A Scrawny Hodgepodge of Tea Baggers by JH
Across
the street, meanwhile, the so-called "Tea-Party' counter-protesters sang
Sha-na-na. Their message continues
to back the reactionary idea that, at exactly the same time that working-class
tax dollars give trillions to the hyper-rich, working people who are barely
making ends meet should have even less of a livelihood available. They sometimes also support the
explicitly fascist notion that unions should not be legal, that labor should
have few or no rights compared to money and property.
Matt Stoller wrote in a similar vein in his article, "The Liquidation of Society Versus the Global Labor Revival." His insights ) command attention from anyone who has a sense of self-preservation or hope for the future.
The Southeast Review of Media, Culture, and Politics does not practice a journalism built on the pretense of objectivity. SERMCAP without qualification supports democratic and social justice as necessary components of a decent world. This humble correspondent and his partner wore signs that vocalized this point of view at the rally. One pair, modest sandwich board draped over THC's shoulders, said, "The Problem Is Not Democrats Versus Republicans--Corporate Masters Own Them Both," & "The Problem Is Organizing a Working-People's-Power Party." The second duo offered these lines. "The Current Crisis Affects Not Just Union Workers or Government Workers, but ALL Workers," & "Big Business Disempowers All the World's Working People by Dividing Them From Each Other---Solidarity is the Only Answer."
SERMCAP insists that only through worker empowerment, involvement, and leadership can the faintest prayer of social equality come to pass. Thus, the events in Wisconsin, and yesterday in Atlanta, like the recent outpouring of activism in the Middle East, are first steps only. Without a more completely defined agenda, one that is both resolutely local and irrepressibly internationalist, one that puts working peoples' rights and power at the forefront, one that sets aside all jingoistic nationalism and false patriotism, all of the rallies and songs and hopes of solidarity won't amount to much that working people can take to the bank or put on the stove.
Given such a paradigm, the time has come for a grassroots sociopolitical movement that honestly contends for power. The fake "two-party system' doesn't come close to achieving this possibility. Working people not only deserve better, but they also will gain little or nothing unless they organize and strive to gain, for themselves, of themselves, and by themselves, a conscious leadership role in the manifestation of a transformed society, a society in which property and wealth cannot overturn the social and economic rights and needs of working people.
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