“Science and industry, knowledge and application, discovery and practical realization leading to new discoveries, cunning of brain and of hand, toil of mind and muscle—all work together. Each discovery, each advance, each increase in the sum of human riches, owes its being to the physical and mental travail of the past and the present. By what right then can anyone whatever appropriate the least morsel of this immense whole and say—This is mine, not yours?” - Peter Kropotkin, The Conquest of Bread. ------------ In the United States, Labor Day was created in 1887 as a dedication to “the social and economic achievements of American workers.” According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the holiday “constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.” Interestingly enough, not too long ago, wage labor was considered by most to be a form of slavery not very different from that of chattel slavery. In his 1854 classic Walden, Henry David Thoreau touched on the coercive nature of wage labor, noting that “it is hard to have a Southern overseer; it is worse to have a Northern one; but worst of all when you are the slave-driver of yourself.” Abolitionist and freedom fighter Frederick Douglass, being a former slave himself, had valuable insights on the similarities of chattel and wage slavery. Late in life, after observing the wage system that had developed under capitalism, Douglass concluded: experience demonstrates that there may be a slavery of wages only a little less galling and crushing in its effects than chattel slavery; and that this slavery of wages must go down with the other.” In response to the advent of wage labor, Anarchist and activist Emma Goldman famously stated: “The only difference is that you are hired slaves instead of block slaves.” Today, wage labor is accepted as “just the way things are.” There is no other way, we’re told. -------------- Wage labor is antithetical to liberty and free association. However, it is the hand that most of us have been dealt. And before we can approach true emancipation and freedom, we must deal with our current battleground. When taking up such a fight within the confines of a capitalist system, where workers are always at the mercy of bosses, we must rely on one or both of two avenues: reforms via government legislation, and/or collective strength (unionization). The passage of the Wagner Act of 1935 was an example of pro-worker legislation and aimed to “correct the inequality of bargaining power between employees who do not possess full freedom of association or actual liberty of contract and employers who are organized in the corporate or other forms of ownership association.” Collective labor in the United States, especially during its heyday in the late 1800s – early 1900s, and with effective use of the strike, secured many important gains for workers – including weekends off, ending child labor, and living wages. After proving to be a formidable avenue for improving the livelihoods of a majority of Americans, and in turn shifting wealth from owners and capitalists (the 1%) to workers (the 99%), unions faced an all-out assault starting with the Taft-Hartley Act in 1947, which represented counter-legislation designed by corporate interests to undo the democratic nature of the Wagner Act. The T-H Act was a huge victory for corporate America. From 1947 to 1980, union membership in the US dropped from 35% to 23% (percentage of all workers who are unionized). The assault continued with the Reagan administration, which was especially harsh to American workers and set us on a path from a 23% membership rate to a historically low 11% rate in 2014. Unionization within the private sector (where it is most crucial) is now all but obsolete. ------------ This legislative assault, fueled by corporate lobbying and campaign financing, has had disastrous consequences for most of us. In the Reagan years alone, the average weekly earnings for Americans fell nearly 22% from its peak in 1972. Today, as a result, American workers work more hours and make less money than ever before. On the flip side, and as designed, the Dow Jones Industrial average (a reliable indicator of how well corporate America is doing) is now at an all-time high. Despite these harsh blows, the war on workers has not let up. Powerful groups like the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) have picked up where Reagan and his predecessors left off, helping to push all succeeding administrations (Clinton, Bush II, Obama) to join this neoliberal assault. ALEC has been pushing states to adopt anti-worker legislation, ranging from cuts in unemployment insurance and minimum wages to collective bargaining and even meal breaks. They have been successful in a number of places, such as in New Jersey, where it was noted in 2012 that Governor Chris Christie adopted ALEC bills almost verbatim and without question. Since the 1980s, workers have been under attack in the interest of neoliberalism and ‘free trade,’ which actively encourages the off-shoring of jobs. This is taking a whole new turn with three trade deals: The Trans-Pacific Partnership, The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, and the Trade in Services Agreement. All of these deals push so-called ‘free trade,’ which means increased job loss and lower wages all for the glory of increased corporate profits. This assault has backed us all into a corner. Some of us attempt to counter with fights for minimum wage raises and union drives; however, these things often prove to be a drop in the bucket. Many minimum-wage workers make too little to survive, even when working multiple jobs full-time, and thus must make use of public assistance which essentially represents a taxpayer-funded subsidization for massive corporations to allow for more profit to accumulate at the top. Most unions are heavily marginalized. The AFL-CIO, for example, is nothing but an arm of the Democratic Party and its neoliberal reformists; and a number of places, most notably Wal-Mart and Target, actively engage in union busting and subject employees to anti-union propaganda during orientations. This landscape is especially harsh to restaurant workers, who are left to rely on below-minimum-wage pay and no benefits, leaving them at total mercy of tips. It’s no surprise that over forty percent of these workers, which make up a significant portion of our workforce, live in poverty or near poverty. ------------ During the national railroad strike of 1877, the first general strike in U.S. history, labor activist Lucy Parsons called to arms the “35,000 now tramping the streets of this great city, with hands in pockets, gazing listlessly about you at the evidence of wealth and pleasure of which you own no part.” On this Labor Day 2014, we must call to arms the 50 million American workers forced to live in poverty, the 47 million American workers forced to rely on food stamps and other government programs to feed themselves and their families despite working multiple jobs, the 610,000 homeless Americans who do not know where they are sleeping from night to night, and the 90 million who are either unemployed or underemployed. The system has failed us. Legislation has failed us, and traditional unions have failed us. We have to fight back. We cannot depend on politicians (either state or national), nor major unions that are in the back pocket of the corporate-fueled Democratic Party, and certainly not the corporate-friendly Republican Party or proto-fascist Tea Party, to help us. We must organize ourselves, autonomously of these forces. We need to actively inform ourselves about this war on workers and how it affects us. We need to tear down artificial obstructions created by institutional racism and patriarchy to realize our bond as working-class sisters and brothers. This must be done swiftly and quickly; because if not, it’s game over. If not now, when? If not you, who? In solidarity.
Posted on: Mon, 01 Sep 2014 19:05:36 +0000
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