Historic find in Bisbee courthouse

from KVOA

A woman who works at the Cochise County Courthouse stumbled upon original
documents that may reveal history pertaining to the Bisbee Deportations of
1917.

Fran Ranaccelli says she found a box full of the documents in the evidence
room of the county courthouse, "As I looked it said 1917, I.W.W. and I
just froze."

The box contains documents including witness affidavits, and subpoenas of
the court case that followed the round up of more than 1200 miners in
Bisbee after they went on a strike citing improper working conditions.

The miners who were members of the International Workers of the World were
rounded up and put on a train and then transported to Columbus, New Mexico
where they were abandoned on July 12, 1917. Two days later U.S. troops
rescued the men.

UA Vice Provost and Historian Dr. Juan Garcia says finding these documents
may offer a painful insight into Arizona history during World War I.

"Nativism and hysteria generated by war can lead people to do things that
they normally wouldn't do," Garcia said.

The documents are the first original items from the Bisbee Deportation to
be found at the Cochise County courthouse.

Superior Court Clerk Denise Lundin says the documents will become archived.

"We're finding history and we're looking at a document signed by a person
who's long dead, who really tells us a story through those documents,"
Lundin says.

University of Arizone web archive on Bisbee deportations

Why striking bus drivers in Tehran are the real defenders of Muslim rights

by Nick Cohen

from The Guardian

For three weeks, there have been demonstrations across the planet about a great injustice done to Muslims. After baton-wielding cops inflicted dozens of injuries, the fear of death is in the air. George W Bush's State Department has warned of 'systematic oppression', while secularists and fundamentalists have revealed their mutually incompatible values. Since you ask, I am not talking about the global menace of Scandinavian cartoonists that has so terrified our fearless free press, but mass arrests in Iran.

The media have barely mentioned the story, even though it cuts through the nonsense about a clash of civilisations between the 'West' and the 'Muslims'. The Muslims of Tehran are proving themselves to be anything but a monolithic bloc happy to follow the orders of the ayatollahs and their demented President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. There are huge class divisions to begin with, and close to the bottom of the heap are the city's bus drivers. The authorities refused to allow them an independent trade union and ruled that an 'Islamic council' in the offices of the Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company would represent their interests. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the pious have not proved the doughtiest fighters for better pay and conditions. The bus drivers claimed that managers were stealing money from their pay packets. They formed their own union and threatened to strike at the end of January.

Ahmadinejad won the rigged Iranian elections last year with a promise to stand up for the little man against the Islamic Republic's corrupt elite. Faced with a choice between sticking to his word and carrying on with despotism, he showed his true colours by allowing the most ferocious crackdown Tehran has seen since the religious authorities crushed dissident journalists and students in 1999.

The Way They See It

Frustrated by Low Wages, Starbucks Employees Sow Union Seeds

John Davisson, Columbia Spectator

As if ordering a cup of coffee wasn’t complicated enough these days, things could get even muckier if federal labor law weighs in.

Since 2004, a group of baristas known as the Starbucks Workers Union has sought collective bargaining rights for the chain’s employees citywide, citing a need for improved pay and healthier working conditions.

While SWU has been unable to gain recognition from Starbucks or the National Labor Relations Board, the federal body that mediates labor disputes in the private sector, members are hoping that a recent wave of unfair labor allegations against the company might reverse its fortunes.

“Never before has such a fundamental anti-union and anti-worker company been so successful at creating a socially responsible image,” said David Gross, an SWU organizer and Starbucks barista. “They’ve embraced the Wal-Mart style of union-busting.”

After petitioning the NLRB in Nov. 2005, the group won a hearing at the board’s New York Regional Office, during which an administrative law judge was to review charges of illegal labor practices at several of the chain’s outlets. Members allege that Starbucks supervisors have
threatened or terminated baristas who took part in pro-union activities, both of which are illegal under the National Labor Relations Act. Originally scheduled for Tuesday, the hearing was pushed back to March 6, pending a review of several new accusations.