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Wisconsin is another in a long string of hard lessons for working people proving that:
(1) Democrats are just as much our enemies as Republicans – both bust unions, impose austerity, refuse to give us socialized medicine, want to slash Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid, approve trillions in gifts for the banksters and a pittance for unemployment relief, homelessness and food stamp programs.
(2) That elections in a banana republic like the US are essentially rigged by the vast wealth of the .01% who own both parties and who’ve passes enough anti-democratic laws, beginning with the Electoral College, to keep the left off the ballot.
(3) That change – real, fundamental, revolutionary change – doesn’t come from elections but from mass movements and from mass actions, in particular general strikes. In the spring of 2011, shortly after Walker escalated his attack on union the South Central Federation of Labor (SCFL-Wisconsin) voted to support a general strike if the legislation was passed and signed. It took the combined efforts of the AFL-CIO leadership and Democrat scabs to block the strike and instead they proposed the electoral farce whose results we see today.
The goal for unions and the union left and our allies in the occupy movements has to be to continue to press for the unleashing of the AFL-CIOs Labor Party and other independent political action groups, to use elections for the only thing they’re good for, education and organizing, and to promote and plan for general strikes as a big step on the road to our ultimate goal, the creation of a government exclusively of, by and for working people.
Bill Perdue, Railroad Workers United, Transportation Communications Union, International Association of Machinists, AFL-CIO, retired
71 Comments
“It took the combined efforts of the AFL-CIO leadership and Democrat scabs”; yeah, union leadership is an oxymoron and those that think the system can be reformed from within are the same type thaat would have drunk the Flavor Aid in Jonestown.
When it begins to effect their stomachs then they will be out in the streets. Not before.
Historically this has been the case.
Actually, exit polling showed that 53% of Walker voters back Obama, so this isn’t anything other than people saying “enough with the recalls already!”
“Afl-cio’s leader says “We hope Scott Walker heard Wisconsin: Nobody wants divisive policies.” ; goes to what you wrote Bill.
Dunno. I abhor violence. But I only see revolution as a recourse. And it will fail against overwhelming violence. All bad.
I went and dug out an Ian Welsh quote I’d clipped and saved; it seems appropriate here:
“The old left exists to bring in money and keep paying themselves. This is as true of union leadership as it is of the majority of environmental organizations. The leadership of almost all of these organizations is deeply corrupt. All they care about is whether they can fundraise off of something. If they can’t, they despise it. They will, and do, regularly sell out of the interests of their own supposed constituents, in order to make their personal lives easier, to get richer, and to keep hobnobbing with important people.”
“Movements which bypass the old left, like Occupy Wall Wall Street or Wikileaks, or Anonymous, are MORE of a threat to the old left leadership than the right wing, the Tea Party or the Republicans.”
Yep.
And Bill –
You’re wrong; the unions (at the leadership level) are the DINO Dems. As I posted on the liveblog thread, you can’t have a labor movement made up almost entirely of public employee unions and service workers’ union like SEIU. You gotta cover a significant segment of the private sector, in everything from manufacturing and construction to high-tech and administrative support.
Glad you saved it; I do wonder what occurred that Ian stopped being on the blog roll and dropping by; of course I wonder about a lot of things.
As a rule such crushing pessimism is an excuse for inaction.
Bill, if unions learn from this I absolutely agree it’s not a defeat. It in fact could be a big win if the unions stay together and stop their knee-jerk support for a dem party that has demonstrated they don’t give a rat’s ass about unions.
It’s a realistic appraisal, I’m afraid. Not that I like to say it.
The only thing that *could* be positive (but probably won’t) about the coming collapse of trade unionism in the US that it might–just might–redirect worker’s energies away from trade unionism/regulation-tamed capitalism towards what the goal of unions was originally–socialism, worker control and democracy in the workplace. But I fear that too many workers today are indoctrinated in “capitalism is the only system that ‘works’” even though it’s plainly not working for them now and in truth has never worked anytime it has broken free from its chains.
