LABOR RIGHTS ARE CIVIL RIGHTS.

[THEANGEL&THEGAMBLER]

Labor Rights Are Civil Rights.

—

I debated whether I should write this. I feel like this far too often when I sit down to write lately, especially when it comes to addressing something as thoroughly empty as anything dealing with Black Lives Matter. That goes tenfold for anything that happens regarding Black Lives Matter within that razor-wired echo chamber known as social media. In fact, I had not planned on writing anything more about this, and I plan to go back to doing so once this piece is finished.

But witnessing this breathtaking display of rank stupidity compels me to point out a couple of things:

1. People associated with Black Lives Matter have managed to put out precisely onedetailed list of demands. Those demands are tightly focused around one issue. If you abhor the quick death of a policeman’s bullet but are hunky-dory with the slow death caused by out-of-control unemployment, health disparities and outcomes, and the degradation of America’s contract with its working class, then I have to ask whichBlack Lives Are Supposed To Be Mattering with these demands? And if you cannot articulate a comprehensive plan of action for your community of interest, then what are the protests if they are not symbolic?
2. The March on Washington….For Jobs and Freedom. Look up those demands sometime, if you ever want an example of what an actual plan for liberation looks like. If you are the kind of person who likes substance and detail, perhaps the Freedom Budget, championed by labor leader and March on Washington organizer (and a Black man to boot!) A. Philip Randolph is more up your alley.
3. Related to that last point, a Black man is head of America’s second largest labor union. A Black man (and an immigrant) is the Executive Vice President of the AFL-CIO. Black people have been the largest supporters of an expansion of labor rights, and they have been the backbone of one of the most successful labor campaigns in a generation, the Fight For 15. Black people are also more likely to identify as working class rather than middle class or wealthy. The notion that pointing out this fact, as well as pointing out that economic inequalities are reduced where workers can collectively bargain, is akin to someone saying that “all lives matter” is, well, out-of-touch with reality. And history.
4. And since we are talking about Bernie Sanders not protesting with Black Lives Matter,maybe this has something to do with it? It is not really about him, but the amnesia that comes over certain sectors of online activism when it comes to this one candidate has gotten to be really bizarre.

—

I hate writing about this stuff because it honestly bores me, even more so when you can see the fast-approaching end game of all this. I would much rather be working on my blog piece about histories of leftism in the South, or be researching my dissertation, or be outside enjoying the abundant splendor that is life in Detroit.

But at a certain point, it becomes necessary for there to be a transcript. One that will let people who look back upon this stuff know that the conversation was not one-directional, and that there were people who legitimately cared about liberation and freedom who nevertheless opposed this mild reformism, infused with radical posturing. And one that states the painfully obvious: that if every police officer put down their guns and fully disarmed tomorrow, that this would do little to put food in the bellies of hungry children, or put a roof over the heads of the approximately 20,000 homeless in Detroit, or give our kids an education system that treats them as humans, and not just numbers or dollar signs.

Labor unions have been at the fore of fighting for all of those things. And not just that: the strength of a nation’s labor movement has been shown to positively affect the responsiveness of government to its most vulnerable (Bartels 2010) as well as the size of its social welfare state (Goldfield 1987; Esping-Anderson and Korpi 1983). The backing that the fights for civil rights, Medicaid, and Social Security had from the labor movement, and their successes, should prove that in multitudes.

Labor rights are civil rights. And if we really intend to make Black Lives Matter, perhaps a simple recognition of that easily researchable historical fact should be recognized.

 

[88m3]

there's something terribly ignorant about the black lives matter movement, I hope they get it together or it will fall apart.

they shouldn't lose site of the police brutality but there is a bigger picture here that they're clearly missing

 

[tru_m.a.c]

there's something terribly ignorant about the black lives matter movement, I hope they get it together or it will fall apart.

they shouldn't lose site of the police brutality but there is a bigger picture here that they're clearly missing

It's because they haven't realized how to make the issue of police brutality a part of the middle class platform.

But that's for two reasons:
1) Those who aren't middle class minorities still disregard their negative impact on the judicial system dating back to the 60s (we could go even further back but fukk it).
2) They feel that making it seem like a packaged deal muffles their call for justice

 

[tru_m.a.c]

To piggyback off my last post, the "official" blacklivesmatter group needs to find a way to prioritize judicial reform while expanding on economic and academic disadvantages.

I mean, we can say blacklivesmatter at a union rally too, right? We can say blackslivesmatter at the closing of a school right? We can say blacklivesmatter the next time we talking about the disproportionate home foreclosure numbers too right?

Personally, I think the movement can be used as a way to force a race to the top instead of the current race to the bottom. Let's say I start the conversation off with, "Black lives matter - look at the disproportionate funding our schools receive and the increasing segregation in our schools across the nation." The response from those wack ass alllivesmatter folks would be, "Well all all lives matter, school budgets are being cut across the board." To which my natural response would be: a) so is that ok? b) whose fault is that c) what are we going to do to change that? At this point, it would be the alllviesmatter crowd's choice to either continue this stance of "well maybe they deserved it" or "life isn't fair" or they can join in line and be like "yes we need reform now so let's vote together."

At this point in time, the onus isn't really on the moderates who are sitting on the sideline. They can just SAY alllivesmatter and then play this game of cat and mouse with each individual shooting. But how can they do this when the topic becomes healthcare or banking?

I don't think the main proponents of blacklivesmatter realize that the allivesmatter crowd doesn't and never has understood judicial inequality. So you've actually managed to form a democrat/independent/republican conglomerate who disagree on principle but are opposed to YOU.

 

[JahFocus CS]

If a group/movement doesn't get the class question right, it winds up having all sorts of wayward and goofy ass positions and actions. A good portion of BLM is approaching that point.

 

[Domingo Halliburton]

:Larry:

 

[theworldismine13]

 

[Tate]

The bourgeoisness of many black lives matter people is so thick. Some of these Twitter warriors really think the only issue in the black community is police brutality. The disdain for anything else is so fukking stupid. It literally blows my fukking mind.

 

[the cac mamba]

theyre shytting on him for joining a union rally