POSTED BY MARTIN KICH

For the Labor Day newsletter distributed by the L.A. Progressive, W. J. Astore has contributed a very succinct article on labor and democratic socialism. It makes the very important point that voters have to look beyond the ideological catchphrases that focus exclusively on the supposed implications of political labels. Instead, voters need to consider the specific things for which individual politicians are actually advocating.

Here are the opening paragraphs:

Labor Day weekend is a reminder there’s no labor party in U.S. politics. Instead, we have two pro- business parties: the Republicans and the Republicans-lite, otherwise known as the Democrats.

Both are coerced if not controlled by corporations through campaign finance “contributions” (bribes) and lobbyists (plus the promise of high-paying jobs should your local member of Congress lose an election or wish to transition to a much higher paying job as a lobbyist/influence peddler). With money now defined as speech, thanks to the Supreme Court, there’s a lot of “speech” happening in Congress that has nothing to do with the concerns of workers.

Nevertheless, a myth exists within the mainstream media that “socialist” progressive politicians are coming this fall to take your money and to give it to the undeserving poor (and especially to “illegal” immigrants, who aren’t even citizens!).

First of all, the so-called Democratic Socialists are not advocating nationalization of industry; they’re basically New Deal Democrats in the tradition of FDR. Just like Republicans, they believe in capitalism and the “free” market; they just want to sand down some of the rougher edges of exploitation. Consider, for example, Bernie Sanders’s efforts to get a living wage for Disney employees. Disney has finally promised to pay workers $15.00 an hour (phased in over the next few years), even as the corporation makes record profits and the CEO stands to earn hundreds of millions.

Second, you’ll notice the bulk of the Trumpian tax breaks aren’t going to the workers and middle class: it’s the richest Americans (and corporations) that benefit the most from these cuts. Some of that money is supposed to “trickle down” to workers, but most of it doesn’t. (Funding stock buy-backs, not pay raises, is especially popular among corporations.)

My father knew the score. As a factory worker, he lived the reality of labor exploitation, and fought his own humble battle for decent wages.

In the rest of the article, Astore details some of that “Humble battle for decent wages.”

The complete article is available at: www.laprogressive.com/labor-day-weekend/?utm.