Labour Pains (9) - Altogether Now

Standing in line with the ElectroMotive workers yesterday, I was asked repeatedly what could be done. It’s clear I am no economist, but as a community we can’t permit our own ignorance to rob us of the opportunity for seeking solutions.The first thing we must do is make the link between the fate of these workers and our own. By now we must comprehend that Caterpillar Inc. is merely the tip of the stiletto aimed at the heart of the middle-class and our way of life. Occupy Wall Street’s message spoke to this but it is Caterpillar’s harsh actions that have drawn national attention to the problem.  As the rise of labour unions led to the rise of worker rights, their decline will bring about the opposite. We can sit back as observers if we wish, but at some point it will be us beneath the knife and our perspective will radically change at that moment. The new corporate order sees human beings and natural resources as things that you exploit until they collapse. As a community we follow down this path at our peril.Secondly, we must ask ourselves what is the use of politics if strips itself of the will to intervene? When governments maintain there is nothing they can do, what they are saying is that they may be the incapable rulers we actually feel they are. That’s no way to govern or to build sustainable hope. If the government says its hands are tied, then what use are they? Are they saying that they are willing to accept the rights of corporations to rake in profits over the rights of workers to a decent living? This is a shell game that has been going on for three decades involving the collusion of all federal parties to one degree or another. If we seek a reform of the financial sector, it can only be accomplished if we have reform of the political order. The skepticism towards making change during the Depression was ultimately turned on its head by leaders like Franklin Roosevelt, who reasoned that if corporatism was plundering workers then he would change the legislation to level the playing field. That kind of courage even caused Conrad Black to reason in his recent biography of Roosevelt that the dynamic president “saved capitalism from itself.” If the political leaders honestly cared about what’s going on, they could enact legislation tomorrow that would build communities, protect workers, and induce corporations to invest in the green jobs of tomorrow.Third, capitalism needs to heal itself by producing new champions. What’s the point of reducing wages to such a level when people will then have less money to spend? How will the doctor get paid? Or the lawyer, the teacher or the researcher? If there’s less money to spend, how will business survive? Exhausting the options of workers eventually exhausts your own as a company. Furthermore, the future of innovation and productivity actually lies in small and medium-sized operations in this country. Since they are producing 80% of the new jobs, why aren’t the true business entrepreneurs speaking out against fiefdoms like Caterpillar and working to make governments more sensitive to where the real growth is? Last month I wrote a post on a rraction, a London company that not only honours and partners with its employees but is delighting in its business growth as a result. Such firms don’t hive off the largest portion for their executives, but plow the money back into their firms, their employees, and their communities. Surely most capitalists in this country know exactly what I’m talking about. Perhaps it will be left to them to use their own history and productivity to challenge capitalism to mend its ways before it loses its future and ours in the process. Sooner or later Canadians – your customers – will insist on reforms and the more conscientious entrepreneurs speak out against this corporate oligarchy the less will be the pain as the reforms are implemented.In our last post on this subject tomorrow we’ll discuss how citizens can support those like the ElectroMotive workers, but for now it is time to look in the mirror and admit to a great illusion. To say we care about what’s happening while at the same time adopting buying habits that only enhance corporate dominance.  Londoner David Morrison’s logic in his letter to editor the London Free Press this week says it eloquently:

Closer to home, if we have left the corner grocer in search of cheaper food prices at large box stores, if we have abandoned the small jeweller downtown for greater discounts at mall outlets, bought cars in small rural towns because of a better deal, left a small employer, after being trained, for more pay and benefits in perhaps the public sector, then we are not much different from the corporation as we seek to improve our individual "bottom line. Greed, in its many forms and degrees tends to be individual and few tend to be immune to it.

And so we arrive at the ultimate solution. The moment we engage in the Caterpillar crisis as citizens instead of sympathetic observers the dynamic changes. Once we pull back from isolation and mindless consumption in order to engage in such issues, we discover a new future for our communities that is productive, sustainable and prosperous. Ironically we suddenly become fierce competitors – fighting economic and political powers as a collective citizenry that is tired of seeing their country turn into a place of growing disparity. It all comes down to the citizen – a shopper, a voter, a worker, and a community player. Utilize your skills and your responsibilities effectively and no corporate giant or political playmaker can keep you from remaking your community.