Street Heat Now Required, But Victimized Jobless Still (Mostly) Quiet

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from In These Times:




Street Heat Now Required, But Victimized Jobless Still (Mostly) Quiet

Tuesday
Feb 1, 2011
1:43 pm

By Roger Bybee


In the face of still-growing economic polarization and corporate misconduct, labor's most effective response to the bailout of Wall Street and the sellout of the working class remains the Republic Doors and Windows occupation in Chicago in December 2008.

Despite the best efforts of the United Radio Electrical and Machine workers union to spread the Republic example, somehow no prairie fire of rebellion was ignited among working families and the jobless. Seemingly, the smallest spark would have immediately lit up the dry kindling created by Wall Street-caused layoffs, permanent job losses due to offshoring, unprecedented wage cuts and a rising tide of home foreclosures.

But while the primary victims of the recession have been relatively quiescent over the past two years, the fear of falling into the pit of economic insecurity fueled a fast-growing Tea Party movement that has often blamed the jobless for their plight and deployed slogans like "re-distribute my work ethic, not my money."

The fears of the suburban and rural middle class touched off a powerful movement on the Right that amazingly re-legitimated the badly-discredited George W. Bush policies of deregulating banking and corporate behavior and handing out huge new tax cuts for corporations earning record profits and the ultra-rich already sitting on a record share of the nation's income. Some of us had naively thought those policies were permanently dead. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/6906/victimized_jobless_still_quiet_while_victors_of_class_war_triumphant/