This past Sunday, workers from around the world celebrated “May Day,” the international Labor Day commemorating the unique power and importance of workers in our capitalist global economy. I was planning to cover the growing battle between labor and capital, and how we can get involved, but as I was writing the email, news broke of a leaked early decision from the SCOTUS in which I couldn’t ignore.
The case in question is Dobbs v. Jackson, which challenged the constitutionality of Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban. According to the draft, of Samuel Alito’s majority opinion, our Supreme Court plans to overturn Roe v. Wade. Alito writes, for the five Republican Justices (excluding Roberts) that Roe "must be overruled…The Constitution makes no reference to abortion and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision."
While this eventuality is unsurprising given the public proclamations of Republican politicians, it’s never easy seeing the headsman’s axe publicly fall on one of our constitutional rights. Perhaps even more important than the opinion itself, the destruction of Roe v Wade by the reactionary SCOTUS majority, overturning years of precedent in the process, presages the fate of many future political struggles. This draft decision makes it clear that even if we manage to elect good politicians and craft quality legislation, two tasks worthy of Hercules on their own, the courts will step in to sweep aside the will of 70% of Americans, in favor of the reactionary agenda of the oligarchy. Labor rights, civil rights, victories past and future, none are currently safe from the ideological scouring underway by conservatives.
Fighting an anti-majority power, that so brazenly flouts the will of the people isn’t possible through electoral politics alone. The oligarchy, through Republicans, has played a decades long game to stymie political progress using their money and power and it will take the same kind of power to fight the system they’ve created. Despite the seeming independence of the Supreme court justices, their consistent pro-corporate decisions show where their true allegiances lie: with the money.
To get back the rights we’ve lost, and gain some desperately needed new ones as well, Americans are going to have to unite well beyond the ballot box. Our politics runs on Money, not the will of the people, and it’s that reality our courts and elected officials reflect. Only through mass, economic power, wielded on behalf of the people at-large, not just a wealthy few, can this state of affairs be changed. So join us each week, in growing solidarity, as we build and economic cudgel, to beat back the barbarians who would rip away our rights, whether they come dressed in a three-piece suit, or a judges robes.
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