First, the U.S. desperately needs to develop new political parties. The current system is of course un-democratic and Congressional Republicans and Democrats cooperate to make sure it stays that way.
Second, union membership is nearing an all time low. Workers’ rights are constantly under attack. Corporations are now in more control of our country than they ever were before and our political leaders make sure that it stays that way. What is worse, our two pro-corporate parties conduct their deplorable agenda publicly and honestly for the entire world to see and the pro-corporate press calmly and unquestioningly repeats their agenda as if it were a matter of course.
Third, the Democrats have failed. They have discarded the interests of workers (if they were every really concerned with workers in the first place). Unless labor unions drop their support of the Democratic Party, workers will continue to lose the rights they fought for so long ago. The Democrats need a wake-up call in 2008.
Anyone who follows Newshog regularly will know I've been saying this for some time now. The latte-sipping Left and Right have proven time and again that they are not interested in the issues that really affect the working class - they simply want their votes and their money.
Nowhere has this been clearer than in the ideological drive of the Republican Party which "a movement that supports destroying the government, destroying the tax base and permitting corporations to do whatever they want regardless of social cost", although the Democrats follow along behind nicely:
The party often permits and even congratulates those within its ranks who sell out America's middle class, whether it be those who voted for the bankruptcy bill or those who consistently vote for corporate-written trade deals like CAFTA or NAFTA. The party elites--many of whom follow the corporate apologism of business-funded groups within its ranks--still believe they can ascend to power on the public's loyalty to a Democratic Party label, even as that party label is almost completely meaningless to much of the public.
A true and resurgent American Labor party would be the third party this nation needs to kick-start the democratic process again - increasing liberty and quality of life for everyone.
However, the unions and other vocal groups of the working-class have been reluctant to abandon the Democratic Party, though all they ever get are a few bones tossed to them by a party that is inextricably run by corporate money. The Democrats, as John Kerry proved, have become the "us too" left wing of the Republican Party on nearly every issue that affects working class Americans.
But Bush's re-election has spurred organizers to launch a new drive to establish a genuinely competitive Labor Party. They are working to get unions to form political alliances with like-minded local, state and regional groups to deal with issues that, as Dudzig says, "speak to the core concerns of all working people."
A government-administered national health insurance program is high among the priorities of Labor Party advocates. They also call for substantially increasing the minimum wage, for instance, shortening the standard workweek, raising the overtime pay rate, guaranteeing workers paid vacations and paid leaves to deal with urgent family matters and severance pay if they're laid off. They'd make it much easier for them to organize unions, strike and bargain, and give them a strong voice in the enforcement of job safety and health regulations.
Unions and their partners would run slates of candidates for city councils, state legislatures and Congress who would take "bold and unambiguous" positions on those and other issues independent of major party candidates and thus "present a clear picture of what politics would look like if it were conducted on behalf of the vast majority of Americans who work for a living."
And before you shake your head and claim that "socialism" doesn't work economically consider a couple of things. Firstly, the UK is run by a Labour Party that has successfully negotiated to improve life for the working class after decades of corporate conservatism with such success that the money-men on the trading floor prefer them to the conservative alternative.
Secondly, which do you prefer? That the economy grow and only the mega-rich benefit or that the economy grow fractionally more slowly and everyone sees the benefits in their own lives? For that, frankly, is the choice between corporate-run America and a sane system of free-market socialism, balancing positive and negative freedoms as currently practised in the UK and elsewhere.
Which makes more sense?
You may want to have a look at the following Newshog posts as background material:
Oh, and don't forget this guy: Bernie Sanders, for insight into what an American Labor Party would do for you.
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