Not a whole lot to say about this one, other than here’s a big ol’ steaming slab of solidarity with the strikers at McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Burger King who walked out last week.
While we’re at it, it’s also worth noting that things are really bad here when the Los Angeles Times refers to the strikes at Wal-Mart and fast food joints as “labor unrest”:
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No, really, it is, at least parts of it.
I was on my way downstairs for a sandwich one late morning last week or so, and I passed by the bedroom, where the DW is catching up on some impresario chores on her laptop while the satellite box is nailed down to MSNBC. As aiways, I stop for a minute or two just to check out what they’re emitting, and it’s some woman who looked as if she were made entirely of plastic babbling an item about Hill leadership’s reaction to the discovery that the US Olympic Team’s uniforms had been made in China. Faster than you could say “eight percent unemployment”, Harry Reid and John Boehner had crapped their drawers loudly while blurting out carefully crafted Tourette’s episodes on the subject of the export of US jobs to China. After offering up this news, the anchorbabe said — for real, I shit you not — “At last, something that Democrats and Republicans can agree on.”
“…along with war, torture, censorship, warrantless surveillance, assassinations, detention without trial…” the anchorbabe neglected to add.
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As most of you know, the recent West Coast port shutdowns were a butt-kicking success, especially in Oakland. The minor downside was that it was carried out over the objections of the longshoremen’s union “leadership”. Yeah, that’s right, a labor union got its panties in a twist over a militant mass action on behalf of the rights of workers. In fact, this cartoon was inspired in large part by the craven tap-dancing of the “leadership” of the ILWU. Here’s their poobah, Bob McEllrath:
“The ILWU has a long history of democracy, Part of that historic democracy is the hard-won right to chart our own course to victory.”
What victory, Bob? The only course I see modern union “leadership” charting these days is straight down the goddamn’ toilet.
But let’s move on, now, to our so-called comrades at the AFSCME, who recently endorsed Barack “Drone Strike” Obama for another term as El Presidente. AFSCME plans to scarf workers’ dues to the tune of $100 million to help re-”elect” a bloody-handed Wall Street stooge who plans to sign legislation giving the military the right to snatch and detain indefinitely anybody they damn’ well feel like. Here’s what their honcho, Gerald McEntee, has to say for himself:
“President Obama is the only choice for the 99 percent.”
He’s pulling our leg, right? Barack “Bailout” Obama, water boy for bankers, is the only choice for the underpaid, unemployed and foreclosed? Excuse me while I have myself a nice big Technicolor Yawn…
…ahh, that was satisfying. Now, let’s check out the NEA, representing our nation’s teachers, the men and women who bring out the spirit of curiosity, creativity and wonder in our children and crush it to death. They’ve also recently endorsed Obummer, in spite of the rank and file’s dissatisfaction with his cheerleading for charter schools and the corporatization of public education. Here’s the spin from their “leader”, Dennis Van Roekel:
“He (Obama) has never wavered from talking about the importance of education or his dedication to a vibrant middle class…”
…yeah, except when he’s sitting on his ass allowing the middle class to be thrown out of work and thrown out of their homes.
But, wait; it gets worse. The SEIU also recently declared its endorsement for Barack “The Assassin” Obama without even allowing its members to vote — and, adding insult to injury, the “leadership” of the SEIU co-opted the language of the Occupy Movement with this steaming heap of smarm:
“We need a leader willing to fight for the needs of the 99 percent … Our economy and democracy have been taken over by the wealthiest one percent.”
Yeah, and that leader isn’t going to be Barack “Sparkle Pony” Obama, a guy whose nose is so far up Wall Street’s ass that it’s a wonder he can even breathe. You’ll pardon my laughing until I piss myself.
Saving the worst for last, we finish up with the venerable AFL-CIO. As anyone with a long-term memory longer than that of a housefly will recall, the AFL-CIO was pretty much caught red-handed funneling cash — via the ironically-named National Endowment for Democracy and equally-ironically-named Solidarity Center — to Venezuelan rightists plotting a coup against President Hugo Chavez back in 2002. In addition, the AFL-CIO’s Solidarity Center (spit) is still active in efforts to destabilize popular, democratically-elected leaders in Venezuela and Colombia, using money from Federal grants via the State Department, USAID, and the NED. No wonder so many people call them the AFL-CIA.
