Defeating George Bush's Assault on American Jobs

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Defeating George Bush's

Assault on American Jobs

by Dennis Rahkonen April 6, 2004

 

 

You don't have to go far to realize that an economy tenuously on the

rebound for Wall Street is very much in the dumps on Main Street. Just

check out the proliferating dollar stores and paycheck loan providers

that both owe their existence to far too many of us being too poor to

shop at " real " retailers or to go through a month without running

completely out of money. Even in cases where usually at least two

breadwinners are struggling to make ends meet, a shockingly high

number of us look at our forebears' expectation of seeing their

progeny lead better lives than they themselves did...as totally

impossible.

 

The American dream has become a forbidding nightmare.

 

Under the profits-before-people priorities the Bush administration

advances in absolute fealty to selfish and socially irresponsible

special interests, the rungs have broken on our national ladder to

success. Jobs, pensions, and healthcare are being irrevocably lost.

Conservatives attack overtime pay and seek to deny extended

unemployment insurance. Living wages are resisted tooth and nail, with

even proposals for modest increases in federal minimum pay getting

assailed by business lobbyists as " unaffordable " . Reactionary

Republicans rail against organized labor, striving to eviscerate the

only entity strong enough to fight for public welfare and the common

good through united clout that matches the greedy power of big

business and high finance.

 

Manufacturing jobs that comprised America's industrial heart have been

outsourced to sweatshop locales in the Third World where foreign

workers are rapaciously exploited while ex-employees of padlocked U.S.

plants ponder their out-of-control bills and a bleakly fearful future.

This has spawned a whole new category of parasitism. Notice the many

TV commercials for " debt management counseling " that commonly charges

clients usurious rates and puts them more deeply in the hole.

 

Those " lucky " enough to have found work after this nation's effective

de-industrialization are making lousy wages with scant benefits in a

service sector that's impoverishing and ruining millions. How are

adults with families supposed to survive on the part-time hours of

jobs originally intended for high school students seeking a little

income beyond their allowance?

 

With technological employment that was supposed to be our salvation

also having gone down the tubes or overseas, a wave of jobless

white-collar workers suddenly finds itself competing with teenagers

for the opportunity to " manufacture " burgers at strip malls.

 

According to trends documented by Beth Shulman, in her eye-opening

book, " The Betrayal of Work: How Low-Wage Jobs Fail 35 Million

Americans, " nearly one-third of U.S. workers will fall within

low-income ranks by 2010.

 

This clearly means that -- if they won't be cruelly dying in needless

wars fought just to enrich multinational corporations -- the children

we've raised with such high hopes for success will face tomorrow going

down instead of getting ahead.

 

While saddled with the exorbitant legacy of paying for massive tax

breaks George W. Bush has given the wealthy in our time.

 

REAL PEOPLE BEHIND THE STATISTICS

 

When we hear news accounts of lost jobs, or the monthly unemployment

rate, we understandably can't associate with the real lives and tragic

stories those abstract figures represent (unless we're already

experiencing the same ourselves).

 

Here, in the words of those directly affected, are some personal

testimonies from people living in my native Midwest who know the

impact of Bush-era hardship:

 

" I am very upset how older employees are being tossed away and how

jobs are being shipped to other countries. What a slap in the face for

those who came before us and tried to make this a good, hard-working

America. What has happened to the American dream? I am very scared for

my children and grandchildren's future. "

- Gloria Jean, Menomonee, Wis.

 

" It's mind boggling how dramatically life has changed for my wife

and me since I was laid off two years ago. We don't go out any more,

see movies or eat fast food. This was the first year I couldn't afford

to buy her an anniversary present - it was our 29th anniversary.

Vacations are a thing of the past. I truly don't believe that I'm ever

going to be able to retire. " - Ron, Bay View, Wis.

 

" It's been 12 months since I was permanently laid off from the

paper mill, and I have had no success finding a new job. I don't have

recent work experience in any other field, so that makes getting even

low-paying, no-benefit jobs difficult...My unemployment has run out,

and it's put a tremendous stress on myself, my wife and my family. I

think the most difficult thing is not knowing what lies ahead. Being

out of work for this long has completely thrown out retirement plans

for myself and my wife. Not to mention the tension that it's placed on

our marriage. " - Dan, Duluth, Minn.

 

" My husband and I have run up credit card debt trying to stay

afloat, and I'm afraid that we may lose our apartment. If that

happens, I have no idea where we'll go. My husband works as a

bookkeeper for a convenience store, and when I was working, I was the

primary breadwinner. So right now, we've just been living day-by-day.

