T-bone Slim

Starving Amidst Too Much & Other Iww Writings on the Food Industry T-bone Slim

Brief Description: This is a book about the irrepressible conflict between the poorly paid workers who actually feed the world and the parasitical multi-billionaire corporate powers that make the rules and graba the profits. Reproduced here are rare classic documents on the "food question" by four old-time members of the IWW. T-Bone Slim provides a detailed critique of the industry - chockful of penetrating insight and knckout black humor. Organizer L S Chumley portrays the horrid living and working conditions of hotel and restaurant workers circa 1918, stressing the need for workers' direct actoin. Wobbly troubadour Jim Semour, with his inspired saga of "The Dishwasher" reflects on the possibilities of a radically different diet. Jack Sheridan's fascinating 1959 survey of the role of food in ancient and modern civilization, especially in economic development, is also a crash-course in the materialist conception of history at its Wobbly soapboxer best. In his introduction, historian/activist Peter Rachleff traces the history of the food-workers' self-organization, and brings the book up to date with a look at current point-of-production struggles to break the haughty power of an ecocidal agribusiness and the union-busting fast-food chains. Plus a foreword by Carlos Cortez. Publisher Marketing: This is a book about the irrepressible conflict between the poorly paid workers who actually feed the world and the parasitical multi-billionaire corporate powers that make the rules and graba the profits. Reproduced here are rare classic documents on the food question by four old-time members of the IWW. T-Bone Slim provides a detailed critique of the industry - chockful of penetrating insight and knckout black humor. Organizer L S Chumley portrays the horrid living and working conditions of hotel and restaurant workers circa 1918, stressing the need for workers' direct actoin. Wobbly troubadour Jim Semour, with his inspired saga of The Dishwasher reflects on the possibilities of a radically different diet. Jack Sheridan's fascinating 1959 survey of the role of food in ancient and modern civilization, especially in economic development, is also a crash-course in the materialist conception of history at its Wobbly soapboxer best. In his introduction, historian/activist Peter Rachleff traces the history of the food-workers' self-organization, and brings the book up to date with a look at current point-of-production struggles to break the haughty power of an ecocidal agribusiness and the union-busting fast-food chains. Plus a foreword by Carlos Cortez.

Contributor Bio:  Rachleff, Peter Rachleff is professor and chairperson of the History Department at Macalester College, where he has taught since 1982.