People Before Profit blog

Job growth the key to avoiding fiscal disaster

Fri, 30 Nov 2012 17:00:00 +0000

The media is absorbed now with trying to decide how close President Obama and House Republicans are to a deal that would avoid the "fiscal cliff" at the end of the year.

Republicans say they won't do anything that raises tax rates on the rich, the position backed by Mitt Romney when he ran for president, but there are some signs the GOP may be backing down.

With the President building popular support for higher taxes on the rich and for economic stimulus by campaigning at rallies around the country, with the labor movement and its allies demanding jobs programs and no cuts in Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security, and with polls showing all voters, even Republicans, opposed to the positions taken by House and Senate Republicans, it is no surprise that the GOP is cracking.

One of the clearest signs of that cracking came as Rep. Tom Cole, the GOP deputy whip and former chair of the National Republican Campaign Committee, this week urged fellow Republicans to agree "right now" to the Obama offer to extend the Bush cuts for the bottom 98 percent of taxpayers, knowing full well that doing so would doom Republican chances of extending the tax cuts for the rich.

There is no better sign that Cole's was a Boehner-approved venture than Cole's continued appearances all week on cable news shows, repeating his idea. He said on MSNBC that this would be an "early Christmas present" for voters. By coming out on Boehner's "left," Cole is providing the Speaker with the political cover he needs if he (Boehner) is to succeed in getting radical right wing Tea Partiers in Congress to back down.

Showing the strong hand held by Democrats, some Republican operatives are already spinning a GOP cave-in as a victory for their party. A tweet this week from Ari Fleischer, President Bush's press secretary, read, "If President Obama extends the Bush tax cuts, even if just for 98 percent, it will be a big victory for Bush."

All of this comes on top of Republicans running away from their once-sacred No Tax Hike Pledge to Grover Norquist.

"Our (Republican) leverage is not the tax rates, that's actually the Democrats' leverage," Cole said on MSNBC. "Our leverage, in my view, is the spending cuts."

Missing from the current fight in Washington over "spending cuts" and deficit reduction, however, is adequate discussion of the course of action that would most decisively solve the federal fiscal dilemma: The deficit will only go away, long term, to the extent that we grow our economy.

In their recent paper, Navigating the Fiscal Obstacle Course, Economic Policy Institute analysts Josh Bivens and Andrew Fieldhouse say that fixing taxes is only the first important step in solving the deficit problem.

Money brought in from the tax breaks should be combined not with budget cuts but with a massive job-creating stimulus program if we are serious about solving the long-term budget deficit.

EPI estimates, for example, that just half of the money brought in by ending the tax breaks on the rich would add two million jobs next year and reduce the ten-year budget deficit by $651 billion - quite a big chunk of the $4 trillion in red ink over the next ten years that the president and congressional lawmakers are bargaining about.

EPI says that, included in the budget deficit-busting stimulus, should be an extension of emergency federal jobless benefits.

Just the one step of giving $120 billion to states in direct fiscal aid from 2013 to 2015, by means of increased federal Medicaid funds and block grants, would boost real GDP growth by 0.4 percent and add a half-million jobs.

Investing $234 billion over the next ten years in surface transportation would, by itself, boost GDP growth by 0.2 percent and add more than a quarter of a million jobs.

Investing $55 billion in education for school modernization and rehiring laid off teachers would boost GDP by 0.3 percent and create more than 350,000 jobs.

Enacting a targeted refundable tax rebate for 2013 to lessen the impact of a Dec. 31, 2012 expiration of the payroll tax cut on lower and middle-income households would boost GDP by 0.4 percent and add more than half a million jobs.

Another idea in the same report is to make all income, including interest, dividends, and capital gains, subject to Social Security payroll taxes, thereby helping lower and middle income households and making Social Security solvent for at least the next 75 years.

While there may be room for debate regarding the specifics of many of these proposals they go in the direction the debate in Washington should be going in. While the solutions put forward by the GOP are clearly designed to benefit only the wealthy, the solutions put forward by many who say they are "compromisers" and "everyone has to sacrifice" also fail to solve the nation's number one economic problem: the jobs deficit.

The same EPI report demonstrates clearly what would happen in a "compromise" scenario that involved letting the tax cuts for the rich expire, on the one hand, and by cutting government spending by half a trillion, forgetting about extension of jobless benefits, and extending the payroll tax cuts, on the other.

The budget deficit would decline ever so slightly, but the real deficit - the jobs deficit - would balloon as 1.36 million more people would lose their jobs due to the spending cuts. The nation would enter a new round of recession. None of that is the way to fix an economy.

Photo: President Obama speaks at the Rodon Group, which makes toys as K’NEX and Tinkertoys, Friday, Nov. 30, in Hatfield, Pa. The visit comes as the White House continues a week of public outreach efforts, while also attempting to negotiate a deal with congressional leaders. Susan Walsh/AP

Dumping on low-wage workers is lousy direct action

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 12:31:00 +0000

The picket line outside the Secaucus, N.J., Walmart at 1 p.m. on Black Friday was joyous, festive and celebratory. The sousaphonist from the Rude Mechanical Orchestra had the slogan "Stand Up, Live Better" around the rim of his instrument, and banners declared solidarity with the striking Walmart workers and support for union rights. They called on the world's largest private employer to pay its workers a living wage and stop retaliation - the firing or punishing of workers who speak out about their working conditions. The crowd sang "Solidarity Forever" in all its glory, shaking fists at the "greedy parasites."

At least as far as I could tell, though, there were no striking workers at this particular Walmart.

Around the country, hundreds of Walmart workers walked off the job on Black Friday, the notorious shopping day after Thanksgiving. Organizers say that a hundred cities saw strikers and a thousand total protests were held, covering all but four states, in an escalation of an ongoing campaign led by the Organization United for Respect at Walmart (OUR Walmart). They drew support from Occupy organizers, unions, community members and elected officials; Congressman-elect Alan Grayson walked one striker out of a store in Florida, and Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio told me, "I commend the workers who are exercising their rights to protest in order to improve conditions for other working Americans."

Black Friday has grown into a symbol, to many, of the rot at the heart of American consumer capitalism, with people clawing and trampling one another in the rush to get the lowest price on holiday purchases. It has been the target of protest before, with the competing Buy Nothing Day dating back to the anti-corporate mobilizations of the 1990s. But this year at Walmart was different because the actions were called for by workers themselves, in the midst of a sustained campaign for better wages, hours and treatment.

Last year, as Susie Cagle reported, Occupy Oakland and other groups prepared a Black Friday action that was meant to disrupt the flow of commerce. Occupiers filled carts with merchandise, got into line, and then left the full carts there, moving on to another big box retailer.

While they also distributed flyers and prepared a banner drop opposing sweatshop labor, as Cagle noted, there's a problem with this kind of action.

"During and after my coverage of the Occupy Oakland action in Emeryville, several people wrote to me on Twitter over the weekend expressing concern," Cagle explained. "The majority were retail workers themselves, annoyed at the extra work of having to replace large amounts of stock on an already very busy day. A common refrain was, 'We're the 99% too.'"

