Published on Truthout (http://www.truth-out.org)
30 Years Ago Today: The Middle Class Died
Saturday 6 August 2011
by: Michael Moore, MichaelMoore.com [3] | Op-Ed
President Reagan walks along the White House colonnade, 1981. (Photo: Wikimedia [4])
From time to time, someone under 30 will ask me, "When did this all begin,
That many jobs were union jobs, from baggers at the grocery store to the guy painting your house.
And this meant that no matter how "lowly" your job was you had guarantees of a pension, occasional raises, health insurance and someone to stick up for you if you were unfairly treated.
Young people have heard of this mythical time -- but it was no myth, it was real. And when they ask, "When did this all end?", I say, "It ended on this day: August 5th, 1981."
Beginning on this date, 30 years ago, Big Business and the Right Wing decided to "go for it" -- to see if they could actually destroy the middle class so that they could become richer themselves.
And they've succeeded.
On August 5, 1981, President Ronald Reagan fired every member of the air traffic controllers union (PATCO) who'd defied his order to return to work and declared their union illegal. They had been on strike for just two days.
It was a bold and brash move. No one had ever tried it. What made it even bolder was that PATCO was one of only three unions that had endorsed Reagan for president! It sent a shock wave through workers across the country. If he would do this to the people who were with him, what would he do to us?
Reagan had been backed by Wall Street in his run for the White House and they, along with right-wing Christians, wanted to restructure
Reagan promised to end all that. So when the air traffic controllers went on strike, he seized the moment. In getting rid of every single last one of them and outlawing their union, he sent a clear and strong message: The days of everyone having a comfortable middle class life were over.
* The super-rich will make more, much much more, and the rest of you will scramble for the crumbs that are left.
* Everyone must work! Mom, Dad, the teenagers in the house! Dad, you work a second job! Kids, here's your latch-key! Your parents might be home in time to put you to bed.
* 50 million of you must go without health insurance! And health insurance companies: you go ahead and decide who you want to help -- or not.
* Unions are evil! You will not belong to a union! You do not need an advocate! Shut up and get back to work! No, you can't leave now, we're not done. Your kids can make their own dinner.
* You want to go to college? No problem -- just sign here and be in hock to a bank for the next 20 years!
* What's "a raise"? Get back to work and shut up!
And so it went. But Reagan could not have pulled this off by himself in 1981. He had some big help:
The AFL-CIO.
The biggest organization of unions in
Reagan and Wall Street could not believe their eyes! Hundreds of thousands of working people and union members endorsing the firing of fellow union members. It was Christmas in August for Corporate America.
And that was the beginning of the end. Reagan and the Republicans knew they could get away with anything -- and they did. They slashed taxes on the rich. They made it harder for you to start a union at your workplace. They eliminated safety regulations on the job. They ignored the monopoly laws and allowed thousands of companies to merge or be bought out and closed down. Corporations froze wages and threatened to move overseas if the workers didn't accept lower pay and less benefits. And when the workers agreed to work for less, they moved the jobs overseas anyway.
And at every step along the way, the majority of Americans went along with this. There was little opposition or fight-back. The "masses" did not rise up and protect their jobs, their homes, their schools (which used to be the best in the world). They just accepted their fate and took the beating.
I have often wondered what would have happened had we all just stopped flying, period, back in 1981. What if all the unions had said to Reagan, "Give those controllers their jobs back or we're shutting the country down!"? You know what would have happened. The corporate elite and their boy Reagan would have buckled.
But we didn't do it. And so, bit by bit, piece by piece, in the ensuing 30 years, those in power have destroyed the middle class of our country and, in turn, have wrecked the future for our young people. Wages have remained stagnant for 30 years. Take a look at the statistics and you can see that every decline we're now suffering with had its beginning in 1981 (here's [5] a little scene to illustrate that from my last movie).
It all began on this day, 30 years ago. One of the darkest days in American history. And we let it happen to us. Yes, they had the money, and the media and the cops. But we had 200 million of us. Ever wonder what it would look like if 200 million got truly upset and wanted their country, their life, their job, their weekend, their time with their kids back?
Have we all just given up? What are we waiting for? Forget about the 20% who support the Tea Party -- we are the other 80%! This decline will only end when we demand it. And not through an online petition or a tweet. We are going to have to turn the TV and the computer and the video games off and get out in the streets (like they've done in
When is enough, enough? The middle class dream will not just magically reappear. Wall Street's plan is clear:
Why not use today to pause and think about the little steps you can take to turn this around in your neighborhood, at your workplace, in your school? Is there any better day to start than today?
P.S. Here are a few places you can connect with to get the ball rolling:
Main Street Contract for America [6]
Showdown in America [7]
Democracy Convention [8]
Occupy Wall Street [9]
October 2011 [10]
How to Join a Union by the AFL-CIO [11] (they've learned their lesson and have a good president now) or UE [12]
Change to Win [13]
MoveOn [14]
High School Newspaper [15] (Just because you're under 18 doesn't mean you can't do anything!)
Michael Moore [20]Michael Winship | Truthout | Op-Ed
[21]
Dave Johnson | Campaign for
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Source URL: http://www.truth-out.org/30-years-ago-today-middle-class-died/1312641859
Links:
[1] http://www.truth-out.org/print/4866
[2] http://www.truth-out.org/printmail/4866
[3] http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mike-friends-blog/30-years-ago-today
[4] http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:President_Reagan_walks_along_the_White_House_colonnade_1981.jpg
[5] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvVAPsn3Fpk
[6] http://www.nationalnursesunited.org/affiliates/entry/msc1
[7] http://showdowninamerica.org/
[8] http://democracyconvention.org/
[9] https://occupywallst.org/
[10] http://october2011.org/frontpage
[11] http://www.aflcio.org/joinaunion/how/
[12] http://www.ueunion.org/org_steps.html
[13] http://changetowin.org/
[14] http://moveon.org/
[15] http://mikeshighschoolnews.com/
[16] http://www.truth-out.org/printmail
[17] http://www.truth-out.org/content/michael-moore
[18] http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/6694/p/salsa/web/common/public/signup?signup_page_KEY=2160
[19] https://members.truth-out.org/donate
[20] http://www.truth-out.org/?q=forget-rich-tax-poor-and-middle-class/1305035795
[21] http://www.truth-out.org/?q=if-you-are-or-want-be-middle-class/1301803200
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"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs
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