Views in brief
Why we chose "(un)Occupy"
IN RESPONSE to "To occupy or (un)occupy?": We in (un)Occupy Albuquerque understand that there are positive and negative meanings of the word "occupy," and we discussed that at more than one meeting.
It is different to occupy a factory, a corporation, a financial industry than it is to occupy a city or a state (or to name yourself "Occupy City").
The Native people who re-occupied Alcatraz Island are not a parallel example of the protesters of Albuquerque occupying the city. The protesters of Albuquerque include Texans, Californians, Michiganders, etc., who have moved to Albuquerque as well as the Indo-Hispanos and Native people who were born there.
Here is our explanation of our name: "(un)Occupy Albuquerque, in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement, indigenous peoples and colonized peoples worldwide, realizes that language has historically played a powerful role in social transformation. Given the 'occupation' of native lands across the Americas since 1492, the colonization of Africa, Asia, and other parts of the world, and the continued 'occupation' of Iraq and Afghanistan, we resist the term 'occupy' or, for that matter, any language that is connected to the oppression of people."
We believe that by ignoring the dynamics of privilege, this monumental social movement will repeat the very structures of injustice it seeks to eliminate. The United States is a colonial and imperial nation built on stolen indigenous lands and the institution of slavery. It is our strong conviction that a movement to end economic injustice must have at its core an honest struggle to end racism, colonization and all forms of oppression.
Sayrah Namaste, Albuquerque, N.M.
Unions up against the wall
IN RESPONSE to "Why won't Ford share gains?": As a United Auto Workers (UAW) member myself, and a former member of the International Association of Machinists, and having been a union representative and a member of negotiating teams, I would like to add that the difficulty for unions in contract talks today is that they have to compete with corporations with very deep pockets.
These corporate funds are greatly enhanced by tax breaks, corporate welfare and off-shoring, as well as various states competing (with taxpayer money no less) to give incentive packages to these companies to either keep or entice them to set up shop.
This is nothing short of a state-sponsored union-busting tool, and if unions like the UAW cannot hold ground for the working class, a new "low level" is set in the race to the bottom. This can be expected to be passed along to future workers.
Globalism in the business world hurts those of us who actually work for a living, and so it should be the concern of every worker, union or not, and workers in every union, as to how workers in other unions are treated at contract time. When one group loses out, we all lose out. It's just a matter of how long before your job is next.
Right now, workers and unions are fighting to lose less in each contract, as opposed to moving forward.
Patrick Corbett, Chicago
Behind the scrapped Greek referendum
THE FRENCH and German governments' decision to force Greek Prime Minister Papandreou to abandon plans for a referendum on Greece's bail-out exposes how undemocratic the European Union is.
But why is it so difficult for Greece to leave the eurozone, and why if they left would it be so destructive to Europe? The reason is that the financial speculators who are currently heaping pressure on Greece would then turn their attention to other countries and force them out. It was these financial hatchet men who in 1992 broke our currency and forced Britain out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism and caused the financial meltdown in 2008.
Taxpayers bailed these people out with a trillion pounds and now they hold Europe to ransom. These people have never done a day's work in their lives, they produce nothing but have the power to break governments, start wars and control every aspect of our lives.
Mark Holt, Waterloo, England
Watching Occupy from Australia
AS AN Australian, I am proud of my U.S. friends marching on Wall Street and wish I could be there. As an Australian, I am not proud of our local telecom's CEO taking home a $5.1 million pay packet and then sending me a little note on my latest bill kindly telling me that I will be charged another dollar per minute from now on in. I guess there are 22 million Australians now, so $1 from all phone owners should make them a grand profit.
Our National Coal Board CEOs have appointed themselves a 70 percent salary increase this year. When will it ever end?
Give Wall Street a kick from me. It would be wonderful if Aussies got their act together and did the same. We have homeless, starving and dying people here too but no one seems to give a damn that some people have all the money and others have none. I care, do you? HELP!
David Buchan, Australia
Making Occupy more inclusive
IN RESPONSE to "Building a multiracial Occupy movement": I liked the message of the article, as indeed we need to be inclusive if we are to be the 99 percent.
I do want to remind you that the Native Americans should be invited to be a part of this movement also. Some are, and some are wondering just how much they can be true to their own cause if they join with the Occupy movement. Please check out this commentary.
Robert Palmer II, Rosemount, Minn.
