Crushed before you.

Editor,

I was reading about the industrial revolution recently and was stunned by the abject poverty, starvation, long hours, child labor (to the age of 4) that the capitalist class felt zero compunction about inflicting on workers in 19th Century England.

I have also been reading about the slave trade and the 400 years of slavery that the capitalist class felt no compunction about inflicting on the people of Africa.

And I've been reading about the torture, murder, slavery, and total degradation of the peoples of Central and South America by Spanish colonialists after 1492. And the rape of the Congo by King Leopold. And the hoarding of wealth by the French aristocracy before 1789.

I am old, so I forget the entire litany.

Here is my point: if you think that you can trust the capitalists to treat you with fairness and respect unless you are able to confront them with organized power at the bargaining table, you are going to wind up in the shoes of 19th Century workers, African slaves, indigenous Latin Americans, and every other ruthlessly and brutally exploited class of people the capitalists have crushed before you.

Re: "Indiana Informs Wisconsin’s Push" (2/27/2011)