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Trumka: Working-Class Anger Fueled by Right’s ‘Deeply Dishonest’ Message
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With the economy continuing to stagger and job creation not moving quickly, “working people are justifiably angry and frustrated” as they approach the Nov. 2 elections, says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka.
Trumka and Working America Executive Director Karen Nussbaum, New York Times columnist Bob Herbert, Eric Alterman, journalist and senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, and moderator Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher of the Nation, led a panel discussion—Which Way for the Working Class? Elections 2010 and Beyond—Friday afternoon in New York City.
More than 400 people attended the event at the Great Hall at Cooper Union.
Trumka said it is vital to channel working-class anger away from Fox News and Tea Party extremists who are delivering
a cynical, deeply dishonest and incoherent message—that big government is somehow to blame for the current crisis that the budget deficit will eat our children, and that illegal immigrants took all the good jobs.
However, he added, “The good news is they haven’t bought into right-wing ideology. They are just confused about who to blame.” But:
We have to offer working people something other than the dead-end choice between the failed agenda of greed and the voices of hate and division and violence.
Alterman said workers are so beaten down by the economy, “[p]eople don’t ask for raises anymore.” He also said that the labor movement and the progressive community face a tremendous challenge because
there is an alliance of the corporations and high-powered government politicians against the interests of working people.
Working America canvassers knock on thousands of doors every night, Nussbaum said, and find that there is a huge vacuum of facts and unbiased information about the root causes of the nation’s economic troubles—and working-class voters’ opinions can be shaped by the barrage from the likes of Fox News, Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin.
But those are not deeply held beliefs and can be swayed, she said, when presented with a more balanced view and a look at the Bush/Boehner economic policies that tanked the economy and are now at the heart of the Republican agenda if they win a congressional majority. That, said Herbert, is
why the work [Working America] is doing is so critical. I would just strongly urge everyone to get to work organizing on the local level because I think it’s the only way we’re going to turn things around in this country.
In the short term, said Trumka, the labor movement has to “recapture the moment and take control of the national conversation.” Building for the future,
we need to fundamentally restructure our economy and re-establish popular control over the private corporations which have distorted our economy and hijacked our government. That’s a long-term job, but one we should start now.
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14 Comments
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I heartily agree with Trumka that labor has to “recapture … the national conversation.” Also that workers are looking for answers and we have a tremendous challenge because “there is an alliance of the corporations and high-powered government politicans against the interests of working people.” Exactly. The problem, also identified by the Libertarians and Tea Party, leading them to attack Big Government, therefore rings somewhat true to workers looking for answers. We on the other hand, because we are tied to the lesser evil and have historically been so entrapped for decades, cannot come up with an actual vision or solution that would allow us to recapture the national conversation, provide a real alternatives that build for the future of fundamentally restructuring our economy and establishing popular control. WE NEED A LABOR PARTY.
MORAL DISENGAGEMENT by Democrats and pseudo scientist and rabid environmentalist selling out America’s jobs. Are we so rich with entitlements that we no longer mine for our resources to supply America’s manufacturing and secure our national security?
China’s control over supplies of so-called rare-earth elements includes a group of 17 metallic elements with magnetic properties suited for high-tech applications such as computer hard drives and digital cameras. Rare-earth elements are also key to “green” technology: Energy-efficient light bulbs use europium and yttrium, while hybrid car batteries and wind-power turbines use neodymium. While rare-earth ore deposits are found around the globe, China’s dominates the mining and processing of these elements. According to an April 2010 Government Accountability Office report, China now produces approximately 97% of the world’s rare-earth oxides, the raw materials that can be further refined into metals and blended into alloys that can be made into finished components. VOTE FOR AMERICA!
My hometown Sunday paper had front page AP article entitled; “Poll: Most think health care overhaul should do more.” Essentially those polled by AP, 2 to 1, felt the health reform law should have done more. My bet is that you’d find the same results regarding bank reform, energy and environment and other major issues. So why don’t the Dems campaign on if the voters return them to office in the November mid terms, they’ll continue to work towards:
* Adding a public option to health care.
