Tiffany Ten

This has already been out for a few days, so you may have already caught on: metabo (a Japanese term for being fat) is out, and slim is in. The June 13 New York Times article, “Japan, Seeking Trim Waists, Measures Millions” chronicles the recent efforts of the Japanese government to enforce thinness among its population. Citizens will have their waists measured, and if they are found to have waists larger than the government prescribed maximum, will be asked to lose weight (and inches).

While it’s unclear to me what sort of “teeth” (AKA enforcement) this measure will have, the potential barriers it could cause to employment and health insurance are mind-boggling.

I would hope, regardless of one’s view of obesity and public health measures for wellness, that we can all agree that government sanctioned waistlines are not a progressive move for us.

Big Brother, keep your damn tape measure away from me.

I was tagged by consummate Brooklynite music blogger and all-around-good-guy Dan over at kissoutthejams.blogspot.com with these instructions:

“List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they’re not any good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying now, shaping your spring. Post these instructions in your blog along with your 7 songs. Then tag 7other people to see what they’re listening to.”

Alright, let’s do this!

Pharoahe Monch - “Desire”   I can not get enough of this song. Monch’s entire “Desire” cd has played over and over in my car since I got it last fall. I often say: I don’t know anything about music, I just know what I like to hear–and this whole disc hasn’t got old yet. The penis line makes me a bit awkward, but I roll with it.

Dwele - “Find a Way” I had never heard of Dwele until I moved to Detroit and I still don’t know much of his music. But this track is perfect summer bliss–upbeat, smooth, and just makes me smile. 

J Dilla ft Common, D’Angelo - “So Far to Go” I’ve been into this track for months now, so this isn’t just about the here and now. Apparently Common’s new album Finding Forever includes it, but his version is weak. This J Dilla version from his “The Shining” disc is perfect–no need for change. Bonus points for remaining sexy even with samples from the world’s creepiest movie. 

Rebel Diaz - “Crush” I general, I want to shout the praises of Chicago’s Rebel Diaz. I want to pull people aside and push a mixtape into their hands. I love these folks. They’re solid movement activists on top of being fantastic performers in english and spanish.  And I have just about the hugest crush on the voluptuous Lah Tere. Seriously.

Band of Horses - “No Ones Going to Love You”  It’s melancholy and beautiful, and reminds me of the late 1990s emo bands that I STILL listen to. There’s just something about this band that makes me want to get to know them; maybe sit on a porch with some drinks and talk about life. They’re accessible. I love this for the summer because it has both the self-appraisal, fear, and desire that makes me think about short summer loves.

Common ft. Will.I.Am - “I Have a Dream” - I get bored with Common, but this track is just too fun. I have no idea where it comes from: it was handed to me on a mixtape and here we are. We’re gonna work it out, out, out. Sometimes I just want to hear something positive about this messed up, fucked up world.

Brother Ali - “Lookin’ at me Sideways” - I ran across Brother Ali on myspace of all places and I just like him. There’s something that’s simple but good about his flow. 

Hear 6 of the 7 tracks at tiffanyten.muxtape.com!

I’m not going to tag anyone, but if you read this and have a blog, do it and post a comment with your results. I love hearing what’s playing in other folks’ worlds.

I’ve always learned the most about the stuff I’m made out of during the worst times, there really is something about this idea of “brokenness” that warrants all the attention it gets in some circles (like the youth evangelical spaces I’ve been in at times in the past). It’s when nothing seems to be going right, when I feel the weakest, that I tend to do the most personal building work. It’s frustrating, but it’s good. And that’s life, right there.

I’ve developed a tremendous fear of loss over the course of my life. I’d love to hoard all the things that matter to me: from people to things to ideas. If I could lock all of this up, put it in a safe, and hover over it, wouldn’t life be so much better? We know that’s just not how it is. And I probably wouldn’t change it if I could. I–we–just have to be comfortable with vulnerability. And oh, do I feel vulnerable these days. Rough like sandpaper and porous like cheesecloth. More on this later.

