(Cross-posted from The Paragraph.) In 1936 & ’37, workers sat down in Chevrolet plants in Flint, Michigan, and fought to stay there for 44 days, until they won the right to have their union bargain for them.⁶⁰ Soon after that union victory, a wave of sit-downs swept the country and union rolls swelled. The next year, Congress set the standard of a 40-hour work week with time-and-a-half for overtime. By 1947, one-third of U.S. workers belonged to a union, and a strong middle class was rising.⁶¹ That trend went on till the early 1970’s, when both union membership and wages began to fall.⁶²⁶³

           Read more... 

(promoted by Edger)

(Cross-posted from The Paragraph.) In the 1990’s right-wing talk spread to nearly every radio dial in the United States, and, day-after-day, pelted liberal-thinking citizens with scorn, and railed against use of government to help the people—even knocking long-established programs such as the minimum wage and social security.x⁷⁰x⁷¹x⁷² Behind that barrage, a Republican majority rode into Congress, and cut regulations for financial corporations.x⁷³ Later, under cover of the ongoing barrage—now strengthened by a new right-wing TV news network—the right-wing corporate Bush regime snuck into power, and pushed through big tax cuts for the richest citizens, and cut enforcement of regulations on big corporations.x⁷⁴x⁷⁵x⁷⁶ So, with a free rein, big financial corporations sold trillions of dollars of shaky bonds, bets on bonds, and bonds on bets, which poisoned and slowed the world-wide economy, causing millions of people to lose their jobs.x⁷⁷ During all of this, the Black Hills wind blew across Mount Rushmore and the chiseled faces of four past leaders who warned about such events.

           Read more...