I’m fed up; are you?
We the People need to
come together if we are going to turn this country around. We need to bring our
views into the proverbial public square which Wall Street has been monopolizing
for far too long.
Some people, mostly well-heeled intellectuals, have
initiated a campaign around the need for a national dialog concerning an
alternative to this problem-plagued system. The system is capitalism in its
most moribund, brutal, bestial and barbaric stage of imperialism where Wall
Street monopolies dominate the government from local to national
This is their call for dialog and discussion:
http://thenextsystem.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/nextsystem_ForWeb.pdf
http://thenextsystem.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/nextsystem_ForWeb.pdf
We need a “Prosperity Economics, An Economy For All.”
Most people know this as socialism. As far as I can tell, socialism is the only
alternative to capitalism.
We need to
create discussion about the direction of organized labor and the kind of
country we all want to live in where peace, social justice and economic justice
for working people prevail.
Democracy --- as well as social, economic and
environmental justice --- requires no less than a full and broad discussion of
important concerns and issues.
At a time when democracy needs to be expanded it is
being smothered by big money, government decrees and sheer arrogance on the
part of politicians and prosecutorial police repression.
We need to advocate for “prosperity economics; an economy
that works for everyone.”
There are several very basic facts left out of
discussions in our country when it comes to using the wealth of our Nation
created by workers.
Politicians seeking election are very hazy, vague and
nebulous as to what the concrete and specific goals and objectives are to be
and how the wealth of our Nation will be spent.
The politicians try to “frame” issues in a way to trick
us into giving up our votes thinking we are actually going to be getting
something of substance in return for our votes when they have no intention at
all in solving our many problems. There is a never-ending bunch of over-paid
“pundits” who are nothing but liars and professional tricksters. Are we not
entitled to something in return for our votes?
Millionaire labor “leaders” are equally as vague about
what kind of movement and struggle it will take for the working class ---
organized and unorganized together --- to create a prosperity economics for us
all. They are all hot air; bark without bite but they aren’t shy about living
off our union dues.
Because of the lack of rank-and-file empowerment within
the working class, we do not hear a clear articulation that our main enemy is
Wall Street. Politics and working class activism haven’t risen to reflect the
fact that we, as working people, need to be engaged in a social, political and
economic struggle for power with the intent, of not just curbing Wall Street’s
power and influence, but ending Wall Street's dominance over every aspect of
our lives --- in our schools, at work and in our communities.
Let's state right up front --- workers create all
wealth, but workers have had no say in how this wealth is distributed and used.
This needs to change. Democracy requires no less. Without economic democracy
there is no democracy at all.
We have no say in how our tax dollars are spent. Most
people want peace; what we get are costly wars. This is not democracy.
Let's also put it right out there before the American
people that militarism and wars are
squandering the wealth of our Nation to such a large extent we don't have
the resources to solve our many domestic problems.
These dirty imperialist wars, as Mark Twain correctly
called them, are killing our jobs and our standard of living just like they
kill people.
Militarism
and wars are a major contributing factor to the world-wide
collapsing capitalist economy. No nation can continue to endlessly squander the
wealth of the nation to prepare for wars and to fight wars. This is sheer
insanity. We might as well be dumping the wealth of our Nation into the deepest
depths of the oceans.
Wall Street's greedy drive for profits results in wars
which exacerbate our problems.
Detroit
goes broke; the rest of our cities are sure to follow as Wall Street wallows in
profits.
Working people go without adequate health care. Insurance
and pharmaceutical companies get fabulously wealthy. Shorter work weeks/longer
vacations with no cut in pay would create jobs and would keep us healthier,
too. Working ten, twelve and fourteen hours a day certainly can’t be healthy for
human beings while the resulting unemployment ruins lives and wrecks families.
Our public institutions like public education fall
apart, crumble and collapse just like our roads, highways and bridges because
we are constantly feeding a war machine intended to fight never-ending wars
waged to protect Wall Street's interests, assets and profits abroad.
