Wade Rathke: Chief Organizer Blog » bcgeu

The Canadian Lessons in Turning Back Collective Bargaining Assaults

dine — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 16:40:38 +0000

Worker Solidarity Movement

New Orleans In the early years of this century in Canada public employees and their unions faced almost exactly the same kind of hard conservative, neoliberal provincial attack on collective bargaining that we are seeing in the Republican assault in the Wisconsin, Ohio, and Indiana. Conservative governments had gained the whip hand in provincial parliaments like that of British Columbia where the labor-backed, progressive New Democratic Party (NDP) was still a huge factor and often contended for power in the west, and saw their opportunity clearly. In language and arguments that mirror today, the conservatives eviscerated a number of collective bargaining entitlements in order to weaken public unions in the name of fiscal restraint and budget cutbacks.

After a fierce but losing campaign, in a “hail, Mary” pass the 60,000 member British Columbia Government Employees Union (BCGEU) which represented most provincial employees filed suit contending that the province did not have the right to undermine the basic representational and bargaining rights of unions for two reasons. First, because the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guaranteed in section 2(d) that Canadians had the freedom association. The BCGEU argued that there was no way to separate the right to associate from the principle and practice of collective bargaining. Secondly, they argued that under International Labor Organizations (ILO) conventions to withdraw collective bargaining rights was a fundamental breach of human rights.

Not surprisingly the local and provincial courts quickly dismissed the legal challenge, so the BCGEU appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada. To the shock of legal observers and the conservative right in Canada, in 2007 the Court in an unprecedented decision in Health Services and Support—Facilities Subsector Bargaining Association v. British Columbia held with BCGEU that collective bargaining was in fact inextricably bound with the fundamental freedom expressed in the right of citizens to speak and to associate. The decision did not guarantee unions the right to strike and in fact was not about unions or union rights whatsoever, but by essentially guaranteeing the equivalence of constitutional protection for the right to for public employees to bargain and organize put a huge finger in the dike of the anti-union attacks in Canada.

Ok, the United States is not Canada, I get that, but the ability for American unions to make the response to these viperous, partisan attacks about a protection of basic American freedoms for citizens is categorically the right way to go. In the private sector it always surprises organizers to read the opening language in the National Labor Relations Act sixty years ago and its full throated endorsement of collective bargaining as the public policy of the United States, but that same notion is what propelled the decision in BC Health Services and might be what could save the day for public workers in the US today.

One of the many contradictions in Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s anti-public worker assault is his interest in restricting mandatory collective bargaining to only wages while eliminating a workers’ collective voice on all of the other critical terms and conditions of employment. Walker wants to bait a trap for unions so that every dispute is “greedy” unions and “selfish” state workers against penny pinching Republic Governors and legislators. Maybe tactically, in reframing to win, unions ought to offer to give away the right to bargain on wages in order to protect the right to bargain on everything else.

This is war, so the battleground to some degree has already been chosen, but as different as the Canadian experience is, there are lessons that their unions can teach about how they wrested victory from the efforts to survive. United States unions need to burn some midnight oil and learn these lessons from the great north, and do so quickly!

Raising the British Columbia Minimum Wage

jstuart — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 18:06:19 +0000

Vancouver Even as the regional leaders of the BCGEU were strategizing with me on Friday morning about living wage campaigns in their cities and raising the minimum wage in British Columbia, according to the Prince George Free Press the local City Council had reneged on a pledge made in 2007 to the support an increase from $8 to $10. The previous City Council had signed on to a request from the BC Federation of Labor along with 16 other cities in the province. Now they wanted to run from the issue and push it back to their “poverty reduction” committee to come up with something else or another way to deal with these issues. I didn’t read the paper until I was waiting for the 530 AM flight from Prince George to Vancouver or I would have loved to have asked Jim Sinclair, the well regarded President of the BC Fed who was also with me at the BCGEU conference, what he would have made of this problem.

I think it speaks to the need for a provincial (statewide) strategy for increasing the minimum wage, as difficult as that might be given the likely fierce opposition of Premier Gordon Campbell, who sits on top of provincial government now with the Liberal Party. Talking to leaders and staff of the BCGEU, there seems no question that it is legal to bring forward an initiative petition. The requirements are stiff though and results are uncertain.

A petition would have to be registered with the Elections office, and once secured the petitioner would have 90 days to get the required signatures, meaning 10 % of the registered voters in each riding (legislative district). Then there is a period for verification of the signatures (about 40 days) and a referral to the legislative standing committee to determine whether to table the bill or force a province wide vote. If a vote were required, then the election would be held in late September, 2011. This is not a slam dunk still, since winning a vote of the people does not enact the measure, but instead forces the bill to be part of the gristmill of the legislative process where it may be amended and rise or fall. So, there’s no denying this would be a huge lift and a fierce fight.