Cagle posed the dilemma poignantly: "How do you attack consumerism without attacking consumers - or workers?"

This year, before Black Friday, some activists were advocating this same kind of prank. But tactics like this tend to fall not on the corporation's bosses, safely ensconced in high-rise offices or gated campuses, but on the workers just trying to make ends meet. While many workers did strike on Black Friday, far more others went to work, unable or unwilling to risk the retaliation of their bosses - or perhaps just not yet reached by the organizers.

There's a difference between a protest and a strike, of course - even a protest called for specifically by the workers at a company. The protests outside of Walmarts on Black Friday this year were called for as a gesture of deep solidarity for workers who might strike, to let them know that their communities had their backs.

By contrast, leaving full carts lying around in the store is largely an empty gesture not of solidarity, but of misdirected anger.

Nation reporter Allison Kilkenny and I went inside the store ahead of the activists. Walmart officials weren't letting the reporters wearing formal press passes through the doors - they claimed this is their usual policy - but we walked in anyway and circulated throughout the store until we heard a "Mic check!" ring out. When the police and store security shut that speak-out down, another one started up, and the picketers played cat-and-mouse with security while offering their messages of support, repeating OUR Walmart's call for an end to retaliation, better wages and reliable scheduling. One of the mic checks was in Spanish. When a group of mic-checkers accidentally knocked over a display while being hustled by police, they turned to clean it up rather than fleeing the scene. Little things like this matter.

Later, though, I was discussing the action with journalists Doug Henwood and Liza Featherstone, and they told me that they had been exhorted to go into the store and make purchases with small change. They refused, thankfully, making the point that doing so would not punish anyone - Walmart would still be making its money, even if that money was literally in pennies - except that it would leave the worker who would have to count and double-count those coins with a headache, an irate line of customers and an angry manager demanding to know why her line is moving so slowly. This is the ultimate empty gesture: You can't even claim to be cutting into Walmart's profit margins. Literally the only thing you'd be doing is making a worker's day a little bit harder.

In her essay "Maid to Order," Barbara Ehrenreich wrote, "To make a mess that another person will have to deal with - the dropped socks, the toothpaste sprayed on the bathroom mirror, the dirty dishes left from a late-night snack - is to exert domination in one of its more silent and intimate forms." Ehrenreich was talking about domestic work, but her critique applies to the broader service sector as well - she worked both at Walmart and as a maid while writing her book Nickel & Dimed.

Historian Bethany Moreton explains in To Serve God and Wal-Mart that the company's business model grew and was shaped by its largely female workforce in its home territory of the rural South. Those women went straight from dealing with dropped socks and dirty dishes at home to straightening displays and folding clothes left behind by customers at Walmart. That those workers were mostly women (and continue to be largely women) is a central reason for the continued lack of respect for the service work they do.

Leaving a mess behind you at a Walmart, even if you leave a flyer explaining why you did it, isn't going to help those workers organize and fight for better conditions on the job, and it's not going to stop the progress of global capital or even make a dent in that store's profits for that day. It's simply going to make more work for those same workers to deal with.

In Kearny, picketers stood at the entrance to the Walmart parking lot, holding signs that said "Honk to support Walmart workers." There were plenty of honks, both from cars pulling into the lot and from passing trucks. Inside the store, activists (until being chased out by security) handed flyers to customers, most of whom cast at least a glance at them before continuing on their way. The mic checks at Kearny and Secaucus drew crowds and smartphone photos. Other onlookers shook their heads, bemused but unmoved, and kept on going. Yet there was another critical constituency that we needed to deal with when protesting Black Friday: the shoppers.

As I chatted with folks I knew at the picket line, a woman approached us and said that if we wanted to join the action inside the store, we should join a group over "that way." As she walked off, she laughed, saying, "I've never been inside a Walmart in my life!"

In some ways this was just reflective of where we were; Secaucus is home to the largest Walmart close to Walmart-free New York City, so many of the people who came to join the picket were New Yorkers who didn't have a local Walmart even if they wanted one. But it's important to remember that many of the people who fill these stores in search of markdowns on big-screen TVs and Xboxes are making Walmart-like wages themselves. They couldn't buy that TV otherwise. And as we show up to support the people working inside those stores in their fight against their bosses, we need to be conscious of whose life we want to make miserable - of, as the song goes, which side we are on.

In the past 30 years, as Doug Henwood has shown, strikes have fallen off considerably; that this year had both a major strike of Chicago's teachers and the first-ever strikes in Walmart's 50-year history is a good sign. But it means that these strikes are happening in the midst of a generation of young activists not used to seeing them, not used to taking a back seat to the workers themselves in planning actions, and used instead to an activist culture that has embraced pranks and Yes Men-style stunts. A progressive figure as well known as José Antonio Vargas was able to get away with crossing the picket line of Hyatt hotel workers outside of the Online News Association conference; he later told Color lines' Rinku Sen that he hoped he could still work with unions in the future, but he felt his speech was important enough to warrant crossing that line.

Pranks and stunts are great for getting attention and reaching people who might otherwise not notice a more typical protest, but we need to be careful not to let them become an end in themselves. Such actions, practiced carelessly, can damage years of deep, fragile organizing to build worker power. A flash mob is great fun, but when it's gone the workers still have to face their boss, who has control of the days and hours they get to work, what kind of work they do, and, ultimately, the paychecks that they will or will not bring home to their families. Make the workers regret your showing up, and the odds of them ever going out on strike themselves will dwindle.

"You don't want to talk for them, because they have their own mouths," Quadeer Porter, who had organized the action at the Walmart in Kearny, N.J., told me. "But you see civil disservice being done, you stand up."

That's the essence of solidarity action: Don't assume that you know what is best for the people being impacted, because they can speak for themselves. You will do better if you are working together. It's especially important in the case of OUR Walmart, which is based in a form of "minority unionism" that relies on individual workers or small groups striking at stores across the country rather than the whole workforce at one location going out. For one solitary worker considering striking by herself, a glance outside at a crowd singing "Solidarity Forever" might tip the balance one way, while a full cart in her checkout line that she has to clean up after might swing it the other.

Not every action can or should happen without angering anyone; mic checks and flyering and picketing Walmart surely made some shoppers rethink their priorities on Black Friday and hopefully caused headaches at corporate headquarters. Hard picket lines and blockades such as the one at the Keystone XL pipeline are deliberately designed to stop work whether the workers like it or not, and that doesn't mean those kinds of actions are wrong. But such actions should also be taken with the awareness that workers need better options - a real social safety net that works in times of unemployment, or jobs that don't require helping destroy the climate - and that right now, they often don't have a choice.

Campaigns that aim to bring change to Walmart or other global megacorporations require more than momentary actions. Sustained worker organizing within Walmart and its supply chain provides the best opportunity to actually make a difference in the company's practices. What outsiders do on days of action need to support that organizing, not compete with it.

