The present upsurge & the crisis behind it

The uprising of Wisconsin public workers, vigorously supported by youth and students, has changed the map of class relations in the United States — and even beyond its borders. Coming after the tumultuous mass upheavals in the Arab world, it has further reminded all social classes of a fact that had seemed buried in the mists of time: that workers have the power to change society, and even run it, if they organize independently, fight militantly and are confident of their strength.

But why did it happen now? And, equally important, why hasn’t it happened before in all these years since the great organizing struggles of the 1930s? What is new in the current situation?

The current perception that this great struggle was caused by the political lineup at the state and federal level is widespread — but inadequate. The election of a Republican governor in Wisconsin — who owes his victory largely to donations from the right-wing, corporate-financed Tea Party movement — certainly adds to this perception, since it was Gov. Scott Walker’s outrageous “budget repair” initiative, with its meat-axe attack on the state’s public unions, that triggered the huge fightback.

However, budget cutting at the expense of workers, especially the savaging of social programs that have provided lifelines for the poorest and most vulnerable, is not confined to Wisconsin or to states with Republican officials. Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York is singing the same tune. So is Gov. Jerry Brown of California. Both are Democrats, as are many other budget-cutting governors and legislators.

On the federal level, President Barack Obama is not only planning to cut the federal budget, which is financed largely by income taxes on workers, but he has set up a commission that is demanding cuts to Social Security, Medicare and other so-called “entitlement” programs paid for out of separate funds, taken directly out of workers’ paychecks, that are really deferred wages.

Even the Democratic legislators who, as of this writing, have left Wisconsin in order to prevent the passage of Walker’s legislation, as well as leaders of the unions involved in that struggle, say that while they oppose this onslaught against the collective bargaining rights of state employees, they accept the need to cut the budget.

How times have changed

This hasn’t always been true. For a long time after the huge class battles that led to the formation of the CIO during the Great Depression of the 1930s, workers seemed to be moving forward in the U.S. More workers were being organized into unions; every few years they were able to negotiate contracts that improved wages, benefits and working conditions.

The notable exception was the South, where virulent racism weakened the entire working class, and unions were virtually banned.

During that time, there were cyclical crises of capitalism when markets became glutted, production was cut back, unemployment rose, and the bosses had a stronger hand in dealing with the workers’ demands. But then the economy would recover, and most of those laid off would be rehired.

However, in that same period, the big owners of capital came out far, far ahead. Smaller companies were bought up by larger ones. Workers’ wages may have gone up some, but the bosses made out like bandits. Millionaires became billionaires. (Let’s not forget, a billion is 1,000 times a million. Have even the best-paid workers’ wages gone up 1,000 times?) “Mom and pop” businesses virtually disappeared, giving way to chains and superstores. As productivity vastly increased, the banks and financial institutions reigned supreme. That’s where the wealth really piled up.

For the workers, a turning point came in the late 1970s. One of the first things President Ronald Reagan, a Republican, did was break the strike of the air traffic controllers in 1981. But the anti-labor offensive had actually begun under Jimmy Carter, a Democrat. By the mid-1980s, it was in full gallop. And it only intensified over the next quarter century.

Today, the working class in the U.S. finds itself in the greatest peril since the 1930s. The reason is high, persistent, long-term unemployment for tens of millions. When there are 10 or 20 workers available for every job opening, the bosses have the upper hand and can get away with murder.

But why is unemployment so high? This is where an understanding of how capitalism works is so essential, so that we know what it is we are fighting and how to overcome it.

This article cannot answer this question in all the detail it merits. But it can point the reader toward some remarkable books that explain why, just when productivity has reached such great heights, wages have dropped and unemployment has become endemic.

Two books that illuminate the present crisis

The first book is called “High Tech, Low Pay,” and it was written in 1986 by Sam Marcy, a Marxist thinker and organizer of many workers. It not only unravels this seemingly irrational development — that great improvements in technology would lead to lower pay for the majority of workers — but it also showed the flip side of this problem: that the hardships caused would lead to a great working-class awakening, like what is happening in Wisconsin even now.

The full name of the book is “High Tech, Low Pay: A Marxist analysis of the changing character of the working class.” Even 25 years ago, Marcy was able to show how big changes in the composition of the working class, changes that were beginning to override the conservatism of the preceding period, would eventually lead to an upsurge of struggle.

In place of a majority of relatively well-off, white, male workers, whose salary could provide for a whole family, the working class had expanded to include many more women and people of color from oppressed backgrounds. The conservatism of many union leaders had left these workers largely out in the cold, unorganized and having to accept lower wages and much worse conditions than what had prevailed.

It is these very workers who in recent decades have been the most militant and determined either to get into existing unions or organize new ones — from farmworkers in Florida to catfish workers in Mississippi and home health aides in California.

A more recent book, “Low-Wage Capitalism” by Fred Goldstein, published in 2008, brings up to date Marcy’s analysis. It shows how capitalism’s expansion on a world scale has further undermined the position of workers in the U.S. by creating a global labor market.

Both books explain that this trend is the product of the high-tech revolution, which has transformed the way work is done.

Goldstein’s book also has a subtitle: “What the new globalized, high-tech imperialism means for the class struggle in the U.S.” Like Marcy, he discovers in these trends not only increased misery but also the revival of a fighting spirit among the workers — like what we are seeing unfold today.

Marxism is not a crystal ball. Rather, it is a scientific view of class and social relations based on hard, stubborn, material facts. The scientific-technological revolution of the last four decades cannot be reversed, for it vastly increases the productivity of human labor. But in the hands of private owners — which is what capitalism is all about — this greater productivity leads to the ruination of the mass of workers, instead of a lighter workload and a better life.

The workers’ struggle has, ultimately, to take on the “right” of capitalists to own and control the great wealth created by labor. Both the strikes in Egypt, where workers have taken over banks and factories demanding justice, and the occupation of the Capitol building in Madison, Wis., by thousands of workers and youth show that we are entering a new period in which workers are refusing to play by the old rules, knowing that to do so would ultimately lead to their ruination.

“High Tech, Low Pay,” recently reissued in a new edition, and “Low-Wage Capitalism” are both available in paperback from leftbooks.com, as well as amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.

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