| Now it appears as if we have an ally with enough resources to make our voices heard. Richard Trumka, the President of AFL-CIO has seen organized labor suffer a similar fate. Now he is fed up and hitting back at Corporate Democrats with the support for organized labor.
He is faced with the same bad choices grassroots Progressives are fighting against. No matter what happens or who is elected and no matter how much money we give or work we do we are the only folks whose voices are never heard, and whose ideas are never tried:
"Let's assume we spent $100 in the last election," he said, explaining the union's position.
"The day after Election Day, we were no stronger than we were the day before," said Trumka. "If we had spent that [$100] on creating a structure for working people that would be there year round, then we are stronger."
http://www.politico.com/news/s...
Fortunately Trumka has something the recession and the policies of the last thirty years have robbed the grassroots of, resources. Now the AFL-CIO plans to use those resources independently because just like us they simply cannot depend on the Democratic Party as a whole to support them:
"We're going to use a lot of our money to build structures that work for working people" Trumka said. "You're going to see us give less money to build structures for others, and more of our money will be used to build our own structure."
Trumka's remarks follow the news that the AFL-CIO will set up a so-called super PAC, allowing the nation's largest labor federation to spend unlimited amounts of money on political activity for next year's elections and beyond. Trumka confirmed Thursday that the union is moving forward with plans to create the PAC.
It appears the breaking point for Trumka came at the same time it did for many of us. With the cowardice, complicity and Republicanism of the Obama Administration and the insult to Americans and Progressives that the debt-limit "compromise" truly was:
"I think he made a strategic mistake when he confused job crisis with deficit crisis," Trumka said. "He started playing on the Republican ground."
"He's going to give a speech in a couple of weeks on job creation," Trumka told reporters. "If he's talking about another percent or two break from a tax here and doing something with patent control, and doing three years down the road something with infrastructure bank, that's not going to get the job done."
Simply put we are sick of the regressive nature of American politics for 98% of America. It seems in the last thirty years no matter who we vote for and support we get one thing. Republican rule. Whether that Republican rule comes from Democrats or Republicans it is equally bad for our country.
Through it all real Progressives and their vision are the only thing that is never represented in Washington. Working folks and their interests always take a back seat to those of the greediest and least patriotic among us. We are told that we must use our votes and hard work to get a watered down, sissy version of George W. Bush to keep from ending up with George W. Bush on crack.
Hopefully the resources Trumka brings to the table will send a message loud and clear for all of us. This simply is not good enough anymore. Our country will never recover as long as we concede that the destructive Republican vision can be validated in any way. Conservative rule the last thirty years has been a disaster.
It is time for a new way and for a new vision. If Democrats are going to be so cowardly and complicit in the destruction of American democracy they simply do not deserve our support. Let us hope that this new PAC for working Americans can either wake Democrats up or provide a vehicle in which we can bring forth a third party in our country.
A party that truly represents Americans that work for a living for the first time in decades. |
