(Two
essays adapted from a talk in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, March, 15, 2014)
Harry Targ
Today’s
War on the Working Class
Robert Reich has been a visible observer of the “war on poor and
working families.” Recently, in a trailer from his new film Reich suggests that
the “war” has been prosecuted across seven political fronts.
First, politicians in both state and national governments have
opposed extending unemployment benefits for those who have experienced
joblessness for long periods of time.
Second, these same politicians oppose raising the minimum wage.
Third, in several states governors have rejected federal resources
to support Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act.
Fourth, Republicans, with Democratic co-conspirators, have passed
legislation (signed by the President) that included cuts in food stamp
payments.
Fifth, at the federal level the Congress has been unwilling to make
decisions to invest in education and expanded job training programs.
Sixth, in addition, Congress has rejected proposals to invest in
rebuilding the American infrastructure (roads, bridges, transportation
facilities, and green energy manufacturing).
Finally, in red states and Congress there has been a sustained
campaign to destroy the labor movement. After a thirty year attack on unions in
the private sector, in Congress, and in red states (and in some cities like
Chicago) campaigns are underway to destroy public sector unions.
The War
in the Florida Political Economy
Historically, the Florida economy was built on land theft; the
Spanish, the British, and later North American occupiers of the land of Native
Peoples. Also escaped slaves traveled to Florida in the early nineteenth
century, before Florida joined the confederacy and later embraced Jim Crow
segregation.
After the Civil War, the Florida economy was stimulated by growing
citrus, raising cattle, railroads, and early tourism. Over the next 150 years,
through cycles of growth and decay the Florida economy and population expanded.
Tourism, real estate, finance, and agriculture have been the mainstays of the
economy since World War I. Today, Governor Scott celebrates the fact that 94
million tourists visited Florida in 2013.
As of December, 2013 the Florida civilian labor force exceeded 7
million workers. The manufacturing and mining work force consisted of some
700,000 workers, while leisure, hospitality, education, health and other
service employment totaled about 2.5 million. In 2008 the unionized work force
in the state was 6.4 percent of all workers, about 2.3 percent in the private
sector, and 28 percent in the public sector.
Florida is a right-to-work state. Data show that right-to work
states have less union density and consequently lower wages, fewer benefits,
worse working conditions and lower wage levels for service workers, and lower
wages for women, Latinos, and African Americans. As Bruce Nissen wrote in 2009
(“Benefits of Unionization in Florida: Facts and Figures,” Research Institute
for Social and Economic Policy):
Even
though unions are commonly associated with manufacturing, with the decline of
that industry and the rise of service sector work unions have become an
important way for service sector workers to maintain a standard level of wages
and benefits. Unlike many manufacturing jobs, service jobs are harder to
offshore and so will continue to be an important source of employment in places
like Florida which depends on low-wage service jobs for a significant portion
of its economy.
The Research Institute on Social and Economic Policy (RISEP) at
Florida International University (FIU) recently published an updated report
“State of Working Florida, 2013.” The report compiled a broad array of data
examining changes in the economic circumstances of Floridians since 2000 as to
employment, income and inequality, living costs, and poverty. In total, the
authors indicate that the living standards of most Floridians have declined
over the last twelve years. They report declines in employment rates, median
hourly wages, and hours worked. They point out that over this period of time
poverty rates, inequality, and consumer prices (including housing, food, and
transportation) have increased significantly. Despite growth in state Medicaid
and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) benefits, the decline in
wages and increased living costs more than overshadowed their increases.
Critically RISEP underscored the impacts of the primacy of service
sector employment (and implicitly low rates of unionization) on declining
living standards for workers. “Florida’s main employers, private sector
service-providing industries such as retail trade, accommodation and food
services, and administrative and waste management services are contributing to
the decline in the standard of living due to an overall decrease in the wages
and work hours offered.”
In addition RISEP reports that lowering real wages lead to reduced
consumer spending and overall declining economic growth in the state. Low
wages, growing unemployment and under-employment coupled with increased inequality
all translate into economic stagnation for the many and the accumulation of
enormous wealth for the few. In other words, the Florida economy needs more
jobs at higher wages. This would include increased investment in “sustainable
industries like wholesale trade and health care and social assistance.” RISEP
could have recommended adding federal and state allocation of resources for a
green jobs agenda and investments in rebuilding the infrastructure and
addressing threats to the state’s environment. In the short run RISEP advocates
a significant increase in the minimum wage (beyond Florida’s inadequate boost
to 7.93 cents per hour), laws requiring coverage of workers’ sick leave, and
new stringent laws to prevent wage theft.
