Some
people want to forget that in Great Britain in 1945 the working class
coming out of World War II, led by the Communist Party, was full
determination to fight for its rights and was able to muster the
strength and the power to complete much of the progressive agenda that
the working class in this country was also seeking but here in this
country the working class was confronted by a massive Wall Street
assault of governmental repression resulting in a huge and prolonged
setback that put an end to the expansion of New Deal reforms and with an
unrelenting and vicious red-baiting attack chopped off labor's head
while sowing greater division between the Communist and Socialist
parties.
The
New Left joined this attack on the working class as it tried to replace
working class Marxist ideology with muddle-headed upper middle class
interpretations of Marxism. and this goes on today with these
super-revolutionary New Leftists having taken up with Obama and his Wall
Street imperialist agenda trying to make people believe the Democratic
Party and its politicians are the vehicle for change when nothing could
be further from the truth.
We
should look back at history to 1945 to figure out why the British
working class won in 1945 what the U.S. working class did not. There are
important lessons to be learned.
Our setbacks began with the defeat of the "Full Employment Act of 1945."
It is dishonest to deny this history. We don't learn this history to our own detriment.
Leave a twig for the birds to perch on... don't let the capitalists do your thinking for you... if you are in the neighborhood, stop on in; the coffee is always hot and the cookie jar is full... looking forward to the day when the real decisions in America are made by working class families gathered around the kitchen table... new postings daily...Yours in the struggle...Alan L. Maki
Monday, September 30, 2013
What is involved in the concept of a "21st Century Full Employment Act for Peace and Prosperity?"
“21st
Century Full Employment Act for Peace and Prosperity”
Mandatory full employment---
make the president and Congress legislatively responsible for
attaining and maintaining full employment like what was called for in
the “Full Employment Act of 1945” which was authored by liberal
Texas Democrat Wright Patman.
Put America to work creating jobs
solving the problems of our people and society. This
is what was envisaged by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his
Vice-president, Henry A. Wallace, his Secretary of Labor, Frances
Perkins and his trusted adviser Harry Hopkins, the architect of job
creating public works programs.
What we are advocating is nothing
new. We
don't have to “re-invent the wheel.” We
are advocating restoring the New Deal to what it was intended to be
and completing its unfinished agenda cut short by vicious Wall Street
attacks on the working class.
Elanor
Roosevelt worked to assure that all of this was included in the
United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Winning this legislation will take
re-creating the historic coalition of liberals, progressives and
leftists who struggled for, and won, the New Deal together with a new
working class based progressive people's party.
Raise the Minimum Wage based on cost of
living factors indexed to inflation with regular increases to improve
standard of living.
Jobs programs...
Universal health care--- 15 million
jobs
universal child care--- 5 million jobs
WPA--- infrastructure, schools,
community centers, high speed rail and affordable mass transit
CCC--- reforestation, flood control,
dams and levees and environmental safeguards and clean-up
CETA--- training for WPA, CCC, green
technology, computer training for all, etc.
Build homes for the homeless based on
the Habitat for Humanity model as a government program
Build and Repair infrastructure
Retirement age reduced to 55.
More vacation time--- 3 weeks minimum
with pay for everyone.
Reduced work week 32hrs with 40hrs pay.
Social Security, increase benefits and
expand programs.
The right to a job is the most
fundamental and basic human right; workers without jobs are going to
be poor.
Increase Food Stamp benefits and pay
farmers to produce instead of paying farmers not to produce.
Increase unemployment compensation from
time of unemployment to back to work with unemployment compensation a
real living income based on cost of living.
Enforce Affirmative Action until a
level playing field is achieved for people of color, women and the
handicapped.
Pay for it all with:
“Peace dividends” derived from
ending militarism and wars.
A hefty tax on the rich.
A tax on Wall Street transactions.
Double the employer portion of the
Social Security tax.
A tax on natural resource extraction:
taconite tax, stumpage fees, oil, gas, etc.
All funding processed through a federal
public bank like the State Bank of North Dakota.
Picking up where the New Deal left off.
In addition to the “21st
Century Full Employment Act for Peace and Prosperity” there is
going to have to be additional legislation to:
* Place a moratorium on home
foreclosures and evictions.
* Create no-interest student loans and
forgive all interest debt on existing student loans.
* Roll back prices and initiate price
controls on food, electricity, gas and home heating fuels.
* Remove all sales taxes on food and
clothing.