Noam Chomsky - Hatred of Unions and Social Security

Full interview: • Buddhagem Speaks with ...
Salt of the Earth (full movie): • Video

[@joeycarmona2317]

I personally work in a union and the absurd propaganda that the non union management spread to the employees is terrible. Honestly if I wasn't educated in the subject I to would fall prey to them.

[@CinemacrestStudios]

joey carmona This is true. I work at a shipping/trucking company that rhymes with 'Nedex', and our orientation consisted of cringy, obligatory anti-union videos. Total propaganda. And they wave it around like a flag, as if it was something to take pride in.

[@dougmasta5510]

joey carmona same here i love my union!

[@bdawk511]

@@CinemacrestStudios I worked at local grocery store and a Walgreens in the past. They each mandated anti union "training" videos that made union leaders seem like drug dealers preying on employees to steal money for dues. The propaganda runs thick in this country.

[@noamchomsky4972]

Raise the power of unions, protect social security

[@HeadsFullOfEyeballs]

I remember being quite confused when I was younger, watching American cartoons like the Simpsons and seeing labour unions presented through old-timey gangster stereotypes. When in my actual everyday experience they were perfectly normal, boring, respectable institutions run by boring, respectable people, doing obviously useful work on behalf of pretty much everybody in their field.

[@bdawk511]

There is a powerful early season Simpsons episode that shows the dynamic of a union strike. Mr. Burns gives the workers a lot of beer and tries to take away their dental plan. It's a pretty powerful and very funny episode.

[@angelrodartejr.9948]

The people NEED unions and labor movements. Without them we would have never had the worker rights, protections, and benefits we have today. Hell, they're a natural thing to ask for. It's absolutely reasonable to ask for healthy working conditions, livable wages, and privileges that would increase worker cooperation and productivity. The whole greedy Labor Union Execs are few and far between, kind of like Reagan's "healthcare queens." They're greatly exaggerated myths and there's a great lack of evidence that they exist in great numbers.

[@JoseCalderon-qx8mq]

Workers Unite! I'm from a long line of Union trade workers. Firemen, Pipefitters, Millwrights and Carpenters. Shout out to all workers in this country. Hang in there brothers and sisters.

[@ktm7117]

I just love him he is a decent human being with full of honesty and knowledge.

[@andrewtallman1867]

Solidarity forever

[@georgekosich5563]

Chomsky is right on about anti union propaganda and individualism/Soc Sec.

[@ELRamunde69]

Workers' rights!

[@ashoka9306]

the individual is weak and will become weak and only the fewest are ever autarch. society banding together is strong and will secure a future.

[@janedvinsson]

About problems of unions these days...report from 29th sept 2015; SOME 500 trade union members from 90 different unions will (gather)/ gathered in Paris for the European Trade Union Confederation that begins on September 29th 2015 : www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2015/09/economist-explains-19

[@truthseeker4280]

I may disagree with his conclusions regarding unions. They became about because of the robber barons .in the beginning there were no regulations corporations could use children to work long hours.

[@breadandwater7038]

that microphone is a champ

[@lynnrivell6600]

We earned Social Security and it has been raided by politicians

[@BadWolf-]

Parallel power structures. Organize your community and state and do not call the police. Work out your problems outside the police. Ignore the government. This makes them irrelevant.

[@loveulez]

the link to salt of the earth is dead, you couldn't make it up.

[@Srab23]

We have very strong unions here in Sweden but they're just a bunch of companies making millions. They do not have the work movements best interest at heart, but making a profit. They will help people they can when they have to, but mostly they collect membership fees and make it really hard to cancel your membership.

[@trent290]

When was this recorded?

[@paintedhorse6880]

Unions dont have to involve the state. Fear and hatred of the state is a good thing. Fear and hatred of workers collectivising for their own best interests isn't.

[@jackriley5974]

I understand the concept of union dues but how can a union justify taking a percentage of a workers monthly wages on top of dues??

[@deschutesmaple4520]

So basically we're all fucked and there's nothing we can do about it. Check.

[@snowfalleon7629]

I've been in the AFL-CIO making $12/hr. and the UFCW making minimum wage and they even told us, advised us not to strike in the ufcw where i mad 8 an hour and the company was taking away the only benifits we had. I think unions are paid off. People should experiment with anarcho syndicalism because i don't see a good reason to need some outside party. I work 12 to 16 hours a day and i still have time for activism if i could find others who care. I don't think I'll join a union again unless they're active instead of passively taking peoples' money. People seem to just be in the union at my current job to file grievences... It's comical to me, as if we don't live in a capitalist society where they fired a guy there for example and we didn't go on strike or something like that. I hope unions go extinct and are replaced with working volunteer anarchists.

[@johndamo9421]

everyone vs the slaves in U.S.A

[@jrbknyc8785]

i just dont like that unions try and tell you who to vote for. they want you to vote for someone like hillary but what if your not a liberal ? what if you own guns, or are religious amd pro life ? what if your concerned about illegal immigratiom ?

[@thatdudeoverthere2188]

Those issues you raise are not issues. They're the propaganda the Government uses to instill fear and create scapegoats for the issues if a nation. If you truly want a better society you must leave these hang ups behind and stand in solidarity with your brothers and sisters. Regardless of religion or creed, we must unite and stay standing in unity. We must learn to rely on each other. Without the government we will need each other.

[@MothaLuva]

I am rather for onions than unions.

[@jasongibson7036]

Social security has nothing to do with caring, you and your employer pay into it and you only get out what you pay in. Government should have a surplus.

[@joshbobst1629]

Jason Gibson Social Security was initiated because people did not like the idea of people their parents and grandparents age being destitute and on the streets when they were too old to work. So it is absolutely about caring. As for government having a surplus, for what purpose? All good economists know that a national debt is a good thing. As long as it's not too high a percent of GDP , the national debt is a way for a country to borrow against its future productivity. the reason why it's a good deal is because when that debt comes due inflation and economic growth will have made it worth about one-tenth of what it is when it's borrowed.

[@BuGGyBoBerl]

@@joshbobst1629 well and what about the people they have to pay for?

[@82spiders]

Dr. Chomsky: Why don't we raise minimum wage to $500 an hour? Then everyone would be a milionaire within a year. Labor is subject to the law of supply and demand, just like apples. If you raise the salary of McDonalds workers to $40 an hour, you will find that their jobs are automated and they are unemployed. Dr. Chomsky is going to legislate greed and compassion.