← Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff
Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff
Tariffs, the Working Class, and Resistance
00:30:20
In this week's episode of Economic Update, Professor Wolff critiques the DOGE practice of firing federal civilian employees, analyzes the Trump tariff program, and shows how both are presented as ways to solve deep economic problems in the U.S. but...
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- [00:20]
Richard Wolff
Welcome, friends, to another edition of Economic Update, a weekly program devoted to the economic dimensions of our lives and those of our children. Your host, Richard Wolff. Again, a quick reminder, Charlie Fabian awaits your communications. If you have suggestions about the program. Charlie.info438mail.com Once again, Charlie.info438mail.com and again, the reminder that we have a companion book for this program called Understanding Capitalism. You can get it from our website, democracyatwork.info I want to spend today on two subjects. Number one, just me for the first half of the program, talking about Trump's economics, the tariffs, the assault on public employees and all of that. And in the second one, fittingly, about resistance that is building, particularly in the labor movement. We're going to be talking with the former head of the Vermont State AFL CIO about what they're doing, getting ready to push back against the Trump policies. Okay, I want to approach the Trump program, the tariffs, the attack on public federal employees from two sides, but they have something in common, and we start with that. Please understand that what Mr. Trump is doing is a classical service to the business community of the United States, something that the gop, the Republicans, have been doing for at least a century. That's what this is. It's more of that, more aggressive, more intense, more. Take no prisoners, but that's what it is, not some detail that you get lost in the weeds about. That's what it is, an attack on the working class. So let me begin in that framework. For the last many, many years, everybody studying economics in American universities, as I did, and everyone pretty much teaching in American universities, as I did and still do, has been telling students, as all the textbooks did, that the market is a magnificent institution that brilliantly allocates scarce resources in such a way to provide us with prosperity now and via economic growth, prosperity into the future. It is just the greatest thing since sliced bread. So imagine what must be going on if we now have a businessman brought up in the same framework at the same kinds of universities and reading the media that are shaped by that view, telling us that the whole market system, globally at home, is a disaster, has gotten us poor Americans cheated. Look at that. The whole world looks at America as the richest place on earth. And here we have a leader who says, no, no, no, no, no, we got cheated, the market system cheated. And to show what he means, he's intervening in the market. A tariff is a massive intervention. It changes everything. Every country, every business is recalculating now and finding the uncertainties we live in so overwhelming that they're kind of frozen and upset. Look at the headlines. So it turns out the market got us cheated. It isn't a great institution. Or if it is, then what's wrong with Mr. Trump? And if Mr. Trump is right, then why were we teaching that for a century? Wow. Economics profession must feel really stupid this morning. It has been teaching something which our president chucks aside as not only wrongheaded, but it got us cheated and badly too. Well, then, what is going on? American capitalism is in trouble. You wouldn't have these kinds of rollercoaster, cataclysmic, desperate actions by the United States presidency if there weren't deep underlying problems. Oh, sure, they'll never say that. They don't want to. They want to say something else. But that's the inescapable conclusion. I mean, who goes to use the image of Mr. Musk, who goes up on a stage with a chainsaw to symbolize I'm getting rid of federal employees and then firing hundreds of thousands of them? That has nothing to do with efficiency. Efficiency, as every corporate leader knows, is something hard to achieve. You usually bring in specialists to help you understand how and where you can achieve an efficiency. Which job can be changed, which position can be eliminated. You don't go in wholesale because that's self destructive. Unless, of course, your goal has nothing to do with efficiency. And it doesn't. Here's Mr. Trump's problem. Back in his first days as president, 2017, he passed a tax cut that favored corporations and the rich. Many, many, many billions of dollars of tax cuts. Was kind of weird to do that because we've just had, in the 30 years before 2017, a redistribution of wealth in the United States from the bottom and the middle to the people at the top. Never did the corporations and the rich less need a tax cut. And they got one anyway because Mr. Trump wanted to show them he was the guy to support. And that worked. That's one of the reasons he got another shot at it last year. But now he has a problem. Those huge tax cuts passed in 2017, they expire this year, 2025. And if they are allowed to expire, then all the corporations and the rich are going to have to pay the taxes they got cut in 2017. They would have had a great eight years. You may have noticed the inequality in America got worse over the last eight years. They had a wonderful time. But given the pandemic and a few other problems, the rest of us didn't. And Mr. Trump has pledged not to let those tax cuts expire. You know what that means? That if you keep spending the way Republicans and Democrats have done and you keep the tax cuts in place, we are due. This is what the Congressional Budget Office tells us, a $2 trillion deficit. Well, the United States can't borrow the way it used to because it's too much in debt already. It is the world's biggest debtor country by far, and the risk