Piecemeal Protests.

I stand for action. I like doing things. I like talking about things. I like educating people. In a way that makes me who I am.

On the TV and in the newspaper I read about actions this week. And they are actions I support wholeheartedly. I understand the people's demands. I support their causes. I believe that they are sincere. I do everything I can to support them. I question what the outcomes will be.

There were protests at Catholic run hospitals this week about staffing shortages– specifically nurses. I would never want to go to a hospital that was short on staff. That's my life in danger. I've been to the Emergency Room too many times for my own comfort. The first person to greet me? A nurse. After admission – a nurse worked to get the essentials correct for the doctor. Before leaving – the nurse made sure I understood everything that I needed to do. Coming out of a concussion, the first person a friend of mine saw was a nurse. Nurses make the hospital run. Nurses make the hospital safe. Nurses were trying to educate us about how the capitalist system is making hospitals unsafe by cutting their staff – the very people who have the most contact with patients.

I find it interesting that when the hospitals have to cut staff & pay, the CEO's pay is never touched. They are the most expensive employee in the hospital. Why are they sacred? They have the least contact with patients (as in virtually none).

The nurses were out there alone. We, the people needed to be there with them. We weren't. When they get cut, out lives are put in danger. How many people think that way?

Then there was the $15 NOW strike. Support the strike. I worked in a restaurant for over a decade. I know the conditions – the heat, the speed, the shortages of whatever is needed on the line. It's crazy back there. I also know they get next to nothing for all the profits they produce while some CEO is raking in the cash over work that other people do.

And I know that if $15 NOW has their demands met, the costs will be passed on to the consumer. Not that it needs to be that way. The costs could very easily be absorbed by the corporation by adjusting the salaries, benefits, and severance packages of those employees that do not directly produce profits – the CEO, Board of Directors, Presidents and Vice Presidents – downward. Big time. The real leech on any economic system is the administrative staff with their salaries, benefits, and severance packages. They are made to look important. In reality, they are just employees like everyone else. Expensive and overpaid employees.

The $15 NOW people marched alone. Where were the union workers supporting them? Restaurant workers are among the largest group of workers in the country and they are ripe for organizing. Unions should have been marching with them, side by side showing support.

They marched alone. Just like the nurses. They have our interests at heart. Where were we? (Those that could have made it to the protests and joined them?)

The facts of the matter are that the capitalist class is going to play the demands of the nurses and $15 NOW against the working class. They are masters of that game. Any time any sort of action comes up the capitalists play the working class against itself. They use fear tactics (costs will go up, your needs won't be met, we'll have to cut other workers, etc.)

We need to be with the nurses. We need to be with $15 NOW. We need to show the capitalist owners that we are on to their game and that we demand the rules be changed or we won't play.

And they know that if the people unite against them, that they will lose.

They are counting on us not figuring that out.

Well, I just told you how they play.

Now let's go play the game.

And let's change the rules.

A hand has 5 fingers. Take a swipe at someone with the had open and the fingers spread out and they won't notice.

Make it into a fist and they will.

The universal symbol of the socialist movement is a raised fist.  And for a good reason.  Imagine  what would happen to capitalism if we the people said "No more."

We need to unite with the nurses and $15 NOW and every movement to show the capitalists who is going to win.

Because if the nurses lose, we lose. Our health.

Because if the $15 NOW lose, we lose. Our income.

Let's play to win.