As OUR Walmart continues to build its campaign - one that has already succeeded where many well-intentioned union campaigns and outsider protests have failed - there will be more calls for support. We need to be conscious of what that support means, and what it means to work in solidarity with those most impacted, rather than speaking for them.

This was originally published in Waging Nonviolence, and the photograph on the workers' Facebook page.

Inequality, a growing national crisis

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 08:48:00 +0000

DETROIT - Democracy came out a winner in Michigan's elections when Republican Gov. Snyder's Emergency Manager (EM) law went down to defeat in a statewide referendum. The law, which allowed the governor to replace local elected officials with "financial dictators," was rejected in 77 of 83 counties from the far reaches of the Upper Peninsula to Michigan's Indiana border.

However, that great victory is already in jeopardy. It is being reported Republican lawmakers are drafting new legislation for a revised EM law.

So much for the will of the people.

Detroit is again in the crosshairs. A Detroit News columnist attributes the city's budget crisis to the "dysfunction" of the city's "political class." Such disparaging characterizations aimed at this majority African American city shows racism plays a major role in how the city is viewed.

It is not surprising that the city is in financial distress. The downsizing of Detroit's auto dependent economy and corporate decisions to move jobs out of the city, state and country would send any city into a tailspin.

In addition, a Wall Street and banking caused housing crisis resulted in foreclosures, vacancies and a further erosion of the tax base.

Nor is this solely an urban problem. In Michigan, both suburban and rural areas of the state face tough economic times and many have been threatened with the appointment of EM's if they don't buckle down and slash their budgets.

But are budget deficits the main problem Detroit and our nation face? Jared Bernstein in a recent AFL-CIO blog article says the real crisis we are facing in the nation is not deficits but the growing inequality between the rich and poor. He writes that the national deficit averaged five percent in the mid-80s, rose to 10 percent during the great recession but is now 7 percent and falling.

In other words, it doesn't sound like a national emergency.

The article then talks about a real danger that has been growing for some time. Since the early 1980's we've transferred fifteen percent of our national income from the bottom ninety percent of households to the top ten percent.

The main problem we face as a nation is not a lack of money; the problem is too much of it is in too few hands. Austerity measures and budget cuts will only widen the inequality gap by eliminating needed jobs and services for working people.

There are solutions to both fixing deficits and lessening income inequality and you don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure them out.

A tax structure based on trickle down has not worked. Rates need to be increased for the top brackets. A start would be to let the Bush era tax cuts to the wealthy expire. Billionaire and investor Warren Buffet agrees.

Secondly, the military budget is bloated way beyond what is needed to defend our nation. Much of it goes to large corporations whose interests, at home and abroad, have more to do with making profits than providing security.

Military spending eats up a whopping sixty percent of our national budget and widens the inequality gap by gobbling up money that would better be used to rebuild our nation's cities and rural areas. Only 7 percent of national spending goes for health and human services, six percent for education and a mere five percent is distributed to the states.

What would make our nation more democratic and its people more secure? The choices really are not that difficult. We need to tax the rich, cut the military budget and shift money toward rebuilding our cities and towns and the infrastructure of our nation.

Photo: keegstra // CC 2.0

George Edwards hailed at Steelworker memorial

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 11:24:00 +0000

PITTSBURGH - The fourth floor meeting room of the United Steelworkers national headquarters rang out with cheers, applause and music Nov. 19 as nearly 200 friends, family, neighbors, union brothers and sisters and comrades, gathered to pay tribute and celebrate the life of George Edwards.

The highly respected union and community activist and Communist Party leader died of heart failure Oct. 5.

"George was an activist every day of his adult life," USW President Leo Gerard said. "Even when he was red-baited, he stuck to his principles. He kept up the fight for social and economic justice."

Gerard said there was "hardly a dry eye" when he introduced Edwards to a standing ovation at the 70^th Anniversary union convention in Cleveland last May. "He was the only person there who was also at the first convention."

And, he added, immediately afterwards Edwards threw himself into the campaign to re-elect Pres. Barack Obama, knocking on doors and mobilizing SOAR, the Steelworkers Organization of Active Retirees, which he helped to found and lead.

He recounted the fight Edwards had started in 1948 for minority representation on the union's Executive Board and kept pushing for until it was won 30 years later.

"At 94, he walked the full distance in the Labor Day parade."

Gerard was self-critical that, after the 2008 election, labor had "let Obama down. We should have been in the streets in 2009." But, "we learned our lesson and on election night, we won one for George. We must learn from George's life to never stop being an activist on behalf of working people."

Then after belting out the verses of "You ain't been doing nothin' if you ain't been called a Red," folk singer Annie Feeney launched into a rousing rendition of the Internationale, the working class and Communist hymn, bringing some members of the audience to their feet.

"And that," said emcee and USW Vice President Fred Redmond, "is the best introduction to our next speaker, Sam Webb, National Chairman of the Communist Party."

"There is no better place to celebrate George's life," Webb said, thanking Gerard and the union for hosting the memorial. "This union meant everything to him," he said. "Nothing made George happier than to volunteer his labor in this building."

Edwards, he said, "always amazed me at the many hats that he wore - gardener, wilderness enthusiast, photographer, camper, chef, sports fan, environmentalist, avid reader, mentor to young workers and sculptor ... but the main hat that he wore so well and so long was that of a union activist against corporate power. He punched into the class struggle at an early age and only punched out when his heart stopped beating."

As many nodded in agreement, Webb said Edwards' "nearly inexhaustible source of energy even as an old man came from his belief that his cause was just and righteous. It came from his belief that the 99 per cent are the real creators of wealth and would do a better job running the country than the 1 per cent. It came from his belief that a united working class had the power to bring the multi-national corporations to their knees."

Edwards "had a big heart; he always had the back of working men and women; and he loved his family, his neighbors, his union brothers and sisters, his comrades, and his country.

"He will be missed, but he will live on in our hearts as we continue to fight for a more just, equal and peaceful world."

Other speakers rounded out the picture of Edwards' rich life. Deborah Sakach, his daughter, shared memories of camping vacations while she grew up in Lorain, Ohio, where her father was a machinist at U.S. Steel, and "kept a mimeograph on the dining room table."

Beverly McCord, a former member of Wilkinsburg City Council, elected along with Edwards' widow, Denise, as part of a reform slate in 1997, called him a "Renaissance Man, a true caring people person."

"He helped you discover your dreams. He disdained material stuff and had a deep love of democracy."

Their group, she said, beat back an attempt to privatize a city school, the only community in the state to do this.

"He loved Wilkinsburg. He loved its diversity. He marched in every Martin Luther King parade....He was a socialist, a community activist and a Communist," she said to loud applause. Portraits of Denise and George Edwards are on a mural in the city, she added.

Former SOAR Director Oliver Montgomery, who Edwards backed when he ran for USW International Secretary-Treasurer in 1976, called him "a giant, similar to Dr. King and A. Phillip Randolph. He was a true trade unionist, a true freedom fighter."

