Like all social democrats, Fletcher has a lot of ideas but no way to put those ideas into practice.
Over three-hundred authors, professors, entertainers and labor bureaucrats comprise "Progressives for Obama" but none are engaged in grassroots/rank-and-file campaigns which would exert the kind of pressure required to coerce an Obama Administration down this road.
This is classic social democracy... all talk, no action.
Before reading Fletcher's fairy-tale, perhaps read today's Associated Press reports first:
Link: http://apnews.myway.com//article/20081012/D93P0I680.html
Efforts on global warming chilled by economic woes
Oct 12, 10:22 AM (ET)
By DINA CAPPIELLO
WASHINGTON (AP) - The economic free fall gripping the nation may bring down one of the main environmental objectives: capping the greenhouse gases that are blamed for global warming.
Democratic leaders in the House and the Senate, and both presidential candidates, continue to rank tackling global warming as a chief goal next year. But the focus on stabilizing the economy probably will make it more difficult to pass a law to reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. At the very least, it will push back when the reductions would have to start.
As one Republican senator put it, the green bubble has burst.
"Clearly it is somewhere down the totem pole given the economic realities we are facing," said Tom Williams, a spokesman for Duke Energy Corp., an electricity producer that has supported federal mandates on greenhouse gases. Duke is a member of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, an association of businesses and nonprofit groups that has lobbied Congress to act.
Just months ago, chances for legislation passing in the next Congress and becoming law looked promising. The presidential candidates support mandatory cuts and a Democratic majority is ready to act on the problem after years of the Bush administration's resisting federal controls.
But the most popular remedy for slowing global warming, a mechanism know as cap-and-trade, could put further stress on a teetering economy.
Under such a system, the government would establish a market for carbon dioxide by giving or selling credits to companies with operations that emit greenhouse gases. The companies can then choose whether to invest in technologies to reduce emissions to meet targets or instead buy credits from other companies who have already met them.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., said that in light of the economic downturn, a bill that would give polluters permits free of charge would be preferable.
"The first way we can control program costs is by not charging industrial emitters," said Boucher, who released a first draft of a bill this past week with the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich. Giving away right-to-pollute permits was one of the options.
Other Democrats, however, see a cap-and-trade bill - and the government revenues it would generate from selling permits - as an engine for economic growth. Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama supports auctioning off all permits, using the money to help fund alternative energy.
"If you see this as a job creation opportunity for the U.S. to develop the products that are then sold around the world, then you should be optimistic about what the impact of passage would mean for the American economy," said Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass.
Conservative Republicans who were never fans of a law to curb greenhouse gases have used the economic downturn as a rallying cry.
Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe, the senior Republican on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, in a blog entry this month criticized 152 House members for releasing a set of principles to tackle global warming in the midst of the economic turmoil.
"The current economic crisis only reinforces the public's wariness about any climate bill that attempts to increase the costs of energy and jeopardizes jobs," Inhofe said.
Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, took the argument a step further when he said the Boucher-Dingell bill could lead the country "off the economic cliff."
But even supporters of federal regulation of greenhouse gases acknowledge that something has to give given the state of the economy.
Sen. John Warner, R-Va., a lead sponsor of a Senate bill to curb greenhouse gases that failed this year, acknowledged that the economy could delay when reductions in carbon dioxide would start.
Warner told the AP that any bill should allow the president to decide.
"We must continue to think and devise a piece of legislation that will enable the president of the United States to control timing ... dependent on the president's analysis for the ability of the economy to assume the financial burdens," he said.
The U.S. is not alone. As the economic crisis has spread to markets across the globe, work to curb greenhouse gases elsewhere has stalled.
Earlier this past week, Rajendra Pachauri, head of the U.N. climate panel, said discussions about global warming solutions were "on the back burner." Pachauri shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former Vice President Al Gore for their work on climate change.
"I'm absolutely sure that climate change will be the last thing people will think about at this point in time," he said. "Sooner or later, they will come back to it."
