Welcome to the Tragic Kingdom (WB V. III)

The Weekly Beast Volume III (Originally appeared in The Lariat 2/24/10)


Considering their past year’s revenue and projected earnings for 2010 Disney’s management found it appropriate to deny health coverage to over 2,150 hotel workers in California. By the end of their fiscal year back in October 3, 2009 Disney Corporation reported their earnings to the public. During our country’s worst economic recession since 1930 Disneyland managed to generate 36,000,000,000 dollars in profits. This astronomical figure is enough to pay off California’s debt with 16 billion dollars to spare. With these figures wouldn’t someone with a human heart continue to provide healthcare premiums without burdening their already suffering employees? Disney’s answer is a resounding no.

Many unions have caved-in to pressure from Disney officials and from economic constraints completely out of their control (recessions, financial sector meltdowns…little things like that). However one union has decided to stick their guns, and so have the 2,150 workers who are members. Unite Here! Local 11 has been waging a public battle with Disneyland Hotel for over two years. The Union along with a handful of its members have gone on hunger strike only consuming water for days at a time. The first hunger strike occurred February 9th in front of Disney’s Grand California Hotel & Spa; eight individuals have consumed only water for a week straight. The topical issue of healthcare was/is at the center of the grudge. Healthcare up until two years ago was virtually free for all employees working for the hotel. However that is all changing without any type of negotiation Disneyland is forcing workers to pay up to $500 a month for health insurance.

Just a few months ago in December of 2009 Unite Here! Local 11 organized two separate walkouts. The walkouts were aimed at an issue apart from health care premiums. Non-negotiated additional workloads have been forced onto hotel workers. Larger beds, and heavier sheets have resulted in more and more reported on-the-job injuries. Kirill Penteshin an attorney for Unite Here! has clarified the new working conditions saying that the original bedding was 3 pounds and now it is 9 pounds, and stretches a yard farther in each direction. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration reports have illustrated the point that since the installation of new amenities workers have reported over 53 injuries.

The hunger strike has generated interest in many people from different walks of life. Anaheim City Councilwoman Lorri Galloway, United Farm Workers of America co-founder Dolores Huerta, and even Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine played a short concert at the rallies in front of Disney’s Grand California Hotel. Community religious leaders have held vigils and have given words of support to the strikers. Shakeel Syed director of the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California to quote Syed, “Workers here are upholding the timeless and universal call for justice by fasting and praying to heal the hearts of those who hear not - of the silent cries of the workers, their children and their grandparents…human society driven by the business and industrial machine has the lethal capacity to deaden our spirits.” The strike has ended in Anaheim but is planned to be continued at Disney’s Burbank headquarters.

A common and misguided rant against the hotel workers is that they have applied at these jobs and that they have the freedom to leave at anytime if they chose to. This is completely meaningless rhetoric, one that tries to enforce the myth of “endless social mobility”. In fact it is a contradictory and self-defeating philosophy, one could also say why doesn’t the company just choose to be more decent? People have jobs to provide for themselves and their families. One could only be ‘free’ to walk away from a job if they’re willing to jeopardize their family and security. Support Disney Hotel workers, contact Unite Here! and if you can try to ditch those Disney Season Passes.

The People's Historian: Howard Zinn's Life of Resistance (WB V. II)

The Weekly Beast Volume II (was produced as an opinion column for The Lariat, HOWEVER they rejected it on the grounds (I'm assuming) that no one knows or gives a shit about Howard Zinn.)

Will Hunting paces around his psychologist’s office. He scans the book case and notices a rather generic book title, he breaks the silence, "A History of the United States, Volume I," he pauses as he continues on examining the large bookcase, “If you want to read a real history book, read Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States." This quote is from the 1997 film Good Will Hunting which won the Academy Award for Matt Damon and Ben Affleck who wrote the original script. Howard Zinn was already 73 years of age when this film was produced, and was still actively speaking at college campuses and penning best-selling works on politics and history. If one were to open up the Los Angeles Times two weeks ago perhaps on the 7th page in or so you’d run into a standard 6 inch obituary-Howard Zinn’s name was on it. Howard Zinn passed away January 27th in Santa Monica, California he was 87 years old. America has truly lost someone invaluable.

In 1943 after reading about the awful atrocities committed by the fascists in Europe Zinn signed on to be in the United States Army Air Corps. After serving in World War II as a bombardier he returned home and packed all his medals sealed them into a postage envelope and wrote “Never Again” on the seal. During a post-doctoral research mission he read the French newspapers written at the time of occupation, he conducted interviews with French citizens who described the experience of WWII on the ground. Civilian death tolls caused by both Germans and Americans were also released. Zinn was on an airplane which alone ended the lives of 1,000 French civilians. On the G.I. bill he attended New York University for his B.A. He earned his master’s and doctoral degrees from Columbia University. His academic career started at Spellman College. 7 years later he accepted an offer to teach at Boston University.

One of Howard Zinn’s first outright challenges to authority and historical racism was his struggle alongside historian August Meier against the Southern Historical Association holding meetings in segregated hotels. Zinn was involved as an advisor for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, a group remembered for being largely responsible for many positive actions and victories during the civil rights era. In 1967 Zinn published Vietnam: The Logic of Withdrawal an unabashedly critical collection of articles asserting the Unites States had no right to be in Vietnam and should leave with no conditions, except of course reparations for the Vietnamese. Zinn and Reverend Daniel Berrigan also went on a diplomatic mission to Hanoi, Vietnam to ascertain the whereabouts and negotiate the release of American POWS, they succeeded in bringing three American Air Men home.

