The Maya of Morganton: Work and Community in the Nuevo New South

Book Description

The arrival of several hundred Guatemalan-born workers in a Morganton, North Carolina, poultry plant sets the stage for this dramatic story of human struggle in an age of globalization. When laborers' concerns about safety and fairness spark a strike and, ultimately, a unionizing campaign at Case Farms, the resulting decade-long standoff pits a recalcitrant New South employer against an unlikely coalition of antagonists. Mayan refugees from war-torn Guatemala, Mexican workers, and a diverse group of local allies join forces with the Laborers union. The ensuing clash becomes a testing ground for "new labor" workplace and legal strategies. In the process, the nation's fastest-growing immigrant region encounters a new struggle for social justice.

Using scores of interviews, Leon Fink gives voice to a remarkably resilient people. He shows that, paradoxically, what sustains these global travelers are the ties of local community. Whether one is finding a job, going to church, joining a soccer team, or building a union, kin and linguistic connections to the place of one's birth prove crucial in negotiating today's global marketplace.

A story set at the intersection of globalization and community, two words not often linked, The Maya of Morganton addresses fundamental questions about the changing face of labor in the United States.

Customer Reviews:

Marxist youth review.......2004-09-03

We are constantly reminded these days of the overwhelmingly global nature of capital. Not only can we see multi-national corporations all over the world trying to quench their werewolf hunger for profit by exploiting human communities, human labor, and the environment. We can also look around us and see many different types of people that probably wouldn't find themselves here in the U.S. if it weren't for the ever-new boundaries and needs produced by the expansion of capital.

THE MAYA OF MORGANTON by Leon Fink describes one unlikely community and its struggle against the unfair labor practices of Case Farms poultry processing plant in Morganton, N.C. This community is almost completely composed of indigenous highland Guatemalan Mayans, mainly of the Q'anjob'al, Aguacateco (split between the two main ethnic groups, the Awakateko and Chalchiteko), K'iche', and Mam ethnicities. There were also a handful of Mexican workers that took an active part in the strikes and unionizing campaigns.

Throughout the whole book, Fink allows 100-odd workers, strike leaders, and community members to "speak for themselves" through extensive interviews. It gives the feel of a fluid dialogue between the author and participants, and allows for complexities in the telling of the story straight from the mouths of those involved.

The first sign of wildcat worker resistance to conditions at the plant was in May 1993, "when approximately 100 workers stood up in the plant cafeteria and refused to work unless the company addressed a list of alleged abuses--including unpaid hours, the lack of bathroom breaks, poor working materials, and unauthorized company deductions for safety equipment like smocks and gloves, as well as inadequate pay."

But it wasn't until two years later, in 1995, that organized labor got involved. After a dramatic unionization drive and vote, the Laborers International Union of North America (LIUNA) won the right to represent the workers. Throughout the approximately six years of labor struggle that the book covers, management never respected the workers' decision and took all of the typical steps, from stalling recognition of the union to stymying and breaking off contract talks with the workers.

One aspect of the workers' experience was not unique to them and is a recurring theme in American labor history--the speed-up. In citing a study done by the National Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice, Fink shows that the most frequent complaint of workers, "concerned the `dangerously high speed' of the production line. Combined with the rigidity of work assignments (there was no rotation of jobs at the plant), the line speed only exacerbated repetitive motion injuries frequently reported in most poultry-processing plants."

It brings to my mind something very important to Marxist-Humanist theory and history, the automation of the "continuous miner" that miners in West Virginia fought so hard against in the 1950s, when the question of "what kind of labor should man do?" was raised by the miners. The fact that today this same type of automation permeates capitalist production everywhere would seem completely overwhelming if it weren't for the repeated struggles of rank-and-file workers at the point of production.

But interestingly, the unique thing about this book is that its subject matter--or better put, Subject, with a capital "S"--is not the typical rank-and-file worker one might envision. To be sure, many of the miners who initiated the wildcat strikes against automation in the '50s were European immigrants.

But in capital's latest stages of globalization in which its hand reaches out blindly across borders to find cheaper and cheaper labor, it has encountered and in many ways uprooted, indigenous peoples from Central America. Many of these people still have a very strong tie to traditional culture, language, and communal ways.