After months of struggling–and losing–battles against tiny viral organisms that have kept me in bed a dozen times throughout the winter and spring, I’ve really had to start thinking more about what it means to care for a body. As temporal as it seems at times, mine is certainly screaming at me for attention. I begin another attempt to quit smoking. I hate talking about it, as I’ve failed each of my quits over the last two years, but it must be talked about. Changing addictive behavior that has woven into every facet of my life is more difficult than I ever imagined. I’ve got 6 days now, and I feel better already, but I know that it’s going to be an increasingly irritating struggle daily for weeks and weeks. It’s a weird space to want to do something intellectually but to have to battle other parts of the mind so constantly.  Ideas for keeping this battle fresh everyday more than welcome. 

This is it - I want to be well. I want to know what that feels like. Emotionally. Spiritually. Physically. And I’ve got some serious work to do. I have to remind myself constantly that I am a project worth embarking on.

I’m trying to figure out how to add exercise to my life. Such a tricky world to navigate as a fatty! All my pals bike but I still just become overcome with long entrenched fears of biking while fat every time I think about heading down to the community space to get me one. I don’t want to ask to go with others when they exercise, either, knowing I simply can’t keep up and have different needs. I also want to, as much as is possible, be in spaces where I can work out and not have the assumption be that I hate my body and want to lose a ton of weight and cry big tears of joy when I’m a size 10 like everyone on the Biggest Loser. I just don’t want this. I want a body that moves with more ease and energy, not a particular dress size. This makes so much sense to me, I’m not sure why it doesn’t resonate with many more. And as feels pretty universal among the fatties I know, I actually fear more activity resulting in too much weight loss as the resultant “you look great!” is very grating, and I know this is just not easy to talk to people about (who wants to turn down a compliment from a well-meaning acquaintance?). Though, I have apparently lost SIXTEEN pounds during the last 5 days of this last infection. That warrants a “you know you’re fat when…” joke if nothing else.

In terms of the “porousness” I feel, I really wonder where people get their strength from. What keeps everyone going? Especially in our movements when any given day there’s a million reasons to be outraged, a dozen conversations that can and do go poorly, handfuls of triggers all about. I’ve always taken to the Biblical “vessel” imagery. I am filled with energy and inspiration often when I do social justice work. I can give and give and work hard–all as long as the cup keeps getting re-filled. Lately, the refilling has stopped and it has felt like I’m getting too close to scrapping the bottom of my meager resources. Today was a good day, it felt like I got some trickles back in to sustain me. But tomorrow? If feels a bit too much like a daily struggle, and I know that this is not how I’m supposed to be, how any of us are supposed to be. I think I need to isolate what has stopped the refilling from happening, and I have some ideas. Interpersonal struggles, personal inadequacies, and the real anti-enabler–anger. I’ve become angry at a situation and it’s slowing down all the processes by which I get my strength–just like that.

But to focus on what’s important: “today was a good day!” It ended with a great little strike support meeting, and that’s the kicker - we just all do so much better when we’re in it together.

RIP ECK, and RIP debilitating anger, fear, and depression.

Let’s do some shit this summer.

Hi there! I’m one of millions of people with a neglected blog. A bit of time off work is a good time to blow off the dust and post anew.

I experimented a bit tonight with a monologue–though truly I don’t even know if that’s the correct term for what I wrote. After a fairly rough and isolating Christmas Eve spent in the middle of nowhere Michigan with my family, words were suddenly willing themselves out. This place, my rural home, has always been a source of both inspiration AND frustration in overflowing helpings.

I’ve never been able to explain to anyone what the dynamics of my family are, and it’s one of my goals to write some short stories/monologues/memoir style pieces that hit the right marks. I need to do this for me.

In the ten years since I moved out of my parents’ house, I’ve come very far in exploring how my first 18 years impacted me, but I’ve still got a lot of work to do to come to terms with all of it, as tonight reminded me.

