women’s rights – Page 3

By guest author Dr. Dahlia Wasfi

Imagine that on September 11, 2001, instead of four airplanes used as missiles, massive air strikes had targeted numerous strategic sites in the U.S.

Over 50 aerial bomb drops — Stenciling boasting over 50 aerial bomb drops. Image in public domain.

Instead of attacks over a few hours on a single morning, consider the bombardments continuing unabated for three-and-a-half weeks, for the purpose of “shocking and awing” the American people.

Instead of nearly 3,000 dead, tens of thousands of Americans are murdered in the bombings. And in the aftermath, local police and fire departments responsible for aiding the ill and injured are rendered helpless by swarms of occupying soldiers who take control of American society.

Consider the scenario of our elected leaders then being kidnapped or simply made to disappear, and foreigners—most of whom do not speak English—declaring authority over the U.S. Our lives become ruled by a military occupation that lasts the next decade.

The occupation force responsible for our security comprises primarily young men and women ignorant of our society. Human rights violations become the norm.

During the course of this decade of occupation, the foreign military protects Texas oil fields, while the fabric of American society is destroyed.

Women’s rights are set back for decades, if not centuries.
American infrastructure deteriorates while the healthcare and educational systems are decimated.
An estimated 1,000,000 – 1,500,000 American citizens die
Nearly 5,000,000 Americans are displaced [opens in PDF] from their homes
Five million children lose one or both parents
Between one and two million widows are made
Electricity, potable water, and security are scarcities.

How would we feel about the people responsible for this calamity? How would we feel about the soldiers occupying our streets?

How do Iraqis feel about us?

Dahlia Wasfi

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 .

Imagine an occupation of the U.S.

Labor Day 2012 P.S.