c b wrote:
> The two parties representing monopoly uhh oligopoly capital stage a
> charade over giving crumbs from the table of the bourgeois' bounteous
> feast to the relative surplus population.
>
Well, $308 per week does amount to crumbs.
It would be a good thing to extend unemployment benefits but the
real need is for *jobs*, something that is not in the offing:
Counterpunch July 20, 2010
Pushing for Living Wages and Jobs for All
Labor Fights Back
By SHAMUS COOKE
If the U.S. economy eventually recovers and current trends
continue, U.S. workers won’t be celebrating in the streets. The
corporate establishment has made it clear that a “strong recovery”
depends on U.S. workers making “great sacrifices” in the areas of
wages, health care, pensions, and more ominously, reductions in
so-called “entitlement programs” — Social Security, Medicare, and
other social services.
These plans have been discussed at length in corporate think tanks
for years, and only recently has the mainstream media begun a
coordinated attack to convince American workers of the “necessity”
of adopting these policies. The New York Times speaks for the
corporate establishment as a whole when it writes:
“American workers are overpaid, relative to equally
productive employees elsewhere doing the same work [China for
example]. If the global economy is to get into balance, that gap
must close.”
and:
“The recession shows that many workers are paid more than
they’re worth…The global wage gap has been narrowing [because U.S.
workers’ wages are shrinking], but recent labor market statistics
in the United States suggest the adjustment has not gone far enough.”
The New York Times solution? “Both moderate inflation to cut real
wages [!] and a further drop in the dollar’s real trade-weighted
value [monetary inflation to shrink wages] might be acceptable.”
(November 11, 2009).
The Atlantic magazine, agrees:
“So how do we keep wages high in the U.S.? We don't…U.S.
workers cannot ultimately continue to have higher wages relative
to those in other nations [China, India, etc.] who compete in the
same industries.”
President Obama speaks less bluntly about the wage subject for
political purposes, but he wholeheartedly agrees with the above
opinions, especially when he repeatedly said:
“We must lay a new foundation for growth and prosperity,
where we consume less [as a result of lower wages] at home and
send more exports abroad.”
So how will Obama implement his economic vision that inspired Wall
Street to give him millions during his Presidential campaign? Much
of the work is happening automatically, due to the Great
Recession. Bloomberg news reports:
“More than half of U.S. workers were either unemployed or
experienced reductions in hours or wages since the recession began
in December 2007… The worst economic slump since the 1930s has
affected 55 percent of adults in the labor force…” (June 30, 2010).
Employers are exploiting fears of joblessness by demanding workers
take wage cuts and reductions or eliminations in benefits. The
millions of unemployed are giving corporations an excuse to slash
wages, since desperate workers will work for almost anything.
Federal, State and municipal workers are being specifically
targeted and blamed — especially teachers — by politicians and
corporate groups. The state budget crises and the federal deficit
are being used as reasons to demand that public employees take
huge reductions in wages and benefits, for those who aren’t laid
off. Laid off public workers then enter the private workforce
where they are to compete with millions of other unemployed
workers. Democratic politicians nationwide have recently agreed
with Republicans of the “necessity” of state workers to make huge
“sacrifices.”
Ultimately, years of Wall Street gambling and corporate greed in
general have destroyed the U.S. economy, sending jobs overseas to
exploit slave wages with the inevitable result of slave wages
coming to the U.S. Decades of tax-cuts for the rich combined with
overseas wars for profit have undermined the foundation of
economic stability — and U.S. workers are being asked to foot the
bill.
In the long-term, the U.S. economy will need to be re-structured,
meaning that giant corporations cannot continue to dominate the
economy for their personal profits. In the short term, U.S.
workers will need to organize themselves to fight back. Alliances
with Democratic politicians are no longer an option to stave off
attacks from corporations, since the attacks are now coming from
both sides of the two-party system.
Labor unions must work together with community groups to demand
that the rich pay for the recession with higher tax rates. As
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka recently argued before Obama’s
Deficit Reduction Commission: “We believe it is only fitting to
ask Wall Street to pay to rebuild the economy it helped destroy.”
And he called for higher taxes on the rich in general, pointing
out that “effective tax rates applicable to high-income taxpayers
(earning over $250,000 in 2009 dollars) reached their lowest level
in at least half a century in 2008.”
U.S. workers have been forced to bear the brunt of the current
economic crisis, though they had no part in causing it. Meanwhile,
Wall Street is back to speculative trading and rewarding itself
with big bonuses. It is time to turn the tables and start properly
rewarding hard-working Americans. U.S. workers have sacrificed enough!
This October 2, 2010, SEIU Local 1199, the NAACP, and other
progressive organizations are staging a march on Washington, D.C.,
calling on the government to create more jobs. The AFL-CIO has
recently endorsed this demonstration and is actively building it.
Other major endorsers include the California Labor Federation and
the American Federation of Teachers. The SEIU president is
predicting the march will be “massive – we believe historic.” It
might prove to be the beginning of organized labor’s comeback.
Shamus Cooke is a social service worker, trade unionist, and
writer for Workers Action (www.workerscompass.org). He can be
reached at [email protected]
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