It’s hard to write while all these things still feel like open wounds, and I’m very underdeveloped as a writer. But everyone starts somewhere on every damn project, so yeehaw. Maybe this could be a start of learning how to do this? I want to hope on something tonight.
“Christmas Eve 2007 ” follows Read the rest of this entry »

I spent the last week in rural southeastern Vermont part of a small group of writers and activists who attended the 9th year/13th camp of the slighty obscure (at least to Google) Kopkind retreat. Named in legacy of progressive journalist Andrew Kopkind, the retreat brings together folks working (and sometimes writing) for justice in a symphony of political discussions and “radical relaxing”. Because my group had me and my bag of games learned from my Student Farmworker Alliance crew, I left knowing that games like Mafia (around a bonfire!), Capture the Flag, and Move Your Ass may end up as part of the Kopkind retreat legacy.

Picking us up from the airport was filmmaker John Scagliotti (producer of Dangerous Living–an incredible documentary of coming out in the developing world), a longterm partner of Andrew Kopkind before Kopkind passed in 1994. As Scagliotti drove a small crew of us through the windy (and nauseating if you’re carsick like me) dirt roads to the Kopkind Colony land, I got the sense that I was on to something amazing–a bit of land flushed with greenery, sunlight, and the distant voices of hundreds of people who’ve come through on retreats like me, public events, or even the Vermont Bear Film Festival Scagliotti and his partner Dave Hall host.

The retreat’s theme was Looking South, focusing on the U.S. and Global South. Mentors included Ajamu Dillahunt, a black southern labor and justice activist who helped to found Black Workers for Justice. Dillahunt is “retired” but currently on staff with the North Carolina Justice Center. You can check his blog out here. The other mentor, Chris Kromm, is the Director of the Institute for Southern Studies and publisher of Southern Exposure and Facing South.

Dillahunt and Kromm led discussions on a series of topics focused on what it means to “look south” when building progressive movements. From asking “Where’s the rage?” about Katrina, the War, everything! to how the African diaspora isn’t (but should be) included in our understanding of the Americas and immigration, to how anti-racism and coalition building is crucial in the south (and beyond), the topics were more than relevant in an intellectual sense. They were deeply challenging, important questions and streams of thought that didn’t keep me awake in Vermont(because of all the sun and fun), but do now.

Guest speakers included Bob Pollin, economist at University of Massachusetts-Amherst and director of the Political Economy Research Institute who had the dish on the inner workings of speculative finance and the gleaming underbelly of American Capitalism. Amy Jordan, a professor at Hampshire College tied in oral histories of past disasters in the South to Katrina. Ben Dangl spoke on the Bolivian water crisis and fightback from his book The Price of Fire: Resource Wars and Social Movements in Bolivia.

Probably what was most important for me beyond the chance to hear from these presenters is the magic that happens when you take a handful of beleaguered activists and thinkers and give them space to breathe, play, think, question. I was coming in feeling deeply burnt out–crispy even. I left not feeling isolated, and I’ve come to believe that is the most radical feeling one can have. I am not alone in my rage, sadness, frustration–nor my joy. We’re not alone, and sometimes any opportunity to be reminded of that is worth more than anything.

I’m still processing all the things I learned and felt over the week so in stead of a longer analysis coming out of Kopkind, I’ll share the quote we were read from Andrew Kopkind’s The Thirty Years’ Wars: Dispatches and Diversions of a Radical Journalist, 1965-1994:

“To be a revolutionary is to love your life enough to change it, to choose struggle instead of exile, and to risk everything with only the glimmering hope of a world to win.”

This from Ruckus:

A group of activists rappelled off the Great Wall of China in support of Tibet this week. Satya from Ruckus (a great movement friend) was one of these courageous/crazy folks. Check out the the report below from Ruckus. Awesome!

Our beloved Satya (Nupur Modi in the press materials) joined 5 other Students for a Free Tibet (SFT) activists in a brilliant action to unfurl a massive banner on the Great Wall in China – “One World, One Dream, Free Tibet 2008!” – in English and Chinese. We are SO proud of him and the entire courageous team. Tibetan Independence activist and SFT Executive Director Lhadon Tethong and colleague Paul Golding were detained as well, but all 8 were released together and are in Hong Kong on their way home now. This is what it looks like to conquer fear and take a message of freedom directly into the heart of your opponent.

