| Show those who work have right to eat during the last few years we have faced the spectre of rising prices eating away the wage increases we have gained by intensive organization As early as 1917 the american federation of labor declared we kold hold that it is just as essential that a workingman should get ten dollars worth of actual value for his wages when he as is should get the ten dollars that he is entitled to for the labor he performs for money is valuable only as it provides a man and his family with food clothing shelter and the comforts of me life ar by organizing as p producers produce r s in in trade tirade unions we have protected our jobs and raised our pay thru bitter experience we are learning that if prices are jacked up when wages rise we get no more for our work by organizing as consumers in cooperatives we protect the buying power of our pay envelopes and begin recovering the ownership of the maans means of production and distribution which have slipped out of our hands in 1844 twenty eight poverty stricken weavers in rochdale rockdale Roc hdale england opened the first consumers cooperative store in the 94 years that have passed almost a hundred million working men and women have become members of similar coope cooperatives natives ra tives today they own their own stores wholesales and factories pacific northwest cooperator |
