Obama and the Fiscal Cliff fiasco

The supporters of this blog are republishing the piece below and this blog is in general agreement with it's critical analysis including that workers' need a political party of our own as an alternative to the two parties of Wall Street. We differ that such a party has to have a socialist program initially for socialists to participate in it.  We believe this objective process inevitably means such a party will not have a socialist program from the outset.

As the mass movement against the capitalist offensive develops it will take organizational form and that includes independent political action. Socialists must welcome and participate in such a development and actively help this process along in a non-sectarian way.  

However, as we help build such a mass party we recognize that ultimate success rests on building a revolutionary current within it that will struggle to end capitalism and build a democratic socialist global community. And with this approach, the most combative workers, those who have drawn the conclusion that capitalism has to be ended and replaced, will be drawn to and participate in building such a current

Behind the “fiscal cliff” debate

Obama spearheads social counterrevolution

World Socialist Website, 31 December 2012

As of this writing, talks are continuing between congressional Republicans and the White House on the eve of the so-called “fiscal cliff.” It is not clear whether an agreement will be reached over the next few days, or if the manufactured crisis atmosphere will continue into the New Year. What is clear, however, is the overall direction of US social policy and the fact that the real target of both sides in the Washington debate is the working class.  It is necessary to demystify the whole process, which is characterized by an extraordinary level of posturing and lies, behind which is concealed a conspiracy against the American people.

The “fiscal cliff” is an artificially erected deadline, laid down as part of previous negotiations and aimed at creating the conditions for implementing unpopular measures that previously would have been considered politically impossible.

If Washington “goes over the cliff,” the impact will be felt most directly by working people, including tax increases that will effectively cut take-home pay for workers by 7 percent and the immediate elimination of unemployment insurance for 2 million long-term jobless, followed soon after by the cutoff of benefits for another 1 million people. Federal workers will face unpaid furloughs, and essential social programs, from energy assistance to child nutrition to education grants, will be hit with across-the-board cuts.

This is only the beginning. The fiscal cliff is the first in a series of artificial deadlines established for the New Year. There will be another deadline in late February over raising the federal debt ceiling—the same issue that became the pretext in August 2011 for a bipartisan agreement to cut over $1 trillion in social spending over the next decade. In March, the “continuing resolution” adopted before the election to authorize federal spending for six months will expire.

Each deadline will be utilized as the occasion to go after the most important federal social programs: Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, which provide retirement income and pay for health care for tens of millions of elderly, disabled and poor people. The phony debate over a minuscule tax increase for the rich—which will be quickly replaced with “comprehensive reform” to lower income and corporate taxes next year—is intended to conceal this reactionary agenda.

The overall strategy of the ruling class was evident in an interview with President Obama aired Sunday morning on NBC’s “Meet the Press” program. While most press attention focused on his remarks criticizing congressional Republicans for balking at even the slightest increase in taxes on the wealthy, there was comparably little commentary on Obama’s embrace of cuts in entitlement programs.

Challenged by moderator David Gregory to “talk tough to seniors,” Obama replied, “but I already have, David.” He cited his support for the so-called “chained” consumer price index, a revised formula for calculating increases in the cost of living that will reduce future benefits for Social Security recipients. “Highly unpopular among Democrats,” Obama continued. “Not something supported by AARP (American Association of Retired Persons). But in pursuit of strengthening Social Security for the long term, I’m willing to make those decisions.”

In the Orwellian language of American politics, “strengthening” a social program means permanently slashing the benefits it provides, just as “balance” and “fairness” mean gutting the conditions of tens of millions of working people while imposing a token and temporary tax increase on bankers and CEOs. According to Obama, if millionaires and billionaires pay slightly higher taxes, while the hungry eat less, poor children see the doctor less often, and the elderly lower their thermostats because they can’t pay the fuel bill, that constitutes “everybody doing their share.”

