-Cosatu Conflict in South Africa (Leonard Gentle, ILRIG, Cape Town)
Peter sez:
For those unfamiliar with the troubles confronting the Cosatu - and even for those minimally informed, such as me - it might be best to read the last few paragraphs. These draw attention to the real issue behind what the failure of Cosatu to organise the unemployed and informalised. It is this, that underlies what Gentle considers to be a clash of hidden agendas.
Now read on...
The Youth Wage…
Added by peter waterman on May 24, 2012 at 11:22 — No Comments
Review of 'Civil Wars in the US Labour Movements' (Peter Brogan, Canadian Dimension)
Added by peter waterman on May 24, 2012 at 10:54 — No Comments
Dutch Union BDS Activists Propose National Conference
Peter sez:
Evidence that the trade union campaign in favour of BDS - i.e. in support of the workers and people of Palestine, the Arab minority in Israel, and the anti-militarist, anti-racist, anti-occupation activists in Israel is provided in the Google translation below.
For your information, the ABVA-KABO is the major union of public sector workers in the Netherlands, a country that historically, for decades after World War 2, was pro-Israel and the unions of which were/are…
ContinueAdded by peter waterman on May 23, 2012 at 17:14 — No Comments
Another Israel is Possible! (Michel Warschawski, (Transform Europe, May 2011)
“The People Demand Social Justice!” - A Huge Social Protest in Israel
Less than a year ago, the whole Arab Region, from Tunisia in the West to Yemen in the South East, was the arena of a gigantic and extraordinary popular uprising for freedom and democracy. The decades-old dictatorships of Hosni Mubarak and Zine el Abidine…
ContinueAdded by peter waterman on May 23, 2012 at 16:49 — No Comments
International Union of Foodworkers Welcomes Israel's Histadrut (Eric Lee, TULIP)
Peter sez:
I am presuming this piece is by Eric since it is his subject and style. It is unsigned, presumably to conceal the extent to which this is an organ not of a campaign or movement but of Eric himself.
[Correction: I read, copied and pasted this item from the front page of the site. Eric has pointed out that on the 'articles' page, his signature does appear. My unconditional apologies for this unintentional error. If Eric prefers I remove the above paragraph, I…
ContinueAdded by peter waterman on May 23, 2012 at 15:00 — No Comments
Union Campaigns for a Tobin Tax in the USA (Real News Network, USA)
Bio
Robert Pollin is Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. He is the founding codirector of the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI). His research centers on macroeconomics, conditions for low-wage workers in the US and globally, the analysis of financial markets, and…
Added by peter waterman on May 20, 2012 at 15:59 — No Comments
Christophe Aguiton and Nicolas Haeringer: Occupy and the Left (Transnational Institute, Amsterdam)
Added by peter waterman on May 16, 2012 at 21:11 — No Comments
New book: Back to the Future? The ILO's 1944 Declaration as a Source of Inspiration?
NEW TITLE:
THE SPIRIT OF PHILADELPHIA: SOCIAL JUSTICE VS. THE TOTAL MARKET
By ALAIN SUPIOT
Published: 7th June 2012
------------------------------
--
EVENT:
Alain Supiot will be speaking at the LSE on Thursday 17th
May on his new book, hosted by THE BRITISH JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL
RELATIONS.
Thursday 17th May, 5pm
Connaught Building, room CON.1.04, LSE
Connaught House, Houghton Street
London WC2A…
Added by peter waterman on May 16, 2012 at 15:07 — No Comments
Launch of Cosatu Conference on International Policy (Debate List, South Africa)
Peter sez:
This is a rapid response and may be qualified later.
Cosatu may be the only national union centre to hold such regular conference on international policy. This could itself be positive if other inter/national unions or labour movements were to respond. Further, I note that in all its practical policies and strategies, Cosatu seems to endorse the Global Neo-Keynesian economic policies of the Eurocentred ITUC and the…
ContinueAdded by peter waterman on May 16, 2012 at 14:30 — No Comments
Attac Attacks Neo-Liberal Crisis Politics
Peter sez:
Once again, a non-union network makes a more-profound analysis and proposes more-radical action than the unions. Will the ITUC, ETUC and all the other national TUCs respond?