* Tighter regulations on Wall Street banks that break them-up.
* Repeal of DADT and enactment of the Dream Act will be processed early in 2011.
* That they’ll take a first significant step in reducing the deficit by allowing tax cuts to expire on America’s richest.
* Eliminate all tax breaks and incentives on US companies that out source jobs.
* that they’ll follow the Prez’s lead towards extricating the US from Iraq and Afghanistan.
* Other populist policies
Albert Colone
Oneonta. NY 13820
607/432-4057
Thankyou coloneblog. All of the time, I write here about our need for our own party of Labor. But how will that ever happen? In the age of the dying American Empire, when the only jobs available to America’s young workers leave them with a choice between minimum wage drudgery with no benefits and no job security, or joining the military and becoming a foot soldier.
The main issue in this election is joblessness, but a close second is Afghanistan (and Iraq). The AFL-CIO is trying to get us to vote for Democrats by discussing jobs without mentioning the wars and occupations which grind on and on. Most everybody wants to see us to get the Hell out of there, yet we remain – 10 years and counting. The only discussion should be whether victory should be declared before we haul ass.
We get no mention from the AFL-CIO about the fact that these same Democrats have no intention of doing anything about jobs, and want enough Republicans to get elected so that they can be used as an excuse. No mention is made of the fact that the federal resources needed to fund job programs and retool our infrastructure are being squandered instead on these endless wars and occupations to extend a worldwide empire noone in the world but America’s rich ruling families want to see continue.
Go to ABC News to see Colonel Morlock’s video testimony about murder, atrocities and drug use rampant in his unit in Kandajar. It is Vietnam all over again, and we have got to march and demonstrate everywhere from now until this stops. The only way we will build a Labor Party is on an antiwar platform, just like Eugene V. Debs, Big Bill Haywood and the other pioneer fighters of Labor, and only then because the labor officialdom refuses to even acknowledge the complete obstacle to progress this imperial war represents.
The alternative is further squandering of the federal budget, making it impossible to launch any type of meaningful jobs program. We are destoying our working class youth by teaching them to be murderers, addicting them to drugs, and calling them ‘heroes’ all the while. When they come home, they can’t get the help they need, and are suffering mental illness and an alarming suicide rate, not to mention dismal job prospects.
This backward approach is the only way workers will elect their most bitter class enemies into Congress this election. Refusal to address the war by Labor is a recipe for disaster.
Would love to see labor take an aggressive stand against the military industrial complex. Too often, we just go along and wave the flag. But it’s not hard to see that maintaining The Great American Empire is costing us jobs–and lots of them. How many trillions have we spent fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, on useless weaponry, and on maintaining bases all over the world? Sure, some union workers get jobs from making the WMD’s, but it’s an awfully inefficient way to create jobs….probably the least effective way.
Would love to see Labor stand up with an aggressive stance to mandate E-verify for worker validation and workplace enforcement by forcing employers being fined and jailed, along with the detaining and deportation of Illegal Aliens discovered here in America working jobs that should have gone to working American families…..
Tighter regulations on Wall Street banks that break them-up?
Took big to fail was not part of restructuring banking!
Remember what happened when politicians passed the Community Reinvestment Act to ensure loans were made to low and middle income communities? This political power given to the agency under the proposed legislation brings us back to square one, where an exemption can be provided for loans to be made and then sold to the public in an effort to provide credit to individuals who otherwise would not have been able to receive it.
Fannie is lending again at 0 down and no requirement of mortgage insurance. HELLO!?
Here we go again. Politics as usual!
Living in a boat building community-rich people build yachts, boats, including furnishings masts, etc.
Carter raised taxes on the rich and jobs died, super rich such as the likes of Microsoft, Soros, Rockefeller, Kennedy’s etc. pay no taxes anyway.
