Inhumanely treated Amazon workers in Europe go out on strike because Bezos didn't give them a new city hall.

Good for them -- Amazon's workers in Europe, that is.

'We Are Not Robots': Amazon Workers Across Europe Walk Out on Black Friday Over Low Wages and 'Inhuman Conditions', by Jessica Corbett (Common Dreams)

Amazon CEO "Jeff Bezos is the richest bloke on the planet; he can afford to sort this out," says a U.K. union leader

Amazon workers across Europe staged a walkout on Black Friday—when retailers offer major deals to holiday season shoppers the day after Thanksgiving—to protest low wages as well as "inhuman conditions" at company warehouses.

Eduardo Hernandez, a 38-year-old employee at an Amazon logistics depot in Madrid, Spain—where about 90 percent of staff walked off the job—told the Associated Press that the action was intentionally scheduled on the popular shopping day to negatively impacting the company's profits.

"It is one of the days that Amazon has most sales, and these are days when we can hurt more and make ourselves be heard because the company has not listened to us and does not want to reach any agreement," he said.

Protests were also planned for Amazon facilities in Italy, France, the United Kingdom, and Germany ...

Black Friday ain't nothing but a memorable song by Steely Dan.

For the past four decades, any mention of "Black Friday" immediately cues the song by Steely Dan, which promptly starts playing in my head, except it doesn't ever seem to end there.

That's because back in 1975, most of us were listening to albums, and if you heard these songs often enough, it's impossible to stop the internal playback from repeating their established running order.

"Black Friday" is the first song on the album Katy Lied. It leads directly to "Bad Sneakers," then "Rose Darling" -- and if something doesn't occur to interrupt the stream, it only ends with "Throw Back the Little Ones" and the album's conclusion.

In historical terms, "Black Friday" has tended to denote disasters.

online.com.php56-17.ord1-1.websitetestlink.com/2006/11/26/black-friday-doesnt-sound-all-that-festive/">I know that the original Black Friday

was a financial crisis during the presidency of U.S. Grant. It occurred on Sept. 24, 1869, after an attempt was made to corner the gold market following the Civil War. But I was pretty sure Black Friday has been used for lots of other historic dates as well. A quick check of Wikipedia.com confirmed that notion with a list of 25 other dates referred to as Black Friday. It also came back with listings for Black days of the week, including every day of the week.

All of the references except for the one observed this week, were negative events — some really negative. A storm in Scotland in 1881 killed 189 fishermen. A flood in Johnstown, Penn., killed 2,200 in 1889. On a Friday in 1939 the worst wildfires ever in Australia killed 71 and destroyed several towns. The list goes on.
In fact, Steely Dan's song refers to that original Black Friday in 1869. From "Black Friday" universally describing a tragic or catastrophic occurrence, we're now at a juncture where it boosts, boasts and symbolizes shopping excess. I find this contemptible, although on second thought, blind consumer-driven materialism probably fits the previous usage, albeit with little appreciation of the irony.

The earliest evidence of the phrase Black Friday applied to the day after Thanksgiving in a shopping context suggests that the term originated in Philadelphia, where it was used to describe the heavy and disruptive pedestrian and vehicle traffic that would occur on the day after Thanksgiving. This usage dates to at least 1961. More than twenty years later, as the phrase became more widespread, a popular explanation became that this day represented the point in the year when retailers begin to turn a profit, thus going from being "in the red" to being "in the black".

Irony is dead, but according to Pitchfork, Steely Dan's "Black Friday" is an example of the late Walter Becker's brilliance.

Once the duo decided that David Palmer, a part-time vocalist on the group's 1972 debut Can't Buy A Thrill, didn't quite jibe with their plan for the group, Fagen took over vocal duties but Becker remained somewhat in the shadows, especially after Steely Dan retired from the road in 1975 so they could craft albums with the best studio musicians money could buy. This raised a question: if Steely Dan could hire the best guitarists in the world, why would they need to Becker to play a solo?

The answer is pretty simple: Steely Dan always favored “feel.” Those endless hours in the studio were a quest for the right sound, one with precision and vibe—the kind of sound Becker could achieve. Once he and Fagen holed up in the studio, he started to play more guitar, not less, soloing on nearly half of their 1977 landmark Aja. Becker developed a fluid style, one based on the blues but as fleet as hard bop. It was the perfect complement to Fagen‘s keyboards, adding a bit of grit to the sophisticated chords and rhythms. This hint of dirtiness also underlined how the characters populating Steely Dan songs were often unsavory types; underneath that shiny surface, there was dirt.

I'm hoping to make it all the way through Black Friday without spending a red cent. Scroll to the top, push play ... all together now ...