The New Deal tried to save and tame capitalism. Now we know it will break out of any cage you devise for it. Time to kill it.
-stewartm
The rancid role of the AFL-CIO misleadership and the right wing politics of SEIU in no way represent the interests of working people.
Pro .01% politicians are responsible, beginning with Carter, who began the deregulation of rail, surface and air transport and the telephone/communications industries. He and Reagan cost us hundreds of thousands of jobs.
Reagan and Bush1 both contributed to the loss of jobs but it was Clinton who was the major culprit in all this. He championed and signed both NAFTA and the bill ending Depression era regulations designed to prevent predatory banksters from ruining the economy. Which is exactly what they did as soon as the ink was dry on the bill, producing a housing market inflationary bubble that burst in 2007, throwing millions out of work and creating the current Depression, what Paul Krugman of the NY Times calls the Third, or Long Depression. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/28/opinion/28krugman.html
After Clinton came eight years of George Bush pushing an agenda of tax breaks for the rich, more deregulation and more export of union jobs with Democrats clamoring to be the first to get in line behind Bush. Then came Obama, who’s well on his way to being worse than Clinton and Bush combined. Obama’s policies consist of offering bailouts instead of bail to the rich, sabotaging the fight for socialized medicine, breaking the UAW and providing the union busting rulebook now being followed by Walker in Wisconsin, Cuomo in New York, Perry in Texas and Brown in California.
In the fall of 2008, shortly after the election socialists said that Obama would preside over the end of the American ‘dream’, that he’d reward the rich and impose austerity and that the Democrat (and Republican) parties were on their way to extinction. We didn’t come to those conclusions reading tea leaves but by having a clear understanding that this is a class society, with a ruling class and a working class and that there is no possibility of class peace.
Interesting. I read a piece in Counter Punch a few years back about the corruption in non-pros and how those that run them bask in some ego trip of not being part of the system.
All the while raking in scabs of money – little of it going to the actual causes.
Unions will have won when the rank and file and the uneploymed work to end the misrule of the ‘suits’ in DC.
Thats alerady happening.
TDU – http://tdu.org/ Teamsters
RWU – http://railroadworkersunited.org/ Railroaders
ILWU – http://www.ilwu.org/ Longshore workers
NNU – http://www.nationalnursesunited.org/ Nurses
Trade unions won’t collapse, their pro-Democrat leaders will.
As wages and benefits fall union organization drives, especially if they consciously involve unemployed workers, will transform the movement and it’ll expand explosively. Think 1934-1948 all over again.
Exactly correct.
I agree with all the comments about corruption of union leadership, but also a more general lessons, i.e., that it is easy for 0.1%ers to corrupt union leaders. The former have all the money & all the power; how could any leader of any subgroup not be corrupted by that.
I have read some about the Gilded Age and labor’s ability to gain some meager rights in the face of it. It took workers’ willingness to literally lay their lives on the lines in the face of Pinkerton thugs.
I see nothing like that in the U.S. at the present time.
Of course WI was a loss for labor and a gigantic win for Ds, who also want labor to lose.
This is absolutely a major defeat for the unions. How can you say it is not? The anti-union policy supported by many corrupt unions has been consistent through both democratic and republican administrations. For documentation see Unions – http://newprogs.org/blog/2012/02/05/unions-under-democraticrepublican-uni-party
The Kochs chortle.
Unions lost last spring when they were prevented from organizing a general strike. Unions lose every thime they support a Demorat.
The was a race for governor between two lesser evils. Unions and working people didn’t have a horse in this race. The Demorats did (although to be precise it wasn’t a horse, it was a jackass) and they lost.
Thanks for the link – I have heard from these people in years.
The Dems are thrilled because their bogeyman is still alive and those anti-Walker bucks will come in from all around the country. Thank God basketball and hockey have been so exciting. Fuck politics. I’ll come back when the revolution takes to the streets.
