The Antisocial Socialist

 After two days of job action, a (rumoured) successful case at the Labour Relations Board, and the threat of a province-wide general strike, the Ford Regime backed down and agreed to rescind Bill 28, reinstating our civil rights.

I was at a lunchtime solidarity picket when this happened. It's a victory of sorts—in the battle sense, not the war sense. There's still no contract, it's just back to the negotiating table, though I suspect CUPE will have a better and faster resolution than they would have otherwise. 

There is considerable debate as to whether this is a good thing. I lean towards the "yeah it is" side for the following reasons:

• The government declaring a strike illegal does not make it so, and you can successfully wildcat.
• The entire organized labour movement can be mobilized very quickly for a general strike if the cause is sufficiently dramatic.
• Ford is not untouchable even with a majority government, and pressure can be applied through non-electoral means even when he has dictatorial powers.

Obviously the things I want go much broader than a good contract for CUPE, although that's very important. Our contract is up next. But what we need is an early end to Ford's power, the Tories unelectable for the next few decades in the way that the NDP were after Rae, a mainstream media with the balls to hold the government's feet to the fire, and the restoration of funding and resources to health and education. We didn't win any of these things today, and he was allowed to get away with some serious lies during his press conference.

But it has been so, so long since I've seen anything that wasn't constant, crushing loss that I'll take what I can get for today.

 In case you're wondering how it's going, multiple MPPs (all NDP) were kicked out of the Ontario Legislature today for calling Doug Ford a liar, which he is. Reportedly, after they were expelled, parents and community members were kicked out for saying the same thing.

I am hearing reports that purple (worn in support of CUPE) has been banned from Queen's Park. I'm trying to find sources but this tweet claims it, and OSBCU is reporting that a 13-year-old child was ordered to change their shirt during Question Period because it was purple.

Not only is he a liar (and a bully and a criminal) but Doug Ford is unhinged and a danger to himself and others and also is scared of a colour.

I've been so exploited at work lately that I legitimately forgot that this is normally when I go in a big march and then to the CNE.

Awesome poster by Will Burrows on FB:

This isn't something I see very often, so I thought I'd share.


CN: Contains scenes of police brutality.

I met her at a party once. She seemed lovely.

I also really enjoyed Thought Slime's video on whether the CHAZ is a living heck.

Huh. My union did a clever thing. It will now make all bargaining briefs open to the public. You can read everything here. If you are interested in reading the minutiae of labour negotiations, you will see that we are not in fact greedy fat cats who want to get all the monies but want to ensure a decent learning environment for the kids. It also proposes bringing back the best cost-saving measure that everyone loved, the Voluntary Unpaid Leave of Absence Days, which they should never have gotten rid of because they saved both money and sanity.

Anyway, it's all out there so you can decide for yourself if we're being reasonable or not.

Your move, Lecce.

Via Entangled Roots.

Ford said not to protest a decision that would lead to the firing of 10,000 education workers.

Whatever shall we do????? Certainly, if a lying, sticker-licking, hash-slinging bumblefuck who can't math serious political leader tells you not to protest, it means you can't.

P.S. 50% of Grade 6 students are not failing math. The provincial standard is approximately 75%.

This is a somewhat belated post, but not really, because it's about history. Awhile back—centuries in internet time, meaning a few weeks ago—I came upon one of the many articles on the gig economy/sharing economy/on-demand employment on BoingBoing. It's a link to a small study profiling people who pick up casual jobs here and there through the internet without steady wages or benefits.

The comments were what I found most interesting. Despite BB skewing white, male, and techie, most commenters were sympathetic. This was horrible, they realized, because hardly any of them were working casual jobs by choice. Most people would prefer steady jobs with predictable hours and benefits. But the technology had outpaced the socio-economic structures we put in place to deal with them. Cue throwing up of hands—capitalists, you win this round.



What got me, though, is that nearly everyone was focused on the technology—as if the technology somehow sprang into being spontaneously without human invention or ideology, as if we were merely automatons ourselves, conforming to the technology's wishes. As if, without technology, this situation could never have occurred, and in fact is historically unprecedented.

Which brings me to the concert I went to last week: Billy Bragg and Joe Henry's Shine a Light tour. If you haven't heard about it, they did an album about train songs. It's quite good. I suspect I'll prefer the live show, though, because the songs were interspersed with Billy and Joe talking about the context of all the songs, where they come from, why they chose them, where on their train travels they were when they recorded them. Towards the end, Billy talked about the romanticization of the historical/mythic hobo character, and related him to the presently reviled figure of the refugee. Old railroad songs still resonate because it's still the same story. The skin colour and circumstances may have changed, but the social attitudes and struggle have not.

(As you might imagine, I had a really excellent night, though Billy Bragg's solo set remained the highlight.)

Whenever I read people throwing up their hands, helpless, in the face of the Uberization of labour, I cringe. Because it's not like this hasn't happened before. Read your Marx, people! lIt's not like this isn't capital's ideal, natural state; the stable economy and high living conditions is largely a mid-20th century aberration.


The gig economy, circa 1930. Source/more pictures.

Anyway, two things tend to reverse a trend like this, and neither are whining about it on the internet. One is a really big war, preferably one that kills off a large segment of the working population, but mainly because that stimulates the economy if you do it right. We seem to be headed down that road, so hey, maybe things will improve. The other, far better way to do it, is unionization. That's right, back in the day people didn't just stand for having no job security, steady wages, or benefits—they actually got their shit together and collectively fought.

Maybe that time capsule unearthed in Haymarket will hold some clues as to how we can remember our history, and thus, improve our lot.

Leigh Phillips joins authors Gwyneth Jones, Marge Piercy, Ken MacLeod and Kim Stanley Robinson to discuss the role of science fiction in extending the radical horizons of our imaginations.

I don't agree with everything in this article, especially in regards to Zizek (Ken MacLeod, you know that's not what he meant) but it's a pretty fascinating read on the radical potential of science fiction and a good starting point for discussion. I particularly liked the last question, about technology and its place in cultural narratives. All of the authors really hit the nail on the head in terms of describing exactly why I feel uncomfortable with the emphasis on anti-GMO/anti-Monsanto/pro-woo stuff on the left:

Gwyneth Jones: Progressives have a right to be cynical about nanotechnology, likewise GM foods and crops, as long as these developments are controlled by ruthless corporate interests. It isn’t about the science; it’s about the tragedy of the commons.

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On a more mundane (but still futuristic!) note, this article on organizing workers in a service economy (from Macleans, no less!) is also an interesting read. The premise is that traditionally middle class jobs aren't coming back (likely true) and thus minimum wage service sector jobs should be transformed so that one can actually earn a living at them.

Proponents of the idea that service jobs can become the new ticket to the middle class point to sweeping changes in the manufacturing sector in the early 20th century that helped transform factory work from dangerous low-pay jobs into secure careers that could support a family. From 1914, when Henry Ford declared he would pay his employees what was then an exorbitant sum of $5 a day in order to reduce turnover and boost demand for his cars, governments saw higher wages and greater workplace regulation as the start of a virtuous economic cycle. But whether the service industry can follow the same model is far from certain.

Read and discuss.