Mexico City  The day started ominously in Mexico City as I walked at dawn towards the Zocalo.  First the Alameda, one of my favorite parks in the world, was encased in a plastic, invisible wall indicating some form of construction for some indefinite amount of [...]]]>

Delegation with Laura in front of symbol of Workers University

Mexico City  The day started ominously in Mexico City as I walked at dawn towards the Zocalo.  First the Alameda, one of my favorite parks in the world, was encased in a plastic, invisible wall indicating some form of construction for some indefinite amount of time.  Then the Palacio Belles de Artes was blocked by police barricades and armed, bivouacked soldiers, which I later understood was in preparation for the funeral of Carlos Fuentes, the Nobel prize winning Mexican author.  Later walking to the Universidad Obera de Mexico in the light of day with the whole ACORN International delegation, the sun was shining and life on the streets of the city invigorated everyone.

Laura Juarez Sanchez, a researcher at the UOM on the effects of economy, migration, and other topics had prepared a briefing for us that was sobering to say the least.  With elaborate charts and carefully chosen words she laid out the case against neo-liberalism that was stark in the Mexican context.  The heart of her argument rested on the stagnation of the minimum wage for Mexican workers compared to other industrialized countries, including the USA and China.  She argued that the wage was now in comparison, the lowest in the world and the growth in the minimum wage had been miniscule, all because Mexico was trying to hold on to its place in the “race to the bottom” by competing against China and other Asian countries on the basis of wages even as maquila jobs were leaving the country.  The assault on Mexican workers was not simply based on low wages, but also included abnegation and dilution of the labor laws, privatization and reduction of pensions, limited health care, and increasing barriers to education.  We were glad to see our companera, Laura, at UOM and to meet in their lovely library, but there were no smiles on our face about the news she offered.

Similarly, we toured the Neza (Nezahualcoyoth), where ACORN Mexico has done most of its organizing in recent years.  Our leaders said there had been some progress in the struggle for water, but it was mainly around increased water pressure and access to more homes of water adequate for bathing, washing, and so forth.  Potable water for drinking and food preparation was still the issue and for many ACORN families sucked up 40% of their monthly income!

Besides the issue of potable water, we spent some time along the drainage canals and the rio negra  as our members called the rivers of sewage discharge that were floating out of Neza without any treatment.  The coming summer rains inevitably would lead to floods and the sewage once again overflowing into many homes and sections of Neza.

Rio Negra -- sewage discharge into river at Neza

The reports indicated progress, partially by exploiting the opportunity to pressure the parties in the face of the coming national and local elections on July 1^st.  Federal elections only come every six years, so our campaign cannot depend on this opportunity, because we are unwilling to wait.

Everyone with ACORN Mexico Neza members

In the recent deification of Apple and its co-founder Steven Jobs, there has been unstinting praise for Apple and its high priced, sleek products as a great American success story.  The [...]]]> New Orleans   As improbable as it may sound; sweatshops seem to have a lot of high placed advocates who simply swear by them.  Yes, sweatshops!

In the recent deification of Apple and its co-founder Steven Jobs, there has been unstinting praise for Apple and its high priced, sleek products as a great American success story.  The credible allegations and proofs of how much of Apple’s manufacturing operation rested on the backs of sweatshop labor, particularly at huge manufacturers like FoxConn, were sometimes mentioned in passing, but largely swept under the rug.  Not surprisingly a front page article on the death and demise of American manufacturing featuring both Jobs and Apple prominently also tried to bury the sweatshop reality on which so much of this manufacturing “miracle” exists in a few paragraphs of the very long story.

The reporter and others marveled at how on a whim 8000 workers could be pulled out of bed in company owned and run dormitories and put to work on a last minute changeover.  Wow, the article and others seemed to say, that couldn’t happen here in America.

Well, that’s wrong.  It could happened here in America, but Apple would have to pay for it, and that’s still the real difference.

One fool asked where you could find some thousands of workers in the United States, who would be ready to roll to work.  Hey, just about anywhere, jerkwater!  Has word of the recession gotten to none of these folks?