Bruce Bostick, now retired from Local 1104 in Lorain, said Edwards had been "more than a friend. He was a mentor" who was able to reach across generations, races and cultures.

"We can't allow that torch to fall."

Connie Mabin, representing Next Generation, the USW's youth group, unveiled a photo montage of Edwards, who, she said, spent a lot of time with the young workers at the union's 70^th Anniversary, generating a barrage of messages on Facebook and Twitter. She said the group was recommending to the International Executive Board that the union's newly established mentoring program be named after George Edwards.

Edwards' family urged that donations in his honor be sent to Next Generation or SOAR (60 Boulevard of the Allies, Pittsburgh, PA 15222) or the People's World (235 W. 23^rd St., NY, NY 10011).

Photo: George Edwards (SOAR)

“Supernatural” Season 8 is spellbinding

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 11:19:00 +0000

In a time when television audiences are especially critical of anything that is a little less reality-based than the norm, fantasy is a genre that is sometimes incapable of pulling in large audiences. "Supernatural," now in its eighth season, has survived so long not only due to its relatable characters and exploration of the human condition, but also because it has been creative, developing a complex mythology with which it can continue to weave powerful new webs of intrigue.

"Supernatural" follows the story of Sam and Dean Winchester, two brothers who travel the back roads of America in their car, a black '67 Impala, saving people from monsters and other supernatural phenomena. It's a "family business" dating back all the way to their ancestors, the pioneers, in the 1600s, who fought vampires on the Mayflower. Viewers are treated to a soundtrack of classic rock and metal in each episode of the series.

Between seasons One and Five, the brothers, with the help of working class mechanic/surrogate father Bobby and offbeat angel Castiel, uncovered a plot to unleash the Apocalypse and faced off against Lucifer, ultimately defeating "the greatest monster."

Seasons Six and Seven saw the Winchesters - having averted the end of the world - dealing with the aftermath, and introduced a 'mother of all monsters.' It also introduced leviathan - creatures that, in this show, took the forms of corporate one-percenters who tried to turn the human race into a profitable commodity to sustain their population, which was planning a world invasion from - wait for it - Purgatory.

The last two seasons, however, were managed by a new showrunner, who many fans felt had abandoned the show's relatable elements of family and small town America, in exchange for an effort to be "dark and gritty." Season Eight, headed by yet another showrunner, has fixed that problem.

Though the new episodes had their rough spots at first, things began running smoothly soon after. Fans have rejoiced and ratings have gone way up; the familiar classic rock is back, the show's tone is once again light and simple, and the fantasy-horror doesn't try to be quite as bleak, taking more influence from "Raiders of the Lost Ark" this time around (there's a quest involved for ancient tablets) than the grim, post-modern neo-noir that Season Six played with.

Having been trapped in Purgatory last season, Dean busts out with the help of a vampire, and goes right back into the family business with a new lease on life. We see Sam, who started a relationship in the year his brother was gone, pulling back from the heroism, however. This allows for some conflict, as well as much-needed character development. Meanwhile, there's a prophet who has figured out a way to permanently banish demons from the face of the Earth, an angel having very human problems, and a new 'King of Hell' while Lucifer's gone. Clearly, the show writers are having fun - and so are the fans.

Between Earth, Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory, "Supernatural" has gleefully molded plot out of the most colorful elements of Christian mythology (among other folklore), and in the same breath, is actually poking fun at theology and spirituality. And most viewers are hip to the joke.

But "Supernatural" takes itself seriously at times, too. It has provided compelling storylines, which, if a little complex under the weight of the series' mythos, can be extremely powerful and emotionally driven. That, combined with incredible acting and tongue-in-cheek humor, makes the series deserving of a closer look by anyone who might dismiss this as "just another fantasy show riding on the success of The X-Files or Buffy."

At its core, "Supernatural" begs a careful analysis because, beneath all the outer layers - the ghosts, vampires, skinwalkers, and demons - there's a very real message about the importance of brotherhood. Many of the stories that have been told have also provoked questions about the nature of what it is to be human, and what it means to care about the world.

Leave it to a monster show to talk philosophy, right? But, with a little suspension of disbelief, "Supernatural" is very rewarding, and, in terms of fantasy-horror television, has become the unsung masterpiece of this decade.

Photo: Official Supernatural site at CWTV.com

The story of a Walmart strike

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 11:14:00 +0000

SAN LEANDRO, Calif. - On past Black Fridays, the nation's annual post-Thanksgiving shopping celebration, Walmart stores have seen such a crush of shoppers that people have been trampled trying to get through the doors. On this coming Black Friday, however, shoppers are more likely to see protesting workers.

People have been criticizing the chain's low wages and unfair competition with local businesses for years. But for a long time the company has been able to keep its workers from joining in. Where it could, Walmart has tried to give itself a paternalistic, we're-all-one-big-family face. Where that hasn't worked, it's resorted to the age-old tactics of firings and fear.

But Walmart workers are waking up. Supported by a number of unions, they've organized a series of work stoppages, the latest and most extensive of which will take place on Black Friday. They call their organization OURWalmart (Organization United for Respect at Walmart).

Strikes at Walmart stores are usually short walkouts by groups of mostly-young people, propelled by pent-up anger at abuse by managers and wages so low no one can really live on them. My heart goes out to these workers. I, too, was fired more than once for trying to organize a union where I worked. I remember how it felt to be an open activist in a plant where the company made no secret of its hatred for what we wanted - a union.

So when I went to take pictures at a walkout at the San Leandro Walmart, I wanted to make visible the faces of people with the courage to defy their boss. And I wanted to see how people who like that union idea, as I do, can help keep the company from firing them. This is what I saw.

We got together in the parking lot of the BART rapid transit station a few blocks from the store. Several dozen supporters joined a handful of workers who'd already been fired, along with a couple of associates (as the workers call themselves) from other Walmarts in the area. Together marched down Hesperian Boulevard, through the parking lot, to the doors.

Once enough people had gathered, both fired and currently employed workers held a brief memorial for Enrique, an associate who'd recently died. Inside the store, they'd set up a small memorial outside the break room. The crowd outside walked solemnly through the doors and down the aisles heading for it, carrying Enrique's photograph in front.

Raymond Bravo, who works in the Richmond store, and other workers held a banner as they walked past the shelves and shoppers. Misty Tanner later told me she'd been fired after several years at Walmart, most recently as a member of a crew doing renovations at the store in Richmond. What must she have felt, walking through the aisles of Walmart, where she'd been terminated not long before?

These fired workers are very present in the minds of those still working. I remembered my own experience, after I and several friends were terminated and blacklisted at a Silicon Valley semiconductor plant. We tried not to disappear too. It wasn't just that we didn't want to feel the company had beaten us. We found it actually reduced the fear among the union supporters who were still working. They could see we didn't just disappear (what the company undoubtedly wanted). We refused to become a bad dream to frighten people. Everyone knew we'd been fired anyway. Remaining present in people's lives meant we weren't a dark secret people feared talking about.

I could see that the Walmart workers, both working and fired, still cared for each other. They too were not about to forget what the company had done, or let anyone else forget either.

