Union Perspectives

Unions are coming. The workers worldwide are rising up to fight for better wages, healthcare , pensions, union rights, housing and climate change. They are also tired of wars and the exorbitant cost of education. People the world over want a government that represents the 99 percent and not the 1 percent who just want more money to buy more power. This is a real class warfare and we, the people, will win with strong unions, which work and support all workers, unionized or not. At this time, we have the auto workers fighting over tier workers who work by another worker doing the same job but for a lower wage. This is done not only to save GM money, but also to cause division among the work force. The General Motors workers won because all the workers stayed together. Then the Black Jewel miners are still fighting for their wages. They will win if all with a message of solidarity, money, which can be sent to: With Love From Harlan P.O. Box 1621 Harlan, KY 40831. Checks should be payabl...

What happens when one person is above the law? And, what if he or she is the president of the United States? If this were to happen then it is not just one person above the law, but this includes all the people helping this person be above the law knowing there is a pardon waiting for them when the rug is pulled out from under them. How can this happen? First a party, like the Republicans, needs to be corrupt and greedy to the point it will warp the very foundation of our country. Then you must obtain control of the highest court of the land, the Supreme Court by denying a sitting president the right to appoint a candidate to fill a vacant seat; then you get the new president to appoint judges willing to rule the way you want and not by legal precedence. Then you pull out all of the stops to include election corruption to get your candidate elected to the presidency, just like George W. Bush, who was followed in office by Barrack Obama, who chose not to prosecute the corruption that w...

If we want to stop wars and get more jobs, we have to take the profit out of wars. We do this by nationalizing the arms production. By doing this, the government, our government, would control the so-called “military industrial complex,” as Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower called it. The U.S. Government’s military budget for 2019 is $686 billion, that is larger than the next top five countries: China at $168.2 billion, Saudi Arabia at $82.9 billion, Russia at $63.1 billion, India at $57.9 billion and the United Kingdom at $56.1 billion. The U.S. gives Israel military aid and sells armaments to Saudi Arabia. The 2020 U.S. military budget is expected to be $989 billion. Now imagine how much of this is spent on contractors, like Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, General Dynamics, and the others, and then add on the tax break trump has already given these corporations. How much of this money is actually going to protect us since the threats we face now aren’t...

The dreams the old International Workers of the World (IWW) could very well come true because of the capitalist attacks against workers worldwide. At this time, the French workers’ unions are under attack by President Macron, who is out to destroy unions. Then there is the Spanish government’s all out efforts to prevent the referendum on Catalonia’s independence, but 2.3 million people braved law enforcement attacks and voted for independence. The fight was lead by dockworkers, firefighters, public workers and most of all labor groups. Then we have the Kurds, who are fighting for an independent Kurdistan. The Kurds are 30 million strong and have no country to call home. The Kurdish struggle shows that it is possible to stand up to oppression and win. Poland has been slipping into an authoritarian rule for the last two years as the country’s government is cracking down and restricting people’s human rights and ignoring the European Union’s insistence that the government refrain fr...

The billionaires of Silicon Valley and government people are scared and building bunkers and islands in anticipation of society’s collapse. The danger of government people and the very rich having these new 500,000 to 1.5 million bunkers is that they now think they will be safe if and when the big boom drops or the 99 percent comes after them with pitch forks. They may think nuclear war or severe climate change will not effect them and that in the event either of these should occur, they will be better off than the rest of us. These are not just a couple of fringe groups. There is real money behind this movement, hundreds of millions of dollars. These are the richest and smartest people who are probably in the “know” so what do they know that we, poor people, don’t know? Then there are all the so-called rich preppers are buying islands and land in New Zealand. If all government and the 1 percent rich are safe, then do you think they fear earth’s ruin by climate change or a nuclear...

How can a few oligarchies control the masses here in the U.S.? What they do is use the old playbook of the antiunion coal companies in which they would hire different ethnic and racial groups who cannot communicate with the other groups, and they had different religions whereupon a lack of trust was fostered among them. Now, in a larger way, the oligarchies are using states with different laws within each of them to make the rich richer and the poor poorer, which the laws in many states allow businesses to stand on the necks of the poor, who have no power to change the laws punishing them disproportionately. The oligarchies now have their own kingdoms in some states and they can get local governments to privatize all the government services to the detriment of their citizens. Look at Kansas, it not only has privatized a lot of their government services, but they enacted or adopted strict religious ideology in meting out “punishments” toward the poor that benefits the privatized age...

On a night in February 1933, Frances Perkins sat in front of the newly elected 32nd president of the United States as he told her that he wanted her to be the new Secretary of Labor. Perkins told President Franklin Roosevelt she would take the job if she could do it her way. Perkins wanted: a 40-hour work week, minimum wage, work compensation, unemployment compensation, a federal law banning child labor, direct federal aid for unemployment relief, Social Security, a revitalized public employment service, and health insurance. The opposition to Perkins demands came from courts, businesses, labor unions--yes, labor unions, conservatives, and the chamber of commerce. Even with all this opposition against Perkins, a lot was accomplished. Today, we are trying to protect our Social Security, which we pay into, and even to expand it. We also want to go back to providing free college, like we used to have before politicians, like California Governor Ronald Reagan, redirected the money for f...

