Within another week the bosses gave in and the strike was over and was settled in favor of the workers. At no time did the bosses bargain in good faith. They tried intimidation and then force and then coercion, and only when all of those tactics had failed were they willing to bargain fairly. It is a sad commentary on our society but it was force and not negotiation that ended the strike. Power only backs up when forced to back up; they don't admire courage, and they don't care about the environment or saving the whales.
Don't get mad at me. I didn't invent the system, I'm just calling it out. I've often wondered what did more to bring about civil rights for African Americans. Martin Luther King's marches or the riots in the inner cities that caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damages? During the peaceful marches the marchers were stoned and tear-gassed and had police dogs and fire hoses turned on them. During the riots insurance companies run by rich white folks got creamed. I think that the change was brought about by both. The moral force of the marchers and the economic force of potential riots.
Where would the gay rights movement be without the Stonewall riots? Do you think that waving rainbow flags and wearing funny clothes will get you anywhere?
The Red Cross sent vegetable seeds to hungry farmers in the Dust Bowl, oblivious as to why they called it the Dust Bowl and why the farmers were hungry in the first place. Soldiers with bayonets and not negotiations had run the Bonus Marchers out of the capital and army tanks stood guard at the gates of the White House.
This is the America that Franklin Roosevelt assumed the Presidency of in 1933. The Communist party was the fastest growing political party in America and some feared that there was a real threat of revolution. Where Hoover had lived in denial on Pennsylvania Ave., Roosevelt offered accommodation. This wasn't because Roosevelt was just a great guy but out of a genuine concern that they could lose the whole capitalist shooting match if they didn't make accommodations. So successful were his reforms that millions of Americans today can't imagine taking to the streets to defend their rights.
It was force and fear that the status quo would be smashed that brought about change. At the same time across the ocean in Germany the Fascist party developed a reputation for being street brawlers. They took joy in breaking up opposition party rallies until people feared showing up for the rallies of centrist parties.
The Social Democrats and the Catholic party made complaints to the police but the police could only offer a few men to defend their rallies. The Nazis came to power because the power to oppose them was weak and disunited. Once in power they began to make territorial demands and because the powers in Europe were weak and disunited they decided, "Let's just give them what they want to keep the peace."
So, let's not fight with them; let's let them keep the media spotlight and tell their side but not yours.
"You do not become a 'dissident' just because you decide one day to take up this most unusual career. You are thrown into it by your personal sense of responsibility, combined with a complex set of external circumstances. You are cast out of the existing structures and placed in a position of conflict with them. It begins as an attempt to do your work well, and ends with being branded an enemy of society." Vaclav Havel
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