The upside is that in hard economic times, and with high energy prices, the amount of pollution in the air tends to decline.
That will slow global warming somewhat, but there are already enough heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere to cause the temperature to rise.
"I really wish that the science of global warming would look at the newspaper, and say we have an economic crisis so the Earth will stop warming," said Dave Hamilton, director of the Sierra Club's global warming and energy program. "But that is not going to happen."
Alan L. Maki
By Bill Fletcher, Jr.
The following piece is from the fall 2008 issue of New Labor Forum.
Preface/The Setting
Two days after the November 2008 elections, Democrats
and their allies are still celebrating the decisive
defeat of Republican John McCain. With his defeat comes
the chance to render unto history the remnants of the
Bush/Cheney regime that so ruined the lives of the
bottom 80 percent of the U.S. population, and turned
most of the world against the U.S. Eight years of
Bush/Cheney have brought incompetence, jingoism, and
neoliberalism. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,
disasters such as Hurricane Katrina, and the deepening
economic crisis have served to discredit much of the
conservative agenda, even going so far as to generate
despair among the right-wing evangelical base.
Let's imagine that, after several months of drafting,
the final touches are being placed on what has come to
be known as The First 100 Days: A Working People's
Agenda for the First 100 Days of the Incoming Democratic
Administration. This project, initiated by members of
the AFL-CIO, Change To Win, as well as several
independent unions and other progressive working-class
organizations, has identified several key areas where
the new Democratic administration must take bold steps
within its first 100 days. Let's also imagine that the
drafting committee collected hundreds of ideas and
developed an extensive list of recommendations for an
even more comprehensive agenda; but the committee's
delicate task was to focus first and foremost on the
emergency steps required to rescue the country from the
potentially deep, and already devastating recession, and
two disastrous wars.
Within a week, the document will be presented to the
President-elect and his transition team. The atmosphere
in this final meeting is one of both excitement and
anxiety as everyone realizes that just as this document
is being drafted, several other documents are being
drafted by various forces representing constituencies
whose interests are antithetical to those of working
people. The responsiveness of the President-elect to
The First 100 Days will depend not only on the logic and
persuasiveness of the document itself, but also on the
capacity of the constituencies uniting behind this
document to back up each word with people power.
The Crisis
The U.S. has plunged into a significant economic crisis
which, at a minimum, is heading toward a conceivably
severe recession. Yet the crisis is not simply about
the immediate economic situation. A series of factors
have contributed to an economic unraveling that is
fueled by political uncertainty:
The living standard has declined for the average U.S.
worker since the mid-1970s. While productivity has
increased, workers' pay has decreased. Structural
unemployment has worsenend as sectors of the economy
have begun to reorganize, move, or disappear altogether.
In addition, the adoption of neoliberalism as the given
economic framework in the capitalist world generally and
the U.S. in particular, has meant an assault on the
public sector and public service, a factor that became
tragically apparent when Hurricane Katrina hit.
Meanwhile, the domino effects of a credit crisis (that
began as part of the speculative boom in housing prices
and values), continue to destroy the lives and savings
of millions of working people.
Neoliberal globalization, in both its military and
non-military forms, has brought unprecedented levels of
migration. In the U.S., as part of this global
migration, we have seen a steady increase in immigration
from the 1970s (particularly from Indochina), through
the 1980s (largely as a result of the Central American
wars), into the 1990s and today (stemming from the
collapse of the Soviet bloc, along with the passage of
the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the
migration of Mexicans into the U.S.).
Efforts at some form of national health care have been
undermined since World War II, largely by the political
Right. Renewed attention to the more than 44,000,000
people lacking any health insurance, along with the
legions of people who have inadequate healthcare
coverage, surfaced in the early 2000s.
An environmental crisis has enveloped planet Earth
sooner than many people, including many scientists,
expected.
Workers remain under attack, and not just as a result
of a problematic economy. The ability of workers to
join or form unions has worsened with each year.
The global community is becoming more unequal. In
terms of income and wealth, inequality has consistently
grown under the neoliberal order. In the U.S., the top
one percent controls more than 35 percent of the wealth.
