(Recent
comments by Jeremy Wells)
On Saturday, Jan. 26, 2013 broadcast on KPFK of the
Smiley and West PRI radio
program, segment entitled:
Take
‘Em to Task: Strong Demands
Listener Jeremy Wells from Santa Monica, CA takes Smiley
and West to task for their poverty petition to President Obama,
because it doesn’t go far enough.
(The six minute comment period can hopefully still be heard
on-line by following the links above.)
(My original letter, which prompted my appearance
on the program, was posted as a comment on the Smiley and West web
page. The original letter is posted below with a couple of typos
fixed.)
Read Jeremy’s original letter:
I have registered and will listen to the Thursday program (debate?)
on ending poverty.
I have not yet signed the petition to Obama as I think such appeals
are incapable of affecting Obama.
These appeals are not demands! Powerful demands should have consequences
if they are not seriously acted upon.
Obama is safely installed as President for another four years.
Progressives, merely pointing to the “greater evil”
Romney, voted again for Obama without any demands.
The crisis of poverty for tens of millions of working people of
all races, is a natural product of the unstable capitalist economy.
The crisis of poverty is just one of the major crises created by
capitalist economy.
In order to end the crisis of poverty you must end the capitalist
economy and start to transform the economy towards a socialist economy.
A socialist economy is simply an economy that is organized to meet
the economic needs of the vast majority of ordinary working people,
and is not totally controlled by the corporate capitalist minority,
who are looting the economy for the maximization of their wealth
and profit.
Please check out my web-site (still being overhauled) http://www.infowells.com
The slogan to represent my perspective:
END THE BARBARISM OF CAPITALISM!
FIGHT BACK FOR A SOCIALIST ECONOMY!
Tavis, you rarely have any responsible, educated spokespersons,
for an alternative anti-capitalist perspective opposed to the capitalist
economy. One such person you should make an economic adviser, a
regular on your programs, is Dr. Richard D. Wolff.
Thank you.
Jeremy Wells
Santa Monica, CA
A
Solidarity Party, politically uniting organized labor and unorganized
working people, a first step to fight back for a socialist economy.
Note: The comment below was
first posted as a comment on the AFL-CIO NOW Blog article Groundbreaking
Study on Domestic Workers Finds Widespread Mistreatment and Systemic
Low Pay
The impoverished condition that many millions of working
people have had to endure has been well known for many decades by
the trade union movement. The traditional trade union struggle, to
organize the workers into a collective bargaining unit, does not work
because these workers are atomized individuals or work in a situation
that unions cannot or will not organize. The trade unions forever
run a cost/benefit analysis to see if the organized group of workers
can provide sufficient union dues to bring a positive economic return
to the union coffers. This negative cost/benefit analysis has been
a major factor in the long-term decline of the trade union movement.
The simple trade union model, which relies entirely
on labor contracts with employers, fails completely to address most
of the economic concerns which impoverish workers. The economic condition
of all working people, organized and unorganized, is determined by
the laws that control the capitalist economy.
For example, minimum wage laws, forever inadequate,
still do not cover domestic workers, farm workers, or other impoverished
sectors of the labor force. Neither Democrats nor Republicans represent
the economic interests of impoverished and unemployed working people.
Both pro-business parties receive massive corporate funding and thus
end up supporting the economic and political agendas of the ruling
economic class.
The only way organized labor can begin to fight back
for the economic betterment of domestic workers and all working people,
is to form a new political party that represents the economic interests
and betterment of working people. A "Solidarity Party",
to unite organized and unorganized workers, would elect lawmakers
at every level of government, to pass the many laws now desperately
needed to transform the economy. The capitalist economy must be transitioned
towards an economy that is controlled by laws that promote the economic
betterment of all people and not just to profit the tiny minority
of corporate capitalism.
The vast economic attack upon working people of the
last thirty years and especially the last four years under Obama,
is successful in large part because there is no political party to
fight for our economic interests. There is not even a pro-labor voice
in corporate controlled mass media to inform and educate us all on
what and why the majority of working people are being destroyed!
