Edwards Fights For Higher Wages and More at ACORN Convention
This past weekend, over 2,700 Association
of Community Organizations for Reform Now (a national organization
representing low-income families) members gathered in Columbus, Ohio for
the 2006 ACORN National Convention. Under the banner Raising Our
States grassroots community leaders from around the country discussed
the national campaigns for better wages, fair immigration reform, Katrina
recovery and how to build stronger communities. On Monday, delegates took
part in a March and Rally to Raise the Minimum Wage (jmknapp has YouTube
video of the rally and march, see:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
). On Sunday, they heard a speech by John Edwards, whom Maude Hurd, the President of ACORN, stated "would make a great preacher."
Former senator, vice presidential nominee and current director of the
Center on
Poverty, Work and Opportunity at the University of North Carolina John
Edwards has been focused for over a year on trying to form a national movement
to end (or at least significantly reduce it among the working poor) poverty
in America. One of his core policies to alleviate poverty is a significant
raise
in the minimum wage. To that end, because the republican-controlled
Senate blocked a minimum wage increase, Edwards has taken his crusade to
raise the minimum wage and to combat poverty to the states, initiating a
program to put minimum wage raise propositions on state ballots.
There are four things that I like about how Edwards works with the issue
of Two Americas, Poverty, A Working Society, and the Minimum Wage and four things I think Democrats can learn/relearn from JRE.
1. It's a Big Idea:
"Big ideas
are something that the Democratic Party needs more of" (PsiFighter37).
"I believe in a Democratic Party of big ideas! I don't believe in a
Democratic Party of half-ideas and baby steps ... America needs us to lead"
(John
Edwards at ACORN)
What the Democratic Party needs is a vision about what it wants America to
become and have the policies flow from that vision. That vision for
Edwards is one of Patriotism, Civic Involvement, Community, Fairness, the
American Dream, whatever you want to call it.
The policies that come out of his vision -- universal healthcare, expanding
kindergarten, college tuition for National Service -- and those of other
prominent Democrats -- Gore's global warming and for alternative energy sources
comes immediately to mind -- ought to be at the core of the Democratic Agenda
in 2006 and 2008 (not just the routine recital of "healthcare, education,
environment" that is stale pap). Vision is wonderful and it's important
for a Party and a candidate to have a brand, but that has to be backed up
by a few signature initiatives/policies/programs to convince voters that
it's not just hot air. For example, for Edwards on the theme of One
America and significantly reducing poverty the policies are: raising minimum
wage, easing labor union organization laws, savings account assistance,
universal
healthcare, housing vouchers, crackdown on predatory lenders, etc. As
Bob Herbert
wrote what Edwards says is "different from the poll-tested, freeze-dried
political pap we've come to expect from politicians."
Edwards has pushed the need to have Big Ideas elsewhere, such as in his ITunes
podcasts and during a
speech
in South Dakota
Edwards said, "we need to have a lot of guts, quit worrying about
consultants and polls," and stand up for radically different ideas. He
contended the idea of moving the party to the center "is stupid, it won't
work."
He gave the example of pushing for universal health care, saying lawmakers
can hash out the best way to do it. "I haven't resolved in my mind how to
pay for it ... I am for universal health care, our party should be for universal
health care," he said....
Edwards said "we can't sit silently by and wait for (Republicans) to implode,"
and contended "it's not enough to offer slight differences to Republican
policies...."
A Big Vision lets voters know that we stand for something, that we have
untiangulatable principles. If we can agree on a core (and it's not
going to include everything on the laundry list) then we can regain the respect
of those swing voters we have lost.
At in the recent
National
Press Club speech Edwards laid out his vision of One America, a Working
Society:
In order to get the country on the path to eliminating poverty, we must
build a "Working Society," which builds on the lessons of the past to
create solutions for the future. At the heart of the Working Society is the
value of work. Work is not only a source of a paycheck, but also a source
of dignity and independence and self respect.
In a Working Society, we would create new opportunities to work. We would
offer affordable housing near good jobs and a million last-chance jobs to
people who cannot find work on their own.
