NOV. 20, 2009:NWLP
11/17/09
9:47 AM
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The United States and WTO — the ‘American Nightmare’
By BRUCE DENNIS
When this country was founded, it
was based on democracy, freedom, and
an opportunity to live what eventually
became known as “the American
Dream.” The direction that our elected
leaders have taken us in the last few
decades goes away from democracy in
favor of corporate domination with the
ultimate goal of profit maximization at
any cost.
The gap between the rich and the
middle class is widening and eventu-
ally will lead to just two classes — the
rich and the poor.
If we don’t do something soon, the
American Dream could become the
“American Nightmare.”
A majority of our politicians have
told us for years that unfettered, unreg-
ulated free trade with all countries in
the world is good for us and we should
embrace it.
Let me tell you, the only thing free
trade is good for is corporations. After
all, they can get goods made far
cheaper and, in turn, increase their
profits immensely.
But what about the working families
in this country? What about workers
elsewhere? Are they just another com-
modity that can be bought and sold to
the highest bidder? Some people think
so. Sounds a little like slavery, doesn’t
it?
It appears that in order to survive,
workers in the United States must learn
to accept less and less.
After all, the United States is affili-
ated with the World Trade Organiza-
tion, and the WTO is giving us direc-
tion on how to operate.
We might as well start by renaming
our country the “United Corporations
of America.” Within the “United Cor-
porations of America” we could elimi-
nate the right of citizens to vote for
their senators and representatives; just
take the top 100 corporations and give
them each a senatorial seat. At least
then, for example, the senator from In-
tel would actually have to make a good,
common-sense argument to convince
say, the senator from Nike, about the
benefits of a proposed bill.
Within this two-class society, only
the rich would need education. They
can pay for it themselves. Public edu-
cation could be eliminated in favor of
reinstating child labor. After all, we
need to remain competitive with the
Third World.
We should also prepare to reenact
some sort of federal system of slavery
in order to remain competitive with
Third World dictatorial countries that,
in essence, have not outlawed slavery.
The Department of Environmental
Quality might as well be eliminated.
How can we expect U.S. corporations
to compete with foreign corporations
with our burdensome environmental
laws? Environmental regulations just
cut into profits.
U.S. social service will need to be
downsized severely, possibly elimi-
nated. Workers in Third World coun-
tries have low or no medical or retire-
ment benefits — certainly not
state-sponsored welfare. In Third
World countries, if you get sick and
have no money to get medical help,
tough it out — or die. And retirement?
In those countries you work as long as
you are able and then move in with
your children.
I hope I am wrong about the “night-
mare,” and we are able to resurrect the
“American Dream,” but I am disgusted
when I read that trade ministers from
the WTO are telling our government
what it can and cannot do. It’s like our
corporate senators and representatives
have ceded the power to govern our
country to others. We aren’t even a sov-
ereign nation anymore.
Corporations have way too much in-
fluence in our political system. Corpo-
rate interests contribute to too many po-
litical campaigns, and when a vote in
Congress is taken it is not based on
what is good for average taxpaying cit-
izens, but rather on what is best for cor-
porate interests.
Meaningful campaign finance re-
form is needed to get our country
headed back in the right direction.
I believe we should limit the length
of political campaigns, equalize finan-
cial resources and devise a non-parti-
san primary and general election sys-
tem that insures a democratic majority
for those who are victorious. We may
also want to limit the amount spent on
campaigns, restrict party financing, and
ban negative campaigning and elimi-
nate paid lobbyists. If we don’t enact
meaningful campaign finance reform,
I do not see how conditions will im-
prove for the middle class. We will
continue the race to the bottom and
eventually become a Third World coun-
try that will require a massive upheaval
or a revolution to avoid the “American
Nightmare.”
When I was growing up, every time
I questioned my parents about a deci-
sion involving education or career
Open
Forum
choices, they would indicate that they
just wanted me to “have it better than
they did.” Unfortunately, we are head-
ing in a direction where I might have to
tell my children or grandchildren, “I
just hope the wheels don’t come off this
wagon too soon.”
That’s not the kind of legacy that I
am interested in handing to my descen-
dents.
As we approach the 10-year an-
niversary of “The Battle in Seattle,”
where 50,000 protesters, including my-
self and a delegation from my local
union, rallied against profiteering WTO
policies, we need to stay focused on
what is best for our nation — a healthy,
working, vibrant and hopeful middle
class.
People worldwide will rally against
the WTO. Be part of the solution and
participate.
(Editor’s Note: Bruce Dennis is a
35-year member of Portland Carpen-
ters Local 247 and past president of the
Pacific Northwest Regional Council of
Carpenters.)
Health insurance reform: Same song, different verse
By JERRY MORRIS
Recently, the Oregon Alliance for
Retired Americans sponsored a meet-
ing entitled “What’s Happening in
Health Care Reform,” featuring speak-
ers from Oregon Center for Public Pol-
icy and Oregon Health Action Cam-
paign.
