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Obama could unite nation by investing in labor movement – American scholar
Published: 28 October, 2010, 10:41
Edited: 31 October, 2010, 10:14
TAGS: Conflict, Protest, Politics, Human rights, Mass media, Information Technology, Immigration, USA
Trade union protests in the US do not even come close to those in Europe, because America does not have a welfare state, believes professor and historian Norman Markowitz.
Recent polls say nearly half of Americans believe the federal government poses some kind of threat to freedoms and civil rights. Markowitz said the US media is another reason why many just sit on the couch to see what happens, rather than take to the streets.
“Americans are the most media saturated society on Earth. They are bombarded with counterfeit opinions that come from the mass media to them. And they are encouraged to believe that these are their opinions, their ideas,” said Markowitz. “They have become consumers, against actors and producers of political culture.”
He said the ideas reflected in the media belong to the right, far right, and center of politics that “would be considered conservative in the European context.” The left does not exist in the media and “labor leaders are almost never taken seriously in media – unless they go on strike.”
Today the labor movement in the US is roughly one third of what it was at the end of World War II. It does exist, but “its history has been deformed by Cold War anti-communism and by some of the worst labor laws in the developed world,” explained the historian.
“The labor movement has aligned itself with the Democratic Party since the 1930s,” said Markowitz. Despite the trade union national leadership being much better in terms of its commitment to workers’ rights, at the same time “the relationship with the Democratic – it’s been called by some a ‘bad marriage’, they know it is bad – but they are afraid to get out.”
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“What happens if the working class is not working? Than they become what in Marxist terms would be open proletarian, the marginalized poor,” warned Markowitz.
He recalled Ridley Scott’s anti-utopian movie Bladerunner, making parallels between the modern America and the world of Bladerunner. In the film there is a group of enormously powerful corporations belonging to the elite that colonizes outer space, and huge numbers of people living in endless slums.
“The US is the richest country in human history in terms of its general wealth and it has more poor people than any other rich country in human history,” he said.
Tens of millions of Americans are disadvantaged after the recent economic collapse and they could potentially support forces which would proclaim to solve the economic problems at the expense of immigrants, minorities and ordinary workers – making “the possibilities potentially catastrophic.”
The need for a third party to change the political establishment is obvious, but a potential creation of mass labor party stumbles over the fact that “the people most committed to progressive political action happen to be the most loyal to the Democratic Party,” Markowitz revealed.
He expressed hope that, “The working people will fight off the reactionary and quasi-fascist forces who call themselves the Tea Party and other absurd names which have nothing to do with what they really are. Hopefully the Obama administration will begin to ally itself with labor and progressive forces.”
The Obama administration, if it wants to make a real change, should start to create a real public sector, bail out people and “begin to invest in the masses, begin to invest in labor.”
Professor Markowitz once said and still believes that Barack Obama could become a unifying leader for the working class in the US because there is no other alternative in the short run or in the medium term.
“The defeat of the Obama administration can only mean the strengthening of not only reactionary but racist forces, and set back peoples’ struggle in the US” concluded Markowitz.
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This Markowitz is full of it, he claims that the US has more poor people than any other country really? with 300 million people living in the US and 1 Billion in China and India I say he has discredited himself. He also says that there is no left wing media only Right wing this is a fat lie! the fact that they are not openly calling themselves communists doesn't make them Right wing fascists like there is really a difference between the two . He is correct that there is a huge gap between incomes in the US, corrupt politicians, special interests groups, the removal of the Glass Steagal act and the Democratic party making it easier for people who can't afford to buy homes causing a housing bubble. But lets not over look that the economic collapse of the US was done on purpose. We are being de industrialized for the advancement of a one world government something Markowitz supports.
What does "Labor movements in the USA" mean???? Historically, "Movements towards Labor" OR "Labor towards Movements" are words that incite fears of a "COMMUNIST TERROR PLOT" attacking the survival of all god-fearing-patriots in the USA. In the USA "EMPLOYMENT" for most "EMPLOYEES" is a written/unwritten contract with God/Jesus, patriarchy, national chauvinism, ethnocentrism/ethnophobia, flunkeyism, neo-fascism, prejudice, obedience to global corporate consumerism, financial/economic insecurity and ecological terrorism. Concepts such as "The Constitution", "Sustainable Development", "Critical Thinking", "Humanism", "Class solidarity", "Justice", "Liberty" and "Peace" are just Words/Dreams/"Pie in the sky" that are Alien to the everyday experiences of most citizens/"sleeping beauties" of the Great USA!!!!!
"“The US is the richest country in human history in terms of its general wealth and it has more poor people than any other rich country in human history,” he said." Take note he said any rich country, not any country in general. Sure, India and China are large economic powers, and China has the largest currency reserves in the world, but I doubt he meant them when he said "rich" countries. I think you should read the article better before claiming Markowitz is wrong. The fact is that what the US considers left wing, most consider right-of-centre, or centre even. There is no actual mainstream left wing media in the US. That Fox News claims CBS or ABC to be left-wing is not very indicative of reality, and more along the lines of propaganda. Fox News likens itself to be centric, which outta give you an idea of just how much out of phase the American political spectrum is from reality. All media in America is controlled by 5 corporations. And propaganda runs rampant, masquerading as news, where government officials and powerful individuals are regarded as the primary legitimate sources for news. It has gotten to the point that CNN has a two-tier news system, where what is reported in the US is vastly different from that in the rest of the world, as if it reported what it does in the US everywhere, it would be ridiculed as the blatant propaganda that it is. It wasn't the Democrats that caused real American wages to stop increasing since the 80s, forcing the middle class to take up greater debts in order to be able to own their own homes and vehicles etc. The US doesn't have to be deindustrialised in favour of a one world government; that just gets American corporations higher profit margins by moving industry to low wage nations, which the US government openly supports ensuring around the world.