Truck drivers and owners should take a look at how Russian truck drivers are protesting a new crippling tax per kilometer. The Caucasus drivers are striking a road tax, dubbed “Plato,” on trucks weighing more than 12 tons are charged more for each kilometer of federal highway they drive. There are more than 2 million trucks registered in Russia. The 1.5-ruble tax is to be doubled in March to 3-rubles-6 kopecks per kilometer. If truckers refuse to pay the tax, entrepreneurs are fined 40,000 rubles ($634.43 U.S. dollars), and companies 450,000 rubles or $7,109.38 in U.S. currency. If a driver makes 40 to 50 rubles per trip, and the trip tax would be 15,ooo rubles, how are the truckers supposed to support themselves? Adding insult to injury, the collection system has been turned over to a private company by the son of a close associate of President Vladimir Putin. The Russian truckers converged on Moscow crippling the beltway in what they called the “snail,” driving slowly tying up traff...

Are the workers and countries of the world returning to tribal governments of the old days where countries were made up of family tribes and religions? Just look at places like the Middle East, Africa, and Afghanistan all are reverting to the past like Iraq, Libya, Lebanon, Egypt, Syria and Turkey and the list goes on. Are the large countries starting to fade? Are they getting too large to defend or control? Are governments too polarized to govern? Has the 1 percent billionaires of the world gained control and only want more money and power over the workers? And if this is the case it could be the tipping point for the loss of a civilized world and the beginning of a world filled with ISIS types who just hate and kill for their ideology. When money and power is worshipped over the good of people, there will be a revolt and will it be peaceful or a bloodletting? The days of large countries dominating small countries are over. Just how long can the U.S. hang onto our satellite countrie...

Once again the oligarchies want to throw the old wage slaves under their greedy bus regarding the Greek pensions. This just shows the disdain the greedy money people think of the worker and this goes on all over the world--just look at Ukraine and Turkish miners. It is bad enough that the people who are working and driving the capitalist system of today are being deprived of their civil/human rights. This has always been the fight and workers understand this war, but when the world’s oligarchs start a war on the retired workers who are just barely making it on their earned pensions just like the governor of Wisconsin and mayor of Chicago, Illinois, are doing here. This type of conduct will not be tolerated much longer and when present wage slaves see there is no hope now or in the future when they get too old to work, what do the greedy money-grubbing GOP anti-union people think the wage slaves of the world will do? At this time we in the free world have enough enemies so why in the ...

The $15 to $18 an hour minimum wage fight is winning with support of the United Healthcare workers #1199 SEIU. This can be effective by targeting the international corporations that pays low wages, such as McDonalds, Walmart, and clothing factories that supply U.S. stores and colleges. There are now hundreds of people and groups across the U.S. and worldwide who are speaking out for the world’s toilers. The wage slaves are showing the low-wage unsafe corporations there is no place to hide. All toilers are demanding what is their civil rights, which is a safe place to work, a living wage, dignity, vacation pay, pensions, healthcare, and a free education to the bachelor’s level, and if the world’s wage slaves can get this then maybe they can get safe drinking water, safe food, toilets, clean air—the things that make life bearable and can give hope that their children will have a better life than the present wage slaves. We, toilers, must understand it is up to us to stop the wars and t...

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...

The young people have started to join up with what is left of the old toilers. The young will be a formidable force for they have nothing to lose in this fight and everything to again. Look at Hong Kong where the young man, Joshua Wong, who started planning the current protest when he was just 15 years old and in two years of planning, put the protest in motion. He now, at age 17, is the same age that most governments like their soldiers to be because most young people this age think they are invincible. These are or can be the shock troops of the non-violent civil disobedience way to win the 99 percent over the 1 percent war. Now we just have to wait and hope for women equal to or better than Joshua Wong, who is leading the protest in Hong Kong, and hope that his arrest is just temporary, and if not then have them step up to the challenge and keep fighting. The toilers of the world are indeed on the march worldwide. There were hundreds of thousands marching in New York, USA, against ...

Why is there so much unrest and fighting in the world? Is it just a coincidence that most of the impact is on the toilers? And who or what is to blame? It is not the wage slaves for they are just barely getting by and in some cases being savaged by raped, killed or sold into slavery. It is not only the Middle East or South America or Ukraine, it is everywhere. So what are the commonalities? Oil, gas, precious metals and gems, water and among resources, which then equals money and power. If the governments do not respect the ownership of the commons or its people power than the oligarchies will buy some of us, give guns and take what they want, which is all of it. There is never enough for these greedy people, and once the 1/10 of the 1 percent of the billionaires beat the toilers. They will turn on each other, but we, the workers, will be the ones who are forced to do the fighting and killing while they sit back and watch like a sporting event. We already see this sporting event in t...

The oligarchies do control the world with money. They have bought and paid for our elected politicians and entire governments. What we usually see is the one person at the top who we then direct all our attention to, but we should look at this oligarch control as an iceberg, as the really destructive danger is not seen. The unseen, larger portion of the iceberg is under the water and this is why we, the 99 percent, get blindsided by people who we think are running our country, like presidents Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, and Wisconsin governor Scott Walker and in Russia Putin. They are all just figureheads controlled by the 1 percent oligarchies and their corporate money, which is all part of the underwater part of the iceberg. The oligarchies formed organizations, such as American Legislative Exchange Council or ALEC to usurp our country’s political process. The ownership of countries by the oligarchies has never worked out or lasted long. After they have all the money and power th...