WANTED: Ron DeSantis – Class Criminal

It’s not who DeSantis is that makes him a working-class enemy, it is the political ideology that he represents. His “Florida Blueprint” is a strategy for pitting working-class folk against each other while bolstering the profits of the corporate class. His focus on a “Culture War” rallies a mass movement of corporate lackeys, conservative small business owners, and the lumpenproletariat against the progressive and democratic struggles of the people. This is what fascism looks like. It is the alliance of the most reactionary, most chauvinistic, most imperialist elements of financial capital with a mass movement of the petite bourgeoisie fighting for an open terrorist dictatorship against the working class. DeSantis is only one piece of an already spreading plague that is wrapping itself around the United States and into our local communities.

Union Busting

Florida’s State Senate Bill 256 prohibits the use of paycheck deductions for public-sector union dues and increases to 60% required employee membership, potentially decertifying a union that can’t meet that threshold. This is what DeSantis would call “productive”, weakening working-class institutions to limit the power of our class. Similar attacks on unions can be found right here in Peoria. When Starbucks workers organized to build their own union in Campustown and on Pioneer Parkway, they were met with captive audience meetings, reduction of store hours or temporary closures, and denials of transfers to college students returning to their hometown stores.

LGBTQ

The attack on our LGBTQ siblings is a blatant attempt at dividing our working class. “First they ban books, then they ban you” is becoming a reality in Florida with a host of new laws that do everything from attack teacher’s ability to create safe spaces for students, limit transgender and gender non-conforming people from using a bathroom to taking away the children of parents who allow them to receive gender-affirming care. We may not suffer this amount of blatant assault of our LGBTQ community here in Peoria but we still have our own struggles. For instance, Peoria County does not offer gender-affirming care in their worker’s health insurance and OSF denies fertility treatment for LGBTQ personnel.

Public Schools

Yes, DeSantis and the political ideology that he represents are trying to tighten their grip on what can and cannot be taught at schools but more threatening, they’re trying to destroy public schools altogether. Laws passed such as Florida’s HB 1 moves the education system toward privatization. Peoria has its own battle within the public school sector and that battle is multifaceted. Ever since desegregation, our schools have struggled to actually end segregation along with the entire city. Systematic racism still plagues Peoria and our history of redlining has done nothing but keep children of color back within our education system. Private schools, such as Peoria Notre Dame, have played a role in this struggle but on the side of the rich trying to keep their children “safe” from the oppressed and poor working class.

Libraries

Many see libraries as an institution of democracy but that doesn’t fit within the “Florida Blueprint”. Instead, DeSantis would rather see institutions that fit his ideas of “political correctness” or suffer from defunding. Book bans have been a major part of his program and he’ll threaten any library that doesn’t comply. Here in Peoria, we might not ban books but make no mistake our libraries are under attack. The attack is manifested in the wages and working conditions of the library workers. The result of poverty wages given to these workers has seen our institution of democracy become understaffed and at risk of limiting services due to manpower. The workers who make all of the services and programs possible deserve a living wage. As a community, we need to rally behind AFSCME Local 3464 as they struggle for a fair contract.