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No More Labor Block Parties!
From The Warzone
No More Labor Block Parties!
IT HAS BEEN inspiring to watch the demonstrations in Madison WI in the face of an all-out declaration of war against the working class; in particular, union workers in the public sector. We can get warm and fuzzy over the solidarity shown or we can get serious and take the next step which is the only way we can guarantee justice for our government employees. While it was encouraging to see the Reverend Jesse Jackson and Richard Trumka [AFL-CIO President] there to support workers, it will take more than words and a dog and pony show to stop this right wing assault on union workers. That next step is a giant step that shuts down the state government and with real solidarity the wheels of commerce as well. No trains, no union trucks, no planes, school, state government offices, no police, firefighters, no production of any kind; not a single wheel should turn. That step should be followed in every state following Walker’s agenda. Anything less and Walker and his corporate scrotum sucking allies [Teabaggers] will win and signal the end for disorganized labor. The stakes are that high!
What is happening in Wisconsin is just the beginning and has nothing to d with balancing that state’s budget. One has to be among the criminally insane to blame workers for the financial crisis most state governments are experiencing. Walker’s un-American actions are part of a much larger agenda to destroy the labor movement and shift what’s left of the working class wealth to the rich and devious. There is movement in Washington by the Republican majority to allow states to use bankruptcy to deny pension obligations to state workers. Both sides of the aisle have already promoted the same agenda in the bailouts of the auto industry.
I was in New York in 1995 when Sweeney and Trumka promised a new voice for American workers before day two when laryngitis overcame Sweeney and Trumka. While the corporate media puts their spin on events in Madison, not one official word has come from the AFL-CIO explaining to the American public what the real issues are. At this point and considering what’s at stake, the AFL-CIO should be in a media blitz. If most Americans understood that public employee pensions were deferred wages and have wrongfully been underfunded or stolen by crooked politicians, public support would be much higher. I have not heard one corporate news outlet address the real issues. I have heard more than enough from Republican strategists, airhead economists and every CNN expert with a short skirt and plunging neckline, but nothing that made sense or addressed the real issues. Even Rush Limbaugh can get it more right than CNN; OK, when he is on drugs that is.
More to the point, labor must take a real stand and if stand up for America’s workers is their slogan, now is the time. My guess is that it will not happen. You could not find enough balls in the entire AFL-CIO Executive Council to play a round of miniature golf.
Mike Griffin
Decatur Il
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