What will be impacted are small companies with employees from 5 to 500. Look at Maryland and NY state they raised taxes on the rich and the rich left and revenues went down. The super rich are international they can move their money wherever they want and I rather have them spent it in my community wouldn’t you?
you seriously need to revisit your “facts”. CRA loans made by Fannie and Freddie had very low default rates. It was sub prime loans made by the private sector that failed at extremely high rates and that had nothing to do with the CRA. That was predatory lending plain and simple. That jury is in. It’s time to get up to speed.
and your views on tax policy are equally ignorant. The rich don’t make jobs. Corporations are currently sitting on $1.8 Trillion in cash that they won’t invest! Rich people sock their money away in all kinds of paper investments that don’t produce a thing (what do you think a derivative is, anyway?) People with money in their pockets buying things makes jobs.
Since your rant about the poor old rich having to pay their fair share of taxes isn’t specific about just what aspect of their taxes you are concerned about, let’s assume that it has to do with the discussion of raising the top tax bracket and how it will effect small businesses who are “S-corporations”. Besides the fact that 97% of all small businesses do not make over $250K in profit anyway and therefore would not see a tax increase, a small company that takes its extra profit and reinvests it into the business does not therefore generate an “income” (or profit) for the business owner(s) and therefore that money is not subject to being taxed! Raising taxes on the rich will in fact encourage reinvestment INTO the business rather than extraction of profits from it. Not to mention, those companies that are “S-Corporations” are already getting a massive tax break by not having to pay the medicare portion of payroll taxes on their profits. And if those corporations really think their taxes will be too high after going back to what they were in the 1990s, they can simply go back to being a C-corporation and take their profits as dividends and pay only a 15% capital gains rate!
It is for these reasons that independent economists have said raising the top tax bracket will register barely any negative effect on the GDP. In fact, the $700 Billion hole in the federal budget because of this tax break is likely to create far more drag on the economy than this small tax increase for two reasons – 1) it increases upward pressure on interest rates, and 2) govt spending will have to be cut to pay for it – that means hundreds of thousands of jobs, both private and public, will be wiped out, just like what is happening now at the state and local levels. Money spent by the government is part of the economy too, and when you take it away, you kill economic activity.
Mr. Trumka, these are feel good platitudes to sooth ourselves. We’ll belong to a whole new world beginning in November I’m afraid. There is no way to counter this Tea Pea movement with California members or sympathizers having ten times the constituency than all Union folks nationally. This is a leaderless consortium where one thinks if they cut off the head, the ass will follow. Not with this socio-political movement. You cut off the head, if you can find it and it’s now a hydra. Much like Gremlins. Pour water on them and they multiply. While I agree with your POV, the reality of this phenomenon is quite different.
COME ON LABOR LETS START FIGHTING WHATS RIGHT IN THIS COUNTRY, WE HAVE TO START REPRESENTING OURSELF’S, WE CANNOT BE COMPLACENT ANYMORE , WE MUST UNITE FOR WHAT IS BEST FOR THE WORKING MAN THAT HAS BEEN TAKEN AWAY FROM US FOR THE LOVE OF EXCESSIVE GREED AND CORRUPTION. LETS STAND TOGETHER AMERICA AND REJUVINATE AMERICA.
My admiration to all!
I’d like to hear more in the media about how Republicans and maybe some BlueDogDems really would like to see the USA become a Banana Republic. Paul Krugman (NYT) recently commented on this very real possibility. It could happen when the uneducated and fearful folks opt for a slick quick fix.
All who can must counter the hypocrisy and lies effectively.
President Trumka,
As head of the AFL-CIO, with 11 million members, you have the power and must now accept the responsibility of leadership. Stirring words, tearful laments , wishful thinking, symbolic arrests, clenched fists, are not enough!
Critical thinking must now consider WHY millions of working people, organized and unorganized, are being impoverished by economic and political conditions impossible to remedy by personal or family efforts. When tens of millions are unemployed we have a social crisis that can only be resolved through a united and collective effort of working people and their organizations.
