"Why is that totalitarian regimes always start with eliminating labor unions?"

[brentspeak]

Good catch made by a poster on the Media Matters website.

http://mediamatters.org/research/201102170018#1201000

by newzhound (February 17, 2011 6:13 pm ET)

Why is that totalitarian regimes always start with eliminating labor unions? Whether they are extreme left- or right-wing, they go after unions first.

Communist Russia, Nazi Germany - get rid of the unions.

Central and South American death squads? Go after the unions.

I hope the Wisconsin National Guard didn't attend the School of the Americas...

[handmade34]

1. they know

the power of the collective will

[Capitalocracy]

2. For right-wing dictatorships, the reasons are obvious.

For "left-wing" or communist dictatorships... well, non-corrupt unions represent democracy, participation, power in the hands of the many instead of the few. That's what it's really about, squashing participation in democracy.

[eleny]

3. Organization

[The Second Stone]

4. Unions prevent de facto slavery

and totalitarians of all stripes want to enslave people.

[jannyk]

5. Because they can organize large groups of people. The last...

thing a Dictator wants, is organized groups.

[truedelphi]

8. That is a great answer.

And of course, the other thing that happens as a nation veers off democracy's course and into totalitarianism is that the Free Press and Media is controlled. The ability to trust that any one candidate will really carry water for the working person, that tends to disappear also.

[saras]

6. Unions teach people to work together

You know, all that civics stuff. Find what you have in common, set aside your differences, and get stuff done that makes all your lives better.

Why the hell would a corporatist government, of the left, right, or any other direction, want that?

[Marr]

7. Unions are a primary counter to authoritarian power.

It doesn't matter if the authoritarian belongs on the left or right side of the political spectrum, up and down is the axis that matters here. Authoritarian regimes do not want an organized populace.

[LiberalFighter]

9. Because it is a way to prevent everyone from achieving the American Dream.

[WinkyDink]

10. Because there is strength in numbers? Just a thought. :-P

[Sabriel]

11. The WI Nat'l Guard didn't attend the School of the Americas

Like most folks in Wisconsin, they attended excellent public schools and were taught by great, homegrown teachers, the same teachers who are about to take a hit from their own government.

[Odin2005]

12. Because Organized Labor is the most powerful opposition force in an industrial society.