Signs of the fightback against the Bush agenda are everywhere. But despite the fact that he won by a slim majority (if you trust the election results -- and that's not a given) it will be very difficult to stop him and the Republican controlled Congress from doing terrible harm to our country and people over the next four years. If they have their way they will throw our country back, not into the 20th century but to the 19th, undoing the great social achievements that provided a safety net and a way up for those historically at the bottom of society.
In the aftermath of the tragic affair of Terri Schiavo, it seems obvious to me that the uproar made by the extreme right was nothing more than an excuse and a pretext to attack the courts and the judicial system. By attacking the courts, limiting their powers and destroying the checks and balances that form the very bedrock of our democracy, the Right will have paved the way for unchallenged rule by Executive. In other words, dictatorship by a President who is beholden to the most reactionary elements of the religious right and the reckless and war-mongering oil and defense corporations who want untrammeled access to the world's oil be it in Iraq or the pristine wilds of Alaska.
That is why the very broadest majority coalition of the American people must be assembled to resist the Bush offensive, to turn our country around and then to take it back on behalf of people not profits.
It was with that in mind that I stuck a prophetic button from the 2004 elections onto my jacket . It proclaimed "Labor Cannot Afford 4 More Years of Bush."
Prophetic button from the last election.
Then I mounted my bicycle and headed into Manhattan. The New York City Labor Council had called a rally for Thursday, March 31st, outside of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Battery Park, lower Manhattan. This was part of the National Day of Action for Retirement Security. Rallies were being held nationwide to convince Charles Schwab and other investment firms to drop their support for privatizing Social Security and pull out of pro-privatization lobbying groups. In New York, Schwab was giving a luncheon at the hotel and labor and its allies were there to say loudly and clearly: "Hands off our Social Security - Don't pick our pockets to line your pockets!"
It felt good to be part of this picket line of working people, intent on fighting back and reclaiming our country. But, it's clear that much more remains to be done if we're to succeed. Let's get to work!
Workers from the needle trades outside the Ritz Carlton Hotel at the Battery.
A very spritied rally against the Bush plans to axe Social Security.
Garment workers at the rally - "Hands off our Social Security!"
Sara Sanchez, NYU law student, speaking against privatization.
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