If You Don't Stand for Something

You'll stand for anything.

The ascendance of capital over labor has reached its highest point since the Great Depression. The portion of workers covered by collective bargaining is at its lowest point since that same time. Coincidence? Hardly.

Our nation aspires to democracy but its workplaces are hostile to worker's democratic participation. This basic contradiction hardens all other inequities in our communities and renders even elementary political conflicts nearly intractable.

Top management of the nation's economic enterprises would not dream of working without a contract. Workers are subject to employment at will and fired if they seek a contract.

Workers had no hand in fomenting the current crisis but we are made responsible for solving it. We had to bail out Goldman Sachs, AIG, Citigroup, and the rest. We've had to give back wages, benefits, and whatever value we managed to accumulate in our homes and 401K's. We are told we must accept cuts in Social Security although no one can explain how that will close the operating deficit in the Federal budget. The goddamned GOP is actually campaigning to repeal national health care for workers and the spineless Democratic Party may just let them do it.

Capital is organized and can make its demands stick. Workers are not organized and can only hope for the best.

Its my hope that the current crisis will reveal the extent of the divide between those who work and those we work for. The ones we work for are well organized. Time for us to get organized, too.