Don’t mourn, organize!

[Omaha Steve]

http://transitional.pww.org/article/view/16338/


Author: John Wojcik
People's Weekly World Newspaper, 07/10/09 17:34

News Analysis

The famous Joe Hill quote, “Don’t mourn, organize!” is being taken to heart, it seems, on a regular basis these days.

Three things happened in the last few months that were not so good. “So what’s the big deal?” you ask, “Bad things always happen.” The big deal came after they happened. Explanation:

Earlier this year labor and its allies suffered a defeat in the Senate when a bill that would let judges rewrite mortgages so hurting folks could stay in their homes was defeated.

Earlier this year a member of the congressional oversight committee for bank bailouts, AFL-CIO economist Damon Silvers, said he almost cried when he realized how badly the financiers had to have run amok and spun out of control for the economy to have come crashing down around our ears, the way it has.

Also earlier this year (just last month) the U.S. Chamber of Commerce announced that it was time for the group to launch a $100 million ad campaign to defend what it called the free enterprise system.

“Supporters and critics alike agree that capitalism is at a crossroads,” said U.S. Chamber president and CEO Thomas Donahue. “It’s time to remind all Americans that it was a free enterprise system based on the values of individual initiative, hard work, risk, innovation, and profit that built our great country. We must take immediate action to reaffirm the spirit of enterprise in America.”

Its these three events, organizers say, that led the nation’s two labor federations to link up with more than 200 community groups to form, three weeks ago, a grassroots coalition to battle both Wall Street and the Chamber of Commerce.

It wasn’t long ago that people went home after a legislative defeat, licked their wounds, and waited until next year to try again.


FULL story at link.