[URBANTH-L]Re: AAA and the strike

Ellen Hertz ellen.hertz at unine.ch
Fri Oct 22 09:05:21 EDT 2004


This on-line exchange gives a terrifying image of both the AAA and its
concerned members. The righteous enthusiasm with which people throw
themselves into these discussions (I now must include myself) gives the
impression that we have never been faced a moral-political choice in our
lives. "Finally, I can express my convictions!" seems to be the message. But
we needn't wait for a union to strike in SF in ordre to find under-paid and
poorly treated workers; they're all over the place. Indeed, they're probably
womaning your cafeterias and cleaning your offices even as I write.
Of course people shouldn't cross the picket line! And we can use the
free-time we gain not going to the meetings to inquire what the women behind
the counters are earning as hourly wages at our own institutions.
Ellen Hertz
Prof.
University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland




Le 22.10.04 6:31, « Anthony D'Andrea » <a-dandrea at uchicago.edu> a écrit :

> The AAA is entrapped in between scientific purposes and labor politics
> (and combinations of both). Without this strike, we would never really
> know what the AAA is all about now. The final decision, in any case, will
> be fundamentally arbitrary (this is a weberian inferno).
> 
> If the AAA leans for labor solidarity of any ethico-ideological sorts and
> seeking any pragmatic effects, then we need to consider two issues:
> Firstly, how united hotel workers are. Consider that there are workers
> running the hotel. Why? What accounts for such lack of commitment among
> themselves in respecting their own simplest picket line?...
> 
> Secondly, we also need to see how fraternal hotel workers are towards us,
> or we may be naively patronizing their cause (and end up like Braveheart,
> abandoned in the battle): if hotel workers are willing to include in
> their list of reinvidications that the Hilton waives the US$ 1.2 million
> fine that we'd have to pay, then, for gods sake, we should be up for
> revolution!
> 
> 
> "Proletarians of the world, unite!"
> 
> Anthony D'Andrea
> 
> 
> ________________________________________________________
> Anthony Albert Fischer D'Andrea
> PhD Candidate, Dept. Anthropology, University of Chicago
> Research Associate, Transnationalism Project
> 1126 E 59th St., Chicago, Il, 60637  USA
> Phone:  001 (773) 684-2535
> Fax:    001 (773) 702-4503
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> URBANTH-L mailing list
> URBANTH-L at lists.ysu.edu
> http://lists.ysu.edu/mailman/listinfo.cgi/urbanth-l
> 




More information about the URBANTH-L mailing list