Towards the end of his interview, Obama went out of his way to deny any connection to the past liberal traditions of the Democratic Party. “I’m not driven by some ideological agenda,” he said. His own position in the talks on the fiscal cliff called for “maintaining tax cuts for 98 percent of Americans,” he said, adding, “I don’t think anybody would consider that some liberal left wing agenda…that used to be considered a pretty mainstream Republican agenda.”

Obama’s remarks on “Meet the Press” are only the most explicit of a series of statements and actions by the White House since the November election. The Democratic president is reassuring his main constituency, the American financial aristocracy, that he is single-mindedly devoted to preserving its interests.

In the course of the presidential election, liberal publications like the Nationmagazine and a panoply of pseudo-left groups such as the International Socialist Organization portrayed the reelection of Obama as a blow to the right-wing agenda of the giant corporations and banks. The truth is that Obama and the Democrats represent the financial aristocracy no less than the Republicans. In fact, Obama became the preferred candidate of the ruling elite, as demonstrated by his campaign cash hoard of more than $1 billion.

Obama is spearheading the social counterrevolution that is the common policy of the ruling classes of the entire world—from Europe to Japan to the United States. In every country, the representatives of finance capital, having plundered national treasuries to bail out the banks and speculators, are now demanding that the working people pay the price.

The entire framework of the official budget “debate” is reactionary and false. It is based on the lie that there is no money for social programs such as health care and education, or for decent wages and benefits for the working class. Corporate profits and the fortunes of the financial elite continue to soar, while social inequality reaches unprecedented levels. It is estimated that US corporations are currently sitting on $3 trillion to $5 trillion in cash reserves.

The actions of world governments, led by the US, are dictated by definite class interests. Under conditions of deepening economic crisis, the ruling class is seeking to defend its wealth through a historic retrogression in the living conditions of the vast majority of the people.

To fight the bipartisan policy of austerity, the working class must break with the Democrats and take up a struggle against the Obama administration and the capitalist two-party system. This means building an independent political movement based on a socialist program that defends the social rights of the working class—to jobs, decent wages, health care, education and a secure retirement—rather than corporate profits.

Patrick Martin

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AFL-CIO's answer to Hostess Bosses? Hope.

By Richard Mellor

"While Hostess Brands is trying to scapegoat the workers and members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM), the real cause of the company's collapse can be traced back to its crony capitalism and consistently poor management. " AFL-CIO on Hostess dispute.

Taking an example from Barack Obama's playbook, Frank Hurt, the president of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers Union says that he is in a "position to be hopeful" in the wake of the Hostess Brand's attempts today to have a judge accept the company's bankruptcy plans to close 36 plants and layoff 18,000 workers.

It seems that what Mr. Hurt and the entire trade union leadership are being hopeful about is that some good capitalists will step in and buy the business; rescue workers from the "crony capitalists" that have ruined it .  The Wall Street Journal opened it's piece on the dispute today, "The Union that brought the 85 year old baker of Twinkies and Wonderbread to its knees....", this is the dominant voice of capital in the US, this is their opening salvo in a report about these events.  The capitalists know their "line of march".

Hurt is hopeful, that there is "more than a good chance"  that some of these good capitalists will "swoop in to buy the profitable parts of the company and give his members their jobs back" the WSJ adds.  It seems the hopeful Union official has misunderstood the work arrangement.  If these jobs were the workers' jobs, "his members" jobs, they would still be in them.  His members own the ability to work, their life activity, that the owners of capital simply bought and used over a period of time just like they would buy a chair or a vehicle.  The right to work does not exist in capitalist society. They do this because in the process of producing commodities with this life activity (what we call work) the owners of capital extract more value than they lay out in the process.  This is where profit comes from once they sell the finished product.  When better opportunities arise, the owner of capital, in a capitalist society has every right to employ their capital somewhere else. This is what they mean by freedom.

