Bulletin
N° 636
Subject: ON METAPHOR AND
REALITY AND THE QUESTION OF MENTAL HEALTH IN THE LATE CAPITALIST SYSTEM.
29 November 2014
Grenoble, France
Dear
Colleagues and Friends of CEIMSA,
If
history suggests that psychoanalysis is largely an ideological construct with occasional
physiological side benefits, then we are encouraged to take Freud’s advice and
look for the physiological reasons of nervous disorders --disorders such as wars and
militarism, labor exploitation and slave-master relations, and pathologies like
nationalism, racism, ageism, and sexism, as well as sado-masochism
and similar symptoms of repressed chatracter stucture. Such an investigation, to be
fruitful, would require a significant amount of original analytical thought
focusing largely on personal experience; plus a wide synthesis of contextual information based on
collective discussions, comparing and contrasting social class relationships.
For the
moment, such an education seems highly unlikely.
If
we follow the early self-criticism of Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)--whose admonition to
his first disciples was that they not mistake ‘the scaffolding’ for ‘the
artifice’—we are prompted to acknowledge that today we have arrived at the
point where we can go beyond such concepts as the ‘Oedipus complex’, ‘eros’, ‘thanatos’, and ‘sexual
sublimation’; to reach out from the realm of metaphor into the domain of
physical science. Likewise, we can only benefit by exceeding the limits of
Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936), and venture beyond his classic typology which he borrowed from the
ancient Greek physician of Roman times, Galen of Pergamon
(129 - 216(?) A.D.). The latter's four categories of character –melancholic, choleric, phlegmatic, and sanguine—inspired the great Russian academic to invent his famous
three
types of nervous system (TNS), which he based on configurations of
three nervous system properties --strength, motility, and balance--
related to the two universal nervous processes: excitation
and inhibition.
In
ancient Roman times, Galen produced a model which is still employed in modern times:
the melancholic personality
representing introverts who are emotionally sensitive, perfectionists, and
highly intellectualizing; the choleric
person, being a proud extrovert, displaying the need to be in control of
situations, to excel, often an over-achiever; the third personality type, the phlegmatic person, is a submissive
introvert, not easily excited to action or to a display of emotion, but instead
apathetic, sluggish, desiring to be left alone by giving others what they seem
to want; and the fourth, is the sanguine
personality, bubbly, chatty, a social extrovert openly emotional.
Pavlov’s
life-long research was initially based on the theory of conditioned
reflex and was further developed in the last years of his life to compare human
and non-human responses to stimuli. In 1932, he introduced his famous theory of the higher nervous system,
and the concepts of the ‘first-signal system’ and the ‘second signal system’.
According to this theory, reality is signaled in all animals by stimuli which
are perceived directly by sensory receptor cells. These stimuli are processed
in the brain. This is what all animals internalize to form impressions,
sensations, and ideas from the surrounding environment. It is called the
first-signal system of reality.
Human
beings, according to this 1932 theory, have an additional system based on
verbal signals: words, the system of speech, (pronounceable, audible and
visible) have formed the second-signal system of reality, which serves as the
signal for the first signals. In humans the two systems closely interact. The
animal brain reacts only to direct visual, acoustic, and other stimuli or their
traces which result in sensations that constitute the first signaling system.
Humans, however, possess an additional signaling system which enables them to
generalize with words the countless signals they encounter. The analysis and synthesis performed by the
cerebral cortex, when the second signaling system is present, relate not only to specific stimuli in the environment, but
also to the words produced by these stimuli. This capacity is specific to human
beings and permits a generalized reflection of phenomena and objects and has
provided humans with the ability to orient themselves to a wide diversity of
environments and has enabled them to develop scientific thinking.
The
nature of the interaction of the two systems, which are simultaneously active
in the higher nervous system of humans, is said to vary according to the
individual’s education (the social factor) and according to the characteristics
of his nervous system (the biological factor). ‘Intellectual types’ are often found to have a relatively weak
first-signal system, registering few sensations from direct contact with their
environment, while the signals of the first-signal system in ‘artistic types’ are experienced clearly
and strongly. The co-ordination of the two signaling systems at an early age
is, of course, the hallmark of a successful education. When a system of
conditioned associations, worked out during childhood, facilitates the process
of generalization by use of words, then verbal signals produce changes in
excitability; stronger, more frequent neural synapses, with longer electrical
discharges in the nerve cells in certain regions of the cerebral cortex occur.
