For months at my union local our union officials have been understating the levels of unemployment of our members. Finally last weekend the Regional Council of Carpenters announced the ACTUAL level in the decline in work. Our officials had been arguing that only 10% of our members are out of work. Well the figures are incredible: over the last 12 months the total hours worked by union carpenters in Northern California has declined by 34%. That is, the amount of work is only 66% of what we had last year. That's not quite 1930s-ish, but it's not too far off.
Today I'm doing something about the state of the nation and with hundreds of others I am responding to the call of UC berekely students and labor to join their conference against cuts. Facts for Working People supporters from the Bay Area and Los Angeles will be there and we hope you'll join us.
For the past 30 years the dominant ideological offensive of capitalism has been that if the banks come first, and with it Wall Street, then all will be well. This tried and failed ideology which was most virulantly promoted from the University of Chicago under Milton Friedman, is still the current ideology of the government. It created 15 million unemployed. The current version of this ideology is bailing out the banks and Wall Street, then everyone else will be better off is pushed by Obama and the Goldman Sachs US Treasury Department.
I am hoping out of this conference at the University of California that at least one big idea will emerge: the notion that we not only want an end to the cuts but that we want an expansion of public spending: for education and all social needs. For a massive creation of jobs through greening the economy, especially transportation and energy, for one million k-12 teacher jobs, for massive social help to the elderly and the sick.
We are after all in the period when the public debt is increasing to unprecidented levels. The problem is that the public debts are bailing out the private sector, not expanding public spending for the working people's needs. I, for one, am tired of being
fed massaged numbers by my union leaders. The truth, the facts, will set us free!
No comments:
Post a Comment