Wisconsin will be the turning point in which workers will either prosper or decline on the issues of pay, pensions, healthcare, vacations and all the other worker gains over the last 100 years. The GOP and wage slaves are at a crossroads and if the GOP wins then the dominoes will start falling state by state, which will put the workers in the position, the only option, of having to fight in the streets. We have already lost the U.S. Supreme Court, which is where all appealed cases end up, and they will and have already ruled against the workers.
The only thing left will be the streets, which will not be good because the GOP/oligarchies will be able to identify the leaders and jail or, like in the 1800s-1930s, just kill them by trumped-up charges or by mob violence. Some of our labor leaders who were eliminated this way were Joe Hill, Big Bill Haywood, Walter Reuther, Eugene Debbs and Martin Luther King Jr., just to name a few.
This is the old anti-union playbook and this worked time and time again. The oligarchies will own the federal and state governments, which control the National Guard and federal armed forces, and also have the money to hire private mercenaries just like they did when they hired thugs to put down the coal miners when they were trying to better their lives. The coal mine owners hired Pinkertons, an organization that went to the highest bidder. They beat and killed workers and were never held accountable for any of their deeds. So if the anti-workers, anti-union GOP and oligarchies can force the workers to the streets we will have a very long fight just to survive.
If we can win Wisconsin – and the next U.S. president election, Congress and hold the Senate – then we can take back the courts and with this the unions could get card check passed and start organizing labor while rebuilding the middle class, reforming the financial system and bring us back to a good jobs, economy and this is what the oligarchy fear the most. The oligarchies do not want the power will shift to the proletarian workers and we will have the power to change Citizens United and then elect honest people who will represent the workers and will not be bought by the Koch brother-types.
We must remember with power comes money and if this is the system we choose to play in then we, the workers, must have and keep the power however we can. We know what is wrong and what is happening so now we must hope for the best, but plan for the worst by studying history, all the old playbooks (Art of War), the old IWW Wobblies, Knights of Labor, Molly Maguires, auto workers, coal miners, copper miners, railroad unions, to name a few. They all have lessons for us to learn on what worked and what did not.
Remember to know yourself (labor history) and to know your enemy (oligarchies, GOP), you can win all your battles (Art of War).
I hope that I am wrong, but what I see at this time is our unions are going to be in the fight of their existence. This is the most perilous time of our life. The life we had is threatened like never before. Unions are the largest organized group of people who can save our country if things keep going the way they are heading at this time. We need to all stand together for power, but we each must prepare and plan to take care of ourselves and our families. We can fight the big fight and not be distracted by worry about things that can and should already be taken care of. For instance, stashing at least one month’s pay and at least a month or even a year’s worth of food, whether the food is staples (pasta, rice, canned goods) and meat or chicken in the freezer. Keep your vehicles' tanks full and if possible a gas can full. It’s in your best interest to also save money for house or rent payments plus extra. This is not new thinking for us old trade workers who had to prepare when...
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