Looking For A Picket Line? The AFL-CIO Has Your Bat-Signal

 

http://joehillslc.org/joe-hill/joe-hill-songs/there-is-power-in-a-union/

"There is power in the factory, power in the land,

Power in the hands of the worker...

But it all amounts to nothing,
if together we don't stand:

There is power in a union..."
<Billy Bragg: "There Is Power In A Union">

I've been on various mailing lists for as long as I've surfed the 'net, and the AFL-CIO happens to be one of them. This latest nugget of theirs, which I got last week, really got my attention, though -- it's a link to find strikes that they've authorized, which you can check out right here:

https://aflcio.org/strike-map?link_id=3&can_id=4e6c8046819e1ba183f676fa03eddc7a&source=email-strike-map&email_referrer=email_1999734___subject_2510488&email_subject=find-a-strike-near-you

To find out about all strikes happening across the U.S., click  this map from Cornell, via its niftily-named Labor Action Tracker:

https://striketracker.ilr.cornell.edu/?utm_medium=partnership&utm_source=website&utm_campaign=ilr-strike-tracker&utm_term=aflcio

Whichever one you click, there's a fair amount going on, as you can easily see. The entertainment industry strike is obviously the hottest one of the moment, by no means the only action that's happening. 

The AFL-CIO link also offers various resources to follow up, and show solidarity, to make its link even more relevant and valuable -- like the Tom Morello tune, which I have to check out yet, as well as advice, contacts, and other organizing tools.

Overall, it looks like a neat package, and it's certainly good to see organized labor flexing some kind of muscle again, after decades of dormancy, and continued attempts to dismantle unionism as a political force -- which is always a precondition for wannabe authoritarians, like Donald Trump, or the water carriers he jammed onto the so-called Supreme Court, like Sam "I Love Giant Salmon" Alito.

Or maybe we can call him "Scandal-ito," for short? At any rate, whatever gets you to click that link, don't ever forget the central premise, as the AFL-CIO expresses it:

"Working people want safe jobs with good health care, flexibility, sick leave, and where they feel respected and valued."

Now there's a bottom line that we can all get behind! On your mark, get set...start clicking! --The Reckoner

Links To Go: Get Organized (Not Atomized):

Billy Bragg: There Is Power In A Union:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFgT7eQRjeI

Campaign Legal Center:

Why The Current Supreme Court Is A Threat To Democracy:

https://campaignlegal.org/update/why-current-us-supreme-court-threat-our-democracy*

JoeHillSLC.org: There Is Power In A Union:

http://joehillslc.org/joe-hill/joe-hill-songs/there-is-power-in-a-union/

(*Remember, folks -- this analysis came out before we heard about their giant salmon, giant stogies, and all the other extravagant bribes lavished on these right-wing culture warriors they've installed there! 

(But, worth a read, all the same, to remind us what we're fighting for, all the same -- the curbing of all this unchecked corporate power, and the brutalist architecture on which it depends to function.)