The second-signaling system thus develops as a result of activity along the
entire cerebral cortex, and not to the function of any individual region of the
brain. (Source: see Pavlov’s Theory of the Higher
Nervous System. And for additional discussions of the function
of the human
brain, see our past CEIMSA bulletins featuring the contemporary work of
neurologist Antonio Damasio.)
Some
elements for a radical problematic.
Pavlov’s
contribution of our understanding of psychology is in distinct contrast to the
dominant Western concept of psychology: for the Russian (and later the Chinese)
school, consciousness stands as the supreme force governing human behavior,
unchallenged by competing forces such as the unconscious and the preconscious.
Thus, ‘correct’ consciousness leads to ‘correct’ behavior, and the goals to
which ‘correct’ consciousness leads are socially defined objectives.
Introducing the Human Organism: & Introducing an infinite reservoir
of ‘Received’ Ideas:
and
Introducing
the Organ most responsible for & Introducing
Capitalist measurements of
the
producing both ‘analytical’ and ‘synthetic’ ‘Success’
and ‘Failure’ of mental
ideas: calculations:
The cerebral cortex is the outer layer
depicted in
dark violet. It is the
cerebrum's (brain) outer layer
of neural tissue in
humans and other mammals.
It is divided into two cortices: the left
and right &
cerebral hemispheres divided
by the medial longitudinal
fissure. The cerebral
cortex plays a key role in memory,
attention, perceptual
awareness, thought, language,
and consciousness. The
human cerebral cortex is 2 to 4 THE HOMELESS
millimetres (0.079 to 0.157
inches) thick. 
and
Introducing
the notion of ‘Received Ideas’ &
Introducing human understanding as human activity:
as dressing
up an Organism with purchased
commodities and with nowhere to go:
If
early Pavlovian research is classified under the
rubric of ‘neurology’ and ‘physiology,’ then Eastern psychologists can be said
to have engaged in relatively little experimental work, compared to their
Western counterparts. The outstanding difference between Soviet and ‘Sovietized Chinese’ psychology, on the one hand, and
Western practice, on the other, was the ways in which relevant research topics
were chosen for study and new directions of study were advanced.
The Soviet
approach to selecting areas for investigation has not been one of laissez-faire
but rather a careful canvassing for ideological and practical requirements.
There is also a characteristic style of determining direction and achieving
consensus in psychology trough meetings or ‘open discussions’ that signal major
alternations in line and approach. Whether or not an area of empirical work is
to be tackled depends upon arguments pro and con, on the basis of derivations
from basic Marxist-Leninist theories. Problems are not always chosen from
scientific requirements intrinsic to the field; that is, results of the testing
of hypotheses, concepts, or theories. Rather, the basic conceptual
framework is a set of assumptions not to be constantly challenged or replaced
through empirical testing.
They have
been succinctly summarized as follows: 1) the principle of materialist
monism –that mental phenomena are a property of the brain, upon which the
psychological activities are superimposed; 2) the principle of determinism
–that there is constant interaction between processes of higher nervous
activity and the external environment; 3) the principle of reflection
–that consciousness is a subjective reflection of an objective reality; 4) the
principle of unity of consciousness and activity –that man’s mind is
formed in activity and manifested in activity; and 5) the principle of historicism
–that mind develops in the process of the historical development of
man.(pp.16-17, Chin, Psychological Research in Communist
China, 1949-1966, MIT Press, 1969.)
At
the time of the Cultural Revolution in China which began in the mid-1960s, the education
of children turned toward teaching them to know not only what they learned but
also for whom and why they learned. For this the emulation of heroes was deemed
as a primary aid to rational learning.(Chin, p.212) The French phenomenologist Gason Bachelard (1884-1962) seems
to have spoken to the same vital issue of pedagogy when he observed: “All
memory has to be re-imagined. For we have in our memories
micro-films that can only be read if they are lighted by the bright light of
the imagination.” (p.175, The Poetics of Space, The classic look at how we experience intimate
places,
1958 & 1964)
The
9 items below offer CEIMSA readers a look at contemporary realities and
the opportunity to reflect on the conditions of their collective lives and the turbulent social context in which we are now living.
