When the Boss Comes Calling, Gotta Organize
My lines had been empty all day. Those lines ought to have had tens of thousands of people in them, and they were empty. Field reports ought to have been reassuring, but Central Ohio has an ugly history of voter intimidation. Four years previously, the lines had been hundreds deep and hours long. Four years previously, thousands of (black) voters had been– illegally– turned away. One party stood up and said that voter intimidation wasn’t a big deal. One party, in fact, had said that they were going to solve the opposite problem– paperwork was going to be demanded of everyone before they would be granted the franchise.
That party wasn’t pushing for voter intimidation, not exactly. Just an extra bit of grit in gears of an election. Special grit that only effects people who don’t drive. You know– poor people. It was one more obstacle between citizens and the vote. Just one more thing preying on my mind as I saw empty lines.
The other party– my party– looked at those hours-long lines and shouted out “Never Again!” Well. Alright. Democrats never shout. Shouting is for socialists like Bernie Sanders. But we did sort of hint around the edges that we wouldn’t really like to see that sort of thing ever again. So we had some people sit down and draw up plans. My job was to implement those plans. But my lines were empty.
An hour before the polls closed and my lines were empty. That’s when the van showed up. 30 people in SEIU purple spilled out. Running. “Who’s in charge of this staging location” came the shouted question. I grabbed my crutches and hobbled over. I handed them some walk sheets, watch them work out logistics, grab sandwiches and hustle out to find voters to fill my lines.
There are a lot of lessons from that story. Perhaps most importantly: early voting wins elections. But the great moral lesson is this: whenever poor people need a hand, wherever working people are getting a raw deal, whenever you see someone who would like a job but is being denied, whenever money and power are being used as a tool of oppression, you will see a union fighting against that injustice. Because an injury to one is an injury to all.
Today I stand with the Dropkick Murphys (seriously, take a listen to that song!), Bruce Springsteen (He’s a fair boss), and Martin Luther King Jr. (who was murdered while helping organize an union),and the people of newly-freed Egypt in solidarity with the Workers of Wisconsin.
Without unions, the arc of history is bent less steadily towards justice. That’s everything you need to know.
