general strike in France, December 1995


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1993 had been a banner year for business with "dazzling" profits for the Fortune 500 despite stagnant sales growth. 1994 was a great improvement, yielding "surging profits" that were "overflowing the coffers of Corporate America," Business Week exulted even before the grand news about the final quarter was in. Meanwhile median wages and work conditions continued their steady decline. The number of children under 6 living in poverty reached a record high of 6 million, 26 percent of that age group, an increase of 1 million from 1987 to 1992 and almost double the figures for 1972 when the rollback crusade was in its early stages.

Noam Chomsky, "Rollback," Z  Magazine, Jan.-Apr. 1995


To the People of Mexico: We, the men and women, full and free, are conscious that the war that we have declared is our last resort, but also a just one. The dictators are applying an undeclared genocidal war against our people for many years. Therefore we ask for your participation, your decision to support this plan that struggles for work, land, housing, food, health care, education, independence, freedom, democracy, justice and peace. We declare that we will not stop fighting until the basic demands of our people have been met by forming a government of our country that is free and democratic.

EZLN, "Primera Declaración de la Selva Lacandona"

Right: Subcommandante Marcos of the EZLN (Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional, or Zapatista National Liberation Army)

Subcommandante Marcos


The pretext for U.S. support for these [Colombian government] atrocities is the drug war, which became a national obsession when it was launched by George Bush in September 1989; re-launched, one should say, since this is a regular event. A month before, the largest shipment of arms ever authorized under the emergency provisions of the Foreign Assistance Act was sent to the Colombian army, setting the stage, William Hartung reports, "for sending more U.S. weaponry to Colombia than it had received in the entire decade of the 1980s," which was plenty. They were sent to the army -- helicopters, planes, and so on, useless for the drug war, as was pointed out at the time. About 90-95% of counter-narcotic operations are conducted by the National Police, but not with bombers and helicopters. These have other uses. Human rights groups soon reported bombings of villages, massacres, and other atrocities.

Noam Chomsky, Introduction to No Human Being Is Disposable by Juan Pablo Ordoñez


Some years ago the IWW modernized the west coast lumber industry in the United States and Canada. Our members established the eight-hour day by blowing their own whistle at the end of eight hours and quitting work then instead of carrying on for the additional two or four hours the bosses expected. Some crews were fired, but the next crew hired blew their own whistle too, until the eight-hour day became established practice. (Later a law was passed.)

IWW, "One Big Union"



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