Category: Labor

Every now and then we must pause in our daily rush and grind to acknowledge the passing of someone who is important to us. This is especially true in the tiny world of progressive journalism in San Diego. And it is true as we pause on the passing of Dave Davis.

Now, there are probably very few people in San Diego right now who even remember Dave Isaac Davis, but it was his little print shop in Golden Hill that was responsible for printing up the very first issues of the original OB Rag way back in 1970 and 1971, when we considered it to be an “underground newspaper”.

“The San Diego Nine” picked the perfect week for a hunger strike. They may not have known it, but the ghosts of Memphis were haunting the Mission Valley Hilton. What’s the connection?

Last week was the 45th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who was murdered in Memphis where he had gone to support striking sanitation workers. As I noted in my column for Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday in January, the real MLK is frequently neglected in favor of a distorted picture of a vanilla saint who just wanted us all to get along. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Indeed, King was a provocateur who wanted to disturb us about America’s hypocritical racial inequality AND its shameful class divide. King died fighting for the rights of poor workers of color because he thought nothing was a better example of what he wanted the Poor People’s Campaign to be than the sanitation workers’ strike. Their fight was a call not just for legal civil rights for black people, but a cry for economic justice for all.

Editor: We found an important debate going on in the pages of the Point Loma Democratic Club, and decided to repost the following positions. The first is by Michael Russell, a former San Diego lifeguard, who raises serious questions about gender, diversity, salaries and politics of the lifeguard union, Teamsters Local 911. The second is a response by Ed Harris, union steward for Teamsters 911 (quotes in italics are from Russell’s piece).

San Diego Lifeguards – Questions Raised Concerning Gender, Diversity and Salaries

by Michael Russell / Point Loma Democratic Club / March 8, 2013

Thank you for inviting me to your monthly meeting to listen to Ed Harris present his case for your support. As a former San Diego Lifeguard, I was interested in hearing his plea to Democrats for help in swaying the San Diego City Council. His quest as Union Steward for Teamsters 911 is to build and replace three Lifeguard Towers in Ocean Beach, South Mission Beach, and North Pacific Beach.

I agree that these City infrastructure projects are probably ripe, because of the low cost of current construction in this economic recession. Having worked at all these towers in the past, I agree that they are out of date and require constant upgrades, for such beach safety stations are necessary and appropriate. They are all major projects, costing millions, and must take into account long-term issues like sea level rise and changing beach demographics.

Much has been made of Bob Filner crashing the City Attorney’s news conference a little while ago but we shouldn’t forget that in that flurry of feistiness he pointed out that there are people among us, fellow citizens, family, friends, you name them, who are paid tacky wages. Like hotel workers.

He made it clear that the tourist industry isn’t going to ply their trade with $30 million dollars of the city’s money unless they pay hotel workers what they deserve.

How refreshing is that, a mayor for the people, a man standing up for the folks who make visitors to “America’s Finest City” comfortable and well fed, with nice pools for a swim on well manicured hotel grounds. These people get out and about town and spend money by the ton and the people who added so much to the fineness of their stay don’t get anywhere near their fair share of this bounty.

By Matthew Rothschild / The Progressive –RSN

Consumer advocate Ralph Nader and Senator Bernie Sanders condemned the U.S. Postal Service for its decision to end Saturday delivery.

“The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) today continued its tradition under the leadership of Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe of shooting itself in the foot,” Nader said. “The only question that remains is: When will the madness end? By ending Saturday letter delivery in August 2013, as the USPS has proposed, millions of customers who take advantage of its services will be harmed, mail service will be slowed, and the USPS’s current death spiral will deepen.”

Nader also called into question the legality of the move.

By Chris Hedges / OpEdNews – Truthdig/ February 4, 2013

Chris Hedges gave this talk Saturday night (Feb 2) in Brooklyn at the People’s Recovery Summit.

The corporate state has made it clear there will be no more Occupy encampments. The corporate state is seeking through the persistent harassment of activists and the passage of draconian laws such as Section 1021(b)(2) of the National Defense Authorization Act–and we will be in court next Wednesday to fight the Obama administration’s appeal of the Southern District Court of New York’s ruling declaring Section 1021 unconstitutional–to shut down all legitimate dissent. The corporate state is counting, most importantly, on its system of debt peonage to keep citizens–especially the 30 million people who make up the working poor–from joining our revolt.

In the wake of President Obama’s electoral victory and inauguration much of the political analysis has been about the continued chaos inside the Republican Party. With some establishment conservative figures openly questioning whether it was good for the party to continue to be dominated by the hard right, some in progressive circles have been downright giddy, as they have watched the circular firing squad proceed. While this is surely entertaining sport, the more important battle may be happening inside the Democratic Party.

Editor:This eye-opening post about the head of Whole Foods calling Obamacare something close to “fascism” was brought to our attention by a supporter, and we re-post here.

By Sy Mukherjee / ThinkProgress – RSN / Jan 17, 2013

]In an interview with NPR, Whole Foods CEO and self-professed libertarian John Mackey revived his previous criticism of Obamacare – but this time, with a new twist.

As we celebrate the rich legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., I am drawn back to my favorite speech of his, “Where Do We Go From Here?”. This was Dr. King’s last address as President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, given toward to end of his life in 1967. It outlines two core principles of King’s unfulfilled legacy that united the questions of racial injustice with those of economic inequality and rampant militarism.

Now that labor has been squashed, the right’s next moves in Michigan includes draconian anti-abortion laws and, sit down for this one, loosening the restriction on concealed weapons in places like churches and schools to please the gun lobby.

While liberals were busy gloating over their electoral victory and crowing about the demise of the right, Grover Norquist, the Koch Brothers, and company were busy going for blood—democracy be damned. Despite getting spanked at nearly every level, the plutocratic wrecking crew kept their eyes on the prize and jammed through a “right to work” law in Michigan, exacting sweet revenge on the Democrats and their labor allies.

Sculpture to Honor Drowned WWI Soldiers in Tragedy that Forced City to Hire First Lifeguards

Ocean Beach leaders and surfers are actively lobbying to receive City funding for a bronze sculpture to honor San Diego lifeguards. Called the “Ocean Beach Lifeguard Bronze Memorial”, it is planned, once funded, to have the sculpture located 29 feet south of the Ocean Beach Lifeguard Station at the foot of Santa Monica adjacent to the public sidewalk. And the item will be on the OB Planning Board agenda for the General Meeting on December 4 and planners are hoping for a good turnout from the community …

Passage of Prop 30, Defeat of Prop 32 and Bilbray, Filner and Roberts Victories All Are Cause to Celebrate

By Lorena Gonzalez

San Diego’s progressive community has a lot to be thankful for this November. We passed Proposition 30, defeated Proposition 32, took down Brian Bilbray and elected Bob Filner our next mayor! And for good measure, we elected Dave Roberts as the first Democrat and first fresh blood of any kind on the county Board of Supervisors in two decades.