Saturday, August 11, 2012

Class struggle not class collaboration

America is the land of plenty. But for 1 in 6 people in the United States, hunger is a reality. Many people believe that the problems associated with hunger are confined to small pockets of society, certain areas of the country or to certain neighborhood, but the reality is much different. Right now, millions of Americans are suffering with hunger. These are often hard-working adults, children and seniors who simply cannot make ends meet and are forced to go without food for several meals, or even days. Under the Supplemental Poverty Measure, there are 49.1 million people living in poverty, 2.5 million more than are represented by the official poverty measure (46.2 million).

In 2010, 46.2 million people (15.1 percent) were in poverty.

In 2010, 9.2 million (11.7 percent) families were in poverty.

In 2010, 26.3 million (13.7 percent) of people ages 18-64 were in poverty.

In 2010, 16.4 million (22.0 percent) children under the age of 18 were in poverty.

In 2010, 3.5 million (9.0 percent) seniors 65 and older were in poverty.

In 2010, 48.8 million Americans lived in food insecure households, 32.6 million adults and 16.2 million children.

In 2010, 14.5 percent of households (17.2 million households) were food insecure.

In 2010, 5.4 percent of households (6.4 million households) experienced v very low food security.

In 2010, households with children reported food insecurity at a significantly higher rate than those without children, 20.2 percent compared to 11.7 percent.

In 2010, households that had higher rates of food insecurity than the national average included households with children (20.2 percent), especially households with children headed by single women (35.1percent) or single men (25.4 percent), Black non-Hispanic households (25.1 percent) and Hispanic households (26.2 percent).

In 2009, 8.0 percent of seniors living alone (925,000 households) were food insecure.

In 2010, 4.8 percent of all U.S. households (5.6 million households) accessed emergency food from a food pantry one or more times.

In 2010, 59.2 percent of food-insecure households participated in at least one of the three major Federal food assistance programs –Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly Food Stamp Program), The National School Lunch Program, and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children.

Feeding America provides emergency food assistance to an estimated 37 million low-income people annually, a 46 percent increase from 25 million since Hunger in America 2010.

One half of all jobs in the U.S. today now pay less than $35,000 a year. Adjusted for inflation, that's one of the lowest rates for American workers in five decades.

There's a common perception that somebody who's poor or living below the poverty level is lazy or simply living off government handouts. The actual average poor person is working. Since the 1970s hourly wages have declined by more than 7 percent.
"And working as hard as she or he possibly can," he says. "And particularly in the recession, not able to get work or steady work. There are certainly people who make bad choices, but the fundamental question in our economy is the number of people who are doing absolutely everything they can to support their families — and they just can't make it." says Peter Edelman, a professor at Georgetown University and an expert on poverty 

Thanks to the Occupy Movements slogans, many working people are well aware of the growing inequalities in wealth. But former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich provides a useful overview: “…the rich have been getting a larger and larger portion of total income. From 9 percent in 1980, the top 1 percent's take increased to 23.5 percent by 2007. CEOs who in the 1970s took home 40 times the compensation of average workers now rake in 350 times.”

Manufacturing jobs have migrated overseas. Technology has replaced many other jobs. More importantly, across the country many unions have been  willing to accept concessions without waging a struggle, thereby contributing to the growing inequalities. This willingness to give up hard won gains in turn has resulted in the continuing decline of union membership, which now stands at 8 percent. Who would want to join a union and pay dues only to make concessions? (In contrast, in the 1930s when unions were staging all-out fights for better pay and working conditions, and winning, union membership surged.) The decline of unions signifies the loss of a powerful weapon that can be used to defend the standard of living of the working class. It is time for the union movement to reclaim its historic role as the defender of working people and rise up to create a movement —independent of the politicians. Today’s labor struggles are occurring in the context of a severe systemic crisis of global capitalism. Employers seek to protect the surplus value (profits) they extract from workers by cutting wages, benefits and working conditions.  Class conflicts will increasingly arise under capitalism in this phase. The workers’ fight is not just against the bosses and their government but sometimes also the trade union bureaucracy that attempts to mediate between labor and capital. When the trade union bureaucracy is unwilling to fight the bosses on behalf of workers’ interests, they may resort to repression of the rank and file unofficial resistance.

Statistics from here


No comments: