Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has “crushed” a revolt by campaign field hands who say they are barely surviving on the “poverty wages” paid by the Democratic Socialist.
“This is our revolution, and Bernie crushed it,” said Charles Foster, a wage slave in the Boston office of the Sanders campaign. “We work so hard we don’t even know what day of the week it is, and Bernie doesn’t care.”
Sanders responded to the revolt in a statement. “This is my revolution, and I make the rules,” he said. “Besides, we can’t afford to destroy capitalism if we have to offer competitive salaries and free healthcare. We fought for $15, and we’re paying $15.”
Organizers for the staff union — United Food and Commercial Workers Local 400 — proposed organizers’ pay of $20 an hour, agreed to a continuous six-day workweek, and rotated shifts so the campaign office would never be understaffed.
Sanders accepted the continuous workweek plan, but rejected the rest. For now, 80% of the workforce is on the job any given day, while 20% stay home, and the campaign machine is never idle.
“We know the weekend represents a genuine threat to the well-oiled machine that is Bernie Sanders,” said UFCW Local 400 spokesman Jonathan Williams. “But it’s not enough to give up the weekend. Our workers just can’t live on $15 an hour.”
Yuri Larin, CFO of the Sanders campaign, responded with truth to power.
“This isn’t a democracy,” Larin told The Des Moines Register. “Paying people whatever they want is contrary to the revolutionary ideal. It’s impossible to finish off capitalism without having finished off social democracy in the working-class movement.”
