Sisters and Brothers, Fellow Workers;
Uniting People (UP) is a new national organization for Peace, Equality, Full Employment, Universal Health Care and Protection of the Environment. We appreciate the invitation extended by the AFL-CIO to all people and organizations to comment on its White Paper, “Prosperity Economics, Building An Economy For All”
by Jacob S. Hacker and Nate Loewentheil, intended to create discussion
about the direction of organized labor and the kind of country we all
want to live in where peace, social and economic justice for working
people prevail.
Democracy---
as well as social, economic and environmental justice--- require no
less than a full and broad discussion of these important concerns and
issues.
We agree with the concept of “prosperity economics” by “building an economy that works for everyone.” There are several very basic facts left out of this “White Paper” and it is very hazy, vague and nebulous as to what our concrete and specific goals and objectives are to be and 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.
We agree with the concept of “prosperity economics” by “building an economy that works for everyone.” There are several very basic facts left out of this “White Paper” and it is very hazy, vague and nebulous as to what our concrete and specific goals and objectives are to be and 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.
The “White Paper” does not clearly articulate our main enemy: Wall Street. The “White Paper” doesn't reflect the fact that we, as working people, are
engaged in a social, political and economic struggle for power with the
intent to replace 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.
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 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 use the wealth
of its nation to prepare for wars and to fight wars. This is sheer
insanity.
Wall Street's greedy drive for profits results in wars which exacerbates 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 workweeks/longer vacations
with no cut in pay create jobs and would keep us healthier, too.
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 assets and profits.
Prosperity for all begins with the recognition peace is required to achieve full employment.
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 Medicare for All, not
job destroying legislation like Obama-care as detrimental to our health
and jobs as wars without providing real health care reform while pushing
the price of health care up instead of its stated intent to push prices
down.
Eliminating
militarism and wars eliminates the largest carbon footprint
contributing to global warming and climate change as the Military
Industrial Complex wastes our precious resources in a huge, monstrous
complex that ruins our environment--- power generation, mining,
manufacturing, the resources like oil and gas 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.
The Wall Street selected politicians talk about “jobs, jobs, jobs” when their hidden agenda is really “profits, profits, profits” and “war, war, and more war.”
The Wall Street selected politicians talk about “jobs, jobs, jobs” when their hidden agenda is really “profits, profits, profits” and “war, war, and more war.”
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.
Therefore,
we propose that a 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 and full employment which must include:
A Minimum Wage tied to all cost of living factors indexed to inflation. Jobs or a living income for all.
Medicare for All. Protect, defend and expand Social Security programs.
Legislation
prohibiting lockouts and scabbing. Repeal of “At-Will Employment”
legislation--- the primary obstacle to worker empowerment and union
organizing.
Price controls are needed for food, 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.
The
two-party system is a trap for working people. We must free ourselves
from the Democrats and Republicans. A working class based people's party
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.
We are now at a crossroads.
We
will have an economy that serves Wall Street or we will have an economy
that works for the rest of us--- we can't have both just like we can't
have both war and full employment.
We encourage the use of the proposed Full Employment Act of 1945 pushed by the CIO unions and authored by liberal Texas Congressman Wright Patman and the associated hearing testimonies to broaden this discussion:
We encourage the use of the proposed Full Employment Act of 1945 pushed by the CIO unions and authored by liberal Texas Congressman Wright Patman and the associated hearing testimonies to broaden this discussion:
We also call to your attention the excellent Op-Ed piece by Bob Herbert, “Losing Our Way,” his last piece in the New York Times (March 25, 2011), 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."
We ask: 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--- from military production to producing for human needs; swords into plowshares is what was advocated by the International Association of Machinist's former President, William Winpisinger. Where is this advocacy for peace and reordering our Nation's priorities now?
Thank you for allowing us to offer our critique of the AFL-CIO's “White Paper” and our alternative perspectives.
Contact: uniting_people@lists.riseup.
