Updates

• Announce the Labor Fightback Conference at Rutgers University
• Stephen finds the little israel, Centro Deportivo de Israeliti where he needed his passport to enter.
• The worse part is the commercial promoting Israel in research and contributions to democracy and that all need to visit
• Similar things in South Africa, with secret services agents from other countries stopping citizens in their own country.

Labor

• Workers Memorial day this past week, with horrible labor stories to morn more losses
• We just finished talking about the textile factory fire before workers memorial day and now we have Bangladesh striking again in the wrong way, with an official death count of 400 with 1000s still missing
• Worst industrial accident
• Since Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire there were advancements but then we stepped back again
• Textile Factory 298 dead in Pakistan was the biggest before in Bangladesh, twice.
• The factories produce specifically for western companies
• Stephen rants and describes the capitalist changes was for cheaper labor and eliminating liability
• Textile to Tech companies blame the small company that actually does the production
• People say this is the path to entering the 1st world, but this is bullshit these are the same companies that learned from the past and we see the failure of regulation.
• West Texas plant explostion wipes out an entire town plus killing many workers
• Neoliberalism kills regulations and use market solutions but more people die
• BP Oil spill to west texas, mining issues regulation is not being enforced and no power, not solving problem just killing people
• Regulation is a short term solution to a long term problem, the problem of capitalism
• We only have more people to morn cause of the capitalist system

Tech Sector

• Progress on webrtc working but get to that later
• Stephen has been working on the Chat server, using xmpp.
• Trying to get all mayfirst members accounts to work with the xmpp server so by default people will have accounts
• Walton still having issues but progress is happening
• We now have a riseup etherpad integration to live.mayfirst.org
• Ross and Stephen from mayfirst are at the front of really new stuff that has very little examples to reference
• Close to production ready for both chat and webrtc
• Eff announcement about Obama allows warrantless surveillance over cyber security, now with no court orders needed
• Obama is not a marxist or a socialist…so fuck you to anyone who thinks he is.

Feedback

• Walton talks about something that google did well with the google hangout live broadcast
• Stephen will work to see if we can match it and go beyond
• We will go live!!! Next Week!!…this is not an endorsement of google but testing the marker and trying to go past it
• Going live on google is our way to get people to give feed back
• Walton will put his makeup on and Stephen has more grey hair

A hard hitting documentary which shows the plight of refugees and migrants in recession hit Athens, Into The Fire is a film with a difference.

Shot and edited with sensitivity and compassion, it doesn’t pull its punches and makes for harrowing viewing in parts. It is the product of crowd funding, dedication, self-sacrifice and a burning sense of justice.

On 21 April, Into the Fire will be simultaneously released on websites, blogs and other platforms around the internet. The film will be available in various languages, including Albanian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian and Spanish. There are a number of public screenings planned in several countries in Europe and Northern America. To participate in the release or organise a screening see http://intothefire.org/publish

This strategy is being used to maximise the audience, in the hope that the audience will become active participants, commentators and amplifiers when it comes to opposing the conditions visited on the victims in the story.

The premiere of Into the Fire on 29th April, 6:30pm will be hosted by the School of Oriental and African Studies. The filmmakers will be joined for discussion by Habib Rahman of the Join Council for the Welfare of Immigrants.

In times of severe austerity things look bleak for Greek people, but they’re far worse for those who have recently arrived. Without housing, legal papers or support, migrants in Greece are faced with increasing and often violent racism at the hands of the growing Nazi party Golden Dawn and the police in Athens. Many are trapped by EU laws and legislation of other EU countries meaning they’d be returned to Greece if they managed to get to another member state, they are desperate to leave the country.

This film gives incredible insights to the reality faced by people who simply want to lead peaceful, normal lives.
Having been to Athens to shoot footage about austerity in April last year, Reel News video activists started talking and working with a young Somalian refugee, they made many contacts in the migrant world and those contacts gave them access to a huge number of untold and shocking stories.

Funded by small donations from friends and organisations, the film makers are once more turning to their supporters and allies in the UK to distribute the film online and through screenings to grassroots groups across the country. No one has been paid to work on this film.

Margaret Thatcher is dead

• The wicked witch of the west is dead and spring can return to the world
• George Square everyone will run down and party when Margaret Thatcher dies…people not certain when to party
• Should the funeral be privately or  funded by the government she opposed?
• Billy Bragg comments on the death don’t celebrate … organise!
• Walton experiences a 3rd world problem in the 1st world
• Stephen experiences the 3rd world with internet but no gas to heat the water
• Landlords suck again! Stephen and his roommates will be looking for a new place soon.
• What does rent pay for again?
• Stephen takes a hot bucket shower now
• Another DIY this is  with office furniture from wooden fruit crates

Labor Digest

• Good unions stories from Mexico
• Workers Occupy and take the factory to the ultimate place we want
• To go on strike is to occupy the factory with the flags of Black and Red.
• Continental Tires,  Stephen mistakenly says Cooper Tires
• The strike was for three years, and the local labor board supported it…which means the company is responsibly for the back from when the strike started.
• The Company basically gave them the factory with the hopes that they would fail
• The workers own half of the factory the other side is sales something that the workers do not have experience but want to eventually own it all.
• They did not fail, but how does the coop run?
• This is no small coop it is 1050 members, twice a year the meetings occur
• Still need to work with in the market system that they are struggling with but working on it
• These are the stories we should be hearing from labor unions