Here’s a few excerpts from the press materials, which are available at www.studentsforafreetibet.org

“Around 10 p.m. NYC time (10 a.m. Beijng time) six courageous Tibetan independence activists from the UK, US, and Canada were detained by Chinese authorities after rappelling (abseiling) off the top of the Great Wall of China with a 450-square foot banner reading “One World, One Dream, Free Tibet 2008” in English and Chinese.

The activists from the UK, the US and Canada are Sam Price, Melanie Raoul, Leslie Kaup, Duane Martinez, Pete Speller and Nupur Modi. Their current whereabouts are unknown but we are monitoring the situation closely.

The action took place on the eve of the one-year countdown to the 2008 Beijing Olympics as China was preparing for what they thought would be a glorious celebration. As Ben Blanchard from The Guardian has already reported: “Free Tibet activists on the Great Wall, a barrage of critical rights reports, a shroud of smog hanging over Beijing — China’s government must surely have imagined a more auspicious one-year countdown for the Olympics.”

To see the footage of these amazing Tibetan freedom activists in action, click on the links below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xp5mAMrfvI8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6Qp2-pJUio

You can also see still photos at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/greatwallaction

To read the press release, go to: www.studentsforafreetibet.org

To see some media postings, interviews and blog commentaries go to:
http://blog.studentsforafreetibet.org/

ALSO, DON’T FORGET to check www.BeijingWideOpen.org for Lhadon Tethong’s latest posts. Watch footage of her recent encounter with IOC President Jacques Rogge at his Beijing hotel. Lhadon and Paul continue reporting from Beijing, exposing the reality of China’s propaganda campaign.”

I’m a relatively new blogger, and I’m fascinated by blog stats. With wordpress, you can see who’s clicking on your blog, what posts they’re viewing, and what’s really great, the actual search terms they used to find your blog. How fun!

Mostly people are coming to the “Caught Shopping While Fat” post that details what its like to be uber-fat and try to find good clothing options.

I now present to you my favorite search terms. This may be folly as they’ll boost my blog up the formula the internet gods use to decide where you fall in search queries, but I can’t help it. Some of them are too good.

Here’s a selection:
fat women- This was the biggest category. Fair enough. I like fat women, too! I’m not sure I’ve ever technically google searched them, but I’ll give that to the hundreds of folks who are. Hi, there, fellow travelers and admirers!
fat bitches- Alright, ok, it was going to happen, right? I’m trying to understand this one. So you’re probably online, looking for some gross pictures ala Rotten dot com or other pubescent gore sites. But the “bitches” is so striking, and the way “fat bitch” tends to roll of the tongue shouldn’t surprise me. I’m almost convinced I should run that search now to see what happens, but damned if I’ll be a blog stat on another blogger’s site under “fat bitches”. My point is here, I’m really curious what someone hopes to get out of that kind of query. Isn’t fat women enough? Isn’t our mere presence good enough to mock? Is there an international fat bitches club that I wasn’t invited to? If so, I’ll be pissed!
huge fat woman My guess that people who search this term are half looking to get their jollies off while hiding their fat admiration like cowards behind their computer screens (while making fun of fat women to their friends), and half more of the same “Ew! Gross! Diverse human bodies, let’s all vomit now!” crowd. Ok, moving on.
fat fetish Ok, not so bad. Would trouble a weaker person, but I don’t consider fat fetishes bad, as I’ve mine own. However, still, how does that link someone to my blog, and why do they click?
naked fat bitches Ok, We were already bitches with our clothes on, do we really have to take them off? I’ve got a couple of small villages to devour before noon, and its chilly here.
women in dresses that are too small This is my personal favorite, and the girl body lovin’ part of me thinks that this is just curious enough to try myself. Will I do it? You’ll never know.
Looking good even while fat - Well, I’m just not going to be able to help you out on that one. Not this blog, but good luck, I suppose
My fat granny - Your granny is fat? Neat. My granny is pretty slender, actually. Wait, that’s not a porn site is it? Is IT?
Sweatshop cargo pants zip - Oh man, I’m bringing people closer to their dreams of owning their very own pair of sweatshop made cargo pants! This is a sad day.
girls in bra shirts - You do know that that’s probably not that cute, right? If there’s a girls in bra shirts livejournal somewhere, I’m getting off the internet for good. I’m warning all y’all.
fat angry woman - Hey, you found me!

