This came in just this morning (2.11.06) on the Soldiers of Solidarity list serve. SOS is a dissident progressive faction of the UAW that is highly Spirited and growing in power. (It claims an average of some 20,000 hits per day on its blog)
"..........................The strike vote should have been put out Oct 8,2005. Of course that wasn't what happened and know we're behind the eight ball by about 4 months. You can't send pee wee pitchers into a major league baseball game. Maybe now, we will all know (including the people sitting on the fence) that this is the major leagues and it's time to play hardball. Freedom will reign one day. I just hope that all the frauds and crooks get theirs in the end. SOS and everybody that believes in a true democracy will keep on fighting for just that, A TRUE DEMOCRACY. " DennisM [who wrote in reference to the serious business between the autoworkers, what they consider to be their 'traitorous' union, (the UAW), which is caving in to outrageous management demands over the vocal and spirited objections from the UAW rank-and-file, and Delphi Corporation, which is running a 'spin-off' bankruptcy scam for General Motors]
Our good brother autoworker, Dennis M, speaks 'my kind of talk'. THESE are the kind of words that 'stir the souls of women and men'. When people begin to focus on this Basic Message, when they speak in fighting Spirit for FREEDOM itself, you can sure bet that we got a REAL dam ballgame on our hands, guys. If I felt the power around me of strong and serious women and men who speak this way for Freedom, (who ring this ancient Bell so well), then those other guys, over there, sitting behind all those desks, don't look all that insurmountably 'tough' any more.
THIS is the Spirit that can drive a powerful Movement into power, THIS is the Spirit that can (if necessary) define a 'Party'. Our good Brother Auto Worker calls for TRUE DEMOCRACY. THAT is our Basic Message.
This is the basic thread that defines Progressive Labor. I challenge all to answer, Is it not? "Take back our unions !" Is that not the battle cry that we ALL, as dissidents from Big Labor, are shouting out? Is Democracy not the Basic Message that the 'awakened' dissident forces in Labor are ALL preaching?
Dissident trade unionists have realized that Big Labor is forging ever stronger bonds with Big Money, and we can clearly see that as they do, working people are sliding steadily down into anxiety for our security, and even into poverty. Ole Andy Stern, who has proclaimed himself as 'Labor's guiding savior', is talking openly, (right out loud, folks, in public), of creating a 'partnership with Corporate America'. (Few dissident trade unionists are at all shy about calling this man, who many say 'rules his own union (SEIU) with an iron fist', the 'antichrist' of Labor). Dissident trade unionists have realized that too many of our most powerful unions no longer belong to union members, but rather have been captured by entrenched and corrupt power elites who regard OUR unions as their OWN private businesses. Dissident trade unionists have realized that the Fat Cat bosses of Organized Labor are in active collusion with Corporate America, and that working people are being sold out by that collusion.
Just as Big Money, (with Greed as its primary weapon, with bribery, graft, and crony nepotism as its main tactics), has captured control over our Nation's political system, so has Big Money also captured the loyal self-interest of the Fat Cats of Big Labor. And Progressive Labor has come to 'preach' that we must 'take our unions back' under our own DEMOCRATIC control. Democracy, and the Freedom that only Democracy provides, is Progressive Labor's Basic Message.
We need to ring that Bell of Freedom, (as does our good Brother Autoworker, and Soldier of Solidarity, Dennis M, so well), EVERY chance we get. THAT is what the heck this 'whole deal' is all about folks. Freedom! Will we live as free women and men, or will we cower before this tyranny? Will we claim the dignity of a decent life for ourselves and our families as Free Citizens, or will we cower into the miserable shadows of poverty, constant anxiety, and outright Fear for our children's very health and safety?
Any of us who think that we can create Democracy within our unions before we have Democracy, (True Democracy), governing our Nation, are dreaming idle and foolish dreams. You think you can create an oasis of Democracy in one corner of a cess-pool swamp of corruption? (I'm sorry, I just can't get on that train, because I see so clearly that it is going nowhere).
If Progressive Labor will consolidate its forces, (including its resources), to create a democratic Organization to represent and speak for United Progressive Labor, it would VERY likely find GREAT success in projecting such a powerful Basic Message to a receptive Citizenry. Hundreds of millions of the Common Citizens of the United States are STARVING to hear such a message. The soil of the Citizenry, plowed by anxiety, uncertainly, and even widespread outright Fear, is turned up moist and well ready for this seed.
