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NocturniaGodess aka Samirah
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[06 May 2004|06:01pm] |
I don't really post in here anymore, you can check out my other 3 journals.. well Azad is the one that I post in the most now, but the others are book and school related, but NEWAYS!
This movie comes out tomorrow & YOU all should try and see it
Super Size Me, a tongue in-cheek - and burger in hand -- look at the legal, financial and physical costs of America's hunger for fast food.
Filmmaker Morgan Spurlock hit the road and interviewed experts in 20 U.S. cities, including Houston, the "Fattest City" in America. From Surgeon Generals to gym teachers, cooks to kids, lawmakers to legislators.During the journey, Spurlock also put his own body on the line, living on nothing but McDonald's for an entire month
The film explores the horror of school lunch programs, declining health and physical education classes, food addictions and the extreme measures people take to lose weight and regain their health.
SUPERSIZE ME!
And while you are it read this book
Fast Food Nation The Dark Side of the All-American Meal
by Eric Schlosser
This myth-shattering book tells the story of America and the world’s infatuation with fast food, from its origins in 1950s southern California to the global triumph of a handful of burger and fried chicken chains. In a meticulously researched and powerfully argued account, Eric Schlosser visits the labs where scientists re-create the smell and taste of everything - from cooked meat to fresh strawberries; talks to the workers at abattoirs with some of the worst safety records in the world; explains exactly where the meat comes from and just why the fries taste so good; and looks at the way the fast food industry is transforming not only our diet but our landscape, economy, workforce and culture.
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-Before most children can speak they can recognize McDonald's logo
-In 1972, we spent 3 billion a year on fast food - today we spend more than 110 billion
-You would have to walk for seven hours straight to burn off a Super Sized Coke, fry and Big Mac
-In the U.S., we eat more than 1,000,000 animals an hour
( some more stats )
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[01 May 2004|09:24pm] |
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thanks Benny & Guav for this ( Read more... )
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[29 Apr 2004|04:48pm] |
Beyond Voting: anarchist organizing, electoral politics and developing strategy for liberation - by Chris Crass
Presidential elections are often the terrain on which radicals and anarchists debate the merits of electoral politics. This election season is no different. Social movements around the world and in the United States are declaring Bush's defeat at the ballot box a top priority. As radicals, we have consistently opposed the policies of the Bush administration and have mobilized our opposition repeatedly to the wars on
Afghanistan and Iraq. We know that the Democratic Party shares the majority of the Republican Party's platform. Both candidates represent ruling class worldviews and institutions of domination. What do we do?
There are many discussions about how to vote out the Bush administration.[i] I want to urge us to step back and talk about electoral politics and larger questions of strategy. For anarchists, voting and electoral politics spark intense debate because they bring fundamental questions to the surface. How do we believe revolutionary transformation happens? How do we build movement? Where does power come from? How do we
act in the world? Does our organizing matter? From there we ask more specific questions. How do we as radical organizers, left activists and anarchists relate to elections and electoral politics in general? Are the elections an opportunity for strategic intervention or a waste of time? At the heart of all of these debates is the question of strategy.
Questions of strategy are always on my mind. Where are we going and how are we going to get there? I want to reflect on my personal relationship to electoral politics as an anarchist, because I think the presidential elections often get us debating tactics when really we need to think about strategy. The essay is based in my experience, because the most useful anarchist theory and strategy is often embedded in our practice. It is not a coincidence that the most widely read and cited anarchist text in the US is an autobiography called Living My Life by Emma Goldman.
Often I am not even aware of the assumptions and commitments embedded in my practice. I think we need to examine our practice so we can be clear about what our theory and strategy is in order to engage it and develop it. Our theory and strategy is embedded in our practice because we believe that the means lead to the ends, that how we engage in struggle is pre-figurative of the society that we want to live in. For anarchists, direct action is not just a tactic. Direct action is an expression of a deeper understanding of revolutionary transformation in which we take back our power and remake the world. Through direct struggle confronting institutions of injustice, we develop new understandings of ourselves and the world. These understandings help us build communities of empowerment, equality and mutual aid. Through communities of resistance we work to bring down systems of oppression in all their forms. By working to
implement our visions of the future society into our everyday lives and in our counter institutions, we seek to build the new world in the shell of the old.