In the May/June issue of Colorlines, Gihan Perera (last I knew, an organizer with the Miami Worker Center, but I’m unsure if this is still the case) has a very good piece called A Question of Power on the human rights framework.

While short, Perera’s article talks about how using a human rights framework with organizing can be a way to go beyond more focused organizing. He begins with using the civil rights movement as an example. He uses the Coalition of Immokalee Workers as an example of how to use a human rights framework in the best way: taking it out of the vague ether of targeting who? humans and asserting that those who are oppressed directly by the system need to lead the framework, as the CIW has done.

Perera’s article is a great beginning to a much longer conversation I’d love to have, particularly among peers that have a strong labor framework. What are the advantages to using a human rights framework (this article begins this conversation), and what are the disadvantages? What can the labor movement learn from organizing attempts using this framework?

Check out the article at Colorlines here.

Jobs, Wages, Health Care Pensions: All in Jeopardy
Fallout from the Sale of Chrysler
By CHRIS KUTALIK and TIFFANY TEN EYCK

Auto workers are bracing for a bumpy road ahead at Chrysler, following the May 14 announcement that Daimler-Chrysler (DCX) would sell off 80 percent ownership of the company to Cerberus Capital Management, a private equity firm. The surprise sale may tip the balance of power further against the United Auto Workers (UAW) as the union faces the expiration of its agreements with the Big Three auto manufacturers in September.

More ominously it may also herald the deepening of disturbing trends faced by U.S. workers as speculative financial interests play more and more of a role in the restructuring of their workplaces. Buyouts of ailing mostly-unionized companies by private equity firms, hedge funds, and private multi-billion dollar investors in the U.S. steel, coal, airlines, and carhaul industries in recent years have on occasion led to “strip-and-flip” style restructuring that downsizes and merges fragments of older companies before selling them off.

Worse for the workers involved in this turnaround restructuring, it has also frequently led to large-scale layoffs, wage/benefit givebacks, the dumping of pension and retiree health care benefits, and the weakening of union strength in affected industries. Though often aided by federal bankruptcy courts, this process is not dependent on bankruptcy alone–a decided advantage to bankruptcy-adverse companies like the Big Three.

In the lead-up to the Cerberus sale, union leaders in the United Auto Workers, the Canadian Auto Workers, and I.G. Metall (Germany’s largest metalworking union) all voiced fears that a sale of the Chrysler unit by Daimler would lead to just such a trend.

In the lead-up to the Cerberus sale, union leaders in the United Auto Workers, the Canadian Auto Workers, and I.G. Metall (Germany’s largest metalworking union) voiced fears that such a sale might lead to layoffs, wage and benefit concessions, or the dumping of pension and retiree health care benefits.

“They’re going to give us a couple years [to see if they can make profit] and if they can’t they’re going to break us apart, and break off Jeep. I’m scared to retire,” said Paul Wohlfarth, a member of UAW Local 12 with 30 years in at the Chrysler Jeep plant in Toledo, Ohio.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers is moving quickly to get more of the fast food industry on board with their quest for fair food and dignity for tomato pickers. The CIW just announced that Yum Brands, the parent company of Taco Bell, is extending their agreement with Taco Bell to the rest of their brands, which include A&W, Pizza Hut, KFC, and Long John Silvers. Now the other 4 chains in the conglomeration will fall in step with the agreement outlined in the Taco Bell agreement, paying a penny more per pound of tomatoes that farmworkers pick for the chains.

This, coupled with last month’s victory against the McDonald’s has the farmworkers in the dusty agricultural town of Immokalee forcing change with 6 major fast food companies. Now they’re asking Burger King to join in through a powerful campaign of teaming continued education and action.

Check out more about the good news this weekend here!