"Thinking Globally, Acting Locally" In the Minimum Wage Fight

[unhappycamper]

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/richard-eskow/52951/thinking-globally-acting-locally-in-the-minimum-wage-fight

"Thinking Globally, Acting Locally" In the Minimum Wage Fight
by Richard Eskow | December 2, 2013 - 9:13am

Something is happening. It's beginning to look as if the fight for a livable minimum wage might - just might - alter our political future.

Makes sense, when you think about it. The minimum wage struggle is occurring at the intersection of powerful forces. It's taking place at a time of growing economic inequality, the erosion of working people's rights, and the globalization of an economic oligarchy whose scope of power is unprecedented in modern times.

And now it appears to be applying an old maxim from the early days of the environmental movement: Think globally, act locally.

~snip~

The idea is gaining ground in state and local legislatures as well. County councils in Montgomery County and Prince George's County in Maryland voted to raise the minimum wage to $11.50 per hour by 2017. Democrats in Illinois are pushing for a minimum wage increase to $10 per hour. California's minimum wage rise to $10 per hour by 2016. Similar initiatives are being pushed in a number of other states, either as legislation or is ballot initiatives.