- "I don't think you realize how hard it is for the
oppressed to become united. Their misery unites them () But otherwise
their misery is liable to cut them off from one another, for they are forced
to snatch the wretched crumbs from each other's mouth".
-
- Bertolt Brecht Collected Plays Vol. 9
-
- (Pantheon Books New York 1972) p. 379
-
-
- Introduction
-
- There are two uncontestable facts about the United
States: the economy and the working class are experiencing a prolonged
economic crisis which has lasted over three years and shows
no signs of ending; there has been no major revolt, mass national
resistance or even large scale protests of any consequence. Few writers
have attempted to address this seeming paradox and those who do, have provided
partial answers which in fact raise more questions than they answer.
-
- Lines of Inquiry
-
- Essentially most writers emphasize one of
the two sides of the "paradox". The 'crises' analysts focus
on the extent, duration and enduring nature of the economic breakdown,
outlining its harsh impact on the working and middle class in terms of
losses of employment, benefits, wages, mortgages etc. Others, mostly left
progressive, emphasize the local protests, critical responses registered
in opinion polls, occasional complaints of trade union bureaucrats and
the hopes and intimations of academics and pundits that a 'revolt' is on
its way some time in the near future.
-
- Among the minority of less sanguine critical
analysts, there is despair, or at least a more pessimist view of the 'paradox'.
They point to several deep-seated psychological, organizational and political
obstacles which prevent any revolt or mass unrest from taking hold among
the United States' public.
-
- On the whole these critics see the working
and middle class as 'victims' of the system, acted upon by false leaders,
media manipulation, corporate capitalism and the two party system which
prevent them from pursuing their class interests.
-
- In this essay, I will pursue an alternative
line of analysis which will argue that the "external enemies"
blocking working and middle class resistance are aided and abetted by the
behavior and perceived interest within the classes. In pursuit
of this line of inquiry, I will argue that both the nature and scope of
'the crises' has been misunderstood in its impact on the working and middle
class and as a consequence the degree of internal contradictions within
those classes has not been adequately understood.
-
- Key Concepts: Clarifying 'Crises' and its Impact
-
- Economic crises, even severe, prolonged ones,
such as is affecting the US today, do not have a uniform impact
on all sectors of the working and middle class. The uneven impact
has segmented the working and middle class, between those who
are adversely affected and those not, or who in certain circumstances have
benefited. This segmentation is one key factor accounting for the lack
of class solidarity and has resulted in 'contradictions' within and between
the working and middle class.
-
- Secondly the uneven development of social
organization especially trade unionization between public and
private sector workers, has led to the former securing and retaining
greater social benefits and increases and wages, while the former has lost
ground. The public sector workers draw on public financing to
fund their 'corporate interests' while private sector workers are forced
to pay increased taxes, because of regressive fiscal legislation. The
result is an apparent or real conflict of interest between well-organized
public workers organized around a narrow set of (self) interests and the
mass of unorganized private sector workers who, unable to increase their
wages via class struggle, side with "fiscal conservatives" (funded
by big business) to demand cutbacks from public sector workers.
-
- Political
partisanship, especially among middle and working class Democrats, undercuts
class solidarity and weakens unified social resistance. This is evident
in relation to issues of war and peace, the economic crises and cutbacks
in social programs. When the Democrats hold office, as they do today ad
the wars and war spending multiply, the bulk of the peace movement has
disappeared, labor protests against budget cutbacks focus on Republican
governors, not Democrats, even as the working and middle class (including
public sector employees) are adversely affected.
-
- The millionaire top trade union officials
(average annual salary over $300,000 plus perks) further the division by
prioritizing the security of their position via million dollar
contributions to the Democrats, thus buying insurance on income flows from
dues payments. Security of officialdom via alignment with Party legislators
and governors, mayors and executive leaders contributes to a further division
within the working class between 'secure functionaries' and their followers
on the one hand, and the rest of the middle and working class.
-
- Operating with these key concepts we will
now turn to describing the 'objective conditions of crises', a critical
survey of some explanations for the 'paradox', and follow with a detailed
examination of the 'internal contradictions' and conclude by outlining
some points of departure for resolving the paradox.
-
- Economic Crisis is Real, Deep and Sustained
-
- The symptoms and structures of a deep economic
crisis are readily visible to any but the most obtuse government apologist
or prestigious economist: un- and under-employment has reached between
18 to 20 percent. One out of three US families are directly affected by
loss of employment. One out of ten American family homeowners are either
behind in the mortgage payments or face foreclosure. Over half of the
current unemployed (9.1 percent) have been out of work at least six months.