I have often heard the argument that you cannot be an anarchist if you vote or participate in electoral politics. Voting is a tactic. As a tactic I know it is connected to core values about power and decision making, but if we're to develop meaningful strategy all of our tactics need to be evaluated and updated where need be. I'd like to make a distinction about core beliefs and tactics or actions that express core beliefs. For me, anarchism is fundamentally based in a belief in the capacity of people to share power with each other and through relationships, families, organizations, communities and institutions build societies based on having power with people rather then over people. Power with people forms the base of societies organized on principles of self-determination, cooperation and justice. Many of our tactics have been useful in expressing our core beliefs, but overall we are still far from being a
meaningful challenge to the ruling order of domination and exploitation. I want to think about our tactics, strategies and theories not only in terms of how they express our core beliefs, but how they help move us to living our core beliefs. We are largely successful practicing this in groups and communities of dozens. Our tactics, strategies and theories need to deal with societies of millions.
To read more go to:
http://www.infoshop.org/rants/crass_voting.html
Much love to the editorial crew on this essay: Nisha Anand, Clare Bayard, Dan Berger, Ingrid Chapman, Chris Dixon, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Jeff Giaquinto, Rahula Janowski, Sharon Martinas, Gabriel Sayegh and Josh Warren-White.
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[29 Apr 2004|02:51pm] |
this is all being brought to you word by word via ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) insomnia, slackerwink, and that cracka white boy throwingstardna
Last night, CBS' 60 Minutes Two aired allegations—supported by numerous photographs and witnesses—that document numerous cases of torture and abuse of Iraqi prisoners inside Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
Amongst the photographs were pictures of prisoners with wires attached to their genitals, prisoners stacked in a pyramid, prisoners forced to simulate oral sex on others, and prisoners who appear to have been beaten to death.
The New York Times is now covering this story. A total of 17 soldiers, including a brigadier general, have been removed from duty as a result, and Court-Martials are in the works for at least six soldiers. At least one of those charged blames the military for staffing the prison with reservists, not providing them with procedures for running the facility, and not educating them on the proper treatment of prisoners.
More bad and potentially inflammatory news at a bad time. The pictures are already circulating out there and other articles are already in the works, so it's a safe bet that the pictures will be broadcast on Arab television very shortly—just like they were on CBS.
Of course, there is deafening silence over at ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) conservatism
and the other bastions of righteousness, although you can rest assured that if our POWs were ever treated like this, they'd be howling like rabid banshees—as would I.
Like Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt very correctly stated:
"If we can't hold ourselves up as an example of how to treat people with dignity and respect, we can't ask that other nations do that to our soldiers."
This Iraqi prisoner had electrical wires wrapped around his arms, his legs, and his testicles. He was told that if he stepped off the box, that he would be electrocuted.
They were forced to get up on one of another in a pyramid, with bags over their heads.
They're in that pyramid, bodies stacked up on one another, and those two soldier guards are grinning like it's some big fun game to play with the prisoners.
They were forced to do oral sex on each other at gunpoint.
A big, wide smile on the woman's face as she does a thumbs-up and points at the exposed genitals of the Iraq man with his two other prisoners sitting on the ground with bags over their heads.
Again, there are the smiles and the thumbs-up gesture while the Iraqi man huddles on the bodies of his other prisoners in that pyramid.
This is the body of an Iraqi man who died of beatings at the hands of the American soldiers.
