The mounting offensive against U.S. workers and the coming fightback

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AFL-CIO OFFORD Д CIT DE 9 "The right to a job, once onsidered a fact of life fo most people in capitalist America, is now taken for granted by no one."

SOCIALIST ACTION SEPTEMBER 1992 9 CIC VOS The following is an abridged version of of the labor movement section of Socialist Action's 1992 Political Resolution.

The complete resolution was approved by majority vote at the 5th National Convention of Socialist Action, held in San Francisco, Calif., July 30-Aug. 2, 1992.

The past decade has been marked by the continued decline of the standard of living of the American working class.

This is directly related to the world crisis of imperialism. There are no signs that there has been any reversal in this downward trend. To the contrary, it appears that the initially limited and measured attacks by the capitalist class, directed against the least organized sectors of workers, are today escalating and directed at the main bastions of the industrial working class.

The massive layoffs in the automobile industry, in rail, and elsewhere—already implemented, in addition to those contemplated in the next several years-can only have a ripple effect in all related production sectors.

Each day, reports of longterm layoffs and plant closures-amounting to hundreds of thousands of job losses—shock a working class that for the first time in decades has come to see job security as the number one priority in their lives.

Announced layoffs at General Motors, amounting to 74,000 in four years, and accompanied by the closing of 21 stillunidentified plants, are matched by similar figures in other industries.

The right to a job, once considered a fact of life for most people in capitalist America, is now taken for granted by no one.

As in the past, the effects of the continued decline of capitalism are felt most acutely by the most oppressed sectors, especially in the Black and Latino communities and among women. We fully expect these sectors to be in the forefront of the coming fightbacks.

For a time government bureaucrats and public agencies tried to camouflage, by statistical juggling, the extent of the layoffs and unemployment. But the reality could not be kept hidden for long, especially from those who were the victims.

Nationally syndicated columnist Carl T. Rowan summarized the predicament faced by those who fool around with the figures:

"How on earth," Rowan writes, "do 241,000 American jobs disappear in the month of October [1991] and still permit the Bureau of Labor Statistics to tell us last Friday that the unemployment rate for SOLARETY SAT 70 OPFORD DE FOSSE 90u6, LUE was unchanged at 6.8 percent?"

Rowan answers his own question succinctly: "Because the jobless rate was distorted by the fact that some 300,000 out-of-work Americans became so helpless in October that they stopped looking for jobs, and the government stopped counting them as among the jobless."

Rowan, who estimates the real unemployment rate at over 10 percent and who forcasts that "terrible misery lies ahead for millions of Americans," also factors into the picture the millions, not counted in the statistics, who work part time jobs at wages below the poverty line.

"More and more Americans," Carl T. Rowan concludes, "including Republicans and Bush supporters of every stripe, long ago looked at the unemployment lines, the welfare and food stamp rolls, the death of Pan Am, Eastern and Midway airlines this year, cutbacks at IBM and dozens of other corporations, and accepted a reality that Bush evades in his political desperation: America is going to hell without even a handbasket in terms of the economy."

Working more for less Even the real unemployment rate, well over 10 percent, masks another reality that has crept into the fabric of American life: Millions of Americans, previously employed at union wages, have been compelled to accept work at qualitatively reduced wage rates.

The two-tier wage system-which was originally designed to reduce the wages of a future generation—has now, a decade later, come home with a vengeance, as the current adult generation is now employed at second or third tier rates.

In addition, whole sectors of the working class, previously paid relatively high wage rates, find themselves now doing the same work as in the past-and often even Carl Finamore/Sockalist Action MUTILA ATOD MER A WIN more work—for less.

The cushioning effect of the two-income family, which yesterday allowed most workers to retain a standard of living roughly equivalent to their parents, has been eroded. And today's youth, even if they are able to find work, and even if they live in two-income households, cannot live as their parents did in terms of standard of living.

Over the past 20 years, the percentage of families with two incomes has increased from 41.5 percent to 58.1 percent.

The ratio of debt to income for the same families has increased in the same period from 61.8 percent to 80.2 percent, while the percentage of income paid for taxes has increased from 20.9 percent to 22.6 percent.

The percentage of income paid by "rich families" declined in the same period from 35.9 percent to 26.7 percent.

The estimated decline in real wages of 13 percent over the past 10 years, excluding inflation, is but one measure of the depth of the assault on the employed work force. The attacks on jobs and wages have been accompanied by drastic cuts in the social wage: healthcare, unemployment insurance, and other social benefits previously won in sometimes bitter social struggles.

Today's youth face the bleakest prospects in decades. School tuition hikes have significantly reduced access to higher education and job training. The cost of housing, not to mention the cost of everyday living, has escalated far beyond their capacity to pay. The dream of home ownership is gone, more often than not replaced by the reality of living, communal style, in crowded apartments at superinflated rents, or, at home for extended periods, with parents or relatives.

The decline of capitalism has brought with it the usual signs of terrible social disintegration.

Countless thousands of previously-employed workers are now among the homeless, literally cast onto the street with no hope. The vast cuts in health services have deeply affected millions.

The trillions spent on the federal war budget contrasts as never before with the inadequate sums spent on cures for diseases such as AIDS, cancer and heart disease.

And finally, the level of environmental destruction has reached dangerous proportions, at the work place and in society as a whole.

The combined effect of these attacks has deeply affected the consciousness of the working class. The degree of confidence in capitalism and in capitalist politics is at an all time low. Receptivity to socialist ideas should be on the rise in the months and years to come.

