Toi, Dites-moi quelque chose de gentil...

Police Attack IWW Labor March in North Providence, RI
One Hospitalized from Attack, Underwent Surgery Last Night.

Vicious Police Attack on IWW Solidarity March in Providence, RI -

Support Needed!

Pictures are here: http://jonathanmcintosh.smugmug.com/gallery/3293537

Today (8/11/2007) at 12pm EST the Providence wobblies organized a march
on Jackie Galaxy, which is a restaurant chain that is being supplied
by HWH in New York City, a supplier who is notorious for its slave labor
conditions of up to 110 hours per week without basic labor rights
(minimum wage and overtime).

Roughly 30-40 wobblies and supporters (including Providence and Boston
SDSers) were marching towards Jackie Galaxy in North Providence when
the police began following them en mass. They told the marches to move
to the sidewalk, while this was initially ignored, the marchers listened
to the police and began slowly moving to the sidewalk.

The police then surrounded the marchers in their squad cars and began
getting out. With the police in full force, they began attacking the
marchers, one fellow worker, Alex Svoboda, was pinned down by the police
during her arrest and suffered a broken and dislocated leg and ruptured
blood vessel in the knee. These injuries will require at least two
surgeries and extensive rehab and even then may not completely repair
the damage. Jason, another wob, was arrested in during the police?br> attack. Ashley, a supporter from Boston, was also severely maced during
the attack, suffered chemical burns and required medical treatment.

Despite this, the marchers continued on to Jackie Galaxy and
eventually spoke with the owner who at first promised he had switched
suppliers and now denies doing business with HWH although he has no
documentation to prove either claim. Business at Jackie Galaxy ceased
completely during the duration of the action and most bystanders were
outraged that Jackie would support the crimes of HWH/Dragonland.

The Providence wobblies and other supporters of workers?rights will
continue their pressure on Jackies Galaxy until they stop doing business
with the slave labor shop HWH/Dragonland or until basic rights,
including the right to organize, are instated at HWH/Dragonland.

In the meantime they need your support! Alex Svoboda is charged with 3
felony counts of assaulting and office as well as two misdemeanors and
will be unable to work for a significant period time as a result of her
injuries. Money will be needed to provide Alex and Jason with legal
support and also to help with the medical bills and lose of income Alex
will suffer as a result of the brutality of the North Providence Police.
Please send in any donation that you, or your organization can afford to
the Providence General Membership Branch (address below) or contact Mark
Bray at 201-669-0714 or Billy Randel at 646-645-6284.

You can also do your part at pressuring the Mayor and Police Chief of
North Providence (contact info below) to at the very least, formally
apologizing to the marchers, dropping all baseless charges and paying
for the injuries and lose of income that were unjustly caused.

Photos of the action and the brutal assault can be found here:
http://jonathanmcintosh.smugmug.com/gallery/3293537

Providence GMB:
PO box 5795
Providence R.I.
02903

Email-ProvidenceIWW@riseup.net

North Providence Mayor:
Charles A. Lombardi
North Providence Town Hall
2000 Smith Street
North Providence, RI 02911
Telephone: (401) 232-0900, ext. 226
Fax: (401) 232-3434

Police Chief:
Ernest C. Spaziano
North Providence Police Department
1967 Mineral Spring Ave.
North Providence, R.I. 02904
Business line: 401-233-1433
Fax number: 401-233-1438

[ PLEASE call the phone numbers! The mayor office doesn even have a
voicemail so no luck on the weekend, but the police number goes direct
to the front desk. It is a non-emergency number, but the officers may
actually start arguing back at you. Captain Dumas did just this after
overhearing my polite but firm complaint on speakerphone, and began
arguing that they were rotecting?the marchers from raffic?when
they sent Alex to the hospital with a busted knee.

Remember, THEY ATTACKED A UNION MARCH. We have the right to free speech,
we have the right to organize.
On a side note, see if you can get one of the officers, particularly the
talkative Capt. Dumas, to tell their version of the events. Keep notes.
When you are done speaking to the front desk officer, ask for names and
badge numbers of all officers engaged in the conversation. ]

Here an update from Mark Bray, received Sunday?/p>

Alex underwent surgery last night on her knee, doctors said she may not
ever walk well on it again.

They have contacted and have a lawyer from the NLG helping out.

