Urban v's the Commentariat

[DotCommunist]

I've seen union emails signed off as 'in solidarity' in the last week

that seems a fair one, bit more focused than the 'yours sincerely'

 

[xenon]

on a side note I found out union letters to members back in the day would be signed off with 'yours fraternally'


why don't they do that anymore?

Don't know about the letters but my dad's union refer to each other as brother soinso in their meetings. A proper union that is.

 

[DotCommunist]

veers on the masonic/craft union exclusiveness though

 

[barney_pig]

on a side note I found out union letters to members back in the day would be signed off with 'yours fraternally'


why don't they do that anymore?

I still do

 

[weepiper]

Don't know about the letters but my dad's union refer to each other as brother soinso in their meetings. A proper union that is.

That is indelibly associated with Tommy Sheridan for me now because he calls everyone 'brother' and 'sister' all the time.
*wipes mind with antibac*

 

[Pickman's model]

That is indelibly associated with Tommy Sheridan for me now because he calls everyone 'brother' and 'sister' all the time.
*wipes mind with antibac*

that's cos he's got the memory of a sieve and can only process if someone is a man or a woman

 

[DotCommunist]

I still do

you immense chauvinist

 

[xenon]

veers on the masonic/craft union exclusiveness though

Just fraternal regard. I've only been to one meeting with him, there weren't any women there. I guess they'd be called sister though. .

 

[Bakunin]

true that- american unions go in for the 'international brotherhood' thing as well. Soritas is the equivalent to frater iirc. 'Yours fraternally and Sorritorially'

fuck it, lets just go with 'yours sincerely' then

And over the decades their 'international brotherhood' has been immensely inclusive of its Sicilian membership.

 

[DotCommunist]

And over the decades their 'international brotherhood' has been immensely inclusive of its Sicilian membership.

I'm not up on the state of things now but I thought the IBT had at least cleaned house somewhat after a solid run of allowing members funds to be given as 'loans' to mobsters.

I recall reading about one such union man who was dissapeared after being implicated in such things circa 1980. You'll no doubt have the name. You always do.

american unionism and its involvement with the mob is a subject that endlessley fascinates me. Make a deal with the devil...

 

[el-ahrairah]

I've seen union emails signed off as 'in solidarity' in the last week

me too

 

[Bakunin]

I'm not up on the state of things now but I thought the IBT had at least cleaned house somewhat after a solid run of allowing members funds to be given as 'loans' to mobsters.

I recall reading about one such union man who was dissapeared after being implicated in such things circa 1980. You'll no doubt have the name. You always do.

american unionism and its involvement with the mob is a subject that endlessley fascinates me. Make a deal with the devil...

You're probably thinking of Jimmy Hoffa, former National President of the Teamsters. He rose to National President thanks largely to his personal links with the Mob until he went to prison for racketeering and corruption. While he was away the Mob decided he was damaged goods and replaced him with someone less independent and more easily controlled as Hoffa had been too independent for their liking. When Hoffa got out he immediately started agitating to regain the Presidency and wouldn't accept Mob 'advice' to give up and retire into obscurity. Hoffa refused to quietly disappear. The Mob made sure he did, permanently.

And you're right. The endlessly complex relationship between all manner of unions and organised crime in America is fascinating and far predates Hoffa and the Teamsters. You could easily trace the three-way dance between unions,management and gangsters back well into the 19th century starting with the likes of Monk Eastman and Benny Fein, via Jacob Orgen and Louis 'Lepke' Buchalter through to Hoffa and beyond. Incidentally, Buchalter is commonly regarded as the pioneer of modern industrial and union racketeering. He was also the best customer of the Syndicate's enforcement arm nicknamed 'Muder Incorporated' and the only top-level American crimelord ever to be legally executed.

 

[DotCommunist]

Thats exactly the person I was talking about too

I did once read the contention that US unions jumping into bed with the mob was a reaction to the bosses and their hired Pinkertons bringing unacceptable levels of physical coercion on members, so the union chiefs of the time made a faustian pact...

 

[Wilf]

Ta ta for now comrades.

 

[Theisticle]

Laurie's piece on San Francisco: http://www.newstatesman.com/laurie-...-tech-boom-widening-gap-between-rich-and-poor

Becomes more amusing after reading 'What out of town writers need to know about SF' in full, not just selectively quoted. http://www.sfgate.com/living/articl...ters-need-to-know-about-SF-5307139.php#page-1

 

[Jeff Robinson]

Not really part of the "Commentariat" but this piece of academic wankery was too funny not to share:

What Is Cupcake Fascism?
by Tom Whyman

The Radical Possibility and Cake

The constellation of cultural tropes that most paradigmatically manifest in the form of the cupcake are associated in particular with infantilization.

If we see the paradigmatic mechanisms of social oppression operative today in the form of a cupcake, then the clue to the overthrowing of these mechanisms exists also in cake, albeit of an entirely different kind. It is precisely in the truly cake-like, the spongy and the moist and the excessive and the unhealthy. Against the austerity of the cupcake-form, we need to recapture, in our social reality, a sort of joy: the joy of being open to genuinely alternative possibilities.

http://www.full-stop.net/2014/04/03/blog/tom-whyman/what-is-cupcake-fascism/

Unbelievable, the Guardian have reproduced this utter dross now.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/08/beware-of-cupcake-fascism

 

[treelover]

No, I won't transfer schools just because Dartmouth can't handle discrimination
Since when must victims of hate get up and leave for getting up and protesting? Since when can't you protest at a college sit-in?

