By Matthew Wackerle
March 2001
As the extended war against labor continues in a string of anti-worker legislation, Congress repealed the ergonomics guidelines that were implemented with the advice of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. For the past ten years, OSHA has been studying the effects of job-related injury caused by the mechanical, repetitive motion that is apparent in the jobs of tens of millions of workers across the United States. Over the next ten years, according to OSHA, the new rules would have prevented over 4.6 million cases of problematic musculo-skeletal cases and even saved businesses billions of dollars in the long run by preventing a variety of disorders that would negatively impact job performance. Of course, the bosses are never ones to listen to good advice and instead only see the profits in front of them - pushing for these repeals because of the immediate expenses the OSHA rules would entail. This is not without the usual lies and exaggerations that are not uncommon to the bourgeoisie and their bourgeois politicians. While OSHA stated that the new rules would cost businesses less than $10 billion dollars, all of which would be won back eventually in more efficient, happier workers along with the lessening of disorders caused by repetitive motion, corporations and the Republican majority vomited their own "findings" that indicate any new regulations to protect workers would cost around $90 billion dollars and won't even accomplish what they were enacted to do: protect workers.
But let's keep in mind who are the perpetrators of this nonsense! These are the very same people who decided to turn public opinion, especially that of the middle to upper income layers of society, against the estate tax - a tax affecting only millionaires - by renaming it the "death tax" and speaking as if it applies to almost anyone who dies, particularly those "middle class" Americans that they often claim to protect so dearly. Yet, the actions taken by Congress on Tuesday and Wednesday to throw out the regulations go far beyond simple, deceptively worded phrases, and enters an expanded realm of outright arrogance (even for an American politician!). Rarely does Congress infringe upon the duties of a government agency (in this case OSHA) and supercede its discretion by striking down laws that are currently being enforced - even if those laws were implemented by a previous administration of a different party than the majority sitting in Congress. The reason why the legislative branch tends to avoid conflict with the agencies of the executive is because these state functionaries are, after all, the "experts" in their fields while the Senators and Representatives sitting in Congress may know very little concerning, for instance, these new ergonomics regulations (obviously, they know nothing about the hardships suffered by the workers they would have aided... or at least care little for them!). However, while the Democrats offered their own token defense of the measures, our "neutral arbitrators" sitting in Washington expressed their objectivity in the matter by alleviating any stress the poor corporate executives may be suffering by having to repeatedly adhere to OSHA's workers' safety guidelines!
This serves to further demonstrate the impotence of the Democratic Party and the big union leadership to effectively represent the interests of the working class. No uproar, no protest, no militant action taken by any of these "opposition" groups to connect to working class voters and make them aware of the harmful burdens that the recent actions taken by Congress would lay on their shoulders - literally as well as figuratively. In fact, in the Senate, six Democrats - about 12% of the supposedly more "left-wing" Democratic senators - voted with the Republicans.
Nothing new here! The Democrats have had their chance time and time again to better the conditions of the working class; and yet, nothing has been done to create a rallying cry against Bush or the Republican policy. Granted, while the Democratic Party still has the ability to attract many working class voters to vote for their candidates and to support their legislation, the Democrats have never produced anything that can truly be called class-independent in favor of the working class. However, this does not mean that the Democrats have not produced any class independent policy - they are always doing that - in favor of the bourgeois class. A true working class party would not yield to pressure when labor is under fire, whether the party is the majority or the minority in government. It would be based on the trade unions, united in its struggle towards a working class victory, and entirely consistent in its protection of American workers and their brothers around the world who are facing the same oppression and exploitation by the capitalist ruling class. The Democrats have failed to accomplish this task. Instead, the Democrats were advocating the bombing of Serbian workers under the Clinton administration, hailing this act of imperialism as they always do when the ruling class believes its interests are threatened. How interesting it is that these bourgeois "friends" of the working class have decided, on numerous occasions, to either belligerently attack that same class or passively stand by as its previous gains are snatched from its hands by the bosses. The Democrats cannot be considered now, or ever, a mass party of labor because it works hand in hand with the greatest enemies of the working class - the capitalists.
A mass party of labor is much more than simply a party that draws in support from labor unions, minorities, and workers of every category. It is an organization that relentlessly opposes the bourgeoisie, that is based on the support of the workers and not in pacification of the workers, that refuses to ally itself with the bourgeoisie and refuses to stand by when the bourgeoisie slaps the proletariat in the face. The Democrats do not even have the potential to act in this manner, nor are they willing to even consider breaking with their capitalist roots. Democratic politicians, just as often as Republican ones, readily accept the contributions (i.e. bribes) of big business and in actuality do little to combat the billions of dollars handed to the capitalists every year in the name of "development" or "corporate welfare." It is then no surprise that they would not do more than simply vote "nay" against repealing the standards set by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
Another act of pure gall on the part of the Bush administration is the halting, for sixty days, of any possibility for the 10,000 workers affiliated with the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association to initiate a strike against the Northwest Airlines corporation. Although the government does frequently halt railroad strikes for the "good of the nation" (for the national bourgeoisie) this has only been the second time in thirty-five years that the anti-worker Taft-Hartley act has been used to prevent a strike amongst airline workers. Apparently, Bush supports a free market so long as it is to the benefit of the capitalists. But the moment the workers begin to organize and confront the bosses as a single entity, all talk of "fair contracts" that the bourgeois apologists say exist between worker and capitalist falls to dust and the government, a tool of the capitalist class, does not only wedge itself between the corporation and the workers but jumps to the side of its big business tag-team partner and smashes a chair over the worker's head. In the case of the AMFA workers, their spokesman said that the union was actually looking forward to coming to an agreement with Northwest, and despite the disagreements on issues such as wages, there was agreement on job well-being to the benefit of the workers. However, with Bush stepping in even before the deadline for a settlement had been reached, the AMFA correctly point out that this now allows Northwest to disregard the requests of its workers because of a lack of incentive to agree before the agreed-upon deadline. So much for "equal parties" in this contract!
Has one word been uttered by the Democrats in opposition to this? If so, it has not reached the ears of millions of workers and youth who can organize to pressure the Republicans to back off! Instead, the workers themselves are taking to the streets in front of the White House to protest Bush's anti-labor policy. Yet, as one worker cannot stand alone against the boss, one union cannot stand alone against the entire state machine - the representative of the interests of the bourgeoisie. Currently, a party entrenched in the goals of the working class does not exist in the United States on such a level as to be effective in serving as a sword of the proletariat. This only makes it all the more necessary to build such a party in order to combat every demon thrown at the working class from the capitalists and their managers in the White House and on Capitol Hill. A total break must be made with these bourgeois parties - the Republicans and the Democrats - as they both strive towards the oppression of workers in the United States and all over the world. The workers must be reminded that they - not the bourgeois politicians - already hold the weapons with which they will ensure their liberation from the day to day bondage of wage slavery.
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