Rightward shift of ruling class Every opinion poll registers growing disillusionment with both the Democrats and the Republicans. The growing discontent at the work place, the increased questioning of government support to the capitalist plunder of public resources (continuing bailouts of the rich), and the contempt held for corporations whose claims of "poverty" are matched only by the astronomical salaries paid to top executives, all point to the increasing hostility of working people to the status quo.

Most important, fewer of today's workers believe that the current economic crisis is a temporary aberration, to be reversed with the election of a new president or with the implementation of a magical new economic policy.

They are beginning to realize that there are fundamental structural flaws in the U.S. economy, that will not be addressed by either the band-aid social measures advocated by liberal capitalists, or the conservatives' policy of continued gifts and tax breaks to the rich to supposedly "stimulate" the economy.

While we have seen a definite shift to the right in ruling class politics, we have not seen a significant corresponding shift in working class thinking and action.

The employers, as always, seek to place the blame for the inherent horrors of their system-including war, poverty, unemployment, racism and sexism-on the oppressed themselves. The maximization of profits requires the bosses to set one sector of the workers against another.

Ruling-class-promoted theories of racial and sexual inequality are designed to lower the wages of the most oppressed and, at the same time, to exert a downward pressure on wages of the working class as a whole.

The emergence of capitalist politicians like David Duke and Patrick Buchanan is an expression of a general shift to the right in ruling class circles.The Dukes and Buchanans today articulate in the most virulent forms the same ideas promoted with more sugar coating by the ruling class as a whole.

A central function of these extreme-right politicians is to appear as an "antiestablishment" force for change. Their more blatant anti-Black, anti-woman, anti(continued on page 10)

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It's been a long time: Over 500,000 trade unionists demonstrated in Washin day, Sept. 19, 1981. In the interim, government and employers have increas union, anti-gay, anti-lesbian, and antipoor; declarations are directed against the no-less reactionary Democratic Party "liberals."

Compared to Duke and Buchanan, the run-of-the-mill capitalist politicians look like liberals-even as they scamper, under this prodding, ever rightward. The ultra-right thunder thus serves to exert pressure from the ruling class to counter the growing anti-capitalist moods that are developing as a result of the deepening economic crisis.

Gulf War One year ago, many left political currents bemoaned what they considered to be a rightward shift in public opinion following the U.S.-led imperialist slaughter of the Iraqi people during the Gulf War.

We rejected this notion. During the months preceding "Desert Storm," we witnessed a degree of unity and confidence among the components of the antiwar movement unprecedented in decades.

The platforms of the movement and the composition of its mass actions revealed a generalized discontent with the conditions of life in capitalist America. The involvement of labor unions, including rank-and-file activists, the women's movement, oppressed nationalities and youth, in massive contingents in the streets, exceeded anything seen in the recent past. In a period of a few weeks, mass actions involving almost one million people developed.

Despite a jingoistic media at the service of the warmakers, literally every opinion poll conducted before the actual start of the war indicated majority opposition to U.S. intervention.

This was particularly noted in the Black community, where the most oppressed feared that that their children would again be among the first to be spent as cannon fodder in a racist war. Black-led protests in cities like Oakland, Calif., compelled school boards to discontinue their policy of turning over the names of recent graduates to local military recruiting centers.

Organizations in the Black community like the Nation of Islam spoke out forcefully against the Gulf War, with leading representatives in Chicago and Boston agreeing to speak at public meetings as supporters of the growing protests.

The antiwar movement developed in the face of a difficult tactical situation confronting its central leadership. Sadaam Hussein was seen by no one as a representative of the oppressed. His record of genocide against the Iraqi Kurds, against Iran when it was in opposition to imperialism, and against his internal opposition, was well known.

In spite of this, the vast majority knew full well that the U.S. government's aims were even more reactionary than that of the Iraqi capitalist goverment and had nothing whatever to do with support to the right of oppressed nations to self determination.

The "patriotic fervor" following the war's quick end was more an expression of relief that American youth would soon return home unharmed than an expression of support for the racist and genocidal war organized by U.S. imperialism. In addition, hardly anyone knew of the extent of the vast slaughter perpetrated by the virtually unchallenged combined forces of world imperialism.

A little more than one year later, this "patriotism," which we characterized as "a mile wide and an inch deep," has evaporated. President Bush himself has seen his popularity, as measured in the opinion polls, slump dramatically despite his occasional efforts to call up his role in the Gulf War to deflect the attacks he faces from all quarters for the faltering economy.

Trade union polls

The nationwide polls among trade unionists—initiated by the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers International Union (OCAW) together with the New Yorkbased Labor Institute-are indicative of current trends in working-class thinking.

These organizations have been associated with the educational efforts of Labor Party Advocates, an organization initiated by OCAW official Tony Mazzocchi. The surveys were conducted among OCAW locals, International Association of Machinists (IAM) locals, and several other locals of public employees, autoworkers, and construction trades workers. A number of OCAW and AFSCME full-time staff units were also surveyed separately.

Of the 15 locals surveyed, huge majorities indicated that health benefits, job Today, millions of workers, who carry the burden of heavy home mortgages and car payments—not to mention other debts, high rents, etc.—are well aware that they are not far from disaster should they lose their jobs.

Whole communities have been thrown into turmoil with the closing of "obsolete" plants, a fact of life that is becoming genralizea across tne country, as is th pectacle of literally thousands of workers waiting on endless lines to apply for handfuls of jobs. The increased level of consciousness resulting from this assault,

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1991 • WASHINGTON, D.C. fo