The
American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and the Theory of the “Deep State”
ALEC was founded in 1973 by Paul Weyrich and other noted
conservatives such as Senator Jesse Helms to raise money and to coordinate the
creation of a counter-revolution in the American political system. Its vision
was one of deregulation, privatization, weakening workers’ rights, and the facilitation
of the unbridled accumulation of private wealth. The achievement of these goals
required the public rejection of positive
government; the idea that for societies to function public energies,
resources, and commitments are needed to create and maintain institutions to serve the people.
ALEC established a network of prominent politicians at the national
and state levels, created well-funded lobby groups, supported “research” to justify reactionary
public policies, funneled money to conservative political candidates running
for office virtually everywhere and at all
levels of government. ALEC created “model” legislation to be introduced
verbatim in legislative bodies everywhere on subjects including right-to-work,
charter schools, and privatization of pensions. While politicians pay dues to
join ALEC, over 98 percent of ALEC’s
budget comes from corporate contributions from such economic and
political influentials as Exxon/Mobil, the Koch brothers, the Coors family, and
the Scaife family.
ALEC claims to have 2,000 legislative members and over 300
corporate members. Corporations which have benefited legislatively from their
affiliations with ALEC include but are not limited to Altria/Philip Morris USA,
Humana, United Healthcare, Corrections Corporation of America, and Connections
Academy.
One of ALEC’s prominent projects is the creation of the “State
Policy Network,” a collection of think tanks in every state (funded up to $83
million) to generate research “findings” to justify the rightwing model
legislation generated by ALEC. SPN studies have been disseminated on education,
healthcare, workers’ rights, energy and the environment, taxes, government
spending, and wages and income equality (Center For Media and Democracy,
“Exposed: The State Policy Network,” November, 2013, p.6)
Of particular concern to workers are the ALEC model bills that have
been introduced in states including:
-right-to-work legislation
-rules increasing the freedom of governments to hire non-union
contractors
-reducing pensions for government employees
-repealing minimum wage laws
- eliminating prevailing wage laws for construction workers
-encouraging so-called “free trade” to outsource work
-privatizing public services
-gutting workers’ compensation
The role of ALEC, the Koch Brothers, and the largest
multinational corporations and banks in America suggest that politics
increasingly occurs at two levels. First, at the level of transparency, we
observe politics as “games,” largely about electoral contests, gossip and
frivolous rhetoric. News junkies avidly consume this first level glued to the
television screen or the social network.
However, Mike Lofgren, a former Republican
Congressional aid has introduced the idea of another level of politics, what he
calls the “deep state.” Lofgren defines the “deep state” as “… a hybrid association of elements of government
and parts of top-level finance and industry that is effectively able to govern in
the United States without reference to the consent of the governed as expressed
through the formal political process.”
(Mike Lofgren, “Anatomy of the ‘Deep State’: Hiding in Plain Sight,” Online University of the Left, February
23, 2014). Others have referred in
similar ways to invisible power structures that rule America (from C. W. Mills’
1950s’ classic The Power Elite,
Oxford University Press, 2000 to Robert Perrucci, Earl Wysong, and David
Wright, The New Class Society: Goodbye
American Dream? Rowman and Littlefield, 2013).
The distinction between politics as games vs. the
deep state suggest that the power to make critical decisions reside not in the
superstructure of the political process; the place where competitive games are
played for all to see, but in powerful institutions embedded in society that
can make decisions without requiring popular approval. In domestic politics,
the “deep state” apparatus such as ALEC and its network of organizational ties
has initiated a resource-rich campaign--from the school board and city council
to the state and nation--to destroy the links between government and the people.
And the public face of the deep state includes the selective and manipulative
character of experts, pundits, and major sources of news in the media.
A report from Progress Florida and the Center for Media and
Democracy, November 13, 2013, identified two “front’ groups which have
advocated ALEC policies, the James Madison Institute (JMI) and the Foundation
for Government Accountability ((FGA). Mark Ferrulo, Progress Florida executive
director, said that “…ALEC relies on conservative ‘think tanks’ like JMI and
FGA to insulate themselves against increased public scrutiny and widespread
exposure of the controversial corporate-driven policies they promote….Be it the
economy, environment, education, workers’ rights or access to health care,
State Policy Network member groups promote policies that are not only designed
to fatten the bottom line of their corporate funders, but are consistently
harmful to Florida.”
Part
II will address the current political responses to the “war on the working
class.”
