Can We "Do It" Again?
From the time I was born, until I was ten years old, (before 1949), my Dad worked for the Missouri Pacific and Katy Railroads, as a Laborer. In the 1930's, shortly before I was born, the citizens of this country were REALLY shut out of the economy by the MONEY BOYS of that day. Nobody had sh*t!! Most people were on the road, moving to find jobs. There were none!. To get off their asses, financially, black and white voters pressured President Roosevelt and got the Wagner Act passed through Congress. Although Congress, in those days, favored the Rich; they at least WORKED to solve problems the country faced. It was'nt easy, but the Unions were made legal; we got everything we took for granted after 1950: 40-hr work week, company paid health care, company paid career training and career paths, etc.
Cheny and Bush blew all of this up as they let their hooligans in Congress run amok and blow a hole in the floor of our national economy. Reagan, convinced the Archie Bunkers among our blue collar workers in 1980, that they did not need their Unions any longer. Reagan's "dog whistle" message to them was: "if they were white, they were automatically "Middle Class". The propaganda worked, and blue collar whites agreed to shun blacks as "welfare recipients", and did nothing while Reagan and his buddies worked to destroy Unions.
In the 1930s, because of Government-designed and enforced Segregation, the Unions set up separate "Union Rolls" according to the race of the worker. No white could be "laid off" before all blacks and other non-whites were "laid off". The good times, and "good" salaries from railroad work, disappeared for my father, around 1950. After that time, he had to catch any kind of job he could, for whatever pay was available. He always had a job, as I remember. So did all of us kids. We were allowed to work full time in Missouri; as young as eight years of age (for pennies per hour).
In the 1930s, because of Government-designed and enforced Segregation, the Unions set up separate "Union Rolls" according to the race of the worker. No white could be "laid off" before all blacks and other non-whites were "laid off". The good times, and "good" salaries from railroad work, disappeared for my father, around 1950. After that time, he had to catch any kind of job he could, for whatever pay was available. He always had a job, as I remember. So did all of us kids. We were allowed to work full time in Missouri; as young as eight years of age (for pennies per hour).
Economic "progress" turned whites away from cooperating with blacks to get legislation passed. The richer we got as a nation, the more the Federal Government gave "goodies" to whites only, such as Surburban housing (Levittown), and all the goodies that came with that standard of living.
Now that the Rich whites have screwed their poorer cousins, again, will the poor whites "wake up" and try again to work together with non-whites. Republicans, so far, show no interest in changing their ways, or cooperating with Democrats (the few who are willing) to "solve" the problems of citizens who are "shut out" of today's economy.
Stay Vigilant! Just a Note as to just how much this country has "progressed" since 1939.
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