Open Thread – Which Side Are You On?
I think this is far and away the best labor song ever written. Natalie Merchant sings with an intro clip sung by Florence Reece, the songwriter.
I look at these images and wonder why anyone believes that if the unions are broken, we will not end up here again. Human nature endures – the good and the bad – and we haven’t changed that much.
Happy Labor Day, Mudflatters. Go find a union member and give ’em a hug. Remember to support and vote for pro-labor candidates who are taking a stand for the middle class, for decent jobs with decent wages, for safety standards, and for human dignity.
As this is for all topics, I have a question:
Why in the world would Sarah Heath (Palin) enter a half-marathon listing her residence as Des Moines, IA? It would appear that she did indeed run it, and ran well, finishing second in her division. Nothing wrong with that. But it’s really off-putting that she wouldn’t even list a state where she owns a residence.
Bizarre covers it all, right?
I don’t know if there is any issue in the coming election campaign and what’s been going on since the last election that makes me more angry than this.
I’m on Leonard Peltier’s side. The indigenous American has been in Jail over half his life for the slaying of two F.B.I. agents on a reservation in South Dakota,was awarded the initial Mario Benedetti Foundation international human rights prize. Peltier is considered a political prisoner in America and his story was the loose basis for the movie “Thunderheart” starring Val Kilmer and Graham Greene. A very good movie IMHO-BTW. Benedetti was a Uruguayan writer who passed away in 2009. I haven’t googled more about him yet. As an aside, I will be spending the next few days getting some quality time with my numero uno nephew who has MS and was supposed to stay at the farm with Mikey. Unfortunately,his health is deteriorating to the point where I cannot in good conscience provide the care he might require. I will be back next weekend and may return to visit the following week.. Remember,when confronting the enemy,and we know what parties they are, kick them first and frame the debate on our terms,not theirs.
Leonard Peltier…now there’s a name from the last millennium…
and MS is another connection we share, there, also, too, mike.
Wicked cruel it can be.
Safe travels.
We’ll be here when you return.
Thunderheart, IMO, is a great movie, not merely a good one. And I visit friends on the rez as often as I can (not Pine Ridge, Rosebud — although I’ve swung through Pine Ridge, as well).
Solidarity Forever
Leonard Cohen’s slower sing-along version
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jsQEwW4DVw&feature=related
and for Zyxomma
Paul Robeson sings Joe Hill
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8Kxq9uFDes
Let’s add “A history lesson in a song… written by Phil Ochs, performed by Billy Bragg.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdSbKSQYXgo
These stories need to be told.
Pass ’em on.
Solidarity, my brothers and sisters.
Let our little lights shine.
thatcrowwoman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBD_d9SZYnw&feature=related
And laugh while we work 🙂
And for thatcrowwoman, here’s Pete Seeger’s version (one of them, anyway):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_yC4ffyGiw&feature=related
Good NEWS!
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2011/09/05/jimmy_hoffa_at_obama_event_on_gop_lets_take_these_son_of_bitches_out.html#.TmUXkwPsvfw.facebook
For the life of me, I can’t understand why people want to disband unions – in favor of what? Horrible working conditions and deaths because the owner needs to make another dollar? All of which leaves the worker (and their families) without any quality of life, from being able to earn a decent living to working in a safe environment. Perhaps they aren’t old enough, and are only reading the republican revised history books, or they didn’t have parents who remembered what it was like before we had unions to protect and fight for workers.
This is thought to be irrelevant by far too many today- archaic, irrelevant, blah, blah, blah…
Today is the day to remember those 29 who lost their lives proving it’s not irrelevant.
29 Miners and Massey’s Coal Crimes
“The company broke faith with its workers by frequently and knowingly violating the law and blatantly disregarding known safety practices.””
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/06/28-2
which side are you on?
Corporations do what’s best for their profit margin, NOT what’s best for their employees or for the general public. The Republicans wants to reduce or eliminate federal regulations and agencies like the EPA which protect US. We need those regulations, watchdog agencies and unions to protect us from the greed of the corporations.
Eric Cantor, who preaches that federal regulations should be eliminated and swears that corporations will voluntarily do the right thing for their employees, as much as admitted that his theory is absurd during the FAA shutdown. When the airlines raised their ticket prices the same amount as the federal tax that was not being collected, rather than returning that money to the consumer, Cantor defended the airlines.
“And what airlines have done is have stepped in and said, well, if we’re not going to pay that money to the federal government, we’re going to keep it towards our own bottom line. And I guess that’s what business does.”
Yes, Mr. Cantor, that’s what business does and that’s why we need unions and federal oversight.
If they’re that greedy about a temporary tax holiday, does he really think that corporations will reduce their profits for the long term in order to voluntarily protect their workers, the general public and the environment? If they did, we wouldn’t have needed to establish those regulations and agencies in the first place. Of course he knows better, but far too many people don’t have the sense God gave a gnat and support the decimation of our protections anyway. And they will likely be the first to be severely injured in an industrial accident or poisoned by toxic chemicals in their neighborhoods or in the products they use.
I’m thinking we are spinning our tires right now with big business and it’s apologists.
I keep trying to think what other place we can move this fight to, what other avenue affords a chance to get this all back on a truly human footing.
I’ve had a series of conversations over the last year with a young man from Kentucky who moved to Alaska a couple years ago.
While anecdotal, those conversations have found a place in my heart and mind. My father’s people are in Western Kentucky, living something very similar to what this young fellow’s life was in Eastern Kentucky.
He is coming up on 35 years of age, has never voted, hates unions because he was taught to, went to work in the coal mines right after highschool with skills obtained from vocational program in his local high school, and his heart breaks for his home county, its people, and land. Tears form in his eyes.everytime he talks about mountaintop coal mining. He says Mitch Mc Connell doesn’t visit the rural area he comes from as Mr McConnell knows he isn’t liked and might not even be safe in those areas because he won’t help them.
This young man is just as wary of we Democrats because he says we are too busy tooting up education and opportunity as a way out of poverty to pay any attention to the lack of opportunity faced by rural residents and the joke which passes for education in too many of those places.
He talks of it being considered a team thing to give advance warning of an inspection so the worst offenses can be hidden from view or tidied up before an inspector arrives but of wanting the inspections and wishing there was enforcement .
He is smart and capable. In 2 years he has built a small business he almost can’t keep up with because he is diligent and trustworthy.
He is thinking about what unions might help with, he is thinking about what it might take to get rid of the Mitch McDonnells.
I am working on him to register to vote. If he does I will work on him to vote whether he cancels my vote out or not. I want us to have a system which works for him .
The big Corps won’t stand a chance if we get him, all of those men and women like him, working on making a future for real live people.
( oh- I’m sorry. Even Mitch doesn’t deserve to be called McDonnell )
Those ol’ tea baggers don’t know nothin’ about patriotism, alaskapi. YOU are a patriot in trying to educate the non-voters, like your young friend there, and show them there IS a good future for this nation if we are all willing to demand it and fight for it.
Good luck in your efforts. I have no doubt that your young man there won’t be able to resist your magic, logic and wisdom…his history of not voting is about to come to an end.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rZbvi6Tj6E&feature=related
Don’t ya know we’re talkin about a revolution?
🙂