At the door to the break room, a worker who'd clocked out, Dominic Ware, stood by as we laid our carnations on the floor in memory of Enrique. Two store managers stood by watching us. Another followed us, yelling in a loud voice that we had no right to be there. He was especially bothered by photographs, and kept putting his hand in front of the camera to stop me from taking them.

It was pretty obvious that they wanted to disrupt what was intended to be a respectful and solemn remembrance for Enrique. Even further, they tried to make absolutely sure that every worker in the store knew exactly how much the company hated what was happening. Dominic stayed calm, an example to his coworkers that no one needed to be frightened.

Supporters and workers together put their flowers on the store floor. I wondered how long it would take for managers to remove them, and all the evidence of this job action.

After we left the store, Dominic spoke at a short rally outside, while the sun set and it grew dark. Nurses from the California Nurses Association, longshore and warehouse workers from the ILWU, machinist union representatives, young community activists and other supporters stood together with the Walmart workers.

Three workers from this store, Dominic Ware, Marsela Lopez-Navarro and Cecilia Gurule, had clocked out and joined the rally. That took courage. Everyone in the store knows the company not only hates unions, but also has fired workers who want to organize.

Once the rally was over, workers were unsure whether the company would let them return to their jobs. So everyone got behind them and marched back to the door, where a manager met them. Dominic, Cecilia and Marsela then read him a statement declaring their right to participate in collective action -- the basic activity involved in forming a workers' association or a union. If the company tried to keep them off the job or retaliated against them, they warned, it would be a violation of Federal labor law.

Then we all walked back into the store, accompanying Dominic and Cecilia to the break room. There the key test was whether they would be able to punch the time clock and go back to work. It's hard to describe how good it felt to see Dominic come out of the break room in his work vest and go back to his job.

I was never able to go back to work at National Semiconductor, or the other workplaces where I was fired. In our Walmart demonstration there were fired workers who shared that bitter experience. But for this one evening, we were able to help Dominic, Marsela and Cecelia do what should be their right without question - challenge their employer and declare their open support for the right to organize.

No one should have to be afraid that such a basic right of free thought, speech or association might cost them their job. Yet the reality in this country is that it so often does. And at Walmart, the human casualties are very much present.

But for one evening direct action by courageous workers, supported by people living in the community around them, kept firings from happening. That was a big step toward making that right something that exists in real life, not just on paper.

Photo via David Bacon.

Gaza-Israel: cease-fire now

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 15:16:00 +0000

Events in recent days between Israel and the Hamas-led government in Gaza show, once again, the danger of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's refusal to work seriously toward the resolution of Palestinian grievances. It also shows that firing rockets into Israel will not lead to anything productive.

For some time, a shaky de-facto truce has existed between Israel and Hamas, though rockets were still sporadically being fired into Israel from Gaza. In the past week, however, this truce has broken down. Last week, the Israeli defense force killed two civilians in Gaza, an 11-year-old boy and a 20-year-old mentally handicapped man. A barrage of rockets was then fired into Israel from Gaza, wounding four Israeli soldiers.

But reportedly, a truce was already in the works when on Wednesday, November 14, Israel sharply escalated the conflict by assassinating Ahmed Ja'abari, the head of the Hamas military wing, with an air strike that also killed and injured a number of bystanders. This set off an angry reaction from Gaza, with another barrage of rockets into Israeli territory. Israeli bombing of targets in Gaza, called by Israel "Pillar of Cloud" or "Pillar of Defense," was also then sharply escalated and has continued up to now. More than 1300 Israeli air strikes have been carried out, doing great damage to infrastructure. Three Israeli civilians were killed by the rocket attacks, but at least 109 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed, including 26 children and entire families. Two young men in the West Bank were killed by Israeli troops in the course of protests against Israel's actions in Gaza.

Netanyahu has called up reserves and has massed troops on the border, strongly hinting at another land invasion like "Operation Cast Lead" in 2008, which was condemned by the world community because of the number of civilian casualties it caused in Gaza's crowded cities.

The United States and other Western powers have condemned the rocket attacks and emphasized Israel's right to defend itself. But most countries in the Arab and Muslim worlds, as well as many others, have condemned the Israeli attack as an act of brutal aggression.

The present escalation must be seen in the context of the intransigence of the Netanyahu government, which has stalled peace talks while it actively promotes the building of settlements on land promised to the Palestinian people, and has enforced a blockade of Gaza for years. This continues the imposition of another regime of violence on the Palestinians both in Gaza and the West Bank: The violence of poverty and the crushing of an entire people's aspirations.

While there is no progress toward a peaceful solution of the Israel-Palestine conflict, and while the mass of the Palestinian people, in Gaza, in the West Bank and in exile, suffer the consequences, as do Israeli people, the danger of war continues to be high. The bellicose rhetoric of the Netanyahu government, toward the Palestinians but also in the context of the dispute with Iran, increases the danger even more.

A case in point is the threatening stance that Netanyahu has taken toward the PLO led government in the West Bank should they try to push their claim to advanced observer status at the United Nations, a claim which they have every right to make. This attack on Gaza has everything to do with Israeli far-right attempts to take over the West Bank and incorporate it into a Greater Israel.

The rocket attacks against Israel by militants in Gaza are indefensible and must be stopped by the Gaza authorities. But it is also the case that the Palestinians are completely outgunned by the Israeli Defense force, and pose no existential threat to the Israeli state. Given the vast disproportion between civilian casualties in Israel on the one hand and Gaza on the other, the rocket attacks are no excuse for the Israeli actions.

The whole world knows that the Israeli government counts on automatic backing, both diplomatic and financial, of the United States. Nevertheless there are news stories suggesting friction between the Obama administration and the Netanyahu government, whose actions have included crass interference in the recently completed general elections in the United States. Although news reports suggest that the Obama administration is not happy with the prospect of a land invasion of Gaza by the Israeli Defense Force, other voices in the United States - namely the American far-right Republicans - are stridently demanding unconditional support for Israeli actions no matter what the cost in human lives. Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, for example, has called for a cutoff of U.S. aid to Egypt should President Morsi not support the Israeli position. This is despite the fact that Egypt, along with the United Nations, seems to be playing serious and positive roles in trying to broker a cease-fire.

U.S. peace and solidarity groups are proposing various demands. The American Friends Service Committee urged an end to violence by both sides, immediate efforts by the U.S. and international community for a cease-fire, an immediate end to the blockade, and an end to U.S. military aid to Israel.

The Communist Party USA called on the Israeli government to stop escalating the conflict and pull back from sending in ground troops. The CPUSA also urged the U.S. to press Israel to stop further attacks in Gaza and return to serious negotiations toward a two-state solution meeting the aspirations of the Palestinian people.

And J Street, which calls itself "the political home for pro-Israel, pro-peace Americans," called on President Obama "to step forward ... with a bold new effort to resolve this conflict."

The attacks on Gaza must end now. The rockets fired into Israel must stop. An immediate cease-fire is necessary. It will take the world's people demanding a just peace, including Americans, Palestinians and Israelis, to make it so.

