As I type this on my keyboard my fingers are almost numb with anger. Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin and his Republican state senators, acting without a quorum, have just enacted laws abolishing public worker collective bargaining. Their action exemplifies the Right-Wing mentality that Ronald Reagan popularized in American political life 30 years ago, the mentality of raw power for the sake of power, the mentality that asserts “we will do whatever we want whenever we want however we want and we will get away with it because we can”. The Wisconsin anti-worker legislation has nothing to do with budgets or money. It is all about power and disempowerment.
It is all about the desire of every anti-labor corporate CEO to stamp out unionization simply because a worker who has a union is a human being not a serf, and the anti-labor corporate CEOs want serfs not human beings in their workplaces. Walker and his Republican buddies in the Wisconsin legislature are not public servants; they are mere employees of the corporate CEOs whose bidding they serve. They are the lowest form of life imaginable, vile parodies of humanity whose greatest joy is in trampling out human freedom and the human spirit, whose evil hidden purpose in public life is to destroy the democracy dream for which our noble forebears audaciously declared independence from the mightiest empire in the 18th century world, and which patriots of every generation since have sacrificed all they had to nurture and preserve.
I do not know about you but I am so sick and tired, so exhausted to the depths of my soul over the lies and crimes and power-lust of the Right-Wing traitors to the American democracy dream, the frauds and power-grabbing and hypocrisy that we have been enduring and suffering for the last 30 years, that my soul cannot take, WILL NOT TAKE it any more.
Ever since Reagan busted PATCO in 1981 with his ruthless action of firing the striking air traffic controllers and barring them from re-employment for life, and the AFL-CIO responded by shrinking from a confrontation with Saint Ronald, organized labor has been on a long steady decline and corporate power has been on a long steady rise. As a result, working class living standards are in full- scale deterioration, economic injustice and inequality are rampant and rising, the ultra-wealthy are getting wealthier, and democracy is losing its power to check and balance the power of greed.
There is no doubt in my mind that millions of American citizens are just as soul-tired of the 30-year long Right-Wing power grab as I am. I hope each of you who is reading these words of mine is as fed up with it as I am. It has to end and it is time to bring it to an end.
There are inspiring signs that in this new PATCO moment organized labor will not repeat the PATCO mistake, and this time is rising to the challenge and will continue to rise to the challenge. There are inspiring indications that large segments of the American community of commonality are joining hands with labor in opposition, protest, and resistance. Word tonight is that at least part of the Wisconsin AFL-CIO and its affiliated unions have called a general strike. Word tonight is that the Wisconsin statehouse is full of protestors awaiting Thursday morning’s confrontation. Word tonight is that the largest rally in the history of Indiana is about to erupt at the Indiana statehouse. Word is that people are rising and rallying all over America in growing and spreading revolt. Yes, revolt is the correct word. This is much bigger than any political party, it has already dwarfed the phony-populist tea party, and it has barely started. Long overdue revolution is coming in America. The people are rising. It is joyous. Join it. Make a sign and hit the streets. Fight the Right-Wing power grabbers. Fight ‘em till hell freezes over. Then fight ‘em on the ice. We shall overcome.
David Van Os
i love this dude
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