so, seems like the transit strike is gonna happen.

24

  Comments


  • BamboucheBambouche 1,484 Posts
    THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS






    It was early springtime when the strike was on,
    They drove us miners out of doors,
    Out from the houses that the Company owned,
    We moved into tents up at old Ludlow.

    I was worried bad about my children,
    Soldiers guarding the railroad bridge,
    Every once in a while a bullet would fly,
    Kick up gravel under my feet.

    We were so afraid you would kill our children,
    We dug us a cave that was seven foot deep,
    Carried our young ones and pregnant women
    Down inside the cave to sleep.

    That very night your soldiers waited,
    Until all us miners were asleep,
    You snuck around our little tent town,
    Soaked our tents with your kerosene.

    You struck a match and in the blaze that started,
    You pulled the triggers of your gatling guns,
    I made a run for the children but the fire wall stopped me.
    Thirteen children died from your guns.

    I carried my blanket to a wire fence corner,
    Watched the fire till the blaze died down,
    I helped some people drag their belongings,
    While your bullets killed us all around.

    I never will forget the look on the faces
    Of the men and women that awful day,
    When we stood around to preach their funerals,
    And lay the corpses of the dead away.

    We told the Colorado Governor to call the President,
    Tell him to call off his National Guard,
    But the National Guard belonged to the Governor,
    So he didn't try so very hard.

    Our women from Trinidad they hauled some potatoes,
    Up to Walsenburg in a little cart,
    They sold their potatoes and brought some guns back,
    And they put a gun in every hand.

    The state soldiers jumped us in a wire fence corners,
    They did not know we had these guns,
    And the Red-neck Miners mowed down these troopers,
    You should have seen those poor boys run.

    We took some cement and walled that cave up,
    Where you killed these thirteen children inside,
    I said, "God bless the Mine Workers' Union,"
    And then I hung my head and cried.



    THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS

  • First off, Larry you need to see yourself out of this discussion because you neither work nor live in New York. It's hella easy to sidebust your little bullshit from the sideline of New Jersey where you are not affected by this at all.

    Second off, the UNION made this strike happen, every WORKER that I've seen interviewed doesn't even know what they're striking for. I've heard "my pension. I want a better pension". When asked how it could be better, the guy blanks and just says, "better." Another handful of guys say, "the MTA had a surplus and waved it in our faces. We want some of that surplus." Motherfuckers turned down a 10.5% pay raise. I've never heard of such a high increase except on executive levels of big corporations.

    Can I remind everyone here that the issue is not of benefits versus no benefits, it's about the TWU keeping benefits that are not given to ANYONE else, public or private. Does everyone on here have health insurance? Hope so. If you do, chances are you have a copay or deductible. Currently, transit workers have NEITHER. They have 100% 1st dollar insurance, no copay, no deductible. They are fighting to retire after 25 years of work. Most PRIVATE companies do not give this benefit. My father, who has been a teacher all his life, will not be able to retire until 65 if not 70. Yet someone who drives trains (or worse yet, sits in a token booth and gives directions to tourists) wants to be able to push off at 57 with a pension.

    Fuck these motherfuckers. If you are in my shoes right now, you just spent the morning wading through traffic to buy christmas presents in brooklyn because you couldn't get into manhattan, you are losing money because you can't open your business, and you are looking at a loss in the biggest shopping week of the year because NOBODY is going to be walking around and stopping by when they can't even figure out how they'll get home at night.

    Fuck these motherfuckers. Throw Toussaint in jail, fine or fire motherfuckers. You know who this hurts? Business owners, two-fare commuters, wage laborers, the old and the handicapped. I'm real glad a bunch of schmucks get to walk around in circles for an extra 10G while every single person I see or talk to on the street can't get their business, their family, or their shopping taken care of.

    Fuck 'em. Fuck yall too. I'm fucking pissed.

    Sorry Jonny but I'm not gonna do it. The union struggle is a national/worldwide issue. I can sympathize with the difficulty getting to work, but maybe you can reason with your boss?

    I also can't believe the reasoning that seems to say that the TWU has things other workers don't, so they should lose them? How's that again?

  • This isn't philosophy. This is real fucking shit. People man, people. Dudes all sit around circle jerking with their records and books and knowledge and ideas about society. Go out on the fucking street, talk to people, see what people are reduced to here.

    Fucking bullshit man. Sounds like a coffee shop. Here's some fucking Erikah Badu and Khalil Gibran and beat poetry and SOul On Ice. I'm fucking sick.

    People.

    People.

