intertexts:cartel

memory hole #1

2005-03-20T18:45:00.000-08:00

"We should make more, since we work on vehicles and can get burned, and we have to stand out in the cold and heat," she said. "If you're working 10-hour days in the rain and getting your pants wet and freezing all day, it's not fun."

She acknowledged that the antiunion videos had helped turn her against unionizing.

"I really wish Wal-Mart would become better," she said. "But even if we get a union, it will be a long battle. Wal-Mart doesn't have to agree to anything. The message we got was, 'You're a small bunch of guys, and you can stand out there and strike, and we're going to replace you.' They'll never agree to a contract, out of pure stubbornness. I'm so confused."

Cody Fields, who earns $8.10 an hour after two years, said that he had originally backed the union "because we need a change" but that the videos had been effective. "It's just a bunch of brainwashing," Mr. Fields said, "but it kind of worked."

--"At a Small Shop in Colorado, Wal-Mart Beats a Union Once More," The New York Times, 2/26/05

Who's There?

2005-03-20T17:26:00.000-08:00

Porter: Here’s a knocking, indeed! If a man were porter of hell-gate he should have old turning the key. [Knocking within.] Knock, knock, knock! Who’s there, i’ the name of Beelzebub?

Shakespeare, Macbeth

posted by awol

"...just so long as I'm the dictator."

2005-03-20T17:04:00.000-08:00

Perfection, of a kind, was what he was after,
And the poetry he invented was easy to understand;
He knew human folly like the back of his hand,
And was greatly interested in armies and fleets;
When he laughed, respectable senators burst with laughter,
And when he cried the little children died in the streets.

--W.H. Auden, "Epitaph on a Tyrant" (1939) [link to post by wg]

~~~~~~~

Response translation by awol:

orwell #3 intertext

2005-03-20T16:40:00.000-08:00

Watching coal-miners at work, you realise momentarily what different universes different people inhabit. Down there where coal is dug it is sort of a world apart which one can quite easily go through life without ever hearing about. Probably a majority of people would even prefer not to hear about it.

George Orwell, The Road to Wigan Pier

orwell:awol:cartel