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Political Revolution -- What Is It?
http://www.solidarity-us.org/node/4685Date Written: 2016-07-01 Publisher: Against the Current Year Published: 2016 Resource Type: Article Cx Number: CX21442 The editors discuss Bernie Sanders' concept of a political revolution, as well as the terror attack in Orlando. Abstract: - Excerpt: Nothing has touched a raw nerve in the popular mood more than Bernie Sanders' observation that almost all the increase in wealth in the past two decades "has gone to the top one percent" while the wages of living standards of working Americans - called "the middle class" in this country's uniquely backward political discourse - have stagnated or declined. Clearly a political revolution must put this issue at the top of its agenda, but that requires getting at its roots. Yes, a $15 minimum wage with further increases indexed to inflation would help, as would a reformed tax structure not designed to transfer wealth upward to the rich. But these are bandaids, not cures for rampant rising inequalities that no tax structure in a capitalist economy can overcome. Mitigating, let alone reversing, the growth of inequality is about rebuilding and renovating an activist labor movement. Political action to reform labor laws stacked against workers and unions is required, but the heavy lifting of a labor revival can only happen at the base. The Labor for Bernie project, continuing beyond the primary season and the electoral cycle, could contribute significantly, along with the growing network of rank and file-based efforts. |