The creation of a pro-labor political party must be
the task of the AFL-CIO convention in 2013 if there is any hope of
rebuilding the labor movement or begin the task of rebuilding the
economy to meet the needs of working people.
The following comment was posted on the AFL-CIO
NOW Blog article: Just
When You Thought the Hostess Story Couldn't Get Worse.. by Kenneth
Quinell 12/11/2012.
An enlightened trade union movement must start thinking about, and
including in it's contracts with employers, provisions under which
the workers could legally seize the control of the enterprise to prevent
the liquidation or destruction of the enterprise. The enterprise should
be placed under a form of nationalization. The enterprise should placed
under social ownership, democratic control and workers' management.
In other words, capitalist enterprise must be put on
notice legally, that the workers involved in any enterprise have created,
with their investment of time and labor, an equity stake in the company.
The private capitalist owners must no longer assume that it "owns"
the entire profit and equity created by the collective effort of the
workers involved.
Every unionized enterprise must likewise demand a dedicated
representative on the Board of Directors and workers' representatives
in top management, to monitor the financial decision making of the
capitalist enterprise.
Such demands as this are now essential in the now collapsed
capitalist economy, in this country and many other countries, where
the capitalist economy is no longer capable of supplying millions
of jobs or providing the economic needs of the society.
These tactics and demands to transition the capitalist
economy towards a socialist economy can only come about from an enlightened
labor movement, with it's own political party, to promote economic
well-being of working people rather than being a "business partner"
in the further exploitation and impoverishment of working people.
|
The World Socialist
Web Site features daily news and analysis written from a Marxist
socialist perspective, and commentary on the arts, culture, history,
and politics. It is published by the International Committee of the
Fourth International.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
The comment below was originally posted on the AFL-CIO NOW Blog
article Why
California Is a Pro-Union State (Sort Of)
Nationally "...union membership dropped last year by 400,000."
California union membership may be the exception to the nation. But
the reality for millions of working people today in California is
poverty.
According to the Census numbers, California is the most impoverished
state in the US, ahead of Hawaii and the District of Columbia.
(Quote from article below)
The following introductory paragraphs are from the World
Socialist Web Site reports mass poverty. Follow the title
link to read the full article.
Report
documents mass poverty in California
By Thomas Gaist and Marc Wells
21 January 2013
A recent poverty report detailed the conditions of growing social
misery and impoverishment in California. Issued by the Center for
the Next Generation, “Prosperity Threatened: Perspectives on
Childhood Poverty in California,” presents a detailed breakdown
of poverty statistics, focusing on the growth in child poverty and
economically distressed single mothers. Taken at face value, the report's
findings are devastating. In truth, the social situation of working
people in California is even worse than the picture painted in the
report.
According to “Prosperity Threatened,” the official poverty
rate in California is 16.6 percent (6.1 million people) while another
measure developed by the Census Bureau puts the rate at 23.5 percent
(8.7 million people). According to the Census numbers, California
is the most impoverished state in the US, ahead of Hawaii and the
District of Columbia.
The data indicate that nearly one half of California’s children
live in poverty or “perilously close” to poverty. Between
2006 and 2011, the childhood poverty rate rose 4 percentage points,
for an overall increase of 21 percent in the number of children living
in poverty. These data are based on the federal poverty threshold
of $23,021 for a family of four, or $11,484 for an individual.
,,,
Since the onset of the economic crisis of 2008, the state of California
has cut or deferred $20 billion from education and laid off more than
30,000 teachers. It has raised tuition fees to prohibitive levels
for most working class families and has reduced vital academic programs.
...
Moreover, the proposal plans to progressively archive public education
as a social program, in favor of an expansion of privately run, publicly
funded charter schools, on the way to full privatization. This will
further preclude masses of youth from obtaining decent education,
thereby compromising their chances for obtaining a decent job.
...
As an additional index of social inequality, California’s Gini
coefficient stands at 0.471, indicating levels of inequality similar
to those in the Dominican Republic, Gambia, and the Republic of Congo.
Mass poverty in California is easily comparable to that of many historically
impoverished societies. This in the wealthiest state in America.