Those are the “cons,” but here are the “pros.”

Unbelievably the minimum wage in British Columbia is the lowest in Canada and has not been increased since 2001. Literally NO ONE thinks it is a fair wage for anyone at this point.
Labor has density still in British Columbia, and if convinced to join and lead this fight with groups like ACORN Canada and others, including the parties out of power, has the breadth and depth to make a difference.
We need issues that force the question of fair and just wages for work into the public and political debate about community development and citizen wealth, and as we have seen in numerous communities and states in both Canada and the United States, nothing does the job better than forcing the forefront the reality of inadequate minimum wages. Let Gordon Campbell stand in front of a fast moving train for fair wages and see let’s see if there’s any way for him to put the pieces back together if he opposes the popular will.
Win, lose, or draw, the progressive forces in BC win by showing leadership on this issue and bringing forward a fight on an issue that would be so widely popular and eminently reasonable as raising the minimum wage. A noxious matter with negative public policy impacts around “harmonizing” the sales tax is headed towards a vote, and we could use something on our side of the fence which is even more widely popular.

The dilemma before the Prince George city council is familiar to us. We saw a piece of this debate as part of the winning coalition in winning a real living wage for contract employees in New Westminster. In order to embolden politicians to do the right thing around living wages, we need to create the debate and pressure for fair and just minimum wages, and it is difficult to imagine a better way to do this than to push forward an initiative petition and let the people step up and be counted, first with their signatures, and later, if necessary, with their votes.

Visiting with the leaders in Prince George was exciting. It made me start to think that British Columbia should be first, not last.

Canadian Breakthrough: Meeting Ombudsmen

dine — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 20:17:21 +0000

The Cleaner

Prince George When doing the “ housekeeping” for the BCGEU regional leadership meeting, Lynda Morrice, the educational director, introduced Carol Adams, a communications staff was going to be the “ ombudsman” for the meeting, and that if anyone had any problems whatsoever, bring them to her. Later in talking to both of them and other union officials, I was careful to point out that I had no problems, but was curious what the ombudsman’s job really was.

It turns out that this is a fairly critical detail and no doubt a key ingredient in making Canadian meetings calm and collected, which it seems they almost invariably are. In big meetings of say the Winter School in BC or the Canadian Labour Congress conventions there will be two ombudsmen, one for men and one for women. The heart of the job is that they are the human “ problem” receptacles clearing the halls for a smooth meeting. Anyone

who has ever organized a big meeting or convention, especially a “ sleepover” knows the actions can be great, meetings productive, and everything can be miserable if there are problems with the rooms. I can still remember a time ACORN members in Washington DC were convinced that the student luggage helpers opened their suitcases and took stuff before they got the room. We needed an ombudsman!

So what kinds of problems have they had to handle? Firemen rappelling drunk and naked off the side of the hotel at the winter school into the snow certainly seemed like it needed ombudsmen galore! A lot of the problems revolved around shooing delegates out of the bars, making sure that women were not harassed at meetings and felt comfortable, and when necessary sending people home, especially since the unions were frequently paying lost time and the rent on the hotel rooms. These are the kinds of problems you want to find and want to avoid and handle smoothly, but the scores of minute concerns about rooms, roommates, and even as one official mentioned, whether the pillows were too hard can drive managers crazy in the midst of a million things that need to be done. What a good thing!

To keep the cross cultural exchange active, I volunteered that I had started assigning a “ cleaner” to conventions to make sure every last detail was handled, no one was left off the bus, in jail, or on the streets, and in the words of the movie, “ everything was cleaned down to the nap.” They loved it.

I can hardly wait to add an ombudsman to some meeting in the future with thanks to the Canadian labour movement, and I know they’ll rest easier if they have a “ cleaner” for the last details left hanging.

Los Mineros and Napoleon Gomez’s Exile

dine — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 15:15:22 +0000

Prince George, British Columbia I wanted to hear Napoleon Gomez Urrutia speak to the British Columbia Government Employees Union (BCGEU) leaders gathered in the northern part of the province to look at how their union connects to the community. Gomez is Secretary General of the 250,000+ member Union of Mining, Metallurgical, Steel and Allied Workers of Mexico, known popularly as Los Mineros in Mexico. Every year Gomez has been elected unanimously by the miners for the number of years since 2006. His miners are on huge strikes, where the Mexican government has intervened militarily throughout the country, in Guanajuato, Zacatecas, and Coahuila. He and his miners have been in a life-and-death struggle with Grupo Mexico in the giant copper mine in Cananea where the strike has gone on for several years.

