Date: Thu, 2 Mar 1995 19:49:20 -0800 From: Tom Condit <tomcondit-AT-igc.apc.org> Subject: Inflation Dear comrades: I'm posting the text of a leaflet on inflation and the so-called "wage spiral" produced by the Labor Committee of the Los Angeles Peace & Freedom Party. This is intended to be a propaganda leaflet of the type put on literature tables, rather than an agitational leaflet for mass distribution. Needless to say, we'd like it to be factually and theoretically "correct" insofar as possible. In reading over the leaflet, I have an uneasy feeling that something isn't quite right, but I'm not sure what and I don't know whether it's just a stylistic problem. Any expert criticisms? I should say that the authors are "ordinary" (whatever that means) rank and file workers in Los Angeles. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area myself, so I don't know the full composition of the committee, but I know that it includes at least one member each of the Communist Party, Socialist Party and Solidarity, and an ex-member of the Internationalist Workers Party (Fourth Int'l), the U.S. "Morenoite" group. They're not there as representatives of their parties but as individuals. if we're ever going to have left unity in this country (or anywhere), this type of work on joint projects, rather than grandiose unity conferences, is where it's going to come from. Please direct any comments to me at tomcondit-AT-igc.apc.org. Thanks in advance, Tom Condit *** "The Wage-Spiral Theory" A new ideological assault upon Labor and the working class By L.A. County Peace & Freedom Party Labor Committee Alan Greenspan, Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, has stated repeatedly in recent months his opinion that with underemployment dropping below 7% brakes should be applied to the economic engine. He warns that if the official unemployment rate should fall below 6.2% the economy will "overheat" and lead to a rise in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and then, Greenspan says, interest rates should be hiked to "slow the rate of growth. The Clinton Administration agrees in principle but would set the rate of considered "healthy" unemployment at a slightly different mark. Laura D'Andrea Tyson, Chair of the President's Council of Economic Advisors stated, "Once source of inflation could be the rate of growth of unit labor cost...but unit labor costs have been decelerating, not accelerating..." She goes on to say, --- from list marxism-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu --- ------------------
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