The company firing of Italie is part and parcel of the government and employer assault on the rights of working people in the United States. It goes hand in hand with the cop roundups, longer imprisonment at the whim of the government, expansion of the ability of the police to wiretap and conduct electronic eavesdropping, and other attacks. It is part of their attempt to whip up patriotic attitudes in order to get workers to accept concession contracts, erosion of safety on the job, and rising unemployment.

The superwealthy ruling class knows it cannot take on and defeat the unions head on, nor simply roll back hard-won conquests of the civil rights movement, labor battles, and struggles to extend and defend democratic rights. Instead, they start with a section of the working class or individuals they deem easier targets, and see how far they can extend their assaults. They hope to slowly divide and politically atomize the workers movement, undercutting the solidarity that is an essential ingredient of working people defending themselves against the employers and their government.

Goodwill Industries is nonunion and the bosses want to keep it that way. They don't like workers like Italie who let other garment workers know why organizing a union would help them fight for better wages, improved working conditions, and dignity on the job. They don't like workers like Italie who challenge the prerogatives of the bosses and their government to do as they like--whether it is paying sub-minimum wages or going to war against workers and peasants in Afghanistan.

Like all bosses under capitalism today, Goodwill is getting the backing of the city's mayor, who upped the ante for the labor movement and all defenders of democratic rights when he called Italie's opposition to Washington's brutal war "treasonous." Italie is not letting this attack go unanswered, as the idea that a person's political views should be treated as a high crime against the state strikes at the heart of the Bill of Rights.

The Miami Socialist Workers campaign has done an effective job in winning initial backing for Italie's reinstatement. As the socialist candidate pointed out, answering the attack with the widest possible protest is the most important response in defending the workers at the plant and making Goodwill and the city administration pay the highest possible price for their anti-working-class assault.
 
 
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