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Contents this page were published in the January/February, 1998 edition of the Washington Free Press.
WFP, 1463 E. Republican #178, Seattle, WA -USA, 98112. -- WAfreepress@gmail.com
Copyright © 1998 WFP Collective, Inc.
T he genius of our system of government is its ability to bring the people to vote against their own best interest. Even after Reagan decimated in short order the air-traffic controllers union, over sixty percent of all union members voted Reagan in for a second term. According to AFL-CIO statistics, 32 percent of union members voted Republican as late as the 1996 presidential year, in spite of Republican legislation aimed at mortally wounding the ability of labor to organize and maintain itself.
Now that socialism is dead and communism is a fading memory, maybe we can get down to the business of addressing the economic inequalities in which every number-cruncher from government to academia agree. Between 1947 and 1973 when the US made its leap to become the world's economic superpower, real wages grew 60 percent. Median family income doubled. The average working stiff truly participated in the growing wealth of the country. In short, he could afford to buy the products he produced. This all began to unravel in 1973, and by the time of the 1980-82 recession, Reagan had communicated a new dynamic at work. As if by magic, there was little room for the average working person to participate in the new wealth of the nation, nor did it matter whether workers could afford to buy the homes or automobiles they produced without the heavy participation of the loan company.
According to a study by the United Nations Commission on Trade and Development reported by the Economist (9/18/97), job creation in 1998 is going to be dismal worldwide. This means that American companies will continue to be attracted to cheap labor abroad, and will persist in their quest to further marginalize workers at home. The trends toward outsourcing to nonunion shops and toward hiring part-time workers without benefits will continue unabated.
While the Teamster's victory in the recent UPS strike was reminiscent of the good ol' days, it was a fluke, owing more to timing and rare public support than a resurgence of labor's power. The UPS settlement does, however, offer an insight: the few unskilled workers who are unionized have been on the defensive since the Reagan/Thatcher mentality tilted the playing field. The number of union members in the private sector is barely ten percent (compared to 30 percent in 1970).
Momentum lost is difficult to regain and closing the gap on the wealthy without the great equalizer of a devastating economic downturn is not going to be easy, but it is going to require a fine set of brass knuckles. Below are five fundamental corrections of past mistakes that will level the playing field with the minimum transfer of wealth by taxation and government programs.
Voter Equality
First, to stop dilution at the polling booth, the obscene bribes of "soft" political contributions should be displaced in favor of small, local contributions, moderate public funding, and free use of public airwaves for debate. Second, the old ideas of easier voter registration that have been stymied by the Republicans for over a decade, such as "motor voter" registration at driver license offices, should be legislated on a national level.
De-globalization
If globalization is an open sore on first-world labor, it is an unmitigated disaster to southeast Asia and less developed third-world countries like Mexico. Globalization is a mantra conjuring up visions of the flip-side of a Marxist utopia. Ooooom... free traders chant the eventual joys and benefits to the poor bastards in countries that are now receiving a cram course on international competition. Free trade between uneven economies disparages the immense variety of human activity and expropriates the local economy for the benefit of a few world-class hustlers committed to the bottom line. Pillage the forests and rivers, destroy the production of local artisans and farmers, a new definition of colonialism is afoot.
Un-deregulate
The banks, savings and loans, telecommunications, and transportation should be regulated anew. Deregulation will go down in history as one of the more stupid accommodations to big business. It has given us unsafe airlines, the savings and loan piracy, capital without borders, banks that are vouch-saved from their profligate ways by the public treasury. And most important to labor, deregulation has given us a new kind of poverty.
De-monopolize
There is nothing less capitalistic nor more compelling a feature of capitalism than the urge to merge and combine. Adam Smith, the capitalist theologian, called it the "mean rapacity". Monopolies not only wield too much power with the federal and state government, they have their way with the consumer too. Ingenuity and creativity become less important. And union organizing is virtually impossible under present laws.
Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs)
Every union bargaining priority whould be the eventual ownership of a majority of stock. While stock ownership in truth does not solve all of the problems between labor and management, ESOPs can provide some control over the strategic future of the corporation without breaking any of the rules of our system of capitalist ownership.
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