Breaking the Silos

Rod Watson penned a very good article today (February 4, 2016) in the Buffalo News. He wrote about the divide and conquer strategy that the 1% uses to keep the middle and working classes divided against themselves. Take the time and read it, It's pretty decent. He outlines the problem nicely.

He focuses on the work of Les Leopold of the Labor Institute (located in NYC) and how he is working and helping to raise class consciousness and awareness. This is a good thing to to.

My issue/concern: He doesn't offer a solution to the problem. He does talk about how the CWA (Communication Workers of America) and the Citizen Action Group of NY are working to create a grass roots response to the divide and conquer tactics of the 1%. Basically it's a modified version of the Populist Movement of the late 1800's and the early 1900's. This movement died out in the 1920's. Today, groups like this get folded into the Democratic Party. Anyone that knows politics knows that the 1% controls the Democratic Party and the Democratic National Committee just like they control the Republican Party and the Republican National Committee. Same puppet master – different puppets.

What he doesn't talk about, because high school history classes don't teach about it and rarely will a college course, is the socialist and communist movements that also started in the 1870's and are still around today. Still fighting the good fight in spite of the state repression against them. J Edgar Hoover's FBI, the Smith Act (among others), and the COINTELPRO (Counter Intelligence Program) of the 1970's which had a withering effect on the socialist & communist left.

I'm not going to belabor the point, but the solution to the past, present, and future crisis of capitalism is socialism – an economy of the people, by the people, and for the people. Not social democracy (like what the Scandinavian and other European nations have) but socialism.

Take some time and dig into the following links and educate yourself about the alternative.

Socialism - An Introduction

Socialist Studies 

High school wouldn't do it & college has morphed more into career education.

Educate and radicalize yourself.

And while you are at it – subscribe to a pretty decent newspaper written by real socialists. It's worth the time and effort,

After all, you have nothing to lose but your chains.

And silos are pretty crappy places to live in.