Saturday, February 26, 2011

Demonstrating in Support of Wisconsin Workers

Today I want to a demonstration at the Arizona State Capitol. Young and old were united there today in support of, and solidarity with, the public and private workers across the country whose workplace rights are under assault.

Workers fought and died in the 1930s for the right to collective bargaining. Farm workers carried on the fight so that they too might have voice in the workplace. Public workers first earned the right to collective bargaining in Wisconsin. David DeGraw explains why all workers need to unite to protect collective bargaining.
http://ampedstatus.org/overcoming-divide-and-conquer-strategies-99-9-of-the-us-population-should-support-the-public-unions-fight-against-occupying-economic-imperialists/comment-page-1/#comment-230508

The current assault against worker rights occurring in many states is simply class warfare. Main street did not cause the crisis and workers are not responsible for the poor state of public and private pensions. Wall St. deliberately sold pension funds crap derivatives and then took out bets on the derivatives defaulting in the form of credit default swaps. Matt Taibi provides the details:
http://www.alternet.org/story/150056/matt_taibbi:_why_isn't_wall_street_in_jail?page=4

Even before the current debacle, public and private pensions were deliberately underfunded by administrators and officials for years. Workers' wages did not keep up with inflation but workers trusted in secure retirements. Now the foundations for that retirement are under assault as public and private entities attempt to cut "legacy costs" and downsize social security and medicare.

Corporations, which pay little to no taxes, see no common cause with the American populace. When 5% of the population accounts for 35% of the spending, the vast majority of the populace are simply seen as expendable since they are too poor to buy much more than rent, food, and fuel.

If you want to understand the elite attack against wages and benefits go to Mother Jones' site and examine the charts that document the incredible, vast inequality in our nation between the top 5% of the population and the rest.
http://www.alternet.org/story/150056/matt_taibbi:_why_isn't_wall_street_in_jail?page=4

The rich are getting richer precisely because the middle is falling out and the poor are getting poorer.

The elite have no sense of community or commonwealth.

It is time for the rest of the population, the bottom 95% of the population, to unite in common cause and demand a new deal.

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