I’d like to briefly address the same
topic, but purely from the standpoint of
politics. Let me suggest at the outset
that, politically speaking, most work-
ing people do not usually act in their
own best economic interests. For ex-
ample, if most workers voted accord-
ing to their economic situation, they
would not be saddled with political
leaders who principally serve interests
of the corporate and financial elite.
And, retirees would not be faced with
“donut holes” in Medicare, attempts to
privatize Social Security, or other polit-
ical shenanigans that threaten their re-
tirement security.
Let me further suggest that the prin-
cipal means by which working people
are diverted from their own interests is
an old and often-repeated political
game. In brief, those who politically
serve wealthy and corporate interests
know they must “divide and con-
queror” — they must raise issues
which fragment and divert working
people from pursuing their common
economic interests. This is done by in-
jecting issues that divide workers ac-
cording to “life style,” or cultural dif-
NOVEMBER 20, 2009
ferences. Thus, workers who occupy a
similar economic situation, or “class,”
and therefore have similar economic
interests, may be politically fragmented
by cultural issues which emphasize dif-
ferences in beliefs or customs.
These “wedge” issues play off cul-
tural differences based in ethnicity-
race, religion, regionalism-nationalism,
gender, sexual orientation, age-genera-
tion, recreational/leisure group, and
other status groups.
During the formative period of na-
tional unions in the United States, the
late 1800s and early 1900s, employers
often responded to organizing cam-
paigns or strikes by importing strike-
breakers who were African-American,
Italian-American, Irish-American, or
any of many other groups. Thus, differ-
ences in race/ethnicity, national origin,
language, religion, and so forth, were
used to disrupt unionization and to set
worker against worker.
In fact, Henry Ford used this tactic
in an effort to hold back unionism in his
auto assembly plants. From a union
standpoint, the problem was perhaps
less severe during the organization of
the skilled crafts. This may have been
due, in part, to the fact that members of
a local craft union were often from the
same ethnic group. However, it was a
big problem in the organization of mass
industries. And, during the early days
of unionization, it was a problem in any
semi-skilled or unskilled workplace
where immigrants or other outsiders
could easily replace an existing work-
force.
Particularly since the mid-20th Cen-
tury, many conservative politicians
campaigned for election — or reelec-
tion — by using racial/ethnic (“Willie
Horton”), religious (school prayer,
school vouchers, anti-abortion), re-
gionalism/nationalism (anti- Eastern
Elite, anti-immigrant), gender (Hillary
was “too shrill”), sexual orientation
(anti-gay marriage, anti-gay adoption),
age/generation (Social Security costs
will burden the younger generation),
recreational /leisure group (gun owner-
ship/use), and other cultural issues to
divert and divide those whose eco-
nomic interests they did not represent.
They did this while serving the eco-
nomic interests of the corporate and fi-
nancial elite. Is this not the basis of the
famous “Southern Strategy” adopted
and used successfully by Richard
Nixon and numerous other politicians?
They played on the fears and the sense
of loss of white workingmen by means
of various subtle, and not so subtle,
race-based political messages.
Through the use of symbols, innu-
endo, and sly phrases, they sent a mes-
sage that they would defend white
working people from the encroach-
ments of African-Americans and other
“undesirables” who are “not like us.”
Of course, they did not promise to de-
fend them from the ravages of the ra-
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
pacious corporate elite.
It should come as no surprise that
now, in the early 21st Century, conser-
vative opponents of health care reform
are using the same playbook. They are
attempting to divide and divert work-
ing people from their shared interests
in federal legislation to establish a sys-
tem of universal health care that puts
individual health ahead of corporate
profits. Thus, we hear a number of
ominous warnings — exploiting the
cultural differences that cut across and
divide workers’ shared economic inter-
ests.
“Illegal immigrants will be flooding
the country to seek health care.” “Our
tax dollars will go to finance abor-
tions.” “Death panels will be talking
with grandma about how and when to
die.” “Amoral individuals will be get-
ting sex-change operations on the tax-
payer dollar.” “‘Obamacare’ will bring
in Nazi, communist, socialist — i.e.
foreign, not like us — ways of doing
things.” “National health care will en-
courage (poor, minority) people to be
morally irresponsible, and (unlike us)
not take care of themselves.” “Our
country is being taken away from us
(by those who are not like us.)”
Actually, what’s really happening in
health care reform is the same old op-
ponents of worker prosperity are using
the same old strategy in an attempt to
divide and conquer, to divert working
people from their common interests,
and to allow huge corporations and fi-
nancial interests to continue making
enormous profits from health care.
They do this because they can’t win on
the basis of economic merits.
For workers and retirees, the chal-
lenge is to stay focused and not be dis-
tracted from meaningful reform by this
diversionary strategy.
(Jerry Morris is president of the
Oregon Alliance for Retired Ameri-
cans. Before retiring he was national
legislative director for the American
Federation of Teachers in Washington,
D.C.)
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