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OUR MISSION YOUR FUTURE: A Real Look At Taco Bell.
in 3 parts by the Prime Anarchist
"Most energizing place to work."
"Up to $7 per hour."
"Need Motivated people."
Taco Bell's hiring. They're always hiring, aren't they?
Will they ever not? Not on this growth model, pal.
I was made a Taco Bell manager today. Well sort of.
Just for the day. I don't work for them, likely never will.
Sorry, I can't work for a man who drapes taped job app forms
from the ceiling in hopes to "lure" another fish. For me that
goes hand in hand with having an employee with his resume
online 24/7 telling the whole world he's "still looking."
I mean a market where someone offering 5/hr tries to
require a resume as opposed to a job app? Do these people
think an online resume will get them even 30 cents more per
hour??? Well I was a manager for a day because they'd fouled
up my order in a local store. I got two free meals as an
apology. And the only way to ring it up so I get me a free
meal in "proper" fashion was to call me a manager and ring
it in under the manager key. Otherwise the theft involved
in giving me a free meal would have to be called, well, theft.
Let's take a look at all that is Taco Bell. I mean a
real in-depth look. Don't just scratch the surface. Dig some.
What do we find?
Most of them are shaped like what? Like a southwestern
mission. And what kind of images does that bring up? 40% of
this planet would have to say genocide, repression, inquisition -
they would cite half a millenium of general bad mood.
Another 40% would call it some kind of outreach of something
trustworthy, noble, external, distant, not requiring any further
thought. That leaves 20?
Almost 20% (18.7 to be exact) would tell you right away they
just don't care. Not their world, not their life. Kind of like
an earthquake that kills 50 million people on some other planet
or something.
The other 1.3% of the world's population has a job shooting
gooey green guacamole-substance (tm) out of a grouting gun at a
Taco Bell near you!
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"Fight the power, IWW," says a Taco Bell manager to a young
black counter person wearing dreadlocks.
"In fact I think when we print up new name-tags that's what
we'll make yours say - 'IWW.'"
It's nice to see the manager has plenty of time to think up
nicknames, after all the other Responsibilities she has to pay
out. Team Chief, I believe they call her. It was written on a
Taco Bell bulletin board one other time I was able to see from
the customer side of the counter. They choose to differ in name
I guess, from the McDonalds managers who are called Crew Chief.
Team Chief is in charge of telling everyone what to do; and
passing out nicknames. If she's caught doing anything else, she
probably gets written up for not following policy.
IWW (never did get her name) is in charge of squirting guacamole
from a device that looks like a short fat caulking gun. While
pushing avocado mush onto burritos that pass her by, she seems
adept at double-tasking - discussing opression, economic slavery
and "the man."
Taco Bell is owned by PepsiCo who has a reputation for treating
American employees much better than "those other companies" do.
But then, so does Microsoft. As do Coors, Gannett and come to think
of it - so did Henry Ford and Ross Perot. What do all these companies
have in common? Draw the word UNION inside a circle and put a big
diagonal red line through it.
Can that manager have meant the Wobblies when she called the avocado
gunner IWW? That's the only reference I can think of for IWW -
International Workers of the World. No one seems to know out there
how the nickname "Wobbly" came about.
Do they still even exist? I knew Workers World still puts out a
newspaper somewhere near Chicago, but they're a whole different
"animal." As are Catholic Worker, putting out their paper in New
York City. I know there are Catholic Worker houses all over the
United States and much of the rest of the world, each doing their
own version of Dorothy Day's published vision. But besides the
newspapers and the houses, is there still some semblence of a
workers movement out there?
The only two Wobblies I've ever met in person were in their 50's,
white, college educated and well dressed. The only things that might
stand out about them bringing the word "radical" to mind would be a
pipe wrench (monkey?) lapel-pin and dread-locked hair. That was New
Mexico somewhere and many years ago. Was it 1992? 1988?
Well, just a tiny bit of research shows that IWW is very active in
Seattle, WA; Ypsilanti, MI; and Philadelphia, PA. In fact, when asked
why Borders Books fired Miriam Fried, June 15, 1996; the Philadelphia
model employee (by Borders' own standards) sticks to, "For wearing
an IWW button to work," as her soundbite. The wider story includes
that, and also serving on union committees, signing flyers, and
petitions and raising embarrassing questions about company
policies.
Is it she who moved to my local Taco Bell to get picked on
by Team Chief? Or does she perhaps have a sister? Body double -
or coincidence?
"IWW Songs" was published 1991. "Something In Common: An IWW
Bibliography?" 1986. And "Solidarity Forever: An Oral History Of
The IWW" was 1985.
What could all this have to do with giving a new name-tag name to
a young black woman who works hard caulking burritos with guacamole?
Let's see what Ashley Montagu had to say about name calling in his
timeless text, "Anatomy of Swearing."
The most cultivated form of swearing is invective, which may be
defined as polite swearing. The shafts loosed in this form of verbal
assault are often most skillfully wrought. Though the target may be
discomfited, the wounds they inflict are seldom serious and upon
healing frequently leave the victim all the better for having
suffered them. The social function of ridicule, persiflage,
and invective has not gone altogether unrecognized in its
effect upon persons and upon institutions.
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OUR MISSION : YOUR FUTURE
Gone Fission : Still Lookin
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OUR MISSION YOUR FUTURE: A Real Look At Taco Bell.
in 3 parts by the Prime Anarchist
"Most energizing place to work."
"Up to $7 per hour."
"Need Motivated people."
Taco Bell's hiring. They're always hiring, aren't they?