Photo: Israeli border policemen during a protest against the Israeli military operations in Gaza Strip near the West Bank city of Nablus, Nov. 19. Nasser Ishtayeh/AP

After Hurricane Sandy, big questions remain

Mon, 19 Nov 2012 14:37:00 +0000

Hurricane Sandy left in its wake massive devastation and difficult questions - large and small - that have yet to be answered. From "when will we finally get electricity or heat?" or "why are so many public housing residents still trapped in their apartments?" to "where will the money come from to rebuild," "why is our power system so messed up?" and "what are we going to do about climate change?"

The super storm destroyed whole communities in New York and New Jersey. Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, West Virginia, and North Carolina were also hit hard. To date, 131 people lost their lives from the storm, on top of 69 deaths in the Caribbean and one in Canada. Thousands lost homes, businesses and livelihoods. People's World and the CPUSA extend condolences to the families of all victims.

Amid the devastation and questions wrought by Sandy are incredible stories of heroism and generosity, courage, and solidarity. Public workers, hospital and nursing home employees and first responders - many who worked as Sandy hit - did their jobs while the storm wreaked havoc on their homes and families. Neighbors who had electricity offering charging stations for power-starved cellphones to volunteers who help give out blankets, food, and water. Utility workers, FEMA and Red Cross employees who are trying to get the help to people in need. All should be recognized for bringing out the best in the most difficult of days.

Only one week after the storm came the critical presidential elections. During Sandy, it became apparent to millions that the federal government can play a vital role in helping people survive and recover from such destruction. Millions rightfully worried that the Republicans' program of slashing agencies like FEMA (or "turning them over to states") was too extreme.

Two weeks since the storm some are still without heat and electricity. The racial and class inequality that existed before the storm is at work in the aftermath of the storm. The residents of New York City public housing were forced to wait days longer than surrounding homes to get their heat and electricity - or even get the water drained from the buildings. Residents were forced to live in unacceptable - and often dangerous - conditions.

The impact of the storm hit lower income folks, seniors, and people of color harder. It also exposed the inequality that existed before the storm. For example, public housing budgets have been starved of funding, leaving little or no money for capital improvements and modernization.

It is outrageous that power companies in New York and New Jersey, like Long Island Power Authority and Con Edison, did such a poor job of responding because they were trying to save money. There is an investigation of LIPA, whose board has been packed over the years with political hacks. All the promises the companies made as to when power (and heat) would be turned on proved wrong, and predictably so. LIPA did not seek additional workers from outside the state, including from Canada, until a couple weeks after the storm when 50 percent of the outages still existed. It was a similar situation in New Jersey. Why? In a word, money. Con Ed had just finished a big struggle with its union, and the company has cut the workforce in half since the last contract.

Where is the oversight? It was obvious even before the storm that these power companies would not do what was needed to protect masses of working people from unnecessary pain and suffering.

Much has been said about rebuilding, but not much about rebuilding in smart and sustainable ways that will address the bigger issues of inequality, poverty and climate change. Building a smart power grid that is truly public would create jobs and invest wisely in the future. The people most affected have to be involved in the rebuilding process, especially younger people and students. There are millions of un- and under-employed people on the East Coast who can be part of the solutions. Out of this tragedy a movement for public works jobs can gain new life, joining with those already in motion coming out of the battle to re-elect the president and pressing on to end the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest two percent in America. The building of such a movement would go a long way to rebuilding lives and answering the tough questions.

Photo: Havoc during Sandy. WarmSleepy/Flickr

The villains behind Hostess’ demise

Mon, 19 Nov 2012 14:23:00 +0000

Saturdays I'd park myself in front of the TV to watch H.R. Pufnstuf and the whole morning line up with a box - yes, a box - of Hostess Ding Dongs. Sometimes Ho Hos, but never Twinkies. As a chocolate fiend, I just wasn't into sponge cake.

Welcome to morning in America, circa 1970. Delicious boxed treats from a factory not too far from where I lived in Chicago, and watching the golden age of cartoons and kid shows. What could be better than unrolling the aluminum foil wrapper to find a delightful chocolate covered chocolate cake puck full of creamy goodness while listening to the tunes of Josie and the Pussycats?

The makers of these childhood memories are going out of business. Hostess announced its liquidation and county fairs everywhere are pivoting from deep-fried Twinkies to deep-fried something else.

The brand that is indelibly imprinted on my brain, along with its hydrogenated fats, is kicking to the curb some 18,000 workers, and blaming a few hundred of them for the company's demise. It seems that despite their end cap status on grocery stores everywhere, Hostess was in big financial trouble. Their profit margins weren't large enough. Like corporations everywhere, they wanted the workers to pay for it. They demanded salary and pension cuts. But members of the bakery workers union disagreed, and voiced their disagreement by exercising their rights. They went on strike.

Hostess quickly blamed the workers for its demise. Here's a company with management expiring quicker than their cupcakes dodging any responsibility. Was it the workers' fault that the brand never adjusted to the reality of America today? Hostess kept churning out Twinkies and Ho Hos like it was 1969.

It's 2012. Obesity is a health issue for the country. People are trying to eat healthier. Parents are following the First Lady's lead and getting themselves and their children moving. Where was the innovation from Hostess management? Why didn't they keep up with the times?

This is Hostess' second bankruptcy in eight years. During the first one in 2004, workers and members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers agreed to significant concessions to save the company. At that time, Hostess shut down 21 plants and laid off thousands of workers. Management "promised" that the money "saved" from job losses and concessions would be used to make a 21^st century Hostess.

That's not what happened. BCTGM President Frank Hurt said despite management's commitment, it never materialized. "Management refused to invest in modernizing its bakeries or devote necessary resources to advertising and marketing, product development, and new technology. Business plan after business plan failed, leaving the company ever deeper in debt," Hurt said.

Hostess followed another kind of business plan. Not one that creates goods and jobs, but one that creates great wealth for the hedge funds and kings of Wall Street. It's a Bain Capital-esque business model. Pile on debt, demand concessions from the workers, then - in the words of Mitt Romney - "harvest" it for plenty of dough.

That is "vulture" capitalism's business plan. It doesn't take Scooby Doo and Mystery Incorporated to figure out who the villains are.

Credit for infographic: Via AFL-CIO Now Blog http://www.aflcio.org/Blog/Organizing-Bargaining/Hostess-Pattern-of-Mismanagement-and-Debt-Caused-Its-Collapse

A hectic and happy Election Day in Ohio

Wed, 14 Nov 2012 10:03:00 +0000

CLEVELAND - As at countless election watch parties throughout the country, the huge crowd in the Doubletree ballroom here exploded in pandemonium when Ohio was called for Barack Obama at 11:16 p.m. on Nov. 6 and the president's re-election was secured.

My wife, Ann, and I had only arrived at the event, hosted by the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party, a half an hour earlier, as the poll where Ann had been working as a vote tracker was delayed in winding up its work until 9:30 p.m.