This is, I believe, Fink's focus throughout the book: the interplay between the traditional cultures, and the way in which globalization has eroded or strengthened certain aspects of them. "How the dead helped to organize the living" is a phrase Fink uses to reconcile the phenomenon of a rich and sometimes tragic Mayan history of struggle and repression with a small diaspora in North Carolina fighting a Southern boss at a poultry plant.

To do this, he gives some interesting historical and sociological analysis of Morganton, and the workers' home communities in Guatemala in order to properly situate the events of the book. This meant delving considerably into the social turmoil and civil war that plagued Guatemala throughout the 1980s and '90s.

THE MAYA OF MORGANTON helped remind me that while capitalist globalization is busy redrawing borders and repressing human communities on a global scale, it also calls into existence new Subjects of revolt. The complex, multi-dimensional character of an indigenous Mayan community fighting the boss in North Carolina, USA is something that a whole new generation of radical internationalist activists can look to as we try to build a movement against capital and for true human development.

The Maya of Morganton: Work and Community in the Nuevo New South.(Book Review): An article from: Journal of Southern History

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The Maya of Morganton: Work and Community in the Nuevo New South.(Book Review): An article from: Journal of Southern History
Allan F. Burns
Manufacturer: Southern Historical Association
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Mayan | Ancient | History | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0009GPRQM
Release Date: 2005-08-01

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Journal of Southern History, published by Southern Historical Association on November 1, 2004. The length of the article is 510 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The Maya of Morganton: Work and Community in the Nuevo New South.(Book Review)
Author: Allan F. Burns
Publication: Journal of Southern History (Refereed)
Date: November 1, 2004
Publisher: Southern Historical Association
Volume: 70 Issue: 4 Page: 975(2)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Book Description

This hands-on guide--for planning, diagnosing, implementing, and evaluating organization development interventions--gives scientifically based information, tools, suggestions, and guidelines for those who must manage the human side of change.

In Organization Development, leading experts and pioneers:

Present a unified framework for understanding OD

Demonstrate OD's effectiveness for improving individual and organizational performance

Specify what types of goals, values, practices, and interventions should (and should not) represent OD

You'll gain a clear understanding of the processes, approaches, and strategies that have been proven to work in managing organizational change. Plus, you'll get a wealth of charts, materials, and checklists, as well as useful practice tips.

Book Description

A definitive guide to the development, application, and use of biopesticides as a complementary or alternative treatment to chemical pesticides. Biopesticides: Use and Delivery brings together for the first time all the latest advances in the control of insects, plant diseases, and weeds with biopesticides. Coverage extends from the science and technology of biofungicides, bioinsecticides, and bioherbicides to detailed management protocols. The many leading experts writing here review their development, mode of action, production, delivery systems (formulations), and future market prospects. In addition, experts from both government and industry discuss current registration requirements, including time frame and costs of registration, and compare these with the registration requirements for conventional pesticides.

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Biopesticides: Use and Delivery.
Franklin R. Hall
Manufacturer: Hall, Franklin R. and Julius J. Menn (eds). Biopesticides: Use and Delivery. (Methods in Biotechnology 5.) Totowa, NJ: Humana Press, 1999. Hardcover. 626pp. As new, clean, tight and bright condition.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000TAA678

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Biopesticides: Use and Delivery.

ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000IBIEMM

Book Description

This book explains how to conduct psychological research via the WWW, and outlines everything needed to get started—including HTML, data analysis with SPSS and Excel, and research design. It contains many examples ready to use on the Web, with brief discussions of the psychological theories being tested. Coverage includes the use of HTML Forms, a basic introduction to both Excel and SPSS, decision making research and data analysis, the use of SurveyWiz and factorWiz, impression formation, Heider's theory of balance in social relations, psychophysical stimuli, Bayes Theorem, JavaScript, and Polyform. For those involved in behavioral research, interested in exploring a new medium with many advantages over traditional research methods.

Customer Reviews:

Internet research starts here.......2001-06-30

This easy-to-read book gives readers step-by-step directions on how to create Web pages and on-line surveys. Furthermore, it guides readers through the process of posting psychological experiments on the Internet. The best part is that prior programming experience is not necessary!