    Real fucking people man. Learn this shit. It's not cut and dried. It's not "labor versus fat cats". It's people. Greed. Poverty. Selfishness. Talking versus helping. Bullshit.

    BULLSHIT.


  • BigSpliffBigSpliff 3,266 Posts
    This isn't philosophy. This is real fucking shit. People man, people. Dudes all sit around circle jerking with their records and books and knowledge and ideas about society. Go out on the fucking street, talk to people, see what people are reduced to here.

    Fucking bullshit man. Sounds like a coffee shop. Here's some fucking Erikah Badu and Khalil Gibran and beat poetry and SOul On Ice. I'm fucking sick.

    People.

    People.

    Real fucking people man. Learn this shit. It's not cut and dried. It's not "labor versus fat cats". It's people. Greed. Poverty. Selfishness. Talking versus helping. Bullshit.

    BULLSHIT.



    Be strong comrade. Divide and conquer is their M.O.

    BTW, lord help NYC if the Blitz had happened here. What a bunch of susans.

  • This isn't philosophy. This is real fucking shit. People man, people. Dudes all sit around circle jerking with their records and books and knowledge and ideas about society. Go out on the fucking street, talk to people, see what people are reduced to here.

    Fucking bullshit man. Sounds like a coffee shop. Here's some fucking Erikah Badu and Khalil Gibran and beat poetry and SOul On Ice. I'm fucking sick.

    People.

    People.

    Real fucking people man. Learn this shit. It's not cut and dried. It's not "labor versus fat cats". It's people. Greed. Poverty. Selfishness. Talking versus helping. Bullshit.

    BULLSHIT.


    The real shit? I hear a lot of people bitching about being inconvenienced. I've worked for a company for 20 years that went from passively non-union to aggressively anti-union when we were purchased by a Fortune 500 behemoth. We lose benefits every fucking year and are constantly reminded that we ought to be happy to have a job. If someone else is struggling to keep what they have, I'm behind them.

  • BamboucheBambouche 1,484 Posts
    Second off, the UNION made this strike happen, every WORKER that I've seen interviewed doesn't even know what they're striking for.

    You must have have seen much. I've heard many eloquent transit workers discussing what their doing and why they're doing it.


    My father, who has been a teacher all his life, will not be able to retire until 65 if not 70. Yet someone who drives trains (or worse yet, sits in a token booth and gives directions to tourists) wants to be able to push off at 57 with a pension.

    My mother worked in a semiconductor factory for slightly above minimum wage 19 years. An Indian gentleman bought the company, tested my mom on a machine she hadn't worked on in 5 years (from another department) and fired her "for not working fast enough." Two years later the factory was closed, and the entire semiconductor industry was outsourced to India.

    I've been paying my mother's rent for 2 year. She's two years from retirement, but she had to cash her 401k for food.



    Fuck these motherfuckers. If you are in my shoes right now, you just spent the morning wading through traffic to buy christmas presents in brooklyn because you couldn't get into manhattan, you are losing money because you can't open your business, and you are looking at a loss in the biggest shopping week of the year because NOBODY is going to be walking around and stopping by when they can't even figure out how they'll get home at night.

    Fuck 'em. Fuck yall too. I'm fucking pissed.


    "This is not about me. This is about, all of us."


    You're "fucking pissed"? Wading through traffic is the least I can do in solidarity.

    Bloomberg is still rich. Rocafella-Wear like nobody's business.


    Give me a bayonet!

  • This isn't philosophy. This is real fucking shit. People man, people. Dudes all sit around circle jerking with their records and books and knowledge and ideas about society. Go out on the fucking street, talk to people, see what people are reduced to here.

    Fucking bullshit man. Sounds like a coffee shop. Here's some fucking Erikah Badu and Khalil Gibran and beat poetry and SOul On Ice. I'm fucking sick.

    People.

    People.

    Real fucking people man. Learn this shit. It's not cut and dried. It's not "labor versus fat cats". It's people. Greed. Poverty. Selfishness. Talking versus helping. Bullshit.

    BULLSHIT.


    The real shit? I hear a lot of people bitching about being inconvenienced. I've worked for a company for 20 years that went from passively non-union to aggressively anti-union when we were purchased by a Fortune 500 behemoth. We lose benefits every fucking year and are constantly reminded that we ought to be happy to have a job. If someone else is struggling to keep what they have, I'm behind them.

    Inconvenienced? People are losing their jobs. Does your world extend outside of soulstrut?

    I hear a lot of people who can't see their families on Christmas if this continues. I hear a lot of people who make 1/2 of your average transit worker, who work with NO pension and NO insurance, who now are losing MONEY because they can't get to work.