=================================================
Second
Bill of Rights
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"The Second Bill of Rights was a list of rights
proposed by Franklin D. Roosevelt during his State of the Union Address
on January 11, 1944.[1] In his address Roosevelt suggested that the
nation had come to recognize, and should now implement, a second "bill
of rights". Roosevelt's argument was that the "political
rights" guaranteed by the constitution and the Bill of Rights
had "proved inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of
happiness." Roosevelt's remedy was to declare an "economic
bill of rights"..."
“The Economic Bill of
Rights”
Excerpt from President Roosevelt's January 11, 1944 message
to the Congress of the United States on the State of the Union:[2]
(Follow the link above to see FDR VIDEO reading this text.)
“ It is our duty now to begin to lay the plans and determine
the strategy for the winning of a lasting peace and the establishment
of an American standard of living higher than ever before known. We
cannot be content, no matter how high that general standard of living
may be, if some fraction of our people—whether it be one-third
or one-fifth or one-tenth—is ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill-housed,
and insecure.
This Republic had its beginning, and grew to its present
strength, under the protection of certain inalienable political rights—among
them the right of free speech, free press, free worship, trial by
jury, freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures. They were our
rights to life and liberty.
As our nation has grown in size and stature, however—as
our industrial economy expanded—these political rights proved
inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness.
We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true
individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence.
“Necessitous men are not free men.”[3] People who are
hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.
In our day these economic truths have become accepted as
self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights
under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established
for all—regardless of station, race, or creed.
Among these are:
The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries
or shops or farms or mines of the nation;
The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing
and recreation;
The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products
at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;
The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade
in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination
by monopolies at home or abroad;
The right of every family to a decent home;
The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to
achieve and enjoy good health;
The right to adequate protection from the economic fears
of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;
The right to a good education.
All of these rights spell security. And after this war is
won we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of
these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being.
America's own rightful place in the world depends in large
part upon how fully these and similar rights have been carried into
practice for all our citizens.
For unless there is security here at home there cannot be
lasting peace in the world.
|
Attention
All AFL-CIO Union Members!
The
quadrennial AFL-CIO National Convention is to be held Sept. 8-12,
2013, in Los Angeles, CA..
Please consider supporting.
or becoming yourself, a convention delegate from your AFL-CIO union
local, to support these new fight-back strategies and to elect,
or become part of, a new leadership to implement them!
These new strategies, under new AFL-CIO leadership, will powerfully
fight back for immediate economic justice by electing pro-labor
candidates to every level of local, state, and federal government.
In the long term, working people will be united in a new Solidarity
Party to fight for a new socialist economy "of, by, and for
the people".
AFL-CIO President Trumka, and his "leadership"
team, hope to stay in power for another four years. But these current
office holders have done nothing to stop the further decline of
AFL-CIO membership (400,000 decline in 2012).
With President Trumka's abject support of
Obama, "Obamacare", and the Democratic Party, the existing
AFL-CIO "leadership" is apparently clueless. Despite the
dire organizational, political and economic crises facing organized
labor and all working people, there are no new strategies from the
incumbent leadership to fight back.
What new organizational, political and economic
strategies could a new AFL-CIO leadership use to fight back for
the betterment of all working people?
What are the new economic and political realities
facing organized labor that now demand new strategies?
1. Simple trade unionism, relying only on
labor contracts, by itself has failed to sufficiently promote the
economic betterment of organized workers. Most of the factors that
mean a decent standard of living for working people are determined
by laws passed by pro-labor officials at every level of local, State
and Federal government.
2. The "capitalist economy" serves
to maximize the profit and wealth of the corporate-capitalist top
1%, by maximizing the exploitation (minimizing the wealth) of the
bottom 99%. Workers, even with militant trade unionism, cannot fight
back in a globalized capitalist world economy. Trade unionism, by
itself, is kept powerless to fight back effectively in a capitalist-controlled
economy.
3. For the economic survival and betterment
of the working class majority, the "capitalist economy"
must end. The transitional struggle for a new "socialist economy",
that provides a universal minimum standard of living for all, should
begin with the organized labor movement.
