#it’s basic decency to pay your workers fairly but many don’t or only pay the big folks

[iwatcheditbegin]

I love how Taylor always shows appreciation for every single person that helps make a tour possible.

[jonboudposts]

Facing Modern Fascism: You No Longer Have Any Excuses

In Britain, the rest of Europe and America, fascism is now a genuine threat again.  This is not something that has any nuance; there is no argument for seeing both sides.

In Britain the most visible present activity is the movement around Little Tommy Lennon Stephen Robinson, presently in prison (again) for violating a court order while risking derailing a court case against men accused of sex crimes. However, despite these facts, a well-funded movement has grown recently calling for his release from prison on political grounds.  The centre of this group are Islamaphobes of various stripes including reported funding from foreign entities like Rebel Media and Middle East Forum plus the runt of UKIP who now have an overtly Islamophobic leader and are making alliances with the far right (including European and US organisations allegedly funding them).

His rent-a-mob have taken to the streets in mostly small numbers but in some places like London, there have been quite a few of them (although less on 14 July than on 6 May).

The mainstream press, always mostly a shower of worthless shit, are now off the handle and are condemning anyone who disagrees with them.  In particular this is most vicious concerning the ever-changing state of Britain’s attempts to leave the European Union.  Front pages of the Daily Express, Mail and Murdoch rags proclaim anyone not advocating for hard Brexit is a saboteur or traitor; while the continued, detailed stories of how the Leave side cheated and lied are rejected as Remain conspiracy.

We know that extremists are inspired by this sort of thing; two examples are white supremacy-loving ultra-nationalist Anders Brevik who after killing nearly 80 people in Norway in 2011 was found to have a newspaper file in his mum’s back bedroom of Daily Mail stories about European cultural loss being the fault of Muslims (apparently Melanie Phillips was a favourite).  

Then there was Thomas Muir, who murdered Labour MP Jo Cox after getting upset that his mum had a black boyfriend.  He was associated with now-defunct racist gaggle Britain First and had many white supremacist publications at home (probably brought from his mum’s house).

With the kind of numbers now being seen in the streets of Europe and the elect-ability of some of these fuckers, things have gotten severe very quickly. You would think people would be rushing to uphold democratic values and decency against the death-worshipping horror of fascism; but for some reason they are not.

 The Problem

We have to address the issues as to why many people do not want to associate with the anti-fascist movement.

The first is carelessness and selfishness on their part.  Nothing coming from these thugs or these policies touches them and therefore they do not care.  

The second is being stupid enough to fall for the ploy.  Some no doubt buy the surface value argument (coupled with their general hatred of the left) that people like Little Tommy and Katie are free speech advocates and as putting the pieces together is beyond their ability and/or desire, they do not realise that no one’s free speech is being restricted; it’s just typical victim-hood narrative.  

Thirdly, there is cowardice.  Similar to selfishness is their gutless inability to stand up against anything as inarguably evil as fascism.

Fourthly, we have to acknowledge the off-putting aspects of this brand of left politics (and I do not use the word ‘brand’ mistakenly). Unite Against Fascism and Stand Up to Racism are organised by many people associated with the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) and this turns people off.  The SWP have many draw backs, such as trying to cover up sexual abuse by one of their high-level members and basically being overgrown kids wearing revolutionary costumes.  Like fellow grown babies Class War, no one could really get behind them because what they do is silly gestures.

However, I also have to speak in their favour.  Some people I speak to often call both UAF and SUTR ‘fronts’ but I have no idea what they are a front for (that is silly bourgeois language) and them along with many associates of Class War are always in the street opposing fascism, no matter how dangerous.  This will always give them an edge on the rest of you.  I greatly respect HOPE Not Hate for the work they do, but I have far more problems with them and their division tactics than the others.

So after talking all that shit about each group, I must call for unity against a very clear threat to all people, culture and life.

Fascism is a serious threat again, weather Alt Right or alt light. We must all act against it or face the consequences and ignorance is unacceptable.

