When I see how the workers at Electro-Motive are suffering it breaks my heart.
From Lynda:
We have discussed the food bank. Worry that Paul will not be able to find another job that will pay our bills Now the worry that we will have no health coverage. The worry that we will have no future.
I'm sorry. I can't go on anymore with this. My head hurts and it is difficult to see right now. I'm going to try to lie down and sleep for a little while if I can.
From Tammy:
We are trying to fight with London Hydro so we don't lose our hydro in the next week. Our vehicle will more than likely be taken away in the weeks to come as well. How do you explain to your six-year-old that he can't have a cookie as there are only a few left and we need to save them for school lunches?
When I see how that shattered community is trying to fight back in a proud but humble way it makes me so sad.
When I see how the sellout Cons are using the Caterpillar bullies, and other foreign companies, to do their dirty work, it makes my blood boil.
As the company flees for the green, green grass of “right-to-work” Indiana, the Harper government’s silence amounts to it outsourcing the race to the bottom for the Canadian middle class, allowing its multinational friends to do the dirty work.
For surely no Canadian government has ever betrayed its own people so shamelessly.
Which is why I am hoping that the CAW goes ahead with this plan.
Because this isn't just a battle for the rights of the Electro-Motive workers. This is the beginning of a war for the future of Canada.
No factory deserves to be occupied more than that one does. And by occupying it we can make it a symbol of resistance. And send out a powerful message.
From David:
As jobs like mine disappear where do the federal tax dollars come from to sustain our fantastic country? As I sit hear writing this after my first (but probably not last) night of no sleep, I honestly believe I will get through this somehow some way. But it is my children and everyone else's children I fear for. This is slowly becoming a country of haves and have-nots."
And from ALL of us.
The sellout Cons are betraying the Canadian people. But we will not be intimidated. We will use a Caterpillar boot to boot them from power, and teach them this lesson:
Canadians will NOT be slaves to foreign interests.
And our country is NOT for sale...
I'm too much of a Debbie Downer to say much, Simon. I hope for and cheer your fire and optimism.
ReplyDeletehi Beijing...I'm sorry to hear that you are down, but I understand how you feel. I sometimes feel like I'm in an old, low budget, black and white horror movie, like Plan 9 Nine from Outer Space, or Harperatu the Killer Nerd. But of course we must never let the Cons know we're feeling blue, because it only encourages them ;)
DeleteAnd there are reasons to be optimistic. Some of the things the Cons are doing now are really damaging them, and will come back to haunt them.
And the more shocking they are, the better the chance that our complacent fellow citizens might actually get off their asses, and do something about it. Because if they don't they will look pathetic, and history will not be kind to them...
This is the "corporate agenda." That's what it is. That's what us pinkos are always trying to warn people about.
ReplyDeletePoliticians who serve the corporate agenda are your enemies. They don't care about you or your values.
They set you against the "feminazis" and the "queers" and the "furriners" to divide and conquer all of us.
hi thwap...it's the new and even more aggressive corporate agenda, and we couldn't ask for a better example. As you point out Cons are always trying to mask their economic crimes by distracting the population with all kinds of wedge issues. But they are going to have a really hard time explaining this one.
DeleteBut only if the opposition parties, the unions, and other progressives can keep the spotlight focused on those greedy hogs, and don't let them get away with it.
I'd like to say I'm optimistic but since we live in such a complacent country, and progressives look like a fried egg on the sidewalk, I'm afraid only time will tell whether we will fight them or surrender...