Solidarity actions may be upcoming. Fundraising is welcome and
encouraged - Alex works at a pastry shop and disability never goes far.
We need to help our own, legally and in recovery from injuries like
this. An injury to one is an injury to all.
Photos of Attack

(All photos by Jonathan Mcintosh)

-I love my cat, love that he is furry and all black, un chat noir. He is the symbol of all that I love, independent, with particular tastes, friendly to everyone, a proud killer of the enemy, escapes from battles he can win, pursues those that he can, clean, but isn afraid to get dirty in the chase, sleeps only when bored, adapts easily to foreign environments  (as much as a cat can), affectionate and vigilant, isn shy to let you know when he annoyed, loves films by Godard. He is five years old and very much a kitten spirit and an old soul. I glad to have known him.

-discovered liberation from fear of death from reading Plato in the Crito. Hellenistics thought of philosophy as a means of liberation from fear, I encountered this early in one of Plato most straight forward dialogues. There is no fear of pain since pain is a bodily sensation, if the soul is eternal, then one will persist with all of one rationality, lose one identity, doesn that sound great? If there is no persistence of the soul, then one will be a vanishing nothing in which case, we wouldn know the difference. Early in my life I complained that Hell is a logical impossibility. In any case I owe much psychological gratitude to Plato and his students.

-great with food: the petit-bourgeois pig that I am, I am a lover of food, fetishizes consummation of things edible. Am in the school of regarding the culinary arts the least recognized of the range of artistic endeavors. Love to cook: I see vegetarianism in general as the least developed arena of sophistication and thus devote the most of my time with experiments in that domain. As such, I love grilling roots and frying leaves. Hates American cuisine, crowd pleasing travesties, and the narrow domains of salty cheesy and greasy. Eats cookies on occasion. Loves prolo street-side stalls in asia: pigs-blood, garlic sausage and fried fermented tofu <only in traditional Taiwanese manner ith cabbage pickles and chili pepper sauce>. Bread in France is one of the reasons for staying here. Main reason for eschewing vegetarianism: foie gras and large intestines ?la chinoise. Hopes to perfect: mint/shallot based salads, beef soup and vegan stew. With drink: though loves wine on occasion, only ever really worships Scotch.

-reading the ommunist manifesto?was one of the major formative experiences of my life. When I read nimal farm?just weeks earlier, I wondered why Orwell was so cruel not to write a text where the horse (don remember his name) survives and is rewarded for his efforts. In Marx I found the text I was looking for (not that the horse lives neither in that text but ?. incidentally the first hilosophy? text I read.

-my grandfather (fatherside) is an unrecognized leftist revolutionary at the turn of the century in China; anarchist by persuasion, was at odds with major political currents of his time. He later turned anti-maoist after the civil war, came into conflict with the Malaysian communist party [lived in Malaysia after exiled by KMT] who threatened his life. Very conservative in non-directly political senses (with respect to poetry and scholarship), died of pneumonia improperly diagnosed as tuberculosis due to long-term opium habit. Horrible father, left his children to support the family economically while romping on intellectual/political adventures.

-I learned a love of books from my  maternal grandfather. Humble man with a big ego till refers to himself as a ountry doctor? Still retains all the habits from his Japanese colonizers. Speaks Japanese as his most comfortable language, very very clean, loves films, but above all has a huge library. In his old age, he buys books that he already has copies of. I found the reissue of the entire collection of Thomas Hardy from Penguin just because it had a different cover. Once read an essay of mine and told me that it had no logic  at all, proceeded to hand me one of his. I agree, his made more sense.

-Had a pretty successful rock band experience in Highschool. lotted transgression? namesake a verse from the prophet Isaiah. Wrote poppy late-nineties alternative rock tunes, with catchy hooks and bluesy verses.played bass, accompanied by a guitarist that I still considere to be one of the greatest musicians I have ever played with. Recorded an ep and lp, the second of which we were quite satisfied with, still listen to it sometimes.

-Am in the process of mastering French. Not really going as well as I thought it would go given that I live in Paris. I still have plenty trouble sounding French, but what is worse, I still often have to look up the conjugation in the PRESENT TENSE of many verbs while I write, what kind of bullshit is that? Articles trip me up a lot, since they exist not in Chinese, and there are much more relaxed rules in English. Hope to attempt German next.

dissertation research is FUN!

Th?/var>,¹ Caff?/var>,² Chocolat³ and Assembl嶪,⁴ French words which have passed into German, as they do. It is notable that the dog was at least 3 years old when it was put in school. It only speaks by echoing, that is, after its master has pronounced a word, and it seems that it only repeats when forced, and despite itself, although it has not been maltreated. Once again, Mr Leibniz has seen it and heard it.

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NOTES:
1. Tea.
2. Coffee.
3. Chocolate.
4. Meeting.