So how should Iraqis feel towards American soldiers? Nice war heroes huh?
and i realize that some of you might think that everything above is an isolated innocent of some crazy soldiers have some "fun" - but it's not.. what else did you think would happen in Iraq? when in fact this is how the people of Iraq are being liberated by US soldiers
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[28 Apr 2004|03:42pm] |
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| So as an American do you feel any safe? is our world a better place? |
[26 Apr 2004|10:18am] |
You all know about the website http://www.thememoryhole.org/ they were one of the first websites to publish pictures of US military coffins taken by a women who worked for a contrator in Kuwait.. well the website is now down.. and as you know the women who took the pictures was fired along w/ her husband.
Couple fired over photos of U.S. coffins from Iraq
Seeing America's losses
U.S. Military Affirms TV Cover Ban on Iraq Coffins
oh man oh man..Unless you didn't know there was pretty much a huge media blackout when the fighting in Falluja, Iraq was going on between insurgents and American military.. now that SOME of the fighting had died down, actual reports are starting to emerge.. a lot of these reports are coming from INTERNATIONAL medical groups who got caught in the cross fire. BBC is reporting 750 deaths in just 1 week, while other reports are saying the # is close to 2,000. Thousands fled the city while the fighting was going, and a lot of homes were destroyed while innocent civilians were shot.
 
The head of mission of a European humanitarian agency with staff in Falluja told BBC News Online that, according to his staff, two of their ambulances had been shot at."By who? The probability is by US snipers," he said.Asked whether these were warning or attacking shots, he said: "One was shot two or three times - a sniper does not shoot an ambulance three times by mistake."British aid worker Jo Wilding said an ambulance she was in, with flashing lights, siren blaring and "ambulance" written on it in English, was hit as it drove to collect a woman in premature labor.
"We thought we would be safe in Na'amiya," said Mr Abbas. "We were sleeping outside on the ground when the planes and helicopters came. It was 2am. My son wanted to become a surgeon, but now that can never be. They even prevented us evacuating the wounded. It was hours before we could get Othman out."
Remember this guy? Mr.Chalabi who was one of the leading "experts" that swore up and down that Iraq was full of WMD before the war?? remember him and his organization.. this asshole has now been proven to be a liar
The CIA, State Department, and Congress are all pointing fingers at Ahmad Chalabi, the wealthy Iraqi exile who produced a string of defectors whose stories lead to the conclusion that Saddam Hussein posed an "imminent threat" to the United States.
yet he still sits on the CIA payroll.. but i guess now they the US gov. has really come to terms and realized that he's no longer useful and are trying to get rid of him..
Leading Iraqi Governing Council (IGC) member Ahmed Chalabi has insisted he is not being politically sidelined. He was reacting to a report by US paper The Washington Post that Iraq's next interim government will exclude most IGC members, including Mr Chalabi.
While all this Bull shit is going on the US is hiring and placing so called "evil" Baathis party members to run the most crucial parts of the new Iraqi government and military, they are handing them weapons that they took away from them just a short time ago..
The US-led coalition continues to argue that there is no room in the new Iraq for the Baathist ideology and for the most senior members of Saddam Hussein's regime, but the coalition now admits that the implementation of this policy has been poor and must be reformed. Hence the decision to recruit teachers, doctors and most controversially of all, former members of the Iraqi armed forces.
oh and something to make you either laugh or throw up.. The republican campaign is funneling a lot of $$ down South and saying that Bush is going to win the elections due to the help of NASCAR nation and NASCAR fans.. CNN had some reporters at some NASCAR race this weekend and you it showed them interviewing people and the fans said shit like "We are blue collar workers, and we are sick of our jobs being sent oversears" and the next minute they would say "we love Bush!" and CNN even took a swipe at them by showing all the corporate logos that cover the race cars.. yet somehow these "fans" have a hard time making the connection between being a blue collar worker/not appreciating those jobs being sent overseas and corporate logos and Bush..
eehhh.. read on.. it'll make you KRRIIIII
"He's just a great American," said Terry Labonte, a Bush supporter and fellow Texan. "In times like this, I'm glad we've got someone like him in office."....."I guess most of 'em just have a lot of common sense," he said, referring to his fellow drivers and Republicans. "I like to say we're true Americans. We don't fall for as much ... as those guys on the other side of the aisle."
