It took a pandemic to get workers to realize how much power they actually have. Calling their movement “Striketober”, workers from John Deer Tractor, members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees in Hollywood, education employees, healthcare workers, prison guards, and employees from Kellogg and Nabisco, among others are realizing they have the power with employers to make or break the business. In August, 4.3 million workers walked off their jobs. This is the highest number of employees to quit their jobs in the 21 years that the Jobs Openings and Labor Turnover Survey has been tracking these jobs, according to Robert Reich, who calls this movement “an unofficial general strike.”
Striketober is the war of the 99 percent vs the 1 percent, and the 99 percent must win to keep our country in a democracy. These strikers are examples of inequality that is ripping our country apart and other countries around the world. The top 1 Percent evaded $163,000,000,000 in taxes, but they and the news outlets will have you believe it’s migrants and people using public assistance who are the freeloaders. The CEO pay compared to employees was 20 to 1 in 1968, but today, the pay difference is 320 to 1.
If this Striketober can generate enough sport, then not only will workers and their families benefit, but we can send people into public office who will support the 99 percent and unions. We need these people to get elected to school boards, water and fire districts, city and county boards, county and state election offices. The Republicans have a head start on doing this and they are getting Republicans elected or appointed to state attorney general positions to steal future elections by contesting the results thereby taking the will of the people away.
If we lose in the Striketober, we will probably lose credibility and the Republicans will see blood and obliterate remaining unions, just like Reagan destroyed the air traffic controllers. This time, unions must win and all unions must back each other with people and money. This is do or die, and the world is watching to see how this plays out.
Do we have the will and smarts to stick with it to the end. They’re not just fighting for themselves, but for the future. The Striketober comes at the best time for the workers—the holiday season when retailers and companies need workers the most and cargo ships are stuck on the sea, and there's not enough truckers to move the cargo that is on land. It will be difficult because of the time of year, but the payoff is greater, and families can understand what it at stake, especially if they share in the fight. Bring them to the strikes, have them walk door to door with fliers, write letters to the editor—use your imagination to get all involved.
Remember, if Trump and his people win, they will never leave until they destroy the foundation this country was built upon. There will be no more unions, healthcare, free education and only property owners will be allowed to vote, but the elections will be rigged by the Republicans. Republicans are cut throat and kicked the ass of Democrats, who insist on following the rules and laws knowing they’re getting outmaneuvered at every turn. Times, you have to take the gloves off and meet your opponent where they live.
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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