Ruling Class

Its pretty clear that we are in an all out class war here and everyone seems to know it. Organized labor all across the United States knows it, they're sending people here and looking at what to do at home; non-union workers know it and they're moving forward their demands and tactics (like today's occupation of the GOP office by ADAPT disability activists); and obviously, Walker, the Legislature, the Koch Brothers and the entire capitalist class knows it and they're out for a complete crushing victory.

Without a doubt, today is going to decide the course of the struggle. The last two and a half days have been a pause, with folks moving into position for Tuesday while guarding their backs in case of any unexpected developments. Rumors of strikes have come and gone depending on what the collective sense is of who's in the lead and what the balance of forces is. The anxiety into Monday was in looking for some maneuvers or developments that would put one side in front of the other, a step forward by some local who to announce an action or a new position on the bill by anyone in the government, but basically everyone has just dug in and stayed the course.

As a person of the left, a partisan of the working class and an anti-imperialist about the only positive thing I can say about Lord Blair of Kut al-Amara is that my feelings of, well something bordering on hate, is that those feelings are shared by millions around the world (and some with an intensity that makes mine pale and unsure by comparison). Perhaps hate is the wrong word, I despise Blair. His schmaltzy English sentimentality, his zealous faith only a convert knows, his bag of lawyers tricks he deploys in debate made absolute by his total lack of self-doubt (certitude is not an argument), his wounded paternalism, his post-PM windfall as honorary member of the genuine ruling class; all this and I haven't even gotten to his politics!

Howie Hawkins, a longtime Socialist Party member, Green Party leader and friend of Solidarity recen

The October 5, 2009 issue of Time magazine has a 10-page Special Report on Detroit, titled “Notown.” But it’s the same old story--blaming the workers for wanting to better their lives and spe