If you were on the recent anti-Trump demos around Britain, there is no reason to not take part in antifascism work.  Those demos were anti-fascist, not only in spirit but practice; both Unite Against Fascism and Stand Up to Racism had a big part in organising; many people not associated to those groups were there for active anti-fascist reasons against the Trump administration.; this was the bigger issue we fought regardless of differences, because everyone recognises they are the biggest and most powerful far right government around presently.

 What We Must Do

Overcome Division – left wing divisiveness is the biggest pain in my arse and I am sick of it.  I have no doubt I am not alone here.  We must put it to one side, admit we will never agree on everything and try to respect those differences in people who are brave enough to stand up to fascism; I am not asking you to attend a barbeque with people you hate; just hold a line against far right extremists (which is greatly preferable to a barbeque).

Make the Movement Your Own – who cares which group want to sink money and time into organising the street resistance? Go there, do your own thing, form your own local groups and tackle this extremism the best way you think, although I would advise paying close attention to history and practicality – don’t waste time with what doesn’t work.

If you really do not want to take to the streets, then support those who do. From providing the vital research work to battling it out online to even just helping your friends fight the scourge of decent society, you can make a role for yourself and will be just as respected for your efforts.

Be Honest: Immigration is Great – most decent people will openly say they have no problem with immigration, but that is not good enough.  We need to say very specifically that our countries (Britain in particular) has been greatly improved by immigrants in culture, food, music and many other ways.  No one should be treated as badly as they are simply for coming from somewhere else.

Absolutely No Middle Ground with Racists and Fascists – fairly self-explanatory; these are dangerous and I say evil people.  They are only having a moment right now because they are being bankrolled by far right organisations with revenue (they are literally a rent-a-mob). When pressure is put upon them by an unyielding forces of good, they fall away; did in the past and will do in the future.

We know how appalling our attention-seeking, hateful enemies are and none of that matters.  The truth has become a near-redundant currency in the real, living world and unless we act now, it will likely be gone forever.  So many people speak of pride at their grandparents standing up to fascism in the 1930s and 40s.  Now it is your turn.

[orbemnews]

