Rural America was seceded to the GOP by the Democrats, likewise the labor trades seceded the rural counties to non-union shops. In the old days, unions, in these rural areas, got bigger and bigger until they decided they could leave the rural counties' side, and compete in the large cities, foregoing smaller populated counties, which used to be union sanctuaries.
This type of strategy is not working. Retreating never works. It is just like going into a fort or a castle, which sooner or later, the fortifications will be breached. All that is happening is just buying time and the Democrats and labor unions have both run out of time.
It is time now for an offense and come out of the forts and castles and take back rural America. They, the labor and Democrats, should work together with all their resources combined, such as money and people power. If used wisely, they both could become relevant again in our rural countrysides. By attending all public meetings, using the time before each meeting to promote whatever is relevant to the Democrats or labor at the time, such as healthcare, $15 minimum wage, jobs, union support on jobs, and supporting people who we have elected. Sometimes, these board members need to be reminded not only who they work for, but also where the tax base comes from.
The 99 percent have to retake their state’s government and local local government agencies, such as water boards, fire boards, school boards, city and county boards, and then take these people to the state government, and then take the best of these and run the for federal government positions. This is the strategy the Koch brothers and the Tea Party used and were successful at it.
If we do this, only then will the 99 percent start to have their basic needs fulfilled in things like a living wage, free education, right to join a union, free healthcare, good pensions, or UBI (universal basic income) since workers are being replaced by automation and robots. UBI can be achieved by charging rent for our Commons. We need our elected people to deal with climate change and stop going to war in a pathetic attempt to look macho and make their corporate cronies lots of money.
This all can be done if we have the will and elect the right people.
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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