His resume continues on: he participated in publishing the secret Pentagon Papers, testified on behalf of the New York Times fighting against the United States government keeping “embarrassing” secrets from the public, and wrote vigorously against the War in Iraq. He was also a playwright writing three plays all of which were produced his most famous called “Marx in Soho: A Play on History.” Last year Matt Damon and Howard Zinn teamed up with the History Channel to produce “The People Speak” a collection of readings, and dramatic performances of famous American insurrectionists, rebels, and protesters. Actors such as Tim Robbins, Josh Brolin, Danny Glover, and musicians such as John Legend, Lupe Fiasco, and Bruce Springstein came together to aid Howard Zinn in spreading his message

Many pundits on the right would love to dismiss Howard Zinn as a mere polemicist. Some people have gone as far as trying to rob Zinn of his well-earned title as a historian. (see Sean Wilentz’ contribution to the LA Times’ posthumous panel discussion of Zinn) No matter how people try to distort the memory of the man one thing is undeniable he was truly a historian of the people. His landmark work, A People’s History of the United States sold over two million copies, and is on many professors syllabi across the country as required reading for U.S. History classes. The text is mostly interested in dismantling what is normally thought of as history, (e.g. glorified nationalistic fairytales excluding regular people from the process of making history). Howard Zinn wanted to bring to light those who were marginalized, distorted or omitted from the pages of history: women, feminists, socialists, anti-war resisters during World War I, and World War II, and the working-class. Zinn’s most important lesson may be ,"If you don't know history, it is as if you were born yesterday."

Hands off Haiti! (WB V. I)

The Weekly Beast Volume I (originally appeared in The Lariat 2/3/10)


The world has been captivated and horrified by the indescribable damage caused by Haiti’s most recent natural disaster, a 7.0 earthquake. Hundreds of millions of dollars worth of property damage has been reported and over 200,000 lives have been lost. People have rightly chosen to organize and mobilize aid for the desperate population of that country. However, analysis provided by major news corporations has given the public no substance and no historical understanding of why there is such abject poverty in Haiti. What’s worse is that stories such as the U.S. blocking aid from reaching Haitians, as well as the disgusting opportunism exhibited by security companies have been completely removed from the media’s “discussion.” (I recommend you read Jeremy Scahill’s latest article for The Nation for an in-depth story of how security companies are profiting off the suffering of Haitians.) We must widen the narrow discussion to include criticism and to ask pointed questions about why Haiti is so poor.

In less than a week after the earthquake struck Haiti leaving two million homeless, the United States Government has sent over 20,000 troops to Haiti. What’s striking about this is that their mission is supposedly to stabilize Haiti, and maintain security, however when compared to the reality on the ground they are achieving the exact opposite. The U.S. has taken full control of the Port-au-Prince airport and since then multiple aid efforts have been blocked and prevented from landing. The U.S. has been so disruptive that the Medicines Sans Frontiers (Doctors Without Borders) have lodged five separate complaints against these military acts.

U.S. commanders have denied the Medicines Sans Frontiers from delivering an inflatable hospital, forcing the group to land in the Dominican Republic over 200 miles away from where critical aid is/was needed. This delayed the construction and application of the health facility by 24 hours. On NBC’s Meet the Press Lieutenant General Ken Keen discussed the issue of commandeering the airport, “We’re working aggressively to open up other ways to get in here. The ports are part of that.” So instead of using jets to fly in medical supplies, water and food he wants to utilize boats? Doesn’t he know that the Port-au-Prince Port was decimated by the earthquake?
Let’s picture Haiti before the earthquake. Imagine living in a country where the problem of poverty and starvation were so unbearable that people literally ate dirt to survive. In Haiti this is a daily reality. This reality has been constructed by a history of the United States meddling in democratic elections, (kidnapping presidents) The International Monetary Fund offering trojan-horse loans filled with destructive clauses that made bankers rich and Haitians the poorest nation in the western hemisphere. (as well as making them completely dependent on high-priced imported food) This is why the U.S.’s recent undemocratic military actions in Haiti should be condemned.

Poverty amplifies pain: The total deaths of U.S. citizens due to earthquakes since 1811 is 1/5 of how many people died in Haiti’s recent earthquake. If U.S citizens are interested in helping Haiti then we must pressure our government to retract the 2006 HOPE act specifically (Section (d)(1)(C)) which forces Haiti to eliminate “barriers of United States trade and investment.” When I think of the U.S.’s involvement in Haitian affairs I can’t help but think of the stereotype of a mafia don offering favors for severed heads. What’s relieving to know is that the International Monetary Fund recently caved-in to international pressure and gave Haiti a 100,000,000 dollar grant, perhaps the U.S. can be pressured by the domestic and international community to get its grubby hands off Haiti.

Additional and vital information:

DONATE NOW!
www.redcross.org/en/donatemoney

"Doctors without Borders interview" -Newsweek Magazine
http://www.newsweek.com/id/232058

"The International Monetary Fund's dealings with Haiti" -The Nation
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion/517494/what_haiti_is_owed

"Top 10 Reasons to oppose the IMF" -The Global Exchange
http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/wbimf/TopTenIMF.html

I write for the college newspaper now!

I attend the prestigious institution known as Saddleback College. I am a reporter and staff member of the student-run newspaper the Lariat. I am also President of the Student Leftist Group. I'll be writing a weekly opinion column for the Lariat. I've already written two so far, I'm working on my third. I've decided to post these opinion columns on this blog (with supplemental information since I am usually only allowed 600 words). I'll dub these web-based versions "The Weekly Beast".
First one will be posted tonight.