As we, Progressive Labor, gather our strength in the political arena, let us follow the lead of our good Brother Autoworker, (and fighting Soldier of Solidarity); let us propose to adopt the name, 'TRUE DEMOCRATS'.
The True Democrats will preach a Basic Message rooted in Freedom and True Democracy. Let us propose to start out as a formal and recognized Faction, (recognized because we will emphatically declare our identity as the Faction of TRUE Democracy), within the Democratic Party. Let our leading spokespeople will run election campaigns within our unions, within our communities, within our states, and at the national (presidential) level. Let us run campaiogns in ALL Democratic Party primaries that we can muster the resources to contest, at every level of office, declaring ourselves as the True Democrats. Let us proclaim a Basic Message that declares that we will reclaim the United States of America as a nation wholly OWNED and OPERATED by its Commonwealth of Citizens. We will proclaim our intention to re-kindle the American Dream, (a Dream that so many American Patriots have died for), to create and perpetuate a TRUE Democracy in our Nation. We will declare our firm and uncompromising resolve that America will again aspire to be a Nation OF the People, BY the People, and FOR the People.
This effort MUST be an 'ALL or nothing' proposition. If we do it at ALL, we must be prepared for a 'fight to the death'.
We must confront and challenge the pathetic, directionless, and totally unprincipled, (but nonetheless still formidable), Corporate Party-dominated Democratic Party Establishment full on. We must fight the Establishment of this Corporate corrupted Democratic Party, (to the death), to gain representation in the Government of the United States of America for the Basic Social Interests of the Nation's Common Citizenry!
When we first make our presence known within the Democratic Party, we must make it clearly known that either this Party will again be the Party that represents the Basic Social Interests of the Common Citizens, or ELSE we intend to block it from power permanently, and then to supplant its position as one of the two Major Parties, and thereby to relegate this pathetic unprincipled 'Party', this confused and directionless band of self-serving sycophant wannabes, to the dust bin of History.
In every election race in which we run, whether in our unions or for the presidency, we will run 'All the Way'. We will run 'past the primaries', still identifying ourselves as the True Democrats. We will build a block of votes that will freeze the pathetic Democrats, (who do NOTHING but stand around like buffoonish idiots with their fingers in the air, to see which way the prevailing wind blows before they trim their sails), out of power permanently, and then, with these useless fools out of our way, we will build our BLOCK until it carries us back to power in this Nation. This Nation, the United States of America, SHALL BE, a TRUE Democracy. That is a Basic Message that will WIN !
Our uncompromising (speak for the common Citizens, 'or ELSE') strategy will likely, at some point, dictate that we become the 'Party' of True Democrats, (rather than remain a Faction), if the Democratic Party REFUSES to remember what it once 'stood for'. (NONE of these guys, and ESPECIALLY not Corporate Party sycophants like Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Joe Biden, Etc, talks anything at all like the Democrats of our grandparents, (and their parents), New Deal era).
Progressive Labor is in the 'right place', at the 'right moment' in History, to make this happen. IF Progressive Labor can USE what it believes in, (how big and 'if' this is will only become apparent over time), IF we can create a True Democracy just first among our own SELVES, to govern an 'organization' of United Progressive Labor, we will THEN have at our disposal the means to project this powerful strategy in the political arena, among the Commonwealth of the Citizenry.
Are we capable of being democratic? Are we capable of consolidating our forces, by agreeing to share democratic power, in a democratic organization? (Or are we, when all the words are said, and all the bullshit slung, just a lot of talk about 'theoretical' democracy?)
Just as Democracy is our Basic Message, so MUST Democracy be our Basic Credo. If we are corrupt in our own hearts from our inception, if we are not democratic in our own thought, behavior, and actions in pursuing these affairs, then when we try to 'ring that bell' of Freedom, it will NOT peal out over the landscape, as we might have, (in our vanity), hoped it would, but will sound instead rather like a full can of beer as it hits the floor. And all we will then have to face is a mess to clean up, (and worse, wasted beer).
If we want to have Democracy, then we HAVE to be democratic. Let this be our motto then: " If you don't believe in TRUE DEMOCRACY, then DON'T call yourself a True Democrat ! "
So......'what is it, guys? Are we serious? Are we ready? Or are we still 'just talking' ?
Zwarich
No comments:
Post a Comment