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Draft Economic Platform of the WIIU Submitted by Detroit WA The Workers' International Industrial Union has a vision for the kind of future we want and need. But to get there, we have to fight for the common interests of all working people, both in the immediate and long term. We support any demands or policies that represent the genuine interests of working people, even if they are partial or piecemeal, as a means of improving the rights and livelihoods of our brothers and sisters, and providing a greater breathing space in which the revolutionary industrial union movement can organize for the political struggle against the employing classes. To that end, the WIIU advocates and fights for the following: 1. The reduction of the normal workweek to a maximum of six hours a day, five days a week, including time for participation in unions, workplace committees and assemblies, without loss of pay or benefits. Reduction to four hours a day, four days a week, without loss of pay or benefits and including time for participation, for dangerous or particularly demanding jobs. 2. Double-time pay for all hours worked over the normal workweek and over six hours a day. Prohibition of mandatory overtime and the provision of one hour off with pay for every two hours of overtime worked in a week. Uninterrupted weekly break of not less than 60 hours for all workers. 3. A minimum weekly wage of US$560 or living wage equivalent, whichever is higher, properly adjusted and tied, on a non-deflationary basis, to the cost of living. Raising of unemployment benefits to the minimum wage. Similar adjustments for all other non-executive remunerations and benefits. 4. The right of all working people, including enlisted personnel in the military, to organize themselves into unions and workplace committees in defense of their rights and interests. The right of the unemployed to organize into unions and similar economic organizations. Abolition of all laws against the right to organize, collectively bargain and strike. Abolition of laws that restrict the rights of labor unions and working people. 5. Prohibition of the use of prison labor for profit, as a supplemental or replacement workforce, or in other ways that undermine the position of the working class. Any prison labor must be meaningful, paid at a level consistent with equivalent non-prison labor, and the programs developed in coordination with appropriate unions, workers’ councils or assemblies. 6. All labor unions to be fully independent from the state, including free from state oversight and harassment. All officials in labor unions, from shop steward to the executive president, directly elected and recallable at any time. No union official to be paid more than the average wage of their membership. Revolutionary industrial unionism to be encouraged and promoted over craft unionism. 7. All decision-making and determination bodies for labor boards to be composed of a 50- percent minimum of workers. All decision-making and determination bodies for social welfare agencies to be composed of a 50-percent minimum of benefits recipients. 8. All social welfare benefits to be raised to the above minimum wage. Retirement pensions to be guaranteed by the state and paid out at the same rate the retiree made when they were working or the minimum wage, whichever is higher. 9. Free job training and retraining programs, under the control of unions, workers’ councils or assemblies, open to any working person. Such programs may be developed in conjunction with educational institutions. Funding for expansion of apprenticeship programs organized and controlled by labor unions. 10.Prohibition of mandatory retirement ages and economic restrictions on older workers. The right to retire for all workers after 30 years of continuous employment, regardless of specific occupation, and after 25 years if working in dangerous or particularly demanding jobs. 11. Mandatory price freezes on all staple goods and services. Massive penalties, up to and including seizure of all assets, for companies violating price regulations. Price freezes and a one-year payment moratorium on all rental properties. Cancellation of all mortgage debts below US$100,000. The above provisions can aid in giving workers as individuals a breathing space, but they do not address the inherently socially-unequal conditions that exist under capitalism. To begin any meaningful removal of the economic shackles that capitalist society places on working people, additional measures, which seek to transform the whole of the economy, are necessary. To that end, the WIIU advocates and fights for the following: 1. A heavily graduated and progressive income tax structure. Abolition of all tax loopholes and breaks for corporations and the wealthy (“corporate welfare”). A 100-percent “capital flight” tax to be imposed on any capitalist or corporation, regardless of the country of origin of its owners, seeking to move assets to avoid progressive taxation. 2. A publicly-owned construction-industrial program to build and rebuild public service and recreation facilities, residential neighborhoods and communities, schools, workplaces, urban farms, and societal infrastructure. All programs to be organized and controlled by councils or assemblies of workers. 3. Abolition of subsidies for “factory farms” and farms worked by hired labor. Placement of such farms into cooperative or public ownership, under the control of elected councils or assemblies of farm workers. 4. Mandatory annual review and amendment of taxation rates, including rates on capital gains, dividends, rent, property and income taxes. Abolition of the payroll tax, and all “sin taxes” and sales taxes on articles of consumption. 5. Adoption, reinstatement or strengthening of a tax on inheritance. Curtailing of the right of inheritance of personal possessions and financial assets, based on a sliding scale. Abolition of the right of inheritance of land and means of production. 6. Abrogation of all so-called “free trade” agreements and institutions. 7. Abolition of all restrictions on the non-commodity economy, such as “peer-to-peer” sharing and “open source” programming. Abolition of “intellectual property” laws. 8. Abolition of all public and state debt, including credit-bond and trade debts. 9.Immediate placement of all assets of workers’ insurance and private pension funds into public ownership, with levies against corporate assets for any fund deficits, under the control of councils of working-class insurance holders and pensioners. 10. Immediate placement of all banking and financial institutions into public ownership, under the control of elected councils of financial service workers and customers, and organized by the revolutionary industrial union. Consolidation of banking services into a single, national banking service. 11. Immediate placement of all failing, closing and bankrupt companies and workplaces into cooperative or public ownership, under the control of elected workers’ councils or assemblies, and organized by the revolutionary industrial union. 12. Immediate placement of all essential services and utilities currently privately owned into public ownership, under the control of elected workers’ councils or assemblies, and organized by the revolutionary industrial union. All state-provided services placed under the control of elected workers’ councils. 13. The right of unions, workers’ councils and assemblies operating at any company to review the books and records of the business, either directly or through contracting with an appropriate third party. http://www.wiiu.org/2010convention/ -- View this message in context: http://old.nabble.com/A-Modest-Proposal-By-The-WIIU-tp27289400p27289400.html Sent from the Marxism mailing list archive at Nabble.com. ________________________________________________ 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
