The Coming Storm

** This article was published on Counterpunch  March 30, 2017 ** It’s a sleep that puts Rip Van Winkle to shame. The long, fitful slumber has lasted for more than a generation. But the alarm has sounded and the snooze button is wearing out. Sooner or later, the giant that is the American working class will awaken. When that happens, the game will be dramatically altered; the majority, so used to playing defense, will take the offense; the score, so long lopsided, will begin to shift. What will it look like once that celebrated last straw has been added to the camel’s back? How will we know that the long slumber is over? Oh, we’ll know! Union Power The place to focus our attention is on the working class. This is not for abstract, doctrinaire reasons, but because that is where the power lies. It is there that numbers and proximity to production combine to yield a force capable of challenging the 1% for control. Control of what exactly? The whole works, includi...

In a classically hilarious cartoon , Bugs Bunny gets Daffy Duck twisted in logical knots, arguing whether Elmer Fudd should shoot the duck now, or wait until he gets home—a wretched choice if ever there was one.  Phony debates are a bit like that.  In this election season, Americans are given a “choice”: shoot us now or shoot us later.  There is no other imaginable possibility.  Or is there?  Cutting through the airwaves so replete with empty words and false choices, we present part two of the real debate: socialist, Sydney Solidarity, representing the interests of working people and the 99%, vs. Barack Obama and Mitt Romney of the Democratic and Republican parties, standing up for corporate America and the 1%. The second presidential debate took place October 16, moderated by Candy Crowley of CNN.  The questions, screened in advance, were posed by audience members.  Below are Solidarity’s responses to each of the debate questions. A tra...