The New Labor Movement
In order to understand the new Labor movement one might first need to understand the old Labor Movement. So I put Wikipedia Labor movement button above you you can study it if you want to.
The new labor movement will have to be much different than the old labor movement. First of all, Globalization has changed everything away from what the old labor movement was in the past. In the past in the 1920s and 1930s, unionization within America became quite violent and many workers died who were killed by hired thugs of corporations and businesses that did not want to pay their workers a fair working wage. So, it is important to know that likely in the future there will be demonstrations and possibly more than that to bring balance to workers wages once again both in the U.S. and around the world.
The best model in the western world likely for the future of the labor movement is in Germany of today. Without being too protectionist as a nation they have found a way to support their tradespeople by keeping apprenticeship programs intact and still manufacturing and building things at competitive prices to sell worldwide. Germany's biggest problem right now is not that it isn't a competitive nation as far as its labor is concerned. Germany's biggest problem right now is the European Union and the Euro. Either could take Germany down at this point in history, at least. However, it is also the most successful European nation in regard to championing the rights of its labor force. So, it should be looked to as an example of how to run a western democratic Labor force that appears to excel above all the others for the moment.
Corporations in the U.S. and Europe have used the advantage of Globalization to destroy labor and its rights to wages since the 1990s now. The countries appearing to benefit the most from Globalization right now are China and India. However, China might be at a tipping point into some other territory now that its wages and cost of living are increasing exponentially in relation to the rest of the world. So, China is an unknown quantity in regard to all this in the near future.
But in the U.S. there is a present labor movement forming that is at war with the Tea Party. It is a paradoxical situation in some ways because both movements want the same thing, they just have different ways to get there. The Tea party since it is funded by the most conservative Corporate interests is a pawn of the sincere people who have joined it. Unfortunately, since the Tea Party is a conservative corporate pawn in the end it can only be Anti-Labor because of its funding, even though many individuals in the Tea party movement want what is best for the average person too. So, hopefully people in the Tea Party and the Labor movement in the Western World realize that at least as individuals within those movements most people want the same thing in the end. They all want a decent wage and standard of living for Americans and Europeans and the same for the rest of the world.
On top of this problem is what is happening in Somalia. For the first time in my memory as a child or as an adult, a country has begged for food and it isn't coming. I think this is because of the new Great Recession that began in 2007 where most everyone's funds are dwindling and food reserves are dwindling worldwide compared to what they once were because of increasingly unpredictable weather worldwide. (It doesn't really matter whether you believe in global climate change or not) the weather is getting worse and worse and people can't grow enough food worldwide. For example, up until about 5 years ago humanity grew about 130% of the food they needed. Now we are lucky worldwide to grow between 90% and 105% of what we need to live worldwide. This has driven up the cost of food to where 50% of the people cannot afford to buy enough food to survive who live on earth at present. This is also affecting the labor movement as people become more and more desperate worldwide. Some will fight and some will simply lay down and die but this is affecting everyone worldwide and also having an affect on the worldwide labor movement.
So, a whole new psychology is emerging worldwide to deal with all this. The former benevolence of the U.S. and western world is turning into, "Keep your money safe so you don't starve too". This is very unfortunate but true worldwide during these times and I don't know how this will all shake out worldwide either. Because if everyone keeps holding onto their money worldwide like they are now, millions will not only not have jobs but also millions will starve to death. So it all looks pretty ugly.
So, the job of everyone worldwide is to facilitate jobs for as many people as need them. Otherwise, there is sure to be violence many places growing worldwide as more and more people starve without jobs and without hope for any future at all for themselves or their children.
Another important thing to understand about the Labor Movement is the Arab Spring (at least in regard to the people under 30 fighting and dying and demonstrating in it) are fighting for survival and the survival of their families and future families. So, in a sense the Arab Spring is a Labor Revolution moving through Northern Africa and all the way to China. All the countries that have revolted have over 50% of their population being the under 30 and even if they are educated (mostly without jobs) because their countries allowed these people to be born without allowing jobs to be created for them. As a result there is a Labor revolution because all these people without jobs or social welfare will starve to death and most won't be able to marry if they aren't already. So, as you can see though the Arab Spring is wonderful in many ways it also is a part of the worldwide Labor Movement Revolution and likely will continue in many many new countries possibly for 5, 10, or 20 years ongoing depending upon the determination of those involved and of how much they are willing to endure to survive and change systems and get jobs and create jobs for themselves and their friends.
No comments:
Post a Comment