The Cost of Doing Nothing…is Too Damn High
This morning I woke up to the world as it is. People paying too much to feed and clothe our families while wages stagnate. Inequities in our neighborhoods, from who gets to live where for how much to how often the bus rolls through and the cost to ride. Sigh.
It could be overwhelming. I could have just snoozed the alarm for five, maybe ten more minutes and pulled the blanket over my head. But no, I did not snooze. I got annoyed. Something is wrong! This world is eff’d up! I got angry.
As a labor activist, I know about the fights workers face in Minnesota and across our nation. Many of us at our workplaces, in the streets, and under the Capitol dome in St. Paul join in the struggle to protect and lift up all workers. We have walked the streets of Madison, Wisconsin together to stand up against vicious right wing assaults on workers’ rights. We have walked the streets outside of Target in Minneapolis together to demand contracted cleaning companies stop retaliating against workers.
For many of us, we fought hard or others fought before us to have collective bargaining rights. Collective bargaining helps to protect us all. It is a tool for the people to use that protects our rights in the workplace, drives wages up for all workers, and helps to keep us safe so we can go home to our families and communities. That’s why cheap labor conservatives and multi-national corporations want to get rid of collective bargaining, so they can pick us apart, pit us against each other, and tear power away from us.
Do you share the need to resist this assault on workers and our communities? It is something I feel in my gut, visceral at times. It pisses me off that corporations think they can control what goes on in our public school classrooms. It pisses me off that corporations write cookie cutter laws and trade deals that restrict who has access to power. It pisses me off that corporations can hire guns to threaten and kill workers in Colombia, all so that people can buy cheap goods.
That’s why when I found the opportunity to go to Colombia in 2012 through Witness for Peace, I felt it in my gut that this was the right thing to do. On the Colombia delegation, we met with workers in the struggle and indigenous communities that are fighting for survival to stay on their land while multi-national corporations threaten them with violence. We met with Afro-Colombian women banding together to create and sell handmade items that will jumpstart their small businesses. We saw people joining together to fight bad trade deals, like the Colombia Free Trade Agreement. It was inspiring.
It is said that every time history repeats itself, the price goes up. And we’re not talking about the the price of goods. If this assault on workers and communities continues, and profits over people continues to rule the land, the consequences will tear apart our communities and the earth that we leave for our future generations. I’m not down with repeating history. And I’m not down with those consequences.
The injured and fired GM workers I met while on the Witness for Peace Colombia delegation understand this corporate assault because they are living the consequences of out of control corporate greed. They are resisting the American giant of GM. These workers have been occupying outside the U.S. Embassy in Bogota for over 900 days. That is over 2+ years of living in tents with the constant threat of violence and removal. You can’t fake that. They are 100%. Guts.
The struggle for justice is something that burns in the soul, envelopes the heart, and flows through our bodies in action. This is what I felt from listening to Jorge and other workers living in those tents in Bogota. Unfortunately, the majority of laws, elections, policies, guidelines, flowcharts, handbooks, and time cards do not reflect justice and equality. This is a reality worldwide.
My challenge for you. The world as it should be: What is your vision? Mine includes an end to the inequities I’ve talked about, an end to violence, an end to oppression in our communities. It is a place of yes, a place that has enough for all, and a place and mindset that sustains itself on love, refusing to let fear dictate policy. Let’s join together to build our shared vision of community through Witness for Peace. Because the cost of doing nothing is too damn high.
Please give to Witness for Peace Upper Midwest today. I am on the national Witness for Peace board as well as sit on the Witness for Peace board here in the Upper Midwest. We welcome donations of $250, $200, $199, $100, $50, $20, really, whatever you can give is appreciated and goes a long way to building power for our efforts.
Click here to Give to Witness for Peace
Will you join us and other workers like Jorge in Colombia? Witness for Peace educates and leads delegations that bring our worlds and struggles together.Witness for Peace Upper Midwest is leading a delegation to Colombia this November. Read more about it and apply today!
November Colombia Delegation
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