----- Original Message -----
From: John A Imani
To: May 19th Movement
Sent: Wednesday, September 01, 2010 11:42 AM
Subject: [May 19th Movement] For Discussion: Proposed Position Paper on
'Living-wage Jobs'
Economic Basis
of
The Human Right to a Living-wage Job
This source of this crisis is not housing; the 'bubble' market in real estate
was a symptom not the source. This crisis is not about the failures of the
Obama administration, nor those of the Bush regime; each was forced to order
the 'printing' of $750 billion to 'recapitalize' the banks and stimulate the
economy. This means that the banks were insolvent (broke) and the economic
system was in a state of cardiac arrest. This crisis is not about this or that
immigrant 'taking' this or that job; every immigrant who comes to work brings
with him needs (food, clothing and shelter) that have to be met. For every job
that they 'take' another one is created. Workers don't take jobs, workers make
jobs. There is a secret about work. A secret that is uncovered every time
someone is hired. The secret is that that the worker brings more to the table
than he takes from it. Every person who labors adds more than she is paid.
Think of all the talent and time wasted standing in front of Home Depot when
there are homes, schools, hospitals, new cities, new vistas to be built and all
it takes is work. We should be welcoming with open arms any and all who come.
This crisis is about none of the above; it is about the failure of an economic
system in which one can be denied work by those that own the means-of-work.
Why are those who want to work denied jobs? Because the owners can no longer
make money on them. Why can the bosses no longer make money on the workers?
There are two answers which amount to but different sides of the same equation:
People are denied work when 1.) The capitalists can produce the same product
in a different country with workers whose existing standard of living requires
a lesser wage; and, therefore, these jobs are exported to low-wage areas and
the goods they make are sent back here to be purchased by ex-workers who no
longer have the ability to purchase them save through credit (debt0; and, 2.)
Even without the export of jobs to low-wage areas, the capitalists find that
the productivity of the workers is such that, on a market-wide level, consumer
demand (i.e. need or want backed by the ability to purchase) is quickly
swamped; and, workers find, first, that their hours (and paychecks) are
shrinking; and, secondly, that they or their fellow workers are laid off and
join the ranks of the unemployed, as a 'reserve army of labor', while the
'fortunate' ones who retain their positions are worked harder and abide without
protest for fear of also losing their jobs. The productivity of labor-the
ability to add value through human creativity-the ability to produce a product
in less and less time, that ought be used in such a way that they reduce the
amount of time that people must work; instead, this natural 'god-given'
ability-in a system where the objective is not the benefit of the producers but
the profit of the owners-is used to expel (fire) workers from the workforce.
A vicious not circle but downward spiral then ensues wherein because one is
laid off, the product of the other that that one would have purchased goes
wanting and that other find soon that his/her services are no longer required.
Etc. Etc. Etc. Dominoes lined up in a row. Each one the victim of
another's fall; each one the cause of the next to fall. This is insane. And
one day we will look back upon this sad state of affairs in the same way that
we now look back at slavery.
All that the construction, repair, invention, mining, manufacture, farming of
anything takes are 1.) Laborers, of which there are many; 2.) Resources, of
which labor and the land can provide; and, 3.) Sustenance (food, clothing and
shelter) which again can be produced by labor out of the bounty that nature has
provided us. A nature which stands in jeopardy just so because of an economic
system that values profits over people, that regards profits above even the
Earth which the seekers of individual wealth are day-by-day despoiling and
destroying. For our own survival we must take charge of our lives from those
who value us only as long as they can make money on our labor.
Money, itself, is a myth. It is a sleight-of-hand that disguises where it is
that real value is produced and has the potential to be produced. This fact is
proved by the fact that (at the direction of its chairman, Ben Bernanke and
Secretary of the Treasury, Paulson, and President George Bush) the Federal
Reserve produced $750 billion out of thin air to give to faltering financial
companies such as AIG, Goldman-Sachs, Merrill-Lynch, Bank of America, etc.
Money is nothing; labor is all.
Our candidate must be one of us. He/she must be directly responsible to us and
only us just as the candidates of wealth are answerable to those who fund their
campaigns. He/she ought take this position at a workingman's wage, say $50,000
which is approximately the yearly total of a 'union-waged' position paying
$25/hr with all above that allocated to a fund for either political or social
purposes aimed at improving the lives of the poor and workers receiving wages
up to that of a 'union wage'. This candidate ust also articulate, advocate and
advance the three necessaries: 1.) the right to a job for all wanting to work
at a 'union-wage': 2.) The right to housing and an end to involuntary
homelessness; 3.) the right to free and quality health-care; 4.) the right to
free education up to the person's ability; 5.) the right to participate in real
job-training so as to dramatically improve the skill levels of the unemployed,
the underemployed and, those who are for now, the unemployables; and, 6.) the
right of a worker to go to where he/she can best provide for themselves and
their families. Under NAFTA the labor-power of workers is the only commodity
upon which are placed restrictions, limitations and denial of entry at the
US/Mexico border.
While none of these things can be advanced and enacted solely at the city
council level, that does not mean that we ought not contest there. For there
real decisions, as this battle over rent increases, affecting real people are
made and made daily. This is a battle over the allegiance of the civil
authorities as to whether they support the landlords or the land-renters.
Should we not exercise the constitutional rights we have (for as long as we
have them) to change the Constitution and add amendments that will "provide for
the general welfare" of the residents of this geographical area, then the shame
will be on us for 'they got the guns, we got the numbers". They got the
power.but we got the votes. If we can get them. If we can find, support and
elect these pawn-pushers of power at this lower level it can provide the model
of the masses in motion for our own interests so as to contest at the state,
national and world-wide levels of power.
The May 19th Movement, named for the day being the day of the group's first
meeting as well as also being the birthdates of Malcolm X, Ho Chi Minh,
Augusto Sandino, Lorraine Hansberry and Yuri Kochiyama, is dedicated to the
development of a local independent political party with the express purpose
of finding, running and electing working class candidates to office in Los
Angeles to represent the interests of the poor and the working poor.
NEXT MEETING
Chuco's Justice Center for 2pm saturday 9/4.
1137 e. Redondo Blvd. easiest directions from slauson & crenshaw- 2 blocks
west to west blvd, south to e. redondo- right there at the corner.
To subscribe to the May 19th listserve send an e-mail to
[email protected]
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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