Is democratic socialism coming back, and can it pull us all together? Here in the U.S., all is divided between the Democrats and the Republicans (GOP for Grand Ol’ Party), the unions and the money people. So the winners are the people who can settle their differences the quickest. On the Democratic side, who depend upon unions for boots on the ground and money at this time probably will not happen for unions are not happy with the trade agreement and the lack of support from Democrats.
The unions used to blame the Blue Dog Democrats, but now it seems that there are a lot more of the Blue Dogs-types of anti-union politicians in office. If the Democrats are going to depend on union help, they must give the unions the tools to work with because the GOP has just about emptied the union tool box with passage of Right to Work laws and attack on the right to form unions and collect dues.
The GOP has kept the unions on defense, which has slowed the unions’ offence, such as with organizing new members. This stress on unions has now taken a toll on union solidarity with the uncertainty in planning or who to support or not support. The unions need a national meeting to put their houses in order before all is lost. This is owed to the workers.
There also needs to be a new strategy for the proletariats here and in the rest of the world now that the corporations are in many countries and have gotten major trade deals through like the Trans-Pacific Partnership. With the new trade agreement, unions could be held liable for any loss that can be attributed to a union. Unions might have to reorganize to become unions without holdings to prevent losing what they have in a lawsuit.
Labor needs to keep fighting for the $15 to $18 an hour minimum wage and against austerity worldwide. If austerity continues, the capitalist system will die because there will be no money spent by the masses, which will ultimately starve the capitalist system. This is why more people are turning to the socialist system, which levels the playing field for everyone. Under the capitalist system, only a handful of people prosper, so why would a person with any semblance of intelligence support the capitalist system and austerity?
Democratic socialism is not Marx’s idea of socialism of the public owning or controlling all of production, but a liberal platform that looks and smells a lot like President Franklin D. Roosevelt. As presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders explains, democratic socialism would see the U.S. with more financial regulations on Wall Street and cable companies (for example), a higher minimum wage, free public education, universal healthcare, reigning in the military complex, and eliminating income inequality.
To change the abundance of labor in the world is to put more money in the pockets of the laborer to buy the products their fellow workers are making. Otherwise, when there are more products than money, there is slump in the economy. Austerity policies, low wages and automation (robots) were also of concern in the 1950s when Henry Ford II, CEO of Ford, took Walter Reuther, head of the United Auto Workers Union, on a tour of a new engine plant.
Ford gestured to a fleet of new machines and said, “Walter, how are you going to get these robots to pay union dues?” The union leader turned to Ford and said, “Henry, how are you going to get robots to buy your cars?”
This type of change in the labor has created a new type of working class that swings from task to task in order to make ends meet while enduring the loss of labor rights and bargaining rights. They are called “precariat” workers, a group of workers who live on the verge of collapse due to the instability of the nature of their job…