Earlier this week, the anti-Green New Deal American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations — otherwise known as the AFL-CIO — called for the working class to “seize the means of production.”
That’s quite the command.
The organization promoted a class-warfare video on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/AFLCIO/status/1128270151252697089
The takeover-touting clip asserts there’s no such thing as “middle class”:
“[T]he middle class — frequently alluded to in conventional media and politics — is a fiction that deliberately obscures the relationship in conflict between workers and the owners of society.”
Conflict! Them’s fightin’ words!
The guy in the video ain’t much for capitalism:
“All members of the working class under capitalism are subject to the same conditions to constantly produce more for as little wage compensation as possible.”
True, but that’s only half — capitalism also means employers are subject to voluntary employees with many inter-competing options working for as much wage compensation as possible. Why’d he leave that out?
Regardless, he wants you to know we’re all part of the same mob:
“It is the shared employment conditions across industries that provide a unifying experience for all workers that make them all working class and not lower or middle class.”
So stop living in make-believe, y’all:
“The idea that a large percentage of people live as some sort of middle class removed from the inherent conflict between workers and owners is a fiction.”
The dude thinks the rich are trickin’ people into thinking they’re not all in the same boat — the S.S. Oppressed:
“For generations, [the notion that there’s a middle class has] been used by the rich and the media as a wedge to keep large sections of the working class from identifying as workers.”
The AFL-CIO, apparently, looks to a day when “workers around the country begin to realize the collective power they can wield as a unified working class.”
In other words, let’s start a union called The World. And fight all those crappy owners. #REVOLUTION!
“We all need to seize the means of production.”
“Seize” — that sounds like a violent takeover.
Of course, essentially, there’s no such thing as collective management. If all employees were to gain complete control over a business, eventually, the few would be put in charge of the many. And you’re back where you were. Leaders will always emerge. Collective management is a myth.
But the AFL-CIO certainly has a bit of power — it reps over 12 million workers, active and retired. It’s comprised by members of over 55 unions.
But a seizure of power? I’m leaning toward No.
What are your thoughts on the video?
-ALEX
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Relevant RedState links in this article: here.
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