A New American Century of Justice « Thread Started on Apr 28

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A New American Century of Justice « Thread Started on Apr 28, 2007, 11:45am » --------------------------------------------------------------------------------A New American Century of Justice Prepared Remarks of Senator Paul Wellstone Before the Iowa AFL-CIO Convention Waterloo, Iowa August 12, 1998 Thank you for that kind introduction, and thank you for the invitation to join you today. I am proud to stand among you here today at this gathering of the Iowa AFL-CIO. I am proud to speak in the heartland of American labor, in the midst of this great federation of workers, among you, the warriors in a grand tradition of fighting for social justice. For you are the embodiment of a powerful tradition of advancing justice. You and that tradition have done so much, for so many. Organized labor has a rich legacy. It is a mighty justice tradition. It is a strong heritage for fairness. Many of you made that history. Or if it wasn't you, it was our parents or grandparents. You, our parents, and our grandparents gave of their sweat, tears, and sometimes even blood. Three generations of American families wove this splendid tapestry of labor history. And because of that sweat and tears, and sometimes even blood, this great labor justice tradition has made the United States a better country for all Americans. Because of you, families have more bread on the table. Because of you, workers receive at least a minimum wage. Because of you, labor has the right to organize. Because of you, we have the right to join a union. Because of you, working families have insurance against unemployment. Because of you, workers have protections against unsafe workplaces. Because of you, the SEIU just won a great victory organizing the nurses and professionals at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. Because of you, working families have more economic justice. And because labor is part of a larger justice tradition, because of you, our children have protection against ravaged air and water. Because of you, people have protection against discrimination because of the color of their skin. Because of you, women have protection against discrimination because of their gender. Because of you, people have protection against discrimination because of their disabilities. Because of these victories, even if they do not all yet work perfectly, the United States became a better country, for all Americans -- not only for union families, but for all families in our great Nation. This is our tradition. This is our rich history. This is that for which our grandparents and our parents and we fought. For this, I want to thank you. And I want to tell you sincerely how much of an honor it is to be here among you and to have the opportunity to speak to this tradition. As the great UAW President Walter Reuther once said, "There's a direct relationship between the bread box and the ballot box, and what the union fights for and wins at the bargaining table can be taken away in the legislative halls." And these days, the legislative halls are full of those who would take away from labor's bread box! The Republican majority in Congress today has a ambitious agenda. And right here in Iowa, you see it writ large in the Governor's race. Even some Democrats have not come to realize how dramatic a change these new Republicans seek to make. The Gingrich-Lightfoot agenda is no less than this: They seek simply to overturn six decades of economic and social justice, more than half a century of history. The stakes are very high. What's at stake here is no less than that for which we, our parents, and our grandparents fought. As a favor to union-busting conglomerates, the Gingrich Congress wants to let employers pick the representatives of the workers they would deal with on wages, hours, and working conditions with their so-called "TEAM Act." As a favor to hard-driving tyrants of the production line, the Gingrich Congress is trying to abolish the 40-hour week with their so-called "Family-Friendly Workplace Act." As a favor to callous profiteers who value earnings above health and even lives, the Gingrich Congress seeks to roll back the workplace safety requirements of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration with their so-called "SAFE Act." As a favor to slipshod contractors, the Gingrich Congress wants to repeal the prevailing wage requirements of the Davis Bacon Act. As a favor to big-money corporate political contributors, the Gingrich Congress would silence anyone who would tell the worker's side of the story with their so-called "Paycheck Protection Act." And as a favor to bottom-dwellers of commerce who don't want to compete fairly, the Gingrich Congress is even blocking an increase in the minimum wage. As a Senator, I have joined a sometimes small, but always fierce, group of progressive leaders to man the barricades against the Gingrich Congress. Senators like Tom Harkin, Ted Kennedy, and I have led the fight in the Senate against what the Gingrich Congress would do. I remember, the last time one of these ill-conceived anti-labor abominations came up, when they tried to bring up the bill to abolish the 40-hour week in the Senate, I raced Ted Kennedy to the Senate floor to see who could begin the filibuster first. I filibustered that bill then, and if they bring it back, we'll filibuster it again! When they brought up their attempt to gut worker health and safety protections in the Senate Labor Committee, I attacked it repeatedly with amendment after amendment. And if they bring that bill up on the floor, they'll see I was just warming up! In the last Congress, Ted Kennedy and I fought against the Gingrich Congress to raise the minimum wage. They couldn't stop us then. And when we bring up the minimum wage again this fall, we'll fight the Gingrich Congress again, because America still needs a raise! Because of our work, and because of your work, the Gingrich Congress has failed in much of what it has tried to do. But they will continue to try to take away more and more, and that is why I speak of history today. But just as labor is part of a larger justice tradition, the Gingrich Congress agenda is larger than their anti-labor agenda. Yes, the Gingrich Congress is avowedly