Where are the thousands of low-wage workers? Why are they not in the streets? This is the time—it’s spring and the weather is nice for the offense of the Have Nots or the Have Very Littles. It is hard to justify not coming together here in the USA when we have the right to do so especially when we see Vietnamese Nike and Adidas shoe workers in Ho Chi Minh City fighting for their social gains for wages and pensions.
The Vietnamese workers organized 80,000 workers at the Pou Yuen Vietnam shoe factory. Why can’t we in the Free World put together that kind of number? This shoe factory is a subsidy of a Taiwan-based Pou Chen group, which employs more than 400,000 wage slaves in the countries like China, Vietnam and Indonesia. Last year 45,000 workers at its Yue Yuen Factory in Dongguan in southern China fought and won in 11 days for contributing that was owed to them. There were 300 strikes in Vietnam in 2014.
These are communist countries and the workers seem to be kicking ass and holding the corporations accountable and it seems the government is helping. Things will never change until the proletarians come together in large organized groups of thousands. Then the Walmarts, Home Depot, Target, McDonald and the list goes on will pay attention. At this time we have miners in Ukraine, Turkey, U.S., Mauritania, West Africa and oil workers in the U.S., railroad workers in British Columbia, Canada are all in the fight against inequality, and workers from all areas should come together to support each other in this fight.
These are just a few, but they all need to start talking to each other and when possible leverage each other to gain power. Remember it is a war between the Haves and the Have Nots and people power can win this inequality and $15 to $18 an hour minimum is just starting and we are gaining ground.
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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