As I've often noted over more than 25 years in many forums, the fear that many workers now have of employment discrimination based on their lawful political and other activities *(even when away from work)*, including their daring to exercise that most basic right of all, the right to free expression, is, ironically, the very thing that keeps them from taking the steps, both as individuals and with others, to bring about an end to this and related abuses.

*This fear is also a significant brake on long-needed, long-overdue social and economic progress in America*--on efforts to stop this country's headlong rush, especially under George W. Bush and his ilk, back to the days of Herbert Hoover--indeed, of William McKinley.

As many knowledgeable observers have pointed out, this "chilling effect" upon your and my rights away from as well as at our jobs has scary implications for our or any free society.

It is time to reclaim your and our rights--before they are lost forever, before we are all forced to live at the mercy of out-of-control employers in a nationwide, high-tech, Stepfordesque version of the company town that controls not only our work tasks but our other actions, our minds, and our souls "24/7." It is not about the bottom line; it's about power and control. We, the people, must reclaim our rights.

In May, a new book by Bruce Barry, a professor of management and sociology at Vanderbilt University, will be published. Its title is Speechless: _The Erosion of Free Expression in the American Workplace_.

Based on what's at the official Web site for this book, it's a pretty powerful--and long-needed--exploration of this issue and of the need to protect workers' rights to free speech in as well as outside workplaces.

The Web site, which contains downloadable excerpts from this book, is at http://www.speechlessthebook.com/index.php. It seems very much worth buying, reading, and heeding.

Meanwhile, famed author and social critic Barbara Ehrenreich has written a brilliant article on why we workers in America need the Employee Free Choice Act. "Challenging the Workplace Dictatorship" is available at http://alternet.org/workplace/49008/. Check out also the comments that appear after the article.

It is clear that the fact that we're seeing more and more books and articles like these means that the ground is clearly shifting in favor of workers' rights. Employers that ignore the warning signs or try to stop workers from exercising and furthering their free-expression and other rights do so at their political, social, and economic peril. We are about to see something long overdue for American working people--a wave of reform that will make the New Deal look like a tea party--the kind they once had in Boston excepted, of course!

A New New Deal, if not a Second American Revolution, is needed to save America's middle class and America itself. Is it really starting? Bring it on! Make it happen!

Better days for us workers are coming, folks.

Join people like us in helping make those days start very soon. Write your state and federal lawmakers. Talk to your family, friends, co-workers, and others about these vital issues. Stand up and speak out.

In short, don't let out-of-control employers cow you or us. Act like a free, thinking human being to reclaim your and our rights. The best way to win and keep rights is to exercise them.

Take a look at the above links. Let us all know what you think. *Then, take action.*