Union Perspectives

Water is one of the most vital Commons, but who should own it? Who should control it? Who should be responsible for the care of it? I know who should not be involved in any of these questions and it is private stock holders of corporations who want to profit and will or are destroying the water of the world. Water is one of the Commons of the people, but as a whole it is an essential of life not only for drinking but for health and sanitation and to grow our food. Water is more important than gold or oil because without it you die. So why are cities and governments selling or privatizing our water, and do they even have the right to sell our Commons without a vote even? The essentials of life—water, clean air, healthcare, unadulterated food, housing—should be a civil right and one politician should not have the power to take it away from people. All of these things should have oversight by the people as a whole and not by just a few greedy, very rich corporations. This is what will h...

Some times having nothing is an easier way to win. If a person or group have no home, no family, no job, no money or no hope, what do you have to lose? When your opposition finds this out then having nothing becomes a game changer. This is what the IWW or Wobblies found when they were fighting for free speech in Fresno, Calif., in the year of 1911. They won when law enforcement came to understand that people who have nothing to lose really can’t lose anything except their lives; and some in those days didn’t care for life was not very good when you have no family, job, home, money or hope. So, just like the 99%ers, the Wobblies outnumbered and outlasted the establishment to bring about change -- with nothing but their bodies and uncompromising determination. This is pointed out in the “Art of War;” when you have nothing else to give but your life, that’s when you fight the hardest. Wall Street big banks, corporation-led GOP and their Machiavellian strategy is actually playing into ...