How do I get in on a deal like this? Wall Street Bankers gamble with
our money...and we lose our shirts. Then the Wall Street Bankers buy
new shirts, send us the bill and put the shirts on themselves.
I guess we must like this deal, otherwise you'd think we'd be raising
all sorts of Hell.
Carl Jarvis
On 6/27/16, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Nice platform. The summary of Hillary's speech is distressing, to say the
least.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Roger Loran
Bailey (Redacted sender "rogerbailey81" for DMARC)
Sent: Monday, June 27, 2016 11:05 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Clinton’s right-wing economic agenda and the
fight for socialism
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/06/24/clin-j24.html
Clinton’s right-wing economic agenda and the fight for socialism
By Jerry White—SEP candidate for US president
24 June 2016
Wednesday’s speech by Hillary Clinton in Raleigh, North Carolina makes it
clear the Democratic Party’s presumptive presidential candidate, if elected
in November, would escalate the anti-worker economic agenda of the Obama
administration that has already created the greatest levels of social
inequality in modern American history.
Since clinching the nomination, Clinton has sought to assure both Wall
Street and the military intelligence apparatus that she would be a far
better steward of the domestic and foreign interests of American capitalism
than her Republican opponent Donald Trump. She reiterated Wednesday that
Trump would “run up our debt and cause another economic crash.”
Clinton has already lined up the support of billionaires Warren Buffett and
George Soros and a list of former executives from some of corporate
America’s largest companies, including General Motors, Delta Air Lines,
Costco and Alphabet, the parent company for online search giant Google.
She also has received far greater backing from Wall Street than Trump.
Well aware that the seething social discontent in America prohibits her
from
simply repeating President Obama’s absurd claims that life has never been
so
good, Clinton sought to cover her right-wing economic proposals with
rhetoric about economic inequality, largely borrowed from the campaign of
Bernie Sanders.
She referred to stagnant and falling real wages, long-term joblessness, the
crushing debt burden students face and the nation’s decaying schools and
infrastructure without mentioning that Obama, with her full support, had
overseen this state of affairs for the last seven-and-a-half years.
Clinton gave the novel explanation that well-meaning business leaders and
politicians from both parties—“whose sincerity I do not doubt”—were simply
misguided. “Too many leaders in business and government have lost sight of
our shared responsibility to each other and to our nation. And they let
Wall
Street take big risks with unregulated financial activities.”
She failed to mention that it was her husband Bill Clinton’s administration
that abolished the Depression-era Glass Steagall Act and deregulated the
financial industry, spurring one financial bubble after the other,
culminating in the 2008 crash and the social catastrophe that followed. For
their services, both Clintons have been handsomely rewarded.
“We need to make sure our economy works for everyone not just for the rich
or the well-connected,” Clinton preached with a straight face.
At the same time, Clinton reiterated Obama’s nostrum that those without
work
or serious prospects for a future were largely at fault because they were
not keeping up with technological advances. “The old model of work where
you
could expect to hold a steady job with good benefits for an entire career
is
long gone.” She praised the “flexibility” of the new jobs that have been
created—largely part-time, low-paid and so-called independent
contractors—suggesting that 401(k)s and health benefits should be
“portable”
from one job to another.
So what does Clinton propose?
1. “We need to slash unnecessary regulations…Let’s free entrepreneurs to do
what they do best: innovate, grow and hire…they need to be free from red
tape.”
Translation: More tax cuts, deregulation and government payouts to large
corporations and start-up companies.
2. “Establish an infrastructure bank that will bring private sector dollars
off the sidelines and put them to work here.”
Translation: Instead of a public works programs, Clinton proposes more
“public-private partnerships” aimed at handing over public assets to
profit-making companies. This would accelerate the contracting out of
good-paying jobs and continue the slashing of public sector jobs, which
fell
by more than 600,000 under Obama.
