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Highlights This Month

Is the Bush Stimulus Going to Help You?

There's a national economy, and then there's a "people's economy." Guess which one will see more "relief."

By Nomi Prins, The Wip, posted in AlterNet

The rhetoric surrounding George W. Bush's economic stimulus package, as boastfully "bi-partisan" as it is (we are, after all, in an election year), indicates a complete lack of comprehension of the difference between this 'national' economy and the 'people's' economy, and the extent of the gap between the two.

The unveiling of his plan was classic Bush: state something ambiguous about a $140 billion adrenaline shot, then have your cronies act as wingmen. Hence, at last Friday's press conference, Treasury Secretary and former Goldman Sachs CEO, Hank Paulson was left fending off uncomfortable questions like: would the plan help "elderly people on fixed incomes?" His answer: "The Christmas season has come and gone."

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RJ Matson

Guest Workers or Forced Labor?

By Rebecca Smith, New Labor Forum

Years after experts and ordinary people alike realized that our immigration system is broken, after literally dozens of hearings on immigration reform in Congress and around the country, after reams of paper devoted to reports by experts and commissions, temporary worker programs continue to bedevil immigration reformists. The crux of the problem is the inherent contradiction posed by a program intended to protect local workers, but import desperate others to work in their place; to serve business’s need for workers, but control its desire for cheap labor.

There is a disconnect between the on-the-ground experience under guest worker programs and our national political debate on immigration reform. Long, sorrowful experience, chronicled from Ernesto Galarza’s 1965 book Merchants of Labor through Southern Poverty Law Center’s 2007 Close to Slavery, demonstrate that guest worker programs may never match “willing workers” with “willing employers” in situations of equal bargaining power. The debate has centered on how many guest workers can enter, and how long they will be allowed to stay in the country, but with little attention to the intricacies of balancing human and labor rights against business interests in a global economy.

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Consumer prices rise as workers’ real wages decline

Financial institution losses signal deeper crisis

Paul Pederson, The Militant  

The U.S. Department of Labor reported in mid-January that consumer prices in 2007 increased by the highest percentage in 17 years, especially for basic necessities. It reported that workers’ wages, after adjusting for inflation, dropped last year. Meanwhile, holiday sales were the lowest they’ve been in five years.

In January, two major capitalist institutions, Citigroup and Merrill Lynch, reported multibillion-dollar losses in the last quarter of last year, an indication of the broader world financial crisis.

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Signe Wilkinson

Will Dems Follow Through on Promises to Fix NAFTA?

Washington is long overdue for making sure U.S. trade policies put workers and the environment above corporate interests.

Sarah Anderson, Institute for Policy Studies

Even Hillary Clinton, whose husband rammed NAFTA through Congress 14 years ago, has vowed to "correct its shortcomings."

Since NAFTA has been the model for U.S. trade policies, reopening this pact could theoretically pave the way for a whole new approach that puts workers, the environment and communities above narrow corporate interests.

The key question, of course, is how far would the Democrats be willing to go?

For years now, economic justice activists have had to look to the Global South for bold political leadership on globalization. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva played the key role in deep-sixing a plan to expand NAFTA to the whole hemisphere. In 2005, he also teamed up with other developing country leaders to block corporate-driven efforts to expand the World Trade Organization's powers.

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Trades work to hire more minorities, women

Ben Sears, People's Weekly World Newspaper  

A landmark agreement reached last month could open the way to diversifying the construction workforce here. Pending approval by the City Council, contractors, the city’s Convention Center authority and the building trades unions, new major Center City projects could be affected. The deal would set measurable goals and percentages for hiring workers of color and women.

While the agreement has not been officially approved by all parties, it would mean that, of the 1,400 workers who will be needed to build a $700 million expansion to the downtown convention center, 25 percent would be African American, 10 percent Latino, 5 percent Asian American and 10 percent women.

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