Massive cutbacks in public expenditures and investments have led to the
end of health, educational and welfare programs for tens of millions of
low income families, children, the disabled, the elderly pensioners. Private
firms have eliminated or reduced payments for health insurance, leaving
over 50 million working Americans without health insurance and another
30 million with inadequate medical coverage. Tax exemptions, reduced and
regressive taxation have increased tax payments by wage and salaried workers,
reducing their net income. Increases in pension and health payments forced
on middle and working class employees have further reduced net income.
Increased spending for at least four wars (Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan,
Libya) preparation for a fifth (Iran) and support for the world's most
militarist state (Israel) and a greatly expanded and costly domestic police
state apparatus (Homeland Security alone costs $180 billion) has greatly
deteriorated environmental, workplace and leisure space living standards.
-
- Corporate political power and absolute tyrannical
control over the workplace has increased fear, insecurity and virtual terror
among employees facing increased speed-ups and arbitrary elimination of
any say in health and workplace safety, work schedules, over and under
time workloads. Low pay service jobs proliferate, high pay jobs are
outsourced out of the country; manufacturing plants are relocated abroad;
lower paid immigrant professionals and laborers are imported increasing
pressure on US workers to compete for lower pay and lesser benefits. The
'economic crises' is embedded in the deep structure of US capitalism and
is not a 'cyclical phenomenon' subject to a dynamic recovery, restoring
lost jobs, homes, living standards and working conditions.
-
- Middle and Working Class Responses to the Economic Crises
-
- The profound, deep seated and pervasive economic
crises has not elicited any commensurate revolts,rebellion or
even sustained national protest movement. At best local protests
by specific segments of the working and middle class have sought
to defend narrow organizational and economic interests. The
public employees inWisconsin's protest movement were as exceptional in
its militancy as it was isolated and limited in its overall national impact.
As California Republican and New York Democratic governors eliminate
tens of billions of dollars in wages, pension and health benefits for hundreds
of thousands of unionized public employees, union officials squawk impotently
on the sidelines, incapable of mounting any serious protests let alone
popular movements. Though public opinion polls register high levels of
individual concern about the economic crises and dissatisfaction with both
political parties the response to the crises has not led to practical activity,
nor has any mass 'movement'' emerged it remains private inconsequential discontent.
-
- As much as millions of middle and working
classes are deeply preoccupied with the ongoing economic crises there are
no significant social or political repercussions past, present or in the
foreseeable future.
-
- All the inflated hopes and 'ominous prognostications'
by liberals and leftists, socialists and progressives, who wrote and predicted
a coming 'revolt of the masses' have been flat wrong. The crisis continues
and the highly dissatisfied middle and working class remain privately suffering,
muttering their grievances in isolation, unwilling to engage in any mass
collective action.
-
- Even as the mass media, even as the internet, Facebook and Tweeter, present
millions demonstrating and striking and even toppling oppressive regimes
in the Middle East and North Africa; even as news reports filter out of
repeated general strikes and mass occupations of public plazas by employees
and workers and unemployed in Greece, Spain, Portugal, Italy and France,
the United States workers stand numb, indifferent and impotent to 'learn
the lessons' and 'take collective action' even where the issues of employment
and cutbacks are similar.
-
- Explanations for Social Immobility in the Face of the
Economic Crises
-
- There is no lack of 'recognition' that 'something
is wrong' in these United States. There is no lack of pundits attempting
to grapple with the paradox of economic crises and social immobility.
-
- Several explanatory forays are floating through
the media and the internet. Some writers resort to psychological explanations
of social passivity pointing to widespread 'fear' of employer retaliation,
state repression, or a sense of 'futility' in the face of political party
indifference and hostility. The psychological arguments have some merit
as they point to some of the immediate causes of non-involvement
but fail to explain what causes 'fear' and futility.
-
- In response many critical progressive cite
the absence or weakness of social organizations in particular
they point to the decline of trade union organizations, leaving
93 percent of the private sector unorganized and the state sector unionized
workers with limited bargaining powers. While these critics are right to
emphasize the unwillingness of millionaire trade union officials to break
new political ground and initiate new organizing efforts, one needs to
explain why the unorganized middle and working class have not themselves
launched any new initiatives? Union officials have a long history of "give
backs" going back at least two decades and yet those who are directly
adversely affected and those who have lost their jobs have not organized
an alternative network of solidarity.
-
- Political analysts emphasize the oligarchic and restrictive nature
of the electoral system as pre-empting the emergence of new political initiatives.
The multi-million dollar cost of running for office, the near monopoly
dominance of the mass media by the corporate two-party elite and the legal
obstacle to securing a place on the ballot, discourage disenchanted voters
from supporting new political party initiatives. But the deeper question
is why mass movements, outside of the party-electoral framework,
have not emerged that might eventually challenge the political oligarchy,
the corporate monopoly of media and change the legal constraints on effective
entry into the electoral arena. Why do mass movements emerge in other
even more repressive countries, facing similar constraints on legal access
and confronted by entrenched oligarchies?
