Revolution
I have a friend who likes to get together with another friend for a few beers and talk politics. Now, for some time I've been fomenting Revolution in my head but I've never been able to articulate what needs to be done to meet Corporate Greed head on. But these two guys came up with something that, if it doesn't get them on an RCMP hit list or land them in Guantanamo - I don't know what will.
But let me backtrack to The Agenda. It's the new TVO Studio Two minus Paula Todd double plus Steve Paikin. I occasionally think to catch it and the other night, Carol Off was on (heheh - off/on) talking about Chocolate. She's written a book, a political book, about the dark side of Chocolate (oh dear... I really DON'T intend all these puns - I HATE puns). Chocolate, it turns out, is a lot like everything else Corporate. Nasty and brutal for the people at the raw end of the market, cheap and ubiquitous for the consumers in the middle, rich and unconscionably profitable for the Corporate Cartel Owners.
Okay, that was one show. Another show was about our economy - wages, the cost of living, who's really middle-class/who's faking, taxes, retirement savings, debt loads. One of the panelists was a Globe and Mail business thingy, Brian somebody, expressing some very honest-sounding and candid opinions about how stressed the Middle Class actually is in terms of wages versus other economic factors in society. Particularly striking - all of a sudden to me - was the extreme profitability of the "Folks" (gawd I hate that gawddamned word) at the top of the Corporate Heap. To the point where, they weren't even connected to the Heap anymore. They have their own Stratosphere.
Also on the panel was a TD Bank President or somesuch, somebody Drummond. He reeked of privilege. Monetary, academic - you name it. And, of course, he thought everything was fine, looking good, up even. People should just invest more in the Stock Market. Poor people. 'Cause that's how you got Rich. Investing in the Stock Market. He even made a pitch for education, claiming pretty much that the poor were stupid not to stay in school.
Gee, go bowling much, Richie Rich?
So yeah, I'm middle-class with a university degree and I make a basic clerk's salary. I don't think I'm faking, but I might be. Oh - and several years ago I switched a small pension from a guaranteed G.I.C. to a balanced mutual fund on the advice of the Bank and it is only now back up to where it was in 1990.
Yeah. Banks. Folks...
In the meantime, while my little pension has been struggling its way back to pre-1990 levels, the Banks have netted historically unprecedented Profits. Grotesquely huge, bigger'n heads, Bonuses have been paid out to CEOs of Corporations. The kinds of Bonuses that could buy Disney World homelands for all the world's refugees.
My friends believe only a Labour Revolution can bring an end to this madness. The madness that sees wealthy Corporations locate plants in poor countries so they don't have to pay living wages to the people who work in them and can extract huge profits at the other end while the economies they live in go without the manufacturing part of the whole process - the part that makes for a sound economy - and the middle class they live above supports their luxurious lifestyles buying stuff made by what are essentially slaves because there is no alternative.
The Corporations have squeezed out all the alternatives. Act local, think global is reversed. The economy is turned on its head. The good for the few is the New World Order.
This is where the organized labour part comes in. The thing is, with my friends, it's not the labour we've all come to know and see coming before it even turns the corner. They are talking about - NEO-labour. A neo-labour that plays by mercenary rules. A neo-labour that fights back. Literally. A neo-labour that goes to those same poor countries where people have no protection from these Corporate Nihilists and organizes the workers - and this is the part where you may want to avert your eyes, gentle reader - using whatever works (i.e. well... think of what works for the Corporate thugs who locate plants in these poor countries in the first place) - TO SAVE OUR ECONOMIC LIVES!
Think about it. How can we not force Corporations to at least pay living wages to workers in poor countries to prevent the entire manufacturing sector of our economy from relocating to the third world? Hardly anything is made here anymore as it is. How can we possibly compete with what is essentially slave labour when we have Richie Rich doing just fine, thank you?
And we are so beyond the time to stage boycotts - don't even go there sister. We can't boycott EVERYTHING. And we shouldn't have to, anyway.
We have landed in mercenary territory. Yup. Organized Neo-Labour needs to meet Corporate Greed head on. With mercenaries. Hired guns. Thugs. Lowlifes willing to do what Corporations are willing to do - except worse. Lower lifeforms - if that is humanly possible - to guarantee workers EVERYWHERE a living wage and regain our competitive advantage without being reduced to penury ourselves.
Radical? Not to my friends.
Okay. And not to me. So, arrest me. My pension won't last out a year of old age anyway.
Smash the State!
Oh - and Support Public Broadcasting!
