Voter apathy is not cause of ‘crimes’ against working class
Last Monday’s editorial questioned if corporate corruption had anything to do with the decay of American democracy. The writer, evidently, did not attend our discussions.
We discussed the Citizens United case, in which the Supreme Court ruled that corporations could spend limitless amounts of capital to support a candidate.
There is a problem when one candidate generates mass exposure for appealing to corporate interests, receiving unlimited funding. What of the candidate that appeals to working class interests but, as a result, receives far less funding?
The common voice has been silenced. That is why we wore corporate logos over our mouths at the mock funeral.
Is the problem voter apathy or a sense of disenfranchisement because our politicians have become corporate puppets? And what about the process in which voters become “informed”? Doesn’t the monopolized media serve its corporate interests?
We are mad at corrupt CEOs. But, we are also mad at the neoliberal policies that have allowed them to be corrupt, denying the world living wages, causing crisis, sending our families into the street and, worst of all, getting rewarded for it. But democracy is also about human rights.
We invited workers from the Long Beach Hyatt and Hilton to speak about their workplace conditions. One woman said that after eight years, she’s still making $10 an hour. Another man remembered being so overworked that his body went numb. After clearing the tears from his eyes, he told us that, at the time, he really thought he was going to die.
To treat people in such a way is a human rights violation. But there is hope.
Those workers are organizing a union, just one way to combat the neoliberal assault and still have some power over the decisions affecting their lives.
But their battle, and ours, will take more than a trip to the ballot box.
-Michael Lozano
Vice President of
Students Unite 4 Justice
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