May Day and Chrysler
It’s May 1st, May Day, an ancient celebration of spring. (Should I send cards to Carri and other friends who proudly describe themselves as Wiccans and pagans?)
It’s also International Worker’s day. That’s an official holiday in many countries, though mostly ignored for obvious political reasons in the United States. That ignorance is a good and important story – an 1886 protest by workers in Chicago, workers shot, a bomb thrown into a crowd of police, a riot, seven probably innocent people executed. Here are Wikipedia links for May Day and the Haymarket affair.
Chrysler is going to get another $10 billion of our taxpayer dollars, and our government is going to appoint people to the company’s board of directors. Fiat will get a large share of the company. Workers will be majority owners, with 55 percent of the stock, though that ownership takes the place of their pension funds, which were supposed to have been securely protected.
The company is saved, it seems, at least for now. But if the restructured company eventually fails, the workers will be in even more serious trouble. Workers today, and Americans generally, appear to be content with our lack of power – a stark contrast with the 1886 protests this day commemorates.
The complications and drama of the Chrysler situation, especially the huge taxpayer subsidies, have made it easy to ignore some fundamental questions. Is this actually good for ordinary Americans? Does this promote the general welfare? Why is our government investing so much time and money to save Chrysler? Does the stated rationale, to “save jobs,” really make sense?
All of these troubles could have been avoided if ordinary Americans had real political and economic power. That’s the main goal of Citizen Dividends, the guaranteed basic income. Give every American citizen some amount, say $1,000 a month. Every citizen – workers and the unemployed, poor and rich alike – will get the same amount, the same treatment. That’s how we can directly and efficiently promote the general welfare.
Everyone who’s unemployed will have some income. The amount should be enough that people with no other income can afford food and shelter. People will be able to manage while they find or create their own jobs. No more subsidies to Chrysler or other big corporations. No more bailouts to Wall Street.
Citizen Dividends will create a new baseline of economic justice and economic equality, and a new basis for political equality. That’s something the workers in 1886 would have understood and fought for.
That’s how we can have a Peaceful, Positive Revolution.
Steven Shafarman
Tags: popular support, populism, Wall Street, workers