SOLIDARITY

The word SOLIDARITY means different things to different people and changes with an individual’s allegiances.  Merriam-Webster defines solidarity as “unity (as a group or class) that produces or is based on community of interests, objectives, and standards.”

Solidarity is just a word, a word we all know and sometimes use ourselves.  But words without actions mean nothing.  We all have witnessed first hand how some candidates for office use solidarity on their campaign literature or in some cases as part of their campaign slogan while at the same time spreading negativity and disinformation on social media or passing out “shit” sheets on the plant floor.  

I find it ironic that corporations always have money to hire union busting firms when their employees attempt to join or form a union.  Yet, they never have money when the same employees ask for a raise or better benefits.  America’s workers appear to finally have had enough and the union movement expanding throughout the United States and it’s doing it in the face of increased union busting programs instilled by corporations.

In 1937 then U.S. Senator Harry S. Truman made a speech on the floor of the U.S. Senate and talked about how wealth has been built on the backs of workers.  I took this paragraph from his speech; “It is a pity that Wall Street, with it’s ability to control all the wealth of the nation and to hire the best law brains in the country, has no produced some statesmen, some men who could see the dangers of bigness and the concentration of the control wealth.  Instead of working to meet the situation, they are still employing the best law brains to serve greed and self-interest.  People can only stand so much and one of these days there will be a settlement….”

Brothers and sisters if ever there was a time for true “solidarity” it’s now.  Now when the younger generations are embracing the labor movement and breaking new ground in organizing.