ETS! encourages comments, feedback, tips, corrections, and info! Please keep them as concise as possible so we can print as many different voices as possible: ETS!, P.O. Box 85541, Seattle WA 98145, or e-mail ets@scn.org.

Why I-200 Sucks

ETS!,

I met Nandish at General Electric in Schenectady, New York where we both were employed back in 1992. We were taking a course at Union College, courtesy of GE, which is where we were introduced to one another.

One day after class Nandish invited me to go to lunch with him and his friends. "Do you like Indian?" he asked me. He knew of a place close-by with a great, cheap Indian lunch buffet. "I'd love to go," I said, "although I don't know much about Indian food."

So off we went to this restaurant--I've long since forgotten the name. A simple white, run-down building on the side of the Albany-Schenectady highway. It was only the immense aroma of spices that lured one inside. I remember staying close to Nandish in the buffet line. He patiently explained all the dishes to me and laughed as I scooped a serving of the lethal vindaloo onto my plate. I topped it off with a mango lassi that Nandish promised would take the bite out of the hotness.

This restaurant became a weekly event for us. I quickly developed cravings for Channa Saag that I still have to this day. We got to chat a lot during these feasts. It started out mainly about classwork, then India and the differences between living there and living here. He spoke about how hard it was to make female friends in India and how hard it is to make male friends in America. He spoke about his fears of his upcoming arranged marriage and also of his excitement for it.

I still have his wedding invite hanging on my wall. A beautiful white scroll with red and gold roses drawn around the border and written in red and blue, "Smt. & Sri. Parameshwar S. HulikantiMath, Ranibennur Cordially invite you with family and friends to grace the occasion of the Marriage of their son. Chi. Nandishwara with Chi. Sou. Priyadarshini on Second September 1994, At 9:15 am to 10:15am at Veerashaiva Kalyana Mantapa, J.C. Road, Tumkur-572 101 Karnataka. (India)."

Although we've lost touch over the years, last month when I listened to the news on the bomb tests performed in India I thought often of Nandish. I tried to gather info on how the Indians were dealing with their tension with Pakistan. I wondered about Nandish and his new wife, his family still in India, and how they were all doing.

Now I hear proponents speak about I-200. Trying to persuade me to believe in their "equal-rights" initiative. I think of Nandish and how our brief friendship has added to my life. And I can only wonder to myself who really benefits most by working in an ethnically diverse environment.

Audrey Taub Mintz, via e-mail

Corporate Union Leaders Suck

Editor(s), ETS!,

I have been following coverage of the GM strike in the local paper, the Wall Street Journal, CBC News, as well as ETS!, and would like to add a few cents to the discussion.

We should not be surprised that leaders of most mainstream labor organizations calling themselves unions will sell the rank and file out to the employers, to preserve their powerful positions in their labor brokerage firms. Historically speaking, this has been the case when memberships entrust their power to officers who will often use their power to rule over the membership, rather than carry out the collective mandate of the rank and file. Such is the sad history of the AFL, and even the CIO, even in its radical early days.

Today workers are taking notice of these things, but we still have a long way to go. For example, workers at UPS were solid in shutting down operations, but upon return, many were quitting in droves, because management harassed workers who were identified as militants. "Wildcat" actions, such as slowdowns, stoppages, and "quickie" strikes, to address these issues, were deemed illegal by their own union, thanks to concessions such as "no strike" agreements. Such agreements were also signed by the UAW in key GM plants, which will cripple the efforts of workers to enforce the agreement they managed to eke out of the employer. A large problem that remains to be addressed by "progressives" is post-strike harassment of workers, a problem left to lengthy grievance procedures and the National Labor Relations Board.