So the good Union leader can "hope" all he likes, the process will be played out.  We did not "hope" Unions in to existence unfortunately, our lives would have been a little easier but history a lot more boring.  As the good Union leader hopes Donald Trump might come along and out of the goodness of his heart purchase the use of his members life activity again, the bosses make their position clear.
"Nobody wants to have anything to do with these old plants or these union or these contracts", says Hostess CEO Gregory Rayburn, referring to the good and the "crony" capitalists. Rayburn explains that there was some interest from a group of coupon clippers that own Pabst Blue Ribbon but their interest was based on a nice bankruptcy and that a "..liquidated Hostess would be free of its collective bargaining agreements."  Investors buying the company certainly wouldn't do so if it meant hiring back the workers who had struck. It's, "..beyond wishful thinking" says the CEO who earns some $2 million a year. They know the class lines and make sure they are on the right side of them. Their politicians, the courts, the police, the military ( a somewhat more risky element) are all used ion the battle to eliminate the workers' organizations.

Ken Hall of the Teamsters, whose union accepted the company's concessions, has no answer to the bosses either.  He supported the concessions although he will not have to work under the contract he tells his members is inevitable. Hall's three salaries totaled more than $250,000 in 2008 according to the TDU.  He doubts the bakers' Union leadership's view that someone will come in and buy the company, "Our view is that this is going to be a fire sale.", he tells the WSJ. He is right as the comments from the coupon clippers show.  As I stated in an earlier piece on the Unions, the bosses are not afraid of the Ken Hall's of this world.  Every leading labor official in the country has made it clear openly and emphatically that there will be no resistance to the bosses' efforts to drive US workers down to the levels of our brothers and sisters in India or Vietnam.  The coupon clippers are very confident after years of cooperation from the heads of organized Labor, even cooperating with them in the firing of uncooperative local leaders as the UAW leadership did in the dispute between one of their locals and the Freightliner corp in Cleveland NC.

We do not have to look far to see an alternative to the "hope" tactic.  Every dispute at the point of production must be generalized and linked to the struggles in our communities against foreclosures, or home robbery as it should be called.  Against the lack of health care, the cuts in education the crisis of youth unemployment and the growth of the prison industrial complex.  The war against public sector workers and the services we provide is the same struggle. The public sector, the most unionized sector, is being blamed for the economic crisis just like the coupon clippers at Hostess are being blamed  by the Wall Street Journal.  Factories like Hostess should be occupied and appeals be made to all workers and our communties nationally to come to the aid of these workers.

The idea that we can rely on the so called "good capitalists" or their politicians to rescue us is a proven failure.  Every freedom we have, every benefit and progressive social legislation, every right we have, has been won through the struggle of organized workers against organized capital. We can only rely on our own strength and only have to look at our history and our best traditions to see what works.  Workplace occupations, mass direct action and through that, independent political action is the road we must take.  Being prepared to violate their laws, challenge their authority through mass direct action was what broke the back of Jim Crow, General Motors and the Industrial capitalists who murdered workers with impunity in their rapacious quest for profits.

We reject that we have to compete with other workers domestically or overseas.  Workers throughout the world are fighting for their lives and futures against the very same forces that are destroying our lives here in the US; we must unite with global workers' against global capital.  If we look closely we will see that the workers who were shot in South Africa for striking the mines there, were shot by forces under direction of the very same forces that are savaging workers here.  Our first step is to reject austerity and backward motion.  But we have to recognize that we have to go further.  The wealth in society is our collective product.  How it is used in future production should be determined by those who collectively created it. If we decide we stop producing Twinkies and apply capital in a different way then we do so for the collective benefit of society.   But no one loses the right to work.
We have to control how we produce life which means we have to take it from the hands of the clique that presently owns the capital which is an essential part of the production process.  But it is only that portion of it spent on human Labor power that adds value and creates the wealth that the coupon clippers amass which makes it our distinct product.

History changes. How we produce the necessities of life changes. The only thing constant is change said Marx.  Every ruling class teachers that the system of production they govern is the only system of production and will last for all time.  Human history proves this false. Workers don't control the production of ideas in society that are taught in their schools, and especially universities, and we don't own, manage and control the means of producing the needs of society either------but we can and it's time we did.  The future of humanity is dependent on it.

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