Kevin in Swindon
Mar 8 2007 01:39
Mar 8 2007 09:55
tsiatko wrote:
Kevin in Swindon
oooooo half my family is there.
Mar 9 2007 11:45
tsiatko wrote:
Kevin in Swindon
his missus is also a wob if membership records are to be believed...
Mar 10 2007 02:06
Could be, I talked to her often on the phone, but got sick on that trip and never made it to Swindon. Kevin was at the BIROC conference. The story was that I had come over as chair of the GEB to participate in the BIROC conference. I was working late nights at that time and so the meeting was being held in the middle of my sleeptime (I was over for only 5 day and ever got used to the time difference). So I kept nodding off, understanablly. Everyone was cool they knew and were sympethetic. But all of a sudden Dave Douglass shows up from Doncaster and has no idea of who I was, circumstanses, etc. So in the midle of one discussion I start to nod off, all of a sudden I hear this very pissed off and loud voice "Who the fuck does he think he is? What is he too good for us, nodding off...." Scare the shite out of me coming to. everyone started laughing and explained to Dave the situation and he alowed me to nod off occasionally, as long as it was respectful.
Mar 12 2007 13:41
respectful nodding off? hehe.
that said, never fuck with the douglass.
Mar 12 2007 14:31
That's the humour in it. I'm a West Coast American - culturally we tend to be rather quiet. indirect and tollrant, "mellow" - and it was the first time I had encountered the, how to say this tactfully, 'directness' of Northern English working class culture.
Mar 13 2007 10:39
oooh don't say yorkshire - he's from county durham. he'll really do you in good and proper if you said that in his presence!!
[although i understand these subtleties are hard to pick up if you're not british]
wow, we've really done very well to derail this thread...
Mar 13 2007 11:11
Co Durham is part of what we Yorkshiremen refer to as "The Greater Yorkshire." Much like swathes of the Pennines that have been claimed by the Lancastrian parvenus. 
Mar 13 2007 14:31
Trembling in fear I have, like a good crypto-stalinist, air-brushed the offending statement into the dust-bin if history. ;-P
Mar 13 2007 14:40
Quote:
we Yorkshiremen
do you all sound like Wallace?
Mar 13 2007 15:04
newyawka wrote:
Quote:
we Yorkshiremendo you all sound like Wallace?
aye, by gum!
Mar 13 2007 15:26
According to my "comrades" in South London SolFed, I sound like Churchill the dog from the TV advert. (I'm guessing you don't have Churchill car insurance in the US like)
Mar 13 2007 15:28
no, we don't. we have McGruff, the crime dog.
Mar 13 2007 21:04
ftony....what would you call the english equivlent of a paddy? english paddy?
Mar 14 2007 01:53
newyawka wrote:
no, we don't. we have McGruff, the crime dog.
This post receives 
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Mar 14 2007 01:58
x357997 wrote:
ftony....what would you call the english equivlent of a paddy? english paddy?
anyone can answer this...
Mar 14 2007 04:59
Paddy is actually a derogitory term.
Mar 14 2007 06:00
edit- deleted, see comment below
Mar 14 2007 06:21
tsiatko wrote:
Paddy is actually a derogitory term.
I think you are talking about the word in the sense as someone saying that Irish and English people are all mud farmers and have thatched roofs etc.
You see, my father and all his brothers and sisters is what me and my cousins call paddies, the way I understand it, its a term of endearment and just for teasing - in the context that I or anyone Ive known has used it . They are the old fashioned types, wear old tradional caps, and look like the guy in the picture ftony posted, etc.
Mar 14 2007 06:23
Its like calling all mexicans "Jose" or Native Americans "Chief". Perhaps not as bad as the latter, but obnoxious enough to enough people to avoid.
Mar 14 2007 06:24
tsiatko wrote:
Its like calling all mexicans "Jose" or Native Americans "Chief". Perhaps not as bad as the latter, but obnoxious enough to enough people to avoid.
wrong context, see above post....
Mar 14 2007 07:03
I understand the context, I worked with many Irish folks - expats from there not the Americans - and it's still iffy to use, especially of you don't know them. Better safe.
Mar 14 2007 14:27
Mar 14 2007 21:11
ftony wrote:
[UK in-joke]i think they're usually called the countryside alliance
[/UK in-joke]
too posh to be paddies.
Mar 16 2007 04:29
Janky, when you wrote
Quote:
It seems to me to be somewhat problematic that the new OD cannot take a stand on the direction of organizing and instead it is only a facilitation process.
what did you mean? Do you mean that it's a problem that the OD can't tell people how to organize? Because the OD can tell people, in the sense of argue with them and push them to organize better. It also has power over funds (technically, but no budget at present I think), which is another way to stop at least really terrible ideas.
I'd like to hear more details on what the general organizer position would involve.
I think for the near future (say, 5 years) the IWW's main strategic focus should be on developing the experience and ability of organizers in the union. After that point then we should focus on applying those skills in a systematic and strategic way in industry. In general I think the main problems in the IWW aren't procedural - such that there aren't procedural fixes for a lot of the issues - but are practical/cultural, need to develop people further, be more serious, etc. (I got the practice/procedure distinction from this article here on consensus - http://info.interactivist.net/article.pl?sid=05/10/27/1415254&mode=nested&tid=9 - which is a little embarassing to mention and the terms are clumsy but I think the point is good.)
That said, I think Tsiatko's suggestions for education possibilities are good, as ways to improve practice and develop members. FW Jones from your neck of the woods was just saying something about an education project on industrial unionism, a class or something. It'd be great if folks could start listing more of the materials for that in one place, like the dissertation on Ohio stuff that was mentioned etc.
Apr 7 2007 01:52
I was under the impression that the street campaigns came about from the common situation of having a core of active wobs working in related jobs in proiximty to each other without having job control at any one workplace. i've seen too many branches where nobody payed much attention to the workplace in daily life to get upset when a branch tries to and doesn't get it exactly right.
As a friendly outsider, my suggestion would be to challenge every iww member body, gmb, gdc, whatever form, to make workplace organizing at least a major focus if not their sole activity and for the union as a whole to have several national or international campaigns for local branches to plug into. i'd want ya'll to look for sustained member growth and sustained practical organizing experience for both the union as a whole and the individual militant. i can see the iww remaining an enduring if minor irritant against capital. the task is to become a serious pain in the butt.
one of y'alls problems is actually a pretty cool one to have. so many members are responsible member activists in so many other worthy campaigns and causes, it's hard to focus on the boss in front of us
the fw's who came down to atlanta from the organizing department had convincing ideas and some practice to show for them working, the fact that nothing has come of it thusfar isn't anything they did or didn't do..if hot shops and informal workplace groups knock at your door, i wouldn't turn them down. they will, i think the iww is perhaps uniquely socially situated, "branded",among the working class to attract them. An iww without a hot shop crisis would be like an iww without stubborn working class bohemians, i wouldnt recognize it and might not like it as much. I like that the od is encouraging the fw's to not wait for them going out and creating them in areas of light industry and distribution where the afl and ctw aren't might be much more fun and more productive in the long run. but perhaps a similarly experienced and funded emergency responce department for those "our boss went crazy and fired three, or three thousand, workers and we need help now!" situations that come up could be developed that wouldn't detract from basic organizing?
don't hear much from the 'statters these days, but they're both still members - which one were you referring to?