Skip to main content

The Fight is Catching On

Old International Workers of the World’s (IWW) dream of a worldwide workers fight for economic justice is coming. This has got to feel very good for the old IWW’s Wobblies and it is showing respect for the martyrs who gave their lives or did prison time on mostly trumped up charges. All workers and retired people need to stand up and support the $15 an hour wage or a living wage, which some, like California Rep. Barbara Lee (D) say should be in the $26 an hour range, which is where it would be today if the minimum wage had kept up with inflation. The proletarians worldwide have awakened to the fact that no government is going to help them, they’re on their own. Just like always. It is the families and fellow workers who help you. Remember when you have nothing you don’t have much to lose and this is where the oligarchies have made a strategic mistake. You never force your enemy into a corner (Art of War) and left them with no alternatives, but to fight. Also remember if you are afraid to be seen in front of your fast food place, just swap with another fast food worker at a different place, like Burger King, KFC, Taco Bell or McDonalds; hell, even a Walmart worker. You’re all in the fight together. We all are. This last week saw fast food workers from all over the world coming together and striking for fair wages. Don’t buy into the malarkey of robots taking over your jobs. Companies have been trying this concept for a few years now, but it’s a human to fix the automated scanners when they malfunction, which they usually do. Sit back and watch sometime at a store with self-scanners few get through the process without an employees’ help. Vending machines are similar because it takes humans to design the machines, usually construct the machine and other humans to cook and package the food in them. So, fast food workers are winning and they will float the wage ship up for the rest of the workers and will become stronger with each strike so don’t let up. Keep the pressure on and as you do more and more workers will join the mounting fight for $15 an hour. Right now many states are slow walking the wages up, but some cities, such as Davis, California, have a petition for a resolution for $15 an hour and there will be many more joining this trend. I would like to see a $15 a petition for a resolution in Redding, California, which would turn the economy around in what is referred to as poverty flats. Redding is a very conservative area, and the people can’t seem to see how they hurt themselves when they support GOP candidates with anti-worker agendas. For example, in a recent video, Rand Paul, the senator from Kentucky, said poverty wages for workers is the “tough love that people have to accept” in order to get our economy out of the Bush recession that he and the GOP voted for. Austerity does not work. This is what we’re up against folks, and consider the poor saps who support Paul and don’t realize he’s trying to cheat them out of their wages. Link below: http://www.occupydemocrats.com/watch-rand-paul-poverty-wages-are-tough-love-people-have-to-accept/ This mentality is a perfect example of blame the victim. Paul, or any politician in Washington, D.C., doesn’t work hard for his money, but they want us to believe we should work harder for more money. Well, the facts are against them. According to workingamerica.org, U.S. workers have been more productive than ever, but the wages haven’t kept up with the productivity. “Between 1973 and 2011, worker productivity increased 80 percent. In the same period, worker wages went up only 10 percent (median hourly compensation). Between 2000 and today, productivity increased 23 percent – adjusted for inflation, wages didn’t increase at all.”

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Time for an Offense

There are three phases of a general strike and unions must plan for one. Those three phases are: 1. general strike in an industry 2. general strike in a community 3. general national strike We need to move away from being on the defensive and move toward a good offensive. The American Federal of Labor (AFL) could not have held a general strike if it wanted to because they had thousands of different contracts that expired at different times of the year. This was done deliberately so that there is no consolidation of power for a general strike. Also, nowadays, there is no law agency that will support labor, except the National Labor Relations Board (NLBR), which has been under attack and in decline for years. This leaves the burden of change up to unions, and unless unions work together, little will change. We essentially have a combination of job trusts, which are not as strong as contracts, and the courts can break easily because the NLBR will be further weakened and essentially elim...

If Gompers Could Do It, We Can Do It

Labor must vote for the person who will support and vote for labor’s best interests. And in turn, labor members have to support those who are running for office who support labor unions and vote down ballots. Voting down ballot gives the person at the top more power to do what’s best for us. This includes elections for city, county and state positions, as well. If you think a four day work week is wishful thinking, remember workers had to fight for an eight-hour work day and a five-day work week. We, labor members and supporters, need to find people who can fight and win. We need to clean the Congress and Senate of the old Democratic guard who have voted repeatedly to hold the working class back while enriching themselves. This would rebuild solidarity in a magnitude greater than anything either party has seen or offered in the last fifty years. If we can bring about the change in the ruling class we can improve all of our lives. This would be the start of the end of the tyranny of the...

Shock Troops

Gerrymandering is the only legal form of voter theft. Workers, our long range plans should involve 1. crushing Citizens United; and 2. getting rid of the Electoral College. We have been trying to get rid of the electoral college since 1876, and we are still waiting for the revolt. Our unions need to start training some members to be our shock troops and if all unions would do this and work with our local Labor Councils, it would be a good start. Our members need to know our labor laws, local laws, and learn how to protest in the streets if necessary. The antiunion people like Trump, Musk and his billionaire friends work together to crush the working people and convince workers they’re doing them a favor and then use them as shock troops against unions and their workers. All union and nonunion working people must come together and work together to protect what we have now. Labor Councils have retired union members and they could work together to prepare to bring the movement forward....