Before reading this book, I thought Web-page creation was reserved for the computer savvy, which I am not. However, by the time I got to Chapter 5 (chapters are very short, by the way), I had created a colorful Web page, which included graphics, links, and tables. By the end of the book, I had learned how to create on-line questionnaires and how to write some basic JavaScript, which I used to create an on-line experiment.

Internet research starts here.......2001-06-29

This easy-to-read book gives readers step-by-step directions on how to create Web pages and on-line surveys. Furthermore, it guides readers through the processes of posting psychological experiments on the Internet. The best part is that prior programming experience is not necessary!

The book is complimented by a CD-ROM that contains examples for each chapter and links to HTML and JavaScript tutorials, downloadable software, psychological experiments, graphics, and more. Overall, this book is a valuable resource for students, teachers, and professionals interested in learning the "basics" of Web-page development and conducting psychological research on the Internet.

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Introduction to Behavioral Research on the Internet
Birnbaum.
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Online Searching | Internet | Home Computing | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B000OIEP68

Book Description

This book is a practical guide to learning Hap Ki Do: The Korean Martial Art of Self Defense. A textbook with pictures and indept explanations of kicks, techniques, weapons, breathing technique 205 pages full of precise clearly written step by step examples of the Korean Martial Art of Hap ki do.

Customer Reviews:

Practical Hapkido Textbook.......2006-01-30

Excellent Hap Ki Do book. I'm a taekwondo'er and found this book very easy to understand with big clear pictures for illustration. I've purchased all three of Master Choe's HKD books and found a certain amount of redundancy in the techniques, but highly recommend all three any way. I originally found one of these in the library and realized right away that these books were the best I've found.

IHF style GM MYONG JAE NAM.......2003-10-06

Looks a lot like his work. Good book. Should give credit where it is due however.

Great Text Book Ecspecially for beginners.......2001-09-13

As a beginner in hapkido i would recommend this book for others that are also interested in starting hapkido. This book offers step by step pictures on how to execute kicks and basic self defense, and plus it is very short on words which makes it interesting and easy to learn techniques.

Good Intro to Hapkido.......2000-10-17

This is the book to start with for Hapkido. Master Choe's other book (Hap Ki Do - The Korean Art of Self Defense) focuses mainly on joint locks and takedows and how they can be varied from different grabs. This book however, shows a variety of striking techniques and counters in addition to the joint locks. Also, more realistic situations and the effective techniques are presented here. Although both books are lacking in text they are definitely worth getting as excellent references.

Practical Hapkido Textbook.......1999-12-06

This is an excellent reference book for anyone starting in hapkido. The pictures are detailed and easy to do. I really enjoyed working through is book.

Average customer rating:

Very lacking

Good idea, appalling result

Excellent starting point for relocation!

Disappointing

50 Fabulous Places to Raise Your Family
Kathleen Shaputis
Manufacturer: Career Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Business Life | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Family Travel | Specialty Travel | Travel | Subjects | Books
General | Regions | United States | Travel | Subjects | Books
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Reference | Library & Information Science | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Look Inside Travel Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
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Best Places to Raise Your Family, First Edition (Rated)

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50 Fabulous Places to Raise Your Family: Lee & Saralee Rosenberg's (Lee and Saralee Rosenberg's 50 Fabulous Places to Raise Your Family)

Making Your Move to One of America's Best Small Towns: How to Find a Great Little Place as Your Next Home Base

Places Rated Almanac (Special Millennium Edition)

ASIN: 1564148262

Book Description

Updated and revised to include the top 50 communities in the country, complete with an interactive, searchable CD-ROM.

If you've dreamed of moving to a wonderful city or town where your family can live, work and play, 50 Fabulous Places to Raise Your Family, Third Edition, is the perfect place to start. Are you looking for a slower pace? Are you ready to turn in your sweaters for SPF30 lotion? Do you know which city's mission statement is "To be the premier city in Florida in which to live, work and raise a family"? (Coral Springs, Florida.).

From family-friendly small towns to large metropolises, you'll get the inside scoop on what your potential new hometown would offer. 50 Fabulous Places to Raise Your Family, Third Edition is loaded with the most current, useful information. For each community spotlighted, you'll find everything you need to know about:

Jobs and business opportunities. Education—from pre-school to universities Crime statistics Climate Family recreation—annual events, parks, and natural wonders What homes cost and what you get for your money. Cost of living and tax structures

Plus, user-friendly chapters provide help to prepare for a move, expert advice on how to get your finances together for a successful relocation, and how to check out schools—and get the kids psyched for the big event.

