Brian Fredline, UAW Local 602 president, Lansing, Mich.
To protect and defend our economy
Throughout the history of this great nation, we have always protected our democracy and our American way of life.
The presidential oath includes the promise to protect and defend our Constitution.
We protect our freedom of speech, we protect our right to bear arms, we protect our borders, we protect our environment, we protect our ports and airports, we protect our citizens, we protect our freedom, we protect our homes and we protect our families.
It seems as if we protect everything of value in our lives. The only thing we don’t protect is our economy. The irony is, if we don’t protect our economy, which allows us to live the American Dream, then we will have nothing left to protect.
The minute we suggest buying American or supporting domestic manufacturers, the rest of the world rises up with one voice and begins to threaten a trade war.
The American economy has always been, is now and forever will be the economic engine that pulls the global economic train and what drives the American economy and the American middle class.
For the last decade we have turned our economy over to a bunch of free-market supply-siders who have created a new global expansion that has enriched the rest of the developed world. Corporate America’s low-bidder mentality has destroyed our industrial base, created record unemployment and sent our nation into an economic tailspin.
Wall Street then had the audacity to pay billions of dollars in bonuses to businesspeople who, through their irresponsible and reckless actions, caused this crisis in the first place.
If we all stick together, the American worker will prevail, the American economy will recover and this time we will have the wisdom and the will to protect it for future generations.
The Workers' Words feature in Solidarity showcases the creativity of UAW members, active and retired, and their families. Whether writing about their jobs, families, friends or a political issue, our union's brothers and sisters reflect a pride in working people often missing from the regular media.
E-mail your story, article or poem (400 words or less) to uawsolidarity@uaw.net; mail to Solidarity magazine, 8000 E. Jefferson Ave., Detroit, MI 48214 ATTN: WORKERS' WORDS; or fax to (313) 926-5120.