Just more grist for the mills in the hard life of mines and miners? Not really, because the other part of this story is that Gomez is on the run. He ran from trumped up charges of embezzlement from the government, first to the United States and then to Canada where he has lived in Vancouver – and directed Los Mineros as its chief officer – since 2006 from a loaned office given him by the United Steelworkers regional office in BC. Gomez and three of his fellow officers, including one still be held as a political prisoner in Mexico, were accused by the Mexican government of misappropriating a fund of $55 million USD. Swiss auditors and Mexican courts have audited, investigated, and exonerated Gomez and his people, and the government has frozen $20 M USD in assets and accounts. The support of

Gomez by his members is so strong and consistent, that Gomez continues to negotiate contracts with the employers where the union has contracts after meetings in Vancouver where they travel to meet him and bargain with him, except of course for Grupo Mexico.

After a decades of calm in the 80′s and 90′s, Los Mineros have been involved in 30+ strikes in Mexico in the first decade of the 21^st century under Gomez, and it is hard to escape feeling that this crackdown is prompted by the miners increased militancy. Gomez was quick to compare the abandonment by the Mexican government and the company of trapped miners in Coahuila, trapping and burying more than 60 miners in an underground grave, compared the job done recently to save the miners in Chile and earlier this year in China.

Talking to Gomez after his remarks, he seemed resigned. He has applied for permanent status in Canada, and seems not to believe a return to Mexico is anywhere close in his future. His English has become superb, and he has built huge support and solidarity throughout the international labor movement coupled with the Canadian Labor Congress and the AFL-CIO. He now carries 3 cell phones rather than the 5 he had in his early years as an exile.

Organizing is rough, but Gomez and Los Mineros are teaching the labor movement something about “the people united, shall never be defeated,” and that should give all of us heart and hope for the future, no matter how difficult and uncertain the future seems for them and for us.

Race or Class in Vietnam

dine — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 11:17:58 +0000

Hanoi We were all used to seeing facemasks of different sorts, fashions, and colors on the tens of thousands of scooter drivers when we first navigated the streets of Ho Chi Minh City and then later Hanoi. What was more curious in the stifling heat and humidity was figuring out the long arm stockings that were being worn by many women even working as street cleaners. Also baffling was the full head and shoulder coverings on some women on the scooters and elsewhere working in the fields and even as I saw yesterday plying the fruit trade from small row boats in beautiful Ha Long Bay.

What was up with all of this?

Well, part of it was simply explained by an effort to not suck in every scintilla of pollution from the teeming streets, fair enough, but that turned out to only be a small part.

If our sources among the guides and others we queried are to be believed, most of these efforts to cover up are rooted in a strong cultural commitment to “whiteness” in Vietnam. The “whiter” the woman, the more desirable, because it signifies that she is not dark and suntanned from common labor in the rice fields and other working pursuits.

And, if that doesn’t take the issue to extremes, one of our delegation, Juliana Buitenhaus from BCGEU in Vancouver, reported that you had to be very careful buying even the simplest skin products in the local drugstores, since hand lotion and every other product were sold in two offerings, one normal and the other including various bleach and whitening options.

My cultural understanding is not good enough in Vietnam and neighboring Asian countries to fully following the messages about “whiteness” and race expressed by all of this fetish about skin color. It’s fair to call it a fetish because with heat and humidity way over 30 C and one day threatening to 42 C (high 90′s and over 100 Fahrenheit), there’s no question that women are living in a sweat box when they end up encasing themselves in sheaths of materials. Among a relatively homogeneous population does this come from a prejudice centuries old about the Chinese being “lighter” or speak to divisions between the mountain people and the rest of the country?

I don’t know, but it definitely signals that even in a “socialist managed economy” there’s still a lot of discomfort among people about valuing manual labor for women and the battle of the classes is alive and robust in the personal space.

Associations in Vietnam

dine — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 14:07:57 +0000

Hanoi The Organizers’ Forum delegation kept hearing about the distinctions between unions, the government, the party, non-profits or NGO’s, and associations, all of which became clearer in our first meeting in Hanoi with the Vietnam Women’s Union, one of the principal associations in the country. With 20000 staff at different levels and branches at every level, the VWU defined what the theorists used to postulate as the role of a “mass based organization” and its role in maintaining accountability, mobilization, and participation in a communist regime, though in Vietnam all of this is with a decidedly different twist.

The VWU is a membership based operation with dues about 25 cents per month and with over 10,000,000 members eligible to all women over 18 years old. They exist as a specially chartered institution, much like the Red Cross and Neighborworks have special charters from Congress in the US. They are guaranteed a meeting with the Prime Minister or the deputy Prime Minister every other year to push for their big “ask” in legislation. Their job is to advocate and review and sign off on everything involving women.