Item A., from The
Real News Network, is a report by Eddie Conway on lessons from the Ferguson police killing of Michael Brown.
Item B., from Democracy
Now!, is presentation by Rev.
Al Sharpton on the legacy of the Civil Rights
Movement and its relevance to Ferguson, today where justice fails.
Item C., from NYU Professor Mark Crispin Miller, founder of News
from the Underground, is an article by Steven Rosenfeld describing the contemporary state of racism in the USA.
Item D., from The Nation magazine, is an article by Chase Madar discussing the age-old
problem of ‘policing the police’ following the murder of Michael Brown on the
streets of Ferguson, Missouri on August 9, 2014.
Item E., from The
Real News Network, is an interview with author Chase Mader
on how police in the USA get away with murder.
Item F., from UCSD Professor emeritus Fred Lonidier,
is a public call issued by The American Federation of Labor “to Stop Killer Coke.”
Item G., from, Information Clearing House, is an
article by Pepe Escobar on the steady approach in Ukraine led by the
US puppet NATO towards World War III.
Item H., from Information Clearing House, is an article
by Medea
Benjamin discussing
Obama’s tactics in the Pentagon as they relate to his Grand Strategy in the
Middle East, ‘war-and-more-war-for-profit.’
Item I., from The
Real News Network, is an interview with Ukrainian sociologist Volodymyr Ishchenko
discussing the socioeconomic conditions of ordinary people in Ukraine and the
prospects of civil war.
An
finally, we invite CEIMSA readers to watch for their cultural edification John Sayles' electrifying 1987 film
classic on social class warfare in post–WW I America :
Matewan
Sincerely,
Francis
Feeley
Professor
of American Studies
University
of Grenoble-3
Director
of Research
University
of Paris-Nanterre
Center
for the Advanced Study of American Institutions and Social Movements
The
University of California-San Diego
http://dimension.ucsd.edu/CEIMSA-IN-EXILE/
__________________
A.
From The Real News Network :
Date : 26 November
2014
Subject: Lesson from Ferguson,
Missouri.
Mr. Conway says police are asked by
society to control the poor as if they are fighting a war, so anything goes.
We
Dehumanize Those We Want to Exploit - Eddie Conway on Reality Asserts Itself
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=12717 |
|
__________________
B.
From Democracy Now! :
Date : 26 November
2014
Subject: The Anti-Racist Movement
from Ferguson goes viral.
On Tuesday, the family of Michael Brown
held a press conference at a church not far from Ferguson. Michael Brown Sr.
was present but did not speak. He wore a red St. Louis baseball cap similar to the
one his son had on when he was killed by Officer Darren Wilson, and a t-shirt
that read, "No Justice, No Peace." The Brown family’s attorney
Benjamin Crump and the Rev. Al Sharpton criticized
St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch’s handling of the grand jury process.
At the news conference, Amy Goodman asked Rev. Al Sharpton
about whether authorities let parts of Ferguson burn on Monday night. She also
asked about the three slain civil rights workers awarded the Presidential Medal
of Freedom on Monday, and whether that case offers hope for federal charges
against Wilson.
Rev.
Sharpton: Legacy of Civil Rights Movement Shows Need
for Feds
to
Bring Justice if State Fails
http://www.democracynow.org/2014/11/26/rev_sharpton_legacy_of_civil_rights
__________________
C.
From Mark Crispin Miller
:
Date : 28 November
2014
Subject: 8 horrible truths about
police brutality in our "free world".
8 Horrible Truths About Police Brutality
and Racism in America Laid Bare by Ferguson
by Steven Rosenfeld
The hard truths about American racism exposed by Ferguson aren’t
going away. That’s the case, even as the first African-American president,
Barack Obama, responding to Monday’s renewed rioting, said, “Nothing of
significance, nothing of benefit, results from destructive
acts.” Racism is real, Obama said, and he urged Americans to “mobilize,”
“organize,” find the “best policies,” and “vote.”