Tech Sector

• The Big Blue Button install is done on Mayfirst
• Runs well but the struggle is for flash to work
• Walton has had good experience with it and describes a scenario
• BigBlueButton has plans to get rid of flash and go html5 and webrtc
• Install of BBB is up in hours after a number of issues, but not impossible, but built on ubuntu which mades debian servers a little tricky to get up to speed
• Stephen documented the process for mayfirst members to setup bbb
• WebRTC is now in the Mayfirst realm as well and is a longer term project to create more than what we have with BigBlueButton
• Walton is the lone wolf who has issues getting connected….Stephen blames Scotland
• We started with the SimpleWebRTC Github
• Stephen tries to describe how Webrtc works
• Stephen and Ross moved the server dependencies of SimpleWebRTC to all on mayfirst and used resiprocate for the stun server
• html5 toys Websocket Chat Video Grabber and White Board

Feedback

• Enrique from Mexico City sent Walton and Stephen a big thank for producing the show, he is a member of mayfirst and active listener.
• Send all complaints to BT so Walton can get internet in his new home

Updates

• Stephen brews coffee cold with instruction from a fictional book
• Walton is drinking the other beer…a Williams Brothers Scottish Session Ale
• Surreality life of Walton did weird things in front of a mic
• Walton is now a bloody Brit with a stiff upper lip
• Stephen suggest we take the show on tour now that Walton can travel
• Walton and Stephen have a netbooky moment
• Shall we go live? We are thinking about if we should broadcast when we record the show…who would listen?
• We recorded this show in 2006
• Stephen might do a fresh install again
• Marxcyle posts again with his new tires
• Can bikes read?

Labor

• The tech and engineering workers agreed to create a two tier system with the evil of the 401(k) vs pension and the two tier system
• Unions lose power when the pension goes bye bye the 401(k) reinforces the market and weakens the worker
• With a pension fund unions can threaten to divest from organizations they want to put pressure on
• Some unions like the United Steel Workers is using thier pension to create worker run cooperatives
• The 401(k) rant worth the rant
• Could or does there exist a worker run cooperative investment program
• What does a union look like, does it need to say union in it?
• Players Association is a union, the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA)
• Some of the most powerful unions are not a named a union, though in some cases they are not wanting to align with the politics or perceived unions
• The 10 year anniversary of the Iraq war and labor against the war
• A call to action to support Union Activist in Iraq

Tech

• Webrtc testing it out, part of it is just using your browser to be the means for conferences
• We had our brief experience … with bugs we could not get the video and audio to work on both sides
• Big Blue Button attempt to try to install will happen this Tuesday to meet the request of the mayfirst leadership committee
• Tech is a team effort because working in collectively brings the benefit of extra eyes
• Many people think that supporting a website is easy or setting up the installation, unfortunately that is not true
• One example late night hacking Stephen was up until 2 am working with a colleague trying install trac
• Recap of the idea to broadcast the show live instead of just a download
• We made each other look funny to hide our identity from the CIA

Feedback

• Walton needs to speak up apparenlty his voice level was not even in episode 69
• The co-op hands logo is not a software.coop creation – we just use it. I think I got it from Calverts.coop
• mjray keeps us on our toes

• Stephen is recovering from St Patricks Day has the hangover today
• Walton went on a subcrawl but had the hangover yesterday
• Walton and Stephen plan when they will drink on the show
• A belated shout out to This is Not A Podcast where Stephen get a shout out from them where he tried to do a British accent but it came out Irish.
• Marxcycle will be posting about his new tires this week
• Stephen has been doing some web development with javascripting and css coding…he did it on his own
• Stephen is mad at global warming cause Glasgow is getting snow and 8000 feet up in Mexico City there is no snow

Labor Section

• Student guestworkers revolting and organizing
• Stephen tries to explain how guestworker visas work and the point of them and the limitations of them
• The guestworkers are being threatened to be deported if they don’t work the shifts they are asked to work
• Walton brings up that super models are starting to organize the Models Alliance in the US
• It is very similar to the Actors union, equity effort in the UK to organize models.
• Trying to connect the production of clothing to the presentation of that clothing on the catwalk.
• Walton shares the story of the biggest design show in the world coming from South Africa
• It is a great story cause you can buy designer clothes in South Africa and it is union made

Tech Sector

• VentureCommunism is moving along and now has a weekly conference call for those that are interested.
• LibreOffice 4.0 The release we have been waiting for is out and H-online highlights its new features
• Now with collaborative support, and compatibility with Microsoft Office, this includes comments and formatting is better supported
• Google is killing the Reader! Stephen recommends the Firefox built in RSS reader and Thunderbird, Walton continues searching for other ways to read
• FSF releases a statement on Google controlling the XMPP or Google Talk’s openness
• Friendica releases a preview on their new Red software

Feed Back

• New and old listeners coming from the VentureCommunism IRC
• MJray gives a link to a logo for coop made