THE WORKERIST MANIFESTO

  DENY, DELAY, DEFEND, or, why most Americans hate health insurance companies, and what we can do about that   Under normal circumstances, most poor, working class and middle class Americans would be horrified by the spectacle of an early morning commuter being shot in the back by a random armed stranger and mortally wounded on the way to a work meeting.   But Brian Thomson was no ordinary commuter – nor was his (alleged) assailant Luigi Mangione (or, as he was dubbed on Tik Tok, “The Adjuster”) an ordinary gunman   We don’t know all the facts yet, but, based on published accounts in the media, Mangione was an affluent and well educated young man, from a well off family – but he reportedly suffered a debilitating back injury, around the same time his grandmother fell ill and passed away.   These   personal tragedies would be devastating enough… but, of course, the insurance industry made things worse, as they always do – a tragedy that’s dre...

  NO, DONALD  TRUMP IS NOT  A FASCIST and we are in no danger of democracy ending   What is this “fascism” we hear so much about lately? Wikipedia tells us Fascism is a far right, authoritarian and ultranationalist political ideology and movement, characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism,  forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy, subordination of individual interests for the perceived good of the nation or race, and strong regimentation of society and the economy. Opposed to anarchism, democracy, pluralism, egalitarianism, liberalism, socialism and Marxism, fascism is at the far right of the traditional left-right spectrum.   If we ask Bulgarian Communist Party chairman and general secretary of the Communist International Georgi Dimitrov, fascism is the open terroristic dictatorship of the most reactionary, most chauvinistic and most imperialist elements of finance capital....

 

  THE EVIL OF TWO LESSERS – or, why the working class shouldn’t support Harris or Trump By Gregory A. Butler America has two parties of the upper class, 80% of Americans have no voice in American politics and supporting either party of the rich is, was and always will be a bad idea for working class Americans   And NO, campaigning for Harris can't be justified by saying that "fascism" is on the horizon or that Trump is a "fascist"   Fascism is only relevant in countries with a politically independent working class, a strong class struggle oriented labor movement, lots of strikes and a real possibility of the working class seizing power and ending capitalism   That is not America in 2024   This is a country with two parties of the rich, no parties of the working class, a corrupt, pro capitalist, decomposing labor movement in decay   - six percent private sector union density - that's less than the Republic of Sudan! and less   strikes ...

  DISORGANIZED LABOR – or, why America’s unions can’t – or won’t – organize this country’s workers By Gregory A. Butler   America’s labor unions only represent 10% of the workforce. Even in the public   sector, unions only represent 34% of workers – mostly concentrated in federal sector, and in state, county, municipal and tribal governments in blue states   In the private sector, unions are all but defunct – 6% overall. Manufacturing, once a union powerhouse over 50% organized is now barely 10% unionized. Construction, once over 80% union, is now barely 10%. Trucking went from 90% to 7%. Warehouses are also largely non union these days.     Longshoremen in sea freight are still mostly union, but port truck drivers are largely non union. The sailors on the ships, if they have a union at all, are second class members of unions based in the countries the ships are registered in, or are often entirely non union (especially in ships registered in ...

WORKERISM – or, society should be ruled by those who produce all the essential goods and services of life   By Gregory A. Butler   The fundamental problem in our society has it’s roots in two interrelated conflicts  -   1. COMMODITY PRODUCTION All of the necessary goods and services of life are sold as commodities, for the private financial benefit of a small exploitative minority of society   2. THE EXPLOITATION OF LABOR The majority of society are forced to sell their labor power to the class that sells those commodities; that majority produce all the wealth that flows from that commodity production but only receive a tiny portion of those values as their wage   This is the root cause of every social problem in our society and in every capitalist society on the planet (as every country or territory on Earth is a capitalist society, this is a problem everywhere)   This has been the fundamental problem in the world since the ori...