They also lose some. We hear about the difficult fight they have had with the National Assembly to equalize the retirement age between men and women, so that women can achieve more equity in elite and senior positions in ministries, the Assembly, and workplace. This one surprised some of us, since when first hearing about the earlier retirement age, I had thought, good deal. The VWU put another spin on it entirely. They had gotten the proposition through all of the levels but failed to get a majority from the Assembly.

The VN Chamber of Commerce and Industry is another pea in this pod whose role is to advance and advocate for business. Many of our delegation kept referring to them as the Chamber. They have a membership of a couple of hundred thousand businesses. Mike Eso from BCGEU and the head of the Victoria (BC) Labour Council pushed the representative hard on the need to index wages to inflation and have businesses accept the equity, and the silky smooth C&I guy ended up finally, as so many of us have heard so many times, telling Mike that this was an area where we needed to admit that we could not agree.

Surprisingly both of these associations in the new market-based economy of Vietnam were hustling for support. Commerce and Industry was trying to develop a bureau to expand CSR (corporate social responsibility) to soften the image and fund its programs. The VWU engaged us extensively about donors, especially Atlantic Philanthropies based in the US, which had just given them their first grant as a lead agency to put in a $3.6 M program of emergency preparation in four provinces over four years.

It’s all different and clearly these outfits have to work out their own paths with the government and the party, but it was also clear that “it’s a process” with real struggle and argument, winners and losers, and now a lockstep operation. We didn’t get a clear look through the window, but we could still see how fingers were getting smashed as the associations aggressively advocated for their members.

Unions and Labor Protections in Vietnam

jstuart — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 14:27:50 +0000

Ho Chi Minh City One of the real thrills of the Organizers’ Forum dialogue experience is being part of a diverse and talented group of organizers coming together for the first time in a foreign setting and trying to each on their own and all collectively get their arms around the illusive uniqueness of other organizational experiences and cultures. We all learn to immensely value the search, because the quarry – the facts, the truth, whatever you might call it – if very hard to grasp across so many barriers.

We have a strong delegation this year, as usual, with representatives from SEIU, BCGEU, United Labor Unions, Gameliel, ACORN Canada, Tides, Social Policy, and ACORN International. Two of the most interesting meetings on the first formal day of the Forum were with top representatives of the Ho Chi Minh City Labor Federation, headed by their vice-chair, and with the head of DoLISA, the Department of Laborers, Invalids and Social Affairs.

The hard problem in one-party regimes, like Vietnam, where the space between government and governing party is narrow, and where labor is part of the ideological foundation of the government and unions are an operating part of the ruling partnership through one single labor federation is parsing how much autonomy of action and independence of thought and initiative unions really have in such an alignment. Even with the Cold War long over and the George Meany and Lane Kirkland wing long out of power at the AFL-CIO this is still a contentious issue with some of our friends still arguing relationships should be avoided with such unions, and others arguing their size and stature, and frankly in my view their sincerity and authenticity, mean it is necessary to engage them deeply. Kent Wong, a much valued colleague from the UCLA Labor Center, made the passionate case to me of the importance of the Vietnamese labor federations and full engagement from his many trips to this country.

Our early hours with Truong Lam Danh, vice president of the HCM City Confederation of Labor, and his staff were fascinating. He described an array of programs under their hand for their 880,000 members, and couldn’t have been more accommodating of our questions. For a minute though we could see the steel, when I asked how the federation would respond to a situation like the wild cat strikes in China: would they embrace the workers and their cause or feel compelled essentially to shutdown the strike. His answers were snappish here. First he claimed to have no knowledge of any such problem among Chinese workers and insisted that this was the first he had heard of such situations. Unlikely. Secondly, he was brusque in indicating that the local union representative in such a situation would be replaced as ineffective and not satisfactory to the workers. The mood then changed as suddenly with Danh asking more questions, more open, and more flexible. We had hit a nerve perhaps, and then he was able to return to the interests of the dialogue. These where obviously questions much on his mind as well.

It’s not hard to see the tension. Outbreaks from workers would indicate impotence by the union. The government is resting a lot of its economic program on foreign investment and labor unrest would be an issue. There have surely been debates and instructions from every level.

Our labor friends insisted that membership was voluntary, and at about 25 cents per month dues, we suspected that they were right when talking about the vast majority of informal workers (my guess is 80% of the workforce in HCM City on a back-of-the-envelope), but though not compulsory they said where represented, the legal requirements are such that unions need to be recognized within 6 months of operations. Later at the DoLISA meeting when we got down to brass tacks here there were admissions that foreign multi-nationals were giving them fits. Vice-President Danh also was less than satisfied to hear how impotent our unions were when companies went bankrupt and left workers holding the bag, so these are issues we share.

