by Gavrielle Gemma
We have two choices. We can resign ourselves, our families and our children to a future of unemployment, low wages, no health care, hunger, and evictions while a select few capitalists live in luxury.
Or we can unite, employed and unemployed, workers of all nationalities, to fight for what we need and deserve.
Employed one week, unemployed the next. In our apartment or home one month and facing eviction or foreclosure the next. Already we’re seeing our wages fall and our hours cut as the bosses hire desperate people for less money.
It didn’t have to be this way. The government could have put into action a scientific plan to crush the virus but Wall Street’s concern for “the economy” won out. When they say they want to save “the economy,” they mean their profits.
The Democrats have put forward relief proposals but have allowed months to go by, all while conceding more and more to the Republicans. We workers are bleeding out while they politely negotiate with one another.
Billionaire Trump told us the virus would disappear or else that we could drink bleach. If it weren’t for the fact that he and his ultra-rich golf buddies needed our labor to increase their wealth, he’d have us all drink bleach and die.
It’s time to get real: we are not in this together. It’s us against them.
Independent Mass Action by Workers and Youth is Urgently Needed
Every last cent in the national, state, and city budgets comes from our labor. The CEOs, the bankers, the Trumps with all their lavish inheritances have never lifted a finger to “earn” their wealth. While we work, they spend their days counting the money we make for them.
Through struggle we can win back the wealth that they steal from us. Pensions, minimum wages (now criminally low), health care, unemployment insurance, and SNAP were all won by mass action. We’ve had to pressure the rich for each on of these concessions—by organizing, marching, and speaking up to demand what we need.
Join the Louisiana Movement for Workers Councils (LMWC)
The Louisiana Movement for Workers Councils has just started. They are demanding to restore and expand emergency $600 a week unemployment for all workers, including youth, home care and migrant workers; to reinstate the ban on evictions and foreclosures as well as the ban on utility shutoffs. They demand safe, living wage jobs or a guaranteed income for all.
You can begin a chapter in your own neighborhood, town, or city. Your voice, your ideas, your involvement is needed. When we fight, we win! Contact us at LouisianaWorkersCouncils@gmail.com or at 504-671-7853.