Progressives everywhere must broadcast/share/amplify this so that it becomes a pledge we can use to hold a Biden-Harris administration accountable on labor issues. They open with a quote from MLK, which is both savvy and on point in refusing the wedge that some try to force between identity and class politics.
“The labor movement...was the principal force that transformed misery and despair into hope and progress … [When] the wave of union organization crested over the nation, it carried to secure shores not only itself but the whole society. Civilization began to grow in the economic life of man, and a decent life with a sense of security and dignity became a reality rather than a distant dream.”
They proceed to accurate diagnosis of the problem:
After generations of sweat and sacrifice, fighting hard to earn the wages and benefits that built and sustained the American middle class, unions are under siege. As workers struggle against a deadly pandemic, a painful recession and deep racial disparities, the labor movement also faces an additional burden: a union-busting president.
What some may call “populism”, rings to me as a call for a more egalitarian, just, and sustainable economy.
Strengthening unions and empowering workers is essential to our recovery from the devastating challenges Mr. Trump has allowed to fester. We need to finally get serious about defeating the pandemic, digging out from the worst jobs crisis in nearly a century, and healing the long-standing wound of racial injustice. And a big part of meeting those challenges will come from seizing this opportunity to build an economy that serves the dignity of the hardworking people who make it run.
Then they pivot to the brass tacks of a solution, under the heading of a “Biden-Harris Build Back Better” plan.
The plan starts with a transformational $2 trillion investment to rebuild America’s infrastructure, lead the world in clean energy and position our auto industry for a long, bright future. That investment will revitalize schools, roads and bridges; modernize our communities; and make our airports, seaports and inland waterways the finest in the world. And by finally investing in another form of infrastructure — America’s long-undervalued bedrock of caregivers and educators — millions of people will be freed up to pursue the dignity and security that comes from landing a good job.
After committing to the role of organized labor as an essential right and part of the national economy, they turn to an optimistic and stirring peroratio.
There is no question that working people have the capacity to solve the crises we’re facing today — but the only way we’ll emerge from those crises with an economy that works for everyone is by summoning a new wave of worker power. We owe it not only to those who have put in a lifetime of work, but to the next generation of workers who have only known an America of rising inequality and shrinking opportunity. All of us deserve to enjoy America’s promise in full — and our nation’s leaders have a responsibility to deliver it.
This is precisely the kind of economic philosophy statement that progressives have been looking for. It’s smart politics, as it offers something to rust belt working-poor and unemployed. Now, of course, campaign promises are not real promises. They can be nothing but pandering lip service to constituencies that are often discarded the minute they become inconvenient or politically challenging. But they also create openings for us to lobby for policies, if we are steadfast and united.
Skeptics will dismiss this as empty rhetoric. I read it as an open door to a Biden administration to effect the socio-economic transformation that progressives have been fighting for. It certainly seems a strong acknowledgment of the costs of the neo-liberal consensus in which Biden himself has played a role in past decades. This is as clear a commitment to organized labor and as lucid an acknowledgment of its necessary role in the common good as I’ve seen from a democratic candidate in my lifetime.
www.post-gazette.com/...