There’s a lot more we have to learn to be able to say, but the questions are moving us in interesting directions so far.

Justice 1st in Delhi, Games 2nd

jstuart — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 14:39:21 +0000

Houston Watching the World Cup in South Africa, reading the stories in the Times from slums outside of Johannesburg, makes me look at the calendar for the countdown to the next huge international sports event: The Commonwealth Games! In October teams from all over the former colonies of the British Empire will be parachuting into Delhi to compete for a couple of weeks. We hope our members working with ACORN International and ACORN India can survive. Many may not.

Which is why, hardly a week ago, we launched the Commonwealth Games Campaign and asked friends and allies to join with us and sign our petition at www.commonwealthgamescampaign.org with many others and write to your local games organizing committee and the High Commissioner in your country or directly to the Queen. Thousands of families have been displaced already. The livelihoods of waste pickers, bicycle rickshaw pullers and many others are threatened. We need your help!

Quickly we have gotten some support from our friends in labor, especially in Canada. The British Columbia Government Employees Union (BCGEU) with its 60,000+ members was first to endorse a resolution of support followed by the Prince George Labour Council, and now pending in the Victoria Labour Council and the Toronto & York Labour Council. We are appealing for help everywhere!

Here is a story that ran in Delhi passed on to me by Dharmendra Kumar, our Delhi director, which makes the case painfully well:

Gloomy face of glittering Delhi
By Gaurav Sharma
14 Jun 2010

While the government authorities are spending billions to beautify Delhi for the Commonwealth Games 2010, does any one care for the millions of poor living in pitiable conditions in the Capital’s slums?

Delhi’s poor are forced to live in such terrible conditions
(photo: Gaurav Sharma)

Just a stone’s throw away from Shadipur Metro Station in New Delhi is an elongated slum cluster Kathputli Colony. Whiff of fetid air and stench of stale urine assail your senses the moment you enter the locality. Stray pigs, heaps of garbage, clogged drains, dingy lanes and mosquitoes buzzing all around will accompany you, as you move about in the slums.

There are thousands of slum clusters in Delhi where a mammoth population is living a gruelling life with no basic amenities. Kathputli Colony is, one such slum, riddled with acute water shortage, dilapidated mud huts, abysmal health and education services, corrupt Public Distribution System and a myriad of other problems.

While Delhi has come a long way to boast of its ‘world class’ facilities, dismal infrastructure in the slums is a legacy of decades of neglect.

For a population of over 7000 and an area of 5.22 hectares, the slum has only one hand pump which breathed its last two months ago due to excessive handling forcing the inhabitants to quench their thirst from sources outside the colony. Braving the scorching sun and heat waves, women and children fetch containers filled with water all the way from a community tap installed outside the slum.

It is ironic that everyday gallons of water are showered on the lush green field of Delhi’s several Golf Courses used by ultra-rich but these slum-dwellers yearn for even a single drop of water in this hot torrid summer.

The tragedy of these poor is that in every election politicians promise them better life to get their votes. “The politicians come and go but our problems remain the same. Delhi’s Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit does nothing for poor except uttering platitude. Eight years ago she had promised that every house would have regular water tap but till date there is no water supply let alone water taps”, says Sudha who lives in parched Kathputli colony.

Children defecate in open in the slum littered with garbage
(photo: Gaurav Sharma)

But what affects the slum residents most is pathetic sanitation services. Chocked drains, children defecating in the open, mud paths strewn with faeces and litter all around make one feel sick within few minutes. To make matters worse, there is no public toilet in the slum forcing women to go outside colony to use a public toilet but that too on payment. Many share makeshift bathrooms within the colonies for bathing and washing clothes.

“Kathputli colony is a virtual hell. I wish I had a better place to live in. Dirty drains lie clogged for weeks, as nobody comes to clean them. Litter and Kathputli colony are inseparable,” rues 24-year-old Harsh.

“It is better to languish in a jail than living in this slum. Every day, I have to spend Rs. 7 for bathing and relieving in Sulabh toilets. Had there been community toilets in the colony, I would not have to spend Rs 200 per month out of a meager monthly earning of Rs 1500,” says 37-year-old widow Lajju who has five dependent children.

While Delhi has witnessed huge budget expenditure on improving civic infrastructure and beautification in the last decade, a tiny portion of that spending on providing sanitation facilities in Delhi’s slums could have spared the women embarrassment of defecating and bathing in open.

This is makeshift bathroom for women living in the slum
(photo: Gaurav Sharma)

Delhi’s comfort obsessed middle class may find it difficult to stomach but a number of these slum dwellers are forced to skip their meals due to soaring food prices and inefficient Public Distribution System (PDS). The gross irregularities and rampant corruption in PDS have taken a massive toll on the well being of these poor people.

