Elections: The people light a fire under the corporate government

Latest

Striking teachers in Oklahoma.
PHOTO/FACEBOOK

 
The American people are standing up. Teachers are striking. Students are mobilizing. The homeless are organizing. Whether the issue is water, homelessness, environmental destruction, low wages, lack of jobs, poverty, police violence and other violence, healthcare, immigrant rights, education, the shredding of the safety net or other issues, people are confronting the billionaires and the corporate political parties. The people are demanding that the government be their government.
“Until recently, a lot of people have been very quiet, they’ve taken on the opinions of those in power,” one striking Oklahoma teacher told a reporter. “They’ve trusted their elected representatives. But now people have been woken up to what’s really going on.”
A woman running for office against a corporate Democrat in West Virginia said, “We’re seeing an uprising in West Virginia. …We want clean and safe jobs, a livable wage, we want clean water, we want clean air and opportunities for our children, and we want healthcare. It doesn’t matter what walk of life you’re from, everybody is saying we want the same things. We don’t want these corporate politicians.”
And a California activist spoke about the developing split in the Democratic Party there as she lambasted Democrats in the legislature for refusing to pass a universal single-payer healthcare bill. “We want to hold the establishment Democrats accountable. They have never questioned how to fund a war, yet they are baffled about the funding of healthcare for all,” she said.
 
For far too long, the people have been sold the idea that the Democrats represent the working class and the Republicans represent business. The crisis in our country is making it more and more clear that this is a fairy tale. Both parties represent the billionaires and corporations. The Democrats and Republicans in Congress, for example, have cooperated for years to pass cuts in health, welfare, environmental and safety programs that the workers need, while handing tax breaks to billionaires and adding hundreds of billions to the already bloated bottom lines of the military contractors. A similar pattern is repeated in every state legislature—tax breaks and subsidies for the rich, cuts for the rest of us.
As the economic system continues to fail, we, the people, are going hungry, living in tents and shelters and doorways, living in our cars, trying to get by on low wages or no wages, dying for lack of healthcare, seeing our children denied an education and a future, and on and on—and we’re through putting up with it. We have the abundance as a society to solve these problems. We are demanding that the government stop being a willing pawn in the hands of the corporations and start using that abundance to solve the problems that confront us.
Running for office is one way we are fighting. More people are running for office who have never done so before. Some of these candidates are trying to take the government away from the corporations. They run on various party tickets (including Democrat) or as independents.
How do we tell who is really trying to represent the people and who is just saying what they think we want to hear? Ask them where they stand on this program: “We, the people, have a right to food, water, housing, healthcare and all the other necessities of life, and government is obligated to guarantee us these rights.”
The government is supposed to be the people’s instrument. The fight to take it away from the corporations and billionaires will mark a step forward on the road to a whole new America.
 

School protests in Detroit, MI, 2016.
PHOTO/DAYMONJHARTLEY.COM

 

Chicago Teachers Union Day of Action Strike, 2016.
PHOTO/CHARLES E. MILLER

 

On the 19th anniversary of the Columbine shootings, students across the country walked out to protest the lack of gun legislation. In Des Moines, Iowa, these students protest at the capitol.
PHOTO/MIKE HIATT

 

Striking teachers in Oklahoma.
PHOTO/FACEBOOK

 

We’re taking our state back, starting from the bottom up, says WV candidate


 

Message to Democrats: ‘Take responsibility for poverty and injustice’


&nbsp

Michigan Greens to hold nominating convention in Flint

+ Articles by this author

Free to republish but please credit the People's Tribune. Visit us at www.peoplestribune.org, email peoplestribune@gmail.com, or call 773-486-3551.

The People’s Tribune brings you articles written by individuals or organizations, along with our own reporting. Bylined articles reflect the views of the authors. Unsigned articles reflect the views of the editorial board. Please credit the source when sharing: ©2024 peoplestribune.org. Please donate to help us keep bringing you voices of the movement. Click here. We’re all volunteer, no paid staff.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Featured

Immigrants Begin 13th Hunger Strike This Year at Tacoma Detention Center

More than 40 migrants held at ICE's infamous Northwest Detention Center in Washington state have begun a hunger strike to protest conditions there.

The Right Wants to Divide Rural People and the Working Class. Here’s How We Unite.

The director of the Appalachia People's Union speaks on why the South is ready to stand up to Trump.

A Third Woman Died Under Texas’ Abortion Ban. Doctors Are Avoiding D&Cs, Reaching for Riskier Miscarriage Treatments

Thirty-five-year-old Porsha Ngumezi’s case raises questions about how abortion bans are pressuring doctors to avoid standard care even in straightforward miscarriages.

‘Who Was Officer?’: Family Still Seeks Answers From Jackson Police a Year After Son’s Burial

Dexter Wade, killed by off-duty officer, was mistakenly buried by Hinds County, Mississippi in a pauper’s field. His mother seeks answers to what happened to her son.

Students Walk Out Across the Country to Protest Trump’s Election

Read the speech delivered by a student at the student walkout at MSU two days after the Presidential election. Thousands of students nationwide walked out to protest Donald Trump's election and his policies on the same day.

More from the People's Tribune