A recession in the United States compounds what has already been for hundreds of million of toilers living in Asia, Africa, and Latin America--an economic and social catastrophe for much of the past two decades.

A number of bourgeois commentators have worried about the potentially explosive impact that the cutoff of federal welfare at the end of December will have upon tens of thousands of working people. "There is a growing sense of militancy among struggling families in the United States. Pushing people to the limits will produce that," New York Times columnist Bob Herbert noted.

In response to this crisis, the labor movement needs to take the lead in fighting for the right of all working people to have a decent paying job. Workers should demand a massive program of government-funded public works, to build housing, schools, hospitals, day-care centers, and upgrade public transportation and roads, at union-scale wages.

Labor must also demand a shorter workweek with no cut in pay, binding on all employers as federal law. This would spread the available work around and allow workers, not just the capitalists, to enjoy the benefits of any advances in the productivity of our labor.

Working people must also help lead the fight to substantially increase the minimum wage, as wage levels on capitalism are set from the bottom up, not from the top down.

Our strength lies in international solidarity. The labor movement in the United States must demand an immediate cancellation of the more than $2 trillion foreign debt that Washington and other imperialist governments have imposed on semicolonial countries. Making payments on these unpayable debts simply means transferring wealth produced by workers and farmers in these nations to the coffers of banks in the imperialist centers.
 
 
Related article:
Sharp rise in visits to food banks by working families as recession sets in  
 
 
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