3. “I want to expand incentives like the new market’s tax credit,
empowerment zones and other ideas that bring business, government and
communities together to create good jobs in poor or remote areas. Places
that have lost a factory or a mine, where generations of families used to
work.”
Translation: Companies will be given waivers from federal job safety,
environmental and wage and hour laws in order to entice US and
international
corporations to exploit economic desperation in areas already ravaged by
deindustrialization.
4. “Rewrite the rules, so more companies share profits with employees and
fewer shift profits and jobs overseas.”
Translation: Boost the efforts of the trade union bureaucracy to push
so-called profit-sharing schemes, in lieu of wage increases. These hold
workers’ livelihoods hostage to economic crisis and the shortsighted and
even criminal business decisions of the corporate bosses, over which
workers
have no control.
5. “ Let’s liberate the millions of Americans who already have student debt
by making it easier to refinance, just like a mortgage. Let’s make it
easier
to have debt forgiven by doing national service.”
Translation: There will be no amelioration of the crushing levels of
student
debt. Instead, students will be able to be subject to the same predatory
schemes that mortgage companies used in the run-up to the housing market
crash in 2007-08. Heavily indebted students should be turned into
indentured
servants and forced to do “national service,”
which most ominously could include, if the Pentagon needs more manpower,
going off to fight America’s imperialist wars.
Clinton made sure to pay tribute to the trade unions—which have
collaborated
in the slashing of wages and shifting of health care and pension costs from
the employers to workers, while reducing strikes to the lowest level since
World War II. Saying “I believe we should strengthen unions,” she assured
the labor bureaucracy that their financial interests would be protected
under a Clinton administration, which would provide government funding to
union apprenticeship programs and facilitate the investment of union
pension
funds in infrastructure and commercial development projects.
In a nod to the AFL-CIO, Clinton endorsed the economic nationalism promoted
by the unions, which has long been used to divide American workers from
their brothers and sisters internationally, subordinate them to the profit
interests of their “own” capitalists, and pave the way for trade war and
militarism. Earlier in the week, she denounced Trump for using Chinese
labor
to produce his brand name suits and ties.
Well aware that the millions of workers and young people who voted for
Sanders largely hate her pro-business policies and record, Clinton urged
young people in particular not to “grow weary” with their miserable
situation. “There are great ideas out there,” she said pathetically, “we
are
going to be partners in a big bold effort to increase economic growth and
distribute it more fairly.”
As the Socialist Equality Party’s candidate for US president, I reject the
right-wing economic policies advanced by Clinton, which are dictated
entirely by the profit needs of American capitalism. The working class in
the US and around the world did not create the global economic crisis and
must not pay for it!
The SEP calls for a vast redistribution of wealth to secure basic social
rights, including the right to a decent-paying job, quality education,
affordable housing, universal health care, a dignified retirement and
access
to leisure time and culture.
The SEP advances a program not for the improvement of capitalism, but for
the establishment of socialism. The social rights of the working class
cannot be secured without a direct attack on the interests of the
capitalist
class and the domination of the financial aristocracy over economic life.
This means an end to the private ownership of the large corporations, with
all those valued above $10 billion transformed into publicly owned
enterprises under the democratic control of the working class. To provide
quality jobs to all those who need them, the SEP calls for a
multi-trillion-dollar public works program to rebuild infrastructure
throughout the country.
We furthermore call for an end to the squandering of trillions of dollars
on
weaponry to conquer and oppress workers in other countries.
Instead, trillions should be poured into social needs, to hire millions of
doctors, nurses, teachers, construction workers and others to raise the
material and cultural level of the population and put an end to poverty and
want forever.
Regardless of who is elected in November, whether it is Trump or Clinton,
the ruling class is preparing to escalate the assault on the working class.
I call on all workers and young people to prepare for the struggles to come
by supporting our campaign and joining the Socialist Equality Party.
Sign up for the latest news from the SEP Election Campaign
To receive the SEP Election email newsletter, including the latest news,
videos and statements from the campaign, sign up here.
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