anti-union. They oppose unions in the sense of fighting the interests of the working person. But there is something deeper at stake here, too. They also oppose union in the sense of resisting community and national solutions to problems. These Republicans are launching nothing less than an attack on our core values. I call them the "New Isolationists." They are isolationist not in terms of international affairs, but in terms of human affairs. They believe in aloneness as a kind of virtue. They see what we decide as a society only as an impediment to what individuals and private interests can do. The credo of the New Isolationist may as well be: "Buddy, you're on your own!" The New Isolationists believe in the adage: "sink or swim." They are the kind of Republicans about which a reader once wrote Washington Post columnist Bob Levey, saying: "A Democrat will plunge into a raging water to save a victim in distress. A Republican will stay on shore and explain that it's really in the victim's best interest to save himself." The New Isolationism is a great philosophy if you're a corporation. It's a great philosophy if you are a multi-millionaire. With our current campaign finance system, those kinds of people can make the big political contributions that get them big attention in Washington. And so, the New Isolationist philosophy gives us what we see now. It gives us a Gingrich Congress that, as a favor to anti-union corporations, seeks to roll back six decade of labor justice. But what's more, It gives us a Gingrich Congress that, as a favor to large corporate agribusiness, pushed through a so-called "Freedom To Farm" bill that has actually spelled freedom to fail for too many family farmers. It gives us a Gingrich Congress that, as a favor to big tobacco conglomerates, blocks efforts to reduce teen smoking. It gives us a Gingrich Congress that, as a favor to giant insurance companies, blocks sensible protections for patients! It gives us a Gingrich Congress that, as a favor to Wall Street, wants to privatize Social Security! And I say, this November, as a favor to the American people, we ought to throw the Gingrich Congress out of town! And what's more, I say, as a favor to the people of Iowa, we need to elect Tom Vilsack Governor! That's why it's so important to elect Rob Tully, Leonard Boswell, Bob Rush, and David Osterberg. And that's why, with control at stake, we need to fight for each and every one of our candidates for the state legislature. There has never been a more important time in our Nation's politics, and that's why I appreciate your leadership. That's why I appreciate that every one of you is here today. Never has it been more vital for all of us in labor to participate, to gird ourselves for battle, and to prepare to fight harder. And if the challenge of this New Isolationist agenda does not restore Democrats to our core values, what will? I can't believe the timidity with which some Democrats fail to confront the new Isolationists. The Democratic Party should be producing constructive solutions. As Harry Truman once said, "Give voters a choice between a Republican and a Republican, and they will choose the Republican every time." We need to organize! These are our values! These are our people! We need to reassert our Democratic principles. And that is why I came to Iowa today: to represent the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party! These are bread and butter issues. Putting the emphasis on the bread and butter economic issues, the standard of living issues, the kitchen table issues, the economic justice issues that unite and tie and bind all of us here together, that's winning politics! Emphasis on community, that we all do better when we all do better, isn't that what it's all about? Isn't that winning politics? Whatever happened to our the sense of community as a Nation? Whatever happened to the truth that we have known since the days of Eden, that each of us is our brother's keeper? In his new book on "Civility," Yale Law Professor Stephen Carter talks about the early days of the railroad. When the railroad was new, and all sorts of people had to crowd together in the railroad cars that they all wanted desperately to ride, people developed a new sense of civility, realizing that they all needed to cooperate and help each other just a little to make the journey work, to get there on time. We as a people need to renew that sense of a common American journey, that sense that each of us can give just a little of ourselves to help all of us get to where we want to go. Luckily, where the New Isolationists want to go is not where the American people want to go. I see it whenever I speak with people, wherever I go. People come up to me and say: Senator, our daughter has graduated from high school and college and she's working but all she can get is $6.50 an hour with no health care. Senator, we're still worried about sending our kids to college. Senator, I sell plasma at the beginning of the semester to buy textbooks. Senator, we want to work. We want to make a decent wage, and we want to support our children. Where are the jobs that we can find to support our families? Senator, we both work. We have a combined income of $30,000 a year. We have two children. The cost is $12,000 a year for child care, and we just can't afford it. Senator, we both work. I work daytimes, and my husband works the night shift, so that we can take care of our kids. We can't afford it any other way. But Senator, this life is tearing us apart at the seams. Senator, my daughter graduated from college, she's 24, and she's a diabetic. She's off our health insurance plan now, and I read about the Kennedy-Kassebaum bill, but that doesn't limit what the insurance companies can charge, and their premiums are so high she can't afford insurance. And small businesses can't afford to hire her because their rates would go up. Senator, my husband and I both work. I have asthma, and the doctor said I need to take this drug for the asthma, but my managed care plan won't pay for it. Or, I have two parents with Parkinson's disease, they never made much money, my father was a writer but not real successful, my mother was a cafeteria worker. They wanted to take what little money they made and put it into savings for their grandchildren for college, but because of the medical costs, they