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August 5, 2011

"WORKERS ARE READY = WAR"

By Brian Enright

We workers are ready to fight--and prevail--in battling the "Corporate/GOP Alliance Against Workers."

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I am impressed by the new and growing number of Progressive, Liberal and Workers groups.  

But I believe we need to unite under one banner--one mission. 

And I believe there is no better or more urgent time but NOW.

The NUMBER ONE PROBLEM that we are all facing is CLASS WARFARE.

I/we will openly and loudly label our common enemy:  "THE CORPORATE/GOP ALLIANCE AGAINST WORKERS' RIGHTS."

We will not shrink from calling a spade a spade when we are demonized by our enemy.

We will not let them get away with their common weapon--accusing others of what they themselves are guilty of.   

The "CORPORATE/GOP ALLIANCE AGAINST WORKERS' RIGHTS" has been waging an ongoing war against workers ever since Unions were started by abused workers demanding fair treatment.

Ever since Progressive leaders like Theodore Roosevelt stood up to corporate monopolies and offered workers "A Square Deal."

Ever since Progressive heroes like Franklin Delano Roosevelt told the wealthy industrialists "I WELCOME YOUR HATRED," put desperate willing Americans back to work and pulled America out of its Great Depression.

The "CORPORATE/GOP ALLIANCE AGAINST WORKERS' RIGHTS" hated FDR for stripping Big Business of its power to treat the American worker as a "wage-slave" who had no rights--for providing workers both dignity and an equal opportunity to achieve the American Dream.

The "CORPORATE/GOP ALLIANCE AGAINST WORKERS RIGHTS" hated workers being provided with social safety nets to help them in sickness and in old age, rather than simply letting them be discarded on the junkpile and replaced with newer, ypounger workers.   

The "CORPORATE/GOP ALLIANCE AGAINST WORKERS RIGHTS" hated Lyndon Baines Johnson's War on Poverty."

The "CORPORATE/GOP ALLIANCE AGAINST WORKERS RIGHTS" has been fighting for over 30 years to take back what Progressives and brave citizens--our parents, grandparents and great grandparents--fought for and achieved.

Are many of you aware that the "real income" of American workers has not increased since 1973, while that of the top 2% has skyrocketed since that time?  We were the frogs in the pot of water thinking that we were taking a warm bath as the water temperature steadily rose to a boiling point.     

I began to be aware of it way back when Ronald Reagan ran for office and proclaimed that the Government was the "enemy," and not the servant/protector of the people.  In 1981 our "beloved" Reagan fired 11,000 unionized Air Traffic Controllers, beginning the slow but steady death of American Unions.  Today, only 7% of all privately employed Americans still have the right to belong to a Union, and the 36% of Public employees who are still unionized are being stripped of their rights as we speak.

Now, ever single day I am flooded with new details of what the "CORPORATE/GOP ALLIANCE" is doing to destroy what is left of the American Dream.  They are so proud and giddy with their recent successes that they are beginning to be openly smug about it.                 

But they don't seem to see or hear the increased rumbling in the jungle.  An old hit song from my youtt--"The Lion Sleeps Tonight"--was thought by us to be just a nice song with a pleasant melody.  I learned much later that it was meant to be a signal among the natives that--while their masters slept--the lions were becoming increasingly restless, and angry.  I don't know if that interpretation was accurate or not, but I do know that while people like John Boehner gets his tan, and Paul Ryan sips his $300 bottles of wine,  I and many many of my friends are rumbling among ourselves in the jungle.

I am now 64 years old.  I grew up in the 1950's when life was young, we had won the Great War, the Middle Class was growing, our parents were working and buying homes, and we children had the opportunity to afford college so we too could participate in the American dream.  Now in my dark moments I see how much was lost, and how much more is slipping away.  I worry about my children and my grandchildren.

We have virtually lost the Class War that the "GOP/Corporate Alliance" has been quietly waging for so many years.

But we are not dead yet.  More and more lions are awake in the jungle, and we are increasingly poised for action.  Let me be clear that I am not referring to a violent Revolution, but a Revolution nonetheless.  One that we did not ask for, but which we will embrace.  Today. when I look for courage, I think of the Great American Indian warrior who--heading off for battle against a more powerful enemy--bravely declared, "Today is a good day to die!" 

We too have to be that courageous, tough, united and persistent.  We will be, and--in the end--we will prevail.

"WORKERS ARE READY=WAR."   Solidarity my friends!         



Authors Website: www.notesfromthecanarycageblogspot.com

Authors Bio:
I am a semi-retired 64 year old psychotherapist. I am a Progressive and a Democrat. I admire FDR and Teddy Roosevelt. Despite my disappointment with the Democratic Party I find the far-Right Republicans to be much much worse. I deplore living in what has become a Corporatocracy, in which huge multinational companies make massive profits, pay little taxes and send American jobs overseas, looting and raping this country and its workers. Since the rise of Reaganism I have watched the rich and powerful beome richer and more powerful while they push the rest of Americans into a new and growing class--the Working Poor, who are increasingly losing their jobs and homes.

And now that America is nearly bankrupted by Corporate looting, tax cuts to the rich and costly endless wars, Americans are being told that they must sacrifice even more of their rapidly dwindling benefits, such as Medicare and Social Security. And I watch as too many of the rest of us remain silent and even continue to vote blindly against our own interests. So I am doing my small part by standing up and speaking out.

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