Union Perspectives

When will the American people wake up and accept that all wars are engaged and fought to make money so a select few can become even richer? These unconscionable money grubbing warmongers do not care about the deaths of our young people or the innocent people considered collateral damage. President Woodrow Wilson admitted that the war to end all wars, the war to make the world safe for democracy had, in fact, been an industrial and commercial war, which earned the United States $30 billion in World War I. The workers of the old International Workers the World (IWW), seeing it for what it is, had little desire to enter into the war. They tried to educate the working class, even Thomas Paine and Michael Bakunin, who is considered is one of the key anarchist thinkers and activists of the 19th century, tried to warn citizens. The IWW viewed ignorance as an essential collaborator in the continued smooth functioning of governments. In his “Rights of Man” Paine proclaims reason and ignoranc...

Now is the time for public banking in California. We have given away too much for too long to Wall Street and big banks. We should have our own, here in California, like North Dakota has. The only state bank in the U.S. is in North Dakota and it partners with local lenders who provide loans to small start ups and commercial loans. California is the largest economy in the U.S. and the fifth largest in the world yet it has no state bank. There are numerous private banks, but none are state banks. The banks here in California send their profits out of state and sometimes out of the country. We do have some local banks, but they are not large enough to make an impact like a state bank would do. California needs jobs and infrastructure repairs, and California state bank would provide the money for jobs and protect us from Wall Street’s greed, which brought this country to the brink of disaster. Some in California want to split the state, but what we should be doing is start thinking lik...