We know why and when the National Guard was started. It was to break labor unrest. The corporations forced the states to fund the Guard to foil labor strikes, but do you know why police departments were started? Well, once again it was to control the wage slaves and protect the people with the money, the corporations.
When labor becomes unhappy with their status in life, unhappy with low wages, unhappy with job security and safety, unhappy with the lack of pensions, lack of healthcare and unhappy with job discrimination, they find ways to come together to fix the discrepancies. But, there are people who are always there unseen, the puppet masters who are the old foes of labor. It’s always been that way since the 17th and 18th centuries. In those days it was called the enforcement of vagabondage laws against working people.
This was the predecessor of modern prisons or workhouses where convicts were put to labor. The first prisons in the U.S. began in the 1800. They were modeled after the European prison workhouses, extracting labor from imprisoned people and this was the start of the escalating economic inequality and the wealth of the Commons being stolen from the 99% by the 1% in the name of economic efficiency and global competitiveness.
As the disparity grows between the 1% and the 99%, the GOP, those in the 1%, likes to blame the use of Commons as a determent to our way of life, but history shows us that the lack of Commons itself is to blame. For nature’s gifts are the Common property of the human race and the riches derived from the Commons should enrich all humans and at this time the only organizations large enough to fight for this right are unions, who fight for the farm workers, fast food, retail and any wage slave who works for wages.
As the Art of War tells us we must know our enemies: law enforcement most kinds - state National Guard, local police are paid for by us, the tax payers, and used against us. The oldest foe of labor is the Chamber of Commerce, who are mostly business people, and their law enforcement guardians are paid for by us, the wage slaves. This goes back to 1785.
Today the Commons movement is now global and workers are starting to understand the big picture and how the 1% are keeping the 99% down. We are starting to win, but we must keep educating ourselves about our rights.
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 ...
Comments
Post a Comment