In New York City, we can see the crumbling of democracy before our eyes, assisted by the legal system. If a working person can’t have a legitimate right to strike, we do not live in a democratic society.

Yesterday, a judge issued an injunction preventing the transit workers from walking out if there is no deal made with the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) by Friday at 12:01 a.m. And, then, to top it off Bloomberg–the great Democrat in Republican clothing, or so many of my union friends said when they rushed to endorse him–asked that the judge impose a fine of $1 million per day on the union and a $25,000 per day fine on each worker for the first day of a strike, a fine that would double in each successive day.

So, the first question I ask is, indeed, again to the union leaders in the city: don’t you feel some responsibility towards the families of the transit workers for endorsing the Republican mayor who now seeks to cripple the union? To the WFP leadership, the party that says it is different and is fighting for working people, don’t you feel some responsibility for playing games with the mayoral endorsement thereby denying Freddy Ferrer the WFP line?

The second question is to my fellow New Yorkers: yes, I know the sentiment that if there is a strike, it will be a great inconvenience. But, that inconvenience pales in comparison to what this strike–and many others like it–are about–trying to protect your own livelihood by resisting the Wal-Martization of America. We need to remember the community benefit, not just our own personal benefit, when it comes to supporting people trying to stand up to their employers.