This column was originally intended for the November 2007 issue of the Industrial Worker. Goals. Then Strategy. Then Tactics. Part II of II By: J. Pierce Last month we talked about goals, strategy, and tactics. We called forth our visions--our ultimate goals. As an example, we said: “Free food for every human being.” Then we came up with intermediate goals: “Workers domination of the agriculture and food stuff industry.” But to feed ourselves this week, our immediate goal was a pay raise. Next, we planned out a strategy--both to get us that pay raise and to set us on our way to our dreams. We designed our strategy to unite around immediate necessities and build our strength to achieve the impossible. Our strategy groups workers into shop floor and industrial committees. Workers group together in many ways, however, so we’ll work with what the situation calls for. To implement this strategy, we’re going to select tactics.

Perfect Price Discrimination
By J. Pierce

My workplace has a program where ‘professionals’ get a 10% discount if they buy over a hundred dollars worth at one time.  These ‘professionals’ are either white employers of Latino workers or self-employed “small white business owners”.  The self-employed get to ride the coat tails of capitalism - buying personal items with a trade discount - while wage slaves, mostly immigrants, must buy everything at full price.  
There is a separate program whereby the customer sets up an ‘account’ with the store and receives their break as well.  These customers get a 10% discount if they buy over a thousand dollars a month.  These customers don’t have to work in the industry. They just have to be rich.  Just one more application of what I call the “preferred customer discount”.
At a previous job, my fellow workers and I delivered wholesale produce to restaurants. My boss charged each restaurant owner a different price for similar shit.  Prices were pegged to, um, let’s call it, English Language Proficiency. White restaurant owners got the best prices and the best shit. Then Mexican owners. Then Korean and Chinese, generally. Black restaurantuers and other non-white English speakers fell somewhere in the middle. I try never to shed tears for business owners of any racial group. But I learned quickly who were and were not the “preferred customers” in this industry.  Mom behind the register, Dad on the grill, and child translating the invoices were not preferable, indeed.

Going to work is a momentous occasion, even on a normal day.  But  last Friday I had the pleasure of being a part of something big:  There's nothing more thrilling than being THE INFLATOR.  The bosses call it "Price Changes." But wandering around the aisles scatching off price tags and replacing them with (higher) price tags is actually what I'm doing.  There's a sense of power and purpose in being a part of the global effort to reduce the purchasing power of the wages of the working class.  Yesterday, one hour of work changing price tags could buy me $8.50 worth of insect poison, which translates into maybe 2  bottles. But today, that same $8.50 an hour (in the Bay Area!) will only get me around 1 3/4 bottles of poison. Now, mind you, there is no second clerk wandering the store bumping up mine or your wages. Those shall remain stagnant.  The economists say that this phenomenon has been occurring consistently since the early seventies, if I heard correctly. The idea being that the real value of our paychecks has been going down not up.  Apparently regi-slaves like me have been wandering the stores attacking our own purchasing power for DECADES!