Solidarity Charlotte

On Wealth & Power by crackedlogic

In our current society, almost every aspect of our life is to be given a value. We are conditioned, literally, to associate our time with money. Once we’ve been trained to accept this, we must then somehow attempt to evaluate the worth of our future. In my view, determining the value of our goals and aspirations by their dollar worth rather than how beneficial or enjoyable they might be is a poisonous mindset. Ask yourself, what is an hour of your life worth? Would you say $10 an hour? What if it was an hour of shoveling out stalls on a farm?  Surely, you would find your time suddenly more valuable than before. Would you take $20 to act as a human footstool for an hour? This is an extreme example, but there is little difference between allowing yourself to debased in one manner or another.
Currently, we lack even the power to set our own value. Unable to freely set the value of our labor, we are stripped of the one bargaining chip we supposedly always have in capitalism. In reality, we are given a limited number of choices, set by others who grow fat off the work of those they employ. As a sort of slap in the face, we are given the option of going into debt to these very same people in hopes of expanding those choices to include one we can find tolerable. To whose benefit is it that only a select few can determine what our lives are worth, or what a “minimum wage” should be? Clearly not to ours, for we constantly find ourselves at the shorter end of the stick, scrounging for what is available and hoping the “minimum wage” will one day rise to reflect a livable wage. So long as enough of us take to the yoke of this wage-slavery, there will always be a buffer of the only moderately poor who mistakenly see themselves as aligned with the interests of the wealthy. They cannot even be called a middle class, for in truth there is no such thing. The so called middle class is in reality only a portion of the populace who have “bought” the lie, and struggle to stay afloat just the same, all while cloaking themselves in the trappings of wealth.
We are told to look to our political leaders for answers to this problem, but why should politicians of high-standing take action that might endanger their own wealth or power? To even run for political office requires vast sums of money to fund a campaign, pay staff, produce materials, and organize events to spread the message. How can someone capable of this kind of investment claim to represent a working class of people, people who struggle daily to make sure they have food to eat and a home to sleep in? The truth is they cannot. Of our “elected congressional representatives” over 50% are millionaires, while only 1% of our entire population can make the same claim. From feudal times onward, the rich have grown more so at the expense of the poor.
We have tools to combat this, but one we are in danger of losing is our unions! No, not the AFL-CIO type trade unions who sell out their increasingly unsettled members to corporate interests. The real unions, the revolutionary unions, seek social change beyond a saddle that doesn’t chafe. Workers around the world have participated in revolutionary unions, from the CNT in Spain to the WSF in South Africa. The US, however, is known for being the birthplace of the IWW. An integral part of the historic fight for labor rights in the US, The Industrial Workers of The World takes all interested parties, regardless of profession, color, class, or ability. A truly American tradition, radical unionism was what got us the 40 hour work week, a minimum wage, and child labor laws. The IWW has always stood with workers of all fields, fighting for the day when we can be rid of capitalism completely. Recent gains have been made in Starbucks and Jimmy John’s, and we have seen the successful unionizing of a variety of businesses long thought outside the scope of a traditional labor union. A unionized worker has the power to demand fair pay, fair hours, and fair benefits. This isn’t the width and breadth of our struggle, but it is certainly a good place to start in our fight for an egalitarian society. Without the limited bargaining power a union offers individual workers are stuck, held at economic gunpoint by their employer.  Don’t let yourself be mugged by your boss. Speak with your co-workers, and see if they share the same hardships and troubles in life. You’ll find they welcome the opportunity to share their struggles with another, and it is in this common ground that the seeds of revolutionary change are planted.

2 Comments so far
Leave a comment