On May Day we celebrate that incremental step that limited how many hours of the day we can be at the mercy of those that own our world: we remember those that died, or were hanged, in the the struggle for the 8 hour workday. Need I mention they were Anarchists? For this story, I think I do. Let’s just say the police accused Anarchists of throwing a bomb during a public meeting, thus permitting themselves to shoot and beat all those in attendance.
Fast forward to the May Day protests of the past two years and the struggle of the immigrants. It’s no coincidence that they fall on this day. In a world where Capital can cross international borders at will, it’s mandatory that workers be able to do the same. Case closed, mofo.
I went to the Downtown May Day march, the one that asked people to skip shopping, school, and work (woot!) which seemed like a perfectly reasonable request, and turned out to be a very pleasant day walking around Downtown. The MacArthur Park protest was the safer don’t-skip-work-or-school march happening later in the day, endorsed by the mainstream groups (including the Catholic Church) and permitted to “march” on the sidewalk. Boring. Yet, thanks to the violence prone LAPD, it turned out to be the one with the most coverage since the cops went on a beat-a-thon against everyone. There are many angles to this story (a good round-up can be found here) but the most absurd has to be the resuscitation of the Anarchist Bogeyman that Bratton has conjured up. He claimed that some sort of tactical group instigated the cops to act like morons, composed of a 3 line offensive tackle with a woman in front, a row of cameras behind her, and a last row of agitators throwing shit at the police; fucking lame! Strangely, even the LA Times has gone out of their way to point out the obvious; Anarchists were not the instigators of the police violence. It’s odd to see modern events parallel with mostly forgotten moments in history, that is some weird shit.
I was getting frustrated with the false accusations the cops and media were making about the Anarchists but instead I decided this: fuck it. It doesn’t really matter, they get it wrong all the time. Besides, I have more important things to do, like proving the point that LA protests have the best food! Don’t believe me? Click ahead cuz I took some pics, Simon que Yes!
You can have cotton candy. Nice to look at but really not the best source of nutrients.
One of the most popular food items seen was the Salvadoran specialty of bacon-wrapped hot dogs. I guess its a big seller.
Paletas for the people. This guy smartly put some appropriate propaganda on his cart.
The raspado vendors were also out in full force.
Nothing like an agua fresca to help keep your cool.
Fresh corn off the cart. This is one of the most ingenious ways to roast a cob of corn.
I forgot to take a pic of all the different fruit vendors, I’ll do that next time!
Bye.
Chanfles RSS Feed
I thought we weren’t supposed to be buying or selling things. Are street vendors exempt?
And to CLu’s question, I think street vendors are exempt. They’re outside of the system that’s being boycotted, right?
And I love this quote, El Chavo, “In a world where Capital can cross international borders at will, it’s mandatory that workers be able to do the same. Case closed, mofo.”
This food is available all the time!
If you leave off most of the condiments and salt it can be kinda of healthy. Except ofcourse the hot dogs, cotton candy and most paletas.
“In a world where Capital can cross international borders at will, it’s mandatory that workers be able to do the same. Case closed, mofo.â€
-I’ve been saying the same thing!!
This is a great message.
Chanfles, since I know you won’t hear this from your Chicano Studies professors, I thought I’d be the one to inform you that the 8-hour work day and the 5-day work week were not created by anarchist or unions, they are the direct result of Henry Ford, you know, that same union hater and anti-semite. Ford was tired of continuously losing good employees, he was trying to increase employee retention and at the same time increase profits, so he basically doubled wages and implemented a 5-day work week, and in the process effectively invented the modern weekend – it is Henry Ford who is widely credited with contributing to the creation of a middle class in the United States, see more here.
What makes this even more interesting is that this is really a textbook example of what economists have always said – it is competition more than anything else that increases the standard of living of everybody, especially the poor and middle class. Ford was no humanitarian (he even supported Hitler), he was just as much a ‘greedy’, ‘evil’, ‘corporate pig’ as the worst of em – he did this only because of market pressure.
But you are right about one thing – ‘May Day’ is remembered around the world but it isn’t for the reasons you mention. Since ‘May Day’ was used heavily by communists around the world as a day in support of ‘international workers rights’, and since nobody killed more poor workers than communism (estimates as high as 60 million for communism under Stalin alone, see here), ‘May Day’ is a day used by many, including former communist countries, as a remembrance of the horrors of communism, see here.
