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| They won't hold this anger back forever: source |
It should come as no surprise to all of us that the more right wing political representatives of capitalism have not budged despite 100,000 public sector workers and their supporters in the streets of Madison Wisconsin and other protests from Ohio to Michigan.
The folks at the helm of the AFL-CIO armed as they are with a full-time apparatus were successful yet again in snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. They rescued the employers as they diverted a potentially powerful independent movement of working class people in to that black hole we call the Democratic Party around an electoral strategy aimed at recalling the more aggressive Republican candidates and replacing them Democrats. For the Union hierarchy, concessions are not a problem, they simply want to be allowed to be a part of the process of dismantling wages, benefits and social services that have been won over 60 years.
So it is no wonder the more virulent anti-worker representatives of capital are confident in the face of total capitulation on the part of the Labor tops. Such conditions can undoubtedly cause our enemies to make mistakes as their allies in the Labor movement will not be able to hold back an independent movement of the working class indefinitely---overconfidence has wrecked many a people's plans.
In Costa Mesa, a wealthy town in California's Orange County, the infamous anti-Union mayor and council are proposing firing almost half the city's municipal employees. The council voted 4-1 to layoff 213 city workers at a council meeting earlier in the month in the face of raucous opposition from residents. Collectively, US cities are looking at a $14 billion deficit. This is a paltry sum when you think that is maybe a third or a quarter of the net worth of one US citizen, Warren Buffet or Bill Gates. The Walton family, owners of Wal Mart have four times that amount.
It was in Costa Mesa that Huy Pham, a maintenance worker committed suicide, jumping off the roof of City Hall after receiving his layoff notice. This is just one small example of the crisis of capitalism and how it destroy lives and not just in the public sector Teri Crial, an auto worker and UAW Union activist from Ohio wrote of a co-worker's suicide and how workers are treated after giving their lives to work. She describes once scene, "One of the things that upset me the most... it might seem silly to you but..... The day the Foundry finally cast the last block and closed the door for business... there was no good byes... no farewell.... nothing, from the company or the union. A few years back we lost another brother there he was literally cut in half by a machine, we lost a few to Legionella...... the list goes on..."
It does not seem silly at all, Terri. My friend's brother was laid off from his job in a glass factory two weeks after the workers were told their jobs were secure. They turned up for work and the gates were shut. And it is a sad fact that the Union leadership at the highest levels are almost indistinguishable from the boss when it comes to workers' wages, rights and working conditions. There is not much room for them to maneuver anymore given the employers' relentless offensive. They don't even object to concessions; they openly support them.
And these highly publicized suicides are just the tip of the iceberg. The millions of people whose lives are shattered by the crisis of capitalism are mounting here in the wealthiest country in the world. The youth that are in prison because its not profitable to put them to work. Personal relations that are destroyed under the pressure of trying to survive and feeling like a failure because you can't provide for your kids and your family, or even yourself. The thousands that die from lack of health care.
The employers always point to "other problems" that workers who commit suicide have. They do the same when veterans kill themselves or their entire families. But these "other" problems are real and also market based. Housing, education, rent, jobs and the substance abuse that occurs when we can't get these things are all a product of an economic system that is rotten and inhuman. Only 50% of American workers have a full-time job. One in seven adult Americans and one in four children use food stamps for food, some 45 million of us. And the dehumanizing consequences of war, especially against a people that never threatened or harmed us, are at the root of the veterans ills. Hollywood makes killing another human being appear like a picnic in the park, but for human beings in a normal state it is not; it causes us great damage, even when its justified.
Like in Wisconsin, the bosses in Costa Mesa will receive some help from the Union officials and the Democrats. Concessions of a less aggressive nature will be offered in order to bail out capitalism in this small part of its world.
There will be no attempt to go on the offensive from the head of organized Labor. Here in California they are supporting Jerry Brown's efforts to raise taxes on ourselves so we can education or children and provide some semblance of public services as we fund predatory wars from Libya to Afghanistan. Taxes, or outright cuts, either way, both parties and the Union heads believe the working class must pay.
This is happening as the rich and corporations are sitting on mountains of cash. The wealth of the top 1% of US households equals $20 trillion or 37% of all private wealth. As was reported recently in the media, 400 Americans own more property than 155 million of the rest of us.* A $14 billion collective municipal deficit is paltry compared to the cost of wars, and the waste and theft that is perpetuated by the capitalists and their system. As we have said a few times---- there is going to be some explosion in this country.
2 comments:
Terri Crial is actually a facebook friend of mine. I'm sad to say that whenever I critique Obama, she says things like "blah on your post." But she's definitely alright, as a person.
Well, Tom, Terri is not unlike many workers that are active in their Unions and politics. What choices does she have politically?
She has expressed to me that she disagrees with my views on the Democratic Party but what is there for people like Terri? The Labor leadership offer nothing nor do the left. What would you suggest she do?
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