Hidden Story of Silicon Valley's High-Tech Workers

Friday 04 March 2011

Up Against the Open Shop - the Hidden Story of Silicon Valley's High-Tech Workers

David Bacon, Truthout: "On January 29, 1993, workers at the Versatronex plant in Sunnyvale, California, filed out of its doors for the last time. Seventeen years have passed since, but there are still electronics workers in Silicon Valley who remember the company's name. It was the first Valley plant struck by production employees and the first where a strike won recognition of their union. The struggle of these workers, almost all immigrants from Mexico, Central America and the Philippines, demolished some of the most cherished myths about the Silicon Valley workforce."
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Daniel Ellsberg: "Bradley Manning Is Acting in the Interest of the United States"
Nadia Prupis, Truthout: "The US Army on Wednesday brought 22 new charges against Pfc. Bradley Manning, the soldier accused of leaking classified military and government documents to whistleblower web site WikiLeaks. Manning was arrested in May 2010 for transferring classified data onto his personal computer and disclosing classified information concerning the national defense."
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Really Bad Reporting in Wisconsin: Who "Contributes" to Public Workers' Pensions?
David Cay Johnston, Tax.com: "When it comes to improving public understanding of tax policy, nothing has been more troubling than the deeply flawed coverage of the Wisconsin state employees' fight over collective bargaining. Economic nonsense is being reported as fact in most of the news reports on the Wisconsin dispute, the product of a breakdown of skepticism among journalists multiplied by their lack of understanding of basic economic principles."
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Loyalist Forces Open Fire on Tripoli Protesters
David D. Kirkpatrick, The New York Times News Service: "Forces loyal to Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi opened fired with tear gas and what a witness described as live ammunition to scatter protesters who had gathered after Friday noon prayers outside a mosque in a restive neighborhood of Tripoli, chanting slogans and defying the authorities' attempt to lock down the capital."
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Dean Baker | Unemployment Edges Lower as Job Growth Returns
Dean Baker, The Center for Economic and Policy Research: "The number of workers unemployed less than 5 weeks is fewer than at any point in the 90s. The unemployment rate edged down to 8.9 percent in February, as the Labor Department reported that the economy generated 192,000 new jobs. This number is undoubtedly inflated some by the weather-weakened January performance, when the economy generated just 63,000 jobs. The unemployment rate has now dropped by 0.9 percentage points in the last three months. During this period job growth as reported by the establishment survey has averaged just 136,000, only slightly faster than the 90,000 rate needed to keep pace with the growth of the labor force."
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Julian Assange: At the Forefront of 21st Century Journalism
Kevin Zeese, Truthout: "If there were ever a doubt about whether the editor in chief of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, is a journalist, recent events erase all those doubts and put him at the forefront of a movement to democratize journalism and empower people. The US Department of Justice is still trying to find a way to prosecute Assange and others associated with WikiLeaks. A key to their prosecution is claiming he is not a journalist, but that weak premise has been made laughable by recent events."
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AFL-CIO's Trumka: No American Should Face Choice Between Rights, Job (Video)
Judy Woodruff talks to Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, a voluntary federation of 57 US and international labor unions. Many AFL-CIO members would be affected by pending state-level legislation that would cut collective-bargaining rights for public employees.
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Arm Sales, Especially by Russia and China, Continue to Penetrate Latin America
Alex Sanchez, Council on Hemispheric Affairs: "Russian military sales have become so frequent in recent years that they no longer make for major headlines. However, as Washington policymakers continue to voice concern about Iran's growing influence in Latin America, some alarmists argue that Russia's eagerness to supply the region with weapons is likely to trigger a 'soft arms race' and present itself as a threat to the United State's historic hegemony in the Western Hemisphere. Adherents to this point of view persist in looking at Moscow through a nostalgic Cold War lens that sees Russia (and probably China) as a growing and certain threat to U.S. national security. Little, if anything, is heard of Washington concerns about other countries (like Israel or France) selling weaponry to the region."
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Kevin Willmott | Dr. King and the Tea Party
Kevin Willmott, Truthout: "February may have been Black History Month, but let's be honest: the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a problem. He was always challenging governments, challenging attitudes, challenging our moral compass. He tried to make us see things we did not want to see: poverty, racism, war. He was attempting to bring us closer to an America that could only be called a dream. The Tea Party thinks they are doing that, too. Unfortunately, their beliefs and attitudes are the part of the American experience that Dr. King gave his life trying to change."
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BUZZFLASH DAILY HEADLINES

It took Scott Walker to make the seat of Wisconsin government the Kremlin on Lake Mendota. BuzzFlash at Truthout has documented over the past two weeks Walker's disregard for accountability to the Milwaukee County Board when he was its executive director. Not only did he bypass the board's reviews on several actions, he ended up costing the taxpayers money because of his Nixonian sense of imperial decision making. The video seen round the nation of a Wisconsin legislator, Democratic Rep. Nick Milroy, being tackled by Walker's police force as Milroy attempted to enter the State Capitol, is a visual reminder of the tactics employed in the Soviet Union and dictatorships throughout the world, not America. Walker has turned the Wisconsin State Capitol, owned by all the people of the state, into his own Politburo fiefdom. It took a judge to make the building once again a public place, despite Walker's defiance. Although public unions have expressed a willingness to negotiate compensation issues, Walker has acted as if he has assumed dictatorial control, insisting that there will be no negotiation. But negotiation is the lubricant of democracy. Either you believe in democracy or you don't respect the Constitution of the United States of America. Walker is starting to make Dick Nixon look like a member of the ACLU. Mark Karlin
Editor, BuzzFlash at Truthout Indiana Republican Secretary of State Indicted on Multiple Counts of Voter Fraud
Read the Article at Talking Points Memo US Unemployment Rate Dips to 8.9 Percent
Read the Article at The Washington Post Wisconsin Legislator Tackled in Capitol by Walker's Police
Read the Article at The Chicago Tribune Judge Restores Public Access, With Restrictions, to Wisconsin Capitol
Read the Article at The Jansesville Gazette Scott Walker Let State Republican Chair and Campaign Donor Off the Hook in Pension Scandal
Read the Article at BuzzFlash Paul Krugman: How to Kill a Recovery
Read the Article at the New York Times Boehner Wants to Cut Entitlements
Read the Article at The Wall Street Journal Click here for more BuzzFlash headlines

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