Despite the economic turmoil of the last few years, the biggest banks and corporations have managed to consistently remain profitable ever since the massive taxpayer-funded bailouts. However, as the bleak jobs report for May shows, workers have been left out of this so-called recovery.
A total of 69,000 new jobs opened up in May, the lowest number in a year. Because about 125,000 jobs a month are needed just to keep up with the growing workforce, the official unemployment rate increased slightly to 8.2 percent. If workers who are thought to have “dropped out” of the workforce and those who have been forced to accept part-time work are included, the figure rises to 14.8 percent.
As these statistics make clear, the capitalist system offers no solution to the epidemic of unemployment and underemployment. That’s why the Lindsay/Osorio campaign proposes a socialist solution.
We demand: Seize the banks—Jail Wall Street criminals with the vast wealth of society—which we, the working class, create—liberated from Wall Street parasites, we can initiate a massive jobs program.
Our 10 point program states: Make a job a Constitutional right. Tens of millions are jobless and under-employed because the capitalists control employment. A decent paying job must be a legal, guaranteed right. The minimum wage should be raised to $20 per hour and a living income must be guaranteed for those who cannot work.
Capitalists employ workers for only one reason: without our labor, they cannot make a profit. When they can no longer profitably sell the commodities we make, as is the case in an economic crisis, they carry out mass layoffs without a second thought as to the devastating consequences to workers or their families.
Even in times of relative stability, the ruling class still needs a constant reserve of unemployed people to accommodate the chaotic and unplanned shifts in direction inherent in capitalist development. Having more workers than available jobs also helps depress wages and strengthens the negotiating position of the capitalists.
A job is central to human dignity and should be considered a basic right. Like all other rights for working people, it cannot be fully or permanently realized under capitalism. To fight unemployment at its root, support the Lindsay/Osorio campaign and join us in the fight for a socialist future!
