When liberals are quoting Reagan (the only president to have belonged to a union - Screen Actors Guild) and Eisenhower on the elemental human right to unionize, and what unions are about.
“By outlawing Solidarity, a free trade organization to which an overwhelming majority of Polish workers and farmers belong, they have made it clear that they never had any intention of restoring one of the most elemental human rights—the right to belong to a free trade union.” - Ronald Reagan, radio address to the nation, 1982 - (Thanks to ThinkProgress for this)
"Only a fool would try to deprive working men and working women of their right to join the union of their choice." - Dwight D. Eisenhower
Yes, folks, it's THAT MUCH of an essential human right that even those very famous Republicans do not dare refuse! By their right to exist, they must have the right of collective bargaining, that is the whole point of a union. I have seen these quotes used to defend the workers' cause against the far right wing's assault, who idolize said men.
Unions provide a check and balance to those holding all the strings. There is no other force in this country that is created and organized to provide that kind of check. In the case of Mr. Walker, he wants to take all the strings, wind them around everyone's necks and watch his little dictatorial world suffocate, all while he's the puppet of out-of-state billionaire masters. (Rest assured, my arts education provided me with numerous ways to evoke marionette metaphors, there's more where that came from.)
Worker's rights are human rights.
Capitalism, if left unchecked and solely in the hands of selfish capital, is a cannibal.
If you think this doesn't affect you now, it will. One more time:
Worker's rights are human rights.
"First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me." -- Pastor Martin Niemoller. More about the context and specificity of this quote.
PS -- the FOX news haters are all members of AFL-CIO Affiliated AFTRA, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, of which I myself am a proud member. Man, self-hating union members really are the worst.