President Bush throttled up his re-election campaign Sunday by donning a racing jacket and opening the Daytona 500, NASCAR's most prestigious event and one that draws a prized voter profile
hahahhahahaha i found this yesterday.. read the comments that people left.. they are funny. hahahahaha
Costco Wholesale Corp. Chairman Jeffrey Brotman and CEO James Sinegal gave $95,000 each in December to a political fund that aims to defeat President Bush in the November election, records filed with the Internal Revenue Service show. Brotman and Sinegal were among 25 people who gave a combined $7.9 million to the Joint Victory Campaign 2004 fund, which seeks to "change the course of the country away from the Bush administration's radical agenda" and elect "progressive" candidates, according to the fund's Web site.
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[20 Apr 2004|02:38pm] |
AFL-CIO in Venezuela
Deja Vu All Over Again
By KIM SCIPES
Massive mobilizations, strikes, street conflict, hysterical mass
media, social and economic disruption: Chile in 1972-73 Venezuela in 2002-04.
The AFL-CIO is once again on the scene, this time in Venezuela, just as it was in Chile in 1973. Once again, its operations in that country are being funded by the U.S. government. This time, the money is being laundered through the quasi-governmental National Endowment for Democracy, hidden from AFL-CIO members and the American public.
Once again, it is being used to support the efforts of reactionary
labor and business leaders, helping to destabilize a democratically-elected
government that has made major efforts to alleviate poverty, carried out significant land reform in both urban and rural areas, and striven to change political institutions that have long worked to marginalize those at the lowest rungs in society. And also like Allende's Chile, Venezuela's government under president Hugo Chavez has opposed a number of actions by the U.S. Government, this time by the Bush Administration.
( Read more... )
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[18 Apr 2004|07:20pm] |
I hope you are all watching Bob Woodward on 60 minutes right now.. cuz im like WOAH!
more later..
oh and if anyone taped it, can you please tell me cuz im willing to trade a book or something for a video tape of it, i don't want to have to buy it
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[14 Mar 2004|07:38pm] |
I wanted to share two impressive studies that I have been following lately.. now the first one has to do with anorexia.. but in NO WAY am i promoting it.. I just think that it's an interesting study.. if you would like more details on how it was conducted or just to talk about it please leave me a comment and i'll talk to you about it (but it will have to wait until next week, cuz im going out of town this week)
I personally believe that we human beings are not designed to eat 3x a day.. I think that our bodies have been designed to go periods of time without food. we are not made to go to drive through windows and consume 3,000-4,000 calories in one sitting.. I don't even think that most humans need 2,000 calories a day.. we are not even built to eat high levels of processed or even COOKED food.. And that is why I found the study fascinating
A new study on anorexia sheds light on why women in developing countries have lower incidence of breast cancer than other women: calorie intake is the key...Studies with animals have found that when they eat substantially less than normal, they live longer and have fewer diseases, including breast tumours.It is also known that women in developing countries have significantly lower rates of breast cancer, says lead researcher Dr Anders Ekbom, a professor of epidemiology at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden
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The Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) report
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retrospective study done in Sweden found that a group of women who were hospitalized for anorexia nervosa when they were younger had 53% less breast cancer. This suggests that body weight, especially around puberty, is a major factor in determining a woman's risk of subsequently developing breast cancer.
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now switching gears.. this study is just real real interesting.. i started to read about this Nov 2003.. but more and more is coming out.. and all i can say is wow!
A regular dose of two common antibiotics shows promise in delaying the onset of Alzheimer's disease, according to a new Canadian study.The research lends credence to the notion that common bacterial infections might play a role in determining who is stricken with the debilitating neurological disorder. It also offers hope of a cheap, simple treatment for Alzheimer's, a condition for which there is virtually no effective treatment.
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Surprisingly subtle differences in gene content appear to account for the stunningly large number of diseases caused by the Chlamydiae family of bacteria in a wide range of animal hosts that the pathogens infect, a new study suggests.
