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Activists find camera inside box on power pole near union organizer’s home

fox13memphis.com

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Re: Activists find camera inside box on power pole near union organizer’s home

#171

Post by BryantD »

briandear wrote: post #125
rbg246 wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unions bring far more good to society than bad to society. They have given the non-landed class of people a life that even a century ago was unheard of. Countries that have decent levels of union involvement have much better working conditions and standard of living than countries that don't. Blaming unions for failed companies is incredibly flimsy argument against unions as a whole. Sure there are unions that contri…

The OP said it was never in a union’s interest to harm a company. And I provided counter arguments where they did exactly that. Unions reward mediocrity and the self interest of the union leaders at the expense of society as a whole. You pay a union worker more, that means that everyone else pays for it through higher prices. They also diminish the agency of the individual. Everyone is average. The US has a union mem…

French unions bargain on behalf of the entire sector, and the government enforces the deals even for non-union workers. Comparisons between French unionization rates and US unionization rates are not entirely valuable.

Re: Activists find camera inside box on power pole near union organizer’s home

#172

Post by fallingfrog »

dragonwriter wrote: post #77
smabie wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Police have existed long before democracy (and socialism). Also I don't follow on how democracy implies socialism.

> Also I don't follow on how democracy implies socialism. Political and economic power are different names for the same thing; pretending they are different and one can be distributed equally when the other is intensely concentrated is self-delusion.

+1 exactly

Re: Activists find camera inside box on power pole near union organizer’s home

#173

Post by esarbe »

crististm wrote: post #133
riffic wrote: post #10

Nothing mysterious about this. Surveillance has long been a known tactic of capital's resistance to what it deems a threat.

Is it possible that you're confusing capital(ism) with totalitarianism?

Could be that the two words are actually naming the same thing.

Re: Activists find camera inside box on power pole near union organizer’s home

#174

Post by esarbe »

peteretep wrote: post #79
riffic wrote: post #10

Nothing mysterious about this. Surveillance has long been a known tactic of capital's resistance to what it deems a threat.

Ah yes, it’s the response of _capital_, which explains the lack of surveillance in Communist states

The tool of one set of mad men might well be the tool of another set of mad men.

Re: Activists find camera inside box on power pole near union organizer’s home

#175

Post by kortilla »

angry_octet wrote: post #169
kortilla wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Calling Ayn Rand Capitalism extremist is a Fox talking point now? Isn’t that channel usually associated with right wing extremism? Is it possible that you didn’t understand the point I was making and you retreated into a political tribe reaction?

You should re-parse that sentence, because you're misrepresenting what I wrote.

You claimed I was regurgitating a Fox talking point. What talking point do you think that is?

Re: Activists find camera inside box on power pole near union organizer’s home

#176

Post by kortilla »

tsimionescu wrote: post #165
kortilla wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The government does not side with capital. If it did, we wouldn’t have unions at all, minimum wage, etc. Standard Oil would still be dominating and AT&T would never have been broken up. To say the government serves capital, even in the US, is laughably wrong. Look at the mandate of the Federal Reserve, it’s literally designed for maximum employment. The government serves those in power, many of whom are rich. Being r…

The fact that it's not 100% dedicated to capital's desires does not mean that it doesn't essentially serve it. Sure, if it were a purely capitalist state, we'd all be slaves, bought and sold by corporations, and we're not there of course. But in monetary policy, employee benefits, tax breaks, environmental protection, social securityand virtually any other domain you care to name, government cares about the interests…

So you admit it’s not dedicated to capital’s desires. Therefore the police are not there to serve capital, it’s that simple. They are agents of the government and whatever its interests are, which is serving those in power.

More refutations of how these are not in the interests of capital.

Monetary policy does not serve capital (see employment mandate).

Environmental protection does not serve capital (see the very establishment of the EPA).

Social security does not serve capital (it’s an unfunded liability that will need funding through further taxation or inflation).

The covid bailouts and current policies are destructive to capital. (Real negative interest rates are destroying capital)

Re: Activists find camera inside box on power pole near union organizer’s home

#177

Post by angry_octet »

kortilla wrote: post #175
angry_octet wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should re-parse that sentence, because you're misrepresenting what I wrote.

You claimed I was regurgitating a Fox talking point. What talking point do you think that is?

The TP I'm referring to is the oft repeated idea that young people can't coherently weigh options because they are young, have no responsibilities, don't earn money etc. That's not what I see in the young people (approx 15-25) I know.

Oh and that when they are older they'll all become conservative voters of some type in the political centre, but that's another thread.

Re: Activists find camera inside box on power pole near union organizer’s home

#178

Post by thunkpad »

SpicyLemonZest wrote: post #121
thunkpad wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As far as I understand they are "partisan" not by design but as a result of representing their interests (which, in my opinion, should always represent the aggregate of the workers the union represents -- which is sadly not so) Please do correct me if I'm wrong! That's my favorite way to learn. I've grown a lot from being the least-informed gal in the room.

I'd agree with that understanding, but it only makes it so much better, since it still means a union can end up supporting candidates or legislation that I oppose even though they might be bad for my career interests.

Oh absolutely. We aren't going to fix the external (relative to unions) conditions of labor by creating a more perfect union.

Re: Activists find camera inside box on power pole near union organizer’s home

#179

Post by crististm »

esarbe wrote: post #173
crististm wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it possible that you're confusing capital(ism) with totalitarianism?

Could be that the two words are actually naming the same thing.

Yes. Not these two though
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