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Trumka at Netroots Nation: New Industrial Policy for a Globalized World |
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AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka laid out a 21st century U.S. economic policy at today’s lunchtime keynote session at Netroots Nation before a diverse crowd of 2,000 progressive political activists. Restoring the nation’s middle class in part means returning to a “real economy”—one in which we make things, rather than move around complex financial products, Trumka said. Strengthening U.S. manufacturing must be part of the process to reverse five decades of stagnating wages.
We have to think big and we have to go big. We have to let go of this notion that we can’t compete in this world. We can compete. Other countries are already doing this and so can we. We can’t get left behind.
Speaking as part of a panel on Building a Progressive Economic Vision, Trumka outlined the need for the the nation to invest in infrastructure, implement fair trade policies, change our tax policies, enact comprehensive immigration reform and reform our broken labor laws. The full panel included consumer advocate Elizabeth Warren, progressive Florida Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson, Center for Community Change Executive Director Deepak Bhargava, Green for All’s Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins and National People’s Action Executive Director George Goehl. (Watch it here.)
Trumka pointed out how the United States is falling behind other countries in creating green technology. While our nation is building 500 miles of high-speed rail, China has begun construction of 5,000 miles and is outspending the United States 2:1 on green technology, making it even far urgent for the United States to invest in green jobs and high-end manufacturing infrastructure now before we fall further behind.
For those who say we can’t afford to make these investments, Trumka explained how we can do it with a financial speculation tax that encourages capital to invest in concrete things and discourages unproductive speculation or paper pushing for a quick buck, all the while raising more than $100 billion. Trumka made it clear that lawmakers must not reduce the federal deficit at the expense of creating jobs.
Next up, Trumka described the need for anintegrated trade policy. The nation can’t focus solely on increasing exports, we need to focus on net exports. We can’t open our markets to other countries who won’t open theirs. We can’t support countries that murder trade unionists. All we want is to compete on a level playing field and to do that we must have fair trade policy.
Third, Trumka laid out what we must do to modify our tax policy:
We need a tax policy that encourages people to produce and manufacture things in this country, not reward those who outsource and produce things abroad. We have to close the loopholes that allow corporations who have record profits to use gimmicks to avoid paying their fair share of taxes.
Fourth, Trumka loudly and proudly spoke out in favor of comprehensive immigration reform and made it clear that every AFL-CIO union has endorsed our five-point plan for immigration reform. Current U.S. immigration policy has allowed corporations to create a permanent underclass of workers who they can take advantage of.
And finally, just as corporations have taken advantage of immigrants, they have skirted, exploited and violated labor laws that empower workers to form a union and bargain for a better life. The good jobs of the past were good jobs because workers organized and fought for fair wages and benefits. Without labor law reform, corporations will continue to take advantage of workers and no matter how much we invest in our economy, how much we increase our productivity, our wages will remain stagnant and we will continue to fall behind.
After laying out this five-part plan, Trumka concluded with a passionate call for coordinated action.
We knew this wasn’t going to be easy. It’s going to take a concerted effort by a lot of us over a long period of time to fix our broken economy. I’m up for it, and I look forward to fighting with you.
Check out live tweets on Trumka’s discussion and the entire Building a Progressive Economic Vision presentation with the hashtag #nn10.
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I’m glad Rich Trumka is doing all this work with progressive groups, it’s nessesary for the survivial of the Labor movement. I’m up for the fight too.
The decades long decline of the labor movement, the lack of organization among the vast majority of working people, the absence of a political party that effectively represents the economic needs of working people, are all due to
working with and adopting the failed political perspectives of “progressive groups”.
The labor movement is NOT surviving as far as the vast majority of working people are concerned. Continued support of “progressive” politics will perhaps continue the well-being of labor bureaucrats. Union membership has proven ineffective and disasterous for hundreds of thousands of the auto workers and mine workers.
“Progressive” politics today means complete subordination of the needs of working people to supporting Obama and the Democratic Party. But Obama and the Democratic Party are completely controlled by corporate money and agendas. This has meant the “bailout” of corrupt Wall Street, the continuation of wars for profit, the profitable “cap and trade” policy which maintains Global Warming caused by profitable polluters, the so-called “Health Care Reform” that further profits the health care industry, by waging a massive attack on public education, etc.
President Trumka used millions of union members dues money in supporting Obama in 2008. Trumka then supported Obama’s Health Care Reform, in opposition to the Pittsburgh convention unanimous support for “single-payer” Medicare for All.
“Progressives” continually think they can some how “reform” the completely corrupted Democratic Party. “Progressives” are basically supporters of the “status quo” which favors some part of the “Middle Class” who have a vested personal interest in not making any serious change in the economic status quo.
