alanjjohnstone
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https://www.rt.com/sport/344410-adidas-robot-shoes-factory/
Quote:Adidas has confirmed it will produce shoes manufactured by robots in Germany from 2017.A second robotized factory is planned in the United States during the latter part of next year, while expanding production into Britain and France is also a possibility. Rising production costs in Asia, where Adidas employs around one million workers, and Nike's development of a robot-operated factory has forced the German company to act.Quote:it’s cheaper to buy a $35,000 robotic arm than it is to hire an employee who’s inefficient making $15 an hour bagging french fries,”But it is all about fear-mongering in the $15 campaign in the US so how accurate a threat, i am not sure
Quote:“All this nonsense with McDonald’s minimum wage, work rules, it’s all about union dues. It’s about organizing,” he said. “It’s a theater of protests to capture votes for the Democratic party. It’s absolute nonsense. It’s a sham and it’s destroying the middle class in this country.”It is not surprising that the comments were made on Fox TV
Workers paying the price again. Unions being forced to sacrifice half-decent pensions to save jobshttp://www.bbc.com/news/business-36384508
Have Ron or Karla and others been e-mailed direct?I have only seen ex-SPGBer Darren here and perhaps he might not forward this info.
I recall watching Fox news and the O'Reilly Factor where he is defending the right to bear arms to protect liberty and defend amerikkka from abuse of government power. The person being interviewed at one point responded, "i agree with you. We should arm every african american", whereupon O'Reilly quickly replied …"oh, that's too extremist"I think i have always had a soft spot for the Black Panthers from the 60s and 70s. Armed self-defence, openly carrying legal weapons, that then evolved into feeding and educational programmes in the ghettoes and led to a better understanding
Quote:We got to face some facts. That the masses are poor, that the masses belong to what you call the lower class, and when I talk about the masses, I'm talking about the white masses, I'm talking about the black masses, and the brown masses, and the yellow masses, too. We've got to face the fact that some people say you fight fire best with fire, but we say you put fire out best with water. We say you don't fight racism with racism. We're gonna fight racism with solidarity. We say you don't fight capitalism with no black capitalism; you fight capitalism with socialism. – fred hamptonI can't use BBC I-Player outside the UK
Ouch
Quote:most (all?) EC members had not viewed the videos and were consequently uninformed about their content, especially with regard to the background music used. At least one member knew nothing about YouTube thinking that it was necessary to subscribe in order to watch uploaded material. Another got confused with a video Vin had made two years earlierDecision made by speculation and hearsay ??
Being outside the branch route, i have on occasion in the past addressed the EC direct with queries. I suppose if one has had no need for recourse to it, then it may not be seen as a possibility. Again, i have to award kudos to Oliver Bond and to Pat Deutz who placed my enquiry/comment onto the EC agenda as AOB after the preliminary agenda had already been set. Both do their best to facilitate members and counter-balances those who insist that we are dominated by bureaucrats. This is far from being my own personal experience.Rather than bureaucrats, some Party officers are what i describe as "legalists", who as Brian and Paddy explained, act with the worthy purpose of protecting the Party. If let loose to run with wild abandon, i would soon have the Party run aground, bankrupt and homeless. Steadier hands on the tiller is to be appreciated.
As well as answered by me in post #26
Quote:I think the usual channels is to e-mail the EC direct and have the content of your e-mail placed on the agenda for June EC meeting. Oliver Bond has to be commended for his diligence in that matter. He always tries to ensure members gets the attention of the EC.My problem with our position is that it is determinate upon a working class strong enough to claw back those taxes via its class struggle. Often there is the time-lag between this when it succeeds and when taxes are imposed and so we do have a position where the burden of taxation can be upon our shoulders. Our position i believe is a long-term one where the pendulum will swing towards the employer "paying" the taxes through the obligation to pay higher wagesEven with the certain taxes as particular prices as RodmanLewis explains, when inflation arises, it is again incumbent upon the working class to escalate their conflict with the employer to raise the wages (as another price) to compensate. This i think is also the case with those taxes. In most developing countries, income tax is not an issue simply because most don't earn enough declarable income but indirect taxation as on fuel and goods are important (a pending general strike in Nigeria because of a tax rise on petrol.) I think when we respond to the issue of taxes, there is a certain amount of automaticity assumed by ourselves that increased taxation will be reflected in higher wages. We don't emphasise enough that it requires a militant active working class to ensure that it does. My answer is a British-based one. I have no idea about the US system or elsewhere where is might be that everyone is not PAYE but treated more as self-employed with annual tax returns even when employees.
"There is no "gag order in the rule book" for sending correspondence for the attention of the EC. "You mis-read my post, Brian. I was referring to the fact that EC members are not tied to some sort of cabinet collective responsibility and can answer queries themselves on this forum as individuals to explain their own thoughts and acts. That they don't wish to suggests they deign to interact with other members in a popular Party discussion forum. But since we have increasing difficulty in getting EC volunteers and this exchange where i argue they have an obligation to respond to other members might discourage existing and potential future members of the EC from offering their services so it could be all a moot point in a few years time. "when individual members go off and do their own thing without consulting with their branch"i thought the maker of the video had, in fact, the permission of his branch for his venture."In such cases when faced with a lack of previous consultation the EC have a duty to challenge the due diligence, or the lack thereof, taken with such ventures and if found to be wanting or it raises concerns of uncertainty on legalities have a further duty to disassociate itself and the party from such ventures. The EC are mitigating the risks of the party facing possible prosecution by declaring non gratis on such ventures. And with some of the EC members looking in here and on facebook ignorance after the fact would be no defence." Once again the EC minutes do not reflect that concern and it your own interpretation for the reasons for their actions. The maker was indeed submitting the video for the approval of the EC i.e. he was consulting with it. Was he obliged to provide daily/weekly/monthly reports on its ongoing development?Perhaps you are 100% correct in your supposition, then the EC failed to report to the membership in an accurate manner and thus misled it. Or were the minutes submitted to our Party lawyers for legal advice before publishing them. As i pointed out , our blogs have them as posts and i still await an instruction to remove them so perhaps the EC's legalistic precautionary measures are mis-directed. Personally i think this is a downside of having substantial assets…we are always watching our backs to protect them. "I suspect that eventually this little venture will be completed to everybody's satisfaction once Vin understands and agrees procedures, guidelines and rules need to be adhered to."If the censure and reproach was seen in isolation i may accept your observation but accompanying one resolution was another expelling him from the A/V committee (now moribund) which any way you look at it was punitive rather than remedial and that makes me wonder about what you say.
I think the usual channels is to e-mail the EC direct and have the content of your e-mail placed on the agenda for June EC meeting. Oliver Bond has to be commended for his diligence in that matter. He always tries to ensure members gets the attention of the EC. As for urgency, Brian, as some branches meet every two month and if timed wrong regards to meet the EC dead-line, that is another month gone by so some business if we are to follow the advice of some that insist that the branch is the unit of Party organising and we should go through that at all times so quarter of a year can go by to conduct everyday party affairs. As Tim suggests, we need the conduit for communication and information and decision-making to be made more efficient.It definitely seems as Gnome seems to imply…individual EC members won't break from the herd and voice independent opinion.Where is the gag order in our rule book?
I note that my old union branch is carrying on the tradition of participating in the march.And is that an IWW flag i see a bit behind it. I still say our conference resolution to join in with Mayday parades should have been carried and then our veritable Edinburgh comrades could have been carrying its own banner or waving its own flags.
