Have you ever heard of Joseph Hillstrom, aka Joe Hill? Look him up the internet. Do some research. Fascinating stuff, I assure you. Joe Hill was an immigrant and a songwriter and a poet and a union organizer who fought tirelessly for workers rights. Tired of being mistreated by their employers, Hill and a slew of other workers just like him joined together to demand fair treatment. Hill was just one small part of a wave of workers who banded together in the early part of the 1900's, desperate to change working conditions that were exploitative and tenuous at best, and downright dangerous - even life-threatening - at worst.
Would Joe Hill be shocked to learn that in 2012, the battle for workers rights was still being fought? I have to imagine that he would.
The Occupational Safety and Health Act was passed in the United States of America in 1970. That's right. 1970. After decades of being subjected to hazardous working environments and life-threatening conditions, a law was finally passed to ensure workplace safety. The bill, like all the failed attempts to protect the American worker that had come before it, was vehemently opposed by big business and the United States Chamber of Commerce. Politicians in the pocket of corporate interests attempted to water the bill down, or remove crucial elements. In the end, compromises were made and deals brokered. The act was implemented.
It actually took until 1938 for a law to be passed restricting the ability of employers to exploit children for labor at extremely low wages. It took the great depression to pass the law, ironically enough. It was only when adults, desperate for jobs, resorted to working for the pittance paid to child workers that Franklin D. Roosevelt was able to step in and pass a law which included restrictions on child labor. Previous attempts to regulate the exploitation of children were blocked. That's right. Blocked. The forces of industry, and their enablers in the political sphere, wouldn't even consider the welfare of children ahead of the desire for greed and profit.
My point here?
My point is that Capitalism, despite being depicted draped in an American flag and woven into our national fabric, is far from benign. Corporate America only cares about you in the sense that you have a few pennies to line their pockets. The idea that an unregulated market is desirable is a delusion propagated by those who stand to gain the most from a lack of regulation, and those who have taken a deep swig from the pitcher of Kool Aid these same snake oil salesmen have been passing around for decades.
The tenets of Libertarianism and the growing pocket of far-right, free-market ideology is a delusion; a pining for a dangerous time that has somehow been washed in the sepia tones of a false nostalgia. Unregulated financial markets and a lack of workplace regulation and the inability for workers to organize isn’t “liberty” or “freedom”. It's exploitation and the machinations of greed that have been repackaged under the banner of Ayn Rand and “Don't Tread On Me” flags and a revisionist version of American history that frankly never really existed.
Libertarianism and the invisible hand of unregulated commerce are smoke and mirrors. A dangerous illusion. The idea of government as an unnecessary behemoth bent only on oppression? Another unfounded illusion.
Do people really want to go back to the days of polluted rivers and poison air and children forced into factory work for a pittance? Wait, I digress. There is no more factory work in America. Those wonderful Capitalist souls - those mythical and celebrated “job creators” - have shipped our manufacturing jobs overseas, to countries who don't have a government willing to protect their citizens from exploitation for profit. My mistake.
I'm not standing here taking a giant piss on the head of Capitalism. Should I be? Probably. But putting that aside, and looking at a Capitalist system objectively, I can easily see the positives. I'm not saying that a desire to make a profit is bad. I'm not saying that all corporations are soulless and evil. What I am saying is that human beings tend to be imperfect creatures, and the siren song of wealth and riches and the trappings that come along with it are hard to resist. I'm saying that corporations need policed. They need to be reigned in when their quest for riches ultimately begins to override their humanity.
Is government capable of evil? Certainly. That's why our elected leaders are all held in check by myriad checks and balances. Different branches hold other branches in check. Free elections ensure that politicians are held accountable by the people. Is it a perfect system? No. It's been tainted by big money and a corrupt corporate influence, bent on rigging the system for their own financial gain. But you know what? You can vote those corrupted politicians out. Try voting out the CEO of Exxon-Mobil. It ain't happening. I'd much rather be ruled by an elected politician than a corporate kingpin beholden to no one.
Back to Joe Hill.
Today, the new scapegoat for our financial problems has become labor unions. Through a campaign of disinformation and exaggeration and outright bullshit, unions have become the new face of a fabricated Socialist evil bent on the destruction of God's America. It's all a big steaming pile of garbage, of course. The corporate kingpins have seized on a golden opportunity to use misinformation to weaken the bargaining position of the American worker. They see a chance to exploit the worker in the name of more profits, and they're running with the opportunity. The death of the middle class and the environment and America's industrial base? Collateral damage in a mindless grab for riches. If you think they wouldn't giddily scrap existing environmental and labor laws, you're kidding yourself. Our elected officials, particularly the ones with an “R” after their names, are more than happy to help them. Who needs to represent the people when you can hitch your wagon to the gilded corporate gravy train?
Are unions perfect? Of course not. Like politicians and corporations, unions are flawed. Over time, some have become corrupted. The obvious thing to do would be to fix those flaws. Instead? Instead we're told that we should simply castrate the unions. Do away with them. Oddly, millions of Americans either don't notice or don't care that the voice whispering these sweet nothings about rendering organized labor extinct belong to those who gain the most by stripping workers of their rights. In reality, destroying unions because of some corruption would have been like completely disbanding Major League Baseball over the Black Sox scandal. It's a ridiculous and calculated overreaction.
Despite the work and sacrifice of people like Joe Hill, we're still fighting an uphill battle for the soul of the working class. Hell, for the existence of the middle class. Decades have seemingly taught us nothing, as we're led gleefully down the road to serfdom. Many of the voices leading us there are doing so in opposition to their own self interests. The financial titans leading the charge? What can they do but laugh as one lemming leads another right of the cliff?
Joe Hill would hang his head in shame.
