We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

The Taft-Hartley Act Revisited

by David Macaray from Dissident Voice

While I have spent much of my adult life unlearning what I was taught in schools, media, and films about the history of my country, I never came across the details of this infamous attack on working people until now. I am most grateful to this author.

After WWII the US ruling class was ready to roll back the many gains that working people made during the 1930s when the economy was in shambles and working people were rioting and threatening the system. The gains were actually quite modest having been carefully crafted by the astute guidance of the FDR administration, but were seen by many in the governing class as a threat to their rule. The reaction was swift and deadly by both capitalist parties. Loyalty oaths, anti-communist witch-hunts, and anti-labor legislation were the weapons used to put working people in their subservient place.
The realization that working men and women were now wielding genuine power —power that translated into independent political and economic clout — was scaring the wits out of the Establishment. It was that fear that precipitated the legislation.