I read around a bit and the comments by ordinary voters were of the misery loves company variety: we’re up against it, it’s time union people felt the pain. People are angry and frightened, seriously threatened economically, and they want the union people they perceive to have had the good life thus far to know how hard it is. Call it economic necklacing. I remember a stunning picture of a 14 year old South African girl with a burning tire around her neck and her hands trying to push down her skirt that was blowing up past modesty. If I live to be 100………
There’s nothing to be gained turning on your own, but union members have too long ignored the real hardships and uncertainties of ordinary workers outside the protections of unions and the elites, who live in another economic and legal universe, have bent every effort to encourage that antagonism because while we’re eating one another alive, they’re dining at exquisite restaurants in enclaves of wealth. And they intend to keep it that way. It’s beyond naive to ask why the governing class doesn’t recognize liberalism’s failures. The system works brilliantly for them.
The teaching assistants are the only union group that had any sense, at all, in this: http://althouse.blogspot.com/2012/05/uws-teaching-assistants-association-has.html
That should be neoliberalism’s failures.
Does anyone on the ground have an opinion about the state senate races? Would any of those contests have gone better if the recall efforts had concentrated there instead of on Walker? I’m thinking the focus on the governor’s seat was a misapplication of resources.
I disagree. The majority of Democratic voters hate unions. Hell, the majority of Democratic voters supported Bush’s invasion of Iraq. We lefties forget that sometimes. Dems are right wingers. What more proof do you need than Wisconsin?
Walker won 56.2% to 46.3%, a gap of 6.9%, and 17% of voters who will vote for Obama voted for Walker.
Suppose that half of the voters favor Obama, then that 17% of his supporters constitute 6.5% of the voters overall. Had they all of them voted for Barrett instead of Walker, that would take 6.5% away from Walker’s 56.2% giving him 49.7% and added 6.5% to Barrett’s 46.3% giving him 52.8%.
So the fact that Barack “I’ll put on my marching shoes” Obama was a no-show in Wisconsin may have been a deciding factor in this election.
I read that 36% of the union families in Wisconsin voted for Walker.
How long will it take you finally walk away from the Democrats who continue to sell you to the corporate master?
Good comment.Goes and gets to the middle.
Being a native of WI this is my take away too of this 6/05/12 Walker win in WI. There may be some recounts but doubtful they will alter this win going to Walker. Walker may still end up being convicted for being a law breaker but he will be able to postpone that outcome for the time being with enough money,lawyers and playing Catch Me If You Can.
WI has history of once being a big industrialized state in which firms such as Allis-Chamlers,General Motors,American Motors,J.I.Case,Fairbanks-Morse,Parker,Fort Howard,Oscar Mayer,Miller Beer,West Bend,Gehl and The Milwaukee Road just form a good start of listing the work that was done in WI. Paper making/processing and metal foundries were at one time large employer/employee WI subsets. Entire communities orbited around small business that served/serviced WI small/mid size fabrication/ and manufacture. Served/serviced local farming with farm machinery and farm related goods and services. The small WI town I grew up in had a Allis-Chamlers dealer,a McCormick dealer,a Oliver dealer and a John Deere dealer. A Ford,Chevy and Plymouth dealer. Two locally owned and run lumber yards,three hardware stores and a vibrant downtown business district. All this is now largely gone at the small town,city and rural level. Community commonwealth? What’s that?
WI is not a poor state by any valid measure but that is what hacks like Scott Walker are selling as they surf off the fears and anxieties of WI families,workers and small business operators. Seeing WI government workers getting secure retirement,healthcare,holiday and vacation packages while you are working two-three jobs and still falling down/not even keeping even or getting ahead is a political hot button more than a few want to ” do something about”. Scott Walker just rides the wave of this being in place. Is it a good governance,long vision solution to gut WI government and speed up the race to bottom BS? No. But Scott Walker is betting on enough people not knowing or being able to know in time/effectively that Scott Walker is someone’s paid hack and tool. See who put the money into WI to keep Walker as WI Governor and that will give a big clue who Scott Walker answers to.