So, given that the “leadership” of the ILWU, AFSCME, NEA, SEIU and AFL-CIO are endorsing Barack Obama despite his cozy relationship with Wall Street, corporate and banking interests, despite his obstruction of efforts to bring the Bush Mob to justice for their crimes, despite his warmongering in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, despite his horrendous civili liberties record, and despite his disregard for working people, am I still the only one here who thinks that the biggest obstacle to the struggle for workers’ rights is the goddamn’ unions — or, more accurately, the craven, hidebound union “leaders” who are in perpetual retreat and who identify more with the needs of corporations and political parties than with the needs of workers?
I’m no expert, but I think that any successful workers’ struggle in this country is going to be won in spite of the mainstream unions, not because of them.
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So, I was taking a break from being glued to Al Jazeera’s coverage of the revolution in Libya to check out the action in Wisconsin, and found out to my horror that the Democratic Party “leadership” had declared their support for the resurgent workers’ movement there. After two years of ignoring the Left which had helped put him in office, giving us a corporate giveaway thinly disguised as healthcare “reform”, propping up the banks and Wall Street, failing to close the Guantanamo concentration camp, escalating a bloody imperialist war in Afghanistan, insulting us to our faces on TV during the recent mid-term “elections” and appeasing the right, Barack Obummer has finally rediscovered the Left just in time to start pandering to us again in preparation for the 2012 freak circus — after two years of pandering to corporate and banking interests.
This was topped by Smarm Queen and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi hopping aboard the bandwagon, declaring the Wisconsin workers’ rebellion to be “an extraordinary show of democracy in action” — which, of course, the Democratic Party will make every effort to bleed dry of energy and crush like a grape.
In case you need a reminder of what Queen Nancy is really all about, give a listen to her sucking right-wing cock, in her own words — in 2002, following her election as House Minority Leader during the run-up to Iraq War v2.0, and in 2006, when asked about the impeachment of George W. Bush for his crimes against humanity and the Constitution:
Wisconsin, take a look at the past twenty years of the Democratic Party’s record. Remember NAFTA? Bill Clinton said he opposed it, until he supported it. Remember how the supposedly “liberal” and “progressive” Democrats fought each other to be first in line to support George W. Bush’s wars of genocide and aggression in Afghanistan and Iraq — wars based on lies? Remember how the Democrats rolled over and refused to impeach Bush, despite his having a record of impeachable offenses as long as his goddamn’ arm? Remember how John Kerry opposed the war in Iraq, until he voted to fund it? Remember how Barack Obama supported single-payer healthcare, until he opposed it? Remember last year’s mid-term campaign, when Obama and Biden publicly blew you off and called you “whiners” when you complained about the lame excuse for healthcare “reform” and Obama’s appeasement of Wall Street, the bankers and the Rightists?
Remember the antiglobalization movements? Remember Seattle and A16? This, too, was “an extraordinary show of democracy in action” — until it was co-opted by the Democratic Party and its energy diverted to a wasted effort to elect Plastic Al Gore and Holy Joe Lieberman in 2000. Remember the antiwar movement? They, too, were “an extraordinary show of democracy in action” until they were guilt-tripped into silence by the Democratic Party in their effort to elect first John Kerry in 2004, and then Barack Obama in ‘08. Now, at last, a new movement is rising up for justice for the working class, and once again the Democratic Party is readying itself to suck the life’s blood from that movement to prop up the likes of Pelosi, Reid and Obama. In a struggle like this, the last thing you want is support from the craven, opportunist, corporate cock-gobbling Democratic Party.
Remember this history, Wisconsin, and remember that your real enemy isn’t the Teabaggers getting in your faces at the demonstrations — it’s the Democratic Party, who claims to be “behind” you. For crissakes, Wisconsin — look out behind you.
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At jadaliyya.com: What If The Egyptian Protesters Were Democrats?
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