    I don't know about your situation and I certainly hope you continue to get paid well to sit on your ass and post on soulstrut.

    But there are A LOT of people who are ass out in this situation. TWU & MTA = two catty bitches arguing over who's gonna get to wear the cute outfit they both own.

  • p_gunnp_gunn 2,284 Posts
    Class is still based on:

    earned income (over a lifetime, not your post college find my way years)

    access to healthcare and social services

    access to financial services

    life expectancy



    No matter how poor you are now, moms can always do your laundry and eventually you will all sell out and get the salary job. If you don't sell out, you will become a bitter armchair socialist like me. I'll take bets on that.



    A friend of mine used to think he was working class because he had a job (this was UK in the early 90s)



    You made some valid points about dead end office jobs, but this is because our generation is the first downwardly mobile generation since the 20s. Don't blame people who wear uniforms and work in tunnels for that. Blame yourself, blame your parents' generation. Blame it on the amount of cheap imported crap that surrounds you.



    Most of what I'm reading is some sort of intuition based on indivual experiences dealing with the world after graduation. This is fine, but is not necessarily connected to reality.






















    both are parents are 55 or over and both still work full time.



    neither one of them can really afford to do much for me. if both my parents worked for the MTA, they would be making more money than they do now. could they do my laundery then?



    again, i think your class delinations are incorrect. tell me some secretary who depends on the train to get her ass into midtown from jamaica, queens is LESS working class than a MTA worker making twice as much money as her.



    in terms of: "Most of what I'm reading is some sort of intuition based on indivual experiences dealing with the world after graduation. This is fine, but is not necessarily connected to reality."



    most of people i'm think of are at least 30, some are almost 40. when does one become an earning adult reaping these white collar benefits, 50? 60?



    and don't give me the "you can't interpret your personal experieces as truly representative of the broad spectrum of humanity" argument. i invented that!



    i'm not blaming the people who live in tunnels for our "downwardly mobile generation", don't be asinine, i'm saying it's hard for the average person to have sympathy for them.

  • BamboucheBambouche 1,484 Posts
    I hear a lot of people who can't see their families on Christmas if this continues. I hear a lot of people who make 1/2 of your average transit worker, who work with NO pension and NO insurance, who now are losing MONEY because they can't get to work.


    You should organize a Heatrock-like campaign to help unionize those people. Give voice to their struggle.

    We should post less and do more.

  • Sorry man, I have 0 sympathy for these motherfuckers. Hate it if you want. Fuck them.

    Again, I hope your company continues to pay you well to post on soulstrut. I hope everyone continues to get paid well to do what they do and post on soulstrut.

    If this is truly about all of us, then I can not see any rationale for shutting the entire city down over some piddly bullshit like a 2% copay or reduction of pension on new hires or an extravagant raise (by any standard).

    We'll just have to agree to disagree on that shit right there.

  • This isn't philosophy. This is real fucking shit. People man, people. Dudes all sit around circle jerking with their records and books and knowledge and ideas about society. Go out on the fucking street, talk to people, see what people are reduced to here.

    Fucking bullshit man. Sounds like a coffee shop. Here's some fucking Erikah Badu and Khalil Gibran and beat poetry and SOul On Ice. I'm fucking sick.

    People.

    People.

    Real fucking people man. Learn this shit. It's not cut and dried. It's not "labor versus fat cats". It's people. Greed. Poverty. Selfishness. Talking versus helping. Bullshit.

    BULLSHIT.


    The real shit? I hear a lot of people bitching about being inconvenienced. I've worked for a company for 20 years that went from passively non-union to aggressively anti-union when we were purchased by a Fortune 500 behemoth. We lose benefits every fucking year and are constantly reminded that we ought to be happy to have a job. If someone else is struggling to keep what they have, I'm behind them.

    Inconvenienced? People are losing their jobs. Does your world extend outside of soulstrut?

    I hear a lot of people who can't see their families on Christmas if this continues. I hear a lot of people who make 1/2 of your average transit worker, who work with NO pension and NO insurance, who now are losing MONEY because they can't get to work.

    I don't know about your situation and I certainly hope you continue to get paid well to sit on your ass and post on soulstrut.

    But there are A LOT of people who are ass out in this situation. TWU & MTA = two catty bitches arguing over who's gonna get to wear the cute outfit they both own.

    OK Jonny...who's lost their job after a 12 hour old strike? As far as people posting while at work, you're describing about 90% of the people here.

  • BamboucheBambouche 1,484 Posts
    We'll just have to agree to disagree on that shit right there.