United States is not a poor nation. Never was. Looking at where we Americans were in 1910,1940,1970 and 2000 and where we are here in 2012 it is a story of the capitalists having junked USA factories and built up infrastructure efforts of many decades in favor of Wall Street payouts/takeouts and moving investments/jobs post 1980 to Mexico,China and now SE Asia is going to get the full exploitation/extraction deal.
American politics need to get better. Certainly better than what we Americans have put together since 1945. Or 1975.Or 2005. Races to the bottom and afflicting the already afflicted will not solve anything for common Americans and American families very well or for long. Too much wealth has gone to the top and is not coming around or back down. It is this obscene imbalance of wealth and what wealth can do when spread wider instead of being piled up at the top that Americans will need to confront. Barack Obama ain’t going to lead on this. The Ds are not going to lead on this. The Rs? Not worth considering. Best way ahead is to detour both the Ds and Rs and create the politics common Americans need to get to the year 2100. It is only 88 years away.
Barack Obama pulled a big bait/switch in 2008 and Bill and Hillary Clinton are not interested in doing what is right time after time. This gets us as far back as 1992 with WH Ds. The Ds are not up to the task. The Rs are giving us G.W.Bush,Mitt Romney to be or get to be in the WH. Scott Walker in WI,Rick Scott in FL and Rick Perry in TX as governors. These three are considered A Team R governors while G.W.Bush or Mitt Romney are served up to be POTUS. Between the feckless Ds and ruinous Rs we Americans get craptastic choices to run elections around. This Re-Call Election in WI is a prime example. Americans need better politics that create and put in place real solutions. Americans need less militarism. Less Corporatism. Less Wall Street Greed Feed.
What is War Monger/War Criminal Barack Obama talking about in 2012? Doing more militarism and imperial death dealing. Doing more Reaganism and less FDRism. These seem to be it when you peel off Obama’s soft sell BS.
What is the difference between UniParty Obama and UniParty Romney? In most ways about the same difference between Coke and Pepsi. Only the Big Colas just sell us colored,flavored fizz water. Obama and Romney are selling us deceptions,misdirections and smoke/mirror nonsense. Unless and until we toss these posers and charlatans out of our way what is going to change or get better? Little or nothing at all.
Well, Bill and YOU both make solid points IMHO.
Hear hear!!!
A pox on the uniparty and the 1%.
Nah, I love your buy in to the simplicity you’ve been posting about tonite, that was offered by others.
But it’s a false meme PW.
Walkers win is all about 8:1 spending ratio, the dump Obama and the DNC did on the Wisconsin Dems, and a complete and utter obfuscation media wise backing Walker due to 1% media buys, leveraging and arm twisting by the corporate 1% who OWN the media.
I just don’t agree or buy in to your thots regarding recall burnout, that’s a faux meme being spread by faux proggies, and I am greatly saddened PW, you echo it.
Whatever possesses you to do so? I thought you were a proggy.
Agreed. Plain and simple, too, has been, for decades before Occupy.
Labor has sold out the middle class and the lower class to hold it’s place at the table of 1% delights.
Nuttin new here to see or read . . .
Yeah but the problem is that unions don’t give a rats ass about the masses who are not union, unions only care about keeping their seat at the table the 1% sets, been this way for decades.
Labor and unions suck.
They are a false front, a faux meme, compared to what they were in the 20′s/30′s and such.
Unions are selling out their own, and have been, for quite a while.
You DO pay attention to these things, doncha?
Word, nicely penned and shared.
*bows*
To be fair to the reality, I guess I should say I believe union leadership is fat cat city, and so are some proportion of the memberships.
However, to draw the line utterly as you have, upon ALL union members is a bit harsh.
