Four centuries ago Edmund Burke warned us that all that is necessary for evil to flourish is that good people sit idly by and do nothing.
When, in the name of huge tax breaks to corporations [and devastating service cuts for citizens], Gordon and his Goons began a campaign of beating up the less well off, too many good people did nothing:
- When Gordon and the Goons beat up the hospital cleaners and ensured that their salaries were cut in half, too many good people did nothing.
When they beat up single mothers on welfare, the civil servants, the nurses, the law courts, the teachers and on and on, too many good people sat idly by.
Perhaps many of us do nothing because we feel powerless to do anything. After all, Gordon and the Goons write the laws and have a lot of machinery at their command to see that these laws, just or unjust, are enforced. In addition, we have a deeply held belief in the law, a belief that even blatantly indefensible laws cannot shake easily.
In the face of this, What can good people do in the current round of bullying, other than walk the picket lines with teachers? Writing letters to an ignorant group of bullies is not the answer. Bullies understand only force, and Gordon and the Goons, as has been pointed out endlessly, are quintessential bullies. While the bullies have overpowering force, we have intelligence on our side and we can invent creative ways to thwart their evil.
Considering the teachers’ walkout, for example, let’s start with the premise that the purpose of a strike is to disrupt the employer’s business, to stop the employer’s production and therefore to attract the employer’s attention. The employer pays attention because the business loses money. When teachers are on strike, however, Gordon and the Goons (not the school boards) are the employers and Gordon and the Goons pocket the money saved from striking teachers’ salaries, so they have no incentive to settle a strike.
So, let’s look at two scenarios:
- Scenario 1. Teachers picket schools; students stay away; administrators [and a few scabs] enjoy a paid holiday inside a warm, quiet building. Teachers face economic sanctions and the government saves money.
Scenario 2. Teachers withdraw services but do not picket schools; instead, they encourage students to come to schools. Envision a school with a thousand students and no teachers. The paid holiday for administrators and scabs is over. Under these conditions, the word “chaos” would take on a new meaning.
Clearly, Scenario 2 is the most powerful way to disrupt the employer’s business and bring Gordon and the Goons to the table to bargain in good faith.
Gordon and the Goons have flourished because too many of us have done nothing. It is time to take a stand. It is time to pit our intelligence against bullying. Intelligence will win every time.
Let us stand with the teachers. To paraphrase Martin Luther King, Jr., in the end they will remember not the words of their enemies, but the silence of their friends.
Joe Belanger
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From my rather distant view in California, it looks as though the will of the people has caught up with the ever increasing power of the oligarchy. Something that is coming to a head in the states as well. None of the major political parties are willing to speak for the interests of the workers becausee of their own collusion with rich and powerful interests. We are deeply entrenched in a period of oligarchy that threatens the very foundations of democratic society.
I am delighted to see workers unite in Canada to battle the the narrrow political interests of the politcal parties on the left and right. The great work of all of you is a beacon for oppressed workers throughout the world.
I am rather ashamed that the labor leaders in California and the US have not joined our brothers and sisters in Canada in a unifying fight against the seamless power and influence of the oligarchy.
As rock poet Patti Smith has put it ” I awakened to the cry that the people have the power to redeem the work of fools upon the meek, the graces shower its decreed, the people rule.”