We were both exhausteded but buoyed by the growing excitement and the sense evident on everyone's face that the long awaited victory was at hand.

Greg Moore, national executive director of the NAACP Voter Fund, came over to thank us for helping with the Cleveland voter registration drive. In September our neighborhood Obama campaign team had registered over 500 voters canvassing door to door in Ward 14 and in the outpatient lobby of MetroHealth, the county hospital located in the ward. Most of the new voters as well as many others filled out mail ballot applications that we took with the registration forms to the Board of Elections nearly every day.

Stu Garson, the county Democratic chairman, tried valiantly, and with little success, to speak to the crowd screaming, dancing and hugging as the announcement was made.

For me it was the culmination of months of intense work that began when I attended my first state meeting of neighborhood team leaders in Columbus last March. The pace of meetings, phone banks and canvassing kept growing and reached its peak on the last four days before the Tuesday election.

Since Saturday I had virtually lived in our neighborhood Get Out The Vote staging location at the Tropical, a former Latin nightclub, in the southern part of the ward. Another staging location ran operations for the northern part. From the Tropical we dispatched teams of volunteers three times a day. Armed with walk lists, they knocked on doors of likely Obama supporters in every neighborhood reminding them of the importance of their vote and delivering campaign literature for Obama and U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown and flyers about vans the Service Employees and Amalgamated Transit unions were running from a local McDonald's parking lot to bring early voters to the Board of Elections.

As staging location director I reported to the area field organizer the results of each shift, how many canvassers were out and how many walk lists remained so she could allocate volunteers for the next shift. The staging location operated with practically military precision following a "Master Tick Tock" giving the exact times in each shift for welcoming, training and sending out the canvassers, then debriefing, recording results and providing refreshments when they returned.

Dry runs had been conducted at several hundred of such locations throughout the county for the two previous weekends and on the weekend before the election the goal was to knock on every targeted door. In fact, this goal was reached on Saturday and by Election Day every door had been hit at least twice.

The success was due to the fact that local canvassers were bolstered by out of state volunteers. They included over 100 members of the Columbia University Young Democrats, some of whom had come to Ohio last year to help with the successful effort to repeal SB 5, the law enacted by the Republicans to strip collective bargaining rights from public employees. In addition, once the GOTV effort began in mid-October, phone banking, which neighborhood teams had been conducting every week, was outsourced to safe blue states like New York and California, so that local volunteers could focus on talking to voters face to face.

After the last shift left about 5 p.m. on Election Day I felt drained, turned the staging location over to Melissa Perez, the canvassing captain, and went home for a brief nap, which ended 20 minutes later when she called to say the order had come down for everyone to go out and canvass until the polls closed at 7:30 leaving only one person at the staging location.

I got the last walk packet, picked up Wanda Navarro, who had just come home from work at the Hugo Boss men's suit factory, and we started canvassing. We were welcomed by neighbors we had met over the course of the campaign proud to have already voted or planning to leave momentarily for the poll at Denison Elementary.

Two people on our list lived in a halfway house for mentally challenged individuals a block away from the school. One man had voted. The other, an older white woman, did not know where the poll was and was overjoyed when we offered to drive her there. The problem was her purse had recently been stolen and she had no identification, no utility bills or bank account with her address. Finally she found a letter someone had sent her and we took her to the poll which was crowded with last minute voters.

The poll worker at her precinct accepted the letter and showed me where we could sit and go over the lengthy six-page ballot. The woman knew she wanted to vote for Obama and Sherrod Brown but was unfamiliar with many candidates for judge and other offices and with the state and local issues on the ballot. We got through most of it and brought her home. She stood on the porch waving to us and calling us her "guardian angels."

Melissa called to say that one of the young volunteers had completed his canvass and needed a ride back to the staging location. We brought him to the Tropical and then drove him home. Then we were directed to pick up a woman who had just moved to the area and didn't know where her poll was. We took her and her visiting nephew to the nearest poll at Walton Elementary where I was happy to meet up with my wife Ann. Since the poll opened at 6:30 a.m. she had been phoning in each voter as they cast their ballots in Precinct P, which had been selected by the campaign to monitor the election in Ward 14.

We planned to get together for dinner when the poll closed.

The woman we brought was able to cast a provisional ballot since she was in the right location for her new address but was registered at her previous address. More than 31,000 provisional ballots were cast in the county and most, like hers, are still being counted. Her nephew, however, could not cast a ballot at that poll.

Wanda and I knocked on a few more doors before the polls closed. We found a restaurant, but Ann was delayed so we boxed her dinner and I took Wanda home. When Ann came home we were both ready to collapse but decided to head out to the watch party. That was how we ended a hectic and very happy Nov. 6.

Cuyahoga County provided Obama with 236,478 votes, enough to overcome Romney's 129,219 vote lead in the other 87 counties combined and giving Obama a two-point lead in the state. He won the county with 69%. In the predominantly Black wards on Cleveland's East Side he won with 96%. On the city's West Side he had 76%. In Ward 14, the most diverse of any ward, he won with 84%.

Photo: Haraz N. Ghanbari/AP

Ten certainties for the next four years

Thu, 08 Nov 2012 14:13:00 +0000

There is a lot of bloviating right now about how much we need bipartisanship, and how the Republicans must reassess their messaging to women, Latinos, and other minorities, gays, and youth if they are to have a hope of growing instead of shrinking into a regional party the is "too old, too male, and too white."

No one has a crystal ball to predict the exact course of the next four years. But it is useful to start with what we actually know.

First, for all the talk about how "moderate" Republicans need to reject the Tea Party, about the ultra-right candidates that lost them their chance to take the Senate majority, nothing will change in the Republican Party unless there is a change in who votes in Republican primaries. Absent that, in the internal battles sure to come inside the Republican Party, the right wing to ultra-right wing will continue to dominate. This may cost them national electoral success over the coming decades, but any change has to come from somewhere. We've already seen what the electoral defeat in 2008 did to the Republican Party, and it wasn't a reassessment in the direction of moderation.

Second, as we are already seeing, many on the right are continuing their rejection of reality, their rejection of the idea that they need to recognize that the broader electorate is changing, becoming more multi-racial, more liberal, and younger and more diverse in many ways. The more sensible, realistic among their leadership may recognize that reality, but for the present, their base will escalate efforts to send the Republican Party even further right. The Party of "No" will become the even-more shrill party of "Hell, no, give us back our country from 'those people!'"

Even more committed to no compromise except on their terms (meaning surrender to their terms, not real compromise), the battle in the Republican Party will be between those who argue for "adjustments" in the way the Republicans approach immigration, gay rights, and women's rights, and those who argue for escalating their rhetoric, their obstructionism, and their policy proposals in an even more right wing direction. Both sides will call for "change" in the party, but they'll be talking about different kinds of change.

Thirdly, reality in many forms is going to continue to assert itself, from more extreme weather due to climate change to continuing demographic, cultural, and political changes away from the Republican base. While the temptation of future victories on the national level will continue to tantalize the limited Republican intellectual elite, nothing has changed about the balance of power and ideology within the base of the Republican Party, and nothing has changed to limit the loud voices of Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and their ilk.