can't. They're going to lose it all. That's not right. Those were my parents. Senator, I'm 67 and I'm paying a quarter of my monthly income just on prescription drug costs. Medicare doesn't cover it. Senator, you remember my husband? He's a real fighter, he's a railroad worker, but he has cancer. You met Joe a year ago and the doctor said he only had a short time to live, but Joe, he's a real fighter, and I want you to say hi to Joe. And then she says to me: Senator, every day I'm on the phone with the insurance companies and I have to fight them over everything. Senator, whatever happened to the idea that every child should come to school ready to learn? Senator, whatever happened to our national vow that there should be equal opportunity for every child in America? This is what I hear. These are the things that people care about. People tell me about wanting good jobs with decent wages. People tell me about wanting to spend time with their kids. People tell me about wanting to be able to cover their health expenses and not fall between the cracks. People tell me that they want to give their children the care that they know they deserve. And above all, people tell me about how they want a better, more just world for their children. Why isn't the Gingrich Congress doing something about this?! Why aren't leaders from both parties doing something about this? We need to do more. We need to fight for advances in good jobs, health care, and education. We need to fight for what it takes to allow parents to do what they want to do: to do right by their kids. When it comes to the most pressing concerns, it has always been true, as Harry Truman said, "With the Democratic Party, the people come first." These are our people whom they threaten! This is our heritage on the line! These are our children who will determine the destiny of the new American century. Let us begin a new American century of justice! Let us strive for another 100 years of social and economic progress, not the return to Coolidge and Hoover for which the New Isolationists call. Let us talk about the potential of the next social justice movement. Let us build on what we have won in labor law. The next great advance in social justice may well all be about the right to organize, to bargain collectively, and to earn a decent living. Let us not merely stanch the blight that the New Isolationists have spread on what our union movement has grown, but let us plow new ground. Instead of the New Isolationism, we need a New Fellowship. Instead of more aloneness, we need a new awareness of our kinship with all Americans. Instead of "every man for himself," we need a renewed shared sense of community. Instead of divorcing ourselves from society, we need to renew our ties of brotherhood with our fellow man. Let us, the labor movement, organize the unorganized, reach out into the community, fight for justice, and build coalitions with women and people of color! It is the most important thing that can happen in our country, what you are doing. And if we do, then the next justice movement in our country will be around the right of our people to organize and bargain collectively to make a decent living and give their children the care they know their children need. For I'm telling you that if you want to reduce poverty in our country, you need to focus on a good education, good health care, and a good job. If you want to have a stable middle class, you focus on a good education, good health care, and a good job. If you want our country to compete well in an international economy, you focus on a good education, good health care, and a good job. So no more should workers hear just the company's side of the story at organizing time, with unions locked out of the room. No more should corporations reap profits without fear of penalty from firing people for trying to organize or join the union. No more should workers be left without recourse to mediation or arbitration when companies fight a first collective bargaining agreement. No more should corporations profit from hiring replacement workers. My bill, the Fair Labor Organizing Act, would make many of these changes. If we are really serious about jobs, we need new labor law reform. If we are really serious about a decent living for working Americans, we need new labor law reform. If we are really serious about family values -- the real family values, about making life better for families -- we need new labor law reform. People have to have something to be for. And you know, people will work for it, because they want to be reminded why they got involved 25 years ago, 10 years ago, or even last year. We must fight for a new century of justice. A new American justice tradition. We're for decent jobs with good wages. We're for health care coverage for every American We're for equal opportunity for every child in America. Sheila's and my children are all older now, and now we have three grandchildren. We were married when we were only 19, and had our first child when we were little over 20. And with the birth of our first grandchild -- I was 46 then -- I knew what I believed in as a United States Senator, and I knew what I believed in for our country. I held her in my hands -- some of you may very well have had this same experience -- and I said to myself, "I know what I believe in for our country." I believe that every infant, every child we hold in our hands, no matter what color of skin, no matter boy or girl, no matter rich or poor, no matter rural or urban, and no matter what religion, that every child that we hold in our hands, is one of God's children. I believe that every child, every infant should have the same chance to reach his or her potential. I tell you, that is the goodness of this country, that is the American dream, that is what makes us a great Nation, and that is the most important goal for our Nation. And whatever makes that possible, I'm for it. And whatever stands in the way of that, I'm against it. And when I think of those children, I believe in that new American Century of justice. And when I think of those children, I believe in a New Fellowship among all Americans. And when I think of those children, I believe we can all board that train, that common American journey, and get to where we need to go. Together, let us work to make that belief come true!