US working class: restructuring, retreat, reaction

Introduction

On the contrary, important sectors of the working class voted for Bush and a majority supported the imperialist wars against Iraq and Afghanistan.* The Bush regime?s frontal attacks on the most basic rights of workers ? like Social Security, pension and disability payments, have not met with any mass protest from the working class. In this essay we will consider the structural changes in the composition of the working class, the decline and failures of the US trade union apparatus and the rise of mass fundamentalist movements as key determinants in the passivity, complicity and impotence of the working class in the face of the right-wing assault on working conditions, social welfare and living standards.

Restructuring of the Working Class

The US working class in the unionized manufacturing sector has declined by over 75% over the past 40 years. Between 1980-2000, millions of manufacturing jobs were relocated overseas ? especially to China, Mexico and other countries with low-paid labor. In the new millennium, hundreds of thousands of skilled manufacturing and service jobs have been outsourced abroad.

*By June 2005, after two years of war, and with over 25,000 US casualties (dead, wounded and mentally disturbed) the majority of the working class no longer supports the war or Bush.

Secondly many formerly unionized workers in meat packing, construction, restaurant and hotels, textiles and garment work have been replaced by illegal immigrants who work at a fraction of the wages previously paid to organized labor. Capitalists were aided and abetted by trade union bosses who intervened against militant local unions, help defeat strikes and signed agreements which reversed wage and benefit gains.

The working class today is overwhelmingly non-unionized (91%), a majority employed in the low-paid service sector, and over half without any adequate health and pension plans, job security or protection. The key point is that the ?worker aristocracy? ? highly paid, unionized workers in stable employment with generous social benefits ? no longer exists. A minority of workers is well paid and has social benefits but even these workers have lost their jobs due to subcontracting. The tendency is for these workers to increase their individual payments for health and pension funds. The dominant tendency is the diminution of the ?workers? aristocracy?. The minority of better-paid workers is non-unionized, with fewer and fewer social benefits and with conservative social attitudes.

In part this is the result of two types of enterprise ?relocations?. The great majority of new auto factories are established in the Southern States (Alabama, and Tennessee), not in the Northern States. All the major Japanese, German and Korean car manufacturers (Toyota, Nissan, Mercedes, Hyundai) have invested billions of dollars in new plants in the South, where they receive rent-free land, tax exemptions and anti-union, and pro-business legislation. The second relocation of investment is overseas, to China, Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean and to mineral and energy-rich countries. Over 50% of ?China?s? exports to the US are by US multi-national corporations. The US has shifted from ?industrial? to commercial? (comprador) capital. The biggest employees in the US today are the big department stores (Walmarts, Target, Lowes and K-Mart), fast food outlets (McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Wendys and Kentucky Fried Chicken) and supermarkets. The vast majority of the workers in these ?service? oligopolies are not unionized and all receive salaries near the minimum wage; and few if any employees are covered by health plans. Most of the work force is ?precarious?, under 30 hours of work, and there is a high rate of turnover.

Impact of Restructuring on Working Class Politics

The transformation, relocation and re-composition of the working class has had profound social and political consequences. The low-paid ?service workers? have virtually no sense of ?class consciousness?, they do not belong to any trade union, and their most influential ?social references? are religious organizations, gun clubs, the reactionary mass media and their managers. Thus the poorest and most exploited non-unionized workers, especially in the South, are most vulnerable to the ?moral? appeals of the fundamentalist evangelical churches which support the extreme right-wing of the Republican Party, George Bush. The Christian Zionists are allied with the Israeli government, the Israeli Jewish settlers and the major US Jewish organizations.

The majority of working class voters for George Bush are non-unionized, white, Southerners, religious fundamentalists and more often than not among the poorly paid service and factory workers. The religious right?s ?social program? is directed against women?s rights, homosexuals, trade unions, leftists, blacks, immigrants and in favor of blind chauvinism, militarism and authoritarian police-state legislation (the anti-terrorist ?Patriot Act?).

The polar opposite of this reactionary sector of the working class is found among Northern unionized workers, in large enterprises, which have a ?history? of class struggle and among minority workers in the public sector and social service unions. Within this group, black and Latino workers are the most militant, at least in terms of political attitudes to the imperialist wars, national health, social security, pensions etc.

Nevertheless the historical tendencies within the US political economy favor the expansion of the conservative sectors of the working class. First the percentage of unionized workers has declined from 35% to 12% in the past 35 years (among private sector workers only 9% is unionized!). Secondly the highest rates of unemployment are among young black workers ? over 40% among those 18-25 years old. Thirdly the relocation of manufacturing to the South and the decline in the North and Midwest strengthen the conservative sectors of the working class. The dominant position of non-union service workers is likely to continue and grow, increasing the proportion of workers who have no class organization, no spirit of solidarity and are easily manipulated by the Right. If structural changes lead to the ?conservatization? of the working class, the trade unions have played a major role in facilitating this process.

