Labor fightback in the Great Recession

[Starry Messenger]

http://www.peoplesworld.org/labor-fightback-in-the-great-recession/

Any genuine assessment of the labor movement today has to begin with "... not withstanding all of this and all of these..." For over 30 years the labor movement has faced relentless corporate, political, and right wing attack. Since the beginning of "the great recession" this attack on labor and labor rights has risen in intensity and viciousness.

Of course the Great Recession, caused in large part by Wall Street greed and speculation, increased big business extremism. Capital has always been willing to use economic crisis as a club against labor. The crisis atmosphere is fertile ground for right-wing extremism, virulent racist movements, and attacks on labor.

The disastrous 2010 elections opened the floodgates for all-out corporate war on labor. Ultra right Republicans, organized and funded by shadowy think tanks, now nationally coordinate political and legislative efforts to destroy labor rights. "Right to work" for less laws and assault on collective bargaining rights for public workers, are front and center in a vicious Republican rightwing soup of racist attacks on immigrant workers, attacks on women's rights and women's health, and voter suppression laws aimed particularly at communities of color and the elderly. These billionaire and corporate funded anti-labor campaigns are at the heart of an overall rightwing attack on democracy.

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Most visible in recent months has been the explosions of activity and fight back in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana and several other states. In Wisconsin hundreds of thousands have hit the streets to recall Gov. Scott Walker and some of the Republican leadership in the Wisconsin Legislature. This is Wisconsin workers direct challenge to the attack on public workers in their state. Well over a million people signed the recall petitions largely organized by labor. In Ohio hundreds of thousands of trade unionists took to the streets all over the state to collect over a million signatures to overturn a Republican inspired law to take away collective bargaining rights for public workers. And in Indiana the labor movement mobilized throughout the state to try and defeat a right to work law. This included tens of thousands protesting in Indianapolis.

More at link.