Prabhu, one of the Pradhans (Community Heads) of this slum, says that as many as 1,500 inhabitants are without ration cards, making it impossible for them to access PDS outlets for cheaper ration. In 2007, 1550 people had applied for the renewal of ration cards which were due to expire the same year. But only 25-30 people have received their respective ration cards till now, he told d-sector.

Rummaging around his torn and tattered bag, 60-year-old Harsukhiya fishes out a receipt issued by the ration office for his new (ration) card. Recently, he discovered much to his horror, that his application for a new ration card has been cancelled.

What is worth mentioning here that many residents are facing the threat of eviction as a real estate firm Raheja Developers (owner of a prominent English weekly) has been given the contract to develop 2,800 flats for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) in Kathputli colony. The catch is that the ration cards of many old residents haven’t been renewed and if they fail to produce it to the concerned authorities they will lose the right to rehabilitation and their entitlement to these flats.

60-year-old Harsukhiya is too old to work. He does not have a ration card either.
(photo: Gaurav Sharma)

“Why do these ladies who come on TV regularly only talk about the rights and plight of tribals of distant regions? Why don’t they take up our cause? They should come and spend a night in Kathputli Colony.”

Their eviction may not spring surprise as in the run-up to the Commonwealth Games (CWG), the Delhi government led by Sheila Dikshit, in its obsession to beautify the city state, has rendered many poor homeless. Independent experts estimate that nearly 3 million people are likely to be rendered homeless in Delhi by the end of CWG.

Like other basic amenities, health services are also in doldrums. No dweller wants to go to government hospitals until there is a serious illness. People say doctors and staff in government hospitals do not treat them properly. They feel it is better to have speedy, though costlier, private treatment than doing several rounds of government hospitals.

Despite such odds, the slum residents dream of a better life for their children but lack of proper education facilities disappoint them. Most children in this locality are victims of shoddy education standards of municipal schools. Either they play truant or stop going to schools. They can easily be sighted playing cards in the open.

“Who doesn’t want to go school? We can only afford government schools where teachers never pay attention to children from slums. I flunked twice in 7th standard and finally quit education. My mother could not afford my useless education,” rues teenager Mukesh, who has now started helping her mother in street-vending.

When d-sector tried to contact Mrs Vidya Devi, Municipal Councillor of the area, she was not available for a comment. Despite several attempts by this reporter to call on her official number mentioned in the MCD’s directory, she could not be reached. Every time, her husband Lala Ram received the phone and offered to answer all queries on behalf of his wife.

“You can ask me whatever questions you have. I am looking after the problems of entire area including Kathputli colony.” Lala Ram told d-sector over phone.

Certainly, empowerment of women through reservation of seats in elected bodies is still a distant dream. If husband of a municipal councillor runs the show in India’s capital, we can well imagine the conditions in far away villages.

“Sheila Dikshit is doing everything to spruce up the city for Commonwealth Games but is least concerned about the plight of poor like us. I was born and brought up in Kathputli colony. I am now father of three children. Nothing has changed from the time since I was born. The government has spent thousands of crores on this city but, this colony has not seen even a single rupee,” laments 30-year-old Lallu.

With the Commonwealth Games around the corner, New Delhi is all decked up to showcase its overhauled infrastructure, the metamorphosis of which cost billions of rupees. While sprawling stadia, serpentine flyovers, manicured gardens, and spacious parking lots have come to symbolise the galloping growth of India, government officials cannot resist the temptation to blow the trumpet of creating a “world class” city.

However, behind this new-found glitter lies a gloom which reveals the dark side of Delhi’s development. The government may have decided to erect bamboo screens to hide the slums in Delhi but the horrendous living conditions in slums cannot be glossed over.

As this reporter was about to leave Kathputli Colony, a shriveled old man asked: “Why do these ladies (social activists) who come on TV regularly only talk about the rights and plight of tribals of distant regions? Why don’t they take up our cause? They should come and spend a night in Kathputli Colony.”

Little did he know that for our celebrity activists living in a slum for a day would be much more difficult than spending a week in a jungle!

Gaurav Sharma | gaurav@d-sector.org

Local Leaders Rule

jstuart — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 19:11:07 +0000

Vancouver A phone call from Springfield, Massachusetts early in the morning and then a morning spent with more than 100 local leaders in the southeast region of British Columbia, who were activists and stewards in the British Columbia Government Employees Union (BCGEU), reminded me how transcending, essential, and transforming the development of great local leaders is to building democratic and powerful organizations. It is certainly what we all say and believe, but there is nothing so moving and humbling as being reminded how local leaders change when they gain an organizational voice and how they change the lead the organization.