In a Working Society, we would reward work. We would raise the minimum wage
and cut taxes for low-income workers. We would find ways for workers to not
only have but keep their health care and other key benefits, a topic Ill
return to in the future. We would help workers save for the future with Work
Bonds and homeownership tax credits. And we would create a million more housing
vouchers for working families.
And in a Working Society, we would expect work. In return for greater
investments, we would expect everyone who can work to work, for the sake
of their country, their families, and themselves.
Great framing: We value work, they value only wealth.
2. It's morally correct, unabashedly uses Values Language and has
a vision of American Patriotism behind it
JRE doesn't speak senatorspeak, he communicates with Americans in a language
they understand and concentrates on Values. The Democratic Party needs
to counter the Republican meme that we're valueless, amoral and without
principles. We need to speak to values as the basis for our ideas.
Edwards told ACORN:
There's a lot at stake in this fight. There are 37 million people who wake
up every day worrying how to feed their children. Aren't we better
than that?... We have a collective responsibility to do something about
it.... We will win, we're on the side of right, and justice and fairness.
The day before Edwards was in Cincinnati at a
Ohioans for a Fair Minimum Wage coalition
rally:
"Americans want to raise the wage. Ohioans want to raise it," said Edwards.
"The Republicans are thwarting the will of the American people."
Edwards said he has met with many people trying to raise families by stringing
together two, three or even four minimum-wage jobs.
"They're not asking to be rich," said Edwards. "They're just asking for
a living wage. And some respect and dignity."...
Edwards said he wants to see a time when "no one works full time and is still
in poverty. Not in our America."
http://oneamericacommittee.com/...
and elsewhere
"We can't wait for others to do this," said Edwards, a former North Carolina
senator. "There is too much at stake. We have to go out and fight with
backbone, passion and courage for what's right, moral and just."
The truth is we are going to ask the American people to sacrifice.
We're going to have to ask them to be patriotic. What
we do together matters. It tells something about the character of this
country.
http://www.news14charlotte.com/...
http://www.youtube.com/...
and most clearly during a
commencement speech at William
and Mary Law School, 18 May 2005:
"The American people believe in the dignity that comes from hard work. And
they understand that some people do everything right and the decks are still
stacked against them. They believe that this is wrong and they want to make
it right. Do you know why you have to end poverty in America? Because it's
wrong. In a nation of our wealth and our prosperity, to have millions
of Americans working full time and living in poverty, is wrong. They
are doing everything right and they're still struggling. This is what we
must change and this is what I am asking you to do today...
Let's make work pay again. What we know and understand in our soul is that
hard work built America. Men and women who worked with their hands and their
heads--who still do--don't want a free ride; they want a fair chance. That's
why you have to fight to raise the minimum wage in this country."
In an era after 9/11 -- when our heroes were initially public servants (police
and firefighters) -- and Hurricane Katrina -- which demonstrated clearly
to America that poverty still exists in America and that we need to help
each other in times of need -- there has opened up a unique opportunity to
change the American political mindset, to encourage a sense of what
I call Virtue. Virtue in the old Greek sense of public morality, viewing
one's fellow citizens as having claims on each other and being involved in
and treasuring community service. In the parlance of economist
Jared
Bernstein, a world view that substitutes WITT ("were in this together")
for the current YOYO
"You're on your own" view (note this seems to be contrary to Kos' ideas of
"Left Libertarianism").
3. It will really help lots of people to improve their lives and
their families
How does this effect regular people?
Jeremy Caplan has a great article in Time magazine,
"Trying
to Make A Decent Living; While some janitors struggle to get by, others are
climbing into the middle class. Behind the new battle over America's low-wage
workers." Caplan discusses Edwards' and Change to Win's push to
unionize service employees and make such unionization legally and
bureaucratically easier.
The first Justice for Janitors initiative began there in 1985. The campaign
sparked an 18-month standoff in which employers locked out unionized workers
and brought in replacements willing to work for lower wages. The janitors
eventually triumphed, and in the years since they have bargained their
way to health-care coverage, personal days and vacation time. When Gray
recently told a group of Cincinnati janitors about her wages, health-care
coverage and vacation time, "they didn't believe me," she says. "They wanted
to see my pay stub."
