It's a marker of the labor movement's timidity that the high point of its legislative agenda is the PRO Act, rather than the repeal of all the restrictions put on unions by the Taft-Hartley Act. You can be sure when the Supreme Court takes up the challenges of SpaceX and Amazon to the National Labor Relations Act, they will only void the few remaining bones to labor, like Unfair Labor Practices, while leaving the ruinous parts firmly in place.
As with all things labor related in this country, built of racialized capitalism, there is not just a class, but racial dimension as well. As that certainly applies to the Railway Act of 1926. The "special" ness was that the inaugural meeting of the the Sleeping Car Porters (A Philip Randolph at the helm) convened in August 1925
Workers vote against their best interests. They also do not support others workers.
Reasons:
Ignorance.
Short term self serving greed.
Easily divided by propaganda. Like... White collar vs Blue Collar. How is that going to work when millions of White Collar workers are laid off?
Accountants need a unions.
So do lawyers, and doctors too.
Capitalists want total control. They play to win. Slavery is winning for them.
When millions of poor Americans vote for tax cuts for the wealthy because they think one day they will win the lottery it is frankly stupid.
When they think those trying to actually help them are communists it is again, stupid.
It is not hard to see what the former Republican Party and now the MAGA party do. Tax cuts for the wealthy. Start a war. Increase National Debt. Then blame others.
The Dems are far from perfect.
What to do?
The stupid need to starve. They need to lose their homes. They need to catch the measles. They need to lose a daughter or wife to a medical complication. They need to have their kid sent to Iran to die so some can sell more weapons.
They need to lose their farm. Then work as in serfdom again.
Will they wake up? Will that work?
Sadly, no.
Humans for most of history have let a few manipulate them.
So not for most. Not the daft tribal voters.
The Independents? Maybe.
The liberal educated minds need to reach these people. Not with reason. Not with economic theories.
Emotional appeals to their minds.
Then show you hear them. That you care about them.
Unions took much of the blame for job losses in the US. For factories closing.
The rich closed factories to make more money for themselves. They divide workers. Move factories from Illinois to Indiana. Blame the unions. Then they pay workers less and make more for themselves.
Then eventually they move those jobs to orher countries.
Are unions perfect? No. They have been corrupted. They turn into bureaucracies. They can create an environment where their rules and actions harm the businesses and therefore their own union members.
Germany does it better. Not perfect. Better.
Most are free riding today off of the struggles of those workers that did strike, lost their jobs and some their lives.
Things we take for granted took thousands of years to attain for the US and part of the Modern West. Much of the world isn't there. We might go backwards.
Carnegie was no nice guy. People died in his plants. He ran unsafe factories. When people are desperate they will thank a Carnegie for a crumb to keep them barely alive for jusr another day. While he amassed great wealth.
Sure, he gave away the wealth. Not to the workers he exploited. He gave it away so his name would continue on. Has unions been allowed he would not have amassed such wealth. He would have been wealthy. Just not obscenely wealthy.
It's a marker of the labor movement's timidity that the high point of its legislative agenda is the PRO Act, rather than the repeal of all the restrictions put on unions by the Taft-Hartley Act. You can be sure when the Supreme Court takes up the challenges of SpaceX and Amazon to the National Labor Relations Act, they will only void the few remaining bones to labor, like Unfair Labor Practices, while leaving the ruinous parts firmly in place.
As with all things labor related in this country, built of racialized capitalism, there is not just a class, but racial dimension as well. As that certainly applies to the Railway Act of 1926. The "special" ness was that the inaugural meeting of the the Sleeping Car Porters (A Philip Randolph at the helm) convened in August 1925
and that's why the ultimate irony of 1894, imprisoning Debs under the Sherman Anti-Trust Act...
We need that Wobbly union model, everywhere and always.
Workers vote against their best interests. They also do not support others workers.
Reasons:
Ignorance.
Short term self serving greed.
Easily divided by propaganda. Like... White collar vs Blue Collar. How is that going to work when millions of White Collar workers are laid off?
Accountants need a unions.
So do lawyers, and doctors too.
Capitalists want total control. They play to win. Slavery is winning for them.
When millions of poor Americans vote for tax cuts for the wealthy because they think one day they will win the lottery it is frankly stupid.
When they think those trying to actually help them are communists it is again, stupid.
It is not hard to see what the former Republican Party and now the MAGA party do. Tax cuts for the wealthy. Start a war. Increase National Debt. Then blame others.
The Dems are far from perfect.
What to do?
The stupid need to starve. They need to lose their homes. They need to catch the measles. They need to lose a daughter or wife to a medical complication. They need to have their kid sent to Iran to die so some can sell more weapons.
They need to lose their farm. Then work as in serfdom again.
Will they wake up? Will that work?
Sadly, no.
Humans for most of history have let a few manipulate them.
So not for most. Not the daft tribal voters.
The Independents? Maybe.
The liberal educated minds need to reach these people. Not with reason. Not with economic theories.
Emotional appeals to their minds.
Then show you hear them. That you care about them.
Unions took much of the blame for job losses in the US. For factories closing.
The rich closed factories to make more money for themselves. They divide workers. Move factories from Illinois to Indiana. Blame the unions. Then they pay workers less and make more for themselves.
Then eventually they move those jobs to orher countries.
Are unions perfect? No. They have been corrupted. They turn into bureaucracies. They can create an environment where their rules and actions harm the businesses and therefore their own union members.
Germany does it better. Not perfect. Better.
Most are free riding today off of the struggles of those workers that did strike, lost their jobs and some their lives.
Things we take for granted took thousands of years to attain for the US and part of the Modern West. Much of the world isn't there. We might go backwards.
Carnegie was no nice guy. People died in his plants. He ran unsafe factories. When people are desperate they will thank a Carnegie for a crumb to keep them barely alive for jusr another day. While he amassed great wealth.
Sure, he gave away the wealth. Not to the workers he exploited. He gave it away so his name would continue on. Has unions been allowed he would not have amassed such wealth. He would have been wealthy. Just not obscenely wealthy.
Rant over.
Nice article.
It takes workers AND capital.
A fair game is impossible when both the refs and too many of the play-by-play announcers are on the payroll of the rich.
America isn't fucked.
It's Borked.