All of this seems bleak in the face of capital's continuing plunder, but throughout history these problems have been dealt with by workers themselves. The Oakland general strike of 1946, the sit-downs at Goodyear in the 1930s, the San Francisco general strike of 1934, and the early militancy of the auto workers' unions were initiated by workers, and were either shut down by their union "leaders," or the credit for these actions was appropriated by the leaders when they were unable to suppress the actions in cooperation with employers. The few benefits workers still enjoy today were the result of the struggles of those workers who not only had to fight the employers, but also the bosses in their own unions, in spite of what the "corporate media" had to say about it.

There is no doubt in my mind that this militancy is alive and well today, but remains untapped and disorganized. We need to not only bring forward the facts about the employers' economic wars against working people, but also how they employ a top-down structure of a union so that they can continue to wage this war. ETS! could help bring solutions, by reporting on efforts of workers to radicalize locals, build new unions outside of the AFL/CIO, and most importantly, report the successes along with the defeats.

John Persak, Seattle

Nordstrom and Bare Skin!

ETS!,

Seattle PI, Friday, August 2l, Section AA: 8 pages of larger than life photos of 7 lovely women and one teenager advertising various cosmetics. Except for Michele Alexander, Nordstrom Beauty Education Director, they all appear topless with everything 4 inches below the clavicle air-brushed out skillfully and covered by bottles and jars of expensive cosmetics. (Michelle probably planned the ad, so she got to dress up.) Interesting group: Pam Gazale, a sculptor, Monique Barbeau, executive chef of Fuller's Restaurant, Natalia Heigler, dancer with Pacific NW Ballet, Kim Mee Hern, dancer for the Seattle Sonics Dance Team, Rachel Singletary, creative writer, Olivia Tarr, fashion stylist, and Kristen Wilson, Student Fashion Board (Nordstrom's, I presume).

Careful touch-up brings them all up to or back to the same age. Not a wrinkle, not a hair out of place, and certainly no white hair. But it is the "student" that worries me; having several gorgeous granddaughters of various ages, I shudder to think how their parents and I would respond to having these mug shots in a big city newspaper. It is hard enough now to keep them home on the farm and especially hard to protect them from obsession with appearances ... I wonder what the Nordstrom male models in tomorrow's P.I. will be wearing--or not wearing!

Rosemary E. Brodie, Seattle

M.T. replies: What really bothers me is that these women would never be celebrated in full-page newspaper spreads for their achievements alone--only for their looks. And think of the millions of women who have achieved much more and do more for society than a dancer for the Sonics dance team. Any school teacher or daycare worker would be a better example of a woman who contributes more to society at large. Nevertheless, we're supposed to want to be like Kim Mee Hern? Sick.

Let's Bomb Everything!

ETS!,

Where do you get your facts & figures? If you know so much, one wonders if you also subscribe and support the Muslim terrorist acts against the people of the Untied States?

William John Healey III, via e-mail

G.P. replies: Please be specific. We're happy to pass along source information for any material that appears in ETS!; we draw from a variety of sources (we read a lot).

As even a cursory reading of our articles on the Sudanese bombing should make clear, we don't support any terrorist acts--no matter who the victims are, and whether they're committed by individuals, shadowy networks, corporations, or countries.

Invest In Bullion!?

ETS!,

Your discussion of how big money runs around the world to find lowest cost labor and how paper money banking has put the world economy on the skids was very interesting. Shades of Johnny Law!

You echo what many folks are feeling in a fresh, up front way. Regarding paper money: perhaps our Founding Fathers really knew something when they said, "No State shall... make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts..." [Article I, Section 10, US Constitution]

Enjoy your site.

das1, via e-mail

The Clinton Mutiny

ETS!,

On the one hand, Clinton deserves whatever he gets, and I'll shed no tears when he leaves the office he's disgraced, even if he was undone in a witch hunt atmosphere. But for the sake of individuals, past present and future, the democratic institution of the Presidency deserves better. And that's where you may be wrong in a comment several weeks ago that Wall Street would never let Clinton fall. There can only be so much power at any given time, and a weakened Presidency (and all other democratic institutions) means more power for corporate interests. I recommend watching "The Caine Mutiny", especially the very end.

Dave Albergine, Seattle