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this week presented preliminary findings that two common antibiotics may afford some relief from the ravages of Alzheimer's disease. The antibiotics, doxycycline and rifampin, are both highly effective against a respiratory bug known as Chlamydia pneumonia, which some earlier research suggested may play a role in the development of Alzheimer's.
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| The Blame Game - oh what a tangled web we weave.. |
[07 Mar 2004|10:41pm] |
So it's all coming out kids. Guess what? there are no weapons of mass destruction! SHOCKED?? im not.. and remember those mobile biological weapons labs the Colin Powell along w/ conservatives kept babbling about? well low and behold that was full of shit too....
the funniest part of all this is that the President and CIA wants to pass the buck now that all this is coming, and of course because it's election year. Who does he want to pass the buck to?? a wealthy Iraqi citizen named Ahmad Chalabi who is charge of an organization called the Iraqi National Congress.... This man has been on the CIA payroll for YEARS and along with other key members of his organization helped create some of the most explosive fake "evidence" as a cause of war against Iraq. Well guess what Mr.President, try to walk around it and pretend that you had no fucking clue what was going on or who this guy was but this war, and the lies that lead this country to war happened ON YOUR WATCH! you are not a typical American citizen, you have an obligation to know where evidence used for a war that has killed 10,000 innocent Iraqi Civilians comes from... you were supposed to know better
dumb piece of shit.
This is a picture of Ahmad Chalabi, he stands accused of misleading the U.S. about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. But guess what kids? He still sits on the new Iraqi council and wants to become the prime minister of Iraq.. and there's more.. he's getting paid $350,000 a MONTH.. and guess who's paying?? JUST GUESS.. YOU ARE!
The CIA, State Department, and Congress are all pointing fingers at Ahmad Chalabi, the wealthy Iraqi exile who produced a string of defectors whose stories lead to the conclusion that Saddam Hussein posed an "imminent threat" to the United States.
Now, a postwar analysis by the government of Chalabi's defectors has found that many of them exaggerated - and that their information about weapons of mass destruction and Saddam Hussein's links to Al Qaeda was wrong.
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[02 Mar 2004|07:53pm] |
hmmm interesting...
http://www.king5.com/health/stories/NW_022504HEKbriefs.2a83bca2.html
Soy bad for men's fertility
New research suggests that too much soy may play a role in male infertility. Scientists at the Queen's University in Belfast, Northern Ireland, established the link. Scientists found that soy contains the female hormone estrogen and men who consume large amounts of soy may produce low-quality sperm. Since most processed foods contain soy, researchers say men can avoid excess amounts of estrogen by eating fresh fruit and preparing meals at home.
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FURTHER
http://www.nypost.com/health/16577.htm
February 26, 2004 -- Soybeans may contribute to male infertility, researchers say.
That's because soy contains the female hormone estrogen - and eating too much of it has been linked to poor-quality sperm, according to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
"What many men do not realize is that soy is not just consumed by vegetarians, it is contained in a lot of everyday . . . foods," said Dr. Lorraine Anderson, who led the study.
"It is contained in foods such as pizzas . . . [and] some pre-packaged dinners."
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Is It Safe to Eat Soy?
By Virginia Messina, MPH, RD & Mark Messina, PhD
No doubt you've heard lots of good things about soyfoods. According to a health claim sanctioned by the FDA, they can help to fight heart disease. 1 They may also make your bones stronger. 2, 3 And the biggest news about soyfoods over the past decade has been that they contain cancer-fighting compounds. 4
But just as it seemed that things couldn't get any better for soy, articles began to pop up on the saying that the pro-soy stories are nothing more than hype--and that the real scoop on soy is not nearly as positive. In fact, the stories say, eating soy could endanger your health. These claims against soy include allegations that it raises cancer risk, and causes nutrient deficiencies, osteoporosis, thyroid problems, reproductive difficulties, and Alzheimer's Disease.