Using the facts in this book, blended with the unique characteristics of your own family, inquiring parents will know where the best places are for them. 50 Fabulous Places to Raise Your Family, Third Edition is a must-read for anyone considering relocating to a friendlier, kinder community.

Kathleen Shaputis is well experienced in the headlined lifestyles of the baby boomer generation as she balances a career in writing, professional speaking and training in her post-parental housing of boomerang children and grandchildren. Kathleen worked in municipal government for 14 years and knows the importance of a balanced community and the effort it takes to run one. She is the author of two other books.

Customer Reviews:

Very lacking.......2007-03-21

My purpose in purchasing this book was to compare it to other resources I've been evaluating - with a primary focus on Education. I've only reviewed the book for 15 minutes and I'm highly disappointed in the lack of factual data.

There is a chapter on "How to Evaluate Schools" that outlines what anyone with common sense - would already be asking themselves. Yet, there are no answers or reference to where one can find the answers to the questions. For instance, the Writer points out, the reader should 'ask how the school is financed and the budget determined'. Yet no point of reference is given. There are online resources to compare schools across the nation. A book is published by the National Education Association, "Rankings and Estimates", that lists a variety of budgetary, population, and other data (more than any reader would want). The Department of Education, School Matters, and National Center for Education Statistics are all good online references, to help assess rather the `answers' to the `questions' you are asking, are within the National Norm or even good.

Further evidence that the Writer does not have factual info is brought to light, as the Writer claims, "one of the reasons to move to Albuquerque (ABQ), is the Excellent Schools".

In contrast:
(a) ABQ Public Schools, (APS) - rank average on National Assessments compiled by the "National Center For Education Statistics"
(b) I've attended APS - they were approximately 4 years behind, the NY public school I transferred from in 10th Grade - Example: APS Senior year required reading consisted of books that were required reading in NY's Freshman year.
(c) The Writer contends, that APS has had '21 Excellence or Blue Ribbon Schools'. "Blue Ribbon Schools", are categorized as schools that perform well academically in high poverty areas. There is a lot of poverty here, (not to mention gangs and crime). Ergo, it is no surprise that APS would be classified as high ranking, for a poverty stricken area.

Side note: If you are buying a home in ABQ that is at the median range of "$141,000", I highly recommend you also consider purchasing life insurance.

In close: It is highly disappointing that a "teacher" could not compile better educational information.

Good idea, appalling result.......2006-04-08

Ms. Shaputis apparently assembled puff literature from 50 Chambers of Commerce around the country and repurposed it into a book. What you get is superficial, uncritical . . and wrong.

The median house prices are years out of date. It is incorrect, for example, that half of the homes in Indianapolis or Bangor are less than $100,000, or that half the homes in Reno are less than $160,000 - figures contradicted by the National Association of Realtors quarterly reports on home sales.

By the way, Bangor - in northern Maine - doesn't get 94 days of 90-degree weather reported in the book; more like 30.

Excellent starting point for relocation!.......2006-03-01

I was so glad to see that there was finally an updated version of this book on the market.

If you are looking for informative facts about a family-friendly city, this book is extremely helpful. It includes almost every aspect of living in a city from schooling, medical care, job market, recreation, environment, climate, etc. It is a good source if you are researching an area unfamiliar to you.

Of course, any person with common sense will only use this as an aide on which places to visit prior to packing up and moving the family.

I also found it extremely helpful that, in this day and age, website addresses for municipalities, utilities and schools had been added.

For anyone looking to move, this is a great starting point. Just be sure to follow-up with your own research on the subjects that are important to your own family's needs.

Disappointing.......2006-02-26

Overall found this to be a collection of general purpose advice (don't eat the yellow snow), and somewhat outdated generic information about 50 places. Having lived in one of the top picks for 5 years, I found the book's description of little value to someone trying to decide if it is a good place to live and work. Maybe I'm being unfair, but I was expecting something with detail on the order of the Places Rated Almanac series. There was no such detail. The CD ROM focus seemed to be on the 50 Gay-Friendly places. I'm no homophobe, but what the H#!! does Gay-Friendly have to do with families? So overall, very disappointing book. Check it out from a library before you buy.

