We will ally with those who fight to create investment in America.

By Robby Stern

More and more workers are losing their jobs. The “recovery” is weak and faltering. These are ominous tidings. How to address this economic crisis was a hot topic at the just completed Washington State Labor Council convention in Tacoma. Policy makers and our nation as a whole must address fundamental questions: Do we want a manufacturing base in our country? Do we want a growing middle class rather than a declining middle class?

One thoughtful presentation at the convention asserted that any hope to achieve an economic recovery requires the immediate implementation by the federal government of a five point plan:
1. Take care of families hard hit by the downturn,
2. Rebuild America’s infrastructure.
3. Help state and local governments meet pressing needs
4. Put people back to work doing work that needs to be done
5. Ease the credit crunch for small and medium sized businesses.

Compare this five point program with the prevailing agenda of a large sector of the economic elite in our country: deregulate, privatize, globalize and dismantle the safety net. They care little about the promise of the social contract -- that working hard and playing by the rules will yield real opportunities for good quality of life for families and communities.

Our state and country need an industrial investment program that requires coordinated economic development, quality job creation, raising the standard of living and committing to a higher quality of life for the people of our country. We have to move beyond the goal of industry success at any cost. That narrow goal leads to policies that facilitate off-shoring of jobs, a phenomenon we have seen expand exponentially in the last four decades, leading to the loss of quality jobs in our country.

PSARA will join with those who push governments to implement programs that have as their goal raising the standard of living and quality of life for the majority of people while helping to build stronger communities. Government policies need to encourage investment in America. Unfortunately, the trend is just the opposite.

As an organization, we will ally ourselves with organizations and communities that fight to create investment in America. At the state level, we will join with those who want to bar contracting of state services offshore. We will work for transparency to identify those companies who get taxpayer dollars and then offshore jobs. We will avoid the trap that identifies Washington as the most trade dependent state in the country and therefore promotes a free trade policy that leads to the deterioration of the standard of living of our residents and of masses of people around the world. We will embrace protecting American jobs and raising the standard of living of our communities. We do not oppose trade, but it must be fair trade that benefits workers all over the world.

As one of the speakers at the State Labor Council convention stated, unfortunately government, which is supposed to be the referee, has instead given the ball to the other team and then joined them. We need government that places as its top agenda item the welfare, standard of living and quality of life of the people of this country and recognizes the terrible price paid by people all over the world as a result of unfettered and unregulated free trade.

The road ahead looks tough but the road to real recovery is clear. We need an economic investment program that creates millions of good paying jobs and that rebuilds our declining infrastructure and industrial capacity. We are the majority and we must mobilize smartly to assure a decent future for ourselves and the generations to come.

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