May Day in Oakland--Protest and Repression

New Oakland Police Tank

Bloodlust on the part of the O.P.D. began just after noon in downtown Oakland when the boys and babes in blue trotted out their latest toy, a tank-like armored police vehicle. This early afternoon show of irrational force included flash-bang grenades, tear-gas and warnings to get off the streets and into the Plaza and served mainly to infuriate all present who care about freedom of speech and assembly.

The group proceeded to City Hall under this armed escort battalion. The central theater of protest then moved to the Fruitvale neighborhood where thousands of people were lining up for the 3pm March for Dignity and Resistance. The group was animated, diverse and dedicated. The march was long and full of music and drumming. We stopped for a rally in San Antonio Park before proceeding into downtown Oakland at about 6pm. Police behaved themselves perhaps due to crowd size and multiple witnesses from porches and windows.

Black Block protesters were present as well with their flags and shields and masks. The only vandalism I witnessed was when one member threw a rock at a Fox News van. If I'd been younger, I'd probably have done the same. The TV news, of course, was loaded down with the evening skirmishes between police and marchers. We had already left by the time the night heated up.

Demonstrations like these, while gratifying, can no longer be the focus of the 99% Movement. Now, we have to get serious and do the hard work of organizing and mobilizing behind the scenes if we are ever going to see real change in this country. They can roll over us physically but they can't stop our resistance. To quote Emile Zola, "The truth is on the march and nothing shall stop it."

Approaching the End of Working Life

I just can't face any more contract concessions at my workplace. The last negotiations didn't go well. They began with pink slips from Gavin Newsom and his city cohorts and ended with pay cuts and furlough days. Only the MUNI transportation workers resisted the bad deal and voted no on workers shouldering the financial pain. 

I fought hard against the concessions but, like a cat who refuses to go gently into her box to be taken to the vet, all that kicking, scratching and stretching out my claws to hold onto the sides was wasted energy, I knew that, in spite of my best efforts, I would wind up in that box. It was easy to see that the people pushing me there were not only bigger and stronger but had all the power and authority on their side. 

So, I accepted the vet and life in the box and it's really not that bad because I am in the company of the finest of felines. Knowing this has served to make my demotion back into the class from which I came not only tolerable but a starting point for organizing. 

With new contract negotiation going on combined with the fact of my advancing age and a far more oppressive workplace, I have decided to bid adieu to the working world and spend the rest of my days writing, dismantling capitalism and traveling. I am so lucky to have a pension, and eventually I will also have social security, so that I can make this decision. 

At first, the thought of breaking with work was hard, what would I do with all that unstructured time? Now, it seems difficult to believe that I was able to make the demands of work palatable at all. In psychology this process is called resolving cognitive dissonance. 

I will be a retired librarian soon. They say when one door closes another opens, so I'm looking forward to not being stuck in that proverbial hallway too long. My conscious keeps repeating, Close the door, Joan, close that goddamn door! "Blow out your candles, Laura...and so goodbye."

Management Manipulation of an Economic Crisis

Richard Wolff

One of my favorite economists, the open and unabashedly Marxist Richard Wolff, states the following about a concept very foreign to American workers, democracy in the workplace. He begins by commenting that for a democracy-loving people, Americans sure do make a glaring exception for the world of work:

"If democracy belongs anywhere, it belongs in the workplace. Yet we accept, as if it were a given, that once we cross the threshold of our store, factory, or office, we give up all democratic rights. If this agreement at least delivered a rising standard of living, it might make sense that people would accept it. But now we have an economic system that imposes an undemocratic workplace and doesn’t deliver a decent economy in exchange."

Wolff finds it both stunning and amazing that a freedom-loving, group of people who extol the virtues of individual initiative should find an authoritarian-style work environment inevitable.He finds the uncritical acceptance of status hierarchy not only oppressive to workers but counter to productivity as well. 

Of course, the fact that co-operative style workplaces where everyone has a voice and an interest in the organization's success operate more efficiently and humanely is a no-brainer. Even when the product is public service at, for example, a large urban library, a democratic workplace could improve both morale and efficiency, making the institution more relevant and meaningful to all who are involved in its operation.

The current concept of increasing productivity involves a certain type of management that plays down any human commonality between those on the serving end of instruction and those receiving it. This strategy is basically just the sugar-coating of a management manifesto of manipulation. The workshop tips that proliferate in the civil service workplace are indicative of the contempt in which employees are held.  

What exactly are these apprentice managers, some of whom make only about $5,000 a year more than their charges, learning? Shocking, anti-human things like how to avoiding exchanging personal information or having any kind of a genuine relationship with inferiors. They are boning up on ways to ward off and field questions from underlings in order to avoid any degree understanding or emotional intimacy. They are provided a treasure trove of stock phrases to parrot back regarding sick pay, vacation pay or any kind of personal leave. In short, the foundation of this "management training" consists of indoctrination in the "skills" of remaining aloof and barking out directives at people who are assumed to be lazy, devious, potential scammers.