    I gotta go. I'm meeting my posse at the local coffee shop (Starbucks) and we're gonna drop some freestyles. Here's what I'm workin' on:

    Well, if I can get the fat to hatin' the lean
    That'd tickle me more than anything I've seen,
    Then get the colors to fightin' one another,
    And friend against friend, and brother... and sister against brother,
    That'll be just it.
    Everybody's brains a-boilin' in turpentine,
    And their teeth fallin' out all up and down the streets,
    That'll just suit me fine.
    'Cause I hate ever'thing that's union,
    And I hate ever'thing that's organized,
    And I hate ever'thing that's planned,
    And I love to hate and I hate to love!
    I'm mean, I'm just mean...





    Perhaps the best part of this strike is the publicity. Someone who works in a kitchen in a private business sees that he makea half of what a train conductor makes and has no benefits. (This is the guy I buy my lunch from).



    Perhaps this will be my verse:

    There's a better world a-coming
    Don't you see see see
    Better world that's coming don't you see
    When we'll all be union and we'll all be free
    There's a better world that's a-coming
    Don't you see






    I'm gonna talk to the Service Employees International (SEIU) today. Should I give them your number, saying you're outraged fucking pissed, and want to do something to make change?


  • This isn't philosophy. This is real fucking shit. People man, people. Dudes all sit around circle jerking with their records and books and knowledge and ideas about society. Go out on the fucking street, talk to people, see what people are reduced to here.

    Fucking bullshit man. Sounds like a coffee shop. Here's some fucking Erikah Badu and Khalil Gibran and beat poetry and SOul On Ice. I'm fucking sick.

    People.

    People.

    Real fucking people man. Learn this shit. It's not cut and dried. It's not "labor versus fat cats". It's people. Greed. Poverty. Selfishness. Talking versus helping. Bullshit.

    BULLSHIT.


    The real shit? I hear a lot of people bitching about being inconvenienced. I've worked for a company for 20 years that went from passively non-union to aggressively anti-union when we were purchased by a Fortune 500 behemoth. We lose benefits every fucking year and are constantly reminded that we ought to be happy to have a job. If someone else is struggling to keep what they have, I'm behind them.

    Inconvenienced? People are losing their jobs. Does your world extend outside of soulstrut?

    I hear a lot of people who can't see their families on Christmas if this continues. I hear a lot of people who make 1/2 of your average transit worker, who work with NO pension and NO insurance, who now are losing MONEY because they can't get to work.

    I don't know about your situation and I certainly hope you continue to get paid well to sit on your ass and post on soulstrut.

    But there are A LOT of people who are ass out in this situation. TWU & MTA = two catty bitches arguing over who's gonna get to wear the cute outfit they both own.

    OK Jonny...who's lost their job after a 12 hour old strike? As far as people posting while at work, you're describing about 90% of the people here.

    Yep! That's right, 90% of the people here yapping about unions and strikes who are posting from their jobs, glad as hell their boss doesn't come down right now and say "you know what? you're internet is seriously fucking with your productivity. I'm gonna put a firewall in on your computer tomorrow." Oh man, I can hear the bitching now. All talk of fascist this and that, and striking over soulstrut! It'll be great man. Heatrock auctions to raise money for the soulstrut on company time movement.

    As for people losing their jobs, you know many folks here work under the table, hourly, with no security if they can't show up. They don't have sick days and paid vacation. When they don't show up, they lose their jobs. Most restaurants, many temp agencies, and also a lot of stores operate like this.

    Yeah man, there's a big world outside of the NJ office park...



  • No but you can tell them that "Jonny Paycheck says: Get Off The Bullshit"

    I should make pins. They'll make nice accessories for the mao-minded.

  • Yeah man, there's a big world outside of the NJ office park...


    You being pissed at/going after La**y as if he is somehow "fucking with your yaper" is not a very flattering look.

  • mannybolonemannybolone Los Angeles, CA 15,025 Posts
    No but you can tell them that "Jonny Paycheck says: Get Off The Bullshit"

    I should make pins. They'll make nice accessories for the mao-minded.

    Would that be Imperial or Chairman?


  • BamboucheBambouche 1,484 Posts
    Yep! That's right, 90% of the people here yapping about unions and strikes who are posting from their jobs, glad as hell their boss doesn't come down right now and say "you know what? you're internet is seriously fucking with your productivity. I'm gonna put a firewall in on your computer tomorrow." Oh man, I can hear the bitching now. All talk of fascist this and that, and striking over soulstrut! It'll be great man. Heatrock auctions to raise money for the soulstrut on company time movement.

    My boss can fire me. In fact, I invited her to yesterday.

