30 Years Ago Today: The Day the Middle Class Died ...a letter from Michael Moore

[dajoki]

This is an email I recieved:

30 Years Ago Today: The Day the Middle Class Died ...a letter from Michael Moore
Friday, August 5th, 2011

Friends,

From time to time, someone under 30 will ask me, "When did this all begin, America's downward slide?" They say they've heard of a time when working people could raise a family and send the kids to college on just one parent's income (and that college in states like California and New York was almost free). That anyone who wanted a decent paying job could get one. That people only worked five days a week, eight hours a day, got the whole weekend off and had a paid vacation every summer. 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 America and turn back the tide that President Franklin D. Roosevelt started -- a tide that was intended to make life better for the average working person. The rich hated paying better wages and providing benefits. They hated paying taxes even more. And they despised unions. The right-wing Christians hated anything that sounded like socialism or holding out a helping hand to minorities or women.

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. America, from now on, would be run this way:

* 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 America told its members to cross the picket lines of the air traffic controllers and go to work. And that's just what these union members did. Union pilots, flight attendants, delivery truck drivers, baggage handlers -- they all crossed the line and helped to break the strike. And union members of all stripes crossed the picket lines and continued to fly.

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 a little scene to illustrate that from my last movie). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvVAPsn3Fpk

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 Wisconsin). Some of you need to run for local office next year. We need to demand that the Democrats either get a spine and stop taking corporate money -- or step aside.

When is enough, enough? The middle class dream will not just magically reappear. Wall Street's plan is clear: America is to be a nation of Haves and Have Nothings. Is that OK for you?

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?

Yours,
Michael Moore
[e-mail]
MichaelMoore.com

[Skip_In_Boulder]

1. "It all began with Reagan" - Thom Hartmann

[left is right]

2. It was this event that propelled

my self-proclaiming conservative father out of the liberal closet he had been hiding in. For years, we had jokingly told him he was a liberal and should quit denying it. He always answered that there was no one more conservative than him that he was always trying to save money and resources rather than wasting them. He never voted for another repuke after this. About 4 years later he pointed to this event as the start of the decline of prosperity and even the decline of real family values—the kind of values that enabled families to feed and clothe their children, send them to college and even take vacations together.

[dajoki]

4. Your father is absolutely correct n/t

[Fantastic Anarchist]

3. It's time to join the "One Big Union" ...

The Industrial Workers of the World (which is grassroots and welcomes everyone). Quit pissing around with craft unionism of AFL/CIO.

The Wobblies were responsible for improving working conditions at the turn of last century. Their membership has declined post WWII, so they need you.

They are essentially a socialist/anarchist organization and believe in workplace democracy:

http://www.iww.org/

About the IWW:

The IWW is a member-run union for all workers, a union dedicated to organizing on the job, in our industries and in our communities. IWW members are organizing to win better conditions today and build a world with economic democracy tomorrow. We want our workplaces run for the benefit of workers and communities rather than for a handful of bosses and executives.

We are the Industrial Workers of the World because we organize industrially.

This means we organize all workers producing the same goods or providing the same services into one union, rather than dividing workers by skill or trade, so we can pool our strength to win our demands together. Since the IWW was founded in 1905, we have made significant contributions to the labor struggles around the world and have a proud tradition of organizing across gender, ethnic and racial lines long before such organizing was popular.

We invite you to become a member whether or not the IWW happens to have representation rights in your workplace. We organize the worker, not the job, and recognize that unions are not about government certification or employer recognition but about workers coming together to address common concerns.

Sometimes this means refusing to work with dangerous equipment and chemicals.

Sometimes it means striking or signing a contract. Other times it mean agitating around particular issues or grievances in a workplace or industry.

The IWW is a democratic, member-run union. That means members decide what issues to address, and which tactics to use and we directly vote on office holders, from stewards to national offices. Why wait? Join the IWW and organize for a better future.




Preamble to the IWW Constitution:

The working class and the employing class have nothing in common. There can be no peace so long as hunger and want are found among millions of the working people and the few, who make up the employing class, have all the good things of life.

Between these two classes a struggle must go on until the workers of the world organize as a class, take possession of the means of production, abolish the wage system, and live in harmony with the Earth.

