The mainstream media makes out like the economic collapse is just something that happened to us. Some greedy banksters gambled with trillions of dollars of our money and in the process, also committed embezzlement, fraud and theft. Now the money is gone, and we just have to live with it. Millions of Americans lose their jobs, homes, savings and pensions. But instead of sending the banksters responsible to jail, the government gives Wall Street trillions of dollars of TARP bail-outs and the CEOs responsible get billions of dollars in golden parachutes and pensions.

Then the government turns around and tells working people they have to tighten their belts – in addition to paying more sales tax, they have to accept pay cuts, longer working hours, loss of public services (such as teachers, libraries, police, street lighting, road and bridge repair, and health clinics). Because there’s no money left to keep the economy going. That’s just how it is.

Now, in the last week, they’re feeding us a new line about a so-called “double dip” recession. In other words, over the next few months we should expect things to get even worse – there will be even more job losses and wage and social service cuts. We might even need to cut Social Security and Medicare. Meanwhile corporate America is once again making out like bandits. Corporate profits are shooting up again, and CEO bonuses are growing handsomely.

The “Economic Crisis” is Really an Attack on American Workers

I just don’t buy it. Any of it. In fact, I believe there is overwhelming evidence that Wall Street and Washington are simply using the global economic crisis to justify a massive attack on the working class. I think there is a clear agenda to cut labor costs by reducing US workers to Third World status in terms of wages, working conditions and social services. Obviously this is much more expedient than continually closing down factories and moving them to Mexico and Asia.

Fighting Back

Fortunately I am no longer alone in seeing the “economic crisis” for what it is: an attack on working Americans.  It’s also gratifying to see workers beginning to organize to fight back – and to acknowledge the need for intensive cross-class, cross-gender, cross-cultural organizing not seen in the US since the 1930s recession (which, in many ways, was also a systematic attack on workers).

Specific examples of 1930s style organizing include:

1. The employed and unemployed are recognizing they have a common enemy (Wall Street corporations) and are organizing together. The Unemployed Union launched by the International Association of Machinists in January is taking off in a big way. You don’t have to be a former union member or even like unions to join. If you are one of 31 million Americans without a paid job, this website is for you:

http://www.unionofunemployed.com/

2. People who still have homes are organizing to support people who are being foreclosed on. This is mainly happening in Florida but definitely needs to spread to other states. The majority of working people in the US are living pay check to pay check. If you organize to stop your neighbour from being evicted, there will be organized resistance to help you if you lose your job and can’t pay your own rent or mortgage.

3. The fundamental role of the “welfare committee” in progressive organizing is being revived. Building organized resistance requires some of us to focus full time on movement building. The powerful grassroots organizing that built the progressive and union movement at the beginning of the twentieth century didn’t rely on “foundation” funding to pay their organizers. (See my page at www.stuartbramhall.com about the role of left “gatekeeper” foundations in ensuring that grassroots organizations don’t become too radical – also my July 26 post “Who Did Obama Work For in Chicago?”).  In the thirties, unions and community groups formed their own “welfare committees” to look after the basic needs of organizers and their families.

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The Most Revolutionary Act on radio:

Gorilla Radio – Chris Cook, Victoria British Columbia

(click on link)

Chris and I discuss how I was first targeted, following my decision to support the occupation (of an abandoned school)  that led to the formation of Seattle’s first African American Heritage Museum – as an alternative to the crack cocaine epidemic among the city’s African American teenagers. We also talk about my research into HIV AIDS, my hospitalization and the Veterans Administration psychologist I worked with who also helped GIs illegally stationed in Cambodia in the sixties and seventies (and terrorized into keeping quiet about it).

XZone Interview with Rob McConnell

(click on link  – show is syndicated – fast forward the music to hear interview)

Rob and I discuss the phone harassment, break-ins, attempts to run me down – and my psychiatric hospitalization. We also talk about the political activities that seemed to lead the government to target me – including my research into HIV AIDS – and my inability to get help from the Seattle police. Then we cover the whole area of conspiracies in general, which are more accurately called State Crimes Against Democracy (SCADS)

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