The call was an out-of-the-blue inquiry from a reporter from the Springfield Republican who was writing a little piece on the events 40 years ago in mid-October involving the Springfield Welfare Rights Organization I had put together. He read me a quote from Carmen Rivera, one of the great leaders of the Puerto Rican community of young, fiery women who led the organizing in Springfield’s North End, when I was starting there. She was still active and vibrant 40 years later in her community. He asked me how to contact Vera Smith, a great and courageous leader from in Hill area, and when I said I had lost contact with her over these many decades and for all I know she might be back in Tuscaloosa, Alabama where I remembered she was from, he quickly corrected me and said, “no, she ran for city council in Springfield several years ago.” What!?! I’ve spoken before of Barbara Rivera (not related to Carmen) who had also been a great organizer and leader in welfare rights who went on to found a large and effective service organization in the north end and whose daughter has been an elected legislator from Springfield for some years.

Just as these events in Springfield were life changing for me and set me on a straight path as an organizer for the last more than 40 years, the rest of the story and in fact, the real story, is the difference that organization building and campaigns had in changing the way silent, unknown women on welfare were allowed to see their role in the community and find voice to continue to lead and direct the community over all of these years. What a story! Hearing of them again was both humbling and swelled me with pride to think of what they had done after our short six months together in 1969.

Talking to local leaders of BCGEU in Kamloops gave me the same feeling. I challenged them to lead a revival of labor and its purpose not only in the workplace but also in the community and, joined by Judy Duncan, ACORN Canada’s head organizer, and John Anderson, the ACORN Canada sparkplug for BC, we told stories of old campaigns discussed in Citizen Wealth and new efforts around living wage fights in BC and informal worker organizing in India where we were partners with BCGEU. I was lobbying them from the stage, so to speak, to change the paradigm for labor organizing in the same way that they had led the way in British Columbia so often. When we got to the questions throughout the sessions over and over again, thoughtful, serious local leaders were musing over their points and feelings, as they probed for new directions, and I could almost feel the gears grinding to some new places and challenges for some of the leaders. One particularly blew me away by standing up and turning not to Judy and me, but to her colleagues in the room, and essentially repeating the challenge and grasping it with two hands and embracing the future in part of the stewardship and contribution that BCGEU is so unique in being able to offer. Her words were better and more inspiring, but that was the gist of what she said. And, she was not alone, as others throughout the morning repeated similar themes and told stories of courage, commitment, and, real leadership that had put them in the room and without mentioning it had made their union the powerhouse in British Columbia that it has become.

Getting to Vancouver after a pleasant drive through the mountains and the Frazer Valley, a score of us stood in my friend Joel Solomon’s living room (thanks to him and Dana!) with the gorgeous view across the water, talking about Citizen Wealth. BC ACORN leaders Dave Tate and Canada Drouin were there. Canada at the end of some short remarks and questions, talked about her own reaction and thoughts on the work and her thoughts on having read my book. You could hear in her quite conviction and passion the same torch being lit in Vancouver to be carried forward into the future, as many of us become shadows along the wall and distant memories within the bosom of our friends and families, the arc of our work and the changes it creates in so many lives reaches forward into time in a way that transcends memory itself.

Spending a morning this way in Kamloops and such an evening in beautiful Vancouver was one of those rare gifts that an organizer gets from time to time, if they are as lucky as I have been, that can propel you past hard times and hard work because it reminds you how life changing, dramatic, and powerful the impact of our collective work and small contributions in transforming peoples’ lives and communities. I’m ready to finally go home after a month on the road now! I may be tired and beat up, but another bunch of Canadian gifts sucked the whine out of my psyche and put enough fuel in the tank for another long run.

Bangkok and Burma

jstuart — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 16:48:14 +0000

Silver Springs It’s the time of year when the Organizers’ Forum (www.organizersforum.org) begins to send out the call for the international dialogue to community and labor organizers who are interested in learning about the work of their counterparts in other countries and sharing their own experiences. This year the board has approved the international dialogue as a visit to Bangkok and border area between Myanmar/Burma and Thailand during the period from October 4^th through October 9^th . Early discussions indicate this is going to be an exciting and significant experience for the delegation.

Needless to say in the tradition of past dialogues, Thailand has been in the news over the last year. At various times either yellow shirted or red shirted marchers have been leading huge protests, including shutting down the international airport for days at one point over the legitimacy of various governments. This is complicated stuff, but fortunately our old friend, Rudy

Porter, who helped us so much so much in Jakarta, is now directing the AFL’s Solidarity Center in Bangkok and will be able to guide us again! He will also be helping introduce us to unions that are still organizing.

