[Marxism] When I worked for the mob

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Like others, I occasionally use google to find out what old classmates,
comrades, etc. are up to. Recently I found myself wondering whatever
happened to some of the people I used to work for as a consultant, which in
the programming business is just a fancy word for day labor. In 1987,
shortly after returning from a couple of weeks in Nicaragua with a Tecnica
delegation, I went to work at Goldman-Sachs under the auspices of Asbach
Consulting. The president of the company was one Frank Viggiano, who now
turns out to be connected to the mafia:

"This is the dirty little secret of the IT business! If you examine message
60 of this forum on the 1706 issue. I will most definitely attest that mob
connections present in some of the large technical services firms some of
which have been IBM vendor's for professional services! Talk with owners of
Sharp Decisions, Aetea former owner of Spectrum Concepts about Frank
Viggiano former head of the Manhattan Data Processing Mgt Assoc, or inquire
with Senior Members of the New York City ICCA www.icca.org. I myself have
been offered cement shoes just to provide consulting services Feel free to
have IBM examine all the messages presented here!"

<http://www.h1bvisasucks.com/H1BDiscussions_issue_job.htm>http://www.h1bvisasucks.com/H1BDiscussions_issue_job.htm

"I gave them the phone number of Asbach Consulting 599 Broadway NYC. This
was run by Frank Viggiano Pres of the NYC DPMA Chapter who lobbied Sen.
Monihan to sponsor 1706. The NYC ICCA told me [he] is a GAMBINO Solider who
leaned on 30 IT shops to not use Consultants like Spectrum Concepts and
Sharp Decisions. I saw Karen Ross after a mtg from Viggiano giving her an
offer of cement shoes on 40 Vessey St. NYC in 2/87. She was shaking like a
leaf from his visit 15 mins prior."

<http://makeashorterlink.com/?R28F21D3D>http://makeashorterlink.com/?R28F21D3D

This comes as no surprise at all. Back in 1987, all of the consultants at
Goldman used to wonder if Viggiano was some kind of gangster since he
looked the part. With his oily hair, trenchcoat and frequent outbursts of
profanity, he came across much more as a character from "The Sopranos" than
the corporate world. Before Asbach placed me at Goldman, I went out to be
presented to AT&T in New Jersey by one of Frank's salesmen. He drove a
Cadillac Coupe Deville, which struck me as an odd car for someone in the
consulting business to drive. Now it all makes sense.

Back in the 1970s and 80s, computer consulting was a highly profitable and
expanding business in NYC and other large cities. This was when mainframe
systems were still being developed at brokerage houses, insurance
companies, banks, etc. The demand for experienced programmers far exceeded
the supply, especially to fill projects that were temporary in nature. Why
add permanent workers when you could bring in a consulting company? A good
programmer could make up to $750 a day and specialists over a thousand. The
broker who supplied the worker could get paid the same amount everyday the
programmer was on billing. If you had 300 programmers, like Asbach did, the
profits could be enormous especially since the overhead was negligible.

Asbach Consulting is long gone, as are most of the outfits that used to
flourish in NYC. Nowadays, consulting tends to be handled by mega-firms
like Accenture that operates at Columbia University under the direction of
Robert Kasdin, who came to Columbia from U. of Michigan with President Lee
Bollinger. Accenture used to the consulting wing of Arthur Anderson but
changed the name to put some space between itself and the stench generated
from Enron.

I first ran into Arthur Anderson when I was at Goldman-Sachs. They had been
brought in by the Vice President of Information Systems, who used to work
for them. Whether there was some kind of nepotism going on, I couldn't say.
Arthur Anderson advised Goldman to get rid of all the relatively well-paid
veterans like myself and replace them with younger and cheaper trainees.
Some things have evidently not changed:

>>November 22, 2004 <http://www.computerworld.com>(Computerworld) --
Richard Walstrom said that he sensed something was wrong during a job fair
in May, when he saw some of his IT co-workers who had also recently been
told by Best Buy Co. that they were losing their jobs.

"There were a high percentage of people with gray hair," said Walstrom,
who's 57. "It was a lot of us. I didn't really realize what had happened
until you look around and say, 'What's wrong with this picture?' "

Walstrom was one of 44 former Best Buy IT workers who filed a class-action
lawsuit last Wednesday claiming that the Richfield, Minn.-based electronics
retailer engaged in a pattern of age discrimination in terminating their
jobs. The plaintiffs range from 40 to 71 years old, and their average age
is 51, according to the lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. District Court in
Minnesota.

The charges relate to layoffs that were announced in April, when Best Buy
said it planned to outsource its IT operations to Accenture Ltd. , and to a
smaller round of cuts that took place in October 2003.<<

Over the past couple of years, Accenture has been widely viewed as pushing
through the same kinds of changes at Columbia that were seen at Goldman and
Best Buy. After fleeing Goldman in 1989 before the axe would fall, the last
thing I anticipated after working for Columbia over the past 15 years is
facing the kinds of pressures described by Louis Uchitelle in "The
Disposable American". The lesson? Between the open crooks in the mafia and
the "legitimate" business world, there's not much to choose between.

Woody Guthrie, "The Ballad of Pretty Boy Floyd":

If you'll gather 'round me, children,
A story I will tell
'Bout Pretty Boy Floyd, an outlaw,
Oklahoma knew him well.

It was in the town of Shawnee,
A Saturday afternoon,
His wife beside him in his wagon
As into town they rode.

There a deputy sheriff approached him
In a manner rather rude,
Vulgar words of anger,
An' his wife she overheard.

Pretty Boy grabbed a log chain,
And the deputy grabbed his gun;
In the fight that followed
He laid that deputy down.

Then he took to the trees and timber
To live a life of shame;
Every crime in Oklahoma
Was added to his name.

But a many a starving farmer
The same old story told
How the outlaw paid their mortgage
And saved their little homes.

Others tell you 'bout a stranger
That come to beg a meal,
Underneath his napkin
Left a thousand dollar bill.

It was in Oklahoma City,
It was on a Christmas Day,
There was a whole car load of groceries
Come with a note to say:

Well, you say that I'm an outlaw,
You say that I'm a thief.
Here's a Christmas dinner
For the families on relief.

Yes, as through this world I've wandered
I've seen lots of funny men;
Some will rob you with a six-gun,
And some with a fountain pen.

And as through your life you travel,
Yes, as through your life you roam,
You won't never see an outlaw
Drive a family from their home.


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