HP,
By your logic, Lyndon Johnson was the greatest Civil Rights leader ever since he signed the CR Act of 1964, never mind all those pesky people that were fighting and demanding it for years. You might want to hear something other than the inanities of your Econ professors.
Your response confuses me – it wasn’t by legislation that Ford created the 8-hour work day or the 5-day work week, it was by actual practice. More importantly, unlike Johnson (or many union leaders, anarchists, and other ‘talking heads’) Ford took on the costs and benefits of such action himself instead of doing what is common among politicians and union leaders – pushing others to take on the costs and then seeing themselves, who bare no costs or risks from the actions, as the ‘moral crusaders’ (reminds me of Thomas Sowell’s common statement that the do-nothings are often heard criticizing the doers, a strange world we live in indeed). In addition, Ford’s action and profitability of such actions resulted in many other companies following suit. This is why it is Henry Ford, more than any other person or legislative action, that is seen as the founder of the middle class in the USA.
In other words, it is not Henry Ford that deserves the comparison to Lyndon Johnson, it is the do-nothing ‘moral crusaders’ who deserve the comparison, unlike them, Henry Ford, pressured by market forces, is the one who did something about it.
Let me clear up your confusion. My reference was to the fact that you can’t properly understand the process of change just by looking at the final result, there is more to it than that. If you follow that first link on the post you’ll see that many workers had already given themselves the 8 hour workday before Ford jumped on the bandwagon. Not that he could do anything to stop that eventuality from happening anyway, he just knew which way the wind was blowing.
I love how you “free market” preachers think the world only changes via the will of those that dictate “market forces”, history and people mean nothing. Keep thinking whatever you want!
I did read the article – my point was not that Henry Ford was the only one or the first one, or even one among many, my point was that he was the most forceful one. He didn’t just establish the 8-hour work day, he did it by also raising wages and reducing the work week to 5 days, instead of the more common 6.
The even more important point in this exchange though is that he did this for purely profit reasons, in other words, yes “the wind was blowing”, but it was only blowing because of competition (else he wouldn’t have been able to do it profitably, or done it at all), not because of the wannabe ‘moral crusaders’. Go back and read your article and you will notice that the countries that established the 8-hour work week tended to also be the richest countries of the world at the time, mostly because of a market economy (and/or because of imperialism). In other words, it is through competition and markets that you can reach the level where an 8-hour work week can be accomplished with minimal (or atleast not detrimental) consequences (else underdeveloped countries could wipe out poverty just by enforcing U.S. labor laws).
However, history has shown what an economy would look like without markets and a regulated intensive government – just look at communism.
Henry Ford showed the world that establishing the 8-hour work day, shortening the work week to 5 days, and doing it by raising wages is profitable. Competition has pushed many others to do similar things, whether it is less labor intensive jobs, greater benefits, or higher real wages (less than 2% of the populations makes the minimum wage, for example), these advances have been in spite of ‘moral crusaders’ not because of them (see more here), yet the economically ignorant, especially those in the Chicano Studies community, like to think the opposite. But ‘keep thinking whatever you want!’
I love Mexican ingenuity. In the last picture, look how the vendor attaches the green milkcarton to the old shopping cart and where he keeps the salt and chili powder. The vendor even manages to make the milkcarton hang level! This is the same ingenuity you see from street vendors in Mexico who make toys and Virgen de Guadalupe statuettes out of old pepsi cans and other scrap material.
Case closed, mofo!
hey compa Chavo, really, it will take forever to argue with HP, i tried to shed some light, but doesn’t work. i’m sure he is gonna say that the US gov gave people their human rights too, that capitalism creates a better world for us all, and that the Bush dynasty is the best thing that happened to the world (he thinks history is about the people he learned in his high school class).
why does hp hates Chicana/o and Ethnic Studies? is it because he has an Oedipus complex and he thinks George Washington is his founding father? ja!
What’s up with HP? First of all, El Chavo isn’t a communist; he’s an anarchist. Secondly, this post reveled in a celebration of unregulated entrepreneurship. Aren’t “capitalist” dittoheads supposed to like these street vendors? Come on now; they were even doing some price gouging. Capitalists love that shit.