    My email to her this morning, after a frantic call about "WHEN ARE YOU GETTING TO WORK TO FINISH THE INDEMNITY REPORT? THE INSURANCE COMPANY HAS TO HAVE IT TODAY. CALL ME AND LET ME KNOW WHEN YOU'LL BE IN. . . Oh, I'm at home today," said, in part, that I was, leisurely, reading my copy of The Haymarket Scrapbook.


    Your points are good, except you're condemning people for doing exactly what you do.


    What are you gonna do?




    Wait until rape_donkeys and drez unionize and you have to work 7 days a week cause you refuse to pay their health insurance!!!

    FAT PROFITEERING FASCIST!










    (kidding, with respect. i'm out. have a good day. good luck getting home.)

  • DelayDelay 4,530 Posts
    my job's policy is that you should come in. if not, it will come off of your vacation time. if you've already used that, it will count as a sick day. I think this is pretty much standard throughout most of the city. Fuck this shit. I need to buy christmas presents.

    I'm gonna be cold as fuck walking home, and if I see an MTA employee, i'm gonna skin him and wear his carcass to keep warm.

    ps...I do not get health insurance. or a pension.

    NJ dudes who think they know my business can butt the fuck out.

  • No but you can tell them that "Jonny Paycheck says: Get Off The Bullshit"

    I should make pins. They'll make nice accessories for the mao-minded.

    Would that be Imperial or Chairman?


    Both; reading the former while listening to the latter!










    Ross, please stop spinning on my dick; while it might be considered deep, it's not part of any collective.

  • NY dudes who think they know my business can butt the fuck out too[/b] .

  • Ross, please stop spinning on my dick; while it might be considered deep, it's not part of any collective.

    ZING


    [rhetorical] [/rhetorical]

  • WoimsahWoimsah 1,734 Posts
    No but you can tell them that "Jonny Paycheck says: Get Off The Bullshit"

    I should make pins. They'll make nice accessories for the mao-minded.

    Would that be Imperial or Chairman?


    Both; reading the former while listening to the latter!





    Ross, please stop spinning on my dick; while it might be considered deep, it's not part of any collective.

    The big question is - Johnny - are you posting from home or from the store? Because if you're at the store - then I'm coming through with some goodies.

  • No but you can tell them that "Jonny Paycheck says: Get Off The Bullshit"

    I should make pins. They'll make nice accessories for the mao-minded.

    Would that be Imperial or Chairman?


    Both; reading the former while listening to the latter!





    Ross, please stop spinning on my dick; while it might be considered deep, it's not part of any collective.

    The big question is - Johnny - are you posting from home or from the store? Because if you're at the store - then I'm coming through with some goodies.

    At home right now. I am gonna try to get into the store by 3. I get my car back in an hour or two and maybe by that time the traffic will have cleared...

  • DelayDelay 4,530 Posts
    some "mono" records?

  • WoimsahWoimsah 1,734 Posts
    some "mono" records?



    little bit of a brain fart. been so long since I was hyped on panned drums that I had diarrhea of the mouth.

  • RockadelicRockadelic Out Digging 13,993 Posts
    Regardless of my opinion of the striking MTA workers I know that Al Quaeda would give their left nut(and at least a few of their lives) to be able to shut down a city like NY to this degree.

  • mannybolonemannybolone Los Angeles, CA 15,025 Posts
    Regardless of my opinion of the striking MTA workers I know that Al Quaeda would give their left nut(and at least a few of their lives) to be able to shut down a city like NY to this degree.

    So the strikers are like Al Quaeda now?

  • faux_rillzfaux_rillz 14,343 Posts
    Regardless of my opinion of the striking MTA workers I know that Al Quaeda would give their left nut(and at least a few of their lives) to be able to shut down a city like NY to this degree.

    I also think that this strike is a little bit ridiculous, but you really weaken your case when you depart from the facts and start likening the union to Al Quaeda.

  • RockadelicRockadelic Out Digging 13,993 Posts
    Regardless of my opinion of the striking MTA workers I know that Al Quaeda would give their left nut(and at least a few of their lives) to be able to shut down a city like NY to this degree.

    So the strikers are like Al Quaeda now?

    If that's what you got from my post.....I'm speechless.


  • mannybolonemannybolone Los Angeles, CA 15,025 Posts
    Regardless of my opinion of the striking MTA workers I know that Al Quaeda would give their left nut(and at least a few of their lives) to be able to shut down a city like NY to this degree.

    So the strikers are like Al Quaeda now?

    If that's what you got from my post.....I'm speechless.


    You need to go back and re-read your shit and explain to us what the fuck you were trying to say then.
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