Making your way through the controversy can be confusing, especially since some of what the soy naysayers claim is based on some scientific data--although this doesn't mean that their conclusions are right. And it's true that some soy proponents may overstate the benefits of soy. Hopefully, we can tread a more even path here and convince you that, while soyfoods may not be the answer to all your problems, and while there certainly are a few unanswered questions, you can include soyfoods in a balanced and healthful vegan diet. ( Read more... )
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| here we go again.. no lessons learned. |
[29 Feb 2004|10:10am] |
As the barricades burned in the capital city around him, and with a rebel army on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, Jean-Bertrand Aristide fought for his political life as Haitian president right until the end. Alone, he negotiated with senior US officials until the early hours of this morning, insisting that he should remain until the end of his elected term in 2006. According to one source, he resisted even while going up the stairs to the aircraft alongside his wife and some 40 aides.
Haiti's President Jean-Bertrand Aristide has gone into exile after a three-week rebellion against him, saying he wanted to avoid bloodshed....In a statement, Mr Aristide said: "The constitution should not drown in the blood of the Haitian people...If my resignation is to prevent bloodshed, I accept to leave."
THE ARISTIDE YEARS
1990: Haiti's first democratically elected president
1991: Overthrown in military coup; exiled to US
1994: Reinstated; forbidden from standing for second consecutive term
2000: Wins contested elections
2004 - Jan: Haiti celebrates 200 years of independence, amid growing political protests
Feb 10: (approx) Exiled rebel leaders cross back into Haiti; capture north of country
Feb 29: Aristide leaves Haiti
Democracy Now! aired a special show Friday afternoon on the latest from Haiti where opposition groups with ties to the U.S. are preparing to invade the capital city of Port Au Prince. We spoke with Haitian First Lady Mildred Aristide, independent reporter Kevin Pina in Haiti, U.S. Reps. John Conyers (D-MI) and Maxine Waters (D-CA) and attorney Michael Ratner.
To listen to this special broadcast, you can download the show in MP3 format here or in OGG format here.
TRANSCRIPT
This transcript is available free of charge, however donations help us provide closed captioning for the deaf and hard of hearing on our TV broadcast. Thank you for your generous contribution.
Donate - $25, $50, $100, more...
AMY GOODMAN: From Pacifica Radio, this is a special report: “Haiti in Crisis.” I’m Amy Goodman, host of “Democracy Now!” At this hour the streets of Port-au-Prince are barricaded, President Aristide and his wife, Mildred Aristide, are inside the palace. Armed gangs, paramilitaries are moving closer towards the capital of Port-au-Prince. Reports are that they have seized the town of Mirebalais, only 30 miles away, after taking the southern port of Les Cayes, Haiti’s third largest city; but it is difficult to determine the accuracy of all this because there is a major disinformation that is going on. US Secretary of State Colin Powell has come very close to telling President Aristide that he should bow out as President before his term expires, February 2006. He told reporters whether or not he is able to effectively continue as President is something he will have to examine carefully in the interests of the Haitian people. The Reverend Jesse Jackson, visiting Libya, urged the United States to protect Aristide. Jackson said, “Unless something happens immediately, the President could be killed.” He said, “We must not allow that to happen to that democracy. We must give the best troops to Haiti to protect the President’s compound.” In this hour we turn to the palace where I just got off the phone with the first lady of Haiti, Mildred Aristide. This is the full tape of what she had to say.
MILDRED ARISTIDE: Amy, it’s Mildred Aristide.
AMY GOODMAN: Hi. I thank you very much for calling. Why don’t we just speak right away, and, that is, are you afraid for your life and for your husband’s life?