-
- If similar 'external constraints' as
those found in the US led to divergent behavioral responses,
it raises the question of whether the differences within the
middle and working class can be the source of passivity and immobility?
-
- A few writers, principally on the Left, cite
the divorce or distance between intellectuals/academics
and the downwardly mobile middle and working class. In the United
States there are few intellectuals politically engaged writers
and political lecturers.
-
- What passes for the educated classes, are
full-time professional academics who differ little in their social and
everyday life, regardless of their stated ideological philosophies. The
vast majority of leftist academics conceive of their 'activism' as reading
papers to each other at 'left' or 'social forums', which differ little
in format and consequences from mainstream professional meetings.
-
- Even those left academics who take a political role,
it is mostly in relation with the multi-millionaire senior trade union
officials and their loyalist apparatus. As a result the progressive academics
have ended up with little entrée into the vast majority of workers
who are outside of the trade unions and those dissident union factions
challenging the trade union Democratic Party corporate nexus.
-
- An Alternate Explanation for the 'Paradox'
-
- One of the key problems inhibiting an understanding
of the paradox is the treatment of the key concept "crises".
Many writers conceive of the 'crises' in a 'holistic' way, presuming what
is 'general' or 'systemic' has a homogenous effect on the middle and working
class. In fact the vast majority, say three-quarters have not beenseriously impacted
by the "crises". Assuming that the unemployed and under-employed
comprise about twenty percent and adding those who have suffered serious
downward mobility, we still have at least 70 percent whose main preoccupation
is to retain their 'privileged' position and to disengage from
those who have fallen out of their class-social orbit. In the US,
more than any other country, the sharp internal differences, between employed
and un-underemployed, has led to 'competition' not solidarity. In most
countries of the world 'unemployed' and underemployed workers can expect
backing, active support from unionized workers; in the US once middle class
employees and workers lose their job and cannot pay dues they are dropped.
Even in terms of social, family and neighborhood life, they are seen as
a 'cost', a potential drain on the resources of those who are employed.
The employed see the unemployed and poorly paid as a welfare cost , hence
an added tax burden instead of as an ally in a struggle to make the corporate
elite pay higher taxes and reduce war spending. Among employed workers
higher taxes, means capital flight; lesser military expenditures mean few
war industry jobs.
-
- Segmentation within
the middle and working class operates at many levels. The most striking
is between the pay scale of top union officials which runs over $300,000
plus perks and the unemployed/underemployed living on less than $30,000.
These economic differences are played out politically and socially. The
trade union apparatus buys 'job security' by contributing tens of millions
to mostly Democrats, to ensure that unions retain their formal legality
and collective bargaining rights. In other words the 'organized' unions,
all of 12% of the labor force, is a 'captive force' of the 'crises ridden'
state, which excludes any new socio-political initiatives which would reflect
the demands and interest of the under-unemployed and low paid non-unionized
workers.
-
- Middle and working class are differentially, impacted by
the crises: those with jobs and ties to the Democratic Party place their
partisan loyalties above any notion of class solidarity. Job holders don't
support the jobless they see them as competitors over a
shrinking income pie.
-
- If we examine these two groups in detail
we find that the poorly paid and un and underemployed tend to be young
people under 30 years, blacks, Hispanics and single parents; the better
paid employed middle and working class tend to be older, white educated
and of Anglo-Jewish background. The generational, racial, ethnic divisions
play a far bigger role in the US than anywhere else, because
of the obliteration of class identity and outlooks, which has diluted any
notion of class solidarity.
-
- The segmentation of the middle and working
class is deepened in the US because those with stable employment
in many cases benefit from the adverse consequences affecting
downwardly mobile (unemployed) employees and workers.
-
- Mortgage foreclosures affect over 10 million
American families unable to meet their payments. Banks eager to recover
some part of their loan, offer to sell houses at sharply reduced prices.
Employed middle and working class home buyers are elated to purchase homes,
even as their class members are evicted to the street or trailer camp.
There is no movement to block or protest evictions from neighbors, workmates
and/or relatives; instead discreet inquiries are made about the auction
date.
-
- Better paid workers look to secure cheaper
consumer goods in super-stores that employ minimum wage workers. The 'interests'
of workers are defined by immediate individual-consumer interests
not in terms of the improvement of strategic interests resulting from the
potential social and political power of an organized class.
-
- Employed middle and working class homeowners
see themselves as 'tax payers' allied with corporate and real estate moguls
fighting to lower taxes by cutting welfare and social services for the
low paid working class and unemployed. The growth of upper and middle/working
class tax revolts against the welfare state is in effect a war
of one segment of the class against another. Clearly one segment fights
to grab the crumbs from the mouth of another segment.
