Labor
Senator Sherrod Brown apologized after giving a speech on the Senate floor March 4 where he stated the obvious, that Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin and Egyptian President Mubarak all crushed independent labor unions. No need to apologize, Senator Brown. The Republicans never do, as they endorse the policies of union busters. The only thing, Senator, you should be mildly chagrined about, is failing to point out Ohio Governor John Kasich and Wisconsin Governor Walker's similarities to Mussolini's fascism.
As Kasich takes money from the new corporate robber barons – the Koch brothers and Rupert Murdoch – let's quote Mussolini directly: "Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power." Kasich has just won his battle to privatize economic development in Ohio. Again the more accurate word would be "corporatize."
As Kasich takes money from the new corporate robber barons – the Koch brothers and Rupert Murdoch – let's quote Mussolini directly: "Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power." Kasich has just won his battle to privatize economic development in Ohio. Again the more accurate word would be "corporatize."
Dear President Obama,
I'm glad you've opposed the attacks on Wisconsin's public workers, but you need to do more. You need to go there and speak out, or at least speak out again and more strongly, because Americans need to understand what's at stake, and those who are standing up there and elsewhere need to see you standing beside them. If you speak out powerfully enough, you might not only help stop Scott Walker's raw power grab and the similar actions of Walker's compatriots in other states. You might even help revive the long-demoralized spirits of those whose volunteer efforts carried you to the presidency.
I'm glad you've opposed the attacks on Wisconsin's public workers, but you need to do more. You need to go there and speak out, or at least speak out again and more strongly, because Americans need to understand what's at stake, and those who are standing up there and elsewhere need to see you standing beside them. If you speak out powerfully enough, you might not only help stop Scott Walker's raw power grab and the similar actions of Walker's compatriots in other states. You might even help revive the long-demoralized spirits of those whose volunteer efforts carried you to the presidency.
The national corporate campaign to destroy America's public sector unions has drawn first blood in Ohio.
But a counter-attack centered on one or more statewide initiatives or constitutional amendments has become highly likely.
While thousands of protestors chanted, spoke and sang inside and outside the statehouse for the past two weeks (SB 5 Rally), the Ohio Senate voted 17-16 on Senate Bill 5, a bill that will slash collective bargaining for state workers by banning strikes and giving local officials the right to settle disputes. The bill, among other things, also eliminates all paid sick days from teachers.
The vote came amid shouts of "shame on you" and widespread booing from the diverse crowd of teachers, police, firefighters, construction workers, state employees and more.
Photograph by Bob Studzinski
But a counter-attack centered on one or more statewide initiatives or constitutional amendments has become highly likely.
While thousands of protestors chanted, spoke and sang inside and outside the statehouse for the past two weeks (SB 5 Rally), the Ohio Senate voted 17-16 on Senate Bill 5, a bill that will slash collective bargaining for state workers by banning strikes and giving local officials the right to settle disputes. The bill, among other things, also eliminates all paid sick days from teachers.
The vote came amid shouts of "shame on you" and widespread booing from the diverse crowd of teachers, police, firefighters, construction workers, state employees and more.
Photograph by Bob Studzinski
The escalating confrontations in Wisconsin and Ohio are ultimately about preventing the United States from becoming a full-on fascist state.
The stakes could not be higher---or more clear.
As defined by its inventor, Benito Mussolini, fascism is "corporate control of the state." There are ways to beat around the Bush---Paul Krugman has recently written about "oligarchy"---but it's time to end all illusions and call what we now confront by its true name.
The fights in Wisconsin, Ohio, and in numerous other states are about saving the last shreds of American democracy. They burn down to five basic realities:
1) The bulwark of modern democracy is the trade union. This has been true since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. All social programs can trace their roots to union activism, as can the protection of our civil liberties.
The first Germans Hitler put in concentration camps were neither Jews nor gypsies---they were trade unionists.
The stakes could not be higher---or more clear.
As defined by its inventor, Benito Mussolini, fascism is "corporate control of the state." There are ways to beat around the Bush---Paul Krugman has recently written about "oligarchy"---but it's time to end all illusions and call what we now confront by its true name.
The fights in Wisconsin, Ohio, and in numerous other states are about saving the last shreds of American democracy. They burn down to five basic realities:
1) The bulwark of modern democracy is the trade union. This has been true since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. All social programs can trace their roots to union activism, as can the protection of our civil liberties.
The first Germans Hitler put in concentration camps were neither Jews nor gypsies---they were trade unionists.
The State House parking garage was full an hour before the hearing. So were the hallways and the Atrium and the Rotunda. A sea of blue-shirted firefighters and SEIU members, green AFSCME shirts and signs, and teachers wearing their red OEA buttons filled the Statehouse for the first hearing on SB 5, a bill designed to carry out Republican Governor Kasich’s campaign pledge—or threat-- to “break the back of organized labor in the schools” and other public institutions. There were too many public employees to count, but one Columbus news channel called it “thousands” of people. They were out in a show of force, not ready to have their backs broken, or their collective bargaining rights taken away, as the bill proposed to do.
The final gun sounded on last week’s Super Bowl and Green Bay had won it’s 14th National Football League Championship, the most of any NFL franchise. The city of Chicago is second, with 11, when you include the Bears, Staleys & Cardinals. I’m sure that there were few folks sitting in front of their TVs thinking; “I wonder why the tiny little working class town of Green Bay, Wisconsin has an NFL franchise?” However, to those interested in the history of our nation’s working class, there is an interesting story behind that question.
