Sign of the times?
1992 1992-01Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 5 →
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Fifty thousand angry unlon construction workers took to the streets In New York City on Dec. 19, to demand jobs. in a spirited rally on the steps of City Hall, union lead ers demanded the city increase spending on constructlon projects-some of which have already been approved but are stalled in the city's bureaucratic pipeline. It Is estimated that over half of New York City construction workers are unemployed.
Although the demonstration was sponsored jointly by contractors and the union (employers and employees), the marching hard hats stamped the demonstration with a militant spirit. Organized on short notice, the action showed how quickly workers can SOCIALIST ACTION JANUARY 1992 5 the celebrations of the 1941 Pearl Harbor attack reflected this. Bush's refusal to apologize for the atom bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, one of the greatest crimes against humanity in that war, has significance for the future in that it is a threat to use atomic weapons again in certain situations.
The Democrats add their two-cents worth by claiming that the recession is not the result of the workings of the capitalist system, but that it is "made in Japan."
For all the capitalist nations of the "Third World" this increased competition spells greater exploitation and misery. The 1980s saw these countries bearing the brunt of the developing world capitalist crisis with increasing poverty, hunger, and disease as a result.
The crisis at home In the United States during the 1980s, there was an overall expansion-but it was based in part on speculation and borrowing, and not on new productive investment. The government racked up huge deficits to finance trillions of dollars-worth of military spending. While taxes weren't raised to cover this enormous expense, inflation was avoided by borrowing the difference from the rich of the world.
This debt is not of little consequence, as the neo-Keynesians assert. Paying it back, as well as the new debt that keeps accumulating, means that there is increasing pressure on the capitalist class to cut back on the social wages of working peopleincluding unemployment payments, social security, medical costs, and welfare.
As a result, we see capitalist demagogy-and not only by the likes of David Duke-seeking to turn working people against each other by blaming Blacks, organize a mass action. HAVE
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an international economic order that places