Yet on the ground in Ferguson, where the white policeman who shot
an unarmed black man was exonerated by a local grand jury and went on national
television and said he would do the same thing again, Obama’s words
stung. There are specific and surprising reasons why the rage over
Ferguson isn’t going away. In the St. Louis suburb and across America, blacks
and other people of color still face embedded racism and second-class
treatment. Political leaders have not brought change; they have failed to curb
excessive policing and incarceration rates or create economic opportunities and
hope people can believe in.
“The uprising in Ferguson was an inevitable reaction to the
institutional racism coursing through the area for decades,” wrote HandsUpDontShoot.com, citing [3] the example of
police padding municipal budgets by going overboard with issuing traffic
tickets to the poor, followed by even more punitive arrest warrants if people
have not paid their fines.
Here are eight terrible facts and trends about abusive policing
and institutional racism laid bare by the Ferguson
uprising.
1. Darren Wilson was trained to kill and did. It
was shocking that a local grand jury did not indict Ferguson Police Officer
Darren Wilson for killing Michael Brown. But no one predicted Wilson would go
on TV and say he did as he was trained, and tell the nation he would do it
again. Wilson told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that he has a “clear conscience”
and that he would have done the same thing if he had faced a white assailant.
His lack of remorse is not just maddening, but points to a problem
that is much bigger than Ferguson: how local police have become paramilitary
machines with officers trained, equipped and expected to shoot if they lose
control of a situation. Across America, one result is that victims of police
killings disproportionately look like Michael Brown and not like Darren Wilson.
2. More black Americans are killed by cops.
Police shoot and kill blacks almost twice as frequently as any other racial
group, MotherJones.org reported [4], after
examining piles of federal crime data. “Black people were about four times as likely to die in custody or while being arrested than
whites.” MoJo said the majority of local police
departments do not report police killing figures to the FBI. “It’s also not
clear that Brown’s death—the circumstances of which remain in dispute—would
show up in the FBI’s data in the first place.”
3. Police are armed and trained to kill. The
militarization of local police has been growing ever since the Pentagon and
U.S. Department of Justice decided to give away surplus weaponry from Iraq and
Afghanistan. The heaviest weaponry is often used by SWAT teams during drug
raids, where as the ACLU has noted [5], communities of
color are targeted for nighttime raids. They face few consequences for making
mistakes, such as maiming or killing people and pets and ransacking homes and
personal property. These same teams were deployed in Ferguson to confront
protesters after Brown’s killing in August, exacerbating violence instead of
quelling it.
As an ACLU report [6] found, the
rampant over-militarization is a national problem, not a few “bad apple” local
departments. The ACLU called it a “war without public support,” filled with too
many “unnecessary tragedies." Non-whites were primary targets of SWAT
raids. Blacks were targeted [5] in 39
percent of raids, Latinos in 11 percent, whites in 20 percent. There is little
transparency about tactics, nor accountability for mistakes.
4. Life
in black America isn’t getting better.The Ferguson protests
are not in a vacuum, but come against a backdrop of ongoing societal hardship, especially
in black communities. Obama has said that the U.S. is making progress on race
issues, yet it’s hard, if not impossible, to separate issues of race and class.
RawStory.com cited [7] a long list of
disparities that factor into the simmering rage that boiled over in Ferguson
and across the country. “The black-white disparity in infant mortality [8] has
grown since 1950. Whereas 72.9 percent of whites are homeowners, only 43.5
percent of blacks are. Blacks constitute nearly 1 million of the total 2.3
million people incarcerated. [9]
According to Pew, white median household wealth is $91,405; black median
household wealth is $6,446—the gap [10] has tripled
over the past 25 years. Since 2007, the black median income has declined [11] 15.8
percent. In contrast, Hispanics’ median income declined 11.8 percent, Asians’
7.7 percent and whites’ 6.3 percent.”
