what it means to be a troublemaker….

September 26th, 2003 | by aobaoill |

Mark Dilley‘s new site leads to the Labor Notes conference he recently attended, ‘troublemaking in troubled times.’ So what idoes it mean to be a troublemaker?

It means the doubter. It means the critical thinker. It means the one who stands up for herself. It means the one who stands up for his co-workers. It means the one who stands in solidarity. It means the workers who stand in struggle in hard times and against overwhelming odds. It means the workers who build the economic and political power of the working class against management, against capital.
When you stand up for your rights you are called a troublemaker, a radical, a socialist, a communist, a foreigner, and a faggot.
You are told to get a job, to go back where you came from, to go to Russia, to get the hell out of here.
They insult us, and we take it as a badge of honor. To be a troublemaker is to be a leaflet passer, a chant leader, a picket line walker, a fund raising collector, a slow-down organizer, a wildcat striker, a sit-down striker, a boat rocker, a shit disturber, a radical in the workplace, and a revolutionary in society, because for workers to have any power in this society would be revolutionary.
But above all to be a troublemaker is to be a decent human being.
So they use it as an insult and a term of reproach, and we take it as a badge of honor.

  1. One Response to “what it means to be a troublemaker….”

  2. By Mark on Sep 27, 2003 | Reply

    Right On!

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