For working people, maintaining the “status quo” is death. The “status quo” for working people has meant for the last thirty years a steady decline in living standards. U.S. capitalism, unable to “compete” against cheap labor in China, has been on the decline and now collapsed.
Millions of jobs, created by for-profit corporations, have been permanently lost as manufacturing jobs in the U.S. shut-down. To maximize profit these
“multi-national”corporations moved their operations and their jobs overseas.
These profit-generating jobs will never return until working people in this country will agree to work for the slave-wages and working conditions forced upon the impoverished working people overseas.
The organized labor movement must reject “progressive” politics which maintain the disasterous “status quo” that profits corporate capitalism.
The organized labor movement, to survive and grow and effectively fight for economic justice for working people, must call for the formation of a new political party that represents the economic needs of all working people, organized and especially unorganized. A new political party would be the means to unite and organize tens of millions of working people where simple trade union organizing has failed.
President Trumka I am most encouraged by these 5 steps you have layed out.
I also fully agree with the points made by brothers Rayson anf Fraser.
President Trumka, we need a SIXTH step to make a start in the right direction, and that is to offer candidates of own. We must challenge the anti-labor Blue Dog Dems, we cannot wait any longer. We must form a US LABOR PARTY, which is organized and backed by organized labor.
Pick our spots and let the Blue Chips “fall where they may.”
At best we could win a seat here and there. At worse we would be a player and unseat a Blue Dog in favor of a GOP. No difference. And then instead of listening to Obama/Clinton say we “flushed $$$ down the toilet.” We could say DO WE HAVE YOUR ATTENTION NOW?!?
For once you are making sense. However, you do not offer specific actions to reach your goals. Here are my specific practical actions (from two years ago) to reach the goals you clain.
Recommend action that will allow us to reach the goals.
The original GATT agreement our government signed allows general tariffs to be enacted to all imports in order to correct for grave financial imbalances. If a $723 billion trade deficit combined with nine trillion dollars in foreign debt obligations isn’t a grave financial imbalance I don’t know what is.
Legislation: General
(i) Impose equal import duties on all imports: between 20% and 30%
(ii) Cancel all taxes (state and local) on domestically produced goods and services.
(iii) Impose an across-the -board 10% local sales tax on all imported goods: the proceeds to be accredited to state, county and city governments
(iv) Impose a 40% federal tax on all services contracted out abroad.
(v) Enact a law that executive bonuses be tied to corporate profits from sales, exclusive of earnings through mergers, acquisitions and financial manipulations.
Legislation: tax law
Introductory comment: No corporate decision is made without careful analysis of the impact of tax legislation on the decision. In fact, corporate tax law dominates many other considerations when it comes to corporate planning.
Currently, if corporate profits are distributed to stock holders they are taxed twice. That error is the principal cause of stock holders investing in corporations that acquire/grow rather than those specifically showing a profit. Corporate gains are taxed at a lower rate than income thus the double-taxed corporate profits are not a plausible way for an investor to make money. This must be changed or our system can not function in the current international environment.
(vii) Eliminate corporate taxes on corporate income.
(viii) Tax income from United States corporate-profit distributions at a flat rate of 10%
(ix) Tax income from foreign investments (both distributions and capital gains) at a flat rate of 50%
(vi) Adjust the income tax on individual incomes so impartial estimates of government income from all taxes imposed are ten percent higher than allocated funds to be spent: The ten percent to be used to retire the national debt.
(vii) Impose mandatory incarceration sentences (minimum one year) with no right of parole on anyone breaking the spirit or intent of the new legislation.
(viii) All new legislation shall, by law, open with a statement of the intent of the law that can be understood and interpreted clearly by an informed layman. The body can be filled with legalese but the intent cannot.
Non government Activities (Initially funded by the Government if required)
(ix) Create six Non Government Organizations (NGOs) to represent the consumers and workers of the following regions: North Eastern, Southern, Appalachian, Midwestern, Southwestern, And Northwestern.
The charters of the NGO’s will be:
(A) To negotiate with manufacturers for regional pricing and quality. e.g. guarantee the NGO will highly recommend the products the of corporations offering the most to the region.
(B) Part of the negotiation under (A) will be to negotiate for some percentage of the goods to be manufactured in the negotiating region. (Here the opportunity for cooperation among the various NGO’s can be exploited.)
(C) To work with suppliers and other NGO’s to maximize the value of their decisions to the general populace.
(D) To work with local legislators to enact whatever legislation is indicated by the economics of the region,
(E) To form a committee of Representatives from each NGO to work with the executive and the federal congress to monitor the economic development of the nation and to recommend legislation when appropriate.