The Role of Trade Unions in the Right-Turn of the Working Class
The trade unions have played a major role in the weakening of working class solidarity by (1) making little or no effort to organize the mass of low-paid service workers; (2) by failing to challenge the new industrial capitalists in the South; (3) by supporting the pro-business Democratic Party; (4) by intervening against militant local unions and expelling local leaders and agreeing to end strikes on favorable terms for the bosses; (5) by forcing workers to accept contracts that reduce salaries, increase the power of the bosses to fire workers, intensify exploitation, and increase workers payments into pensions and health plans; (6) by collaborating with the State Department and the CIA in attempting to overthrow progressive governments (such as the case in Venezuela with President Chavez) which result in favorable opportunities for MNC to relocate their businesses outside of the US; and (7) by collaborating and maintaining ties with the Mafia in such unions as the Teamsters (transport and truck drivers), construction (laborers), port-workers (East Coast) and other major unions.

The ?trade unions? in the US do not function as trade unions, nor does the internal structure of these unions in any way resemble a class-oriented trade union. What are called the ?trade unions? in the US fail the basic criteria ? they do not strike, defend working conditions, protect jobs or raise wages and benefits. The history of the last quarter century demonstrate that ?trade unions? apparatus serves to discipline labor for capitalist exploitation, signs agreements to reduce social benefits and wages, and has no influence on government policy to secure any favorable legislation despite spending upwards of $100 million dollars to elect Democratic Presidents and congress-people.

The internal structure of the ?trade union? is similar to a corporation. The top officials pay themselves between $300,000 to $500,000 dollars a year salary plus expenses. Their ?staff? of advisers average $100,000 a year. The apparatus resembles a ?feudal? structure rather than a ?bureaucracy?: functionaries are appointed for their unquestioned loyalty to the officials above them. In many cases family members are appointed to high paying posts. Most top officials receive two or even more pensions when they retire: they collect pensions from their national, regional and local union funds.

Most ?union? officials are busy administering financial transactions, using pension funds and dues to lend to friends and relatives investing in real estate and other businesses. The main role of the trade unions is to administer ?services? ? credit cards, tourist vacations and discount merchandise.

The trade union ?organization? does not allow internal democracy. Most ?trade unions? are ?one-party states? ? with a single list, which re-elects the same leaders for decades or elects new leaders, appointed or selected by the preceding boss. The money paid to the Democrats is largely ?protection money? to secure immunity from prosecution for fraud, embezzlement etc, or to maintain a minimum of affiliates to keep collecting dues from the shrinking membership.

The decline and degeneration of the trade unions into a personalistic, authoritarian, executive apparatus tied to bourgeois parties and collaborating with imperialist policies means that US workers do not have any meaningful social reference to orient their political outlook. Workers see the ?trade unions? as another authoritarian pro-capitalist apparatus with little power or credibility. Yet over 50% of US workers who are not unionized think that trade unions could improve their living standards. The gap between working class preference for trade unions (50%) and the actual low level of trade union affiliations (12%) is explained by the lack of militancy and commitments to class struggle by the existing ?trade unions?.

Without class-oriented trade unions, other organized groups play a bigger role in influencing workers political attitudes, voting behavior and social values. For example, many millions of workers attend churches and are susceptible to influence by the clergy and their ?social action? agenda. The most active and better organized groups are the fundamentalist protestant groups who are allied with the ultra-right Bush regime and the Zionist neo-conservatives. There is a strong correlation between non-unionization, influential fundamentalist groups and working class voting for George Bush.

There are numerous other groups like the veterans groups (American Legion), gun clubs (National Rifle Association) and such, to which many workers belong and which support the most militarist politicians. Finally the fact that the AFL-CIO supports all the imperialist wars ? from Vietnam, Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan ? and wages war against progressive regimes in Venezuela, Cuba and elsewhere means that even unionized workers are pushed toward rightwing politics by the ?unions?.

No doubt there are many progressive local trade union militants and some local unions, who engage in protests against injustice and the war, but they do so despite the AFL-CIO confederation and not because of it.

Conclusion

Both objective restructuring of the US economy and the relocation of MNCs have weakened the organization of US workers and created fear and relative conformity in the face of the capitalist offensive.

Yet these ?objective? structural changes would not have taken place, if it were not for the degeneration and transformation of the trade unions into a reactionary business organization imbued with imperialist ideology and a shrinking membership of 9% of the private sector workers.

The convergence of the objective economic transformation of US capitalism and the absence of any national working class organization has made the US working class vulnerable to right-wing appeals. The only hope for the distant future is that a new trade union confederation will emerge which will turn to direct action to organize the 90% of the working class that is not organized, the 50% without adequate affordable medical coverage, the 70% with little or no pension coverage, the 80% which receives less than 2 weeks vacation a year, and the 99% of women workers who do not receive paid maternity leave.

May 23, 2005