Direct Action Makes History

May 15, 2012 | Filed under For discussion

A central part of our organising practice at Recomposition is direct action. In this piece our comrade Marianne addresses criticisms of Occupy Wall Street and the importance placed in that movement on a direct action strategy.

Direct Action Makes History: A Response to Andrew Kliman’s “The Make-Believe World of David Graeber”
by Marianne

The following is not a commentary on, much less a defense of, David Graeber – with whom I disagree. It is a critique of key facets of the ideology of Andrew Kliman. In a recent article, Andrew Kliman attempted to critique “the ideology” of David Graeber, in particular its emphasis on direct action, without condemning the Occupy Wall Street movement in which Graeber’s ideas and strategy have found so much resonance. All that Kliman accomplished, however, was revealing his profound misunderstanding of the significance of both OWS and of direct action – a misunderstanding that can be traced to his deeply apolitical take on Marxism. (more…)

Debate about industrial strategy

May 9, 2012 | Filed under For discussion Our writings

This post reprints a short exchange about organizing strategies that originally ran in the pages of the Industrial Worker newspaper.

Forget About Industrial Power

The old wobbly song “There Is Power In A Union” goes “There is power there is power in a band of working folks, When they stand hand in hand.” This is the basic idea of a union, strength in numbers. We’re lacking in the numbers department in the IWW today. So our power is small, at least in one important sense. We need to recognize this if we’re going to grow quickly and efficiently, without cutting any corners in terms of member education and development. (more…)

Informal Workgroups

May 2, 2012 | Filed under For discussion life on the job

A brief look at informal work groups, which the author sees “as the seeds, and the tiny cells within a larger muscle of organization.”

Informal Workgroups
By M. Jones

In every workplace throughout all of history, workers have come together and worked together for their common interests. This takes many forms. Sometimes its at the level of two workers next to each other in cubicles who support each other and make work less miserable by being able to laugh with one another; other times it forms into a group that encompasses enough people that they can informally control the speed of production and the work conditions that surround them; and sometimes it grows into a union a group of workers within a shop, ideally across and industry who can directly exercise power in relation to the boss. In whichever form it takes it is significant. In each form it challenges the isolation that exists in other aspects of our lives as workers. In these relationships we begin to see the possibilities of what it means to take collective action and what it means to control the means of production. We are empowered by these relationships, and where we can build on them we can have success and begin to make changes. (more…)

‘Bout to explode

April 23, 2012 | Filed under life on the job Our writings

This is the last piece in our series on sleep. Juan writes about sleeplessness, stress, poverty, and work.

‘Bout to explode: a day in the life of a precarious worker
by Juan Conatz

“Damn it, where’s this pinche thing?”

Sometimes when I get real frustrated, a few Spanish curse words enter my vocabulary. My mom would probably be both amused and disappointed.

“Jesus Christ, there ain’t nowhere in here for anything to get lost!”

It’s 4:30 AM, and I’m frantically looking for both my house keys and bus pass. It was another all-nighter. I’ve been up for almost 2 days now. (more…)

Who Dismisses the Teacher

April 22, 2012 | Filed under For discussion life on the job

Our series on sleep and dreams continues with a post about stress and lack of sleep in the education industry.

Who Dismisses the Teacher: On The Work that Follows You Home and Steals your Sleep
by Barbanegra

I stare up at the computer’s clock on the right hand side of the screen, the numbers blaring at me, “10:45 pm.” I’ve finished the PowerPoint presentation for one class, but have nothing prepared for my other class. Luckily for me, tomorrow I have a planning period between 2nd period and 6th period (where I teach we have 90 min block classes, 4 blocks a day), so I can use that time to put something together for the class I wasn’t able to plan for the night before. The “even days” afford me such a luxury, the “odd days” don’t. On the “odd days”, my reaction to this nightly routine is much more irate. Immediately the panic and anxiety sets in. I feel a pain in the side of my stomach, sometimes accompanied by nausea. My girlfriend asks me from the couch if I’m calling it a night, to which I respond with an annoyed, “No!” followed by grumbles about how I’m probably only going to get 3 or 4 hours of sleep that night. (more…)

Bathrooms

April 21, 2012 | Filed under For discussion life on the job

Our series on sleep continues with a piece by Gayge discussing divisions and oppression within the working class.

Bathrooms
by Gayge Operaista

I wake up with a start, and do my usual “where the hell am I?” look around. When you’ve been couch and guest room surfing for months, because you moved back across the country and still haven’t found steady work, it’s a reasonable “why am I awake?” question, especially when there’s no urgency to get up out of bed. (more…)

Let me sleep on it

April 19, 2012 | Filed under life on the job Our writings

Our series on work, sleep and dreams continues with a story about a sleepwalking postal worker.

Let me sleep on it
By Phinneas Gage

I woke up and rubbed my eyes, Saturday was a long time coming this week. My aching body stumbled towards the fridge. I swung the door open and my eyes focused on the first clear object of the morning, a bottle of Catsup. I grabbed the bottle and stood up, straightening my aching back. I opened the freezer and my eyes focused again on a frozen bag of breakfast sausage. (more…)

Alarm Clock

April 18, 2012 | Filed under For discussion life on the job

Our series on work, sleep, and dreams continues with a story by our friend Invisible Man, about race, stress, and family.

Alarm Clock
by Invisible Man

The belt sander was screeching. The high whine tore through his eardrums. It began to drown out the clatter of the polishing drum and the pulsating whirr of the milling machines. Time to replace the sandpaper. (more…)

Good Morning Sweetheart

April 17, 2012 | Filed under life on the job Our writings

This post continues our series on work and sleep with a post about stress and dreams in the education industry.

Good Morning Sweetheart
By Nate Hawthorne

I’m just… furious. Like so angry I’m sputtering and stuttering, as in “I – I – how could you – why would you ever think that … I just – you need to knock it off!” I’m standing in front of a room full of my students, and I’m spitting out these chunks of sentences and I’m doing it loud. I’m full-on shouting. I’ve definitely lost my composure. I’m yelling at them because they’ve been sleeping in class, and they’ve been turning in their homework late and doing it really poorly, and that makes my workload even higher because late work means more stuff I need to keep track of, and poorly written assignments take a lot longer to grade. And class size went up ten percent this year so I’ve got more students than last year’s maximum. So part of what I’m really shouting at them about is the fact that I can’t handle the workload. (more…)

Even My Dreams These Days Have Work-Related Scenes

April 16, 2012 | Filed under For discussion life on the job

whackyourboss

More from our series on work, sleep and dreams. This one features Lou Rinaldi describing a nightmare and how it’s his subconscious taking the very real alienation he feels at work and running with it.

Even My Dreams These Days Have Work-Related Scenes
by Lou Rinaldi

I’m stuck there in a chair in my kitchen. It’s like I can’t move, I guess I really can’t explain it, but I’m looking up at the clock (wait, I don’t have a clock!) and the time changes nearly every minute to something completely different. I’m starting to feel nauseous and disoriented. And then – there it is! The right minute. I’m allowed to go now. I can get up and I leave my apartment and hop onto the bus. It’s strange to me because I don’t remember the bus going right to my apartment before. Oh well, I don’t really have think of how absurd this is because of the overwhelming feeling of dread and nervousness I have looming over me. You see, I’m three hours late for work! (more…)