Why no campaigns for inflation-indexed minimum wage laws?

[Die Neue Zeit]

http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=inflation+indexed+minimum+wage&btnG=Google+Search&meta=

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2006_04/008602.php

As my comrade-in-Erfurtian-arms chimx is posting some key material regarding the Employee Free Choice Act (higher penalties for employers who break labor laws and making it significantly easier to form labor unions), I also wish to address another "workers' movement" (minimum demands) issue: the minimum wage.

Why has there been not a peep amongst comrades regarding the NEED to raise the minimum demand for the enactment of an inflation-indexed, deflation-protected minimum wage law?

[cyu]

Sure, I'd prefer that over what we currently have, but to many people here, this doesn't go nearly far enough. I'd rather just hand control of the companies over to the employees so they can decide democratically for themselves how much to pay themselves.

[Die Neue Zeit]

^^^ Isn't it sectarian to focus exclusively on the revolutionary demands?

[Reuben]

What we should demand, if anything, is a minimum wage not linked to inflation but to average income/nominal economic growth. You see every year there is inflation. But over and above that there is also economic growth. If the minimum wage is linked to inflation this means that every year, the workers on it are getting a smaller slice of the pie and are becoming relatively poorer.

[red flag over teeside]

The need to be able to address workers concerns such as fighting for a living wage in a consistent marxist manner is what is required. I know as a marxist that the capitalists will refuse to pay a living wage the point is to say that workers should not pay for the capitalist crisis and that what is required is a mass class based struggle which does not rely on the trade unions as they will only sell out any struggle. Instead of unions what is needed is workers councils which will involve all workers irrespective of where they work. To do this we need to be able at the same time to work in the unions and give consistent political leadership. The ability to link immediate demands with the struggle for communism is the mark of a focused leadership. What is needed is a living wage not a minimum wage.

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

^^^ Isn't it sectarian to focus exclusively on the revolutionary demands?

No. Sectarianism means putting the program of your sect above the interests of the working class.

It may be incorrect, but it's not sectarian.

[Die Neue Zeit]

The need to be able to address workers concerns such as fighting for a living wage in a consistent marxist manner is what is required. I know as a marxist that the capitalists will refuse to pay a living wage the point is to say that workers should not pay for the capitalist crisis and that what is required is a mass class based struggle which does not rely on the trade unions as they will only sell out any struggle. Instead of unions what is needed is workers councils which will involve all workers irrespective of where they work. To do this we need to be able at the same time to work in the unions and give consistent political leadership. The ability to link immediate demands with the struggle for communism is the mark of a focused leadership. What is needed is a living wage not a minimum wage.

Wouldn't that be more of a reformist demand, though (fulfilling the needs of workers)?

http://www.revleft.com/vb/minimum-and-maximum-t71845/index.html

[I think there are three kinds of demands in the modern era: minimum, reformist, and revolutionary. By "reformist," I mean those demands that can be fulfilled by the bourgeois system under pressure. Of course, by "revolutionary," I mean those demands that can't (only one, really: proletocracy - rule by the working class).]

[red flag over teeside]

The problem that has yet to be solved by revolutionary parties at least in Western Europe has been how to not only recruit members but also how to influence workers in the thousands. The united front as developed by the third international was a tactic in addressing this problem. So when I mention that a campaign for a living wage is possible in the present situation I recognise that yes this is a reformist demand.

However the difference is that as a revolutionary I know that the tactics needed to mobilise workers as a class is different to that pusued by reformists. To make a living wage into a mobilising slogan then we need to argue for it in our workplaces. A living wage should be set at £20,000 pa and we need to point out that to achieve this we need to demand that the capitalist's as a class is taxed to achieve this. I think at least in Britain with the recent increases in utility bills, rise in inflation, council tax increases, mortgage increases, low wage rises, low benefits then we can win workers to such a demand.

Then the rest is up to us to build on the campaign and to show by the struggle that to ensure that workers win a decent humane life then capitalism has to be overthrown on a world scale and to be replaced initially by socialism then by communism. The united front has a role to play in this objective.

[chimx]

Why has there been not a peep amongst comrades regarding the NEED to raise the minimum demand for the enactment of an inflation-indexed, deflation-protected minimum wage law?

I think the left is no where near organized to push for something like this on a federal level, but what about a state level?

[Die Neue Zeit]

The problem that has yet to be solved by revolutionary parties at least in Western Europe has been how to not only recruit members but also how to influence workers in the thousands. The united front as developed by the third international was a tactic in addressing this problem. So when I mention that a campaign for a living wage is possible in the present situation I recognise that yes this is a reformist demand.

However the difference is that as a revolutionary I know that the tactics needed to mobilise workers as a class is different to that pusued by reformists. To make a living wage into a mobilising slogan then we need to argue for it in our workplaces. A living wage should be set at £20,000 pa and we need to point out that to achieve this we need to demand that the capitalist's as a class is taxed to achieve this. I think at least in Britain with the recent increases in utility bills, rise in inflation, council tax increases, mortgage increases, low wage rises, low benefits then we can win workers to such a demand.

Then the rest is up to us to build on the campaign and to show by the struggle that to ensure that workers win a decent humane life then capitalism has to be overthrown on a world scale and to be replaced initially by socialism then by communism. The united front has a role to play in this objective.

I don't think you get my point here. :crying:

The inflation-adjusted, deflation-protected minimum wage is a minimum demand, while the living wage you're talking about is a reformist demand (going beyond mere minimum demands but falling short of revolutionary demands for workers' rule).



chimx, it's a shame that the scum Mitt Romney is out of the running:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2007-08-16-romney-wage_N.htm

http://www.google.ca/search?q=inflation+indexed+minimum+wage



Nevertheless, it's the law in NINE states (Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, Ohio, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimum_wage_in_the_United_States

[chimx]

That must be new for Montana. When I roofed in Montana I got paid "drive time" when I was traveling to a different city for a job, which was minimum wage. I always got paid the federal minimum wage. MT got a Democrat governor recently, he must have pushed for that.

However, how many of these states are deflation protected?

[red flag over teeside]

I see what you mean when you differentiate between minimum and reformist demands. While workers in Britain may be more likely to struggle at the present time for some form of inflation linked deflation protected minimum wage than a living wage the point however is to try to raise the confidence of workers by arguing that we need to organise independently from the reformists and try to force reformists into campaining for what may be regarded as reformist demands. The point is how as revolutionaries can we win the confidence of the mass of workers and through winning the confidence develop militant a marxist class consciousness. having minimum demands as Jacob Richter proposes does address this issue.

[Die Neue Zeit]

That must be new for Montana. When I roofed in Montana I got paid "drive time" when I was traveling to a different city for a job, which was minimum wage. I always got paid the federal minimum wage. MT got a Democrat governor recently, he must have pushed for that.

However, how many of these states are deflation protected?

That last question is good, especially in times of depression.