Part One: Recognizing the Core Problem
In decades past, young men of my social upbringing spent Sundays under the hood of their cars. Roadster or station wagon, the car always needed work and we needed the car to pursue the American dream. The difficulty was: Every time we figured out how to fix one thing, something else would go wrong. We were not trained to look at the internal combustion engine as a complex, integrated system. We treated the symptom that would enable us to get through the day.
Modern vehicles with computer diagnostics have all but eliminated the culture of auto mechanics. If something goes awry, you find out in short order the root cause of the problem and correct it.
The problem of compulsive auto repair was solved by looking at the big picture, taking the grand view and treating the system as a whole rather than the symptoms.
Unfortunately, the lesson of auto mechanics has not been applied to modern economics, foreign policy, health care or politics. We are constantly treating symptoms with a short-term outlook while the root cause of our problems goes unattended.
Beyond moral bankruptcy, one reason we are bogged down in the catastrophe of Iraq is our failure to comprehend the dynamics of the region and foresee the chain of events that logically follow an illegal occupation in the Middle East.
We have given over our health care system to megalithic pharmaceutical corporations that stand to profit by treating symptoms while the causes of our infirmities are ignored. Likewise, insurance companies are enthralled by the prospects of mandated coverage as long as nothing is done to control costs or regulate unethical practices.
Similarly, our political system has devolved to its current state because we reset the bar every two to four years, accepting the lesser of evils as a reality of politics. It is a system that encourages short-term outlook and short-term solutions.
Perhaps the clearest example, however, of our failure to take the grand view is our distorted vision of global economics.
When our corporate politicians and their allies in the corporate media announce a crisis and begin to obsess on certain issues, when the perceived problem has existed for years or even generations, we should ask two questions:
First, why now? Are we being distracted from other pressing concerns? If it was not an issue in the last election or the election before that, why is it suddenly a crisis?
Second, if we could solve the perceived problem overnight, would we in fact be better off or would other problems emerge as a result?
Partly to distract us from a catastrophic foreign policy and partly to distract us from the failures of global “free trade” policy, we are observing a political obsession with the perceived problem of illegal immigration in relation to the very real problems of declining wages, increased debt, the home foreclosure crisis, inadequate retirement benefits and the dual crises of the cost and quality of health care.
I submit that all of these problems, real or imagined, are directly attributable to the corporate free reign that has held court over the policies of the last three American presidents, that has taken control of the European Union and dominates the wealthiest nations of the world.
Beyond Iraq and policies of war, immigration has become the burning issue of post-industrial democracies. Reactionary politicians sound the alarm and proclaim to the electorate that all of their problems – wages, retirement, the cost of health care, on and on – are caused by the influx of foreign workers. Moderate and progressive politicians retreat because, having already signed on the to the corporate “free trade” mandate, they are unable to articulate the counterpoint.
If, by some divine act, the borders could be made impenetrable and all undocumented or illegal immigrants were immediately deported to their native homes, we would not be better off than we are – we would in fact confront greater problems.
The reactionaries may claim that illegal immigrants are stealing our jobs and depressing our wages but anyone who has worked an hour in their shoes knows better. If the perceived problem were eliminated overnight, we would face a critical labor shortage in service jobs and numerous industries, including corporate farms, processing plants and construction. Countless businesses would fold and the processes of job exportation and automation would be accelerated. Workers would not be granted higher wages or increased benefits and consumers would face higher prices and lesser services.
The reason we would not be better off is that the influx of immigrants is a symptom of the disease. Treating immigration as the cause is like treating spots on the hands while the liver fails.
The real cause of the problems we face is that international corporations have taken sole control of economic policy. They have had their way in deregulating corporate behavior, reducing public services and privatizing government functions. More critically, they have virtually eliminated the counter-balancing power of organized labor from the policy-making equation.
The corporate world is profit motivated. Every action and every initiative is calculated to the profit margin. Even the safe evacuation of a major city or the cleanup of a toxic dumpsite must survive a cost-benefit analysis. When government function has been reduced to optimizing corporate freedom, the only power on earth that can counterbalance corporate greed is organized labor.
The solution to our systemic problems, then, is not to treat the symptoms as if they were isolated anomalies, but to attack the disease of unfettered corporate rule in a globalized economy.
PART TWO: TREATING THE CORE PROBLEM
Removing corporate dominance of our political systems is one important part of the solution to the problem of an unbalanced global economy. The other is reasserting the counterbalance of organized labor both domestically and internationally.
Revisiting trade agreements, as some of our politicians are willing to do, is only a small but important step. Rebuilding organized labor within nations requires legislative initiative, beginning with a prohibition of all “right to work” laws. Such laws have little to do with an individual’s right to work and everything to do with banning the right to organize the labor force. Concurrently, we must avoid the mistakes of the past that have contributed to labor’s demise. Too often labor unions have become entities separate and distinct from the workers. Too often they have become corrupt power brokers bent on their own interests. To the extent possible, we must make sure that unions are controlled by the workers themselves. Labor should be directly represented on all corporate boards of directors.
Internationally, the process should begin with a clear and concise statement of the universal rights of labor much like the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948). This powerful document addresses labor rights and is far more suitable as a foundation for the rights of labor than the Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work of the United Nations’ International Labour Organization (1998) – a document that appears hopelessly corrupted by the influence of the World Trade Organization and other instruments of corporate globalism. Among its shortcomings, it fails to acknowledge the right to living wages, minimal health and retirement benefits and the right to strike. Moreover, it specifically rejects use of the declaration for “protectionist purposes.”
The universal rights of labor should be established by an international consensus of labor representatives and must include: the rights to organize and petition without fear of retaliation, the right to a living wage (i.e., sufficient to provide shelter, food, clean water and medical care), the right to safe working conditions and the right to strike.
The declaration must be disseminated freely to the people of all nations, including China, India, Indonesia and Malaysia. The right to exchange ideas and information across borders via the worldwide web is essential and must be secured by sufficiently severe penalties that negate the profit motive for enforcing the censorship policies of oppressive nations. Labor representatives may be barred from operating within such nations regardless of international law but free and open access to the Internet will serve much the same purpose.
Once established and disseminated, the Declaration of the Universal Rights of Labor should gather signatory nations and all signatories should be held to account. Ultimately, trade should be restricted to nations that uphold the rights of labor.
It is fundamentally simple yet infinitely difficult to achieve. The juggernaut of corporate globalism has taken hostage the political mainstream. International corporations will not readily yield what they have fought so hard to achieve. Ultimately, they will only yield when they are forced to recognize that the monster they have created will inevitably turn on its creators. As we sit, the global corporate mandate is eating away at the working, middle class consumer societies that feed the corporate beast. When the working people of affluent nations can no longer consume the products of a cheap global labor force because they cannot afford basic needs, profits will dry up and the system will crash.
Assertion of the international rights of labor would represent a comprehensive redefinition of a globalized economy and it is the only way to solve the systemic problems we are now confronting.
Even presuming we can change North American and European policies, China will of course present a prominent challenge. To hold sway over China, we must wean our economy of the debt that China largely finances. Still, China cannot sustain its own economic growth without the consumer markets of North America and Europe.
In the end, all nations must and will understand that consumer economies cannot be sustained without a vibrant international labor movement.
It is achievable.
Along with global climate change, the abolition of nuclear weapons, and the elimination of war in international conflict resolution, globalization of the rights of labor is among the most critical issues of our time.
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