4. Thus a new AFL-CIO leadership should call
for a new political party, The Solidarity Party, to unite politically
trade unionized and unorganized workers, to replace both corporate-corrupted
Democratic and Republican Parties. The Solidarity Party, accepting
no corporate money or agendas, will elect pro-labor lawmakers to
rebuild the economy for the economic betterment of all working people.
5. A new AFL-CIO leadership should help produce,
sponsor and demand a nightly PBS television program that presents
news and current affairs commentary from a pro-labor economic perspective.A
new voice for working people will be heard at last in corporate
controlled mass media!
End
the Barbarism of Capitalism!
Fight
Back for an Eco-Socialist Economy!
This draft statement first appeared as a comment
on the the AFL-CIO NOW Blog article linked here:
The
Future of Work, Unions? Tune into the AFL-CIO Tweet Chat with President
Trumka
##############################################
The AFL-CIO NOW Blog article
linked below contains a link to remarkable video showing the extreme
wealth inequality created by the capitalist economy in the U.S.
The comment that follow was firtst posted on the AFL-CIO NOW Blog.
Working
America: Wealth Inequality Is Much Worse Than You Think (and Congress
Just Made It Worse)
Wealth
Inequality in America
Comment by Jeremy Wells
The video illustrates how the U.S. capitalist economy
is "successful" in rewarding the tiny capitalist class.
The capitalist economy is owned, controlled and organized to maximize
the wealth of capitalists by maximizing the profit of the corporations
that they own.
The capitalist beneficiaries of the capitalist economy
uses every means possible, regardless of consequences to the bottom
99%, to promote the economic activities maximizes the wealth of
the top 1%.
But this video does not mention the barbaric results
to humanity and to the planet:
* Wars continue as vast profits are generated for
the military-industrial complex.
* Global warming, climate change, ecological devastation
continues as privately owned toxic energy companies (oil, coal,
gas, tar-sands, nuclear) produce profits, while destroying the planet.
* Jobs are outsourced (capitalist globalization) causing
impoverishment to tens of millions of unemployed. Jobs return to
US when wages are cut to maximize US profits.
* Health Care (Obamacare) maximizes costs,corporate
profits, defeats Medicare-for-all.
*Taxes on the 1% minimized, destroying public education,
health care, public sector jobs.
(The video commentary falsely suggests that "socialism"
means simply an equal dollar amount of income for everyone; that
there would be no incentive to work, and therefore "socialism"
is a bad alternative to capitalism. A socialist economy for the
21st century, rejecting all forms of totalitarian economic dictatorship
(Stalinism, etc.), means social ownership, democratic control, workers'
management of socialized economic enterprises, industries, financial
institutions, that make up the core sectors of the economy. Economic
justice and equality are central to the modern definition of a socialist
economy, that provides the economic needs of the society.)
* The toxic energy industries (oil, coal, gas, tar-sands,
as well as nuclear) should be nationalized (socialized). These polluting
industries must be placed under social ownership, democratic control
and workers' management in order to either shut them down or transition
them to non-toxic energy resources. Global warming, climate change
will continue unabated until private ownership of these toxic energy
industries is ended.
* Jobs, "living wage" jobs by the millions
are needed immediately, but the capitalist economy, that maximizes
profit to corporate owners, minimizes wages and benefits. Public
sector jobs (teachers, postal workers, public health, infrastructure,etc.)
must be restored and expanded to meet the economic needs of society.
* Health Care must eliminate corporate profiteering
to be universal, affordable, quality health care.
* Taxes on the 1%, corporations, financial transactions,
etc. must be massively restored. State Banks need to replace privately
owned banks. The banks, the FED, nationalized.
Why doesn't the AFL-CIO help sponsor a nightly news,
information program on PBS that
informs the public with the information contained on this video?
There is not a single program on mass media to challenge the anti-labor
indoctrination of corporate sponsored programming. The AFL-CIO must
fight back in mass media or continue to die.
The AFL-CIO must break with the Democratic Party,
stop supporting Obama, and start fighting politically for the economic
needs of all working people, trade union organized and unorganized.
A new Solidarity political party is needed.
|
