End the Fed? A response to the BC Federation of Labour's denouncement of Port Shutdown Day
BLOG POST posted on December 12, 2011 by Relentless Rising
Oakland general strike, November 2 2011
Is it any surprise that the BC Federation of Labour has vocally denounced tomorrow's Port Shutdown Day?
The headlines read "BC Federation of Labour supports Occupy movement's goals, but not its port protest". In other words, the Fed claims to support the goals of the revolution, but does not support the revolution itself.
The Fed sold out powerful general strike movements in BC in 1983 and 2004, and this unprecedented continental day of action, while it may not yet have taken hold in BC quite as fully as it has in other places, is a prime opportunity to show real solidarity with labour under attack and disrupt the flows of capital.
Occupy LA views this as the first step towards a general strike on May 1, 2012. One of the issues holding back the movement here is that too many people are hoping for 'leadership' where there is none, and never will be.
The BC Fed does not speak for me. They do not speak for the vast majority of my friends, my family and my comrades. They do not speak for the majority of workers; for the suffering masses of non-unionized labour in this province exploited by the big banks and box stores who will only stop oppressing us when we step on their bottom line. They do not speak for wild BC; for the plant and animal populations that are being chopped, mined, fracked, paved, piped and shipped to ruin by the 1% and its machinery of death and profit. They do not speak for the victims of climate change caused in part by the constant emissions of the precious unionized infrastructure that the Fed so dearly defends.
To make real change on this stolen land of so-called British Columbia, we're going to have do it ourselves. From the ground up, with our bodies, our friendships, and our dreams.
Strength and solidarity to all brothers and sisters heading out to shut down the port tomorrow!
For total liberation! Class war 604!
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Comments
I hear that ...
As I sat in the meeting with the union brass after the port action, my mind could wander because every time I was angry enough with that douche Jim Sinclair to say something, one of my fellow occupiers would say it faster and better than I could. (feels like solidarity!)
But mostly, all I could hear from these dusty old fucks was "we have lots of time, slow down, don't be hasty" and even worse from Sinclair himself; condascending group therapy shit like "does everyone feel validated here?" or "you don't want to alienate the workers".
(WE ARE WORKERS YOU FUCK)
Anyway, clearly everything I've always read/heard about the union leadership is disgustly true. Complacent and co-opted, baffled by the angry youth, same as everyone else. Seeing is believing.
The lesson is they wouldn't even return our phone calls until we fucked with their shit.
(they also accused us of not talking with them first, after ignoring our phone calls)
The yuppie baby boomers as a whole won't even open a dialogue with you until you fuck with their shit and when they DO actually start acknowledging that you exist, it's only to bitch and moan about how angry and reckless you are! Sad state of affairs.
So again, it seems like the more bad noise I hear from the likes of Jim Sinclair, the more confident I am that blockades and other major disruptions are the only thing worth investing much energy in.
Oh well, here's to 2012 and lumpenprole class war.