Why Working People Are Angry and Why Politicians Should Listen

[Love Bug]

This is a speech by Richard A. Trumka, AFL-CIO President recently given at the Institute of Politics, Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

I am going to talk tonight about anger—and specifically the anger of working people. I want to explain why working people are right to be mad about what has happened to our economy and our country, and then I want to talk about why there is a difference between anger and hatred. There are forces in our country that are working hard to convert justifiable anger about an economy that only seems to work for a few of us into racist and homophobic hate and violence directed at our President and heroes like Congressman John Lewis. Most of all, those forces of hate seek to divide working people – to turn our anger against each other.

So I also want to talk to you tonight about what I believe is the only way to fight the forces of hatred—with a strong progressive tradition that includes working people in action, organizing unions and organizing to elect public officials committed to bold action to address economic suffering. That progressive tradition has drawn its strength from an alliance of the poor and the middle class—everyone who works for a living.

But the alliance between working people and public minded intellectuals is also crucial—it is all about standing up to entrenched economic power and the complacency of the affluent. It’s an alliance that depends on intellectuals being critics, and not the servants, of economic privilege.

I am here tonight at the Kennedy School of Government to say that if you care about defending our country against the apostles of hate, you need to be part of the fight to rebuild a sustainable, high wage economy built on good jobs – the kind of economy that can only exist when working men and women have a real voice on the job. ...

More of the speech here including solutions, not just a recitation of the problems: http://tinyurl.com/ydqq64b

I found this speech on Yoko Ono's (yes -- that Yoko Ono) website. It's well worth reading. And a personal note for all of my fellow baby boomers: please spare us the snark about Yoko. The Beatles broke up 40 years ago and it's time to get over it and quit blaming her for what was inevitable. Crikey.

[Warpy]

1. He's absolutely right. The baggers know they've been screwed

for decades without ever being kissed but they're too stupid to be able to connect the dots to figure out who screwed them and why. The stupid and/or uneducated are prime suckers for slick admen who are only too eager to hand them all the wrong people to hate, and they do obligingly hate them.

The OP is also right about Ono. While I think it was a dreadful mistake to encourage her to sing, I saw the breakup as freeing Lennon to do his best work while McCartney sank into pop schmalz and I approved of whatever role she played in that little drama.

[ClassWarrior]

3. I don't think calling them stupid was what Trumka meant when he said...

...that we need to stand up for working people.

:shrug:

Just sayin...

NGU.

[Warpy]

7. I guess that word is as far as you read

Pity.

[ClassWarrior]

9. No, but how far I read still doesn't make it a very smart strategy.

Since we're on the subject of stupid.

NGU.

[givemebackmycountry]

17. Question---NGU what does that mean?

[KansDem]

18. "Never Give Up?"

:shrug:

Just my guess...

[lame54]

20. .

[NNN0LHI]

19. While I think it was a dreadful mistake to encourage her to sing ...

This is why I like this place so much.

:rofl:

Don

[Vermontgrown]

21. She tripled his estate while John was still alive...

Shrewd and smart.

[scarletwoman]

2. He's absolutely correct, of course. Great piece, thanks for posting it.

And as a fellow baby boomer, I bear absolutely NO animus toward Yoko Ono. I think she's a beautiful free-thinking woman who provided John the support and inspiration to delve deeply into his own soul.

Btw, it's wonderful to *see* you, Love Bug! A rare pleasure! :hi:

sw

[Love Bug]

11. Hey, I'm still around!

I mostly lurk, but every once in a while I find something I think is worth sharing, like this speech.

[scarletwoman]

13. I'm glad to know that! And Trumka's speech is definitely worth sharing!

:thumbsup:

[bobbolink]

4. People who are too old, too sick and too injured to work are angry too.

But nobody thinks we need to be heard.

:nuke:

[laughingliberal]

6. Yes. I keep thinking if I had been paid what I was worth when I was able to work

I might have been able to prepare for this day. Too late, now, though. And we have no one speaking out for the poor or the homeless. And we haven't had anyone since before Reagan.

[bobbolink]

8. No one at all. NONE.

We're on our own, and we aren't stupid enough to ignore that!

The Dems want my vote? Then, dammmit, show me you care about ME!

Otherwise, fugetttabotit!

[maryf]

14. One grass root

s/he had a voice, two grass roots, they had a voice...300 grass roots their voice might work...
Trumka should get outta bed with the dems, maybe his voice would mean more...

[bobbolink]

22. If what you're saying is that poor people should "organize", then

that feels like a blame.

There are many reasons why its much more difficult, if not downright impossible.

We Need A CHAMPION.

We Need An Al Gore Of Homelessness!

[laughingliberal]

5. Rec. nt

[senseandsensibility]

10. K and R

This is a must read.

[laughingliberal]

12. This is where Trumka nails it:

So I also want to talk to you tonight about what I believe is the only way to fight the forces of hatred—with a strong progressive tradition that includes working people in action, organizing unions and organizing to elect public officials committed to bold action to address economic suffering. That progressive tradition has drawn its strength from an alliance of the poor and the middle class—everyone who works for a living.

This is absolutely the only hope for taking the dialog back from the teabaggers and the only way to save the working and middle classes from eventual total destruction. "A strong, progressive tradition..." That's the key. Instead we see more and more liberal bashing and anti-union sentiment within the party. We have got to turn back from this push to the right. Not just for the good of our party but for the good of everyone not in the upper 1%.

[maryf]

15. K&R for the message...

the messenger? a little Janus faced at times I've found...

[pampango]

16. "We are organizing support for George Miller’s Local Jobs for America Act..."

"...that would target $100 billion in job creation dollars toward our country’s hardest hit communities—to keep teachers in the classroom and first responders on the job, and to create new jobs where Wall Street destroyed them. We are organizing support for financial reform and accountability for Wall Street. We are working to counter the Glenn Beck effect and turn anger into action for real change."

"But we must do much more to restore broadly shared prosperity. We must take action to restore workers’ voices. The systematic silencing of America’s workers by denying their freedom to form unions is at the heart of the disappearance of good jobs in America. We must pass the Employee Free Choice Act so that workers can have the chance to turn bad jobs into good jobs, and so we can reduce the inequality which is undermining our country’s prospects for stable economic growth."

"We must have an agenda for restoring American manufacturing—a combination of fair trade and currency policies, worker training, infrastructure investment and regional development policies targeted to help economically distressed areas. We cannot be a prosperous middle class society in a dynamic global economy without a healthy manufacturing sector."

"And we need comprehensive reform of our immigration policy based on ending exploitation and securing fairness, working for an America where there are no second class workers."