These demonstrations are a form of mass communication, to inform the powerful that the people who help them make money, and retain power, are unhappy with the status quo. The boycott was the economic signal. Only the most rigid economist would argue that demonstrations, strikes, unions, and even those cards that get dropped into the suggestion box, are an illegitimate way to transmit economic signals.
The capitalist ideologues of the day like to argue that economics is scientific and unbiased, but whenever the market takes a big shit, and their personal net worth declines, they do an after-the-fact analysis of psychological guesses about how consumers are feeling about the future, or how dispirited workers are about seeing their coworkers laid off.
(By the way, market forces were not in full operation at this demo. Someone needs to inform the vendors that a lot of people at these events are vegetarians. At the next demo, they should sell bean tostadas.)
I’m one of those Chicano studies types who see how people forced the market to move for Ford and his fellow societal parasites to act.
So, maybe you won’t read further than that. I am ignorant of the sublime beauty of capitalism. Oh well.
To use language corporate overlords use: Today being a free market capitalist in this day and age is anti-American. Otherwise, how could China, a Communist country, own the US of A today. Go market!
In the blind faith of the altruistic intentions of capitalist, this county is and will be following Asia’s lead and begging for them to take our exports. Which is and will continue to eliminate the middle class and bring us to look more like most Latin American countries which are two tiered with owners on top and everyone else starving.
I hope all good hispanics realize this that their days of sucking up for a piece of the pie are shrinking. In due time the glass cieling will be completely shut and no one except owners will be allowed in. Anyone else working for the owners will be based in India or Asia.
2012 is not the end of the world. It is the end of white capitalist rule and the beginning of Asian communist/capitalist rule. Learn Cantonese folks.
tin,
You tried to shed some light, seriously? When was this? The only real discussion I have had with you is our recent one where you asked me to pick a topic, define terms, and explain why I believe as such, and I did just that, see here. Please, oh great one, humor us unenlightened common folk and respond when you get a chance – I am very eager to have this discussion with you. 🙂
Btw, I am no supporter of much of the government, even less of government regulations. My arguments here are nothing different than what economists – both left and right – would say about competition. BUt of course, it is economists who are wrong and the Chicano Studies majors who should be listened to when it comes to economics…how ignorant of me.
As far as why I hate Chicano Studies, my answer is simple – it is far too leftists, does not represent accurately the world and, as others have noted, “corrupt the brains of young Mexicans with antiquated concepts like victimization, objectification and grade inflation, all anathema to the libertarian Mexican soul”. It is, in the famous words of Karl Marx, ‘opium of the (young Mexican) masses’.
jk,
In case you weren’t following along, I had absolutely no problem with the marches themselves and tend to agree with everything Chavo said with regard to immigration – actually, even more strongly than he, cuz I truly believe both capital and workers should be able to cross international borders unrestricted – the arguments against free trade are almost identical to the arguments against immigration and I consistently support both.
With that said I don’t think it’s accurate to describe Chavo as an anarchist. Sure, he claims to be an anarchist, and might even argue incessently against the government and its evils in the world. But let regulations come up for votes and these same leftist ‘anarchist’ become the strongest supporters of government – should we have a minimum wage law? should we limit free trade? How about environmental laws? Pro-union legislation? Gun control? Higher taxes? a monopolized education system? On most, if not all, of these questions Chavo and his leftist ‘anarchist’ would surely answer in the affirmative (if I am mistaken, I will gladly be corrected and retract my comments).
Leftist ‘anarchists’ are anything but true anarchist (in the traditional sense), atleast right wing anarchist, like anarcho-capitalist, are consistent. While I disagree with them as well, one claim I cannot raise against them is inconsistency, for atleast they would answer in the negative to all questions posed above, resulting in a true desire of the reduction of government. Leftist ‘anarchists’, far from being true anarchists, are really just people who like to throw mud but give nothing firm to stand on. They use anarchy as a shield from criticism, a way to criticize others without having to give an alternative system to put in its place.
With that said, I do commend Chavo’s unquestioned support for free speech. Throughout this exchange and in previous ones he has never censored anything I have written. A quality I respect highly in lefties and righties alike. I also don’t have anything against Chavo personally (or other lefties, for that matter), everything I have written is against views only, and definitely not the person (on the contrary, I’d even try to look Chavo up if I was ever in his neighborhood).