For decades, tthe U.S. labor movement has confined the struggle for better wages, benefits, to a simple trade union struggle. Labor contracts with employers secured the good wages and benefits needed by it’s organized members. This strategy has not benefitted the vast majority of unorganized working people. Simple trade union organization, over the last 30 years, has not even protected organized workers (such as auto or mine workers) against massive loss of jobs, benefits, wage cuts, etc.
The long-term failure of organized trade unions to survive or grow has been due to several reasons. Critical thinking and understanding about WHY must lead to new organizational and political strategies.
1. Capitalism, Globalization and the 30 year decline of jobs for working people.
The simple strategy of trade union organizing, going back 100 years and more, was based on a capitalist economy while was willing and able to meet the increased demands of it’s organized workers.
But the capitalist economy of the U.S. (and globally) has radically changed, while the basic strategy of U.S. organized labor has not changed.
1. U.S. capitalists have moved millions of jobs overseas to maximize profits.
2. Corporate money and agendas now control both pro-business Democratic and Republican parties. The past influence of organized labor over the Democratic Party is basically lost. Obama and the Democratic Party are now continuing the foreign and domestic policies of Bush. The latest attack upon the critical needs of working people is President Obama, under the guise of “defict reduction”, is planning to destroy Social Security!
3. Political power, rather than trade union contracts, now has a vastly more important role in securing and maintaing the economic needs of working people. Social Security, minimum wage laws, OSHA safety, Section 8 housing support, public education support, public health support, etc. now contemptously labelled “entitlements”, are being targeted by both Republican and Democratic parties.
4. Obama and the Democrats in power, following the demands of Corporate money and agendas, iwe have seen the economic wealth of the people squandered in bank “bail outs”, privatization of the federal government, wars expanded, corporate profiteering “Health Care Reform, massive indebtedness to China, etc. to such an extent ‘there is no money” left to help the the critical economic needs of millions of working people.
5. Thus it is time, after critical thinking and understanding, that President Trumka is here urged to do the following:
1. Break with the Democratic and Republican Parties. Call for the formation of a new pro-labor, anti-capitalist political party that seeks to unite all working people, organized and unorganized, in the political struggle for the economic needs of working people. No matter that some committments (strings) to individual politicians have already made for November 2010 election. The goal must be to have in place a political platform, organization and candidates for the November 2012 election, running at every federal, state, and local government.
6. Most essential, organized labor must demand equal access to mass media, public (NPR, PBS) and private (FOX), to inform and educate working people about the economic realities under present day capitalism. Rush Limbaugh, Glen Beck have hours of programming time every day to attack working people. No critical commentary or pro-laobr programming is allowed!
On NPR and PBS, a more sophisticated college educated audience is indoctrinated daily, often with corporate sponsorship, without any critical alternative economic perspectives allowed.
The many economic crises facing humanity today cannot be resolved by maintaining or restoring U.S. and global capitalism. Capitalism intrinsically is causing global warming, environmental catastrophes, barbaric economic inequalities (a few billionaires and millionaires profiting by impoverishing millions and billions of people.
President Trumka and the AFL-CIO Executive Countcil must embark upon new strategies for the betterment of all working people.
If you do not even attempt to excercise leaderhsip, given the unreformable corporate corruption of Obama and the Democratic party, economic barbarism will expand and the country will descend into Tea Party facism and/or anarchy as destitute working people kill each other for food, water, shelter, etc.
Big government is the problem. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts
absolutely Washington is corrupt. That is why we are bad shape. I blame it on the extreme left wing running the country. We are not getting better. If the recession ended last june 2009 then everything happening now is Obamas fault. He is a disaster. The worse president in history.
I can not for the life of me tell exactly what planet you live on. You are hilarious! If Obama represents the ‘extreme left wing’, then we are doomed. Time to move to Europe or South America, somewhere where everyone knows what a completely idiotic statement that is. Richard Nixon must have been communist, because he started relations with China. How is normalization with Cuba going? Obama is no more left wing than Eisenhower was, maybe less. If Obama is left wing, then the Pope is Mao Tse Tung.