The city appears to have benefited too. In Pittsburgh neighborhoods with
high concentrations of janitors and other service workers, high school
graduation rates and home ownership rates have risen steadily
over the past two decades, according to Census data. Among janitors surveyed
by SEIU, the rate of home ownership had grown to 57% by 2005, an increase
of nearly 20% since 1990. Meanwhile the number of families below the poverty
line has fallen.
According to the
Economic
Policy Institute, the ratio of the minimum wage to the average hourly
wage of non-supervisory workers is 32%, its lowest level in 56 years. This
decline is causing hardship for low-wage workers and their families. Many
economists believe that a modest increase in the minimum wage would improve
the well-being of low-wage workers and would not have the adverse effects
that some critics have claimed.
President Carter, in his book Our Endangered Values, expressed his
disappointment, not only with the economic policies of the current Bush
administration and with today's Republicans, but also with their moral and
cultural values. He said:
"Despite touting concern for working Americans and private home ownership,
key political leaders in Washington have successfully blocked any increase
in the minimum wage, which has been held at only $5.15 per hour for eight
years and not indexed to accommodate inflation. (In comparison, in U.S. dollars
and based on currency values in April 2005, the minimum wage in Australia
is $8.66, in France $8.88, in Italy $9.18, in England $9.20, and in Germany
$12.74)
Assuming fifty weeks at forty hours per week, this sets the U.S. minimum
annual income at $10,300, below the poverty level, for tens of millions of
Americans who have full-time jobs." (p. 195)
4. It's damn good politics
By an overwhelming margin (83% to 14%), the American public favors raising
the federal minimum wage to $7.15 per hour -- a hefty $2.00 an hour increase.
And nearly half (49%) say they strongly support such an increase.
http://pewresearch.org/...
The minimum-wage campaign represents an attempt by Democrats to use ballot
initiatives to create a national message for the 2006 campaign season and
beyond and to encourage Democrats to come out the the polls during an off-year
election where mobilization is most important. Several academic studies have
shown that ballot initiatives can be particularly effective in midterm elections
when they can boost turnout as much as eight percentage points.
Republicans have killed the Kennedy Bill in the Senate in what Molly
Ivins called a "unnecessary and nasty move." Let's stick the wedge
to them! [Vulnerable northeast and midwest gopers are already running
scared:
http://hotlineblog.nationaljournal.com/...
]
Edwards also continues
working with
Senator Edward
Kennedy
(D-Ma) who, along with Representative George Miller (D-Ca), has introduced
the
Fair
Minimum Wage Act of 2005 (and 2006, toward passing it in 2007 and getting
it signed in 2009), which would provide economic relief to 7.3 million Americans
by raising the federal minimum wage to $7.25 in three steps by 2007, benefiting
15.5 million workers.
Minimum Wage Facts (from Kennedy website above)
The number of Americans in poverty has increased by 5.3 million since President
Bush took office. Thirty-seven million people live in poverty, including
thirteen million children.
Over the past eight years, the purchasing power of the minimum wage has
deteriorated by 17 percent. After adjusting for inflation, the value of the
minimum wage is at its second lowest level since 1955.
A minimum wage worker who works full-time, 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year,
earns only $10,700 a year.
Woman, minority and low-income workers are the largest groups to benefit
from a minimum wage increase.
A map of minimum-wage laws in the states is at:
http://www.dol.gov/...
For More Information
See Edwards' speech at ACORN at YouTube
(thanks mlair!)
http://www.youtube.com/...
or listen to it from the ACORN site at
http://knon.org/...
Citations
Columbus
Dispatch: Edwards stumps for higher wages; Former senator revs up meeting
of activists
Cincinnati
Enquirer: Edwards urges minimum-wage hike
The
AP Story on the ACORN Edwards speech
Reference: Minimum Wage
Laws State-by-State [Department of Labor]