On the Internationalization of Capital and Carpmentalization of Labor
What the Capitalists have done is copy what Trotsky and other socialists and anarchists agitated for in terms of international socialism, and Labor. No doubt that the monstrosity that was the Soviet Union and its satellites contributed to the weakening of socialism and Labor worldwide, but let us turn our attention to how the Capitalists mimicked the socialist ideal, and termed it globalism.
One of the strategies were the attacks on Unions still being carried out on the state level, has been a factor (I'm unsure how large) in wage stagnation. There has been almost zero growth in wages since the 70s, while profits have skyrocketed. Business are sitting on vast amounts of money and/or offshoring it. They then lobby state governments to institute “Right to Work" laws, which is a euphemism for blocking the right of workers to collectively organize and bargain for wages. The collapse in labor organization has kept wages low.
Even in states that don't have this undemocratic law, and have relatively strong Union representation have been affected as Union leverage in bargaining has been greatly diminished due to threats to move factories to, or use labor from these “Right to Work" states, or simply outsourcing their labor production to countries like China or India, who are known for their extremely lax labor protection laws.
This depresses wages worldwide.
Here in the United States, the decreasing number of Unions are corrupt and effectively act as a proxy for management to control their labor.
Since propaganda efforts to stigmatize Unions (and some Unions being corrupt) have decreased labor membership, and with trade agreements that allow capital to organize and move internationally, has the effect of really making unions anywhere in the world ineffective in fighting for workers' rights, and to raise wages. This, of course creates a “race to the bottom" effect that will only further deteriorate labor conditions and ability to bargain. As wages stagnate and fail to keep up with inflation, or are even lowered, the workers, who are also consumers, will no longer be able to afford the products they make. This will likely result in a snowball effect as businesses go bankrupt, resulting in more unemployment which further depresses the worldwide economy (by the way, just the mere rhetoric of slapping 20% import tariffs will have negative effects in the economy).
The only solution I see is for labor to be able to organize worldwide. They must be able to communicate and implement this organization in these multinational trade deals. The only union that has been successful in the past at increasing labor rights, wages, and protections, is the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Any worker, employed or unemployed, is able to join.
It's time to organize for a better society, and for labor to be a part of the decision-making process. Only Labor creates value, and so should at least partially be in control of that value, including surplus value which we refer to as profits, and heretofore, has only accumulated into an increasingly smaller group of people, who generally do not have the same interests of society as whole, often having conflicting interests.
It's time to organize before it's too late. For now, we are in the voluntary stage. We, as a society, would not like it to go to the involuntary stage.
