Friday I was blown away by a front page story in the NY Times. "General Electric," good old GE made $14 and a half billions of dollars profit in 2010 $5.1 billion in the USA AND WILL NOT PAY A CENT IN TAXES.!!! Can you believe this stuff? Through lobbying and off shore financing they have shown what this coming struggle is about. Yes you guessed it. THE RICH GETTING RICHER AND THE WORKING PEOPLE ARE GONNA PAY FOR IT. (Pssst, A first. Non union workforce constructing major high rise buildings in New York City. I am dreaming. I’m sure.)
Back in November 2010 I wrote a letter to Richard Trumka alerting him to the anti union crusade that the GOP election victory would produce. Yupp, it sure has produced even far beyond what I figured the Tea Party extremists would try. Now we are looking at three Governors who are figuring how to solve their economic woes by eliminating the right of Public Workers to bargain collectively. At the same time making sure that the GE’s and the Koch Brothers of the world pay no taxes at all.
Scott Walker of Wisconsin was the lead off hit man. With a lot of maneuvering around how the State Legislature is supposed to enact laws he managed to get a bill passed that eliminates the right of unions to bargain for their members. (I am sure you saw the hell being raised in Madison as union members fought back. It will go down as a great wake up call for the American labor Movement.)
Okay, so here comes two Walker copycats. Maybe they think that this is a game called “who can be the meanest union buster in the land.” Sort of like an old Western movie. The bad guys are the unions. Michigan’s Rick Snyder and Ohio John Kasich getting into the act to bust the unions. I am certain there will be more to come. How do I know? I know because the Citizens United money is telling the Governors, “you want our money you better deliver.” They want the unions out of the way so they can get back to the good old days of exploiting the workforce, “in any way we dam please.’ How does this apply to teachers or policemen? After all “they’re public servants.”
In order to get us through this recession the GOP needs an enemy. Instead of going after the multi million dollar bonus guys who created the mess, Heah, “lets blame it on the teachers.” That’s right. Can you believe this. GE pays not a cent in taxes and so it’s the teachers to blame for the economic meltdown. Where am I living? Must be in a crazy house.
Okay, so here’s the point again. Richard Trumka, Andy Stein, any other Union leader listening? You have got to start organizing NOW to fight these clearly announced objectives to destroy what is left of the once powerful Labor Movement. The country needs the unions. Our Democracy is dependent upon it.
First step is to put together a National Committee to Save the Unions. They-re assignment to come up with a plan for 2012. It needs to be in great detail what will be done and how in State by State as well as City by City to stop this crusade against labor. Obviously raising money will be a key part of any plan. That needs to start now.
Lets get any Hollywood friends to put on major shows, Madison Square Garden halls in every major city in the land. The union leadership needs to not just show up at rallies but needs to think with bold new ideas to win this fight. Whoever takes the leadership of the movement started in Madison Wisconsin will forever have the grateful thanks of Americas working people.
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Maybe you are right (oops, correct) in that Republican attacks are stimulating a broad response by progressives, including organized labor. My email from Move On and many other leftish/progressive groups shows a lot of activity to protest Wisconsin and other right wing outrages. My fond hope/dream is that the No Nothing Tea Partiers and other Republicans vastly overreach this time, close the government, and fire up an historic backlash among Democrats and Independents that kills the Republican Party as an organized entity! People would get hurt in a shutdown, but they're getting hurt now. Yes, this is fundamentally at least a moderately conservative country so I'm not holding my breath. Nonetheless, this is the worst it's been in my lifetime--and political parties have in fact died in the past. Maybe there's a chance...
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