We Have the Ball
Like the car-chasing dog in the joke, what would he do if he caught one? Working class activists are surprised to have won so thoroughly on November 3. It’s been a long time since we’ve played anything but political defense. What do we do now that we have the ball?
If we don’t organize and push to get what we want, then we have wasted our time getting these candidates elected. Should everybody just willy-nilly start lobbying politicians on their favorite subject?
Like everything else, organizing is prerequisite to doing a good job. In other words, we have to develop our offensive strategy together.
Priorities: War
Stopping Trump’s military aggression would be a good place to start. Even if people are not appalled at the deaths and misery in places like Iran and Cuba, they probably have something motivating them that requires government spending. As long as the military is soaking up every cent, social spending is unlikely.
Uniting the working class is essential to all progress; consequently, demands to “stop the war” must also deal with the cold hard fact that lots of American workers are in military production. “Stop the War and Provide New Jobs in Domestic Production” makes a lot more class sense. We have plenty of needs that former military production workers could fill, such as building bullet trains or air taxis, for example.
Secure Social Security
Because I’m part of the leadership of the retiree movement, I particularly like “Scrap the Cap” as a major demand. So far, only retirees from the Alliance for Retired Americans have taken up this important slogan, but it would be good for everybody.
Social Security is due to start cutting benefits before long if somebody doesn’t do something about the tax money coming into it. In the past, they made adjustments to the “cap” income level at which rich people stopped paying Social Security taxes. In 2027 the number is around $190,000. After a wealthy person makes that much, and some billionaires will do it on January 1, they stop paying Social Security taxes.
Instead of adjusting it upward, as they have done in the past, seniors are now saying that we should get rid of it entirely and let wealthy earners pay Social Security taxes all year just as we do. All workers who live long enough will need Social Security sooner or later; consequently, it’s in everybody’s interest to “Scrap the Cap.”
Technology has added another reason to improve retirement benefits. Artificial intelligence is created to take away people’s jobs. Many workers, especially older workers, will be getting pink slips as corporate profits rocket upward. If decent retirement benefits were available AND if the official retirement age were lowered, artificial intelligence could benefit workers instead of only benefitting the billionaires as presently intended.
Health Care
The same could be said of another great political slogan, “Health Care for All!” If Medicare were improved and if the age of eligibility were lowered, we wouldn’t have to worry so much about layoffs.
Artificial intelligence is coming at the working class like a runaway train. The obvious answer is shorter working hours, but early retirement would have the same effect and might be easier to explain and implement. We already have a powerful retiree movement that, with active worker support, could win this battle.
Ultimate Goal
As American workers have learned bitterly over the last few years, all our progress is temporary as long as the bosses maintain control. Fighting for immediate goals is the right path, but sooner or later we have to remove those billionaires from power.
–Gene Lantz
I’m on KNON.org and 89.3FM every Saturday at 9AM Central Time. I publish on Substack and several other platforms. In 2009, I put my bio and innermost thoughts on https://lilleskole.us
