The slow walking of the $15 to $18 an hour minimum wage and the free state college up to the bachelor’s level (as what Starbucks wants its new hires to have), but at least corporations in the U.S. is walking very slowly, which just goes to show that it is possible to win higher wages and free higher education. But we need to accelerate the pace before the money people turn public opinion against the movement by giving inch by inch until they see that the momentum is turning toward them. So when we get a little relief in wages the wage slaves should not think of it as a win, but look at it as a stalling tactic to slow down the fight for $15 to $18.
Remember anything less than $15 is a loser for most low wage stand along workers for $8 through $12, probably will reduce or disqualify you from any kind of government assistance, such as food stamps or healthcare. The minimum to help in the inequality has to be at least $15 to $18.
Now, for college tuition, look at where the ever increasing tuition is going and you will find it is it going to administration costs. A case in point is California Polytechnic University. The number of administrators grew from 3,800 to more than 12,183 during the past 30 years, and some are paid six to seven figures or more. The excuse for this increase is that the government has cut funding to colleges, but the fact is government has spent 10 times more on education since 1960. Last year, states and federal government have spent $81 billion and that doesn’t include the $34 billion in Pell Grants.
We must keep fighting for accountability in education and the $15 to $18 an hour minimum wage. The corporations say this is the best they can do at this time, but April 15 is a new time and the right time for the workers and college students. Corporations try to scare you with falsehoods like restaurants will close down and businesses will go bankrupt. One only has to look at Seattle to see through the lies. Seattle is thriving after raising its minimum wage to $15; the reason being is that people are spending more. This ought to convince you that you are not asking for too much, if not, consider the fact that there are 513 billionaires and 7.1 million millionaires in the U.S. alone.
Now don’t you think it’s time to spread the wealth around?
In 2012 more than a quarter of all political contributions came from just 30,000 people who represented the 1 percent of the 1 percent, 90 percent who spent the most won. Today, we are an experiment in either a democracy, which started in 1787 or an oligarchy, which is winning. The nonunion people, like Trump and Musk, have most all the tools in their pockets to destroy our unions. They have money, they have the courts, they have law enforcement, they have the media, and 50 percent of workers that don’t know this don’t know the history of the working class people. This is the perfect storm to lose all the gains workers have made whether they’re union or not, even our Social Security and Medicare, and the Affordable Care Act. So, now we will have to go way back to the late 1920s and ‘30s and dig up the old labor party books. One book, written in 1964, has the information, The Rebel Voices, an IWW Anthology by Joyce L. Kornbluh, educator, activist, and advocate. The history of our labor...
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