The POINT you make is legit, but, I’d stick to using union leadership as the bad guy, and avoid stigmatizing union membership overall as you do.
Just a thot to share, cuz hoss, we’re all really fucked under this system as it exists, and we need each other, whether we know it or not yet . . .
Union members have been oblivious to, or only peripherally aware of, the precarious state of employment outside the unions. Unions long ago should have made the point that their benefits are ordinary decency and should be standard employment fare for everyone rather than special privileges. And union leadership needed to remind its members that non union workers were getting an increasingly bad deal and deserved better.
I saw the effects of being in a small world when I worked for a large company that had recently bought the much smaller company I was working in and pulled it into the larger corporate universe. I’ve worked freelance most of my life, so I’ve been exposed to a lot of companies’ pay scales and employee policies. The employees of this company were long timers and hadn’t been outside the company for years, sometimes decades. None of them had a clue what the prevailing rates were. The acquiring company cut their pay nearly in half. I didn’t tell them that if they had worked where I came from, they’d be making 50 percent less again. By the prevailing standards, they were still substantially overpaid–which the acquiring company planned to correct by not giving raises until equilibrium was reached. We all live in our little bubbles.
Well, why don’t we just divide again: union members versus nonunion members.
“Union members don’t give a rat’s ass about other workers.” Bullshit. They DO care about other workers. They have friends and family members who are nonunion. What do you want union members to do about it? They see their benefits cut every time enter into negotiation with management. If you’re going to piss on another group of people, why don’t you piss on the right ones: the union leaders.
“I didn’t tell them that if they had worked where I came from, they’d be making 50 percent less again..” You think that’s good? You think if their wages were lowered, that would somehow be just?
Bah. Union-bashing at its finest.
As you wish. Bitter.
Seriously, do you think it would be good if union members received pay and benefits cuts, so their standard of living would be equal to lower paid workers?
“By the prevailing standards, they were still substantially overpaid…”
Talk about bitter. And you call yourself a liberal.
Ian Welsh this morning:
http://www.ianwelsh.net/the-scott-walker-recall-fails/
Okay. I’ll buy that, but as John Puma wrote in the comments section: “public service unions are the last unions that reemergent American fascism has yet to completely destroy.”
People dumb enough to vote against their own self-interest deserve what they get. walker won only because he had more money to influence the sheep. Recalls are valid, legal ways of removing politicians who abuse the power of their office, which Walker did in spades. If we are unwilling to exercise the one of few avenues we have left to reign in corrupt and immoral politicos, then we have no right to complain. Getting rid of Walker AND Obama is what Wisconsin voters should have been thinking.
“We begin by coveting what we see every day.”—Hannibal Lecter
Your assumptions about what unionists think and do in relation to the unorganized and unemployed/underemployed sectors of our – not your – class are wrongheaded and are fuel for union busters.
If you think union pay and benefits should be extended do what serious people do – form and build a union, build the union left and work with the occupiers.
Confusing the misleadership of unions with union members is clueless. hatred of unions is reactionary.
But as long as the meme is that workers should “bargain with boss” instead of “BEING the boss” that too will be only at most a temporary patch.
-stewartm
Bingo !
Exactly-Exactly correct Mr Perdue. From Minnesota. Oh and there is some good news coming from Minnesota. Grin.
Mike Flannigan weighs in in his usually merciless way the Wisconsin Recall election in “Wisconsin Brain Death Trip.”
Yes. And that’s why we need to build the unions, the union left, the Occupiers and a massive revolutionary socialist party of workers.
Nothing will change much until we succeed in creating a governemnt and a state exclusively of by and for workers. That’s our only real task in all this. There rest are just step along the way.
