Struggle for a Workers' recovery

The Struggle for a Workers' Recovery

author: Workers Action

Stocks are booming; the Dow Jones soared past 11,000; the very wealthy are bursting from their financial seams. Meanwhile, mass unemployment continues, with 95,000 more jobs -- mostly teachers -- lost in September. As millions of Americans sink into desperation, President Obama continues to preach the good word of optimism, based on the gospel of "private sector job growth." According to the President, the hundreds of thousands of public sector jobs that have been recently destroyed - due to the budget crises of nearly every state and municipality - should be overlooked, due to the "encouraging" job growth of the private sector.

For example, in September the private sector added 64,000 jobs (159,000 public sector jobs were lost in September). Even if there had been zero public sector job losses, adding 64,000 jobs would be only half what is needed to keep up with population growth. Most importantly, the minuscule private sector job growth that the President keeps raving about involves low-paying jobs. For example, out of the 64,000 private sector jobs created, 34,000 were low-paying jobs at restaurants and bars, where pay is low and benefits are scarce. This proves what most people already know: wages and benefits continue to spiral downward. Public workers typically make a living wage and have benefits, as opposed to those being hired at coffee shops or as dishwashers. A giant shift is happening, with living-wage jobs in the public sector being axed for low-paying private sector jobs, with millions of unemployed to ensure that wages remain low; this is the basis of the corporate profit boom. Jeannine Aversa of the Associated Press reports: "There are now 14.8 million people officially unemployed in the United States.... People out of work who have stopped looking for jobs are not counted as unemployed... nearly 27 million are 'underemployed'...." October 8, 2010).  http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_economy The threat of unemployment is used to coerce workers into accepting lower wages and preventing them from protesting abusive treatment or lack of benefits. The staggering job losses in the public sector will only worsen as state budget crises are balanced on the back of teachers, social service workers, and other public workers. The lack of action to prevent this hemorrhaging must be viewed as a conscious and well-defined policy with a specific goal. Public workers are the last stronghold in the U.S. labor movement; they are thus the strongest obstacle to the corporate agenda being implemented by both Democrats and Republicans. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 37.4 percent of public workers are unionized, as opposed to only 7.2 percent in the private sector. It's not surprising that the group with the highest unionization rates -- local government workers (43 percent) -- are being targeted the most (this group includes teachers).  http://www.bls.gov/news.release/union2.nr0.htm Public sector unions are in the fight of their lives, and they're losing because they have one hand tied behind their back. For example, the Democratic Party is spearheading the fight against public employees; yet these unions continue to support this corporate party. Also, public sector unions have not joined together in coalitions -- as they do in Europe -- to fight back collectively. Divided, they are far less powerful, since the corporations and their government are tightly united for the unions' destruction. The massive One Nation demonstration in Washington, D.C. proved that unions and other progressive groups can unite under a set of demands. But uniting for one demonstration is not enough. The labor movement and labor's allies plus other progressive groups must unite locally and nationally to fully fund education, social services, and to institute a massive public works program to employ all the unemployed workers in the country. Such demands require that taxes be raised on the wealthy and corporations and that the unwinnable wars in Iraq and Afghanistan end immediately. The vast majority of working people support these ideas, considered too "radical" by the Democrats and Republicans.

homepage: http://www.workerscompass.org

Class Struggle

The major problem in this world is a class struggle - the haves vs.  the have - nots.  Some have, and do not care about anyone but themselves.  I know a few like this.  It doesn't matter what religion they are.  Some are Wiccans, some are Christians, some are ceremonial magicians.  This was the main cause of the Bolshiviek Revolution.  Marx was right.  So was Engels, and even Nat Turner was in the right to start a slave rebellion that was brutally put down by cruel slave master in the South.

Marx also talked about estrangment, which is the lack of community among the people.  This is a real tactic used by the masters of the slaves (the rich) that seek to control the population with fear, money, control of the mainstream media, and now this disease has seeped into the Internet.  We must protest non-violently as Dr. King said many times, but also not fear using any weapon (ala French Revolution) to fight for our rights as human beings.  We all must use communication to build community in our own cities.  Running off to the woods to avoid the frightening prophecies both Christian and non-Christian (sorry, Rainbow Family, it will just not work that way) is counter productive.  (We need you again to heal this planet.)


No one got their social security raise this year, our US economy is in the toilet and the media lies through their teeth.  As Queensryche wrote in one of their songs "the rich control the government, the media and the law."  In an older post, I wrote that the rich and powerful control people with lobyists, lawyers, corrupt corporate and banking practices, and even through the darkest magics conceivable to humanity.

We can vote with our dollar to boycott these offending companies that want to throw their wieght araound like as if we were mere playthings to their whims and desires.   Caesar Chavez started a boycott on table grapes to protest the deplorable slave wages the grape pickers that endured great poverty were paid.  Dr. Martin Luther King started the Montgomery bus boycott to protest segregation.  All you activists know who these criminals against Mother Earth are.  We must take matters into our own hands before the planet does.

We must also protest loudly in the streets in our cities, and endure once again possibly the water cannons, dogs and even bullets of the jack-booted bullies we call police.

Blessed Be,
Riverwind