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/09/dartmouth-college-sit-in-discrimination

Now its struggles for a 'Freedom Budget' a set of 72 proposals that seeks to "eliminate systems of oppression including racism, classism, sexism, heterosexism and ableism" on campus.

though the author does seem to have some grounds for the protest, there are some crazy demands.

 

[benedict]

Now its struggles for a 'Freedom Budget' a set of 72 proposals that seeks to "eliminate systems of oppression including racism, classism, sexism, heterosexism and ableism" on campus.

though the author does seem to have some grounds for the protest, there are some crazy demands.

If this was taking place at the University of New Hampshire we'd never have learned of it. Even if it was happening at the University of Sunderland I'm not sure we would have.

 

[Pickman's model]

Now its struggles for a 'Freedom Budget' a set of 72 proposals that seeks to "eliminate systems of oppression including racism, classism, sexism, heterosexism and ableism" on campus.

though the author does seem to have some grounds for the protest, there are some crazy demands.

for one glorious moment i thought this was about dartmouth academy

 

[SpineyNorman]

You couldn't script it could you

There's only one team in Yorkshire. I don't give a fuck about the league table so long as we finish above them bastards.

You are correct in your assertion that there's only one team in yorkshire but you appear to have attached the wrong link, because a club for whom Andy Booth is some kind of a hero has at best tenuous grounds for the claim to be playing football at all.

This is what a footballer looks like Delroy:



Thought you might enjoy this too

 

[Delroy Booth]

You are correct in your assertion that there's only one team in yorkshire but you appear to have attached the wrong link, because a club for whom Andy Booth is some kind of a hero has at best tenuous grounds for the claim to be playing football at all.

This is what a footballer looks like Delroy:

you know as well as I do that Boothy was doing great for you lot until his knee injury. Ruined him totally that.

Good tip though - if you need to book a restaurant anywhere around Huddersfield just say your name is Mr A Booth

My little brother used to ring up TalkSport posing as Andy Booth, got on the air loads of times

 

[SpineyNorman]

My little brother used to ring up TalkSport posing as Andy Booth, got on the air loads of times

Is he quite tall? Just thinking he might have been able to get on the football pitch by doing the same thing

Even before the injury he was never all that popular - probably had more to do with whose boots he was supposed to be filling than what he did on the pitch though to be fair - Booth had the potential to be a good top flight target man. Were it not for Steve fucking Bould Hirsty would have become widely accepted as being world class (already was IMO). Him and Shearer were coming through at the same time and Hirsty was generally rated as the better of the two - there's a quote from Bobby Robson somewhere where they ask him who's going to replace Gary linekar. His response was something like 'you're asking the wrong question - you should be asking who's going to partner David Hirst.

Got to play golf with him once as well when work paid for me to go on a pro-celebrity 4 ball with the man himself, some teaching pro and a customer I was so star struck I barely spoke to him - and I was about 25 at the time

/end of derail - sorry everyone (well, everyone except Delroy Booth )

 

[equationgirl]

Laurie's piece on San Francisco: http://www.newstatesman.com/laurie-...-tech-boom-widening-gap-between-rich-and-poor

Becomes more amusing after reading 'What out of town writers need to know about SF' in full, not just selectively quoted. http://www.sfgate.com/living/articl...ters-need-to-know-about-SF-5307139.php#page-1

It does read like she's done a cut and paste job from the SFgate article, it's well funny

 

[andysays]

It does read like she's done a cut and paste job from the SFgate article, it's well funny

One person's cut and paste job is another's thorough desk based research, apparently

 

[Bakunin]

One person's cut and paste job is another's thorough desk based research, apparently

Which often translates as:

'I saw it, read it, liked it and wished I'd actually written it. So C&P'd the original text and rewrote it paragraph by paragraph in my own style in the hope that nobody will notice I've cribbed it from somebody else whose work will go uncredited, unacknowledged and hopefully unnoticed.'

 

[Theisticle]

This quote really stands out:

“We’re aiming for the 10 per cent, which might allow us to have our parents’ lifestyle. We’re just trying to get by in a world that’s not giving us the same chances the baby boomers had. What did I do as an artist? I went and got an engineering degree.”

I cannot be arsed to re-read such contrived nonsense but I do not recall her interviewing any actual poor people at length. They are props to the story. The real victims are the people who are vastly rich already. Or speaking to the bohemian like-minded artists/journalists/writers. All aspirational entrepreneurs fucked over by Google (and their ilk.)

Give me a break.

 

[killer b]

TBF, she did credit it.

 

[andysays]

This quote really stands out:



I cannot be arsed to re-read such contrived nonsense but I do not recall her interviewing any actual poor people at length. They are props to the story. The real victims are the people who are vastly rich already. Or speaking to the bohemian like-minded artists/journalists/writers. All aspirational entrepreneurs fucked over by Google (and their ilk.)

Give me a break.

Have you met them at all, the poor...?

 

[SpackleFrog]

Unbelievable, the Guardian have reproduced this utter dross now.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/08/beware-of-cupcake-fascism

ARGH I JUST CAME HERE TO POST THAT

 

[benedict]

It does read like she's done a cut and paste job from the SFgate article, it's well funny

“They took my shopping cart.”

On Market Street in downtown San Francisco, an old man with long, dirty hair has dropped his collection can. Coins and scraps of paper spill across the sidewalk and into the road. Nobody is helping.

I find this fucking revolting. The unwashed poor as scene-setting backdrop. Does she chat to the guy? Does she fuck. It's all about her.