At the global level, the richest 225 individuals have
more wealth than the bottom 47 percent of the world's
population. This dramatic wealth disparity, not seen in
the U.S. since the 1920s, is a major source of social
instability and resentment, undermining the entire
notion of democracy.
Inequality in the U.S. also has a racial and gendered
face to it, due to a regression from the victories of
the civil rights and women's movements, along with the
growing tendency to blame the setbacks of white men on
those who have been subjected to historic
discrimination.
War (in Iraq and Afghanistan) and the national
security/neoliberal authoritarian state have changed the
terms of domestic and international politics. In
addition to destroying the countries involved, these
wars are a tremendous drain on the U.S. budget (with a
cost of approximately $845 billion by the end of
2008).[1] Insecurity in the U.S. has also increased in
response to the rising global resentment toward.U.S.
policies abroad. The growth of the neoliberal
authoritarian state has brought a decrease in actual
democracy and civil liberties.
While the situation facing the U.S. and the rest of the
world could be described in greater detail, the
preceding depicts the key elements of the current
emergency. The Bush administration and its allies (as
well as the McCain campaign) have lived in denial,
perpetuated lies (such as those in connection with the
illegal U.S. invasion of Iraq, as well as the hostility
toward Iran), and promoted the interests of the rich.
The time has now come to fight for the bottom 80
percent.
The Federal Emergency Response
The new administration's first initiatives must be both
domestic and global in scope. There is little time to
engage in the politics of symbolism, playing to a
particular constituency, rallying troops to the 'flag,'
without speaking to the deep-seated nature of the
challenges that we face.
At the same time, it must be understood that the efforts
within the first 100 days cannot represent the totality
of the new administration's program. A mandate to bring
about more sweeping change must be organized and
mobilized over the coming months and years. This will
require a combination of movement-building and building
a broader social consensus in favor of significant
structural change.
With that in mind, let us itemize the agenda:
1. Immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops, bases, and
mercenaries from Iraq and Afghanistan.
This should involve the following:
Asking the United Nations (UN) and Arab League for
assistance in creating a multi-national, transitional
team to bring the various forces on the ground together,
along with regional powers, to negotiate a long-term
resolution of the conflict and the stabilization of
Iraq.
The elimination of any obligation on the part of the
Iraqi government to fulfill agreements imposed upon Iraq
during the reign of Paul Bremer.
Bilateral discussions with Iran regarding future
policies and relations with the U.S.
Multi-party discussions between the U.S., Pakistan, and
the various political forces in Afghanistan regarding a
permanent political settlement.
Reparations from the U.S. (and any other country or
group that interfered in the internal affairs of Iraq
and Afghanistan) placed into a reconstruction fund
established by the UN.
A renouncement of any U.S. intentions to have permanent
bases in Iraq or Afghanistan; a withdrawal of U.S. bases
from Saudi Arabia; a renouncement of U.S. intentions to
secure control over oil and/or natural gas reserves in
the region.
Immediate talks toward establishing a U.S./European
Union/Russian/Arab League/Israeli/Palestinian joint
committee on the resolution of the Israeli/Palestinian
conflict. Deployment of a special envoy to lay the
foundations for this project.
2. Economic Triage.
The ongoing economic meltdown, particularly the collapse
of the housing bubble and the lending/credit/foreclosure
calamity, calls for both immediate relief and long-term
management. This will require the sort of economic aid
that has been diverted to cover the Iraq/Afghan war
costs, and attention must ultimately be paid to
reversing the more than thirty years of attacks on
working people and their declining living standards. In
the short-term, however, several steps need to be taken,
including, but not limited to:
A moratorium on foreclosures and evictions. Immediate
steps must be taken to halt foreclosures and evictions,
while providing immediate assistance to those affected
by these actions to renegotiate the terms of their debt.