A TOUGH GAME PLAYED BY TOUGH GUYS!
A TOUGH GAME PLAYED BY TOUGH GUYS!
Socialism has again triumphed at the Super Bowl.
The only major sports team owned by the community in which it lives has toughed out its fourth modern-era National Football League championship.
But the billionaire bosses of the rest of the league may be about to again assault the players---and the rest of us---who make it all possible.
Predictably, though FOX broadcast the Super Bowl, CBS refused to air a player's union ad that was to air during another game on February 5.
The Packers' gritty win underscores the kind of ownership that should be in place for all major sports teams. As a part owner (3 shares) of the Packers, I hate watching greedy union-busting bosses blackmail whole cities for tax breaks and new stadiums. They whine about "losses" but won't open their books to the public or players.
The only major sports team owned by the community in which it lives has toughed out its fourth modern-era National Football League championship.
But the billionaire bosses of the rest of the league may be about to again assault the players---and the rest of us---who make it all possible.
Predictably, though FOX broadcast the Super Bowl, CBS refused to air a player's union ad that was to air during another game on February 5.
The Packers' gritty win underscores the kind of ownership that should be in place for all major sports teams. As a part owner (3 shares) of the Packers, I hate watching greedy union-busting bosses blackmail whole cities for tax breaks and new stadiums. They whine about "losses" but won't open their books to the public or players.
A new study by one of the country’s most highly regarded labor experts makes
clear beyond doubt that illegal employer actions and lax government
oversight have denied great and growing numbers of workers the legal right
of unionization.
That’s had much to with the percentage of workers belonging to unions dropping to little more than 12 percent from a level almost double that three decades ago, says Kate Bronfenbrenner. She’s director of labor education research at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations.
“Our labor law system is broken,” Bronfenbrenner concluded. “Polling consistently shows that a majority of workers believe they would be better off if they had a union in their workplace, but they also feel that they would be taking a great risk if they were to try to organize.”
As a result, she says, “the overwhelming majority of workers who want unions don’t have them.”
That’s had much to with the percentage of workers belonging to unions dropping to little more than 12 percent from a level almost double that three decades ago, says Kate Bronfenbrenner. She’s director of labor education research at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations.
“Our labor law system is broken,” Bronfenbrenner concluded. “Polling consistently shows that a majority of workers believe they would be better off if they had a union in their workplace, but they also feel that they would be taking a great risk if they were to try to organize.”
As a result, she says, “the overwhelming majority of workers who want unions don’t have them.”
It's the 75th anniversary of what's known in labor lore as "The Big Strike"
-- the remarkable event that brought open warfare to San Francisco's
waterfront, led to one of the very few general strikes in U.S. history and
played a key role in spreading unionization nationwide.
It began in May of the dark Depression year of 1934 when longshoremen walked off the job to protest the truly wretched working conditions on West Coast docks.
Longshoremen were not even guaranteed jobs, no matter how skilled or experienced they might be. They had to report to the docks every morning and hope a hiring boss would pick them from among the thousands of desperate job-seekers who jammed the waterfront for the daily "shapeup."
Bosses rarely chose those who raised serious complaints about pay and working conditions or otherwise challenged them, but were quite partial to those who slipped them bribes or bought them drinks at nearby bars.
Even those who were hired often weren't sure how long they'd work. They might be needed for only a few hours or for as many as l8, sometimes even more, usually worked at top speed without breaks. .
It began in May of the dark Depression year of 1934 when longshoremen walked off the job to protest the truly wretched working conditions on West Coast docks.
Longshoremen were not even guaranteed jobs, no matter how skilled or experienced they might be. They had to report to the docks every morning and hope a hiring boss would pick them from among the thousands of desperate job-seekers who jammed the waterfront for the daily "shapeup."
Bosses rarely chose those who raised serious complaints about pay and working conditions or otherwise challenged them, but were quite partial to those who slipped them bribes or bought them drinks at nearby bars.
Even those who were hired often weren't sure how long they'd work. They might be needed for only a few hours or for as many as l8, sometimes even more, usually worked at top speed without breaks. .
Although many Americans have been hit hard by the continuing – and alarming
– growth of unemployment, none have come close to being hit as devastatingly
hard as the country’s African-American workers.
The unemployment rate among African-Americans is above 15 percent, more than twice the rate for white workers and almost 7 percent higher than the rate for African-American rate a year ago. The jobless include more than one-third of the African-Americans aged 16 to 19 who want and need jobs.
The figures come from a new report by the Center for American Progress, a think tank headed by John Podesta, the Georgetown University law professor who served as President Clinton’s chief of staff.
As bad as the situation is, the report says it “will likely only increase as the economic crisis deepens.”
The unemployment rate among African-Americans is above 15 percent, more than twice the rate for white workers and almost 7 percent higher than the rate for African-American rate a year ago. The jobless include more than one-third of the African-Americans aged 16 to 19 who want and need jobs.
The figures come from a new report by the Center for American Progress, a think tank headed by John Podesta, the Georgetown University law professor who served as President Clinton’s chief of staff.
As bad as the situation is, the report says it “will likely only increase as the economic crisis deepens.”