Lincoln's Grave Warning Realized
...a letter from President Abraham Lincoln to William F Elkins on 21 November 1864:
"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country...corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed."
Our American Objectives
"Our national goals must be to rejuvenate the domestic economy; transfer the economic basis of our nation from consumptive to productive; recapitalize education and the technologies industries; achieve complete energy independence; move towards renewable energy sources;
restore public confidence in the government's ability to undertake large national infrastructure projects, and re-assert its right to set goals and policies to ensure those projects proceed smoothly; define the overarching standards for a reconstructed America including a federal review of the building and planning codes now in use, and probably the writing of new mandates that set out 21st-century standards and priorities for energy use, urban and transportation planning, and environmental design, which once put into law and accepted into general use, will be very difficult to change; commit funding for a massive 10- or 20-year program that will upgrade or replace failing components of America's infrastructure as the nation is broke (as it was in FDR's day) and this kind of spending needs to be seen as the long-term investment in our economic future that it is; restore a fair, honest, broad-based system of public contracting that will put large numbers of Americans to work on these new projects (and write the new rules in a way that ensures that the firms doing the most innovative work don't have to compete with unfair behemoth corporations like Halliburton and Lockheed for the lion's share of the funding) so that once there is a healthy, competitive construction industry that knows how to build sustainable projects—and is relying on the government to keep it in business—we will get a political constituency that will fight to ensure that the rebuilding will continue for the next several decades, regardless of what political party is in power; use the forces of globalization and information to strengthen and expand existing democratic alliances and created new ones; employ these alliances to destroy terrorist networks and establish new international security structures; lead, through our historic principles, on international cooperative efforts in spreading economic opportunity and democratic liberties, nation building, counter-prolification, and optimum environmental protection and safeguards; and cherish, honor, and protect our history and traditions of liberty and freedoms domestically particularly with respect to the Bill of Rights."
"The renewed social contract for America with its middle class and poor must:
- Raise the minimum wage still higher and on a regular basis. It has fallen far behind increases in inflation since the 1970s, and that affects higher level wages as well.
- Encourage living-wage programs by local governments. Governments can demand that their contractors and suppliers pay well above the minimum wage. There is substantial evidence that this does not result in an undue loss of jobs.
- Enforce the labor laws vigilantly. Minimum-wage and maximum-hour laws are violated to a stunning degree. American workers shouldn't be forced by their employers to understate the number of hours worked or be locked in the warehouse so they can't leave on time. Workers often make only $2 and $3 an hour.
- Unions are not seeking a free pass to organize secretly when they advocate for open check-offs on cards to approve of a union vote. They are seeking to organize without persistent and often illegal management interference. Penalties for illegally deterring such organizing are so light, it makes little sense for management not to pursue strategies to stop organizing even at the cost of prosecution.
- Request that trading partners develop serious environmental standards and worker-protection laws. This is good for them, bringing a progressive revolution and a robust domestic market to their countries. It is good for America, which will be able to compete on a more level playing field.
- Demand that the president, governors and mayors speak up about unconscionable executive salaries and low wages. The influence from the top cannot be underestimated. A president who looks the other way sends a strong signal to business. A president who demands responsible treatment of workers will get a response. Business does not like such attention.
- These measures should be accompanied by serious investment in modernized infrastructure and energy alternatives, which can create millions of domestic jobs that pay good salaries. It should also be accompanied by a policy that supports a lower dollar -- contrary to Rubinomics -- in order to stimulate manufacturing exports again. Accomplishing this may require a new system of semi-fixed currencies across the globe. The unabashed high-dollar policy of the past twenty years has led to imbalances around the world that have contributed fundamentally to US overindebtedness.
- And finally, the nation needs more balance on the part of the Federal Reserve between subduing inflation and creating jobs. Americans can live with inflation above 2 percent a year. There is no academic evidence to support a 2 percent annual target, although the Fed has made this its informal target."
The Ludlow Massacre is a largely unknown and forgotten violent tragedy in American History. The assault on workers and their families by government agents and toughs employed by mining corporations and others is a grim moment. There is a monument to the massacre just off of I-25 at mile marker #27 in southern Colorado. 45 lives, including 32 women and children, were coldly executed on 20 April, 1914. Nearly all the victims were immigrants from Eastern Europe. None of the murderers, their organizers, or corporation sponsors were ever brought to justice. It is sorrowful to think we are moving back into an era like this where corporations can wield extraordinary power, including deciding life and death, and the government and media largely approve, standing by and acting oblivious and without care or interest to the injustices and treachery being done by corporations across the nation.
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20080410_the_ludlow_legacy_part_i_colombia/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludlow_massacre*****
The Ludlow Massacre is a largely unknown and forgotten violent tragedy in American History. The assault on workers and their families by government agents and toughs employed by mining corporations and others is a grim moment. There is a monument to the massacre just off of I-25 at mile marker #27 in southern Colorado. 45 lives, including 32 women and children, were coldly executed on 20 April, 1914. Nearly all the victims were immigrants from Eastern Europe. None of the murderers, their organizers, or corporation sponsors were ever brought to justice. It is sorrowful to think we are moving back into an era like this where corporations can wield extraordinary power, including deciding life and death, and the government and media largely approve, standing by and acting oblivious and without care or interest to the injustices and treachery being done by corporations across the nation.
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