This may mean federal assistance to pull individuals out
of usurious loans, allowing them to more comfortably
rebuild their financial standing; this would be a step
just short of declaring personal bankruptcy. The
Republicans' efforts to restrict individuals' ability to
declare personal bankruptcy must be reversed. The new
administration must also re-establish the Home Owners'
Loan Corporation (HOLC). This would be a 21st century
version of the New Deal measure that statutorily
arranged a temporary corporation to stabilize uncertain
mortgage markets.[2] Upon any reinstitution of it
today, the HOLC would acquire defaulted loans from
mortgage lenders and offer sustainable refinancing
options for homeowners to prevent future
foreclosures.[3]
An extension of both unemployment and food stamp
benefits. The Bush administration has adamantly held the
line against such expansion. But greater numbers of the
working poor have come to depend on food stamps in order
to survive, and the current apportionment insufficiently
reflects today's cost of living. The U.S. Department of
Agriculture (USDA) estimates that the current food stamp
benefit averages about $1 per meal per individual.[4]
Benefit amounts are based on the USDA's "Thrifty Food
Plan"— a theoretical diet created in the 1930s to
provide a minimally adequate diet at a low cost —which
hasn't been updated since 2003.[5] Additionally,
according to the Bread for the World group, most food
stamp households spend 80 percent of their benefits by
the 14th of each month.[6] Thus, the food stamp system
must be retooled to meet the full nutritional needs of
its recepients.
Immediate public service job creation. The federal
government needs to infuse the economy with funds to
prevent further collapse. As part of a longer-term
initiative, the federal government must begin emergency
public sector reconstruction work, focusing on bridges,
tunnels, and levees. We need a program along the lines
of that proposed by Barack Obama, who suggested the
dedication of $210 billion to create construction and
environmental jobs: $60 billion would be directed to a
National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank to rebuild
public projects such as highways, bridges, airports; and
$150 billion would be earmarked for the creation of five
million green-collar jobs to develop more
environmentally friendly energy sources.[7] This would
be funded through cuts in military spending.[8]
Federal intervention to halt the collapse of student
loan programs. A hidden crisis, that is part of the
larger credit crunch, has been the declining number of
banks that offer affordable student loans. This has
resulted in a higher demand for available loans and the
elimination of higher education opportunities for many
students. A federal intervention, therefore, is needed
to make sufficient funds available. This could take the
form of legislation proposed by Senator Kennedy in April
2008 to increase federal student aid. This proposal
would, among other things, reduce students' need to take
out costly private loans by increasing their access to
guaranteed low-interest federal loans.[9] The bill would
increase federal loan limits by $1000 a year for
dependent undergraduates, and by $2000 a year for
independent undergraduates and students whose parents'
credit score disqualifies them for federal parent
loans.[10] The new administration should also take
steps aimed to restrain predatory lending.
Elimination of Bush tax cuts. Bush's tax cuts, along
with the Iraq and Afghan wars, have been bleeding the
economy. Steps must be taken to reclaim the money that
has been disproportionately funneled to corporations and
the wealthy. Though longer-term tax reform will be
necessary, the first step is to stop the hemorrhaging.
Federal aid to the states. Despite growing constraints
on state budgets (particularly within the context of the
rising unemployment and foreclosure rates), the federal
government has increasingly meted out severe budget
cuts. Federal assistance should provide the states with
more of a safety net as they struggle to balance their
budgets.
3. A Marshall Plan for U.S. cities and depressed
regions.