P-300,
After reading your first sentence you will have to excuse me for taking your ‘economic predictions’ as seriously as we take Marx’s economic predictions. 😉
HP. tsk tsk. I don’t believe you fell for that libertarian hooey about how “anarcho-capitalists” are real anarchists. Look at history. Anarchists have always been on the Left, and always will be on the Left. When push comes to shove, it’s the so-called “libertarian” right-wingers who buckle under and assent to go to war, increase the police state, and do away with civil rights for selected subsets of the society (who tend to be everyone but their demographic, who are mostly propertied males).
Consider if the minimum wage laws were repealed, as the right-wing “libertarians” have argued for as long as there has been a MW law. If there were no minimum wage, the least organized segments of the labor force would fall into a truly anarchic situation, and would self-organize out of desperation and a shared sense of social insecurity. Their wish, if it were possible, would be to collectively ransack the homes of the small business owners who exploit them. These “libertarians” would argue that their property rights are sacred, and that the rioters should be shot. In short, they would support the police state to preserve their property rights, and do so by violating the people’s right to simple existence.
If “anarcho-capitalists” were worth a stinkin damn, instead of arguing for a cut in the minimum wage, they’d argue for a cut in police funding. After all, according to our billboards, every police officer you take off the force saves the taxpayers over $50,000 a year. Every prisoner released is another $40,000 a year less. Every death row inmate left to rot instead of put on the path to death, is $2 million saved per year. That’s a direct savings, and also a salient decrease in the size of government. Despite these fiscal savings, they are pretty silent on this issue, especially when it comes to their lobbying efforts.
Instead, they argue against the MW. This, despite the fact that a lot of bosses don’t follow the minimum wage laws. Any BLS report on wages says that there are hundreds of thousands of workers who labor for less than the minimum wage of $5.75 an hour. This is a law without teeth. People follow it out of the goodness of their hearts, and a sense of propriety, just like stopping at STOP signs, or paying the fare for the MTA train, even when they don’t check.
Leftist anarchists, in contrast, have argued for a reduction of prisons. A cut in police. They generally do support the MW, but it’s not part of any anarchist platform. The anarchist vision of a better society eschews wages, and instead demands local institutions where basic needs are met: stores, community kitchens, and social welfare operated by the community, for its own benefit. The utopian visions of the past 600 years have been recycled and reinvented hundreds of times. Many pamphlets and books have been written. Many utopian communes have been started. Many cooperative businesses have been formed. Your assertion that anarchists offer “nothing firm to stand on” is hollow.
If anything, anarchism is criticized for starting projects that don’t seem to last for more than a few years, and seem to lack a coherent ideology, and a deep understanding of economics, and are prone to become the petit bourgeois projects they say they despise, or fall apart from a lack of revenues.
It’s also funny that you brought up this criticism on El Chavo’s blog, because he was involved in a relatively legendary anarchist project in Los Angeles.
(I won’t comment on the other assertions you made about anarchist political positions, but I know that anarchists are split on some of them.)
jk,
I am not going to argue which side, the left or the right, is better because frankly I think both sides are full of crap. My point here is that when it comes to the size of government, to governments reach into the personal affairs of others (the minimum wage, for example, is a direct interference in the right of two people to come to whatever terms they find beneficial – same with many of my other examples), it is always the leftist anarchist that buckle first.
Your arguments about police forces, death row inmates, and prison populations are moot since they deal with security – one could make a stronger argument for government on a security basis (btw, as someone who grew up in Compton, Ca, this is yet another reason why I find leftist ‘anarchism’ not only full of BS, but unlivable BS), but the leftist ‘anarchist’ don’t even have this to base their support for government interference. The right for two parties to come to whatever terms they feel appropriate is one of the most fundamental rights, and if you support government interference on this level you are a higher hypocrite, IMO, than one who supports government interference based on security (be they wars, city police officers, or other forms of security).
Also, your response begs the question – it assumes that the minimum wage makes those at the bottom of the economic ladder better off, an assumption I have repeatedly argued against and one at odds with a majority of economists, especially labor economists.
In general though, my argument against anarchism, either left or right, is that it is unlivable. It is pure utopianism, and is only livable in the minds of those with a strong imagination and maybe in the Beverly Hills neighborhoods many who hold these views live in – certainly not in the real world and definitely not on a larger scale.
Bacon wrapped hot dogs!! The only place I had ever seen those es en Mexico. They RULE. Aguas frescas rule too, provided that they have agua de jamaica!