MILDRED ARISTIDE: OK. The situation is quite critical. The thugs and the FRAPH and the military, who are heavily armed in the north, are sending messages repeatedly on the airways in Haiti, that they stand ready at any moment to storm Port-au-Prince. And here in Port-au-Prince, the population has erected - I am looking out the window – lots of barricades along the streets to prevent an attack. Security is at a heightened situation, but the president’s resolve is very strong, as he indicated yesterday and through to this morning that what is important in this moment for Haiti, in terms of the future of Haiti, is to establish the stability and the political stability that Haiti has never had, and for there to be a continuity of governance from one president to the next. ( Read more... )
Profiles of Guy Philippe: The rebelling soldier. Guy Philippe, who is emerging as the leader of the armed rebellion against President Aristide's rule, had promised to celebrate his 36th birthday in the Haitian capital on Sunday....His critics allege a questionable human rights record and point to rumoured involvement with military dictator Jean-Claude ("Baby Doc") Duvalier's regime in the 1980s.
In 1990, Mr Aristide was first elected president, but within a year had been overthrown in a coup and was exiled to the United States. Mr Philippe, who was by then in the army, escaped to Ecuador, where he allegedly received training from US Special Forces as part of the US campaign to reinstate Mr Aristide. He returned to Haiti in 1994, after Mr Aristide had been restored to power. In 1995 - fearing another coup attempt - Mr Aristide disbanded the army. Mr Philippe was incorporated into the new National Police Force, eventually serving as police chief in Cap-Haitien.
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[27 Feb 2004|05:13pm] |
For almost 4 1/2 mon. over 70,000 grocery store workers have been holding the picket line and striking for basic rights that they deserve. In the rain and in the cold they continued the this LONG strike and finally there seems to be an end.. read on..
Grocery store workers on strike have reached a Tentative Contract Agreement! The United Food and Commercial Workers union prepared today to stage two days of weekend voting for the rank and file, so its members can ratify a draft agreement to end the longest supermarket strike in U.S. history.
The Los Angeles Times Web site reported that both sides in the Southern California dispute came away with some victories:
• The stores could pay lower wages and benefits to new employees, resulting in a two-tier system of employee pay.
• The stores could cap how much they pay for health insurance.
• The unions persuaded the stores to contribute more money into the workers' health care fund. Veteran employees would not have to pay for their health care coverage for at least two years.
Grocery workers will decide whether to end their 41/2-month-old Southern California supermarket strike this weekend during a two-day vote on a tentative contract agreement.
Supermarket strike timeline
By staff reports
2003
Oct. 5: Contract between Southern California's three largest grocery chains and their 70,000 union employees expires.
Oct. 8: United Food and Commercial Workers members begin strike authorization vote.
Oct. 10: The UFCW announces that 97 percent of its workers approved striking, with a majority of the membership casting ballots.
Oct. 10: A federal mediator meets with supermarket and union officials to avoid a work stoppage; discussions last through midnight, but no progress is made.
Oct. 11: Workers strike Vons and Pavilions stores in Southern California after a second marathon day of negotiations proves fruitless.
Oct. 12: Albertson's and Ralphs lock out their workers in a show of solidarity by the companies; in all, 859 stores are affected between the Mexican border and Santa Santa Barbara.
Oct. 18: The first weekend of the strike clarifies its extreme impact on supermarket business, as many Los Angeles grocery stores are completely deserted.
Oct. 22: A union actuary spells out the union's take on the effects of the proposed cuts to medical benefits; supermarkets say the cost to employees will be $5 to $15 weekly, whereas the union actuary says the true cost will be closer to $100 per week.
Oct. 28: Supermarket pharmacists, who are covered by a separate contract, stop honoring the picket lines and return to work.
Oct. 30: The AFL-CIO President John Sweeney announces the creation of a strike fund called ``Hold the Line for Health Care'' to back the UFCW strike in Southern California.
Oct. 31: The UFCW announces that it will remove picket lines from Ralphs in order to ease the inconvenience of the strike on the public _ who were also coping with the wildfires and the MTA strike _ and focus more pressure on Vons and Albertson's.
Oct. 31: A parallel grocery strike in St. Louis is resolved through federal mediation after 25 days of stoppage.
Nov. 10: Federally mediated negotiations resume with Peter J. Hurtgen, director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service.