When Black Friday comes
I stand down by the door
And catch the grey men when they
Dive from the fourteenth floor

When Black Friday comes
I collect everything I'm owed
And before my friends find out
I'll be on the road

When Black Friday falls you know it's got to be
Don't let it fall on me

When Black Friday comes
I fly down to Muswellbrook
Gonna strike all the big red words
From my little black book

Gonna do just what I please
Gonna wear no socks and shoes
With nothing to do but feed
All the kangaroos

When Black Friday comes I'll be on that hill
You know I will

When Black Friday comes
I'm gonna dig myself a hole
Gonna lay down in it 'til
I satisfy my soul

Gonna let the world pass by me
The Archbishop's gonna sanctify me
And if he don't come across
I'm gonna let it roll

When Black Friday comes
I'm gonna stake my claim
I guess I'll change my name

(edited on 25 November 2020 to update the YouTube link)

In reply, John Gonder quite properly references Cassius: "The fault is not in our stars, but in ourselves."

Cribbed from somewhere on the Internetz.

I'm glad John told me about his published reply, as I'd missed it on Sunday. Here's my tip from last week:

Damn it, John Gonder: Help revitalization and small business prospects downtown with two-way streets!

Here are John's thoughts.

Click through and read them all. We wouldn't get any such thoughtful explanation from the current occupant(s), would we?

Glad You Asked

Earlier today I read the NA Confidential blog by Roger Baylor, in which he questions my comments in a News and Tribune article by Daniel Suddeath on the current state of downtown New Albany. Roger felt I had betrayed an unspoken allegiance to a walkable New Albany by not seizing on the opportunity Suddeath offered to bring out the incantation of street conversion in my remarks ...

 ... When Daniel interviewed me, he referred back to some conversations he'd had earlier in the day, or week, with Dave Duggins, and some others. Because I do feel that a walkable New Albany would be a better environment for small and independent businesses, I thought of mentioning the conversion of one-way to two-way streets, since, as I said, I believe such a conversion brings us closer to that goal. Somehow or another, Daniel and I got on to another aspect of his question about what government can do to help stem the loss of businesses downtown, or to create a more fertile field in which to grow new businesses downtown.

Oppressors are not entitled to their own language.

“Language is power, life and the instrument of culture, the instrument of domination and liberation”
-- Angela Carter, novelist

Plaid Friday went swimmingly, don't you think?

It's all about educating consumers, but this year more than ever before, it occurred to me that independent small business owners themselves also are prime beneficiaries of an ongoing educational component of any Buy Local campaign.

We can begin by rejecting alien terminology. Words actually matter. If you are a small indie business owner, or if you support the panoply of indie business concepts, you must recognize that "Black Friday" is adverse terminology. It is degrading materialist Big Box Speak, intended to inculcate a sense of mega-chain empowerment. Consider refraining from its usage next year, and train your employees to think and speak in like fashion.

Eventually, we'll retrain the nation, but we have to start somewhere: With ourselves. Language is a good start for revolution, don't you think?

"Stand with Striking Wal-Mart Workers."

At The Nation: Josh Eidelson: The True Power of Walmart Workers

As shoppers battle for discounted flat-screen TVs this Black Friday, Walmart workers will be fighting for a living wage. Employees at 1,000 Walmart stores across the country are planning to strike on one of the megastore’s most profitable days. “There’s the potential to cut into Walmart’s brand in a permanent way,” says Nation writer Josh Eidelson, who has been covering the Walmart strikes since the beginning. He stopped by MSNBC’s The Ed Show to discuss the potential power of the worker walkout, and Walmart’s illegal efforts to stop it.

Rock on: "America’s biggest retailer may be in for an unexpectedly painful holiday season."

The Hostess Twinkie extinction stories are mere empty calories compared with the real action. Bloomberg Businessweek provides the overview.

Labor

Wal-Mart Workers' Black Friday Strike

By Elizabeth Dwoskin on November 16, 2012

 

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America’s biggest retailer may be in for an unexpectedly painful holiday season. Protesting low wages, spiking health care premiums, and alleged retaliation from management, Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) workers have started to walk off the job this week. First, on Wednesday, about a dozen workers in Wal-Mart’s distribution warehouses in Southern California walked out, followed the next day by 30 more from six stores in the Seattle area.

The workers, who are part of a union-backed employee coalition called Making Change at Wal-Mart, say this is the beginning of a wave of protests and strikes leading up to next week’s Black Friday. A thousand store protests are planned in Chicago, Dallas, Miami, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Milwaukee, Los Angeles, Minnesota, and Washington, D.C., the group says.

Symbolism is a terrible thing to waste.

Just about the only noteworthy aspect of the day today in terms of world history is that until recently, "Black Friday" universally has denoted a tragic or catastrophic occurrence. Only in America could such a term be subverted to boost, boast and symbolize shopping excess.

On second thought, the usage actually does hold, doesn't it?

The YouTube video here was uploaded hundreds of years ago -- in 2007, which accounts for the now forgotten visages of a previous "generation" of corporate and cultural thieves, this being the one just before the current one.

Just a weekend calendar before I drink/to whom it may concern.

Here's the post-Thanksgiving schedule at the New Albanian Brewing Company, and a few other notices for the coming weekend.

NABC Bank Street Brewhouse will be closed today on Black Friday (Nov. 26), reopening Saturday the 27th (11:00 a.m.) and Sunday the 28th (Noon) for normal business days.

The Pizzeria & Public House will observe customary Friday and Saturday hours this weekend, with an 11:00 a.m. start both days. It is closed on Sunday. There's a new Black Friday starting time for Saturnalia MMX, our annual draft celebration of ancient pagan wintertime rituals. The overview is at my other blog, and this year's program is download only.

