Where is the AFL-CIO on things like $15 to $24 an hour minimum wage or on the universal basic income (UBI). Also, the idea that the French has on a universal robot tax to support the UBI. A robot tax because the more technology advances, the more machines take over our jobs. Then, there is the attack on the U.S. prevailing wage, the Davis-Bacon Act, which Republicans have attack and now want to end prevailing wage protections.
This is not only a union matter, but a nonunion issue for all workers who now earn a living wage when working on government jobs. It is time unions and nonunion workers get together and hit the streets, and if we don’t the workers will be working for less than minimum wage and no union healthcare or pensions.
The union busting GOP are turning the working class against itself, black against white, men against women, Jews against nonJews. Using hate, division, white supremacy, misogyny, religion and racism are the choice weapons in every union busting fight in this country.
What the AFL-CIO needs is a national strike to test the power of unions and to build confidence in our workers, and also to see where our strengths and weaknesses are. Use this information to begin ro rebuild our power base by engaging the rank and file, the people inside the trade union membership, and by also campaigning for the hearts and minds of the unorganized working class for they could be the reserve troops when the street battles begin.
So far, our unions have been on the defense and we are losing. The best defense is a good offense, and we had better start our offense. In order to do this, we have to have a plan for what we want and need. Some defensive actions, such as strikes and boycotts, are a good start and could help build our membership or at least support on the upcoming battles.
It is us against the billionaires, and don’t forget the GOP’s right to work bill that they want to get passed nationwide. If they want a national right to work bill, then we must counter with a national strike.
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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