Prosperity
for all begins with the recognition peace is required to achieve full
employment and a Basic Income Guarantee for every citizen.
Full employment is about the government seeing to it
that jobs are created for all at real living wages. It is about putting people
to work by creating massive universal social programs like a National Public
Health Care System and a National Public Child Care System all financed,
administered and delivered just like public education but with adequate funding
instead of job destroying legislation and trade agreements like the TPP and
TTIP as detrimental to our health and jobs as are these wars. Without providing
real health care reform the price of health care goes up when the intent should
be to the push the real prices down while providing adequate health care for
all.
Eliminating militarism and wars eliminates the largest
carbon footprint contributing to global warming and climate change. The
Military Industrial Complex wastes our precious resources in a huge, monstrous complex
that ruins our environment and our health --- power generation for mining and
manufacturing. Resources like oil and gas are required to fight wars. Preparation
for war, and war itself, creates a mammoth sized carbon footprint destroying
our living environment while creating massive joblessness and poverty and ill
health for our people as our air, water and land gets polluted. Rebuilding in
the aftermath of these wars is a double whammy inflicted upon people and Mother
Nature. The stupidity of destroying what precious human labor has created---
sheer insanity.
There are only two sources of wealth: Labor and Mother
Nature. Wall Street exploits Labor
and rapes Mother Nature. Common
sense should tell us this can’t continue.
The Wall Street selected and bribed politicians talk
about “jobs, jobs, jobs” when their hidden agenda is really about “profits,
profits, profits” and “war, war, war”… more war, more profits for Wall Street’s
merchants of death and destruction… so Bob Dylan’s song “Masters of War” goes. War, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing.
The time has come to make politicians legislatively responsible for full employment and
peace because prosperity economics requires: peace and full employment ---
a healthy people and a healthy environment.
There is no reason for poverty here in the wealthiest
country in the world. If we can’t end poverty here in the United States, how
can much poorer countries put an end to poverty? It is all about priorities.
We need a government that provides jobs.
We need a government that will assure a Basic Income Guarantee for every
citizen just as our own revolutionary hero, Thomas Paine, advocated.
The central goal of the American labor and working
class movement needs to be the building of an economy for all that is inseparably linked to peace, full
employment and a Basic Income Guarantee which must include:
A Minimum Wage
tied to all cost of living factors indexed to inflation. Jobs and a living
income for all.
A National
Public Health Care System… twelve-million new jobs.
A National
Public Child Care System… three-million new jobs.
Protect, defend and expand Social Security programs.
Legislation prohibiting lockouts and scabbing.
The repeal and rescinding of “At-Will Employment” legislation --- the primary obstacle to
worker empowerment and union organizing needs to become a priority.
Price
roll-backs and Price
controls are needed for food, medication, gas, home heating fuels and
electricity.
A healthy economy means a healthy living environment and a healthy planet.
We need a quality
of life index as called for in the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of
Human Rights.
The two-party system is a trap for working people. We
must free ourselves from the Democrats and Republicans. A working class based progressive, populist people's party like the
old socialist Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party of Floyd Olson, Elmer Benson
and John Bernard is required if we are going to have a prosperity economics
that works for all of us.
We can learn a thing or two about health care and
politics from our Canadian Brothers and Sisters who are now challenging Wall
Street and it junior partner in crime, Bay Street, for political power.
We are now
at a crossroads
We will continue to have an economy that serves Wall
Street or we will create the kind of economy that works for the rest of us ---
we can't have both, just like we can't have both wars and full employment.
I would encourage the use of what was the proposed Full Employment Act of 1945 pushed by
the left-wing led CIO unions and authored by liberal Texas Congressman Wright
Patman and the associated hearing testimonies to broaden this discussion. You
can check it all out here:
I also call to your attention the excellent Op-Ed
piece by journalist Bob Herbert, “Losing Our Way.” This was his last
piece published in the New York Times (March 25, 2011 [See full article at very
end]), in he which declares:
"The U.S.
has not just misplaced its priorities. When the most powerful country ever to
inhabit the earth finds it so easy to plunge into the horror of warfare, but
almost impossible to find adequate work for its people or to properly educate
its young, it has lost its way entirely.”
