What does austerity, union busting, worker lockouts and making it harder to vote have in common? It is starting a worldwide revolution between the 99 percent and the oligarchies, which in most cases have the governments in their pockets bought and paid for.
Some of the places and countries that are in the fight today are Belgium’s city of Brussels where 25,000 people took part Friday in a European trade union demonstration against austerity, 20 people were injured. The Kellogg workers in the U.S. are locked out of their jobs because Kellogg hired temporary workers to undercut worker pay. In the Ukraine, their unions and their sovereignty rights are under attack at this time.
Also, there are 1,500 union and nonunion Canadian truckers at the ports in British Columbia, Vancouver who are in the financial fight of their lives. This is what standing together looks like. UPS just fired 250 workers who went on a 90-minute protest strike in February for the firing of union activist Jairo Reyes.
Another example of union and nonunion workers coming together and winning is the pay raise won at Wings Star shoe factory in Kampong Speu, Cambodia. Five thousand workers, more than 95 percent of the workers took part in the fight.
So the lesson learned is that, yes, there is a war between the very rich oligarchies and the working wage saves and sometimes blood is spilt and lives lost, but it is war. What is happening now is the nonunion and union workers coming together and getting some wins and the people will win for we have the numbers on our side. All they have is money.
Now we, the 99 percent, must start thinking of what will happen if we win. What type of elected people do we want? What type of government do we want? Do we want a mix of the three types of government: principality, aristocracy and democracy? Remember, each type can slip into a bad type of government for the workers, such as principality can become a tyranny; and aristocracy can become an oligarchy with ease; and democracy can turn into anarchy with no difficulty.
We need to plan ahead. It is like the person who plants a huge garden, but never thinks about how to market the produce before it spoils. To begin the garden you have to have a plan, work hard planting, weeding, watering and then there it is – you won and have the crops as your reward; but if there is no plan for the marketing of the harvest, then produce begins to spoil and you realize you are worse off for the short-time gain and you’ll end up with a long-time loss. This analogy fits for governments as well, if you don’t have a plan for the type of government you want, it will rot just as the produce.
Yes, they are coming for us. Workers need to have one another’s backs because no one else will. Neither the broader labor movement nor the Democratic party are prepared to meet the urgency of this moment. So it’s going to fall upon the rest of us to mount a real resistance against Trump’s authoritarian takeover. We’re going to have to get our hands dirty. I don’t care if you have a good, well-paying union job and you are in the middle class now—if you see a worker being dragged out of his workplace regardless of how skilled the job and potentially taken to another country, you should be ready to be there for that worker. When I.C.E. shows up, gather around and shame them into leaving. It has worked in other places. America is sleep walking into authoritarianism, and if there’s anyone out there who is a member of a labor union that is safe—at this point— and doesn’t think this applies to them. Understand that they just haven’t gotten to you yet. They’re coming for all of us. There are ...
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