=======================Electronic Edition========================
RACHEL’S ENVIRONMENT & HEALTH WEEKLY #445
—June 8, 1995—
News and resources for environmental justice.
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POLITICS, NOT AS USUAL
Is the world headed in the right direction? Do we need merely to
continue doing what we’ve been doing, except do it more
effectively? If you think the answer is Yes, then ask yourself 3
questions:
How is it that nearly 200 years after the industrial revolution,
which produced humanity’s greatest period of economic expansion,
the absolute number of people living in misery (both material and
social) has risen exponentially?
How is it that the world’s slum population has risen at a rate
vastly greater than that of global population growth?
And how is it that, despite incredible technological innovations,
the world now faces human-created threats more ominous than the
wars, famines, epidemics and other upheavals of previous dark
ages?
In sum, how is it that humanity’s greatest leap forward in
material prosperity has resulted in extreme social breakdown, and
that our greatest period of technological and scientific
achievement has come to endanger the conditions that allow life
on earth? [1, pgs. 167-68]
Even in the U.S., social breakdown is accelerating. The U.S. now
has the greatest disparity between rich and poor of any
industrialized nation, [2]and the present Congress is working
aggressively to remove the social “safety net” constructed during
the previous 40 years. This can only increase people’s sense of
insecurity and loss of control over their lives. Insecurity is
already high. For two decades, real wages have been falling.
Since 1973, real hourly earnings have dropped 13.4%; and real
weekly earnings have dropped 19.2%.[1, pg. 34] Even during good
times, American corporations are jettisoning workers at an
unprecedented pace. In 1994 corporate profits rose 11%
(following on a 13% rise in 1993), yet 516,069 jobs were
eliminated in 1994. [3] The average return on equity of the
Fortune 500 hit an unprecedented 20.12% in the first quarter of
1995. [4] For corporations in America, things have never been
better, yet a majority of Americans are working longer and
harder, earning less, and living with more uncertainty. [5, pg. 3]
Both major parties in the U.S. have a common agenda. For two
decades, both parties have been ceding power and resources to
corporations. Corporations have been given tax breaks. They have
gotten regulatory relief. They been given cheap resources by the
government (minerals, timber, and land). We have opened our
schools and cultural institutions to corporate propaganda. The
influence of unions has been nearly eliminated. Despite all
these concessions, economic well-being for most Americans
continues to deteriorate.
We are told that economic and environmental deterioration are out
of our hands; the “market” is doing it to us. Such views are
ideology, not reality. They represent the interests of the
world’s most powerful economic actors, the large transnational
corporations which are in the process of freeing themselves from
even modest levels of social accountability. [6]
As a new pamphlet from the New Party says, “Globalization is
mainly a process being carried out by the giant transnationals,
among whom U.S. transnationals are the most numerous and
powerful. If ordinary people and national governments are
becoming powerless in the face of globalization, it is because we
are granting our own corporations too much power. The market is
not impersonal, it is not too big to regulate, and most of all it
is not free. It is created and maintained by concentrations of
corporate and governmental power.” [5, pg. 28]
According to the prevailing wisdom, globalization of the economy
is inevitable. No one can do anything about it. And this means
that the labor force of the developed nations must compete
directly with the labor force of the third world. In such a
competition, production will move to areas where labor costs are
low. If this arrangement promised to create a middle class in
those areas (India, China, Bangladesh, etc.), one might argue
that the net global benefits outweighed the costs. But one of
the key characteristics of many developing countries is extreme
concentration of wealth. A handful of people typically own most
of their nation’s industrial, commercial, and financial
enterprises, and it is these people who assemble the cheap labor
to manufacture products for the developed world. Thus, under
globalization (e.g., the GATT agreement), it is the poor in the
rich countries who will subsidize the rich in the poor
countries. [1, pg. 37] Some consumer goods will becomes cheaper in
the rich countries, but the real cost to consumers will be loss
of jobs, less pay for work, and higher taxes to support the
unemployed. [1, pg. 34] In sum, if it is implemented, the GATT
will impoverish and destabilize the industrialized world while at
the same time cruelly ravaging the third world. [1, pg. 25]
Without going into detail, it is possible to imagine global
trading arrangements that guarantee basic rights for workers and
citizens in both rich and poor countries, and which safeguard the
environment at the same time. But such arrangements would
require people to assert a modicum of control over the behavior
of corporations. As the New Party in the U.S. said recently, “If
the economy is to serve the people, it needs to be controlled by
the people.” [5, pg. 7]
New Party? What’s that?
As the name implies, the New Party is a new political party in
the U.S. The Party is tiny (4300 members at the end of 1994), but