As a trade unionist, I am asking:
What ever happened to William Winpisinger's "Rebuild
America
Act" and the “peace dividend”? The AFL-CIO should
bring back to life its Committee on
Conversion launched under the initiative of William Winpisinger --- from
military production to producing for human needs; swords into plowshares is
what was advocated by the International Association of Machinist's former
President.
Where is this advocacy for peace and reordering our
Nation's priorities now?
Thank you for taking the time to read and consider my
views. I thought it was important that as a working class activist and concerned
trade unionist I speak up and bring forward an alternative perspective.
As a working class youth I fought to end that dirty
war in Vietnam.
As a rank-and-file worker and often an elected union
leader and union organizer, I have fought to expand the rights and defend the
livelihoods of working people. I felt now as we approach another election this
was an appropriate time to share my views. We are living in a very dangerous
world with wars and crumbling economies all around us. Wall Street is trying to
solve its problems at the expense of working class families while making even
larger profits in the process of taking advantage of our problems.
We have been forced into a crisis no one wants to talk about: A Cost-of-Living Crisis. Anyone who doesn’t understand what I am talking about has never had to make a choice about what to buy in a grocery store or tried to figure out how to pay the winter’s heating bill or to pay for health insurance or child care. Prices for goods and services soar; wages stay the same or go down.
We have been forced into a crisis no one wants to talk about: A Cost-of-Living Crisis. Anyone who doesn’t understand what I am talking about has never had to make a choice about what to buy in a grocery store or tried to figure out how to pay the winter’s heating bill or to pay for health insurance or child care. Prices for goods and services soar; wages stay the same or go down.
We need a broad-based campaign to win a “21st Century Full Employment Act
for Peace and Prosperity” as part of a populist agenda which would include
the kinds of reforms which I have described. Together we can win.
Let’s talk about the politics and economics of
livelihood from a rank-and-file working class perspective for real change.
I’m fed up with Wall Street’s agenda and I am ready to
move on to the “next” agenda which I believe to be a socialist agenda which
includes fighting and struggling for reforms working class families require to
get beyond these systemic problems and on the road to socialism. Are you fed
up, too? If so, let’s get our two-cents into this discussion.
In solidarity and struggle,
Alan L. Maki
Please check out my Blog, The Podunk Blog:
Contact me by e-mail:
red_finn@live.com
Contact me by telephone:
651-587-5541
Feel free to write me at:
Alan L. Maki
58891 County Road 13
Warroad, Minnesota 56763
Something to
think about: Instead of free health care and child care which
would create millions of decent new jobs we get warfare. This just isn’t right;
especially when we could put everyone to work solving the problems of the
people. What happened to the only justified war; the war on poverty?
Another
thing to think about: Minnesota
politicians had a blitz to
shove a football stadium, a billion dollar plus boon-doggle, down our throats
from which the billionaire owners of the Minnesota Vikings will profit. But
they won’t mount a similar blitz
to end the scourge of poverty; what the hell is going on here?
Losing Our Way
So here we are pouring shiploads of cash
into yet another war, this time in Libya, while simultaneously
demolishing school budgets, closing libraries, laying off teachers and police
officers, and generally letting the bottom fall out of the quality of life here
at home.
Welcome to America in the second decade of the
21st century. An army of long-term unemployed workers is spread across the
land, the human fallout from the Great Recession and long years of misguided
economic policies. Optimism is in short supply. The few jobs now being created
too often pay a pittance, not nearly enough to pry open the doors to a
middle-class standard of living.