We can't buy groceries because we have other bills that have to get paid. "

- Lisa, Sioux Falls, South Dakota

 

" People just can't find jobs that offer good wages, health care

and retirement benefits. In fact, I've had to let go of my COBRA

health insurance because I couldn't keep up with the payments. It's so

difficult to keep a positive attitude through this whole struggle.

Losing my job has made me humble, and I continuously question my

self-worth. This has been such a difficult time for my wife and me. "

- John, Crystal Lake, Illinois

 

(More testimony from other parts of America)

 

HOW THIS MESS CAME ABOUT

 

Our current ordeal goes back more than twenty years. Shortly after

taking office, President Reagan harshly broke the federal air traffic

controllers' union (PATCO), thereby signaling to private employers

that an aggressive anti-labor posture would be supported at top

governmental levels. Big business dutifully followed suit, triggering

a flurry of downsizing, runaway plants, outsourcing, speed-up, forced

overtime, orchestrated union-busting, etc.

 

This accompanied " Reaganomics, " a callously deliberate plan to shift

the nation's wealth from workers' wallets to corporate coffers,

leading in time to the U.S. replacing class-stratified England as the

developed country with the world's most glaring income gap. The rich

grew stupendously richer, and the poor soul-devouringly poorer. George

W. Bush wanted more of the same. He used such deceits as miniscule tax

breaks for average citizens to gain support for mammoth giveaways of

the federal treasury to billionaires. Federal (as well as state and

local) programs designed to meet people's crucial needs had to

consequently be sharply cut back. Or eliminated altogether.

 

Whatever small amount Joe or Jill Average saved in taxes was quickly

surpassed by out-of-pocket expenses for costly private substitutes for

governmental services they'd taken for granted in the past.

 

As the economy inevitably tanked and millions of us became too poor to

buy back the goods our labor produced, more and more of us were driven

to shop at Wal-Mart and similar cut-rate merchandisers to try to

purchase some cheap semblance of prosperity. That trend killed local

businesses by the thousands, taking decent wages and vital tax-base

contributions with them.

 

The chickens had come home to roost. Now the entire system was

threatened by shortsighted greed blind to its own, ultimate consequence.

 

IT TAKES A FIGHT TO WIN

 

We're over a barrel and being pick-pocketed by unscrupulous political

and economic interests because we abdicated what should be a perpetual

struggle for social and economic justice for the wage-earning

multitudes. A nation's health, strength, and eventual viability can't

be determined by how well a selfish elite fares - especially when that

elite's standing is bought by exploiting working people who invariably

comprise any society's backbone. We, as threatened workers, now need

to show that backbone. And our decisive sense.

 

Conservatives who fear our simmering anger and latent power try every

diversion to keep us from militantly uniting to demand good jobs and

fundamental justice. Wedge issues like abortion, gun control and gay

rights are presented with great sensationalism. " Worry about

homosexual marriage. Forget about how little you're paid, and that you

haven't got health insurance or can't afford to retire. " Avaricious

crony capitalists afflicted with chronic Enronhalliburtonitis, and

their Republican protectors, count on us accepting such diversions.

It's what allows them to laugh all the way to the bank.

 

But we have the means to set things right. It's called unity, unity,

unity. By steadfastly combining across racial, gender and other

ultimately inconsequential lines to mutually assert our shared right

to enough jobs with good pay for honest work, we can force a

realization in Washington that we, the people, actually rule America.

Not unscrupulous bosses who wake up each morning to see how much money

they can extract by willfully undercompensating the arduous labor of

others. It is collective labor that's the true source of every rich

person's wealth.

 

Simply defeating Bush and sending him back to the tumbleweeds of

Crawford isn't sufficient. We need to also deliver a body blow to

rightwing Republicanism at all electoral levels, and in its capacity

to influence popular culture through its infamous demagoguery.

Crucially, we have to elevate the worker - not the high mucky-muck in

shiny shoes and a tailored suit - as the true American hero, in whose

service all political decisions are first considered.

 

Envisioning ourselves as the primary engine of history is absolutely

key. In our own bread-and-butter interest, we're obligated to unleash

the popular might a favorite slogan of progressive movements

stirringly calls forth:

 

" The people united cannot be defeated! "

 

Dennis Rahkonen, from Superior, WI, has been writing progressive

commentary and verse for various outlets since the 60's. He can be

reached at dennisr

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