Somehow we seem lucky this trip in having friends with deep relationships to people and organizations in Thailand. Our Korean comrade, Na, has worked with community organizations there and Fides Bagasso of LOCOA may be there at the same time we are doing training for organizers in their Asian network which would be a huge treat for all of us! The Forum for the Global South is located in Bangkok and so is the headquarters for Asian housing based organizing.

Our biggest problem may be how to see everyone we are going to want to visit!

This problem gets even harder, if that is possible when we venture towards the border and refugee area. On Wednesday evening we will go to Chiang Mae and then on Thursday morning van over to Mai Sot where 150,000 refugees live in various camps and conditions, many dating to 1988 and the military coup in Burma. The big advantage we have here is that the area has been a special project of our friends at the British Columbia Government Employees Union (BCGEU), and they have generously detailed Mike Orders of their staff who has visited the area several times to help put this part of the Dialogue together. Yesterday I got several pages of notes of groups from women’s refugee organizations to health clinics to community, labor, and political groups that might merit a visit. Luckily, Mike is already sorting the opportunities into a group A and a group B. We’ll come back to Chiang Mae on Friday night to finish the dialogue, but as usual I’m betting some of delegation may stay over a couple of days. The word on Chiang Mae and the area is that it is quite something to see in its own right.

We already have interest from community organizers in Iowa, Ontario, and Maryland and labor interest from Seattle, Vancouver, and Montreal, so don’t dilly-dally, but send an email to chair@organizersforum.org and stake your claim to a seat in the delegation. You handle the air fare and a program fee, and the Forum handles the lodging and food. Unfortunately for Thailand, but luckily for us, the prices are good if we move quickly.

Talk to someone who has been to one of the earlier dialogues in Brasil, India, South Africa, Indonesia, Turkey, Russia, or Australia. This is a great experience for senior organizers, and we would enjoy having as many of you as we can accommodate.

Citizen Wealth Maiden Voyage!

jstuart — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 15:03:11 +0000

Vancouver Mary Rawles of the British Columbia Government Employees Union (BCGEU) had responded with grace when I asked several weeks ago, “Hey, I’ve got Citizen Wealth coming out, could we do something at the union?” What did either of us know about what we were doing? I didn’t know enough to really understand what a book launch was in my first “go” at it, and Mary is too hardy a soul and good a friend to have the good judgment to say NO. Luckily for me that turns out to be true of lots of my friends, so I need to hold onto them dearly!

Berrett-Koehler ships a box of 25 books to Canada. Who knows? Mary invites folks from her union and the neighboring BC Federation of Labor and others. Josh Stuart with ACORN Canada in Toronto figures out how to send out to Vancouver names on Facebook. I send out a couple of notes, and away we go. First, we hear that middle of the day is a terrible time. Hmmm? Could be? We’re deep in the water by then, so have no choice but to sail. The poster plastered around the union building isn’t large, thank goodness, but in the new style of hip graphics, the picture seems huge! Behind the scenes no more…

Anyway, it was painless and actually fun in a weird way, because it offered the opportunity for a short minute to proselytize about the work. Judy Duncan and John Anderson helped work the book table and collect money. They estimated that 30 folks came into the BCGEU board meeting room before it was all said and done. The questions were friendly and serious about organizing. This was a room hungry for stories and nuts and bolts about the work we do. Hard to believe there was a better or more receptive potential crowd, so perhaps this was less of a shakeout cruise than a voyage to Fantasy Island.

BK had told me to guess that 25% of any crowd would actually buy a book, so what did we know. The books “flew off the shelves,” in an expression an organizer taught me years ago. We sold every book in the box and ended up scrounging another couple out of my pack to the more polite friends who waited in line. We had probably done closer to 75%, and darned, if we didn’t wish we had more books since we had a lot of business left in Vancouver this trip.

Almost as fun was getting a call from Orell Fitzsimmons in Houston and having Emma Graves-Fitzsimmons yell on the phone that the book was pretty! An email from Chris Newman in Los Angeles confirmed delivery in Los Angeles from Amazon as well with a note about yesterday’s immigration summit. Luckily for me, my readers are judging the book by the cover and on that score it’s a hit! Secky Fascione dropped a line from Seattle saying Amazon got hers there, too. I guess I just learned something about Seattle-based Amazon: they must deliver to the west first, since there were no reports east of the Mississippi River yet.

Secky is standing up for my second voyage in Seattle on Sunday at her house. She asked me what to expect. I told her, I still had no idea whatsoever, but had the box arrived from the publisher. She checked outside and sure enough. On to the next adventure on the long bend of the learning curve river in book land. Welcome aboard!