Quotations

from the book

Class War in America

by Charles M. Kelly

Fithian Press, 2000, paperback

p19
Given the Fed's chronic preoccupation with the fear that wages might be about to go up-and its publicly stated commitment to make sure that won't happen-the only condition that can't be explained away is why American workers continue to vote for the conservative politicians who deliberately created their wage stagnation.

p51
Business Week, July 1999, "Good News about Jobs Is Bad News to the Fed":

The Federal Reserve cannot come out and say it directly, but the main reason policymakers want to restrain economic growth is to loosen up the labor markets. To admit that would be political suicide. But the Fed knows that, with markets already so tight, job growth must slow if the economy is to avoid a surge in wages that could trigger a rise in inflation.

p55
The Wall Street, 1997, "In Setting Fed's Policy, Chairman Bets Heavily on His Own Judgment"

Despite a rebound in economic growth, wages and prices remain, so far, amazingly placid.... Mr. Greenspan [now] has a different mantra: Workers' fear of losing their jobs, restrains them from seeking the pay raises that usually crop up when employers have trouble finding people to hire. Even if the economy didn't slow down as he expected, he told a Fed colleague last summer, he saw little danger of a sudden upturn in wages and prices.

Because workers are more worried about their own job security and their marketability if forced to change jobs, they are apparently accepting smaller increases in their compensation at any given level of labor-market tightness," Mr. Greenspan told Congress at the time.

p69
Business Week, "NAFTA: A New Union-Busting Weapons"

Since the North American Free Trade Agreement took effect, U.S. employers have routinely threatened during union elections to close plants and move production to Mexico or elsewhere, says a new study commissioned under NAFTA....

The report, based on union elections from 1993 to 1995, indicated half of the employers threaten to close plants when facing a union vote....

When employers lose, 7.5% go ahead and close the plant-triple the level in the pre-NAFTA 1980s.

"NAFTA created a climate that has emboldened employers," says Kate Bronfenbrenner, a researcher who headed up the study for the U.S., Canadian and Mexican governments. She agreed to release the report after the Labor Dept. balked.

Because of articles like this, the real intent of unmanaged free trade is becoming obvious to everyone. The daily news accounts can't be covered up, even by conservative journalists. Only an orthodox hypocrite could claim that corporate CEOs didn't intend to use "free trade" as a cover for being able to "routinely threaten" their own workers. "If you unionize, we'll abandon you and your com

Class War in America

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