I can’t help myself once i
I can’t help myself once i get started. So Chomsky insists that voting Democrat is the better option for the American worker aned is prepared to ignore, or should i say, over-look, Obama’s pro-business, and consequently, anti-union, bias. Recent actions of the Obama administration seem to support low wages are the answer to globalization and runaway shops (ie out-sourcing). General Electric, a company President Obama called a “model for America” because it had returned some work to its U.S. factories.Obama is committed to GE’s wage-slashing approach to revive manufacturing, calling it “insourcing” regardless that it is squeezing its workers, cutting pensions, wages and benefits. In January’s State of the Union speech, Obama highlighted a consultants’ study that said low wages, weak unions, and high productivity will soon make Southern U.S. states competitive with China. He argued that companies that bring manufacturing jobs back onshore—even if barely above minimum wage—deserve new tax incentives. http://www.alternet.org/labor/154990/50_percent_pay_cuts_at_ge%27s_plants%3A_is_this_the_future_of_american_jobs_/?page=1 And socialists are expected to vote for him as the lesser evil !! I have taken the liberty of quoting a few articles that in my opinion should be our approach which is to expose Obama and to oppose those on the Left an inside the union movement who become de facto apologists for Obama which i think Chomsky regardless of all his other valued insights and criticisms has been guilty of being. He is failing to build or give support to those who wish a re-allignment of labour and politics. And what i argue is not nuetrality or passive apathy but we should be urging our fellow workers to take the leaf out of the book of those GE workers who are organising themselves without the President voicing support or encouragement to theie employers efforts to undemine it.http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/12674/ge_workers_vote_in_union_for_first_time_in_ten_years/The Los Angeles Times reported that labor leaders are talking about “shifting” their tactics by spending less on politics and more on movement-building. The Times reports that the Amalgamated Transit Union, which represents some 190,000 transit workers in the U.S. and Canada, “has shifted ‘the culture of [the] union from…political activity to broader coalition building,’ ” ” Clearly, more rank-and-file involvement is needed to both challenge union officials and undercut misconceptions on the left about the labor movement. Ultimately, real union power is not displayed by workers canvassing for Democrats. It’s exercised by workers on the job, like the 70 UE factory workers who again occupied their workplace last month and won their demands to keep the plant open while they find a new buyer, or perhaps run the factory themselves. Or the nearly 500 Seattle port truck drivers who went on strike for two weeks in February in protest against abuse and deregulation that has prevented them from organizing with the Teamsters. Or the teachers in New York City and Chicago who, along with Occupy protesters, have led fiery demonstrations against budget cuts and school closures. “…Two years ago, Randi Weingarten, president of the 1.5 million-member American Federation of Teachers (AFT), lashed out at President Obama who she said was part of the “blame the teacher crowd” of education reform. “I never thought I’d see a Democratic president, whom we helped elect, and his education secretary applaud the mass firing of 89 teachers and staff,” she said – referring to the firing of all teachers at Central Falls High School in Rhode Island earlier that year. Last month, the AFT executive council unanimously voted to endorse Obama for reelection. Last year, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka criticized Obama for aligning with the right and cutting social programs. “If they [Obama administration] don’t have a jobs program, I think we’d better use our money doing other things,” the leader of the nation’s largest union federation said, threatening to withhold labor’s support for Obama. Less than two months later, Trumka told reporters that the AFL-CIO would most likely endorse the reelection campaign, saying, “President Obama has been a friend for us.” The AFL-CIO’s executive board unanimously voted to endorse Obama. Last month, Last year, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka criticized Obama for aligning with the right and cutting social programs. The reason for the turn-arounds – the lesser evil. “Notwithstanding all our disappointment with the Obama presidency, it’s clear that the clowns on the Republican side would be devastating to working people,” a Communication Workers of America (CWA) official told In These Times last month. “But we’re anticipating a tougher challenge motivating people because there is a lot of disappointment and letdown,” he admitted.That’s probably because workers are hard-pressed to imagine what could be more “devastating to working people” than what they’ve seen in the last year alone. Workers have faced the erosion of collective bargaining rights, the first state in the Midwest passing “Right to Work” legislation, an FAA reauthorization bill signed by Obama that makes it more difficult for airline workers to organize, plans for massive layoffs of postal workers nationwide, and ramped-up attacks on public education.And that’s by no means an exhaustive list of the recent blows suffered by the labor movement. Both Republicans and Democrats have been ratcheting up the war against unions, a fact that is making it increasingly difficult for union leaders to justify their support for Obama to their rank-and-file members. In addition to the AFT and AFL-CIO, major unions that have declared their endorsement for Obama’s reelection include SEIU, AFSCME, Laborers’ International Union (LIUNA), United Food and Commercial Workers, CWA, the Machinists, United Farm Workers, United Steel Workers, and the National Education Association. The list is sure to grow as the election season moves forward. Chris Townsend, Political Action Director of United Electrical Workers (UE). “How many more times is labor going to go back to the members and tell them to vote for some Democrat that has left us hanging? It’s no wonder that many union members and workers are not buying the Obama-Biden rhetoric this time. Instead of tackling the corporations and the Republicans head-on, the White House stands by in silence while organized labor is subjected to a life and death struggle in Wisconsin and Ohio. If union members get stuck voting for Obama because Romney is so much worse, we should just tell the truth. We are trapped in a profoundly corrupt and rigged political system. By going back again and again and hanging the union seal of approval on candidates who are not supportive of our cause, we merely hasten our own demise.”In an apparent mission to turn the U.S. into a source of cheap labor, policymakers in both political parties have for decades demonstrated their commitment to permanently lower working-class living standards. And recently Obama has been less shy about his role in this effort, touting his own policies for helping to make the U.S. more competitive with low-wage countries.Sometimes there are tactical reasons for unions to engage in electoral politics, but trade unionism is not about electing Democrats. Workers join unions to enforce decent pay and working conditions on the job. Organizing in an active union also raises the consciousness of workers around working-class issues beyond an individual workplace, like national healthcare policy and globalization. And like other social justice movements, labor cannot attribute much of its success to voting within the corporate confines of the two-party system. Real power for workers and the oppressed exists in the streets and in the workplace, in the form of militant grassroots struggle. Every national election points to the urgency for radicals to free the muscle of the union movement from the grip of the Democratic Party – to tighten the grip of the working class around the machinery of profit.” http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/03/14-9 This is what Chomsky’s mistake is, by recommending a Obama vote, he is continuing the illusion that the unions and the Democrats share a common interest. And those of us who in this country who suggest we should all vote Labour and condone our unions and our union leaders support for Labour are equally in error.