🩸 Cause of Death
Blood drained by endless diversity training and corporate spin.
⚠️ Contributing Causes
- Promises of “social justice” that never meant economic justice
- Carbon trading schemes sold as racial reparations distracting from real inequality
- Corporate rainbow stickers plastered over union slogans hiding the disappearance of collective power
Once the Left was the most powerful challenge to banking elites now it’s been reshaped into their HR departments. Here’s the story of how that happened.
1. Liquidate the Old Infrastructure 🏭💸
Back in the 1970s:
A miner in Britain 🇬🇧 or an auto worker in Michigan, USA 🇺🇸 could expect
- To pay union dues equal to a quarter of their paycheck
- To own a home by their mid-30s
- To wield enough political muscle to freeze credit markets and demand inflation controls
Unions were strong and they held factories, wages, and governments to account.
Then the bankers fought back:
- Floating exchange rates were introduced turning wage increases into a gamble on currency fluctuations meaning workers’ pay was always vulnerable to global markets
- “Free trade” agreements sent factories to low-wage countries breaking unions’ hold over production
- Tax havens drained money away from welfare states that supported displaced workers forcing them to fend for themselves
By 1995:
Union membership in the UK 🇬🇧, US 🇺🇸, Australia 🇦🇺, and Canada 🇨🇦 was cut in half. The labour parties stayed in name but their power was gutted just hollow buildings with old signs.
2. Move In, Paint the Walls Pink and Blue ☕🏳️🌈
Banks like Goldman Sachs Morgan Stanley and Citigroup didn’t just sit back and watch the unions die they stepped in.
But instead of destroying old union halls (which would’ve looked bad on camera):
- They opened sleek modern lounges filled with espresso machines and gender-neutral bathrooms
- They funded “social justice” and “economic inclusion” initiatives often through nonprofit organizations that hired former union leaders
What really happened:
- Large corporations like Ford and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation gave millions to NGOs. These NGOs hired ex-union staff but instead of fighting for wages they ran workshops on transgender rights and unconscious bias
- Human Resources budgets ballooned. More money went to these inclusion coordinators than was spent on workers’ pay or job security
- Former union shop stewards earned triple their old salaries as long as they never mentioned “collective bargaining” again
3. Issue Diversity Bonds Wall Street’s Magic Trick 💰🎭
Once the old working-class was broken and rebranded banks invented new ways to profit from social causes.
How they did it:
- Created financial products called “racial equity bonds” investment certificates supposedly aimed at supporting minority communities
- Bundled these with low-interest loans to homebuyers in neighborhoods where the banks had already inflated real estate prices
- Marketed these deals under the banner of ESG (Environmental Social and Governance) investing
- Collected hefty fees upfront
- When the market crashed foreclosed on homeowners
- Repeated the cycle buying back properties under different company names now “diversifying” their portfolios
The result:
What looked like progress was really a cycle of debt and displacement racialized financial exploitation disguised as social good.
4. Capture the Language Break the Movement 🗣️🔒
Words matter The Left used to talk about solidarity strikes and surplus value ideas that directly challenged capitalism.
Today’s language is different:
- Allyship: A friendly word that asks for emotional support but never calls for sharing profits or changing pay structures
- Micro-aggressions: Personal slights that are named and discussed but the bigger economic theft low wages job insecurity goes unmentioned
- Psychological safety workshops: Mandatory sessions designed to keep workers feeling safe enough not to revolt filling time and diffusing energy that could go into union organizing
Every new buzzword offers an escape hatch for employers a way to seem progressive without changing how wealth is distributed.
5. Deploy the Human Trophy 🎤👩💼
To seal the deal banks needed faces to front the transformation.
They chose:
- Charismatic minorities feminists and queer activists people with real histories of struggle and leadership
- Paid them six-figure salaries and flew them from universities to corporate boardrooms
- Promoted them heavily in the media as signs of true “representation” and “diversity”
Meanwhile on the ground factories shut down and union members lost jobs.
A Corpse in Designer Heels 👠☕️
Walk into any modern labor center or union office and you’ll find
- Glass atriums minimalist corporate art and slogans about “trans futures” or “racial justice”
- The old canteen where workers once drank cheap tea is now a café serving six-dollar oat-milk lattes all paid for under fancy programs like “E-Race Equity Initiative”
The spirit of industrial labor still lingers but its badge is replaced by a pronoun pin
The dues once used to support workers now flow straight to financial giants like BlackRock Goldman Sachs and State Street.
All that’s left is an HR manual called
“How to Be an Ally to Marginalized Workers While You Downsize Them.”
