They said it in the1930's and again in the 1960's--- Dare to struggle; dare to win!
At the district, state, regional and national level most of the high-paid union leaders are completely worthless as this working class upsurge and struggle has proven them to be little more than loyal Democratic Party hacks willingly controlled by the AFL-CIO's national executive board interested in trying to make sure working people are pushed out of the streets demanding real change as they are defending their rights and livelihoods.
Shamefully, Richard Trumka has refused to clearly articulate how these dirty imperialist wars--- yes, Wall Street's dirty imperialist wars--- are robbing us of the means to fund our social programs: from public education to health care to fire protection and anti-poverty programs like the Community Action program.
Why is it so goddamn hard for Richard Trumka to ask the working people he addresses: How is Obama's war economy working for you?
In fact, Obama's war economy is making us all poor.
Even the most simple minded amongst us understand that a nation cannot spend on wars and militarism to the tune of billions upon billions of dollars year after year all financed on money borrowed at exorbitant interest rates from Wall Street bankers and expect to have money left over to finance the social programs required by a civilized society where people are entitled to the human rights of jobs, housing, education, health care, child care, adequate food and access to transportation.
We might just as well take the wealth of our Nation and toss it out into the ocean if we are going to use it to fight these dirty wars that no one wants and no one supports except for the Wall Street merchants of death and destruction who profit.
How can any nation fight war after war and maintain over 800 military bases on foreign soil with a huge naval fleet patrolling all the oceans of the world protecting Wall Street's interests abroad and expect to have resources to finance universal social programs at home? It can't be done. Every two-bit half-assed fascist dictator from Mussolini to Hitler, Franco and Tojo have tried it along with every single U.S. President since Franklin D. Roosevelt; it doesn't work. It can't work. And even if it did work it shouldn't be done.
The American people are fed up. We have had it with Wall Street and its wars abroad and its war on us here at home.
Now is no time to back out of this fight.
Richard Trumka and these worthless union leaders are trying tell people, "Okay, we have had our say. We don't want to rock the boat and upset our Democratic Party partners and allies we can work with them and negotiate concessions in wages and benefits. We don't need to get into all this left wing talk about taking money from the military budget to finance human needs. We can't be talking about "defense" spending, a national issue, when the issue is state budgets."
Why the hell can't we talk about military spending during discussions of state budgets? Whose pockets is all of this money coming out of? It sure the hell isn't coming from taxes on the rich and corporate profits.
Working people fight these goddamn wars. Working people die in these goddamn dirty wars. And it is working people who pay for these goddamn filthy imperialist wars. Wall Street profits; working people suffer all the way around.
And now along comes Richard Trumka telling us we can't have a say in whether or not our tax dollars go to finance public education and to create public health care and public child care systems instead of paying for wars.
Let Richard Trumka go with the generals and hold bake good sales and sell candy bars and flower seeds from door-to-door to finance this military madness while we take the billions of dollars now being wasted on these dirty rotten wars and use this money to build a socially just and decent society.
What kind of labor "leaders" who live in the wealthiest country in the world where every single bit of this wealth has been created by workers, far too few of whom are members of unions because Trumka and his kind are afraid of a fight, and agree to concession contract after concession contract and now these cowards are trying to tell working people to clear the streets and don't talk about turning our country on the path to peace as they try to trick people into voting for this worthless piece of crap, Barack Obama--- again, as if once wasn't more than enough?
Stay in the streets; create a new political party that will reflect and fight for what is ethically, morally, socially and economically just--- dare to struggle; dare to win!
Now is the time to finish what was begun in the 1960's.
Now is the time for the American people to build an anti-monopoly people's front to take on and defeat Wall Street.
Since 1948 Wall Street has dictated how we must live and work and go to war; it is time for this way of doing things to come to an end. If for no other reason than we cannot afford the heavy price we the people pay.
Defend democracy.
Defend workers' rights to collective bargaining--- not to bargain away what has been won over the years; but, to improve the lives and livelihoods of ALL working people.
Roll-back and freeze prices, not wages.
Spend our money on human needs, don't finance Wall Street's wars and greed.
For a real change, let's talk about the politics and economics of livelihood.