5. White America really doesn’t get it.
These race and class divides are not widely seen as serious enough for action
by white Americans. When it comes to Ferguson, whites are quicker to accept the
storyline laid out by authorities. “Well-meaning
whites have, on the whole, failed to appreciate the origins of racial-ethnic
disparities in health, wealth, education, and incarceration—or to see them as a
problem,” RawStory’s Ted Silverman wrote [7]. “Many believe
in justice, but feel perfectly comfortable when and where racial-ethnic
inequality is the norm.”
6. The system defends itself, not the
public. The Brown family, protesters and civil rights advocates all wanted
the criminal justice system to take a fair look at what unfolded in August, but
kept getting signs that was not likely to happen. In August, police leaked
video footage showing Brown robbing a convenience store, which was intended to
smear his character and suggest that somehow Brown deserved what happened in
the subsequent confrontation with Wilson.
The grand jury proceeding was strange, legal experts noted
[12]. The prosecutor said he was being fair
by bringing all the evidence to the 12 jurors. But that tactic has been
interpreted as a deliberate move to overwhelm jurors and create doubts that
would not lead to recommending Wilson be charged. It
is curiously parallel to what unfolded in the Trayvon
Martin murder case, in which experts said [13] Florida
prosecutors didn’t really want to convict George Zimmerman.
7. Evidence suggests Wilson abused his license to kill.
Besides Wilson’s interview on ABC-TV, his grand jury testimony has been
released to the public. At the heart of his statements is the question of why
he kept firing his gun at Brown. Wilson said he was threatened because it
appeared that a stricken but enraged Brown was coming toward him. Others said
it appeared that Brown turned around after trying to flee and was surrendering.
While that contradiction cannot be resolved, legal experts like
the New Yorker’s Amy Davidson said [14] that Wilson’s
testimony suggested he shot to kill, and not to defend himself. “What stands
out is that once the second shot had been fired and Brown had started to run,
he no longer represented a deadly threat to the officer or to anybody else. He
was a large, bleeding, unarmed man running down the street in an attempt to get
away. Wilson, who chased after Brown, was the one with the deadly
weapon.”
8. If Wilson was scared, the law takes his side.That’s the
bottom line in Missouri law and jury instructions, which strongly defer to the
use of deadly force by on-duty police officers. Brown’s attorneys had been
hoping for a second-degree murder charge, when a person knowingly causes the
death of another. But grand jury instructions in Missouri, which are read to
the panel before it decides whether to press charges, allow police to use deadly
force if the officer believes it is “immediately necessary [15].”
That formulation almost always protects the police from prosecution for using
deadly force because they can say they felt theatened.
That’s the storyline Wilson told the grand jury and also told
ABC-TV, and which underscores how the system is biased against admitting police
errors even when people are unnecessarily killed. The story of Michael Brown
and Darren Wilson is a prism reflecting many ugly truths about how American
society operates and victimizes blacks and communities of color. That is why
the nationwide protests will continue.
See more stories tagged with:
Links:
[1] http://alternet.org
[2] http://www.alternet.org/authors/steven-rosenfeld
[3] http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2014/09/03/how-st-louis-county-missouri-profits-from-poverty/?hpid=z2
[4] http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/08/police-shootings-ferguson-race-data
[5] https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/assets/jus14-warcomeshome-report-web-rel1.pdf
[6] https://www.aclu.org/secure/limit-abusive-use-swat?ms=web_140624_crimjustice_militarization
[7] http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/11/numbers-dont-lie-black-people-are-becoming-less-equal-not-more/
[8] http://www.nytimes.com/1995/07/10/us/infant-mortality-rate-drops-but-racial-disparity-grows.html
[9] http://www.naacp.org/pages/criminal-justice-fact-sheet
[10] http://money.cnn.com/2014/08/21/news/economy/black-white-inequality/
[11] http://atlantablackstar.com/2013/09/18/census-report-black-income-dropped-astounding-15-8-percent-since-2007-recession/
[12] http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/use-grand-jury
[13] http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/10-reasons-lawyers-say-floridas-law-enforcement-threw-ryan-zimmermans-case-away
[14] http://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/darren-wilson-testimony
[15] http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2014/11/21/what-charges-could-the-michael-brown-grand-jury-consider-if-they-choose-to-indict/
__________________
D.
