Unions are the boots on the ground, fighting for their governments and jobs in Ukraine and are taking hits from Russian separatists. The separatists trapped 700 miners underground and fired upon hundreds of second-shift miners to keep them away; but more than 1,000 miners marched to show support for their country.
Unions in Turkey are fighting for better wages and job safety. Again, it is the unions who are leading the fight for the working people. The Kurds are finally going to have a homeland again it is the proletarian workers who are leading the fight for their homeland. It looks like the time for Kurdistan’s independence is closer than any time before, Kurdish government employee Shorsh Khalid Ahmed told the Wall Street Journal.
All of these things are happening in Ukraine, Turkey and Kurdistan are happening because of the masses. If these countries can put up this kind of fight, then we, in the USA, should be able to do the same. Where are our people to stop the attacks on voting rights, on unions, work safety laws, healthcare and free education and fighting for the $15 to $18 an hour minimum wage? It looks like we are very tough when we are in other countries, but we have to fight in our own country we become very timid and let the Fox people do their thinking for them by convincing them unions are bad, that they don’t need pay raises, or unemployment. Some of us are all talk and little action. Some will intimidate little kids on a border, but won’t confront greedy oligarchies cheating them out of a fair wage.
You just have to look at other countries to see how important unions are for they are the army who puts boots on the ground to protect and fight for the changes to improve everyone’s lives, not just the wealthy elite. So which side are you on—the 1 percent or the 99 percent? There is no middle ground and the winner will be the 99 percent. The only question is how much blood will the 1 percent be willing to spill in its war to keep all they have amassed and how soon will they see they could lose everything.
Some of the 1 percent already see and are trying to change by supporting the wage inequality fight. Some late wins for the workers are rail workers in Sweden pushed back against wage concessions and meat packers in Ontario, Canada, got contracts without wage cuts.
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 ...
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