With the Trump election, we here in the U.S. must brace ourselves for privatization of our security and government services. Also, there will be a huge push in union busting activities and we will see more states pushing right-to-work laws, which will smash unions by reducing union dues. We are seeing this in Australia, Britain, Greece, and Israel.
These trends are now driving violations of labor laws, which is responsible for underpaying workers, and now Israel has the highest poverty level among developed nations, and it has the highest level of inequality among children.
Privatization is the fastest path to the bottom of the economic ladder. The model set by President Ronald Reagan and Britain’s Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who both followed the hardline economist and privatization nutcase Milton Friedman, who has been one of the ones who have widened the inequality gap here in the U.S. and the world over.
With the Trump election, we will see privatization and wars on steroids, and the workers better have a plan on how to survive and sticking our heads in the sand will not do it. The next war is now. It is between the Havenots against the Wantitalls, and it will effect all of us, no one will be exempt. The 1 percent will get away with no damage. Hell, we are still trying for a living wage of $15 to $24 an hour minimum wage.
Our healthcare—what little we have—is in jeopardy, and there will be attacks on Social Security to be sure—as Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, who grew up on Social Security from his late father, has already said he wants both Social Security and Medicare privatized. One only has to look to the school bus crash in Chattanooga, Tennessee, for how well privatization works.
The school district privatized its school buses with Durham School Services out of Warrenville, Illinois. The company provides contracted school bus services in Texas, California, Oregon, Idaho and Washington with 13,700 vehicles. Durham had been operating with a conditional federal safety rating, issued for past unspecified problems before resolving the problems in August 2015. The company’s recent history shows 346 crashes in more than two years, with three deaths (now nine) and 142 injuries (now more injuries with this recent crash), and 53 unsafe driving violations. What’s more infuriating is that the school administration said there was legally no way to discipline “someone who is not our employee.”
All we need to do is just watch Ukraine, France, Britain, Greece, Spain, and South America to see the impact of immigration, wars and inequality. It is time to pick a side and be smart about it. Look at history, read, talk, listen, and then act for a new deal. Remember, Bernie Sanders is still here and still fighting.
Also, remember that 43 percent of union members voted for Trump—and that is union leadership’s fault.
There are three phases of a general strike and unions must plan for one. Those three phases are: 1. general strike in an industry 2. general strike in a community 3. general national strike We need to move away from being on the defensive and move toward a good offensive. The American Federal of Labor (AFL) could not have held a general strike if it wanted to because they had thousands of different contracts that expired at different times of the year. This was done deliberately so that there is no consolidation of power for a general strike. Also, nowadays, there is no law agency that will support labor, except the National Labor Relations Board (NLBR), which has been under attack and in decline for years. This leaves the burden of change up to unions, and unless unions work together, little will change. We essentially have a combination of job trusts, which are not as strong as contracts, and the courts can break easily because the NLBR will be further weakened and essentially elim...
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