Even in the pages of the New York Times, if they were interested they can read about the skilled workers by the thousands that have trucked themselves into North Dakota (of all places!) to live in, yes, bunks, trailers, and all manner of man-caves in order to work in the oil industry on the plains.  But, whoops, once again, I should add that they are doing so, because they get paid, and paid pretty damned well to do so!  We saw thousands of workers flood into New Orleans to help on the recovery, but once again they did so on their own dime, because they thought they could make a dollar.  In all of these cases these are workers with crazy, mad skills, too.

The article seemed to say Apple employed 700,000 workers in manufacturing around the world, oh, and 40,000 or so in the USA.  Their spokesperson wanted to make sure all of us knew that the American economy is not “their problem.”  Their problem is only “making a good product.”  Life and business is not that simple, and the responsibilities go much deeper.

This seems to be a problem throughout much of the Times.  Nicholas Kristof did a column that I had to read because it was about Olly Neal from Arkansas, who I had worked with in the 1970’s when he was running the Lee County Clinic.  Posting the article, more than one of my buddies reminded me how they too had to hold their noses to read anything Kristof wrote because he is such a relentless apologist for sweatshops.

Good news that we are really talking about manufacturing.  Bad news that the ideology underpinning the conversation is that there can only be manufacturing at the expense of workers’ rights and wages in sweatshop conditions.

Shame on Apple, the Times, and the rest of the tribe that makes these rationalizations!

In my book, [...]]]> New Orleans Once one gets past the ideological opposition some have towards eligible citizens gaining full access to all of the income supports available, we are still faced with the cost of infrastructure and the capacity to enroll the vast numbers who are unserved.

In my book, Citizen Wealth, coming out soon I argue that we need to approach technology differently and increase access to easier filing and certification. I also argue that we need to enlist the vast array of private establishments where eligible citizens congregate in the effort to achieve maximum eligible participation. I even confront the heresy of utilizing Wal-Mart for such purposes, which is surely an indication of our deadly serious I see this mission.

For all of these reasons I was struck by an article in The Guardian offering sure proof that when a government in this case Britain wants to achieve some result and wants to do so efficiently, then it is not so difficult to offer such services through all available outlets, and even allow the piper to be paid for the tune. We need to go somewhere near there in order to make the application process ubiquitous, accessible, and easy, the outreach huge and effective, and reduce the government’s role to final verification and certification.

This story from the UK is about identity cards, and that is probably a controversial issue in the UK, as it would be here, but nonetheless, it is not a big leap to imagine out we could create a network to move eligible lower income families to easier access to benefits. Jacqui Smith enlists high street help for ID cards scheme Alan Travis, home affairs editor The Guardian, Wednesday 6 May 2009 High street chemists, post offices and photo shops are to be used to record the electronic fingerprints and other biometric data needed for the national identity card scheme, the home secretary, Jacqui Smith, is to announce today. The decision to use high street shops sidesteps the need for the Home Office to set up a network of enrolment centres with mobile units to operate in rural areas. The move comes as the latest Home Office report to parliament on the costs of the scheme show they have risen by a further £221m to a total of £5.3bn over the next 10 years. That figure excludes the costs to other government departments and agencies of scanners and other equipment for verifying the identity of those trying to access public services. The home secretary is to confirm in a speech today that Manchester will be the first city where citizens – particularly younger people – will be invited to apply for an ID card from this autumn before the national roll-out in 2012. They will be charged £30 for a standalone card that will be valid for travel through Europe. Britain’s commercial airline pilots are meeting MPs and ministers to object to an initial scheme requiring 20,000 airside workers at Manchester and London City airports to sign up to the ID card scheme as a condition of employment. Smith is to meet businesses today who are keen to sign up with the Identity and Passport Service to undertake the work of recording electronic fingerprints and facial photographs for those who apply for ID cards or a new generation passport. The Home Office expects more than 12m such documents to be issued each year when the scheme is fully operational. “While private companies will clearly benefit from the increased footfall from offering this service, their customers will benefit from being able to quickly provide their biometrics while they are out doing their shopping,” said Smith. The Post Office, the National Pharmacy Association and the Photo Marketing Association are all in talks with the Home Office over the contract. The cost report puts the figure for issuing ID cards to British and Irish citizens in the UK at £4.945bn, and to foreign nationals at £372m.