A lot can happen in three days.
The laid off workers of Republic Windows and Doors were given three days notice that their jobs, and benefits were ending, as well as their factory being shut down, which prompted a sit in, political spotlight, and each worker receiving 6K of basic benefits, vacation, and severance pay owed to them.
In the movie in which the Republic story appears, among other eye opening stories of real Americans, Capitalism: A Love Story, the union organizers here in Chicago found out only three days ago that they'd be able to show Michael Moore's movie in prescreening benefits around the country.
It's no surprise that they got to work, again, and last night the theater was nearly packed at the Kerasotes Western 14. It was a cozy crowd. Most knew each other through the union. Some of the very faces features on the big screen were sitting among S. and I. In many parts of the movie there was not a dry eye in the house. Only a small portion of the movie was about the story of the people of Republic, yet as is the pattern these days, what's happening in one spot in America is also occurring in 10 others, so it was a very relatable movie, as all Michael Moore movies are, which is what makes him an important part of America. I stand corrected to what I wrote yesterday. MM's good work far outweighs his shock value, and in America, it's shock, awe, and sex that gets noticed. MM isn't very sexually appealing, so he uses shock to get his valid points across. Or, at least this is my latest reflection on MM.
I had read, or rather skimmed information on the pre-screenings that a friend posted a link on, and misconstrued that the movie was free to people that have lost their jobs, or had fallen on hard times. I had been doing two things at once, and was rushing out the door, otherwise I wouldn't have made such an idiotic pronouncement, and then posted it even more idiotically, only to return home seven hours later to a few personal emails like this one, "Hi, it is playing tonight at 8 pm at Western, but it is not free, it is a benefit for united electrical and radio workers of America, you may want to amend your blog."
In retrospect, I feel very foolish as I often do, as I was not clear on the terms, and after watching the movie would give $1,000 if I had it to the labor organizers that helped orchestrate the sit in, and not just the $10 donation.
A friend who wishes to remain unidentified said the the following to me as we left the theater: "Every time I see a Michael Moore movie I am reminded of how little I know about our country."
Unlike my friend, I had been following the Republic story in the news, though I did not feel the depth, and immediacy, and impact of the sit in until I watched it on the main screen, and learned more about what kinds of things the labor organizers in Chicago are doing for our city's 110,000 plus warehouse workers. Not in the movie, but an organizer that spoke before it started said that a pregnant warehouse worker at Great Kitchens, which provided pizzas to Sam Club, or Wal-Mart, had asked her supervisor for a stool, and the supervisor said no, and told her to get back on her line. Three days later she lost her baby due to miscarriage. These are the kinds of things the labor organizers are fighting for--basic, human, inalienable rights-- and in light of sweeping Immigration reform that I've been writing about here the situation is getting even worse as an increasing number of hardworking immigrants are now out of jobs, at Republic, at American Apparel, at Pizza Hut, and no doubt thousands of other companies under the radar if it were not for union organizers, and the very few executives and politicians speaking out against immigration reform. What kind of impact will the loss of these workers have on American manufacturers? Will it force them to use offshore employees? Will they bring immigrants back on the lines, but illegally, and at the risk of facing fines, and imprisonment? There are no winners here except the 1% at the very top of our country's food chain who are ushering in these reforms, and offering no solutions, just a sweeping broom with no dustpan.
And yes, admittedly our country is a bit too preoccupied at the moment to think about immigrants, though what's happening to immigrants is the same thing that will be happening to nonimmigrants soon, if not already. The few, the happy but-not- -with-a-light-conscience few at the top are embroiled in a love affair with capitalism, and I say affair, and not love story like the movie's title because an affair is illicit, and wrong, just like what is happening to our country on so many levels. When did it become better for banks to win, and for empty storefronts, and empty homes dotting our landscape to be the image so many of us think of when we think of what's happening to our neighbors, and neighborhoods? When did it become okay for some of us to know someone that lost a job, and then to know someone that is homeless, and then to know someone that can't afford to eat?
Economic hardship, foreclosures, job loss, the scarlet letter that is the pre-existing condition that makes many of us, myself not excluded, scared to go to the doctor for fear of more bills, and loss of coverage, or an inability to be covered at a new job, yep, it's all here in America, yet as Moore's movie reminded each, and every one of us-- there's far more of us than there are of them-- and this is the comfort I am taking away from Capitalism: A Love Story. Numbers don't lie, and if there's not a revolution happening right now, it's around the corner.
