Union Perspectives

When labor and unions are diminished, inequality goes up. Just look at South Korea. They are facing the same thing as the U.S. where the 1 percent are getting richer each day while what’s left of their middle class is growing poorer by the day. This is a very rich country that could be the poster child for how the capitalist system should work to the betterment of all, but instead greed has taken over and the wage slaves have had to go to the streets. At this time, South Korea is in the same fight as us with the need for a living wage, healthcare, pension, free education, the right to form a union, free assembly and free speech. The people, led by unions, including the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, are accusing the government of passing policies that weakens democracy, changes labor laws to benefit the corporations/wealthy and rewrites the country’s history to a conservative bent. Han Sang-gyun is calling for a general strike against "labor conditions that only fattens ca...

The inequality of wage slaves around the world should know that this blog has been read by people from 90 different countries. You are not alone in your struggles, our brother and sisters are fighting in their countries right now, like the coal miners in the region of Baluchistan, Pakistan; adjunct instructors in U.S. colleges; workers in Ireland, railroad workers in Canada; railroad workers in the U.S.; Ukraine workers trying to defend their jobs and wages; Kurdish women fighters fighting for a better life, for example young women Cicek Derek, 17 years, and Torin Khairegi, 20 years, gave their lives for this fight; garment workers are still fighting in Bangladesh; and workers in the UK still fighting for their rights. The dream of the old International Workers of the World is becoming real and if the dots are ever connected together, the workers of the world will be victors. The corporations of the world are making it easier by moving from one country to another which is bringing wor...

The toilers of the world fighting just to stay alive in countries like Ukraine, Malaysia, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Iraq, Turkey, Greece and the USA. What would stop all or most of the evil that hovers over the heads of these wage slaves would be good paying, safe jobs, good governments, which looks out for the toiler. But in order to get there, the world needs good peace-loving and smart leaders, not leaders or government officials who are bought by corporations. All toilers need to be educated in labor and government history, and must pay attention to what is happening with labor on a daily basis. One way is through the Militant newspaper and the column, “On the Picket Line” by Maggie Trowe, which relates the labor news from all over, like the dockworkers in the U.S. or chicken butchers in Israel, Walmart and Kellogg workers in the U.S., Canadian grocery workers and the steelworkers union is in a fight with Chevron at the Richmond refinery in the U.S. Jim Payne, Steelworkers Local, s...

The wage slaves who are fighting for unions to better their lives, such as ending inequality, new contracts, benefits, end of outsourcing, firing workers for striking, and being locked out of a work place, also fighting for safer working conditions. They now have a place to get their word out and a place to compare notes on strategy and tactics. This has been offered by Maggie Trowe, who writes a column for the Militant newspaper, which every working toiler should have access to. Trowe will help you with your struggles with bosses. Contact her at 306 W. 37th St. 13th Floor, New York, New York 10018 or 212-244-4899 or the Militant@mac.com. It would be very helpful if all union members and nonunion people would subscribe to the Militant. This week the newspaper is talking about the Los Angeles, California, area grocery workers; farm workers fighting union busting in the U.S.; garment workers in Bangladesh; movers in Illinois in the U.S. strike for first contract; phone workers in New En...

The right wing governments of the world are pushing the wage slaves from the ballot box to the streets because the oligarchies have bought the ballot box. This forces the toilers to go to the streets to protest the wrongs of the right wing governments, like in Belgium, Brussels, where 100,000 workers had to take to the streets to demonstrate against planned reforms against public transport, schools, post office and other services. The government wants to cut staffing, services along with companies across the country. This is worldwide and here in the USA workers will be even more under assault by the right wing GOP for they now control 27 states, which will finish devastating the unions, and the oligarchies own the ballot boxes here also and the courts. So all that is left is the streets, which will probably be closed soon by Sedition Laws being passed by cities, counties and states, such as what was done in Ferguson, Missouri, where protestors were not able to stop walking, standing ...

