- Friends,
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- From time to time, someone under 30 will ask me, "When
did this all begin, America's downward slide?" They say they've heard
of a time when working people could raise a family and send the kids to
college on just one parent's income (and that college in states like California
and New York was almost free). That anyone who wanted a decent paying job
could get one. That people only worked five days a week, eight hours a
day, got the whole weekend off and had a paid vacation every summer. That
many jobs were union jobs, from baggers at the grocery store to the guy
painting your house, and this meant that no matter how "lowly"
your job was you had guarantees of a pension, occasional raises, health
insurance and someone to stick up for you if you were unfairly treated.
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- Young people have heard of this mythical time -- but
it was no myth, it was real. And when they ask, "When did this all
end?", I say, "It ended on this day: August 5th, 1981."
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- Beginning on this date, 30 years ago, Big Business and
the Right Wing decided to "go for it" -- to see if they could
actually destroy the middle class so that they could become richer themselves.
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- And they've succeeded.
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- On August 5, 1981, President Ronald Reagan fired every
member of the air traffic controllers union (PATCO) who'd defied his order
to return to work and declared their union illegal. They had been on strike
for just two days.
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- It was a bold and brash move. No one had ever tried it.
What made it even bolder was that PATCO was one of only three unions that
had endorsed Reagan for president! It sent a shock wave through workers
across the country. If he would do this to the people who were with him,
what would he do to us?
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- Reagan had been backed by Wall Street in his run for
the White House and they, along with right-wing Christians, wanted to restructure
America and turn back the tide that President Franklin D. Roosevelt started
-- a tide that was intended to make life better for the average working
person. The rich hated paying better wages and providing benefits. They
hated paying taxes even more. And they despised unions. The right-wing
Christians hated anything that sounded like socialism or holding out a
helping hand to minorities or women.
-
- Reagan promised to end all that. So when the air traffic
controllers went on strike, he seized the moment. In getting rid of every
single last one of them and outlawing their union, he sent a clear and
strong message: The days of everyone having a comfortable middle class
life were over. America, from now on, would be run this way:
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- * The super-rich will make more, much much more, and
the rest of you will scramble for the crumbs that are left.
-
- * Everyone must work! Mom, Dad, the teenagers in the
house! Dad, you work a second job! Kids, here's your latch-key! Your parents
might be home in time to put you to bed.
-
- * 50 million of you must go without health insurance!
And health insurance companies: you go ahead and decide who you want to
help -- or not.
-
- * Unions are evil! You will not belong to a union! You
do not need an advocate! Shut up and get back to work! No, you can't leave
now, we're not done. Your kids can make their own dinner.
-
- * You want to go to college? No problem -- just sign
here and be in hock to a bank for the next 20 years!
-
- * What's "a raise"? Get back to work and shut
up!
-
- And so it went. But Reagan could not have pulled this
off by himself in 1981. He had some big help:
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- The AFL-CIO.
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- The biggest organization of unions in America told its
members to cross the picket lines of the air traffic controllers and go
to work. And that's just what these union members did. Union pilots, flight
attendants, delivery truck drivers, baggage handlers -- they all crossed
the line and helped to break the strike. And union members of all stripes
crossed the picket lines and continued to fly.
-
- Reagan and Wall Street could not believe their eyes!
Hundreds of thousands of working people and union members endorsing the
firing of fellow union members. It was Christmas in August for Corporate
America.
-
- And that was the beginning of the end. Reagan and the
Republicans knew they could get away with anything -- and they did. They
slashed taxes on the rich. They made it harder for you to start a union
at your workplace. They eliminated safety regulations on the job.
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- They ignored the monopoly laws and allowed thousands
of companies to merge or be bought out and closed down. Corporations froze
wages and threatened to move overseas if the workers didn't accept lower
pay and less benefits. And when the workers agreed to work for less, they
moved the jobs overseas anyway.
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- And at every step along the way, the majority of Americans
went along with this. There was little opposition or fight-back. The "masses"
did not rise up and protect their jobs, their homes, their schools (which
used to be the best in the world). They just accepted their fate and took
the beating.
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- I have often wondered what would have happened had we
all just stopped flying, period, back in 1981. What if all the unions had
said to Reagan, "Give those controllers their jobs back or we're shutting
the country down!"? You know what would have happened. The corporate
elite and their boy Reagan would have buckled.
-
- But we didn't do it. And so, bit by bit, piece by piece,
in the ensuing 30 years, those in power have destroyed the middle class
of our country and, in turn, have wrecked the future for our young people.
Wages have remained stagnant for 30 years. Take a look at the statistics
and you can see that every decline we're now suffering with had its beginning
in 1981 (<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvVAPsn3Fpk>here's a
little scene to illustrate that from my last movie).
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- It all began on this day, 30 years ago. One of the darkest
days in American history. And we let it happen to us. Yes, they had the
money, and the media and the cops. But we had 200 million of us. Ever wonder
what it would look like if 200 million got truly upset and wanted their
country, their life, their job, their weekend, their time with their kids
back?
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- Have we all just given up? What are we waiting for? Forget
about the 20% who support the Tea Party -- we are the other 80%! This decline
will only end when we demand it. And not through an online petition or
a tweet. We are going to have to turn the TV and the computer and the video
games off and get out in the streets (like they've done in Wisconsin).
Some of you need to run for local office next year. We need to demand that
the Democrats either get a spine and stop taking corporate money -- or
step aside.
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- When is enough, enough? The middle class dream will not
just magically reappear. Wall Street's plan is clear: America is to be
a nation of Haves and Have Nothings. Is that OK for you?
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- Why not use today to pause and think about the little
steps you can take to turn this around in your neighborhood, at your workplace,
in your school? Is there any better day to start than today?
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- Yours,
- Michael Moore
- MMFlint@aol.com
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