What is Work Worth? The DealBook newsletter delves into a single topic or theme every weekend, providing reporting and analysis that offers a better understanding of an important issue in the news. If you don’t already receive the daily newsletter, sign up here. Walmart announced last month that it was raising pay for some of its lowest-wage workers. Investors responded by pummeling its shares, sending them down by more than 6 percent on the day. That wasn’t quite as bad as in 2015, when the retailer’s stock dropped 10 percent after it said a wage increase would cut into profits. Walmart wasn’t being extravagant. Half of Walmart’s hourly staff, or about 730,00 workers, still make less than $15 per hour after the latest increase went into effect last week. The retail giant made $13.5 billion in profit in its most recent fiscal year. Chief executives have in recent years publicly pronounced their commitment to “stakeholder capitalism” and “doing well by doing good.” But when it comes to paying workers a wage that can support their families, investors send executives a clear message: increase pay at your peril. This is a problem. Worker compensation as a percentage of our national output has declined for decades, and especially steeply since 2000. Low-wage workers at companies including Amazon, McDonald’s and Walmart rely on public assistance such as food stamps to make ends meet, according to an October report from the Government Accountability Office. A shocking 30 percent of Americans couldn’t easily come up with $400 on their own in an emergency, and women and people of color generally earn less than their peers. But two new books highlight good ideas for how to more fairly allocate pay, some new and others fallen into disuse. They can maybe even help investors to accept that reallocation. Set pay for positions, not people Kim Scott is concerned about the way bias influences what workers are paid. In her new book, “Just Work,” Ms. Scott, a former Apple and Google executive, calls on managers to identify the gaps in pay between gender, racial and ethnic groups. “Unless you believe that white men are superior to others and that’s why they’re paid more, it’s impossible to believe that bias is not a factor,” she writes. American women, for example, make only about 85 percent of what men earn. Ms. Scott’s recommendations are not common practices at most organizations, but they make sense. The first is to ensure that no individual has unilateral power over compensation. Companies should have fixed salaries or salary ranges for each role. Individuals hired for the same job should have similar, if not identical, offer letters. Job candidates can haggle over signing bonuses if needed, but even then only within a range that the company fixes and discloses. Another strategy for more fairly allocating pay that Ms. Scott endorses is pay transparency, where companies publish the compensation for any given position. This is the practice at Buffer, a social-media tools company, for example, and also at many government agencies. “More companies are finding that the simplest way to address pay disparity is to take the mystery out of the process,” Ms. Scott writes. Ms. Scott also calls on business leaders to look at the spread between executives’ compensation and that of their lowest-paid employees. Research shows that raising low-wage workers’ compensation is one of the most effective ways to narrow the persistent racial pay gap. “If you are in charge of compensation, you can pay people who get paid less more and people who get paid most less,” Ms. Scott writes. “I’m not talking communism; I’m talking common human decency.” Some companies are thinking similarly. Costco recently raised its starting wage to $16 per hour, from $15. The retailer has long been a case study for how higher wages can be a good business strategy, reducing employee turnover and theft, and improving customer service. Best Buy and Target both raised minimum pay to $15 per hour last year. Amazon says it benefited from higher staff morale and retention, and a significant jump in job applications after it raised starting pay to $15 per hour for all U.S. employees in 2018. PayPal in recent years began focusing on employee financial health, including a metric it calls net disposable income, or what staff have left after taxes and necessary living expenses. It raised salaries and the company’s health-insurance contributions for its lowest-paid workers, which resulted in higher employee satisfaction and retention. Acknowledge that pay isn’t always connected to performance Jake Rosenfeld takes on the myths about how companies grant compensation in “You’re Paid What You’re Worth.” One of the biggest myths is that what we’re paid reflects our performance, argues Mr. Rosenfeld, a professor of sociology at Washington University in St. Louis. In theory, workers should be paid based on how much money a business generates thanks to their work, and for some rainmakers that may be clear. But that’s often not the case. Mr. Rosenfeld blames several structural factors for undermining the tie between the value workers contribute to their employer’s revenue and their compensation, including noncompete agreements, opacity around salaries and company performance and market concentration. Beyond that, Mr. Rosenfeld makes the provocative contention that measuring most individual workers’ performance is fruitless. “For many jobs today, the whole effort to measure marginal productivity is misguided — not because the right tools haven’t been developed, but because there is no way to disentangle the productivity of one worker from that of others in the organization,” he writes. He argues that even when it’s possible to tie individual performance to revenue, as with salespeople and lawyers, performance-based pay has deep flaws, such as generating cutthroat competition between colleagues. If performance-based compensation is so problematic, what’s the alternative? One possibility is to link pay to the performance of the whole company. Profit-sharing programs, where companies give a percentage of earnings to employees, were common in the United States before the 1980s, but have mostly disappeared since. Mr. Rosenfeld also suggests an approach unlikely to have fans among younger workers: pay based on seniority. It strips managers of their ability to play favorites, diminishes the impact of bias and rewards experience. “Seniority-based pay ensures we’re paid for our improvement,” Mr. Rosenfeld argues. What happens next? American political leaders have a role to play here. The $15 federal minimum wage proposal didn’t make it through as part of the recent stimulus legislation. But Democratic leaders have vowed to get it passed sooner or later. (President Biden has also committed to strengthening unions, whose decline since the 1980s has contributed to weakening workers’ leverage around compensation.) A significant majority of American voters has historically supported raising the minimum wage to $15. And even that level falls short of providing workers with income sufficient to cover basic expenses in many parts of the country. As Walmart was reminded very clearly, investors aren’t necessarily on the same page as the general public when it comes to better wages. That’s shortsighted. Researchers including Zeynep Ton, a professor at the M.I.T. Sloan School of Management, have shown that companies can be just as profitable when they pay higher wages, thanks to benefits such as better quality goods and services and lower staff turnover. Also, when workers struggle to make ends meet, it holds back the economy because they consume less. On top of that, fair pay is a critical foundation for a fair society. Now is a good time for resetting assumptions about why we’re paid what we’re paid, and how compensation is determined. New approaches exist for those who are open to them. What do you think? How can pay be awarded more equitably? And can it ever really be linked to performance? Let us know: dealbook@nytimes.com. Source link Orbem News #Work #worth