Re: Re: services

nmb-Inn regard to jobs with justice, and sweatshops
it may be important to remeber that, the largest
employer in the usa, famous for cushy jobs with a
considerable benefits also maintains a labor pool of
workers with virtually no meaningfull worker
protection...these workers are exempt from even the
most  meager state standards are kept in a condition 
of insecurity about future employment, underpaid for
their work and are frequently held hostage to
"company"
fads and fashions...and unlike their supervisors
who have it are effectively denied union protection--
the "company" is of course the us government itself
and the workers the horde of temporary & seasonal
folks who fight our wildland fires at risk to their
lives and do most of the on the ground work to protect
our national resources.
                           thanks, and all power to
the
                            people!
                             Darrel Armstrong
                               Modoc National Forest
--- "Niel M. Bornstein" <niel-eVhvBAtfTHk423YV9hPXO9/[email protected]>
wrote:
> >    I'm looking over the organizations you
> recommended  (5/31/01) I send
> >my small tax refund to.  One of them is Jobs with
> Justice,  but I can't
> >find any mention on their web site of essential
> services they  provide to
> >poor Americans.  Same goes for the SPLC and United
> Students  Against
> >Sweatshops.  Habitat for Humanity, for example, I
> understand--they  build
> >houses for people.  Am I overlooking something at
> these other web  sites? 
> >Do they provide food, shelter, medical care?  
> Transportation?  Some
> >essential service?  You did say "We have assembled
> the following list of
> >organizations that provide essential services --
> which the government does
> >not  -- to poor Americans."   Thanks, Kevin Parker
> Austinfast.com  
> 
> These descriptions are from the organizations'
> respective websites, with my
> commentary after each one:
> 
> "Jobs with Justice (JwJ) is a national campaign for
> workers' rights.
> Working through coalitions of labor, community,
> religious and constituency
> organizations, Jobs with Justice is fighting for
> workers' rights and
> economic justice."
> 
> Jobs with Justice provides the essential service of
> giving the workers a
> voice to help enable them to raise their standard of
> living to the point
> where they might appear on the government's radar. 
> Our enormous domestic
> poverty problem is not going to be solved out the
> goodness of employers'
> hearts, or out of some beneficent act by the Labor
> Department; grassroots
> organizations such as JwJ are there to give the
> working poor a voice.
> 
> "The Southern Poverty Law Center is a nonprofit
> organization that combats
> hate, intolerance and discrimination through
> education and litigation. Its
> programs include the Intelligence Project, Teaching
> Tolerance, and
> tolerance.org. The Center also sponsors the Civil
> Rights Memorial, which
> celebrates the memory of those who died during the
> Civil Rights Movement."
> 
> With John Ashcroft in charge of the Department of
> Justice, it should be
> clear that justice is one essential service that the
> government is not
> providing to minorities.
> 
> "United Students Against Sweatshops is an
> international student movement of
> campuses and individual students fighting for
> sweatshop free labor
> conditions and workers' rights. We define
> "sweatshop" broadly and recognize
> that it is not limited to the apparel industry, but
> everywhere among us."
> 
> Sweatshops, believe it or not, are not just a
> third-world phenomenon.
> Immigrant workers in the United States, some of them
> here illegally and
> afraid to raise their voices about it, are being put
> to work in conditions
> that are not legal, for pay that is far below
> livable.  See, for example,
> the recent New York Times article about sheep
> herders in California, who
> are paid a pittance for their long hours of work.
> 
> However you feel about these organizations, the most
> important thing to
> note, I believe, is this quote from my article:
> 
> "We suggest that you give some portion of your
> rebate to one or all of
> them. Or choose some others. After all, as the
> President likes to say, it's
> your money, right?"
> 
> If you don't like the organizations we've selected,
> feel free to select
> others that are more in line with your beliefs.  If
> that happens to be
> Operation Save America, well, I don't like your
> choice but it's your choice.
> 
> Thanks for your message.
> 
> Niel
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Bonobos maillist  -  Bonobos-4GNy1lrxftmrG/[email protected]
> http://monkeyfist.com/mailman/listinfo/bonobos


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