From The Nation :
Date : 24 November
2014
Subject: Holding Police Accountable for
their Crimes Against Humanity.
How to police the police is a question
as old as civilization, now given special urgency by a St. Louis County grand
jury’s return of a “no bill” of indictment for Ferguson, Missouri, police
officer Darren Wilson in his fatal shooting of an unarmed teenager, Michael
Brown. The result is shocking to many, depressingly predictable to more than a
few.
Why
It’s Impossible to Indict a Cop
It’s
not just Ferguson—here’s how the system protects police
by Chase Madar
__________________
E.
From The Real News Network :
Date : 28 November
2014
Subject: Interview with Chase Mader on Police Immunity.
As we've been saying on The Real News
Network in relation to Ferguson and in general, the role of police is rather
obvious: police are there to enforce the law. Well, what are those laws? Well,
essentially those laws protect people that own stuff, and the more you own, the
more protection to get. And if you don't happen to own any stuff and you're
poor and you're desperate, you're likely to have to try to get stuff to live,
and sometimes that means breaking those laws. So we ask police to enforce that,
and that often means we want the police to be a hammer, because if you're
living in desperate conditions and you're poor, you often act out desperately.
Almost Impossible to Indict a Cop
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=12719
__________________
F.
From Fred Lonidier :
Date : 24 November
2014
Subject: 1.6 Million-Member American
Federation of Teachers Bans Coca-Cola.
Home About
Contact Join Events Share
1.6 Million-Member American Federation of Teachers Bans Coca-Cola
Products Citing Child Labor and Human Rights Record
Corporate Campaign, Inc. applauds the American Federation of
Teachers (AFT, AFL-CIO) for its historic move to ban all Coca-Cola products
from its facilities and events, based on Coke's human rights record. The Union
calls on affiliates to "participate in campaigns to remove Coca-Cola products
from their schools, colleges, hospitals and other places in which they
work."
New York, NY (PRWEB) November 18, 2014
Corporate Campaign, Inc. and the Campaign to Stop Killer Coke
announce that the American Federation of Teachers (AFT, AFL-CIO) has declared
the banning of all Coca-Cola products from its facilities and events, as an
official policy of the union. This policy is being communicated to AFT
affiliates and members throughout the nation and is published on the union's
website. The resolution states that the AFT will (Click here for
full resolution):
"refrain from serving or selling
Coca-Cola products at its offices...at any venue for its events, meetings
conferences and conventions; and
'recommend to all its affiliates that
they not serve or sell Coca-Cola products at their offices and...at venues for their events; and
'encourage them to participate in
campaigns to remove Coca-Cola products from their schools, colleges, hospitals
and other places in which they work..."
The new policy resulted from passage of a resolution introduced at
AFT's 2014 National Convention by Barbara Bowen, AFT Executive Board Member and
President of the Professional Staff Congress/CUNY (PSC CUNY represents more
than 25,000 faculty and staff at the City University of New York (CUNY) and the
CUNY Research Foundation).
Young children in sugar cane field in El Salvador.
Photo Credit: Human Rights Watch
The resolution spotlights Coca-Cola's dismal human rights record
and long-standing allegations of violence against union leaders in Colombia and
Guatemala, documented by, among others, award-winning journalist, Michael
Blanding, in The Coke Machine: The Truth Behind
the World's Favorite Soft Drink [1] [2]; the continuing allegations
of the use of child labor by its sugar processors, as reported by Human
Rights Watch and by investigative reporter, Mark Thomas, in the
nationally televised documentary
Dispatches: Mark Thomas on Coca Cola [3][4]; as well as charges of
outsourcing of thousands of jobs to what critics call "poverty-wage
contractors."[5]
"You can always count on the American Federation of Teachers
to stand up for children, labor and human rights," commented Ray Rogers
noted organizer, human rights advocate and director of Corporate Campaign, Inc.
and Campaign to Stop Killer Coke.
