The economic crisis has had serious consequences for organized Labor which lost 10% of its private sector membership last year; this is the largest decline in 25 years. The U.S. department of Labor reported that 834,000 private sector Union jobs were lost which dropped the private sector unionization rate to 7.2% from 7.6%.
The Union leaders strategy has been to get Democrats elected and hope they make it easier for them to sign up members. Signing up members is crucial for them as they see the Unions as employment agencies with them as the CEO's; more members mean more revenue. Prior to Obama's election the Employee Free Choice Act was all the rage; that has all but disappeared from the radar and, as is usually the case, when the Democrats stick it to us, the moribund leadership atop of organized Labor act like the issue was never an issue at all. You never hear of it these days.
Health care is about to head down the same Democratic black hole.
Obama was in Elyria Ohio Friday, a place he's visited before, and the populist rhetoric was abundant. Ohio's unemployment rate is on the rise at 10.9%, up from 10.6% just two months ago and a percentage point above the national average.
The level of anger and hatred towards the bankers and other crooks that caused this mess is so great that the politicians of big business talk like this in places like Ohio and Michigan where unemployment is rampant. Obama attacked the bankers calling them "Fat Cats" and promising to get the taxpayers our money back. "I'm not going to watch more people get crushed by costs or denied care they need by insurance company bureaucrats." he said. "I'm not going to have the insurance companies click their heels and watch their stocks skyrocket, because once again there's no control on what they do."
It's interesting he used the term, "Click their heels" a sure reference to a militaristic tradition very much connected to the Nazis The use of such terms is also a confirmation of the concern the capitalist class has over the anger that exists, anger that might flow in to the streets and take the form of more aggressive social protest if something isn't done. One wonders how far he might be pushed along the FDR road if things continue to deteriorate which seems likely.
The Democrats cannot stop the attacks on working people. This party would have to mobilize working people in order to take that road and, as a major capitalist party, this is impossible; its exists to defend the interests of capital. And while it cannot be ruled out that more aggressive measures might be taken against the excesses of finance capital, it does not appear that this is on the cards as profits are hitting the highs of the pre-crisis period and the same speculative fervor is re-emerging. Banks net interest earnings are up, total noninterest earnings are up and, as the Wall Street Journal pointed out on page 5 today, "The Big Get Bigger." This does not go unnoticed by workers. War and poverty is endemic to capitalism as is the accumulation of wealth off the Labor of the working class; and in order to compete in a global economy, U.S. capitalists are driven to eliminate all the gains we have made over the last 100 years or shift production to more lucrative markets where human Labor power can be bought for as little as $2 a day.
Still, the situation is so potentially explosive, the anger beneath the surface of society so great, that even rhetoric terrifies the owners of capital. Already nervous about an economic crisis that won't go away, the stock market fell for the third day in a row due in part to investor's fears that the pressure on their political representatives from their constituents and the general pressure of the working class might restrain their activities and profit taking.
Both the economic uncertainty and the threat of attacks on their profits means owners of capital refuse to invest in job creation. But this increases the likelihood of social unrest and threatens them even more. But they are driven by the system to find the safest home for capital investment. As Marx pointed out, people make choices but we do not choose the circumstance under which those choices are made.
The role of the Labor leadership, of workers leaders throughout the world, means that our struggle is made that much harder, the misery and suffering more prolonged. In the end though, the only way to end the cycle of crisis and the refusal of the owners of capital to set the Labor process in motion, is to, as has once been said, "appropriate the appropriator." Those that produce the wealth, must own it and control the process that creates it.
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