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Several years ago in Florence, I joined
a march with thousands of working people, protesting the Italian
government's raising of the retirement age. Formerly, workers
could retire after 35 years of work, but a new law wouldn't allow
them to receive a pension until they turned 65.
My wife pointed out the irony
of marching in solidarity with workers who had rights Americans
can't imagine. Later, several Italians demanded to know why the
average American worker doesn't have health insurance, higher
wages, better retirement benefits, more vacation time, and rights
that Italian workers take for granted. How can we be so stupid?
I had a hard time explaining why Americans support millionaires
and billionaires instead of taking up for themselves. They never
did understand and I don't either.
When I returned home, California
voters rejected a law that would have provided health care for
more workers, paid for by employers. The law had passed the legislature
and been signed by the governor, but before it could be implemented,
corporations convinced voters to place it on the ballot. Strangely
enough, rising health care costs were at the top of the list
of voter's concerns and they still voted against it.
As French students and workers
march to protest a new law that will allow employers to fire
employees without cause during their first two years of employment,
one might expect American workers to sympathize with them. They
don't. When I said I was on the worker's side, one friend criticized
me for taking sides instead of considering all sides of the issue.
Another minimum-wage friend became agitated when I protested
tax cuts for the rich and claimed, "I haven't given up the
dream of getting rich someday."
Many of us don't consider ourselves
workers, although 80 percent of us work for an hourly wage, which
has barely kept up with inflation over the past 30 years. The
rich, with our voting support, are doing fine. The top 20 percent
account for almost half of consumer spending, while the bottom
80 percent share the remaining 54 percent. Since 1984, 30-million
full-time workers have been laid off and forced to take lowering-paying
jobs, while the richest one percent of households increased their
share of corporate wealth from 39 percent in 1991 to 59 percent
today.
The media response to the French
workers strike may indicate why American workers fail to vote
for their interests. Despite right-wing claims of the "liberal"
media bias, the media reinforces attitudes detrimental to working
people. A recent analysis of the coverage of the French strikes
in the American press by FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting)
a media watchdog group, illustrates where Americans get their
attitudes.
A Los Angeles Times editorial
recommended that the French demand that all job guarantees be
loosened, while the "liberal" The New York Times suggested
the French loosen "rigid labor laws" and trim "costly
benefits." Fox News said, "workers don't want to work"
and claimed the French are angry because they can't get "a
lazy do-nothing job." ABC and CBS both derided the protesters,
and when asked about the injustice of allowing bosses to lay
off workers without cause, one reporter said, "But it is
this way the world over."
U.S. News & World Report
ignored the fact that French workers are more productive than
Americans and lectured the French about their 35-hour workweek,
six weeks paid annual leave, and job security, which are going
the way of "the dodo bird." Fox's Bill O'Reilly condemned
what he called American "socialism" that would guarantee
workers "a house, health care, a nice wage, (and) retirement
benefits."
Americans spout the anti-government
beliefs fed to them by hundreds of think tanks supported by the
richest of the rich, corporations seeking to avoid government
regulation and taxes, churches seeking a return to the Dark Ages,
and other right-wing forces that promote agendas to control the
country. Every week they release hundreds of op eds, reports,
TV shows, commentaries and well-honed arguments to convince people
to identify themselves as independent, laissez faire individualists
who oppose any government program to regulate workers trading
their time for a paycheck.
It's a wonder that American
workers support the 18th century robber baron agenda of the Republican
Party, a party that constantly votes against their interests:
tax cuts for the rich; judges who support monopolies and always
rule in favor of corporations; destruction of the environment;
deregulation of rules that protect consumers and workers; support
for an avaricious military-industrial-pharmaceutical complex;
rampant business and Congressional corruption; and a Congress
that refuses to raise the minimum wage, while raising it's own
pay seven times in eight years.
Working people are not here
to create a wealthy ruling class: it's time for us to demand
that our interests be protected and that a minority of people
stop getting the lion's share of society's benefits. It's time
we start identifying with other working people and find common
cause in correcting injustices and stopping legalized corruption.
At a minimum, it's time for us to vote for our own interests
and to take to the streets when our interests are ignored.
Don Monkerud is an Aptos, California-based writer
who follows cultural, social and political issues.
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