We find that the centering of the management of industries into fewer and fewer hands makes the trade unions unable to cope with the ever growing power of the employing class. The trade unions foster a state of affairs which allows one set of workers to be pitted against another set of workers in the same industry, thereby helping defeat one another in wage wars. Moreover, the trade unions aid the employing class to mislead the workers into the belief that the working class have interests in common with their employers.

These conditions can be changed and the interest of the working class upheld only by an organization formed in such a way that all its members in any one industry, or in all industries if necessary, cease work whenever a strike or lockout is on in any department thereof, thus making an injury to one an injury to all.

Instead of the conservative motto, "A fair day's wage for a fair day's work," we must inscribe on our banner the revolutionary watchword, "Abolition of the wage system."

It is the historic mission of the working class to do away with capitalism. The army of production must be organized, not only for everyday struggle with capitalists, but also to carry on production when capitalism shall have been overthrown. By organizing industrially we are forming the structure of the new society within the shell of the old.

"An Injury to One is an Injury to All!"

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. I would like to point out the split goes to Haymarket

really...

Ah yes Samuel Gompers was horrified, I tell you, about some good ol' fashion... I am sure I am telling you history you know,

[Fantastic Anarchist]

6. I didn't realize that. Haymarket was a decade prior.

What split are you referring to? De Leon and Haywood?

[nadinbrzezinski]

Samuel Gompers was there.

And was horrified by the beatings and the violence. So he decided that he really did not want to play with the Anarchists. It is the origin of the American Federation and in some ways the idea that labor should not be that militant.

The things one discovers...

He had some good things... the idea of an INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION is not crazy. But labor needs to become quite militant.

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. Samuel Gompers was there.

And was horrified by the beatings and the violence. So he decided that he really did not want to play with the Anarchists. It is the origin of the American Federation and in some ways the idea that labor should not be that militant.

The things one discovers...

He had some good things... the idea of an INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION is not crazy. But labor needs to become quite militant.

[Fantastic Anarchist]

8. Oh, I agree with you. (Twice even!) ;)

Thanks for the quick lesson.

:toast:

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. Working on a hsitory of labor

I even got Gomper's letters from Google docs doing research these days is far easier than when I was going to school.

[Fantastic Anarchist]

10. I've been researching a history of labor ... and specifically socialism/anarchist thought.

I'd like to read what you come up with. Is it just a general history or are there specific areas you deal with?

[nadinbrzezinski]

11. General, none has been done since 1967

which is a shame really.

[Fantastic Anarchist]

12. True, unfortunately.

The masses have been depressed to the point of, well, I don't know.

I know that in Europe, it seems the governments fear the people; here, it's just the opposite.

[jmowreader]

13. He's close, but the day the middle class died is a week away

On August 13, 1981, Reagan signed the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981. This law, which implemented Reaganomics, was such a disaster Reagan was forced to sign the first of his eleven tax hikes on September 3, 1982.

It took five years for the economy to begin to recover from the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981. It hasn't completely recovered yet.

[TeamsterDem]

14. the truth is that neither of these dates were the single genesis

The day the middle class died (or "got sick") was the day they stopped fighting to be middle class. Once they got comfortable and forgot the generations of Americans who fought and died to gain opportunities for others to enter the middle class, they basically lost their ability to stay there. As evidence I cite the millions of middle class people who voted for Reagan, those who vote against union organization, who cross picket lines, who shop at WalMart, etc. Michael Moore is right about PATCO's effects, but he misses that union membership had been declining for 20+ years before that.

[some guy]

15. bad heading at least.

I would concede that Raygun firing the air traffic controllers and breaking PATCO was the opening salvo in the war against the US work force; but it wasn't a one-day one-shot overwhelming victory.

That war is ongoing, and still not completely decided, though it looks like the oligarchs will get their pyrrhic victory.

To say it began and ended in a single skirmish in 1981 is overly simplistic.

edit: Now I've read the post; it's better than the headline. :applause: for the essay. :thumbsdown: for the heading.

[marmar]

16. Extensive discussion of the Michael Moore letter here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=439&topic_id=1671938&mesg_id=1671938