Fortunately, labor activists and some union leaders are starting to catch on to the danger that Beck and the corporate sponsors of the Tea Party represent. For starters,labor unions and progressive groups are organizing a tax day protest -- not in opposition to the corporate media-advertised Tea Party tax day protests, but above it.
For example, the Tea Party anti-tax protests are simply "against taxes." Instead, unions are demanding that we "tax Wall Street." Labor's message is superior; it takes sides, whereas the Tea Party's vagueness is its weakness.
This weakness must be further exploited. A tax day protest against Wall Street is a positive message, but it's not enough. A campaign must be waged by labor and community groups to demand massive job creation, to be paid for by the rich and corporations. If specific demands like these are raised in mass demonstrations, the Tea Party's blathering against "government" in general will seem far less inspiring.
Also, labor taking the streets with its own demands will compel the Labor Movement into opposition to the Obama administration and its own corporate backers -- something some labor leaders resist like the plague. But such a break is necessary if organized labor is to receive mass support from working people in general, since right-wingers like Beck earn populist points by pointing out Obama's corporate-friendly policies like bank bailouts and corporate health care.
The sooner that labor becomes an independent force in national politics, the more difficult the Tea Party will find in gathering popular support. The extreme right is only in its infantile stage of development. This growth will be stunted if labor wages a strong campaign in the streets for jobs at the expense of the rich and corporations. Waging a half-hearted campaign will have the exact opposite effect.
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