Outrageous, but Logical Action
Imagine, if you will, that political, economic and cultural integration of Mexico, Canada and the United States were accomplished: common currency, common government, and common goals. The continent of North America has sufficient natural resources, sufficient population, and sufficient infrastructure to operate successfully in complete isolation from the rest of the world.
When I came to this conclusion, I thought it out of the question in the real world, but totally logical. I searched the internet and was amazed to find I was not alone in my thinking. As far back as the beginning of the League of Nations, books were written on the subject. A visit to the website http://www.jonesreport.com will bring anyone interested reasonably up to date on the subject.
Being a practical person I speculated on how such a situation could obtain. Clearly opposition in the U.S. would burst upon the scene at the grass-roots level if a stated goal of the three governments were such integration. But, the economic catastrophe of the burst real estate bubble, the collapse of the banking system, the tanking of the markets and rampant unemployment have set the stage for a movement in that direction. All that is needed is for the public to recognize that globalization is a major player in the current meltdown.
Clearly, were Canada, Mexico and the U.S. to erect trade barriers about all of North America as described in Legislation: General, and Legislation: Tax Law outlined above, within a reasonable time, say a decade or two, North America could develop an economy based on sustainable resources and renewable energy. The manufacturing capability would be restored and imports all but eliminated. This could be accomplished almost exclusively through cooperative economic activity, without political and monetary integration. There would be a belt tightening, but that is coming no matter how cleverly or stupidly our current government faces the current crisis (July 2009).
We we are fighting an economic war against ourselves. I visited the Gulf Coast and I brought items from the surrounding stores. I visited a couple of stores and the clerks believed that the News Media blew some of the news out of proportions and scared away more customers than the oil spills with their scary views and exaggerated stories of all the beaches covered by BP Oil. I saw miles and miles of beaches of beautiful sand not touch by the oil spills in Alabama and was told some beaches were never touched by the oil spill. But the stores are hurting the workers there because of some stories blown out of proportion. Visit and buy something from Orange Beach ALabama and you will see the truth and help that the people of that area.
I want to know Mr. Trumka’s step by step illegal immigration reform? Also, he can’t just blame Bush for this mess. It did start in Bill Clintons time with NAFTA it just took a while for it to rear it’s uglyhead. I want to know if Mr. Trumka will support Hillary Clinton if she runs for president? Bill Clinton already screwed us getting involved with Blanche Lincoln and supporting her over someone that may have done labor good. It is time Labor start showing some guts and not just supporting people with a D next to their name. Even those who run as a dem don’t have labors intrests in mind.
Wake up Mr. Trumka because not all of us are following you and even though your position is hard to topple those that are elected may fall if your agenda does not coincide with what most of us union people want as we may go another root. Blue states like Mass. should be a clear example as a majority support Arizonas law. You watch t.v. and even those hard core supporters for the illegal immigrants have toned it down.
Back away from illegal immigration and stick to what us union people want. End trade deals, create manufacturing jobs,construction jobs, EFCA, etc.
I disagree, Clinton did not start the anti labor practices. they have been growing since Reagan and his policy of less government.
I agree NAFTA was a bad deal, was it all from Clinton or as demands from a right winged Congress? Remember, they had to approve it for it to be passed!
Reagan took a step towards immigration reform with his Amnesty program. that was a bad policy as it opened the door to more illegal immigration. What we need is enforcement of laws against Illegal Employers! When it is not profitable to hire illegals to exploit, they will stop doing it! When there are no jobs for Illegals to take they will stop coming…
I second John Mason on his thoughts. SOLIDARITY!
Trumka is finally doing something positive. He slept through the health care reform fiasco and helped Obama give a gift to the parasitic insurance companies. Hope he can continue this.
Well Done President Trumka. Now more than ever the American workers need strength in Unions.
I am not impressed with President Trumka’s argument for massive illegal or legal immigration. My family name ancestors landed in Philadelphia in 1749 on a ship named Albany. At that time there was room for massive immigration. That is not the case in 2010. In the city where I live 50% of the children in public schools are on free and reduced lunches because their parents are at or below the poverty level standard. Massive immigration, legal or illegal, swamps local businesses with cheap nonunion labor. Local industrial plants are full of workers who do not speak English and will never be union. Do not even try to argue otherwise. Failure to secure our national borders is responsible for the massive illegal drug trade, as well as being a freeway for terrorists and gangsters. I do not know anyone who is opposed to legal immigration, but Mr. Trumka’s rejection of secure borders does not register as reasonable to me. I would appreciate a response from Mr. Trumka to this comment.
