======================================================================
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
======================================================================
The
official organizing for the October 2nd Washington, D.C. demonstration,
which we hope will be massive, has allowed us to catch a glimpse of a
crucial ambiguity underlying the event. Will this demonstration be aimed
at demanding that the government finally address the real needs of
working people, now that it has made the banks whole, despite everyone's
objections? Or will its real purpose be to get Democrats elected to
office, in which case demands will be carefully crafted, trimmed, and
pre-packaged so as not to embarrass the Democrats and then be used only
as bait to lure working people into the election campaigns, not as true
goals in themselves?
There is a gaping chasm between these
two goals.
While
the Democratic Party receives millions of dollars in donations from
labor unions, it receives much more from Wall Street and corporate
America. Thus, while the Democratic Party currently controls the office
of the president and recently enjoyed a super majority in Congress, it
refused to pass the Employee Free Choice Act, which would have greatly
facilitated organizing unions. It failed to pass substantial legislation
to avert foreclosures so that millions of working people have lost
their homes and have been plunged into a nightmare of stress.
The
Democratic Party did not even remotely entertain the possibility of
repealing the union-crippling Taft-Hartley Act, which it promised to do
decades ago. The bank regulation that it did pass will not prevent the
eruption of another economic crisis from reckless banking speculation,
thanks to intensive lobbying by the banks.
The
defense budget is now higher than it was when George W. Bush was
president. There are still 50,000 U.S. occupation troops in Iraq, while
the war in Afghanistan, which cannot be won and we cannot afford to
wage, is being ratcheted up, making Obama, too, a "war president." The
recent so-called jobs bill the Democrats passed in the U.S. Congress,
which will help a tiny percentage of the working people who are in need
of jobs, was in part financed by cutting food stamps. Meanwhile, more
undocumented immigrants have been deported under the Obama
administration than under Bush, with countless families separated.
Government
policies that allow for high unemployment, that wage wars for oil, that
provide no government-run health care for those under 65, and that
allow millions of home foreclosures are by no means accidental. High
unemployment keeps wages down and profits up. Wars for oil benefit the
most powerful corporations in our society, the oil industry. The health
insurance companies lobbied intensely to kill a government health care
option. Now they are raising their rates so that working people are
forced to pay an additional 14 percent for their health care benefits.
And Wall Street is a direct beneficiary of home foreclosures and
therefore fought successfully to restrict any serious refinancing
possibilities.
The
Democrats, who are beholden to Wall Street and corporate American for
financial contributions, have defended all these policies with the
cynical assumption that what is good for Wall Street and corporate
American is good for all of us, although they have wisely chosen not to
announce that philosophy publicly.
The
Democrats have mastered the rhetoric that working people want to hear:
"jobs;" "health care for all;" "peace." And during election season, we
are bombarded with these slogans. But they are quietly filed away after
the elections. For this reason, the standard of living of working people
has been on a steady decline since the 1970s, whether the Democrats or
the Republicans have held power. Inequalities in wealth during this same
period have been spiraling out of control, resulting in the
accumulation of wealth by the rich at historic highs while their taxes
have descended to historic lows.
These
trends are producing a dysfunctional society, both economically and
morally. An economy cannot be sustained with high levels of income
inequality, because we working people cannot afford to buy the houses,
cars and many other things we produce. Every working person should be
able to buy a home, but millions of them now stand empty while workers
are mired in debt. And democracy becomes a hollow shell when those at
the top of the economic ladder maintain a solid grip on the institutions
of government that they then manipulate entirely in their own
interests. More and more, working people are becoming aware of these
trends and are getting tired of them.
Make
no mistake about it. The calling of the October 2nd demonstration is a
giant step forward. It will allow working people, who want to put up a
fight, to come together in order to begin to give voice to our
collective needs. By going into the streets, we will be acting
independently of the Democrats and Republicans, relying on ourselves,
and raising our demands. The massive size of the demonstration will be a
first step toward giving people a sense of the power we can exercise
when we are mobilized, organized, and act with a single purpose.
Massive, collective, independent action is the only avenue that will
provide us with a realistic chance of success. Such demonstrations in
the 1930s confirmed time and again that our demands could be won.
But
the precise nature of the demands of this demonstration is now the
crucial battlefield. We urge our readers to attend this demonstration
with the demands that are nothing short of our real needs. The program
of the Democratic Party will demoralize people and ensure that our
demonstrations are small and listless with ritual applause for rote
speeches. But raising our real needs on large banners and signs is the
first step in making them public and giving them objective reality. Then
they can serve as a rallying point, unite us, give us hope, and inspire
future collective actions. Here is what we can demand:
Create 15 million jobs! Make Wall
Street pay!
Tax the rich to fully fund
education and social services!
Hands off Social Security!
Stop home foreclosures and
evictions!
Withdraw all U.S. troops from
Iraq and Afghanistan NOW!
Money for jobs, NOT for wars
and prisons!
Immediate legalization for all
undocumented workers!
Create a single-payer health
care system for all!
Pass the Employee Free Choice
Act NOW!
Already
contingents are planning to attend the October 2nd demonstration with
their own demands. For example, The Peace Table, which is a coalition of
40 antiwar organizations, including U.S. Labor Against War, and is part
of One Nation (which is organizing October 2nd), will go without
diluting its demands, which stand in direct opposition to Democratic
Party policy. It will insist on the withdrawal of all U.S. troops from
Iraq and Afghanistan now, leaving no occupying forces behind, money for
jobs and not war, and jobs, peace and justice. There was no indication
at its recent conference that it plans to be used to elect Democrats to
office, but instead, leaders of the coalition emphasized the importance
of building an independent antiwar movement.
The
October 2nd demonstration will certainly be one of many, given the
ominous downturn the economy is now taking. We can influence the
direction of these demonstrations. Go to Washington, D.C. and help give
the demands of working people a collective voice!
In solidarity,
Bill Leumer and Alan Benjamin,
Co-Conveners,
Workers Emergency Recovery Campaign
________________________________________________
Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu
Set your options at:
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