during the last 2 years it has run 115 candidates and has won 77
elections (67%), all at the local level. The Party is now active
in 12 states, and expanding. From the horse’s mouth, [7]here is
what the New Party says it stands for [verbatim]:
The New Party’s Principles
The New Party believes that the social, economic, and political
progress of the United States requires a democratic revolution in
America –the return of power to the people. Democracy in
America does not work today. The people do not rule. And they
must, if we and our children are to lead lives of dignity,
decency, and enjoyment.
Popular democratic organization should be encouraged and
strengthened to make this peaceful revolution. Ordinary people
can do extraordinary things if they are organized. Our basic
purpose –reflected both in our own governance and the
aspirations we have for the nation –is to make democracy work
for everyone.
Our commitment to democracy comes from recognition of the moral
equality of persons. People really ARE created equal, and their
free deliberation is the best hope for achieving the blessings of
liberty. The same recognition fuels our commitment to fairness in
social life. Such moral irrelevancies as race, gender, age,
country of origin or inheritance continue to determine too much
of one’s life chances, and this undermines the very idea of a
democratic society.
We are saddened and outraged by the present corruption of our
public institutions; the deliberate weakening of unions and other
popular democratic organizations; the stupid and cruel economic
policies that are destroying our cities and communities,
increasing inequality, lowering living standards, and wrecking
the earth; the special burdens this society still places on
women, people of color, and children; the violence it can inflict
on the rest of the world.
To promote a rebirth of freedom, equality and prosperity, we
dedicate ourselves to the following:
Full public financing of elections, universal voter registration,
proportional representation, free party competition.
The establishment, defense, and facilitation of worker, consumer,
shareholder, and taxpayer rights to democratic self-organization.
The creation of a sustainable economy based on the responsible
and reverent use of our earth’s resources –taking no more than
we need, replacing and reusing all that we can.
A society in which we all take seriously our responsibilities as
parents, workers and citizens.
The democratization of our banking and financial system
–including popular election of those charged with public
stewardship of our banking system, worker-owner control over
their pension assets, community-controlled alternative financial
institutions.
Bill of Rights for America’s Children, guaranteeing true equality
of opportunity, providing equal education for all students, and
achieving an adequate standard of health care, nutrition,
housing, and safety.
Community-control and equitable funding of our schools, within
which we seek true excellence in public education along with
equal opportunity to achieve it. Full employment, a shorter work
week, and a guaranteed minimum income for all adults; a universal
“social wage” to include such basic benefits as health care,
child care, vacation time, and lifelong access to education and
training; a systematic phase-in of comparable worth and like
programs to ensure gender equity.
A progressive tax system based on the ability to pay.
Rebuilding our cities and metropolitan regions –the cornerstones
of a high-wage and ecologically sustainable economy –through
community-led programs of comprehensive, democratic, high-wage,
and low-waste economic development.
A community in which residents, neighborhood organizations,
businesses, police and local officials work cooperatively as
equal partners to provide a safe and secure environment in which
to live and work and study.
A reduction of national military spending to that necessary to
the defense of the United States and an end to unilateral
military interventions.
Trade among nations consistent with mutual improvement in living
standards, reduced cross-national inequalities, and sustainable
development.
In all aspects of our economy and social life, an absolute bar to
discrimination based on race, gender, age, country of origin, and
sexual orientation, and absolute security in reproductive rights,
fundamental liberties, and privacy.
These are our principles. It will take time and experience to
work out the details of sound policies and procedures based upon
them, but there is no better time to start than the present. We
believe that if we enunciate our principles clearly and firmly,
with honesty and no double talk, the New Party will set a new
standard for political behavior, and be worthy of the people of
these United States. [End of verbatim quotation.]
Contact: New Party, 227 W. 40th Street, Suite 1303, New York,
N.Y. 10018; phone (212) 302-5053. E-mail:
newparty@igc.apc.org.
                
                
                
                
    
–Peter Montague
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[1] Sir James Goldsmith, THE TRAP (New York: Carroll & Graf
Publishers, 1994).
[6] Walter Russell Mead, “Forward to the Past,” NEW YORK TIMES
MAGAZINE June 4, 1995, pgs. 48-49.
[7] “Principles,” NEW PARTY NEWS Vol. 4 No. 1 (Winter 1995), pgs.
6-7.
Descriptor terms: political parties; democrats; republicans; new
party; economy; gatt; general agreement on tariffs and trade;
international trade; international development; sustainable
development; economics; social decay; urbanization; science;
technology; income and wealth; studies; economic concentration;
corporations; elections;