Union Perspectives

The anti-union-right wingers have capitalized on how to vilify any one who stands in their way to get richer and gain more power. In the 1980s, Ronald Reagan succeeded in making liberals feel ashamed of the word “liberal” and fearful of being associated with socialism. When that worked so well, the GOP started vilifying the word “union” in as many ways as unions drive up the costs of construction, that unions are just corporations and all union leaders’ want is your money in the form of dues. This effort worked so well they convinced unsuspecting workers to vote against their own best interests. Today, the workers are starting to see through all the rhetoric of the anti-working establishment. The teachers have started a new trend by winning higher wages and other benefits. Now, there are others feeling like they can win higher wages, such as $15 to $24 an hour. This will, in turn, be a good thing for elections turn outs to put the right people in office who will support workers, worke...

I find that it is not quite as painful if I understand how and why the 1% do and how they do it to us 99%, such as how do the 1% control the 99% of the wage slaves in a country that is a democracy. The people elect their leaders, which then always supports the wishes of the 1%. This goes back to the founding of this country. Well, the 1% has had control since the beginning of our country. Our Constitution was originally written for the 1%, the rich white men, and little rights were given to the 99%. Rights that included the 99% were written only after the 99% fought back and got the Bill of Rights. Then the 1% started to devise ways to weaken the 99%, which was a two party system and for the GOP money people, and one for the leftovers, the Democrats. But when the leftovers were getting too strong the 1% figured out how to split the leftovers into smaller groups by divisive issues, such as race, gender, religion, abortion, sexual orientation and so on. Always something new like gu...

The Declaration of Independence says that government is not sacred, that it is set up to give people an equal right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and that if it fails to do this, we have a right to “alter or abolish it.” It wasn’t long before the Declaration of Independence became an embarrassment to the Founders. Soon after the signing soldiers under George Washington spoke out about how the rich were profiting from the war. Then to exasperate things further, the Continental Congress, in 1781, voted to give half pay for life to the officers of the Revolution, and nothing to the enlisted men (the original 99%ers). There was a protest and Washington ordered two young soldiers shot as an example to the other protesters. Barely five years old, the Declaration’s statement that all men are created equal was already being ignored and poor people, who thought they were fighting for themselves and their new country, found out that the war was not fought to benefit them, b...

The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) was formed to fight the harden, brutal corporations in the Twentieth century. There was a big difference in the way the unions fought against the giant corporations. The AF of L called for a fair day’s wage for a fair day’s work. This sounds good but the AF of L had to get a contract with the employer. This usually ended up in courts and with lots of lawyers. You can see how this is working for us (membership down). Now the IWW Wobblies played for keeps. They wrote in their preamble to their constitution: The working class and the employing class have nothing in common. There can be no peace so long as hunger and want are found among millions of working people and the few, who make up the employing class, have all the good things in life. Between these two classes a struggle must go on until the workers of the world organize as a class. The Wobblies (IWW) never had more than 60,000 members, but it shook up the nation as had no other orga...