"AFT's actions to hold The Coca-Cola Company accountable for
what we see as its reprehensible practices worldwide, can only have a positive
impact on society and the daily lives of countless endangered children and
workers, who are now trapped in poverty and despair," Rogers said. "I
hope and expect that the National Education Association (NEA) and the American
Association of University Professors (AAUP) will take similar action to protect
the well-being of children and advance human rights everywhere." Rogers continued,
"The AFT's principled action is very significant and follows on the loss
of scores of school contracts, and growing numbers of unions banning Coke
products. This is a direct result of the Campaign to Stop Killer Coke and is
costing the company dearly."
The stated mission of the AFT, whose president is Randi
Weingarten, is: "The American Federation of Teachers is a union of
professionals that champions fairness; democracy; economic opportunity; and
high-quality public education, healthcare and public services for our students,
their families and our communities. We are committed to advancing these
principles through community engagement, organizing, collective bargaining and
political activism, and especially through the work our members do."
About Corporate Campaign Inc. (CCI):
New York City-based Corporate Campaign Inc. (CCI), founded in 1981, has
successfully championed labor, human rights and environmental causes using its
unique power analysis, innovative strategies and organizational tactics to
increase economic and political pressure on companies, their top executives,
board members, shareholders, creditors and political allies to hold them
accountable and make them behave more responsibly. For more information call 718-852-2808
or email info(at)corporatecampaign(dot)org
or go to http://www.corporatecampaign.org/history.php
About Ray Rogers:
Ray Rogers, a noted advocate for labor and human rights, is President and
Director of Corporate Campaign, Inc. and founder of the Campaign to Stop Killer
Coke. Corporate Campaign was founded in 1981. Rogers pioneered the strategy of
the Corporate Campaign that has been used with success by labor unions, human
rights advocates and environmental groups in their battles against
corporations.
Time magazine said, "Rogers has brought some of the most
powerful corporations to their knees and his ideas are spreading." Boston
Herald described Rogers as labor's most innovative strategist and "one of
the most successful union organizers since the CIO sit-down strikes of the
1930s." Business Week described Rogers as a "legendary union
activist." Financial Times called Rogers "The Coca-Cola Company's
fiercest foe.
For interviews or speaking engagements call Pat Clark at 718-852-2808
or email info(at)corporatecampaign(dot)org
http://corporatecampaign.org/ray_rogers_bio.php
About Campaign to Stop Killer Coke:
The Campaign to Stop Killer Coke launched in 2003, is a worldwide movement with
thousands of volunteers seeking to hold The Coca-Cola System, including the
company and its bottlers, accountable for harmful practices that dangerously
impact on the lives of workers, the environment and the health and well-being
of children worldwide. For more information call 718 852-2808 or go to http://www.killercoke.org.
[1] Blanding, M. (2010). The Coke Machine: The Truth Behind the World's Favorite Soft Drink. New York, NY: Penguin
Group
[2] Garcia, C. & Gutierrez, G. "The Coca-Cola
Case" award-winning documentary produced by the National Film
Board of Canada
[3] Human Rights Watch. (June 2004). El Salvador:
Child Labor on Sugar Plantations
[4] Thomas, Mark (Nov 2007) Dispatches: Mark Thomas on
Coca Cola Channel 4 Television Corporation (UK)
[5] Thomas, M. (2009). Belching Out the Devil:
Global Adventures with Coca-Cola. New York, NY: Nation Books
AFT Resolution
STOP COCA-COLA's ABUSE OF CHILDREN AND VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS
WHEREAS, many labor organizations, including the New York State
United Teachers, have agreed not to serve or sell Coca-Cola products because of
Coca-Cola's complicity in violence against its workers, especially in Latin
America; and
WHEREAS, Coca-Cola circumvents its own code of conduct by hiring
workers through subcontracting rather than hiring permanent employees;[1] and
WHEREAS, between 1990 and 2012, nine union leaders of the National
Union of Food Industry Workers (SINALTRAINAL), the union representing Coca-Cola
bottling plant workers in Colombia, and their family members have been
murdered; and
WHEREAS, SINALTRAINAL President Javier Correa, and Vice President
Juan Carlos Galvis, have escaped assassination
