#Decolonize from the Lies
"In the early 1970s, we started to move all the unionized jobs out of the U.S. As the capitalists [shift] the American dream jobs out of the U.S., they do a containment strategy. They create this union-busting consultant industry, and the capitalist class says, “We’re not going to allow the emerging sector, the service sector, to get unionized the way we allowed the manufacturing sector to get unionized.”
So when people talk about, “Oh we’re going to create this next new economy,” what do workers hear? “We’re going to lose all these good jobs, and we’re never going to have a union again,” because that’s the lived experience in this country."[1]
Part of #decolonization is recognizing that all of the FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt) the fascists use online as they attempt to break up strongly-rooted people-led movements is just ... lies. When you see or hear those kinds of things happening IRL, speak up and speak out.
It can be difficult when the fascists show up and try to throw short-term solutions (corrupted political money) at problems, but it is always worth it for the health and safety of a community.
Did the 512 coal-mining towns[2] in West Virginia, for example (yeah! really 512), include the long-term environmental degradation in their bargaining? Mostly not. Collectively each was likely promised some small slice of the rich white landowning man's definition of a "good job", only to have that promise reneged.
Had the 512 towns been able to #unionize and recognize their #intradependence on the Earth, rather than on money, damage from plundering would have been mitigated much sooner. A non-capitalistic ecology should not have to pay for the mistakes of one species. There's really not anything that can be done for those exhausted, blown-up hills today but learn from the mistakes of the enemy, and help other be not deceived.
[1] Jane McAlevey inteview by Alleen Brown: https://theintercept.com/2020/03/09/climate-labor-movements-unions-green-new-deal/
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Coal_towns_in_West_Virginia