I have worked at my library workplace for seventeen years and have, of late, witnessed its deterioration into a sweat shop. It started when the San Francisco City Librarian gave birth to the idea to keep on only a skeletal staff. This wasn't done by layoffs but simply by no replacement workers being hired after folks move on or retire. This natural attrition has left a skeletal staff in the place where a full staff used to be. A micro-staff that is expected to work just as hard as the full staff used to. Why not five hours a day on the public desk instead of three? Why not have everyone work some evenings and weekend days? Why not have one person order books in three subject areas instead of just one?

This kind of "experiment" is taking place right now in workplaces across the country: speeding up production as salaries drop due to furlough days, fewer sick and vacation days, increased employee contributions to health and pension benefits or the elimination of these benefits altogether.

Yes, if nothing changes the workplace for the "lucky" few employed workers of the future will be upper management's wet dream and the working stiff's nightmare. The way they put it on 60 Minutes was that it's a "buyer's market" for employers. But all it really means is the value of labor has become dirt cheap and those who perform it, totally expendable.

Working for a Paycheck is Not a Choice

Ann Romney

With the latest flap between strategist for the Democrats, Hillary Rosen and obscenely wealthy wife of Republican candidate Mitt Romney making headlines, I feel compelled to interject some comments about well off folks, not just one-per-centers, and the shackles of the brutal, capitalist workplace.

First off, when Hilary Rosen when states that, "Ann Romney has never worked a day in her life," it's true she is not including the drudgery of child rearing, a dirty job in which many of us have consciously chosen never to participate. I'm also sure that Ms. Romney had tons of options for help available to her on days she wasn't feeling quite up to snuff because that is what wealth is all about: options. The single mother who cleans houses, sells drugs, or turns tricks for a living doesn't have options. She doesn't have health care, she doesn't even have a paycheck. The waitress may have some of these perks and the factory worker may have a few more but, none of them possess the luxury of sitting on their butts at home and focusing on child-rearing.

Having choices holds a value far beyond the material world. When you are speaking of creative pursuits, meaningful work, or landing that dream job, the cushion that money provides is not just psychological and physical well being. It provides the ability to keep searching or just wait until that life-affirming work appears. Take a mainstream Democratic Party politician like Nancy Pelosi. She may not be a member of the one percent, but her father was mayor of Baltimore, her hometown. She interned first, without pay and didn't take a job until the right political plum came along. And yes, after that she did work for a paycheck.

Many folks with cushions and safety nets use this strategy. I had a personal friend who wanted to work in computers. She went to a lot of classes and investigated all kinds of programming, all the while with help from her family. She didn't have to take a job until she found just the right fit at thirty years of age.

If you don't have this cushion, you must take whatever comes along whether it is meaningful or politically correct or not.You have neither the leisure to wait nor the connections to mine. This, of course, puts you at a disadvantage that lasts throughout your working life.

So Ann Romney when your only "job" is managing your household staff, dropping in on the children after they have been cleaned up and prepped by teachers and nannies and campaigning for your hubby, I would hardly describe that as work. Miss Ann and her husband Mitt couldn't be more removed from salt of the earth concerns. Their privilege is pale, thick and heavy and, like cream that has been sitting in the sun too long, has begun to ferment and smell.

Writers and Access to Privilege

Jane Austen, Member
of the Landed Gentry

Due to the advent of Adrienne Rich's recent passing, I have been thinking quite a bit about how status, money and access to the political power that comes with it greases the wheels to public creative expression. Since Rich's death I have learned that her father was a physician, medical researcher and professor at John Hopkins University. Her mother was a concert pianist and composer. 

While engaged in processing gift books for the library, I came across Rita Mae Brown's biography, "Rita Will." I always thought Brown was a bit of a snob. One of the main things I remember about her opus, "Rubyfruit Jungle," was that there was only one Jewish family in her Southern town and they smelled bad. She also openly criticized lesbians who weren't "good-looking" enough, I assume, by her arbitrary white, gentile, southern standards. So admittedly, I never found the woman endearing to say the least. But after viewing the personal photographs of Rita herself in her riding gear and at fox hunts, I realize that she was not just upper-middle class, but part and parcel of the one percent. 

