Our economic world is dominated by corporate megaliths that export jobs to sweatshops and money to offshore bank accounts. How can we fight a power so vast, so in control of the nuts and bolts of our society and the world at large?
Labor unions exist to promote democracy at work. Even if their leaders sometimes forget this, that is their purpose, that their mission. Their real justification lies in a basic belief that a man or woman deserves the product of their labor, and that all real economic value is created by work, nature or culture in general, not by money and those that hold it. We normally fight for fair wages and fair benefits, assuming in our innocence that working a 40 hour week should confer dignity and a decent standard of living for a family. We assume that people who show loyalty to their employers deserve to have that loyalty repaid in kind. But I think we demand too little: society belongs to those that build it, and the absentee owners and their hired senior bureaucrats are just Pretenders.
Monkeywrench offers books on economics and labor history, and we are open and available for any union or employee group that wants a safe place to meet. This page features information on local organized labor contacts and general economic and labor resources. Good luck with them. You have nothing to lose but your chains.