Fourthly, one thing that Republican commentators are saying is true: the country is still very closely divided. This national popular vote was way closer than it should have been, given the quality of the respective candidates and their campaigns. This will hamper efforts to create as many jobs as the country needs, obstruct efforts to address climate change, and continue to keep way too much of the focus on the national debt to the exclusion of real efforts to deal with the deficit by growing the economy.

Fifth, there are still many states with Republican governors (one more than before the election) and Republican controlled legislatures, and even if they have been given fair warning of the political costs, they will continue to try to implement the agenda they have been forcing on states over the past several years: voter suppression in the form of less early voting, more difficult voter registration, voter roll purges, intimidation at polling places, state laws that overturn democracy (as in the Michigan Emergency Manager law reversed by the citizens); anti-union measures of various kinds; anti-women's health measures of many kinds; state tax cuts for the already obscenely wealthy. The fights against these kinds of measures will continue in many states.

Sixth, Republicans in Congress are already trying to continue their efforts to insist that the national deficit is the main problem facing our country and that no increase of any kind in taxes on the wealthy can be part of the solution - both PR efforts that ignore math and common sense. They have been doing this for years, and they will continue to try and frame the national debate in terms favorable to their overlords' agenda.

Seventh, those on the Left who rejected Obama will find that instead of rejecting the negative aspects of his administration's policies, they ended up rejecting working with the coalition of workers, African Americans, Latinos, youth, women, gays, liberals, progressives, and even some sensible conservatives who created this Electoral College landslide. This election was not about Obama; it was always about the movement.

Eighth, while conservatives will deny that there was a landslide, the lopsided results in the Electoral College (undemocratic though that outdated institution is) make clear that the political, cultural, and demographic changes taking place are national in scope, not a one-time (or two-time) aberration. Every state, including the most conservative, is seeing demographic, cultural, and political changes. Of course, the process is much further advanced in some states, but it is a national phenomenon.

Ninth, while the Obama campaign team, as sharp this year as four years ago, put together a massive organization, it will be a struggle to get Obama and other Democrats to use this organization to fight for a progressive agenda across the board, and to use it fully to change the nature of the mid-term elections in two years. Legislative accomplishments happen not just because of legislative maneuvering, but also, even mainly, because of pressure from mass movements, which must keep that pressure up.

For example, four years ago, there was much discussion of the Employee Free Choice Act, but Republicans (and retrograde Democrats like Joe Lieberman and Ben Nelson) successfully kept it off the table. The labor movement and its allies need to bring it forward again, since it has the potential to fundamentally alter our elections. It will be fought against by many, but it would have real transformational impact for decades at least. Without sufficient pressure, the Democrats will trade it away for other legislative goals, which are less transformative.

Lastly, we can be certain that the class war waged by large sections of the capitalist class against workers, against living wages and decent working conditions, against collective bargaining, against public sector unions, against social benefits including Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare, and against the voting rights of large sections of the citizenry will continue. That aggressive attack must be met with mass organization and struggle if the people of this country, the vast majority of whom are workers and their families, are to get the fair shake they have earned many times over.

Photo: Donkey Hotey/Flickr

Romney’s defeat nothing to do with his Mormonism

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 21:41:00 +0000

Fifty years ago John F. Kennedy became the first Catholic elected as president of the United States. Today it's hard to believe that one once had to be a Protestant to hold high office.

We still have a long way to go before Congress reflects the diversity of the country in terms of race, gender, socioeconomic class or, yes, religion, but things are improving.

Among many others, this year's election has had several historic firsts when it comes to religious diversity. Hawaiian voters sent the first Hindu to Congress (Iraq vet Tulsi Gabbard) and the first Buddhist to the Senate (Mazie Hirono, who is also the first Asian Women in the upper house). Both major parties' vice presidential candidates were Catholic, another first.

But perhaps the most important religious breakthrough of the election is the non-issue of GOP candidate Mitt Romney's Mormonism. Romney is a devout member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS), popularly known as the Mormon Church.

While there was a lot of hand wringing in the media about Romney's faith in the Republican primaries, it did not prevent him from winning his party's nomination, making him the first LDS Presidential candidate of a major party.

But in the end Romney's defeat by President Obama had nothing to do with his religion.

Perhaps the initial fears were warranted. Many evangelical Christian denominations do not consider Mormons to be Christian and polls showed that a whopping 18% of voters would not vote for a Mormon candidate. Some Republican surrogates tried to question Romney's faith during the primaries, but the predicted flood of shadowy anti-Mormon ads never really materialized.

Conservative voters, even those suspicious of Mormonism, seem to have rallied behind Romney regardless of his religion. Even the dean of evangelical ministers, Billy Graham, embraced Romney, meeting with the candidate in the run-up to the election and removing references to the LDS Church as a "cult" on their website.

Romney is certainly the most well known Mormon candidate in U.S. history, but there is a long history of Mormon's in national politics. Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is a Mormon. Mitt Romney's own father, George W. Romney, was governor of Michigan and made an abortive presidential run in 1964. Many Mormons have served in the U.S. Cabinet: Mike Leavitt, Secretary of Housing and Human Services; Stuart Udall, Secretary of the Interior; Ezra Taft Benson, Secretary of Agriculture (who went on to become president of the LDS Church), to name a few. Ivy Baker Priest was U.S. Treasurer.

Joseph Smith, who founded of the LDS Church in 1830, ran for president in 1844, but he and the Mormon faith were unknown nationally. Even today, though Mormonism is the fourth largest Christian denomination in the U.S. with over six million members, many Americans still don't know or understand what the LDS Church is. According to polls only 57% of voters even know Romney is a Mormon.

Despite this election season being what some called a "Mormon moment," Romney's campaign avoided the specifics of his religious beliefs as much as possible. Despite rumors that the Republican National Convention would embrace Romney's LDS faith, it offered only a brief - but humanizing - glimpse into Romney's past as an LDS Bishop and Boston Stake President and experience as a missionary in France.

While we don't have a Mormon president today, it appears from exit polls and anecdotes that it was opposition to Romney's policies that was the basis of his defeat, not his faith. Romney's anti-immigrant, anti-union and anti-women politics, his dismissal of 47% of Americans, history with Bain and plans to gut government services was repellant not his religion. And as Harry Reid pointed out, Romney's political values aren't a reflection of Mormonism any more than Paul Ryan's reflect the Catholic social justice teachings.

The fact is Mormons like people of all faiths come from across the political spectrum.

We may never know how many (if any) voters sat out the election because of Romney's faith, but what is clear is that his Mormonism was never a campaign issue nor should it be. We may not be free of religious bias in the U.S. Candidates from outside the Judeo-Christian tradition, let alone atheist politicians, continue to face real challenges. What is clear is that for most people in the U.S., a candidate's faith is not as important as their ideas and policies.

Photo: Creative Commons 3.0