message from Boots Riley:
This chart dispels a common myth.
Most folks that work at fast food are between 25 and 64 years old. Only 12% are teens.
A radical militant labor movement can use strikes and shut-downs to force fast food to pay more. It can also demand the prices stay the same by using shut downs and strikes.
This would then mean a loss of profit for the corporation, not the worker- in essence, giving the corporate owners a choice between making less profit or making no profit. And let's face it, the fast food industry is so profitable that those corporations can't just shut down.
The only way a movement like this can be successful is if it is aggressive and militant- having work stoppages, blockading franchises, physically keeping out scabs, workers striking in solidarity with each other, and getting the community to come out and support the actions.
Changes in wages of these jobs would greatly reduce the need for illegal economies, thus reducing the violence that is a necessity for those economies to exist.
The strikes would have to be militant enough to affect profit in such a way as to force a re-negotiation of the contracts between franchise owners and the corporations themselves.
The only way for a labor movement to be able to do all those things is for it to be radical- to understand that it is a part of building a larger movement that must eventually tear down the current economic system and replace it with one in which the people democratically control the wealth that they create with their labor. This means radicals must get involved in it.
This understanding would necessitate it to be involved with other movements and campaigns that affect the community, strengthening the other campaigns while insuring the success of its own.
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