Once again, the AFL-CIO and their think-tank, the Economic Policy Institute, are "leading" the struggle to increase wages.
Read all about it here--- it all sounds so good:
http://www.aflcio.org/Blog/Economy/EPI-Maps-Out-Plan-to-Raise-America-s-Wages
Until you read the "study" that will provide the support for this "campaign" to raise wages:
http://www.epi.org/publication/raising-americas-pay/
Initiating a struggle to raise wages sounds real good.
BUT...
How does the AFL-CIO explain how it is that they could hire a liberal
think-tank to draft a 76 page document backing up their "campaign" to
raise wages and the study does not so much as mention "cost-of-living"
in relation to wages?
This is a good study hitting on a lot of
important issues including pointing out that wages have not kept pace
with the rapid rise in productivity; but, when mapping out a "campaign"
to raise wages one has to wonder how it can be that the relationship
between wages and "cost-of-living" is completely ignored.
This
"campaign" and this "study" backing this "campaign" are what working
people get when millionaire labor "leaders" and over-paid, well-heeled,
muddle-headed, upper-middle class intellectuals get together to do the
thinking for working people.
It is relatively easy to predict
what this "campaign" will lead to--- not the kind of united, militant,
mass working class struggle required to win real living wages; but,
support for these worthless Dumb Donkeys who talk about how no worker
should have to work for less than real living wages with their families
mired in poverty as standard campaign rhetoric that fits in well with
their hypocritical talk about "jobs, jobs, jobs" for stump speeches to
get votes but once elected they turn around and legislate a Minimum Wage
"increase" that is just one more poverty wage when what is required is
to legislatively tie the Minimum Wage to all cost-of-living factors and
provide legislation making full-employment the mandatory responsibility
of the president and Congress.
But, one has to wonder how it
can be that such a study intended to provide the backing of a campaign
to raise wages does not so much as mention "cost-of-living" nor the
all-important relationship between wages and cost-of-living--- what
workers can purchase with their wages which comprises, together with
benefits and universal social programs, that which determines what kind
of "standard-of-living" working people will have.
There are several other interesting aspects as far as what this "study" leaves out.
First, taking their cue from all the other racist think-tanks, the
plight of Native American Indians is completely ignored in spite of the
fact that over 95% of Native American Indians are working class and the
poorest of the poor. How can any "campaign" to raise wages move forward
by ignoring the plight of a people who are the primary victims of
everything wrong in our country?
Second, this study fails to
use the United Nation's Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a guide
to action even though organized labor "celebrates" its anniversary once
a year and upholds it during these once a year celebrations as the
primary document upon which we should judge whether or not the
government and economy work for working people.
In fact, this
"campaign," just like the "study" backing it, lacks specifics based on
what needs to be done to win real living wages here in the United
States...
First and foremost in any struggle to win real living
wages it must be noted that central to this struggle is addressing the
relationship between wages and cost-of-living which determines the
standard-of-living and quality-of-life workers, working class families
and the entire working class will have.
Call the Economic
Policy Institute and ask them how it can be that they have created a
"study" that is central to a "campaign" that will take up the task to
raise wages without so much as one single mention of "cost-of-living"
and the all-important relationship between wages and cost-of-living?
Here is the EPI phone number: 202-775-8810
One more superficial campaign backed by a superficial study.
Grassroots and rank-and-file activists need to organize their own
think-tanks which will provide the backing for a new working class based
progressive people's party which will be an integral part of the
struggles in the workplaces, in the streets and in working class
communities.
We can't win a raise through press conferences
announcing these kinds of liberal studies omitting the relationship
between wages and cost-of-living which must become our primary focus.
How can any study purporting to be the intellectual backing for a
working class campaign to raise wages and the Minimum Wage to real
living wages completely ignore the "Cost-of-Living Crisis" every single
working class family in the United States and across the world is
experiencing?
Do these labor "leaders" and the "intellectuals"
they hire have no understanding of the crisis of everyday living working
class families are caught up in? A crisis from which Wall Street reaps
huge profits.
Do these labor "leaders" and the over-paid
"intellectuals" they hire to create these kinds of superficial studies
not understand that poverty is a state of not being able to attain the
necessities required for a decent life which should be the result of
"working for a living?"
If this is your idea of a "campaign"
to "raise wages" be prepared to live in the abyss of poverty for the
rest of your life and to saddle future generations to living in even
worse poverty.
We are being pushed into a national discussion leading up to the upcoming elections where a superficial and meaningless form of "economic populism" is being passed off as the framework for curing what ails our country; an "economic populism" that provides no specific programs required to resolve our problems and an "economic populism" which tries to omit the adverse impact of imperialist militarism and wars on our lives.
Why would any study note the high levels of productivity that have been achieved by the U.S. working class and then fail to advocate for a real living wage based on all cost-of-living factors? This doesn't even make any sense if they are sincere about improving the lives and livelihoods of working people as they lay claim to--- unless they aren't sincere and are only using us and our problems in order to get a bunch of worthless Democrats elected. This wouldn't be the first time this has happened.
For further discussion of these issues check out:
http://unitingpeopleworks4us.blogspot.com/2013/08/prosperity-economics-building-economy_8490.html