Connection to Empire
Strong Workers End Imperialism:
1. Workers Can't Be Drafted into Imperial Wars:
- Currently: Poverty draft (poor people join military for healthcare, college, and a stable paycheck)
- With $27/hour Minimum + Benefits: No one needs to join military (can get good civilian job)
- Result: Military recruitment crisis → can't sustain empire
2. Workers Won't Build Weapons of Empire:
- Union Defense Workers: Can refuse to build weapons for unjust wars
- Example: Machinists refuse to build bombs for Gaza genocide
- With Strong Unions: Workers have power to say no
3. Workers Demand Social Spending over Military:
- Currently: Military budget $886 billion, education is underfunded, and healthcare is for-profit
- Strong Unions: Organize politically for social spending (use tax money for people, not bombs)
4. International Solidarity:
- Strong U.S. Unions: Support workers globally (fight race to bottom)
- Demand: Fair trade (not free trade - require labor/environmental standards)
- Prevent: Outsourcing (can't pit U.S. workers against Bangladesh workers if both have strong unions)
5. Corporate Power Broken:
- Empire Serves Corporations: (Wars for oil, coups for fruit companies)
- Strong Workers: Challenge corporate power (50% board seats → workers vote against imperial extraction)
6. Democratic Control:
- Worker Democracy: In workplace → demand democracy in foreign policy
- Workers: Won't vote to invade countries for corporate profit
Historical Examples - IWW (WOBBLIES):
Industrial Workers of the World (1905-1920s):
- Radical Union: "One Big Union" (all workers, regardless of skill, race, gender)
- Anti-War: Opposed WWI (refused to build weapons, called strikes during war)
- Government Response: Crushed them
- Espionage Act (1917): Criminalized anti-war speech
- Palmer Raids (1919-1920): Arrested 10,000 leftists, unionists, and immigrants (deported hundreds)
- IWW Leaders: Imprisoned (Eugene Debs got 10 years for anti-war speech)
Lesson: Empire fears worker power (because workers can end it)