Date:          Wed, 12 Jun 1996 21:04:26 +0000
Subject:       Missing In Action


----Forwarded Message----

Date sent:        Wed, 12 Jun 1996 16:55:51 -0700 (PDT)
From:             Flora Tristan X334260 <tristan-AT-iww.org>

Subject:          MIAs


Fellow Workers,

"Missing in Action" is the title of a story appearing in today's
(June 12, 1996) "Wall Street Journal".  It seems that, "about a
million men"  are missing and unaccounted for in the unemployment
statistics.  Where are these former wage-slaves? 

Well, according to the "WSJ" many are languishing at home on
welfare, in states where they can still get it, while others are
retraining themselves at community colleges for jobs they'll be
too old to land.  It may be that there are more than a million
too.  Famed capitalist liberal economist Lester Thurow is said to
estimate that the number of missing wage-slaves amount to 5.8
million. Add to this the 1.5 million doing time in the slammers
of Freedomeland and your get quite a large "reserve army of
labor", waiting to sell their skills to the highest bidder.  

Well, high may not be quite the appropriate adjective.  As the
"Journal" writer opines, "The missing men, however, may also
indicate a slack labor force, which could enable business to
expand and hire more people without pushing up wages.  So, the
missing men may act as a buffer against the threat of wage-push
inflation."  Wage-push inflation is capitalist code for the
principle that wages must be kept low so that profits can be
pushed to the sky.  Increased wages cause lower profits, not
higher inflation. Oh well, it is the "WSJ" after all.  And
editorializing along in this front page spread, the "Journal"
writer casts aspersions on those wage-slaves who having been
downsized, refuse to take their medicine--a pay cut in order to
get another job.  But he assures his bourgeois readers, they'll
come around.  The capitalist politicians are cutting programs
left and right for the needy and soon these proto-lumpens will be
forced to do their part in the MacDonaldized economy of the
future.

Welcome to the millennium wage-slaves; just like the last one. 
Ain't it time to chuck the bosses off our backs?  If you haven't
done so already, join the OBU, the quickest ticket to a better
way of living and freedom from wage-slavery.  Your liberation
will only come about, if you act for yourself. 

Flora Tristan     
http://iww.org


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