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During the early part of the twentieth century, revolution was in the air. The first flowering of labor unions, the birth of the IWW(the Wobblies), the rise of Socialism in this country all came to a head during the first days of the Great Depression. After two years of inept handling of the crisis by Hoover, the country was electric, ripe for revolt. There was a genuine fear among the wealthy elite that it was all about to spiral out of control. Roosevelt stepped in and instituted a series of reforms, collectively known as the New Deal, in order to stabilize the capitalist system, and to provide enough relief to the people at large in order to quell the drive towards revolution. He succeeded well enough, and the "crisis" was averted.
Fast forward to the early part of the twenty first century, and we see many of those New Deal programs and stabilizing structures either gone or under attack. Yet the people remain, for the most part, oblivious to what is going on.
What is it going to take for people to wake up? Are we going to have to go back to the days of child labor, Hoovervilles, deaths due to lack of safety precautions and simple overwork? Is that where we're going?
If we don't want to see a repeat of the bad old days, then we have got to get out on the streets, organize, present ourselves as a real threat to the powers that be. The wealthy and power elite never concede power unless they themselves are under serious attack, unless they are confronted with a major threat. The path that is being taken now simply does not provide that sort of pressure. It is time for us to organize, gather together the strength of the masses, and meet that power with power of our own.
Otherwise, we will continue to see our lives, our country, continue to dwindle and diminish, and all that blood spilled, all those lives lost in winning the concessions we now still enjoy will have been in vain.
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