attempts, and they, along with local SINALTRAINAL President William Mendoza,
continue to face constant death threats;[2] and
WHEREAS, despite El Salvador's minimum working age of 18 for
dangerous occupations, children as young as 8 in El Salvador wield machetes to
harvest sugar cane for Coca-Cola's sugar processor;[3] and
WHEREAS, three general secretaries of the union representing
Coca-Cola workers in Guatemala City and five workers were killed, and four more
workers were kidnapped;[4] and
WHEREAS, Guatemalan trade unionist Jose Armando Palacios survived
an assassination attempt and has been granted asylum in the United States after
Mr. Palacios' counsel presented, at the negotiation process for his asylum, a
letter from Coca-Cola acknowledging that if he were to return to Guatemala the
safety of Mr. Palacios and his family would be threatened;[5] and
WHEREAS, the American Federation of Teachers cites, "AFT has
a proud history of involvement in the worldwide trade union movement ... [and]
has lent support and solidarity to unions all over the globe, from those
fighting apartheid in South Africa to those struggling against Pinochet's dictatorship in Chile, to those emerging from
the ruins of the former Soviet Union":
RESOLVED, that the American Federation of Teachers refrain from
serving or selling Coca-Cola products at its offices and to the extent
possible, at any venue for its events, meetings, conferences and conventions;
and
RESOLVED, that the AFT recommend to all its affiliates that they
not serve or sell Coca-Cola products at their offices and to the extent
possible, at venues for their events; and
RESOLVED, that the AFT share this information with affiliates and
encourage them to participate in campaigns to remove Coca-Cola products from
their schools, colleges, hospitals and other places in which they work; and
RESOLVED, that the AFT call on Coca-Cola to cease circumventing
its own code of conduct by hiring workers through subcontracting rather than
hiring permanent employees; and
RESOLVED, that the AFT communicate this resolution to Coca-Cola.
[1] Thomas, M. (2009). Belching Out the Devil:
Global Adventures with Coca-Cola. New York, NY: Nation Books.
[2] Blanding, M. (2011). The Coke Machine: The Truth Behind the World's Favorite Soft Drink. New York, NY:
Penguin Group.
[3] Human Rights Watch. (June 2004). http://www.hrw.org/news/2004/06/09/el-salvador-child-labor-sugar-plantations
(link is external).
[4] Gatehouse, M. and Reyes, A. (1987). Soft Drink, Hard Labour: Guatemalan Workers Take on Coca-Cola. London, UK:
Latin America Bureau.
[5] USLEAP. (March 2010).
http://www.usleap.org/files/PalaciosUSLEAPSupportFeb2011.pdf (link
is external).
"If we lose this fight against Coke,
First we will lose our union,
Next we will lose our jobs,
And then we will all lose our lives!"
--Sinaltrainal Vice-President Juan Carlos Galvis--
Change email address / Leave mailing
list
Powered by YMLP
__________________
G.
From Information Clearing House :
Date : 23 November
2014
Subject: The New Cold War and More….
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
So the logic of escalation is on. The economically devastated EU is a joke; the only thing that counts for the US is NATO.
Washington Plays Russian Roulette
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article40302.htm
by Pepe Escobar
__________________
H.
From Information Clearing House :
Date : 25 November
2014
Subject: The New Cold War and More….
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel
was supposed to steer the Pentagon away from a decade of war, including
bringing US troops home from Afghanistan and paving
the way for a reduction in the Pentagon budget. Instead, the Obama
administration has opted for remaining in Afghanistan, continuing the
disastrous drone wars in Pakistan and Yemen, and dragging our nation into
another round of military involvement in Iraq, as well as Syria. The ISIL crises has also been used as a justification for not cutting
the Pentagon budget, as required by sequestration.
The issue facing this nation is not who replaces Hagel, but what policy decisions we want to Pentagon to
implement.
Hagel's Departure Should Open Debate on Obama's Wars
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article40322.htm
by Medea Benjamin
__________________
I.
From The Real News Network :
Date : 28 November
2014
Subject: Lesson from Ferguson,
Missouri.
Sociologist Volodymyr
Ishchenko says another upheaval will come if the
government does not address socioeconomic conditions of ordinary people.
Ukraine and the
Right a Year after Maiden
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=12721