Tuesday, September 6, 2011

One Person One Vote, Unions, the NDP, Democracy, And Capitalism. . . .

Unions suffer from the same drawbacks from which all institutions suffer. The two most notable of these in my mind are a) they too often stray from their ideals and b) the people who should not have power are more often than not the very same people who seek it. But these problems are, as I said, not unique to unions but are common to all institutions. What I find amazing is that despite the fact most of the rights and privileges which we enjoy from universal suffrage to universal health-care to public pensions are a direct results of unions or union activists, people still spend an inordinate amount of energy attacking unions. Huge, multi-national corporations rape and pillage the environment, undermine democracy and destroy many of our basic rights but people reserve more vitriol and anger for unions than for almost any institution. This just demonstrates that the rightwing has been remarkably successful at doing their job of making it a better world for corporations and a worse one for average people.

In recent days people have begun to discuss the issue of the union role in the NDP. It is inevitably that this subject would rise to the top in a country so dominated by rightwing media. Any method available to discredit the left will be at the top of the media agenda. What is particularly interesting about this issue as presented in the media and by many bloggers is the way they attempt to indignantly chastise anyone who is not actively pursuing the so-called principle of "one person, one vote." What makes this so ironic is that so many rightwingers, as well as Liberals who have so actively pursued a corporate agenda, don't believe in democracy at all. Oh, they will of course pay active lip service to the principles of democracy, but their support will always fall short when it comes to democracy in the economy or democracy in the workplace. Their basic model of society is the corporation - a fundamentally undemocratic institution which has, for generations made every attempt to undermine rights, privileges and protections for the majority of workers. The rightwing in fact prides itself in many instances on its relations with corporate history, and it does everything it can to discredit democracy and alienate people from the process, but when it comes to a left-wing political party suddenly the rightwing is all for the principles of democracy. Another funny thing is that people often condemn leftwing parties by admitting that the rich and corporations have a great deal of de facto power in rightwing parties but suggest that this is equivalent to union power on the left. The irony of this that no one talks about is the fact that unions are non-profit, democratic organizations the primary purpose of which is to protect people's rights.

There is a direct relationship between the gradual decline in union membership in Western countries and the stagnation of wages and the incredible increases in wealth of society's richest members. In other words, it is empirically demonstrable that as unions die out so does equality, people's wealth, social justice, and . . . yes, democracy. Attacking union influence in a party like the NDP is an easy target. This is because Liberals and the rightwing have convinced people that somehow if we all abide by the principle of 'one person, one vote,' we will actually have democracy. But this is, of course, complete hogwash. We live in a society in which the institutions of the rich have de facto controlled what people think, what they believe is possible, and what they believe is right. The rightwing and the corporations have remarkable institutional power in this society in the legal institutions, the media, and the political system. One person one vote is entirely meaningless in a system in which is already weighted in favor of the rich. The proof of this is that one would have to be hopelessly blind to not see that our democracy is slowly being robbed of meaning and shriveling on the vine of principle. The fact is that you can take away the influence of unions in the NDP or not, as you please; it makes little difference really. You have already been robbed of your democracy and you are slowly being robbed of your wealth and your rights anyway. Every year fewer people vote for the simple reason that the agenda is preset anyway. While the World Bank, for example, promoted so-called "good governance" in the 'third-world" they simultaneously told those countries what policies that "had" to follow. Meanwhile, in the West real wages have stagnated for a generation while the wealth of the richest has exponentially increased. As good, fulltime jobs disappear, and this country begins to look more and more like a banana republic, any rational, principled person must surely conclude that democracy is a failure. Those with the money are calling the tune regardless of what people think they can do with their civic activism.

One person one vote? Sure, why not. It makes no difference in a society in which democracy means so little anyway.

3 comments:

Beijing York said...

What I find amazing is that despite the fact most of the rights and privileges which we enjoy from universal suffrage to universal health-care to public pensions are a direct results of unions or union activists, people still spend an inordinate amount of energy attacking unions. Huge, multi-national corporations rape and pillage the environment, undermine democracy and destroy many of our basic rights but people reserve more vitriol and anger for unions than for almost any institution.

I think the corporate campaign to shift public support for unions predates the anti-tax/less government campaigns. All these right wing campaigns have been incredibly successful.

It really is depressing that some in the NDP decided to make this an issue, once again allowing the media to run with it and frame the public discourse.

Skinny Dipper said...

I am a union member (and supporter), and I am now a member of the NDP. I do appreciate union support for the NDP. However, I do think that the NDP has so switch from being a labour to a progressive party. That means giving a fair voice to others in the party who may support other issues besides labour rights. We have environmentalists, feminists, gay rights activists, and others whose voices need to be heard. The problem for the NDP is dividing the voting pie so that people get a fair say and vote. By giving union affiliates a 25% vote at delegated meetings, that means that someone else must lose their voice and effective vote.

If the NDP wants to give the union affiliates the right to sell memberships to their union members, then that is fine by me.

Anonymous said...

The right-wing media is successful at framing the narrative. Communism is evil - can't have that, and according to them, the only other choice is capitalism. Getting to choose which flavour of capitalism gets to siphon off labour's value isn't much of a choice at all.

The left needs to be more than the less evil of the two "choices" that the right provides. You need unions and other left-leaning institutions to come up with and propose new ideas that can stand alongside the choices offered by corporatocracy.

We have capitalism because some useful attributes fell out of the system's design, and it worked well for many years. It's no more than a tool with some nice features, but the right raises it to something innately morally superior - almost a religion.

People blame unions for wanting better for their members because they believe the only place union money/benefits can come from is their own pocketbook. Their pseudo-religious beliefs have already raised the corporation and its profits up on an untouchable pedestal. Also, it's odd how the right claims that the trickle-down 'rising tide floats all boats', but the union 'rising tide' doesn't.