This would seem like a basic right in an industrialized countries because, really, what's the opposite? Right - forcing workers to work, whether they like it or not. However, as this article shows, even with the right to strike in Colorado delivered "paid with blood," the Colorado Republican Party is gearing up to eliminate that right for workers.
The article includes the above picture of troops heading toward the Ludlow workers to execute them back in 1914 - and in the paper, the picture is, rather appropriately, juxtaposed next to the legislature's Republican leaders who are leading today's assault on workers.
I'm not sure what else I can add other than to note how telling it is that the Republican Party - supposedly the party of "freedom" - is now going on record saying workers shouldn't be free to protest through not working. The GOP is, in short, the party of forced labor. They are taking quite a stand with the great autocrats of history and the major third-world countries where such dictatorial policy is an everyday fact of life.
I guess that's not surprising considering the effort is being led by State Sen. Shawn Mitchell (R), a longtime Federalist Society icon - the guy who simultaneously attacks Gov. Bill Ritter (D) for supposedly acting in secret, yet who himself refuses to follow state law by complying with Open Records Act requests.
To conclude, I'll just say that having lived in a number of different states both red and blue, I have never lived in a state with a political culture where it is absolutely acceptable to support forced labor and hate workers. I don't know if I'll ever get used to it.
