Organized Money vs. Organized People

In many states, workers are under attack by right-wing extremists who seem willing to do anything to pay back their wealthy corporate campaign contributors. They have found their direction from the top, as the Bush administration has long been waging a war on working people.

Colorado Gov. Bill Owens (R), for example, just vetoed a package of pro-worker bills. Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (R), Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher (R) and Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt (R) all rescinded collective bargaining rights for their state workers. And California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) is waging a full scale assault on unions.

That doesn't mean workers are taking this sitting down - they are fighting back where they can. In Illinois, Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) signed a package of pro-worker legislation into law. And with the Bush administration refusing to raise the federal minimum wage, more states are taking the matter into their own hands and raising the rates themselves.

Organized money, of course, will always be powerful - that will never change. And the corrupt politicians who are waging this war on working people have a very simple goal that transcends their specific policies: vilify unions and make "labor" a bad word in America so that the corporate agenda has a legislative justification. But the fact that workers are fighting back where they can is encouraging, and it sets up what is becoming an epic battle for America's economic soul. Will our country continue down the path towards another early-20th century Gilded Age where corporate barons ran everything? Or can we turn it around and start making our government and our economy work for workers? That's the fundamental question - and the struggle for the answer is clearly on.