is approaching that. There will be a moment when companies, banks, American foreign, aren't going to lend to the US Government anymore. It's too risky. They're too much in debt. Some politician, you know, maverick, sort of like Trump, might not pay back the debt as a way to handle the deficit. Oh, my goodness. And that was already true before Mr. Trump hit the whole world with a tariff. If you think they were not inclined to lend to the government before, think again, because those are very angry politicians. They hooked their wagons to the United States, which is now dumping them, and they are angry. You read the words of our former allies around the world. Those things come back to haunt you big time. And one of the ways they may is they may not lend to the United States, which may not enable the United States to borrow, and then what nobody wants to say. Laying off all those workers as a way of saving money. Saving money where desperate. That's saving money by cutting back on everything the federal government does, saving us from bad food, conducting crucial health research, you name it, the federal government supports it. Not now, not anymore. We have a desperate government. You know what that's like running out of firewood in your house and it's still winter. So you take the clapboards off the outside of the house. Well, that'll make a fire. But will it get cold? As soon as that fire burns out, you're desperate. You can't wait for the future. Mr. Trump is desperate. And there again is the evidence that we have serious problems. Let me turn to the tariffs. A tariff is like a sales tax. Everybody pays the same percentage more for whatever comes into the country from outside. That, of course, is regressive. What that means is it hurts poor people much more than rich, rich people. Another 10 or 20% for everything I buy. Who cares? That's what it means to be rich. If you're not rich, you care. And you better care because we're talking about cars and trucks and coffee and sugar and you name it. Wow, this is a very big attack on the working class. Let's go back for a minute to firing all those federal Employees, guess where they go when they're fired to look for a job and where? In the private sector, where the rest of us are. And they're going to come in desperate to get an income and they're willing to work for lower wage and they're willing to work in poorer conditions. And that's what we're looking at, lower wages, poor working conditions for the whole private sector. Which is why the business community watched, why Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk did all this and did basically nothing thing not to stop him, not even to criticize him. But once the tariffs went into effect and once the rest of the world said back to Mr. Trump, uh, we're not taking this, oh sure, we'll negotiate with you. But if you think we're just going to roll over and pay, no, no, no, no, no. And that's going to hurt us also, that's a very desperate act and it isolates the United States because, you know, the rest of the world is a much bigger economy than we are. We are not the dominant economy the way we were from the end of World War II to the end of the last century. That time is over. As I have said on this program, the American empire which became the powerhouse at that time is now over. You know where a lot of the countries are going to go if they can't sell their goods here? To China, because that's a powerhouse now. And if you put China together with its allies in the so called brics, it's a much bigger economic powerhouse, wealthier. And then the little statistic all Americans should never forget, the United states population, roughly 330 million, comprises 4.5% of the world's people. China and its allies in the BRICs now comprise nearly 60% of the world's people. Four and a half to 60. Don't be stupid. This is not a fight you want to undertake. Doesn't matter how many missiles you got, this is not a fight you want to undertake. Not only not militarily, but not economically, here's what we're watching. If you want the big picture to stay in your mind when empires go down, you watch as the people who are the richest in the empire and the people who are the most powerful, the leaders use those positions of power and wealth to hold on to that wealth and power as long as possible, which being in those positions, they can do. And that means they offload onto the rest of the people, the middle classes, the working class, the poor, all the costs of a declining empire. And that's what Mr. Trump is doing. Don't be fooled. Stay with us. We'll be right back to see what working people are doing who are not fooled, and especially in the state of Vermont. Before we jump into the second half of today's show, I wanted to thank you for your very generous response to our fundraising efforts this year and in particular in the last couple of months. And in part responding to that, we are extending the availability of our limited edition, linen covered hardcover version of Understanding Capitalism, the book I wrote and that we have been making available now for quite a while. If you are interested, I will be signing copies of that hardcover and they will be available to you as they have been over the last few weeks. Just simply send an email to us@info democracyatwork.info and put in the subject line limited edition. We will send you all the information you need to order and receive your copy, signed copy of Understanding Capitalism in its hardback. And thank you again for your kind attention to the fundraising dimension of what we do. Welcome back, friends, to the second half of today's Economic update. I am very pleased to bring back to our microphones. He's visited with us before, David Van Dusen. He's president emeritus of the Vermont AFL cio, co founder of the United Caucus, author of a book published last year, Insurgent labor, and as he told us, a socialist. So welcome, David. Very pleased and happy to have you on the program.
- [16:40]
David Van Dusen
Always a pleasure to be here, Professor. Thanks for having me.