Your complaints about children of immigrants receiving free and reduced lunch has me confused. The answer to reducing the use of free lunch is to reduce immigration? This is a labor blog. How about raising the wages and benefits of all workers? How about making it easier to join a union? How about having a more active Dept of Labor that will make sure that employers pay workers what they have earned? That would be more of a union response, a response that comes from solidarity rather than blaming workers for the wages they receive.
You claim Trumka wants massive immigration, legal or illegal. When and where has he said this? We can’t have a decent conversation on this blog if you make up facts out of thin air. I want you to post a video or a quote from Trumka where he calls for massive immigration, legal or illegal. I don’t think you can.
BTW, the reason there is a drug trade to begin with is the American people’s massive addiction to ilicit drugs. Cut off the demand and the supply will disappear. Trying to mix up illegal immigation with drug trafficking, terrorists and gangsters is wrong and smells of something else.
Given the well documented bad acting by the Dems, and absolutely NOT giving any credit were due, to the GOP for fostering TERROR among the right in this nation, and blaming it ALL upon the Dems, that weakly attempt to move OUR agenda forward with LIARS, TRAITORS and even Democrats betraying our every move, WHY DON”T WE DO SOMETHING TOGETHER as a UNIFIED LEFT?
Have a meeting of ALL union leaders and work up ideas that WE “UNION MIDDLE CLASS AMERICANS” can do to LEAD the stupid, GREEDY, PARTISANS out of the darkness.
WHY don’t unions join together and start BUILDING THINGS? There are hundreds of EMPTY factories, and SOLAR panels and products are still expensive, BUT, LIKELY more because of PROFIT margins than anything else. What if we started building them and installing them where the sun shines 300 plus days per year ON HOMES, STORES and other surfaces and create an energy policy NOT run on partisan hot air with the year 2099 as the target for action by the right.
WE COULD be selling them at discounts, and gaining a little Govt support if by chance we can squeeze in between republican filibusters.
I see it as EACH Kilowatt hour we generate is a small portion of OIL we will never need, and if we paved the Nevada desert with solar, we could probably make as much power as a hydro plant during high demand daytime hours in the sunny seasons.
OR, work on concepts to massive desalinization plants.
One might also “follow the money” when trying to figure out why jobs, pay, and benefits have reduced while executive compensation has exploded beyond comprehension. There IS no secret, the money did NOT disappear , but, rather has just gotten “caught up” in the new, “trickle proof” management style of the last 3 decades. There simply is not enough money to pay the execs, AND employees too !
Once again, Richard Trumka hits the nail on the head … five times on the head, with each of his points for renewing the American economy, for the benefit of — not at the expense of — American workers.
And he’s right on the issue of immigration reform: Ultimately, it’s about the rights of workers, regardless of origin. It’s easy to see in history how workers have been divided and thus easily exploited, at one time or another in the past; it’s much harder to see that “divide and conquer” strategy at work today, when it’s your own job on the line.
But make no mistake, as long as workers fight one another — on the basis of race or gender or national origin or any other “wedge issue” — we’ll all lose out in the end. When we’re united together, shoulder to shoulder, on issue after issue, there’s no force on Earth that can stand in our way.
NAFTA was absolutely the worst thing to happen to Union Workers. Clinton signed the bill into law but this was started by the Bush administration and a Republican House and Senate. The unions were subverted still further back under President Reagan when he fired the Air Controllers. Every Union member should have walked off their jobs until they were reinstated.
Trumka did an excellent job with this speech.
Jerry, progressives are natural allies for organized labor. The corporatist elements of the Democratic Party are not the progressives in the Party. Not all progressives are Democrats.
Organized labor should be open to any coalition partners, on an issue by issue basis, who support pro-worker legislation and policies.
On some issues like restoring American manufacturing, political parties and left-right ideology should not get in the way of constructive actions that serve the national good.
Simple solution for economic growth. Flat tax for everybody at 15
%. Corporate taxes reduced to 15%. Government get out of the way.
In 6 months we will have a great economy.
Time to organize by industry instead of by trade. The model for this kind of “horizontal” organizing as opposed to the top-down methods used by the AFL since Gompers’ time has got to be discarded. The IWW and the original CIO had it right. Screw political parties, as they always opt for the status quo in order to maintain positions of power and influence. If you know your history, the IWW was smashed in the red scare of 1919. The CIO was “merged and purged” in 1954, to get rid of the idea of industrial organization. The only power working people have is their labor. Taft-Hartley proved that, in 1948, so why are we still begging Democrats or Republicans for the crumbs they leave for us? The General Strike and International Solidarity are the answers, and I’m not talking about authoritarian socialists or fascist front organizations. Time to organize for the One Big Union. Time to abandon the political parties, and just take Direct Action.