www.newsandletters.org
|
|
NEWS & LETTERS, April - May 2008Workshop TalksObama and U.S. workersby Htun LinWhen Barack Obama referred to "bitter American workers" who, frustrated with economic conditions, fall back on "guns and religion," he put the issue of the declining economy front and center in the presidential contest. Setting aside the controversy over Obama's elitism, how can we address economic problems in a meaningful way, recognizing that a failure risks demagoguery over "guns, marriage, and Jesus." Obama's remarks, once revealed, opened up a valuable discussion over race, religion, immigration, trade, and the economy, in a refreshing way no other presidential campaign has. The problem is not where Obama stands on these issues, or his elitist air, but where we workers stand. MARX AND RELIGIONThe right-wing New York Times columnist, Bill Kristol claimed that Obama's now infamous "bitter" remarks sound like Karl Marx's "famous statement about religion." Marx's view of religion has been stereotyped in a single hackneyed phrase: "Religion is the opiate of the people." However, Marx was not "anti-religion." He had an empathy for poor workers who turn to religion as a refuge. Religion was "the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions." That is the most sober and understanding perspective on religion by an intellectual who dedicated his theoretical and practical work to the liberation of workers and humanity from capitalism. The critical issue for Marx, whether in relation to the economy or religion, is human beings' alienation from their own essence. Marx did not idealize workers. There are tendencies among workers that are ethnocentric, homophobic, racist and sexist. Bitter or not, it is certainly true that, as Obama said of workers in the rustbelt, "They are angry. They feel like they have been left behind. They feel like nobody is paying attention to what they're going through." For so long we workers have been preached to about lowering our expectations and managing our anger. Whether it is small town Pennsylvania or the urban slums of New Delhi, the issue is alienation experienced by the working poor. This alienation comes from the fact that the only commodity workers have to sell under capitalism is their labor-power, which is used at will by the capitalist for the purpose of extracting value. In production, workers are alienated from their own labor even as they develop connections with other workers. Without a sense of connection to other workers in the shop and to workers everywhere, the feeling of isolation can be overwhelming and have serious health consequences. ALIENATION AND HEALTHA new socio-economic documentary on the state of healthcare in America, "Unnatural Causes--Is Inequality Making Us Sick?" spoke of the "Latino-Paradox": the fact that Mexican immigrants, in spite of extreme poverty, start out healthier than native U.S. workers because they bring a "culture, of tradition, of tight family social networks and community social networks that essentially form a shield around themÉ.But that shield has an expiration date... As they are here longer, their health advantage erodes." The key point is that isolation kills: "Isolation is on the rise in the U.S., not just among immigrants. One in fourÉsay they have no one they can talk to about their problems." Union bureaucrats often capitulate to management over the issue of job security, as well as ignoring the cries of workers to improve working conditions, not just wages and benefits. Isolation wears down the human spirit, eroding essential human relations, distorting beyond recognition the fundamental human metabolism with nature and with one another. We must not let the question "is inequality making us sick?" be limited to material consumption, wages and benefits. Traditional political-economists tend to look exclusively at the consumption side, without asking as Marx did: how can workers overcome alienated labor, material production that produces value for the capitalist? In the exuberant world of market exchange, the alienated laborer is rendered invisible. This "invisibility" is the real "unnatural cause" of American illness. Alienation cannot be quantified easily. The absolute opposite of alienation is conscious, direct human cooperation and social collectivity. The tenuous nature of one's connection to production today, as well as the way it dissolves human relationships, calls for new forms of social solidarity among workers. That is the only way worker cooperation can emerge from under the yoke of value production that is killing us. |
|
Home l News & Letters Newspaper l Back issues l News and Letters Committees l Dialogues l Raya Dunayevskaya l Contact us l Search Published by News and Letters Committees |