-
- Even among the organized working class, there
is segmentation. Pockets of better paid unionized public sector workers
secured pay raises and pension and health plans via collective struggle, ignoring the
interests, demands and needs of the sea of non-unionized workers, who were
in the process of downward mobility while paying higher taxes. Hence their
socio-economic differences were politicized and exploited by the Right
and the public-private sectors of the middle and working class competed
over the crumbs of a shrinking budget.
-
- As public facilities for health and education
declined, the middle and working class divided between those who turned
to private clinics and schools and those who remained dependent on public
facilities, based on state expenditures. Those segments tied to the 'private'
rejected taxes to fund the 'public'; undercutting any classsolidarity to
improve the financing and quality of public health and education.
-
- Conclusion
-
- It is clear that the crisis of capitalism
has evoked contradictory responses among different segments of the middle
and working class based on its differential impact. Pre-existing non-class
identities, internal economic division between leaders and followers and
generational divisions and party partisan loyalties have undermined class
solidarity and led to inconsequential complaints and diffuse
hostility.
-
- Competition- not solidarity- within and among
the middle and working class is the reason for the profoundimmobility
of Americans in the face of a prolonged and deepening economic crises.
-
- That is now and in the past. Are there any
prospects for a different future? Is there any possibility foruniting middle
and working class segments in any sustained struggle? Are there alternative
roads to class solidarity and popular mobilizations?
-
- The most promising direction is to start at
the local and regional level and involve local community organizations
and dissident rank and file trade unions and progressive professionals
(lawyer, doctors, etc.) in struggles, which resonate with the most adversely
affected groups facing unemployment, foreclosures, no health plans, etc.
All polls show a deep divergence between the vast majority of Americans
and the political elite of both parties on issues of bank bailouts, tax
exemptions for the rich, "reforms" (privatizations and cut backs),
Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. Divergences exist over the loss
of life and expenditures in America's multiple and longest wars (Afghanistan).
Referendums proposing (1) to end the cap on social security taxes for
the rich would end the so-called "social security crises". (2)
A sales tax on financial transactions would fund the Medicare deficit.
Public investments in our deteriorating infrastructure based on the transfer
of war funds ($790 billion) would create jobs, increase demand in the domestic
economy and augment the productivity and competitiveness of the USeconomy.
Support for public health is an issue that unites most segments of the
middle and working class, unionized health workers and community organizations
in a potential confrontation with Big Pharma and the private
corporate health industries.
-
- A higher minimum wage starting at $12
an hour could mobilize most middle and working class segments, and
initiatives at the local level could bring in the immigrant and domestic
low paid workers.
-
- The interview data demonstrate that most
Americans have apparently 'contradictory' attitudes: supporting progressive
and regressive policies. For example many support Medicare and 'small government';
federal job creation and deficit reduction; import tariffs and cheap consumer
imports. An comprehensive activist political educational program, that
demonstrates that progressive social reforms are feasible and fundable,
based on a sustained fiscal struggle against corporate and financial capital,
can be converted into organization and direct action. We start with an
objective reality, demonstrating that the sustained crisis of capitalism
does not and cannot deliver the most elementary demands: jobs, housing,
security, peace and growth. That is a big advantage over the advocates
of the system who argue for prolonged and deeper regressive measures for
the foreseeable future.
-
- Secondly, we start with the advantage of
knowing that the country has the potential wealth, skills and resources
to overcome the crises. Thirdly, we can argue from relatively successful
popular programs which have vast support social security, Medicare,
Medicaid as 'examples' to extend and deepen social coverage.
-
- For most Americans, the fight today, to the
extent that it exists is defensive efforts to preserve the last vestiges
of independent organization, to defend social security, health programs,
affordable public education, pensions. The corporate offensive is increasingly
'homogenizing' the organized middle and working class with the lowest paid
unorganized segments. There are fewer 'privileged workers' even as they
are still in self-denial.
-
- The near extinction of private sector unionism
and the moribund millionaire leadership provides an opportunity to start
anew with a horizontal leadership, accountable to the membership and integrated
with community based co-op, ecologist, immigrant, consumer based organizations.
What is absolutely clear is that 'crises' alone will not result in any
mass upheaval; nor do 'enlightened' progressive academics holed up in their
micro-world offer any leadership.
-
- The road forward starts with local leaders
emerging from local coalitions, building organizations on the bases of
independent political and social initiatives which resonate with their
neighbors, fellow workers and the organized and unorganized downwardly
mobile Americans. I see no easy or quick solutions to the 'paradox' but
I do see the objective conditions, for building a movement. I hear a multitude
of angry and discordant voices. Above all, I hope the oppressed will stop
"snatching the crumbs from each other".
|