The Hurricane Katrina disaster and the 2007 Minneapolis
bridge collapse exposed significant problems with our
political leadership, economic choices, and the basic
U.S. infrastructure (not to mention race, gender, and
class politics when it came to Katrina). Another
assortment of projects must be undertaken to make the
infrastructure address our environmental crisis. With
all of this in mind, the following initiatives should be
announced:
A national commitment to launch a domestic version of
the Marshall Plan. This program would involve a renewal
of the U.S. physical and social infrastructures. With
regard to the physical infrastructure, in 2005, the
American Society of Civil Engineers estimated that
rehabilitation should cost $1.6 trillion over five
years. The National Urban League, which has been a
strong proponent of a social Marshall Plan, has
identified ten areas that are integral to revamping the
socio-economic infrastructure.[11] We must combine the
elements of these two proposals in order to lift the
U.S. from the abyss. A successful modern-day Marshall
Plan would also build upon the work of groups such as
the National Jobs for All Coalition, which has proposed
a 21st-Century Public Investment Act, featuring: a
Public Works Authority that, while working with state
and local authorities to create permanent jobs, would
provide long-term funding for high priority public works
and infrastructure projects, ensuring that these
projects employ the unemployed and underemployed; a
Public Investment Fund that would fund a Public Service
Employment Program designed to close job gaps, while
continuing to encourage job creation; and a National
Employment Accounting Office that would evaluate
progress and assess ongoing needs for job creation and
public investment.[12]
The immediate establishment of a regional public agency
to oversee the reconstruction of the post-Katrina Gulf
Coast and the repatriation of its native population.
The establishment of a 21st century version of the Works
Progress Administration to oversee the
infrastructure-related work. Priority in employment
would go to the chronically and structurally unemployed.
Wages would be paid according to the Davis-Bacon
Act.[13] Building trades contractors and unions would
agree to 50 percent residential set-asides for entry
into apprenticeship programs and journeyman work in
connection with any of these efforts. At least 25
percent of such jobs should be staffed by people of
color, with at least another 25 percent staffed by
women.
Regional planning authorities should be established in
depressed regions bringing together the business
community, worker organizations including, but not
limited to, unions, academia, and governmental
representatives. Such authorities would explore
economic development strategies such as industrial
cooperatives, public/private partnerships, and
governmental incentives to encourage the creation of new
industries or the introduction of industries which had
been discouraged from emerging.
Emergency measures to provide more low-income housing.
This would include an Executive commitment to push
through: the National Affordable Housing Trust Fund
Act,[14] which would establish a federal housing trust
fund to ensure housing for the lowest income earners who
have the most serious housing problems; and the Housing
Assistance Tax Act which would, among other provisions,
provide tax credits to first-time homebuyers, while
improving access to low-income housing, allowing
families to deduct property taxes.[15]
4. Immediate signing of the Kyoto Protocol.
The U.S. is way behind the rest of the world on the
environment, and the Bush administration has flouted the
gravity of the matter. Our over-dependence on fossil
fuels has straightjacketed the global economy (making
the greater international community highly dependent on
oil), which has contributed to the rising global
temperature. The environmental crisis, however, is not
limited to global warming. The epidemic of bee colony
die-offs and the endangerment of various species paints
a disturbing picture of an unraveling ecology. Most
urgently, the new administration must:
Sign the Kyoto Protocol, while making a commitment to
launch international negotiations toward a new and
stronger pact.
Push through the Renewable Energy and Job Creation
Act[16] to promote renewable energy, green-collar jobs,
and tax benefits to middle-class families.
Establish a "Green Commission" that brings together
labor, business, environmental groups, community-based
organizations, and government representatives to
recommend technological, economic, and developmental
changes geared toward building a sustainable economy.
5. Pass and sign the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA).
As a step toward jettisoning the one-sided class war
against workers, the new administration must:
Reaffirm the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA)'s
mandate that it is within U.S. public policy to promote
collective bargaining.
Sign the EFCA.
Draft legislation that proscribes any employer
involvement in their workers' choice of bargaining
representatives.
6. A universal health care initiative.
Universal, single-payer health care cannot take flight
within the first 100 days. The groundwork, however,
must be laid immediately. The new administration must:
Expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program
(SCHIP), as proposed by the Democratic Congressional
leadership in 2007.[17]
Establish a commission to draft legislation for
universal, single-payer coverage. Plan for a one year
drafting period, followed by national town meetings and
hearings. Aim for passage before the midterm elections.
7. Immigration reform.
Immediate steps must be taken to lay out an immigration
reform program that is coupled with changes in U.S.
foreign policy (therefore, points # 7 and # 8 are
integrally linked). This program must include:
Amnesty (in the form of permanent residency status) for
undocumented workers who have no criminal record.
