Monday, February 12, 2007

Re: [olympiaworkers] Status of Pizza Time?

We had Pizza and other food from various sources during Camp Quixote I.
In many cases we were cautioned not to thank the establishments because we
might get the employees, who were the actual donators, in trouble. In at
least one other case a well wisher simply bought us Pizza from somewhere.

It is not unusual, in this oppressive economy and system, for employees to
see helping the poor as a satisfying act of rebellion. Every truck driver
who gives a hitch hiker a ride is doing an act of rebellion against the
trucking company. Fast food employees will often just silently do a free
upgrade to a big sandwich from a dollar menu. Truck stop employees will
quietly give you free showers and look the other way when you roll up in a
tarp on the lot, and waitresses will whisper a go ahead to fill up on the
Buffet, then cancel your check for coffee.

This is often followed by them confiding in you about how terrible it is
since the independent business got taken over by the big corporation or
whatever. I have been traveling low to the ground for a few years now,
there is a hell of a lot of simmering rebellion out there. Camp Quixote
brought some of that out that out in Olympia.

Love, Solidarity and Magic
Jesse

> So, on a couple occasions I saw a Pizza Time delivery guy bring a big pile
> of Pizza Time pizzas to Camp Quixote. This raises a lot of questions,
> given
> the big lockout and strike a couple years back in which a whole unionized
> staff was fired.
>
> 1) Were the pizzas bought, or were they donated?
>
> 2) If they were bought, Why the Hell are we buying our pizzas at Pizza
> Time?
>
> 3) If they were donated by Pizza Time to the homeless for tent city, does
> that not change things? Time to at least re-evaluate the ongoing
> blacklisting of Pizza Time? I know, a few free pizzas is a small, small
> gesture considering Pizza Crime's history in Olympia. Buuuut, if Pizza
> Time's owners had reconsidered their stance, is this not how they might
> first show it?
>
> 4) Should there be no re-evaluation of Pizza Time based on the notion that
> our reconsideration cannot be bought with a few pizzas? Or should a
> gesture
> perhaps be made to re-open discussions with it's owners as to how to make
> their business respectable again, if maybe that's what they want?
>
> Any thoughts?
> -Wally
>

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