It is hard to believe that labor is now in a fight for the right to strike. The people who will fight labor over the right to strike are the local law enforcement, and they will be trained at the new “Cop City” that is built in Atlanta, Georgia, that the labor busting people want built.
Chief among them is the Home Depot Foundation that is helping to fund the Atlanta Police Foundation’s Cop City; but a private entity fiercely opposes the plan to build the $90 million training center in the South River in the Weelaunee Forest.
Cop City will have a shooting range, driving course, a mock city to train law enforcement from across the country. Part of the training center will involve urban warfare, which could be used against people excising their right to protest and labor strikes, which could be reminiscent of the Matewan Massacre.
One of the leaders against Cop City is Vincent Quiles, who had worked at Home Depot and tried to unionize the workers before being fired. Home Depot used a vicious union busting campaign to beat the unionizing attempt. Quiles researched Home Depot’s tax returns and discovered it was supporting Cop City and after researching what the project was, began a protest campaign against the project. He has a case before the National Labor Relations Board regarding his firing.
Unions should get behind the fight against Cop City, which could very well be used against union labors. Remember cops are the first line of defense for business owners. Law enforcement was not created to protect and serve everyone or to stop crime by the Have Nots and working class, they were created to protect and serve the wealthy and capitalism ignoring the ancient Turkish proverb says, “A hungry man is an angry man.”
Police were established by the wealthy to impose order on the working class. They were especially needed during the turmoils that seemed to occur when workers became fed up: 1867, 1877, 1886, and 1894, and cops violently attacked the workers who only wanted better working conditions, better pay, better hours—same thing people are wanting today.
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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