Average customer rating:

outdated
Just OK
50 Fabulous Places to Raise Your Family by Giovagnoli
Published in 1997 - Too Old & Dated!
Inaccurate and way too subjective

50 Fabulous Places to Raise Your Family
Lee Rosenberg , and Sara Lee Rosenberg
Manufacturer: Career Pr Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Parenting | Parenting & Families | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1564140342

Customer Reviews:

outdated.......2006-03-18

This would be an excellent and thorough book were it not nine years old. The information on cost of living is useless because so much has changed.

Just OK.......2004-11-28

The book is put together very well and is easy to read. Now for the negatives. Most of the information is old which makes it unusable. It's OK for a starting point, but you'll be going back to the internet for up-to-date information.

50 Fabulous Places to Raise Your Family by Giovagnoli.......2004-08-29

This book describes optimal places to live and retire. The author
describes the quality of life, local economy/jobs , entertainment and a plethora of other concerns. Fountain Hills, Arizona is listed for its jobs, no state income tax and quality of lifestyle. Gainesville Florida is listed as the most livable
city in the USA. Huntington, NY is listed as a preferred
suburb with good schools, beaches and vacation spots.
Charlottesville, VA. is praised for its scenary, affordable
housing, schools and educational centers. This book is a solid
value if you are researching an area unfamiliar to you.
Before you move anywhere, visit the locality, speak to residents and make up your own mind independent of what any book conveys.

Published in 1997 - Too Old & Dated!.......2003-10-25

I was excited to receive this book, but hadn't noticed in the product description that it was last published in 1997, and since it's nearly 2004, this book was not very helpful. The data is time sensitive (cost of living, populations, tax rates, home costs, school info, etc). Each city review had a nice "contact" list at the end, but one major thing missing were website addresses (which would've helped locate more recent data). Only the addresses & phone numbers were listed, and most were not toll-free numbers. Shame on me for not noticing the publication date, shame on Amazon.com for recommending it as a match with "The Places Rated Almanac" (the book found me, I wasn't looking for it specifically).

Inaccurate and way too subjective.......2003-10-11

We visited 10 of the communities listed, and are quite familiar with seven more of them. First, the authors seem to have a preference for non-pedestrian-friendly, car-oriented suburban sprawl. Second, I don't know where they got their info. We went so far as to move to one of the communities listed in the book, and after we got there we found out that the "excellent public schools" cited by these authors were ranked 48th in the country, and that there was very little for children to do. Health care was rated 47th in the country and was subpar, expensive and difficult to obtain. Not only that, the community was not friendly or welcoming to outsiders, and it was a most decidedly un-family-oriented environment. We stayed a year and left this town. We had not gone only on the basis of this book's recommendation, of course, but we had taken it into consideration as part of the total picture and it turned out to be extremely misleading.

Use with caution. If you want to relocate somewhere, visit the place, talk to folks, get the facts, trust your own judgment. Where to live is way too big a decision to trust to subjective opinions.

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50 Fabulous Places to Raise Your Family
Lee Rosenberg
Manufacturer: Career Pr Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000UUWZCG

Customer Reviews:

just getting boring.......2005-08-18

Ya i admitt that i love mary-kate and ashley (well at least i used to). i mean most young girls around 10 or 9 would only read the book because of the picture on the cover. but when you actually read it you kind of doze off and have your mind on somthing else if you are around 13 or 14 like me. I mean we cant really look up to them anymore which makes us less interested. they look pretty trashy now days and well lets just say without hurting feelings that we just read because of the people on the covor and i think that when they read this book they would realize that and start reading more interesting books for their age level. i mean lets face it no parent would let a 8 year old read their sweet 15 books. especailly because of the title of some of them like never been kissed. many would find hat offensive

totally awesome.......2004-12-19

you all would want to read this book. this game is not like any other regular game like you've played this game will go farther than any game has gone before.

by: melissa harnanan

TRUTH OR DARE (MARY-KATE AND ASHLEY SWEET 16, NO 16)

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TRUTH OR DARE (MARY-KATE AND ASHLEY SWEET 16, NO 16)

Manufacturer: Harper
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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