There is not much the oligarchies fear or respect, but one is strong unions, who are organized. Oligarchies don’t care that unions represent the interests of hard working people who earn them their wealth. They don’t respect unions because union members know and trust each other. They have a fairly good education regarding their line of work and want a better life for themselves and their families. Also, union members will fight for their countries and jobs when called upon. Just like the miners, rail workers, and other workers in Ukraine who are pushing back the Russian-back separatists. Also, the miners in Turkey are fighting for job security, both in maintaining their jobs and in doing their jobs in the wake of the 300 miners’ deaths. The mine collapse was due to safety cuts caused by greed and indifference toward the miners. Turkey is not the only country with poor mining safety. In the U.S., mines have a lack of safety enforcement and a rise of Black Lung disease killing 10,000 mi...

If our workers here in the U.S. think their alone in their fight for a living wage and better living standards for their families, all they need to do is look at the rest of the world’s workers. Workers in places like Quebec, Canada, Egypt, Puerto Rico, Tunisia, Ukraine, South Korea, Belarus, Romania, and Bangladesh. We are all in this together, think about this, a five year study was done on Walmart’s Chinese imports which cost 133,000 American jobs, but it wasn’t just the U.S. workers that got screwed over, the Chinese workers weren’t paid a fair wage. These are just a few of the countries fighting the government and the oligarchies who control the large corporations, backed by sedition laws—laws impeding free speech and organization, deemed by the legal authority to tend toward insurrection against the established order, which means anything they, the oligarchies, don’t like. The sedition laws put harsh restrictions on mass gatherings of workers. Remember laws and law enforcement a...

The old International Workers of the World would be proud of the way wage slaves today are standing up for their rights in countries, such as Bangladesh, most of Europe, Israel, Palestine, and now South American countries, such as Ecuador, Colombia, Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, Brazil, Argentina and Chile, who are now fighting for the rights of day laborers, back pay, who work on the ports. They are being supported by the Longshoremen’s union. This is world solidarity among the wage slaves. The way it is supposed to be, and we should not forget the Ukrainians’ fight for the right to protest. Yes, the tide is turning slowly in favor of the wage slaves, but we must remember what Karl Marx and Frederick Engles said in 1848: That now and then the workers are victorious, but only for a time. The real fruit of their battles lies not in the immediate result, but in the ever expanding union of the workers. The fight must keep moving forward to even up the disparity of a few with so much and so m...

If capitalism, as we know it today, is to survive the oligarchies will have to stop the war against the wage slaves. Without wage slaves there will be no capitalist system. The workers make the products, they buy the products, and use the products, which make the oligarchies rich. There are two dangers to capitalism; one is oversupply, the other is shortage of buyers, which can be remedied by higher wages for the workers or new customers from low-wage countries—and—this brings us back to wages and disposal income spent on products and other basic needs. The old International Workers of the World union workers were way ahead of the times when they sought to enlist workers from around the world as one, with no country borders, which meant that they would not fight in wars for they believed that all wage slaves were brothers and sisters. The oligarchies want to keep a way to split the work force, which makes it easier to control the wage slaves, but it is changing for now all workers ca...

Has the time finally come for the dreams of the International Workers of the World (IWW) for a world workers’ union. For a lot of IWW’s ideas was way ahead of its time. The old IWW wage slaves had nothing or very little money. They were just people who shared the dream of a better life for themselves and their families, and they felt that all wage slaves should belong to one union of the world, J.F. McDaniels wrote. There would be no borders of countries. Just like some unions in the USA. A sheet metal worker can move and work anywhere and his pension and healthcare follows the union member. They have an international union member, but they still must register with the local union. But, still, they can move and follow the jobs. This was part of the IWW’s dream in 1905, when the socialist, anarchists, trade unionist and revolutionaries met to lay the ground work for one big union combining elements of Marxian and Darwinian together. The IWW ideology envisioned a utopian society consist...