The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
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    Don't look to Washington to offer up Economic Justice, but instead Stand Tall and Fight!

    By SleepinJeezus on Sun, 12/06/2009 - 2:12pm |
    Jim Sleeper's recent post ("A Republic If You Can Keep It") prompted a vigorous discussion comparing FDR and his New Deal to the actions (or lack thereof) of our present President in addressing this failed economy. This comment thread within the post took a particular look at the role of labor and the rabble and the peasants in triggering the New Deal while considering the relative lack of power these constituencies have today to initiate such a response to the agony experienced by American families. In asking your indulgence, I decided to extend this discussion to this separate blog post to expand upon the thoughts expressed within that thread.

    It cannot be reasonably argued that FDR instituted the New Deal solely out of some kind of beneficent concern for the working class who were suffering so extremely in the first throes of the Great Depression. And it is preposterous to expect Barack Obama will champion a recovery that focuses on alleviating the pain felt by the working class in today's "Great Recession" merely as a function of his supposed empathy and concern for our suffering.

    FDR in fact acted primarily out of fear that the social fabric of this country was about to be torn asunder as workers took to the streets in rallies and actions that threatened anarchy and insurrection if the injustices of the capitalist system that was so repressive at the time were not addressed. It can be expected that Obama will likewise be moved to action only when he and his capitalist owners come to realize that the cost of doing nothing exceeds the value of simply consolidating the gains that this recession has provided for the investor class.

    (Just as an aside on the latter point regarding capitalist gains, look at recent announcements that Harley Davidson workers in PA had to agree to major contract concessions to keep their jobs from moving to KY. Or Mercury Marine workers in WI having to take massive cuts in wages and benefits to keep their jobs from moving to OK. These are only a couple examples of ways in which this recession is manipulated to further increase the disparity of wealth between the investor and working classes, with many other examples to be found. Perhaps none is so transparent as the taxpayer underwriting bad mortgages, thus guaranteeing them for the banks, while the banks continue foreclosing on homeowners without any attempt to reorganize the terms of the mortgages to reasonable, yet still profitable, terms.)

    It is also preposterous to pretend that the answer to gaining economic justice and security rests in petitioning our politicians to "lead" us into the legislative promised land. The Halls of Congress are not where the power of the workers has ever resided, especially relative to the big money and the clout flourished by the capitalists and their agents on K Street. FDR, after all, did not act out of concern that he might not otherwise get the Wobblies endorsement for his next reelection campaign. The "politics" of the time, if you will, were instead much more visceral. There was a demand for justice that would not be denied, and there was hell to pay for whosoever might deign to stand in the way of the workers who had aptly defined the enemy - corporate capitalists - and who were willing to fight to gain their righteous place in this economy.

    The capitalists in control folded under the challenge they confronted from the workers in the '30's, and the result was a whole "alphabet soup" of programs called the New Deal that provided employment and security for the working class.

    But the capitalists took a few lessons from the experience as well, and the decades since have seen a concerted effort to castrate and marginalize the workers to ensure they never wielded such clout again. Union busting and globalization have been only two such efforts that have strengthened the capitalist position and have left workers standing hat-in-hand awaiting whatever largesse the Wall Street crowd deigns to offer. A concerted effort to demonize anything that empowers workers as "socialistic" has also been a major component of an active PR campaign to encourage workers and the middle class to in fact rally against their own economic interest.

    Irresponsible Globalization of this economy and the intense concentration of wealth in the investor class has led to near total marginalization of the workers. We are simply considered - if at all - as a function of the ledger to be managed for its cost impact on the corporate bottom line. As an example of just how crazy this kind of thought has progressed, consider the whole move toward "Rebalancing" as discussed recently at the G20 Summit in Pittsburgh.

    Rebalancing considers the fact that the U.S. worker/consumer has been pretty much exhausted; can no longer be depended upon to purchase the goods that the capitalists have to sell. Their answer? Abandon the U.S. market and develop China's consumer economy to keep this capitalist show on the road. This was most plainly - and quite horrifically - outlined by Zanny Minton Beddoes, economics editor for The Economist Magazine,in her appearance on NPR's On Point Radio program on the eve of the Pittsburgh Summit (begins @1:25, but the entire program is worth a listen):

    "For the recovery to be sustainable and as strong as possible, it has to be based on a different composition of spending in the world. Before the crisis, the U.S. consumer - the over-extended U.S. consumer - was the kind of source for demand for a large chunk of the rest of the world. Chinese exported to us.
    "Now, the U.S. consumer is not going to play that role in the future. There's been a huge loss of wealth in the country. People are not going to spend as they used to spend. So in order for the global economy to grow - even moderately - we have to find different sources of spending.
    "And that's what this 'rebalancing' means. It means rebalancing away from reliance upon the U.S. consumer toward, for example, greater reliance on China so Chinese spend more at home..."
    The Wobblies would recognize such a discussion to be the call to arms that it is to join the class warfare that has long been visited upon us by the Wall Street crowd. And it wouldn't be satisfied in a reliance upon elected pols in Washington to somehow lead us on a legislative battlefield. Civil insurrection and even anarchy would instead be the threat that these pols would confront, and they would be acting out of fear in correcting the balance of power within the economy, not out of some kind of magnanimity.

    No, Mother Jones and Joe Hill would not have been registered as lobbyists in Washington. And the revolution that is now required to gain economic justice will involve standing up in solidarity to say this will not stand. As it is, we now present little threat to the ownership class. And should there be any doubt of that, consider who it is Obama turned to when it became necessary to repair this economy. It wasn't the American worker out of consideration for the function we perform in building a thriving, sustainable economy. Instead, Obama turned the repair of this economy over to the Wall Street goons who got us into this mess in the first place. And their solution is more of the same, thus consolidating and even improving upon their ill-gotten gains while accelerating the decline of wealth and standing of the worker in this economy.

    "Workers of the World, Unite!" It is time to once again join forces with our neighbors and parlay our mutual pain and anxiety into a strong demand for social justice. We can no longer afford the luxury of hoping others in Washington or elsewhere will serve our interests. Instead, we must recognize that Class Warfare is indeed a reality, and the time has come to identify the enemy and take the fight to them.

    Justice will be served, but only if we insist upon it by mustering all the collective force we can to stand up to the wealth and the power accumulated by the other side.

    Which side are you on? Glory, Hallelujah!