AgitProp News 11/3/97 Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit LaBOR aRT & MuRAL PRoJECT AGITPROP NEWS 11.3.97 In this issue: 1. Teamster Power/ Poder de los Teamsters 2. Robinson Carusoe 3. El Paso Teach-in 4. Castro Assassination Attempt 1. TEAMSTER POWER/ PODER DE LOS TEAMSTERS Wow! Genuine Art! New full-color poster now available of the new 20' x 130' mural painted to commemorate the historic 1997 victory over UPS. Painted by Mike Alewitz with the assistance of Teamsters from Local 705. Poster measures 18" x 32". The imagery features Albert and Lucy Parsons, the Haymarket Martyrs, leaders of the Minneapolis Teamster strike, a renegade Teamster truck with a bloody UPS tentacle ripped from the monster of capitalism and other good stuff. The mural was publicly dedicated at a spirited rally of several hundred on October 24. Prints are $25, signed by the artist. Available through: Brushfire Studio 155 Joyce Kilmer Ave New Brunswick, NJ 08901 Phone: (908) 220-1472 2. Depression Hits Robinson Crusoe's Island [Mary Atterbury] "Friday," said Robinson Crusoe, "I'm sorry, I fear I must lay you off." "What do you mean, Master?" "Why, you know there's a big surplus of last year's crop. I don't need you to plant another this year. I've got enough goatskin coats to last me a lifetime. my house needs no repairs. I can gather turtle eggs myself. There's an overproduction. When I need you I will send for you. You needn't wait around here." "That's all right, Master, I'll plant my own crop, build up my own hut and gather all the eggs and nuts I want myself. I'll get along fine." "Where will you do this, Friday." "Here on the island." "This island belongs to me, you know. I can't allow you to do that. When you can't pay me anything I need I might as well not own it." "Then I'll build a canoe and fish in the ocean. You don't own that." "That's all right, provided you don't use any of my trees for the canoe, or build it on my land, or use my breach as a landing place, and you do your fishing far enough away so you don't interfere with my riparian rights." "I never thought of that, Master. I can do without the boat, though. I can swim over to that rock and fish there and gather sea-gull eggs." "No you won't, Friday. The rock is mine. I own riparian rights." "What shall I do, Master?" "That's your problem, Friday. You're a free man, and you know about rugged individualism being maintained here." "I'll guess I'll starve,master. May I stay here until I do? Or shall I swim beyond your riparian rights and starve there?" "I thought of something, Friday. I don't like to carry my garbage down to the shore each day. You may stay and do that. Then whatever is left of it, after my dog and cat have fed, you may eat. You're in luck." "Thankyou, Master. That is true charity." "One more thing, Friday. this island is overpopulated. Fifty percent of the people are unemployed. We are undergoing a severe depression, and there is no way that i can see to end it. No-one but a charlatan would say that I could. So keep a lookout and let no-one land here to settle. And if a ship comes, don't let them land any goods of any kind. You must be protected from foreign labour. Conditions are fundamentally sound, though. And prosperity is just around the corner." [Mary Atterbury wrote this piece for The Industrial Worker in 1932.] 3. ORGANIZING FOR JUSTICE IN THE COMMUNITY: FIGHTING FOR OUR TIME AND PLACE ON THE U.S.-MEXICO BORDER A Teach-in and Celebration with Academic, Cultural and Industrial Workers from El Paso and Cd. Juarez [Simultaneous translating provided] November 12, 1997 6:30 to 9 p.m. UTEP Undergraduate Learning Center Room #220 Moderator: Michael Miller-Topp, UTEP History Department FIGHTING FOR OUR PLACE * Is there a Sweatshop in your Future? (Film) presented by Bill Arballo, El Paso Central Labor Union, UNITE * Homework, culture-work and cyberwork: Debbie Nathan, freelance writer, member National Writers Union * The corporate office, store and assembly line: how they hurt our bodies: Luis Baeza, AFSCME; maquiladora workers; workers from the recent Levi-Strauss lawsuit * The Border: Immigration Control as Labor Control: Michael Wyatt, Border Rights Coalition November 13, 1997 6:30 to 9 p.m., UTEP Undergraduate Learning Center Room 128 FIGHTING FOR TIME Moderator: Melissa Wright, Universidad Autonoma de Cd. Juarez * The attack on the 8-hour day in El Paso: Hector Arrellano, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers * Women and double work day (in the labor force and back at home): UTEP professor Milagros Seda; women workers from UNITE, CETLAC * Maquiladoras: Fighting the 46-hour week, forced overtime