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Showing posts from December, 2014

Inequality Sinking the Economy

Money is the fuel of the capitalist system, but if money is loaded into a boat and most of it is loaded to one side, the boat will capsize and sink. For the boat to float the money must be at least a little evenly spread out just to keep it afloat and if it does not even out then the boat will list to one side and just go in circles. Wage inequality is a perfect example of a listing boating ready to sink the economy. Wage inequality promotes austerity that sinks the boat even quicker. The $15 to $18 an hour minimum wage along with a free education to the bachelor’s level could rectify and keep the capitalist system afloat. If this would come about we then could start training our workers like our union construction trades have done. Each trade has their own four-to-five-year apprenticeship training programs. Then they become a journeyman worker, such as sheet metal, plumber, carpenters, iron workers, electricians, heavy equipment and construction, among others. This should start in hig

Alaska's Example

The citizens fighting for fair compensation of the use of their commons should look at Alaska. The Alaskans consider their dividends from their commons their rightful share of the state’s natural wealth. They do not see it as a redistribution of wealth or as welfare. There is no stigma attached to the payments of $1,000 to more than $3,000 to all Alaskan residents including children. Why is this not done in the rest of the U.S.? This type of money is what is needed to continually pump up consumer demand for the middle out, which can be spent immediately. Dividends gained from common wealth bypasses the tug of war between advocates of smaller and larger government. They require no new taxes or government programs. Once set up they are purely market based and because they send legitimate property income to everyone they can’t be derided as welfare. The payments could be set up by the Social Security Administration. There are many ways and things that must happen to save the world and our

Another Attack to Be Aware

How the nonunion, Rand Paul supportering groups and the American Legislative Exchange Council, the Heritage Foundation and a newly former nonprofit, Protect My PayCheck, are working together to influence local governments at the city and county levels the same way it was done by state legislatures with Right to Work. Today in Kentucky, Fulton, Simpson and Warren counties, have voted to implement the Right to Work laws. This could be the way California workers could be beaten and see our unions destroyed. Supporters of the these worker-harmful laws say, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, are next and that Protect My PayCheck is promising to pay for the legal battles of any local government that tries to implement this legislation. There are numerous counties in California that have bought into the "State of Jefferson" mentality thinking they could control their own local governments, but this short-sighted vision doesn't take into account how to fund their independence an

Sold Out by Government

The workers of the U.S. and the world are fighting, but steadily losing the fight. We now have no help from any type of government. The government and its elected officials are bought and paid for by Wall Street, Big Banks, corporations and the 1 percent. Neither party in the U.S. will now help the workers or unions. The unions are now seen as impotent in the eyes of the GOP and now a large part of the Democrats. With the loss of members comes the loss of money, which makes the unions irrelevant. At this time, the way things are going it is looking like the only thing left for the wage slaves of the U.S. and the rest of world is the streets with pitchforks. Art of War says you should never push your enemy into a corner with no option but to fight to the death. This is what is being done worldwide, in places like Ukraine, Hong Kong, Turkey, Greece, Mexico, South American countries and even in Canada. Maybe this is what the wage slaves needed to get motivated, to awake them to the fact t

Local is Where the Power Is

City councils are where the power truly is found. The city councils and mayors are who will solve the problems that we face. These people cannot afford to be ideologues. Their job is to pick up garbage, keep hospitals open, to ensure fire and safety services are available, and that law enforcement and teachers do their jobs. How many times have you or even heard a person say, “If I just was in charge things would be better.” Well, local governments, such as school boards, water districts, fire boards, city councils and county board of supervisors are as close as the average proletarians can get to being in charge or at least at the decision-making table when decisions are made that affect your life, your family’s life and that of the community you live in. Also the higher up one goes in government the slower things happen and the more money it takes to get elected. This is where ideologues take over and the nation stalls and nothing gets done that is worthwhile. A city can raise its mi

Stick Together

As the strikes continue to catch on as a means to gain better wages and working conditions, it’s important to keep history, lessons learned and prior efforts in mind so as not to repeat them. Strikes have worked best when all workers sit down or walk out at once. Strikes are lost when just part of the work force leaves and the rest keeps working. In the construction trade this is called being covered up by other trades, which makes the trade out on strike in a disadvantage when workers go back, such as T-bar ceilings have been put up before the electrical, plumbing, fire sprinklers or air conditioning ducts have been put in this situation. This is the disadvantage of crafts unions who have different contracts that end at different times. Unions and workers must change the rules to where all workers can support each other. The new minimum wage fast food, box stores and restaurant workers should not fall into the trap pf setting up their craft-specific union, like the trade unions fell f

Koch's New Party, i360, is Coming After You

Wage slaves need to understand that they will never be invited to the oligarchies’ country clubs unless it as lawn maintenance or to serve them food and wash their dishes while being paid minimum wage. So why is it that some union workers, who have pensions, steady-good-paying jobs and healthcare, they lean toward GOP candidates or Blue Dog Democrats? It never works out for them to vote for these types of candidates, just look at the postal workers. Some of these American Postal Workers Union employees voted GOP and donated money to Congressman Darrel Issa, who returned the favor by doing everything he can to shut down the postal service and privatize it—all to bust the union. Remember the air traffic controllers? They were once unionized and supported Ronald Reagan for president and we all know how that turned out. What proletarians have to remember is that the GOP and Blue Dogs Democrats are not our friends and never will be and they should never be trusted. This is a class war that

Come Together to Win

The growing pauperization of our country can be stopped by declaring war on pauperization, which could and should be led by unions with labor councils’ support. If labor begins its work at the bottom of the wage level where there are no unions or labor contracts to have to adhere to, it would pretty much give us a free hand and all is fair in love and war. Maybe with the unrest produced by bad law enforcement practices and the unfairness towards the underserved, which causes adversity, there is a window of opportunity for labor to lend support toward bettering the lives of the people who are suffering from inequality. Labor could help in local elections, fight for higher wages, universal healthcare, jobs and better education opportunities. It is a lot easier to change a local city or county than the federal laws. People are already in the streets so why not help each other and if we can slow or stop inequality. We could change things for the better for all. An example of this is the

As Ukraine Goes so Goes the World

In the fight for Ukraine’s sovereignty are we seeing the handprint of the U.S. oligarchies? Are the U.S. oligarchies pushing the Ukraine government to slash mining jobs by selling off or shutting down state owned mines, cutting social benefits and carrying out other austerity measures to shore up profits for the capitalists and meet loan conditions imposed by the International Monetary Fund? Despite the fact that austerity has been proven time and again that it does not work. Once again, the toilers at the bottom are the ones to take the hit and the fight even carries over to the wage slaves in Russia where U.S. sanctions are squeezing food prices; meat and poultry prices have skyrocketed by 17 percent. It is just like all wars where the wage slaves are the ones who give their lives for the oligarchies of the world. This is where unions must be strong. It is the only hope for the families of the Ukrainian and Russian poor. These fights are worldwide, such as with the Kurds, Turkey, Gr