The American Wealth Machine

Last week I watched. “Slavery By Another Name” on PBS. I was ashamed and sickened by those stories. The history of the early years after the Civil War are unknown to most white Americans. Thanks to the civil rights movement of the 60s, I was familiar with the Jim Crow laws that ruled Black life in the South for most of the 20th century. But I had no idea that Blacks were essentially enslaved again right after Reconstruction. That they rebuilt the South and fueled the growth of both Southern and Northern industry. Without them, the South might never have recovered or built the industrial engines that anchored their economy.

While this documentary enlightened me about Black history, recent media reports, opened up broader questions about the creation of American wealth. In particular, a story on tomato workers, one about Apple’s manufacturing of my beloved iPads, and a podcast featuring Mike Daisey on “This American Life,” exposed the truth that our long history of exploitation in the service of the American economic engine continues. It is hard not to conclude that an unarticulated American core value is that we the people will tolerate worker abuse and outright slavery if it yields a higher standard of living or cheap gadgets.

We are proud to be the wealthiest country on earth. We have the best of everything and the most liberty. Or so we say. We believe that we got that way from the hard work of individuals, few restrictions on economic expansion, exceptional inventiveness, and a Free Market. As a result, Americans have been rewarded with unprecedented wealth.

Here’s the truth: key pieces of our economy depended on slavery, near-slavery, and the systematic exploitation of human and environmental capital. In the South, African American enslavement was critical to success. Chinese Americans were instrumental in opening up the West. Most recently, Mexicans (who we won’t even allow to become Americans), are exploited everywhere. Our economic well-being is predicated on cheap labor. Corporate greed was only briefly mitigated by the labor movement. As American labor got more expensive and the capacity to exploit without restraint became more difficult, American corporations went global. Today the abuse of Chinese labor is in the headlines. One of the richest corporations on earth, Apple, which was founded by a counter-culture kind of guy, created great wealth by outsourcing manufacturing to unregulated Chinese factory barons. Out of sight, out of mind.

The Occupy movement has exposed Americans to the discrepancies between rules for the 1% and the rules that govern the rest of us. But it hasn’t challenged the fundamental and unstated belief that it is OK to exploit anyone who is lower on the economic food chain in order to preserve your own place in the hierarchy. Without addressing the abuses of Free Market Capitalism (a la Milton Friedman), we will perpetuate an inherently unequal and immoral system. With the modern labor movement decimated by right-wing labor-busting tactics and internal corruption, no one protects workers. Worker abuses, whether in China or Florida, are human rights abuses. For all our talk about religion in this country, we feel little moral outrage about the treatment of those who farm for us, slaughter our animals, cook our meals, or build our phones. Tellingly, almost all of these people are people of color.

There is a ray of hope. There was this news yesterday about Foxconn which was likely in response to Apple’s move to address labor abuses. However, pressure on Apple and other tech companies must continue, given the attempt at a premature whitewash by the president of the “labor” organization investigating abuse. Addressing abuse here at home is harder, especially in a dismal economy. Labor -- whether in manufacturing, computing, agriculture or meat-packing -- is held hostage to the fear of deportation. For the middle class, the jobs get deported. For the working poor, they get deported.

We no longer lock people in cages, refuse to feed them, work them literally to death, and then dump them in unmarked graves. Every one of us should honor the men and women who died because we looked the other way while white Southerners enslaved a whole people, TWICE. But abuse, more subtle and often invisible, continues in our name. It’s past time for an American Spring.

She won??

It's getting hot. Very hot. More divisive than ever. My candidate 'won' the caucuses though perhaps not the delegate count. Things are still up in the air. Regardless, the reported voter alignment makes for interesting analysis.

Black and young voters overwhelmingly supported Obama. Black voters seem to be moving rapidly behind 'their' candidate. And youth have consistently lined up behind him, a clear trend that solidifies with every state contest.

Latinos and women overwhelmingly supported Clinton. The fact that Latinos supported Clinton despite their union lining up behind her opposition, is a huge surprise. In an open caucus in which you publicly declare whether or not you are for the union's endorsement or against it, Latinos stood up to their union and voted their conscience. I think I feel good about that but it sure may portend a dilution of the two big service unions' political power. This is important because so many service workers are Latino/Hispanic. And that demographic is the largest growing one in the country.

Women may turn out to be a wild-card in this election. The pundits and polls consistently harp on how soft Hillary's support is, especially among educated women. But women over 60 just might trump that and determine the outcome, along with Latinos. Both groups vote in high numbers.

But there is another undercurrent here that is only beginning to be gingerly discussed. There is very bad blood between Hispanics and Blacks. In my personal experience, they hate one another. The real 'race issue' here might just be the chasm between our two largest non-white ethnic groups. California is ahead....a huge Hispanic enclave. Feb 5th, here we come.

And in case anyone is wondering, yet again the turnout was huge -- over 100,000. Democrats are energized and are not staying home.

This primary season is going to be so close that we may not have a clear nominee for months. Who would have thought that? Certainly, not me.

Going Green - A Path Out of Poverty

It's easy to see "going green" as an elitist initiative. If you are committed to reducing your carbon footprint you can probably afford CFLs, energy efficient appliances, organic food. If you're poor or a vulnerable middle class family a Prius is not in your future. Buying organic food? Seriously ...just buying food is a struggle. But what if 'going green' was a path out of poverty or into a more sustainable job?

A new initiative hopes to enlist the masses in our country's transition to sustainable living . Green for All has a simple but ambitious mission: to help build a green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty. Here is how they describe themselves:

By advocating for a national commitment to job training, employment and entrepreneurial opportunities in the emerging green economy – especially for people from disadvantaged communities -- we fight both poverty and pollution at the same time. We are committed to securing one billion dollars by 2012 to create “green pathways out of poverty” for 250,000 people in the United States, by greatly expanding federal government and private sector commitments to “green-collar” jobs.

Green collar. What a great idea!

However, before we get all enthusiastic, let's think about this: Blue collar is dying in this country, and with it, the middle class. Will the same thing happen to those with Green collars?

Union membership is shrinking, in large part because since Ronald Regean the Republican-dominated government and courts, have allowed service and retail industries like Wal-Mart to punish workers who attempt to unionize. The Clinton administration unknowingly accelerated the process by supporting free trade and globalization. As manufacturing jobs evaporated, so did unions. How can a union effectively advocate and negotiate for its members if 1) there are too few members to shut down business and 2) if they DO successfully negotiate better contracts, the corporation counters by exporting jobs to countries with cheap labor, no unions, and no environmental or health protections. The game today is rigged to fuel shinking unions and shrinking jobs and a shrinking standard of living.

Bottom line: we won't revitalize jobs if those jobs can be exported or can be done by low-wage non-unionized illegal immigrants. Unions need to be involved in the development of green industries from the ground up. As we train people to rebuild our infrastructure and green-up housing, we also need to organize them into effective bargaining units or they will be just another loosely employed group with low wages and few benefits (like the roofing industry, for example). The Culinary Workers in Las Vegas and the SEIU are two unions that have made a difference, whose aggressive organizing efforts among low wage workers have catapulted those workers into a more secure middle class life. I may disagree with their politics, but I support their overall objectives, like globalizing unions so that world-wide action can be taken against global corporations.

I know, I know. The unions have their own corruption, their disproportionately well-paid bosses, and a sense of entitlement that must be reconsidered. But with all their flaws, they had a substantial role in bringing the good life to our parents, who in turn, provided one for us. Our standard of living owes a great deal to the union movement.

So, while we support efforts to create green jobs, let's also support the renaissance of the good old-fashioned union label!