Priority given to family reunification interests.
A revised application process that gives priority to
refugees from areas of political conflict where the U.S.
has been historically involved.
Elimination of guest worker programs. Investigation of
already existing guest worker programs' impact on both
domestic and foreign born workers.
Unionization rights for all workers within U.S. borders,
irrespective of their immigration status.
8. Forge global partnerships.
Changing U.S. foreign policy is an uphill, long-term
process. Nevertheless, certain immediate measures are
imperative. In addition to withdrawing from Iraq and
Afghanistan, the new administration must:
Create a 21st Century Partnership Program to develop
foreign aid and trade programs designed to promote more
self-reliance among nation-states, while responding to
the civilian needs in those areas.
Develop targeted programs of repair in areas where U.S.
involvement has distorted regional development (e.g.,
Southeast Asia, Angola, and Central America).
Promote trade relations that are based on fairness
rather than on corporate interests. Explore a
renegotiation of NAFTA.
Implement the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty with
steps toward de-nuclearization.
Employ special envoys for peace and development who will
work with regional representatives to address matters
such as political conflict, economic underdevelopment,
and environmental devastation.
Conclusion/A Qualifying Thought
This agenda will be moot without a strong backing from
social forces that are prepared to press for its
implementation. Any demobilization of those who
successfully brought the Democratic candidate to victory
will buoy the political Right's leverage to assert its
own agenda. Right-wing forces will push for a
continuation of the Bush administration's
anti-progressive policies. Thus, if we are not prepared
to consistently place enough pressure on our "friend" in
the White House, we should expect a repeat of the Bill
Clinton years—an era in which there was (technically) a
high degree of access to the President and top cabinet
officials, but the progressive social movements were
afforded very little actual power.
The choice is ours, and we have precious little time to
decide how we want to proceed.
[1] See "Iraq war will cost $12 billion a month,"
Associated Press, March 9, 2008,
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23551693/ (citing Joseph E.
Stiglitz and Linda J. Bilmes, The Three Trillion Dollar
War:The True Cost of the Iraq War,W.W. Norton, 2008).
[2] See
il10_kirk/HOLC_release.html,
accessed July 7, 2008.
[3] See id.
[4] See
results.org/website/article.asp?id=358,
accessed July 7, 2008.
[5] See id.
[6] See id.
[7] See "Obama vows $210 billion for 'green,' building
jobs," The Los Angeles Times, February 14, 2008,
na-obama14,
accessed July 7, 2008.
[8] See "Obama's Pocketbook Speech," Jason Horowitz, The
New York Observer, May 3, 2008,
http://www.observer.com/2008/obamas-pocketbook-speech,
accessed July 7, 2008.
[9] See
senate.gov/newsroom/press_release.cfm?id=C7BF90E6-D809-
4274-900D-109ADC11ED76,
accessed July 7, 2008.
[10] See id.
[11] Their proposal, as of July 2007, included areas
such as mandatory early childhood education beginning at
age 3, universal healthcare, building economic
self-sufficiency for working people, and an urban
infrastructure bank. See
www.nul.org/PressReleases/2007/2007PR417.html,
accessed July 7, 2008.
[12] See the National Jobs for All Coalition's Shared
Prosperity and the Drive for Decent Work report,
sharedpros/pdf.
[13] Under the Davis-Bacon Act, federal government
construction contracts are required to include
provisions for paying workers nothing less than the
wages paid for similar projects in the geographical
area.
[14] This bill passed in the Senate in May 2008, after
an overwhelming passage in the House. See
.nlihc.org/template/page.cfm?id=40,
accessed July 7, 2008.
[15] In April 2008, Congressman Charles Rangel
introduced this bill in the House. See
legislation/index.php#hata,
accessed July 7, 2008.
[16] See
press/va08_moran/GreenEnergyBill.shtml,
accessed July 7, 2008.
[17] See
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