Nov. 12: After a day-and-a-half of mediation, Hurtgen declares a recess.
Nov. 22: Mediation resumes in hopes of ending the strike before Thanksgiving, one of the busiest shopping seasons of the year, but again recess without a resolution.
Nov. 25: The Teamsters truckers and warehouse workers agree to honor picket lines at the supermarkets' nine regional distribution centers, cutting of the supply chains just days before Thanksgiving.
Dec. 1: Attorney General Bill Lockyer announces a probe into a revenue-sharing pact by the supermarket chains to blunt losses. Negotiations resume.
Dec. 5: Albertson's releases third quarter earnings report, revealing $119 million in losses over the first 19 days of the strike; third quarter profits dropped 51 percent from the same period the previous year.
Dec. 7: After six days of mediation, Hurtgen calls another recess without making any headway on the major issues.
Dec. 9: A grocery store strike between Ralphs' parent company, Kroger Co., and 3,300 union employees in West Virginia, Ohio, and Kentucky is settled.
Dec. 16: Hundreds of labor leaders from across the nation, including head of the AFL-CIO Sweeney, rally in Century City and declare that the strike is going national; the union's strike fund gathers more than $4 million in donations.
Dec. 19: Another round of negotiations breaks down after the companies reject a union contract proposal.
2004
Jan. 11: Four days of secret negotiations in San Francisco break down.
Jan. 15: UFCW International leaders secretly meet with company executives in Denver for yet another fruitless discussion.
Jan. 16: Some, but not all, UFCW locals send pickets back to select Ralphs stores demonstrating that the seven Southern California locals lack a uniform strategy.
Jan. 19: Workers mark the 100th day of the strike by marching in the annual Martin Luther King Day parade.
Jan. 20: The AFL-CIO calls for its membership across the nation to commence a broader effort against the supermarkets. Longshoremen contribute $155,000 to the strike fund.
Jan. 21: CalPERS, the state retirement fund with more than $75 million invested in Safeway, pressures the chain to end the strike.
Jan. 27: Religious leaders and striking workers embarked on a ``pilgrimage'' to Safeway CEO Steve Burd's house in the San Francisco Bay Area. Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony sends a letter calling for Burd to settle the dispute quickly.
Jan. 30: Attorney General Bill Lockyer announces he will sue the grocery stores for a mutual aid pact involving all three chains and Food 4 Less, claiming the pact violates federal antitrust laws.
Feb. 4: UFCW leaders propose binding arbitration to end the strike, a move that the companies quickly decline. Supermarket officials then call the federal mediator to request a resumption of negotiations.
Feb. 5: Hurtgen calls on both sides to try to resume negotiations, while union supporters rally on Wall Street to pressure investors to drop shares of the chains' stocks.
Feb. 10: Union leaders and company officials meet with Hurtgen at a secret location for the first formal talks in nearly two months.
Feb. 12: Safeway Inc. reports $696 million in fourth quarter losses, attributing more than $100 million to the strike. Analysts shrug off the losses, while unions latch on.
Feb. 26: Negotiators announce a tentative contract settlement.
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[21 Feb 2004|10:54pm] |
Malcolm X was gunned down on February 21, 1965.
At a speaking engagement in the Manhattan's Audubon Ballroom on February 21, 1965 three gunmen rushed Malcolm onstage. They shot him 15 times at close range. The 39-year-old was pronounced dead on arrival at New York's Columbia Presbyterian Hospital.
Fifteen hundred people attended Malcolm's funeral in Harlem on February 27, 1965 at the Faith Temple Church of God in Christ (now Child's Memorial Temple Church of God in Christ). After the ceremony, friends took the shovels away from the waiting gravediggers and buried Malcolm themselves.
Later that year, Betty gave birth to their twin daughters.
Malcolm's assassins, Talmadge Hayer, Norman 3X Butler and Thomas 15X Johnson were convicted of first-degree murder in March 1966.
http://www.cmgww.com/historic/malcolm/home.php
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