Downtown New Albany's Holiday Fest and Jingle Walk both take place on Saturday (Nov. 27), which also is Small Business Saturday in America -- a marvelous local counterpoint to the consumerist idiocy of Black Friday's wasteful chainthink.

Yes, it is sponsored by American Express.

Yes, there is a measure of irony in this fact.

Still, like the old Johnny Cash song, every now and then you build a revolution one piece at a time. You are encouraged to shop local, or, if not, perhaps it would be more efficient to just start allowing China Inc. to debit your plastic and cut out the big box middle men.

Meanwhile, NABC will be selling Plastic-Clad Progressive Pints in the foyer of the White House Center on Saturday afternoon. Local businesses throughout downtown will be offering specials and festivity. As an example, read this blog posting from our friends at the Dandy Lion detailing what they'll be up to.

If there is anything you'd like to tout, please append a comment. As for me, surely the drinking lamp is about to be lit?

Another year, another yawn.

Strictly for the record (from 2008 ... and before): The contrarian's Thanksgiving and Black Friday observances.

The contrarian's Thanksgiving and Black Friday observances.

In the context of real American history, to the exclusion of mythology and wishful thinking, the holiday we term "Thanksgiving" is ironic, to say the least, and as noted here so often, Americans and irony generally maintain separate residences.

Each year around this time I like to play the role of thorn in the side of those Pollyannas among us who are prepared to give thanks for phenomenons like the slaughter of Native Americans and the doctrine of "manifest destiny" that eased the consciences of those pulling the trigger.

And, although my business probably will profit from the commencement of the shopping season on the day after Thanksgiving, it's always useful to lampoon the idea of consumerism as cardiovascular exercise and/or religious attainment.

Two postings from 2007 make the case. I gotta go paint. Unless Bluegill or the Highwayman have anything to say, we'll probably be taking the blogging day off tomorrow ... unless, of course, my annoyance level peaks. Don't forget: If you're shopping, shop local. Bentonville already has enough, don't you think?

Are they selling giftcards down at the 2 Horseshoe pole dancing emporium?

Black Friday, Part Two: “Literally millions of native peoples were slaughtered.”

Black Friday, Part One: "Any world that I'm welcome to ... is better than the one I come from."

Black Friday, Part One: "Any world that I'm welcome to ... is better than the one I come from."

See: Black Friday, Part Two: “Literally millions of native peoples were slaughtered.”

Readers with long memories and commendable patience will recall that the senior editor's annoyance with the Christmas shopping season is a constant condition high atop his overworked soapbox.

I'd managed to avoid a relapse until yesterday, when the New Albany Tribune’s Thursday columnist shimmied with the zeitgeist by referring to the mother of all post-Thanksgiving shopping days as Black Friday. Not wanting to be left out, I'll follow suit in this and a folowing article. Here is the newspaper's contribution.

Thank goodness, tomorrow's Black Friday; When the day comes, you’re gonna stake your claim.

Fair enough. It's another buzz word, and some sweet day it will go away and revert to its proper "crashing market" connotation, but not yet.

I noticed something else, and it took a minute or two for the answer to pop up. Read all the way to the end of Fagen’s and Becker’s savvy thoughts from Steely Dan's album “Katy Lied” to learn where one of the Tribune's anonymous conjurers of headlines cleverly lyric-dropped:

When Black Friday comes
I'll stand down by the door
And catch the gray men
When they dive from the fourteenth floor
When Black Friday comes
I'll collect everything I'm owed
And before my friends find out
I'll be on the road
When Black Friday falls you know it's got to be
Don't let it fall on me

When Black Friday comes
I'll fly down to Muswellbrook
Gonna strike all the big red words
From my little black book
Gonna do just what I please
Gonna wear no socks and shoes
With nothing to do
But feed all the Kangaroos
When Black Friday comes I'll be on that hill
You know I will

When Black Friday comes
I'm gonna dig myself a hole
Gonna lay down in it
'Til I satisfy my soul
Gonna let the world pass by me
The Archbishop gonna sanctify me
And if he don't come across
I'm gonna let it roll
When Black Friday comes I'm gonna stake my claim
I guess I'll change my name.

I had to pour a beer and listen to the whole work of mid-seventies pop art: "Daddy Don't Live in That New York City," "Dr. Wu," "Bad Sneakers," and all the rest of the timeless gems.

Meanwhile, this year's looking like every other. The nation’s fevered economic analysis infrastructure is keeping one eye fixed on the fiscal condition of Chinese trinket manufacturers and another on the tea leaves in an effort to determine if holiday retail sales will be sufficient to float the materialism boat for another year.

Meanwhile, the dollar continues its long slide into irrelevance, the Iraqi money pit continues to suck increasingly devalued greenbacks into a black hole filled with crude, and our patriotically rabid shoppers pile merrily into their Hummers to drive 25 feet to the foot of the driveway and collect their amok credit card bills.

Change the dates, change the names -- but Pavlov's dog salivates just as predictably.

At least we have alcohol.