- [16:44]
Richard Wolff
Today, I want you to talk to us about an event that I learned about taking place on Saturday, April 26, pretty much all day in Burlington, Vermont, at the one community center there, and it's called Becoming Strike Ready in the Green Mountains. You're gathering together folks from the state of Vermont, of course, perhaps even from some other places. And you're talking not just although of course it's important about building the unions and obviously the urgency of that now as much or more than ever. But what caught my attention is, of course, the timing, your choice of timing, and the timing that history is imposing on all of us, namely, that we are in a country undergoing very serious problems and a very how shall I put it politely, dramatic leadership taking us God knows where. And so I noted right away that among your speakers are those talking about the rise of fascism and challenges facing the labor movement. I dare say what you are doing, and please correct me if I'm wrong, is what we might call a rising movement of resistance, people who are not going to simply watch, fearful, worried, anxious, as so many of us are These days, almost with each day's headlines, but people who are prepared to do something. So in introducing you and asking you questions, I want you please to speak as much as you can. You are of course, an individual, but as part of the committee that I understand has organized this event and that includes several unions whose names I want now to read out. The University of Vermont Staff United, a local of the American Federation of Teachers, AFSCME, state, county and municipal employees unions, Local 1674 and Local 3977. And finally, United Food and Commercial Workers, another important union in this country, Local 1459. So let's begin. Tell me about the event on the 26th and what you hope to accomplish with it.
- [19:22]
David Van Dusen
We are facing a crisis in this country. The American people in general are under attack and unions in particular are under attack. I don't have to tell you that the Trump administration recently is seeking to eliminate the collective bargaining rights of close to 1 million federal workers. 1 million. He has essentially ended FMCs, the Federal Mediation services that unions rely on, and dismantled, taking steps to dismantle the National Labor Relations Board. We are under attack. And this is just the start. Unions need to be an active player in the resistance to this neo fascist move of our federal government. We need to be prepared to take action, to have solidarity and to do whatever it takes to emerge from the other side of this stronger in victorious. On April 26, we are all coming together here in Vermont for an entire day of training. We are going to have top notch trainers come in to talk about how to build shop floor power, how to organize a union if you're not in a union, how to build shop floor power, how to bargain to win, and how to conduct a strike and how to win with a strike. Let's be very clear. We don't know what comes next here in the United States of America. We don't know how far these attacks will go. Our true power is in our labor, our solidarity in our labor. We as a labor movement need to know how to strike. We need to understand that we have the power when we choose to throw down the tools. We need to understand that we need to be united as a movement in an attack on one is an attack on all. Our conference, our emergency conference on April 26, which is open to all, free to everybody, all workers. This will be a first step in getting prepared for these serious challenges to come. It is only a step, but it is a first step.
- [21:19]
Richard Wolff
It absolutely is. And that's part of why I asked you to come and join Us. Tell me. I know people will wonder, as I do. My hat is off to you. But why is Vermont, the first state that I'm aware of, to do this? And if this requires you to pat yourself on the back for a moment, do it.
- [21:46]
David Van Dusen
No, I want to be very clear that we need to be having strike trainings. We need to be having serious grassroots rank and file trainings all around the country, in every corner of the country. In Vermont alone is not good enough. This needs to spread everywhere. We need the national AFL CIO to step up, put it into gear, and be unafraid of itself, be unafraid of its power. We need Liz Schuller to realize that while we do need to take court action, while we do need to make statements, statements alone, proclamations alone, will never win in the face of a rising fascism. We need to be bold, we need to be united, and we need to do whatever it takes to win. I'll point out that in 2022, the Vermont AFL CIO brought a resolution to the National AFL CIO Convention stating very clearly that the crisis to democracy that we saw in 2020, 2021, was not over, and we needed to prepare then for a potential general strike after the next election. The national AFL CIO and Liz Shuler buried that resolution, would not allow it to come to the shop floor. We spoke up, myself and Sister Liz Medina. The UAW spoke up from the floor to talk about how that is insane, how we need to take action, how we need to be prepared to fight, and how we can't just rely on elections in the Democratic Party and the courts to save us. Liz Shuler did not agree then, but I invite her, and I invite the national AFL CIO leadership to agree now. We just saw a million workers in the federal government essentially lose their legal right to have a union. At what point, at what point does this mean we have to take action? At what point do we need to step outside the box of what has been done in the past? What point do we need to recognize that we're in a historic moment and we need to be prepared for any eventuality if we're not only going to preserve the labor movement in America, but if we're going to preserve democracy?
- [23:41]
Richard Wolff
Do you envision coming out of this conference on the 26th? Some specific actions that the folks in Vermont will undertake that will be as important a model as having the conference in the first place?