Now read on...
Stop the Neoliberal Crisis Politics –
Dispossess the Beneficiaries!
Attac Germany and Attac Europe Network
We are experiencing the deepest crisis of capitalism since the great depression of the 1930s – and the European governments…
ContinueAdded by peter waterman on May 15, 2012 at 7:54 — No Comments
UK Union Officials Ban Israeli Expert? (Eric Lee, Tulip, UK)
Peter sez:
What is significant about this piece is the caption to the photo, in which Eric Lee (who increasingly is the only voice on this Zionist Labour site), suggests that being an Israeli is an ethnicity rather than a nationality (what I would call a state-defined nationality). For example, I have Jewish ethnicity, but I am not an Israeli national. On the other hand, there are Christians, Muslims and possibly other Arabs who are Israeli nationals without, evidently, being…
ContinueAdded by peter waterman on May 14, 2012 at 17:08 — No Comments
The Future of M15 (Esther Vivas, Spain, via The Bullet, Canada)
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The B u l l e t | |
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| Socialist Project •… | |||
Added by peter waterman on May 14, 2012 at 10:48 — No Comments
Vijay Prashad: A New Director General for the ILO (The Hindu, India)
Peter sez:
Rarely do the doings of the International Labour Organisation reach the newspapers anywhere (except, possibly, in Geneva). So this Op-Ed is welcome, especially for its critical notes. I cannot, however, share the author's (cautious) enthusiasm for Kwame Jomo Sundaram, despite his bearing the names of two historical leaders of African nationalist movements, Kwame Nkrumah and Jomo Kenyata. And K.S. Jomo's militant thirdworldism.
After all the…
Added by peter waterman on May 11, 2012 at 17:48 — No Comments
Privatización de la Cooperación (Critique of Corporate Social Responsibility) (Decio Machado, Revista Cooperamos)
Privatización de la Cooperación: RSC, Realidades Sin Coherencia
Added by peter waterman on May 9, 2012 at 17:11 — No Comments
Networks or Parties? (Dave Stockton, Workers' Power, UK)
Peter sez:
Haven't really read this one, but my eye was caught by the notion that 'union bureaucrats' were part-controllers of the WSF. This is nonsense, since the only union consistently present in the WSF's International Council was the Brazilian CUT, whereas representatives of the South African Cosatu, Italian CGIL, South Korean KCTU, had only a marginal or occasional presence.
OK. I nonetheless thought it could be thrown into the ongoing debate, discussion or dialogue…
ContinueAdded by peter waterman on May 8, 2012 at 7:36 — No Comments
New Site: Union Solidarity International (c/o Walton Pantland, UK/South Africa)
Added by peter waterman on May 7, 2012 at 7:30 — No Comments
Latest Blog Posts
- * Networking for the Emancipation of Labour Seminar (Orsan Senalp, Transform! Europe)
- * More Light on the ICATU (recently endorsed as representative by the WFTU)...
- WFTU-ICATU Close Cooperation (WFTU May 17 2013)
- * A Russian Union Website (which you can click for Google Translation into English...etc...?)
- Russia: New University Teachers' Union Seeks Solidarity
- London Conference, 'Making the World Working Class', November, 2013
- * Updates on Marikana, S.Africa, include Sakhele Buhlungu, academic labour specialist
Most Popular Blog Posts
- Occupy Poster for General Strike, NYC, May 1, 2012
- Cosatu Challenged to to Quit Capitalist ITUC and Join Revolutionary WFTU
- Marikana, South Africa: A Downward Spiral into Assasinations?
- Climate Change Conference (COP18, 2012) in Korea Divides NGOs (and Unions?)
- Textile Strike and Deaths in Bangladesh (Received From Jeff Ballinger)
- Peter Waterman CV, 2003-10
- * South Africa: Cosatu at the Crossroads (Dirk Hartford, Amandla, via Debate List)
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