What A Difference 40 Years Makes
I was at the DC U.S.Uncut rally yesterday and there was a good crowd with decent energy. This was the first time, I have been to a demonstration at Dupont Circle in over 40 years. Back on May Day 1970, it was quite a different scene. The circle was ringed with marines in full battle dress, there were hundreds of thousands of people in the streets, and the DC police were arresting anyone that wasn't wearing a Brooks Brothers suit. That morning tens of thousands of people were arrested in a mass civil disobedience that shut the government down - the good kind of shutdown. Now it's the t-baggers, Obama and the lackey Democrats that want to shut down the government - the bad kind. It would be good if it also shut the state war of terror down but we know that won't happen. The only shut down will be things that help ordinary Americans.
I had to wonder how many people in that crowd would go that far if they had to
- and trust me we will have to before this thing is done. One thing
that really bothered me was all this stuff about "save the American
dream" You have got to be kidding, the "American
Dream" is the problem. Its just another media induced illusion
to keep people dreaming about a pie-in-the-sky rather than fighting for their
rights. Work hard, pay your taxes, play by the rules and you too can
share in the American dream. You would think that after 40 years - and 30
years of the corporate dictatorship that began with Reagan - someone in the
progressive movement would have at least figured that part was just another
lie.
I grew up near Pittsburgh . The steel mills are all gone but down along
the Monongahela River there is a little museum dedicated to the steel
workers. Its on the spot where the workers fought (they even had a crude
cannon) for their rights with the corporate goons. Those workers knew
what was going on and what they had to do. They knew that the plutocrats, or
the Constitution or the government were not going to give them anything - that
they would have to fight for everything they would get. These are the kind
of people that made American labor something strong and powerful. These are the kind of people that made a
country where the fruits of our labor were shared and where our children could
have a better life.
Please people, you DO NOT, repeat do not, need or want the American
dream. What we need is to wake up from that dream and start to fight -
non-violent resistance actually! We need to realize that Obama and
Congress are not our friends and are doing everything they can to maintain the
American dream illusion while waging a brutal war against ordinary Americans
and presiding over a shakedown that is transferring massive amounts of money to
the super-rich. The Democrats and Republicans are lackeys and stooges for
the plutocracy and when push comes to shove, they will be against the
middle class and working poor (they have proven this time and time again over
the last 30 years). So I say f ... excuse me ... ch ... uck the American
dream, WAKE UP and begin the UPRISING!