Even Jane Austen was a member of the landed gentry. I come across queer writers every day like William Burroughs, Christopher Isherwood, James Merrill and Edmund White, all from illustrious backgrounds. With lesbians it tends to be less apparent, but overall lesbians have enjoyed far less success in the literary world. Elizabeth Bishop hailed from a wealthy Massachusetts family, but Mary Oliver had a modest upbringing in Maple Heights, Ohio. And Dorothy Alison is a notable exception to this rule with her ground-breaking work, "Bastard Out of Carolina," but, I believe, she remains relatively unknown to the straight literary world.

Having access to status and power doesn't guarantee creative success but it provides the freedom and time to pursue passions that, in their early stages, will be less than profitable. The ambience of privilege also provides something intangible but critically important to creative ventures: role models of successful people pursuing their dreams and, in the vast majority of cases, the socially-sanctioned and nurtured self-esteem to do the same.

Adrienne Cecile Rich---Dead at 82

In the Seventies

More Recently

Adrienne Rich, a magnificent poet and ground-breaking feminist died today at 82, She wove her identities of woman, lesbian, a Jew and counterculture spokesperson together into an incredible fabric of words. Rich lit up the seventies with her ground-breaking exploration of women as a class and culture separate from the mainstream. Along with Audre Lorde, Judy Grahn, Chrystos  and others who spoke  out from the newly emerging women's culture.

Her sense of Jewish identity was strong in spite of the fact that only her father was of Jewish descent. Her mother, Helen Elizabeth Jones, was a Southern Protestant and both she and her sister were raised as Christians.

Following her marriage to Alfred Conrad and the birth of three sons, she came out as a lesbian. In 1976 she met Michelle Cliff who became her life-long partner. Cliff, a prominent editor and novelist in her own right, was born in Jamaica . Much of her work explores identity as well, the pain of growing up light-skinned and black in a racially focused, colonial culture.

The couple lived in Santa Cruz. Where Rich occasionally taught writing workshops. The women I know who studied under her described her as a tough task master.

Adrienne Rich's voice was literary and sophisticated yet accessible; passionate and politically attuned but not dogmatic. Her writing plumbed the contradictions of society and the nuances of human nature. A dedicated poet, she wrote prolifically and won prominence and acclaim for her poetic voice. She leaves behind over 25 books of poetry along with several collections of essays and non-fiction. 

As we mourn her passing, we can rest with the certainty that her work will live on. Here is a verse from her poem, "North American Time," written in 1983:

                           I am thinking this is a country
                           where words are stolen out of mouths
                           as bread is stolen out of mouths
                           where poets don't go to jail
                           for being poets, but for being
                           dark-skinned, female, poor.
                           I am writing this in a time
                           when anything we write
                           can be used against those we love
                           where the context is never given
                           though we try to explain, over and over
                           For the sake of poetry at least
                           I need to know these things

Hate Crimes and LGBT Equality

The Dharun Ravi case of webcam spying on a gay roommate's sexual activiity at Rutgers University is only the latest salvo in the debate over what constitutes a hate crime against an LGBT person. It is a sad commentary on our society that a simple web search of the words gay and hate crime will bring up loads of material that spans a broad reach of time and life experience. From name-calling and bullying to torture and murder, there is ample evidence that being perceived as having a non-heterosexual or gender-nonconforming demeanor is enough to place an individual in mortal danger.

Hatred-spewing politicians have done much to exacerbate this climate of harassment and intimidation. The prohibitions against same-sex marriage are now actively used as a wedge to divide citizens but this issue is only the tip of a very-deep iceberg. Ultimately these political attacks have created a climate where it is always open season on queers. With the added stress of economic recession everyone seems to need a scapegoat and, in our community, they have found it.

As disgusted as I am by the Republican contenders, I have to admit that I find the rationalizations of Democrats like Obama, the most nauseating of all. Little wishy-washy, frightened Barack is still "evolving" on the subject of marriage equality, an evolution that doesn't even keeps pace with geologic time. Speaking to an LGBT audience, he sang the praises of his administration, stressing that LGBT folks can now openly "serve their country." Oh yes, how wonderful! Now only if we had healthcare rights, job protection and protection against housing discrimination, not to mention that old bugaboo about 'till death due us part. These civil rights would certainly be a start, if the dude truly wanted to show that his heart was in the right place.

Unfortunately, Democrats have sold out LGBT rights at every step of the struggle as Frank Rich eloquently outlines in his article, "Whitewashing Gay History" which describes the many ways that self-proclaimed liberals have actively and willingly helped to keep a part of the population subjugated and oppressed.

Long-time activists like myself have real time memories of the ways that this oppression has reared its ugly head among leftists. Advocating open support of queer rights has always been an issue fraught with scary undertones for the heterosexually inclined. I remember the days when, if a straight person dared to express support for gay rights, their proclamation would more often than not begin with, "I'm straight but..." Well now it's past time to get off that straight butt and do something constructive for a segment of the population that does not enjoy equal protection under the law.