- [24:01]
David Van Dusen
Well, I was out in the streets on Saturday with thousands and thousands of Vermonters, as many unions work. We had 10,000 Vermonters, many union members here in our capital, Montpelier alone, which has a population of only 7,800 10,000 were out in the streets, and we had thousands more in Burlington and dozens of communities all around. We need to go beyond resolutions. We need to go beyond making strong statements, and we need to be able to take direct action to defend ourselves, defend our labor movement. I can't say that anything. I can't say that there's going to be decisions at this conference that are going to lead to next steps. But I can say that dozens and dozens and dozens of union leaders and UNCON file members from all across Vermont are going to emerge from this with a better understanding of how to build power with their coworkers and how that power can stretch beyond the shop floor to the community, to the politics at large. And that will make us stronger for it. Now, following up from this conference, we need to have more discussions and more action oriented planning for what we're going to do publicly to push back against this rising far right in the United States. This battle is winnable, but it's only winnable if we act now and if we're unafraid of our own power.
- [25:20]
Richard Wolff
Sean Fain of the United Auto Workers achieved some fame months ago, not just with the strike that they operated successfully, but with his idea of having union contracts all expire on the last day of April in 2028, I believe is the year. So that in effect, there might be a structural way to have something approaching a general strike. Do you imagine the capability of the American labor movement to do such a thing? And would it be only then, or could it be sooner? Given the speed with which Trump is attempting to move anybody was to tell.
- [26:08]
David Van Dusen
You that they saw the fall of the Eastern Bloc, the Warsaw Pact, the Soviet Union coming. When it did come, odds are they're playing Monday morning quarterback here. That was something that we did not see coming. We as a people here in the United States today, I can't tell you what's going to come tomorrow. I believe the objective situation is going to drive events, and they could drive events much faster than perhaps we are seeing right now. As far as Shawn Fain's move to have the contracts end on the Same day, May Day, 2028, I believe that's a huge step in the right direction. We need to get into the consciousness of the American worker to show that things like coordinated strikes, withholding our labor on a mass and political scale is possible. Of course, France and countries all across the world do this to great effect. And it's part of their labor culture here in the United States. That labor culture has been paved over for many generations. So fame stepping up and say this or Sarah Nelson from the Flight Attendants also saying that perhaps now is a time where we must be talking about general strike is a great first step in raising that consciousness here in Vermont. The Vermont AFL CIO has also likewise called for all of our Vermont affiliates to try to end their contracts to coincide with Faint's call for 2028. So that's a work in progress. Whether or not strike action on political front happens before that is a question that's yet to be answered. But certainly anybody that's not considering that, anybody that's not looking at that is not being true to what our needs are right now in labor today.
- [27:47]
Richard Wolff
Do you envision or are there already alliances between the labor movement, that is labor unions already constituted and friendly, let's call them friendly social movement groups in the larger community? Because if we look back in the 1930s and so on, collaboration and cooperation between them was a very crucial part of what the labor movement and they together achieved then.
- [28:16]
David Van Dusen
Here in Vermont we've worked very hard over the last five plus years to develop those relationships. We have good relationships with migrant justice representing undocumented workers here on the dairy farms here in Vermont. A number of our locals will be going out and supporting their picket lines against Hannaford supermarket of their Milk with Dignity campaign on May Day of this year. We have worked in the past with 350 Vermont and environmental organizations. Absolutely that is something we need to do. And here in Vermont we've been doing it on the national scale. That needs to happen more. If labor does not break out of its silos, we won't have the critical power we need to push back and win. We are only 12.5 million members of the national AFLCO. Across the country country there are tens and tens of millions of more workers. We need to grow the labor movement, but we need to grow those relationships with community groups as we do. And with farmers, I might add. They are struggling too during these times. So we have a long way to go. But that needs to be of a serious strategic concern at every level.
- [29:19]
Richard Wolff
In the few seconds we have left. Can you tell us where. Anyone interested in your event on the 26th where they could go to learn.
- [29:28]
David Van Dusen
More, please do an Internet search for the Green Mountain Central Labor Council AFL cio. You'll find a sign up sheet there. It is free to everybody, free childcare. And we want to see you there if you're union or non union, we'll teach you how to form a union. And together we're going to build the power we need to prevail.
- [29:48]
Richard Wolff
All right, David, Perfect. That's what we wanted. We wanted to show the world that this is happening and to show the rest of the United States at least one possible way forward. Following the folks in Vermont, thank you very, very much for your time and for all the work that you are doing.
- [30:07]
David Van Dusen
Solidarity.
- [30:10]
Richard Wolff
And to all of you, as I say at the end of each program, I look forward to speaking with you again next week.