Since when are hardworking men and women, who are putting in a hard day's work every day, since when are they special interest? Since when is the idea that we look out for one another a bad thing? I remember my old friend Ted Kennedy - what is it about working men and women that they find offensive?
Barack Hussein Obama
The President of the United States
February 28, 2012
Michael - this is sick. Obama and the audience are proud that UAW workers had to make major concessions to get the Federal bailout of about $60 billion (while Wall Street and the banks MADE NO CONCESSIONS GOT A BAILOUT OF OVER $5 TRILLION !!!). Obama made it clear during the bailout of GM that workers would have to take major concessions to pay and benefits in order to get federal money, while the banks could get as much as they wanted for free. Now many new UAW workers are making less than $20/hr in titles where they used to make almost $40/hr. It was in the news a few months back that the UAW health care plan is in trouble - since UAW agreed a few years ago to a VEBA (health care fund) instead of guaranteed benefits, and Obama forced UAW to accept GM stock instead of cash for the VEBA - now the fund is in trouble.
ReplyDeleteObama and his Sec of Ed, Arne Duncan, applauded when a RI town fired all of their teachers, and Obama made clear his solution to the crisis by first putting in a wage freeze for federal workers.
Obama may try to use the republicans as a foil, but the fact is that he has been a huge enemy of the workers as well. We have to realize that BOTH parties, Democrats and Republicans are parties of the capitalists and anti-worker to the core. The only thing that we as workers can rely on is our own strength and militancy - and we will have to fight BOTH parties to win.
It seems to me Michael, that you can't tell a friend from an enemy - if you think that Obama and the Democrats are our friends, then how can you have any idea how to fight back.
Funny thing is Unknown is right. Neither party is worth a $hit. But to cast the Democrats aside right now is impractical. Our choice is one or the other, which is admittedly a poor choice. But who would give you the better chance? Obama.
ReplyDeleteAfter this election maybe the future should include a Labor party or something, but right now until it is organized properly what chioice do we really have?
Paulp -
ReplyDeleteSorry, I didn't know that my last comment came up as 'unknown' - this is T/O Seth Rosenberg - I don't want to disagree with Michael and not have him and others know who is doing it.
I disagree that it is 'one party or the other' - I counterpose workers' mass action and class struggle to supporting the parties that work for our enemy. the point is that elections are the bosses' game - they never bring true change - and make no mistake - they are used to suck energy away from workers' building real struggle against the bosses. Everything we have won - the 8 hr day, overtime pay, workplace safety, healthcare, pensions, the weekend, civil rights - all of these were won by strikes and protest - NEVER BY ELECTIONS OR POLITICIANS. workers and oppressed peoples have always had to unite and fight the system, the cops, the courts, the parties and the government to win, and then the Demcratic party tries to move to the left to co-opt the movement and insure that it stops, doesn't win any more and does not threaten the system.
If you try to say that we can do both: organize to fight and also support politicians, you are dead wrong. The message from lobbying and supporting capitalist politicians is that workers are weak and that we need to rely on the powerful to help. Our union (and all unions) have put all their resources into lobbying and nothing into organizing us to fight back. Until we break with both parties and stop supporting either candidate, we will an anchor around our neck as we try to organize mass workers' struggles on the street and in the work place. If the leadership put 1/2 the resources that they used to lobby into actually rebuilding morale and preparing the union for a real fight, then we would be in a position to fight for a good contract, but as it is, we are nowhere and the TA knows it - we are screwed - and the fact that the union leadership is tied to the democratic party is one of the main reasons.
So, we do have a choice - keep supporting the 'lesser' evil (who isn't even lesser - Obama has attacked U.S. workers much more than Bush 2 did - because of the econ crisis) and continue to sabotage any attempts to rebuild the membership to fight, OR we could break with the parties that attack us and actually building the idea that the only way we can win is through our own strength and ability to shut down the economy.