The Hurt Locker,Tompkins Square Park(1874) and Tax Increases To Save America

On a chilly morning of January 13,1873,fifteen thousand people gathered in Tompkins Square Park to demand government relief and public jobs.They did so because there was a financial collapse on Wall Street in September 1873(no apologies then ,none now).There was no work and NYC unemployed were desperate for food,coal and the means to pay rent and provide milk to their children(sound familiar).William Havermeyer had agreed to address the crowd and hopefully alleviate their concerns.Unfortunately,fear griped the city government(backed by newspapers and the business community) and they turned against the protesters with the the force of the police department(will be used in the near future when protesters appear in the streets for employment).Police commissioner,Abram Duryee,with a squad of officers,tried to disperse the crowd but the unemployed workers resisted(no unemployment insurance then) when they were pushed harshly and Havermeyer broke his word.Havermeyer later explained to the organizers that the purpose of city government isn't to furnish work to the industrious poor....and that other countries had that system but not the United States didn't(Capitalism has always failed the poor,state employment was needed then and today).Two weeks later at a meeting at Cooper Union,Augusta Lilienthal of the German Free-Thinkers Union, stated that the unemployed workers were a portion of positively the best class of our citizens.They were the true taxpayers.They were working men and had assembled to ask for work and for that they were knocked down. He asked,what condition of affairs is this? Journalist and labor advocate,John Swinton,reminded the hall that twenty years ago(1854),Abolitionist sounded as terrible as the word Communist ( income equality,collective bargaining) does today.Let us not wait in this case till our tongues are tied and our hands are manacled(getting close today).Let us not lie supine till our chains are forged,but let the forgers be warned and thwarted in advance.These statements are found in the new book I am reading"There Is Power In A Union" by Philip Dray.One hundred and thirty five years have passed since the Tompkins Square incident. From my perspective,the current employee/employer relationship in America hasn't changed much and the government leaders throughout our land are silent concerning the hardships of our lower,working class.Both parties consistently respond to middle class needs while ignoring the growing inequality developing in the lower class.American style capitalism,worst offender, in developed countries,has completely turned it's back on the working poor by dismantling collective bargaining and moving manufacturing jobs(or any reasonable paying jobs) overseas.A new form of " silent slavery" has developed where wages are kept at poverty levels and worker rights are ignored and buried in the powerless fear of unemployment .Corporations and small businesses are undermining our mighty middle class as insecurity abounds and personal debt increases.Thomas Jefferson understood the hardships of the lower class worker. He was against the British manufacturing environment created by the upper class to exploit the workers in England.He wanted the values that were written in the Bill of Rights to be carried in the workplace in America.George Washington wore "homespun" clothing as a reaction to to the imported fabrics from Great Britain.He stated that he has for too long been a subject to British prejudice...no porter or cheese in my family,but such as is made in America.More products should be made and consumed by Americans to create jobs for the lower class. If capitalism can't provide them, then the government must.They can do so by creating laws that will mandate the consumption of American products.Yes, a restriction on what we can buy to help our fellow citizens live like the middle and upper class in America.Each state could manufacture products to be consumed by it's citizens.The amount and type will be appropriate to the environment and demographics.It's a new form of "homespun"that will break from a form of economics that under serves 30% of our society.Capitalism will continue here but with a new partner who will draw from the lower class to improve living and working conditions for all. Work councils(like the ones in the EU) should be established not only in the state generated jobs but also in the private sector.Labor laws should be established here to provide shared decision making in the workplace for all Americans.Tax increases,not decreases, should be encouraged to reduce the deficit and start the process of government participation in the manufacturing sector.Creating good jobs for the lower class will increase consumption drastically and create more revenue for the government instead of cutting taxes for the rich who sit on their money and don't consume at the lower class ratios.

I saw the film"Hurt Locker" last night and was astonished that the United States continues to exploit the lower class with the "heroes of America" propaganda we constantly are bombarded with in advertisements and statements.The soldiers in the movie (Iraq 2004..Baghdad)were very heroic in their world as bomb dispersal experts.I couldn't believe the U.S. positioned our children in this area of conflict where the population was so against their good will.The extremely dangerous environment(Baghdad in chaos with Americans as targets) only made the decisions by the Executive and Legislative branches more ominous.The decision to send our troops into a country that didn't have an organized opposition to Saddam was so incoherent that future writings should take them to task as the weakest,uninformed session of Congress in our history.Again, it is on the backs of the lower class, not the middle and upper class, that have to carry out the blind decisions of our revengeful,thoughtless leaders.The young men and women are heroes of their distorted world but our representatives are the vile that creates hatred around the world.Our good intentions lack the insight we need to become caretakers of world peace and security. Our call for "national security" has made our world less secure and our children implements for destruction.Jefferson and Washington would be turning in their graves.