Banksy directs the Simpsons opener?

Yep. GoGo.

This all took place before my time, and I’ve often wondered how it came to pass that the Left—historically the political axis which rotated around labor and the working and middle classes—became so despised by the working classes, and how the Right—historically the party of the Bosses and the workers be damned—came be seen as the worker’s party. 

I always assumed that one side lied better than the other, and somehow managed to convince people that their pro-business-at-any-and-all-costs strategy was in the best interest of the workers, or that people were more susceptible to racism, sexism, class-bias, and religious hatred than I hoped. 

While both are true, I never really considered that perhaps it was as much a fault of the Left as the Right and the workers. Something to add to my Christmas list, for sure.

Walsh, Joan. “When blue-collar pride became … Read More »

It seems like the factories and the unemployed would make some beautiful music together, but this may be an illusion. Corporations today want cheap materials, cheaper labor, and cheap manufacturing, so they can simultaneously sell products at low low prices and make tidy profits. Having outsourced the manufacturing sector in the 1980s and 1990s, the current crop of workers lack many of the technical skills to compete with their overseas counterparts. Well, that, and we have those pesky labor laws and whatnot. 

Smith, Karl. “Rome is Burning.” Modeled Behavior, 7 September, 2010.

Despite the deluge of F-Bombs (I lost count), Michael Moore gives a nice account of what Labor Day is all about, and points to quite a few of the issues people face under Global Capitalism (or any capitalism, really). For example (and related to the current solution-hunt):

Before there were unions, there was no middle class. Working people didn’t get to send their kids to college, few were able to own their own fucking home, nobody could take a fucking day off for a funeral or a sick day or they might lose their fucking job.

Hummm… Quite a lot has changed, I guess. 

Solidarity.

Moore, Michael. “Happy Fuckin’ Labor Day!” Mike & Friends Blog, MichaelMoore.com, 6 September, 2010.

Temporary workers and retail Giants. One needs a union, the other already has one. This is one tiny part of a larger issue with global capitalism, and definitely a problem in need of some solutions.

Meyerson, Harold. “Holding Wal-Mart Accountable.” The American Prospect, 6 September 2010.