On the Diner this morning I gave the scenario if Walker had been defeated. Would it be likely that in the shadow of Obama unions would then be safe? I think it would be more likely, and more depressing, that the shift away from democratic principles and New Deal ethos would be ramped up. Also, my understanding is that the balance of power in the Wisconsin legislature has shifted to the Democrats. Isn’t it better for those local folk NOT to be under the thumb of a Democratic governor, this potential Democratic governor? Won’t they be more free to have spine? – that’s happening here in New Mexico.
It’s not much, but it’s better than nothing.
Wisconsin and Egypt were linked at the time of the protests. We can take the comparison further to see that the ptb clinging to power in Egypt have attempted to orchestrate elections there and give a choice that is no choice to the Egyptians -same in Wisconsin. And we can see that protests continue in Egypt for the long, unwavering surge towards something better. It’s very hard to unseat a cancer on government when it has penetrated so many good efforts in order to prevent change. But there’s really no way they can succeed in holding back the tide.
Stay strong and peaceful, folks!
You know, Wendy Davis, a couple of summers back, during the 2008 Pres election cycle, a caller in to C Span started mouthing off about how the two parties are both the same, and that there are few differences between the leaders of either party. Then we viewers saw the man get cut off. I had never in my life seen Brian Lamb so eager to 86 someone from the phones there.
The election cycle not only enriches the leaders of both parties, but also the Big Media, which receives hundreds of billions of dollars in ad revenue for presenting two different people for so many offices. And in the end, both contestants give us the same old same old.
I like the way you think.
“Labor and unions suck”
Given that false premise there is little I can say to you. The people who made it possible to provide most all the things you have or use suck in your mind indicates a close mind or a simple minded repub.
I disagree, of course.
Interesting read.
If I follow your argument, having the usual suspect as a Democratic governor wouldn’t be helpful. Looking to the current WH and Congress, there’s a lot to support that line of reasoning.
This is what I’m seeing on a couple of totally unrelated blogs [e.g., one re the law school scam]: that it’s “time to bring down those union guys, their tenure, their pensions and their cushy jobs.”
Absolutely no “solidarity” and realization of the common-ness of being fucked by the bosses.
I’m also wondering how Obama & Co. can think that all those Dems who supported the recall, who lived a fairly risky life in doing so, who contributed time and money — how they’re gonna feel about being urged to come out in November and vote for Obama, who didn’t lift a finger for them, who refused to put any Dem money in, and who pals around with the rich guys.
As demonstrated by Obama’s previous dissing of progressives or anyone to the left of Reagan, he just doesn’t get that people have values, feelings and loyalties. [Because he has none of any of these.]
Interesting read and commentary. I disagree with that this is a defeat for Dems but not for Unions. I think it’s a defeat for both.
I have little expectation that the so-called “Democratic” party will change in my lifetime. They are bought off and just one branch of the Oligarchy-owned UniParty.
The Trade Union movement had either take a deep breath, learn a hard lesson and really get back to basics, or they, too, are a thing of the past. I agree about jealousy. A LOT of citizens have been carefully taught to despise Union workers thinking that they are lazy bums who managed to finegal a good deal for themselves at the expense of everyone else. there is a lesson to be learned here, but from my perspective, I simply don’t see the Unions doing a good job, if any, in teaching what citizens need to learn.
The entrenched & boughtoff Union “leadership” needs to change. Hope it does. Not holding my breath.
Absolutely, it’s the classic response to oppression: vicious fights over scraps while the kennel masters look on. South Africa was heart stopping in its cruelty.
But unions are not acknowledging their parts in the decline. Unions have made some bad decisions and some debilitating partnerships. They haven’t made the efforts they needed to with non union workers. In NJ, the unions can’t even get together among themselves, their conferences are ill attended. Nationally, too many union “leaders” seem weak and irresolute. Forceful and assertive one day, submissive and obedient the next. Tough talk, no tough minded follow thru. They spin like politicians, the excuses are transparent.