Arthur Miller, echoing the poet Archibald
MacLeish, liked to say that the essence of America was its promises. That was
a long time ago. Limitless greed, unrestrained corporate power and a ferocious
addiction to foreign oil have led us to an era of perpetual war and economic
decline. Young people today are staring at a future in which they will be less
well off than their elders, a reversal of fortune that should send a shudder
through everyone.
The U.S. has not just misplaced its
priorities. When the most powerful country ever to inhabit the earth finds it
so easy to plunge into the horror of warfare but almost impossible to find
adequate work for its people or to properly educate its young, it has lost its
way entirely.
Nearly 14 million Americans are jobless
and the outlook for many of them is grim. Since there is just one job available
for every five individuals looking for work, four of the five are out of luck.
Instead of a land of opportunity, the U.S. is increasingly becoming a
place of limited expectations. A college professor in Washington told me this
week that graduates from his program were finding jobs, but they were not
making very much money, certainly not enough to think about raising a family.
There is plenty of economic activity in
the U.S.,
and plenty of wealth. But like greedy children, the folks at the top are
seizing virtually all the marbles. Income and wealth inequality in the U.S. have
reached stages that would make the third world blush. As the Economic Policy
Institute has reported, the richest 10 percent of Americans received an
unconscionable 100 percent of the average income growth in the years 2000 to
2007, the most recent extended period of economic expansion.
Americans behave as if this is somehow
normal or acceptable. It shouldn’t be, and didn’t used to be. Through much of
the post-World War II era, income distribution was far more equitable, with the
top 10 percent of families accounting for just a third of average income growth,
and the bottom 90 percent receiving two-thirds. That seems like ancient history
now.
The current maldistribution of wealth is
also scandalous. In 2009, the richest 5 percent claimed 63.5 percent of the
nation’s wealth. The overwhelming majority, the bottom 80 percent, collectively
held just 12.8 percent.
This inequality, in which an enormous
segment of the population struggles while the fortunate few ride the gravy
train, is a world-class recipe for social unrest. Downward mobility is an
ever-shortening fuse leading to profound consequences.
A stark example of the fundamental
unfairness that is now so widespread was in The New York Times on Friday under
the headline: “G.E.’s Strategies Let It Avoid Taxes Altogether.” Despite
profits of $14.2 billion — $5.1 billion from its operations in the United States — General Electric did not have to
pay any U.S.
taxes last year.
As The Times’s David Kocieniewski
reported, “Its extraordinary success is based on an aggressive strategy that
mixes fierce lobbying for tax breaks and innovative accounting that enables it
to concentrate its profits offshore.”
G.E. is the nation’s largest corporation.
Its chief executive, Jeffrey Immelt, is the leader of President Obama’s Council
on Jobs and Competitiveness. You can understand how ordinary workers might look
at this cozy corporate-government arrangement and conclude that it is not fully
committed to the best interests of working people.
Overwhelming imbalances in wealth and
income inevitably result in enormous imbalances of political power. So the
corporations and the very wealthy continue to do well. The employment crisis
never gets addressed. The wars never end. And nation-building never gets a
foothold here at home.
New ideas and new leadership have seldom
been more urgently needed.
This is my last column for The New York
Times after an exhilarating, nearly 18-year run. I’m off to write a book and
expand my efforts on behalf of working people, the poor and others who are
struggling in our society. My thanks to all the readers who have been so kind
to me over the years. I can be reached going forward at: bobherbert88@gmail.com
What
you can do:
*
Gather a few friends around your kitchen table to discuss all of this
* Share this leaflet with your friends.
* Share this leaflet with your friends.
*
Write a “Letter to the Editor”
*
Express your views often. What good is any discussion about the problems we are
experiencing if the views of workers are not included in a discussion about the
solutions?
Wall Street is very powerful. Wall Street is our common enemy. Individually, as workers, we are like one little rain drop; we don’t amount to much. But, together with a common agenda of shared concerns and united movement we become a torrential downpour.
