Boomer said:
Kirk,
A posting pulled from a bb built to ridicule
AMFA, and, cross posted to another bb built as a "
hospice house" for airline workers, is an exercise worthy of a true TWU zealot.
The founder of the TWU, Mike Quill, was a member of the IRA and a member of the Communist Party: until he found it conveniant to deny his terrorist past and his leftist leanings to throw his former Communist Comrades "
under the bus" before Congress and to solidify his position as the Reigning Monarch of the TWU.
Tell others to accept "
their" fate; say whatever the "
masses" will believe; eliminate the "
competition" by whatever means necessary:
Perpetuate Your Position.
Keep telling others,"
their current fate is due to forces beyond anyones' control,": "
A Perfect Storm."
[post="236566"][/post]
Dont mind Kirk.
He is just doing what Jim Little is telling him to do.
You see old Jim doesnt think that its the twenty years of concessions that has the members upset, and got over 9600 of them to sign cards to get rid of the TWU,he feels that the only thing we neeed is "Communication, communication, communication".
Jim believes as Goebbles did that if he repeats a lie enough times it will believed as fact. Lies such as "the presidents council runs the union", and "The TWU is a Democratic Union". etc. Its a policy that has worked for many years at the TWU, however they never counted on the Internet. With the Internet there is the free movement of information on a scale that the TWU International was completely unprepaired to deal with. They unanimously passed a resolution to combat this free flow of information on Feb 7, 2001. " urge our members and officers,
in the strongest terms possible, to refrain from the use of the public media or any public forum, including Local websites".
So thats why you dont see TWU proponents using their real name or truly engaging in debates, instead they smear, distort and simply try to jam up any forums where they dont like the way the discussion is going with irrellivant chaffe.
As for old Mike Quill, yea he fought for his country's freedom, just like George Washington did, just like my Grandfather did. In fact they won, some may call them terrorist but as one old IRA song says "You dare to call me a terrorist as you are looking down your gun (at me)" Terrorism takes many forms, terrorism is the use of violence for a political purpose, and typically its well funded and supplied governments that use it. The US was one of the nations that rejected resolutions officially defining terrorism in the UN because we wanted to reserve the right to go into other coutries and kill their people if they did not do what we wanted them to do. Whether it is flying planes into buildings, strapping bombs to yourself and blowing yourself to bits in a crowded marketplace, rolling tanks through residential homes or invading another country, its wrong. The methods used may be different, depending on the tools available to those who wish to engage in terrorism but they all have the same purpose, using violence to get other people to behave the way you want.
Did Mike Quill take part in the violence? Yes he did, he fought against a foreign invader, as I suppose any one of us would in the same situation. Did he associate with the Communist Party? Yes he did because they were the only ones who offered to help fight the Bosses. Just like we had no problem forming an alliance with the Soviet Union to fight Russia. Just like the US has supported various human rights violators over the years and continues to do so. But what is most important of all is the fact that under his leadership the members of the TWU saw increased standards of living, not declining ones. Was he a saint? No way. Did he help put in place a system that concentrates power at the top? Yes he did. Therein lies his greatest fault because that has led to the lack of democracy we see in the TWU along with the rise of incompetants who have altered the mission of the TWU from improving the lives of members to simply improving the lives of International officers where the members are that capital used to acheive that goal.
When Mike Quill and the other early leaders made their drive to unionize the NYC Mass transit system into one union it was pretty much set up the way the airline industry is today. The system was made up of competing systems that overlapped each other where the workers, even those who performed similar functions were all spilt up between different company friendly unions. They faced the same problems that we face. Quill and the other leaders of the TWU used whatever means neccisary to overcome those challenges and unite transit workers to form a powerful union.
While we can fault Quill for setting up the undemocratic system that has allowed the Halls, Littles et al to hijack the union and change its direction from being one that seeks to elevate the status of the worker to one that simply elevates the living standards of International officers it is an unfair charecterization to portray him as simply the ancestral equivelent of what is today running the TWU International.
