Whistling past the grave...

[nadinbrzezinski]

I am not a teacher, so why should I care?

(Your kids, and unions, oh the eight hour day, five day week... vacation and even minimum pay)

I am not an auto worker, so why should I care?


(Your kids, and unions, oh the eight hour day, five day week... vacation and even minimum pay)

I am not a miner, so why should I care?


(Your kids, and unions, oh the eight hour day, five day week... vacation and even minimum pay)

I could go on. But there's a concerted effort against labor of any kind in this country. The gains that were made by other generations of workers, workers who at times DIED for the right to organize are slipping away. And the attitude is, who cares?

Well one of these days you are going to wake up and find out that all you knew is gone. Labor is about to get in on the chin, and the Neo Liberal agenda is about to destroy all illusions. And that middle class life you knew, that kept you sedated will be gone.

My question is... how long until all of you wake up and realize that you too will need to fight for those things?

Personally I don't expect it any time soon, as the illusion is still firmly there... well sooner or later they will remove the last shred of the illusion...

But I do wonder if people will wake up in time... I really do...

[DJ13]

1. Its sad. A post like yours I could understand if we had a Republican admin

But theres NO EXCUSE for these things to be happening with Democrats in charge.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Why? These are neo liberals.

And this is actually starting to look like a classic switcharoo of the political system

Realize the Dems were VERY Conservative in the 19th century, and the RNC seems on the way out...

So perhaps we will see a NEW party emerge, to replace one of the two. and if the Dems are becoming the Conservative party, so perhaps it is another historic switch. Should I remind people that the GOP wasn't a conservative party in 1852, and damn it Lincoln ran on an anti slavery platform? Should I remind people WHICH party was pro slavery?

I know it is painful...

[daleanime]

3. Right...

there is no excuse.

[Union Yes]

4. Dems need to pass EFCA now! K&R for labor. nt

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. Sadly it goes beyond EFCA

Labor needs to do more in these demands, problem is that things like Wild Cat strikes were made ilegal by Taft Harley

[csziggy]

6. Here is why I care and what I have told right wing nuts who bitch about taxes

Even though I am childless and retired, I care because if the standard of living for all is kept high, *I* can live a better more secure life. If the children of the next generation are not well educated so they can find decent jobs, if the workers of today cannot afford health care and have a decent life, if the others of my generation cannot afford to live after retirement, our country will turn into a slum. What are those children and their parents going to do if they cannot make a good living? Crime will increase, services will degrade, life in general in this country will be degraded and less secure.

Unfortunately since I first made this response to a right winger ten years ago, the standard of living in the US has gone downhill and seems to be on the skids. I don't understand why they are so resentful of people who work hard getting a decent salary and decent benefits. It just does not make sense to me that in a supposedly "Christian" nation such a large segement of the population wants to keep pay below a living wage. I think it is just evil.

[midnight]

7. I think that effort is called Privatization.

[Overseas]

8. K&R. Well said. //nt

[lonestarnot]

9. I don't know what it's going to take on this nadinbrzezinski.

Unions are part of the solution. For many hundreds of thousands, it's already gone.

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. You'd have a hard time convincing me of this

doing the research into the history of unions... and boy I know some of the problems.

But the main one is that "middle class" Americans (who are truly working class) have allowed themselves to be convinced that they are not working class.

[lonestarnot]

11. Sure there have been problems, but do you actually think there would have even

been a middle class without unions. Ever notice since the decline of unions, so went the United States?

[walldude]

12. You know what's messed up.. they are removing the illusion

and people are cheering them. This whole "CIA Death Squad" thing, is creeping me out. Assassination on the governments word without trial? One of the basic tenants of freedom is the right to a fair trial and to be able to confront your accusers. And while we didn't always adhere to those tenants, at least we did in public.