"Working people should run the country" 350

Scan page 5

ple have now: If they vote Republican, their vote might be taken away. But if In the last few days the Supreme Court and the bi-partisan Congress have dealt major blows to the rights of working people in this country. The Simpson-Mazzoli bill sailed through the legislature with both Democratic and This bill will fine any employer who hires an "illegal" immigrant. Instead of fining the employer for paying below union scale, it will ensure the economic deprivation of hundreds of thousands of Latin American people who have come here to escape the U.S.-supported dictatorships of their own counlabor demonstration in the post-war period in that country.

Today, "leaders" in the women's, Black, and union movements are urging their constituencies to vote for Mondale because he is the "lesser evil." They talk about the need to get into the "mainstream." Their "mainstreamism" requires that they shut their mouths, ears, and eyes to the crimes against the to preserve and extend our gains is by doing what the German working class committed daily by the two ruling parties. doing as they mobilize for a shorter workweek to control unemIf you are going to vote, make your vote count. Vote socialist. Vote for Socialist Workers Party presidential and vice presidential candidates Mel The labor unions, if they are to survive, must break with their policy of Mason and Andrea Gonzalez. Voting for the Democrats can only ensure that "lesser evilism" and build a party that unites Blacks, women, gays and lesbiDans, and all oppressed minorities with the organized working class in order to Have you ever been allowed to vote for massive low-cost housing; good medical care for every man, woman, and child; childcare and improved edu- The labor unions were once the allies of the poor and unemployed. They cation for every child who needs it—instead of the MX missiles or the billions were the social conscience of the nation. Today, they have the power to be that again, but only if the working class breaks with the policies of these "leaders"

Someone once said that if voting changed anything, it would be outlawed.

Very likely. But the way things are changed is not through the ballot but by massive actions on the part of the oppressed against their oppressors. That's the way we won public education, social security, unemployment insurance, Eugene Debs, Socialist Party candidate for president in 1920.

SOCIALIST ACTION JULY 1984 A5 they vote Democrat, they will remain homeless.

Republican support.

tries.

your vote won't count.

of dollars spent to prop up ruthless dictatorships. No!

..Mondale the voting age population. A New York Times survey found that 38 percent of those. voting for Reagan did so because "it was time for a change." Only 11 percent cited Reagan's conservatism as the explanation for their vote.

The fact is that fewer than half of those born since 1946 voted in the 1972, 1976, and 1980 presidential elections. Unable to translate their cynicism and indifference toward the "mainstream" politics of the two parties into a positive alternative-given the lack of an independent mass working-class party-the largest single category of the voting-age population has been consigned to the nether world of U.S. politics.

All salute profits The fact remains that no one in the Democratic or Republican Party offers any alternative to the bipartisan austerity program and military buildup of the Carter and Reagan administrations. There is a bipartisan consensus among all the candidates of the two parties that U.S. investments in Central America must be protected. All the candidates agree that maintaining "friendly" regimes in El Salvador, Guatemala, Chile, South Korea, etc. is a fundamental cornerstone of a "responsible" foreign policy.

All agree that "Soviet aggression" is the major threat to world peace. All agree, in other words, with the main elements of the Cold War policy that has led the United States to deploy its military forces over 215 times and its nuclear forces 33 times since World War Il, as a Brookings Institution report stated in 1977. And much has happened since 1977! Mondale accuses Hart of "pulling the plug" on U.S. aid to Central America. Hart attacks Reagan for weakening U.S. defenses by not building up conventional military weaponry. Jackson says we can hold back the "Iron curtain" by maintaining U.S. troops in Europe. And Reagan accuses everyone of being soft on communism!

The Democrats offer no alternative to "Reaganomics." They only quibble over where cutbacks should be made. When challenger Reagan ran against incumbent Carter he assailed the huge Democratic deficit. Now challenger Mondale harps over the huge Republican deficit. But Democrat and Republican favor pouring a never-ending stream of dollars into the largest contributor to the budget deficit—military expenditures. The fact is—all the candidates salute the flag of corporate profits.

None of the Democrats or Republicans even begin to address the deep social problems that confront working people. The United States, which once had the highest standard of living in the world (measured in per-capita Gross National Product), now ranks lith among the industrialized countries of the West and Japan. And Reagan's budget projections through 1988 show that per-capita real spending for lowincome families will decrease 22 percent while military spending will increase 63 percent.

According to 1982 government statistics, 34.4 million people live in poverty in this country. Thirteen million people remain out of work. The real median income, which increased year after year following World War II, is now 3.1 percent below its 1970 level.

Social Security disability 250,000 workers demand VUU the suffrage The way workers are ployment.

and forms its own labor party.

country.

have been terminated for over 350,000 people. The median Black family income remains 56 percent that of whites; about the same as the 1960 level. The poverty rate for Blacks under 18 is 43 percent. Women earn only 59 percent of what men earn. For Hispanic women the level is only 49 percent.

Health care costs are increasing more dramatically than any other component in the Consumer Price Index. The United States, which has no national health program, now ranks 20th in male life expectancy, 1lth in female life expectancy, and 22nd in infant mortality. The infant death rate in Washington, D.C., is higher than in Jamaica, Cuba, or Costa Rica.

Illiteracy is growing. One out of every five adults cannot read. Several hundred thousand homeless people are struggling to exist, while cities like Phoenix, Ariz., pass new laws making it a crime to scavenge through city garbage bins or to lie down or sleep on city property.

belongs demands bring this country under the control of working people.

Working people make this country run-working Vote Socialist-make your vote count!

only one out of five workers to a union. Unrelenting for concessions and straight35-hour week in Hagen, Germany, largest of Blacks and women, and our organized labor unions.

people out union busting are the theme of militant employers. The National Labor Relations Board admits that justified claims of unfair labor practices increased 250 percent between 1970 and 1980.

As a result, a litany of grievances, abuses, and suffering is piling up against the ruling rich of this country. The state of discontent, cynicism, and indifference that expresses itself negatively in the form of "voter apathy" can, at a later stage, translate itself into a new social movement for independent political action.

The strikes of hotel workers in Las Vegas, Nev., the AP Parts workers in Toledo, Ohio, the Greyhound workers, and the air traffic controllers are not only indicative of the anger and frustration developing among working people, but a harbinger of a new militancy that is sure to spread.

Today Mondale is making many of the same promises that Carter-Mondale made in the 1976 campaign. But the leaders of the AFL-CIO, NOW, and others in the Black, Hispanic, and antiwar movements, blinded by the logic of "lesser evil" politics, have forgotten the bad check delivered by the Carter-Mondale administration just a few years ago.

The chronic political amnesia that many of those jumping on the "Dump Reagan" bandwagon suffer from is born from the fact that they cannot see beyond the horizon of a society of private profit for the wealthy few. And in the absence of a mass independent working-class party that could offer a way out of the confines of capitalist politics, the leaders of the social movements see nowhere to go but around and around on the twin-party treadmill of capitalist politics.

What is needed is a new leadership committed to organizing a mass challenge to the austerity-war policies of the two parties, in the streets, on the job, and in the electoral arena. With such a leadership the potential power of working people could be genuinely mobilized toward the creation of a new society— one that considers human needs as the guiding principle of every social decision and action.