Revolutionary Hip-Hop

hhahaha,  i like the spin on that.  Having worked a number of different 9-5s to survive, some of them in corporate cubicles, I know there aint no shame in doin it to survive.  But I think most of us can agree its not the ideal way to live, and survival alone isn't living.  It was more of an attack on corporate culture, than the people gettin exploited by it.  sorry if i offended any of my working class allies out there, not my intention in the least... LETS GET FREE!

Hey Rachel,

Thanks for continuing to dialogue with me on this issue.

I know what you’re sayin’.  I understand how what I said could sound like I was puttingdown 9-5 workers.  However ‘9-5 ina corporate cubicle’ isnt working-poor specific, most 9 to 5ers that work incubicles in this city live quite affluently in a global perspective.  And this is why it’s a dream job!  Of course when I worked in a corporatecubicle I enjoyed the security of that steady paycheck, medical and dentalbenefits, and the predictable and simple daily routine.  I also appreciated the living wagewhich earned me the right to live the affluent lifestyle I had resented othersfor living.  But it still wasn’tliving, it was selling myself to survive in the capitalist consumer culture Iwas drowning in because I lacked the help of a supportive community. 

My employment in the corporatecubicle was better than it was in the dishpit, or cleaning grocery stores, oron the nightshift, or the temp factory labour, or in fast food (not a singleone of these lower-paid jobs were 9-5). The corporate cubicle was the cleanest,safest, least stressful, and most financially rewarding job I’ve ever had, butis that all I should want? Cleanliness, safety, and capitaI? I  couldn’t take the staleair, the fluorescent lights, the whitewashed walls and windowless cubicles, theuniform, professional relationships and corporate attitude, the water cooler(okay I did take many drinks from it as an excuse to leave my cage-likecubicle, have some sort of human interaction, and slack-off).  I won’t live just on the weekends.

I can totally relate to your pointabout certain options not being available and accessible to people withdifferent situations than our own. I don’t expect everybody to adopt the same lifestyle as me either.  My mother never lifted or dumpsteredwhile she worked three jobs to raise four kids on her own, and I sure as hellwon’t criticize her for that. 

Like you, I too try to be asinclusive and considerate of working and nonworking poor and everybody elseaswell.  It gets really hardsometimes to make it expressly clear that we are against the system and corporations, not those who work for them.  Forexample, it was nobody in our communities intention to insult or offendindividual Tim Horton’s employees when we did the no drive-thru campaign.  However, many underpaid, overworked‘team-members’ felt personally attacked and sided with their bosses invehemently opposing a moratorium and aggressively criticizing the proponents of the proposedmoratorium in city hall.  It isalso for this same reason that United Students Against Sweatshops isn’tpromoting a boycott of Wal-Mart; which is by far the largest sweatshop employerin the world!  At last summersconference it was brought up in conversation but deemed not a good idea as itwould alienate the working poor, and people of colour in our communities Asthey are the primary workers and the consumer base for Wal-Mart.  People don’t like it when we criticizethe companies they work for because it makes us feel guilty by association andcalls into question our own ethics in doing what we do to survive.  But how do we get around this?  This is extremely important if we areever going to affect serious change. How do we get the wal-mart greeter to not feel personally attacked whenwe tell people to boycott the store he works at?  How do we get soldiers to not feel personallyattacked when we protest and criticize the wars they are forced to fight?  How do we mock corporate culture without offending those trapped in their cubicles?  How do we dismantle the system withoutoffending  those who grease thegears?  These are serious questions that demand a lot of thought and creativity on our parts in order for us to be more inclusive and effective in our revolutionary endeavors.

Much love and solidarity,

-D