and speedup: Beatriz Lujan, CETLAC (Centro de Estudios y Taller Laboral, A.C., Juarez; maquiladora workers * Fighting multiple tiers of work: Keith Anderson, UPS delivery worker, Teamsters member and former UTEP student; Chuck Hempstead, Texas Association of College Teachers (panelists will discuss the "part-time-ization" of work, from blue-collar to university teaching) November 14 6:30 to 10 p.m. The 710 Texas Club (former The Attic), 710 Texas Street NO FIGHTING, JUST A GOOD TIME Videofest 6:30 to 8 (Salt of the Earth, other labor films) Then, WORKERS OF THE WORLD, PARTY DOWN! at the 710 Texas Club, 710 Texas Street. Music, poetry by local and union musicians and artists in support of the border labor movement. Admission free. All invited! Sponsored by: El Paso Central Labor Union UTEP Chicano Studies Department UTEP Interamerican & Border Studies Department Border Rights Coalition Centro de Estudios y Taller Laboral A.C., Cd. Juarez 710 Texas Club (formerly The Attic) 4. Venezuela pledges safe summit after Castro threat 08:48 p.m Oct 31, 1997 Eastern CARACAS, Oct 31 (Reuters) - Venezuela said on Friday it would clamp tight security on the Caribbean island where it hosts a presidential summit next week, following reports of a plot to kill Cuban President Fidel Castro at the meeting. ``We are going to take complete control of the island given that this is an event which is truly important and deserves extraordinary security measures,'' Defense Minister Tito Rincon Bravo told reporters. The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) said on Thursday it was investigating an allegation that four men arrested on a boat off Puerto Rico planned to kill Castro at the Seventh Ibero-American presidential summit on Margarita Island Nov. 8-9. The men were all Cuban and had traveled from Miami. Customs agents found rifles and ammunition on their boat, a spokeswoman for the FBI in San Juan said. ``One of the things that came up is that the purpose of their trip was to attempt to kill Fidel Castro upon his arrival in Venezuela,'' she said. Rincon Bravo said he was aware of the arrests but played down the risks for the Cuban leader's visit. ``There is no type of alarm about this,'' he said. Castro, 71, the target of various failed, CIA-backed assassination plots in the early 1960s, was due to arrive in Margarita on Nov 7, although exact details of his travel plans were a closely guarded secret. The summit will be attended by the leaders of 19 Latin American countries plus Spain and Portugal. and more: MIAMI (AP) - A Cuban exile leader is listed as the owner of a boat seized in an alleged plot to kill Fidel Castro. The Miami Herald quoted a source Saturday as saying that Juan Antonio Llama traveled to Puerto Rico on Tuesday after learning of the problem involving his 46-foot La Esperanza. The newspaper didn't identify the source. Two sniper rifles, ammunition and military supplies were found aboard the boat Tuesday and four Cuban Americans, including two from Miami, were arrested on suspicion of illegal possession of firearms. The boat is registered to Nautical Sports, according to Florida maritime records. Llama, a director of the Cuban American National Foundation, is director, president, secretary and treasurer of the export company. The Cuban exile foundation has been blamed by the Cuban government for a series of recent hotel bombings in Cuba, but the Miami-based group has denied any responsibility. An employee at Llama's company in Coral Gables said Llama told him the boat had been sold. Llama's phone in Miami is not listed. The investigation has not implicated Llama, the Herald said. Llama, 66, has been a member of the board of directors of the foundation for more than five years, said Ninoska Perez, another foundation director. Llama has dealt mainly with the foundation's representation in Spain, Perez said. ``I know absolutely nothing about the boat,'' she said. The boat is mentioned in federal court documents in San Juan as the vessel that was intercepted Monday evening by law enforcement officers off the coast of Puerto Rico. ARTISTS AND WORKERS OF THE WORLD UNITE... YOU HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE BUT BAD TASTE! LaBOR aRT & MuRAL PRoJECT Labor Education Center Rutgers University Ryders Lane & Clifton Avenue New Brunswick, NJ 08903 Phone: 732-220-1472 - Fax: 732-296-1325 Email: lamp@igc.apc.org - Website: http://www.igc.apc.org/laborart Subscribe to AGITPROP NEWS at this address Spanning the Globe to: ORGANIZE - AGITATE - EDUCATE - INSPIRE Mike Alewitz, Artistic Director ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytrc-11.06.97-19:54:04-12667