Obama is in trouble. The Democrats are in trouble. They’ve made themselves irrelevant: no solutions, nothing material to offer. They won’t even stand in one place for more than a couple of minutes. James Carver, who is sometimes wrong but you always know straight out what he thinks, has a word for the Obama people, PANIC. I agree.
I have another word, LIARS. Bold faced, self-aggrandizing, amoral liars.
This is a defeat for everyone but the 1%. So sad that words fail me.
Though it didn’t all just happen with this election, this result does signal a Big Loss for unions:
The AFL-CIO endorsed President Obama, who continues to vehemently support Slavery in Bahrain: If the AFL-CIO is willing to support Slavery, they obviously are not legitimately interested in helping workers, just in ripping off their money.
Glad you made this comment, because those were my thoughts exactly, wigwam.
Obama promised to put on his walking shoes for labor in the South Carolina primary of 2008; however, when 100,000 workers walked in Wisconsin, Obama was nowhere to be seen.
And he flew over Wisconsin the other day. He couldn’t stop by and rally his base for Barrett?!
I hope the union employees remember how Obama deserted them as he did all of us progressives these past three-and-one-half years.
I am supporting Rocky Anderson. I will never, NEVER, support Obama, or Biden, or Clinton, or any Conservative Democrat again. NEVER!
The Barefoot Accountant
Union employees: remember how Obama was a no show! Remember when he wants you to show next November. Vote Progressive: vote Rocky Anderson.
The Barefoot Accountant
The problem wasn’t that they were overpaid, you were underpaid. And that is the prevailing issue across the board. That is how real wages don’t rise for thirty years. Because people don’t look at the union member or the small company and go that is what we need – how do we get it. They go they have more they have to lose it.
Fuck that shit. Time for most of America to start demanding that if owners and top management want Chinese wages they can live on Chinese management pay and dividends first.
The problem wasn’t that they were overpaid, you were underpaid. And that is the prevailing issue across the board. That is how real wages don’t rise for thirty years. Because people don’t look at the union member or the small company and go that is what we need – how do we get it. They go they have more they have to lose it.
Fuck that shit. Time for most of America to start demanding that if owners and top management want Chinese wages they can live on Chinese management pay and dividends first.
I agree with you completely, but it is an example of how far we have fallen that your example doesn’t go far enough.
My version would go “The AFL-CIO endorsed President Obama, who continues to murder American citizens without stated cause or due process of law: If the AFL-CIO is willing to support the murder of their fellow citizens, they obviously are not legitimately interested in helping workers, just in ripping off their money.
ODahmer has done many, many despicable things. But a ruler who murders his citizens on a whim has to be the bottom of the barrel. And the AFL-CIO has no problem with it. Therefore, I have a problem with them.
Bill, wonderful article. I confess my ignorance: how would workers go about building independent, socialist, non-AFL-CIO-affiliated unions? It seems the logical step towards freedom for the workers is to replace the “house” unions the current crop has become.
I just mentioned Slavery because of its connection to working, but I agree with you that the President can’t be ordering Murders. I’m also against his Genocides in Bahrain – 2 different ones. (You’d think that one Genocide per country would be enough.)
But Obama’s lying about climate science really gets to me. His EPA officially claims that Nukes and Coal are clean.
Actually, 40 years. I lived thru it…….all of it, I went into the workforce in 1968. I’ve been poor all my adult life. You’re not telling me anything I don’t know up close and personal. The prevailing wage is not an approbation, it’s an observation.
“I confess my ignorance: how would workers go about building independent, socialist, non-AFL-CIO-affiliated unions? It seems the logical step towards freedom for the workers is to replace the “house” unions the current crop has become.”
I don’t think we’d get anywhere trying to build alternative unions, but should work to replace the backward, right wing pro-Democrat ‘suits’ currently running the AFL-CIO and CTW. My reference was to political independence, not dual unionism. We need to get our own party to, as Debs said, educate and organize. Unleashing the moribund Labor Party would be a big step towards or main goal, the creation of a workers government.