Who hates organized labor, liberated women, and peace?
The war profiteers. The radical right. The power elite within the 1% who seek wealth over human rights, power over fairness, and profitable wars over global peace.
But they are in the minority. Even though they have frightened millions and lured millions into supporting the agendas that hide their greed, they are in the minority.
The majority of Americans:
- overwhelming support equal rights for women and believe more needs to be done to ensure those rights
- support the right of workers to organize (e.g., participate in labor unions)
- support an international order based on international law, which, they believe, imposes constraints on the use of force and coercion
- prefer negotiation and nonviolence to armed conflict[1]
This majority is not the “silent majority” enshrined by Ronald Reagan, but nevertheless is too often silent in these frightening times.
Don’t believe the hype of the radical right. Don’t buy into claims that big corporations making millions in profits are forced to “outsource” their work because organized labor in America makes “unreasonable demands.”
Don’t be lulled into ignoring the attacks on women’s rights, including voting rights, taking place in this country today. (See, for example).
Finally, ask yourself whether cutting social services, educational programs, and unemployment entitlements for the working class—and increasingly the middle class—while retaining George Bush’s revolutionary tax benefits for the wealthy makes your life better or makes America more secure.
The Occupy Movement of 2011 raised the right questions and offered some provocative solutions. Let’s not allow their demands to get lost in the shuffles of the 1% power elite.
Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology
[1] See http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/ for more detailed results of relevant polls; also informative are http://www.pewglobal.org/2010/07/01/gender-equality/ and http://www.gallup.com/poll/157025/labor-union-approval-steady.aspx .
