A Different Kind of Shutdown: What if progressives took a page from the Tea Party?

[marmar]

from In These Times:



A Different Kind of Shutdown
What if progressives took a page from the Tea Party?

BY Bhaskar Sunkara


During the height of this fall’s government shutdown, Obama spoke to factory workers about Republican intransigence in Congress. He asked them: If they wanted a raise and more vacation time, would they just shut down the plant and walk off the job?

Telling the story to reporters, the president recalled, “I said, ‘How do you think that would go?’ They all thought they’d be fired. And I think most of us think that. You know, there’s nothing wrong with asking for a raise or asking for more time off. But you can’t burn down the plant or your office if you don’t get your way. Well, the same thing is true here. … The American people do not get to demand a ransom for doing their jobs.”

The thing is: They once did exactly that. Workers never got anything by asking nicely. They got it by striking, picketing, and yes, occasionally dynamiting their employers. But in an era of declining industrial action, when few are inculcated in the traditions of union solidarity and the strike, those memories have faded. Obama wants to see them completely forgotten.

During the height of New Deal-era militancy, nearly all of General Motors’ 150,000 production workers were involved in a workplace shutdown or factory occupation. “Every time a dispute came up,” one UAW member remembered, “the fellows would have a tendency to sit down and just stop working.” ........................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://inthesetimes.com/article/15798/a_different_kind_of_shutdown/

[liberal N proud]

1. There were these things called unions

They were formed by people who stood up to the employer and demanded what they deserved.

But then the employer got smart and turned the tables, making americans think that unions were a bad thing and that it wasn't fair that the union worker was getting paid more than them. So America turned on Unions and now many of them have been busted up and now everyone gets paid the same. SHIT!

People are going to have to stand up all over again and regain those things that they lost when they turned on the unions.

[jtuck004]

2. "But then the employer got smart and" ...donated to a party that could elect someone in who

could settle the workers down, make them think they were wrong when they demanded fairness. Someone pro-business, pro-finance.

sheesh...

[socialist_n_TN]

3. Yep. I would have probably actually said something like.......

"That's called a strike" because in some things I don't have much of a censor.

[Scuba]

4. Hmmmmm ....