THIS IS SO NOT WHAT
IT LOOKS LIKE!
Cartoon by Rafael Comford
By Kyle Weimann
ILWU Legislative Assistant
While the 2006 elections are looming, there is a more important year for ILWU members to remember: 2008. The next longshore contract negotiations will give anti-labor rightwing corporations and politicians another excuse to come after the union.
The 2002 PMA lockout showed the importance of having powerful allies in government. The Bush administration and the lapdog Republicans in Congress were prepared to bring the full weight of the federal government to bear on the ILWU. Heading into the 2008 contract negotiations, we must do all we can to ensure a more friendly Congress.
But it’s not just the longshore contract that should motivate ILWU members to get out the vote and throw out the Republicans. The Republican majority in Congress has failed this country miserably. They have rubberstamped Bush’s ill-conceived, mistakenly executed, botched disaster of a war. They have only clapped louder as Bush proposed tax cut after tax cut, favoring wealth over work and short-term political gain over fiscal responsibility. Republican cheers echoed through the Capitol when Bush negotiated unfair trade deals, sought to privatize Social Security and advocated the use of torture. The list—unfortunately—goes on and on.
The Republican Congress has sold out American workers with free trade deals such as CAFTA that protect corporate profits at the expense of workers and the environment. Under this Republican Congress, the trade deficit has ballooned to $720 billion per year. Almost three million manufacturing jobs have been lost. Adding injury to insult, Republicans slashed funding to OSHA, mine safety and the Department of Labor.
They have abandoned working class families. The federal minimum wage still stands at just $5.50 an hour, far below a living wage for any family. There are now 1.7 million more Americans living in poverty than there were five years ago, bringing the total to a shamefully high 34.6 million.
They have betrayed American citizens through their negligence and incompetence in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. In their minds, it is more important to maintain ideological purity and a limited government—limited to helping the rich—than to assist real people with real problems.
They have cheated American taxpayers through their corrupt influence peddling and their love affair with corporate lobbyists. The culture of corruption pervades every nook and cranny in Washington, D.C.
Between 1995 and 2005, special interest earmarks increased by 875 percent. The number of registered lobbyists has doubled in the past five years alone. Thanks to Halliburton’s influence at the highest levels of government, Congress sat idly by as the Bush administration handed out billions of dollars in no-bid contracts.
They have gouged consumers with their $85 billion give-away to Big Oil, despite the industry’s record profits. Last year, the largest five oil companies earned profits totaling $106 billion, almost double the year before. The CEO of ExxonMobil, Lee Raymond, “earned” compensation of $190,000 per day in 2005.
They have gambled with our safety by refusing to implement the 9/11 Commission recommendations. Air cargo is still not screened, containers are still not sealed and homeland security money is being spent on pork barrel projects, leaving ports under funded as well as 272 unsecured toxic chemical plants in this country in close proximity to 50,000 or more people. For all of the hand-wringing and rhetoric, the country is still vulnerable on many fronts.
They have ruined the standing and reputation of the U.S. among modern societies by launching a pre-emptive war, advocating the use of torture, abusing prisoners in Abu Ghraib and suspending due process in Guantanamo Bay.
They have indebted our children and our children’s children by not keeping the national fiscal house in order. The federal deficit has mushroomed to $9 TRILLION and continues to increase at a rate of almost $2 billion everyday. Every child born today is saddled with $30,000 of debt wracked up by this administration.
They have exacerbated the health care crisis by allowing the ranks of the uninsured to grow to a record 45 million. They propose “solutions” such as health savings accounts and high deductible health plans that will only further divide the class structure of health care delivery, spreads the risk over less people and assures the less wealthy and healthy will get less care for more money.
They have abrogated their oversight responsibilities. In the 1990s, the Republican-controlled Congress spent 140 hours on sworn testimony and hearings into President Clinton’s Christmas card list. By comparison, the total time Republicans spent on the Abu Ghraib scandal has been just 12 hours. They have yet to hold any hearings to investigate war profiteering, pre-war intelligence or the outing of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame.
In short, this election matters.
Ethical negligence and willful ignorance are not a governing policy. The right-wing extremists in Washington surround themselves with echoes, like-minded sycophants who will reinforce whatever half-baked idea the GOP proposes next. Independent thought has been termed anti-American; dissent equated with terrorism. The First Amendment has been brought to its knees at the hands of “free speech zones,” limited, penned off areas of dissent, and “faith-based initiatives,” giving federal money to religious groups.
Bush might not be on the ballot in November, but the rubberstamp Congress that voted with him 90 percent of the time is. In fact, the average Republican Senator has voted against Bush just five times in the past two years. A vote for the Democratic challengers is a vote for change, a vote for sanity and, most importantly, a vote for competence.
The most important vote any Member of Congress will ever cast is for majority leader.
Should Republicans cling to their hold on Congress, the foxes will be even more entrenched in the henhouse. The Senate Committee on Environment will continue to be chaired by Senator Inhofe, who blindly and completely denies the threat of global warming while conveniently pocketing hundreds of thousands of dollars of campaign contributions from the oil and coal industries. Corporate influence tints every policy discussion in Congress.
Workers across this country, seeing the ever-growing power of mega-corporations, are recognizing the need for union protection. In 2005, independent studies found that 53 percent of nonunion workers would be willing to join a union. Unfortunately, because of fear tactics and intimidation from employers, most employees will never have that opportunity.
As it now stands, one in four employers illegally fire at least one worker during a union organizing drive. We have seen this first hand in our ongoing organizing campaign at Blue Diamond Growers. This Congress simply refuses to force corporations to play by the rules.
This is an accountability moment. There has been no oversight since the Democrats lost control of the Senate in 2002. The House this year spent fewer days in session than the famous “Do Nothing” Congress of 1948. They totaled out at less than 100 days of work this year!
Polls repeatedly tell us that control of Congress is up for grabs this year for the first time since 1994. Despite a clearly restless public and widespread disillusionment with the Republican agenda, the Karl Rove smear machine will be operating on overdrive to scare the public into re-electing Republicans. Campaigns across the country have acknowledged their intent to go negative—early and often—on their Democratic challengers. It is more politics as usual. This is why turning out the union vote is more important than ever.
If Democrats regain control of Congress in November, we can expect to see an increase in minimum wage, a repeal of tax cuts on the wealthiest Americans, sane union organizing laws such as the Employee Free Choice Act, negotiations by the federal government with the pharmaceutical industry on prescription drug prices and investigations into war profiteering by Halliburton and the rest Bush’s corporate cronies.
The history of Democratic-controlled Congresses shows that they are not afraid to ask questions, regardless of where the answers will take them. The last year that the Democrats controlled the House (1993-1994), the Government Operations Committee held 135 oversight hearings. In the last session, Republicans held just 37, avoiding the tough questions that would shine a bright light on Bush administration misdeeds.
Despite their history of failure, the Republicans will not go quietly into the night. Talk to your local officers or contact your District Council today to find out how you can help elect pro-labor candidates. There are doors to knock on, phones to call, envelopes to stuff, and Political Action Fund donations to collect. It is up to you to protect your interests by getting involved in this election.