Will they ever not? Not on this growth model, pal.
Let's take a look at all that is Taco Bell. I mean a
real in-depth look. Don't just scratch the surface. Dig some.
What do we find?
Most of them are shaped like what? Like a southwestern
mission. 1.3% of the world's population has a job shooting
gooey green guacamole-substance (tm) out of a grouting gun
at a Taco Bell near you!
b.o.r.d.e.r.b.o.r.d.e.r.b.o.r.d.e.r.b.o.r.d.e.r
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(CON'T FROM LAST ISSUE)
Even nations may in this manner be taught their most
enduring lessons, and precisely at those times when
they are preening themselves on those great qualities
before which goes the fall. Some day, when man has
risen from the status of Homo sap to that of Homo
sapiens, the worst kinds of individual conflicts
and wars between nations will be fought not with
the destructive power of armaments but with the
constructive power of words, by the force of
argument rather than by the argument of force.
To a certain extent this has already been recognized
by many societies. In every society those men are
most admired who turn the tables upon their adversaries
by the art and virtuosity of their words rather than by
the resort to violence.
Don't You Push Me Down
by Woodie Guthrie
c 1954. Folkways music publishers. ny ny
Don't you push me, push me, push me
Don't you push me down (repeat)
C - - F / G7 - - C ://
You can play with me, you can hold my hand
We can skip together down to the pretzel man
You can wear my mommy's shoe, wear my daddy's hat
You can even laugh at me, but don't you push me down - No!
C F C F / G7 - - C ://
You can play with me, we can build a house
You can take my ball & bounce it up & down
You can take my skates & ride them all around
You can even get mad at me, but don't...
You can play with me, we can play all day
And you can use my dishes if you'll put them away
You can feed me apples & oranges & plums
And you can even wash my face, but don't you...
2 B Continued
Next issue.
Know you?
I hardly even tissue.
b.o.r.d.e.r.b.o.r.d.e.r.b.o.r.d.e.r.b.o.r.d.e.r
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OUR MISSION YOUR FUTURE: A Real Look At Taco Bell.
in 3 parts by the Prime Anarchist (this being 3)
"Most energizing place to work."
"Up to $7 per hour."
"Need Motivated people."
Taco Bell's hiring. They're always hiring, aren't they?
Will they ever not? Not on this growth model, pal.
Let's take a look at all that is Taco Bell. I mean a
real in-depth look. Don't just scratch the surface. Dig some.
What do we find?
Most of them are shaped like what?
(...if you need the answer to that, see:
http://www.etext.org/Zines/ASCII/ATI/ati206.txt)
b.o.r.d.e.r.b.o.r.d.e.r.b.o.r.d.e.r.b.o.r.d.e.r
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These days it's easy to tell a person where their place is.
In fact they're liable to already assign it to themselves.
"Being the head peon has its priveliges," said a CVS Drug
Stores manager to two employees this morning in front of five
customers including myself. She was justifying sitting around
answering questions while everyone else restocks shelves and
keeps generally busy in front of the pharmacists. An assistant
manager, she's definitely not a "grunt," anymore, but at a dollar
or two extra per hour and few benefits if any, she's surely not
chief executive either. You don't have to call her head peon,
or anything else - she summed herself up just fine.
While in the Signal Corps of the United States Army, I was a
PFC which stands for Private, First Class. I supervised 7 people
but was still a private, no matter how first class I seemed. Head
Peon? I'm told a GI would have assaulted a civilian for calling
him Head Peon, or Pickle Head, or any other assortment of derogatory
terms. Nowadays, military personel are just as happy as civilians
calling themselves all kinds of names that put them in their own
low place.
In Wisconsin, a 19-year old Asian Taco Bell counter clerk once
waited on some skater kids ahead of them. She scowled at them when
she thought none of us were looking, especially them. When it was
time to make change, she had this glazed look to her looking some-
where between the eyes of the person who paid and my eyes. "Thank
you, and have a nice day," she said sounding like that little girl
who's half robot in that sit-calm that's gone to re-rans now. Or
Dr. Spock in the early years, before all the Cocaine and Crystal
Meth.
"Hi," she turned to me as soon as she was "finally" done with
them, "how 'ya DOIN'??" as if she really, really really wanted to
know. I told her 'good' and just waited for her next work of art.
"What can I DO for you?"
"Tell me why you hate skater kids, maybe," I said to her. I'm
not lying. She told me she doesn't hate them, it's just that...
and that... and you know... they... [insert any words you've ever
heard used on any ethnic group, class or type of person.] Basically,
she told me how much she hates skater kids. White punks she called
them. She was chock full of "they'll nevers," "they always'" "wonts"
and "do-it-all-the-times."
What is it about the modern work-site that seems to call for more
biting name-calling than home, leisure or anywhere else in today's
society?
Ask any member of a recently established immigrant group what he
or she dislikes about those newer immigrants and you'll hear about
"willing to work so hard for such little pay, threatening real jobs,"
in among all the other junk.
Well, if that's a sin, aren't we ALL guilty?
"You people make more money than I do, that's for sure," a boss
of mine once told me. I don't even remember what job I'm describing
actually. It could have been one of a handful of bosses over the
years. Small business owners are the worst.
Maybe I should have that stamped on MY name-tag. "You people
make more money than I do."
If we're all busy each of us swearing the other into place,
guess who needn't pay out more than occasional oppression to
keep us all in line?
"You the man, Buster." You the man. Usually I get poked in
the ribs or pinched behind my wallet when someone insists on
telling me "[I'm] the man."
Yours,
Marco Employee Frucht.
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